The Station Break series took a bit of an unexpected hiatus over the last few weeks, while we worked on some backend things with the site (the fruits of which many of you should have noticed  and enjoyed by now.)  The good news is we are reviving the series today!

Now, in getting ready to bring back the Station Break series, I was all set to discuss some CDs which I received for my birthday last week.  In fact, I had a post all but written in my head…until yesterday.  June 25, 2009, was pretty much the day a large piece of my childhood died.  And all my plans for this article were turned upside down.

The day started in the morning with the news that Farrah Fawcett died.  Now, many of you younger readers may have simply dismissed Farrah Fawcett as a sort of whacky actress or just another vacuous blonde who seemed to find new and interesting ways to generate bizarre controversies, but offered little of substance.  Older (and I use that term lightly) readers, however, will recall the glamorously flocked star of the hit ‘70s show, “Charlie’s Angels”.  More importantly, however, was her famous “red bathing suit” pose, which adorned the walls of just about every male growing up in the United States in the ‘70s and ‘80s.  I know I had one…right next to my Cindy Crawford poster.  a friend of mine told me that over 12 million copies of the above poster were printed and sold.  That seemed low to me…

Well, as if the death of that childhood memory was not enough, later in the day, the CNN News alerts started going crazy with unconfirmed reports that MIchael Jackson had alternatively: had a cardiac arrest, entered into a coma, or died.  By 7:30, the truth was revealed as CNN confirmed that Michael Jackson had, indeed, passed away at the age of 50.

It is unfortunate that in order to get back to his true artistic talent, you have to travel through the haze of the 1990’s, a time in which he was plagued by controversy, litigation, bankruptcy, and generally bizarre and reclusive behavior.  But once you get passed that, and you see Michael Jackson as we saw him early in his career, it is impossible not to respect his artistic genius.

He began performing with his family band, The Jackson Five, at the young age of five, and his remained a prominent fixture in the spotlight of fame ever since.  When he began his solo career in the early 1970’s, it quickly became apparent that this family of nine siblings consisted pretty much of Michael and those other eight kids.

During the course of the ensuing 20 years, he did not just revolutionize a genre of music, but the music industry itself.  He became a pioneer of the music video with Thriller, the title song off of his Thriller album, which quickly became the best selling album of all time (with a Guinness World Record over 100 million sales).  A whopping seven of the nine tracks on the album were released as singles, and all of those reached the Top 10 list.

Not only did he revolutionize the world of music and video, but he also brought such memorable icons of a generation as the red leather “zipper” jacket, the single sequined glove, and…of course, the Moonwalk.  It is his legacy as a dancer, as much as a singer that is readily apparent on today’s generation of performers.

Among his other accomplishments :

Five of Jackson’s solo albums – “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous” and “HIStory,” all with Epic Records, a Sony Music label – are among the top-sellers of all time. During his extraordinary career, he sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide, released 13 No.1 singles and became one of a handful of artists to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Jackson as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time and “Thriller” as the Biggest Selling Album of All Time. Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and received the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award.

– From a Statement by Sony on the Passing of Michael Jackson

You can check out all of Michael Jackson’s videos at the official Michael Jackson YouTube page or at Michael Jackson.com.

Rest In Peace, Michael Jackson (and Farrah Fawcett).

There are plenty of contact managers out there, most of them though concentrate on easy viewing/ access to your contacts.

Not many of them have a simplistic editing interface. So this small, good looking, finger friendly, free application seems like a bit of a must have!

Sometimes unsophiscated is the key, a lot of the feature packed paid apps forget what a user wants. A contact manager should easily let you manipulate your contacts without too many steps. Without too much learning, or option setting. Easy contact is just that, easy

It installs from a small .cab file to your device or storage card and works equally as well in both locations. From my observations, it appears to work as a contact shell, meaning it does not replicate your contact database to work with, but search’s for and access’s that database every time it starts up.
So you get this sort of progress bar every time you edit or make changes or start the app up. It’s sorta like being let know where you stand with what you’re trying to do. It also reminds you that you are changing an essential database on your windows mobile device.

What though is it that makes Easy Contact, really easy? The editing/menu interface, it’s really simple but it makes a lot of sense. It let’s you edit your contacts, in the least steps/clicks/taps possible.

I found this approach liberating, highlight any contact and select menu, and all of your major editing preferences are to hand.

What’s really nice about this application, it’s intuitive. It automatically added to my favourites all of my contacts that I contact regularly. Not only by phone, but by email as well.

It also allows for an alphabetical search, through a dropdown at the top right. It gives you access to  your contacts, sim contacts, and recent call history. One nice package!

Why do I like this? It’s a fresh, although a revisit, look at doing contacts on windows mobile. There’s something special in taking a majorly over worked function of WinMo, and making it easy to use again.

You can download the app here, it’s well worth a look!!

We got an email from the folks over at SymbianGuru, lettiing us know if a new application they developed, Loudspeaker.  This one looks pretty cool in that it allows you to accept calls automatically, utilizing your phone’s loudspeaker without any additional hardware needing to be installed. This may be your solution for answering calls hands free while driving or while occupied doing other things.

LoudSpeaker application works as your car wireless hands free set without any additional hardware. After software installation you will be able to use it immediately instead of your Bluetooth headset.

The software is fully customizable. You can choose the profile, when the software should be activated and answer your incoming calls. You can set your own sound on answer and sound on hang up from the list of available tunes on your phone.

Key Features:

• Ability to answer the incoming call automatically
• Good and inexpensive alternative to your Bluetooth hands free
• Activated on certain profiles
• Adjustable sounds on the call start and hang up
• Translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Ukrainian

[via SymbianGuru]

Its a week of celebrations here at JAMM.  Yesterday, we celebrated JAMM’s third birthday, and today we celebrate our Sue’s birthday, no number included.  Sue is a valued and vital member of the JAMM team, and currently our contest diva.  So, I am sure that makes her our readers’ favorite writer.  When she is not busy living in the world of gadgets, Sue holds the very important title of ‘Queen Fisherwoman’.  She hopes that someday we will have some cool mobile fishing gadgets for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!!

SugarSync – The software that allows you to sync and to backup all your files is running a member drive until July 15th. This means bonus space to people who sign up and not just a bonus, but a DOUBLE BONUS – which means a whopping extra 500 MB for the new user as well as the referrer. SugarSync allows you to backup files and allows them to be accessed on the web. You also get the ability to instantly move files between PC, MAC, and even your iPhone…just like shoving data through a StarGate. You can edit a document at another location and have it sync to your home computer even if it’s off – it will automatically sync when you turn on the home computer. Cool eh?

Join SugarSync using this link and get an additional 500MBs free!

Technorati Tags: SugarSync, Tjchan, Just Another Mobile Monday, JAMM