The new iPod Shuffle…meh…

So I reciently saw on engadgetand heard on buzz out loud that apple have announced their new shuffle.

At first looks it is way cooler than the old one. Nice small, rectangular size and crisp edges in two slick colours. Very apple. There is a nice clip witch rounds neatly on the back and a small circular slider that sits on top. Perfect simplicity which apple are renouned for doing. But wait a second. The only functionality on the device itself is the slider?! Yes just the slider. So where are the buttons? On the headphones. On the headphones? But that would mean that only apple’s headphones would work because not all headphones have buttons. Yep. You got it folks. If you bust your headphones apple give you then you can’t just whip out some ones you got from Sony or Panasonic, they make you buy more of apple’s headphones.

The headphones have 3 buttons which control the play of the music and volume. One for volume up, one for volume down and the one in the middle plays and pauses for one click, skips to the next track for two clicks and 3 clicks for the previose track.

So these multifunctional buttons are to replace the 5 buttons ont the old shuffle. Nice, but, I think i’ts a bit too far with the whole simplicity and no buttons apple push. A few buttons are nesesary and make the most of them as you can but  this may be a bit too far. I personally hate the fact that apple make you do all these things which basically means that unless you buy things only from apple then your stuff won’t work or will suck.

I wonder how people will cope with this when using it or whether people just see how theoretically difficult it is to use and buy a creative or zune MP3 player or even an iPod.

This along with all of the other products apple has launched up until the latest 17″ macbook pro have been a bit dissapointing, coincidently in the absence of Mr. Jobs. Hopefully we’ll see him in the late summer when he is said to be back. But for now apple will stay afloat without him. – And I say for now.

Recommended apps for the iPhone

I’m going to do something different to what my normal posts are; I’m going to recommend a couple of iPhone/iPod touch apps:)

The first one I’ve been playing around with for a while and find it really cool. I’ts called ‘touch physics’. You basically have to get a small ball to touch a small star using your finger to make blocks to move the ball to the star. There are little platforms on some levels where the laws of physics take place like falling and bouncing across the screen. It’s only £0.59 so its really cheap and pretty addictive. There is also a free ‘lite’ alternative but you only get a few levels. Currently I’m stuck on a level with a duck and the star is blocked by a big tree… So I’ll have to work out how to complete the level.

The second one is called ‘Blocked’ It is also very cheap but there is not a lite version, I can’t remember how much it is but it is worth the money. As it says on the item description, it is very addictive. You basically have to get this small blue block out of this box. It is a puzzle to move the blocks out of the way, but the blocks will either move up and down or left and right.

I would recmmend getting them both as they’re really cool for casual gaming as I am good at.:)

Well I might do some more posts like this as they’re fun.:D

More Snow, More Drums and More Podcasting

Lots more snow has fallen where I am which is great! Had a couple of great days in the snow on the day of the snow falling, as always by the next day the snow is turned to mush and genraly sucks.
The first good snow was on monday night, then there wasn’t much snow after that until thirsday:D when I took the day of and had a great time moving a hudge snow ball for no appaent reason. Me and my mates then sledged down a hill for a bit and then we went in and my feet were freezing!
It was really good though, I doubt there will much more good snow as this is very rare in the UK, this has been the most snow for 18 years! I am not relly bithered if we do have any more as normally I am really exited by lots of snow, but as we’ve had a good amount for about a week i’ts starting to be not as interesting. Now I cant wait until summer!
I have bought a load of new drum stuff! I have bought; one crash symbol, a set of high hat symbols with a crash and ride symbol, a snare drum stand, two sets of sticks, a double bass pedal, three symbol stands and 15 pairs of ear plugs…- all of which I am very happy with:) It has really given me a boost of enthusiasm for my drumming and I really want to start a band! I used to be really ashamed of my kit and thought it was awful and an embarresment to drumming. Now, I love it! It looks really cool and sounds great:D I think I could still improve on a couple of things like getting a new high hat stand, new snare drum and toms but I’ll gradually build things up and there’s no need to rush anyway so its all good:)
I have am up to episode 4 of my ‘Tech Basics’ podcasthttp://techbasics.podbean.com,
I will be recoding episode 5 later on tonight, It is a bit late as I havent thought of a topic until now! I normally record on tuedays but I will have to friday for this one.:)

Thanks for reading!

Tech Basics

Hello again, I have started a podcast called tech basics. It is currently in its third episode and is so far going ok. With quite a few technical difficulties behind me it is starting to look bright, still a couple of things I am unsure about but I think in time it will sort out fine.

The podcast is about tech news and basic technology, for people who are new to technology or want to expand their technical knowledge.Also for people who are more sophisticated at technology as it goes into more technical detail throughout the podcast about numerous topics.

You can subsciribe in iTunes by searching ‘tech basics’ it will be the first one to pop up in the podcast section or go to techbasics.podbean.com and play or download there or subscribe to other clients.

College is also continuing to go well but alot of work on at the minute and I have 3 big projects due within the next couple of weeks!

by for now

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

I’m back at college now and is going supprisingly well. I have made quite a bit of progress and have almost enjoyed it! I dreaded going into graphics first thing on monday morning but I new what I had to do and made some real progress! Photography after that and that was good practical work in the dark room applying developer in diffeent ways. This was all good and so far college is going well this term. I have one month to compleate two projects and I’m a bit behind but I’m sure I can catch up!

IT SNOWED!!!!!! yay. It snowed on monday it was really good, it was cold on tueday but diddnt snow so the snow just turned to mush. Then on wednesday it rained so that washed the mush away. It would have been snow if it was a bit colder but no…Today was not very cold and no snow-there was just the odd bit of ice and snow that had been touched there.

I have become a member of Audible.com:D they are great:) I think leo has alot to do with this with the ads I have been subject to for about 3 years now. Audible are audiobooks to download. You can just buy them willy-nilly or become a member and get 1 audiobook a month for £7.99.  You can get some audiobooks for 1.99 and it be the book you choose, so you loose a fiver, but some audiobooks are 22.99 so it is very much worth bieng a member! I have downloaded 4 audiobooks so far and they are all excellent! I love freakenomics. It is the best of the audiobooks. I am currently listening to ‘Yes Man’ which is also really good, well worth the money. I find it really usefull to have a wish list of the things your not going to buy but the things you want. I have about 10 things already on there!

I have been doing alot in my photography, a real passion of mine, (not the college cource, just my hobbie) I have been taking lots more pictures, reading about photography and looking at tips and listening to TWiP, a photography podcast which is great. I hope all this makes me a better photographer and maybe lead to something in the futre in photography. I have been aked by my step auntie to be the official wedding photographer for her wedding which is a real honor. It is sometime this summer, so I’ll have to get to know the camera alot better and how to adjust all the settings. Also to create a plan of what I’m going to take pictures of and who of.

I have also got skype which is working really well. I have ben able to have a couple of video calls with Andy and Jonny. That is really good because Andy is working away and he can see all the family away from home.

So this is it for another blog post of 2009. See you when I have something els interesting to wright:D

Back to School Sale: Now On

So tommorow I’m going back to college which I can’t really be bothered with to be honest. It’ll probably be alright once I get into it. I’m not sure what to wright as not much has happened…

I’ve been running quite a bit which I’ve liked but still cold as it is January. However it is supposted to be getting brighter and the days getting longer.

I’ve put a picture of minehead beach in

for a few reasons

• I had a great time at minehead beach
• I wanted to remimind people of summer as it is cold
• I like the the picture I took
• And again I wanted t make the post look nicer
• :)

The year that is new that is two thousand and nine

This picture I took today whilst at the Salt line, this is a long path, good for walks, which used to be train line along time ago but now the fastest thing going down it is a 7 year old on a bike. I’ts not a very good picture but I just wanted to brighten up my post. If you want to see some more of my pictures, where I only tend to put the ones I like, at the right of this page you will see a Flickr widget and there will be a link there to my account.(There are also a few of my pics on the widget).

It’s January 1st 2009, and today I had a nice walk along the salt line, which you just read about, which was very cold but nice and long.

New years eve was pretty good. We played a couple of games and watched a film and then for the last few minutes of the year, we watched the BBC give an uninspireing and predicable build up to the usual firework display and a big prejection of “2009″ on an unknown building near tower bridge. So it was nothing special and maybey 2009 will be a better year for many reasons.

I can’t be bothered with new years resolutions as I’ll just forget about them or break them so hay ho.

I am not looking foreword to college in 4 days as the holidays have been very fast but realaxing. I really, really needed this holiday and couldn’t have coped with another week  and haven’t done any work for college so far.

So have a good 2009 and keep reading my posts!

tis the season to be jolly

So the christmas season is over and new year is just around the corner. – Well its actually tonight but it’s come pretty quick. Christmas was good even in the absence of snow and a stocking, but seeing the extended family and eating christmas food was good, well the food was excellent as it always is cooked by my mum.:D Lamb and chicken with all the trimmings plus seconds and a good healping of yule log, as I’m not a great fan of christmas pudding.

I got a samsung nc10 which i am using now and is an outstanding notebook. I havent taken it anywhere els but my lounge and bedroom but I’m sure  it’s pettit size will come in handy soon. As usual a mountain of selection boxes and chocolates which will probably take me through to christmas 2009-10…agian, well, i have almost finnished them.

Little Tom loves his selection of cuddly toys, especially eeor,(I think it’s spelt) as it is about a foot bigger than him and he can chew on it’s tail.

I have recintly, and I mean in the last 5 minutes, installed the app “remote” for my iPhone 3G. I have heard about it for ages but nothing really sold it to me and didnt seem like something that I needed or wanted so I let it go. However I finnaly took the plunge to see what this piece of software did for me. I was pleasantly supprised as always by the finnish that apple had put on it.oh yeah, In case your thinking “SO WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS APP DO THEN!!?!”…I will tell you. It lets me control my iTunes library from my iPhone remotely. It looks basically like the ipod interface on the iPhone and works seemlessly. There is also an option to control multiple libraries across computers which is a very nice feature but for most people like me I only have one iTunes library so I don’t need this.

So have a great 2009 and I’ll continue to post on my blog!

Photography pictures

Garden

Originally uploaded by Sam Whittaker

I have alot of pictures on flickr which I would like to let you know of.
This one is just an example of my pictures which I have taken for my photography A level or some are just personal.
Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/28017591@N05/ to se my photostreem of pictures uploaded by me. I will be uploading more of the pictures I’ve taken and please comment on them if you like them!

I have been recruited to be the official photographer of my step aunty’s wedding which I am very honored to be! I am very flattered that they trust an unexperianced, enthusiastic amature like me but I guess they must of seen some of my other work or asked other family members as they are very flattering of my pictures.:) The wedding is next summer so I’ll have to get lots of ideas between now and then of what to take pictures of like what groups etc and hopefully they’ll be happy with them.

I have a Nikon D40 camera, which is kind of mine… which is great for taking pictures and has loads of changeable settings that I can play around with and is really fun to use.

So I remind you again! If you want to see my pictures and keep updated with pictures I take in the future, go to www.flickr.com/photos/28017591@N05 and subscribe to the rss feed(if you know what that is)…you should know….>:( and keep up to date and comment on ths blog and the pictures!!

by for now!

I must post more often!

I am wrighting this post now as I feel I have not posted for a while.- Sorry for the delay.

I have been very busy with college work and my job is getting the most hours out of me as they can! Well, sort of.

I like the work at college most of the time now I’ve got used to it, but sometimes I just can’t be bothered or find it boring. I have started programming an application in computing which is going quite well and I find it interesting to find out lots of ways of how to make a program do stuff! Art is plain boring at the minute and I find the work simply uninteresting and slow. It will probably get better in the new year as that is when all the exams start and the real work beggins. I think I have either one or none exams in january which is great!:) Graphics and photography are quite good and I say that photography is the best as I am probably best at it. But enough of boring college as it sucks like school (but not as bad) and its depresing writing about it.

Work. Similar to college as there is still work involved but it is different. I probably prefer work to college even though it can get very, very hard and stressful. I like the feeling of a hard days work after it all. They pay well and the people are really nice and I get on well with them.

Im lovin ma drummin currently and will hopefully be getting a new kit soon!!!

Im glad I have posted quite a bit on this blog and will try to post more oten!

by for now!