Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s hard to deny the popularity of tweeting when people are actually writing Twitter clients for ‘ancient’ hardware like the Commodore 64. BREADBOX64 was written by Johan Van den Brande for the C64/128 and uses the Contiki embedded OS as well as an MMC Replay cartridge with the RR-Net add-on for actually connecting to the internet. The Twitter timeline is automatically refreshed every two minutes, and though it might not be as graphically pleasing or robust as other PC clients, the basic functionality is there should you ever find yourself stuck with only an old C64 and a desperate need to microblog.

And BREADBOX64 is available as a free download on Johan’s site, just scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the link.

[ Vandenbrande.com - BREADBOX64 ] VIA [ Slashdot ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Unless you’re running a Mac (yes, I went there), it’s almost a necessity to be running some sort of anti-virus on your machine. There are plenty to choose from, most of which cost a decent bit of money for a yearly subscription. Free ones also exist, but they always seem to be lacking a few important features. Well it seems that there will soon be another company tossing its hat into the ring of free anti-virus providers.

Microsoft is currently gearing up for a closed-beta of their new free anti-virus service, code-named Morro. It is described as a stripped-down version of their Live OneCare service. It’s hard to say a lot of bad things about a free anti-virus, so provided that Microsoft doesn’t find some way to royally screw things up, it should likely appeal to those that wouldn’t otherwise bother installing such software. No word on when they are planning to officially launch Morro.

[ Reuters ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s an understatement to say the iPhone’s built-in camera isn’t the greatest, but that doesn’t mean the phone itself can’t be a useful tool for serious photographers. A company called Pixelexip has a couple of apps currently available on the App Store for $0.99 each that might come in handy, even if you’re shooting with thousands of dollars worth of professional camera equipment.

LightSource turns your iPhone (or iPod Touch) into a customizable light panel for accenting still-life or low light photo shoots. In reality the app is nothing more than another flashlight, but it features a wide array of settings for specific light sources like fluorescent or gaseous lights, and it could be just the thing for adding a distinct catch light in your subject’s eyes, or adding a specific tint to a scene.

GrayCard is basically the same idea, another glorified flashlight, but it turns your iPhone into an adjustable gray card for white balance reference and corrections later on. You simply select how your scene is lit, daylight or tungsten lighting, as well as a cool or warm setting depending on how you want your shots to turn out. Now I’m actually a little skeptical as to how well this app would work when using a flash, given the iPhone’s reflective glass screen and limited viewing angle, but in certain situations it might be better than carrying around 20 different filters.

Thanks Wook!

[ Pixelexip - LightSource & GrayCard ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though it was arguably one of the crappiest digital cameras ever sold, the Game Boy Camera still has a surprising cult following. But not only is it a pain in the butt to carry a Game Boy around these days, particularly with the giant lens attachment hanging off the top, but if you don’t have the proper cable, you won’t be able to do much with your photos.

However, carrying around an iPhone is a whole different story, and now thanks to Epicore you can recreate those awesome greenscale images using the iPhone’s camera. GB Camera emulates the 2-bit color palette of the Game Boy’s screen, and let’s you see the effect in real time via the iPhone’s camera. It also lets you tweak the green balance, brightness and contrast, and even toggle a pixel spacing option get to that perfect LCD look. And it’s just $0.99 available on the App Store right now.

[ Epicore - Game Boy Camera ] VIA [ Tiny Cartridge ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I just replaced an aging Linksys router with a D-Link 655 recommended by a friend, and I have to say I couldn’t be happier with the upgrade. And today things get even better since D-Link has released an updated version of their router desktop widget. It supports Yahoo! Widgets, Vista Gadgets and the Mac Dashboard and provides a dashboard-like real-time read out of your network and internet performance.

The widget is compatible with all of D-Link’s 802.11n routers like the DIR-655, DIR-855 and DGL-4500 and is available as a free download from D-Link’s site. (Note: A firmware update may be required to use the widget.)

[ D-Link Network Monitor v2.0 Widget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This is one of those iPhone apps that manages to be pointless but cool at the same time. Tin Can essentially turns a couple of iPhones into old-school modems, allowing you to send and receive text messages using sound, instead of a network connection. Of course it’s not exactly a very useful alternative to a 3G or wi-fi connection since the iPhones basically have to be sitting about an inch apart, or as long as the included headset cables will reach. So there’s a good chance you’ll not only be able to talk to the person you’re communicating with, but you’ll probably be able to see their screen as they’re typing out a message. So whether or not you think you can squeeze 99 cents worth of fun out of it is up to you.

[ Perceptive Development - Tin Can ] VIA [ MAKE: Blog ]

By Luke Anderson

Despite my love for tech, rarely do I dabble into the world of Linux. I stick to my PC for gaming and my Mac for most other tasks. Don’t get me wrong, I do know it has it’s uses, it’s just not my thing. One thing that I’ve always liked is how quickly you can get some distros to load up, since I hate waiting around for Windows or even my Mac to start up. The dream is of course an instant-on OS, which MSI has developed specifically for several of their boards, dubbed Winki.

Naturally, the OS is Linux-based and is contained on a small flash drive which plugs directly into the USB headers on the board itself. Granted, this isn’t the first such instant-on OS to be created, but MSI claims that it is much more elaborate than the ones we have seen in the past. It will be interesting to see which boards this will be compatible with, and whether they will eventually make it available on all boards.

VIA [ Engadget ]

By Evan Ackerman

ShowStoppers Macworld, which was the only selection of exhibitors I had a chance to see since I had to get my ass out to Vegas for CES, was kinda disappointing. There were perhaps 15 exhibitors in a room which felt the size of a small closet, and most of them were selling services of one type or another. We don’t generally like to write about services, mostly because they don’t tend to come with switches or buttons or LEDs or anything. But, there were two things that caught my eye:

Truphone is a VoIP company (i.e. works on the iPod touch) that specializes in cheap international calls. Much like Skype, Truphone users can call each other for free over the internet, and pay a little bit per minute to call regular phone numbers. Truphone bases its rates on your phone number and the number of the phone you’re calling, not your physical location. So, if you’re in Azerbaijan with your US based cellphone and you want to call your friend in the US, Truphone bills you for a US to US call. Downside is, if you’re in Azerbaijan and want to call across the street, it works the other way. What I found entertaining, though, is that Truphone has predefined call rates for Antarctica, which is not only not a country, but I’m not entirely sure that it HAS cell service, much less landlines. But if it does, $2 a minute is probably pretty damn cheap to call there.

One more mildly interesting thing, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Not every photographer working in a studio environment has an army of assistants at their beck and call. Like Scott Forman for example. But what he lacks in manpower, he more than makes up for with his programming prowess. In an attempt to make the process of shooting lighting tests using himself as the subject a bit easier, Scott has developed a Windows-only application called ShutterVoice that allows him to control most of the functions in Canon’s EOS Utility software with simple spoken commands.

Without having to use a keyboard or even see the PC’s display, the ShutterVoice utility allows a photographer to adjust everything from shutter speed, to the aperture and even control focus and autofocus functions with simple commands. The software uses the Microsoft Speech SDK for all of the voice recognition, as well as the voice synthesizer for providing an audible confirmation of what you’ve asked it to do. So far the software has been tested with an EOS 50D and an EOS 20D by Scott, but additional beta testers have confirmed it also works with the EOS Rebel XSi and EOS 30D. But in theory it should work with any Canon SLR that’s compatible with the EOS Utility.

ShutterVoice is expected to be available sometime in December for a flat rate of $30 (there will be no standard vs. pro versions.)

[ ShutterVoice ] VIA [ Rob Galbraith DPI ]