Software Blog » Videos

Google Mashes Up Eggheads’ Big Ideas With Solve for X

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:50:43 +0000

Google has launched a new program devoted to fostering discussions and ideas among leaders in the science and technology industries. The project, dubbed “Solve for X,” aims to be a seeding ground for solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. The site is meant to inspire “moonshot” thinking, out-of-the-box technologies and projects that might seem closer to science fiction than real-life solutions to global problems. The program hopes to sponsor thinkers and doers that can highlight a widespread problem and present concrete and radical solutions.

Avid Studio: Thumbs Up on Interface, Sideways on Features, Down on Sound Effects

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Back when Apple promised editing features built into the iPhone 3GS (the first iPhone to have a video camera), I wondered how a video-editing program could possibly fit into a phone. It wasn’t just a question of available processing power, though that was part of it. It was also a question of screen size. Video editing needs a lot of space. If you’re going to be throwing around a few dozen clips and managing multiple tracks for sound, you’re going to need some elbow room.

Measure to Ease Video-Rental Privacy Curbs Catches Flack in Senate

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:53:58 +0000

A change to the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act recently sailed through the House of Representatives without a hitch. The bill would allow a provider of rental DVDs or videos to get consent to share their customers’ title selections, as long as users were provided with an opportunity to withdraw that consent. That smooth ride ended in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, when opponents of the measure took the opportunity to grill Netflix, which has been pushing hard for the change.

SMPlayer: A Flexible, Feature-Filled Media Player With a Frustrating Flaw

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

When it comes to playing audio and video files in Linux, media players pretty much all work the same way and have a very similar user interface. It usually all comes down to features. With SMPlayer it depends on what you want to play. Unfortunately, this bug of sorts is something its developer Ricardo Villalba has yet to resolve in the latest release, version 0.7.0. It is more of an inconvenience than an all-out reason to reject using SMPlayer completely. The problem is this app’s inability to read directories from CD/DVD music collections inserted in the optical drive.

Apple’s Textbooks Improve Everything but the Text

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

After Apple announced that it had “reinvented” textbooks at its education media event in New York earlier in the month, I knew I had to take one for a spin myself. I downloaded the new iBooks 2 iPad app and launched it to get to the refreshed iBooks Store. I tapped the big “Introducing Textbooks” graphic and started looking. There were eight titles available, covering topics like Algebra, Geometry and Physics. Seven of them cost $14.99, which seems like a steal, but I’m not personally interested in learning Algebra 1 all over again, for example.

LiVES: A Rich Video Editor With Layer Upon Layer of Features

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

LiVES is an advanced video editor that can double as a video jockey tool. It is surprisingly powerful. But its interface makes it rather simple to learn. In fact, it has so many feature levels that this app would be right at home as the video editor of choice in any professional film editing studio. I had almost no trouble putting LiVES to work on a current project before I even finished my initial shakedown of this application. This trial-by-fire test run proved highly successful.

Music Management Takes Flight With Songbird

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Asking a seasoned Linux user what music player you should use is akin to bringing up questions about religion or politics with your drinking buddies. A much safer strategy is, don’t ask and don’t tell. But if you insist, let me throw a suggestion into the fray. Uncage Songbird. You might be pleasantly surprised at the melodious results. I’m not saying that Songbird is a near-perfect song collection organizer and player. It has a lot to offer, though. Songbird is unlike so many other music players on the various Linux desktop environments.

Lenovo Unwraps Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ Smart TV

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

At the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday, Lenovo unveiled a smart TV it says is the world’s first to run Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich. Powered by a QualComm 8060 Snapdragon dual core CPU, the smart device — called the “K91″ — features a 55-inch screen, a gamepad, and a user interface that combines Video On Demand, Internet applications and traditional TV programs. Thirty console-quality games will come bundled with the TV, with many more apps available in the Android Market and the Lenovo App Shop.

The K91 is now available in China, but information on pricing and availability elsewhere was not provided.

Google Translate’s No Babel Fish, but It’s Cheaper Than a Personal Interpreter

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide book series solved the problem of interplanetary language barriers with a Babel fish — a little telepathic alien leech-like animal you stick in your ear that instantly translates any spoken language via pure brain waves. In the real world, about the closest we can get to that are online tools like Google Translate, which have made all corners of the Internet accessible to nearly everyone, regardless of language. They’re no substitute for actually learning a language, but they come in handy.

Minitube Puts More You in YouTube

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

YouTube is a great source for watching an eclectic collection of videos on music, human stupidity and worldly comedy. But I find it much too easy to go far afield as I click on “also watched” videos when viewing a particular topic line. Minitube solves that problem for me. Not only does Minitube better filter the flow of videos I take in, but it also creates a more pleasant viewing experience that resembles a high-def TV environment. And it does this without Adobe Flash Player or a Web browser just to get them to play.

Intel Gallops Up Cedar Trail

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Intel announced its third-generation Atom mobile processor-based platform, code-named “Cedar Trail,” on Wednesday. It consists of two dual-core mobile processors, the N2600 and N2800, and two that target entry-level desktop and other solutions, the D2500 and D2700. The platform introduces new features such as Intel Wireless Music and Intel Wireless Display, which let users stream media to TVs and home speakers, respectively.
These features “are new to the netbook platform,” said Intel spokesperson Mark Miller. They “enhance online services such as Netflix for media or Pandora for music.”

Apple Gears Up to Create a Star TV

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:14:49 +0000

Apple is holding talks with media executives to discuss the future of television, according to a recent report. It’s also allegedly working on providing wireless streaming capabilities, voice and motion controls, and features that enable the sharing of content across multiple devices. “We believe it’s very likely that Apple’s working on a set-top box or iTV or whatever you’d like to call it, because the TV is the next growth area for Apple, and it’s the only one screen they haven’t conquered yet,” said Jia Wu, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Hacking the Google TV Box Without Rooting It, Part 3

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Last month, I succumbed to a peculiar urge to go out to my local, friendly big-box consumer electronics retailer and drop almost a hundred dollars on a product that had been panned by the critics on launch, had a dubious life expectancy because of that, and had been almost universally rejected by the TV networks and their agents — Hulu, for one. This would have been a problem for anyone, but it was a major problem for this device, because it’s a media streamer. The product is the Logitech Revue Google TV box.

Twitter Trades Simplicity for Sophistication

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:40:48 +0000

Twitter has updated its site and dramatically streamlined its user interface with an eye to attracting new users — not to mention brands. The new look is based on tabbed sections where users can spruce up their profiles and better organize their content. Businesses get the same privilege, with the rollout of pages that let them create “an even more compelling destination on Twitter,” the company said. The new design is being rolled out both on Twitter.com and mobile devices, and TweetDeck has been updated for compatibility.

Microsoft Opens iOS Window for Xbox Live Fans

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Xbox gamers can access their Xbox Live accounts from their iPhones and iPads now that Microsoft launched the My Xbox Live app for iOS. Access to Xbox Live has been available on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform since it launched more than a year ago, but this is the first time Microsoft is offering the app on a competing system, although third-party apps have allowed at least partial capability before. After downloading the free app, users can edit their 3D avatars, and chat and send messages to other Live users.

Gift Ideas for the Apple Addict

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Most people I know have a hard time finding the right gifts for a lot of the people in their lives, and I’m no exception: I’m picky, and often enough in weird, demanding ways. For instance, while I like some shades of blue, others irritate me. As for Mac and Apple fans, they tend to be demanding, too. After you own a well-crafted Mac, rudely designed and crudely assembled products can lead to forced smiles, and later, after you’re gone, thrown devices and remotes or gadgets accidentally dropped into kitchen sinks full of dirty dish water.

YouTube Designs a More TV-Like Experience

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Google has launched a major interface redesign for YouTube. This latest change revamps the site overall. It also provides a new home page and simpler, customizable channels. “We want to grow the amount of time people spend on the site, and we feel that growing channels is a way to help them find the videos they love,” YouTube spokesperson Chris Dale told TechNewsWorld. “It’s really about redesigning the entire YouTube experience around these channels and making sure that people get more information and love what they get on YouTube,” Dale said.

An iPad Lover Plays With Fire, Part 2

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

As a happy iPad owner, I’ve been messing around with a Kindle Fire, and for the most part, I like what I’m experiencing. The Kindle Fire is a solid tablet with a generally pleasing interface. While it doesn’t compare to an iPad in a real direct way — apples to apples, oranges to oranges — it’s a tablet, and more importantly, it has the potential to capture the hearts and minds of at least some Apple-loving users. Why? While it doesn’t do all of what an iPad 2 can do, it does do at least half of it — media consumption — pretty darn well.

Xbox 360 Goes Metro With New Dashboard

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Microsoft will release an update to the Xbox 360 dashboard for all Xbox Live members on Dec. 6. The update is reportedly modeled after Microsoft’s new Metro user interface, which is used for Windows Phones and will be part of Windows 8. It will offer new personal and social features, cloud storage, Beacons, enhanced family settings, integrated voice and gesture controls across the dashboard and in apps, and Bing voice search. Also on Dec. 6, leading app providers will roll out new customized apps for the Xbox 360 in 20 countries.

Galaxy Nexus Volume Bug Has Users Screaming and Shouting

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:43:04 +0000

User forums are lit up with complaints about Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which was released in the UK late last week. It seems that the handset’s volume control goes haywire when the connection shifts to a 2G band. Unfortunately, 2G is widespread in Europe. The Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to ship with Android 4.0, also known as “Ice Cream Sandwich.” A YouTube video — and there are plenty — shows the volume bouncing between low and high. When it happens, the user is unable to make calls or use other functions such as playing videos or games. The phone is expected to hit Verizon’s network in the United States in the next few weeks.