Apple is now accepting iPad apps for a “grand opening” of the iPad App Store, according to an email just sent to registered developers.
“iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today,” the email says.
There’s no details about when the store’s grand [...]
Tech site H-Online has an interesting story today, quoting security expert Charlie Miller about his forthcoming talk at the CanSecWest conference next week.
He says OS X is full of security holes. There are lots more than in Windows, he claims.
And yet: OS X is a safer system to use. Why? Because, in the words [...]
If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it.
What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor?
This is one of those “Here’s to the [...]
Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the [...]
Full category list for displayed posts: Music, iPhone Apps
9:53 pm, March 17th, 2010, Eli Milchman
BeatMaker, one of the apps Tom Freeman used to produce his mix album. Photo: Tom Freeman
Last week we reported on a director who shot a music video using only three iPhones. Now, Tom Freeman brings an all-iPhone production to the arena of sound with the release of his electronic soundscape, iMatik.
Posted by Eli Milchman in Music, iPhone Apps | 5 Comments »
2:34 pm, March 16th, 2010, Leander Kahney
A 50-inch multitouch screen from Samsung shown off at CES in 2009. These devices will soon be common, according to a visionary, 20-year-old report from Xerox PARC. Image: Engadget.
Way back in 1991, just as Apple was transitioning from 68k to PowerPC chips, the braniacs at Xerox PARC were predicting it’s entire iPod, iPhone and iPad strategy. And next up for the iPad is a blackboard-sized device.
Nearly 20 years ago, just as personal desktop computers were taking off, researchers at Xerox started thinking about the next stage: ubiquitous computers and the cloud.
They envisioned a range of always-connected devices that came in three basic form-factors: Tabs, Pads, and Boards. They are described thus in a Scientific American article:
“Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes, each suited to a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a book or a magazine), and yard-scale displays that are the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin board.”
The inch-scale “tabs” are Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, plus smartphones from Google and Palm. The foot-scale “pads” are the iPad and the 50-odd tablets coming out this year. And next up are yard-scale “boards,” which will act a big-screen hubs in the home and interactive workspaces in the office. Microsoft’s Surface table is the best current example, but more big-screen devices are inevitable as component prices come down thanks to the flat-screen TV industry.
What’s amazing is how twenty years later PARC’s vision describes Apple’s transition into a “mobile” company with a range of devices accessing the cloud. It’s fitting that the vision that should come for the same lab that invented more-or-less personal desktop computing.
Via Adam Rosen: Ubiquitous Computing 2010 – Tabs, Pads, Books and Clouds.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Apple Tablet, Music, Tablet, Top stories, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch | 5 Comments »
3:27 pm, March 10th, 2010, Eli Milchman
Drums are awesome; there’re few things as satisfying as making sounds by thumping something with a stick — even if that stick is virtual. Now, for a buck, the iPhone can be turned into a virtual museum of virtual drums, thanks to Vintage Drum by developer OutOfTheBit.
Posted by Eli Milchman in Music, Reviews, iPhone Apps | No Comments »
6:00 am, March 4th, 2010, Leander Kahney
Music Professor David Cope with Emily Howell, a music AI that runs on a Power Mac 7500. Photo courtesy of Catherine Karnow.
The world’s most advanced music AI runs on a rickety old Power Mac 7500.
Called Emily Howell by its creator, music professor David Cope, the program just released “her” first album, From Darkness, Light, in January.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Hardware, Macintosh, Music, News, Top stories, Vintage Tech | 7 Comments »
9:32 am, March 3rd, 2010, Giles Turnbull
Folks, let me tell you a secret: I sing. I sing all the damn time. It’s a good job I work at home all by myself, because if I worked in an office I’d drive my colleagues crazy by singing at them all the time.
And since the birth of the App Store, I’ve been looking for a looper. A looper, for those who don’t know, is a musical effects pedal that grabs a short snippet of audio and, well, loops it. Over and over again. And lets you record another loop on top. Repeat, ad lib to fade.
It’s a quick and easy way to do clever things live on stage, and fun things when you’re trying to write new songs.
There’s been a load of apps that promised some kind of looping capability, and I’ve tried a bunch of them and never found anything that really nailed it. Looping needs to be ultra-simple, instantaneous and spontaneous. None of the apps I tried made that possible. None of them until Everyday Looper.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Music, Reviews, Software, iPhone, iPhone Apps | 3 Comments »
12:02 am, January 12th, 2010, Leander Kahney
LAS VEGAS – Pineapple Electronics’ Rumble KW Headphones have an unusual design, which makes them 100 percent waterproof. Unlike most other earbuds, the Rumble KW Headphones are good for swimming laps, snorkeling, or just taking a shower.
The in-ear style buds create sound not through sound waves, like traditional headphones and earbuds, but through bone conduction. The Rumble KWs vibrate bones in the listener’s skull, creating sound in the inner-ear.
“See, it has no holes whatsoever,” said Pineapple’s Philip Kye, as the Rumble Headphones played in a glass of water.
On the show floor of CES, the KW’s sibling headphones — Pineapple’s Rumble K Headphones, which aren’t waterproof — sounded pretty good, if a little muddy. The bass is outstanding, and they create a freaky buzzing and thumping in your ear.”The technology is tuned for lower frequencies, more bass,” Kye said.
The KWs are limited to 100 decibels, so can’t damage the listener’s hearing. They seemed well-suited for gaming — or listening to music while cleaning the hull of a boat.
Pineapple Electronics’ website.
Posted by Leander Kahney in CES 2010, Music, News, iPod Accessories | 5 Comments »
8:41 pm, January 11th, 2010, Eli Milchman
Speakerball, anyone? The G-Note 14's wireless speakers.
LAS VEGAS — I’d never heard of Florida-based Augen before running into the tiny, gadget-strewn booth at this year’s CES.
That’s because, says VP of Product Dev Daniel Gofman, they’ve been working to produce tech for other companies the last few years; 2010’s CES marks the first year they’re striking out on their own into the already over-saturated iPod/iPhone dock market. But Augen has a trick or three up their sleeves worth looking at. Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Eli Milchman in CES 2010, Music, iPod Touch | No Comments »
7:06 pm, January 11th, 2010, Leander Kahney
LAS VEGAS — The iTamtam is perhaps the strangest iPod dock yet conceived — but also the most practical. It’s a sturdy iPod speaker that doubles as a stool. It is based on a famous stool from the sixties that’s now featured in the Museum of Modern Art.
“It’s a speaker you can sit on,” said Patrick Parma, a spokesman for Branex Design, the Parisian firm that holds the rights for the Tam Tam stool.
The seat was updated as a speaker for its 40th anniversary. Called the iTamtam, the speaker/stool has an iPod/iPhone dock on top and a pair of 25-watt speakers built under the seat.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Music, News, iPhone, iPod, iPod Accessories | 3 Comments »
12:01 am, January 10th, 2010, Eli Milchman
LAS VEGAS — More on the noise-cancelling front: Sony has taken the trick tech of their award-winning, $400, MDR-NC500D digital noise-cancelling headphones and dropped them into these tiny new buds.
Like its big brother, the MDR-NC300D uses artificial intelligence to sense then adapt to the type of background noise occurring in the user’s environment; Sony claims an impressive 98.7 98.4 percent noise-reduction. Tne control unit also has a switch that adjusts the sound to one of three settings (anyone remember the bright yellow Sony MEGABASS swicthes?): Movie, Bass, or Normal.
While my rather limited experiences with the NC300D’s bigger brother never fails to amaze me whenever I try them on, the jury’s still on the little guys. The noise-cancelling feature didn’t seem as impressive; plus, you have to deal with the unit’s control dongle — which is bigger than some mp3 players out there.
Posted by Eli Milchman in CES 2010, Music | 6 Comments »
1:36 am, January 9th, 2010, Eli Milchman
LAS VEGAS — Back in September, we reviewed Audio-Technica’s outstanding ATH-ANC7b QuietPoint noise-cancelling headphones; had we been doling out ratings at that time (we weren’t, because — at the time — we lamely thought ratings were lame), the ANC7bs would have donned a majestic 4.5 turtlenecks.
Seems Audio-Technica thought it could do better.
Posted by Eli Milchman in CES 2010, Music, News, iPod Accessories | No Comments »
1:47 am, January 6th, 2010, Leander Kahney
LAS VEGAS — The first piece of hardware to take advantage of the iPhone 3.0 OS’s much-heralded hardware interface has finally surfaced at CES. And of all things, it’s a speaker clock from Sharper Image.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, CES 2010, Music, News, iPhone, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
11:59 pm, December 28th, 2009, Traci Dauphin
With four overindulged kids ages nine through 13, it’s hard to find presents to keep them entertained for more than ten minutes.
UCreate Music, made by Mattel, is a battery-powered, music-making system that allows kids to mix their own music. The little plastic box rips samples from your iPod or Mac and was on several hot Holiday toy lists. Perfect for that left-over Christmas gift card, the Kahney kids have been testing it out.
Posted by Traci Dauphin in Music, Reviews, iPod | 3 Comments »
6:59 am, December 10th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Chrome could be more Mac-like when it comes to the browser's tabs and toolbar.
Google Chrome for Mac arrived yesterday in beta form. The browser is lacking important features, including bookmarks and cookie management, and the useful app mode available in the Windows version. Also, benchmarks show it’s marginally slower than Safari. But in use I’ve found it good enough to set as my default, and Chrome’s superior to Apple’s browser in important ways: it launches more quickly, and is far less taxing on my Mac regarding RAM and processor usage, even with many tabs open.
However, one thing I’m finding irritating is Chrome’s tabs. Google’s efforts elsewhere in making Chrome a Mac-like experience should be applauded—the browser supports Keychain and the Mac OS X dictionary, and there are subtle animations peppered about—but the main toolbar and tabs area is problematic. I spent a short while making a mock-up (see the full-size version on my Flickr page), which offers ideas for a more Mac-like Chrome interface.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Craig Grannell in Music, News, Software, Top stories | 39 Comments »
12:03 pm, December 8th, 2009, Giles Turnbull
Meet the iVictrola, the weirdest and possibly the coolest iPhone dock you’re likely to see this Christmastime.
Or should I say not likely to see, as it appears that the limited stock at Design Within Reach has already sold out. Oh well.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Music, News, Top stories, iPhone | 3 Comments »
3:42 am, December 4th, 2009, John Brownlee
I imagine that in a lot of totally fundamental ways, pitching a university to let you teach a new course must be a lot like pitching a tech article to a mainstream magazine. It all starts with throwing random words at a sheet of brainstorming paper, then cynically deciding that while “iPhone: the future of music composition” is clearly ridiculous, it would look good as a headline [in the course catalog], so let’s see where it gets us anyway. Quickly inducing hyperventilation in order to simulate breathless excitement, you pick up the phone, call your editor [department head] and shout: “The iPhone is the future of music! No one else has done it before, so we’ll be at the forefront, reporting [teaching] about a fantastic new era meshing technology and art!”
Yes, go forth, my son. Fortune favors the bold! Do your job right and if you’re a tech journalist, you’ll make about $800. But if you’re a university professor, like Georg Essl of the University of Michigan? You may just have taken your first step towards tenure!
Posted by John Brownlee in Music, iPhone | No Comments »
1:01 am, November 25th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Did I mention I’m in love with my new sound system, the heart of which is the T-2 vacuum tube amplifier from Neuhaus Labs?
Custom designed to bring iTunes to life, the amp sounds unbelievably awesome. But in my review I neglected to rave about its aesthetics. This thing glows!
Hit the link for some more dimly-lit tube porn.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Hardware, Music, News, iPod Accessories, iTunes | 4 Comments »
11:59 pm, November 24th, 2009, Leander Kahney
It’s dangerous and illegal, but I like listening to music when I’m riding my bicycle. Nothing like a bit of techno to get the blood pumping on a foggy morning. Trouble is, sound-isolating earbuds — the ones you jam deep in your ear canals — can get you killed. They sound great, but they block that firetruck running a red light with sirens blazing.
Altec Lansing’s Backbeat 906 Bluetooth headphones, which have great sound quality, don’t isolate you from the environment, and best of all, have no wires. Paired with an iPhone, they can be used for music and phone calls, even on the bike.
It’s vey liberating. Once you go wireless, it’s hard to go back.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Music, Reviews, Top stories, iPhone, iPod Accessories, iPod Touch | 9 Comments »
11:59 pm, November 22nd, 2009, Leander Kahney
Until I tried Neuhaus Laboratories’ T-2 vacuum tube amp, I thought I had a pretty good speaker system hooked to my Mac. It was a three-piece ensemble with a pair of nice satellites and a honking big subwoofer. It pumped out 200-watts and I thought it sounded great.
But then I hooked up the T-2 Amplifier, and it’s literally night and day. I know this sounds like an old cliche — but it’s true. Even a half-deaf old punk like me (too many ear-piercing concerts) can hear the difference. It’s striking — and it’s absolutely glorious.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Music, Reviews, Top stories, iTunes | 20 Comments »
5:54 pm, November 20th, 2009, Eli Milchman
Maybe you’re a budding musician working at a nightclub and don’t know what to do with all the misplaced iPhones left behind. Or maybe you’re just brilliant and a wee bit inebriated.
Either way, we figure this is how you might be spending your time (uh, just don’t forget to activate “Airplane Mode” on ALL the phones). And unlike other hey,-watch-me-turn-a-phone-into-a-musical-instrument performances, this one doesn’t seem quite so much like a peek into Bizarro World.
Next up: Chef Ramsey hosts a Hell’s Kitchen episode where the only cooking utensils are iPhones.
“You know, if you saute scallops on a non-stick iPhone screen, they won’t stick. That’s why it’s called fucking non-stiiiiiiiick!”
Posted by Eli Milchman in Music, News, iPhone | 1 Comment »
2:18 pm, November 4th, 2009, Eli Milchman
Seems like a no-brainer: Take two different concepts that work great separately, Frankenstein them together and — viola! Instant more amazingness!
Except we all know how the Frankenstein story ended. The LiquidAUX story isn’t as ugly as that. But it isn’t pretty either.
Bash the jump for the full review.
Posted by Eli Milchman in Music, Reviews | 7 Comments »
It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.
This time, we review 4×4 Jam, A Doodle Fly, Business Card Reader, Gorillacam, Magnetic Joe, Magnetic Joe 2, Neocell Fighters Evolution, Noise.io LE, Rasta Monkey, Samurai: Way of the Warrior, and Ultimate Video [...]
Last year I signed up for a landline phone for my office. I wish I hadn’t for two reasons:
1. No one calls me.
2. Toktumi’s Line2 iPhone app, which adds a second, distinct number to my iPhone.
With a service like Line2, there’s no need for a physical phone at my place of work. I give my [...]
About a hundred years ago, while I was still a Windows user and thought that a Mac was what you covered in a cheese and slurped down for lunch, I whiled away way too much time playing a DOS-based artillery duel game called Scorched Earth. Dot Matrix Interactive Designs have created their own version in [...]
It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.
This time, we review Air Assault, Bad Apples, Fire Drop Free, Ghost Capture – Free, Heli Rescue, Internet Radio Box, Sunday Lawn, synthPond Lite, Tiki Totems, and Titanic Rescue.
A couple of weeks ago I canceled my MobileMe account. Why? Because it didn’t do the one thing I wanted it to do: share my calendar with my wife so we could coordinate our busy lives. That’s all.
I love MobileMe’s email, calendar, contact syncing (especially on the iPhone) and even iDisk. I gave Apple a [...]
On Windows, when you’ve finished using a particular piece of software, you close it with the X symbol in the top right corner of the application window.
Many switchers assume that the window close control in the top left of an OS X application window does the same job: but that’s not quite true.
In the Hackintosh community, the MSI Wind is somewhat legendary for being the first netbook out there that could essentially run OS X out of the box, with all features working and no hardware hacking required.
Now it looks like the venerable Wind has another Apple bragging point: with its keyboard ripped out and its [...]
The Menu Bar sits at the top of your screen at all times. Let’s take a moment to get to know it. It’s worth doing, because the Menu Bar is going to be one of your best friends.
When you used Windows, you were used to see menus inside each document window. File, Edit, all [...]
