Aug 08

Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download (video)

Posted in: Apple, AppleIphone, flash, hack, Hacks, iPhone, mod, mods, Today's Chili, video

Cydia is a great place to hang out, and we’re sure unlocking is pretty swell, but it’s quite possible you and your freshly-rooted iPhone 4 have already run out of fun things to do. In that case, might we suggest giving Frash a try? That’s right, Comex’s Strong Bad-inspired port of Adobe Flash 10.1 has been compiled once again, and though it’s still an alpha build there’s nothing keeping you from experiencing the joys of animated advertising on your iOS 4 device. Instructions are exactly the same as in our Flash how-to for iPad — jailbreak, download the .deb, upload it to a folder deep inside your phone via SSH, restart and you’re done — but if that sounds like too much work or you’re worried about your phone asploding prematurely, you can watch from a safe distance as Homestar Runner struts his stuff. You’ll find that and more in a video after the break, and a pre-compiled alpha build is available at our source link.

Continue reading Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download (video)

Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGrant Pannell, Frash (Github)  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 05

FTC denies request for documents on Adobe complaint, confirms investigation of Apple’s SDK rules?

Posted in: adobe, Apple, flash, Today's Chili
FTC denies request for documents on Adobe complaint, confirms investigation of Apple's SDK rules?
Sure, Apple and Adobe aren’t the best of friends, but their disagreement goes a little further than mild distaste. Apple moved to ban iOS apps not written through its own developer framework (SDK), which more or less killed off Adobe’s iPhone Flash developer tools. Adobe in turn issued a complaint to the FTC, a complaint that Wired requested a copy of under the Freedom of Information Act. The release of that complaint was denied on the grounds that “disclosure of that material could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission’s law enforcement activities.” That is another strong indication that the FTC is currently investigating Apple and deciding whether the company is acting properly by preventing third-party access to its iOS devices. What’s next? We likely won’t hear anything until the FTC makes up its mind, and even then only if it decides Apple isn’t playing as nice as it should be.

FTC denies request for documents on Adobe complaint, confirms investigation of Apple’s SDK rules? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceWired  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 05

Plastic Flash Filter Kit: Is That a Rainbow in your Pocket?

Posted in: flash, Today's Chili

Photojojo’s eight-pack of colored filters is “more whoa-inducing than a double-rainbow,” according to the blurb. The satisfyingly hefty chunks of acrylic will color the light from your flash for selective effects, or sit over your cameras lens to cast their hue over the entire scene.

Drilled to hook onto a keyring, and much sturdier than flimsy colored-gels, the plastic chips are just $15 and look like a whole lot of fun. If I didn’t already own a bag of gels, I’d spring for these right away. There’s just one thing missing: CTO. What? CTO, or color temperature orange, is the filter that warms your flash to the same color as indoor tungsten lighting, and is the most useful flash filter you can own.

It can also be used to simulate the setting sun when used in its full-power incarnation. Happily, this last, rather over-the-top, effect should be possible with the paler of Photojojo’s orange filters.

And before you worry about putting hunks of cheap plastic in front of your beautifully engineered lens, don’t. First, you shouldn’t be thinking too hard about image quality when you’re turning the whole room red. Second, this close to the lens even your pinky won’t show up on an image. Seriously. Set the lens on your SLR to its widest aperture and try it for yourself.

The filter kit is available now.

Color Lens and Flash Filters [Photojojo]

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Aug 03

Motorola-Verizon tablet will have FiOS TV, ten-inch screen?

Posted in: Android, flash, Google, motorola, rumor, rumors, tablet, Today's Chili, verizon, vzw

Sure, we’ve heard Verizon discuss Android tablets once or twice, but it’s just now that we’re getting our first real juice about Motorola’s companion device. The Financial Times reports that Verizon and Motorola are teaming up on an Android tablet with dual cameras, Adobe Flash support and a ten-inch screen, plus mobile hotspot functionality (which implies Verizon cellular data) and — get this — access to pay TV. As it so happens, Moto makes a Verizon FiOS set-top box, and sources tell the Times that the television tablet may get grandfathered in to the very same technology. No word on processing power or price, but the rumor mill says we could see it as early as fall of this year. And given the timing, here’s hoping the Android inside will have some Google TV mojo, too.

Motorola-Verizon tablet will have FiOS TV, ten-inch screen? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 01

Page-turning ‘Macallan’ UI will hit a Windows 7 tablet this year (video)

Posted in: flash, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, ui, video, Windows, windows 7, Windows7

There’s not much to your average prototype Windows 7 tablet — just a netbook running the vanilla OS with a touchscreen instead of keyboard — but if you’ve been wondering why you might care to buy one, just get a load of this Macallan UI. Developed by a third-party firm named UI Centric specifically for Windows tablet devices, it features a clean, finger-friendly interface capable of Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, and uses the crowd-pleasing page flip gesture for multitasking functionality. Perhaps most importantly, however, UI Centric claims it will actually appear on a real slate — come Q3 2010, a “major manufacturer” will debut the first Macallan-topped device. We’re curious to see how it (and a bottle of fine scotch) will stack up against September’s ExoPC. Video after the break.

Continue reading Page-turning ‘Macallan’ UI will hit a Windows 7 tablet this year (video)

Page-turning ‘Macallan’ UI will hit a Windows 7 tablet this year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Neowin  |  sourceUI Centric  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 26

Flash: The Strobist’s Guide to Slaves

Posted in: flash, Today's Chili

David Hobby, the man responsible for re-lighting the enthusiasm for off-camera flash (and driving up second-hand prices of the same) has turned his lens on slavery. Not the unpaid servant kind, but the flash-triggering kind. A new article over at the Strobist blog (which you really should be subscribed to) details the different kinds of slaves, and how they work.

A slave unit is a simple trigger which closes a switch when it sees another flash. Thus, you can control many flashes from afar without wires. And while the operation is all-manual, slaving an old flashgun is way cheaper than buying the auto-everything strobes from Canon and Nikon.

There are two kinds: passive and powered. Read David’s excellent (and entertaining) post for the full run down, but the short form is that you should avoid passive units, which rely on gathering enough photons through their eyes to fire a trigger, and go for the powered units, which are a lot more sensitive. The best option is to only buy speed-lights with built-in slaves, as you don’t then have to drop extra cash on expensive adapter dongles.

A flash like the LP160 (which we reviewed a couple weeks back) is ideal. It’s cheap ($160) and the slave unit popped the flash every time in testing.

Failing this, you should buy the most expensive slave unit you can afford, otherwise you’ll suffer the rage-inducing frustrations of missed exposures. David tells us where to buy, and what buzzwords to look out for. Go read the article, and wait for part two, which will tell you how to get the most out of your brand new toy.

Understanding and Using Optical Slaves, Pt. 1 [Strobist]

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

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Jul 24

Elpida and Spansion move from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘engaged,’ look to conquer NAND universe

Posted in: business, flash, industry, memory, merger, partnership, Today's Chili

The more the merrier, right? Cutesy sayings aside, the world is gearing up to say “hello” to yet another player in the NAND flash memory market, as Japan’s own Elpida Memory (which currently specializes in DRAM) will be joining the fray in the coming months. Said outfit stated this week that it has entered into an alliance with Spansion (the former flash memory joint venture between Fujitsu and AMD), with Spansion licensing its NAND flash intellectual property to Elpida as part of the deal. If all goes to plan, Elpida will begin producing flash chips at its western Japan plant “as early as next year,” with some of the output being funneled directly to Spansion. ‘Course, with the explosion in smartphone popularity, it’s not shocking to see a DRAM stalwart looking for ways to dip its toes in that high-demand NAND stuff, and as consumers, you certainly won’t find us kvetching about the competition.

Continue reading Elpida and Spansion move from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘engaged,’ look to conquer NAND universe

Elpida and Spansion move from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘engaged,’ look to conquer NAND universe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PCWorld  |   | Email this | Comments

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Jul 23

Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standard

Posted in: flash, samsung, SSD, Today's Chili, Toshiba

Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standardOur Peter Cetera album collection isn’t exactly getting any larger, yet despite the progress of technology every time we get a new smartphone pulling over all those soothing hits never seems to get any faster. Even a fool can see laggy NAND flash memory is the culprit, and Samsung and Toshiba have a fix with a new DDR NAND flash standard. It offers 400Mbps transfer rates thanks to what they’re calling “toggle DDR 2.0,” similar to the tech in Samsung’s latest SSD, effectively boiling down to a 30nm asynchronous design that’s three times quicker than current DDR 1.0 NAND chips. Both companies are opening this standard for others, and hoping that their work will be the inspiration for faster devices and SSDs worldwide.

Continue reading Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standard

Samsung and Toshiba double-down on 400Mbps DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory standard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 20

Adobe FlashTime to bring peer-to-peer video calls to Android (video)

Posted in: adobe, Android, app, application, flash, Google, Today's Chili, video

With tongue wedged firmly in cheek, Adobe has named its latest little bit of demo software FlashTime and given it a quick spin to whet our appetites. Built using the forthcoming Air 2.5, this peer-to-peer video chat client harnesses your smartphone’s camera to get some direct visual communication going with your fellow Android lovers. Okay, so Android users already have other options for doing just this very thing, but the point being made here is that you can do just about anything with Flash, and since it’s Flash it’ll be easy to port around to other platforms. Skip past the break to see the demo, which has a multipeer chat session with a desktop Mac thrown in for good measure.

[Thanks, Faheem]

Update: Just for clarification’s sake, Adobe’s Mark Doherty got in touch with us to say there are no plans to release this little mockup client and that indeed the FlashTime moniker is a mere placeholder. Ah well.

Continue reading Adobe FlashTime to bring peer-to-peer video calls to Android (video)

Adobe FlashTime to bring peer-to-peer video calls to Android (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hexus.net  |  sourceFlashMobileBlog  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 14

Hands-On With the Quad-Sync LumoPro Flash

Posted in: flash, Today's Chili

For the last couple of weeks I have been testing out the low-cost LP160 camera-flash. The successor to the LP120, the flash is designed for full manual control, and can be triggered pretty much any way you like. The strobe is aimed at Strobists, photographers who use small, off camera flashes in manual mode to get amazing, creative results.

For a full spec list, check out the preview from last month. The short form is this: The flash-head spins almost 360-degrees and tilts up 90-degrees (and down by seven-degrees). There’s a slave sensor on the front, and – in addition to on/off and test buttons – zoom, slave and power-output buttons on the back.

The quad-sync part of the name comes from the triggering methods: hot-shoe, PC-sync cable, 3.5mm jack cable and slave. The hard-wired methods all work as expected (although you’ll want to use the 3.5mm jack as the cables are cheaper and the plugs don’t fall out – a design problem with all PC-sync cords).

The real power is in that slave mode. The front-mounted slave unit watches for another flash and fires its own lamp. This can be hit or miss but in regular daylight (not full, midday sun) the LP160 hits it pretty much every time. The shot above, for instance, is taken with a Panasonic GF1. The built-in flash is the trigger, but to keep it from adding light to the photograph, I blocked it with a white card. Enough light bounced around the room to trigger the LumoPro for every exposure.

The slave has two modes. One is what you’d expect – it sees a flash and fires. The second, reached by sliding the switch across one more notch, is called Si. This is for use with compact cameras, and will ignore any pre-flashes. I tried it with the red-eye setting switched on on the GF1 and it worked great.

The other buttons control the zoom motor (24-105mm), which lets you change the concentration of the beam, and the power output. This goes from full power, or 1/1, down to 1/64. This, aside from all the other functions, is what you need to do manual photography. You just hit the button to cycle through the levels, and a red LED shows you what is selected.

Build quality is ok. The plastic is lightweight but flexible, so although it isn’t as solid as a Nikon speedlight, it shouldn’t shatter on impact. Would I buy one? Sure. At $160, it is in range of most photographers, and it works as it should. There are no frills, but a lot of thought has gone into what features have been added. And at the price, you can buy a clutch of LumoPros for the price of one Nikon SB900.

LP160 Quad-sync Manual Flash [LumoPro. Thanks, Moishe!]

LumoPro LP160: Quad Sync v.2.0 [Strobist]

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