Thursday, May 08, 2014

drag2share: Adobe Voice lets amateurs make videos like a pro (sort of)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/08/adobe-voice/

Whether you're doing a book report or trying to show someone how to boil an egg: video can make it a heck of a lot easier for you to get your point across. Adobe's new iPad app, Voice, hopes to make the often time-consuming experience of creating your own such videos a lot faster and easier. The app guides you through making a sharable vid, from the conception of your idea to the finished product. We've had a chance to try it out for the past week. We found that the app makes it easy to create some pretty professional looking stuff without having any special skills or a lot of time, but there's just one thing missing.

To kick things off with Voice, you'll need to pick a topic and a story type. Once you do, the app will launch a project for your video -- complete with instructional cards that give you an idea of how to tell your tale. The app is broken into several types of stories, which you may not realize are formulaic, but they are. For instance, a "Hero's Journey" will start with a Setup Card, followed by a Call to Adventure, Challenge, Climax and finally, a Resolution. Each card provides a bit of detail on what you should be saying (and showing) on each card. It seems a bit elementary at first, but it's surprising how that little bit of direction can help you stay on track and create a video someone is actually going to be able to follow and want to watch.

Simple is the name of the game with Voice. The app's instructions are really easy to follow, as is adding desired elements to your story. Tapping on a card opens it up for editing. For each part of your story you can add a still photo, text or an icon from the app's built-in library. Voice doesn't support video elements (yet), which keeps things simple, but is a huge downer for someone who wants to include, you know, some actual moving pictures in their project. That said, the built-in photos and the icons are really great looking -- we considered them an asset rather than something we had to settle for. All of the (over 100,000!) images you can access from within the app are available under a Creative Commons license, so you're free to add them as you please. Even better, Adobe keeps track of everything you use, and includes proper attribution in the credits at the end of your video.

Rather than recording audio for the full video at once, Voice does it one card at at a time. Once you're done, Adobe enhances your voiceover to make it sound like it was recorded in a studio rather than on your iPad. It also adds a soundtrack to your monologue from its library. Track options are organized by the type of emotion they're intended to evoke -- i.e. playful, relaxed -- and are mixed in like the score to a good movie, so you barely notice them. Each video also gets the benefit of one of 32 different themes. Built by graphic artists, the themes take a page from Adobe's professional motion graphics program After Effects, and handle things like timing and transitions for your vid. The end result is a polished, professional-looking job (seriously) suitable for your business, or just making all the others kids in class look like rank amateurs.

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Source: iTunes

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drag2share: LG gives a taste of the upcoming G3 with its first QuadHD phone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/08/lg-just-released-its-first-quadhd-phone-but-its-not-the-g3/

KDDI has just launched the first QuadHD (QHD) phone solely for the Japanese market, the Isai FL model built by LG. That gives us a preview of LG's G3's 5.5-inch 2,560 x 1,440 display and its record 538ppi resolution. As it happens, LG just announced that the panel has now been certified, and re-confirmed that it'll be installed in it's "forthcoming flagship smartphone," ie the G3. KDDI's model may may give us an idea of what LG's eagerly-awaited G2 successor will be like spec-wise, too. The Isai FL has the narrow bezels we saw in leaked images of the G3, but sports a different design lacking the LG's rear buttons and rumored metal back. It also has some of LG's Knock functions and will come in three colors with a 13-megapixel camera, 3,000mAh battery, 2GB of RAM and a quad-core Snapdragon 2.5GHz CPU. That lines up with some of the G3's rumored specs, but we won't have to wait long to know them -- it's set to arrive on May 27th.

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Via: Engadget Japan

Source: KDDI

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drag2share: Breaking Bad in 4K coming to Netflix in June

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/08/breaking-bad-netflix-june/

Curious to watch all of the grisly deaths in Breaking Bad, but in a higher resolution? You've only got a month or so to wait, as Netflix has confirmed that it'll begin streaming the show in 4K and Dolby 5.1 at some point in June. The company also affirmed its commitment to screening all of its original shows in 4K, and is also currently experimenting with DVD-style extras. At present, tests are being carried out on Behind the Bars, a series of branching interviews with the cast of Orange is the New Black which will could in and out of the episodes when required. That said, the feature may not be ready for our second trip to federal prison, which begins on June 6th.

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Source: Pocket-lint

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drag2share: Air France's Awesome New 'La Premiere' Suites Come With Massage Seats And Hotel Bedding

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/air-france-la-premiere-luxury-suites-2014-5

Air France's new "La Premiere" luxury suite is the latest contender in the ongoing battle for luxury supremacy in the skies.

The new luxury suites will be available for the first time this September onboard Air France's Boeing 777-300 fleet. Though it may not be as palatial as some first-class suites found on Airbus super jumbos,"La Premiere" still represents Air France's boldest move yet to impart French luxury in international travel. 

"Our new La Premiere suite, from among all our new products and services, is the one that best represents our commitment to service excellence and a French travel experience," said Air France chairman and CEO Frederic Gagey. Air France Boeing 777-300ER RTXDVDFThe 32-square-foot La Premiere luxury suites will be located in an exclusive cabin, with access restricted to suite passengers. Air France will install a total of 76 suites on 19 Boeing 777s used primarily for intercontinental or transoceanic routes.

Each suite will feature tweed-patterned fabrics and leather headrests emblazoned with the airline's winged seahorse logo. Air France PREMIERE CABINESuite passengers will have access to a full complement of entertainment options in 12 languages accessed through a 24-inch HD touchscreen display. The fully adjustable seats will also have massage functions. Air France PREMIERE DIVERTISSEMENTDining options come courtesy of Michelin-starred chefs, including Joel Robuchon, Regis Marcon, Guy Martin, and Michel Roth. Passengers will also have their c! hoice fr om a wine list that is updated every two months. All meals will be served over Bernardaud-designed porcelain china, beveled glasses, and Christofle flatware. Air France PREMIERE GASTRONOMIEAt night, the adjustable seat will reconfigure into a 6.5-foot-long lay-flat bed. To mimic the relaxing feel of a Parisian hotel room, pillows and bedding for La Premiere passengers will be courtesy of Sofitel.Air France PREMIERE NUITFor increased privacy, all suites feature fully retractable dividers and thick curtains.Air France PREMIERE NUIT 2

SEE ALSO: Take A Look Inside Boeing's Futuristic New Space Capsule

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drag2share: This Is What Cornell's Futuristic NYC Tech Campus Will Look Like

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/cornell-tech-roosevelt-island-2014-5

cornell tech campus

Cornell has unveiled its vision for the massive tech campus it plans to build on New York City's Roosevelt Island.

When the campus opens in 2017, it will provide a permanent home for an entirely new school called Cornell Tech that city officials hope will position New York as a major tech center. Cornell beat out top-notch schools like Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford to create the new graduate school, which will be focused on classes in computer science.cornell tech campusA recent $133 million gift from Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan, created The Jacobs Institute, which will offer dual-degrees in the applied information-based sciences.

Eight degrees will eventually be offered, three of which will be dual master's degrees from Cornell and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The three degrees will cover "connective media," "healthier life," and "built environment." 

The idea is that classes will position students to use technology to solve problems faced by various industries in New York City and the world. 

"Cornell Tech will bring a sharp increase in science and engineering teaching, attract students from around the world, and spin off new local companies and thousands of new jobs, and inject billions of dollars into our economy," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press release announcing the funding. 

Roosevelt Island, a narrow strip of land between Manhattan and Queens, i! s an int eresting choice for a tech hub. It's fairly isolated and difficult to access, and cars are only allowed on certain parts of the island. cornell tech campusIn addition to campus buildings, the project calls for the construction of new roads and 2.5 acres of open space. cornell tech campusThe buildings themselves will be pretty high-tech, too. The architects hope to achieve net-zero energy in the academic building by installing solar panels on its roof. They also plan to install a system of 400 geothermal wells that will heat and cool the campus. 

"Our hope is that this campus will become a place where people who are interested in using tech to make a difference in the world will find this to be a place that's a magnet for them," Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Daniel Huttenlocher said in a video announcing the project. 

When completed, the two-million-square-foot complex will house approximately 2,000 full-time graduate students. The campus won't be completed until 2017, but until then, a group of 18 engineering students enrolled in the new program are working out of temporary classrooms in Google's Chelsea offices. In January, the school enrolled eight students in a beta class for a master's degree in computer science. 

SEE ALSO: LG's Plans For A New US Headquarters Are Causing A Lot Of Controversy In New Jersey

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