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Continue reading This DIY Daft Punk helmet is way cooler than your DIY Daft Punk helmet (video)

This DIY Daft Punk helmet is way cooler than your DIY Daft Punk helmet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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‘It’s playing’ will let you delete a handful of junker apps from your iPad

Move over CineXPlayer: There’s a new iPad video player in town. That should probably read “yet another new iPad video player,” but as most of those are junk, this new app really stands out.

It’s called “It’s playing 2.0,” and it’s another one of those video players which will take pretty much any file you can throw at it and play it without conversions to an iOS-friendly format first. My long-time favorite, thanks to ease of use and reliability, has been CineXPlayer, but it lacks crucial support for AC3 sound. It’s playing adds this and a lot more.

Files can be added via iTunes, or from any other app in iOS which supports the “Open In…” command (Mail and Dropbox are amongst these). Files in roughly one zillion* formats are supported, including FLV, AVI, MKV, OGG and WMV. Also supported are subtitles in separate files, and AC3 audio.

Tap the file in the source list to the left and you can either play it or tweak it. Pressing the info button lets you rename the file, choose a subtitle file (if the subtitle has the same filename as the movie, it will be added automatically). You can also pick subtitle font sizes, and adjust playback quality. “Automatic” is the default, and works fine. I tested it with a 720 x 416 AVI of a Sopranos episode and both the audio and video are smooth and clear.

It’s playing doesn’t use the standard Apple playback controls, and there’s no AirPlay support, but you can do variable-speed scrubbing on the timeline control. Move your finger further from the timeline as you scrub and the speed will slow, just like native iOS audio scrubbing. One and two-fingered swipes will skip forward and back by 30 seconds or five minutes.

But the biggest feature, and one which I haven’t seen elsewhere, is on-the-fly video adjustment and volume boost. You can adjust color, contrast and brightness using sliders in real time as the video plays. And even more important, you can boost the volume up to 200%, VLC-style. I could have done with this last week as the Lady and I struggled to hear the soundtrack of Deadwood as we recovered from food poisoning in a hotel room somewhere in Tunis, Tunisia.

Whether or not you prefer this app to others is down to choice. CineXPlayer’s subtitle selection is easier faster, for example, and Buzz player adds network streaming. But for smooth playback of high-def video, and the excellent picture and volume adjustments, It’s playing is the current champ. Bonus: it costs just $2. Available now.

It’s playing product page [It’s playing.app. Thanks, Diogo!]

* Full list of file formats and codecs below.

See Also:

• CineXPlayer Adds 3-D Conversion, Now 100% Less Ugly
• How To: Stream Video to iPad From Network Drive Without a …
• Hands-On With VLC Movie Player for iPad
• iPad Buzz Player Streams and Converts Movies From Network …

FILE EXTENSIONS
flv, gvp, xspf, xa, pls, m3u, m3u8, asx, b4s, ape, flac, wv, tta, mpc, ram, rm, rmvb, mod, xm, it, xm, aiff, aif, amr, aob, dts, spx, sdp, wav, vob, a52, ac3, aac, ogm, ogg, oga, ogv, ogx, oma, voc, vqf, anx, axa, axv, gxf, mxf, avi, mov, moov, qt, divx, dv, asf, wma, wmv, wm, mpg, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2, m1v, m2a, mp1, mp2, mp3, m2p, ps, ts, m2ts, mts, mt2s, m2v, mpv, mpa, mp4, mpeg4, m4v, m4a, 3gp, mid, mlp, mka, mkv, webm, rec, rmi, s3m, vro, tod, mks, nsv, nuv, ssa, ass, usf, utf, srt, rt, smi, aqt, jss, pjs, psb, sub, mpsub

FORMATS
3GP2 format, 3GP format, 4X Technologies format, IFF format, Funcom ISS format, MTV format, raw id RoQ format, a64 – video for Commodore 64, raw ADTS AAC, raw AC-3, ADTS AAC, MD STUDIO audio, Audio IFF, PCM A-law format, 3GPP AMR file format, Deluxe Paint Animation, CRYO APC format, Monkey’s Audio, Apple HTTP Live Streaming format, ASF format, ASF format, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format, SUN AU format, AVI format, Flash 9 (AVM2) format, AVS format, Bethesda Softworks VID format, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink, Interplay C93, Apple Core Audio Format, raw Chinese AVS video, CD Graphics Format, CRC testing format, D-Cinema audio format, Chronomaster DFA, raw Dirac, raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3), Delphine Software International CIN format, raw DTS, DV video format, MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB), DXA, Electronic Arts Multimedia Format, Electronic Arts cdata, raw E-AC-3, PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format, FFM (FFserver live feed) format, FFmpeg metadata in text format, Sega FILM/CPK format, Adobe Filmstrip, raw FLAC, FLI/FLC/FLX animation format, FLV format, framecrc testing format, Per-frame MD5 testing format, raw G.722, GIF Animation, raw GSM, GXF format, raw H.261, raw H.263, raw H.264 video format, id Cinematic format, image2 sequence, piped image2 sequence, raw Ingenient MJPEG, Interplay MVE format, iPod H.264 MP4 format, A format generated by IndigoVision 8000 video server, On2 IVF, Bitmap Brothers JV, lmlm4 raw format, VR native stream format (LXF), raw MPEG-4 video format, Matroska file format, Matroska/WebM file format, MD5 testing format, MicroDVD subtitle format, raw MJPEG video, raw MLP, American Laser Games MM format, Yamaha SMAF, MOV format, 3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format, MPEG audio layer 2, MPEG audio layer 3, MP4 format, Musepack, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 System format, raw MPEG-1 video, raw MPEG-2 video, MPEG-2 transport stream format, MPEG-2 raw transport stream format, raw MPEG video, MIME multipart JPEG format, MSN TCP Webcam stream, PCM mu-law format, Motion Pixels MVI format, Material eXchange Format, Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping, MxPEG clip file format, NC camera feed format, Nullsoft Streaming Video, raw null video format, NUT format, NuppelVideo format, Ogg, Sony OpenMG audio, Playstation Portable PMP format, PSP MP4 format, Sony Playstation STR format, TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format, QCP format, REDCODE R3D format, raw video format, VC-1 test bitstream, RL2 format, RealMedia format, RPL/ARMovie format, Lego Mindstorms RSO format, RTP output format, RTSP output format, PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 8 bit format, SAP output format, SDL output device, SDP, raw Shorten, Beam Software SIFF, Smacker video, Sierra SOL format, SoX native format, IEC 61937 (used on S/PDIF – IEC958), SubRip subtitle format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Flash format, THP, Tiertex Limited SEQ format, 8088flex TMV, raw TrueHD, True Audio, Tele-typewriter, Renderware TeXture Dictionary, PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 8 bit format, raw VC-1, VC-1 test bitstream format, MPEG-1 System format (VCD), Sierra VMD format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Creative Voice file format, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ, Sony Wave64 format, WAV format, Wing Commander III movie format, WebM file format, Westwood Studios audio format, Westwood Studios VQA format, Windows Television (WTV), WavPack, Maxis XA File Format, Microsoft xWMA, Psygnosis YOP Format, YUV4MPEG pipe format

CODECS
4X Movie, QuickTime 8BPS video, 8SVX exponential, 8SVX fibonacci, 8SVX rawaudio, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, extended with 5th color (colram), Advanced Audio Coding, AAC LATM (Advanced Audio Codec LATM syntax), Autodesk RLE, ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ADPCM 4X Movie, SEGA CRI ADX ADPCM, ADPCM Creative Technology, ADPCM Electronic Arts, a ADPCM Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA, ADPCM Electronic Arts R1, ADPCM Electronic Arts R2, ADPCM Electronic Arts R3, ADPCM Electronic Arts XAS, ADPCM IMA AMV, ADPCM IMA Duck DK3, ADPCM IMA Duck DK4, s ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts EACS, d ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts SEAD, ADPCM IMA Funcom ISS, ADPCM IMA QuickTime, ADPCM IMA Loki SDL MJPEG, ADPCM IMA WAV, ADPCM IMA Westwood, ADPCM Microsoft, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit, ADPCM Shockwave Flash, ADPCM Nintendo Gamecube THP, ADPCM CDROM XA, ADPCM Yamaha, ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Adaptive Multi-Rate NarrowBand, Adaptive Multi-Rate WideBand, AMV Video, Deluxe Paint Animation, ASCII/ANSI art, Monkey’s Audio, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle, ASUS V1, ASUS V2, Atrac 1 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding), Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3), Auravision AURA, Auravision Aura 2, AVS (Audio Video Standard) video, Bethesda VID video, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink Audio (DCT), Bink Audio (RDFT), Bink video, BMP image, Interplay C93, CamStudio, TechSmith Screen Capture Codec, Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile), CD Graphics video, Cinepak, Cirrus Logic AccuPak, COOK, Creative YUV (CYUV), , Chronomaster DFA, VC3/DNxHD, DPX image, Delphine Software International CIN audio, Delphine Software International CIN video, DVB subtitles, DVD subtitles, DV (Digital Video), Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA, ATSC A/52 E-AC-3, Electronic Arts CMV video, Electronic Arts Madcow Video, Electronic Arts TGQ video, Electronic Arts TGV video, Electronic Arts TQI Video, Escape 124, FFmpeg video codec #1, Huffyuv FFmpeg variant, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Flash Screen Video, Flash Screen Video Version 2, Autodesk Animator Flic video, Flash Video (FLV) / Sorenson Spark / Sorenson H.263, Fraps, Forward Uncompressed, G.722 ADPCM, G.726 ADPCM, GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), GSM, GSM Microsoft variant, H.261, H.263 / H.263-1996, Intel H.263, H.263+ / H.263-1998 / H.263 version 2, H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Huffyuv / HuffYUV, id Quake II CIN video, IFF ByteRun1, IFF ILBM, IMC (Intel Music Coder), Intel Indeo 2, Intel Indeo 3, Intel Indeo Video Interactive 5, DPCM Interplay, Interplay MVE video, , JPEG-LS, Bitmap Brothers JV video, Kega Game Video, Karl Morton’s video codec, Lagarith lossless, libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Lossless JPEG, LOCO, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1, Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder), Mimic, MJPEG (Motion JPEG), Apple MJPEG-B, MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing), American Laser Games MM Video, Motion Pixels video, MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3onMP4, MP3onMP4, Musepack SV7, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 part 2, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-1/2 video XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation), MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2, Microsoft RLE, Microsoft Video-1, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH, Mobotix MxPEG video, Nellymoser Asao, NuppelVideo/RTJPEG, PAM (Portable AnyMap) image, PBM (Portable BitMap) image, PCM A-law, PCM signed 16|20|24-bit big-endian for Blu-ray media, PCM signed 20|24-bit big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian, PCM signed 20-bit little-endian planar, PCM mu-law, PCM signed 16-bit big-endian, PCM signed 16-bit little-endian, PCM 16-bit little-endian planar, PCM signed 24-bit big-endian, PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit, PCM signed 24-bit little-endian, PCM signed 32-bit big-endian, PCM signed 32-bit little-endian, PCM signed 8-bit, PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 8-bit, PCM Zork, PC Paintbrush PCX image, PGM (Portable GrayMap) image, PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image, HDMV Presentation Graphic Stream subtitles, Pictor/PC Paint, PNG image, PPM (Portable PixelMap) image, V.Flash PTX image, QCELP / PureVoice, QDesign Music Codec 2, Apple QuickDraw, Q-team QPEG, QuickTime Animation (RLE) video, AJA Kona 10-bit RGB Codec, Uncompressed RGB 10-bit, raw video, RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K) encoder, RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K), RL2 video, id RoQ DPCM, id RoQ video, QuickTime video (RPZA), RealVideo 1.0, RealVideo 2.0, RealVideo 3.0, RealVideo 4.0, SMPTE 302M, SGI image, Shorten, RealAudio SIPR / ACELP.NET, Smacker audio, Smacker video, QuickTime Graphics (SMC), Snow, DPCM Sol, Sonic, Sonic lossless, Sunplus JPEG (SP5X), SubRip subtitle, Sun Rasterfile image, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1 / Sorenson Video 1 / SVQ1, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3 / Sorenson Video 3 / SVQ3, Truevision Targa image, Theora, Nintendo Gamecube THP video, Tiertex Limited SEQ video, TIFF image, 8088flex TMV, TrueHD, Duck TrueMotion 1.0, Duck TrueMotion 2.0, DSP Group TrueSpeech, True Audio (TTA), VQF TwinVQ, Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image, IBM UltiMotion, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Beam Software VB, SMPTE VC-1, ATI VCR1, Sierra VMD audio, Sierra VMD video, VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video, Vorbis, On2 VP3, On2 VP5, On2 VP6, On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel), On2 VP6 (Flash version), On2 VP8, Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video, WavPack, Windows Media Audio 9 Professional, Windows Media Audio 1, Windows Media Audio 2, Windows Media Audio Voice, Windows Media Video 7, Windows Media Video 8, Windows Media Video 9, Winnov WNV1, Westwood Audio (SND1), DPCM Xan, Wing Commander III / Xan, Wing Commander IV / Xxan, Miro VideoXL, DivX subtitles (XSUB), Psygnosis YOP Video, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB, Zip Motion Blocks Video

So, it works as such. You dig up ancient photos — a few generations prior, or even a few decades ago — scan ’em in, and tag them to their rightful place on Google Maps. Then, folks who visit the ‘What Was Here’ project website or download the iOS app (all linked below) will be able to see what kind of world they’d be living in if Uncle Rico’s time machine actually worked. ‘Course, the initiative needs you, you and you to participate if it’s to be dubbed a success, so we’d recommend using whatever’s left of your weekend to contribute. And then send your mum a “thinking of you” letter using the very map you’re improving. Who said retro had to be retro, anyway?

‘What Was There’ project adds a pinch of history to augmented reality originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, the gang talks about products from the big three: Microsoft, Apple and Google.

Staff writer Mike Isaac kicks the show off with some initial thoughts on the brand new Windows 8 Metro user interface for mobile devices and desktops, released in developer preview form earlier this week. It’s an entirely different look than what we’ve seen from Microsoft in the past. When launch time finally comes around, can the company release a true competitor to Android and iOS?

Next up staff writer Christina Bonnington stops in to talk about Turntable.fm’s new iOS app. It’s basically the same as the browser-based version of the group music listening service, but for your phone. Christina thinks it works well enough, but other than making it mobile, there really aren’t any improvements.

Finally, product reviews editor Michael Calore drops by with a first look at the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch (what a mouthful). Our first thought: It’s awesome. Our second thought: Good lord, what a huge screen. We’ll have a full review of the device later in the week.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio below:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #126

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0126.mp3

You’ve most likely heard plenty about NFC-capable smartphones, but little in the way of actual real-world uses for the chip. Well, MasterCard’s looking to change all of that, and throw in a few innovations of its own courtesy of its in-house R&D labs and Google. Shown off at an event today, the company demoed the Google Wallet application we first learned about back in May — which is gearing up for an official launch sometime “soon.” Running on Sprint’s Nexus S 4G — with a planned expansion to multiple devices — users can connect a Citi MasterCard account to the service, and tap-to-pay at any retail location outfitted with a PayPass station. The transactions take place as instantaneously as you’d expect, with spending alerts notated automatically in-app, as well as via text message. If you’re the paranoid type or just a spendthrift, the app offers plenty of options to set spending limits, approve / block purchases via category (i.e. dining, entertainment) and enable alerts for overseas activity. Currently, the Google Wallet service is Android-only, and that’s probably a direct result of the AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile backed mobile payment rival, ISIS.

But the company’s also got one eye fixed squarely on the future — scheming up alternate implementations for payment on-the-go through its MasterCard Labs division. Focusing on its QkR platform (an obvious play on QR codes), these concepts ranged from television audio signals encoded with purchase data, audible to a phone running the QkR app, or fast-food tabletops embedded with NFC and QR codes that’ll allow customers to scan for coupons, order remotely and apply the discount — all without leaving their seats. The most interesting use of the new platform, however, had nothing to do with mobile phone use and everything to do with an Xbox Kinect. Utilizing the gesture recognition tech, items could be selected on-screen by holding your hand over an item and navigating through the checkout process. We know, yet another great proof-of-concept, but tuck away that cynicism for a second — a company representative confided to us that soft-pilot testing of QkR is already underway, with an official announcement slated in the next two weeks. And don’t worry about it being a Google OS-only affair, QkR’s been tested across iOS, Windows Phone Mango and even BlackBerry. Whether or not the innovative payment system’ll launch with all of these mobile OS on-board wasn’t clear, but we were assured there’d be at least two partners on board. Jump past the break to get a close-up view of our hands-on with the future of payment.

Continue reading MasterCard demos Google Wallet, QkR platform for mobile payments

MasterCard demos Google Wallet, QkR platform for mobile payments originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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