FocuSoft Tech Blog

Casio EX-FS10 reviewed, slides 1000 fps capture into the back pocket of your mom jeans Posted: 16 May 2009 04:40 PM PDT Casio’s really blown out the feature list on the EX-FS10, and now PhotographyBLOG has taken the compact fashioncam through its paces. Sadly, like many modern compacts, straight up image quality is a bit scarce here, with obvious noise at ISO 200 and up, no optical image stabilization, and not even the silly 12 megapixel extravagance of its counterparts to blame it on — the EX-FS10 shoots 9 megapixel stills. The HD and slow-motion video recording is also severely hampered by a lack of zoom during shooting, bad sound, and the oversized AVI format. Still, the camera is incredibly well built, very slim, and it can pull off some really wild feats — 720p might be growing increasingly common, but 1000 fps slow motion, burst mode for stills and pre-record shutter lag adjustment make the FS10 quite unique in its category. It’s obviously a tradeoff, but at least there’s some good news: while the camera was supposedly slated to retail at around $450, it’s hovering pretty close to $300 at the moment. The rest is here: Casio EX-FS10 reviewed, slides 1000 fps capture into the back pocket of your mom jeans

Hideous Rusted Camera is Ugly Like a Fox [Image Cache] Posted: 16 May 2009 03:45 PM PDT This decrepit-looking camera is actually disguised in preparation for a trip overseas: It’s intentionally damaged and taped up on the surface, but is actually in perfect working order to mislead potential thieves. Clever! [MAKE] Read more here: Hideous Rusted Camera is Ugly Like a Fox [Image Cache]

Star Trek was screened on the ISS Posted: 16 May 2009 03:05 PM PDT Lucky cosmonaut and astronauts. Not only do they get the best corner office view ever, but they also have a legit version of Star Trek downloaded. The three men currently on board the International Space Station received a special copy of the film via NASA and settled into a dark node of the station to enjoy the show yesterday. From the NYTimes, Michael Barratt, the American astronaut, requested the film before boarding a space-bound shuttle in March, said Ms. Cloutier. He told NASA officials that he was a lifelong admirer of the TV series and did not want to miss this latest big-screen installment while off-planet. It was beamed up to them - really - after being reformatted by NASA technicians in a five-hour procedure Thursday night and beamed up Friday morning. I'm mean, what more can you want out of life: rides on a Space Shuttle whenever, pissing in zero gravity, and a downloaded copy of Star Trek literally out of reach from the MPAA. Life must be good. Go here to read the rest: Star Trek was screened on the ISS

Danger Mouse’s Next Album Will Be A Blank CD-R [Music] Posted: 16 May 2009 03:00 PM PDT Danger Mouse, the amazing mashup artist, producer, and half of Gnarls Barkley, is unable to release his newest album due to legal battles with his label, so he’s embracing piracy to get his music heard. After “legal battles,” Danger Mouse’s new album has been shelved by his label, EMI. But fearful that his work would never be heard, Danger Mouse came up with an idea to get his music out there while at the same time showing his anger at EMI. The album, entitled Dark Night of the Soul, will be sold as a “100+ page book” of photographs inspired by the music and taken by David Lynch, and will include a blank CD-R to be filled with torrented mp3s. All copies will be clearly labelled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’ Danger Mouse made his name with a mashup of The Beatles’ White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album titled, of course, The Grey Album, which was only available through non-commercial means, so this is a guy who despite his success is very aware of the state of music sales. Dark Night of the Soul is already available to stream for free from NPR, so it looks like Danger Mouse is going all out with his plan to thoroughly infuriate his record label. [via Boing Boing] View post: Danger Mouse’s Next Album Will Be A Blank CD-R [Music]

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIX: Fake BlackBerry Storm adds some gold trim, beats the Storm 2 to clickscreen-free living Posted: 16 May 2009 02:35 PM PDT Well, no need to wait around for the Storm 2 to right all of the BlackBerry Storm’s wrongs, the Cool9500 is here to make it all better. Namely, the Cool9500 brings the all-important gold trim, something we always felt was a major shortcoming of RIM’s first stab at this form factor. There’s also an all-important TV tuner — another wild misstep in the original. Sure, we’ll miss SurePress and the usable software, but we’d say Cool9500 really hit RIM where it hurts with this impressive followup. See original here: Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIX: Fake BlackBerry Storm adds some gold trim, beats the Storm 2 to clickscreen-free living

The Music Store Apple Forgot About Posted: 16 May 2009 02:17 PM PDT Last January Apple released iLife '09, the latest addition to its highly regarded multimedia suite that ships with every new Mac. At the time, much of the media attention went to iPhoto and iMovie, which introduced impressive facial recognition and video stabilization respectively. But me? I was captivated by the GarageBand Lesson Store, a virtual marketplace built into Apple's music authoring program. The store features song lessons taught by the artists who wrote them, including established musicians like Sting and John Fogerty. Combined with an extremely polished platform for delivering the lessons, I thought that Apple's Lesson Store might be the company's next revolution in digital music. Was I a little overenthusasitc? Probably. But I've toyed around with quite a few of the learning programs and videos out there, and the GarageBand lessons have serious potential. And with lessons going for $5 a pop, even if Apple only saw a tiny fraction of the sales it sees on its other stores (as would probably be the case), it could still drive substantial revenue from lesson purchases alone. Perhaps even more important, at least from Apple's perspective: a robust lesson store would serve as a perfect marketing vehicle for driving more Mac sales. Imagine a commercial with John Mayer or Eric Clapton wailing away on their guitars for thirty seconds. Close with them saying, "You want to play like me? I'll show you. Only on Mac". Sure, most people would never actually get around to playing through too many lessons (after all, learning how to play an instrument takes some hard work), but the knowledge that they could work through those lessons would be enough to drive even more computer sales. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't really done much with the Lesson Store since its debut in January. At launch, it featured 18 'basic lessons' (nine each for guitar and piano), along with ten 'artist lessons' which feature accomplished musicians showing how to play their songs. It was a decent selection to begin with, but it was hardly comprehensive. But it had potential: Apple surely had the clout to attract more major artists, and we were bound to see frequent updates, right? Not quite. Since January there has been exactly one update, which introduced a whopping three new artist lessons, bringing the grand total to 13. Given how varied musical tastes are, I'd be surprised if any one person was interested in more than four of them. So much for that idea. Aside from releasing more artist lessons, Apple would do well to release a tool that let independent artists and teachers build lessons on the GarageBand platform. Apple could take a cut of each lesson sale as it does on the App Store, and users would get a much broader array of material. Now, I'm well aware there are quite a few music lessons stores scattered across the web, including NowPlayIt and iVideoSongs, which offer high quality video lessons, some of which feature the artists themselves. But for every quality site there are countless spammy sites, and it can be hard to tell the good ones from the bad at first glance - not to mention the fact that many fledging musicians don't know these sites exist in the first place. A unified storefront from Apple, complete with user reviews, could be a boon for teachers and students alike. So come on, Apple. Let the music play. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Originally posted here: The Music Store Apple Forgot About

Linux to finally get DisplayLink drivers Posted: 16 May 2009 02:15 PM PDT Linux users have so far been left out of the USB monitor party thanks to non-existent DisplayPort drivers. Not anymore. The source code needed to develop such drivers has been released under the GNU Lesser General Public License V2 (LGPL). Linux developers can now code the drivers necessary for plug ‘n play USB displays. Yay! Hopefully we’ll see this technology soon on not only Linux computers, but also netbooks, MID, and UMPCs. Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy a larger external display from a small portable device through just USB? I think so, but the new mini HDMI format might not. Read the original:  Linux to finally get DisplayLink drivers

Video: Spock on the origin of the Vulcan salute Posted: 16 May 2009 01:13 PM PDT I bet that you don't know where the Vulcan salute came from? I also bet that you don't know Leonard Nimoy himself that suggested the hand gesture for Star Trek and that it comes from his religious background. Click through to watch a short clip on the subject. View original post here: Video: Spock on the origin of the Vulcan salute

Paddington Bear Waves to Google Street View Cameras [Google Street View] Posted: 16 May 2009 12:45 PM PDT Reader Christopher Cooper spotted a suspicious furry, blue-trenchcoated, yet friendly fellow lurking around the British Museum in London, confirming my suspicion that “England” really is an imaginary place found only in children’s books. [Thanks, Chris!] Read the original post: Paddington Bear Waves to Google Street View Cameras [Google Street View]

Not A Typo: Six Apart Opens Up Suite Of Products For Rival WordPress Posted: 16 May 2009 12:24 PM PDT Anil Dash, chief evangelist for blogging software platform Six Apart, announced today that blogging platform has launched a a plugin that provides WordPress users with access to a suite of Six Apart's add-on features for blogs. Dash made the announcement at WordPress blogger convention WordCamp Mid-Atlantic. While some of Six Apart's functionality have been available to WordPress users, this is the first time the site is offering these services as a suite to a rival blogging platform. These features include TypePad AntiSpam, a free open source anti-spam service; TypePad Connect, a commenting profile service; integration with Six Apart Media, the site's advertising network; and inclusion with blog directory Blogs.com. Dash says that this move represents "baby steps" in Six Apart's tentative first efforts to provide a suite of features and functionality to WordPress users. This a big deal, considering the long standing rivalry between the two blogging platforms. Last year, the two companies had a heated duel via company blog posts, Twitter and in TechCrunch comments. Perhaps this integration between the Six Apart and WordPress will help settle the peace between the competitors. And perhaps this is a strategic move on Six Apart's side to integrate with WordPress, a widely popular platform in the blogging world. One thing is for certain— it's a blessing for many WordPress bloggers, who will now be able to use the plugin to access some of the useful features of SixApart without having to switch platforms. WordPress offers its own free and paid features for bloggers including a stats system and the commenting and spam technology Akismet (which TechCrunch uses). Here's a video clip of Dash talking about WordPress plug-ins and blogging: CrunchBase Information Six Apart WordPress Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. View original post here: Not A Typo: Six Apart Opens Up Suite Of Products For Rival WordPress

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