I recently brought out of exile a couple gadgets that I had sent to the island of unused and broken toys and nearly forgotten about. Along the way, I realized that there is a useful time and place for everything, it just may not be when you expect.
Back in the '90s, a friend showed me this cool indoor/outdoor speaker. It was made by a company called Recoton, had a wireless transmitter that connected to his stereo, and beamed music out to his deck where the white dome-like speaker was located. I was impressed by the quality of sound this single speaker produced and intrigued by the possibilities of listening to my CD collection anywhere inside or outside my house. So I bought one too.
The only problem - my wife hated the way it looked and dubbed it "the mushroom". We used it a few times but it never really caught on, so into the closet it went. For 10 years.
Fast forward. Our family has grown and we have outdoor gatherings frequently in the summer. I have needed music on several occasions for birthday parties or just background music. The mushroom has always been in the back of my mind so I decided the time was finally right to put it to good use. It still works great after so many years in exile, the only difference now is that instead of hooking it up to my CD player, which I no longer need nor own, I use my portable media player. It's the ultimate in ultraportable music.
My other recent rediscovery is my Creative Zen Micro. I got this when it was first introduced (2004, I believe) and used it quite a bit. After a while, though, the sound began to cut out due to a loose audio connection and it became unusable. So into the closet it went. And I moved on to other devices.
I recently began running and have been looking for a good quality, small device that would work with my subscription music service to give me a nice variety of tunes while I am out. After trying a few devices, I realized I had the perfect thing under my nose all along. The only question was how to fix the audio problem.
Surprisingly, I found that the loose audio jack has plagued this device and many people have complained about it online. Though Creative has not addressed it, several individuals have. So I contacted a guy called "Zen Master", sent him my device, some money, and of course my trust, and a week later I received a fully restored Zen Micro.
I'm now using this great device more than ever.
The right gadgets in an unexpected place and time. Everything old is new again.
Back in the '90s, a friend showed me this cool indoor/outdoor speaker. It was made by a company called Recoton, had a wireless transmitter that connected to his stereo, and beamed music out to his deck where the white dome-like speaker was located. I was impressed by the quality of sound this single speaker produced and intrigued by the possibilities of listening to my CD collection anywhere inside or outside my house. So I bought one too.The only problem - my wife hated the way it looked and dubbed it "the mushroom". We used it a few times but it never really caught on, so into the closet it went. For 10 years.
Fast forward. Our family has grown and we have outdoor gatherings frequently in the summer. I have needed music on several occasions for birthday parties or just background music. The mushroom has always been in the back of my mind so I decided the time was finally right to put it to good use. It still works great after so many years in exile, the only difference now is that instead of hooking it up to my CD player, which I no longer need nor own, I use my portable media player. It's the ultimate in ultraportable music.
My other recent rediscovery is my Creative Zen Micro. I got this when it was first introduced (2004, I believe) and used it quite a bit. After a while, though, the sound began to cut out due to a loose audio connection and it became unusable. So into the closet it went. And I moved on to other devices.I recently began running and have been looking for a good quality, small device that would work with my subscription music service to give me a nice variety of tunes while I am out. After trying a few devices, I realized I had the perfect thing under my nose all along. The only question was how to fix the audio problem.
Surprisingly, I found that the loose audio jack has plagued this device and many people have complained about it online. Though Creative has not addressed it, several individuals have. So I contacted a guy called "Zen Master", sent him my device, some money, and of course my trust, and a week later I received a fully restored Zen Micro.
I'm now using this great device more than ever.
The right gadgets in an unexpected place and time. Everything old is new again.
No comments:
Post a Comment