GeekSugar

Up Close With Garageband's Learn to Play Feature

GeekSugar — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:03:09 -0800

San Francisco is alive with the sounds of Macworld, and the new learn to play feature for Garageband wants to add even more beautiful music. Check out my quick video of it, with the lovely Sara Bareilles giving a piano lesson.

I for one, cannot wait to get my hands on this; I've got a 10-year-old guitar sitting unplayed in my closet. I just need a little Apple prodding, and I'll be giving it my all!

Live From Macworld: The New iLife and iWork

GeekSugar — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:00:55 -0800

Apple's Macworld announcements keep rollin' in! Continuing with my earlier coverage, I'm picking up with Phil Schiller's keynote, centering around iLife; so far he's mentioned that new features of iPhoto and iMovie, and now he's moving on to Garageband.

Garageband can now teach you to play an instrument! With the "Learn to play" feature, you can get lessons from artists like Sting and Fall Out Boy on the piano or guitar.

The new iLife is supposed to be available later this month, and ships free on all Macs, but for upgrades will be $79, or $99 for a family pack that can be used on five computers.

To hear about Schiller's other announcements for Mac, read more.

iWork '09 is also boasting some new impressive features, if you use your Mac for presentations at work. iWork's Keynote feature will provide themes and organize your slides for you, and you can use your iPhone as a remote to change your slides with the Keynote Remote app for the iPhone (just 99 cents).

Next, Pages and Numbers - the Mac equivalent to Excel and Word, respectively, have an amazing amount of new and beautiful templates, and work together so you can link tables you make in Numbers with docs you make in Pages.

iWork, ready to ship today, is $79 or $99 for a family pack, or $49 if you're buying a new Mac and want to add it in. Since iWork and iLife must use Leopard, Apple is providing a bundle of iWork, iLife, and Leopard called Mac Box Set for $169, available later this month.

Schiller also says that Apple is working on iWork.com (still in beta), which will allow you to share documents online, but edit them offline. iWork.com will be fee based when it launches, but free to sign up for the beta.

Source

How To: Create Custom Ringtones with Garageband

GeekSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:10:30 -0700

Although I've showed you several ways to make your own ringtones previously using some pretty cool applications, and you can make almost any song a ringtone in iTunes for a fee, why not use some of the music you already have and create custom ringtones on the fly? This is especially for you Mac users, since it uses the apps you already have stocked in your machine. All you need is the latest version of Garageband (4.1.1), iTunes (7.5 or later), and some music, and you're good to go! Check out my slideshow for a step by step guide to making your own ringtones. . . for free!

View Slideshow ›

Daily Tech: Google Sync Comes to the iPhone and Windows Phones

GeekSugar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:05:11 -0700

Google Sync with push Gmail functionality can now be used on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Windows Mobile devices. - Google Mobile Blog
To compete with Google Docs, Microsoft will soon be launching Office Web Apps - USA Today
Louis Vuitton has just released laptop sleeves with their classic damier canvas design - Chip Chick
Here's how you can use GarageBand to autotune your voice to sound like T-Pain - Download Squad
Amazon is selling AT&T phones for only one cent today, and it'll even waive the activation fee - The Boy Genius Report
It's giveaway and game time on GeekSugar! Be sure to log in and play our Best Video Game ever bracket! - GeekSugar

Expect iLife '09 to Ship Tomorrow

GeekSugar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:50:54 -0800

For those of you who placed orders for Apple's iLife '09, which offers a new iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWeb, your new little software suite will be shipped out tomorrow.

Don't you just love it when Apple builds up our excitement for a product, and then we have to wait weeks - sometimes months - for a product? Ah well, iLife '09 is finally here.

Macworld '09 Roundup

GeekSugar — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:03:50 -0800

If you were one of the lucky ones who was still on holidays this past week, Macworld 2009 has already come and gone. I must admit, it just wasn't the same this year without Steve Jobs, but thankfully there were some interesting announcements to feed our Apple addictions. Want to find out what they were? Check out the headlines below!

iPhoto and iMovie '09	iLife and iWork '09	GarageBand '09
The 17-Inch MacBook Pro	What Macworld Is Like For a Girl	Sexy Trexta iPhone and Laptop Accessories

Download Music Legally

GeekSugar — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:18:10 -0800

We all know we can download high-quality music from Apple's iTunes Store, but there are a few great websites where you can download MP3s free of charge. The best part is, these sites guarantee that you are not breaking any laws and often showcase artists you won't hear on the Top 100.

eMusic.com: This is a paid MP3 download service that allows 25 free downloads. I'm not suggesting you take advantage of the system, but eMusic offers an opportunity to check out independent artists and a selection of 20,000 full albums you might not find on iTunes.

3hive.com: Offers a blog listing of free MP3 songs that have been released by record artists and labels to entice listeners to make full-album purchases. This is a great site for sampling new music you probably won't hear on the radio.

Amazon.com Free Music Downloads: If you haven't checked out the Amazon downloads before, you'll be shocked by the mix of artists, available for free in MP3 format. The site also offers musicians the ability to upload and share their songs.

For more free download sites, just read more

Epitonic.com: More than 400 independent labels representing a dazzlngly diverse array of artists and styles have partnered with Epitonic to deliver free digital music downloads in MP3 format from up-and-coming indie artists. Also features biographical information about artists so you can get to know them.

Garageband.com: Though this site has nothing to do with Apple’s music application which touts the same name, Garageband.com offers popularity charts of independent music, and promotes more than 125,000 bands.

geeksugar note: This is the first in a series of pieces about places you can download music and videos. Stay tuned for more sites, and share your favorites in the comment section below.