Video of the week.
Camcorders come in all shapes and sizes, and with the improvement in storage and miniaturization most of these sizes are getting smaller. At the same time the resolution is getting higher. We’re waiting for the day when you can get a full 4K, IMAX, panoramic ultra high resolution recorder which is the size of your thumbnail. You just wait, it’s coming.
Parties and music go together like Tom & Jerry. Play the right selection of tracks in the right sequence during the event and you’re on your way to being the hero of your peer group. Get it wrong and you risk being shunned in corridors for the next few months. So how to guarantee you’re a hero and not a zero, without having to hire a pro DJ on your limited budget?
One thing the digital world has given us is the ability to capture and store our lives in a level of detail that was unthinkable a few years ago. Most people today have an archive of thousands of digital photos, and countless video clips from special events, most of which we don’t even have the time to enjoy. But it’s obvious that this is just the beginning, and a new generation of technology is going to provide even more tools…
Taking high resolution HD video with reasonably priced digital SLR cameras is now no big deal, thanks to the plummeting costs of these cameras and the massively improved quality of the optics and software. However some things never change, and that includes making use of clever accessories to get the most out of your shooting options.
There was a time when you needed to spend literally thousands of dollars to get some decent night vision goggles or cameras. In fact the tech was so expensive that only law enforcement and the armed services could afford to stump up the cash for this sort of kit. But that was last week.
The gradual shift from the television to the computer continues apace, and almost every month we benefit from the launch of one new service or another which helps this process along. The cord-cutters – those who make the final jump away from cable or terrestrial TV to Internet based programming – are the early beneficiaries of all of this, but sooner or later we’ll all be consuming our entertainment down fat pipes. Or is that phat pipes?
We all enjoy Doctor Who to some extent. Whether you started watching a few decades ago, or with the ninth Doctor, it holds a special place in your heart. While we all wish we could run off to fight cybermen and daleks, we still have work to do in the here and now. That doesn’t mean we can’t pretend we’re on adventures of our own though.
Game giant Valve recently released its sophisticated new free animated movie making program called Source Filmmaker and judging by the first results coming from the tool, it could massively impact the entertainment space over the coming years. Machinima, the art of making short (or long) movies using animated game engines, has been around for a good few years, but this is the first system which offers everything a budding movie maker needs, including motion capture and sound editing tools, to…
Apparently almost half of all television buyers in the UK fail to set up their TV set properly when they get it home. They leave it on the default standard settings (either through laziness or ignorance) and by doing so they end up using more energy than necessary, make their eyes more tired and to make it worse, they spend their time watching a worse picture than if they spent a few moments doing some simple but important tweaks out…
There are a multitude of bookmarking services around which let you store your favorite website addresses with a click, and there are even services like Pocket which give you the power to save interesting articles to read when you have more time. But until now there hasn’t been a quick and easy way to save a video bookmark so you can return later to the place you left off watching.
Don’t know about you, but we’re using the laptop for movies and music much more than we’ve ever done before. It’s probably the convenience of not having to get up and move to another room/couch to catch up on some entertainment. Why bother when you can fre up a player and enjoy the stuff instantly? Oh sure, it’ll probably kill us in the end, but at least we’ll die with a smile on the lips and some popcorn in the…
![Flutter lets you control your media playback with a wave of the hand [Freeware]](https://www.redferret.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/flutter2.jpg)
Quick one for y’all. If you like short, beautifully acted and scripted drama, try Tube Tube, a delicious video series, set in London and hosted on YouTube. There’s 9 in the series so far, and they’re shot in public, on a real train with actors. Only a couple of minutes each, definitely worth a look.
There’s no question that the rise and rise of online video is delivering some incredibly powerful changes to the way we consume knowledge. The first surprise is how popular short form video content has become, which came as a complete surprise to those who thought you could never deliver enough value in a few minutes to make it work. The second shock is how powerful on-demand video is for education.
Got a smartphone? Bored with your cubicle and want to spice your life up a bit? Want to give the boss a present she’ll never forget? Well, straight from the ‘what the heck were they thinking bus’, comes this new smartphone accessory which might just revolutionize your life and lead to promotion, success and instant adoration. Or not.
The world is full of great entertainment, music, television, movies, games. You name it and someone somewhere has put it together for our enjoyment. The one massive obstacle to our participation in this fun fest is the army of lawyers and accountants currently blocking all attempts to allow unfettered access to the content, in order to protect their fading business models. And this is not about piracy, it doesn’t even matter if you’re happy to pay, they still won’t let you.
