Back in Time with Technology

Strangely, although Sally and Caroline are (sadly) now miles away, as I browsed the shelves of John Lewis’ Audio Visual department on Monday night, I could still seem to hear them whisper "Go on! Get it!".

Hence despite the lack of funds in the account, I reached for the plastic and purchase not only:



But also:



A DAB Micro system to replace my virtually defunct bedroom hifi (you have to bribe it to make it play CDs) has been on my wish list for a long while. I held out against the temptation to buy a portable DAB radio on the basis of waiting for when DAB hi-fi’s became more common place. Besides being woken up by the irritating, ignorant and frequently misogynistic sounds of Chris Moyles was hardly making me a better person, so really this purchase is for the good of society – Phil Jupitas and Six Music will make me a kinder soul.

The PVR has been on my wish list for a good while too. The justification for giving in and flexing the plastic is two-fold, my Freeview tuner is incredibly temperamental (you have to press a button on the remote about 10 time to get it to register and the tuner keeps freezing) and my DVD recorder is refusing to record (or in some cases even read). Besides doesn't everyone need a twin digital tuner and 160Gb hard drive - I mean isn't it essential in the modern world to be able to record two different programmes and watch a third (or one recorded earlier)? Ok maybe you don't 'need' that, but it's pretty cool to be able to should the fancy take you.

A feature both items have in common, is the ability to pause and even rewind live broadcasts.

This is actually quite spooky. I can start watching the West Wing 10 minutes after it really started, skip the adverts and find myself caught up with real time by the end of the show. Similarly with the radio I can pause, answer the phone and then resume where I left off.

Real time listening/viewing seems a very outdated concept already.

Ok it’s not quite like time travel, but it’s pretty darn cool nonetheless.