Amazon MP3 – The Music Store of Choice!
My loyalties have now switched to Spotify, but before it was with Amazon MP3. This article has been sitting on my todo list for too long, before I leave the service forever, I think it may be a good time to write this post.
The market leader in the music download business is sadly still iTunes, and its unlikely anytime soon it will change. Why is iTunes the market leader, when its the worst in its market, although same can be said for Windows 
Consumers need to open their eyes for the better service, and that is Amazon.
Both Amazon and iTunes provide the same-sort-of-service, with iTunes making it easier with syncing to your device. Music selection is pretty much exactly the same, both retaining the major record companies. Its the pricing and DRM where the differences lie.
On Pricing, Amazon tends to be cheaper, offering tracks as low as 49p to as high as 89p. While iTunes is higher at 69p t0 £1.20! Why is iTunes more! Your getting the same music, but at a lower bit rate on iTunes (128kbps on iTunes, 256 on Amazon).
DRM, my favourite topic, if you ask any of my 'geek' friends! Though in the past few days I have become a hypocrite *cough* Spotify *cough*. iTunes in the past has in the past been dreadful with this, but in recent years, they have let go of some restrictions. However, music bought off iTunes is still full of DRM. Watermarking, requiring authentication to listen to purchased music and using a file format only used by Apple. My brother in the past few weeks has been a victim of Apple's DRM, and many others have when switching MP3 players or computers. Amazon is totally DRM free, allowing users to listen to their music where ever they want. My article about iTunes DRM can be found here.
Basically, STOP USING ITUNES! It maybe easier to use, for getting songs on your iPod. It is expensive, lower quality and full of DRM. iTunes was the service to use years ago, now its Amazon MP3!
First look at Spotify on Linux
Spotify is a music streaming service, which currently operates in Europe. Spotify has been around since 2008, and I was part of first wave of beta invites to try the service. The client, which is used to stream and listen to music has been Windows and Mac OS X only, though the client has worked very well in Wine and Spotify has even provided instructions to get the client working in Wine. In the past few months, Spotify has been available on the iPhone OS and other mobile devices. Finally, a few days ago, Spotify comes to Linux!
Currently, to use the preview of Spotify on Linux, you need a Premium or Unlimited account, because Ads don't work yet. I decided to upgrade my account to Unlimited, to try the client and support the efforts of Spotify!
Essitially, if you have tried Spotify on Windows or Mac, its the same. This was the aim of the developers, to get the same experience cross-platform. Spotify is very easy to navigate, find the songs you want to listen to, whole albums, create playlists, see the top played songs. It has great social features to share the music your listening to with your friends.
The general look of the client is very much the Mac-look, it is more suited on a Mac desktop. I wasn't expecting the theme to be changed on Linux, this is made harder by using QT instead of GTK, which means us Gnome users will have to install the QT library. Luckly, Spotify uses Alsa, no Pulse Audio here! This may sound really small, but stood out for me, the font. Its a nice look font, which is very easy to read, and gives the whole client a great look. The client is quick and songs stream instantly. My only compliant is that the client uses high number of cpu cycles, compared to other platforms. I am using a dual core Intel Atom, while songs are playing, it hits 52%, when idle hits as high as 78%. Some serious optimisations will need doing before this client comes out of beta.
The whole Linux community are pleased we finally get a native Spotify client. It works and looks exactly what we wanted. A few minor issues at the moment, which I am sure will be fixed before release. You will have to pay a monthly fee at the moment, which is the first time I have done with Spotify, one thing I will say, its nice not having Ads!
EDIT: Just realised, the buttons are on the right hand side 
, hopefully they will switch it to the left hand side, like they have on Mac OS.
Spotify on Linux....finally!
Quick Look at Ubuntu Light
Since it is highly unlikely I will get a chance to try Ubuntu Light out in the near future, mainly because its only available to OEMs, I thought I will do a quick review of what I have seen of this latest version of Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Light was announced a few months go in Belgium, at UDS for Maverick. The initial idea purposed by Mark Shuttleworth was a version of Ubuntu, stripped down, which will be installed along side Windows. Marketed at a very fast way to get to the Internet. I was a bit reserved at the idea, for two reasons. Why do we need another version of Ubuntu, we are going to turn into the Windows way of having too many versions which confuses the user. Secondly, is it a good idea marketing a stripped down version of Ubuntu, when we should be promoting the full Desktop edition.
However, after a chat with Popey on the podcast, and watching the video above, I think I understand the idea. Its hard to get Ubuntu on OEM computers as the default, everyone (at the moment) wants Windows. However, in recent years, as our need for quick Internet access has grown, people want to be online as quick as possible, Windows does not cut it. By creating a version of Ubuntu to be installed along side Windows, for super quick access to the web, more people may choose to boot into Ubuntu Light more than Windows. Ubuntu Light, when finally released, should offer 5-10 second boot straight to the web. Advancements in boot speed, since Jaunty (9.04), stripping down Ubuntu to the bare basics for the web, creating a fast slick new UI, and choosing to use the super quick Chromium (Google Chrome). All this has allowed for fast access to the web, which seems to be what most users want these days. Why wait to boot into Windows 7 to use Internet Explorer, which could take 2minutes, when you could boot into Ubuntu which takes 10seconds!
The overall aim is to get Ubuntu into more users hands, and maybe one day, will encourage more users to make the switch!
My Thoughts on Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 10.04 is out today! To mark the occasion, I am going to give you my thoughts of Lucid Lynx.
Ubuntu 10.04 is yet again an excellent release. This release is an Long-Term Support version (LTS) which has an aim to be a very stable release, and in most cases it does. With an aim to be stable release does not mean lack of features, it has
The All-New Ubuntu Desktop (click to enlarge)
tons of great additions. The key feature of 10.04 is the all new look to Ubuntu. Ubuntu has under gone new branding, with a new logo. Along with the new logo comes an entirely new UI to Ubuntu. The new Light theme makes Ubuntu look far more slick and professional than before. Ubuntu finally looks great! Part of the theme comes a new arrangement of the close, minimise, maximise buttons. They have moved from the right-hand side of a window to the left, like Mac OSX. It has caused complaints from many Ubuntu users, personally I like the change. Plus, it is very easy to move the buttons back to the right using Ubuntu Tweak. Along with the new theme, comes changes to the notification area. For many users the notification area, or system tray, has been filled with many different icons. In Lucid, these icons have been replaced with indicator applets, which are design to look and act similar, giving the user information about certain things going on with their computer. Such as, battery monitor, sound, network status and music playing. One of Mark Shuttleworth's own inventions has made it into 10.04, the Me Menu. This new menu which sits at the top right of your screen is used for all your social networking. It allows you to set your status (on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc) and change your status on your IM client (Available, Busy or Away). New wallpapers and the Ubuntu-Mono icon set finish off the brilliant look and fell to Lucid!
Further improvements have been seen since the last release, 9.10. An new kernel (2.6.32) provides improved hardware support, which also makes Ubuntu the first OS to support USB3.0 out of the box. The new kernel also supports the new open-source nVidia drivers, nouveau. However, I am having issues with these new drivers, causing crashing, no providing the correct resolution and no 3D support. Luckily, you can use the official nVidia drivers, which cause no problems at all.
One of Ubuntu 10.04 's main aims was to have social out of the box, making it the first OS to do so. Improvements to the Instant Messenging client, Empathy, as seen the added support of Facebook Chat from the desktop. Gwibber is a new addition to Ubuntu, which is a micro-blogging client. It allows the user to follow their friend's statuses and post their own on many services, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, etc. The default applications in Ubuntu has been important for this release. For the first time, Ubuntu has a video editing application, Pitivi. It is a basic and easy to use video editor, which does the job well. Gimp has been dropped in favour for a more user friendly F-Spot. F-Spot has a very easy to use editing feature, with the key basic editing tools. Many games have been removed, however 5 have stayed which seem to the popular ones with many users.
Ubuntu One, which is Ubuntu's online service which was added in the last release, has seen improvements in Lucid. Improvements have been made to their cloud storage service to important the user experience. However, the service is still not stable enough in my opinion. I'm still using Dropbox, hoping Ubuntu One will be ready soon. One of the major new features in Ubuntu One has been the Ubuntu One Music Store. It works like iTunes. In the default music player in Ubuntu, Rhythmbox, there is now the Ubuntu One Music Store. You can browse the store, find your favourite tracks, buy and download. DRM-Free MP3s. The store is powered by 7-Digital, so it has a great library of Music. However, it is abit pricey compared to my favourite Amazon MP3.
Improvements to applications already Ubuntu have been made. Firefox 3.6 is faster than ever. OpenOffice 3.2 also boasts faster startup times. Gnome 2.30 provides a very stable desktop, before its jump to Gnome 3. Ubuntu also boasts improved speed, with boot up times faster than ever. Expect to me on your desktop within 15-20 seconds of pressing your power button.
Overall, Ubuntu 10.04 is an excellent release. Many improvements to the Ubuntu desktop make it the best-looking OS out. The OS is more user-centric than ever before, with applications and social networking features which will appeal to most modern day computer users. There are now ever more reasons to move away from Windows and Mac OS X!
My Thoughts on Opera Mini 5
Web browsing on your mobile has never been very good, its either a poor expensive service or a terrible browser to access the web. For the past few years, web browsers on mobile phones have been proprietary browsers created by the manufactures which displays text and low res images.
Every since the introduction of the iPhone, we have seen how mobile browsers should work. Safari Mobile has lead the way in browsing the web on your phone. Showing us how its possible to browse the full web on your phone, instead of WAP designed webpages. Manufactures followed suit to create web browsers to rival's Apple's creation. The only company to come close was Google's Android platform, but the browser on their mobile OS is not as quick or feature filled as Safari Mobile. Everyone expect Mozilla or Microsoft to challenge Apple, but they have been far too slow to the market. Mozilla only finally getting their browser out a few months, but only currently on the Nokia N900, and Microsoft's browser will be part of Windows Mobile 7, which will be out at the end of 2010. In the end it was Opera which have produced a browser to challenge Apple.
Many believed that the browser would be designed to run on iPhone, which a few weeks ago now does. Instead, it will run on any Java phone! Quite a challenge to pull off, to bring the full web to a standard mobile phone as well as smart phones. Smartphones such as Nokia, Blackberry and Android phones have Opera Mobile, which offers the same feature set as Opera Mini, but not as impressive.
This review is all about Opera Mini, and how 'blown over' I am with what Opera have achieved. Its great to have a web browser which provides the full internet you get on your computer, on your phone. With support of all the current web standards,
Opera Mini 5, the best mobile web browser
such as HTML5, CSS and Javascript. Opera have also managed to incorporate some of their browser features on the computer onto the phone. With tab support and speed dial, which puts 9 of your favourite websites on one page for easy access. A common issue with mobile browser, is that they are slow and format poorly. Opera has always stride to create a quick browser, and they have. They even compress the pages, with little loss of visual quality to improve speed and save you money. CNET and many other sites have shown that Opera Mini is quicker than Safari Mobile on the iPhone 3GS. Formatting is almost perfect, and large web pages are easy to navigate with the ability to zoom and easily move around the page.
Opera Mini is an excellent achievement, it looks and works great on phones. In my opinion the best mobile browser out at the moment, even beating Safari Mobile. Its a slick browser, which any iPhone, SmartPhone and Java mobile user must try, and get a good Internet plan to get full use out of Opera Mini.
Open Arena Review
I have decided that I want to expand my content more by posting my Linux game reviews and articles on my website. These reviews are written by me, which are taken from my section 'Ubuntu Games' from the Full Circle Magazine. All these articles will be post 2 or more weeks after they are featured in the magazine.
To kick off this new set of articles, I will start with my first review for Full Circle. Taken from Issue 19, a review of Open Arena.
Open Arena is the open source equivalent of Quake 3 Arena. Like Quake, Open Arena is a first -person shooter that is heavily based around multi-player deathmatch arenas. You fight it out in arenas, either online or against Al-controlled bots. There are several weapons you can use, such as the usual machine gun, shotgun, rocket launch and rail gun. There are 4 modes you can play: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and tournament.
As soon as you install the game, you have the option of playing the game in either single player mode or multiplayer mode. The single player mode is good for players who are new to the game. It gives you a chance to get used to the fast-paced gameplay, and explore the many arenas. The AI-control bots are fairly intelligent and can put up a good fight. There are about 20 maps which
you can play through. These are the same maps that are used on multiplayer, so the single player mode gives you the chance to explore each map before you play online.
Finally, the multi-player – the main part of Open Arena. This game, like Quake 3, was designed with a focus on the online mode. You can play either over a LAN or over the internet. When you join a match, it is incredibly fast-paced. Stand still for a second, and your head will be shot off. Grab a gun, run and fire.
Open Arena requires no real tactics; unlike Counter Strike, you just have to go with the flow. There are about 70 servers for Open Arena, which are all fairly active. Each server has different maps to play on, and different game modes. For players new to online FPS games, it is not the best game to start out with. Many players are very fast, and have very good aim. I was on one server, where every time I spawned I would be shot by a rail gun. This happened 20 times in a row!
Open Arena has an active community of developers, always busy developing new versions of the game. In the past, they have added new game modes, new
graphics, and new maps. The latest version of the game is 0.8.0. However, on the Ubuntu repos, the latest stable version is 0.7.7. I would recommend installing 0.8.0, because it has all the new content, and most of the Open Arena servers will be using that version. You will be able to download the DEB file from PlayDeb.net.
Open Arena is an excellent free alternative to Quake. It is very well developed, and the game is perfectly balanced. Graphics are very dated, but with most online FPS games, it's more important to have a high frame rate than good looking graphics. I would strongly recommend this game to any hardcore Linux gamers, especially FPS fans. However, I would not recommend this to gamers new to FPS, it is just far too fast.
First look at Ubuntu One Music Store
The long awaited Ubuntu One Music Store has final gone into public beta. This post is just going to be my short initial reaction to the store.
For starters, the store is very well integrated into Ubuntu, by using a plugin in the default music player, Rhythmbox. The plugin acts as a web portal to the music store. Once you have purchased the music, the plugin is used to download and move your music into your Ubuntu One folder to be backed up to the cloud and send to the rest of your computers. This is a excellent way to secure your downloads after purchase, my only complainant is that Ubuntu One gives most users 2GB of space, which is not enough for music. To me it seems a way to encourage users to pay money to get 50Gb of space, but that is not enough for some.
I would use this service, because of the integration of the music store and to support Canonical, but I'm not going to use the service for one simple reason. Store is run by 7Digital, which is fine, because it offers high quality DRM free MP3 music. Exactly what I want. However, Amazon MP3 offers DRM free music as well, but at a much lower price. For example, I purchased the Florence + The Machine album yesterday off Amazon MP3 for £6, on 7Digital it is £8. I will carry on using Amazon MP3 for the sole reason of pricing.
CCleaner, The Tool which all Windows users need!
CCleaner is a tool I always install Windows, and use regularly to make sure my machine is running quick and is clean.
It basically removes unused temporary files, logs, application data cache data and junk files. It has support for many applications, such as; All major web browsers, Office, Windows files, Flash, VLC, MSN, AntiVir, and the list goes on.
Apart from cleaning old files, it has an excellent tool for finding unused registry entries from old application left there after they were removed. Word of warning, it could always been dangerous changing things in the Windows registry, but I have never had an issue using this tool.
CCleaner is also an excellent tool for removing software and managing which software starts on boot up, a far better solution than what Windows is offering.
There are many solutions like CCleaner, but most of them cause damage to your system and slow it down, basically Junk-Ware! CCleaner gets the job done, always being updated to support more applications, and will improve your system's performance. On your first clean up, it will likely find over 2GBs of junk data!
CCleaner can be downloaded for free here!
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool
Windows Apps I Always Install
Want to show Windows love today by posting a short article about the Windows applications I install after a fresh install of Windows. All these apps are free to download and use!
Firefox
The first app I install, Firefox is world's most popular alternative browser. I love this browser for its look and feel, speed, addons and tons of features!
Foxit Reader
Foxit is a PDF reader you might have never heard of. Most people will use Adobe's PDF reader, since thats the one most people only know about. I hate Adobe's PDF reader, it has loads of great features, but it is very slow and heavy on system resources. Foxit Reader is designed to lightweight, very quick to load, and just provide the features to view the PDF document.
OpenOffice.org
Microsoft Office is an excellent set of applications, however it can very expensive to buy. If you need an office suite, OpenOffice.org is a free office suite which is very similar to Microsoft Office. It has a word processer, spreadsheet, presentation, database and drawing. Plus, OpenOffice.org can open Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. OpenOffice has about 90% of the features which Microsoft Office has, and I believe the interface in OpenOffice is better.
VLC
VLC is a media player, and I love it, just because it will play any audio and video file format you throw at it!
CCleaner
Windows computers can get full of junk files, old applications and a messy register. CCleaner is an excellent tool for removing junk and cached files, which can save you 100s of MBs of data. It can safely clean out your registry, which can become messy over time. It is also a very good tool at uninstalling applications and managing the startup of applications in the background.
Pidgin
If you need a lightweight Instant Messenger (IM) client which can handle multiple IM accounts in one application, Pidgin is for you. There is no need to have MSN messenger for your MSN contacts and Yahoo Messenger for your Yahoo contacts, etc; you can have all your contacts in one application! It supports over 20 accounts from different providers. Plus it has great features such as tabbed chat windows, video/audio chat and file transfer.
GIMP
Adobe Photoshop is the hallmark in photo editing, however it is incredible expensive. If you need a photo/graphic editor for free, with the majority of the same features as Photoshop, GIMP is what you need!
Got a Acer Aspire Revo!
Not going to be a review, more about my Revo. It is a brilliant computer! It does have a Intel Atom cpu, but combined with the nVidia ION graphics chip, it is
The Acer Aspire Revo! (click to enlarge)
blazing quick. Its pretty amazing, the ION is very small and designed for low cost/low power computers, but deliveries full HD 1080p playback and DX10 gaming! The computer is very good looking, very "Mac-Mini look-a-like", so small.
It cost me £140 for the Revo R3600 from Ebuyer.com. Intel Atom 230 (1.6Ghz), 1GB DDR2 RAM, nVidia ION, 160GB HDD. Comes with Linux, but was quickly removed for Ubuntu and Windows XP (only installed to use Access for my course). Dual boot worked fine, only issues was getting the Windows XP to install. Had a struggle with putting XP on a flash drive, I used a piece of software called WinToFlash. Next I had an issue, trying to get it to boot off the flash drive, I had to set the SATA controller to use IDE emulation. Final hurdle was finding the drivers for XP, they can all be found here. As always, Ubuntu had no trouble installing and setting up, 'It Just Worked!'
The Revo R3600 is brilliant piece of kit, very fast, thanks to nVidia's ION chip and so cheap to buy!
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ Derby Uni, Blogger, Ubuntu user, Columnist & Podcaster for FCM, Gamer, Admin on Gfire.- Spotify is saved. Usa by the end of the year!
- Back home from work. 2:30am, time for IT crowd!
- Half way through my shift. Time for a double expesso.
