Review: Google Play Music All Access [Guest Post]

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Review: Google Play Music All Access by Kevin O'Brien originally appeared in Full Circle Magazine issue 78, October 2013.

Like many people, I enjoy listening to music, and having my music with me everywhere is important - and I have a large music collection to draw on.

Trying to have everything with me at all times is a bit of a problem, though, considering how much music I have. Right now I own a number of portable MP3 players, two of which are full of music that I carry with me. My pockets can get very full that way, though, and while I like listening to tracks I own, what about finding new stuff? My MP3 players have never suggested anything to me. This is where the cloud services come in.

Opinion: Go Fischer-Price with Flat Design

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No, not flat-pack design, what do you think this is? IKEA? No, software design. The user interfaces for years have been Skeuomorphic and 3D; Apple went for hand stitched and patina'd leather finishes, Windows 7 was Aero'd, glassy and transparent. Buttons were pop-up, pop-out, marbled, reflective and lozenge-shaped.

Well forget all that, the future's flat, and it's all Windows 8's fault.

Design trends come and go in waves of fashion, like flares, platform shoes, the Poodle Perm; there was a time when each generation of higher resolution graphics cards demanded more and more detailed widgety-do-dads, just to show where the money went. Now touch screens on tablets and smart-phones need bigger controls for stubby sausage fingers, 'flat' design is suddenly everywhere.

News: Full Circle Magazine Issue 78 Out Now

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Full Circle – the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community is proud to announce the release of our seventy-eighth issue.

This month:
* Ubuntu News * Command & Conquer
* How-To : Python, LibreOffice, and Install Linux via PXE.
* Graphics : Blender, and Inkscape.
* Review: Google Music All Access
plus: Q&A, Linux Labs, Ask The New Guy, My Story and soooo much more!

Also available via Issuu: http://issuu.com/fullcirclemagazine

Opinion: Windows XP - Not Dead Yet

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Updates for Windows XP will end in April 2014. Yet the venerable operating system that first appeared in 2001 still has a user base counted in the millions, thanks to Microsoft's own ineptitude and miscalculation.

After Vista's spectacular failure cost credibility with enterprise customers and retail consumers alike, even Windows 7 couldn't overcome the resistance to upgrade.

With the legacy of all those stable and mission-critical enterprise applications demanding compatibility, stability, and low cost maintenance, corporate customers refused to budge. Meanwhile in economic hard times, home users took one look at Windows 7 (and 8), found no compelling reason to shell out for another expensive software license and said 'meh.'

So what happens next?

How-to: Facebook Debugger Tool

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Facebook: s'horrible. Even if you can work out where they've put everything this week, chances are when you post from other sites, it won't show up how you want it. Broken thumbnail links are my biggest bugbear. I don't call it Facepunch for nothing.

Welcome the Facebook Debugger tool; it’s a handy little tool for developers that’s been around for awhile, but is equally useful for the rest of us.

Humour: Social Media Explained

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Social Media explained...

Via Twitter: @BruceVH: Here's the best infographic I've found that explains the differences between FB, Twitter, Pinterest etc.

http://buff.ly/19idoob

With thanks to Ben Corbridge for the retweet. RC

Review: Linux Lifestyle Podcast

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Podcast Season 1 Episode 1: All ends with beginnings

A very British podcast from ex-Linux Format / TuxRadar geeks

"In this episode: A famous Linux magazine has some staffing issues. GNU celebrates its 30th anniversary and Valve has announced a nifty controller for SteamOS. There’s also some things we found out in a week, a section where people ask us to do other things, and the not quite internet famous (yet) Voice of the Masses."

Sound familiar? It should do...

News: Default Wallpaper in Ubuntu 13.10

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Wallpaper. Love it or hate it, as the first thing that users see on the desktop, it's a tough choice.

Over recent releases, Ubuntu has gone with a continuous thread. You could call it visually appealing and easily identifiable, tied into Ubuntu’s overall design colours. You could also describe it as bland, non-descript and inoffensive.

So now that the new default wallpaper of Ubuntu 13.10 has been identified in a merge request, you can rest assured that same thread continues. The new wallpaper is: a slightly different coloured smudge.