Michael Anderson | Gear Diary

Can Braun Tame the Planet of the Apes?

Summer beach weather is here in force, and the new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes is about to open, meaning that you are seeing hairy-backed individuals rampaging EVERYWHERE! And the folks at Braun have done a survey that shows that the women of the UK are having NONE OF IT! As the nation basks in the summer sun, Braun reveals what women really think of their partner’s body hair. With a summer full of poolside fun, men listen up and take note – three quarters (75%) of UK women don’t want a completely hair free man, they…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Semi-Quavers: Quick Looks at Recent Releases in Pop & Rock

As I have mentioned, I love listening to loads of new music across a variety of genres, and have very much appreciated how many folks have shared new music with me since I have started writing music reviews for Gear Diary. I started off with full, large song-by-song reviews (whole notes), and then started to also do somewhat shorter reviews that don’t pick apart each song (half-notes). Then I started a series where I would have a shorter review for a number of albums that also targets a favored song and target audience (quarter note), but have found that process…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: MTV Turns 30 … What is YOUR Favorite Music Video?

MTV Launched 30 years ago today, on August 1st 1981. Over the decades, the music video art form has changed in some ways yet remains a product in service of a song. The channel itself has become somewhat of a joke in many ways, as in the late 1990’s the ‘music’ part became a minority share, and now we have a channel more focused on Snooki (Jersey Shore) and Amber (Teen Mom) than Katy or Kanye. But over the decades MTV has done many other things as well. While it wasn’t the originator of music videos as art and entertainment…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Review: Julian Lage – ‘Gladwell’ (2011, Jazz)

Julian Lage – ‘Gladwell’ One of the most direct methods of music discovery – aside from recommendations of friends – is listening to a great recording and looking for recordings from people on that record whose playing you enjoyed. In my recent review of Gary Burton’s Common Ground, I highlighted guitarist Julian Lage. I quickly discovered that Lage had just released his second album at the end of April … so I headed back to iTunes and added another chunk of music to my iCloud! Summary: If you watch the first video I included, you will hear Julian speak of…

Music Diary

Pop Goes the Music Diary: The Power of Performance

Do you remember your first REAL concert? I sure do – I was going to be a freshman in high school, and my brother and his friends were going into their senior year. They had an extra ticket to the Doobie Brothers and I was able to grab it and join them (yeah, I REALLY just dated myself). Not only was it my first concert, it was the first time I drank a full beer, and the first time I experienced the smell of marijuana – the old Boston Garden was a haze of pot smoke and I’m pretty sure…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Why Predictions of Vinyl Out-living CD’s Make Sense

It had been close to three decades since I bought anything on vinyl, as I started shifting my collection from Vinyl to CD. In both cases I was simply recording to tape since my portable system in my college room was a tape-based system – and I wasn’t ready to move my expensive CD system into that environment! But I have maintained the hundreds of records in my collection in pristine condition, but really haven’t played them in ages. That is in stark contrast with my wife, who has always used her records for their given purpose – to play…

Editorials

Twin Posts of Different Bloggers: C’mon people … we can do better than THIS!

We each wrote a post about a rumor that took on a life of its own and, in the process, lowers the credibility of all of us. With apologies to Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weissberg, the posts really are “Twin Posts of Different Bloggers” so we thought we would combine them into one. First up… Michael’s post… And THIS is How Unconfirmed Rumors Become Fact Yesterday at TechCrunch I saw this article talking about “Android’s Dirty Secret: Shipping Numbers Are Strong But Returns Are 30-40%“. I sent a message linking it to the Gear Diary team, but said: Wow ……

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Has Early Success, but … a LONG Way to Go to that 50 Million Member Goal!

Over the weekend we got some initial data from the Spotify launch courtesy of Billboard, who cite ‘inside sources’ as estimating that in the first week or so after launch Spotify has 70,000 subscribers (i.e. people who pay). From the article: In my travels last night and in emails this morning I had three distinct label/publisher execs confirm the same number: that @Spotify has right in the ballpark of 70,000 paid Stateside subscribers after only one week in business. It’s hard to put these numbers into context, but it would also be hard to call that anything but positive news…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: R.I.P. Pop Singer Amy Winehouse Self-Destructs at 27

This weekend we got the news that bluesy-pop singer Amy Winehouse has died at age 27. While the immediate cause of death is not known, speculation that her rampant heavy drug use came into play are probably not far off. Her drug use and many trips to hospitals, making her song Rehab all-too-biographical, are better known than her songs at this point, as her 15 minutes of actual music fame passed nearly five years ago. Unfortunately, to teens today, she is known as a drunken drug addict with an ironically titled song from years ago. Sadly, anyone who is surprised…

Music Diary, News & Features

Random Cool Video: 1951 ‘Wanna Buy A Record’ Promo Surfaces!

My younger son recently produced a full length album of his electronic music entirely on his iPad and has some of it on SoundCloud. It is an amazing, all-digital process that is a world away from what was possible just a decade ago. When I took a few classes in music as an undergraduate, we were still splicing tape and dealing with ground loops and finicky pre-MIDI timing woes. It is amazing to think about how recording techniques have changed since the early days of the LP. There are plenty of written records, but now we have a fun video…

eBooks

And … the Nook App Update Removes Store Links from iOS

Carly said it best – A picture is worth 1,000 words… Carly just posted about Amazon removing store links from their Kindle app. Now Barnes & Noble has done the same. Here is the description of their update: What’s New in Version 2.1.2 You can read any NOOK Book you have purchased on this updated NOOK for iPhone app, however the Shop link has been removed so to buy NOOK Books from your iPhone, open your Safari browser and go to nookbooks.com. This is just the latest in an evolving saga that has basis in a single Apple policy they…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Review: The New Gary Burton Quartet – ‘Common Ground’ (2011, Jazz)

The New Gary Burton Quartet – ‘Common Ground’ In school bands the vibraphone is taught as a percussion instrument, which it certainly is to an extent as a mallet-based instrument. Yet when you listen to the sounds it produces, it is hard not to classify it closer to the piano or guitar in terms of harmonic presence. In the 1960’s two major forces emerged on the instrument – Bobby Hutcherson and Gary Burton – who took up the mantle from Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton and modernized the instrument. While Hutcherson focused on taking the sound and style of the…

Reviews

My 15 Hour ‘Make It Last’ Torture Test: VAIO S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’

In this article, I test out my ‘Make It Last’ scenario – that is just what it sounds like: a svelte setup that doesn’t use any power unless it absolutely needs to but allows me to go about my day and get stuff done. The graphics are set to ‘Stamina’ (integrated) and the power plan to ‘power saver.’ One of the big claims of the new VAIO S-series laptop is that not only does it deliver great performance in a svelte package, but combined with the sheet battery, it can deliver up to 15 hours of usage between charges. I…

Game Diary, Reviews

iPad Game Review: Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds

Mix together a crime-drama mystery, puzzles, hidden objects, and tons of twists and turns and intrigue … and you have the makings of one of the most compelling games made for the iPad this year. The name of that game is “Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds” from G5 Entertainment. Let’s take a look and see if it lives up to that promise! 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….

Editorials

GD QuickRant: Why Apple is Correct to Aggressively Litigate IP Issues

This week Google Chairman Eric Schmidt made a widely covered statement: “The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding,” Schmidt reportedly said. “Because they are not responding with innovation, they’re responding with lawsuits. We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success.” In other words, if it was some small company or a marginal OS like Windows Phone 7, Apple wouldn’t bother – except that they HAVE done this: remember Psystar? Apple has aggressively sought patents on their technologies and…

News & Features

News Flash: Google Has Done NOTHING About Android Fragmentation in 2011!

Over at Android Central there was a reminder of the stark reality facing Android users: the Blackberry PlayBook has a newer version of Android than 81% of all users! As noted there: It’s running a newer version of Android than some 80 percent of you guys out there. When last we looked, some 18.6 percent of Android devices were running Android 2.3.x. (Honeycomb devices made up less than 1 percent on top of that.) And RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook? Why, it’s running Android 2.3.3, while some 59 percent of you out there are still officially stuck on Froyo, and another 18…

Music Diary

Music Diary Songs of Note: 20 Years of Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’

Saying that the summer of 1991 was the dawn of a new era in rock music might sound like hyperbole, but when you look at how Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam burst out of Seattle to topple the corporate hair-metal that continued to dominate after the close of the 80’s … it all seems clear. Nirvana was the clear ‘poster child’ for the grunge and alt-rock movement, with Nevermind being the touchstone moment when the music went from local hit to nationwide phenomenon in a matter of weeks. But just before Nevermind, another Seattle group – Pearl…

Game Diary, Reviews

iPad Game Review: Treasure Seekers III HD: Follow the Ghosts

Several months ago I reviewed Treasure Seekers II: The Enchanted Canvases. Similar to the Mystery of the Crystal Portal games, Treasure Seekers are hidden object games with a story that keeps you engaged as you go along. Now there is a new entry to the series – Treasure Seekers III HD: Follow the Ghosts. Does it live up to the high standards of its predecessors? The Hype: Use your Hidden Object skills to explore a mysterious world, and discover valuable clues. In Treasure Seekers 3: Follow the Ghosts you will help Nelly and Tom release unlucky ghosts trapped by an…

eBooks, News & Features

Star Wars Lost Tribes of the Sith Book #7 Released for Free!

A couple of weeks ago I highlighted that the first six Lost Tribes of the Sith ebooks were available on the Amazon Kindle for free. As was noted, these books were ALWAYS free, as they were more set up as tie-ins to the core Fate of the Jedi series. Regardless, it is a great deal for some decent Star Wars books, and now the 7th book in the series has been released – also for free! Here is the description: When the Sith ship Omen crash-landed on Kesh two thousand years ago, the crew encountered native barbarism and superstition. Now…

Game Diary, Reviews

iPad Game Review: Jack of All Tribes HD

It used to be so simple to categorize so-called ‘casual games’. Trivial time wasters, like a Match-3 puzzler like Bejeweled, or other fun little games like Zuma or Peggle. Or there were hidden object games or puzzles that would last a couple of hours. But suddenly we have a game where we need to gather resources, build and upgrade bases, stave off invading forces, meet objectives from quest-givers and time constraints … and suddenly you realize that Jack of All Tribes is NOT your ordinary casual game! The Hype: Travel to the past with Jack and rule a prehistoric tribe…

News & Features

Livescribe Issues Mac OS X ‘Lion’ Compatibility Warning – Don’t Upgrade Yet!

If you depend on Livescribe Desktop on your Mac from day to day, they have some advice: don’t upgrade to Lion … yet! Here is what they are saying: Livescribe Software Notice Regarding Mac OS X Lion The current version of Livescribe Desktop 2.7.2 is not completely compatible with Apple’s new Mac OS upgrade (Lion) that will be available to the public this month. We are working hard to complete an update to the Livescribe Desktop that will address this issue and plan to have it available for customers within the next few weeks. Until this software update is available,…

Articles by Michael Anderson