Spotify me up...

In yesterday's post (Take a load off downloads) I mentioned that my digital music purchasing has taken a nosedive since I have signed up to Spotify. I have had some queries from friends of Saffa Dude regarding what Spotify is, how it works and how to get hold of it. Basically many questions stopping just short of "can you eat it".

Here goes my short and simple explanation:

What is Spotify?
In their own marketing words: "Spotify is a new way to enjoy music. Simply download and install, before you know it you’ll be singing along to the genre, artist or song of your choice. With Spotify you are never far away from the song you want."
In Lamens Terms: Its a music streaming service where you install a music player on your PC and have access to millions of songs. You dont own the songs it is streamed from the internet so unfortunately you will need broadband. You can build playlists and buy songs directly from the player (check Take a load off downloads before you do this).


How much does it cost?
Its free, no really its free to stream music at a decent quality level. They do this by anoying you with a 30sec advertisement every 5 songs or so. Still better than radio.
You can sign up to their Premium service which extra functionality like downloading your playlists for off-line playing, no ads better quality and the ability to take your songs with you on your iPhone. You can even sign up for short periods, if you are hosting a party for instance and have built your playlist and want it to play ad-free.

How do I get it?
Because of high demand it is invite only at the moment (invites owned by premium customers), but there is a way of getting round the invite section in certain countries. You will just have to try and see. Click this link to try and sign up invite free.

OK, I've signed up and Installed . Now what?
Start searching for your favourite artists and building your own playlists and bang them on in the background whenever you need to.

To start you up I am sharing a playlist made by a friend with some wicked tunes. Once you have installed the software just click the link to Saffa Dude's Tunes and open it in spotify...

Happy Listening and Stay Classy...




Continue Reading......

Take a load off downloads...

This a song to any MP3 buyers ears. A new comparison website TuneChecker.com compares the prices of mp3 downloads and tells you where you can get that must have track for the lowest possible price.

With the UK Parliament voting on the Digital Economy Bill very soon. The bill earmarked to stop peer-to-peer file sharing I can see this site coming very handy with people making the transfer from illegal to legal downloading.

I have to admit that my music buying has become very minimal since I started using Spotify (invite only at the moment), but there are still the occasional purchase that has to be made for my iPhone. I will definitely be using this site to get the best deal...

Head over there now TuneChecker.com


Continue Reading......

SA Blogs: Links Added

I have added some links to some popular South African blogs that I read. See the "What we read..." section on the right or click continue reading to find out more.

Here they are in no particular order...

ChumpStyle
Urban Ninja
Wat Kyk Jy?
Keo
2Oceansvibe
Splattermail
Baglett
SA Rocks
6000 miles from civilisation...

Continue Reading......

Amazon Launches MP3 Downloads in the UK

Amazon.co.uk yesterday launched an iTunes rivalling MP3 store. They offer over 3 million songs as they teamed up with Sony BMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music.

With the launch it is offering some of the currently top selling albums (like the SD's album of the year Only By The Night by the Kings of Leon) at half price, which equates to £3 per album or 69p per song.

The big advantage here is that it is DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. This means like unlike music you have bought from iTunes you can play it on any device and any number of devices (PC, laptop, iPod, any other MP3 player etc.)

Play.com already offers DRM free downloads at with better quality. Play.com encodes they files at 320 kbit/s, iTunes at 128 kbit/s and Amazon at 256 kbit/s. The quaility does not double as as the bit rate doubles, and you would probably not hear the difference on your standard iPod headset, but for the audiophiles out there that play their MP3'3 over a sound system, there will be a difference.

It didn't take long however for the Pirates to spoil Amazon's party. Some upstart coders have already created a Firefox plug-in that links the e-tailer's service to The Pirate Bay and give you the ability to download the tracks for free or the price of a internet connection. The creators of the software says this about their affiliation with Pirate Bay

“We are not affiliated with The Pirate Bay, and do not host or even link to any illegal content,”

Isn't it just great that the people who sell the guns cannot be prosecuted for what you do with the gun.

Click this link to check out Amazon's MP3 Store.

iTunes is dead long live Amazon...!


Continue Reading......

Online picture viewing made less cumbersome with Cooliris

Here at SD we view a lot of photos online. Whether its Facebook, Google Images, Flickr, or some random art from the various websites like deviantArt. My one gripe has always been the waiting time for pictures to load while you scroll from one page of thumbnails to the next.

Cooliris brings us the solution. It mimics the idea of Microsofts Photosynth project of displaying the pictures you want to see as a scrollable and zoomable wall.

Cooliris has been around for a while (now version 1.9) and I have using it for about 4 months. It works as a neat little plug-in to your web browser (Firefox or IE) that will add a icon to any a picture on any Cooliris enabled website (which are most of the ones you use). Clicking the icon takes you to full screen view of a wall of the pictures affiliated with the one clicked on (i.e. Facebook album, Google Image search, etc.). From here you can easily scroll through the pictures open them in the web browser and generally just muck about.

They have a code you can embed on your website with links to you Flickr photos or any RSS picture feed. Below is an example of a random Flickr feed.



To find out more and install this free plug-in go to Cooliris' Website.

Continue Reading......

New Zealand up for Sale on Ebay

In my days, I have seen some healthy and unhealthy Kiwi / Aussie rivalry. But this has to take the cake.

Alledgedly, this Aussie bloke from Brisbane tried to sell New Zealand on ebay. Ebay put a stop to the sale, but you have to give it to this guy for having balls and pronouncing to the world that he hates Kiwi's.

The add has been taken off with the price standing at $3050 and was titled "New Zealand: Slightly Used". The seller goes on to say on the add "Its no longer required", "Comes with heaps of sheep", "Very ordinary weather" and my personal favorite "The dogiest American Cup win ever".

Whoever you are "mate", I will not leave my house for a few few days and not cross that border ever in my life again.

Watch the ONENews report here.

Do you guys think there is any way Ebay will allow us to offload Mogabe, not that I think we'll get much.

Saffa Dude

Continue Reading......

Round the world trip for a Cash Machine

G'day peeps. I feel like sharing this one.

As you know I am reside in London town and I earn my cash, in a part of town called Holborn (pronounced Ho'burn). Well... Yesterday, around 1pm I decide to do my daily sandwich run. Relishing the opportunity to catch some of this weird thing everybody has been talking about. I think they call it sunshine (or something like that), that I still believe this is just a myth in London. But let me not deviate from the essence of the story.

To buy my beloved sandwich I need somefinc called cash. Now, I have heard that this "cash" can be obtained at, what is called a "cash machine". Great, I can already taste the chicken, ham and cheese toasted chiabata... I am ready to go.

One Problem: I don't know where the nearest "cash machine" is. But hey, this is the digital age where you can find anything on the net. I hop over to my trusty Barclays website and within a few clicks I am at the "Branch and cash machine locator". I select "Barclays/Woolwich cash machine" and type in "Holborn" in the "London street" section and slam that "Next" button quicker than Latvian can get a pub job.

The list of results pop up immediately (I love my broadband). And you think that would be it. I am off to go get a my lunch.

Second problem: See if you can spot it.

You got it! 14,913.8 Miles to the nearest cash machine. I bet this site has already booked me a ticket on BA and check me in on there online check in system.

After recovering from shock me colleague told me there is one just up the street. And its definitely not 14,000+ miles away. The sweet relief... Allegedly Barclays have hooked up with Multimap on this and Multimap is to blame.

You'll be happy to know that I did get my sandwich and I dint have to travel to Antigua to get the cash. Although that might have been a good trip.

Saffa

Continue Reading......