Logic
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After Math: Quick, throw some money at it
With federal unemployment benefits expiring this weekend, millions of people unemployed by the COVID-19 pandemic are set to lose the $600 weekly lifeline they have relied upon since the start of the outbreak. The company announced last week that its forming a $200 Creators Fund to compensate its top talents.
Logic signs seven-figure Twitch deal days after 'retiring' from music
Mere days after announcing that his upcoming fifth album “No Pressure” will be his last, rapper Logic has reportedly signed a hefty partnership deal with game streaming site, Twitch.
Bethesda enlists Ninja and Rick and Morty for 'Fallout 76' livestream
To build up hype for the upcoming release of Fallout 76, Bethesda pulled the handle on the pop culture slot machine and it landed on Ninja, Logic and Rick and Morty. That motley crew of nerd stardom will play through the new online survival game on during a livestream event. The broadcast will be available on Bethesda's Twitch and Mixer channels, as well as Microsoft's Mixer. The stream will start at 9 PM ET on Thursday, November 8th.
E-cig makers have 60 days to show they aren’t targeting minors
The Food And Drug Administration may force several e-cigarette brands to stop selling flavored products if they can't prove they can keep their products out of minors' hands. The brands -- Juul, Vuse, MarkTen, blu and Logic -- have 60 days to convince the agency they have adequate plans to stop kids from vaping with their products. Those five collectively account for more than 97 percent of the e-cigarette market.
Patrick Stewart will narrate Holocaust game 'My Memory of Us'
My Memory of Us was teased early last year, a heartfelt game with touching animation, based on real events that occurred during the Second World War. Now its creator, Juggler Games, has revealed an expanded trailer and announced that the game will feature narration from an appropriately revered individual: Patrick Stewart. Juggler Games CEO Mikołaj Pawłowski notes that Stewart's "talent and skill provides the right mixture of gravitas and hope, and his performance resonates perfectly with [the] game."
Ableton Live 10 will remember your riffs if you forget to press record
Ableton Live is popular with computer musicians thanks to its flexibility. As the name suggests, it enables live performance of electronic music, but it's also a robust music making tool in its own right. Fans of Live are long overdue an update, as the last full release (Live 9) was four years ago. Today Ableton revealed Live 10, which promises to make it even easier to translate ideas into anthems.
Take Logic Pro X projects from desktop to mobile with GarageBand
Despite it's highly capable tool set, GarageBand is widely thought of as Apple's beginner audio recording software. Logic Pro X is the company's option for more advanced users. While the latter app has been around since 2013, Apple regularly adds new features and it's doing just that today. With version 10.3, Logic Pro X gains a host of new tool to lend a hand with recording and music production. First, the app has a refreshed UI to make it easier to see in well-lit environments. After all, not everyone likes to work in the dark or a dimly lit room.
Joué's MIDI controller adds tactile fun to music-making
The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) arrived in the '80s to help digital instruments communicate with each other. Nowadays, with much of the action on computers, a new breed of MIDI controllers has emerged. Many of today's designs include built-in pressure sensitivity to provide a semblance of analog expression when played, but Joué is a bit different. It was developed to free digital music artists from the lockstep confines of keyboards, button rows, glowing displays and marching lights, while providing modular flexibility and, above all, fun. The name Joué, translated from French, literally means "play" or can be interpreted as "I play," and the company would like you to approach the device with an open and creative mind. It's a USB-powered pressure-sensitive board that works with a variety of soft -- and occasionally squishy -- pads that are detected and uniquely identified through embedded RFID tags. You map portions of each pad to any MIDI-capable program like Ableton Live, Apple Logic, Garage Band or iPad apps to help bring your music to life. They're swappable on the fly, and the tactile interfaces offer an alternative to high-tech distractions. The device is currently on Kickstarter; the company is raising funds to move from industrial prototype to final product, and as usual, early bird deals are available. You can buy a Joué board and starter pack of pads for just over $300, with the eventual retail price expected to be under $500.
Google's Venn diagram doodle is where logic and whimsy intersect
Venn diagrams are a high-school math rite of passage, teaching us (to hate) the logical relations between sets. Google has now honored their creator, John Venn, with his own interactive Google Doodle. Mountain View said it was going for "sound logic and silliness" by letting you pick between five objects in two sets to see what they have in common. For instance, the relationship between "Transport" and "Thrives in Cold" as shown above is "Zamboni," the ice-rink vehicle honored in a previous Doodle. You can try the other 24 possibilities yourself today at Google.com, or check some of the better Doodles from the past here.
Daily App: TTQ for iPhone is an addictive, quick-fix elimination game
TTQ for iPhone (US$0.99) is a simple, but challenging game of logic made by app developers, Cursed Thumbs. The idea is to eliminate tiles from your iPhone's screen, which comprise numbers, letters, months, and clocks, in ascending order. And all of this needs to be done against countdown timers. If you don't eliminate all the tiles in the correct order before the countdown timer hits zero, you're dead. As you progress, TTQ very quickly becomes more challenging with more tiles to eliminate, evermore complex arrangements that need to be tapped out in ascending order, and shorter countdown timers. Finally, let me not forget to mention the sneaky "traps" which appear later in the game! TTQ has a never-ending Endurance mode with ever-increasing difficulty, and a snappy Rush mode, which challenges you to clear as many tiles as possible within just two minutes. The game supports Game Center's leaderboards, achievements and challenges, so you can show your friends just how competent you are at putting random sequences in order. Check out the video below to give you an idea of what TTQ is like.
Carnegie Mellon computer learns common sense through pictures, shows what it's thinking
Humans have a knack for making visual associations, but computers don't have it so easy; we often have to tell them what they see. Carnegie Mellon's recently launched Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL) supercomputer bucks that trend by forming those connections itself. Building on the university's earlier NELL research, the 200-core cluster scours the internet for images and defines objects based on the common attributes that it finds. It knows that buildings are frequently tall, for example, and that ducks look like geese. While NEIL is occasionally prone to making mistakes, it's also transparent -- a public page lets you see what it's learning, and you can suggest queries if you think there's a gap in the system's logic. The project could eventually lead to computers and robots with a much better understanding of the world around them, even if they never quite gain human-like perception.
Apple debuts Logic Pro X with redesigned interface, new Drummer feature
Logic Pro faces some stiff competition from the likes of Pro Tools, but Apple's hoping to bring a few more music professionals into its camp with a fairly major revision of the software. Available today for $200, Logic Pro X brings with it a whole new interface that Apple's Phil Schiller says is "designed to streamline the process of creating professional quality music," along with a number of new features. Those include Drummer, which draws on performances of some well-known session players and recording engineers to provide realistic drum tracks, as well as Waves Tune-style pitch editing with Flex Pitch, Track Stacks to collapse multiple tracks or create layered instruments, and the Arpeggiator MIDI plug-in. Also launching today is the free Logic Remote app for iPad, and a major update to the Main Stage live performance application (it will set you back $30). Additional details can be found in the press release after the break.
Google's Turing doodle celebrates his genius, reminds us how dumb we are (video)
This week sees many corners of the globe celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing. A man whose contribution to the worlds of tech and gadgets is immeasurable -- a sentiment not lost on Google. Today, geeks and norms worldwide will be waking up to possibly the most complex doodle to date. Can you set the machine and spell out "Google"? If you can, you'll be sent off to lots more information about the man himself. This isn't the only thing Mountain View's done to keep his legacy alive, having previously helped Bletchley Park raise funds to purchase (and display) Turing's papers, and more recently helping curators at London's Science Museum with its Codebreaker - Alan Turing's Life and Legacy exhibition. If you haven't already, head to Google.com and pop your logic hat on, and if you get stuck, head past the break for a helpful video.
Light-based 'Metatronics' chip melts minds, not copper
Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have flipped the switch on a new type of computer circuit. Unlike conventional silicon, the new chip uses light -- not electricity -- to perform its logic. By creating an array of nano-rods, light-flow can be treated like voltage and current. These rods can then be configured to emulate electrical components such as resistors, inductors and capacitors. The benefits of the so-called "metatronic" system would be smaller, faster and more efficient computer chips, which is clearly a welcome prospect. Another curious property the team discovered, is what it calls "stereo-circuitry." Effectively one set of nano-rods can act as two different circuits, depending on the plane of the field. This means your CPU could become a GPU just by changing the signal. We can't speak for the light itself, but our minds are certainly bent.
Logic Pro and Main Stage land on the Mac App Store
It's taken a little while, but Apple's flagship music production software and music performance software have arrived on the Mac App Store, joining Apple's other Mac App Store offerings like iWork, iLife and Final Cut Pro. Logic Pro 9 and MainStage are now available for download from the Mac App Store at US$199.99 and $29.99 respectively. Apple has discontinued the boxed retail versions of Logic Studio and Logic Express (and apparently Sountrack Pro 3, which came bundled with Logic Studio). Similar to Apple's Final Cut Pro transition to the Mac App Store, this is a dramatic price cut for Logic Pro 9, which was previously bundled with MainStage, Soundtrack Pro 3, WaveBurner 1.6 and Compressor 3.5 as the boxed Logic Studio for $499. Logic Pro 9 is available from the Mac App Store now as a 413 MB download. An additional 19 GB of optional content is available via in-app download. [Via MacRumors]
Daily iPhone App: The River Test
The River Test is an iPhone app that's part game, part logic puzzle and a whole lot of fun. It's based on a Japanese IQ test that supposedly given to job candidates. It's believed that only 10% of the population can solve it without assistance. The idea behind the puzzle game is straightforward- get eight people from one side of the river to the other using a raft. It sounds easy, but there are five rules governing the river crossing that make it a challenge. You have a Dad with his two sons, a Mom with her two daughters, a policeman and a criminal. Only 2 people can travel on the raft at a time. The Father cannot stay with any of the daughters, without their Mother's presence. The Mother cannot stay with any of the sons, without their Father's presence. The criminal cannot stay with any family member if the policeman is not there. Only the father, mother and the policeman know how to operate the raft. Once you have the rules down, you can start placing the appropriate people on the raft to carry them to the other side. There's a counter that tracks the number of moves and a timer to log how long it takes you to complete the game. The game prevents you from making a prohibited move (like leaving the criminal with the kids), but you have to figure out the solution by trial and error. If you can't solve the River Test, the game provides the answer. It's a basic game with colorful graphics. The controls are responsive, and the game never crashed while I played. The graphics are not the focus of the game, though. Most of the fun is the challenge of the puzzle and seeing if you and your friends can solve it. I'm skeptical about the claim that only 10% can solve the river test, but that doesn't take away the challenge. Best of all, The River Test is a universal app and available for free from the App Store.
Scientists build logic gates out of gut bacteria, then hopefully wash their hands
Ever thought about upgrading your PC by breeding more cores? Or planting a few GBs of extra storage out in the yard? Us neither, until we heard that scientists at Imperial College in London have succeeded in building "some of the basic components of digital devices" out of genetically modified E.Coli. We've seen these germs exploited in a similar way before, but Imperial's researchers claim they're the first to make bacterial logic gates that can be fitted together to form more complex gates and potentially whole biological processors. Aside from our strange upgrade fantasies, such processors could one day be implanted into living bodies -- to weed out cancer cells, clean arteries and deliver medication exactly where it's needed. So much for Activia.
Minesweeper, Sudoku now available for Windows Phone users, procrastinators
Got a Windows Phone 7 and an addictive personality? Well then today's your lucky day, as the Xbox Live versions of both Minesweeper and Sudoku have now landed in the US Marketplace. With these new additions, users can now sweep for virtual landmines in either Classic or Speed mode, or put their logic skills to the test by playing Sudoku in Lightning mode -- all while racking up achievements and powerups. Both are available for free and either will do a great job of destroying your productivity. Hit up the source links to download them for yourself and let the magic unfurl.
Apple releases update to MainStage 2
Apple has released an update to its MainStage 2 software. MainStage is part of the Logic Studio suite and allows performers to bring virtual instruments and effects to live concerts. Full release notes for the update are available here, but the major improvements include: Fixes to an issue where presets for Audio Unit plug-ins were incorrectly displayed. Addresses an issue where incoming MIDI was forced to channel 1. Resolves an issue that could cause MainStage to quit unexpectedly when using Undo after deleting a patch. The 2.1.3 update is recommended for all users and weighs in at 222.1 MB. Mac OS X 10.5.8 is required, and the update can be downloaded through Software Update or directly from Apple's site.
The Thinking Machines flashes back to 1968 for a lesson in computer logic, sideburns (video)
Another dusty gem's emerged from the vintage gold mine that is AT&T's Tech Channel archive, and this one's packed full of useful information and some classic Jetsons-style animation. The Thinking Machines pits man against computer to explain how the things reason, and it does so with a soundtrack that's straight out of, well, 1968. Unsurprisingly, the film's populated by giant, button-laden switchboards, early computer graphics, ladies sporting beehives, and gents rocking unfortunate facial hair, but if that doesn't do it for you, it also offers genuine pearls like this: "Best of all, they never get bored. Like other machines, they can do the same monotonous chores all day long without complaining." Someone should tell that to the disgruntled Roomba residing in our hall closet. Check out the full video in all its dated glory after the break.
