Logitech Squeezebox Boom review

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I must say that the best gadget I have bought this year is my Logitech's Squeezebox Boom internet radio - aside to my iPhone 3GS.

Granted it costs $299 (on sale at Best Buy for $275).
This past Saturday, I was about to go to my local Best Buy and buy it, I decided to check Craigslist to see if anyone was selling it locally. I am glad that I did, as someone was selling it for $200. He has just upgraded to the Duet and thus didn't need this one.

By the way, if you already owned a high-end stereo system, you can simply buy Apple's Airport Express ($100) and stream your music to it from iTunes.

At first, I was only looking for something to plug my iPhone to and listen to song on the living room. And since I also already own Airport Express, but no stereo system, the other requirement was that it has to have an audio input as well, so I can stream my songs from my computer via iTunes. The last requirement was that it costs less than $300.

That search was somewhat frustrating. A lot of dock systems have problem with iPhone and was spec'ed as iPod only. I bought and returned 4 different devices to try.
So I decided, maybe I should just look at a boom-box radio and I can connect an iPhone dock and my Airport Express to it. While doing my research for something like this (I had settled on Bose SoundDock II) I came across a review of the Squeezebox Boom and read wonderful reviews of the device.

All I can say is that this device is awesome!

In short, this is an internet radio + iTunes / MP3 streaming from your computer and it Line-In AND output as well.
Internet radio = you can play from a list of internet radio providers
Streaming = requires your computer to provide the songs via iTunes or MP3 folders

It is a Wi-Fi radio with built-in speakers (supports Wi-Fi and Ethernet), You can stream from multiple internet radio - Pandora, Live365, Rhapsody, Napster, Last.fm, etc. You can play your own media (compatible with virtually all non-DRM audio file formats)

Two different type of connection: Squeezecenter (on your computer) or Squeezenetwork.com (for streaming only)

You will need to install the Squeezecenter software on your computer if you wanted to play your own song. If you had the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo/NV/Pro device, you can install there and that will provide your stream.

With the software, you will have a web based control you can use to configure your Squeezebox Boom. With this, also you can control from within any computer as long as the web server is up and running on the system where you installed Squeezecenter onto. There is also an iPhone app that allows you to connect to your Squeezecenter and control your device. Though, it is from a third party and costs $7.

If you didn't need to listen to your own song and would just listen to any of the internet streaming radio providers it supports, you can configure it to connect to SqueezeNetwork. This is my only peeve, as the iPhone app only supports it when it is connected to Squeezecenter - not SqueezeNetwork. You can use your iPhone to browse Squeezenetwork's website and control it that way, but it isn't very intuitive.

I finally got a hold of the API and built my own app to do it and now I'm a happy camper. I would like to post it on iTunes, but I'm not very versed in iPhone programming - only enough to be dangerous - and thus the app contains my username and password. So, until I can figure that out, I'll not publish it.

Like I said before I was looking for something to put on the living room.
But this device also has an excellent alarm system and very LOUD and that it the volume fades in, so it doesn't start blaring loudly.
Because of this, I have not put it out on the living room yet, and instead it is sitting on my night-stand, replacing my alarm :-D

Logitech did announce yesterday that it was coming up with a smaller version called Squeezebox Radio and it retails for $200.

I think what I'll do is buy the Squeezebox Radio and use that in my bedroom and move my Squeezebox Boom onto the living room.
The only differences between the Radio and Boom that I can see are Radio is a smaller foot print and also has a 2.4" display. The display is nice as it makes it easier to configure the device directly.

What I'd like to note, if you had multiple of these device, you can play the same thing on all your devices or play different things on each device. Very easy to control.