LL Cool J - Take It [Official Video]
Posted In Music : Video |
Very smooth. Reminds me of old school LL.
In the month of November, I participated in NaNoWriMo, the mammoth task of writing 50,000 words for novel in just 30 days. I was up for the challenge.
I had started to write a novel in my early 20s but only got a few chapters, some 20 odd pages completed. NaNoWriMo gave me the excuse to start again, start fresh with a new idea and just let the words emanate. It was pretty liberating, not having to worry too much about editing, just smashing out the words and ideas began to flow in the fast pace fashion of speed novel long.
It's been 11 years since Apple released the iPod and unleashed the ubiquitious white earbuds to the world. Initially, these earbuds came with black foam on the outside, but eventually they slightly changed the shape and dropped the foam. Well, today I got latest incarnation called Earpods. Cue Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (ala 2001 opening theme).
So, why did I get this latest product ? Okay, truth be told, Jony Ive sold me. He could sell ice to Eskimos and it would be the smoothest, most polished and best designed piece of ice you've ever seen. This little video about the new Earpods talks about how Apple has been researching and developing these for sometime, 3 years in fact.
So, how do they sound ? Well when compared to the old earbuds, they are significantly better. They sound more richer, more fuller and the sound seems to come from in front of you rather than from the side. I know that might sound a little strange, but it has to do with the way the sound is directed down the ear canal.
Return of the Bass
Thanks to the inclusive of slits in the ear piece, this enables air to flow and allows the speaker to move more freely, which means more bass for you. For the first time in 7 years since I bought my first iPod Shuffle, I could hear and "feel" the bass. Wired reviewed the Earpods and even commented they were as good as some of the $100 earphones on the market such as Beats and Shure. Now, Beats have always been overrated so that's no surprise, but Shure make good products.
Everybody's ears are not the same and so it's impossible to make a one size fits all, however, I found them to sit in my ears with no trouble. A friend of mine can't stand the earbuds and prefers the in-ear models by other vendors, but me personally I find the in-ear headphones to be too intrusive. Leo Laporte also uses in-ear headphones but mentioned on MacBreak Weekly that he has to replace the grommets every 3 months otherwise they get clogged up. Ewww.
The remote controls have also been updated. They feel pretty slick and responsive, though I'm yet to test the microphone in a phone call sense.
So, for $35 it was a great purchase and my ear's look forward to hours of enjoyment to come.
Songs I used to test:-
BCee - Captured in Time (VIP Mix)
Random Movement & Dave Owen - Child's Play
Netsky - Love Has Gone (Enei Remix)
Today is my 4th anniversary as an iPhone owner. I stood in line (first and only time) at Optus and was lucky to be one of the few people to get a prepaid unlocked iPhone 2 - the first iPhone to officially launch in Australia.
I was hooked. Before owning the iPhone, I was a PDA user - Palm to be precise. I started with the Handspring, the first colour PDA and I even had the mobile attachment for it. Sure it was big and bulky and people would snigger at it, which is exactly why I'd never get one of these phablets or tablaphone such as the Galaxy Note. I then went through the Tungsten series and then the LifeDrive, the first PDA with a 4GB hard drive. It was a great device despite it's battery life and poor web browser. It had Wifi, my notes, my calendar events and contacts.
So, to me at least, the iPhone was a natural progression.
Palm was dead in the water after they bought and shelved BeOS (yes, I'm bitter) and then failing to get their new version of PalmOS out the door. Here came Apple with a touch screen device with built in storage, wifi, contacts/calendars in fact all the things the LifeDrive did but much better. No stylus required, excellent browser support with Mobile Safari, 5-6x better battery life and the ecosystem was a thriving. It was a cellular device too, which meant I could get rid of my Nokia phone and it's clunky interface.
Any device I own, I must code for it. I can't help myself. I like to write apps and so the Xcoding journey began first with the official Rinse FM app, which is still my most popular release to date. I'm still rocking an iPhone 4, skipped the 4S due to finances and the fact that the 4 is still usable, with the iOS 6 beta and am looking forward to seeing what Apple does next.
"At last, we're going to get an R18 rating for games. Come January 2013, gaming grows up in Australia." writes AtomicPC.
“These are important reforms over 10 years in the making,” said the Minister for Home Affair, the Hon John Clare.
This means that games like Left 4 Dead 2 won't get bastardised and games like Syndicate won't just get a flat out ban.
Today in San Francisco, Apple launched WWDC 2012 with it's opening introduction from Siri. Tim Cook then took the stage to talk about how well the App Store is doing and how it only going to just get bigger. He then showed a video highlighting how the iDevices has been embraced by blind people, growing businesses and education.
The MacBook family was the first to get a refresh with the Air and Pro getting the Ivy Bridge processor, faster graphics, memory and storage and IO (USB 3 port). Phil Schiler then introduced the new thin MacBook Pro with Retina Display (2880 x 1800). This is amazing, he showed a Final Cut screenshot that had a full 1080p viewer window and still plenty of room left over for the timeline. It has 2 thunderbolt ports, USB3, HDMI and SD card slots. Photographers and Movie people will flock to this machine. The caveat is those 2 thunderbolt ports are for your Gigabit Ethernet adapter and FireWire 800 if you need them. Priced at $2,499 AUD.
Craig Federighi then came out to talk about OS X Mountain Lion and it's iCloud support being added to numerous applications. He also showed off the other iOS-like apps such as Messages, Reminders, Notifications and Game Center. We'd seen all this at the Mountain Lion preview early this year, however, he continued to show newer features such as the new Safari with (finally) searching from address bar and iCloud tab syncing. A new power saving feature called PowerNap that allows apps to update even while the machine is in sleep mode; AirPlay Mirroring is available so you can now beam your OS X desktop to say an Apple TV or XBMC (when they fix the Mac version). Awesome. Mountain Lion will be available next month and cost $19.99 US to cover all your Macs.
Scott Forstall (aka the smug bastard) hit the stage to show off the latest iOS version 6. Siri got a number of improvements including language support for Korea and China. It's also coming to the new iPad (3rd Gen). A big social move by Apple was adding Facebook integration to iOS with single sign-on much like the Twitter support but also does things like integrate the birthdays to your address book.
A nice welcomed feature is Do Not Disturb allowing you to schedule when you don't want phone calls / notifications. No more needing to make sure the phone is on silent before going to bed now. FaceTime now allows you to make 3G calls, so no surprises there.
Safari gets the tab syncing feature as mentioned with OS X and full screen support for landscape mode. Mail gets a new feature called VIPs, which allows you to set particular users as VIPs meaning they get priority support and also makes it easier to see just their emails.
PassBook is a new app for tickets, boarding pass, store cards, etc to be integrated in the one place. Not sure how many Australian businesses will use this feature but it would be nice. At least US users are going to have fun with this.
Maps has not only a new icon but is completely written from the ground up app and dumps Google Maps to boot. The map searches are anonymous, real-time and crowd sourced. It also includes turn by turn navigation, which works from the lock screen. Siri is also integrated as well. There is a new feature called Flyover, which gives a top down 3D mode for maps where they not only showed off San Francisco but Sydney as well. It looks really good. Apple has done to maps what they've done to other markets and re-envisaged and blown away the competition.
iOS 6 is available to developers today and available to the public in Fall (Northern) / Spring (Southern).
Algoriddim, the developers behind the djay application for iPad, iPhone and OS X now have a new app called vjay - The iPad Music Video Mixing app.
The recent transit of Venus across the sun is probably the last time anyone alive in 2012 will witness this rare celestial alignment. Fortunately, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was on hand to capture the event like nothing else.
Ludum Dare (from Latin "to give a game") is a game development competition where the participants have 48 hours to create a game. All of the code and content must be created during the 48 hours, each entry must be created by a single person and source code must be shown.
It took awhile to be delivered, but it's finally arrives - the Joystick-It iPad Arcade Stick from ThinkGeek.
First thing you'll notice is it's not silver like the pictures off ThinkGeek, but that's semantics ... so, how well does it work ? Well, seeing as though I don't have an iPad yet (3rd gen is coming soon), I haven't had a proper chance to test it on an iPad.
Recorded: 25th February, 2012
Tracklist
Ferry Corsten feat. Ben Hague - Ain't No Stoppin (Sunnery James Ryan Marciano Remix) [Flashover Recordings]
Mightyfools - Thunderbad [Lektroluv]
Afrojack, Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike & Nervo - The Way We See The World (Tomorrowland Anthem Instrumental) [Wall Recordings]
Hot Pink Delorean - Get It Girl (B.Rich Remix) [Hot Pink Delorean Music Company]
Deekline & Wizard feat. DJ Assault - Night Moves (Beat Assassins Remaster) [Rat]
Wolfgang Gartner - There And Back (Dead C T Bounce Remix) [Ultra]
Wolfgang Gartner - The Way It Was (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
Dirty South & Thomas Gold feat. Kate Elsworth - Alive (Tommy Trash Remix) [Phazing]
Wolfgang Gartner feat. Will.I.Am - Forever (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
David Guetta - Without You (Nicky Romero Remix) [F*** Me I'm Famous]
Cut & Run - Hello [Cut & Run]
Benny Benassi feat. Kelis & Apl De Ap & Jean-Baptiste - Spaceship [Ultra]
Seed, MonstaR - The Undertakers Wife (Seed Remix) [Rhinofist]
The Moogs - Split (Creepers Gonna Creep Remix) [Graygoo Records]
Click here to download.
Recorded: 6th February, 2012 ... right after the Giants beat the Patriots in Superbowl XLVI.
Tracklist
Wolfgang Gartner - The Champ (Extended Mix) [Ultra]
Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Electrocisum Remix) [White Label]
Vandalism - Insane (Cold Blank Remix) [Vicious]
The SlutGarden - Get Up Girls [SHAX TRAX]
The Bloody Beetroots - Warp 1977 (TWOisONe Kick Ass Mix) [White Label]
DJ E-MaxX - Electro Bass (Alex De Vito Remix) [Balloon Records]
R.I.O. Vs. Taio Cruz Vs. LMFAO Vs. Avicii Vs. David Guetta – Animal Hangover (Erick Decks & DJ Dazz Mashup Party Weapon) [White Label]
Philipp Ray & Viktoriya Benasi - Rock My Heart (DJ Nejtrino & DJ Baur Remix) [White Label]
Jason Parker - Your Life (Extended Club Remix) [ML Media]
Wordz Deejay - Pushin Me (Extended Mix) [Balloon Records]
Chuckie - Who Is Ready To Jump (L&M Project Remix 2012) [White Label]
Steve Aoki feat. Wynter Gordon - Ladi Dadi (Autoerotique Remix) [Ultra]
Mike Nero - Believe (Drunk & Brilliant Remix) [Balloon Records]
MSTRKRFT feat. John Legend - Heartbreaker (Wolfgang Gartner Remix) [Dim Mak US]
Click here to download.
A bunch of new promos I got for the new year ...
Tracklist
DJ Ozi - Rock It [White Label]
Navi G. - Nothing You Can Do (AivaR & N'Lezzon Remix) [White Label]
The_Moogs - Taintless (Perfect Cell Remix) [Graygoo Records]
Avicii ft David Guetta - Sunshine (DJ P-SoniC ft Kokanidjo & Digital Attacker Remix) [White Label]
Calvin Harris - Feel So Close (DJ Newklear Mashup Extended Mix) [White Label]
AivaR vs. N'Lezzon - Let's Party (Electro Banger Extended Mix) [White Label]
David Guetta - Turn Me On (Yanis.S Remix) [White Label]
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock - Party Rock Anthem (Downlow'd + MAD-SIN Bootleg Mix) [White Label]
AC DC vs Swedish House Mafia vs Knife Party - Big Gun Antidote 2012 (DJ Newklear Mashup Extended Mix) [White Label]
Swedish House Mafia Vs. Knife Party - Antidote (Tommy Trash Remix) [EMI UK]
Skream & Example - Shot Yourself In The Foot Again (DJ nErU Remix) [White Label]
Robin S - Show Me Love (Tauras T. Mashup) [White Label]
Skrillex - All I Ask of You (The S Remix) [White Label]
Click here to download.
The long awaited Kickstarter project, Infinite Loop has finally arrived.
This project had issues during it's production and hence was delayed; delayed so much, I'd pretty much forgotten about it (it was funded in July, 2011).
So I was a little disappointed to find that the suction cap doesn't work very well. Here's a photo of an iPhone 4 in action ...
Check out the extended version of Marvel's The Avengers upcoming movie, which aired during Super Bowl XLVI.
"I have an army ..." "We have a Hulk."
Epic.
Now in it's sixth year, Sikosis, N3B and Melonfarmer are back, bringing you the Top 20 Drum n Bass tracks from 2011. This year, we've got all the tunes available for streaming via Mixcloud.
We've setup a new site that's still under construction at top20dnb.com where you can listen to the Top 20 DnB for 2011 and we'll be adding the other years soon.
Recorded 31st December, 2011 and back from the dead, it's The Chill Factor with DJ Sikosis.
"Been awhile so I though it was fitting to do a mix for NYE 2011."