A Hack That Tailors Music to Driving Conditions

Gigaom reports on how some geeks have hacked into a car and a media player.  This is rather primitive, but it does offer a proof-of-concept of what might be done now that auto manufacturers are opening their infotainment systems to third-party developers.

More and More Music Being Heard on Smartphones and Tablets

Smartphones and tablets are the new [choose one] transistor radios/Walkmans/boomboxes/DiscMans/MP3 players.  This from All Access Music Group:

Mobile devices including tablets and smartphones are increasingly being used as portable music players, according to the new "Audio Consumption Study" from global information company THE NPD GROUP.

Forty percent of tablet owners report they use it to listen to music, while 56% of smartphone users say they use it for music listening. Among those using the smartphone for music listening, 39% said they listen to music at least once a day and half (54%) report they are using the device more for music compared with a year ago.

Click to read more ...

Tanlines' Clever Photoshop-Inspired Interactive Video

If you use Photoshop, you'll immediately recognize the environment.  Click on the image to be taken to the video.  Just make sure you use Google Chrome because it doesn't play well with IE.  More on the story at PetaPixel.

The Anal Mic (NOT What You Think)

Miking a drum kit is equal parts art and science.  How do you get that perfect drum sound?  One suggestion is something that's been dubbed the "anal mic."

This isn't a microphone but a positioning of a mic  (No, not there).  Give a listen and you'll see how it works and sounds.  Producers and engineers:  pay attention.

iTunes 11.0.2 Now Available

I still have a love-hate thing going on with iTunes 11.  I just don't find the interface as intuitive as the old one and the search function drives me batshit.  

If you have a sufficiently large music library, don't even think about entering a search that begins with "the."  It'll choke everything.  And when you do get the result you want, I always end up clicking in the wrong spot to get to where I want to be.

Maybe it'll be better with v11.0.2, which was released yesterday.  Along with a bunch of bug fixes, there's a new "Composer" view (good for people who want to search by songwriter) and improved playlist response--whatever that means.

I haven't played with the new version yet--I'm currently updating my iPhone and iPad to the new iteration of iOS 6--but I'd be interested in any, er, relationship issues you have with iTunes 11.