Apple special event on wednesday September 5! Obviously new iPod lineup - also interesting what will happen with iTunes and related stuff. TV shows supposedly now appears in the UK, and what about that beat… would it finally be time for the Beatles? As Appleinsider indicates, the reference is quite intriguing.
Close enough for me to await this years birthday present to self just a tad.
The season can finally be declared officially for open!
With the Champions League qualifier win today, and the rather good start of the Premiership, LFC is in for it all this season. And the team looks strong - I must say.
Appears that the guys took the lukewarm critics from the Fredrikstad gig to their heart - the Tromsø concert apparently was an uplift. Tromsø newspaper Nordlys gave them five out of six.
Unfortunately I was not able to make it to Tromsø, but now contemplating going to Haugesund next week instead.
[update]
Another review by Tromsø By
Same setlist as in Fredrikstad. There are also links to YouTube videos of most of the songs (albeit not from the concert).
Interesting point about no songs at all from “Lifelines” - I thought about that during the Fredrikstad gig as well.
David Pogue is not very amused by Apples move on iMovie. I can agree on the point that the app might be misnamed, but from there to utter bafflement and going on rambling about all that’s missing seems a tad over the top to me. Steve Jobs made pretty clear that this was a complete new way of editing video. Actually a whole new concept of editing video; simpler, faster, easier. All of which iMovie 08 appears to be (I have yet to test it properly). Most of Pogues rant does not hold water - and when he goes on to mention that Apple “rather sheepishly” provided an iMovie 6 download afterwards, he forgets that the installer apparently leaves your old copy of iMovie HD untouched. That’s an iLife first, and should prove that there has been considerations on this.
The whole article ends up as just a big disappointment for no new themes in iMovie HD - because Pogue can still use that version to make his musicvideos. It’s not like it has been eraded from the earths surface. Actually now you just got two nice programs; one for your precious editing, and one for those quick and dirty jobs. My bet is that the vast majority ends up with the latter.
Macworld has a bit more balanced look at the new iMovie 08.
Damien Guard has a nice piece about exactly how superiour (in my opinion) the OS X font rendering is to Windows. Especially for a designer, but I believe everyone deserves to percieve the real beauty of type as much as they do with other kinds of graphics. How would you think about Windows forcing you to see photos with only one aspect ratio, forcing all images into a predefined format - just because someone thought it would look more tidy onscreen? There are plenty typefaces that are excellent for onscreen viewing, and I’d rather see Microsoft implementing/suggesting to use these rather than destroying what in my opinion is art. Windows font rendering is actually pure vandalism, and I suspect it has less to do with philosophy and more about ability.
Up through the years I have been asked quite a lot why I prefer the Mac over a Windows box. Until this last year I have been hard pressed for more than “I just like it better” and the usual suspects of stability and virus/malware issues. But at one point it suddenly occured to me why I “liked” the Mac so much better. It’s all about precision.
I was actually quite reluctant to move to OS X because of what I felt as less “solidness” than the old Mac OS 9 (RIP) - and it’s not before Tiger I’m getting rather comfortable with it.
I find the Mac in almost all aspects - software and hardware - to be a precision machine. This is also why “everything just works” sticks. The Mac does exactly what you want it to do, it is solid state hardware (that also looks good, mind you) but most of all it is the software. Everything is pixelsharp - you’re never in doubt exactly what and where you are clicking (or if you’re clicking at all), response is logic and swift. And most of all, it shows off with precision. Printouts are what you see on screen, colors are what they seem and foremost fonts look the way they really should.
Most of my day I work with documents intended for print, and for me it is pure pleasure to work with a system that really shows the font the way it is going to come out in print. I would be hard pressed to find one good reason for any of these beautiful fonts to be forced into a “pixelgrid” to make them “sharper” and “more readable” onscreen. For what? They are not supposed to be read onscreen anyway. When I read stuff onscreen (or make things for onscreen viewing) I use an appropriate font for that specific purpose. Just like I try to use appropriate fonts for everything else I design.
But I guess some people just have to do their coding/scripting in Bodoni…
via Daring Fireball
Surprising move from the two studios to go for only HD DVD all of a sudden. One can just wonder what large corp is behind that move and exactly how they managed this… I am not mentioning the tactics behind the SCO scam at all!
My first thought though, is actually when will Apple finally enter with HD downloads through iTunes and effectively killing this silly war once and for all.
Via Engadget.
The concert in Fredrikstad was unfortunately not of the best of a-ha. The chilling wind must take som credit for that, but I can’t help but “fearing” the stadium-phase of a-ha is taking it’s last calls. Fridays concert could have been brilliant - in a more intimate setting.
The warm up act was a somewhat intriguing choice (rumored to be a suggestion by a-ha itself). Apoptygma Berzerk is a local industrial-techno/heavy metal fusion not very likely to appeal to the average a-ha fan I suppose. Nonetheless they did a good performance in the wind, eager to show off in front of the “home audience”.
The crowd were waiting for the main act though and when the band members started showing up, things started to heat up. Although the mood was generally good, it never really took off until Take On Me - which was song #12 for the night. Musically the band delivered, but Morten in particular seemed quite uninspired to the whole thing. Magne was the one saying anything at all to the audience, Morten refrained from anything but some “Takk skal dere ha” and Paul never said anything. Apart from that, the concert brought some interesting musical parts; I have hardly seen or heard the group this dark and what I would describe as “direct”. Almost gone was the dominating string and synth-parts, hello guitars.
I’ve Been Loosing You; Bringing me directly back to the late 80’s concerts with Pauls solo opening it up. Great rock version, albeit with horrible sound (that was partly corrected during the song). Stay on These Roads followed in an equally surprisingly rocked up version. A monumental Minor Earth Minor Sky the way we really like it went over to a Scoundrel Days that was at least better and stronger than last years incarnation at the Aalesund gig.
I Call Your Name with a piano and no sax (of course) was nice - except it will never be the same after the stunning version they did in Frognerparken 2005. Move to Memphis was blastingly strong with a new arrangement. I’d like to have a recording of this one. Cosy prison quite on the ordinary with the band cooling it a bit down now. For the straightforward Keeper of the flame Paul took over the piano from Magne.
Now, the Lennon song #9 dream sounds great on the Darfur record (buy it!), but it fell through here. As most of Lennon’s songs, it is rather fragile and the band was apparantly not too comfortable with it. What was left, the wind took. Neither did it help that hardly anyone in the audience knew what it was. The same could be said for the next one, but Lamb to the slaughter live was quite a treat for the fans! This was sort of the high point for me; rearranged, even darker and everything. I really hope this one will be released in some way. Excellent!
Ordinary nice versions of Hunting high and low, Take on me, and Crying in the rain followed. And on Summer moved on Morten kept the tone as usual, but actually lost it on the subsequent two refrains. Good grief. He took it with a smile though, and the crowd with humour 
The living Daylights is always the winning closer to the ordinary set, and the crowd went wild as you could expect, dancing and singing - and keeping on singing til the guys came back on for the extras.
Analogue is becoming a favourite of mine, but this time I felt it was rather tame. Eventhough surprisingly enough the crowd actually took over the refrain from Morten (I would never have thought). The other high point was to come with Sun always shines on TV. Stunning good and new acoustic opening version. One of the best versions of TSASOT I have ever heard live! To round it off they did as they have a few times lately with cosy Dark is the night.
All in all I had a great time in Fredrikstad. I had some beers in town afterwards as well (it is a nice town to visit also just to party The concert was just about average, but as mentioned; I can see a small decline in the performances. Since the excellent Ullevaal gig (probably a-ha at the best ever), through the Trondheim, Bergen, Aalesund and now Fredrikstad concerts, it seems for each year the intensity of the performance is everso slightly declining. I believe this years concerts will unfortunately be the last we see of a-ha live for a while.
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Pictures from the concert in my Flicker account.
The a-ha interpretion of Lennon’s #9 Dream can be purchased from iTunes (heck, might as well get the whole album - for the sake of the cause).
More about the concert in other places - reviews and images:
NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting)
Dagbladet
Fredrikstad blad
I’ve Been Loosing You
Stay on These Roads
Minor Earth Minor Sky
Scoundrel Days
I Call Your Name
Move to Memphis
Cosy prison
Keeper of the flame
#9 dream
Lamb to the slaughter
Hunting high and low
Take on me
Crying in the rain
Summer moved on
The living Daylights
Analogue
Sun always shines on TV
Dark is the night
Tomorrow a-ha will kick off the first of four 2007 concerts in Fredrikstad. Now, the weather seems to be a little unpredictable - but hopefully it won’t be completely soaked during the concert. Really looking forward to this gig with great anticipation - seems the guys have working on new material also - maybe there will be some hints…
Since the minor earth forum closed, there has been few outlets to hang around lately - so any good suggestions?
For the first time in 5 years Liverpool wins the opening game! And that with really promising play. New striker duo of Kuyt and Torres looking like a million - ehrm - at least 40 million pounds. Now the real primer for the season - midweek CL qualifier against Toulouse and then Chelsea. With Tolouse coming to Anfield 28/8, that’ll be one and a half week of gameplay that will either put the season on fire… or down in flames. No Champions League will definitely be a turn off.
Coolest image though, is this one, showing Man Uniteds Wayne Rooney surrounded by almost all of Reading - still controlling the ball. Amazing shot.
