By now most of you have heard of the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD memory card and what it’s capable of, right? Okay, good. Earlier this year, January to be exact, Lexar announced that they had teamed up with Eye-Fi to bring a Lexar branded SD card with Eye-Fi technology by year’s end. Well, the time has come — Lexar’s Shoot-n-Sync card is finally here and I’ve been testing it out for the last couple weeks. It rocks, but it does have a hangup or two. From a casual point-and-shooter’s perspective I doubt you’d have any real qualms about performance, but...
Listen up, couch potatoes! It looks like NetFlix and Vudu might not be the only streaming services that will offer up a high definition content. Opening up Amazon Video On Demand on your TiVo now shows a tab called “Available in High Definition,” but apparently clicking on it does nothing. A teaser, maybe? Or a slip up? We get the feeling that we’ll all find out very soon, but it seems as though it’s a done deal. Blockbuster is going to have to do something about the “DVD quality” streams they’ll be doing via set-top boxes in order to...
This new alarm hangs on a 30cm cable and when it’s time to wake up it will creep up that cable and hide out on your ceiling. The only way to shut it off is to grab it off the ceiling and hit the stop button. Which means you’ll end up having to stand to reach the thing. Hopefully you don’t have a cat though, because it would end up attempting to rip it down from the ceiling. Which doesn’t look good for either your alarm clock or the cat. To hit the snooze button, before it reaches the...
BKIS, a Vietnamese security center, recently demonstrated that face-recognition security programs found in Toshiba, Asus and Lenovo laptops can be bypassed with a special photo. To enroll in the face recognition software, the built-in webcam on the laptop scans the face for prime areas, such as the eyes or more conspicuous facial features. The special photo, which does not have to be of high quality, is processed so that the key areas are enhanced and the contrast levels are adjusted to the expectations of the software. Dong Ngo of CNET recently underwent a Skype demonstration with a BKIS technician. The...
Short Version: A built-in e-mail address for sending photos directly to the frame and a gorgeous 8-inch screen barely even out the shortcomings of the SmartParts SPX8WF digital photo frame. Overview and Features 8-inch LCD with 800×600 resolution Built-in Wi-Fi connection for local file synching, remote e-mailing of photos, and Microsoft Live “FrameIt” compatibility Supports CF, SD, MMC, and xD cards and can act as a USB host for portable drives MSRP of $149 Good The SPX8WF took less than a minute to hook up and within about five minutes, I had pulled down some photos that I’d e-mailed...
Layoffs have become the dominant story as we near the end of 2008. After writing about the cold economic realities for companies that have had to cut staff, we wanted to find out what it was like for the people who are now unemployed. Just how bad is it out there for new media folks looking for work? We talked with three people at different stages of their job search to see what, exactly, they’re up against. Sarah Lane was with Revision3 for a year and a half before being laid off at the end of October. While she did...
Everything is such a futz, but it's nice when these things have happy endings. I have my thumbnail creating app up, and while it's not linked into the RSS its going to be used in, that's the easy predictable stuff, the stuff that requires no futzing, at least not for me. Here's a folder of thumbs that ImageMagick is adding to every five minutes. I'm doing it by launching the ImageMagick convert app, once for each picture. The fixed width is 100 pixels, I compute the height to be proportional. My script makes sure not to start another conversion until...
With every new firmware version there are bound to be a few bugs here and there. No one was prepared for the issues that users are currently reporting in the iPhone firmware 2.2 update. Some of the more serious issues include the loss of the ability to sync with iTunes, loss in both 3G and Edge signal strength, loss of Wi-Fi connectivity and the disappearance of both Apple and third party applications. Needless to say this is a huge problem that in come cases make this update more harmful than helpful. A number of users are downgrading back to firmware...
From Serious Eats nulime.com "If you aren't using your convection feature, you are missing out of a great technological advance in cooking," says Rick Rogers of Epicurious's Thanksgiving Countdown. He explains that using a convection oven speeds up cooking times and improves browning. Some of his tips: Along with improved browning, I find that the pan juices reduce more quickly than conventional roasting from the blowing hot air, so check the pan occasionally and add more stock or water to moisten the juices. This isn't a big deal; every forty-five minutes or so to check is enough attention. There are...
I was having a browse about the Telegraph website. Now and again the videos on the right-hand site start playing. Just a moment ago, I was reading away and caught sight of our very own Mr Whatley talking about the LG Renoir handset. I was wondering when this was going to go public! It appears to be promo’ing in front of most of the Telegraph website vids at the moment, but you can catch all five minutes of joy right here. Or a direct link to the video here. Nice! You can, of course, find James regularly on the...
On the heels of his fast-and-easy sweet potato dish, minimalist chef Mark Bittman demonstrates how to save yourself three hours on Thanksgiving day by roasting your turkey in 45 minutes. The trick, Bittman demonstrates, is to cut out the backbone and flatten the bird out out in the pan, exposing more surface area to get more evenly-cooked poultry in less time. Get the full recipe below, or see Bittman roast one himself in the NYT video clip below. Mark Bittman's 45-Minute Turkey (text recipe) [Al Dente] How Five Minutes Can Save You Hours of Turkey-Roasting Time [Bitten]...
At a press conference this morning, MTA executive Elliot Sander announced a "major initiative" that will enable the authority to let riders know how hard their commutes are going to suck with text messaging and email alerts in real time. The MTA has been working toward a real-time update system for several years now, starting out with weekly email updates and sporadic advisories on their website. In a statement, Sander said, "This is a revolutionary step that has the potential to transform the experience our customers have with us." Starting today, riders can sign up to receive emails and text...
São Paulo is one of the most respected hubs of graffiti in the world. The urban chaos, together with the marginalization of a large sector of the population, has transformed this art in a form of protest. Graffiti flourishes in every conceivable place of the city’s streets. Choque Cultural art gallery in São Paulo is a gallery renowned for its street art exhibits, including graffiti. But in September the gallery was subject to an “intervention”: about 30 pixadores (graffiti artists) invaded the gallery with their paint buckets and brushes and in less than five minutes, painted graffiti over all...
John Brownlee at BBG has written one of the most compelling posts of the past forty five minutes to an hour. His essay, essentially recounting his starring role as a Christian robot in a school play and the heart-stoppingly horrible explanation he received from his teacher regarding sentient robots is well worth the read. I just saw Hell House and the robot in John’s story, Colby, seems to be a direct extension of the mindset of Christian apotheosizing - fear and titillation are the best tools to turn on the non-believer. Anything else, including rationality, is suspect and, worse,...
