Michael Anderson | Gear Diary

xkcd Puts Names to What Our Cultural Memory Will Forget Each Year

Today’s comic from xkcd really struck me – even more than their normally awesome work – because it looks at something I deal with on a seemingly daily basis: cultural memory. My wife and I were born in the mid-60s, so I remember watching Watergate, seeing Jaws and Star Wars in theaters, gas lines, and on and on. Some things like watching Bullitt this week and seeing rotary phones and the utter un-connectedness really stood out with my kids, whereas stuff like music and other pop culture items have filtered somewhat through time. Myy wife works with many young adults…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Court Documents Bring to Light Dismal Samsung Tablet Sales Numbers

For nearly two years I have been like a broken record: I simply never believed the numbers Samsung was supposedly selling in terms of tablets. Worse still, having put out a single unofficial number before switching to ‘percent improvement in shipments’, groups like the IDC and Gartner grabbed the initial number and then just applied the percent increase. This played out again last week in the numbers reported by the IDC showing that Samsung held the #2 tablet slot with 9.6% market share with ~2.4 million units sold. I like the Samsung tablets pretty well and they have created a…

News & Features, Outdoors

Kitty Cam? More Like KILL Cam!

Do you have a cat? We have two – an outdoor cat we’ve had since he was a few weeks old (and is now 12) and one indoor cat we inherited from my sister-in-law when they moved halfway across the country two years ago (supposedly a two-week babysitting … but I digress). Is your cat a hunter? Ours is – he regularly brings home mice and moles and rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels and birds and … you get the picture. To date, our biggest concern has been that he delivers these as presents to our dogs (12-pound Norfolk Terriers)…

Gear Bits

Apple and Samsung Profits Go to 11!

Imagine if you put $100 in $1 bills up for grabs in a classroom science experiment competition, with money divided up based on overall score decided by the rest of the school. You come into the room and ask for reports from the top 5 scorers. The first one hands you $71; the next one hands you $37 … wait, WHAT?!? That is right – Apple and Samsung combined for 108% of the total smartphone profits for the quarter. How does that work? Well, it means that the rest of the industry LOST money. Also, look at the market share…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Apple’s New ‘All on the iPad’ Commercial Reminds Us Again It Is an iPad World

Depending on what market you are looking at, Apple controls ~68 – 72% of the tablet market. That is a level of singular dominance well beyond the monopoly of Google Search, as a comparison. And the funny thing is, I STILL don’t trust the Samsung numbers, so the iPad share might be higher! Of course, with the successful launch of the Google Nexus 7 (and countless tales of difficulties trying to return or exchange same), we can expect to see the numbers shift somewhat – though it is pretty clear that sales of the Nexus 7 will obliterate the Kindle…

Music Diary, News & Features, Reviews

Rick Ross ‘God Forgives, I Don’t’ Review

I love all sorts of music, and appreciate the opportunity I have to listen and review so much great stuff. I am also blessed with two kids who share my love of music and have taken things I played for them and ran with them to discover new artists and areas to enjoy. For my older son Danny it is the love of Rap and Hip-Hop, initiated by my playing stuff from NWA and A Tribe Called Quest for him, and now taken to the point that he has an iPod full of the genre and is in touch with…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Good Movies Actually Do Better at the Box Office

Conventional wisdom would say that movie-going crowds reward some of the worst movies with some of the highest box office grosses, particularly during the summer months. In fact, there are web sites devotes to that very premise. It is an interesting and amusing thought … but is it TRUE? That is what one person looked to answer, using available data and statistical analysis. Here is the setup: It is common to argue that there is a divide between critics and audiences. Critics prefer arthouse dramas, preferably in black-and-white; audiences like things that go boom. Thanks to countless explosions and few…

Editorials, Game Diary

Failure of Playstation Vita is Lowlight of Dismal Sony Earnings Report

Sony was another business to report quarterly earnings, and once again the results were pretty dismal for the Playstation division. Here are the basics as noted at GI.biz: Sony’s Game division posted an operating loss of $45 million as sales of its PlayStation hardware line continue to fall. In the first fiscal quarter – ending June 30 2012 – the company’s Game segment posted revenues of ¥118 billion ($1.49b/£967m), down 14.5 per cent year-on-year. The decline was partially aggravated by the strength of the Yen, but overall sales were still down 10 per cent on a constant currency basis. The…

Events, Music Diary

Experience the Newport Jazz Festival Live Via Streaming Video!

Two years ago it was a big deal when the revered Newport Jazz Festival gave listeners worldwide a chance to feel a part of things by streaming some of the audio from the festival. This weekend they are taking it a step further, with a full 16 hours of live streaming video from the festival! This weekend, NPR Music and our partners WBGO and WGBH are presenting 16 hours of live video webcasting from the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival. For your convenience, here’s a breakdown of what you’ll see online and hear on WBGO. Everything is subject to change, as…

News & Features

Why We Will Probably NEVER Know the Whole Truth About ‘Fracking’

Is Fracking – the nickname for the process of releasing natural gas by using water, salt, and sand to fracture rocks – safe? I don’t know … and I am beginning to think we will NEVER know for sure. There are three main reasons for this: – What constitutes ‘fracking’ varies according to who you ask. For some it is the entire end-to-end process involved in getting natural gas from deep in the shale layer, while for others it is strictly the part of the process in which water and chemicals are used to free the gas. In local ‘town…

Game Diary, Reviews

Sinister City Vampire Adventure HD for iPad Review

Between the latest Twilight movie and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the vampire craze shows no sign of slowing. And that is a good thing, as the mythos provides plenty of room to explore in all realms of entertainment. The most recent addition is a new hidden object game called Sinister City: Vampire Adventure HD for the iPhone and iPad. The big news – aside from the focus on vampires – is that this is a first person game, so let’s take a look at how all of it works! The Hype: Travel to the astral plane and save your love…

Music Diary, News & Features

Is Dubstep Actually Avant Garde Genius?

Here is an interesting thought – Dubstep represents a culmination of a century of development in avant garde music mixed with already familiar movements in dance, punk and jazz. That is the tack taken by PBSIdeas that explains the historical context around the development of non-harmonic electronic music over the last century. Here is the text attached to the video. Dubstep. Is. Awesome. While some people may hear noise, we hear amazing musical genius. The aural creativity of Dubstep, and its embrace of inharmonic sounds, makes it the most recent member of the long-established Avant Garde community. There is a…

Music Diary, News & Features

GE Engineer Composes with the Sounds of Engine Knock

I don’t recall when I first heard ‘industrial music’, but it was probably in the late 1970s when I first heard the group Throbbing Gristle on the local Harvard College radio station. I was attracted to some artists in the genre who would incorporate ‘musique concrete’ into their works – recordings of actual street or industrial noise, or bringing pipes and sheet metal and other noise-making apparatus into the studio. But imagine that someone working in an industrial situation took the sounds all around him from his everyday life and turned it into music. That is exactly what GE engineer…

Game Diary, Reviews

‘Lost Souls: The Enchanted’ Paintings HD for iPad Review

Imagine receiving a mysterious package with a pleasant painting inside that your child finds captivating. He asks to hang it in his room, but then the next day you awake to find you child gone. It is the nightmare for any parent, and it is the opening scene of the newly released Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings HD from G5 Entertainment. Let’s take a look and see how this hidden object game plays out! The Hype: Rescue a missing boy and immerse yourself in this breathtaking adventure! Get new G5 games for up to 40% off! Sign up for the G5…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News & Features

Dave Chisholm Releases ‘Bonus Track’ for Calligraphy

As 2011 ended I reviewed Dave Chisholm’s ‘Calligraphy’ and had this to say: ‘Calligraphy’ surprised me by how much I liked the entire thing. With Radioactive I enjoyed the album, but only truly fell in love with one song that has stuck with me for more than 18 months and countless new releases crossing my iPod. ‘Calligraphy’ has a uniform excellence in composition, playing, and overall execution that will keep it on my iPod and recommended listening list for a long time to come. I can’t wait to see what Dave comes up with next. The album impressed me enough…

Editorials

Watch for Kids in School Zones, Even in Summer Months

My son was hit by a pickup truck a couple of weeks ago, crossing the street when coming home from a school ‘enrichment’ program. He is doing fine – thanks for asking – but it has raised many questions in our area, and it has prompted a look at how we deal with school zones year-round. More on his specifics later. Right now we are at the start of August, which in the Northeast at least is the middle of summer school vacations (I know in some areas it is more like 75% done … sorry), with kids getting out…

News & Features

U.S. Cellular Adding Two Hot New Motorola Phones This Week!

Have you seen the recent U.S. Cellular campaign on Twitter? It is called #HelloBetter and it focuses on recent data showing how dissatisfied most people are with their carriers, and highlights how U.S. Cellular has the highest satisfaction ratings of any carrier. Unfortunately as a regional carrier, only certain folks have access to their service – but if you do, check this out! Recently it seems that smartphone makers are keen to get phones quickly into the hands of U.S. Cellular, as evidenced by the recent Samsung Galaxy SIII release, and now by two hot new phones coming from Motorola…

Editorials

Washington DC Police Chief Issues Reasonable Citizen Cell-Camera Guidelines

If you keep an eye on the news, you probably have heard that the ubiquity of smartphones with capable video cameras in recent years has drastically changed how we view many things. Go to a concert and you will see hundreds (if not thousands) of people videotaping the proceedings; no longer are the aisles at school functions filled with bulky tripods for large camcorders; and if there is an arrest or other criminal activity in progress in a public location you can be sure there is video rolling. Technology has advanced a great deal from 20 years ago and the…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Amazon Instant Video Comes to the iPad!

Yesterday when we talked about Hulu coming to Apple TV, my comment was that if Amazon Instant Video was also available, I would no longer have a need for the Roku. Guess what? Amazon Instant Video is now available! Here is the description: Watch thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with an Amazon Prime membership and over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by installing the Amazon Instant Video app. Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library for offline viewing on airplanes, road trips, or any time a WiFi…

Music Diary, News & Features

Amazon Launches ‘iTunes Match’ Like Update to Cloud Player!

Today on Twitter Amazon announced a significant update to its Cloud Player system, stating: We made some improvements to Amazon Cloud Player today. Have questions? Get them answered here: http://amzn.to/P53LPf Well … since it is Twitter there is little info provided. Here are the basics: Amazon Cloud Player is a service that enables customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it wherever they are on a Kindle Fire, Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, or PC. Amazon Cloud Player now has more benefits, including: •Faster music import for Cloud Player using scan and match…

Game Diary, Reviews

Letters From Nowhere 2 iPad Game Review

How much did I like the iOS game ‘Letters from Nowhere’ from G5 Games? Enough that after the cliff-hanger ending I immediately went to Big Fish games and grabbed the Mac version of Letters From Nowhere 2! When I heard from G5 they were bringing it to iOS as well, I stopped playing the Mac version and waited … and now I have finished the iPad game. Let’s dig right in! The Hype: Travel to the town of Nowhere and search for clues to remove the terrifying curse in this thrilling and spooky sequel! Audrey collected all the letters with…

Articles by Michael Anderson