Author: Andru Edwards

RealAudio and ultimately Real Video was the original, old school audio and video compression used on the Internet during the early Web 1.0 days.  No doubt that Web 2.0’s rise in popularity was caused in part by YouTube and the ability for its users to easily send video up to a server and have it transcoded and streamed on the fly – without the need for expensive programs like the RealMedia server set.

YouTube leveraged the Adobe Flash technology, which in its infancy, would show only cartoon like video, then incorporated codec, or software decoding support for television like motion video.  This has been the standard for video distribution on the Internet, but requires support for software, and only lately has incorporated decoding within hardware.  Notably the iPad and iPhone are two such media devices that do not have flash media decoding support due to a long feud between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Adobe.  Jobs calls flash a CPU hog, and a claims it would cut battery life on his devices from 10’s of hours to just an hour if it was supported. Instead, he and many others hope to see HTML5 take a rise to prominence.

In this SXSW 2010 session, Christopher Blizzard, director of developer relations with Mozilla, and Michael Dale, lead developer of the MetaVid project and WikiMedia foundation, go in depth on what HTML5 has to offer as it pertains to video on the web.

Continue reading SXSW 2010: Fun with HTML5 video

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flash,
html5,
metavid,
mozilla,
ogg,
ogg video,
sxsw,
sxsw 2010,
sxswi,
sxswi 2010,
video,
video,
web 2.0,
wikimedia,
youtube,

The Directors Bureau of Applications, the creators of Can Moo, Say it! and The Song Idea Generator has released its Secret Contacts app, moving from the realm of cute but useless apps and leaping headfirst into the douche-canal of misanthrope-enabling apps.  Secret Contacts a way for you to hide your little black book from prying eyes—your girlfriend/wife/overbearing pet—in an app that masquerades as an innocuous little tip-calculator.  While the premise for this is a clever and sneaky little idea, the execution of its advertising—hell, the fact that they had any at all—kind of defeats the purpose.

“Yes, hide your little black book on your iPhone from prying eyes; prying eyes that, should they even know how to operate an iPhone or have even heard of the internet will surely have also heard about this app, rendering it completely moot…. wait… scratch that… damn.”  It seems to me that this is another funny idea that should have maybe stayed in the drunken post work brainstorm-session/happy-hour in which it was conceived.  If your significant other understands basic technology and is actually crazy enough to search through your contacts, then they will also have heard of this app even before you, cheeky monkey; if not, then there is really no point at all, now is there?  Why would you waste $1.99 on an app that is either rendered useless either by it’s advertising or by its lack of necessity?  Now where did I put my battery-powered battery re-charger?

Tags:
can mo,
directors bureau of applications,
ipad apps,
iphone apps,
ipod touch apps,
say it digital lips,
secret contacts,
song idea generator,

This is a session wrap-up from SXSW 2010. To start the session, a question was asked by the moderators to the audience “If the times ceased to exist, how would you feel?”  Only a few hands in an audience of 500 said that would be disappointed.  Only several more were indifferent, but a vast majority would be upset if the media giant no longer created their content in print or online.

Those on the panel were:

• David Carr, a writer from the NY Times.
• Amy Langfield, travel and events site New Yorkology a blog on what is going on in New York.
• Marcus Moulitsas of the Daily Kos a blog site with thousands of writers.
• Greg Beato writer for a magazine called Reason
• Henry Copeland the moderator who is with BlogAds

Gawker is believed to be marching towards the Times in regard to a quality of content creation by adding reporters.  With Nick Denton running it, a former reporter himself, it is believed by the panel to be pushing towards a spin as a quality web newspaper.  Gawker Media has been pushing content out quicker than traditional media outlets. Blogs typically do not spend the time fact checking, do not create a back story, and create quick and concise content with few details, with the benefit of these being published in an extremely timely manner.

Continue reading SXSW 2010: Media Armageddon: What happens when the New York Times dies?

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endtimes,
media armageddon,
mediaarmageddon,
new york times,
nyt,
sxsw,
sxsw 2010,
sxswi,
sxswi 1020,

For those of you with a spare $410,000 laying around your apartment—hidden in your toilet’s water tank or in the base of your wooden-spool coffee table, perhaps—today is your lucky day!  BMW has introduced the new Motosport Z4 GT3, and it delivers more than its share of German engineering and lack of emotion.  Impress your friends with your ability to not settle for second best AND to pay through the nose for it!  You, sir, are man amongst boys!  A man, simply, who craves a Miata-sized car with which to project all of his emotional and physical self-worth.  ‘Affliction’ t-shirt not included.

Tags:
automobiles,
b,
bmw,
cars,
w z4 gt3,
z4 gt3,

When Apple introduced the latest generation of iMac to the world, and made it known that they were able to get that LED-backlit display up to 27-inches, we knew it would not only be a gorgeous machine, but it would pretty much be right up there with a low-end Mac Pro if specced out right. We immediately picked up one of the new 27-inch iMacs to put out theory to the test, but in the meantime, we’ve got an unboxing video for you that shows off the ridiculously huge Mac, as well as the little design tweaks and changes that Apple has made to the iMac line since the previous generation.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS H.264 Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| – iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| – Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| – MPEG-4

Tags:
27-inch imac,
apple,
computers,
imac,
imac review,
mac,
opening,
unboxing,
unpacking,

Looks like Apple has been hard at work making some final tweaks to the design and functionalist of the iPad. As you can see in the image above, previously there was a mute switch above the volume rocker, similar to what you’d find on an iPhone or iPod touch, but now that switch has been reassigned to provide a different function. It’s not a quick way to enable and disable the automatic screen rotation when turning the device from landscape to portrait. Our thoughts on this one? Good move.

Don’t forget, you can now pre-order your iPad.

Tags:
apple,
ipad,
ipad features,
screen orientation lock,
screen rotation lock,

Damaka has announced the release of its Live Video Streaming solution for laptops and certain BlackBerry and Android devices. So, while EMT’s with BlackBerry and Android phones will be able to keep attending physicians in the ER in the loop as to an incoming patient’s condition with real-time video updates, woe betide the unlucky EMT who has a crap data plan or an iPhone.

Damaka’s Live Video Streaming solution, as they’re calling it, provides instant communication of video and voice via an encrypted channel that includes session archival & annotation features. Live video streaming is also able to be transmitted to multiple receiving devices over WiFi /3G / 4G network depending on the device.  I just can’t wait to have a live video conference streaming from my mobile device while I’m driving, staring at my dash-mounted Garmin and trying navigate rush hour traffic—the future is NOW!

Tags:
3g,
4g,
android,
blackberry,
cellphones,
damaka,
live video streaming,
smartphones,
ucc,
video streaming,
wi-fi,
wifi,

The rumor at SXSW is that attendance for Interactive badges is up by 40% from last year, which is pretty amazing when you consider that the 2009 attendance was 10,741. So the amount of people decending on Austin, TX to see the next Twitter or Foursquare make an appearance is around 15,000. It’s crazy to think that Foursquare just debuted last year and now it is the most talked about product so far at this year’s event (granted, things are just getting started.) Speaking of Foursquare, we’ll be covering their SXSW news, as well as that of what we consider to be their main competitor, Gowalla, in the next few days.

It also looks like some of the big names we’ve seen in the past are back in 2010 to take part in the festivities. I saw that Pepsi, Microsoft and Aol were still building their booths this morning.

Braden Young is covering SxSW 2010 for Gear Live. You can follow him on Twitter at @bradeny. Hit him with a tweet if there are any events or sessions you’d like him to hit up and cover!

Tags:
austin texas,
foursquare,
gowalla,
sxsw,
sxsw 2010,
sxsw interactive,
sxswi,

Just a quick heads up to any of you who want to get in on all that hot iPad action as soon as you possibly can. As of this morning, you can pre-order the Apple iPad, you know, their magical and revolutionary device, and have it delivered to your doorstep on April 3rd (although, if you pre-order the 3G version, that’ll ship in late April.) If you are the more adventurous type, you can also head on over to your local Apple Store and pre-order there, and your iPad will be ready for pick-up there on April 3rd. Probably your best bet if you don’t want to be sitting at home all day on a Saturday, waiting impatiently for UPS to show. Either way, get to it!

Tags:
adslice,
apple,
ipad,
ipad pre-order,
pre-order,
sidefeatured,
tablets,

At CES 2010, Microsoft gave us a sneak peek at the Windows 7-based HP slate tablet device. We didn’t get much info at all, but more has trickled out since then. However, now HP is taking an obvious jab at Apple and the iPad, having released the video above that shows off the slate tablet running Flash and Adobe Air, right on the device. Of course, the highlight here comes near the end, when the person playing with the HP Slate pulls up Hulu and begins watching content right on the device, something that the iPad can’t do just yet (although we are hearing that Hulu is working hard to become iPad-compatible.) Hey, one thing the iPad has on the Slate? It has a solid launch date that is just a little over 3 weeks away.

Tags:
adobe air,
apple,
flash,
hp,
hp slate,
html5,
hulu,
ipad,
slate,
tablet pcs,
tablets,

Looks like Apple isn’t the only company looking to capitalize on the iPad hype in order to sell eBooks. Barnes & Noble has just made it public knowledge that they plan on releasing an iPad-optimized version of the B&N reader app, with the goal being to have it ready in the App Store on day one. We must say, we like it. In fact, this may cement the iPad as the best reader device around, because you’ve got the B&N app, the Kindle app, and of course, the Apple iBooks app as well (among others.) This means that you can purchase a book in any of those three ebook marketplaces, and read them all on your iPad. That’s something you just can’t do with a Kindle or nook. Let’s just hope that Apple doesn’t give these apps the same treatment that they’ve given to others, like Google Voice.

Tags:
barnes and noble,
bn,
bn ereader,
ebooks,
ebookstore,
ereaders,
ipad,
ipad apps,
kindle,
nook,

Apple just released an update to Safari 4, and you can download Safari 4.0.5 right now by firing up Software Update, or by simply hitting the Safari product page and downloading it there. According to Apple, you get a few performance and stability improvements (always a good thing,) as well as some bug fixes. Can’t complain about any of that, right?

Oh, and if you are on OS X and run something like Saft, be sure to wait before installing the update, in case it breaks your plugins and add-ons.

Tags:
apple,
safari,
safari 4,
safari 4.0.5,
software,
software update,
web browsers,

Our pal Robert Scoble sat down with Anup Murarka, the Director of Technology Strategy and Partner Development for the Flash platform, and asked him about his thoughts on the perception that Steve Jobs has been giving to the press and consumers regarding Flash. You know, thinks like that it is a battery killer, crashes all the time, etc. Anup talks about Flash being implemented on mobile devices, their public bug tracker, and the significant enhancements in Flash 10.1 that seem to be overlooked.

It all sounds good, but still, don’t expect to see Flash running on your iPad anytime soon.

Tags:
adobe,
adobe flash,
anup murarka,
apple,
flash,
ipad,
iphone,
robert scoble,
steve jobs,
videos,
youtube,

The boys over at ZDNet are reporting that they’ve been hearing whispers that Apple is set to debut an overhaul to the Mac Pro professional desktop line, packing in a six-core Intel Core i7-980x processor, as soon as this coming Tuesday, March 16th. They’re saying it should have a 3.33GHz 6 core/12 thread processor (that goes to up 3.6 GHz with TurboBoost,) 32nm architecture, and Socket LGA1366 130W TDP. In a nutshell, throw this chip into a Mac Pro with some updated internals, and you have one hell of a machine.

Tags:
apple,
apple rumors,
core i7,
core i7-980x,
hexacore,
mac pro,
mac rumors,
rumors,
six core,
xeon,

We’ve been playing Street Fighter IV for iPhone and iPod touch this morning, and we must say, CAPCOM looks to have a serious hit on their hands with this one. The game exudes polish, and shows exactly what an enthusiastic iPhone OS game developer can do with graphics and play mechanics on the iPhone. If you are a fan of fighting games, or Street Fighter in particular, this is one you are going to want to grab!

Tags:
capcom,
ipad games,
iphone games,
ipod touch games,
street fighter,
street fighter 4,
street fighter iv,

Digiarty Software has announced the release of WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, the first converter to support multi-track HD videos.  WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe builds in 160 video and 50 audio codecs. This means that, no matter the codec (a piece of software that allows for digital compression/decompression) that you prefer based on your own personal needs/choices regarding video quality vs. file size. Without any third-party codecs, WinX can also easily support Multi-track HD video, such as BDAV, M2TS, MKV, AVCHD, HDTV and MPEG-TS video movies. It also supports converting all the HD and HD-Camcorder videos, to both portable and console players, such as iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Zune, PDA, Blackberry, Nokia, Android, Zen, and many others.  On top of all of this, WinX is also able to convert your HD videos at 5x-15x speed, making converting your videos not only easy but much, much faster.

So while you yourself may not be HD ready, what with your unsightly blemishes, pores big enough to serve guacamole out of, and makeup that looks like it was applied using a snow-blower, your videos are; that’s on you for buying a product that so greatly highlights all of your many shortcomings.  I’ll be over here with my beta-max shoulder-camcorder and boom-mike, making videos that blur to the point of resembling impressionistic art, thank you very much. But, if you’ve already taken the leap to HD, the WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe is available for a free download at the link below.

Tags:
android,
apple tv,
avchd,
blackberry,
dav,
digiarty software,
free giveaways,
hd,
hd avi,
hd m2ts,
hd mkv,
hd mod,
hd mov,
hd mp4,
hd mpeg,
hd mpg,
hd mts,
hd ts,
hd wmv,
iphone,
ipod,
m2ts,
mkv,
nokia,
pda,
ps3,
psp,
video converter,
winx,
xbox,
zen,
zune,

Quick note to iPhone and iPad developers out there, earlier today Apple released iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 SDK. This is build 10M2144, and comes two weeks after beta 3 was released. It’s a 2.5GB download, which can be yours immediately.

Tags:
apple,
ipad,
iphone,
iphone os 3.2,
iphone os 3.2 sdk,
iphone sdk,
sdk,
smartphones,
software,

So, after upgrading my PC from Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit version to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition, I quickly determined that using Remote Desktop Connection for Mac 2.0 to connect to the PC resulted in no sound coming through the audio redirection feature. It took a bit of Googling to figure out exactly what was going on, but as it turns out, the x64 editions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 simply don’t include the audio redirection feature for the Remote Desktop Mac client. You’d think Microsoft would fix this themselves with a patch, but instead, they offer a Hotfix download. If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Hotfixes, it’s pretty much an annoying process. You head to the kb article to find out about the problem, then request that a link to the hotfix download be emailed to you (because they couldn’t just put a download link on the help page?,) then you download the fix and attempt to open it. You then realize that the email with the download link also includes a password that you need in order to even run the fix.

C’mon, Microsoft, can we improve this asinine process?

At the very least, at the end of the day, the Hotfix worked, and I am again able to remote in to my PC from my Mac to listen to Zune. Good times.

Tags:
64 bit,
audio redirection,
bugs,
hotfix,
how to,
mac,
microsoft,
remote desktop client for mac,
software,
windows 7,

ASiQ Limited has announced the release of the world’s first bluetooth access-point for commercial airlines.  According to Ron Chapman, ASiQ’s CEO, airlines will now be able to offer passengers affordable SMS, MMS, Voice-messaging and text email capabilities while in flight via their new SafeCell app.  Better still, SafeCell will also eliminate GSM roaming charges since it does not require a GSM connection to deliver its services.  Bluetooth access points are far more efficient than their Wi/Fi counterparts, as they operate as a Personal Area Network (PAN) and unlike Wi-Fi do not have to waste time and money logging in to the internet in order to establish a link. The SafeCell App uses file sizes that are so small even a narrow band satellite link can accommodate the SMS/MMS/text-email needs of up to 192 individual passengers. Bluetooth also operates at up to 3 megabits per second making it compatible with any current data or media plan available.  Besides giving you more options to drain your battery with whilst in-flight than just playing Bejeweled II, ASiQ’s service will also enable you to completely ignore the fact that you are crammed in a glorified cigar-tube built by the lowest bidder.  Hopefully.  I’ll be the guy directly behind you faking trying to light his shoe on fire.

Tags:
airplane,
asiq,
bluetooth,
cell phones,
in-flight,
in-flight wifi,
safecell,
smartphones,
wifi,
wireless,

According to McAffee CTO George Kurtz the cyber-attacks that occurred in January targed a small number of employees who controlled source code management systems.  These source code management systems handle the myriad changes that developers make as they write software, the breach of which can have a cascade effect across multiple levels of Google and as many as 30 other business targeted in the January attacks.  Aside from being awesome and using ‘cyber-attack’ in a sentence, I also have some valuable source-code for sale at rock-bottom prices; check out my store at ‘CyberNinjaAssassinCassanova138’ on eBay.

Tags:
china,
crimes,
cyber attack,
george kurtz,
google,
hack,
hacking,
internet,
mcafee,
source code,
theft,