Amazon releases cloud music player… for US ears only

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

I was genuinely excited when I woke up this morning to discover Amazon had finally launched a cloud-based music service.

I’d now be able to connect to the cloud with my HTC Desire, hook up to all my tunes, and then buy more songs when out and about via the Amazon MP3 player. I went online and ordered my 5GB Amazon Cloud Drive and uploaded some songs (for whatever reason it took 3 hours to upload around 3GB of music – not massively impressive…).

Then I discovered the smartphone-to-cloud capability was only available in the US. My dreams were shattered into tiny shards of pain and I put my headphones over my ears and went back to blasting out some tunes in my inconsolable, cloudless depression.

Now, considering most albums are actually released here a few days before the US, how come we have to wait longer for this?

In fact, if cloud computing is meant to make access to files super fast and insanely easy, and if data can be delivered from anywhere over the cloud, why the Dickens can’t the UK and elsewhere get hold of this service from today? Are we not good enough guinea pigs for you Amazon? You must have enough storage space to accommodate our musical needs…

And I thought the tech world understood that my generation was full of impatient brats like myself, so why aren’t they catering to my every demand? I want it and I want it now, so deliver it unto me posthaste.

Perhaps others will pip Amazon to the post in making cloud-based music services available to the world…

Almost all of my music is stored on Apple software/hardware. Now, given how much Apple hates being behind competitors, I’d hope Steve Jobs and Co will have a cloud-based music depository ready soon. And I’d hope they’d make it available in the UK straightaway, not treat us like unwanted relatives and keep us waiting.

Surely the likes of Google and Facebook are having a look at what they can do in this arena as well. Even BT are rumoured to be bringing out a music streaming service, although that’s a slightly different kettle of fish.

If tech behemoths like these all get on board, the cloud might prove to be the chimera that is the ’saviour of the music industry’ (that’s if the industry is actually dying – another question entirely). It will certainly change things anyway. Let’s just hope everyone has the foresight to do things globally now, rather than acting in an insular fashion.

iPad stolen… time for an iPad 2?

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Well what a start to the weekend – my iPad is stolen from my bag as I enjoy a well earned drink after work – and the day before the iPad 2 goes on sale! What a joke.

Somehow the sneaky so-and-so managed to get into may bag, which was never more than five metres away from me, open it, take the iPad (which I also referred to as my best friend) and then zip the rucksack up again.

So, so infuriating. To whoever took it – you are an awful person. Rethink your life. To myself – never let anything valuable out of your sight in central London and lose your faith in the inherent goodness of people – it’s a fallacy. To my parents who bought me the iPad, I’m sorry… it wasn’t my fault, blame society.

Thankfully, there wasn’t any important data or work on there, but it’s still massively upsetting. Losing it has proven to me how much I valued the iPad with all its wonderful apps and speedy browsing – I wouldn’t be that bothered if my Android phone went missing. It’s not worth that much for starters.

Anyway, as my ire simmers down, I’ve started to think about what to do now. First off, I’ll have to see if my insurance will cover it. If so, great – I might be able to afford a new iPad. If not, then I’ll have to start saving. Either way, I’m getting an iPad again.

I certainly won’t be looking at buying any other tablet – they all look fairly inferior. The only contender that looks like it could get close is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9-inch, but it still won’t have the delights of iOS 4.3.

Admittedly, I wouldn’t have paid for an iPad 2 if my original one hadn’t gone missing – now I’ll just have to. In the meantime, I’ll have to cope with real books and PC/console games. It’s a hard life.

Buy Antelope to sound like a Dalek

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

We’ve just moved offices. Now instead of the wall 50 feet away, opposite my window, I have a view of a car’s windscreen, parked 4 feet from my desk. At least I can see more of the sky but perhaps too much as the floor-to-ceiling window turns the office into a greenhouse. Which is the complete opposite of our old office, suspended above the car park and with virtually no insulation top or bottom the central heating ran all year. But we had a pretty good ISDN-based telephone system and reasonable broadband at about 7 or 8Mbits down and 1Mbits up. (more…)

iPad 2: An iPad 1 owner’s verdict

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

So I happen to own an iPad. In about three weeks or so it will be out of date thanks to the arrival of the iPad 2.

Should I be upset about this or should I support Apple and its continuing development of its hardware into ever more shiny, more powerful bundles of joy? Well, because of what Apple announced during its much-hyped event in San Francisco, I’m not too depressed. In fact, I’m a little non-plussed.

This is largely because I’ll be able to get what excited me most about Steve Jobs’ revelations from iOS 4.3. From the additional number of titles coming to iBooks via Random House, to the additional pieces of software like GarageBand and iMovie which I can use for work and play alike, iOS 4.3 looks pretty splendid.

OK, I’m a little jealous about the iPad 2’s enhanced graphics (nine times better) and the processor (twice as fast), and maybe a tad upset I won’t have cameras to make my face look even more ridiculous on Photo Booth, but outside of that there was nothing too mind-blowing to send me into fits of rage at my antiquated iPad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d switch to an iPad 2 without a moment’s thought and it’s another beautiful piece of kit from Apple. I’m fairly certain it’ll be superior to any other tablet to come out this year. But, and this was probably expected, the iPad 2 announcement didn’t inspire the same reaction as the initial iPad introduction did.

Another slight disappointment was that Jobs didn’t really go in-depth to answer questions surrounding the iPad’s business capabilities – it would have been great to have had a fuller explanation about why the iPad is as good inside corporations as it is outside. I’ve used my iPad for work and it’s absolutely fine – almost as effective as my laptop and definitely less cumbersome.

Well, at least Marc Benioff joined in to give his backing to the device. The Salesforce boss congratulated Apple on the release of its latest baby via Twitter and was even included on one of the promotional videos saying iPads and tablets were the business devices of the future. To have the backing of an enterprise-focused man like Benioff is probably enough to prove the newest iPad is good enough for plenty of organisations.

For now, though, I’m happy enough with the iPad original and won’t be chucking it out of the office window like some new-age rockstar. Neither will I be running out and picking up an iPad 2 with froth pouring from my mouth – largely because it wouldn’t be worth spending half my monthly wages on.

Admittedly, if I were a rich man, it’d be in my hands not too long after release. But to me, a big iPad fan, this hints that anyone not convinced by the original will not be astounded by this latest iteration.

Massive Amounts of Big Language Abuse

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

IT and the US are both major sources of corruption – of the English Language at least. HP has just acquired Vertica
http://www.vertica.com/

and I was going to blog of the IT business implications but can only get as afar as
“Customers Can Analyze Massive Amounts of Big Data at Speed and Scale”

Where else could you read “Massive Amounts of Big Data”? You only have to look further down the page before you hit a “monetizing”. Eugh!

Anyway, hopefully this is part of HP’s commitment to high value, high return software rather than low margin hardware.

Shock of the New

Monday, February 14th, 2011

A sunny seaside Saturday, what else is there to do but stroll round the shops and browsing? This time, in an emporium of electronics where for the first time we see some of the many tablets on the market.

(more…)

Echoing a duck’s quack over TCP

Friday, January 28th, 2011

It is a well established urban myth that a duck’s quack doesn’t echo – and when I say myth I mean dingo kidneys

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/birds/p/Ducks-Quack-Echo.htm

This has nothing to do with a Telnet or TCP echo which is a useful way of testing comms . Open a link to the “echo port” and whatever you send is echoed back – even a quack. Linux normally has an echo server built in – just connect to your Linux host on port 7. For windows you’ll need to run a server, there are plenty of freebies about, it is a nice app to write to test your socket handling!

The one I use is here http://www.lenholgate.com/blog/2005/11/simple-echo-servers.html
I run D01-EchoServer-1.0.exe -port=23
to give me a standard Telnet port for testing Telnet connections.

This is the TCP/IP equivalent of a loop back connector for serial comms.

Windows comes with a simple terminal app (Accessories, Communications Hyper Terminal but I believe it is it is an optional install). Start your echo server, start hyper terminal, pick a name and select TCP/IP from the “Connect using” drop down and enter your host name (if you’re unsure type ipconfig on your host and use the IP address).

Wow, you get to see what you type sent back to you. Not that exciting but if you’re learning about TCP/IP or need to test some comms it might be useful…

Don’t throw tablet-sized rocks when you live in a glass greenhouse

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Toshiba is the latest computer manufacturer trying to muscle its way into the potentially huge tablet market. The Japanese giant has previewed an Android 3.0-based tablet with specifications very similar to those of the Motorola Xoom. Just as interesting as the actual product itself though, is the website promoting it, www.thetoshibatablet.com .

If you visit the site on a laptop or desktop computer with Adobe Flash Player installed, you get the usual specs, interactive graphics, photos and other information you’d expect from a product website. But what happens if you visit the site from a mobile device without Flash, such as an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch? You see the following page at thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/apple.html:

Slightly smug in tone, but nonetheless true for an iPhone or iPad visiting a Flash-dependent website. But not this particular Toshiba site if you remove the apple.html part of the address and reload. You then you get a mobile-optimised version of the site with almost all the information and photos from the full Flash site:

Although this mobile-optimised Flash-less site has now been taken down, it does undermine Toshiba’s smugly-made point about the lack of Flash on Apple’s iOS devices.

Although the iPad has its fair share of flaws, it’s still a pleasure to use and it has the advantage of actually being widely available. Unlike Toshiba’s as yet unreleased Android 3.0 tablet. Or the Libretto W100, Toshiba’s dual-screen Windows 7 tablet currently in very limited distribution. Or the Folio 100, Toshiba’s first attempt at an Android tablet which was hastily and mysteriously recalled shortly following its launch just before Christmas.

Plus, our own tests reveal that Flash video can drain your mobile device’s battery life more quickly than H.264 video. Its new tablet may turn out to be great, but Toshiba really shouldn’t count its eggs before they’re hatched or, as another old saying goes, throw rocks from a glass greenhouse…

Elgato’s Turbocharger

Friday, January 21st, 2011

On the day Apple’s new App store opened I had a quick look at the programs available, downloaded iPhoto 11 and then saw there was an update to Elgato’s Turbo264HD software. The full package includes a USB hardware accelerator as well as the software but the latter runs without the dongle. I asked politely and those nice people at Elgato sent me the serial number for the software. (more…)

How to sell (guitar) hardware

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

I’ve just bought a new guitar pedal

For some time I’ve been after a loop pedal to do this kind of thing
KT Tunstall Later

Ms Tunstall uses a head rush (or two?), I rather fancied a JamMan but then I saw this RP-155- half the price! It only loops 20 seconds but it has loads of neat effects on it and it acts as a latency free i/p to the PC via USB.

What I finally bought was this RP-255

The 255 is pretty much the same as the 155, better user interface as it has an expression pedal plus it has some extra memory and amp models but what clinched it was the software. Both the RP155 & RP255 come with X-EDIT to allow you to set up patches and back up your settings on a PC or MAC but the 255 comes with Cubase – so for the extra cash you get the expression pedal and a lite edition of a serious PC recording package.

What sells hardware?

Software, even when it’s a guitar pedal!

More and more hardware is sold according to what software it has – MP3 players, TV’s, dishwashers, cars, …… maybe even computers

If you are interested in guitar pedals you tube is full of demos of the RP155/255 – YouTubeRp-255 is pretty good & around 4:00 in shows the looper in action.

NB If you want to do exactly what KT does you’ll need a head rush or jamman as they have the XLR i/p for the mic as well as the guitar. No one would want to hear my singing once and putting on a loop would count as a cruel and unusual punishment.