| Soundtrack 1.0
Apple's Soundtrack made its debut last June, as part of the massive video-editing bundle Final Cut Pro 4. But now the same Soundtrack software is available as a stand-alone product. This puts Soundtrack within reach of video editors, Web designers, and content providers who don't need the rest of the Final Cut Pro 4 package. Soundtrack 1.0.1 is a fun program based on sound loops. It lets you quickly create original, royalty-free music for video and multimedia projects. It requires at least a 500MHz Power Mac, Mac OS X 10.2.5, and 5GB of available hard-drive space. Apple's official specs say that you can install the program with a CD and that the sound loops, called Apple Loops, on the included DVD are optional, but this isn't really the case. Soundtrack's entire appeal lies in the fact that it lets you mix and match the 4GB of material it provides.
Sri Lanka
On November 28, two bombings attributed to the LTTE killed 18 civilians in Colombo.
The Karuna group, which has been aligned with government forces since breaking away from the LTTE in 2004, openly engaged in child recruitment, extortion, abductions for ransom, and political killings. Its expelled leader Colonel Karuna was arrested by UK immigration authorities in London in October.
Internal Displacement
Nearly 315,000 people, mostly Tamil and Muslim, have fled their homes in the north and east because of renewed hostilities. Currently over 200,000 remain displaced in the east; many have been displaced multiple times. Returning IDPs face regular threats and occasional violence, including abductions, by both the LTTE and pro-government armed groups.
NEC CRVD-42DWX+ curved display (Source: NEC)
At CES 2008 last week Alienware announced a curved computer display geared for gamers and making people more productive through more screen space while working on a computer. NEC must feel that the market for long, curved displays is a up and coming category as it announced its own curved display called the NEC CRVD-42DWX+. The NEC display has a screen resolution of 2880 x 900 with a response time of under 0.02 milliseconds. The NTSC color gamut the display is capable of is 170% and the dynamic range is 12-bit. In all the display can reproduce 68.7 billion colors. NEC spokeswomen emphasized that the Alienware prototype and the NEC CRVD-42DWX+ "have nothing to do with each other." While NEC claims the two displays share no common manufacturer, both displays are built with the same bezel and housing.
Instant Analysis: Kansas
He is the recipient of the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award and numerous other journalism awards. Jensen's latest book is "Cheating: An Inside Look At The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit Of Speed." Click here for Tom Jensen's columns. Race Trax: Results plus caution, leader updates FOX Trax: Chart lap-by-lap in-race results Past races: California | Las Vegas | Atlanta | Bristol | Martinsville | Texas | Phoenix | Talladega | Richmond | Darlington | Charlotte | Dover | Pocono | Michigan | Sonoma | Daytona | Chicagoland | New Hampshire | Pocono | Brickyard | Watkins Glen | Michigan | Bristol | California | Richmond | New Hampshire | Dover Last word In the final 30 laps, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne all saw potentially good finishes squandered, while Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick dodged potential disaster.
Awards Promote Beauty Contest
The moment Alissa Hsu Lynch spotted five Aveeno products among the winners unveiled at Allure magazine's Best of Beauty awards fete last fall, she emailed her team. "We needed to think about how we could get the news out right away," said Ms. Hsu Lynch, group product director for Aveeno, a Johnson & Johnson brand. Within weeks, the Aveeno team had designed coupons and in-store displays to feature Allure's "Best of Beauty" seal. Later this year, TV ads for Aveeno also will include the awards. The seal eventually will adorn the packaging of most of Aveeno's winning products, except for its new eczema cream, which already is decorated with an award from the National Eczema Association. .
The Kite Runner
Finally, it has to be encouraging for Miramax to have "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" surprisingly pop up in the contemporary field. As it continues to make a case for a Best Picture nomination, these guild citations only fuel the cause. Here are the nominees: PERIOD FILM: "American Gangster" (Arthur Max) "Atonement" (Sarah Greenwood) "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Guy Hendrix Dyas) "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Dante Ferretti) "There Will Be Blood" (Jack Fisk) FANTASY FILM: "The Golden Compass" (Dennis Gassner) "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (Stuart Craig) "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Rick Heinrichs) "Ratatouille" (Harley Jessup) "300" (James Bissell) CONTEMPORARY FILM: "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Peter Wenham) "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Michel Eric and Laurent Ott) "The Kite Runner" (Carlos Conti) "Michael Clayton" (Kevin Thompson) "No Country for Old Men" (Jess Gonchor) .
Briefly: Logic review; LaCie ups warranties
In brief: MacNN has reviewed Apple's Logic Express & Logic Studio professional software, LaCie has increased the duration of its product warranties, and Apple ranked as the 12th top Web property for the month of October. Two days remain for Pomoto's 'Turkey Special' promotion, and Created Equal has released TeachMac/TeachIt 5 with support for iPhone as well as Apple TV via a $10 subscription. MacNN has reviewed Logic Express & Logic Studio, Apple's pro audio applications that emphasize ease of use with a single screen and templates. Logic Express and Logic Studio share the same code base, bringing a variety of new features and requiring more CPU power than previous iterations. The revised user interface offers a single window with retractable panes to expand workspace, while Spotlight search support helps users locate needed files quickly.
American Idol Buzz
Some of the regulars in the know are aware that this myajc.com/idolblog social networking site, which launched a year ago, was an experiment. Not to say the experiment is over but due to some management decisions beyond my control, we are having to move this back to the old blog template used by the other blogs on this site (including my radio/tv blog.) This means your avatars, comments and personal pages will disappear in a few weeks. All my old blog entries from 2007 were mirrored on the old site and will survive the transition. The change will occur at 9:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, January 9. From that moment, if you type in www.myajc.com/idolblog, it will move you to an even simpler site called www.ajc.com/idolblog. So easy you can tell your friends and bookmark it! The bosses tell me a new social networking site will be back, possibly midseason but definitely by midyear, no later.
|
