Apple Announces Final Cut Pro X At NAB

It’s NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters conference) in Las Vegas, that means lots of new camera and video stuff. It’s more pro gear than consumer stuff, which is probably why Apple took over the Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet there to unveil the newest version of their professional video editing software. They’re calling it as revolutionary as the original Final Cut released back in ’99. Guess the rumors were right.

After a preamble where they described FCP has having over 2 million users and teasing the competition, they launched into the new features. They’re still in the middle of the presentation, but so far it appears we have 64-bit, a revamped UI, and a ton of automatic clip-optimization going on in the background by utilizing Grand Central Station.

•  Read the rest of this entry »

continue reading…

HTC to “Widgetize” Sense Lockscreen

Our good pal Ina Fried from Mobilized recently had a talk with Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera from HTC. What he had to show was a rather interesting set of upgrades for HTC‘s signature Android user interface “Sense.” This is the interface you’re using if you’ve got your HTC ThunderBolt working with no homescreen replacement app running- and if you don’t know what a homescreen replacement app is, you don’t have one running. So what’s in store for the Sense-ual future?

  While right this moment with the most up-to-date release of HTC Sense, you’re able to have a pattern, a PIN, or a password to lock your phone, in the very near future you’ll be able to have your lock screen display updates from various apps, the weather in whichever location your GPS decides it to be, and more. Adding functionality to ever single screen on the phone may be the future – but is it necessary? Kouji Kodera thinks so, and prefers the weather screen, he says, to any other lock screen he’s seen on any manufacturer’s UI.


Another item Kodera says that HTC is aiming to improve is the camera interface. Yours truly can attest to the fact that they’ve already done wonders with their current release, the HTC ThunderBolt’s camera being the best mobile phone camera – or at least mobile phone camera interface – I’ve ever seen. They aim to improve upon the current system (releasing with the Sprint HTC Evo 3D and HTC Flyer [pictured above]), by upping the camera ante once more.

Finally, Kodera notes that HTC won’t be the first one to the $100 price point that appears to be hitting everyone’s tongues as of late, saying “We’ll be a little higher than the rock bottom of the market but we will slowly go into that market as it grows.” On the other hand, they’ll be the first group aiming directly at women. Kodera notes that while the average HTC phone attracts 70% male buyers, they’re working towards a 50/50 with the Wildfire S.

•  [via Mobilized]
  

continue reading…

Adobe And Zend Launch Flash Builder 4.5 For PHP Development

Adobe and Zend Technologies, the PHP distribution company, are announcing Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP software, a new integrated product aimed at helping PHP developers create rich Internet applications for mobile, Web and desktop leveraging the Flash Platform.

Zend, which has been working with Adobe since 2008, offers its own distribution of PHP, the popular open-source scripting language for Web applications, and sells software and support services around the language.

The Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP gives developers a single code base for applications for Android, Blackberry Tablet OS and iOS while sharing code from Web applications. Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP includes an integrated copy of Zend Studio 8, which allows developers to develop Flash based applications within a single environment. Specifically, the integrated software offers a single UI framework to create Flex and PHP projects for desktop and mobile and the ability to connect to PHP services and generate ActionScript value objects.

The combination of the two frameworks in one suite is powerful, says Zend CEO Andi Gutmans. Adobe says that more than 131 million smartphones are expected to have Flash Player installed by the end of the year. And PHP is the leading language for public facing web applications, says Gutmans.

It’s good to see Zend back on the mend, after a rough patch a few years ago.

continue reading…

Google’s Andy Rubin denies Android lock-down

Android lead Andy Rubin has challenged rumors that Google is locking down the OS, taking to the official Android Developers blog to deny that there has been “a change in strategy” in how it deals with OEMs, modifications, or hardware. “Our approach remains unchanged: there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs” Rubin insists. “There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture.”

Talk of a more stringent approach to Android modification broke last week, with insiders claiming Google had begun to prioritize vendors who would agree not to modify the OS or its UI. The so-called “anti-fragmentation clauses,” Rubin says, have however been in place since Android 1.0, and the only demands Google makes is that manufacturers hold to certain core specifications if they want to use Google’s own apps.

As for Honeycomb and the release of the Android 3.0 source code, Rubin says that “the Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones” and that “as soon as this work is completed, we’ll publish the code.”

continue reading…

All the Web’s TV & Movies in One Sweet Spot: Moki.tv

If you’re a digitally aware couch potato like me, you risk burning a significant number of calories surfing between Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes to get your fix of movies and television shows.

If you’re interested in mitigating that risk, you’ll want to take a look at Moki.tv, an all-in-one guide to the Internet’s entertainment offerings.

From Moki, you can browse a broad and deep catalog of almost all the silver-screen and small-screen content available on the web. You can watch free content from Hulu; subscription stuff from Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Comcast’s xfinity tv; and on-demand TV and movies from iTunes and Amazon Video On Demand. You can sign up with Facebook Connect, then simply select the content services you already use; Moki makes it easy to connect service with third-party authentication, so you won’t need to remember any logins.

Once you’re in, you’ll be able to rate movies and get recommendations — you can even pull your rating from Netflix to Moki and vice versa — and create a queue of shows and movies to watch. The site uses your ratings as well as ratings from IMDb, Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes to make recommendations for you; and the recommendations I got were spot-on, especially after I had imported my Netflix ratings.

Not only can you find and watch what you love without visiting a half-dozen websites; you can also find new shows and films to watch that are similar to ones you’ve already watched. You can sort content by genre, rating, popularity and release date; or you can browse award-winning films and TV shows. The site also has fascinating curated collections of content, like Shakespeare adaptations or Clint Eastwood flicks hand-picked by Eastwood himself.

In addition to getting boatloads of online video, you can explore trending lists of actors and directors, read synopses, write reviews, leave comments, and more. And perhaps best of all, if you signed up with Facebook Connect, you have an instant social connection and can see your friends’ ratings and reviews on content, too.

The site, though new, is remarkably full-featured; many of these cool features are made possible by clever integrations with existing sites and apps.

You can expect to see streaming media sources on Moki.tv soon. Currently, the site’s founders are polling users to find out which streaming sources are the most requested. Moki’s also working on an API.

We like the premise of the site — one-stop shopping for watching TV and movies online — and we like the UI, which is sleekly designed with lots of nice touches. Check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think.

Moki, Inc. is an San Francisco-based Y Combinator startup founded by Matt Huang, a recent MIT math grad, and Sandy Spicer, a fellow dev from MIT. The company is currently hiring looking for local engineering talent.

• Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | WordPress Plugin

continue reading…