It’s a little slow paced for a music video, but Steve Ellington’s “Technologic Overkill”, shows us what we all knew already. It’s not the camera that counts, but what you do with it. Steve says the video is the “first music video shot on an iPhone 3GS,” and we won’t argue — it’s certainly the first one we’ve seen.
The movie shows that the quality of the 3GS video camera, while certainly nowhere near hi-def, is at least good enough. It even has a rather nice filmic look to it, although we suspect there may be a little post-processing involved judging by the artistic vignetting.
What we like the most, though, is imagining Steve actually shooting. Think about the looks he would have gotten from passersby as he squatted on the mall floor jiggling a little blue toy robot in one hand and a cellphone in the other.
Being the big-time professional blogger that I am means that I have to deal with being famous. I mean, I can’t hardly walk down the street without getting bombarded by paparazzi. While that may be a slight exaggeration on my part, there are real celebrities out there that have to deal with that sort of thing on a regular basis. There’s really very little you can do to deter those shutter-happy photographers from blinding celebs with their flash. Thankfully technology may soon give them a helpful tool.
This new purse concept is rather simple. It houses a small LED flash that can detect bright sources of light. When it senses a camera flash, it kicks on its own bright flash to compensate. This will then cause the picture to come out with a large white area where the subject should be. It works at 1/125 shutter speed, which should be fast enough to blind cameras shooting at slower speeds for night shots.
Here’s what Facebook for iPhone 3.0 looks like—pretty nice. Besides the new giant button home screen, you’ll be able to actually RSVP to events and create new photo albums. No push yet, but here’s the full list:
1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call
Somehow, “Gettin’ lucky in Kentucky” didn’t make the list of the all-time top-10 travel campaigns, as chosen by Forbes. What kind of crazy oversight is that? Oh well, it was always more of an unofficial slogan for my home state anyway, better suited for cheap T-shirts than ads aimed at selling the Bluegrass State to the world. Forbes went with the iconic for the most part, with some new ads thrown in, picked by a panel of media and travel experts. They decided, not surprisingly, that the recently re-launched Las Vegas tagline, “What happens here stays here,” is the best of the best. The rest? There’s some nostalgia like, “Virginia is for lovers,” which was obviously a much better choice than the original idea, “Virginia is for history lovers.” Booooring. Also included: Paul Hogan’s pre-Crocodile Dundee commercials for Australia telling us to “Put another shrimp on the barbie”; Alaska’s bucket-list-inspired tagline, “B4UDIE,” and the current music-infused “Incredible India.” The piece includes a story about how desperately the travel industry is trying to court us for our scarce vacation dollars.
Patrick Tighe, principal of Santa Monica’s Tighe Architecture, may hate space-age references. But, here we go: Tighe’s work for Moving Picture Company’s (MPC) Los Angeles office IS space-agey. With its pod-like central spaces, curving ledges and white drywall expanses, it evokes memories of retro space movies.
But it all fits. The U.K-based MPC is in the business of computer animation, color-grading and digital effects, so you wouldn’t want color, hard edges or natural light to mess with that. MPC is known for its work on the past six James Bond films, Slumdog Millionaire and commercials.
Featuring Jaeger LeCoultre mechanical Calibre 182 movement with 26 complications and over 1300 parts, the limited edition Hybris Mechanica Grand Sonnerie is the world’s most complex watch and costs a whopping $2.5 million. For the price, you also get two other highly complex Jaeger LeCoultre watches - the Gyrotourbillon and Reverso a Tryptique. The set of three watches comes in a safe as a presentation box, which is probably the largest watch safe till date. Jaeger LeCoultre approached the German luxury safe company Doettling for the amazing watch safe. Resembling the looks of a travel chest, the safe stands six foot tall and weighs in at 1,800 pound. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica set safe features eight watch winders and three lighted holes that house the three watches. The rest of the space inside the heavy safe can be used to accommodate other things. There are magnifying glasses and tools for your watch inside. Limited to 30 units worldwide, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hyrbis Mechanica watch set will sell for between $2.5 million and $3 million.
Like travel shows on television? Then you’ll love Voyage.tv a new luxury travel site that offers original lifestyle programming that is available both online at www.voyage.tv and in 20 million homes via Video-On-Demand, The beautiful high-definition footage includes culinary tours, visits to spas and health resorts and shopping experiences. Right now Voyage.tv is showcasing the Caribbean with programming on 11 islands with future spotlights to include New York, Mexico, Hawaii, Tuscany, Bali and Marrakech.
Voyage also includes personal insights from local Resident Editors with dining and nightlife recommendations as well as articles from leading travel publications and video profiles of leading hotels and resorts. And if your viewing inspires you to action, Voyage has partnered with a third-party company (Trisept Solutions) to provide vacation packages. John Pasmore, the president of Voyages North America told the NY Times that he expects the revenue of the site to be equally divided between advertising and bookings. Advertisers appear in display ads but also in spots at the beginning of videos.
China’s Spring Airlines has a problem. It doesn’t have enough planes to meet demand for its flights. And while it has ordered more planes, it has another solution: standing flights: “for a lower price, passengers should be able to get on a plane like catching a bus, with no seat, no luggage consignment, no food, no water,” said Spring’s president Wang Zhenghua. It will still be, he insists, “very convenient.”
By herding passengers onto the plane like cattle, the airline will be able to squeeze on 40% more people. They will still have to wear safety belts, however, although it sounds like they’ll be strapped in somewhat uncomfortably. “It’s just like bar stools,” Spring’s Zhang Wuan told China’s CCTV.”The safety belt is the most important thing. It will still be fastened around the waist.”
This doesn’t actually sound too bad, especially if it means that seated passengers could also stand up and stretch their legs without being constantly harassed by flight attendants brutally wielding trolleys. The plan is still in the baby stages, though, and Spring is considering whether to submit the idea to China’s regulators.
The new line of THINERGY Micro-Energy Cells from Infinite Power Solutions Inc (IPS) could soon be powering small devices such as autonomous wireless sensors, powered smart cards, active RFID applications, and implantable medical devices. The manufacturer says these tiny, rechargeable, thin-film batteries combine the energy density of traditional batteries with the high discharge current of supercapacitors. With some models measuring just 0.5 inches square (12.7mm) and less than 0.01 inches thick (0.17mm), IPS claims these are the most powerful batteries for their size.
Bring that authentic smokehouse flavor home with the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker ($275-$380). Available in huge (22.5-inch) or luggably-large (18.5-inch) sizes, these understated cookers are made from porcelain-enameled premium-grade steel, and offer two nickel-plated cooking grates, a water pan that adds steam to the cooking process for more tender, juicier meats, individual vents on the bowl and lid for optimal air-flow control, and a top-mounted thermometer.
