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| 05-31-10 / 10:41 PM : ThatMusicApp : iTunes in Cappuccino (cjed) |
| ThatMusicApp is an application inspired by iTunes, and made using Cappuccino and HTML5. Sound comes from Youtube videos. That is here. Apple's Web iTunes is however much more responsive. |
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| 05-30-10 / 12:18 PM : iPhone Assault Squadron (cjed) |
| Assault Squadron is available at the AppStore (2,99$). It seems the best shoot them up (besides the great Sky Force Reloaded) for iPhone, notably thanks to dynamic landscape effects, as we can see on that video. |
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| 05-29-10 / 11:09 PM : Next iPhone : 960x640 IPS (cjed) |
| It now seems very likely that the next iPhone will feature a 960x640 pixels screen, and IPS technology (same used on macs), that will bring (besides twice the resolution, useful for iBooks application) better colors rendering, a better grid uniformity, better viewing angle, and a safer quality for mass production (contrary to Nexus One's AMOLED screen). |
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| 05-28-10 / 04:35 PM : iPhone : Prince of Persia retro available (cjed) |
| Prince of Persia retro is available at the AppStore, priced 0,99$ only. We can find useful instructions about controls here (samples principles as with the original version). It also seems we can start at any level. |
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| 05-28-10 / 04:19 PM : Half Life 2 available on mac / performance (cjed) |
| Half Life 2 is available for mac through Steam. The two extensions (Episode 1 and Episode 2) are also listed. All are provided at 30 percent discount prices (6,29 euros for HL2 and 4,89 for each extension). Settings advices are to disable vertical synchro and colors optimizing, and to perfer anisotropic filter over FFSA. |
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| 05-28-10 / 04:00 PM : Logic : optimize multi-core balancing (cjed) |
| Apple provides an article about optimizing multi-core balancing in Logic. |
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| 05-28-10 / 03:43 PM : Pianoteq Play : lite version (cjed) |
| Modartt announced Pianoteq Play, based on de Pianoteq 3 (includes the same K1, C3 and M3 models), however without editing features and priced 99$ only (249$ for standard version, and 399$ for pro version). All add-ons are also compatible with Pianoteq Play, and it can be upgraded to standard or pro versions. |
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| 05-24-10 / 04:38 PM : SoundManager 2 : HTML5 audio support (cjed) |
| The SoundManager 2 framework now supports HTML5 audio element. Another reason not to look at Flash. Despite the far announced date (2020) for effective HTML5 deployment, in less than a year most of HTML5 features (and some restricted to WebKit) have land on major browsers (now including IE). |
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| 05-24-10 / 04:18 PM : Flash demise faster than expected (cjed) |
| The WSJ confirms that site makers are leaving Flash for HTML5, forcing their developers to learn more evolved/complex technologies (jQuery, etc.). One of Flash problems is how it is perceived, restricted to amateurish (non engineer) profiles, and too much tied to ads. That seems logical however, as Flash wasn't designed (by Macromedia) to build business applications.s |
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| 05-24-10 / 12:26 PM : WWDC : iPhone / Android : you won't be disappointed (cjed) |
| In a mail (answer) sent by Steve Jobs (whose origine has been confirmed by this routing list), we learn that iPhone OS4 will bring great performance compared with the recent Android update (that did fasten 2,5 times the Google JVM). It is obvious that C code (iPhone SDK) will ever be faster than Java. Moreover Apple can enhance more deeply its system and processors. |
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| 05-21-10 / 08:59 PM : MJ Style : full listening for a few days (cjed) |
 MJ Style album is available as full preview (streaming) for a few days ! That is here (through the Zimbalam player). However you are not allowed to record the tracks nor to share these (only streaming).Update : despite full length streaming is setted in the Zimbalam player configuration, playing stops 20s from the end of each song (well, that is still 4 or 5 minutes of free listening for each). You may then get the (non free but full length) songs from iTunes. |
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| 05-20-10 / 10:02 PM : Google and Adobe : I/Off (cjed) |
| While Google I/O ended (we can find a live coverage of the keynote here), and that Google stated "If we did not act, we faced a draconian future where one man, one phone, one carrier was the future. That's a future we don't want." (in the same manner they had said that we shouldn't prevent them from using our personnal data if we haven't anything - faulty - to hide), here are some facts to consider : - the unveiled WebM codec is only a slight evolution derived form VP8 and OggVorbis, and is still far from H264 in terms off efficiency (closer to BaseLine profile, and far from Main and High profiles) and encoding speed, do no provides yet hardware accelerating. And more important, it is reported that it may face lawsuits from MPEG LA about patents infrigments on H264. - Nexus One launch was a commercial failure. Newly presented Google TV shouldn't do better than the orignal (AppleTV). - Chrome Store seems (from first screenshots at least) even less elegant than Microsoft's one... - FTC will investigate about personnal Wifi data collecting by Google during Street View data acquiring process (Google recognized publicly its fault, however they may not think it is just ok then). -In another story (automated/batch books scanning without asking for rights owners agreement) Google still had tried to force the way through (same with Youtube, majors had finally to conclude deals, after videos had been put online without legal checking). - AdSense revenues redistribution by Google is opaque (no way to verify given numbers - same known problem as with artits royalties), the algorithm is proprietary (not public) and indeed presented as no perfect (can be usefull). Relegatations may be more frequent than thought, while more and more companies are paying to appear in early search results. Then relevance of search is suffering, and by the end liberty, as all that don't appear at the expected/deserved rank (or is too far) simply do not exist... On the Apple side we have a company that always followed traditional market rules (while having succeeded to revolution the way of buying music, and now applications and entertainment - and it may be just a start) : owners rights protection through DRM (asked by the majors), protection of creators revenues (AppStore), polished products and softwares (while Google provides - for free - beta softwares, and even recently some in research stage). Then Apple brings elegant/polished experience/UI, ensures a robust solution (iTunes), while Google don't want to accept any responsability, as with an amateurish company (or worse, some that is above the laws). What if Apple will restore the power balance, by using Microsoft's Bing for search, and providing ads revenues through iAds. These are probably the reasons of Google's anticipated attack, that lacks subtely, in the same way as Adobe's poorly reasoned answer. After all, nobody seemed offended 15 years ago when Microsoft put pressure on developers to invest on MFC Api, that did hurt Mac platform. To remember, Adobe created Photoshop and Illustrator on Mac exclusively in early 90s - because such application couldn't be achieved using Windows 3.x. |
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| 05-19-10 / 12:42 AM : Prince of Persia Retro for iPhone (cjed) |
| Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia Retro (the first game, that was out on Apple II and Atari/Amiga) for iPhone. |
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| 05-19-10 / 12:40 AM : Korg iELECTRIBE 1.1 update (cjed) |
| Korg provides a 1.1 update to iELECTRIBE, that allows audio (wav) export to Mac and PC (through iTunes). A video is available. |
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| 05-19-10 / 12:31 AM : Vir2 Instrument Electri6ity (cjed) |
 Vir2 Instruments presented Electri6ity, a 27 Gb electric guitars samples (24 bit) library, based on Kontakt 4. It uses its new Articulation Morphing Technology (A.M.T.) and Velocity Morphing Technology (V.M.T.) features, and adapts playing in realtime: legato, chords detection, double-track, unison bends, strum, pick, trill, tremolo pick, slide. We find 24 000 samples for each of the 8 guitars :Strat, Tele, P90, Les Paul, Rickenbacker, Danelectro Lipstick, ES335 et L4. We can add effects (phaser, flanger, chorus, reverb, delay, Screamer module) to the clean sounds, and amp simulations (British, Classic, Clean, Jazz, Metal, Modern, and Rock).Stunning audio demos are provided, and it is priced 399,95$. |
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| 05-17-10 / 11:55 PM : Lugaru / Penumbra : code/engine open sourced (cjed) |
| Wolfire provides Lugaru source code under GPL licence. Game resources are also included. Frictional Games also released Penumbra:Overture source code, and its HPL1 engine, under GPL, however resources are not provided. |
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| 05-16-10 / 11:17 PM : iPhone : Aqua Forest 2, ... free (cjed) |
| Among free games today at the AppStore we can find "..." (from ustwo) and Aqua Forest 2. |
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| 05-15-10 / 04:37 PM : Hollywood Strings : new audio demos (cjed) |
| EastWest added new audio demos of Hollywood Strings (besides the original Allegro Agitato). |
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| 05-14-10 / 06:24 PM : New Cappuccino app : GitHub Issues (cjed) |
| A new Cappuccino based application is available online, GitHub Issues. It allows to brower (and create) bug reports (Issues). |
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| 05-14-10 / 06:16 PM : NativeHost : transparent native wrapper (cjed) |
| Cappuccino team published an article about their choice of NativeHost (that they initially developed for Atlas) over Titanium, in order to provide a native execution mode (menus, window, open/save dialogs), through a transparent wrapper around WebKit engine (no code change required for the Cappuccino web application). |
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| 05-13-10 / 12:46 AM : Console games : challenges of porting to Intel (cjed) |
| On the The GameAgent blog we can find an article about porting Star Wars The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition on mac, from the console version code : dispatching on a fewer number of threads, rewriting of code based on permute (not available on Intel SSE), in order to use more common vector instructions. Indeed, contrary to G4's Altivec, that manages permute since 1999 (PS3's Cell processors also include Altivec), Intel won't provide similar vector unit until next processors generation (Sandy Bridge), that will bring AVX. |
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| 05-13-10 / 12:16 AM : Steam available / Portal free (cjed) |
| To celebrate the release of Steam on Mac, Portal is downloadable for free until May, 24 (an Intel mac is required). |
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| 05-12-10 / 12:14 AM : Dragon's Lair : price drop (cjed) |
| Dragon's Lair is now priced 0,99$ at the AppStore (down from 4,99$). We hope a price drop on Space Ace will follow. |
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| 05-12-10 / 12:08 AM : EastWest Play 2.0.8 update for Snow Leopard (cjed) |
| EastWest provides a 2.0.8 update to Play, that is now fully compatible with Snow Leopard (however this version requires an Intel mac, also on Leopard). Besides bug fixes it brings many enhancements : - re-designed browser window for enhanced control and overview of loaded instruments - several new convolution reverb IR's and presets - optimized streaming engine on all platforms - optimized memory footprint and CPU utilization in all platforms . |
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| 05-10-10 / 11:56 PM : MobileMe soon free ? (cjed) |
| A recent rumor states that Apple may provide MobileMe accounts for free soon (for now a 99$ annual subscription). |
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| 05-10-10 / 11:44 PM : O3D migrating to WebGL (cjed) |
| As I expected, Google ported O3D on top of WebGL (minus loading of compressed textures, that will need some evolving of browsers). Moreover in Windows it could be able to rely on DirectX (instead of OpenGL) by using the ANGLE project. That is the way to go, and Adobe is likely to be working on porting Flash to HTML5, thus removing the need for a plugin. After all optimized Flash isn"t so bad, as we can see with The Eco Zoo demo (uses 60% of resources on a 1,25 Ghz G4 with Radeon 9000 Pro - Flash version 10,1,53,21). |
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| 05-09-10 / 03:51 PM : Atlas : plugins architecture / CP2JavaWS (cjed) |
| The plugins architecture for Atlas has finally been unveiled, the first example being integrating of MapKit framework (a video tutorial is provided). However the interest seems more obvious to frameworks that produce visual content (view). Indeed, a "transparent" bridge like CP2JavaWS seems closer to existing Atlas's RSS, Facebook and Twitter controllers. Such controller for CP2JavaWS would be somewhat limited : - dragging a link from a graphical control (button, etc.) to the controller, then entering (in the controller's inspector) of endpoint url, remote service name, and input arguments (or dragg from controls that provide such values). The result would be two added lines in the code : retrieving of the enpoint and remote service's proxy, and remote method call on that proxy. - generating of a Master/Detail page, by entering description of a remote business object (its class and attributes), url of an endpoint that provides a CRUD service (Direct2CP). The result would also be two added lines in the coded : retrieving of the endpoint, and instanciating of a CP2JavaWSMasterDetail composite view. It seems then that actual way of using CP2JavaWS is faster (and at least as easy) than using a plugin. Such extension would be more likely in full/wider MDA approach. |
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| 05-09-10 / 03:24 PM : Apple Gianduia : still no unified framework ? (cjed) |
| About one year ago, Jonathan Rentzsch posted a twit about a new Apple JS framework, Gianduia : essestially is browser-side Cocoa (including CoreData) + WebObjects, written in JavaScript. In this WWDC reporting we could also find : an amazing approach to handling Ajax and client-side programming in a logical and powerful way. This framework is still used by Apple for its One-to-One service (in-store assistance), its iPhone reservation system, and its Concierge service (reservations for Genius Bar). We can access to the many JS frameworks used by Apple here, what leads to think that Apple still has no plans for a unified solution, like Cappuccino is, that was unveiled two years ago (it benefits from its language, that has a higher level of abstraction, and that allowed things like CP2JavaWS bridge, using an elegant way - proxy through forwardInvocation). |
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| 05-08-10 / 12:30 AM : AKAI SynthStation : video (cjed) |
| AKAI provides a page dedicated to SynthStation for iPhone (and iPad), unveiled during the January NAMM. It features 3 instruments based each on 3 oscillators (with waveform choice and PWM, LFO, envelope, resonant filter), drum kits (MPC type), a keyboard and an X/Y controller, a sequencer (with pianoroll, grid, and audio export), an arpeggiator, and a mixing console with sends and editable effects. We can watch a video here. |
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| 05-07-10 / 11:56 PM : IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig (cjed) |
 IK Multimedia presents AmpliTube iRig for iPhone, a solution composed of an interface (plugs on iPhone and provides one guitar input and one output), priced 39,99$, and a software, available in 3 versions : Free (2 stompboxe - Delay, Overdrive -, 1 amp (Lead) + cabinet, 2 microphones), LE (4 stompboxes - adds Chorus and Wah -, 1 amp (Lead) + cabinet, 2 microphones - 2.99$) and Full (10 stompboxes - adds Distorsion, Flanger, Envelope Filter, Phaser, and Fuzz -, 5 amps (Lead, Clean, Crunch, Metal, Bass) + cabinets, 2 microphones - 19.99$). We can find audio demos and a video. |
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| 05-06-10 / 10:23 PM : IK Multimedia : Xpansion Tank 2 discounts (cjed) |
| IK Multimedia provides until end May discounts on its Xpansion Tank 2 Series samples libraries (extensions for Sample Tank 2 player) : for one buyed (49,99$) we get 4 other libraries for free (among 15 available titles, sized from 650 Mb to 1,5 Gb). Moreover SampleTank 2.5 XT can be downloaded (includes 1 Gb of samples). |
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| 05-06-10 / 12:25 AM : The Humble Indie Bundle : Gish/Lugaru/Penumbra (cjed) |
| A new games bundle, The Humble Indie Bundle, includes 5 famous games : Gish, Lugaru (HD), Aquaria, Penumbra Overture and World of Goo. The total price would be 80$, however the bundle price is left at customer choice (through Paypal). The average price is about 8$, that is balanced by large amount of contributing (more than 36 000). The games are available for OSX, Windows and Linux. |
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| 05-04-10 / 10:23 PM : VSL Pro / 10 years / bundles and discounts (cjed) |
 To celebrate its 10 years, VSL announces Vienna Instruments PRO , an enhanced (however not free) version of its player : EQ et tuning per instrument, new controller types for articulation switching, auto voicing, time stretching, etc.VSL also provides new bundles (Solo Strings Bundle includes Solo Strings I et II, Orchestral Strings Bundle includes Orchestral Strings I et II, etc.), and reduced prices (for example Symphonic Cube is now priced 5980 euros - 9200 euros before). |
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| 05-04-10 / 10:09 PM : PCM Native Reverb Plug-In Bundle : review (cjed) |
| Audiofanzine propvides a review of Lexicon's PCM Native Reverb Plug-In Bundle. The audio quality is reported as very close to hardware units. |
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| 05-03-10 / 11:32 PM : Propellerhead Rebirth on iPhone (cjed) |
 Propellerhead presents an iPhone version of the famous Rebirth : two TB303 bassline emulation modules, one TR808 module and one TR909 module. The interface provides scroll and zoom. We can watch a video here. It is priced 6,99$. |
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| 05-03-10 / 11:23 PM : FXpansion BFD Eco (cjed) |
 FXpansion presents BFD Eco, a lite version (149$) based on the BFD2 engine, that is also compatible with expansions. It includes 5 kicks, 6 snares, 12 toms, 3 hihats, 11 cymbals and selection of percussions, declined over 40 presets (15 effects including EQ, filtering, dynamics, drive, reverb). We can also find 1500 example patterns. Audio demos are available. |
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| 05-03-10 / 11:06 PM : Valve : writer interview (cjed) |
| The site themacgamer provides an interview of Marc Laidlaw, one of Valve's writers. |
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| 05-03-10 / 11:02 PM : One million iPads (cjed) |
| In just 28 days Apple sold 1 million iPads (it is available in US only for now). This record has been reached more than two times faster than for the first iPhone. |
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