Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Samsung's new Galaxy Phone gets official teaser (video)

Samsung's new Galaxy Phone gets official teaser (video)

The countdown is over and Samsung's not offering much to whet our appetite. A medley of opaque angles of galactic travel are meant to represent next week's big news story, alongside some brief claims of technology that fits easily in your hand. It finishes all too soon on those glossy enamel puddles shown above. The second trailer reveals more of the same, with Samsung promising the device will become "a natural side of life", throwing in a quick jibe at those rival smartphone-carrying "sheep". While we reckon we broadly know what to expect when it comes to internal hardware, we're still itching see how Samsung's looking to reinvigorate its phone design following HTC's stylish smartphone salvo. Well, at least it's just over a week left to wait.

Continue reading Samsung's new Galaxy Phone gets official teaser (video)

Samsung's new Galaxy Phone gets official teaser (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Distracted Girl On Cellphone Plunges Into a Sinkhole [Video]

We've seen people take some serious spills because they're all walking and talking or texting and not paying attention, but what happens to this poor girl is just horrible. That had to hurt. More »


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Monday, April 23, 2012

Levon Helm and The Band: a rock parable of fame, betrayal, and redemption

Levon Helm of The Band found an unlikely path back to fame after decades of disappointment. But by the end, the homespun singer from Turkey Scratch, Ark., had come full circle.

In the eight years preceding his death Thursday, Levon Helm enjoyed the highest distinction that any music veteran could hope for: an audience that remembers.

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Two recent Grammy awards had brought a resurgence of interest in Mr. Helm?s career as the voice and drummer of The Band, one of rock?s most enduring groups. But it was only in 2004, when he began his homespun ?Midnight Ramble? concerts, that he began to reemerge into the public eye following years of health and financial problems, as well as lingering disappointment and resentment surrounding the dissolution of his former band.

Indeed, much of Helm?s story is a parable of rock ?n? roll ? the story of a band fractured by money and fame, leaving its disillusioned members to pick of the pieces of lives that had seemed to promise something more.

In that way, Helm?s musical legacy is not one meticulously groomed by publicists or biographers. It has evolved organically through what he has left behind.

His appeal in The Band and to Bob Dylan, who collaborated with the group during his most fruitful years, has not just been his voice but also his insurgent spirit. After all, the late-1960s marked the transition from presenting pop music as audible candy for teens to a progressive art form. While the Beatles represented a breakthrough in pushing boundaries that were heady and abstract, The Band later represented their American counterpart, which was dangerous, unkempt, and with a profound feel for, and understanding of, blues, gospel, and country.

That understanding came largely from Helm?s biography. The only American in a group of Canadians, he grew up in Turkey Scratch, Ark., as the son of cotton farmers. Many of the references in classic Band songs came from the people he knew and the sounds he heard in his childhood. Blues great Sonny Boy Williamson performed regularly in the area, and traveling minstrel shows and rockabilly bands made frequent stops.

Helm ?couldn?t wait to get out of high school and get off the farm. His dad told him he couldn?t play with bands until he finished high school.? All he was doing was biding his time,? says Anna Lee Amsden, Helm?s lifelong friend and the ?Anna Lee? in the lyrics of ?The Weight,? the group?s classic song. ?Crazy Chester? and ?Carmen,? other familiar characters in the song, were also people Helm knew in town, Ms. Amsden says.

In a statement Friday, Mr. Dylan called Helm "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation."

Much of The Band?s identity ? as suggested by its name ? was in being a true collective where no single person stood out. The Band?s 1968 debut, ?Music From Big Pink,? reflected that unity. Despite vocals shared by Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko, no one singer was identified, and the lyrics weren?t even printed on the jacket. The magic of that music came from a special alchemy among those individuals that could never be achieved separately since.

Yet in what is now a storied pattern from the early days of the music business, camaraderie crumbled amid fame. Robbie Robertson, The Band?s lead guitarist, joined with the band?s management to persuade the others to sign away their individual publishing rights, which in today?s era of multiplatform media are considered the pension plans of the music industry. They ensure artists later income when the songs receive renewed life in movies, television, and beyond.

In his autobiography ?This Wheel?s On Fire,? Helm describes seeing a copy of the 1969 album ?The Band? and noticing he was credited for writing only half of one song, with Mr. Robertson credited on all 12.

?Someone had pencil-whipped us. It was an old tactic: divide and conquer,? he writes.

Things got worse in 1978 when director Martin Scorsese, who collaborated with Robertson on the film ?The Last Waltz,? reinforced what Helm said was a false narrative that Robertson was somehow the band?s auteur.

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Intel Ships Faster, Leaner Ivy Bridge Processors

Your next computer is about to get faster. Not just faster but more efficient, thanks to Intel's ability to get more transistors on its processor. To accomplish the already difficult feat of throwing more transistors onto a chip, Intel took a cue from urban planners. They built up instead of out.

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The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made With Amazon Web Services

amazon web servicesAmazon Web Services (AWS) provides an excellent cloud infrastructure solution for both early stage startups and enterprises.?The good news is that AWS is a pay-per-use service, provides universal access to state-of-the-art computing resources, and scales with the growing needs of a business.?The bad news ? AWS can be very hard for early stage companies to onboard, while enterprises usually spend too much time with ?busy work? to optimize AWS and keep costs under control. We launched a private beta of ?KnowYourCloud Analytics? a tool that helps AWS users to get to the bottom of their AWS cloud. By gathering data streams from multiple compute resources and crunching this data with its state-of-the-art analytics engine, Newvem enables AWS users to discover potential cost savings, identify security vulnerabilities and gain more control over availability.

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The Band - Up on Cripple Creek (Americablog)

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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hands on with the Spotify for Android update preview

Spotify for Android

For me, Spotify is how I listen to probably 75% of any music at the moment. While the service -- and for that matter price -- is superb, the Android application has definitely been lacking. There have been rumblings for a while about an update, and then just like that it dropped. The preview of the newest version is only available as a direct download from Spotify at present, and isn't the finished article. What is there though is pretty special, and a significant upgrade from the previous offering. We've had a couple of days to play around with it now, so if you haven't tried it out yet, stick around. A full hands on plus some tasty screenshots await you after the break. 

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Google, Facebook Spent Record Amounts On D.C. Lobbying In Q1 2012

FacebookMore dollars were poured into the Beltway from technology companies in the first quarter of 2012. As shown through previous lobbying spends, each quarter, Facebook and Google continue to spend more and more on lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. In the most recent disclosure reports filed in the U.S. Senate?s lobbying database, both of the companies hit all time highs in terms of lobbying dollars. Google?s lobbying spend hit an all-time high again this quarter, with spending coming in at a whopping $5.03 million, tripling its spend from the same period a year ago. Last quarter, Google spent $3.76 million on lawmakers. Microsoft only spent $1.8 million on lobbying for the quarter. In 2011, Google spent $9.7 million on lobbying, and has already surpassed half of that spend in this past quarter alone.

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90% In Darkness

Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2012 Academy Awards, Agnieszka Holland's IN DARKNESS, is the poor man's SCHINDLER'S LIST, and I mean that as a high compliment. Now don't get me wrong. I think Spielberg made a masterpiece with his Shoah epic, but Holland earns astute emotions and mines similar themes yet in a more intimate setting. Based on the true story of a Polish sewer worker who charged a small group of Jewish refugees a daily fee to squat in the filthy sewers beneath the city. The title of the film is apt, as so much of it takes place in utter darkness. At almost two and a half hours in length, we feel every minute of their intensely long hiding. Like Schindler, our main character, Leopold Socha, played wonderfully by Robert Wieckiewicz, is an opportunist rather than a Jewish sympathizer. In fact, his anti-semitism is much more overt than Schindler's. On the other hand, his wife Wanda, an incredible Kinga Preis, is much more liberal at the outset, but wants to turn her back on the Jews when she fears for her life and that of her family. Their story is so searing, so vivid and unsentimental. It's no wonder I was more drawn to it than to the lives of the various Jews here. While all terrific actors who are given one horrifying scene after another to endure, their plight isn't as layered as that of Socha.There is one exception, and it's played by Benno Furmann, who is the love child of a Patrick Wilson/Josh Lucas bromance. Playing a man who leaves the sewers to escape INTO a concentration camp to save someone's life, he has leading man written all over her face. He easily commands the screen in all of his scenes. One of my all-time favorite critics, Roger Ebert, dismissed this film by saying that we've seen it all before. As much as I respect his opinion, I disagree. Usually films about this period in history tend to glorify the Jewish characters and they make every moment epic. IN DARKNESS does just the opposite. The Jews are just as flawed as any other characters here, as flawed as anybody would be when facing unreal, desperate circumstances. This is not a hyped up film. Something as simple as rainfall becomes an exciting action sequence, but it's played with an ingenious, dispassionate touch that Holland has always brought to her work.

March 4, 2012

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Personal Loans | Endagon

It?s often not that easy to schlep all the way to your local bank and ask for a loan. It?s also very humbling and sometimes embarrassing for a person to do. Nobody wants their financial status to be publicly known. Additionally, nobody wants to show so much vulnerability in a public setting like that.

That?s why we set out to find an easier way to obtain?personal loans. Sunrise Finance, for one, offers a unique user experience on their website that lists available lenders (both virtually and locally) and the available rates for each. For those that have ever had to deal with finding the right loan with the right rates, this is a major time saver and a blessing.

During these difficult financial times, banks may not be lending money as aggressively as in the past. However, there is plenty of money floating around out there for those that need it and those that deserve it. Everyone recognizes that notion and want to make money, especially micro-loans that deal with smaller sums of money, more readily available for those that need it the most.

Sunrise Finance also lists some of the most common frequently asked questions on the linked to webpage. For those that have never taken out a loan of any kind, it might be scary to move forward into the relative unknown. These frequently asked questions are designed to improve everyone?s knowledge base of how banks work, how money gets lent, and some of the terms that might be attached to such a deal.

Sunrise Finance has done a great job finding ways to help their customers get what they deserve. We hope that you recognize their goodwill and check out the website that has been linked within this post. After doing so, please leave us a comment and let us know what you think of their service.

Glen Campbell faces mortality with candor, grace - KansasCity.com

Glen Campbell performed at Town Hall in New York in January, and in two reviews of the show, two very different perspectives emerged.

In The New York Times, Jon Caramanica wrote of Campbell: ?Once a purveyor of highly successful country crossover hits that shone with slickness and confidence, he?s in deteriorating form now, ragged even at his best.?? There were fragments of his old smooth croon at points during this show.?? Mostly he showed decay, though that managed to make ?Wichita Lineman? seem a song about holding on to life by the barest of margins and made ?Rhinestone Cowboy? almost defiant.?In the Village Voice, writer Peter Gerstenzang was much more sanguine. Campbell, he wrote, ?yodeled as well as Hank Williams, crooned like a country Sinatra and played flashy, funky leads that sounded like he was channeling both Django Reinhardt and Jimi Hendrix.?? Something magical ? or maybe religious ? was happening on that damn stage.?On Thursday night, Campbell will perform at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, 10 months after he announced he had Alzheimer?s disease and eight months after he released his most recent album, ?Ghost on the Canvas.? His worldwide, 80-plus show Goodbye Tour is his valediction to a career in its sixth decade. Whether these shows are ?magical? or difficult depends on one?s expectations, I suppose. But Campbell and his wife, Kim, have been public about his disease and its effects on his memory, so it should surprise no one that his performances are affected as well by moments of awkwardness and confusion. Some of those have been heartrending. Sean Daly of the Tampa Bay Times visited Campbell in Shelton, Wash., where he performed before 1,600 fans at the Little Creek Casino Resort, and in his lengthy piece he described this interaction between Campbell and his daughter, Ashley, 25, one of three of Campbell?s children in his backing band:?When Campbell and his daughter are supposed to duet on the bluegrass classic ?Dueling Banjos,? Campbell misses his cue. ?Dad, aren?t you going to introduce me?? He lets out a small laugh, looks down and, in a vaguely apologetic tone, tells her, ?I really want to.??Her father has forgotten her name. So Ashley Campbell, trying to smile, introduces herself.? Music can be a means of romance and escape, a departure from reality. But it can also be a way of staring reality square in the eyes. Few things are more real or intimate than being in the presence of someone near the end of his career who is confronting fate and mortality with candor, grace and courage.That?s what Campbell is doing, and it?s something that those of us who go to live shows are seeing more of these days: our heroes heading into the gloaming.Happy birthday, GlenToday is Glen Campbell?s 76th birthday. He has lived a rich, rewarding life, one filled with awards and glory. He has performed and recorded with Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys and as part of the Wrecking Crew, a group of virtuosic session musicians in the 1960s. He would become a multifaceted star beyond the music culture: an actor, a TV personality, a gifted singer and world-class guitar player. He co-starred alongside John Wayne as La Boeuf in ?True Grit.? From 1968-72, he was host of his own hit TV variety show, ?The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.? He has won five Grammy awards, three Gammy Hall of Fame Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and more than a dozen country music awards. He has had eight No. 1 country albums and sold more than 45 million albums worldwide.Campbell and his family know that his career and his time onstage soon will end, that eventually he will no longer be able to consistently put on the kind of show that fans will want to see and hear. His manager told Daly that the tour, scheduled to end June 30, will go on ?as long as Glen wants.?Reviews of the Goodbye Tour have been positive, especially when it comes to Campbell?s instrumental prowess. His guitar playing, Caramanica wrote, ?was surprisingly vital, especially on ?Galveston? and ?Country Boy (You got Your Feet in L.A.)??? But even beyond his playing, the show delivers plenty of rewards. Coleen Shaw-Voeks attended Campbell?s Branson show in early December with her husband, Erik Voeks, a Kansas City musician. ?I thought it was a great show,? she said. ?There were some shaky moments, times when he got lost in the middle of a song, but he was able to bring things around again in a few moments, and his daughter was amazing at keeping him headed in the right direction. He obviously loves her very much and relies on her heavily. He repeated himself numerous times and tried to play one of the songs twice, but everyone was around to keep him on track.?If you didn?t know that he had Alzheimer?s going into the show, it would have been obvious that something was wrong, but he was in good spirits about it, and whenever his daughter corrected him about something, he just smiled and laughed and made jokes. ?Going in, I was worried that it would be very ?train-wreckish? and I didn?t want to see Glen like that. But I was so pleasantly surprised at how smooth things went.?Things have not gone so smoothly for some of Campbell?s peers during shows in Kansas City. That dissonance between what we see and how we wish to remember someone can be rough.In March 2011, Kris Kristofferson performed at the Music Hall with Merle Haggard. It was Kristofferson?s second performance in Kansas City in two years, following a show at the Uptown Theater in April 2009. At the Music Hall he had a cold, which added deterioration to a voice that has lost much of its register and heft. It made for some discomforting moments, but overall the concert was gratifying. Here?s a passage from my review of the show:?A few times he found a semblance of his old timbre but mostly he was resigned to singing in a growl, which occasionally lapsed into a raspy croak. He seemed chagrined a few times, even changing the lyric to one of his most beloved songs to ?help me make it through tonight.? But each time he wisecracked about his voice, his audience bathed him in applause.?Barry Lee, host of the weekly ?Signal to Noise? on KKFI (90.1 FM), attended that show, and at The Star?s music blog, Back to Rockville, he commented: ?A nice, laid-back retrospective from two artists who have nothing more to prove. Sometimes it?s OK to rest on your laurels when you?ve earned them the way those two have.?Lee will be attending the Campbell show, and he said he sees it more as a chance to honor and appreciate Campbell and his career than a night of light entertainment. ?We?re, in a sense, paying our last respects by giving of our time and money to see the artist one final time,? he said. ?There are no expectations as far as how proficient the performance is going to be, and there shouldn?t be. In my case, I?m not there solely to be entertained, but also to say goodbye in the best way an artist will appreciate it: by standing up at the end and giving him or her a last ovation for a career well-done.?Some still have itThere is plenty of proof that infirmity or age don?t always matter, starting with Willie Nelson, 78, and Haggard, 75, who still perform with polish and warmth. So does Ray Price. From a review of Price?s show at Knuckleheads last June: ?He is 85, and he ambles a little slower than he used to, but halfway through the first verse it was already evident that time hasn?t taken the same kind of toll from one of the best voices in country music. It still has range; it still has nuance and power; it still has an even register; and it still finds ways to emote whatever is required: love, heartache or betrayal.? And then there was the furious Beatle-fest that Paul McCartney, then 68, put on at the Sprint Center in July 2010. In the middle of the show?s third hour he was screaming the lyrics to ?Helter Skelter? like he was 28 all over again.But there are performances that don?t do justice to a performer?s memory. Lee cited the final Kansas City show of Townes Van Zandt at the Drum Room in April 1996, when the songwriter was in the throes of alcoholism. Van Zandt was in no shape to perform. ?I chose not to go because I knew he was in bad shape,? Lee said. ?I subsequently saw a film of the performance. He could barely get through the songs and left the stage in tears. That would have been too sad to see. You don?t want to remember an artist who means so much to you in that way.? Van Zandt died on New Year?s Day 1997; he was 52. At that Drum Room show, Van Zandt opened for Guy Clark, a fellow Texas songwriter. Just last month, on March 2, Clark, 70, performed at the Folly Theater. He was sick with a cold and recovering from major surgery he?d had a few months before, all of which profoundly affected his performance, say those who were there. One of them was Bill Brownlee, business manager for the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, a music blogger and a contributing music reviewer for The Star. ?Guy apologized several times for his condition,? Brownlee said. ?I got the sense that he felt ashamed and embarrassed by his inability to give the audience a proper performance. He had a severe cold or illness. He stopped songs to clear his throat several times. He often forgot the words to his songs. ?The concert couldn?t have happened without (his sidekick) Verlon Thompson. Guy?s guitar playing was weak, but Verlon?s a guitar wizard. And Verlon?s gentle prodding allowed Guy to maintain his dignity. But Guy played two or three new songs, a positive indication that he remains artistically engaged. If it wasn?t already evident, I?m glad I attended the show.?That seems to be the prevailing sentiment for Campbell and the Goodbye Tour, especially (but not exclusively) among baby boomers, who are taking the chance to appreciate one of their generation?s heroes while they have the chance, a chance that isn?t always anticipated. Anyone who skipped the Levon Helm show in Kansas City in July 2010 probably regrets missing it even more these days, given the 71-year-old musician?s death from cancer last week. Campbell is defying his illness and giving his fans one more chance to connect with him live, relive his music history and say their farewells. No matter what happens, or doesn?t, as he takes his last bow, he deserves in return all their grace and appreciation.?I think Glen?s doing this at the right time and with class,? Lee said. ?He doesn?t need the money. He just wants to say goodbye and relive the applause and love from the audience one more time. Not every performer gets to take that final bow. God bless him.?

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Pulled PSP titles restored to the Vita, security holes covered with tape

Image

Seething about the removal of Everybody's Tennis or Motorstorm: Arctic Edge from the PlayStation Store? Relax, Sony's restored both PSP-titles in time for you to play 'em all through the weekend. Of course, both are now neutered (along with the Vita's firmware) so they can't be used to load arch-hacker Wololo's Vita Half-Byte Loader -- but it hardly matters, they've already got another top-secret exploit ready to launch on an unsuspecting world.

Pulled PSP titles restored to the Vita, security holes covered with tape originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, April 19, 2012

J. Cole Helps His Old Pal 360 Leave The Streets Behind

'He reached out while I was doing my thing and was like, 'Yo let me help you,' ' 360 tells Mixtape Daily of his Cole collabo.
By Rob Markman


360
Photo: MTV News

Fire Starter: 360
There was a time when 360 was running around in circles, simultaneously chasing his rap dreams while being pulled by the streets' centrifugal force. Those days are over, however, and now the full-time MC is on a linear path.

"Everything that I've done it's all just come back to music at the end of the day," the Queens, New York, newcomer told Mixtape Daily. "So this time I was like, 'I'm staying. I'm not doing nothing else but music now.' "

6-0's debut EP, Everywhere and Back, which was released as a free download on his website at the top of April, is a collection of 10 original tracks. The promising rap rookie displays a consistently fluid flow, clever wordplay and a refreshing sense of humor.

Throughout, 360 holds his own collaborating with little-known producers, but he does get one major assist on the boards from Roc Nation's J. Cole. When 60 released YouTube footage of him and Cole in the studio back in February, many wondered how the newcomer hooked up with the platinum producer. It's a Queens thing, 360 explained.

"Cole, I knew him from way back. I knew him from when he was in St. Johns," he said, recalling Jermaine's college days in New York. "Basically, when it was my time to come up, he reached out while I was doing my thing and was like, 'Yo let me help you.' "

It was a crucial assist. The result is "What Goes Up," one of Everywhere and Back's standout tracks. Another is "Woulda Kid," a track that pokes fun at those who exaggerate their street bravado to impress others. "It's basically somebody that talks and never comes through, ever," 360 explained while laughing.

Now that he is no longer chasing his tail in the streets, 360 is focused on a productive career in rap. It's an age-old story, but one that never gets stale. "I really sat down and planned this. This wasn't like I was just putting songs together," he said. "The ultimate goal at the end of the day is to make a real change."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

Related Artists

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