Streaming Media in Canada and other places outside of the U.S

Well living in Canada has issues with streaming music.  Not all applications and products are available in Canada due to copyright issues or that is what we are told, but there are ways of getting around this, but more on that later.

The first streaming product I will discuss is Pandora.  Pandora is a free app for the iPhone, but it isn't totally free.  You get 40 hours of use and then you have to pay $3.99 per month.  If you have the free version you had lots of advertisments, not a big deal if you don't look at the screen.  You can create your own stations based on the music you want to listen to.  This App can not be found in the Canadian iTunes Store.

The second streaming product is Spotify, when you sign up for this you get 48 hours of unlimited streaming, and you can listen to the whole album or choose what songs you want.  You will then get notice that you will get 30 days free, but I haven't done that.  There is a radio in this App that will continue to work.  There is a free app for your computer but it does have ads, you can pay $4.99 per month to go ad free on your computer and $9.99 to use the app on your mobile device or computer ad free.

Tunein Radio is a free and a paid App and is available in Canada, a good reason because it sucks!  It is just a bunch of radio stations.  I guess with the paid app at $4.99 says you can record the songs being played.  Once again with the free app there are advertisements.  I didn't see anywhere that I could do a search for an artist or song I wanted to listen to.  There was a selection of  interests and then you could pick the station.

Songza is a free app and is also available in Canada and it is free.  When you start up the App it goes to what is called the Concierge.  With Concierge you can choose the activity you are doing to match the music.  If you do not want to choose the Concierge you can choose Activities, Moods, Genres or Decades.  You can also type in the artist you are looking for and make a playlist.  There is a website where  you can make a play list from the music on your computer, but you won't be able to listen to your own.  You can share with friends and also see what they are listening too.

Jango Radio is available in Canada and you choose they type of music you want to listen to, but you can't choose an artist.  When you try to skip a song you get an ad and not just a pop up advertisment, but an actual video ad, doesn't happen all the time.  You give the songs a thumbs up or down.  This is still not my favourite app.

SHOUTcast is available in Canada and it isn't too bad.  You can search for an artist and it will show what station it is on and then it will start.  The quality of the sound can vary from station to station, but it shows you what the stream quality is like.  This is a free app, with small banner apps at the bottom and not very intrusive.

Now the Grand Daddy of them all in my opinion is iTunes Radio.  This isn't available unless you have a U.S iTunes account and also is in beta format on iOS Beta and you need to be a developer.  You can make playlists, choose the artist you want and similiar artists will play.  There are ads, but while in Beta they are not played very often and when they are played it is only about artists on iTunes.

Now you are saying this is all fine and dandy if you live in the U.S, but what about us living here in Canada?  Well you have to make yourself an iTunes account in the U.S store.  Set up U.S iTunes account outside of United States

I hope this article has helped you in streaming audio on your iOS devices.

Twonky Beam App iOS and Android

Wow what a title for an app, but the app is very good.  My cable provider Aliant Television in Atlantic Canada lets me use this app, but I am sure it is available with other providers.

Here is how it works, you download the app from the iOS App Store or Google Play, both are free Apps.  You put the app on your device and you have to sync it up with your TV.  Now this is the part that may cause you grief as the first time I tried it, I was unsuccessful in pairing the device to my TV. When you are successful you can open your browser and go to youtube.com and start a video on your device and then press the beam button and it will then "beam" the show to your television.  This works the same idea as AirPlay but you do not require an Apple TV.  The beam app will find all available devices on your network.  For me it found both cable boxes, 2 Apple TVs and my Roku box, so I am able to beam the signal over to any of these devices.  If you have an Apple TV it really doesn't make sense to do it this way since you already have AirPlay.

Here is the way to sync your device to your television, I am sure it is the same set up with your cable provider.  I do believe your cable provider has to be on the Fibre Network.  Setting up the Beam App


Now for me, I have loads of media on my Macintosh Computer using the free program Plex Media Server, it is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.  Once you open the Beam App on your device and I am assuming you have your device already synced you can either go to the browser and put in the link you want to beam or you can go to the Plex Media and beam those files to your TV.  Get Plex

Now if you have Netflix on your device you will not be able to beam this over as you have to go to the beam app itself.  I have tried entering Netflix in the browser and then stream a show but there is no option to beam it over at this time.  For Netflix I suggest you buy a smart TV or an Apple TV box or a Roku Box.

I hope it works for you, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Roku 2 XS

I won the Roku 2 XS last year while listening to a podcast called http://www.geeknewscentral.com/ I had it in the basement, but I never used it very much until lately.  With the Roku system you add channels directly from the box or 3rd party channels from the internet.  Since I live in Canada there are some channels that are blocked.  We mainly watch Netflix Canada, Plex and NHL Game Center.  Since I have the box connected directly to my FibreOp Modem (50Mbps down and 30Mbps Up) there is no buffering.  I did have issues over wifi and sometimes the Roku 2 XS couldn't find the wireless network.

With the PLEX Channel, I can stream all the media files on my iMac Computer to the Roku box.  The Netflix Channel works great on the Roku 2 XS as the fast forward is the best that I have seen.  You can see exactly where you are in the show.  I found that the NHL GameCenter Channel layout is not the best on the Roku 2 XS, but it works just as good as the other boxes I have tried it on.

You can also play games on the Roku 2XS, using the remote control.  Angry Birds comes free and there are other games you can pay for.  Not all the channels are free as they have a subscription to use them.

With the Roku 2XS there is no on off switch, the box will shut off when it is idle after a certain amount of inactivity.  The box checks daily for an update or you can check for an update on your own.  Remote control takes 2AA batteries or you can use your iOS or Android device and download the app to contol the Roku Box.

You connect the box using an HDMI cable and it also has a micro SD slot.  This box has been discontinued and has been replaced with the Roku 3.

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini

Well here we are with another review and it is an another high quality product from Bowers &Wilkins.  This time it is the Zeppelin sound dock system designed for Apple products and it comes with multiple stands for various iPods and iPhones. We are using it with the iPhone 4 without any issues.  There is also a USB port in the back so you can connect any USB device to hear your music.  Once you have your iPhone or iPod connected using the dock it will charge it and also sync over wifi if available.

This sound dock does not have Air Play, as they have another unit with that option, which cost $300 more then this one.

The sound quality is fantastic with deep bass sounds, and fills the room.  Fills the room with sound, but it doesn't take up the room that a home stereo and speakers would.  We have ours on a shelf, and we control the music using the small remote control that is included.

Since I am the gadget guy, I have mine connected to my wifi using an Apple Airport Express which lets me use the airplay feature on my iPhone and I can control all my music that is either on my iPhone or on my iMac.  I noticed that I have never reviewed that so I will have to do that in the future.

We have had a few of the iPhone docks for playing music but never really paid too much for them, therefore never really used them very much.  Since purchasing this we have started listening to music more often and when my selection of music isn't what my wife wants to hear she puts on her Bowers & Wilkinson P5 headphones (previously reviewed).

The price of this unit isn't too bad for the quality and sound that you get from it.  We purchased it for $299.99 Canadian.  Head out to your local electronic store and sample the sounds.

Bowers & Wilkins P5 Headphones

Get closer to your music, that is what they say in their packaging and they are right!  It is nice to sit back and listen to your music without disturbing anyone or being disturbed by background noise.   These high quality headphones has noise isolation so not to disturb those around you and also blocks out noise from entering the headphones.

These headphones are designed for an iPhone as they have the mic and volume switch right on the cord so you can take the call just like if you are wearing the iPhone earpods, but the sound is so much better.  You can also fast forward and rewind the tracks.

The headphones come with a carrying bag, not the most masculine looking though.  The price might put you off at $299.99, but when is the last time you had a pair of comfortable, over the ear headphones on?

Retail Plus HDMI Media Player Center

Well it has been a long time since I posted anything to this blog, been busy I guess and haven't bought too much new tech.

This little gadget is fantastic and it is really small. I looked at other units that do the same thing, but the price was double and their size was almost triple the size of this little unit. Don't let the size fool you because this is a great gadget.

Ok, so you are wondering what this actually does. You can hook up an external hard drive/SD Card/USB Flash Drive and play these formats: Avi, Mpg, Mpeg, , Mp4, Vob, Dat, Asf, Wmv, Wav, Ac3, Mp3 and Jpg/Jpeg.

I travel a lot and I miss most of the TV shows so when I get home from the trip I end up downloading the TV shows, and then put them on my external hard drive and connect that to this gadget and that to my TV using HDMI cable (not included), or the standard A/V cable which is included.

The menu shows Movies/Music/Photos. I haven't tried the photos or music, but I am sure it works just as good as the movies play.

A remote control is included and has fast forward/fast rewind and skip forward/skip rewind.

I purchased a DVD Recorder with hard drive that is able to connect a hard drive, but only up to a 2 gig thumb drive or SD card, this unit lets you connect any size hard drive or thumb drive.

I paid around $39.99 at Walmart Canada.

Snowflake Microphone

Well I haven't posted anything in awhile. I bought an iMac 20" a couple of months ago and I should do a review on that very soon and all the features and toys on it. After purchasing the iMac, I started listening to tech podcasts, especially ones on the Mac. I contacted WizardGold on Twitter, he runs the podcast Mac20Q which he asks you 20 questions about the Mac. At the time of doing the interview I only used the internal mic on the iMac and after listening to the podcast it was clear that I required a better microphone. I also use my laptop and make phone calls with Vonage Talk when I travel around the world to call and use Google video chat, Skype and Oovoo.

The microphone that I bought is the Snowflake from Bluemic This microphone is compact and great for traveling. I found the sound to be very good and when you hook it up via usb there are no drivers to install and it works on both Mac and Windows. You can either set it up on your desk or connect it to your laptop cover, so when you are doing video chat your voice is directed towards the camera. I purchased this microphone at my local BestBuy for $79.00

You can follow me on Twitter as rosscraig