As early adopters everywhere are busy unpacking their recently-delivered iPhone 4 or setting off to join that queue, Apple have issued a press release explaining why nobody will be getting a white iPhone 4 until late July.
"Last night, Britain's most prestigious design prize was awarded to a plug. At a ceremony at the Design Museum, the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year award was carried off by an unknown Korean who only graduated from the Royal College of Art last summer. Min-Kyu Choi was probably not the first person to notice the disparity between his Macbook Air laptop (thin enough to slide into a manila envelope) and the plug attached to it (so bulky you need a duffel bag). But he was certainly the first to sit down and redesign the plug so that it folds flat. This piece of electrical origami says all you need to know about the power of designers to transform our everyday world."
PURE packs a lot into its promising all-singing touchscreen radio, but it's more than its poor little processor can handle
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 December 2009 10.45 GMT
- Article history
PURE's Sensia suffers from the same problems that all DAB radios do
Last year, digital radio maker PURE began integrating DAB with internet radio with their Flow range. Now they've taken this one step further with the Sensia, bringing internet applications to your radio.
Shipping with two of what PURE says will be many applications, the Sensia's 5.7in capacitive touchscreen allows you to check the weather or update Twitter. Taking a page from the iPhone-inspired mobile phone app stores, PURE plans to open up their radio platform to external developers.
You can see the weather forecast full-screen or watch a slideshow of images stored on your computer while listening to music. PURE's Flowserver software, a modified version of Twonky Media's Universal Plug and Play server software, allows you to stream media from your computer. And the Sensia easily recognised other UPNP software such as Windows Media Player 10 and 11.
The Sensia has a timer and a clock and alarms so is useful in the kitchen or bedroom. It also boasts a light sensor to dim the screen when the lights are off.
As with the other radios in PURE's Flow range, the Sensia is coupled with The Lounge, a website that helps you manage stations, favourites, podcasts as well as add programmes from the BBC's catch-up radio service. When I last checked, The Lounge had 14,354 internet radio stations to choose from, too many to sift through on the radio itself.
It's a good job there is a website, because you wouldn't want to have to rely on the touchscreen. Even after a firmware upgrade, the interface was sluggish. The radio has a lot of features, perhaps too many for its processor.
The Sensia also suffers from the same problems that all DAB radios do. Reception can be poor in metal-framed buildings, unless you put the radio near a window. As DAB providers cram more stations on multiplexes, the lower bandwidth stations suffer poor sound quality. Many of the internet radio stations had higher bandwidth rates than DAB stations and provided better sound. That's not an criticism of the radio, but of DAB.
However, for £249, sound quality on the Sensia could be better. In comparison to a PURE Evoke, the DAB sound lacked the rich bass and supporting mid-range on the Sensia.
The Sensia has a lot of features and a lot of promise. More processing power, to ensure that the touchscreen experience is smooth, and audio that sounded as good on DAB as it does for internet radio would deliver on that promise.
Pros: Multitude of sources including DAB, FM, internet stations and music stored on your computer; easily networked with home music collection.
Cons: The interface is sluggish; it's expensive and, for the price, the sound should be better.
Good news, everyone! Our very own iPhone / iPod touch app is finally really available in Apple's much talked about and critically acclaimed App Store! That's right, all the excitement and info you've come to know and love from Engadget is now bottled in an easy to digest and delicious iPhone form. The application -- easily downloadable from your device or iTunes -- features a whole bunch of useful features such as offline viewing, built in streaming for The Engadget Show, in-app tipping (you know, for when you see the next iPhone), and all kinds of customization options. You can download the app right here, or click on the image above.Even better than this? We've got more apps on the way! Before CES (fingers crossed), you should see both a BlackBerry and webOS version of the Engadget application, and plans for the Android version are already in motion.
Lastly, a big, big, big thanks to the team at AOL that actually made this thing a reality: Sun Sachs, Andy Averbuch, Hareesh P, Anibal Rosado, Rajesh Kumar, Rich Foster, Claudeland Louis, Mike Wolstat, Eric Wedge, Vikas B R, Asha Indira and Bob Gurwin. You guys rule.
