Blog Saturday 7th November 2009

These past few months I have discovered something which is rather annoying to me personally and, well, in general and is really starting to effect me as a person, and thats the fact that I have a dull life. Seriously, ever since I started level 3 course, which I have to say I cannot stand, why, well the course is dull, the tutors are dull and everyone in my course are dull. This is basically why I haven’t been blogging much, I mean my last personal blog was the 24th October!!!! … !!!!

Since last blog one thing good has happened I guess, I went to the cinema, YEAAHH, no this time I didn’t get stitched up by a girl, this time I was going with Rob and the gang, plus a few more. And even though I was annoyed that I’d just had a week off with nothing happening, then the Monday it all happens, it was actually a rather fun night. we ended up seeing ‘The Vampires Assistant’ which was actually a very good film, unfortunately it suffers from been very very american, and if their is one accent in the world I just cannot stand its the american one, especially the women, you know my theory when women in america finish their sentences with a croak is because they are lazy seriously try it, say a sentence by hardly opening your mouth and use as little strength as possible, wa-la you’ve got the american voice. Anyway, back to the film, the film itself has a pretty weak storyline but makes up for it with good actors, which doesn’t mean well known actors, it means actually good actors, and yeh is an alright film.
Afterwards me, Rob, Ben, Grandad, Jordan, and two lasses, one in which was revealed to be Rob’s GF, which was interesting. Anyway, at the end of the day, well … night, we went to a nightclub and yeh rocked out! Although just to let y’all know, when you rock out in a nightclub after a few, you really are just walking around, its amazing, recorded footage can sometimes prove this. Anyway, when the nightclub was closing it became apparent, that I wouldn’t have much sleep for college the next day, Ben (not me) was wasted, and it wasn’t really too bad of a night so err… yeh!
One thing that revealed I’d had a few, was me going to college an hour early, which was rather annoying to say the least.
Here’s a very very very small review of the Vampires Assistant
Vampires Assistant : 

Things happening in the RKUK World
I’ll be doing a Windows 7 Ultimate review tomorrow after using it as my primary operating system for a week, back on OSX now which I still feel better with myself.
I’ve decided to resume my work on TechnoBuffalo and would appreciate it if people viewed atleast my profile on TechnoBuffalo, even though all content on their is actually in this blog. Link at the bottom of this blog.
Selection 18 was added yesterday, 76 was released this week too. I’ll be adding up to Selection 20 in November, then Selections 27, 28 and 29 as they all contain Christmas songs. I’ll be filling the gap between Selection 21-26 and continuing to eventually add all Selection DVDs online in 2010.

But thats all for now, like I mentioned a Windows 7 Ultimate review is coming soon and will also be, like all my tech related blogs be on my TechnoBuffalo page too.

TechnoBuffalo Link : http://www.technobuffalo.com/BenAtRKUK

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Saturday 24th October 2009

I’m fresh from just doing the X-Factor tweeting and thanks to all the people who have @’d me with feedback from the show, anyway back to the blog, and may I just say what is wrong with me a lately, I haven’t been writing much blog recently have I, and ya know what the excuse is, well, I don’t know to be honest why, well I was gonna write about most of what I am today on Thursday but I had to finish off an assignment for college and didn’t on Friday for some reason so now is the time, yeah!

New Desk
Finally got one, and its awesome, normally my blogs are delayed due to me having to use the laptop to type with as it was impossible to type on the old one, but this new one is perfectO. On an unrelated note I keep forgetting I’ve got a drink, I mean a pints lasted over an hour and half, whats going on there, anyway, back to the story. The desk is wooden “touch wood”, … which means its sleek and I don’t particularly have to use a mouse mat, even though I spent all of the last couple of months promoting the RKUK one. So, yeh top marks for the desk, oh and not to leave the chair out either, you are as well awesome, well, y know, its a chair, but I better praise it or else it will collapse and I will die, you’re awesome chair … really … yes you are!

Random Trip to White Rose leading to new RKUK Videos in 2010

You may have seen the above image around, basically this is the new RKUK Promo, promoting the big change in videos on 2010, you maybe thinking, ‘Ben, didn’t you have one for 2009?’, well … no, actually, all we promised was further work on stuff we we’re working on, which we did and have been doing mostly behind the scenes as I will now explain.
On Wednesday, or it might have been Tuesday, anyway, me, Rob and his brother James went on a random trip to White Rose, why, well because Rob wanted to travel all the way their to get something he could of got in every shop we passed on the way their, anyway, turned out OK to be honest, nothing that out of the usual, we arrived closed to closing time, I had McDonnalds, which may I say are waaaay better than the ones in Dewsbury, and that was it really, got home and that was that.
Or was it, don’t know why I made that sound epic, but anyway, I had a very reassuring conversation with Rob about the future of RKUK Videos which was very good and I’ll give you the low down of what to expect in 2010. Me and Rob, or individually sometimes will be doing a whole lot more video updates to give you a closer look at what we’re doing, we’ll be doing a hell load of RKUK Live Shows, this may be later on in 2010, we’re talking Q3 time their, but I’ll be doing behind the scenes stuff on that, as well as, well, more videos and more better videos as well. We’re going to work hard on editing videos to make them not only be better but look better, as well as obviously improving the content, and of course in 2010 we’re going to put all our behind the scenes plans into motion, to watch out!

FaceBook Update

FaceBook have recently taken yet another update to their social networking site, which is yes annoying but if you ask me, updating something which makes it better is welcome everywhere, and I can’t see why FaceBook is an exception, I personally like switching from Live Feed to News Feed, difference being, News Feed shows all your friends latest posts, whilst Live Feed shows all feeds based on date of been added. So, for me atleast, I don’t mind it.

Microsoft Store’s coming!

In the early 90s Apple introduced the best easiest way to get a Mac, as that was all Apple made back then, a physical store, which of cause now you can use to experience the iPod and iPhone amongst all other Apple products, to me it’s more of an Apple Aquarium, no store compares to it. When the rumours started brewing on the possible Microsoft Store, I was thinking, why? Why, because Windows based machines are in every shop that sells computers, apart from Apple Stores, for obvious reasons, and the X-Box isn’t hard to find either, then it hit me … ZUNE! I think Microsoft are planning to make the Zune more well known by letting people check out the product which many people have looked at, and lets face it none have been that attractive so far until the latest Zune HD, which may I just say is only HD when plugged into a HD TV. But its a reality folks, Microsoft have confirmed they will start making stores in the US, and I expect them to be all over soon enough, but here’s the ‘taking the **** part of the story’, many Apple Store employees have been said to have been offered jobs in Microsoft Stores when they come and will get better pay, ooo, and to add to that Microsoft have plotted some Microsoft Stores directly next to Apple Stores, ironically on the left of the Apple Stores perfectly in position of where Apple put the PC and Mac in their ‘GetAMac’ ads. This is a dirty trick put on Microsoft, but I suppose based on the stocks, Microsoft are down alot compared to last year, whilst Apple report another record breaking year, and quarter, you’ve to do something haven’t ya.

Holiday Season
Yes, its here again, yes maybe only for a week, but its the holiday season and to celebrate this time we’ll be adding 6 Selection DVDs onto RKUK Media through the week, Selection 18, 19 , 20, 21, 22 and releasing the new Selection 76 at the end of the week, so yeh!

But thats all captivating <<what? at the moment, E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Apple Random Mac Update October 2009 – New iMacs, MacBook and Mac Mini Update and more…!

In a way we all knew this was coming, if your a Apple fan you would have known about the recent, store not open, then open, then not, which says to me, we’ve new products we’re just planning where to put them … and I was right. Just have a look at these beasts that have arrived.

New iMacs

Just look at the size of that beast, oh yes, gone are the 20″ and 24″ iMacs that have dominated the Mac desktop we all love, now there’s a 21.5″ and a massive 27″, yes I said 27 inch!!!
The 21.5″ version of the iMac has a full-HD display supporting 1920×1080, but unfortunately none of the new Apple desktop updates include Blu-Ray yet. The 27″ beast has screen resolution of a beasty size too, supporting 2560×1440 which is huge!
So, they’re a bit bigger nothing else, right? Wrong! OK, well appearance aside and if only one was in a room you could probably mistake an old 20″ for the new 21.5″, but you could never mistake the 27″ for obvious reasons! Appearance wise they’ve only two differences, the back of the iMacs is now metal instead of plastic, and the glass surrounding for the displays now goes all the way to the edge rather than making a oval-like rectangle, that alone will be the only thing that will probably set them apart.
Now I mentioned earlier that they were beasts and the beastiality just keeps on coming, all iMacs now come standard with 4GB DDR3 RAM, 3.06Ghz processors … oh, erm, apart from one, the top-range iMac debuts with Intel i5 and i7 Quad Core which can be configured up to 2.8Ghz, nice! They can be upped now to 2TB of storage, or a 256GB SSD, and a wopping 16GB DDR3 RAM, which means they are screamers like hell, and before you give us beef about “Well PCs only can use up to 3.5GB of RAM”, yeh, PCs not Macs, as you know Macs are 64-bit. Yes I know you can get 64-bit versions of Windows but hell is compatibility bad. And it seems that Apple are leaving NVIDIA for a while and back to supporting ATI graphics, the new iMacs, apart from the base with the NVIDIA 9400M, they all have ATI graphics cards either at 256MB or 512MB, which can only be a good thing.
So, thats the main big guy, literally, to all the updates, the all new iMac with the all new awesome display.
Apple iMac

All new Magic Mouse & Apple Mouse

I know what you’re thinking, nice piece of aluminium, but no thats a mouse, and a very interesting one indeed it is, you remember, waaay back it seems now when Apple introduced the new trackpads for the Aluminium MacBook, well now its in a mouse, a mouse with no buttons what so ever, just … that. It’s pretty amazing and you have to watch the tour video, it needs to be seen to be believed. Basically it clicks when your hand clicks, it scrolls when your fingers scroll, it zooms if you pinch in and out on the mouse, its almost freeky, but my god do I want one, if your also wanting the beasty iMac, the Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard we’re all used to comes with it as default. Oh, and Apple Mouse is the new name for the Apple Mighty Mouse after they lost the legal battle, the wired version is the only one still selling as the Magic Mouse is only in wireless form over Bluetooth.
Apple Magic Mouse

Mac Mini Spec Bumps

Remember the time when Apple seemed to have forgotten about the Mac Mini and it was nearly a year untouched, y’know it probably was a year or so, well good news to know they’re focusing on it alot now, the Mac Mini is now a mini powerhouse, with this update everything is X2, oh yes!
Their is for a start now 3 Mac Mini standard configs, a 2.26Ghz 160GB version, a 2.53Ghz 320GB version, both of these can be configured with upto 4GB DDR3, 500GB of hard drive.
But here’s a first for a Mac Mini, the 3rd config is a Snow Leopard Server version which is priced the same as the MacBook, and features the top configs and comes with Snow Leopard Server, and you can config server tools, but one thing which is interesting is how a MacBook Air Superdrive works in a Mac Mini, hmm, well thats because the server version of the Mac Mini doesn’t have a disc drive so that may soon be a standard configuration in the future if a disc drive is required, unless you’ve got one hanging around obviously!
Find out more in the links below;
Apple Mac Mini / Apple Mac Mini Server

New MacBook

Yes, its still plastic, Yes, you can still replace the battery, Yes, its white, so whats new, well let me tell you! The MacBook believe it or not still uses the unibody enclosure method but with plastic. The battery is still replaceable but still performs amazingly with reported 7 hours of life, pretty much double the previous 2005 model. Its also a lot thinner, has the new trackpad, making the MacBook Air the only Mac now with a button click mouse.
It also now comes with 250GB of storage for £799, yes for some reason its gone up in the UK but still the good ol’ $999 in the US, how annoying, and the annoying stuff doesn’t stop their, no firewire! Arrgghhh it’s happening again!
On a good note its finally got DDR3 RAM, up to 4GB, and 500GB of Hard Drive, the rest spec wise is the same, but the new design is a pretty sleek add on. Just a pity you’ve now got the same ports as the old aluminium MacBook, well, actually no, you don’t have audio-in, but you still have audio-out, but whats going on there!

New Remote Design …

There’s always one isn’t their, what the hell is that, it looks pretty much disgusting, sorry Apple but that does nothing for me, in fact I’ll be going on E-Bay and getting the old design if I need a remote thank you, ughh! The new remote is compatible with all Macs from 2005 or later, basically every MacBook ever, Intel Desktops.
New Apple Remote

Sorry we had to end on that awful ending to what started beasty and awesome, I’m sorry but what is that remote! Anyway E-Ya Later.

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com
http://apple.com/uk

Just got a Mac, 10 things your probably should and might as well do!

1. Update your machine!
Click the Apple Logo and select ‘Software Update’ and update your machine to the latest versions off all available options.

2. Download video codec for Quicktime 7 (Leopard) or X (Snow Leopard)
i. XVid/DivX – Download from divx.com allows you to play .AVI and Matroska files
ii. Flip4Mac – Search in Google, Microsoft link. Allows WMV and WMA to play.
iii. Silverlight – Play Silverlight content on the web.
iv. RealPlayer – Play Real Media files and enjoy downloading YouTube videos.

3. Messenger:mac
Presuming you were using MSN in the Windows environment, go to Mactopia which is at microsoft.com/mac and download Messenger, unless you’ve purchased Office for Mac in which you will have it already.

4. Drag Applications to the dock and use as stacks.
Go to the Finder, click ‘Macintosh HD’, then drag the Applications folder down to the right part of the dock, then, like Documents and Download you can launch applications through stacks.

5. Shuffit Expander
If you were on Windows I bet you’ve been using WinRAR to extract all those RAR files, well on a Mac, its Shuffit Expander, in fact your sure to encounter more formats such as SIT and SITX, its all indeed exciting.

6. Transmission
OK, we’re all lying if we say we’re not using torrent sites, on Windows the best around is µTorrent, which have recently made a beta for the Mac, but the best around for the Mac is called Transmission, Google it and get torrenting.

7. Microsoft Office
If someone told you that you can’t get Microsoft Office on a Mac, they were lying, and its not Open or Neo Office either, although they are available. Yes, since 1998, Microsoft have made Office:mac, latest being Office:mac 2008 featuring Mac versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, if your not sure, I recommend checking out brief tours of Office:mac as it is nothing like the Windows way of looking, well it is, but, well, you’ll know what I mean when you start using it, oh and first thing to do when you open all Office programs, go to View > Toolbars > Formatting, that way you don’t always have to use that annoying Toolbox.

8. ClamXav
Whilst the Mac is 99.9% (feel like I’m on the Dettol advert) free of viruses, they are a miniscule amount still flocking, well, to counter these 7 or 8, you might as well download an open source client called ClamXav, its completely free and can scan and remove viruses in the rarity they arrive, seriously, put it this way, Windows virus protection deletes over 3000 viruses everyday without you seeing it, on a Mac, you’ve pretty much to ask for one. And the good thing about a Mac is you’re even more sure about pop-ups, its funny seeing pop-ups that are trying to fool people on Windows XP with the blue window bar and red cross.

9. Paintbrush
This annoys me a bit, listen up. The Mac was the first computer to come with a Paint, or MacPaint as it was called program, then Microsoft copied it with Windows 3.0, and then 10 years later it was gone. But have no fears campers, download Paintbrush, it more or less mimics Paint and is actually not all that bad. Oh, and free! Also available for Linux, if your the 1% of the world who’s bothered.

10. Enjoy!
That is it, your ready to vouch out and live life the Mac way, if your looking for new Mac software head over toapple.com/downloads or head over to macworld.co.uk for the latest all-things-Apple News.

Blog Friday 2nd October 2009 – Single, Olympics 2016, iPhone on 3 networks and more!

Welcome to the life of a guy who can’t have a decent relationship over the period of what, a day, which lets be frank is longer than a lot previously to be honest, but ya know what I’m still happy, to be honest you should always leave a relationship with a positive attitude, I mean lets be honest I’m not yet the age to be thinking about a lifetime relationship so its time for a bit of fun and I had that with Lucy, yes I found out her name, woo! All in all I had a great week simply because of that, well, another’s coming up … yeh right, but ya know what, if I can say anything is that I was for one not expecting it, and the first face I pulled to her probably didn’t give her a good impression, but that toast was burned so I’ve decided to blame the canteen staff at Dewsbury College for me been yet again single, Damn Crows … Damn Canteen Staff … yeh doesn’t have the same ring to it, but it’s gonna have to do!

Olympics 2016

So, where not even set in the UK for 2012, but it was announced today that the 2016 olympics will take place in ‘Rio’ in Brazil, just thought I’d inform you with that valuable information!

If you hadn’t guessed from the images, O2 will no longer be the only network in the UK to have the iPhone, from the end of 2009, Orange UK will join the crowd, and then in early 2010 Vodafone UK will also join the clan! So, when the next iPhone comes out you’ll have more choice than ever before! Now, they are many things you need to consider here, and thats that Orange, out of the three has the best 3G (overall) reception which can only be a plus, but Vodafone was the first of the three to get 3G in the first place so they are probably more experienced, oo I don’t know what to do! The next iPhone will have three networks to choose from, which for us Brits is too much to think about, although I’ve always had the best experiences with Vodafone overall based on customer support etc, plus I still have a SIM with possibly the easiest number to remember ever on Vodafone, so next year I may be changing networks and still having an iPhone, oo how exciting!
What about you, leave a comment below if your in the pickle I am about the iPhone network deal!

Anyway that’s ya lot this week, E-Ya Later

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Blog Monday 28th September 2009 – Quite a nice Monday really!

Now I am what you could call an opposite to everything, what do I mean, well, caffeine makes me wake up rather than tired, that sorta thing, and today I proved another one of those things is correct. Have you heard the term shattered glass brings bad luck, or is it just mirrors, hmm, lets not ruin the moment, anyway well after I shattered glass this morning (a pint glass) I had quite an alright Monday to be honest, which is rare!
Well I’m gonna be honest with ya, it didn’t start that woopty-du, but was on time but took longer than me walking which was just great, then I went in to the wrong room for some reason when I got to college, but then came break! I’d made sure I had enough for some awesome toastness and all, so I got some toast, and it mustn’t of been, what, five minutes and this lass just sat on my table, which was empty by the way sob sob, she actually asked if I could get internet on my phone, in which obviously you can its an iPhone (soon to be available on both O2 and Orange in the UK by the way) then she set the record straight that that wasn’t why she came, it was that she err… yeh, which is where we get to the biggest problem between me and girls! Its quite a long story but I’ll snipit it down a bit! Basically when you’ve had the bad luck I’ve had you can never tell if someones taking the piss or literally interested and with a persōner and appearance like mine ya know ya kinda go for the taking the piss option most of the time, which no doubt has lost me a few in the past. But anyway we got talking and what not and before ya know it we’re trading numbers, which was good until I forgot to put my phone on silent in the next lesson when she texted me! She’s got bright brunette hair, if thats possible, well I know it is, but err yeh! Yeh, so bright brunette and geoorrrrrgggeoouuusss!!!! (Little Britain voice) >YT LINK<
I got asked “am I going out with her?”, well to be honest I haven’t got a clue, its early days mind, got her number, she’s got mine but you know the most annoying thing ever, I didn’t ask the most simplest thing in the f**king world, out of all this I don’t even know her name! Yes, yes, yes, stop laughing, blimey ya can tell I’m an amateur at this!
Of course they’re is still the theory that it was a joke, unfortunately girls can be a**holes 69% of the time … sometimes more!
Speaking of girls a match on Tagged, added me on FaceBook and it turns out she lives in Heckmondwike, how weird, now I do know her name, which is Chloe, have you noticed how Chloe’s are always cute, well thats what I’ve found!

p.s To add to my luck I ordered Medium Fries in McDonnalds, got Large, get on, had that and my Lucozade (Jeromy Clarkson), which was all good. Then the last lesson got cancelled as all the computers stopped working so had an early finish, so in all not a bad day to be honest!

Any hoozle, Selection 74 is out anyway, plus 75 Preview, anyway Catch Yoes later!

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com – Now first on Google and Dogpile!

Blog Saturday 26th September 2009 – 2 Weeks of College, IKEA Trolley, Selection 74 and more!

Can you believe its nearly an entire month since I did a personal blog, I’m telling ya that is a record, something which I think needs to stop now, one, so it’ll be easy to beat it again! No, not really, but ya know, its been a while! Since my previous blog I’ve been chased by a trolley whilst visiting IKEA, I’ve started my college course and just ended the second week and, no thats about it!
To be honest that is why I haven’t had a blog for a long time, basically because where at that time of year again, the uneventful time, last year I had a lot to talk about in college and stuff as it was my first real experience out-of-school life, but now its kinda the same and rather uneventful to be honest, which lets face it, isn’t that fun!

College Life
College this year has been completely different, in a good way … kinda, in a bad way … also kinda! No, to be honest its kinda been alright to be honest, the course is at its peak so nothing is happening at the moment, but may I just say that merging Dewsbury and Huddersfield into Kirkless College has been possibly the worst decision thats ever been made, seriously every single thing has become around 90% worst, seriously, to start with, the PCs, whilst they are PCs last year they performed to par last year, now they’re connected to the sh**est network ever, which in turn makes all the computers unresponsive and laggy, which is just brilliant eh! So, first things first, get rid of that merge, their ya go, I’ve fixed the issue!

IKEA – The Chase
Well, like we always do, but this time with the addition of Ben, me and Rob went, sorry, walked to IKEA again, which if ya don’t know is what anyone would consider a car journey away from where I live, to be honest I was rather happy to be honest we had quite a laugh which got more unusual when we first, almost got locked in a petrol station and after having a bit of fun with a Shopping trolley, then got chased by it, yes you read right, me, Rob and Ben have been chased by a shopping trolley, quite something to tell the grandkids yes! Then found out IKEA was closed, so walked home where we got shouted by drunks and saw a dead cat, so yeh, quite a usual night out then!

Oh, and Selection 74 is out, I struggled to get Mr Hudson song, so I had to do a deal with Mercury Records which was kinda strange!

Well, lets hope it gets a bit more eventful in the coming days!
That’s all for now folkeys <<What?, anyway, E-Ya Later!

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com

Apple 13.3″ MacBook Pro (late 2009) Review

A quick run through of the 13.3″ MacBook Pro is, its basically everything from the 2008 aluminium MacBook, plus the big things fixed, in other words the ports!

13.3″ ALU. MacBook VS The New 13.3″ MacBook Pro
- Now contains a Firewire 800 port!
- Now contains an SD card slot!
- Processor speeds improved!
- Larger hard drive
- Improved 6 hour* battery!

Pros
The MacBook Pro, which now joins the 15 and 17″ models in the MacBook Pro lineup, makes the MacBook line look pretty dull with just the 2006 plastic model left. Having said that the MacBook aluminium, which it is based on, now with spec improvements, price drop, the well needed Firewire port (Firewire 800) and, interestingly an SD card slot, oh and the “Pro” to the name make it a very good choice for people looking to start with the Mac, or them for getting a new Mac notebook! Now with the new 64-bit technology from Snow Leopard, the graphics cards, whilst the same NVidia GForce 9400M (256MB) now has more power than its had before! It also now has a more powerful battery making it now last up to 6 hours* of battery life, compared to the promised 4 hours on the aluminium MacBook! Still with the same great features we all loved from the aluminium MacBook like the great backlit keyboard, the trackpad we’ve all grown to love and who can forget the unibody design out of a single block of aluminium. This and more makes the new 13.3″ MacBook Pro quite a worthy purchase!

Cons
The 13.3″ MacBook Pro whilst now been a MacBook Pro means it does have some very good additions, it also has one new addition which is before didn’t have which is a non-replaceable battery like on the 17″ MacBook Pro. This means you can’t, well, replace the battery obviously, but also upgrade the machine in the future. The loss of these features could really become a problem! Another con is the lack of anti-glare option, both the 17″ and the 15″ models of MacBook Pro now offer an anti-glare version, yes with an add-on price, but the display, whilst good is very reflective! Also, still no sign of Blu-Ray in all Mac line up!

- Some very good updates to an already good notebook. However the new lack of replaceable battery may cause some users some problems!

iTunes LP Review – How this makes iTunes Top the Rest!

If you’ve ever had the impossible task of persuading someone older than 40 that digital music is the way to go they’ll probably shatter you in the face with jibber-jabber that its always better to get the CD itself, then they’ll probably brag about vinyl and all the extras you got with then, and for so long they were right, until now.

Well Steve and the crew at Apple have done it again with iTunes with the release of iTunes 9 it now features something that seriously makes using iTunes alot better than using lets say some other service like ‘Amazon MP3′, which lets face it is 80% the same price anyway! All new albums now come with a beautifully designed little extra called iTunes LP, which not only has gorgeous artwork through all tracks including lyrics and comments from the artist about the song(s), but even some extras like video footage, it really does complete that album experience!
As of yet iTunes LP has no integration to any other Apple product as you’d probably expect but I expect it coming soon as an update to Apple TV, as well as iPhones and all iPods with a screen!

I did have one criticism and that was that the album I’d purchased had a few incorrect lyrics, but having said that I have a 2006 copy of Keane’s Under The Iron Sea Limited Edition which has incorrect lyrics to Hamburg Song in the booklet, so nothing new! Makes you wonder if Apple could allow some sort of updating to iTunes LP, lets say even extra content, previews of new material, would be great if they did.

iTunes LP is definitely just beginning and puts the pressure on all other iTunes rivals, and definitely puts iTunes that much more higher to retain its 80% market share across the Mac and PC market, all I can say is keep it up Apple!

Ben

http://rkukmedia.ning.com
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

Apple Music Event September 2009 – 09/09/09 – Quick Run Through

September 09th of the 09th month, 09, didn’t seem like much of a different day to the 8th or 10th of September, but one thing did happen that only happens once a year, and that was Apple’s annual music event. Apple’s music events have always been held in September October time, so no surprise!

Steve’s Back!
Yes, as you guessed from the image, Steve Jobs is back to presenting the Apple events, which is great, he gave quite a moving talk about how he’s now got the liver of a late 20 year old who died in a car crash!

Anyway, now we’re all welling up, lets get on to what was new in the Apple iPod+iTunes!

iTunes 9

iTunes 9, the next release of iTunes is out now and feature some very nifty features which I highly recommend. Features include App Organisation for iPhones/iPod Touches. iTunes LP, which adds more to an album you get, very much like from a vinyl, you get exclusive interviews and more from an album, a similar feature has also been released for movies!
Other features include a redesigned iTunes Store, which is waay overdue to be honest!
So, yes, iTunes 9 is a big upgrade from iTunes 8- users and highly recommend it!

iPhone OS 3.1

Apple have now released iPhone OS 3.1, which doesn’t seem to feature anything much, but I personally have noticed a speed increase from 3.0, and of course its an update, plus some bugs have been fixed. Nothing big, but something good!

New iPod Shuffle (in a way)

New iPod Shuffle has been released, well, new colours, which are alot more pleasant than the silver and grey that it was released with. You now have more bright and vibrant colours and a exclusive stainless steel one has been released as well!
iPod Shuffle costs £45 (2GB) and £59 (4GB)

New iPod Classic

I love it when rumours are wrong, I highly recommend you now to spam all rumour sites with “You We’re Wrong” all over, although they’ll probably think your talking to Obama, so don’t! Anyway, the iPod Classic has had nothing changed to it but the storage, you can now get instead of a 120GB, now a 160GB which holds up to 40,000 songs* on it, which is nice!
iPod Classic costs £189

New iPod Touch

So, no design changes, but the iPod Touch does have quite a nice price cut and alot bigger memory for ya money! The 8GB iPod Touch is the same iPod Touch you’ve been able to get for a year now, but the 32GB and the new 64GB include new OpenGL graphics performance and are upto 50% faster in average tasks, which is very good!
iPod Touch costs £149 (old 8GB) £229 (new 32GB) and £299 (new 64GB!!!)

New iPod Nano

Welcome to ‘guess the new features’, yeah, all the new features it tells you in the above image but I’ll go over them again! The iPod Nano now has a compass and a speedometer app built into it which you can sync with Nike+, a built in 640×480 video camera which shoots in Apple’s .m4v (MP4 Video). It also has a tad larger screen yet still retains it thinness and size, and a first for an iPod, a built in FM Radio which includes a live pause feature! The iPod Nano also comes in twice the memory for the same as last year price tag which is great when you think how much more your getting!
iPod Nano costs £115 (8GB) and £135 (16GB)

And thats all that Steve Jobs had to say this year, some app developers showed off some rather interesting new apps, but thats all from Apple’s Music Event!

You can watch the Apple Music Event using Quicktime 7 or X by clicking here!

*statistics from Apple.com