The latest iMix is UP! It’s a biggie, but enjoy! Click here to get it, see the full list of songs after the jump!

EMILY	Mata Hari
VanVelzen	Broken Tonight
EMILY	Il était une fois
Nelly Furtado	Maneater
Madonna	Get Together
Kelly Clarkson	Since U Been Gone
Lady GaGa & Beyoncé	Telephone
Alanis Morissette	Doth I Protest Too Much
Alanis Morissette	Straitjacket
Alanis Morissette	Front Row
Madonna	Candy Shop
Madonna	How High
Spice Girls	Never Give Up On the Good Times
Christina Aguilera	Not Myself Tonight
David Guetta	Sexy Bitch (feat. Akon)
Gwen Stefani	What You Waiting For?
EMILY	Légende urbaine
Britney Spears	Radar
Alanis Morissette	Citizen of the Planet
Alanis Morissette	No Pressure Over Cappuccino
Spice Girls	Move Over
Jordin Sparks	S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)
Britney Spears featuring Madonna	Me Against the Music
Alanis Morissette	You Oughta Know
Christina Aguilera	Slow Down Baby
Mary J. Blige	Just Fine (Remix) [feat. Lil Mama]
Jason Mraz	Make It Mine
Fergie	All That I Got (The Make Up Song)
Britney Spears	Oops!…I Did It Again
Britney Spears	If U Seek Amy
Alanis Morissette	Ironic
EMILY	Au grand jour
Alanis Morissette	You Learn
Britney Spears	Toy Soldier
Britney Spears	My Prerogative
Rihanna	Breakin’ Dishes
Britney Spears	Gimme More
Kelly Clarkson	Don’t Waste Your Time
Beyoncé	Why Don’t You Love Me
Kelly Clarkson	If I Can’t Have You
Gwen Stefani	Wind It Up
Fergie	London Bridge
Madonna	Beat Goes On (feat. Kanye West)
Spice Girls	Stop
Lady GaGa	Bad Romance
Gwen Stefani	Harajuku Girls
Kelly Clarkson	One Minute
Madonna	Hung Up
Lady GaGa	LoveGame
Rihanna	Don’t Stop the Music
Britney Spears	3
Kris Allen	Live Like We’re Dying
Alanis Morissette	Joining You
Black Eyed Peas	Shut Up
Cascada	Fever
Alanis Morissette	Everything
Diddy featuring Christina Aguilera	Tell Me (feat. Christina Aguilera)
Alanis Morissette	Eight Easy Steps
EMILY	Où sont les femmes?
Destiny’s Child	Lose My Breath
Kelly Clarkson	How I Feel
Alanis Morissette	Hands Clean
Kelly Clarkson	Judas
Alanis Morissette	Underneath
Britney Spears	Breathe On Me
Britney Spears	Circus
Britney Spears	Womanizer
Kelis	Bossy (feat. Too $hort)
Lady GaGa	Poker Face
Alanis Morissette	Narcissus
Alanis Morissette	Versions of Violence
Kelly Clarkson	Long Shot
Alanis Morissette	Precious Illusions
Britney Spears	Heaven On Earth
Diddy featuring Nicole Scherzinger	Come to Me
Alanis Morissette	Unsent
Alanis Morissette	Ironic (Acoustic Album Version)
Spice Girls	Say You’ll Be There
Britney Spears	Ooh Ooh Baby
Armin van Buuren	Broken Tonight (Radio Edit) [feat. VanVelzen]
Kelly Clarkson	I Want You
Jason Mraz	If It Kills Me
Carolina Liar	Show Me What I’m Looking For
Alanis Morissette	Not As We
Britney Spears	Kill the Lights
Kelly Clarkson	All I Ever Wanted

]]> http://brendangrimaldi.com/2010/05/28/imix-june-2010/feed/ 0 http://brendangrimaldi.com/2010/05/22/the-newest-g-lily/ http://brendangrimaldi.com/2010/05/22/the-newest-g-lily/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 21:12:26 +0000 Brendan http://brendangrimaldi.com/?p=1314

Here’s the newest member of the family, Lily. She’s a golden Shiba Inu (very rare I just found out!) and one of the spunkiest, inquisitive and loving dogs I’ve met. No I have not fallen out of love with my buddy of 3 years the Yorkshire Terrorist Butch, but she is a welcome addition to the household. Today brought the WORST news, Lily has to have surgery on a heart murmur. Could that be any worse? If you never had a pet, you don’t understand, but they DO become like your children. So heatbreaking but a great new love!

You have to see it to believe it…..

Yup… this apparently is the secret. Does it silence things too?

In 2007 Apple introduced one of the biggest products in history which “revolutionized” (I hate using that word, but there’s not many others that can work in its spot) cell phones and the emerging smartphone business permanently. From the day Steve Jobs had his keynote introducing the phone my mouth instantly watered and I was determined to get one…asap. The phone had amazing features, went beyond what any other phone could do and was just plain old cool. A lot has changed since then, and with the latest announcement of the Windows Phone 7 series I figured I would take a long winded approach to what I think is good and bad about the 3 major players– the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.

When the iPhone came out, much to my disappointment in myself, I demonstrated self-restraint and waited after the phone was released… at least until they lowered the price and then it was adios Verizon, hello iPhone. I loved it, there wasn’t really anything NOT to love about it, well other than the fact that it was on AT&T and I was living in the Hoboken/Manhattan at the time and that area was not their strong suit. In fact, it was horrible reception. BUT, the phone was in fact worth that small price, until I actually moved to Manhattan and I couldn’t get cell service on my walk to/from work and was spotty at best in my apartment. Just not a feasible reason to keep a phone, even if it was the “Jesus Phone” since it really just didn’t work where I was.

From there I hopped over to Sprint, who still to this day has the absolute best network I have experienced and I love them. I was praying of a Sprint iPhone. Then Apple introduced the iPhone 3G (still on AT&T) but this time I was residing in Connecticut where I still am today and had no will power on an instant switch to get the precious iPhone back. There were minimal noticeable changes other than on the back end which just made the phone move a little faster. Nothing that really bothered me but always nice to have that done.

As some time went on, companies were busting their asses to catch up to the iPhone, newer smartphones were being released what seemed to be a few a week! It wasn’t until Google unveiled their Android platform did phones (in my opinion) take a step in a new direction. Up until Android phones were introduced, other than adding backgrounds to some phones or rearranging some icons, you really couldn’t do that much at all to really snazz it up, or just make it YOURS. I of course jumped ship. I have the Moto Droid right now, and I do like it, though as always there’s room for improvement. And lastly yesterday Microsoft introduced their new Windows Phone Series 7 system. I figured it was time to pit these phones against each other based on my own opinions on what needs to happen to make this really work.

The iPhone was the first in a class of its own. Its features and look software and hardware were just so impressive at launch….in 2007. Since that time, it has held it’s same user interface from 2007 and while there has been some changes to the hardware, it is pretty much the same phone they introduced in 2007. 3 years ago! In tech years that’s an eternity. Apple is a company of pure innovation and  has shown no true progress in 3 years. Apple. Please. STEP IT UP. Phones now offer animated widgets, the ability to update Facebook with out going into a Facebook app, realtime weather, alerts on the lock screen. The same icons sit in the same spots with no sign of a change. My hoped had been lifted before the introduction of the iPad, however it was literally just a stretched out iPhone, even the little icons were the same size on the same type of main screen which are dwarfed in comparison, the only step forward is the addition of a background! Woo. Apple had such a great chance to really drop a WOW bomb with this and to me and many others it fell flat. Sure it would be great to have if I was commuting compared to just a regular iPod, but there’s really no feasible use for me in its current state.

What chaps my ass is that Apple has just an unbeatable operating system– Snow Leopard. the UI (user interface) is beautiful, it’s fast, it really sets the standard compared to what is currently out there. So the question is why aren’t they taking the impressive features they have and moving them to the iPhone? Apple is always striving to go 2 steps forward, so why aren’t they doing this with the iPhone, why are they in such control that after 3 years you can’t even change the background of your home screen. The only customization you can make is the background on the lock screen and where certain icons can move.

I am not the only one on this rant, its all over the Apple and techy blogs. TUAW had visitors submit an open letter type of what they want to see in the 4th generation of the iPhone.

The theme is obvious on what people want. CUSTOMIZATION. FUNCTION. NEW LOOKS.  The picture to the left is something someone submitted as an ideal “lock screen” for a new iteration of the iPhone. I think that while it stick with the same look of the iPhone it is so great to see all of your current alerts and important information right there with out having to even fish around for them on the phone itself. That functionality would be a huge improvement. Beyond that they need to take a step forward on the way the iPhone operates in the users eyes. No the icons don’t need to CHANGE, but widgets are key, they are interactive and easy to use. They need to take their attention to beauty and make the UI just that. New and beautiful. I am a MAC 100% but yes, I have abandoned the iPhone. Until they step up the game and really take this to a new level, I honestly feel like it’s old technology at this point, which is strange because it set the standard for NEW technology when it came out!

Also on a separate note– PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE expand carriers in the US, every other country has options, not us. AT&T is NOT a great carrier, their prices aren’t competitive and you have more of a chance of me coming back faster if you were on Verizon or Sprint than staying with AT&T.

When the Android phones were coming out, I obviously kept a very close eye on what was going on. The first one that splashed in the US was the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, that didn’t get much of my attention because I don’t see T-Mobile as a carrier with any quality service (as far as actual network and coverage is concerned). Sprint took on 2 quickly after, the HTC Hero which I did drop my iPhone for which was heavily touted in the press as the hottest and most quality phone on the market. Well, despite some of its positives, it just did not work fantastic, there were too many bugs and I had to have 2 replacements within a month and 1/2. Not a good relationship. I decided to make the jump (again…yes) to the Motorola Droid. Verizon and Motorola made such a significant splash with this phone, especially targeted to the lack of features that the iPhone had in comparison. It was a direct slap to Apple, and I think they had proper grounds. I like the Droid, I am satisfied with it, it is powered by widgets, it has a lot of fun things you can add to customize, however for me it is STILL behind. Why is the grid so defined and spaced out, why are the icons SO small, if this is all customizable, why can’t I arrange things in a funky order? Why must I have the icon AND text for the icon. Little picky things yes, but for the customizable phone it definitely limits what you CAN customize. I want cool. It’s getting there, and yes it’s in its infancy stage with a lot of development ahead of it, early adopters pay that price, but I think that the potential is there. There’s one company below who is developing something for Android that I am really excited about…

Here is something that a company TAT has developed for the Android platform which I think should have been something integrated from the start. And it’s STILL not ready, but I definitely put my e-mail in to get on board when it DOES surface for consumers. The video does a much better job illustrating the differences, and it still isn’t “perfect” but it is a lot more customizable than the minimal “customizable” features of the Android system as it exists today.

This is the first interface that I actually think is ATTRACTIVE, FUNCTIONAL, and USER FOCUSED.

Lastly, the newest phone series to be announced, the Windows Phone. I was excited for the announcement to see what exactly they had up their sleeves, as they are coming from behind I expected them to have something really mind blowing in store for us. I absolutely love the interface they have for the Zune so I assumed that it would be just as great if not better. There are aspects of the phone that lean on that but if you want to scroll alllll the way back up to the top above my rant, you can see the home screen of the Windows 7 phones. What on EARTH were they thinking. Some say its simple but effective, I say its boring, has its positives by showing alerts but oh my god is it boring. There’s no life to it. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. The rest of the features are quite attractive so why did they make the home screen so damn boring. As expected they are only the software side of this. That is Microsoft though. Regular phone makers will be taking the operative system and using it for their phones, so really nothing special. Blah.

My recommendation. GOOGLE– Work with TAT asap, even looking through their other works they are really talented and have an amazing knack for some killer UI. With their ideas executed it would be a hard phone to beat when on the right hardware.

APPLE- Wake up, the iPhone was revolutionary in 2007. It’s 2010. Time to reinvent this wheel. It’s not broken but it needs to be fixed. Something FRESH AND NEW. PLEASE.

WINDOWS- Ugly. Come on, show some creative spirit.

For me, I am sticking with my Android but will no doubt head back to the iPhone when it reinvents itself.

So there are plenty of people for some strange reason stalking this blog. COMMENT ALREADY! Start some conversation. The only people who seem to want to converse are spam bots that want to talk about cialis or other enhancement drugs. I spend a good chunk of time deleting these spam posts.. about 50ish a day, just a pain in my ass, so I added the captcha field to the comments. I know… everyone HATES captcha, but this one is very basic, but just in case, here’s a picture that tells you EXACTLY how to do it.