Archivi giornalieri: 30/03/2011
Daily Inspiration #782 Abduzeedo
This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject.
i’mWatch l’orologio perfetto per il vostro iPhone (video)
Dopo aver visto la creazione di cinturini per l’iPod Nano di ultima generazione e dopo aver fantasticato e ipotizzato la creazione di un orologio da Apple, arriva la risposta tutta Italiana. Manel Zanella, già fondatore di Zeromobile e Massimiliano Bertolini, cofondatore insieme a Zanella di Winezero, aprono il preordine i’mWatch. Si tratta di un orologio/gioiello realizzato con materiali pregiati studiato per l’integrazione con il cellulare di Apple.
i’mWatch è un piccolo “computer” da polso che può essere accoppiato al nostro iPhone e permette di essere usato come una vera estensione, dalla quale possiamo controllare le chiamate, mail, messaggi e ricevere notifiche di Facebook o Twitter.
Star Wars Blu-ray release date set for September 16, 2011 (Video)
Now you can reserve that Storm Trooper uniform. While the Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Star Wars: Original Trilogy and Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy Blu-ray sets were originally announced with a release date of September and later popped up in retailer databases for September 27th, it has settled in for a September 16th arrival. Blu-ray.com points out that’s a Friday which should open things up for plenty of retailer events around the launch and leave fans with the entire weekend to tear through the movies and all the extras coming along with them, no time off of work needed. Star Wars.com has also been updated with the new date so we’re confident this one will stick, update your calendars and preorder plans accordingly.
Sony's NC-13 buds cancel noise, RF865 cans transmit across a football field
Given the one-size-fits-few nature of most audio products, it’s good to have choices, and Sony happens to have two new pairs of headphones designed for very particular segments of your life. If, say, you’re a traveling music lover who doesn’t happen to have the disposable income to obtain Sony’s premium $300 MDR-NC300D noise canceling buds (which the company claims filter out 99 percent of noise), you’ll find a cheaper alternative in the new $70 MDR-NC13, which only make a estimated 87.4 percent of background distractions go bye-bye. C’est la vie. If, on the other hand, you need to throw sound from one end of your mansion to the other for hours on end, the MDR-RF865RK wireless headphones might be the wide receiver you’ve been dreaming of — Sony claims they’ll play audio up to 100 meters away from their dock, which provides up to 25 hours of playtime after a 3.5 hour charge. No price or availability for the wireless cans, which were just announced in the UK, but you’ll find the NC-13 on sale at Sony’s online store right now. PR after the break.
Surfing Video Goes Super Slow Motion (Video)
Lately there has been a trend of showing super slow motion videos slowed beyond the native frames per second the original footage was shot on. We love the results of Twixter but nothing can compare to seeing the real thing especially when combined with an extreme sport. The BBC has a great DVD on the South Pacific which features some amazing underwater slomo camera work of waves crashin, and this short surfing clip was the highlight for me. Rudi Diesel shot this on a Typhoon HD4 which at the time could do 500fps at 7 seconds or 1000fps at 3.5 seconds. If you enjoy this segment, check out a longer clip from the documentary in the second clip below.
No, These Are Not Photos Of Ghosts or UFOs, Denis Smith #Photography (Video)
When Denis Smith found himself faced with a dark depression in his life, he found motivation and purpose through his newly found photography hobby. After moving to South Australia, Denis picked up a camera and began to explore the serendipitous world of night photography. After playing around with long exposures he realized he could bring his own creativity to his images in the form of light painting. Denis’s images are really interesting because he mixes strong technical long exposure landscapes with his unique “ball of light” light painting technique. Skip to 5:20 on this video to see how he came up with the idea and check out many examples of his work over at Ball of Light.
45 Strange and Funny Photoshop Manipulations – A weird combination!!
“Photoshop manipulation is the process of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception, through digital means.”
Personally, I consider Photoshop Manipulation to be the best art form of the digital age. If executed well, Photoshop gives amazingly powerful results and can be a lot of fun at the same time. There are countless interesting photoshopped images on net but most of them are old and seen many times. However, to leave you spell bound, I bring you an extraordinary collection.
Here are 45 images by various great artists for your design inspiration….a blend of funny and strange Photoshop Manipulations. Every image has been carefully tracked down here;making you believe that anything is possible with Photoshop.
Advice & Recommendations for Digital SLR Video Gear
With the addition of video to DSLRs, a new market has emerged for high-quality video at a fraction of the historical price. DSLRs, priced about the same as some prosumer video cameras, can accomplish things once off the table for filmmakers. Now, having follow focus and a narrower depth of field are as simple as changing a lens.
With the rise of these cameras, many accessories and elements have arrived on the scene to make the amateur filmmaker’s job easier. So, what does it take to make professional video with a DSLR (but without a full movie studio)? Here’s some of my equipment recommendations, plus some tips for getting the most out of it.
47 Gorgeous & Fresh Free Fonts #Photoshop
After our hugely popular ’50 Fresh and Awesome Free Fonts’ post, we’ve decided to give you guys some more fresh font goodness! These fonts are all incredibly professional, and should really enhance your designs. How long has it been since you updated your font library?
NI Maschine 1.6 adds plug-in hosting See how Underworld use it live (Video)
Native Instruments Maschine has just got a whole lot more flexible thanks to a free update (version 1.6 ) that adds VST and AU instrument/effect hosting.
You’ve been able to use the Maschine software as a plug-in from day one, but the addition of hosting is great news for anyone who wants to run it standalone. What’s more, plug-in parameters are automatically mapped to the knobs on the Maschine hardware controller.
Read on for the official press release announcing the update, which also includes several other new features. Also be sure to check out the above video which features Underworld’s Darren Price showing you how he uses Maschine live, and the one below that has hip-hop producer Ski-Beatz using it in the studio.
http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/maschine/
Samsung Droid Charge si mostra in un primo scatto!
Lo scorso Novembre scrivemmo in questo articolo dell’ufficializzazione da parte dell’organo competente per le certificazioni del protocollo DLNA, di uno smartphone Samsung nome in codice SCH-i510 con caratteristiche tecniche molto interessanti. A distanza di mesi finalmente vengono tolti i veli al nuovo Samsung Droid Charge che risulta essere proprio quel device.
Confermata la presenza di Android Froyo 2.2, di una fotocamera da 8 Mpxl, fotocamera frontale e un design diverso dai soliti canoni visti con la casa coreana. Ulteriori informazioni non sono emerse, sebbene il logo Verizon indichi come il device sia per ora indirizzato al mercato americano e alle nuove reti LTE.
Triple Flip un concept device Windows Phone 7 (video)
Quello che vedete è un concept phone che non monta il sistema Android come solitamente accade, ma è basato sulla piattaforma Windows Phone 7. Il modello è stato soprannominato Triple Flip e lo ha realizzato SchultzeWORKS design studio partendo da un’idea di static smart-phone-with-touch-screen che in pratica combina l’innovazione data da un dispositivo touch sensitive, unita alla praticità di una doppia tastiera QWERTY con anche una batteria a carica solare posta sul retro del dispositivo.
Le caratteristiche tecniche non sono state rese note ma è stato realizzato anche un breve video introduttivo.
Amazon Cloud Player upsets Sony Music over streaming license, Amazon shrugs
In case you missed the news, last night Amazon gave us a little surprise by launching its free Cloud Player service, which lets you stream your music collection from the cloud to your computer or Android device. While this has no doubt put a smile on many faces (American ones only, for now), Sony Music isn’t too happy about Amazon jumping the gun over licensing for streaming rights. The record label told Reuters that it’s hoping Amazon “will reach a new license deal, but we’re keeping all of our legal options open.” Yikes. In retaliation, Amazon responded with the following statement to Ars Tehcnica:
“Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It’s like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available. The functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes.”
Of course, the bigger story here is that Amazon’s free Cloud Player is going head-to-head with Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming subscription service, which was pushed out last month after plenty of money talk with various record labels. Understandably, Sony isn’t willing to let Amazon cut through the red tape here without a fight, and this may also affect similar music locker services like mSpot and MP3Tunes, albeit at a much smaller scale. In fact, Sony’s already expressed its discomfort with those particular companies’ mode of operation, so you can probably expect to see this tension boiling over to some form of legal action before long. Now that a big shot like Amazon’s involved, it’s almost inevitable.
Nintendo teases next gaming console, says it probably won't be 3D
Nintendo’s been denying rumors of a new home console for nearly as long as we can remember, but every so often those crafty execs slip — accidentally or intentionally letting us know that exciting things are in the works. Well, last we heard from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, a stereoscopic 3D console was on the table, but Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime just swept that notion under the rug. “We’ve not said publicly what the next thing for us will be in the home console space, but based on what we’ve learned on 3-D, likely, that won’t be it,” he told CNN, prompting a legion of 3DTV owners to imagine that their favorite Nintendo characters cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Why would Nintendo dismiss 3D for home gaming on the very same day that its 3D handheld set a sales record? Simply put, the company doesn’t think the glasses-free 3DTV market is ready for such applications. Ah well — guess we’ll just have to settle for a Wii HD, then.
Crackle starts streaming all of its free movies to Roku, PS3, Sony TVs and Blu-ray players
Sony’s Crackle has had a more successful life so far than its previous iteration as Grouper, streaming movies, TV shows and shorts to various devices since launching back in ’07 and announced today its full library will be streaming to the PS3, Roku boxes, Sony Blu-ray players and Bravia TVs. Expanding full access from just the Google TV (there’s also an Android app that currently streams some of the items) it’s taking credit as the only provider offering free full length flicks including Ghostbusters, Bad Boys, A Few Good Men and more for free on these platforms. The drawbacks are video that tops out at 480p standard definition and Hulu-style commercial interruptions but if you absolutely must watch Weekend at Bernies II without spending any money it is an option — at least, as long as the PS3 browser doesn’t crash with an out of memory error like it did for us. It did work better on more capable platforms, so check out the full details in the press release after the break.
Android Market gets in-app billing, your virtual nickels are now spoken for (Video)
Google said they were coming this week, and here they are — Android apps can now have their own miniature storefronts for in-app purchases galore. You’ll find Tap Tap Revenge, Comics, Gun Bros, Deer Hunter Challenge HD, WSOP3 and Dungeon Defenders: FW Deluxe accept your credit card for microtransactions starting this very instant, and Android developers can start building similar functionality into their own creations right now. Head on over to our source link for instructions on how to shake those extra coins out. Don’t want to commit to a full transaction yourself? Hit the break for a quick video refresher of how in-app purchases work.
HTC HD7 finally gets NoDo, WP7 users revel in the splendor of copy / paste
Update: Quick clarification, T-Mobile customers will be getting OTA notifications, but must download the update using Microsoft’s Zune software.
Coulomb's ChargePoint app now provides EV charging station status
There’s unfortunately still no Android version, but Coulomb has now rolled out a fairly significant update to its ChargePoint app for iOS and BlackBerry. In addition to helping you locate EV charging stations in the United States, Europe and Australia, the app will now also provide realtime charging status information, including things like the total cost to charge and the current charging station configuration. Other improvements include a new landscape mode, the ability to view your home ChargePoint station, and the ability to just search for nearby ChargePoint stations (within a thousand foot radius). Full press release is after the break.
Xbox 360 Update Preview Program begins anew, sign up for your sneak peek now
Once upon a time, the Xbox 360 dashboard looked like the picture above — then, Microsoft blasted it with yearly updates to transform it into the warm, welcoming interface we’ve come to know and love. If you’re already aware of that fact, then you may also know that a select group of lucky US gamers typically get to test out the latest revision months ahead of their peers, and today Microsoft’s holding sign-ups for a new version that will include “an updated Xbox 360 disc format,” whatever that might mean. You’ll also get a free copy of Halo: Reach if your name is picked — which, according to Major Nelson, is much more likely if you’re paying for an Xbox LIVE Gold account — so you’ll probably want to dive through ancient email post-haste to find your Windows LIVE ID, head over to our more coverage link and give it a go. Let us know what those new discs are all about if you get in, eh?
