So its my last full week in London and I'm kind of sad and kind of happy. I've finalised the apartment I'll be renting and the relocation company are moving me at the end of next week. The apartment is just off Albion Street which is in the South of Manchester (some people call it the Knott Mills or Deansgate Locks). Its 10mins walking from work and 10mins from something which looks like the west end. I'm also just around the corner from the Haçienda and the Tram/Train at Deansgate station. Both go to Salford Quays and Piccadilly Train station. Anyone who knows Manchester might say well I'm a 15mins walk from the northern quarter. But come on, thats not far when walking home late at night, plus theres the tram and free city bus. I'm also sure a taxi would be about 5 pounds at most. That certainly beats the 30 plus pounds it would cost to go anywhere near Woolwich from Central London.
I would have love to have gone around to see everyone in London but it wasn't/isn't possible, so instead I'm arranging my last London Geekdinner which I'm proud to announce will be with Dr. Sophie Kain from last years Apprentice and co-owener of Prior Kain.
Its weird how I missed out on all the hype for the launch of the Pacemaker. People were even doing unboxings for the launch. I think this guy is right, the pacemaker is a fantastic device but its not quite a revolution, djs are not going to just drop what they have been doing for it. It may however attract a whole new group of people like the sweetie whos doing the review above, to maybe give it ago. If they really want to get a more general crowd the price will have to come down.
I've been checking out some of demos and tutorials and I'm still impressed but there are a couple of things which I didn't know before hand which is a little off putting. The first one is the music management, 120gig of music navigatable in only about 6 ways – this is a worry but obviously theres no keyboard so searching for tracks is going painful. Luckly it does support Mpeg3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, Wav, etc but exactly how open device is the device? It seems to me that you can edit the filters and stuff but only using their own propitery software which is Windows and Mac only. So that really screws over someone like myself, although I guess I could run it virtualised – maybe? I heard there is a auto BPM feature but does it syncronise beats too? The loop system seems a little less automatic. One of VirtualDj features is the Automatic beat-aware LOOP function, which makes loops quick and easy.
I can not for the life of me work out if while recording the mix live, it also saves a metadata file of what actions you made during the mix. It does seem to keep a track of what tunes you used and in which order but does it keep times too? Currently in Vitualdj I keep a playlist open and everytime I use a tune, I also try to remember to add it to the playlist too. Then I can export it as a M3U list. Some of you might say the alternative is just a pen and paper, but it should all be automatic and live alongside the raw wave file. Maybe SMIL or XSPLIF could make sense here? Ok last thing I noticed which is a little off putting is the lack of multitouch. A trigger is a key which pushes the crossfader to the far left or far right. These are very useful for doing very fast cuts into the music. If the was multitouch, you could doing some combination like hold down the left side of the crossfafer (maybe with a thumb) and press on the right with a finger. It would then be clever enough to notice the action as a cut or trigger. Otherwise just a couple extra buttons for triggers could have been useful. Currently you have to slide from one side to another but this can get quite tiring if doing lots of cuts. Generally a multi-touch pad and some keys could allow some interesting uses when editing a loop or fx.
I think I'll get a pacemaker in the end, virtualdj is the only reason why I still keep windows on my laptop. The gnu/linux dj software are so far off its not even funny. So this would be good. I looked on ebay and there selling for more that the online store price. I do wish it had Bluetooth Stereo but I can attach my dongle to the headphone socket for use with my bluetooth headphones/headset. Its good to see it will charge over USB too, so I won't have to carry a heavy power adapter around with me if I went on Holiday. But I can't help but feel version 2 is just around the corner.
Wow I really want one, but I still really want a Pacemaker. The major difference is the price. The Kaos is 100 pounds compared to the Pacemaker which is almost 400 pounds. Yes they do different things but there both tackling the same problem (as such). To make things even more difficult, theres the Korg Mini-KP which seems to fit between the two nicely. Hey and how cool is it to hit the streets with a miniKP pas.
Windows mobile how I hate you so much. Its such a shame because the devices are so powerful and well designed in my opinion. The software is sometimes painful and in need of a clear kick up the ass. Its like windows, years and years of badly thought-out design decisions bundled into a messy operating system. Don't get me wrong its usable but only through habit.
Someone started writing a new user interface for Windows mobile a while back, called pointui. In that 0.2 alpha release was more design thought that any of the other Windows mobile releases to date.
So whats got me going? Well with Over the Air, I've been thinking a lot about mobile devices and interfaces. The iphone interface is good but also lacks any deepness. This might be fine for most people but not for an advanced user like myself. Windows mobile 6.1 is due or available now and it promises to learn from the iphone and fix its mistakes. The mistakes are best explain in this blog post from Gizmodo.
The number one biggest problem with Windows Mobile is its UI.
I have no problems with Windows itself, and I work on a Vista PC (along with a Leopard Mac) every single day. WM's problem is that it isn't Windows. Here are a few of the unnecessarily complicated attributes that Windows Mobile doesn't share with desktop Windows:
It's very hard to multitask
Closing a program doesn't really close it
Different builds work differently
If you're an advanced user, you'll eventually be able to learn how to bypass or augment certain parts of the phone with third-party applications
Actually Windows mobile's 3rd party support is its saving grace. If it had been a dead end like the iphone I would never have picked up the handsets ever. I've had about 6 generation of windows mobile / pocketpc devices and each one has been more powerful that the last.
Virgin Media in the UK has announced that it is working with the music industry to chase down its file-sharing customers and disconnect them from the internet. At the same time, it will offer an enhanced service which will see its customers get free Usenet binaries access, untraceable by the music industry.
I like it…very sneaky. I have been thinking about switching to Virgin Media for a while, fibre to the home (fibre optic) speeds is very attractive. I do however wonder what their download limits are? I'm still doing about 140 gig a month.
I can confirm I have picked my flat and will be laying down the deposit tomorrow. It was a super tough decision but in the end, I dropped all the flats in the Northern Quarter and Castlefield because they were too far from Oxford Road (as it will take about 20mins to walk on a good day). Once I did that, the deansgate and winkworth road area become the focus. The Hacienda appartments were nice but over price, so I looked more south and found some great appartments.
The one picked is 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and has secure underground parking. Its high on a corner, so theres a great view of the Manchester skyline from the small balcony. I did see some amazing flats last weekend, but being close to work and the train stations means I'll be more likely to walk everywhere that take the scooter. Just in the last weekend in Manchester I must have walked 15-18 miles. Trust me my feet felt it every night when I got back. One very sweet but sassy estate agent walked with me from their base on deansgate to Castlefield, then to near Hulme and then up to the northern quarter. And if that wasn't far enough I met the next estate agent back at Castlefield! If it wasn't for the rain and high winds I would have been happier to walk.
Just reflecting back on some of the wow flat features, I got to mention first of all the Edge. The appartment I saw was on the 15th floor and when I stepped out on to the large balcony, I couldn't help but feel a certain amount of vertigo. The view was impressive but facing towards Salford rather that Manchester Centre. In Castlefield there were two amazing buildings which were hard to choose between. St george's island was beautiful and had the largest balcony I'd ever seen (plus it facing the right direction). Then I saw on Sunday I that was blown away by Timber Whalf which had a corner balcony and to top it off, a private balcony for the bedrooms. Why? Who knows but imagine having a party in such a place. Other noteworthy flats were in the northern quarter which included great views and amazing spaces in everything from loft conversions to a penthouse. The most striking was the lighthouse. I did go into Beetham Tower but only to check out a one bedroom place which was well outside my budget. It was a great view but honestly not that special. I'll be interested in some of the newer taller buildings which are being proposed.
