Articles by Michael Anderson

Is Microsoft Going to Get Smoked by Their Own Challenge?

When your platform is at a very delicate time, you really cannot afford having negative press about a promotion get more viral attention than the promotion itself. This is a problem facing Microsoft today based on some stories related to the latest version of their ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ challenge. The challenge started out simply enough – timed simple tasks with a $100 prize. The tasks required user interaction, and were obviously designed to favor Windows Phone. But last week Microsoft upped the ante to a custom Hunger Games PC worth $1000! That obviously brought in more challengers. Of course,…

Editorials

Apparently Some Critics Want to Call Her ‘Fat’niss

My household has been abuzz after all of us finally saw The Hunger Games this weekend – my wife and I and older son went together on Friday, and younger son went to a birthday party featuring heading to the movie on Saturday. There were a load of highlights – and of course a number of ‘that’s not how they did it in the book’ nitpicks – but overall we loved the movie and thought the casting was key to the artistic success of bringing the first book in the series to the screen. We knew Josh Hutcherson from ‘Zathura’…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News & Features

Korg Introduces New microKEY Controllers

Last week at the Musikmesse fair in Frankfurt Germany (the largest music fair in the world) there were a number of announcements of cool technology. While many things were already shown at NAMM, there are a few things I will highlight. The first is that Korg has expanded the microKEY series of USB-powered MIDI controllers with two new models (25-key and 61-key in addition to the 37-key) and an expansion to the software suite included with the top-end model. Here are some details: Compact USB Powered MIDI Controllers For added flexibility and control, the microKEY 37- and 61-key models both…

News & Features

Miso Media is the Latest ‘Shark Tank’ Attention, um, Seeker

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Scott Jordan of SCOTTEVEST appearing on the ABC ‘reality investment’ show ‘Shark Tank’. It was an episode my family had been anticipating all season for a few reasons: Scott Jordan has worked with Dan and Judie in the past, I have several SCOTTEVETST items and LOVE them all, and finally because Scott appeared in all of the previews to be a total arrogant confrontational jerk on the show which we figured meant some good theater … and we weren’t disappointed. What my family remarked on, which has been discussed here and pretty…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Spin Lists the 30 Most Hated Bands!

Everyone has a list of bands or artists they find over-rated or annoying … but there are also a few that transcend that to be truly HATED. There are a number of reasons – pulling away someone from another group, too much media attention, getting awards or album sales by ripping off others, and countless others. Spin magazine compiled a list of hated bands, and you can head here to check it all out. But you might not want to … because they have spread it out with only TWO bands per page! That’s right – they spread 30 bands…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Adult TV Ads Poke Fun at Adult Movie Tropes!

You don’t even have to be a fan of adult movies to know about some of the clichéd plots – a pizza delivery guy comes to the door, and a beautiful woman answers and the next thing you know … well … Anyway, over at AdWeek they have a look at commercials made for the Canadian Adult station ‘Amour’. The spots cannot (obviously) use X-rated content, but still need to lure customers to check out the station. Here is the run-down: Doing ads for adult-television networks—not an easy job. You can’t use the channel’s content, for one thing. Yet Amour,…

Game Diary, Reviews

Fix It Up 80’s ‘Meet Kate’s Parents’ for the iPad Game Review

Based on my lackluster review of the original Fix it Up Kate’s Adventure, and my glowing review of Fix it Up: World Tour, I really wasn’t sure what to expect this time around. Would the game take advantage of all of the things introduced and carry forward, or would it stumble again? Let’s check it out! The Hype: Take a trip back to the 80’s in this totally tubular, time management adventure! Kate visits her father and he explains how the family got its start in the auto repair biz. Play as Kate’s parents, Frank and Mary, to purchase, fix,…

Music Diary, News & Features

Musicalight LED Sleeve for Learning Chords and Songs on the Guitar

In a strikingly odd development, we had news of TWO Kickstarter campaigns centered around parsing guitar tablature and delivering it via light-up fretboard overlay to aid with learning music. I wrote about Tabber earlier, now we have the Musicalight LED Sleeve! This is the problem they hope to solve: Let’s face it: learning to play any instrument is difficult. Most of us have probably started and quit learning an instrument at some point in our lives. With guitar in particular, it can be frustrating learning chords and finger positioning. We learned to play the guitar by staring at tabs, placing…

Music Diary, News & Features

Tabber Is an Awesome LED Guitar Teaching Sleeve Kickstarter Project!

Apparently interactive guitar training is ‘a thing’, as evidenced by the number of iOS apps designed around teaching you the guitar as a game, and now projects like Tabber that seek to ease your way into learning guitar by putting everything you need right under your fingers. According to the Kickstarter page: Tabber is an open-source LED guitar teacher. Tabber creates a whole new field of visual learning for your guitar. We put the notes that you need to play, when you need to play them right on the neck of the guitar. Our LED light sleeve can be placed…

Gear Bits

News Flash – You Can Use Up Your Data Plan Faster on Your iPad With 4G Speeds!

We already know that Dan is a heavy data user – AT&T has him nationally ranked, after all! Today Dan mentioned that in the first week with the new iPad he has already exceeded 2GB of usage. My usage has been much lower, but I am surrounded by WiFi much of the time – but the 4G service has been indispensable, as has the WiFi hotspot! But Dan isn’t alone – there have been several articles about people suddenly finding themselves going over their 2GB data limit and having to pay an extra $10 per GB of data. In the…

News & Features

Apple Updates iMovie to Work on Original iPad!

One of the frustrations when iMovie was initially released was that it worked on the iPad 2 but not the original iPad. This was due to the intention of using it with the camera for video-on-the-fly and the hardware capabilities and memory limitations of the original iPad. Now Apple has quietly updated iMovie for iOS so that it will run on the original iPad. Of course there is always a ‘but’ … and in this case it is iMovie Trailers. While you’re able to edit video with ease, you don’t have access to the app’s new Movie Trailers feature. For that,…

Game Diary, Reviews

Fix It Up World Tour for the iPad Game Review

When I reviewed Fix It Up: Kate’s Adventure last year, I found it fun and loaded with content, but there were a few things I didn’t enjoy that kept it from being one of my ‘go to’ casual apps. Now Kate is back, joined by Steve and Martin, and she is ready to take on the world – literally! Let’s see how things go this time! The Hype: Go global in this fantastic strategy adventure! In this sequel to “Fix-it-up: Kate’s Adventure”, you must help Kate expand her car-repair empire around the world! Build car-repair shops anywhere from snowy Canada…

Music Diary, News & Features

Joe Walsh Announced Upcoming Album, Releases First Song for Free!

If you are a fan of rock music from the 70s or 80s, the name Joe Walsh is immediately familiar – his time with the James Gang and the Eagles as well as his solo career produced a number of hits. His work as a sideman cemented him as a legend on the guitar. He is the force behind hits like James Gang’s ‘Funk #49’ (trust me, you know it), Eagle’s ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and ‘In the City’, and his own ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ and ‘Life’s Been Good’ amongst many others. Walsh has a knack for delivering sardonic…

Music Diary, News & Features

The Who Launch Fan-Made Work as the OFFICIAL Video for ‘5:15’

Late last year in conjunction with the massive release of the wonderfully remastered Quadrophenia in a ‘Super Deluxe Edition’, the group asked fans to create a short film for the song ‘5:15’. The goal was to come up with a video that “does for the track what the Quadrophenia film did for the album.” Recently we heard that the winner was chosen, and now we have the video to match. The winner was created by Jeff Rodenberg, who won $2000 for his winning effort, as well as the chance to work with Universal Music Group’s marketing team to finalize the…

Music Diary, News & Features

Katy Perry Plays Rapper in N*ggas In Paris

The thought of Katy Perry singing in general doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me – she has about a 6 note range, requires all-too-obvious auto-tuning, and in live performances is a poster child for pre-recorded tracks. As for her rhythm … Well, she really can’t dance and certainly can’t sing and dance simultaneously. So again, not a lot of confidence there. Let us just say she is at her best walking around the stage singing along with a pre-recorded track in a way-too-short and way-too-tight dress. So how is it that I just watched her doing a cover of Jay…

Editorials

We Don’t Do Rumors, and Here’s Why!!

In the last couple of months there have been several reports regarding operating conditions at the Foxconn factory in China, most famous as the producer of the majority of Apple mobile devices. The current frenzy started in January with a report from Mike Daisey on PRI’s ‘This American Life’, and what started as one has since gone on to become many other negative reports. The basis of all of these is that Foxconn is a brutal sweatshop in what is in many ways still a third world country, where tech gadgets are made cheaply for first world consumers to enjoy….

Gear Bits, Music Diary

The Doors Release New Video for L.A. Woman 40th Anniversary

No, you didn’t misread … the Doors, whose lead singer died more than 40 years ago, have released a new music video. No, it isn’t a reforming of the band with some American Idol alum or anything like that. According to the info for the video: Professional skateboarders Kenny Anderson, Alex Olson, and Braydon Szafranski take viewers on a “Doors-centric” skateboarding tour of Los Angeles. If you head to their Facebook page you get this description: The Doors are thrilled to premiere a brand new video for “L.A. Woman!” The video was directed by two-time Emmy® nominee Matt Goodman and…

Editorials, Game Diary

The Smithsonian Joins the ‘Top 5 Games’ List Fray

Are video games art? Who really cares – so long as they are well designed, immersive and fun! But many people DO care, and the need for some – film critic Roger Ebert in particular – to stick his opinion where he has no knowledge has resulted in a large and broad-ranging debate. Ultimately I think most gamers would say that video games have the potential to be art, but that not all video games ARE art. At the peoak of the debate in 2009, Ebert and game designer Kelee Santiago had quite a series of exchanges. From Smithsonian Magazine:…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Today Marks the 30th Anniversary of the Death of Randy Rhoads

There are so many tales of artists lost too young, but way too many of them are more cautionary tales of self-destruction and failing to heed the constant pleas and attempts of others to save them – such as almost the entire ’27 club’. Those are tragic in their own right, but there are also losses of artists through disease or accidents. I always think of the young loss of Scott LaFaro in 1961, or the infamous ‘Day the Music Died’ plane crash … but today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Ozzy Osborne guitarist Randy Rhoads in…

Gear Bits

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Trailers are Full of Undead Awesomeness!

I remember when my kids bought ‘Pride & Prejudice and Zombies’ by Seth Grahame-Smith in 2009, I assumed it would be just a silly little parody with no depth or sense of quality … boy was I ever wrong! The great story from Jane Austen was respectfully handled and transformed into story of love and manners – and zombie killing on the English countryside. There have been numerous others since then that have varied in quality … but the next one to really capture everyone’s imagination was another book by Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Now the book is…

Gear Bits

How Real People Will Deal With Windows 8

Have you tried out the Windows 8 ‘Consumer Preview’? I skipped it as I have enough other stuff going on, but have heard generally good things from the tech press and other tech-centric friends. And perhaps that is the issue – everyone I know who has played with the so-called ‘consumer release’ isn’t really a consumer. The results of having people who are too skilled evaluate a product are that your end result is designed for those people. That is the thesis of a video that accompanies an article about the importance (or lack thereof) of Windows 8: After playing…

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