iPads for chord charts

Tonight, at a rehearsal for an upcoming Whitney Houston gig at Blue Frog, I witnessed the amazing progress of chord charts. From Real Books, to Fake Books, to Tablature, to iReal Book, and iPads.

Yes, two of my band mates were using iPads to write down chord charts for the songs. I am sure they will use them for their gigs too. If you are a hip musician, an iPad might just be what you need.

(For those who don’t know, iReal Book is a great app available on the Apple store [for iPhones and iPads] and the Android store for our favorite Android phones. It’s worth every rupee that you spend on it.)

iPhone 4S: apple fanaticism or true technological masterpiece?

I had a conversation with Vinokur, my ex boyfriend. During the whole duration of the conversation, he told me how impressive iPhone 4S actually is. He said that it’s just the right size, ergonomical, user friendly, intuitive, beautiful, and just a must-buy gadget.

He even contrasted it with Motorola Razr, which he used for a few weeks after he lost his iPhone 3 and before iPhone 4S was available commercially. He thought was the Razr was a piece of trash and Android was not even close to competing with iPhone and iStore for apps.

I was left wondering whether all this is true. I trust his judgment almost blindly, but I think he might be a little biased. After all, he upgrades his iMac every time a better model releases and has a few iPods and a Macbook. As my friend put it, “Seems like a severe case of Apple Fanboy, currently incurable.”

I need to buy a new phone soon. Despite the fact that I love physical QWERTY keypads, I am considering to buy a full touch-screen phone just because all the good, new models don’t have such a keypad. So, I’m still considering the iPhone 4S as an option in spite of its enormous price tag.

Apple Store in India? And a date!

So, I posted a message on my FaceBook wondering why Apple never launched an Apple Store in Mumbai. I got a few responses saying that there are indeed Apple Stores in Mumbai. I had made it clear to them that I was not talking to them about premium sellers – I have one right next to my apartment. I’m talking about actual Apple Stores. Like they have in the US, where prices are not exorbitant.

Some of my friends convinced me that there are indeed Apple stores in Mumbai. I was excited. I wanted to check them out, especially since I was considering buying a laptop before I headed out for my trip to Lucknow in December.

So, I asked my honey from the office, my wonderful colleague SN from office, to come out with my to check the ‘Apple Store’ at Palladium mall (Phoenix, Lower Parel) and have a dinner afterward.

We went. We found out that it was not an Apple Store after all – it was an ‘iStore’, a premium reseller chain operated by Reliance. I even tried finding the reason why. Apparently, Apple can’t yet sell its products in India without tying up with third party companies. And with the taxes etc, the prices go up over the roof. So, there is indeed no Apple Store in India.

At the store, however, I was charmed by MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iPads, iMacs and what not. I think I’m becoming a sucker for Apple stuff. Incredible turnaround isn’t it, considering that I wrote this barely a week back. Now I want to buy an Apple laptop and an iPad soon. Hmmm…

After that, we had lovely tenderloin/bacon cheeseburgers with beer and coffee (me and SM, respectively). Over tons of jokes. A hell load of laughter. I SO love her!

At the back of my mind, I was thinking about getting back in touch with May. I told SN about the current situation with her. She inspired me to do something about it by messaging her. I did. We have agreed to meet in a couple of weeks’ time.

Podcasts and more

What a nice lazy Sunday it was. Usually, my Sundays are boring. Lazy and boring. But today was a little different. Instead of just sleeping and watching TV shows (BattleStar Galactica now), I spent some time going through the radio and podcast options on iTunes.

First of all, I’m not a big fan of iTunes. But you have to admit that it’s pretty decent to manage/listen to podcasts and radio. I haven’t used many podcast managers – hell, I haven’t even listened to too many apart from a brief period in 2007  - but iTunes seems to be best and the easiest.

So, I discovered that they had BBC World Service as Radio 4. That was good. I discovered the NPR Programs channel, which I listened to for a few hours. I, in fact, recommended it to my dear friend from office who was nostalgic about NPR – she used to listen to it when she was in the States.

Apart from that, I discovered a weird Alternative Talk Radio station (to which I slept to) which dealt with life, positivity, exercise, diet, self-esteem etc. That was fun too – to know that dark chocolate and sugar (plain white sugar) do the exact opposite to your mood.

Then I discovered a TWiT – a radio/TV station which broadcasts quality content about computers and other geeky stuff. Jeez, you gotta love this channel if you are a nerd. I also watched their TV show for a few hours. I think they do repetitions of programming, but it was still nice.

About podcasts – I found a few very interesting ones including comedy, history, greatest speeches of all time, and language lessons. I downloaded a few of them. I haven’t listened to them yet, but that will be soon.

So, the consensus is – if you are are an old fashioned fan of radio/talk, please find stuff on iTunes and listen to it. :) iTunes isn’t that bad after all!

I have started hating Apple

This Saturday, I bought myself an iPod shuffle with the gift vouchers that I got from the office. I was very happy to have bought my first Apple product. I came home, excitedly unwrapped the cute little glass box that it came in.

The packing was excellent. There was a pair of earphones and the USB cable for charging/syncing the iPod. But there was no instruction manual or guides. Well, it must be really simple, I thought.

So, I plugged the iPod in to the computer. The nightmare began. First it wouldn’t get installed properly. Then, I tried transferring some songs with Winamp and Media Monkey. That didn’t work. Then I Googled to find out what was wrong.

I found that iTunes was a compulsory installation for syncing iPods. After that got downloaded, I had to restart my computer and then I still faced several problems before finally being able to transfer songs using Media Monkey. In between, I tried tried the support at Apple.com to find out that it didn’t offer live assistant support for iPod Shuffles! Fuck you, Apple!

I test drove it on the road today. The quality of sound was good, but the earphones tended to fall out of my ears. All in all, a perfectly annoying experience.

Going by this, I have to think twice before going for other products like iPhones, Macbooks etc.

My own R2-D2

I was at a rehearsal the other day. As usual, I had gone directly from work and I unloaded my stuff on my friend’s table. The stuff unloaded included my wallet, my mobile phone, my bag, and my mp3 player.

Yes, you heard right. An mp3 player. Not an iPod. That’s right. I don’t have an iPod. In fact, I have never had one. My mp3 player is so retro that one of my band mates came up to me and said “What is R2-D2 doing here?”

Coming to think of it, yes, my mp3 player (Creative Zen Micro) looks likes the famous Star Wars character. Here check out a comparison of the images of the two. A white rounded structure with blinking lights.

Unfortunately, my mp3 player is not as resourceful or evergreen as R2-D2. It’s giving me a whole lot of problems and I’ve been considering buying an iPod classic (or a similar player) for about a year now. Should I switch to Apple?

I feel I should. But I don't know when I will eventually do this.