Free songs on iTunes UK, Young Americans Music sampler

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 01:46:44 +0000

iTunes has a wonderful promotion on it’s UK Facebook page, they are giving away 5 free songs. Song are encoded in iTunes Plus format, 256kbps AAC without any DRM. This means that you can play them on any device you like. Please note that this offer works only with UK iTunes accounts, it expires in the end of February.

To get the songs you have to have both iTunes and Facebook accounts. Simply go to this Facebook page and become a fan of iTunes(UK) if you are not already. When you are done, click on the ‘Get Code’ button. On the next page click ‘Redeem Now’. This will automatically open up iTunes on your computer, ask for your password and start downloading your free songs. Thats it!

Here’s what you can get:

Grizzly Bear - "Cheerleader"
Colourmusic - "Yes!"
Ingrid Michaelson - "Maybe"
Visqueen - "Beautiful America"
The Postmarks - "Go Jetsetter”

The Third Device

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 00:53:16 +0000

We all use phones/smartphones or laptops/desktops. But do we need something in between? A third device thats bigger and more powerful then phone but lighter and easier to use then a laptop.
I was searching for it for quite a long time. I’m a student and I live in Brighton, but study in London. That’s about an hour away on the train, so I spend at least 2 hours a day travelling. That’s a long time, time that I can use to do work, assignments and many other things.
The iPhone is a great phone, but it’s still a phone. I use it all the time, most of my email I manage on the phone. But when it comes to writing long texts or doing research on the web, it’s just doesn’t do the drill. I need something bigger and powerful. My MacBook and MacBook Pro are just too large and bulky to carry them around every day.
I thought that having a netbook might be the answer. Netbooks are small and inexpensive computers running full versions of desktop operating systems. There are some lightweight Linux distributions available, but they are still immature to use on day to day basics.
So I’ve got myself a netbook, MSI Wind U100. It has a typical netbook specs, standard Intel Atom CPU with 160GB hard drive and 10” screen. It comes preinstalled with Windows XP Home, but this model is fairly compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
When I got it I was really excited about small form factor. This machine is really small compared to MacBook. But I didn't realise that the size was it’s biggest disadvantage. When I work on it for long time it’s really hurting my hands. Small touchpad is more like a torture device. At home I use always USB mouse with it just because it’s so uncomfortable to use the touchpad. But I never have to use mouse with any of my Apple laptops.
Another problem with it is battery life. Cheap PC laptops don’t have the luxury of Apple’s custom build batteries and they have to use standard round cells. This is very inefficient use of space, that leads to 2 types of batteries. Slim batteries that does not slick out from the bottom of the netbook, but have extremely poor battery life, or high-capacity batteries that provide good battery life, but stick out on the bottom of computer. That’s just a few of many issues with netbooks.
I thought that I would just have to live with all of those problems, until Apple released the iPad.
Why do we want mobile devices powered by desktop operating systems? They are optimised for powerful processors and keyboard and mouse input. Ultra-mobile computers have none of those features. If iPad was running on full OS X it will be sluggish and hard to use, imagine tapping on tiny icons and scroll bars with your fingers. It’s hard, very hard. When I had a Windows Mobile phone years back, long before the iPhone, I just could not press anything on it’s screen with my finger. Yes, it was optimised for stylus input, but stylus is very much like a mouse, precise pointing device. Fingers are different. You need to have big large buttons and multitouch to control touch screen computer. Mac OS X UI definitely does not fit into this category.
Furthermore, to get good user experience, mobile device must turn on and off fast, almost instant to be ready to use in any moment. Desktop OSs don’t have this capability thats why many PC manufacturers install second, instant-on Linux-based OS. But those solutions are limited and slow, plus users want to have consistent experience on their device. Having two separate operating systems is hardly consistent.
The iPad can do everything what I want from small mobile computer. But it also can do so much more. I think the biggest strength of iPad is one of it’s most criticised features, iPhone OS. It is fast, robust and easy to use, but most importantly, it is optimised for mobile use and finger input. Biggest limitation of the iPhone is it’s screen size. There is simply no way to run large sophisticated applications on tiny screen. Large scale iPhone would make a perfect tablet computer. Apple has proven it with their iWork suit for iPad. iWork is my office suit of choice on the Mac, it has very easy to use interface and can produce beautiful documents. iWork version for iPad shown during Apple event in January is so robust and powerful that it can’t even be compared to anything available for iPhone now. Yes, iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad are very similar in hardware, but large screen makes that much difference. And this is just a preview of what applications can be written for iPad, I’m really excited what independent developers will come up with. iPad has a huge potential!
Another advantage of using iPhone OS is the App Store. App Store revolutionised industry, it never was so easy to get apps on mobile device. Some people I know who find it hard to use full-featured computer, but they didn’t even need to read the manual for iPhone. It’s just so easy and intuitive to use. And with thousands of apps available now, I’m sure App Store will be a major selling point of the iPad.

Robust and easy to use operating systems in conjunction with a lot of powerful application will make the iPad my ideal mobile computer, the one I can take and use everywhere and still be productive. I can’t wait to get my hands on it, only one thing left to decide is what version to go for, with mobile broadband, or just Wi-Fi.

First Issue of World of Warcraft Official Magazine

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:14:25 +0000

First issue of official WoW magazine has just arrived yesterday in the mail! It was a bit unexpected since I completely forgot that I subscribed for it. Blizzard announced that they are going to release the magazine in late August last year and shortly after that they started accepting subscriptions. World of Warcraft magazine is a quarterly publication, it cost £29.95 for one year or £52.50 for 2 years. It works out at £7.50 o £6.50 per issue, depending what subscription you go for. That’s actually quite a good price to me. It won’t be sold in retail, only one way to get the magazine is subscribe online.

Issue 1 has 148 full colour glossy pages, but most importantly it has no advertising. No ads at all! I stopped reading regular magazines long ago, just because some of them have more ads then actual articles. Print quality is very good, pages are nice and thick, some publications use very thin paper that easily tears, there is no such problem here.

When Blizzard first announced plans to make their own publication, many critics were sceptical about this idea. Mainly because people believe that print media is dying and more and more customers read online. Also because online media can deliver news much faster, some doubted that Blizzard can deliver relevant information in quarterly issues. Understanding that I think Blizzard decided to go different route and include a lot of editorial content, beautiful graphics, many interviews with development team and other exclusive content. All this exclusive information can’t be found elsewhere.

The magazine is full of stunning graphics, Blizzard says that they employ top artist to draw unique artwork specifically for this magazine. Julian Rignall, Editorial Director of WoW Official Magazine says that; “Rather then simply tell you how to play, we’re going to show you a wide variety of opinions on enjoying, exploring and extending game’s fun beyond the borders of the screen.” I think that this quote reflects quite well what the magazine is all about. The first issue has a feature on WoW 5th anniversary. It was really interesting to read about early stages of development, see how game shaped over the years. There are even screenshots of the first alpha version of the game, something that most players never actually seen.

Another good think is that Blizzard positions it as coffeetable publication, I can certainly agree with it as I can see myself picking up a copy in a few weeks or month and read again a few articles that I really like or something I have missed.

Overall I’m very pleased with the first issue and hope that Blizzard will keep up with the great work in the next issues. I will definitely recommend everyone who is interested in World of Warcraft to subscribe for this magazine. You can find more information about it as well as previews of articles on official website, http://www.worldofwarcraftthemagazine.com.

Say Hello To iPad!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:30:20 +0000

I can’t believe this finally happened, after long months and years of endless rumours it’s finally here! Say hello to iPad!

Today Steve Jobs at Apple press event in San Francisco announced the Apple tablet. It’s designed to fill the gap between iPhone and MacBook. But Apple didn’t want to just fill this gap, but design device that will be better at doing key tasks.
Better at Browsing, Email, Photos, Video, Music, Games and eBooks. I’m especially excited about the lats one. I wanted to buy an eBook reader, but it would be just another device to carry. With iPad I will have a device that has large enough screen to read books, but that could do so much more. And to go with it Apple announced their own eBook store, books will be sold in open-source ePub format. No more problems with nasty DRM like on Kindle. Also Apple developed iPad version of iWork, my favourite office suite. All 3 apps, Pages, Keynote and Numbers will be sold separately for $9.99 each. Thats quite a reasonable price to me, especially considering how much functionality they provide.

Judging by videos and early hands-on, iPad looks awesome!

Here are the specs:

✴ 9.7” 1024x768 LED backlit HD screen
✴ 1GHz Apple custom-designed CPU
✴ 16, 32 or 64 GB SSD drive
✴ Wi-FI a/b/g/n with optional 3G
✴ Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
✴ 10 hours of battery life

Hopefully I will get one as soon as it’s released. Apple said that Wi-Fi version will be available in late March and 3G in April, but thats only for USA, I haven’t found any info on UK release date. Apple’s UK website hasn’t been updated yet. I think Wi-Fi version will launch here at the same time as in States, but Steve said during keynote that European 3G version will arrive some time in June. I might just decide to go for WiFi version instead of waiting more months for 3G. It will save me time and money on monthly mobile broadband access.

Apple just posted streaming version of today’s presentation, you can watch it here. I’m still waiting for them to release downloadable version as a podcast on iTunes, but that probably will take some time.

MSI Wind U100 unboxing

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:45:25 +0000

I’ve been wanting to get a netbook for quite some time now. Mainly because my Unibody 17” MacBook Pro is simply too large if I just want to browse the Internet to write an email or two. I’ve chosen MSI Wind U100 because it runs Mac OS X quite well and looks kind of similar to black plastic MacBook. I wanted my hackintosh netbook to be as close to real Mac as it can be. All I have to do now is remove ugly Windows and Intel stickers. Here are my unboxing photos:

Same as Macs, MSI Wind comes in brown protective box, containing proper colour laptop box.

Actual Wind box

My Wind came with a free carrying sleeve. I didn't expect that, but I doubt if I will ever use it, netbook is small enough to fit in to any bag.

Wind power adapter is on the left and Apple’s MagSafe is on the right.

Build and plastic quality is quite good, netbook feels nice and solid

MSI Wind looks tiny compared to 17” MacBook Pro

Wind booting up

Illustrator drawing

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 02:10:55 +0000

My work for Still Image unit at the Uni:

Credits:
Font: Free bitmap font 04b_03 by 04 www.dafont.com/04b-03.font
Vector MacBook Pro by Sebastien Filion, used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada vector.tutsplus.com/freebies/vectors/macbook-pro-freebie/

Anti-fur protest outside Max Mara on Bond Street in London

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:04:04 +0000

I was on Bond Street yesterday and was shocked by the anti-fur protest outside Max Mara. I love Bond Street because it offers very nice and quiet shopping experience, especially compared to large department stores like Selfridges and Harrods.
The last thing I want to see is some people shouting and protesting.
I don’t agree that fur is bad. I love fur, my boyfriend loves fur and my Mum loves fur. And she loves MaxMara too. We kill animals for food we kill animals for millions other purposes, what’s wrong with fur?
Protesters were shouting things like “Fur parade - torture trade” and “Shame on Max Mara”, but they certainly didn't look like they belong on Bond Street. Watch the video below:

Pandemonium for iPhone

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:32:55 +0000

I can't believe that Pandemonium is finally in UK App Store. It was released back in May, but due to some licensing issues it wasn't available until now. I was going to loose my hope and give up on it, but 2 days ago I saw it on EA Mobile App Store page.
It's one of the the best classic console games! Originally Pandemonium was released for PlayStation and PC, I didn’t have a PlayStation back then, so the first time I played the game was on original Nokia N-Gage. In 2003 this game looked great on Nokia phone, in fact it was one of the main reasons of me getting N-Gage.
iPhone port is good, EA didn’t make any changes to the game as far as I can tell. Gameplay is the same as it was on N-Gage 6 years ago. Certainly Nokia device is no match for an iPhone, graphics have been improved considerably. Game feels much more alive and fresh. Part because iPhone is much more faster and powerful, N-Gage version suffered some slow downs on open-air scenes and part because original N-Gage phone had only 4096 colour screen and it was very dim too. Graphics quality has been improved a lot, picture doesn’t look so squarish and pixelated.
Original game was designed for hardware controller. But unlike other games, particularly 3D ones, its very easy to play it on the iPhone. It feels very intuitive and ergonomic. There is no need to learn controls you just tap and go.

As with any game port, Pandemonium is not destined to be a best selling hit, but its a nice addition to App Store and it will find a respectable place in gamers collection.

Below are some screenshots of the same scenes on iPhone and N-Gage for comparison. I had to reduce the size of iPhone screenshots to fit the page, but N-Gage screens are full resolution.

iPhone N-Gage

iPhone N-Gage

iPhone N-Gage

iPhone N-Gage

iPhone N-Gage

iPhone N-Gage

Thanks for reading :)

Experience and issues with official iPhone unlock on O2

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:37:01 +0000

I got my first iPhone on day one when if first became officially available in UK. Since then I’m on my third device, original iPhone was replaced with 3G and that 3GS recently. So basically I have 2 phones laying around collecting dust, I got really excited about a possibility to unlock them and use on the other networks or while travelling.

I did unlock my iPhone 3G before, when I was travelling to Bali, but I absolutely hated the fact that I needed to jailbreak it.

On 10th of November I went straight to O2 website and filled in the unlock form. O2 said that they will contact me back in 14 days to let me know when my iPhone is ready to be unlocked. I decided to try and unlock my original iPhone first.

Today I finally got a text saying that my iPhone is now unlocked to use non-O2 SIM. All I needed to do is to connect it to iTunes to finish the process.

After connecting it to my MacBook Pro and launching iTunes, I got the following screen:

I had to agree to T&C, but the text was blank. Clicking on FAQ button doesn't give much more information ether.

Hopefully Apple will add some content in those boxes in the future. After clicking Continue on the first screen, iTunes starts to activate the device.

And finally success!

My 2 first attempts to unlock it were unsuccessful, iTunes was stuck at Activation screen. But in the end I got there.

There are a few issues I’ve encountered:

First of all, for some reason every single time when I inserted a new SIM card, my iPhone was showing me ‘Connect to iTunes’ screen. Even after changing cards and then later putting back the card that was working before, I still had to start unlocking all other again from very beginning. I hope it won’t always be like it, especially it will be a pain when travelling. I won’t always have Internet connection on my laptop abroad.

Another issue is the I didn't manage to get it working with any other SIM, but Orange. I had a few SIM’s form virtual carriers and a few foreign ones but iPhone would refuse to take any of those.

This is the message that iPhone with wrong SIM shows.

Connecting to iTunes doesn’t help, it’s still stuck at this screen.

I really hope that by allowing to ‘unlock’ iPhones, O2 and Apple doesn’t mean that it will only work on authorised, official carriers like Orange.

Unfortunately I didn't have any other major mobile operator SIM cards, like Vodafone, T-Mobile, Mobile 3 and others, but I ordered some already. I will do more testing once I’ll get those cards.

Another thin is as I said that even if I remove working SIM, and then put it back, iPhone will ask me to activate and unlock again. Well, it doesn't always work, I had to do the whole process 3 times to get my Orange SIM working again.

Overall the unlock process is far from being as smooth as it supposed to be. I feel a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get it work with other SIM cards, but Orange. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future. There is a possibility that there was something wrong with SIM cards that I used or some other problem. I will try to unlock my iPhone 3G soon and do further testing with new SIM cards.

Apple Store in Brighton is nearing completion

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:42:30 +0100

Black plywood has been removed now and you can see actual front of the store. All the windows are still covered in black.

Yesterday I’ve read an article about opening of Apple Store in Ottawa on Electronista. And it looks like that front of the store in Brighton is just like the one in Canada. Here are pictures to compare:

Apple Store in Brighton, July 20th’09

Apple Store in Ottawa, July 19th’09

(Apple Store Rideau Centre by Lenny W. ,
available under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic license)

According to Electronista, this is Apple’s latest retail design with full glass front, opposed to side windows common to many older stores. Brighton has been long in need of official Apple Store. It’s great that we are getting the latest design. I’m really hoping to be one of the first in the line and to get my Apple T-Shirt :)

Update: Just got an email form Apple today, saying that store will open at 1o AM on Saturday, 25th of July. I’m still in Bali and I won’t come back until 2nd of August. I cant believe I’m gonna miss grand opening ;(