Tag: music

US Air Force Band of the Pacific collaborates with Indian percussionist, releases video online

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The musical collaboration was inspired by the band’s commitment to support Aero India 2021, a press release said

The United States Air Force Band of the Pacific has collaborated with Indian musician Giridhar Udupa, and released a music video online on March 15. The musical collaboration was inspired by the band’s commitment to support Aero India 2021, and reinforces the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership and people-to-people ties between both the countries, a press release said.

The song ‘Open Clusters’ which features in the video, was composed by Staff Sergeant Luis Rosa, a saxophone instrumentalist with the Hawaii-based Air Force Band and is a musical fusion of two masters of Indian and Puerto Rican culture and rhythm. The music video features Giridhar Udupa playing the Ghatam, and Senior Airman Guy James on guitar, Staff Sergeant Andrew Detra on bass, and Technical Sergeant Wilfredo Cruz on percussion.

The USAF Band of the Pacific is a squadron of professional U.S. Air Force musicians that perform in diverse musical configurations and fulfil community relations and military functions throughout the Western Pacific region. Bengaluru-based Ghatam artist Giridhar Udupa has had a musical journey of three decades, and has collaborated with several artistes and has also performed across the world.

Speaking about this collaboration, the United States Air Force Band of the Pacific’s Publicity Section, Chief Technical Sergeant Wilfredo Cruz, said they were extremely honoured and grateful to be able to produce this musical collaboration for viewers worldwide. “The pandemic did not allow us to be in India to perform live during Aero India, yet music connects all regardless of distance or borders. We leverage the power of music to strengthen bonds with our friends and partners through the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

Mr. Udupa said that the composition fits perfectly into the world music scene. “I am very excited about the newly-composed track with incredible musicians from the U.S. Air Force Band,” he added.

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Apple Releases Third Public Beta of iOS 14.5, Stable Roll Out Expected Soon: What’s New

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Apple is rolling out the third public beta version of the upcoming iOS 14.5, days after rolling out the second beta to public testers and the third beta to developers. According to 9to5Mac, the iOS 14.5 Beta 3 does not bring any new features, except for refinements for the existing upgrades introduced with the previous iOS 14.5 beta versions. With the iOS 14.5 Beta 1, Apple introduced the ability to play music from third-party music apps like Spotify while using its virtual assistant Siri. The company recently clarified that the feature does not let users to choose a default music app, but only improves Siri for better results. It essentially means that Siri will again ask for Music app preference in future. The new update also retains the ‘Items’ tab in the Find My app by default. Apple is expected to roll out the stable version of iOS 14.5 for mass users in the coming days.

One of the notable changes that Apple introduced with the old iOS 14.5 beta versions (also present on iOS 14.5 Beta 3) was the ability to unlock iPhones other than FaceID. The latest system allows users to unlock the iPhone even with they are wearing the mask. However, users would additionally require the Apple Watch for the unlocking system to work. This ‘unlock with Apple Watch’ already exists for Apple Macs. Also, with the iOS 14.5 Beta 3, the AirPlay 2 support is available for Apple Fitness Plus.

ALSO READ: Apple Isn’t Letting You Change The Default Music Service In iOS 14.5, But Actually May Just Be It

The iOS 14.5 Beta 2 had introduced new slide gestures in Apple Music for adding a song to the Now Playing queue or adding it to the ‌Apple Music‌ Library. These options were earlier accessible by long-pressing the song on the music app. In addition to new gestures, Apple iPhone and iPad users can also access “Play Last” and “Show Album” by long-pressing the song. The company will reportedly roll out new and upgraded emojis from the Unicode Consortium 13.1. For instance, the Headphone emoji has been updated to look like the AirPods Max rather than a generic set of headphones, and the rock climbing emoji now includes a helmet. Apple has also removed the blood from the syringe emoji to give it a more neutral look that also works for vaccinations.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is also expected to roll out the App Tracking Transparency tool that has been criticised by Facebook and several other ad companies.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound Is Here And Xiaomi Is The First Smartphone Maker On Board

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Qualcomm has announced the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound platform for smartphones and audio products, with the focus on improving the experience of music streaming, phone calls and gaming with wireless audio products. Qualcomm says that the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound platform is optimized, in terms of the hardware and software, for better Bluetooth connectivity even in environments with radio frequency congestion, low latency that would smoothen the experience of gaming as well as video conferencing, allow easy pairing and multiple connections as well as reduce the battery consumption on smartphones along with the paired wireless earbuds and headphones.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound platform will be able to deliver twice the audio bitrates (this will support high-resolution 24-bit 96kHz audio), twice the audio sampling frequency for voice calls and as much as 45% lower latency for audio and video sync for gaming and video usage (that’s as low as 89 milliseconds), as compared with most current smartphones and wireless earbuds combinations. The hardware side of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound platform comes together as a triple branched implementation. For smartphones and mobile devices, this will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 mobile platform along with the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 System, Qualcomm Aqstic Audio Codec and the Qualcomm Aqstic Smart Speaker Amp. For headphones and wireless earbuds, the platform brings along the Qualcomm QCC515x Bluetooth Audio SoC, the Qualcomm QCC514x Bluetooth Audio SoC and the Qualcomm QCC3056 Bluetooth Audio SoC.

These will combine with audio and voice software solutions such as Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring, Qualcomm Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Audio, Qualcomm aptX Voice Audio and the Qualcomm HDR & 3D Audio Record. “The human ear is highly sensitive to glitches, latencies and other challenges which commonly occur when streaming music, video conferencing, or gaming over wireless connections. By focusing end-to-end, we are looking to deliver innovations to solve common consumer pain-points across virtually all audio interaction points,” said James Chapman, vice president and general manager, Voice, Music and Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies International Ltd.

Brands are already lining up the incoming launches with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound integration. Smartphone maker Xiaomi as well as audio brand Audio-Technica have confirmed as much. “Xiaomi is excited to be the first mobile manufacturer to bring Snapdragon Sound to devices. Snapdragon Sound will bring new high quality, seamless, low-latency audio experiences to our customers everywhere and provide better sound while engaging in voice calls, video conferencing, gaming or music listening,” says Lei Zhang, vice president of Mi Smartphone and general manager of Hardware R&D, Xiaomi. “We believe that with Snapdragon Sound we get closer to our mutual vision of providing wired quality sound, wirelessly and are excited to be one of the first manufacturers to get our products to consumers,” says Kotaro Narihara, director, general manager of marketing headquarters, Audio-Technica.

The first line of products with Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound should be rolling out later in the year, with the solution now available for OEMs now. Qualcomm says it’ll be easy for users to know which products have this integrated, because they will carry with Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound logo. The company also plans to add the solution for PCs, smart watches and smart glasses soon.

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Billie Eilish Reveals Her Worst Fear

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Singer Billie Eilish says that she cannot imagine being a bad person to anyone. The idea that somebody could meet her and have a bad experience makes her want to jump off a cliff, she confessed.

“I wanted to be the artiste that I would want to be a fan of. The idea that somebody could meet me and have a bad experience makes me wanna jump off a cliff, like, seriously. I want everyone that I come in contact with to feel completely just the highest high that they could possibly feel,” she said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Lockdown may have been hard on many, but Billie reveals she found a silver lining.

“The year sucked, and if I could go back and change it, I would, but at the same time, I’ve gotten more time off than I’ve ever ever ever ever had,” said Eilish.

“Of course I think that goes for everyone. But that was true for me after two weeks of it. Two weeks already at the beginning of quarantine was the most time I had off in, like, four years,” she added.

The singer had cancelled her “Where Do We Go” world tour last year in March owing to the pandemic and, reflecting on how she felt, Billie said: “It felt the same as it felt for everybody else. It was so weird.”



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