Tag: Reviews

24 Season 8

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24 seasons a DVD cover

 

 

I've been a long time fan of the TV show '24' and back in April I finally got round to watching the final season, season 8 as it became available on Netflix. I've got the rest of the series on DVD but had been waiting for the price on iTunes to drop below £20 – so I was very thankful when all 8 seasons appeared on Netflix.

 

For those of you who don't know by now, the premise of the show is that it follows Jack Bauer a federal agent over 24 hours, in real time. I've never been disappointed by a season of 24, although by about season 6 it did seem like it was starting to repeat itself. Season 7 added something new to the mix by moving the show out of Los Angeles and into Washington and so I was quite looking forward to season 8. Spoiler alert: Seeing terrorists raid the Whitehouse was a truly shocking moment (especially for fans of 'The West Wing')

 

This time we get a day in New York City. It starts with Jack Bauer sitting at home with his Granddaughter. Quickly events unfold that require Jack to return to action. The first 10 – 16 hours of this show were good TV, very good. However the final 8 episodes were AMAZING TV, adrenaline filled suspense with just enough intelligence to pass itself off.

 

After I watched Homeland I feared I'd find 24 outdated, and in some respects it did – the over-the-top set design of CTU, the inevitable mole, the fact that dramatic events only ever seem to happen at 55 minutes past the hour – however I was very impressed with this season, and I'm so glad that 24 is to return for a 9th season, albeit for only 12 episodes. The last 5 minutes were almost tear-jerking.

 

So if you have Netflix, block out a week in your schedule and catchup on this brilliant show.

 

5 Must have mobile apps for Android

Marc

I thought I’d share with you some of the apps I use most often on my phone (a HTC desire S). Here are a few links to some “must have” apps (non-games).

Audible

I enjoy listening to Audiobooks while at the gym or driving, and this app makes it so easy. You can download any books you’ve purchased from Audible and the 30s rewind button and sleep timer are excellent additions. The ability to bookmark is also nice. Being owned by Amazon, I’m surprised your position and bookmarks are not backed up to the cloud (as they are when reading a book using the Kindle app) – so this means when I launch the app on my iPad I’m not in sync. Great app and great service.

Call Filter

I don’t like answering calls from anonymous callers – it’s usually someone trying to sell me something I don’t want. This handy little app silently sends anonymous incoming calls to voicemail, meaning anyone who does actually want to contact you can still leave a message for you to call back.

Dropbox

A while back I blogged about a rather convoluted way to mimic the excellent Photo Stream feature found on iOS on Android. That just got much easier thanks to the latest update to Dropbox which can now automatically synchronise photos and videos to your Dropbox account. No more plugging in your USB cable to download all your photos, and if you loose/wipe your phone your precious memories are safe.

IM+ Pro

A great chat application that lets me sign into MSN Messenger, Google Talk and Facebook all at once. The app cleverly maintains your sessions on their servers, and uses a highly efficient Push connection to keep you connected – meaning you can be signed into all your accounts and your battery won’t even notice. (Also well worth getting for iPad)

Dogcatcher

I love podcasts, and Dogcatcher is a great player for Android. I wouldn’t say it has the nicest User Experience I’ve ever seen, but functionality it has everything I could ask for from a mobile podcast player – including automatic downloading of new episodes (you can specify WiFi or Plugged in only). iPhone users should checkout Podcaster which provides similar functionality.

 

Hope you find this useful, let me know if you have any favourites.

My favourite music of 2010

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Yes I know its nearly February but here’s what grabbed my attention the most last year (in no particular order).

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

The Suburbs

The Arcade Fire’s third album is one of those albums that sounds better as a whole that any single track. From the epic orchestral thumping of “Rococo” to the quiet introspection of “Wasted Hours” to the delightfully poppy “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” this collection of songs deserves your full attention while listening. While it probably is slightly too long, I couldn’t pick a song to drop and I’m glad they didn’t. There really is no filler on this album, a rarity indeed. Original,  catchy, melancholic this if my favourite album of the past 5 years, let alone 2010. It just hooks me every time, it has its rockier moments, it’s quiet moments but they all feel like one. The hallmark of a great album is one where your favourite track changes regularly, for now my favourite track is ‘We Used to Wait’ (checkout this amazing dynamic video) but in the past it has been Rococo, Deep Blue, Ready To Start (in fact they’ve all been a favourite at times). Brilliant.

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