Just a little something for you to play loud. Very loud.

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So much incredible music has piled up in my virtual crate since the last time I got in front of the decks that it was all but impossible to fit it into a short-form mix, but I’ve tried my best. As always, I hope you like it — and feedback is welcome.

1. BT – Rose of Jericho (BT’s Deus Ex Machina Album Mix)
2. Arty & Misha Kitone – Flip Flop
3. John Shelvin – Just Like You Said (Cedric Gervais Mix)
4. Incognet – My Side (Incognet Aggressive Mix)
5. Jerome Zambino – People Under The Sun (DC Project Sunscreen Mix)
6. Marc Romboy – Model 1601
7. LYS & Hunzed – Away (LYS 2008 Remix)
8. Wehbba – Xcellr8 (D-Nox & Beckers Remix)
9. Haley – This Is How It Goes (Kaskade’s Grand Club Edit)

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It’s yours. Allow me to explain.

Earlier today, I mentioned in a post on Engadget that the “C” in “Nokia Cseries” could stand for “crap.” Taken alone, it’s pretty easy to construe that as a swipe at Nokia — but looking at the post as a whole, it was patently obvious that I was making a joke (a bad one, maybe, but a joke nonetheless). Alas, I took an old-fashioned whooping from commenters anyway.

“Wow. Bashing a series that’s just a trademark filing is going too far,” one said.

“Of course, it could also stand for ‘crap.’ So that must be exactly what people think when they see ‘C. Ziegler’, right?” said another.

And this isn’t a fluke — it’s a pattern that repeats itself on a daily basis. I certainly don’t want to generalize, but there’s a significant contingent of individuals who are actively looking for a reason to justify their hardheaded belief that Engadget (and other top-tier technology sites) are somehow responsible for their brand’s hard luck.

Now, longtime readers who are familiar with my writing and the Engadget Mobile podcast know that I’m not an Apple fanboy, I’m not a Microsoft fanboy, I’m not an Android fanboy. I’m just a phone fanboy, that’s it. I like to look at the good in every platform, and appreciate every phone for what it brings to the table. Likewise, I’m not afraid to hate on a phone, either.

I love the iPhone for turning the entire industry on its ear and setting the bar for music integration. I hate the iPhone for treating developers like meat, for throwing away essential features, and for steadfastly refusing to bow to the reality that multitasking is important.

I love Nokia for proving that a smartphone could have mass-market appeal. I hate Nokia for failing to advance Maemo years ago, for moving S60 at a glacial pace, and for ignoring the needs of North Americans for ages.

I love Android for rethinking notifications and for taking location-based services to the next level. I hate Android for taking an odd approach to multitouch, for all but encouraging fragmentation of the platform, and for failing to properly incentivize manufacturers to get out devices early and often (I guess that last part is Google’s fault more than anything else).

I love Samsung and LG for staying hungry and forcing everyone to keep up. I hate Samsung and LG for producing countless anonymous midrange flips and sliders.

And the list goes on. The point is, there isn’t some media-wide conspiracy to put Nokia and Microsoft out of business and ensure that there’s an iPhone in the pocket of every man, woman, and child. There just isn’t. Think about it. Quite the opposite, actually — our coverage is simply a reflection of pop culture, of our readership’s cross-section, of the topics that are going to generate buzz and interest.

So why do we get in trouble whenever we say something that could even remotely be misconstrued as bad-mouthing a non-Apple product? I think it’s because we’re accessible. It’s human nature to want to defend the things you like, and the comments section of a site like Engadget is a whole lot more accessible than Nokia’s boardroom.

Now, occasionally, I find something legitimately wrong with a product I’m reviewing, and I report it. Same result: I’m threatened and called names I can’t print. I’m told I’m on Apple’s payroll. This is where I really take issue, because those readers are only hurting themselves by continuing to buy into a product, feature, or idea that’s uncompetitive.

It’s okay to be a fanboy — enthusiasts are the heart and soul of Engadget, and we love them. They’re the reason I do what I do. But try to understand that even your favorite phone may not be perfect. Try to understand that by giving even your most loved brands a hard time once in a while — by not blindly buying into their crap — you’re going to help them make better, awesome-er products down the road.

The way I see it, when competition heats up, everybody wins.

If all goes well, I’ll be launching the podcast within the next six weeks. Stay tuned.

Incredible releases in the last six weeks… I’ve included a few of my favorites here, along with a couple hidden treasures. Enjoy.

1. Ferry Corsten – We Belong (Muzikjunki Full Vocal Remix)
2. Andrea Oliva – Helvetic Nerds
3. Loverush UK! – 5 Reasons
4. Fedde Le Grand – Get This Feeling (Chris Count Remix)
5. Kaskade – Step One Two (Tommy Trash Mix)
6. Noel Sanger – Natural Perfection (Manuel De La Mare I Am Blonde Mix)
7. Jody Wisternoff – Starstrings (Vocal Version)

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It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally put together a modest mix for April (barely). I’m really pleased with this month’s releases, and I definitely haven’t done them justice — the mix was ultimately rushed, despite the fact that I’ve been toying with it for a solid month — but I do hope you enjoy it.

1. Mischa Daniels – Another Place (Maximal D Essed Mix)
2. Tomcraft – They Don’t Know
3. Faithless – Music Matters (Mark Knight Remix)
4. Jerome Isma-Ae – Smile When You Kill Me
5. Bad Boy Bill – Falling Anthem (Sylvane Club Remix)
6. Danny Routh – Seaside (South Blast Smooth Mix)

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This is my first crack at putting together a mix of any substance using the SCS.1m. It’s become obvious to me over the past couple weeks that I need to add the 1d into the equation — I’m just touching the PC way too much during a mix as it stands — but I’m loving everything the 1m alone is doing for me so far. Anyhow, download, enjoy, and don’t forget to play a fun round of Spot the F-Ups!

Playlist:

1. Shiloh – Cafe del Mariachi
2. George Acosta – Fallin Backwards (Duderstadt Uplifting Remix)
3. 16 Bit Lolitas – Sedna
4. Deadmau5 – Slip
5. Cold Blue – Not Too Late (Noel Sanger Remix)
6. Who’s Who? – Klack (Inpetto Remix)
7. M6 – There And Back Again

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I’m migrating from Moveable Type to WordPress this week, so you’re going to see a janky site and a whole lotta broken links. It’ll all be fixed shortly, promise!

Threw this little mix together over the weekend to try to get up to speed with Traktor Pro (finally). Not super thrilled that you can't have beat jump and cue navigation keys open simultaneously, but let's be honest, that's where an external controller comes into play. Stanton SCS, here I come.

Since my AV rack is nowhere near my router, I run a WDS network that uses two Airport Extremes — one 100Mbps, one 1Gbps. Since bandwidth isn't as much of an issue between networked devices in the rack, it gets the 100Mbps. By and large, it works brilliantly — I've got a Squeezebox 3, Tivo S3, Xbox 360, and Slingbox connected to the Extreme and everything's solid. Lately, though, I've been getting intermittent dropouts on the WDS where both routers go to blinky yellow. Sometimes it fixes itself after a few minutes, sometimes I've got to power cycle the remote (the rack router). Either way, though, the Slingbox loses network connectivity without fail and never regains it — I've got to reset it to get it back on track. Since this WDS drama happens at least once or twice a day, it renders the Slingbox useless if I'm out of the house for any length of time, which is the only scenario where I want to use it anyway. Sling: can you please release a firmware that'll make the box at least try to restore connectivity on its own accord?