Mashable: Latest 12 News Updates - including “8 Musical iPad Apps for the Digital Maestro” |
- 8 Musical iPad Apps for the Digital Maestro
- Mark Zuckerberg’s First Stop in China: Baidu Headquarters
- Google TV Devices Delayed As Google Tweaks Software [REPORT]
- Tough Tech: 10 Rugged Gadgets That Will Go the Distance
- Former Yahoo Exec: “Delicious Is in Peril,” Sale Unlikely
- Manslator, the Ideal Communication Enhancer [RANDOMLY VIRAL]
- 22 Essential Resources for Android Owners
- Google Rolls Out Shared Spaces Using Wave Technology
- UK Conservatives Want to Block All Internet Porn
- Facebook App for iOS Gets Updated With Useful Enhancements
- Google Gives $5M Worth of Java GUI Tools to Eclipse
- “SNL” Skewers Zuckerberg: Is WikiLeaks’ Assange the Hero? [VIDEO]
- 40 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed
| 8 Musical iPad Apps for the Digital Maestro Posted: 20 Dec 2010 05:42 AM PST      Peter Meyers is a digital book producer and the author of Best iPad Apps (O’Reilly Media). He's covered the intersection of writing and technology for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired and blogs at anewkindofbook.com. Early iPad critics were sure about one thing: This gadget was going to be for consuming, not creating. iPadders, the argument went, will spend all their time feasting on “The Man’s” media (movies, music, TV shows) while their own creative urges whithered. Turns out, people love making stuff with their iPads, and not just the pros. The App Store is packed with ingenious tune-making tools that can turn iTunes lovers into active players. None of the apps that you’ll read about below will make you a maestro, but they are fun ways to make some noise. Who knows, maybe there’s a maestro in you yet. 1. SoundropThis simple-to-operate, impossible-to-exhaust take on tune building will lure you into endless amounts of time spent with your iPad. You "compose" by positioning one or many line segments beneath a drip-drop cascade of music-generating pellets. As each dot hits the various lines, the app plays a note. Add more lines, tweak their positions, and watch this do-it-yourself production unfold. The free version offers a stripped down palette: Line segments produce one sound only (part wind chime, part marimba.) Upgrade to Pro ($2) via an in-app purchase for the real goodies: Multiple instruments (piano, saxophone and synthesizer); tempo, beats-per-minute controls and the ability to save your creations. Price: Free, $2 2. ImproVoxToday's music stars famously benefit from the vocal equivalent of plastic surgery: A little AutoTune-aided voice sprucing. So there's no shame in us musically challenged crooners seeking a similar boost. The remarkable thing about this app is that its assistance is delivered as you sing. Some serious computer science wizardry went into this feat — most software-powered music magic is added post production. Here you simply plug in any earphones with a mic, start singing, and add harmonies and effects (auto-wah and flanger are especially fun). Save and export when you're done. Price: $7.99 3. Glee KaraokeKaraoke has never been less humiliating with this voice-primping singalong software. Among its other talents, the app software magically keeps you on pitch, adds optional harmonies and turns your iPad into an iPrompter with highlighted lyrics appearing as the instrument track plays. Three songs come with the app but you can buy more Glee-ified songs for a buck a pop. Bonus treats include the chance to listen to recordings made worldwide by other app-using fans, the ability to share your own efforts or a feature that lets you join in and add your voice to songs other fans have posted. Price: $0.99 4. ThumbJamIf the best you can do with a piano is play “Three Blind Mice,” give this hugely popular alternative a try. Not only do you get substantially more eclectic sound options than most app synthesizers (darabukka or a round sine, anyone?), each comes with its own uniquely designed "play area." Some sorta/kinda look like a piano (picture the keys arranged in a vertical stack of rows). Others offer a big chunky grid. There are hundreds of ready-to-use scales included — from common ones like major and minor to Javanese Pentachord — putting music-making within reach of amateurs. It's actually a bit of a challenge to play something that sounds bad. Shape your tunes further by moving your iPad. Shake for vibrato, for example. Recording and sharing options aplenty make it easy to let others sample what you've made. Price: $6.99 5. Bloom HDAt first glance this app appears to be nothing more than a stream of cool tones — some triggered by you, others played by the app itself — accompanied by visual bubbles. But that's like mistaking yoga for mere stretching. What's on offer here is a new kind of audio/visual instrument cooked up by ambient sound guru Brian Eno. You start by listening and looking at the app, which gradually takes on a trance-like, zen flavor. Swirling your finger in this multimedia koi pond by tapping the screen and watch as your finger placement generates its own sounds and circles. Every action you do contributes to the layers of sound — bridging the gap between instrument and multimedia experience. The app feels part your creation and part travel to EnoVille. Price: $3.99 6. Bubble HarpThis odd, charming app will fascinate as many people as it frustrates. The developer calls it "a combination of drawing, animation, music, art, geometry, and gaming. You can record long movements of a single point, or stream many points out of your fingertips like ink." Practically speaking, what you'll mainly do is swipe the screen and watch the pulsing line (representing the current note being played) spider across the web you've helped make. Tap the note-shaped icon to adjust the chords that play. It's wacky; it's wonderful; it's worth a buck or two. Price: $1.99 7. GrooveMaker Free for iPadToday's DJs work digitally and you can too with this portable beat-spinning station. What's most impressive is what's within reach of newbie MCs. After familiarizing yourself with the cockpit-complex console (flatten the learning curve by checking out some tutorials), the soundscapes you can create are stunning. Fill up to eight tracks with an almost infinitely customizable assortment of loops. You can pick these loops from a few dozen that come free with the app or buy genre-specific collections: hip hop, reggae, and so on. When you've got your track collection all set, save it so you can start sequencing. This final step is where you stitch together and then export your tune as a high-quality version of the mix you've made. Price: Free 8. Relax Melodies HD The name of this app perfectly captures the service it aims to provide. Yes, it's got a bunch of mechanical noise replicas (white noise, train tracks), but what it's really good for are all things melodious: wind chimes, zen tones, flutes and pleasant interpretations of themes like “Immersed,” “Night” and the slightly tautological “Melody.” Play each sound separately or mix them together by using the simple tap-to-activate controls. A built-in sleep timer and favorites list make this some easy listening that you'll actually want to turn on. Price: Free What apps made your list? Are there any tips or tools you can recommend? Let us know in the comments below. More Music Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Freeartist More About: App, apple, gadgets, ipad, List, Lists, music, musician, tech, technology For more Apple coverage:
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| Mark Zuckerberg’s First Stop in China: Baidu Headquarters Posted: 20 Dec 2010 04:50 AM PST   Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is visiting China, and one of his first stops was the Beijing headquarters of China’s largest search engine Baidu. Photos of Zuckerberg in Baidu quickly appeared online, and Baidu’s director of international communications Kaiser Kuo confirmed that Zuckerberg was indeed there. “Obviously I’m not going to deny what’s in the pictures,” Kuo told the Associated Press, adding that Zuckerberg had lunch with Baidu CEO Robin Li. Of course, such a visit will inevitably spark a whirlwind of rumors, which Kuo jokingly set aside. “Rumors that Baidu is about to acquire Facebook are greatly exaggerated,” he tweeted. Zuckerberg’s visit to China and Baidu raise a lot of questions. Besides Russia, China is another huge market Facebook has yet to conquer. Like many other online services, Facebook is blocked in China; does Zuckerberg have a plan to overcome the great firewall of China, and can Baidu help him do that? So far, the vast Chinese market has proved to be an unsolvable riddle to many western companies, including Google, which is struggling to catch up with Baidu, and which at one point even considered pulling out of China completely in the name of free speech. If Facebook manages to convince China to open up, it will be a huge win for the service – not only because of China’s 1.3 billion potential users, but because other Internet giants failed to do so. Image courtesy of Tech.sina.com.cn More About: Baidu, facebook, Kaiser Kuo, mark zuckerberg, Robin Li For more Business coverage:
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| Google TV Devices Delayed As Google Tweaks Software [REPORT] Posted: 20 Dec 2010 01:24 AM PST   We won’t be seeing too many Google TV-powered devices at the next CES, which takes place in Las Vegas in January, because Google needs more time to work on the software, reports the New York Times citing unnamed sources. Right now, Google’s original partners for Google TV – Sony and Logitech – are the only ones actually selling the devices. Samsung and Vizio are still supposed to reveal their Google TV devices at CES, but we’ll have to wait a little longer for devices from Toshiba, Sharp and LG. We can expect more Google TV devices after the software is updated, which will probably mean the addition of the Android Market. It should happen sometime next year, NYT’s sources claim. This is another in a series of obstacles for Google’s foray into TV space; after receiving some lackluster initial reviews, Google TV suffered another blow when it got blocked by several U.S. major broadcast and cable networks. [via New York Times] More About: CES, Google, google tv, LG, logitech, Sharp, sony, television, Toshiba For more Tech coverage:
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| Tough Tech: 10 Rugged Gadgets That Will Go the Distance Posted: 19 Dec 2010 09:48 PM PST   If you’re looking for gadgetry that can withstand the rigors of the outdoors or just the chaos of everyday life, there are some great options out there, from waterproof cameras to fireproof data protection. Our selection of gadgets will take whatever you can throw at it (or in some cases throw it at) and keep on going, ideal for anyone who lives life to the fullest and expects their kit to keep up with them. Have a look through our tough top 10 below and let us know in the comments which of these rugged, tough-tested gadgets you’d pack in your bag. 1. Olympus Stylus Tough-8010 Waterproof down to 33 feet, shockproof to drops of up to 6.6 feet, freezeproof to -10 degrees Celsius and crushproof up to 220 pounds of pressure, the Stylus Tough-8010 is built to endure. Along with all that durability you get a 14-megapixel, 5x zoom, 2.7-inch LCD display camera with the ability to capture all your adventures in 720p HD video. Cost: $379.99 2. Motorola Defy Most tough handsets offer very basic functionality, but not the Defy from Motorola, which is loaded with Android 2.1 and a full feature set. There’s a 5-megapixel camera with video capture, media playback, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The fact that it’s water resistant and dust proof is a bonus for anyone who doesn’t want to have to wrap their phone up in cotton wool. Cost: Varies 3. Kodak Playsport Zx3 These teeny handheld camcorders can record 1080p video footage in up to 10 feet of water. Other outdoorsy features include an LCD Glare Shield to improve viewing the display in bright conditions and built-in electronic image stabilization to help cut out blur. Oh, and it knows how to survive a hit or a drop. Cost: $149.95 4. LaCie XtremKey This USB flash drive is “10-ton truck” resistant — as tested by a real truck driving over the key. If you want data storage that’s as hard as nails, this is a great option. The XtremKey’s “zamac” outer will help protect from up to 100 meters of water, 5-meter drops and temperature extremes. Cost: From $49.99 to $249.99 5. Sony Heavy Duty CD Radio Built for workshops and job sites, Sony’s heavy duty radio can take some punishment and keep pumping out the tunes. The radio is water and dust resistance thanks to rubber gaskets, bushings and waterproof seals. Other tough stuff includes a safe guard bar and protective speaker grills. Cost: $129.95 6. Garmin Dakota 20 Anyone who likes to hit the trail on the weekend will know the importance of having a durable kit. The entry-level Dakota range from Garmin offers satellite navigation, a barometric altimeter and a 3-axis electronic compass in a durable shell designed to survive all that the elements can throw at it. Cost: $349.99 7. BlueAnt T1 Rugged Bluetooth Headset The beauty of a rugged headset is that it means you can keep your more delicate phone tucked away safely in your pocket. The T1 is highly durable — able to cope with knocks, drops, dust and moisture. BlueAnt’s “Wind Armour Technology” also boasts clear audio in winds of up to 35 kph, so you should be sure of being heard, even if it’s blowing a gale. Cost: $79.99 8. ioSafe Solo Described as a “virtual fortress for your data,” the ioSafe Solo is built to survive both fire and flood. Even if the worst happens to your home or office, your vital information and digital content will be saved. In addition, it can be bolted down to protect against theft. Cost: From $149 9. Getac 9213 Designed to “survive all types of travel-related mishandlings,” the 9213 is not as toughed up as some fully rugged laptops, but it can take a few knocks and keep on going. It’s drop-safe to 45 cm, and the keyboard is water resistant too so its ideal for any clumsy computer users who need to accident-proof their portable PC. Cost: Varies 10. Casio G-Shock Watches There are tons of tough tech in Casio’s ever-popular G-Shock timepiece. The watches are waterproof, shockproof and can withstand icy temperatures. With a wide range of designs and colors, for men and women, if you’re a bit of an action hero in your spare time, you can’t go wrong with one of these strapped to your wrist. Cost: Varies More Gadget Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Android, Bluetooth More About: BlueAnt, casio, gadgets, garmin, Getac, ioSafe, Kodak, LaCie, List, Lists, Motorola, olympus, rugged, sony, tech, waterproof For more Tech coverage:
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| Former Yahoo Exec: “Delicious Is in Peril,” Sale Unlikely Posted: 19 Dec 2010 08:37 PM PST   While rumors and responses about bookmarking service Delicious swirl around the web, one former Yahoo and Delicious employee who maintains close ties with relevant teams says the service’s future is most certainly in jeopardy — in fact, he speculates that while the data may end up stored somewhere, the service itself has a slim chance of survival. During the past week, a slide from a Yahoo all-hands meeting was leaked; the slide showed that Yahoo was calling “sunset” on Delicious. Yahoo retorted the following day that it wasn’t killing off Delicious; rather, it planned to sell the service. Internally, we wondered who would want to buy the easily replicable, none-too-profitable site. Now, Stephen Hood, who has held senior and director-level project management positions at Yahoo and Delicious since 2005, has added his voice to the mix “as someone who was on the inside for a while and who wants very much to see Delicious live on.” In a blog post today, Hood states the obvious — that Yahoo has already laid off much of the Delicious team and doesn’t plan to maintain the service itself — and the not-so-obvious, including some tidbits about Delicious’s technology that indicate it might not be a good buy for another company. “During my time at Delicious,” Hood writes, “we rebuilt the entire infrastructure to deeply leverage a number of internal Yahoo technologies. It's all great stuff but not exactly easy to remove or replace. Yahoo may have to license some of this technology to the buyer.” For the same reason, Hood states that open-sourcing the service doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ultimately, Hood believes Delicious’s best bet is to survive as an archive of ” the collective online journeys of millions of users during a time when the Web was evolving dramatically,” perhaps through an entity such as the Library of Congress. In that case, Delicious would cease to operate as a service with users and features; only the data would remain as a sort of digital scrapbook. In a best-case scenario, Yahoo itself would facilitate and manage the exporting of public Delicious data. And of course, users and developers are already working on exporting tools in a grass-roots way. In the meantime, we’re holding our breath to see if Delicious will find a buyer. We hope for the sake of the site’s founder that his product has a future — and we hope that future is brighter than Delicious’s recent past with Yahoo. Reviews: Delicious For more Tech coverage:
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| Manslator, the Ideal Communication Enhancer [RANDOMLY VIRAL] Posted: 19 Dec 2010 04:48 PM PST Manslator could be perfect for someone on your list. There’s only a week left until Christmas, so maybe it’s time to pick up a unique gadget for that very special someone. Clear, precise communication is at the heart of every healthy relationship, so maybe this little bauble is exactly what some guys need. Of course, we’re not talking about Mashable readers… no way. Reviews: Mashable More About: gadgets, humor, Manslator, viral videos For more Web Video coverage:
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| 22 Essential Resources for Android Owners Posted: 19 Dec 2010 03:53 PM PST   If you have an Android device in need of apps, boy do we have some tools and resources for you. The holidays are fast approaching and whether you’re stuck at your grandmother’s house or working overtime, we’ve got a list of Android apps and tools to help you have a little fun, while away the hours, or get that last piece of work done and out. This list has a wide range of apps including popular games like Angry Birds, photography tools like FXCamera, and business apps like Box.net. Read through for some sweet pics for your Android device and let us know in the comments below which were the most fun (or useful). 
 Image courtesy of Flickr, lwallenstein. Reviews: Android, Android Market, Angry Birds, Flickr, YouTube, iPhone More About: android, Android apps, App, apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, roundup, social media For more Mobile coverage:
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| Google Rolls Out Shared Spaces Using Wave Technology Posted: 19 Dec 2010 02:27 PM PST   Google Labs has quietly debuted Shared Spaces, using Google Wave technology to let users quickly create a space with collaborative gadgets and a chat box inside. As soon as it’s open to the general public, it will be simple and quick to create a space, grab a gadget from the gallery of 50 that already exist, and then paste the Space’s URL into a chat window, e-mail message, tweet or any other content-sharing platform. If users know JavaScript, they can create their own gadgets and then rapidly build a Space around it, inviting all to participate. Google didn’t say when this semi-closed Shared Spaces beta will be available for everyone, but it’s nice to know that there is yet another form in which Google Wave will still continue to exist. Source: Steve Rubel. Reviews: Google, Google Wave More About: breaking, gadgets, Google Spaces, javascript, wave For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| UK Conservatives Want to Block All Internet Porn Posted: 19 Dec 2010 01:05 PM PST   A conservative member of the British Parliament has made a move to block all pornography from reaching Internet subscribers in the UK. The British government plans to meet with Internet service providers in the country next month to discuss the idea of censoring all Internet connections and requiring users to specifically request access to pornographic materials from their ISPs. Not surprisingly, children are being trotted out as the reason for this mass censorship. Conservative MP Claire Perry said to the Sunday Times, “We are not coming at this from an anti-porn perspective. We just want to make sure our children aren't stumbling across things we don't want them to see.” It’s a slippery slope the British government will be navigating here. Who will decide precisely what porn is? Will ISPs be required to install bare-skin-detecting software, and if so, who will pay for that? Will instructional videos such as breast-feeding demonstrations be considered porn? And how will British residents feel about adding their names to a list of people who specifically asked for access to pornography? Even though the Internet Service Providers’ Association in the UK said it would be expensive and difficult to block porn, the British government is pressing for this action. One other question: Wouldn’t it be better for parents to be the ones who decide what their children can and cannot watch, rather than the government? Where are the parents in this equation? What a mess. Let’s just hope this insanity doesn’t spread across the world. We can be slightly reassured knowing that European ISPs are slightly more radical than their stateside counterparts when it comes to censorship. Image Courtesy Flickr, Cory Doctorow. Reviews: Internet More About: British Government, censorship, Claire Perry, parliament, porn, pornography, trending, U.K. For more Tech coverage:
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| Facebook App for iOS Gets Updated With Useful Enhancements Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:12 PM PST
There are no completely new features on board, but welcome improvements include numerous bug fixes and a couple of UI enhancements. Experiencing crashes of the Facebook app on an iPhone or iPod touch? Facebook’s included a remedy for that and a few other things, as well:
Remarkably, there are 55,060,129 active users of this popular app. Given its extraordinary uptake, we’re just wondering when Facebook will see fit to follow that with an iPad version. In the unlikely event you haven’t checked out this app, grab it here, or take a look at the App Store on your iPhone — it’s probably already begging you to update it by now. Reviews: App Store, Facebook More About: Bug Fixes, facebook, iOS, iphone app store, iphone apps, iPod Touch For more Mobile coverage:
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| Google Gives $5M Worth of Java GUI Tools to Eclipse Posted: 19 Dec 2010 11:07 AM PST   Google has donated two open-source Java tools to the Eclipse Foundation to join the popular IDE suite in 2011. The tech giant’s WindowBuilder and CodePro AnalytiX were part of Google’s acquisition of Instantiations in August this year. By September, Google had relaunched some of Instantiations’ tools as open-source software. One of those tools was WindowBuilder, a WYSIWYG code generator. This drag-and-drop, bidirectional GUI designer for Java played nicely with a variety of frameworks, including Swing, XML Windowing Toolkit (XWT), the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) and more. With support for Windows, Linux and Mac, the Eclipse extension was intended to make Java app creation a lot simpler and faster. And CodePro is another interesting Eclipse plugin for “comprehensive automated software code quality and security analysis.” The toolkit included features from EclipsePro Audit and EclipsePro Test and generally attempted to improve code quality, maintenance and readability. Instatiations’ execs estimate the software, which is slated to roll out with the rest of the Eclipse June 2011 release train, is worth around $5 million. Google’s emphasis on Java tools is hardly surprising; the blockbuster success of the Android platform (and sometimes harsh criticism of the Android Market of apps) has practically mandated a focus on Java, which is a big part of the Android stack. Giving devs better Java tools free of charge is an investment in the future of Google’s own platforms. That’s not to say either of these Eclipse extensions is, in itself, going to be directly used for Android applications; we’re not sure either tool is intended for mobile development. But better tools make better Java devs, who in turn are better equipped to make more and better Android apps. We would, however, love to see more drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG-plus-code Android app tools — something along the lines of a less-dumbed-down App Inventor. If you know of any such tools, definitely let us know about them in the comments. Reviews: Android, Android Market, Eclipse, Google, Linux, Windows More About: codepro, developers, eclipse, foss, Google, java, open source, windowbuilder For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| “SNL” Skewers Zuckerberg: Is WikiLeaks’ Assange the Hero? [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Dec 2010 09:58 AM PST No one escapes this scathing satire, well, except Assange. But really, “Time magazine: discovering Facebook only weeks after your grandmother?” That one has us laughing out loud. Reviews: Facebook More About: humor, julian assange, mark zuckerberg, parody, saturday night live, snl, trending, web video, wikileaks For more Web Video coverage:
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| 40 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed Posted: 19 Dec 2010 09:06 AM PST   Merry early Christmas from the Mashable team! — wait, did you get your shopping done? The weeks before Christmas are notable for the beautiful store displays and the harried men and women desperately trying to buy that last perfect present; or any present at all. If you’ve been part of that crush, or just need a social media refresher, we’ve got a round up of tools and resources from the past week or so. The social media section can show you some creative Facebook profile hacks or why health experts are hopping online. Tech & mobile is jam packed with gadget guides, children’s books on the iPad, and 10 top movies for the modern geek. Business has tips on starting a coworking space and the best apps for a mobile office. Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time. Social Media
For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. Tech & Mobile
For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. Business
For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. Image courtesy of Webtreats Etc. Reviews: Android, Facebook, Internet, Mashable, Twitter, foursquare More About: business, facebook, Features Week In Review, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business, social media, tech, technology, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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