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Freeverse Software and Felt Tip Software have announced Sound Studio 3, a significant upgrade to one of my favorite Mac audio programs. Sure, you can use GarageBand to edit audio, but Sound Studio is far more lightweight. While it doesn’t support multi-track audio, sometimes you simply don’t need all that to do audio editing. For example, creating a 30-second clip of an MP3 for a podcast while fading the beginning and end, is a simple task with Sound Studio. It can juggle AIFF, AAC, MP3, WAV, and SD2 formats as necessary, and is also AppleScript-ready through Automator. For doing quick audio edits, Sound Studio is my main application, and I’m eagerly awaiting the new upgrade, due out later this month.

From MacMegasite:

ChaosKnight has released a very nice port of Basilisk II for the PSP, called Basilisk II PSP. Basilisk II is an open-source 68k Macintosh emulator which will run systems 7.5.5 through 7.6.1 to be the easiest to run. Like the port of Bochs x86 emulator, Basilisk has the same principle. Simply put, the emulator reboots in the correct PSP folder (the one without the % sign.) The files included are Macintosh 7.5.5, which can be downloaded from apple.com as well. You will need to supply your own LEGAL copy of mac.rom for this to work.

If PSP’s weren’t so darn expensive, I would be hacking up one of them right now (Yoshi did a noteworthy WiFi antenna hack). I guess it’s all relative to how badly I want to hack new game hardware… Just wait until the Xbox 360 comes out. I’m sure I’ll be modding it within two weeks of the release. Xbox hacking allows far more room, whereas the PSP is a cramped workspace.

While I’m on a console-hacking subject, I read yesterday that a bunch of Xbox 360 developer kits were stolen in Germany. It’s a shame that some qualified developers won’t be getting devkits as soon as they thought, I’m hopeful that the machines will make their way to modchip R&D areas. Unlikely, though. I know that the SmartXX team already has a few Xbox 360 devkits and have them completely disassembled. Here’s hoping that there will be a modchip on 360 launch day! Time to get XBMC ported…

IBM has an cool article detailing some techniques you can use to quickly build robots with common materials. Wireless robotics: Fast robot prototyping shows you how to use foam core, plexiglass, Erector set parts, and cardboard to put together a robot platform to build upon without breaking the bank on a design that’s likely to change. Neat stuff – I wasn’t even aware IBM published articles like this.

Tristan Pemble has posted some cool iTunes Music Store hacks, which include one tool that can grab the full size album artwork from any given album. All you have to do is find the album on iTMS, right click the title, choose Copy iTunes Music Store URL, and paste it into the field. It’s great for filling in missing artwork on ripped/downloaded music. Other cool hacks include a music video and movie trailer tool, and also one to view the raw XML response from iTunes’ servers (for debugging or general poking around).

Update: This method no longer works, but try my new PHP script here.

I’ve got a few more iPod hacks planned if I can come up with the hardware. So, I’m on the hunt for more dead or “injured” iPods, preferably 3rd or 4th Gen…although 2nd might do. If anyone has an iPod with a dead hard drive they’re willing to part with, send me an email using the link on the right :-) I’ll also happily do iPod battery installations, if anyone’s in need of a quick repair.