Archive for November, 2008

How do you consume music?

Whether you use iTunes, Rhapsody, Songbird, Pandora, Slacker…You get the point, we all consume music in some way. I use a free service called Grooveshark (Google for it and you’ll find it) and it allows me to search for songs and add it to a queue and it play through it for me (I can also save that playlist for later if I want). In this way, I can consume music on demand, instead of going to the iTunes store, buying the song, and then listening to it. Sometimes I like to listen to rock, jazz, dance, rap r&b all at different times. And even sometimes I will only listen to a song once, doesn’t me that I don’t like it, it’s just that I like to listen to different genres depending on what I feel like. That’s what Grooveshark allows me to do. I agree with every who says the future of media consumption is on demand, like what you want, when you want. This is how I consume music, and even media in general. In my own opinion, I think all of these desktop programs just take up too much space. But then again, that’s me. You might only listen to the same music all the time. That’s fine, but when you want to consume media on demand, Rhapsody and Grooveshark, services like these will accomplish this task more efficiently than iTunes will…Well, as far as I know.

If you’ve got a thought about this, suggestion or even don’t agree the slightest bit with me, then leave comment. I’m always willing to here what you’ve got to say.

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iTunes or Songbird for Media Organization

If you don’t already know, Songbird is a Mozilla-powered media player and organization tool. It has somewhat of an iTunes feel to it, but it’s different in it’s own ways. Now until today, I’ve been using iTunes to manage my media, simply because it’s compatible with my iPod. But then, after installing Songbird, I realized that Songbird allows you to sync your iTunes media library and your iPod information into it’s program. After the first 10 minutes of playing around I thought Songbird was actually a pretty decent piece of cross-platform freeware. Still, even though I wished iTunes was made by an independent company, I still would choose iTunes over Songbird. Why? Because even though both have such good capabilities, I like iTunes UI and general visual feel better than Songbird’s. A little bit about Songbird…

Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development.

We’re working on creating a non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool that will help enable new ways to playback, manage, and discover music. There are lots of ways to contributeyour time to the project. We’d love your help!

There are several features we’re proud of, but we’ll be the first to admit that others need ironing out, are experimental, or are just plain missing. There’s still a lot to do.

What do you think? Songbird, the Mozilla powered media organizer, or the Apple iTunes software, designed for the Apple iPod?

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How can I map my run or bike, from my iPhone?

Forget all those cheesy apps in the appstore that say they can map your run for you from your iPhone. There all crap, well not all but at least the ones I’ve seen. Now there’s a free app from www.mapmyrun.com.

Say you don’t have an iPhone but you still want map out a bike or run online. Well, MapMyRun will do that for you, also!

Plot your running routes over mountains (view elevation), through the woods (topo maps), and speeding through the city (street level views) with just a few mouse clicks. Once your running map is complete you can quickly view it in 3D, satellite maps, or share it with friends.

It’s a really cool AND FREE tool that you can use to easily plot out a run or bike. But not only will it allow you to do that, you can even keep a training log and a list of goals. It’s like a personal trainer in your palm (or on your desk if you’re using on a computer.) 

Give it a try, and if you don’t like it, then…I guess you don’t like it then :) Maybe you have another app or website that will allow you to do something like this. Feel free to tell me about it!

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Can you find the name of a song by humming it?

Never again will you have to walk up to your coworker and ask, “What’s the name of that song that goes, ‘Hmmmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmmmm‘?” At www.midomi.com you can simply press the Sing or Hum button on the site and then warble into a microphone attached to your computer; your attempt is uploaded and compared to a database of songs, providing artist and title information if it finds a match. If you want to become a star, you can also upload your songs to the site for others to hear.

Source: Maximum PC Magazine: Issue – November 2008

You can now find the name of a song by simply humming it’s tune into your microphone on www.midomi.com and it will register the tune into it’s database and find the song the hum corresponds to! Cool, eh?!

Recent Geeks.Pirillo.com blog posts:

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What is the most efficient way of sharing a calendar and organizing a meeting?

How do you share your calendar with others? Do you try to email them? Do you use an exchange server to share your calendar with friends? But what about when all your co-workers and friends use different programs to use their calendar? How do you organize meetings without having all these emails sent back and forth and spending more time planning a meeting than actually having one?

 

Now, with www.tungle.com, you can send invites out to a meeting and even get your co-workers to select a time from your calendar, with having an account on Tungle, or even using the same calendar program as you!

 

    Schedule meetings with anyone

  • Tungle turns your calendar into the ultimate scheduling tool
  • No forced download or registration required
  • Only an email address and browser is needed
    Easily share your calendar

  • Don’t limit yourself to people in your company
  • Share your calendar across corporate boundaries
  • Share across major calendar application

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