I had one of these Akai EIE interfaces out to try recently. It is a 44.1KHz / 16bit I/O (there is also a Pro version with higher sampling rates).
There are 4 inputs with gain control, flexible monitoring options, MIDI in & out, inserts, spare USB ports. No SPDIF. The weight of the box is heavy, giving an impression of a good solid build. It is plug and play (no driver to install). A cool feature is that the VU meters flash red when the signal clips. No software is needed to set it up as all features have switches on the front-panel (eg instrument, phantom power). The sound is not exactly neutral - it brightens things up, but in quite a nice way. The headphone amp delivers a good volume before distortion. Price-wise it is almost the same as a Focusrite Saffire Pro 14, but here you get 4 mic inputs (not 2), and no software is required.

Today is switch-off day for analogue television transmission (for here, the overall changeover of NZ TV to the digital network is progressive -  it stated last year, and some districts will have to wait until next year).
Anyone (like me) with a flat screen TV is most likely already receiving digital transmission (Freeview), so there is nothing to change. If you also want to record then the old VCR is useless and a new HD/ DVD recorder will set you back $500.
Here's the irony: we now have large screens, flat screens, wide screens, high definition screens,   surround sound, and dual channel recorders with delayed playback, but there are hardly any good programmes to be had on free to air TV. 

Professor Scott Galloway tells it straight to an "entitled" student. Read the story here.

Pro Tools version 11 has been released (to the media, actual product to appear later). As usual the company (and Pro Tools loyalists) are touting it as a 'breakthrough". In Avid's own words "“Pro Tools 11 represents a quantum leap in creative power”. 
As has become the pattern, it is expensive ($299USD or $599USD for HD to upgrade from version 10 to 11), but does have several worthwhile additions (eg offline bounce, 64 bit, softsynth freeze), however these are all things that rival software has had for ages. There is a choice of metering, so that's a nice addition. Seriously eroding any of these improvements is the fact that HD hardware will not be supported (eg Control 24), and in the case of the 192 I/O, 96 I/O, MIDI I/O etc will not work at all. The comments on this Pro Tools Expert article express the feeling.

Plogue have a free sample player downloadable from here. The AU plugin version won't work in Logic for me, but the Standalone version is ok. You can import samples (including .wav) and MIDI files, play from a MIDI keyboard, and record a performance to audio.

OSX Mountain Lion (v10.8) hides the User Library folders. I guess this is to stop people deleting necessary files, but there are lots of times I need to get in there because this is where to deal with preference files, templates, drivers, and lots of other files that will break things due to corrupt data, or conflicts.
The fix is easy: In Terminal type: chflags nohidden Library
If you update the OS then it resets so you will need to do it again to show the Library folder.
If you only want to show the Library folder temporarily, hold the OPTION key while accessing the Finder Go menu.
A tutorial covering all this is here.