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Addictively playable with classic looks, Variax Standard gives you exceptional handcrafted quality—plus incredible Variax HD technology that puts it in a class of its own. Inspire your playing with a collection of the world’s most coveted vintage electrics, classic acoustics and exotic instruments. Switch up your tunings on the fly.

I had a chance to play one of these yesterday and it is truly a step above the Variax guitars of old. The problem I had with the older models was the digital artifacts that you heard in the models and when changing tunings. These guitars have regular magnetic pickups, so first and foremost, it is an electric guitar. All of the electronics can be turned off completely if you want to play it like that. When turned on, the electronics give the guitar something really special that you won’t find anywhere else, all with no artifacts.

BlackBerry:

neutrality must be mandated at the application and content layer if we truly want a free, open and non-discriminatory internet. All wireless broadband customers must have the ability to access any lawful applications and content they choose, and applications/content providers must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer’s mobile operating system.

What BlackBerry’s CEO is talking about is forcing companies like Apple to make their software available on BlackBerry’s devices and OS.

The CEO of BlackBerry has lost his mind.

The new service is expected run on Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks, two people familiar with the product say. Google is expected to reach deals to buy wholesale access to those carriers’ mobile voice and data networks, making it a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, they say.

I’m kind of ambivalent about this, to be honest. Google has never done a very good job selling phones, so I don’t know how they will make this work. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

Apple on Wednesday released a major update to Logic Pro X, the company’s professional digital audio workstation software. As part of the update, Apple also released a new version of Logic Remote, giving the software access to Logic or Audio Unit plug-in parameters and multi-touch gestures, as well as other changes. […]

In addition to VST plug-in format support, v6 includes a complete upgrade to the entire McDSP product line. New user interface features, faster loading times, and algorithm optimizations across all formats are just some of the improvements in the v6 release. Pro Tools users will appreciate v6 additions such as enhanced support for the Avid S6 and S3 control surfaces. Artist presets from the likes of Dave Pensado, Kevin Churko, Joe Barresi, and many others are also included.

This looks like a solid release from a great company.

Apple has acquired British startup Semetric, which runs the Musicmetric analytics tool, as part of its plans to relaunch its Beats Music streaming music service later in the year.

It will be fascinating to see what type of plan Apple has for Beats. Will it be integrated into iTunes as a technology, or will Beats get some Apple touch-ups and continue on as it is.

“It’s a fantastic product, an incredible achievement,” he said. “I’m not just living in the tradition and culture and the past, I also want to be connected to the future. The Apple Watch connects me to the future. My watch connects me to history, to eternity.”

Oh boy, this is going to be an interesting year.

iMore:

NBC will stream 11 continuous hours of live content on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1 to desktops and iPads. The “Super Stream Sunday” event will run from noon EST and to around 10 p.m. and include NBC’s pre-game coverage, Super Bowl XLIX itself, the halftime show, and the post-game show, and the episode of The Blacklist that will air following the game. The stream will take place through the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

That’s a lot of talking about football.

Apple captured a record 33 percent market share in South Korea in November, the highest ever for a foreign brand, according to a monthly report released by Hong Kong-based market research company Counterpoint on Wednesday. In contrast, Samsung’s share slipped to 46 percent after hovering around 60 percent for five months.

The quarterly iPhone numbers are going to be incredible.

It really does. You can’t buy advertising like that.

Jim and Shawn talk about quoting Steve Jobs, Google Glass, Mac magazines and NAMM!

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The Verge:

While Khan Academy has had an iOS app since 2012, it has typically not offered the full experience found on its website. All of its videos were available, but none of its thousands of training exercises were offered to iOS users.

That all changes today with the introduction of a completely redesigned app for the iPad — now, everything that lives on the site is also available to iPad users. That includes some 150,000 learning exercises.

I’ve checked out a few of the Khan Academy classes and am fairly impressed with them. A great tool for learning.

Vox:

Consumer Reports’ testing processes, scientific rigor, and commitment to independence are commendable. But it’s difficult to take them all in without asking an important question: does Consumer Reports have a future?

Even though I don’t completely trust Consumer Reports because of some of their tech and Apple coverage, their testing process makes for an interesting read.

Seth Clifford:

When Steve Jobs famously made that comment— the “if you see a stylus, they blew it” one—it’s pretty clear that he was talking about the general use cases involving touch screens and human interaction.

Latching on to the core of an single statement in its most literal sense prevents us from growing bigger and better ideas. To come back to the comment specifically, even if Apple decided “hey, you know what… maybe we were wrong about the stylus thing” it would likely be because it took the idea, observed how the world applied it and made a judgment call.

Requiring a stylus in order to use a device would be wrong. That’s what Jobs meant. But using a stylus for specific uses but not be required for that use is not a bad idea. It’s simply offering additional flexibility.

iMore:

Literally every time I work in the computer store, we’ll get a customer whose Mac is plagued with problems they don’t understand: Their Mac is acting slow. It crashes. And more. And in more cases than not, we find that they’ve installed a program called MacKeeper. Removing MacKeeper fixes the problem. So what is MacKeeper and why should you avoid it? Read on for details

It’s definitely “crapware” and the company’s tactics are sleazy. As Peter says, avoid and warn others.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with another report outlining his belief that Apple will launch a stylus as an optional accessory for the company’s rumored 12.9-inch “iPad Pro”. With the new iPad’s larger screen, it will likely prove popular with enterprise and creative users who tend to have more need for a stylus and Kuo believes Apple will fill that need with an in-house solution.

A stylus may work for creatives, but I think the using a finger will still be the preferred method for the majority of people.

SplashData has announced its annual list of the 25 most common passwords found on the Internet – thus making them the “Worst Passwords” that will expose anybody to being hacked or having their identities stolen. In its fourth annual report, compiled from more than 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year, “123456”and “password” continue to hold the top two spots that they have held each year since the first list in 2011. Other passwords in the top 10 include “qwerty,” “dragon,” and “football.”

Sweet Jesus, you deserve to be hacked.

Úll is a conference for people who build and love great products. We focus on great product businesses, presented through an Apple-shaped lens. We treat the conference itself as a product: with a deep emphasis on the attendee experience.

This is the best conference that I’ve ever attended and I’ll be speaking again this year. See you there!

“Samsung has been delaying the launch of this Tizen phone for a long time and when they finally did it, it turned out to be an under-powered phone,” said Mumbai-based filmmaker Samir Ahmed Sheikh as he shopped for a new phone for his wife.

The 3.15 megapixel primary camera and 300,000 pixel front camera are “like a phone from 2010”, he said.

Oh dear.

It’s designed for both novice and professional scrapbookers. iScrapbook manages the entire scrapbooking process from page design to album organization.

This looks like a fun app and the new update adds a ton of new features.

Profiler Remote is the quintessential foot controller for your Profiler. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time to create a versatile and yet easy to operate floor board. The tight integration in between Profiler and Remote allows you to control, administer and program without any knowledge about MIDI or delving through cryptic data sheets.

This is fantastic. I need to get me hands on the Kemper system and try it out.

Was this company started by ex-Samsung people?

Shares of Netflix shot up 12% in after-hours trade Monday, after the video streaming service reported a fourth-quarter profit that was well above expectations, and provided an upbeat outlook for net subscriber additions.

Great news, I really like Netflix.

The XDJ-RX, is a DJ console that incorporates two separate digital players, a mixer, and a built-in monitor. The uniquely designed DJ system is intended for users of the popular Pioneer rekordbox music management software, which enables DJs to quickly play prepared music stored on a USB device, eliminating the need to connect or carry a separate computer for use as a music source.

Fascinating.

Fender is planning on selling direct to customers and bypassing dealers:

Direct-to-consumer sales are expected to be a topic of intense discussion as buyers meet with Fender representatives. Some shop owners are so concerned that they plan to buy less merchandise from the manufacturer, said retailers, many of whom did not want to be named for fear that speaking publicly could damage relations with Fender.

Some are considering not re-upping as Fender dealers.

Guitars are one of those items that you really need to touch and feel to appreciate. I don’t think ordering online really works for buying a high-end guitar like a Strat or Tele. Fender is doing some damage here.

Six Colors:

Rogue Amoeba has announced the release of Audio Hijack 3, the successor to the venerable Mac sound utility Audio Hijack Pro. This is a huge update—the first major one for Audio Hijack in ten years—and so comprehensive that this feels more like a successor to the old Audio Hijack rather than a continuation.

Rogue Amoeba has always made good, high quality software especially on the audio side.

Re/code:

The key rule in evaluating the flood of new hardware and software that’s constantly being hawked at you is this: If you’re happy with what you already use, if it works well for you, don’t upgrade.

Yes, the tech industry employs a massive marketing machine to get you on the upgrade treadmill and keep you there, but you don’t have to do so. Resistance isn’t futile.

Lack of funds may have something to do with it but I no longer need to be the first to have all the latest and greatest software and hardware. If what I use works and the new version doesn’t offer tangible benefits, I’ll stick with what I have.

Macworld:

While the amount of stuff you need to protect has shrunk enormously in the last few years, with Facebook and Twitter encrypting by default, and Google and others upping their game, a VPN still buys you peace of mind.

A well written article from Fleishman. How many of you use VPN on a regular basis?

The Verge:

Maybe it’s a good thing that Amazon is so slowly rolling out the Echo to customers — you can only get it by invitation, and if you do so you should know what you’re getting into. Right now, once the honeymoon ends, I suspect most people will stop using the Echo for anything other than occasional music and podcast listening. After a few days of trying to come up with things to ask Alexa just for the fun of the thing, my Echo became mostly a slightly faster way to set a timer or do quick conversions while I cook. It’s great for those things, but those are small things.

Yet this is the future, I’m sure of it.

I think the Echo is an interesting product and likely points the way to the future. Whether the Echo is part of that future or not is debatable.