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July 27, 2010
HP unmasks music with Dr Dre
(* Source: Giles Fitzgerald *)
Dr. Dre does his very best to look like an old school Cylon in this latest promo for Hewlett Packard’s continuing collaboration with the producer. Either that or that’s a fairly heavy-duty cycling mask.
The ad sees Dre in a cybernetic music studio in the future embedding Beats technology chips into the very heart of HP’s products, while the track ‘Detox’ from the new Album by Dr Dre – which seems to be in perpetual sate of pre-release – runs in the background.
The commercial is part of an ongoing partnership between the musician and the technology company on the HP Envy Laptop – a device that HP refers to as the “first laptop made for music”. HP’s sell here is that the added Beats enhancement will enable users to hear the music the way the artist intended. This is a clear swipe at Apple’s dominance of the music market and the increasing pressure the brand is putting on laptop manufacturers with the iPad.
In the age of MP3, where sound quality is already diminished, its questionable whether this will lure in the average consumer. However, the creative partnership is one that is at least pushing the accepted boundaries of quality when it comes to entertainment and what it means to endorse a product.
July 21, 2010
MOG Launches All-You-Can-Eat Music Service For iPhone And Android
(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)
After months of waiting, it’s finally here. Streaming music service MOG
has launched its mobile applications for Android and iPhone, giving subscribers unlimited access to its library of 8 million songs, which can be streamed or downloaded over both 3G and WiFi. If you listen to a lot of music, or just like being able to listen to music on-demand without having to sync to your PC, this is definitely worth checking out. Access to the mobile service costs $9.99 a month, but MOG is offering free 3-day trials when you download the apps (no credit card is required).
When MOG launched its All Access music service back in December, we gave it a rave review, but it was missing one key feature: mobile. These applications bring all of the functionality of the desktop service and they do it one better, by allowing you to store as many songs and albums as you’d like to your phone’s storage for offline access.
Navigating the application should come naturally to anyone who has used the iPhone’s music player (and it’s actually a big step up over the music player that comes stock on Android). After first firing up the app, the first feature you’ll want to try is search. You’ll find the regular options here, like searching by artist and song, but there’s also an option for Playlists, which allow you to search through user-curated playlists created by MOG’s large community of music fans. This is part of a recurring theme in the application: discovery, which is important if you’re keen on tapping into the service’s broad music library. The main navigation screen also includes a list of New Releases, top songs and albums across the service, and a collection of songs handpicked by MOG’s editors on a daily basis.
MOG really shines when it comes to actually getting the music you want to hear onto your phone. When you find a song or album you like, you have two options: you can stream it (just tap the song or album title), or you can download it and store it locally. Next to each song and album is an arrow pointing downward; hit that, and MOG will start downloading the files the background (it’s really nice to be able to download an entire album or playlist in one tap).
More here
July 12, 2010
10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks
(* Source: Amy Mae Elliot *)
With Facebook’s ever-changing layout, and the fact that other social sites are encroaching on its real-time update strangle-hold, it’s easy to forget that there are some pretty nifty tricks you can pull using your humble Facebook status.
We’ve pulled together 10 great how-to tips that will help you get the most out of your status update, from official features to apps, Easter eggs, jokes and more.
Perfect for newer Facebook users, or anyone who is looking for a refresher, read on and let us know the ones you like in the comments below.
1. HOW TO: Add a Dislike Option to Your Status Update
“Like” buttons are everywhere on Facebook, and they’re everywhere on the web. But what if you want to update your status or share something that your friends can “dislike?” We know, your friends can choose to “comment” on your post, but where’s the fun in that?
The clever Status Magic Facebook app can add a dislike button to any status updates posted via the app. And if you wanted to really mix it up you can actually customize the second emotion to anything, such as “love,” “hate,” “disagree” or even “LOLs.”
2. HOW TO: Hide Status Updates From Certain People
Using Facebook’s general privacy settings (find these by hitting “account” on the top right of a Facebook page) you can select whether everyone, just friends or friends of friends can see your status updates. However, there is a way to narrow those options down even further.
You can select specific friend lists to see your status (relevant for work, special interest groups, etc.) or even individual people by name, which is useful for anyone organizing a surprise party.
To take advantage of these options, click the padlock icon just below your “what’s on your mind” box on your wall and a drop down menu should appear. Selecting “customize” will bring up more options such as “make this visible to” and “hide from” with the option to make your selection a default.
3. HOW TO: Pre-Schedule Status Updates
While SocialOomph, Sendible and HootSuite (
) offer the same kind of service, the simplest way to schedule Facebook status updates is by using the easy, free Later Bro service.
Just sign in with Facebook Connect, select your time zone, type in what it is you’d like to say, set the calendar and clock to when you’d like to say it, and presto!
4. HOW TO: Tag People in Your Status Updates
This was quite a big deal when it was announced this past September, but from the amount of searches on the topic “how can I make someone’s name go blue in a Facebook status?” it seems it’s not universally known.
To mention someone in a status update just type “@” (a la Twitter (
)) in the status bar and start typing their name as it appears on Facebook. An auto-generated list will then come up with people in your social circle whose name starts with the letters you’ve typed. The feature also works with pages, brands, events and companies.
Hit the name you want, complete the update, click share and the name will become a hyperlink (you won’t see the @ symbol) and will appear in blue text.
5. HOW TO: Add Symbols to Your Facebook Status
Although there are plenty of emoticons that work with Facebook Chat, typing “:)” into Facebook’s status bar will not magically transform into a smiley yellow face. In fact, the only symbol you can create in a Facebook status update through the shortcut keys is a ♥, by typing “<3."
While this won't bother many Facebook users, others more used to punctuating their missives can copy and paste web-happy, universal symbols into the box, as you can see in the screengrab above.
PC users can also access some symbols by hitting “alt” + various number combinations (on a numerical keypad). So, while smileys are yet to hit Facebook statuses, you can annoy or amuse your buddies with symbols right now.
6. HOW TO: Turn Your Status Updates Into a Word Cloud
There’s a really fun way to visualize anyone’s status updates (even an entire country’s) as a word cloud. The Status Analyzer 3D app will look at what it is you’ve been chatting about lately and generate a list, and then a pretty, colorful, animated cloud as pictured above.
You can share the results with others on the social networking site by posting it to your friends’ walls or by adding it to your profile.
7. HOW TO: Have Fun With Facebook’s Humorous Language Options
While you can always change your setting into more sensible alternative languages, the site offers a couple of fun linguistic Easter eggs.
You can chose to have Facebook display upside down English, or, for anyone feeling a little salty, in “pirate.” Pirate essentially turns your status into your “plank,” your attachments into “loot” and instead of “share” it offers the option to “blabber t’ yer mates.”
Sadly, anything you type in the status bar won’t be upside down, or pirate-y. But with the use of some external sites you can achieve the same effect.
TypeUpsideDown.com and UpsideDownText.com are just two examples of sites that can flip your text, while the Talk Like a Pirate Day site can help you with your pirate translations.
8. HOW TO: See Status Updates From Around the World
If you want to get a glimpse of the thoughts of Facebook users from around the world’s, head over to OpenBook.
Created by three San Fran web developers with a serious privacy message in mind, the site aggregates the status updates of everyone whose privacy levels are set to “everyone.”
You can narrow your searchable results down by gender and keywords to find out what people are saying about a certain topic. Or you can just browse the recent searches.
9. HOW TO: See Your Status Update Stats
Have you ever wondered how many times you have updated your status on Facebook? The Facebook app Status Statistics, can tell you this and more.
The app analyzes your updates and gives you a tidy list of how many you’ve written, the average word count and how many times a day you post. In addition, it generates a graph that shows you what time of day or what days of the week you normally update.
Old statuses are also searchable via the app, so you can find that witty retort you made back in November 2009 without having to scroll back through your history.
10. HOW TO: Play a Trick On Your Friends in Your Status Update
We have a funny one to end on — a way to play an amusing trick on your Facebook buddies.
This clever link “http://facebook.com/profile.php?=73322363″ looks like it could be a URL for anyone’s Facebook profile, actually takes anyone logged into Facebook to their own profile page.
If you try it out, be sure to remove the link preview that Facebook auto-ads. Have fun, and don’t be too mea
July 07, 2010
LeBron James Surpasses 150,000 Twitter Followers in 7 Hours
(* Source: Ben Parr *)
His Majesty cannot be stopped, at least on Twitter. In just six hours, NBA superstar LeBron James’ Twitter account has surpassed 150,000 followers, outpacing the growth of other famous figures on Twitter, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
This morning, New Orleans Hornets’ point guard Chris Paul tweeted that James had joined Twitter under the username @KingJames. Since then, James has been amassing followers, and there have been countless stories and tweets about the arrival of the NBA’s biggest star to the Twitterverse.
James has been the center of the sports universe for the last week due to NBA free agency: any day now, he will decide where he will play next season. Some even speculated that he joined Twitter just so he could announce his decision through the microblogging network, but his publicist has shot down that possibility.
It took just eight hours for Bill Gates to reach 100,000 followers, but James has already blown past that mark. If his rapid rise on Twitter is any indication, LeBron James could soon become one of Twitter’s most popular users.
July 05, 2010
The Hipster Fashion Cycle
(* Source: PSFK *)
From Flavorwire, and designed by Emily Miethner, this colorful illustration charts what companies like Urban Outfitters have known for awhile: today’s painfully lame trends are tomorrows cutting edge fashion. For example, in the platform-ridden mid 90’s, nothing seemed more outdated than a pair of white keds- but more then 10 years later — voila, the hottest item for spring/summer. However, one item we can be almost certain will never come back in style? The wide legged JNCO’s and Kikwears of 96,97, and 98- for some reason those seem to exist in a seperate sphere of their own- sure to never be touched by either hipster anthropologists nor fashion enthusiasts for years to come. So what items do you think are do back for a comeback some time soon?
I dig the iRig
(* Source: Steve Donovan *)
Steve says...
Anybody out there remember the Rockman? It was this little personal guitar amplifier, about the size of a Sony Walkman (adding “man” to anything portable was all the rage in the 80s, you know).The Rockman let you play distorted guitar through headphones and it curiously made everything you played sound like BOSTON.
The AmpliTube iRig combo for the iPhone is kind of like the Rockman except WAY cooler. WAY, WAY, WAY cooler. We first told you about it a couple of weeks ago. I finally got my hands on one and while it’s been reviewed once or twice since that time, I thought I’d give you my view on it anyway since it ships this week – July 6 to be exact.
First lets talk about the iRig dongle. What is it? The iRig is a special connector that has an input for a 1/4 mono guitar cord as well as a headphone output jack. It showed up in the mail a few days ago and I was immediately impressed by the solidness of it. It’s still plastic, but the cable cover and coupling are pretty solid. It feels like you could pull on it pretty hard, or it could get ripped out of the iPhone many times and would not be damaged. That’s pretty much all it does; it connects the instrument to the iPhone.
AmpliTube is the amplifier modeling software that runs on the iPhone. It looks and sounds as good as you could expect for something this small and portable. The interface design is pretty great. Seeing all the stomp-boxes on your iPhone screen, complete with working LEDs and tactile knobs and controls, is a fun and natural way to conceptualize the effects. The tones they produce are pretty realistic too. Heck, just having a guitar tuner on board is a nice feature to note.
The software also lets you transfer songs to the app over wifi from any host computer on that wifi network. Once you transfer a song over, you can play along or set sections to loop. The loop triggering is pretty intuitive and works well.
Come to think of it, if I had to sum up the AmpliTube iRig combo in one word, that would be the word I would choose – intuitive. You don’t have to read one instruction manual or download a single PDF to figure out how to use AmpliTube for iPhone. Just plug your guitar or bass in and start fiddling with it. In no time you will have some serious guitar fuzz flowing past your little eardrums.
Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning
(* Source: Steve Cheney *)
Editor’s note: Guest author Steve Cheney 
is an entrepreneur and formerly an engineer & programmer specializing in web and mobile technologies. His last guest post was on Why Mobile Innovation Is Blowing Away PCs
Steve says...
The success of iPhone 4 has been astonishing to witness, despite the antenna issues, proving once again that Apple has a unparalleled ability to differentiate around design and integration, not simply “features.”
Perhaps the best example of this so far is FaceTime, Apple’s take on video-calling. FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly, because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t do this.
Apple eliminated this friction by innovating at the confluence of hardware and software—hit one button mid-call and the feature just works. It really is amazing (yes, I am channeling Steve Jobs).
But FaceTime is just a teaser of Apple’s deep integration capabilities. Below the surface of hardware / software, Apple is on the cusp of differentiating on a much deeper level, a result of its strategy to vertically integrate at the component level. The advantages of integrating so deeply are subtle but incredibly powerful.
Feature Bloat in Components Benefits Apple:
I recently discussed why innovation in mobile is happening at an unprecedented pace. One primary driver is incredible component innovation.
But this rapid innovation—which is good overall—causes a negative byproduct: “feature bloat.” The HTC EVO, which crams in 4G wireless, epitomizes this best (sorry, but mobile 4G is not ready for primetime, and I firmly believe Apple won’t even include it on next year’s iPhone 5).
The temptation for companies to differentiate via features is a virtuous cycle: component vendors (Broadcom, TI, Qualcomm) compete aggressively based on integration levels. Handset OEMs like HTC push vendors to release features prematurely, and they make component decisions based on availability of bleeding edge (but often buggy) technology.
This leads to a “kitchen sink” mentality, which conflicts with customer development frameworks, ironically driving a maximum feature set. Pressure from handset OEMs is a driver, but component vendors also tend to use competitive analysis to shape their marketing requirements. Steve Blank made some excellent insights into why this leads to feature bloat. The poor reviews of the HTC EVO are proof that—though alluring—additional features don’t always speak to consumers. Especially when they kill your battery overnight.
Apple thinks much differently about adding features. While the HTCs of the world “differentiate” blindly based on available technology, Apple innovates only when it can create a superior, well-integrated user experience.
Right now this virtuous cycle of feature bloat is accelerating in system-on-chip (SoC) development for the reasons I outlined above. And Apple is poised to sidestep it by vertically integrating and producing chips which mirror its minimalist product strategy.
Supply-Chain Transparency is an Enormous Unspoken Benefit for Apple:
Perhaps even more powerful is an unspoken advantage afforded to Apple’s SoC designers: vertical integration gives them explicit knowledge of what’s happening across the entire component ecosystem and value-chain.
How? Every component vendor in the world visits Cupertino to share its “secret” roadmap—despite the fact that Apple now competes in SoC development. The dangling carrot of an Apple design win simply outweighs any aversion to sharing. This transparency from other chip makers is extremely powerful, since handset OEMs plan several generations out (e.g. Apple is undoubtedly in concept stages with iPhone 6 and the A6).
Apple can learn Broadcom’s chip plans and mull over whether to bring portions of the digital logic related to GPS and WiFi on to the A6. New technologies like NFC for payments—bring in-house or purchase discrete? There are dozens of permutations, each with design challenges, benefits, and risks.
By extracting data from suppliers, Apple’s chip team has a feedback loop into product planning. All of this collective wisdom adds up, helping Apple decide what to roll-up, buy, license, or outsource. Imagine seeing your competition’s entire feature roadmap, and then planning your own SoC strategy. It’s like seeing your neighbor’s wife naked, and deciding afterward whether you’re interested, even though you’re already married.
Cisco has used a similar vertical integration strategy to its benefit in the enterprise for many years (Broadcom and Marvell pitch Ethernet fabrics despite the fact that Cisco builds its own switch chips). But in mobile, Apple is the only company who owns all three elements of the value-chain—hardware, software and chip components (outside of Samsung). Nokia divested its component division to STMicro, and Ericsson and Motorola spun off theirs as well.
As multicore ARM-based chips accelerate, and as software / hardware integration becomes more of a differentiator, Apple engineering teams will out-innovate competitors at the intersection of these three levels (again, antenna issues aside). It’s much more difficult for Google, Motorola, and others to cross-pollinate information from their own independent silos.
In tomorrow’s smartphone wars, this transparency into the entire mobile value-chain will give Apple an incredibly powerful advantage. This strategic implication wasn’t lost on Steve Jobs when he made the decision to vertically integrate and compete with the giants in the semiconductor world.
Fact is, Apple is a company run by brilliant strategists and user experience designers, not engineers. They know that deep component, hardware, and software integration gives Apple an enduring advantage as mobile platforms evolve. Which is why Apple will undoubtedly produce more devices and features that become huge hits like iPhone 4 and FaceTime.