When he’s supposed to be working, he’s actually on the internet. It helps him clear his head – or so he tells me.

So yesterday, while he was screwing around clearing his head, Tucker sent me a link to this video of a chick playing Avenged Sevenfold on Expert on Rock Band on the flute. I played flute in high school [don't laugh] and I suppose Tucker thought this video would be of interest to me.

About a minute into the video, I knew I had found internet and gaming gold. This girl is good!

I’ve had that tab open on my laptop since yesterday and totally meant to write about it then but life got in the way. So, when I sat down tonight to write about the video, I found that Engadget had already written about it so I must give them some credit.

You can either follow the link to College Humor or watch the embedded YouTube video below. It’s long but it’s worth it.

Image|stevendepolo

Post from: EveryJoe

Flutes: Not Just for Band Camp Any Longer

The songs aren’t available because the computer they were stored on is now offline and I’m not sure when it will be getting fixed again. You’d think there would be an easy way to get this done. If there is, I haven’t found it. That’s one of the reasons I really do not like iTunes and haven’t missed it not being on my own computer.

After not finding anything I did a quick Google search and came across this post where people other than me seem to be wanting to accomplish the same thing and can’t very easily.

That post didn’t really give me the answer either.

Here’s what I ended up doing. I selected every file in the iTunes library and selected “Delete”. This prompted me with a warning about the fact that I’d also be removing all of these songs from any iPod or iPhone that was also synch’d to the computer.

I was then prompted on whether or not I wanted to send all the music files to the Recycle Bin or leave them in the iTunes folder. I chose to leave them in the folder. After the library was shown as empty I then added the same iTunes folder back to the library.

It the refreshed everything in the library and only showed those songs that were actually available. Bingo! Now, wouldn’t a “Refresh” button have been much more helpful? As someone in the forum post mentioned earlier, yes it would have, but Apple just wants us to “Think Different”.

Image: iTunes 8 from Apple.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Playing Around with iTunes

With today’s online distribution, record companies are losing album sales due to the fact that people can now just purchase songs they like instead of an entire album. Honestly, buying on a per song basis makes much more sense to me. Having said that there’s still something nice about albums of past. It’s getting the other content that makes the experience a whole lot better.

So according to the article, Apple will be making a new kind of “digital albums”. This is not your ordinary PDF file with pictures and text. Instead it will be more interactive. You can even play the songs direct from the album without going through iTunes. That’s pretty cool. Add some lyrics, photos and other multimedia content and it will really make for a compelling reason to buy albums again.

This coincides with the rumored release of a “tablet” style device from Apple. We’ll see this fall if all of these comes to fruition.

Post from: EveryJoe

Apple and Labels To Launch “Digital Albums”

The FF VIII CD case is propelled by zipper, water-resistant and dirt-proof technologies. A metal plate on the front has the “Final Fantasy VIII” logo embedded on it. Two cloth pockets are available to store 2 memory cards. $19.90 at NCSX.

Woohoo~

Image: NCSX

Post from: EveryJoe

Final Fantasy VIII CD Carrying Case

Tracks:

Social Distortion “Bad Luck”
Social Distortion “Ring of Fire”
Social Distortion “Story of My Life”
Steely Dan “Black Friday”
Steely Dan “My Old School”
Disturbed “Stricken”
Disturbed “Stupify”
Elvis Costello “Radio Radio”
The Replacements “Kids Don’t Follow”
Siouxsie & The Banshees “Hong Kong Garden”
Siouxsie & The Banshees “Kiss Them For Me”
Siouxsie & The Banshees “The Killing Jar”
Locksley “All Over Again”
Locksley “Don’t Make Me Wait”
Locksley “She Does”
Silversun Pickups “Melatonin”
Silversun Pickups “Well Thought Out Twinkles”
Duran Duran “Girls On Film”
Duran Duran “Rio”
Buckcherry “Rescue Me”
Mötley Crüe “Face Down in the Dirt”
Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink”
Sixx:A.M. “Life is Beautiful”
The Pretenders “Brass in Pocket”
The Janitors “Get Your Rock On”

As usual, each song goes for 200 Wii Points (2 bucks).

Image: MTV

Post from: EveryJoe

Duran Duran On Your Wii Rock Band

Apple had to give in sometime to the demands of the record labels, who are currently struggling with dipping CD sales and trying to find the best strategy to leverage digital downloads. In exchange Apple got the record companies to drop DRM for the songs. Apple has completed migrating it’s song library to the DRM less version. This is good for consumers.

Another thing that the record labels agreed on was to allow people to download songs via the iPhone and the iPod Touch. So all in all it was a good deal.

I’ve always been a fan of simplicity. I feel that the best way to get loyal customers is to make it easy and pleasurable for them to buy your products. This is what Apple did for iTunes. It was a no-brainer, at the price point they set, you almost didn’t need to think about whether or not you’ll buy a song. It was that easy and cheap.

However, changing times call for a change in strategy as well. While variable pricing means the buying gets a little more complicated, I think it’s not a big step down. With only 3 tiers, it’s still fairly easy to buy a song. Sure the $1.29 $.30 more and considering we’re going through tough economic times, I think having the songs DRM free is a good trade-off. In the interim this is a workable solutin wherein everyone will be satisfied.

Is variable pricing right? I think at this time, it is. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.

Post from: EveryJoe

Is iTunes Variable Pricing Right?

Image via Wikipedia

I want your suggestions. After I get a list of worst apps that you can think of (leave comments, email jesse dot middleton at b5media dot com, or hit me up on Twitter), I’ll go ahead and review them myself and bring a team of highly trained professionals to rate and review them (namely, you guys) by choosing in a poll.

So, please what are your favorites (or would that be least favorites)? Let me know.

Post from: EveryJoe

Only you can prevent poor programming