Feed: Didgeroo - New Media technology - AggScore: 74.0

Today Didgeroo launched another site built on its IndieSite.org platform.

Andy J Gallagher is an independent British punk rocker.  Previously Andy had released recordings on iTunes and other distribution services, however for his new studio album - Helicopter Dolphins Submarine, he want to go completely independent.

Andy commented "IndieSite is the business.  I get to sell anything I like and I keep all the money. iTunes can go get stuffed".

You can visit Andy's new site here : http://www.andyjgallagher.com

iTunes LP is a 256kbps unprotected AAC album that includes digital extras.

These digital extras include photos, videos and notes.

When you download an iTunes LP it includes all the .M4A music files along with a large (potentially over 500MB) .ITLP file for the digital extras. At this stage Apple has not released a dedicated iTunes LP Development Kit.  However it is still possible to create your own .ITLP beacuse it is simply a standard Web Archive containing a bunch of HTML, JS and CSS files along with the media files.

To view the contents of an .ITLP you need only to right click it and select "Show Package Contents":

You can find more information on building an ITunes LP on Jay Robinson's blog.

Didgeroo can also create iTunes LP. If you have an album on iTunes and you would like to turn it into an iTunes LP then contact us today.

Did you notice many differences after upgrading to your Mac to Snow Leopard?

One change I instantly noticed was how vivid the screen colours are now.  They appear more saturated.  After some googling I discovered that Snow Leopard's default colour profile has changed from 1.8 to 2.2.  You can see the difference here:

Gamma 2.2 is considered industry standard so I think this is a good more. You can read more about gamma correction in this interesting Wikipedia article.

Quicktime X Pro

Another noticeable change to Snow Leopard is Quicktime X.  The new version features a very clever  seemless window that looks great! However it lacks many of the features I had come to rely upon.  Basically all the export options have been dumbed down! Great for many home users but a disaster for any video professionals.

Well fear not, the answer is simple.  You can still use Quicktime 7 Pro. In fact it's already installed. Take a look in the Utilities folder under Applications.

Overall I am very happy with the upgrade. Good work Apple!

Heading to the 2009 V-Festival in Chelmsford at the end of this month? The organisers site map has always been notoriously abysmal. No scale and no north indicator (strangely their official map always points west instead of north!).

Instead of complain yet again I thought I would take action into my own hands and quickly though together a Google Map. Already several hundred people have viewed it.  Check it out here:

http://maps.google.co.uk

Our friends at Smashing Magazine have posted a fantastic article on Google Analytics.  Be sure to check out the section on setting goals and custom reporting.

For some time I've been using the same Mac Dashboard widget the article recommend - Dashalytics - check it out if you have an Apple Macintosh.

The article also recommends a couple of excellent iPhone Apps for Google Analytics.

[Read more via Smashing Magazine]

Both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G came with a pitiful 2 megapixel camera with no focus control.  This was bad news if you wanted to read QR codes.

Things have improved somewhat with the release of the new iPhone 3GS. The built-in camera now has auto-focus, and its resolution increase to a slightly more respectable 3MP.

Given these improvements I was curious to see if this meant the iPhone could now handle smaller QR codes so I perfored some tests.  Here are my results:

These tests where performed using BeeTag Reader.  I have tested the half a dozen or so QR code readers available from Apples App store and I have found BeeTag to be the best of them.

Looking at these results you can see the new iPhone 3GS can read QR codes that are 40% smaller than the older iPhone 3G.  This is great news and definitely a step in the right direction, however it's still not sufficient to read many of the QR codes that appear on things such as postal mail and retail packing. For this to happen the iphone would need a switchable macro lenses like the mobile phones in Japan.

Tired of forgetting all your mates birthdays?

Sick of having to manually add facebook events to you iphone?

Well now you can have your facebook events and birthdays wirelessly syncing with your iPhone!  The brilliant people at mixin.com have built a fantastic facbook app that does all this for you for free.

All you need is the following:

• A facebook account
• iPhone or iPod Touch updated to version 3.x

Instructions after the break.

On your iPhone :

UPDATE  14 July 2009 : - Before you commence this procedure, I recommend you reset Safari on your iPhone by going to Settings/Safari/"Clear Cookies" and "Clear Cache".

1. Open Safari on your iPhone and go to this site: http://www.fbcal.com/create.php
2. You will be promoted to log into Facebook (if not already logged on)
3. Next, you will be promoted to grant "Allow Offline Access" (if not already granted).
4. You should now see the screen in fig1 (below). First, select your time zone from the drop-down list.
5. Next, click the Events iCal link
6. After a few seconds, you will be prompted to subscribe to the calendar (refer fig2 below).
7. Click the Subscribe button
8. About 30 seconds later, a prompt will confirm you have added the calendar (refer fig3 below).
9. Click Done
10. Repeat steps 5 & 6 for the Birthdays iCal link
11. You can now change the view in your Calendar app to show All Calendars or just one of the facebook calendars (see fig4 & fig5 below)

fig1 - refer step 4 above

fig2 - refer step 6 above

fig3 - refer step 8 above

fig4- refer step 11 above

fig5- refer step 11 above

Notes:

• You can remove the calendars by going to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars
• You can change the frequency the calendars are refreshed by going to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars/Fetch New Data

At long last the legend that is FSJ - Fake Steve Jobs has returned!

[Read]

Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, then no doubt you will have discovered Spotify.  I came across it a few months back and since then I find that I rarely bother with iTunes anymore.

Spotify seems almost too good to be true - thousands and thousands of free music tracks! Or is it?

I've just finished reading an excellent article on El Reg, "The Great Spotify Mystery".  Here's some of the highlights:

• Major labels own 30%+ of Spotify through equity investments. Most of that money is simply being recycled in royalties.
• Spotify's business model basically consists for selling user data and listening stats back to the record companies.
• Most users are 30-50 year olds, and are using it for rediscovering music.
• 35% of playlists are whole albums
• Spotify has spent a total of £5000 on marketing

It seems to me that Spotify represents the the last gasps for air by the old Majors Labels as they drown in an ocean of free music.

[Read more via The Register]

If you were offered the following, which would you choose?

1. Download album £7.99
2. Physical album £14.99
3. Download and physical album £14.99

In a recent study it was found that most people would choose the 3rd option. However when the study is repeated with just options 1 and 3, then most people would instead go for option 1.

This is because option 2 is a psychological decoy. It gives the impression that option 3 represents the best value for money, even though it is more expensive than option 1. Pretty smart hey?

It's Marketing 101, however it's a strategy that the music industry hasn't seemed to have caught onto just yet.

[via MillionMedia]