BUT.

If can anyone see any gaps or improvements to the following (and yes, I am largely going with Apple because it is easy to setup and I have no desire to hack, configure or otherwise spend ages of my time to get the thing working), please let me know. You might save me a lot of money.

Not that I’m gonna be spending anything on any of this, no no, that’d be silly and I have more important items to buy soon, like a bed, that kind of thing. This is purely and utterly an academic exercise, a small indulgementation if you will to keep me from going stir-crazy in this house.

So, the proposed new system is as follows:

• A Mac Mini – which will be hooked up to the TV
• Drobo S – which will (in the short term) hold two 500GB drives from my PC with music/photos/movies/work stuff
• Airport Express – so I can stream iTunes to a set of speakers
• Karmon Soundsticks – because they look and sound good

I’ll pick up a wireless keyboard and mouse for the Mac Mini as well. Which means that, when version 2 of the iPad comes out, I can slot that in for ‘casual web usage’ and the like.

My thinking is that I want a quiet and energy efficient machine that I can stream music from, and do a little web design work on too (with a nice big 40″ screen!). The Drobo allows me to easily add more storage space (just slot a new drive in), and if I want music elsewhere I can always buy another Airport Express (or stream through my iPhone/iPad?). Mind you, I’ll be moving to a flat so not much need for that in the near future.

Yes, it’s a bit pricey as it’s Apple equipment but it gives me a system that SHOULD just plug and play (previous experience suggests this to hold true), and is expandable to meet my needs. I could probably get the same with another (cheaper) system but having looked into it, PC/Linux equivalents require a level of configuration that I just can’t be arsed with any more, happy to pay more to have it just work.

Am I missing anything? Performance wise the Mac Mini will be more than enough for me for many years, and they’ve good reliability. The Drobo I’ve heard a lot of good things about and I’ve used an Airport Express before with my PC. I think it’s about as future proof as it can be, add in a USB hub for things like card readers and whatnot and I don’t think I’m losing out on anything.

Well, apart from the money to buy it all with…

Because if I did that, then I’d probably (knowing myself as well as I do) have to have a system or two in place to cope with that “information overload”.

So, for example, I might use Instapaper to track blog posts that I want to read later (either from the website or using the iPhone app), or articles that might feature in the ISTC newsletter column I write. I would probably be monitoring RSS feeds to find the articles or blog posts, checking for things for either personal perusal or professional pondering, or perhaps I’d be using a Twitter client on my iPhone that supported Instapaper to capture some of the links that people post there.

I could use del.icio.us to store links to useful bits and bobs that I might want to refer to later on, and I may even use Tumblr (which I could also use on my iPhone) as a means to capture those items of digital detritus that zip past me every day.

Of course it wouldn’t ALL be about consuming information, I do produce some things myself and if I wanted I could use Flickr to host my photos (and maybe use the excellent Flickit app for my iPhone to upload photos as well), not mention the not inconsiderable amount of waffle I’ve posted to a couple of the blogs I’ve setup over the years (I don’t just blog, I write, and tell tales).

Speaking of waffle, if I really wanted to have an outlet for the randomness that all of this information prompts in my head, I guess Twitter would be the place for that, and just because I like to be organised I’d probably set up a separate Twitter account for my professional ramblings as well.

And to make sure I’m properly organised I would need a calendar and a way to track my tasks (both at work and at home).

I’d probably use Google Calendar for appointments and as Remember the Milk have an excellent iPhone app, I guess it would make sense to use that service to track my tasks. Similarly I’d probably look to Simplenote to provide a central place to store snippets of useful information, and they too have an excellent iPhone app which, considering I have my iPhone on me at all times, would be very useful.

Of course that would all be just too much hassle to deal with and make me look like I’m some kind of geek that spends his life connected to the internet, whereas I actually spend most of my time sleeping, eating, reading books and partying.

Honest.

First things first then, I do purchase music mostly, these days, through iTunes. Mostly because it’s handy and I’m a total Apple fanboy (yeah, Windows SUCK!!). That last bit is a lie, of course, as my home PC runs Windows and I’m really enjoying using Windows 7 (something else I’ll be purchasing soon).

I digress.

I spent a long time digitally converting my CDs, and as they now reside in boxes in the loft I don’t see the need to purchase anything on physical media. I have bought a couple in the past few months, mainly band specific special releases though, so they aren’t available through iTunes. I’m sure there are other ways I could purchase music but for what I listen my system works for me.

Do I miss the act of going into a music shop, flipping through the stacks? Yes I do, but not so much that I’m losing sleep over it, although it’s easy to say that since my current office is miles from anywhere, whereas working in the city centre made access to places like Fopp an always entertaining lunchtime visit.

As for listening to music, well that mostly happens either at work (when time/task allow) or at home when I’m sitting at the PC or just generally faffing about upstairs. More recently I have started taking my iPod Shuffle to the gym.

So where does Spotify fit in all this? Well it should fit perfectly, at home at least (I’ve not tried but guessing company firewall restrictions would rule it out there). I do have it, I have an account yet, for some reason, I don’t use it. To be honest I’ve only used it a couple of times, and I do like the idea of sharing playlists with others but what about all that music that I have?

I LIKE all the music I have, well most of it**, except when it’s on shuffle of course, and whilst I am open to hearing new artists I only tend to use work as a backdrop so I’m not usually actively listening. With that in mind, it largely doesn’t matter where the music comes from, but I’m far more likely to put on something I know so I don’t HAVE to listen to it.

You know what I mean, right?

Perhaps I just need to give Spotify more of a try, perhaps I’m missing something fundamental but I really don’t see it as a game changer. Yet.

But then I said that about blogging, and Twitter so hey, what do I know?

* or perhaps just one or two polite replies, poetic license, innit
** the joys of a shared library of music and Last.fm listing tracks from Louise’s iPod, for the record I did not listen to Girls Aloud AT ALL that week

The same basic maths (money in – money out) is what will stop me getting the new iPhone 3GS when it is available. The one thing that excites me the most is the improved camera as it is safe to say that I’ve started using it far more than I imagined, largely thanks to the application Flickit which makes uploading images from my iPhone to Flickr achingly simple. Add in CameraBag for some post-processing fun and I’ve actually quite enjoyed using my iPhone as a camera.

Still needs must and if I’m honest a new iPhone isn’t a need. Neither is a 1TB drive, nor a second monitor or a second LCD TV for the bedroom, nor any manner of media gadget for the living room, indeed there is not really any need for any other shiny new things.

Yet the desire to get something shiny and new remains and, no matter how many I purchase, just isn’t sated by recent Threadless purchases.

Note to self: whatever happened to that t-shirt project you were gonna do? huh?? Lazy sod.

The iPhone remains the best gadget I’ve bought for a while, largely because the “ohh new and shiny” appeal is constantly being polished by the discovery of a new application that I didn’t know I needed. Apparently there’s an App for That too…

I don’t think I’ll ever be cured of the need for something new. It’s almost, but not quite, a grass is greener type desire balanced only by the fact that I can’t really afford to ‘experiment’ with new shiny things so said purchases are always well considered and match my exacting and specific needs. Part of me wonders if I enjoy the planning/researching stage more than I let on.

And part of me wonders just how much I have left on the credit card…

1 TB for £59.99, the advert announces, loudly, in my inbox. Regardless I move the cursor up to the Delete button and, hang on… £59.99, that’s not that bad.

Hmmm, I could replace the current second drive in my PC (it’s “only” 250GB) and then I could rip all our DVDs to the PC, convert them ready for viewing on any device, and then stream them downstairs to the PlayStation so we can watch any movie we want without having to shift from the sofa, walk 12 paces to the bookcase, and then walk 12 back.

So, by my reckoning, by shelling out £59.99 and spending weeks carefully ripping DVDs and probably reformatting them for something a bit ‘friendlier’ (MP4?), I could save us walking the length of the living room now and then.

All of these thoughts take place in an instant and, without even realising, my brain has moved my hand and subsequently the mouse cursor is hovering over said advert and the first, all too easy step, towards a purchase is at the end of my finger.

One click is all it would take.

But then, I wonder, I could certainly put £59.99 to good use on something else, something like.. like…

*CLICK*

Ohh shoot.

Still, at least I know what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks..