While Macrumors.com live feed was hacked and spewed mis-information that Steve Jobs had died, Phil did alright in Steve’s place this morning at Macworld’s final Apple Keynote. Sure, he went WAY in-depth but that was largely due to the lackluster amount announcements. iLife, iWork, and iTunes multi-level pricing is about what we got this morning. Oh ya, you can now purchase music on your iPhone via the 3G network starting today, as well. Sure, iPhoto’s face recognition is way cool, as is iMovie’s ability to take the jitter out of your bumpy video, iwork.com document sharing is nice, and the Keynote iPhone App Remote is great, as is the 17″ MacBook Pro, but nothing earth shattering today. (I’m sure my high school teacher will kill me for that run on. Sorry Mr. Orlando.) Oh wait, yes, the 17″ WILL come in either “I can’t see a thing” gloss or the better matte option. I guess that rox.
Apple finished its announcement with Tony singing about leaving his heart in San Francisco as this is Apple’s last Macworld. And again, Steve Jobs is not dead. Well, he may be and the Board is just holding off on that news like his cancer and his hormone issue. But hey, that’s another story.
Since doors are opening late, I now have to figure out how to make up my 10:30 appointment. Stay tuned for more updates through the day.
Psyko Audio Labs Inc., a leading innovator in PC Gaming headphone technology, got a big nod from the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. Organizers awarded the Psyko 5.1 Directional Audio Headphone the CES 2009 Best of Innovations Design and Engineering for the headphone category.
“It’s been decades since there was any innovation to headphones’ core technology of simply placing a speaker at each ear” remarks James Hildebrandt, CEO of Psyko Audio Labs. “Essentially, all other headphone designs deliver left sounds into your left ear and right sounds into your right ear. We offer a fundamental break from this limiting paradigm. We accurately position each speaker in the headphone bridge and then, using our patent pending Psyko Waveguide Technology, we deliver every sound to both ears, with the correct timing, volume variations, and front and back flow directions found in a natural 3D sound field.“
Considered a revolution in headphone technology, Psyko 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones offer gamers an experience that transcends normal surround sound. They deliver the equivalent of “A Perfect Room”, to give you the best audio experience. The perfect room is the highest goal for headphones or room systems.
A perfect room is quite difficult to setup in real life; requiring perfect speaker placement, as well as sound absorbing and defusing surfaces to control things like echoes and dead zones common to most room setups. Even then, the resulting sweet spot is small. Psyko 5.1 headphones are acoustically accurate, placing a gamer right in the audio sweet spot where everything sounds perfectly tuned.
Psyko 5.1’s Directional Audio unique Features and Benefits include…
PsykoWave Technology – Psyko 5.1 gaming headphones work the same way a 5.1 room system does. Every sound is delivered to both ears with the correct direction, timing and volume difference between each ear.
The headphone bridge houses 5 audio drivers (front left, center and right) and (rear left and right) with a subwoofer in each ear cup.
Sounds from each driver carry throughout the PyskoWave guides to pass over the front and back of both ears, giving users natural, not simulated, surround sound.
Simple and Accurate - Another significant advantage to gamers is the simplicity and accuracy of speaker setup. Rather than the normal compromises in speaker positioning typical to 5.1 room systems, all our speakers are in exactly the right spot automatically. You literally just put them on and you are in the optimal “sweet spot” of the 5.1 surround sound experience. Gamers will likely hear directional sound more accurately wearing the Psyko 5.1 headphones than they will with their 5.1 room system.
Optimal Comfort– Psyko 5.1 gives the user control to either block outside sounds, or open the ear cup to vent their ears for cooling and to hear conversation in the room during game play. The headset is fully adjustable and provides maximum cushioning using fabric rather than faux leather or vinyl which gets slippery and itchy with sweat. Marathon gaming sessions have never been so comfortable.
Personalization – An amplifier lets gamers customize volume and bass levels.
Psyko is pleased to have received the CES Innovations Award in the field of Headphones from the Consumer Electronics Association. According to CES, “The Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program recognizes the most innovative consumer electronics (CE) products in the industry’s hottest product categories. Innovations has become a hallmark for the best designed products in consumer technology.”
Psyko 5.1 will be available for $299.99 in early 2009 and will be compatible with both PCs and Macs. For additional information, go to http://www.psykoaudio.com/
Magus Silver, Teresonic’s new compact loudspeakers, produces a remarkably smooth sound of pure silver coils, with only a few watts of power per channel.
“Magus Silver recreates the emotion of a live musical performance like no other design. Low power amplifiers, including vacuum tubes, will sound huge using a fraction of energy, compared to power hungry amplifiers and inefficient loudspeakers,” says Mike Zivkovic, president of Teresonic. “Magus Silver brings to compact speakers a breed of lifelike musicality – the magic of smooth sound of silver in full-range design and ultra-high efficiency.”
Silver is more expensive but superior conducting material, making Magus Silver one of the most natural sounding and eco-friendly designs available. Its small size matches the most popular compacts, but its ultra-high performance of 98 dB surpasses them by a wide margin. The coherence and realism produced by full-range, crossover-less design with silver coil drivers sets a new standard for the life-like tonal quality of voices and musical instruments.
Teresonic’s ultra-high efficiency simultaneously improves the sound quality and reduces energy costs. With a fraction of the power, Magus produces sound that is superior in clarity, coherence, reality and life. “Teresonic’s sound is amazingly natural and organic, with not the faintest hint of coloration,” says Neb Maricic, a baritone, one of the greatest Mozart Figaros. “They can recreate the experience of a concert hall in your home.”
While most speakers are sensitive to precise positioning in the speaker’s “sweet spot,” Magus delivers most of its magic anywhere in the room. Used as stand-mounted, bookshelf or tabletop sources, they provide freedom in positioning close to or away from walls and floors. This makes them uniquely suited for smaller listening rooms or offices. A dedicated stand is designed to enhance speaker’s sonic characteristics, with an adjustable shelf under the speaker functioning as a reflector plate to allow for fine tuning to the room acoustics.
With Magus, form follows function. Teresonic’s enclosures are beautifully sculpted and individually handcrafted like fine musical instruments. “Have you ever wondered why there are no square violins, trumpets, or acoustic guitars? So why do they make square speakers? Because it requires patience and painstaking attention to detail to make them like we do,” says Zivkovic. “Teresonic speakers are designed with the centuries-old proven techniques used in making fine musical instruments, combined with the latest science, materials and technology.”
Teresonic’s Magus Silver speakers retail for US$ 4,485 per pair with customized speaker stands retailing for $295. Customers get a 30-day Total Satisfaction Guarantee and a full three-year warranty. Specifications include a sensitivity of 98dB (1W/1kHz/1m), a bandwidth of 55Hz-22kHz ± 3dB, and a power handling of 2-100 watts.
Untitled and incorrect music titles in your iTunes library are now history. Today equinux released SongGenie, a software application designed to analyze, detect and label music data. SongGenie constructs an acoustic fingerprint of each track and, based on specific characteristics, detects the appropriate artist name, song title and album title.
SongGenie automatically identifies tracks containing incomplete or incorrect information. It even detects music titles for tracks with no artist, album or song title information; titles that were digitalized without extra information and are therefore called, for example, “Title 01″ and additional characters that suggest incorrect names like an underline.
Using an acoustic fingerprint, SongGenie determines which track to work on and intuitively inserts the correct information in its user interface. With just a click, the appropriate description text is transferred to the track in question.
“SongGenie taps the full potential of the iPhone, iPod and iTunes: The Genius function in iTunes 8 profits particularly well from a complete music library, ” said equinux CEO Till Schadde. “It doesn’t get easier to care for one’s music archive than with SongGenie and CoverScout.”
Price and Availability
SongGenie is now available for USD 29.95 (24,95 Euro) in the equinux Online Store and will soon be available from Apple resellers. Moreover, SongGenie is also available in a bundle with CoverScout 3 for USD 54.90 (49,95 Euro) in the Online Store. SongGenie is localized in English, German and French.
Rumor after rumor of Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, impoverished health seems to be bring down the Cupertino-based computer company’s stock price faster than the fall of crude oil and yet still, Jobs hides behind his ego and doesn’t put an end to it. While many critics of the Jobs Health Report cry foul and point out no other company is effected by the well being of its CEO, most of them are all forgetting that those companies don’t have Steve Jobs at the helm. Since day one, Jobs ego has carried, and hurt at times, Apple to great heights. Folklore of his direct hands on for everything from the iPod development to every iPhone application being OK’d by him first has proven that Jobs has his hands in everything. No other Big Honcho can make this claim. To many Chiefs, this would seem a ludicrous task but for Jobs, it’s a necessity. Truth is, this style of running the company has been a great asset to Apple and its stock holders, for the most part, but it is now becoming a liability.
Because Jobs has made it his priority to put all things through the Gates of Jobs (no pun intended), it has created this vacuum in the world of all things Apple. Once Jobs is removed, that vacuum will collapse upon itself. From uneasy stock holders to dismayed Apple fanboys, the companies finances could take a terrible hit by a Steve Jobs void. While it is silly to even care about someone’s health that runs a company — Jobs has surrounded himself with a fine group of lieutenants — again, Jobs has made this all happen because of the precedent HE created. HE has given all the keynotes at Macworld since his return as interim CEO in 1997. HE has been the one presenting the world with new products and services for all of 2008. HE has been the man on the cover of Macworld, Time, Newsweek, and other national magazines. HE was the one that made the monumental deal with AT&T for the iPhone without even showing then-Cingular a stinking sketch let alone a mock-up phone. HE has been the one to make hard-nosed and egotistical comments in the name of Apple since its inception. It’s always STEVE JOBS and no one else in the lime light and making the decisions. So, logic would say, if HE goes, so will HIS company.
If Apple, er, Steve Jobs wants to put an end to this madness, he needs to respond to the rumors. Again, it is asinine for such a thing to be done, but it is also foolhardy for the general to ride a chariot at the front of the line during war. Jobs has brought this upon himself with his swelling ego and now he must answer the very bloggers he hates. He must acknowledge their power as well as his miscalculation of monarchy company rule if he desires to see Apple continue its skyward journey. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult for the phoenix to rise out from the ashes for a second time.
openDesktop.org, the meeting place for Linux desktop users and IT experts, recently broke through the 200,000 downloads of free software and artwork per day barrier.
Frank Karlitschek, founder of openDesktop.org, ascribed the download frenzy to two factors. “Firstly, the library on openDesktop.org of free software and artwork has grown exponentially and now stands at 62,000 applications, artwork and documents. Secondly, new applications and artwork are added at the rate of about 100 per day. The size of the library and the fact that new stuff is added daily, are pulling the crowds,” he said.
openDesktop.org receives 5.7 million visitors per month. They view on average 14 pages per visit for a total monthly page view statistic of almost 80 million.
“To date the financial markets crisis hasn’t impacted negatively on us. In fact, up- and download activity has increased in the wake of the crisis,” said Karlitschek.
Registration is only required for users intending to upload applications, artwork and documents to the portal. To date 120,000 users have registered.
Users do not only come to upload, browse and download applications. They also network with other open source developers and IT experts in groups and on forums. Users leave profiles send messages and browse the free job and project board.
Resco, a leading provider of end-user mobile applications, announced today the release of its very first game for iPhone, iPod Touch - Resco Bubbles.
Resco Bubbles is an action puzzle game where the idea is to clear a grid of bubbles in order to advance to the next level. The player is given a sequence of bubbles, which should be quickly and efficiently popped. Numerous explosive, speed-up, slow-down and damage bubbles make the game play exciting and challenging.
Features:
* 50 challenging levels
* accelerometer support
* various surfaces
* calibration
* best score
* realistic ball-bounce feeling
“After establishing ourselves in the Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian platforms the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch present yet another promising opportunity for our mobile solutions.
The iPhone platform with its successful design and revolutionary UI is both extremely popular with customers and very interesting for developers. Its standardized hardware environment, high-quality development tools and unrivalled distribution channel make for exceptionally easy development and distribution of applications. And we at Resco are going to use this potential,”
says Eduard Kirchner, Director of the Gaming Division.
After introducing Resco Bubbles, Resco will gradually introduce other games that scored commercial success in other platforms, while taking full advantage of the new platform’s potential.
Availability
A free LITE version of “Resco Bubbles” allows players to test the game out before actually purchasing the full version. It can be found at: http://www.resco.net/iPhone/Bubbles.
NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce the Zero 2 Full Tower Steel Chassis the integrates a fully customizable cooling system. The structural integrity of the Zero 2 can not be doubted featuring a sturdy 1.0mm steel construction and weighing in at 10.2kg. Adopting a similar extreme cooling approach to that of the original Zero chassis, Zero 2 offers a fully customizable cooling system with space for seven 120mm fans and one 80mm fan making it a phenomenal option for users that run Multi GPU systems. This aggressive cooling system combined with other great features like screwless installation for HDD devices, top mounted USB, and Intel HD Audio and AC’97 Audio capability make Zero 2 one of the most compelling case options on the market for the PC Enthusiast and Gamer.
“The original Zero was a tremendous success for NZXT due to its unique, customizable cooling setup,” said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. “The Zero 2 builds off of its predecessor’s success and provides truly phenomenal value for gamers everywhere priced under $100.”
Retailing for $99.99 the new Zero 2 is available now. For more information on the NZXT Zero2, visit http://www.nzxt.com/products/zero_2/
For more information on NZXT and to view the company’s complete catalog, visit www.nzxt.com.
Today, mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), digital content creation (DCC) and broadcast applications received a major performance boost with the introduction of the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 4800 ultra-high-end professional graphics card. With advances in GPU architecture, added graphics memory and 30-bit color, the Quadro FX 4800 gives professionals the right toolset to dramatically push the boundaries of realism, performance and quality.
“In this increasingly competitive landscape, it’s imperative that professionals deliver better, faster and more cost-effective results,” said Jeff Brown general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. “NVIDIA is not only addressing this challenge, but is raising the ultra-high-end visualization bar by creating specialized solutions to meet the direct needs of professionals - whether it be a geophysicists or MCAD designer.”
Equipped with 192 CUDAT parallel computing cores, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a 2X performance increase over previous generations of ultra-high-end graphics cards. Key features in the Quadro FX 4800 include:
- Real-time Visualization of Large Data Sets - Equipped with 1.5 GB graphics memory, the Quadro FX 4800 has the capacity to process large textures and frames in real time while providing fill rates of 38 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.
-Increased Image Quality - A 128-bit precision graphic pipeline and 32x FSAA for better image clarity and quality.
-Ultra-high Color Fidelity and Resolutions - Dual 10-bit display ports delivering a color palette of over a billion colors, orders of magnitude greater than previous generations of graphics cards. Also included is a single dual-link digital display connector for ultra-high resolution panels of up to 3840 x 2400 at 24Hz.
-High-performance Visualization - A CUDA parallel computing processor architecture exposed through a C language environment and tool suite. In combination with high-performance visualization, CUDA unleashes new capabilities to solve highly complex challenges such as real-time ray tracing, video encoding and interactive volume rendering.
Pricing and Availability
NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading system manufacturers and workstation integrators, and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (US and EMEA), Leadteck (APAC), and Elsa (Japan). The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 is available today and has a MSRP of $1,999 USD. For more information on NVIDIA professional technologies and products, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.
Making your holiday shopping a whole lot easier and a whole lot less expensive, LingvoSoft is now offering deep discounts on their entire range of award-winning software through 26 December. With a wide range of useful applications that make communicating in another language easier than ever before – at home, at school or at work – LingvoSoft applications are the first choice of language learners and travelers the world over.
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