Live music review: Soul Shakedown with Hard Proof, Akina Adderley, Nakia

An amazing triple bill on Saturday with Nakia Reynoso of TV show, "The Voice", SXSW performing artist, Akina Adderley and the consistently amazing, Hard Proof playing original Afrobeat songs joined forces at The Mohawk for an extended dance party. An unusually pleasant Texas evening segued into a an all-out jam beginning with Hard Proof early to get the crowd moving, then Akina Adderley and the Vintage Playboys then headliner, the always entertaining, Nakia. 

Continue reading on Examiner.com Live music review: Soul Shakedown with Hard Proof, Akina Adderley, Nakia - Austin Concerts | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/concerts-in-austin/live-music-review-soul-shakedown-with-hard-proof-akina-adderley-nakia-review#ixzz1qtgV5PSD

Live music review: Grupo Fantasma live taping at Beauty Bar Ballroom

Despite the fact that Latin funk is a far cry from New Orleans jazz, the live DVD and album taping Grupo Fantasma recorded last night at Beauty Bar Ballroom was befitting Mardi Gras events this weekend. The Grammy-winning artists pulled out all the stops for their DVD recording including lasers, balloons, beach balls and even an inflatable cactus that made its way into the crowd of gyrating fans that filled the venue to near capacity. 

Continue reading on Examiner.com Live music review: Grupo Fantasma live taping at Beauty Bar Ballroom - Austin Concerts | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/concerts-in-austin/live-music-review-grupo-fantasma-live-taping-at-beauty-bar-ballroom-review#ixzz1mri4QrNx

Live music review: Wilco taped Austin City Limits TV, sold out ACL Live

Wilco appeared at The Moody Theater at ACL Live on consecutive nights this week. Wednesday evening was an Austin City Limits TV taping. Lead singer, Jeff Tweedy mentioned it was the band's fourth appearance on the show. The alternative rock band from Chicago followed up an elegant performance in front of the TV cameras with a rocking, sold-out ACL Live show last night that appropriately included a number of songs from "Summerteenth" (1999) an album primarily recorded at Willie Nelson's Spicewood Studios near Austin. 

Continue reading on Examiner.com Live music review: Wilco taped Austin City Limits TV, sold out ACL Live - Austin Concerts | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/concerts-in-austin/live-music-review-wilco-taped-austin-city-limits-tv-sold-out-acl-live-review#ixzz1fPsRgB2J

Live music review: All My Friends packed ND for return gig after year absence

LCD Soundsystem tribute band, All My Friends performed their first show since disbanding last year to a packed house at the ND at 501 Studios Friday. It was a glorious evening of dance-punk and DJ sets kicked off by Chris Heckendorn (AMF vocalist) on the decks followed by Ricky Jean Francois who were quite good. After AMF's set which included some surprises, DJ Richard Gear kept the party going until the venue closed with some classic 80s and 90s tracks. From the size of the crowd, our assesment is Austin music fans were thrilled the band decided to reform. 

Continue reading on Examiner.com Live music review: All My Friends packed ND for return gig after year absence - Austin Concerts | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/concerts-in-austin/live-music-review-all-my-friends-packed-nd-for-return-gig-after-year-absence-review#ixzz1bkQXS2dd

Keepstream Tells the Story of Quiet Company's first Twitter Show

Saturday night, local power pop band, Quiet Company headlined their first ever Twitter show with Love at 20 (FREE download their new EP here) warming up the crowd of Austin Twitter users at the ND at 501 Studios. The ND's giant video screen to the right of the stage featured all tweets labeled with the hash tag, #QCatND. Besides the great music, the tweets got bawdy as Quiet Company, fans, and media bantered in 140 character bursts throughout the evening.

I decided to let the tweets tell the story using my favorite web content curation tool, Keepstream. Check out the collection below.

Here is a description of Keepstream tool from the company's blog:

"Keepstream gathers all your favorite content in one place – such as when you “Like” something on Facebook or YouTube, retweet something on Twitter, or just bookmark interesting links from the web! By using Keepstream, you can easily collect the best of the Internet and organize it by topics and events. Then most importantly, you can share your content collections any way you’d like – including the ability to embed them into a blog or website. Now it’s easier than ever to demonstrate your expertise on a subject, increase the engagement of your website audience, or simply discover and discuss the most interesting content.

Beyond just general use, Keepstream is particularly useful for bloggers, journalists, and content publishers. Pretty much anyone who creates online articles needs to engage their readers beyond just words. That means integrating video, photos, and social media – all sorts of relevant social content. A lot of content already exists out there that your audience is interested in! Keepstream helps you cull selections of the best content, and serve them to your readers. Essentially, we let you reuse the content that other people have created and make it a part of that article or webpage. This is interactive and social, it saves a ton of time, and this drives new readership and more active readers."

In Store Product Demo: Does the iPad Live Up to the Hype?

After waking uncharacteristically early this morning and reading tweets about people waiting overnight in line to purchase a bright, shiny, iPad. On impulse, I got in the car and drove to my nearby Apple Store in part to witness the hubbub. The main reason was to play with a new iPad and see if the enormous hype is warranted.

My first impression was the iPad is a larger version on the iPod Touch. There are some discerning differences between the devices, mainly the 1 gigabyte of RAM on board the iPad, while the iPod Touch (2nd gen.) has only a quarter of that capacity at 256 megabytes. This means the iPad can do a lot of things iPod Touch cannot.

The dimensions of iPad fit it's intended function. It's weighs 1.5 lbs which is not too heavy. It felt pretty comfortable in my hands. Typing on the iPad was fine once the machine was oriented horizontally and the accelerometer flipped the screen view around. In order to be comfortable typing for an extended period of time, one needs a stand to tilt the display up toward the user. Typing while the iPad is laying on the table flat is just too awkward. My guess is portable soft cases that convert into makeshift iPad stands will sell well. It should be interesting to see how many proud new owners will be seen using their new toy in public. I suspect it'll become a status symbol the same way the iPhone did.

The video quality was astonishing as iPad allows for High-Definition video making the device excellent as entertainment tool. The next obvious question is will the device's battery last long enough to view an entire movie? A resounding yes according to Apple's listed iPad specifications the current wireless only model(3G released end of April), will last up to 10 hours. A road-warrior who spends a lot of time on airplanes will drool over this feature alone. If I did not have a Mophie for my iPhone I'd be even more jealous of today's new iPad owners than I already am.

Just like iPod, iPad has no camera. For an iPhone user, this was disappointing until a friend pointed out the specifications presented left room for a camera at some point. Let's hope. As a New Media Director for Build Texas Media, if I'm working on my iPad on Tweetdeck for example, I want the ability to take photos within the app like I can on my iPhone. After participating in a focus group for an iPad Twitter client app, I am convinced this is a feature users will demand from Apple.

Update: Quita Culpepper of Austin's KVUE News interviewed me:



Stanza is used on my iPhone occasionally,I was curious how iPad's reader performed. The presentation was gorgeous with most of the same features I enjoy about Stanza. The pages actually turn with a finger gesture. One touch moves the user from reading a novel to the library with cool animation turning the bookcase around to reveal the 'hidden' store behind it. Stanza gives users the option to download some classic titles free. According to Apple's description of the free app, there are many gratis titles just like Stanza. The book-sized iPad is a makes viewing the digital presentation even better than iPod or iPhone because the user no longer has a need to enlarge text. It's already novel sized.

The techie guy next to me was impressed with how Keynote functioned on the iPad. Due to my guilt over monopolizing one of seven demo models on the table, I did not delve into Keynote too much. My demo neighbor did remark that the stripped down Keynote for iPad was in some ways easier to navigate than the desktop version. He was excited about the possibilities for business presentations. I concur. Apple has usually been intelligent about developing applications that are inherently user friendly and simple. Keynote for iPad fits into this mold nicely.

The Photos App is great,more functional and attractive than iPod or iPhone. The way the pictures are presented in the album in stacks that can be picked up is cool. So is the display when looking at all the albums but it all reminds the user that the machine they are holding does not have a camera. No still pictures can be taken. No video shot. It seems like a large omission. As stated above, I believe users will ask for a still camera inside the iPad at minimum.

You may want me to  review more cool games, utility apps and other innovative features (Omar Gallga tech writer for the Statesman loved the Marvel Comics app) of the iPad, however, that is a bit inappropriate considering I'll be waiting for the second or third generation of Apple's new product just like when they introduced the iPhone.

The results speak for themselves. Less money was spent purchasing my first iPhone than others and the product has effectively been "field tested" by techno-zealots who have an insatiable need for new technology. Although I am puzzled by these consumers willingness to be guinea pigs, I'm thankful they're doing the beta testing.

What are your thoughts on the new iPad? Are you an early adopter or a skeptic about first generation products like me?