Mopho, the $400 Dave Smith Analog Synth: Extra Details

Hot dog purveyor Gray’s Papaya in New York is beloved for its “Recession Special”: two dogs and a drink. Their champagne is made from coconuts. And you don’t just scarf these down in bear markets; you enjoy them any time. Dave Smith’s monophonic Mopho synth is perhaps the greatest recession special in the history of […]

MeatWater “Survival Beverage” Offers Techno Stimulus Package for Economy

Photo: Todd Thille. Used by permission. MeatWater (C) Liquid Innovations. If this economy is getting you down, our friends at MeatWater, the “high-efficiency survival beverage,” have a prescription. A prescription for techno: MeatWater MP3 Techno Remix Now, perhaps this is just a crass ploy for MeatWater to sell more of their MeatWater-protein drinks, which come […]

Wicked Ohm Force Effects, Whimsy as Utility, and a Group Buy Discount

Software: it looks bland. It often sounds the same. Then there are the gems, like Ohm Force’s incredibly tasty line of plug-ins. Their delay plug-in Ohmboyz really isn’t over-hyped when they call it “the best delay money can afford,” as it’s almost frighteningly deep, with wild special effects and dirty-sounding vintage-style possibilities. And those wacky […]

Apple Chooses Form Over Function; Users and the Press Rebel

When is progress not progress? When looks come before use, and when you take one thing away without giving something else back, users respond. It turns out Mac users care about more than just aesthetics, whatever anyone tries to say. Photo: Ondra. It should have been another home run for Apple today. The new MacBooks […]

About that "9400M" GPU: NVIDIA's Mobile Graphics

If you’re trying to find information on the NVIDIA 9400M Apple is adding to its lower-end MacBooks, here’s a hint: it doesn’t exist. (Not literally, anyway.) Plain-English summary: NVIDIA’s new graphics card architecture used on the MacBooks combines a chip on the CPU (as found on the old MacBooks) with a dedicated GPU (as found […]

About that "9400M" GPU: NVIDIA's Mobile Graphics

If you’re trying to find information on the NVIDIA 9400M Apple is adding to its lower-end MacBooks, here’s a hint: it doesn’t exist. (Not literally, anyway.) Plain-English summary: NVIDIA’s new graphics card architecture used on the MacBooks combines a chip on the CPU (as found on the old MacBooks) with a dedicated GPU (as found […]

About that “9400M” GPU: NVIDIA’s Mobile Graphics

If you’re trying to find information on the NVIDIA 9400M Apple is adding to its lower-end MacBooks, here’s a hint: it doesn’t exist. (Not literally, anyway.) Plain-English summary: NVIDIA’s new graphics card architecture used on the MacBooks combines a chip on the CPU (as found on the old MacBooks) with a dedicated GPU (as found […]

Whither, FireWire? What the New Apple Laptop Port Changes Mean for Audio

By now, you likely already know that Apple came out with new laptops today. I could talk about the new features at the existing price points or about how the new machines are very pretty, but you can easily find that elsewhere. Instead, I want to address some unfortunate details on the new laptops in […]

Did Apple Just Eliminate All S-Video, Composite Video Output?

It appears that, with the shift to the DisplayPort, Apple has eliminated adapter accessories for S-Video and composite video output. We’ll need to properly confirm this, but of course, you will want a way of being able to do this for maximum flexibility on the road. DIY solutions, anyone? DisplayPort does have the ability to […]

New Apple Laptops: New GPUs, Connectors; Non-Pro Changes

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Apple has new laptops as of today, including even a refresh for the Air. Look past the industrial design and gestural trackpad, and some of the significant under the hood changes to Apple’s laptop line are graphics-related. There’s a new graphics connector, which adds the nice feature of […]