tech.nocr.at » watch

Kensington’s PowerLift Backup-Up Battery

Frank — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:33:09 +0000

I was just talking to someone from Steam TV Networks about the need for a sturdy dock that can hold up a tablet or phone, something that keeps the device propped up when using it to watch video. Kensington has release just such an item built for the iPhone.

Kensington’s new PowerLift is a sturdy dock that also contains a 1,200 mAh lithium-ion polymer backup battery. This bulky yet small unit is perfect for those long flights; prop it up on the fold out tray and you can enjoy countless hours of media goodness. 20 additional hours of music playback, 5 additional hours of video and even an extra hour and a half of FaceTime.

The unit also has a built in USB cable, perfect cable management, and it has some LEDs to let you know where the charging level is at. Its up for pre-order on Kensington’s site and will run you about $50.

Kensington’s PowerLift Backup-Up Battery originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Review: eLocity A7 Android Tablet

Frank — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:18:35 +0000

I’ve been playing with this surprisingly fast Android tablet for about a week now and so far I am impressed. Stream TV’s eLocity Android 2.2 powered tablet might not be an iPad killer, but it sure puts up a good fight.

The solid 7-inch tablet is powered by NVIDIA’s dual core Tegra 2 processor, comes with Froyo out of the box, is rooted by default and can output a crazy amount of video formats at 1080p via it’s included HDMI port. Although it shows some impressive stats in the video arena, the eLocity does more than that. 4GB of internal storage, a USB port and a MicroSD expansion slot coupled together with the super beefy Tegra 2, the A7 acts more like a powerful computer in your pocket than a PMP.

Not only is the video playback smooth and crisp, this is the only Android device I have ever used that can actually do Flash well. Even when you are on a website with multiple Flash ads watching a video, the A7 came through without a single hiccup. Mix that in with the fact that the device is rooted out of the box, you have one powerful device that is open and free, unlike the “other” guy’s tablet. The only problem I have seen so far is the unit’s battery life. I’ve been able to get about 4 hours out of it with moderate use and only about 2.5 hours of video play. This is more than likely due to the processor as the dual core Tegra 2 could easily power a full size laptop.

The unit doesn’t come with the Android Marketplace out of the box, but a crafty hacker has already created an alternate ROM that offers the Marketplace as well as Ad Hoc networking support. The eLocity A7 is currently WiFi only, by using the Ad Hoc network you can tether your unit to an existing smartphone’s 3G connection. Stream TV is toying with the idea of partnering up with a carrier and offering a 3G model.

At time of print there still is no word on any accessories for the unit, but it does have an expansion port on the bottom that will probably be used for a dock at a later day. A dock would be greatly welcomed, the fact that it can do 1080p without a problem makes this device a perfect addition to your home theater setup.

If your looking for an alternative to the iPad and don’t want to pay a monthly cost for something like the Galaxy Tab, Stream TV’s eLocity A7 is perfect. Priced at $350 it’s a great deal for such a powerful little unit.

[Link to eLocity A7]

Review: eLocity A7 Android Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck

Frank — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:30:11 +0000

In our next installment of Distros That Don’t Suck we will be looking at open source HTPC software. Sure you can load up VLC or even use Windows Media player, but having a dedicated solution with a UI that is made for a TV is a lot easier and pleasing. I’ve left the PVR-centric software like MythTV and Freevo off the list since their main purpose is to act as a PVR. I’ll be reviewing open source PVR software by itself at a later date.

XBMC – The Xbox Media Center Project started as homebrew software for the original Xbox gaming system and has since been ported to Linux, Windows, OSX, AppleTV and even as a standalone Linux based LiveCD/LiveUSB image. It offers a clean UI, intuitive interface and can play just about anything you throw at it. It offers a plugin system with a huge repository of community plugins to enhance the experience. It’s real easy to setup and it’s configuration is portable across operating systems. If you have an old Xbox laying around this makes a great HTPC that is powerful and best of all cheap.

MediaPortal – This is a Windows based HTPC software so technically it’s not 100% open source since it requires Windows and doesn’t offer a Linux port. If offers everything you would expect in HTPC software; Video streaming, DVD playback, Internet Radio, Picture Gallery and it’s own plugin system. You will need a compatible TV Tuner card to enjoy PVR features and to watch TV but it’s not needed to run the software. If you are a Windows fan and are looking for an alternate to Windows Media Center this is as close as you can get without the cost.

Element – Element is an open source HTPC system that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and the ability to play back just about any media locally or over the Internet. Element also has it’s own framework for offering add-on modules that allow you to play content from services like Hulu, Cooliris, Boxee, Clicker, Amazon on Demand and Youtube. They have adapted the UI’s of popular open source software like Firefox and Pidgin so that it fits the TV experience better than their native desktop versions. They also offer an Android app that allows you to use your Android phone as a remote control; definitely a neat idea for the times you can’t find the remote anywhere.

GeeXboX – A Gentoo based fully functional media center that can be run from LiveCD, LiveUSB, or be installed on a hard drive. GeeXbox is a very lean distro that doesn’t require a lot of processing power so it’s perfect for older hardware. It uses Enna as it’s primary media center application to play your music, videos or look at your pictures. This is the perfect distro for the no-frills experience when you just want to play your media and aren’t looking for any additional functionality.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Beer Shooting Fridge

Frank — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:10:43 +0000

At first glance this might look like your average beer fridge, one that could possibly be in any dorm room in the country. If you take a closer look (or watch the video after the break) you will see that it’s actually an air cannon powered beer launcher.

A fancy iPhone interface allows the user to choose a beer and load it up in the cannon for delivery. Next, you aim the cannon with the help of it’s built in webcam. When you have chosen your beverage and aimed it in the right direction you click fire.

You better be good at catching, getting hit the head with a full beer being launched from an air cannon will hurt, I promise.

Beer Shooting Fridge originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPod Nano Hack

Frank — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:47:50 +0000

By booting up his iPod Nano with a modified SpringBoard.plist file hacker James Whelton was able to remove an app from his screen and replace it with a blank space (Video after the break).

Now this isn’t quite a jailbreak like hack, but it is a small start in the right direction. Today we can remove an app, tomorrow we might be able to add a new one and a week from now we might be able to write our own iPod Nano apps and cause Apple to open a whole new app store dedicated to the nano. Alright so maybe that’s pushing it a bit far, but just think if we could modify the sleep settings of the unit. Yes, we could finally have that iPod Nano watch we have all been waiting for.

iPod Nano Hack originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

VLC For Android

Frank — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:51:46 +0000

The one app I use the most on my iPhone and iPad is VLC. It makes watching video on my portable devices a lot easier to do since I don’t have to spend a bunch of time converting video and soon all you Android fans will enjoy it as well.

Sure there are other video playing options for all you Android users but has there ever been a better video player than VLC? It will play anything you throw at it, at least on the PC side.

Keep an eye out for it in the Android Marketplace.

VLC For Android originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Nano Watch

Frank — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:05:11 +0000

You knew it was bound to happen. Ever since Apple announced the new redesigned iPod nano everyone has been referring to it as a watch and now you can turn it into one. I’ve been using the new nano for about a week now and love it. It’s perfect for the gym and it really motivates you to reaching that 10,000 step-a-day goal, and with this wrist watch band from Incipio this might make the perfect all the time watch.

Keep in mind that you will have to change your ipod daily and be okay with hitting the sleep button every time you want to check the time. If your okay with all that then you can pick them up in a variety of colours for $24.99 and they should be ready to ship sometime in October.

[Incipio Linq Nano Watch Case]

Nano Watch originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Ben Heck Show Is On The Air

Frank — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:14:31 +0000

You by now already know who Ben Heck is. We have featured his awesome mods time and time again here on tech.nocr.at. Ben now has his very own internet TV show. The Ben Heck Show started airing yesterday on element14 and is pretty cool. In his first episode, Ben builds an Xbox controller for a gamer who only has one hand and starts work on his Xbox 360 laptop mod which will be stretched out over a few episodes. Definitely a must watch.

[The Ben Heck Show]

Ben Heck Show Is On The Air originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Even More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:39:16 +0000

Following my first two distro lists; Linux Distros That Don’t Suck and More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck, I bring you the long awaited third installment in my distro lists; Even More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck.

As a fore-warning, this list is just what I have used in the past and what I have experience with. I know that talking Linux is like talking religion, everyone has one and not everyone likes the other guy’s. With that in mind you are free to comment and hammer me about my list, just know that it’s only my personal experience here.

Mint – What can I say, it’s Ubuntu done right. If what you are looking for is a solid desktop replacement OS, one the whole family can use then look no further. Based on Debian and Ubuntu, this distro comes with everything you need to get going and it looks sexy as well. It’s got full multimedia support right out of the box and it’s super easy to use. Perfect for grandma.

ZeroShell – This distro is awesome. I have used this multiple times on embeded devices and it’s always come through for me. It’s fully administered via a web page and it offer’s a host of network services like Load Balancing, UMTS/HSDPA 3G modem connections, QoS and Lan-to-Lan VPN just to name a few. If you need a solid industrial all around firewall/gateway this should be at the top of your list.

Tiny Core – If you think Damn Small Linux is bloated then Tiny Core is for you. At a whopping 10MB with a full desktop, this has to be the smallest release I have ever seen. If 10MB is too big for you, you can grab a 6MB version that is console only. This is an awesome distro if you want to start small and build on it. Perfect for those older systems.

Elive – Based on Debian, Elive looks to provide a complete desktop replacement while offering eye-candy with minimal hardware requirements. I have this installed on an older laptop that my daughter uses. She loves to work with multimedia and this distro scratches her itch perfectly. It’s runs well on older hardware while still looking good. If you like to work with video, 3D or audio then you should give this distro a once over.

Mythbuntu – It’s really not a distro per-say, it’s a custom roll of Ubuntu with MythTV built it. For years I used KnoppMyth for my MythTV needs and only recently did I switch to Mythbuntu. If you don’t feel like building your HTPC from scratch take a look at this, you won’t be disappointed.

Tinfoil Hat – For the truly paranoid. As their website says “The Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key.”. This distro is perfect for those who fear for their privacy. It’s compiled with static libraries and ships on a single floppy.

LegacyOS – This was formally known as TeenPup which is based on PuppyLinux. The main purpose of this distro is to ensure a smooth user experience on hardware that’s 5-10 years old. If you have an old machine laying around and are looking for a decent suite of software then look no further. Don’t plan on doing any intense processing with it but basic usage it’s great.

As always this is a list of distros I have experience with, this by no means is a “perfect” or “greatest” list. It’s just stuff I have used and like, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

Even More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Affordable P1 Jr Pico Projector

Frank — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:10:12 +0000

Projector technology has really come a long way from the days of lugging 30 lbs projectors around. In recent years we have seen the advent of some really small units but nothing that was ever affordable, until now.

Claimed as “the world’s smallest LCOS pico projector” the P1 Jr comes with it’s own battery, external AV connectors so you can hook up a DVD player or iPhone and it has an SD card slot so that you can use it’s built in mp4 player to watch some video.

With it’s 10 lumen LED light source you are only going to be using this thing in a very dark room, but for $119 you really can’t ask for much.

[ AAXA Technologies P1 Jr Pico Projector ]

Affordable P1 Jr Pico Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Boxee Set To Roll Out A Set-Top Box

Frank — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:05:07 +0000

Ohh you Americans with your awesome ability to watch full episodes of TV shows via Hulu and Boxee. Us Canadians are only stuck with the ability to watch our Canadian programming in some crappy player on some crappy Canadian broadcasters website. Actually it really isn’t all that bad, but then again, you have Boxee, we have awesome beer. You can always use a VPN is you really wanted to use it.

Boxee just announced that it will be releasing a set-top box that will run their fantastic software. There really isn’t much details on the upcoming device but then again all it really has to do is have a hard drive inside and HDMI out, no? It’s what’s inside that counts, the Boxee software.

Hopefully one day we will see Boxee up here in Canada with having to go through hoops to use it and with a connected device that costs oh let’s say under $200 to power it, you might never need cable or satellite again.

[Link to Boxee Box]

Boxee Set To Roll Out A Set-Top Box originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Water Drops At 2000 FPS

Frank — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:45:51 +0000

High speed video can be so much fun. Watching something that we normally take for granted on high speed film can really be amazing. Remember the bullets that were shot at 1,000,000 fps? Normally when we see a bullet being fired it happens in the blink of an eye, but when it’s slowed down you can actually see how the impact happens.

Take this video of a water droplet hitting a container full of water. You can actually see the droplet bouncing thanks to a thin layer of air which separates the drops from the water surface. Check out the video after the break.

Water Drops At 2000 FPS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Super Fast Robot Hands

Frank — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:02:04 +0000

I was blown away when I first saw this video. This robot hands moves so quickly that they had to slow the play speed of the video just so you can make out what the robot is actually doing.

This is just more proof that someone somewhere is building SkyNet and these robots will be taking over the world. Remember the lesson we all learned while watching BSG? Forget the upcoming zombie onslaught, we have to be worried about these fraggin robots.

Super Fast Robot Hands originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

NES Cartrige Casemod

Frank — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:30:16 +0000

What better to jam inside of an old NES game cartridge than, well, an NES. Okay so it’s not really an NES in there it’s an emulator but this mod does use the original buttons, plays NES and gameboy games, has an mp3 player, movie player, an FM radio reciever and best of all, the video out still works so you can hook it up and play on the big screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXPfznWLPU&feature=player_embedded

This is just one of the dozens of NES casemods we have featured here on tech.nocr.at but this is definitely one of the cooler ones we have seen.

[Link to NES Casemod]

NES Cartrige Casemod originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Bullets At 1,000,000 FPS

Frank — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:11:37 +0000

I’m not a big gun fan but watching a bullet is some metal at 1,000,000 frames per second slowed down to 30 frames per second is quite amazing.

To put in perspective how fast the camera was that created this video lets do some math. Video is typically shot at 30 frames per second. This video was shot at 1,000,000 frames per second that’s over 41,000 times the speed of regular video. When slowed down to the regular 30 fps you get this super slow video that shows every little detail of the bullet. Quite amazing.

[Kurzzeit]

Bullets At 1,000,000 FPS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

4K TV Only $76,000

Frank — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:35:57 +0000

If you have been holding out on buying that new 1080p HD TV because you know that 4K TVs are only around the corner then your wait is over. It will definitely cost you though, around $76,000 to be exact.

This Sony 4K 56-inch TV sports a 3840×2160 resolution. Thats 4 times the size of full resolution HD TV. You could div up your screen into quads and still watch 4 HD streams at the same time. It might just be cheaper to purchase 4 HD TVs to be honest with you.

Like the title says only $76,000 and this could be yours, a bit pricy but just think of all the AV cred you’d build up with one of these in your Mom’s basement.

4K TV Only $76,000 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck

Frank — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:56:37 +0000

Following Linux Distros That Don’t Suck from earlier this year here is a comprehensive list of, you guessed it, more Linux Distros that don’t suck. Some of these are more obscure lesser known distros that are quite powerful and very useful. Some of these come from personal use some of them came from the great comments you readers posted the first time I did this.

Remember that this is just a personal list, nothing more, nothing less. I’m not trying to start a holy war since that’s what usually happens when you open something like this up. With that being said, let’s us know in the forums what your list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck would be.

SLAMPP – A Slackware based Live DVD that can only be described as a one-stop server system. Right off the DVD your up and running with pre-configured services including an HTTP server, FTP server, DHCP server, DNS server and a whole lot more. This is the perfect Distro for those “I really don’t know when I will need a fully functional small network server” times. Best of all, you can run it all without ever having to install anything on the host machine.

Pardus – Pardus, which is the scientific name for the the Anatolian Leopard (watch out Apple), is a Turkish Linux distro which is extremely underrated. It’s wonderfully crafted and has a lot of polish to it. You can tell that the developers have really put a lot of time and energy making this not only run really well but also make it really sexy. I would easily recommend this distro to novices and experts alike.

CrunchBang – Think of CrunchBang as Ubuntu for the advanced. It offers speed and style as well at the bleeding edge of packages. It’s highly customizable and comes with the nimble openbox window manager. No bloated Gnome or KDE here. This is the perfect distro if you really like Ubuntu but don’t like how it’s geared towards linux n00bs.

Sabayon – Sabayon promises to transform your computer into a powerful Gentoo Linux system in under 5 minutes. It’s a livecd (with the option to install) of the uber geek popular Gentoo. It’s very powerful and very polished like you would expect from any Gentoo system, but best of all it still acts like an other Gentoo system allowing you to use portage to pull from the Gentoo repositories.

PC-BSD – Alright, I know it’s technically not Linux, it’s BSD based, but it tries really really hard to be Linux. If you are more of a BSD fan but like the Desktop functionality that a standard linux distro offers then PC-BSD is perfect for you. Much like any out of the box distro you can listen to music, watch some video, work with office documents and you can even install applications with a gui. Best of all, it’s a rock solid BSD core that powers everything.

CentOS – Based on the rock solid RHEL, CentOS is one of the most reliable distros you will every find. It offers quick errata, package management that offers stable applications and has a very strong community behind it. They even get upstream fixes from RHEL. If you want a solid server based OS you can’t do much better than CentOS.

Slackware – The oldest of the bunch. Created in 1992, Slackware is the oldest surviving distro. It orginally came on 24 floppy disks as was built on top of kernel 0.99 and it was one of the hardest things to install. Thank God that things have changed. It’s now a highly technical and clean distro. No fancy tools for settings, you have to do everything by editing text files. You know what they say, if you learn Ubuntu you know Ubuntu. If you learn Slackware you know Linux.

There you go, another list of distros that don’t suck (according to me). You millage may vary. I really don’t want to start a holy war so I open it up to you to add to the list by visiting our forums and letting us know what you like.

More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Perian Turns 1.1.2

Frank — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:01:45 +0000

Our favorite quicktime add on, Perian, turned 1.1.2. If you have never heard of Perian before then you should take this opportunity to slap yourself. The free plugin for quicktime allows you to play back all kinds of popular video formats like avi, mkv, flv, and more. It’s an absolute must for anyone who likes to watch video on their Mac.

Here’s what you’ll find in the latest release.

Fixed update checker never running – this version requires a manual install
Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV
Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime
Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s

You can head on over to their site and grab the latest release.

Perian Turns 1.1.2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

US Court Temporarily Stops RealDVD Sales

Frank — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:07:52 +0000

Remember the “Legal DVD copying software” that RealNetworks released last week? Yeah, well, a US court judge has ordered RealNetworks to suspend sales of RealDVD until Tuesday so that he can sort the whole mess out.

RealNetworks sued a bunch of movie studios to demonstrate in court that the software doesn’t infringe on copyrights, and now the studios have sued back claiming that this software circumvents the digital copy protection on the DVD’s known as CSS.

Although RealDVD isn’t a real DVD ripper per say, it’s keeps the DVD’s CSS intact and adds even more DRM to the file so that it can only be watched on a single computer. If you don’t mind those restrictions then you will have to wait until Tuesday to see what the Judge says. If you want your DVD ripped now in a way that allows you to watch the movie any which way you please then I suggest something like Handbrake to help you along.

US Court Temporarily Stops RealDVD Sales originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Is The Apple TV Being Replaced?

Frank — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:42:36 +0000

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting on an email they received about the possibility of the Apple TV being replaced later this month. The email states that resellers should remove all Apple TV displays and destroy them (I hope it’s just the literature and not the Apple TV’s) by September 30th at 5 PM. The email also says that there will be a webcast kick off on the 30th.

Apple hasn’t been very happy with the performance of the Apple TV. I personally love the unit. My wife is watching the Sex and the City movie that she just bought from the iTunes store. Rock on Apple!

It will interesting to see what Apple might have up their sleeve. I hope it’s an Apple TV like device that also records TV and plays DVD’s. The perfect media center device. Only time will tell.

Is The Apple TV Being Replaced? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Capacitor Bank Discharge – One Big Bang

Frank — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:48:06 +0000

Although this is quite stupid and extremely dangerous, it is quite cool to watch. Let this guys take the risk while you sit back and watch it via YouTube. This 24kj capacitor bank is configured for 4500v @ 2400uf and packs one hell of a bang. The unit is charged up using microwave oven transformers and is set to release all of it”s stored energy through a triggered spark gap.

Remember, don’t try this at home. It could very well kill you.

Capacitor Bank Discharge – One Big Bang originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

T-Mobile G1 – First Official Android Phone

Frank — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:27:08 +0000

It’s official and it’s here (okay, not in Canada just yet). The first official smart phone running the most anticipated OS since the iPhone, Google’s Android. With a beautiful screen and full QWERTY keyboard, what more can you ask for. Read on for all the details and watch the video for an in-depth look at the OS. Then decide what you think.

Screen – 3.17″ 65K colour touchscreen that runs is HVGA (480×320)
Battery - 5 hours of talk time, 130 hours of standby time
Camera - 3.1 MP
Networks - GSM/GPRS/EDGE/Wi-Fi/UMTS/HSDPA and built in GPS
Storage - 1GB MicoSD pre-installed, Support for up to 8GB
Dimensions - 4.60″ x 2.16″ x 0.62″

T-Mobile G1 – First Official Android Phone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iPhone Modem App

Frank — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:00:32 +0000

iPhone Modem, a jailbroken app for your iPhone, promises 10 second iPhone tethering. The app, which can be download to jailbroken phone via the Cydia application repository, allows you to tether your iPhone to your Mac so that you can use the EDGE or 3G of your phone to surf the internet. I don’t own an iPhone, so I can’t really say if this work as advertised, but if it does it would offer yet another functional use of your iPhone.

You might want to be careful with this one. If AT&T is watching, they can come down on you hard for using something like this, but for casual and light surfing this would be perfect.

iPhone Modem App originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Tiny Projector

Frank — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:45:05 +0000

3M is reportedly close to rolling out a super tiny, portable digital projector. This tiny unit could be used to project pictures, powerpoint slide shows, ~~pr0n,~~ movies, or whatever else you might want to slap on a wall or screen.

The lucky guys at Popular Science got their hands on the MPro 110 and reported that after plugging a DVD player into the device they were able to project a movie up to 11 inches wide on various pieces of furnature and walls.

When the projector hits the shelves it will cost $359 and will have the ability to connect up a laptop, digital camera, iPod, and any other mobile device that outputs and image. At that price this would be a perfect item to keep in your bag so that when on the road you could easily show a presentation or lay back in your hotel room and watch a movie on the wall. Although, at 11 inches you would need to have everyone huddled around the screen in order to actually watch anything. Let’s hope that this is just a start in the right direction.

Tiny Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Apple Sept 08 Event: Wrap Up

Frank — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:30:48 +0000

Now that the “Let’s Rock” even has come and gone, let’s take a look at what Apple has brought into our laps.

HD TV Shows

Right off the bat Steve announced the arrival of HD TV shows to the iTunes store. The shows will cost you $2.99 a pop (instead of the $1.99 you pay for SD shows), but unlike HD Movies, HD TV shows can be watched on your computer, not just an Apple TV. Also, after a much publicized breakup, NBC is back. I wonder if they came back on hands and knees.

iTunes 8

The newest version of the worlds greatest music management software was also released today. A new Pandora-like “Genius” feature is now included that can generate playlists of songs that go together based on a seed song you pick. I’ve been playing with this tonight and my Genius seems quite stupid, but I’m sure they will smarten him up in the next update.

New Nanos

We all saw it coming. Kevin Rose let the world know a few weeks ago that the “Zune” like nano would make an appearance at todays event, and it did. The new nano is “the thinnest iPod” ever made. It has an oval, tapered shape with a black wheel. The new Nano can also create Genius playlists on-the-fly without the need to connect to iTunes. You will also get a built in accelerometer like the iPhone and Touch so that you can view Cover Flow art, photos, and video when turned sideways.

New iPod Touch

The new touch has the same 3.5″ display but is thinner with a tapered stainless steel back. The touch will also gain integrated volume controls on the side and a built in speaker. You will also be able to channel the Genius without the need of iTunes. The new touch is rated for 36 hours of music and 6 hours of video. 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, or 32 GB for $399.

OS 2.1 for iPhones and iPod Touches

Rolled into all of the excitement today, Steve also announced the arrival of the 2.1 firmware for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. The major update includes fixes for better battery life, dropped calls, backing up speed, and general bug fixes.

One More Thing

The was no “One More Thing”. Too bad, I was hoping a rev on MacBook Pro’s since my son spilled a full bottle of water on my MacBook Pro yesterday. I guess I will have to go out now and just buy whatever the local Apple store has in stock.

Apple Sept 08 Event: Wrap Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Airfoil 3.1: Stream Audio To Front Row

Frank — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:09:24 +0000

Front Row on the Mac has to be one of the slickest “Media PC” like experiences that a user can have, but when Front Row 2.0 hit the scene Apple mysteriously removed the ability to stream audio to it. Will Apple release an update that will restore the streaming functionality? Who knows, but in the meantime there is a solution that we can all jump on.

The great Mac folks over at Rogue Amoeba have released Airfoil 3.1 which works around the streaming problem in Front Row. Airfoil will let you send any audio to multiple Airport Express units and keep the audio between them in sync. The latest release also allows you send audio from any source to an AppleTV. The functionality doesn’t end there; you can send any audio from your Mac to another computer (Mac or PC) on your local network via the Airfoil Speakers program which is bundled with the download. You can also watch videos on the built-in Airfoil Video Player.

All of this streaming goodness can be your for $25 right here.

Airfoil 3.1: Stream Audio To Front Row originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

First Microsoft Seinfeld Ad

Frank — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:15:28 +0000

$300 million dollars and two guys who are retired and this is what you get? If Microsoft is really serious about taking on Apple’s switch ads then they are going to have to do better than this. I’ve watched this ad 10 times now looking for a message and all that I have been able to take from it is that computer might become warm and chewy. With ads like this it’s no wonder that Apple is still kicking their behinds in the marketing department.

First Microsoft Seinfeld Ad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

CPU Vs GPU – Mythbusters Style

Frank — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:37:16 +0000

We have all seen various arguments on CPU Vs GPU, but have you had it explained to you Mythbusters style? At the NVISION 08 show this past week, Jamie and Adam from the geek popular show Mythbusters wanted to show the difference between single and multicore processors, referring to CPUs and GPUs, respectively.

They used a single paintball gun to paint a simple smiley face, then, in traditional Mythbusters style they unveiled a massive contraption containing 1100 paintball guns to paint a mini Mona Lisa. Be amazed and watch the video after the jump.

CPU Vs GPU – Mythbusters Style originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

How To: Build A Giant Floor Mat NES Controller

Frank — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:42:51 +0000

Who need’s Wi-Fit when you can get some aerobic exercise 8-bit style. Put your feet to work with this giant floor mat NES controller. Here’s what you will need to get the job done.

an NES system and controller (of course)
3×5 foot piece of cardboard
46 feet of insulated wire
a roll of aluminum foil
clear packing tape
32 sheet of construction paper
some grey, red, and black felt
soldering gun
patience and time to watch this video

Just image playing Track and Field on this bad boy. I’m sure you’d get a better work out than you would on the Wi-Fit.

How To: Build A Giant Floor Mat NES Controller originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

IOGEAR: Wireless USB to VGA Kit

Frank — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:20:21 +0000

IOGEAR is set to release a Wireless USB to VGA kit next month. The unit will offer you 30 feet of wireless video feed to any monitor or TV that has a VGA input. Why would you want to run your monitor wirelessly you ask? Well, maybe you want to watch that web stream on your fancy big screen TV, this way there are no cables cluttering your path. Add a wireless mouse and keyboard to the mix and you can hide your PC away in some closet.

The unit currently will only work with Windows XP or Vista, but for those that don’t care you will be able to pick one up next month for $229.95

IOGEAR: Wireless USB to VGA Kit originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Portable Theater

Frank — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:54:20 +0000

The Portable PC Theater is a beautiful design by South Korean industrial designer Jin Woo Han. It consists of a computer and an LCD projector, all in one. This is perfect for people like me who spend a long time on the road and in hotels, who would want to watch a video on a laptop when you can point this masterpiece at a white wall in your room and have your very own theater.

No word yet on this idea hitting the market, but if it does I would pick one up.

Portable Theater originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

DVD On A Wii

Frank — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:21:54 +0000

Wii fanboys rejoice, you can now watch DVD’s on your Wii with some Homebrew software developed by a crafty hacker named Erant. The homebew software allows the Wii to read DVD’s and come bundled with a media player program that let’s you play DVD movies as well as view video files stored on an SD card without any hardware modifications. You will still need to be able to use homebrew software on your Wii to get this working, but that’s quite simple to do

A patch will also be available soon for Nintendo 64 emulator Wii64 so that you can read ROMs right from a DVD

[Via Wii Fanboy]

DVD On A Wii originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

USB Drive Watch

Frank — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:18:47 +0000

What better way to make sure you take that USB drive with you than have it also be your watch, unless you also forget you watch all the time, then your screwed. The Timeless Watch, which was designed by Ondrej Vaclavik, seamlessly integrates a hidden USB drive that also serves as the watch’s clasp. Perfect for getting your data across the border and through the TSA.

The watch is lightweight and requires no batteries as it charges up via USB. It’s not available for sale just yet and we have no word on how big the drive will be, but I guess you could always build your own from some spare parts.

You can see more pictures of the unit over at Ondrej Vaclavik’s site.

USB Drive Watch originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Apple Can Remotely Remove Apps

Frank — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:15:32 +0000

Big brother really is watching. Not only can Apple remove app’s from the App Store (I Am Rich was removed yesterday shortly after we posted our article), but it has now surfaced that Apple can also remotely disable applications from individual phones as well. Apple will only do this to malicious apps so that it can wipe them out from your phone before they cause too much trouble.

If Apple sticks to only wiping our Apps that are malicious then things may be okay, but this is one serious invasion of privacy in my opinion. We all know that the Feds are already listening to our phone conversation and reading our email, but you can now add your apps to the list as well.

Apple Can Remotely Remove Apps originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/07. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Rear View Mirror TV

Frank — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:20:04 +0000

Who really needs to see the cars behind them anyway? Thanks to this alarming new trend in China, rear view mirrors will soon display TV or GPS maps instead of the constant need for checking behind you for that car that just might slam you from behind.

Models range from a basic LCD monitor to an advanced touch screen with Bluetooth integration (for dialing your “hands-free” phone of course). While some models do offer integration with backup camera so you can actually see what’s behind you, and most act as a basic mirror when turned off, why the heck I ask do you want one of these in your car unless you plan on having it turned off while your driving?

The real scary thing is that these aren’t just some one off item. Check out CnBuyNet and you’ll find an entire page of these things raging in price from $50 to $100. Long go the days of people using the rear view mirror to apply make-up, now you have to deal with them watching Survivor too.

Rear View Mirror TV originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Avalinks – Social Bookmarking Reinvented

Frank — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:02:53 +0000

It’s hasn’t been the biggest secret around these parts, I have been working feverishly at creating a “new” social bookmarking service. I know what some of you are already saying; “but we already have delicious”.

Avalinks takes a fresh look at social bookmarking.

Watchlists to follow family and friends
Make your bookmarks public for the world to see or private for just you
A Firefox extension to make bookmarking a snap
Accessibility to your bookmarks from anywhere
Full del.icio.us based API. Easy integration into current applications
iPhone support for accessing your bookmarks – http://m.avalinks.com

We are still working out some of the kinks and some of the features like a Firefox extension that will allow you to synch your bookmarks across different computers, no matter what OS you are using. This way you will have access to your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere, anytime.

Stop on by and give it a whirl. You never know, you might just like it.

Avalinks

Avalinks – Social Bookmarking Reinvented originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/07/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Anti-Paparazzi Glasses

Frank — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:39:54 +0000

Sure, if your being chased by an angry mob of paparazzi or if your afraid of big brother watching you you might need some diversion tactics like an IR hat or these anti-paparazzi shades.

If your in need of said diversion tactic then building these puppies is a snap. Attach two small but powerful IR LEDs to two pairs of wires, one wire per LED. Then you attach the LEDs to the glasses and voila, blinding shades, for those with cameras that is. You might want to attach a simple on/off switch and not but leaving the wires hanging like the video suggests.

Anti-Paparazzi Glasses originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/07/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Optoma Pico Projector

Frank — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:08:29 +0000

I love my iPod but most people have the same complaint – you love having portable video but can’t stand watching said video on a tiny screen. There just must be a light at the end of the tunnel real soon. Optoma’s Pico Projector, which is now in the prototype stage, is a mini projector for your cellphone, iPod, or other portable video device.

The Optoma is the first pico projector with DLP technology which should offer us a decent picture. Only time will tell is this product will be a success, but it should would be cool to display some video on a hotel wall or on the back of a food tray on an airline.

Optoma Pico Projector originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Torrent Relay – Browser Based Torrent Client

Frank — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:44:29 +0000

Have you ever wanted to download a TV show directly to you iPhone or PS3 but haven’t been able to because the only available format you can find is a torrent based one? Enter Torrent Relay. It allows you to download torrents via any web enabled device. Torrent Relay works by having the user surf over to their site with their web enabled device and either uploading a local copy of the torrent file or entering in the url of the torrent. Once Torrent Relay is done it sends it to your web enabled device.

It does have a few limitations, it is only able to download torrents that contain single files and has a size cap of 400 MB. You probably won’t be downloading any ISO’s with this but how else are you going to watch your favorite TV show on your iPhone?

Torrent Relay – Browser Based Torrent Client originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

iTunes Movies Come To Canada

Frank — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:12:21 +0000

Looks like American and UK iTunes users won’t be the only ones who have access to purchase or rent movies from iTunes, Canadians have also joined the bunch. The Canadian iTunes store now have over 1,200 movies to buy, 200 of which you can purchase.

With a 48 hour viewing window available for people who choose to rent it leads us to believe that the US window might increase as well.

I just started my first movie rental download, Cloverfield. Weighing in at just under a gig it might take a little while before I can actually watch it.

For those of you Canadians who are interested. the pricing is as follows…

CAN$9.99 to purchase catalog titles
CAN$14.99 to get recently released movies
CAN$19.99 to purchase new movies
CAN$3.99 for renting a library title (a dollar more for HD)
CAN$4.99 for new release rental (a dollar more for HD)

iTunes Movies Come To Canada originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows

Frank — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:01:53 +0000

Torrent Freak has collected some interesting data on the most pirated TV shows available on torrent sites. It seems that nearly 50% of all the people who use bit torrent at any given point do so to download a TV show. With the popular TV show Lost getting close to 10 million downloads per episode, these figures are getting mighty close to the viewer count on TV as reported by Nielsen.

People are getting a lot more use to “on-demand” content. People want to watch their favorite TV show when they want and how they want. Maybe over time these big media companies will finally open their eyes to the possibility of freely distributed media on the net.

Top Downloads May 25 – June 01

Ranking		TV-show
1	(1)	Lost
2	(5)	Battlestar Galactica
3	(new)	The Daily Show
4	(new)	The Colbert Report
5	(new)	So You Think You Can Dance
6	(new)	Top Chef
7	(new)	The Tudors
8	(new)	Men in Trees
9	(new)	The Ultimate Fighter
10	(new)	Greek

Via: Torrent Freak

Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/06/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Hand Cranked MP3 Player

Frank — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:03:10 +0000

For all of you who want to walk the bleeding edge of technology and help save the environment the Eco Media Player is for you. The worlds first crank-powered MP3 and video player will leaving you wondering what to do with all of your USB chargers. A play on the many AM/FM radio out there that operate on crank power, the Eco Media Player might just be the perfect addition to your survival kit since it also sports an AM/FM radio and flashlight. What will you do with all those free hours waiting to be rescued? Watch a video of course.

The player can store up to 500 songs and have a SD slot for memory expandability. Cranking it for a minute will produce 40 minutes worth of MP3 goodness. The unit also has a mini-USB which can help charge up other devices like cellphones.

You can pick it up for $275

[Via DVICE]

Hand Cranked MP3 Player originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/02/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Lift Fingerprints Like The Pros

Frank — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:22:47 +0000

Considering all the crime dramas that I watch on TV I think I would make a great crime scene investigator. Run a Q-tip on some blood, spray some cool looking mist on a carpet, insert a hair into a fancy machine, and way a gun around. Doesnâ€™t sound so hard.

I suspect that I’m not actually equipped for the job. If you have ever wanted to try out some of your skills without spending all the money on expensive tools or kits then watch this video and give it a whirl.

The video will show you how the proâ€™s lift fingerprints. Hereâ€™s what you will need to see how murdered who.

Superglue
Lightbulb
Aluminum foil
Cardboard box
Clear Tape

Executing this experiment isn’t simple, but it yields professional quality results. If you’ve got a suspect item with fingerprints on it, gather the rest of your materials, follow the details in this video tutorial and get started on your investigation.

Lift Fingerprints Like The Pros originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: ac, air, car, cardboard, ds, ea, expensive, finger, follow, gun, hack, hacking, id, ir, job, light, Mac, machine, make, os, pen, prints, rim, ring, sound, super glue, tap, tape, tool, tor, ui, vest, video, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

How To Make A Cheap Camera Stabilizer

Frank — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:36:08 +0000

There is nothing worse than watching a video that shakes so bad it makes you seasick or having to take that perfect still photo and only end up with massive blur. Well, if you happen to have some string, a bolt, and a washer lying around then you to can make a super cheap/super effective camera stabilizer Best of all, total cost will be around $1.

How To Make A Cheap Camera Stabilizer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Macworld Keynote

Frank — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:59:46 +0000

Just like was expected the blog-o-sphere went crazy over the Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs. Almost every blog was live-blogging the event, live-blogging the live blogs, and live blogging the live blogging of the live blogging (you get the idea).

This is why I wanted to wait until all of the mass hysteria over the keynote was done and over with before I weighed in on what happened. Unfortunately the iPhone coming to Canada didn’t happen as I thought it would. I guess the whole ComWave Apple trademark dispute still hasn’t been resolved. Apple has a lot of money, and money can always buy you what you want.

Here’s my lonely take on the 4 things SJ talked about.

Time Capsule: A brilliant idea in my opinion. Time Machine has become the single feature of Leopard that made the upgrade worth-while. A built in backup solution that just works and works well, is something that every major operating system was lacking. Time Capsule takes it one step further. You no longer need to have a dedicated drive connected to each of your machines to preform backups, with the Time Capsule (essentially a airport extreme with a built in hard drive) backups can now be done over the network. With a 500gb and 1tb model set to ship, you should be able to backup all of your macs without a problem. I wonder how long it’s going to take some crafty hackers to create an open source version of this so that we don’t have to be limited to the dedicated unit.

iPhone and iPod Touch: Nice features but in my opinion stuff that should have been there from the beginning. An SDK was long over due, and the basic iPhone apps like Mail should have been on the iPod touch right out of the gate. Plus, what the hell is the deal with the $20 charge for the touch features? Just because they can call anyone they are being penalized. I really thought the Canadian thing would go through, but I’m sure they still have a stickler with ComWave which has been using the name iPhone here well before Apple introduced the product.

AppleTV and Movies: This was probably the single rumour that had been floating around that was correct. We all knew that Apple was planning on getting it the Movie rental business. Revamped AppleTV’s and free firmware upgrades for current AppleTV owners will bring Movie rentals right to your TV without the need of a computer. The AppleTV upgrade will allow you to purchase or rent movies directly from it’s interface without having to use iTunes on a separate computer. You can also subscribe to podcasts and videocast right on the unit. Fox also announced that they will be shipping DVD’s with embedded digital copies of the movie so you no longer need to rip em to watch them on your iPod.

Macbook Air: I want one, i want one, and i want one. Now that i got that out of the way. The worlds lightest laptop. I don’t know how that justify doubling the price when you move to a solid state drive, but it’s one hell of a jump from $1700 to $3000 based on a hard drive choice. I wonder how many will flock to purchase these units.

I was expecting something completely out of left field, which we didn’t get. Call me crazy but I think this was one of the most over hyped Macworld keynotes I have ever seen. Yes the Air is nice toy but it’s still just a notebook.

Macworld Keynote originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, air, amp, apple, appletv, apps, avi, backup, backups, blog, book, bus, cat, computer, drive, ds, dvd, ea, ebook, firmware, hack, hackers, hard drive, hysteria, id, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, ir, itunes, job, jobs, key, laptop, leopard, light, live, loa, lock, Mac, macbook, macbook air, machine, mail, mit, mod, movie, nes, network, notes, open, open source, os, pen, phone, rc, rental, ring, rip, rod, rumour, sdk, steve jobs, time, time capsule, time machine, touch, ui, video, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

20 Signs That Technology Rules Your Life

Frank — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:56:24 +0000

Your out for dinner with friends or family and your crackberry goes off. Do you feel a compulsive urge to see who it is? Must you be one with the Internet at all time? We have all done it; we have all at one point or another had technology rule our lives. For some people technology is a must, I bet most people could not remember what they did with their time before computers were around.

Here are 20 sure-fire ways to know if technology is ruling your life. If you qualify for any of them (some of us, including me, qualify for almost all of them) then maybe some fresh air would be in order. Either that or you need to aim for achieving all of them. That would make you an uber hardcore geek.

You’ve bought and sold things on eBay.
You carry your laptop with you wherever you go (or you wish you could).
Your kids photo are no longer in your wallet but are set as your wallpaper.
You no longer use a watch but check the time on your cellphone.
You have a thumb drive on your persons at all times.
You have had an online affair.
All of your friends know you by your username or avatar.
The only funny thing you’ve seen in months is the lol cats
You no longer purchase greeting cards; you send them via email.
Instead of reading a physical paper you read it on your pda.
You Google urls instead of actually typing them in.
You are – or have been – a member of a Google group.
You no longer debate real people but frequently do it in online forums.
You watch TV shows on your computer instead of watching them on a TV
Between your TV and Internet access you would rather lose your TV.
You can’t remember the last time you used a pen and paper.
You’ve watched Bill Gates on the Daily Show but never seen a full episode.
When you hear the word “Spam” you don’t think of food.
You have become an expert in a field thanks to Wikipedia.
You would rather text someone instead of calling them.

Have I missed any? Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

20 Signs That Technology Rules Your Life originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, air, bill gates, car, cat, cellphone, comments, computer, drive, ds, ea, ebay, email, fire, forums, funny, gates, google, ical, id, ir, iso, laptop, live, mail, make, online, os, pda, pen, phone, photo, rc, technology, text, time, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Cheap DYI Laser Cutter

Frank — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:50:54 +0000

I’m been trying to source decent desktop laser cutter for the Lab with Leo TV show that I’m on. The biggest problem is finding anything that would be a reasonable cost for most consumers. Decent desktop laser solutions can easily run you into the thousands and they are big and ugly.

Thanks to the wonderful website Instructables you can know build your own Laser cutter for about $50. Yes that right I said $50 (here comes my late night infomercial spiel).

“This project demonstrates a simple hack to create a large format laser cutter utilizing all the scrap electronics you may have lying around. If you have a broken scanner or two, the cost can be just about 30 dollars for the entire project.”

I’m going to work on building one of these for the show just to see how well it works. I’m either going to nail it on the head and be the new fav among my friends who want some sort of laser etching done or I’m gonna be the guy who slices his finger off and makes the front page of the paper. Either way i’ll keep you guys posted.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MaHmzfr5W4[/youtube]

Link to how-to

Cheap DYI Laser Cutter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Pedal Powered Tennis Ball Launcher

Frank — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:37:07 +0000

Here’s an awesome hack for all of those tennis lovers. The pedal powered tennis ball launcher is built from a couple bikes and can launch tennis balls with the best of them (video after the break).

“Both cleanly powered and built from 2 recycled bicycles, scrap steel and wood, leaking 5 gallon water jug and a lacross stick, our pedal powered tennis ball launcher is a unique innovate or die entry. It allows players varying in skill levels to practice to be better at both tennis and cycling. The launcher is towed to the court on its built-in bicycle trailer. A bike is secured to it and functions to drive the device. Pedaling the cycle as one would on a trainer drives the two launcher wheels. The cyclist then aims and pulls the lever to launch balls to the hitter.”

Can you just imagine all of the fun you could have with this if you just started launching tennis balls in the middle of the road? Not that we are encouraging this type of behavior, but it would be quite funny.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBxUjBUdQ5o[/youtube]

Pedal Powered Tennis Ball Launcher originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Watch Full Length TV Episodes Online

Frank — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:46:49 +0000

Fancast allows you to watch full length episodes of your favorite TV shows. Fancast essentially aggregates all of the available full length TV shows that are already offered by the big networks, but Fancast takes things one step further, taking it beyond the video streaming by integrating movies and other services. Fancast shows directs you to iTunes or Amazon where you can purchase the product your watching (hey, these guys need to make money somehow).

I warn you now, it can be a tad confusing to navigate around, but it will give you your TV fix.

Fancast

Watch Full Length TV Episodes Online originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Cordless Drill Battery Charger

Frank — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:23:12 +0000

Here’s a great video showing you how you can use your cordless drill as a hand crank charger for batteries. You just never know when your stuck in the woods and need to charge up your batteries for your flashlight. Looks like I will be putting my cordless drill in the truck of my car just in case something like this is needed, lol.

[metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/967302/crank_charge_your_batteries/[/metacafe]

Cordless Drill Battery Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Neuros OSD – Hack Away

Frank — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:11:46 +0000

The Chicago based company Neuros Technology International has created a very unique product. The Neuros OSD (for open source device) is a versatile media recorder that, by using a memory card or a USB drive can record video from multiple sources that is then stored in MPEG-4 format.

The OSD has not only open hardware, but also open software: it is based on the Linux operating system. Neuros Technology encourages hacking of the device; it has contests with cash rewards for new applications for the OSD. One winner, for instance, designed a program that lets people use it to watch YouTube on their televisions.

A company that will sell me a product that I can hack without them being upset? Where do I sign up!

It’s what the AppleTV should have been. I hope that Apple and Sony are listening.

Neuros OSD – Hack Away originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Skype for the PSP?

Frank — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:12:15 +0000

Are all of the rumours true? Will my PSP once again become a usable device (actually I do use it quite frequently to watch video, it has an awesome battery life and great screen). Seems like this screen shot was snapped from Sony’s 2008 CES website and it’s something that is definitely not out yet. Also, you need to keep in mind that there has also been some confirmation earlier last year via a decrypted firmware that Skype was on it’s way to the PSP. If I had to put my money on it then i’d say hell ya.

Skype for the PSP? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/01/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Cut your Electricity Bill in HALF

Frank — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:55:43 +0000

Disclaimer: Like the video states, this is illegal is some states and countries.

Electric Meter Hack! How To Cut Your Electricity Bill In Half! – The best video clips are right here

Cut your Electricity Bill in HALF originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2007/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Dailymotion releases iPhone site

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Those wily mobileers at Engadget Mobile send a pointer to Dailymotion‘s new iPhone-specific site. No matter how you feel about iPhone-specific websites, watching videos on the iPhone is always fun, and since Dailymotion has taken the time to encode the content in Quicktime, it’s actually possible here without a special player (unlike most other vid sites, which use Flash). Of course, if your iPhone is activated normally, you could just be watching YouTube, but for those of you running around without SIMs in your iPhones (ahem, Erica), this is an option for your video watching needs. {mosadsense4joomla ad_layout=”D”}

Unfortunately, even though I wasn’t able to browse around the site on an iPhone, I did browse it in my usual Safari browser, and while the content played fine, it looked as though it was sized incorrectly– only part of the Quicktime video showed up. Some video is better than no video, I guess.

Dailymotion releases iPhone site originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Google to offer refunds to video customers

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Last week we reported that Google was shutting down it‘s paid Goggle Video operation. Goggle preceded to send out emails to customers who purchased video’s from Google’s site explaining that they were getting out of the paid video game and offering a coupon that varied in value (depending on how many video’s you purchased) to use with Google checkout.

Google has now apologized for the way it shut down the paid video service and said that it will refund their credit cards and allow them to watch their videos for another 6 months.

“When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you’ve made a mistake, it’s good to listen. So we’d like to say thank you to everyone who wrote to let us know that we had made a mistake in the case of Google Video’s Download to Own/Rent Refund Policy vs. Common Sense,” the company wrote.

It’s now offering credit card refunds to “everyone who ever bought a video” from Google Video, and people who already received Google Checkout refunds will be able to keep them as well. It will also allow people who bought or rented videos to keep playing them for another six months.

“We won’t be offering the ability to buy additional videos, but what you’ve already downloaded will remain playable on your computer,” the company said.

Google opted for the Checkout refunds because the company thought it would entail fewer steps and offer “a better user experience,” it said. People who want the credit card refunds will need to fill out an online form to make sure Google has their current credit card details.

[Via InfoWorld]

Google to offer refunds to video customers originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Life TV

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone has heard of Justin.tv and iJustine. Innovators, or attention freaks, you decide, but they are the ones that started the craze. Live video feeds of every day people doing every day things. People around the world have jumped on this new medium of sharing, even big names in the Tech world like Leo Laporte (twit.tv/live) and Chris Pirillo (live.pirillo.com) to name a few. But this last Friday (Aug 24 2007) marked the first time this culture of “Live TV’ has boiled over into the real world:

Xanga.com has provided Kane, from a Washington D.C. radio station called Hot 99.5, a back pack with a similar setup that Justin from Justin.tv has. Kane is going to broadcast his life for 30 days with a possibility to renew. What does his new wife think about it? Are we going to see this leaking to Hollywood? Maybe not tomorrow, but who wouldn’t watch Paris Hilton’s JailbirdTV

Life TV originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Image retargeting

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Clark submitted this story:

One of the researchers behind this technique is Shai Avidan ( http://www.merl.com/people/avidan/ ) formerly of MERL, has been hired by Adobe, so it is likely that Photoshop and possibly Flash and AIR will be taking advantage of this and other forward looking techniques in the near future.,

When I checked out the video, I was simply amazed at what it did. It edits the image in real time finding the least cost paths through the image and removing them. Effectively taking out ‘unneeded’ or ‘extra’ image data. Watch the video and be amazed:

Image retargeting originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Red Light Runners

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I know this technically isn’t a tech story, but it’s just way too good to pass up. I can bet you after you watch this clip you will never run another red light again (Video after the jump). This traffic light is fixed with some sort of device that will hit you car if you run a red light. Brilliant.

Red Light Runners originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Clean up cable clutter

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

How many of us have a cables cluttering up desks, tabletops and nightstands. Below is a video showing a simple and easy way to clean up the cable clutter. I would warn you that almost every powerbrick produces heat so make sure you don’t end up with a neat box that catches fire and burns you house down.

How To Make A CHARGER BOX Very Easy – No More Cable Mess! – Funny videos are hereLink: How to make a Charger Box via Lifehacker

Clean up cable clutter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

Mirror Mirror on the wall

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Mirror Media has been making Mirrors that double as TVs for a while now – these products are dubbed the MirrorTV. And now they’ve taken their MirrorTV and combined it with a built-in computer to create a MirrorMedia computer- a magical mirror with a PC inside for using Microsoft Office, watching videos, surfing the web and the like.

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?¨ The MirrorMedia is available in either 20â€, 25â€, 30â€ or 36â€ display sizes and it can be customized with a wide of choice of frames including different decorated wood, gold, silver and colored frames all ranging from very modern to traditional styles.

No word yet on combining these bad boys with a Mac, but using a mac mini, I don’t think its too far off. Sounds like a great hack to me.

Mirror Mirror on the wall originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

First Looks: VMWare Fusion

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

In preparation for my monthly trips to Vancouver to appear on the Lab with Leo I installed the latest and greatest for the Mac from VMWare, Fusion. Suffice to say that only using this product for only the past 12 hours has already lead me to completely remove my install of Parallels.

Now don’t get me wrong, Parallels is a great product and work well but when you have an industry heavy weight in the virtualization world drop a hammer like Fusion things are bound to rock.

Right off the bat I’ve noticed a serious speed gain with Fusion, now I don’t have any detailed numbers, but just watching the system load brings quite a difference in speed as a factor.

If you already have a lot of work put into your virtual machine in Parallels and don’t want to start from scratch, you can follow a detailed step by step on VMWare’s forums to bring your Parallels machine over to Fusion. Take it from me; it’s not for the faint of heart but it works.

Then there’s Fusion’s amazing Unity feature, which allows you to run Windows applications side by side with you Mac applications. From what I’ve seen so far it’s even better than Parallels Coherence mode.

As a final thought; virtualization on the Intel based Macs is still at it’s infancy. First we had this break through product Parallels that allowed us to run other operating systems on our machines, then came Fusion with the entire stable code base that VMWare has become famous for. What will we see next year? Maybe operating systems that boot at the same time and can run seamlessly together. Only time will tell.

First Looks: VMWare Fusion originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 1999/11/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.