Yearly Archives: 2012

Tracking with Pro Tools

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Creating great sounding tracks all starts before you hit Record for the first downbeat. Does your DAW rise above latency distractions and deliver the best sound quality possible? Avid’s Tom Graham, Brian Carter, and Gil Gowing share their tips and insight into tracking and mixing a full rock trio—during the actual recording session—using a host-based Pro Tools|HD Native system and ICON D-Control.

Steve Jobs honored in star studded Webbys tribute

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Mashable:

Steve Jobs may have built Apple into the world’s most valuable technology company in part by betting against the web. But global celebrities and some of the Internet’s brightest stars joined together to create a heartfelt tribute video honoring the legendary entrepreneur during Monday night’s Webby Awards in New York City.

Barack Obama, Bono and Sarah Silverman were among roughly a dozen celebrities and political figures to appear in the video thanking Jobs for his company’s role in changing the technology world and everyday life for millions upon millions of digitally savvy consumers.

Dell sucks balls; stock drops 12%

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Dell posted first quarter sales, earnings, second quarter revenue guidance — you name it — well short of expectations Tuesday, sending shares of the Round Rock, Texas technology company were down more than 12% in after-hours trading.

Maybe they could bring back the Streak.

The iPhone screen

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Chuck Remington for 9to5Mac:

Both of these phones sport a new, larger display that is 3.95 inches diagonally. Apple will not just increase the size of the display and leave the current resolution, but will actually be adding pixels to the display. The new iPhone display resolution will be 640 x 1136. That’s an extra 176 pixels longer of a display. The screen will be the same 1.94 inches wide, but will grow to 3.45 inches tall. This new resolution is very close to a 16:9 screen ratio, so this means that 16:9 videos can play full screen at their native aspect ratio.

More thoughts on a larger screen iPhone

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Will Hains:

So, how hard it is for developers does not factor in Apple’s decision here. Rather, decisions are based on the resulting product; and then Apple works on making the transition as smooth as possible within that constraint. “Do I want this to happen?” is a different question to “Will it happen?”

I don’t agree with everything in this post, but the middle section is a good read.

Misquoted

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Fred Wilson:

The new media world has its pros and cons. The pros are that I’ve got a blog to set the record straight and that everybody is recording everything. The negatives are that bloggers don’t feel compelled to write accurate headlines and twitter can amplify the inaccuracies when those headlines get tweeted and retweeted.

Tivo streaming to your iPad and iPhone

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The IP set-top box works with the TiVo Premiere Q, a home’s primary gateway device, to give consumers access to live and recorded TV, operator VOD, plus broadband-delivered content on every TV in the house. This is delivered through the innovative TiVo experience consumers have come to know and love. It includes integrated MoCA to simplify home networking and multi-room applications.TiVo Stream seamlessly delivers the content available on a consumer’s TiVo Premiere or Premiere Q DVR to alternative screens such as iPads and iPhones. Unlike similar offerings in the market, this is the first product to enable streaming or download of shows simultaneously to multiple portable devices without interrupting what’s playing on the television. The power of TiVo Stream enables users to quickly transfer shows to their mobile device for viewing outside the home.

A conversation with Kickstarter’s founder

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Om Malik:

When I see Kickstarter I don’t see a company. Instead, I see a social movement. I see people doing things for people. I think of Kickstarter as a reflection of me, which is why I engage with it.

That’s what so interesting about Kickstarter — the projects succeed or fail based on public support.

Apple’s Ping

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Adam Haworth:

We all know Ping is kind of shit. Well, not kind of. It is shit. But I’ve been thinking recently (dangerous, I know) and I reckon there are a few ways that it can be rescued. Apple’s failed attempt at “social” is not dead yet.

I don’t think Apple knows what to do with Ping. That seems clear because users don’t know what to do with it either. I don’t know that a separate app is the way to go because social networking and sharing is such an impulsive decision — it almost has to be done on the spot.

GraphicConverter 8 now available

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Lemkesoft has released GraphicConverter 8.0, a major new release for the graphic conversion and editing utility. This latest version adds support for 64-bit Intel-based Macs and new batch processing capabilities among many other additions.

GraphicConverter 8.0 is a free update for owners of GraphicConverter 7, but is a paid upgrade of $29.95 for users with versions 1 through 6. If you’ve never bought it before – and you should – it’s $39.95.

Instrument tuning tips for better recordings

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Daniel Keller for Universal Audio:

While you’ve been working hard and paying attention to the songs, the parts, the sounds, and all the other big-picture stuff, maybe something’s just ever so slightly out of tune. I’m not talking about the really obvious slightly sharp high E string on the rhythm guitar; sometimes it’s the subtle stuff that makes all the difference.

Nothing like an out of tune instrument to kill recording.

Student’s $675,000 penalty for sharing 30 songs upheld

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The Supreme Court has refused to hear a Boston University student’s constitutional challenge to a $675,000 penalty for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet, but his lawyer says there’s still a chance the amount could be reduced.

Apple files for immediate U.S. ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1

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Florian Mueller:

Apple’s motion is fairly likely to succeed. If and when it does, there will be formal U.S. bans in place against all three of the leading Android device makers.

That’s what happens when you steal from your competitors.

What’s the deal with Comic Sans?

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“Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft, I received a beta version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman.”

Developers on the potential larger iPhone screen

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Erica Ogg:

But what do the developers who will have to deal with the implications of a larger screen think? I talked to a few iOS app makers, and interestingly, many of them are not convinced Apple would actually “pull an Android,” as one developer put it, and make it more complicated to design for a bunch of different screen sizes (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4/4S and something new).

Animated 3D bar charts with CSS3

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The initial challenge was to create a classic semi-transparent 3D box with 6 sides. The final challenge was to create a complete 3D bar chart which we will create in this tutorial.

So much better than plain images or using JavaScript.

Pantone unveils 336 new colors

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The 336 New Colors enrich the current PLUS SERIES palette, providing a more comprehensive selection. All color families are extended to include a wider variety of values, saturation and undertones – from subtle pastels and reliable mid-tones to the intensity of deep tones, vivid brights and vital, nuanced neutrals.

Apple, Samsung CEOs set for U.S. court talks

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Reuters:

The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd are used to running the show at their global tech empires, but they will be in for a different experience when they arrive at a San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday.Apple’s Tim Cook and Samsung’s Choi Gee-sung, whose companies are embroiled in bitter patent litigation, have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for court-supervised mediation. A joint court filing in April said that “as directed by the Court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate” in the discussions. In other words, it was not exactly their idea.

I wonder if the judge will make them hug it out?

How to safely observe Sunday’s solar eclipse

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Space.com:

Solar eclipses such as annular eclipse on Sunday can be treacherous for the inexperienced. A ring (“annulus”) of the sun’s disk remains in view even at the moment of maximum coverage by the moon. Your eye’s iris will be fooled by the relative darkness of the moon’s silhouette. But dangerous direct sunlight appears around the edges and can hurt you badly without precautions.Experienced eclipse chasers watching a total solar eclipse will have a short time — during totality only — when they may view the eclipse directly. Don’t try this unless you are with someone who has done it before and can still see. But don’t try it at all under Sunday’s annular solar eclipse.If you’re planning to watch a solar eclipse or look for sunspots, what is the proper optical filter material for sun-watching?

Big hoary audacious game plan

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Om Malik on Facebook back in the day:

when asked how the company will make money, Mark apparently said the company isn’t currently focused on monetization and will be looking to extend their platform’s reach. He doesn’t have to – if Facebook Connect works, the money will follow.

Best beards in rock

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Rolling Stone has a picture gallery of the best beards in rock. Is Jim’s beard included?