This post brought to you by WeReward. All opinions are 100% mine.

Alright. Norwegian electric band Royksopp has been posting juicy little blurbs about their new album, Senior, for months now. They’ve pushed back the release date once or twice, and have finally announced that the album, originally due for earlier this summer, would be released September 13th. The album is meant to accompany their prior album, Junior; while Junior contained lighter and more energetic tracks, Senior is said to contain some of the slower, darker, more lethargic tracks.

But the album has been leaked.

That’s right. The whole album has been floating around almost every major torrent site and on a few filehosting sites. And, may I say, it’s fantastic. It’s really, really good.

You can download Senior from ThePirateBay.org here. But please, buy the vinyl or something. The album is totally worth it.

Download Senior now.

The sound.

The vocals sound a lot like Coldplay’s, or like Doves’s. I probably did a horrible job with those apostrophes. At any rate, can you hear it? I kinda like it. It’s impressive how high the guy can sing without tensing up. It’s very smooth, and easy on the ears.

As for the beat… Hmm. I feel like I should be able to place it, but I can’t right now. It’s very rhythmical, although a lot of that comes from the guitar and the piano, more so from the drum. The piano part is fairly straight forward, almost like this one Ingrid Michaelson song my friend introduced me to earlier this week. The drum is rather catchy. It’s the same as the drum from a whole slew of pieces (the first that comes to mind is Gnarls Barkley’s “Going On”).

There’s a bit of processed-ness to it. If you listen closely, you can hear guitars in reverse in some places, and the drum is sequenced in a few places. It gives it a bit of an edge, despite the fact that most of the actual instruments are very much acoustic.

The song flows really nicely. It starts at a brisk pace and keeps it up throughout the piece, making it really good for… well, things that need a pace, like walking, or thinking, or something like that. I wouldn’t really want to listen to this sitting in bed trying to sleep unless I really liked caffeine and had RLS or something.

Still, the song is, as a whole, awesome, and you should really give it a listen. How might you do that, you ask? Well, here’s a convenient set of links and embedded flash videos to help you meet that end.

Listen to it.

Download the song (along with the rest of his album) from iTunes here.

Stream the song in higher quality from GrooveShark here.

Visit his website.

Holy crap, I’ve done a lot of iPhone posts recently. This one, in short, is about getting Netflix on your iPhone. :D

Tutorial

If you want netflix NOW, and don’t want to wait, there’s a simple (yet tedious) process for getting the iPad app to work on your iPhone, as strange as that seems.

1. Download the Netflix app for iPad here. No, you don’t need an iPad to download the app. After the app has downloaded fully, right click the app and click “Show in Windows Explorer” or “Show in Finder” (Depending on your OS).
2. You’ll see the Netflix app in a window. Copy it to your desktop or something so it’s easier to work with. Rename it from “Netflix.ipa”  to “Netflix.zip” and then extract the zip file.
3. Inside the extracted folder, you’ll find a folder called “Payload.” Inside THAT folder, you will find another folder called “Netflix.app.” SSH into your iPod and copy the “Netflix.app” folder to your device’s /Applications/ folder.
4. Now, you have to set the permissions of the folder to 755. This can be different depending on your client. Some will let you right click the folder, click “properties,” and set the permissions to 755. If you have access to a command terminal, try “chmod 755 Netflix.app” or, if that fails, “chmod 755 -r Netflix.app.”
5. Reboot your iPhone. All the way.
6. Now, you’ll need to find a 3rd party browser that will allow you to spoof the iPad’s browser (i.e. it will make websites think that you’re browsing from an iPad). There are two cheap ones; Atomic Web is just $0.99, and Perfect Browser is $1.99. They are both very good and well worth the small price tag. In either browser, you’ll need to go to Settings and select “Safari iPad” under “Identify Browser” (in Atomic Web) or “Desktop Rendering” (in Perfect Browser).
7. Browse to Netflix.com, login, find a movie to watch instantly, and launch it. The Netflix app will take care of the rest.
8. Enjoy your movie.

Man, this certainly has been a week for the iPhone, hasn’t it? As of today, any person with a jailbroken iPhone 4 can run their device on any supported carrier (i.e. T-Mobile). The news comes after a few weeks of waiting. Some time yesterday, @MuscleNerd posted a tweet casually announcing the unlock’s release.

Tutorial

To get the unlock, simply…

1. Jailbreak your iPhone.
2. Launch Cydia
3. Under the “Manage” tab, tap “sources,” tap “Edit,” and add “repo666.ultrasn0w.com”
4. Refresh your sources.
5. Search for “ultrasn0w,” and install it.
6. Restart your iPhone.

That’s it! Your iPhone can officially work with any of the supported GSM carriers. Check the screenshot from the settings menu below (taken in full iPhone 4 glory).

Click to enlarge.

For those of you who have jailbroken their iPhone 4′s with the fatastic jailbreakme.com jailbreak, it is very, very easy to use FaceTime over the 3G network. That’s right; you can now make video calls to any iPhone from anywhere with 3G reception (mustn’t… bash… AT&T… coverage…).

Tutorial

It’s really easy. Just follow these few short steps.

1. Jailbreak your iPhone 4. It takes like 5 minutes and you don’t need a computer.
2. Open Cydia and install all updates. This fixes an issue with FaceTime and MMS that the jailbreak caused.
3. In Cydia, click on the “Manage” tab, tap “Sources,” tap “Edit,” and add the source “http://apt.modmyi.com/”
4. Refresh your sources, and then look for the “My3G” app. Install it.
5. Go through the Rock setup process, including making a username and password for yourself. Run the app, and leave all your settings at default.
6. Now, disconnect from any wifi networks (i.e. forget any networks nearby or turn off wifi) or go somewhere without wifi reception, and then make a FaceTime call. That’s it!

With jailbreaking officially legal by every stipulation, there’s never been a better time to give it a shot. “But what if it’s too hard?” you may ask. Well, have no fear. There’s a new jailbreak that you can do, from your iPhone. I haven’t seen a jailbreak this easy since iOS 1.1.1, which was when my iPod Touch was new. It’s THAT old. I’m not even entirely sure how it works. But hey! It works!

Tutorial

If you want to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad with 4.0 firmware on it, and get things like themes, jailbroken apps, powerful features, or other awesome jailbroken innovations, simply browse to

http://www.jailbreakme.com

-or-

http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com

on your device, and drag the nifty little “slide to jailbreak” slider. AND THAT’S IT. How crazy simple is that? I mean, I love comex for this.

Be warned, though, that the servers are under a huge load, because everyone and their cousin wants to jailbreak their iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. So, if one of those links seems to be “down,” it’s probably just the server screaming in pain under the weight of everyone’s iDevices. So, be patient, retry a few times if you need.

And, if all else fails, check here for my tried-and-tested jailbroken recovery method.

Update:

Apparently, FaceTime is buggy/nonworking after jailbreaking with this method, for most people. So, if you’re on your iPhone, and use FaceTime a lot (yes, a lot is two words), I’d stay away from this jailbreak for right now, just to be safe.

Update 2 – Fix:

Alright, there’s a super simple FaceTime fix. Backup your iPhone, use Jailbreakme.com, and then restore your iPhone to that backup. This apparently fixes it. Don’t restore your iPhone to the firmware (i.e. restore to factory settings), because that defeats the purpose.

Every nerd in the US that is at least in some way following the progress of the iPhone should pay attention. This is big. As per a new copyright law, it is now officially legal to unlock your iPhone or other handheld device (i.e. hacking your iPhone to use with T-Mobile) and install unapproved 3rd party apps. This pretty much legalizes everything any iPod Touch/iPhone hacker has ever done.

Problem?

Consider this. Say you really, really like Google Voice. Say you also like your iPhone a whole bunches. How ever are you going to get a Google Voice app to live happily on your iPhone, considering the webapp is slow, choppy, and, most importantly, browser-based?

Solution! Now with extra legality!

Simple. Jailbreak your iPhone, buy the Google Voice app, and install it. WHOA. Now, Google Voice is on your iPhone. How awesome is that?

Another Problem

Say you want an iPhone, but hate AT&T more than Hitler. And by that, I mean Hitler hated AT&T. It’s a known fact. Regardless, you’re stuck with a phone faster than the first 4 or 5 dozen supercomputers put together that’s bottlenecked by a network that caps your bandwidth at 2 gigs, and that’s granted you get reception in the first place. WHAT do you do?

Solution!

Unlock your iPhone and use T-Mobile instead. Cool, amirite?

Essentially, this stabs AT&T and Apple by allowing people to not only circumvent the exclusive AT&T + Apple partnership but also to bypass Apple’s stingy app review process. That’s like a two-fold win for hackers like the iPhone Dev Team, and nerds like myself, who love putting software where it shouldn’t be.

Regardless, I love you all. Keep being almost-illegal. And if you screw up in the process, I’ll be happy to help you fix your jailbroken iPhone problems.

There’s nothing quite like seeing an opening band, not knowing what to expect, and being absolutely blown away. The band in question, or rather, the musician, was “Larkin Grimm,” an incredibly interesting woman who plays both harp and guitar (among other things, I’m sure).

She and her two band members were opening for Rasputina last night. The band was fascinating in appearance, to say the least. Larkin and her bass player were dressed in these slightly retro skirts, while their drummer looked like an H&M model, complete with fedora and vest.I loved it. I care about stage appearance. I’m a dork like that.

Screw that, how did they sound?

Right, their music. I almost forgot. Imagine, if you will, taking the mood and lyrics of the Dresden Dolls, and forcing it upon a band like Doves. It was a sad, slightly eclectic kind of music, with a bit of a dusty, almost southwestern twist in one or two of their songs. It was very passionate, too. Some of the music they made was just an intense buildup of “acoustic noise,” as Grimm calls it in her bio.

The drummer was, in my opinion, the most interesting to watch. Rather than using drum sticks, he had what looked like thick, frayed rope, which he whipped around his drum set, creating a sort of muted, hushed sound.

The bass player has to be given credit, too. Her playing was absolutely smooth and streamline, without the slightest hint of tension. I wish I could do that. Regardless, she was also a fantastic backup singer, staying in tune with the other two members, which is something I really find fantastic in a live performance. I hate hearing a band that’s fantastic in recordings, but utterly dismal in live shows (like The Mars Volta, although I think that’s more because they’re absolutely smashed every time they do live shows).

That’s another thing; the whole group sang, which I thought was kind of neat. It’s always a bit foreign-looking to see a band in which the drum player, for example, sits there with his (or her) mouth sealed the whole time. It almost looks out of place.

Afterwards

After the show, they sold CD’s for “whatever you can give us.” People gave jewelry , bread, and “sometimes even money” for their CD’s. I’m sure they have quite a collection of interesting and semi-valuable trinkets by now. I got a live CD, which I’ve yet to listen to (mainly because most of the time between the concert and this post was spent sleeping).

At any rate, Larkin Grimm. Listen to her, because she loves you. Her albums are cheap, and her music is good. You don’t have very much to lose. Well, ok. Maybe you stand to lose $10, but it’s worth it.

Visit her site

Download a few free tracks from her site

Buy her albums on iTunes

I don’t know what kind of music you’d even CALL this. It’s all sampled from some old song called “Tu vuò fà l’americano” [video here] by Renato Carosone, originally recorded in 1956.

So, Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP remixed the crap out of it. And it sounds awesome. It retains the swingy 1950′s feel while giving it a slightly faster, more up-beat tempo that is just so catchy. I can’t even explain it. It’s like what techno would sound like before electricity.

Charts

It was released in February of this year, and has since destroyed charts in Australia and most of Europe, reaching the top in Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden, and UK’s Dance chart. Apparently, it hasn’t hit America that hard (yet). So, share the hell out of this song. It needs to get heard.

Get it!

Get it from iTunes (only $0.99)

Download (Not uploaded, hosted, or maintained by Technoheads.org)