Native Instruments introduced ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER, a new KONTAKT instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s. The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era, which was necessary to compete with the electrified instruments gaining popularity at the time. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s DRUMMER also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s. ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER is available at the NI Online Shop for $99 US / 99 EUR. [source]

The new Kinect sensor that will be delivered as part of Microsoft Xbox One later this year, will be followed by a new generation of Kinect for Windows next year, announced Bob Heddle, director of Kinect for Windows on the Kinect for Windows blog. The new Kinect will include a high-definition color camera as well as a new noise-isolating multi-microphone array, Microsoft's proprietary Time-of-Flight technology, expanded field of view, improved skeletal tracking, and new active-IR capabilities. More here. [source]

Autodesk announced Extension 1 for its professional video editing software for the Mac, Smoke 2013. It is expected to be available beginning May 29, 2013, and will feature numerous enhancements to help improve functionality, add flexibility as well as increase speed. The Smoke 2013 Extension 1 release will introduce support for Blackmagic video IO devices, including DeckLink (PCIe video boards), UltraStudio (Thunderbolt boxes) and the Intensity product lines. The Extension 1 will also add new Trim View and new dynamic trimming tools for faster editing; support for SonyRAW footage from Sony F5 and F55 cameras; improved performance in MediaHub when navigating large data sets; or better 3D compositing performance in Action when working with 3D objects, shaders and textures. Autodesk Smoke 2013 Extension 1 will be available to Autodesk Subscription customers. New customers can purchase a standalone Smoke license for $3,495 US with an additional $675 US for Subscription. [source]

Apple announced that customers have downloaded over 50 billion apps from the Apple App Store. Customers are downloading more than 800 apps per second at a rate of over two billion apps per month on the App Store. The 50 billionth app was Say the Same Thing by Space Inch, LLC. The App Store opened in July 2008 with 500 apps. Since its introduction, Apple's developer community has created an app for doing almost everything imaginable on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch - the App Store now offers more than 850,000 iOS apps in 155 countries around the world, with more than 350,000 native iPad apps available. [source]

Wacom announced Bamboo Loop, a new app for iPhone and iPod Touch. It combines principles of photo sharing and messaging in a unique way: digital, paper-like photocards are sent ("looped") to friends, family members and close colleagues. Unlike many apps in which a photo is added separately to a text message, in Bamboo Loop photos take centre stage and can be illustrated and personalised with the built-in editing tools. Sketch, scribble or write on the photo with the finger or a Bamboo Stylus (e.g. the Bamboo Stylus mini that can be attached to the jack of the iPhone), loop it back to the creator, send it on to someone new or share it with social networks. The app currently runs on iOS 5 and higher, and supports iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPod Touch 4, and iPod Touch 5. [source]

RE:Vision Effects announced the initial release of RE:Match for 64-bit versions of The Foundry's Nuke (5.0 or later) and eyeon Fusion (5.2 and up). RE:Match takes intuitive color and texture matching to a whole new level by addressing common problems on multicam and stereo shoots. RE:Match is a set of plug-ins to match one view of video or film to another so that it looks as if it was shot with the same camera and settings. RE:Match assumes that both image sequences are taken roughly at the same location but perhaps were not shot at the same time or from the same point-of-view. RE:Match for OpenFX hosts Nuke and Fusion, is priced at $395 US, floating licenses are $592.50 US. Volume discounts available. [source]

EditShare, makers of the professional non-linear video editor Lightworks, announced the availability of Field 2, its next-generation portable shared storage solution with integrated asset management. The turnkey platform includes file ingest, advanced project sharing/bin locking, and archiving capabilities in an all-in-one, high-performance and rugged chassis. Ideal for on-location shoots, ENG trucks and remote offices, the new Field 2 is durable, light and compact, meeting the most stringent airline carry-on regulations. With an optional integrated Flow SDI ingest card, users can record up to two channels of HD in industry-standard codecs such as XDCAM-EX35, Avid DNxHD and DVCProHD. Flow's edit-while-capture capability lets users start editing the moment they begin recording. With an optional lightweight expansion unit, a single Field 2 configuration can scale to 32 terabytes. And using the integrated EditShare Sync Tool, users can send data from a remote location back to home base over a simple Internet VPN connection. [source]

Steinberg announced the availability of the Cubase 7.0.4/Cubase Artist 7.0.4 maintenance updates. This fully supported update adds over 20 improvements such as enhanced visibility in MixConsole, new MIDI functions and Chord Track improvements and resolves more than 45 user-reported issues. The update is now available for download from the Steinberg website. [source]

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 15 - 26th, will open with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D film was cut by award-winning editors Jason Ballantine ASE and Matt Villa ASE on Avid Media Composer. "During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA," explained Matt Villa, co-editor of The Great Gatsby. "We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done." [source]

Waves Audio announced the availability of its new GEQ graphic equalizer plug-in. Developed primarily for live users, Waves GEQ is a full-featured graphic equalizer plug-in with both Classic and Modern mono and stereo components, featuring 30 ISO bands plus high and low pass filters, a high precision floating parametric EQ bell filter, and a real-time analyzer. GEQ Classic components use traditional proportional Q filters inspired by the renowned DN series 1/3 octave equalizers, which narrow the filter width as you increase a band's gain; GEQ Modern components utilize special Flat-Top filters, which eliminate the artifacts associated with band interaction, and provide perfect plateau and stair-stepped responses. Users can set band gains one-by-one, or draw their curve via touch-screen or mouse. Finally, GEQ's integrated real-time analyzer lets users compare the difference between two sources (more in this video). The GEQ is now available with a U.S. MSRP of $200, with a special introductory price of $99 US. [source]