Apple today released GarageBand 1.1, an update that adds Universal support – bringing GarageBand to the iPhone and iPod touch.

GarageBand has become one of the most popular platforms for audio podcasting and support for the full line of iOS devices will be welcome for many podcasters.

The $5 app now makes your iPhone or iPod touch into a powerful 8-track podcasting workstation. With a decent mic, there’s no reason you couldn’t make complete podcasts with it. But most users will probably use GarageBand on the iPhone as a portable audio recorder, sync to GarageBand on the desktop and then edit there.

Missing in action is iCloud support, which would be a killer feature for podcasters. Let’s hope that iCloud syncing shows up in version 1.2!

Here’s what’s new in GarageBand 1.1 for iOS:

• Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a demo of the Makayama Movie Mount For iPad 2 – a unique (and slighly bizarre) hardware accessory designed to improve movies made on the iPad 2. The Movie Mount lets you use tele- and wide angle conversion lenses, use a tripod, attach microphones and lights.

Features:

• Attached a tripod for stable shots, pan & tilt camera movements.
• Use 37 mm conversion lenses, such as wide angle, tele and fisheye.
• Slide on-the-fly between the built-in lens and the conversion lens.
• Use shotgun microphones for better sound (requires splitter cable).
• Use an optical viewfinder to shoot in bright sunlight
• Use a video light for better performance in low light
• Easier iMovie editing, with a 9 degrees working angle.
• The mount allows your iPad to stand upright and be used as monitor.
• The complimentary iPad app allows you to lock exposure and whitebalans
• The app also displays realtime audio and battery level.

The Movie Mount is priced at $ 69.95 / EUR 49.95. Details are available at Makayama.com.

Cinemek has introduced Storyboard Composer HD, a storyboarding app for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Create compelling real time pre-visualizations and storyboards of your ideas on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch with Storyboard Composer HD. Storyboard Composer HD is the world’s first mobile storyboarding app which allows you to storyboard where you need to when you need to. Simply take a photo, drop in characters, add camera or scene direction, then play the project back in real time.

This version of Storyboard Composer allows you to share your .CSC file with other users who own Storyboard Composer as well as Organize your scenes more efficiently.

Features in Storyboard Composer HD:

• Multi view option when iPad is turned vertical.
• Scenes can now be organized in scene view.
• Users can exchange .CSC files between devices and to other users.
• sers can now add their own logo to be displayed on PDF’s.
• QuickView thumbnail preview.

Storyboard Composer HD is currently $4.99 in the App Store.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is an interesting download for iOS users - iMotion HD, a free time-lapse & stop-motion app for iOS.

Features:

• HD 720p capture and export
• Universal binaries iPhone / iPad / iPodTouch
• 4 capture modes (time-lapse, manual, wifi remoted*, microphone)
• Portrait and landscape orientations supported
• Useful capture tools (Onion skin, Grid, Manual Focus*, …)
• Video and photo exports: Photo Library, iTunes Sharing Folder and Email (in app upgrade)
• YouTube direct upload
• iMotion Gallery sharing
• Quick and smooth interface
• Autosave and direct preview
• Unlimited movie size
• Retina Display
• Multi-tasking

iMotion HD works with all iOS devices with camera:

• iPad 2,
• iPhone 4,
• Phone 3GS,
• iPhone 3G
• iPodtouch 4th generation

If that’s not cool enough for you, a free WiFi remote app, iMotion Remote, is also available that lets you preview and control iMotion HD.

Note: I hesitate to call this a free app because one of the most important features, exporting, is a $1.99 paid in-app upgrade.  :(

Click here to view the embedded video.

Back when the iPad was introduced, we asked “Where is the PageMaker of iBooks?”

Tablets are fantastic new platform, with incredible potential for revolutionizing publishing. But there have not been, so far, tools that bring multimedia publishing for tablets to everyone.

Wired has a post today about Push Pop Press – a new digital publishing platform that’s promises to change that.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Using Push Pop Press authors can weave together text, images, audio, video and interactive graphics into immersive multi-touch interactive books, without dealing with the complexities and costs normally involved in software development.

Push Pop Press is currently in private beta being used to build more amazing titles.

The first title published with this tool is Al Gore’s Our Choice, demo’d above.

Features of Push Pop Press:

• Easy to Publish - Layout and publish interactive digital books without writing code
• Mixed Media - Tell rich stories using text, images, audio, video, maps and interactive graphics
• Interactive Graphics - Embed interactive graphics that use the microphone, accelerometer and more
• Multi-Touch User Interface - Edge-to-edge content without any distracting toolbars or buttons
• Visual Table of Contents - Browse through hundreds of pages quickly and easily
• Pages Load Instantly - Pages load as fast as your finger can swipe
• Start Reading Immediately - Start reading the first chapter as the rest of the book downloads in the background
• Updatable Content - Update your content without having to update the app
• iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch - Publish one universal app that can be read on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

The initial buzz on this is going to focus on Al Gore’s book. But for people interested in new media publishing, the underlying publishing platform is the real story.

Details have not been announced yet . But if the platform actually does what the company promises and they get the price around the range of InDesign or Quark XPress, Push Pop Press promises to be huge.

Apple has released an update to Garageband for Mac, version 6.02, that improves overall stability and addresses a number of minor issues.

Though Apple isn’t hyping this update, it’ could be an important one for Mac-based iPad users.

The release brings support for opening projects imported from GarageBand for iPad – so you can start a recording on an iPad and bring it over to a Mac for further work in GarageBand or even Logic.

The workflow is currently one-way from iPad to Mac.

This update is recommended for all GarageBand ’11 users.

Apple today announced the iPad 2 and iMovie, a $500 mobile HD video studio combination.

iPad 2 features a new design that is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad, offers Apple’s dual-core A5 processor and includes two cameras, a front-facing VGA camera for FaceTime and Photo Booth, and a rear-facing camera that captures 720p HD video.

Apple says that the iPad 2 still delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.

The also introduced a new version of iMovie that will run on the iPad 2 that offers deeper editing options, multi-track audio, support for YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo, AirPlay streaming to Apple TV, hardware video out and project sharing through iTunes.

The combination of more powerful mobile hardware and deeper video editing capabilities mean that a lot of people will be able to do their video editing for video podcasts and social media sites on the iPad.

Apple today introduced GarageBand for the iPad - a version of the company’s entry-level digital audio workstation, optimized for multi-touch mobile music making.

GarageBand for the iPad could be a great new option for mobile audio podcasting – turning your tablet into a mobile recording studio for $5.

Features:

• Musical instruments designed for Multi-Touch.
• 70 synth presets
• Arpeggiator
• “Smart instrument” features
• 8-track recording
• Guitar amp simulator
• Stomp box effects
• Track sharing via email or iTunes
• Tracks can be opened in GarageBand on the Mac

The iPad version of GarageBand will be available starting March 11th.

GarageBand for the iPad will work with the existing iPad – but it will be interesting to see how performance fares.

What do you think of Apple’s iPad GarageBand announcement?

More coverage at TechCrunch, AppleInsider

Apple’s iOS app review process has long been the source of criticism: It’s too slow, it’s too arbitrary or it’s biased.

Unfortunate news about the Android platform, though, suggests that maybe Apple’s app review process may not be so heinous after all.

Android Police reports that 21 popular free apps for Android phones, apps that have been downloaded 50-200k times in the last 4 days, are actually malware that will root your phone, steal your private data and open a backdoor to your system.

Android Police’s Aaron Gingrich notes:

It does indeed root the user’s device via rageagainstthecage or exploid.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg: it does more than just yank IMEI and IMSI. There’s another APK hidden inside the code, and it steals nearly everything it can: product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID.

But that’s all child’s play; the true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download more code. In other words, there’s no way to know what the app does after it’s installed, and the possibilities are nearly endless.

The fact that over 50,000 users got their phones rooted is horrible; the fact that this was predictable and the tip of the iceberg if nothing changes, even worse.

If you’ve downloaded one of the malware apps, the recommended solution is to stop using your phone and to ask your carrier to exchange it for a new device.

Does this incident make you reconsider the pros and cons of Apple’s app review process?

Publishers of The Daily – the major new new app for the Apple iPad – have published a mea culpa at their blog, admitting that their app is buggy and saying that they are working on improving it:

We’ve had massive uptake since Wednesday’s launch, and with that kind of audience scale in such a short period of time, we’ve seen some stability issues and bugs that need to be addressed. We’re working as quickly as we can to find these problems and fix them. The beauty of the application ecosystem is that we can constantly iterate on and improve our product, and we’re aiming to put out an update within the coming weeks.

We value feedback and would like to thank our readers for what we’ve received to date. Our goal is to push this medium to its limits, experiment with new forms of content, and deliver a product that seamlessly balances great content with new technology. We want The Daily to be unlike anything else out there: intuitive, informative, entertaining, reliable and easy to use.

We’re on our way, and without your continued feedback we won’t get there. Keep it coming. We are addressing the technical issues that we’ve seen and we want you, our readers, to know that this is a major priority for us.

Thanks,

The Daily team

While the publishers acknowledge bugginess of their news app, though, they don’t discuss the core problem of The Daily: the app prioritizes magazine-style page layout over speed.

And is any font worth waiting 60 seconds for?

The Ugly Side Of Attractive Design

The Daily manages to make the iPad, which otherwise feels pretty zippy, feel sluggish.

Starting The Daily app is extremely slow – 60 second plus slow. Slow enough that you want to do something else while it loads.

Once it loads, scrolling through stories, in a ‘Cover Flow’ style interface,  is jerky. Gratuitous headline animation and messages to “Turn To See Story” make actually reading the news feel slower than it should be.

Any you can’t quickly skim it and then focus on what you’re interested in.

What The Daily is trying to do – bring gorgeous multimedia to your daily newsreading – is an obvious trend for new media. But the publishers seem to have let attractive design get in the way of useful design.

What do you think of The Daily? Do you think they can tweak the app to make it work – or do they need to start from scratch?

More at TUAW, Daring Fireball