Sunday, March 5, 2006

Snaptune - FM to PC Snaptune: Remember recording radio to cassette?. I was introduced to Bill Baxter, one of the founders of new startup SnapTune, today. The company will be launching this week. With a little user configuration, Snaptune will automatically downloads songs and other content directly from an FM radio to your computer, and add meta data from Amazon and other sources. Setup requires a download (PC only right now, so I had to break out my old laptop), and connecting a FM receiver to the PC (including just about any FM radio via line in). The service also shows song information, including information obtained from Amazon.com’s web service. Snaptune One works with most FM tuner cards and USB FM devices, or you can simply connect an FM radio up to line-in on your PC to get started. For less than $2 for a simple cable you can get started with Snaptune today and start discovering an endless supply of new music. With a USB FM tuner you get the added benefit that Snaptune can tune to different stations for you according to a schedule you define. Snaptune One works with almost any radio station anywhere in the world. FM radio goes in, individual songs come out, it's that simple! Snaptune One also shows you information about each song, the albums that contain it, other albums by the same band, how popular it is on the radio, how new it is, whether it's going up or down in popularity, and detailed reviews for the albums from Amazon.com. With a couple of clicks of the mouse you can add any album you like into your Amazon.com shopping cart. According to Bill, Snaptune is able to find complete songs and other content in audio streams by using “advanced signal processing and search techniques”. When I pressed him for more details, he wouldn’t budge, citing IP protection concerns (fair enough), but added “it just works, try it!” Well, I wasn’t able to try it because I couldn’t find a USB FM receiver for my computer today (Fry’s for some crazy reason doesn’t carry them). I’ll be doing more “research” tomorrow though. Bill tells me CompUSA carries a bunch of different brands. Based on one of the screen shots, though, one thing is certain - Snaptune will do a good job pulling in meta data about the songs from Amazon and other sources (including user created data). Once the hardware is setup and the client installed, you simply set your favorite radio stations (and if you like, specific times of broadcasts), and Snaptune will automatically download the music and metadata for you. This is a music discovery service - like Pandora, you tell it something about what you like (in this case, certain stations and times), and Snaptune selects music for you based on that information. While you can use existing software to record FM on your computer, Snaptune does all of the hard work for you and guarantees full audio of the songs, etc. For free accounts, you can move up to 20 songs to your hard drive in MP3 or WMA format. You can, of course, then move these to a portable device, burn to cd, etc. There will also be an option for a premium account, which will have no limits on downloading. For premium accounts, it would be really great if they set up a RSS feed and included each song as an enclosure. Snaptune’s other founders include Mark Atherton and Ian Mercer. The company, which is self funded (that’ll change soon) is based in Bellvue, Washington. As I mentioned above, Snaptune should be launching this week. To be notified when it goes live, enter your email here. NOTE: I’m trying to figure out if I like this service better than Pandora. They are both excellent ways of discovering new music. With Pandora, you get instant gratification but no way to keep the music you like without buying it separately. I think I’ll use both. Snaptune Tags: pandora, music, radio, ipod, mp3, techcrunch, web2.0, web_2.0 [TechCrunch] 10:09:22 PM

Now On Mediaburn: Rondo Hatton His most notable eartly role was as a contestant in the "ugly man competition" (which he loses to Charles Laughton) in the RKO production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There was a time when his scowling, oversized visage, his battered black fedora, and his long black coat, were as familiar to horror fans as such characters as Frankenstein and Dracula. This character, who appeared in three films, was called "The Brute Man" or "The Creeper." Only that terrifying face wasn't a mask or a creation of makeup. It was an actual face, a product of a condition called agromegaly. And The Creeper never planned to be an actor at all, he was simply decorated war veteran-turned-Tampa reporter who had shown up one day to cover a film. The movie's director noticed him and recommended he move to Hollywood and pursue a career as a character actor. He was Rondo Hatton. [MetaFilter] 7:29:17 PM

Directions in Sound Directions in Sound - Asian American Film Festival event featuring The PACIFICS. The Asian American Film Festival in San Franciso is hosting Directions in Sound - two nights of music on Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18, 2006. The first night features primarily rock focused acts including From Monument To Masses, Whysall Lane, Love Like Fire, and Mike Park. This will be located at Cafe du Nord at 2170 Market Street, San Francisco (get directions). Grooveeffect was actually located one block from this venue for some time - it's our old 'hood. Now I'll admit I'm a little biased. Not to steal any of the previously mentioned groups' thunder, but on the Saturday March 18 edition of Directions in Sound they will be hosting a hip-hop night featuring none other than Chicago's own Filipino hip-hop group, The PACIFICS! Also on the bill is Kero One (Plug), Leejay Abucayan, Hakobo (Fresno), Mike Nice (Wordlife Productions), and DJ Proof (Massive Selector). The last time I saw The PACIFICS was like five years ago at a college show in Chicago with Typical Cats, and I was too drunk to really make much of it. This time around I'll definitely be sure to pay more attention (but I'm still probably going to be pretty drunk). This party is at the 111 Minna Gallery, $15 cover, 21+. Get tickets here. [Grooveeffect] 6:29:39 PM

PodServe Get Ready for PodServe (and more). Brian Oberkirch from Weblogswork gave me a demo of PodServe today. If you are a podcaster, or want to be, there are some features that you are going to be really interested in trying out. As I see it there are three important features of note. First, PodServe is a place where podcasters can host their podcasts for free. You simply create a channel and all of your podcasts are included. Brian interviewed me today (he’s an up an coming podcaster himself) - you can see the podcast interviews of me and others on his page here. As a podcaster, you can use this page as your main site, or you can simply point to the individual files in your own blog and they will be included as enclosures. Not only is this service free, but PodServe is also providing a RSS feed for the page (which you can use or not), and PodServe will also provide statistics and other tools to assist the publisher. Comments/reviews are also enabled on each site. If you are a podcaster looking for a free place to host your files, PodServe is an excellent choice. Second, PodServe also allows “social podcasts”. A channel can be created that allows a number of podcasters to submit files, and all will be included in the feed. The third notable feature is really interesting. Users can create full public podcast channels that anyone can add their content to. Two great examples are Brian’s Naked Conversations Discussion (podcasts discussing Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s new book) and Alexander Muse’s Elevator Pitch Podcast, which is a podcast that any company can use to submit an elevator pitch. I’m considering using the service to create something similar to the Elevator Pitch Podcast for use by TechCrunch readers. PodServe is just one product in a large new project called Big in Japan. Brian has been working on Big in Japan, along with Alexander Muse, for a long time now, and they are preparing to launch a number of the new products, including PodServe, at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin next week. If the other products are as interesting as PodServe, Big in Japan is going to be, well, big. Note: This is the second post I’ve done with my new MacBook Pro, and it just keeps getting better. I’m seriously impressed with this machine. Macs are really, really cool. Big In Japan, PodServe Tags: podcasting, brianoberkirch, alexmuse, alexander, muse, techcrunch, web2.0, web_2.0 [TechCrunch] 6:17:02 PM

Beer Entry Monks and Beer. Trappist Ale. (warning, music on first link.) The six Belgian breweries Achel (little English), Chimay, Orval, Rochefort (unofficial site), Westmalle (no English), and Westvleteren, along with the Dutch brewery De Konigshoeven/La Trappe (first is English link to monastery, second is non-English brewery site.) are the only recognized producers of Trappist beers, although the latter was only recently granted the appellation after several years without it. Ranging from the relatively commercial and large-scale operations of Chimay and La Trappe to the other extreme of Westvleteren, who want to live quietly and don't want their beer distributed, these beers are considered some of the best in the world. [MetaFilter] 6:07:33 PM

1964 World's Fair Triumph World's E-fair-mera: The Triumph of Man. triumph on vinyl I made an amazing find today while browsing through my local antique mall; a 33 1/3-rpm red souvenir vinyl record in an illustrated sleeve from the Travelers Insurance pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair! This pavilion contained an exhibit called The Triumph of Man, comprised of 13 dioramas illustrating the history of the human race from caveman to astronaut, and each diorama had a voiceover recorded by well-known narrator, Peter Thomas [Link] After listening to the record and looking at the wonderful sleeve illustrations, I felt compelled to transfer it to a virtual format in an attempt to recreate at least a little of what it must've been like to stand in front of each diorama while listening to our humble narrator's ponderous retelling of The Black Death and Man's Leap to the Stars. After a few hours of scanning and wysiwyg-ing, I had my very own Triumph of Man virtual pavilion, which I now gladly share with you. If you have a fast connection and a browser that supports embedded audio, click on the following link which will take you to a gallery of 13 diorama images from the record sleeve. Click on each image to view it in a larger popup window, then play the MP3 segment below to hear the uplifting saga that accompanies it. [Link] If you're on a dial-up and don't wish to wait for all those MP3 clips to load, simply follow this link to the no-audio version. [Link] [Eye of the Goof] 5:39:30 PM