View Full Version : The Power of a Smartphone
Scenario: I'm sitting here in Costa Coffee at Waterloo station enjoying a mocha. The shitty sound system is playing a song by a singer that I vaguely recognise, and I like it.
I open the Soundhound app and have it listen to the tinny rendition over a hubbub of noise and banging. It takes 8 seconds and tells me that the song is Spark by Tori Amos. It also tells me what album it's from.
I open the Amazon app and add it to my basket.
I then open the Board Express Pro app and post this message. My mocha isn't even cold yet.
I couldn't even dream of this technology 20 years ago.
It's an exciting time we live in! :)
I hope Marco doesn't read this ;)
Soundhound is the biz isn't it Martin.
I hope Marco doesn't read this ;)
I was rather hoping he does ;)
Hehehehe... I've always said that technology, used sensibly, and where YOU control it, rather than IT controlling you, is a good thing.
Clearly, that's what Martin is doing :)
I'm currently enjoying a glass of Muscadet, with a spicy prawn and scallop salad (home-made, of course), whilst Bach is playing, in high-fidelity, in the comfort and quietude of my lounge... No latest technology necessary! ;)
Marco.
I was rather hoping he does ;)
Me too actually - actually I do remember a positive response about something I posted regarding Twitter, when artists announce off the cuff free gigs.
Only jesting Marco :D
Soundhound is the biz isn't it Martin.
Just got round to watching my Sky+ recording of the Sky documentary series 'British Cycling: Road to Glory', and whoever made it had a cracking taste in music...well similar to mine ;)
There were a few tracks I recognised, but couldn't name, so Soundhound was kicked into action, seconds later I'd identified the Bonobo track, I then searched for the track in my Squeezebox collection via Squeezecommander, again on my phone, and selected the whole album to play on my main system, whilst at the same time downloading the FLAC album to my phone's 64Gb SDHC card via wi-fi...which I'm now playing at work via Poweramp...again on my phone :eyebrows:
Stratmangler
15-11-2012, 12:58
I've been using the Navigate function on my smartphone, and over the last couple of weeks I've become somewhat disenchanted with it, as it does not like rerouting.
I was driving somewhere in an area I know quite well yesterday, and I took a few shortcuts, which it did not like at all.
The thing is the estimated journey time dropped substantially at every turn I took that was different to the mapped journey. :doh:
It's a pity that someone hasn't done their job properly with the programming, but it is better than the mapping on the current iPhone (assuming that Apple haven't sorted out that "minor" issue).
I'm going to go back to using a dedicated SatNav.
bobbasrah
15-11-2012, 13:05
All mine did was handle 5 messages and 2 calls so far, well, apart from starting a cat scan.
Poor moggy shouldn't having been sitting on it when it rang really...
Stratmangler
15-11-2012, 13:06
Just downloaded Sound Hound - it's a neat app :)
Identified The Stones playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in next to no time.
I'll try some much more obscure stuff later :eyebrows:
Soundhound is the biz isn't it Martin.
It blows my mind, Tim. It records the shitty sound where a song is overlaid over all sorts of noise and hash with a terrible s/n ratio. It then transmits the 'essence' of it to their remote database, which compares the 'main tune' with hundreds of thousands of music files where the data can't match exactly. It makes an inexact match, reports back its findings - accurately - with song, artist, all the albums it appears on and lots of other info. All over a 3G connection routing through goodness knows how many hundreds of connections and in 8 seconds total time.
I've been using the Navigate function on my smartphone, and over the last couple of weeks I've become somewhat disenchanted with it, as it does not like rerouting.
My Bing routing works well, but is a monster data hog. You can't beat a good offline satnav app and for that I use Navigon. Driving in Houston with the US maps, it worked very well. The Yanks thought a nice breathy British female voice guiding me around Houston was highly humorous.
The power of working from home
I just caught that :rfl:
Call that technology? Pah! :mental:
If the damn thing also MADE your Mocha for you as well Martin . . . . :eyebrows:
I just caught that :rfl:
You're slow today! :eyebrows:
Marco.
For me a similar 'int technology brilliant?' moment came the other day when i used my android tablet to remote control the various media players and streaming apps on my laptop... Without getting out of the chair I had access to approximately 300GB of FLAC and every MP3 I've got at my fingertips.
I use a 'livedrive' cloud backup service as an extra layer of protection for my music collection, as well as 2 physical backups... the other day whilst staying in London I was chatting with my brother in law and he mentioned a particular obscure song from a cd he knew I owned. Within seconds I had downloaded it from the backup, was playing it on the mini system in their kitchen and had sent it to his laptop.
I'm not an old codger but this to me was pure Star Trek stuff, even their trichorders didnt look as tidy as my nexus tablet.
I do understand a lot of peoples reluctance to accept new technologies, a lot is just fear and being comfortable where they are but there is a lot people miss out on through such dogged resistance.
Marco hits the nail squarely on the head, technology should only ever assist not control you and you should always recognise that and if it does start to enslave you, have the balls to hit the off button. I'm never a slave to my phone like some folk are and it really seems to piss them off when 'it has not been possible to connect your call, please try again later' but that's their problem, not mine. And what really :steam: me off are people who sit at a dining table using a smartphone, rude beyond belief IMO
I love technology though - bring it on :)
Even ruder are those who answer a call in a meeting, instead of pressing 'Ignore'.
Smartphones, used for tasks like my o/p, are incredible devices and I marvel at what a tiny piece of hand-held computing hardware can achieve these days.
Marco hits the nail squarely on the head, technology should only ever assist not control you and you should always recognise that and if it does start to enslave you, have the balls to hit the off button.
Yup, that's the bottom line for me. Sadly, these days, it's too often the other way round - and *that* is what irks me beyond belief (when I see people who insist on being strapped to 'gadgetry' 24/7)! :rolleyes:
More seriously, I know that I often go on about modern technology, but I'm not as anti it as people might think - far from it. The basic fact is that my relaxed, semi-retired lifestyle, devoid from any element of the 'rat race', dictates that much of it is unnecessary - I have no real use for it - and so for me would be a complete waste of money.
I'd far rather invest the required funds in buying music, improving my system, or buying nice wine :)
Marco.
Speaking of rat-race, whenever I take the train to Waterloo as one of the 'rats', I'm simply flabbergasted at the sheer volume of people travelling such distances every day to work. 55 minutes in a packed train with no seat followed by (for many) a further tube or bus ride. The bus queues were amazing! I walked across Waterloo bridge to my destination as I had time on my side and I laughed as virtually everyone power-walked past me, wearing trainers or soft shoes. I felt like I was on the slow lane of the motorway.
Technology was visible everywhere without exception; people lost in their world of music, many of them wearing some quite serious headphonery. I can't blame them, I would do the same if I had to do that every day.
Stratmangler
15-11-2012, 16:50
I'm disappointed with Sound Hound.
I managed to fox it with my first attempt, which was "Maurizio's Party" by Antonio Forcione & Trilok Gurtu, from Antonio's "Ghetto Paradise" album.
Second attempt was "Take It Off The Top" by Dixie Dregs, which Sound Hound decided was a song titled "That Girl" from Bad Company's "Fame and Fortune" album.
Third attempt and it actually got this one right - it was "Never Before" from Deep Purple's "Machine Head" album.
One last shot, and it's the Introduction and Theme from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Variations" album.
It failed on the Introduction, but succeeded with the Theme.
I'm bored with Sound Hound now :rolleyes:
I'm simply flabbergasted at the sheer volume of people travelling such distances every day to work. 55 minutes in a packed train with no seat followed by (for many) a further tube or bus ride. The bus queues were amazing! I walked across Waterloo bridge to my destination as I had time on my side and I laughed as virtually everyone power-walked past me, wearing trainers or soft shoes. I felt like I was on the slow lane of the motorway.
Technology was visible everywhere without exception; people lost in their world of music, many of them wearing some quite serious headphonery. I can't blame them, I would do the same if I had to do that every day.
Indeed, as a form of escapism, from a very bizarre (and inhuman) existence... What a bloody nightmare! :mental:
Marco.
I felt like I was on the slow lane of the motorway.
That's the exact location I like to travel in now Martin, the world and his wife can fly by me, burning up fuel and wearing out their brake discs, whilst I pootle along burning less fuel with an escape road to the nearside at all times.
I always have headphones on when I travel around London going to gigs, its much nicer in there than outside ;)
The other thing that intrigues me (and has done for some time) is why people need to be constantly 'plugged into' music?
Now, I love music very much, and when I'm at home or in the car it's rarely off, but when I'm out and about in the big bad world, going about my daily business, I'm quite happy to have no music, and walk around in control of my senses, 100% aware of what's happening around me, unlike the zombies Martin has described, and indeed those I see for myself, whenever I venture into the likes of Chester.
Can anyone tell me what the mania is of having to be constantly surrounded by sound other than that which is natural?
When I walk around a city, I enjoy taking in the atmosphere, admiring the architecture of the buildings, listening to the sound of nature, people watching, or perhaps talking to friends who are with me and just enjoying natural life. I don't need some form of musical paraphernalia permanently stuck inside my ears! :rolleyes:
Marco.
Well for me Marco its a distraction whilst going from A to B on a well worn path, I don't ever feel a trip to London is a 'voyage of discovery', as I have been there many times and used to live on the outskirts as a teenager. However, if I was walking around Cuzco or Sydney I would be doing exactly as you describe, taking in the atmosphere - the necessity to do that in London went many years ago. I also am normally on a time clock when going there as I have a full-time job and live 100 miles away.
I guess a lot depends on your objective, are you going for a 'day out' with friends, or do you just need to get somewhere for something in particular or do you work or live there - IMO they are all very different things and how you 'interact' with a city, it's occupants and architecture will vary wildly and is dependant on why you are there. Being solo also makes a big difference ;)
I don't need some form of musical paraphernalia permanently stuck inside my ears! :rolleyes:
Marco.
There are noises coming from the medical trade that too much headphone usage damages the hearing and the warm moist atmosphere that accumulates behind earphones are a haven for some very nasty bacteria too :mental:
It's escapism, Marco. Unless you've experienced the boredom of being a 'zombie' on a daily commute, I doubt that you could get it. It's not their fault: London is way too expensive for most people to afford to live in, especially if they want quality of life. Therefore the radius for commuting grows ever larger and Basingstoke is not the furthest for many of them. As I said, if I had to do that commute every day (thankfully, I don't) then I would immerse myself in music and podcasts too. With the best damned hardware I could afford.
It's escapism, Marco. Unless you've experienced the boredom of being a 'zombie' on a daily commute, I doubt that you could get it.
Yup. I've never had to commute like that (thank fook), so have no idea what it would be like.
Marco.
The thing is Marco, I think you forget that the rest of us feckers have to venture out into the world doing stuff we have to do, going to places we don't really want to go, as opposed to doing things we want to do, when we feel like doing them and doing them purely for pleasure ;)
Stratmangler
16-11-2012, 01:29
The thing is Marco, I think you forget that the rest of us feckers have to venture out into the world doing stuff we have to do, going to places we don't really want to go, as opposed to doing things we want to do, when we feel like doing them and doing them purely for pleasure ;)
:yesbruv:
Life tends to work on the shit sandwich principle.
The more bread you got, the less shit you gotta eat :eyebrows:
Well put, Tim. I don't enjoy the combined 80 minutes I spend every day on the motorway and I would go stark staring mad if I didn't have Radio 4 and music on my USB drive to keep me company. Of course, my car is a nicer environment than the train, so I'm relatively lucky.
The other thing that intrigues me (and has done for some time) is why people need to be constantly 'plugged into' music?
Now, I love music very much, and when I'm at home or in the car it's rarely off, but when I'm out and about in the big bad world, going about my daily business, I'm quite happy to have no music, and walk around in control of my senses, 100% aware of what's happening around me, unlike the zombies Martin has described, and indeed those I see for myself, whenever I venture into the likes of Chester.
Can anyone tell me what the mania is of having to be constantly surrounded by sound other than that which is natural?
When I walk around a city, I enjoy taking in the atmosphere, admiring the architecture of the buildings, listening to the sound of nature, people watching, or perhaps talking to friends who are with me and just enjoying natural life. I don't need some form of musical paraphernalia permanently stuck inside my ears! :rolleyes:
Marco.
I agree. I can see the point of it on a train or plane but not when actually walking around. How many of these people get hit by cars every year? or jumped by muggers?
Yup, Martin - that was actually my main point. If you're walking around with music blaring into your ears all the time, then you're not really aware of what's going on around you, which as you point out, could have dire consequences....! The statistics for the incidents you refer to would be interesting to know.
The bottom line for me, though, is that it would feel very strange and uncomfortable going around town with headphones plugged into my ears, simply because I've never done it before, and so it would feel extremely unnatural.
I can do without music until I get back to the car, or go home. That's another point, I almost never use public transport. If I go anywhere far, it's in the car, and I have all the music that I need in there! ;)
Lol@ some of the earlier responses from the daftees, which I'll get to after my morning coffee and croissant! :eyebrows:
Marco.
Lol@ some of the earlier responses from the daftees, which I'll get to after my morning coffee and croissant!
:lol: always wanted to be one of Marco's daftee's
Morning coffee and croissant eh? I rest me' case m'lud ;)
Yesh, wear your daftness with pride... You'll have to wait now until I've finished the glass of Chianti with my pasta - It's a hard life here, you know! :D
Marco.
14:53 and he's still on breakfast lunch.
I'm going to go up there and stuff some earphones in his lugs, that'll curdle his Chianti :ner:
Oooh, well that's different to what you stuffed me with the last time, shweety! :kiss:
:eyebrows:
Marco.
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