garage

GarageBand '11 is the latest iteration of Apple's recording studio application. With it you can record instrument and vocal feeds (with the right interfaces) or audio tracks, then mix your magnum opus. There's a built-in "learn to play" feature for both guitar and piano. GarageBand '11 installs easily but is a large download, and costs $14.99.

The GarageBand '11 interface is split into panes. The main area shows you tracks layered one on top of the other. Beneath that is an output track representation. To the right are images of devices and effects you can … Read more

If you're getting sick and tired of flying to another city for a few unproductive meetings, you don't have to dream of a day when telepresence robots will make that totally unnecessary.

Beam from Suitable Technologies, a spinoff of Willow Garage, is a new addition to the growing field of remote-operated robots that project your presence into a distant location. Like other telepresence bots, it's basically a Webcam on wheels, letting you roam around offices or factories to chat with colleagues.

Officially called the Beam Remote Presence System, the bot is roughly 5 feet tall, weighs 95 pounds, can roll along at walking speed (about 5 feet per second), and has a 17-inch screen. It's got two HD cameras, six microphones, speakers, Wi-Fi, and LED lamps. … Read more

In this week's Always On (Episode 7), host Molly Wood visits robotics research lab Willow Garage in Menlo Park, Calif., to see how its crafty $400,000 PR2 robot fares as a sushi waiter.

PR2 looks like a juiced-up version of Rosie the robotic maid from "The Jetsons." But even with its buff arms, this humanoid robot can set a table with surprising grace. It shows poise on camera too -- impressive considering that the footage below represents robot sushi waiter's first video appearance.

For those unfamiliar with the open-source robot, the PR2's array of … Read more

Apple's GarageBand gives wanna-be and real-world musicians alike the instruments they need to make music on an iPad. But when it comes to drums and guitar, there's something lost in translation; your fingertips just don't measure up to the feel of drumsticks and a guitar pick.

Of course, the real deal won't work on an iPad's screen; wood and plastic aren't conductive materials, so their taps and strums will go unrecognized.

Enter Pix & Stix, which give you a rubberized, conductive guitar pick and pair of drumsticks. (Slogan idea: "For those about to … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Tugging on Chrome's coat tails, the popular Dolphin browser has announced alongside the Google I/O developer conference a new framework for developers called Dolphin Garage.

Garage is an open API program for extending the functionality of Dolphin. Powered in part by Adobe Phonegap and Dolphin's own HTML5 framework called Engine, it will include the release of more than 150 APIs, which will allow developers to create their own add-ons for the browser.

Engine has proven to be a big boon for Dolphin, explained David Dehghan, technical architect at Dolphin. While at a W3C Web standards meeting … Read more

The curtain has risen and the shooting has begun on the Hollywood biopic "jOBS" starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.

Kutcher arrived on set today at Jobs' childhood home, according to Pacific Coast News. He donned a trimmed beard and shaggy hair -- looking actually not too different than when he's not playing Jobs.

The movie will focus on the earlier years of Jobs' life, from 1971 to 2000, producer Mark Hulme said in April. And rather than being about to Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography "Steve Jobs," the movie is supposedly based on widely … Read more

For those wondering how authentic the upcoming movie about Steve Jobs played by Ashton Kutcher will be, maker Five Star Feature Films says it's going to actual locations, including Jobs' childhood home, where the first Apple computers were pieced together in the garage.

The film's production company today said it plans to begin shooting principal photography at the Los Altos, Calif., home next month, with a release of the picture to follow in late fall of this year.

The garage, which belonged to the Jobs family, was Apple's official headquarters before the company moved to a rented … Read more

It would appear the robotics industry is having its Linux moment, which backers hope will unleash a torrent of creativity around robots. But not everyone's convinced that's a good thing.

Robotics company Willow Garage yesterday created an open-source body to shepherd the development of its ROS (Robot Operating System). Called the Open Source Robotics Foundation, the goal is get more people writing software for robots, particularly for commercial and consumer use, say its creators.

Everyone agrees robots need killer apps to graduate beyond curiosities and cool demos, much the way the spreadsheet helped catalyze the PC movement. And … Read more

GarageBand got a few tweaks, but they are mostly limited to fixing stability issues. Apple says a bug that formerly would crash the app when uploading songs to iCloud, and another that caused an error when logging into SoundCloud with a Facebook account, have been fixed.

iPhoto received mostly bug fixes and enhancements to streamline use as well, but did get a minor interface tweak that will be useful. Now when you publish a journal to iCloud, a new button lets you copy the link to clipboard -- useful for sharing freshly made journals with friends right away.

iMovie received … Read more