Hey, @Zune! Adele > Lil Wayne! Just saying.

December 29, 2011 Leave a comment

Zune decided to name Lil Wayne its “Artist of 2011″. Now square that with Adele’s album 21 being named “Album of 2011″. So you can be the top artist but not have the top album? I never understood that. In any event, for me, Adele has to take the top spot this year for me. I’m sorry Zune, but I honestly think you blew this choice. From the moment I heard her song “Rumour Has It” I was hooked. She has the voice, power, drive, and command to really make music shine. And she did this going against the counter-culture, which is to say she doesn’t have the ‘breast flauntation’ of a Katy Perry or the sexy album cover of a Britney Spears.

Adele let the music speak for itself and, dammit, it spoke volumes.

Now, I also made a bigger push on the international front this year, so to summarize I’ve discovered some great music is going on outside of our borders. If I had to choose a top artist from the international bunch, hands down, it would be Supreme Team, the hip-hop outfit out of Korea. My intro to them “Dang Dang Dang” was all kinds of awesome and I look forward to checking out more of their music in the future.

Of course music, as with any art, is subjective and people may even disagree with Adele or Lil Wayne being Artist of the Year. Hell, there are people who don’t even like the idea of naming an artist of the year. But I have to say that if there was a voice that just purely captivated me it would have to be Adele. It makes it, then, more sad that she had to endure surgery but I hope that she returns bigger and better. We need that voice in our lexicon!

Oh and sorry, I don’t do Top 10 lists… I leave that to the professionals like David Letterman.

Filed under Music

Windows Phone Podcast Management: I’m doing it wrong!

December 28, 2011 4 Comments

Or at least that’s what I’d like to think…

You see, I’m enjoying that I don’t have to sync to my home PC all of the time to get content either on my Zune HD or Windows Phone. Thanks to the wonders of WiFi syncing and, in the case of Windows Phone, on-device podcast management, I can just use my PC whenever I want to create specific playlists and what not using my local collection. It feels liberating to not be tethered to a desktop all of the time.

Yet, with the podcast system on Windows Phone, is there a flaw somewhere? Here’s what I mean. When I subscribe to a podcast (let’s say for this example Hardball w/ Chris Matthews) I usually subscribe around 10pm at night. In my mind, I’m thinking that Windows Phone will check every night at 10pm for new episodes. I deliberately subscribe to podcasts during the times I’m at home because I know the phone will be connected to WiFi and will be able to download new episodes.

However, whenever I’m at work the next day, my phone will suddenly give episode errors around 2pm in the afternoon. Apparently my podcasts are too large to download over the air so I have to wait til I’m in a WiFi hotspot. Um, ok. But didn’t I subscribe at 10pm? What are you doing checking at 2pm? Are there set intervals I don’t know about? Are you trying to download them the minute that they arrive?

It all leads to grrr-ville!

I figured that podcast management should take the same approach that app management does. That is to say if the podcast episode is less than 20MB (some are since they’re audio-only and consist of a few minutes of chatter) those should be downloaded over the air. Video podcasts and audio-podcasts that are larger than 20MB should wait until I’m at home.

But…help me here: Does time of subscription not matter for anything? I think I need to fully understand how the device manages my subscriptions, ya know?

Filed under Technology, Zune Ecosystem

You can now follow Consumer Camp independent of Tromboneforhire

December 21, 2011 Leave a comment

So, I’m making an effort to make Consumer Camp a viable and, frankly, important component to using my MVP status to educate the public. However, I don’t want to clutter up my personal Twitter feed, etc with Consumer Camp stuff. I like to use my personal feed for spamming my friends about music and pop culture. :)

Therefore, I’ve created a Twitter account (@consumercamp) and an email (consumercamp@live.com). Correspondence regarding Consumer Camp, specifically, will be done through these two channels. I’m also in the process of retooling the Facebook page (hence the lack of updating there). I believe that the education doesn’t have to stop when the events end, so people who follow these social channels will continue to get supplemental information that may have been discussed in past events or will be discussed in future events.

I’m proud of the pace and path that Consumer Camp is on.

Thanks, folks.

Filed under Consumer Camp, Microsoft MVP

Initial impressions on the Gears 3 “RAAM’s Shadow” DLC: Meh!

December 14, 2011 Leave a comment

Let’s get one thing clear: I’m a huge fan of Gears of War. I’ve enjoyed the series since the beginning and I’m especially a fan (practically fanboy) of the Horde mode. Picking up the RAAM’s Shadow DLC, for me, seemed like a no-brainer. It was more campaign and a chance to get more in-depth with the Gears story. I liked that it was going to take place prior to the first Gears of War.

I guess I was expecting too much, because I didn’t get much.

I actually shut down the campaign after going through a few sequences because things seemed too repetitive. I know that Gears is about cover and shoot and I’m fine with that, but the action sequences during this DLC just seemed off to me. Maybe it’s because I’m not all that familiar with the characters involved so I didn’t feel that same emotional attachment that I have with Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, but these characters didn’t do much to instill any emotional attachment from me, either.

Can anyone explain anything that Tai ever says!? Dude is like Confucious with a Lancer.

Then there are the sequences with RAAM. Here I felt I was going to be a badass, you know? In the first Gears of War, trying to kill RAAM was a total bitch and now I was going to have a chance to find out why that is. Well dude appears with really no rhyme or reason, and killing off COG was just a matter of aim and ‘releasing the hounds’ — kryll birds in this case. After maybe 30 seconds of this it became a ho-hum exercise. I was itching to get back to being a COG (which is not good — On some level you should enjoy more being Deebo than you would being Smokey, you hear what I’m saying?)

I’ll probably finish the DLC sometime soon simply because I do want to see where it all leads, but for right now this isn’t grabbing me. Not like the storyline in the shipped Gears 3 grabbed me. If you’re a superfan of Gears like I am, you may end up purchasing but if you’re on the fence, I wouldn’t recommend it all that highly.

Such a dent in the armor this DLC is.

Filed under Gaming

Awesome moments in Consumer Camp history

December 11, 2011 3 Comments

469666663So last night’s Consumer Camp, at the Microsoft Store in San Diego, was one of the better events executed since this idea was generated last year. San Diego, in particular, has been one of the great cities to hold this event, and last night was no different. Great presentations on Xbox’s new dashboard, Xbox family safety settings, Zune Music Pass, Skydrive, and Windows Phone was met with great enthusiasm, critique, feedback and discussion.

However one of the best moments from Consumer Camp: San Diego was saved for the end.

There was a point in time when attendees were filling out surveys and exchanging them for raffle tickets. In the raffle was the chance to win a 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect (amongst other prizes). I was talking to this one mom who was gushing about watching her son play Kinect for one hour straight. She was amazed and how easily he could pick it up and play. She enjoyed watching the look in his eyes that he was having so much fun. Her, and her husband, was so glad to see him getting exercise and activity. I asked her if they planned to purchase an Xbox 360 for their son for Christmas. She told me that they were highly considering it and were actually planning to buy it in the store that night.

It should also be noted that they were walk-ins to the event. They didn’t know it was going on until they came inside and saw the demonstration of Xbox 360 going on.

So imagine her, and her husband’s, surprise when they ended up winning the grand prize in the raffle. This couple who were all set to give their son what was going to be one of his great joys in life, ended up winning that particular gift (and more) at an event that they just stumbled upon.

In addition to the Xbox 360 with Kinect, they also won 5 games in total (2 with Kinect, 3 on the side), 2 Windows Phones, 2 years of Xbox Live Gold, 1600 Microsoft Points, Windows Phone mini speakers and other little knick knacks. Needless to say the look in their eyes spoke volumes about what kind of holiday they were about to have.

Coming away from the event and reliving that moment reminds me of what’s possible with this event. I can only imagine that come Christmas Day that family will be jumping and twirling and dancing and having a great time.

Happy Holidays.

Filed under Consumer Camp, Microsoft MVP

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