Listening to BBC Sounds in the garden

[Anastasius]

My wife is a keen gardener and would like to be able to browse BBC Sounds to find programmes to Listen Again. Does such a beast exist? I don't think so-called Internet radios will do this as my understanding is they only stream live internet radio stations.

TIA

[french frank]

All a mystery to me (see passim ). Nick Armstrong listens on his mobile. Can't you get on demand programmes on that? Or is it the browsing that's difficult?

[gradus]

I may be misunderstanding the point of the question but I often listen 'in the garden ' to recorded programmes via Sounds on my android phone and hence to a Bluetooth speaker.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very easy ! The simplest way would be to use a Bluetooth link from the BBC sounds app on a mobile phone or tablet to a portable Bluetooth speaker. Bose make very good quality ones. Browsing is pretty easy as well.

PS looks like Gradus came to the same conclusion but more speedily !

PPS to avoid data charges the mobile needs to wireless link to your internet router unless you have a big mobile data allowance.

[teamsaint]

Very easy ! The simplest way would be to use a Bluetooth link from the BBC sounds app on a mobile phone or tablet to a portable Bluetooth speaker. Bose make very good quality ones. Browsing is pretty easy as well.

PS looks like Gradus came to the same conclusion but more speedily !

PPS to avoid data charges the mobile needs to wireless link to your internet router unless you have a big mobile data allowance.

Or download a few progs via wifi before pulling on the old gardening gloves ?
or have I missed the point ?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Or download a few progs via wifi before pulling on the old gardening gloves ?
or have I missed the point ?

The key word was “browse” which made me think this was an in-garden experience.

[Nick Armstrong]

All a mystery to me (see passim ). Nick Armstrong listens on his mobile. Can't you get on demand programmes on that?

Yes I pre-download the programmes I want to listen to and then they can be listened to on the move outside (with headphones/ear buds etc etc) without regard to vagaries of signal

[teamsaint]

The key word was “browse” which made me think this was an in-garden experience.

Oh yeah. But who can browse while gardening? Mrs Anastasius, is one answer, I suppose .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sorry to be the party pooper here, but playing audio in the garden through anything other than headphones is somewhat antisocial.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sorry to be the party pooper here, but playing audio in the garden through anything other than headphones is somewhat antisocial.

(Maybe Anastasius’s garden is the size of a small county, though… )

[Nick Armstrong]

The key word was “browse” which made me think this was an in-garden experience.

I can browse my downloads in the middle of Hyde Park - and sometimes do!

Just demands a bit of forward planning, that’s all - which is necessary these days anyway if one wants to listen to Radio 3 and retain one’s sanity!

[oddoneout]

Sorry to be the party pooper here, but playing audio in the garden through anything other than headphones is somewhat antisocial.

Many years ago my allotment neighbour used to set his transistor up on a small wooden stool to listen to while he worked. Trouble was his hearing wasn't that good(industry related damage from his job) so I had no choice but to hear it as well, at volume, which got a bit wearing after a couple of hours. The only slight positive was that he favoured the BBC local radio station, rather than a pop channel so at least there was some variety of content. My preference was for birdsong and conversation with other plotholders. At least now the advent of devices and in-ear options reduces such compulsory listening - in theory; one of my next door neighbours still tends to do a version of the transistor approach, using her phone, but at least the volume is kept low.

[Anastasius]

Many thanks to all the suggestions.

As context Mrs A is very bright and competent. But she does have an aversion to learning anything to do with IT and tech if she doesn't need to. So she remains resolutely uninterested in learning how to select text, to copy, to paste, use bookmarks. She will painstakingly re-enter the URL for a website that she's recently visited, totally ignoring the fact that the browser has remembered and is offering it to her and that she needs to do is hit return. I will explain these to her but she remains happy in the way that she does things. When she wants toshow me something on her computer, it is for me an exercise in frustration.

And this aversion to tech extends to her (lack of) use of her smartphone. She has zero interest in learning how to find stuff she might want to listen to. She will do it on her iMac in the kitchen.

At the moment she takes her very elderly battery radio outside and it des her proud. I've repaired it many times and even have a spare loudspeaker as the sound quality for its size is excellent. But it is just the one item. The thought of taking out two items (mobile phone .....see comment above...and speaker) is out of the question. "I'm moving around a lot".

And, as Nick has alluded to, living where we do, the only 'people' to be annoyed are sheep.

My use of the word 'browse' was misleading and apologies for that. She is very organised, will go through the Radio Times tearing out programmes that she might want to listen to at some time but not in real-time. So the 'browse' is only ever used to navigate to the programme in BBC Sounds.

Downloading isn't an option simply because of all the tech 'knowledge' involved.

Someone has suggested Alexa and that is an avenue to pursue although I suspect asking Alexa to play Sliced Bread on Deodorants is beyond its capabilities.

We shall have to see.

Once again to all, my thanks.

[Andrew Slater]

My low-tech solution would be to connect the spare loudspeaker with a long cable back to the house. Admittedly it could be a nuisance when the programme ends and a trip back inside is needed to select the next one!

[Ein Heldenleben]

I was wondering whether , if Mrs A is happy with her iMac , you simply blue tooth from that. I think the range is bigger than you might expect . I once paired with a friends phone in an adjacent HST rail carriage.