Engadget:
Microsoft has constructed a monstrous six-story “Windows Phone” just a few feet away from the world’s largest Macy’s store, right in the middle of one of the city’s more popular outdoor picnic areas.
Nothing says success like a giant eyesore.
The in-your-face-factor is essential in metal. Ask Jason Suecof – one of the essential producers on this side of the millennium and creative mind behind the sound of Trivium, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder. He’ll tell you that, yes, it is essential indeed. So, we simply asked him to bag his most essential tricks for an EZmix Pack, one we’d like to call: Metal Essentials EZmix Pack.The Metal Essentials EZmix Pack comes with exactly what its title implies: instant and essential presets for your metal productions! One click and you get Jason’s take on how to beef up your guitars, drums, bass, vocals and overall master. Essentially easy.
Metal Month continues at Toontrack. You’ve got to love a company that celebrates Metal releases for an entire month.
Apple has updated its Apple Store iOS app and has added two new convenience features for U.S. consumers who frequent Apple retail stores: Personal Pickup and EasyPay.
Personal Pickup enables you to pick up your order in any Apple retail store instead of having it shipped to you. Most in-stock options are available within one hour of placing the order, according to Apple.
EasyPay – a feature limited to iPhone 4 and 4S models at present – enables you to scan the barcodes of select accessories on the shelves of Apple retail stores and pay for them right on your iPhone. So if you need an accessory but the Apple Store staff is busy, you may be able to complete the transaction yourself without having to wait.
Both features are limited specifically to U.S. Apple retail stores at present.
The 2.0 release also adds package tracking, and improves international support for customers in China and Canada.
iDownloadBlog:
Developer and hacker conradev has uncovered a hidden panorama mode in the iOS Camera app. By changing a key value in the iOS SDK, a Panorama mode is unlocked in the Camera app that lets iPhone users capture a panorama image by snapping photos continually from left to right.
I’m always amazed at what these hackers can uncover.
Reuters:
Several technology companies have expressed an interest in buying the division, which is seen as attractive for its patents, the sources said. Oracle Corp might be among the likely technology firms interested in the asset, one of the sources said.
They aren’t expected to get the $1.2 billion they paid for it.
Brian Womack:
“I had a lot of questions for him,” Zuckerberg said. The topics included, “how to build a team around you that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are.”
If there’s one person you’d like to answer your questions, it would have to be Steve Jobs.
AP:
Voters in five counties are filling out and returning their mail-in ballots for a Tuesday special primary election to replace former U.S. Rep. David Wu, who resigned following a sex scandal. A handful will mark their ballots not with a pen but with the tip of their finger.It’s the latest attempt at using new technology to help voters with disabilities cast ballots privately.
In life we connect with all kinds of people, places and things. There’s friends and family, of course, but there’s also the sports teams we root for, the coffee shops we’re loyal to, and the TV shows we can’t stop watching (to name a few).So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.
Google is putting a lot into its social networking venture.
One of my biggest peeves in life is how people do not show enough respect for the men and women that have served our countries.
Reuters:
In a lawsuit filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the Times said Huffington Post’s “Parentlode” blog had caused reader confusion with the newspaper’s 3-year-old “Motherlode” blog.Both blogs have been overseen by Lisa Belkin, who worked for the Times from 1982 to 2011 before joining AOL last month. The new blog started on October 24.
I wonder where she got the idea for the name of the new blog?
The Associated Press has updated its stylebook entry on “illegal immigrant,” rejecting once again the “undocumented” term recommended by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, but approving “living in the country without legal permission” as an acceptable variation.
Barnes & Noble officially took the wraps off its Nook Tablet on Monday. The new 7-inch color device goes on sale today for delivery in mid-November, for $249. It joins three other Nook-branded devices: the Nook Color, now priced at $199, and the Nook Simple Touch, a basic e-ink reader for $99.
The Nook Tablet runs a customized version of Google’s Android 2.3 operating system. It looks similar to the Nook Color, featuring a 1024 x 600 pixel touch-sensitive display, weighing less. It also features some amenities missing from Amazon’s less-expensive Kindle Fire – a faster processor, more storage capacity, and a microSD expansion card slot. Barnes & Noble is also lauding the Nook Tablet’s “VividView” display, which it says is less-prone to distracting reflective glare than other tablets because of a difference in manufacturing method.
Barnes & Noble estimates the Nook Tablet can operate for 11.5 hours at a stretch without needing a recharge. The company counts more than 250 newspapers and full-color magazines available for the device, as well as “Nook Comics,” published from companies including Marvel, Archie, IDW and Dynamite. The Nook Tablet can also read PDF files and e-books from the Nook Store.
For users uninterested in a full-featured tablet, the Nook Simple Touch may offer a compelling alternative to Amazon’s lower-priced tablet – for $99, Barnes & Noble notes that the Nook Simple Touch works “with no annoying ads.” The device sports a new software update that improves performance; existing Nook Simple Touch users can download the software from the Nook Web site, or wait for an Over the Air (OTA) update coming soon.
Jim Romenesko:
After publishing for 110 years, the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram went out of business and left the community of 30,000 without a daily newspaper. That was in 1993. “In Holyoke babies have been born, raised and sent off to college or war or other adult responsibilities without ever seeing their names in a T-T article taped to a refrigerator,” writes former Miami Herald and Boston Globe editor Thomas Fiedler. “Congressmen, mayors, and city councilors have been elected, served, and retired without knowing a hometown daily’s beat reporter.”
I never really thought of it like that before. Kind of sad.
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Two of Adobe’s newest applications for the Mac have made their way onto the Mac App Store. Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 are both available on Apple’s software store for download. Both applications cost $79.99 and weigh-in at about 1GB each. The Elements moniker signifies that these are Adobe’s consumer-level applications, but based on their professional counterpart.
Edge:
A post from the team on the game’s forums reads: “Today we are very sad to announce that Lego Universe will be closing. This was a very difficult decision to make, but unfortunately Lego Universe has not been able to attract the number of members needed to keep the game open.
LEGO Universe debuted in October, 2010 for Mac and PC, but never had the impact on the MMO market that its developers and publisher expected. LEGO Universe had a difficult time attracting players despite an effort to make parts of the game free to play starting this past summer. LEGO Universe shuts down for good in January.
EMR and EHR:
As I’ve written these dozens of articles, talked to hundreds of doctors, and far too many EHR (Electronic Health Records) vendors it’s become clear to me that an iPad interface is basically a Must Have feature for an [electronic medical records system].
More doctors than ever are using iPads in their practices, either as handy guides to drug interactions or to access patient record systems remotely. Writing for the EMR and EHR blog, John advocates for vendors to consider developing native apps, as many doctors are now opting to access their desktop systems remotely (using screen sharing software) since they have no other option.
Adam Satariano and Peter Burrows for Businessweek:
About five years ago, Apple (AAPL) design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer’s aluminum casing to indicate when its camera was on. The problem? It’s physically impossible to shine light through metal.Ive called in a team of manufacturing and materials experts to figure out how to make the impossible possible, according to a former employee familiar with the development who requested anonymity to avoid irking Apple. The team discovered it could use a customized laser to poke holes in the aluminum small enough to be nearly invisible to the human eye but big enough to let light through.
For me, “make the impossible possible,” sums up a lot of things at Apple. That’s why they lead in so many markets.
Matt Alexander on CBS turning down Apple’s offer for streaming TV:
The streaming model works. Once you’ve experienced the joy of watching what you want, when you want, it’s difficult to go back to regular television consumption. And yet, here we are, listening to another CEO stick his fingers in his ears and hope to God his business stays on track.
The way we consume media is changing and like the music industry had to change, the TV business has to change too. Apple is leading the push for media consumption and consumers are following them. Companies like CBS have to embrace these changes or die.
Kirk McElhearn:
Just as when you compress a text file using zip compression, decompressing returns all the original letters and characters, lossless music compression provides the full fidelity of the original audio you compressed.
Nice compression overview.
CNet:
[Apple] on Wednesday doled out 150,000 shares each to most of its senior vice presidents, short of recently-minted SVP Eddy Cue, who received a slightly smaller 100,000-share bonus, and design guru Jonathan Ive, who is an SVP, but does not fall under the SEC’s section for directors, officers, and principal stockholders. That works out to just over a $60 million payday to those who got the 150,000 shares, with Cue’s cut coming out to a little more than $40 million, all based off today’s closing price.
Not a bad payout for Apple’s executive team. Given the company’s performance, it’s hard to find fault with the stock windfall. It’s dependent on them sticking around for another five years, however. The intent is clearly to continue stability in Apple’s senior management.
Please say it’s a new album.
But even expert mastering engineers can only accomplish so much, and it’s largely dependent on the raw materials they’re given to work with. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the top mistakes people make in preparing their mix for mastering, with the help of veteran engineer of Universal Mastering Studios West, Pete Doell.
I use Universal Audio plug-ins in every track of every mix I do. It’s great to see the company do these types of articles. Not only do they tell us what the top mistakes are, they tell us how to fix them too.
The Samsung Galaxy 4.0 Android MP3 Player looks absolutely nothing like the iPod touch. Nothing.
I’d like to thank ChronoSync for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
ChronoSync is the automated synchronization and backup application for Mac OS X and ChronoAgent for Mac is a utility that runs on the destination Mac and communicates directly with ChronoSync, giving you full root access to the destination Mac. Download and try the demos, or purchase ChronoSync for $40 and ChronoAgent for Mac for $10. All updates are free, forever.
FierceWireless:
U.S. Cellular turned down Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone because it did not make sense for the company economically, CEO Mary Dillon said on the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call.
Who?
GQ:
Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of.
Barrons.com:
Canaccord Genuity’s Mike Walkley this morning raised his already fairly high estimate for this quarter’s sales by Apple (AAPL) of its iPhone from 27 million units to 29 million units, after his “checks” last month suggested the iPhone 4S was the top seller at AT&T (T), Sprint-Nextel (S), and Verizon Communications (VZ).
Such a disappointment indeed.
If you have EZDrummer then you’ll know there is no way to do this natively inside the plugin. There are however workarounds to this and I’m going to show you how to do this in Logic Pro. Although I’m in Logic this concept will work in any DAW that can feed a record input from an internal source.
Step-by-step instructions from MacProVideo.com.
Ryan Lawler at GigaOM:
Apple had long been rumored to be working on a subscription streaming service that would aggregate content from multiple TV networks and compete against more traditional cable and satellite services. That product ended up never coming to market, as Apple was apparently unable to convince enough content providers to join. But no one had publicly confirmed that such an offering was actually in the works until today.
I would definitely pay for this service from Apple. I hope they can convince the networks to take the leap.