Hasta La Gadget!

Auto-tuning, the practice of digitally “repairing” off-key vocal tracks, is more visibly prominent than ever. But it’s even more ubiquitous than people realize, and some musicians and fans aren’t happy about it.

Auto-tune really only entered public consciousness with the release of that one Cher song that’s somehow still playing in malls more than a decade later. And lately, some rappers, most notably T-Pain and most distressingly Kanye West, have taken up the robotic vocal torch. Even stark minimalist Bon Iver used the software, made by Antares Audio Technologies, on his most recent EP. But Time’s recent article explains that auto-tune is used on just about every major-label pop album these days, from Britney Spears to Faith Hill. It’s now assumed that auto-tuning will be applied to almost any recording that doesn’t specifically refuse it.

Some, including legendary producer Rick Rubin and possible love of my life Neko Case, aren’t fans of the near-required use of auto-tuning. Rubin notes that many classic recordings were only achieved after repeated attempts, and that emotion and passion can be lost with the use of the software. Case, in typical brash honesty, declared, “That shit sounds like shit!” regarding auto-tuned singers, and compared it to the artificiality of diet soda.

We often forget that it’s the imperfection of vocals that can make them the most powerful. There’s nothing wrong with glossy bubblegum like T-Pain, but to use auto-tuning indiscriminately can absolutely kill honest emotion.

On the other hand, it’s hard not to like T-Pain; his unabashed lack of singing ability doesn’t make him a lesser pop artist, and his pledge to create an iPhone app that would allow anybody to auto-tune themselves into a crooning robot actually sounds like a great idea. Britney, you can fix your warble all you want, but leave the serious music alone, okay? [Time]

Microsoft appears poised to officially unveil a Web-based service that will let users store, share, and back up data from their mobile phones.

Provided, that is, that the phones run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 phone operating system. And the service will be available as only a limited beta to start with.

Details of Microsoft’s impending My Phone service slipped out inadvertently when the Web site went live ahead of its scheduled debut. The site appears to have been spotted first by Engadget Mobile, which also referred to the service as SkyBox.

Microsoft's My Phone service is intended to provide backup and other services for Windows Mobile 6 users.

According to the Microsoft My Phone site, the service will let users back up and restore the phone’s data, access contact and scheduling information, and share photos. Users will get 200MB of free storage, but beware–a synchronization attempt that exceeds the limit will cut off any files beyond the 200MB mark.

…

Originally posted at News – Wireless

If you thought last month’s $99 Mini 9 was just too cheap (unlikely), or were scared off by the two year contract that came along with the offer (rather more likely), check out Dell’s latest deal. The company is selling its lowest-spec Mini 9n, offering 512MB of memory and Ubuntu installed on a 4GB SSD, for just $249. That’s $100 less one went for for last September. Can’t live without Windows? You’ll still need to pony up another $50, but will at least get an extra 4GB of storage out of the deal. Surely one of these two bargain portables will fit into your budget and your lifestyle, but don’t spend too long deciding which — this deal expires on February 12.

[Thanks, Justin R.]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell’s Mini 9 selling for just $249 — who needs a subsidy? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on June 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Ed Bott over at ZDNet wrote an interesting article yesterday asking the question, “Is Steve Jobs planning a hostile takeover of the Windows desktop?” This question he says, stems from the recent introduction of Safari for Windows. “Why would Jobs want Windows users to run Safari,” he asked.

Thus far people have been asking why users would want to use it, but he’s right, the real question should be focused on why Jobs took the time and money to develop Safari for Windows.

Most people will say that Safari was introduced to Windows because of the iPhone, and I’d have to agree. Bott on the other hand believes that Apple will start to sell their hardware with Microsoft’s software pre-loaded alongside OS X. And with that, they could replace all of the Microsoft apps for their own like iTunes instead of Media Player, Safari instead of Internet Explorer, iMovie instead of Windows Movie Maker. You get the idea…

Customers would save money because currently, if they want an Apple computer with windows installed, they’d have to purchase it at retail cost.  If it came pre-loaded, users would pay the costs for an OEM copy which is much cheaper.

While I don’t really see it happening, it’s an interesting thought.  If Apple offered such a thing in the Fall when Leopard is released, would you be a taker? I’ve heard many people say that Apple does make a solid computer, but that they prefer Windows. Perhaps it’s the perfect hardware/software combo?

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Android’s new 1.1 update doesn’t include multitouch because Google is scared of Apple. We are not, however, and nor should you be-follow our guide to get iPhone-like multitouch browsing on your G1 right now.

As teased yesterday, this update will also give you all the new Android 1.1 firmware features, so if you haven’t received your over-the-air update from T-Mobile yet, wait no more and follow our guide. And on top of the added multitouch features, the hacked ROM you’re going to install will also include handy root access to your G1 for further hacking.

Many thanks in particular to the folks at the xda-developers forum, the #1 hangout for HTC phone tweakers on the web.

What You’ll Need:
• Your G1
• USB cord
• JFv1.41_RC33.zip-an Android RC33 ROM With Multitouch assembled by a nice chap that goes by the name of JesusFreke.
• An old RC29 ROM (with root access bug)
• An Android recovery image
• A micro-SD card reader (maybe, if you mess things up)
• The Android SDK (for installing more multitouch demos)

Let’s get started:

Downgrade Your Android Software to Gain Root Access
Even though Android is open source, access to the root user is disabled by default, so you still have to work to get root access. To do that you have to exploit a well publicized bug in an earlier Android build that easily allows you to slip into root access easily.

Note: In doing this, you will lose everything you have saved to your phone. Your synced Google Account info will of course stay put, but you’ll lose your installed apps, text messages, and anything you have on your SD card. Searching “backup” in the Android Market will lead you to apps that can backup your SMS messages and other files.

1. Your phone is likely running either the RC30 (1.0) or the new RC33 (1.1) version of the Android software (you can check under Settings -> About phone -> Build number). RC29 is the one with the bug, so you’ll need to download that file here (grab this one if you’re in the UK, and perhaps seek out a UK-specific guide, as we’re talking North American language here and I don’t want you to hurt your phone).

2. Reformat your phone’s SD card to the FAT32 format.

3. Rename the downloaded file to exactly this: DREAIMG.NBH in all caps for the extension and the filename. It matters. It will still show up with a lowercase extension in the bootloader, but that’s OK, as long as the file you dropped on your SD card was named properly, you won’t get a FAIL.

4. Drop the downloaded and renamed RC29 file onto your SD card via USB, power your phone off, and then power it back on while holding down the camera button. This will bring you into the bootloader. Press the power button to start the update, which will wipe your phone and install the old software.

5. When it’s done you should get a declaration of success. After that, hit the trackball button (known as the “action button” in the darker recesses of the G1’s bootloader) and then press Call, Menu and End simultaneously to reboot into your downgraded G1. You’ll see that you’re starting from scratch.

6. Sign in to your Google account and then grab the “Telnet” app from the market. You’ll need this to exploit your newly gained root access.

Update Your G1 With a Multitouch-Enabled ROM
Now that you have not only the permission but the impetus to do naughty things with root access, it’s time to install the updated Android files.

These are assembled by a nice chap that goes by the name of JesusFreke on various phone-hacking forums. He’s the one, primarily, who made all this multi-touching on the G1 possible.

1. Grab Le Freke’s RC33 v1.41 ROM (the one with multitouch goodness baked in) and rename it from “JFv1.41_RC33.zip” to “update.zip”-all lowercase-and copy it to your SD card.

2. Also grab this tweaked “recovery.img” file and also copy it to your SD card. Eject your SD card from your desktop and unplug the USB cable when you’re done.

3. Now that you’re in the exploit-y RC29 version, your phone will start responding to various Linux commands you type on the keyboard no matter what you happen to be doing in Android at the time. Fun! What you need to type to get root access is:

UPDATE:Due to some HTML weirdness, this command didn’t show up properly before. What you have to do here is press the enter key twice, then type “telnetd” (no quotes) and then hit enter once more. Sorry for the confusion:

[enter] [enter] telnetd [enter]

You may find yourself in some odd place in the OS, but it doesn’t matter-if done correctly, a telnet server should be running in the background on your phone.

4. Open up the Telnet app you downloaded from the Market, type in “localhost” in the box if it’s not there already, and tap “Connect to server.” You’ll see some weird ASCII characters, but all should be well. To test, type this in at the prompt (make sure you’ve ejected your SD card from your computer and detached the USB cable):

ls /sdcard

You should see the names of the files you copied (if you don’t, try step 3 and 4 again).

5. Now it’s time for some more command line magic. You’ll need to type four more commands to mount the file system in a writeable state, change to the system directory, copy the recovery.img file from your SD card to your phone’s /system directory, and flash the recovery image, in that order:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

cd /system

cat /sdcard/recovery.img > recovery.img

flash_image recovery recovery.img

You won’t get any response from any of these commands other than a slight pause before the next prompt appears-that means you’ve done everything correctly. If you get any error messages, check for typos and try again.

6. Power down your phone, then power it back on again. One power cycle is required to complete the magic.

7. Power down your phone AGAIN. And now, while off, start it up by holding the Home button along with Power; your phone will enter into recovery mode, which normally shows a caution icon with a phone, but will in this case stream a bunch of Linux code on the screen. Wait for that to calm down, and you will reach the ROM flashing screen of Mr. Freke’s design. If all looks good, press Alt+S to flash your ROM, then press Home+Back when prompted to restart into your multitouch-enabled G1.

8. Open up the browser, and try the ol’ pinch-to-zoom gesture. Hey, what’s that? Zooming! It’s not lighting fast at the moment, but I’d say it still beats pressing plus and minus buttons to zoom.

While Mr. JesusFreke is responsible for packaging this up for consumption, we can thank Mr. Luke Hutchison for the actual multitouch coding. His blog sheds more insight on the state of the multitouch implementation you’re now playing with, and illustrates how it will soon improve. But let’s play some more.

Download More Multitouch-Enabled Apps
In the flashed ROM you just installed, only the WebKit browser has been tweaked to accept multitouch input. But your fun shan’t stop there. Hutchison has provided a few more demo apps-including a simple Google Maps app, photo browser and fun Multitouch visualizer. You can download them all in .apk package format from his site.

To install an APK package via the Android SDK, make sure you’ve enabled “Unknown sources” under Settings -> Applications, then follow these instructions for Windows or, for Mac:

1. Open the Terminal and navigate to the directory where you unzipped the Android SDK (you can auto-fill the Unix path to any file or directory in Finder by dragging it to the cursor point in Terminal):

cd

2. Then, with your phone plugged in via USB, type:

./tools/adb install

3. After the “Success” message, voila, the app is now on your phone.

And that’s about it! Enjoy multitouch browsing, and for more Android hacking on the G1, check out these sites:

References
• AndroidWiki
• XDA Developers Wiki
• XDA Developers Forum