Posted by Ub3rG33k on Sep 23, 2009 in
IPod Touch As some of you may know, in just over 2 weeks I’ll be heading to the Holiday Inn in Birmingham for Dimension Jump
XV, this year Red Dwarf Convention, and as we do a Red Dwarf podcast (ScutterCast), I thought it might me a good idea to record some footage while I was there.
I’ve been looking at a number of solutions and came up with the idea of using Audioboo from my iPod touch, then picking up the Audioboo feed using WP-o-Matic, which will then post the audio on the Red Dwarf Forum homepage, which will then tweet this out.
One major downside to using the method, was that the iPod Touch doesn’t have a built in microphone, although I do have the “earbud with built in microphone”, which would be find for recording my own voice, but probably a little intrusive if I wanted to record anyone else.
After a couple of days of looking at different mic solutions, I read a review over at iLounge and they did a mic comparison, the audio from the iPill sounded awesome, so decided to go with that. After an evening of trying to buy one, it seemed that these are only available in the states, and they seemed to be out of stock, having heard the quality difference, I was adamant that this was the mic I wanted, in a bid of desperation, I decided eBay it was. Luckily, I found a company in the Republic of Ireland that had these in stock, and instantly bought.
This morning the mic turned up, and I’ve got to say, I’m really impressed. The first thing I noticed was the packaging, and the look of this thing. The plastic container is in the shape of a petri dish, with a small clip holding the pill shaped microphone in place.
The iPill itself pulls in half, to review the 3.5mm jack plug, that plugs into the bottom of the iPods headphone jack, and the other half has a small loop where you could potentially add some string so you don’t lose this thing.
So, the audio quality…what’s it like ?…pretty awesome ! I plugged it into the bottom of my iPod Touch, and it was instantly recognised, and I gave it a quick test in Apples “Voice Memos” software, and attached my recording below
So, the audio quality…what’s it like ?…pretty awesome ! I plugged it into the bottom of my iPod Touch, and it was instantly recognised, and I gave it a quick test in Apples “Voice Memos” software, and attached my recording below.
iPill Test
Final thoughts ?, granted this isn’t the same quality as my M-Audio mixer, and my condenser mic at home, but think it will do an awesome job, of getting some footage at Dimension Jump.
I can highly recommend this microphone to anybody who want to turn their iPod Touch into a decent dictating machine, and for £13 delivered, it’s worth every penny !
Tags: 5mm, Apple, audio, audio quality, Audioboo, Birmingham, bottom, couple of days, desperation, dimension, dimension jump, downside, dwarf, earbud, ebay, footage, forum homepage, half, holiday inn, idea, ilounge, ipill, ipod, ipod touch, ipods, jack, jump, microphone, o matic, ozaki, petri dish, plastic container, quality, quality difference, red, Red Dwarf, Republic of Ireland, stock, test, thing, touch, voice
Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jan 10, 2009 in
Apple To be honest, I was hesitant of spending £54 on a pair of earphones, when I already had a prefectly good pair of Sony ones. The problem being that I use my Ipod Touch the most at work, which means that I have to keep pausing my podcasts. Now this wouldn’t normally be a problem, but as my Ipod Touch or Iphone user will tell you, if you set the power saving, pausing your music can be a lengthy task. You have to unlock your screen, enter your pin, goto the music, and then hit pause, dependant on how tired you are, this can take upto 10 seconds.
I again did the cost saving thing, and bought some headphones from ebay (for around £6) which had a mic and remote, but the sound quality is terrible, and the are very uncomfortable.
Anyway, after buying them, and trying the for the first time, I don’t regret getting them 
The box broken down
The earbuds and the spare buds
Finally the spare buds, very cool !
Tags: 2g, Apple, buds, cost, dependant, earbud, earbuds, earphones, ebay, goto, headphones, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, music, pair, pause, pin, podcasts, power, power saving, problem, screen, sony, sound quality, spending, task, thing, touch, upto, user, work
Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jan 9, 2009 in
Apple 
Well, as planned, we went to the Apple store in Leicester after work today.
If you’ve never been to an Apple store before, then I can highly recommend it. If you asked me to describe what heaven looked like, it would be an Apple store.
We walked though the …… looking for the store as we’ve never venture to …. before. Walked through the carpark, through John Lewis (the store, not a person, LOL)….saw next, new look and the I saw it, no words outside the shop, just a huge 10 foot illuminated apple logo above the door. I swear, it was like seeing a roller coaster for the first time (as you can probably tell, this is the first time I’ve been to a Apple store, I know, I need to get out more)
Walking into the store itself, first table had 6 macbooks, all connected to Iphones, next table had MacBook Pro’s both the 15″ and 17″ models all connected to Iphones, all with internet access.
Down the outside wall, there was just a wall of Imac 24″ s (so nearly bought one of them too).
The staff in there were chilled, very chilled, weren’t pushy and really helpful, Very very sweet place !
Anyway, to cut a long ish story short, we walked out of there is a 15.4″ MacBook Pro, a pair of the earbud headphones, a wireless mighty mouse, and a dock for my Ipod Touch
Tags: Apple, apple logo, apple store, carpark, earbud, earbud headphones, foot, heaven, internet access, Iphones, ipod, ipod touch, ish, John Lewis, leicester, logo, lol, look, mac, macbook, macbooks, mighty mouse, models, Person, pro, roller coaster, shop, store, sweet place, table, time, today, venture, Walked, wall, work