Friday, March 12, 2010

Photo Magician Batch Converts Your Images with Drag and Drop Ease [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5491775/photo-magician-batch-converts-your-images-with-drag-and-drop-ease

Windows: If you're not about to manually convert that pile of images in front of you but you've found the batch converters you've tried to be lacking, free and portable Photo Magician offers both fine tweaking and drag and drop simplicity.

Photo Magician has two modes: full and quick convert. In the full mode you select an input and output folder and options like whether or not you want to scan the sub folders, overwrite the originals, speed up conversion by ditching the image preview, and unify the image format to a format of your select, among other options.

Photo Magician also supports presets covering popular portable devices and common image sizes. You can select Custom to set your own sizes if they aren't covered by the presets but unfortunately you can't save the custom presets you create, an oversight we'd love to see corrected in future versions of an otherwise strong program.

Full conversion mode aside you can also click "Quick Convert Mode" in the menu bar of Photo Magician and the program will minimize to the magician's hat—see at left here—like a sidebar gadget. Drop Photos right onto the hat and they will be automatically converted and saved after being reduced by the percentage you've selected.

Photo Magician is portable freeware, Windows only. Have a favorite tool—image-related or otherwise—for batching tasks? Let's hear about it in the comments.

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Posted by Augustine at 3:54 PM

GigaPan Indexes Enormous Panoramic Photos [Photography]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5491787/gigapan-indexes-enormous-panoramic-photos

If you like taking and sharing panoramic photos—or just enjoy checking out the impressive results others have gotten—GigaPan indexes high-resolution panoramic photos.

The panoramic images at GigaPan are extremely high resolution which allows you to not only enjoy the greater panoramic image but zoom deeply into the image. How deeply? In the same image above we zoomed in to the point where we could read signs and small text—in the lower right hand portion of the bridge a guy is wearing a basketball jersey with a number 5 on it.

How big are the images in a quantifiable sense? GigaPan rejects photos smaller than 50 megapixels in size and the majority of images on the site well exceed that. Check out the link below to browse GigaPan photos and if you're interested in submitting your own pictures, check out their tips and tricks in their FAQ file. For more great—but not as huge!—panoramic photos, check out previously reviewed viewAT.

Have some tips or tricks of your own to share on panoramic creation? Let's hear them in the comments.

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Posted by Augustine at 3:54 PM

Reboot Your Office to Return to a Clean Workspace [Clutter]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5491829/reboot-your-office-to-return-to-a-clean-workspace

Every night thousands of workers boot down their work stations and return to them the next morning, booting into a fresh system. Reboot your physical workspace in the same way to keep your office tidy and efficient.

Photo by Masterjay88.

Over at the organizational blog Unclutterer they've put together a list of ten ways you can do little things each day to keep your home uncluttered. We particularly like the idea of applying their first tip to your workspace at the end of the day:

Reset your home each evening. This doesn't have to take long, but it's really effective. Spend 5 or 10 minutes on a quick run-through of your home. Straighten books and knickknacks, return dishes to the kitchen, and hang up jackets. Don't strive for perfection, this is just a quick pick up.

Sitting down to a messy desk—or waking up in a messy house!—isn't a relaxing or productive experience. Today when your work day is over, take a moment to put your desk in order and prepare it for a fresh start tomorrow. The effort it takes to keep a clean workspace in order with nightly reboots is much less effort than it takes to overhaul a totally trashed office or dig through the piles on your desk looking for things.

Check out the full list at the link below for more tips and tricks for beating back clutter and disorder. Have an end-of-day ritual of your own to share? Let's hear about it in the comments below.

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Posted by Augustine at 3:54 PM

Enable Variable Speed Playback in YouTube [YouTube]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5491852/enable-variable-speed-playback-in-youtube

If your browser supports HTML5 you can opt into the experimental HTML5 video playback on YouTube. Not only will you get smoother video playback—goodbye Flash!—but you'll be able to speed up and slow down your videos.

The variable speed control is great for seeing things in slow motion. DIY and tutorial videos often go too fast and watching something in slow motion is usually better than having to watch the same section over and over again to see what is happening. Conversely you can speed up to make finding a section of a long video easier than hopping around from point to point trying to find it.

Visit the link below to opt into the HTML5 beta test. You'll need a browser that supports HTML5 like Chrome or Apple Safari to participate. Check out the link for more details and sound off with you opinion on the new video playback in the comments.

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Posted by Augustine at 3:54 PM

First Reviews of the Panasonic TC-P50VT20 3DTV [Reviews]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5492122/first-reviews-of-the-panasonic-tc+p50vt20-3dtv

After seeing it at CES, there was little doubt. The 50-inch Panasonic TC-P50VT20 wouldn't just be among the first 3DTVs on the market, it would be among the best. The first two reviews are in, and they are glowing.

Just a little background—the TC-P50VT20 runs $2500 and comes with one pair of active shutter glasses. (Additional pairs cost $150.) You can get it bundled with a 3D Blu-ray player for an extra $250.

In 2D mode, it's a solid TV (which should be expected since Panasonic's plasmas are traditionally quite excellent...if controversial). In 3D mode? Because of a lack of current 3D content, keep in mind that the impressions here are based upon a demo disc only. But here's what was said:

TelevisionInfo

... we found that the P50VT20 produced smooth, clean motion that looked as good in 3D as it did in 2D. Because of the lack of 3D source material at the moment, we were not able to run our full suite of motion tests, but we did not see any significant difference between 2D and 3D, so it looks like the new 3D feature does not adversely affect the smooth motion that this display produces. That's not a surprise, as the 3D Blu-ray standard allows the display to show a full 60 frames a second to each eye, so the eyes get to see 60 frames a second if you are watching 2D or 3D video.

HDGuru3D

As much as I tried to see the issues witnessed with the Sony FHD3D TV (the only production 3D models publicly demoed in 3D link) I did not see them. They simply are not present. These include crosstalk seen as ghost images, motion artifacts best described as a motion breakup, sort of like a strobe effect and flickering....The mode memory choices such as "Custom" have offsets built-in to compensate for the brightness reduction of the 3D glasses and any other image picture parameter shifts. They proved quite effective, although until Panasonic or someone else makes 3D test signals available on Blu-ray, there is no way to calibrate the user controls in the 3D mode.

Overall, I find the 3D image outstanding with considerably more brightness and pop than the motion picture theater 3D movie experience.

Those are pretty positive words, though we're guessing professional TV reviewers are the most excited cohort for 3D. But for those of you in the market for a new TV—are you considering the 3D PLUNGE??

(And if you still can't answer that question, I recommend this (my) piece on what it feels like to watch 3DTV.)

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Posted by Augustine at 3:47 PM

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