Monthly Archives: July 2010

The Bloom Is Off The Rose For Apple

While I normally don’t call out companies in my posts here, I can’t help but comment when a company completely falls all over itself trying to correct an issue.  As many know, the recent iPhone 4 debacle involves poor antenna reception when the phone is held normally in a person’s left hand while making a call.  Apple’s response for awhile was, “Well, don’t hold the phone that way.”  That’s like telling someone whose feet hurt, not to walk by using their feet.  Apple’s latest trick is to find any competing phone (read: Android, which has already surpassed them in activated units) and knock it down several notches by claiming these phones, too, have issues with reception if you hold them a certain way.

Well OK then, Mr. Jobs, don’t hold the Android phones that way.

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Review: Return To Forever – The Anthology (2008)

The AnthologyCoinciding with their reunion tour in 2008, Concord has issued a recent compilation of Return To Forever’s tracks from their “classic line-up” (as many call it) with Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola (or Bill Connors on this group’s first recording) and Lenny White.  There was an anthology from several years ago, but it only covered their tracks on the Polydor label.  This is the first compilation to include their best-selling Romantic Warrior album from the Columbia family.

What is different about this release is that all of the tracks are remixed from the original multitrack tapes.  Many who know my tastes already know how I feel about most remixes, but in this case, their earlier albums had quite a dated, “old” sound to them.  The remixes actually clean up the sound substantially, and you can hear more of the parts clearly now.   With one more disc to the set, the group’s entire output could have been anthologized, but you won’t be left wanting for any missing tracks on this set, especially since it has Romantic Warrior in its entirety (which is many listeners’ favorite).  I’ve enjoyed this one quite a bit, despite the remixes.  Recommended!

Motorola Droid: Rooted, ROMed, Themed and Kerneled!

I had a busy day today, obviously!  Not wanting to wait until Verizon decided to push out the Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) update, I decided to take a deep breath and modify the phone myself.  Thanks to the excellent instructions at DroidLife, I was able to get my phone rooted, and install a custom ROM, in no time at all.  “Rooting” an Android phone is essentially giving you “superuser” access to your phone’s operating system, opening the door for a lot of custom features and tweaks unavailable on a standard Droid phone.

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