Richie Ren Xian Qi has released a new album, Richie Ren Love Beloved 2008 Concert Live, which is a collection of his live-recorded songs performed during his concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum in early May. There is a total of 29 tracks in which almost all his hits and popular songs are included such as Heart Too Soft or Xin Tai Ruan, Flowers Will Blossom In Spring or Chun Xian Hua Hui Kai, You Still Have Me or Hai You Wo and Only Us On The Road Of Love or Ai De Lu Shang Zhi You Ni He Wo. There is also a duet with Ivana Wong in I Am Really Hurt or Wo Zhen De Shou Shang Le. I’m still waiting for an album of new songs from him…

Richie Ren / 任贤齐 - Richie Ren Love Beloved 2008 Concert Live / 任贤齐 Love Beloved 2008 演唱会

Date of Release: 1 August 2008
Language: Mandarin

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After Let’s Fly Together or Yi Qi Fei by Gary Cao Ge and his friends from Rock Records, here’s another song dedicated to the Beijing Olympic 2008 which will be held tomorrow [yes, it’s finally here!]. This time the song, Decathlon or Shi Xiang Quan Neng, is a collaboration of artistes from Emperor Entertainment Group [EEG] which includes singers, actors and actresses such as Charlene Choi of Twins [where are you Gillian?], Nicholas Tse, Vincy Chan, Yumiko Cheng, Anthony Wong and Joey Yung. Jackie Chan who is already involved in several songs in the official album of Beijing Olympic 2008 also participate in this song. This year is definitely the year with the most number of ‘All-Stars’ collaborated songs. Shi Xiang Quan Neng is available in both Mandarin and Cantonese versions. Here’s the music video or MV of Decathlon by the artistes of EEG:

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A week ago, I published an article on mobile phone customization and as a continuation of it, here’s a post on ringtones or ring tones for mobile phones. Ringtones are arguably the most popular and frequently changed parts among the other components of phone customization. This is due to the fact that ringtone is the component that allows mobile phone users to express and identify themselves most effectively as the crowd will notice the user every time there is an incoming call, messages or any other alerts. The other components are more ‘hidden’ and will only be noticed when other individuals borrow the phone for calling, messaging or fiddling around. Thus, more money and time are spent on customizing the ringtones by mobile phone users in order to stand out from the crowd.

Although there are three main types of ringtones which are monophonic tones, polyphonic tones and truetones, the first two are almost obsolete at this time because they are unattractive and dull compared to truetones. Furthermore, mobile phones which can support the use of truetones have been around since at least 5 years ago. Thus, only users of older generation of mobile phones are still using them. However, they are mostly middle-aged and elderly people who do not see the needs of using the latest mobile phones with all the bells and whistles and therefore, are not into customizing their phones to the same extent as the teenagers and young adults.

Truetones, which are also known as realtones or mastertones, are popular because they offer music or sound effects at very high clarity and with the good speakers in the newer generation of phones, they are almost similar as their real-life counterparts. The popularity of truetones is evidenced by its easy availability from all mobile carriers and mobile content providers. Hence, AT&T users can pay a small fee to download the latest cool at&t ringtones or from other content providers. Most companies also have a website which offer lower-quality and shorter version of the ringtones available in their catalog for users to sample them before making a purchase.

Karen Kong or Gong Ke Yun has released her second Mandarin album, aptly titled, Showtime Vol.02 or Biao Yan Vol.2. This new album contains a total of 15 tracks in which 5 are new tracks and the rest are from her first album, Showtime or Biao Yan. The first four songs in the tracklist are new ones and the second track, Too Stupid or Tai Sha, is a cover of Eric Moo’s hit of the same title. This album is definitely a tempting buy for those who have yet to buy her first album because all the songs are included. Furthermore, I feel that her debut Mandarin album is good enough for us to part with our hard-earned money. In addition, many fans were not able to buy it since it’s only available during her promotional roadshow events. For those who have bought Showtime, this album has other extra materials such as music videos [MV] and car sticker to justify the purchase. Anyway, I think that this Showtime Vol.02 should be available at music stores as the first one sells well.

Karen Kong / 龔柯允 - Showtime Vol.02 / 表演Vol.2庆功改版专辑

Date of Release: 25 July 2008
Language: Mandarin, English

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