Jason Wood software, music, graphics, television

I got caught out by a bug in android recently that I want to share. This bug is very specific to people in the UK and won't affect everybody, as I will describe below.

Google mail came out yonks ago, and when it did, everyone in the world happily went about using xxxxx@gmail.com - except in england. Due to various legal wranglings, google was not allowed to use gmail.com over here, and so instead used xxxxxxxx@googlemail.com

(As it happens, early adopters did have a gmail.com address, which got silently translated into a googlemail account instead.)

Having eked out my xperia X1 for a couple of more months through custom ROM upgrades and the like, I threw it out and got a HTC Desire

What a fine phone! Three days in and I am still drooling and talking incessantly about it on any poor souls who get stuck with me. (Sorry guys!) I thoroughly recommend it to anybody who is looking for a new smart phone,doesn't want to go the apple route, and wants a better phone than the iphone.

Yes, that's right - better. That's a big statement that you should pull me up on, so here is a bullet-point list of why the desire is better.

First, a quick summary of why it's as good as an iphone :

• Very quick and smooth operation, the phone never skips a beat even when skimming between three or four apps in quick succession.
• Simple to use, everything Just Works. The HTC Sense interface over the top of android is a killer combination.
• Web browser is webkit based - the same as the iphone, and works very well, dealing with complex sites such as the full facebook site.
• Proper headphone jack.
• Thousands of free apps available via the andriod market.
• Supports Multi-touch

Now for the reasons why the desire is better than the iphone.

• Plug it into your computer and use it as a USB stick. Still don't understand why the iphone doesn't allow this.
• Better camera - 5 mega pixel with an auto-correcting flash (so no over-exposed pictures), and face detection for easier focussing.
• Full facebook/twitter/flicker intigration. (Iphone OS 4.0 poportedly has facebook integration see http://bit.ly/at27sZ)
• You can download an updated google maps from the android market that provides full, free car navigation. And having used it last night, I can say that it is mighty fine! Sorry iphone guys, seems like you don't get this - http://bit.ly/dzI9FQ
• Installing new music is a breeze, just copy songs to the phone- no ITunes synchronisation hell!
• Larger, better screen, (but not so big it doesn't fit in your pocket)
• Flash support. Yes, that means you can browse my website with it and listen to music and watch the videos! Currently Flash lite support, it wil get a Flash 10.1 update when it becomes available.

So all good so far, any bad points?

Well, one. The battery life is quite poor. Expect to be charging the desire daily if you are a moderate to heavy user of it's functionality, maybe twice daily if you spend all your time glued to it's screen. Which I can tell you, in the first week of owning it, is very likely!

The song, This is Halloween is the result of a collaboration between myself and my housemate Luke Cotton.

Lyrics by Jason Wood,
Additional Lyrics by Luke Cotton
Music by Jason Wood and Luke Cotton.
Production Mixing and Mastering by Luke Cotton
Video Editing by Jason Wood

The video is a "souvenir" video for people who came to our halloween 2009 party. Enjoy!

So, I've been using spotify for some time now, but I found out recently that it is quite easy to publish your own songs to it as well, and it doesn't cost very much at all.

Spotify works with a number of indie agregators. These sites do the paperwork needed to post your songs to spotify, itunes and a host of other download sites. They also deal with the royalties, which come back to you.

Here is spotify's list of sites - there's quite a few to choose from, and they all have varying terms and conditions, coverage and pricing models so pick one that suits you.

http://www.spotify.com/en/work-with-us/labels-and-artists/aggregators/

For an example though, here is my take on http://www.dittomusic.com, one of these aggregators.

Ditto Music has various packages depending on how many online sites you want your music to go to. All of the packages are subject to a £2 per month charge per release. A release is the equivalent of a single or album, so it is more cost effective to put up an album than a single.

Their coverage packages then start at the most basic, which is spotify only and has no upfront fee - to their premium package, which is £50 up front but puts you on over 700 stores (albeit, quite a few of these are regional variations of the same brand - itunes in europe, itunes in america for example)

They also have add on options to make your record chart registered, and they will do the legal paper work for you to set your own record label up for 25 quid (they also tell you how you can do it yourself and exactly what they are charging you for - the legwork, essentially, it's not a hard process when it's written down for you)

Is it worth putting your music on spotify? Well I'm thinking of doing it more for personal satisfaction than the intent of making money. But first, gotta finish that album!

My second song - Words of a Nation

Very different from the first.

What does this song mean to you?

The long awaited DNA technology from Celemony is finally with us, as the Public Beta for all registered users started a few hours ago.

If you don't know what DNA is, let's start at the beginning. Melodyne is an application or plugin that can tune vocals up without them sounding unnatural. Ok, it can also make them sound very synthetic, and change a man into a woman with a couple of clicks, but that's your decision!

You can also use it to create new melody lines and harmonies, but you could only use it properly on monophonic material, like vocals.

DNA stands for direct note access, and means that as well as monophonic recordings, you can now apply the same methods to any polyphonic track.

Jason Wood at IBC 2009Well, IBC 2009 is over, and although attendance was down, the quality of people there was up so it was worthwhile being there!

For the RT Software Booth, I produced a news-style countdown to introduce the virtual reality presentation that went out on the hour.

I will be at IBC, demoing tOG Sports, our sports analysis graphics package on the RT Software stand.

Come past and say hello, we are on stand 3.A59, in Hall 3.

If you, like me, find it hard to concentrate in a noisy environment, you may want to consider looking into a random noise generator to help.

Put simply, the human ear is very good at picking up patterns in sound, and focusing your attention on them. That was a good evolutionary thing when it was, say, a tiger creeping up behind to eat you, but not so good when it's an old couple on the bus gossiping about their grand children.

If you listen to a noise source, the noise will break up the patterns, so that you don't get disturbed. You don't need a particularly loud noise source to do this. And because the noise is patternless, your brain will quickly tune it out, leaving you in (and this is the unintuitive bit) peace and quiet.

Random noise = peace and quiet

There are several types of noise, some harsher sounding than others. Without going into the details, pink noise is the best to start with for masking out sounds.

I recommend that you check out a site I have come across called SimplyNoise.com.

On here, you can choose between various noise sources without having to download anything.

Try it, I think you'll be surprised at how well it works.

The weekend is here,
you come home, have a shower,
call your mates, find out who's out
for a bevvy or a pitcher or a shot.
Whether you like it or not