Federico Viticci:
With iOS 7, Apple has introduced the possibility for third-party developers to support custom shortcuts with external (Bluetooth) keyboards in their apps. Keyboard shortcuts, longtime favorites of OS X power users, can now be enabled in iOS apps.
IK Multimedia added to its arsenal of music equipment on Thursday with the release of iLoud, a product the company bills as “the first studio-quality portable speaker designed for musicians and audiophiles.” That’s a lot to live up to with one product—luckily, I got one of the early units, so I had some time to try it out.
I’ll be honest with you—I’ve tried these types of speakers before1 and haven’t been very impressed. In fact, it didn’t take much to make the speakers of other units distort before they reached a very loud volume. This makes them virtually useless to me.
However, that’s not what happened with the iLoud.
The iLoud allows you to plug in your guitar, connect an iPhone or iPad via the headphone jack, or connect your device over Bluetooth, so it has lots of options.
Before I even plugged my guitar into the iLoud, I connected my iPhone via Bluetooth and turned on A Pale Horse Named Death. With the bands heavy bass, I figured I could distort the speakers with the first song and be done with it. I was wrong.
When the song started playing, I sat back and smiled. The song wasn’t just loud, it was clear. The bass was pumping through, heavy guitars were screaming and there was no distortion whatsoever. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
I tried a number of other songs and bands, in a variety of genres, with the same results. It just sounded really good.
The other part of the iLoud that sets it apart is that you can plug your guitar into the device. IK Multimedia made this so simple, it’s amazing.
iLoud comes with an iRig circuit built-in. So, you plug your guitar into the iLoud with a 1/4-inch cable; plug the 1/8-inch cable from the iLoud to the headphone jack of your iOS device and you’re done.
iLoud doesn’t output your guitar to the speakers, instead it outputs it to the iOS device. With amp software, like AmpliTube or Ampkit, running on the iPhone or iPad, you get a guitar’s amplified signal back through the iLoud speakers.
This too was a great sound, although you do have to play around with the amp settings and gain controls to get the sound you want. To be clear, that’s no different from using any other amp software or device.
On the back panel, iLoud has an 1/8-inch jack, a 1/4-inch jack, gain control, Bluetooth pairing button and an on/off switch. The power adapter also charges the battery, which takes about 2 hours. On the front, the iLoud has one big volume knob and nothing else—just what you need.
iLoud easily fit into my gig bag and backpack. It’s very easy to transport, although you will notice the extra weight.
I had no problems with the iLoud, although the 1/8-inch cable included with the unit seemed to be faulty. It didn’t work at first and when I jiggled it, there was noise and static. I tried it on my iPhone 5s and iPad Air with the same result. It finally did work, but I did my best not to move it around.
Besides the small cable issue, I loved the iLoud. It delivers clear music playback and allows a simple connection of a microphone or guitar to the unit. The built-in iRig circuit is perfect for musicians and allows you to connect to iOS devices to amplify your guitar signal.
Admittedly, I haven’t tried any with so many features. ↩
Pretty good.
Love lists. Always fascinating to see what other people think of as scary. To me, the scariest books are the early works of Clive Barker and almost anything by H. P. Lovecraft.
Designed by an MIT research team, the so-called “seat-e” is a public bench that provides a range of services:
Installed recently at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, each of these two sleek, backless benches has a solar panel on one side to provide power to recharge cellphones, a connection to the Internet, and for night lighting. Soon they also will have sensors to detect for air pollution — even telling whether someone nearby is smoking.
Love this.
So the Winnipeg Jets played the Chicago Blackhawks last night when Chicago’s Brandon Bolling checked the Jets’ Adam Pardy into the boards. A loose piece of plexiglas popped out and Pardy went into the stands. What happened next is hilarious.
I fucking love hockey.
This is amazing. This effort bridges the gap between sign languages such as ASL and spoken/written language. Watch the video. Brilliant.
Traditionally, if you brought your damaged iPhone in to an Apple Store for repair, they would have to give you a brand new (to you, at least) phone, then send your damaged phone out for repair or recycling.
According to 9to5 Mac (see the headline link), that process has changed for the iPhone 5c and 5s.
> Apple is gearing up to soon begin hardware repairs for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in its chain of retail stores, according to sources with knowledge of the upcoming initiative. These sources say that Apple Stores will be able to replace several parts of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on-site, meaning that Apple will no-longer need to fully replace iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units with damage or other problems… > > The sources say that Apple will be providing its stores with special machinery, which you can learn more here on how to get it fixed when necessary, to replace the touchscreens on both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. These machines will be used specifically to calibrate the displays. The screen replacements cost $149 for each device, and this price point is significantly more affordable than the several-hundred dollars required to completely replace a device with a damaged/cracked screen. > > In addition to displays, Apple will have the capability to replace the volume buttons, vibrating motor, rear-camera, and speaker system on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Apple Stores will be able to replace the conventional Home button on the iPhone 5c, but it does not appear that Apple will be able to conduct swaps for the Touch ID-based button on the iPhone 5s
This is good news all around. Better for the environment, and a potentially cheaper and faster path for an out of warranty problem with your phone.
This is the group that runs the Wayback Machine. As you’d expect, their data is all online, so the data loss was limited to documents that were in the scanning center. But they are a non-profit and the fire damage is substantial.
An early estimate shows we may have lost about $600,000 worth of high end digitization equipment, and we will need to repair or rebuild the scanning building. It is in difficult times like these that we turn to our community.
Here’s a link to the blog post describing the fire. Consider making a donation.
A pair of Google Inc employees involved with the internet company’s security systems have publicly lashed out at the National Security Agency, with one of the employees accusing the organization of subverting the law by intercepting communications on cables linking Google’s various data centers.
Many people have been concerned about the features removed from the latest version of iWork. Apple posted a support note detailing the features that will return in the next six months.
Much respect little man.
As Jim (and many others) reported yesterday, Apple has published a transparency document, detailing governmental requests seeking information about individual users or devices.
At the very end of the main body of the report are these two sentences:
Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.
As stated in the linked article, if Apple is ever served with a Section 215 order, they will not (unless they are granted some relief) be able to publicly discuss that fact. But, if Apple continues to publish transparency reports, the sentences quoted above will obviously be left out. A bit of a canary in a coal mine. Good move, Apple.
I will definitely get some use from this.
So very good. Lyrics are ever so slightly NSFW. But they are in German. Turn on captions if you want to know what they are saying.
Dr. Karl Ulrich, Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School, is an ice cream scoop collector. He turned his attention to designing the perfect scoop, and I think he got it right.
Twitter is about to go public. This is an easily digestible walkthrough of the IPO process.
Thoughtful analysis on the nature of Samsung’s smartphone sales.
In a meeting with its concerned investors on Wednesday, the head of Samsung Mobile revealed numbers illustrating that the company sold fewer high end smartphones than Apple this year, and that only about a third of the company’s total “smartphone” shipments are of a class really comparable to the iPhone.
This is a problem for Samsung. They are seeing the beginning of market saturation for their high-end smartphones, are relying on older/lesser model sales to bolster revenues. With minimal exceptions, all of Apple’s phone sales are high-end smartphones. And that’s where the margins are. Hard for Samsung to keep this going, especially without making inroads on battery life and processing power (still no 64-bit devices).
Lots to absorb, worth a read.
Wired:
Thor’s hammer Mjölnir would be the most badass weapon in comicdom even if its name didn’t sound like a Norwegian black metal band. But Marvel would have us believe that the hammer is also the god of thunder’s primary mode of transportation, and that is an unforgivable crime against the laws of physics. So we’re supposed to believe that he spins it, hurls it, and then hitches a ride on it? It’s like these people have never heard of the law of conservation of momentum!
By all means, watch the video but, and I’ve never said this before, make sure you read the comments section for the absolute nerd-gasm that is going on.
We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world.
There has been some confusion about how you access the additional content in GarageBand for iOS and Mac. Today, Apple posted two helpful articles explaining what content comes with the apps by default and the steps you need to take to download the extras. It’s worth reading both the iOS and Mac support articles.
Expanding GarageBand for Mac (v10.0) content with an in-app purchase
Expanding GarageBand for iOS 2.0 content with an in-app purchase
Speaking of Warren DeMartini, Charvel has a Q&A with him posted on their site. I especially like the part about Warren and Jake E. Lee:
Imagine this: We’re both hanging out in the middle of the night watching a crappy TV with bad reception, sitting on the floor with our backs against the couch. I’m chipping away at the chords to “Round and Round,” and he’s chipping away at the chords to “Bark at the Moon.” We had no idea where those songs would take us.
Indeed.
NBC News:
The cameras strapped to the skydivers’ helmets were supposed to memorialize their perfectly timed jumps and exhilarating descent from two small planes to the earth 12,000 feet below.
When I first read about this story, it sounded like a headline out of The Onion.
I love Charvel guitars. It’s one of the few guitars that I’ve wanted, but never owned. Christmas is coming though.
Need is a monthly retailer and lifestyle magazine for the modern, discerning man. Each month, Need curates and sells an extremely limited quantity of items — including clothing, literature, furniture, artwork, alcohol, coffee, and so forth — whilst also commissioning independent journalism, photography, video, and so forth.
My good friend Matt Alexander launched his new company today. Looks good Matt, congratulations!
The Verge:
“It succeeded in every possible way,” said Jason Eberle, who built the web version of Everpix, “except for the only way that matters.”
Interesting story on the life and death of a beloved but little used startup company.
Om Malik:
Twitter is making its debut on the public markets and with that the fortunes of its founders, employees and many of its investors will change. As it crosses into adulthood, Twitter and its new owners need to remember this one thing — Twitter is us!
Sage advice from Om.
Lex Friedman asked me to participate in this story for Macworld. My desktop is usually a mess.
Apple is repurposing this First Solar facility to create sapphire glass:
Apple will build a new 700-employee manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, to make sapphire glass, according to releases from the State of Arizona and GT Advanced, a New Hampshire-based materials manufacturing company. Apple purchased the vacant manufacturing building from First Solar, and has contracted with GT Advanced to “own and operate furnaces and related equipment” at the facility.
Question is, how will Apple use sapphire glass. An alternative to Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for smart-phones? As a crystal for a smart-watch? Time will tell.