Posts tagged Tom’s
[Video] Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”: From MP3 to Wax Cylinder
Feb 17th
The closer the present approaches an imagined future, the more it inspires a look backward. As computers became Star Trek pads, people got more interested, for instance, in Babbage’s analytical engine or the Antikythera mechanism.
So it’s no surprise, but it’s still awesome, that a wad of nerdlingers has decided to compare a new wax recording (a la Edison) to one of the first songs to be compressed into an MP3, with both versions sung by the same singer, Suzanne Vega.
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According to Colin Marshall, on OpenCulture, Vega’s a capella song served an important function in the development of that now-ubiquitous soundfile format.
“Karlheinz Brandenburg, a key contributor to the MP3 compression algorithm, did indeed put MP3 technology to the test early in its development by using it to compress Vega’s hit. Upon playback, he heard enough distortion in the singing to perform some serious tweaking. Evidently such a ‘warm a capella voice,’ in Brandenburg’s words, doesn’t take compression well.”
Tweaking the format to allow for a more natural vocal sound was part of the MP3′s development, and that was done, in part, via Vega’s song.
Below, at the Thomas Edison National Historic Park in New Jersey, the park’s curator, John Fabris, John Krivitt of the Audio Engineering Society and a group of Bay State College students record the songwriter singing the same tune into a vintage Edison wax recording device.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
How To: Manage Your Identity Online Through SEO – Tom’s Guide
Aug 24th
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How To: Manage Your Identity Online Through SEO
Tom’s Guide Take control of your online identity so that it shows the real you – or at least the you that you want others to see. Google yourself. Do you like what you see? Whether you want to brand your name for career purposes, clean up your search results when … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
iPad for Business Round-Up: Tom’s Planner, Building Apps from InDesign Files and More
Apr 23rd
The iPad isn’t just a hot new consumer device, it’s also an increasingly popular tool for business. Each week we take a look at the new or updated business apps for the iPad, and highlight trends in how tablets are being used in the enterprise.
This week week we look at a new way of building iPad apps with Adobe InDesign, an iOS optimized version of Tom’s Planner, the ways tablets are changing e-commerce and the state of Apple in the enterprise.
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Tom’s Planner
Tom’s Planner is a popular software-as-a-service for project scheduling. It lets users create and share Gantt charts, or import them Microsoft Project or Excel. It’s not as advanced as Project, but is much easier to use. This week it added support for iPads and iPhones.
The company boasts users from Asus, Dell, NASA, Oracle and more.
PadMan
PadMan is a plugin for Adobe InDesign for creating iPad apps from InDesign files. Adobe itself offers a similar application, but PadMan claims to be the only solution that offers native text in its applications. In addition to the plugin, PadMan has an iPad simulator and an App Store submission service.
PadMan apps can include video, JavaScript animation and slideshows. It’s free to try – it only costs money to submit apps to the Apple App Store. Prices start at €790.00.
Mobile E-Commerce Update
This week an app called Catalog Spree was released. It connects consumers with catalogs for various types of products. What’s interesting here is the way that tablets are changing the shopping experience. Catalog Spree’s representatives point to the fact that Ikea sends 175 copies of its dead-tree catalog to customers, and these catalogs make-up 70% of the company’s marketing. There are 20 billion catalogs mailed annually in the U.S. Catalog Spree is a step towards digitizing the catalog experience.
This week Performics announced the results of a study on mobile Web users. The company found that most respondents use the mobile Web to find retailers and research purchases. More significantly, 49% had made a purchase using their mobile device.
Good Data Report
As we reported earlier in the week, Good Technology has released its quarterly report on new enterprise activations of mobile devices. Good sees iPads dominating the mobile enterprise space.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
SEO Toolkit 3.0> – Tom’s Guide
Jan 16th
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SEO Toolkit 3.0>
Tom’s Guide SEO Toolkit is a downloadable Windows-based application that serves users as a functional and efficient Search Engine Optimization utility. … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
