Articles by Michael Anderson

iMainGoXP iPad Speaker Case Review

I have been fairly happy with the quality and volume of the speakers in my iPad 2, but I wouldn’t begin to pretend that they can fill a room or substitute for an external speaker system. I will typically hook up to a home setup somewhere in the house, something like the Orb Audio setup I recently reviewed. But that isn’t a portable solution, so when I got the chance to look at the iMainGo XP iPad speaker case I jumped at the offer! So let’s take a look and see how it performs! The Hype: iMainGo XP is an…

Game Diary, Reviews

Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds Mac Game Review

I already reviewed the iPad and Android versions of Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds and absolutely loved it … now that the Mac version is out and I have played it, let’s take a look and see how it compares! The Hype: Try your hand at investigating a crime, crack the case and catch the criminal in this perplexing hidden-object game! Detectives Turino and Lamonte have been assigned to a new investigative unit: Special Enquiry Detail. Their first case is the shocking death of the daughter of wealthy benefactors. Under pressure from the Captain and the Mayor to…

News & Features

Five Years Ago Today … The Smartphone Changed Forever

Whether or not you use or have used an iPhone, like or hate Apple, liked or disliked Steve Jobs, there is one reality that is self-evident: smartphone history is entirely divided into the pre-iPhone and post-iPhone era. And while the actual product didn’t reach customer hands until June 29th, it was on January 9th, 2007 that Steve Jobs stood up at the Macworld convention and changed the course of smartphone history. For the general public, the iPhone introduced a multi-touch interface that has since become the industry standard. While some changes took time to see, others were evident from the…

Music Diary, News & Features, Reviews

Vinyl Re-Visions: Steve Lacy – The Wire (Jazz, 1977)

Steve Lacy – The Wire When I first thought about doing a ‘Vinyl Revisions’ series, there were three records that came to mind: Anthony Braxton’s Five Pieces 1975, The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Reese & The Smooth Ones, and this record. I already looked back at the Braxton record, and will soon finish my look at the AEC record, but both of those share something missing from this record – a digital release! That is right, Braxton’s record was released as part of a massive collection a few years ago, and the AEC record appeared for a very short time…

News & Features

Random Cool Image: US Terrorist Identification Chart

OK, so I admit I have been a bit on the serious front with my concerns about the erosion of freedoms in our country. I do think it is important, and too easy to just let our freedoms disappear in the name of ‘security’. However, sometimes it is funny to look at something that is at once satirical and in some ways hits a bit close to the truth. Enjoy the image! The quote from the bottom of the image is worth sharing: “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Random Cool Video: Daft Punk ‘Derezzed’ on Floppy Disks

Image courtesy abduzeedo OK, so making music on floppy drives is now ‘a thing’. Which is actually kind of cool for those of us who remember floppy drive sounds and feeling like there was a certain musical aspect to them. For myself and my family, the best part of the movie Tron: Legacy was the great soundtrack by Daft Punk. And so since Tron: Legacy is very much a machine-based movie inside a computer, it is quite appropriately that the ‘floppy disk’ treatment is applied! Here is Derezzed: Source: Neatorama

Music Diary

Random Cool Video: Roger Wilco and the Radio Waves

Have you ever had someone say something that completely transported you back through time and space and landed you somewhere in your own history, completely out of context with the original conversation? Today someone used the expression ‘Roger Wilco’ and BAM I was back in my fraternity house in the mid-1980s. A few of us had come in at the start of our sophomore year and almost completely turned over the make-up of the membership, and brought in a ton of enthusiastic freshmen looking to reshape and rebuild something and really make an impact. So gone was the appreciation of…

Editorials

Warner Bros. Makes Netflix & Redbox Wait 56 Days; Will it Help DVD Sales?

Today AllThingsD is carrying a story that Warner Bros has announced a deal whereby they are further delaying delivery of new releases to Netflix and Redbox up to 56 days after release! The reasoning is simple: help bolster DVD sales. A new deal between Time Warner’s movie studio and Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster will double the “window” for new releases. That means the services will now have to wait 56 days after the discs first go on sale to offer them to their customers, instead of 28 days. However, I cannot help but wonder if this strategy is the definition…

Editorials

Android in 2011: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

You would think that with close to 50% of the smartphone world now using an Android phone, looking back at 2011 would be a uniformly positive experience. Yet it is not – in fact, it is easier for me to draw up a list of very negative things than an equally list of positives. Of course, some will say ‘that is because you hate Google and Samsung and Android and never say anything nice about them’. Am I critical? Certainly … but I believe I am just pointing out things too many folks gloss over – ironically the same folks…

Game Diary

Overdone Joke In Context … Arrow to the Knee

If you or anyone you know is a gamer to any extent, by now you have almost certainly heard the phrase “I used to be … like you, then I took an arrow to the knee”. If not … well, consider yourself lucky – it has quickly become a massively overplayed meme! The phrase comes from the recently released ‘Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’, a single player RPG from Bethesda (Elder Scrolls series including Morrowind and Oblivion, Fallout 3) that is extremely popular on the PC, XBOX360 and PS3. As you travel the MASSIVE world – trust me, any game you…

Gear Bits

The Mountain Dew Defense: We’d MELT a Mouse!

I remember hearing about the case of a mouse supposedly showing up in a can of Pepsi, and had assumed that it had all been settled out of court long ago. But a post today at the Consumerist shows that is not the case! The case goes back to 2009, and here are some details: A man who found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew after taking a swig from it is suing Pepsico, a store and its manager. Ronald Ball claims he bought a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine located at his work…

Gear Bits

Yo Dude, You Messed with the Wrong Cartoon … [NSFW-L]

Did you have any bad online shopping experiences this holiday? I did – I had a sweatshirt that we ordered online two months before Christmas for our younger son (a cool Deadmau5 one) that was ‘in stock’. They charged us in full immediately, and we never heard a thing until we finally got a shipping confirmation the day after I threatened to reverse the charge and contact the local BBB – that was mid-December, and we had the shirt in two days, along with a full written apology. Fortunately I had ordered a backup from Amazon (albeit for $10 more)…

News & Features

ClockworkMod Provides Root-Free Tethering for Android!

The ability to use your phone’s 3G internet connection as a source of on-the-go connectivity for laptops, called tethering, has long been a desire for mobile warriors. Yet each solution has significant drawbacks – official methods cost $, or you need to root your phone, or otherwise work around carrier limitations. Now Android hacker Koushik Dutta has come up with a way that is reportedly undetectable to carriers and doesn’t require you to ‘root’ your phone! Fron his Google+ page: Over the last month, I’ve been working on a new app. Tether Alpha is a USB[2] tether solution for Mac,…

Game Diary, Reviews

PC Game (Non) Review: Rage

I had planned on reviewing the shooter Rage from id software back in early October – I really did. I had it pre-ordered on Steam, loaded it up when it was released and went to play it that night and … nothing. It simply didn’t work … well, that isn’t completely true. It would seem to want to start, but fail miserably, in spite of rebooting, checking drivers, and so on. A quick check on the Steam forums – and gaming forums in general – revealed that I wasn’t alone. How long have PC gamers had to deal with messy…

Music Diary, News & Features, Reviews

Music Diary Review: Dave Chisholm – Calligraphy

Dave Chisholm – Calligraphy I reviewed Dave Chisholm’s ‘Radioactive’ nearly a year and a half ago, noting: The thing I love about the ‘new big band’ music like Chisholm’s is that it combines small ensemble open-ness and intercommunication and large group harmonic structure and depth of composition. The title track is a great example – The opening uses the full effect of the large group to build the dramatic effect then breaks out to allow a nice collaborative improvisation until the main theme takes over. In fact, regardless of the size of my portable iTunes Library (I was restricting myself…

Editorials

Thank You For Calling Verizon Wireless, How May I Collect an Extra $2 (or not)?

Sorry about the Better Off Dead image, but when I saw this at Droid-Life yesterday that was all I could think of … Verizon Wireless as Johnny chasing Lane across the field and down the mountain in search of the $2 paper money. Here is the image more related to the new policy: According to the report from the AP: Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest cellphone company, said Thursday that it will start charging $2 for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards. The company said this “convenience fee” will be introduced Jan. 15….

News & Features

Get Games Serious Sam 3: BFE for $11.99 – Activates Through Steam!

The Serious Sam games are some of my favorite shooters of the last decade, offering awesome mindless fun and constant all-out action with insane amounts of enemies and great weapons. While the two parts of the original game remain my favorites, even Serious Sam II brought loads of fun to shooter fans back in 2005. The latest entry, Serious Sam 3: BFE, was released on November 22nd to solid if unspectacular reviews. Here are some of the features: • Frantic Arcade-Style Action – The calling card of the Serious Sam series, hold down the trigger and lay waste to a…

Editorials, Game Diary

Sony PS Vita Sales Drop 78% in Week Two!

Sony’s Playstation Vita launched in Japan two weeks ago to what was described as success, selling ~325,000 units and over 300,000 games (yes, that is fewer games than game systems … I’ll let you figure THAT one out). By comparison, the Nintendo 3DS launch last March sold ~375,000 at the initial $249 pricing. So in theory that was a pretty decent start … perhaps it meant that earlier predictions of it being ‘DOA’ were unfounded? Turns out … no. First off think about timing – a March release compared to a mid-December release. One is at a low point in…

Music Diary, News & Features

RIP Free-Jazz Legend Sam Rivers at 88

Today we learned of another sad passing in the music world, of a musician and bandleader who was one of the most reknowned free jazz artists, Sam Rivers. Though he is not known outside of the relatively small creative jazz community, he made a large impact on the music of the last half-century. He is best known for a brief stint with the Miles Davis quintet after George Coleman left but before the ‘great second quintet’ was completed by the addition of Wayne Shorter in 1964. That produced the excellent live recording ‘Miles in Tokyo’ recording which was excellently remastered…

Editorials

Quiscence Music Reminds Us of the Value and Cost of $1

I Have written about the various Humble Bundles that not only do something good by bringing attention to deserving Indie developers, they also donate a portion of their proceeds to charity, making it an all-around great deal. But as was brought to my attention after the first one was announced, copies of those games were quickly found on file sharing sites! Imagine that – something you could get for $1 … but you STILL have to steal it! Quiescence Music offered up all of their existing lessons and tutorials and other resources as a $1 one-week trial. More recently Quiescence…

Music Diary

Wynton Marsalis ‘Music of Jelly Roll Morton & King Oliver’ Live Stream Tonight (12/29)!

The ability to watch concerts via LiveStream is definitely not as good as being there, but definitely better than completely missing the event. Wynton Marsalis has been great about sharing live performances, and today he is hosting a great look back at Jelly Roll Morton & King Oliver, two of the pioneers of jazz. Live From Dizzy’s Club-Coca, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York: Wynton Marsalis: The Music of Jelly Roll Morton & King Oliver Join us tonight at 7:30PM ET & 10:00PM ET on Facebook and Livestream Wynton’s first full week at Dizzy’s features Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson, Marcus Printup,…

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