review by Steve Loopipe

If you follow the iPhone news sites closely enough. it’s hard to be surprised by anything when it appears on the App Store; between developers eager to announce their new apps and Apple’s ever lengthening review process, you generally have a fair amount of notice in advance. That’s why it was so surprising when I woke up one Monday and found that Civilization Revolution was suddenly available for purchase. “Not that Civilization,” I thought. But yes, in fact, it was an official iPhone version of Civilization, developed by Take Two Games, who developed both Civilization IV for the PC and Civilization Revolution for the Xbox 360, Playstation3 and Nintendo DS. I was skeptical that a real Civilization game could work on the iPhone, but I downloaded the Lite version anyway. By that evening, I’d paid for the full version, and while it cost me more than any other app I’ve purchased, I haven’t regretted the decision for a minute.

For the uninitiated, the Civilization (or Civ, as its players typically refer to it) is a long-running series of turn-based strategy games that starts off with a single settlement in ancient times, and allows the player to build the nation up into modern times. You can accomplish this via military conquest, enhancing your civilization’s culture to attract a number of great people to settle in your cities, amassing enough gold to control the world economically, or advancing scientifically to the point where you can send a spaceship to Alpha Centauri.

The iPhone version of Civilization, Civilization Revolution, is based off of the series’ first entry that was specifically designed for consoles as opposed to computers. As a result, experienced Civilization players may find it significantly scaled down as compared to, say, Civilization IV. That said, the scaled back iteration actually suits the iPhone quite well, as it allows the player to get a fairly complete Civilization experience without getting bogged down with the interface, while more advanced options are available for those players who want them. For example, a large part of city management is deciding which tiles around a city will be worked by citizens, as each tile produces either food (which helps a city grow), production (to construct buildings and military units), or trade (to contribute to money or science). The player can choose to place the workers individually, but there are also buttons to simply maximize one of those aspects, which is what a player will want to do 90% of the time, especially when they are first starting out.

This is one of those games that sounds like a really great idea, but would expect to fail in execution. Happily, it turns out that Civ Revolution works pretty well on the iPhone. The game strikes a really nice balance between staying true to the series and staying simple for playability’s sake. Even toward the end of the game, when the full map is revealed and all the competing civilizations have multiple units moving around the map, the game never really feels sluggish, even on the iPod Touch 2G (though playing on a first-gen iPhone or iPod Touch could prove a bit dicier). Not being a hardcore Civ player anymore (though I did spend more hours than I’d like to admit playing Civ II in college), the game depth and length felt perfect for a portable version; games last two to three hours on average, which feels right.

That’s not to say that the game is perfect, however; there are a few problems that, while not enough to discourage me from wanting to play, can be a bit annoying when they crop up. The most annoying is that the game has the tendency to crash, especially toward the late stages of the game. This wouldn’t be quite so bad if it autosaved for you regularly, as opposed to only when you exit out of the game normally (by pressing the home button or quitting to the phone to take a call, for example), but it doesn’t. The game does prompt you to save your game occasionally, but those prompts are few and far between.

Less devastating but equally frustrating is unit movement. If you want to move within a single screen’s worth of terrain, movement is great; you just drag your unit where you want it to go. If you want to send it a long distance away, however, you need to choose “Move Unit” and keep tapping on the edge of the screen until you finally get to your destination. It’s unnecessarily tedious and counter-intuitive, since your natural instinct is to simply drag your finger to the edge of the screen and hold it there as the screen scrolls to where you want to go. One other minor complaint is the lack of multiplayer, which is understandable but still disappointing nonetheless.

All that said, however, Civilization Revolution is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the Civilization series to the very small screen. Even at the game’s original $10 asking price, it would have been one of the few games in the App Store that could justify being that expensive; at its current price of $5, it’s well worth a purchase, especially given that the console versions of the game retail for $20-$30, depending on your system of choice. Just be prepared to set aside some time; it’s true that you can put the game down at any time and pick up later where you left off, but that doesn’t mean you’ll want to.

Civilization Revolution is available for $4.99 in the App Store. Civilization Revolution Lite is available for free in the App Store

by Bill Palmer

Marware’s multi-function Convertible cases have taken on a number of incarnations over the years with various iPod and iPhone models, but they’ve generally centered around the idea of a case that comes with a belt clip and an armband, and can be used with either or neither, depending on the scenario.



The new SportShell Convertible comes in the form of a two (technically three) piece hard plastic dark grey shell that slides onto the iPhone which, while it would be “just another iPhone case” if not for the included attachments and functionality, is well done in its own right; for instance the cut-out for the volume buttons and silencer switch is done perfectly, which is still not always a given, even with the iPhone having had the same identical body style for more than a year now.



But you buy this case because of what it can be converted into. The third grey plastic piece on the back can be substituted with a frosted clear piece that has a vertical belt clip attached. And the belt clip can then be slid onto the included adjustable armband in a way that locks it into place and allows it to feel a lot more comfortable than you might expect for something that sounds potentially cumbersome until you see (and feel) for yourself that it does work well.



Using an iPhone on an armband presents two quandaries, of course. The first is whether you want something that bulky on your arm while you’re active (some iPhone users keep an iPod nano or shuffle around for just this reason), and the other is the fact that Apple has inexplicably still not included a setting that allows you to turn the auto-rotation off in the iPhone’s iPod app, causing the screen to keep rotating back and forth as you try to twist your arm to get the iPhone out of that useless Cover Flow mode. But I digress – and that’s Apple’s fault anyway, not Marware’s.



In all, the SportShell Convertible is a very impressive product. As long as you actually look at the directions first, assembling and removing the various components is easy. My only complaints center around the belt clip, which is oddly large to begin with. And while it can be turned upside down, it can’t be used horizontally, which many users find more comfortable. That aside, this is a great multi-function value.

Learn more about the SportShell Convertible at Marware.com.

iProng Magazine chats with Pete Loeffler, lead singer of the Chicago-based rock trio Chevelle, whose new album Sci-Fi Crimes debuted at #1 today on the iTunes rock chart…

interview by Matt Saye

Chevelle formed in 1995 in Illinois and are best known for their singles “The Red” off their 2002 release Wonder What’s Next, “Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)” from This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In (2004), and “Well Enough Alone” from Vena Sera (2007). Their fifth album, Sci-Fi Crimes, has just been released.

Your new album Sci-Fi Crimes is just now making its way into the hands of fans. Before I begin, would you like to say anything about the record?

Sure. Well, it is a different sounding album than we’ve put out before. It’s kind of like the best of Point #1, which was our first record and the best of our second album Wonder What’s Next. We went for a really raw live sound and some bands say that but we really meant it. We went into this record thinking “let’s do a different sounding album” and it’s pretty raw. We tried not to tune a lot of vocals. I sang these songs until they were right and there’s a lot of vibe on this album. I think it’s different and it came out great but it’s not perfect in any way. That’s what we were trying to avoid: a perfect sounding processed album. In this day and age I think it’s going to stand out from the other rock albums this year.

You said you went for “not processed.” Does that mean you recorded it live in the studio?

Yeah, we always record together as a band. That’s the only way to get the real vibe is to perform it together. There’s always overdubs, but if you’re going for that live sound you have to play together.

Overall, what was the recording process like?

I started out with an acoustic guitar and I wrote all these lyrics and got the melodies down and then I brought them to the guys. Then we hashed it all out. So we agree or disagree and form the song together as a band. That’s really pretty much how we do it. It works for us.

I’ve seen that you’ve been streaming “Jars” on your website for a few weeks now. What made you choose that as your leadoff single?

Yeah I didn’t really choose it. We left that up to the label. If I had my druthers it would be a heavier track, but you have to let them do their job. They’re ultimately going to push it hard and I believe that they have our backs. So really, we don’t put out any music that we don’t love, but I just basically finish the album and give it to them and if I’m happy with it I’ll be happy with what they pick. I think that song’s just got a strong chorus. It’s short and sweet. So that’s probably why they chose that.

You’ve titled this album “Sci-Fi Crimes.” Is there a story behind the title?

We went to Australia and we had some crazy experiences with some people we met out there and started delving into the whole UFO experience. Dean [Bernardini, Chevelle's bassist] is a pretty talented guy and he painted the cover. A lot of the songs talk about sci-fi situations, like “Highland’s Apparition” and “Roswell’s Spell.” It’s not like we believe it all, but we want to. We’re just talking about situations we’ve been in and things that have happened over the years with people.

To go back to something you mentioned earlier about trying a new sound, people are always trying to compare one band to another, but in terms of this album, were there any new or different influences you looked to?

When I got together with Brian Virtue [producer of Sci-Fi Crimes] we sat down and I said what do you want to do? And I said “I know you’ve worked on Jane’s Addiction albums. Let’s go down that road. Let’s bring up what you did way back when it wasn’t all about ProTools and making a record sound perfect.” I’m a huge Jane’s fan so we listened to a lot of Ritual de lo Habitual and Nothing’s Shocking and later stuff he had done with the band and we sort of took that kind of vibe and incorporated that into what we do: like not just be heavy all the time. Don’t forget the melodies and don’t take too much out of a song. If it’s a part and it’s weird and only happens once, let’s not necessarily take that out. We don’t want to just follow a format with songs that are just verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge format. We gelled really well and worked really well together.

When it comes time to making an album, how much does the digital availability of music factor in?

Actually I don’t really ever think about it. I’m all for getting our music out there but I guess I’ve never thought about it much. I know a lot of bands will be against selling singles on iTunes. People are going to get your songs half the time for free from their friend and they’ll listen to one song and that’ll be it. I think people are overwhelmed. Obviously that’s hurt record sales, but honestly I’ve never made money off record sales, so in a way I want people to have our music. I want them to buy the album for the artwork and to feel like they’re getting something tangible, but I don’t care if they get it online either. I just want them to have it so they come to our shows. That’s how my career keeps going. It’s our connection with people every night that keeps it going. I just want people to like this band and to search us out on their own.

I see that you’ve been on tour for awhile now. Have you had a chance to try out the new material live?

Yeah, we’ve played three new tracks about every night. On the Stimulate This tour that we’ve been on, we’ve only had a 35 minute set so we can’t necessarily put three new tracks in there that people don’t know. So basically it’s all singles except for one song, “Sleep Apnea,” which is the first song on the new album. On this tour we’re playing to a lot of new people. It’s a very Top 40 mainstream tour and we’ve never been in that market, so we play a couple new ones and the old ones that they know. But when we get our headline set [on the next tour] we’ll be playing a lot more new stuff. Maybe even an acoustic song or two to switch it up.

What’s your approach when it comes to performing a live show? Do you try out new things on stage or just try to play the songs as they were written?

You know, we do try to reproduce what people know and love. If they came to your show, they probably want to hear what they know. I think it’s fine to go off on a tangent in a bridge or whatever or extend the ending of a song. I think that’s really cool, but as far as when it comes down to certain things, like the melody of a chorus. we don’t change that. I toured with a band that did that and it just killed the vibe, so I learned early on that that’s not a direction I want to go. I feel like I want to give people what they know. It’s that familiarity that we go to a show for, right? Unless you’re the Mars Volta, where they just do anything.

With so many albums under your belt, how hard is it to come up with a setlist – to decide what to put in and what to leave out?

It is tough. With five albums, we have a lot of “pickens.” It’s so much easier when we have our own show. We’ve been swapping songs in and out a lot on this tour, but it is tough to make a setlist. Once we get to our headline run we’ll probably play a lot of older things and we’ll probably have to play a two hour setlist at least, so it’s gonna be fun.

Chevelle is currently touring on the Stimulate This tour, and will be headlining their own tour this Fall.

Sci-Fi Crimes is available in iTunes now. Learn more at ChevelleInc.com

by Bill Palmer

Seemingly every iPhone case maker who dabbles in leather has at least one product like Marware’s C.E.O. Premiere: a leather case that clips horizontally to your belt and closes around front via velcro. When I first tested the Premiere last year, I found it to be one of the more well-done cases of its kind, feeling sturdy, looking good, and offering a ribbon across its front face that divides the surface into perforated and non-perforated leather, giving the entire thing a touch of understated class.



Such cases have obvious advantages, as they allow you to carry your iPhone in plain sight without immediately giving away the fact that it’s an iPhone. This can come in equally handy an environment where carrying a visible iPhone attached to your hip might not be considered professional, or in one where carrying a visible iPhone might not be a safe idea. But the drawbacks have always been just as obvious: you have to remove your iPhone from the case in order to access any of its controls, and once you do, it’s no longer protected from drops or scratches beyond the bundled screen film.



This new version of of Marware’s case, the C.E.O. Premiere Plus, sets about improving that by including a tinted see-through hard plastic shield that snaps onto the back and sides of the iPhone, and the leather case is just large enough to fit the iPhone with the plastic attached. It’s a clever idea, as iPhone users continue to come to the consensus that their device’s back and corners, not its screen, are actually the most vulnerable to impact and scratching. And in my tests I found that it worked well – the plastic shield snaps on and off easily, and the whole thing slides easily in and out of the leather case.



A couple of issues to note. The belt clip doesn’t rotate, meaning you can’t wear it vertically (in fairness, neither do most similar competing products). And while the plastic covers most of the iPhone’s chrome bezel, it leaves a bit exposed, especially on top and bottom. But as prices go it’s a comparatively good deal, as the Premiere Plus is only $5 more expensive than the regular Premiere (without the plastic), whereas plastic shields generally cost $10-$20 on their own. Only currently available in black leather, even thought the regular Premiere also comes in white.

Learn more about the C.E.O. Premiere Plus at Marware.com.

by Bill Palmer

Owing partly to its unique feel that can be not-so-accurately described as somewhere between leather and plastic, and partly to its equally unique criss-cross looking pattern that appears to change as you tilt it from side to side, carbon fiber has quietly become a new trend in a market of iPhone and iPod cases that has traditionally consisted of more mundane materials. Carbon fiber also has another unique property in that it remains sturdy even when used in thin increments, and that fact is perhaps more clear than ever thanks to the monCarbone, which is about as thin as a piece of paper and virtually weightless.



As opposed to being a full-on case, the monCarbone is essentially just a shield for the back of the iPhone, wrapping slightly around the sides but leaving most of the silver bezel exposed. Adding almost no weight or bulk, it’s easy to forget your iPhone has the product attached when viewing it from the front, until you flip it over and suddenly feel compelled to turn your iPhone back and forth repeatedly in order to watch the pattern of small squares on the back appear to rotate as you do so.



The reality, of course, is that you can get a product that’s shaped identical to the monCarbone, but made out of simple plastic, for about one sixth the price. I expect that many users, if they’re going to invest $60 into iPhone protection, are going to want an actual case that protects the bezel. That having been said, I found that the monCarbone is easy to attach and remove but never came off accidentally, and is almost impossibly sturdy (bendable, but in no way breakable) for something that’s almost non-existently thin. One drawback, perhaps because it’s cut so thin, is that the material feels just like plastic when you touch it, instead of feeling like carbon fiber.



It would be imposible to give the monCarbone a star rating, as its only “competition” comes in the form of generic $10-$20 plastic shields. But if you like this material for its looks, or for its sturdy thinness, it is a well-done product. Comes in two shades of black.

Learn more about the monCarbone at monCarbone.com.

by Bill Palmer

Westone’s four hundred dollar “3” earbuds are impossibly awesome sounding – but the price tag means that for many users, owning the 3 is just an impossibility. Enter the new Westone 1, currently available for pre-order, which essentially takes the triple-driver 3 and reduces it to a single-driver product, at about one-third of the price.



The 1 comes with all the high-end trappings of the 3, including an astonishing ten different pairs of foam and (single and triple flanged) rubber earbud tips of various sizes, in-line volume control, a zippered carrying case, and an adapter that allows the earbuds to be used with larger quarter-inch stereo ports.



The catch, of course, is that the 1 doesn’t sound anywhere near as perfect as the 3. Nor would you expect it to, of course. The only fair test is to put the 1 up against similarly priced competitors. The first obvious litmus test is that the 1 blows away any sub-$100 earbuds I’ve ever used. From there the most direct comparison is Etymotic’s $149 hf5 (a non iPhone-enabled version of their award-winning hf2). In my tests I found that the two were a virtual tie in terms of audio quality, with one or the other sounding slightly preferable at various times. In the case of an audible tie, the nod goes to the 1 for including the attachable volume control (even if it is bigger and clunkier than it should be), at least for those users who care about that; then again, the hf2 does come in a choice of colors. Those who care about none of the above may instead consider styling in general, which is secondary to audio quality but, again, works as a tiebreaker.



Bottom line is that this is a fantastic set of earbuds for the price, and as an iPhone user I’m left wishing there was a version that included iPhone-specific features. The only thing that keeps the 1 from a five star rating is that they’re not a category-killer. And for those users who consider the $399 Westone 3 to be the best earbuds they’ll never be able to afford, the Westone 1 might make for a heck of a consolation prize. Westone’s four hundred dollar “3” earbuds are impossibly awesome sounding – but the price tag means that for many users, owning the 3 is just an impossibility. Enter the new Westone 1, currently available for pre-order, which essentially takes the triple-driver 3 and reduces it to a single-driver product, at about one-third of the price.



The 1 comes with all the high-end trappings of the 3, including an astonishing ten different pairs of foam and (single and triple flanged) rubber earbud tips of various sizes, in-line volume control, a zippered carrying case, and an adapter that allows the earbuds to be used with larger quarter-inch stereo ports.



The catch, of course, is that the 1 doesn’t sound anywhere near as perfect as the 3. Nor would you expect it to, of course. The only fair test is to put the 1 up against similarly priced competitors. The first obvious litmus test is that the 1 blows away any sub-$100 earbuds I’ve ever used. From there the most direct comparison is Etymotic’s $149 hf5 (a non iPhone-enabled version of their award-winning hf2). In my tests I found that the two were a virtual tie in terms of audio quality, with one or the other sounding slightly preferable at various times. In the case of an audible tie, the nod goes to the 1 for including the attachable volume control (even if it is bigger and clunkier than it should be), at least for those users who care about that; then again, the hf2 does come in a choice of colors. Those who care about none of the above may instead consider styling in general, which is secondary to audio quality but, again, works as a tiebreaker.



Bottom line is that this is a fantastic set of earbuds for the price, and as an iPhone user I’m left wishing there was a version that included iPhone-specific features. The only thing that keeps the 1 from a five star rating is that they’re not a category-killer. And for those users who consider the $399 Westone 3 to be the best earbuds they’ll never be able to afford, the Westone 1 might make for a heck of a consolation prize.

Learn more about the Westone 1 at Westone.com.

review by Bill Palmer

Duke Nukem 3D may not be quite as old-school as arcade-era games like Pac-Man, but it does harken back to earlier days of computer gaming, when the graphics were just starting to get good enough to make a game like this seem fairly realistic. It’s been a decade or more since I last played the game on my computer, but firing up the recently released iPhone version brought back quite a bit of nostalgia.



Part first person shooter, part maze, part puzzle, Duke Nukem 3D takes its place alongside games like Wolfenstein but with one major differentiating quality: far from a traditional hero, Duke is an irreverent and sometimes crass character who vaguely feels like a cross between Snake Plissken and any other anti-hero you can come up with. Still, the gist of the game is that you shoot all the bad guys who try to attack you while you make your through a series of rooms looking for the secrets that allow you to progress through the level, all the while collecting health boosters, skill enhancers, and additional weapons and ammo along the way.



Nonetheless, it’s Duke’s irreverence toward the direness of the game, and really the entire game’s irreverence toward anything politically correct, that makes the game what it is. Many of the bad guys are police officers who’ve been irradiated into evil monsters who are trying to kill you (and you’d better shoot first). The action button generally allows you to interact with whatever is directly in front of you (open a door, flip a light switch, and so on), but tap that same button when facing a stripper and Duke will offer her a dollar. Or tap the button when standing in front of the original “Duke Nukem” game console that can be found in the abandoned arcade, and Duke dismissively says “I don’t have time to play with myself.”



You’re going to either see such things as a humorous distraction or an annoying one, or perhaps a needlessly inappropriate interlude, depending on your own tastes and gaming preferences. But I find such things to be a nice way to break the tension, which in a game like this is more likely to come not from being shot at, but instead when you find yourself stuck in one of those scenarios where you’ve already wiped out all the bad guys in the vicinity but you’re still hunting around for the trap door that’ll let you move into the next room. In fact, when you bump into several different spots on a wall in a row in a vain attempt to find a hidden door, Duke annoyedly mutters “where is it?” – which helps allow you to feel as if you really are the Duke Nukem character instead of just controlling him on a screen.



What gives the game its “3D” status is that a significant portion of the gameplay involves jumping up onto a higher pathway, making your way down a sharply declining trail, scuba diving, or occasionally even firing up a jetpack. While this makes Duke a far more intriguing game than if it were just a two-dimensional walk through, the complexity of the various possible moves necessitates some fairly complex controls – and they just don’t fit well on the iPhone’s tiny screen. Come to think of it, they wouldn’t fit well even if they were designed well, which they’re not. You can’t tell me that there was no way to do this that didn’t involve putting thirteen different controllers on a three-inch screen simultaneously. The fact that you can customize their location is nice, but it tells me that they couldn’t come up with a good default configuration to start with. Far too often I found myself firing my gun by accident while trying to pivot, unintentionally changing weapons while trying to jump, and so on. And after a week of getting used to them (and reconfiguring them ad nauseum), I haven’t gotten much better. Sorry, but I’m not that uncoordinated.

And yet I keep playing. But only because it’s Duke Nukem. Whether that’s because the game itself is so fun (aside from the controller debacle), or simply out of nostalgia, I don’t know. Yes, you can switch over to a different set of circular controllers, but I found them to be even more frustrating. Contrast this with Wolfenstein for iPhone, which nailed the controllers simply by putting a virtual joystick on the screen that functions exactly like your mouse did on the original computer game.



Then again, there’s a lot more going on here with the 3D elements, so maybe Duke’s controllers never had a chance on a screen this small.



Some of the seeming unresponsiveness of the controls (which doesn’t even seem to be related to the fact that there are too many controls) can likely be cleaned up via an app update from the developer (it’s currently still on version 1.0), but for a three dollar game I can’t help but wonder whether the developers would be willing to invest the effort to completely redesign the controls now that they’ve been so thoroughly lambasted, not just by me, but by end users as well. The fact that more than a third of all App Store reviewers gave this app one star out of five tells you something, and if you dive into their comments, it’s usually along the line of “great game, horrible controls.”



In that context I don’t know whether to feel relieved that it’s not just my own lack of coordination, or saddened to realize that we may never get a proper iPhone version of Duke Nukem 3D. I don’t mind falling to my death because I hit the jump button at the wrong time; I do mind falling to my death because the game was too busy accidentally taking me into the weapons screen to even allow me to jump at all.



Still, there’s something to be said for the fact that even after I’d played enough of the game to write my review, and even after I’d concluded that the botched controls would allow the game to receive no more than three stars (an average of five stars for the game itself and one star for the controls), I continued playing – and I’m still playing – still trying to beat that last level, still having fun with it overall.



I’ve got a short fuse for bad design, and yet here I am still enjoying a game that sports some of the worst designed controls I’ve ever seen on an iPhone game. Then again, you’ll probably only feel that way about Duke Nukem 3D for iPhone if you’ve got as much nostalgia for the original version as I do. The rest of you might try digging up that old CD-ROM and playing it on your computer instead.

This app is also inexplicably incompatible with the first generation iPod touch, according to its publishers.

Duke Nukem 3D is available for $2.99 in the App Store

review by Bill Palmer

That the market has become deluged with third party iPhone-specific earbuds here in 2009 is a testament to just how many iPhone users there now are – or perhaps a testament to just how many current iPod users expect to find their way to the iPhone before too much longer and thusly want any accessory purchase to be forward-compatible (of course they generally also work with the BlackBerry, but we don’t talk about that around here). In any case, we’ve now tested earbuds that have the built-in microphone and play/pause button at nearly every ten dollar price increment from $19 to $99 and up. And with so many good options out there, users have reached the point where it’s okay to be picky.



As such, the new iP-HS5 from Maximo is a perfectly good sounding and nice-looking set of $79 earbuds ($69 at PowerMax) which comes with double and triple-flanged rubber earbud tips, rare at this price point, along with an optional cable extender, a shirt clip, and sturdy carrying case – and yet still can’t manage to score more than four out of five stars on our scale. The bottom line is that while they sound better than the top $49 iPhone-enabled earbuds, for instance, they just don’t come close enough to the best $89 and $99 iPhone earbuds to merit any higher of a rating. Don’t get me wrong here, as these are the kind of earbuds you could give to even a fairly discerning listener who wasn’t familiar with similarly priced competing offerings, and they’d be impressed and thank you for the gift. But of course that’s why you’ve come here to read the reviews before buying, particularly in a field as densely crowded as the sub-$100 iPhone earbud market.



Then again, the fact that no sub-$100 iPhone earbuds have ever earned five stars tells you that the variations in audio quality between the best of these earbuds is sufficiently incremental that if you like the styling or the included items, you might reasonably opt for the iP-HS5 over competing earbuds that sound a little better.

Learn more about the iP-HS5 iMetal at MaximoProducts.com.

iProng Magazine chats with electronic hip hop duo LMFAO about their hit song I’m In Miami Bitch and the serious art of being silly…

interview by Bill Palmer

LMFAO can’t help but get labeled as a party band. Maybe because their current radio hit “I’m In Miami Bitch” is about partying in South Beach. Perhaps because their album is called Party Rock. Or maybe just because the name of their band is LMFAO. But while Redfoo and Sky Blu don’t seem to mind the “party” label, the son and grandson of Motown founder Berry Gordy offered up a surprisingly serious discussion of their music and why having fun is hard work.



You’re based out of Los Angeles, so what led you to write a song about Miami?



Redfoo: It’s a traveler’s song. I feel like it was originally meant for people traveling to Miami. So that’s what you say when you’re there, when you’re traveling. “I’m in Miami!” You’re excited. We actually never went to Miami before we wrote the song. We heard tales, we heard stories. The main thing with the WMC. and DJs that went the year before, were telling us how great it was and how the girls had their booties popping and how everybody was drinking all day, and they’d play all night, you know what I mean? And so we wrote the song imagining that this is how we would feel when we were there. And this is what we would say when someone called us from home, “Hey man, come down to the local billiards room and let’s shoot some pool,” we’d say “Hey, I’m in Miami, bitch. Can’t make it.”

I’m sure you’ve spent time in clubs in LA and wherever else. Did any of your own club experiences manage to make it into that song?


It’s factual in the sense that when we drive around, we often say “Hey, you look kind of cute,” you know, we like to scream out and say “hey” and we like to play naked twister. Do we play naked twister all the time? No. But it was more of, really, we put together the song really to get chicks. It was more of this our tool, because we made it, we put out number on the CD, we were saying all these things, “it’s morning time and the girl’s still there,” that was what we wanted to happen. So we figured if we put it in a song, girls would get used to, hey, this happens to them all the time. And it did happen. We played naked twister the first night.



So it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy?


Exactly. It’s almost like the secret to where you just dream about what you want, and so we actually brought a twister board, and we played the first night. Because it’s something, now it’s in a song, it’s something that we do, it’s not weird.



We also drank nothing but Red Bull and vodka. And we had done that before. That’s nothing new. We love Red Bull and vodka. So we just put our whole character into the song, and this is who we are.


We all know what LMFAO stands for, but I’ve got to ask where you got the idea to use that as the name for your band.


We were looking for names when we first decided we wanted to become a group, as most bands do, the first step. And we came up with a name that was, we felt it was good, our friends didn’t like it, our peers didn’t like it, we came up with the name Sexy Dudes. We thought it was silly and right on point at the same time. We were checking with friends. No one liked it. So we were chatting with Sky’s grandma, actually Sky was chatting and I was just doing my thing, and he’s asking everybody so he asked his grandma on iChat, “what do you think of our name Sexy Dudes?” And she just simply put “LMFAO, are you serious?”

And then he said “look what she put,” you know? Then I looked at it and I saw that, and while you’re searching for names you’re looking at any word combination, anything, and when it said LMFAO, I was like oh, that could be our name. And the reason why were were gravitated toward LMFAO is because we felt, and still feel, and hopefully the world feels, is that we’re funny individuals. And we wanted funny to be in our name. It reminds us of our mission all the time. We make music, some songs are serious, La La La is a serious song, but we live life pointing out the humorous things about life. That’s like our fuel. That’s what keeps us going and happy all the time.


Now a lot of people say well why not LOL? Well LOL had been in the lexicon for five years before LMFAO, you know what I’m saying? LMFAO was the latest one, it was the evolution of LOL. LMAO is right before the F, and so that had been out. But not a lot of people were using the F, so we felt that was still kind of new. And then using ROFL would have just been ridiculous.



I saw the MySpace video where you’re playing chess with the CFO of Interscope Records where it’s hilarious. Do you guys sit around trying to think up ways you can take something that would be serious thing and turn it around to be funny?


We’re fascinated with comedy. We’re fascinated with skits. We love South Park. We love Curb Your Enthusiasm. We love The Office, the original version from the UK. We love Saturday Night Live. We were making skits before we were LFMAO. So naturally, any time we do something on camera, on TV, we both studied improv, we are doing our best to make it funny.



And we use the iPhones. For instance we just did something with Tap Tap Revenge. They needed a video cause we’re featured in their game, the new update of their iPhone app, and we just shot it with the iPhone and emailed it. If it’s under thirty seconds, you can email the video. And we just did a couple takes, shot it tot them, they loved it, and boom boom. Instead of using a Flip, a lot of people use the Flip, but you can’t email it.



I know you guys are close in age, but you’re still uncle and nephew. Does that ever come into account where you guys are working together and you pull rank?


Redfoo: I’ve been doing music a little longer, and used to have my own record company label doing independent stuff. So a lot of the stuff is an experience thing. I know a lot of the history of the business behind stuff in music. And so a lot of maybe the pulling the rank is just based on that. And whoever has more experience in a certain thing and knows more history, you know, usually gets to pick the decision. There’s a lot of stuff that he knows more about than I do.



Sky Blu: My dad always taught me a great leader, he knows when to follow, you know what I’m saying? And so me and Foo, for the most part we both are leaders. But I trust what he thinks, and even if I don’t understand it, I’ll be okay, we’ll do it your way because I trust in what you got upstairs. So that’s what it really is. I learn from him. Everything that I know today in this business I’ve learned from him.



Redfoo: And also Sky, since he does these things he doesn’t know a lot of stuff, he has a naive, sometimes dreaming thing, and often times his ideas are way more out of the box because he’ll say something real crazy that we end up doing because he doesn’t know. And that’s often better, is to have a more naive perspective.



If you’d told me that I was going to be talking with a couple of guys from the Gordy family, I would have bet that your music would have some kind of Motown influence. Is it fair to say that LFMAO is actually a reaction in the opposite direction?


Sky Blu: Actually it’s kind of the same model, because they just took dance music and put love songs over it, and most of our songs is about relationships and things like that. So we just took the dance music of today, and just melodies and vocals over it that have to do with situations of our past and things like that.



Redfoo: That’s exactly it. We’re taking the philosophies from Motown. For instance, “logic is the boss,” that’s a quote from Berry Gordy’s “To Be Loved” book. That’s what he did, is he made logic the boss. So we’re taking the philosophies, the psychology, the work ethic, but the music does not sound the same. But the principles are the same. At least the successful ones.



It’s funny how you guys have such a party atmosphere on Party Rock, but when it comes down to it, you are looking at it from a pretty serious angle.


Redfoo: Being silly is a very serious thing because you have guidelines and rules. There’s party rules. For instance when we get to the club there’s like a set of policies and procedures.



I was talking with Nic Adler from The Roxy and he was telling me how excited he was to have you involved in the Sunset Strip Music Festival because of the way you guys progressed up the ranks of the Roxy. How much are you looking forward to that?


Redfoo: Our third live show ever was at On The Rox, which Nic owns, it’s the upstairs to The Roxy. So he gave us a chance, we actually filled in for a group called Hypercrush. And then we did that five times in a row and he gave us a shot at The Roxy. And he has always been a supporter. Actually he let us use The Roxy for our first video, Miami, for free. So really, that is our home stage. That is our home town. The Sunset Strip is where it’s all at.

Party Rock is available in iTunes now. Learn more at MySpace.com/LMFAO

review by Daynah

Pac-Man fans will greatly enjoy the newly released Pac-Man Remix game for the iPhone and iPod touch! The object of the game hasn’t changed much. Pac-Man still eats dots, power pellets, and ghosts when they turn blue. He still also gets chased by the ghosts when they’re not blue and loses a life if they catch him. The addition of the 3D graphics and fun animations adds a whole new dimension to the game. As an added twist, the Remix version has exclusive features like boss battles, stage-specific gadgets, and power-up items!

Pac-Man is stranded on an island full of ghostly enemies — big and small. The island is divided into 6 different sections. Within each section are 5 different levels, which means there are 30 different levels altogether. The last level of each island section is the big boss battle. Before playing each level, a short colorful clip shows you the challenges you will face in the next stage. Although, with only 30 levels, gameplay seems a bit short.

Each game starts off with the usual 3 lives (but you can change this in the options). If the game is over and you would like to still advance to the next stages, click on “Continue” to restart the last stage with 3 lives, but your points will be reset back to 0.



Pac-Man Remix offers two types of controls — Arrow Keys and Flick. To make changes, go to “Options” and scroll to the second screen, and click on “Change Control Type.” You can also change this option during a game by clicking on “Menu.” I personally think the “Flick” control is much easier to use. The Arrow keys seem to be too close to the center so clicking on feels a little bit awkward. 



There’s also two modes of playing – normal play (continue game) or free play. Click on “Start Game’ to play a continuous game (from level 1 to level 30). Choose “Free Play” skip around to play the levels you enjoy the most.

New power-ups give Pac-Man the power of being invincible, dash quickly across the maze, jump over items, create a mirror illusion of himself, and more. Warp Panels on various stages allows Pac-Man and ghosts to transport themselves from one section of the maze to another. You’ll find a few tricks here and there that will keep the game interesting. To see more, see the “Items, Tricks & Traps” button of the “Help” section.

There are a few game enhancements I’d like to see in the next version. First, I’d like to see a better background story for the game. Wouldn’t it be nice to know why Pac-Man is stranded on an island full of enemies? Second, I’d like to be able to have more than one saved game. Lastly, even though the game is challenging and fun, 30 levels doesn’t seem to be enough gameplay.

Unlike the other Namco Remix games, Pac-Man Remix does not have a classic game option. This is probably because Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are already in the iTunes store as standalone apps.

Pac-Man Remix is currently on sale in the iTunes store for $4.99. This is a deal considering Pac-Man Classic and Ms. Pac-Man are $5.99.

Pac-Man Remix is available for $4.99 in the App Store

review by Bill Palmer

We’ve reviewed dockable iPod and iPhone speaker systems whose price has ranged from a few dozen dollars to several hundred dollars and everything in between, and we’ve found that the only fair way to rate such products is to put them head to head with similarly priced competing speaker systems and see how they stack up. In the case of its new Portable Speaker S315i, Logitech’s primary competition is itself, as the company’s own Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 is a product that we’ve long pointed to as the best portable system on the market in the roughly $125-$150 price range (see June’s “iProng 50” awards and last December’s “Best of 2008” awards).



First, the good news: the S315i comes with the same built-in rechargeable ten hour battery, and now includes technology that allows you to optionally double the battery life. The S315i isn’t quite as wide as the Anywhere 2, which was its only dimension that seemed oversized. And despite being twenty dollars cheaper, the S315i sounds arguably a little better, having more substantial bass output than the Anywhere 2, if not quite having the same expansiveness in sound.



But getting there means that some corners have been cut. The first thing you’ll notice is that there’s no remote control in the box. And the iPod/iPhone dock has been reduced to a spring-loaded mechanism. You slide your device down onto the protruding dock connector, allow it to lean back against a rubber stopper, and the spring-loaded dock connector reclines along with your device. It’s clever and it works but it feels cheap; for instance, moving the S315i around while your device is docked will work just fine unless you allow the unit to tilt forward more than about twenty degrees, at which point your iPhone or iPod will fall forward on its spring-loaded base. It won’t actually fall out of the unit, but it’s enough to make you momentarily panic.

My own enthusiasm for this product was lessened further when I realized that the switch for doubling the battery life from ten to twenty hours is really just an audio quality reducer, making the bass sound either weak or non-existent depending on what kind of music I tested it with. To me this feels like trying to gain extra credit in a class where you’ve already got an A+, as the Anywhere’s ten hour rechargeable battery has always been one of its best features, particularly in comparison to similarly priced products whose built-in battery only lasts three to five hours, or even worse, operate on AA batteries. I can think of any number of scenarios in which ten hours of life is superior to three or five, but in how many instances would you need twenty instead of ten? And in how many of those instances would you not be able to just plug it into a wall socket using the included power cable once you got there?



And not to pile on, but while the slightly curvier design of the S315i gives it more personality than the Anywhere 2, those curves mean that the volume buttons can’t be on top, so they’ve been moved to the back. A pair of visual guides on the right edge of the front face tell you where they are so you can find them with your fingers without having to actually look at the back of the unit first, but it still feels like a bad trade-off. As does, frankly, far too much of the product overall.



Part of the problem in evaluating the S315i is that the Anywhere 2 already set the bar too high. In fact this is a category that Logitech has dominated for several years, previously with the original Anywhere, and even the mm50 before that. While this is arguably the best-sounding of the four, and sound quality is inarguably the most important single feature for a speaker system, there are a number of other factors that go into a purchasing decision, depending on each user’s needs.



It’s tough to peg a new version with slightly improved audio quality and an option for greatly improved battery life as being a step backwards, but that’s what the S315i feels like. It’s not exactly a tragic misstep. And not even an unrecommendable product, as the lack of a remote, cheap-feeling dock, and buttons on the back may not matter to you.



But at the end of the day, I’d have to recommend buying Logitech’s own Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 instead, even though it is last year’s model and priced twenty bucks higher. And for that matter, Amazon is currently offering both the S315i and the Anywhere 2 for the same $129 price.



Then again, if you were to pretend that the Anywhere 2 never existed, then the S315i would be more recommendable, despite its various issues. Hence the “it’s alright, I just can’t vouch for it emphatically” rating of 3.5 stars. Give Logitech credit for trying some bold things here; there’s just not enough payoff for the tradeoffs.

Learn more about the S315i at Logitech.com or pre-order now at Amazon.com.

review by Bill Palmer

The lower the price, the lower the expectations. I’ve learned over the years not to expect too much from dockable iPod stereo systems in this price range, particularly then they’re this tiny. By the time you get done building in the iPod connectivity, is there any money left over to include decent audio components that are small enough to fit? So I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up Logitech’s Portable Speaker S125i, which is no taller or deeper than an iPod nano, in that it actually sounds pretty decent.



The S125i vaguely resembles the eyes of a mosquito staring at you, and features a fairly simple design. The iPod dock is on top, while the power and volume buttons are on the front, along with a bass booster button. Without the booster, the S125i has hardly any bass at all, but with the booster turned on, the bass is quite noticeable. Quite synthetic-sounding as well, but that’s the way bass boosting technology works.



I found that noisy and heavy-sounding songs were really only enjoyable with the bass booster turned on, while gentler pop songs actually sounded better with the booster turned off. But I couldn’t find any type of music that wasn’t at least listenable in one mode or the other, which frankly, isn’t always the case at this price range.



Does the S125i sound better than Logitech’s other new offering, the $129-priced S315i? Of course not. Not even close. But by not being as ambitious, the S125i actually gets some things more right by default, such as including a real iPod docking port and having the volume buttons on the front. Although the S125i is listed as being only for the iPod and not the iPhone, I had no trouble using my iPhone beyond dismissing the iPhone’s annoying compatibility warning each time; I was expecting some kind of audio interference, if not from 3G then certainly from EDGE, but that turned out not the be the case. But, and this is a big but, your mileage may vary, as cellphone interference tends to be maddeningly random.



There’s no remote control, and the S125i runs on four AA batteries, a waste of time (the rechargeable AA route) or money (regular AA batteries) if you use the system on battery too frequently. The S125i’s primary value seems to be as a (very) small desktop system that you’d leave plugged in to an electrical outlet most of the time and take it around with you occasionally.



Assigning an accurate star rating to this product is just about impossible because there are too few dockable speaker systems in the $69 price range that are worth reviewing in the first place. But I can tell you two things about this product that should allow you to figure out its potential suitability for you. One is that it’s the best-sounding $69 dockable iPod speaker system I’ve ever heard. The other is that you’d be doing yourself a big favor by finding another $30 and getting something in the $99 price range.



That having been said, if $69 is the high end of your budget, and you’re looking for something small that charges your iPod (and unofficially your iPhone) while outputting decent-sounding audio with an optional bass kick and a AA battery option, the S125i turns out to be surprisingly recommendable.

Learn more about the S125i at Logitech.com or pre-order now at Amazon.com.

interview by Bill Palmer

The release of Colbie Caillat’s debut album two years ago was just one step in her gradual rise to popularity that at the time had her opening for other artists and building a steadily growing fanbase that was still unsure of quite how to pronounce her last name. But with her highly anticipated sophomore album Breakthrough having just debuted at #1 this morning in iTunes, and scheduled appearances on everything from the Today Show to the Tonight Show before this week is over, one might be tempted to conclude that the demands on her time for the launch of this album are more burdensome than the last. But not so, Colbie tells me, as she chats with me on a Friday morning from her Malibu home.



“It was actually the other way around,” she says of gearing up for the release of Breakthrough, “because with Coco, I didn’t know anything about this business. I didn’t know everything that was going to be coming up, the touring and the schedule, and interviews and TV. All of that was a surprise to me. And now, I know what I went through for those two years of promoting my record, and now I’m prepared for it for this time around, and know what to expect.”



Knowing what’s coming also makes for a more relaxed mindset. “I feel like I know my job now. I know what to do, instead of being terrified and not sure of what to say or what was going to be coming up on the schedule. Now I just know what I’m supposed to do every day, and it’s a lot easier for me.”



Breakthrough sees a mix of existing Coco-era collaborators and outsiders, with the new and old working together in some instances, including a multi-week songwriting retreat to Hawaii that included longtime cowriter Jason Reeves (“he’s like my brother”) and American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi. “We rented this house on the beach and we wrote songs every day and lived life, and talked about everything that we were going through and wrote about it.”



“The three of us got along so well. It was just nothing but good times and writing great songs together. It was a blast.”



If every aspect of Breakthrough sounds like a more mature product, it’s no accident. “Coco was the younger side of me, and what I wrote about a few years ago, what I was going through in my life. The production on the record was all I knew the production could be at that point. And now over the years, I’ve learned myself. My voice has gotten stronger, I’ve taken notes on songwriting and tried different ways of going about it. And with production styles I just wanted a fuller sound, and make it more complex and diverse, and just experiment with this record.”



The twenty-four year old who two years ago penned the lyric “it’s kinda tough getting older” now sees things differently. “It’s actually fun getting older,” she says. “I think the older you get, the more you know about life, and the more you learn about yourself and you become comfortable in your own skin. So the older I’m getting, the more fun I’m having.”

But not all of the songs on Breakthrough are necessarily written from her own perspective. The R&B-tinged “Fearless” is written from the viewpoint of a guy she broke up with, based on “how I broke his heart but he’s still gonna be fearless when it comes to love in future relationships.” Another song ‘Breakthrough’ is written from the perspective of a friend who hadn’t spoken to her father in years.



While Colbie’s original hit single “Bubbly” two years ago was about an imaginary Mr. Right, her current single “Fallin’ For You” is a similar sentiment directed at a real life guy, with some of the lyrics coming literally from actual experiences. “He and I were on the dance floor, he was just my friend, and all the sudden the moment he grabbed my hand, I noticed that I was falling in love with him and he wasn’t just a friend anymore.”



Whether the songs about real life experiences have happy endings or not, there’s no fear of the subject of the song hearing it and realizing it’s about them. “I actually look forward to playing them to the person, and having people hear them and being able to relate to them and that situation that I went through. Songwriting is like a therapy, it’s a connection that you have with another person, and I’m not scared of it at all for some reason.”



With the album having had multiple producers (including Colbie’s father and veteran producer Ken Caillat), Breakthrough turned out to be an exercise in contrasting methodologies. With Rick Nowels, who produced Fallin’ For You, “we started out writing songs with a beat behind it, with this fun drum beat, and then he’d add on guitars and add on bass, and we had a production direction. And with my dad, we did a full-on live recording, so we had all the top musicians that we’d been working with come in, and we all had our own booths in the studio. I was in the vocal booth, and we would start the song and we would all record it live together, like we were playing a show.”



As far as working in the studio with her dad and being told what to do by her own father, “He would come up with ideas and most of the time I would agree with him. And if I wouldn’t agree I would still listen, because it’s always worth a try. Like why not try adding this instrument, and if we don’t like it, it doesn’t have to stay. So I would listen to him, and he would listen to me on certain ideas on whether the song needed to be more stripped down and have less instruments on it, and we really worked together well.”



Except for one particular instance where “I wasn’t paying attention, I was talking with one of the musicians when I was supposed to be in the vocal booth, and he comes out and he’s like ‘Colbie Marie Caillat, get your butt in that vocal booth!’ And I was so embarrassed, I was like dad, I can’t believe that you did that. But that was the only one time that I was embarrassed by him, and otherwise it’s great working with him because any other producer wants to go home by eight o’clock because they want to spend time with their family. My family was there with me. My mom came, we brought our dog, my friends were there. It was like that was our life, we had no other place to be. So we put our all into it. So working with my dad was the best experience.”



Of the unusually large number of bonus tracks included with the deluxe version of Breakthrough, “It was difficult choosing the songs for the record because I wrote so many.”

Breakthrough is available in iTunes now. Learn more at ColbieCaillat.com

interview by Bill Palmer

Lynam’s album Tragic City Symphony was just re-released with major label distribution last week, but before we even got the chance to talk about their music, Jacob Bunton and Mark Dzier wanted to make one thing clear right from the start: Lynam is a band of iPhone users. Or as Jacob puts it, “we’re one of those bands that literally can’t live without one on the road.”



Have you guys been iPhone people all long?



Mark: I’ve always been an Apple guy all along. I’ve always been obsessed with everything the company’s ever come out with. It’s just the ease of use of the operating system is just amazing. I love the company so much, as soon as the band started making money I started buying Apple stock. That’s how big of a fan I am. And of course with the introduction of the iPod revolutionizing the MP3 player, it’s insane. And they’re the largest retailer of music in the world with iTunes. Nobody can even come close, Nobody can compete, even Wal-Mart, Best Buy, doesn’t matter.



So obviously at the expo when they announced that they were gonna do a phone that was also an iPod, that was also a movie player, that was also basically your computer on a phone, I got really excited cause I was using a BlackBerry before, and the possibilities that this thing opened up is just vast. So to say that I’m enthusiastic about the iPhone would be an understatement.



Mark: Absolutely. I haven’t gotten a word in edgewise yet (laughs).



Are you the type that will sit there on the day of the keynote, reloading the page every five minutes, to see what they’re announcing?


Jacob: Usually we’re on the road or whatever. Mark will do that somewhat. I’ll walk by him and he’ll be doing that. But for the most part I’ll wait until probably the end of the day just so I can just take it in.



Did you guys grow up on the 80’s hair metal bands?


Jacob: Yeah, that’s my favorite stuff in the world. I love straight ahead rock and then I also like bluegrass. And Mark, he’s weird. I don’t even know why he plays bass in a band.

Mark: I’m not into that kind of stuff at all, to be honest with you. Basically it’s stupid music. But the money that we make in Lynam is so big that I’ll play it. On the side I have this Steely Dan meets Fleetwood Mac kind of thing. I really think that’s where music is going. It’s a more musical type of rock music that it like a pan flute-based fusion of rock and musicianship and jazz.



Jacob: And I disagree. I think that it’s all about going towards rock. If you listen to the radio you’ve got bands like Hinder, Papa Roach, Buckcherry and all that stuff. And rock, I feel like now is bigger than it’s ever been.



You guys clearly have different philosophies on where you think music is headed. Do you have fights when you’re making music?


Mark: You’re like brothers, you know? You fight when you make music, you fight when you make love, and then you make back up.



Jacob: That’s pretty much it. It always comes out and we’re always pleased with the end result.


“Save My Soul” from Tragic City Symphony has an immediately catchy hook.


Jacob: It’s about catching somebody that you’re in a relationship with cheating. It’s something that hopefully you never have to go through, but unfortunately a lot of us do go through it. And I feel like the production of that song and everything really captured the emotion of what the song is about.


Is the Lindsay from “Lindsay Says” a real person?

Mark: It’s my middle name.



Jacob: We spelled it like a girl’s name just for song purposes and stuff like that, but basically that’s one of the songs about how we fight like brothers. And that song is just about trying to compromise and stuff, and sometimes it gets the best of you. I was actually really frustrated with Mark at the time I wrote the words. It just pretty much sums up what it’s like being in a band and being in any kind of relationship, a brotherhood, a band, just whatever kind of relationship you’re in. Just the human condition.



Mark: Another big thing is if you listen, ninety-nine percent of songs out there are about your girlfriend, your wife, and that’s boring. There’s other relationships that happen in real life. The reason we changed the name is because “Mark Says” sounded stupid. At least this way, some chick is listening to it and she can think “oh, my boyfriend this or that.”



Speaking of names, I’ve got to ask about the band name “Lynam” which is your drummer’s last name.


Jacob: The honest to God true story about that is when we first started the band, we didn’t have a band name. And we booked a show because we had some songs, but we still didn’t have a name. And the club owner was like, “what should I put on the marquee, how should I advertise this?” And I was like, let’s call the band Lynam. And the drummer was like no man, I don’t want to call it my last name.



And this is the honest to God truth, I looked at him and said “you are the most horrible drummer I’ve ever played with in my life. If we name the band Lynam, you’ve got no choice but to get better unless you want to drag your family name through the mud. And it worked. We called the band Lynam, and it kind of caught on, so we all decided to do like a Ramones thing, and we all took on the last name Lynam. But he went from being the most horrible drummer in the world to being one of the best drummers I’ve ever played with. So it worked.

Tragic City Symphony is available in iTunes now. Learn more at LynamMusic.com

review by Eric Nguyen

When I saw the Decemberists at this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival, their set consisted of their new album The Hazards of Love, played through in its entirety. It worked incredibly well. The album was designed from the start to be a ‘rock opera,’ which involves a coherent story, themes, and characters that remain the same throughout multiple songs. In this respect the Decemberists were quite successful; however, when listened to alone (or on shuffle) these songs seem out of place. Although they sound fine, many of the songs’ appeal lies in how well they tie in with the rest of the album.

The story is rather simple, and takes the form of a tragedy. In short, a princess meets a woodland shapeshifter and falls in love, but unfortunately things go wrong and they end up drowning in a ship while professing their love to one another. It’s quite predictable to anyone familiar with the Decemberists’ earlier work, but the detail and nuance of the lyrics keeps things interesting. The songs are chock-full of clever rhymes and wordplay, which, if you feel like listening closely, can really add to the experience of listening to the album. This is best heard in “The Rake’s Song,” an autobiographical story of an immoral man who murdered his children upon becoming a widower. It’s not every day that murder via foxglove shows up in song lyrics, but here it works magnificently. The song ends with a note of foreshadowing what will happen to this character later in the album, the kind of surprising detail that only the careful listener would notice.

The instrumentation on the album is also great, albeit a bit different than Decemberists songs of the past. Listen to, for example, the theme introduced on “The Wanting Comes In Waves”—it sounds more like it belongs in a metal song than in something performed by the Decemberists. However, the band is surprisingly good at it (especially in concert). There’s also plenty of normal Decemberists folk rock. In particular, the “Hazards of Love” tracks (1-4) are a very good listen. Musically, they’re very similar to the “Crane Wife” tracks from the earlier Decemberists album of the same name, full of acoustic guitar and lead singer Colin Meloy’s voice. These songs belong very solidly in the folk category, and they’re a pleasant change of pace from the heavier sections of music. Especially recommended is Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All), which is quite the love song.

The Decemberists’ tour of the US is ongoing until October, mainly in the eastern half of the US, so if you’re reading this there’s a decent chance that there may be a concert near you this year. If so, definitely go. Part of their set should be the whole Hazards of Love album, and if it’s anything like when I heard it, it should be excellent. Even for those familiar with the music, seeing the singers on stage is enough to bring attention to the finer details of the music that got overshadowed in the album mix. In fact, it would be safe to say that my opinion of the album went up after hearing it live.

Even if your chance to see a Decemberists concert has passed, however, The Hazards of Love is still worth a listen. It’s a solid effort that manages to come up with a couple songs that will probably end up on your shuffle playlist. Even for those who didn’t consider yourselves Decemberists fans before, there’s a decent chance that a song or two might appeal to you here.

The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists is currently available in iTunes.

review by Bill Palmer

Prologue on iPhone stands in general… iPod docks have been around for as long as the iPod has had a docking port, but that’s been as much about simply keeping your iPod locatable and scratch-free while it’s connected to your computer as anything else. But the iPhone has so many various uses that many users put their iPhone to good use while it’s sitting on their desk. Some users may find it more beneficial to have their iPhone up off their desk, a little closer to eye level, and rotatable, and so the traditional dock gives way to the iPhone stand.



The PED3 from ThoughtOut, while basically just being two pieces of metal, clearly had a lot of thought put into it. Six rubber-coated arms hold the iPhone firmly in place and are positioned so you can access its docking port for charging and syncing (and run the cable out the slit in the back). A pair of holes allows you to choose whether you’d like to mount your iPhone at a more or less severe viewing angle. And the iPhone can easily be rotated to any point through 360 degrees for watching video or even just for using the landscape keyboard and then rotating it back again.



I tested the PED3 head-on with the competing (and identically priced) Xtand, and while they’re both sturdy and highly usable products, I found the PED3 to be the generally superior product both because it has a choice of two viewing angles and because it’s easier to assemble and rotate (the Xtand involves tightening a knob). I also found the the PED3’s styling to be more sophisticated-looking, but that’s up to each user to decide on their own. Some users may see the PED3’s base, which is nearly twice as wide as that of the Xtand, to be a drawback due to the additional desk space it takes up. Overall, however, the PED3 is extremely well done product that shows how innovation can be successfully applied to even something as seemingly straightforward as an iPhone stand. It’s also available in a version (not tested) which works with an encased iPhone, as well as an iPod touch version.

Learn more about this product at ThoughtOut.biz.

review by Bill Palmer

Prologue on iPhone stands in general… iPod docks have been around for as long as the iPod has had a docking port, but that’s been as much about simply keeping your iPod locatable and scratch-free while it’s connected to your computer as anything else. But the iPhone has so many various uses that many users put their iPhone to good use while it’s sitting on their desk. Some users may find it more beneficial to have their iPhone up off their desk, a little closer to eye level, and rotatable, and so the traditional dock gives way to the iPhone stand.



The Xtand from Just Mobile consists of a machined metal base and an x-shaped iPhone holder, held together by an out-of-sight tightening knob. Rubber stoppers on the four corners hold the iPhone in place. The iPhone can be rotated to any point through 360 degrees, and the amount of resistance you’ll face during that rotation can be adjusted via the knob.



I tested the Xtand head-on with the competing (and identically priced) PED3, and while they’re both sturdy and highly usable products, I found the PED3 to be the generally superior product both because the PED3 has a choice of two viewing angles (the Xtand’s height can be adjusted by nearly an inch but not its viewing angle), and because PED3 manages to offer the same functionality without involving a knob. I also found the PED3’s styling to be more sophisticated-looking than that of the Xtand, but that’s up to each user to decide.



All of that having been said, the Xtand still stands as a strong product in its own right. Users might choose it over the PED3 because its base is only about half as wide as that of the PED3, meaning that the Xtand takes up less desk space. Or you may simply prefer the metallic silver stying of the Xtand (such things can be subjective). This isn’t the one I’d choose for my desk out of the two, but it may be right for yours. It’s also available for the iPod touch.

Learn more about this product at Xtand.net.

review by Bill Palmer

Snap-on batteries represent the least expensive – and often least versatile – method of extending the battery life of your iPhone or iPod. Battery cases and cradles are much easier to use in your hand or pocket, and USB battery bricks generally last a lot longer. But as snap-on batteries go, Kensington’s $49 product was a well done product and a good value proposition. That same battery has now been bundled with a dock for $20 more, which represents both a better value overall and a more versatile way of recharging the battery; you can use the included mini-USB cable to connect the dock to your computer or to an electrical outlet via the included wall brick, or you can do the same by plugging the mini-USB cable directly into the battery itself.



As a bedside docking station, plugged into an outlet, this is a highly efficient product; go to bed and then wake up with both devices fully charged and ready to go. As a desktop docking station, not so much; plug it into the USB port of your computer and you’ll likely find that the battery can only recharge when the iPhone isn’t docked. Leave them both sitting in the dock overnight, connected to your computer, and in the morning you’ll find a fully charged iPhone along with a battery that hasn’t charged one bit (including my 2009 MacBook Pro, with every iPhone and iPod model I tried). There are valid technical reasons for this, as explained to me by Kensington’s product manager, but it limits the viability of the product as a docking station for your computer (even though the iPhone or iPod does sync with your computer).



Bottom line is if you’re going to go the snap-on battery route, this product is a great value (and a space saver), particularly since Amazon has it for $44 instead of $69. If you’re going to use it primarily with an eletrical outlet. If you’re looking for a desktop dock, you’re probably better off buying this battery on its own and finding a dock somewhere else. Hence the split rating, with significantly different scores based on how you intend to use it.

Learn more about this product at Kensington.com or pre-order for a discounted $44 from Amazon.com.