This is a video introduction to voXover – a Mac voice-over automation utility and batch-recorder designed for projects that require large numbers of individual audio files to be recorded.

Ardour 2.6, the latest version of the free audio workstation for OS X and Linux, has been released.

This version is notable mostly for many dramatic improvements to GUI performance on OS X (native) and a few very important crashing fixes. But it also contains several interesting and useful new features.

New Features

• make libsndfile work with newer versions of FLAC (enables building a version that can open FLAC files)
• tracks in active edit groups now perform playlist operations (create, copy, select) in unison for playlists created for the group
• embedded LV2 GTK GUI support
• allow translated version use on OSX
• add session file type icon for OSX
• shift-click now works to extend marker selections (click one, then shift-click another to select all markers between them)
• marker drag moves all selected markers
• add initial-program-change support (Ardour can send a MIDI Program Change command on startup to set up external equipment; it can do this at any later time too)
• add move-selected-tracks-{up,down} commands
• add global option to enable/disable region fades
• enable activate/deactivate fades in all selected regions
• global option to hide/show region fades

Berkley Integrated Audio Software (BIAS)) has announced iProRecorder (App Store Link), a new $.99 recording application for iPhone and iPod touch.

It’s got a sexy interface and some very interesting features – geotagging and photo tagging of your recordings. 

Description:

User Interface & Recording — iProRecorder utilizes the innovative Multi-Touch user interface so users can quickly record with a single touch of a button, and recordings can be paused as well as appended with the touch of a finger.

The design features a circular display, which includes a counter, progress indicator, available record time, and more. To avoid having to operate the controls upside down when the iPhone’s mic is directed at a subject, iProRecorder’s uses the device’s in-built accelerometer to invert the screen image accordingly.

iProRecorder records uncompressed files with three audio fidelity settings, letting you balance quality against an available recording time of up to 13 hours per GB while maintaining higher audio resolution than in compressed formats.

A record timer can be set to designate recording length, and an optional 3-second record countdown is also included.

iProRecorder utilizes the iPhone’s location services and camera, providing support for geographic tagging and photos—ideal for associating a recording subject with the exact recording location, for future reference.

Who needs analog television?

30 Rock debuts this year on Hulu, at NBC.com, right here at Podcasting News and anywhere else you want to watch it.

NBC is debuting the season premiere online a full seven days before its on-air takeoff.

While NBC can’t expect Tina Fey to always pull in twice as many people online as she does on television, they can’t plan on traditional television being around for long, either.

nFinity has announce that its QuickVoice Recorder is now available for the 2nd generation iPod Touch, adding to its already existing line of voice recording software for the iPhone, Mac and Windows PCs. 

For iPhone users, QuickVoice iP (for the iPhone) syncs its recordings with QuickVoice PC on the personal computer (Mac or Windows) at which point recordings can be voice emailed, added to iTunes or edited.

This could make it an option for users wanting to record short segments on the fly to use within podcasts. Other options to consider are Recordifier & the free VoiceNotes. 

App Store Link

Electronic music pioneer Jean Michel Jarre has announced – not a new album of synth music – but a line of JM Jarre Technologies electronics, including the AeroSystem iPod audio system and the AeroFrame digital picture frame:

AeroSystem is a great-looking hi-fi system/ iPod speaker base, with a strikingly original all-glass design, and an amazing precise, warm, powerful sound. Since it stands alone, it can fit anywhere in a room, and it projects a spectacular stereo soundscape through its two sound projectors.

AeroFrame is an elegant digital picture frame with a twist: it has a rechargeable battery, so you can lift it from its base to show pictures to friends on the sofa.

AeroSystem and AeroFrame are the first products of a brand new range of unique audio/visual concepts, affordable and of very high quality. The website is in French, as the initial launch is only in France at the moment. The entire range will be available in other territories in the near future. Apologies to the rest of you, please be patient.

The product site looks to be a bit under construction; if anybody has a chance to check these out in person, let me know what you think in the comments. 

via Synthtopia

A politically-obsessed friend in a nearby college town emailed that she had seen my name mentioned on a “national news website.”

Interest piqued, I figured it was a rehash of something I did or said during those heady days of media attention early in the 2008 Presidential campaign, during the Iowa Caucuses, a million years – um, ten months – ago.

Imagine the shock – and the shame! – of discovering a news report “from the future,” in which the Presidential election is decided by my failure to cast a vote.

The faux news story fits (French Maid TV creator) Tim Street‘s definition of viral video. It is a spectacle that gives you pause. (Wait – that’s my name. Is that for real? No way, it’s not for real. How did they do that?)

Check it out: The video and web page are peppered with the “suspected non-voter’s” name. And MoveOn.org, the sponsor of the site, makes the video easy to pass on by filling in a simple form. It’s an interesting addition to the smorgasbord of election related media, from video game ads and iPhone applications, to Facebook groups, Twitter (also here) and FriendFeed profiles, YouTube, and, yes, even podcasts.

What other interesting uses of new media have you encountered (or perhaps created yourselves) this endless election season? Is there a GOP-leaning PAC offering user-generated reminders to vote? Please tell us your discoveries in the comments.

Note: We hate the autoplay, too. MoveOn.org should offer an option to turn autoplay off, and an easy way to click through the video to create a your own custom version.

Internet video site Hulu was nearly wiped off the face of the Internet yesterday, leading to widespread speculation about what had happened.

Some interesting theories included:

1. DanStasiewski: Hulu appears to be down. Should I get on the roof and wiggle the antenna?
2. JoeAnderson: Maybe bringing down Hulu.com will finally get me into the Evil League of Evil.
3. MattMusgrave: With Hulu down, productivity sky rockets.
4. benfortney: I think hulu said something bad about the chinese gov’t.
5. (and another one) benfortney: I blame the Republicans for taking out Hulu.
6. demosthe: Stale DNS cache maybe?

If you guessed #6, you’re right.

Around 6:45pm, Hulu accidentally deployed an incorrect DNS record and this change was replicated out to public DNS servers…causing all *.hulu.com domains (including the company’s email server, SVN depot, the whole kitchen sink) to “go boom”.

At least they could still tweet about it:

John Markoff at the New York Times writes that there’s evidence that Apple is working on a Kindle-killer. 

According to Markoff, his contact at a search engine company has “spotted Web visits from an unannounced Apple product with a display somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook. Is it the iPhone 3.0 or the NetMac 1.0?”

At this point, this is little more than a well-placed rumor, but it would make sense for Apple to go after the eBook market.

Amazon’s Kindle has failed to make much of an impression beyond the geek gadget market, while Apple’s iPhone has transformed the phone industry. It’s not much of a stretch to think that a device that was basically an iPod touch with a larger screen – a device that would be open to content from podcasters, bloggers and others – could put the Kindle out to pasture.

While there was lots of good news for Apple fans in today’s Q4 earnings call, but there was also some news that people don’t want to hear: that Apple TV was going to keep on its road to nowhere for the near future. 

“I think the whole category is still a hobby right now,” Jobs said, in response to an analysts question about Apple TV. “I don’t think anyone has succeeded at it, and the experimentation has even slowed down lately. Some of the people who were doing some things in that area have sort of faded away.”

“Given the economic conditions and the VC funding outlook, I think it will continue to be a hobby in 2009,” added Jobs.