Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Things I'm glad I bought
Carol suggested a couple of weeks ago that I do a list of things I'm glad I bought as a companion to the post about things I wish I had bought. I'm working on that; I want to add pictures to that one, which takes me approximately FOREVER. In the meantime, here's something I just bought recently that I'm really, really glad I bought: the Saitek A-250.
I had read a very positive review of this thing--maybe on CNet, I don't remember, but it was some source I trust--or I probably would have vetoed its purchase. Mr. VR and I aren't impulse buyers, but we've become much more decisive shoppers now that we can't necessarily spend a lot of time in each store or come back whenever we feel like it to buy something. So when this showed up at Circuit City on last-chance clearance for $61, we couldn't resist, and I'm glad we didn't.
With this weird little bug-eyed piece of plastic, we can stream Internet radio to any room in the house. It sets up its own wireless connection and plays whatever's currently playing on iTunes or Windows Media Player (it can also use MusicMatch and some of the open source media players, I think). You can navigate iTunes with the buttons on the machine, and since I have iTunes set up with my Live365 stations all in a row, it's just like pressing the preset buttons on a radio.
It's true that it goes with NOTHING in our home, but yard sale season is upon us, and perhaps this will be the year that I find a non-functioning hi-fi with a great cabinet and retrofit it for the A-250. However, one of the things I like the most about this unit is its portability. That means I can have soft music in the nursery (although we usually just listen to NPR, except at bedtime), oldies in the sewing room, music of the early 80s (no, really! I was in the mood for music from 9th grade, and Easy Rock is in the CD changer that seems to have gone missing from my car. So I did a search on Live365 for "early 80s" and found a station that ONLY plays music from 1980-1982! Right now it's playing the theme from "Hill Street Blues.") when I'm cleaning house, and classic country whenever I feel like it, and not just when I'm visiting Tulsa. And of course, Radio Dismuke anyplace, any time.
I love, love, love Internet radio.
I had read a very positive review of this thing--maybe on CNet, I don't remember, but it was some source I trust--or I probably would have vetoed its purchase. Mr. VR and I aren't impulse buyers, but we've become much more decisive shoppers now that we can't necessarily spend a lot of time in each store or come back whenever we feel like it to buy something. So when this showed up at Circuit City on last-chance clearance for $61, we couldn't resist, and I'm glad we didn't.
With this weird little bug-eyed piece of plastic, we can stream Internet radio to any room in the house. It sets up its own wireless connection and plays whatever's currently playing on iTunes or Windows Media Player (it can also use MusicMatch and some of the open source media players, I think). You can navigate iTunes with the buttons on the machine, and since I have iTunes set up with my Live365 stations all in a row, it's just like pressing the preset buttons on a radio.
It's true that it goes with NOTHING in our home, but yard sale season is upon us, and perhaps this will be the year that I find a non-functioning hi-fi with a great cabinet and retrofit it for the A-250. However, one of the things I like the most about this unit is its portability. That means I can have soft music in the nursery (although we usually just listen to NPR, except at bedtime), oldies in the sewing room, music of the early 80s (no, really! I was in the mood for music from 9th grade, and Easy Rock is in the CD changer that seems to have gone missing from my car. So I did a search on Live365 for "early 80s" and found a station that ONLY plays music from 1980-1982! Right now it's playing the theme from "Hill Street Blues.") when I'm cleaning house, and classic country whenever I feel like it, and not just when I'm visiting Tulsa. And of course, Radio Dismuke anyplace, any time.
I love, love, love Internet radio.
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 7:15 AM 
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