Archive for Music
B.C. Clark Jingle—so Oklahoma
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re from Oklahoma or live in Oklahoma, then you know “The Jingle”. It was written back in 1956 and was made for B.C. Clark Jewelers, an Oklahoma City jeweler since 1892. The catchy tune kicks off each year at Thanksgiving and plays both on the radio and TV. It’s easy to remember and sing along with.
It’s one of those songs that emotes goodwill—if you hear it while in a store or in an elevator, you get a shot of instant goodwill towards all mankind. If you’ve moved away from Oklahoma, it’s something you miss every year. Of course, you can catch it on YouTube, or put it on your player, but the spontaneity of haring it on TV or the radio is gone.
Here it is, for your enjoyment.
iTunes 9 & the iPod nano Has Video
Posted by: | CommentsThis week (September, 2009), was the long-awaited Apple Event with Steve Jobs back and bringing us the newest from Apple. No, nothing about a tablet – yet – I think they’re waiting until closer to Christmas, but we’ll see.
The big announcement was the inclusion of a video camera in the nano The 8GB nano ($149) can contain up to 8 hours of video – amazing. Then when you get to your computer, you can choose to upload to YouTube, Facebook etc. You can watch the keynote here in Quicktime. The nano also has fm radio, a voice recorder and a pedometer.
If you were hoping for a camera in the 3rd Generation iPod Touch, maybe next time. There was quite a bit of negative backlash about not having this feature. They have lowered the prices and improved performance in the third generation.
8GB – $199
32GB – $299
64 GB – $399
There was no mention of the 16GB, perhaps that will be phased out.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the differences between the ZuneHD and the iPod Touch. The ZunedHD is being released September 15th at a price of $220. I still believe the Zune is a better product for the money.
Improved iTunes 9 Software
I’ve actually been hearing more favorable comments about the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9. Finally, there’s a way to share the music in our house. Up to 5 authorized computers (all on the same network and must share the same iTunes account), can share music collections and purchases. We can upload the music and podcasts we want from other’s computers (important when you don’t share the same musical tastes). If purchases are made with iTunes, those can be shared as well. From the introductory video, even if you don’t have the same iTunes account, it looks like you can still listen to someone else’s music on your network, but you can’t move it into your iTunes. Previously, it was very inconvenient to share music and not worth the effort for most of us. So, you’re out of luck if you have iTunes at work and at home.
Other enhancements to the software include better syncing options, better genius suggestions, additional album artwork and information along with a better iTunes store.
If you have an iPhone, they’ve made some improvements for you as well.
The consensus from the big name reviewers was they were a bit let down. I’m sure Apple will rebound quickly. I’ve no qualms over their ability to innovate.
Digsby Review- Faster & Feature Rich
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Digsby
If you’re a social maven with multiple email accounts, social media sites and IM accounts, give Digsby a try. If you use more than one computer, get a Digsby account and then you’ll never be parted from all your networking sites. Just sign into your Digsby account (requires a software install), and find out what’s happening across all your social networks.
Digsby rolled out a huge update in June, 2009. They promise they are lighter weight (consume about 50% less resources), and they’ve fixed many bugs.
I’ve had it on my work laptop for many months and just decided to install it on the family computer with the Windows 7 RC. It seems to be really snappy with Windows 7 on my older Dell.
Digsby seems to be covering all their bases with the social networks, email & IM. Here’s a list of what can be aggregated for you:
Social Networking
Facebook MySpace Twitter LinkedIn
Gmail Yahoo Mail Live/Hotmail AOL Mail IMAP POP
IM
Yahoo MSN Google Talk AIM ICQ Jabber
What’s To Like
- As long as I have Digsby installed, I can simply sign in once and have instant access to all my social media accounts
- With the addition of LinkedIn, Twitter, POP & IMAP mail, I can truly have everything aggregated in one desktop sidebar.
- I like the ability to turn on and off notifications – I usually leave them off as it’s too distracting to see so many pop-ups. But if you’re waiting for a particular message, it would be helpful.
- It is more lightweight on my systems – good news since I’ve got multiple things running at all times.
- Ability to post updates right from Digsby. I save some screen real estate and resources because I don’t have to log into LinkedIn or Twitter to see what’s happening or to post an update. This is a big plus.
Not To Like
I didn’t care for all the add-ons being pushed on me during the install. The Freeze search, the video player and maybe something else. For the unsuspecting person, I’m sure they just hit accept for all these things and then wonder where it came from. I wish this could be eliminated – but perhaps this is how they keep it free.
Still Figuring Out
POP Mail. Specifically I’m looking at getting an Outlook mail account from one computer to work on a different computer. I understand that if I have Outlook installed on both computers, but with different email accountson each computer, I can’t pull up an email. However, I can view a list of emails currently on that computer with a short preview.
Reading the Digsby forums, people were asking for Digsby to support accessing their webmail instead of a desktop client (like Outlook). They said that they had added this feature, so I looked in the advanced settings and saw that there is a place to cut and paste your webmail URLs (one for in-box and one for the compose box). I tried this, however, it crashed my Firefox browser! I got a Java applet error.
I will try it again and try it with IE to see if I get a different result. If any Digsby users out there are reading this – would like to get your experiences. I’ll post an update next week after I work on it more.
Jing – Free Screen Capture & Video Utility
Posted by: | CommentsI had tried out Jing last year, but took it off my computer as it was a resource hog. Memory consumption decreased greatly, so I tho
ught I would give it another go.
A brief synopsis of Jing Features:
- Takes a snapshot of your whole screen or a small portion of your screen
- Option to save your output (.jpg) to either a free screencast account, your computer, or if you’re really geeky, you can save output at your FTP site or YouTube (Pro Version).
- Ability to capture a video running on your computer to share with someone
- Ability to make your own video – be it instructional or just fun in nature. Videos can then be instantly shared via IM, web or email.
- If you have a microphone, you can record your comments or instructions while capturing what you want to share. Nice feature and really allows for personalization.
- Output your jpgs (videos not allowed), to your Flickr account
- There is a 5” time limit for videos.
- A Pro version is available that will allow direct import to YouTube and the ability to save your videos as MPEG4s instead of the default SWF Flash Video.
Jing is a free product by TechSmith (who also brings you SnagIt (like Jing, only not free), and Camtasia Studio (a high-end video producing software, also paid).
This time around, I especially wanted to try out the screencasting feature of Jing. I was disappointed to see my ‘masterpiece’ crash and burn. It would capture the screen as I did a short talk (about 30 seconds). I then clicked stop and waited to review my small video. However, both times I tried it, the program closed (regretfully, according to Microsoft). It seems that Microsoft’s DEP (Data Execution Prevention) thinks Jing is bad for me and my computer.
There was a link Microsoft provided to troubleshoot the problem. They said to go into the Advanced System Properties and click through a few tabs and browse to find the .exe file and allow it (many tedious steps). I did all of this only to get the message that they couldn’t accommodate my request—very frustrating!
I then tried a video capture on my XP machine and it worked just fine. So I will post this on the Jing blog or help center to see if there is a fix or work-around for this.
I’d be happy to hear your experiences with Jing and what you use it for. I can see a use for it to show a client how to perform an action. For example, a client was having difficulty seeing my editing changes in a word document. I sent her the step-by-step instructions, but a visual would have been much better. If any of you are tech support to family members, using Jing could come in handy for showing them how to fix something.
Cool (and FREE) Internet Radio – Slacker.com!
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I’m always on the lookout for new internet radio sites. I’ve blogged about Lala (not a fav of mine anymore) and I’ve tried Music Of Your Life (good music, too many commercials).
Last week, I heard on a Leo Laporte podcast about Slacker (yeah – weird name). I went to check it out and I like it a lot! They have only a few 20-30 second commercials every hour – very painless. If you don’t want to hassle with registering, just click on one of the genre buttons and you’re off and running. Here’s a snapshot of what’s available:
You can also choose to build an account and structure a radio station to your liking. There’s even a little heart-shaped button you can click on when you hear a song or artist you really like and they will play more of that artist!
Something unique about this service is a player you can purchase (for $200) that can be pre-loaded with the music you want and then it’s portable!
Give Slacker a try!
Technology Preserves our American Heritage
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Is your interest in history heightened with two movies in recent years that dramatize the history of the U.S.? There is also a show on PBS called “The History Detectives”, that delves into all sorts of interesting questions.
Technology is playing a huge part in getting all kinds of historical information to the typical user. Do they even publish encyclopedias any more?? There is a wealth of information on-line. We’ll focus on the patriotic since it’s the 4th!
The Library of Congress has been busy digitizing American Music, Theatre & Dance at their site: http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/ihas/lcp-home.html.
It seems like we don’t hear our great American patriotic songs much, but at this site you can click the link, “Patriotic Melodies”, and it will bring up a list of many beloved songs and their history, such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, and “You’re A Grand Old Flag”. Many of the songs have sheet music and mp3s available.
Fast, Free & Fabulous Music – Lala!
Posted by: | CommentsI came across Lala a couple months ago. It’s an on-line music service that has been around for a year or so.
There are many free internet radio stations out there such as the huge variety from within iTunes and Musicmatch. However, if you need a quick music fix without having to log into one of these services or hook up your iPod, this is great! My fav thing to do is go to lala.com and without even having an account there, I can type in the search artist box one of my Rat Pack heroes and click the “play this artist and similar artists” button and settle back. . . ahhhh. I leave the page running and can go about my work, listening to commercial-free streaming music! If you want to check out the name of a particular song playing, it’s in the upper left corner of your screen. You can skip to the next song if you don’t care for what is currently playing. I have not found a limit as to how long I can listen at one sitting.
You can sign up for a free account and there are several things you can do after that.
- upload your iPod to Lala and have your tunes always available to you on-line
- Listen free to any Warner label album
- Make your own playlist, publish it for you and others to enjoy
- Buy music – anything you buy will play on your iPod. Prices are very competitive
- Buy used CDs – see the list for buying CDs – on the cheap
Delve into the nooks and crannies of Lala and take full advantage of the site, or just go to lala.com and start hearing the music you want in a few seconds.
