Yearly Archives: 2015

LOL.

Just like its predecessor, the new iRig 2 plugs directly into the mini jack input of a mobile device. It lets musicians send an instrument signal to apps, such as IK’s AmpliTube, while also providing on-board output for real-time monitoring.

iRig 2 now comes with gain control, which lets users precisely adjust the input gain of their instrument to match their mobile device. This means that it can be customized to always provide the best sound, no matter what type of guitar, bass or line-level instrument or device is used.

Its new 1/4″ amplifier output, in addition to its traditional 1/8″ headphone output, allows iRig 2 to be plugged directly into a guitar amplifier or powered speakers without an adaptor. This helps to keep all cable connections tidy and organized.

A new FX/THRU switch allows iRig 2 to send either a wet or dry signal through the device. This means that guitarists can play live with an amplifier and use their mobile device with a tuner app, such as IK’s UltraTuner, or a recording app, such as IK’s iRig Recorder, to record a dry signal for further processing.

I’ve been an IK Multimedia user for many years. From the Mac to my iOS devices, the company’s software and hardware has always been close to my guitars and ready to go. I’ve been playing around with the iRig 2 and like what I’ve seen so far, especially with the option to adjust the input gain and go out to an amp or speaker. I’ll have a more full-featured review in the coming weeks.

Website advertisement companies have found a way to circumvent the protections introduced in iOS 8 to stop users from being kicked to the App Store because of certain cleverly-coded JavaScript advertisements.

Ugh, watch the video. This would drive me crazy.

Cameron Moll:

I don’t know what to expect of Meerkat’s viability, permanence, or lasting utility. But if the hype is any indication, they’re ripe for acquisition. They’re also ripe for lawsuits and traditional media backlash, e.g. live-broadcasting televised events.

I feel like we are all in the same boat as Cameron with respect to Meerkat. We’re all fascinated, but we don’t know where it’s going yet.

Neil Hughes, reporting for AppleInsider, quoted an analyst saying the price would be $30 and $40 per month.

A key factor in pricing, of course, is exactly what channels Apple’s service would offer. Reports have suggested that Apple is in talks with broadcast networks ABC, CBS and Fox, as well as other cable networks owned by Viacom and Discovery, though apparently talks have stalled with Comcast-owned NBC.

Of course, the stations are an important factor, but just as important are the hoops—or lack thereof—that I have to jump through. I don’t want commercials, I want to be able to fast forward and rewind, I want it all in HD, and I want to be able to watch an entire series anytime my little heart desires, on any device I desire. I understand that a new, ongoing series will come out on a weekly basis, and I’m okay with that.

If I can get something usable, I’d subscribe in a heartbeat.

This sounds pretty handy if you have to test your new design.

Jim, Shawn and Dave talk about fitness, Steve Jobs, Apple rumors and riffing on the guitar!

Sponsored by lynda.com. (Start learning something new in 2015 by visiting the link to get a 10-day free trial and access their 2400+ courses)

I love watching Eddie play.

One major corporate user has banned Android devices on its network. “We simply cannot cope with managing the plethora of Android devices and apps on our network. We are happy to support iOS 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x – and apps from their stores but that is it!” This company uses a Symantec mobile management suite to control personally owned devices as well as access to company data and email.

There is no word on who the users is, but we do know that fragmentation has been a problem in the past. The fact that older versions of Android are not updated, and older devices can’t update to the newest version of the OS, causes some concern.

Apple has removed the award-winning healthy eating app The Whole Pantry from the App Store and its featured Apple Watch apps page amid allegations that its creator Belle Gibson committed fraud, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The report states that Gibson is accused of making false claims about her cancer diagnosis and failing to donate thousands of dollars collected during fundraisers to charities.

This is just awful in every possible way.

Under the final judgement, Comcast must treat online video services as essentially equal to cable companies. Comcast is required to give those services access to the same NBCUniversal content that it sells to cable providers, under the same terms and conditions.

Additionally, if an online video service strikes a deal with one of NBC’s peers — such as CBS — Comcast is obligated to license “comparable” content at “economically comparable” rates. For example, if Apple’s new service were to carry first-run CBS programming, Comcast must makes its own first-run programming available at roughly the same rates as those negotiated between Apple and CBS.

It looks like there is some leeway there, but I didn’t realize the details of Comcast’s deal to buy NBC. That will piss them off.

I will be getting this book.

CBC:

Liam English lost some moose meat, and quite a bit of it.

English, who was home in St. John’s last week for a family funeral, decided to stock up on about 11 kilograms of moose meat to bring back to Ottawa.

Before heading to the airport on Sunday, English put the meat in a hard shell suitcase, along with a brand-new suit and other personal belongings. However, when he arrived at the airport in Toronto, where he had a four-hour layover before a connecting flight to Ottawa, his luggage was nowhere to be seen.

“I had four moose roasts, four moose steaks, three packs of ground moose and four packs of moose sausages,” he told CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show on Wednesday.

You’ve heard of “First World Problems”? This is definitely a Newfie Problem.

Mike Ramsey for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Musk has said Tesla plans to be the first company to offer customers an autopilot feature. “I think we will be the leader in autonomous cars that you can actually buy,” he said.

I still don’t know how I feel about this, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Musk be the first to market.

It looks really easy and you can even use it on iOS with Touch ID.

As a response, Meerkat plans to introduce new tools for discovering people, Rubin said.

Twitter “escalated our decision-making a little bit forward,” the CEO said. “We need to provide users a way to discover more people and search more people.”

This is going to get really interesting. I’ve never seen so many people as excited about a new tech in such a short time as I’ve seen with Meerkat.

Google was wrong to let expectations about its Glass wearable gadget get overheated, the head of the Google X research lab said on Tuesday.

Google made a lot of mistakes with Glass. However, don’t forget that Tony Fadell, the man who made the iPod and founded Nest after leaving Apple, is now in charge of Google Glass.

The jury deliberated for about five hours before delivering its verdict on Monday night. The company, whose patents were originally held by Nokia Corp, was seeking $100 million in damages at trial. It said it was entitled to a portion of Apple’s device sales, and of similar, future devices. Apple pegged damages, if any, at less than $1 million.

The jury also rejected Apple’s claim that Core Wireless breached its obligation to license its patents, which are considered essential in the industry, on fair and non-discriminatory terms.

So what happens to these patents now? Apple basically said it would be happy paying under $1 million, but the jury said they had to pay nothing. Are the patents worthless? Oh the patent system is so confusing.

I think it’s good that Google has an app review process—at least it can slow down the wild west of apps on its store. Ratings are always a plus too.

I’ve only tried the Zagg and a Logitech, but there are a few other interesting ones on the list.

In each of these polls, more than 40 percent of the voters said they were not getting an iPad. Five years on, and Apple has sold more than 200 million of them. A simple majority might not be shockingly impressive, but it is absolutely overwhelming when scaled to the global population. Keep that in mind as you check out the next set of polls, which asks readers to chime in on whether or not they’ll be purchasing Apple Watch when it launches at the end of next month.

Abdel Ibrahim nailed this one.

Twitter is cutting off Meerkat’s ability to port people’s social networks over from Twitter to its own service — the so-called social graph. That means when new users come on board, they will no longer be automatically connected to the other people they are already following on Twitter. This comes not long after Twitter purchased a competing live-streaming service, Periscope, and just as the South by Southwest festival is getting underway in Austin.

No surprise.

Ireland is definitely on my bucket list of places to visit. I have a weakness for Irish whiskey, beer and women.

CBC News:

Vancouver is the best place to live in North America, according to Mercer’s latest Quality of Living Rankings.

The top ranking for 2015 went to Vienna, followed by Zurich, Auckland and Munich.

Vancouver was followed by Toronto at 15, and Ottawa at 16. The highest ranking U.S. cities trail behind with San Francisco at 27, Boston at 34 and Honolulu coming in at 36.

Vancouver, like most “world class” cities, is insanely expensive to live in, has its own host of big city problems and has difficulties resolving “what it wants to be” but there’s no doubt it deserves inclusion on lists like these. What I found interesting, when you look at the entire list, is how high many European cities rank and how low many other world class cities, like New York and Tokyo are – they didn’t make the top 35.

The New York Times:

On cliffs where even elite climbers employ complicated rope systems, the free-soloist wears only shorts, a T-shirt, a pair of climbing shoes and a bag of gymnast’s chalk to keep the hands dry.

Honnold has free-soloed the longest, most challenging climbs ever, including the 2,500-foot northwest face of Half Dome in Yosemite Valley, where some of the handholds are so small that no average climber could cling for an instant, roped or otherwise. Most peculiar of all, even to elite rock climbers, Honnold does this without apparent fear, as if falling were not possible.

I’ve read a bunch of stories about this guy and watched dozens of videos. He absolutely fascinates me and every time I watch a video, I literally get queasy watching him free solo these mountain faces. He’s truly amazing.

CreativeLive asked eight Photoshop experts to use Photoshop 1.0—the results are hilarious.