Aug
31
2007
KDE 4.0 pushed back to December 20th
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Not a huge surprise if you have tried out the Techinical Preview 1 of KDE this past month, but the KDE mailing list has announced that KDE 4.0 will be released 2 months later, from the prior October 23 release date to December 20th. This will allow the KDE team to include two extra Beta releases before shipping the final version. KDE 4.0 is a significant jump from the current 3.5 version, so the extra time needed for development is not surprising and should result in a more polished release. Furthermore this gives Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon users one less reason to complain about. The release date now for KDE 4.0 is : Read more
News |
Aug
31
2007
Yu Aoi to appear in Bong Joon-ho’s (The Host) “Shaking Tokyo”
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Well there’s not much that would make me dizzy with excitement but this would be such news. Like a fantasy wish coming to life one of the best directors on the planet Bong Joon-Ho will direct a 30 minute segment of an upcoming joint Japanese/Korean/French film “Tokyo” (working title) with none other than Yu Aoi. Bong Joon-Ho is the celebrated Korean director responsible for the top grossing Korean film of all time “The Host”, one of my personal top five favorite films of all time “Barking Dogs Never Bite” and the scintillating true life serial killer movie “Memories of Murder”. Yu Aoi is the gifted twenty two year old Japanese actress that first received attention with 2001 performance in Shunji Iwai’s “All About Lily Chou-Chou” and received even more acclaim with her memorable performance in Shunji Iwai’s “Hana and Alice”. Read more
News |
Aug
31
2007
James Yorkston & the Athletes
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
A user provided tip sometimes provides interesting stuff and I did get an email last week about such an artists named James Yorkston & The Athletes. Some artists that have appeared on James Yorkston & The Athletes’s albums are Kieran Hebdon (Four Tet), King Creosote and Lone Pigeon. That should give you a good idea about his musical style.
In the past “… Yorkston was an integral early member of the Fence Collective whose reach across contemporary music continues to lengthen: King Creosote, The Aliens, KT Tunstall. All the above share Fence roots and a shackles-off mentality with Yorkston.” Read more
News |
Aug
30
2007
Liars - Liars
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Artist : Liars
Album : Liars
Release Date : August 28, 2007
Website : Liars
Label : Mute
Rating : 6.0
(9 Votes, User Rating: 6.89)
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Aug
30
2007
M83 announces “Ambient Series: Digital Shades” & preps new album for early 2008
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
The French one man band M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) sure did release a whoozy of an album with his 2003 debut “Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts”. The record had nearly the perfect blend of shoegaze and electronica aesthetics mixed into one potent concoction. His follow up album 2005 “Before the Dawn Heals Us” wasn’t nearly as appealing to me with its gloomy prog-electronica that lost me, but the album did receive a general positive response. In the meantime M83 is about to launch “Digital Shades Vol. 1″ on September 4th, 2007. The record is an ambient moodpiece and will be released digitally only. M83 will then follow up in early 2008 with a proper 3rd full length album. Read more
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Aug
30
2007
Apple’s Sept. 5th Media Event “The Beat Goes On”
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Apple is holding a special media event on September 5th and of course speculation on what Apple may announce is running rampant. General consensus seems to believe a refresh of the iPod is coming, particular NAND based players that run a modified OS X - with features similar to the iPhone. Others also speculate that iTunes may offer HD via iTunes. A little recap of what Apple related websites are saying : Read more
News |
Aug
29
2007
Naruto & More Naruto
Posted by luna6 | 2 Comments
The recent release of Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash In The Land of Snow on the bigscreen in the U.S. sure seemed to have gone well for that storied anime franchise. If you find yourself still lusting for more Naruto there’s relief coming soon. A lot of relief. A lot of Naruto. The Naruto manga - vol. 16, 17, 18 - will be released on September 4th at your local Naruto dealerships. On September 20, the Naruto Anime Profiles (episodes 38-80) will be released ($17.99). Finally the big bad Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash In The Land of Snow wil be released on September 4th. The movie will sell at Best Buy and come with a free Naruto mouse pad, BGI (Borders and Waldenbooks) will sell the movie and give away a Lenticular cover, and finally Transword (FYE and Suncoast) will sell the movie and give away an exclusive Naruto Lunch Box. Come to think of it, I want the Naruto lunch box. Read more
News |
Aug
29
2007
Elgato Turbo.264
Posted by luna6 | 3 Comments
Elgato Systems, the maker of the very impressive EyeTV, has released another cool nifty device for the Mac platform. The Turbo.264 is a thumb size USB stick video encoder that accelerates encodings for the iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, or PSP formats. Turbo.264 also comes bundled with its own elegant software to manage those encodings. The unit is especially well suited for Mac Mini, MacBook and iMac owners that encodes video often but would like to free up resources for other tasks. Not bad for a suggested retail price of $99.
Installing the turbo.264 was about as easy as it can get. Drag & drop the Turbo.264 application into the applications folder, plug in the turbo.264 usb stick and away you go. On my first generation 2.0 Ghz Black MacBook I consistently achieved encoding speeds of 35-45 frames per second with the Turbo.264 at iPod High Quality setting. When encoding the same file, using Handbrake (a software only solution) I would get 18-20 frames per second for encoding. What that translates to is for a 2 hour movie, you can expect Turbo.264 to encode the file in about 70 minutes, while without Turbo.264 it would take about 180 minutes. Furthermore cpu usage hovered around 25% while using Tubro.264 vs. 85% without Turbo.264.
Actually using the Turbo.264 software application was just as simple - drag & drop a video file into the Turbo.264 software. Power users may find the lack of fine tuning settings to be a flaw, but for most people I would think it would be a non-issue. After all, the video is being compressed down to a much lower resolution for play back on smaller iPod / iPhone / AppleTV / or PSP device – not exactly high definition. Yet the video quality looked as good as expected for its respective video resolution and bit rate settings. The Turbo.264 software does offer real time thumbnail previews of the encoding process. There are also readouts for the encoding speed and remaining time left for completion. For the file format selection, if you select “Custom” rather than one of the preset formats there are basic options to adjust size, aspect ratio, overscan, frame rate, data rate, and audio quality.
Video formats supported for the Turbo.264 are any of the codecs supported within QuickTime. Output format options are Apple TV (H.264 - 800×600 & 5 Mbps max), iPod Best Video (H.264 – 640×480 & 1.5 Mbps max), iPod Small Video (H.264 – 320×240 & 768 kbps max), and Sony PSP Video (H.264 – 368×208/320×240 & 512 Kbps). Obviously with the bigger video formats the more file space the recordings take up.
Furthermore you can use the Turbo.264 with third party applications that exports via QuickTime, like iMovie, QuickTime Player Pro and Elgato EyeTV. As an example, in iMovie when you’re ready to encode, select “Share” and choose the “Movie to iPod (Elgato Turbo.264)” option and the encoding will be done through turbo.264. Export options in EyeTV that used Turbo.264 were :
1) iPod button at the top of the EyeTV Programs window (if H.264 iPod exports are chosen in the EyeTV General Preferences)
2) Apple TV button at the top of the EyeTV Programs window
3) A scheduled recording set to export to Apple TV
4) A scheduled recording set to export to an H.264 iPod format
5) The “for Apple TV” export option, from the File menu > Export
6) The “for iPod (Best)” export option, from the File menu > Export
7) The “for iPod (Smallest)” export option, from the File menu > Export
8) The “for PSP (H.264)” export option, from the File menu > Export
What I loved the most about the Turbo.264 was the no hassle manner in which the device worked. I never actually had the incentive to export videos to my iPod before, but with the Turbo.264 I actually encoded tons of music videos, music dvds and feature films for my iPod. If you regularly record tv shows with EyeTV then Turbo.264 makes exporting those files even easier. The speed improvements while encoding is blazing as well. If you own a Mac Mini and regularly encode video the Elgato Turbo.264 is a must have device. For older G4 owners and new MacBook & iMac owners, you will also see a significant speed improvement in encoding time and furthermore your computer will have none of the overheard associated with encoding via a software only solution. New PowerMac and Powerbook owners would see less benefit but it may still be worthwhile to checkout if you encode video files heavily. Elgatgo’s Turbo.264 is a one trick pony, but it does that one trick very well. Sweet job Elgato.
System Requirements :
- Macintosh computer with PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5 or Intel Core processor
- 512 MB of RAM
- built-in USB 2.0 port
- Mac OS X 10.4 (or later)
- QuickTime 7.1.5 (or later)
- iTunes 7.1.1 (or later)
Included in Package :
Turbo264 video encoder hardware
- Turbo264 video converter software (CD-ROM)
- USB cable
- Quick Start Guide
Pro’s :
Speed improvements encoding video files are very good.
Frees up the computer to handle other tasks while encoding video files
Works well with EyeTV, iMovie and QuickTime Pro.
Con’s :
Not a lot of options for tuning encoding settings.
Does not encode real time video with programs like iSight.
Works only with QuickTime enabled exports, Handbrake won’t work with turbo.264.
(6 Votes, User Rating: 7.17)
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Aug
29
2007
Asia’s largest cinema event, the Pusan International Film Festival announced today its opening and closing films for its 12th annual run (Oct. 4 - Oct 12 2007). The festival will kick off with the world premiere of “Assembly” directed by Xiaogang Feng (A World Without Thieves/ The Banquet). The closing film will be Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone a Japanimation by Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsuruamkai, and Masayuki.
The much-anticipated “Assembly” is the latest film directed by the celebrated Chinese director Xiaogang Feng. “Assembly” is an adaptation of a short story about a soldier who seeks recognition for his fallen comrades during the Chinese civil war in 1949 between the Communists and the Nationalists, who retreated to Taiwan.The film will also be the first mainland Chinese film to open PIFF. Read more
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Aug
28
2007
The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Artist : The Go! Team
Album : Proof of Youth
Release Date : September 11, 2007
Website : The Go! Team
Label : Sub Pop
Rating : 9.0
(11 Votes, User Rating: 7.64)
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Aug
28
2007
Galaxie 500 - unreleased tracks from their first demo tapes
Posted by luna6 | 1 Comment
“Tell me one more time, you like the shoes I wear.” Oh yes! Unreleased tracks from the first Galaxie 500 demo tapes are posted at the A Head Full Of Wishes website. The tracks available for download are “Open Road” “Well All Right” and “On The Sofa” and are all are just fascinating to hear. “Open Road” in particular gave me goose bumps. From the article at Head Full Of Wishes : Read more
News |
Aug
28
2007
Okkervil River on Conan O’Brien show tonight
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Sweet news : OKKERVIL RIVER will make their network television debut on NBC’s Conan O’Brien show tonight. The show starts at 12:35 EST, and the band will perform at about 1:25. Tune in! I’ll have my mythbox recording this in glorious HD. Read more
News |
Aug
28
2007
“M” playing at TIFF then opening up in Korea October 26
Posted by luna6 | 2 Comments
Playing at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival and then opening up in South Korea on October 26 is the new psychological thriller called “M”.
“M” stars the popular Korean actor Dong-won Kang (Maundy Thursday / Too Beautiful To Lie / The Duelist), performing in another dramatic role further moving away from the Korean Romance / Comedies which brought him to fame. His co-star in the film is the young Yeon-hee Lee who had her breakout role in the 2006 comedy “A Millionaire’s First Love”. “M” is directed by Myung-se Lee, who previously directed Dong-won Kang in the 2005 martial arts flick “The Duelist”. Read more
News |
Aug
27
2007
NeoOffice 2.2.1 for OS X ready for download
Posted by luna6 | 1 Comment
NeoOffice 2.2.1 for OS X has been officially released and is available for immediate download in PowerPC or Intel versions. If you haven’t heard of NeoOffice you may wonder to yourself “Why should I download another Office suite?” Well…there’s plenty of good reasons. NeoOffice is based off of OpenOffice but unlike OpenOffice for OS X, you don’t have to install X11 to install NeoOffice. Another benefit of NeoOffice is that the program uses the Aqua interface and looks like a native OS X application. Lastly, the new version of NeoOffice 2.2.1 includes new features like native Mac OS X Spellchecker, compatibility with the native Mac OS X address book and uses native OS X fonts. NeoOffice is also compatible with all OpenOffice formats as well as Microsoft Office 2007 formats. Pretty slick application I say and it’s free as well. NeoOffice 2.2.1 can be downloaded via NeoOffice’s Website. Read more
News |
Aug
27
2007
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Artist : Okkervil River
Album : The Stage Names
Release Date : August 07, 2007
Website : Okkervil River
Label : Jagjaguwar
Free Downloads : Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
Rating : 7.0
(12 Votes, User Rating: 8.42)
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Aug
27
2007
Dirty Projectors Tour Dates
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Free Downloads : “No More”
08/23/2007 @ the space gallery portland, Maine
08/24/2007 @ casa del popolo montreal, Quebec
08/25/2007 @ sneaky dee’s toronto, Ontario
08/26/2007 @ Bugjar Rochester, New York
08/27/2007 @ soundlab buffalo, New York
08/28/2007 @ beachland tavern cleveland, Ohio
08/29/2007 @ publico cincinatti, Ohio
08/30/2007 @ Buskirk Chumley Theatre Bloomington
08/31/2007 @ The B Side Ann Arbor, Michigan
09/01/2007 @ Beat Kitchen Chicago, Illinois
09/02/2007 @ Gardner Lounge, Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa
09/03/2007 @ Slowdown Jr. Omaha, Nebraska
09/04/2007 @ Hi Dive Denver, Colorado
09/05/2007 @ Kilby Court salt lake city, Utah
09/07/2007 @ Vera Project Seattle, Washington
09/08/2007 @ Satyricon Portland, Oregon
09/11/2007 @ Fool’s Foundation Sacramento, California
09/12/2007 @ Bottom Of The Hill San Francisco, California
09/13/2007 @ howie & sons visalia, California
09/14/2007 @ The Echo los angeles, California
09/16/2007 @ Casbah san diego, California
09/17/2007 @ Solar Culture Tucson, Arizona
09/19/2007 @ emo’s austin, Texas
09/20/2007 @ rudyard’s pub houstin, Texas
09/21/2007 @ spanish moon baton rouge, Louisiana
09/22/2007 @ club down under - florida state university tallahassee, Florida Read more
Aug
27
2007
Mum Tour Dates
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
10/23/2007 @ solana beach, ca (usa) - belly up tavern
10/24/2007 @ los angeles, ca (usa) - orpheum theater
10/25/2007 @ san francisco, ca (usa) - the grand
10/26/2007 @ portland, or (usa) - crystal ballroom
10/27/2007 @ seattle, wa (usa) - nuemo’s crystall ball reading room
10/30/2007 @ englewood, co (usa) - gothic theater
10/31/2007 @ lawrence, ks (usa) - granada theater
11/01/2007 @ chicago, il (usa) - logan square auditorium
11/02/2007 @ toronto (can) - opera house
11/03/2007 @ montreal (can) - théâtre national
11/04/2007 @ somerville, ma (usa) - somerville theater
11/06/2007 @ atlanta, ga (usa) - roxy theater
11/07/2007 @ washington, dc (usa) - sixth & i synagogue
11/09/2007 @ new york, ny (usa) - the wordless music series at st. paul the apostle
11/10/2007 @ new york, ny (usa) - the wordless music series at st. paul the apostle Read more