Now I have access to a vast, easily searchable library wherever I have a connection to wi-fi or 3G, and if I can’t get online, then I can access any of my playlists that I’ve already saved offline. Of course half the pleasure is listening to rubbish that you’d never buy in a million years, so here I present the ‘Cheese Please’ playlist for your delectation to celebrate this momentous er.. moment. (Warning: Not for those with an aversion to truly cheesy pop).

Cheese please (this link will only work if you are already signed up to Spotify – it’s currently unavailable in the US)

My t-shirt design (made from recycled materials(it gets recycled every year))

I’m currently on what is called ‘temp promotion’ for the month of August. What this consists of is a cleverly calculated, microscopic sum of money which, when tax is taken off, amounts to exactly dick-all – and a whole lot of headache inducing additional work involving excruciatingly anal ‘high-level strategic planning’ and shit-hits-the-fan staff management scenarios. 

On the plus side though, I’m not having to type so much each day that my hands feel like they’ve been run over by a truck, and for one month only I don’t have to get up until the leisurely time of 7am, giving me a lie-in of a whole hour and a half! This morning I even went for a swim before work such was my glee at being able to choose how to spend those early hours of the morning for myself.

Being so busy with work though does mean it looks like another Edinburgh Festival will on the whole be passing me by. Hangovers and the above workload are not good bedfellows so I will be spending the evenings being utterly sensible (well after the usual hour on Facebook and Twitter).

I will however, do my best to catch some of the excellent local music that’s happening during August. I’ve written a wee preview in this month’s Skinny, and thanks to the music editor Dave Kerr who helped out with some timely additions just before going to print. I think it’s a pretty comprehensive account of Edinburgh’s independent promoters and musicians valiant efforts to continue with their lives despite the “influx of tosspots” (as the Daily Mash would have it).

Also, I was chuffed to get a nice write up on the excellent Just Another iPhone Blog for my iPhone vid (see previous post).

So I haven’t just been sitting scratching my arse, honest..

An iPhone ponce, yesterday

Obviously if you are one of the strange breed who turns into a growling, foaming-mouthed tornado of rage at even the mention of Apple products, then this post isn’t for you, and I suggest getting back to your latest 3-hour virus scan (joke!)

The apps I include are some of the ones you might not have heard of, as opposed to the more obvious ones I use every day like Tweetie, Facebook, Tumblr, and the stuff that comes with the phone itself like email, the native notes app and google maps/GPS (which has so far been utterly invaluable as a sat nav stand-in).

Also below I’ve included a wee list of other resources for finding out about more apps if you are so inclined. Let me know what apps you use if you have one of the shiny time-wasting futurephones, and if you have any sources for finding out about the good uns, please leave a comment.

Watch the whole 12 minute video via Vimeo:

Or if you’re on an iPhone or have a short-attention span, watch it in two exciting installments via YouTube:

Part one 

Part deux

Other useful iPhone App links:

Daring Fireball No one outside of Apple’s Cupertino HQ knows more about what they’re up to than John Gruber. He frequently has the inside scoop on what will be announced at the likes of WWDC and often highlights interesting new apps.

Just Another iPhone Blog I’ve had some good recommendations from this blog, which is well worth subscribing to – it’s got more of the feel of a personal blog than something that’s just there to get lots of traffic.

App Advice’s App Awards Found this on the above blog, not saying I agree with the results but it’s a good place to start for an overview of the popular apps out there.

“Geek Rock Stars favourite Apps” ReadWriteWeb have this summary of what some of the top tech geeks use.

Planet of the Apps The Guardian had a decent piece in today’s G2 section about the “app economy”

TechCrunch on the Spotify app Spotify are waiting to see if Apple will approve their game-changing submission to the app store, and thus make their premium account worth paying for. But because it competes directly with iTunes, they may not.

And of course there are hundreds of other sites pumping out an endless barrage of iPhone related trivia – with augmented reality the new exciting trend for those fuckers with 3GS and its built in compass.  And on that note, I can only quote my better half from the video above when she says “enough about the iPhone already!”

So, Gordon Brown’s political career and Susan Boyle’s sanity are both hanging by a ragged thread, The most interesting, but still utterly unreal reality show The Apprentice is about to give way to the appalling Big Brother (and Sir Alan is now the saviour of the Labour Party or something), and swine flu has increased six fold in one week in Scotland prompting widespread panic and looting in the streets (or perhaps just mild concern everytime someone in the room sneezes).

Terminated

Speaking of fears of impending armageddon, Terminator Salvation has had terrible reviews pretty much across the board – it’s even worse than the misogynistic, misanthropic and just plain shite third film according to some – so will not be seeing in the cinema – maybe on DVD.

It’s a pity that the TV show, The Sarah Connor Chronicles got cancelled as although it did suffer from slow pacing and far too many filler episodes in its second season, it was taking the franchise in some interesting new directions and the characterisation was superb. TSCC’s creator talks of the experience of his baby being cancelled on his blog and gives a bitter insight into working in US TV.

Fired-flied

US sci-fi shows are of course constantly under threat of cancellation, and though I like to think I’m a few notches above the sad obsessive sci-fi geek stereotype, I do have a soft spot for the genre. After becoming (ahem) quite a fan of the lovely Summer Glau through TSCC I recently ordered the one and only season of Firefly, (in which she also appears as a minor character) through Lovefilm, and it was absolutely great, much better than I’d thought – I can see why the ‘Western in Space’ concept would have put a lot of viewers off at first glance, but this was one very well written, well acted surprisingly dark and adult at times, and frequently laugh-out loud show and both Mel and I were genuinely sad when it prematurely ended. Ok maybe we are sad geeks…

iPhoned-in

On the tech blogs this week the iPhone rumour machine continues to generate priceless free coverage for Apple who are expected to announce new iPhone hardware on Monday as well as releasing the much anticipated iPhone 3.0 software to the general population (it’s so far only been available to developers in various beta forms). Apple are no doubt hoping to decrease the impact of the much-praised but unproven Palm Pre. Here’s a very scientific bit of guesswork from The Guardian to add to the acres of webspace taken up with this topic.

Are you a geek or do you consider them the equivalent of witches in medieval times and therefore should be driven from their homes and burned at the stake? Should these topics be left to the tech blogs and strange scifi forums where no pretty girls or well-adjusted boys dare to tread? Let me know in the comments..