The next wave of iOS apps

Written by

Erica Ogg for GigaOM:

Snapguide and Paper have two things in common. Both appeal to the creative side of mobile users, and both are themselves beautifully made and deceptively simple to use.I think it’s these qualities that are going to provide a roadmap for more iOS apps to come that will appeal to the artsy, creative side of people, rather than the traditional consumption-oriented theme of what have so far been the most popular types of apps on Apple’s platform.

Absolutely right. We’ve gone through several of these waves of apps from productivity to games and every time developers start to push the envelope of what can be done, we get another one. Creativity looks to be the wave.

BlackBerry party ends after man is stabbed in the neck

Written by

Mark Hattersley for Macworld UK:

BlackBerry’s woes continue after a celebrity party, thrown by the company last night to celebrate BBM, ended in a vicious stabbing that forced police to lock celebrities inside the club and BlackBerry to cancel the event.

I could make a joke like maybe someone threw an iPhone into the crowd, but out of respect for the person that was injured, I won’t.

iPhone vs. anything

Written by

Om Malik:

The non iOS devices for me are purely for academic purposes and to keep up with the devices, trends and apps.

And there you have it in one neat sentence.

Google hates Feedburner

Written by

Doug Stephen:

My feed is served up via Feedburner. Feedburner is another Google property, but it seems that it’s been mostly abandoned. They were working on a new, more Google-like interface a while back but they have seemingly abandoned it what with the Beta for this interface being gone. It’s too bad that Google has seemingly lost interest in Feedburner, because it’s an awesome service for RSS feed analytics.

I’ve had nothing but trouble with Feedburner. Actually, everyone I’ve ever talked to has had nothing but bad things to say about Feedburner.

Some CNN stupid

Written by

Clyde Prestowitz for CNN:

As a business, Apple has a right to fear that moving the assembly work from China to the United States will entail raising labor costs so high as to make the company less competitive and profitable. But for it to say that it has no obligation to help solve America’s problems is completely unacceptable.

The problems in the U.S. economy are not for Apple to resolve. They pay taxes — I’m sure they pay a lot of taxes — and they employ tens of thousands of Americans in high paying jobs.

Apple is not a charity, nor should it make business decisions based on a country’s needs or wants. Apple has one financial responsibility — to make money for its shareholders.

Instead of giving trillions in bailout money to companies that have been mismanaged, why not use that money to make doing business in America more attractive.

BlackBook: Server based contact management

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BlackBook is your new company-wide address book. All users in your company can access these contacts, allowing for an easier flow of information between employees. From the BlackBook Server, you can control who can read contact information, edit contacts, and export/share contacts. And each user can set categories for easy sorting by contact type.

The company says with its built-in cardDAV server, you can get the contacts on your iOS device too.

The amazing history of beards

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Huffington Post: Interestingly enough, the study found that of women with minimal pop culture exposure, the majority surveyed find men to be less attractive when sporting a full face of hair. However, this same group of women also perceived bearded … Continued

Understanding a camera’s ISO setting

Written by

Dave Johnson for Macworld:

I get a lot of questions about ISO—many photographers don’t seem to understand exactly what it does. Your camera’s ISO control determines how sensitive the camera’s sensor is to light. On most cameras, ISO starts at 100 and goes up from there; the higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor will be.

When photographers talk to me about things like this I imagine it’s like when I talk to them about my amp settings. However, this is a good article to help you get your head around ISO and what it means for your photos.

Become a guitar God with a new plug-in [Joke]

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This came out for April Fools, but I’m not much of an April Fools guy, so I didn’t post it. However, it’s so good, I had to let everyone see it.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and play the video. It’s hilarious.

Loop recording in Pro Tools 10

Written by

Mike Watkinson for MacProVideo:

In this article we shall look more closely at the management of takes you have captured on a single playlist, and also how to manage multiple playlists and use them for editing composite takes.

Loop recording is a powerful tool if you know how to properly manage all of the takes. This article gives you some practical tips.

Android depends on iOS apps and developers

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I don’t know what happened here. But I can state the facts. As much as it hurts for Android loyals, they depend on iOS first apps. And that’s a shame.

Apple has been leading the way in hardware and software innovation for the past five years. It’s not too much of a surprise that developers try their apps on iOS first.

AirPrint

Written by

Shawn Blanc:

If you don’t own an AirPrint-enabled printer, yet you want to print from your iPhone or iPad, you will need to install a 3rd-party app. But, which one? I found that with certain 3rd-party apps you get additional functionality and benefits beyond just being able to print from your iPhone.

RIM launches software to accommodate Apple users

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Research In Motion on Tuesday launched software that enables its large “enterprise” customers to manage Apple and other rival devices through the same servers as they use for the BlackBerry smartphone and Playbook tablet.

Translation: You win.

SpamSieve 2.9

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I used SpamSieve for years and loved it. The only reason I stopped is because I started doing spam filtering on the server.

Weather 2x

Written by

I really like the interface of this app.

James Bond ditches martinis for Heineken

Written by

CNN:

Ad Age reports that Craig’s tougher, darker Bond will star in an upcoming Heineken ad, which will do double duty as promotion for the upcoming James Bond flick “Skyfall.” “Skyfall” director Sam Mendes will direct the commercial as well.

Trying to be more like the beard are we Mr. Bond. Pfft.

92-year-old is New York’s oldest cabbie

Written by

New York Post:

Over his storied career behind the wheel, he’s ferried movie stars such as John Wayne and Rock Hudson, suffered countless bad tippers — and tolerated passengers getting frisky in his back seat. Well, until the new hybrids arrived.

Imagine the stories he could tell.

[Via NextDraft]

Readability foul

Written by

Ben Brooks has been all over this Readability debate. Another interesting read.

Mid-side recording basics

Written by

Universal Audio:

But while XY microphone recording is the most obvious method, it’s not the only game in town. The Mid-Side (MS) microphone technique sounds a bit more complex, but it offers some dramatic advantages over standard coincident miking. If you’ve never heard of MS recording, or you’ve been afraid to try it, you’re missing a powerful secret weapon in your recording arsenal.

I love using this technique to record.

Oh balls

Written by

Matt Burns and his article “It’s Time To Believe In RIM And The BlackBerry Again”:

RIM is beaten and laying on the floor. Together, Apple and Google knocked out the champ. Since then, they’ve started fighting each other, seemingly ignoring RIM as regains his strength. He might take another blow from time to time, but with a renewed focus he should stay on his feet from here on out. After years of savage beatings, he’s like the honey badger now and just doesn’t care.

At best, this article is misguided.

British MPs may get iPads

Written by

BBC News:

Announcing its recommendation, Sir Alan Haselhurst, chairman of the committee, said the trial had cut MPs’ costs by “several thousand pounds” as they could circulate information electronically rather than in hard copy.