Category: Link Post

Instagram alternative Pixelfed now has apps – The Verge

In an effort to keep preaching that we all move to federated social media services, allow me to suggest you give Pixelfed a try. It is pretty much the utility of Instagram, but with none of the nonsense.

Instagram alternative Pixelfed now has apps – The Verge]:

Pixelfed, a decentralized and ad-free Instagram alternative, now has apps on iOS and Android, as reported by TechCrunch. The iOS app launched today, while the Android app launched on January 10th.

The platform is seeing a surge in popularity following Meta’s announcement last week that it would be drastically changing its content moderation policies; over the weekend, Pixelfed said that it’s seeing “unprecedented levels of traffic” to the pixelfed.social server and was working to increase resources.
Keep reading here…

OpenAI’s ChatGPT adds scheduled tasks feature in beta – The Verge

OpenAI’s ChatGPT adds scheduled tasks feature in beta – The Verge:

OpenAI is launching a new beta feature in ChatGPT called Tasks that lets users schedule future actions and reminders.

The feature, which is rolling out to Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers starting today, is an attempt to make the chatbot into something closer to a traditional digital assistant — think Google Assistant or Siri but with ChatGPT’s more advanced language capabilities.
Keep reading here…

Now this is a compelling use for ChatGPT. That said, I would far prefer them integrate directly with platform apps like Apple Calendar and Reminders, which are far more developed. This seems inevitable given how ChatGPT has taken the time to make a native app for many major computing platforms.

A ChatGPT that can integrate more deeply with the productivity software on my Apple products would get me excited. Siri is still really bad at the language interpretation and conversational piece, but it does integrate with my devices. If the ChatGPT app could be the place to trigger those automations in natural language, and then offload the action to third-party apps, I would be on board.

Robby Burns named 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year

I am very excited to share that I have been named the 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year.

From the TI:ME website… (click to read their entire blog post)

Robby Burns named 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year.:

Robby’s use of technology within the band room and the studio is breathtakingly brilliant. He infuses all of his work with excellent choices of apps and utilities that help students learn music, both in class and during their private practice. He is generous with his skills and his learning, constantly helping other instrumental teachers throughout the school district, and running many professional development sessions on the integration of technology into the ensemble classroom.

You can see the list of all past TI:ME TOTYs here.

It is an incredible roster that I am honored to be in any way associated with. And hey, many of them have been past guests on the Music Ed Tech Talk Podcast. Go check them out in the backlog.

🔗 The End of Finale | the finale blog

MakeMusic announced the end of Finale today. They encouraged their users to move to Dorico. Dorico is offering their highest tier (Dorico Pro) to users of Finale or PrintMusic for just $149.

Dorico is amazing, and I couldn’t agree more that it is the future of music notation.

The end of Finale | the finale blog:

Today, Finale is no longer the future of the notation industry—a reality after 35 years, and I want to be candid about this. Instead of releasing new versions of Finale that would offer only marginal value to our users, we’ve made the decision to end its development.

Effective immediately, we are announcing these changes:

  • There will be no further updates to Finale, or any of its associated tools (PrintMusic, Notepad, Songwriter)
  • It is no longer possible to purchase or upgrade Finale in the MakeMusic eStore
  • Finale will continue to work on devices where it is currently installed (barring OS changes)

Robby Burns Transforms Band with Technology | TI-ME.org

The Technology Institute for Music Education (TI:ME) has a brand new website design. I am happy to be featured on their blog as a teacher using technology in the classroom. Click the link below for the entire feature.

Robby Burns Transforms Band with Technology:

What is a particular success story from using technology in your music classes?

A few years back, I transformed how I teach my beginning Concert Band class. When concert literature was giving us trouble, I wrote out everyone’s part for every instrument transposition and created play-along materials for all of it. The idea was to have fun in class while doing the necessary repetitions to perform successfully. My music team added a headset microphone to the front of the room, and I loaded all the play-along material into the Farrago soundboard app on the Mac. I became like a spin instructor: running tracks, encouraging repetitive effort, walking around the room, giving high-fives, correcting posture, and keeping kids engaged who might otherwise feel disconnected from the process. This approach changed how I do the job, and wouldn’t have been possible without the hardware and software I have come to depend on.

Guest Appearance: iPad Pros Podcast –

I’m glad to have joined the iPad Pros podcast again to talk about how I use the iPad in my gigging life, both as a performer and conductor.

Anyone looking to level up their iPad skill should listen to the episode below and subscribe to Tim Chaten’s show. He even has a new podcast all about the Apple Vision Pro.

Muse Group acquires Hal Leonard – Scoring Notes

Big news.

The Scoring Notes blog has details and insights. Click to read their coverage below.

Muse Group acquires Hal Leonard – Scoring Notes:

Muse Group, the Limassol, Cyprus-based company which owns music and audio products such as MuseScore.com, the MuseScore music notation application, StaffPad, Ultimate Guitar, and Audacity, has acquired Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Hal Leonard, the largest publisher of sheet music and educational books. The transaction is supported by San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners. The acquisition closed on December 1, 2023 and was announced today. Terms were undisclosed. Muse Group published a series of FAQs to address immediate questions.
Keep reading here…

StaffPad Autumn 2023 Update

A new update is out for StaffPad. I have been testing the app and have more to say about it on a future episode of the podcast. For now, read about the update from the StaffPad team, themselves…

Autumn 2023 Update:

It’s been a while since our last update and, in the interim, we’ve been working hard on a lot of very interesting challenges and technologies – all designed to make writing music in StaffPad more productive and more flexible than ever.

This has resulted in some major changes under the hood, and a huge amount of R&D. I’m extremely proud of the work the team has done on this release, bringing features out of the research phase and into production use.

As always, this update is free and available in the App Store and Windows Store now. The video below gives a general overview of the update, covering composing using Piano Capture, MIDI Capture, Video Staffs, and more. Let’s dive into it!
Keep reading here…

The new piano capture and MIDI capture are paradigm-shifting additions to this update that offer entire new input methods. StaffPad is not my only notation tool, but what I appreciate about it is that the features the team chooses to focus on are all features that lift the burden off of me. For example, writing directly on the staff with an Apple Pencil eliminates the abstractions of menus and buttons. Recording my upright piano straight into the staff is, similarly, a concept that let’s me more directly get my thoughts our of my head and into the app, and without fussing with interfaces, USB connections, and MIDI controllers.

This update is very much worth a look and I am excited to discuss it more down the road.