Cjed Audio News 2008-12


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12-30-08 / 11:34 PM : Kurzweil PC361 : a challenger to M50 ? (cjed)

As Kurzweil provides audio demos of the PC1SE (1995$, 76 keys version of the PC1X, that features the same sound set - patches taken from K2XX series including all of the extension roms), a 61 keys model of the PC3 (the later includes 76 keys and is priced 2830$, and PC3X - 88 keys - is priced 3630$), the PC361, is expected for the January Winter NAMM09.
We can still read the first user review and see first pictures. It should onboard the same audio engine as the PC3, including its new Strings Section ROM bank that can be heard in the new audio demos. The PC361 price is unknown at this time but it should be kept in the 1500-2000$ range to remain competitive against the Korg M50 (950 euros for the 61 keys models, and as low as 1450 euros for the 88 keys model). However the strings sounds provided by the M50 seem way behind the new ones in the PC3 series (the M50 is better suited for rock and electronic sounds).
There is still to know if the K2661 (61 keys and priced 2995$) will remain listed.

12-27-08 / 12:49 AM : Ueberschall Season Greetings and a great 20 (cjed)

Following NI, Ueberschall provides free samples for Christmas, Season Greetings and a great 2009. These 245 Mb samples for Elastik Player (also available at download for free) include loops from many libraries : Balkan Lines, Chillers Joint, Club Electro, Crunkzilla, Dancehall Madness, Electro ID, Hip Hop Underground, Loungeorama, Minimal Electro Vibes, Minimal House, Minimal Techno, Oriental RnB, Trance ID 2 and Urbanic. An audio demo is available.

12-27-08 / 12:36 AM : Lucky Luke The Man of Washington on iPhone (cjed)

Aquafadas, the editor of the famous Angouleme for iPhone (an application that allows interactive playing of comics through the Ave!Comics technology, and downloadable for free with comics samples pages), provides Lucky Luke The man of Washington on the AppStore (47 pages, 4,99 euros).

12-21-08 / 11:51 PM : X-Plane 9.0.4 update for iPhone (cjed)

A 9.0.4 update to X-Plane for iPhone is available at the AppStore. Among the enhancements list we can see reduced ram usage and better rendering.

12-20-08 / 12:45 AM : ProTools 8 shipping (cjed)

ProTools 8, that was announced in October, is finally shipping. Only updates prices are available for now (144 euros for upgrades to LE8 and M-Powered8, and 240 euros for upgrades to HD8).

12-20-08 / 12:39 AM : MSN for mac : soon audio and video (cjed)

MSN for mac will finally gain support for audio and video (previously we had to use aMSN, a cross-platform software whose user interface wasn't looking as a true mac application).

12-20-08 / 12:25 AM : ITMS : 12 days of gifts (cjed)

Apple will offer from December, 26 to January, 6 free songs (singles, live) and videos (video clips, TV shows) at the iTUnes store. As previously, an iTunes account is required.

12-18-08 / 11:01 PM : Rolando for iPhone available (cjed)

The iPhone game Rolando, that generated huge expectation, is finally available at the AppStore (9,99$). We can still read a first review at AppleInsider.
First users comments are also reported by toucharcade. It seems well done and provides 36 levels among 4 worlds.

12-18-08 / 10:32 PM : Tutorial : install OSX on PC through EFI-X key (cjed)

The site materielBoys.fr provides a step by step guide about installing OSX on a regular PC through the EFI-X USB key (150$). The only problem encountered was the video quality while playing movies with the DVD Player, however it doesn't seem to affect all graphics cards.

12-18-08 / 10:17 PM : Apple Special event for Macintosh 25th Anniversary (cjed)

The site Guardian.co.uk speaks about OpenCL and expects a Snow Leopard preview at Macworld Expo (January, 5). Phil Shiller will showcase the keynote instead of Steve Jobs, but the later could come back for the Macintosh 25th Anniversary (the Twentieth anniversary mac that was presented during Apple Expo 1997 was in fact about Apple's company creation date - and first computer -, but not related with first Macintosh, unveiled in January 1984).

12-18-08 / 10:07 PM : Au coeur de Lascaux soon on iPhone (cjed)

The game Au coeur de Lascaux has been announced for iPhone (for the first quarter).

12-18-08 / 10:03 PM : iPhone / Orange : prices cut (cjed)

The iPhone prices when acquired with an Orange subscription (and required points) is down : 79 and 99 euros for the 8Gb andt 16Gb models.

12-18-08 / 09:57 PM : Apple and PowerVR (cjed)

Apple buyed close to 4% of PowerVR share, in order to keep strong supply from the video chip maker for its iPhone, and gain even more independance (some months ago Apple buyed PA Semi).

12-18-08 / 12:16 AM : iPhone HydroTilt / X-Plane-Helicopter (cjed)

HydroTilt is a Marble Madness type game. We can watch a video and read first comments at toucharcade. It is priced 2,99$ (4,99$ starting January).
We can also find X-Plane-Helicopter (4,99$).

12-18-08 / 12:07 AM : iPhone : SimCity available / Lode Runner (cjed)

SimCity (3000) for iPhone is finally available at the AppStore at 9,99$. InsideMacGames states that Lode Runner (another classic game, far more older) is coming (available at the US store).

12-18-08 / 12:00 AM : Kore soundpack Compilation Vol1 for free (cjed)

Native Instruments provides for free at download KORE SOUNDPACK COMPILATION VOL.1. That compilation (104 Mb) includes 100 presets selected from the following soundpack libraries : TRUE STRIKE TENSION, ABSYNTH TWILIGHTS, DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS, URBAN ARSENAL, REAKTOR ANIMATED CIRCUITS, MASSIVE EXPANSION VOL. 1 and Vol. 2, BEST OF MASSIVE, FM8 TRANSIENT ATTACKS, SYNTHETIC DRUMS, BEST OF ABSYNTH et BEST OF REAKTOR VOL. 1.
We can also download for free the Kore Player, required to play these instruments (390 Mb - also includes 300 Mb of sounds).

12-17-08 / 11:49 PM : Vue 7 pioneer : free open beta (cjed)

Last October, e-on software presented two new versions of Vue d'Esprit 7 : a new high end version (Vue 7 Complete) at 599$ and an appealing entry level version at 50$ (that can be upgraded by buying additional modules - but it then costs more than the midlle Vue 7 Esprit priced 199$). Now Vue 7 pioneer is downloadable for free (open beta). No previous Vue d'Esprit account is required (but a Cornucopia3d account has to be created). Due to huge success, the servers are down.

12-16-08 / 10:31 PM : New Apple ad / animation (cjed)

Here is the new Apple ad for holidays : I Can Do Anything. That time PC and Mac characters are made using animating.

12-16-08 / 12:46 AM : Google Native Client : not processor independant ? (cjed)

Google presented Native Client, a system that is aimed at countering Flash and Javascript based RDA solutions, on the performance area (the critical point). The principle is to call native processor instructions from a web browser container. A runtime is provided, as with a compiler (GCC, still available on OSX) and plugins for most of web browsers (including Safari). The runtime is only available for Intel macs, but Google plans to release it for PowerPC.
While OS and browser independance is provided, it seems it is only on a processors family basis, as the applications have to be recompiled with a runtime that depends from the installed processor type (Intel, PPC, ARM).
Among examples we can find a converted version of Quake.

12-15-08 / 11:57 PM : KamiCrazy : Lemmings like for iPhone (cjed)

KamiCrazy is a new game for iPhone that takes back the principle of old Lemmings game. We can access to the development blog and watch a video at Youtube. The game is available at the AppStore (2,99$) and there is also a free (Lite) version.

12-15-08 / 11:32 PM : Myst Online URU live released as open source (cjed)

Cyan announces the release of Myst Online URU live as open-source. The code, tools and data (textures, sounds, etc.) will all be provided :
all of us at Cyan and everybody that has ever worked on the creation and building of the dream called UruLive (a.k.a. Mudpie, Until Uru, MystOnline:UruLive and MORE) can not just let it die! (My definitions: "UruLive" is the original dream of the virtual world. And "MystOnline" is the current implementation of UruLive.)
So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.
Links to videos on Youtube are provided.
Cyan also confirms that they are working on an iPhone version of Myst :
We continue to work on small projects (including Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch), and it looks like we will only be

12-15-08 / 10:31 PM : OSX 10.5.6 : Altivec 50% faster on PowerPC (cjed)

The MacOSX 10.5.6 update is finally available. We immediately notice that it is snappier (windows, minimizing), and after launching XBench (comparison with results from previous versions of Leopard) we discover that CPU performance is globally higher by 10 percents : in fact integer calculations (that count more and explain the 10% only increase) and vecLib FFT performances are the same, but floating point calcluations are 30% higher, and Altivec gains an even outstanding 50% increase, that gives it back the same result as with Tiger ! This last point was very important for audio applications, whose plugins use a lot Altivec (now abstracted APIs - targeted to Altivec on PPC and SSE on Intel - that were renamed Accelerate framework in Leopard). So there is no more reason to keep tiger for audio, and this fix demonstrates that Apple is aware of such details that plagged the old PPC under Leopard (there is to know if SSE4 instructions have also been used more efficiently in the Accelerate framework running under Intel).

Quartz graphic engine performance remains the same (was still 10% more efficient than with Tiger), and the user test interface still shows the same previous hit over Tiger, a two times longer delay to display the controls under Leopard. As the Quartz engine isn't worse (is a little better), the reason is that Leopard puts more demand on it : windows shadows width have been at least doubled compared with previous OSX versions (in order to be more visible by Windows VISTA users - the laster added such over present effect). These shadows (dynamic) are computed by OSX with a huge precision (since the first version). Moreover the mirror effect used by Leopard Dock may add even more work (perhaps some precaching, besides the existing double buffering).

When launching Safari it appears far more quick at opening windows and rendering pages. Apple may have updated the WebKit framework, or it might use the Altivec for some processing (that isn't intended for such task).
The Finder (whose version is numbered aside) jumps from 10.5.6 to 10.5.8.

12-14-08 / 07:03 PM : Oric games : assembly port to C (cjed)

At defense-force.org forums (a site that id dedicated to Oric Atmos, and whose name comes from an old well-known game), a member explains he succeeded porting Oric assembly games to C (the resulting code is based on the crossplatform SDL library), through a semi-automatic process :
I disassemble the game then I convert it to C using a custom awk script. Then I try to make it compile, and work.
It's not possible to handle JMP outside procedures automatically. goto instruction only works within the procedure (and there's no such thing as a procedure in assembler, specially in the eighties ).
Sometimes code must be duplicated/rearranged. Delay loops must also be patched as well as the inputs. So a minimum of understanding of the game inner workings is required.

And about some particular issues :
how to handle self modified or auto-generated code ?
You cannot handle SMC. There was none in Xenon or Zorgon's, but there was some in Zebbie and I had a little trouble with it. But it was rather easy to find by hand. (But I could detect it by marking the non-data sections and checking them when I write into the memory at run-time).

We can then download conversions of the following games : Xenon 1, Zorgon's Revenge (the sequel), and Zebbie.
We can also look again at these old games (and download tapes images for emulators) at oricgames.com.

I would be pleased if the author added a Axayacatl port, as I could then do an iPhone port from the C code produced (the iPhone version of MAME still uses SDL, and even without that we may be able to map SDL APIs to iPhone SDK Cocoa&C APIs).

12-14-08 / 06:10 PM : AppStore : Top100 ranking dynamic & prices (cjed)

FluidMac, the editor of Chopper for iPhone, speaks about the complex dynamic progression of applications on the AppStore Top100, and their related prices :

...how does a developer get their app into the top 100 and stay there? Well, The best way is having a really good product that gets the press it deserves. This is still the biggest factor (as it should be), but is way too close to the second best way: Look stupidly cheap compared to everything else.
Any developer who has dropped the price of their app will have seen the difference in sales it makes. $1.99 to $0.99 wouldn’t make any difference on most platforms, but because everything is already so stupidly cheap, it can double sales… or more. Double the sales at #101 and a day later you’re at # 70 with 4x the sales. At 4x the sales you’re at #50 two days later. It’s a feedback effect until everyone else drops their prices too, and you end up back where you started.
...As a result, I am more inclined to take small risks. A small 2 week project, priced at $0.99 has more chance of paying for my time than a 6 month project priced at $9.99. The quality of applications available on the App Store is nothing compared to what it could be. iPhone users are missing out on the $15.00 apps that could change their lives.
... a precious few developers will work hard and long to produce fantastic apps that will be low yielding, under priced, and motivation destroying.

Prices appart, the AppStore must faces (now it has reached the 10 000 apps step) the same problem as musique-libre.org ranking system, as I recently said.

12-14-08 / 05:34 PM : The Beautiful Truth movie (cjed)

The movie The Beautiful Truth (see the trailer here), that is still out in US, presents a controversed therapy (based on diet) as wa can read in a New York Times article comments :
The laughable "facts" in the film don't prove anything of the sort. Objective analysis of Gerson's claims make them immediately obvious as quackery, not to mention that that on one side you have REAL doctors (you know, who've gone to school?) vs. uneducated self-proclaimed "experts." This is equivalent to having someone who read a few articles about bridges on the Internet telling a panel of structural engineers that they don't know what they're talking about.
The meta-narrative here is a fascinating study of how easily people become close-minded to science, reason and common sense while thinking that they're being open-minded.

The principle reminds what Steve Jobs said at first about his recent physical condition. However the chimical treatments are not so far in some way, as they are intended to reduce the metabolism, in order for it to focus on vital (unmodified) cells.

12-14-08 / 05:21 PM : T4, Day Earth Stood Still, Knowing, 2012, Watchmens (cjed)

Apple provides a second trailer of Terminator Salvation. In the same apocalyptic area (widespread/over used these times) we can find The Day the Earth Stood Still (see first reviews at imdb), 2012, or Knowing with Nicloas Cage.
Finally a new comics movie, Watchmen (whose name reminds X-mens) provides original scenes and ambiance.

12-13-08 / 11:24 AM : DizzyBee2/DropShip/Kerozen3D/Paradise (cjed)

Here are some cool iPhone games (still available of planned) : DizzyBee 2 (available at the AppStore at 2,99$ for the launch week), Kerozen 3D (3D flight simulator that uses fractals for infinite terrain rendering, see details at iphon.fr - the game is still in development process), DropShip (that brings retro visual effects that remind old Vectrex console games - available, see details at the developer site), and finally Paradise: The Beginning (top down shooter with background paintings that remind Wall-E movie), that brings a new controls scheme, that seems intuitive and precise (see first comments at toucharcade.com, available).

12-13-08 / 11:10 AM : SimCity for iPhone : first review (cjed)

The site kotaku.com provides screenshots of Need for Speed Unlimited for iPhone, and a first review of SimCity for iPhone.s

12-13-08 / 11:03 AM : Game One : documentary on Steve Jobs (cjed)

Game One will provide on Sunday, December, 14, a one hour length TV documentary about Steve Jobs. We could also watch again the TV movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley, now available on DVD, that features a cool ambiance (the same as with movies of music bands of late eigthies), despite being not so much realistic.

12-13-08 / 10:56 AM : Special offers : Pianoteq2, VSL, NI (cjed)

Among special offers on the audio softwares side, we note :
Pianoteq 2 is available at -20%.

VSL special prices through January, 15 : Solo Strings II Extended Library offered for owners of Vienna Instruments Collection Solo Strings I Standard&Extended, Fanfare Trumpets for owners of Vienna Special Edition (Standard and Extended) and Special Edition PLUS (Standard&Extended), -15% on Extended Libraries of Vienna Special Edition and Special Edition PLUS, -30% on Keyboard Collections elements, etc.

Finally Native Insruments drops prices from 50% on updates. Then we can find updates to Kontakt 3 at 64 euros. However it requires a 1,4 Ghz G4 (the demo version didn't perform well on a 1,25 Ghz G4 due to the default convolution reverb), and the new bundled samples library isn't fully compatible with the K2 previous library.

12-13-08 / 10:37 AM : Antares : Auto-Tune EFX (cjed)

Antares presents Auto-Tune EFX, a lite version of Auto-Tune Evo (less settings, no graphical editor for pitch, no formant). It is available (99$) through end of December with a free bundled iLok key.
As stated by futuremusic :
...easy-to-use tool for real-time pitch correction and creating the overly-used Auto-Tune Vocal Effect. That was first deployed by Cher and now is the bane of everyone’s existence.

12-11-08 / 11:22 PM : Snow Leopard : more 2.5D for the Dock ? (cjed)

From an Apple patent titled multi-dimensional Desktop, Snow Leopard cound bring deeper 3D (in fact 2.5D) to the MacOSX Dock, that then could manage stacks of icons in the z-axis.
In 2002 we could still use 3DOSX, that was impressive but wasn't really useful.

12-09-08 / 11:15 PM : ATARI soon on iPhone / Ferrari GT available (cjed)

Through a short interview, ATARI stated that the iPhone is a game changer, and that the AppStore is phenomenal and will change how game content is consumed. The editor should unveil soon new ambitious games for iPhone.
Ferrai GT for iPhone by Gameloft is finally available at the AppStore (8,99$). First reviews report that the graphics are better than with Asphalt, but controls don't seem as good (however a user comment at the AppStore states that it can be fixed through sensitivity settings).

12-09-08 / 11:02 PM : Eastwest PLAY 1.1.6 update (cjed)

Eastwest provides a 1.1.6 update to PLAY (225 Mb). The latest update was out in late August of this year and was numbered 1.0.83. The enhancements/bug fixes list can be found here but there is no mention of new PowerPC optimization. However a PC user states that performance is far more better with his old P4, so perhaps it will be the same on an also old G4.

12-09-08 / 10:39 PM : Nanosaur 2 : 2.0.7 update for mac (cjed)

An update to Nanosaur 2 is available, for desktop macs that time ! It can be downloaded here (2.0.7). It fixes a bug with sky color in level 3. Contrary to Bugdom 2, that game allows using of stereoscopic glasses, and so offers strunning creatures textures, what makes it greater on mac than on iPhone (without considering that controls were still a bit hard on the mac version).

12-09-08 / 10:31 PM : Office mac updates / VLC 0.9.8a (cjed)

Microsoft provides updates to Office 2004 and 2008 for mac.
We can also download a 0.9.8a update to VLC.

12-09-08 / 10:19 PM : OpenCL 1.0 ratified (cjed)

The Khronos Group announced that it has ratified OpenCL 1.0, whose development only took 6 months to Apple. AMD is following the path and will provide soon compliant compiler and runtime in its ATI SDK. On the NVIDIA side, the video chipsets maker states that its proprietary CUDA solution is now compliant with OpenCL architecture (that in fact covers a wider area of application than CUDA).
Most companies are involved in OpenCL, except Microsoft, that is trying to extend its DirectX technology to allow acceleration of other tasks than video and 3D.

12-09-08 / 12:42 AM : Javascript & ActionScript : a step back (cjed)

Through the comments on the latest ArsTechnica article (September) about Cappuccino, we could read :
Technologically, JavaScript apps running in a browser is like apps running under MultiFinder back in the Mac OS 6 days: no memory protection, cooperative multi-tasking, etc. One badly programmed web app and it takes down your entire browsers and all the other web apps and open web pages along with it. Worse, however, there are just about half a dozen software abstraction layers added, and thus, what used to work on a 68k CPU back then now requires a dual or quad-core CPU with GHz clock frequencies and Gigabytes of RAM just to get adequate performance. Can you say "back to the future"?

JavaScript, Java, Flash, Cookies, etc. should be filtered out by the firewall. The web is a publishing platform, if you want to go back to mainframes and terminal based remote processing, then come up with a secure protocol that's designed for remote GUIs over low-bandwidth channels. The web isn't it.

Lacking synchronization features (mutex), Javascript and other scripting languages aren't robust. And performance of Flash applications is really bad (ActionScript is derived from ECMAScript, the same basis as for Javascript) - can trigger fans in recent dual core latops (worse, on a G4 a new banner ad on the site prevents entering news as the browser becomes unresponsive due to huge resources leak).
We van read an article that presents tricks to counter synchronization problems in Javascript. There isn't any CPLock class in Cappuccino, but source code from evaluate.js (and also CPTimer -timeouts) leads to think there is some sort of such tricks to simulate synchronization.

Then as I previously said, the competition won't be only on the javascript engine side (SquirrelFish Extreme, Chrome, etc.), but also on the whole container side. All is container : browser for javascript or Flash plugin, AIR container for Flex outside the browser, Quicktime (Quicktime X will probably use HTML 5 sockets, and iTunes is still an hybrid application, that uses WebKit).
As ECMAScript derived languages aren't satisfying, they will probably evolve, or new scripting languages will appear, but then we are back to existing powerful languages that we all know (Objective-C, etc.) We can't have robust and responsiveness interface using scripting languages, computing science is complex and thread and synchronization problems a reality.
Google is working at parallelization and execution spaces protection for Javascript, but it will only delay occuring of bugs (as we did with some tricks on System 7 to delay crashes - safety memory blocks at the start of the adresses stack, and use of adresses starting from the top stack).

The performance problems aren't specifically tied to interpreted languages. For example the latest Openoffice.org 3 for OSX is still far more slower (at least for page scrolling) than the older NeoOffice, although the later uses the Java bridge for UI. A 68040 LC475 with 4Mb of memory performed better under Word 5.1. Such software abstraction layers also exist in OSX itself : a Mach task is wrapped by a BSD task, that is at end wrapped by a Carbon task. We can hope the highest layer will be removed when Cocoa migration will be completed (Adobe is working on Cocoa versions of its softwares but this isn't still the case for Microsoft Office).
There are plenty of optimization areas available on OSX however, as we can read throughout the great Cocoa programming book (I've yet read 930 pages). Hopefully the AppStore success and limited iPhone capabilities lead developers to think about optimizing, the same for Apple when it did the mobile version of OSX. That is the reason why the Objective-C 2 garbage collector isn't provided in the iPhone SDK. MacOSX will also finally benefit a lot from Grand Central and OpenCL, further 64 bits optimization, code cleaning and strong optimization for Intel only, advanced use of SSE4.

12-06-08 / 03:54 PM : NI Reaktor Spark soundpack (cjed)

Native Instruments presents REAKTOR SPARK, a Soundpack (for Reaktor, KORE or KORE player) that brings 200 presets programmed for the Spark synthesis engine, that sound original (percussive and agressive), in the following categories : Leads, Bass, arpeggiated sounds, Soundscapes, Mallets and plucked sounds, Drums and Percussions, Pianos and Keys. Audio demos are available, and it is priced 59$.

12-06-08 / 03:33 PM : Mystsonic Chinese Zither-GuZheng (cjed)

Mystsonic presented Chinese Zither-GuZheng, a Zither library for Kontakt 2 (included Player). Audio demos and videos are available, and it is priced 49 euros (through download). The overal samples size isn't provided (we know they have been recorded at 24 bits/48Khz), but it is stated that it has been optimized (reduced) to ensure better performance (as hardware makers do for their instruments and extensions).

12-06-08 / 03:18 PM : Sonica Instruments Taiko for BFD (cjed)

Sonica Instruments presents Japanese Taiko percussion, a 6 Go samples library for BFD 2.1 (requires a G5 or Intel mac) that features Taiko instruments types : Ohdaiko, Chudaiko, himedaiko. Kane and players vocalizations. Stunning audio demos are available and we can also listen to separate samples at fxpansion site. It is priced 125$, and an additional specifically targeted Midi grooves library is available for 25$.

12-05-08 / 12:11 AM : The Force Unleashed : soundtrack review (cjed)

The site tracksounds provides a review of Starwars The Force Unleashed game's soundtrack. The conclusion (and rating, 9/10) is : Start to finish, THE FORCE UNLEASHED is the most entertaining Star Wars score since RETURN OF THE JEDI. In fact Mark Griskey composer (that had yet worked on StarWars games musics, notably KOTOR2 and Episode III) seems to have succeeded in providing a strong transition between the first 3 episodes and the original trilogy, what transition timeframe corresponds to the game's plot. Moreover, the in-game music is dynamic, that is it is made mixing instruments parts that have been recorded separately, in order to fit well with the action. Audio samples of the tracks are provided.

12-04-08 / 11:40 PM : iPhone Hero of Sparta : in-game trailer (cjed)

Following the cinematic trailer of Hero of Sparta pour iPhone, Gameloft now provides an in-game trailer. Finally the result looks impressive, a new reference for iPhone games, that now are far more advanced than Nintendo DS ones, all that in a few months. The game is expected in the following days, and so December is likely to reach a new step in iPhone games quality (there is still the recent Fastlane Street Racing and the newer Browsers in Arms and Low Grav Racer).

12-04-08 / 11:23 PM : iPhone Brothers in Arms / Low Grav Racer (cjed)

The game Brothers in Arms for iPhone is finally available at the AppStore, priced 7,99$. First user reviews are very good (graphics, playability). We can watch a video here.
We can also discover Low Grav Racer, a Wipeout type game with great graphics (12 various environments) and very smooth race (5,99$). A stunning video is available at Youtube and first reviews are also very good (in-game sounds and soudtracks are also said to be great). We can access to the game creators's blog.

12-04-08 / 11:08 PM : JavaFX SDK 1.0 : still far behind Cappuccino (cjed)

Sun provides the JavaFX SDK 1.0. Through the presentation we only see strong inspiration from Apple's CoreAnimation and less ambitious architecture (scripting, rendering engine, media layer) than what Cappuccino can achieve (true Cocoa port to Javascript : evolved scripting that uses Objective-J, AppKit APIs including Quartz, CoreAnimation, drag&drop, undo/redo, views, etc.). Without counting what QuickTime X will add in the media layer area and UI controls for RDA.
Moreover the JavaFX SDK requires a G5 mac (or Intel).

12-03-08 / 11:17 PM : Cappuccino CPTableView : source code (cjed)

In the dev source tree of Cappuccino we can finally get the source code of the CPTableView class. Its implementation is identical to the corresponding Cocoa class, the table requests its datasource delegate to get each cell value : [_dataSource tableView:self objectValueForTableColumn:_tableColumns[column] row:row]. Then the lines data cache has to be managed in the datasource implementation, if the data are retrieved through JSON calls, in order to prevent the application server to request the database for each new cell to display when scrolling up or down the table. We can simply maintain a dozen lines cells cache.

12-03-08 / 11:01 PM : Cappuccino : Add Undo/Redo tutorial (cjed)

At the thinkvitamin site we can find a tutorial about adding Undo/Redo to a Cappuccino application. As with Cocoa programming, the UndoManager is aware that a Redo is undoing the undo, so it cleans the actions stacks and doesn't require to implement the Redo feature. I didn't find the undo and redo buttons in the example here (nor managed to get Pomme-Z to produce something).

12-02-08 / 12:45 AM : Notre Dame de Budapest Pipe Organ samples (cjed)

Inspired Acoustics also provides Notre Dame de Budapest (NDB) Pipe Organ samples, that includes samples (24 bit / 48 kHz) from 2 Hungarian organs : Notre Dame de Buda and Notre Dame de Kispest, at Gigastudio 3 (this software however has been canceled recently by Tascam) and Kontakt 2 formats. Three versions ara available : Full Edition (unlooped samples, 23 Gb, Giga 3 format only, 459$), Looped Edition (the same but with looped sustains - 2 to 8s -, 6Gb, Giga 3 and Kontakt 2 formats, 249$) and Compact Edition (less combinations, 4 Gb, 99$). The original reverb (outstanding) has been recorded (through release samples or using the also bundled impulse response).

Some stunning audio demos are availble. The library can be buyed through download (except for the Full version).

12-02-08 / 12:21 AM : Palace of Arts Budapest Pipe Organ Samples (cjed)

Inspired Acoustics presents Palace of Arts Budapest (PAB) Pipe Organ Samples, a 35Gb organ samples library (20 000 samples at 24 bits/48Khz stereo) for PC and mac (bundled with the Hauptwerk player). The required memory for patchs varies from 2Gb to 24 Gb ! The 4 Gb ram limitation on the mac version will be removed soon (on Leopard a non graphical 64 bits process can be used to load samples into memory and communicate with the main UI process - such technique is used in EastWest Play).

Stunning demos are available here. It is priced 899$.

12-01-08 / 11:44 PM : Rayman Raving Rabbids&ToCA Race Driver 3 (cjed)

Transgaming presents Rayman Raving Rabbids for mac (25$ at Gametreeonline, see videos here). IMG also provides a review of the mac port (by Feral) of ToCA Race Driver 3. The game seems very well done but it is highly priced (50$, while only 20$ on PC and 40$ on consoles).
Finally GamesRadar provides a short interview with John Carmack about future of PC games / Quake Live. He confirms that the PC is much more suitable for FPS gamse (to remember : mouse for looking/direction and aq|sd|xc keys for moving).

12-01-08 / 11:22 PM : AppStore : 10000 apps / 8,9% macs on the web (cjed)

The site 148apps provides a mini-icons grid linking to the 10 000 applications and games available at the AppStore (in only 6 months) ! This record is also reported by Yahoo, that states that the competition is far behind in terms of quality and content. Statistics (number of submissions per month, per price and per category) are also available at 148apps.
Meanwhile the mac share on internet was rising up to 8,9 percents, and Safari obtained 7,13 % (20% for Firefox - but there is to consider that it is also used on mac, whereas Safari usage on PC is very low -, and only 0,83% for Chrome, that is ten times less than Safari).