Prince is releasing his new album "20Ten" as a free CD with the Daily Mirror in London. During a recent interview he declared the "Internet is over".
At first we thought this was some type of prank by "The Onion" but apparently The Purple One believes the Internet will soon go the way of MTV and become irrelevant. "The Internet is completely over," Prince told the Mirror. "I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it."
Wait, it gets better. Prince doesn't seem to like electronics at all aside from what he uses to make music as he went on to add, "All these computers and digital gadgets are no good," he said. "They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."
Prince does not intend "20Ten" to get a download release in addition to the free CD distribution with newspapers and magazines. He has also shut down his official website and does not plan to license new music to download stores or subscription services. U.S. distribution is in question.
Prince is one of the funkiest artists of all times and would be in the funkyfresh hall of fame if we had one. Perhaps he is once again ahead of his time and all this Internet stuff will just blow over. Not likely but we can't say we would be all that disappointed if it did. For now, we're pretty much overflowing with 1s and 0s.
Sony PS3 Now that it’s $299 and includes a killer Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is hard to beat as a versatile entertainment machine. Plus it makes a pretty good space heater during the winter months.
GPS The best units are still built in but Garmin and company aren’t too far behind. For the loved one that’s constantly lost and calling you to look up directions online, as if you’re a personalized Onstar system or something, this is a good call.
Digital Camera More megapixels, better lenses and faster shots always makes a good stocking stuffer. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10megapixel is a good starting point. Sony and Canon are also good bets. Plus memory is dirt cheap so take lots of shots.
Kindle When you want a good book to read and the bookstore is closed, download it. The Kindle from Amazon is a good choice for enjoying e-books. Sony has recently entered the fray as well.
Mobil microSD Reader Basically it allows you to move lots of data around really easily without taking up a lot of space. Great for moving pictures, movies, music or other stuff from your phone to your PC to your USB enabled DVD drive and any combination thereof. Very, very handy and perfect for the geek on your list.
MP3 Player Our current favorite is the Clip+ from SanDisk. It will play just about any kind of audio file, synchs easily with subscription services such as Rhapsody, includes an FM tuner, is expandable with a microSD slot, includes a built in clip for working out, is slotRadio compatible and most importantly sounds great.
Casio G-Shock The Casio G-Shock is in the funkyfresh hall of fame. We’ve had a love affair with the G-Shock since it was first introduced. This is one gift that’s guaranteed to get plenty of use. We love the new funky green color. Casio always keeps it fresh. Be sure to check out the Tough Solar models that run on sunlight and automatically set the time. We forgot about one unit in the trunk of a car and it was keeping perfect time six months later.
Ninite is an extremely useful free service that allows you to simply mark a checkbox of all the applications you want and download one installation package to automate the process. It's an incredible timesaver for installing must have apps for any new PC.
At funkyfresh we have become the defacto tech support group for friends and family and Ninite will save us a lot of time whenever it's necessary to do a fresh install of an operating system or simply add a few apps that are missing. The best part is get can just send our relative to Ninite and with one click they can handle a bunch of stuff at once. Wih remote access to the PC we're much more efficient too
Some of the popular applications you can install with Ninite include iTunes, skype, Spotify, Hulu, Picassa, Adobe Reader, Flash, uTorrent, CDBurnerXP, Firefox, Audacity, AVG Antivirus, OpenOffice and many more. Just check all the boxes, click install and go "Ninite", maybe that's where the name comes from. At any rate, Ninite is a funkyfresh essential element of any PC environment.
This is one of the coolest apps we’ve seen for the iPhone. It’s like the music identification app Shazam but for any kind of product. You simply snap a picture of the product you’re interested in and submit it to Amazon. Amazon Remembers matches the photo against a vast database of products and in a few minutes you’ll have the product name, the retail photo and the price. Amazon already offers one of the best shopping experiences on the planet and now it just got that much more impressive. It’s perfect for those times when you’re out and about and see something you need. Instead of asking someone, “Hey, where did you get that?”, just snap a pic and wait for the results.
We tested Amazon Remembers by taking pics of studio speakers, PC backpacks, snacks and other various items. It was surprisingly accurate even when the photos were taken from less than perfect angles and less than perfect light. It’s really cool and a huge timesaver or time waster depending how you loot at it.
Google brings an analog flavor to news with it's new FastFli web app. It kind of made us want to reach out and slide articles around on our flat screen similar to the way we use the screen on the iPhone
At funkyfresh we're partial to anything with an analog vibe. We miss our knobs. Almost all the recording and mixing we do now is "in the box". Our local paper just made a plea for ideas on how it might be saved from extinction. We're not digging the ink on the hands but we still enjoy the flipping of the pages.
Google Fast Flip makes it easy to do just that with myriad sources in a fast and custom way. It's fun to literally flip like mad until something catches your eye. We find it a great way to do a visual scan of the days news. Perhaps the novelty will wear off but for now it's something fresh and fun from the Googleplex.
Sandboxie has been around for a few years but unless you have a specific need for this utility you might not have discovered it. We recently needed to run two instances of an M3U editor that doesn’t allow multiple instances in Windows. Well, Sandboxie worked great for that and is handy for other tasks as well.
Sandboxie runs programs in an isolated space on your hard drive which prevents unwanted permanent changes to your system and other programs running on your computer. Just like a sandbox little kids might play in, the programs are free to trash this area and wreak havoc while everything stays cool with the rest of your PC.
If you like trying new software but hate the problems that come with removing poorly written code than Sandboxie just may be the ticket for you.
IK Multimedia adds another funky app to the fray. The GooveMaker for iPhone ports the PC/Mac application to the wondrous little phone. It's like a poor man's version of Roland's GooveBox in the palm of your hand. It's getting to the point now where you could pack an iPhone, a laptop, decent sound card and condenser mic in a backpack and bang out a demo tape just about anywhere.
We could spout off about what we think but when it comes to fun toys like this you really have to just check it out for yourself. Just load it and play and see what happens. The free version includes a variety of house and Hip-Hop styles with plenty of loops to get you started. IK always does a pretty good job with the sounds so you may surprise yourself by the noise you can make.
When guitar players see this new cable, they’ll say, “I can’t believe somebody hasn’t thought of this before”. Yep. Meet the Spinstigator, a clever new guitar cable that never gets tangled or twisted from all your crazy rock moves on stage.
Active guitar players used to have a couple of choices; buy an expensive wireless rig or simply untangle the guitar cord throughout the night. The third option is the new Spinstigator. This is great for the working musician or even someone practicing at home. Even if you only move around a little bit with your guitar you can get pretty tangled up in just a half hour. Check it out next time you’re at a bar or wedding. Watch how the guitar player has to untangle the guitar cord nearly every set. It’s not fun and it certainly doesn’t look cool nor professional.
We tested the Spinstigator with a Rickenbacker and Strat. One of the best things about using this cord versus a wireless rig is the sound. It sounds just like a regular guitar cord but without the hassle, noise or interference of a wireless system. I love this product because it’s classic problem solving at its core. What makes guitar players crazy? Twisted cables and drummers that play too loud. Here’s a solution invented by a guitar player and made in the USA that addresses the first problem. You're on your own with the crazy drummers.
The Spinstigator folks claim this guitar will last longer than a regular cord because the copper wire inside isn’t getting bent into knots all the time. It’s very quiet and makes no noise whatsoever so your playing is always nice and clean. The electrical connection in the rotating device is being made with mercury, a liquid metal, so it’ll never get that static, scratchy noise like dirty volume knobs on a guitar or amplifier. There’s constant electrical contact being made all the time between the moving parts. The flexible 20 gauge cable and G&H connector ends are top quality, too.
Players that already use cords instead of wireless will love this because it’s simple and they’ve got the same direct signal they want, and a few wireless users may jump back to using cords once they try this little funky little deal. Of course, this is not for everyone. Obviously if you’re a player running around on an arena sized stage this won’t cut it. However, for most users, this will be a nice change from the receiver, transmitter, batteries, wall wart, interference and the “I don’t get exactly the same tone and gain” problems associated with wireless.
The Spinstigator comes in four convenient lengths so players running to nearby stomp boxes or all the way to their amps should be covered. This would make a great Father’s day gift or stocking stuffer.
Visit The folks at Spinstigator for more information and to watch a video of this cable in action. Made in the USA.
The Casio Edifice 3D Chronograph is a sophisticated everyday watch that combines Casio’s rugged solar technology with familiar G-Shock features in an upscale stainless steel design. The analog face is attractive in spite of being a little busy. Most importantly, the latest Ediface from Casio keeps great time thanks to its Multi-Band 6 Waveceptor Atomic Timekeeping.
When we unboxed this beauty the first thing we noticed was its heft. This watch looks and feels substantial. So much so that at first we thought it was a little too heavy. However, after getting a few links taken out and wearing it for a few days we found it quite comfortable.
Setting the time couldn’t be easier once you know which combination of buttons to press. However, it did require a quick peek at the manual. Unlike a digital watch that you can easily figure out by seeing which digits flash when certain buttons are pressed, the analog nature of the 3D Edifice left us looking at a confusing array of clockwise and counter clockwise movements, sometimes all at once. The 4 button Scheme is similar to what you might encounter with a G-Shock but less intuitive.
We wore this watch out and about, in the shower and in the pool. After a few days we got used to the heft. We really like Casio’s implementation of its rugged solar technology. The biggest problem with a watch running out of juice is it happens at the wrong time. The Edifice 3D is designed to give you plenty of warning signs it's about to run out of power and needs some light to recharge. For example, the second hand will tick every two seconds when power starts getting low. The watch will appear to have stopped when juice gets really low. Pop it in the sun and it comes back to life and displays the correct time. Very Cool. Very smart. Very Casio.
We tested the first electric car from General Motors, the EV-1, and one of the things that drove us nuts at the time was we constantly had to check the “fuel tank”. The EV-1 had very poor battery life. So we were always afraid of running out of juice. Solar watches tend to be rather efficient and Casio has effectively eliminated any doubt and is providing extra piece of mind, albeit on a much smaller scale, with its rugged solar technology. It’s efficient, green and cool.
One caveat. When we had the watch sized at Tourneau they claimed a watch of this size and heft would benefit from having two sleeves per pin in the band for better durability. Maybe just a sales technique to get us to second guess "our purchase". The Edifice has just one sleeve per pin. We'll leave you watch freaks to hash this one out. We simply didn't notice and we don't plan on operating a jack hammer with this watch. We've got the G-Shock for that.
With a $450 MSRP the Edifice 3D Chronograph is not an impulse buy. However, we imagine a few lucky dads and grads might get a stainless steel surprise this year that will keep them happily on time for many years to come.
On2 Technologies released its “Cloud” on-demand video transcoding service which is leasing computing cycles from the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). At AVT Pro, the parent company of funkyfresh, we use On2’s transcoding software to render client video in Flash. We’ve generally been impressed with the quality of the compression but haven’t been impressed with the process flow and GUI of On2 products.
Now, for anyone who can’t be bothered with the black art of encoding On2 is offering optimized encoding recipes for popular formats. On2 will charge by data rates both in and out; $1.75 per GB in and $2.25 per GB out. There are no setup fees or monthly charges, just pay as you go. The best strategy of course for a user of the new service will be to upload the best quality at the smallest file size possible to keep front end costs to a minimum.
At AVT Pro we absolutely must stay up on the latest trends in encoding video and be able to quickly turn projects around for client approval on FTP. Having a “cloud” partner involved might bog us down. However, there likely will be a market for customers that want to convert vast libraries of content and evergreen material.
There are an infinite number of companies with a need for digital video on the web and no in house expertise to make it happen. The question is will they be savvy enough to even get the stuff to the cloud? For them, the linchpin of this whole deal will be speed and performance.
Prince is releasing his new album "20Ten" as a free CD with the Daily Mirror in London. During a recent interview he declared the "Internet is over". 
Sony PS3 
Sony and Canon are also good bets. Plus memory is dirt cheap so take lots of shots.
Ninite is an extremely useful free service that allows you to simply mark a checkbox of all the applications you want and download one installation package to automate the process. It's an incredible timesaver for installing must have apps for any new PC. 
This is one of the coolest apps we’ve seen for the iPhone. It’s like the music identification app Shazam but for any kind of product. You simply snap a picture of the product you’re interested in and submit it to Amazon. Amazon Remembers matches the photo against a vast database of products and in a few minutes you’ll have the product name, the retail photo and the price. 
Amazon already offers one of the best shopping experiences on the planet and now it just got that much more impressive. It’s perfect for those times when you’re out and about and see something you need. Instead of asking someone, “Hey, where did you get that?”, just snap a pic and wait for the results. 
Google brings an analog flavor to news with it's new FastFli web app. It kind of made us want to reach out and slide articles around on our flat screen similar to the way we use the screen on the iPhone 
Sandboxie has been around for a few years but unless you have a specific need for this utility you might not have discovered it. We recently needed to run two instances of an M3U editor that doesn’t allow multiple instances in Windows. Well, Sandboxie worked great for that and is handy for other tasks as well. 
IK Multimedia adds another funky app to the fray. The GooveMaker for iPhone ports the PC/Mac application to the wondrous little phone. It's like a poor man's version of Roland's GooveBox in the palm of your hand. It's getting to the point now where you could pack an iPhone, a laptop, decent sound card and condenser mic in a backpack and bang out a demo tape just about anywhere.
When guitar players see this new cable, they’ll say, “I can’t believe somebody hasn’t thought of this before”. Yep. Meet the Spinstigator, a clever new guitar cable that never gets tangled or twisted from all your crazy rock moves on stage. 
On2 Technologies released its “Cloud” on-demand video transcoding service which is leasing computing cycles from the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). At AVT Pro, the parent company of funkyfresh, we use On2’s transcoding software to render client video in Flash. We’ve generally been impressed with the quality of the compression but haven’t been impressed with the process flow and GUI of On2 products.