Audiofile Engineering has updated its field recording iOS app, FIRe, to version 2.

FIRe is designed to turn an iPhone or iPod touch into a professional-level portable audio recorder.

Here’s what’s new in FIRe 2:

• Advanced editing suite with SmartEdits, Bezier fades, change gain, normalize, looping playback, regions and more
• Improved Transport screen with faster and smoother drawing and larger waveform view
• EQ and Dynamics effects by Audiofile Engineering
• iTunes file transfer
• Enhanced input processing powered by iZotope™
• Record in background
• DropBox integration
• Regions

Cinegenix has released FiLMiC Pro (App Store link), a dedicated video camera app that lets you shoot better video on your iPhone by ‘asserting as much manual control over camera functions as possible.’

It offers three focus/exposure systems:

• Double Reticle Mode: two separate adjustable reticles for spot sampling focus and exposure.
• Single Reticle Mode: a center fixed positioned spot sampling reticle for both focus and exposure.
• Full Frame Mode: samples both both focus and exposure from the entire frame.

Other features:

• Variable Frame Rates (1-25 and 30fps) including both the US (24p) and European (25p) film production standards.
• Four Selectable Resolutions (iPhone 4 or 4th Gen iPod Touch).
• Framing Guide Overlays (4:3, 16:9, & 2:35.1).
• Thirds Guide for composition.
• Audio Metering.
• Color Bars for Post Production.
• Film Production Style Slate for syncing with an external audio system or multi-camera shoots, and adding info to inform your editor or organize your clips within the clip library.

Upload options:

• DropBox
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Facebook
• FTP Server

Cinegenix FiLMiC Pro is currenty on sale for $.99. If you’ve tried FiLMiC Pro, let us know what you think of it!

Fostex has announced the AR-4i – an audio interface for iPhone 4 dock connector.

The device offers stereo microphone inputs with AD converter that improve the audio quality of iPhone 4’s video recording, video streaming and audio recordings.

Features:

• 3 microphone inputs with plug-in power for vertical or horizontal use.
• 2 x cardioid plug-in microphones come as standard. Third-party microphones can be used.
• LED Level Meter for input level monitoring.
• Microphone gain control.
• Headphone jack for input monitoring.
• 2 x AAA batteries for more than 10 hours operation.
• External power can be fed via USB.
• Screw hole provided for optional camera gears such as tripod, grip etc.

This is set for release this summer. Pricing is TBA.

Looks like this could be a good option for podcasters, if the price is right.

Guinness World Records has confirmed that The Adam Carolla Show has officially broken the record for the Most Downloaded Podcast, receiving 59,574,843 unique downloads from March 2009 to March 16, 2011.

Carolla made the announcement on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

This breaks the previous record held by The Ricky Gervais Show, set in February 2006. The Ricky Gervais Show had an average of 261,670 downloads per episode in its first month (December 2005) and had exceeded 4.5 million downloads, or an average of 379,382 downloads per episode, by the end of its final week.

Back when the iPad was introduced, we asked “Where is the PageMaker of iBooks?”

Tablets are fantastic new platform, with incredible potential for revolutionizing publishing. But there have not been, so far, tools that bring multimedia publishing for tablets to everyone.

Wired has a post today about Push Pop Press – a new digital publishing platform that’s promises to change that.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Using Push Pop Press authors can weave together text, images, audio, video and interactive graphics into immersive multi-touch interactive books, without dealing with the complexities and costs normally involved in software development.

Push Pop Press is currently in private beta being used to build more amazing titles.

The first title published with this tool is Al Gore’s Our Choice, demo’d above.

Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone has some interesting comments about his earlier podcasting company, Odeo, podcasting and how it led to the creation of Twitter, in this month’s Wired.

Odeo was a startup that offered podcast directory and search services. Though well-funded, it was effectively dead shortly after launching, because Apple added podcasting support in iTunes.

But Stone suggests that that wasn’t the real reason for Odeo’s demise.

“We thought we were geniuses,” says Stone. “We worked on it for about a year, but we realised something that was a bad sign. We didn’t like podcasting. We didn’t listen to podcasts and we didn’t want to make podcasts.”

When Apple added podcast support to iTunes, Odeo was resigned to its fate. “We were like, ‘Well, that’s a good place for it,” says Stone. “Probably a better place than some website with a pink logo.'”

Retailer UniqueSquared.com put together this first look at the new Samson Meteor Mic – a USB mic that was introduced at the 2011 NAMM Show.

While it’s not really an impartial review, it does a good job of demonstrating the features of the Meteor – which could be a good match for podcasters.

The Meteor Mic has one of the larger condenser diaphragms (25mm) of any USB mic. It offers a cardioid pickup pattern and 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz resolution. The Chrome-plated body features built-in tripod legs that can be used in multiple positions.

The Samson Meteor microphone is expected to sell for about $100.

Podcast production and hosting company RawVoice has introduced a new media-on-demand service at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters [NAB] Show in Las Vegas April 9-14.

Dubbed “Cue Too,” the media-on-demand (MOD/VOD) service will allow content creators, independent film artists, bands, educators and all others who create content to sell their content online and through over-the-top (OTT) television. RawVoice spokesmen say this will “give consumers a centralized location to find premium content that is not available through traditional video-on-demand channels,” and allow content creators the capability to sell shows on a subscription or [single] per-episode basis.

RawVoice’s on-demand service debut follows on last year’s successful launches of multiple media channels on devices such as the Roku and Boxee.

This service will be introduced through a new channel on the Roku initially, and on its own media portal. RawVoice was demonstrating the new Cue Too service at NAB this week, and is working with existing content creators as well as seeking out new ones to broaden the library of available content on the new service. RawVoice officials forecast a full roll-out of the service within a few weeks.

Company officials invite content creators to contact them if they are interested in being part of the new on-demand service launch.

YouTube has announced a new live streaming video service, YouTube Live, which they plan to make available to ‘Partners’:

Today we’re announcing the initial roll out of YouTube Live, which will integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time. This begins with a new YouTube Live browse page, where you can always find the most compelling live events happening on YouTube and add events to your calendar. Subscribe to your favorite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on your customized homepage.

Today, we’ll also start gradually rolling out our live streaming beta platform, which will allow certain YouTube partners with accounts in good standing to stream live content on YouTube. The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead. In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we’ll roll this offering out incrementally over time.

The downside of YouTube’s announcement is that it’s only available to a small group of partners – the most profitable users for the site – a direct challenge to other streaming services that offer free streaming more broadly.

Apple has released an update to Garageband for Mac, version 6.02, that improves overall stability and addresses a number of minor issues.

Though Apple isn’t hyping this update, it’ could be an important one for Mac-based iPad users.

The release brings support for opening projects imported from GarageBand for iPad – so you can start a recording on an iPad and bring it over to a Mac for further work in GarageBand or even Logic.

The workflow is currently one-way from iPad to Mac.

This update is recommended for all GarageBand ’11 users.