🔗 Rogue Amoeba’s 15th Anniversary Sale

EVERYONE! Seriously check out the deal below. Rogue Amoeba makes some very creative and productive Mac apps for audio. I use Audio Hijack daily to record apps and produce my podcast. All of their apps are on sale until the end of the month.

Rogue Amoeba’s 15th Anniversary Sale:

We’re always eager to help even more people with their audio needs, so to celebrate our 15th anniversary, we’re offering a rare and very limited-time sale. Through the end of September, we’re offering discounts on every product we make.

So just how big is this sale? We started by lowering the price of all of our products by 15%, to match the 15 years we’ve been in business. We didn’t stop there, however. We’re also offering the chance to boost those savings by 1.33x, 1.67x, 2x, 3x, or even 4x. A few lucky users will save as much as 60% off our everyday low prices.

Providing a great deal on our apps is one small way we can thank our existing customers for all their support, and to help new users with our tools as well. We don’t discount our software often, but right now, everyone can save on every purchase from Rogue Amoeba.

🎙 New podcast episode - Updating to iOS 11 (featuring the hosts of the Music Education Technology Podcast)

The latest episode of my podcast is up and its all about iOS 11. The episode features two very special guests (who have each been on the show before). Chris Russell and Paul Shimmons, (co-hosts of the Music Education Technology Podcast) join me to discuss all of the new features and how we are using them.

Click here to listen to the episode.

🔗 macOS High Sierra is out! Make sure you know which notation software is compatible!

The Scoring Notes blog is keeping track of High Sierra compatibility updates for all the major notation editors…

Music notation software and macOS High Sierra:

Today Apple is releasing macOS High Sierra (10.13), the newest iteration of its Mac operating system. High Sierra’s most significant change is its use of a new file system, Apple File System (APFS), for computers with all-flash storage. High Sierra brings a number of other new features, too, but on this blog we’ll focus on its compatibility with desktop music notation software: Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, and MuseScore.

iOS 11 and watchOS 4 come out today!

Today, iOS 11 for iPhone and iPad will release alongside watchOS 4.

iOS 11 brings a lot of new features that you are going to love. Specifically, the iPad gets a ton of new productivity features including drag and drop, better multitasking, a Files app, and new notes features. I have been running the beta of this software on my iPhone and iPad since July. While they are not the most stable of recent iOS updates, I think they are solid enough to download on day one if you want to take advantage of the new features.

Stay tuned here as I will be doing some writing on how to take advantage of the new iPad features of iOS 11 in the coming weeks.

Reflections on the iPhone X Apple Event

On Tuesday, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple TV 4K, iPhone 8, and iPhone X. 

Here are some quick takeaways from the event…

Apple Watch

In my opinion, this was the best part of the presentation. Definitely selling my Nike Series 2 to buy this. Can’t wait to have full access to my notifications and Apple Music while on the run. Combine this with AirPods in my ears and I can walk out of my house with nothing in my pockets, remain fully connected if I wish, work out, run errands, and even make purchases with Apple Pay.

Apple TV 4K

Disappointing. Well, sort of. I was hoping for some more software updates, but it is cool that they are upgrading everyone’s existing iTunes TV and Movies to 4K for free.

The highlight of this part of the presentation was definitely the demo of the game Sky. These are the developers behind two of my favorite games of all time: Flower, and Journey. There games are simple, elegant, profound, and insanely accessible to the non-gaming public. I can’t wait to see what they do with such a straightforward platform as the Apple TV. 

iPhone 8

Nicely done story here. Apple needed to make the iPhone 8 seem like a compelling update to the 7 so that people would buy it in volume, making their shipment of the iPhone X more manageable. iPhone X is rumored to be highly supply constrained. I think Apple did the best job they could at telling this story. But unfortunately, I don’t think it was good enough to keep most people from waiting for the X. If there was no X, I totally would buy this phone though. The new glass back looks slick! 

iPhone X

Because 7 ate 9? Not crazy about the name. iPhone Pro would have been better. Who cares. I am buying this phone.

AirPower

This looks really cool. Seems like something that could have existed before now. But what do I know?

🎙 The Season Finale Of My Podcast On Digital Organization for Music Teachers Is Out

The epic conclusion of season two of Robby Burns + Friends has come! Thank to all who listened to and participated in this season all about my book, Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers. The book was released one year ago this month. I have had an absolute blast interviewing music educators all year long on topics relating to organization and technology in the music classroom. Be sure to check out all of the other episodes in this series. 

This week Craig McClellan, of The Class Nerd, joins the show to talk abut automation and advanced workflows. We will save you 1,000s of clicks! You can listen to the episode here.

Getting pumped up for Apple’s iPhone Event tomorrow

Apple is having their iPhone event tomorrow. You can tune in here tomorrow at 10 am PDT to watch the keynote live.

Apple is expected to announce three new iPhones tomorrow, including one premium priced model at the top end that will be seriously supply constrained for months after release. An LTE Apple Watch and 4K Apple TV are also expected. This will be exciting for me as I might be interested in all of these devices. 

I almost always get more excited about software than I do hardware when it comes to Apple. I am hoping that we will see some neat software that has not been demonstrated at previous events, perhaps relating to new hardware. For example, if the rumored new high end iPhone with the all-screen front is announced, I would love to see how Apple is going to redesign the OS to deal with the extra space on the bottom of the screen where the home button will have previously existed.  I would also love to see Apple address TV content deals with tvOS and the Apple TV. Wildcard dream wish: maybe if an LTE Apple Watch is shown off, Apple will announce a podcast app for the new model. I can dream, right?

🎙 New podcast episode: Misc. Productivity Apps and Utilities with Dr. Ken Elpus

Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Maryland College Park, Dr. Ken Elpus, joins my podcast this week to discuss the apps he uses to tackle the many different dimensions of his busy job.

Click here to listen.

🔗 Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom: FAQ | Music, Education & Technology -MusTech.Net:

Amy Burns does some great writing for mustech.net. She is writing to the elementary general music classroom in the blog post linked below, but I think her tips and strategies will resonate with music teachers of every variety. Be sure to check out her blog and subscribe!

Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom: FAQ | Music, Education & Technology -MusTech.Net:

This question is excellent and is asked often. When I was performing research for a keynote address I gave recently titled, “How Technology is Transforming the Way We Teach Elementary General Music Classes”, I directly addressed this question. When reading numerous Facebook music education boards, there is a divide on this topic. Music educators will comment on how technology can enhance certain activities like composition and music making for those who have limited abilities. Others will state that their music classroom is a “screen free” zone because students need a break from screens. While others are expected to utilize technology to address 21st century skills or their schools have become 1:1 (one device per student).

🔗 Noteflight Learn Now Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn offers direct Google Classroom integration! All student and teacher logins, classes, and assignments are seamlessly integrated, offering several advantages:

• Google login is automatically synced; simply login to Noteflight Learn using Google.

• Individual classes, schools, or entire districts can integrate with a single Noteflight Learn site.

• Google Classroom classes are mirrored as Noteflight Learn Groups, so sharing scores and assignments with classes is easy.

• Noteflight can create assignments in Google Classroom and students can turn in or mark as done from their Noteflight score.

This new integration looks fantastic! The list of reasons to subscribe to Noteflight just keeps getting longer and longer.