You’re in the shower. You’re at the mall. You’re in the parking lot. The next pop single has just popped in your head and you’ve got to get that idea down fast. But don’t fret. Just Hum it.

Hum, designed, branded, and engineered by a trio of music lovers, is pitched as an all-in-one alternatives to the apps we use daily to capture our song ideas. Instead of singing into Voice Memos or writing lyrics in Notes, Hum brings all your song writing tools into a single application. With Hum, you’ll be able to write lyrics, hum or record a riff, and then set the key. After recording, you can apply a root note and apply metadata for tuning and mood. And when you go to record that demo based on what you’ve written down, Hum will play back your tune with the correct tone, metronome optional.

Hum works however you do — it’s smart and flexible. You can write lyrics and record later, record first and loop a snippet to get down the perfect chorus, or filter your recordings based on a variety of metadata so you can knock out a recording session.

The guys behind Hum are looking to raise $20,000 by July 24th, and they’re currently well on their way with $3,407 raised. Of the pledges, you can get a discounted version of the app for $6 as a reward if the campaign is successfully funded. $10 will nab you the app and a pack of Hum branded picks and stickers, and $30 gets you a t-shirt. You can learn more and back Hum on their Kickstarter page here, and get an overview of the app’s features on their website.

Today, Evernote has announced a few new ways to interact with Skitch, an app that makes it easy to visually communicate ideas with text, shapes, and sketches. The latest set of updates are focused on improving annotations — how easy they are to make and how fast to get to them.

Starting an adjustable canvas, Skitch 2.6 lets you add margins to an image or screenshot. The extra whitespace next to an image will give you some extra room to add instructions or elaborate on an idea. You can simply click the + sign on any edge to add extra space, or let the canvas resize itself as you draw a shape past the image’s edge. You also have the option to resize the canvas yourself with the Crop/Resize tool.

Perhaps my favorite addition to Skitch are the improvements made to shapes. By simply holding the shift key, you can draw perfect circles and squares, while arrows and lines will snap into place at 45 degree angles. This works with handles when rotating and editing drawn shapes as well. And shapes can now be drawn to a much smaller size if you’re looking to annotate something with pinpoint accuracy.

The last set of features makes getting to annotations and returning to them later easier than ever. For taking screenshots, you can now turn off the advanced options panel by unchecking its setting in Skitch’s preferences. Then for saving your images, Skitch will let you save in a new kind of re-editable PNG file. You can embed these images into documents just like you would with any ordinary PNG, but Skitch PNGs can be re-opened and edited for correcting annotations or adding a second opinion.

Sktich 2.6 is available to download from the Mac App Store.

[via Evernote Blog]

NetNewsWire, one of the first RSS readers originally developed by Brent Simmons and later acquired by Black Pixel in 2011, has made a reappearance before Google Reader shuts down on July 1st.

NetNewsWire 4.0 is the result of nearly two years of work, modernizing an app which was introduced in 2002 and saw its last major update to 3.0 in 2007. Before Black Pixel acquired the popular news reader, a light version of NNW 4.0 was introduced to the Mac App Store, but it was significantly paired down in features compared to the original version.

NNW 4.0 is currently focused on the reading experience, syncing RSS feeds locally to a Mac and otherwise absent of any background syncing services. During the public beta, Black Pixel plans on continuing to build out their background syncing service, and will be revisiting the core design of their iOS apps to bring them up to date the new design language introduced in iOS 7. For those wanting to try NNW, you can import your RSS feeds from Google Reader by logging into the service from the app or through an OPML file.

The latest version of NNW is focused on discovery, sharing, and a distraction free reading experience that consolidates all of your favorite web articles in a single place. In NNW, you’ll be able to subscribe to popular feeds if you’re just starting out and need recommendations, bookmark your favorite articles, mark sites as your favorites, and have multiple articles open at the same time (useful for following an unfolding story).

NNW 4.0 will be available for $20 when it launches, but those who pre-order during the beta period can get it half off. You can download the public beta and read more about the latest changes on Black Pixel’s blog.

[via The Next Web]

On your keyring, in your backpack or travel luggage, or attached to your laptop, Tile keeps track of your valuables so you can easily find them wherever they may go. Tile resembles a small white square that’s only a few millimeters thick, making it both pocketable and small enough to be conveniently attached to gadgets or personal belongings. It’s small enough that you can slip it into a wallet’s pocket, or you can simply adhere it to the surface of a MacBook.

Tile will work over Bluetooth 4.0 with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad mini, 3rd or 4th generation iPads, and the 5th generation iPod touch. A Tile app for the iPhone will let you track all of your Tiles within a 50 ft to 150 ft range, displaying a small marker to help you find lost or misplaced items. These Tiles definitely aren’t GPS aware, meaning that you wouldn’t be find misplaced luggage if it was half way around the world (more on this in a bit). But Tile is certainly useful if you forget your jacket or drop your keys in an airport terminal. Tiles can be rung so you can audibly hear where your items are, and like a metal detector, an indicator in the app points you in the right direction of the things you’re trying to find when you’re close by.

Tile is discretely social, which in theory is supposed to overcome its limitations of not being a true GPS tracking device. If a bunch of people are using Tiles and its cloud service, then it’s possible you would be able to recover something was that stolen or dropped outside of the range of your iPhone. When you mark a Tile as lost, other Tile users’ phones will be notified of the lost item, and will begin searching for it in the background. Because everyone’s phone would be inherently connected, that means you should be able to find your lost Tile by proxy through someone else. No personal information or details about what the Tile is attached to are shared - the phone simply and secretly relays back whether it’s found the lost item and where it is to the original owner.

Although a Tile is relatively affordable (roughly $20 per Tile), a downside is that Tile has no replaceable batteries, and it’ll need to be replaced on a yearly basis as it loses its charge.

Tile is currently available through pre-order, having already been successfully funded through Selfstarter, a roll-your-own crowdfunding solution that gives creators more control over the marketing and presentation of their product on their own sites. You’ll earn additional Tiles if you pre-order in bulk, and it’s expected to ship late this year or in early 2014.

In engineering a new laptop stand to alleviate his back and neck problems, James Olander wanted to create something that could bring the laptop to your eyes, while keeping it durable and lightweight. The result is The Roost, a laptop stand that’s inspired by mechanical mechanisms found in scissor lifts and folding chairs.

Made from Carbon Fiber and Delrin (a very strong engineering plastic), The Roost weighs 5 oz and folds into a 1” by 1.5” by 13” package that can easily slip into a backpack or laptop bag. The stand, because of the strong materials used, can also withstand a lot of punishment. In a load test, The Roost was loaded with concrete blocks and slabs, holding 132 lbs of weight without any damage to the product. Olander says that The Roost can be tilted 80 degrees and still hold onto your laptop, making the design accident proof.

Compatible with most laptops that have a hinge behind the laptop base (a laptop compatibility guide can be found here), The Roost wants to correct your posture and take your laptop to new heights. In addition to black, The Roost will be available in white, titanium, green, red, blue, orange, purple, yellow, and pink if funding is successful. In backing this Kickstarter project for $65, you’ll be rewarded with a black roost engraved with “Original Kickstarter Backer.” If you add another $5, you’ll be able to choose a colored model. The Roost has a modest goal of $9,300 in funding, but has already reached $55,465.