iPAD: Is it really all that and a bag of chips?

I’ve had a number of inquiries of what “Joe The Flow” thinks of the iPAD.  (Not sure how much it really matters). Being that I was dealing with a very sick dog I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to it live.  My fellow geek was texting me the highlights as they were happening.

During the process all I could think of was the MacBook Air – it would be cool to have if you had money burning a hole in your pocket, which I don’t.  That’s the way I felt about the iPad.

Now, nearly 24 hours later, here’s how I feel about it – It’s like the MacBook Air – would be cool to have if you had money burning a hole in your pocket, which I don’t.

I realize that the Mac loyalists (which I am one of) will hate me for this and tell me that I don’t get it.  Maybe you’re right.

I don’t get why:

1. I would want another device that requires me to deal with AT&T.
2. I need a large iPhone that doesn’t fit on my hip.
3. I would by a first generation of anything Mac.

That being said – I’ve wanted a Kindle Wireless Reading Device for a long time and I may consider the iPAD over the Kindle.  I would get my book reader and a whole lot more.  But, first I want to see how Apple’s bookstore selection is.  It’s taken iTunes Movie store quite a while to build its inventory and it’s still not what it needs to be.

At this point in time, I’d rather spend my dollars on other things, but am looking forward to gen 2 and gen 3 versions of the iPAD.

Those are my thoughts and I know that a whole bunch of you disagree with me but I also know a whole bunch feel the same.

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Sorry, Download Speeds: AT&T Added 4 Million 3G Devices Last Quarter

AT&T made over $800 million in wireless data revenue last fall, thanks to a glut of new 3G users. Unfortunately, that also puts extra strain on their already-clogged data pipes. And we’ve still got all that iPad traffic ahead.

AT&T’s plans to fix things up include a $2 billion increase in the amount of spending on their wireless network, and an increased focus on HSPA 7.2 (which the iPhone 3GS runs on) and LTE deployment. They expect the “majority” of mobile data to be on fiber-based backhaul (that’s a good thing!) by the end of 2010, but honestly that long a time horizon makes me nervous.

There’ll be a call at 10am EST to discuss earnings results further, and we’ll listen in for any more interesting tidbits. In the meantime, the full release is below.

AT&T Reports Fourth-Quarter Earnings Growth with a 2.7 Million Net Gain in Wireless Subscribers, Continued Strong Growth in IP-Based Revenues, Record Full-Year Cash Flow

* $0.51 diluted EPS for the fourth quarter versus $0.41 in the year-earlier period
* $34.4 billion full-year cash from operating activities versus $33.7 billion in 2008, and $17.1 billion free cash flow, up 28.4 percent versus 2008 (free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital expenditures)
* 2.7 million fourth-quarter net addition in total wireless subscribers, the second highest quarterly net gain in the company’s history; full-year wireless net adds totaled 7.3 million, equaling the company’s best-ever annual total, to reach 85.1 million subscribers in service

[read more]

What is the Best File Format to Save Your Photos In? PSD * TIFF * JPEG * GIF * PNG

A Guest Post by Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions:Your shortcut to better photographs.

As a photographer you shoot in Raw or Jpeg, or sometimes both. Then you edit. You may start in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, but eventually you may end up in Photoshop doing more detailed editing of your photographs.  In time, you come up with the “perfect” edit. Now it is time to save. What do you do? Do you save as a PSD, Tiff, Jpeg, Gif, Png or something else?

Here are a few of the most common formats and why you may or may not want to use them:

PSD

• You will want to save as a Photoshop PSD when you have many layers that you want to preserve.
• Saving this way will retain adjustment layers, your masks, shapes, clipping paths, layer styles, blending modes.
• Useful if you need to maintain transparency.
• The downsides to PSDs the large size and the compatibility.
• Only those with Photoshop will be able to view them, and you will need to save another way for printing.
• You cannot share on the web as a PSD.

[read more] 

Twitter Hits 75 Million Users, Most of Them Inactive

Twitter continues to sign up users at a remarkable rate, though a vast majority of those users almost never use the service, according to a new study from RJMetrics.

The online measurement firm, which is based in Camden, N.J, analyzed Twitter’s backend data for a closer look at the numbers behind the nearly three-year old social platform.

What they found was that Twitter has a remarkably high number of inactive accounts, but enjoys ever-deeper levels of engagement with its frequent users.

Seventy-five million people signed up for a Twitter account by the end of 2009, the study said, though only 17 percent of them sent even a single Tweet in December, an all-time low for the micro-blogging service.

About 25 percent of Twitter users have no followers, and about 40 percent have never sent a single Tweet, the study said. Eighty percent of Twitter users have sent fewer than 10 tweets since signing up.

However, such high levels of inactive accounts are not unusual for a free service that has attracted so much hype said Robert Moore, president of RJMetrics. The study also could not detect users who do not send tweets, but still use the service to look at others’ profiles or search for information. [read]

10 great iPhone apps for business users

As a member of the nomadic business class, I appreciate how Apple has managed to make a device as small as the iPhone a truly useful enterprise tool. Thanks to the wildly successful App Store, an amazing number and variety of apps promise to keep me organized, on time, on track, and productive even if my ever-present laptop isn’t available.

The question for me, as it is for most users, is exactly which App Store apps will make the iPhone as useful as it can be. What follows is my own personal top 10 list, plus a few extras for good measure. If you use your iPhone (or iPod Touch) for business purposes, you’ll likely come to rely on a few of these apps too.

There were a few ground rules I used in putting this group together — guidelines that made sense to me, as I think they will to a lot of other users. First, because I’m living inside the current economy, I wanted the applications to be as inexpensive as possible. A bargain-priced iPhone app that requires an expensive desktop app or subscription was at a serious disadvantage. [read]

Why write a book?

If you’ve never written a non-fiction book, there are a lot of reasons why you might want to. It organizes your thoughts. It’s a big project worthy of your attention.

Noted.

But once you’ve written a book, it’s not clear that it’s a useful thing to publish one. After all, it takes a year. It involves a lot of people. You need to print a lot of copies, ship them everywhere, create a lot of hoopla and hope that people actually a) hear about it, b) decide it’s worth the effort to track it down and c) read it and spread it.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just blog it? Or to post a PDF online and watch it spread?

Some of my books have been short… one was under a hundred pages long. It could certainly have a been a series of blog posts. And the posts might even have reached more people than the book ultimately did. If my blog posts were counted on the same metrics as bestselling books, every single one would be a New York Times bestseller. Yours too, most likely. Books don’t sell that many copies.

The goal isn’t always to spread an idea. Sometimes the goal is to make change happen. A book is a physical souvenir, a concrete instantiation of your ideas in a physical object, something that gives your ideas substance and allows them to travel. [read: Seth Godin]

Neumann TLM 102 Large-Diaphragm Studio Condenser Microphone [review]

Let’s start with the obvious: the TLM 102 and TLM 103 sound very different. The TLM 102 is relatively flat with a tighter focus on midrange frequency details. I really like that Neumann has swung the pendulum back from the trend of making mics brighter and brighter. Brighter is not better, especially when using dynamics plug-ins aggressively.

Features

The TLM 102 is made at Neumann, in Germany. The new singlesided, backplate-charged K 102 capsule borrows raw materials from the U 89 and BCM Series. The TLM 102 was designed to be more “road-worthy” than the TLM 103, meaning you could use a TLM 102 at a live event.

The TLM 102’s head grille is only two layers of metal mesh (not three), but there’s a thin, washable foam liner inside the mic to stop plosives. The foam liner may be removed for more transparency. The chrome-plated ring around the middle of the mic unscrews, allowing the head grille to be removed.

The predecessor TLM 103 has a rubber surround encircling the PCB. The TLM 102 doesn’t. Thus, tapping the TLM 102’s body produces a noticeably louder thump. The TLM 102 uses the same optional suspension mic mount as the TLM 103, etc. A simple rigid mic clip is included. A more affordable suspension mount is in the works.

The TLM 102 cardioid pattern has soft shoulders and is slightly narrower than that of the TLM 103. That can be very helpful to “tune out” unwanted nearby sound sources. The TLM 102 sounds thicker than the TLM 103 and doesn’t have quite the “air.” [read full review: Pro Audio Review]

Logic Pro 64-bit the talk of the NAMM music show [NAMM 2010]

Apple’s release of Logic Pro 9.1 two days before the NAMM music show in Anaheim, Calif. last week caused quite a stir on the show floor with developers, engineers and users.

Among its major changes, Logic Pro is now a 64-bit application. We’ve all heard about 64-bit apps before, but in practical terms, it will help music producers and songwriters create better music. That may sound like somewhat of a stretch, but it’s true.

All 32-bit applications have a memory limit limit of 4GB. That means that after system memory has been accounted for, the most memory an app can use is 4GB. However, a 64-bit application’s memory usage is virtually unlimited.

This is especially important when using plug-ins with large sample libraries. One company at the show that immediately took advantage of the 64-bit version of Logic was Spectrasonics.

Spectrasonics showed off 64-bit versions of its entire product line at NAMM, which is no small feat considering Logic 9.1 was announced just two days before the show started. The company was obviously prepared for the move to 64-bit, and company founder Eric Persing said his customers will see immediate benefits in Logic. [read]

Panasonic WM-777p Vintage Condenser Microphone [Review]

Ran across this video, made by the amazing audio engineer, Jeff Dykhouse (Jephtha Studios) on a 1970′s era condenser microphone. Jeff tested this old Panasonic studio mic and compared it with an AKG 414EB, AT 4033, and Shure SM57.

For more information about Jeff Dkyhouse and his audio engineering services go to www.JephthaStudios.com.

Original Art from Your DNA

DNA 11 pioneered the application of genetic science in the creation of truly personalized unique custom art. We’re really proud of that fact. In addition to our DNA art We continue to lead the way with innovative new products like our Fingerprint Portraits, KISS Portraits and our latest creation, the NEW! DNA Mini Portrait. We are focused on impeccable quality, and the kind of devoted customer service that might better be called ‘pampering’.
To ensure world-class quality, we maintain a state-of-the-art printing facility right in our own 3000 square-foot studios. No outsourcing to print houses. No third-party subcontractors for the final rendering of your artwork.  We stay focused on your project, regularly exercising our obsession for quality. (In fact, the only thing we ever outsource is our genetic lab work, and only then to a trusted multimillion-dollar, FDA certified, well-established lab for security and privacy reasons). [visit DNA 11]