The Apple Beat: New music creation tools empower creativity

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

When Apple first released the original iMac, it released a series of tools like iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand which empowered users into making original creations without the complexity usually affiliated with professional software. Apple seems to have gone back to this path of empowerment with its new music apps for iOS.

Apple recently released GarageBand 2.1 update  which introduces Live Loops, a fun visual music-making feature makes it possible to create loops and add DJ-style effects through multi-touch gestures.

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HP's got new Chromebooks designed for education for $199

HP's been churning out a lot of education-focused products and services and just recently revealed new HP Chromebook 11 G4 Education Edition (EE) – which creates designed to meet the needs of students and educators.

Built tough at 20 mm thin and just 2.7 pounds, the fanless HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is the thinnest rugged Chromebook for Education designed to pass MIL-STD testing. The device passes HP’s 70 cm drop test to help protect it from occasional bumps with lockers and drops from desks.

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Pocket Casts for Android gets Marshmallow support

Pocket Casts finally gets the need Android Marshmallow support it needs. This version 5.3 introduces better voice control and fixes for certain issues. Now that it runs on Marshmallow, you can take advantage of permissions and backups. The episode filters are also data based so the results you get should be more streamlined. Your stats are now synced with your account meaning you can take your content across different devices.

As mentioned, Pocket Casts also improved voice control and worked on better search for podcast interface. The ability to switch to a custom location has also been improved. Some of the issues they’ve fixed include mailto linking, sync issues with old starred episodes, episode time left, and video player in landscape.

Source: Android Community | Download: Google Play Store ($4.59)

Nielsen adds Facebook to measure popularity of TV shows online

Nielsen used to only use Twitter chatter to measure how popular a television show is online. Now, Facebook will be included in rating the popularity of shows on the web. Nielsen will be calling it Social Content Ratings, which replaces the existing Twitter TV Ratings, and it’ll track live activity during awards shows, original series premieres, and sporting events.

The information it gets from Facebook will be the stuff you share publicly or those you share with friends and followers. These will be included in the ratings Nielsen will release for the first half of 2016. They won’t get the specifics on the content, though. Instead, Facebook will be offering aggregate data. We won’t be surprised if Instagram is the next to be added and your memes might be put to use.

Source: Engadget