Okay all you Hawaii Apple desktop jockeys with iMovie and access to a digital camcorder and/or camera, it's your chance to show off that 5-minute artsy-fartsy music video or that treatise on local eating habits.

An Apple User Group at the University of Hawaii is sponsoring iMovieFest Hawaii, a competition for original videos edited with Apple's popular iMovie application.

Now if I only had more time to assemble that cast for a local parody on Apple's "Switch" Ad... 

10:29:17 AM    Say Something []

Here's an excellent Rolling Stone iPod article that goes into detail about a feature all of us iPod owners have embraced since its release in Oct/Nov 2001: "The iPod Shuffle."

This is a feature not to be taken lightly. It consumes your music life and changes the way you listen to your music collection. Since getting my first CD burner in 1997, I've made mix CD's left and right, even starting a monthly series called the "rmj" (ryan music journal) that friends, co-workers and fellow music-lovers end up bugging me a copy for (not-for-profit, of course). These monthly audio snapshots comprised of songs that I actively listened to in that month, songs that I couldn't get enough of. Call it my own personal Top 20 radio station all wrapped up in a shiny silver disc.

Then along came the iPod and all of a sudden, "rmj" production crawled to a halt. Instead of compiling songs for my next "rmj," I'd be ripping songs into my iPod and letting it choose songs via its "Shuffle Songs" command.

Now, I'm no fan of the "Random/Shuffle" feature commonly found in CD players because those darn things always pick the shitty songs. Always.

But when you rip particular songs off a CD that you like, dump 'em into your iPod, then have it choose from those songs (in my case, 1520 songs and counting), well, let's just say you find yourself in music heaven. You don't want to leave; you find every opportunity to listen to your tunes on the 'Pod. 

9:22:46 AM    Say Something []