Conan O’Brien, with new show, set to become George Carlin of his era

Welcome to the era in which Conan O’Brien no longer gives a bleep about what anyone thinks. His new TBS show will bring about the fourth era of Late Night Conan, and while we’re yet to find out how many people will tune in for this one, it’ll be the one to watch. After three years of being scared of his own shadow in his earliest NBC days, the longtime writer finally figured out how to deliver his own material which led to a second, heyday era which put him on the map. That heyday led to Conan landing the Tonight Show – for a whopping seven months, before getting dropped on his head in perhaps the most publicly humiliating manner in television history. And this is where the George Carlin thing comes.

Carlin, believe it or not, was once a straight-laced comedian telling Leno-esque jokes in a suit and tie. He popular in that era, too. Somewhere along the line he realized it wasn’t for him, so he grew a beard, grew out his hair, changed his wardrobe, and more importantly, shifted to biting culturally relevant (and yes, profanity-laced) material, which made him much more funny and much more significant a force. We all know the rest of Carlin’s story. Conan is different in that while Carlin would never have been willing to don the comedic straightjacket known as the Tonight Show hosting gig even if he had been offered it, Conan wanted that straitjacket desperately. And if NBC hadn’t screwed by by putting Leno at 10pm, Conan’s ratings likely would have been fine, and he’d likely have been hosting the Tonight Show for the next twenty years.

But we all know that’s not what happened. Instead, Conan O’Brien is now a wounded, rabid animal, transformed into something he never had been but perhaps always should have been, with a massive horde of people rooting for him to find revenge through the best success possible. And in a sign that Conan is ready to lean at least a little toward the Carlin route right out of the gate, he signed on to do his new TV show not with a big network which could have futzed with him in the same way NBC did, but rather TBS – a network known for, well, now it’s known as the channel that Conan’s new show is on.

Conan now owns TBS. No one at that network is going to say boo to him about what he does with his show. That means Conan’s beard is here to stay if he wants it to be (we’ll find out come next week). That means he can do an internet-only “episode zero” of his show if he wants. That means he can continue to tweet some of his jokes to his millions of followers instead of saving them all for his TBS monologue. It’s small potatoes now. But it’s a start. And it’s already more than NBC (or ABC or CBS) would ever have allowed him to get away with. It’s still a long, long way from George Carlin-esque, and Conan will never quite get there so long as he’s married to a censored basic cable network. But in an age where there is no new Carlin to replace the real Carlin and likely never will be, Conan may well end up meaning as much to this generation as Carlin meant to his.

SNL: Jon Hamm, Rihanna host best non-Betty White episode in some time

Tonight SNL host Jon Hamm and the gang of regulars take the show to what has been rare air of late: a solid, above average episode without needing something as novel as Betty White hosting in order to pull it off. Jon Hamm himself is serviceable in his SNL hosting role, which is why they’ve brought him back again for a gig he already pulled off in much the same manner last time around. But unlike the Betty White episode, in which she was in (and was the star of) every sketch, Hamm’s episode tonight was more of a group effort.

Things didn’t look too bright for tonight’s SNL episode right off the top. After a funny-yet-been-there-done-that Joe Biden cold open, and a so-so opening monologue focused mainly on Hamm mistaking a man for a woman, the episode went straight into the Digital Short – rarely a good sign – but as it turned out, this particular short was placed up front because musical guest Rihanna was the star of it. If you’ve ever wanted to see Rihanna singing while robbing a bank with an uzi, well, you’re in luck. Then, after an overly obvious attempt at a Halloween tie-in with an unfunny Frankenstein sketch, the episode finally took off. Various cast members showed off their impressionist skills (including new cast member Jay Pharoah, who can now add Eddie Murphy to his list of nailed impressions alongside that of Denzel Washington) as they were shown auditioning for roles in Back to the Future. Al Pacino reading lines for Doc Brown and finding one too many ways to misinterpret the meaning of Great Scott? Check. Bill Cosby trying for a role? Check.

In all, Jon Hamm’s episode wasn’t a great one, but it was a solid one – and it didn’t lean too heavily on Hamm himself or any one cast member.

Rihanna appears in SNL Digital Short with Andy Samberg, shoots him

SNL saw an early appearance from musical guest Rihanna tonight. In fact she was the first face to appear on the show after the host finished his opening monologue, as the show jumped directly into a digital short in which Rihanna sang her way through robbing a bank while holding a machine gun, as a ridiculously dressed Andy Samberg helped her with the heist and provided backing vocals. At one Rihanna sang the improbable lyrics “Just imagine that everyone’s naked. Uh oh, boner alert.” – and then shot Samberg in the foot. Rihanna may have set a record for earliest appearance for a musical guest in a Saturday Night Live episode. Rihanna is still set to perform a pair of songs later in the episode. What the super-early debut of the Digital Short says about the prospects for the rest of the episode, well that’s another story.

SNL host Jon Hamm looks to overcome past small-network debacles

SNL host Jon Hamm, meet the fact that no one outside of Mad Men’s audience knows who the hell you are. It’s what happens when a television show becomes a massive hit on a minor network, as most non-viewers of Mad Men don’t even know where to find AMC on their dial, let alone have any idea who its main actors are. Witness the debacle that was last season’s SNL hosting gig by Hamm’s Mad Men co-star January Jones. Okay, part of the problem was that January Jones turned out not to have a funny bone in her body. But in a poll of 100 random people, 25 might peg her as a Mad Men actress, while another 50 might incorrectly guess, purely based on the sound of her name, that’s she’s a pin-up star.

The same went for SNL hose Bryan Cranston, who still has some vague name recognition (and far, far better face recognition) for his supporting stint on Malcolm in the Middle, but isn’t known for his starring role on Breaking Bad except for among those who actually watch Breaking Bad (contrast this, for instance, with the instant name recognition of a star from, say, former NBC hit “Friends” even among those who had never once tuned in to see the show). Fortunately for Jon Hamm, he’s hosted the show before – so those SNL regular audience members who found him funny the first time are likely to tune back in to see what he’s got up his sleeve this time around. But beyond certain pockets of audience members, many will be seeing tonight’s SNL episode as the second in a row, after last week’s turn by Emma Stone, in which the host has a name they couldn’t pick out of a lineup.

SNL tonight: will Rihanna revisit past, can host Jon Hamm it up?

SNL tonight sees Rihanna as the musical guest and Jon Hamm as the host – and in that order, in the minds of many viewers. Hamm is no stranger to the Saturday Night Live set, having hosted before and shown SNL viewers what he’s made of in the sketch comedy motif. Rihanna, however, appears on the show at a time when, after seeing her career nearly derailed through no fault of her own, is now back atop the musical world. After her domestic violence incident with former beau Chris Brown, it seemed neither could sell a record. Poetic justice for him, many felt, but literally an insult to injury in Rihanna’s case. Of course that’s all behind her now, to the point that she’s even indirectly put the subject to bed in her recent domestic violence-themed duet with Eminem. The question for SNL tonight is whether she’ll leave the past in the past or whether she’ll jump into a sketch or two to make light of her by now years-old backstory.

Gut feeling says Rihanna shows up in at least one sketch tonight, regardless of subject matter. And it won’t be the first time Jon Hamm has shared the spotlight in that manner, as his last SNL hosting gig saw him pair up with musical guest Michael Buble for a “Hamm and Buble” sketch in which the two made fun of their own last names. A sketch called “Hamm and Rihanna” wouldn’t have quite the comedy potential, so SNL viewers will simply have to tune in tonight to find out how Jon Hamm and Rihanna fare on the acting side, as well as what Rihanna’s pair of musical performances will entail. Smart money says her new single “Only Girl (In The World)” will be one of her two songs performed.

MacBook Air countdown: new models one generation from mainstream

Congratulations, MacBook Air, you’re almost there. After a major second-generation round of upgrades and slim-downs, you’re a powerful, svelte machine. Your hardware specs are in the same ballpark as thicker MacBook models. You can be used for real computing, so long as the user isn’t looking to do a bunch of Photoshop rendering on your low-Ghz processor or store a bunch of multimedia files on your low-capacity solid-state drive.

Hmm, MacBook Air. It sounds like you’re only ready for prime time in some area codes. Sure, you can be just about anyone’s second computer. Anyone who isn’t planning to use their MacBook Air as their main computer anyway is going to do just fine on the road with it, unless they need to have all their data with them or tend to run highly processor intensive software tools from the road. But still, MacBook Air, your front and center appearance in Apple’s latest ads makes it clear that you want to be the star of the show. You want to be the main and only computer for plenty of mainstream folks. And thank to the magic of miniaturization, MacBook Air, you can get there. Solid state storage will get cheaper increase in capacity without getting physically larger. Mobile processors will get faster without negatively impacting battery life.

But that won’t happen until 2011 or 2012. And that’s the point at which Apple may get rid of the current “MacBook” altogether and allow the MacBook Air to officially become the MacBook. That’s when we’ll know that the MacBook Air has formally arrived.

SNL: Souping and Trampolining demonstrate aging show still has legs

Who knew souping and trampolining could be so good for business. In an era in which many consider Saturday Night Live to be at a historical low point or flat-out irrelevant, SNL’s sudden insertion last week of two new terms into the lexicon shows that for all its gradually faded cultural relevance in the three-plus decades it’s been on the air, the show still has some legs left after all. All it took was a ridiculous skit featuring Emma Stone, perhaps SNL’s most “Who the hell is that?” host in years, and a good old mocking of the rather unhumorous topic of local nightly TV news – and yet it worked beautifully.

Poking fun at the manner in which local TV news tends to exaggerate or misrepresent local happenings in order to scare small town folks into tuning in, the mock-news broadcast claimed to warning parents of the dangers of two disturbing new teenage trends. “Souping” consists of drinking expired soup in order to get high. “Trampolining” involves a boy, a girl, a trampoline, a rooftop, and we’ll leave it at that. These two words had no cultural meaning prior to last week. But thanks to the aging SNL still being able to occasionally step up and deliver, souping and trampolining have been topics of discussion all across the internet this week. Here’s hoping that those discussing these two punchlines don’t mistakenly think that they’re real phenomena.

Verizon iPhone in 2011 is bigger than Windows iPod in 2003

The Verizon iPhone will open Apple’s hottest product to an entire new segment of users who previously would have had to shift alliances to make it happen – and it’s not the first time Apple has made an expansion of these proportions. Most iPhone and iPod users in 2010 don’t even know this, but when the iPod was launched back in 2001, it was a Mac-only product. iTunes only existed for the Mac, and the FireWire requirement pretty much KO’d even the PC hackers. By mid 2002 Apple relented and offered a third party solution for using an iPod with Windows, but in 2003 the real thing arrived: the third generation iPod had a new-dangled thing called a dock connector port which could talk to USB, and more importantly, Apple released iTunes for Windows. After that, iPod sales were off to the races, only to be eventually supplanted by the iPhone. But as 2011 encumbers, Apple’s expansion of the iPhone to Verizon (and eventually, the other two U.S. carriers as well, if the company has any sense) will end up being a more big-time move in the scheme of things.

The reason is simple: the iPod, while it’s a great music player and does a few other nice things, is a toy. A life-altering toy in many instances, sure. But it’s an content consumption device, nothing more (talking about the classic iPod lineup here, not the current iPod touch which belongs more in the iPhone/iPad/iOS family). Contrast the classic iPod experience with that of the iPhone: it’s your phone, it’s your email and internet device, it’s your social networking tool, and that’s if you’re only using its most basic functionality. The iPhone has already found enough popularity without the benefit of Verizon that the sales increase won’t be of the same proportions; while the iPod/iTunes for Windows pushed iPod sales to something like ten times what they had been, that won’t happen here. At best, a Verizon iPhone (and to a lesser degree, a Sprint iPhone and a T-Mobile iPhone, if the latter two happen) could serve to double 2011 iPhone sales from what they would have been – which doesn’t sound huge, considering iPhone sales are already doubling year over year.

But while it won’t have the same sales impact, the significantly greater impact of the iPhone itself over its toy-like iPod cousin means that the Verizon iPhone will be a bigger deal for Apple – and for the nation’s consumers – than any bright ideas Apple had during the iPod generation.

MacBook Air TV ad suggests Air is now centerpiece of MacBook lineup

Blink and you’ll miss it, because the word “Air” only appears on screen for a second during Apple’s new MacBook Air television commercials, and is in fact never spoken at all. Instead the voice-over for the ad refers to the svelte new MacBook Air models as the latest “MacBooks” and leaves it at that. Parsing words on this level might be dangerous elsewhere, but Apple never says anything without a reason, and what Apple doesn’t say can be as much of a peek into the company’s thinking as anything it does say. Based on both its pricey pricing and its relative lack of promotion, it was clear that Apple considered the MacBook Air to be the red headed stepchild of the MacBook lineup, there for those who wanted it badly enough, but more of a sideshow than anything. This time, however, Apple is positioning the two new MacBook Air models as not only legitimate members of the MacBook lineup, but actually presenting them as the latest MacBooks.

In other words, Apple is saying pay attention to these MacBooks, these really thin and light new ones, more so than the other ones. Like the MacBook Pro and the regular MacBook. Sure, both those variants are much further into their lifecycles than the newly upgraded MacBook Air. But still, a shift seems afoot. There was a time in the iPod’s history when the larger hard drive based iPod was the centerpiece of the lineup, and the iPod mini (later rebranded as the iPod nano) was a mere sideshow. But at some point things shifted, and the thinner, lighter, not-coincidentally-flash-based iPod nano became the centerpiece of the iPod lineup. The nano was the one most regular folks bought because it was quite svelte while still capable of doing quite a lot, and the full size iPod became something of a niche for those who needed an iPod with powerhorse hardware specs. And here we are now in 2010, with Apple seemingly now saying that the MacBook Air is the intended centerpiece of the MacBook lineup, with the thicker more powerful models just there for the power users. That’s not (yet) the reality of the MacBook lineup or the sentiment of MacBook users. But for the moment at least, it appears to be the direction Apple is hoping the MacBook lineup heads in.

MacBook Air stunningly fast – too bad the cloud is imaginary

An Apple retail store had me hostage for over an hour yesterday, and naturally I spent the majority of that time toying around with the new eleven inch MacBook Air. The thirteen inch model is the more capable of the two, but the eleven inter is of course the more intriguing – both for its impossibly thin size and its surprisingly bare specs. With a 1.4 Ghz processor, the eleven inch Air sounds too slow to be of use. So when I cozied up to one and devilishly launched every app in its dock at once, I was expecting a meltdown.

To my surprise, the result was nearly the opposite. As it turns out, the Air’s solid state drive more than overcame its startlingly slow processor, at least in terms of app launch. No doubt the Air would fail to keep up with processor intensive and calculation intensive tasks, but for general use, the Air appears to be a winner.

Except when it comes to storage, of course. The eleven inch Air starts at an almost laugh-out-loud 64 gigabytes of capacity. It’s plenty to hold your OS, your apps, even your documents, so long as you don’t have even a hint of a multimedia library. So you can either keep your music, photos, and video on an external drive or you can rely on the cloud.

That would be, of course, if the cloud were real.

Sure, there are plenty of server farms, plenty of services, which will gladly take your money. But for the cloud to be anything other than a geek wet dream, it would require widely available wifi and fast, reliable mobile networks – neither of which exists in 2010. As such, the MacBook Air is relegated to use as a second machine, or one which will nearly always have an external drive attached, at least until solid state technology has caught up to on-board storage needs.

review: Griffin Elan Passport Wallet for iPhone 4

You need your phone. You need your wallet. Doesn’t it just make sense to keep these two items together? Meet the Elan Passport Wallet from Griffin Technology.

The Elan Passport Wallet comes in two colors: Black and Platinum. For guys, it’s best to go with the black, unless you’re bold and daring. The Platinum has lilac accents as well as a flowery lining on the inside (the black has black lining). As an added bonus to the platinum version, there’s a security lanyard included. Both colors have a very nice chrome accent on the front, which adds a nice touch.

Now let’s get to the good stuff. The wallet stays closed with a snap button enclosure. Open it up and on the left will be two slots for credit cards and IDs, along with a pocket to keep some dollar bills, small notes, business cards, etc. On the right is where you will keep your phone. The slots hold about four cards, so don’t expect to bring all your plastic in this wallet case.

The phone simply slides into the space. While testing this, I had a Gelaskin on my iPhone, and am happy to report that there is no problem with getting your iPhone with any films on into the Elan Passport Wallet.

While your phone is in the wallet, all of the front will be visible except the bottom, where the home button is. This part of the phone will be covered up by the leather, with an indentation to indicate where you need to press for the home button. This indentation has a bit of a metal piece in the metal to make it ‘easier’ to press down on the home button, though I still found it a bit difficult.

The power button, headphone jack, bottom speakers/mic, and charging port are all left open for easy access. The side of the device with the ringer toggle and volume buttons is also left exposed. Even the camera and flash gets a nice hole for you to take your photos and record video without any troubles.

I found it a bit hard to type on the phone when it was in the wallet though. The sides are a bit thick on the screen, so it made it a bit difficult, since the edges prevented my fingers from hitting some letters.

When you close the wallet with everything inside, it looks pretty good. Since you can’t pack everything in it, the case doesn’t get overstuffed. It closes easily without any need to struggle with the closure, like you may have encountered with wallets before.

While the concept is great — eliminate the need to carry your wallet and iPhone separately — there needs to be some work done to improve the case. Mainly the home button issue — personally, I think the bottom part that covers the button should be removed. It’s not necessary, when the top part above the screen is exposed. It just makes the home button so much harder to press and actually work.

The sides on the screen should be modified so it’s not as intrusive on the screen when typing as well, at least for me. But I’m not sure how to improve it. More of something that should be taken into consideration when getting this wallet.

But if you like the idea of carrying the essentials together in one wallet, then this is worth checking out. Worth getting though, even just for those times where you don’t really want to take a lot of things with you. It’s the convenience factor.

review by Christine Chan

rating: 3.5 stars out of five • $39 • GriffinTechnology.com

Latest MacBook Air might as well be the “iPad Classic”

The latest MacBook Air, with its increasingly form factor and ever-improving hardware specs, is attempting to put a new spin on a very old concept. Even in the early stages of the iPad era, the idea of a mobile device which uses the same inputs, same OS, and even basically same form factor as the computers we’ve been cranking away on for decades seems suddenly of a previous lifetime. And yet most of us still spend more hours per day on a point-and-click computer than we do on an iPad, so the new MacBook Air lineup is a timely reminder that while the era of the cursor-based computer may have already peaked and may indeed be on its way out the door entirely eventually, the era of the double-click is still very much alive.

Apple, by releasing aggressive new MacBook Air models, has stipulated to this. But then again that’s no surprise, as Apple has continued to keep the iPod Classic around, which is by now positively ancient in iPod years. More than three years ago Apple decided touchscreens were the future and launched first the iPhone and then the iPod touch – but in doing so, still kept a hard drive based iPod on the market for those who weren’t quite ready to make the leap. In the case of the iPod Classic, it was (and still is) almost entirely about capacity, as even the beefiest iPod touch holds a mere half or so of the content of the iPod Classic.

Three years later, the iPod Classic is still with us, although it’ll probably disappear next September when the iPod touch 5 goes to 128 gigabytes of capacity. The Macintosh, and the entire cursor-based computing era, will certainly be with decades longer. But in an era in which Apple is increasingly having its biggest success with products whose name begins with the letter “i” instead of containing the word Mac, you have to wonder just how much longer before the dynamics shift to the point that a future MacBook Air is instead branded as the iPad Classic.

Apple pushes iPod touch as corporate employee holiday bonus

An iPod touch for your favorite subordinate. Giving a contract-laden phone to someone who’s not involved in your personal or financial life can be a tricky proposition, so it appears Apple is going a different route when it comes to giving a valuable yet strings-free holiday gift to employees in your organization. “This holiday season, give the people in your organization something they’ll love,” says the latest Apple mailer in which the company then goes on to promote its corporate gifting and rewards program, which few outside the corporate world likely even know exists.

How is this relevant, if you’re not a boss, or at least not a boss in a position to be handing out two hundred dollar holiday gifts to employees along the lines of an iPod touch? It’s yet another instance of Apple openly promoting the iPod touch on its own merits, even though the company has made it clear over the years that the iPod touch is a mere “training wheels for iPhone” as Steve Jobs once infamously phrased it. On the other hand, it continues Apple’s trend of only promoting the iPod touch as either A) a non-networked tool such as a personal gaming device (see the company’s iPod touch TV ads and billboards, which are all about gaming), or B) the product you give when you’d like to give an iPhone but don’t want to risk the repercussions of giving someone a “gift” which can only be used if they sign up for a two-year contract and make monthly payments.

iPad aggressive pricing reflects its mainstream sensibility

The iPad has profit margins thinner than that of many other Apple products, to the surprise of no one. There have long been some Apple products which by their nature only appeal to a certain segment of the population and therefore sell just well enough to justify their existence. Apple prices these products such that the margins are high enough to cash in one way or the other. For instance, with the all-in-one and portable revolution in full effect, there are few beyond the most power-hungry of users who would consider buying one of Apple’s Mac Pro towers – and the margins of that particular product reflect that. But from the start, Apple has gambled that the iPad would be just the opposite kind of product.

In hindsight, the decision to price the iPad so aggressively, with a mere $499 entry point for a product which carries much of the same real-world functionality as a full blown Mac computer, was a heck of a gamble. Apple was betting that the iPad would be the first tablet computer in history to find mainstream success. While the reasons for the iPad’s success are becoming more obvious in hindsight, the $499 price point makes it clear that Apple had a feeling that it could sell the iPad – and sell it well – into the mainstream. Those who own shares of Apple stock (the only people outside of Apple’s boardroom who would have realistic reason to worry about the company’s profit margins) can rest easy knowing that Apple still makes a nice chunk of change on each iPad, as the company is not merely giving them away. And thanks to strong mainstream sales, the iPad’s smaller-than-usual profit percentages are being more than made up for in volume.

New MacBook Air 2010 is almost a true desktop or laptop replacement

The new MacBook Air is a phenomenal second-generation leap over the original, whose bare-bones specs made it feel like more of a lightweight toy than a lightweight Mac to many. The new Air takes a major step forward with technical specs which are at least within in the same area code of Apple’s full-sized Mac, if not quite the same zip code. Take, for instance, Apple’s new middle of the road thirteen inch $1299 MacBook Air model. With three-quarters the processor speed but a solid-state drive, it might end up being roughly as fast as Apple’s $999 MacBook or $1199 MacBook Pro models, depending on your usage patterns. And while all three models come with two gigabytes of RAM built in, surprise – they can all be upgraded beyond that, even the Air. Unfortunately you’re stuck with a maximum storage space of 256 GB with the Air, even if you opt for the $1599 model. In contrast, Apple’s other laptops still use hard drives, which are slower than solid state, but can easily be upgraded well beyond the 256 limit.

Still, the MacBook Air specs are surprisingly, almost tantalizingly, close to that of its thicker and heavier thirteen-inch Mac laptop counterparts. For all but the hungriest of power users, Mac laptops have long been potential desktop replacements, allowing you to use your laptop as your only computer, provided you’re willing to pay more for the same specs and settle for a smaller monitor (for instance, Apple’s $1199 iMac comes with a twenty-one inch screen and more powerful hardware specs than any Mac laptop in that price range). But until now, the Air has mostly been a sidekick machine, practical only as a travel companion to another more powerful Mac. And since owning more than one laptop is a little over the top, that’s most often meant that the MacBook Air was owned either by someone who also had an iMac at home, or was struggling to get by with an too-slow, too-cramped Air as their sole Mac.

Even with the new Air, using it as your only Mac is a tough call. But if you’ve already decided that you can live with your main and only Mac having a thirteen inch screen, the new MacBook Air is surprisingly not that far of a stretch in that category – so long as you can live with paying a little more for specs that are a little weaker. However, the eleven inch MacBook Air, with its 1.4 Ghz processor and its base 64 GB of storage, is a different story. More…

app review: Cut The Rope

It’s no secret that iPhone app developers are constantly looking to be the next Angry Birds. And they should be; that’s a game that literally cane out of nowhere, with no previous brand recognition, and went on to take a combination of cuteness and addictive gameplay to become a money making machine on the App Store. It’s become as much of a must-have game for any platform as Tetris or Bejeweled. I don’t know if Cut the Rope is the next Angry Birds, but it seems to have all the pieces in place to make the best run at that title as anything to come out on the App Store recently.

The premise of Cut the Rope is fairly simple: You receive a package containing Om Nom, an adorable green monster, and instructions to feed him candy. (No word, however, on whether or not to feed him after midnight or to keep him away from water.). You’re then presented with a series of levels with Om Nom in one place and a piece of candy dangling from a string in another, and your goal is to cut the rope and guide the candy to Om Nom’s waiting mouth.

The game plays like a cross between Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. You’ll swipe your finger at the rope to cut it and rely on gravity and the candy’s inertia to guide it to Om Nom. Of course, obstacles quickly get introduced, and soon you’re dealing with cutting multiple ropes at once with multitouch, bungee cords, spikes, spiders which climb up the ropes, movable anchor points, and winches to lengthen and shorten the ropes, among other obstacles. Combine that with three stars to collect on the way down to Om Nom’s waiting maw, and Cut the Rope keeps things fresh through 100 levels, even through multiple play throughs. And while that may sound intimidating, the game does a good job of introducing new elements gradually and integrating simple tutorials into the levels where new elements are introduced.

This is all set to a charming presentation, with colorful graphics and playful sound. On Nom is cuter than the angriest bird, and the look of sadness on his face when the candy doesn’t make it to him in one piece is priceless. In fact, it took me a while to determine that the graphics aren’t optimized for the Retina Display – they look good enough that it’s difficult to tell that they’re not. The jaunty background music just adds to the whole package. It would be nice if the game let you ping to zoom to allow you to see all of the larger levels that don’t fit on the iPhone screen, but even those levels aren’t so big that it’s an issue.

The colorful presentation and intuitive controls make the game very kid friendly, as well. My 3 year old keeps coming back to Cut the Rope whenever we hand her one of our phones, and she can even complete some of the earlier levels on her own. Even on the levels she can’t get through, she loves just experimenting with the different

If I had one complaint about Cut the Rope, it’s that there are occasionally too many things going on at one time and the game can have a hard time determining what you mean to do. There’s a very subtle difference, for example, between swiping to cut a rope and swiping to move an anchor point, or a short swipe at a short rope and a tap at a bubble to get it to pop. These misfires aren’t constant, but they can make the difference between Om Nom getting his candy or having to wait a bit for his next meal.

All in all, Cut the Rope is a delightful game, delivering a good amount of challenge, that deserves a spot on your iPhone. With 100 levels, there’s plenty of candy to feed to Om Nom, with the promise of additional content to come. If the devs deliver on that promise, Cut the Rope could, indeed be an Angry Birds killer. Even just in the current state, though, Cut the Rope is a steal at it’s current price of 99 cents and is perfect for anyone who’s finished (or gotten impossibly stuck in) Angry Birds and is looking for the next great challenge.

review by Steve Loopipe

rating: 4.5 stars out of five • 99¢ • App Store link

Greyson Chance interview: Waiting Outside The Lines, debut album

Singer-songwriter Greyson Chance made his national television performance debut on The Ellen Show earlier this year – at the age of twelve. He’s since been working on his forthcoming debut album, and the now-thirteen year old has just released the lead single from it. The song, entitled Waiting Outside The Lines, sees its debut today in iTunes as well as in a live performance on The Ellen Show where it all started for him.

The Oklahoma native took time today out of one of the busiest days of his life to chat with Beatweek about his new single, the ways in which his newfound stardom have (and haven’t) changed his life, why he’s one of the few Twitter stars who actually follows hundreds of thousands of his followers back, what he would do to get on Glee, and the progress he’s making towards his eventual album release which will come a little down the road.

Tell me about Waiting Outside The Lines.

It’s a very important song to me. The meaning of the song is really saying that you can get past something in your life, an emotional breakdown you can get past it. So the main purpose of the song is for my fans, so they can listen to the song when they’re late at night and they’re feeling their lowest low, and when they listen to the song, realize that it’s gonna get better and they can overcome this problem.

You write your own songs, right?

Yes, but actually this one I did not write. You know how it works. You get songs emailed to you and all that stuff. But I heard this song, and I’m really specific about what I don’t write, because I want to make sure that it still stays true to me. When I first heard the song, I was listening to the lyrics and I was just so into the song, and I was like ah, I have to do that. That’s so incredible. This is a song that means so much to me, so I’m just really happy that today is the day.

When you performed the song on Ellen today, about halfway through the song you stepped away from the piano and you came front and center, just singing vocals. Is that something we’ll see more of from you, where you’re not always behind the piano?

Definitely. I think it’s really important to show a different side, and I think because I’m not gonna always be able to be on the piano. I’m really excited.

It’s been about six months since the first time you were on Ellen, and you’re just now bringing out your first commercial single. It seems like you’ve decided not to rush things, you’d rather take your time and get it right.

There were a lot of different versions of the song, actually, and one of them we had an actual version. But everyone was like, you know, this is a thing that you can’t rush. It’s kind of like a table. You can put three legs on it, but it’s not gonna be standing up because it’s only three legs. So we wanted to take our time with this one to make sure it was perfect. It was a pretty long time, but I’m just excited that it’s here.
With this rush of fame and exposure, when you go back home and there’s moments where you go out to dinner with your family or you hang with your friends, are you still able to do that normally or are too many people recognizing you or interrupting?

Oh no, I can definitely do that. It’s really great. The best thing about this whole thing is when I go out and people just kind of want to shake my hand. I just find that so incredible because they just want to say hello, and I find that really, really cool. I still can go out and go with my friends. I don’t have that problem yet (laughs).

You’ve dealt with quite a lot of industry people over the past few months. Are there people who try to treat you like a little kid and treat you different, or are people generally giving you the same kind of respect that they would give to an emerging artist who’s ten years older than you?

Sometimes I get treated like a kid, but I have the best team behind me and I have the best label in the world. Everybody is just so kind and so awesome. I think at first it was kind of like that because nobody really knew me, but now everyone is just so kind, so nice. Everybody respects everybody.

You tweeted about John Lennon on his birthday. Did the Beatles influence come from your parents, or was that something you sought out on your own?

It’s actually come from my own. I think John Lennon is one of the best writers ever to step on the planet. He’s just so passionate about his work, and the poetry that he puts in his songs is just incredible.

You’ve got a lot of big names in your corner. Not just Ellen, but Lady GaGa has shown support for you, Perez Hilton says nice things about you. How important is to to have those kinds of heavyweights in your corner?

It feels really good, and actually Perez has become such an amazing friend, actually. I’ve gotten to meet him a couple of times. He’s really cool, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s a really cool guy and I like to stay in touch with him on Twitter.

You’ve been quite adamant about bringing the anti-bullying campaign to the forefront. Why is that an important issue to you?

It’s an epidemic that we really need to get rid of. We’re losing teenage lives from this. Everybody’s been bullied, and it’s one of the most horrible things that can happen. I feel for the kids that have been bullied, and I actually wrote a song just recently called Purple Sky. It really needs to be stopped. I mean we’re losing lives.

You’ve identified yourself as a Glee fan. If you had the chance to be on the show, I take it you would jump on it?

Oh yeah. I would jump off cliffs for that (laughs). It’s an amazing show, and I love how they’re taking pop music but making it theatrical and they’re doing these classic Broadway numbers that are just so classical but they’re making them fun and they’re making them really cool. I think they’re doing a very good thing in music right now.

You have about 250,000 followers on Twitter, and you follow 150,000 of them back. I think you may be following the most people of anyone on all of Twitter. Why do you do it that way?

I think the most important thing is because I know what it feels like to be followed by somebody. You get that happy feeling. If people are going to be willing to follow me, I should follow them back. I follow 150,000 but I need to follow 100,000 more because it’s not everybody. I feel for the people that want to be followed back, so it’s the least I can do.

That allows people on Twitter to direct message you. Do you get a lot of fan messages through DM?

Yes, and I like to read those. And I like to reply too. I love talking to my fans. They’re incredible.

How far along are you as far as the album?

I think we have a pretty good amount of stuff almost completed. It’s kind of like a hurry up and wait thing (laughs). We’re getting along.

Is there anything you can say, without getting in trouble, in terms of when the album might possibly come out?

It will be early 2011.

Have you had a favorite studio moment so far?

The last studio I was in, I was at the Record Plant in LA. The studio that we were in had a basketball court. And so after we would get done recording takes, we would go and play Horse.

interview by Bill Palmer

Greyson-Official.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

Cowboys-Giants last chance to push Fumblegate out of headlines

As the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants kick off on Monday Night Football tonight, the NFL is in desperate need for a headline to come out of the game which can push yesterday’s “Fumblegate” embarrassment out of being the lead story for the week.

Quite possibly the most embarrassing screw-up in NFL officiating history, the referees in this weekend’s Miami Dolphins – Pittsburgh Steelers managed to violate both the letter and the spirit of the rules in the same play, causing the incorrect outcome of the game and quite possibly elevating obtuse misinterpretation of the rules by the referees into a full-blown crisis even larger than last week’s hullabaloo over helmet to helmet hits.

Brett Favre and his ankle aside, Fumblegate is already the headline du jour across the sports pages (except, naturally, the NFL Network which has seemingly been instructed by the league to downplay the scandal). The question now is whether tonight’s Cowboys-Giants game, a high profile rivalry on national television, can generate the kind of headlines needed to push Fumblegate to page two. Can the Cowboys, in the midst of a fall-apart season, pull it together with a solid win? Or will Wade Phillips and Tony Romo be on the national hotseat?

At this point, short of another helmet to helmet hit or another misinterpreted referee call of historical proportions, the NFL will be hoping for any major headlines it can get from tonight’s Monday Night Football game. Otherwise, the latest referring scandal gets a full week in the news – and even worse for the league, even more scrutiny into what at this point is beginning to look like an intentionally blown call.

Greg Laswell interview: brooding singer gets over it on Take a Bow

Greg Laswell is feeling better, one record at a time. In fact, the artist known for his broodingly sad songs is has not only taken a more zen-like approach to that sadness this time around on his new album Take A Bow, he even turns outright happy by the end of it. As should be no surprise, the musical shift is a reflection of the changes that have taken place his own life. Greg chatted with Beatweek about all of the above ahead of his upcoming U.S. headlining tour.

Did you really lock yourself away in a cabin in Arizona to make this record?

Yeah. I do all my records out of the studio of my house, and when it came time to do this record, I was living in LA at the time, and the idea of recording a record in LA just made me a little nauseous. A friend of mine own a cabin in Flagstaff, Arizona. I went there on one of my days off on tour. They just gave it to us for the day, and I fell in love it with it. It’s really simple, nothing flashy, it’s just this little two bedroom place. I moved my recording studio up. It took about two days to move up there, and I altogether I ended up staying for about five months.

How isolated were you? Were you still going into town to have dinner each night or were you totally shut off?

It was pretty moved. There were just two businesses in the town, there was a tavern and then a little convenience store. Everything else was a nine mile drive up to actual Flagstaff proper. I would have friends come in and out, but there would be several weeks at a time where I wouldn’t see anyone. Just my dog. I didn’t really think that part through when I had the idea to go out there. So it was a little dark at times, but I have really fond memories of the whole process.

Had you ever been that isolated?

No. Up to that point, that was the most time I’ve ever spent alone in my whole life.

You played every instrument. Is that just because you can, because it’s easier?

There are players that are better than I am, but in a weird way I like my flawed takes better than perfect takes. So I kind of embrace it. I had a few people play on the record. This guy named Brian Wright played on a couple songs, and then Brandon Walters played on a couple songs, just guitar. But other than that, if I have enough takes, I can fake just about any instrument, if no one’s looking.

A lot of your songs are about heartbreak, but some of them almost seem to have a zen-like quality. Listening to it, it sounds like you’re not bothered by the fact that you’re busted up. Does it feel that way to you?

Yeah, this record kind of separates from the first two, I think. The first record was called Through Toledo and you could tell in the songs that I was going through a pretty rough time, and it came out in the vocal performance and in the lyrics too. This one I’m kind of putting the lid on a lot of it. I was divorced five years ago, which is kind of were a lot of this stems from. So there’s still a few things I wanted to open up and make sure I cleared the air about, but I wasn’t nearly as affected by the circumstances that the songs were about on this record than I was on the first two records.

Do you think you’re better at writing about these things once you’ve gotten past them?

I don’t think so, if I’m quite honest. There’s a song called High And Low that I don’t think I’ll ever match, just as far as lyric and song. But then again I don’t know. I’m my own worst critic. There was something about writing in that space. There were songs that I don’t remember writing. Not to be artsy-fartsy, but there were songs on the first record I don’t remember really writing. I can’t recall sitting down. They happened so instantly. With this one, obviously I fought the songs a lot more. I think it’s just more of a chore now. It’s not as automatic as it was on the first two records.

You seem to snap out of it at some point on this record, though, with You Now. After hearing the album in sequence, I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out of that song and for it to take this darkly ironic twist, which it never does. Did that song come after the sadder ones?

That was towards the end. I did a couple straight ahead happy songs on this record, and they were the last three songs I did for the record. Actually that’s not true. There’s a song called Goodbye that was the very, very last one that I did. But even that’s kind of a happy song, I think anyway.

How is it that you seem so comfortable singing about the sadder aspects of things, and then I go on your website and watch your videos and you’re a stand-up comedian on there?

I’m an idiot (laughs). One of my friends describes me as the saddest happiest person that he knows. But yeah, if I was as morose as all my song are, that would be a pretty miserable life to live. I try not to take myself too seriously.

Does that come out in your live shows as well?

Yeah, I try to give people the full spectrum. I joke about it sometimes on stage, if my banter matched by songs it would be a terrible show to go to (laughs).

Between records you did an all-covers EP. Did you learn anything from that process that you’ve since been able to apply to making songs of your own?

Once you really get into a song, other than just listening to it, it forces you to go “oh, they did this. I never would have thought of doing that,” when you deconstruct it. It’s something you really can’t do sometimes when you’re just listening to a song. You have to really get into it. So yeah, I learned a lot from it. I’ve always loved doing covers. Some artists don’t like covers. Some listeners don’t like covers. But I love them. It gives you a new perspective production-wise. It’s easier for me, if I’m starting a new record, I like to produce a few songs that aren’t mine just so it frees me up not to worry about it so much. And then some new ideas come from that place. For me anyway, it’s helpful. I’m gonna do it in between each record. Covers volume two, volume three.

You named the album “Take A Bow” after one of its songs. Was there something particular about that song you wanted to highlight, or was it more just about the phrase itself?

I try to stay away from being self congratulatory, but I didn’t really do a good job with that one (laughs). The album cover is a picture of this table that’s obviously been through the ringer and really had a rough go of things, but it’s still standing. So I kind of wanted to color that part, just because you go through something that at the time you don’t think you’ll ever get over, then one day comes along and you do. You’re even better for it, which is so cliche but that’s kind of the hook that I hang the whole record on is that things get better. You’ve still got to go through it, but it’s fine.

Now that you’re past the sad phase of your life, are you done making that kind of music? If things stay positive in your life, are we going to see a happy record next time?

Yeah. I’ve had a few song ideas here and there, and it’s going to be interesting. I think the next record is going to be the most different from what I’ve done in the past. I don’t really know how to write from place that I’m not experiencing. I’m not a good faker about those sorts of things. I think if my dog dies, I’ll write a pretty decent heartbreaking album again. But other than that I think I’m probably done with it.

interview by Bill Palmer

Greg Laswell is on tour in the U.S. now, with shows on both coasts including this week in Ohio and November 20th in New York City.

GregLaswell.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

Angry Birds Halloween, Plock, Toy Story 3 and more

Here’s a list of this week’s hottest bargain apps!

Angry Birds Halloween – Just in time for Halloween! The new Angry Birds hits the app store and is well received! ‘Tis the season to be squishing pigs! 45 new spooktacular levels for you to play, filled with floating lanterns, pumpkins, and many more obstacles! Completely integrated with Game Center, so compete with your friends for the highest scores!
iPhone/iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPad Version ($1.99)

Plock – Although I haven’t played this popular game on Facebook, I think it’s a lot more fun on the iPhone or iPod Touch. The screen is filled with colorful square blocks that you must clear. Tap on matching colored blocks (of two or more) to clear them to earn points. Classic modes allows you one minute to break as many as possible. Survival mode allows you to play as long as you can! When no more matches are possible, shake your device to mix up the blocks! Leaderboards on both OpenFeint and Apple’s Game Center. iPhone Version (99 cents)

Godfinger All Stars – If you’re familiar with the first version of Godfinger, this new app is its updated replacement. Using your Plus+ account, log in and your previous data will be transferred over automatically. Lots of new levels and updates! Build your planet while taking care or terrorizing your followers with your godly wonders. iPhone Version (Free) | iPad Version (Free)

Toy Story 3 Memory Match is a very basic match-3 card game. Flip over cards one at a time to find matches of Toy Story 3 characters. Race against the clock! Do well and earn various Toy Story 3 wallpapers for your iPhone. The app is sponsored by Toys R Us. Again, it’s very basic, but if you enjoy simple games or Disney apps, this one is for you. iPhone Version (Free)

Restaurant Story – think you got what it takes to run a restaurant? Why not open a virtual one? Design your new business and cook plenty of food for your customers! Customize and choose your menu. Items that take long to cook will of course make you more money. Earn money to build an even bigger restaurant and expand your menu choices. Universal App (Free)

Ponk – If you love match 3 games, you have to try this one. Bubbles fall from the top and you must match the colored bubbles together by dragging them. The more you match, the more points earned. Some falling bubbles include ones you can’t move, and ones that can eliminate any colored bubbles it touches. iPhone Version (99 cents)

Little Things – is a fun seek and find game. You literally find little things within little things. All graphics are made up of smaller graphics of particular colors. Search for 5 given items to be awards points. The faster your find the items, the more you earn! A new lite version is also available for your to try before buying. Normally $2.99, the full version is on sale until the Oct. 30th for 99 cents. iPad Version (99 cents) | iPad Lite Version (Free)

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