Audio in the aether
Two amazing developments in the audio front I’ve just uncovered: Spotify ( www.spotify.com), which allows you to easily stream music at a decent quality – supported by occasional ads. It’s like internet radio, but with the benefit that you can search for and select tracks. The collection is pretty decent ranging from Einstruzende Neubauten to Dr Suess to Big Bill Broonzy, so I’m fairly convinced. At least as good a selection as iTunes and you can listen to the entire track instad of just a brief sample. I don’t see a need to purchase anything except perhaps, what I want to take with me on my iPhone. Speaking of which, the second coup was to pickup a copy of Airfoil ( www.rogueamoeba.com), which allows me to stream audio from any application to my AirPort and thus, to the house amplifier. Pretty nice, since it works with Spotify and I can therefore stream music to the home audio system. The coup de grace was that Airfoil comes with a free sister application called Airfoil Speakers Touch, so I can send music to my iPhone, even while it’s docked and charging in our little amp Dock in the kitchen. Much as I love running copper pairs, Spotify+Airfoil+iPhone is a really nice combo
