Via: Online Schools

HT: Technologizer

Rumors and speculation, as usual for Apple events and products were at an all time high and yesterday was the big day. Well, it came and went and it looks the majority of the internets are a bit let down. It would be hard not to with all the expectations folks were forming in the their creative little minds.

The majority of the complaints are that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table and it’s nothing more than a giant iphone or an ipod touch. On a cursory glance, one could see why someone would come to that point of view without testing the product at all.

My thoughts are that it really could be a game changer. Most folks are focusing on what’s missing, and not what it is designed to do.

According to Steve Jobs, the iPad’s purpose is to “browse the web, enjoy and share photos, videos, music, play games and read books.”

If you’re looking to do something more than this with an iPad, then this device is not for you. Look elsewhere… for now.

Netbooks have become popular devices. People who have been gobbling them up get them because they’re inexpensive computers, but if you’ve spent time with one, they are horrible devices to use. The keyboard is cramped; depending on the quality, you would be hard pressed to get a Youtube HD video to actually play smoothly on it, and it’s a horrible resolution and screen size to look at. What do the majority of people want these devices for? It’s not to load Office on it and write books or essays. They want them to surf the web, read their email, and socialize, but the experience is horrible.

This is the problem that the iPad is providing a solution to. A lightweight device for surfing the web. They have removed the cramped keyboard, they have created a UI that works for a smaller screen and device, and improved upon the features that people purchase netbooks for, which is to surf the web (or at least the only thing it could sort of be considered good for) but made the experience more pleasurable AND they’ve added the ability to do music and photos and play games.

If you got excited about Chrome OS, they you should be peeing your pants for the iPad.

From the Google Chrome blog below: Replace Google Chrome with iPad and Google with Apple.

“Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web…

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”

Google is stating what the average computer user wants. Not the tech nerd bloggers. Apple does the same thing. Simplify the experience. Their design choices are for the benefit of most, not the few. The same thing happened with the iphone when it was released and everybody was crying about how it didn’t have this or that, and should have had this or that. People still bought it, love it and use it today. I think the very same thing could happen with the iPad.

The iPad is bigger than people realize and are giving it credit for. This is no Apple TV. This is a small step for Apple in their plans for the future.

“In many ways this defines our vision, our sense of what’s next.”
– Jonathan Ive

Also, check out this guy’s thoughts. They’re better written than mine.
A Message to the Internets regarding the iPad – Michael Pusateri

UPDATE: Thanks to Clayton for sharing this video with me. It’s worth a good laugh. Hitler and I don’t see eye to eye I guess.

If you don’t know anything about Five Iron Frenzy, please educate yourself here and here… or below.

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Selma Blair & Rainn Wilson

[youtube link for mobile]

2 More free ones…

Winter Wonderland – Jon Heder & Janelle Monae

[youtube link for mobile]

and…

Jingle Bells – Featuring: Trey Songz & Flo Rida

[youtube version for mobile]

Go Munk Yourself here and share in the comments below the link. I’d love to see and hear your Chipmunked self.

[youtube link for mobile viewers or those who prefer youtube]

THE FINAL PRODUCT!

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Also, enrollment is not immediate. It can take a few days but it to go through so be patient.

Alrighty, good luck and enjoy.

I’m neither an ATT or Verizon subscriber (Sprint), but this is going to be fun to watch. Apparently, ATT has sued Verizon, not because what they’re saying isn’t true (because it is actually), but because they claim that it makes them look like they have no service in the white areas of the map. Seems to me like they’re grasping for straws. It’s pretty obviously that Verizon is talking about 3G coverage only here.

Check out the ads below.

[Youtube link for mobile viewers]

[youtube link for mobile visitors]

Hope that helps anyone who may have had questions about this feature. Let me know if you have any questions. This kinda thing is actually kind of fun to do, so maybe I can another quick screen-cast to help someone along.

Amazon is selling the Mac Box Set, which comes with all 3 for the price of $134.99, which is only $5 more than just buying the Leopard upgrade by itself. Now is the time to buy since Apple will be offering upgrades for $29 to Snow Leopard for users that are runing Leopard already. Users of Tiger and older OS will have to pay $129 to upgrade to Snow Leopard in the fall.

So what are you waiting for? Get it now! Also, the Mac Box Set Family Pack is only $148.95 if you’ve got more than one Mac you’re trying to upgrade.

If you’ve already got Leopard, you can also Pre Order Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard from Amazon for only $29. Not a bad deal folks.

Mac Box Set

Opening up the program you can see that it’s incredibly powerful and even overwhelming with all the amount of stuff available to do. As much as I like to tweak around and figure things out on my own, I thought it in my best interest to actually get a how-to book for Logic, especially if I want to have an understanding of what I’m doing, how it does it and why.

I decided to go with the Apple Pro Training Series: Logic Pro 8 and Logic Express 8 by David Nahmani.

I completed lesson one last night, which is titled Make Music with Logic Now!

The objective of the chapter is getting you used to the Logic interface and navigating around the program. I learned some really great keyboard short cuts that are going to come in extremely handy and I can already see that this book is going to be extremely beneficial in getting me up to speed not on just how to do things, but how to do them efficiently.

By the end of the first chapter, you create a finished track made entirely of the included royalty free Apple Loops and export it as an mp3 file.

Even though I was just learning to navigate through program, I had a fun time learning how to do things and tweaking things around. I’m looking forward to working on Chapter 2: Recording Audio.

In the meantime, I would like to share my final work of art from chapter 1. A little trip hop piece called New Day.

[RSS Readers, visit the site to listen to the song]

Also, if you’re interested in recording or learning Logic, this book seems like a great place to start. If you click on the link below and purchase it, you’d be hooking me up with a little kick back.

With this new Spring season upon us, as I tend to do from time to time, I’ve created a new ‘mix-tape’ that feels appropriate for the new Spring season of Life I’m entering. I’ve called it my Breathe iMix
.

Well, I’ve actually called it Breathe, but I made an iMix out of it and would love to share this lovely mix with you, oh faithful reader. I titled it Breathe after the song on U2′s album No Line on the Horizon. I really love that song. I built the rest of the list and track from there. I usually try to theme the songs in one way or another when I create these mix tapes. I feel they flow better when listening to them.

itunes left out a few tracks from the original mix that I created since they don’t sell them. Those songs are

My Dear Machine, Amazing Grace (Give it Back), Sooner than Later, and Around by Sixpence None the Richer

Hologram by Katie Herzig

and Lost Part I and II from the Viva La Hova project.

How to Create an iMix in itunes

How about you? Would love for folks to share what you’re listening to in this new Spring season. Feel free to share.

For those not technologically inclined, watch the video below to learn how to create an iMix in itunes, and then share the link.

On the bottom right hand corner, click on the computer screen icon to make the video full screen. It will help make things easier to see.

How to Create an iMix in itunes

I wonder what the employee discount is like for their pedals? I’d probably own everyone if I worked there.

I’ve created a scene for when I play at church that I’m pretty happy with, although I might make another one later with more options for delay, chorus and reverb. I left the first of the 4 ‘slots’ available to run in the front of the amp for distortions, so the delays, chorus and reverb are running in the loop in slots 2-4. Now, I generally don’t like don’t like distortion sounds or fuzzes because they just don’t seem to fit or have much use, so I probably wasn’t going to use them at all BUT, in an effort to be more experimental and open, I’ve decided to give them a chance. After I tweaked around with a few of the distortions on there and have settled with a Line 6 distortion, heavy distortion, and a fuzz model which escapes my memory now. Some ‘modern’ sounding distortion might be appropriate here and there.

I must say, whatever fuzz I’m using (sadly, I’m not by the M13 right now to check) for chording (of the power variety) sounds pretty good to my ear. For leading, eh, but otherwise, I might enjoy being a little bit more flexible once I get in a band type setting with these.

Another thing I had wanted to test out was using a boost type pedal. Now, the thought of spending money on such a thing or even a volume pedal just seems a bit foolish to me. Almost like spending money on a tuner. Get a tuner please, but you want me to pay $100 for a pedal that does nothing but tune my guitar? I’d rather unplug quickly and then plug in quickly. I’ve mastered the pop-less unplugging technique. So yeah, a pedal that ‘boosts’ my signal seemed kinda like a waste of money. Fortunately for me, the M13 models MXR’s micro-amp which I had noticed the other day at the store and though, I should give this thing a try. So, now, I’ll also be experimenting with a little boost for leads and stuff like that whenever those opportunities pop up.

Due to the scene set up, the boost resides in the effects loop, so I’ll be making another scene where I can put it in front of the amp since it seems that would be a better spot for that sort of thing. I do think I will be enjoying the boost though, so I’m a bit sold on that one and might look for a dedicated pedal, but I’ll need to test these things out in the real world to see how I like it.

I’m looking forward to creating my 12 delay scene though. I’ve already experimented with an analog delay into a reverse delay setting and I liked it a lot.

My New Favorite Effect on the Line 6 M13 from Samuel Febres on Vimeo.
Growler is the jam.