Articles by Michael Anderson

Susan G. Komen Foundation Feels the ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ Firsthand

The first rule of a health-centric charity – don’t get political. UPDATE: The Komen group annouced they were reversing their decision, stating “it will “amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.” “Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process,” the group said.” My wife did the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure a few years ago when we lived in the Boston…


Fact or Crap: Super Bowl – Cancer – Proposal – Greedy Girlfriend Edition

This week I had to visit a company making equipment for a project I’m working on, and due to the locations of both of our companies, it was simply easier to do the 350 mile drive each way over the last couple of days. As a result – and also the result of the rental car not having any sort of MP3 player input jack, and me not bringing any CDs – I listened to a lot of radio. I heard angering stories about Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Komen, and the state of financial literacy in our nation. I…


Chinese Manufacturing Has Always Been Abusive – Why Blame Apple ONLY?

There was a recent article in the New York Times that pretty much singles out Apple as being to blame for the work conditions in China. Sure, they off-handedly refer to ‘other companies’ and repeatedly say ‘other devices’ as a footnote, but again and again it is Apple, iPhone and iPad that are mentioned. Apple, the company that was one of the very last consumer electronics companies making stuff in the US while taking heat from everyone about how much their stuff cost and how slow they were to move from platform to platform? All of those other companies –…


Sling Media Brings SlingPlayer to Kindle Fire!

Sling Media, makers of the SlingBox, today announces the availability of the SlingPlayer app for the Kindle Fire. What is the SlingBox? It is a device that works with all of your various set-top boxes to: allow folks to watch their TV from wherever they are with their PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone. And now, with SlingPlayer for Kindle Fire, they can bring their living room TV experience to their Kindle Fire tablets. The SlingPlayer software is already available for Apple iPhone and iPad devices, Android Phones, Android Tablets as well as for the Blackberry, Windows Phone and other devices….


Did Android Tablets GAIN Market Share … or Lose It?

If you look at the image above, you might come to the conclusion that Android tablets have made significant inroads against the iPad in the fourth quarter of 2011. That would be an incorrect conclusion, though one that many people are making. There are two problems with the conclusion. The first is that while Apple discloses ‘sales’, Android numbers are a combination of ‘shipments’, ‘% shipment increase from last year’, and ‘estimates’. In other words, real numbers against imaginary numbers. More on this later. The other problem is the idea of exactly what constitutes an Android tablet. I’ll answer with…


Check Out The Full Stream of Ringo Starr’s New ‘Ringo 2012’ Album!

Ringo Starr just keeps on chugging along. He had some decent hits in the 70’s and seemed to fade away until making a comeback over the course of the last decade. He will never rival his bandmates in terms of songwriting or singing, but he brings a certain bouyant sense of fun with a distinctive voice that is always worth checking out. Now he has a new release, ‘Ringo 2012’, out today in Europe and tomorrow in the US. To celebrate the release, NME is featuring a full stream for all EU territories, with others getting previews for all of…


‘Matthew’s Day Off’ Has Fun With Nostalgia for the New Honda CR-V

Despite loads of other successes through the years, Matthew Broderick will forever be tied to the iconic role of Ferris Bueller. And unlike some actors with hits from that same era (John Cusack in Better Off Dead, Val Kilmer in Real Genius), Broderick has never backed away from the enduring love of all things Bueller. So when I saw the teaser late last week that he would be appearing in a Super Bowl ad based around Ferris Bueller, I was intrigued. Now that the full commercial has been release … I just HAD to share!


Plantronics GameCom 780 Dolby 7.1 Gaming Headset Review

Most modern games come with some use of stereo sound, and games with higher budgets make use of Dolby Surround Sound to provide realistic experiences of being surrounded and FEELING the impact of what is going on around you. If you are using a pair of Apple earbuds in your gaming laptop … you are really missing out. I recently looked at another set of Dolby enhanced headphones, but to truly get the experience you needed entirely too many cables. Now we have a new headset from Plantronics that offers Dolby 7.1 surround … but only requires a USB connection!


Belkin Portable Power Pack 1000 Cell Phone Charger Review

One of the biggest problems with our ever-growing love of smartphones … is that everything we do with them seems to consume more and more battery. As a result we are always struggling with the battery life of our smartphones. As a result we keep chargers in our offices, our cars, and so on. But what about when you are on the go and don’t have access to a wall plug – or are in an airport where everyone is huddled around the few remaining outlets? Belkin seeks to solve this with the Portable Power Pack 1000 – let’s see…


iRig MIDI Interface and Recorder Software Review

The folks at IK Multimedia have been at the forefront of developing great hardware and software tools for iOS devices ever since that capability was introduced. I have been a big fan of their products since iRig and Amplitude launched, so when I was offered a chance to review their new Sample Tank product I jumped. But wait – this isn’t about Sample Tank! I know – as part of that evaluation they also sent me their iRig Midi interface and software, and it is was so awesome I just had to post a quick video hands on! The Hype:…


Google Music Adds ‘Download Purchases’ Button and It Is Still Astonishingly Bad

I have been fairly critical of Google’s Music service, largely for two reasons: first off it was ‘worst in class’ and made every other music service look great in comparison; and second because as a Google service there were legions of blind Google fanboys spewing effusive praise because it was free. That was 9 months ago when it was in Beta. Then it got out of beta and … it was still the worst music service available, just slightly less crappy than before. Now Google has made a major update to the service … they added a button. This button…


Splash.FM Seeks to Ease Social Music Discovery, and My Hands-On Experience with the Beta

Music Discovery is hard stuff. Take this example: I just discovered that Kenny Burrell, a legendary guitarist that I love, recently released a solo guitar album so grabbed it immediately. Then I realize it has already been out for three months! I scan blogs, track release charts and so on … and this one slipped by! I chastised Twitter for keeping me in the dark! But once I had discovered the release, I quickly tried to disseminate that knowledge so that everyone who trusts me for music recommendations can grab this gorgeous album. And that premise – that the best…


MusicPlayr Will Help You Discover Music

Late last year I heard about the MidemLab competition for promising music startups, which had finalists in the ‘music discovery’ category as follows: Music Discovery, Recommendation & Creation ChartsNow.mobi (UK) – mass market mobile music service MPme by Apsmart (UK) – curated internet radio musicplayr (Germany) – music discovery & blogging Navegas (Germany) – connecting the world of music tool Rexly (USA) – social discovery & recommendation Songs2See by Fraunhofer (Germany) – music game development SoshiGames (UK) – game-based social music discovery Twusic by LemonLab (Belgium) – Twitter music application Watzatsong (France) – crowdsourced music search engine WhoSampled (UK) –…


Spirit of Wandering – the Legend, HD iPad Game Review

I was still warm in the afterglow of the awesome iOS game ‘Letters from Nowhere’ from G5 Games when I started another hidden object game from G5 Games called Spirit of Wandering. Given the innovative style of the former game, I really didn’t expect Spirit of Wandering – a stock standard hidden object adventure – to live up. Let’s see how it did! The Hype: Sail the seas with a pirate captain in search of her missing love in this adventurous, hidden-object quest! After an attack by the Flying Dutchman, the crew of the Spirit of Wandering and captain’s companion,…


Random Cool Video: Metal Meets Pop

Time for another cool mashup video! The folks at Ultimate Guitar have put together a bunch of mashups of pop and heavy metal music, all of which are pretty fun … but this one was my favorite! It takes Ke$ha’s Tik Tok opening and beat track and overlays Lamb of God’s Redneck. Enjoy! And … if you like that you can hit the link above to see Eminem, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, as well as Iron Maiden, Korn, Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine and more!


Mark of the Unicorn Introduces the MicroBook II Audio Interface

Mark of the Unicorn had one huge announcement that I already covered, the note that the upcoming Digital Performer 8 would support Windows 7 as well as Mac OS X. But now we learn that MOTU is also introducing a new version of the well-received MicroBook audio interface. MicroBook was released in 2010 and was straightforward in design – 1/4″ inputs and outputs giving you a 4-in/2-out audio interface for your computer that delivered excellent sound quality and performance. So hwo did MOTU up their game for the new version? It is now a 4-in/6-out, giving you mich more recording…


Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder Reunite on New McCartney Album

It is hard to believe that it has been 30 years since ‘Ebony and Ivory’ ruled the airwaves in an unlikely but perfect pairing of two mega-stars … but in just a couple of weeks we will have a new chance to hear the two on a single from McCartney’s upcoming (and oddly titled) “Kisses On The Bottom”. The song is called “Only Our Hearts”. The release of McCartney’s new album, Kisses On The Bottom, sees them reunited on one track, “Only Our Hearts,” one of two McCartney compositions on the album, which is, for the most part, a collection…


Wait … Apple TV Is More Popular Than Roku?

There is always loads of data to mine in corporate earnings announcements, and yesterday’s Apple announcement is no different. Dan covered the highlights including iPhones, Macs, iPads and iPods … but I noticed a mention at GigaOM about AppleTV sales. Apparently AppleTV sold 1.4 million units during the last quarter. I really didn’t think too much about that because I am constantly reading about how more and more game consoles are serving as full-service home entertainment systems since they can run Netflix, Hulu and more. I also just assumed that Roku and other ‘set top boxes’ were dominating much like…


Mackie Brings 16-Channel iPad Powered Mixer to NAMM

Each year when I check out the news from NAMM I look at cool new stuff as well as what is happening with companies I already known and love. Mackie Designs is one of those companies. For a long time they were a mixer-only company, and about 20 years ago when I was transitioning from trying to use my Tascam Portastudio as a pseudo-mixer into having a real home studio, the Mackie 1202 provided everything I need in a well made, high quality package at a budget price – and it is still going strong today for myself and my…


A Few Cool iTunes Match and iTunes Cloud Things to Remember

Having used iTunes Match along with iTunes in the Cloud for the last few months, I have developed a few habits that I don’t even realize are new anymore! This weekend I gave my younger son my 4th gen iPod Touch to use as his own, as he was constantly pushing beyond the limits of his 8GB iPod Touch that was the pseudo 3rd gen that was really a 2nd gen model holdover. Since I almost never use it, I had no qualms since I’d rather it actually get used than sit idle. But while going through things with him…


Apple’s Amazing Quarter Makes the iPhone Bigger Than ALL of Android!

It was only a few weeks ago when I posted the news that Android and iOS were in a virtual tie for market share of the smartphone market based on recent data, I said that ‘everyone wins’. I still believe that – I think that having strong competition in any market makes everyone work harder … and the results are better products for us as consumers! Last week Nielson put out estimates of smartphone market share for the fourth quarter of 2011, showing that iOS had significantly closed the gap with Android for recent months. Now, after the final tally…