Those nerdish pranksters at MIT, in their grand tradition of video game-related hooliganism, took some time out of their busy class schedule to hang a few select power-ups around the main building there. I’m partial to the banana because of years of Mario Kart experience so I’m glad to see it getting some fanfare of its own. How come I don’t see Pokeballs hanging from the streetlamps here in Seattle? Come on. MIT Celebrates SSBB Release [Kotaku] → Read More
Oh man, if only I were very, very rich. To have a full-frame professional SLR, the joy! So it looks like the upcoming 5D Mk II is going to be an interesting camera. Its detail retention at 12800 ISO is supposed to be equal to the previous 5D’s at 3200, which is fantastic and represents nearly a 2-stop advantage. This means sharper, clearer pictures at higher shutter speeds in lower light — the holy grail of sports and nature photographers. This is possible because the Mk II is rumored to use a next generation CMOS with “vastly improved” light-gathering capability and signal/noise ratio. It will also have a new version of the Digic III image processor. It’s supposed to be announced on April 22 and be available in early June for ~$3500. Hit the links or the [more] for the full specs. 5D II Spec Sheet I & II [DP Review forums, via Photography Bay] → Read More
http://p.castfire.com/Xu7m0/video/8666/bbtv_2008-03-11-183048.flv Not since Das Boot has one film gotten everything so right. via BBG → Read More
http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/47d804cf2a603f89 What can I say? I’m a music video genius. Check out my latest MTV-worthy video above. It took me, oh, about five minutes to slap together. Actually, it was all done for me by a startup that is getting a lot of buzz called Animoto. The New York City startup recently won an award at the South by Southwest conference, just launched a great Facebook app, and is one of the partners using YouTube’s new platform APIs. Animoto lets you grab photos from Flickr, Facebook, Picassa, Smugmug, Photobucket, or your desktop. You can then upload a DRM-free song or choose from about a hundred licensed tracks on the site. It then does its magic and matches the photos to the music, “mimicking the post-production done by professional video editors,” says CEO Brad Jefferson. I mashed together some old Fllckr photos from a trip to Korea and a visit to HP Labs, added an Electronica beat, and the video above is what came out. The site is built on top of Amazon’s Web services, but many customers wanted a post-to-YouTube option. So using the new APIs, Animoto now offers a button that does just that. “We view that as marketing tool,” says Jefferson. (It makes no money from videos shown on YouTube). Animoto also has a Facebook app that lets people create videos inside Facebook made from their Facebook photos. Since many of the photos are tagged with the names of the friends who appear in them, everyone in the video gets an alert in their News feed telling them that they are in a video. The site’s been out of private beta since August, 2007 and has gathered 100,000 registered users. Unlike many other video startups, this one is not basing its business on advertising. Creating a 30-second video is free, but longer ones cost $3 each (or $30 for an unlimited annual subscription). CEO Jefferson says he’s been pleasantly surprised by the conversion rate of non-paying to paying customers. Instead of the one to two percent conversion rate he had expected, it is in the “high single digits.” If he can get up to a few million active users, and keep the conversion rate up, he might have a business. CrunchBase Information Animoto Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
When choosing a cell phone, you look at price and features with the former being the biggest player, right? Ok, calling/data plans are also a big deal, but most consumers just want a cheap phone regardless. That much we can agree on. But what happens when you don’t want to deal with one of the larger carriers and you’ve got MetroPCS in the area, a carrier that offers unlimited plans? Since MetroPCS offers unlimited plans with no contracts, it basically boils down to the device. They’re not subsidized so you won’t be getting anything for free. So now what? Well, you can always go for one of the big players like Samsung or Motorola, but a little known company out of China has quietly infiltrated the US market with a relatively feature-rich clamshell. ZTE’s C88 isn’t necessarily the prettiest thing to look at, but its feature set is pretty decent. It includes Bluetooth, IM, a VGA camera, an MP3 player, Web browser and a few other things. But is it any good? → Read More
Ok, maybe I’m not that excited but Take-Two/Rockstar is planning to release Bioshock 2 and another “major” sequel in 2009. Folks are postulating it will be Max Payne, which I kind of dug back in the day. How about the The Legend of Kage 2, guys. I love the trees! Massive sequel planned after GTA IV [CaVG] → Read More
I just received an e-mail from Geeks.com inviting me to “Touch the Future of Portable Entertainment” with this $70 device that looks an awful lot like my much more expensive iPod Touch, which I foolishly assumed was already the future of portable entertainment. So how does this thing stack up, spec-wise, to the iPod Touch? → Read More
In a little over five hours, Acer will be announcing a new notebook concept called “Blue”. I’d expect this to be along the lines of a UMPC or ultraportable notebook. If it is a UMPC of some type, it’ll be interesting to see how it differentiates itself from other UMPCs on the market. Acer president Gianfranco Lanci told me last September that Acer wasn’t planning on releasing a UMPC “until the technology is ready,” mostly meaning that the battery life wasn’t far enough along yet. “You have three hours now, which is pointless. You might as well use a laptop,” he said. He then went on to say that he’d like to see 7-8 hours. If this new “Blue” concept has a battery life of that length, I’ll be mighty impressed. It may just be, though, that Acer can’t afford to sit on its hands until an 8-hour UMPC battery comes to fruition. Either way, we’ll find out what it is later this afternoon. Acer To Unveil New Notebook [Dealerscope] → Read More
Following previous reports that Yahoo is talking to Google about joining OpenSocial, we are now hearing that the decision has been made and that it will be announced in April. OpenSocial is Google’s social-networking platform that is a response to Facebook. Yahoo has been sitting on the sidelines of the fight between Google and Facebook for the hearts and minds of developers, and with this move it will place itself firmly in the anti-Facebook camp. Becoming part of OpenSocial is in keeping with Yahoo’s stated commitment to open itself up more to third-party developers. (As I’ve noted before, it can always do better on the openness front). There is already a lot of support for OpenSocial, from MySpace to Bebo to Hi5. If developers are going to start creating amazing social applications for OpenSocial, Yahoo should welcome those applications on its site as well. But given Microsoft’s takeover bid for Yahoo, which seems more likely every day to succeed, joining with Google appears to also be an attempt to further complicate any such deal. Microsoft, of course, is a big investor in Facebook and handles a large chunk of its advertising. If it ends up buying Yahoo, OpenSocial may be a deal that Microsoft finds it needs to unwind. Although, there is nothing stopping big Websites from supporting both OpenSocial and the Facebook platform (see Bebo). → Read More
I’ll be honest; the last time I played Street Fighter was on the SNES, so I’m admittedly out of touch with what’s what as far as world warriors go. That being said, a new Street Fighter IV character’s been spotted in Famitsu magazine. His name is El Fuerte, which is Spanish for “The Fuerte,” if memory serves. Breaking: New Street Fighter IV Character Leaked! [Kotaku] → Read More
Hey, guess what’s coming to Alltel tomorrow? If you read the headline of this post and guessed “the LG Glimmer,” you are correct. The Glimmer features a slide-out keypad and a touchscreen, plus a 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player, GPS, 128MB of internal memory (expandable via MicroSD), 3G data speeds, and is compatible with several of Alltel’s Axcess apps like navigation, search, and TV services. It’ll be at Alltel stores and on Alltel’s website starting tomorrow for $250 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Alltel Wireless Launches the Exclusive Glimmer by LG [Press Release] → Read More
I loves me some DIY projects, but a difficulty rating of hard by the folks at PopSci for the electronic Post-It note has me thinking twice about taking on this 7-hour endeavor. Or I could just nut up and do it. Anyone else interested in making one? Build It: The Electronic Post-It Note [PopSci] → Read More
If the threat of making Madonna go hungry weren’t enough, CD pirates in Arkansas are now locked up in solitary and forgotten for four days. [For] four full days, Adriana Torres-Flores was locked away and forgotten in 8 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot cell in the Washington County Courthouse, with only a metal table, two benches and a light bulb that never went out. She had nothing to eat or drink. There was no toilet. Thursday passed. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday – although Torres-Flores had no watch to tell the time. She slept on the floor with her head on a shoe. She drank her own urine, she said. That’s right, kids: even if it’s just a copy of In Rainbows, pirating CDs is a pee-drinking offense. Artists need to eat green M&Ms and meth too! Woman forgotten 4 days in tiny cell [ArkansasDemocrat via BB] → Read More
Coming soon to the iPhone: The rotating teapot program! iPhone firmware 1.2 AKA 2.0 has been completely jailbroken and decrypted and the phine pholks at the iPhoneDevTeam have figured out how to spoof the developers certificate that you need to run applications. What does this mean? It means you’ll probably have a red hot unlocked iPhone the moment 1.2 drops, not after. There are also parental controls, as we can see, which is pretty cool. Good on ‘em. Hello, Firmware 2.0. Nice to JAILBREAK YA. [ModMyiPhone] → Read More
I typically use duct tape to patch holes on my surfboards when traveling, tying people up or making wallets like the guys at db clay. Who knew there were 69 different techie uses for it. Check out the full list at Virtual Hosting. → Read More
BT and partner RingCentral will offer an Internet-based phone system in Great Britain that’s easy for small and medium sized business to configure and maintain. U.K. businesses will get a 0844 or 0844 main phone number, and calls can be routed to up to 50 extensions. RingCentral’s software will allow businesses set up their own phone system with a professional feel without needing to make significant investments in hardware. The software works with mobile, landline and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls. A virtual PBX (Private Branch Exchange) can be configured through a Web-based interface. Tasks such as assigning voice lines, configuring voice mail and an interactive menu can easily be setup. Customers can make or answer calls using either a real phone or through their PC by using RingCentral’s Desktop Call Controller. The interface allows users to see call logs and launch new calls with a single click by a contact’s name. Voice mail messages can also be delivered to a user’s email to be played through a PC’s speakers. A fax feature allows users to send faxes from Microsoft’s Office application or from a mobile phone. The service costs 15 pounds a month, excluding VAT. Calls are charged per minute and rounded up or down to the nearest 30 second increment. → Read More
This is the only reason I would/will buy a Wii. Bubble wrap popping adapted for WiiWare [Siliconera] → Read More
It’s been slated for a March 28th launch in Japan, but still no word on when the US or even Europe can expect the gloriousness of shooting 1200fps. *sigh* Press Release → Read More
(Update: Comment from YouTube added below). In case there was still any doubt that Google wants to use YouTube to host all the video on the Web, it’s announcement earlier today to broaden its APIs makes it clear that is its goal. Once again, instead of making it easier to search videos elsewhere, Google is making it easier to host videos on YouTube. Except that the new APis allow people to upload, watch, search, and comment on the videos on other Websites. The key here is that the videos themselves are hosted on Youtube’s servers. This brings Google back full circle to the initial strategy for Google Video, which originally required videos to be uploaded directly to Google in order to become indexed. YouTube is gradually replacing Google Video—that is where most people upload videos anyway—but getting as much video from the rest of the Web onto its servers allows it to do many more things with it than if it simply indexed the videos elsewhere. It can search them better and throw up ads against them. Specifically, the new APIs allow Web developers to: * Upload videos and video responses to YouTube * Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc) * Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales * Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales * Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software YouTube is not just white-labeling its video-hosting infrastructure for other sites, devices, and desktop applications. It is offering video-hosting for free. This could prove highly disruptive to other video-hosting platforms such as Brightcove, Maven Networks (now part of Yahoo), and Move Networks. Partners already using the APIs include Animoto, Casio, Electronic Arts, Helio, KickApps, Slide, and TiVo. Yes, you can now watch YouTube on TiVo. Of course, it is not exactly free. The videos will also be available on YouTube, where Google will make money from any associated ads. It is not clear how the ad revenue will be split, or even if it will be. There is nothing in the API that allows for a Website to insert their own ads. So that is a big question mark. (More on that after I speak with a YouTube exec later in today). Update: YouTube product manager Jim Patterson confirms that there is no revenue-sharing built into the → Read More
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