News & Features

News & Features January 24, 2012

LaserLeap Technologies Wins Best Startup Challenge at Photonics West

Wow … we just jump from show to show to show … from CES to NAMM – and now Photonics West. Sure there isn’t all that much overlap, but each of these shows are rather interesting to me. I haven’t heard much specific technology news of interest from Photonics yet, but today we learned that LaserLeap Technologies has won the 2012 Biophotonics Start-up Challenge based on their new ‘transdermal drug delivery’ system. From Optics.org: [LaserLeap CEO] Serpa’s winning pitch detailed a proprietary laser device that has been developed to aid drug delivery through the skin. The pulsed laser is used…

News & Features January 24, 2012

Tired of Boxy Bluetooth Speakers? Check Out These Q-i-sound Speakers From iharmonix

The Q-i-sound Bluetooth speakers from Qmadix leave the square, boring speakers that are so common in the dust. Available in black or white, they have an unusual shape that is sure to grab attention. Each speaker has its own rechargeable lithium polymer battery that charges in 3 ½ hours and gives up to eight hours of playtime. Standby time is up to 10 days. As the company puts it Ultra portable speakers offer music lovers a great listening experience, as well as microphones for clear phone communication It is also worth nothing that, once paired the speakers can be separated…

News & Features January 24, 2012

Random Cool Video: Warm Leatherette

I have covered a lot of cool stuff introduced at the Winter NAMM show in the past week, with two prominent themes: analog synthesis and the iPad as the must-have studio tool. As someone who came into music long enough ago to appreciate WHY people ran to digital so quickly in the early 80’s, I also have always appreciated what the technology added to music. I have personally sought analog sounds through digitally controlled systems or sample-based synths … but there is nothing like the real thing, so it is great to see all of the advances in technology applied…

News & Features January 24, 2012

Kodak Files for Bankruptcy … an End to a Legendary Era in Photographic History

Image Courtesy of Daily Beast If you are over 30, there is no question that Kodak has touched your life in some way. Myself, I grew up with my father taking pictures on a Kodak camera which were developed as Kodak slides, shown on a Kodak projector, and so on. The first camera I used was an Instamatic, and the first one I remember buying myself was one of the pictured Disc cameras, and I still have disc negatives in photo pouches in my house. This week we learned that the legendary Rochester, NY based company has filed for bankruptcy…

Events, News & Features January 24, 2012

Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter Speed Comparison with USB 2.0

We told you about Seagate’s new Thunderbolt adapters last week. Yes, we are finally seeing products come to market that take advantage of the speed increases offered by Thunderbolt. But how fast IS Thunderbolt? Sure you can see lab testing but that doesn’t necessarily tell you about using it at home or work. We shot a video of moving 2.5GB of data from a MacBook air to an external drive using both USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt. This is a normal use-scenario for something like this so the speeds you see here are what you might expect if you get one…

News & Features January 24, 2012

Google ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Tool – See For Yourself How A Monopoly Chooses For You

I have been very vocal recently about the nasty, dishonest, and disingenuous business practices Google has undertaken that would make their ‘don’t be evil’ and ‘open source’ things laughable … except that real people have been impacted, jobs lost, companies shuttered. In the latest bold move, Google has used their monopoly in search to make an assumption: since you are using Google for Search, everything you find MUST be somehow linked to Google or generate revenue for Google somehow. Yesterday an article by Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand shows a new tool developed by engineers from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter that…

eBooks, News & Features January 24, 2012

Amazon Makes Good On Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

In my review of the ebook version of Fahrenheit 451 I was sharply critical of the massive amount of typos and mistakes in the text. It was suggested that I take my complaint to Amazon, which I did … but honestly never expected anything. It wasn’t the first time I had complained, but I had never heard anything back in the past. But last night I got a happy surprise – an email from Amazon’s Kindle Store that an update had been made to Fahrenheit 451, and I could download it from my account. So I headed to the link,…

News & Features January 23, 2012

Samsung Pokes at a Key iPhone Weakness in New Ad

If you were to ask a random group of smartphone users to name a feature that Android has that iOS is lacking, while you’d hear nonsense like ‘open’, you’d also hear one message loud and clear: turn-by-turn navigation with voice support. For me, this is one of three reasons I am still using Android (the others being physical keyboards and something work-specific). I use my Google Maps navigation everywhere and for everything – and it is awesome. I tried using the navigation built into pre-Mango Windows Phone 7 and it twice tried to tack on 30 minutes with inept guidance…

News & Features January 23, 2012

Nokia Gobbles Up Nearly Half of ‘2nd Gen’ Windows Phone Market Share!

Over the last week or so we have seen evidence that Windows Phone sales might be picking up … and in no small part thanks to Nokia! Sales of the Lumia 800 and 710 were reported at ~1.3 million for 2011 in spite of only having the phones for part of the fourth quarter. But that was enough to earn them 45% of all ‘second generation’ Windows Phone devices. HTC holds 40% of the market with their Radar and massive Titan devices (which Dan & Judie love), and Samsung has 12% with the Focus. The remaining 3% is split amongst…

News & Features January 23, 2012

One Good Earbud, One Brilliant Idea?

I have said many times that running with headphones in is not a good idea. It’s dangerous for multiple reasons; you can’t hear cars, animals, or people coming up behind you. Even with the music turned down you lose a sense of what’s around you. The common suggestion is usually to leave one earbud out, but then you’re stuck with a mono listening experience. That’s why One Good Earbud from Far End Gear is such a smart idea. From their website: One Good EarbudTM is the ideal way to safely listen to music, podcasts, audio books, and mobile calls while running,…

Events, Music Diary, News & Features January 22, 2012

OpenLabs Brings Loads of New Features In Music OS 3.1 Update!

Open Labs makes products I drool over – they incorporate full-spec Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 computers (some with keyboards) into their music production systems … and they are priced in accordance to their monster capabilities! One thing that has grown out of the awesome hardware and software they make is a product called ‘Music OS’ – a program with so many features and such flexible modularity it goes beyond the capabilities of most music apps. Now at NAMM 2012 Open Labs annouced a major new update: SoundCloud™ Direct Integration – With SoundCloud undoubtedly the ‘cloud standard’ for millions…

News & Features January 22, 2012

Apparently Password Sharing is ‘a Thing’ with Teens!

Things like split heart necklaces for shared love used to be common, or swapping high school or college rings, or a shirt or other things. Apparently the new sign of trust, love and commitment is … sharing online passwords. According to the New York Times article: The digital era has given rise to a more intimate custom. It has become fashionable for young people to express their affection for each other by sharing their passwords to e-mail, Facebook and other accounts. Boyfriends and girlfriends sometimes even create identical passwords, and let each other read their private e-mails and texts. They…

Music Diary, News & Features January 20, 2012

NAMM 2012: IK Multimedia Presents iRig PRE Universal Microphone Interface for iPhone/iPad

This week is the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show, and as such a number of new products are coming out. Of particular interest are products that integrate highly functional musical capabilities and our everyday mobile products. Since that is what IK Multimedia does, I was not surprised to see some cool announcements from them again this week! The first is for a pro-level microphone pre-amplifier that hooks into your iOS device. Here is some more info: IK Multimedia is proud to present iRig™ PRE, the ultimate solution for connecting any type of microphone – from regular stage…

Events, Music Diary, News & Features January 19, 2012

Alesis Brings a Trio of Awesome iPad Musical Extender Docks

Alesis is a company that came out of Rhode Island in the digital boom of the mid-80’s and after ups and downs continues to be a force of innovation in the music hardware arena. They have three cool new iPad-related products introduced at the Winter NAMM show worth highlighting. Alesis AmpDock •The first professional guitar processor to use your iPad or iPad 2 for signal processing •Works with GarageBand, AmpliTube, JamUp, and virtually any audio or CoreMIDI app •Includes a rugged pedalboard controller with program, effect, bypass, volume and continuous controls •Guitar Input 1 and switchable Mic/Line/Guitar Input 2; professional…

Events, News & Features January 19, 2012

IK Multimedia presents iKlip Studio Desktop Stand for iPad

This week is the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show, and as such a number of new products are coming out. Of particular interest are products that integrate highly functional musical capabilities and our everyday mobile products. Since that is what IK Multimedia does, I was not surprised to see some cool announcements from them again this week! After announcing the iRig Pre microphone interface, now IK is back with the iKlip Studio, a fully adjustable stand designed to help musicians. Here is some more info: IK Multimedia is proud to announce iKlip™ Studio, the adjustable iPad desktop…

Music Diary, News & Features January 18, 2012

Random Cool Video: That Famous Skrillex Sample

Ever wonder where Skrillex pulled the ‘Yes, oh my gosh’ sample from his most popular song ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’? Well, even if you never cared (or knew who Skrillex was for that matter) it is still a pretty cool thing. The song is largely an instrumental (typical of electronica in general and dubstep in specific) with a couple of reversed lyric lines and a break between the ‘scary monsters’ and ‘nice sprites’ sections of the song marked by a ‘YES, OH MY GOSH’ exclamation. The girl responsible for the exclamation is Rachael Nedrow, better known as speedstackinggirl on…

News & Features January 16, 2012

The Importance of Documenting Family History [NSFW – for Disturbing Images]

A few years ago, Sarah and I had lunch with my grandma, and she started pulling out photo albums to show us family pictures. Among her pictures were photos from her life before she came to America, everything from photos of her and her brothers to her life in the displaced persons camp where she met my grandfather after the war. We realized she was sitting on an incredible amount of history, and while it has taken a long time to get around to coordinating it, we finally got together with my aunt and started documenting her photos today. What…

News & Features January 15, 2012

Will Paula Deen Switch to Lite Cooking?

When I think of Paula Deen, I think fried food. Lots and lots of fried food. And any number of satires about how unhealthy her cooking is. But if a rumor from The Daily is to be believed, Paula may be facing the fact that she needs to change her diet. Apparently she, like many Americans, has been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. According to the report: The Georgia-born chef — a Food Network star who has written five best-selling cookbooks — has been trying to keep her condition a secret, even after the National Enquirer reported in April that…

News & Features January 14, 2012

Random Cool Video: Siri Tried to Kill Me (NSFW-L)

We heard about the report that Siri was swearing at a 10 year old boy, but the folks at Smosh always take it to the next level … as they have with their latest video ‘Siri tried to kill me’. It only came out last week but has nearly 4 million views, and my kids just turned me on to it … stupid, but oh so funny. As with pretty much everything from Smosh!

News & Features January 13, 2012

Put Down the Pinot – Turns Out the ‘Red Wine is Good for You’ Report Was Falsified!

I have been a red wine lover since … well, forever it seems. I have always known that moderation in all things is key, that too much of a good thing is never a good thing. I never assumed that any amount of alcohol was beneficial, so when the study came out a while ago about the possible benefits of moderate red wine consumption … well I was thrilled. Turns out the victory dances were premature, as the researcher behind the study has just been found guilty of “145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data”.

News & Features January 13, 2012

NBC Hates Money, but Will at Least Air Olympic Trials Highlights

(image courtesy Competitor.com) I know this is totally running-nerd news. But if you follow the world of track and field, you’re probably aware that the marathon trials for the 2012 USA Olympic team are this Saturday morning in Houston, Texas. Unlike other countries who choose their teams by prior race performance, in the USA competitors use race times to qualify to run the Trials. The top three male and female finishers in Saturday’s marathon will be the USA Marathon team at London in 2012! Unfortunately, NBC will not be airing the Trials live, nor will they be streaming them online….

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