Aberdeen College Shows Of Revamped Interiors

Aberdeen College has revealed the latest phase of a multi-million pound revamp that its students will benefit from.

Many areas of the college have been totally modernised and overhauled, including beauty and hairdressing facilities, TV and recording studios, performing arts rooms and the basement which allows the students to relax, chat or study in a up to date environment.

The £5 million revamp was completely funded by the college, in their hopes of creating an environment that gives the students their best chance for employment. The college currently teaches over 35,000 full and part-time students who can enjoy the new start-of-the-art facilities.

The next phase in the revamp is set to finish by the Summer of 2013 and will involve the re-cladding of the exterior building on Gallowgate. 

- Granite City News.

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Volunteers brave flaming coal for Charity

Over 50 brave volunteers raised over £6,000 in a bonfire night fundraiser, a sponsored firewalk event, organised by the charity Inspire.

The firewalk, which is the third organised by Inspire, took place before the fireworks display on the 5th of November. A total of 55 sponsored volunteers walked across the hot coals to raise money for Inspire, a North-East Scotland charity that give support to children and adults with learning difficulties.

A spokesperson for Inspire called the event a "fantastic opportunity for Inspire to raise its profile", and said that Inspire has raised beyond their expected income from the event. 


Aberdeen student Gemma Henderson took part in the firewalk after hearing about it at her university's charity society meeting.

She said "I feel that it was a really amazing event and well worth it for such a good cause as your not only gaining a new experience but others are also benefiting from it."

Miss Henderson encouraged others to give it a try next year when Inspire organise a fourth firewalk. "You get a real buzz from the sense of danger of walking over hot coals. I'm so happy I did it and will be returning to the challenge next year."

- Granite City News

Inspire

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Aberdeen Man in Prison after Robbing Shop With Spoon

A man who robbed an Aberdeen shop with the use of a spoon, has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison.

Mathew Whyte, 26, confessed to threatening two staff members at the Hammerton Store on Great Northern Rd back in July.

Whyte, who was only recently out of prison, had used a spoon during the incident and made out that it was a knife. He had made away with £464.04 from the Aberdeen shop.

The 26-year-old was sentenced to 20 months in jail by Sheriff Graeme Napier after admitting to the robbery.

- Ben Carron

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Remorseful Aberdeen Worker Tries to Sell £1.8K Lunch Bid

arried away

A generous oil worker has shown remorse after successfully bidding £1800 on a lunch with SNP leader, Alex Salmond. 

Garry Stuart, 43, who bid for the meal at a charity fundraiser after a few drinks, admitted he actually hates politics and "got carried away".

The 43-year old admitted to forgetting all about the lunch with the First Minister until earlier this month and has taken to desperately trying to sell the lunch bid via local ads. 

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Drunk Aberdonian Calls Cops For More Liquor

Picture property of David Wygant

An Aberdeen man who drunkenly called emergency services multiple times  has been sentenced with a community payback order.

Wayne Dorrans, 31, who had rang up police several times, had even sternly requested they bring him more alcoholic beverages.

After admitting to making the pestering calls, Dorrans was sentenced at Aberdeen Sheriff Court,  to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work, by Sheriff Graham Bucanan.

- Ben Carron

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Tech Review: Fourth Generation iPad

The fourth generation iPad Review

It's been just seven months since the third generation iPad was released, now here we are with a fourth generation already in our hands. This is not a laptop and definitely not a phone, but instead here we have an ever-so-slightly-updated tablet. An intelligently crafted 9.7" slab of technology with a touchscreen for primary input and wireless technologies for communication and data transfer. 

Tablets are not as functional as laptops and as yet  are not small or portable enough as your smart phone, so where exactly is the market for them? Yes, you can word process on them, but the whole experience feels clumsy and troublesome compared to the ease of typing on a laptop or desktop computer. Society seems to have reached a point where we’re making sleek gadgets that we just do not need. Yes you can draw sketches or read books on the high resolution touch-screen, but there are dedicated drawing tablets for that and e-readers with e-ink screens which do not strain your eyes after a few chapters. Hell, what’s wrong with just drawing on paper and reading a book? The niche that the iPad manages to fill is that of convenience for cool people who must have the new... everything. Smart phones offer the same convenience but the iPad has a bigger screen and more power under the bonnet. Laptops are portable too but require a time consuming boot-up and a protective bag. The iPad will fit in most bags, satchels and rucksacks and the battery lasts anywhere from six to ten hours, compared to a laptop’s paltry two to four hours. The iPad cannot replace a laptop for work-heavy users and in no way can it replace a mobile phone, plus it would look implausibly idiotic pulling an iPad out of your bag to take a call.

Many tablet owners are doing just what smart phone owners do but with a few more inches of playspace. The third generation iPad’s major new feature was the amazingly high resolution screen (2048x1536 pixels) which is actually crisper and more detailed than any HDTV on the market. The fourth generation iPad uses this same 'retina' screen but has a boost in CPU and graphics processing power. The 9.7” screen works wonders for drawing detailed sketches, reading larger volumes of text, and editing photos etc. If you have ever played Draw Something, the hugely popular pictionary-like game, you’ll know how tricky it is drawing on a smartphone’s tiny screen. Much like the iPhone 4’s retina screen, the third and fourth iPad’s retina screen makes high resolution images and videos look more beautiful than ever. The new iPad is indistinguishable from its predecessor by design alone. It comes in at an acceptable weight of 652g (10g more for the 4G version) and at just 0.37 inches wide it fits incredibly well in the hands. Yes, you’ll notice you’re holding a weight, but the device is by no means like a lead brick.



The iPad really comes into its own against other tablets when it comes to apps and software. A choice of over 200,000 dedicated apps and games means there is far more choice for casual users and tech geeks alike, and an abundance of higher quality apps than are available on competing tablets.



Gamers interested in picking up a tablet should note that In the last couple of years the gaming library on iPad has exploded with high quality releases, with graphics rivaling output on even the Xbox and Playstation 3. The iPad 3 is the definitive tablet to own if gaming is a big factor in helping you decide which tablet to purchase.



So the fourth gen iPad is still an impressive piece of kit, but aside from 4G mobile Internet technology, which won't be available to non-EE customers until the end of 2012 or mid 2013, it doesn’t really do anything new that the previous generation can’t; it just has a some extra juice under the hood. 

The extra £100 or so cost over the iPad 2’s price nets you a higher resolution screen, a better rear facing camera and a more powerful processor. It’s a worthy investment if you’re spending a few hundred quid on a device anyway and keeps you future proof. If you really like the extra detail that HDTV brought into our living rooms the new screen will not disappoint.



Should you buy it?


iPad 2 owners may want to give upgrading a miss as it’s not a huge jump in features or specifications, but if you’re in the market for a new (and unnecessary) tablet, have a few hundred quid to burn and don’t already own one, then the fourth generation iPad is an easy recommendation. Just don’t expect it to replace your laptop or compete with your phone for portability, the Google Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, and their impulsive price tags are also worth considering.

Information:

• Manufacturer: Apple

• Price: £429-£659
• Released: 09/03/2012
• Battery life: 8-10 Hours
• Colours: Black/White

Pros:

• Lightweight

• Stunningly high resolution screen
• 
Extensive battery life
• 
Vast catalogue Software and Games

Cons:


• Expensive
• No groundbreaking new features over last model

• Still can’t fully replace your laptop
• 
Doesn’t play nicely with Android Phones
• 
Poor quality front facing Camera

- Ben Carron

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RGU: Union To Move

RGU: UNION announces plans to move to Garthdee in 2013

The only student bar in Aberdeen city-centre has announced their plans to move to Garthdee next Summer.

The RGU:Union, situated on Schoolhill, released a public statement informing students that they would be relocating due to Robert Gordon University's plans to sell the buildings in the city-centre when they move to the new building at the Garthdee campus.

The RGU:Union provides many student services such as organisation of big events including Freshers Week, Graduation balls and the Fresher's Fayre and fund RGU's sports clubs and societies. The Union building on Schoolhill also features two bars as well as a cafe. The loss of the bar, which is well known for offering some the cheapest prices for alcoholic beverages in town has seen significant protests from students of the university, who will be forced to drink elsewhere.

Despite these protests, RGU:Union have no interest in changing their plans and see the move as an "exciting opportunity to expand and offer even greater services for the students".

The RGU:Union building will continue to operate as normal throughout the rest of the months of the fiscal year, the move will not take place until May 2013 at the earliest.

- Granite City News

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News in Video First Bus Dispute

An ongoing dispute between First Aberdeen and it's staff over pay and conditions may finally come to a close by the 17th of December as a revised offer was put forward by First Aberdeen:

- Granite City News

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News in Video: One Up To Close Doors?

One Up to close if business doesn't improve?

An Independant music shop in Aberdeen is facing the possibility of closing it's doors due to financial worries.

One Up, which has existed since 1979, is the only independent music store in Aberdeen. It has continued to survive against stiff competition from nearby shops such as HMV and even the long-gone Virgin Megastores.

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Game Review: Rock Band Blitz

Rock Band: Blitz Review for Xbox 360/PS3

Rock Band is a music rhythm series by Harmonix Studios which debuted in 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Since then it's seen three main releases and a handful of mobile and band-related spinoffs such as Rock Band: The Beatles.

Rock Band Blitz comes as a digital only download in 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners, and manages to be one of the most unique title in the series. Unlike the other Rock Band games it only uses a standard game controller and does not support the plastic instruments that Rock Band and Guitar Hero are known for. Instead RB:Blitz takes a leaf from the book of earlier Harmonix developed titles: Amplitude, Frequency and the PSP-only release Rock Band: Unplugged. The player is presented with four note tracks, each of which represent an instrument, a fifth track appears on songs containing keyboard notes.

The aim of the game is to get as high as score as possible, this can be done by maintaining multipliers on each of the tracks by successfully hitting enough notes to reach higher multipliers before the next checkpoint at which the maximum possible multiplier increases, but only if no track is left on the lowest multiplier. 

One of the main features not seen in other Rock Band titles is the inclusion of score power-ups, there are sixteen to chose from total though they must be unlocked by playing songs. These power-ups also cost coins to use and come under three categories, anywhere from 100-250 coins is needed for each powerup, one can be selected at a time from each category. Coins can be earned by beating songs, overdrive power-ups allow the player to score big points using their overdrive meter (which fills by successfully hitting enough white coloured notes). Note power-ups allow special effects when purple notes are hit, such as a pinball rolling on the rack and bouncing off your overdrive meter. Track power-up allows bonus points to be gained for a single instrument track. The use of these power-ups is key to beating songs with 5 stars and earning high scores and gaining a good spot on the leaderboards. 

The controls are incredibly simple, the shoulder buttons are used to move left and right between the tracks while A (Xbox 360) X (PS3) and the left analogue stick are used to hit the right and left notes in each track respectively, X (Xbox 360) or Circle (PS3) is for using your overdrive powerup. The controls work as they should, though it can be difficult to hit a string of close together notes on the left side with the analogue stick. The game does offer other configurations in the options for those interested.

The downloadable music rhythm title comes with 25 songs to chip away at, all of which are exportable for use in other Rock Band titles, the game is also compatible with any prior downloaded songs the player already owns. 

Rock Band: Blitz is a fun game but it does possess a few jarring faults. Initially having to unlock power-ups and needing to amass enough coins to use these power-ups seems unnecessary and results in players having to later replay initial songs to earn 5 star ratings. The game also pushes players to link to their facebook account and use the Rock Band World app to play challenges and unlock more coins, it's baffling why this could not be implemented within the game's network instead. The initial song selection screen is also quite limited, displaying a few songs you've already played, some glorified adverts for songs 'you might like' and a couple random picks. You have to scroll to the end of the selections to access the full song selection menu that Rock Band and Guitar Hero enthusiasts come to expect. 

Despite all these glaring issues and nuances, it's still hard to not recommend Rock Band: Blitz if not just as a cheap song pack for Rock Band 2/3 for those that already own it. The title is still great fun in its own right and comparing and beating friends scores in the leaderboards is as addictive as it ever was. The power-ups and the multi-track gameplay give the Rock Band series a unique and fresh spin in a done-to-the-death genre. 

• Developer: Harmonix
• Platforms: Playstation 3 & Xbox 360 (Digital Download)
• Genre: Music
• Price: 1200 MS points/£8.79
• Players: 1
• Release Date: August 2012

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