Newly DVD To Final Cut Express Converter Released
By iLifesoft

post from prMac on 08 February 2012 09:10:00 PM. © prMac

ILifeSoft recommended AVCWare DVD Ripper Standard for Mac to convert dvd movies to final cut express on mac. DVD to Final Cut Express Converter is the best converter for FCE users to convert dvd to fce support format video, like mov, mpeg4, etc, and then import dvd into fce for editing. DVD to FCE Converter is a powerful and simple software for importing dvd into FCE, just several steps, we can solve the headache problem that import dvd to FCE.

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Is your smartphone a good investment If
it’s an iPhone, yes

post from Apple on 08 February 2012 06:03:52 PM. © Apple

Credit: Priceonomics

Priceonomics, which keeps track of the resale value of items like cars, bikes and gadgets, published a report Wednesday that shows how the value of iPhones, Android devices and BlackBerrys hold up over time. Short answer: iPhones, even years-old models, retain their value the longest, which means iPhone owners can recoup the most money when they go to resell their phones.

Here’s the method they used:

We measure depreciation by comparing a phone?s current used price to its new price (without a contract) the day it was released. We examined all iPhone models and the 70 most popular Androids and 30 most popular BlackBerry models. We split phones into five different cohorts (newly released, 1, 2, 3, and 4 year-old phones). We then calculated which phones had the best resale by cohort, as well as which platforms in aggregate tended to retain their value the most.
The highest quality phones should have the best resale values over time and crappier phones should depreciate the fastest. The evidence is clear – the winner is the iPhone.

After crunching the data they came up with a series of charts, like one that shows that after owning a smartphone for 18 months, iPhone owners can resell theirs for 53 percent of the original price, Android owners for 42 percent and BlackBerry owners for 41 percent of the original price.

That part won’t be news to people who make a habit of reselling their old iPhone before or right after buying a new one a new one. There are sites like Gazelle.com, eBay and NextWorth.com that regularly buy used iPhones, BlackBerrys and Android phones in order to resell them. The iPhone is always the easiest to resell and will go for a decently high price if you time it right.

But all is not lost for penny-pinching Android owners. One caveat to the data that Priceonomics found is that less expensive Android phones sold by prepaid operators do hold their value much better than their pricier Google-powered brethren, probably because those phones are highly subsidized by the operators. Specifically, the Motorola Triumph, HTC Wildfire and Samsung Exhibit 4G on average keep up to 86 percent of the original value.

Be sure to check out the original post for more interesting data.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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http://gigaom.com/apple/is-your-smartphone-a-good-investment-if-its-an-iphone-yes
/

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Tweetbot for iPad

post from Daring Fireball on 08 February 2012 06:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

My favorite iPhone Twitter client is now available for the iPad too. I’ve been using for a few weeks and it’s just terrific. I love it.

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http://tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/ipad/

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Path Makes Things Right

post from Daring Fireball on 08 February 2012 06:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

Dave Morin, CEO of Path:

We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing yourpersonal information. We also believe that actions speak louderthan words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to yourprivacy, we?ve deleted the entire collection of user uploadedcontact information from our servers. Your trust matters to usand we want you to feel completely in control of your informationon Path.
In Path 2.0.6, released to the App Store today, you are promptedto opt in or out of sharing your phone?s contacts with our serversin order to find your friends and family on Path.

Perfect response.

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Read The Full Article:
http://blog.path.com/post/17274932484/we-are-sorry

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How iTunes Match Works for Copyright Holders

post from Daring Fireball on 08 February 2012 06:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

Jeff Price got his first iTunes Match royalty check, and he’s happy:

A person has a song on her computer hard drive. She clicks on thesong and plays it. No one is getting paid. The same person paysiTunes $25 for iMatch. She now clicks on the same song and playsit through her iMatch service. Copyright holders get paid.
Same action, same song, one makes money for the copyright holder,and one does not. This is found money that the copyright holderswould never have gotten otherwise.

I wasn’t really sure before how artists would get paid for iTunes Match.

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http://blog.tunecore.com/2012/02/apple-imatch-the-first-royalties-are-in.html

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Fountain: Plain-Text Markup Format for
Screenwriting

post from Daring Fireball on 08 February 2012 06:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

What Markdown is for web content, Fountain is for screenplays. Looks great. See more in the announcements from co-creators Stu Maschwitz and John August. (Writes August, “Good ideas sometimes sit around for a while.” True.)

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http://fountain.io/

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Diaspark at TCEA 2012 convention & exhibition

post from prMac on 08 February 2012 04:54:00 PM. © prMac

Diaspark Inc., a leading provider of outsourced product engineering services to education ISVs is attending the 32nd TCEA convention & exhibition, Feb 6-10, 2012, at Austin, Texas. With more than two decades of outsourced product engineering experience and variety of applications delivered in education vertical, Diaspark brings trio of technical, vertical and compliance expertise to assist Education ISVs.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-38034.htm

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New OS X Lion Server Tutorial Simplifies Hosting
and Admin Tasks

post from prMac on 08 February 2012 04:35:00 PM. © prMac

The 10-hour OSX Server training video course goes through server installation and network configuration and shows how to host websites, wikis, media streaming and more. Narrated by Apple-certified expert Chris Tarnowieckyi, the hands-on training includes over 120 lessons on intermediate and advanced topics related to home, small business and enterprise Apple configurations. The course can be ordered on DVD-ROM or as download for a low price from the InfiniteSkills website.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-38163.htm

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Inside Instagram

Nice profile by Mat Honan:

Instagram isn’t just small; it’s tiny. It’s miniscule. It is famously located in Twitter’s old digs in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood. But here’s the thing: Instagram subleases its space from another company. Instagram isn’t in Twitter’s old office, it’s in Twitter’s old conference room. The entire company is nothing more than a collection of desks arranged bullpen-style in a room that is smaller than most two-car garages.

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Read The Full Article:
http://gizmodo.com/5878942

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Why we are buying paidContent

First the news: Yes, the rumors are true. We are indeed buying the assets of ContentNext Media from Guardian News & Media Limited. And no, we are not disclosing the terms of the deal, except that we are buying the entire group of properties ? paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, contentSutra and paidContent:UK and that a representative of Guardian News & Media will join our board of directors as an observer.

A few weeks ago when Paul Walborsky, CEO of GigaOM, came to the board and suggested that we should try and acquire paidContent, my fellow board members ? Jon Callaghan (True Ventures), Ammar Hanafi (Alloy Ventures) and Kevin Brown (Reed Elsevier Ventures) ? didn?t hesitate for a minute. The ethos of paidContent and our company are in sync. GigaOM?s core belief is that as connectivity becomes ubiquitous, it changes everything from society to business to we the people. paidContent from the very beginning has been built on the idea that connectedness is and will change media. It makes perfect sense for us to team up. Since then, Paul and his team worked tirelessly to make it happen.

OK, now you know what. Let me tell you why.

Now, why are we doing this deal, clearly the biggest of our five-and-a-half-year history? Two simple but equally powerful reasons ? the first and perhaps most important reason: people. I have been an admirer of paidContent?s editorial team from the very beginning of its journey. Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer were two of my favorite writers in the early days of professional blogging. And while Rafat (who is on our board of advisers) has moved on to new things, I am glad to have Staci join us. She has been instrumental in building ContentNext from the ground up, and in addition to writing, she has been building the company?s event business. I am thrilled to announce that she will remain the editor of paidContent.

Ernie Sander who spearheads the ContentNext editorial operations is the kind of veteran everyone on our team, including me, can learn from. And for that precise reason, Ernie is going to become the executive editor of our sprawling online editorial operations. Our managing editor, Nicole Solis, is being promoted to VP of Editorial Operations. And then there is the most awesome team of journalists ? Robert Andrews, Tom Krazit, Daniel Frankel, Laura Hazard Owen, Jeff Roberts and Amanda Natividad. In addition there are a wonderful group of technology, business and sales people who are joining our company. I welcome them all to our growing family and can?t wait to break bread with them in weeks to come.

Location, location, location

These fine folks are actually going to help bolster our presence in New York and help increase our footprint in Europe, a region of key strategic focus for GigaOM. (We will be hosting Structure:Europe in Amsterdam, October 16-17.) With this deal, we are really pleased that one of the most forward-looking media outlets around, Guardian News & Media, will become a shareholder in our business.

As you all know, I am (and will always be) a displaced New Yorker; New York City is my spiritual home. By increasing our footprint in the capital of the world, I would get a chance to go back more often. But it?s not an emotional tug that is driving us to this decision. New York is fast becoming a major technology hub, as Ryan Kim outlined in his recent post. And we want to expand our coverage to Boston ? thanks to Barb Darrow who joined us several months ago ? and the Washington DC corridor as well. paidContent?s New York City offices are now GigaOM East.

Media is the new Wild West

We are quite strategic about our acquisitions ? we acquire media entities only if we love the people and believe that we are at the starting phase of a trend. In 2008, we acquired jkOnTheRun as our tip of the hat to the growing demand for mobile devices and the changes it would bring into society. Later that year, we brought in The Apple Blog because we knew the best was yet to come for Apple. Both of those acquisitions have helped GigaOM cover the issues that matter most to our ultimate customers ? you, the reader ? in a smart, sensible fashion.

?The question that mass amateurization poses to traditional media is ?What happens when the costs of reproduction and distribution go away? What happens when there is nothing unique about publishing anymore because users can do it for themselves?? We are now starting to see that question being answered.?? Clay Shirky

Shirky?s observation means that we are in a time of chaos where the very idea of media is being questioned. And as a Chinese proverb says, from chaos emerges opportunity. I believe the best is yet to come for media.

Over the past few years we have started to see the transformation of media by new technologies, new methods of distribution and newer ways to consume information. Mathew Ingram has been writing about these disruptions on a regular basis, and now we are going to double down on what we think is a great new chapter in the media industry.

I have always believed that we?ve got to stop thinking of media as what it was and focus on more of what it could be. In the world of plenty, the only currency is attention and attention is what defines ?media.? Zynga is fighting Hollywood for attention (and winning). Instagram is taking moments away from other media. They have attention. There are old companies that are dying and new ones that are being invented. We?re eager to expand our coverage of social and digital media editorially, in our research and at our events. paidContent is the best chronicler of the media industry, and by blending their coverage with ours, we hope to watch this fast-changing industry ever more closely.

Please join me in welcoming the ContentNext team!

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Read The Full Article:
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/08/why-we-are-buying-paidcontent/

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