The Tech Bench

‘Wow, so this is what the future looks like!’ That’s what I thought when I first checked out the video demo of the Nearest Tube App for the iPhone 3GS.

Nearest Tube is the (soon to be) first augmented reality app to go live on the App Store. Augmented reality is when real world data is intermixed with digital data.

In this case, Nearest Tube uses the video camera viewer, compass and GPS on the iPhone 3GS and overlays the location and distance to the London Tube entrances. The effect is very cool and useful.

I can really see this way to display map data taking off. Most maps use a birds-eye view to give direction but we don’t live in that view. Street level viewing in Google is cool but not that useful for finding your way around live.

Seeing map data appear on top of live video that you control could be very useful. Imagine pointing your iPhone at a store and seeing a pop-up that shows hours of operation, address, their menu, etc.

Hopefully Google is hard at work at providing tools like these for Google Maps.

After spending a couple months researching a multi-room Mac compatible audio solution, I finally settled on the Sonos system. I have an Apple TV (which I will still use for video), but the lack of support for synchronized audio and no amplification options left me wanting more. Here’s what you’ll need to get started-

1. A Sonos ZP90 to hook up to a receiver or self powered speakers, or a ZP120 to connect to non-amplified speakers. The difference between the 90 and the 120 is the built in amplification.

2. A music library that is always on. I picked a desktop iMac that I leave running most of the time. Since the Sonos has no internal hard drive, it will always stream from a source. It requires you to turn on SMB (Windows) file sharing on your machine. If you have a NAS where you keep all your music, it can connect to that as well. I found a hack that will allow the Sonos to connect straight to my Apple TV, I have yet to implement it.

3. Some type of device to control the system. Try the Sonos Controller 100, or use your iPod Touch or iPhone and the Sonos Controller iPhone App. I went down the iPhone app route, since I already own the phone.

Setup is a breeze. Simply tell Sonos which computer library to look at using the desktop app and you’re on your way. If you have a Pandora or Last.FM account, enter your login credentials and start playing from either service. The iPhone app is wonderfully laid out with a nice, functional interface. Once I add multiple zone players to the system, I can quickly link them together to play perfectly synced music between the devices.

One of the boxes will need to be hooked up to your ethernet network to create the Sonos Wireless Mesh network, if you don’t have ethernet nearby pick up the ZoneBridge for $99. It’s a pricey system, MSRP for the ZP120 is $499, ZP90 is $349, and the Sonos Controller 100 is $399.

See the Sonos Configurator to figure out what exactly you’ll need.