Not blown away as Altec Lansing goes into orbit

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Just over a year ago, I bought an iPod speaker system from Altec Lansing. Easily as good as the Apple equivalent (and at less than half the price), I’ve been really pleased with them, so when Altec Lansing‘s public relations team got in touch and asked if I’d be interested in a new portable speaker for review, I was pleased.

Unfortunately, my pleasure didn’t last too long once I received the speaker (yes, singular). You see, I’m now in the second half of my thirties… closer to 40 than to 30 and I have two kids, so I guess I’m entitled to be a grumpy old man. I find it offensive when people (generally teenagers) walk around playing their music on their phones or other portable devices through poor quality, low powered speakers and can’t help thinking that at least in my day I had a “ghettoblaster” the size of a large piece of luggage to annoy people with my idea of good music (I won’t embarrass myself by divulging any further details…). What’s that got to do with the iM207 speaker (also known as the Orbit) that Altec Lansing sent me? Well, quite a lot as it happens as I’ve had my Orbit for a couple of weeks now and I have been trying to think of something good to write about it:

  • I could say that the Orbit is small. But it’s not really – just look at the picture of one next to a standard iPod.

    • Product shot of Altec Lansing Orbit portable speaker

  • I could say that the Orbit looks good. But it doesn’t. I’m sorry but I just don’t find black and chrome-effect plastic very attractive (although, now I come to think of it, that’s what the iPod uses…).
  • What about battery life? To be honest, I don’t know (Altec Lansing claim 24 hours on three triple-As) and anyway, that will vary according to a number of factors including the battery brand and characteristics, as well as the type and volume of music being played.
  • What about sound quality – surely that’s the most important thing? Yes, it is, but my iPhone’s internal speakers are better and when I plug the Orbit into my iPod I can only listen at up to about 25% volume before the distortion starts to kick in.
  • I could say that the Orbit is inexpensive. But I think £29.99 is a lot for something that’s not really very good. £14.99 would be a different story.
  • The best thing I can say about the Orbit is that the cable storage is well thought through and it’s iPhone friendly. There’s also a 2.5mm converter for use with mobile phones that don’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack.
  • There is one more thing too… you can get an Orbit for free – and hey, maybe you’ll like it better than I did. Just go to the YouGroove site and sign up.

So, I’m sorry Altec Lansing… you asked for a fair review and I really tried but the Orbit just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe I’m just not in that target “YouGroover” audience and I like my music to either be personal (i.e. in-ear) or to be played through a decent speaker system.

Dara Ó Briain talks about IT

Posted on By Mark Wilson

So there I was, lying in bed in my hotel room, when Dara Ó Briain comes on the telly and starts talking about IT… it made me laugh a lot. So much that I thought I’d reproduce it here:

“[IT is] full of amazing bullshit job titles that didn’t exist 10, 20 years ago. You’re a developer for Christ sake eh! Do you have a web master in the office? [Yes] Of course you do. Yeah. Web master is my favourite of all of those – walking around the office going ‘I Am A Web Master. I Am Master Of The Web. Feel The Power Of My Fire Wall. It is not actually a wall of fire, no it is more of a protocol for e-mails, anyway, nevermind – I Am A Web Master. I am not social situation master – no I can’t do that at all no. I am not talking to women master – no there are too many variables in that situation as well I can’t be handling that’.

That, and my favourite thing about your industry by the way is ‘solutions’. You do love the solutions don’t ya? You know, when your computer’s not working and you’re kinda going, ‘ah, it’s not working, get the guy’ and one of your people arrives, in a cape, going ‘I, am a Solution Provider. You, you’re a problem provider, back away problem provider – you would not understand my solution, it is too technical for you, get out, get out of the room. Do not look at the computer – your eyes hurt the computer – get out! Have they gone? Lovely. Control – Alt – Delete…'”

[Dara Ó Briain, Comedian]

Microsoft security suffers from “the Škoda badge problem”

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I’m attending a Microsoft Forefront Security course and it was interesting to hear the analogy that the instructor used to describe how people perceive Microsoft and security when used in the same sentence… he referred to it as the Škoda badge problem – i.e. that everyone knows a modern Škoda is a well engineered car built on a trusted Volkwagen platform but Škoda is still struggling to discard its image as a producer of cheap eastern-European cars. Similarly, Microsoft has some excellent security products (e.g. ISA Server) but the perception is that they are from Microsoft so they can’t be secure.