sustaining word » iPod/iPhone

a new confession

jazzmetalman — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:06:28 +0000

Dashboard Confessional is one of my favourite bands – interesting lyrics, good melodies and passion in the vocals from Chris Carrabba. Alter the Ending has been out for about five weeks and I’ve been listening to it pretty regularly for about, five weeks. The music, due to the lyrical content, could be considered Emo, but I’m not that into labels – music is meant to invoke an emotional response, and if music moves me, then I like it, regardless of genre.

Here’s a live version of the album’s first song Get Me Right - a sentiment that I have related to over the years.

Here is the first single of the album, Belle of the Boulevard.

Hey, if you like what you hear and see in these songs, check out the album, and previous albums on iTunes.

come in kindle

jazzmetalman — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:23:16 +0000

Tomorrow should see the delivery of our new Kindles, one each for my wife and I. I have internally debated whether I should acquire one, with the competition being the long rumoured Apple tablet, as I was really keen to see what Apple would do. The debate was finalised when the rumours began declaring that the price for the tablet would be over US$1,000 – some suggested as high as US$2,000.

We have literally hundreds of books – the legacy of a pastor married to a librarian, and space has become premium so the transition to digital books has been a no brainer for me. Over the past few years I have been buying eBooks for my various PDA’s that I have owned, so I already have a good collection to place on the new Kindle even without buying any new books from Amazon.

A great way to convert existing eBooks (PDF’s, Word Files etc) is to use Mobipocket Creator (Publisher). It’s a Windows-only application which is drag and drop for file conversion. The only problem I have encountered is that it doesn’t appear to work under virtualisation on my Mac. No dramas as I bring my work laptop home – the only time a dedicated Windows machine has been in my house for years!

The thought of having upwards of 1,500 of my books with me is a bit staggering, but I must confess there have been times when having access to my library when away from home would have been fantastic. Just as the iPod changed the way people listen to, and in many cases, purchase, music, I think the Kindle will do that with books. The fact the Amazon is now producing an international version of the Kindle will only increase the usage of digital books – only time will tell if society embraces digital books as they have digital music.

Over the years I have also subscribed to Time magazine as well as many others. I generally keep about 10-15 issues before I think that I need to throw them out (again due to space constraints), now this becomes a moot point as there are many magazines that can be subscribed to on the Kindle which I will be able to keep as reference material for years to come and can also keep on my laptop and desktop through the Kindle for Desktop application.

My two requests to Amazon are:

Please finish developing the Kindle for Mac app
Make available the Kindle for iPhone app to people outside the US

As the Kindle also allows for the spoken word as you drive, it could also diminish the need for the purchase of Audio Books. What is certain is that due to the close parity of the Aussie dollar to the US$, the cost of Kindle books has become about 50% of their print equivalent – another fine reason to add to that of the space saving benefits for purchasing and using a Kindle. So in summary, my key reasons to acquire a Kindle are:

Portability
Cost versus print equivalents
The ability to be an audio book
Storage

I will give you my initial thoughts on using the Kindle after I have tried it for a couple of days – unfortunately you will have to wait. My wife says I can only use it after I open it for Christmas! I wished she believed in early presents.

Until then then, I will stick with reading my print books – I do have a few to get through that I have recently purchased.

iPhone – is it the best phone?

jazzmetalman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:30:00 +0000

Well, I have had my iPhone for just on two months now, and I can honestly say that’s it is he best phone I have ever had. The Apps store gives access to a huge range of applications from games, utilities and, for importantly for me, great Bible software. The ability to have all types of programs at your disposal, with typical Apple use of use, is so good.

The only downside of such a great phone, and fantastic iPod, is that both my kids now want one! Teenagers!

Let them save up their own money.

smooth worship, awesome praise

jazzmetalman — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:30:00 +0000

For the last four months or so, this album has had a mighty work out on my iPod, iPhone and anything else that plays music. Passionate praise, great worship – Jesus is lifted up and His name praised. Do yourself a favour and grab a copy of Revolution, from Equippers Church Auckland. You won’t regret it.

Best tracks, Revolution, What An Awesome God and I Will Extol.