September 24, 2009
I was in London yesterday to visit a few of the museums. Whilst using the London Underground can be an overwhelming experience for infrequent users like myself, I made use of the underground features of Snaptu to make the process a lot easier. Despite a few network issues, I found the app simple and intuitive to use. It allows you to enter the name of tube stations or common landmarks, then it’ll calculate the best route from the selected station/landmark making use of walking/buses/underground services (depending on set preferences). The app was a welcome relief compared to working out the connections/correct destination station myself, making the process of selecting the right trains a lot quicker, and simpler.
Snaptu’s a free Java app, so it’s compatible with a wide range of non-smart phones. The app also features Twitter and Facebook clients, Fancy a Pint, Google Calendar, cinema listings and a TV Guide amongst other features. Since most features require Internet access, it’s recommended to have a sufficient data plan.
Posted in Internet, Mobile Phones, Web | 1 Comment »
September 14, 2009
Since Spotify launched, I’ve been using iTunes less and less, and really only resorting to opening it to sync my iPod with new podcasts. However, with the recent launch of iTunes 9, I was more than a little tempted to try it out, if only for the Home Sharing feature. Sharing iTunes libraries between multiple computers has often been hindered due to concerns over copyright infringement, but with third party applications such as Simplify Media being able to share the iTunes library it seems that it should have only been a matter of time before iTunes incorporated this feature.
Just like Simplify Media, Home Sharing allows you to share your whole library including play lists, rather than being restricted to purchases made through iTunes. This is basically what I’ve used Simplify Media to do for some time, however required the computer that hosted the source library to be turned on to serve the media. As well as streaming media, Home Sharing excels over Simplify Media as it is able to sync items between authorised libraries on multiple computer for offline listening. A small niggle that I do have is that podcasts aren’t categorised by show, instead every episode of every podcast is shown in an unorganised list.
I’m surprised that Home Sharing has been developed by Apple, considering their apparent concerns for potential copyright infringement. However, the service is limited to 5 authorised computers and restricted to use on the same network, whereas Simplify Media allows up to 30 users to share libraries across the Internet. Surely, the next step is for Apple to add the ability to sync the iPhone and iPod Touch over wi-fi, rather than connecting via USB.
Posted in Apple, Computing, Home Entertainment, copyright, digital media, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, music, podcast | 3 Comments »
August 14, 2009
iTunes has long since dominated the music download market, superseding Wal-Mart to become the most popular music retailer. It’s not surprising either considering the process has been purposefully constructed to be as simple as possible for impulse purchases. However, this convenience often comes at a cost, as alternative download sites are frequently cheaper, available in a more universal format and sometimes even a higher bit rate than what Apple offer. Therefore, the frugal music lover still wants music quickly, conveniently, and legally but most importantly, cheaply. Comparing the price between multiple music download sites may be considered a laborious task and seem too much like hard work for some, but help is finally at hand. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Apple, Home Entertainment, Internet, Portable Media, digital media, iPod, iTunes, music | 2 Comments »
July 28, 2009
Today was the first day of my work experience with Sort Of.. Films; a film and video production company in Sheffield. Since we were shooting today, we begun at 8.30am, with enough time to drive over to Catcliffe where we were capturing shots for several short films to showcase the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. The centre is involved with Rolls Royce and Boeing, so a number of innovative products are manufactured there. As well as this, the centre also use robotics and virtual reality which were interesting demos to watch. I was tasked with logging the time codes for each of the shots as Ed shot the footage we needed.
We’d done by lunchtime, so headed back into Sheffield city centre, where the office is based. Whilst capturing the footage into Final Cut, I helped archive a collection of Mini DV tapes in the store room, and backup some older render files to DVD. Without the graphics for the project, I assembled rough cuts for a couple of the films, ready to be completed tomorrow.
Posted in Apple, Cameras, Computing, Editing, Microsoft, digital media, meta, robots, windows, work experience | 5 Comments »
July 19, 2009
I’ve seen a lot of the Real D 3D digital presentations of films since they launched in 2007 with Beowulf, and since then I’ve been meaning to share my thoughts. Having seen a range of remakes, real life and animated 3D movies now, I’ve come to the conclusion that 3D can compliment a film experience if it’s immersive and worked into the story rather than the shameful pointy gimmickry that many seem to crave from 3D films. The best case in point being My Bloody Valentine 3D, which used a pick axe as the antagonist’s weapon of choice; possibly the pointiest of all weapons used in a horror movie.
Remakes don’t tend to work that well either, as little seems to stand out, other than the initial title graphics and text credits, such as the snow effect used in Nightmare Before Christmas. Sadly, whilst it sort of works in ordinary cinemas, unlike IMAX, the screen isn’t even wide enough to fill your peripheral vision enough to justify the effect. I have no idea how consumer electronics manufacturers believe that they can achieve similar effects in TV services such as Sky 3D.
Ultimately though, I’ll continue to see 3D movies for the digital presentation, particularly movies like Bolt and Ice Age. They’ve been digital throughout production, and I believe deserve to be shown in digital. To me, digital presentation in the cinema highlights detail, which even works in live action movies such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (incidentally the first film I saw digitally screened at the cinema).
It’s a shame then that Cineworld recently decided to begin charging to see 3D movies, to justify the costs to them. I believe that they have to pay a license fee to Real D, as well as the glasses, and digital projectors, as well as the cost for the movies themselves. But then, I don’t really care for the 3D, but prefer digital screenings over film. Digital films should also be theoretically cheaper to produce and distribute than film, as essentially it’s a hard drive, and has the added benefit of always looking just as pristine over and over again.
Posted in Home Entertainment, copyright, digital media, movies | 2 Comments »
July 18, 2009
Interestingly, as I started to write this, an ad just played for Sky Player, so it’s sort of ironic to say that there’s not any big names backing the music streaming service that millions have fallen in love with. However, ads are few and far between, and it’s hard to see it paying off in the long term. This is reflected by the lack of interest for the paid version, as the ads aren’t annoying enough to justify £10/month.
It’s a shame that the main interest for the advertising comes from small companies/charity organisations, as it has the potential to target a relatively select audience. That’s why I thought that the adverts promoting artist albums would be successful. In practice however, it just leads me to play the album on Spotify itself, or if it’s not available I’ll go to YouTube. It’s little wonder that Spotify are struggling, since they reportedly pay royalties per song rather than a long term licensing deal. At least using P2P, the service isn’t subject to the same kind of costs the likes of YouTube have for hosting/bandwidth.
Posted in Home Entertainment, digital media, music | 2 Comments »
July 16, 2009
Windows 7 is already proving to be a success, as Amazon and Play sold out of their allocated pre-orders after only hours of being on sale, and before I could bag myself at least one copy. Or more specifically, they’re not allowed to sell any more for the bargain price of £50, instead upping the price to £75. So, I’ve turned to the less popular electronics retailer Comet where it’s still available for £45. I picked up two copies as it’s likely that each disc ships with a license for only a single machine. Still, £45 per license is still freaking good value, it’s just a shame Microsoft can’t keep the price this low, as I’m sure most people would rather wait until they buy their next computer than paying nearly £200 for an operating system.
Looks like I’ve seen the back of Windows XP and Vista, and Windows 7 will probably never see Internet Explorer, since it’s been banned from being installed as standard in Europe. Many distros will be shipping with IE8 on a CD-ROM, quite retro really but without a browser on board it’s a bit of a chicken and egg; unless you happen to have a copy of Firefox lying around on a flash drive.
I’m curious to see actual figures of how many copies have been pre-ordered.
Posted in Computing, Microsoft, windows | Leave a Comment »
June 16, 2009
It’s been a while since I last looked at browser stats, but according to W3C, Firefox has superseded Internet Explorer, to become the most popular web browser since January 2009. This blog post claimed Firefox to be the most popular browser in Europe back in April 2009, leading me to question the reliability of the data, as compared to another recent source, Internet Explorer usage is roughly three times higher than that of Firefox. Something which seems more likely, as it’s still the default browser installed on Windows. Although, there is a distinct possibility that, in Europe at least, Internet Explorer will no longer be pre-installed onto Windows 7. Nonetheless, I can’t see that decision affecting most users, as OEM’s will likely continue to bundle the most renowned web browser with new machines, as I guess it’d be a task for the majority of consumers to get online at all without it.
Posted in Computing, Firefox, Internet, Microsoft, Web | Leave a Comment »
May 22, 2009
I’ve been running the release candidate on my, more than capable, desktop machine since it was released to the masses at the beginning of May. After hearing about how well it was performing across a range of machines; with differing specs, I was determined to get it on my Samsung NC10 netbook.
Despite it exceeding the minimum system requirements, I was still a little concerned about how well the 1.6GHz processor would cope. I need not have worried, it’s scaled brilliantly, even when running several apps. My only remaining concern was battery life, as there was seemingly no way to reduce the screen brightness through the Windows 7 power management. So, using an external DVD drive, I installed some software that came with the netbook to enable the brightness hot keys. Whilst it doesn’t seem to like booting up with the application to do this, at least it’s now possible to lower the brightness to make the most out of the battery life.
With two machines running Windows 7, and a third running Vista, I’ve found that they network better than ever before. I thought Vista was easy to network, but using Homegroup for the Windows 7 machines makes it so easy to print wirelessly from the netbook to the printer connected to my desktop.
Incidentally, it’s only been the printer software that caused any trouble in terms of compatibility. Compatibility mode didn’t work, as the installer itself was checking the version of Windows, as it didn’t match any of the versions it thought it could work with). Nonetheless, Windows resolved this easily using the plug and play feature, it recognised it correctly as a printer. I also love the way that the progress of file transfers appears on the taskbar, as well as the tweaked preview feature.
I’m not a fan of pinning things to the taskbar, but have since found an alternate way to reactivate quick launch (which I still find more effective than pinning stuff to the taskbar – as pinned items move around making the taskbar unorganised and messy). When I first blogged about my first impressions of the beta, I found it weird that Windows 7 no longer bundled its own photo viewer. Instead, you have to get it with a Windows Live Pack, which bundles other optional software, including Silverlight (a Flash alternative), Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer (which I’ve used for a long time to post to my blog), and Windows Movie Maker amongst others.
Posted in Computing, Microsoft, windows | 7 Comments »
April 27, 2009
It’s kinda ironic that today I learned Windows 7 Release Candidate will be get its public release on May 5th, as last night I found a mod that tarts Windows XP up to look like Windows 7. The pack includes an entire package that does a convincing job of transforming the ‘Fisher Price’ style OS that I’ve come to loathe; it includes login splash screens, cursors and sound effects. However I have a few reservations. Mainly, on my first install, it interfered with a number of DLL files which stopped other apps from launching. I removed it and reinstalled, this time without any of those DLLs (there’s an option to uncheck them in the easy to use installer). I still miss the search feature in the start menu (which I fixed using Google Desktop), the snipping tool (fixed with a rather funky app; PrtScr) and the general feel of Windows 7/Vista. The Seven Remix XP package is available to download from Deviant Art.
It’s kinda annoying that I’ve only just reformatted my desktop machine, but I’ll likely download the release candidate of Windows 7, probably installing it alongside Vista and Ubuntu, rather than the virtual machine I used for the beta. Might even see if it can cope with a netbook.
Posted in Computing, Microsoft, windows | 3 Comments »
I was in London yesterday to visit a few of the museums. Whilst using the London Underground can be an overwhelming experience for infrequent users like myself, I made use of the underground features of Snaptu to make the process a lot easier. Despite a few network issues, I found the app simple and intuitive to use. It allows you to enter the name of tube stations or common landmarks, then it’ll calculate the best route from the selected station/landmark making use of walking/buses/underground services (depending on set preferences). The app was a welcome relief compared to working out the connections/correct destination station myself, making the process of selecting the right trains a lot quicker, and simpler. 
