multimedia « Tim Anderson’s ITWriting

Moonlight 2 released; no Microsoft codecs unless you get it from Novell

By tim, on December 18th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

The Mono Project has released Moonlight 2, its implementation of Silverlight for Linux. I tried my own database application and was pleased to find that it works fine; better than it did with the earlier release.

Note the right-click menu which offers some handy debugging features as well as the invitation to “Install Microsoft Media Pack”.

…continue reading Moonlight 2 released; no Microsoft codecs unless you get it from Novell

Review: Sansa’s iPod alternative

By tim, on December 4th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

The number of shelves dedicated to non-iPod music players in the average electronics retailer seems to shrink with each passing year, and as I write the top 10 bestselling MP3 players at Amazon.co.uk are all iPods, so it’s good to note that Apple alternatives still exist. As it happens, I’d been using an iPod Nano

…continue reading Review: Sansa’s iPod alternative

Logitech Squeezebox Radio has social features, unsocial price

By tim, on September 3rd, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Logitech has announced the Squeezebox Radio, similar in concept to the Squeezebox Boom which I reviewed earlier this year, but smaller, cheaper, and with a colour screen. It’s set to go on sale soon at $199.00.

The Squeezebox Radio has a trendy new feature: Facebook integration:

Say you just discovered a new track listening to Pandora® on

…continue reading Logitech Squeezebox Radio has social features, unsocial price

BBC trying out HTML 5, video element

By tim, on August 18th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

The BBC has an HTML 5 demonstration using the video element. The video itself is encoded in both Ogg and H.264. In the screenshot below I have just clicked on a navigation image to jump to a specific place in the video. The demonstration is meant to work in Firefox, Safari and Chrome, though for

…continue reading BBC trying out HTML 5, video element

Spotify for iPhone looks great – if Apple allows it

By tim, on July 27th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’m fascinated by the announcement of Spotify for iPhone.

Spotify lets you stream music from the company’s servers using a particularly fast and elegant user interface. The choice is huge, and of course shareable playlists are supported – I’ve had a lot of fun with these, using the desktop version.

Now here it comes for iPhone, with

…continue reading Spotify for iPhone looks great – if Apple allows it

Opera Unite: another way to share, another nightmare for digital rights

By tim, on June 16th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’ve been trying out Opera Unite. This is a web server built into the Opera 10 browser, now in beta. There’s nothing new about running your own web server; one comes free with Windows, and Apache is free for anyone to download and install in a few clicks. The difference with Unite is first that

…continue reading Opera Unite: another way to share, another nightmare for digital rights

Is high-resolution audio (like SACD) audibly better than CD?

By tim, on May 22nd, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Music is something I care about; so when the industry came up with something better than CD for playing it back, some ten years ago, I took a keen interest. There was an ugly format war – SACD vs DVDA – but when universal players appeared, that could play either format, I purchased one, along

…continue reading Is high-resolution audio (like SACD) audibly better than CD?

New in Windows 7 RC: Windows XP Mode, Remote Media Streaming

By tim, on April 25th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

A new feature in Windows 7 has been announced as part of the Release Candidate rollout. Called XP Mode (XPM), it lets users run applications in a virtual instance of Windows XP itself, for excellent compatibility. Although not part of the retail Windows 7, XPM will be a free download or may be installed at

…continue reading New in Windows 7 RC: Windows XP Mode, Remote Media Streaming

Measure the dynamic range of your CDs and downloads

By tim, on April 13th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

A new development in the loudness wars backlash: a downloadable application to measure the dynamic range of your music.

Audiophiles have been complaining for years about the tendency of modern CD and download mastering to maximize the loudness of the music at the expense of the dynamic range. This type of compression squashes the peaks and

…continue reading Measure the dynamic range of your CDs and downloads

How will Microsoft make money from Silverlight?

By tim, on February 25th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Indeed, will it do so? I like Silverlight a lot; though I appreciate that to a Flash developer it may seem pointless. It does a lot of stuff right: small download, powerful layout language, cross-platform (with caveats), rich media, fast just-in-time compiled code.

Still, what intrigues me is how Silverlight has come from nowhere to what

…continue reading How will Microsoft make money from Silverlight?

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