Hasta La Gadget!

Ugly, plain and iPhone-only, but TapNav at least pays attention to the road ahead

TapNav is an upcoming augmented reality (AR) navigation app from mSonar. Unlike other AR navigation systems, which just overlay information onto the camera’s live feed based on GPS and compass positions, TapNav actually reads the input from the camera. This allows it to offer some services that vanilla GPS can’t.

Like other AR apps, TapNav shows you the road ahead and overlays your route. This helps you quickly see where you are supposed to be going, without having to decode a 3-D representation in your brain.

This looks pretty cool (although right now the screenshots show that the graphics are rather blocky), but the future plans look even better. Because it reads the image of the lane ahead at 29fps, TapNav will be able to react to the road conditions. Thus, an update promises lane detection (with an alarm if you drift off your line), and distance detection to keep you away from the vehicle in front.

Thankfully, one promised tweak will be “major updates on UI.” That should stop TapNav from looking quite so much like a 1990s driving game.

The app launches tomorrow, and will run on iPhone’s with cameras. I have a trial version, but it refuses to copy itself onto the iPad 2. A shame, as the bigger display would be great for quickly glancing the route ahead.

The app will be $3 and include a 60-day subscription to the services. Further subscriptions will be available as in app purchases.

MSonar Internet home page [MSonar]

See Also:

• Augmented Reality
• Word Lens: Augmented Reality App Translates Street Signs Instantly …
• Augmented Reality App Identifies Strangers With Camera
• How it Works: Augmented Reality

Filed under: Software

Google working on video chat for Chrome, Skype cowers in fear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The third-party app experience has always seemed like an afterthought for RIM. Lousy selection and a half-baked install process are just some of the issues plaguing BlackBerry owners and developers, but there’s no blow stronger in the app world than when a dev drops support for a platform, after dedicating the resources necessary to bring a product to market in the first place. That’s exactly what Seesmic has done with its popular social media app — effective June 30th, the company will drop support for BlackBerry, “in order to focus development efforts on (its) most popular mobile platforms.” It goes so far as to suggest that users “try out Seesmic for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7,” which would of course mean replacing that BlackBerry with another, more app-friendly device. The move doesn’t necessarily indicate that other devs will follow suit, but if jumping ship does become a trend, it could put a significant damper on RIM’s future earnings, to say the least.

Seesmic Twitter app drops BlackBerry support, RIM’s frown sags even lower originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Cut Pro was already cheap, but the new version is just $300

Apple has just released the update to its professional-level movie editing app Final Cut Pro for just $300. Previously, the application cost $1,000. Final Cut Pro X is available now, from the Mac App Store.

Remember when Apple completely reworked iMovie, rethinking the way that we would edit our home videos? This is like that, only aimed at Hollywood editors (and presumably not as feature-crippled as the first vresion of New iMovie).

FCPX now runs as a 64-bit application, allowing the use of as much RAM as you can fit into your Mac, and uses GPU to speed things up even more. The app will also render and transcode media in the background so you can keep working.

There are also plenty of new ways of working with your movies, including tools to automatically organize your media, and the neat-sounding “Auditions.” This lets you drop several alternate shots in at one edit point and quickly cycle through them in context. Still, it’s likely that the big UI change is going to wrong-foot or even upset some existing FCP users.

The biggest news, though, is the price and the distribution method. $300 makes this less than half the price of Adobe’s $800 Premiere Pro, and pocket change compared to Avid’s $2,500 Media Composer.

The price isn’t quite that cheap, though. The previous $1,000 Final Cut Studio bundle included four other apps: Color, Motion, Soundtrack Pro and Compressor. Motion and Compressor are now separate apps in the store for $50 each, whereas Color and Soundtrack Pro have been folded into FCPX itself.

Final Cut Pro X [Apple]

See Also:

• Adobe’s New Premiere Elements 4 Picks Up Where Apple’s IMovie Stumbles
• The iPad Falls Short as a Creation Tool Without Coding Apps …
• Mac App Store Launches With Thousand Apps, Big Discounts
• Apple Wrongfoots Pundits With Aperture 3 (Updated)

Monsoon Multimedia is again advancing its Vulkano line of set-top boxes with a feature not found on Sling, TiVo or Roku, adding the ability to make DVR recordings directly to iPad, iPhone or Android devices. While users can still watch TV from anywhere in the world using the Vulkano, the new DVR-to-mobile feature is restricted to WiFi and will only work with the Vulkano Flow and eventually the Blast. Sure you could store your shows on a hard drive and move them over or stream later, but this way fans of The Killing on AMC can be disappointed by the season finale later on even while offline. Updates for the platform-appropriate $13 apps should arrive shortly, while Blackberry users are assured the feature is on the way soon for them too.

Continue reading Monsoon Vulkano Flow, Blast launch DVR-to-mobile feature for iPhone, iPad and Android

Monsoon Vulkano Flow, Blast launch DVR-to-mobile feature for iPhone, iPad and Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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