You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Why Developers Are Switching To Macs
Programmers are finding themselves increasingly drawn to the Mac as a development platform, in large part due to Apple’s decision to move to Intel chips and to embrace virtualization of other OSes, which has turned Mac OS X into a flexible tool for development, InfoWorld reports. The explosion of interest in smartphone development is helping the trend, with iPhone development lock-in to the Mac environment the chief motivating factor for Apple as a platform of choice for mobile development. Yet for many, the Mac remains sluggish and poorly tuned for development, with developers citing its virtual memory system’s poor performance in paging data in and out of memory and likening use of the default-network file system, AFS, to engaging oneself with ‘some kind of passive-aggressive torture.’ What remains unclear is whether Apple will lend an ear to this new wave of Mac-based development or continue to develop products that lock out uses programmers expect.’
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
(Via Slashdot.)
Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Web Browsing
Even in a world where high-speed internet is just a tall house blend away, anyone can get stuck with a slow or uncertain connection at home, in the office, or at the worst possible time while traveling. There are, however, measures anyone can take to ensure they’re getting the most information and functionality they can when crunched for time or pressed for bandwidth—or if you just don’t like waiting for things while online. We’re offering up today 10 tweaks, downloads, and work-arounds for slow connections, slow computers, or just fast-minded people. Read on for the tips that might just save your life some night when 4 Kb/s is all you can muster. Photo by laffy4k.
BoinxTV 1.0 – Live-production software for video podcasters.
BoinxTV is the pioneering live-production software for video podcasters that turns any recent Mac into a TV studio ‘for the rest of us’.
Record high quality video podcasts, sports events, concerts, interviews, sermons, lectures, seminars and more using just your Mac and up to three cameras. With its innovative user interface, BoinxTV makes it easy to create professional ‘TV style’ recordings, setting a new quality level in the production of video podcasts.
Video podcasters currently have to spend many hours editing their takes to get a professional looking result. Post-production is a time-consuming part of their workflow. BoinxTV reduces the overall production time dramatically as cuts, graphic effects, titles and more can be applied during the recording of the show. Everything that can be done during live recording does not have to be done in post production.
(Via MacUpdate – Mac OS X.)
Max out Apple TV’s potential with Boxee
Nice Boxee write up at Gizmodo, how-to max out Apple TV’s potential with Boxee…
This is a guide that, if followed, will unchain your Apple TV from its cruel iTunes tether, turning it into the useful living room conduit of music, video and web-based content it should have been all along via the media center software Boxee. Boxee can be installed fairly easily via the ATV’s USB port to bring Hulu and Comedy Central streaming, playback of any video or music file anywhere on your network in virtually any file type imagineable, and a bevy of internet A/V sources like Flickr, Last.fm, NPR and BBC podcasts and tons of others—all upping the usefulness and fun of Apple’s notoriously underachieving box by a factor of 10, easily. If you have an ATV, Boxee is a must-install, and it’s 100% free. Let’s get started…
(Via MAKE Magazine.)
Target Gift Cards Double as Digital Cameras
Is it a gift card with a digital camera, or a digital camera with a gift card? We’re not quite sure, but this holiday season, Target will begin selling a combo gift card/digital camera, giving customers something to do with their gift certificate other than just spending it while being insulted that a loved one didn’t put a little more thought into the present.
The quality might sound bad, but it’s probably on par with most camera phones. The hardware features a 1.2MP sensor with 8MB of onboard storage holding 50 pictures. If the camera itself sounds useless, realize that it comes bundled with a USB cord, driver disk, instruction manual and a voucher for 40 free prints at Target. The USB cord alone and voucher alone might be worth the hassle, even if you don’t plan on ever using the camera.
Running on two AAA batteries (that’s how they get you!) the digital camera gift certificates will be available at no additional charge (unless ordered online) in denominations ranging from $50 to $1000. Those giving gifts in excess of $100 might consider a name brand digital camera instead. [Target via gamertell and Coolest Gadgets]
(Via Gizmodo.)
Revision3 Reports Tripled Earnings for 2008
Kevin Rose’s podcast network powerhouse Revision3 announced their financial returns for 2008, and they paint a rosey picture for online video. It also helps fill in a little bit of the gaps I and the rest of us were left wondering about following the cancellation of several shows on the network earlier in October.
Fancy Veho USB Microscope with 2GB storage
We have mentioned a few USB Microscopes before, but this new one takes the cake. This new microscope boasts a 1.3MP or 1600×1200 image resolution and up to 200x magnification.
Included is software allowing you access to store and share 2GB of your images online, and free to boot! You can even record video in AVI format. This would be great for looking at some of your damaged computer components or maybe just checking out what your Redbull looks like under the scope. Just don’t look at your co-workers nose hair, even if they ask you too. It’s probably not pretty.
The price is about $80 and is available from many places online.
(Via Ubergizmo.)
Gmail’s New Gadget Support Lets You Remember The Milk
Last week Google announced a new set of gadgets for Gmail Labs that offer integration with Docs and Google Calendar. But perhaps most exciting (and under-emphasized at the time) was the introduction of support for third party gadgets, giving users the chance to add features to Gmail beyond what Google offers.
One of the first developers to take advantage of the new feature is Remember The Milk (RTM), a popular To-Do list application that we reviewed back in 2005. The service allows users to access and input to-do items from a variety of locations, and offers its core service for free (you can pay $25 a year for support on extra mobile devices). While RTM offered support for Gmail before now, it was reliant on a Firefox extension, raising the barrier to entry and cutting out a large portion of the browser market.
The new Gmail gadget works across on all popular browsers and isn’t dependent on any plugins. Unfortunately adding the gadget isn’t exactly intuitive – you’ll first have to enable the ‘Add any gadget by URL’ feature in Gmail Labs, and then manually enter the RTM gadget location (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/gmail/rtm.xml). You can find the full instructions at the RTM blog here.
The Gmail blog post notes that this process isn’t very user-friendly yet, explaining that it is mostly for developer experimentation rather than widespread use. But it’s an exciting taste of things to come, and it looks like Google is going to be expanding developer access even further, allowing them to integrate their gadgets beyond the left nav-bar. Look for more Gmail addons to make the jump from plugin to native gadget in the near future.
Thanks to Orli Yakuel for the tip.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
(Via TechCrunch.)
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