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

Zagg has debuted a pair of new iPad mini Bluetooth keyboard accessories at CTIA Las Vegas. The ZaggKeys Cover for the iPad mini, pictured, is the latest in its iPad line of popular keyboard covers. According to the company, it is the thinnest Bluetooth keyboard accessory for the iPad mini available, measuring just 6.3mm (0.25-inch) thick. ...   MacNN

Optical character recognition purveyor IRIS has launched its next-generation IRIScan Book 3 and the IRIScan Book 3 Executive. These portable scanning solutions are battery‐powered, enabling mobile users to easily capture paper documents, receipts, photos and more without the use of a computer....       MacNN

Flickr Pro users have been informed by Yahoo about the future of the once-premium accounts. As long as the user's account is kept in good standing, customers paying $25 per year for unlimited storage will be allowed to keep the plan indefinitely, with no plans for the Pro benefits to be purged....       MacNN

Unity has announced that its mobile game development tools are now free to use for smaller developers. The Unity platform is popular amongst iOS and Android developers, but its creator previously charged $800 to publish a game to the App Store or Google Play. Under the new rules, that barrier has been lifted....       MacNN

CS Odessa has posted a minor update for ConceptDraw Project, the developer's project management software. The v6.4 release adds new resource types, which should let organizers better describe both resources and resource behavior. Separately, new filters can be used to generate custom views of a project, which in turn can be saved for later use....       MacNN

Escape Motions has released Flame Painter 2.0, an update of the developer's illustration software. The v2.0 upgrade brings in a host of new features, such as smoother antialiasing, unlimited layers and editable vector layers in the Professional edition. ...   MacNN

Seagate Technology has announced the new Seagate Video 3.5 HDD -- the industry's first 4TB, 3.5-inch hard disk drive engineered specifically for use in video applications such as digital video recorders, set-top boxes, and surveillance systems. Purpose-built for video solutions, the Video 3.5 HDD can store up to 480 hours of high-definition (HD) content. ...   MacNN

Apple remains in first place on an annual BrandZ ranking of the world's most valuable brands, notes MarketingWeek. Apple's brand is estimated to be worth $185.071 billion, putting it well ahead of next-closest rivals Google ($113.669 billion) and IBM ($112.536 billion). Other companies in the top 10 include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Microsoft, Marlboro, Visa, and China Mobile.... ...   MacNN

Intel has noted that it has appointed Mike Bell to lead its emergent technology and product trend group, which includes ultra-mobile products. The new division will be 'tasked with turning cool technology and business model innovations into products that shape and lead markets,' according to Intel....       MacNN

Smith Micro has launched Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014, updates of the developer's core 3D rendering and animation tools. Both apps have gained a number of new features, such as subdivision surfaces, which let users set subdivision levels for props, figures, or body parts using Pixar's OpenSubdiv library. The technology should improve aspects like bending accuracy and object smoothness.... ...   MacNN

Starting this year, IBM's Watson intelligent agent technology will debut as a customer service assistant. Customers of Australia's ANZ Bank, Celcom, The Royal Bank of Canada, and Nielsen can query the system for general questions related to accounts with the companies. ...   MacNN

Apple has posted the opening statements two of its executives -- CEO Tim Cook (PDF) -- and CFO Peter Oppenheimer (PDF) -- made during their testimony in front of the US Senate earlier today. The documents don't reveal anything new, but do constitute a record of Apple's stance during the Senate hearing. 'We pay all of the taxes we owe -- every single dollar. ...   MacNN

Apple is aiming to integrate Flickr and Vimeo into iOS 7, a source tells 9to5Mac. The integration is expected to work in much the same way as Facebook and Twitter support does in iOS 6, allowing single sign-ins via the Settings menu. ...   MacNN

A ruling yesterday in the Northern District of California may have repercussions on the smartphone patent battles raging across the US court landscape. A federal judge granted a user of a standards-essential patent a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a possible US International Trade Commission (ITC) sales injunction. ...   MacNN

In a brief sidetrack during his Senate testimony today, Apple CEO Tim Cook voiced his opinion on US intellectual property law. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) asked Cook about the IP benefits of running a company in the US versus other countries, but appears to have been surprised when Cook took a critical tone. 'I actually think that we require much more work on IP in this country,' he said.... ...   MacNN

During his testimony before the Senate on Apple's tax strategies, CEO Tim Cook restated an earlier promise that a forthcoming Mac model -- not identified -- was going to be built in the United States, and further revealed that it would be assembled in Texas. ...   MacNN

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

'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 VSTi synthesizer plug-in. Psytrance Bass X1 is bassline synthesizer designed to allow the user to create ideal sounding bass within one minute. Features: Bass [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 raates available to download), a custom sequencer for Kontakt 5 and sampler instruments for Ableto [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