Hasta La Gadget!

If your iPad or iPhone is set to play a starring role at your next, sold-out concert, you may want to check out two new, iOS-friendly interfaces from New Signal Process. Pictured above is NSP’s BreakOut Stomp — a die cast aluminum-encased pedal that promises to transmit guitar signals to and from your iDevice, without any unwanted distortions or detection interference. All you have to do is slide the stompbox into your pedal board, hook it up to your iPhone’s headphone jack and fire up your favorite recording or mixing apps. Whereas the stomp was designed with guitarists in mind, the recently unveiled BreakOut Stereo is geared more toward the DJ demographic. The device offers essentially the same iOS-interfacing capabilities of its pedal-based counterpart, serving as a portable conduit between an iPad and an amp or tabletop unit. Boasting two mono output jacks, this little guy can also be used with guitars, mics or mixing boards and is durable enough to survive the rough and tumble of your next world tour. As far as prices go, the BreakOut Stomp is selling for $155, whereas the Stereo will set you back $135. Groove past the break to see an image of the latter, or hit the source link to find out how to order one.

Continue reading New Signal Process introduces BreakOut Stereo and Stomp for the most serious of iOS musicians

New Signal Process introduces BreakOut Stereo and Stomp for the most serious of iOS musicians originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 07:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the most part, HTC's Incredible 2 lives up to its name.  Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

I scoffed when HTC first released the Incredible 2. Not necessarily at its hardware or features, but rather for its presumptuous name.

But after spending some time with the device itself, I can safely say the phone’s title is no misnomer (if not a little overconfident).

The phone bucks the trend of the huge, power-hungry phones we’re seeing debut in today’s mobile market. At 4.75 by 2.5 inches and less than a half-inch thick, the phone’s size felt like the third bear’s bed from Goldilocks’ perspective: not too big, not too small, but just right.

It fit comfortably in hand, and the matte resin finish on its unibody design felt much nicer to the touch than the glossier plastic we’ve seen on other phones.

Moving on to the specs: Unfortunately, the Incredible 2 lacks access to Verizon’s 4G network. But considering the phone’s relatively compact size, it seems like less of a media-consumption device — like, say, HTC’s Thunderbolt — and more of a phone focused on making calls, so you may not need those high data speeds.

The phone’s major draw, for example, is focused mainly on globetrotters: The Incredible 2 is a so-called “world phone,” operating on both CDMA and GSM frequencies. So while you won’t be able to access Verizon’s 4G speeds, at least you can chat up your pals while you’re abroad.

That’s not to say that the Incredible 2 isn’t capable of showing off media. The phone’s 4-inch screen displayed images in crystal clarity, and despite a lack of 4G, YouTube videos played well running on Verizon’s 3G network. And with DLNA capability, you can stream video and audio to friendly peripheral devices, like your big screen. There isn’t, however, any HDMI output on the phone, limiting your media-out capabilities somewhat.

There’s also a number of subtle under-the-hood upgrades from the previous generation. For one, the Incredible 2 comes with an adequate 768 MB of RAM, compared to the Incredible 1’s 512 MB. Not a huge boost, but coupled with a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, it seemed like enough to keep apps running smoothly.

Although the first Incredible also used a 1-GHz Snapdragon, the Incredible 2 features the second generation of the processor, which is manufactured using Qualcomm’s 45-nanometer technology. Essentially, that means increases in both performance and battery life.

The Incredible 2 also has a 1.3-megapixel, front-facing camera for video chat, which the first Incredible didn’t have. The mandatory back-facing 8-megapixel camera is capable of 720p video capture, and handles photos just like any other current smartphone.

One cool aesthetic plus — the orientation of the four home keys rotates as you switch between portrait and landscape mode. A minor tweak, but attention to details like this are what get Android users excited.

The biggest detractions for my taste — first, it’s not shipping with Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), but rather 2.2 (Froyo). Nearly every phone I’ve tested this year (save the Xperia Play) has shipped with the last generation of Android on it, and frankly, it’s annoying. On occasion we’re promised future device updates, but we never see exact dates. Hopefully Android’s new cross-company partnership will keep future phones up to date.

The other qualm is the user interface. For the life of me, I can’t get past the custom skin HTC includes on its phones. Call me a purist, but I’m partial to stock Android, no frills. HTC’s Sense interface brings with it a bevy of cluttered menu screens, all filled with HTC’s take on regular Android phone apps (Twitter, for example, becomes “Peep” on a Sense-skinned phone). It’s mainly for HTC to differentiate its phones from the glut of other Android offerings out there.

But these aren’t glaring issues. If you don’t mind a skinned phone, they won’t affect usability in any major way.

Overall, I’d recommend the Incredible 2 to those who want a phone first, and a media player second, and especially if you want to stay connected while you travel abroad.

The Incredible 2's finish — a matte resin with a slight tooth — is pleasant to the touch. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

This week we’re serving up a Malcolm McDowell-signed copy of “A Clockwork Orange” 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition.

Writing Kit is yet another text editor for the iPad. It manages to combine a rather powerful set of features, and yet it remains very simple to use, with an uncluttered interface.

First, Writing Kit is a Markdown editor. Markdown is a syntax invented by John Gruber which allows humans to write HTML markup. You write in a straightforward way using some non-distracting conventions to style text (asterisks around a word mark it as italic, for example). Then, when you’re done, it is quickly converted into valid HTML. I use a self-customized version to write for Gadget Lab.

To help you write, Writing Kit has an extra row of keys to let you insert links, style text and makes lists and block quotes. You can also tap to select a word, tap the “more” option and choose stylings from there. To preview your document as it would appear if rendered in a browser, just tap the preview (eye-shaped) button. Previews are instant.

To help with research, there is a built-in browser. You can either make a quick look-up query, which offers word definitions and Wikipedia answers, or use the built-in web browser. This is a feature common with Daedalus Touch, another text editor I reviewed this week.

In-app browsing makes a huge difference for bloggers, letting you have your source material right there. You can even use readability to turn the page into a nice, simple text article, and you can both save to Instapaper and access you Instapaper saved articles (Instapaper subscription needed), making it even better for research.

Should you decide to link to the web page, you just hit a button and a dialog pops up asking you to name the link before letting you choose just where to insert it.

In fact, when it comes to doing things with links, there is an embarrassment of options: You can add to an internal “read later” queue, send to Instapaper, share with Pinboard, Evernote, Google Reader, Tumblr and Twitter, along with sending via e-mail.

There’s also an outliner function which will show a table of contents for your current document in a popover. This uses any headlines in your document as subject headings.

There’s a lot more in there to discover (TextExpander support), and as a writing and researching tool it works very well. But there are some rather odd omissions. There is no DropBox support , for instance, although that should be coming soon.

If you write anything on your iPad that requires you to use source material, you should probably check out Writing Kit. It costs $5, which is ridiculously cheap.

Writing Kit product page [Get Writing Kit]

Writing Kit [iTunes]

See Also:

• Essay for iPad Adds Clever Keyboard Shortcuts
• Writing
• PlainText: iPad Text-Editor from the Makers of WriteRoom
• Elements for iPad, a Dropbox-Syncing Text Editor
• Essay: iPad Rich Text Editor Shows Promise, Needs Work
• 15 iPad Apps You Should Download Today

Hasselblad’s new 50MP camera shakes its sensor to capture 200MP images

Hasselblad’s new H4D-200MS takes 200 megapixel images, which result in massive 600MB files. So big are these images that Hasselblad recommends you hook the camera up to a hard drive instead of using a memory card. The camera itself “only” has a 50MB sensor, though, so how does it do this magic?

To record these ultra hi-res images, the H4D-200MS actually moves its sensor, taking six individual shots and combining the results. It’s like making a panorama, only the photos line up way better because neither the camera nor the lens moves.

When taking the shot, the camera snaps six different exposures, moving the sensor 1.5 pixels at a time. This not only allows big images, it also gives better color information. Normally a camera has different colored pixels next to each other and it kind of averages out the various brightnesses of these pixels to guess both color and brightness. But because the Hasselblad moves its pixels around, each pixel site is recorded by a red, a green and a blue pixel. This should give great color accuracy, just like Sigma’s Foveon chips.

The downside is that this process takes 30 seconds to complete, so you’ll not only have to lock the thing down on a tripod, you’ll have to tell all your assistants to hold their breath.

You can also shift down a gear and shoot single 50MP images, as well as a four-shot version combo.

Care to take a guess at the price? Nope, try doubling that. That’s closer. The H4D-200MS will cost you $45,000. And if you have a crappy old HD-50MS lying around, you can pay Hasselblad $10,000 to upgrade it for you.

H4D-200MS product page [Hasselblad via DP Review]

See Also:

• Beautiful Cardboard Hasselblad Almost as Well Made As Real Thing …
• Hasselblad Announces 50 Megapixel Camera
• Hasselblad Announces Phocus for the Mac
• H3D II: Hasselblad's New 39 Megapixel Camera