Tech-Me

Get Closer is a new social networking site from HMV. The aim seems to be to make the most of people's interest in music, video and games to help promote their own wares. Similar to social music site, last.fm, I can see where they're attempting to go with it. The ability to 'plug', rate, tag and review often helps people to choose what media they'd like based on people's recommendations who share similar taste.

^ Plugging an album brings up this popup to review in no more than 10 words

YouTube videos and other related media can also be linked to directly, helping to build up profiles for artists through the userbase. You can connect multiple items together, presumably to eventually help create a user generated network of related content; akin to how musicovery displays related playable media with links to purchase.

^ Get Closer

^ Musicovery

I'm not convinced this necessarily beats last.fm or musicovery, they're already far superior services with a large user base. Instead I think HMV are taking advantage of their customers who thrive on social media to create a fully up to date listing for their products. The site is currently in beta, and should go live this autumn.

Here's a fantastic video promoting Geoff Smith's latest song, Ones and 0s.

 
Ones and 0s by Geoff Smith from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

I recently endured a pretty long train journey to and from London. I couldn't manage without something to keep me entertained. The iPod works just fine for me to watch the occasional movie on. The screen might be small, but it didn't bother me so much as it was better than staring out at the plethora of ongoing trees, plants and animals. I didn't really want to hold the iPod in an uncomfortable position for so long, so decided to modify the purpose of the Gorilla Pod; a tripod with legs that can bend. Considering it wasn't designed for this, and with the right positioning of the legs, it is quite effective. It works perfectly on the train tables, it only fell over once in around 6hrs worth of train time. It probably wouldn't work in car though, since the train doesn't move as much.

above left:Regular photo | above right: Photo taken with filter

I recently picked up a tip from photographer Chris Marquardt about using filters to change the look of a photo. Translucent objects like sun glasses work particularly well for this, so whilst on holiday the other week I thought I'd try out the tip for myself. The results varied greatly, but I found that the glasses worked quite well as a shield from the sunlight; reducing glare from the direct sunlight. The difference can be seen in the two photos above and although I think the lens of the glasses was slightly smeared, the filter seems to warm the colour.

However, holding the glasses and camera together proved awkward at times. This often resulted in part of the glasses lens appearing in the shot itself or being shot at a weird angle as I struggled to hold both the camera and glasses steady. Whilst I took the image above using the glasses as a filter, I still prefer the one below that I had applied a digital in-camera effect to before taking the picture.

Kid Rock encouraged his fans to download music illegally in a BBC interview. He claims that the most popular download store, iTunes charges about the same amount in royalty fees as traditional media. Tech Digest report this as a bad publicity stunt, but I disagree. As Kid Rock said; he wants people to hear his music so that they will go and see him play live. Whilst I might not be a fan of Kid Rock, I do support his case. As do many other bands. Coldplay, Radiohead and CSS are just a selection of bands which have offered their music for free online to promote their new material. Ultimately through this method, they raise their publicity via word of mouth across the Internet. A growing number of fans are then more likely to attend the bands tours and/or buy subsequent music released by the artist. The way we consume music is changing and it's finally favouring the consumers and artists; not the record companies.

Just saw an RC car with a twist on The Gadget Show. It's a standard RC car with a VGA cam on the head of the driver. With the aid of glasses with an integrated display, it relays the perspective that the driver would have. If the user turns their head, the driver does the same to change the perspective to look side to side and up and down. It looks pretty neat.

There's a video of it in action and more information here. 

This post contains mild spoilers for the movie, The Happening.

One of the iPhone's flaws is that it can't capture/send/receive video. Yet in a product placement scene in the movie; The Happening, someone plays a video of a man being attacked by a bunch of lions on an iPhone. The only way that this would have been possible is if the clip was captured and uploaded to YouTube, but this was supposedly a short amount of time after the incident had occurred; and most of the others were complaining that they couldn't gain a phone signal.

A warning has been issued from Lincolnshire Police against a mobile phone scam. Fraudsters have been calling mobile phones in an effort to access the phone SIM card to make calls at the users expense. A device is allegedly being used that is able to do this after a combination of buttons presses is made by the user. The report suggests that the number is either #90 or #09; but it's recommended to simply hang up the call without pressing any buttons before doing so.

Earlier this week, I was tipped that YouTube were issuing copyright claims. I've just received an email warning me about YouTube copyright violation because of the background track that I'd used; incidentally the same band who were featured on Lynch's video. Still, at least the video's still live; just with added advertising. I guess it benefits them to keep it up though really; I'm sure a lot of people will be seeing these emails dropping into their inboxes. Here's the email in full:

Dear YouTube Member:

UMG has claimed some or all of the audio content in your video Fantasy Island Compilation. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification programme.

Your video is still live because UMG has authorised the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

Claim Details:

Copyright owner:
UMG

Content claimed:
Some or all of the audio content

Policy:
Allow this content to remain on YouTube.

• Place advertisements on this video's watch page.

Applies to these locations:
Everywhere

UMG claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification programme. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video/audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team