Vestax Spin.

At the risk that this appears to be a controller-oriented blog (it’s not, DJTechTools well and truly have that mantle covered), I have to post about Vestax’s latest controller, the Spin.

This thing looks pretty interesting. For one thing, it’s well and truly in the consumer price bracket, at only RRP$249. Secondly, it will be sold in Apple stores, alongside Apple MacBooks, iPods etc. and will ship with software which integrates with iTunes. Third, it is made by a reputable company, Vestax. A full write-up on features can be found here.

I have to wonder why Numark’s iPod compatible products never made the leap into this segment – they’ve had well over two years to do it – but they never got Apple endorsement.

No word on whether it will make it to Australia. Given the strong dollar, I’m sure one could be had from North America for relatively little additional dosh, but I think I’ll save my pennies.

Huge!

How bitchin is this!

I’ve been lusting after a new MacBook ever since the new unibodies came out, but I have to say, this takes the cake. Can anyone say “Real Estate”? A screen that huge for only AU$2,199?! Love you strong Australian dollar (right now).

Plus, wireless keyboard and mouse (magic mouse, even) as standard is just the icing on the cake. Where’s my tax return when I need it? (Oh yeah, I spent it on this.)

New Apple line: too expensive, too disappointing.

There’s plenty of reasons to be sad in today’s modern world. Please, Apple, don’t give us more. Here’s a few reasons why I’m not lauding Tuesday’s announcement of new iMacs and Mac Minis:

• Price. The base model iMac is now $400 more expensive, the Mac Mini $200. This says it all — whatever miniscule improvements in performance and looks these models might deliver, Apple has never before delivered such a monumental, across the board, price increase. Of course I realise this is because of the abysmal value of the Australian dollar. But most other manufacturers are doing something to mitigate increases. Not Apple it seems.
• DisplayPort is now standard. This annoying, Apple-only, restrictive port is now standard across the line. It’s $45 just to get an adapter to VGA. What’s more, some of your content from iTunes will be locked to approved screens only.
• Bundled keyboard. Apple have ditched the ‘long-form’ keyboard in favour of the ’short-form’ which omits the numerical keypad. These tiny keyboards are a joke and it will cost extra to buy a proper one.
• Mac Mini still not all it could be. No HDMI, hard drive too small, no Bluray. The Mac Mini is still not the hub of home entertainment many think it could and should be.

At least they all still have FireWire 800. And yes, graphics and memory improvements are nice.

Tivo in Australia.

Well, it’s been a few months now and TiVo has well and truly landed. I was recently investigating getting said PVR and upon review of its specs, the following thoughts occured to me:

1. Where is the much-famed fast-forward feature? You know, the one that lets you skip ads and makes that cute little noise when you do it? It’s not in the Australian version of TiVo and isn’t likely to appear any time soon.

2. Further to the above, various other standard features have been stripped from the AU model, including TiVoToGo which lets you export recorded shows to PC and/or iPod. With only a 160GB hard-drive, this is annoying. Coupled with the $699 price tag and likelihood that a firmware update in the new year will cost money, it’s insulting.

3. While we’re on the subject of price — for a crippled machine isn’t it a bit much? How much do two HD tuners and a 160GB drive go for these days? Oh, that’s right, it can now tell you the weather. And it still records shows offering handy automation like ‘Season Passes’ and recommendations etc.

My verdict: for the money, you could do a lot better. An Elegato EyeTV on your PC with iTunes and Handbrake and an AppleTV in the loungeroom would achieve the same outcome with much more adaptability. Even better, get a Mac Mini and use it as a media centre.

Furthermore, given the extremely limited scope of free-to-air TV in Australia (soon to expand to 15 channels), one questions the virtue of such a device. The future is the ability to download and watch shows on demand, not the ability to record them from free-to-air, replete with advertisements and inevitable delay behind US air dates. Just look at recent moves by Sony with its PS3 and Microsoft’s XBOX 360, which will soon offer streaming Netflix.

Will Australian TiVo offer Netflix (or a comparable alternative), or will that also cost more money?

[/end rant]

Blu-ray, iTunes, HD Content and the new MacBook.

Let’s talk about the new MacBook, the metal one, the one which came out on Tuesday. The one with no blu-ray.

Apple has just announced that iTunes will carry over 70 episodes of HD television content this fall, in addition to the SD shows already on board and the usual gamut of movies, music videos and, of course, music.

Why is this relevant to blu-ray and the new McBooks? (Oh snap, did I just do that?)

I’m of the firm belief Apple will never offer a blu-ray drive on its consumer models,* in fact, it would be counter-intuitive for them to do so. Exactly because, as this announcement shows, they view iTunes and the internets as their preferred HD content distribution model.

Jump on board people. Physical media, as far as distribution is concerned, is dead. Yes, blu-ray is good for movie buffs, designers and techies who want to collect things (like old movies in never-before-seen quality), archive things (like 200GB worth of stuff) or do mock-ups. But for the average consumer, it’s useless.

Why would you buy physical media, at the prices they’re currently charging for it, when you can download instantly, stream it to your Apple TV and then archive to your Time Machine?

Plus, Steve Jobs doesn’t think it’s clear which medium will win out. Actually, he means ‘Sorry Sony, but we’re slowly building up iTunes to a point where we can comfortably rebuff blu-ray and the majority of consumers won’t care.’

While we’re on the topic of MacBooks though — no Firewire?!

* An external drive, or internal upgrade, will be offered for Mac Pros, even if not by Apple.

iTunes: TV Shows and App Store.

[via Gizmodo]

Coinciding with the release of the iPhone 3G, Apple has finally debuted TV and movie downloads through the iTunes store in Australia. Makes you wonder: what have all those early-adopters with AppleTV been doing with it? Just kidding, I know it’s still a very cool box for streaming mp4s onto your TV even without iTunes coming along for the ride.

Anyway, the selection is currently pitifully small and overpriced — although the inclusion of Chris Lillie’s Summer Heights High and uber-hit The Hills should keep tweens punters happy.

Personally, I’m more psyched about the Apps store, which came online recently. While it’s obviously been timed for the iPhone 3G launch, it is a welcome reprieve for iPod Touch users who couldn’t stomach jailbreaking to get cool apps. An upgrade to iPhone V 2.0 is required though, and it costs $US9.99.

Apparently there’s already hundreds of apps online (ie. Beatmaker, below), with more to come. While many of the coolest cost money, it’s refreshing to see a lot of useful tools being offered for free.

Very cool shiz.

I don’t usually post Apple hype, I leave that to CrunchGear. But all this iPhone 3G news/pandemonium has got me very excited.

We all know that the iPhone came out aaages ago, and Australia has been waiting patiently, presumably because there’s no point releasing a GSM version here, for a November 2008 release. Well, it’s finally here.

The specs are very impressive: tri-band 3G, tri-band GSM, hundreds of hours of standby and a 2 megapixel camera. Even cooler is the tiny USB charger which comes with it. I’m also pumped its going to have Wi-Fi as standard — with so many hotspots and 3G bandwidth still very expensive — I think the majority of browsing will be done on the former over the latter.

No bets as to who the carrier of choice is going to be though… I think with Telstra’s NextG network boasting the fastest 3G speeds in the world it would be an obvious choice. Optus’ 3G network is a joke and 3 would seem to be ruled out; I don’t think they carry the iPhone in the UK as Huchison or Orange, that’s usually a bad sign.

Read: Apple Official Site.

Dan Deacon and Apple iPod.

Random story, but I was ‘browsing’ (looking for Daft Punk photos I think) Flickr when I accidentally stumbled onto Caesar Sebastian’s photostream, and discovered these awesome shots from a Check Yo Ponytail show a while back. Apparently it was a massive gig with Erol Alkan, Le Castle Vania, Acid Girls… and, Dan Deacon (myspace).

So finally we can get to the point of this story.

Dan Deacon is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in Purchase, New York, and he is renowned for his eclectic, electronic compositions. Evidently the kids just love it. But I’m in love with his setup, and thankfully, Caesar took some awesome shots of it:

[Credit]

So there it is, in all its glory, a mess of wires, circuit-bent gear and random lights and bric-a-brac all gaffa taped together. But if you look at it from another angle, it gets even better:

[Credit]

Yeah, zoom in on that and you might notice a tiny little iPod in there as part of Dan’s setup (it’s between the mixer and that blue rack thing). Now that is cool. And it got me thinking, why haven’t the potential creative uses for an iPod been more properly explored? I mean, aside from some third-party devices (Belkin TuneStudio) and some kids on YouTube (iBand), is Apple even getting in on this?

I have to say, I can appreciate why Dan would go an iPod over, say, an iBook running Ableton. Just look at what he does to his setup — it’s strapped to some table which gets moved, jumped on, shoved and shaken — no laptop could take that abuse. Plus, the iPod has extreme ease of use, it’s practically only one button and no screen. How could you go wrong?

Further perusal has revealed that Dan isn’t the only one harnessing the creative potential of an iPod, check out these two kids with Korg Kaosspads:

Cool.

iband hype timed for SDK launch.

About 5 days ago I spotted this vid on Crunchgear featuring an ipod touch drum-kit — apparently I was totally behind the proverbial eight ball as an ‘iband’ pictured above had already garnered 2 million views for their awe-inspiring video with said drum-kit plus other instruments.

In ‘unrelated’ news, this week Apple finally released the SDK which allows developers to make their own software for the ipod touch and iPhone platforms.

Well-timed viral hype anybody?

Of course, cynics will point out that idrummer etc. were out before the SDK, and the video features artists playing on Jailbroken ipods, so of course Apple couldn’t be behind it. However, that still doesn’t explain why/how they went from two ipods and a Nintendo DS to three iPhones in the space of a week.

In any event, I’m pumped that the SDK is out and am seriously considering getting an iPod touch for PDA and Skype duties.

Read: ‘iPhone musicians tinkle the touch screen‘.

I want, I want.

This is the new Macbook Air, premiered at MacWorld a few days ago. I think it’s freakin’ awesome and is totally the future (even though it has no optical drive, one usb and barely any other peripheral options to speak of). Critics say it’s not a subnotebook, and it’s pitiful as a proper laptop. I think they miss the picture — it’s a new market segment altogether.

It’s air.