Obama Bows Yet Again…Maybe Ok This Time
Via michellemalkin
I’m guessing this Chris Christie curtsey wasn’t intentional. Kind of like anything positive that happens around Obama.
Is Rdio the Return of the Album?
Rdio, a new (legit) online music streaming service, may change the way we listen to music. Not a novel concept necessarily, and we’ll find that iTunes will be quickly bringing their own version next year, but it’s part of a new chapter in listening to music.
The service is simply a large online catalog of music you can search and listen to whatever, whenever, wherever you want from a data or internet connection, with a focus on community music discovery through “following” friends. The kicker is that it offers downloading for offline listening as well. The bigger kicker is that it’s only $9.99 a month.
The iPhone (and Android/Blackberry) app is great. If I think of an album or band, and add the whole thing to my collection and start listening like it’s in my iPod library. The selection is pretty strong as well.
Why it may save the album
The album is dead…long live the album. With records, it was too much effort really to skip around precisely, so a straight through listen was the norm. Tapes offered an opportunity to skip songs and make mixes for the first time, and the CD allowed any song, whenever you wanted.
With Napster and then iTunes, the focus is now on singles. Record stores are dead, discovery is online now, not by listening to hours of music with your friends and enjoying an entire album. While Rdio is similar to Pandora, I have used it to listen to the rest of albums I didn’t want to front the cash to hear beyond the top two singles.
The album may be a dead artform. Writing singles changes music significantly instead of taking in a symphony with a beginning, middle, and end, it’s like peeking your head through the curtains during a performance and judging a band on what you saw there.
Regardless of the opportunity Rdio and other similar systems may allow to enjoy those compilations, it is a great service, always going as it is on my home system, on my phone when I’m jogging, and in my car streaming. There’s a 3 day trial, and if you use it, you’ll be hooked.
Hidden Gems: Publix Chicken Salad
Starting a new series where I try to post those cool little things you find that you would never know except by chance or if someone tells you about it. In this case it was my brother, who told me about Publix’s glorious Chicken Salad. Or as they refer to it “Chunky White Chicken Breast Salad with Herbal Dressing.”
While many seem to be on the cranberries and nut chicken salad trend, this is chicken salad the way it was intended to be.. Only better. A little crunch in it, just the right consistency – not too watery, a good hint of pepper, and high quality chicken make for the ultimate lunchtime funtime.
It’s around $3.50 for a container, which makes 3-4 sandwiches. I prefer mine with lettuce and pickles, toasted whole wheat bread.
It’s hands down the best chicken salad I’ve had anywhere. Drop into Publix in the aisle with their other great homemade sides and check it out for yourself.
Apple Store to Open in Greenville, 2nd in SC
Updated: Greenville goes gaga for iPads and iPhones as the line wraps outside of the mall and a 2 hour wait to even get in the store. Image below a few hours after the grand opening.
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Greenville is hitting the big time, with the opening of an Apple Store in Haywood mall this Saturday at 10am.
Customers will be able to now shop locally and get expert Apple employee advice on how to properly hold the iPhone 4. (I kid, I kid).
It will be a nice addition to have a store so close…previously had to travel to Charlotte, go to apple.com, or talk to the insanely under qualified Apple rep working at Best Buy.
Our quest for a $2,000 laptop with specs of a $700 PC (but looks way cooler) just got easier.
Cool Pac-Man iPhone Wallpaper
I can’t seem to locate where I found this, I believe it was on Gizmodo originally, but there’s a pretty cool Pac-Man wallpaper good for iPhone iOS4 (with home screen background capabilities) and hi-res for the iPhone 4 screen.
Perhaps a live wallpaper that had animation of the game would be cooler, but perhaps I don’t have a Droid phone.
Click thumbnail for full size version to download for your iPhone.
Unemployment Checks THE Fastest Way to Create Jobs
I would follow this stunningly full-of-win logic through, but then my head might explode. This is the kind of nonsensical thing someone like Sarah Palin supposedly says all the time, only actually Nancy Pelosi really does.
