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Mozilla Embraces h.264 following Cisco Initiative to Open Source the Video Codec

Firefox-logoThis ones a bit tech-y, but ultimately it’s good news.

Video online is a big deal. It’s more complicated than audio, and there are a bunch of different ways to deliver it. We don’t really have a standard for maximizing our bandwidth, making sure file sizes are kept lean, while still delivering high quality content. Flash came close to winning, but the iPhone didn’t support it, and playback was often spotty on older phones and tablets.

h.264 is one method for squeezing high quality video into smaller containers for delivery online, but it wasn’t open source. It was a licensed commercial codec, so companies like Mozilla were hesitant to full embrace it in their products, like the Firefox web browser.

Well Cisco has opened up its implementation of this codec allowing developers to make use of it without having to pay licensing costs, and we can expect Mozilla to add official support for it early next year. This will be a great step towards standardizing video content and communication online. What remains to be seen is Google’s response as they’ve been working on their own royalty-free video standard called VP8. Personally, while we might see better support for h.264, I find it unlikely that Google will abandon its own development ceding control of next gen video services to Cisco.

And of course technology marches on, and by the time we’re starting to get settled with a couple solid standards, we’ll start talking about the NEXT next generation video services. Until then, hopefully this improves performance and compatibility for end users starting next year.

(via Reddit)

 

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AT&T Holiday Bundle: Free Galaxy Tab 3 With Purchase of Select Samsung Phones

GALAXY-Tab-3-7-inch_001_WiFiWho likes getting free stuff? We do!

AT&T is helping you kit out your collection of glowing rectangles this holiday season. Starting today and running through the end of the year, if you sign up for a two year agreement or AT&T NEXT, and you get a Galaxy S4, GS4 Active, a Note 2, or a Note 3, you will also receive a fun larger screened extra. AT&T is going to throw in a Galaxy Tab 3 to help keep the season bright. Not a bad little value add, grabbing a  little 7″ tablet for yourself… Or give it away as a gift… OR keep it for yourself…

Just imagine if you also snagged a Galaxy Gear. You could literally cover yourself in Samsung.

Running concurrently, AT&T is also running a trade in program for your old phone. Promo cards start at $100 for select devices, but it’s a decent way to recycle your old gear and save a little cash on your next purchase.

Full details after the jump!

 

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Lenovo’s New Yoga Tablet Offers 18 Hour Run Time and Built in Kickstand

01 lenovo yoga tablet stand modeOver the last year Lenovo weathered the changing PC market better than any other manufacturer. Following Windows 8, the industry as a whole saw sales drop around 15%. Lenovo stayed pretty flat during that time, which is unprecedented performance during the release of something as unfamiliar as Windows 8. Products like the Yoga Laptop which swiveled into various usage scenarios. It’s no surprise they’re now the number one manufacturer of PC’s worldwide.

During that same time however, Lenovo shipped more tablets and phones than they did PC’s. They’re not as widely known here states-side for their mobile gear, but they’re looking to change that and crack this market like they did laptops and desktops. Unveiled last night, Lenovo took the wraps off the Yoga Tablet, and they think they’ve found A Better Way to use a mobile slate.

02 lenovo yoga tablet stand modeThe Android 4.2 tablets comes in two flavors based on screen size, a Yoga Tablet 8 and a Yoga Tablet 10. Both feature the same resolution 1280 x 800, and both will come in 16GB and 32GB models with the ability to add more storage via MicroSD. A fairly modest 1.2GHz quad-core was chosen, probably to keep cost lower, and should play well with the lower resolution screens to keep performance snappy and battery life high. Front and rear cameras are on board, with the latter utilizing a 5MP sensor.

02 lenovo yoga tablet cylinder batteryThe Yoga tablet design hinges on the cylindrical battery bulge running lengthwise down the tablet’s screen. This allows Lenovo to include a physically larger battery than most other tablets. It also allows for a swivel kickstand to be hidden into the back plate of the Yoga. The design is refreshing, as it gives you something to hold on to. Going from holding to propping it up, you can dial in specific angles, or turn it around for “Tilt Mode” where the tablet is easiest to enter in text, and it starts to look a lot like Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

03 lenovo yoga tilt modeBest of all, it’s that bulge which allows the tablet to run for up to 18 hours. Of all the hardware specs people might care about, performance and screen resolution, none of them mean much if your tablet is out of juice. “All day and then some” run time will be a welcome spec for many consumers. A nice side benefit, you can use the Yoga to charge your phone, simply great consideration for how tablets are becoming our preferred companion devices.

Lenovo saw fit to add in front facing stereo speakers, always a nice touch for audio junkies like myself. I’ll be curious to see how they perform when I get my hands on one later. The cylinder houses the power button one end and the headphone jack on the other.

With some many manufacturers targeting “premier” experiences, it might strike some as odd that Lenovo is building their Yoga line around some fairly mid-range specs. The aggressive prices points make a lot of sense in this space however, and Yoga Tablet 8 will start at $249. Impressively, Yoga Tablet 10 will only creep up to $299.

Lenovo’s design aesthetic here strays farther away from the traditional slate than any other slab I’ve seen recently, and that might be enough to improve Lenovo’s mindshare here in the USA. You can catch Lenovo’s Yoga keynote after the jump.

04 lenovo yoga hold mode

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Hidden Path Entertainment teams up with Operation Supply Drop to send Soldiers games and gear

2nd-Annual-Pinup-webLast year Operation Supply Drop donated $58,000 in games and gear to soldiers deployed and in military hospitals. This year they’re looking to top it.

On November 9th, they’ll be hosting their second 24-hour gaming marathon to raise funds and donations. You can get in on the action by having friends, family, and followers sponsor you by the hour. If you think you can hang gaming for a whole day straight that is. You can officially sign up your team on the 8-Bit Salute page on CrowdRise.

One of my favorite game developers has already pledged a very generous donation. Hidden Path Entertainment makes one of my all time favorite tower defense games Defense Grid, and they’ve already promised $20,000 in game codes for the cause. They join Treyarch who sent in a Call of Duty care pack earlier this month.

Play games AND support our Troops? It’s a win-win folks. More info at: http://www.operationsupplydrop.org/

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Google announces TONS of new features for Hangouts, Google Plus, Photo & Video sharing!

morning with google plusA whole suite of new features for the folks using Google Plus!

In the Hangouts app, users will now be able to share location with a simple button press. I’ve been in situations where people have asked “where are you” and now a simple tap can share a Google Map location with them.

hangouts where are you location sharingWhat most people have been itching for though is SMS integration, and now the Hangouts app is including the ability to add text messaging to chat.

For people broadcasting with Hangouts on Air, you’ll now have the ability to plan a Hangout ahead of time, and this will create an event page you can use to promote the Hangout. It’s a nice one-piece solution as we’ve been doing this manually to share our Hangouts with people online.

hangout spotlight background blurNew broadcast tools allow hosts to control the microphone volume of HOA participants. Increase or decrease their chat volume, and now we can finally remove someone from a Hangout. This is welcome control for those of us trying to create professional videos during live broadcasts.

For standard Hangouts video calls, users now have more creative tools to play with, like blurring the background behind themselves. Also we’ll be able to see animated gifs, for all our stop motion photo animation needs.

Moving to Google Plus, over 1.5 BILLION photos are uploaded every week. Google will be unleashing new organization and editing tools to help back up and share your experiences.

auto awesome google plus photo editing 3Photo scanning will allow for searching the content of a picture without tags. If there are pics of your dog un-tagged, searching for “dog” on G+ will bring up your pet pics. New photo editing tools can help improve the look of your pics. Either via “Auto-Awesome” or Snapseed integration, you’ll be able to touch up your pics before sending them out. Snapseed is introducing a new HDR filter to help improve pics which might be a bit under or over exposed.

auto awesome google plus photo editing 4Auto-Awesome will now track through multiple exposures to create animated gifs, composite images, or use the new Eraser tool to eliminate moving objects from your photos. Say you have a series of shots from a vacation, and someone walks in front of your frame, Eraser can scrub that distraction out of your shot. This’ll pretty much encourage people to take series of photos for every set up instead of just one pic and done.

auto awesome google plus movie editingLastly a new auto movie feature is being added. Collecting all of your pics and vids from a time or place, Google will auto-magically combine them all and add background music to present you a share-able highlights reel of your latest adventure. Users can manually edit elements, or select themes which will change up the music, editing, and effects.

If you’ve been jamming on G+, there are going to be a bunch of new features to play with. You can catch the whole announcement video below!

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Motorola Intros Phonebloks-Style Modular Phone – Project Ara – UPDATED with new Phonebloks Video!

ara2blogpostI WANT THIS!

I posted a little while back about Phonebloks, a Lego-like phone concept allowing smartphone users to customize exactly the kind of phone hardware they want. I thought it was exciting as it would allow people to upgrade over time, while hopefully preventing a significant amount of e-waste. When one piece of your phone becomes obsolete or breaks, just swap it out for an upgrade. You don’t have to throw the whole phone out.

I got A LOT of cynicism on social media from a BUNCH of people who said it could never work, further reinforcing the notion that people online don’t really want actual NEW things.

Well wouldn’t you know it, today Motorola announces that they’ve been working on this very idea for over a year now! It doesn’t get much more legitimate as a concept device than that. Dubbed Project Ara, Moto is trying to push an open hardware standard which would compliment software like Android. In an age where increasingly our magic glowing rectangles are often glued shut, this would be a refreshing change of pace, especially for someone like me who still prefers building his own workstations.

Best of all Moto knows that they aren’t first in pushing this concept out to the masses, and they’ve reach out to Phonebloks to do some community building and partnerships, while moving forward during the development process. Really classy move.

ara1blogpost

Get the full scoop at Moto’s blog!

***UPDATE***

Now there’s a video showing Phonebloks and Moto working together!

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Video: ‘Light Goes On’ – Over 700 individual Light-Painted Frames set to Music

light goes on youtubeArtist/Photographer Darren Pearson spent over a year painting with light to produce this video which includes over 700 individually light-painted frames, and I’m just sitting here blogging…

What’s insanely impressive is the detail painted into each shot. Darren takes us on a tour of the city, but he doesn’t just paint a person walking through, nope. He paints a skeleton riding a skate board and breakdancing. Each shot is accomplished by setting a camera up for a long exposure, then drawing with a flashlight in the air with little to no reference for where you are in each photo. You just have to keep that straight in your brain.

Not enough people have seen this video. It’s incredible work.

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The iPhone 5S in Action! Testing the Speakers and Camera of Apple’s Newest Phone!

apple iphone 5s gold camera lens sensor dual LED flash review somegadgetguyI’m almost wrapped up with my full long term review of the 5S, but I thought I’d tease some of the videos we’ll be using to showcase the performance of Apple’s newest handset.

Starting off with the most comprehensive camera test you’ll find on this phone online, shooting in a variety of scenarios including bright outdoor scenes, low light, indoor, night time, tracking movement, and we played with slow motion video. If you’ve been curious to see how this new image sensor stacks up against Nokias and Androids, we have a ton of samples to show off!

apple iphone 5s gold speakers headphone jack audio quality review somegadgetguyAlso, no discussion of a multimedia phone would be complete without some speaker tests. The iPhone is a svelte slab of phone. I was really curious to see if Apple could cram in a speaker which would be able to compete against recent outings from Nokia and HTC. I was very surprised by the results of our speaker test, and you can hear the iPhone playback movie clips and music in our video below.

Be on the lookout for our full long-term review in the coming days!

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