Codewrangler

artbell.com is under construction

 

Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 9.07.54 PM

If you are an Art Bell fan, here is a little bit of news for you.  Art just posted this on his FaceBook page this evening. Not sure what this means, but there it is. Art Bell is working on bringing his website back.

If you want to follow for any updates he may have, you might want to check out his FaceBook page. Alternatively, just keep checking the website under construction.

For those of you that miss the old show (Coast and Dreamland), you may want to check out this site that continuously streams his old shows. You can go right to their website at http://www.fineartstream.com or access it through TuneIn by searching for ‘Art Bell’.

Update: Since Art’s post, the page has gone from a white “?” on black background, to a white “!” on a black background and since then, the “!” has changed to yellow and now pink. also, there is favicon associated with it as well.

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That favicon looks very familiar to the favicon that ‘used to be’ on the ‘artbell.net’ site, maintained by the former ‘ArtBell.com’ webmaster, Keith Rowland.

Update 2: Not sure what it means, but the single “!”, has now changed to (3) “!”, in colors Red, White and Blue. Perhaps denoting an expected July 4 launch? Just speculating here folks, I have absolutely NO insider information on this one.

Audiobook Builder – Slick Audio Tool

icon-audiobookbuilderIf you have audio files that you want to turn into an “audio” book, for convenient listening, the process can be complicated. Luckily, there are some tools out there to accomplish this task.

For $4.99, there is “Audiobook Builder” by Splasm Software. AudioBook Builder Allows you to easily add audio files to a project and select where chapters will go (file break, time break).

So far, I have used it myself to convert multi hour podcast shows to Audiobook Bookmarkable .m4b format. Seems to work great in iTunes and the Music app on iOS. It’s available in the App Store and on their website.

Ubuntu Phone OS

ubuntu

Just a reminder to those who have an interest in Ubuntu’s upcoming   smartphone OS, based on Ubuntu Linux, they are releasing a developer preview that works on a couple of Google Nexus phones on Thursday (2-20-2013). you can read more about by going to their press release:

Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu to be published on 21 February 2013

It looks like they are taking some good ideas from some of the other mobile OS’s (iOS, Android, WP8, etc.) and adding some new ideas of their own. If managed properly, it could become a real competitor to, mostly Android.

Sony Finally Gives Up On MiniDisc

mini-discSadly, it looks as though Sony has finally given up on the MiniDisc format. Having already stopped making the portable player/recorders MD Walkman’s in 2011, they are now getting ready to ship their last MiniDisc stereo system in March, according to this article on the BBC News website.

Sony to make last MiniDisc stereo system in March

For me, it’s kinda of sad. The MiniDisc format was and is superior to the CDR experience, for a removable media solution. Obviously, some of the solid state alternatives are much more flexible and hold a lot of audio before needing to be offloaded or in the case of the MD, a new disk.

For alternatives to MD, here are some alternative technologies that might interest you. If you are interested in recording AM or FM radio programs automatically, without having to leave your computer on all day and night long, you might want to check out this item from the C.Crane company:

CC Witness Plus

Sony themselves also makes a nice recorder/playback device (sans AM/FM radio), which you can checkout here:

Digital Voice Recorder ICD-TX50

Sony also makes other field recorders of varying features and price. You can check out the full collection here:

Sony Voice Recorders

According to the article, Onkyo will still be making MiniDisc equipment for the die hard fans of the format and Sony will continue to make the blank discs.