The company across the street from us, Slim Devices, had an open house yesterday and Rob and I walked over to check them out.

Slim Devices sells a product called the Squeezebox that connects – via wireless networking – to Internet Radio stations and plays them through your stereo. I had had my eye on one for a while and almost bought one last week but there was one thing that was putting me off – and I wanted to go ask them about it.

Regular readers of my blog know that, in the 21st century, people will no longer buy music – they will rent it. I rent mine from Rhapsody. The Squeezebox connects to Rhapsody – so I bought one.

When I got home there were three people waiting for me. One of them just gets very, very excited by Things In Boxes. That person was delighted. Another person said:

“What’s that you have there? A thing that plays music? Don’t we already have a thing that plays music?”

And the third said

“You mean…you just type in ‘Black Eyed Peas’ and it’ll play all their stuff? Coooool!”

The device itself is marvellous – everything you could possibly want in a device. It reminded me of Julio’s Mac adventures. How can anything possibly work so well?

Steps to reproduce:

1. Turn it on
2. Wireless or ethernet?
3. Go to squeezenet.com
4. Type in this number
5. Choose Rhapsody
6. Play my personal playlists

I almost cheered! Well done Slim Devices!

The black exterior to my silver cloud? Squeezbox only support 802.11g. My router is 802.11b. Need to go shopping…