Hasta La Gadget!

The Silent FIlm Director iOS app lets you adjust a variety of settings to create your own vintage style silent film or home movie.

Nothing adds nostalgia to a just-taken iPhone video like retro visual effects and silent film-inspired title cards.

The Silent Film Director app for iPhones can transform any video you take into a ’60s-style home movie or a 1920s-esque silent film, taking that Instagram effect and amping it up a few notches.

The app is available in Standard and Pro versions. With the Standard version, you can record or upload video and render it with a variety of video effects (including Black & White, ’70s Home Video and Sepia), add a soundtrack (default, or your own), and adjust the playing speed and quality of the video. With the Pro version, you get additional advanced features like title cards and transitions, and the ability to mix photos and video with separate effects.

The app is pretty straightforward to use. In Standard Mode, you’re taken to a screen that lets you choose the desired effect, quality, soundtrack and time scale, then you can either make or load a video. If, instead, you click on Pro Mode, you can add a project by clicking on the plus sign in the upper right hand corner, or work on a previously started project.

After naming a new project, you can adjust the same properties as Standard Mode, and click Add to start inserting customizable title cards, editable video clips and photos. You can rearrange and edit each section of your video using the Timeline.

I tried out the Pro version of the app with a video taken of me trying out a remote-controlled mechanical chair at a warehouse robot party (yes, I said warehouse robot party).

Although I wish the preloaded music options automatically “finished” with a couple closing piano notes at the end, the app is easy to use and a fun way to spruce up some unexciting video footage … or create your silent film opus.

The Silent Film Director App is currently available for $0.99 in the App Store.

Thanks Alex!

We still haven’t heard much more about that Federal Grand Jury investigation into Pandora and other mobile apps over privacy concerns, but an independent security firm has now gone ahead and taken matters into its own hands. According to an analysis done by the folks at Veracode, Pandora does indeed seem to be sharing more information about you then it lets on. More specifically, they found that the Android app (they haven’t yet gotten around to the iOS version) “appears” to be sending information about users’ birth date, gender, Android ID and GPS location to various advertising companies — bits of information that the firm notes could be combined to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, and even who they associate with. For its part, Pandora is simply declining to to comment at the moment, and we’re guessing that’s unlikely to change anytime soon given the aforementioned investigation. Hit up the source link below for Veracode’s complete findings.

Pandora mobile app found to be sending birth date, gender and location information to ad servers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica  |  Veracode  | Email this | Comments

The upcoming firmware update for the Nook Color is shaping up to be a hefty one for the e-reader-turned-Android tablet. Barnes & Noble has now announced that it’s officially opening up the device to developers, and will be taking app submissions through its developer site effective immediately. The Nook has long been one of the best bangs for your buck in the ever-expanding world of Android tablets, and all that’s left now is Honeycomb — and no, the hacked port doesn’t count.

B&N accepting Nook Color app submissions, because you can never have too many app stores originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrunchGear  |  Nook Developer  | Email this | Comments

It’s been one week since Google pulled the PSX4Droid emulator from the Android Market without warning, and today its lead developer has decided to take a stand — ZodTTD’s made a new version of the app free of charge, and is hosting it at his personal website as a downloadable APK. He now claims that not only did Google pull his app, the company has frozen his developer accounts, effectively restricting his ability to publish to (and profit from) the Android Market until this gets sorted out. We can’t confirm his story at this point — and we hear things may not be quite as cut-and-dried as he claims — but we can tell you that if you happen to have a legally-obtained PlayStation BIOS and ROMs sitting around, you’re only a few clicks away from being able to use them on your Android phone. Not a bad deal, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

ZodTTD makes PSX4Droid 3.0 free, claims Google booted him from Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been longing to use your EyeTV HD to sling content from your AirPlay-enabled iOS device to your designated Apple TV 2 setup, listen up. Elgato has pushed an updated version of the EyeTV iOS app (version 1.2.3) that enables Apple’s wireless streaming technology to play nicely with your ATV2 or third-party AirPlay device. Remember, the app costs $4.99, but wouldn’t you rather watch Seinfeld reruns on the living room 74-incher? Yeah, us too.

Elgato updates EyeTV iOS app, does the AirPlay dance originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  EyeTV  | Email this | Comments