Archive for the 'Tryphoon' Category

My Top 10 iPhone Applications and Games. What’s yours?

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Tryphoon
on August 12, 2008
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It has now been a month since the release of the firmware 2.0 (and subsequent 2.0.1) for the iPhone and I have over this period of time had enough time to install, uninstall, reinstall several of the new applications available for the Jesus Phone. As everybody else seems to have done on the Interweb and helping my buddy Miles who just bought his own iPhone, here is my top ten of the apps I have been running on my phone… And I mean not just seating there but being used at least once a day!

1 - AOL Radio

No doubt about this one! I use it every day when I go running, I use at home in the morning (to not wake the while family up) and even sometimes at night. All of the CBS and AOL Radios on, including KROQ as well as several stations only available today on HD Radio (such as KROQ2). The beauty of it is that if I hear a song I like on KROQ, I can simply purchase it immediately on the iTunes store or on the AOL Music store.

AOL Radio

AOL Radio

2 - Twinkle

As much as I can rant about Twitter, I am still hooked to the damn thing and Twinkly is probably (for now) the best Twittin’ client on the iPhone, adding geolocation and finding other users twitting around you, which is fun and can lead to discovering interesting people living just around the block.

Twinkle

Twinkle

3 - Jott

This is the new best thing since sliced bread! I am pathetic with names, places or simply short term memory. I see and hear a million things a day about things I’d love to read, listen to, buy, visit, eat at, etc. So the only way for me to remember all these names, albums, addresses is to note them as I hear them. Sadly, I am not such a fast typer or often, I hear these suggestions on the radio while driving. Jott simply lets me dictate to my iPhone any sentence and will transcribe it and send it back to my to do list within minutes.

The beauty of it: It even works if you speak Franglaise…

Jott

Jott

4 - Evernote

Similar to Jott except that this one works with images and diagrams. Jott does speach to text. Evernote does OCR. The beauty in this one: It recognizes hand writing (even mine), making any search extremely easy.

Evernote

Evernote

5 - Shazam

10 times per day I hear a song I like but I don’t know or can’t remember the name of it and am hence unable to buy it. Well, Shazam does this for me. Place the phone close to a speaker, wait for 10 seconds and “Shazam”, it gives you the name of the song, the album and a direct access to the iTunes store to purchase it. Welcome impulse buy!

Shazam

Shazam

6 - Pandora

More music. More music… This one is the iPhone version of the now famous Pandora online service, based on the Genome Project. Ask Pandora for a play list based on a song, an artist, a mood or a variation of these and Pandora Radio will create youe little radio station, just for you. Then vote “I Like” or “I dislike” when ever a new song is played and your playlist gets even better, matching your musical taste even better…

Pandora

Pandora

7 - Wordpress

Well, you’re on my little Blog. I run a couple of other ones (one about my baby girl and and another one (already started) about our second baby, for our friends and family abroad). Wordpress on the iPhone is a blessing. There are soooo many things I’d like to post but only so much time to write about it…

Wordpress

Wordpress

8 - Super Monky Ball

Game. Fab. Stuck at level 5 (Easy mode). I know, I suck!

Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball

9 - Exposure

Why oh Why Flickr haven’t released an iPhone app yet… Oh wait, their management might be busy trying to avoid hostile take over or major board fight. Well, someone else did and Exposure is a a simple Flickr viewer, making use as well of Geolocation, letting me find pictures taken around my location. Pretty neat!

Exposure

Exposure

10 - The New York Times

Well, that’s it. It is the NYT, available in my pocket! I eat news whenever I can and this helps me find these precious seconds…

NYT

NYT

11 - Bubbles

I know, this is a top ten, but I couldn’t not include Bubbles in this list! This little app gives us minutes of peace when at the restaurant with Thia. She can pop bubbles and create more bubbles on the screen and pop them, and create more, etc…

Bubbles

Bubbles

Any parent should have this app on their iPhone.

So this concludes my Top 10. What is yours?

Damn Twitter!

Published
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Tryphoon
on August 8, 2008
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Most of the people following my Twitter feed are aware of my unhappyness about the Twitter stability! This thing, simply built on hype and now the focus of an entire parallel economy, has been down so often this year that it is a simple wonder that they still managed to aquire some VC money!

I personally still don’t see what their potential business model is, I still don’t see what the potential business model of this entire fleet of new mashup tools online applications and desktop applications are! And I still can’t understand why other tools that seem to be built for robustness (e.g. Pownce) are just not taking off..

If you are unaware of the amount of these mashups, here is a quick list provided by the Twitter Fan Wiki, there are already over 70 mashup tools, ranging from the upload of your pictures to the twitter feed (THE missing feature of Twitter) to the most ridiculous mashups (timeline + google maps + 3D effects + The age of the captain + spell checker + direct answers to your question)… If you think this is crazy, the same Twitter Fan Wiki has a list of way over 200 various desktop applications using the Twitter feed! Why oh why?! 

Someone here tells me that Twitter is not one of the prime example of the Bubble 2.0 getting super inflated before another super burst? Come on! A service that doesn’t work, that doesn’t have a real revenue model or licensing model, that still generates parallel services and grabs VC money?! Oh yeah! Sounds like Boo.com all over again?!

And here I am, ranting once more about Twitter, its lack of stability, its super limited set of features and its super inflated bubble like economy, but still using the damn Twitt’ thing! From my desktop, from my iPhone, from my laptops, from anywhere!

Thanks to Crunchgear’s Nicholas Deleon and his brother Gabriel,  here is now a good representation of the way I feel sometimes about this addictive but useless service.

In which I meet with Def Leppard

Published
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Tryphoon
on August 1, 2008
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Still catching up with overdue posts: Jef is gone but made sure he got me back on the “live music” path before he left…

Back in April, talking to one of my colleague at the office (one of the few Brits working there), I was describing in great length our impromptu gig on the streets of LA and my love for good old rock ‘n’ roll… During that chat, this colleague of mine, who will remain anonymous to avoid people to harass him, asked me if I would be interested in going and see some old heavy metal band, I name Def Leppard, who were playing at some weird location in the middle of an Indian reserve, 1 1/2 hours east of LA…

Soboba Indian Reserve

Def Leppard? Was he joking? I used to be a major fan of the band, back in… ouch… 1988-1990… Well, good music always remains good music and I would have been silly to refuse such an offer. He started to explain to me that he knew some guy who was in some way related to the band and had been friends of theirs for years and as a result, every now and then, he got the opportunity to go and see them performing. OK, fine, I don’t care much (at that point) as long as I can be there and enjoy the gig!

On the day of the gig, I wish good night to the little monster and her mummy and jump on the pimp mobile and start my trek into uncharted territories. As planned, 1 1/2 later, I reach the Soboba casino, in the middle of the freaking desert: the latest place on earth I would have expected to see a band of international caliber playing! Once again, my first thought is: Who cares as long as the band plays!

Def Leppard

I meet with my anonymous colleague in front of the venue and am handed my ticket and… backstage pass! Oh oh!! Now we’re talking! We look for our seats and I realize that we are, well, simply in front of the stage! One step closer and we are with the band! Fan-freaking-tastic! Not only will I get to see a band I love but I am as well going to see them from extremely close and even maybe meet with them after the gig if my colleague’s relation is around and manages to get us introduced.

Def Leppard

The gig is fab, the band still amazingly fresh  and the audience is… well… as good as you would expect it in such venue! :) Half way through the gig, my colleagues bends towards me and explains that “the guy I have to thank for the ticket is the dude with the white jacket”. I look at the stage, I look at him and answer: “Do you mean Rick Savage, the bass player? He is the only one with a white jacket that I can see from here!?!?”. He smiles and silently confirms that his real connection with the band his their bass player aka Sav… I check my backstage pass and realize that it is initialed RS… Holly smokes!! I guess that y friend’s friend is a friend of Sav…

Def Leppard

Once the gig ended, we started our walk towards the backstage area (less than a minute away in this place) and ended up chatting (very briefly) to the band’s long lasting Tour Manager (remove him and the show stops) and waiting for some form of after party to begin. Sadly, as this concert was the band’s last on on the US leg of their World tour, band members were busy moving their stuff from their tour busses to their various cars, vans, driving back to LA that night!

Backstage

So no big party ahead. I’m a bit disappointed for a couple of minutes (despite the long drive home requiring soberness) and as we are about to leave the place, Sav himself summons my buddy for a quick chat at the back of one of their buses. The guy explains to us that he usually dislikes crowds and seems to prefer hiding from them…

As I had been warned about but would have never expected, I found Sav to be one of the nicest guy I’ve met in a long time. Down to Earth, big time and not passionate about himself (like so many “Almost made it to stardom” kind of guys). No, his passions seem to be genuine and simple. Music. Pleasing crowds, a quick drink and last but absolutely not least Footie aka Soccer (especially if not only the Sheffield Wednesday club).

The result of this meeting is something quite out of the ordinary:

  • We’re in the middle of an Indian (native Americans) reserve (let’s face it, in the middle of freaking nowhere)
  • Chatting with the Bass player of one of the bands I have been revering for years
  • No bullshit is involved…
  • Coz’ we’re talking about the English Football League…

If only we would have had more time or a pub around, I am sure this evening would have been even more interesting!!!

PS: As per usual, more interesting pics in the appropriate section

Our first earthquake in California…

Published
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Tryphoon
on July 29, 2008
in Californication and Tryphoon
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Liveblogging: We are currently all quarantined in one of the 18th floor of the Burbank center, waiting for any possible aftershock of our very first earthquake since we moved to the US, 18 months ago.

5.8 Earthquake in Los Angeles
5.8 Earthquake in Los Angeles

This was at least the first one we felt! And at 5.8 on the Richter scale, it would have been hard to miss it!!!

So the status so far: big shake (spooky). Few tremors before and after. Sarah is fine at home, while obviously shocked.

It had to happen at some point!

Oh, and being in the US, we can follow it live on TV

Updated 2:05PM: Just received a note from our Disney Emmergency group: “Please note that, according to the National Earthquake Center, aftershocks of varying intensity are likely within the next 72 hours”. I am feeling so much better now!

In which Jef comes to LA, Thia is happy and I rediscover the joy of live music

Published
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Tryphoon
on July 24, 2008
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After a year of hesitation, my “little bro” Jef finally came to LA a couple of month ago  and stayed with us for a couple of weeks (catching up on blog posts). I offered him to finance his flight (thanks to my remaining air miles) as a birthday present, removing the burden of having to choose between changing his boiler in his London apartment and visiting us.

After a difficult start seeing his inbound flight delayed then canceled, Jef finally made it to LAX, only delayed by a couple of hours, visiting on his way here the SFO airport. No need to say that Thia was ecstatic to see him (he his her Godfather as well as her silly “uncle”) and the first night of his stay was punctuated with laughter and a little one going to bed way passed her bed time!

It would take too long to describe in great details all the things that we did during his stay with us, but for the both of us, one of the highlight of his visit was some impromptu gig witnessed on the streets of LA.

For those who know Jef, you are aware that one of his passion is music, which is one of the reason we clicked so well as soon as he moved in with me in our London house several years ago. So, young Jef, always eager to find another chance to enjoy some privileged gig (he is the king of ending up backstage with acts) found out that Ben Harper, one of his favorite singer, was playing a couple of songs at the recording of the Late Night Show at NBC, only 2 streets away from where we live. Jef then conviced Sarah to join him and while I was working my socks off at the office, the 2 enjoyed a semi private gig on a TV set!

The story would be boring if it ended there but during the taping of the show, Jef heard that the band was playing that night an almost secret gig at a place called the Hotel Cafe, somewhere in Hollywood. So straight after the first gig, I picked Jef up and off we went to the cafe/club/bar. Once on site, we realized that the main act wasn’t Ben Harper but (even better) Tom Morello playing one of his nightwatchman gigs. Our sole problem at that point: The queue! The gig was meant to start at 8:00PM and here we were, at 8:10, still queuing on the street, doubting we would ever make it in. After almost an hour of queuing, we thought that all hope was definitely lost, despite being within the first 10 people not making it in, when the door dude kindly explained to us that the place was full, no one else would get in but “Tom almost always come outside and plays for the people who didn’t make it”… To good to be true! And so after a little while, Tom Morello appears in front of us and starts to play in the backstreet an acoustic gig for 20 to 30 privileged and overjoyed fans!

This sadly didn’t last long and after a couple of songs, Mr. Morello explained that he had to get back in and play on the main stage but that we shouldn’t leave as would make sure that we wouls always have some act coming out and do a little something. So we stayed and waited a little bit more. The wait was more than worth it and acts started coming out to perform in this back alley shortly after, including some Nine Inch Nails member (we were told and I am still dubious about this one), singer Perry Farrell, Incubus’ guitarist Mike Einziger and last but not least, Ben Harper and band! And so it went for over 2 hours, one act, one jam, one slice of fun after the other!

Tom Morello obviously came out every now and then, either between acts or jamming with them until finally his gig, inside the Hotel Cafe ended and everybody decided to go home or carry on partying somewhere else… We went home…

And so was one of the highlight of Jef’s stay in Los Angeles… More pictures available in the Pics section

As previously said, there would be too many good things to write about, Jef’s birthday, my birthday (for once not celebrated in Las Vegas during NAB), Thia’s morning visits to a sleepy Jef and tons of smiles and laughters, our evenings at our local pub (Timmy Nolans), Jef’s visit to Tijuana in a brand new rental sports car, without any insurance, rented under my name (we freaked) and simply having Jef here, with us, the same way it used to be in London.

Sadly, every good thing has to end at some point and Jef returned to London, leaving a very sad Thia behind and a very empty house where none of us really wanted to acknowledge that he was gone for a couple of days…

See you soon little bro, you know the door is always open for you!