Filed under: Audio, Fun, Internet

I love the RIAA. They make sure the hard working bands that record the music we love can still squeak out a living in the face of an ever-growing number of freeloading downloaders. Without them, how many talentless, lip-synching, manufactured performers would be able to afford homes in Orange County and multiple Bentleys?

In the interest of helping our readers stay out of jail and avoid massive fines, here are a bunch of places you can get tunes without fear of finding a summons in your mailbox. There's plenty of good, free, and legal music on the net for you to download.

1. iLike is a social music site which allows you to discover new music with a little help from your friends. Free downloads and the buddy system, what could be better?
   
   
2. Altsounds has a lot of streaming content, but there are quite a few quality mp3 downloads mixed in, including bands like Anberlin, Panic at the Disco, 10 Years, and Underoath.
   
   
3. bt.etree.org tracks live recording torrents of "bootleg friendly" bands. You'll be able to find all kinds of FLAC downloads from performers like Ben Harper, Jerry Garcia, Blues Traveler, Trey Anastasio (I smell a trend here, or at least some patchouli), Radiohead, Primus, and even Tenacious D.

Continue reading 35 Places To Download Free, Legal MP3s - Sorry, RIAA!

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Search, web 2.0

Continue reading MiaMia : Ask Anything, Get Email or SMS Answers. Sometimes.

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Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your sometimes-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this, the "Anti-iPhone Day All-Android-Edtion" (this one is for you Todd!) edition:

• Winners of the Android Developer Challenge announced
• Android SDK features and updates
• The "Android App Store?"
• Android links round-up

Continue reading Googleholic for August 29, 2008

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Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Google, Freeware, web 2.0

Some of the applications I use most often aren't desktop apps, they're web apps that I access through a web browser. Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs, for example. GMDesk is an Adobe AIR-based client for these and other Google-based services. It's based on the idea that you shouldn't have to fire up a web browser just to check your email.

The concept is sound, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. We've seen other attempts at taking web apps away from the browser. Bubbles and Mozilla Prism are two examples. But as with those programs, GMDesk just doesn't seem to offer much functionality that you couldn't get from a browser. What's more, while Prism and Bubbles offer stripped-down browser-style windows that tend to be a little lighter on your computer's RAM usage than Firefox or Internet Explorer, GMDesk eats 100+ MB of RAM as soon as you launch it.

There are two other factors that make GMDesk a bit limiting. First, the fonts in Gmail are kind of small and awkward to read. And second, you can only have one window open at a time. So if you like to keep both Gmail and Google Reader open throughout the day, you're going to want to fire up a web browser.

That isn't to say that GMDesk is useless. If the developer can reduce the RAM usage, and/or allow you to open multiple windows or multiple tabs, it would be nice for Gmail addicts to keep a window open all day while resisting the temptation to do some web surfing when they should be working.

[via CyberNet]

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Filed under: Apple, Analysis, iPhone

OK, I'll admit I own an iPhone. Thing is, I refuse to pay AT&T's completely ridiculous rates. Why are iPhone data packets at a premium, exactly? Anyway, I use the thing as more of a PDA, and I like the mic, speakers and camera. Sure, my Palm has two of those, but that camera is great for sending shots while on the go (and within a wifi hotspot). If I had the dough I'd get a Nokia N95, however.

So after using this 1st-gen iPhone for a few weeks, here are five things that Apple got completely wrong:

5. Codecs? We don't need no steenking codecs!
Just like Apple TV, the Cupertino Ivory Tower refuses to acknowledge the existence of codecs outside their shiny white walled garden. That's a shame, as Divx and a couple of others are really superb codecs, providing efficient and gorgeous playback. On everything but iPhones and Apple TV's, that is. I'm not sure if they are afraid of competition, licensing fees or just snobs. Hm, one of those rhymes with Jobs...

4. Sandboxes are for kids, not a multitasking OS.
Oh copy and paste, where art thou? I'll keep banging this drum, because the beat goes on. The Macintosh pioneered the ease of a clipboard. Microsoft did one better in Office by providing multiple copy/paste repositories. And you're telling me copy/paste was an afterthought? I call malarkey on that! Every proper mobile OS can copy/paste. It's stuff like this that gives you a very solid feeling Apple rushed the entire iPhone experience out the door.

3. App Store? How about Crash Store?
Last night I saw the "App Store" ad. I laughed out loud. If only my iPhone could install apps so easily. The first time I tried using third-party apps, all downloaded via the iPhone, they locked up, started crashing and wouldn't come back. Guess what? A 5-hour journey to "Erase and Restore Land" made things mostly better. Yeah, I had to grab pen and paper to keep track of what I lost. And yeah, I had to re-enter all my settings. Even today installing an app is major fail. It never finishes the "installing" progress bar. I have to reboot a couple of times for it to appear. Google apps on my BlackBerry may hang up, but they install properly, at least. Don't get me started on the wonky "updates" system, either. Seriously.

2. The maze of settings a Minotaur could be proud of, with customization tossed to the wayside.
Wouldn't it be cool to have profiles so you don't have to tweak a dozen settings depending on whether you are at home (with wifi) or in the boonies (EDGE)? Too bad usability and simplicity were lost when the iPhone was born. Or how about the fact that you can't really customize the organization on the screen? Sure, you can try -- but either restoring or re-installing apps will shuffle things around. There's no category-based system, as you find on the Palm. There are no folders. Just a massive, sliding list of stuff with no rhyme or reason. This makes it very frustrating when you need certain apps to always appear front-and-center (like Camera, Evernote and ShoZu). I spend about 1/3 of my time shuffling apps knowing that all that hard work is one crappy install away from being shot to hell. Decades of UI and brain research gone with the flick of a finger.

1. Backups, only 3 hours to go!
Actually, I wish it was 3. Shoot, I wish it was at least predictable. Most iPhone users are now trained to plug the thing in at night. I guess that makes sense, but you know what also makes sense? Iterative backups. You know, like a little thing known as Time Machine? Once again, this smacks of sloppy, rushed coding. iPods do a fast sync and BOOM, you're ready to rock. The iPhone makes you wait hours for a backup, and even then you might wind up with a corrupted backup... Which isn't really a backup at all, is it?

I think the bottom line is that Apple rushed the App Store, rushed the OS 2.0 release and is currently playing the averages. The average iPhone user appears happy. They are wowed by the glitz and glamour of such an advanced machine. But like at Vegas, by the time the cocaine and hooch wears off, they are gonna wind up sore and bruised, wishing they could take it all back. I sincerely hope Apple takes the necessary time to fix this stuff instead of adding more bells and whistles to an already precarious platform.

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Filed under: Internet, Microsoft

Microsoft is apparently throwing around some of the money it didn't spend on buying Yahoo! or Facebook this year. Steve Ballmer recently pulled $486 million out of his wallet to acquire Greenfield Online, the German company that runs price comparison and shopping portal Ciao.

The move could help Microsoft make inroads with European internet users. Ciao receives over 26 million unique visitors each month. Greenfield also operates an online sales and market research division, but apparently Microsoft isn't as interested in that business. PaidContent reports that the company plans to sell off the research arm and just hang onto Ciao.

Sure, Microsoft could have just pumped a few million dollars into making its own shopping site more useable, but when you've got mountains of cash lying around, sometimes it's easier to just buy an already popular service.

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Filed under: Fun, PalmSource, Analysis

While you're busy flicking and pinching and shaking your iPhone, watching apps crash and getting a white screen of death, I've been busy editing Office docs and playing Insaniquarium. What, you can't do that on your precious touch-screen of joy? Pity. And yes, Palm OS 5.whatever, aka "Garnet" is pretty old. So what? Let's change the name to "Helen Mirren." See? Infinitely sexier.

I wrote about my love of the Palm T|X a year ago today. The fact is, I never owned a Newton. I went Palm OS and never looked back. Chalk it up to the fact that my pockets wouldn't accommodate a MessagePad 2000. Since I bought my first Palm Pilot Pro many moons ago, I've owned a delectable Handspring Visor (the expansion port was too cool, but modules were also too expensive), a Palm V and a WristPDA. I'd still use the WristPDA except for the fact that it won't hold a charge.

OK, we're still waiting for the next version of Palm OS. Where are the multimedia features the Be acquisition would add? What about this Linux-based rewrite? Who cares? The fact is, Palm got it right when it came to synchronizing data: make it simple, fast and reliable. Nowadays true, ubiquitous data sync is like a unicorn with herpes -- you wish you could find it, but there's always this glaring flaw: datatypes don't match up, making mush of your info. I chalk that up to Palm losing the battle they started long ago and never opening up their tech to become a real standard. But when it worked, man it worked well. There's a lot to be said for simplicity, and using Palm OS is like sitting in a classic car. You aren't worried about all the buttons -- you just drive.

So yeah, the iPhone has advantages, like a pretty decent browser, multi-touch and video playback that isn't a battery-draining and soul-sucking experience. But I'll keep my soul and the Palm -- because nothing says love like an SD card full of memories, games and work documents. There are still lots of little touches in Palm OS worth keeping it around (how about keeping your icons organized?). As Riley and Huey's Granddad would say, "there's no school like the old school." Word. Did I mention I can edit Word docs?

In the gallery I list a few apps notably missing on the iPhone but readily available for Palm OS.

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Filed under: Productivity, Mobile Minute

With a toddler and a 6 hour drive to the nearest major center to consider, purchasing an iPod touch wasn't really one of my options. However, because my little guy loves Mario it was easy for me to justify buying a shared Nintendo DS for "the family."

Now - thanks to an ambitious homebrew community - my favorite gaming addiction has become an incredibly useful productivity tool. With a $35 transflash adapter and a $40 4gb SDHC card you'll be amazed at what you can do with your DS.

What can you do with it?

1. Twitter - Yes, the first stop on our list is everyone's favorite (and simultaneously most hated) microblog. Still, it's everywhere, and that now includes your DS. The developer of DSTwitter is Spanish, so at least a cursory knowledge of the language is helpful. It's easy enough to get set up and it works very well.
   
   
2. Get Organized - There's a touchpad. There's just as much screen area as most PocketPC and Palm devices. Why can't the DS be a PIM, too? DragonMinded's DSOrganize is an incredible suite, combining a calendar, address book, to-do list, scratch pad, calculator, file browser and reader, media player, audio recorder, IRC client, and web browser. I've only really ever used basic functions in apps like this, but DSOrganize works just as well for me as anything on my PocketPC did.

Continue reading Mobile Productivity the Mario Way - With A Nintendo DS!

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

ShoZu is a mobile download which allows you to connect and publish media to most of your favorite social networks in one convenient place. With official support for Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress, Twitter and a ton more, this might be the mobile lifestream manager you've been looking for.

After downloading and installing ShoZu on your phone (supported on over 300 handhelds), the easiest way to add applications is via your computer. I added Facebook, Twitter, and TwitPic apps quickly by inputting the required user names and passwords and then checked for updates on my handset. Success!

A nice feature is called one click photo destination. This is the setting you select for where you will be sending your photos and videos the most. It will appear as a send-to prompt right after you take a photo or video. There's also the convenience of sending to multiple sites at once via a feature called CC sites.

If you don't want to be prompted about where to send your photo each time, you can also choose the Zero-click upload setting which will automatically upload every photo and video to your primary destination. You have the option of adding tags and descriptions to your uploaded photos and if you have a GPS-enabled phone, when you select GPS settings, ShoZu will geotag your photos for you.

If you have a Flickr account you can download your friends' photostreams and upload to your own, as well as read and reply to comments in your posts. ShoZu also has a convenient feature where you can send multiple photos at once. To do this, press menu and select mark/unmark which will check the photos you wish to send. The bad news is this feature didn't work for me and I ended up sending all my files on my phone individually.

There's a RSS feed of all your uploaded media on your My ShoZu page which you can access when you log in to the service.

ShoZu is a free service however carrier charges may apply depending on your service plan.

(Yes, there's a new iPhone app too).

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Filed under: Apple, Analysis, iPhone

Sure, the iPhone is a flashy, iconic gadget. It's the crown jewel of the iPod family. It features a slick touch-screen, a slim form-factor, a whole library of new applications, and the MobileSafari browser. Do you know what I say to that? Forget about it. There's a device that has all of those same features, without the burden of a monthly fee to your favorite monopolistic phone-service provider.

It may not be as glamorous as the iPhone, but the iPod Touch is an underrated force to be reckoned with. With the ubiquity of wifi hotspots, particularly in major cities, it's not difficult to get an internet connection when you need one. In fact, it's the same internet connection the iPhone has. Although the phone has 3G, iPhone users often opt for the faster wifi connection when they're within range. I never have a problem finding a place to check my email or fire off a sassy Twitter post on the Touch. I also never receive bills for $70+ a month from AT&T.

In terms of applications, the iPod Touch is neck-and-neck with the iPhone. Unless an app uses the "phone" portion of the iPhone's capabilities, it's likely just as effective on the Touch. Sure, the new iPhone has GPS, but the iPod can triangulate your location using a wireless access point. I've navigated to many a restaurant by grabbing directions and leaving them open on the Maps app for reference. You don't need an iPhone for that.

That's what it comes down to, really. Do you need an iPhone? The answer may be yes, but if you're only looking to get one because it's the hottest thing out right now, think about whether an iPod Touch might serve you just as well, for what's ultimately less money. Personally, I just need something that can play music, check email, and use IM services on the go: the Touch fits the bill, and it looks just as cool as an iPhone, too.

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