Everyone knows, that I love gadgets and I cannot live not having the latest electronic devices in my possession. But every day it is getting harder to keep up with all the new technologies. Especially the tablets. There is some sort of tsunami of tablets coming from the east, trying to get the same importance as the trend setter on this market, the Apple iPad. For these type of things I gave up;nobody cannot come near the iPad. Full stop!

But one of my favourite other time consuming activities is listening to music. Not only the music of today, but also – being a guy of almost 50 – the music of the seventies en eighties. And today I found the gadget that combines these two. And to be honest, it is not released in the past few weeks, but already there for more than a year. The magic Logitech Squeezebox.

But what makes this gadget the ultimate gadget? What does it what an other can’t do in this present world? I think it has its origin in the fact that it integrates so well in my world of other gadgets. It is not only the link between my music and my computer-world but also gave new possibilities to my iPhone, iPod Touch and HTC Android phone.

 

First of all, the Logitech Squeezebox is a normal Internet radio combined with an alarm. This is not new and was already a part of my power consuming family of electronics, the Freecom Musicpal. Although I never got used to the logic of the buttons to operate the device, it was very easy to listen not only to Internet radio stations but also to set the alarm. Connected to the my local Wifi, so what do we want more than that?

Well the Logitech Squeezebox not only does the above mentioned activities, but also has a nicer display and links more easy to your own music in your local network. Still not something that makes this a killer device. But there is more. One great advantage is the integration of the music service Spotify. Spotify can bring you for free a lot of music, but for a small fee (EUR 9,95 per month), you can listen as much as you want to almost all the music that exists in this world, so also including that great seventies songs. One can make their own playlists and even store some songs on your iPhone or HTC phone. But if you have that so called premium account on Spotify, you can have direct access to all those favourite songs with your Squeezebox. The Squeezebox can load all sort of Apps (which device does not have specific apps these days) and the Spotify App is one of them. Your own made playlists all visible and ready to play. And that is also a small part of the huge database of Spotify.

But now the most exciting feature of the Squeezebox. As I said the Squeezebox is also an alarm, so most of the boxes will do their duty in the master bedroom. But where do you place the Squeezebox? The sound is great by the way, so it does not have to be placed directly next to your pillow. But do you want to lean out of bed to operate the device? No you won’t and I can tell you, you don’t have to.

And there is where the missing link comes in. You can use your iPhone, iPod Touch or your Android smartphone to operate the Squeezebox. For all of these devices you can download free apps. And then the real fun begins. Starting up the app will display the current status of the Squeezebox and you have full control over the device through your mobile phone. From volume up and down, switching between your own music library and Spotify, choosing your favourite Internet Music Station, but also displaying your Flickr photo’s, connecting to your Facebook account, setting the alarm for the next morning; everything you want. This device was really the missing link. Maybe it will prevent me from going to bed too late.

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