4K Workflows and 4K Ultra HD TV: Another Tech Revolution

Posted on May 20, 2013 by admin

Early this year, Samsung released its first 4K Ultra HD TV at CES 2013. During the show, Samsung claimed that both larger and smaller types other than the initial 85-inch version would come out some. Now it’s apparently ready to fulfill part of that promise, announcing in Korea that 65- and 55-inch models will launch next month. According to Engadget, these smaller models will be priced the $10,000 benchmark compare to the $39,999 MSRP 85S9 UHD TV. The press release quoted that the new model will feature Samsung’s upgradeable Smart TV platform and the “micro dimming ultimate” LED lighting of the larger type, but the odd “Timeless Gallery” frame / stand (pictured above on the 85-incher) was not included.

Consumer electronics companies are hoping 4K Ultra High Definition TV will be the next big thing, but parts of the TV biz are proceeding like it’s already here.

The new-fashioned 4K TVs aren’t even placed in U.S. families yet, but already select TV pilots are being made by Sony Pictures Television with digital-cinema cameras to future-proof the TV shows for the time when 4K is widely applied. Sony’s partner the Cabler 3Net is future-proofing with its Total D strategy, producing programs in 2D and 3D at 4K, 2K and HD resolution. Meanwhile, Netflix’s “House of Cards,” CBS’ “Criminal Minds” and FX’s “Justified” are among the upcoming list of shows filmed with the Red Epic.

Curtis Clark, chairman of American Society of Cinematographers technology committee, believes that the 4K cameras will help deliver superior results than today’s HDTV performance. “It also has an advantage when you’re down-converting that to HD,” Curtis says. “You’re super-sampling or oversampling an image and getting the advantage of that. In a sense it’s like when you scan motion-picture film and show it in HD.”

Although 4K cameras such as the Red Epic and the Sony F65/F55weren’t designed for TV programming, but high-resolution camcorders will absolutely occupy a good position in TV sports soon. Shooting with a 4K camera gives lots of extra pixels to zoom in for replays and still get a full HD TV image, not a fuzzy, pixilated picture.

“Not only can we use the F65s that way, we’ve been using Phantom cameras and other extreme high-speed cameras to do slow motion for sports broadcasting, and it gives us some very effective new looks at an old product,” says David Stump, chair of the camera subcommittee at ASC.

What do you think of 4K Ultra HD TV and the 4K workflows? Do you believe that they will lead another tech revolution? If you have any idea, share with us! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments below. Appreciated!

Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Random Thoughts on the Big Changes Coming to AppleCare This Fall

Posted on May 13, 2013 by admin

“In a town hall session held on Thursday, Apple informed tech staff that major changes to the AppleCare and AppleCare+ service programs will be enacted starting this fall, with a broadening of current policies likely to cut costs and make the service more attractive to consumers.” read more from: AppleInsider

It is said that there will be some big changes coming to AppleCare this fall, including warranty subscriptions, in-store iOS device repairs and more. But still there’re a lot we need to consider about: Should we run it through Live Trace? Is there a problem with using the copywritten images proper? …

As neat and painless as it is to walk out with a swapped iPhone in 30 seconds, this sounds more efficient/less wasteful. Less wasted fuel, fewer wasted parts… and no need to restore your old iPhone’s contents to the new one. Waiting for an in-store repair (while you wait, hopefully) may take longer at first–but less pain in the end.

It is quicker the current way, but it has it’s drawbacks even for the end user. I’ve had some kind of manufacturing defect on every iPhone I’ve ever bought so I’ve had the experience of replacing each one of them (one model twice!), and it’s not the rose garden many make it out to be. On top of the fact that you’re $900.00 phone is being replaced with a much cheaper refurbished product (a rip-off in and of itself), there are often problems with the refurbished phone having information in it that ties it to the previous owner.

My current iPhone for example had the previous owners AppleID associated with it (even though it was supposedly completely wiped, refurbished and “new” in it’s refurbished box), and their home phone number as well. This has happened to me several times, so it’s not just a one off either. Up until the iPhone 5, this has never been a big deal, but with the 5, I still to this day have a lot of problems with iTunes in that the ownership of the media on my devices is always in question because somehow Apple’s servers don’t really “believe” that the phone is mine now. Lots of times my music won’t play for instance even though I bought it right on the device with my own Apple ID.

Also, on the initial setup, the ownership of my media was so mixed up, that I had to manually delete all the media off the device and then put it back on item by item. This process took over 2 days to do. Just because some goon at an Apple store gave me a refurbished device that wasn’t properly prepared (in some unexplainable inscrutable way).

I think they should skate a little closer to the law on this one and they wouldn’t have so many problems and pissed of customers. If a brand new iPhone, bought off contract for the full price, and it has manufacturers defects, it’s 100% wrong of Apple to replace it with refurbished junk of lesser quality and value. It’s also technically illegal (at least in my country) if anyone has the money and the time to take them to court over it, or fix the problem in store if they can.

On the flip side however, a part of the reason my experience is so bad, is Apple is far too lenient on most users in terms of AppleCare and repairs. I know people who have got two or three phone replacements for issues that were of their own making. IMO instead of trying to make every cheapskate loser in the world happy and screwing over the customers they have that actually pay for their products, they should be nicer to folks like me and a little less nice to those abusing the current system.

Anyway, this is great. One of the concerns with Apple’s rapid growth over the past decade is keeping up its level of customer service, and while that hadn’t even shown up to be a problem, it’s good to know that Apple just keeps improving it!

What do you think of the new updates? Remember to tell us your thoughts about that on the comments below.

Posted in Review | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Six Features You Should Not Miss in Android Jelly Bean 4.2

Posted on May 3, 2013 by admin

Android Jelly Bean 4.2 is full of new features. Some are fairly minor adjustments like the Settings shortcut in the notification bar. Other features, such as improved photo editing process, will certainly have a bigger punch on the general user experience.

Now listed here are 5 of the new features of the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 mobile OS, with the sixth feature being a workaround should you decide against lock-screen widgets.

Developer Options
Developer Options is a useful settings function for developers and those who want to “meddle with” their phone. In the Jelly Bean 4.2, Android hid the Developer Options in the Settings menu. But they are not lost; just a few taps and you can get them back.

Lock screen widgets
From the very beginning, widgets have been a key feature of the Android OS, but up until Jelly Bean 4.2, those widgets can only be placed on the home screen. From now on, users can put Gmail and Calendar preview and more widgets to their lock screen. Besides, users also can open the camera app with a single tap after unlock your device.

Disable lock screen widgets
Not a fan of random strangers being able to pick up your device and view previews of your messages or your e-mails? I can’t say I blame you. Even if you delete the widgets from your lock screen, you may not want to see the boxes blink every time you unlock your device. I can’t blame you for that either. Luckily, a developer has released an app to eliminate the widgets and camera shortcut.

Improved photo editing
You may probably have the same experience as mine that ever started to edit a photo but unexpectedly forget what the original photo looked like. It does happen. Usually, we do so much editing only to end up with getting a worse-look photo back in the end. With Jelly Bean 4.2, you can easily reveal the original photo without losing any of the edits you’ve made with only a simple gesture.

Jelly Bean Daydreams
Jelly Bean 4.2 also provides a new screensaver mode, activated while your device is charging or docked. But they are not named as screensavers; instead, Google calls them Daydreams. There’s a total of five preinstalled Daydreams, with a sixth Daydream needed to be unlocked through a secret method. OK, it’s not something top secret, but it’s not somewhat the common user knows about.

Photo Sphere and Google Maps
Photo Sphere is a really cool new feature in Jelly Bean 4.2 that allows users to shoot 360-degree panoramic photos of their surroundings. Once you’re done taking the photo, you’ll have truly created a Photo Sphere and can even use the gyroscope built into your device to view it. Another way you can use your new Photo Sphere is to upload it to Google Maps, making it viewable to Google Maps users.

More
There are still plenty of new features worth mentioning left in the Android Jelly Bean 4.2. For example, Tablets now have multiple-user support, and there’s even an AirPlay-like feature for sharing content from your device with your TV.

As we continue to learn and use the OS, we will share more features and links to tips and tricks for Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on our FaceBook and Twitter. Tell us what you think about it!

Posted in Android devices | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Newly Twitter Update for Mac Integrate Photo Sharing Improvements and Retina Support

Posted on April 26, 2013 by admin

On Thursday April 25th, 2013, Twitter showed off a long-awaited updated Mac version of its app, featuring a number of key fixes, including easier photo sharing as well as support for Retina displays and more languages. On the imaging side of things, you can now simply click the camera icon in the lower-left corner of the tweet composing module, or just do it as before by the old fashioned way: to drag and drop photos from the desktop. The latest version also finally adds support for Macs with Retina Displays, making it “even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks” such as the Retina Macbook Pro. Also new in this version is 14 new languages, including Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.

“Along with these updates, Twitter for Mac offers keyboard shortcuts, support for multiple accounts and timelines, and other features that you’ve come to love,” Said Twitter for Mac Tech Lead Ben Sandofsky in a blog post Thursday.

The update is now available for downloading in the Mac App Store. It seems like that Twitter has some other goodies on hand, since Sandofsky told Twitter fans to “keep an eye out for more improvements to come.”

Twitter has been a busy bee recently. Twitter last week launched a new music discovery service for the Web and iOS devices named Twitter #music. The new service “uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists” Besides, Twitter also said that they were considering new ways to improve the process of using Twitter on Android, which we’ve talked about a week ago.

For more information, follow us on our Twitter or Facebook. Remember to tell us your thoughts about that on the comments below.

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

iPad 5 Predicted to Be Thinner, Lighter: from KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo

Posted on April 22, 2013 by admin

Last autumn, Apple surprised most Apple fans with its introduction to the iPad 4 alongside the iPad Mini that was mostly identical to the third-gen iPad. Some people hoped Apple would fall in line with its yearly upgrade cycle and debut a brand new iPad 5 in March or April, but up to today, there’s still little word from Apple about a fifth-generation iPad. It looks as if that’s not happening.

Ming-Chi Kuo, the analyst from KGI Securities who has on a number of occasions offered accurate information on Apple’s product plans, doesn’t think we’ll see the iPad 5 until this autumn. He believes production for the new device won’t come out until August or September for an autumn debut, roughly one year after the launch of iPad 4. Considering Apple’s silence about any new products this year, Kuo’s prediction makes sense on the surface.

Ming-Chi Kuo recently published a new research note outlining his expectations for Apple’s fifth-generation iPad. “We think the tablet will, at 7.5-8.0mm, be 15% thinner than iPad 4. The new device will likely be about 500 grams, or some 25% lighter than iPad 4, run on an A7X processor, and sport cameras with similar specs to the iPad 4′s (front HD, rear 5MP). The casing shape and color (silver and black) and narrow bezel design will be similar to the iPad Mini’s.”

The forecast of a 7.5-8.0 mm thickness is in step with previous rumors that the next iPad will see an approximately 2 mm reduction from the current 9.5 mm thickness.

Kuo predicts that Apple will adopt the same GF2 touch technology used in the iPad mini, enabling Apple to design a thinner display for the new full-size iPad. In addition, more efficient display and chip technologies are expected to bring down the device’s overall power consumption, allowing for a smaller and thinner battery.

“We therefore think that iPad 5′s battery capacity will be 25-30% smaller, at 8,500-9,000mAh, than iPad 4′s, and the battery’s thickness will be 15-20% smaller, at 7.5-8.0mm, and the number of cells will be reduced to two from three.”

Apple has not announced any new products this year, but it will report its first quarter earnings on April 23. Perhaps some clues will emerge then.

You may also be interested in:

How to Play 1080p MKV on iPad Mini

How to Convert MP4 to iPad Mini on Mac

How to Play SWF on iPad

The Best Mac AVI to iPad Mini Converter

Have any idea about the fifth generation iPad? Give us your thoughts via our Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments below.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Twitter is Considering New Ways to Improve the Process of Using Twitter on Android

Posted on April 17, 2013 by admin

Stepping into 2013, more and more companies are showing their interest in Google’s Android OS. About a week ago, FaceBook pluckily designed to upraise its participation in the mobile field with its Android-only replacement, and now followed the Twitter.

Twitter Vice President Michael Sippey seemed to be attracted by the sorts of experiences others have been able to build on top of Android. He confirmed at the D: Dive Into Mobile that Twitter has been considering new ways for Android users to discover Tweets.

“There are a lot of things we’re looking at on Android to make it easier to discover tweets,” Sippey remarked in response to an audience question. He went on to mention that he finds FaceBook Home to be “a very interesting product,” and that he “would like to see tweets there.”

To our disappointment, Sippey didn’t reveal anything further about what exactly the Android-oriented Twitter their experts configuring behind closed doors will be like. However, he did point out the significance of Twitter’s internal hack weeks, quarterly events that their transdisciplinary professionals come together to work on some interesting projects. Yes, the hacks may be rather rough at first, but improving day after day, some of them would turn out to be full-feature products that have ultimately been integrated into Twitter proper (downloadable tweet archives are probably the best example).

The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger points out that unlike FaceBook’s “late night hack”, it wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of Twitter’s potential Android enhancements came about due to this internal drive to betweenwhiles cobble things together completely. For now Twitter is more than happy to keep these stuffs close to behind doors, but Sippey stated that the team wants to “build the best Twitter” they can, and taking a tighter approach to baking into an immensely popular mobile OS wouldn’t be the worst move Twitter could make.

If you have any idea about the Twitter on Android, give us your thoughts via our Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments below. Appreciated!

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sony announces XAVC-S for Consumers, Doremisoft Releases Follow-up Programs

Posted on April 15, 2013 by admin

If you were chomping at the bit to create content for the oncoming 4K revolution, Sony has just announced a couple of enhancements to its XAVC video format to help you on your way. Long GOP is a high-efficiency codec designed to meet the requirements of the professional market, while XAVC-S is aimed squarely at consumers with its MP4 wrapping. Of course, both codecs should play nice with Sony’s series of CineAlta cameras (the PMW-F5 is pictured below), which is set to reach over 2,000 units shipped by the end of the month. Sony’s not the only one making XAVC-compatible devices however; over 60 manufacturers have applied for XAVC licenses while 31 others have pledged to support it in their products. Seeing as 4K hardware is finally dipping into affordability, we can’t fault Sony for getting the ball rolling, at least from the creation side of things.
— source from www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/sony-long-gop-xavc-s-codec/

Since XAVC/XAVC-S is not yet widely spread among the marketplace, not many camcorder editors can really deal with the XAVC files very. In this case, Doremisoft recently has successfully developed the follow-up programs called the XAVC Video Converter and XAVC Video Converter for Mac, which are specially designed for converting the brand new XAVC/XAVC-S format footages to most popular video formats such as XAVC to AVI/XAVC to MOV/XAVC to FLV, so as to save users from the trouble of importing XAVC footages to the professional editors like Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas and more, as well as to help users playing XAVC on the popular portable devices like iPad 4, iPhone 5, Kindle Fire HD, HTC One, Galaxy S4, etc.

For more information about the XAVC and XAVC-S, you can follow them at their Facebook and Twitter. You can also give us your thoughts via our Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments below.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Roundup: Top 8 Kindle Fire Apps

Posted on April 7, 2013 by admin

Kindle Fire and Fire HD are two of the most popular tablets on the market, but their true value is really a function of what you can do with them. The 25 apps that we’ve included on this list aim to help you use your Kindle Fire to its fullest potential by downloading a wide range of apps for entertainment, productivity, networking, and more. We recommend these 8 Kindle Fire apps.

AndroZip Root File Manager

$2.99

AndroZip Root File Manager is a powerful file manager that not only contains tools for organizing and locating your files, but compresses files and uses drag-and-drop motions for functionality. It’s an optimized Kindle Fire app as well as a full-service one-stop shop for managing all your file.

Astrid Task & Todo

free

Astrid Task/Todo is Astrid is more than just the perfect to-do list – it’s the personal assistant you’ve always wanted, with reminders, syncing capabilities, a widget for getting those reminders in front of you faster, and more.

Kindle Fire Video Converter

$35

Have trouble playing some of your media files on your Kindle Fire? Try Kindle Fire Video Converter. It handles all kinds of file formats that Amazon’s tablet doesn’t, such as MP4, MP3, Xvid, and others, so it can help you import media files to your Kindle effortlessly.

Flow Free

free

Flow Free is a simple yet addictive puzzle game that keeps your mind awake matching colors with pipe to create a flow whether you have 30 seconds of spare time or 45 minutes to kill while sitting in a waiting room. Each level is a progressively more difficult logic puzzle ranging from simple and relaxed, to challenging and frenetic, and everywhere in between.

Evernote

free to $45 per year for a Premium account

If you weren’t an early adopter of Evernote, a freemium note-taking and organization app that makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web, there’s no shame in being a late adopter. Think of Evernote as your digital brain, a place to save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. With an incredibly powerful search tool and plenty of space to store all your notes, Evernote is a must-have app on the Kindle Fire.

Flipboard

free

Imagine creating your own magazines with everything that matters to you from world news to life’s great moments and all your social network feeds, plus updates from the blogs you read and professional editorial content? Here comes the Flipboard! Flipboard may be the best digital magazine you’ll find.

Hulu Plus

free; requires $7.99 per month subscription

The Hulu Plus app is free to download, but a monthly subscription service requires a $7.99/month subscription to watch most contents including TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, TBS, and many other networks and studios. The app also has a selection of free contents, mostly selected episodes or interesting clips from popular TV shows.

LinkedIn

free

LinkedIn mobile is where you can find and connect with over 200 million professionals, get the latest updates, and share your status. If you’re job hunting or self-employed, you can view and save recommended jobs through the site where to keep up with people, and especially for doing a little research on them before you meet. It’s a great app to have on a Kindle Fire for those moments on the go when you need to find a professional contact from your own professional network.

Posted in Android devices | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Former Windows Phone Executive Charlie Kindel Works on “Something Secret” at Amazon

Posted on April 3, 2013 by admin

Charlie Kindel, the former Windows Phone  executive, known for building the Windows Phone 7 application platform and 3rd party ecosystem, Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center, and multiple startups, has joined Amazon to head a new and as yet undisclosed project. Kindel left Microsoft in mid 2011 to work on his own companies including BizLogr, but he is “now at Amazon working on something wonderful” described in his LinkedIn page. In the profile, he lists himself as “Director, Something Secret” at Amazon in Seattle. “I’m building a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon.” Said Kindel, “I’m hiring cloud and mobile developers and testers, program managers, and product managers.” judging by which, we can infer that “something secret” may be related to the much-rumored Amazon smartphone.

Before Kindel left Redmond to carry out his own startups, he was a high profile platform evangelist for Windows Phone. But now that he joined Amazon, he may now work on designing a smartphone powered by Android a la the Kindle Fire’s tablets of Amazon. Hints were provided by himself years ago on his personal blog Fragmentation Is Not the End of Android.  So it’s possibly an area he’s been preoccupied with for a while.

Kindel takes up his new role at Amazon, stepping down as CEO of BizLogr while remaining the company’s owner and founder. Kindel joined the company on April 1st, which is traditionally the Fool’s Day. Funny, huh? Many guys speculate that the entire announcement was an elaborate joke, but later Kindel has confirmed the news that he has genuinely joined Amazon via Twitter:

Rumors that Amazon is working on building a smartphone have been doing the rounds for years, although suggestions of a 2012 unboxing proved to be off the mark. Bloomberg also reported Amazon phone rumours last summer. More recently, a deal between Amazon and carrier billing company Bango also hints at possible preparations for a smartphone – although Amazon of course is remaining tight-lipped on the phone rumours.

Are you interesting in the Amazon smartphone? Do you think the online retailer would create a successful handset? Give us your thoughts via our Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments below.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

iPhone 5s to Announce at a Special Event on June 29

Posted on April 1, 2013 by admin

According to a Gizmorati recent report, the Apple iPhone 5s will be released at a special event on June 29 together with the fifth-generation iPad, while CNET cited MacFan’s news that we’ll see the iPhone 5s unveiled on 20 June, and it’ll hit shop shelves in July.

Gizmorati reports that from Apple’s internal information they got, the special event will be named “Original Passion, New Ideas”, and will be carried out at Apple’s headquarter in Cupertino, California.

“The much-rumoured cut-price iPhone could also make its debut in August,” according to CNET report, “though it’ll be targeted at developing markets like China and India, so it might not make it to these shores.”

However, a June launch could well be on the cards since Apple often holds its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) around June. You know, during the past WWDCs, Apple has published in the iPhone 3G/3GS/4 – the only exceptions are the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, which are unveiled in September – so it is very possible that the 5s to be announced at the same conference.

Product Name Release Date
iPhone 3G June 09, 2008 (Mon)
iPhone 3GS June 08, 2009 (Mon)
iPhone 4 June 8, 2010 (Tue)
iPhone 4S October 4, 2011 (Tue)
iPhone 5 September 12, 2012 (Wed)

This also squares with previous prediction by Apple analyst Gene Munster that the iPhone 5s will launch in late June, as does KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In addition, since the the iPhone 5 Apple announced in September last year has already been replaced by the Samsung Galaxy S4, which launched just a couple of weeks ago, if Apple doesn’t announce the next iPhone until September, it may surely fall behind Samsung in the market share this year, and will have to bear Samsung’s blowing raspberries and chanting “Our phone is newer than yours” for several months more.

Do you believe that Apple will announce the iPhone 5s in late June? What are you expecting from the iPhone 5s? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page @Doremisoft Software.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 23 24   Next Page »