The Kevin Pipe

Ainol V3000 high-res PMP handled on video

Paul Miller — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:52:00 +0000

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

In a surprise turn for no-name PMPs, the Ainol V3000 actually didn't seem so shabby when we first spotted it in July. Of particular note was the device's 4.3-inch 800 x 480 screen, and it always helps when the device behind that screen isn't ugly. Well, the folks at b4tech managed to nab one and did a little video review (embedded after the break). It looks even more delicious in motion, and while the menus look a tad weak and not very English, we think we could overlook a lot if the price is right.

Continue reading Ainol V3000 high-res PMP handled on video

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Tags: Engadget

MTV API Now in Public Beta: Music Videos Anyone?

Andres Ferrate — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:31:33 +0000

Music video content provider MTV recently announced that its Content API is out of private beta and available to the general public. Available as part of a new MTV Networks Developers Tools web site, the RESTful API gives access to content from MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo. The API supports a variety of open standards including OpenSearch and MediaRSS (see our new MTV API profile for more details).

The API gives access to every music video in the MTV archive (plus all the related metadata) and currently does not require an API key (although one may be required after the API moves out of beta).

According to the MTV Networks Developers Tools web site, the API could be used to develop a variety of applications and mashups, including:

Build a music video gallery of MTV, VH1, CMT or LOGO artists.

Create an application to send music video dedications to friends on Facebook, MySpace, Flux or just about any other social network.

Mine our expansive music video archive to create the music application of your dreams.

Fashion a WordPress plug-in to dynamically pull music videos into blog posts.

The API’s documentation pages present developers with a variety of information, including methods and response formats. A discussion forum provides developers with a medium for information exchange and troubleshooting.

It’s notable that MTV has made so much of its content available for developers. We look forward to seeing how this API will be used in mashups and applications, and certainly hope to see at least a few nostalgic mashups that take us back to the early MTV years. Will it be Blondie or David Bowie that gets the first mashup?

Be sure to check out some of the other Music APIs listed in our API directory for additional inspiration and content.

Related ProgrammableWeb Resources

MTV API Profile and Mashups

This Week’s Best Posts [Highlights]

Lifehacker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:40 +0000

If Lifehacker's filling up your feedreader faster than you can empty it, switch to our trimmed-down, no-nonsense top stories feed. Sick of hearing about Google Chrome or the iPhone? Customize our URLs to exclude the topics you don't care about. This week's most popular posts include:

Beta Browser Speed Tests: Which Is Fastest?
"We've previously put the major browser releases to the speed test, but today we're measuring Chrome against the second beta of Internet Explorer 8, as well as the beta of Firefox 3's next iteration, 3.1."
Enable Chrome's Best Features in Firefox
"Apart from a few specific issues (namely process management), many of Chrome's best features are already available in Firefox 3, proving yet again the power of extensibility."
Google Chrome First Look
"New beta web browser Google Chrome officially hit the streets just a few minutes ago, and we've rolled up our sleeves and taken a quick look at everything the newest browser on the block has to offer."
Google Chrome's Full List of Special about: Pages
"You already saw Google Chrome's humorous about:internets Easter egg, but Chrome's got several special about: pages that reveal all sorts of interesting information about what's going on behind the scenes."
Roll Your Own Lightning at Sunset Desktop
"reader Kaelri's customized Windows XP desktop, pictured above, it drew oohs and ahhs from everyone looking to spruce up their Windows installation."
How to Set Up a Laptop Security System
"As students flock back to the library and the rest of us head back to the coffee shop for a warm drink and free Wi-Fi, the safety and security of our laptops—and all of the important and sensitive information they hold—are of the utmost importance."
Back to School Power Tools for the Savvy Student
"Before you head back to campus this semester, arm yourself with the most powerful software and webapps to keep you organized and on top of your class (and social) schedule."
Featured Desktop: Vista Transblack Head Up Display
"If bright colors tire your eyes and distract you from the task at hand, check out how Windows user j33f darkens Vista and subtly embeds system monitoring details, RSS feeds, and currently playing music information into the desktop."

Tags: Lifehacker

Camouflage paintings by Liu Bolin

Collin Cunningham — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Beijing artist Liu Bolin's camouflage series is presented in the medium of photography, but his painting skills play the starring role. - More examples of his marvelous precision @ work - ‘camoflague’ by liu bolin

Google Updates Picasa and Picasa Web Albums

Frederic Lardinois — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Google's Picasa team released a number of major updates to both its desktop photo managing application Picasa and its online photo gallery this week. On Tuesday, we already reported about the addition of face recognition to the Picasa web albums, but Google also added Creative Comments licenses and email uploads, while the desktop application now lets you create collages, retouch photos, add text to your images, and upload your videos to YouTube.

Picasa3

Google's desktop photo-managing software has always been a great product, and the newest version, which was released on Tuesday, builds on the success of its predecessors.

The overall layout has not changed, but Google has added a large number of interesting new features in this release.

You can now easily sync albums between your desktop and Picasa's online albums. Any change you make on the desktop will be reflected online. However, this does not work the other way round, which limits the usefulness of this feature quite a bit.

Among the other new features are the ability to add text to your photos, retouch photos, create collages, upload movies to YouTube, and create movies based on your photos, videos, and music.

One other neat feature is that the cropping tool now automatically tries to find the best places to start cropping in a picture.

Picasa Web Albums

We were a bit skeptical when Google first announced the face recognition feature, but in our tests, it actually performed quite well. Part of this might have to do with the fact that Google did not get too ambitious and left a lot of manual work to the users. While Picasa recognizes that a face is present and will group similar faces together, it leaves the final approval of the tags to the user, though Picasa will make an educated guess about whose face it is seeing. Because of this, there is less of a chance of making a mistake, but it also means more work for the user.

While the face recognition feature is definitely the splashiest addition to Picasaweb in this this new release, Google also added a lot of other new features to the web gallery. These updates include Creative Commons rights management, an Explore page that showcases some of the best public pictures, and the ability to upload photos by email.

Chasing Down the Competition

Of course, a lot of these new features besides the face recognition have already been standard in a lot of other online photo albums and these updates mostly make it seem as if Google is trying to get its feature set up to par with Yahoo's Flickr. Especially the 'Explore' page would not look out of place there.

For Picasa's Web Albums to really become popular, though, Google will have to increase the amount of space it is giving its users on the service. Right now, you only get 1GB of space for photos, which is simply not enough. You can buy more space from Google, but every other service offer more space or uses a monthly bandwidth limit instead of putting a hard limit on storage.

Tags: read write web

Today on TokyoMango

LISA KATAYAMA — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:58:09 +0000

Today on TokyoMango, I wrote about a newly found stack of Occupation-era letters written by an American woman in 1940s Japan; a robot that will help you find cool t-shirts at Uniqlo; and a guitarist from a famous heavy metal band who now lives in Japan. I also celebrated my blog's two-year anniversary and revisited some of my first blog posts ever.

( Lisa Katayama is a guest blogger.)

Tags: Boing Boing

Austin Event: Grid-Tied Solar System Class

Luke Iseman — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:53:15 +0000

Austin has an aggressive solar energy rebate program ($4.50 per professionally-installed watt), and here's an opportunity to learn the in's and out's of grid-tie system design:

Grid-Interactive System Design and Installation (part 1&2)
Cost: $80
Saturday, September 6th - 10am to 4pm

This 6 hour workshop, lead by expert installer and NABCEP certified instructor Roy Dyngen of Outback Power Systems, will provide a detailed overview of grid-interactive solar systems. Grid-interactive systems can be grid-tied or off-grid, incorporating battery back-up as an integrated part of the system design. This course will provide detailed instruction and hands-on training in the following areas:
Inverter Circuit Board Replacement
Inverter 101, System Types
Product Offering
Mate Programming Overview
Battery Charging Basics
System Sizing Basics
Stacking Configuration and Programming
Charge Controller Array Sizing
Inverter Circuit Board Replacement
FLEXware 500 System Build
Don't miss this great career-building opportunity to learn the latest from solar industry experts and leading manufacturers. If you are looking for hands-on training with Outback equipment and an opportunity to learn directly from Outback's pros, this course is for you.

More details and registration here.

Or, to be more DIY:

Make your own solar panel from scrap chunks of photovoltaics

Create a portable solar charger

And add a DIY sun tracker to your system

CIA, FBI Push Social Networking for Spies

Soulskill — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:52:00 +0000

node7 writes "The FBI, NSA, and CIA are jointly supporting a newly created 'MySpace' for the intelligence community. Named 'A-Space,' the site will contain highly classified material, so naturally, it won't be available to the public. From CNN: '[Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis] demonstrated the program to CNN to show how analysts will use it to collaborate. "One perfect example is if Osama bin Laden comes out with a new video. How is that video obtained? Where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a context that's not apparent to the rest of the world?" Wertheimer said. "In the past, whoever captured that video or captured information about the video kept it in-house. It's highly classified because it has so very short a shelf life. That information is considered critical to our understanding."'"

How would you change Acer’s Aspire One?

Darren Murph — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:50:00 +0000

Filed under: Laptops

Judging by the amount of mods already available for Acer's contribution to the netbook world, we'd say there's a fair amount of things folks would like changed on the Aspire One. Of course, that's not to say the machine isn't worthy of praise as-is, but there's nothing wrong with a little dreaming. Would you have preferred a 6-cell battery right out of the box? Is that touchpad a touch too small for your chubby fingertips? Would you rather it run a little less like Zune Guy and more like Usain Bolt? With the sudden surge in competition in this sector, there's really no excuse for a poor showing -- let Acer know exactly what you really wanted from the tiniest Aspire.

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Tags: Engadget

NASA To Explore “Secret Layer” of the Sun

Soulskill — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:03:00 +0000

SpaceAdmiral brings news that NASA will be launching a telescope next April, called Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI), which will examine what is called the "transition region" between the Sun's corona and the chromosphere. Scientists have studied characteristics of the Sun around this region before, but never within it. NASA notes: "It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph. It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather."

Runco announces $20,000 VideoXtreme VX-8 projector

Darren Murph — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:02:00 +0000

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The fun has just begun in the Mile High City for Runco, which has followed up its outlandish flat-panel announcement with a replacement to the fabled VX-2 projector. The 3-chip VideoXtreme VX-8 is squarely aimed at those with fat wallets and the word "videophile" stitched into their Ralph Lauren scarfs, evidenced by the superfluous (but very appreciated) video processing capabilities via DHD with Vivix and three SuperOnyx DMDs. Additionally, you'll find the outfit's ConstantContrast tech, which delivers frame-by-frame contrast correction, while the CorrectColor brings "complete color calibration for D65 perfection." For more technobabble on the January-bound unit, hit up the read link -- but before you waste your time, let us remind you that this will cost $19,995.

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Tags: Engadget

LabelLinks4Gmail Nests Labels in Gmail and Then Some [Featured Greasemonkey User Script]

Adam Pash — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Firefox with Greasemonkey: The LabelLinks4Gmail Greasemonkey scripts creates nested labels in your Gmail sidebar. If the idea sounds familiar, that's probably because the previously mentioned Folders4Gmail script has been included with Better Gmail for quite some time. The main difference is that LabelLinks4Gmail soups up the sidebar so that clicking on a top level folder will reveal the contents of every label inside that folder—a feature missing from Folders4Gmail. Unfortunately the script doesn't use the same label naming structure as Folders4Gmail, so making the change isn't as smooth as it could be (in fact, it's more confusing all-around). However, if you've been dying for fuller features from the Folders4Gmail script, the LabelLinks4Gmail script is worth a look. Thanks Benjamin!

Tags: Lifehacker

The MAKE mint project tin

Collin Cunningham — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Oh yes, we did -

Perfect for many electronics projects, this mint tin is branded with our Make motto, "If You Can't Open It, You Don't Own It".
We even took out those pesky mints! Get 'em while they last and send us your project photos!

Not a moment too soon - I was starting to lose feeling in my tongue after that last mini-amp project - Make Project Tin

Dell looking to sell factories to increase profitability

Donald Melanson — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:57:00 +0000

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It looks like Dell is taking a rather drastic step to attempt to cut some of the costs that have been dragging it down in recent years, with The Wall Street Journal now reporting that the company plans to sell "most -- and possibly all -- of its factories" within the next 18 months -- if it can find some buyers, that is. As the paper notes, the factories were originally built to serve a PC market driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs, but they've fast become a drag on the company as growth has shifted towards laptops sold at retail stores. While nothing is anywhere near official yet, the Journal pegs big contract manufacturers angling for a bigger piece of Dell's business as the most likely buyers, although there's a number of obstacles that could block such a sale, particularly when it comes to Dell's factories in the US. Dell is also said to be considering simply closing down some of the factories, and instead rely on those aforementioned contract manufacturers to build its PCs. Hit up the link below for the full saga and backstory.

[Via Blogrunner, image courtesy J.P.R Sdn Bhd]

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Tags: Engadget

Runco lets it all hang out, intros seven new 1080p LCDs / plasmas at CEDIA

Darren Murph — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

For the most part, Runco stays pretty quiet in the consumer realm... until CEDIA rolls around. Once again, the high-end AV company is firing on all cylinders in Denver, announcing seven new 1080p LCD / plasma displays including its largest LCD to date, the 70-inch Crystal Series CX-70DHD (pictured). Along with the new panels, the outfit is unveiling its exclusive OPAL (Optical Path Alignment) technology on select models which "delivers extreme glare reduction and enhanced contrast for high ambient light environments." The aforesaid 70-incher (shipping mid-October for $34,995) actually comes bundled with an external DHD video controller / processor, which incorporates Runco's Vivix II tech to "enhance all digital and NTSC content to near high-definition quality." We'll admit, that sounds an awful lot like something Toshiba's got going on just a few booths over, but make of it what you will. For details on the other half dozen sets, hop on past the break.

Continue reading Runco lets it all hang out, intros seven new 1080p LCDs / plasmas at CEDIA

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Tags: Engadget

Joost Ditches the Desktop Player - Could iTunes Video Be Next?

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:33:03 +0000

Rich Internet Applications is the fancy name for desktop apps that leverage internet connectivity outside the browser. RIAs, as they're called, are supposed to be ushering in a post-browser future, according to some people.

Why, then, has one of the most high profile RIA providers in recent years, Joost, moved to ditch their desktop video player?

Adobe's Ryan Stewart, one of the leading advocates of RIAs, posts a list of steps other RIA providers should consider taking in order to avoid the same fate. Are RIAs not shaping up to be everything they promised? We still like some of them quite a bit, but we think Joost is making the right decision to move into the browser. In fact, we think that iTunes Video would be well served to do the same thing. Here's why.

RIAs are Good for Background Use

We like using desktop Twitter clients like Tweetdeck or Twhirl or other RIAs like Fluid and Snackr. Those are all apps that work well in the background of our workflows. We spend most of our focused time in the browser. Apps that require extended focus, like video viewing, may as well go on in the browser. That way they don't require separate downloads, potentially suspect software, etc.

One advantage to an RIA is that it can sit on your computer and wait until you're in between doing other things. If your browser crashes, while you load page after page from different sources, that RIA is still there keeping up in the background - waiting until you're ready for it.

RIAs Are Best When You Need Responsiveness

Rich Internet Apps combine the responsiveness of a desktop app with the connectivity of the web. If you don't need a lot of responsiveness, though, then you may as well just stay in the browser. Despite its social features, video viewing apps like Joost are mostly consumed passively. You find something you like and then you sit there and stare at it for awhile. Responsiveness to quickly entered commands? Pretty much irrelevant.

RIAs Are Good When Storage and Offline Access Are Important

Desktop RSS readers are nice because you've got a local copy of your feeds. You can see changes to the text and you can read in a plane. It's useful to view videos when offline, but how many of them do you want to keep on your computer after you've watched them? Better to let them stream in through that part of your computer's memory and then be gone.

Amazon may have hit the sweet spot in its move yesterday to ditch Amazon Unbox and rename the service Amazon Video on Demand. Users (now including Mac owners, by the way!) can either stream video or download it locally - it's up to you.

Maybe Video Works Best in the Browser - So How About iTunes?

That's all well and good, but watching video in the browser is so convenient it's hard to beat. As Adobe's Stewart points out, even watching full screen is now trivial with the upgrades to Flash and Silverlight that weren't available when Joost first hit the scene.

Hulu is rocking out and it's no surprise. It's attractive, easy to use and has a whole lot of content. It could be better, but there's absolutely no reason to believe that a desktop client would help make it any better.

We like Rich Internet Apps sitting on our desktop, pulling and pushing data to and from the internet. We don't feel compelled to consume video that way, though. We expect to see other desktop video apps follow Joost's footsteps and move back into the browser. Might iTunes move toward an ad supported model and move to the browser some day for video? It would probably be a good idea for all the same reasons that it's smart for Joost to do so.

Tags: read write web

MSI Wind launch was delayed by ripped movies, family photos?

Paul Miller — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:20:00 +0000

Filed under: Laptops

Here's an interesting, albeit confusing, story: we're getting word that MSI has recalled some Wind laptops running SUSE Linux, since some random oddities had snuck onto the disk image. Namely, illegal screener copies of movies and some family photos. That could explain MSI's temporary delay in shipping this thing out -- a preemptive recall -- but the when, where and what of the recall are a bit hazy, so we recommend rummaging around for the files just in case they're eating up your hard drive room or contain that one flick you were dying to watch with large "Screener copy!" signs flashing past.

[Thanks, Patrick S.]

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Tags: Engadget

The Kevin Pipe

Ainol V3000 high-res PMP handled on video

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MTV API Now in Public Beta: Music Videos Anyone?

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This Week’s Best Posts [Highlights]

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Camouflage paintings by Liu Bolin

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Google Updates Picasa and Picasa Web Albums

Picasa3

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Chasing Down the Competition

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Today on TokyoMango

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Austin Event: Grid-Tied Solar System Class

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CIA, FBI Push Social Networking for Spies

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The MAKE mint project tin

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Joost Ditches the Desktop Player - Could iTunes Video Be Next?

RIAs are Good for Background Use

RIAs Are Best When You Need Responsiveness

RIAs Are Good When Storage and Offline Access Are Important

Maybe Video Works Best in the Browser - So How About iTunes?

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MSI Wind launch was delayed by ripped movies, family photos?

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