dimanche 10 novembre 2013
Xbox One Pre-Orders Arrive Early For Some
Microsoft’s Xbox One console isn’t supposed to go on sale until November 22nd, but some lucky gamers have started receiving their pre-orders two weeks in advance. After Microsoft's 12-minute video tour of Xbox One, at least three consoles have been delivered early, with two originating from Target. One console briefly made it onto eBay with a buy it now price of $10,000 before being quickly removed. However, Twitter user @Moonlightswami has been posting his first impressions of another console over the past several hours.
Moonlightswami has found that the Xbox One takes 17 seconds to boot up before requiring a 500MB day-one patch. Microsoft confirmed the patch is a requirement to play games, and once it's installed you’re then free to download a variety of games and apps. Game sizes vary greatly in download size. NBA 2K14 appears to be one of the largest at 43GB, with Call of Duty: Ghosts set at 39GB, and Forza 5 at 31GB. Other titles like Madden and FIFA are 12GB and 8GB respectively. Microsoft promised games could be played while they’re being downloaded, and Moonlightswami claims they’re playable after 50 percent of the download is complete. He has also spotted a variety of featured challenges that appear to rotate for different games.
Moonlightswami was able to share the details, a number of dashboard screenshots, and even a YouTube video. However, Microsoft removed the video under a copyright claim and has banned his console as a result. Another gamer who received a console from an online order claims he has talked to Microsoft and the company has "said it’s mine to do with as I please." It’s highly likely that any bans that Microsoft issues at this stage are temporary to prevent details of games and apps ahead of reviews and broad availability. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft to comment on the ban and early shipments. We’ll update you accordingly.
Update: Microsoft's Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, is confirming on Twitter that the ban is not permanent. In a tweet earlier today, Hryb says that "whatever happened it will not be permanent. I can say that with 100% certainty."
Update 2: A Microsoft spokesperson has responded to our request for comment, saying that "a very small number of Xbox One consoles were shipped to consumers before the November 22 street date," and explaining that the consoles would only "be restricted from connecting to Xbox Live until closer to our launch date." The full statement is below.
"Due to a retail partner’s system issue, a very small number of Xbox One consoles were shipped to consumers before the November 22 street date. We’re pleased to see the initial response to Xbox One has been so positive, but given we are still putting the finishing touches on our games, UI and online services, as well as confidential partner and media agreements, these units will be restricted from connecting to Xbox Live until closer to our launch date."
from Digg Top Stories http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/9/5083780/xbox-one-early-pre-order-deliveries
samedi 9 novembre 2013
The Right And Wrong Way To Go Solo
We get a lot of mail at NPR Music, and amid the detergent sampler that broke and spewed suds all over our mortgage bill is a slew of smart questions about how music fits into our lives — and, this week, what makes a successful solo album.
Rick Simineo writes via Facebook: "Can you talk us through the right and wrong way of doing a solo album after time in a band, along with some examples of each?"
George Michael (left) and Andrew Ridgeley both went solo after Wham! broke up. One fared just a little better than the other.
Brian Aris
There's no one unifying principle behind solo success — it's been done both right and wrong in a hundred different ways, for a thousand different reasons — but I've tried to puzzle out a few guidelines based on the examples that spring to mind. For the sake of something approximating brevity, I'm going to stick to singers, because they're the ones most likely to launch high-profile solo careers.
So many of the successful singer-goes-solo stories that jump to my mind are cases in which the newly minted solo artist has a persona that needn't be confined or constrained; in which the mystique and allure of the singer has always dwarfed that of the performers around him or her. In The Smiths, Morrissey benefited immeasurably from Johnny Marr's guitars, but if you cared about The Smiths, you knew exactly what Morrissey was all about long before he became a solo artist. Bjork made a bunch of big records with The Sugarcubes, as did Natalie Merchant with 10,000 Maniacs, as did Gwen Stefani with No Doubt, but no one boggled at the cognitive dissonance between their solo and band work. In short, it helps to be the iconic face of a band if you're trying to become an iconic solo singer — but even that's no sure thing, if the uneven solo careers of Mick Jagger and Debbie Harry are any indication.
The next rule is to evolve gradually. George Michael wasn't exactly a brooding artiste in Wham!, and his hugely successful early solo records meet at the midpoint between his bubblegum persona and the more "adult" side (in several senses of the word) he'd explore later. Sting's post-Police album The Dream of the Blue Turtles finds a similar comfort zone between fizziness and mopery; it took a few years for the singer's adult-contemporary side to dominate completely. Justin Timberlake found a path from boy-band stardom in 'N Sync to solo stardom by locating the midpoint between his old group and sexy soul. Though there are cases in which hairpin turns have worked for people — Mike Patton leaving Faith No More and forming the inscrutably spastic oddity Mr. Bungle, for example — some performers have been viewed as unbearably self-indulgent once liberated from the bands that once contained them. (David Lee Roth was a huge solo star for a few years after leaving Van Halen, but the schtickiness of it all produced rapidly diminishing returns.)
To me, the most intriguing solo breakouts occur in bands with multiple competing — and often contradictory — visions. Bands often contain several highly individual songwriters, and so it's intriguing to watch a family tree emerge from the roots of an Uncle Tupelo (Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Son Volt's Jay Farrar), a Velvet Underground (Lou Reed, John Cale, et al), a Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie), a Beatles (all four of 'em), a Fugees (Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Pras), a Hüsker Dü (Bob Mould, Grant Hart), and even an Eagles (Glenn Frey, Don Henley, et al). That individual work can often be informed by the exhilaration of liberation, but it also comes with fascinating amounts of pressure: When a band breaks up and everyone goes solo, history will often judge its legacy by which solo act fares best. The roles of Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams in Destiny's Child, for example, will always be viewed through the lens of Beyonce's subsequent success. In most cases, that battle is won by who's got the strongest songs out of the gate.
Finally, it really helps to go solo at the right time — to not wait until a band has started to decline before striking out on your own. Several new solo albums have crossed my desk recently that might have experienced a huge profile had they been released 10 or 15 or 20 years ago: Live's Ed Kowalczyk, Collective Soul's Ed Roland, Creed's Scott Stapp. But for those guys, going solo now means rebranding themselves and bearing the weight of their bands' respective legacies. Of course, it holds true for solo acts — just as it holds true for bands — that most musicians come with commercial expiration dates, no matter how many smart moves they've made along the way.
[Incidentally, yes, about 14 zillion examples aren't included in this thumbnail sketch: Iggy Pop, assorted Jacksons, Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins, Robert Plant, Gloria Estefan, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, Glen Hansard, Billy Idol, Rob Thomas, a couple Black Eyed Peas, and on and on. Please feel free to bring 'em up and have at it in the comments.]
Got a music-related question you want answered? Leave it in the comments, drop us an email at allsongs@npr.org or tweet @allsongs.
from Digg Top Stories http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/11/08/243950702/the-good-listener-the-right-and-wrong-way-to-go-solo?ft=1&f=
2 Wounded In Bryant Park Shooting
Raghuram Krishnamachari
Twitter user Raghuram Krishnamachari took this photo of a person lying motionless on the Bryant Park skating rink.
Two people were reportedly shot in Bryant Park late Saturday night.
Police are holding approximately 200 people at the scene while they search for the suspect.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates shortly.
from Digg Top Stories http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/breaking-shots-fired-bryan-park-2-shot-article-1.1512095
Video Of The Aftermath Of The Bryant Park Shooting
One Instagram user caught some of the moments following the Bryant Park shooting on video.
from Digg Top Stories http://digg.com/video/bryant-park-shooting-video
Here's Why Bitcoin Bulls Think It Could Go To $37,815
Bitcoin is having another huge day.
It's almost at $400. Earlier this week, it was around $250.
So how high could it go?
There's a private fund called the Bitcoin Investment Trust being sold through Second Market. They have a presentation making the case for why Bitcoin could potentially go much, much higher.
Here's the nut slide, which basically makes the argument that if Bitcoin becomes as big as other money-related entities, the current price will be nothing.
Without getting into a big Bitcoin debate here, there is some weird stuff going on.
For example, the comparisons to PayPal and Western Unions are comparing the market caps of companies to the value of an outstanding commodity. The comparisons to gold or the total monetary base of Turkey might theoretically be more apt? We really don't know.
Check out the full presentation here >
from Digg Top Stories http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-investment-trust-slide-2013-11?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29
What It's Like To Grow Up Blind
Tommy Edison, who has been blind since birth, talks about what it was like growing up without sight.
from Digg Top Stories http://digg.com/video/what-its-like-to-grow-up-blind