White iPhone 4 release: four surprising hints it offers about iPhone 5

The white iPhone 4 is here, the iPhone 5 isn’t, and there are now some surprising things we can glean from the former about the latter. Here are four hints the release of the new white iPhone 4 gives us about the upcoming iPhone 5.

Later than sooner: So much for a June iPhone 5 release date. The arrival of the white iPhone 4 now, basically May 2011, means the iPhone 5 can’t be expected until the back end of summer.

Form factor: The white iPhone 4 marks the third time, after the Verizon iPhone 4 and the original iPhone 4, that Apple has made a big deal about the arrival of a new iPhone which has the exact same form factor. That space has officially been used up on the bingo card, and Apple knows it. Look for the iPhone 5, whenever it surfaces, to look noticeably different.

Aggression: Apple’s willingness to push the white iPhone 4 out there this late into the iPhone 4 cycle means that Apple is willing to be proactively aggressive in ways it previously wasn’t. While Apple’s days of simply pushing one new update per product per year and letting it play out may or may not be over, this move on the heels of the Verizon iPhone 4 move says that Apple is now more willing to make intermediary moves between annual generational rollouts as needed, at least when it comes to the iPhone. Perhaps that’s because, unlike Apple’s other mobile products like the iPad and iPod, the iPhone actually has competition.

Predictability, or lack thereof: After releasing a Verizon iPhone 4 in the middle of the iPhone 4 era and a white iPhone 4 a month before it was expected to have released an iPhone 5, who knows what the hell Apple will do with the iPhone next or when it’ll happen. But then that’s exactly how Apple wants it, for competitive reasons if nothing else. And so for the first time in the iPhone’s history, there’s no roadmap for the iPhone’s future. Something to keep in mind as we head into the iPhone 5 era, whenever and however it arrives. Here’s more on the iPhone 5. Here’s more on the white iPhone 4.

White iPhone 4 price can be reduced to $50, but you may regret it

Those with a black iPhone 4 from Verizon or AT&T can flip it for a white model at a surprisingly low cost – but they could end up regretting it before the year is over. Those who’ve bought an iPhone 4 since it launched are not yet eligible for upgrade pricing from either carrier, which means that the official $199 and $299 price tags on the new white iPhone 4 are actually going to be $399 and $499 for existing iPhone 4 users. But thanks to the twisted world of subsidized pricing, a black iPhone 4 can be sold for about $350 to $450 on any major do-it-yourself auction site – meaning that you can flip your black iPhone 4 for a white iPhone 4 for as little as fifty bucks, plus whatever listing fees or taxes you might run into on one end of the exchange or the other. But there’s a catch, which could cost you dearly later on.

Many or even most of those who bought an iPhone 4 back when it first launched on AT&T will be eligible for upgrade pricing by the time the iPhone 5 rolls around (it’s either a twelve or eighteen month upgrade cycle, depending on a voodoo formula; you’ll have to check with AT&T or Apple to confirm your upgrade date). But buying a white iPhone 4 now will reset your upgrade-eligible date so that it’s twelve to eighteen months from now, meaning that buying a white iPhone 4 now could result in your iPhone 5 costing you an extra $200 when you go to buy it. That’s of course if you’re planning to buy the iPhone 5. Verizon customers may oddly be in a better position to flip over to a white iPhone 4; by having bought a black Verizon iPhone 4 this year, they’ve already likely blown any chance of being able to buy an iPhone 5 at advertised pricing when it arrives. And since they’re already shut out of that, there may be no harming in moving to the white iPhone 4 in the mean time. Here’s more on the white iPhone 4.

Onsite report: ASCAP “I Create Music” Expo 2011 – Day 1

by Natalie Gelman

Yesterday was the first of three days at the 6th Annual ASCAP “I Create Music” Expo. Held in Hollywood, California, the expo attracts songwriters, composers, producers, publishers and others in the music industry to hear panels, perform, check out new gear and services for their craft and hopefully get a chance to pass off a demo to one of their dream producers or collaborators.

Dr. Luke, Desmond Child, Don Was, Marcus Miller and Larry Kline are just a handful of the amazing panelists ASCAP brought in on Thursday. It’s early in the conference but the theme I’m noticing is a desire from both panelists and attendees to get out from behind the digital curtain and put the heart and soul back in music.

It’s so easy these days to write a song on Friday, record it Saturday and have it out on iTunes by Monday. The same goes for the film/TV scoring business with extremely fast turn times being expected of composers these days. But many are starting to see that there is a process that they lose out on when you have all those digital tools and you’re staring at a deadline.

Don’t get me wrong, it can be beneficial and necessary even to occasionally release a song right away if you feel very strongly about it. That kind of timeline also allows for a more timely and dare I say political response to what’s going on in the world.

A true artist usually does have an opinion on current events and maybe if they have some more solitary time they can really get to the edge of something golden. If they go through a process and refine a song it might actually, as Larry Kline said, “get to the heart of some of our experience as a human being.”

Isn’t that what great art does? It moves you because it is so honest and personal to that artist that they are communicating from the depths of their soul how much pain, joy or love they are in. Some artists do need a deadline so that they stop the rewrite process because they get too close to the song or recording. It’s about knowing your personal process if you’re an artist or having a producer that’s sensitive to your needs and can see when you’ve peaked creatively and performance wise.

My favorite quote of the day came from Marcus Miller who is well known for producing Miles Davis: “(with a great artist) the mistakes are going to be just as valuable as the correct notes.” It’s the producers’ job to get out of the artists’ way and make them comfortable so they can deliver those takes in the studio.

As far as business is concerned, there is really no one way to do things, so the best thing you can do is just get out there. Make the best music you can, learn the tools but don’t let them confine you and then just go out work at it and hang with people in the business. Or, get down to days two and three of the ASCAP Expo!

review: SpiderPodium Tablet for iPad 2 and iPad 1

by Daynah

The SpiderPodium Tablet is probably one of the most unique portable iPad/tablet stand you’ll find. It’s light and flexible, yet study enough to put your beloved device on it. It works with the new iPad 2, the original iPad 1, and other tablet devices.

When you first take out the SpiderPodium Tablet, it may look strange because it resembles a giant spider. There are eight legs that are all flexible. Each leg has three joints that can be bent in any way you need it. The exterior is made of a soft rubber, preventing any scratches on your tablet.

The product’s box will have two photos on it displaying the two main positions the stand can be in. Follow the photos on the box to setup the SpiderPodium stand in either portrait or landscape mode. Once you get it in place, carefully place your iPad/tablet in and bend the end joints to hold it in place. When it’s sturdy, bend and move the legs to the angle you desire.

What’s wonderful about the extra legs on this stand is that it could be wrapped anywhere. Wrap the stand around a car seat or a dashboard. Or even around a pole or stand so you can read your music sheets. There’s many multiple uses for it.

Overall, the SpiderPodium Tablet is a flexible tablet stand that you can set in any angle, any position, and light and portable enough to take anywhere. Just collapse all the legs to put in your bag, and you’re ready to go.

SpiderPodium Tablet is made by Breffo and is available in two colors — graphite and black. It fits most tablets on the market. And is not recommended for children under the age of 3.

$34.99 · Breffo.com

review: Scosche goBAT II Portable Charger and Backup Battery iPad etc.

by Bill Palmer

USB battery bricks are quietly becoming a more compelling product category, as users are increasingly finding themselves toting an iPhone or smartphone in their pocket and an iPad in their backpack, with none of these devices offering enough of a built-in battery to function as all-day computing devices. Scosche’s goBAT II attempts to solve all of your mobile charging needs at once by offering a pair of USB ports, thus allowing you to charge your phone and tablet (or a pair of phones, or an iPhone and an iPod, etc.) simultaneously. And it offers a new trick up its sleeve in the process.

For pocket sized devices like the iPhone, we still recommend that users first consider a form-fitting battery case, which allows the device to be recharged while still easily usable as opposed to being tethered to a charging brick. But battery cases for the larger iPad have proven thus far to be overly bulky propositions, and so an all-purpose battery starts to make more sense when an iPad is thrown into the mix. To that end, one of the USB ports on the goBAT II is a 2.1 amp port, meaning that it can recharge a device about twice as fast as the other 1.0 amp port. iPad users who are familiar with just how long it can take to recharge an iPad will be pleased to know that the 2.1 amp port really did juice up the iPad significantly faster in my tests.

The catch is that the iPad is so overwhelmingly power-hungry that the even though the goBAT II and its 5000 mAh of battery life will recharge an iPhone several times before needing to be recharged itself, it only has enough juice to give an iPad about a fifty percent battery boost. Depending on the circumstances, that can either be a godsend or frustratingly little help. But under the right conditions, the goBAT can be a lifesaver.

The goBAT II gets outclassed in some ways by the competing ZAGGsparg II, which offers a superior 6000 mAh of battery life as well as a built-in wall charging option, In contrast, the goBAT II is lacking. But at twenty dollars cheaper, and with a more ergonomic design, the goBAT II stands on its own merits – and that 2.1 amp fast charging port will make all the difference for those users who need to get charged back up in a hurry.

Rating: four stars out of five • Price: $79 • Scosche.com

Skylar Grey set for Lollapalooza in first solo concert, no album news

Those who’ve been wondering when Skylar Grey would strike out on her own now have an answer, at least when it comes to her live performances, and it can be summed up, for now, in one word: Lollapalooza. The artist best known thus far for her vocals on “I Need a Doctor” and “Coming Home” and her penning of “Love The Way You Lie,” who has maintained a shroud of secrecy around her to the point that even well-lit photos of her face have been hard to come by (she was singing from the shadows during the Grammy awards), has revealed that she’ll performing a live solo set at the 2011 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, which takes place August 5th-7th. No word on her set time or which day she’ll be performing.

This will represent Skylar Grey’s first full fledged live solo performance under her current name and musical styling; fans who’ve been around the block with her will recall her quietly aching 2006 album Like Blood Like Honey which she released under the name Holly Brook. However, that record is not expected to be an indicator of where Skylar Grey is headed musically as an artist. Although her vocal high profile vocal contributions of late have seen her serenely singing lines like “I’m about to lose my mind” and “Tell the world that I’m coming home,” those vocal appearances have been on hip hop songs from artists like Dr. Dre and Dirty Diddy Money. There’s still no word from Grey’s camp regarding her forthcoming debut album or single, so for that scoop you (and we) will just have to stay tuned.

Beatweek Magazine’s 100th issue: Avril Lavigne, Alice Cooper, Augustana and so much more

Beatweek Magazine’s all-star 100th issue has arrived. Here are the highlights:

• Avril Lavigne cover story interview: Goodbye Lullaby and hello to taking control

• Reviews of bluetooth stereos, iPad 2 cases and keyboards, and more

• Musician interviews with Alice Cooper, Augustana, Aaron Lewis of Staind, Anberlin, Pete Yorn, Uh Huh Her, Silverchair, Goldberg Sisters, Devyn Rush, Whitney Steele, Alexx Calise, and more

Read this issue now

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Avril Lavigne: the Beatweek interview – Goodbye Lullaby, hello to taking control

by Bill Palmer

“I was really just writing them for me,” she says of the fact that the majority of the songs on her new album are unlike anything fans have come to expect from an Avril Lavigne record. Goodbye Lullaby may be most popularly known for the punk-pop single What The Hell, but it doesn’t tell the full story. Her fourth record, for the most part, sees Avril taking control: she wrote most of the songs without outside collaborators, and even did some of the production work herself. The result is a record with more acoustic ballads than rockers, and now everyone gets to see Avril from both sides.

“The record company wanted a more pop song, kind of like my older stuff,” she says candidly of where What The Hell came from. “That is a side of me, rocking out on stage, running around fist pumping, jumping, and I love to do that, but I also love to just be solo at a piano and sing or an acoustic guitar. That’s just another side of me. I didn’t want to make the same record over and over, so this is where I’m at creatively. When you hear the majority of the songs on this album, it’s a different tone than my other records, a different vibe, and that’s just where I’m at today as a twenty-six year old and as an artist.”

Avril’s evolution is apparent by the album’s third track. Even as the song Push delivers blunt lyrics like ‘If you fuck this up then go take a hike,’ the song presents itself with a gentle sounding tone as a result of a conscious decision she made during the writing process. “When I write a song I usually just write it on the acoustic guitar, and you can take any song in any direction,” she explains. “It could have been an aggressive fast song. It could have been a song that’s more acoustic. It’s kind of like I took the direction in a more acoustic but still pop song. I think just lyrically it explains itself. It’s a very up front lyric, a very honest lyric, and it’s an emotion of frustration but it’s also positive, like hey we love each other, let’s not sweat the small stuff.”

But the back half of Goodbye Lullaby is where the evolution comes full circle. Songs like I Love You and Remember When, which Avril wrote on her own without any outside co-writers, sound like they’re straight out of the singer-songwriter genre. So why now? “I’ve always written songs on my own and I’ve just never recorded them. It was time. I was like, you know what? I’ve got to put my songs on this record,” she says. “I didn’t want to think about the pop world so much, and I didn’t want to analyze what was happening on radio. I just wanted to be true to the emotion of the songs and the instruments and make everything in its most natural form. So it was a very organic process of the writing and the recording, very real. It was like okay, I’m gonna write this song because this is the song I’m gonna write, not I’m writing this for radio and it needs to be all whatever.”

That’s not to say that Avril has left behind her pop-rock past altogether. In fact her upcoming tour will see her faithfully trotting out old favorites alongside the new material, despite the contrasting tones. “I love performing all of my older songs, especially the more upbeat songs like Sk8er Boi and Girlfriend,” she says of her biggest hits from her previous records. “This album is obviously a different tone and feel. It’s more emotional, more song driven. But what’s really great about my tour is I get to make it very diverse and have these more stripped down acoustic moments where it’s about me as a musician and a singer and a songwriter, but I get to have my full-on rock out moments with my crowd and be rock and roll. So it’s always great, and I think it’s very important to play your old songs.”

Even though her late twenties have seen Avril Lavigne morph into a businesswoman with her own perfume and fashion lines, she’s still finding ways to have fun in her live performances, sometimes finding ways to combine the two. During her recent performance on a late night talk show she was spotted wearing oversized glasses along with a t-shirt which pictured the same pair of glasses. “I’ve always liked wearing glasses since I was little,” she says. “So it was kind of funny because that t-shirt is my line, it’s Abbey Dawn. I was wearing the t-shirt and I was walking around my house and I put my glasses on because they were literally just there, and then I was like oh my god, this is too funny that I’m wearing the glasses with the t-shirt. I might as well just rock it,” she laughs.

The entrepreneurial endeavors, however, shouldn’t be seen as a sign that she plans to let up on the music side any time soon – or ever. “I want to do this the rest of my life,” she says. “I can always make these records that I make for myself and put it out there for whoever wants to hear it and check it out. I’m just so grateful to still have this opportunity to be here today.”

Avril’s willingness to take control on Goodbye Lullaby begs the question of why she didn’t go there sooner. “I’ve always written songs on my own. I actually tried to record a couple of mine one time, and I wouldn’t name names, but there were a couple producers who just kind of like pushed it aside, obviously because they just wanted to put their songs on the record.”

“I mean I always could do what I wanted to,” she admits, but this time “I went for it.”

AvrilLavigne.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

Augustana interview: Dan Layus on why the third time’s the charm

by Bill Palmer

“There’s no time to dick around,” observes Dan Layus matter of factly as the singer who has just entered his late twenties prepares to release his third album with Augustana and, he says, the first one which turned out the way he wanted. That’s not to say the new self titled album, which stretches from the commercial-leaning Steal Your Heart to the acoustic soft spot Borrowed Time, wasn’t a labor of love. In fact it’s been a work in progress for some time.

“Our first stab at this record came in the fall of 2009,” he says of the band’s initial efforts with producer Jacquire King. “We wanted to go in and take what he did with Kings of Leon and Norah Jones and kind of do a real band’s band kind of record, which we feel like we’re a band’s band on tour and on the road. We’re very raw and very spur of the moment. It’s just music. There’s no programming, no computers on stage. We’re just playing music with a couple guitars and a piano and drums. We wanted to do that kind of classic seventies Springsteen record or Petty record and try and achieve that, and that was tough. We got about halfway there.”

After deciding to retain half the songs from those sessions and scrap the rest in favor of trying different approaches, the album eventually came together to the band’s liking. But the process had its ups and downs. At a point when there “weren’t a lot of answers” from the label along the lines of singles and release dates, Layus exorcised his frustration by stepping outside the process to create Borrowed Time. “We did Steal Your Heart and that’s great for what it is and that is exactly what that song needs to be, but there’s a part of me that absolutely needs a song like Borrowed Time on the record because that is just as true if not more true to who we are than a song like Steal Your Heart. I got together with this guy Jeff Trott, just a really great American sort of songwriter-producer kind of guy, and it was just me and him. We just wrote and demoed the song, and the demo ended up being on the record. It’s probably my favorite song.”

Despite the frustrating process, evidence that Augustana ended up with the record it wanted comes from the fact that the band, which famously changes up nearly every song in its catalog during its live performances, may allow the new material to reach live stages without much reinterpretation. “For the most part we got there on the production and the sounds and the tempos and the harmonies,” says Layus. “I feel like if we change them it won’t be out of obligation, it’ll be out of curiosity just to make it interesting every night.”

And of those first two records? “The way we play them live are the way that they should have been on record. It’s kind of a shame.”

“I think the first record was just flat inexperience,” he says of Augustana’s 2005 debut album All the Stars and Boulevards, which nonetheless produced the hit song Boston. “I didn’t know how to sing. I didn’t know how to make a record. I didn’t know how to write a song. Boston was essentially the only thing I had really written that I kind of believed in, and the rest was kind of scrap. I don’t know, I think that may or may not have come through. We were just so young.”

“And then on the second record there were a lot of things involved in the process. We really played it safe there too. There were a lot of factors that made it difficult to explore a lot of new frontiers of production for us. I think we were very capable of making some of the songs that were actually written as decent songs that were forced into a sort of genre sonically that they shouldn’t have been. I feel like Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt should have been an alt-country record. Those songs were written like a Ryan Adams record, but they weren’t really allowed to go there for a multitude of reasons.”

But the third time around the band got what it wanted. “This one we finally got the green light. It feels good to finally put a pedal steel on a record and not feel like we’re gonna get in trouble for it,” he says with a laugh.

The very idea of Dan Layus laughing could come as a shock to those who only know him through his consistently serious lyrics. And yet this conversation about the album, which sees him incongruously joking about baseball at one point, paints him in a different light. Why, then, so serious musically? “Just maybe what I listened to growing up, it’s just how it comes out. I guess that’s how I vent my serious side.”

Augustana, which formed when Layus was still a teenager and saw a good number of early lineup changes, has nonetheless jelled into a cohesive family over the years. “The core group of guys that are still here, we’ve definitely been through the ringer together. There’s never really any friction. We’re all growing up together and making mistakes and succeeding, all of those things, at the same time.”

And as the now-veteran band prepares to release its third record this week, Dan Layus reveals why it’s a self titled affair, a decision which was made at the beginning of the long process of its creation. “It’s not a statement, but it’s a good period at the end of the sentence,” he says. “A very short sentence.”

AugustanaMusic.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

Aaron Lewis interview: Staind singer embraces his country roots

by Bill Palmer

Aaron Lewis may have gone country on his new EP Town Line, but he’s not forsaking anything in his career which came before it. In fact he’s in and out of the studio with his longtime band Staind right now, working on their next record for release later this year. But in the mean time the baritone singer is finding considerable country chart success with a collection of five songs which he says represent his most autobiographical work to date.

“I’ve never been shy about saying that I hunt and that I fish and that I live out in the middle of the sticks,” says Aaron of the fact that he’s always been the ‘Country Boy’ portrayed in the lead single from Town Line. He sees it all as a natural progression from his mid-period Staind days which saw him steering his music more toward an acoustic bent even while attempting to fit it within the framework of his band.

“It was always in the plans that I was going to do a solo record and I was always going to branch away and do something on my own,” he says. “I just hadn’t really decided where the proper home for me to do that would be. But when I started thinking about it, I write on an acoustic guitar. The songs over the years like Outside, It’s Been Awhile, Everything Changes, Zoe Jane, So Far Away, Epiphany, Tangled Up In You, those are all songs that I wrote on an acoustic guitar.”

Country Boy sees Aaron paired up with country music legends like Charlie Daniels and George Jones, collaborations which were surprisingly simple to pull together. After he mentioned to producer James Stroud that he’d like to bring in Daniels for instrumental accompaniment, things were set in motion a phone call later. “He picked up his phone and he from memory hand-dialed Charlie’s number and the phone call went ‘Hey Charlie what’s up, it’s Jimmy James. I’m in the studio and I’m working with this guy Aaron Lewis and he’s got this great song, he’d love to have you come in and hear it, and if you like it, to lay something down on it either with your fiddle or your guitar.’ And there was a little bit of pause, and James went ‘Thursday, 10:30? Alright, I’ll see you then.’ And pretty much the same exact thing happened with George Jones and with Chris Young.”

While the song paints Lewis as a small town native who “sold my soul to the devil in LA,” he wants to make it clear that he’s simply being honest as usual in his lyrics and is in no way rejecting or vacating any of his earlier work.

“In trying to pay attention to how people are feeling about the whole thing,” he says of the reaction to Town Line, “one of the things that I’ve seen is that, ‘So does this mean that everything you did to this point is a lie?’ I’m confused a little bit by that. I don’t understand how just because I live out in the middle of nowhere and I do things like hunt and fish, and I grew up doing that with my grandfather and checking his traps because he was a trapper, I don’t understand how all the feelings that I’ve shared over the years somehow can’t come from somebody that’s country. When I say country, it’s how I live, it’s a way of life. It’s how my mind works. It’s my love of this country. It’s more than just country music. I’m not quote-unquote country music, I’m country. I live in the sticks. I believe in this country. I value this country. I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve found it a little bit odd that people would think that both things can’t come out of the same person.”

Confusion or not, he’s found instant success in the country music world, with Town Line having debuted at number one on the country charts. So does Aaron regret having only released a five song EP instead of a full length country album? Again, the honest answer.

“I didn’t have a choice. I would have loved to have made a full album. I had the songs to make a full album. It wasn’t about that. It was about the fact that I am signed to Atlantic Records and this collection of songs, I brought them to Atlantic on the rock side and they said ‘These songs are great but they’re not rock enough.’ I was like okay, so I brought them to the country side and I got ‘These songs are great but they’re not country enough.’ The whole project kind of died in the water right there. We worked it out and I got them to sign a waiver because they really didn’t know what to do with the songs that I was delivering, but as part of the waiver and as part of the stipulation, I could only release an EP. So it was an EP or nothing, folks,” he says with a laugh.

Touring on Town Line while recording the new Staind album and “trying to be as much of a participating parent as I can” has Aaron joking that it might have behooved him to think about just how much he was chewing off before he put it all in motion, but he says he’s got another country solo record planned for after the new Staind album. And for fans who are wondering, the days of his country roots necessarily bleeding into his work with Staind are in the past. “Now there’s no line to be blurred,” he says. “Staind will be Staind and my solo project will be my solo project, and we’ll move forward.”

In the mean time, the Aaron Lewis solo concerts are indeed a blended cocktail of everything he has going on. “They’re a perfect mix of both sides, of both of my split personalities. I throw Staind songs in there, I throw the solo songs in there, I throw rock covers in there, I throw country covers in there.”

And what did Lewis, who turns forty next year, learn from working with the seventy-four year old Daniels and the seventy-nine year old Jones? “You’re never too old to do this.”

AaronLewisMusic.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

review: Soundmatters foxl v2 bluetooth wireless stereo

by Bill Palmer

Pocket sized bluetooth soundbars are nothing new. They wirelessly pair up with your computer, phone, or tablet and provide it with the kind of audio quality that such devices can’t typically produce through their own built in speakers. But the Foxl v2 from Soundmatters is a different beast entirely. While most other products of its size and type cost $50 to $100 and offer audio quality which could best be described as a “decent” upgrade over built-in speakers, the Foxl shoots for the moon. Despite being not much bigger than a king-size candy bar, it delivers the kind of pristine, powerful audio which will leave you scratching your head as to how that much audio power can come from something so compact – and checking your bank account to see whether you can justify its two hundred dollar price tag.

My testing with the Foxl turned out to be about as expected: pairing up wirelessly via bluetooth with both my laptop and my iPad was easy. Battery life was about five to ten hours depending on the volume I used it at. And from there it’s all about the audio quality. The trick behind the Foxl’s sound is that it has a small subwoofer built into its bottom, and it’s powerful one. Lay it flat on your desk, fire up the right kind of music or a movie with the right kind of soundtrack, and your desk will physically vibrate. Of course the kickstand allows you to optionally stand up the entire unit almost perpendicular, if you prefer that the audio be aimed straight at you.
In short, I love this product and can’t imagine traveling without it. And if space is a premium, nothing says you can’t use it as your desktop speaker system as well. Keep in mind you’re paying for the miniaturization, as $199 could get you a multi-unit system with true stereo separation. But for those looking to travel with it or looking to save desk space, the Foxl is a killer product. There’s nothing not to love here.
An audio-in port allows the FoxL to be used as a wired system for those times when being wireless doesn’t matter (or if you’re using it with the rare computing device these days which doesn’t have bluetooth). And there’s also a $169 version available which is wired-only.

Rating: five stars out of five • Price: $199 • Soundmatters.com

review: SuperTooth Disco bluetooth wireless stereo

by Bill Palmer

It’s the bluetooth soundbar on steroids. Throw out the idea of being pocket sized and instead envision a bluetooth wireless stereo as being a foot long and a few inches tall, and you’ve got the SuperTooth Disco. The idea of being this large is that it can crank out some powerful audio, or twenty-eight watts, as the company likes to point out. The Disco is still portable in terms of running on a built in battery and being able to be picked up and carried around, and while I’m not sure I’d travel with something this large, it’s a fun product for around the house or toting to a party.

The idea behind the bluetooth for a product like this is that you don’t need a cable to pair it up with your computer, phone, or tablet. It can serve as a replacement for your computer speakers, or if you really want to take advantage of its wireless functionality, imagine lying in bed using your iPad for reading or gaming while your iPad’s music is playing wirelessly out of the Disco on your nightstand.

The catch with this product is that because it’s as big as it is, it doesn’t have that same uniquely valuable travel aspect as some of its smaller bluetooth counterparts. Instead, the Disco must be compared to wired products of its own size, and that’s where it starts to feel expensive. iPhone users can find dockable stereos at this size and price range which sound better, so you really have to take advantage of the wireless functionality in order to get your money’s worth. Ultimately, the audio quality here scores very high on the “powerful” side but only adequately on the “pristine” scale.

On the plus side, the on-board controls are a nice touch, including previous, next, an play-pause buttons which save you from having to reach for your device, which may well be in your pocket considering the wireless connection. And the tactile volume knob is a fun retro touch as well.

Rating: four stars out of five • Price: $149 • SuperTooth.net

Devyn Rush interview: singing waitress finds zen after American Idol

by Bill Palmer

The “singing waitress” from this season of American Idol has changed vocations. Since her exit from the show, Devyn Rush has begun work on her debut album while also pursuing a career as a yoga instructor – and the latter is anything but a fallback option. The whirlwind of the past few months has seen her writing breakup songs, taking an unusual route to fund her record, being a “Big Sister” to a twelve year old, getting her yoga certification, and taking ownership of the song which ultimately triggered her Idol exit.

“When I got cut from American Idol it was really devastating and shocking,” she says of her December departure despite having been considered an early standout. “It seemed like the best thing I could do was to convert all the of negative energy that I was feeling into something positive and keep going.” After flirting with the trendy Kickstarter project for funding the album she’s looking to release, the current New York City resident ended up instead returning to her home town of New Hope, Pennsylvania to put on a show in order to seek local funding instead.

The songs which Devyn has been cranking out, from And Love Me to Psycho, have tended to be of the breakup variety of late. In fact her live performances of the latter have been spliced with a cover version of the most popular breakup song of the year, Cee-Lo Green’s Forget You. The fact that it happens to be the same song which represented the end of her Idol hopes, she says, is a coincidence, as evidenced by the fact that she’d been performing it in her own live shows prior to doing so on Idol. But nonetheless she’s since seized the opportunity: “I remember the first show that I did after I got cut from American Idol I was like let’s do it, let me redeem myself.”

So what led her toward becoming a yoga instructor even while pursuing her musical dreams? “I started doing yoga about a year ago and I fell in love with it because I went into it for a fitness routine and then all the sudden I felt good and I was like oh my god, if I do this, I’m going to feel good. I can make myself feel awesome all the time. And then as I went to classes I developed this incredible respect for the teachers. All of the things that they say in class, all of these metaphors, all of these inspirational things, how they seem so together, and I really wanted to teach. Everything that I do in my life is on this path going toward my music career, so I’m still on the same path as I am when I’m in a meeting at a record company. It’s just that this is what I do to unwind and this is what I do to stay grounded and focused. When I’m done in a yoga class I feel so focused and ready to take on my music career.”

Even while pursuing her dual career path, Devyn is taking the time to mentor a twelve year old through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Her decision to carve out the extra time for it relates back to the trials and tribulations of her own childhood. “I was made fun of a lot in middle school and it really turned my whole world upside down because middle school is this very fragile time where you’re becoming aware of yourself and you’re becoming aware of other people, you’re starting to judge yourself and other people, which is something that doesn’t really happen earlier in life. You’re kind of in the zone up until a certain point where you kind of develop this new awareness for things. When I was in middle school my life took a really negative turn when I started being made fun of. It wasn’t until high school that I started to find a way through fitness actually to stop being made fun of because my self esteem went up as soon as I started exercising and focusing on myself in that way. I decided I wanted to be a big sister because I wanted to help somebody through all of her ups and downs, be there with somebody for all her ups and downs. My little sister Kelsey is twelve and we’ve been a match for about a year and a half. Kelsey is, I don’t say it lightly, she is the most inspiring person I’ve ever met in my life.”

“I know that sounds cliche,” she says, “but having the recognition from American Idol, to have recognition as a musical artist, is a wonderful thing because I can then use that to make a positive impact on other people.”

DevynRush.com • Twitter • Facebook

review: iHome iA63 app enhanced iPhone+iPod rotating stereo alarm

by Bill Palmer

The iA63 is one of the app enhanced stereo alarm products which iHome debuted back at CES this past January, and has now begun shipping. The idea behind app enhancement is to take the dockable stereo alarm clock motif for iPhone an iPod which iHome is known for and combine it with an app or two which allows for more detailed control over the hardware than could otherwise be provided. The iA63 in particular adds another wrinkle to the equation by offering a built-in rotating dock which allows an iPhone or iPod touch to be used in portrait or landscape mode. There are a few implications for such a feature, but video might be the most intriguing.

Unlike most iHome stereo alarms. the iA63 is taller than wide. The rotating docking station is spherical, with a clock display and a dozen hard control buttons beneath for alarm and FM radio controls, presets, volume, and of course the rotation button. There’s also a remote control included, and of course the ability to fine tune the alarm experience through the free iHome+Sleep app. On paper the iA63 starts to look like a real value proposition for $99, and in one sense it is. The weak link, interestingly enough, is the audio output, which is good but not great.

Don’t get me wrong. The audio of the iA63 is a big step forward from the comparatively mediocre audio of its $99 app enhanced predecessor, the iA5. But I suspect that most users will prefer the same-priced iA91, which also debuted at CES this year but isn’t shipping yet; it’s a more traditional iHome alarm clock which will eventually become the $99 flagship model.

So who is the iA63 for, then? The rotating dock suggests it’s best for those who like watching video on their iPhone or iPod touch and want a quality audio experience along with it. In that sense, the small-ish footprint is a big plus, because you’ll want the it on your desk (or nightstand, if you’re using it as an alarm) and it’ll save valuable space in that sense. The iA63 feels like a niche product, but it’s well done and earns its price tag – so long as you actually put the rotating dock to good use.

Rating: four stars out of five • Price: $99 • iHomeAudio.com

Whitney Steele interview

by Bill Palmer

From sharing the stage with veteran rockers to giving her music away for use on podcasts, Whitney Steele has always been outside the box when it comes to finding new audiences for her music. But she may have topped herself this time as she embarks on a nationwide tour of nail parlors, and she’s not even booking them in advance. It all started by chance thanks to her habit of not leaving her guitar in the car when she heads inside, as evidenced by the fact that she has it with her today during the interview despite the fact that we’re in a restaurant.

“I was just getting a manicure and a pedicure one day at one of the salons,” she says of a day in which she naturally had her guitar with her in the salon. “One of of the customers made a comment like, ‘Oh you’re going to play a song for us.’ And I did. Of course I always have my CDs with me, I didn’t have them in the salon but I had them in my car, so I ended up selling some of my CDs and got a whole bunch of interest in my music and created some fans at that moment.”

That experience led Whitney, an Arizona native who’s since relocated to Los Angeles but still travels between the two frequently, to begin offering to play at salons she encountered along the way. And now she’s heading out to do the same thing across the country. But good luck figuring out how to catch her performing at one, because nothing gets booked in advance.

“I never contact them before I go,” she admits. “A lot of times I think if to try to explain, it’s easier for them to just say no. But when you just go in and say hey, I’m a singer-songwriter, I play the guitar and I sing and I would love to share a song with your customers. It’s right there, and of course they have the option to say no, which they do sometimes.” But on her way to the interview she hit one particular parlor which said yes, and “I made a little money selling a couple CDs.” Random encounters with customers have also let to bookings for weddings and bridal showers.

But for those who can’t manage to pin down Whitney Steele at a nail parlor, she still performs concerts at traditional music venues as well. But intriguingly, those shows often see her opening for the likes of Kenny Loggins, Eddie Money, or her fellow Arizona natives The Gin Blossoms. So how does a female acoustic singer-songwriter in her twenties find her way onto the bill with veteran rockers? Well, she asked. Having collaborated with members of The Gin Blossoms in the past and feeling indebted to them, she didn’t want to impose by asking directly. So instead she “contacted one of the venues that they were going to be playing at, and I never heard anything back, so I was like okay, whatever. So a little time went by and I contacted another venue that they were going to be playing at, and I heard back within a couple of hours” which has since led to continued pairings with established artists through the same method.

Still, an indie artist faces a challenge when it comes to the logistics of touring the entire nation, and so Whitney has also taken to performing love online. “I started doing the Ustream because I would get a lot of mail from fans outside of the States that I was performing, saying when are you coming to Michigan or when are you coming to Ohio? I had this standard response, like, I don’t know but as soon as I know you’ll be the first to know. I started thinking, well, when it that going to happen? Right now it’s not looking like that is going to happen, so how can I reach out to them and give them an opportunity to be a part of the music? So that’s basically how it started. I thought this would be a perfect way for anybody to tune in so I can share a couple songs and keep them updated with what’s going on.”

With her most recent album entitled “Any Thoughts On That?” having been released more than a year ago, Whitney Steele is writing new material as she goes. That process has come a long way from when she first started out. “When I would write, in my mind I knew exactly what I wanted to say but I would never fully open up because I was like oh, if I say this, that means people are going to know this and this. I would do too much thinking about the message of what I was saying. I finally got to a place now where it’s been like, well this is the story, I’m going to tell the details of whatever it might be.”

WhitneySteele.com • iTunes • Twitter • Facebook

iPhone 5 on September 13th: five reasons release isn’t worth waiting for

If the iPhone 5 really is to be a September baby, it’ll be unveiled in September 13th. And that being the case, our official advice has changed: if you’re sitting around waiting for more information on the iPhone 5 in order to make a decision on whether to buy an iPhone 4 now or keep waiting, and it turns out the iPhone 5 really is coming in the fall instead of the summer, go ahead and take the plunge on the iPhone 4 now. Bear in mind that this advice is conditional upon the iPhone 5 being held back until the fall; if it does indeed arrive this June then you’re best off simply waiting another six weeks. But Apple traditionally holds its fall press event on the second Tuesday of September, namely the 13th in 2011, and if that event is to be the first sign of the iPhone 5 along with the iPod models which will debut that day, don’t bother waiting. Here’s why.

iPhone 4 rocks: Several members of the Beatweek staff have been using the iPhone 4 since last year, and while we’ll likely all upgrade to the iPhone 5 as soon as it arrives, here’s what we’ve learned about the iPhone 4 in the mean time. It’s by far the most ideal smartphone on the market. It’s faster, more versatile, thinner, and lighter than any previous iPhone model, and offers significantly more battery life with a much better screen. The supposed “iPhone 4 antenna issue” simply does not exist except in the minds of the deviants who concocted it. On its own merits, it’s nearly the perfect smartphone; we’d be hard pressed to come with things we don’t like about it.

4G pipedream: Even if the iPhone 5 does end up offering 4G networking, that’ll only work in the scant areas in which Verizon and AT&T have actually built 4G networks. For the vast majority of iPhone 5 customers, it’ll be the same 3G or even EDGE experience that they’d have gotten on the iPhone 4. Unless you live in one of a handful of big cities where 4G LTE will arrive early, this is not a reason to wait for the iPhone 5.

Verizon already has the iPhone: For those Verizon customers who wanted an iPhone but skipped the iPhone 4 because they thought the iPhone 5 was just around the corner, we’ll ask you this: what exactly have you gained by waiting? A few more months of being stuck with your existing phone, which you clearly don’t want? And now you’re looking at another few more months of doing the same? You’re not winning this battle.

Question marks: In other words, it’s all we know about the iPhone 5. Will it offer better specs and features than the iPhone 4? Certainly. What will those specs and features be, and will any of them be relevant to you? No way of knowing. Waiting means you’re gambling that the iPhone 5 will offer something over the iPhone 4 which will have justified your wait. Waiting does not equal playing it safe; it’s just a different kind of gamble.

Have it both ways: The real clincher is that even if you buy an iPhone 4 now, you can still buy an iPhone 5 later. Sure, you’ll end up paying $200 above sticker for the iPhone 5 because you’ll have used up your upgrade cycle on the iPhone 4 purchase. But nothing says you can’t turn around and sell your iPhone 4 in September (for more than you paid for it, thanks to the magic of unsubsidized pricing), and put that money toward paying your iPhone 5 ransom. You’ll still end up having paid at least little bit for the privilege using an iPhone 4 between now and iPhone 5 launch day, but it won’t preclude you from getting to experience both iPhone generations. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

review: Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2 (ZAGGmate 2)

The original ZAGGmate with Keyboard, released for the iPad 1.0 last year, tested out well enough that it was Beatweek’s portable iPad keyboard of the year winner. Suffice it to say, then, that expectations were high for the product we thought would be called the ZAGGmate 2. Instead, still made by ZAGG, the iPad 2 version of the product is officially known as the Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG. Having tested out this new iteration, I can tell you that not much has changed beyond the fact that there’s now a Logitech logo above the volume keys – and from where we’re sitting, that’s a good thing.

But lest we get ahead of ourselves, here’s what you need to know about the product now known as the Logitech Keyboard Case: it’s a metal shell which snaps onto the front of the iPad 2 and, when removed, reveals a low-profile physical keyboard inside. An adjustable slide out leg allows you to stand the iPad 2 up in portrait or landscape mode. The iPad 2 and the keyboard talk to each other not through a cable, but instead through a wireless bluetooth connection. The included micro-USB cable allows you to recharge the keyboard’s battery. The only reason the original ZAGGmate had to go by the wayside was that the svelter dimensions of the iPad 2, regretfully, kept the product from snapping on securely. But the new svelter version of the product works great with the iPad 2, and we can recommend it just as strongly as its predecessor.

So what’s still not to like? As a case, the product doesn’t do anything to protect the iPad 2’s rear surface; ZAGG is likely hoping you’ll use its Invisible Shield product for that purpose. And we still prefer the feel of Apple’s own physical iPad keyboard, which is almost exactly like typing on a Mac computer – except that it’s not portable. When it comes to portable iPad 2 keyboards, the Logitech Keyboard Case wins hands down. Of course we expect more such keyboards to come to market, and we’ll keep you posted as they do.

Price: $99 • Logitech.com

review: H2O Audio Flex waterproof earbuds

by Bill Palmer

As its name implies, H2O Audio specializes in waterproof products including iPhone and iPod housings. And while the Flex isn’t the company’s first waterproof earbud product, the $29 price point brings a new level of economic practicality to the notion of going swimming with your iPhone or for a jog in the rain. Before we get into the review, it’s worth pointing out that earbuds like the Flex are meant to be paired up with waterproof cases if you’re planning on submerging your device in the water along with your earbuds.

A product like the Flex dictates that it be tested on two levels. H2O Audio says the earbuds are good for up to three feet underwater, which means they’re meant for swimming, not deep sea diving. And sure enough, they work just fine in shallow water. If that’s an impressive feat for $29, then so is the Flex’s audio quality. Strong in the high and mid ranges and just little light in the bass, the Flex isn’t the best-sounding earbud product I’ve tested at this price point, but it’s up there near the top. Since you’re not taking a hit on audio quality for the sake of waterproofing, that means you can buy the Flex and use them as your everyday earbuds in addition to your water-centric activities. On the other side of it, if you’ve already invested significant money in high end earbuds that aren’t waterproof, you can add the Flex to your arsenal without breaking the bank, and while you won’t find its audio comparable to your $100 regular earbuds, you’ll find it an acceptable substitute for those occasions when you’re getting wet.

Interestingly enough, neither of my two complaints regarding the Flex has anything to do with audio quality or their waterproof nature. For one thing, it’s easy to find $29 earbuds (or even cheaper) that come with a mic and playback button for iPhone and iPod users, so it’s disappointing that the Flex lacks any built in controls. It’s plausible that incorporating such controls in a waterproof capacity is a trickier and/or more expensive proposition, so I’ll give them a pass. Overall, the Flex offers an economical way to get wet while enjoying your tunes at audio quality that’s surprisingly strong considering the price point. It also comes in a nice array of color choices.

Price: $29 • H2Oaudio.com

iPhone location tracking: geeks hiding that Android is bigger violator

by Bill Palmer

When the headlines arose across the geek techosphere this week about the iPhone’s nasty habit of collecting and reporting location data, headlines which were then mindlessly parroted by the mainstream press, I couldn’t but think the obvious: I’ll bet the Android platform does the exact same thing, and the geeks pushing this story know it, and yet they’ve conveniently left that part out. Turns out I was wrong: Android is actually a much bigger offender. According to industry expert Christopher Soghoian, the iPhone reports your location data to Apple twice a day, but Android reports your location data back to Google several times per hour. But naturally, when the geeks who control the tech headlines went to write those headlines, they became “iPhone records your location, secretly reports it back to Apple” with no mention of their pet Android platform anywhere to be seen. And I’m not surprised in the least.

Don’t get me wrong: Apple and Google are both in the wrong here, clearly wrong on a moral level, and if they’re not wrong legally, then the laws need to be changed immediately. Regardless of the reason for this data collection, even if it’s as naively innocent as the companies’ desire to figure where to tell the cellular carriers to build more towers or some such, it’s not right – particularly without having warned users or given them the opportunity to turn it off. And the fact that the iPhone only uploads this data a couple times per day as opposed to the Android doing so repeatedly all day long doesn’t mean Apple is less guilty. But it does make the headline writers even more guilty.

Any random headcount of smartphone users, if carried out among the true mainstream population and nowhere near the self-imposed bubble most geeks live inside of, will reveal that most consumers overwhelmingly identify more with the iPhone platform than the Android platform, regardless of which they’re currently using. Ask the typical non-geek Android user why they’re using Android, and the answers are most often “Because my preferred carrier offers it” or “Because the Best Buy geek insisted I buy it” or even “What’s an Android?” But back inside that geek bubble, Android is a phone descended directly from the gods. It’s programmable. It’s hackable. It wastes no time on concepts like ease of use, which geeks find too restricting, and instead focuses on delivering infinite theoretical features whether any of them are in any way practical or not. It’s why non-geek consumers buy one Android phone but, upon realizing the kind of geek-leaning nonsense they’ve been duped into using, rarely buy a second one (multiple studies have Android platform retention rate in the twentieth percentile). And it’s why geeks will stop at almost nothing to protect their pet Android platform.

At a time when products like the iPhone, iPad, and even the Kindle are bringing an end to the era in which technology products had long been designed specifically with geeks in mind and to the detriment of the mainstream, geeks now feel that their way of life is being threatened. Thus they cling to the Android platform as if it’s their last best hope for retaining their dominance over the consumer technology landscape. Conveniently for them, nearly all technology coverage, from traditional tech publications and tech blogs to even the tech reporting being done at major mainstream media outlets, is controlled by the geeks. After all, just try to imagine a non-geek growing up to become a technology reporter, and it’s easy to understand why nearly all those covering tech are in fact tech geeks.

And at a time when their way of life is on the line, the geeks have gone increasingly over the top in both attacking the anti-geek iPhone and iOS platforms at every turn as well as shielding their favored Android platform. These are the individuals who concocted the “iPhone 4 antenna issue” while conveniently failing to mention that every smartphone, including all Android based phones, can also be made to lose a piece of their reception by being grabbed in a certain way. And now they’ve turned this disturbingly important privacy and spying issue into yet another self serving propaganda vehicle. Instead of accurately reporting that multiple major smartphone OS vendors are secretly tracking their customers, the geeks instead misreported this as being an Apple-specific issue. Their hope, apparently, is that it’ll cause mainstream consumers to fear buying an iPhone and settle for an Android phone instead. After all, any time a geek can trick a consumer into buying a geek-leaning product, it’s a good day. Safety in numbers. And just maybe, said consumer will magically become a fellow geek through the mere exposure of using a smartphone with a hacker operating system.

It’s not that these geeks think Android can take over in a way Linux failed to. No, these geeks are insulated so deeply inside their bubble that they think Linux did take over. And now they think that if they can just keep misreporting the facts, if they can just keep making the iPhone and iOS look bad enough in the eyes of consumers, their pet Android platform will continue to rise by default. Sadly, to a large extent, it’s been working. The question is whether Apple will find a way to fight back against the propaganda, or whether consumers will continue to figure out that the geeks are not on their side, or perhaps both. But in the mean time Apple isn’t helping itself by being as immoral as Google when it comes to tracking customer location; such immoral actions on Apple’s part merely serve to give the geeks more fuel for their immoral self-serving misreporting of the tech landscape.

David Cook’s The Last Goodbye (This Loud Morning) says hello to iTunes

A day after we first heard it and give it our thumbs up, David Cook’s new single The Last Goodbye has arrived in iTunes. Interestingly, the song is listed on the iTunes pop chart despite its (and his) rock leanings, and is currently at #38 on said chart and climbing, with 497 reviews thus far from purchasers, who’ve given it a nearly unanimous five star rating. Cook is set to perform the song on American Idol this week as part of his latest homecoming to the show which helped launched his career after he was the season seven winner. After we highlighted the song yesterday, the Cookistas arrived in force to let us know that they overwhelmingly agreed with our “thumbs up” assessment. Here’s a sampling:

“Loving this song on repeat. Have been playing it nonstop and it just sounds better and better to me.” – Catherine Hale

“Love this song. Can’t wait to buy Cook’s new album-This Loud Morning.” – Tess Larsen

“I really love ‘The Last Goodbye’ !! Really upbeat!!!” – Mon

Here’s more on David Cook.

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