Microsoft Research on Thursday is releasing software that gives musicians, both casual and professional, a new way to speed up song development. Called SongSmith, the $29.99 application creates musical accompaniment based on whatever is sung into the computer's microphone.

In order to do this, the software processes the pitch and tone of what's recorded and lets users hear how it might sound if they had a little backup in the form of a virtual piano, drums, and keyboard. Microsoft is expecting them to use the new track either as inspiration for further song development or as a simple way to create karayoke-quality recordings for friends and family members.

The software lets users change the feel of a song completely using various sliders that adjust mood, volume levels, tempo and what instruments are being used. Users are also able to purchase additional instruments from Garritan for a small fee that can drastically change the way a track sounds. Each purchased instrument ...

Probably the most popular pro-level database maker for the Mac, FileMaker Pro has just released a major update to coincide with Macworld 2009. Offering a sleek new interface that's as nice to look at as it is intuitive, FileMaker Pro's new Status Toolbar puts commonly used features right where you need them. Even if you're not happy with the default layout of the new toolbar, you can easily customize the available icons to improve workflow for specific projects.

The status bar puts your most used tools right at the top of the screen for easy access

The new browse feature gives you a centralized location for navigating to different parts of your database quickly. You'll now have buttons to quickly switch between search, preview, and edit layout modes and switching from Form, List and Table is as easy as a click of your mouse. When you're finished, you can save further time with easy-access buttons ...

If you're one whose search results lead you to a Wikipedia page nine times out of ten, you would do well to install the Googlepedia extension for Firefox.

This free, terrifically easy add-on pulls the Wikipedia article most closely associated with your search term into the right half of a Google search results page. Modest controls let you expand, shrink, or hide the article.

Here's the best part: clicking a link within the article feeds the term back into Google's search engine, and therefore back into Googlepedia's cycle of serving up Wikipedia articles.

Googlepedia will undoubtedly save you time if a quick search is all you need. If you're one to submit to Wikipedia's siren call of never-ending knowledge, download at your own risk.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

An iPhone is many things, but a massage therapist it is not.

However, if you're in a pinch, the lightweight application Massager may soothe you until your next appointment.

The application takes advantage of the iPhone's vibrating motor to create four patterns based on Swedish, Shiatsu, deep muscle, and relaxation massage. Starting and stopping the massage are easy enough to accomplish by tapping and untapping the corresponding button.

While you can manually increase the intensity of the vibes by putting some muscle behind the iPhone's flat face, it still won't come close to what a pronged handheld massager can do. After a few minutes, my wound-up shoulders remained just as tight.

Yet it might relax tension in you and yours, and at 99 cents, that's not a bad gamble.