The Contemplation » iTunes

Pandora Launches Live Concert Video Series

tech — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:31:03 +0000

Pandora, the leading personalized radio service, today announced an online extension of the free, live concert series that the company debuted earlier in the month. The Pandora live concert series hub, currently sponsored by Budweiser, can be accessed at: Pandora.

The live concert series launched in Portland, Ore. on December 13 with Dawes, an emerging rock band from Southern California. As the official launch sponsor, Budweiser presented the inaugural concert free of charge to more than 230 fans, and is now bringing the experience online via the dedicated hub.

All artists that participate in Pandora’s live concert series will be showcased on the hub. The hub currently consists of behind-the-scenes video content from the Dawes concert, including: interviews with the band and fans, the band as they tour Portland, Pandora Founder Tim Westergren interacting with the band and highlights from the evening. The hub also features a curated mixtape with up to 100 songs selected by the band and Pandora music analysts.

Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions Heidi Browning said, “We’re very excited to have Budweiser as our official launch partner of Pandora’s personalized, live concert series. Through this partnership we’re able to give fans a great experience both online and offline. Our collaboration is proof that Pandora is a valuable platform for connecting brands, bands, and fans.”

“Music is a universal passion that unites people, and Budweiser’s ties to music run deep,” said Rob McCarthy, vice president of Budweiser. “We’re excited to assist Pandora in bringing this unique concert series to life, and to connect their local listeners with bands they love.“

Pandora determines the right mix of artists and locations for the live concert series from a unique collection of spin and thumbs-up data. True to Pandora’s philosophy of personalization, listeners who have created stations and thumbed-up songs for a specific artist or similar artists are invited to attend these exclusive free shows. Pandora listeners can look forward to more of these types of concerts in different cities across the country in 2012.

Free Music Resources

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Pete Townshend calls Apple ‘a vampire’

tech — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:51:55 +0000

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has urged Apple’s iTunes to use its power to help new bands instead of “bleeding” artists like a “digital vampire”.

He also argued against unauthorized file-sharing, saying the internet was “destroying copyright as we know it . . . . The word ‘sharing’ surely means giving away something you have earned, or made, or paid for?” and added that people who downloaded his music without paying for it “may as well come and steal my son’s bike while they’re at it . . . If someone “pretends that something I have created should be available to them free… I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice”.

“Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission?” he asked. He contiuned on to say Apple should employ 20 talent scouts “from the dying record business” to give guidance to new acts and provide financial and marketing support to the best ones.

The reality, without Steve Jobs, Apple is becoming nothing more than a retail franchise. Apple spent $614 million on retail stores and the other $4 billion on other capital expenditures — including purchasing land for its new office in Cupertino, Calif. Apple is filthy rich; it sold four million phones in three days. But Apple why is spending only 2.2% of revenue on Research and Development (R&D)? Because it is not a creative company and nothing more than a legal Peer to Peer company. (read more . . .)

People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

Why don’t you all f-fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

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Web Pick: How to Make A Nuclear Reactor

tech — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:38:45 +0000

How to make a nuclear reactor using materials that you have at home. From “The Nuclear Boy Scout” Copyright Eagle & Eagle Ltd

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App Pick: Taste of Home

tech — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:49:14 +0000

The world’s #1 food and entertaining brand, Taste of Home, released its mobile application, just in time for summer harvests and farmers markets. The exciting new app, which was created with home cooks in mind, places thousands of beloved seasonal and holiday recipe collections from Taste of Home readers at the fingertips of home cooks and members of the mobile cooking community.

Additionally, hundreds of everyday recipes are included, so no matter where they are, cooks will never be without inspiration. The mobile app will be updated regularly with Taste of Home‘s recipe collections to provide fresh content and help users usher in each new season or holiday with relevant recipes to make the most of local, seasonal ingredients. Similar to the Taste of Home publications and cookbooks, the recipes included in the app will reflect the evolving American palate, as it includes reader-generated recipes.

“With access to a vast collection of recipes and the ability to search for local, seasonal ingredients, theTaste of Home app is an asset in the kitchen, but particularly useful when you’re on-the-go,” saidCatherine Cassidy, Editor in Chief of Taste of Home. “We created this app to inspire every level of home cook, who we celebrate in our books and publications. This is the perfect tool for those cooks who wish to use technology to embrace the current season or holiday offerings, and it conveniently arrived just in time for the farmers market season.”

What’s in Season

The seasonality and sourcing of ingredients is inarguably more important today than ever to home cooks in America. Therefore, the Taste of Home app offers members of the mobile cooking community insight into which local ingredients are fresh at any moment. Users simply tap a map to select their state, and a list of fresh, seasonal ingredients available in the area is automatically populated. The View Recipes button within this section reveals recipes associated with the seasonal ingredients. This is an exceptionally brilliant asset for home cooks who wish to take advantage of the season’s freshest produce in their area, particularly during the summer and autumn harvests.

Featured Recipes and Collections

Displayed within the Seasonal tab on the Taste of Home app are Featured Collection and Featured Recipe sections, providing relevant recipes for holiday-inspired or seasonal meals. The recipe collections appear in a Bookshelf element, which uses an intuitive selection process and provides indicators of which collections are newly available.

Recipe Showdown

Taste of Home editors will select seasonal recipes to contend against one another each week. The app users can vote for their favorite and then view the corresponding images and recipes. Home cooks are encouraged to weigh in on their favorite dish each week.

Recipe Options

The Taste of Home app allows users to easily find and follow recipes at the tap of a finger. Recipes in Summary view provide an image, brief description, important nutritional information (including calorie, fat, cholesterol, sodium, fiber, carbohydrate and protein counts) and rating of the recipe, provided by theTaste of Home web community. If the user chooses to learn more about the recipe, the Directions view includes servings, prep time, ingredients and easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. Sharing options include adding the recipe to the user’s Favorites, Email or Share with Facebook.

Facebook

The Taste of Home brand has a large and loyal Facebook following, and the app was designed to interact with that community seamlessly. In addition to sharing recipes via Facebook, Taste of Home cooks may also view the Taste of Home Fan page feed directly from the app to see what recipes other Taste of Home Fans “Like” and are posting comments about on Facebook.

Search

The Taste of Home app offers several methods for home cooks to sort and organize recipes. Users can browse the recipes based on ingredients they have on-hand in their pantries like chocolate or cranberries, or they can choose a more specific category option. The possible filters include: Course, Cooking Style, Cuisine or Holiday, which includes occasions such as 4th of July or Bridal Shower.

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iTunes App Pick: rdio

tech — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:50:19 +0000

Rdio, the unlimited, on-demand social music service from the creators of Skype, today announced the availability of Rdio for iPad. Like the company’s popular iPhone app, Rdio for iPad lets users discover music through friends and other influencers as well as search for and instantly play any song, artist, album or playlist from a growing catalog of over 10 million songs. The new app fully utilizes the iPad’s expansive screen and intuitive touch interface, turning listening to music into a highly visual, social and interactive experience. This uniquely designed iPad app joins a growing collection of Rdio supported devices and platforms that let users sync music seamlessly across devices and easily pick up their listening experience wherever they’ve left off.

“With Rdio for iPad you can sit back and casually thumb through the world’s collection of music to explore new and old favorites in a stunning and sleek manner,” said Malthe Sigurdsson, VP of Product Design at Rdio. “Rdio is focused on design and access across platforms and we were meticulous with every aspect of our iPad app as it is our most requested and anticipated platform to date. Albums flip over to reveal track listings, transitions between portrait and landscape orientations are gorgeously animated, and controls and lists are cleverly laid out to show off album art in high definition.“

Rdio for iPad takes advantage of the device’s glossy widescreen, bringing album cover art to life in both display modes, with a clean layout and intuitive user experience. The app includes all the features of Rdio’s widely praised iPhone app in a format designed specifically for the iPad, including:

Activity – Follow the recent activity of other Rdio users, including friends, recording artists, and influencers whose music taste you appreciate
Offline access – Sync your music collection including songs, albums and playlists to your mobile devices for listening while you’re not connected to a 3G or wireless network
User profiles – Discover new music through other Rdio users by exploring their music collections, playlists, listening history and more
Top charts and heavy rotation – Just want to know what’s new and buzzing in music? Check out top charts to see what’s popular on Rdio and what’s in heavy rotation among the people you follow
New Releases – Be the first to listen to new albums and singles on the day they are released
Artist Radio and Recommendations – Play a stream of continuous music similar to an artist or receive recommendations based on your listening history
And much, much more – Listen to and collaborate on playlists, find and follow friends and influencers, access your web queue, listening history and more

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