Ninjaman is a notorious hardcore Jamaican musician with roots in Dancehall but from the harder side of the dance floor. Ninjaman is well known for his gun loving lyrics and nasty on stage performances. Reggae Sumfest 2008 was no different. The Ninja was not so silent and neither were his fans as he dazzled the crowd with his act performance.
Ninjaman is a local favorite and his show was high energy and powerful. It’s always nice when the crowd knows an artists music and that was certainly the case on Thursday night at SumFest. The crowd seemed to know every word to every song as he belted out some fan favorites.
If you ever get thew chance to see ninjaman in concert then I suggest you do so. If not then download some Ninjaman mp3 files from Amazon and play Ninjaman on your Zune
Cheap Plasma TV units are now available for sale online at many online shopping destinations but the best deals on plasma televisions on the internet are not always easy to find. Thank goodness you know about ZuneMAX.com and we’ve been busy searching the internet for good deals at shopping sites on the web. We’re planning on reviewing lots of shopping websites as we prepare for the holiday shopping season and we look for the best deals on Zune players and other electronics and gadgets for the gift giving season.
We all like to shop but shopping at websites like Shopping.com makes it a lot more fun and easier to buy all the cool things you want for the holidays, like a Cheap Plasma TV without ever leaving the comfort of your home. Buying a new Zune player or accessories for your favorite Zune fan online is a safe and easy way to manage a Christmas shopping list and a surefire way to save on your holiday shopping with some of the best deals a company offers coming from online mega stores like Amazon and Dealtime.com.uk.
If you are new to online shopping then you may consider checking out Shopping.com for the best deals on a Cheap Plasma TV or some other cool gift and save with other great incentives like free shipping and more.
I made it through the first night of Reggae SumFest and I had a great time. I did not make it to the final act of the evening and I missed “The Doctor” and Jamaica’s reigning “King of Dancehall” Beenie Man on stage. I woke up at 5am and watched the sun rise on Thursday morning and was not able to squeeze in a nap during the day so when the sun started to pop up again this morning I thought I was hallucinating at the pretty light show and remembered the hour long drive home ahead of me. I called it quits and drove home early for some short sleep and now I’m up again with little hope for any sleep again before the show tonight. I may end up missing some part of tonights show as I expect I’ll take a nap during the day at some point. My van is parked within easy access and a sleep break is easy with the press pass. I can walk in and out as I wish with the armband I’m wearing and not even the cops say much to me. I did notice like 100 police dogs all over and when I tried to snap a shot of one the guy made me put my camera down. It was a beautiful all black German Shepard with perfect form. I just wanted a pic of the dog but he would not have it. I don’t question Jamaican police I just go with the flow.
I was out gunned for interviews and the little bit of video I did get is probably crap because my camera with built in mic could not compete with all the noise in the room. Many of the people running interviews had much nicer cameras with attached microphones which made the interviews possible. I was stuck alone with my handheld video camera and no tripods allowed because of space constraints and tripping hazards. It was sad really but I had my digital camera and I got some good still photos. I spent much of the night networking and the show turned into a huge opportunity I think with a number of Jamaican artists expressing interest in working together with me on some online music projects. I’ve found so many musicians with a MySpace page and not their own website. I show them how powerful and easy something like Wordpress is and they can manage it from there. Having your own website allows you to generate your own income, builds a better brand with your music and gives you greater creative control. Anyway lets hope I can get a short nap and move on today. If not tonights coverage may be even weaker.
I had my Zune and WiFi on but I never caught a signal anywhere. not very surprised at the fact there are no Zunes in Jamaica but I was hoping for someone from the media or maybe an artist or band member to have something with them. No Zuners at SumFest except MAX and me.
Real Networks and MTV have partnered up to release a new mp3 store under the Rhapsody label. The online music store will feature the latest music releases from the 4 major labels in DRM free format available for download at 99 cents for a single song and $9.99 for an entire album.
I think another DRM free music store will be good for the industry. It will force iTunes and Zune to push more DRM free content in their own stores if this new store takes off. You have to wonder how well another mp3 store will do and what they might offer different from others
Rhapsody America, the Web’s top subscription-based music service, opened a digital download store today, becoming the latest company to challenge the dominance of Apple’s iTunes.
Like other recent challengers — and unlike iTunes — the Rhapsody MP3 store will feature songs that aren’t constrained by anti-copying measures. The four major record labels will provide Rhapsody such songs, which work on any digital music player and can be copied an unlimited number of times. Apple has such music from only one major label.
The store from Rhapsody America, a joint venture of RealNetworks and Viacom’s MTV Networks, offers another indication that the music industry, in its struggle with Apple over the pricing of music, is cultivating a new breed of Apple competitor.
Rhapsody is charging 99 cents for a single and $9.99 for an album, the same pricing as on iTunes.
Zune has sold over 2 million units and grabbed a whopping 4% market share in it’s 2nd year of production. Zune hit the 1 million mark back in 07/07. That was one million in just under the first year and this 2nd million comes in at about 1 1/2 years after the release date of the first player. They made the jump from 1 to 2 faster so it looks like Zune may be gaining steam. It was expected that Zune would be a late bloomer and Microsoft stated in the very beginning the had a 3 to 5 year plan for this.
I would think they are mildly pleased with hitting 4% market share in that time. Many folks had Zune doomed from the start and most thought it would never make it this far. I knew Microsoft was planning for a long battle and it looks like their efforts may be paying off. They have not had the best of luck with Zune and they have even been their own worst enemy at times but Microsoft has the hammer approach to marketing and they’ll just keep pounding away until the get it right. We’re gonna love zune and they’ll keep shoving stuff at it until we do!
I’m really digging the new games on Zune and I have beeen letting the kids use it more since we put them on it as well. I think Microsoft should work on porting as many free games for Zune as they can find and start adding some fan favorites into the Zune MarketPlace alongside Podcasts and Videos for a full service media market place. If I could find more Zune games to download I’d have more fun I think.
Microsoft’s Zune picked up a percentage point in the MP3 player market, bringing its share to a whopping four percent, with two million units sold. Microsoft has said from the start that it will stick with the Zune for as long as it takes for the player to gain traction, and it looks like that’s starting to happen.
Apple’s share of the MP3 player market share dropped a single point to 71 percent, according to the NPD Group’s study, but its lead is still monstrous. The bigger loser between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 was Creative, which saw its share halved to two percent.
This is part 1 of a video series that will chronicle my name change to:
First name: Microsoft
Last name: Zune
Part 1: I called Microsoft in this video to ask about the legal side of my name change. I didn’t get the 100% go ahead I was expecting but they did give me the legal department’s address to send a letter to. But the individual at the end of the call did let me know something neat..
ArsTechnica has a nice comparison of the Apple TV versus the Xbox 360 as the best choice for home entertainment system or digital hub. It’s a pretty easy for me with the Zune and a PC to take the 360 as a better choice for my digital lifestyle and it’s probably the better choice for millions of Windows users as well.
Apple TV is probably great for some folks but why would you miss out on the gaming capabilities and Xbox Live by choosing an Apple TV unless you already have a Wii or Playstation and no need for the Xbox game console? Seems like the Xbox 360 is an easy choice over the Apple TV for most of us.
* Cheaper than the Xbox 360
* Cheaper HD rentals
* Less restrictive licensing
* Build quality
* Better integration with the iTunes store
* Silent running
* Small form factor
Why the Xbox 360 is better:
* Lots of features when combined with Vista Windows Media Center
* Better picture quality (at the expense of file size)
* Plays games
* DVD drive (and the option of HD DVD)
* Includes cables
It’s interesting. There’s always been the theory that Microsoft was going to do the “X Boy,” but there’s never been any real credibility to that theory, as far as I’m aware. Coupling XNA with Zune is an interesting way to still get into the handheld games space with an existing device and not have it be a potential problem or liability.CS: It is interesting, because Zune was never designed for gaming. I don’t know about you, but I love the way this control input feels, especially…
I’m excited about what can be done with XNA on Zune and I think game development is going to be awesome for Zune. I wrote about the XNA platform when it first came out and I knew then that XNA was a great fit not only for Xbox but for Zune as well and recent announcements have confirmed what I already knew. Microsoft mobile games development will be under the Zune platform more so than Xbox. There is no Xboy coming Zune!
By Michael Jimenez
Middle College High School
March 06, 2008 6:00 AMZune-Arts.net
This is a friendly Web campaign focused on promoting emerging artists. The page contains the collaborated works of individuals taking advantage of the advertising the site provides.
Here is a very interesting article written by Patrick Klepek over at the Multi Player Blog at MTV.com that asks if the Microsoft Live Anywhere Initiative is dead? For those of you who do not know what the Live Anywhere Initiative is take a look back at the Wikipedia page for more details. In a nutshell Live Anywhere is Microsofts global plan for dominance of our digital lifestyle where they want us to be able to access their services from anywhere at anytime through Windows, Xbox and now Zune.
Patrick asks if the Live Anywhere Initiative is dead and I don’t understand how he came to this conclusion really. I think that Zune is actually the most important component to the Live Initiative. I think Zune will cover most if not all of the mobile components and is not limited to just music and phones. I realize that everyone has been waiting for a mobile Xbox platform to arrive but I think its already here in the form of Zune. I think that Xbox will be reserved as the home entertainment console with a focus on HD movies and IPTV which I think will make an obvious partner with Xbox as the preferred content delivery method of the future. There will not be a mobile Xbox game player or platform, its going to be Zune Game Players. I believe that Zune is the mobile platform and the “Anywhere” aspect of the Live Anywhere Initiative that is still very much alive. It’s progressing just fine but what our friend Patrick has missed is that it will not be developed under the Xbox brand as so many expected it would be it will be under the new brand of Zune.
My money lies on a portable game player from Zune and not Xbox. What better way to insure the success of the Zune brand then to build the mobile game player on that platform? It won’t matter what they call it they mobile game player from Microsoft is a sure success and by building it on the Zune platform they guarantee the success of their new mobile entertainment and communications platform. Once they integrate more Windows Mobile and Live features into the Zune game and music players the convergence of Live Anywhere exists. The Live Platform is all of the Microsoft services including Windows, Windows Mobile, Xbox and now Zune. It began as Xbox Live with the games because that was the easiest to generate a community with and they will slowly make it a Microsoft portal with access to everything Live. This should make it easier to understand why Microsoft has been dumping billions into Xbox when you see that it was about much more than just games and why they will dump billions into Zune which is about much more than just music. MTV Multiplayer » We Asked Microsoft: Is That ‘Live Anywhere’ Initiative Dead?
At the Microsoft’s press briefing at E3 2006, Bill Gates came on stage to introduce Live Anywhere, an ambitious company initiative to integrate the Xbox 360 experience into everyday life via mobile phones.Nearly two years later, Live Anywhere has yet to materialize.
Is Live Anywhere dead? Here’s what Xbox Live exec. John Schappert (who took the stage for Microsoft’s keynote at GDC this year) told Multiplayer in an e-mailed statement:
I have expected since long ago that the Zune players would some day have games. I don’t know exactly why but I have had my doubts about an Xbox portable game system since I first heard about Zune. I kinda think the Zune family will cover all the portable players including music, phones and games.
I think that by making the portable player a Zune it will help insure success of the Zune line. A Microsoft portable game player that ties to the Xbox Live service does not have to be named Xbox in order to succeed and by lending it the Zune name they automatically grab this many new Zune users as well.
I hope some day I will have my Zune Music Phone and my Zune Game Player as a choice of what to carry.
It’s been oft rumored that Microsoft’s music-playing, photo-sharing Zune (which was almost called the Xpod) will eventually have some sort of game-playing ability as well. Now, Microsoft Europe Chief Chris Lewis has thrown some more fuel on the rumor fire, telling TotalVideoGames in an interview that “gaming is certainly something we’re considering for the device.”
