AmpliTube iRig puts a recording studio in your pocket

by Chuck La Tournous on June 27, 2011

I’ve been playing bass guitar since I was 12, and while I’ve always loved the playing music side of playing music, I’ve never been much on the lugging-equipment-around aspect. I deplored it so much, in fact, that I quit the wedding band business for a time, only coming back when the band agreed to hire (…)

The end is near: app to track asteroid near-collision is half-price today only

by Chuck La Tournous on June 27, 2011

From my latest article on The Mac Observer: If you knew the end of the world was coming, what would you do? Maybe you’d spend a few final romantic minutes with your loved one; perhaps you’d gather with others in your local place of worship. Given TMO’s readership, it’s a fair bet at least some (…)

Conan’s editors love new Final Cut Pro X

by Chuck La Tournous on June 24, 2011

I haven’t really chimed into the controversy surrounding the release of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X (disparagingly referred to by some as “iMovie Pro’), but I thought this clip from the Conan O’Brien show illustrated the criticism perfectly (and hilariously). That an upgrade to a professional editing application could be fodder for a late night (…)

Technologizer: How vulnerable are Macs?

by Chuck La Tournous on June 2, 2011

In his latest Technologizer column for Time, Harry McKracken takes a reasoned, thoughtful look at the current state of Mac security and comes to much the same conclusion I did: while Mac malware is still more reliant on social engineering than technological exploits, there’s no such thing as risk-free computing. (The) fact that the recent (…)

iWork apps get update; now work on iPhone, iPod touch

by Chuck La Tournous on May 31, 2011

Apple’s iWork suite of productivity apps have been updated to work on the iPhone and iPod touch, according to a press release from Apple. Keynote, Pages and Numbers are now universal apps that run on iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation), according to Apple. The (…)

Apple spells out keynote for WWDC: Lion, iOS 5, ‘iCloud’

by Chuck La Tournous on May 31, 2011

Apple made the unusual move of spelling out the topics for its WWDC Keynote next week: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next (…)

Mostly Harmless

by Chuck La Tournous on May 25, 2011

There’s a new variant of the Mac Defender Trojan Horse making the rounds. This one, called “Mac Guard,” is scarier in that it does not require a password to install, since it affects the user account, not the entire computer. Scarier, but still fairly benign since at worst, the installer can only open automatically — (…)

This is why people don’t trust marketers

by Chuck La Tournous on May 25, 2011

More on Dell’s new laptop from The Guardian: Noted in passing: advert for the Dell XPS-15, containing the phrase Finally, the power you crave in the thinnest 15″ PC on the planet*. Wow, the thinnest? But wait, what’s the asterisk? Small print time: “Based on Dell internal analysis as at February 2011. Based on a (…)

Shameless

by Chuck La Tournous on May 25, 2011

The phenomenon of other brands’ products “coincidentally” beginning to look like Apple products is nothing new, (think about cellphones before and after the iPhone or tablets after the iPad, for instance) so it’s not surprising to see that Dell’s new XPS 15z laptop bears a striking resemblance to the MacBook Pro. They’ve even copied Apple’s (…)

On the Apple’s 10th anniversary in retail, a look back at NJ’s first store

by Chuck La Tournous on May 19, 2011

With today marking the 10th anniversary of Apple’s first brick-and-mortar store, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at how we covered the company’s first location in the Garden State, which opened in Tice’s Corner in 2001. Back then, of course, there were only five retail outlets, and the company had (…)