The new Panasonic GX1: pictures and specs leaked

Further in the usual leaking parade of new cameras information, today we have the case of the brand new Panasonic GX1, the top model in the micro4/3 range of Panasonic. Apparently it's designed to please the advanced amateurs. The pictures appeared at the forum mobile01, the specs were posted at Digicame-info, and both were spotted by Amin Sabet, member of the mu-43 forum.

New video of Jessica 6 for "Prisoner of love"

In a logic world, this should be a worldwide smash hit, regardless of the fact that Antony collaborates in it with Jessica 6:

Jessica 6 'Prisoner Of Love' feat. Antony from Jessica 6 on Vimeo.

What's virgin mean

I guess more than a few people of my age and with kids will have a wide smile after watching this:

The hole in Europe's bucket, by Paul Krugman

This article, published in The New York Times, does not smell good, although Krugman has a reliable track record of not being a euro-basher.

I hope that either he is wrong, or else the European leaders (does such a thing exist in 2011?) manage to find a credible way out of the crisis in the near future:

The Hole in Europe's Bucket

Jony Ive's speech during the Celebrating Steve event

On October 19th, Apple made an event called "Celebrating Steve", of which a full video has been posted at their website. From it, I found particularly interesting the participation by Jony Ive, shown in this video:

An iPad for my parents (IV): updating to iOS 5

It's been a long time since I last posted on this series, so there I go:

Last weekend I updated the iPad 2 to iOS 5. In the process, I inadvertedly lost a couple of apps and the pictures that were already there, so I had to put them back. Besides, I showed to my father the new Newstand app, and we installed a couple of sample magazines for him to check. I stressed the importance of not providing any credit card information, unless he wants to actually purchase this stuff (which is not probable at this time).


This updated served me to realize how hooked is my father on using the iPad:

Before the iPad arrived to their home, my father was a heavy consumer of pastime magazines, from crossed words to sudoku (and in recent years, he was doing tons of sudoku). Once he got the iPad, he's transformed into an almost power user internet (considering he is almost 78 years old), browsing newspapers often, watching tv series online (when they miss an episode) or sending emails to close friends. It is a nice spectacle to see him enjoying his new capabilities and realizing that, contrary to his own expectations, he is very much able to get into the "modern world of internet". At this time, he stopped buying sudoku magazines, and is spending much less time in pastime magazines in general. On the contrary, he's got the use of visiting many newspapers pages on a daily basis, getting information for his favourite discussions on politics (a topic on which we disagree big time, of course!).

My mother, on the other hand, keeps on looking with curiosity to the iPad, mostly to videos and pictures, and specially old pictures of the family I scanned for them. But she has never been too interested in new technologies, and therefore she considers this is a kind of "toy for my husband".

Honestly, this gift achieved a success we did not expect and is the best demonstration of the potential of the iPad for people who were previously excluded from the world of computing.

"Un país para comérselo" special tv documentary on Córdoba

The public Spanish tv is broadcasting a series of documentaries focused on the gastronomy from different parts of Spain, entitled "Un país para comérselo" ("A country to eat it"). I have been following them from scratch, as they are extremely well done, entertaining, beautiful to watch, and very interesting for people who love good food & good wine, as me. Besides, they show plenty of beautiful views on cities, monuments, fields... brief, it is an amazing series, well worth to watch. Furthermore, lately they are broadcasting these documentaries in HD, which is really the icing on the cake (pun intended).

Well, yesterday I had the pleasure to watch the last in the series, devoted to Córdoba and its province. And it was really fantastic. Obviously you need to understand Spanish to enjoy it completely, but even if you don't, you will enjoy the video showing many of the typical features of Cordoba, including salmorejo, flamenquín, berenjenas con miel, and jamón ibérico.

Finally, the documentary showed the restaurant where we celebrated our marriage 14 years ago, Bandolero, and also the owner of one of my favourite restaurants in Córdoba: Miguel, from Casa Pepe de la Judería.

You can watch the video online here.

The soul of Apple lives in Jony Ive

Longtime ago, when the succession of Jobs was still far away in the future, I predicted -as oftentimes, strictly based on my guts indications- that Jony Ive was the natural successor of Steve Jobs.

Since that date, plenty of people have discussed this matter, and many stated boldly that the only possible successor was Tim Cook. And indeed, Tim Cook is the current CEO of Apple. So it was with a certain positive surprise that I've read a recent article dealing with the forthcoming biography of Steve Jobs, where Jobs is quoted by saying this:

He called Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself -- that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is "the way I set it up."

And I'm surprised because this comment, atributted to Jobs himself, completely reflects my own feelings.

I've watched many times product introductions where Jony appeared describing some design features, and it was completely obvious that he was fully immersed in the Apple design philosophy: powerful, delicate, simple, clear, bold, astonishing. Apple products are the best example of their "Think different" theme, and Jony is the uberdefinition of such a designer.

Possibly Apple gurus are right and the influence in the company of Cook or Schiller, or others, might be bigger at this time.

But the Apple spirit, the thing that always made Apple special, the thing that left Apple with Jobs and returned to Apple with Jobs... that thing lives within Jony Ive, and nobody else. He incarnates all the features that allow a designer to draw an Apple product. And he's consistently delivered the very best: you just need to look at the list of Apple products in the last years.

So comin back ot my initial reflection: Cook might be the perfect CEO; Schiller might be the perfect marketer; Forshall might be the perfect supervisor for iOS; Mansfield might be the perfect hardware supervisor... and on and on.

But all of that stuff can be found in other companies.

The soul of Apple, what makes them different from any other computer company (or any other products company, for that matter) is elsewhere.

The soul of Apple died with Steve Jobs.

And now it lives in Jony Ive.

Long life Jony.

The crisis in a nutshell, by Calvin & Hobbes

By Calvin & Hobbes, published long ago (via Daringfireball, published in The sly oyster):

Great day for Spain: ETA ends

Not many words required: the terrorist organization ETA announced today, after 43 years of violence, that they stop definitely their actions.

Second video for "Out of my mind" from Erykah Badu

 Ms. Badu has released a second video of this song, which corresponds to what she calls the second movement:

The first movement is called ‘Recovering Undercover Over-lover.’ It actually sums up the whole album, because I’m talking about love and emotion – ‘I need you to do this,’ ‘I want you to do this,’ ‘You make me feel like this,’ ‘Why don’t you feel like this?’ It’s typical of how you feel in relationships. The second movement is called … ‘Easier Said Than Done,’ and it’s about how hard it is to change after you’ve been in a relationship for so long. And then the third movement is called ‘But Not This Time,’ because even though I’ve done things a certain way for so long, I won’t do that this time.-EB

OUT MY MIND JUST IN TIME 2 from Creative Control on Vimeo.

Towers in Écija

Last week we visited a town, Écija, we crossed many times when going to Sevilla, but which was unknown to us thus far. They call it "the town of towers" and I truly wonder why.

Prince signing for three albums with a Swiss label... (?)-update

I'm not holding my breath, honestly; but for what it's worth:

The Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes published this article dealing with Prince:

Prince signe pour trois albums sur un label suisse

Fabrice Aubert

Le kid de Minneapolis veut donner une nouvelle couleur à sa musique. Cela se fera grâce à un DJ alémanique. «C'est un rêve qui devient réalité, on a encore de la peine à y croire!» Arnold Meyer, responsable promo pour Purple Music, ne cache pas sa joie en nous annonçant la nouvelle en primeur: Prince a signé pour sortir ses trois prochains albums sur le label de house suisse, créé en 1997 par DJ Jamie Lewis et son épouse, Manuela de Pasquale. Lors de sa venue à Zurich en août dernier, l'auteur de «Purple Rain» est resté quelques jours en Suisse, après son concert au Hallenstadion. Il a travaillé dans un studo local et a demandé à son management de lui trouver un label pour ses sorties futures.

Bon référencement Google «Comme ils étaient en Suisse, Purple Music est arrivé en tête des pages dans le moteur de recherches de leur ordinateur», nous explique Jamie Lewis. Son passé de DJ funk et l'impressionnant catalogue du label (plus de 400 titres dont ceux de Cerrone, Imagination ou Jocelyn Brown) ont séduit la star américaine qui désire donner une direction plus «club» à sa musique. L'entourage de Prince a alors tenté de contacter Purple Music par téléphone dans leurs bureaux de Winterthur: sans succès. Et pour cause, le DJ et sa femme étaient en vacances à l'étranger. Manuela a reçu un e-mail émanant du management de la star qui lui demandait son numéro de portable puisque celui du bureau ne répondait pas. Pensant d'abord à un spam, elle a tout de même envoyé son contact, sans grand espoir. Quelques jours plus tard, les managers de Prince rencontraient les responsables du label alémaniques. Et après quatre heures de discussions, les contrats étaient signés.

Un premier single en novembre «Prince enregistre en ce moment, dans son studio de Minneapolis, des nouveaux morceaux mêlant funk et house, précise Arnold Meyer. Nous avons déjà reçu les deux premiers singles: «Dance 4 Me», prévu pour le mois de novembre et «2 Nite qui suivra». Sur ce dernier, Prince a convié sa protégée, chanteuse et mannequin, Bria Valente. Le premier des trois albums paraîtra l'année prochaine. A la demande du kid, ses sorties seront disponibles dans le monde entier en digital mais aussi en vinyl. Sur chaque single, Jamie Lewis remixera les chansons de Prince. Et côté financier? Les Alémaniques reconnaissent avoir payé une avance à Prince mais refusent d'en divulguer le montant. «C'est top secret! Nous ne communiquons pas à ce sujet», disent-ils

I've seen all kind of weird happenings around the purple guy; now, looking for a record label by googling would certainly be a scoop. And releasing three albums with a label found this way, would be even more of a scoop. And stating that the new singles are in fact songs included in the Lotusflow3r project released in 2099... well this suggests that either this Fabrice Aubert is completely lost on Prince discography, or else Purple Music is lost, or maybe all of them are lost. But one thing is clear, this does not look promising.

 Not sure if it's time to start expectations on new music from Prince, or maybe to buy several bags of popcorn, just in case.

Update: this news has been corrected by Dr. Funkenberry, stating that in fact there is a distribution deal for remixes. No new material is included in this deal.

Pink & green: bougainvilleas in our patio

When we moved to our new house in 2008, we planted a bougainvillea in the sunnier corner of the patio. Apparently it enjoyed the place a lot, as it's been growing like crazy from scratch. And this October, it is particularly magnificent. A couple of days ago, I decided to pay it homage, since it is possibly more beautiful than ever. 

Interview with Fiat's design head, Roberto Giolito, on the new Fiat Panda

Roberto Giolito is the current head of Fiat design. In his brilliant CV, you can find the design of the original Fiat Multipla of 1998, and more recently (and with much more commercial success, although less brilliant on design grounds IMHO), the new Fiat 500. In this interview he discusses the design of the all new Fiat Panda of third generation:

Nissan Evalia, or how to put 7 people with 900 L of luggage in 4.40 m

 As I've described before, families of 6 people like mine face a tough challenge when looking for cars enabled to transport them and their luggage on a regular basis. I mean there exist plenty of alternatives of 5 seats + 2 smaller seats that can be seldom used, only for occasional needs. You can bring 5 people with plenty of luggage, or else 7 people with no luggage. But not both.

Yet the choice becomes really small when you need to bring 6 people and loads of luggage often. If that's the case, you need to look for big multipurpose vehicles, such as the Grand Space, or the Grand Voyager, which equals to a huge car and also a huge price. Or, until recently, you had the possibility to get a Fiat Multipla, or its carbon-copy the Honda FR-V, which managed to put six people (in two lines of three seats) plus a good luggage space in a reasonable length.

As I described in an earlier post, these alternatives are a no-go for me, as of now, 2011: our budget does not allow to consider a price in the range of 40,000 € (as required for the Grand Space or the Grand Voyager), and besides their size (over 5 m length) is too big when you live in the old part of a city like Córdoba, where streets were not planned for cars, but for horses. And on the other hand, the reasonable alternatives that were my beloved Fiat Multipla (my current car) or the Honda FR-V, are no longer available, due to their lack of commercial success.

So it is with great interest that I learned this week about a new alternative: the Nissan Evalia, based on an industrial van, the NV200, but with a design specifically made for people transportation. I have been digging for information, including brochures and tests, and much to my surprise, I discovered that this car, with a lenght of 4.40 m, is capable of transporting 7 people and 900 liters of luggage (!!). Unsurprisingly, it was chosen last May to be the next taxi in New York, which makes sense given its possibilities. But what is more shocking to me is to find that it can make such prowess with a traditional positioning of seats (2 + 3 + 2), which usually meant that the luggage space disappeared when used for 7 people (i.e., the Fiat Scudo, Citroën Jumpy, or standard Renault Espace or Chrysler Voyager). How the Nissan engineers managed to design this wonder, I don't know, but I do know it is the best alternative for us, when the time comes to replace our Multipla.

The only possible bad aspect of the Nissan Evalia is that, at the time of writing, it is only available in diesel with a relatively small engine of 1.5 liters, providing 110 CV. This might look like enough on first regard, but I have my doubts about its performance on motorway, when running with full charge. Our Multipla can run at speeds well over 120 km/h fully charged, and our minimum requirement would be to get comparable performances when we get a replacement. Anyway, I am very happy to see that a new possibility is in the market, and that car makers are realizing that not all families have one or two kids.

Expecting in awe the new Kate Bush album

Although I posted a couple of days ago the link to listen the new single from Kate Bush, "Wild man", only today I found time to listen properly.

And you know what? I remember some discussions, years ago, about the supposed contradiction of the expression "instant classic". Well, let me tell you that, in my book, the new single, "Wild man" is exactly that: an instant classic.

It shows all the personality of classic Kate Bush tracks, it is involving, fresh, and very elaborated. It's pure Kate Bush in essence, and it promises all the best for the new album. In all honesty, I considered very difficult to see another album from Kate in the same (huge) quality vein of "Aerial", but I am starting to believe it. Crossing fingers here.

(And now I will bite my tongue to avoid posting the very hurting comparison with the purple guy... ).

As a reference, just in case somebody don't know what the "Aerial" album was about, it included such a masterpiece as this; and BTW it seems this is a fan made video (!!!!!), which is astonishing considering the quality:
A coral room This song deals with the death of her mother:

A coral room

There's a city, draped in net
Fisherman net
And in the half light, in the half light
It looks like every tower
Is covered in webs
Moving and glistening and rocking
Its babies in rhythm
As the spider of time is climbing
Over the ruins

There were hundreds of people living here
Sails at the windows
And the planes came crashing down
And many a pilot drowned
And the speed boats flying above
Put your hand over the side of the boat
What do you feel?

My mother and her little brown jug
It held her milk
And now it holds our memories
I can hear her singing
“Little brown jug don't I love thee”
“Little brown jug don't I love thee”
Ho ho ho, hee hee hee

I hear her laughing
She is standing in the kitchen
As we come in the back door
See it fall
See it fall
Oh little spider climbing out of a broken jug
And the pieces will lay there a while
In a house draped in net
In a room filled with coral
Sails at the window
Forests of masts
Put your hand over the side of the boat
Put your hand over the side of the boat

And what do you feel?

New album from Manolo García, "Los días intactos"

Manolo García was for years one of my favourite Spanish musicians, when he was part of El Último de la Fila. Then they disbanded and Manolo continued alone releasing albums. The level has not been the same, but I keep on having a soft spot for his music. Recently he released in youtube two songs from his new album, "Los días intactos". Here you have both. Un giro teatral La sombra de la sombra de tu sombrero

"Wild man", new single from Kate Bush

Taken from her forthcoming album "50 words for snow", the site naiveté has published the full new single, "Wild man". And it sounds really good to my ears.

United for global change

Another world is possible: let's spread the word. United for global change

A walk for shopping and the wonders of Córdoba

I often say that people living in a beautiful city are somehow immune to the charms of the place, since they are walking everyday in between amazing buildings, monuments, etc. And therefore you need, from time to time, to stop and realize about the wonders that are surrounding you, even if they are there everyday. So a couple of days ago, I decided to take this approach and started making pictures during a walk for shopping. Mind you: we walked to the center of town and back home, we didn't go to the fanciest part of the city. These are some samples, taken as usual with my good old trusty Pentax K10 D and the standard 18-55 zoom lenses.

When coming back home, we had a coffee in what is a really special bar, located in the stables of a very old house; old enough so that the columns are from Roman origin, which is saying: