Just in time for Father's Day, WaterField Designs has unveiled their new fine leather Finn wallet. This is the ultimate wallet for securely carrying cash, credit cards and even a cell phone. Electronista has two to give away, read on to learn more about this wallet, and how you can enter to win....       MacNN

Mailbox (free), an alternative GMail client for iOS, has released a new version that fixes a few bugs and is also now optimized for iPad as well as the iPhone. The app offers features not found on the default iOS mail client, such as gestures to prioritize incoming mail and the ability to reschedule a message to reappear later....       MacNN

Apple has been granted 26 new patents this week, two of which could end up being used in a future iteration of the iPhone. The filings from the US Patent and Trademark Office show Apple as owning patents for a push-to-talk (PTT) system, as well as one for a double-sided touch panel that could help the company make an even thinner smartphone....       MacNN

Evernote has added one of the most requested features to its iOS, Mac and Web apps, reminders. Available for all Evernote customers, the new option is represented with an alarm clock icon in the top-right corner of the web and Mac interfaces, and at the bottom of a note in the iOS apps. ...   MacNN

Pandora has updated its iOS app with Facebook Open Graph support, allowing users to share their listening activity directly on the social network. A new 'Publish' option has been added to the settings of the iOS app and the web-based player, allowing users to share music from wherever they are. ...   MacNN

On the heels of Apple CEO Tim Cook's testimony in Washington on the subject of tax policy, Apple is being seen as doubling its spending on lobbying in Washington -- though it would still be a minor player when it comes to tech companies and money flowing to Congressional representatives. ...   MacNN

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HTC has pulled its impending launch of the HTC First in the United Kingdom, after enduring a poor reception in the United States. The Android smartphone, preloaded with the Facebook Home launcher, has failed to take off in the US, despite AT&T's attempts to revive the device by selling it on-contract for $1 instead of its original $99 price....       MacNN

A new test video, along with explanation and question period, shows Corning firing back at rumors that Apple and other clients may switch to using a sapphire glass cover in future products. ...   MacNN

Shazam has updated its iPad app [App Store] to automatically recognize and tag songs, TV shows and music in adverts, without the user needing to prompt the app to do so. The background process, though not turned on by default, will add anything it can hear and identify to its home screen carousel, ready to be viewed at a later time by the user....       MacNN

Crowdsourced review service Yelp has come under attack again over reports of business owners complaints that reviews are 'too self-centered and not trustworthy' and that the company hides reviews to its own benefit. A blog post by Yelp's Vice President of Communications Vince Sollitto refutes the claims which have been reported to the media, and hopes to clear up the service's reputation.... ...   MacNN

Microsoft is airing a new TV ad for Windows 8 tablets targeting their main competition, the Apple iPad. The spot points out that the iPad is missing equivalents to Windows 8 features like Live Tiles and true multitasking, and that at $449, a 64GB ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet is far cheaper than a comparable 64GB iPad, which is $699. ...   MacNN

Google has announced plans to start deprecating most download options for projects hosted on Google Code. Beginning today, both existing and new projects without any downloads will lose the ability to create them. Existing projects that do have downloads will no longer be able to create additional ones as of January 15th. ...   MacNN

Twitter has released a new version of its free Mac client, v2.2.1. While mostly a maintenance update, it also adds OS X Notification Center integration, pushing alerts whenever a mention or direct message is received. Some of the update's fixes solve broken Growl notifications, the account switcher going missing in the composer window, and a bug that prevented un-favoriting tweets.... ...   MacNN

An an unusual show of solidarity, leaders of the US Congress intellectual property and antitrust subcommittees submitted a letter to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) reiterating the prior request that 'the Commission carefully assess the substantial public interest considerations that exist with regards to this and other cases at the ITC in which SEPs are at issue.'... ...   MacNN

At an event today at this week's CTIA conference, major casemaker OtterBox announced the acquisition of one of its chief rivals, LifeProof. The former says it will keep LifeProof's San Diego location, and that workers will remain in their current place. 'Over the next 30 days, OtterBox will begin incorporating the LifeProof brand into the OtterBox family,' an OtterBox statement reads. ...   MacNN

Former Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg has been hired onto Apple's marketing staff, Forbes sources say. Exactly which position he's filling is unknown, but he's expected to work under Apple's head of worldwide product marketing, Phil Schiller. ...   MacNN

Following Apple's testimony before the US Senate, Ireland's finance minister Michael Noonan declared that neither he nor his country would be the 'whipping boy' for US tax loopholes. ...   MacNN

A voice search option is being added to the iOS version of Chrome in 'the coming days,' according to Google. Users will just have to tap a microphone icon and ask the same sort of queries Google supports in Android and the iOS Google Search app. The change should in fact reduce the need to use Search, although that app is still iOS' gateway to Now and various other Google services.... ...   MacNN

Autodesk has announced that its first major update for Smoke 2013, Extension 1, will go live on May 29th. The update adds two main features, beginning with support for Blackmagic video IO devices including the DeckLink, UltraStudio, and Intensity lines. The other is a new Trim View, accompanied by a set of dynamic trimming tools which should allow for faster editing.... ...   MacNN

Publisher Penguin and parent company Pearson have proposed a settlement with 33 US State Attorneys General and other plaintiffs for $75 million to resolve its lawsuit accusing it of price fixing in conjunction with Apple and the iBookstore. If accepted by the judge, the settlement resolves all antitrust complaints against Penguin related to the suit on the state level.... ...   MacNN

A German Mac enthusiast site has noticed that the Apple online store in Germany is now accepting PayPal as a payment option, a new wrinkle that could appear in the US and other countries over time. While PayPal has been an option for payment in the iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store, it was never previously available for any kind of hardware or online retail purchase from Apple.... ...   MacNN

WaterField Designs has announced the launch of a new leather wallet that doubles as an iPhone 5 case. Available in two sizes, a compact version for cash and cards and a slightly longer version to fit an iPhone 5, the Finn Leather Wallet is made from a naturally deer-tanned leather. ...   MacNN

Apple has filed its amendment to its ongoing courtroom battle with Samsung, adding the Galaxy S4 to its list of infringing devices, just as it told the US District Court in California last week. The filing specifically names five patents said to be infringed by the Galaxy S4 itself, two of which are apparently infringed by Google Now....       MacNN

In a article that could have been written by Samsung's advertising department, the Sydney Morning Herald has published an article detailing claims from 'social researcher' Michael McQueen, who tracks the ever-shifting tastes of the group he calls 'Gen-Y' (meaning people who reached their teenage years after 2001). ...   MacNN

Large tech firms are coming under scrutiny over their tax avoidance measures, following the testimony of Apple executives to a US Senate Permanent Subcommittee. Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and others have been found to be using an assortment of tax loopholes and off-shoring in order to avoid paying governments in the US and Europe at least $100 billion....       MacNN

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As is traditional for the time of year, Apple has updated its main US homepage to promote items from its store in tune with the upcoming Father's Day holiday. In addition to the iPad and iPad mini, such items as iPhone 5, the Nike+Fuel band, the iGrill meat thermometer, the HipKey proximity alarm, the Nest thermostat and other suggestions are highlighted. ...   MacNN

A new reliability report from Rescuecom shows Apple placing in second place, beaten by Samsung by a wide margin. The new report for the first quarter of 2013, which now takes into account tablets as well as computers, also puts Apple ahead of Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, HP, Dell, and Acer, with both Sony and Panasonic dropping out of the rankings entirely....       MacNN

Audio accessory maker Ultimate Ears has announced a new wireless Bluetooth portable speaker, the UE Boom. Available in six colors, the mini-speaker is intended to be portable and offers 360-degree sound from all sides of the easy-grip device. ...   MacNN

Tek'it Audio has announced the updates of Genobazz their free bass synthesizer plug-in to version 2.3.1. This new update of Genobazz focuses on user interface improvements. Genobazz 2 is a free monoph [Read More]   KVR Audio

dboxSamples has released dmoox, a new sample library for Kontakt. dmoox is a sampled instrument. It uses pre-recorded audio clips to generate sounds designed to recreate the 'Midimoog' by Studio Elect [Read More]   KVR Audio

Gospel Musicians releases Neo-Soul Keys 5X Ultimate for UVI and Neo-Soul Dyno Expansion for Kontakt. Neo-Soul Keys 5X Ultimate for UVI contains 5 electric pianos; including Suitcase, Stage, Wurli, Dyn [Read More]   KVR Audio

New Audio Technology has released a new version of the Spatial Audio Designer. This version provides new locations including two recording mobiles (BandR Medientechnik, THS Medien), some project and m [Read More]   KVR Audio

Ghostwave Audio has released Cellspace vol.1, a new soundset for Sonic Charge Synplant. 10% of the proceedings will go to Friends of the Earth. This bank is designed to be used in ambient and electron [Read More]   KVR Audio

'Sunny Lax: Modern Trance Vol 2' raises the bar yet again with another 10 Construction Kits of epic proportions.   Harmony Central

Amadeus, French provider of high end audio solutions and services, re-launches the UDX Series speakers 30 years after its first edition   Harmony Central

Doug Doppler’s inspirational guide to the goods, the gear and the gifting for the worship guitarist.    Harmony Central

Connect the Mobile Music Pump to the headphone output of your MP3 player, Smartphone, or iOS device and experience a higher level of performance that your headphones were always capable of    Harmony Central

123creative.com has released PsyTrance X1, a bassline synthesizer VSTi plug-in for Windows designed to allow the user to create ideal sounding bass within one minute. Features: Bassline oscillator (An [Read More]   KVR Audio

Musicrow has released Analogica, an advanced analog filter emulation for Native Instruments Reaktor. Analogica is now available individually, or as part of Musicrow's Golden Ensembles 3 bundle for Re [Read More]   KVR Audio

Variety Of Sound has updated Rescue MK2 to version 2.1. Changes: Better support for higher S/R (some minor bug fixes in the internal filter coefficient computations). Critical parts are running at an [Read More]   KVR Audio

Samplephonics has released the 909 Rhythm Composer with over 4000 24-bit Wav (44.1kHz or 96kHz sample rates available to download), a custom sequencer for Kontakt 5 and sampler instruments for Ableton [Read More]   KVR Audio

E-Phonic has updated their drum synthesizer Drumatic 4 to beta v20. What's new?. Updated GUI. 10 Sounds instead of 6. Renaming sounds is now possible. Mute sound parts (osc, noise1, noise2). New 'chok [Read More]   KVR Audio

Wavesfactory has released W-Cajon for Kontakt and EXS24. Two Cajons were recorded with 3 mics: stereo pair in front of the instrument and a mono mic in the back to better get the bass tone. Both wer [Read More]   KVR Audio

A guide to the most innovative and popular pitch correction titles today and how to apply them to your music.    Harmony Central

Expanding on their highly successful EVL series of the guitars, the X7 compliments the line with upgraded hardware and electronics.   Harmony Central

Today Toontrack released Basic Fills MIDI, a follow-up to the popular Basic Rock MIDI that was released earlier in the year.    Harmony Central

Native Instruments today introduced ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER, a new KONTAKT instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s.    Harmony Central

Musicrow releases Analogica, an advanced analog filter emulation for Native Instruments Reaktor.   Harmony Central

Ultrasound Amplifiers today introduces the Ultrasound AG15M acoustic amplifier.    Harmony Central

With Predator 1.6.4 the best just got a whole lot better — and bigger!     Harmony Central

Rob Papen has updated Predator to v1.6.4. It includes sound banks with over 450 new sounds. A recent visit to the Rob Papen HQ by Headhunterz (a.k.a. Dutch hardstyle DJ/producer Willem Rebergen) — r [Read More]   KVR Audio

PaperStone Instruments has released Palm Mute Piano, a 2.6 GB 64-note Kontakt instrument. Each note of the PaperStone Grand Piano has been sampled using finger dampening, resulting in an unusual cinem [Read More]   KVR Audio

Prosoniq has announced the immediate availability of TimeFactory version 2.5, which is a free download for all registered users. The following enhancements are implemented in this version: Added capab [Read More]   KVR Audio

Universal Audio has announced the shipment of the Apollo 16 Audio Interface and new UAD Software v.7.0, which provides multi-unit cascading, Virtual I/O, and other enhancements to both the Apollo 16 [Read More]   KVR Audio