Apple on Wednesday unveiled the next major version of its professional video application, Final Cut Pro.
Apple demoed the new software during the SuperMeet at NAB on Wednesday night. According to Macgasm, who has been following several Twitter people attending the event, Final Cut Pro X features full color management via ColorSync.
Until recently the RSS feed at the Loop offered readers the ability to see a summary of a story, but we’ve been working hard to change that.
As many of you already noticed, the RSS feed has been expanded in more ways than one. Not only do we include more of the story, and in some cases all of the story in the RSS feed, we are also including images in the RSS now.
We worked with the folks at Pulse, who make the Pulse News Reader for iPad, to make The Loop’s RSS feed look better in its app. If you use Pulse, give The Loop’s new feed a try and see what you think.
It’s hard to keep secrets these days. The design of Microsoft’s new Windows App Store is the latest project to be leaked on the Web.
TechCrunch posted supposed screenshots of the company’s Windows App Store that leaked onto the Web. The screenshots are not verified, but if they are real, it certainly shows some more copying of Apple.
It may also explain why Microsoft is fighting Apple so hard to make sure the term “App Store” remains generic.
Microsoft on Tuesday released Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1, fixing a number of issues and improving security.
According to Microsoft, the update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.
As outlined when The Loop spoke with Microsoft last week, the biggest new features of SP1 come in Outlook.
RIM shareholders were probably sitting back with their mouths hanging open yesterday as the interview with the company’s co-CEOs hit the Internet.
RIM is one week away from the release of the PlayBook, a product that could make or break the company, and instead of remaining quiet, the CEOs give an interview. Mistake.
I suppose giving an interview isn’t a bad idea if you are a masterful speaker like Steve Jobs, but if your name is Lazaridis or Balsillie, you should avoid interviews like the plague. In a moment of trying to be helpful, I actually recommended this to RIM a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t listen.
So, what brilliance did we get from RIM? One week away from the PlayBook introduction, what wisdom did the co-CEOs impart on us? Let’s take a look at what Mike “Whine” Lazaridis had to say.
The pressure of not being prepared for the tablet revolution may be catching up with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, as his bitterness shines in a recent interview.
“Why is it that people don’t appreciate our profits? Why is it that people don’t appreciate our growth? Why is it that people don’t appreciate the fact that we spent the last four years going global? Why is it that people don’t appreciate that we have 500 carriers in 170 countries with products in almost 30 languages?,” Lazaridis said in a New York Times interview.
That’s quite a bit of non-appreciation from consumers and market in general, but Lazaridis isn’t that concerned.
An upcoming update for Apple’s mobile operating system could fix an ongoing issues with the iPad 2 and Verizon.
BGR.com on Monday got its hands on the latest unreleased update, iOS 4.3.2, which it says fixes the Verizon issues. Apple said last week that it was “aware that a small number of iPad 2 customers have experienced connectivity issues with the Verizon 3G network and we are investigating it.”
Simon & Schuster on Sunday said that a biography of Steve Jobs would be released in 2012.
The big difference between this book and other attempts to write about Jobs in the past is that this is an authorized biography, according to AppleInsider.
As part of its Creative Suite 5.5 announcements today, Adobe released Audition, its professional audio application.
Part of the Production Premium suite, Audition is a native Mac app that allows users to manipulate, mix and restore audio files. Adobe says Audition is a good tool for video editors, audio engineers, and interactive designers.
With a completely rebuilt audio engine, Audition multiple multitrack sessions and single file edits simultaneously. You can even open and import files in the background — even files that need sample rate conversion — while you continue to work on open projects, according to Adobe.
Adobe and Apple’s public battles over HTML5 and Flash have quieted down recently, as Adobe rolls out new tools to work with Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
In announcing Creative Suite 5.5, and more specifically the new HTML5 features found in Dreamweaver, Adobe made it clear that it was all about the content.
Adobe said the new HTML5 tools were implemented “to help customers meet Adobe’s commitment to content. Adobe has no bias between HTML 5 and Flash,” Dave Burkett, Vice President and General Manager, Adobe Creative Suite Design and Web Segments, told The Loop.
Adobe unveiled Creative Suite 5.5 today with lots of new features, but the company also launched new pricing plans.
Calling the new subscription-based pricing plans “affordable and flexible,” Adobe said the new pricing plans will be a good option for users that want to stay current on the new releases.
The new pricing plans will also be good for users that have specific needs for a new project and don’t want to purchase a full suite. Of course, there are many users that may want to try a full Adobe suite for the first time and this will give them that access.
In addition to announcing Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe also unveiled a new Photoshop Touch software development kit (SDK).
According to Adobe, the new SDK allows developers to create mobile and tablet applications that interact directly with Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended on the desktop.
Using its own SDK, Adobe developed three new apps for Apple’s iOS: Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel and Adobe Nav. The apps will give developers an idea of what can be done using the SDK to link the tablet and desktop environments.
Adobe unveiled the latest major release of its Creative Suite product line, introducing many new features in the applications. The company also changed the release schedule for future major releases of the suite.
Calling Creative Suite 5.5 a “mid-cycle product release,” Adobe said it focused on three main areas: Proliferation of Devices; Design and Interactivity; and Monetization.
“Our customers are faced with the opportunity to reach more customers through mobile devices than the desktop,” Dave Burkett, Vice President and General Manager, Adobe Creative Suite Design and Web Segments, told The Loop. “That’s a real game changer.”
Apple on Friday said it is investigating reported issues from customers using the Verizon iPad 2 3G.
“We are aware that a small number of iPad 2 customers have experienced connectivity issues with the Verizon 3G network and we are investigating it,” the company said in a statement to AllThingsD.
John Paczkowski has an interesting article at AllThingsD today that says that Apple’s iPhone product cycle may be turning into a platform cycle. He also notes that a fall launch of the iPhone would fit in nicely with AT&T’s launch of its LTE network.
And, more importantly, it gives Apple a few more months to align the device with some significant upgrades to the iOS platform, which, as Caris analyst Robert Cihra observes, is increasingly becoming the real “what’s next?” for Apple.
iPhone Product Cycle Now More of a Platform Cycle [AllThingsD]
Employees at Best Buy stores were told by managers that they were only to sell iPad 2s to customers that pre-ordered the devices. They were also told to misinform customers about holding the iPad 2 until further notice. In an email to BGR.com today, Best Buy said they were holding the iPad 2 inventory for an upcoming promotion.
Pre-announcing an upcoming Apple promotion is not such a good idea for Best Buy.
The Internet has been buzzing with stories that Apple’s iPhone 5 has been delayed, but is it actually? Not really.
The Loop first reported last month that Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) would not feature any major hardware news. Instead, the conference would go back to its roots and showcase what’s new for iOS and Mac OS X. In other words, things that are relevant to developers.
Coupled with Apple’s recent history of introducing a new iPhone at WWDC, many news outlets have determined that Apple has delayed the iPhone 5.
Apple is being sued by two iPhone users who accuse the company of sharing identifying information from their iPhones with third-party advertisers.
Filed in the District of Puerto Rico by Natasha Acosta and Dolma Acevedo-Crespo, the lawsuit claims that Apple and a number of app developers capture the iPhone’s Unique Device ID (“UDID”) — the unique identifying number that Apple assigns to each of its iPhones and iPads — and transmits that information along with the device’s location data to third-party advertisers.
Jonathan Geller had a look at the BlackBerry Bold Touch today over at BGR.com. I used the BlackBerry for a couple of years before the iPhone came out — once I made the switch, I never looked back. This one looks a lot like the phone I had years ago, except with a touchscreen.
The BlackBerry Bold Touch also uses a new battery from RIM, so hopefully the addition of a touchscreen to this famous BlackBerry form factor won’t have too much of a negative impact on battery life.
Everyone seems to be debating the benefits of Google’s Android OS versus Apple’s iOS and which mobile operating system is better.
There are reasons that both sides contend make their operating system the best one to use, but for the most part it’s a personal choice to allow you to get things done. At least that’s what I thought.
I got a call from a friend of mine the other night and we talked for a while before the conversation turned to Google and why he thought it they made a better operating system. I’m paraphrasing, but the conversation went something like this.
While the brand has fallen by the wayside in recent years, Atari will always hold a special place in the hearts of gamers of a certain age. A new iOS game download called Atari’s Greatest Hits is bound to appeal to them and to many others with an eye towards video game history.
Atari’s Greatest Hits is a free download that comes with the classic game Pong, and for 99 cents more, you can download one of 25 separate game “packs” that include classic Atari coin-op arcade games and games originally designed for the Atari 2600 home game console – one of the first popular home consoles. If you want to buy them all in one fell swoop (18 arcade games, 92 Atari 2600 games) you can get them discounted for $14.99, all managed through in-app purchases.
A report on Monday says that RIM’s PlayBook tablet release was delayed because Apple bought all available touch screen displays.
RIM had apparently planned to release the PlayBook sometime in mid-March, but because Apple had already book all the touch panels, the company had to postpone the launch, according to DigiTimes.
Google’s Vice President of Engineering, Andy Rubin, on Monday posted his thoughts on recent news that Google was clamping down on its partners that want to change Android.
Last week reports surfaced that Google now required a partners changes to Android to be approved by Rubin. The change affected many big names like Facebook and Verizon, but more importantly seemed to go against Google’s openness.
In response, Rubin says that device makers are free to modify Android, but then adds a caveat.
It’s not very often that you hear good customer service stories, so a friend told me how good he was treated by PressPlane, I decided to give them a shout out. The company makes an app called Zapd that allows you to make Web sites or “Zaps” directly from your iPhone. It’s a free app and they say that you can create as many sites as you like.
Zapd has over a dozen “themes” to choose from that change the website’s colors, fonts, layout and overall look and feel. New themes are released all the time. The results are gorgeous and are optimized for use on a phone, tablet, and of course, a computer.
Line 6 on Wednesday introduced the newest device to its HD line of Pod products, the Pod HD Desktop.
The new Pod will be familiar to users of Line 6’s older units — it has the same shape, but newer technology. The uses the HD technology that Line 6 developed for its floor model HD units released late last year.
The Pod HD Desktop has the ability to deliver great tone with models of the Fender Twin Reverb, Hiwatt Custom 100, Supro S6616, Gibson EH-185, Divided by 13 JRT 9/15, Dr. Z Route 66, Vox AC-30 (Top Boost), Marshall JTM-45 MkII, Park 75, Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, ENGL Fireball and many more.
Storagenewsletter.com reports that Apple has ordered 12 petabytes of storage from Isilon Systems. Isilon, recently acquired by EMC, manufactures “scale-out storage” designed to be used by large enterprises, and has a client list that includes NBC, ABC, Paramount and many other companies.
“It’s probably the largest of its 1,500 customers recorded at the end of December, including 20% in Europe.”The blog cites “an inside source at EMC” who indicates that Apple has ordered the storage to manage video downloads for customers using iTunes.
Apple Ordered 12PB (!) of Storage on Isilon’s Systems [Storagenewsletter.com]
Analysts with Deutsche Bank estimate that Motorola has shipped about 100,000 Xoom tablets since the device went on sale in February. If so, that would certainly be a fraction of the number of original iPads that Apple sold its first weekend when they went on sale in April, 2010 (Apple has not revealed iPad 2 sales numbers yet).
The Xoom is the first Android-based tablet to feature the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system, the first Android OS optimized specifically as a tablet OS.
The Xoom went on sale in late February for $800 (less if you agreed to a two-year data contract with Verizon Wireless).
Microsoft will release Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 sometime next week, the company told The Loop on Wednesday.
The SP1 update will be big for Mac users and will contain increased stability, security, performance enhancements, and some new features. The biggest new features will come in Outlook.
The update will enable calendar syncing between Outlook for Mac and Apple’s Sync Services. This means you can now sync your Outlook calendars, as well as your contacts, notes and tasks with any service or device that supports Sync Services.
That includes your iPhone and iPad. Microsoft’s Senior Director of Product Management, Pat Fox, told The Loop that this was one of the most requested features from Office for Mac 2011 users.
Universal Audio (UA) on Wednesday said it would release a new plug-in that is sure to excite musicians and engineers — the Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb.
The Lexicon 224 hardware unit was first introduced in 1978 and has remained a standard for reverbs ever since.
Universal Audio captured all eight reverb programs for its newest plug-in. Typical of the precise modeling it exhibits with all of its plug-ins, UA included every tunable parameter and the original unit’s input transformers and early AD/DA converters.
Reports on Tuesday suggest Apple will unveil the iPhone 5 at the end of June. This is not true.
My sources said today that rumors of an iPhone 5 release at the end of June were completely false.