Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Take Dramatic Photos with a DIY Drinking-Straw Snoot [DIY]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/9VVfW8AXYXk/take-dramatic-photos-with-a-diy-drinking+straw-snoot

If you've ever looked a photo with dramatic lighting in the style of old detective movies, you're likely seeing the effect of a snoot—a flash-modifier that directs light in a tight pattern. You can mimic the effect with straws.

The appropriately named blog LightingMods has a tutorial for turning a box of drinking straws, cardboard, and tape into a snoot for your camera flash. A snoot is essentially the opposite of diffusion—we showed you how to diffuse your flash with an old film canister and a cigarette pack—you use a snoot to tightly focus the flash into an intense area, instead of diffusing it softly around the room.

The raw materials are nearly free they're so cheap; the biggest investment you'll make is the time it takes to cut up the straws and glue/tape the whole thing together (which really shouldn't take that long). Check out the tutorial at the link below for sample pictures and a step-by-step build guide. Have a photograph-related hack of your own to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

DIY Black Straw Snoot Grid Part 1 and Part 2 [LightingMods]

Hands On Casio's EX-FH100 High Speed Exilim Camera: Slow Mo Tech is Maturing [Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eoK-zSwjl9U/hands-on-casios-ex+fh100-high-speed-exilim-camera-slow-mo-tech-is-maturing

I love Casio slow motion cameras, even if their stills are generally not all that great. The new EX-FH100 is pocketsized, has a 10x zoom and a new 120frame per second mode that doesn't have low light issues. Love it.

Older cameras would be impossible to use at 300FPS indoors, because the grain and exposure would become an issue. A quick test on the floor of CES showed that even zoomed in, the 120FPS mode, benefiting from the highly light sensitive backlit CMOS, did really well. And truthfully, 120FPS is better for sports, etc than 300FPS, in my opinion. The 120FPS mode also has another benefit — 640 x 480 pixel res, which is more usable than the old 300FPS mode's 512 x 384 res. It has modes up to 1000FPS, though.

I'm getting one of these, without a doubt.

More HP Tablet Rumors: HP Android Tablet Will Be Bite-Sized...and More [Tablets]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/f5e6qiaHQBY/more-hp-tablet-rumors-hp-android-tablet-will-be-bite+sizedand-more

If Ballmer's revelation of the slate wasn't enough HP news for you, Bits reports the Palo Alto-based company is also working on an Android tablet roughly twice the size of an iPhone, and seemingly similar to Dell's Mini 5 Tablet.

Citing an anonymous source, Bits editor Nick Bilton was told there are multiple tablets HP has in the works, and the Android "half-pint" tablet was one of them. HP is also said to be rounding up magazine content partners for the devices, which include Microsoft, Adobe, BusinessWeek and Wired/Conde Nast.

In addition, TechCrunch heard similar rumblings about a HP Android tablet yesterday. [Bits]

Mophie juice pack TV hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/mophie-juice-pack-tv-hands-on/

You won't know it by the product's official name, but this is the FLO TV appendage for the iPhone that's been teased since November last year. Combining a mobile TV receiver with Mophie's juice pack, this is 2mm thicker and noticeably heavier than the normal external battery pack. You can see comparison shots in the gallery below -- the red and black units are samples of the new peripherals while the white one is the standard Mophie hardware. Alas, no working FLO TV demos were available, but we were told the iPhone UI should be one different from what the company offers at present. Reps kept mum on pricing, but they confirmed the juice pack TV should be arriving in the first half of 2010.

Gallery: Mophie juice pack TV hands-on

Mophie juice pack TV hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/fils-sound-film-transparent-speaker-hands-on-video/

Korean gadgets these days are either gunning for next-to-nothing thinness or mind-boggling transparency, which is marvelous. Today we came across another Korean company (and an old friend), Fils, which does transparent "sound film" speakers in many forms: photo frame, umbrella, curtains, cap, hoodie and even model yacht (yeah, seriously), all thanks to the highly-flexible piezoelectric film. Sure, the sound quality was hardly top-notch, but apparently Fils is hooking up with a few big-name Korean electronic companies (TVs?), so we're all going to suffer soon whether you like it or not. Cheer yourself up with the video after the break.

Gallery: Fils Sound Film hands-on

Continue reading Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video)

Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Inbrics M1 is the thinnest Android slider we've seen, probably everything we ever wanted

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/inbrics-m1-is-the-thinnest-android-slider-weve-seen-probably-e/

We don't know what everybody else in the phone business has been doing lately, but Inbrics has just unveiled what looks to be the near-ultimate Android phone. The Inbrics M1 is a slider handset with a (great) 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 3 megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, 16GB of built-in storage, microSD slot and all the other usual trimmings, but what's particularly stunning is that the phone is not only half an inch thick, but it has a full QWERTY keyboard that's surprisingly clicky and typable. The phone is running Android 1.5 right now, but it should be up to Android 2.0 by the time it hits the market in March. The biggest concern is the 800MHz Samsung processor, the same chip that's in the Samsung Moment, but the interface (as demonstrated in the video after the break) is smooth as butter, and they demo'd it playing back 720p video just fine.

Inbrics actually has a lot of custom UI and software running on top of Android, but the most interesting part is what they're doing with video calling and beaming media from handset to videophone to TV to laptop over DLNA or through an access point device that plugs into the TV over HDMI. Inbrics also has a Cover Flow-style media browser that isn't super deep in functionality, but still puts the stock Android stuff to shame, and some rather sexy custom widgets.

The plan is apparently to get a carrier to bite and rebrand this phone in the US, so price and availability are still pretty hard to pin down, but if this phone can hit the market soon it sure could give the rest of the QWERTY Android sliders out there some body image issues.

Gallery: Inbrics M1 hands-on

Continue reading Inbrics M1 is the thinnest Android slider we've seen, probably everything we ever wanted

Inbrics M1 is the thinnest Android slider we've seen, probably everything we ever wanted originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Intel Infoscape HD wall brings real-time web visualization (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/10/intel-infoscape-hd-wall-brings-real-time-web-visualization-hand/

We hate to dampen your excitement right from the get-go, but Intel confessed that it has absolutely no plans of commercializing something like this itself -- but that's not to say someone else couldn't grab a Core i7 and run with the idea themselves. The Infoscape was generating quite a bit of attention at the chip giant's CES booth, boasting twin 7-foot touch panels (each with a 1,920 x 1,920 resolution). The entire installation was powered by a single Core i7-based machine with Intel's own graphics, and it was seen rendering 576 links of live information. Users could touch any individual panel in order to dig deeper and bring up more information on each link, and it had absolutely no trouble pulling up dozens of boxes at once when legions of onlookers decided to touch boxes simultaneously. Hop on past the break to check out a video, and feel free to drop your wildest ideas of where this could be used (like, your den) in comments below.

Gallery: Intel Infoscape HD wall brings real-time web visualization

Continue reading Intel Infoscape HD wall brings real-time web visualization (hands-on)

Intel Infoscape HD wall brings real-time web visualization (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo -- now this is more like it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/10/intel-shows-off-glasses-free-3d-demo-now-this-is-more-like-it/

If you've kept even a loose eye on our CES coverage this year, you'd know that 3D is firmly "in." But our main gripe is that the glasses requirement makes it largely impractical for in-home use. Intel had a comparison demo setup in its massive booth, and it had a top display arranged to showcase glasses-free 3D and the bottom to demonstrate the more traditional glasses-required 3D. A technician at the booth explained that the footage was all specifically shot to fit the format, and a special overlay was applied to the 3D HDTV in order to complete the magic. He confessed that the resolution was "sub-720p," and there were only eight specific places that you could stand at in order to actually get the full experience. We stood around 10 feet back, dead center, and were downright wowed by the results. You could honestly see loads of depth, and everything appeared buttery smooth. Stepping closer resulted in less-than-awesome visuals, but we're definitely stoked by the possibilities here. Take note, TV / content makers -- glasses free > glasses-required.

Gallery: Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo

Continue reading Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo -- now this is more like it

Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo -- now this is more like it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Buffalo brings 4TB TeraStation III WSS NAS to America, streamers in tow

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/10/buffalo-brings-4tb-terastation-iii-wss-nas-to-america-streamers/

Remember that 4TB TeraStation NAS that we saw surface in Japan last September? Liar. We know you're faking it just to save face, but we'll let you slide -- next time, just be straight with us, cool? The TeraStation III WSS has just been cleared for takeoff here in America, boasting four quick-swap SATA hard drives, Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Express Edition and native Active Directory support. Check it right now in 2TB and 4TB editions for $1,599.99 and $1,999.99, respectively.

Buffalo brings 4TB TeraStation III WSS NAS to America, streamers in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source