WSJ review of Soundbridge

[Matt Thomas]

Walt Mossberg reviewed the Soundbridge in the WSJ (online) today.

Some excerpts...

[...]

On the user-interface issue, the Roku was a pleasure. We found we could
sit 10 feet away, remote in hand, and select songs and playlists from
the music stored on a Windows or Macintosh computer, and actually see
what we were doing. Most of this is done by simply using the arrow
buttons on the remote, and it worked well in our tests. Score one for
Roku.

About my only complaint was that, like most other music-networking
devices I've seen, the SoundBridge can't play the copy-protected songs
Apple sells in its iTunes store online. It can handle only nonprotected
MP3 or AAC files in your collection.

But the Roku fell down on the Wi-Fi setup test. I thought Roku might do
better than its competitors because it is tied into iTunes and uses a
terrific Apple technology called Rendezvous, which allows Windows or
Mac computers running iTunes to instantly share their libraries of
songs. But that wasn't as great an asset as I'd expected.

[...]

My preproduction test unit also exhibited a few other glitches,
including drop-outs in song playback. The company is confident it can
fix these by the time the SoundBridge ships.

But even if all the glitches are resolved, I can't recommend the Roku
SoundBridge, or any similar product, as long as it requires users to
know anything about techie terminology like "Hex." I'll keep looking
for a product that spares users such hassles.

[end of article]

[Ted Fitch]

Post by Matt Thomas
But even if all the glitches are resolved, I can't recommend the Roku
SoundBridge, or any similar product, as long as it requires users to
know anything about techie terminology like "Hex." I'll keep looking
for a product that spares users such hassles.

This is Walt's pet peeve. You have to keep in mind that he is only looking
for "devices for dummies." If it has any "geek factor" to it he will give
it a bad review. If grandpa or grandma can't get the thing to work right
out of the box, then it's not worth the effort in his opinion.

Someday all technology will be there...maybe

[Scott McKay]

Post by Ted Fitch
This is Walt's pet peeve. You have to keep in mind that he is only looking
for "devices for dummies." If it has any "geek factor" to it he will give
it a bad review. If grandpa or grandma can't get the thing to work right
out of the box, then it's not worth the effort in his opinion.

One could argue that someone who didn't understand the ascii/hex thing would be
unlike to have WEP setup.