Pete Rants

I find it fascinating how, in the field of reproduced music, consumers for the most part seem to have readily accepted a quality downgrade. Not one downgrade but several going back 25 years or so since the start of consumer digital audio (aka CD). Sure, audio reproduction (and copying!) is much more convenient nowadays, and portable audio quality is actually better (inexpensive mp3 players are better than those awful cheap cassette units of yesteryear) but for the main, in the home, quality is definitely down. Contrast this with other key areas of consumer interest such as television, video, computers, even the motor car, all areas in which technology has advanced rapidly and produced tangible improvements to the end product.

Anyhow, I've recently become a devotee of digital radio, a classic example of sound quality downgrade. I'm a devotee not, I should add, because I want to keep up with technology, but 'cos I like Planet Rock (in particular, the Alice Cooper breakfast show - see bottom of page). So, because of this, I put up with sound quality which varies from just about acceptable right down to sh*te . For those interested, the quality varies so much because of the nature of the mpeg1/layer2 (sometimes known as mp2) codec used, an older and less capable predecessor of mp3. This codec should really be obsolete by now, and would be if it weren't for its use in DAB and DVB-T broadcasting, a decision taken years back. The stingy 128k bitrate allocated to most channels doesn't help either. On some older recordings in particular, the mp2 encoder used by the DAB broadcasters just gives up and substitutes mush for treble detail. I suspect this is aggravated by interchannel phase differences you tend to find in certain older recordings - this even gives mp3 codecs a hard time when, like DAB, "Joint Stereo" mode is used.

There is some good news though - DAB has a few tricks up its sleeve which were never possible in the old days and which help to make up for the lack of sound quality. The Pure Evoke 3 radio, although relatively expensive (currently around GBP 199) makes maximum use of the strengths of the medium.

Apart from being a really nice radio (though the looks don't do much for me personally) the Pure records to an SD card . Most major DAB stations transmit a basic programme guide ("EPG"). You simply call this up, select your programme, and push the record button. Put the radio in standby mode and it'll automatically record, just like a VCR. Or, you can be listening to it and hear something you like. Just rewind using the Pure "Revu" system (stores the last 30mins of the current channel) and begin recording. This ability to record retrospectively is pure (pardon the pun) genius. It took me completely by surprise. It was one of those "I'm gonna try using these two features simultaneously even though I know it won't work" moments and you almost fall over backwards with surprise when it does. You get an mp2 file which is an exact copy of the original programme stream, and can be played later on the radio or on almost any computer or PDA. Les now has to put up with 3 hours of Mr Cooper's show every day. If you're looking for a quality DAB radio for round the house, I can't recommend the Evoke 3 highly enough.

Talking of SD cards and being surprised, I recently acquired an 8GB micro SDHC card for my phone. The picture is approximately lifesize (depending on your screen res) - the card is 15mm by 11mm and wafer thin (1mm).

I think we're all used to seeing ridiculously small high capacity storage, but this took my breath away. Remembering the 1.7GB drive in my first PC just over 10 years ago, large, noisy and fragile, and then seeing this miracle of miniaturisation was a sharp reminder of the pace of storage technology.

In fact, this revolution in the price, capacity, size and reliability of "flash" memory brings to mind another thought, a fulfilment of a technological promise originating about 30 years ago. There were a handful of such promises, sort of visions of a future world, which would be technologically possible in "just five years time" or similar. The five years came and went and the promise was repeated over and over again through the 80s. Some of those promises have finally been fulfilled many years later, such as the television you "hang on the wall". And the phone which fits in your pocket and works anywhere. It now looks like another one could be fulfilled if the will was there - purchasing music over the counter on a memory chip. 1GB cards are now so cheap they could be sold pre-loaded for probably less than a CD. Shops would benefit - less storage space needed, less fragile medium, fewer returns. Consumers would benefit, including being able to re-use the medium if they tired of their purchase! It probably won't happen now, downloading our music from the internet seems to be the way we're headed, a concept too unimaginable even for those technological visionaries in the 1970's!

A "Pete Rants" wouldn't be complete without mention of an Apple product. The iPhone has finally arrived in the UK, and it seems the British public have been completely underwhelmed by it. Compared to the apparently fantastic take-up in the 'States, adoption here, it seems, has been much more modest. Several weeks after the launch, I've yet to actually see one "in the wild" outside of an Apple or mobile phone store. I've no doubt the extortionately high price is mostly to blame, as is being tied to a particular network, in a country where we are used to getting free, or at least very low cost, phones, on any one of the major networks we choose. Nokia and Sony Ericsson seem to be able to make it work as a business model, so why can't Apple?

What's really been amusing me, though, is the desire of other manufacturers and consumers to mimic the Apple interface on their own products. It started immediately the first pictures of the iPhone emerged. Take the HTC Touch, for example.

When this phone first appeared on the market, it seems to have sported the standard Windows Mobile blue scheme (I've got an early review showing this) or maybe the quite attractive HTC green scheme (which my own HTC P3300 had as standard). Now, every picture you see of the Touch without exception shows the HTC black/grey iPhone-a-like scheme. It's pleasant and contemporary, indeed I've adopted it myself. All the applications on the phone seem now to have been converted (re-skinned) to the same scheme. The developer community (very active for the WM platform on HTC hardware) have even produced "slide to unlock" slidebars exactly the same as the iPhone's one. And, to top it all, I saw a recent WM scheme for the Touch etc which even included a neat Apple logo in the bottom right corner. Come on guys, I know Apple produce neat interfaces, often imitated, but their logo? Why not just buy an iPhone and be done with it if you want the looks and branding so badly.

If you like rock from the last 40 years, Mr Cooper's show is well worth checking out (6.00 to 9.00 in the morning on Planet Rock). Some of the 80s/90s music is a bit bland (for my taste, at least) but you do get to hear some rather unique 60s tracks which are rarely, if ever, played elsewhere plus some excellent 70s music. You also get a good dose of Alice's humour (occasionally a touch puerile some might say, but I personally don't mind that at all!) plus his recollections of meeting most of the Good and Great of Rock over the years. I was a fan of his music when in my teens in the 70s (and still like his earlier albums now) and I'm really pleased to find him doing so well as a DJ. His show, incidentally, is an evening show in the US and goes out to many radio stations round the world.

Bye for now,

Pete

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