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Monday, May 23, 2011

Pixlr-O-Matic Adds Retro Grunge to Your Photos on the Fly [Photography]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5804521/pixlr+o+matic-adds-retro-grunge-to-your-photos-on-the-fly

Pixlr-o-matic is a flash-based webapp that allows users to add effects to images in a way reminiscent of Hipstamatic on the iPhone. The process moves the user through three processing steps, which mimic the effects of old film/developer combinations, lenses, and cropping. Images can either be snapped via webcam, or uploaded to the site straight from the computer. The whole thing takes about a minute, and finished images can either be saved when finished or shared directly through imm.io, which is Pixlr's own image-sharing service.

Though there are three steps to the process, users have the option of saving the image at any time and skipping any portion of the process.

Pixlr-o-matic comes from the same group that made the previously mentioned Pixlr editor back in 2008, which focused on a more standard set of image-editing tools.

Dell XPS 15z coming tomorrow for $999?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/dell-xps-15z-coming-tomorrow-for-999/

The thinnest 15-inch laptop "on the planet" is coming tomorrow, costing a measly $999, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a profile of Dell's recent history and forthcoming plans in the consumer electronics market, the financial paper twice makes reference to an ultrathin, $999 laptop that is set to launch on Tuesday of this week. Pairing that intel with the abundance of leaks surrounding the slinky 15.6-inch XPS 15z -- including a Michael Dell tweet promising it's "coming soon" -- leads us to the conclusion that we've finally gotten ahold of the price and date for Dell's next big thing. Interestingly enough, the WSJ article goes on to say that Dell had canned a similar set of slim laptops earlier in the year, which might give us greater hope for the quality of the 15z -- it survived where others didn't.

Other disclosures in the piece include a quote from Michael Dell, saying that he "didn't completely see" the tablet boom coming, which might explain why sales of his company's Streak tablets have been low enough to be described as "immaterial." There's also a discussion of the abortive Zing music service and related MP3 players that never were, but you'll have to hit the source link to learn more about them.

Dell XPS 15z coming tomorrow for $999? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissho starts selling 52-inch, glasses-free 3D TV with Full HD resolution in Japan

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/nissho-starts-selling-52-inch-glasses-free-3d-tv-with-full-hd-r/

Remember Dimenco? A four-man splinter group of former Philips employees, the company has been hard at work refining its glasses-free 3D display tech and today some of the earliest fruit of its labor is going on sale. Nissho Electronics in Japan is beginning sales of a 52-inch LCD panel that can pump out full 1080p of 3D vision without requiring any headgear from the viewer. Initially, this big lenticular display will target businesses, who'll be among the few to be able to afford the ¥1.7 million ($20,820) asking price. Other specs include a 2,000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms response time, 700 nits of brightness, and a 60Hz refresh rate. The 3D on this TV is actually described as a unique "2D + depth" implementation, which can also be used to convert 2D images in real time. Great, now take a zero out of that price, ship it westwards, and watch the sales really take off.

Nissho starts selling 52-inch, glasses-free 3D TV with Full HD resolution in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/livescribe-connect-upgrade-lets-you-share-doodles-in-many-differ/

Pen pushers who took a chance on Livescribe's note-recording smartpen have benefited from some nice apps, hacks and upgrades along the way. Now the company's latest productivity-booster is a software update called Connect, which lets you share your scribbles via Email, Google Docs, Facebook and Evernote, as well as through Livescribe's own Pencast platform. Some of these sharing options were already available but Connect tries to speed things in an interesting way: by letting you set sharing instructions even as you jot down a note. Simply draw a double line and write, say, 'Facebook' or 'Google Docs' somewhere on the page, and the sharing will take place automatically the next time you sync to your Mac or PC. Most of the sharing options are free, but if you own an older Pulse model or the new entry-level $99.95 2GB Echo you'll need to buy a $15 upgrade before you can share via Email or Google Docs. Heck, we'd pay way more than that if only Livescribe would come up with a way to sync and share wirelessly -- docking this thing feels about as cutting edge as a quill. Video and full PR after the break.

Continue reading Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video)

Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mo n, 23 May 2011 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP thinks the TouchPad will be 'better than number one,' if that's even possible

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/hp-thinks-the-touchpad-will-be-better-than-number-one-if-that/

HP's expectations for its new TouchPad tablet are running pretty high -- so high, in fact, that they can only be expressed with a make-believe number. During a recent press conference in Cannes, HP's Eric Cador boldly declared that his company's new slate won't just be the best on the market, it'll be the bestest. Cador explained:

"In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP's products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we're going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus."

A spokesman later confirmed that the device will launch in the UK with apps from the Guardian, Sky and Last.fm, but promised that "thousands" of other apps are on the way. The metrics might sound a bit optimistic, but the message is clear: HP thinks the TouchPad will annihilate the iPad and blow our minds to smithereens. We'll just have to wait and see whether it's as explosive as advertised.

HP thinks the TouchPad will be 'better than number one,' if that's even possible originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 03:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Holiday to be a 4.5-inch behemoth with qHD resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core, and AT&T future

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/htc-holiday-to-be-a-4-5-inch-behemoth-with-qhd-resolution-1-2gh/

HTC brought in the 4.3-inch craze, but now that that form factor has gone mainstream, it's looking to even larger dimensions. A 4.5-inch HTC Holiday has been dug up by none other than 911sniper, which is said to pack a qHD resolution (960 x 540), a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and the very latest version of Android Gingerbread (2.3.4). That comes on the heels of Pocketnow unearthing a supposed image of the AT&T-bound smartphone, showing a predictably uncomplicated design framing a vast display. Let's just hope the Holiday codename doesn't mean we'll have to wait till the holidays to see this overpowered new beast in action.

[Thanks, Connor]

HTC Holiday to be a 4.5-inch behemoth with qHD resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core, and AT&T future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Movie theaters could screw up your 2D movies by leaving the digital projector set up for 3D

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/movie-theaters-could-screw-up-your-2d-movies-by-leaving-the-digi/

We generally prefer to do our movie viewing in our own home theaters, but when we succumb to the temptation of public moviehouses we often choose digital projection hoping for a flawless viewing experience. Unfortunately, this report by The Boston Globe indicates that may not be the case. It is alleged by unnamed theater employees that theaters are leaving the 3D lens adapters on their Sony 4K digital projectors even when showing 2D. Just like viewing 3D, this cuts the light output and it's worse for 2D films not made with that in mind, but theaters do it because removing the lenses is overly complex and many moviegoers don't seem to notice or complain. The Globe suggests checking the digital projector yourself -- if you see two beams of light from on high at a 2D flick then something is rotten in Denmark. Check the article at the source link for a rundown of many of the chains using these types of projectors and why that's the case (money), but after this and Liemax premium VOD is starting to sound better and better.

Movie theaters could screw up your 2D movies by leaving the digital projector set up for 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS gets Computex 2011 started early with a tablet teaser, asks us 'pad or phone?'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/asus-gets-computex-2011-started-early-with-a-tablet-teaser/

Oh ASUS, what are you up to now? The company that brought us the wildly popular Eee Pad Transformer has another new tablet brewing in its design labs, which we're promised we'll get to witness for the first time at Computex 2011. Until then, we've been provided with a trio of images to pore over and get the guessing games going. The slate device, whose size and software remain unspecified, is said to feature a bump (above left) and a clip (above right), though there are no explanations given about the function of either. You may see both images in their full size after the break, along with a teaser image from ASUS' Facebook page with the slogan "break the rules: pad or phone?" stood in front of a tablet silhouette. That provides plenty of clues for aspiring Sherlocks out there, but little concrete knowledge. Ah well, Computex is just a week away.

Continue reading ASUS gets Computex 2011 started early with a tablet teaser, asks us 'pad or phone?'

ASUS gets Computex 2011 started early with a tablet teaser, asks us 'pad or phone?' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 04:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing [Hive Five]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5804337/five-best-services-for-quick-image-sharing

When you want to share an image on Twitter, over IM, or in the comments of your favorite blog, full-fledged gallery webapps like Flickr or Picasa are overkill. That's where these quick sharing services come in, filling your need for quick, almost disposable image sharing. Here's a look at five of the most popular services for quickly and easily sharing images on the web.

On Thursday, we asked you which services you used when you needed to share images with friends quickly and easily. You answered, we tallied the votes, and now we're back with the five most popular apps you nominated.

Dropbox

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing If you're already using the popular file-syncing application Dropbox, you can simply drop any image into your public folder, grab the public link (which you can do from the right-click context menu), and share. While it's not strictly for image sharing, Dropbox certainly does the trick. Dropbox has mobile apps for iOS and Android, and easy-to-access folders on your Mac or PC.

CloudApp/FluffyApp

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing CloudApp was designed to be the quickest possible way to share images (and other files) with others. While CloudApp is Mac only, its Windows counterpart, FluffyApp, brings the same features to Windows. Drag and drop an image to the CloudApp icon in your menu bar, or on Windows, to FluffyApp in your system tray, and the file is instantly uploaded, and the short URL to that image gets copied to your clipboard, ready for sharing. Plus, you can make the files you share as private or as public as you choose, so it's another great app to share images but also does much more.

ImageShack/Yfrog

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing ImageShack is probably the quintessential image sharing site and service on the web. It started as a way to post images to the web and send links to friends in just three clicks (browse, select, and upload,) and has since grown into a service complete with user accounts, video hosting, an iOS app, and a very popular mobile image hosting service (complete with short URLs) called Yfrog. Yfrog is almost universally supported among Twitter clients, and is almost as popular as TwitPic was before its controversial ToS change.

Imgur

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing Imgur's star has risen in the past few years because it provides a clean, free, and open alternative to other services like ImageShack and Photobucket. Uploading from your desktop is simple as clicking browse and selecting your image. Re-sharing an image already on the web elsewhere is as easy as copy/pasting its URL. Imgur has Firefox and Chrome extensions, a Wordpress plugin, and even image uploaders for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Plus, each image tracks views and allows for comments from the community, which is a plus and a minus depending on your perspective.

Min.us

Five Best Services for Quick Image Sharing Drag and drop your images, music, or video onto your browser window at Min.us, and they'll be instantly uploaded. Sign-ups are as easy as filling in two or three fields. For a service as new as min.us is, it's taking the right approach to simple and quick image sharing. To streamline how you share your photos, Min.us has browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, desktop uploaders for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and mobile uploaders for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7. If you want a service with a short URL and not a lot of traffic, Min.us is worth a try.

Now that you've seen the best options, it's time to vote for a favorite.

What's the Best Service for Quick Image Sharing?online surveys

This week's honorable mentions to go PicPlz and TinyPic, two other excellent services with a lot of fans. You'll need an account to use it, but PicPlz combines social image sharing and tons of great filter effects for your photos with quick uploads and mobile apps for iOS and Android. On your phone or desktop, just select the image you want to share, apply a filter, and click upload. TinyPic is a bit more bare-bones, but it also offers two-click uploads and has mobile support in a number of services, including Twitter apps – partially because it was born from PhotoBucket.

Did we leave out your favorite? Have one that you think everyone should try? Let's hear it in the comments. Photo by Ed Castillo.

You can follow Alan Henry, the author of this post, on Twitter.

NC governor will let cable-backed bill restricting municipal broadband become law

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/22/nc-governor-will-let-cable-backed-bill-restricting-municipal-bro/

We've repeatedly hammered Time Warner Cable (and its big-cable cronies) for crying to the North Carolina legislature about municipal broadband. TWC claims it can't compete with taxpayer-backed ISPs such as Wilson, NC's Greenlight -- and that it shouldn't have to. In fact, Greenlight and four other municipal providers came about specifically because corporate players refused to provide inexpensive, fast broadband. And now that local governments have proven they can provide it, the cable companies have cried foul, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into select political pockets all the while. That's the drama so far, and now a bill restricting municipal broadband -- mandating that providers pay taxes similar to private companies, for example -- has landed on the desk of Governor Bev Perdue. She won't veto the bill, meaning it will soon become a law; for whatever it's worth (read: not much), she also refuses to sign it. The reason? Here it is from the horse's mouth:

I will neither sign nor veto this bill. Instead, I call on the General Assembly to revisit this issue and adopt rules that not only promote fairness but also allow for the greatest number of high quality and affordable broadband options for consumers.

The legislation strikes a blow against public ISPs in a country that ranks ninth in the world for broadband adoption and download speeds. And that, apparently, is what "fair competition" looks like in the US.

[Image courtesy of IndyWeek]

NC governor will let cable-backed bill restricting municipal broadband become law originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 May 2011 02:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TMS RamSan-70 SSD packs 2GB-per-second throughput, up to 900GB capacity

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/22/tms-ramsan-70-ssd-packs-2gb-per-second-throughput-up-to-900gb-c/

There are SSDs and then there are SSDs -- the Texas Memory Systems (TMS) RamSan-70 is definitely the latter, packing 900GB of high-speed SLC NAND flash onto a single half-length PCIe card. Boasting an incredible 2GB-per-second sustained external throughput, this near-terabyte solid state drive is clearly overkill for most of us, considering that it's guaranteed to have a sky-high price (once details are released). Instead, the "900GB Gorilla," as it's come to be known around TMS HQ, is destined for high-end servers -- though we certainly wouldn't object to clearing out a slot in our desktop, if by some miracle we can afford this monster when it starts shipping in four to eight weeks.

Continue reading TMS RamSan-70 SSD packs 2GB-per-second throughput, up to 900GB capacity

TMS RamSan-70 SSD packs 2GB-per-second throughput, up to 900GB capacity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 May 2011 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Protect IP Act: Google's Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/22/the-protect-ip-act-googles-eric-schmidt-squares-off-against-ri/

The Protect IP Act: Google's Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA

Protecting intellectual property sounds like such a noble cause that you'd have to be a anarchistic free-market extremist to be against the idea, right? Actually, we don't think Google CEO Eric Schmidt is particularly extreme in any definable way, yet this past week he spoke with gusto, railing against the proposed Protect IP Act, which is was designed to "prevent online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property." If passed into law, it would give the government the right to shut down any "Internet site dedicated to infringing activities" -- "infringing activities" largely being of the sort that allows dude A to download copyrighted item B from dude C when it's unclear whether dude C has legal rights to be distributing B in the first place.

So, you know, it's targeting the Pirate Bay and its ilk, giving government officials greater power to sweep in and snag the domains of such sites. Schmidt calls this approach a set of "arbitrarily simple solutions to complex problems" that "sets a very bad precedent." The precedent? That it's okay for democratic governments to go and kill any site they don't like, something Schmidt says would only encourage restrictive policies in countries like China. While we don't think China really needs any sort of encouragement at all to keep on building up its Great Firewall, we tend to agree that this is a much more complicated problem than the Act makes it out to be. That said, one must admit that Schmidt's opinions are necessarily somewhat swayed by the knowledge that any such law would also have a negative impact on the business of search engines in general.

But of course no such volley of words could go unanswered from the two shining knights of copyright protection, the MPAA and RIAA, which mounted up their corporate blogs, rode down from twin castles full of lawyers, and collectively told Schmidt he's full of it. The MPAA spun Schmidt's comments into some sort of act of civil disobedience, saying that "Google seems to think it's above America's laws." Meanwhile, the RIAA called the statement "a confusing step backwards by one of the most influential internet companies." Obviously it's only going to get nastier from here, so buckle your seatbelts, place your bets, and hang on to your BitTorrent clients.

The Protect IP Act: Google's Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 May 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Remove Press Releases from Google News for More Useful News [News]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5804203/remove-press-releases-from-google-news-for-more-useful-news

Google News is great, but a side effect of indexing thousands of sources for news means sometimes you'll stumble on promotional press releases and not actual news. Thankfully, Google has given us a new way to turn off press releases or blogs from your Google News feed. Here's how.

Head into your Google News preferences and you'll see some new options to help you customize which news sources are included in your feed and which ones are always excluded. You've always been able to add sites that you want to see more, less, or no news from in Google News, but you now have the same control for blogs and press releases.

At the bottom of your preferences, there are radio buttons for more, fewer, and no news at all for each option. Just toggle the Press Releases button to none to eliminate them from your news feed, and enjoy more articles from actual news sources in your Google News stream.

Hide Blogs and Press Releases from Google News | Digital Inspiration

You can follow Alan Henry, the author of this post, on Twitter.

Google's CR-48 apparently shipping again, doing the prototype death rattle

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/21/googles-cr-48-apparently-shipping-again-doing-the-prototype-de/

Reports are trickling in that Google has begun shipping the CR-48 to eager testers who've thus far been empty-handed after signing up for the units back in December. Could it be? Is the plucky prototype Chrome OS laptop getting a stay of execution after being declared all dried up back in March? That's pretty unlikely, given the impending release of the Samsung and Acer netbooks that we saw announced during Google I/O. It seems a lot more plausible that the company is just exhausting the supply, so if you signed up late last year and haven't received one yet, we wouldn't recommend holding your breath.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Google's CR-48 apparently shipping again, doing the prototype death rattle originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 May 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Evo 3D, View 4G available for pre-order at Sprint

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/21/htc-evo-3d-view-4g-available-for-pre-order-at-sprint/

Sprint customers holding out for the HTC Evo 3D can now inch slightly closer to that glasses-free display -- without dropping by RadioShack. The carrier has confirmed that you can reserve the WiMAX handset by visiting a Sprint-owned retail store and plunking down $50 for a gift card. There's still no word on when you'll be able to get the device in-hand (and the 3D's exclusive carrier is mum on pricing), but, if you don't mind reserving a phone without any hint as to how much you'll eventually need to pay, then Sprint seems happy enough to swap your Grant for a spot on the list. It's also taking names for the Evo View 4G tablet and, like the 3D, that $50 deposit can be used to take a bite out of a 2D handset. You know, in case you decide that a third dimension is too hot to handle.

[Thanks, Brett]

HTC Evo 3D, View 4G available for pre-order at Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 May 2011 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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