September 12, 2011

∞ Line 6 unveils Mobile POD, Mobile In Adapter for iPhone and iPad

Building on the POD brand, Line 6 on Monday unveiled the Mobile POD app for iPhone and iPad, and the Mobile In Adapter that lets you plug your guitar into Apple’s devices. The Mobile POD app will be a free download from the App Store.

The Mobile POD app is Line 6’s amp and effects modeling software and includes the company’s familiar technology, just in a mobile form factor.

The software includes 64 models of modern, vintage and boutique guitar gear including amps, cabinets, stompboxes and rack effects. Amps in the package include the 1964 Fender Deluxe Reverb, 1968 Marshall Plexi (100 watt), 1985 Mesa/Boogie Mark IIc+ (Drive Channel), and the 1989 Soldano SLO Super Lead Overdrive, among many others.

You can build and save your own presets using any of the amps, cabs and effects. If you’d rather use the built-in presets, Line 6 includes 10,000 presets for free.

Mobile In digital input plugs into the 30-pin connector on the bottom of the iOS device. This digital connection enables the adaptor to offer pro-quality audio specs for guitar tones. Mobile In supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz digital audio. The Guitar input features 110 dB dynamic range.

Mobile POD app will be free. Pricing for the Mobile In Adapter has not been announced.

Many thanks to Pixelmator for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed.

Pixelmator is the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editing app for Mac OS X that has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images. With tons of new features and improvements, the next generation of Pixelmator—codenamed Chameleon—is clearly the best Pixelmator ever built. Even more, Pixelmator 2 will be available later this month via the Mac App Store as a free upgrade for everyone who purchased any version of Pixelmator via the Mac App Store.

Gizmodo:

BlackBerry sales have been in the toilet, so RIM has been scrambling to get their much-anticipated first QNX-based phones to market. Very smart. But they may be pushing them out without BES/BIS email/calendar calendar support. That would be unfathomably stupid.

Is there no limit to the stupid at RIM?

AllThingsD:

He was replaced by longtime TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld.The company’s statement said that the high-profile blogger had “decided” to move on, which was adecided understatement, given the negotiations between the pair sometimes approximated a cage match.

“You can’t fire me! I quit!”

Detroit Free Press:

“It’s probably the best delivery system ever invented, but the industry gave up a lot of quality to have that system,” [Seger manager Ed ‘Punch’] Andrews said. “At some point, if this is what everybody is accepting, we know we have to keep current. But if we were going to do this, we needed to make sure it was as great as we could make it.”

Now where’s AC/DC and Tool?

Geoffrey A. Fowler And Yukari Iwatani Kane for WSJ:

Nintendo Co.’s website shows gamers “what Wii is all about.” As far back as 1984, Apple Inc. said in a commercial that it would “introduce Macintosh.” Today, an Apple video enthuses: “There’s never been anything like iPad.”Mignon Fogarty, who writes under the pen name Grammar Girl, has given up being outraged by marketing grammar, including missing articles.It’s hard, she says, to make the case that bad grammar is wrong when someone like Mr. Jobs announces that the new iPod is the “funnest” ever, she says. “How can you tell your kids, you won’t get anywhere in life if you use that language?”

Greg Price on Waves Live:

Today, I want to share with you the first steps I take in all projects I start. My first go-to tools are the Q10 Paragraphic EQ, SSL 4000 Collection, and the Renaissance plugins. These tools work for me on any type of DAW, console, Pro Tools session, or live mix that I am building. It is very important to realize that the Waves tools I use for my live show projects, translate to all my other media mixes. That said, let’s take a deeper look at the SSL 4000 Collection.

I’ve known Greg for a number of years and have spent time with him at several Ozzy concerts. He is one of the nicest, most professional people I have ever met in the business. I take every word he says to heart when I approach a mix.

Smashing Magazine:

We meet people who think very much like we do and most probably struggle with similar problems; and perhaps they’ve found a solution which can inspire others. We learn how our colleagues work and what they have experienced; we can exchange our thoughts and ideas directly — something that we might struggle finding time for on Twitter or via email.

∞ Avid shows upcoming features of Pro Tools

∞ Feral announces Mac version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Feral Interactive has announced plans to publish a Macintosh-native version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s coming during this winter.

A prequel to the original Deus Ex, a game that likewise found its way to the Mac back in 2000, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is set in the year 2027. Its intricate story line involves cybernetics and biotechnology. Your character can be augmented with special abilities grouped into four main categories: combat, stealth, hacking and social.

All this takes place within a backdrop of futuristic real-world cityscapes in places like Detroit and Montreal, with a game outcome that changes depending on the actions you take.

Feral plans to announce pricing and system requirements later this year, closer to the game’s actual release on the Mac.

September 10, 2011

Smartphone Boss:

“Without this merger, AT&T will continue to experience capacity constraints, millions of customers will be deprived of faster and higher quality service, and innovation and infrastructure will be stunted. If this transaction does not close due to Plaintiff’s lawsuit, wireless consumers will, as the FCC Chairman predicts, increasingly face higher prices and lower quality.”

Nice.

Hollywood Reporter:

CBSNews.com has severed its relationship with the host of a web show who sent out an erroneous Tweet yesterday saying that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had died.The offending Tweet was sent from the Twitter account of What’s Trending, a web series independently produced by Disrupt Group and anchored by Disrupt co-founder Shira Lazar.

What’s Trending tried to apologize for the gaff after the fact, but it had already started to bounce around the Twitterverse – the damage was done. What’s unclear is why What’s Trending thought Jobs had died to begin with.

Bloomberg News found itself in a similar pickle in 2008 after it accidentally published Jobs’ obituary. Celebrity obituaries are routinely produced pre-mortem.

September 9, 2011

BlackBerry App World:

This web page uses ActiveX controls that work only in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To ensure that BlackBerry App World is correctly downloaded to your BlackBerry, this site is not designed to work with any other Internet browsers. If you cannot use Internet Explorer, you may be able to download the software directly to your BlackBerry smartphone.

So there’s this new thing called HTML5…

[Via Daring Fireball]

∞ Apple security update fixes DigiNotar certificate problem

Apple on Friday released Security Update 2011-005 for Snow Leopard and Lion (as well as Server versions). The update is available for download through the Software Update system preference and from the Apple Web site.

The update is described as a “Certificate Trust Policy” issue:

An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information.

Specifically, the update removes DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates.

Fraudulent certificates were issued by multiple certificate authorities operated by DigiNotar. This issue is addressed by removing DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates, from the list of Extended Validation (EV) certificate authorities, and by configuring default system trust settings so that DigiNotar’s certificates, including those issued by other authorities, are not trusted.

∞ Flash Media Server 4.5 streams Flash video to iOS devices

Adobe used this week’s IBC conference in Amsterdam to introduce Flash Media Server 4.5. Most notable in the new Flash Media Server release is the ability to stream Flash video to iOS devices, including the iPad and iPhone.

It’s important to understand that this is a mechanism for delivering Flash video to iOS devices, not Flash applications, such as games. Some confusing headlines and sloppy reporting from some tech blogs seem to conflate the two.

Benefits include integrated content protection, for ad-funded video, as well as on-demand stream packaging, according to Adobe – businesses can use one set of source video to deliver to different devices, depending on their capabilities.

The Adobe Creative Suite provides many opportunities for partners to provide not only software and solutions based on Adobe technology but also consulting, contract development and integration services. The key themes for the Creative Developer Event are: Extensibility – Efficiently develop and deploy extensions that work across Adobe Creative Suite productsEnterprise – Unlock new market opportunities and see how Adobe Creative Suite products can be seamlessly embedded into Enterprise environmentsCS next – Detailed insight into Adobe’s next major Creative Suite release, early guidance on porting requirements, along with sneak peeks of upcoming features and APIs.Who should attend? System Integrators, Developers and Adobe Solution Partners. The event is suitable for a technical/developer audience as well as product managers, senior managers and business owners.

Agendas for the U.K., Singapore, New York, Los Angeles and Munich are also available.

∞ SceneChat enables real-time commenting, social sharing of video

SceneChat is a new startup that is taking the concept of commenting and sharing of videos to a whole new level.

Open today as a limited beta, the system is designed specifically for embedded videos on a Web site. The service allows you to comment on specific moments in the content.

Videos can be shared through Facebook and Twitter. Here’s how it works: You share a URL to a specific moment in the video — when people click on it, they go to your Web site and the video goes to the moment you chose.

That means that you don’t have to load a YouTube video and scroll to the point where an annotation may be. With SceneChat, you’re already there.

According to the company, SceneChat installs with just a couple lines of JavaScript – simply cut and paste them into the Web page. All supported videos embedded on the corresponding pages are automatically enabled with a dropdown menu to allow SceneChat socialization.

This means no changes are needed to the site’s layout or video players to accommodate the SceneChat functionality.

The company also said that in addition to providing time-synced public or private conversations, SceneChat also enables real-time interaction and threaded replies, as well as Facebook integration that generates notifications and allows comments made or deleted in SceneChat to map to Facebook posts (if a user so desires).

Content creators interested in participating in the initial closed Beta are encouraged to email [email protected].

SceneChat plans to offer an open beta in the next 30 days with a full product release in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Bloomberg:

Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to begin selling the device in mid-October under a deal with Apple for the next model, the iPhone 5, said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the plans aren’t public. Becoming the country’s only operator to offer the device with unlimited data service for a flat fee may help Sprint draw customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which already carry the phone, they said.

FOSS Patents:

A reporter from Germany’s leading news agency DPA (Deutsche Presse Agentur) was first to report on Twitter that the Düsseldorf Regional Court once again upheld the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 based on the alleged infringement of a Community design (a design-related intellectual property right registered with an EU agency) held by Apple. At this stage, the injunction is valid only in Germany with respect to Samsung’s Korean parent company. Only the German subsidiary is barred from selling across the border, but that doesn’t have any practical consequences.
September 8, 2011
For a sixth consecutive time, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction. Apple achieves a score of 838 and performs well in all factors, particularly in ease of operation and features. HTC (801) follows Apple in the smartphone rankings.

They build great products that people want to buy and they look after their customers. Sounds like a winning combination.

∞ The sounds of AmpKit

Agile Partners released a major new version of its amp and effects modeling software for iPhone and iPad on Wednesday. As a long time owner of the app, I downloaded AmpKit 1.2 and checked it out.

Clearly, being able to plug-in on-the-go provides guitarists with a huge advantage in writing songs, practicing or learning new material. However, without a decent tone, it sucks to play and not be able to get the sounds you want.

You won’t have that problem with AmpKit.

AmpKit gives you everything you’ll need to create a massive tone. It can do everything from a nice clean tone to a ballsy metal beast that will make you want to play even more.

I took a couple of the built-in presets and did a quick one-off recording. Obviously, you can make whatever changes you need to the amps and effects, but I left everything alone, plugged in and played.

I used my Taylor SolidBody for the Rhythm and Lead parts.

IndustryGamers:

Atari founder and gaming guru Nolan Bushnell believes that educational video games area potential form of synergy that could revolutionize the educational system in the United States.  Bushnell remains confident enough to proclaim that if implemented correctly, the average high school curriculum would only take one year to complete, rather than four years.“I’ve been working on an education project for about ten years now, and it turns out that educating children and computers go together,” he said. “We’ve been in hundreds of classrooms with 40,000 kids. We are currently teaching subjects ten times faster.”

My kids approve of this idea.

A great Gruber-ism.

Fortune:

On Tuesday, Bartz was in New York, to speak at Citigroup’s (C) technology conference the next day, when she was supposed to call Bostock at 6 p.m. “I called him at 6:06,” she recalls. When he got on the line, she says, he started reading a lawyer’s prepared statement to dismiss her.“I said, ‘Roy, I think that’s a script,'” adding, “‘Why don’t you have the balls to tell me yourself?'”

Ousted Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz isn’t one to mince words – she famously told recently-fired TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to f*** off, at his own conference.

∞ Colin McRae: DiRT 2 comes to the Mac

Feral Interactive on Thursday announced the release of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 for the Mac. It costs $39.99 and is available from online download services including the Mac App Store. It comes to retailers on Thursday, September 15, 2011.

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 is an rally-style auto racing game that features nine locations around the world, 41 tracks and more than 100 racing events. As you travel the world, you gain experience and win cash, you get promoted and progress to more challenging events.

You get to drive real-world cars like the Mitsubishi EVO X, the Subaru Impreza STI and others, with customization, adjustable assists and difficulty levels.

A “Flashback” feature lets you repeat the last few seconds of your drive so you can correct mistakes that otherwise would have sent you off the course and out of the running. The game also features multiplayer support with head-to-head online play.

Feral noted that the game was previously anticipated for a July launch. Colin McRae: DiRT 2’s Mac release was pushed back to September in order to accommodate support for OS X “Lion.”

∞ Apple: iTunes U tops 600 million downloads

In researching my recent story, iTunes U: Educating the world, Apple provided me with some updated figures for its free education portal on iTunes.

According to Apple, iTunes U has had more than 600 million downloads since it first launched in 2007. What’s even more impressive is that they’ve had more than 300 million in the last year alone — a testament to the growing popularity of the service.

Currently, iTunes U boasts more than 1,000 universities with active accounts. Schools contributing to the program range from big to small and include some of the world’s most prestigious institutions like Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne and University of Tokyo.

As you would expect, a number of universities have a large amount of downloads. Emory University, Harrisburg Area Community College, Ludwig Maxmillians University (Germany) and Oxford University have all surpassed 10 million downloads on iTunes U. Yale University, MIT, University of California Berkeley and University of South Florida have more than 20 million downloads.

Topping the list of universities in downloads are Open University and Stanford University, each with more than 30 million downloads.

While many of us think of iTunes U as being a part of the desktop experience, 30 percent of iTunes U traffic comes from iOS devices.

iTunes U is currently available in 123 countries, which would explain why 60 percent of iTunes U users are from outside the U.S.

September 7, 2011

∞ Adobe's video tools boast 45% growth on the Mac, thanks to Final Cut X

Adobe will announce on Thursday that demand for its Production Premium CS5.5 video tools has exploded this year, and they have Apple to thank.

Demand for Adobe’s video creation tools has grown 22 percent year-over-year, but the big news is on the Mac side. The company said that it’s seen 45 percent growth on the Mac.

Adobe says the growth on the Mac is fueled by the large number of Final Cut Pro X users switching to Premiere Pro.

After releasing Final Cut Pro X, Apple faced a backlash from users. Adobe stepped in and welcomed users to its platform. Adobe created video tutorials and published documents to help Final Cut users switch to Adobe products.

Fortune:

Arrington mostly stayed out of the public fray until yesterday when he demanded that TechCrunch either be given full editorial independence or sold back to Arrington and other legacy shareholders (AOL had purchased the site last year).But AOL is not giving TechCrunch its editorial independence. And it is not selling it back to Arrington.Instead, Fortune has learned that AOL executives have decided to terminate Arrington.

I bet he didn’t expect that — or maybe he did.

Arq backs up the critical files on your Mac to the Internet. Your backups are stored at Amazon S3 (“Simple Storage Service”), the gold standard of reliable online storage in the industry, backed by Amazon.com, a large stable company. Backups of your Mac are complete and accurate, including all metadata.

I met with Stefan at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. He’s a great guy that cares about his customers and his software.