Jawbone are awesome!

Well, after my previous post about the Jawbone Up I decided to use my refund credit to get the Jawbone Jambox, I have decent speakers in every room in my apartment but I wanted to get something I could take with me on my travels and the fact I can use it as a speakerphone is another plus!

It arrived yesterday and I thought I’d share my thoughts.

Firstly, the packaging is really striking, nice clean design, I’ve attached Engadget’s image but I’ll put my own photo up tonight

The device itself is tiny, it feels solid but it’s really compact, pretty surprising.

It looks gorgeous, very minimalist and striking, very few buttons and the grill detail is really nice, not to mention the clever hidden microphone for telephone calls.

I turned it on, it talked to me and it connected to my iPhone, MacBook and iPad with no problems at all.
The first thing I wanted to do is test how loud it can get so I played various Mastodon and NiN tracks through my phone.
It’s a really nice travel speaker, the bass is pretty responsive and the volume is loud enough to fill a living room, bedroom or office.

The coolest part of all is that when you connect with USB, you can update the firmware, add Internet radio stations, presets and change the voice it uses to speak to you!

Think this will live in my office for music and conference calls!

I guess Jawbone are more than just a headset manufacturer!

Podcast Of The Week

It’s back, it’s black, it’s mad as a heart attack, it’s POTW!

XO is really an audio essay, the host, Keith McNally presents a real quality podcast covering a wide range of subjects from movies to dying on an operating table (I dare you to listen to that episode and not cry a little).

Get subscribed to it, you won’t regret it!

Jawbone UP (update)

I wrote about this cool little device a while ago

After seeing that video I decided to buy my girlfriend one for xmas, it wasn’t long after this purchase that I started to read about issues with the device, things like trouble syncing, not recording data properly, not coming out of sleep mode etc and naturally, I got a little worried.

What happened next was pretty unexpected, the awesome people at Jawbone acknowledged the issues and offered a no questions asked, money back guarantee. The best part of this is that you can KEEP the device and you’ll still get your money back (PLUS £20) or a store credit for £120 (about £50 more than the thing cost me in the first place).

I decided to wait until I’d given the gift to actually see if there was a problem (I’m honest like that). Cut to 5 days after xmas day and my girlfriend had issues with syncing. We’ve submitted the request and we’ve opted for store credit, hopefully Jawbone will work the problems out and the Up will be the device it should be.

In the meantime my girlfriend is still using it as best she can and it rules when it works.

Thanks Jawbone, you’re one of the few big tech companies that actually care enough.

iTunes Match

Back at the World Wide Developer Conference in 2011, Apple announced iTunes Match. This is basically a service that scans your entire iTunes library and makes it available on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV meaning you don’t have to take up space on these devices, just stream your own music and playlists and still have the option to download them to the device, the beauty being that this works for ALL your music and if any tracks are poor quality, a 256kbps file is waiting for you on the match server.

I’ve had this for a week or so now and I’ve got to say, it’s pretty bloody good, it’s taken everything I’ve got (including all my obscure stuff) and made it available over my 3G connection or Wi-Fi meaning I’ve now got tons more room for apps and videos on my iPhone and iPad and still have access to all 24,237 tracks from my iTunes library.

Here’s how it works…

Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz Pedal

For the past 6 months I’ve been obsessing over a fuzz pedal, I’ve NEVER EVER been this way about an effects pedal but an overwhelming number of artists I admire have been using these suckers and the demo videos on youtube convinced me how awesome these things sound.

Fast forward to xmas morning when I unwrapped one of these beauties, due to visiting family and friends I had to wait 3 days…THREE BLOODY DAYS to properly play this but it was totally worth the wait, especially as my brother completely shocked me by buying me a Gibson Explorer(!!!!). This is the guitar I’ve obsessed over for the last 16 years (seriously, I worked it out).

SO…in conclusion, this means I have my dream setup, both these things sound incredible through my Marshall stack!

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The blog is back!

Happy new year kiddo’s, sorry it’s been a while, I’ve had a very, very, very busy few weeks.

Prepare for a shotgun blast of blog posts!

Podcast Of The Week

This weeks POTW (Yeah, I’m sticking with that acronym) is pretty inspirational, I look forward to every single, well produced episode. Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, Oink and Milk interviews founders of some of the most successful names in tech like Square, Twitter, Second Life, FourSquare, UStream etc.
This podcast is always entertaining and informative and it’s invaluable if you’re running your own business.

Check it out!

Best/Worst movie commentary ever!

I dislike Arnold Schwarzenegger from a political perspective, I do however enjoy movies like Conan, Terminator, Running Man, Predator and of course Total Recall.
This clip just started doing the rounds, it’s basically Arnold trying to give a DVD commentary but due to the nature of his IQ, all he’s doing is literally describing everything as it happens on screen. Moron, entertaining moron.

Red Fang

I love the band Red Fang, I really love them, I want my band to play shows with them and I would very much like to shake all of their hands and thank them for making really good, hard music in addition to awesome videos that don’t have a shred of pretentiousness to them.
These guys are currently touring with The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon, that’s a pretty awesome lineup and I’m hoping that Mastodon bring the same lineup when they tour England next year!

Alternative Press have been publishing Red Fang’s pretty amusing tour blog, it’s not what you’d call “detailed” but it is an amusing read nonetheless! Read it here and here’s a video!

Huh…I guess they make stuff other than Bluetooth headsets

I’m pretty bloody sure I’ve mentioned here that I read LOTS of blogs on a daily basis, a large number of which are tech related. When you read tech blogs, certain things keep popping up, one of these things being the Jawbone Up, I just blindly assumed it was a bluetooth device that you wore on your wrist, I blindly assumed that I really didn’t care and didn’t look any further into it. I was wrong and Jawbone, I’m really sorry because what you’ve made here is awesome.
Basically this sleek little sucker is a wristband that works hand in hand with an app for iPhone that is a Pedometer that will track your steps, distance, calories burned, pace, intensity level, active vs inactive time, GPS routes etc, it’ll vibrate to remind you when you’ve been sat on your backside on your computer for too long so you get up and don’t die, it’ll track your hours slept, deep vs. light sleep, awake time and overall sleep quality and even wake you at the optimum time based on your sleep patterns It also has a food journal function where you take a pic of what you’re eating at the time on your phone and write about it. It then produces a list of the foods that make you feel the best. It basically does a ton of really cool, innovative things that are all there to help you. In addition there’s a challenge mode with little helpful awards and a social aspect that means you can share challenges with your friends.
I thought I knew what this thing was with one glance and I was TOTALLY wrong! Check out the website for more info