2010年12月30日星期四

How to Convert SWF to MP4

Tips 1: If you need, you areallowed to check Merge into one file to convert several files into a successive one to bring you convenience.

Tips 2: Aiseesoft MP4 Video Converter provides various video and audio parameters for you to edit, like video encoder, resolution, frame rate, video bitrate, audio encoder, sample rate, channels and audio bitrate.

Tips 3: This best SWF to MP4 Converter provides rich options such as setting movie effects, trimming any clip of video, cropping video size etc.

Free try Aiseesoft MP4 Video Converter right now, you will find more information at: Convert SWF to MP4.

2010年12月29日星期三

How to Manage iPhone File

For example: management between two different iPhone

1 Run the software, and connect two iPhone to your computer via USB cable.

Manage iPhone File

2 Open the library that you want to export files and pick ones that you need to manage.

3 Click Manage iPhone Video File it will show you the folder of another iPhone that you want to transfer to. Click OK. The management can be finished automatically.

As you can see, it is extremely easy to use for not only master-hands but also beginners. Find more information of iPhone to computer management, computer to iPhone management or more at: Manage iPhone Video File/Music File

Mobilized Offers Some New Year’s Resolutions for the Mobile Industry

While I’m not privy to their actual New Year’s resolutions, here’s my list of what I imagine is making the lists in Cupertino, Espoo, Mountain View, Redmond, Seoul and elsewhere. To be clear, this isn’t my opinion on what anyone’s resolutions should be, it’s just my summary of what they actually seem to be.

Palm: Stay the cool kid at Hewlett-Packard, so it’ll keep giving us lots of toys and not merge the smartphone acquisition into the PC unit. Release that tablet we’ve been working on and get our phones out of the clearance section of the stores. Remember to include “and printers” on all our slides when asking for more money.

Microsoft: We were going to copy and paste from last year’s resolutions, but it turns out we can’t copy and paste yet. So, that’s resolution No. 1. But since we’re going to solve that in January, we’ll move on to some other ambitions. Let’s see, open up to more developers, convince developers we’re worth their time, add features, support more networks.

Hmm. Last year’s “Try not to suck so much” is starting to seem easy by comparison.

Research in Motion: Learn some new ways of saying “Everything is great,” so it doesn’t get too repetitive in public speeches. Meanwhile, keep shaking things up behind the scenes. Buy a few more companies. Get some apps for that PlayBook. Find some more really big countries that the other people are ignoring and sell them a boatload of BlackBerrys.

Samsung: Keep going with this whole Galaxy thing–it worked to the tune of about 10 million phones this year. Try to convince Google phone king Andy Rubin to get a tattoo that reads “Galaxy S smartphone.” Remind the carriers that they really did agree to market all our phones that way.

HTC: Good thing we went Android a couple years back, but now we’re kind of glad we didn’t give up on Microsoft. Now, we have to figure out how to convince them to let us customize Windows Phone 7.

Motorola: Keep telling Verizon and Google that they’ve hurt our feelings and see what other perks we can get via guilt. Hey, it worked well with that tablet, didn’t it?

Apple: We are already perfect, so where do you go from there? Follow a magical 2010 with an even more magical 2011. How’s that?

What else? Let’s see. Okay, here’s one: Keep trashing smaller tablets until the day we come out with one.

Google: Release six or seven more versions of Android. Rename “Nexus Tablet You Should Have Made” to something less insulting to the hardware makers. Travel to foreign countries and discover more desserts, because we’re running out of code names for the next version of the tasty mobile operating system.

Nokia: Ship something to the U.S. so they’ll stop making fun of us and realize that we actually do make smartphones. Speaking of shipping, we really should ship some of these products we’ve been talking about for years. Most people are starting to think “Meego” is just a code word we use when we don’t know what to say.

Verizon: Stay on Steve Jobs’s good side. Print iPhone posters on the back of all those Droid billboards from last year. Release a whole bunch of LTE phones, so that the iPhone shelf isn’t lonely in the stores.

AT&T: Work on next-generation networks using that spectrum we picked up from Qualcomm. Talk about how we really love the other non-iPhone smartphones and actually mean it this year, because we have to.

T-Mobile: Keep talking about how we can just keep making the current network faster, while trying to convince the feds to let us have some more spectrum. Make more of those commercials making fun of AT&T. They are funny and it’s so much easier than having to deal with Catherine Zeta-Jones. And lots of Android, along with some tablets too.

Sprint: Find a way to remind people that, while we still don’t have an iPhone, we do have a next-generation network up and running, complete with phones and data devices. Add a 4G tablet or two to the mix. (Hey, Jon Rubinstein, is that PalmPad ready yet?)

2010年12月27日星期一

How to Convert MPEG to iPod

Tip 1. If you need, append many tasks at one time and the iPod video converter will convert them one by one for saving your time.

Tip 2. MPEG to iPod Video Converter software provides various video formats such as MPEG-4 480P, MPEG-4(480X320), MPEG-4(320X240) for iPod.

Tip 3. You can edit your video files such as “trim, crop, effect, merge into one file and snapshot” with this powerful iPod Video Converter.

User-friendly interface and fast conversion speed make the whole MPEG to iPod video conversion much easier and faster. Why not have a try, you will find more information at: MPEG to iPod Video Converter.

2010年12月25日星期六

Gawkergate Collateral Damage Now Includes the New York Times

It’s now been at least 10 days since the Gawker group of Web sites was hacked by a group calling itself Gnosis in one of the side threads to the WikiLeaks controversy.

Within two days, sites like LinkedIn and later Blizzard Entertainment and Yahoo had advised their users to change their passwords.

The latest company caught up in all this is the New York Times. A little more than an hour ago, the Times sent an email to customers (see below) whose email addresses appeared in a searchable database of compromised Gawker commenting accounts, warning them that if they used the same password on nytimes.com as they did on Gawker, it would be a good idea to change it. There is no evidence of any funny business on the Times’ Web site.

Incidentally, in case you missed it, Gawker’s technology head, Thomas Plunkett, circulated a memo detailing what happened at Gawker and what it plans to do in response to the incident. One thing it will do is offer disposable commenting accounts that users can ditch easily, and for which storing an email address won’t be required.

Here is the email from the Times:

NYTimes.com Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 5:15 PM
Reply-To: nytdirect@nytimes.com

In case you missed our recent article “Gawker Sites Hacked and Passwords Compromised”
http://nyti.ms/hjNvlY we are writing to inform you that databases belonging to Gawker Media were compromised and hackers obtained more than one million user names, e-mail addresses and passwords.

While there is no evidence of suspicious activity on NYTimes.com we wanted you to know that
the e-mail address you registered with NYTimes.com matches an e-mail address that was on
the list of Gawker e-mail addresses and passwords that were published online.

If you use the same password for NYTimes.com as you did for Gawker, we strongly recommend you change your password. Changing your NYTimes.com password can be accomplished by visiting the Member Center page: http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter. After logging in to your account, click on the ‘change’ button associated with the password field which can be found under the Account Summary heading.

Here’s a Gadgetwise post with tips on developing a good password (in brief: do not make it a real word, keep it long and mix in an unusual combination of letters and numbers).
http://nyti.ms/gGR3kz

Please contact Customer Support at 1-800-698-4637 or e-mail customercare@nytimes.com with any questions.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

The New York Times Company
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

2010年12月24日星期五

Hey Look! Here’s a Guy Singing About the iPhone on Verizon

Free bonus clips! (And please, if you want to tell us that you can’t see these outside of the U.S–we know! But as always, we also imagine that you can get them in some form, with some digging. More important, I think some of you are going to need to consult Wikipedia in order to figure out who people like Colin Ferguson and Tammy Faye Bakker are.)

2010年12月22日星期三

Where to Download iPhone and Apple TV Firmware Files

Where to Download iPhone Firmware Files
Below you can find the direct links to the iPhone Firmware Files for every released firmware version. Please note that if you use Safari you must disable the auto unzip feature. It may be easier to just use Firefox!
iPhone Firmware 1.0.0: iPhone1,1_1.0_1A543a_Restore.ipsw
iPhone Firmware 1.0.1: iPhone1,1_1.0.1_1C25_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.0.2: iPhone1,1_1.0.2_1C28_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.1: iPhone1,1_1.1.1_3A109a_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.2: iPhone1,1_1.1.2_3B48b_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.3: iPhone1,1_1.1.3_4A93_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.4: iPhone1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0.1_5B108_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0.1_5B108_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0.2_5C1_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0.2_5C1_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.1.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.1.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.2.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.2.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw.

Where to Download Apple TV Firmware Files.
Below you can find the direct links to the Apple TV Firmware Files for every released firmware version.
Apple TV Firmware 1.0.0: OS-dot-DMG 1.0.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 1.1.0: 2Z694-5248-45.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.0: 2Z694-5274-109.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.1: 2Z694-5387-25.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.2: 2Z694-5428-3.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.1.0: 2Z694-5485-1.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.2.0: 2Z694-5499.dmg

2010年12月20日星期一

How to Remove DRM protection from iTunes

iTunes is a champion of music, video downloading services. The user-friendly iTunes makes downloading music, videos quick and hassle-free; however, iTunes purchased songs and videos will not run on any other media player except for Apple products due to digital rights managements (DRM) which limit usages of devices or files.
This is a tutorial to remove DRM protection from iTunes. Then you can burn the iTunes videos to DVD and convert the iTunes videos to other format files.

Part 1, Remove DRM protection from iTunes Music using iTunes + CD-R/W
Probably the most widely accepted method for stripping purchased songs of DRM protection is burning tracks to a CD-R/W then re-importing back into the iTunes library. A method guaranteed to free you of DRM madness.
Create an iTunes playlist containing your purchased songs.
Insert a blank CD-R or a CD-RW.
Burn the playlist to disk.
Re-import the songs after a successful burn.
Delete the original purchased tracks.

Part 2, Remove DRM protection from iTunes using software
1. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free on PC.
QTFairUse. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free.
QTFairUse(.) for ITunes will allow you to convert protected m4p format files purchased in the iTunes Music Store to unprotected m4a files, playable everywhere. It supports fully automated conversion of all protected tracks in your iTunes library.
It will confirm whether you want to convert all the files in your library. Press 'y' and Enter to do that. Next it will ask if you want to skip already converted tracks (e.g. from the previous run). Press 'n' and Enter to overwrite them, 'y' and Enter to skip. After that, the script will begin conversion of all files in the library. Converted files will have m4a extension and will reside next to their m4p counterparts. To stop the conversion in process, press Ctrl-C in the console window. You can also close iTunes.
If you want to convert specific m4p files, pass their filenames as the commanding parameter. You can do that by e.g. dragging and dropping the files on QTFairUse6.exe. QTFairUse6 will convert them and exit. You can find converted files next to the originals, with m4a extension.Remove DRM Protection

MyFairTunes. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music for free.

2. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac.
The software I introduce:
FairGame It is a freeware to Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac OS X. FairGame(http://seidai.50webs.com/Seidai%20Software_files/FairGame.zip)will convert the songs you bought on the iTunes Store to an unprotected format (using iTunes default encoder) and keep all the original metadata, lyrics and artwork. FairGame doesn't do lossless DRM stripping. It re-encodes protected AAC files purchased in iTMS into unprotected AAC file using Apple's iMovie software.
What you MUST DO (only once) to get FairGame to work:
enable "Access for assistive devices" in the "Universal Access" system preference
select "Place clip in Movie Timeline" in the "Import" preference of iMovie HD
Then you can simply
select some songs in iTunes
click on the "Process songs" button
then don't touch anything and wait until it's done...(FairGame is scripting iMovie's interface to process the songs, don't interfere)

Removie DRM Protection

Tips:
If you want to burn the iTunes video to DVD, Just follow these steps:
1. Get the iTunes video to computer. You need to transfer the videos to iPod or iPhone and then use free iPod manager to get the videos from iPod or iPhone to computer.
Here is a tutorial: How to get videos from iPod and iPhone to Mac and PC for free?
2. Use freeware to burn the iTunes video to DVD. Here are the tutorials:
How to convert iTunes videos to DVD on PC for free?

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features.

The iPod Family(Part 1)

We're hard pressed to say the iPod family's fallen on particularly hard times, but being under such excruciating public scrutiny can take its toll on any dynasty; especially in a year like 2005, the family shaken to its core by so many tragic deaths. From the humble beginnings of the iPod that began the legacy so many years back, all the way up to the tragic loss of the iPod mini just yesterday, we felt it might be time to take a visit to the iPod family cemetary on this early autumn afternoon.

iPod Family
iPod family Tree

2001

first generation iPod
The first generation iPod-October 2001 - July 2002

2002
second generation iPod
The second generation iPod-July 2002 - April 2003
But a few mournful months after the passing of the 5GB iPod and the birth of the 10GB iPod, came a new 10GB iPod and the 20GB, which started at $499. Perhaps one of the least well-remembered of the iPod family, this iPod included the first non-mechanical (solid state) scroll wheel, though the center and circumference buttons remained tactile. Perhaps most groundbreaking was the official Windows support (via Musicmatch Jukebox, ironically), though the wired remote, calendar, and artist search were all significant as well. Eventually this iPod would undergo tattoos by Beck, No Doubt, Madonna, and Tony Hawk before being committed to history in April of 2003.

2003
third generation iPod
The third generation iPod-April 2003 - July 2004
This was the iPod—born of humbler pedigree—that grew up, provided for itself a higher education, and made its own way in the world. The third generation of the family rid itself entirely of mechanical buttons on its body, shed some of its baby fat around the waist down to 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.62-inches, and came forth at $299 for 10GB, $399 for 15GB, and $499 for 30GB. This was also the first iPod child to feature a remote connector and dock connector—which finally enabled USB 2.0. In September the 30GB iPod was priced at $399, and a 40GB model was released for $499.

Related theme:
The iPod family(part 2)
The iPod family(part 3)
The iPod family(part 4)
The iPod family(part 5)

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features .

2010年12月18日星期六

Is it Wyse to Make Your Best-Selling iPad App Free?

After selling more than 250,000 copies of its PocketCloud program for iPhones, iPads and Android, Wyse is taking a big gamble. It’s making the remote desktop app free.

PocketCloud is one of a number of programs that let people remotely access a PC or Mac from their iPad or iPod, thereby accessing files or even running full-blown applications that wouldn’t otherwise work on a mobile device. The company originally hoped to sell 100,000 copies, but now expects 2010 sales to be triple that amount.

So with sales so strong, just why would Wyse want to start giving it away?

“We want more people to download it and see the dream themselves,” CEO Tarkan Maner told Mobilized in an interview on Wednesday.

You see, it turns out that a lot of people don’t really think hip mobile applications when they think about Wyse, a company that specializes in the rather obscure world of thin clients.

“People usually do not associate the brand with something this cool,” Maner said.

But things like iPad apps are an increasingly important part of what Wyse does these days. Although PocketCloud’s roughly $3 million in revenue is just over 1 percent of total company sales, the unit is the fastest-growing part of the company.

Maner isn’t totally giving away the store. The company plans to keep selling a premium version of PocketCloud for $15 that includes enterprise features like advanced security, VGA-out and the ability to connect with VMWare’s technology. Maner said he is so sure that enough of the free users will upgrade that Wyse will still be able to grow its PocketCloud revenue substantially next year.

“This is a capitalistic world,” he said. “We want people to go to the premium version.”

Wyse also faces a lot of competition, from enterprise firms like Citrix to rivals like LogMeIn to tiny mom-and-pop operations.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry has an application” for remote access, Maner said. However, he maintained that most of the programs support only one or two protocols and often use a proprietary back-end system that locks users in.

“In the long term we believe our model is the winning model,” he said. “It gives users freedom.”

The company is also working to add new features. Maner wouldn’t share all the plans, but said to think rich media.

“We are going to do a lot of stuff around video,” he said, pointing to opportunities in both streaming as well as gaming and bi-directional video.

It’s the latest reinvention of a 30-year-old company that dates back to the mainframe and minicomputer era. In the mid-’90s, Wyse went through a reinvention to center around thin clients that allowed bank tellers and other task workers to use a quiet, low-power terminal as opposed to a full-fledged PC.

“We hate PCs,” Maner said. “We want these things in the cloud.”

Of course, thankfully for Wyse, not everyone feels the same way. Free or not, PocketCloud would be useless if it weren’t for the fact that most of the rest of us depend on those bulky, hard-drive-equipped PCs Maner derides.

2010年12月16日星期四

2011 Verizon iPhone Sales: Nine Million or 19 Million?

Of the 25 million smartphones Verizon will activate next year, nine million will be iPhones, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. He figures Apple’s handset will make up about 36 percent of all activations for the year–assuming the iPhone launches midway through the March quarter. And 6.5 million of those will likely be cannibalized from AT&T–which, were it to retain its exclusive on the iPhone, would sell 17.5 million. Which means the Verizon deal may not give as big a spike to iPhone sales in the States as expected.

“We are modeling for Apple to sell an incremental 2.5 million iPhones with the addition of Verizon, which may be conservative,” Munster explains. “We are modeling for iPhone units at AT&T to be down 30 percent year-over-year in 2011 as the US mix shifts towards Verizon, and as AT&T subs wait to upgrade their iPhones until they are off-contract and can purchase an iPhone on Verizon.”

Interesting, yeah? There is a caveat, though. If iPhone sales at AT&T remain flat year-over-year in 2011, Verizon may see as many iPhones next year as its rival did in calendar 2010. And that would add another 10 million units to Munster’s 2011 iPhone estimate. So: Nine million or 19 million.

2010年12月15日星期三

Forget Goopon–Why a Groupon-Foursquare Combo Makes More Sense

As major Web players look to make a play in local, Groupon and Foursquare have both walked away from lucrative acquisition deals.

But now, as these young start-ups go it alone, would it make sense for the two to combine their forces and become the next major Web powerhouse?

The joint company would have an enviable head start on all things local and social, a combination current leaders Google and Facebook have yet to crack.

To be clear, it’s just a scenario. But in case any investment bankers out there are left without a new project after these acquisition talks fell apart, here’s something to explore.

Groupon has a working business model, local merchant relationships and an ample waitlist, and a salesforce numbering in the thousands.

Meanwhile, Foursquare represents the areas where Groupon needs to grow. Foursquare has innovated around GPS and the mobile application experience, which is obviously where local is headed. Foursquare also has insight into incentivizing users to connect to merchants and each other on a daily basis rather than for a one-time deal. It could provide the tools to help users and merchants have a lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.

Put more simply, Groupon excels at recruiting customers, while Foursquare’s emerging strength is loyalty and retention.

Still, Groupon currently has far more value than Foursquare, so a merger of equals is unrealistic. Groupon has more than 20 million subscribers and a $2 billion revenue run rate. Before Groupon walked away from recent talks, Google wanted to buy the company for $6 billion, an almost unimaginable valuation for a two-year-old company.

Foursquare, which was courted by Facebook and Yahoo before taking funding from Andreessen Horowitz, has five million users and its own experience striking merchant deals and branding relationships, if on a much smaller scale. For years now co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley has been passionate about social location-sharing and multiple start-ups, and is still waiting for, and provoking, the market to catch up to his vision of mapping people’s real-world experiences.

At the very least, a Foursquare-Groupon partnership seems likely. Speaking about Groupon at our recent D: Dive Into Mobile event in San Francisco, Crowley said, “There are lessons we can learn from them and ways we can work together.”

He elaborated, as you can see below in a video of the interview: “We could easily pull Groupon deals into Foursquare and make them sweeter based on the stats behind them.”

2010年12月13日星期一

Download DVD PDF Podcast Limewire and YouTube video to iPod

Part1. How to watch PDF or electronic book on iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video
iPod cannot directly display PDF files, you have to convert your PDF file or electronic book to *.txt format, and make sure the file size is smaller than 4KB, and then copy the *txt file to the “Note” folder of your iPod. Here are the detailed steps:
1. Enable your iPod as a portable hard drive, plug in your iPod to computer and run iTunes, in the summary tab, check the option named “enable iPod disk mode”
2. Download and install iGadget, it can convert and cut your files to 4kb .txt files. Here is the download link: http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/software/igadget.html.
3. Connect your iPod to computer, open “My Computer”, open the iPod drive (the new drive with your iPod name), and copy the txt file to the “Note” folder, done. Then you can read the text file on iPod note.

Part2. How to rip DVD and convert video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video
iPod can only play MP4 and H.264 video, but DVD movie is MPEG-2 video and CSS protected, so you need an application to rip DVD and convert video to MP4 video, and then sync it to iPod via iTunes. I strongly recommend Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite; it can rip protected DVD and convert limewire, youtube video, AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, FLV, XviD video to iPod. Also, I always use the iPod Movie Converter embedded in it to transfer video, and from my tests, it fully support all series of iPod including iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video. A really cool application.

DVD to iPod Converter

Here is its official download link:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-to-ipod-suite.html
Here is the official step by step guide:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/dvd-to-ipod-converter.html
If you are Mac user, you can use this DVD Ripper for Mac to rip DVD to iPod:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper-for-mac.html

Part3. How to watch iPod Video on large screen TV
Set up your iPod video options. On your iPod choose Videos -> Video Settings from the main menu. You will see three options: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Select the “TV Out” option.

iPod to TV

Get your A/V cable. If you don't have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

iPod to TViPod to TV

1. Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
2. Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
3. Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.
After making these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Part4. How to download youtube video to iPod for free
iPod can play only MP4 and H.264 video, youtube video is stream video (.flv), so you need special software to capture the stream video to MP4 video, and then sync it to your iPod via iTunes. Here’re two ways to do that for free:
With free online flv converter such as http://vixy.net when you find your favorite youtube video, just copy the video URL (like this format http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs ) to the input box, choose the output format as iPod video, and then click start. When the conversion finished, you will get the MP4 video download link, just download and sync it to your iPod.

youtube to iPod

With Firefox + videodownloader, if you’re using Firefox browser, just install a plug-in named videodownloader, and then you will see a small icon in the bottom right, when you watch youtube video, double click it, and then you will get the flv download link. And then convert the flv video to MP4 video with Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite, done.

How to connect your Mac and Xbox 360

If, like me, you have your Xbox 360 placed near your wifi-enabled computer, but away from your wireless router or modem, then you'll want to take advantage of the Xbox's ability to "borrow" your computer's internet connection. For Windows users, this process is simple; it's just a matter of "bridging" your computer's wifi connection to your PC's internet port which is plugged into your Xbox. For Mac users, the process is not so easy. What follows is a guide for getting your Xbox 360 to accept Mac OS X's internet sharing option.
Before you start configuring, open up Terminal (in Applications -> Utilities) and type "ifconfig en0" (zero, not a capital-o). You're looking for the bit that says "inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx". In my case, the number I get here is 192.168.2.1 Second, note down the IP address of your wireless router, which in my case is 192.168.0.1

On your Mac
1. Connect your Mac to your wireless internet connection
2. Connect your Xbox 360 to your Mac via Ethernet
3. In System Preferences -> Sharing, enable Internet Sharing between your Airport and Ethernet connection

On your Xbox 360
1. Start up your Xbox and navigate to the Network settings menu
2. Under IP address, enter the number you got from the "ifconfig en0" command earlier on, but with the final number one place higher. In my case, I take the 192.168.2.1, and input 192.168.2.2 in the IP address box on my Xbox 360.
3. Under subnet, input 255.255.255.0
4. Under router/gateway, enter the number you got earlier from the "ifconfig en0" command. In my case, that's "192.168.2.1"
5. Move onto DNS. Enter the IP address of your wireless router (in my case, "192.168.0.1") in both the primary and secondary IP address fields
6. Leave PPPoE and advanced settings blank (i.e. OFF and Automatic)
7. You should now be able to connect to Xbox Live via your internet sharing Mac

This guide shows the connection of Mac and Xbox 360 is not so difficult. You can try it by yourself.

2010年12月12日星期日

How to convert FLV to iPod, iPhone, PSP, etc. on Mac OS X

What is FLV?
Flash Video (FLV) is the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player and has extension FLV. The most recent public release of Flash Player supports H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, Reuters.com and many other news providers.
How to play .FLV files on Mac?
If you want to play FLV (Flash Video) files on your Mac, you'll need to use a player that can handle FLV files. Here are two recommendations (both of them are FREE):
VLC Media Player
The VLC Media Player is a free, cross-platform media player that supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs. It can handle FLV, WMV and VOB files to name a few.
Perian
Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular media formats including FLV, MKV, AVI, DivX, 3ivX, FLV1, FSV1, Flash ADPCM and many more.
How to Convert Youtube FLV Videos to iPod, iPod touch, iPhone on Mac OS X?
As we know, most of the video files downloaded from these online video hosting sites are in the format of Flash Video (.flv). For whatever reasons, such as prefer to view and store the videos in mpeg format, or want to play the offline video clips in portable player such as PSP, iPod, and iPhone, or simply don’t like to view it with FLV Player, then there is a need to convert the .flv video format to another format such as .avi, .mov, .wmv and .mpg. So, how can you convert your flv video to all popular video formats easily and quickly? Please follow this step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Download FLV Video Converter for Mac, then run this program.
We recommend you Aiseesoft FLV Converter for Mac, which can convert all video files (including .flv format) from one format to another perfectly. Compared with other FLV converters, this Mac FLV video converter provides you with better output quality, more advanced functions and higher conversion speed(>300%), it also has more friendly and easy-to-use interface.
You can download free trial Version here: for Mac intel users, for Mac PowerPC users.
Then install and run this program.
Step 2: Load the FLV files you want to convert.
Click the "Add File" button to browse your computer hard disc and add the .flv video files you want to convert to the program.
Step 3: Choose the output format
After you added FLV files, you can select an output format for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files. This Mac FLV Converter supports comprehensive output video formats including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, XviD, 3GP, etc. You can choose "*avi", "*mpg", etc. as the output format as you want. Apart form this, You can just select the format according to the device name.
for exapmle, you can select 'iPod Touch MPEG-4(*.mp4)' when you want to convert FLV to iPod touch on Mac.
Or you can select 'iPhone 3G Video MPEG-4(*.mp4)' when you want to convert FLV files to iPhone 3G on Mac. The default setting works well.
Step 4: Advanced settings(optional)
Of course, if you don't want to use the default video and audio encoding settings, just click the "Settings" button to customize these settings.

FLV Converter for Mac - setting

Step 5: Edit your flv files(optional)
Aiseesoft FLV Converter for Mac can help you set video brightness, contrast, saturation, Hue, volume, crop video, trim video and even merge multiple files into one single file before the conversion.
you can know more here: How to crop, trim video files on Mac OS X ?

Click the “Start”button to start conversion.

How to download flash videos from video sites for free?

You can download the flash video (.FLV files, the default video format that most video social sites are using) from online video host into your local hard disk. With some tricks, it’s now very easy to download the videos hosted and shared on online video sites such as YouTube and Google Video.
You can follow the 2 guides:
Guide : How to get videos from video sites for free?
For windows users, use Free YouTube Downloader

2010年12月10日星期五

Help Wanted: Twitter Seeks Product Direction

At a conference in Paris yesterday, Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman announced that he is stepping down from his role at the end of the year. Twitter said it is now “looking for someone to lead product management” to replace him.

Goldman offered the news in a conversation at LeWeb, saying he’d maintain an advisory role, that he’s not leaving to start something new, that he’s not going to Facebook or Google and that he just needs “a bit of a break.”

Twitter has no lack of product leaders, including co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams, who recently relinquished the top job to make room for former COO Dick Costolo. Goldman had been a close friend of Williams, having first joined him as business manager of blogging software maker Pyra Labs, before it was bought by Google in 2003. Goldman has led product at Twitter since 2007.

Following Goldman’s departure announcement, a company spokeswoman said that Williams “is going to continue in his co-founder role and help with product vision.” She said that it was not yet clear whether the new head of product management would be an internal or external hire.

But, no surprise, sources familiar with the situation said Williams will likely assume the top product role, as it’s the best-fitting landing place for him at the company. The Twitter service was originally created in 2006 by company co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey and others when Williams was CEO of a previous start-up called Odeo. Dorsey left his operating role at Twitter in 2008 when Williams replaced him as CEO.

As the company verges on raising funding that would value the company at $3.5 to $4 billion, the departure of Goldman seems to underscore an issue that has plagued Twitter for a long time: Product development.

Aside from its well-documented reliability problems, new products and major upgrades at Twitter are few and far between.

While it is clear the people who founded and now lead Twitter have been passionate and visionary about personal expression and information-sharing in its simplest form, many techies say they are given pause by Twitter’s deficit of innovation since its first and most powerful iteration.

They assert that Twitter’s product launches to date–retweets, lists, some apps and its #newtwitter Web interface–are minor complements to the simple messaging system. In a tech culture that values shiny new toys, multiple people have said to me that Twitter is the least innovative of any other Internet contemporary.

For example, Twitter still doesn’t offer image hosting or its own link shortener, and still has yet to fully incorporate the search service Summize, which it bought in 2008. Perhaps that’s out of concern for displacing and angering its developer corps of companies, like Bit.ly, but since 25 percent of Tweets contain links, it seems obvious that Twitter should help its users shorten them to help fit into its 140-character limit.

The company tried to set a firm road map last April at Chirp, its first developer conference (pictured at left, the dudes of Twitter held a jokey Q&A session at Chirp).

But since then, eagerly awaited products like “Annotations” (a way to add more information to Tweets) have been delayed as the company concentrated on dealing with World Cup traffic and the release of its new Web site. Twitter is hiring as fast as it can, with its ballooning employee count, now at 325, relatively small for a product now used by eight percent of American online adults.

Still, many laud the sleek new Twitter Web site–for which Goldman, Williams and product manager Kevin Cheng led development. It was rolled out to admirable acclaim and user satisfaction.

But Twitter has only a few weeks to shuffle things around before it launches into the new year with no formal leader of its product team.

2010年12月8日星期三

Intel Wants to Stay Inside Netbooks, Tablets

Intel, sensing a threat from the ever-widening variety of non-Wintel-based netbooks and tablets, has formed a separate business unit to focus on those two categories of devices.

The new unit, whose existence was first reported by the New York Times, comes as a wave of Android-based tablets hits the market and as Google announces the first beta test of Chrome OS-based netbooks.


The group will be headed up by Doug Davis (pictured here), an Intel vice president previously responsible for the embedded chip unit that helped get the Atom processor into cars and other nontraditional devices. Before forming the new unit, Intel had included its tablet and netbook effort within the same unit that handled all other PC chips.

“It’s just a matter of laying extra focus on that area,” said Intel spokesman Bill Kircos.

Intel has found its way into the vast majority of netbooks, led by the success of its Atom chips. Tablets, meanwhile, have been a different story. Apple’s iPad–the dominant force in the market–uses Apple’s ARM-based A4 processor, while Android tablets also use various non-Intel chips. Intel has been in Windows-based tablets since the first tablet PCs came out early last decade, but Windows 7-based touchscreen slates are just now coming to market. Microsoft has promised that more models will be coming, particularly next year once Intel’s Oak Trail processor is available.

“The weight of the PC industry is now targeting tablets,” spokesman Bill Kircos said, adding that the company expects 35 Intel-based tablets to come out in the first half of next year, along with about 65 netbooks using its processors.

Although Chrome OS is designed to run on a variety of processors, it is worth noting that the first model–an unbranded netbook for early testers–does use an Atom processor.

Although netbooks have faded from the spotlight with the rise of the iPad, Kircos said that Intel hopes to spark interest in the category by bringing over some features previously found only in full-fledged notebooks, such as Wireless Display (Wi-Di), which lets computers beam content wirelessly to a television with a special adaptor.

“We’ll be starting to innovate a lot more on the netbook,” he said.

2010年12月7日星期二

Palm Boss Jon Rubinstein Talks About Life at HP

Jon Rubinstein used to run one of the biggest companies in mobile. Now he’s working for somebody else.

What’s that like? The former Palm CEO is still overseeing Palm, but he’s doing it as a Hewlett-Packard employee, following HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of his former company in July.

Rubinstein talked to All Things D’s Kara Swisher about the change, Palm’s chances against Apple, Google, Microsoft and Research in Motion–and whether he’s finally gotten around to using an iPhone.

2010年12月6日星期一

New iPod touch 2G Guide

A big surprise turn up at 9th Sep for all iPod fans – the new iPod touch 2G and Nano 4G released. It’s really lucky and exciting to get a new iPod Touch 2G. And in order to help iPod users to learn more about it, I collected some information for this new iPod touch 2G guide. And it also includes how to enjoy the multimedia on you new iPod touch 2G such as download free video to iPod, convert DVD to iPod and transfer music video from iPod to iPod and iPod to computer.

Price:
As expected, the biggest news with Apple's second-generation iPod Touch is its drastically reduced price. The 8GB version of the iPod Touch 2G is now $229 (down from $299), the 16GB is $299 (down from $399), and the 32GB is $399 (down from $499).

Size:
The new iPod touch 2G is smaller and lighter than the original, 3.5 inch touch-screen, measuring 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.33 inches and weighing 4.05 ounces. With its rounded edges, flush display and curved, more compact design, the iPod touch 2G is promised to be more comfortable to hold and more portable than ever.

New iPod Touch - size

Game:
iPod touch 2G users can choose from hundreds of gaming titles such as "Spore Origins" and "Scrabble" from Electronic Arts, and "Real Football 2009" from Gameloft available on iTunes or directly through the App Store application on the iPod touch. The App Store works over Wi-Fi, enabling users to browse, purchase and wirelessly download applications.

New iPod Touch - game

Battery and “Genius”
The new iPod touch 2G promises up to 36 hours of music playback or six hours of video playback on a single charge. It also works with the new iTunes 8 Genius feature, allowing users to automatically create playlists while on the go. These playlists can also be synchronized with iTunes 8 servers.

Others features in new iPod touch 2G
Build-in accelerometer for casual listening; more convenient volume control button on the edge; the newest improvements “Nike+iPod” which can help you track your workouts by slipping a Nike+iPod sensor into you Nike+ shoes.

Then, Let’s talk about how to enjoy multimedia on your New iPod touch 2G
Part 1: How to free download video to your new iPod Touch 2G.
I always download free video and music from Youtube and limewire.
Youtube streaming videos are all FLV formats, so you need to play the video with a flash player programe on your computer, and if you want to put them on your new iPod touch 2G, use a iPod video Converter to convert FLV to MP4 format.
I got this totally free Youtube downloader, just enjoy.
http://www.aiseesoft.com/free-youtube-downloader.html

Limewire is a fast and popular freeware working on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Through the P2P (peer-to-peer) network, you can free download various video and audio files by keywords searching. Most of its video formats is MPEG, so convert them and transfer to your iTunes then iPod touch 2G.
http://www.limewire.com/

Part 2: How to convert DVD to iPod Touch 2G
The new iPod touch 2G can only play MP4 and H.264 video, but DVD movie is MEPG, MPEG-2 video and CSS protected, so you need an application to convert DVD to MP4 video, then sync it to iPod touch 2G via iTunes.

convert DVD to New iPod Touch

To complete Part 1 and Part 2 I recommend you an iPod studio pack which includes a DVD to iPod converter and video to iPod converter.
You can get familiar with the apps by using this detailed step by step guide:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/download-dvd-pdf-youtube-videoto-ipod.html

Part 3: How to convert files back to your computer and transfer between iPod
Because iTunes prevents you from copying music or video from the iPod touch 2G back to computer, so you need a special tool to do that.
Yamipod, Aiseesoft iPod to Computer Transfer, Sharepod, iDump
And then re-add it to your iTunes library and sync it to other iPod touch 2G.

Free Trial: Free download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite

view the datail of ipod nano chromatic/touch 2 converter

How to convert MTS/M2TS video

MTS or M2TS format is the equivalent of h.264 or MPEG-4 AVC. It is a fairly new High Definition codec that provides greater compression than the regular MP4 and others. Those two High Definition format always be used on HD Camcorder, such as Sony, Canon or Panasonic.

As they are HD video, most of our video editor such as windows movie maker can not edit it directly. And also you can not upload it to youtube.com and share with your friends.

So you need to convert them into normal video format, such as wmv, mp4, avi and so on.

Here I know a really powerful MTS Converter and M2TS Converter
And the process of operation is really easy and fast.

Part 1: How to convert MTS video
Step 1: Load Video
Click "Add File" to load the video that you want.

MTS converter

Step 2: Choose Your Output Profile and Settings
From "Profile" drop-down list you can choose your output profile according to your need.
For example, if you have a iPod and you want to convert video for it, you need to choose "iPod" from the profile list and then it also provides the second chance to specify your iPod generation.
You can also click "setting" adjust the settings of your output video, such as "video/audio encoder", "Video/audio Bitrate", "Channels", "Resolution" and so on..

Step 3: Conversion
After you have done all the steps above you can click "Start" button to start your conversion.

Part 2: How to convert M2TS video

M2TS converter

Step 1: Add File
Load your M2TS video.

Step 2: Choose Profile and Settings
Select your output profile according your need and adjust the settings of your output video if you like.
(the default setting works well)

Step 3: Start Conversion
Click "Start" to begin your conversion.

Here I also recommend you a really nice HD Video Converter, which can convert HD TS, HD MTS, HD M2TS, HD MPEG, HD WMV, HD MPG, HD MP4, QuickTime HD MOV, HD H.264, HD RM video, etc

2010年12月5日星期日

How to import video from camcorder to Mac

You may be ready to make a movie after you capture great footage with your FireWire camcorder. In this condition, you need import your camcorder to your Mac. More specially, you need to connect your camcorder to your Mac, and then copy footage from the camcorder into iMovie. And when you import video into an iMovie project, it would divide your video into individual clips for the easy editing.

camcorder video to Mac

Part 1. How to Import Video from a Camcorder to your Mac
Step 1: Connect camcorder to your Mac computer with cable (USB/Wifi)
Step 2: Select mode of camcorder such as PC/Computer mode.
Step 3: iMovie will automatic open Import window.
Step 4: If DVD Player automatic open. just quit DVD Player first.
Step 5: So now, you can review your video or select "Import All"(make sure your switch is set to "Automatic").
Step 6: If you select "Manual", you can import some clip to iMovie
Step 7: If you import from Tape based device (DV/HDV), iMovie will automatic revise tape and import all
Step 8: iMovie automatic create thumbnail video after complete import

Part 2. Tips:
iMovie automatically detects your camcorder
iMovie will automatically detect when you have a FireWire camcorder connected. If you see the message No Camera Attached, make sure your camera is turned on and properly plugged in to your computer via a FireWire cable and that your camcorder is set to VCR, VTR, or Play mode. You can also click the Connection Help button for more suggestions.
iMovie supports different video formats
When you create your project, choose the appropriate video format depending on your needs. For importing video from your camcorder, choose between DV, DV Widescreen, HDV 1080i, and HDV 720i. For recording from your iSight, select iSight. If you will be copying MPEG-4 files from your PDA or phone, select MPEG-4.
Import directly to the iMovie timeline
You can import footage directly from your camcorder to the iMovie timeline rather than to the Clips pane. This is a quick and easy way to get your footage into your iMovie project. You can then edit right in the timeline. From the iMovie menu, choose Preferences, click Import, and then choose the option Place clips in Movie Timeline.
If you're importing video that is already edited
Instead of importing your video as separate clips, you can set iMovie to import your video as a single clip. This may be useful if you're importing a movie that you've already edited and you just want to change a small portion. From the iMovie menu, choose Preferences, click Import, and then deselect the "Start a new clip at each scene break" option. If you prefer, select "Limit scene length to" and set a limit for the number of minutes. This will ensure your imported files don't get too large, in case you'll be copying clips between iMovie projects.
What you need to make a high-definition video with iMovie
High definition video is quickly becoming the format you see broadcast on TV. An HD camcorder stores more pixels than a standard camcorder, letting you see more detail in your video footage. iMovie supports importing and editing video from HD camcorders (HDV 720p and 1080i), so you can make movies just like the pros-and it's a great way to archive your most precious life events in the highest resolution possible .
Using video from an MPEG-4 camera
Many digital still cameras, PDAs, and mobile phones let you record short videos in the MPEG-4 format, a standard compression that is used to significantly reduce the file size of video. While iMovie doesn't know how to import video from these devices directly, as it does with FireWire devices, you can still use the MPEG-4 files once you've copied them to your Mac. Just drag them into the iMovie Clips pane using the Finder or import them using Import from the File menu.
Monitor the remaining amount of hard disk space
Digital video clips use a large amount of hard disk space. For example, five minutes of DV footage uses approximately 1GB of space. The same amount of HD video can occupy between 2GB to 4GB, depending on the format and footage. To save hard disk space, import and edit your video in sections instead of trying to do so all at once. You can see how much space remains on your hard disk by using the monitor located in the lower-right corner of the iMovie window.
Using video from your connected or built-in iSight camera
You can record video directly into your iMovie project with your iSight camera. That’s to say, you can add clips to your project spontaneously while you're working on it. Just connect your iSight camera to the FireWire port of your Mac and you're ready to start recording. If you have more then one camcorder connected, such as a camcorder and an iSight,- or you have an iMac with a built-in iSight-choose iSight from the pop-up menu that appears when you switch to camera mode.

2010年12月2日星期四

GSA Goes Google

The General Services Administration–which oversees government procurement–will soon become the first major federal office to move to cloud-based email and calendar apps on an agency-wide basis. And it’s chosen Google Apps to do it.

A hard-won victory for Google, which beat out Microsoft for the $6.7 million five-year contract, leaving the folks up in Redmond more than a little peeved to see Office’s ubiquity in government threatened in this way.

“We are disappointed in the GSA’s internal e-mail decision,” the company said in a post to its “Why Microsoft” blog, adding that it is nonetheless “gratified that so many federal, state & local governments have chosen Microsoft to meet their business needs.”

You can almost hear the gritting teeth, can’t you? The horror of 15,000 GSA employees all using Gmail….

So again, a coup for Google, which has been working hard to push its cloud computing suite of messaging and collaboration apps to the government.

Interestingly, sources close to the negotiations tell me that the RFP (Request for Proposal) for the GSA contract was amended midway through the process to allow for offshoring of government data outside the United states–as an accommodation for Google.

Which is odd, because you’d think that if the United States government is embracing cloud computing, it would prefer the clouds in which its data is stored to be within its own borders. That Google requested and was granted the option to store GSA data offshore isn’t necessarily troubling (it must meet GSA security requirements regardless), but it is…interesting.

Google wouldn’t tell me the reason for its request, although I’ve heard it may have something to do with how the company segregates data and apps geographically. It was, however, quick to insist that it isn’t planning to offshore any U.S. government data entrusted to it–at least, currently.

Said spokesman Andrew Kovacs, “The government’s starting with Gmail and Calendar, and their data will be stored in a segregated system located in the continental United States that is exclusively for our government customers.”

2010年12月1日星期三

Exclusive: Silicon Valley Go-To Guy Peter Currie Joining Twitter Board

According to sources close to the situation, well-known Silicon Valley power player Peter Currie is joining the board of directors of Twitter.

It’s an interesting choice to bring the well-regarded moneyman to the microblogging start-up, and could indicate an intent to push to an IPO eventually.

As first reported by NetworkEffect’s Liz Gannes earlier this week, Twitter is now considering funding offers from big venture funds, specifically Russia’s DST Global and Silicon Valley’s Kleiner Perkins, as well as fielding incoming acquisition interest from Google and Facebook.

Currie should know about this kind of noisy swirl around a hot start-up.

Back in the heyday of Web 1.0, as the CFO of Netscape Communications, he led the iconic browser company into history, as the first great Internet rocket ship, when it went public on August 9, 1995.

While the Netscape experience ended in tears, Currie’s career has not and he has become a kind of go-to elder statesman in the Web 2.0 era.

A year ago, for example, he joined Facebook as its temporary CFO.

That move came after the social networking site, in a bit of turmoil, parted ways with its then CFO, Gideon Yu, following mutual disagreements.

Indeed, Currie plays the calm, collected wise man well.

Unusually tall, aggressively avuncular and laid-back, he loves Elvis and enjoys pranking reporters like BoomTown.

(Case in point: Back in the day, he spread the rumor around Silicon Valley that I was short due to a medical condition.)

Now the president of Currie Capital, a private investment firm, he had previously worked at General Atlantic in private equity.

After Netscape, he was a partner and co-founder of the Barksdale Group, an early-stage (and ill-fated) venture capital firm.

Before Netscape, he was CFO of McCaw Cellular Communications and also worked at Morgan Stanley.

Currie is also board-happy, serving as a director of a variety of tech firms, private and public. They have included CNET Networks, Critical Path, Clearwire, Safeco, Ofoto, Tellme Networks and Zantaz, as well as Sun Microsystems.

He has an MBA from Stanford University and went to Williams College.

In other words, just the kind of pedigree needed to give some additional burnish to Twitter board, which now includes Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet, Benchmark Capital’s Peter Fenton, Co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams, Co-founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo.

Apparently, it’s time to toss another dude in there!

2010年11月29日星期一

The Decline and Fall of E-Mail

I have in my computer every e-mail message I have sent or received since 1992. Minus the obvious spam, this database comes to about half a million messages from people as varied (or similar, if you think about it) as Larry Ellison and Larry Flynt.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

2010年11月25日星期四

New Zune2 review (part 2-1) upgrade, hardware, software and Social

When we first caught wind that Microsoft was in fact doing its own portable media player (and then published the first ever photo of the Zune), we hoped it might finally be the play to knock the iPod off its perch. Sure, in mid 2006 there was no shortage of devices more advanced than any given iPod, but then (and now) the iPod enjoyed unchecked dominance of the market in the US and many countries abroad. Steve Jobs knew the day would come that Microsoft would really enter the game.
What we were hoping for was that the portable media world might be in store for another Sony / Nintendo upset. Remember in the 90s how Sony and Nintendo's partnership went awry, and Sony, totally sick of Nintendo completely owning the game console space, brought out the original PlayStation? Before the console's second generation was through Sony had more market share than they knew what to do with. Sony upped Nintendo's game with the PlayStation, then upped their own with the PlayStation 2 -- and took over.
If Sony could do the impossible and topple the infallible Nintendo of old, surely Microsoft, the world's largest technology company, could make at least make a dent in Apple's armor. Yeah, the first-gen product is important, but the second gen product is crucial, because if you can't up your game -- and everyone else's -- you're just another player. This year, Microsoft really had to make the Zune count. Read on to judge for yourself whether they did.
The first generation Zune, as we all know, was little more than a slew of off the shelf hardware and software Microsoft cobbled together in a rush to make a play for the annual holiday gold rush. And the interesting part is, all things considered, it really wasn't bad at all. No one thought it was "done", but it was a lot better than some of the other PMC-based devices we'd seen to date. This year Microsoft brought a slew of new Zune products (and enhancements) to the table, including two new players (flagship 80GB and the flash model), new device software (which runs on all devices), new desktop software, and a new service (Zune Social, a music-oriented social network reminiscent of Xbox Live).

The first generation Zune

Device software
Yeah, we know Microsoft technically skipped right past device software v2.0 and jumped to 2.2, but the update is the best place to start since it affects the most users and devices. Microsoft won some well-deserved brownie points for ensuring all Zune players new and old can run the new firmware, meaning that for now your old Zune will have feature parity with the new hardware.
So here's the deal with the device software: it adds some crucial bits (many of which we expected the first time), takes away some minor but important things, and leaves the other 90% largely unchanged. First, the stuff Zune 2.0 takes away:
Song flagging
The five star rating system
The language menu The good stuff, though, is very good:
MPEG-4 and H.264 playback support
Podcasting support
Sync over WiFi (which we'll get to later)
In terms of performance, both old and new hardware and firmware were almost identical in testing. A lot of people have been claiming the new firmware is much snappier, but we didn't find that to be true at all. Two Zune 30 devices boot up within a half second between 1.0 and 2.0 series firmwares, and the flash-based Zune 8 we tested booted to home screen less than a second faster. Traversing menus took no more or less time or when syncing and the like. (Note: scrolling through long lists appears to happen slightly faster, but that's likelier an interface tweak, not a performance increase.)

Related theme:
New Zune review part 2-1
New Zune review part 2-2
New Zune review part 2-3
New Zune review part 2-4

Recommended Products:
Aiseesoft DVD to Zune Suite
It can help you convert DVD, IFO and all video formats to Zune, Zune 2 MP4, WMV and Zune supported audio MP3, WMA, and AAC etc.

2010年11月24日星期三

Using Windows Movie Maker to edit videos on PC for free

This is a tutorial which explains the process of editing videos on a PC using Windows Movie Maker and editing videos on Mac using iMovie. This tutorial will be a concise explanation of how to editing videos for free. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using dvd burner you can even take movies you've made and turn movies into DVDs.
You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

This tutorial includes three parts, this is part one:
Part 1. Using Windows Movie Maker to edit videos on PC for free
Part 2. Using iMovie to edit videos on Mac for free
Part 3. A table that compares free video editors.

Windows Movie Maker 2.1 makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker 2.1, you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes.

Windows Movie Maker- edit video

Step 1, Capture video
You can capture video from video device, import video, pictures, audio and music. MM2 will allow you to import the following file formats:
- Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav and .wma
- Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf
- Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv
If your videos are not the formats compatible with Windows Movie Maker such as MP4/3GP, FLV and MOV, MIDI, AIFF, AAC, you can use the video converter to convert the video to the formats supported by MM2 first.

Step 2, Edit movie
-Add Video Transitions.
Open your Windows Movie Maker project file. If Movie Maker opens in Timeline view, return to Storyboard view by clicking on the Show Storyboard link. From the Movie Tasks pane, under Edit Movie, select View video transitions . Choose the desired transition, select and drag into storyboard between desired clips. After inserting transition, sample the change in the Monitor to determine if it works in the way you desire. To change a transition you can Undo the action, right click on the transition in the Storyboard and select delete, or simply drag a new transition over the old transition.
-Add Video Effects.
Choose "View video effects" under the Edit Movie section and drag the chosen effect to the star in the lower left corner of the picture. Preview your movie to see the effects. Continue to add effects to other pictures if desired. Save the file. A video effect applies to the picture itself rather than the change from one picture to another as in a transition.
-Add Titles and Credits.
Under the Edit Movie section, choose Make titles or credits. You have several options for where to place your Windows Movie Maker title and credits. They may precede or follow a picture or video clip, or be used as an overlay.
Here are tips for you to add special effects to your movies using Windows Movie Maker

Step 3, Finish movie
Now that your movie is complete, you may wish to save the project in a different format.
Saving the project and saving the movie are two different things. The movie project is the working file so that you may continue to edit until you have a final version of your work completed. The movie file is the final output of your movie.
Windows Movie Maker compresses all the parts of your movie into a single unit. The file size is much smaller so that it can be used on a web site or emailed.
You also have the option to create a CD or DVD of your movie. These options are all under the heading Finish Movie. If you want to convert the movie made by Windows Movies Maker to other video format such as YouTube video, AVI, MP4, 3GP, you can use this video converter. You can also use free third-party software to burn the movie made by Windows Movies Maker to DVD for free.

How to convert DVD, Movie, Music to iPhone ringtone and put ringtone on iPhone, iPhone 3G

Everyone wants his iPhone ringtone to be personalized,and sometimes want to make iPhone ringtone from a clip of their favorite DVD, movie or songs. Here I found a easy way to achieve this target for iPhone ringtone, hope it helpful.

The tools you need are Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Suite and iPhone PC Suite (free), download links are as following:
Aiseesoft iPhone Converter Suite:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/dvd-to-iphone-suite.exe

iPhone PC Suite (Totally free)
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/iPhone_PC_Suite.htm

Note: iPhone PC Suite has to run under Microsoft .NET Framework, you can download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&DisplayLang=en

The iPhone ringtone guide is composed of 3 parts:
1. How to extract audio to ringtone from DVD?
2. How convert audio and video to iPhone ringtone?
3. How to sync/ put ringtone to iPhone without iTunes

Part 1 How to make iPhone ringtone from DVD?
Install Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Suite and run it. For Windows Vista user, you may have to run this program as Administrator, right click the program shortcut and click “Run as Administrator”.
Run the DVD to iPhone Converter load your DVD by clicking “Load DVD” button, you also can load IFO file from your hard drive by clicking “Load IFO File” button.
Click drop down list and select iPhone supported format (AAC, MP3, WAV, etc.) you want:Convert DVD Movie to iPhone - format

You can also customize the sample rate, bit rate and other parameters of your iPhone ringtone by click “setting”

Convert DVD movie to iPhone - settings

To extract a clip from DVD to iPhone ringtone, you can click button “trim”, set the start time and end time.

Convert DVD movie to iPhone - trim

Then click “Start” to extract iPhone ringtone from you DVD, Done.

Part 2 How to make iPhone ringtone from videos and songs?
Start Aiseesoft iPhone Movie Converter, then click “Add” button to load video file which you want to extract iPhone ringtone from(You can also load audio file to convert music to iPhone ringtone).

iPhone Movie Converter


Click drop down list and select iPhone supported format (AAC, MP3, WAV, etc.) you want:

iPhone Movie Converter - output

The operation is similar as extracting iPhone audio from DVD with DVD to iPhone Converter, set sample rate, bit rate and other parameters of your iPhone ringtone by click “setting”

Most users’ iPhone ringtone are always short, so you may want to convert a clip from movie to set as ringtone. Click button “trim” to set the start and end point of your iPhone ringtone.

Then click “Start” to convert a clip to iPhone ringtone from your movies or songs.

Next part: How to sync/ put ringtone to iPhone/iPhone 3G without iTunes

Free Trial: Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Suite

2010年11月22日星期一

Google Gives Office a Ticket to the Cloud

Today Google announced Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, a tool for users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 to sync their docs to the Google cloud, share and edit them, all from within Office. Not sure how this is meant to stomp Microsoft users into submission-slash-conversion, but presumably the Google cloud is better than the Microsoft cloud, and the product is just entering its preview phase, so perhaps more will be revealed.

Gravity Wants to Instantly Personalize Any Content Site

Today Gravity is unveiling its plans to be an information filtering service. The idea is to combine social and semantic understanding of users to identify content they are likely to be interested in.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company is demoing this idea as a personalized newspaper app called The Orbit (to be released soon). The Orbit takes a user’s Twitter account and computes the topics a person is interested in and the network she is connected to. For any one Web page, Gravity might look at how recent it is, how popular it is, how relevant it is to a person’s interest and how many of that person’s friends have shared it.

Eventually, said Gravity CEO Amit Kapur, the company wants to offer personalization services to publisher sites. So when I go to the New York Times with Gravity enabled, for example, I would be able to get a view of the site’s content that’s weighted to what I am likely to be interested in.

I think that’s an awesome idea (though I do appreciate the roles of editorial curation and serendipity in bringing me my news). This is similar to what Facebook is trying to do with its controversial Instant Personalization product, where a user logged in to Facebook arrives at a new site that already knows who his friends are.

The problem is, what Gravity is setting out to do–both the natural-language processing and computational side, and the nitty-gritty of integrating into other peoples’ Web sites–is really freaking hard. And, no offense guys, but the Gravity team’s big experience to date was working at Myspace–not exactly a pinnacle of technical achievement.

When the company briefed me on what it was doing, it prepared a poster-size personal interest graph based on analysis of my Twitter account (that’s it at the top of the post; click to enlarge). Well shucks, guys–it seems to be just a bunch of words and topics I’ve mentioned in Tweets over the last few years, connected by lines. Doesn’t really convince me that you understand that much about me and what I want to read.

Still, Gravity has quite a bit going for it: A good idea, and $10 million from top investors at Redpoint Ventures and August Capital, plus advising by machine learning and computational linguistics professors at Stanford and UC Berkeley.

2010年11月21日星期日

Gawker Yanks Palin’s Book Excerpt After Court Order

Hope you’ve sated your curiosity about Sarah Palin’s upcoming book: Gawker Media, which published unauthorized excerpts of the book on Thursday, has pulled them off the Web following a federal court order.

The ruling comes following a lawsuit filed Friday by Palin’s publisher HarperCollins. AP:

A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” from its blog.

The injunction prohibits Gawker from “continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending a hearing on Nov. 30.

The link to Gawker’s original post now generates a 404 error message. Palin’s book is due out on Tuesday, a full week before the scheduled hearing.

I’ve asked HarperCollins if they have any additional comment beyond the statement they sent me this morning (the publisher is owned by News Corp., as is this Web site). I have yet to receive any comment from Gawker Media.

But Gawker Media owner Nick Denton did tell me this morning, via IM, that he was eager for the day that his company would only run video ads, and referred me to this clip, running on his Jalopnik site.

2010年11月19日星期五

How to play iPod video on TV

You may often confused with how to play iPod video on TV without Apple TV? Here is a guide to do this.
Note: This method is not usable for the 6th generation iPod.

What You'll Need
In order to get your iPod connected properly to your TV, you'll need the following items on hand:
A video-capable iPod. Any color will do.
An iPod-compatible video. Load it onto your iPod through iTunes.
Note: iPod accepts mp4 video detail as: MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
If your videos are not iPod format files, you can use Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac to convert videos to iPod format files. Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac is one of the best video to iPod converters on Mac os which can convert MP4, 3GP, AVI, WMV, RM, MPEG, and FLV to iPod video with very high quality and various output settings in high speed(>300%). If you use Windows, you can use iPod movie converter for windows.
An A/V cable. If you don't already have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

A/V cable
Figure 1. A camcorder A/V cable has a three-plug RCA connection at one end and a three-banded 1/8" plug at the other

Setting Up Your iPod Video Options
Setting up your iPod video options lets you control how you export video. The iPod Video Options screen selects how your iPod handles video file playback.
To open these settings, choose Videos -> Video Settings from your main iPod menu. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Adjust to produce the video playback style you need.

Play iPod Video on TV
Figure 2. Videos -> Video Settings controls the way your iPod plays back video files

TV Out
Whenever you play a video file, your iPod must make a choice. Video iPods either play video on the built-in screen or they transmit a video signal out of the microphone jack. They don't do both. The TV Out option controls which behavior occurs.
Use this setting to choose from:
No. Playback remains on the iPod itself.
Yes. A TV signal is produced.
Ask. The iPod prompts you whenever you play a video file.
I always use the Ask option. Yes, it does add an extra step whenever I play a video file, but it gives me the flexibility to choose playback behavior on a case-by-case basis. I like that.

TV Signal
European and Australian television sets use a different signal standard than those used in America and Japan. If you live in the U.S., your TV works with the NTSC standard. European countries mostly use PAL. Make sure you've selected the correct signal for your country.
Widescreen
iPods can play back widescreen video, if only on exported video. The built-in screen uses a traditional 4:3 screen ratio, rather than widescreen's 16:9 proportions. Choose Yes to produce a widescreen signal, or No to export the traditional TV output.
Connecting the iPod to TV
It takes a few steps to connect your iPod to your TV. Start by inserting the A/V cord's eighth-inch plug into your iPod's earphone jack. In it goes, schnickt. Couldn't be eas.
Here's where it gets a little tricky. In order to make your TV play back the iPod signal, you've got to redirect the outputs. You can't just plug the yellow RCA plug into the yellow RCA jack and the red into the red or the white into the white. No. Those geniuses at Apple send the video signal over the red RCA output. (Normally it arrives on yellow.) The sound comes through the white and yellow plugs.
I ended up going to an Apple store and testing this on iPod after iPod. They all have this quirk. It was intentional. But hey, it's proprietary. Woohoo. So here's what you have to do:
- Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
- Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
- Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.

Play iPod video on TVPlay iPod video on TV
Figure 3. Left: TV jacks, unplugged; right: TV jacks, plugged with A/V cable.

After making all of these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Playing Your Video
On your iPod, navigate to the movie you want to watch and select it. Your iPod prompts you to choose whether to play the video with TV Off or TV On. (You set the TV Out option to "Ask," remember?) Choose TV On.Play iPod video on TV
Figure 4. Choose TV On to redirect the video through the earphone jack.
As your video starts, a status screen appears on your iPod and the video plays back on your television. The status screen tracks playback progress, just as it would in iTunes.Play ipod video on tv
Figure 5. The iPod video status screen shows playback progress.
Leave the television volume control at normal levels and use the iPod volume control to adjust the audio. The audio and video should both sound and look excellent.