Music Monday 161 :: Alice Smith's "New Religion: (Live)

Music Monday 161 :: Alice Smith's "New Religion" (LIVE)

After my recent purchase of an iPad Mini, my music library did not transfer smoothly to the new device. It's a bit cumbersome to add your own non-iTunes music to Apple devices - one of my biggest pet peeves about the company.

I say all that to say, one track that somehow weathered the storm is Alice Smith's "New Religion." Her rich and nuanced voice is ultimately relaxing. It's hard to believe that it's been, what, six years since this track was first released.

Check her out on Instagram too.

Here's a live version of "New Religion."  Or check out the original version. Enjoy.

Testing Out SoundCloud's Audio Player

Testing Out SoundCloud's Audio Player

I use a good amount of web tools and technology.

Now that I'm a bonafide Apple Girl, I've been trying to get my MacBook Pro up to speed w/all of my usual tools:

• Picasa
• Microsoft Office
• Evernote
• And a variety of fonts including my fav Pea Andrea

Right now, I'm testing out SoundCloud's audio player to see if I can do a few things:

• Stack multiple audio players (yes; see below)
• Create my own embeddable playlist in SoundCloud (yes, see last track; you have to create a set and then you can add tracks to the set)

And Just Like That I'm An Apple Girl

And Just Like That I'm An Apple Girl


My brother's been using Apple products since I can remember. It might be true that he's only had two Apple computers in his 40+ years. I'll try to confirm that later.

I, on the other hand, have had a subtle dislike for Apple for some time. Ever since learning that they used proprietary audio files. That's when I first discovered that Windows Media Audio don't play well w/Macs and Mac files don't play well w/others either. That, my friends, was a long time ago.

My nice and shiny new Macbook Pro. (Dec. 2011)

A lot has changed over the years and to make a long story short, I broke down and purchased a Macbook Pro over the Christmas holiday. Now this is after I'd been working on a Mac in my office on campus. I remember when I arrived at AUC in Egypt in 2009 and they asked if I wanted a Mac or a PC. "I'll have a Mac," I recall saying. But I'd never paid much attention to Macs and I didn't even know how to turn the damn thing on. Still, often in my office, I'm frustrated at how to do simple things on the Mac like jump to the bottom of the page or jump to the end of a sentence.

Last Christmas I broke down and bought an iPad. Now that was a worthwhile purchase. I don't think a day has gone by when I haven't used that device.

Add to that the fact that I lost my mobile phone traveling from Washington, DC to Cleveland, Ohio at the airport in Philadelphia. I know, why was there a layover in Philly anyway. Whatever. Point is, I lost my phone and was 'eligible' for an upgrade. And into my life walks "Siri."

It looks so pretty in the box. (Dec. 2011)

Of course, now I'm sucked into the expansive and expensive world of Apple:

• Apple Care ... enough said!
• With three devices tethered to each other, I need more storage from Apple (ching ching)
• I'm considering iTunes Match (ching ching)
• I bought some iTunes gift cards for Christmas (ching ching)
• Additional devices and accoutrements (protective shell, hard drives, mic, bluetooth devices, etc)
• Those irresistible iPad apps (ching ching ching ching ching ching)

But after that briefer at the Apple store in my hometown, I'm all full of knowledge, ready to conquer the world and even ready jump to the bottom of the page.

My iPad and My Notes

My iPad and My Notes

I've been using my iPad for nearly six months now and I've grown to like it a lot (though this is only my second post about my iPad; see my first iPad blog post). It has some pluses and minuses, but in the end, I'd rather have it than not. Even though I don't have the 3G; that's my only regret about purchasing the first generation model.

But if I could make an adjustment, I'd make a simple keyboard update:

• There's a need for arrow keys; having to backspace or highlight a long word just to change one letter is a bit cumbersome and annoying. Usually the cursor will only set at the end or the beginning of a word. I just think arrow keys might be easier to maneuver.

One program that I'm starting to love is the Notes app that comes downloaded on the iPad. At first, I thought it wasn't a big deal, but now I know otherwise. The key here is that every note that you type gets emailed to the email account that you have tethered to the iPad. Even if you update an old note, a new email is sent with the updated notes.  Also, in my Gmail where the notes are sent, they are automatically labeled 'notes' with a label.

I've been typing a lot of notes, so when I discovered that all of the notes were in my Gmail, I was ecstatic.

One of my notes from the Broadcast Education Assn Conference, April, 2011

One downside of notes that I noticed is that when I emailed a note to my Tumblr account, the notes format did not transfer as it was displayed on the note in the iPad. That could be a Tumblr issue; I'm not sure. But knowing that the notes are in my Gmail, I can just email the notes from Gmail to post to Tumblr.  At the time, however, I was attending a conference and wanted to post my notes from the conference immediately; that did not work out so well.

Additionally, I'd like to see a few basic features for Notes; really just font related. The ability to increase the font size, bold, italicize, maybe add color. That would be nice.

Music Monday 89 :: Music Related Apps for the iPad

Music Monday 89 :: Music Related Apps for the iPad

Listen to the blog post as a podcast

I'm a late adopter of the first generation iPad. That means I got one for Christmas and a new one, the iPad2, was released a few months later.

I'm not mad about it, just ... well, I'm an iPad owner and not an Apple fan. I don't like the proprietary-ness that's related to their files and what not. I could go on, but that's not the focus here.

It's Monday ... Music Monday and I'd like to share with you two music related apps that I use on my iPad.

NPR Music
I've used this app sporadically, but for no good reason. Every time I fire it up, I discover something that I like. I found Beans and Charles Bradley via the NPR Music iPad app, oh, and a killer interview w/Lupe Fiasco. Can't beat the fact that it's free, but if you're like me, you'll feel guilty and head to the NPR Website to make a donation:

• I like the way you can check out music via genre.

• Not all of the stories have audio, but still some good writing and discovery.

• The live performance options are endless: variety in genres, npr programming, etc.

• You can easily share the things that you like (or dislike): there's email as well as Twitter and Facebook integration.

Aweditorium
This app bills itself as 'aural happiness'. Aaaah, and it is. The folks behind this app are the cool kids over at thesixtyone. I've blogged about thesixtyone before. The iPad app is something of a variation of thesixtyone webbie. You will easily discover new music and have fun swiping and 'hearting' music and all for the price of free:

• I like the layout: a photo mosaic of the artist and you can tap anywhere and that artist's song plays.

• I like the way the app fades in and out between songs.

• Of course, there's Twitter and Facebook integration.

I won't say run out and get an iPad because I'm not that kinda girl, but if you have an iPad or access to one, then there's no good reason why you shouldn't try out these two applications.

What music-related apps are you using on your iPad?