I was asked today why I haven’t written anything lately about technology. Truth is, I haven’t found that much lately to get excited enough to write about.

Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m still loving things like the iPhone 4S whose Siri voice recognition technology was a hilarious plot line in last Thursday night’s “Big Bang Theory”. (Wonder how much Apple loved that primetime exposure?) In fact it was my iPhone that led me to my latest technology acquisition, which turned out to have a unforeseen flaw.

I’ve been looking for some time for a speaker dock for my iPhone and my iPad, which are how I carry most of my music collection these days. A speaker dock, as the name suggests, is a base station for these devices that allows one to charge them and play their audio through an amplifier and stereo speakers.

They come in all kinds of styles and prices, as you might guess. One of the nicest is made by the high end outfit of Bang Olufsen, whose Beosound 8 unit looks like it should be in the Modern Museum of Art and has audiophile quality sound. It also has a price tag to match, coming in at about a thousand bucks.

Looking for something a little more reasonable, I’ve had my eye on a unit from the Philips brand called Fidelio. The Fidelio 3510 unit has nice styling and when its price dropped from $150 down to $99 at the local Target, I pulled the trigger and picked one up. The unit has a couple of key features I wanted, including the ability to run on four double-A batteries or plug into the wall via an included AC adaptor. It features the ability to stream audio from any Bluetooth equipped device, and It also can hook up to a computer via a USB port to allow for syncs of your iPhone, iPod or iPad.

It’s that last thing that proved to be the Fidelio’s downfall. Despite producing really good sound from my iPhone when docked or via Bluetooth (which connected very easily by the way) the problem arose when I tried to dock my iPad2 to the unit. Even though the box of the unit shows an iPad hooked up to it, getting the iPad2 properly docked to the Fidelio was an experience in frustration. At one point I thought I was going to break off the connector at the bottom of the iPad and when I finally got it to “seat” properly on that connector–there was no sound to be had from the iPad2.

Checking the online reviews–something I usually do BEFORE making a purchase, and you certainly should as well–I found that I wasn’t alone. CNet.com found the same issue with the Fidelio 3510, and the Philips online forum had some unhappy customers who had the same experience, but with no real solution as to what to do about the problem.

Alas Fidelio, you showed such promise. But we will have to part, as you will be heading back to the Target shortly.

And my quest for the perfect speaker dock for all of my i-devices (that won’t break my wallet to buy) — will continue.

One of the biggest decisions that the television network with each year’s Super Bowl game has to make is “What program do we want to showcase right after the game, which will probably have the largest viewing audience of any show this year?”

Obviously this is a “golden opportunity” to launch a new show, or give a boost to a show that maybe could use some fresh eyes on it. It is, to put it mildly, some primo real estate on the primetime schedule.

This year, NBC has the Super Bowl (that would be Super Bowl XLVI, for those of you learning your Roman numerals) and they have made the decision that the big game audience will be treated to the season’s debut of “The Voice” after the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. In case you haven’t caught it, “The Voice” is a twist on the “American Idol” phenomenon of holding a national singing competition as a reality television show. What “The Voice” does differently than “Idol” is that the judges do their evaluation while their backs are turned to the person doing the singing. When one of the judges wants to “select” a singer for their “team”, they dramatically push a big red button and then the judge’s chairs turn around so they can face the person belting out the tune.

It’s kind of an odd coincidence, because way back in the day, before their was television–NBC radio was owned by RCA, the Radio Corporation of America. RCA also owned a record label called RCA Victor, which was the descendant of The Victor Talking Machine Company. That company had been the largest in the world that made phonograph machines. Famous for the “Victrola” as it called its phonograph machine of the day, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and in turn RCA Victor records, used an unusual trademark–a dog staring in the large horn-like speaker of “the Victrola” machine. The image was from a famous 1898 painting, where the dog–named “Nipper”–was fooled into believing that an early phonograph machine was so accurately reproducing “His Master’s Voice” that the dog was fooled into staring at the machine.

This rather long preamble is to point out, that the sounds we humans make when we communicate, our voice, is a much more powerful thing than what is simply celebrated by the aforementioned television show that purports to celebrate “The Voice.” The beauty of a voice is not just when a person sings, but really much more the melody that each person creates by the simple act of air passing over the vocal cords and through the larynx. From the screams of a small child in the supermarket to the sultry whispers of a beautiful woman in the ear of the object of her affections, and to every person’s voice in between, the musical sound that is the human voice comes in an infinite variety of tones, pitches and of course–volumes.

I’ve been in love with voices since a very early age.

While not blessed with a great singing voice, I’ve always tried to make my speaking voice clear and distinctive. Part of that is because I wanted to be a radio announcer from a very young age. I was able to attain that dream at the ripe old age of sixteen, while still in high school. Fortunately, radio stations have great technology that can make even a sixteen year old sound pretty phenomenal when on the air.

Even so, I realized that my voice would not be my living forever and I moved into being part of the broadcasting business that wasn’t in front of the microphones or cameras before I reached my twenties. But I’ve never stopped loving the sound of voices. Speaking, singing, laughing, crying, doing whatever. Hearing people communicate their thoughts, their emotions, their passions, always catches my ear.

So go ahead Adam, Blake, Cee Lo and Christina. You judge who has “The Voice” when it comes to singing.

I will be enjoying all of the various voices that make up the soundtrack of living. They are my symphony.