I’m working on a review of Studio Devil, but I’m impressed enough with the modeling that I wanted to let everyone know about it now. It’s very accurate and sounds great.
Yearly Archives: 2012
Apple overtakes Samsung as No. 1 smartphone vendor
Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments grew 54 percent annually to reach a record 155.0 million units in Q4 2011. Apple overtook Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 24 percent market share. Apple’s global smartphone shipments surged 128 percent annually to 37.0 million units, as distribution of the iPhone family expanded across numerous countries, dozens of operators and multiple price points.”
Cook responds to Apple contractor factory worker reports
Mark Gurman for 9to5Mac, quoting from Tim Cook: “As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about … Continued
Motorola is in the shitter
MG Siegler gives us a rundown of Motorola’s quarterly earnings. Hint: It’s not good — Motorola couldn’t ship as much as Apple sold.
About Apple’s iBooks Author EULA
It seems that some people in the media went absolutely crazy over Apple’s iBooks Author EULA (End User License Agreement) while I was away last week, and I just can’t figure out why. […]
Phone size comparison made easy
Most of us are big fans of our iPhones but have you ever compared it to other smartphones? [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="iPhone vs Lumia vs Galaxy"]
[/caption] The web site Phone Size helps you compare smartphones. Nnot features but the physical size of one phone to other. Amazing how gigantic the Samsung is!
Amazing surf photography from Clark Little
[caption id="attachment_19218" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="Clark Little's "Sand Monster""]
[/caption]Have you ever stood at the water’s edge, watching waves lap at your feet?
Not Clark Little. He stands in two feet of water and lets fifteen foot waves pound him into the sand – all to get some amazing shots of the surf from a viewpoint few of us have ever seen.
Check out the gallery of pictures and videos on his web site.
Apple’s iPad and the human costs for Chinese workers
The New York Times:
Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.
Sandvox improves Lion support, social networking in 2.5
Karelia Software has released Sandvox 2.5, a new version of its visual Web site creation software for Mac OS X. The new release is a free update for version 2 owners. Sandvox 2.5 adds a new Slide Show object to … Continued
Pocket Legends MMO maker goes gothic with Dark Legends
Spacetime Studios – makers of the iOS games Pocket Legends and Star Legends – has announced its third massively multiplayer online (MMO) franchise – Dark Legends. It’s coming to iOS (as well as Android and Chrome) in the first calendar … Continued
Doxie portable scanner gets Wi-Fi
Apparent has unveiled a new version of its portable paper scanner, the Doxie. The new Doxie Go + Wi-Fi costs $239. Doxio Go + Wi-Fi features a built-in battery and on-board memory storage, plus the ability to sync to your … Continued
Nintendo sees first annual loss
Reuters: Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple’s … Continued
PrivacyScan available for Mac
PrivacyScan works by searching for known applications which leave files on your computer that could lead to privacy concerns. PrivacyScan offers support for a wide range of items, including popular web browsers such as Camino, Chrome, Firefox, Flock, iCab, OmniWeb, Opera, Safari, SeaMonkey, and Shiira, privacy threats presented by Flash Cookies, as well as standard apps such as Finder, Preview, and QuickTime. Once a scan has run its course and privacy threats have been detected, PrivacyScan offers a variety of choices for cleaning — from a standard quick delete to one of the many secure delete shredding options.
Made by the same people that make MacScan.
iPhone accounts for 80% of AT&T smartphone activations
AppleInsider:
The iPhone was dominant at AT&T, accounting for 80.8 percent of the 9.4 million smartphones sold through the carrier.In the previous quarter, the iPhone represented 56 percent of AT&T’s smartphone activations with 2.7 million units. The wireless carrier revealed that a majority of the 7.6 million iPhones it activated in the quarter were the iPhone 4S.
That’s impressive.
Apple pricing
Horace Dediu:
The evidence I see is that Apple does not change pricing but rather stakes out a specific price point as resonating with consumers given their positioning. They then doggedly stick to it. Competitors tend to exploit open price points or try to position with specs on the same spots Apple occupies.
Apple doesn’t do anything based on what its competition does, including price. Apple’s products are priced fairly and at what consumers can afford, and are willing to pay. The proof is the 37 million iPhones, 15million iPads, 15 million iPods, and 5 million Macs the company sold last quarter.
RIM’s co-CEOs resigning
Priceless cartoon.
[Via DF]
Fender Mustang Floor multi-effects unit
Mustang Floor features include nine footswitches and a solid aluminum treadle-style control pedal, intuitive Mustang III control panel and LCD window, 12 amp models, 37 effects, 100 onboard factory and user presets, “individual stompbox” mode in which amp models can be bypassed, headphone output and auxiliary input, dual XLR and dual 1/4-inch line outputs with level control (outputs can be programmed for optimal response with PA system, power amp or guitar amp), chromatic tuner, and easy USB connectivity for high-quality low-latency audio output and interface with free Fender FUSE application.
ScoreCleaner offers live scoring for Mac
Notating music doesn’t get simpler, faster or more musical than with ScoreCleaner. After opening the software, simply connect your MIDi instrument and start playing. The piece you’ve played is notated in the “listening window”. Double click on it and ScoreCleaner converts it into notation, automatically detecting time signature, key, tempo, polyphony, smallest note value, and much more.
Doesn’t get any easier than that.
Apple’s growth rate is simply incredible… and it’s accelerating
ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Frommer:
There are plenty of impressive stats in Apple’s December quarter earnings report, such as 37 million iPhones shipped, $46 billion of overall sales, and $13 billion of profit.But Apple’s most impressive stat continues to be its growth rate: Apple is not only huge, but it is growing at a rate far greater than its peers. And, even more incredible, its growth rate is accelerating.
Keep that in mind. Apple has a huge amount of room to grow, whether it be in the PC, phone or tablet market.
NAMM music show sets new attendance record at over 95,000
At show close, NAMM reported 95,709 registered attendees, a six percent increase from last year and representing a new record for the 110-year-old show. International registration also experienced a 15 percent increase from last year to 11,981. The association previously reported strong exhibitor numbers, with 1,441 exhibitors at this year’s show, including 236 new exhibitors.
NAMM is a great show and I had a blast there last week. So many great new products for musicians and audio engineers from every major company in the music business.
More iOS devices sold in Q1 than all Android devices
Matt Richman:
On Apple’s earnings call, Tim Cook told analysts that Apple sold over 62 million iOS devices during the fourth quarter, which is about 4 percent more than all of the Android devices sold during the same time period.
Clearly Apple is screwed and Android is winning.
An interview with William Gibson
The Verge: William Gibson famously coined the term “cyberspace,” and gave us a singular vision of the future in early cyberpunk novels Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. During his recent book tour, he took time to talk about … Continued
The beard bobblehead
This is just amazing. Much respect to my friends at BAMM.tv for having this made up for me.
Updated ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth from space
From NASA: A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite – Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, … Continued
More details about open webOS emerge
Chris Ziegler for The Verge: Following up on its December announcement that it would open source the platform — a last-ditch effort to make it viable — HP has gone into detail today on exactly when and how developers will … Continued
Ron Johnson tries the Apple magic at JCPenney
Ken Segall’s Observatory: …it was a big blow to Apple when Ron left after 11 stellar years. And it was a big wow for JCPenney when Ron signed on as their new CEO. For many, Ron’s move was a disconnect. … Continued
Tim Cook on his first four months at Apple as CEO
AllThingD: Asked about his first four months as Apple chief executive, Tim Cook stressed that what he feels most is lucky to be surrounded by his talented colleagues. “You can see our results,” Cook said during a conference call with … Continued
Motorola seeks an injunction against iPhone 4S and iCloud
Foss Patents:
The latest hostility is a new lawsuit filed by Motorola Mobility, with green light from Google, in the Southern District of Florida, seeking an injunction against the iPhone 4S and the iCloud over a package of six patents previously asserted against older Apple products in the same court.
ToutApp email productivity for iOS
Sounds interesting. It lets you create templates on the Web site to use on the iPhone, track clicks and views and schedule emails.
Blizzard to skip BlizzCon this year
Looks like fans of Blizzard Entertainment, the game developer behind World of Warcraft, StarCraft II and the forthcoming Diablo III, will have to find some other way to celebrate their love for Blizzard games this year, because there won’t be … Continued