VLC Media Player 1.0.0 for Windows 7
VLC media player 1.0.0 final is now available for download. Built by the VideoLAN project, the media player comes with support for a variety of operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. In this regard, even before version 1.0.0 was finalized, VLC was playing nice with the next iteration of the Windows client, Windows 7, in addition to releases such as Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows XP SP3. Version 1.0.0 continues in the same tradition as past releases from VideoLAN, meaning that the media player is free and open source. In this regard, while end users can access, download and install the VLC 1.0.0 bits, developers can also grab the source code and modify it according to their preferences.
“The VideoLAN project is pleased to announce the release of the first version of the Goldeneye branch of VLC: 1.0.0. This major release introduces many new features, new formats and new codecs to the VLC multimedia framework and fixes a very high number of bugs that were present in the 0.9.x or 0.8.6 versions. The VLC project only lives with volunteers and would love help from new users and contributors: time, code, hardware and money would help us a lot,” VideoLAN revealed. Read more
How to Optimize Pictures For Digital Photo Printing
If you are planning on using a free online photo album service and digital photo printing for your pictures, there are a few things that you need to know ahead of time to make sure that the results are exactly what you want.
Digital photo printing is just like regular photo processing, but the added advantage is that you can change your photos anyway that you would like, and see how they will look, before you actually get them printed.
Here’s what you need to know about optimizing your pictures ahead of time. Read more
Zune 3.0 Is Here
The fall 2008 update for Zune takes Microsoft’s iPod killer at version 3.0. The Redmond company is preparing to release a new lineup of devices, including a new 120 GB model for $249.99, but also variants of 80 GB for $229.99, 16 GB for $199; 8 GB – $149.99 and 4 GB – $129.99. But the new devices are only a part of the Zune 3.0 evolution. According to the software giant, the new models will be accompanied by the introduction of fresh color schemes: blue-on-silver and sleek all-black. And as the new Microsoft digital media players will hit the shelves, consumers will be able to enjoy new features and upgraded firmware.
“Digital music services really come alive when they help people find not only the music they know they like, but the music they didn’t know they would love. With the combination of subscription, wireless access to millions of tracks, and powerful discovery features like personal recommendations and the ability to buy music from FM radio, Zune is taking the digital music experience to the next level,” explained Chris Stephenson, general manager of Global Marketing for Zune at Microsoft. Read more
Digital Thumb Drive
Before anyone writes in, yes, I know this rather bizarre USB ‘Thumb’ drive has been around for a while, but I thought it deserved another outing as I’ve been looking into the weird and wacky world of USB drives, and there’s plenty of them about.
One of my favourites is the humping dog, which does what dirty dogs do, to your PC or laptop, when you download or upload data to the drive. Trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg, I’ve found Barbie dolls with drives in the most unbecoming places, drives shaped like cakes and cameras, bottles and bones (check out what Vavolo has on offer), and objects one doesn’t discuss in polite company. Read more
The Technology Of DVD Media
A Digital Video Disc or DVD is one of the most popular forms of storage media nowadays. It is an optical disc and mainly used to store videos. However, data in any form can be stored on a DVD. The dimensions of a DVD are generally the same as a common compact disc but the amount of data that can be stored is six times greater.
The different variations of DVD are based on the way data is being stored on it. A DVD-ROM has pre-written data that can only be read. A DVD+R and DVD-R are the ones on which the data can be written only once; and on a DVD+RW the data can be written and erased more than once. The lasers used to read DVDs are typically of 650 nm wavelength.
The terms DVD-Audio and DVD-Video discs are DVDs with suitably structured and formatted audio and video content respectively. Other types of DVDs are called DVD-data discs. Read more
Flippin Good Camcorder?
Here’s a quick heads-up on the next craze, probably… It’s called Flip Video, from Pure Digital and on the other side of the pond they’ve sold a million of them in the past few weeks. It’s a tiny pocket camcorder, around the size of a cellphone, so far so ordinary, but it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. First it’s cheap, prices in the US start at around $99 or roughly £50. It has a built-in USB connector, so there’s no faffing around with cables, when you want to watch and download your videos to your Windows or Mac PC. Flip Video stores around an hour’s worth of video at quite reasonable quality, and you can upload directly to You Tube or edit the movie. Power comes from a couple of AA batteries and it has a built-in 1.5-inch display screen. Read more
Mobile Notetaker Digitizes Your Analog Notes
The Mobile Notetaker attaches to the top of any pad of paper and digitizes your notes for download to a computer later (and translated to editable text). It can store up to 50 standard pages of notes or doodles, and costs $170. It’s aimed at solving the same problem of analog vs. digital notes that the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer is attempting. I need one, because I take really good notes at meetings with my boss. Okay, they’re more like drawings. Read more
