Recently in Great Gadgets Category

So it's all about getting the content to the viewer. First it was blockbuster. Go to the store and get the content yourself. Then Netflix, where they send it to you. Now netflix is streaming the content to your computer. The PS3 and xbox will now stream your content to your tv. What's the next logical step? Skip all that mess and just push it right to your tv.

In the last few years, manufacturers have been putting Ethernet ports in their TV's to pull weather, stocks, and news. But at this year's CES, manufacturers such as Samsung have put flash players and simple browsers on their tv's so users can stream youtube and hulu. CBS, ABC, HBO, and others are now putting their episodes online. Just keep it simple and watch your tv over the internet.

In the next 10 years we are going to see the decline of cable companies providing televsion access in favor of your internet connection as your new cable.

We'll see televisions bypassing your computer and connecting straight to the internet to pull content directly. Everything will be streaming as broadband speeds increase.

These are exciting times as technologies continue to evolve!

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Too funny... and no cut and paste either!

[via evmilk.com]

I often create beats, riffs, and samples on the MC-909, but sometimes it's hard to use them in a full composition without having a mouse and a large screen. To accomplish that, I arrange everything in Ableton Live.

You can do that by tranferring either MIDI or Audio.

I use a M-Audio FireWire 410 as my soundcard and all connections. Connect all your audio output cables (SPDIF) from the 909 to your soundcard. Do the same for MIDI in/out.

For MIDI transfer and control, you need to use the 909 as the master sync, go to Menu -> System -> Seq/MIDI, and make sure Sync Mode is set to Master and sync output on.

In Live, go to Options -> Preferences -> MIDI Sync. Under the midi input section, make sure that you turn on Track, Sync, and Remote. This allows the 909 to send MIDI messages to each Live track, as well as sync timing and remote control through the 909.

Create 16 MIDI tracks in Live, one for each 909 MIDI track. Then, find the I/O section under the MIDI track info, set MIDI from to your MIDI source (mine is FW 410 MIDI), and underneath that, set the MIDI channel to 1. Make sure you do this for each track input, 2, 3, 4, etc. And no output (when recording in).

Try experimenting with recording each midi track. To record track 1, simply mute all other tracks on the 909 (Part mute -> Shift and track button 1), arm the track to record in live, click record for the MIDI slot, and play on the 909. Watch the midi notes roll in. Do the same for all the rest.

After you've recorded each midi track, you can turn off the MIDI inputs in Live, and then turn the MIDI out port to each corresponding track. In the 909, goto Menu -> MIDI -> MIDI Rx, and turn Remote Keyobard Switch to OFF. You'll need a blank pattern in the 909 with each patch that you used for sounds. Hit play to wach Live trigger notes on the 909.

So that's how you use Live as the midi source to trigger sounds on the 909. You can then edit and arrage midi on your computer.

To do the same for audio, simply change the source input for each track in Live from MIDI to your audio source such as the 909's SPDIF.

I also like to control Live from the 909. You can enter MIDI map mode by clicking the MIDI button in the top right of Live. Every configurable parameter through MIDI will turn a purple color. Click a sample for example, then a key on the 909, and you just configured it as a trigger. You can try experimenting with any knob that sends MIDI data as a control for Live. Just look in the very top right corner of Live at the MIDI Track In Indicator to see if the 909's knob is sending data.

It may sound complicated, but you've just got to try experimenting on your own to see how it all works together. Good luck!

As the ubiquity of the internet increases, so does the usefulness of applications in every day situations.

Imagine you are driving down the road on a beautiful saturday afternoon. You car speaks the happy hour specials at Houlihan's restaurant as you pass by. You hear that Fry's electronics is having a sale on Terabyte hard drives. Even when you're at the mall, you can look browse through the local ads at your discretion on your location aware phone.

This future is now becoming reality as location aware devices are becoming more prevalent. Withg the advent of the iPhone 3G, the built in GPS can send your location coordiantes to any application. This means that your phone knows where you are at all times. Applications can request this information and send back to databases on the internet and make your life easier. Kind of scary if someone or some organization was able to access that info.

Here is just a taste of some of the applications already available:

• Shake your iPhone and Urbanspoon will pick a restaurant in your area
• Social network with other people at the mall or wherever you are using Brightkite
• Geotag your photos so you know where they were taken
• Forget where you parked? Bookmark it with G-Park
• Exchange contact info with someone nearby by shaking your iPhone: Friend Book

Cool stuff is happening today. It's going to be exciting to see what else will transpire with this technology.

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This is neat:

http://www.usbcell.com/products

I recently upgraded my handset through T-mobile for the new Katalyst. It uses the Hotspot at home service for $9 / month so you can talk over WiFi without deducting from your minutes. Cool thing about it is that if you are out of the country and can find an unsecured hotspot, you can call your local US numbers as if you were calling from the US.

Just bought one of these bad boys today. I have been looking for some extra space lately and couldn't pass up this deal at Fry's. $187.00 plus tax. Removed all the unnecessary software by reformatting to NTFS. So far so good!

• 1TB
  
• USB 2.0
• Windows and OSX compatible