Surrounded by sound

I finally got a surround sound system!  I have wanted one for ages but it just was really never a good time for it.  There were always other priorities that made much better sense.  But this year Barb set aside money for one for my birthday.  After a lot of research, I settled on a moderately priced Onkyo system that included a 7.1 receiver and speakers.  It wasn't released yet, so I had to wait a couple of weeks until it became available.  Once it arrived, I enlisted the aid of my brother Doug to help me run the wiring.  My man-cave is in the basement and I have a drop ceiling, so running the wires the length of the room wasn't the problem.  It was going through the insulation in the walls to run the speaker wire vertically that was the real bear.  Luckily my brother has the patience of Job and he got that done for me.  A couple of late nights later and I was all hooked up and had the system set up to my liking.

First on my DVD list was Saving Private Ryan (my brother's suggestion).  I watched the opening half hour and was amazed by the surround sound audio with bullets whizzing by on one side and cannon shells going off on the other.  Next was Talking Heads' terrific concert film Stop Making Sense.  I watched a handful of my favorite performances, including Thank You For Sending Me An Angel, Found A Job, Slippery People, Life During Wartime and Making Flippy Floppy.  Absolutely awesome stuff.

Then, of course, I had to try out Jaws.  I watched the opening scene (the attack on Chrissie), the attack in the estuary, the scene where the shark makes his first appearance off of the stern of the Orca and the final showdown.  No matter how many times I see this (and I am guessing it is well over 200+ since 1975), it still gives me a tingle.  It's my favorite movie and also a great childhood remembrance.  Can't get better than that.

As a celebration for my new toy, Barb got me a Blu Ray copy of Avatar.  I was not ready for how awesome it looked and sounded.  Simply unreal.  Though I have had my PS3 for ages, I only have 2 Blu Ray discs.  I have always bought regular DVDs so I can share them with my friends that don't have Blu Ray.  I may have to become more selfish now.  Stunning is the only way to describe the audio and visual delights of the Avatar Blue Ray.

I played an hour or so of Just Cause 2 (still an absolute blast to play) and was stunned by the sound effects, especially explosions.  I can't wait to hear the bands and crowds in NCAA Football 11.  And last night I made time to pop in The Beatles: Rock Band.  I played a 19 song set, which was really longer than that because it included the Abbey Road side 2 medley.  What a blast.  A totally different (and markedly better) experience than playing it through the TV speakers.

So I am in heaven with the new surround sound system.  Barb helped me spruce the room up very nicely.  My brother helped make the installation look professional.  Jess handed out the tape (don't ask, but she did a fine job of it).  It was a team effort and now I am really in business when it comes to my entertainment system.  Thanks everyone!

What's on your iPhone?

Here’s how mine is loaded at the moment…

Facebook – iPhone and Facebook, they were made for each other

Dragon Dictation – a ‘gee whiz’ app – converts speech to text with surprising accuracy

AppBox – a plethora of useful little apps, including a great unit converter

Around Me – like the POI function of a GPS – I haven’t had occasion to use it yet, so can’t vouch for accuracy

Mixology – cocktail recipes at your fingertips – can even suggest recipes based on your bar and mix inventory – bottoms up!

Bump! - bump iPhones to transfer contact info. - nifty!

TSN Mobile – The Sports Network – good for news, not so much for boxscores

Sportsnet – easy access to boxscores, but meh for news

Sportacular – for broader and more in-depth results tracking

Slacker Radio – create your own radio stations – love it! - I’m going to subscribe

Flycast – somewhat like Slacker, but provides access to real radio stations from across the U.S.

Shazam – another ‘gee whiz’ app – point the iPhone at a music source and Shazam will tell you what’s playing – amaze your friends!

Gibson – yeah, THAT Gibson – comes with a built in guitar tuner which should prove very handy

IMDB – gotta have access to movie and TV info.

IGN – have seldom referenced this – reviews seem to lag behind the main site

Bejeweled 2 – a fave from Xbox 360 Arcade – one of the very few apps I’ve purchased

Peggle – see Bejeweled 2 – another great Pop Cap title worth shelling out for

Words with Friends – if I could only have one app, this would probably be it – mobile Scrabble is big fun and a great way to stay connected

FloodIt 2 – highly addictive – Joyce has been playing the life out of it on FB

Slingshot Plus – a silly little time waster where you take out cows and gophers with a slingshot

Fingerzilla – another time waster - devastation and destruction literally at your fingertips – try it!

Gold Miner – for the platform gamer in all of us

Hatch! – crack the egg and out pops a cute little animal – two year old grandson Koen loves it

Zombie Farm – a surprisingly “deep” sim for a handheld – just getting into this one

Web Pages – fave sites accessible from my home page…Hockey’s Future Boards, SensChirp, The Gear Page, We’re Not Here and, of course, Memory Almost Full

So what’s on your iPhone?

P.S. Barb, this would be the perfect opportunity for you to step out from behind the shadow of anonymity and post your very first blog.

The Almighty iPhone

Okay, maybe "almighty" is something of an overstatement, but I sure am digging this little piece of technology. I'll be the first to admit that the iPhone was purely an impulse purchase for me, a toy. Joyce's daughter, Shannon, got one and was showing it off to me at a Sens game a couple of weeks ago. I already had a 2004 model Samsung camera phone that I rarely used as I simply have little need for a mobile phone. Being self-employed now, I rationalized the purchase based on being more accessible at work, pretty weak justification at best.

Anyway, one week to the day after buying the thing, I feel like I could hardly live without it. It's never far from my side, and I've only made/received a couple of phone calls so far. And therein lies the beauty. The iPhone is a prime example of how technology is converging. It's a phone, a camera, a video recorder, an internet access and email tool, a GPS, a music and video player, and much more. Does it replace the need for dedicated devices for those purposes? Of course not. But it does put a whole lot of functionality in your shirt pocket.

As might be expected from Apple, the interface is very intuitive, so you're up and running in no time. And if you have trouble figuring something out on your own, help is only a couple of taps away. The only thing I haven't quite sorted out yet is responding to forwarded emails, but I suspect that has something to do with SMTP settings. I also should have been a little more aware when synching, as I inadvertently sucked down over six years worth of email contacts. Yikes! Battery life is a concern for some (Dave), but so far so good for me. Mine is set to enter sleep mode after 1 min. of inactivity, and I think that probably helps. I suspect the display probably drains a fair bit of juice while active.

I wouldn't have expected going in that I'd be interested in many apps, but I've been very pleasantly surprised by what's available. Many of them are free, and most others are very inexpensive. Not only that but they're tiny so they don't take up much memory space, and download lickety-split. I debated about springing the extra $100 for the 32GB model but, for now, I'm glad I stuck with the 16GB. My music collection is larger than 32GB anyway, and that's what the iPod is for (though I have no love for iTunes, but that's another blog).

And speaking of music, a shout-out to Slacker Radio. Jim's sister, Beth, recommended this dynamite little app that allows you to create personalized radio stations. I know there are similar PC based programs, but this is my first experience with one. Just pick an artist, and Slacker Radio creates a very intelligent playlist around it. I had the iPhone running through the stereo for several hours yesterday, flipping from one custom station to the next. Joyce loved it (she was bouncing around the kitchen!), and I discovered a few cool bands in the process. Apparently, the free subscription to Slacker Radio is only good for 30 days in Canada (no such limitation in the U.S.). Unfortunate as that is, the app is so good that I'll glady pony up the $4 per month to continue it when the time comes.

I'm still undecided over whether the iPhone is a productivity enhancer or a productivity waster. The truth probably falls somewhere in between. Either way, it freakin' rocks!