July 3 - 12:50am EDT   Microsoft is attempting to convince Australian users to use its Live search engine by offering products from industry competitor Apple as bait through a local venture with the Nine Network, Ninemsn. The Brisbane Times reveals that the software giant is offering the iPod nano, Shuffle, and Touch to users who perform searches through Ninemsn. Ninemsn head Alex Parsons said that it would have run the contest using the Zune, but the Microsoft-made player does not currently sell in Australia. [full story]

April 2 - 11:50pm EDT   Ableton today unveiled Live 7 LE, a major update to its simplified music creation tool that adds many new features and enhancements. Ableton Live 7 LE adds studio-quality recording at up to 32-bits with 192 kHz quality, and supports 64 concurrent audio tracks, as well as unlimited MIDI tracks and powerful sequencers. The update also introduces 20 effects, including delays, filters, and others. Ableton Live 7 LE is available for $150 as a download, while the boxed version costs $200. [full story]

March 26 - 8:40pm EDT   Mien Software has released MediaEdit 3 for the Mac, a consumer-level video editing tool, which edits virtually all QuickTime readable formats and supports unlimited layers. The new release adds support for nlimited media layers can add video, audio and text and uses non-destructive editing. I talso sports multiple levels of undo, live previews and background rendering and can capture video and audio. MediaEdit 3 has a timeline, can resize and position clip display region and comes with standard effects, filters and transitions. Completed videos can be exported to QuickTime, DV, MPEG-4 and to the web. [full story]

February 26 - 6:45pm EST   Some users of Microsoft's "Live" services have reported difficulties trying to sign in with their Windows Live IDs. According to The Associated Press the problem is affecting many services, such as the Xbox Live community, as well as the Windows Live Messenger application. The issue is not comprehensive, as some users are able to sign in to the services without an issue. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem, but did not mention when a fix would be available. [full story]

February 12 - 8:55pm EST   Apple is hosting a series of concerts for Londoners at AIR Studios starting February 21st, featuring artists such as KT Tunstall, José González, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and many more. Rather than purchasing tickets, those interested in seeing any of the 25-plus artists must win the tickets through a free draw in order to attend the events. The event, called iTunes Live: London Sessions, will span over 11 nights, with each night featuring two to four performance artists. [full story]

January 15 - 11:10am EST   MacNN is offering live coverage of Apple's keynote address at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Company CEO Steve Jobs historically unveils new products during the keynote address, and today industry analysts suspect the executive will debut a brand new ultra-portable MacBook with flash-based storage. Jobs may also introduce the iPhone to Canadian customers, and is rumored to have struck deals with major Hollywood studios for iTunes movie rentals. [full story]

December 14 - 1:25pm EST   Apple has released QuickTime Broadcaster 1.5.2, an application combining the power of QuickTime with Apple's ease of use that allows average users to produce a live broadcast event. The update offers H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10 video) live broadcasting, as well as 3G streaming support for sending live broadcasts to multimedia-enabled cellular phones. QuickTime Broadcaster 1.5.2 requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later. [full story]

November 29 - 12:00pm EST   Ableton today released Ableton Live 7, several new add-on instruments, and Ableton Suite. Ableton Live 7 enhances the audio engine to improve fidelity with 64-bit mix summing, POW-r dithering, optimized sample-rate conversion, and more. A new compressor device integrates three compression models, one of which is based on a feedback design commonly found in the most most praised vintage compressors, according to Ableton. Ableton 7 is priced at $500, and new add-on instruments are available for $160 each. The Ableton Suite is priced at $800. [full story]