Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, March 01, 2010

Lyrics Training Improves Your Foreign Language Skills Through Music [Learning]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/tIwcvi-B2_g/lyrics-training-improves-your-foreign-language-skills-through-music

Learning a foreign language doesn't have to be dry and boring rote memorization. Clever web site Lyrics Training sharpens your skills through music and song lyrics.

Lyrics Training is a really fun approach to helping you pick up a foreign language. Choose a YouTube-hosted music video and select one of three mastery levels; Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. As the video begins to play, the song's lyrics appear underneath with several words missing. Your job is to fill in the missing words as they're sung.

If you get stumped, the video stops playing until you can come up with the word, but don't take too long because the app keeps track of the time it takes you to fill in the blanks. Click the "Give Up!" button to see the words that elude you.

Lyrics Training sorts videos by fluency level or language. Currently the site only offers videos in six languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Dutch), and it doesn't have a ton of videos for every language, but the number of videos should only grow. However, an optional translation feature powered by Google automatically translates a song's lyrics into one of dozens of different languages while you're busy filling in missing words.

The site is free to use and doesn't require registration, though if you do set up an account, you can save the results of your efforts. While Lyrics Training alone won't make you fluent in another language, it's great for improving your skills or dabbling in a new language. Plus, it's just a lot of fun.

Lyrics Training

Disk Space Fan Analyzes Hard Drive Space with a Dash of Eye Candy [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/KQGtd0DIXh8/disk-space-fan-analyzes-hard-drive-space-with-a-dash-of-eye-candy

Windows only: Free utility Disk Space Fan analyzes your hard drive usage to help you determine what's taking up space on your hard drive, representing it all with fancy visualization eye candy.

Disk Space Fan joins a long line of disk visualization tools, from the classic WinDirStat to DriveSpacio, Disktective, and others. WinDirStat has always had a special place in our hearts when it came time to visualize our hard drive usage and knock off space-wasting files, but it's not the most attractive tool in the toolbox. Disk Space Fan does the same sort of disk analysis, but it's also very attractive in addition to being very functional.

Eye candy aside, its scans are fast, and the Explorer integration makes it open up any file or folder for a closer look. You can click any slice to drill down further (and yes, it has fancy animated transitions when you do the clicking), and you can open or delete any file or folder directly from the app.

Disk Space Fan is a free download, Windows only. (Mac users, check out previously mentioned GrandPerspective.) A Pro version is available with a few more features, but the core features that make it great are available for free.

Disk Space Fan [via AddictiveTips]

Choose One: The Archos 7 and Archos 8 Home 'Tablets' Each Cost $200 [Android]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ODSPvIIBxbs/choose-one-the-archos-7-and-archos-8-home-tablets-each-cost-200

Archos has never made bad products, but their PMPs have definitely grown less relevant over the last few years. But now? Now two Android-wielding Archos Home Tablets will each cost only about $200.

The Archos 7 Home Tablet is pretty much just a refresh to their existing Archos 5 Internet Tablet—it's a 7-inch touchscreen Android tablet (or, OK, MID), loaded with Wi-Fi and USB. This April, a 2GB model (we really hope there's an SD card slot) goes on sale for about $200 overseas.

Meanwhile, the Archos 8 Home Tablet (or, OK, picture frame) is an 8-inch touchscreen tablet loaded with 4GB of storage, available overseas this May. The screen to case ratio isn't fantastic, but the cooking software already has me mentally placing the Archos 8 into my kitchen. It should be available overseas this May for about $200.

It should be noted that both tablets have Arm9 CPUs that won't be blazing fast. And each will probably be launched in the US, eliminating the need for an import. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

Freescale's i.MX508 Chip Will Make E-Ink Readers Way Cheaper and Turn Pages 4X Faster [Guts]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KaPmwYHWAgk/freescales-imx508-chip-will-make-e+ink-readers-way-cheaper-and-turn-pages-4x-faster

The silicon inside 90 percent of ereaders out there is made by Freescale, and their new chip, the i.MX508—based on a ARM Cortex A8 (sorta like the iPad!)—will make them cheaper, and page turns 4x faster.

The chip's a custom SoC that integrates the functions from multiple chips into one—specifically, the E-Ink hardware display controller—along with that Cortex A8, which gives the readers enough juice to turn pages in half a second, versus the two seconds that's typical now. As the first chip expressly designed for ereaders, it also strips out unnecessary features, so the net result for the ereader is that it's $30 cheaper a unit. Freescale wagers that with the cost savings, it could drive ereaders to under $150 by the end of the year. (Though that in part depends on how much the E-Ink displays themselves are going to continue to cost.)

An E-Ink reader that costs $150 would definitely look more attractive as a dedicated long-reading device against an iPad that does lots of things on top of reading—and has those fancy digital magazines—than the ones that more like $260 today. Then again, Amazon's working on a full-color multitouch Kindle with Wi-Fi, if that tells you anything about the future of E-Ink readers. In the meantime, I'm all for cheaper. [Freescale via Bloomberg via Digital Daily]

Netgear brings the goods to CeBIT: HD streamers, HomePlug AV adapters

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/01/netgear-brings-the-goods-to-cebit-hd-streamers-homeplug-av-ada/

Another month, another blockbuster trade show. CeBIT's show floor doesn't open up until tomorrow (and yeah, we'll be storming it like no other), but Netgear's wasting precisely no time in unveiling its latest wares. The two pieces that are nearest and dearest to our hearts are the WNHDB3004 and WNHDB3004, the former of which is an 802.11n HD Home Theater Kit and the latter of which is a universal WiFi adapter that adds wireless support to any AV product with an Ethernet jack. Users interested in streaming "multiple, simultaneous, jitter-free 1080p HD video streams wirelessly throughout the home" should certainly give the first a look, as it enables instant wireless streaming from your existing router to any component with an Ethernet port; think of this as the beautiful alternative to running a 50 foot patch cable through your living room and simultaneously eroding your relationship with Mr. / Mrs. Significant Other. The outfit also doled out a few SMB-centric ReadyNAS devices and a couple of HomePlug AV boxes with AC outlet passthroughs, all of which are detailed there in the source links.

Gallery: Netgear brings the goods to CeBIT: HD streamers, HomePlug AV adapters