Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at CEATEC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/video-microvisions-laser-based-show-wx-pico-projector-shines-a/

Microvision just struck a deal to start shipping its PicoP-based SHOW WX pico projector in Asia, and while the size may not blow any minds, the image quality just might. With a native 848 x 480 resolution (WVGA), this one pumps out more pixels than pretty much any other pico projector on the market today, and with enough darkness, it can actually spit out an image that's around 100-inches in size. We stopped by the company's booth here at CEATEC in order to have a look at what makes the world's first laser-based pico PJ so special, and we can honestly say the picture was pretty stunning (considering the device we're talking about). We got a lecture on just how amazing the innards actually are (hear for yourself after the break), but it's the estimated $500 price tag and 2010 US ship date that really had us intrigued.

The company also confessed that it's toiling away in an effort to miniaturize its PicoP engine even further, and while it wouldn't come right out and say it, we got the feeling that it was jonesing to get that very device into all sorts of other gizmos in the near future. In the meanwhile, you can expect the SHOW WX to ship with support for pretty much any input via a composite adapter, while an iPod / iPhone connector is apt to be bundled in as well. There's also a 3.5 millimeter audio passthrough, 10 lumens of brightness, a 60Hz refresh rate (trust us, the lines you see in the video aren't seen by the naked eye) and a built-in battery good for two hours on a charge. Oh, and this thing's ability to refocus instantly as you move it closer and farther from the wall is pretty swank -- just sayin'.

Continue reading Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at CEATEC

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Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at! CEATEC< /a> originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/google-and-verizon-announce-partnership-love-and-new-android-ha/

Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result
We've seen blurry pics and reports from inventory systems, and now the official confirmation. This morning's joint press conference between Verizon and Google has resulted in a holy matrimony of sorts; a melding of the minds; a promise of new hardware to come. Yes, it's just a promise for now as neither company took the chance to confirm the Sholes or any of the other devices that have been popping up. But, Verizon did at least say that the agreement "will come to fruition within the next few weeks as Verizon Wireless introduces Android-based handsets." So, it won't be long now.

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Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trad'l ads are like homeless mktng - at best, you'll get a glance; what are the chances they'll stop & give you money? http://bit.ly/dFdKB

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FTC Cracks Down on Blogger Payola, Celebrity Tweets; Rules on Endorsements and Testimonials Extended to Social Media - http://bit.ly/WGguV

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Adweek: Shouldn't advertising pros base their creativity on the facts/data? (and don't say we do so already) - http://bit.ly/2ByyPR

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Monday, October 05, 2009

Use TinEye to Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpaper [Image Search]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/_lXICTfLKhc/use-tineye-to-find-source-images-for-desktop-wallpaper

It turns out that TinEye, the image search engine, is good for more than simply finding carbon-copy matches of pictures. You can also use it to go from a screenshot of a desktop to the source image.

While reviewing the TinEye Firefox extension last week, we noted that results were rather precise in nature and that variations on an image were often excluded. While that is true to an extent, reader TheLostVikings pointed out a way he uses the database and that it wasn't quite as narrow in scope as we initially believed:

Note on the "surgically precise" comment. I routinely use TinEye to find the actual background image when people post pictures [of] their desktops (complete with open windows, taskbars, docks, etc) and tineye will usually be able to locate the original picture.

To test this approach out we fired up Firefox with the TinEye extension and headed over to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Pool. Chalk it up to luck or the popularity of the images people were using for their desktop background, but we were able to find 8 out of 10 of the source background images using TinEye.

The next time you see a capture of someone's desktop and you're dying to know where they got the cool background, give TinEye a shot at finding it for you. Thanks TheLostVikings!



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NirLauncher is the Ultimate Flash Drive Toolkit [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/fSs_pwSfsr4/nirlauncher-is-the-ultimate-flash-drive-toolkit

Windows only: Portable application NirLauncher bundles 100+ of the best NirSoft utilities into a single launcher window, and even allows you to add your own utilities to make a killer flash drive toolkit.

Once you've downloaded the zip file, you can extract the contents into a new folder on your desktop or flash drive, and then launch the NirLauncher.exe application from that folder, which will give you quick access to the 100+ NirSoft utilities included in the package.

It's important to note that because of the system-tweaking, hacking nature of the NirSoft utilities, they sometimes come through as a false positive on your anti-malware utility—but that doesn't mean that they are infected with a virus. Depending on the type of system protection that you have installed, you might have to remove the files from the quarantine folder in order to use all of the utilities.

Tweaking the Launcher

You can edit the included NirSoft.nlp file in a text editor to add or remove the utilities that you prefer—or you can even create a new .NLP file with your own customized settings. Just make sure to use relative paths to the executable files to make sure that they will be portable when you put it onto your flash drive.

The NirSoft blog even provides a launcher file for the suite of awesome, portable, system-tweaking tools from SysInternals—simply download the launcher file and extract all of the SysInternals applications into a folder, and then use the Launcher -> Add Software Package menu to add the entire grou! p into t he application. Once you've got them there, you can switch between the NirSoft and SysInternals groups with the F3 key, or through the Launcher menu.

NirLauncher is a free download for Windows only. What applications would you include in your own portable flash drive toolkit? Tell us in the comments. Thanks, Scott!

NirLauncher [NirSoft]


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SpotOn Motion-Sensing LED Light Brightens Your Dark Corners [Stuff We Like]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/eftjUIpI344/spoton-motion+sensing-led-light-brightens-your-dark-corners

Whether you've got a dark closet with no electricity running to it or a freezer without a light, the Philips SpotOn LED motion-sensing portable light illuminates the dark corners of your place.

In fact, a freezer lacking a light is exactly how Joseph Stirt over at Cool Tools put the SpotOn to use:

[The missing light] wasn't enough of a pain to go through exchanging refrigerators, but for the past 15 or so years, it's been a minor annoyance, requiring me to turn on a kitchen light to see what's in there. Until I remembered these motion-sensing LED lights I'd already placed in about a dozen spots throughout my house. Who says I can't put one of those in the freezer compartment, such that the motion of opening the door turns on the light? So I did just that and darned if it doesn't work beautifully. Better 15 years late than never.

The SpotOn will set you back $17 on Amazon.



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AVG 9 Antivirus Improves Performance, Adds Identity Theft Tool [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NrPpiLE9LKk/avg-9-antivirus-improves-performance-adds-identity-theft-tool

Windows only: One of our readers' favorite antivirus applications, AVG, has updated, claiming faster scan times (up to 50%), boot times (10-15%), and less memory usage. On top of that, it's added a new feature to assist with identity theft.

The identity theft feature, as reported by CNET, is only available in the U.S., and pairs the folks at AVG with a service called Identity Guard that integrates with your browser toolbar (Firefox and IE only); Identity Guard is there to help you avoid and handle identity theft.

Frankly, the Identity Guard addition doesn't seem like something to get all that excited about (who wants another browser toolbar, anyway?), but if nothing else, the performance boosts are worth the update for die-hard AVG fans.

AVG comes in both freeware and shareware versions, Windows only. Currently only the shareware version is ready for the update—apparently AVG delays the release of AVG Free to give their pay versions a little more time in the limelight. Unfortunately that means AVG Free users—which I suspect is most AVG users—will have to wait a bit longer to update to the faster version.



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PhotoFilmStrip Creates Ken Burns-Style Video from Images [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/yhCgSXDETwY/photofilmstrip-creates-ken-burns+style-video-from-images

Windows/Linux: Free, open-source application PhotoFilmStrip creates video from photographs quickly and easily, complete with effects, a soundtrack, and smooth zoom in/out effects (commonly referred to as the Ken Burns effect).

The cheesy cat video above demonstrates PhotoFilmStrip in action. Creating your video from still images with the app is a breeze. Just drag and drop pictures you want to use into the application, select the effects you want to use (if any), determine the settings for the pan and zoom Ken Burns effect, and, when you're done, add some background music and export the video to DVD, XviD, or one of the other supported formats. (It can even export in HD.)

PhotoFilmStrip is a free, open-source application for Windows and Linux only. (Mac users, iMovie actually comes with its own Ken Burns effect for still images.) As FreewareGenius points out, it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it handles what it does really well. If you give it a go, let's hear how you like it in the comments.



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Flash Apps to Come to the iPhone, But Not to Safari [IPhone]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/o4JdpfYDL4o/flash-apps-to-come-to-the-iphone-but-not-to-safari

After today's bad news, Adobe Senior Product Manager for Developer Relations Mike Chambers has announced a way to put Flash into the iPhone: Compile Flash into full standalone applications for the App Store. This solves part of the iPhone-Flash conundrum.

Using the next version of Flash Authoring—which is now in private beta—developers will be able to turn any Flash app or widget into an iPhone/iPod touch application. Some apps will require optimization, taking into account the iPhone's hardware limitations and its multi-touch user interface conventions:

The iPhone has a significantly slower processor and less memory than what can be found in a typical desktop computer. As such, existing content may need to be optimized for performance, and / or user interactions (given the smaller screen and different UI metaphors).

However, publishers will be able to easily adjust their existing code at a small cost, developing a full app that would be available at the App Store. While this doesn't fix the lack of Flash in Safari—which Chambers says they are still working on—it's a huge advance. Just imagine Web publishers creating iPhone-capable versions of their sites—or part of them—which would feed on the same online data as their browser-based counterparts.

Now, if Adobe introduced a Flash video player, and Apple enabled Safari to recognize Flash video like they do now with YouTube H.234 material, everything would be fine. [Flash apps for iPhone and Mike Chambers]




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Using the Red One and 5d Mark II to Create Living Magazines [Magazines]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7NrcSZzASqs/using-the-red-one-and-5d-mark-ii-to-create-living-magazines

Magazines are going down the crapper as a medium, but the crew at Alexx Henry photography envisions a world where OLED and eInk screens put motion into mags and makes them cutting-edge.

Is this what the future of publishing looks like? Well, I'd be pretty surprised if these techs became anywhere close to disposable anytime soon. Instead, we'll be seeing things like the Apple Tablet and Microsoft Courier coming along to load up stuff like this. But despite the packaging differences, the finished product loaded on these next-gen displays could be pretty similar to this. And it looks pretty badass. [Living Art Media]




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Conde Nast Closes Four Magazines, Focusing on Digital Distribution [Digital]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Z9jjOQ0V1FE/conde-nast-closes-four-magazines-focusing-on-digital-distribution

Normally the closure of two bridal magazines, a dining magazine and a mom magazine wouldn't be notable; except that this time their publisher, Conde Nast, notes that they're going to focus on digital distribution instead.

The important part of Gawker's memo is here:

In the coming weeks, we hope to announce initiatives to develop digital versions of our brands that will make use of new devices and distribution channels.

New devices makes it seem like it's not just moving those four publications online—a move that would have succeeded already if just going online would save magazines. It's that new devices bit that's intriguing. [Gawker]




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Crank This Battery To Charge Up [Batteries]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7O1MbUWplO4/crank-this-battery-to-charge-up

The Wind Up Battery is a rechargeable battery with a little pop-out hand-crank to power up using some good ol' fashioned elbow grease. I'd probably looks like an idiot using it, but better than suffering without a AA.

Designed by Qian Jiang, the concept is actually rather brilliant since it wouldn't require an additional gadget to recharge your batteries and depending on how many recharges it would allow for, it might be a rather good deal too. Since this battery is still a concept, we're a bit skeptical about the claim that it could be fully charged in 20 minutes, but that would be fast enough for most of us. Those of us who haven't got the arm muscles of a noodle that is. [Yanko Design]




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This Is a Photoshop and It Blew My Mind [Graphics]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/D259gyPgnF0/this-is-a-photoshop-and-it-blew-my-mind

PhotoSketch is an internet-based program that can take the rough, labeled sketch on the left and automagically turn it into the naff montage on the right. Seems unbelievable but—as the video shows—it works:

According to authors, their software can take any rough sketch, with the shape of each element labeled with its name, find images corresponding to each drawn element, judge which are a better match to the shapes, and then seamlessly merge it all into one single image.

PhotoSketch's blending algorithm analyzes each of these images, compares them with each other, and decides which are better for the blending process. It automatically traces and places them into a single photograph, matching the scene, and adding shadows. Of course, the results are less than perfect, but they are good enough:

The authors of the program—Tao Chen, Ming-Ming Cheng, Ping Tan, Ariel Shamir, and Shi-Min Hu at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, and the National University of Singapure—presented it at Siggraph Asia 2009. An event that will be remembered forever in the History of Humanity as the day in which a million of dorks were finally able to put themselves in X-rated positions with Megan Fox. [PhotoSketch—Thanks Brice]




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