Provides: USB audio input
Developer: Blue
Minimum Requirements: Mac OSX; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB RAM
Cost: $99.95
Availability: Now

Microphone maker Blue may have hit on the secret formula for success; create an easy-to-use product with a great design that also works really well. If other companies catch on to this idea…

The first thing you notice about the Snowball is its physical design. It’s fun without being goofy—a white and chrome ball atop a shiny tripod (it’s also available in brush metal and black). It’s professional without being intimidating. In fact, it looks friendly. There’s a small red light that lets you know it’s pulling power, and the tripod legs are thick and support it well; no worries about it sliding around. The physical design is a total winner, making it a microphone that’s interesting enough to have sitting on your desk as a work of abstract art when you’re not using it. If you’re not used to working with a mic, or think you might have “stage fright” when it comes time to speak, the low-key design of the snowball makes it comfortable for amateurs to use. It’s not pointing at you, you see, it’s siting there, waiting for you to play with it.

A single USB cord connects it to your computer (where it gets its power, no batteries required), and on the back is a small switch which controls the mic’s settings: cardioid (records what’s in front of mic), cardioid with -10dB pad (for loud sounds or live music) and omni (picks up sound from 360 degrees around the mic).

Garage Band detects the mic without problem, which figures since it’s designed for podcasting. I found the audio quality to be excellent, but also found myself leaning into the mic to make sure I was getting more volume. When I tried recording in Windows XP (running virtually in VMware) I had to plug the mic in a couple of times for the computer to recognize it, and really boost my speaking voice to get adequate volume, but it was an unusal setup, and I had neither of those problems when running it in Leopard or Snow Leopard.

Once I had a physical setup that I was comforatable with, figured out where the Snowball worked for me, and how loudly I needed to speak, the audio quality was excellent. I’ve used only low-end USB mics before (along with the internal mics on my Mac for Skype and iChat), and the Snowball has none of their problems (tinny sound, static, etc.). The audio is rich and the playback was warm and realistic.

At almost $100 retail, the Snowball isn’t the cheapest microphone you’ll find, nor is it truly a “pro” mic; you can only connect it via USB, and its simple settings make it ideal for home office use. It’s a prosumer item, but for those who need to take their audio seriously (podcasters, people who use audio chat frequently) without having a home studio, the Snowball is a well-designed piece of hardware that delivers great audio and connects simply with Garage Band.

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Ringtone creator for iPhone, iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS
Format: Download
Developer: Pocket Mac
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4+, 10MB Free Disk Space
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $29.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.0

Whenever I get a new phone, one of the first things I do is check out what ringtones come built in and listen to each and every one of them before deciding on a favorite. It used to be quite costly to buy a new ringtone of your favorite song, and the quality wasn’t always great. The iPhone is no exception to this, but rather than paying for new ringtones, how about creating your own from your own iTunes library, or any sound or video file for that matter? RingtoneStudio 2 makes it possible and incredibly easy to do, giving you a top quality ringtone before you can spell polyphonic.

RingtoneStudio 2, from PocketMac, is the simplest option for creating ringtones that I’ve so far come across. There are no complex options or editing tools, and even adding the ringtone into iTunes is done for you. The process is a breeze. All you need to do is choose your music or video file, the select which section of the song you’d like and whether you want the ringtone to fade in or out. Once you’ve finished, simply hit “Create” and RingtoneStudio 2 will convert and add the ringtone into iTunes for you to sync over to your iPhone. If the audio or video clip you’re using is less than 30 seconds in length, it will convert to the correct format and add it to iTunes.

The design of RingtoneStudio 2 is pure genius. Think for a moment what you’re creating the ringtones for; your iPhone, right? PocketMac designed their application to look like the iPhone simulator that’s part of the iPhone SDK. When the app launches, you see a larger than life iPhone, with RingtoneStudio 2 running as you would expect an iPhone app to. For that reason, it’s very intuitive to use, as button designs and locations are as you’d expect on a native iPhone application,the only difference is that this is a Mac app. Just to add to the iPhone experience, to close the app, click on the sleep/wake button at the top-right of the iPhone. To return to the opening screen? You guessed it—click the home button.

If you’re looking for a simpler alternative than GarageBand for making your own ringtones for your treasured iPhone, there’s no reason to look any further than PocketMac’s RingtoneStudio 2. It does its job well, and with great design and simplicity. To many users, GarageBand can appear too complex. You should feel right at home with RingtoneStudio 2’s controls, and the ability to automatically add the ringtones straight into iTunes ready to sync takes another thought off your mind.

The price tag of $29.95 may seem a little high for a simple application, but if you want your own ringtones for your iPhone in a way that gives you control with minimum effort, the price is certainly justifiable. For what it’s designed to do, RingtoneStudio 2 does it brilliantly; there’s no faulting that.

Full Story » | Written by Ed Parry for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Stream and record internet radio
Format: Download
Developer: Gaga Factory
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5+, 1GB RAM, Internet connection
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $29.99
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.0.2

Getting sick of your iTunes library in it’s current state? You have a few options. You could buy more CDs or MP3s, or you could download whatever you want, but that’s bad, so don’t. Another option you might find appealing, depending on your personal preferences, is internet radio. Radio Gaga brings free, quality internet radio to your Mac plus more.

Yes, you can listen to internet radio with iTunes, but can you record the songs?  I think not.  You can with Radio Gaga.  Not only does it offer you a beautiful interface, it also provides a relatively convenient way of recording the audio content you’re listening to directly inside the app at full quality.  And not only that, you can actually record more than one stream of content at a time.  It will record as many radio stations at once as your bandwidth can handle.  Content is recorded in MP3 format and is tagged appropriately.

The application comes with over 10,000 radio stations ready for you to listen to, separated out into genres.  Of course, this is a bit deceiving, as these vary in quality, and the counting method is a bit suspect.  But still, you can listen to tons of radio stations from all over the world, and add more if you like.  Just remember, not all radio stations broadcast 24/7, and they aren’t all at 256kbps.

There are a number of ways you can record stations using Radio Gaga.  You can simply record what you’re listening to at any time, but this is likely not optimal since you probably won’t have the beginning of the song or audio content using this method.  You can also set up a schedule to record a specific channel at a specific time.  This is great if you have a particular radio program or time slot you enjoy.  And finally, you can set Radio Gaga to record specific songs (content) from specific stations.  It’s like searching and waiting, and the key is that you have to know which channel the song you want will be playing on.  If you know this much, you’re set.

The program performs very well overall, provided you enjoy the radio experience.  If you don’t like radio, then this app won’t change you, unless you really really need free and legal songs.  I wish there was a better way to record specific songs by searching over a number of stations at once automatically, but I honestly can’t think of an easy way for them to implement such a feature, so I won’t hold it against them.  Even when restricted to you knowing which station might soon play the song you want, the feature is pretty cool.  Recorded content quality is directly proportional to the quality of the stream, so WYSIWYG.  Like radio?  Then you’ll love Radio Gaga.  Else, probably not.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Coming quietly in the night like a ninja, it appears as if Apple has updated much of their more expensive software. According to Phil Schiller in Apple’s press release, “The new Final Cut Studio includes more than 100 new features and dramatically expands Apple’s ProRes family of codecs so editors can work in the studio with the highest quality video or on location at low bandwidths.” However, it is also interesting that Apple has decreased the price tag on this product by $300 and priced it at $999, or just $299 for an update. Even better yet is that you can go to the online Apple store and purchase it right now (well, after you finished reading this post, that is)!

With this new version, the following products have been updated:

• Final Cut Pro 7
• Motion 4
• Soundtrack Pro 3
• Color 1.5
• Compressor 3.5
• DVD Studio Pro 4

To find more details about what was actually updated in each product, check out the press release. It looks like a nice update for people interesting in this software to get excited about.

Product [Final Cut Studio]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Guitar recording and effects
Developer: IK Multimedia
Minimum System Requirements: 1.5 GHz Intel, 1GHz G4 or better, 1 GB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.4.4+, 1 USB port
Price: $269-$449
Availability: Now

IK Multimedia has really done it this time; they’ve completed the circuit between guitar and computer with the StealthPedal. Now you can have the best of both worlds: the versatility of computerized effects and amps along with the feel of a real expression pedal between you and the computer. IK Multimedia really made a significant improvement on the standard USB guitar interface by adding an expression pedal plus options. Trust me, guitarists won’t be disappointed.

If you’re familiar with recording interfaces for computers, then you probably have tried at least one of the numerous offerings of the USB type. They all work the same; you plug your instrument (a guitar, bass or maybe even a microphone) into the device, and it translates it into a signal the computer can interpret through USB. You fire up your favorite recording software, which is likely Garageband, considering you have a Mac, and strum away. There isn’t really a problem with any of these devices, unless being the same as everyone else is a problem. Right, that is a problem, quite a big one.

So how do you improve upon this sort of problem? Differentiate your product from others, just like IK Multimedia did with the StealthPedal.  It’s a plain jane USB recording interface with a few special exceptions. It has a built-in expression pedal (with toe switch and support for up to two more switches) and another pedal.  And there’s so much more than Volume that you can control. You can send MIDI signals if you choose, which happen whenever you push a switch or adjust a pedal.  So not only can you do the obvious Wah control, but you can change pretty much any parameter involved with your guitar setup.  Oh yeah, about that guitar setup…

The StealthPedal comes with AmpliTube 2 (Live), AmpliTube X-GEAR, RiffWorks T4 (Ampeg SVX and AmpliTube Metal depending on Deluxe version and timing). This makes for one killer set of tonal capabilities.  There are tons of great presets for those shorts on time or motivation, or those who just want to have fun.  But if you really want to get into things, you can change everything.  Tweak it to your heart’s content and get the sound you really want.  I can’t say whether it sounds exactly like the real thing, mostly because I don’t have millions of dollars worth of guitar gear, but I can say that it sounds amazing, and that’s what really counts.

While I’m talking about the software, I might as well mention the very worst part of this bundle.  All of the included software has to be installed and verified with IK Multimedia; you know, because you’re guilty until proven innocent.  It wouldn’t be so bad if this simply consisted of one serial number registration from inside of the installer that worked for the whole bundle, but it doesn’t.  There’s a separate serial number for each piece of software, and they have to start the verification process from AmpliTube, then go to the internet site in your browser, then back to Amplitube with at least one long string of text each time.  This is incredibly annoying, and is almost enough to deduct a full point from the review.  But since you only have to do this once (even though this prevents you from using your StealthPedal in a reasonable ammount of time from opening the box), I’ll let it slide this time with just a warning.  This may tarnish your first hour with the product, but thankfully, the product recovers from this initial annoyance.

Now, the StealthPedal will work as a generic instrument input to your recording software, but you’ll likely just want to use it with the included AmpliTube software.  As you may have guessed, it works just fine with all of the other offerings from IK Multimedia as well.  I actually got the chance to play around with AmpliTube Fender.  As if you didn’t already have enough tonal choices with the StealthPedal’s included software, AmpliTube Fender adds 12 amps, 12 cabinets, 9 stompboxes, 9 mics and 7 rack FX.  The StealthPedal will work with this and all other IK Multimedia plugins, so you can truly customize your sound to exactly what you need as long as you have the money.

If you are motivated to record guitar or bass with your Mac, then the StealthPedal is likely the best choice you can make.  Even if you are just learning your instrument, this is an amazing tool to start with (after the headache of a setup process is complete).  It blends real world controls with the limitless options presented by software emulation.  Imagine all the amps and effects you could ever want right on your Mac.  It’s awesome, it’s amazing, I love it.  It is a bit pricey (between $269 and $449), but when you consider all the sounds you can get by using it, with the ability to record, you might come to the realization that it’s quite a bargain.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Digital drum effects
Format: DVD
Developer: ToonTrack
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4, Dual G4 1.25GHz with 1GB RAM, 4GB free space, DVD drive
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $349
Availability:  Now
Version Reviewed: 2.1

ToonTrack’s Superior Drummer is an appropriately named piece of software / sound generator plug-in. It will breathe life and warmth into the all too often cold world of digital music. You can use it to take your drum programming to the next level, or better yet, hook up a set of MIDI capable edrums to emulate the type of sound you could only get from a phenomenal set of acoustic drums that you probably can’t afford, plus thousands of dollars worth of microphones and recording talent on top of it.

The idea behind Superior Drummer is to replace the need for using mics to record acoustic drums, or to make purely programmed drum sequences sound convincingly real.  Instead of using mics, you can use drum triggers with a set of acoustic drums or use a set of electronic drums (edrums).  Edrums have the obvious added benefit of being quieter; quiet enough even for some apartments.

So instead of buying all of the necessary mics yourself, and then trying to set up a good environment to record in, and then do all of the other things involved with recording, you can skip directly to great sound.  That is an amazing feeling.  And not only that, if you make a mistake while recording, you can fix it in post like the pros (do they do that?).  What I mean is that if you forget to hit a note, or if you hit a drum out of time, you can move it later since the only thing actually being recorded is the timing of drum hits along with its associated velocity (which can be edited later).  Garageband even has a built in feature that will sync up your drumming to the beat.  It won’t replace years of lessons or even just good old fashion practice, but honestly, this probably isn’t much of an issue for you if you’re considering a piece of software that costs this much.

You can use Superior Drummer on its own or in your recording software of choice, which, for many of us, is Garageband. I chose to test it out in Garageband, which is more than sufficient for my purposes.  After adding a new “real instrument” track, you change the generator to Superior Drummer in the edit tab.  It takes a few seconds for the sounds to be loaded into memory, but once they are loaded there is no waiting.  Now you can play around with all of the options available to you from the software. It’s incredible really. You can do as much or as little as you want to the drums. But all you really need to do to get great sound is start playing. The difference between Garageband’s default drum generators and Superior Drummer is eye- (ear-) opening.  You may even forget that you’re playing through software; I know I did.  It’s like the first time you watched a BluRay movie, you don’t realize how bad what you’re used to (Garageband’s default drum generators) really is until something better is presented to you.

There are only two downsides to Superior Drummer, and both of them are obvious before you buy it. It costs a ton, and it takes up a ton of storage space.  It comes on 5 DVDs.  Yes, I said DVDs.  It’s huge, but that’s a result of how high quality it really is.  And that’s what you’re paying for.  Would you really want any less?  I say the 20GB of space that the full install requires is more than worth it.

Time after time I say it, and more often than not it’s true.  You get what you pay for.  Is this for everyone?  Nope.  It’s for the drummers out there who need professional sounding drums on a lower budget.  Yes, I said lower budget.  This one piece of software eliminates the need for a lot of things, like mics and headaches involved with recording drums.  You get sound that only thousands of dollars of equipment and hours upon hours of time could produce in mere seconds.  Plus, you get the benefits of being able to edit your patterns after recording them.  Try that with a mic.

Normally I’d rate this a 4 out of 5 purely because of the price, but considering the level of quality and what it potentially could replace (or eliminate the need for purchase) I’m giving it an unrestricted 5.  The days when you can truly record a studio quality album at home are here.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Full suite of video/photo/image/web content creation and management
Format: DVD
Developer: Adobe
Minimum System Requirements: Varies by product/package (see Adobe’s website for individual details)
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: Varies by product/package (see Adobe’s website for all suite and individual software normal and upgrade prices)
Availability: Now

This is the update Macromedia users have been dreading since Adobe bought out the company a few years ago. This is when what we’ve known and loved about the Macromedia UI and methodology has been tossed out the window and replaced with Adobe’s own way of doing things. There is good and bad to this. Good, in that the Macromedia products—Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash—are now much more tightly integrated with their Adobe stepbrothers. The products share more of the same tools and commands, and generally get along a lot better. Bad, in that Adobe’s way isn’t always the best way, and they’ve overcomplicated quite a few features for the sake of unity.

CS4 is a huge update (hence our delay in getting up coverage…we’ve got day jobs, you know). If you’re going to pick up the Master Collection, you’re looking at nearly 20 updated programs rolled out at once in a single package. And these are big, big programs. That Adobe is able to maintain a schedule of significant updates about every 18 months indicates two things to me: that they’ve got an incredible staff of programmers, and that maybe some of these features were pushed out a bit too soon.

One way to address this is to abandon older technology, making it easier to program and troubleshoot. Although most apps in CS4 can work on systems dating all the way back to the G4, you still need to have Mac OS X v10.4.11 running on it. In addition, many of the programs (especially the video apps such as After Effects and Premiere Pro) rely heavily on OpenGL, meaning that certain functions will not be available to you or that you won’t be able to run the programs at all. For a complete breakdown of what app needs what to run, visit Adobe’s website.

Of course, you don’t need them all. The CS4 products are sold in numerous suites, each tailored to a specific use. Adobe has done a good job of fairly placing the apps into these suites; you likely won’t need to pay for apps you don’t need in order to get what you want in a specific suite.

Now, which package you go for should be fairly obvious, based on your needs. Because of they way they’re priced, if you purchase more than two or three individual apps, you’re likely going to save money by buying into a suite. And although the initial purchase is pretty steep, Adobe continues to be quite fair with their upgrade prices.

Once you’ve purchased and installed your update, the first thing you’ll notice is that the CS4 apps push further into the OWL (Object Widget Library) interface. Adobe has undertaken the task of unifying all the apps (both their original and the acquired Macromedia programs) across the suite, on both the Mac and the PC. Likely, your first reaction will be one of confusion. The interface is dark gray and heavy. Tool icons are clean, but lifeless. Adobe has apparently used OWL 2 to make the the Mac and PC versions not only work the same way, but look the same way. I’ve spoken to many users from both camps, and almost straight across the board, PC users like the new look, while Mac users hate it. Whether that means the Mac GUI is just that much better than the PC’s or that PC users are just more flexible, I’ll leave up to you.

We’ll address most of these issues in the individual reviews, but I do need to mention that there are some significant advantages to the OWL 2 GUI. First, although most of the apps now default to a tabbed interface for multiple documents (think tabbed browsing on Safari), you can shut this off so that each document stands on its own. In fact, through menu options and keystrokes, you can pretty much get the UI to behave however you want. I found the Application Frame, for example (in which your document and tools all sit in a single, resizable frame, as pictured above), too restricting when working on my 24” iMac. But when using my Unibody MacBook, it made it much easier to keep control of the limited space afforded to me. Likewise, simple keystrokes can minimize the tool panels, or hide them completely. Love or hate the new UI, it is designed to give you quick access to the tools you need, hide the tools you don’t, and show you as much of your canvas as possible at all points.

Don’t think for a second, however, that these updates are strictly about streamlining your workflow. Most of the apps have powerful new features and a host of small tweaks that add up to big improvements. Obviously, I can’t go into them all here. In fact, the CS4 updates are so large that we’re not going to handle them here at all, or even just at Appletell. Instead, we’re working in conjunction with our friends at Applelinks to bring you individual reviews of each app in the suites. To get to the individual app reviews, just click on the links below. It’s kind of pointless to rate the CS4 updates as a whole, because each package would deserve its own rating based on the apps included and the value they offer. So, below, we link to the individual reviews of the apps that comprise the suite. Click through to the Applelinks or Appletell reviews for the individual apps to learn more.

CS4 Design Suite (for print and web work):

Standard - $1,399 new, $499 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Standard

Premium - $1,799 new, $599 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• Fireworks

CS4 Web Suite (for web work):

Standard - $999 new, $399 upgrade

• Dreamweaver
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks

Premium - $1,699 new, $599 upgrade

• Dreamweaver
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks
• Photoshop Extended
• Illustrator
• Soundbooth
• Acrobat 9 Pro

CS4 Production Premium (for video work):

$1,699 new, $599 upgrade

• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Illustrator
• Flash Professional
• Soundbooth
• OnLocation
• Encore

CS4 Master Collection:

$2,499 new, $899 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Dreamweaver
• Contribute
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks
• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• Soundbooth
• OnLocation
• Encore

No matter which program you buy into, it’ll also offer Bridge, Device Central and Adobe Media Player. Version Cue comes in all packages save for Production Premium, in which it’s replaced by Dynamic Link.

It really is worth it to look at these apps individually, not as a whole. Most are absolutely worth the upgrade, a couple will only appeal to select users, and at least one should just be entirely dropped from the lineup. But overall, this is a solid lineup of amazing tools that bring some great new features, even if they are muddied up in a new user interface that will take some getting used to.

Once we’re done with all the pieces, we’ll assign ratings to each package. Until then, check back with us weekly as work our way through the powerful behemoth that is Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Audio/video editing, burning, sharing
Format: Download or DVD
Developer: Roxio
Minimum System Requirements: G4, G5, or Intel processor (G5 or Intel required for encoding/viewing HD content); Mac OS X v10.5; CD, DVD or Blu-Ray recordable drive; QuickTime v7; 800MB free disk space (15GB free temporary free disk space during usage); Internet connection for some functionality; high-def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in for HD video authoring
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $99 ($149 Pro version)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 10.0.1

Sometimes when I observe the desperate struggle for relevance, it makes me sad. How can you watch a recent Madonna video, the latest Jim Carrey movie, or anything having to do with the Microsoft Zune and not be sympathetic to their plight? Don’t we all eventually come to fear that our time in the sun has past? (Or, in the case of the Zune, that we never even got to see the sun?) The answer to that, is no, because not everyone has trouble staying relevant. Case in point, Roxio, with their update to Toast 10 Titanium.

Video

Toast originally made a name for itself as CD-ROM burning software back in the mid-90s. For a while, that’s all it did, but the folks at Adaptec (and now Roxio) have always understood that computer technology/media is constantly changing, and they’ve been there every step of the way. In fact, they’re often a few steps ahead. For example, Steve Jobs and Apple may still be terrified of the big, bad, Blu-ray monster, but Roxio is not. Toast 10 Titanium has the ability to copy and burn information to Blu-ray discs, while Toast 10 Titanium Pro adds the ability to burn HD video to Blu-ray via the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in ($19.99, included free with Toast 10 Titanium Pro).

I wasn’t able to test the Blu-ray functionality because I don’t a Blu-ray drive on my Mac, but I can say that Toast 10 did just fine with HD video content pulled in through my cable line, and burned some nice DVDs, menus and all.

But of course, Toast is no longer just about burning CDs and DVDs. It can now import DVDs, provided they’re not encrypted or copy protected, so you can back them up or format them for other devices. You get some basic functionality here, such as the ability to import specific chapters and audio tracks, but it’s too bare-bones to please those who do this regularly. You’re likely to still need programs such as Handbrake for serious DVD ripping, but it’s good to have the functionality built into Toast for basic jobs.

Once you’ve got your videos, you can export them to numerous media devices, with pre-formats for the iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP, BlackBerry, Palm Treo, and more. For further manipulation or sharing online, you can also export video to DV, HDV, MPEG-4, H.264 and QuickTime. It’s all very easy to do, although Roxio should consider making the output device selector more than just a tiny gear icon on the bottom of the window. Also, as with DVD ripping, higher level controls would be welcome for those who know what they’re doing.

TiVO users can benefit from the ability to stream videos directly from Toast to their TiVO devices. I don’t have TiVO, so I couldn’t test this. I was, however, able to stream my videos directly to my iPhone, which was great. With the Roxio Streamer app, TiVO and (in my case) EyeTV recordings can be streamed directly from your computer to your iPhone, so you can watch movies/shows without taking up your iPhone’s drive space. This is somewhat tricky, as setting it up/connecting is oddly confusing, and you of course have to have your host computer on and awake. It’d be great if the Roxio Streamer had the ability to awake your Mac remotely, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In addition, you obviously need a WiFi connection for this to work. So, although it’s not completely practical yet, it is pretty cool when the conditions are met.

The final video portion I want to cover is the new ability to import and archive your home recordings. Toast 10 can accept video straight from your camcorder or VCR and burn them right to DVD for archival purposes. When one DVD fills up, you’re prompted for another. Catalogs with photo thumbnails are created as you go, so you can search for specific video segments without actually having the DVD in your computer. This is fantastic not only for archiving video, but for your iPhone images as well. I tend to back up my photos yearly to clear up the space on my hard drive, and Toast 10’s cataloging capabilities make it much easier to find the photos I want after they’ve been archived.

Audio

Remember burning CDs? So does Roxio. Toast has always been a significantly better option than iTunes, offering functionality that iTunes lacks (such as the most basic but necessary ability to individually set track audio levels). The problem has always been that iTunes purchased music could never be burned with anything but iTunes. Now that Apple is pushing towards DRM-free downloads, Toast becomes a better option. The traditional functionality (such as the ability to import/fix vinyl recordings, create crossfades, tag your music, burn MP3 discs, etc.) remains, and has been supplemented with the ability capture and tag Internet audio, or pretty much anything playing on your computer. Toast will automatically capture it, split the audio into tracks (surprisingly accurate, here; it only made mistakes where I expected it to), and even identify the tracks.

Using audio fingerprinting, The CD SpinDoctor component of Toast 10 can identify your unknown tracks and assign the proper tags: artist, title, genre, etc. In short, you can record music directly from Pandora, for example, and have it properly split, tagged and dumped into iTunes. I was impressed with what it was able to identify and properly tag, as only my more obscure indie and J-Rock tracks went unclassified.

The last new audio feature I’ll cover is the ability to convert audiobook CDs for playback on your iPod or iPhone, complete with individual chapters and pause/resume support. Again, I have no audio books in my collection, so I was unable to test this.

Oh, and I would also like to point out that Roxio has done a good job with the entire user interface. One of my complaints about Toast 9 was that the interface appeared blurry and dark. Toast 10 is a bit sharper and cleaner, although some text in the interface would clip or overlap when cycling through options, and the animations are not necessary.

Pro Apps

For $50 more, Toast 10 Titanium Pro comes with extra software that can enhance your media creation/formatting. I can’t imagine users will get a decent amount of use out of all of these apps, but using just a couple of them regularly will justify the additional cost. Each of these programs deserves its own review, so I won’t go into detail on them here. However, here’s what you get for the $149 pro version (in addition to the previously mentioned High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in):

SonicFire Pro
Create your own copyright-free music on the fly. You select the tempo, pitch and mood, then adjust the length and arrangement to fit your movie. It’s a decent option for those looking to burn DVDs free of music licensing issues, but the tracks do end up feeling quite generic.

SoundSoap
Remove unwanted audio/noise from your recordings. You use the software to isolate a small section of the unwanted sound (such as camera hum or wind), then the program will will go through the entire audio file to pull out the offending noise. Some audio degradation will occur, but you can fine tune your settings to adjust the balance between the loss of bad and good audio. It can’t work miracles on bad audio, but it’s a good start.

FotoMagico
This is simply a fantastic application all around. It sort of combines the presentation functionality of Keynote with the slideshow capabilities of iPhoto, but increases the functionality of each to create a program that’s better than both in every way. It, alone, is worth the extra cost of Toast 10 Titanium Pro.

LightZone
I’m not entirely sure why this one’s here. It can correct or add effects to your photos for more dramatic slideshows, but the results are subjective (photos are more dynamic, but can look less natural). Those who care about this sort of thing will use PhotoShop or another program that offers better control. Those who don’t care are likely not interested in using LightZone. That said, it does a decent job, as long as you’re not too picky.

One thing to consider about these bonus apps, too, is that they’re not actually a part of Toast, as is CD SpinDoctor. Roxio gives you the serial numbers, but updates will be at the control of the individual developers, and that includes update pricing.

Regular or Pro? Doesn’t Matter.

Overall, I feel this is the best Toast update since they merged Toast and Jam into one program. The new video capabilities are outstanding, not only making Toast more useful to a larger number of users, but also indicating that the good folks at Roxio are well aware of the current usage trends, and are working hard to stay on top of them. If you’ve been putting off upgrading your previous version of Toast, stop. If you’ve never used Toast, start. This is the version for which you’ve been waiting. The digital hub Steve Jobs spoke of a few years back has grown well beyond Apple’s control (indeed, they seem to fear it, now), and Roxio’s Toast 10 Titanium manages to keep it all within reach.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Skype and home office phone functionality via handset, speakerphone and bluetooth headset
Developer: Plantronics
Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4, 512MB RAM
Processor Compatibility: Intel or PowerPC
Price: $279.95
Availability: Now

The Calisto Pro is the phone that does everything. It’s a cordless home handset/speakerphone with a bluetooth headset. If that wasn’t unique enough, it not only connects to your POTS (plain old telephone system) it also connects to your Mac via USB. But is it worth $279.95?

The phone itself has a lot of technology built in. It’s cordless, it comes with its own bluetooth headset, and it has a speakerphone built in, too. Its battery life is quoted at 8 hours, but the charging station is so darn fun that I have yet to let it run out of battery. The wireless portion is DECT 6.0, meaning you can walk up to 300 feet away and still have it work. I didn’t walk that far away in my tests, but you definitely won’t have any problems inside of your house and likely around it. DECT 6.0 also means that it’s WiFi friendly, so there shouldn’t be any interference there. I know I didn’t find any. The only feature that’s really missing from an all-in-one phone unit like this is an answering machine. But these days, everyone has voicemail, so maybe it’s not that needed.

Ok, so you’re saying to yourself, why do I care? This is Appletell after all, not Homephonetell. The Calisto Pro can now connect to your Mac for phone book info and Skype use. The way it works is you install the Calisto Pro software and launch the application. Then you launch Skype. Calls must be started by Skype, as they currently cannot be initiated by the handset alone. This means you either have to receive a call, or place a call with your mouse. You can, of course, end the call from the handset or headset.

Once the call has been placed, the sound quality is great. In fact, Skype will automatically recognize the device and route your calls to it. I especially liked using the speakerphone option, as it keeps the audio from Skype separate from the audio coming out of your computer. Seeing as Skype is the only easy service supported as of now, you’ll definitely need to be a Skype junky to want this phone system.

As an added bonus of the software, you can also sync your Address Book to the phone. This is a feature that every phone should have, as it saves you a ton of time. The phone can store up to 200 contacts with 3 phone numbers a piece. This feature is not enough to justify the phone system by itself, but it is awesome.

I have two main problems with this device.  First, the software. It’s not that it doesn’t work, because it does work, very well in fact. I just really wish there was some other way of doing this. I have too many applications running on my computer as it is, so I really wish that it didn’t have to be another icon sitting in my dock taking up space. Maybe it could be converted into a preference pane. That way, it would run in the background all the time without any need for distracting icons.

I also wish it easily supported other applications. If you’re going to be compatible with the Mac, then why can’t I use it easily with iChat? It’s possible, but not fun. You essentially have to select the Calisto Pro as the speaker and mic inside of iChat’s preferences. Then in the Calisto Pro software, you need to turn the handset’s mic and speaker on constantly. This will drain the battery, so you’re advised to only turn it on when you’re about to have a voice chat. Needless to say, it’s a bit more painful than it needs to be.

Secondly, the headset. It’s very large. This means you shouldn’t move your head much, as the headset will move around on your ear. The reason it’s so big is so that the noise canceling mic can be placed closer to your mouth. This is less of a problem, since the handset will pair with any standard bluetooth headset. But the whole point of this system is to not need anything else. One phone, one headset, one charger.

Overall, the phone is great. It’s clearly a high quality product. I do wish the headset was smaller, but you can use a different one if it bothers you. Or, you could just use the handset, or the speakerphone. You really have a lot of options. I also wish the software ran in the background, with some extra functionality. This is also fixable, since it’s a software issue. The Mac software is relatively new, so I’m betting it will be improved. The PC software definitely has a lot more features, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those features make their way to the Mac in the near future. Ultimately, it comes down to one thing on this product. If you spend a lot of time talking on Skype, then this is for you. If you don’t, then it’s not. Simple as that.

I’m going to give the Calisto Pro a 3 out of 5 because the software doesn’t justify the price. For $279.95, this phone and its software should work flawlessly.  For the phone, that’s true, but the software needs improvement. While the Address Book features and Skype functionality are both great, it’s not enough. I’d like the software to be more behind the scenes instead of having an extra program running at all times. And it needs to easily support more services, especially iChat. But still, this is a great piece of hardware, so I’m interested to see if the software catches up.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

I am not the lead guitarist for Fall Out Boy. I do not have the resources to drop the thousands of dollars on Pro Tools software and hardware. What I do have resources for is a simple digital audio workstation (DAW) to use with my MaBook.

Line 6 is a major player in the DAW manufacturing space. I decided on the Tone Port GX off of the recomendation of Macworld. The Tone Port GX from Line 6 is a simple DAW, having a single 1/4 inch input for a guitar or microphone. It also comes with GearBox software that allows several different amplifier and cabniet combinations. This is their entry level product, costing less than 80 dollars to obtain.

Imagine my dismay when I plugged it into my iMac and all I got was static. I plugged it into my MacBook. Got static. I plugged it into my Mac Mini, and it actually worked.

Here is what I found on the Line 6 website:

Chipset Error Explanation: If the computer fails to meet standard USB requirements, a possible result the soundcard creates a “white noise burst” at the analog audio outputs. This is caused by a flaw in some USB chipsets that were manufactured by Intel using the ICH6 architecture. The chipsets we have verified as having this problem are the 915G, 915P and 925X chipsets, although others may be affected as well.

Solution: We do not have a solution that ensures proper performance on these computers.

I understand that this chipset problem is going to affect some PC users as well, but I was hoping for a better showing from Line6 and Macworld on this one.

Full Story » | Written by Anthony Parkinson for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Want to record a podcast with high-quality audio with different people in multiple locations? Dan Benjamin of Hivelogic tells you how:

We found early on that recording the output from Skype (or iChat) was less than reliable, even when using great software like Rogue Amoeba’s amazing Audio Hijack Pro. Initially, I tried using the recorded Skype channels. Then I tried recording my own audio with SoundStudio 3, pulling Gruber’s audio from Audio Hijack, and mixing them back together. I actually tried many more variations than I’m detailing here. In the end, the audio was never as nice as when I recorded directly from my mic into SoundStudio 3 (or Quicktime Pro or GarageBand).

Okay, so that’s not the solution so much as the problem. Dan ends up adapting an old TV solution (with an unfortunate name) to ensure that great sound is captured on both ends. And to find that out, you’ll have to…

Read [Hivelogic]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Online retailer Amazon has teamed up with the 800 lb. gorilla of search engines, Google, to announce a new online music store that will allow users to purchase MP3s from Amazon via mobile devices using Google’s new “Android” operating system. Apple immediately announced it would be discontinued, as it “replicates functionality found in iTunes.”

Okay, I made that last bit up.

From Wired:

Owners of the device will be able to browse, search, preview and purchase music on the Amazon MP3 store using the phone’s cellular connection. In order for purchased MP3s to download, the phone must be connected via Wi-Fi. (The mobile iTunes store, on the other hand, remains completely offline without WiFi.)

Oooh, burn! The article goes on to note that in addition to the frustration developers are having with Apple’s policy for iPhone development, there’s the added problem that Apple is limiting any functionality with the iPod bits of the wildly popular phone. Plus, all of Amazon’s tracks are MP3s, which means no DRM.

Via [Wired]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Adobe Systems officially announced this morning the Creative Suite 4 product family. The CS4 programs will feature a new workflow and “hundreds of feature innovations,” including tighter integration with Flash technology across the entire product line. The updates will be seen across Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design editions, Creative Suite 4 Web editions, Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, as well as 13 point products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services.

Some of the major applications receiving updates are Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, After Effects CS4, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

From the release:

A simplified workflow in Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables users to design across media more efficiently by making it easier to complete common tasks and switch between mediums without leaving a project. InDesign CS4 includes a new Live Preflight tool that allows designers to catch production errors and a newly customizable Links panel to place files more efficiently. The revolutionary new Content-Aware Scaling tool in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended automatically recomposes an image as it is resized, preserving vital areas as it adapts to new dimensions. An expanded version of Dynamic Link in CS4 Production Premium enables users to move content between After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth® CS4, and Encore® CS4, so updates can be seen instantly without rendering.

Adobe is also focusing on the suites 3D features, providing the ability to paint, composite, and animate 3D models using familiar tools. In addition, Flash CS4 now features items such as the ability to apply tweens to objects instead of keyframes, as well as a new Bones to help create more realistic animations between linked objects.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 the products it comprises will be available in october 2008. The estimated street price for Adobe CS 4 Design Premium will be US$1,799, US$1,699 for CS4 Web Premium, US$1,699 for CS4 Production Premium, and US$2,499 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. Adobe plans to offer tiered upgrade pricing from previous versions, and, for a limited time, validly licensed customers of eligible versions of Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Production Studio and Macromedia Studio will be able to upgrade to Creative Suite 4 for the CS3 upgrade price. To compare software/features of the different editions, visit the Adobe website.

Product [Adobe Creative Suite 4]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Wondering how to turn off the “arrows” and “Genre” listings in iTunes 8? Annoyed that Apple has taken the options away? Never fear, a quick cut ‘n’ paste in the Terminal app is all you need.

When Apple released iTunes 8, they included new features like Grid View and Genius, but left out a couple of options as well. Namely, the ability to disable links to the iTunes Music Store, and to turn off the “Genre” category when sorting music in Browser Mode. The former looks like the invisible hand of capitalism at work, but the latter is just silly.

Fortunately, you can alter those settings, you just need to use the Terminal to do it. Even if you’ve never used the Terminal before, the clever folks at Mac OS X Hints have easy-to-follow instructions, including cut ‘n’ paste text. If you want to turn off the arrows, look here, and if you hate the Genre setting, look no further.

Instructions are also included for restoring the features. Enjoy!

Via [Mac OS X Hints]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

In a recent article on his personal blog, Adam Fisher-Cox has details on how he thinks (and now how I think) the new Grid View in iTunes 8 should work. I personally have had issues with the Grid View (details in my review of iTunes 8), and this has the potential to be the perfect fix for those issues. Take note, Steve Jobs, as this may be a great idea for you to take in to consideration for iTunes 8.1.

In the animation on Adam’s blog, the proposed changes for the Grid View replace the double-click to open a song list action. The initial look of the Grid View would remain, but when an album was clicked, instead of opening a list of songs, in a whirl of iPod Coverflow goodness, the Album flips over and expands into a song list, in a lay-over on the main screen. 

I think this is a great idea, and with a bit of refinement, could actually be a plausible addition to the first iTunes 8 update.

Via AdamFisherCox.com

Disclaimer: While Adam is currently employed here at Appletell, this article is here purely on its own merit.

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Format: Download
Developer: Apple
Macintosh System Requirements: Intel, PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor (videos from iTunes require 1.0GHz PowerPC G4 Processor or better, HD Videos from iTunes require 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better), 512MB RAM, 1GB for HD videos (all videos from iTunes require at least 16MB VRAM), broadband Internet to use the iTunes Store, Mac OS X v10.4.9, Quicktime 7.5.5 and 200MB free disk space
Windows System Requirements: 1.0GHz Intel or AMD Processor (videos from iTunes require Intel Pentium D Processor or better, HD videos from iTunes require 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better), 512MB RAM (1GB for HD Videos), a DirectX 9.0-compatible video card with 32MB of video RAM (64MB recommended), a Quicktime-compatible audio card, broadband Internet to use the iTunes Store, Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later or 32-bit editions of Windows Vista (64-bit editions of Windows Vista require the iTunes 8 64-bit installer), Quicktime 7.5.5 (included) and 200MB free disk space

Review Computer: Apple 13” MacBook, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, 64MB Integrated VRAM
Price: Free
Availability: Out Now
Official Website: www.apple.com/itunes

It’s finally here. The latest installment of the app that changed the way we listened to music has officially been announced. At Apple’s Let’s Rock event, the first item on the docket was this new piece of software. With new features such as Genius and HD TV Shows, many changes have been made to the system. Some of them are great, some of them are okay, and some of them just plain suck. 

When you first open iTunes 8, the most obvious change has to do with the user interface.

Grid View

One of the new features of iTunes 8 was the addition of a view mode. This new view is called Grid View, and for that, I have mixed feelings. I really like how the view mode looks overall, and I like the iPhoto ‘08-esque hover view. Another plus to the new view mode is that it seems to be closing the gap between the iTunes UI and the iPod Touch/iPhone UI, which I happen to like a lot. Although Grid View looks great on the outside, it is what’s on the inside that isn’t so great. The way you select and play music isn’t as easy as you’d think. When you mouse over the image of the album, a “play album” button pops up. Clicking that works fine, but only if you’re okay with listening to the album from the start and skipping through. To see all the songs on the album, you double click the album icon, but for some reason, that doesn’t always work for me; it sometimes just starts the album from the opening track. When I think “grid view,” words such as “ungainly,” “rushed” and “unpolished” come to mind. It would be perfect if Apple made it so that when an album is clicked, it flips and expands the song list, like in the iPod version of Coverflow.

iTunes Genius

Another notable new feature is the iTunes Genius. At first, I had some apprehension about the Genius. My dislike for the feature stems from when I was watching the Let’s Rock Keynote stream, and saw the demo during the Stevenote. When he was demonstrating the feature, he created a Genius playlist using a song by Elvis Presley. Later on in the playlist, I noticed a song by The Doors. Huh? If I was ever in an Elvis mood, I highly doubt I would want to be hearing the Doors. Also, when creating my own Genius playlists, I encountered two such situations. The first was when I made a playlist using “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” by Does it Offend You, Yeah?.  Some of the songs that came up included “Icky Thump” by The White Stripes and “Karma Police” by Radiohead. In another situation, I made a playlist from “Hard to Beat” by Hard-Fi.  This selection came up with the likes of “Dirty Harry” by The Gorillaz, “Hoppipola” by Sigur Ros, and “Great DJ” by The Ting Tings. Now, I am not saying I don’t like that music (I have it in my library, don’t I?), but rather that I don’t want to listen to that music at that moment. I think that the Genius feature is a great idea, but it won’t be seeing any use by me. It may be intuitive, but it’s not quite intuitive enough for me to hand it over full reign of my music.

NBC on iTunes

I think this could be one of the better features of iTunes 8; NBC has finally wizened up and allowed Apple to put their shows on iTunes. Although I am not one to purchase TV shows on a regular basis, I like the security of knowing I will never miss another episode of The Office, Heroes, or Battlestar Galactica. One cannot survive on Lost alone.

iTunes Visualizer

The final notable new feature ois the addition of a new iTunes Visualizer. The rumors were confirmed when iTunes 8 was released, and users were greeted with the redesigned version of Magnetosphere. 

Overall, iTunes 8 is a great app. Some things could use some touch-ups and refining, but other than that, iTunes 8 plays your music better than ever before.

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

I’ll admit it, I got into Oasis late. After they fell out of favor with the British press and lost the American spotlight (undeservedly, I might add), I heard “Go Let it Out” and thought, “Hey, these guys just may catch on.” It’s not entirely my fault, though. I was living in New York City at the time, meaning the only thing I could hear on the radio was sports talk.

Regardless, I’m still a fan of the band, and I’m greatly looking forward to Dig Out Your Soul, their new album due out October 7th in the U.S. It’s good to know there are still rock bands out there who always look like they really want to beat you up…and could.

And it’s even better to know an A-list band such as Oasis is making use of Apple’s GarageBand. In a recent interview with MusicRadar.com, chief songwriter, guitarist and sometimes vocalist Noel Gallagher explained that after taking four-and-a-half years to record Don’t Believe the Truth, Oasis ditched their elaborate home studio and started recording demos on guitarist Gem Archer’s “...little GarageBand computer.” The reasons for this aren’t entirely flattering, but would you expect one of the Gallagher brothers to flatter someone? No, and I wouldn’t want them to.

Head on over to MusicRadar.com for the full interview, featuring more on GarageBand, as well as Noel’s hilarious (but rather insightful) take on Guitar Hero.

Via [MusicRadar.com] Preorder [Dig Out Your Soul]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The iPhone and iPod touch have a pretty good amount of storage space on them, but let’s face it—your music library is likely larger than the space you have on your device. So, you have to pick and choose which songs you want to have with you at all times. That problem must have bugged Simplify Media, because they’ve got an app to help keep you and your music together forever.

The app, also called Simplify Media, lets you stream songs from your home computer and even your friends’ computers; up to 30 in total. All you have to do is download the app for your Mac, Linux, or PC, create an account on their website, and then get the app for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

With Simplify Media, you’ll not only get audio, but song and artist details, cover art, and lyrics, if available. You can browse through your library and that of your friends over WiFi, 3G and EDGE. The app will be free for the first 100,000 downloads on the app store, so jump quick if this looks like your kind of app.

Here’s an intro video detailing the program:

Product [Simplify Media]

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Cynical Peak Software has announced that Rivet, an application that will help you stream your digital life (music, photos, movies) from Mac OS X to your Windows Xbox 360, has been released as version 1.1, bringing better media browsing support while fixing stability issues. More specifically, it makes media updating on your computer more CPU friendly and transcoded images more hard drive friendly. It supports a slew of formats, including AAC, MP3, WMA, H.264, DIVX, AVI, WMV, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, RAW, TIFF, PSD, and PDF, and costs $18.95.

One of my favorite features of this application would have to be the organization aspect. According to the description, Rivet makes sure that, “[e]very movie or photo folder that you share is exactly replicated on your Xbox 360.” You are then able to “[o]rganize them into subfolders by TV show, genre, or whatever you want. The entire folder structure will be there. No more scrolling through a huge, flat list.”

Sounds pretty great to me, I might even buy this myself to make use of that 360 I have lying around. Let’s just hope this streaming doesn’t give it the red ring of death...I can’t handle any more of those.

Product [Rivet]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Those who want a digital stereo voice recorder with Apple reliability and Alesis quality, this is for you. Last Friday, Alesis announced the new ProTrack iPod recording system. 

With this tool, you can slip in your iPod (2G or 3G Nano, 5G Video, and iPod Classic are supported), and, using either an included AC power adapter or AAA batteries, record away. From the Alesis Press Release:

ProTrack provides convenient, direct-to-iPod stereo digital recording to iPod in a portable, handheld form factor. Users can capture live audio anywhere and anytime with their iPod or iPod nano. ProTrack’s smart design integrates the iPod into the recorder, with included sleds to securely mount supported iPod models to the recorder.

As you can see from the quote, the ProTrack is mainly aimed at musicians, but the accessory could be used for any other type of recording need. The attachment includes a universal iPod dock, integrated microphones, LED indicators, and knobs for power, limiter and volume. No word on the price as of yet, and this one can be expected sometime later this year.

Via [Engadget] 

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SonicMood, an ambient music generator from Bit of Paradise, just got some great new features. The newest release, version 4.8.6, provides the user with refined software and a brand new service from Bit of Paradise: SonicMood MP3s. From the application, you can download either a 30 minute or 120 minute version of all 28 moods provided in the application.

You may think, “Ambient music. Oh, that’s nice.” But there is more to it then just noise. A recent study conducted by the American Society of Hypertension proved that listening to just 30 minutes of ambient music with a homogenous rhythm can “significantly reduce high blood pressure,” along with other health benefits, such as being a natural sleep aid. Another benefit to SonicMood over ambient music found on the web is that SonicMood’s music is generated “automagically.” Automagically is the term coined by Bits of Paradise for the algorithms that generate ambient music, making it so the user will never hear the same sequences twice. 

Other new features in 4.8.6 is shortened code, improved drag and drop functionality, and many other new features, some of them not visible to the user. SonicMood costs $12.95. 30 minute MP3s are $1.69 and 120 minute MP3s are $3.49. All are available from the SonicMood website.

Product [SonicMood]

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Are you sick of the boring old iTunes interface for searching through your music? If so, be sure to check out Cover Stream. Using iTunes cover flow view, Cover Stream gives you all the control you could ever want over your music and stays out of your way while it does it. Cover Stream has a beautiful interface with support for full screen and the Apple remote, making it the perfect app for a party machine. You can even search your music, customize shortcuts, and connect to your Last.fm account right from the Cover Stream interface. If you still aren’t sure if this is the app for you, download a trial or watch the demo.

Coming in at around $28.86, Cover Stream only works with Mac OS X Leopard and iTunes 7.5 or higher. However, that price will give you free updates for life. This application not only looks super easy to navigate through, it is also beautiful. Using a heads-up display (HUD) and high quality album art, Cover Stream brings the fun back to searching through your music collection. Check it out and let us know how it is!

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Computer Music, a popular British magazine about just that, has featured GarageBand in its latest issue. The feature includes coherent guides on everything from starting a project to publishing it in iTunes. Also included in the issue is a demo disc, featuring 12 video tutorials and 200 high quality loops for GarageBand as part of Remix Tools, a JamPack add-on from Apple. The following is from a preview of the issue on Computer Music’s website:

“From first steps with Magic GarageBand to publishing your tracks on iTunes, everything you need to know is here, teamed with audio demos and GarageBand songs to remix on the included disc.”

The magazine is available on UK news stands now.

Via [Apple Hot News]

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As if the MacHeist Bundle wasn’t an amazingly good deal already, MacHeist has added two more great apps to the mix.  Those apps are Vector Designer from TweakerSoft and Sound Studio from Freeverse. These apps bring the total number of apps in the bundle up to a whopping 14, with the value now weighing in at almost $500. There is an almost 90% discount on the bundle, which sinks the price to a measly $49. To put the icing on the cake, the purchase of the bundle will also help your karma, as 25% of the profits are donated to a charity. The charities to which you can choose to donate to include Direct Relief International, Save Darfur, The Humane Society, Action Against Hunger, The Natural Conservancy, Save the Children, World Wildlife Foundation, Prevent Cancer Foundation, AIDS Research Alliance and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Although Vector Designer is available in the Bundle now, Sound Studio will not be available until $50,000 has been donated to charity, which is about $15,000 away.

Via [Mac OS X Rumors]   

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The Keynote may be the main attraction at WWDC, but there is always much more to come even after Steve leaves the stage. In today’s WWDC happenings, the Apple team detailed the server version of Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. The following comes from a MacNN report.

“As with [Consumer Version of Mac OS 10.6], Server will focus on making all aspects of the OS mutlicore-ready through Grand Central, with the option of tapping into GPU power via OpenCL. Because Server will operate on a 64-bit kernel, it should in theory support up to 16TB of RAM.”

iCal, Mail and Address Book will all be receiving upgrades, increasing their speed and stability. Other highlights include the addition of Podcast Producer 2, along with native programs and templates for creating blogs, wikis, mailing lists, and RSS Feeds.

Via [MacNN]

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For those with fledgling Apple lovers at home, put this in your iCal. The schedule for this summer’s Apple Camp has been announced by Apple. If you have a child between ages 8 and 12, be sure to snag one of the free (but limited) spaces for lessons on the creative aspects of a Mac, such as how to create a good Keynote presentation, how to capture, manage, and edit shots in iPhoto, how to make custom music in GarageBand, and videography tips with iMovie. 

Registration is open now, so be sure to claim a spot ASAP.  Sessions last three hours and include a shirt, field guide, DVDs and CDs of your child’s masterpieces, along with other goodies picked up during giveaways along the way. Register at Apple.

Via [TUAW]

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Tutorial-video vendor macProVideo.com, in conjunction with Apogee and Universal Audio, has launched a remix contest with Olav Basoski. I don’t know much about this Olav fellow, but I’m told he’s an influential artist in the dance music industry, having produced hundreds of hit records. Regardless, the contest offers participants the opportunity to take an original Olav Basoski mix and make it their own. And, more importantly, to win a MacBook Pro.

Contestants will download a song by Olav, and then use their preferred DAW (digital audio workstation) to create a remix. The best remix (as judged by macProVideo.com in conjunction with Olav Basoski) will win a Logic Studio workstation that includes the following items:

• A MacBook Pro
• A Copy of Logic Studio
• An Apogee Duet (supplied by Apogee)
• A UAD-Xpander Xtreme (Supplied by Universal Audio)

For full contest details, visit the contest page at macProVideo.com.

Good luck!

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Okay, its official. 3G iPhone rumors have become a little too much. Asking “Will a 3G iPhone be released at WWDC?” is up there with the likes of “Does a bear use the restroom in the woods?” and “Is the Pope Catholic?”  In other words, yes. It will be there. I am willing to bet my first-born son on that (though you may be waiting a good 10 to 15 years for a payout should I be mistaken, but, as you may see above, I’m pretty darn sure I’m not). 

Now that I have stated how certain I am of 3G at WWDC, let’s start a new discussion. Other than the look and feel of the new iPhone, what will be changed in iPhone OS 2.0? Read on to hear my take on the subject.

1. iChat - This is one of the most disappointing app lacks from iPhone 1.0. Currently, you cannot enable any kind of AIM client without first Jailbreaking your iPhone—an act that voids your warranty and makes Steve mad. As you may know, it can get you banned for life from Apple stores. There will be some serious booage from the WWDC crowd should Apple not bring this one home.
2. Video Conferencing - A less anticipated feature than iChat, but important nonetheless. Many 3G iPhone rumors have speculated that there will be a a camera not only on the backside, but on the front, as well. This could add an interesting aspect to an already loved product. It’s hard to tell whether this possible feature would appeal more to the intrepid on-the-go business man or the kid-at-heart (or just the kid) who wants to share LOLCats pictures with their friends.
3. Blogging App - Another possible great app for the iPhone. I think this app would be good if there was a partnership between Apple and one of the major blog hosts, such as Blogsmith or Blogger.
4. Digital Video Capabilities - Another missed feature in iPhone 1.0. I think an app like this would be well received. Almost all cameraphones, and not just the smartphones, have this capability. Come on, Steve. You guys are supposed to outperform destroy the competition.

Just imagine collective “Huh?” at WWDC if Steve made the special point of saying no 3G iPhone. Now that would be a disappointment of Vista proportions.

Any thing I missed here? Anything you want to see in iPhone 2.0? Let your voice be heard in the comments below!

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apimac has just upgraded its easy-to-use Slideshow utility for the Mac with Release 2. For those not in the loop, Apimac’s Slideshow software allows users to create cool slideshows of moviews, sound and images that can be fully optimized for uploading to YouTube, CD-ROM, web sites, iPods, mobile devices and of course the Macs.

With Slideshow 08 Release 2, Apimac has added several useful features that will definitely make you upgrade your installation if you already have the previous version in your Mac. Or if you haven’t yet,  these new features might prompt you to get a copy of the software. These new features include, new media browser which gives you a more organize and highly intuitive way of managing your digital media, facility to export your slideshow to an iDVD project, facility to export your content to a self-contained format, instant self-updating, and more.

You can have Slideshow 08 Release 2 either in standard version for $37 or in the professional edition for $54. Make sure you have Mac OS X v10.4 or later running on your Mac with a full 512MB Ram to run the software properly.

Via [Macworld] Product [Apimac]

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The World Trade Organization and members of the G8 are working on new regulations that would instate an international Copyright Police.  The tasks of that force would include many things, but there are two main purposes.  the first would be to monitor Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to sniff out any pirate’s.  The second purpose would be to monitor international borders and customs installments to possibly search and seize your iPod, iPhone, computer, or any other electronic device with pirated music.  Andy Space for 9 to 5 Mac reports the following:

Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police.  Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

And to pour some salt into the wounds, the investigator of said devices has complete discretion on whether any music on it is infringing any copyrights, and has the authority to do anything from heavy fines to a total seizure of the device.  And here’s the doozy- the investigator doesn’t even have to tell you why he applies said punishment to said crime.  Everything in this proposal seems like the brass is taking a “Stalinist” approach to the war against pirates, and everything seems a bit extreme, from the unwarranted searches and seizures to having Big Brother looking over your shoulder while you’re on the internet.  I think that there are certain steps to preventing copyright infringement that are much less harsh, in some ways more effective, and not in the G8’s proposal’s.  Wouldn’t that ruin your trip top France is some random customs officer thinks that any of your music on your iPhone was obtained illegally and seizes it and sbsequently destroys it without explanation or warrant?  That would sure tick me off. 

Originally, these restrictions were being written up in secret, but certain US privacy groups implemented the Freedom of Information Act after getting wind of the proceedings. 

Via [The Ottawa Citizen]

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According to the latest iPhone firmware release, Apple is currently working on an iTunes controller for your iPhone called, you guessed it, iControl.  This application would allow you to wirelessly browse your iTunes library from a local source and stream your music and other content.  This information came from a group of strings in the latest beta release of the new iPhone software and could be one of the apps Apple will be releasing themselves when the SDK comes out.  If you’ll remember, back in July, Apple applied for a patent for this sort of thing.  That patent stated:

A portable multimedia player (such as the iPod. manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) is used to wirelessly access and control a media server (such as a personal computer running iTunes software) that is streaming digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit (such as a stereo/speakers in the case of streaming digital audio).

This all sounds pretty cool to me and would be another great addition to the phone.  However, it leaves me wondering whether or not, like above, other iPods will get the same functionality.  It may be kind of hard at this point considering all iPods (besides the Touch) have yet to receive some sort of wifi connectivity.  Could this be a sneak peak of things to come?

Via [TUAW]

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The mEgg Hunt, “brings seasonal fun” where Mac users will surf a Mac developer’s site and try to find an egg. Once they find an egg they’ll receive a code towards 20% off the purchase of the software. The Easter mEgg Hunt just revealed the list of participants, so once you see them, get hunting! (Then reading Apple news)

Apokalypse Software Corp. - Mori - Your notes, organized / Clockwork - On time, in style
Azure Talon Software - Exces - file encryption made easy
Black Cat Systems - Productivity Software for the Macintosh
Boinx Software Ltd. - Makers of iStopMotion FotoMagico and Mousepose
Chimp Software - Turn your Mac into a $2000 alarm clock with iRooster
Critical Matter, Inc. - Color Picker Pro: professional CSS and HTML color picker
www.x-tables.eu - Developer of Tables
DayTime Software - Makers of Differencia, The Data Comparison Tool
Dejal Systems - Simon, Time Out, Caboodle, Narrator, BlogAssist & Macfilink
Fluidmac - Creativity tools for Mac OS X
GroupSmarts, LLC. - MemoryMiner: Award-winning Digital Storytellin
Houdah Software - Makers of HoudahGeo & HoudahSpot
Indev Software - Revolutionary Enhancements for OS X Mail.app
Karelia Software - Sandvox - Easy, Elegant Website Creation
Lemke Software GmbH. - GraphicConverter & CADintosh
MildMannered Industries - Software for Superheroes
nova media MDS GmbH. - Worldwide mobile Internet access
Outer Level - LicenseKeeper - Keep your serial numbers safe outerlevel.com
Volitans Software - Makers of SMART Utility
Yellow Mug Software - Maker of
YourView - FileChute, EasyBatchPhoto, and more

Wow, that is quite a bit of software, and some good discounts Mac users can benefit from.

Via [macPRcaster]

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It’s looking like a pretty good chance that The Beatles library is finally coming to iTunes. ThisIsLondon.co.uk reports that Paul McCartney is selling the Beatles’ back catalogue online, valued at over £200 million. Apparently he is selling this to help with his highly publicized divorce from Heather Mills.

The Beatles’ singles and albums, including “Help!,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and “The White Album,” are expected to be on iTunes anytime this year following the divorce proceedings.

There have been rumors at about every Apple event about the Beatles coming to iTunes, but this one seems to really make sense.

Via [ThisIsLondon]

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Engadget reports that this weeks’ Circuit City circular shows a purple iPod Nano. The photo above is confirmed by the online screenshot linked at the bottom, and I can confirm that this appeared in my Sunday newspaper as well. The purple appears in place of the pink, but it is highly unlikely that Apple would discontinue the pink so soon, unless it was designed as a special edition Valentines Day version.

This update would bring the number of Nano models up to 8 (4GB silver, 8GB silver, black, green, blue, red, pink, purple). It is worth it to note that the color as a whole looks a little off in the iPod Nano photo, but not enough to have turned the pink iPod purple. Circuit City’s website photo for the Nano shows pink, and no sign of purple.

If this is a true update, it would be reasonable to expect it this Tuesday, for yet another update week in Apple’s calendar.

Read [Engadget] See [Ad Page]

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Dragon NaturallySpeaking, developed by Nuance software, is one of the world’s best speech recognition applications for Windows - and my favorite, too. If you’ve ever tried Windows Vista’s built-in speech recognition, you would know how bad it is - but this is not the case with Dragon. NaturallySpeaking does what the name says, you speak naturally, and it understands you perfectly. Their technology is way ahead of anything Microsoft or Apple has ever included in their operating systems. MacSpeech have just signed a license with Nuance to bring the software to Mac, under the name Dictate. As you may know, MacSpeech have had another product for quite some time now called iListen. Current customers of iListen are being offered a discount on Dictate’s price ($199) for $99, as they are stopping development of iListen. If you bought iListen in 2008, then you can get it for just $29.

MacSpeech assures that Dictate will be just as good as Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows. “Now for the first time, Mac users can begin dictating straight into their applications with very little time spent training the software to recognize their voice.” Dictate has already won the ‘Macworld 2008 Best of Show’ award, so I’m sure this is going to be one 2008’s best Mac apps. I can’t wait to try it out.

Via [MacUser]

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For a while now, Skype for Windows has been far ahead then the version for Mac. Now, Skype has a released a new version with a couple of handy features that some of us may like. The most useful to me is the ability to add your whole address book into your Skype contacts, so you can easily send someone a text message or call them without having to look up their number (assuming you already have it in your address book).

The new version also features a volume slider on each call, so you can control the volume of just your call if necessary. The beta is available for download from Skype.com.

Read [Skype]

Full Story » | Written by James Bayliss for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

With the recent release of iTunes 7.2 we are now given the option of purchasing the standard track or a higher quality DRM free version on EMI tracks with iTunes Plus. For some (myself included) the DRM free version may not be wanted, I am not a fan of DRM but I am also an Apple and iPod user so for me the DRM is a non-issue. TUAW has a great tip on disabling the iTunes Plus feature so you will not be given the option every time you make a purchase, and you can still switch it back should you change your mind later.

1. Sign into your iTunes account and select View My Account from the Store Menu.
2. Sign in once again (yes, I know! How annoying!) and click on Manage iTunes Plus.
3. Uncheck the box marked “Always show me iTunes Plus music and music videos when available” and click Save Changes.

Read [TUAW.com]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

So with all the hype around Leopard this year, it seems Steve forgot to mention some other updates in Apple software. Secretly updated, Front Row in Leopard works like your Apple TV to play digital media from your mac using your Apple remote.

The new interface resembles that of the Apple TV with menu items down the right side and a small image or preview to the left. This isn’t a huge update, but be sure to let us know if you find anything else hidden on the new Apple site. On a side note, the new design is smoking, but it looks like Apple spent more time on their new site than they did with new Leopard features.

Read [Apple.com]

Full Story » | Written by Michael Yurechko for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »