Video device convergence forces Skype to embrace H.264

Skype’s decision to adopt H.264 was made because it has become the de facto codec for video delivery across a wide range of devices. Due to hardware acceleration built into low-powered devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players and mobile handsets, video publishers have increasingly turned to H.264 for video playback.
H.264 is arguably the best, or only, way to deliver video onto connected TVs and mobile devices. However, a battle is breaking out over the video format used by Web browsers for standards-based HTML5 video playback. While all modern browsers are working to support HTML5 and its video tag, which enables video playback without the need for a proprietary plug-in like Adobe’s Flash Player, browser makers are divided on which video format to support. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 and Apple’s Safari browser have pledged support for H.264, but Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera are backing Google’s open-source WebM format.

The New iPad2…All New Design

It’s Here, The Mac App Store

With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier. No more boxes, no more disks, no more time-consuming installation. Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. The Mac App Store is now available as a software update for any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011

New Safari 5.0.1 Lands With Extensions

Fresh off the heels of launching a slew of new products yesterday, Apple this morning debuted Safari 5.0.1, switching the flip on Safari Extensions and formally introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, a directory of available extensions across categories.
The company had introduced extensions support in Safari 5 last June, giving developers the opportunity to start creating browser add-ons using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript standards.
The new Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible straight from the browser menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there’s no need to restart the browser (much like Google Chrome, and unlike Firefox).
Add-ons can be automatically updated and are managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.
Every Safari Extension comes signed with a digital certificate from Apple to “prevent tampering” and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are also sandboxed, which prevents them from accessing information on a user’s system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer.
As Apple had made clear earlier, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.

Steinberg launches Nuendo 5

Nuendo 5 by Steinberg represents a new state-of-the-art production environment tailored to post production, live recording and audio production. Features include an ADR toolset, new sound design features and plug-ins, and a range of mixing, routing and automation enhancements. Supporting Mac OS X (10.5 and later) as well as Windows 7, Vista and XP, Nuendo 5 will is now available from authorized Steinberg dealers.
Among the new features presented in Nuendo 5 is a new ADR toolset engineered for audio post, providing new capabilities for spotting including advanced take and marker handling, EDL import and a new video engine. Clip packages have been designed specifically for sound editors as a new way to organize and handle audio as clusters of files across multiple tracks that can be archived, previewed and retrieved almost instantly using the upgraded Nuendo 5 MediaBay.
Enhanced mixing features in Nuendo 5 include upgrades to the Nuendo automation system as well as direct routing with multiple destinations. A new plug-in set with the next-generation surround panner and a surround bus patch editor further adds to the advanced surround feature set. Other additions include a waveform display, improved compatibility with Pro Tools audio files and automated batch export functions.
Nuendo 5 also integrates seamlessly with Steinberg’s Nuendo SyncStation synchronizer hardware, providing sample-accurate sync in almost any situation. Nuendo 5 also features complete support for a range of controller devices.

What is cloud computing ?

Cloud computing is all the rage. “It’s become the phrase du jour,” says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition.
As a metaphor for the Internet, “the cloud” is a familiar cliché, but when combined with “computing,” the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is “in the cloud,” including conventional outsourcing.
Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities.
Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure providers are part of the mix, but so are SaaS (software as a service) providers such as Salesforce.com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging.
Here’s a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:

1. SaaS
: This type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS “desktop” applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office?

2. Utility computing
: The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera’s AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies’ Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computing’s LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network.

3. Web services in the cloud: 
Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services — such as Strike Iron and Xignite — to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card processing services.

4. Platform as a service: 
Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the provider’s infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider’s servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendor’s design and capabilities, so you don’t get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.com’s Force.com, Coghead and the new Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-based mashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo Pipes or Dapper.net.

5. MSP (managed service providers): 
One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream.

6. Service commerce platforms: 
A hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. They’re most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba.

7. Internet integration: 
The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central — which wanted to be a universal “bus in the cloud” to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers — flamed out in 2005.
Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as “sky computing,” with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. It’s a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term.

d&b audiotechnik ArrayCalcV6 software

d&b audiotechnik’s ArrayCalc simulation software for its line and subwoofer arrays has been updated with increased listening planes, arrays, and subwoofers. Version 6 also adds various functions, including a selection of excitation signals—sine, 1/3 octave filtered noise, or pink noise—for the simulation of the sound level distribution and absolute sound pressure level. This simulation includes frequency, temperature, and humidity-dependent air absorption. Loudspeaker types are now an exact model of the real system, with all available settings such as Line/Arc, CUT, HFC, or INFRA. For all arrays and their individual elements, the system headroom before gain reduction (GR) is calculated to obtain realistic and reproducible results.
The 3D Plot SPL level mapping calculates and displays the energy level summation of all activated arrays at chosen frequency bands for all selected listening areas, with an optional complex summation (showing interference) in the LF band. The mapping diagram offers isometric views and can be zoomed. An auto-calculate function restarts the simulation with every acoustic relevant system design change, displaying a low-resolution result and refreshing with increasing resolution until the calculation is complete.
A new align tab adds an alignment procedure that allows for time-alignment of arrays, fills, delays, and ground stacks at a selectable test point. The auto-scale function of the arrival time display helps the precision of the alignment of the array arrivals. This page also displays the SubArray alignment, with its own test point in order to visualize all changes occurring during the alignment process.
The new ArrayCalc V6 is available for download from the company’s website in the support/downloads section.

Microsoft Sells 175 Million Copies of Windows 7 in Nine Months

Microsoft wiped away any doubts about its fiscal outlook with a record-breaking Q4 earnings report, primarily driven by sales of Windows 7 and Office 2010. In fact, Microsoft is reporting that more than 175 million copies of Windows 7 were sold in just nine months, making it the fastest-selling OS in the company’s history.
Windows 7 was released to consumers on October 22, 2009, exactly nine months ago. Right after launch, its sales outperformed Vista by 234% and carved out a 10% share of the market by February. Just a month ago, the company announced that it had already sold 150 million units, or seven copies of Windows 7 per second.
The sale of 175 million copies in just nine months is nothing short of impressive. On average, that’s nearly 20 million copies sold per month. If you do the math, it means that Windows 7 sales increased in volume from June to July.
With these kind of sale numbers, it’s easy to see why Microsoft posted its best fiscal year yet. The desktop isn’t going away anytime soon.

Skype’s iPhone App Can Now Run in the Background

Skype for iPhone has been upgraded to include support for the multitasking capabilities of iOS4. The update means that users can now accept Skype calls and instant messages while running other applications, as well as switch to other tasks while using Skype.
The Skype for iPhone experience is now essentially on par with — if not better than — the native calling experience on the iPhone.
The application was previously enhanced to support calls over 3G. Now calls made over 3G or Wi-Fi will no longer be restricted to users who have the Skype application running in the foreground.
As with all iOS4-compatible apps, users will need to run Skype in the background to take advantage of multitasking and allow for incoming calls.
Skype for iPhone also includes the enhanced graphics supported by the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. In addition, Skype revealed that it no longer plans to charge for calls made over 3G. As such, the entire Skype experience appears to be much improved, and makes possible the previously demonstrated capabilities of the new operating system and hardware.