S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Screenshots
My favorite parts of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are the awesomely life-like skyscapes you see throughout the game. Below are just a few of the screenshots I’ve taken while playing.
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Half-Human, Half-Vladimir Putin
It’s been a while since I’ve touched on music, so it’s time to break that trend. Today I received my Melatonin Magik hoodie in the mail so I figured I’d post a pic of that and link a new track from the album. If you haven’t been keeping up, Melatonin Magik is the latest album from (my personal favorite) rapper Canibus. I bought the hoodie a while back but was surprised to find a bonus sampler CD in the box signed by Canibus himself. One of my favorite tracks on the album comes straight from Melatonin Magik, and is called “Post Traumatic Warlab Stress.” A picture of the hoodie/signed CD and song are below.
Hoodie with signed Magik Sampler (click to enlarge):
Post-Traumatic Warlab Stress:
Apple’s iPad – It’s all about the apps.
I’ve had some time to digest Apple’s announcement of the iPad this Wednesday, and despite being confused and unsure at first I think I’ve come around on it. Is the iPad perfect? No. Is it a device you need? No more than you “need” an Amazon Kindle. It’s a luxury device that’ll fill some use cases for you and probably make your life a little more convenient, but certainly not a necessity.
There has been a lot of commotion about the iPad being “just a big iPod Touch.” I disagree with that sentiment completely, for a couple of reasons. First, it’s about the user experience. What’s the most-obvious difference between the iPod Touch and iPad? The display size, of course. Because the display for these touch devices doubles as the user input interface, it means developers can do a hell of a lot more with the software they create on the iPad. I think it’ll be the first device to truly recognize the full potential and yes, I’ll admit it, “cool factor” of multitouch. Sure I can do some multitouch functions on my iPhone, but usually only to zoom in or zoom out on an object. Imagine the possibilities of the iPad’s nearly 10″ of screen real estate, particularly when you can set it down on the table or in your lap and have two free hands with which to manipulate the on-screen information.
The second major difference is the horsepower. My current smartphone is the iPhone 3GS, which has a ARM processor clocked at 600mhz by default and only 256MB of memory. The iPad on the other hand, has a 1ghz processor and rumored 1GB of RAM. That means that the applications that are being developed for it will have a much wider range of capabilities and a richer user experience. While watching Apple’s keynote it wasn’t until Scott Forstall brought developers up on stage to show their iPad apps, not to mention when Phil Schiller did the iWork demonstration, that I began to truly understand the amazing amount of potential this device has. Compare the iPad right now to where the iPhone was when it launched: there are very few native applications and those that do exist were created by Apple. The one thing that the iPad has going for it over the iPhone though, is that we already have an SDK for the device before it’s even released. How long did it take Apple to get the iPhone SDK out there?
I’ll be the first to admit that I think the way they’ve chosen to integrate iPhone apps into the iPad is a little cheesy. You can either run them in a native mode, which displays them in a tiny black box in the middle of your 9.5″ display, or you can use “pixel-double” to expand them to fit the screen. Pixel-double might be good for apps that are predominantly text or image-based, but I have a feeling that there’s going to be significant graphical degradation with video playback and games. With all that said though, iPhone apps on the iPad are not what users should be excited for. Software developed with the iPad in mind will truly make the device sing, and I think it’ll be the best media-consumption device we’ve seen so far.
Plus you can’t read ibooks on your iPod Touch, you illiterate brigand!
iHome + Sleep
I was very happy to receive an iHome dock/clock for Christmas this year, and in the box there was a small note that said iHome apps would be coming to the iTunes Store in December. They didn’t quite make that timeframe, but in early January the iHome + Sleep app went live. I’ve since had a week to use it and I have to say, it was worth the wait.
From the home screen of the app you get a slick interface that shows you what you’d expect – the time. From here you can setup different alarms, including the time, what music to sleep/wake to, what social networking messages to send out when you go to sleep or wake up, and you can even have the app keep a log of everything that happens on Twitter and Facebook while you’re asleep so you can get caught up first thing in the morning. One of my favorite features though, is right up top on the main screen – the weather. Knowing that it’s 19 degrees when I get up let’s me know I better get my butt in gear so the car will have time to defrost.
Another cool thing is the interface for adding alarms. Rather than doing the normal text list of alarms, iHome has developed a slick punch-card system for your different alarms. The card displays the name of the alarm, what time it’s set for, and even the album covers for whatever music you’re going to sleep or wake-up to. You can flick through your various cards, and to set an alarm you drag it down into a slot much like “punching-in” to work. It’s a pretty unique and satisfying user experience.
If that wasn’t enough, the iHome + Sleep app even tracks your sleep statistics. At anytime you can hit a button and see how much sleep you got last night or what your average amount of sleep has been for the past week, month or year. Very cool. Finally, as you would expect, it works with my iHome dock exceptionally.
Oh, and did I mention it’s free? Yup. Free. I had paid for an app that works as an iPhone alarm called “Awaken,” but iHome + Sleep blows it out of the water to the point that I’m probably going to uninstall it. Anyways, if you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user hit the iTunes Store link below to grab iHome + Sleep.
We just saw it from a different point of view
Another foray into folk music tonight, I’m afraid. This is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, probably behind “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”
Dead By Design
This song was released a while ago as a sneak-peek at Canibus’s upcoming album, “Melatonin Magik,” but for some reason I forgot to post it here. Anyways, I love the song and am unbelievably hyped for “Melatonin Magik” which is due out on February 9th.
Pocket BLU
So I popped Inglourious Basterds into my PS3 the other day, and was delighted to see a quick ad for a new, free iPhone application called Pocket BLU. Basically, Pocket BLU will find your blu-ray player on your network over wifi and let you control the movie’s playback from your phone. As I mentioned my blu-ray player is my PS3, and I hate using the PS3’s controller to playback movies, so this is an awesome app for me.
The main UI does everything you’d expect, you can navigate the blu-ray’s menu, play/pause, rewind/fast forward and so on. There are some other cool features though – for instance a “Now Playing” button that will provide you with information about the movie you’re watching. Like the movie’s soundtrack? The app will give you access to the iTunes store so you can purchase it. Pretty cool!
When you flip the phone on its side you get some information about the movie’s playtime and can even “scrub” through the movie as though it were a song.
The only problem with the app is that it only works with movies that are Pocket BLU-enabled, but I assume that’ll be come a standard feature here on in. Like I said, it’s totally free so if you are an iPhone or iPod Touch user you can grab it at the link below!
From Somers Town to Surrey Docks With a KMRIA
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – my taste in music is very odd. One moment I’ll be listening to Canibus, best rapper alive, and the next I’ll be listening to the irish folk stylings of The Pogues. I think the common theme in the music I enjoy is that it tells a story, which is obvious when it comes to folk music but less-so in hip-hop. Anyways, one of my favorite songs by The Pogues is actually a demo called “Transmetropolitan.” The link is below.
Merry Christmas!
So last night, on Christmas Eve, I linked Jussi Bjorling’s version of “O Holy Night.” Tonight I have a song that’s a little more contemporary, but still a classic in its own right – “A Fairtyale in New York” by The Pogues. It’s one of my favorite Christmas songs despite the somewhat-negative portrayal of my favorite holiday. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
O Helga Natt
I always listen to this youtube video around Christmas time as it’s one of the most moving versions of “Oh Holy Night” I think I’ve ever heard. Performed by Jussi Bjorling, labeled by some as “The Perfect Tenor,” this song has got to be emotionally moving to anyone with a pulse. My favorite part is round-about 1:11 minutes in, where it really kicks off. Unfortunately the uploader has disabled embeds for the video. Anyways, hit the link below and enjoy, but most of all have a great holiday!
