Tag: Blur »

Blur. is an app that transforms regular pictures into blurred out backgrounds, and its been updated to fit the feel of iOS7. So, if you like things to be a little blurry, check out the new iOS7 update and give your images a blurred view!

Know about the band Blur? They’re most famous in America for that one 2:02 song that goes “Woohoo!” and then has a bunch of otherwise indecipherable singing? It was all over rock radio in the 90’s and shows up in movie trailers to this day. Well, they’ve been producing music besides the aformentioned “Song 2” for almost a quarter-century now, and there’s a new app, appropriately titled The Blur App, to celebrate their lengthy career.

Check out an incredibly exhaustive discography in the Music section that shows off pretty much every single physical release of Blur music ever released. There’s links to buy tracks where available. A music player with samples of live and rare tracks is there too There’s videos featuring interviews and live concert footage from all throughout the band’s history. This is all available in a timeline format that features photos, clippings, and even notable setlists from live performances with anecdotes from the band.

I love the iPad... You love the iPad... So it should really come as no surprise, especially given Apple's prior dedication to the field of music and education, that musicians too, have been smitten with the device.  One such musician that has been a passionate supporter Apple's newest baby would be Damon Albarn, previously of Blur and now Gorillaz fame.  So how much has he embraced the possibilities that the iOS brings to the table?  He has went as far as to speak publicly about his current efforts to release the first ever album both recorded and produced on iPad.

When speaking with NME.com, Albarn was quoted as saying:

"I hope I'll be making the first record on an iPad. I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I've made a completely different kind of record." -- Damon Albarn VIA NME.com

When further elaborating on the album while speaking with Spinner.com, he said that the tunes have have been written in "hotel rooms across America," even describing it as a "love letter" to the country. He continued, stating:

"It sounds like an English voice that has been put through the vocoder of America. More American-sounding than Blur ... I'm going to try and put it out before Christmas." -- Damon Albarn VIA Spinner.com

It really says quite a bit about a piece of hardware when an artist that has sold tens of millions of records is willing to stick his neck out and produce content exclusively while on-the-go.  Some might chock this up to the wide variety of applications available to the iOS community, but at the end of the day, all that matters is the quality of the music.  We will be sure to keep our ear to the ground and let you know when the album sees the light of day.  In the meantime, ROCK ON!

I've personally never really believed it when someone would tell me that the iPhone's camera isn't bad for a phone. After all, I would take picture after picture and the majority would come out, usually with a string of words which I won't repeat, blurry and unrecognizable. As I hustled around CES last week taking pictures and spilling coffee all over myself, it was actually Chris Hall who so graciously pointed out, in between laughs of course, that it was probably my pitifully shaky hands that was the problem and not the camera itself. As it turns out, he was right, for once, and for the past few days I've been using the Blur Tripod and have formed a new opinion regarding my camera phone.

Priced at $14.95, the Blur Tripod is exactly what you think it is, a tripod for an iPhone. A mini tripod to be precise, which stands about 5.5 inches off the ground or up to 8 inches if you extend the legs all the way. The unit itself comes in two separate parts, the legs and the adapter mount. The legs are made of ultra light weight aluminum wich keeps them portable while still remaining fairly durable. The mount is a simple plastic clip which uses a standard 1/4" 20 thread camera screw size which makes it usable on most any tripod on the market. An extremely nice feature of this tripod is it's adjustably, it can truly be manipulated to be able to take photos from nearly any angle you would ever need, however it does become a little unstable when shifted too far to one side. A helpful tip I found though is that while unstable for taking photos shifting the mount all of the way to one side can help in another way by doubling as a steady hand grip for shooting video.

Mobile Mechatronics didn't stop there though, they also put together a $0.99 Blur Tripod app to accompany the tripod.