Category: Lifestyle

Apple Unveils iOS 7 : How ‘Big’ it is ?
Apple has officially taken the wraps off of iOS 7 at its Worldwide Developer Conference today. iOS 7 is the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system that debuted back in 2007 on the original iPhone. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, iOS 7 is the biggest change to the platform since the iPhone was introduced five years ago. The new design is evident in everything from sharper, flatter icons, slimmer fonts, a new slide-to-unlock function, and a new control panel that slides up from the bottom of the screen for frequently accessed settings. The stock apps have all been redesigned — including a major revamp of the weather app with new animations that are scarily reminiscent of Yahoo’s great-looking Weather app graphics.

New Look
- iOS 7 has a new font leading the way, which seems to be a sort of Helvetica Neue Ultra. It’s very skinny, clean, and it was hinted at in the iOS 7 banners that went up for WWDC yesterday.
- Instead of white bars on a black background, Apple will now tell you what kind of service coverage you have with five little dots, which are white and grey depending on how strong the signal is across a translucent background.
- The lock screen is changed for the first time in iOS’s history, with no more shine top or bottom bars for slide to unlock or the clock. Instead, Slide to unlock is translucent above the background image.
- Default app icons are now flatter, but not quite flat, just as predicted.
- Jony Ive’s hand has had its way with iOS notifications. The notifications panel isn’t laced with dark grey linen anymore, but actually has a very flat look to it. There is a today view, that lets you see friends birthdays, upcoming invitations, calendar, stocks, and a quick look at tomorrow.
- The apps all seem to have a white base, except for the stocks app which has a black background and the weather app, which shows motion in the background to convey the current weather.
- The keyboard is more white, than grey, with a translucency that lets you see what’s underneath the keyboard.
- New Features
  
  Control Center
  - Control Center is a pull-up tray that is available in your lock screen.
  - You can adjust brightness, volume, and other settings including Wifi, Airplane mode, rotation lock, or Bluetooth.
  - The Control Center even offers a flashlight, along with tabs for music, camera, and other quick-access apps.
  - The Control Center takes on the environment it’s in, so if you swipe up while you’re in mail, it will have the same blue and white coloring under that translucent panel.
  Multitasking
  - iOS 7 lets you multitask between all third-party apps with much better battery consumption.
  - You can double-tap the home button to enter into multi-tasking mode, just like always, but the interface for multitasking has been revamped. It appears to offer live previews, but Apple wasn’t clear about that.
  Safari
  - Safari opens straight into full screen mode now, with the option to pull down to bring up the search bar at the top.
  - The search field has been improved to be a unified smart search field, which lets you have access to all your favorite websites with a single tap.
  - Tabs come with a totally new interface, scrolling in a vertical carousel, and there are no longer any limits. In other words, you can have as many tabs as you want, as opposed to just 8 like before. Swipe a tab off to the side to throw it away.
  - The new Safari is integrated with iCloud keychain from OS X Mavericks, and also comes with parental controls.
  AirDrop
  - You can share sharesheets with other people by simply tapping their name. No NFC required.
  - Airdrop supports iPhone 5, iPad 4th gen, iPad Mini
  Camera And Photos
  - The Camera app lets you swipe between your various camera types, such as panorama or HDR so you can quickly take a pic instead of fumbling around with settings.
  - Photos marks the first update to the photo gallery on iOS since it was introduced.
  - You can search based on date, and location, within the photos app.
  - Instagram must be flattered — Apple has introduced photo filters so you can add a little professionalism to the picture.
  - Users can share via AirDrop, iCloud photo-sharing, as well as shared Photo Streams.
  - You can even share video with iCloud photo-sharing.
  Siri
  - Siri has a new voice! It sounds similar, but also weird. You can choose a male or female voice, if you like. Voices include languages like French, German, and other languages “over time.”
  - The visual UI has also been upgraded, with a sound wave going along the bottom.
  - Siri has also been integrated with settings, letting you tell her to turn on bluetooth, or lower the screen brightness.
  - The company has also added support for Twitter, Wikipedia, and shows web search results direct from Bing.
  iOS in the Car
  - iOS in the Car depends a lot on Siri.
  - It puts the iOS homescreen on the screen of your car, and lets you search for directions, listen to music, etc.
  App Store
  - You can now search for apps based on location. In other words, search for apps by the Louvre and see a lot of French museum apps.
  - The App Store also automatically updates apps for you in the background now. Hallelujah again!
  iTunes Radio
  - Apple has finally introduced the much-anticipated iTunes Radio, which gives a Genius-like experience to the entire 26-million title iTunes catalog.
  - You can see the full list of songs on each station by clicking history, with purchase and preview buttons built right in to send you to the iTunes store.
  - iTunes Radio also lets you customize each station by clicking a star to show that you want more of this type of music.
  - iTunes Match users will get an ad-free experience, but others will be able to use the app for free with a few audio and text ads.
  Activation Lock
  - This is for those of us who have had an iPhone stolen.
  - If a thief steals your phone and tries to turn off Find My iPhone, they can no longer turn the device back on without your iCloud password.
  - Users can also block messages and calls from other users.
Coming This Fall
- Developers will have access to iOS 7 on Monday and it will hit iOS devices this fall.
Jun 13, 2013
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles – What they really mean !!

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds in fact took its name from a drawing of a schoolfriend by the four-year-old Julian Lennon. There can be little doubt, however, that the song was directly influenced by John Lennon’s continual experimentation with LSD, which hit a peak in 1967. However, in 1980 he claimed the main inspiration came from Alice In Wonderland. In November 1967 John Fred and his Playboy Band released a parody/tribute song called “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)”which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks and reached the number one spot in a number of other countries around the world.A fact ‘John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the 1967 Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds have sold $237,132 (£145,644) at an auction in the US.’

I had no idea it spelt LSD. This is the truth: my son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around. I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds,’ and I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’ I immediately wrote a song about it. – John Lennon

The song is structured in two distinct parts: the dreamlike verses in 6/8, with their gently psychedelic imagery; and the switch to 4/4 for the chorus.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was mostly written by Lennon, with a little help from Paul McCartney.

I showed up at John’s house and he had a drawing Julian had done at school with the title ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ above it. Then we went up to his music room and wrote the song, swapping psychedelic suggestions as we went. I remember coming up with ‘cellophane flowers’ and ‘newspaper taxis’ and John answered with things like ‘kaleidoscope eyes’ and ‘looking glass ties’. We never noticed the LSD initial until it was pointed out later – by which point people didn’t believe us. – Paul McCartney

And the Lucy of the title? Her name was Lucy O’Donnell, and she attended Heath House, a private Weybridge nursery school, with Julian Lennon. She didn’t realise she had been immortalised in a Beatles song until she was 13, in 1976.

In 1980 John Lennon criticised the arrangement and studio production, claiming it didn’t do justice to the song itself.

I heard Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds last night. It’s abysmal, you know? The track is just terrible. I mean, it is a great track, a great song, but it isn’t a great track because it wasn’t made right. You know what I mean? I feel I could remake every fucking one of them better. But that’s the artistic trip, isn’t it? That it why you keep going, always trying to make that next one the best. – John Lennon

–> 20 Reasons why ‘The Beatles’ are the ‘Greatest’ Band Ever <–

Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 28 February; 1, 2 March 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Released: 1 June 1967 (UK), 2 June 1967 (US)

John Lennon: vocals, lead guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, Lowrey organ, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar, tambura
Ringo Starr: drums, maracas

“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds..
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxies appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you’re gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds…
Picture yourself in a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Lucy in the sky with diamonds…

Jun 4, 2013
Try out the new Future Fox : Australis

The new Australis theme has been looming around the heads of the Firefox community for a very long time. Most of what we – that is the public – know about the theme is that it will modify how Firefox looks as it will replace the current default theme when it is released. What many Firefox users may not be aware of though is that Australis is more than just a theme replacement as it will affect the way we customize the browser.

Australis

The project that has been guiding Mozilla’s exploration of what a modern browser should look like is Australis (because Mozilla apparently likes to name projects after star systems) and the fruits of this project will soon find their way into the Firefox release channels, starting with Nightly once it hits version 25 soon. After that, it will make its way through the usual release channels, though Nightingale told me that the team may hold it back from the stable channel a bit longer to ensure that everything works smoothly.

If you feel really adventurous, you can already install a version of Firefox from Mozilla’s relatively obscure UX branch and test it in its current state (but don’t blame us if it crashes a lot or shreds your hard drive).

While the main Australis theme won’t land in the stable channel before October. The combined stop/load/reload button in Firefox, for example, came out of this group. So did the new download manager and the fact that Firefox now doesn’t show the forward button anymore when there is no page to go forward to. The customization and tools menu now also uses icons in a three-by-three arrangement and dedicated buttons for copy, select and paste, as well as for increasing font sizes instead of just using a regular drop-down text menu.

Australis is not just about the design, though. One area that’s also changing with Australis is how you customize the look and feel of your browser. Mozilla currently offers quite a few tools for this, but the team believes they are hard to find and not “fun” enough to use. As Mozilla’s Gavin Sharp told me, the idea here was to get users to enjoy customizing their browsers for the way they use it. Unless users can find these features, though, they could just as well be left out, so the team is working on ways to make it a bit more obvious that users can rearrange and remove virtually all the parts of the Firefox interface to suit their needs.

Now that Firefox is on a rapid-release schedule, the team obviously can’t change the user interface with every update, so the current thinking is to roll some things out together once they are ready and, where it makes sense, roll others out individually. This means that while we’ll see Australis and its curvy tabs in the nightlies of Firefox 25 very soon, it may not actually land in the stable version of Firefox 25.

Jun 1, 2013
WeChat Social Messaging App Review
Networking apps are good to have for connecting with friends while on the go. They are not only easy to use and convenient but also add in an element of fun. While there is no dearth of social applications that allow you to connect with friends, one that has been garnering a lot of attention is WeChat. We decided to find out how good the application was and if it was worth downloading?

Developed by Tencent , the largest Internet company in APAC , We Chat is the only Social Messaging App to offer Video/Audio calling and voice messaging with about 200 million users worldwide. It is a free mobile communication and social networking app for Smart phones with features like Video/Audio Calling, Push-to-Talk Voice Messaging, Group Chat-text & voice (up to 40 people) and Location based friend-discovery social features.

WeChat’s interface is something that will take getting used to. On the homescreen you will find all your contacts who use the application. You can start a conversation with them by simply tapping on their name. You can convert the conversation into group chat by clicking on the face icon on the right hand corner at the top of the screen. Clicking on the keyboard icon will allow you to type a message. This keyboard icon also alternates as the speaker icon to send voice chat when the keyboard is in use. To send a voice message press on the ‘Hold to Talk’ button, you will have to keep it pressed till you are done with the message, simply release to send. Currently you can send messages up to one minute long. You can cancel the recording by an up swipe movement.

Pros: Apart from the novelty this app offers ,this app has a sound presence with its novelty in chatting as briefed above.To use the best of this app from the android market, you and your friends has to use WeChat and then no one is going to stop you.The speed is fast and sitting from UK , you can send a faster message to Turkey.And if you have connected your FB friends, then be ready for a typing war.It also offers the convince of grouping your friends/family together and then do a group chat. A well designed app for conversation at great speed l. A new feature Video which has been added recently lets you to group video chat. The mobiles in -build camera works at its best for you and you can talk roaming around with just a click on the go. A cool app which is totally free offers you ads-free HD Video Chat.

Sharing Files and Chatting through PC
Extendability of using WeChat even from PC through the browser is by scanning the code displayed in web.wechatapp.com .One addition here is “File Transfer” where we can transfer files (text, image, audio, video, and any other file types) between my phone and my computer with File Transfer. We can also to the same with our contacts in WeChat.

Video Chat and Voice Messaging :
Another great leap in this social app making it popularity grow very fast. Using this service, it is very easy to send and receive voice messages at greater speed as well as use web cam on the mobile to its best.

From the above image you can see that to use Voice Messaging, you got to Press& Hold the button on the right side for sending your Voice Message. A sophisticated way of using free Voice Chat on Mobile/Tablet/IOS .
Video Calling
To use this free feature, just click on the add button on the lower bar of the app and choose Video Call (see Features and Addition Image above ) .

Plugins
With couple of plugins pre-installed plugins, WeChat offers more.Moments , a new plugins uses Face Book like feature with a WeChat cover and options for text ,photo as well video sharing (see “getting social ” image above).

Cons : Being a Chinese social app , whenever you stumble upon someone or someone stumbles upon you he/she happens to be a Chinese.Rarely we happen to meet an English speaking one.Also, it also surprises you with a ping from unknown people cleverly using this app for inappropriate use and this personally doesn’t work for me.But still, being a part of “look around” and “shake“, it offers loads of fun for people who love to make new friends .If I have to offer one suggestion for improvement, it will be that there should exist a way to acknowledges this app as relevant to Face Book/Twitter and using them for proper use other than unknown flirting hiding their identity .

Neutral View: As far as the privacy is concerned , unless we allow this app to post on your behalf on the FB wall when used Face Book to sign in, otherwise with use of We Chat ID’s and QR codes , this app is perfectly safe and fine chatting with new people with its Fact sheet
- Protects user data by offering on-demand contact list backup and retrieval to/from our cloud-based service.
- Provides a secure and robust social networking platform that emphasizes user privacy and fast response performance.
When compared to other social apps giants like FaceBook , Twitter, Tango , Palringo , etc that flocks the Internet , Android Markets, Google Play and iTunes , WeChat offers the combined effects/results that all the above specified apps offers. WeChat apps multimedia communication flexibility and convenience offers hassle free text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, Video/Audio calling, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact information exchange at all in One.

Conclusion

Overall, WeChat is a good option that you can consider if you are looking for a networking app. But considering that there are several other networking apps that have quite established their presence, convincing your friends to switch to WeChat could be challenging. However, the video calling feature is something that can give it an edge over others. And while the app offers the necessary features to network, there are some that you can do without, especially if you are concerned about privacy. Thankfully, you can disable these features and still be able to use the app without a problem. You will however need to get used to the interface. Lastly, even though the app is free it is devoid of ads.

Click here to download WeChat for Android

Click here to download WeChat for iPhone

Click here to download WeChat for BlackBerry

Click here to download WeChat for Windows

Click here to download WeChat for Symbian
May 30, 2013
Oscars 2013: Winners Full List

The 85th Academy Awards ceremony (referred to as The Oscars), honoring the best films of 2012 in the United States, took place February 24, 2013. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) presented its annual Academy Awards to honor the best films of 2012 in the United States. The ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California Seth MacFarlane hosted the Academy Awards for the first time.

Life of Pi won four awards (the most for the evening) including Best Director for Ang Lee^,and Argo won three awards including Best Picture. Les Misérables also won three awards; Django Unchained, Lincoln and Skyfall won two awards each. Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress award for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. Daniel Day-Lewis won a third Best Actor (the most for any actor) for his role as President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Paperman
John Kahrs

ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave
Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Claudio Miranda, Life Of Pi

VISUAL EFFECTS
Life Of Pi
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott

COSTUME DESIGN
Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Les Misérables
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Curfew
Shawn Christensen

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Inocente
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Searching For Sugar Man
Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour (Austria)
Michael Haneke, director; Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz, Producers

SOUND MIXING
Les Misérables
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes

SOUND EDITING
(tie)
Zero Dark Thirty
Paul N.J. Ottosson

Skyfall
Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables

FILM EDITING
Argo
William Goldenberg

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Lincoln
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

ORIGINAL SCORE
Life Of Pi
Mychael Danna

ORIGINAL SONG
“Skyfall” from Skyfall
Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Chris Terrio, Argo

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

DIRECTING
Ang Lee, Life Of Pi

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

BEST PICTURE
Argo
Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers

Feb 25, 2013
Sony unveils PlayStation 4 with social, remote features
Sony launched the latest salvo in its ongoing rivalry with Microsoft with the launch of the PlayStation 4, the first of a new generation of consoles. At an event held in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York’s Manhattan Center, Sony revealed that the PlayStation 4 would go on sale this Christmas. It refused to set a price, or even show the console itself but it is unlikely to cost much less than £300.

With under-the bonnet power considerably in excess of that of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it will usher in a new breed of games with startlingly lifelike graphics, set in virtual worlds that operate in a much more believable manner than the current crop. But it will not have that ground to itself: Microsoft is applying the finishing touches to a successor for its Xbox 360 which, it is believed, it will unveil at the E3 Show in Los Angeles in June. That, too, is likely to go on sale this Christmas, unleashing a titanic battle for living room supremacy between Sony and Microsoft.

“Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation,” said Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony said the system will feature an eight-core processor that can juggle more tasks than the PlayStation 3 and be part of a new digital ecosystem that’s “the fastest, most powerful gaming network.”

There was no word on price or availability, other than a flash on the screen saying “holiday 2013.”

The PS4 is arriving amid declines in video game hardware, software and accessory sales. Research firm NPD Group said game sales fell 22 per cent to $13.3 billion in 2012. With the launch of the PS4, Sony is looking to attract audiences who may have shifted their attention to games on Facebook, tablet computers and mobile phones.

Beyond games, the PlayStation 4 will let people create animation in 3-D using a Move motion controller all in real time.

Full Specifications and Features

Main Processor
- Single-chip custom processor
- CPU : x86-64 AMD “Jaguar”, 8 cores
- GPU : 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon based graphics engine
Memory
- GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive
- Built-in
Optical Drive
- (read only)
- BD 6xCAV
- DVD 8xCAV
- I/O
- Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0), AUX
Communication
- Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
- IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR)
AV output
- HDMI
- Analog-AV out
- Digital Output (optical)*Specifications are subject to change without notice.
Wireless Controller for PlayStation4 (DUALSHOCK4)

External Dimensions
- Approx. 162mm x 52mm x 98mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Weight
- Approx. 210g (tentative)
Keys / Switches
- PS button, SHARE button, OPTIONS button
- Directional buttons (Up/Down/Left/Right)
- Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
- R1/L1/R2/L2 button, Left stick / L3 button, Right stick / R3 button, Pad Button
- Touch Pad 2 Point Touch Pad, Click Mechanism, Capacitive Type
- Motion Sensor Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, threeaxis accelerometer)
Other Features
- Light Bar, Vibration, Built-in Mono Speaker
- Ports: USB (Micro B), Extention Port, Stereo Headset Jack
- Wireless Communication Bluetooth Ver2.1+EDR
- Battery Type Built-in Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery Voltage DC3.7V (tentative) Capacity 1000mAh (tentative)
PlayStation 4 Eye
- External Dimension Approx. 186mm x 27mm x 27mm (width x height x depth)(tentative)
- Weight Approx. 183g (tentative)
- Video Pixel (Maximum) 1280 x 800 pixel x 2
- Video Frame Rate 1280×800 pixel @ 60fps
- 640×400 pixel @ 120fps
- 320×192 pixel @ 240fps
- Video Format RAW, YUV (uncompressed)
- Lens Dual Lenses, F value/F2.0 fixed focus
- Capture Range 30cm～∞
- Field-of-View 85
- Microphone 4 Channel Microphone Array
- Connection Type PS4 dedicated connector (AUX connector)
- Cable Length Approx. 2m (tentative) *Specifications are subject to change without notice.-
Feb 21, 2013
What does Refresh Desktop or Refresh explorer window actually do?
I am sure that you must have noticed that when you right-click on your Windows desktop or inside an open explorer window, you see an option called Refresh in the context menu. The Refresh option has been there since you can remember!

But have you really wondered what this option actually does? Does it refresh your Windows OS and keep it running smoothly? Does it make your Windows faster? Or maybe you think it will clear your computer’s memory or refresh the RAM…? Actually it is none of these!

What does Refresh Desktop or Folder do

The Desktop is nothing but a folder in the Windows operating system. It is programmed to auto-refresh when its contents change. When the contents of the folder changes, it will auto-refresh. But at times, you may find that the desktop or folder does not auto-refresh.

You may then need to refresh your desktop manually in the following circumstances:
- The desktop does not display the files or folders you just created, moved, deleted, renamed or saved on it
- You need to re-align your desktop icons
- You find that you cannot use the desktop icons.
- Files that were created to the desktop by some 3rd-party application do not appear
- And such similar situations where the contents of the desktop or the folder do not change when expected to.
In such a case, when you press F5 or right-click on your Windows desktop and select Refresh, the situation will be corrected. Manually refreshing the desktop or folder may re-order its contents as, folders first, then files, in an alphabetical order.

Why do some people Refresh desktop constantly?

You may have noticed that some people just refresh their desktops frequently for the sake of refreshing it. It has become almost like a compulsive disorder, to refresh the desktop constantly. You may have noticed this habit especially among some Computer Engineers and Technicians who are obsessed with using the Refresh option – almost in a state of frenzy.

What is the reason for this? There is no need or reason to do this. It is just a silly habit, they simply need to break.

Do you have any friends who are in habit of using Refresh Desktop option frequently? Maybe you want to share this post with them.

Or maybe you too are one of them … if so do try and break this habit!
Feb 18, 2013
20 Reasons why ‘The Beatles’ are the ‘Greatest’ Band Ever
Every once in a while, I meet someone who just doesn’t get the Beatles, or who doesn’t even like them.
I try to keep an open mind about this, since there are some groups that I simply don’t get, either. David Bowie? Yeah, I can understand that. Bob Dylan? Sure.
But The Beatles? Come on.

Here are 20 reasons why the Beatles are the greatest band ever:
1. During the week of April 4, 1964, The Beatles occupied the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (12 in the Hot 100), the top 2 positions on the albums chart, the no. 1 position in the British singles chart, the first two positions in the British albums chart and the no. 1 position in the British EP chart, – the most complete domination of the British and American charts in history. Today, you’re lucky to have one top 10 album and single at the same time.
2. To date, the Beatles have sold over 1 billion records. That’s billion, with a B.
3. They have the most no. 1 albums in the British album charts (15), and 17 No. 1 hits.
4. They hold the record for the group with the longest span between no. 1 albums in the Billboard albums chart (36 years and 51 weeks, 1964 to 2001). In 2000 – 20 years after John Lennon was killed, their greatest hits compilation, 1, spent eight weeks at no. 1 and sold 13 million copies in its first month of release.
5. They boast 20 No. 1 hits in the United States, (19 No. 1 albums), with 24 consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976 (six years after they broke up), a record for a group. They also have 12 no. 1 hits in Germany, 23 in Australia, 21 in the Netherlands, 22 in Canada, and 13 in Malaysia.
6. According to the United World Chart, the Beatles have 16 of the 100 most successful tracks of all time, and also 7 of the 100 most successful albums in history.
7. The Beatles recorded four of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time, according to Rolling Stone magazine, and three of the Top Five. (I will ignore the fact that Abbey Road was only No. 14. Blasphemy.)
8. They were ground-breaking pioneers almost from the beginning, being the first group ever to employ feedback in 1964′s “I Feel Fine.” One of their first hits, “A Hard Day’s Night,” features an opening chord so revolutionary that people are still trying to figure out. 1965′s Rubber Soul and the follow-up, Revolver, saw more innovation, from the use of a sitar in “Norwegian Wood” to tape loops in “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Then there are the backwards vocals in “Rain” (a first) and a Moog synthesizer on several songs on 1969′s Abbey Road.
9. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is arguably the greatest album ever made (indeed, it topped Rolling Stone‘s list). While it doesn’t have the strongest material, the album was a landmark in recording. It popularized the concept album – something that would serve as inspiration to The Who and Pink Floyd.
10. “A Day in the Life” from Sgt. Pepper may have been the crowning achievement of the group – a five and a half minute song composed of two suites – one by Lennon, one by Paul McCartney – that are totally different in sound and texture, yet complement each other perfectly. The song features two cacophonous crescendos from an orchestra, the final one climaxing in a single E major piano chord that lasts 42 seconds.
11. One may not like songs such as “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude,” but they are unrivaled in their popularity, and the melodies are unforgettable.
12. Paul McCartney actually dreamed the tune to “Yesterday.”
13. “Helter Skelter” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” are considered two of the first heavy metal songs.
14. They have 23 of the Top 500 songs of all time, again according to Rolling Stone – the most of any artist.
15. Their iconic No. 1 singles notwithstanding (“Love Me Do”, “From Me to You”, “She Loves You”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “I Feel Fine”, “Eight Days a Week”, “Ticket to Ride”, “Help!”, “Yesterday”, “Day Tripper”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Paperback Writer”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Penny Lane”, “All You Need Is Love”, “Hello, Goodbye”, “Lady Madonna”, “Hey Jude”, “Get Back”, “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, “Something”, “Come Together”, “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”), some of their best songs weren’t even on any singles or B-sides: “I Should Have Known Better,” “You Won’t See Me,” “For No One,” “Across the Universe,” “Two of Us,” “Dear Prudence,” and “Because” are all just album filler.
16. They revolutionized the science of recording, using multiple tracks instead of playing live. Producer George Martin used varying tape speeds to make Lennon’s voice sound high (“Tomorrow Never Knows”) and slow (“Strawberry Fields Forever”); he also brought in string musicians to accompany certain songs (“Yesterday”). In another session, McCartney utilized bass drums halfway down a corridor to achieve a staccato sound in “Mother Nature’s Son.”
17. In an age where other people wrote songs for the flavor of the day – think the Brill Building songwriters doing all the work for the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups – The Beatles surprised everyone by penning their own hits from the beginning. As a result, they helped usher the singer-songwriter movement that popularized the late 1960s.
18. Their ability to cross over from media and teen idols to musical innovators is one-of-a-kind. Their chart success is unparalleled; but despite their popularity, they managed to continue to improve throughout their career.
19. Their place in popular culture is unrivaled – Their movies, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (in which they played to 74 million people), the “bigger than Jesus” comment, the refusal to play in concert after 1966, the Maharishi, the painstaking production work, the beginnings of the drug culture and LSD fad, “Helter Skelter” and Charles Manson, the “Paul is Dead” phenomenon, Yoko Ono, the rooftop concert, the cover of Abbey Road, the subsequent solo years, and the hit singles created from rough demos of the late Lennon.
20. They accomplished all this in seven years.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles – What they really mean !!
Feb 4, 2013
XBMC 12 “Frodo” brings Live TV & Android Support
The latest version of XBMC, codenamed "Frodo," is finally available for all platforms—including Android—and it’s got a bunch of great new features.

EXCELLENT REPLACEMENT TO WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER

What’s new in Frodo
- HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via the new XBMC AudioEngine (OSX/iOS not yet available)
- Live TV and PVR support
- h.264 10bit (aka Hi10P) video software decoding for anime
- 64bit support in OSX to match the 64bit support in Linux
- Improved image support, allowing the XBMC database to accomodate numerous additional image types and more interesting and complex skins
- Support for the Raspberry PI
- Initial support for the Android platform
- Improved Airplay support across all platforms, including Airplay audio in XBMC for Windows to match the other platforms
- Improved controller support in Windows and Linux
- Advanced Filtering in the library
- Video library tags to complement movie sets
- Advanced UPnP sharing
- Default video languages now match the language being used by XBMC
- Translations now powered by Transifex
XBMC – ‘Frodo’
Jan 29, 2013
Lenovo Announces K990 Smartphone

Lenovo recently at the 2013 edition of Consumer Electronics Show unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the K900, which sports a 5.5-inch IPS screen and a super slim 6.9mm profile, all running on an Intel Atom processor.

With the K900, our team has broken down the key functions of the smartphone and redesigned them from the ground up, said Liu Jun, president, Mobile Internet Digital Home, and senior vice president, Lenovo.

Rather than focus on specifications that look good on a datasheet, weave zeroed in on what consumers want and proved that for smartphone users, top performance doesn’t require a thick profile. The K900 is a game-changer that looks as good as it performs.

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The K900 resets the bar on these aspects. At 6.9mm, the K900 is the thinnest phone in its class by a wide margin and weighs in at a mere 162g (5.7 ounces), making it a device that unobtrusively slips into a jacket pocket or handbag.

Made from a composite of stainless steel alloy and polycarbonate in a Unibody mold, the K900 manages to stay strong and look sharp while maintaining its slim profile.

The K900 is one of the first smartphones in the world to combine a 5.5-inch IPS display with 1080p full high-definition resolution performance at 400+ pixels-per-inch, all under the latest, touch-capacitive Gorilla Glass 2.

Centered on the forthcoming Intel Atom processor platform for smartphones, the K900 is very responsive, especially for key functions such as web-browsing and application-loading.

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Megapixels is the first specification that many users recognize for digital cameras, and with 13MP, the K900 ranks at the top of its class in this aspect and combines this with an industry-leading, SonyExmor BSI sensor for what would already be considered outstanding performance.

The K900 smartphone will be available from April in China and in select regional markets soon thereafter. Pricing for the K900 will be announced at a later date.

Jan 14, 2013