Sink Testing
From there, you're away. This piece of kit has spent a solid couple of months in a testing environment: the kitchen. How did it shape up?
Nokia Home Music in battle conditions: on the large size for a kitchen radio
Two scroll wheels on the front panel feel cheap and plasticky, but make navigation and adjusting the volume straightforward. The small colour display (240x320 pixels) looks just like a Nokia S40 phone. The choice of home, favourite and back buttons also increases the sense of familiarity; the back button could be bigger, but you'll be able to explore most of the functions without the manual.
The same controls are replicated on the remote control. Unfortunately, the remote keys aren't illuminated, so navigating in the dark is harder than it needs to be.
Along with six preset buttons on the front panel, there's also a Favourites section
The initial menu provides top-level access to Podcasts, Radio, a Favourites list and what's called 'Jukebox'. It's a little odd that Podcasts receive such a prominent display, since the device doesn't store them locally, but streams them live. They're really a bookmark.
Podcasts are streamed, not stored
Nokia has pre-selected a bunch of popular podcasts, including some strange choices. These include some extreme eco-activist broadcasts from Grist and Treehugger. This contains some quite hateful stuff - and isn't likely to endear Nokia to many potential users. Nokia: get a grip on your Swampies.
Next page: Are You Receiving?
COMMENTS
Networking
Humm UPnP and DLNA supported...are these two protocols OS supported by the nowadays Apple products? No!? So, why blaming Nokia for not supporting Apple products and not blaming Apple for lack of support for two widespread protocols, uh Mr Orlowski?
Backend support
A persistent issue I have with internet radio devices is their reliance on a web server somewhere to keep running and providing the routing information for each channel. Does this radio need to talk to Nokia to work properly? I guess they should be around for many years to come, but who knows if this service will be something they continue to value? Looks interesting though...
The cult of "i"
What a nightmare having to spend all that time reading an article when you could have been fiddling with your "i" devices which have a reputation for *hite sound quality.
£100 too much
So, no built in storage and it's basically just one of their £20 phones with a mono speaker, a few ports and no phone or battery. No iPod support is inexcusable at that price point (though it wouldn't be a major selling point for the device) and NO storage for podcasts or DAB (or even MW/LW)? No wonder it was buried alive.
That thing must cost practically nothing to make. Sell it for £30-£40 and they'd have a winner. They could even build some kind of marketplace around music sales to the device.... oh wait....
My coat's the one with the iPhone and N95 in the pockets. :-)
Reciva?
Good this it isn't Reciva internals. That would kill it utterly.
It might be OK for internet radio, but it's completely pants as a network media player. What would you think of a player that barfs if there's more than a few hundred tracks on your media server?
