Young The Giant talk the VMAs and going on a Fall tour with Incubus

by Dana Feldman

Sometimes as a writer you just know when you are speaking to someone who is just about to hit it big. Today was such a day when Payam Doostzadeh of the California-based indie-rock band ‘Young The Giant’ took some time to speak with me on the phone. He had just arrived at the band’s first stop on their Fall tour with Incubus at the Promowest Pavilion in Columbus, OH, for their first show with the rockers. Only 1PM and the day had already gotten off to quite an impressive start. He tells me, “I just met the Incubus guys today!”

Just off the road after four hours of driving, and awaiting the big show, he happily tells me of this being their first bus tour, “It’s really exciting, we’re still trying to grasp it all, it’s pretty crazy. I just saw our bus for the first time this morning. We have air-conditioning, TV and, of course, we have an X-box and some games on the way.” What he is most stoked about, however, is the fact that he will be able to sleep in one bed throughout the five or so week tour. “I will miss the nice hotels courtesy of priceline.com, but it is very taxing on your body to constantly sleep in a different bed every night.” Impossible, he says, to eat healthy or maintain a good workout regime. Not only taxing on the body, the guys miss their families and girlfriends while out on the road. Hopefully, X-box will alleviate any signs of being homesick.

They were just awarded the coveted “Emerging Artist” performance slot this past Sunday, August 28th, on the “2011 MTV Video Music Awards” (last year this slot catapulted ‘Florence + The Machine’ into huge mainstream success) at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. Joined by quite an impressive line-up of performers including Adele, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown, their debut performance on the VMA’s of their hit “My Body” has already been blogged and Tweeted about as being ‘electrifying’. Their iTunes sales have exploded the past few days, and they are celebrating having their album blowing up the charts.

With only a two day break between the VMA’s and the Incubus tour, the guys are running on adrenaline. Describing touring as “a college experience times one hundred” Doostzadeh says of the band that they truly love what they do. Wanting to know a bit more about them, I asked a few questions and he happily answered.

What does the name ‘Young The Giant’ mean?

It literally doesn’t mean anything. Sameer just said it one day last year at our place in LA. It could come across as pretentious, like we think we are young and we are going to be huge, but that is not the message at all. He said it and it just stuck, it felt right. After he said it, we went up to the loft and wrote four songs in two hours.

Your thoughts as a new band on the inevitability of piracy in this era?

I personally don’t have a problem with piracy. That is, if a person downloads our music just to hear it. But to do that and then never go to a show or buy a T-shirt or a song on iTunes is not cool. If we are really going to be honest, we all do it. But, the albums that we truly love, we will at least go out and spend the $20 on the vinyl. Listening to vinyl on a good stereo system is such a rich, intimate experience.

As he acknowledges the importance of getting people to listen to their music, he also understands the value of fans promoting the band’s music with Tweeting or status updates on Facebook. He adds, “You need people to be listening to your music even if they don’t pay for it initially.”

This leads to my next question about Social Media. Is it a necessity these days for a rock band?

You have to do it. The mystique of a band is non-existent these days. You have to connect with your fans. We try to respond to all of the people who write to us.

It might start to get a little hard to keep up with all of that now?

(Laughing) It just might. But, all in all, we are just normal guys. I was an engineering student in college. None of us finished, but we were just going down a normal path and got very lucky. I am a normal guy who likes to play soccer and ride my bike. We realize how lucky we are, so we are doing this for our fans as well as other musicians out there who are not able to do some of the things we are doing.

Any advice out there for other musicians hoping to get to where you’re at?

You just have to keep going and keep a positive attitude. You have to be friendly to people. If people see talent, and they like you, they want to help you. People really do help one another out in this business.

Before you were successful, you always kept a positive attitude?

Yes – I cannot tell you how many venues we’ve played to no one. Maybe a hundred or more shows where we played to less than twenty people. Another important thing that helped us as an early band was to meet promoters. That really helped us to get good gigs at good venues. Of course, you also need to have good content. We have a lot of videos up on YouTube and for each song we do something. For the song “I Got” we were driving through the Utah salt flats and we just pulled over and started to kick a soccer ball around. We decided to get out our guitars. It was 110 degrees out, windy and our guitars were out of tune, but we were just in the moment.

(See Video Here)

‘Young The Giant’ originally formed in 2004 in Irvine, CA. Roadrunner Records signed the band in 2009 and digitally released their eponymous debut album shortly thereafter in October, 2010, with a physical U.S. release on January 25th of this year (the album was released in the UK on May 2nd). The relatively unknown alt rock group has quickly gained traction in the music world.

No stranger to live performances in front of large audiences, the guys played four shows at 2009′s South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX, and spent much of 2010 touring with Minus the Bear and Steel Train, all while working on their debut album with famed producer, Joe Chicarelli.

Pretty early out of the gate, the guys had success with their first single entitled “My Body” which was first released on U.S. radio in January. This hit then went on to be featured on ‘American Idol’. They went on to perform the song on ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ and Fuel TV’s ‘The Daily Habit’ further solidifying them as a solid band on the map with the video for the song garnering +1.7 million views on YouTube (and counting).

They recently played the main stage at Lollapalooza on August 5th in Chicago, IL, and were on the road all summer performing festivals including Music Midtown (U.S.), Java Rockin’ Land (Indonesia), Splendour In The Grass (Australia), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Lowlands (Netherlands), and Noorderzon (Netherlands). Upcoming shows include Austin City Limits Music Festival (U.S.) September 17th and they will also be the only band to support Incubus on their first tour in three years beginning August 30th in Columbus, OH.

My personal take-away from this conversation, these guys are the real deal, no gimmicks. Included in the band’s current line-up are Sameer Gadhia (Lead Vocals, Percussion), Jacob Tilley (Guitar), Eric Cannata (Guitar, Vocals), Payam Doostzadeh (Bass Guitar) and Francois Comtois (Drums, Percussion, Vocals).

Learn more at YoungTheGiant.com • iTunes • Facebook • Twitter

Amazon tablet rivals HP TouchPad hype amid amped up anti-iPad hysteria

One story proclaims that the HP TouchPad has fought back from the dead. The other revels in how the Amazon tablet is shaking up the market. One story is as inaccurate as the other. The TouchPad, which saw near-zero interest from the public in its seven weeks on the market, only saw a blip when its price was slashed to a far-below-cost eighty percent off in order to blow out remaining inventory as HP washed its hands of the failed product. Amazon, whose eReader Kindle products are popular, doesn’t have a tablet on the market or any publicly announced plans to launch one. And yet both products are being highlighted as if they’ve already overtaken Apple’s iPad.

In yet another round of tech headlines so clearly penned by Apple-hating geeks who will do and say and write anything in the hopes of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which geek-oriented products rise up knock Apple’s consumer-leaning products like the iPad off the shelves, this week demonstrated that you can’t believe what you read. The HP TouchPad sees continued geek adoration because it runs (or ran, until it was discontinued) the fabled webOS operating system which originally powered the (also discontinued) Palm Pre. While the geeks worshipped webOS, the public rejected it as being too geeky and that was that. Except that HP’s clever way of avoiding having to place remaining TouchPad inventory in a landfill has given geek headline writers and opportunity to spin the embarrassing demise of the TouchPad into some fantasy in which the product is something other than a discontinued failure. But that’s nothing compared to the geek-penned headlines propping up Amazon’s non-existent tablet…

Today one headline pegged the Amazon tablet (which has to be referred to as “Amazon tablet” because there’s no product name because there’s no product) as already having claimed five million sales this year. That’s remarkable for a product which doesn’t exist let alone being on sale. Could Amazon launch a tablet this year? Sure. Could it rack up five million sales over the holiday season? Perhaps. If nothing else, the TouchPad has shown one way in which tablet makers can rack up higher sales numbers: sell the device at a huge loss…

Actually, Amazon is one of the few companies which could get away with selling a tablet at a minor loss, as its Kindle book sales allow it to not worry too much about what its margins are on Kindle hardware, for instance. Amazon could attempt to leverage that into a “Kindle tablet” (why not use the brand name that got them this far?) which would be an eReader plus some basic tablet functionality. But the TouchPad only sold well because it was a ten inch color tablet which sold for $99. A quick perusal of Amazon’s hardware lineup shows that $99 gets you a Kindle which can’t hold a candle hardware-wise to the TouchPad. In other words, Amazon can’t come close to offering a full featured ten inch tablet at $99 or likely even twice that. Three times that much, perhaps.

But before HP decided to fire-sale the TouchPad for $99, it had tried multiple other discount prices which failed to garner any sales interest. One of those was $299. As it turned out, at that price, most of the public would rather pay $499 to get an iPad, or not own a tablet at all. So even if Amazon does manage to serve up a tablet for $299, there’s no evidence to believe that it would sell well outside of Amazon’s most enthusiastic customers. And last we checked, the half-baked experiment known as AmazonMP3 is producing sales which are about a tenth that of Apple’s iTunes. So if Amazon really does plan to throw a tablet out there, it could perhaps expect to sell about a tenth as well as the iPad this holiday season. That’s a good start for a company which currently has no tablet presence at all, and it would mop the floor with the results the HP TouchPad saw before its demise. But the idea that an Amazon tablet would be able to in any way rival the iPad in sales is based on little more than thin air and the overwhelming desire of geek headline writers to see any non-Apple tablet overtake the iPad. Here’s more on the death of the HP TouchPad.

Shocked: iPhone 5 release date in October surprises Verizon and Sprint

Get in line for an iPhone 5 now, but bring a jacket because the temperatures will have dropped a bit by the time its release date rolls around in October. The revelation has Verizon’s tog dog admitting he had no clue the delay was coming, and Sprint reps unsure what to tell their customers about it. When Apple and Verizon collaborated on a late-cycle Verizon iPhone 4 in March, many assumed it was because both parties knew the iPhone 5 wouldn’t roll around until the fall instead of the usual summer turnover. But Verizon’s CEO has since made clear that he had been under the impression all along that the iPhone 5 would indeed be a summer product, and he went so far as to blame Verizon’s stagnant growth on its delay. Meanwhile, Sprint reps don’t know what to tell their customers, coming up with a different story each day. Longtime iPhone partner AT&T and potential acquisition T-Mobile are also affected by the delay.

The biggest impact an October iPhone 5 release date has on any carrier, however, would appear to be Verizon. It made the calculated move to enter the iPhone arena when the iPhone 4 era was already eight months old, not wanting to wait for the 5 because it was bleeding customers to rival AT&T in the mean time. Tired of its own failed attempts to use the Verizon Droid to try to keep would-be iPhone lusters from defecting to AT&T, Verizon wanted the iPhone right then and there. With the AT&T iPhone 4 outselling the Verizon Droid by a five to two margin, the desire was understandable. But Apple wanted no part in hyping the Verizon iPhone 4 late arrival, and left the launch event to Verizon, who fumbled it. Now, for every Verizon customer who still has no idea there’s a Verizon iPhone on the market, there’s another who has decided to wait for the Verizon iPhone 5. No wonder Verizon’s CEO is making public excuses. But the other three carriers are also impacted…

AT&T, despite giving up iPhone exclusivity earlier this year and launching a line of Android phones, still has its fortunes tied to the iPhone. It’s the reason the carrier is seeing significant growth. But current AT&T iPhone users, even the ones who are eligible for upgrade pricing right now, are largely waiting for the iPhone 5 release date to arrive. AT&T is in the odd position of losing potential revenue from its own customers, even though they’re remaining customers…

Then there’s Sprint, which has spent four years fending off questions from its customers about when the iPhone is coming. Various Beatweek readers have informed us that Sprint’s online support reps managed to come up with different stories each day, some claiming there’s a Sprint iPhone 5 in the works, others saying it’s not going to happen and trying to sell them an Android phone instead. But even as Spring actively squirms, fellow second-tier carrier T-Mobile has a different predicament.

T-Mobile is trying to get bought out by AT&T. But if it isn’t government regulators standing in the way, it’s stock market declines creating financial complications. T-Mobile will get the iPhone 5 by default (if not immediately) if and when it becomes part of AT&T, which already has the iPhone. But the longer the merger gets held up, the more complicated things get. T-Mobile could strike a separate iPhone 5 deal with Apple, but that deal would have to be approved by any entity interested in acquiring T-Mobile or it could be a dealbreaker. That stalemate has T-Mobile perhaps unable to start selling the iPhone 5 until the merger mess gets straightened out one way or the other. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Carryover: iPhone 5 retains Steve Jobs DNA. iPad 3 too. But then what?

by Bill Palmer

The upcoming iPhone 5 release date will represent the first major Apple product launch under new CEO Tim Cook with longtime CEO Steve Jobs having permanently resigned the position. But whether Jobs shows up to introduce the iPhone 5 personally or not, it’ll have his fingerprints all over it. The same will go for the upcoming iPad 3, whether it shows up this fall as has been whispered or next spring as history would otherwise suggest. Even with Jobs having been technically on medical leave for the better part of 2011, he’s been spotted on Apple’s campus so frequently that it’s clear he’s still been there, still calling the shots, still ensuring that the products being developed hold true to his vision even if he’s not as hands-on as he once was. The same goes for the iOS 5 operating system which will power both the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3. But once those devices are out the door, what then? It’s the iPhone 6 and iPad 4 and beyond which may have less Jobs DNA on them, and so it’ll be another year or more before users find out what Apple product truly consist of amid fading Jobs influence…

Tim Cook was the ideal yin to Steve Jobs’ yang. Cook is efficient, runs operations well. Jobs (still) wants to change the world. Put those two mindsets together, and if they don’t kill each other (which they didn’t), it’s a potent combination for innovation within a framework of stability. But with Jobs shifting gears, who’s going to play counter-punch to Cook? Actually, that’ll still be Jobs, for now. His decision to remain on as Apple’s Chairman of the Board suggests that he’s not imminently dying, and he’s really just looking to duck the continual questions regarding his health; it’s one of the topics upon which Jobs has preferred to remain super-private. That means Jobs, in his new role as “big boss” instead of “day to day boss” will still be there pushing the innovation angle even as Cook makes the trains run on time. Jonathan Ive, who leads the hardware design, is still there. The iOS and MacOS X software teams still consist of the same people. But let’s say Jobs does at some point begin to pull back further, leaving his hand-picked people to make not just the day to day decisions but the big-picture ones, the ones which decide what products like the iPhone 6 in 2012 or the iPad 4 after that will comprise of…

…and that’s where another Apple player may enter the picture. If you’ve been following the news this week in which the quiet, stage-shy Tim Cook was promoted to CEO permanently and given a seat on Apple’s board, and wondered to yourself “Hey, where the hell is Phil Schiller in all this?”, then you may have uncovered the missing piece. Schiller is best known publicly for being Jobs’ comic relief sidekick during new product introductions, and has occasionally handled press events himself (which early on were awkward snooze fests but he’s since improved at the task). But behind the scenes, Schiller is in change of Apple’s marketing. That means that in contrast to Cook, who was head of operations under Jobs and was tasked with making the trains run on time, Schiller has always played more of a Jobsian role: figure out how to present these ostensibly consumer-leaning products to the mainstream public in such a way that they’ll immediately identify with them. That places Schiller in the Jobs role after Jobs eventually pulls back, and Cook still in the operations role. Even though the new Apple will see the operations guy outranking the marketing guy instead of it having always been the other way around, the yin-yang dynamic still has the potential to be there. In fact, if Jobs isn’t the first person to walk out on stage during the upcoming iPhone 5 release date event, Schiller will be.

That still leaves the issue of what products like the iPad 4 and iPhone 6 will look like in a post-Jobs era. After all, these will be the first generation of products to not only be introduced post-Jobs, but also to have been put together from the ground up without him as CEO. “Innovation” insofar as adding new features and making it thinner are easy, if the company continues to invest in research and development in the manner it has over the past decade and a half. But what’s made Apple’s products like the iPhone and iMac and iPod and iPad connect with the public in a big way is that they’re easily graspable right out of the box, regardless of the user’s technical skill level or lack thereof. The real question, then, is whether anyone remaining in Apple’s top ranks has enough of a backbone to continually stand up to Apple’s in-house geeks and force them to keep the products aimed at the mainstream. Geeks, when left to themselves, will invariably come up with products which are suitable only for fellow geeks, and that’s never what Apple has been about. But if Steve Jobs has imparted any one part of his own DNA on his successor(s) on his official way out the door, it’s likely precisely that. After all, the minute Apple’s products become as geeky as the competition, Apple gives up on the main reason the mainstream embraces its products. Jobs must be confident that the team he’s leaving behind understands that, or else he wouldn’t have left them in charge of his ongoing legacy. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Transition: HP TouchPad morphing into Android tablet is dicey move

by Johnny Major

The demise of the HP TouchPad, such a flop that it garnered more headlines for being almost literally given away after discontinuation than it did at any point when it was an active product line, sees Hewlett Packard looking for a tablet strategy going forward after the TouchPad was drubbed in a no-contest bout by Apple’s iPad. HP is dumping its line of Windows PCs, sensing that computers will give way to tablets in popularity eventually anyway. But for the company to remain permanently out of the tablet arena would for it to be little more than a printer company in consumer terms, a fall from grace which shareholders may find unacceptable. And while geeks are clamoring for HP to launch an Android based tablet to take the TouchPad’s place, the Android tablet market is crowded with products which are collectively being clobbered by the iPad 2. The answer for HP, then, is to take a page from its past in the near future: license the iPad 3 from Apple. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Nearly a decade ago, when Apple was initially trying to get the iPod off the ground and its brand was not widely trusted among PC users, it made a deal: HP would scrap plans for its in-house MP3 player and would instead sell a licensed Apple iPod with the HP brand name on it. As it turned out, the “HP iPod” was a flop because Apple was already getting its hooks into mainstream PC users; they opted for the Apple iPod instead of the HP iPod. So why would HP want to employ a strategy which failed the first time? Because unlike the iPod a decade ago, the iPad has actual competition. And while Apple is winning, it could use the help. And HP could use anything to get it past the embarrassment of the TouchPad flop. Here’s what such a landscape would look like…

First, there would be no loss for Apple: those who are going to buy the Apple iPad 3 are going to buy the Apple iPad 3. But there are those who are, for reasons ranging from undue geek influence to old habit, simply uneasy about buying an Apple-branded product. Currently, some of those folks are ending up with the Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, which Samsung designed as a nearly physically identical copycat aimed at scooping up customers uneasy with Apple (or who fell victim to undue influence on the part of the Android-championing salesgeek in the store). If there were an HP-branded iPad for sale in stores like Best Buy and Radio Shack where the salesgeeks will literally say or do anything to steer customers away from Apple products, then customers might end up with the HP iPad instead of the Samsung iPad knockoff. That would be a win for both Apple and Hewlett Packard. Of course Apple and HP both had different CEOs back when that deal was made…

But despite the personnel changes, both companies still have battles to fight on the tablet side. HP can’t go forward without a tablet strategy for long, and it if it launches an Android-based iPad copycat, Apple will sue it out of existence in the same manner Apple is currently doing with Samsung and HTC. HP could instead get itself on board with the world’s most popular tablet at a research and development cost of zero. And Apple could gain an ally in the ongoing battle against the Best Buy salesgeeks, whose villainy is responsible for the majority of Android tablet sales. Such a deal would require a leap of faith on both the part of Apple and Hewlett Packard, but it makes too much sense not to at least consider it. Here’s more on the death of the HP TouchPad.

Jovial Phil Schiller key player in Steve Jobs post-resignation vision

by Bill Palmer

Even with Steve Jobs having vacated the CEO position, Phil Schiller is still the ultimate underdog. Always the sidekick in Apple’s public press events, often acting as comedic foil and usually only getting to handle products introductions by himself if they were uninteresting enough for Jobs to want to be on stage for them, Schiller is the head of Apple’s worldwide marketing efforts and many assumed he would be Apple’s next CEO. But when Jobs had to initially vacate the CEO role on a temporary basis due to health issues, he tapped Apple’s supply chain guy, Tim Cook, to take the reins. And now that Jobs is leaving the chief executive chair permanently, he’s placed Cook in it for good. That leaves Schiller’s ongoing role at Apple undefined, at least publicly. But internally, Schiller may be the key to ensuring that Jobs’ vision for Apple remains intact going forward.

As new boss, Tim Cook will make sure the proverbial trains run on time. Products will launch when they’re supposed to (whatever is going on with the new iPhone notwithstanding), and components will be procured well in advance of being needed for new models. But by all accounts, Cook isn’t the “vision” guy. Thirteen years of working directly under Jobs (he was one of the Jobs’ first major hires upon returning to Apple in the late nineties) has left Cook with an understanding of why Jobs wanted things the way he wanted them. But that doesn’t mean Cook will be responsible for the specifics of the “next great thing.” That appears to fall to Schiller…

Jonathan Ive, for instance, is in charge of hardware design. He’s the guy who comes up with prototype designs for Apple’s next iPad, next, iPhone, next Mac. But Schiller, as the marketing guy, is the guy who has to connect the dots between what Apple’s design geeks and coding geeks come up with and what the mainstream public will actually identify with. “Innovation” is only relevant when it’s relatable, and in Jobs’ eyes, has less to do with hardware specs or a headcount of features than it does with presenting those specs and features in such a manner that the mainstream will instinctively understand how to use them – and just as importantly, want to use them. In a realm like technology, where new products often have to aim for what a company thinks consumers will want next rather than merely hitting a stationary target, aiming properly often involves a gut feeling on the part of someone who, while understanding the technology involved in the product, is able to think enough like a mainstream consumers so as to understand how those products must be configured. That doesn’t sound like Tim Cook. But it sounds like Phil Schiller, which is why he could be the key to ensuring that a post-Jobs Apple produces products and results which live up to Jobs’ legacy.

Warped Tour 2011 onsite report: Bad Rabbits, Family Force 5 and more

by Keri Franz

With the Vans Warped tour having just come to an end, now would be a great time to reflect on another successful year. The tour proved to be like most all in its sixteen year history – hot. Not even the 100 degree heat and humidity could keep the music lovers away from the summer music institution. All I can say is thank goodness for the free water.

In the Baltimore-DC area, the place to “get warped” was Merriweather Post Pavilion. The festivities started around 11 am. Everyone made their way around until finding the huge inflatable scoreboard of bands playing that day. Once the names, stages, and times were scribbled down, off we all went. Those who felt neither adventurous nor traditional, however, just purchased a lineup for the day.

On eight stages, roughly 87 bands played that day. The genres ranged from hardcore rock (The Wonder Years, The Dangerous Summer) to electronic pop (The Ready Set, Larzz) and from Christian rock (Family Force 5) to R&B (Gym Class Heroes, Bad Rabbits). You name it, aside from polka, if you like music, you could find at least one band you liked. Most of the stages were scattered throughout the venue. The main stage, though, was divided in two and reserved for the more well-known bands.

The thing about Warped tour is that it may be hard to catch all the bands you want to see depending on when they are scheduled. I found myself almost running through the crowds to get to the other side of the venue at times. This definitely added to the excitement and adrenaline that comes along with being there.

Needless to say, there were so many bands, I had to be selective in who I watched. To start with, I saw The Ready Set on the Tilly’s/AP stage. Jordan Witzigreuter, brainchild of the electronic-pop band, has become very popular in his few years on the scene. All the teen girls went crazy in the pit singing along to songs of his like “Love Like Woe” and “Young Forever.” With a full band backing him, he sounds like a real crowd pleaser.

I quickly had to jet set to the other end of town, so to speak, to catch Gym Class Heroes on the Teggart main stage. With their latest single “Stereo Hearts” having just come out at the time, everyone went nuts when they played it at the start of their set. With little time to play, they picked out classic songs from their repertoire, like “Cupids Chokehold” and “Clothes Off!” while also playing a bit of singer Travis McCoy’s solo material. It made for a nice blend of songs, especially if not everyone was familiar with the Gym Class Heroes hits.

Later on in the day, I was lucky enough to catch the epic Boston, MA, band, Bad Rabbits, on the Skullcandy stage. The band has concocted their own special blend of rock, hip hop, and soul. Even Travis McCoy (of the aforementioned GCH) has collaborated on a song with them. When they broke into “Girl I’m Like Damn!,” it was especially interesting because McCoy joined them onstage. He even hung around to participate in the on-stage antics that have helped make Bad Rabbits so popular. Vocalist Dua Boakye and guitarist Salim Akram did the “Carlton” dance, made famous by the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Based on the fact that I’ve seen them many times, I know they do this often, and it has an amazing way of making people stick around. Comparatively speaking, their crowd was small, but they know how to get everyone laughing, dancing, and leaving singing the praises.

Hometown favorites gone major, The Dangerous Summer, played the Nintendo 3DS main stage. The Ellicott City natives were basically playing in their own backyard. Even though they were signed to Hopeless Records in 2007 shortly after they had formed, the band remembers where they came from. They play many shows during the year to stay fresh with their fans from their home state of Maryland. The alternative rock band has a solid rock sound, with less of a pop sensibility and more of a hard edge. Rough, fueled vocals, clean cut guitar and bass lines, and simple wardrobe are what it’s all about. The Dangerous Summer sounds so good because it’s all the good stuff you want to hear out of a rock band, and none of the crap.

The Wonder Years followed up on the same stage, shooting hard, pop-punk jams out of the huge speakers. The Philadelphia-area band had released their third studio album “Suburbia: I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing” a few months prior, so most everyone was singing along to their favorites, like “Local Man Ruins Everything” and “Don’t Let Me Cave In.” For being such a small guy, singer Dan “Soupy” Campbell confidently led the crowd to mosh and crowd surf through the set. I heard a couple walking out of the pavilion asking, “Who was that?” The soaring guitars and gang vocals certainly do make heads turn.

The Dzambo stage seemed to be something of a mystery to those working the pavilion that day. Not one of the volunteers either knew of it or could tell me where it was located. Looking at its lineup though, it appeared to be that of a wildcard stage. As the sun began to set, I scrambled to find it and hunker down to watch Larzz. A young pop genius from New Fairfield, CT, Larzz attended several of the Warped tour dates on the East coast. He played quite a few of the songs from his last project, Show Me The Skyline, alongside some newer songs that he worked on with Andrew Goldstein, singer of the now broken up Friday Night Boys. His songs are so catchy, they’re nearly impossible to get out of your head. Just Google search “I Can’t Explain It,” and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

To finish out the evening back at the Nintendo 3DS main stage, I witnessed something unlike anything I’d ever seen before at a concert. Family Force 5 require so many adjectives to describe them – rock, dance, crunk, screamo -the list goes on and on. The Atlanta-bred Christian rock band, with members named Crouton, Nadaddy, Fatty, Chap Stique, and Soul Glow Activatur, put on a very entertaining show. There were huge balloons with their faces on them, not to mention the use of “Hulk Hands.” The singer, Soul Glow Activatur, stuffed himself into a giant hamster ball and rolled over top of the crowd while continuing to sing the song, ironically enough, “Get On Outta Here.” His limber dancing and wide vocal range remind me of Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship if he was raised in the dirty south. They highlighted songs that are supposed to be on the upcoming album, “III,” like “Wobble” and “Dang Girl,” which were played to massive applause. However you classify them, Family Force 5 takes music and performing to another level.

As always, despite the heat, the Vans Warped Tour is the concert to see during the summer. Literally, there is something for everyone. Between performances, signings, food, and freebies, I would say this is an event that you need to experience at least once in your lifetime.

Learn more at VansWarpedTour.com

App review: Siege Hero goes first-person medieval on Angry Birds

by Steve Loopipe

Friends, let’s not beat around the bush. Siege Hero is pretty much Angry Birds from a first person perspective. If you’re over Angry Birds, there’s really nothing to see here; there are plenty of other fine app reviews at Beatweek to peruse. If, on the other hand, you’ve sent every pig to the great beyond and you still get a tingly feeling when you see a wood and stone building collapse to the ground, then carry on, dear reader, because Siege Hero may be just the game you’re looking for.

The premise of the game is fairly simple: You take a tour through the ages, avenging peasants who have been put upon by evil marauders of all types: Pirates, samurai, barbarians, etc. These evildoers are holed up in buildings made of wood, stone, and ice, and you launch different projectiles at the building to try to topple it onto the heads of the bad guys. The main difference from other games of its ilk is that, instead of launching woodland animals at the building from a side-mounted slingshot, you attack the building directly from a first person perspective.

That sounds like a minor difference, but the shift to first person actually makes a distinct impact on how the game plays. Instead of aiming in the general direction of where you want the projectile to land, you just tap on where you want to shoot and that’s where the projectile goes. In fact, if you want even more precision, holding your finger on the screen brings up a magnifying glass and crosshairs so there’s no blaming the game for screwing you out of the perfect shot. What this ultimately does is make Siege Hero play more like a straight puzzle game than most other games of its type, since the whole “try to figure out the exact angle of where you want to launch the projectile” aspect of the game goes away and all that’s left is where to place shots in the correct order to bring the building down.

There are a couple of other areas where Siege Hero tries to differentiate itself as well. The weapon selection is interesting; while it starts out with the standard stones and bombs, eventually it introduces firebombs which burn away a single beam, grappling hooks which completely remove one piece, and tar barrels which kill the marauders without doing any damage to the building. The latter becomes important once the game places peasants who need to be preserved into the buildings. Killing the peasants doesn’t prevent clearing the level, but it does provide a score penalty.

Despite these new elements, however, it was hard to shake the feeling that I’d played through this game before. There are those aforementioned differences, but the rest of the gameplay is too similar to Angry Birds for my liking, especially given that I’m more or less over Angry Birds and have moved on to greener pastures. The graphical style is uncomfortably similar as well, down to the pause menu that slides out from the side. Unfortunately, there isn’t any option to be able to bypass a difficult level like the Mighty Eagle in Angry Birds, so if you do get stuck on a level then you’re not going to be able to go any further until you solve it.

All this is not to say that Siege Hero isn’t a fun game. It is, and the change to first person adds some novelty that other would-be successors to Angry Birds lack. However, the fact remains that Siege Hero is very firmly in the Angry Birds genre, and if you don’t like that game (or have played it into the ground and are looking for something different) then you’re going to be better off looking elsewhere. If you can’t get enough of virtual demolition, though, Siege Hero has 130 more levels to plow through, and it will do an admirable job of filling the time between Angry Birds updates.

Rating 3.5 stars out of five • Price: free • Siege Hero in the App Store

U.S. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 banishment boon to iPad 2, HTC, consumers

by Johnny Major

The United States government is investigating the legality of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet, after governments in Australia, Germany, and elsewhere have banned the tablet for being a blatant hardware copycat of Apple’s iPad 2 and violating the latter’s patents in the process. That raises the issue of just who benefits if (and seemingly when) the U.S. International Trade Commission gets around to dropping the hammer on the Samsung tablet. Here’s a rundown of the potential winners if the Tab 10.1 goes poof from American shelves.

Apple iPad 2: This is the obvious one, as Apple claims that confused consumers are buying the Galaxy Tab 10.1 because it looks identical to the iPad 2 from more than a few inches away with the screen turned off. If this is true, then those who thought they were buying some kind of “Samsung iPad” will now end up with a real iPad instead. But Apple is far from the only beneficiary…

HTC: Sure, Apple is also in the midst of legal battles against HTC’s copycat tablets, which the Samsung precedent suggests Apple will win as well. But in the mean time, each time the Tab 10.1 disappears from shelves in yet another nation or region, HTC’s Android tablets take over the role of lead copycat.

Motorola: although Google says recent acquisition Motorola Mobility will remain a separate unit, the fact that it makes tablets which run Google’s Android operating system is too big a chunk of happenstance to ignore. The buyout will give Motorola a boost within the Android tablet landscape, if not in actuality then certainly in terms of consumer perception. If the Tab 10.1 disappears from U.S. shelves, Motorola may be the key beneficiary among those who are actually looking for an Android based tablet, although the iPad will likely gain the majority of missing Tab sales…

Consumers: well, most of them. Those who were actually looking to buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be rightfully ticked off when they find it’s been banned from the market. But their anger should be directed at Samsung, which knew it was playing with fire by intentionally designing its tablet to look as much like the iPad as possible. Meanwhile, those consumers who went into the store to buy an iPad 2 an unwittingly came out with a Galaxy Tab will now be saved from that particular bit of trickery, which often succeeded because the salesgeek in the store had a strong Android bias and attempted to mislead the customer even further. With no Galaxy Tab on the shelves anymore, the salesgeeks’ villainy will become much less successful, and those who went into th store to buy an iPad will have a higher chance of actually getting to the register with one.

iPad 2 case review: Incipio Smart Feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case

By: Daynah

If you own an Apple smart cover for your iPad, I bet you love it. It flips, folds, stands, protects the front screen and makes your iPad more useful. But sometimes, you may find that the smart cover falls off too easily. For example, when you’re reading in bed and you slightly shift the iPad’s position, the cover just pops off. Although the magnet is strong, oftentimes, it will remove itself from the iPad when you prefer it not to.

That’s where the Incipio iPad 2 Smart Feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case comes in! It’s a light back cover for the iPad 2 that works seamlessly with your Apple Smart Cover. It’s form fitting, looks great, and you’ll hardly notice it’s there. It protects the back side of your iPad 2 very well, but what makes this back cover stand out is the side hinge holder (custom molded feather, as they call it) that holds your iPad 2 smart cover in place. Yes, that means no falling off when you don’t want it to. You can have the Apple Smart cover open and hold onto that, and it won’t shake off.

The Smart Feather also has cut outs so all your buttons and ports are available. In addition, the Smart Feather also comes with the Incipio^® Vanity Kit, which is one clear screen protector, applicator card, and cleaning cloth.

Incipio iPad 2 Smart Feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case comes in an array of colors that complements the Apple Smart Covers — black, gray, blue, green, orange, pink, red, cream, tan, navy, and frost (lovely if you want to see the Apple logo through it).

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 · MyIncipio.com · $34.99 · Amazon ($24.86)

iPad stand review: Bracketron iTilt for iPad 2 and iPad 1

By: Daynah

Are you always on the go? Need an iPad stand that can keep up with you? The iTilt by Bracketron is probably the thinnest tablet stand on the market. You can tuck it away in your suitcase without taking much valuable space!

This ultra slim iPad stand can hold your device in both portrait and landscape mode in eight convient viewing angles. The non-slip feet at the bottom of the stand holds your iPad securely on your desk.

With this stand, there’s just one thing you have to be careful of. When lifting your iPad out of the stand, you may pull onto the back of it and then unhook the stand’s back support. This doesn’t matter too much if you were taking the iPad out of the stand. But if you were just moving the stand onto another position on your desk, the back support could make the whole stand fall down.

Overall, the iTilt iPad stand is highly portable, functional, and quite affordable. It’s also compatible with both the iPad 1 and iPad 2.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 · Bracketron.com · $19.95 · Amazon ($9.46)

Earbud review: V-MODA Vibrato

by Bill Palmer

The V-MODA Vibrato earbuds are, in essence, the third generation of the company’s original Vibe line. Over the years the styling has changed radically, a mic and playback buttons have been added, and the already excellent audio quality has gotten even better. At $129 the Vibrato isn’t quite in the luxury range. Instead it dominates everything else in its existing price range.

The shiny black metal buds with silver chrome highlights are on the physically small side, but the Vibrato manages to produce audio superior to similarly priced competitors which have physically larger buds. As with many V-MODA products, this one is a little heavier than average on the bass side of the bass to treble ratio. But it’s high quality bass, and the ratio is within the realm of what I consider to be mainstream.

Having tested plenty of competing earbuds in this general price range, it’s worth noting that most of them are either $99 or $119, making the Vibrato a little more expensive. But based on my tests, the Vibrato are worth paying extra in every instance. In fact based on audio quality, the Vibrato comes closer to fitting in with competing earbuds in the $179 range, a remarkable feat considering its $129 price tag.

I keep waiting for a competing earbud product to come along in the Vibrato’s price range which can stand up to it, but thus far it hasn’t happened.

Rating: five stars out of five • Price: $129 • V-MODA.com

Apple 2.0: Steve Jobs resigns, Tim Cook, Schiller, Jon Ive take helm

by Bill Palmer

Steve Jobs resigned from his beloved Apple this week for the second time in two-plus decades. But unlike last time when he was forced out by internal adversaries like John Sculley who wanted to take the company in a different direction, this time Jobs is leaving from private reasons and has left his own hand picked team in place. Tim Cook is getting all the headlines this week as he’s been officially placed in the CEO seat, which he was already occupying on an interim basis. But other Apple players, from marketing maestro Phil Schiller to hardware design guru Jonathan Ive, each play a very different role within the company. Here’s a look at some key members of Apple’s post-Jobs brain trust, all of whom have already been on board for some time.

Tim Cook: He’s a quiet guy whose previous job was that of Chief Operations Officer. He’s long been making the trains run on time in terms of getting products out the door, locking up component deals, and so on. Now as CEO, he has the supreme voice on day-to-day- operations, although Steve Jobs in his new role as chairman will still be as unofficially in charge of the big picture as he wants to be…

Phil Schiller: Many thought Apple’s head of marketing would eventually take the CEO role, but that’s largely due to the fact that Schiller has long been the second-most visible face within Apple. Many Jobs keynotes have featured Schiller either acting as sidekick or covering less-flashy aspects of new products while Jobs was offstage. With new CEO Tim Cook being the stability guy, that makes Schiller the “new frontiers” guy in terms of pushing forward in areas of innovation and flashiness. He’s also first in line to act as primary host of Apple’s press events, if the quiet Cook doesn’t want the role.

Jonathan Ive: Every major Apple product in the past decade-plus has had its hardware design overseen by Ive, from the new iPad 2 all the way back to the original iMac in 1998. He’s the reason Apple’s product design flair and simplicity goals won’t change even with Jobs moving on…

Peter Oppenheimer: This is Apple’s money guy. The CFO, who took over from the retired Fred Anderson, is best known publicly for appearing on Apple’s quarterly earnings conference calls and offering guidance as to how the company views its own future earnings potential. Behind the scenes, he’s the one with his finger on the trigger of Apple’s eighty billion dollar cash reserve pile, although it’ll be Tim Cook’s job to tell him when and how to fire with it.

Updated with additional information on Oppenheimer

Apple kills iTunes television episode rentals amid Hulu acquisition

by Bill Palmer

Apple has removed TV rentals from the iTunes Store amind a week of disappearing acts for the company. But this time it points to a possible addition the form of rival Hulu. The unexplained move, conducted on a Friday evening which typically suggests that a company is looking for as little publicity for the move as possible, sees the iTunes Store revert back strictly to its original TV show incarnation, in which it sold individual episodes for $1.99 (along with since added HD versions for $2.99). Rentals had been ninety-nine cents per episode. The move comes as iTunes television rival Hulu has run out of financial gas and it seeking a buyer. While Apple has been mentioned among possible acquirers, so have most of Apple’s direct and indirect competitors.

Hulu’s business model, in which it streams TV episodes for free with ads interspersed, has largely come to an end. Many episodes stream with nothing but public service announcements embedded, as advertisers have increasingly exited the platform even as viewers continue to turn to the site as a source of free online legal television. Apple’s implementation has been to sell and rent TV episodes through its iTunes software for Mac, PC, and iPad, and while profitable it hasn’t been overwhelmingly popular. Apple’s motivation for acquiring the financially failed Hulu could be less about the traffic currently on Hulu.com and more about the deals which Hulu currently has with the various television networks and studios, and it could explain why Apple just yanked its TV rentals…


Even as Apple saved the music industry from its own internet tone-deafness, it carved out a highly powerful role within the industry which the record labels are none too fond of. Movie and television studio execs were cautious when Apple wanted to add video content to the iTunes Store, and so even as they gradually licensed most of their content to Apple, they also created Hulu as a straw-man competitor (much in the same manner the record labels tried too late to prop up middling AmazonMP3 as an iTunes music foil). As such, Hulu was given overly generous deals with the networks and studios, as they controlled Hulu anyway. But now that Hulu is dying and needs a buyer, Apple could step in and scoop it up – and acquire those favorable contracts in the process…


If Apple is indeed in the process of acquiring Hulu, the removal of TV rentals from iTunes could be a sign that it plans to transition over to the terms granted to Hulu once the acquisition is over. This could allow Apple to relaunch TV show rentals (or even free ad supported episodes within iTunes with Apple’s iAds embedded) under more favorable terms. While some have pointed to the sudden disappearance of TV rentals as possibly being the work of a disgruntled studio or network pulling its content, the uniform disappearance of all rentals from all studios and networks points to this instead being a move executed on Apple’s part. And either the company has decided that rentals just aren’t part of its future, or the move was made as part of another shoe that’s set to drop. In any case, it’s a quietly curious first official move on the part of new Apple CEO Tim Cook, and begs the issue of what other changes might be coming in short order.

VMA: Beyonce pregnant with Jay-Z, trumps MTV awards night

by Bill Palmer

Every MTV Video Music Awards ceremony comes with its own surprises, but this year’s VMA shocker is something with the television network couldn’t have formulated: Beyonce is pregnant, with husband Jay-Z the father, and the news broke as she hit the red carpet. In other words, whatever surprises MTV scripted for the night just became second-page news.

Whatever Jay-Z and his collaborator Kanye West have up their sleeve as far as performances, forget it. Whatever Lil Wayne might to do crash their party, put it on pause. Whichever food group Lady GaGa wears tonight, shelve it. Beyonce’s pregnancy is the story, with Perez Hilton breaking the story. There is of course the issue of just what this news has to do with music, beyond the fact that Beyonce recently released her new album 4. But then again, in 2011 there’s the question of just what MTV itself still has to do with music, or why a television network which no longer plays music videos is still putting a music video awards show.

$99 HP TouchPad: cheap sale tablet offers compromised functionality

The $99 HP TouchPad is still being blown out in a barn burner of a sale until remaining inventory of the discontinued tablet is gone. Buying one means you’ll quickly discover that there are very few apps available for the device and that as opposed to the iPad whose interface is straightforward and consumer-oriented, the TouchPad is a hornet’s nest designed for geeks who like things complicated. And soon you’ll learn that there are no coming updates for the TouchPad’s webOS operating system, no security patches, no new features or revisions. It’s literally over before you bought it. But at one-fifth the price of an iPad, you just couldn’t resist. And so now you’re looking for useful things to do with it, and we’ve got helpful list.

Use it as a Kindle: Amazon’s Kindle app for HP TouchPad means, if nothing else, you can use the TouchPad as a glossy eBook reader. As a piece of hardware, the TouchPad is a superior alternative to the $99-ish Kindle hardware which Amazon sells itself. It’s not clear how much longer Amazon will support Kindle for TouchPad, but you can grab a bunch of books up front, before things stop working.


Web browsing machine: Don’t let the lack of apps get you down, because the built in web browser allows you to surf to your heart’s content. Eventually the web itself will evolve, as it always does, and your web browser won’t be able to properly display all aspects of the internet. If the webOS platform were still alive, HP would be releasing new updates from time to time in order to remain current. That won’t happen here. But by the time the web outdates your TouchPad, that’ll be the time you’re looking to ditch it for a future iPad anyway…

Sell it for a profit: Despite the hyped up headlines surrounding the $99 fire sale, demand for the HP TouchPad is still muted. But because supply is just about zero, the laws of supply and demand now work in your favor: the relatively few folks who are really looking to get their hands on a TouchPad are willing to pay up to three hundred dollars via online auctions. Might as well give them what they want, and put that three hundred bucks toward an iPad.


Give it to your kid: The TouchPad isn’t viable enough for most adults to get much out of it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t toss it at one of your kids. You may only be able to get three games for it, but your seven year old won’t know the difference. They’ll even think it’s an iPad, thanks to the fact that the TouchPad appears to have been built with almost the exact same hardware design. And if the dents it up or drops it and breaks it, you’re only out a hundred bucks instead of the five hundred you’d be out if you’d bought the kid a real iPad. Here’s more on the death of the HP TouchPad.

Sparano: Miami Dolphins will play every 2011 game like it’s preseason [satire]

Upon winning his first two preseason games after having spent most of the offseason on the verge of being fired due to poor declining team performance in each of the past few seasons, Miami Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano has announced that his strategy for the upcoming 2011 regular season will be to coach every game like it’s still the preseason.

“If a strategy is working, by philosophy is not to mess with it,” said Sparano after his Dolphins easily defeated an overmatched Carolina team in a preseason game after having beaten Super Bowl contender Atlanta in the previous unofficial contest. “After all, I can’t afford to get fired.” Sparano says his strategy for the regular season opener against the New England Patriots will employ the same strategy used to beat Carolina: he’ll play the starters in the first half, then switch to second stringers in the third quarter. In addition, scrubs who don’t belong on the roster will be kept around for fourth quarter duty. He also plans to allow any starters who fear they might get injured during the game to sit out the entire contest instead.

The strategy, Sparano says, will come in the form of not actually trying to win games. By coaching preseason contests primarily to find out who’s going to make the roster and to try out new plays, his Dolphins have thus far amassed a 2-0 preseason record, something he says the team can build on in the regular season by employing the same strategy. When asked how the strategy of not actually trying to win was any different than the way he coached the 2009 and 2010 regular seasons, in which the team typically played for field goals as a strategy, he had no comment.

“Larry Johnson is sticking around too,” says Sparano of the washed up running back who hasn’t run the ball for positive yardage in over two years. “Reggie Bush faces risk of season-ending injury every time he touches the ball, so we’re just going to use Larry all season instead.” When asked just what he’ll be saving Reggie Bush and other injury-prone starters for, he declared “Playoffs!” before quickly adding “Please tell me I didn’t just sound like Jim Mora.”

HP TouchPad follows Galaxy Tab off shelves with $99 sale, no lawyers

In the name of engineering the demise of the competing HP TouchPad, Apple employed a new strategy after having used its lawyers to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 yanked from shelves: this time it sat back and did nothing as the product flopped and was quickly blown out in a humiliating $99 sale. Apple’s legal team surely saw the TouchPad as being every the actionable iPad ripoff that the Tab was, and yet unlike Apple’s protracted worldwide patent enforcement action against Samsung, Apple didn’t bother to lift a finger against Hewlett Packard in order to send the TouchPad packing from the market. Perhaps Apple is solely interested in using a scorched earth legal strategy against Android based tablets, after what it considers a betrayal on the part of Android OS maker Google. Or maybe Apple simply took one look at the HP TouchPad and concluded that it would crash and burn of its own accord.

From the start, the TouchPad has lacked one key element which Android based tablets to their advantage: because Android phones were pushed so heavily by carriers like Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile (and their worldwide equivalents) who were shut out of the first four years of the iPhone, mainstream consumers have at least heard of Android despite its status as a geek-oriented Linux derivative which would never have left the geekdom if the iPhone had been available on all carriers from the start. Even though various surveys show the majority of current Android phone users are unhappy enough that they plan to leave the platform with their next purchase (with most of those bailing indicting they’ll buy an iPhone next), the mere fact that “Android” is a word the public has heard of gives Android tablet sellers an angle. Contrast that with the HP TouchPad, which runs webOS, which you’ve never heard of unless you come from deep inside the geek inner circle (it was originally designed for the Palm Pre smartphone, which almost no one bought). That alone left the TouchPad at a marketing disadvantage which HP quickly realized was insurmountable once initial sales were apparently so stunningly low that HP pulled the plug after just seven weeks. So how could Apple have seen such a scenario playing out in advance?…


Although seven weeks isn’t enough time for a patent team to find its car keys, let alone fire up the legal action (witness how long it took Apple to finally begin to get banishment rulings against the Galaxy Tab, which has been around for some time), HP did preview the TouchPad well in advance of its on-sale date.Even in demos, the TouchPad looked like such an iPad hardware copycat that jokes had already begun among pundits that perhaps HP was trying to get sued. And yet that never happened. Apple could have filed emergency injunctions to block the TouchPad launch in advance, but as far as it known, that never happened. Apple may, however, have seen this coming for a few reasons. One is a former employee. The other is the cautionary tale of the HP iPod – and yes, there was one, once upon a time…


When HP acquired Palm, Jon Rubinstein came with it. He was the driving force behind webOS and the Pre, which both failed massively under his watch at Palm. Before that Rubinstein was an engineering exec at Apple, where he was part of an overwhelmingly successful run of products. But it was Steve Jobs who was dictating the vision for Apple’s products. In fact, Jobs’ self-assigned role was specifically to place himself between the geeks at Apple who crafted the products and the mainstream consumers who bought them, making sure that the geeks designed products which catered to the mainstream rather than being the for the geeks, by the geeks products which most other tech companies tend to crank out. Rubinstein was one of those geeks. Once he set out on his own, with no Jobsian supervision, his products (Pre, webOS, and now TouchPad) all predictably failed. Although they were technically well done, they were far too geek-oriented to ever catch on with the mainstream. Perhaps Jobs, from having worked with Rubinstein for so many years, knew that was coming, and told his legal team not to bother going after copycat hardware which was guaranteed to flop anyway. Or maybe Jobs just didn’t have the heart to launch a scorched earth policy against an old comrade. Here’s more on the death of the HP TouchPad.

Bargain iPhone and iPad Apps: Fragger, Weezer, and more

By: Daynah

Here are this week’s fun bargain apps for the iPhone and iPad!

Fragger – Remember the old Worms game where you had to fire at the other team? Fragger is similar, but you throw grenades at the enemy instead. Bounce off walls, knock down the enemy, or just blast them away! Highly addictive and currently free for both iPhone and iPad!
iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free) | iPad Version (Free)

Weezer – one of our favorite bands have released a new app so you can keep track of their tour dates. Post your pics and videos or use weezerxfest in your Tweets or Facebook status to get included in the content time-line. What a great way of getting Weezer fans together! More featured content to be added soon! iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free)

GetGlue isn’t new, but it’s definitely an app you need to get! If you enjoy watching shows, listening to music, reading a book, and more… you can check in and see who else is doing the same, and earn real stickers and badges along the way! Many shows, music, books, etc. have exclusive stickers you can earn. Once you earn 20 stickers or more, you can request for the real ones through mail! It’s a fun new social network.
iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free) | iPad Version (Free)

Breast Cancer: Beyond The Shock – I’m sure you may know at least one person affected by breast cancer, whether it be a mother, sister, grandmother, or friend. This app helps to educate us of what a person goes through when dealing with breast cancer. View videos, ask questions, and find support. Universal App (Free)

Hello Kitty Skins and Shelves – If you’re addicted to Hello Kitty and her friends, try adding some Hello Kitty pizzazz to your device! This app is loaded with many wallpapers and even ones that have shelves to hold your icons. Find the ones you want and download. Change your wallpaper in the settings and you got yourself a pretty wallpaper and home screen!
iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free)

Pix’n Love Rush – So retro and so much fun, this game will take you back to the time of pixels and short attention spans! Help the little critter make it through the levels by moving, jumping, and shooting. Collect yellow pieces and avoid or shoot purple ones. Rush through all the short levels quickly and safely. The iPad Version was $3.99, but is on sale this week for just 99 cents. iPhone / iPod Touch Version (99 cents) | iPad Version ($1.99)

Zulily – Are you a mom (or mom-to-be) who loves to shop? Check out Zulily, a daily deals place for moms, babies, and kids! Lots of huge markdowns on the cutest outfits and many other things. This app will keep you on top of all the deals. Set the type of notifications you want and never miss a cool deal! iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free)

Michaels Stores – Are you a crafter? You’re in luck! Michaels finally has a new iPhone app out. Browse through ads, search for projects to do, but most importantly, get those coupons conveniently on your phone! You can also search for the nearest Michaels store, but if you’re a crafter, you probably already frequent your nearest store.
iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free)

PopSugar – If you’re a fan of PopSugar, you’ll absolutely love their apps! Flip through visual stimulating photos of celebrities, as well as browse all their other editorial branches. My favorite is GeekSugar! Beautiful, sleek, and easy-to-use user interface.
iPhone / iPod Touch Version (Free) | iPad version (Free)

Bargain: HP TouchPad tablet on sale cheap, but lacks apps, iOS, future

The infamous HP TouchPad tablet can be had for under a hundred clams in a grand fire sale for the ages. But the tablet lacks five essential features found on the competing iPad 2. You’ll need to pay full price for the iPad. Unlike the TouchPad, which was selling so poorly due to consumer indifference that HP had to cancel it and slash its price tag by four-fifths before bargain hunters finally perked up, the iPad is selling so well that there are no deals or discounts. Here’s what makes the iPad what it is, and why the HP TouchPad more of a brick than a tablet in comparison:

iOS: Apple’s touchscreen operating system, known as iOS 4, is cohesive and immediately understandable to all users of any skill level. The TouchPad comes with webOS, a geek-oriented touchscreen operating system which former Apple geek Jon Rubinstein left Apple to go develop on his own, presumably because he thought Apple’s offerings were too consumer-oriented. Apple’s OS is still in development, which means there are regular updates bringing new features and security updates. HP’s webOS, however, is done even as HP issues vague empty promises of somehow keeping it alive even though it’s discontinued it. And Apple’s upcoming iOS 5 will be released this fall, which will be a free update for existing iPad and iPad 2 users. There won’t be new version of webOS for the TouchPad.


Apps: There are hundreds of thousands of apps from tens of thousands of developers, the majority of them free, available for the iPad. They’re all found in Apple’s cohesive App Store, which allows for one-click installation and the safety of knowing that Apple has pre-tested all of the apps in there before green-lighting them. Apps for the TouchPad are few and far between, and the handful of third party app developers HP was able to court are already moving on. That means you’re more or less stuck with the apps HP gives you, and there won’t even be updates for those going forward.

Accessories: Good luck trying to find a case, let alone a form-fitting speaker dock or more sophisticated accessory, for the TouchPad. So few units were produced that it’s akin to finding parts for some obscure discontinued car…


Dead end: There will be no future HP TouchPad models. If you buy this one, it’ll break down or become obsolete within a year or two (likely sped up by the lack of updates and support). At that time you’ll end up buying a future iPad or some other still-existing iPad competitor. In the mean time you’ll have wasted time getting used to an interface and apps which you’ll need to ditch. If you’re enough of a geek that you feel the need to avoid Apple products in order to sleep at night, at least Android-based tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are still in production (well, sort of, but that’s another story).

One word: Betamax. It was the “other” video cassette tape player which launched around the same time as VHS. Those old enough to remember the era will recall that nearly everyone was buying VHS, so Beta quickly faded. Beta machines were sold off in cheap fire sales, just like the HP TouchPad. And those who bought BetaMax generally found it to be only useful as a source of amusement for others. No one wanted to be the person who got stuck with BetaMax because it was on sale. No one wants to get stick with the HP TouchPad either, and for all the same reasons. Here’s more on the death of the HP TouchPad.

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