SoundTracking for iPhone [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5790972/soundtracking-for-iphone

Songs can sound different depending on when and where you hear them—I can only appreciate the subtle craftsmanship of Katy Perry, for example, when I'm at home with my headphones on. SoundTracking takes the "now playing"-style share to the next level by letting you announce what you're listening to as well as where you are and what you're doing while listening to it.

What is it?

SoundTracking, Free, iPhone. Firing up SoundTracking for the first time, the app makes you login to Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare (or all three) to find fellow SoundTrackers and to determine where your soundtrack posts will go. From there, it's an Instagram-style single serving social network—you have a "feed" that shows you friends posts (which you can listen to iTunes snippets of, "like" for later perusal, etc) , a section for notifications, one for trending music, and more. The heart of the activity is the "SoundTrack" section, which lets you share what you've got on. You can use a music search to enter your song manually; use a Shazam-like music identifier to figure out what's got you tapping your toes, or just tap "On my iPod app" to cull the info from your ID3 tags. Then, if you so choose, you can attach a photo, pick the name of the place where you're listening, or just type in a short description of what you're doing.

Who's it good for?

People who routinely find themselves wanting to share what they're listening to with friends.

Why's it better than alternatives?

Adding photo and note attachments probably makes your "this is what I'm listening to right now" updates a little bit more compelling to your social media friends, and allowing users to report what they're listening to automatically via iPod, manually, or with song ID is pretty slick. The app itself is well designed and free, too.

How could it be even better?

It does what it sets out to do quite well, but who is really that keen on broadcasting their playlists anyway? And when there comes that occasional summer evening where I'm listening to some Panda Bear song just as the sun is setting and it seems like the sights and the sounds are ~*perfectly*~ in sync I can just attach a Twitpic, no? So it'd be nice to see the music discovery tools fleshed out a bit—maybe a location-based "trending" page instead of just a block of cover art.

SoundTracking for iPhone | iTunes

We're always looking for cool apps—for iOS, Android, Windows Phone or whatever else—to feature as App of the Day. If you come across one you think we should take a look at, please let us know.

For more apps, check out our weekly app roundups for iPhone, iPad, and Android

Video music: Kevin MacLeod

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This Sponsored Gadget is the Beginning of theâ¦Look, Free Stuff! [Opinion]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5791056/this-advertising-sponsored-gadget-is-the-beginning-of-thelook-free-stuff

Amazon's new Kindle is really their old one made cheaper by the inclusion of ads. It at first caused me utter outrage. I felt as angry as if if someone took my favorite book (The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau, in case you're wondering) took some paste, and covered up the dolphins and the last few paragraphs of every chapter with advertisements for Chuck E. Cheese. I felt like shouting, "THESE. ARE. MY. WORDS...MAN."

Then someone explained to me that the ads only come on when the Kindle is a screensaver, and at the bottom of the menu screens. Never in books. (The illustration above is our own, not an actual screenshot.) And that the ads are deals for discounts on things.

It's not that bad of a proposition. But even while I thought that, another part of my brain, the part closer to my balls, called me a sellout.; I am deeply weirded out by this, but in a meta way. See, this entire ad-sponsored gadget was ingeniously designed to be just passable; to be just slightly less than offensive on the offense-o-meter. Like a pervert on the subway that stares or even gropes only just long or lightly enough to avoid being slapped or chastised. It is set up just so that the people who are mad are the ones who look like the unreasonable ones. Even now I have to ask you, am I acting crazy here? Because, I feel like this is a dangerous thing. But only because I have a personal history of really wanting to buy things at discount. I need help, and not in the "Here, let me fill up your shopping cart" kind of way.

I rarely get to read books as often as I'd like. And when I do, it is because I am trying to unwind and learn and perhaps gain a glimpse into the innermost life and creative place of the author's mind. I am openhearted and open minded when I read. And so I am afraid of what might happen to my subconscious when a Buick is flashed before my eyes right before I sleep when I flip off my Kindle. Will I sleep walk into the nearest 24-hour car dealership and buy some Detroit steel? Maybe not. But I don't need to be exposed to persuasive commerce-inducing tools of trade at these vulnerable moments. Spare the books from the ads and save my brain.

This also feels like the kind of brilliant move that will be mirrored across the land. What's next, discounted video cameras that slip in split-second subliminal ads for Gatorade in your son's football game? MP3 players that play ads for Soda Pop backwards when you play your music forward? TVs that don't turn off, but play a few seconds worth of ads when you click the power button? Cameras that watermark your friends' heads with Tom Cruise's face to shill for Mission Impossible part six?!

No, probably not. Ad subsidy doesn't make sense for most gadgets. Our home content seems particularly off limits. But any gadget that has a conduit to professional media is a potential billboard. But let me say this to Amazon, and any other maker of gadget maker: I am not this cheap and this is still my gadget.

First off, 17-percent is not enough of a discount. You're going to make money on these gadgets after you sell them. More if you move more of the gadget providing the platform. I know you can't give these away for free—people might just leave them in the closet and then you'd be at a loss. But how about you give us 50% off to make this deal really compelling. And so your ad platform has more inventory.

Two! I'm game for this deals thing, but please give me deals I care about. I am never buying a Buick!

Three, how about you give me a free book or some other media in exchange for your ads. Conversely, if I pay for my content, how about you build in a little fee that keeps the ads from running at all. That's right—the discount is nice on the hardware, but if you tuck in a discount on services or content, and let us toggle the ads on and off, I think you'd be pitching me something I can't complain much about at all. Because if an ad flashes in front of my face, let it be because it I am too cheap to support a particular author or artist. Not because I was too cheap to give Amazon even more of my money.

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Ad-supported Kindle to ship May 3rd: saves $25, includes lot of enticement

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/ad-supported-kindle-to-ship-may-3rd-saves-25-adds-lot-of-enti/

Here's a scenario: what if we told you that your next Kindle could be had for $25 less than retail? What if we told you it came from the rear of a nondescript white van? Or what if we told you that you'd first need to sign up for 842 email marketing scams? Thankfully, none of those scenarios are ones we're looking to tell you about. Instead, we're here to introduce you to the world's first ad-supported Kindle, going on sale within Target and Best Buy locations for $114. That represents a gentle $25 savings compared to the price of today's cheapest Kindle, but those 2500 pennies don't come free -- you'll be asked to endure "advertisements on the bottom of the device's home page and on its screen savers." Furthermore, it sets a new precedent in the gadget arena that could very well carry over to ad-discounted tablets, netbooks, PMPs, and who knows what else. At this point, Buick, Olay and Visa will be advertising, and we get the impression that said list will bloom in due time. It's hard to say just how intrusive they'll be, but Kindle director Jay Marine seems to think that "customers are going to love it."

We aren't so sure. While it's crystal clear that the general populace adores coupon cutting, it seems problematic to us to ship a pair of identical products that cost within $25 of one another and expect Joe Sixpack to grok the difference. In fact, we're guessing that this will inevitably lead to consumer complaints from those who can't figure out why their "on sale Kindle" isn't nearly as enjoyable to read as "Bob's Kindle... that he found during a sale." At any rate, a demo of the new device displayed a screen saver deal "where customers would pay $10 for a $20 gift card to Amazon," and while no ads will appear in e-books, there's still "a clear advertisement" along the bottom of the home screen. All that said, here's the key feature that Amazon's seemingly overlooking: an option in the software to pay back the $25 a customer skimped on to do away with the ads on their ad-supported e-reader. Solves the buyer's remorse problem, at least.

Update: And it's official -- PR's after the break!

Continue reading Ad-supported Kindle to ship May 3rd: saves $25, includes lot of enticement

Ad-supported Kindle to ship May 3rd: saves $25, includes lot of enticement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bluetrek releases lightweight Carbon: world's first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/bluetrek-releases-lightweight-carbon-worlds-first-carbon-fiber/

When this rather smashing little piece of gadgetry made its way through the FCC last week, we didn't have a whole lot of details to share about the "world's first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset." Well, Bluetrek's making the Carbon official today with a $70 price tag and a full set of specs. The thing weighs in at a mere .25 ounces, touts Bluetooth v3.0 support, and allows for four and a half hours of talk time or five days on standby. It also comes with a set of four earbuds in different sizes, so anyone can rock the lightweight headset no matter how big, or small, the ear hole. The Carbon is now on sale at the source link below. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Bluetrek releases lightweight Carbon: world's first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset

Bluetrek releases lightweight Carbon: world's first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matrox strikes at NAB, first to market with Thunderbolt products

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/matrox-strikes-at-nab-first-to-market-with-thunderbolt-products/

Word out of NAB is that Matrox, known best for enabling day-traders to run an excessive number of monitors off a single graphics card, will be the first company to market with peripherals designed to use Thunderbolt. All the latest models of its MXO2 family of video I/O boxes will be shipping with Thunderbolt on board, while budding film makers using the current gen MXO2 devices will be able to push 10Gb worth of pixels per second by picking up an adapter. Matrox didn't announce a firm release date or price, though we expect it will fall in line with the current products, which range from $449 up to almost $2,400 for the MXO2 Rack with Matrox Max. They're not exactly must have accessories for the average user, but if you simply can't wait any longer to put those Thunderbolt ports to use, it's the only game in town.

Matrox strikes at NAB, first to market with Thunderbolt products originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/mtbiggie-is-a-diy-surface-for-the-masses/

Practical or not, there is no denying the nerd-gasm inducing wow factor of Microsoft's Surface. Of course, Surface is expensive -- like, unless you're a millionaire you're probably not buying one for personal use expensive. There are some DIY solutions out there, but designer and developer Seth Sandler has come up with the cheapest and easiest yet. Built from about $400 worth of material (some of which you probably have lying about your home / apartment / dungeon), the MTbiggie brings big-screen multitouch to the masses. Like the hacker's previous homebrew multitouch device, the MTmini, there's nothing particularly difficult to find here. All you need is a couple of chairs, a mirror, a projector, an infrared webcam (which you can easily hack together with some old film negatives and cardboard), a big sheet of paper and an equally large piece of clear acrylic. Just set it all up according to the instructions in the video below and in no time you be finger painting and playing Angry Birds on a screen that dwarfs your iPad -- and possibly your kitchen table, too.

Continue reading MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses

MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple hires carbon fiber expert to posit composites

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/apple-hires-carbon-fiber-expert-kevin-kenney-to-posit-composites/

If you're going to compete in the consumer electronics business then you'd better have a solid grasp of industrial design and materials science. Otherwise, you're just another manufacturer trying to eke profit from drab slabs of commodity plastic. With the exception of the MacBook, Apple's entire Mac lineup is currently cut from aluminum. However, Apple's been caught experimenting with its newly acquired Liquidmetal materials recently, even as rumors swirl around new ultra-lightweight and durable carbon fiber components and enclosures. Speculation about the latter has been fueled by an Apple patent application for a process that would use carbon fiber materials woven into the reinforced device housings of mobile telephones, laptops, desktops, and tablets. Interestingly enough, the patent app was filed by Kevin M. Kenney (developer of the first all carbon fiber bicycle frame) on behalf of Apple back in 2009, a man who changed his job title to "Senior Composites Engineer at Apple Inc." on LinkedIn at some point after March 1st (according to Google cache). Of course, a carbon fiber laptop is far from unique -- just reference the Sony G11 from 2007 or 2008's Voodoo Envy 133 if you want to see how it's done. But if Apple makes a wholesale shift to carbon fiber in the months ahead then you can expect the horde of me-too OEMs to follow suit a year later. See the before and after LinkedIn profiles for Kenney after the break.

Continue reading Apple hires carbon fiber expert to posit composites

Apple hires carbon fiber expert to posit composites originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MacRumors, 9to5Mac  |  Kevin Kenney (LinkedIn), Kevin Kenney (LinkedIn cache)  | Email this | Comments

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Panasonic's AG-3DA1 camera will shoot 3D video, Robonaut vlogs on the International Space Station

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/panasonics-ag-3da1-camera-will-shoot-3d-video-robonaut-vlogs-o/

NASA's Robonaut 2 is something of a celebrity around these parts, owing to his dashing good looks and insatiable appetite for publicity, which can now be put to good use with a new toy the landlubbers are sending his way: a professional 3D camera. The human-aiding robot that presently calls the International Space Station home will soon be joined by Panasonic's AG-3DA1, a full 1080p 3D video recorder with twin lenses and dual 2 megapixel 3MOS sensors. Panasonic is also loading up the next Space Shuttle Atlantis flight to the ISS (scheduled for June 28th) with 25.5-inch 3D LCD monitors and rugged Toughbook laptops to help with documenting proceedings aboard the research vessel. The new shooter costs a whopping $21,000, and though it's not clear whether NASA paid for it or Panasonic just decided to be charitable, the space agency should have the cash to splash after deciding to shelve the James Cameron-approved project to slap a zoom-equipped 3D imager on its next Mars rover. We're just wondering if the human world is quite ready for 3D video blogs from its favorite robotic astronaut.

Continue reading Panasonic's AG-3DA1 camera will shoot 3D video, Robonaut vlogs on the International Space Station

Pana sonic's AG-3DA1 camera will shoot 3D video, Robonaut vlogs on the International Space Station originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe And Zend Launch Flash Builder 4.5 For PHP Development

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/adobe-and-zend-launch-flash-builder-4-5-for-php-development/

Adobe and Zend Technologies, the PHP distribution company, are announcing Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP software, a new integrated product aimed at helping PHP developers create rich Internet applications for mobile, Web and desktop leveraging the Flash Platform.

Zend, which has been working with Adobe since 2008, offers its own distribution of PHP, the popular open-source scripting language for Web applications, and sells software and support services around the language.

The Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP gives developers a single code base for applications for Android, Blackberry Tablet OS and iOS while sharing code from Web applications. Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP includes an integrated copy of Zend Studio 8, which allows developers to develop Flash based applications within a single environment. Specifically, the integrated software offers a single UI framework to create Flex and PHP projects for desktop and mobile and the ability to connect to PHP services and generate ActionScript value objects.

The combination of the two frameworks in one suite is powerful, says Zend CEO Andi Gutmans. Adobe says that more than 131 million smartphones are expected to have Flash Player installed by the end of the year. And PHP is the leading language for public facing web applications, says Gutmans.

It’s good to see Zend back on the mend, after a rough patch a few years ago.

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Zend Technologies

Information provided by CrunchBase

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These Are the First Three Adobe Photoshop Touch Apps for iPad [Photoshop]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5790662/these-are-the-first-three-adobe-photoshop-touch-apps

Rejoice, Photoshop junkies of the world, because Adobe is jumping into the tablet world for real. And while this is not Photoshop for iPad (yet), my most precious body appendage is tingling with pleasant turgidity anyway.

These are the first three Photoshop Touch apps coming from Adobe. They will be available sometime in May from the App Store and their names are Eazel, Color Lava and Nav. But if Photoshop Touch is not the Photoshop for iPad, what is it and how do these three apps work?

What is Photoshop Touch?

Adobe is updating Photoshop CS5 with a new architecture that will allow it to speak to iOS, Android and Blackberry tablets wirelessly.

Called Photoshop CS5 Extended, the free update has plugs that allow third-party applications to communicate directly with it in real time. These plugs will be publicly accessible through something called the Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit, meaning that any app developer would be able to integrate their applications with desktop Photoshop.

The possibilities of the Photoshop Touch SDK are truly endless. People would be able to use their iPad or Honeycomb tablet to do things like fully control Photoshop tools, from brushes to colors to layers. In effect, this transforms your favorite tablet into a control surface for your favorite image editing software, just like there are apps that could work a control surfaces for music and video editing software.

Adobe Nav for Photoshop CS5

That's the case of the first of their new three apps: Adobe Nav for Photoshop CS5. Using Nav you can create a custom palette with 16 of your favorite tools, as well as use it to pick colors or zoom. It will also allow you to navigate up to 200 documents already opened in Photoshop CS5, access their information, allowing you to reorder them to suit your workflow, and even zoom into the documents at will. Think about this last feature as a virtual light box for your current open documents. Nav will also allow you to open any document from your iPad on your desktop Photoshop instantaneously.

But Adobe's new touch SDK goes beyond turning your tablet into a control surface. Developers would also be able to create painting or photo editing apps that could work independently of the desktop version of Photoshop, but integrate with it when they are connected via Wi-Fi.

Eazel and Color Lava

That's precisely what Adobe has done with Color Lava and Eazel. Color Lava allows you to mix colors in a natural way, like a real paint palette. From the mixes you can create individual color swatches and also color themes. This app works connected to Photoshop in real time, but also on its own. I can imagine an industrial or interior designer using it anywhere to match colors or create color themes that can later be instantly synchronized with the desktop version of Photoshop.

The most exciting app of this pack, however, is Eazel. Their painting application for iPad works completely independently from their desktop version and it uses new technology to simulate paint media and do some really neat and very useful tricks:

• The first is their interface, which looks beautiful in its simplicity: Place five fingers on the screen and controls appear to change color, opacity or brush size.

• The other cool technology is the mixing of wet and dry paint for color blending, with an engine that allows paint to dry over time, just like in real life.

• But my favorite new tech comes with their Photoshop CS5 export process. When you send your paintings from Eazel to Photoshop CS5, you can select to render them at any resolution. In other words: You can re-create your painting and have it ready to print at any size you can imagine, with full detail and no pixelation whatsoever.

I'm a Sketchbook for iPad junkie, but after reading that, I'm sold (I hope Autodesk works CS5 integration on Sketchbook too). I'm specially happy to learn about the resolution-independent export, because it means that a future Photoshop for iPad may work in a similar way.

Future Photoshop Touch apps

I can imagine taking my iPad and my DSLR on a trip, connecting to the iPad to quickly make modifications to RAW photos, compose shots or make HDR on the go using proxy images, and then re-rendering them on the desktop for print resolution (until the iPad has enough built-in memory to handle big DSLR images on its own, something that will happen eventually too).

I will be testing these apps for the next few days and post the review here when they are available in the Apple store, sometime in May. And hopefully, many others—including the full multi-layer digital darkroom shown at Photoshop World 2011—will come both from Adobe and third-party developers soon.

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Vulkano Flow now available, does 480p placeshifting for under a hundred bucks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/10/vulkano-flow-now-available-does-480p-placeshifting-for-under-a/

Monsoon has announced the "general availability" of a new placeshifting box, the Vulkano Flow. As we learned during CES, this box has a $99 price tag and trims last year's Vulkano to just the placeshifting essentials. It's most similar to the Slingbox Solo in that it will accept HD inputs but can only stream video at a max 720x480 resolution, which could be passable watching on a PC with a small screen or one of the mobile apps (iOS, Blackberry, Android, $12.99/ea.) There are a few hands-ons and reviews out already, with ZatzNotFunny noting a few tweaks were still necessary to get things running while The Gadgeteer has a bevy of screenshots for you to check out the UI. Monsoon's other new box, the Blast, is still launching in "the near future," which builds on the Flow's specs (detailed after the break) with DVR recording capability and HDMI output for $199.

Continue reading Vulkano Flow now available, does 480p placeshifting for under a hundred bucks

Vulkano Flow now available, does 480p placeshifting for under a hundred bucks originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG shows off 47-inch transparent IPS LCD with multitouch and Full HD resolution (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/lg-shows-off-47-inch-transparent-ips-lcd-with-multitouch-and-ful/

Where Samsung leads, LG inevitably follows (and vice versa, of course). The Korean electronic arms race has now heated up by an extra few degrees with LG's demo of a crazy new 47-inch display that packs in everything a geek could want: IPS technology, 1080p resolution, multitouch, and some good old transparency... just because. This so-called Window Display is sadly intended for advertisers and other digital signage proprietors, meaning that even if it wasn't still at the concept stage, it likely wouldn't be populating living rooms anyway. Ah well, so long as LG makes sure John Anderton and the precrime unit get one, we'll be happy. Video for the rest of us after the break.

Continue reading LG shows off 47-inch transparent IPS LCD with multitouch and Full HD resolution (video)

LG shows off 47-inch transparent IPS LCD with multitouch and Full HD resolution (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/09/stealth-unveils-the-lpc-670-mini-pc-small-in-size-vast-in-pric/

Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel's Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth's new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that's just for the base model -- check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself... tiny. Press release is after the break.

Gallery: Stealth LPC-670 Mini-PC

Continue reading Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price

Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube Adds Live Streaming Channel for Instant, Interactive Viewing [Video]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5790347/youtube-adds-live-streaming-channel

While YouTube mostly serves up pre-uploaded videos for on demand viewing, they've streamed a few live events in the past, and today they started making it a regular occurrence. If you head to YouTube's new Live channel, you'll see a list of upcoming events that you can watch live, and chat with other YouTube users watching with you. Right now, they're rolling it out gradually, but quite a few popular channels are already streaming, like Hak5, Beyond The Trailer, and Geek Beat TV (pictured above). Head over to the Live channel to check out the upcoming events, and check out YouTube's blog post for more info.

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Create Your Own Dvorak Keyboard [Hacks]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5790451/create-your-own-dvorak-keyboard

Have you ever wondered why the keyboard you are using right now has the characters laid out in that particular order? The standard keyboard layout is called the Qwerty layout, and was designed around 1875. But what if you wanted to try a more efficient layout? The Dvorak keyboard layout was invented just for that reason.

Instead of buying a new keyboard to try out this newer layout, why not just hack an old keyboard so that they keys use the Dvorak layout?

BiOzZ, an intrepid user over at the Hack a day forums, has disassembled an old Kensington keyboard, washed the parts, and then re-assembled it using the new key mappings.

Everything was relatively easy to change over, with the exception that some of the keys had backwards connections that required a 90 degree change to the orientation of the key. With a little correction using a label maker, they keys are now very usable.

The final step is telling your OS to use the Dvorak layout rather than the standard Qwerty layout that you are using right now.

Have you attempted to make the change to a Dvorak keyboard layout? Let us know how it went in the comments!

Qwerty to Dvorak Keyboard Conversion via Hack a day Forums

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