ANDROID lovers can finally stop complaining about the fact that you could only get the popular-picture sharing tool and social network Instagram on the iPhone. One of the most popular apps on Apple’s iOS is coming to Android. After taking the mobile web by storm, changing the way iPhone users look at the photos they take and creating a huge, cult-like social network that is addicted to uploading endless streams of photos, Instagram is finally expanding to other devices.
Sign up to be the first to be notified when it becomes available on Android. As usual, BlackBerry users will have to wait even longer.
ANTHM is a new locally produced app for Apple’s iOS devices that turns your phone or iPad into a crowdsourced jukebox. Powered by rdio.com, a music streaming service similar to Spotify (sign up for a free seven-day trial), you can host a listening party and have other users in the vicinity who have downloaded the app vote on which songs should be played. It even allows people to suggest their own favourites to add to the playlist. It lets the crowd members control the music and build their own on-the-fly playlists.
Perfect for house parties, hip office settings, lounges or any place people gather where music is being played, I could even see this being popular at socials where people are willing to try something other than your regular DJ. You could have a couple of iPad stations set up for people who don’t have a device but who want to make a request. Wouldn’t that be more fun than some boring DJ playing the same music you heard at every other social? Let the crowd decide what it wants to hear.
THERE are plenty of reasons to get yourself a tablet computer, but do you really need the new version that Apple recently unveiled? Unless you’re an early adopter of all things Apple, probably not. Sure, it has improved graphics, a quicker processor, a far better camera (do you even need a camera on a tablet?), a screen that seems to have impressed everyone and a few other tweaks, but is that worth the premium price?
If you’re new to the tablet game, you could grab yourself a new iPad2 and be totally happy with the experience — and save yourself a few bucks. If you aren’t an Apple fan, there are other devices that could suit your needs. Stay away from the BlackBerry PlayBook, though; despite its rock-bottom price, it has been a lemon since Day 1.
If you’re a real bargain hunter, try buying a used version of the original iPad. It will be extremely reasonable and do almost everything you need. You won’t be able to awkwardly take pictures with your device or watch movies in some ridiculously high resolution, but it will do everything you would expect from a multimedia-driven device that has only been on the market a few years.media-driven device that has only been on the market a few years.
Ten YouTube channels you should be watching
There are lots of great videos on YouTube that aren’t of cats hanging out in strange places, dogs doing interesting things, Hitler getting mad about the lineup for the washrooms at Jets’ games or your buddy doing the cinnamon challenge — but good content can be hard to find, especially if you don’t have the time to go into a YouTube k-hole. Luckily, Flavorwire.com has done the hard work and compiled the 10 YouTube channels you should be watching. From the improv-influenced laughs of BriTANick Comedy to a cooking show called My Drunk Kitchen, these are the type of shows TV networks won’t touch with a 10-foot pole but that are perfect for YouTube. It’s like programming your own community-access station, but better. If you haven’t figured out a way to watch the video-sharing giant on your TV instead of your laptop, it’s time to buy an HDMI cable or get yourself a cheap xBox if you don’t like the idea of your computer being tied up while your family watches endless videos from the College Humour channel.
MP3 of the Week: Dan Bain – Hypertone Podcast #1
Detroit’s deep house aficionado Dan Bain (Paxahau resident DJ/Dead Tiger Music) kicks off the Hypertone Podcast series with a stellar mix that includes cuts from Junior Boys (remixed impeccably by Berghain resident DJ Marcel Dettmann), Peter Funk, Medway and others. The Motor City resident will make his first appearance in Canada as part of a Movement pre-party tour that is making its only trip north of the border to meet up with local artists Ali Khan, Niki Volan (formerly UFO) and Nathan Zahn on May 12 at Boa Lounge (five bucks at the door). Presented by Symptom Technologies and the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition (MEME), Bain’s deep take on house is the perfect kickoff to a busy season for electronic music festivals in North America that starts with Detroit’s Movement (May 26-28), followed by Montreal’s Mutek (May 30 to June 3) and Winnipeg’s MEME, which runs June 22 to 24 at The Cube, along with after-parties at The Winnipeg Art Gallery (June 22) and the Manitoba Museum (June 23).
Video of the Week: OFF! – Live at SXSW
Watch the “power of the riff” as punk supergroup OFF! tears through some of its pissed-off, post-hardcore material at a recent gig at South By Southwest. The band’s new self-titled album is set for release May 9, both digitally and on vinyl and CD. If you are an OFF! fan and record collector, 1,500 white copies of the LP are being pressed and are available at Interpunk.com.
Whichever local DJ takes home the title at Red Bull’s annual Thre3Style competition is going to have to do something pretty outrageous to top what happened in 2011. Last year’s winner, DJ Hipnotic (aka Mike Salonga), won over the dance floor with his smooth, skillful blend of club bangers, custom remixes and quick-handed cuts — and, to cap off his electrifying 15-minute set, he asked his girlfriend to marry him.
“I thought of it about a month before Thre3Style,” explains the veteran DJ over email. “My fiancée had asked her friends and family to support me that night, and I had my friends and co-workers coming out, as well. So it was a perfect stage for a proposal. I always told myself that if I ever propose, it was going to be big and, most importantly, it had to be unique. Nobody has ever proposed during a DJ competition before, so I decided that it was a perfect way to do it. I was way more nervous about the proposal itself than my Thre3Style set.”
DJs can be notoriously secretive if they are preparing to compete in battles such as Thre3Style (and previously, the DMCs), but Salonga had to keep extra-quiet about his plans. He didn’t want anyone ruining his surprise.
“The only person that knew about the proposal was the lady who sold me the ring,” he says. “I had to keep this secret from everyone for a whole month. It ate me up inside because I questioned myself about it. To be able to pull it off without anyone knowing and without any mistakes was tough. Of course I had to consider the worst-case scenario: what if she said ‘no!?’ I didn’t want to tell anyone because I wanted it to be a surprise for the entire room and not just for her. My closest friends and family had no clue.”
It all worked out perfectly, with Salonga topping a tough group of Winnipeg DJs to capture his first Red Bull title and his girlfriend, friends, family, Thre3Style crowd and judges (this writer included) stunned by what happened in the closing moments of his set. While the proposal was dramatic, it was his party-rocking skills that got him a spot at the nationals in 2011. Unfortunately, Salonga didn’t win in Toronto; that honour went to eventual Red Bull Thre3Style World Champ Hedspin, who captured that title in front of a hometown crowd in Vancouver.
Salonga gets another shot at glory, but it’s going to be a tougher road to the nationals as the format for the competition is changing this year. Originally a grassroots event that started in 2007 on the West Coast and spread across the country, Thre3Style has become the most important DJ competition of the year. In 2010, the burgeoning contest went international, with the first world finals held in Paris, France (where hometown jockey DJ Karve became the inaugural world champ).
While there will still be local elimination rounds in which DJs will need to cover at least three different genres in a 15-minute sets, there will also be regional battles to decide who moves on to the national stage. As last year’s local champ, Salonga will get a bye directly into the next round in Calgary, along with the winner of the 204 qualifier at the Tijuana Yacht Club on March 29. (Both Salonga and two-time former Thre3Style champion, DJ FIN-S, will perform at the local qualifier but won’t be competing against the six local DJs — including Patelli, Tec G , Hollywood Hype, Special K, Hectic and tha Coach — who have thrown their names in the ring this year.)
While this change in format will give Manitoba a new Thre3Style champ and will allow two local DJs to compete in the regionals, Salonga is feeling the pressure, both from the contest’s new structure — and from the compressed timeline.
“The difficult part about this year’s competition is that the 2011 eliminations were less than six months ago. I don’t have as much time to brainstorm,” Salonga says. “I think there is much more pressure going straight to Calgary. I really wanted to enter the Winnipeg competition this year to defend my title. Now that I automatically go straight to regionals, for me to have some sort of Thre3Style title for 2012, I have to win in a city where I don’t have the home-court advantage. It’ll be challenging, but win or lose, I will work really hard to represent Winnipeg at regionals and, if all goes well, at nationals.”
RED BULL Thre3Style 2012
Feat. DJ Hipnotic and DJ FIN-S
March 29, 9 p.m.
Tijuana Yacht Club
Guns N’ Roses reunion at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
ANYONE who has been following the Guns N’ Roses’ saga since the band imploded after 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident? probably knows it’s unlikely that the classic lineup — frontman Axl W. Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler — will manage to put aside their differences and perform together at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gig in Cleveland, Ohio on April 14.
McKagan spoke with Rolling Stone about the possibility of a reunion. “Do I hope to? That’s a tricky question. It would be awesome. You have those daydreams like, ‘We’ll go up and play Nightrain and Brownstone and throw down the microphone and drop off! That’ll be killer! But I doubt that’ll happen,” says the bassist.
“There’s been no communication about anyone playing. There was probably a day in the mid-1990s where I would have tried to gather the troops, but I’m just not that guy anymore. It’s too frustrating to change anyone else… I’m not even sure I’d want to change how anyone else sees the situation. But I’m going.”
Rose and the current version of the band, which includes Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and DJ Ashba, rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Frank Ferrer, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, are on an extensive world tour and reportedly working on followup material to 2008’s epic comeback album, Chinese Democracy.
Website to catalogue record shops Worldwide
WHILE the music industry is still trying to figure out what to do in a post-download world (especially in Canada — when is Spotify getting here again?), vinyl sales curiously continue to climb. Some reports have sales pegged as the highest they’ve been in the past six years, up almost 40 per cent.
It’s not going to save the music industry, but it is an interesting trend, as consumption patterns of music change. Some mom-and-pop style record stores are gone, but those that have stuck around have seen new customers flipping through stacks of vinyl. They’re snapping up new heavy re-pressings of old classics, dusty, used LPs for their collections, or albums from current artists who have cleverly included a digital download with the purchase of their record (which allows music collectors the best of both worlds: the tactile experience with the vinyl and the versatility and portability of the digital file).
They also get one of the big pieces that’s missing when you shop online — the experience in the record store. Amazon, iTunes and Beatport may be able to sell you music, but they can’t replicate the record-store experience, no matter how many algorithms suggest what other kind of music you might like.
Recordshops.org is an ambitious new crowdsourced project to catalogue and rate record stores around the world. Don’t forget the annual Record Store Day is on April 21, 2012. Not only is it a good excuse to get out to your local music retailers, it’s also a perfect day to spend way too much money on music and not feel guilty about it.
Anthony Augustine is a freelance music, technology and pop culture writer who spends way too much time in front of a computer. Got a site you think he should see? Email him at anthony.siteunseen@gmail.com or follow him at twitter.com/anthonya.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 22, 2012 E3
Netflix, Please Fix Your User Interface On… Everything
For eight bucks a month, it’s easily to forgive Netflix’s faults. Sure, you wish there was better selection, but Canadians have somehow gotten used to having inferior products on the web and mobile devices. We always seem to get the watered-down version — that is, if we get a version at all (See: Hulu or Spotify). Netflix’s biggest issue in Canada might be lack of content, but the way the interfaces work across most platforms has been a problem, too. Even on the same device — a PS3, for instance — two separate users might have different features enabled. The experience is not consistent and it frustrates users who wonder why their friends have features they don’t. The interface for the XBox 360 is a nightmare, too. Because the video-streaming service is available on so many devices, it’s naturally going to be more difficult to keep everything uniform — but somehow Netflix has also managed to screw it up on individual platforms, too.
Itchy & Scratchy
Not sure why this supercut of all the Itchy & Scratchy segments from The Simpsons hasn’t been pulled from YouTube, but fire up this nearly 50 minutes of cartoon glory before the suits at Fox get worked up about it.
Hoopism
Hoopism doesn’t crank out a lot of content, but its unique mix of data, analysis, visualization and insight is a refreshing change from all the other basketball sites out there. Whether you’re looking for information on how the public is betting in March Madness or how the rookies are stacking up against the stats of the past few years, or for an infographic of the condensed NBA season, Hoopism is worth a visit.
MP3 of the Week: Pezzner – Music for Dentistry Mix
West Coast house producer Pezzner dials it down a few notches and gets weird and trippy on this new ambient mix, recently released on Soundcloud. A departure from his carefully crafted house vibe, Music for Dentistry features artists such as Pan Sonic, Laurent Garnier, Swod and Steve Reich. More DJs need to do this type of outside-the-box mix.
Video of the Week: Dinosaur Jr. Live (1991)
— The wall-of-sound freaks in Dinosaur Jr. shred through a quick set at the Monsters of Spex Festival on Aug. 24, 1991 in Koln, Germany. The tour was showcased in the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke and featured a Lou Barlow-less version of the guitar-worshipping band.
A Treasury of the World’s Worst Online Dating Stories
Like it or not, if you’re single and jumping into the dating game, chances are you are probably thinking about going online to find that special someone. Dating has changed significantly over the past decade, with an increasing number of couples meeting online.
While it might take some time and effort to land a date the old-fashioned way, now all you need is a web connection, a recent picture and hopefully some hopefully witty insight about yourself for your profile — it’s the consumerization of love, fuelled by sites like Plenty of Fish (pof.com), Match.com, eharmony.ca and in some cases, social networking sites such as Facebook. Fire up your laptop, scan through the profiles and pick someone that interests you. It’s not much different than shopping online, except there isn’t a return policy.
Dating horror stories are nothing new — it’s just easier to rack up interesting tales in the new dating world. Although I’m sure some legitimate couples have met on Plenty of Fish, for the most part, the site seems driven by the desire for fleeting hookups, not long-term relationships — hence the high percentage of bad-date stories you seem to hear from people who have dipped their toes into Plenty of Fish’s waters.
Not all dates that start online end up in disaster; it’s just a quicker, more direct way to bring people into your life. The more you put yourself out there, the better the chance you’ll have a story to add to Awl.com’s Treasury of the World’s Worst Online Dating Stories.
Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge
OUT in paperback next week, Mark Yarm’s Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge is an essential read for anyone looking to dig deeper into the ’90s rock scene that spawned bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, along with a slew of other acts that helped redefine the music industry 20 years ago.
An excellent companion to the oral histories in the book, Yarm’s Tumblr blog is ground zero for all things grunge.
Top 10 Ways to Make the Best of an Old, Crappy Computer
TECHNOLOGY is moving so fast these days, people are upgrading their devices much more frequently than in the past. If you’re light on cash or it’s just not a priority to have the latest tablet or quickest new ultra-thin laptop, you can still make the most out of your old desktop with these 10 helpful tips from Lifehacker.com.
With low-cost solutions such as trimming the number of programs you’re using on the system (get rid of all that bloatware) and upgrading your external hardrive to get some extra life from your system, buying a new computer just because everyone else is doing it isn’t your only option.
If you really want to upgrade to the new iPad or get that deal on the Blackberry Playbook, but your desktop still has some life in it, look at the ways you can repurpose or reuse your system in different ways before you put it on the curb for Winnipeg’s annual free day.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 15, 2012 E3
ChefHangouts
If you’re looking for a reason to sign up for a Google+ account and are a food nut or a wanna-be-chef, these new online cooking lessons being offered by Chefhangout.com are a unique way to sharpen your skills in the kitchen without leaving the comfort of your home. For around $20 a class, you’ll connect with an instructor and 10 other students via video chat using Google’s new streaming services. You can also trade and gather recipes from other users in the free video chat rooms that are part of Google+’s built-in features. This is an innovative use of Google’s group video chat feature and is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this type of learning and collaboration. While $20 a lesson may seem steep to some people, you can bet that a similar service will pop up without a fee, but heavy with ads and product placement.
The Most Common Cooking Mistakes
If real-time video chat cooking classes aren’t your thing, this list of the 41 Most Common Cooking Mistakes may help you identify some of the bad habits you may have picked up and should give you some easy-to-follow tips to help you not burn your chocolate the next time you’re baking, brown your meat for that perfect stew and improve your knife skills.
MP3 of the Week: Ryan Crosson Live
Part of the Visionquest crew originally from Detroit, Ryan Crosson and buddies Lee Curtiss, Seth Troxler and Shaun Reeves have been making their mark with a sexy, slowed down, after-hours style of house and techno that is injected with indie pop sensibilities. From their legendary Need I Say More parties in Motor City (usually the best after-party at Movement) and fledgling label to their tireless tour schedule that has them playing in the top clubs in the world and their recent mix for Fabric, Visionquest’s members are helping broaden the sound associated with Detroit. While they have all relocated from the city, they still have strong roots in the community and it’s impossible to separate what the are doing from the 313.
Video of the Week: Jeff Ross Roasts Wall Street at Occupy LA
If you missed Jeff Ross speed roasting adoring Winnipeggers at the Burt (I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy who gave him a JR ring during the segment ended up in his next TV special) or his performance on the roast of Charlie Sheen, who showed up looking like Gaddafi after a week-long bender, watch the hilarious comedian riff on Wall Street and the Occupy L.A. movement. His take-no-prisoners approach works well with the rag tag crowd of protesters and adds some humour to the Occupy camp.
Yo, This Racist?
The ESPN copy editor who got canned for his Jeremy Lin headline should have been following Tumblr blog Yo, This Racist? before he got caught up in the Linsanity of the Knicks’ point guard’s meteoric rise to fame in the NBA and posted something stupid that ultimately cost him his job.
(via Instapaper)
One of the best apps around for iOS devices, Instapaper is a must-have for anyone who reads a lot of content from the web. Recently launched, (via Instapaper) scours Twitter for articles that were “liked” by users and aggregates the results. The site describes itself as a “crowdsourced version of Longform.org,” a popular site that collects articles from across the web. Even if you don’t have an Apple device, (via Instapaper) is a great way to see what people are gravitating to on the web, and easily pick and choose what you want to read without shelling out cash every month for magazine subscriptions.
MP3 of the Week: Martyn – Live at Mutek 2008
Martyn blurs the lines between understated techno, old-school house and deep, bassy beats on this striking mix, recorded live during one of Mutek’s daytime events. Although it’s from 2008, you can hear why it was one of the most talked-about sets from that year’s festival. Martyn performs in Winnipeg for the first time on March 8 at Ozzy’s with Toronto’s Egyptrixx as part of Red Bull Music Academy & Mutek’s cross-Canada tour.
Video of the Week: Holy Ship 2012 Recap
If you are looking for a reason to spend a few days partying on a cruise ship with some of the most buzzed-about DJs in the world (last year Fatboy Slim, Diplo, Skrillex, Steve Aoki were part of a star-studded roster of sunbathed turntable rockers), take a look at this video from the inaugural Holy Ship concert series. This cruise sold out quickly last year and, judging from this video, it’s one hell of a party. This isn’t the type of cruise you’d go on if you’re looking to relax; you’ll need a vacation from your vacation on the non-stop party ship. Book early for 2013 or you’ll be disappointed.
TOP Chef Canada is right around the corner — the second season of the popular cooking competition is set to kick off on March 12 at 9 p.m. on The Food Network. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it Top Chef Canada, as there are no representatives of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or the Maritimes. Once again, the field of chefs draws heavily from Ontario.
Considering last year the running joke on Twitter was the hashtag #topchefontario, it really surprises me the producers of the show didn’t do a better job of attracting the best chefs from each province. While Darryl Crumb wasn’t the most likable contestant last season and his food left a lot to be desired, at least we had a hometown chef to root for. I know I’m not the only one who thinks local culinary stars like Scott Bagshaw from Deseo, Edohei’s Makoto Ono, Alex Svenne from Bistro 7 1/4 and Diversity Foods’ Ben Kramer could handle their own in the competition and show that great chefs don’t just work in Toronto or Vancouver.
WITH costs on the rise, savvy travellers are always looking for ways to trim their budgets but still have a memorable vacation. In some cities, the costs of hotels has risen to the point where staying in some areas becomes problematic, meaning even rundown hotels command top dollar.
That’s where Air BnB comes in. Founded in August 2008, it connects people looking for a place to stay with someone who may have an extra room, an apartment, house or condo to rent. While the service has gained much of its momentum in Europe, there are pockets of growth in North America, clustered around both coasts. It makes sense that places like L.A., New York and San Fransisco are early adopters of the service. Vancouver and Toronto could also be ripe for Airbnb growth, with an endless stream of condos being built, some of them intended as rental properties.
With over 19,000 cities and 192 countries represented and over 5,000,000 nights already booked by the site, Airbnb is obviously gaining strength in the travel industry, but has a long way to go before its impact can be felt in North America in a significant way.
SOME people like to do crazy things and get themselves noticed on the web. Comedian/filmmaker Mark Malkoff has been uploading fascinating videos to YouTube for the past few years. You may know him as the guy who visited 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan in one day or as the dude who lived in an IKEA store.
His latest viral video series is so straightforward, it’s hard to believe it actually works. Malkoff has been contacting celebs in Hollywood and inviting himself over for a sleepover. Surprisingly, some of them actually let him stay at their places. They either really believe in the marketing power of viral videos, think he’s a harmless guy or are a bit crazy themselves. It’s probably a combination of all three.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 8, 2012 E3
WITH the move to transfer over all users to the new Timeline look, reluctant Facebookers are having to take stock of their digital lives. Back in the early days of social networking (it feels strange to even write that), most users tended to add a wide range of people, from longtime friends to old classmates from grade school to co-workers and in some cases, even those random people they met at some party. Now everyone and his dog has a Facebook profile and most don’t really represent the really important relationships in users’ lives.
New users of social media also tended to share a lot, whether it was mundane status updates, blurry camera-phone shots of a drunken night out or way too much information about that extended trip overseas. Now that people have had some time to adapt to the changing social-media landscape, they are rethinking how much they should be sharing and who they should be sharing that information with.
Sure, you can set up filters and permissions for content and keep people walled off, but wouldn’t it just be easier to trim your friends list to the people who are actually your friends? Isn’t the point of sites like Facebook to share the details of your social life with the people who are important to you?
But how much do you share and with whom? Facebook is pushing users to share every detail of their lives, but is that what we want?
People also use The Book as a communication tool instead of email, but that can’t be the only reason why you hang on to that bloated friends list. Is it? Do you really need your boss on Facebook? Your neighbour? Or you ex? Or somebody you haven’t seen or spoken to (and probably don’t care to) for years? Probably not.
A new study suggests that “people don’t want to collect as many Facebook friends as possible. Social networkers are becoming more selective, managing their accounts and ‘pruning’ people from their lists” writes Read Write Web’s Alicia Elier. “More users are untagging themselves from photos, deleting comments and unfriending others. Women and younger users tend to prune more than others: 67 per cent of women with social-network site profiles have deleted users, compared with 58 per cent of men.”
Users are obviously becoming more selective with whom they let in their network. In some cases, they’re going back through their friends’ list and trimming people from it, rather than dealing with Facebook’s constantly changing privacy settings.
This trend is also tied into our reluctance to share everything, the way boss Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook team want. Timeline is also pushing users who are increasingly uncomfortable with sharing so much of their digital lives to go on a deletion spree, culling content they have put on the site over the years in an losing battle to try and cut back on what Facebook shows the world.
While all this is activity is partially driven by the move to the new Timeline features, it also reflects our changing understanding and relationship with social media, our digital lives and the web.
The Non Sports Fan’s Guide to Jeremy Lin
UNLESS you have been on a remote beach for your winter holidays, it’s been impossible to escape the Jeremy Lin phenomenon. The Giants just won the Super Bowl, but the biggest sports star in the Big Apple (and probably the world right now) is a 23-year-old Harvard-educated point guard who played in the NBA’s development league last year, was without a guaranteed contract until recently and was sleeping on his brother’s couch in New York because he wasn’t sure if he would stay with the team.
If you need some help filling the blanks in about Lin and why he is getting so much attention, the folks at Gawker have put together this helpful guide.
Stop Getting the Yellow Pages Delivered
HAS your Yellow Pages phone book collected dust for the last couple of years? Did you end up just tossing it in the recycling because you never use it anymore? While some people still value the big yellow book, you can now easily opt out of delivery through this easy-to-use web form.
What’s the Difference Between Different Television Screen Types (and Why Should I Care)?
IF you’re in the market for a new TV and are looking to replace the giant monstrosity from the early ’90s that is taking up all the space in your living room, there a few things you should know before you go shopping, online or in the showroom.
If the choice between Plasma and LCD TVs is giving you a headache and you aren’t sure what is right for your room, Lifehacker breaks down the basic differences and helps guide your decision.
While consumers are replacing their TVs more frequently these days, you still want to ensure you get the best bang for your buck and get what’s right for your situation.
Phase One Radio poster design by Kenneth Lavallee
Kurt Cobain, who would have been 45 today.
8 MegaUpload & MegaVideo alternatives
With the FBI shutting down extravagant web millionaire Kim Internet’s MegaUpload and MegaVideo empire — seizing and freezing access to one of the biggest file-sharing sites around and one of the most popular sites for TV streaming — users have been scrambling to find other outlets to get their video fix. While there are plenty of options for those looking to store, back up and share files online (Dropbox, Box.net and Divshare, to name a few), sites that operate in the grey area in which MegaVideo existed are a little harder to come by. Sure, they’re out there, but with the FBI doing a full-court press on copyright-infringing sites right now, who knows how long they’ll be around? Here are eight alternatives to check out. Until the dust settles, use a more legitimate service such as Dropbox for your important files (as there’s little chance it will go offline) and, if you need to upload some video files or want to catch up on what you’ve been missing on TV, you should be able to find something that works for you off this list.
Food Blogger Event
If you are a food blogger in the 204, you’re probably going to want to check out this free event on Feb. 29 at Elements restaurant. More than just a meet-and-greet for Manitoba food bloggers, camera wiz Ian McCausland will also do a quick presentation on how to take better photos of your food. If you are looking to meet and mingle with other food bloggers, learn how to shoot mouth-watering food porn, and enjoy some samples from Diversity Food Services and the University of Winnipeg’s new hotspot, Elements, make sure you register for this event.
Winnipeg Tips
Sometimes Winnipeggers can be our own worst critics. Winnipeg Tips is a recently launched Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter account that aims to “promote and celebrate the unique cultural awesomeness of our city.” This site takes a simple idea and uses the power of the web to bring it all together.
MP3 of the Week: Cannon Bros. - EP
Playing the Lo Pub on Feb. 17 as part of the Disintegration Records showcase for CKUW’s annual Fundrive, the Cannon Bros. released this free EP before signing onto Greg MacPherson’s fledgling label.
Video of the Week: araabMuzik - live
Considering his stock is on the rise (especially with a profile in hipster bible Pitchfork last week), Winnipeg audiences are lucky that MPC king araabMuzik is set to perform in Winnipeg for the second time in less than a year. If you missed him tear up Big Dancing at Ozzy’s with his lighting-fast, real-time concoction of supersized beats, shock-and-awe bass, gunshot breaks, speaker-rattling dubstep and even elements of hands-in-the-air trance, head to The Greenroom on the 18th and see if he measures up to the hype.
Facebook Still Not Deleting Your Photos
LOVING Facebook’s new Timeline feature? Eager to upload hundreds of pictures to fill in the social story of your life? Wondering if you should delete those photos from your week-long bender in Vegas?
You may want to think twice about what photos you put online, as it appears that Facebook still isn’t as keen to delete photos as users may be. This isn’t anything new: for the past three years, users have been upset that deleted photos can still remain online, despite the user wanting the photos removed. It’s just become a hot topic again as the push towards moving users to the new Timeline page is underway.
Facebook claims that deleting a photos is like emptying the recycle box on your computer. Even though the company claims no one else will be able to view the photos, that hasn’t always been the case and there have been numerous reports of photos still being available through direct links, even after they were apparently deleted.
Until the social media giant sorts this out and has a more clear policy on content uploaded to the site, think twice about the type of photos you want online.
My Oscar Picks: Anthony Bourdain
FORMER chef (Les Halles), author (Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw) and TV host Anthony Bourdain has never been afraid to share his opinion, whether it be about other celebrity chefs, cities he has visited, places he has worked and now the Oscars.
While the sharp-tongued New Yorker is known as a punk-rock-loving foodie, he is also a diehard film junkie and comes from a family of “huge, huge, huge film nerds.” From a young age, Bourdain was exposed to a wide range of cinema. His father worked at Willoughby’s Camera Emporium and would hold private 16mm screenings for his family.
“I grew up in a house with lush picture books about films; my parents were both very serious about them. Foreign, art, everything,” explains Bourdain.
On a break from his Travel Channel show The Layover (which is pretty similar to his other show, No Reservations), Bourdain is scheduled to appear as a guest programmer for Turner Classic Movies in April. He also sat down to discuss the Oscar contenders this year and give his picks for the annual awards show.
MORE and more of our lives are being lived online, but how secure is the information we have stored in the cloud?
From banking and email to photos and social networks, pretty much every site we frequent online is only as secure as the passwords we use. You can complain all you want about online services when they screw up and are hacked (see Sony Playstation network), but sometimes when sites are breached, it’s because the users were sloppy with their passwords or decided to use something like straightforward like 123456 on all the sites they visit. Sure, passwords like that are easy to remember, but they are about as secure as leaving your front door wide open when you go away for a week of holidays.
Feb. 1 was Change Your Password Day. If you haven’t changed your passwords in a long time — or in some cases, ever — it might be time to take a look at Lifehacker’s password guide. From creating secure passwords, to using centralized lockers to keep all your passwords secure, spending a few minutes today could save you headaches down the road.