iPhone and iPod touch OS 3.1 Available for Download

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African American, iPhone, iPod Touch, Technology

iTunes Update

iPhone/iPod touch only: Apple today announced an update to iPhone OS 3.1, introducing a new “Genius” recommendation feature for the App Store, bug fixes and performance boosters, and several other small but worthwhile updates.

It’s also added a Ringtone section to the App Store on your device (for a whopping $1.29 a pop—which is why we recommend making them yourself [Windows guide; Mac guide]). Other than that, Apple’s not promising a lot from this update other than support for the newly released iTunes 9, its new features (e.g., Genius Mixes), and a few other nice tweaks. Below is a quick look at some of the other most notable updates from the release notes:

* Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll (We’ll believe the MMS saving when we finally see MMS)
* Option to “Save as new clip” when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
* Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
* Paste phone numbers into the Keypad
* Anti-phishing features in Safari
* Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling

Hit up iTunes, plug in your device, and click the Check for Updates button to get started on the 240+MB download.

Source: Lifehacker.com

Babatunde Lea | UMBO WETI – A Tribute to Leon Thomas

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African American, Drums, Percussion, World Fusion

In Stores Today… [9/8/2009]

Babatunde Lea’s UMBO WETI | A Tribute to Leon Thomas [Motéma, 2009]

Babatunde Lea's, Tribute

Percussion virtuoso Babatunde Lea first envisioned a tribute to legendary jazz vocalist and composer Leon Thomas shortly after the singer passed in 1999. His efforts reach fruition on Lea’s fourth and latest release for the Motéma label, UMBO WETI. Featuring a stellar band of improvisers: Dwight Trible (vocals), Ernie Watts (tenor sax), Gary Brown (bass), Patrice Rushen (piano), and Lea on drums and percussion, UMBO WETI is a labor of love.

UMBO WETI finds Lea, and his “dream team” of musicians exploring pieces associated with Thomas’ blend of a spiritually passionate and socially conscious worldview with deftly inventive musicality and progressive vision. They re-imagine Thomas’ version of John Lee Hooker’s primal “Boom Boom Boom Boom,” his new lyrics for Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” and the timeless “The Creator Has a Master Plan” – the latter which inexplicably turned into an FM radio hit for Sanders and Thomas. “It was the kind of post-bop thing that happened, kind of the spiritual thing that [John] Coltrane started,” Lea explains. “It was a post-bop spiritual jazz that originated with Coltrane in the late ’60s and that lasted through the ’70s and early ’80s,” Lea explains. “Leon was a big part of that style and really moved it forward.”