anti-mega: Flickr off

Flickr photo uploading from Symbian- a review of the options from Chris Heathcote
This is a great overview of the options available for uploading photos to Flickr (and other photo sharing sites) from your Series 60 Symbian Phone (I have a Nokia 6680, but am looking out for the E70 when it is released in the "1st Quarter 2006").

I use ShoZu and I must say that it totally rocks. For free software (at least for now), it does everything I want it to, and since I am on a 3G network with an all-you-can-eat data plan, it is amazingly speedy. The fact that it is clever enough to recognize when you are roaming and automatically postpone the heavy uploading until you get back to your home network is pretty cool. If you have a S60 Symbian phone, go to ShoZu and get the software. You'll be glad you did. I give it a 9 out of 10 overall.

The Squeezebox from Slim Devices-- a thing of beauty

The Squeezebox from Slim Devices is a thing of beauty. It has a sleek, ipod-ish design that will be at home in a home stereo environment. I had been looking for a bridge from PC based music to my stereo—for a time, my iPod served this purpose, but it died recently. I heard about the Squeezebox from the Pandora blog, checked it out online, read the reviews, and ordered two Squeezeboxes that day.

The Squeezebox installation took a bit of fiddling because of my hex WEP WiFi key and bad firmware on my cheapo WiFi access point. I updated the firmware in my access point, turned off the DHCP server in the access point (which was conflicting with the DHCP server of my DSL router), and adjusted the positioning of the access point (walls in 100 year old apartment buildings in Europe are not conducive to WiFi signal strength) and the Squeezebox has been working like a charm. With connectors up the wazoo, the Squeezebox can connect via optical or coaxial digital connector to your stereo or via the old standby RCA jacks (which I use to connect to our little kitchen stereo unit).

I found the interface easy to navigate and was able to find music and play it right away. Great products should not need user manuals and the Squeezebox passes that test (at least for me). The remote control is functional and effective, however it is a bit 90’s looking and a tad clunky compared to the design of the Squeezebox itself—you would expect something a little sleeker (it is obviously a generic programmable off the shelf remote). My biggest beef with the Squeezebox is the remote control needs a “Browse Music” button that would take you directly to the browse function. There is a “Search” button, but that is not how I like to navigate music on the Squeezebox. For that matter, the Squeezbox firmware could allow an advanced user to “remap” the remote control buttons to their specific favorites.

One word of caution: my wife hates the Squeezebox. Hierarchical tree nested menu structures are not for everyone. With a little training or a diagram of the menu structure, I think we’ll be able to get past this stumbling block, but it will take some time. For her the CD paradigm and even the iPod click wheel were much more natural ways of navigating music. I think I will resort to a sticker on the back of the remote with a “quick guide” to Squeezebox navigation.

The access to Pandora via the Squeezebox is a great thing too. I like being able to setup custom radio stations from Pandora and listen to them in other places than at my desk. Overall, I give the Squeezebox a 9.7 out of 10. At $250 for the Ethernet only version or $300 for the Ethernet plus WiFi version, the Squeezebox is a must have gadget for a music fan who has invested the time to rip his or her CD collection. Buy one now.