Sapmi radio news in the GPS-navigator
How to be updated about radio news you are seriously interested in but you just don't have the time to schedule listening time for them? News at 07:30 in the morning that are available on the radio in a few regions of Sweden and on the Webradio only. Anyway, you are already on your way to your work at that time. But, you don't want to give up on the thought of using your time in the car to listen to something more meaningful than the nonsense of good morning chats of the local radiostations?
This article describes some recent technologies that you can put to work yourself on your home PC to make your favorite programs on the radio available on several medias effortlessly and when YOU decide.
The technologies are:
- RSS-feeds
- RSS-reader
- podcasts
- Outlook mail
- Apple Itunes
- TV media player
- Windows media player
- a portable multifunction GPS navigator
RSS-feeds
Webbloggs usually have an RSS-feed associated with it. It means that XML-code, a variant of HTML-code, of the webblog is exportable to other programs being compatable with XML. An RSS reader is a program that can import XML-code to process it. The RSS-reader works in a different way than a webbrowser.
RSS-reader functions
First of all, the RSS reader works in the background on your pc to download all the pages in the RSS-feed for a webblogg. The term used is "subscribe to an RSS-feed". Instead of the webbrowser you use the User Interface (UI) of the RSS-reader to read the articles of your interest. The RSS-Reader keeps track on which articles you have read, even if the webblogg article has been updated since you read it, the RSS-reader will mark the updated article unread again. Too, usually you can configure a notification pop-up window coming up from the system tray that alerts you in almost the very same moment as the update is published on the webblogg. This is very effective if you have the task to monitor many news sources simultaneously because the RSS-reader is able to subscribe to several RSS-feeds at the same time. And you can use search functions that search just the RSS-feeds you subscribe to rather than all the internet.
In contrast, in the webbbrowser, you need yourself to navigate all the pages of the webbblogg of interest, and remember which pages you have visited (of course visited links usually turn in to some other colour but the RSS-reader guides you more precisely on what you have read or not).
Podcasts
Podcasts are more or less the same as RSS-feeds, XML-coded too, but they contain a link to a media file. The media file can be of any format, like .mp3, .wma, .avi, .mpg, etc. The challenge is to have the media files downloaded to your PC so that they are immediately available for your listening experience. The RSS-readers I have tested are not capable of subscribing to podcasts and downloading the linked mediafile for immediate availability for your use in your mediaplayer.
The solution evolution
I have put several RSS-readers, Podcast receivers and media players on my PC to to test to see if they can provide me with that desirable listening experience - Sapmi Radio news en route to work.
RSS-Readers in side out
The RSS-reader might be closer to you than you think. The Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 introduced a basic RSS-reader. If you click the golden star its possible to paste in links to RSS-feeds and podcats. But, the RSS-reader functiions are very basic and not in the same style as when the RSS-reader is implemented in special software run on your PC.
However, at the launch of IE7 Microsoft also provided a link to a freeware RSS-reader program named Attensa. Besides high functionality RSS-rea has two features, integration with Outlook and integration with Apples's Itune.
Outlook
Attensa integrates with Outlook so that it publishes each read article in an RSS-feed in a note in folders per RSS-feed. This is very nice if you use Outlook as the main user interface for your written communication. Another nice feature is that you have every article of an RSS-feed available for forwarding to your e-mail friends. Still, if you subscribe to a podcast you have to click the link to the media file and wait for it to download.
Itunes
Attensa works together with Itunes to actually download the file of the link of the podcast message. In attensa you can specify to download the attachment specified in a podcast as being the media file. The media file can be configured to be managed in Apple Itunes' or Windows media player's playlists after download.
Sapmi Radio news on the TV
Of course it is very simple to use Itunes or Windows Media player to play the media file of the podcast on your PC. But a high performing home PC today has characteristics on being very noisy so it may be more cosy to listen to the news in the living room than in the home office (now server room!).
For that function our TV is attached to a wireless Mediacenter, just like the is attached to a TV. That unit serves the TV with media streaming from our home PC. A special software, Mediaserver, on the home PC, can be directed to display audio, video and picture files to the TV by the click of a button on the remote control of the Mediacenter. The receiving Mediacenter is a very slim unit without moving parts that is stuffed under the widescreen TV, the video/DVD player, cable TV Personal Video recorder and Home cinema audio unit (pooh!).
So by the click of the Media center's remote control I can sit back in my favorite chair to listen to the Sapmi radio news that Attensa and Ipod now collects automatically for me, without any further action on the home PC.
Dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction is what drives development. Now that I have acess to the Sapmi Radio news comfortably I discover that listening to radio is not something I do in the living room, and by the way it feels silly to look into a non-moving TV screen while listening. I listen to radio while I travel in my car, mostly to work.
The GPS navigator
Traditionally a GPS navigator is a function dedicated in a car itself or now a days you can get a GPS navigator in a small box that is portable between the vehicles you want to navigate. You can of course use it on foot if the program is adapted to calculate walking or bicycle routes for your desired navigation tasks. Recently the GPS receivers have been adopted to a new standard suitable to be integrated with small consumer devices like mobile phones, pocket GPS navigators, cameras, mp3-players or whatever you as the vendor have the fantasy to integrate them with. Just like how handheld computers, cameras and mp3-players have integrated with the mobile phone, nowadays, you can never now from the outside tell what a pocket size portable thing people hold in their hands really is.
So the GPS Navigator I bought comes with same software as Windows Mobile phone but without the phone. Still I can phone using Skype if I am close to a WLAN. The handheld's GPS receiver can direct Google too download satellite images to show the location of adress of a person in my contact book provided I have set up a dataconnection via my normal mobile phone. Sounds complicated, but it's fun for a computer freak starting out when computers where big as a set of family home wardrobes and had 1millionth of the computing power of an ordinary home PC.
Sapmi radio news in the GPS-navigator
The GPS navigator also knows as Pocketpc has a synchronizing software that updates the Pocketpc with files from the home PC using an USB cable or wireless for connection. The update synchronisation is triggered as soon as the cable has been connected. After such an update I can bring the GPS navigator to my car, connect the audio cable to the radio's auxilliary input socket and listen.
So, now a days I just connect the GPS navigator to my home PC at night and then in the morning the navigator and its battery is fully charged including more Sapmi Radio news to consume in my car. Is it needless to say that I don't use the GPS Navigator program of the pocketpc on a daily basis :)
PS.
Why this article in English? My wife is an author of text books in English. She asked me to write an article about IT technology to update the old one I contributed to 10 years ago.
This article describes some recent technologies that you can put to work yourself on your home PC to make your favorite programs on the radio available on several medias effortlessly and when YOU decide.
The technologies are:
- RSS-feeds
- RSS-reader
- podcasts
- Outlook mail
- Apple Itunes
- TV media player
- Windows media player
- a portable multifunction GPS navigator
RSS-feeds
Webbloggs usually have an RSS-feed associated with it. It means that XML-code, a variant of HTML-code, of the webblog is exportable to other programs being compatable with XML. An RSS reader is a program that can import XML-code to process it. The RSS-reader works in a different way than a webbrowser.
RSS-reader functions
First of all, the RSS reader works in the background on your pc to download all the pages in the RSS-feed for a webblogg. The term used is "subscribe to an RSS-feed". Instead of the webbrowser you use the User Interface (UI) of the RSS-reader to read the articles of your interest. The RSS-Reader keeps track on which articles you have read, even if the webblogg article has been updated since you read it, the RSS-reader will mark the updated article unread again. Too, usually you can configure a notification pop-up window coming up from the system tray that alerts you in almost the very same moment as the update is published on the webblogg. This is very effective if you have the task to monitor many news sources simultaneously because the RSS-reader is able to subscribe to several RSS-feeds at the same time. And you can use search functions that search just the RSS-feeds you subscribe to rather than all the internet.
In contrast, in the webbbrowser, you need yourself to navigate all the pages of the webbblogg of interest, and remember which pages you have visited (of course visited links usually turn in to some other colour but the RSS-reader guides you more precisely on what you have read or not).
Podcasts
Podcasts are more or less the same as RSS-feeds, XML-coded too, but they contain a link to a media file. The media file can be of any format, like .mp3, .wma, .avi, .mpg, etc. The challenge is to have the media files downloaded to your PC so that they are immediately available for your listening experience. The RSS-readers I have tested are not capable of subscribing to podcasts and downloading the linked mediafile for immediate availability for your use in your mediaplayer.
The solution evolution
I have put several RSS-readers, Podcast receivers and media players on my PC to to test to see if they can provide me with that desirable listening experience - Sapmi Radio news en route to work.
RSS-Readers in side out
The RSS-reader might be closer to you than you think. The Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 introduced a basic RSS-reader. If you click the golden star its possible to paste in links to RSS-feeds and podcats. But, the RSS-reader functiions are very basic and not in the same style as when the RSS-reader is implemented in special software run on your PC.
However, at the launch of IE7 Microsoft also provided a link to a freeware RSS-reader program named Attensa. Besides high functionality RSS-rea has two features, integration with Outlook and integration with Apples's Itune.
Outlook
Attensa integrates with Outlook so that it publishes each read article in an RSS-feed in a note in folders per RSS-feed. This is very nice if you use Outlook as the main user interface for your written communication. Another nice feature is that you have every article of an RSS-feed available for forwarding to your e-mail friends. Still, if you subscribe to a podcast you have to click the link to the media file and wait for it to download.
Itunes
Attensa works together with Itunes to actually download the file of the link of the podcast message. In attensa you can specify to download the attachment specified in a podcast as being the media file. The media file can be configured to be managed in Apple Itunes' or Windows media player's playlists after download.
Sapmi Radio news on the TV
Of course it is very simple to use Itunes or Windows Media player to play the media file of the podcast on your PC. But a high performing home PC today has characteristics on being very noisy so it may be more cosy to listen to the news in the living room than in the home office (now server room!).
For that function our TV is attached to a wireless Mediacenter, just like the is attached to a TV. That unit serves the TV with media streaming from our home PC. A special software, Mediaserver, on the home PC, can be directed to display audio, video and picture files to the TV by the click of a button on the remote control of the Mediacenter. The receiving Mediacenter is a very slim unit without moving parts that is stuffed under the widescreen TV, the video/DVD player, cable TV Personal Video recorder and Home cinema audio unit (pooh!).
So by the click of the Media center's remote control I can sit back in my favorite chair to listen to the Sapmi radio news that Attensa and Ipod now collects automatically for me, without any further action on the home PC.
Dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction is what drives development. Now that I have acess to the Sapmi Radio news comfortably I discover that listening to radio is not something I do in the living room, and by the way it feels silly to look into a non-moving TV screen while listening. I listen to radio while I travel in my car, mostly to work.
The GPS navigator
Traditionally a GPS navigator is a function dedicated in a car itself or now a days you can get a GPS navigator in a small box that is portable between the vehicles you want to navigate. You can of course use it on foot if the program is adapted to calculate walking or bicycle routes for your desired navigation tasks. Recently the GPS receivers have been adopted to a new standard suitable to be integrated with small consumer devices like mobile phones, pocket GPS navigators, cameras, mp3-players or whatever you as the vendor have the fantasy to integrate them with. Just like how handheld computers, cameras and mp3-players have integrated with the mobile phone, nowadays, you can never now from the outside tell what a pocket size portable thing people hold in their hands really is.
So the GPS Navigator I bought comes with same software as Windows Mobile phone but without the phone. Still I can phone using Skype if I am close to a WLAN. The handheld's GPS receiver can direct Google too download satellite images to show the location of adress of a person in my contact book provided I have set up a dataconnection via my normal mobile phone. Sounds complicated, but it's fun for a computer freak starting out when computers where big as a set of family home wardrobes and had 1millionth of the computing power of an ordinary home PC.
Sapmi radio news in the GPS-navigator
The GPS navigator also knows as Pocketpc has a synchronizing software that updates the Pocketpc with files from the home PC using an USB cable or wireless for connection. The update synchronisation is triggered as soon as the cable has been connected. After such an update I can bring the GPS navigator to my car, connect the audio cable to the radio's auxilliary input socket and listen.
So, now a days I just connect the GPS navigator to my home PC at night and then in the morning the navigator and its battery is fully charged including more Sapmi Radio news to consume in my car. Is it needless to say that I don't use the GPS Navigator program of the pocketpc on a daily basis :)
PS.
Why this article in English? My wife is an author of text books in English. She asked me to write an article about IT technology to update the old one I contributed to 10 years ago.
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