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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

FL Studio Mobile lands on iOS, more indie rap albums to be produced while commuting

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/22/fl-studio-mobile-lands-on-ios-more-indie-rap-albums-to-be-produ/

Dream no longer friends, FL Studio Mobile is here for your iOS device of choice. The iPhone and iPod touch version is being offered for $15, while the more expansive HD edition for the iPad is fetching $20 -- but both will see their price climb another $5 after the introductory sale is over. As mentioned you'll be able to pass project files back and forth between the desktop and mobile apps, though the iDevices lack support (and the muscle power) for VST instruments. It also appears the scope of the sequencer had to be scaled back from 128 tracks to 99, but that should be more than enough to keep you tapping out beats like 9th Wonder while riding the train. Hit up the source links to download the portable production suite and check out the gallery below.

Gallery: FL Studio Mobile and FL Studio Mobile HD

FL Studio Mobile lands on iOS, more indie rap albums to be produced while commuting originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Image-Line | ! source

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G-Technology's G-Connect offers 500GB of wireless storage, portable WiFi network to smartphone, tablet users

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/22/g-technologys-g-connect-offers-500gb-of-wireless-storage-porta/

Hitachi's G-Technology unit has already showered us with a slew of external hard drives, but it's taking a slightly more hybridized approach with the G-Connect -- a device that offers both wireless storage and portable WiFi access to smartphone and tablet users. Designed with nomadic content-hoarders in mind, this little rascal boasts 500GB of mobile storage, can simultaneously support more than five different devices on its 802.11n wireless network, and, when connected via Ethernet, serves as a WiFi access point. It's also robust enough to stream up to five standard-definition movies at one time (or up to three HD flicks), and, at about 9.7 ounces, it won't add too much weight to your quiver of gadgets, either. If you're worried about security, you can surround the network with a password-protected fortress, or store some of your less mentionable content in your very own private folder. iOS users can further enhance their G-experience by downloading the accompanying app, which will allow them to view and access all of their G-stored documents and media from the comfort of their iDevices (an equivalent app for the Android crowd will launch this fall). If you're interested, you can pre-order the G-Connect from G-Technology's website for $200, or wait until it hits retailers next month. Full PR past the break.

Gallery: G-Technology G-Connect

Continue reading G-Technology's G-Connect offers 500GB of wireless storage, portable WiFi network to smartphone, tablet users

G-Technology's G-Connect offers 500GB of wireless storage, portable WiFi network to smartphone, tablet users originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Best Photo Management App for Windows [App Directory]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5813895/the-best-photo-management-app-for-windows

Windows has its fair share of photo management programs, but we've chosen Picasa as the best for its impressive feature set and relative ease of use.

Picasa

Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux
Price: Free
Download Page

The Best Photo Management App for Windows

Easily import photos from your camera, flash drive, or hard drive
Scan specific folders on your hard drive and automatically add new photos to your library
Automatically sort photos by date and event
Facial recognition that allows sorting by person
Geotag photos and view albums on a global map
Fix issues like red eye, color, and lighting with a simple, easy-to-use photo editor
Design and create photo collages, video slideshows, screensavers, and more
Share photos via email or through Picasa Web Albums

The Best Photo Management App for Windows

Picasa's main strengths come in the form of organizational power and simplicity in editing. If you want an advanced photo editor, go somewhere else, but Picasa is perfect for the regular home user that just wants to organize their photos and make them look a little better without doing much work (or knowing a whole lot about photo editing). You can organize photos from all over your hard drive, sync them with Picasa's web albums, sort your photos by the people in them, and make all sorts of fancy slideshows to show your friends. You can also perform a few edits on things like lighting and color, most of which are automated by Picasa. You can perform a few manual edits, but not a lot—perfect for those that don't want to be overwhelmed.

The Best Photo Management App for Windows

Unfortunately, Picasa's biggest strengths are also its biggest weaknesses. Its organizational powers are great, but a little confusing at first. When you start up Picasa, it will search your entire hard drive for images and put them into your library. This is great for the disorganized, but will leave you with a huge amount of image (wallpapers, icons, and whatever else) that you certainly don't want in your photo editor. You can edit this from Picasa's Folder Manager, but it isn't obvious or easy to find, which can cause a lot of stress on new users.

Similarly, it gives you barely any control over editing your photos. For the most part, you either get the photo you took, or you get the photo you took that Picasa corrected for you. You have a few manual sliders available like highlights, shadows, and color temperature, but that's about it. That said, its auto-correct features do a really good job at correcting your photos, so you won't be disappointed unless maybe you're a photography nut.

Picasa also only syncs to Picasa Web Albums, which is annoying. If you want to upload to any other non-Google service, like Facebook or Flickr, you'll need a plugin or two to do so.

The Best Photo Management App for Windows

Most basic photo editors are pretty similar to Picasa. Windows Live Photo Gallery is a popular option that integrates well with Windows, allows uploading to SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr, and even has a handy panoramic stitch feature that Picasa is missing. It doesn't, however, have Picasa's video editing features, Picasa Web Albums support, nor is it quite as pretty or easy to use. Another thing people like about it, though is its ability to actually save changes—like names of people or geotag information—to the metadata of the file, which Picasa does not do (though that may be preferable to some). The free version of Zoner is a good option if you don't like Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery, and its $45 Home version or $65 Pro version are a nice step up to more intermediate and advanced editing features.

More seasoned photography buffs will want to check out Adobe Lightroom, which is going to give you many more advanced editing options.

Lastly, as Adam mentioned in his App Directory entry for the Mac, you can always just keep your photos in a series of folders on your hard drive. You don't have to deal with bloated organization programs with features you don't need, you can organize your photos however you want, and even sync them up to the web with Dropbox. It isn't for everyone, but if photo management apps just tend to get in your way, there's no shame in cultivating a very organized My Pictures folder.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories. This week, we're focusing on photo management apps.

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

2D Glasses: 3D's Reign of Terror Ends Now [Lightning Review]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5814090/2d-glasses-3ds-reign-of-terror-is-over

There were better movies playing Sunday afternoon. Super 8, X-Men: First Class. Midnight in Paris. But I bustled past all of those. I headed to theater 7, foul den of Green Lantern 3D. Armed with a superpower of my own.

Plusses
Even if you think 3D is bad, you have no idea how bad it really is. Not until you've alternated between 2D and 3D during the same movie. Every time I switched to 3D, I kept being reminded how fake everything was. It's the difference between Tex Avery and a Vermeer. 2D Glasses are a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for your 3D-addled eyeballs. What once cartoonishly popped out at you, ripping your suspension of disbelief to shreds, now stays flush against the screen where it belongs. Sanctuary. Buy them.

Minuses
2D glasses look very much like 3D glasses, meaning they're pretty uggggs (but it's dark in that theater, so you'll live) and could stand to be a little more comfortable. And this isn't really a minus so much as a warning: these won't work on your active shutter 3DTV. Different technology.

$10 for two pair, including shipping.

Eizo industrial monitor does 4K resolution at 36-inches, start saving now

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/eizo-industrial-monitor-does-4k-resolution-at-36-inches-start-s/

Looking for a display that can do justice to all that 4K footage you've been shooting on your Red One or Arri Alexa lately? Okay, perhaps not. But if you were, then the DuraVision FDH3601 from Eizo Nanao could handle it easily with 4096 x 2160 pixels spread over 36.4-inches of LED-backlit real estate. It comes with another big number too: a price tag of ¥2.88 million ($36,000), which gently hints at the fact that this beast is primarily aimed at specialist industrial applications. Eizo claims it's perfect for air traffic control, where staff can make full use of specs like "Digital Uniformity Correction" circuitry to compensate for uneven color or brightness, motion sensors to power the monitor on or off as needed, and a stand that can be minutely adjusted to get the perfect angle. Suddenly, despite the heavy burden of responsibility and the fact that you have to keep your phone switched off all the time, that career choice seems almost worth it.

Eizo industrial monitor does 4K resolution at 36-inches, start saving now originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechOn! | source

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Dry ice makes graphene cheaper, greener, and by the (relative) boatload

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/dry-ice-makes-graphene-cheaper-greener-and-by-the-relative-b/

Dry ice isn't just great for keeping steaks cold and filling your bathtub with fog, it may also play a major role in producing the miracle ~~metal~~ material graphene. Researchers at Northern Illinois University have discovered that burning magnesium in frozen carbon dioxide produces a thin layer of the hyped-to-the-lattices carbon nanostructure. The so-called dry-ice method has several advantages over previous techniques, not the least of which is the ability to pump out the relative of pencil lead on a much larger scale. It also happens to be faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly compared with the lengthy processes involving hazardous chemicals used in most graphene production. It's pretty great news but, honestly, all we want to know is when the stuff is going to start powering super-fast internet connections -- that complete Flying Circus collection isn't going to download itself.

Dry ice makes graphene cheaper, greener, and by the (relative) boatload originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Physorg | source

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Seesmic Twitter app drops BlackBerry support, RIM's frown sags even lower

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/seesmic-twitter-app-drops-blackberry-support-rims-frown-sags-e/

The third-party app experience has always seemed like an afterthought for RIM. Lousy selection and a half-baked install process are just some of the issues plaguing BlackBerry owners and developers, but there's no blow stronger in the app world than when a dev drops support for a platform, after dedicating the resources necessary to bring a product to market in the first place. That's exactly what Seesmic has done with its popular social media app -- effective June 30th, the company will drop support for BlackBerry, "in order to focus development efforts on (its) most popular mobile platforms." It goes so far as to suggest that users "try out Seesmic for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7," which would of course mean replacing that BlackBerry with another, more app-friendly device. The move doesn't necessarily indicate that other devs will follow suit, but if jumping ship does become a trend, it could put a significant damper on RIM's future earnings, to say the least.

Seesmic Twitter app drops BlackBerry support, RIM's frown sags even lower originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hitting Sprint on June 24th, bring your own 4G

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-hitting-sprint-on-june-24th-bring-your/

Samsung wouldn't get any more specific than "mid-summer" when it revealed that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be coming to Sprint, but it turns out you don't have to wait much longer to pick one via the carrier. Sprint has just announced that the WiFi-only tablet will be available through its website and other channels starting June 24th for the same $499.99 it demands elsewhere (though you'll have to wait until July 24th to get one at a Sprint retail store). It also not-so-subtly notes that the tablet is "even more amazing" when paired with an Overdrive Pro 4G mobile hotspot or Novatel MiFi -- sold separately, of course. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hitting Sprint on June 24th, bring your own 4G

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hitting Sprint on June 24th, bring your own 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 5 is officially released, how are you liking it?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/firefox-5-is-officially-released-how-are-you-liking-it/

Why it seems like only yesterday that our little Firefox had its last major upgrade. As expected, the browser turned 5.0 today, and you can celebrate by downloading it now from Mozilla's site. We'd like to know how your test drive of the update is going so far. Let us know in the poll and the comments below.

View Poll

Firefox 5 is officially released, how are you liking it? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft upgrades SkyDrive, reminds us of its place in the cloud (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/microsoft-upgrades-skydrive-reminds-us-of-its-place-in-the-clou/

Microsoft is sending out a subtle reminder this week that, despite all of the fanfare surrounding its newly announced service, Apple isn't the only game in the cloud. Redmond has unveiled updates to SkyDrive, including speed boosts, a revamped UI, and improvements to photo viewing. The latest version of the almost four-year-old service has cut wait time on actions like clicking folders, from six to nine seconds down to 100 to 300 milliseconds. The updated software also features H.264 video playback, a navigation system more akin to desktop browsing, and a single view for files, docs, and photos. Let Microsoft hold your hand through a video tour of its cloud below.

Continue reading Microsoft upgrades SkyDrive, reminds us of its place in the cloud (video)

Microsoft upgrades SkyDrive, reminds us of its place in the cloud (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6 update brings Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 to PlayBook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/blackberry-tablet-os-v1-0-6-update-brings-flash-10-3-and-air-2-7/

Nah, it ain't the update that'll bring a standalone email client to your BlackBerry PlayBook, but at least it's some positive news in an otherwise gloomy arena surrounding RIM. Version 1.0.6 of the BlackBerry Tablet OS was just cut loose today, bringing support for Adobe's Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 software. In other words, users should see improved Flash performance, and they'll also be able to tap into a new array of apps crafted with AIR 2.7. Oh, and for the security mavens? There's a few built-in updates to safeguard you and yours. It's available over-the-air right now, and if you don't see an update just yet, be patient -- it's en route, we swear.

BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6 update brings Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 to PlayBook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/vizio-tablet-gets-detailed-we-go-hands-on-video/

Way back in January at CES, we managed to sneak in a little bit of hands-on time with the Vizio tablet, the TV manufacturer's straightforwardly-named foray into the ever-popular space. The tablet runs Gingerbread at present, though Vizio has said that it's willing to make the leap over to the tablet-optimized Honeycomb, as soon as that operating system is deemed sufficiently stable by the company. The 1024 x 768 device is multimedia-minded, with an IR controller on the top that lets the whole thing double as a remote for your living room entertainment devices like TVs and VCRs. The tablet also features HDMI out and speakers on the top and side, so you can maintain stereo listening even when you switch its orientation.

Blake Griffin's favorite touchscreen device will be hitting store shelves next month for a fairly reasonable $349 -- we wouldn't have expected anything less than an affordable price point from a company like Vizio. And we have to say, it's a pretty solid feeling piece of hardware for that price. The software doesn't seem quite perfect at the moment, but we're happy to hold off judgment until we get some hands-on time with the final version in the near future. Check out a video tour of the tablet below.

Gallery: Hands-on with the Vizio tablet

Continue reading Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video)

Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Belkin ScreenCast TV Adapter streaming from a WiDi laptop near you in July

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/belkin-screencast-tv-adapter-streaming-from-a-widi-laptop-near-y/

We've already seen Belkin's ScreenCast TV Adapter at its most unflattering, stripped naked for all the FCC to see, so it was a welcome change spotting the streaming media device in a more flattering light on the floor of GDGT's New York meetup. The set top box can stream 1080p video and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound from any WiDi-enabled laptop to your HDTV. It's also got dual-band wireless technology (at 2.4 and 5GHz) and can also handle your Blu-ray collection. The ScreenCast will start hitting living rooms in mid-July for $130, including a bundled HDMI cable. Stream some press releasey goodness after the break.

Gallery: Belkin ScreenCast WiDi hands-on

Continue reading Belkin ScreenCast TV Adapter streaming from a WiDi laptop near you in July

Belkin ScreenCast TV Adapter streaming from a WiDi laptop near you in July originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/cue-acoustics-ps1-wireless-speakers-do-audio-over-dlna-we-go-ha/

Speaker wire is expensive if you buy it at retail, cheap if you just use a spool of electrical cable, but always, always an eyesore. Sure, you can pull it through the drywall, hide it behind some curtains -- or you can just go wireless. That's the option Cue Acoustics will enable with its PS1 bookshelf speakers, shipping this August. They're a high-end pair, each internally amplified and offering a 5-inch downward-firing woofer, 3.5-inch mid, and .75-inch tweeter, covering all the acoustic hotspots with fanfare. More important, though, is that each speaker can run with only one cable: power. Full details after the break.

Gallery: Cue Acoustics PS1 hands-on