The Blue Microphones Yeti Pro is the described by blue as ‘the world’s first USB microphone combining 24-bit/192 kHz digital recording resolution with analog XLR output”.

At $250, it’s probably not going to be a first podcasting mic or mic for general recording. But, given its power and flexibility, the Yeti Pro is a great first ‘grown up mic’, when you’re ready for a microphone that offers professional features and audio quality.

The key features of the Yeti Pro are:

The first thing you’ll notice about the Yeti Pro is the mic’s weight and style. The Yeti Pro weighs a little over 3 pounds on its stand, so it feels extremely solid. Everything appears to be made of metal and features gorgeous finishes. Stylewise, the mic looks like it was inspired by vintage designs, but isn’t slavishly retro.

Controls for the Yeti Pro are intelligently placed:

The mic base has no-skid pads on the bottom and has enough weight to keep it firmly in place. There are two knobs on the stand that you can loosen to adjust the position of the microphone.

The necessary cables for using the Yeti Pro are provided, including a USB cable and a stereo XLR splitter.

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Dave Winer posted some interesting thoughts at Scripting.com today on the current state of television:

I read this piece on TechCrunch last week, in which a Samsung product manager says this about Apple and their TV.

“TVs are ultimately about picture quality.”

Okay. That marks Samsung as one of the pigs in an Angry Birds game. Like Kodak and Blackberry in years-gone-by.

I was watching the Knicks game on Time-Warner cable last night, and remembered why TV sucks, and it had nothing to do with picture quality. The picture quality was absolutely fantastic. If you had time-transported me from ten years ago to my couch last night I would have been blown away. HD is great. Unbelievable how beautiful it is. And the sound quality was great too. I have some very nice Polk Audio tower speakers, and a very powerful receiver driving them, connected optically to the set-top-box. Amazing audio experience.

Yet the whole overall experience sucked.

And that’s it, in a nutshell. People have known that Apple is working on an improved approach to television for years. Competitors have had the opportunity to make television work intelligently.

Yet most of us are still struggling with three remotes, every time we want to watch something. And no Internet integration. And no gaming or social media. No support for broadcasting your own channel from your home.

Apple just dropped the ‘Mac’ From OS X. There’s a reason for that.

Expect the next version of Apple TV to wreak havoc on the TV and broadcast industries, just as Apple has done with the PC industry, the MP3 player industry and the phone industry.

Blubrry has updated its PowerPress podcast publishing plugin for WordPress to version 3.0.

Features:

See the Blubrry site for details.

Avid today announced the release of its first video editing application for the iPad—Avid Studio, available immediately at the Apple App Store. In other words, Avid Studio is taking on iMovie on Apple’s turf.

Here’s what they have to say about Avid Studio:

Avid Studio for iPad allows users to begin editing with ease by offering access to any videos, photos and audio already in their iPad library, or media that can be imported from iTunes, cameras and more. Users can then arrange clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and enhance their movie creations with high-quality transitions, effects and a soundtrack. They can then share movies directly to YouTube, Facebook and more—or export projects to Avid Studio software, where they can continue editing with even more advanced tools on their PC. In addition, editing enthusiasts can get started fast with an easy-to-understand how-to guide, included with the app.

Unfortunately, users report that performance on the iPad 1  is terrible.

“With a 64GB wifi Ipad 1 with 40% free it crashes repeatedly and it would not render even the small size of a small test video,” notes an early user.

If you’ve given Avid Studio for the iPad a try, let us know what you think!

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Apple today announced an update to Final Cut Pro X that addresses some of the criticisms that many FC users had with the latest version.

Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 features:

Available today as a free update from the Mac App Storeâ„¢, Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 also includes a beta of broadcast monitoring that supports Thunderbolt devices as well as PCIe cards.

Apple notes:

In the seven months since launch, the third party ecosystem around Final Cut Pro X has expanded dramatically.

XML-compatible software like DaVinci Resolve and CatDV provide tight integration for tasks such as color correction and media management. The new 7toX app from Intelligent Assistance uses XML to import Final Cut Pro 7 projects into Final Cut Pro X. In addition, some of the industry’s largest visual effects developers, including GenArts and Red Giant, have developed motion graphics plug-ins that take advantage of the speed and real-time preview capabilities of Final Cut Pro X.

Broadcast monitoring in Final Cut Pro X is currently in beta and allows you to connect to waveform displays, vectorscopes, and calibrated, high-quality monitors to ensure that your project meets broadcast specifications. Final Cut Pro X supports monitoring of video and audio through Thunderbolt I/O devices, as well as through third party PCIe cards.

TASCAM has released a new free app for iOS, TASCAM PCM Recorder, that is a free stereo recorder for iOS devices.

It works on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

PCM Recorder supports up to 12 hours of recording, using the built-in microphone or connected USB devices like the TASCAM iM2 stereo microphone.

Other features include EQ, limiting, Soundcloud support and more.

PCM Recorder is a free download via the App Store.

Tascam has introduced the iM2  – microphone adapter that turns an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a high-quality stereo recorder.

The microphones are adjustable over 180 degrees for optimal sound placement. The iM2 contains its own microphone preamp and analog-to-digital converter for low noise and premium audio quality.

Features:

Pricing & Availability:

The iM2 Stereo Microphone is available now for US $79.

Fostex has released an interesting bit of gear – the AR-4i audio interface dock for the iPhone 4.

The Fostex AR-4i is a docking interface that connects to the iPhone dock connector, adding stereo microphone inputs with AD converters, to improve on the audio quality of iPhone 4 for video recording, live streaming and recording podcasts.

Here’s an overview of the AR-4i:

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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!

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Here’s a quick comparison of the video quality of the iPhone 4s vs a Canon 5D MKII:

Here’s a “fair” test between the iPhone 4S and the Canon 5D MK II. I made a little rig that allowed me to shoot both cameras at the same time side by side. All scenes are perfectly synced together so you can pause and scrutinize the frames! See photo of the makeshift rig in the photo area.

Exposure, shutter speed, frame rate and picture style were matched as close as possible between the two cameras.

This test shows that the tiny F2.4 lens and sensor on the iPhone are pretty nice. It even got a little depth of field!

I did not overlay the exact ISO and Stops 5D settings per shot. It was too much to keep track for this simple test. To be fair I matched 5D exposure to the iPhone so no “Cinestyle” / 24p here.

Technical details below.

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