Andrew and Frank Turner - nicked from Andrews Blog

A couple of weeks back on the Sunday Showcase we had solo folk singer song writer Frank Turner on. I’d heard the name before but wasn’t over familiar with any of his work. I happened to be in the office when he came to do the session (occasionally due to time constraints on the artist we have to record them rather than doing them live).

I’m not always in the studio for live sessions, that’s Andrews forte. But this time round I’m glad I went in. What a brilliant session and a very down to earth and modest guy.

If you get a chance check out some of his albums, and especially his new album Love Ire & Song, which is where this track this song comes from:

Frank Turner - Long Live The Queen

You can download this session on the Sunday Showcase Podcast - Episode 21

And also check out the song Photosynthesis on Love Ire & Song.

David

Occasionally (well, ok, a lot of the time) this blog will be home to quite a geeky post.

Here everyone, is a geeky post.

I got my hands on a new phone today. 2 days ago I realised I could get a new phone on my Vodafone contract. Although I didn’t need a new phone, I’m the sort of person that can’t resist new technology. I have a terrible addiction to new gadgets. I use to treat myself to one new piece of technology a year. So far this year I’ve bought myself an IPod Touch, a new laptop and now a new phone. To be fair the Ipod Touch was with Christmas money, the laptop was helped with birthday money (the last birthday money I will ever get now that I have turned 21) and the phone was free.

So, back to the phone. It’s black. It looks quite nice (all be it on the slightly large side). It has 8GB of space on it (my first ever PC had 1GB). It has a 5 mega pixel camera. It plays music. It has Wi-FI. It has GPS… oh and it can make calls too.

I never used to be too bothered about how stylish something was until I saw the IPod touch. And since then I have become a bit shallow with what my gadgets look like. If I hadn’t seen the IPod Touch I’d say the Nokia N95 looked quite nice, but it really can’t compare to the Ipod looks wise. It looks alright, but it’s nothing special.

It has the standard Nokia software. Which works. I’ve been used to Sony Ericsson phones for the last 5 years so it’s taking some getting used to, but I’m not too worried.

The camera is excellent. Naturally it’s not as good as my proper 5 mega pixel camera (which incidentally I’d quite like a new one) due to a lack of zoom lense, but I think it’s the first phone I’ve had which I could use on a day to day basis.

Nokia claim you can take DVD quality videos on the phone. I’m not entirely sure what DVD’s Nokia have been watching but that claim certainly isn’t true. The video quality is excellent, but not DVD quality. The phone also comes with a lead to watch your videos on the TV, however our rather rubbish student TV doesn’t have the appropriate connections.

The Wi-fi is handy. I can download software on the phone, browse the internet etc etc if I’m in a wi-fi area (like my flat, work or college) without the need to use expensive Vodafone data charges. Again if I hadn’t had an Ipod Touch I reckon I would have been very impressed with the wi-fi feature, but as the browsing doesn’t compare to that of the Ipod, I’m not too bothered, but it is a nice feature.

Now here ladies and gentlemen, is my big novelty feature for this phone. GPS. Just like your car, this phone has maps and shows you where you are, gives you directions, shows you what direction your heading in, what speed your doing and other mildly interesting facts. I was quite impressed with this, there are however some cons…

The GPS sensor is quite sensitive. You need to have the keypad open and not be blocking it with your hand to work. Also if you put your phone in your pocket it stops working. Not a problem if your just looking for directions, but if you are using the GPS tracking feature to see where you’ve been walking, you have to end up holding the phone while you walk (not the best thing to do on the the mean streets of Aberdeen).

The GPS tracking feature is nice… but a novelty. I can’t see me using it often, unless I go for a walk in a very remote area. You can export the tracking and view it in Google Earth, just so you can see where you’ve been.

As you’ll be able to kind of see with this picture. I started the tracking as I walked down Pittodrie Street. I then walked round past the Aberdeen Football Club stadium, over the hill, down by the beach ballroom, along the Esplanade and back towards Pittodrie. Some of the track cuts out, that’s because I was testing the phone to see if the tracking would work in my pocket… it doesn’t. I also dispute the lowest point/highest point part of the map. I’d have thought the highest point was up the hill, but not according to my phone.

All in all, it’s quite a nice phone. I don’t think I’d have ever wanted to pay much for it, but as it was free I can’t really complain.