iPad on a Train

This is the first time I've tried to blog on a train with my iPad and blu tooth keyboard. It's a bit weird as theres a slight keyboard delay and the t key was sticking causing unwanted repetition. The keyboard case I got for the iPad is generally excellent and makes the iPad itself far more productive.

Tablets , by their nature , are good for browsing and watching and research but more difficult to actually do productive work on. While still getting used to the idea of not having a mouse but touching the screen for mousey type actions, I must say the iPad is very usable.

Charlie brooker described it as a "content deiver device" and a "twattometer" before deciding he could do without one.

I'm still in the very early stages of learning about it, but I only have an iPad 2 and its fast , responsive and easy to use. I have lots of complaints and narks about it but I have used it more in the month that I have had it that I did the Advent Vega in the 15 months that I had that.

It's an excellent e-reader and there are lots of free books avaiable , then you have Garage Band the app that persuded me to get one.

It's still early days but so far I am very impressed.

Just need Apple to accept the have faults and rectify them instead of pretending everything is perfect.

Seriously I would recommend one of these to anyone.

Do We Still Have Two Ears? Dre Says We Do!

Well at least Dr Dre thinks so , thouagh iPod Dock manufacturersseem to be going for a big ingle speakers . Music doesnt mater you would think.

I rememebr mono listening to singles on a Dansette , the coming of stereo my mums radiogram then my unit with two wired speakers that I could place anywhere. Then we had the short lived quadrophonic phase. The only one I ever saw was an accountant who bought a system and all he had to play was a couple of MFP albums !  Like spending ten grand on a home cinema system and only having The Blair Witch Project to demonstrate it in!!

I think it was Virgin who promoted quadrophonic as music for people with "four ears" . Pink Floyd had a device called the Azimuth Co-Ordinator which was a joystick device for controlling to position of sound within a four speaker system.

We now have 7.1 Home Cinema Systems for film , but music seems to be lucky to get stereo , when 5.1 mixes give the listener incredibly detailed sound . The first King Crimson album "Court of The Crimson King" sound phenomenal , enabling the listener to [ick out individual sounds while still enjoying the immersion of the whole experience.

Anyway while Apple were pushing white tiny in ear headphones , Dr Dre went the other way , with full on logoed headsets allowing the users to display their affiliation , and how much they have spent. Dr Dre has not released an album in ten years but his mentoring of the likes of 50 Cent and his very expensive exclusive Beats headphones are expanding musical and appreciation and his huge bank balance.

I won't be buying a pair but it is one of the music things that I do do approve of, far better than the enormous plague of single speaker iPod docks !

Oh I've just noticed this is my 100th post this year , I was wondering if I would make it . Although this was helped by my "Post A Day In May" thing.

Do I Have It In For Martin Brennan?

The Latest Brennan Box

Martin Brennan is behand a device to replace your CD collection . The advertisments contain pie charts of music types , eulogise the rainbow menus and goes ony about reclaiming your living room space. The advertising seems targetted at music lovers rather than the sort of people who spend Sunday in B&Q who are surely the real target audience.

The device id a CD player with a hard drive , space wide its the same as a hardback book.  I'm just wondering what happens if the CD or hard drive break down? Also , for me , a better option would be a portable hard drive and linked MP3 player. But you dont need anything otrg that Brennan;'s unit. It will record your CDs and let you play them back and store them in the garage or attic and give you loads of room for other stuff!!

Not sure how it copes with new releases , the database wont have "Take The Crown" by Robbie Williams on !! I'm sure this has been built in.

Anyway I don't have it in for him . The advertisements are still coming in , he has celebrity endorsement , and I hope hope he continues to sell his product.

I thinking the unit needs web connectivity , a decent visual interface or GUI and at the point his advertisements will stop annoyig me !!

His web site is here and if it's what you want , then it will be perfect for you!!

Never Ending Festival Year

High Bridge Stalls

Sunny , Deck Chairs and Bossa Nova

Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festval this is year. Very enjoyable and a great way of getting people into town. Face painting for kids , local shops such as RPM giving big discounts (I bought Graham Bonds "Holy Magick" limited edition for under £9!).

Street food from Zizzis , Dabbawal , and lots of others as well as knitted street art !
 
I've actually stared editing this  my iPad and blutooth keyboard, so apologies if  theres mistakes or odd things  about the post. It's a little odd using a keyboard and touch screen rather than a keboard and mouse. Although I've just remembered I bought some spare styli (is that the correct plural of stylus?) for my Samsung Note and am sure they will do for this. It's amazing how off track you can go without meaning to , all part of the inter connectedness of life and the world and things but I'm just going to dig out a stylus and see how that works!

Well just tried the stylus and its a great substitute for sausage fingers.

More Knitted Street Art

Knitted Street Art

But anyway back to the original point of the post. Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festival of the year , sampling street food , mingling with the thousands out , enjoying the sun , not enjoying the limpid bossa nove rhythms of a three piece band who were on but it was a great day and people were enjoying sitting on the NE1 deck
 chairs. Website here.

Fitzee Gets an Abyssinian Curry

Last week I cought the end of Newcastle's "World Cities Week" with a free Dave and Ansell Collins gig at Greys monument . Unfortunately due to eating in Whitby I couldnt sample any of the street foosd on offer. Far too full!! Information here , and here's Dave and Ansell Collins covering Bob Marley's Three Little Birds . A great evening:






Previous to that we'd had the Newcastle Bridges Festival which I missed due to being somewhere else , but again lots of things happening and details here.

We've already had several music festivals such as Summertyne , Mouth of Tyne , Noth Shields Fish Quay Festival, Hoults Yard Festival details of which can be found here , so an amazing year and it's still only September!!



And people wonder why I like living in Newcastle !!

My Own Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Many years ago Douglas Adams wrote about a book. The book had on it's cover the words "Don't Panic"  and was updated by various researchers. Earth's entry read "Harmless" , shortly to be upgraded to "Mostly Harmless" by researcher Ford Prefect!

The book is what ts says containing useful information about where you are , a bit like the Lonely Planet Guides today . Crammed with useful information about everything and I realised that anyone who has a reasonably smart phone has their own Hitch Hikers Guide in their hand!!

H2G2 was the online incarnation of the book but obviously it was still about Earth as barring the odd trip to the moon , man is quite content to stay here . There is still plenty to do. Anyway you can see what by phone looks like now either side of this bit , one locked , one unlocked.



I can do all these things with it:

• Make and take phone calles 
• Send and receive texts
• Be involved in Conferences
• Take Pictures
• Look up information that others have stored
• Watch Videos
• Listen to radio shows and music
• Find out where I am
• Find out where I'm going
• Schedule my time
• Listen to music
• Record videos and music
• I can't teleport .... yet

So we all have our own guide , here in our hands.


How lucky are we?

I Have an iPad ... And I might just use it

I now now have an iPad and you know I will find something to complain about. First up it comes in a cardbourd box that contains the cellophane wrapped box that actually contains the damned thing. So not very green Apple , are we?

Next up everything is very whitely packages , put you have to put the damned plug together !! Its not even because it's a multiple power socket , it's just to make things awkward!!

Then you have to have an email address to use the damned thing and  need to register , this is part of the Apple Control I detest.

There are other gripes as well but ...

Garageband sold the thing to me and there are some good applications . It's fast and easy to use and it's the software that sells it. It is definitely faster and more responsive than my Advent Vega.

The apps are plentiful , some are rubbish and some are amazing . SOme are usefull and some have  a lifespan of five minutes.

I have succumbed to buying an iPad , because its a good tablett and will be a studio in my had . I wont be buying a Mac or an iPhone though . My Samsung Note will do me :)

Boxing Spectacular

On of the things with CDs iand vinyl is having a tangible artefact and sometimes the packaging that goes with it. From the heydey of vinyl Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" with it's fold out full newspaper and Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" and "In Search of Space"  were major experiences. The Hawkwind ones were reproduce in CD format.

The japanese do some great vinyl / CD reproductions but often the wording is illegible without a magnifying glass!!

We've recently had the Pink Floyd Immersion editions , and the latest major addition is the Blur 21 box. Now these might be worthy endeavours but each one clock in at around a hundred pounds or more , not too easy on the pocket!

Following on from that we have the Peter Gabriel "So" and Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" again in wallet destroying editions. The think is once you get them you have to put them somewhere , they are 12" by 12" boxes.

The only one I have at theat size is the Elektra box set , which was reduced from it's normal £150 to £40 , and I have a number of smaller boxes such as the CD version of the Smiths Complete and The Electric Light Orchestra's Classic Albums (11 albums for £20).

These are great if you want them but you can't really get too many of them from a cost and space perspective!!