By John Moore

Mobile apps for tuning a variety of musical instruments are readily available, but a recently demonstrated iPad app expands the musician-helper category beyond those basic tools. The software, dubbed Celeste, helps configure pipe organs and was among the featured apps at the University of Utah’s Mobile Application Demo Day.

Celeste tackles the issue of setting up an organ’s stops, which the organist uses to manage -- allow or block -- the flow of air to certain pipes. Configuring organ stops for a particular piece of music can prove time consuming, but the iPad app lets musicians keep all the organ stop settings they need at the ready. It’s an insurance policy of sorts should someone inadvertently overwrite the preset stops in an organ’s memory bank before a performance. Rob Stefanussen, the University of Utah computer science student and organist who wrote the app, recently spoke about Celeste.

Developers are always interested in what’s new, cool and powerful enough to advance the capabilities of their apps. Understanding the design impact of choosing any particular technology requires understanding the tradeoffs involved. In the area of presentation technologies, developers have worked with technologies such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Windows Presentation Foundation, Silverlight and, more recently, Web Standard technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

In order to learn more about their experiences, and why some are choosing to move to Windows 8 development, we spoke with Avery Sawyer, a software engineer at Ratio Interactive. Sawyer recently worked on the development of Comic Director, a free Microsoft Windows 8 UI Touch app that helps users create interactive comics.

I bullied at school. We made a guy touch white shit with his tongue. Why? Cause we were assholes.....

Chris Landreth just finished up a new film, Subconscious Password. I've seen it. It's fantastic. Here's the trailer....

Starting off the weekend right! AWN got to spend some hands-on time with Capcoms newest "wonder child", fighting franchiseiteration, Super Street Fighter IV. We got to spend time with each of the 10 new characters of the Street Fighter IV roster including Hakan and Juri. We also got to spend time with the Barrel and Car bonus stages. Hit the jump to see is all!

Magikano

Haruo Yoshikawa is not an exciting guy. In fact, the only thing he excels at is being average! School, family, social life, it’s all one big daily rut. Nevertheless – in true anime style – all that comes to a screeching halt when Ayumi comes riding into town on her broom. Yes, I said broom! This Lolita is a witch. 

New streaming and downloads available on the FUNimation website!

For those already tapped into the streaming vein of PlayStation Network, anime is definitely on its Christmas list. Here’s the latest post from my friends at PSN. And, evidently, this is only a small part of the 12-day promotion.  

Death Note: R2

It’s no surprise that recent anime pop culture has been Death Note’s bitch. Dan Brown wishes he could write a detective yarn as intelligently intricate and pleasurably discombobulating. The story of the impromptu murderer Light Yagami, a.k.a Kira, his supporting Shinigami Ryuk, the Death Note empowering him to kill by simply writing a name, and his ultimate battle of wits with the genius detective L has consumed the world like Kate and Leo’s Titanic. And even if we didn’t have the edible Misa to accompany this ensemble, Light’s devotee and a Lolita that would have made Nabokov sweat, this story is rather perfect. Who doesn’t love the hunt for a killer, one teeming with anxiety and nearly insolvable riddles? 

Gundam UC

If you’re in San Francisco, or can at least get there anytime from March 19^th to the 25^th, then you’re in luck. Viz Cinema will debut Mobile Suit Gundam UC, and this is roughly one month after its debut in Japan!