Oh dear, the cat has been well and truly released from the bag now. I asked Apple weeks ago not to publish TubeStatus whilst I worked out what to do with it copyright wise (and hence subsequently open sourced it). It seems that didn’t make it to the right department and I learned this morning from a user that it was indeed available in the application store and had been downloaded 2,331 times in its first 2 days and has made the top 15 free applications!

It's a fair bet, given that it already offers much the same thing—just not as an iPhone app.

TubeStatus [AppStore via TUAW]

Regular readers may remember the Moleskine iPhone project (sample YouTube comment: "Wow, this video defines hipster douchebag"), in which we hollowed out the legendary notebook, popped an iPod Touch inside and used it to read ebooks outside romantic street cafes.

Sadly, the fun ended with the iPhone 2.0 software update. Books, our free ebook reader application of choice, required a jailbroken 1.4.x iPhone. At launch, the App Store had nothing to replace it. Now, though, a free version of the Mac ebook reading software, Stanza, has found it's way into the store, and it rocks. Here's a quick rundown of just how to turn your iPhone into a mini-Kindle.

First, head to the App Store and grab the free download of Stanza. It comes with one book: H G Wells' The Time Machine (well worth reading if you haven't already). Using the application is as easy as you'd expect. At left you see the library page. Here you pick your book, listed by author or title. Click on one and the text slides across to fill the screen. Font size is controllable while you are reading, but to change fonts and colors you need to visit the iPhone's central settings section.

To turn a page, you either swipe with a finger, or just touch the edges of the screen to page back and forth. You can also jump to a particular chapter by tapping the screen once to bring up the inline options. Stanza will also remember your place automatically. Even if you switch to another book in the meantime, the bookmarks are still in place when you come back. If you want to find a specific passage, you can search on words or phrases. Right now this doesn't extend to the whole book -- you can only search in the current chapter, but given this limit it works fine.

So the reading part is easy, but how do you get more books onto the iPhone? This is probably the most exciting part of the package. Sure, you can beam books wirelessly from a Mac or PC using the desktop version of Stanza, and that is very useful for adding your own texts. But the iPhone application does something that only the Kindle has done until now: It lets you download books over the air.

Here you see the online "store". The inverted commas are in there because everything is free. Stanza hooks up to website Feedbooks, which offers public domain and Creative Commons texts to download for nothing. The entire catalog can be searched from the iPhone and texts directly downloaded -- no computer required. And because these are tiny text files, the downloads are almost instant.

I really like this application. It means you can quite literally carry a small library in your pocket. The one problem is that, unlike the Kindle, you can't buy new titles direct from the iPhone. Stanza supports most ebook formats, so if you buy a .mobi book, for example, you'll be able to use it. But imagine if you could browse Amazon and buy things directly. It might kill the Kindle, but Amazon would sell a lot of ebooks.

Sadly, it's unlikely to happen. Apple has the paid content side of the iPhone sewn up tight. If the iTunes Store started selling ebooks, though, things would start to get very interesting. The troubles with the Kindle are manifold: It's expensive, you can only buy it in the US, and it is bulky. But with around six million iPhone owners out there already, plus an unknown number of iPod Touch users, the potential market for ebooks is huge. This really could be the tipping point when electronic books go mainstream.

Product page [Stanza]

The Flip has taken the You Tube crowd by storm as a low budget, bare bones camcorder for around $129. It has done so well that Pure Digital has vowed to donate a million Flips to to qualifying non-profit organizations in a buy one, get one free affair. So, when Kodak announced a budget HiDef pocket camera for just south of $200, you better believe that Pure Digital was paying close attention.

Kodak calls it the Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera. It comes in either black or a rather bold looking, yet girlish, pink, records in 16:9 720p wide screen at up to 60fps, comes with AA rechargeable batteries and recharger, and can be expanded using SD or SDHC memory cards up to 32 GB (internal memory up to 128MB)! It also has the standard jack knife USB plug, direct to YouTube support, 2/4” LCD, AV & HD video component cables and Arcsoft Media Impression software for editing.

All for $179.00. That’s rather impressive considering that the Flip Ultra with 2GB of memory goes for the same price, but is only standard – 640 x 480 video, just slightly better than VHS. The ZiX is full 720pHD. And also what’s interesting is that while several of the accessories on the upcoming Kodak are included at no charge, they would cost about $15 each for the Flip.

That should give Pure Digital reason to worry. I, for one, can’t wait to test the ZiX. (get it?)

Hat Tip – Engadget
[ Kodak announces Pocket Video HD, challenges The Flip copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Kodak is releasing their Zi6 HD pocket video camera in both pink and black - and you can pre-order them now.

Of course, you’ll be buying sight unseen - without so much as a single review to guide you on your way, and there is no word yet on when it’ll ship…but you can grab it for $179.95.

via engadget

Sleek, chic looks are accentuated further by the big, beautiful 3″ touchscreen LCD. All functions are controlled with a touch of the screen, cutting down on fiddly controls while giving you a widescreen view of your pictures. Inside its super-svelte lines, the Cyber-shot T77 is crammed with smart Sony technology to help you shoot, share and enjoy better-looking pictures. There’s a crisp, clear Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens to ensure peerless image quality, with a powerful 4x optical zoom range for detail-packed close-ups. Additionally, the T77 is the thinnest Cyber-shot ever to feature a powerful 4x optical zoom range for detail-packed close-ups. Now even easier to use, Smile Shutter lets you capture more happy moments. Just select Smile Shutter mode and aim the camera: the Cyber-shot T77 automatically fires the shutter when someone smiles. Face Detection has also been improved for even better results, allowing you to prioritise children or adults for natural portraits with spot-on skin tones, exposure and focus. Brand new ‘Anti-blink’ technology cuts the risk of closed eyes spoiling portraits of friends and family. Portrait Mode shoots two images in quick succession, automatically throwing away pictures where the subject’s eyes are closed. Intelligent Scene Recognition has been further refined. Now it will automatically adjust settings for great results over an even wider range of common shooting situations like portraits, landscapes and close-up macro pictures.

• Super-slim, beautiful design with choice of five fashion colors
• 10.1 effective megapixels
• Smile Shutter
• Face Detection and Anti-blink technology
• Carl Zeiss 4x optical zoom lens
• Optical SteadyShot for crisper, clearer photos
• Stunning 3″ touchscreen LCD
• Intelligent Scene Recognition with new Portrait mode

No idea on pricing, but the DSC-T77 will be available for purchase this September.

Press Release
[ Sony Cybershot DSC-T77 copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The HotInazma Pocket is one device that aims to help you save some money that would have been spent on gas, as it touts to offer improved fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Amazingly, it also prides itself in improving the overall air quality in the vehicle by functioning as a negative ion generator. No idea on how all those claims can be substantiated, but it apparently stabilizes the electricity flowing through your vehicle by the cigarette lighter adapter. Would you be willing to wager $99.95 on something like this?

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More: click here…

College students from Korea are working on their senior year project, that’s right, an interactive toilet that will make sounds and display different shapes of pictures on an LCD based on the size and shape of “poop”.

This is very interesting as I’ve always wanted to hear something else than my regular ol’ “poop”.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

via youtube

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

DIY Interactive Toilet by College Students

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The HotInazma Pocket is one device that aims to help you save some money that would have been spent on gas, as it touts to offer improved fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Amazingly, it also prides itself in improving the overall air quality in the vehicle by functioning as a negative ion generator. No idea on how all those claims can be substantiated, but it apparently stabilizes the electricity flowing through your vehicle by the cigarette lighter adapter. Would you be willing to wager $99.95 on something like this?

Source article | Add a comment