Heather Armstrong, the breakout star behind the website Dooce, who was hailed as the queen of the so-called mommy bloggers for giving millions of readers intimate daily glimpses of her odyssey through parenthood and marriage, as well as her harrowing struggles with depression, died on Tuesday at her home in Salt Lake City. She was 47.
Pete Ashdown, her longtime partner, who found her body in the home, said the cause was suicide.
I met Heather a couple of times over the years, as we graduated from the same high school — albeit a decade apart — and I’ve got family members who are friends with her parents. She was one of the first people I read on the Internet who really had her own voice, and it’s clearly one that had plenty of pain mixed in with the joys of life, as Andy Baio wrote today:
Maybe it’s appropriate that she leaves a complicated legacy. Life is hard and messy, sad and angry, dark and beautiful, miserable and hopeful, all at once.
Apple has announced Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro for the iPad, and the guys have some thoughts. Also on the docket: laptop stands, Apple Watch hardware and a letter from the P.O. Box.
The looks of the Pixel Tablet are relatively generic. It has an 11-inch, 16:10, 2560 x 1600 pixel LCD display, even bezels all around, and a matte back. It comes in three colors: white, dark green, and light pink, with the dark green model featuring a black bezel. Though it looks like plastic from a distance, the Pixel Tablet has an aluminum frame with a nanotexture coating, not unlike what Google did with the Pixel 5 smartphone.
Bundled in the box with the Pixel Tablet is a magnetic speaker dock. This serves multiple purposes and is meant to prevent the dreaded “dead tablet in a drawer” syndrome: it’s a place to store the Pixel Tablet when it’s not in use; it charges the battery; and it has a louder, fuller speaker better suited for communal listening than the speakers that are built into the tablet. If you’re playing music or watching a video on the tablet when you put it on the dock, it will seamlessly transfer the audio to the dock’s speaker. Pull the tablet off the dock while something is playing, and it will instantly switch to the tablet’s speakers.
I want Apple to make an iPad version of this so, so badly.
It’s mostly forgotten now, but for years, Apple shipped Final Cut Express, a video editor that lived somewhere between iMovie and Final Cut Pro. It was discontinued in 2011 when Final Cut Pro X was released. Here are some FAQs Apple of the past thought may be helpful to users of the application:
Why isn’t my serial number accepted by the program?
Why can’t I hear audio while capturing?
Why can’t I hear audio during playback from the Timeline?
Final Cut Express doesn’t recognize my camera. What’s wrong?
Where can I find the product manual?
How can I prevent out-of-sync audio on long clips?
How do I transfer my project to iDVD?
I hear beeping when I play audio. Why is that?
How do I set keyframes?
Why don’t I see real-time effects and transitions?
The answer to question 10 really puts things into perspective:
Answer: Make sure you choose View > Video > Real-Time. Available real-time effects appear in bold type in the Effects menu and Effects browser and will vary based on the performance of your computer (a G4 processor is required). Multiple video layers can also prevent real-time previews from appearing.
This morning, Apple dropped some big news for creative professionals:
Apple today unveiled Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad. Video and music creators can now unleash their creativity in new ways that are only possible on iPad. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad bring all-new touch interfaces that allow users to enhance their workflows with the immediacy and intuitiveness of Multi-Touch. Final Cut Pro for iPad introduces a powerful set of tools for video creators to record, edit, finish, and share, all from one portable device. Logic Pro for iPad puts the power of professional music creation in the hands of the creator — no matter where they are — with a complete collection of sophisticated tools for songwriting, beat making, recording, editing, and mixing. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad will be available on the App Store as subscriptions starting Tuesday, May 23.
“We’re excited to introduce Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad, allowing creators to unleash their creativity in new ways and in even more places,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With a powerful set of intuitive tools designed for the portability, performance, and touch-first interface of iPad, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro deliver the ultimate mobile studio.”
If these were slated for WWDC, but were kicked out of the keynote for more exciting things, June 5 may be a pretty wild day.
Looking over the materials on Apple’s website, it appears that these two apps are just want people have wanted — pro-level editing tools, redesigned for the iPad’s unique form factor and input devices.
I think it’s best to reserve judgment until we see how these apps work in the real world, but I can’t help but worry that iPadOS will hold them back. Using professional tools like these apps require file transfers, media management, advanced audio routing and more. Those aren’t iPadOS’ strong suits, at least of today. Given that these apps are coming out in just a few weeks, before WWDC, I wonder how many of these things will be addressed in iPadOS 17 at all.
The details at the bottom of the Newsroom article are important to note:
Starting Tuesday, May 23, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad will each be available on the App Store for $4.99 (US) per month or $49 (US) per year with a one-month free trial.8 Final Cut Pro is compatible with M1 chip iPad models or later, and Logic Pro will be available on A12 Bionic chip iPad models or later. Final Cut Pro for iPad and Logic Pro for iPad require iPadOS 16.4.
I’m not shocked that these new apps are available only via subscription, but I think this the first time Apple has made new software available this way. On the Mac, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro are one-time purchases, priced at $199.99 and $299.99, respectively.
All in all, this is great news, even if you aren’t a Logic or Final Cut user like I am. These apps are a sign that Apple is attempting to take the iPad more seriously as a computer for professionals, and that’s a good thing.
Whether you’re in the harbor or at high sea, you need to know where you are or where you’re sailing. If you have all the maps, books, and documents. DEVONthink for Mac and DEVONthink To Go for iOS will not let you down on your mission and help you navigate the “seven seas of information.”
Sailor jokes aside, DEVONthink helps you get organized in your office, home office, or on the go. It keeps all your documents, snippets, and bookmarks in one place. Organize them however you need and let DEVONthink’s unique AI assist you all the way with filing and finding. And if that wasn’t enough, smart rules and flexible reminders let you delegate all the boring, repeating daily tasks to DEVONthink too. On iOS, use Shortcuts actions to integrate DEVONthink To Go with your other apps.
Of course, whatever you keep in your databases remains yours. It’s all stored locally, nothing is uploaded anywhere unless you say so. Flexible synchronization technology with strong encryption makes sure that you have all your important documents with you on whatever device you’re working on or taking with you. Use iCloud, Dropbox, any WebDAV service you may have booked. Or synchronize directly over your local network.
And, of course, there’s so much more, from email archiving and scanning to an embedded web server for sharing your data securely with your team. Check out https://www.devontechnologies.com to learn more about DEVONthink, DEVONthink To Go, and more.
David Rosenthal is a world-renown keyboardist, musical director, synthesizer programmer and composer. At the heart of his work is the Mac, and this week he talks with Stephen and David about his background, career, gear and more.
David’s career is legendary, and goes far beyond his work with Billy Joel. This was a fun one.
With the Instapaper CarPlay app, it’s now easier than ever to listen to your articles while driving. The CarPlay app offers easy access to your entire Instapaper account, including your saved articles in Home, Liked, Archived, and Folders.
To start listening to an article, just select one from the list.
When an article is playing, you can easily rewind, fast forward, adjust playback speed, and like or archive the article.
This seems like a very clever use of CarPlay. It’s just too bad that Instapaper’s reading voice isn’t that great compared to some of the options out there.
Chance Miller at 9to5Mac has written an absolute banger of a story about Brydge, the accessory maker best known for their line of iPad keyboards:
Brydge, a once thriving startup making popular keyboard accessories for iPad, Mac, and Microsoft Surface products, is ceasing operations. According to nearly a dozen former Brydge employees who spoke to 9to5Mac, Brydge has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs within the past year after at least two failed acquisitions.
As it stands today, Brydge employees have not been paid salaries since January. Customers who pre-ordered the company’s most recent product have been left in the dark since then as well. Its website went completely offline earlier this year, and its social media accounts have been silent since then as well.
Apple announced its latest quarterly results on Thursday. The company posted $94.8 billion in revenue, down slightly from the year-ago quarter but—at least to my eyes—not down as much as we might have expected.
Mac revenue was, as expected, down 31 percent to $7.2 billion—the lowest quarter of Mac revenue since 2020. iPad was down 13 percent to $6.7 billion, the lowest iPad revenue quarter since 2020. iPhone was up 2 percent to $51.3 billion, which given the downward trend elsewhere was pretty impressive—it was a Q2 record for iPhone revenue.
Services revenue soared to an all-time record of $20.9 billion, up 5 percent. Wearables was down by one percent, to $8.8 billion.
The iPhone sold better than I thought it might, but given that the entire PC industry is down, the Mac and iPad’s numbers aren’t surprising. I think these numbers say less about Apple than they do the economy in general, and tech specifically.
Stephen discovers wireless CarPlay, Myke shares some cool Mac apps and Federico makes a confession about his iPad usage. Then, the guys regroup on the topic of Mastodon.
