RSS for LaMetric

One of the latest apps for LaMetric time is a long-time over-due and incredibly useful and welcome addition - RSS feed.

LaMetric is an internet radio, clock, smart speaker all rolled into one. You can read more about it on this blog. I suggest you head over and buy one now. They really are awesome tech toys.

With the RSS feed app, you can spool your favourite websites directly onto the 8-bit display so you never miss an update again. RSS is a way of pushing content from one website to another, automatically, so you don't have to go the original site to check for updates yourself. Really Simple. I've been waiting for this to appear on LaMetric for a long time now.

Need to know when your favourite blogger has posted? You will know without having to switch on your device. You will be able to read the new content directly on your LaMetric scrolling display in all its 8-bit glory.

RSS app running on Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Setting up your RSS feed is as simple as adding the RSS feed then clicking a few buttons until your feed appears the way you want it on your LaMetric display.

LaMetric Time app 

The app is really easy to use. You simply add the RSS feed into the appropriate edit box and you should find your feed appearing on your LaMetric display immediately.

The hard part is finding a site's RSS feed. Many sites provide you with this (click the orange icon usually located with the other social media links). This is a link to the BBC news RSS feeds to get you started. Finding the RSS feed for a blogger is much more tricky. As far as I can tell, the best way is to use the following:

http://blog.domain.name/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss 

Where blog.domain.name is the domain name for the blog. For example, the RSS feed for this blog is http://superdecade.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss 

Don't have LaMetric? Get on the interwebs and buy one now!

That's it for today. If you enjoyed this post, then you might like to read some other LaMetric posts, or other posts about RSS feeds. Maybe you just want something completely different.

Poke the World

My latest favourite toy for LaMetric time is Poke the World.

LaMetric app used to control the LaMetric device (as seen on my Android phone).

LaMetric Time is an awesome internet clock / radio / notification center. They look really cool on your desk and can be programmed to do all sorts of smart things, such as display your phone notifications and messages. There is a steadily growing app store for you to download new functionality, and integration with IFTTT really sets this device apart. LaMetric is a useful device for any small business, office, home or submarine.

Part of the charm of LaMetric is the 8-bit-style colour display.

I have been using LaMetric for about a year now, mostly for the internet radio and a notification centre for the rest of my digital life. As well as telling the time, it displays the news, weather and number of people who have stopped following me on Twitter (@supdecadegames). Pretty much all of the notifications generated by my Android phone can be displayed on the LaMetric, in glorious 8-bit graphics and accompanied by a custom sound effect. If someone emails me from work, it displays the subject line with a suitably depressing 'wa wah wah wah waaaaahhhh!' on the trombone. If I leave my house, the LaMetric radio automatically switches off. When I return home, LaMetric is waiting for me with my favourite radio station.

I can't recommend LaMetric highly enough.



So what is Poke the World?

This is the latest app that I have discovered for LaMetric. Advertised as an 'experiment', it (rather pointlessly) allows LaMetric uses to send a poke to other LaMetric Poke the World users. And that makes you feel more connected - OK!

Plus One Geek Experience Point awarded to Sash, for Poke the World.

I really don't know what you are waiting for. Buy yours now: LaMetric Time Wi-Fi Clock for Smart Home

Well, that's all for today. No doubt I will be back soon with some other technology thingy that has perked my excitement levels.

If you are a fan of pointless apps, then you might also like this article about Yo, or maybe you just want to watch a load of balls?


LaMetric Time Wi-Fi Clock for Smart Home #lametric @getLametric

My most pointless IFTTT applets

IFTTT is a service for linking various services together. Literally, if this happens, then that will happen. If you are reading this article from a link on Twitter, G+, Tumbler, Pinterest or elsewhere, it is likely that an IFTTT applet put it there. I've been using IFTTT for years and I have several hundred applets automating my digital life.

This post is about some of the most pointless applets, some of which I still use.

Used in conjunction with with the 'mute your phone at bedtime' applet. I quickly stopped using this one because it would always set the volume to 'very high'. I certainly miss the 'quiet times' feature of my Lumia 950.

This one is cool, but pointless. You get to store all of your tweets in a text file for, you know, reasons.

Daily pictures from NASA on your homescreen. I stopped using this one because I much prefer a simple solid colour background to my phone whereas the NASA pictures can make your phone look cluttered. Again, I miss my Lumia 950 for its live tiles and transparent icrons. The Microsoft launcher is a good replacement for Android, and you also get the Bing daily pictures on your homescreen if that's a thing you like.

Ok, so when an email arrived in my inbox, the LaMetric stopwatch would start time. Presumably I did this so I could time how long it took me to delete, I mean respond to import work messages. I soon found this an annoying distraction and turned it off. I can see how this might be a useful feature someday, again, you know, because of reasons.

Pocket is great. Here I can save the links people tweet directly into Pocket. I'm still using this one, the only problem is I don't actually think I every follow up on many of the links. My pocket is hundreds of articles deep and growing. A cull is needed soon.

This one is totally not a pointless applet at all. If an email arrives then the attachments are safely stored away. I don't need to trawl through days and days of junk in my inbox, the files are waiting for me on all my devices whenever I need them (along with a large proportion of junk).

It sounded good at first. Every new item on your Alexa shopping list automatically gets a new page in OneNote. What's the problem? I delete things from my shopping list when I have bought them, but not from OneNote. My OneNote now has eighteen pages called 'onions'.

This one is switched on, but I don't actually use the Alexa 'To-Do'. I use Wunderlist instead.

So, there's eight pointless applets but there are so many potential good ones waiting to be made. That's all from me, I've got a gutter to clear. If you want to stay and read more vaguely amusing tech stuff, then you might like to read about some clock programs, or fun stuff Cortana can do.

Amazon Echo and LaMetric Time

The Amazon Echo is a smart speaker system with digital assistant. She responds to the wake-up word 'Alexa' and her features include music streaming from Spotify, internet radio, shopping lists, alarms, timers, reminders, weather and news updates, as well as one-sided conversations. The sound quality is really very good, and I do love watching the glowing light spin as Alexa broods over my last response. It almost makes me forget that she is always listening to me.



Alexa also provides voice command access to other internet-enabled devices. Today I shall deal with  Echo and the LaMetric Time. LaMetric Time is a smart clock with internet radio. It features various apps including clock, radio, weather, sunrise/set times, moon phase, timers, stopwatch, message board, news update, etc. I dealt with all of the features of LaMetric in a previous post. Amazon echo can now be used as voice-control for LaMetric.


Once you are connected you can use your voice to tell Alexa to perform actions with the LaMetric time. For example:

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to start fifteen minute timer"

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to show clock"

"Alexa, tell LaMetric to wake me up at 7am"

Alexa, LaMetric and If This Then That

Both Alexa and LaMetric get even more interesting when you use the IFTTT app. IFTTT allows you to connect services together using 'applets', for example, if 'this' happens in one service, then 'that' happens in another. I use this service to pass notifications from my Android phone to the LaMetric device. In fact, at the last count I have several hundred IFTTT applets running various jobs in the background (including copying this blog post to Twitter, for example).

With these two applets running you can switch your internet radio off by simply leaving your house, place of work or hovel. When you come back again, the internet radio is ready for you. 

These applets provide you with buttons on your smart phone's home screen allowing you to control various parts of the LaMetric device at the touch of a button.

One of many applets for Alexa.

The Alexa App

Both the Alexa and LaMetric devices have apps for your Android device (sadly not Windows phone). These are required for access to various settings, such as clearing your shopping list, or cancelling alarms, but they also give you access to your device history.

The LaMetric app

Part of the LaMetric Time app showing just six of the apps you can get for it.

Quite apart from all of the awesome time apps that LaMetric Time can do for you, I mainly use my LaMetric for the internet radio. This app boasts over 3000 stations. Oh, and if you would prefer, you can use the LaMetric as a Bluetooth speaker for your phone.

Well that's it for now. More geeky tech stuff coming soon, or you may enjoy reading about that time I tried to use my BBC micro as my main computer, or when I had a virtual pet called Phil.

This clock is the Internet in a box

I recently bought a LaMetric Time.

What is it?

LaMetric Time is an Internet connected clock with a difference. I like to think of it as a smart watch in clock form. A smart watch for your desktop. It has just three buttons (forwards, backwards and 'action') and a cheerful LED display. Although it is a clock, it differs from your current wall or desk clock with one phrase: 'App store'.

The LED technology in the LaMetric Time defeats all ut my best attempts at capturing a good image on my cameras. See the links for better images. The display scrolls like those you see in airports or shops, or whilst waiting for your doctor's appointment. I can't stress enough how the display actually looks much better than shown in the image captured on my cheap Samsung camera above.

Setting up

Getting going with LaMetric is painless. You simply pair it with your Android device and point it at your WiFi connection. As with such devices there is a usually a software update, which it performed fairly quickly although there was no indication of how long this would take. Ultimately, it it not take long. The device picks up the correct time from time servers on the Internet and you are good to go.

LaMetric Time is a clock...durr!

As you would expect, the date and time are displayed in big bold chunky 8-bit-style characters. There are also apps for stop-clocks, calendars, timers, alarm clocks and count-downs. You can set LaMetric so that it displays just the time, or a single app, or you can have it cycle through all the apps. You can even customize for how long the apps display on screen.

One really nice feature is the sunset and sunrise time. I like having this information on my desktop. It also shows the number of hours of sunshine (important as we move from our vitamin-D deficient UK winter into the ever-so slightly brighter months of summer). You can also choose to show the moon phase, which keeps me happy, and could help avoid any unpleasant entanglements with werewolves. Again.

LaMetric Time is a Radio

Initially I was disappointed with the 5 preset radio stations my LaMetric came with. That was until I found the 'plus' button which lets you add from over 3000 Internet radio stations including those you also might expect to also get on FM radio. There is an audio-out socket at the back and I have mine hooked up to my stereo pre-amp. The sound quality is really rather good.

Message Board

This app turns your device into one of those scrolling display tickers you see in shop windows. If you feel like you need one of these in your life, then maybe you are a shop window, or you own one. I haven't found a use for this yet. I am not sure why I would want to display a scrolling message to myself, however I guess this app is for people you want the LaMetric to be a public-facing device.

The LaMetric companion app interface running on my Samsung GT-N5110. Just press the plus button for more apps!

All the other apps...

Although not supported quite as well as other smart products on the market, there is an app store full of all-sorts of stuff for you to personalise your desk clock. One of my favourites is the hugely pointless 'Coffee Counter', which tracks how many coffees have been consumed by LaMetric users (actually it keeps track of how many times someone has pressed the action button whilst using the app, but close enough). Somehow this helps you feel closer to other coffee drinkers.

The Asteroid Today app shows you how close we as a planet came to a collective inhalation today. Phew. Most of them miss.

Scrolling through the apps in the app store I can see dozens of apps both for productivity and entertainment: News headlines, motivational quotes, Facebook fan counters, Chuck Norris jokes, London Underground status and Weather to name just a few.

Furthermore you can connect your LaMetric time to other Internet of Things such as the Amazon Echo or Hue lights. Or you may just wish to use it to stream music from your phone through the Bluetooth speakers.

The really cool part.

LaMetric gets really interesting when you connect it to your IFTTT account. If you didn't know, IFTTT lets you connect all your favourite online services (well, perhaps not all of them, but more are arriving all the time).

With IFTTT you can create 'applets' or 'recipes'. Litterally, if this happens, then that should happen. There are two ways this can play with your LaMetric. This first is so you can receive notifications on your LaMetric in the form of a notification sound, icon and short message, and the other is through the IFTTT indicator app. This leaves a permanent message appearing on your device (until the next message appears). You can also use your LaMetric device as an IFTTT 'do' button, should you so desire.

I have found it most useful to receive notifications whenever new YouTube videos have been uploaded onto my favourite channels. I wouldn't want to miss the next Lindybeige.

I have other applets set up to inform me of new tweets, mentions or followers on Twitter and other social media including Yo. I get a notification whenever the International Space station passes overhead along with news and weather from Mars. I even have a notification telling me when my bedtime is (it was twenty minutes ago).

In fact, there really is no end to what you can do with your LaMetric once you have IFTTT working with it. I suggest you head over and buy one now. They really are an awesome tech toys.

Don't believe me? Perhaps this video from Techmoan will be of interest to you.



Or, perhaps you would listen to the Elders of the Internet?


That's all from me for today. +1 geek experience point for LaMetric Time (even though the calendar app does get the date format wrong!)

PS. If you enjoyed this post, then you might like my RSS news ticker for Raspberry Pi.