Perfectly Compiled Albums!

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THEM?! Lord, I know I do! I'm sure if you flicked through your digital albums or CD's, I'm sure you can find one Album where every song is amazing! Obviously everyone likes them, as it makes that £9.99 or whatever seem worth it! When Alexandra Burkes Album came out (in a gay fashion I pranced my little ass down to Asda *shame* to buy it! (too feel better about my shattered masculinity, I also bought myself X-Men Origins: Wolverine)) At first listen to the album, I was a little skeptical... But it's grown on me, I've had it on in the car ever since I got it, just sticking it on when nothing good is on the Radio. Admittedly there's one song that irritates me, and would be cast from the album if I had the power.

Now, Leona Lewis' Album - The Spirit, is FANT-ASTIC! I remember one time on a train Christmas 2007, the album was on repeat for a long portion of the journey. Every song is PERFECT! I love that album with my life, and I cherish each song! I've not heard the Follow Up Album - Echo, but if it's only 90% of the singer Leona can be, it's going to be fantastic! (I'd like to note that it shouldn't be 90%, because to some people, 90% just isn't good enough.) Now, I'm sure you're sensing a pattern, alarm bells are ringing in your ears, 'X-FACTOR GAY BOY!' It could be said that I'm a bit of a Manufactured Pop fan! But then it's just my taste in harmonies etc...yeah...Right. I like feel good music, even Leona's ballad-y music can make me feel good...

Recently I went on a Road Trip to see a friend while she was at uni, and took my remaining two best friends with me! A 3 hour road trip with a hormonal, horny girl, and an over-worked, underpaid guy.... It's a recipe for disaster! So... We packed a few Albums... Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Alexandra Burkes (quickly dismissed by my 'roadies'.) We settled on putting on Lady Gaga, while the Sat Nav took precedents over my iPhone-iTrip. Every.Single.Track is a hit. Nothing less than you'd expect from the weirdest woman in the Pop Industry. It was our 'back up' for when the Radio was broadcasting a load of tripe. It was perfect! It became the soundtrack to a fantastic weekend. Thanks to Lady Gaga, whenever I hear 'BEAUTIFUL, DIRTY DIRTY, RICH RICH, BEAUTIFUL.' It'll fill my brain with images of Laughs, Memories, Scents, Sounds and Fantastic times.

I hope that by reading this blog (all two of you that I'm sure are reading this) that you'll dig through an album from your youth. Something you've not heard in a while, an Album that you listened to while having the time of your life. Maybe it will bring a tear to your eye, maybe it won't have an effect on you, it might even provoke you into contacting an old friend, who knows! That's the fantastic thing about music, I'm sure you'll agree, it provokes some fantastic emotions, sanctuaries, memories and nostalgia.

Without wishing to ramble, I hope you'll agree the first image really illustrates the effect music has on us.

Why the iPhone is more for 'fun' than for 'Business'.

Welcome to My Blog! First Entry!

I LOVE my iPhone. Since getting it, social networking doors have been blown open. I've broken into the format of Twitter, grabbing it by the neck and shaking the life from it's body. Facebook has been abused to the max in much the same way. I get that little thrill we all get when we see the littler red speech bubble in the corner of the screen. So as a social networking phone, with hundreds of Twitter Clients available, Tweetdeck, Twitterfon, Tweetie, etc, and a fantastic Facebook application, it's a fantastic aid.

It's also a fantastic gaming platform, with more games than the PSP, and Nintendo DS/I, it appeals to the gaming geek. It also makes for a fantastic developers platform, with anyone with the SDK pack from Apple. I heard the voice of Laslo from the GTA series by Rockstar talk about how long it takes them to perfect each version of the game; 4 years. With the iPhone, as long as you have the SDK pack and a good idea, you can do just about anything, and make a nifty bit of money on the side if your game is good enough. Any Gadget fan should watch 'The Gadget Show' on Five, a couple of weeks ago their competition between two of the presenters was to create and develop the best 'App' for the iPhone or other 'App' enabled phones...(of which there are a few, less honed and polished versions of the iPhone's App Store.) One of them designed a social networking app, which did acceptably well, while the other made a game, which made it into the top ten apps in the world! Considering there have now been over 2 billion downloads of various apps and such across the world.

HOWEVER, the Nokia E71 with a full QWERTY Keyboard, is toted as a business man's phone, as are the various Blackberry models. With PUSH Email, full Physical QWERTY Keyboards and various sound settings for phone calls/text messages. The Nokia E series boasts the ability to operate two Sims synonymously, meaning you could have one for Social/Family, and the other for business contacts. This means high powered business people and the like wouldn't have pocketfuls of phones weighing down their Armani, Milan bought suits.

With Smartphones gaining more IQ points, where does this leave the iPhone? There's certainly scope for the iPhone to develop, let's face it, Apple have the means to make it an even more fantastic phone, while barley meddling with the fantastic user-interface already in place. Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, HTC and Palm are pumping their developers with Steroids in an attempt to over-turn the iPhone's throne. They're coming up with some fantastic concepts to keep the iPhone sleepless at night. For instance the new Sony Ericsson has automatic sharing facilities when you take a photo, saving on the Twitpic issues and saving a few precious seconds.

Phones are also gaining weight in the camera department, again with Sony Ericsson and Samsung boasting phones with 8/10 and even 12 MP cameras. These are combating the Mega Pixels of some of the compact cameras from solely Camera manufacturers. With the iPhone 3GS, the latest model of the iphone is still only feebly mentioning a 3MP camera, albeit with Video capability, which is more than the Edge and the 3G.

So, can iPhone realistically contend with these big-weights? While the business phones may offer some unique features, as does the iPhone. The iPhone's features are slightly more special than the likes of Samsung, Nokia and SE, allowing developers the chance to offer the fruits of their imagination, in the most developed branch of App Store available. Ease of use also works in iPhone's favour. With a small and incomplete manual on the iPhone, Apple are fairly confident in their product to offer such a limited manual. While I've not seen the manual of 'the rivals', I can be fairly certain that they're extensive, laborious, and almost always referred to when needed... A time that will come with all phones other than the iPhone.

While it may not be the biggest business contender, it certainly offers ease of use...Which after all is what business men and woman want... They don't want to spend hours reading a manual, they want to pick the gadget up, use it, understand it and finally master it. The iPhone is the only smart phone which offers that ability!