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The second-gen iZotope Spire Studio is a big improvement at a big cost
If you liked the original Spire portable studio from iZotope, you'll love the second generation. But be warned, the solid upgrades come at a price.
iZotope's 2nd-gen Spire Studio gets a major but costly upgrade
The new Spire Studio has improved software, preamps and storage but costs $150 more than the original.
The 'Spire' portable recording studio is all about spontaneity
Inspiration hits you at weird times -- usually when you're in the shower or about to fall asleep. Basically, moments when you have very little chance of putting it down on paper or recording it. The $350 portable Spire Studio from iZotope probably won't help much in those situations (unless you keep it next to your bed with a guitar or keyboard). But, for folks who write music, it's a surprisingly simple to use 8-track recorder that hooks up to almost all your gear.
Spire's health tracker sticks on clothes and never needs charging
Wearable fitness monitors promise a lot but research shows that nearly a third are abandoned in junk drawers because they're too fiddly, require too much maintenance or users are simply forgetting to put them on. Health monitoring company Spire thinks it's found the answer to these woes with the Spire Health Tag, the smallest ever fitness tracker that doesn't need to be charged and never has to be taken off.
Record your band’s demo with this tiny cylindrical recording studio
If you've ever attempted to record a little music demo of your own, you know that these days, the wealth of technological options can be a little overwhelming. Audio company iZotope, known for its pro-level recording gear and software, might just solve this problem with a pared-down little gadget called Spire Studio. The cute, cylindrical hardware has inputs for microphones and instruments and connects to the Spire mixing and editing app on your smart phone. It even has a rechargeable lithium ion battery that the company claims will last for four hours so you can record pretty much anywhere.
Spire breathing monitor can tell if you're stressed, relaxed or focused
Samsung's Galaxy S5 is supposed to be able to measure stress, but there's something about its "heart-rate variability" test that just isn't very convincing. (Namely, if you enjoy a brisk walk and raise your heart-rate slightly, the phone will sometimes report an increase in "stress.") By contrast, a new hip-worn sensor called "Spire" ignores your pulse in favor of monitoring breathing patterns instead. Its creators claim that these patterns can reveal periods of "tension, relaxation and focus," as well as allowing standard fitness tracking.
Cryptic details Star Trek Online's latest fleet progression update
Another day, another Star Trek Online dev blog. Today's wall o' text is titled Fleet System Expansion: Spire Outpost, and as you might guess, it concerns the game's next fleet holding. "The Spire can be most closely compared to the Embassy in terms of it being more about providing high-end equipment than it is about providing fleet convenience and discounts," Cryptic says. "That being said, there are some excellent benefits for fleets that progress through the Spire holding's tiers." The Spire ultimately provides an additional progression avenue for STO fleets, complete with new rewards, a new social environment, and plenty of unlockable special projects. Read all about it via the links below.
Dustforce devs announce FPS 'Spire'
Hitbox Team, the developer behind Dustforce, has revealed its next project, a first-person shooter entitled Spire (not to be confused with the other indie FPS, The Spire). The game sees players doing their best to ascend a mysterious tower. "The internals of the tower are ever-changing," according to the team, and the game will be different every time, challenging players to "climb as high as possible."Levels will be procedurally generated, though Hitbox designer Woodley Nye promises that they won't be merely random, and instead be "generated with intention." As an example, after creating an intense combat scenario, the generator "might think to then generate a scene with lower intensity to better control the emotional arc of the experience."Furthermore, while the game has a fantasy setting, Hitbox is promising creatures and items outside of the familiar "goblins and elves" tropes we're all used to. Instead, enemies and items will be "strange and unexpected." Gameplay mechanics too, will be different than standard FPS games, using tricks inspired by Dustforce, such as jumping and sliding on walls.Players will be able to generate random Spires for offline play, while the community will fight to dominate the leaderboards via a shared weekly Spire. Nye didn't offer a release window, saying only that Hitbox is "well into the development of Spire."
Spire installer brings Siri to any jailbroken iOS 5 device, legally -- proxy still required
A few months of work by iOS hackers Grant Paul (aka chpwn), Steven Troughton-Smith and Ryan Petrich has culminated in the release of Spire, a new installer that will easily set up Siri on your jailbroken iOS 5 device. While Apple has kept its little helper exclusively constrained to the iPhone 4S, it now runs on iPads, iPhone 4, iPod touches and the iPhone 3GS, and while that's been done before they claim the other new trick is that it's legal, avoiding the copyright infringement inherent in previous hacks. When installed it will initiate a 100MB download of Siri directly from Apple so watch your bandwidth limits, and also be prepared to set up your own proxy server with donated info from an iPhone 4S to hold the line between Apple's backend and yourself. It's available on Cydia now so if you've been waiting for a way to get this feature for yourself it's not far away, however Troughton-Smith tells 9to5 Mac that the next major step may not come until the iPhone 4S is jailbroken and they can avoid the proxy server issues altogether.
MartinLogan unveils Spire hybrid electrostatic loudspeaker
No stranger to electrostatic speakers, MartinLogan is giving audiophiles an awful good reason to rid their wallet of $8,495 (per pair) with the all new Spire floorstanders. Each powered hybrid electrostatic loudspeaker includes a 10-inch aluminum cone woofer and 200-watt high-resolution amplifier which produces bass down to 29Hz. You'll also find a 35Hz equalization knob for low-end calibration, the firm's own rigid AirFrame and the curvilinear XStat electrostatic transducer. As expected, such fine pieces are available in a plethora of shades -- Black Ash, Dark Cherry, Natural Cherry, Maple, Birds Eye Maple, Wenge, and Rotary Cut Bubinga -- and those not satisfied with dropping "only" $8.5k can free themselves of even more Benjamins by dreaming up a cabinet hue of their own. One more look after the jump.[Via eCoustics]
