09/19, 7:30pm
Does not yet support all cameras Evo 3 did
As mentioned last week, Evological has completely re-written and re-designed EvoCam 4 to be a modern all-Cocoa application, now requiring Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. The webcam software now features H.264 video with AAC audio, as well as RTSP-over-HTTP and HTTP live streaming using HTML5, allowing EvoCam broadcasts to be viewed on mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad without the need to install a viewer app. The program can also be used to set up networked cameras.
more
05/02, 1:00pm
Attributed to mics, accelerometers, gyroscopes
Apple has become the second largest buyer of MEMS (microelectromechanical system) sensors in the world, claims research firm iSuppli. During 2010 the company bought approximately $195 million worth of MEMS sensors, a 116.7 percent increase over the $90 million spent in 2009. The new figure puts Apple ahead of Nintendo, which slipped 11.5 percent from 2009 to $123 million, and just $5 million shy of Samsung, which grew 46 percent to $200 million.
more
08/13, 3:25pm
BBC upgrades to H.264, AAC
Later this week, the BBC will update its iPlayer streaming service with H.264 and AAC+ compression schemes, the UK broadcaster has announced. The move is aimed at supporting open standards, and additionally improving steaming quality, jumping bitrates from 500 to 800Kbps, according to Macworld. The compression schemes will offer improved visuals and sound for users streaming over Flash, currently the only way to access the BBC's media on a Mac. The network has already been broadcasting in non-Flash H.264 and AAC for its iPhone and iPod touch streams.
more
03/11, 5:50pm
Puretracks music
Puretracks, with labels Universal, Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, and various independents under its belt, is offering a new DRM-free mobile music store and service for BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM). As the latest company to take a stab at Apple's music download dominance, the new music service competes directly with Apple's WiFi iTunes store for the iPhone and iPod Touch and will work with the BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8800 series smartphones. Using compressed DRM-free AAC/AAC+ file formats, Puretracks Mobile Edition will be unveiled March 12 at the South By Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin, Texas. A full version of the mobile music service is expected to launch at CTIA Wireless April 1.
more
01/31, 6:15pm
AAC, hierarchy patents
The US Patent and Trademark Office today published 11 of Apple's patent applications. Among the 11, a patent regarding AAC audio bit allocation, as well as one pertaining to hierarchical menus stand out. Apple has presented a concept for perceptual audio encoding, a bit allocation technique that is designed to reduce the size of a file by finding a perfect balance of quality versus compression. While Apple is developing the process to apply it to AAC, it could also be applied to MP3, AC-3, and WMA media formats.
more
