September 7, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I’ve been using Alfred for many months. On the surface it’s an app launcher, and that’s how I use it most of the time. After assigning a hotkey combination (I chose Command-Space), its main window is only a tap away. From there, start typing the name of the app you’re after and hit Return to launch it. But that’s just the beginning. Here are some of the other useful tasks Alfred performs for me (note that some require the Powerpack, which is a separate purchase).
I must admit, Spotlight has served my needs well over the years, but some people like more functionality.
Now that’s an interactive storefront.
To celebrate Fashion’s Night Out, Saks and Stylelist.com have partnered to create an interactive storefront at Saks’ flagship 5th Avenue store.
Designed, developed and built by Gin Lane Media the three-window display features 64 iPad 2s in the center window and nine 27-inch Cinema Displays in each of the two side windows.
The display will feature original Stylelist imagery, streaming content, tweets from around the Web and user-submitted photos with the #StylelistatSaks hashtag.
“The iPads are running a native iPad application specifically built for the installation,” said Dan Kenger, Digital Creative Director at Gin Lane Media. “Using a local network, which we setup, we are able to get all the iPads to talk to each other as well as perfect the timing to produce elegant fades and control what device should display what.”
Intuit on Wednesday took off the wraps from QuickBooks for Mac 2012, a new version of its small business accounting software that will be released on September 26, 2011. It costs $229.95 for a single-user license.
More than 50 new features and enhancements made it into this release of QuickBooks, including a redesigned interface and support for OS X “Lion.” An improved search function with keyword support, customer and vendor history panels, and sortable transaction list have been included. You can check over here for more details on using QuickBooks.
You can now import multiple transactions from bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks at once, create “smart rules” to match payees downloaded from online banking accounts, and create multiple invoices from a single estimate to bill for a project over time. Other forms of progress invoicing are also supported.
Intuit has also introduced the Get Started Right program, which provides QuickBooks for Mac 2012 users with a free hour of technical phone support from a QuickBooks expert.
Dexim has announced its AppSpeed Monster Truck, a radio-controlled toy monster truck that uses an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch as its controller. It retails for $69.99.
The AppSpeed Monster Truck works with a free app downloadable from the App Store and a custom-built RF transmitter and quick-charging battery pack. The truck itself is charged via USB. Dexim says it will expand the vehicle line with other vehicles and devices.
The software lets you operate the monster truck from the iOS device’s touch screen, either in a “traditional” mode or tilting the device. The RF transmitter works up to 50 feet away.
Apple’s iTunes software is used by millions of consumers to purchase music, videos and apps for their devices, but the software is also used by higher education institutions to educate people from around the world.
iTunes U is a collection of learning materials donated by over 1,000 universities — and it’s all free. Schools from around the world participate in iTunes U giving users access to research and lectures from some of the top professors in education today.
In fact, digital distribution of content is becoming so important that schools are setting up departments to oversee its challenges and growth.
For Lucas Swineford, Yale University’s Director of Digital Media & Dissemination, iTunes U has proven to be a successful channel in getting the school’s information out to the public. For Swineford, having the media available locally was only part of the longer term goal.
“Yale students are one part of our audience, but they’re not the primary audience,” Swineford told The Loop. “We view iTunes U as more sharing with the world.”
Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University is one of the most respected higher learning institutions in the world. Swineford said he looked at how he could share many of the great things that happen at Yale, without having to physically live in New Haven. iTunes U is one of the ways he accomplishes that goal.
While people in the U.S. certainly take advantage of Yale’s iTunes U program, Swineford also knows the information is reaching beyond U.S. borders.
“The feedback that really warms our heart is when we recieve emails from students and teachers from around the world thanking us for providing this content,” said Swineford.
Qiquan Wang, who is in charge of the iTunes U program at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, said this type of online access to digital files is expected from students these days.
Wang said the school started the program in 2007 when Apple first launched iTunes U and the response has been very positive from the very first report that was done evaluating the program.
Students have said that textbooks are difficult to read and understand, but having lectures and research available digitally makes learning, and understanding the topics, much easier.
Wang also said that faculty have been very supportive of the iTunes U program, often spending their own time creating media to share, because it helps the students.
Regardless of the reasons higher education institutions become involved in iTunes U, the results from students, faculty and people around the world has been very positive.
“We believe in the importance of education,” said Yale’s Swineford. “If you believe a more informed world is a better world, then why wouldn’t you do this.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
MacUpdate on Wednesday kicked off its annual software bundle deal. This year they are offering 11 Mac apps for $49.99 — the apps purchased separately would cost $487. Apps in this year’s bundle include Toast 11 Titanium, Data Rescue 3 and Fantastical, among others.
If you want to purchase the bundle, you can do so using The Loop’s link and MacUpdate will throw me a little kickback.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Seth Weintraub:
We’ve gotten an email from an acquaintance of one of the victims of the accident saying that one of the passengers was carrying an iPhone. The relatives of the crash victim logged into Find My iPhone and were able to isolate the coordinates of the last known whereabouts of the plane before it crashed. That information was then given to the Navy who are using it to coordinate the rescue efforts to find the fuselage.
September 6, 2011
Ultimate Guitar has long been my favorite tablature Web sites and I also downloaded the tab app as soon as it become available. There is an update for one of the company’s apps with another on the way.
Ultimate Guitar Tools combines a Guitar Tuner, Metronome and Chords Library — think of it as a utility app for those that don’t need the tablature functionality. Among the changes is a brand new interface and an improved pitch detection algorithm.
The new version allows you to adjust the microphone sensitivity, and see the input level with a new mic input display. Ultimate Guitar Tools 1.1 features orchestral tuning and allows you to switch between linear and non-linear tuning scales.
All of the new features are available now in Ultimate Guitar Tools for $3.99. An updated Ultimate Guitar Tabs, which includes all of the tools, will be released in the next couple of weeks.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Kara Swisher:
To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol
It’s not a big surprise, they’ve been looking for a while.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Ben Brooks recently updated his Web site with a new design.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
But by looking at what Google’s competitors are offering, you can get a sense of what’s in play. As the Financial Times reported this weekend, Yahoo, Amazon and Dish are all expected to offer between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for Hulu, in exchange for the free video site, its subscription service and the rights to exclusive content for at least two years.Google seems to want something much more than that, and is willing to pay much more to get it.
Ironic that the TV networks started Hulu, in part, to compete with YouTube and they are now considering selling it to Google.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Michael Arrington:
If Aol cannot accept either of these options, and no other creative solution can be found, I cannot be a part of TechCrunch going forward.
Things are heating up over at TechCrunch.
Written by Peter Cohen
Technologizer:
“… don’t expect either to be the Great iPad Competitor that leads folks to conclude that it’s possible to compete effectively with Apple’s tablet…But neither one feels generic, either–they’re the sort of tablets you might expect Sony to come up with, and I mean that as a compliment.”
Harry McCracken’s exposure to Sony’s new Android tablets at IFA in Berlin was brief and (as he readily admits) incomplete, but he offers an honest an insightful appraisal about what Sony got right with its new devices.
ProVUE Development has released Appalicious, a new shopping assistant for the Mac App Store.
The Mac App Store is a great new service from Apple that exposes users to lots of Mac application software, but it can be a bit overwhelming. Appalicious helps users navigate the store and find the best deals among available apps. It loads the entire Mac App Store catalog into RAM and provides fast searching, sorting and organizational capabilities.
Features include a customizable spreadsheet interface; searching and sorting that lets users rank apps by name, company, price, discount and other criteria; version and price history, including discount tracking; and the ability to view multiple apps at once.
Blazing fast search is understandable given Appalicious’s pedigree – ProVUE Development is the creator of Panorama, a database with a 23 year history on the Mac – and one that’s known for being quite speedy.
The download is free and includes a seven-day subscription. If you like what you see, subscriptions run $12.95 per year or $19.95 for two years. A limited-time offer drops the one-year subscription price to $7.95.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Very interesting story. Jerry is right handed and played guitar that way until he lost a finger. To continue playing playing he had to switch to being a lefty and then opened the store.
Fox is about to make history by debuting its new comedy series on iTunes before it shows on TV.
In the debut episode of “New Girl,” Zooey Deschanel (“(500) Days of Summer”) stars as Jess Day, a young woman who, after discovering her long-term boyfriend is cheating on her, moves into a loft apartment with three male roommates – prickly bartender Nick (Jake Johnson), womanizer Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and intense personal trainer Coach (guest-star Damon Wayans, Jr.). The guys alongside Jess’ childhood best friend, Cece (Hannah Simone) try to help Jess get back on her feet and into the dating world.
The show can be downloaded on iTunes for free from today until the day of the series premiere, Tuesday, Sept. 20 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT).
RIM fans were quite upset when I compared the PlayBook tablet to the iPad. In fairness, it wasn’t a good comparison because the iPad is so much better. They were also upset when I compared the PlayBook to the legendary Etch A Sketch (probably because the PlayBook lost).
Now there is a new competitor from LeapFrog. The best part is that you don’t need a BlackBerry to use the LeapPad. It’s important to note that neither device does email or calendaring.
Oranged Software has released Studiometry 9, a major upgrade to their business management software for Mac and Windows. It costs $199.95, with upgrades available for $59.95. Studiometry helps you organize, plan, track and invoice, providing you with the tools needed to keep tabs both on clients and projects.
New to the 9.0 release are more than 140 new features and improvements. Oranged notes that many of the enhancements are focused on Customer Relation Management (CRM). Direct integration with Apple Mail has been added, and e-mails can now be imported, logged and linked within Studiometry data.
Contact records can now include an unlimited number of customizable fields containing text, dates or URLs. Contact lists have been redesigned. New reporting and summarizing capabilities have been added, including a Project “Quoted vs. Actual” report, new Client Statements and others.
PDF exporting capabilities, cost-rate tracking, Growl support, speed and stability improvements, iCloud and MobileMe calendar support, enhanced Gantt charts and other new features round out the major enhancements.
A 30-day free trial is available for download. Also check out the Studiometry Touch software for iPhone and iPad.
Noting its poor stock performance, lack of innovation and loss of market share, Jaguar Financial is leading the charge to have something done at RIM.
In a statement on Tuesday, Jaguar Chairman and CEO Vic Alboini called on RIM’s Directors to maximize shareholder value. This includes putting the company up for sale and selling off the patent portfolio.
“The status quo is not acceptable, the Company cannot sit still. It is time for transformational change. The Directors need to seize the reins to maximize shareholder value before more market value is lost,” said Alboini.
RIM’s failures, including the disastrous release of the PlayBook tablet, have led the company’s stock to fall over 80 percent since 2008.
Universal Audio (UA) released an update for its UAD powered plug-ins, adding three new plug-ins and giving Pro Tools users significant enhancements.
For Pro Tools users, Universal Audio has removed the VST wrapper and replaced it with full RTAS plug-ins. Among other things, this allows the UA plug-ins to be grouped by category and manufacturer.
The update also improves automation — parameters now properly display and automate in the automation lanes. Support for control surfaces, like the Artist Series, C|24, 003, has been added and support for the ICON has been added.
New plug-ins in UAD 6.0 include the Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder Plug-in. The Ampex is one of the most used and trusted decks in the world, helping to improve recordings for many years. If you have the Studer A800 plug-in, the addition of the Ampex lets you have an analog tape mix from beginning to end.
The Brainworx bx_digital V2 EQ provides precise 11-band equalization and M/S (mid-side) processing — letting you add presence and transparency to mixes.
The SPL Vitalizer MK2-T is an emulation of the popular tube-based hardware unit. This longtime staple works in both the time and frequency domains to effectively unmask overlapping sounds.
You can download UAD 6.0 from the Universal Audio Web site.
Written by Peter Cohen
Inside Mac Games:
Riot Games has announced the cancellation of League of Legends’ Mac beta client, which the company was developing in partnership with TransGaming. Riot cited the reason for cancellation as an inability to maintain consistent parity between Mac and Windows PC versions with the game’s rapid update cycle. Announced last year, the DOTA clone is a session based multiplayer online game which challenges rival teams to compete for victory.
Disappointing news for anyone who was looking forward to this 3D fantasy MMO.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Apple’s claim that the Samsung tablet’s release in Australia will hurt iPad sales may carry little weight if it doesn’t provide the numbers, Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett said in Sydney Federal Court today.“Unless Apple puts on evidence showing the impact in the U.S. or U.K., I can’t draw any positive assumptions,” Bennett said.
So Apple may not be able to get the Samsung Galaxy banned in that country unless it shows the impact on sales figures.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Big thanks to Sidekick by Oomph for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed.
Sidekick is a stealth little Mac app that automatically updates laptop settings based on where you are. It takes care of annoying tasks so you can focus on what you need to do.
By controlling a huge variety of settings, Sidekick makes your laptop more secure, efficient, portable, and personalized. It can automatically change your default printer, connect to a server, run a command in Terminal, lock the keychain, change the system location…the list goes on. Visit the Sidekick website to learn more about what it can do.
Try Sidekick 4.0 for free. It’s super powerful and very easy to use.
Agile Partners on Tuesday released one of the biggest updates to an iOS app that I’ve seen. AmpiKit 1.2 made big changes under the hood, as well as adding many new features for guitarists using the iPad and iPhone.
Perhaps the two biggest improvements are Adaptive Input Compensation and Dual-stage Amp Simulation.
The company said that it noticed a loss of bass frequencies when the guitar signal is captured using the iOS device’s headset interface. The solution is Adaptive Input Compensation. Agile profiled the frequency response from the different iOS devices, adding back the bass into the signal.
The result, according to the company, is “an amazing increase in the fidelity of the incoming guitar signal, and much richer amplified guitar tone, regardless of amp and playing style, but especially noticeable on clean, jazz, and blues guitar as well as bass guitar.”
In AmpKit 1.2, Agile also took advantage of Apple’s newer A4 and A5 processors. Dual-stage Amp Simulation takes advantage of those processors and they doubled the simulation fidelity on all of our amps.
There are a lot of other new features too, including Solo & Mix Output Shaping; Convolutionbased Cabinet Simulation; and a new Noise Gate.
New gear for this release come from Budda, Fargen, Rocktron, and others. New presets help you bring it all together and are included in the app.
Agile has intro pricing to get all of the new gear through in-app purchase for $9.99. Yes, I already bought it. AmpKit 1.2 costs $19.99 and is available from App Store.
September 5, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Information is all that matters. All the rest is bullshit.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Houston Chronicle:
A committee of lawmakers is reviewing whether to recommend that the state buy the devices for the Legislature’s 50 senators and 100 representatives.State Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Lafayette, said he already uses a personal iPad for legislative business and that broader use of them could make the legislative process more transparent while also making it easier for legislators to respond to constituents.
Consumers, business, government — everyone can find a use for the iPad.
Written by Peter Cohen
ZDNet:
TiVo defined the DVR category around the turn of the century, and today the product name has been turned into a verb. If you’re going to record a TV program on your cable company’s DVR, you probably just say you’ll “TiVo it.”*But name recognition doesn’t pay the bills. The TiVo product line is in a steep decline, a victim of fundamental shifts in digital media technology today. Those same trends explain why Microsoft has shifted Windows Media Center into legacy mode beginning with Windows 8.
Ed Bott points to studies and comments from Microsoft and TiVo that suggest that fewer people than ever are relying on TiVos and Media Center PCs to record and play back video, but the numbers don’t make sense. Comcast and other cable providers are pushing DVRs more than ever, and people certainly aren’t using VHS tape machines to record programming.
Maschine Mikro is based on a highly portable controller that provides hands-on control of the central Maschine features at two-thirds of the size and weight of the full-sized hardware. Utilizing a single display and a dynamically assigned high-resolution master encoder to enable its compact footprint, the bus-powered Mikro controller retains the distinctive full-sized 4×4 matrix of pressure-sensitive, dynamically backlit Maschine drum pads with their acclaimed response and feel.
And for iOS music fans:
To further complement the growing Maschine product range, Native Instruments is also about to release iMaschine, an iOS software that brings intuitive groove creation to the iPhone and iPod touch platform. With four tracks, audio sampling, high-quality effects and an expandable arsenal of professional instruments and drum sounds from the regular iMaschine library, iMaschine allows users to sketch grooves on the go, and later transfer them into the full iMaschine software for detailed editing and arrangement. iMaschine is planned for release through the Apple App Store in October.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Bloomberg:
Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) will allow customers to reserve the next generation of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone as of today in anticipation of supply bottlenecks for the device, spokesman Alexander von Schmettow said by phone.
Planning ahead.
Google posted a nice letter about Freddie, penned by Brian May.
