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Now you can record to your Android device via USB audio interface

Publié: décembre 22, 2012, 6:11pm CET par Tim Conneally

Exstream Software Development, the team responsible for Android four-track app Audio Evolution Mobile, has released an app called USB Audio Recorder Pro which lets users attach USB microphones and other USB audio interfaces to Android 3.1+ devices that support USB host mode.

Musicians, podcasters, and filmmakers alike can now attach microphones to their Android tablet or smartphone and record mono or stereo 16- or 24-bit audio, and also play back over their USB device. Many of the recording variables depend upon the audio interface and Android device that are being used, but the maximum sample rate the app supports is 192 kHz, and files can be saved as wav/flacc/ogg on internal or removable storage.

So far, eXstream Software has tested a handful of audio interfaces, and the Lexicon Alpha, Lambda, and Omega, the M-Audio Duo, Fast Track, and Fast Track Pro, the Presonus 22VSL, Blue Yeti and Yeti PRO, the RME Babyface, as well as the Zoom H2 and H4 are guaranteed to work with the app.

Limitations currently are many with the app, and eXstream warns, "Unfortunately, Samsung S1, S2 and Note 1 devices are not supported because Samsung delibaretely blocks audio devices. S3 and Note 2 work though."

USB Audio Recorder Pro costs $2.99 in Google Play, and eXstream says this functionality will eventually be added into Audio Evolution Mobile as an in-app purchase.
4K Video Downloader claims to be different

Publié: décembre 22, 2012, 5:43pm CET par Mike Williams

While there are plenty of tools around which promise to help you download online videos, most have snags or compromises that make them annoying to use in real life. They don’t support your favorite sites, maybe; they don’t let you download the precise format or resolution you need; there are restrictions on downloading videos simultaneously, or whatever it might be.

4K Video Downloader claims to be different, though. “Downloading is simple and pleasant”, the authors say. The program covers “YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Metacafe”, and you’ll want to use it because “we pay great attention to simplicity and usability”. Interesting, but can the reality live up to the hype? We took a look.

First impressions weren’t so great, thanks to an installer which tried to equip our PC with a browser toolbar. That’s hardly unusual, though, and could easily be avoided with a click or two. And things picked up once we launched 4K Video Downloader, as the program presented a very simple interface, just three buttons: “Paste url”, “Smart Mode” and “Help”. We immediately had a very good idea what to do.

To test this we headed off to YouTube in Firefox, selected a video and copied its address to the clipboard. Then we switched back to 4K Video Downloader, clicked “Paste url”, and sure enough it presented all the essential download options. There were multiple file format and quality settings, along with options to download subtitles, or just the audio (giving us an MP3 file), as well as to choose the destination file and folder name. And clicking the Download button left the program to fetch a local copy of our chosen clip.

We like this level of choice, but 4K Video Downloader also offers a simpler route, for those who need it. Click Smart Mode and the program allows you to define your preferred format, quality, and destination folder; once this is set up, you’ll be able to download videos simply by clicking the “Paste url” button.

The program doesn’t provide any way to enter a group of URLs in a single operation, unfortunately. But you can paste addresses individually, and download multiple videos in parallel. The main interface shows you the key details of each clip, and double-clicking any of these will launch it in your default player (once the video has fully downloaded, anyway).

The interface still seemed a little sparse to us, but it turned out that most of the remaining options were hidden in a context menu. Right-click any of the videos and you’ll find menus to help you pause or resume the download, open Explorer at the video’s folder, and, neatly, even launch Twitter or Facebook to share the original link -- a very nice touch.

There are a few obvious improvements which could be made here. We’d like support for more video sites, for instance. Having to manually paste video URLs one at a time is a little inflexible. And many users would appreciate the ability to convert their downloads into some other format.

4K Video Downloader is simple, configurable and easy to use, though, and neat additions such as the ability to post links on Twitter or Facebook could be enough to make it your video downloader of choice.

Photo Credit: cybrain/Shutterstock
That's not iPad 4, it's the new Archos 97 Titanium HD

Publié: décembre 22, 2012, 5:32pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Apple's newest iPad and mainstream Android tablets couldn't be more different in the display department -- the former embraces a more conservative 4:3 format while the latter prefer the multimedia-oriented widescreen panels. However, French consumer electronics company Archos deviates from the norm with the 97 Titanium HD, an Android tablet with an iPad 4-like display.

The 97 Titanium HD tablet features a 9.7-inch IPS display with 10 point multitouch and a resolution of up to 2048 x 1536. Power comes from a 1.6GHz dual-core processor based on the A9 architecture, a quad-core Mali 400 MP4 graphics card and 1GB of RAM, a combination similar to the one found in the original Samsung Galaxy Note. The tablet also sports 8GB of internal memory, alongside a microSD card slot that can extend the storage capacity by a further 64GB. What about the software?

The 97 Titanium HD ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean alongside OfficeSuite Viewer 6 and Archos-branded Media Center suite. The latter comprises of audio and video apps that include features such as metadata scraping or auto-subtitles. Samba and uPnP are also supported for multimedia streaming, as well as DNLA for use with a compatible TV.

The Androd tablet also features a 5MP back-facing camera with autofocus and a 2MP front-facing shooter. Other noteworthy features include Wi-Fi 802.11, two built-in speakers as well as an accelerometer. Archos kept quiet when it comes to the internal battery and does not specify the actual capacity and only mentiones the Li-Po (Lithium Polymer) technology.

Archos employs a rather modest processor and graphics card combination, at a time when high-end Android tablet manufacturers opt for quad-core solutions paired with more powerful graphic units when coupled with high-resolution displays.

Had the French manufacturer used a less demanding panel sporting a lower resolution, the choice of hardware would not be much of a reason for interest. Archos did not provide any pricing information at the time of writing this article, but if appropriate to the specification sheet it could level the balance.
Microsoft makes Windows Azure even better

Publié: décembre 22, 2012, 4:01pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

On Friday, Microsoft unveiled a host of new features for the company's cloud platform, Windows Azure. The latest update beefs up the software corporation's offering by expanding the availability of Windows Azure Store into more regions as well as adding support for Mobile Services in Northern Europe.

Microsoft states that the company also plans to extend support for Mobile Services to "all Windows Azure regions world-wide", but did not provide any specific details as to when that will happen. The Redmond, Wash.-based corporation touts a number of other changes in the last Windows Azure update to Mobile Services, Web Sites, Media Services, SQL databases, Virtual Network improvements as well as Subscription Filtering support.

Windows Azure now features a job scheduler functionality for periodical purging of duplicate or old data from tables or scheduling the sending of push notifications or SMS messages to customers, as well as command line support through the Windows Azure Command Line Tool, also dubbed 'azure'.

The company's cloud platform comes with increased scaling capabilities for the Windows Azure Web Sites service as well as the added functionality for new Custom Create workflows. The former allows a website to be scaled up to run across six shares instances, from the previously available three, and across 10 reserved VM (virtual machine) instances. The latter is designed for websites, allowing to configure source control settings in the site creation part.

SQL Data Sync is implemented, allowing Windows Azure users to synchronize data across multiple SQL databases. Active Directory Access Control Management (or simply named "ACS") is supported as well in the latest release, for authentication and authorization of users on web applications and services.

Microsoft touts Media Service improvements, with the added ability of tracking the progress and history of media encoding jobs from the portal, adding content from Windows Azure Storage by selecting existing files and scaling the number of processed encoding tasks.

The latest update for Windows Azure also comes with a simplified virtual network creation workflow and a new subscription filter user interface within the portal, the latter designed to filter views based on multiple subscriptions.

Photo Credits: James Thew/Shutterstock