Nerdly News Curated from Interesting Sites
Many TikTok videos don’t start from scratch, so neither can its competitors. TikTok is all about remixes where users shoot a new video to recontextualize audio pulled from someone else’s clip, or riff on an existing meme or concept. That only works because TikTok’s had time to build up an immense armory of content to […]
Some humans are blessed with perfect pitch, an ability that comes in handy when pursuing the musical arts. For many others though, a little help is often appreciated. A pitch pipe is a handy way to find the starting note of a performance, and [Isaac] decided to build his own …read more
If youve ever had any musical aspirations — or even if your talent extends no further than turning on the radio — youve probably dreamed the impossible dream. You dream that maybe you could record some of your songs at home, post them online, build an armada of fan support, attract major label attention and ultimately become a global music powerhouse all in one fell swoop.
Look, its an unlikely dream, but it isnt impossible. Thats the career arc that now 17-year-old Billie Eilish just rode to pop megastardom last year. And what program did she (and her brother-slash-producer Finneas OConnell) use to capture and edit Billies now chart-topping tracks? Logic Pro X.
The Mac-based app is just one of the programs that has taken music production from opulent, expensive studios right to anyones bedroom. And since youve got a bit more home time on your hands recently, The 2020 Music Production with Ableton Live 10 and Logic Pro X Bundle can be just the ticket to the big time youre looking for.
These nine courses are a 56-hour master class in breaking into the music industry, including everything from songwriting and producing to recording to back-end production and distribution that can compete with the big boys of the recording game.
The training centers on how to use Logic Pro X or its equally lauded competitor Ableton Live 10 to do all the digital sequencing, recording and editing needed to produce your tracks. This training doesnt come with the software, but itll show you how to use it to create all the auditory scope and wonder you experience from todays top artists. Read the rest
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazons Prime Video iOS and Apple TV apps now let customers make in-app purchases, including renting and buying films and TV shows. The change marks a huge shift in Amazons approach to the App Store, which mandates a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases. Prior to the change, Amazon would not allow you to rent or buy content on the Prime Video app, instead, directing users to a web browser to avoid the App Store fee.
Now, when users log in to the Prime Video app, there should be a message reading, Browse, rent, or buy new release movies, popular TV shows, and more now within the app. (Big thanks to George Watson, who tipped us off to this change.)
Screenshots by Nick Statt / The Verge
The prices do not…
Cabin fever: the inability to socialize with other humans does weird things to the human brain. Then again some of us are born to stand out, and one such amazing maker, [Lee], is spending time making weird switches from basically anything.
So what would you consider weird? How about using …read more
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apples native iOS password manager may be getting an overhaul later this year with the presumed release of iOS 14 that will make it more competitive with third-party options like 1Password and LastPass, reports 9to5Mac.
Right now, iCloud Keychain can store your passwords and help autofill them on the iPhone, where copying and pasting long strings of letters and numbers or manually doing so has been a headache since the advent of the mobile touchscreen. But it doesnt have reminders for changing those passwords like competitors do, and it doesnt support two-factor authentication (2FA) options. That means users are still stuck using potentially insecure methods like SMS or email in the event that they do have 2FA set up.
According to 9…
Its often the small things that can make all the difference when working remotely; things that seem obvious in the moment, but may have been overlooked.
If you’ve ever tried to buy the Harry Potter audiobooks, you probably noticed something kind of tricky: there’s two very different versions. The version most widely available in the US is narrated by Jim Dale. The UK version is read by Stephen Fry. Which is better? I won’t get into that that’s something the […]
It’s always great to see a master craftsperson at work. From Vanity Fair: “Watch as Tom Kenny seamlessly improvises the voices to 5 random cartoon characters that he has never seen before. Using his skills from decades as the voice of SpongeBob, The Ice King (Adventure Time), The Mayor (Powerpuff Girls), Heffer (Rocko’s Modern Life) and many others, Tom is able to create amazing characters in the blink of an eye.”
Image: YouTube
Smart speakers have always posed a risk to privacy and security — that’s just the price we pay for getting instant answers to life’s urgent and not-so-urgent questions the moment they arise. But it seems that many owners of the 76 million or so smart speakers on the active install …read more
Image: WinFuture
New leaks for the OnePlus 8 Pro reveal that the phone may come in a good-looking deep blue color that might be exclusive to the Pro model of the OnePlus 8, reports WinFuture.
That blue color will apparently be called ultramarine blue, according to WinFuture. Heres another look at the devices full front and back, thanks to what appear to be leaked marketing renders shared by WinFuture:
Image: WinFuture
The OnePlus 8 Pro may also come in onyx black and a seafoam green called glacial green, and but it reportedly wont come in the purple-ish red interstellar glow that might be coming to the OnePlus 8. That color is apparently exclusive to the OnePlus 8, reports WinFuture.
The renders shared by WinFuture also…
Tiger King is one of the strongest contenders for most watchable TV show of the year, and its a problem. A documentary miniseries comprising seven quick episodes, each under an hour, you could watch the whole thing in a weekend; given the subject, youll probably finish even faster.
The Netflix series follows a man both larger than life and smothered by it: Joe Exotic, the one-time owner of a successful-seeming private zoo with over 200 tigers and other big cats. Hes a man who ran for president of the United States, then governor of Oklahoma, and then sometime after, may have tried to hire someone to kill his nemesis, a woman dedicated to shutting his zoo down. Its incredibly compelling, and terribly so: Tiger King is almost wholly…
Image: Apple
Apple recently released iPadOS 13.4 with a big new feature: full trackpad support for iPads. And now, its started updating its major productivity apps, including Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iMovie, to support mouse and trackpad integration.
The new iWork updates are available now for both iOS and iPadOS, and they include a variety of other features like collaborative editing through iCloud Drive folder sharing (another new feature added in iOS and iPadOS 13.4), new themes in Keynote, drop cap support in Pages, and larger tables in Numbers.
Apples also added better support for offline editing in its productivity suite now, if you start editing a shared document when youre offline, your changes will upload and sync to…
Okta, the popular identity and access management service, today used its annual (and now virtual) user conference to launch Lifecycle Management Workflows, a new tool that helps IT teams build and manage IFTTT-like automated processes with the help of an easy to use graphical interface. The new service is an extension of Okta’s existing automation […]
Who is the best Hungarian Beatles tribute band? This is a question musicologists have argued about for years, but more than a few agree that The Bits are worthy contendors for the title. Above, a pandemic inspired “I Wanna Wash My Hands.” Below, a social distanced version of “Come Together,” retitled “Don’t Come Together.”
Image: YouTube Read the rest
Good tip pic.twitter.com/GS5mFVom4v
— Engineering (@engineeringvids) March 30, 2020
This looks like a good way to keep drawstrings from disappearing, as is their wont. Read the rest
The Brass-A-Holics offer this fantastic rendition of “I’ll Fly Away” to help comfort those who can not give their loved ones a proper jazz funeral.
I have been in love with jazz funerals since I was a teen. I only recently learned there are also jazz weddings. Should I ever remarry this will make things interesting. Read the rest
Image: Twelve South
Yall, I cant even. Just look at this thing:
Image: Twelve South
It looks like your typical purse, right? Except…
Image: Twelve South
What we have here is a tiny leather handbag from Twelve South designed for absolutely no other purpose than to carry your AirPods. Its a limited edition release in honor of (sigh) April Fools Day, and there are 671 units left at the time of this writing. Its called the AirBag, and its my absolute favorite thing ever.
But! the haters are probably objecting. Who on earth would actually buy such an impractical and clearly overpriced object? The answer to that question, haters, is Rihanna. The singer was spotted rocking a $1,000 tiny Delvaux purse last…
Photo by Eduardo Sanz/Europa Press via Getty Images
If youre a weather geek, you must already know that Dark Sky, one of the most popular weather apps around, has been acquired by Apple and that, as a result, anyone who uses an Android device is going to lose access to that app. In addition, a variety of other apps (some not even weather-related) will lose access to the Dark Sky API.
If youre an Android user with Dark Sky and youre wondering where to go now for your weather report, there are a few alternatives to choose from. But first, here are a couple of things to consider.
Several Android weather apps have been found to ask for more permissions than they need and to have shared location data with advertisers and other third parties. These privacy issues are detailed in a Vice…
Cloud hosting company Scaleway has launched Kubernetes Kapsule, a new service that lets you manage Kubernetes clusters on Scaleways infrastructure. The service works with a wide-range of Scaleway instances and lets you create large clusters that scales depending on demand. Kubernetes is an open-source platform to manage containers and the server infrastructure behind those containers. […]