Networking is a dark art, and putting the word "home" in front of it makes it no simpler. Debugging a home network is not for the faint of heart--the intelligence of the on-screen wizards peters out after the first few obvious fixes, and soon you're checking help forums, running ipconfig commands, and tweaking DHCP settings.
Their industrial design has gotten a lot better. But would you trust Linksys to build an easy wireless home audio system?
(Credit: Linksys)So today's news from The New York Times--that networking giant Cisco Systems is getting into the consumer electronics business--filled me with dread.
The idea of piping audio files from your computer to your home stereo or other audio devices is valid: I'm a big fan of the Sonos Multiroom Audio system, and Logitech and Apple have also made a go at it. But all three of these companies specialize in consumer products. They understand--nay, live and breathe--the process of hiding complexity under a clear user interface.
Playing music from multiple sources in a single playlist on a Sonos system is simple. Connecting a Mac or iPhone to an existing home network is almost invisibly simple.
Cisco's purchase of Linksys got the company into the consumer home-networking space. While setting up my Linksys wireless router for the first time was relatively painless, thanks to a downloadable applet, I had to use their free phone support line several times over the next few years to debug mysterious problems that cropped up.
The support itself was great--a real person always picked up immediately, and they were always able to resolve my problem eventually--but the complexity of the underyling technology just couldn't be hidden. Any support call that asks you to log into your router to check your DHCP settings is not simple, even if you are walked through the steps.
Cisco's a solid engineering company. If it manages to hire some great UI designers and brands these products appropriately--coming up with names that are more interesting than these would be a start--it has a fighting chance. If it thinks that enabling multiroom audio is just a few simple tweaks to its existing home networking products, forget about it.
I was a big fan of Logitech's Squeezebox Duet, which I saw demonstrated at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, and today Logitech announced a follow-up that looks even better: a boombox for your digital music collection. And unlike the Duet, which had to be plugged into a stereo, the Boom has speakers.
A nice device for anybody with a large music collection trapped on a PC with crummy speakers.
(Credit: Logitech)Once again, CNET's John Falcone has beaten me to the punch with a full review, but even without his validation, at first glance this looks like a great product for users with large collections of digital music trapped on their computers. Beginning in September, $300 will get you a boombox that can connect to your computer over a Wi-Fi network, and plays a huge variety of files--not just garden-variety MP3s, WMAs, and AACs, but also relative rarities beloved by digital audiophiles like Ogg, FLAC, and Apple Lossless. The necessary software works not only with PC and Mac but various flavors of Linux (including a Debian/Ubuntu installation package). It also lets you connect to various Internet radio services, such as Pandora, Rhapsody, and LastFM. The only possible drawback: it can't play DRM-protected files. Which means if a large portion of your digital music collection was purchased from iTunes (or a WMA competitor) before the last year when these services began offering more DRM-free files, you won't be able to play it on the Boom.
An aside: the product line is called Squeezebox, which I assumed was a reference to the 1975 Who song. But Logitech's product shots show the Boom playing "Tempted," the 1981 single by Squeeze. So which is it--Who fans or Squeeze fans?
John Falcone already beat me to the punch with a detailed preview of Logitech's Squeezebox Duet, but I'll second his verdict: this looks like a more affordable competitor to the Sonos multiroom digital audio system, which I got a chance to experience in a real home environment last summer. In a nutshell: you connect the base station to any stereo with RCA inputs, and it draws music from your PC over a home wireless network, and lets you control it all with a handheld remote with a color screen. It supports every imaginable digital audio format, and is significantly less expensive than Sonos, starting at $400. More information's available on Logitech's site.
The Squeezebox Duet's remote and base station
(Credit: Matt Rosoff)Optionally, you can use Logitech's free SqueezeNetwork, which automatically aggregates all of your Internet music services--subscription-based services like Rhapsody or Internet radio stations like Last.fm--and lets you listen to these stations even when your PC's off. It's one of the most interesting digital audio products introduced at CES, and I recommend stopping by the booth for a demo if you're here.
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