Weekly App Store Picks: September 26, 2009

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As another week draws to a close, the App Store expands even further with a torrent of new toys and tools. As ever, I’ve hand-picked four recent iPhone releases for you to take a look at. This week I’ve given our picks a creative vibe, selecting four different apps that let you engage with your artistic and cultural side. My top pick for the week is Xewton Music Studio, plus I’ve been looking at Snapture, GraffitiGeo and McSweeney’s. Xewton Music Studio ($19.99) Armed with an iPhone, there’s never been so much choice for making music on the move. Despite all the choice, the recording app I keep coming back to is FourTrack . It’s a fully-featured 4 track recorder, complete with bouncing, panning, metronome and Wi-Fi sharing. When it comes to full on audio sequencing and sketching out bigger ideas, I head for Intua’s BeatMaker .

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Jul

Apple Releases New Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio

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Today, Apple released a huge update for its Pro series of audio/video editing applications, including both the Final Cut and Logic Studio suites of applications. People (and businesses) who need the extra muscle of Pro applications (as compared with the iLife suite, for example) will be happy to note that with this latest update, Apple has dropped the price for Final Cut Studio by a very respectable $300, from $1,299 to $999 for the full studio package, or $299 for existing users to upgrade. Final Cut Studio Final Cut Studio includes Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5, Compressor 3.5 and DVD Studio Pro 4. While all of the applications included in the suite received an upgrade, Final Cut Pro bears the most significant changes over its previous iteration. New features include iChat Theater support, so that you can actually edit collaboratively in real-time while working remotely. It’s a great way for Apple to leverage existing tools in an innovative way to provide a truly useful function for people editing media, since collaborators don’t even need to have Final Cut installed. There are also new Change Speed and Share windows, which give you better control over video speed changes and the ability to preview your content when exporting for web, Blu-ray or Apple devices. There are also new and improved versions of Apple’s ProRes codec.

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Jan

Sound Blaster for iTunes to Give Your Library a Boost

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Today, Creative announced yet another addition to their venerable Sound Blaster line of products. The device had its debut not at Macworld, but at CES, which, I might remind some of those with Apple tunnel vision, is going on right now in Las Vegas. While desert grit isn’t normally great for electronics, CES is, and the new Sound Blaster for iTunes might have some Apple hi-fi fanatics excited. Like the X-Fi (xtreme fidelity, in case you were wondering) external audio card whose technology it uses, the Sound Blaster for iTunes is an external, USB peripheral. It’s main purpose is to enhance the quality of your iTunes music library, and anything else you may use iTunes for, including internet radio streams and movie audio. Curiously, it also claims to improve the quality of things like Pandora, and basically any sound your computer makes, so I’m not entirely sure what the difference is between this and, say, the X-Fi Go. Upon closer inspection, the Sound Blaster for iTunes does boast the somewhat ambiguous quality of “enabl[ing] you to use the iTunes interface.” Also, it works as a transmitter for Sound Blaster’s wireless stereo system components, including regular speakers connected to their Creative Wireless Receivers, and directly to the Creative T20W Series II speakers, which have a receiver built in. I actually have a pair of the Creative T20 Series II speakers (the non-wireless ones), and I’m more than happy with them, so the prospect of wireless ones is intriguing

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Jan

Sound Blaster for iTunes to Give Your Library a Boost

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Jan

Phil Schiller vs. Steve Jobs: Comparing Macworld 2009 to August 2007 Special Event

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With Phil Schiller’s Macworld keynote fresh in our minds from only two days ago, I wonder how many Mac fans remember the Special Event of August 2007. In terms of what was discussed they have a lot in common, so it’s worthwhile to review them to see just how Phil did in comparison to a Steve event. For those who have forgotten, in August 2007 was the event where the aluminum iMacs were first introduced. In addition, the new versions of iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 were introduced. The entire presentation was done by Steve Jobs. Here are all the things Steve had going for him in that presentation. (more…) Concentric Hosted IT Solutions and Web Hosting Click here to save cost on your IT demands

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