With #VMworld mere days away, what to expect from #CXIParty

By now I’m sure you’ve read

VMworld Tips, Tricks and Prize winning #vmworld

#CXIParty at VMworld hosted by @CXI and @NexusMN – After Welcome Reception

Here is a mockup I made ORIGINALLY. It is important you READ THE WORDS I’m about to say and not just focus on the text in the picture. Because words are important! :)

#CXIParty Floor Plan Layout - Hacked

Yea worst photoshop ever!  So.. I laid this out a loooooong time ago, when I only had a total of 4 suites and there were only around 200-300 attendees.  However in my infinite wisdom, I decided to make sure Fire Code wouldn’t be an issue and support the ability to basically accommodate the majority if not ALL of you at the party; so what does/did that mean?  We’re not looking at 4800SQ Feet, sorry! No, we’re looking at over 11,000 Square Feet.  Instead of 2 of those suites you see on the right. No… there are 6 of them, for a total of 8 suites.  Yea I’ll figure out how I ‘break things up’ because it’s my party and I can cry if I want to. Logistics dictates I’ll likely have the ‘dedicated’ bartender in the master suite (as seen above :))

I’m still waiting to hear back from my guy at the hotel on the EXACT location of the suites (which I’ll basically be traversing between them, and I support you doing the same to see a different ‘scene’ and what have you) ultimately it’s going to rock in ways like no other.   There are special things going on I cannot publicly share yet but for those who have an idea *Hint: It involves your ability to manipulate paper* you’re going to have an AMAZING time :)

OMG CONTESTS?!  I ENCOURAGE you to bring a business card to enter in to drawings.   I know some of my sponsors will have some types of prizes for you to win!  But on the same token, *I* Also will have some prizes for you to win! I know I know.. You rock, and yea I have to dip into my own personal budget for these things, but that’s because I love and care for each and every one of you! you know… and stuff. :)

OMG PRIZES! OMG PRIZES! OMG PRIZES! (Tip: If you’ve read my VMworld Tips, Tricks and Prize winning #vmworld) Your chances to win are WELL Increased!

Some ground rules: For the prizes I control, I also control the rules on how one goes about winning; whether it is by drawing a card or some type of skills based challenge (see above re: paper ;))  That said, this contest is FREE GAME to ALL Contenders to win.   There is no purchase required blah blah blah or any of that other legalese. Just come, enjoy and most importantly, MAKE SURE YOU’RE PART OF THE GAME TO WIN! So… with no further adieu what can you win?!

Jaybird Freedom Bluetooth Headset - Shakeproof Wireless Earbuds 

I believe it was @lynxbat who introduced me to these bad boys.   Anyone who uses bluetooth headphones will find themselves drooling over this going OMG WANT. So you have that going for you! :)

Han Solo in Carbonite Ice Cube TrayI'm droooooooowwwwwwwwwwwning!!!!

After massively popular demand, because apparently we’re a bunch of geeks? I’ll ALSO have this for use..  Why yes.. I will OPEN one of them to field-test at the party, and one of you will win the used version (and the non-used version also ;)) Caveat: I just put the order in for this, so it better damn show up before I leave or you’ll all be disappointed! :)

iPad 2!?!? I won't get spammed for this! ;)

Whoa! WTF? WHAT IS GOING ON @CXI THATS NOT AN IPAD! Yes. Yes it is an iPad2. 16g Wifi because I’m not insane, nor rich!

Like I said, you’ll find out how you can win, but the only way to win is to play the game. SO PLAY THE DAMN GAME! Err.. or something :)

Ears, Ears everywhere and no one is LISTENING DAMNIT WTF Me wearing two sets of ears! OMG IM THE BUNNY CAT!

I know some of you asked about Ears, and especially with all the talk about high-heeled cheetah crocs we’ve had as of late, I provide some of the following options for you to wear! (This is how they might look being worn! :))  I’ll probably be in my professional cat ears (a simple black/white) but those might by my street cat ears for other parts of the show! :)   These will be on a first come – first justified basis since what you see is my entire collection :)

So look forward to your mail for the final update on logistics (and even if you don’t see/hear it until the day OF – Just know you’ll be looking for a rockstar (possibly wearing ears ;)) in the lobby of the Cosmo and you’ll get well on your way up to the party suites, for some of the most rockingest sights, sounds, conversations and more that you’ll encounter in Vegas and at VMworld!   Also at this point, I am STILL accepting small sponsorships if you’re looking to help out pay for even more alcohol (I should have enough drink for ~1000 people or ~500 heavy drinkers.. ;))   I did mention before there will be minor snack-type foods, so I encourage you to eat as much as you can/want at the vendor events prior to showing up because well… they have a much larger budget for food! (their budgets are typically 20-50x larger than mine, but they lack this thing called… you ;))

Please do your bit to thank the sponsors and if they offer something you’re interested in, get in touch with them (or I can introduce you) These people help make this a lot more consumable and possible!   Look forward to my next blog post as well on a very important subject for VMworld… :) oh and my OTHER blog post well delayed on my new role (Yea, lots of excitement going on around here! :))

OMG ITS NEXT WEEK! See you in Vegas :) [For those of you who have offered to help out – I’m fully game for you to help out, feel free to tweet, email or txt me ;)]

See you there! – Christopher

Music Recognition Redefined – Introducing SoundHound! #ShazamFail #SoundHoundFTW

Yea… I cannot start off telling you all about recognition redefined without.. first giving you a story about how I came to learn of this amazing tool to battle all tools!

“Ooh! What’s that playing on the radio! Wow, let me see… (Pulls out iPhone4, loads up search and types in shaz – Select Shazam and select “Tag”) [listening… listening… listening…]

You are limited to 5 tags per month!

?!?!?WTF?!?!? I’m limited to 5 per tags per month?!? Okay fine.. sure that was a complete surprise, but I’ll download the pay version and finish tagging my song there. 

Just say no!

HI IM SHAZAM AND EVEN IF YOU PAY YOU STILL GET ADS – JUST LIKE CLASSMATES.COM  Seriously?!   Yea, #fail multiplied by #fail equals me going to look for another solution.   And it was then (that I complained about this on Twitter) that @jeffcoffee suggested I check out SoundHound!  

 SoundHound on the go!SoundHound Mobile

Okay, let me first off set the disclaimer:

There is a ‘5 per month’ limit on the Free version of SoundHound as well, but I was already in the market for a new product which clearly was NOT Shazam.

So, I load up the app and I get splashed with this screen

SoundHound Splash Screen SoundHound and bad singing of Yellow Submarine SoundHound finding Yellow Submarine SoundHound Share Song SoundHound Twitter Integration 

First of all, let me just say.   Whoa!  I decide to click “Tap Here” and I proceed to sing the Beatles “The Yellow Submarine” (I did consider filming me doing that… for your sake, I didn’t ;))

Lo and behold shortly into the song, BAM! It recognized it from my very own (at this point out of tune voice)  Wow! I should share this feat with someone shouldn’t I!? Ooh! Twitter and FB integration!  Yea, that’s the cost of doing business though.    But what if I don’t know the name of the song… all I can really remember is an artist…

Speak the name of your artist

With the ease of knowing ‘words’ I simply say a song name or an artist name by clicking on the “Title or Artist” section and bam! I’m presented with Michael Jackson!

SoundHound Settings

And while it is very nice that they have the settings easy enough to configure inside of the Settings section… the following is something I tested (both from my iPhone and my iPad) Something I had wished Shazam could do.. but never did, and frankly I don’t care if they ever support it at this point!

Suppose the following situation exists:   You’re listening to a song out of iTunes/iPod on your device, or even listening to something on Pandora! And you’re saying “Man, I wish I had the lyrics to that song, or knew what album it was off of, or other details” etc etc..  So you go and launch Shazam and immediately all sound CEASES to operate.  WTF?!? That’s kind of dismissing!

SoundHound Now Playing!

I welcome you to this feature in SoundHound called “Now Playing!”   Yes, this screen shot is from my iPad because it looks soooooo much cooler in that sense ;) But it works JUST as well on the iPhone (I guarantee :))

What's Hot with SoundHound (iPad edition) What's Hot with SoundHound (iPhone Edition)

And the last thing I’d like to share from my playing with this, is the “What’s Hot” “UnderPlayed” and “Just found by Users” options.  As you can see the iPad version looks a lot sweeter than the iPhone version… :)

And last but not least, I’d like to share some of the ‘highlights’ mentioned from their actual website which incase I missed any of this, you have it here! :)

Soundhound on Android Free Version of SoundHound
Now Available for iOS and Android

Highlights

Blazing fast music identification
Sing & Hum recognition
Voice-directed music search
In-app lyrics

Special on iPad:

Big, beautiful lyrics and music videos
The SoundHound Ticker


Version 3.3.1 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Version 2.0.1 for Android

– SoundHound (free): 5 IDs per month
Available on the App Store

– SoundHound ?: unlimited
Available on the App Store

Soundhound on iOS

Oh, and let’s not ignore the one feature (which seemed to be overlooked in too many ways in the features…)

Instantly Launch a Pandora Station (SoundHound)

Instantly launch a Pandora Station!!!

Okay..  I think that is enough… I’ll let you tell me your favorite functions, features and otherwise.   If you found this useful at all, and if you kick the ‘”Shazam” habit, let me know.  If you’re from Shazam I’d love to hear your feedback as well. :)