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Serato's DJ software is ready for macOS Catalina
One downside about using your Mac to DJ is that every system update carries some risk of incompatibility or error, and the recent change to Catalina was more drastic than others. That's because Apple forcibly ejected iTunes in favor of splitting duties between more iOS-like Music, Podcasts and TV apps. While most people could move on with a few adjustments, DJ software that linked to iTunes for indexing and creating playlists of music needed an update to deal with the new system. Now Serato has announced that DJ Pro 2.3 and DJ Lite 1.3 are compatible with macOS Catalina, ready to load their libraries automatically from the new Music app. Separately, the company said that its Studio 1.3.1 software is also supported on the new OS,but Serato Sample and Pitch 'n Time Pro and LE are "actively being worked on."
Insert Coin: Luminode dimmer switch runs on a mesh network, learns to light up our lives (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. Just a simple light switch, you say? Look closer. Think Automatic's Luminode dimmer switch hides both a processor and a mesh network connection that lets every switch in the home coordinate with each other. A multi-tap system makes it possible to link multiple lights together without extra wiring or complex programming, but that's just the start: it's possible to create "scenes" of predefined lighting levels and, with a USB adapter, hook up to home automation systems (including Think Automatic's own) that can learn usage habits, track energy consumption or simply let us control the array with our smartphones. The platform uses raw XML to communicate and already talks to GE, Insteon and Stargate hardware -- all without requiring a huge grid of buttons or displays. Development of the Luminode is very nearly done after six-plus years of work in Seattle. The hardware is fundamentally ready and just needs the Kickstarter project to finish its FCC and UL testing along with the obligatory mass production. The hope is to start delivering switches in January as well as integrate more closely with non-lighting elements in the future. Pledge levels are dictated almost exclusively by volume: $130 is what it takes to get a basic two-switch kit, $260 will add the USB adapter along with an extra switch, and successive levels scale all the way up to a 50-switch, $3,000 kit for large homes. Think Automatic has a relatively low $35,000 threshold to meet its Kickstarter funding, but it only has 13 days left to go. If you like the idea of advanced lighting that doesn't require an advanced appreciation of the user manual to understand, now's a good time to click the source link and make it happen.
Codea-created app arrives on the App Store
I've been slowly wading into App Store development recently, and while I've found Apple to be extremely supportive developers on the Mac, it hasn't released any development tools for iOS ("Xcode for iPad" is one of those mythical creatures that developers will tell you they want only after a couple rounds of drinks). This realization drew me to Codify, now named Codea, an iPad app that allows developers to write and even run XML code on the iPad. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback with Codea was that you couldn't run that code anywhere else. The best you could do was copy the code out and then put it into some other development environment. But that gap is being narrowed. The developers of Codea have released an App Store game called Cargo-Bot, which is a title fully developed inside the Codea app on the iPad. The app is free, and it's just a proof of concept at this point (but it does have some nice features, including 36 levels, and even a way to upload solutions to YouTube). But the devs also say they're planning to release the framework they used in Xcode on the Mac. Once that happens, other devs will be able to code on the iPad, download that code to the Mac, put it into Xcode, and then make full-fledged iOS apps written right there on Apple's tablet. [via TouchArcade]
Arduino kit beams low-fi Google Weather to VGA screens
Looking for another way to use that aging VGA CRT screen hogging space in the closet? Try making your own dedicated weather screen by mixing together Google's meteorological data stream and some Arduino magic. It looks like parsing that Google Weather data was a bit of a challenge on the miniscule 2KB of RAM, but a tinkerer going by the handle Zmashiah has managed to do it. He's even managed to cram in a few extra graphical flourishes, including icons and background themes that change depending on the temperature and time of day. The entirely PC-free device grabs the data through an Ethernet connection and flashes up all the weather goodness in stunning VGA. Any meteorological mavens reading this can grab the full shopping list and procedure at the Instructables link below.
Apple offers Final Cut Pro X update and free 30 day trial, hopes we can all still be friends
Plenty of folks were less than thrilled by the release of Apple's rebuilt Final Cut Pro -- in fact, words like "disgruntled" come to mind when describing the response to the new version of the video editing software. Take heart, however, the massive backlash hasn't gone unnoticed. The company has released version 10.0.1 of Final Cut Pro X, which offers up some new features, including support for rich XML and Xsan, Lion full-screen view and Media Stem export. Apple has even offered up a rare moment of humility, acknowledging that the additions are an attempt at "answering those concerns" of "very vocal customers." The company is also looking to push back against some of the negative press by offering up a 30 day demo of the software to wary users afraid to take the plunge. More updates, including multi-camera support and broadcast-quality video monitoring are promised for early next year.
Microsoft loses $290 million patent battle, begins searching couch cushions
We've diligently followed the Microsoft v. i4i Limited Partnership patent dispute as it wound its way through the courts, and now comes the day of reckoning: by a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court has upheld the patent-infringement finding against Redmond. For those of you just catching up, MS had been taken to court by Toronto-based i4i over a portfolio of XML-related patents -- patents it had already offered to license to the software behemoth. In court, Microsoft claimed it had not infringed and that the patents were invalid; a 2009 Texas court disagreed and awarded $200 million in damages. A subsequent appeal failed. Oh, and the government sided with i4i. Today's Supreme Court verdict upholds the lower courts' decisions: Microsoft Word is an infringing product, and the company now owes $290 million. The finding likely won't affect consumers, as the offending versions of Word are now obsolete. Still, $290 million isn't chump change, even for the world's largest software company. There's probably a joke in here about i4i justice, but we'll be dadblasted if we can find it.
Android-powered LG P930 shows up in XML file with 1,280 x 720 display, we think it's a tablet
Typically, when tidbits about unannounced products start to trickle out, we begin our inquiry with general truths -- say, "this is a smartphone" -- and then work our way up to the nitty gritty. In the case of LG's mysterious P930 device, though, our search for clues starts at the opposite end. According to an XML file on the company's website, it's cooking up an Android-powered device with 1,280 x 720 resolution and GPRS / EDGE / HSPDA / HSUPA connectivity. One question this string of code fails to answer: just what is this thing anyway? A smartphone? A tablet? Given the information available, we're inclined to say this will be a slab, joining the inaugural G-Slate. It's not that handsets with 1,280 x 720 resolution are out of the question, but we do notice that the file mentions 15 x 13 character size. When you compare that to devices such as the HTC Sensation 4G, which has a 25 x 21 char size, you'd imagine this mystery device has a lower pixel density than a phone with the same resolution. Until LG comes clean, of course, your guess is as good as ours. [Thanks, FT]
Latest TiVo Premiere update sets the stage for multiroom or iPad streaming?
While we're still not sure exactly what's been changed in the most recent 14.8 software update some users have gotten on their TiVo Premieres, a poster on the TiVo Community forums has found a change in the TiVo's XML file that suggests its getting ready for streaming support. Every TiVo provides an XML feed that can be read by other devices or software on the network and moyekj noted there is a field he hadn't sen before marked "StreamingPermission." Rumors have indicated streaming to other TiVo Premiere boxes, a multiroom companion extender or even to the iPad previously so it's not immediately clear what this switch could toggle if it were marked yes, but for now, it's marked no so feel free to speculate as wildly as possible. [Thanks, @BrennokBob]
iTunes November announcement: The likely and long-shot possibilities
Is it all about iTunes? Big stuff is going down tomorrow, as you know if you've happened upon Apple's front page today. Our TUAW back-channels are all aflutter as we are brainstorming as a group to figure out Apple's big tease. We've been searching the web, scanning HTML source, scanning the iTunes application bundle and more all to try to second-guess what might be happening. No, we don't have any firm answers, but here are some of the things that we think might be included in tomorrow's developments. We'll run down our thoughts and discoveries to date, which we will be updating and amending as new facts come to light. So take these thoughts for what they are -- guesses and observations. We're not certain about any of it, and we're happy to be corrected or pointed towards more or better facts. Feel free to jump in in the comments -- we're dying to hear what you think as well.
Nokia C6-01 is a Symbian^3 touchscreen candybar with 8 megapixel camera?
The nerds over at Mobile Geek Inc did a nifty investigative piece revealing more details about Nokia's mid-level C6-01 candybar. After making an awkward early appearance on Nokia's Dutch online storefront, more pics along with the user agent profile have been located thus confirming its lack of QWERTY, 8 megapixel camera, and Symbian^3 OS. A nice alternative to the 5 megapixel C6-00 slider shackled to S60 5th. Look for the new C6 to get official with a very nice price either at, or around, Nokia World 2010 which kicks off September 14th in London. One more front-side pic after the break.
Sharp's XMDF format looks to bring e-books into the next generation
When it comes to boring 'ol text and images, there are plenty of formats that modern e-readers can manage -- your EPUBs and OPFs and the like. But, when it comes to integrating multimedia content into a kind of next-gen e-book experience, the sort Wired is pushing on the iPad, things are rather less standardized. Sharp wants to be on the forefront of bringing that style of content together under a single standard: XMDF, or ever-eXtending Mobile Document Format. It enables video and animations and flashy presentation to be mingled in with the text, surely with the intent of distracting you from actually having to read anything. Of course, XHTML can manage all this stuff too, but it never was particularly great at the sort of precision text layout publishers crave, and presumably that's also being addressed here. Naturally we're a little more excited about hardware, and Sharp showed off two prototype readers measuring 5.5- and 10.8-inches respectively... though it didn't have much to say about them otherwise. More details later this year, supposedly.
Symbian^3 C7 with nHD display confirmed on Nokia's own site
If Nokia's N8 is just too much smartphone for you then perhaps you'd like to take it down a notch with the C7. As part of the C-series of Nokia devices, you can expect it to trim some of the specs off the N8, but not much as the flagship device of the family. You know, something very similar to the apparently leaked image and specs (pictured above) we saw a few weeks back. Parsing the XML posted on Nokia's own site reveals an ARM-based Symbian^3 C7-00 device with a Nokia favorite 360x640 nHD pixel display resolution and 3G UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios. Obviously no pricing is available but you can expect it to be fairly inexpensive for what you'll get. [Thanks, Glen]
Google Maps, Facebook come to Samsung TVs & Blu-ray players
We still don't know if Samsung will put Google's Android into its TVs, but it has recently launched Google Maps and Facebook as a part of its existing Samsung Apps platform. There aren't a lot of details in the press release (included after the break) but buyers of most of the 2010 line HDTVs, Blu-ray players and HTIB systems should have access to them. We've seen demos of how Samsung Apps can tie phones and TVs together easily, but can a mere Google Maps app match the Google TVs ability to push info back and forth from device to device? The Facebook app on Xbox 360 is moderately useful if only as a way to browse photo albums on the HDTV, so we'll also be waiting to find out if it will at least match that functionality.
Nokia N8-00 gets first official mention with Symbian^3 and nHD display
Simmer down, we don't have official pics yet (just the supposed leaks) but we do have the first official mention of what looks to be Nokia's first Symbian^3 handset. The culprit is the "NN8-00r100-3G" XML file sitting pretty on nokia.com right now. The first notables are a "N8-00" model and the "Symbian/3" string listed in the agent header that seemingly confirm that the N8-00 will run Symbian^3. Next is a "360 x 640 pixel" screen size. Note that the N8-00 display is rumored to be 3.5-inches making this a very similar nHD display to the one found on Nokia's current N-series flagship: the N97. The difference this time is that we're expecting Nokia's newest flagship to opt for a capacitive touchscreen display to match Symbian^3's more finger friendly UI. Unfortunately, we're not seeing any mention of the rumored 12 megapixel camera and the only keyboard mentioned is a "PhoneKeyPad" -- in other words, no QWERTY not that we were expecting one. We do see Bluetooth 2.0 and radios for WiFi and GPRS/EGPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA among the other details. Feel free to sleuth the file for yourselves in the source link below while we wait for the mid-April announcement. [Thanks, Glenn]
Apple vs. Google gets personal: 'Steve Jobs simply hates Eric Schmidt' (video)
Image Credit: Daniel Adel, New York Times Nothing sells papers (or ads) like turning a little corporate competition into something personal. Case in point, a New York Times piece from the weekend titled "Apple's Spat With Google Is Getting Personal," that opened with this rather ominous, one-sentence paragraph: "It looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Cue the orchestra. The lengthy piece chronicling the relationship between the Silicon Valley titans was formed by two dozen interviews with industry watchers, investors, and current and former employees. It covers a timeline spread that began with Google and Apple working in harmony to prevent Microsoft's domination of online services and mobile devices, and ends with Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC that reeks of a proxy battle against Android and Google. According to the NYT then, the heart of the dispute is betrayal, or Jobs' belief that Schmidt (a former Apple board member) "picked his pocket" by developing cellphones that "physically, technologically and spiritually resembled the iPhone." Here's how one especially feisty encounter is described: "At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google's campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch - the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers - he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as "fierce" and "heated."" And that's just the beginning. Read the rest after the break.
Microsoft loses second Word patent appeal, on the hook for $240 million in damages
And the intellectual property rollercoaster continues. Microsoft's second appeal of that $240m judgment banning sales of Word with features infringing on i4i's XML-related patents has been rejected, leaving the Redmond giant with a huge fine to pay atop its undoubtedly sky-high lawyer bills. The appeals court held that Microsoft was explicitly aware of i4i's patents before implementing the relevant XML code into Word -- undoubtedly because i4i had been selling an extremely popular XML plugin for years and had approached Microsoft about licensing it. Yeah, oops. Don't worry, though, there shouldn't be any consumer impact here: old versions of Word aren't affected, and current versions of Word 2007 and Office 2010 don't have the offending features. Still, Microsoft might be able to appeal yet again, depending on a panel ruling on the matter -- at this rate, we'd expect it.
Court orders Microsoft to stop selling Office 2007 by January 11th
Update: A statement from Microsoft's director of public affairs, Kevin Kutz, clarifies the affected versions. Note that Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was not cited as an infringing product, so this ruling is not applicable to Mac versions of Office. We have just learned that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied our appeal in the i4i case. We are moving quickly to comply with the injunction, which takes effect on January 11, 2010. This injunction applies only to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold in the U.S. on or after the injunction date of January 11, 2010. Copies of these products sold before this date are not affected. With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction. While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court. Whoa. A judge for the The U.S. Court of Appeals has just upheld an earlier verdict forbidding Microsoft from selling both Office and Word after January 11th, 2010. This suit, which was filed by i4i, a creator of a XML plugin for Microsoft Office, alleged that Microsoft's Open XML format, which uses the DOCX and XLSX extensions that have been a part of Office on the Mac since Office 2007, violated i4i's patented XML handling algorithms. The court ruled in favor of i4i back in May, and Microsoft today lost their appeal, with the judge telling them that they don't have the right to sell the software as-is. Microsoft now either has to attempt to appeal the ruling again, or settle with i4i (read as: "Ballmer has to write a big honking check"), and is currently considering further legal options. The company is also working to remove these features from Microsoft Office (possibly in time to release new versions of the old software on January 11th), and this ruling doesn't affect the upcoming Office 2010 for Windows. We'll keep you posted if anything further develops.
Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11
It's getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11. If you'll recall, Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i back in May when it was found that Word's handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files infringed upon i4i's patented XML handling algorithms, but the injunction against further Word sales was put on hold pending the results of this appeal. Now that Microsoft has lost once again, we'd expect either another appeal and request for the injunction to be stayed, this time to the Supreme Court, or for a settlement between these two that would end this whole mess right now. We'll see what happens -- stay tuned. P.S.- Just to be clear on this, i4i isn't a patent troll -- it's a 30 person database design company that shipped one of the first XML plugins for Office and was actually responsible for revamping the entire USPTO database around XML to make it compatible with Word back in 2000. What's more, the patents involved here don't cover XML itself, but rather the specific algorithms used to read and write custom XML -- so OpenOffice users can breathe easy, as i4i has said the suite doesn't infringe. Existing Office users should also be fine, as only future sales of Word are affected by the ruling, not any already-sold products. Engadget: Helping you flame with accuracy. Update: Microsoft says it's moving quickly to prepare versions of Office 2007 and Word 2007 that don't have the "little-used" XML features for sale by January 11, and that the Office 2010 beta "does not contain the technology covered by the injunction," which can be read in a number of ways. It's also considering an appeal, so we'll see what happens next.
Microsoft Word allowed to stay on sale... for now
Just as we predicted, Microsoft's request to have that ban on sales of Word put on hold pending appeal of i4i's XML patent victory has been granted. That means IT managers and excitable first-year college students can continue to happily throw down cash for the world's most popular word processor, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs waiting for either proceedings to resume on September 23 or Stevey Ballms to write the big check and make this whole case disappear forever.
Patch for Microsoft Office 2008 XML issues now available
As promised, Microsoft has released a patch (dubbed version 12.2.1) to address issues that some Microsoft Office 2008 users have had with opening XML-based documents. When attempting to open a document in Microsoft Office 2008, some users have been presented with an error message that resembles the following: "Microsoft Excel cannot open the file. You may have to download the latest updates for Office for Mac. Do you want to visit the Microsoft Web site for more information?" For those who held off on the Service Pack 2 update, guess what? Surprise! Service Pack 2 is required to install the patch. Unlike many Mac apps, where update checks are found in an app's namesake menu, in Microsoft Office 2008 it's in the "help" menu. So, click on "help," and "check for updates" and you're all set. Well, you're all set if you already had Service Pack 2 installed. You're only halfway there if you didn't have it installed. If this is the case, simply do this again. And there you go. Opening XML on Microsoft Office 2008 is no longer XM-hell. (You can also download the patch from the Mactopia web site.)
