Hasta La Gadget!

Sony has announced a camera-mounted CLM-V55 LCD screen for videographers. The WVGA-resolution monitor clips into the hot-shoe and hooks into the camera via an HDMI port. While it is designed to complement Sony’s Alpha SLRs, it will work with HDMI-capable bodies from any manufacturer.

WVGA is 800 x 480 pixels, and these make up a 5-inch screen. On-screen markers show both 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios, and there are lots of aids for manual focussing. A “color peaking” function highlights the edges of any area that is in sharp focus, and you can also zoom in on the full HD image to check focus. You can also adjust pretty much anything, from color temperature to brightness.

The CLM-V55 also swivels, and can be mounted off-camera, making it handy for stills-shooter, too.

The monitor will be on sale in March, although a price has yet to be announced.

Clip-on LCD monitor from Sony for HD video shooting with Interchangeable Lens Digital cameras [Sony]

See Also:

• Sony's Hot Pro Camcorder Uses SLR-Lenses
• Sony NEX Camcorder Revealed: SLR Sensor in $2000 Package
• Sony's New Alpha SLRs Are Built to a Budget

This article was written on February 18, 2010 by CyberNet.

Windows only
These days computers are becoming more and more of a media hub for users to watch movies or television shows on. For awhile I’ve switched between a handful of media players including VLC, KMPlayer, and GOM. All of those are excellent in their own way, and now I think I’ll also have to add SPlayer to the list. On top of supporting the wide array of media types that the others do, SPlayer is fast.

The best thing about SPlayer is hands-down the simple interface. As you can see in the screenshot above it’s nice because all of the buttons are overlaid on the video when you move your mouse, and there are no visible menus to distract you. Not only that, but there is a minimalist mode (pictured above) that gets rid of the minimize/maximize/close buttons that are typically at the top of a window so that you get a very clean viewing experiencing without needing to go to full-screen mode.

As expected SPlayer also integrates with Windows 7 nicely. One way it does that is to show the progress of whatever you’re watching in the Taskbar icon, and I’m hoping that in an upcoming release it will also some basic jumplist support (for things like recently played movies). Thanks to some out-of-the-box jumplist functionality in Windows 7, however, you can always drag a file onto the SPlayer icon to have that particular file pinned to the jumplist menu. Whenever you select that video from the list SPlayer will immediately open and start playing it.

And I can’t forget to mention the performance, which is rather incredible. Starting up SPlayer takes about a second on my machine, and to start playing a video all I have to do is drag the file somewhere in the window. In terms of memory usage SPlayer uses about 5MB when sitting idle and around 36MB when a movie is playing. That definitely falls within the range of acceptability.

Everything about this app feels snappy, clean, and well thought out. I give the developers a lot of credit for the attention to detail that ensures users will have the best experience possible. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

Get SPlayer (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Windows Media Player 11 Leaked To The WebDownload Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2Windows Media Player 11 Beta Officially ReleasedWindows Media Player 11 Available In 13 LanguagesDownload The New Windows Media Player 11

This article was written on August 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

I’ve been addicted to sidebars ever since I bought my first widescreen monitor. Sidebars have the ability to provide a lot of information inside a very small space, and it wasn’t until recently that I fully started to utilize them. It all started when I put the Tab-Bar on the side in both my Firefox and Opera installations (video on customizing Opera), and then seeing how Start++ handled the implementation of mobile sites capped it off.

So what I’m going to show you today is my top 10 favorite sites to put in your browser’s sidebar. Most of the sites mentioned were created for mobile devices, which means they load at least twice as fast as the normal site. This makes it even more appealing to me.

Both Opera and Firefox support this kind of feature, so I’ll get started by showing you how to do it in each of those browsers.

–Firefox–

Having a site open in the sidebar is pretty easy in Firefox:

1. Right-click on one of the URL’s that we provide below, and then bookmark it.
   
2. After you have saved the bookmark, go back to the Bookmarks Menu and right-click on the bookmark. Choose the Properties option.
   
3. Now check the box that says Load this bookmark in the sidebar:
   
4. The next time you open that bookmark it will popup in the sidebar!

–Opera–

Opera is actually a little easier when it comes to placing sites in the sidebar, and they have more features as well. One thing that you should know is that Opera refers to the sidebar as “panels,” and here is how you add a bookmark to a panel:

1. Right-click on a URL to bookmark it. Then click the button labeled Details, and then check the box that says Show in panel:
   
2. Now you’ll notice that the bookmark was also added to your list of panels. Note: If the Panel’s bar takes up too much room read our tutorial on making it smaller.

Opera’s additional sidebar features come in handy for displaying sites. When you’re viewing a site in one of the panels, you can adjust the zoom so that the text is bigger or smaller, or you can have the site optimized for small screen display (removes most images, etc…). I recommend that you try out the small screen rendering on all of the sites, and you’ll notice that some of them look better that way:

–Top 10 Sidebar Sites–

Alright, on to the sites! I’ve gone through dozens of different mobile sites (including ones made for the iPhone) and were able to pick 10 of them that look and work well in the sidebar. So without further ado, here are my favorites in no particular order:

Tip: The site titles are hyperlinked to their mobile sites, and all you have to do is follow the instructions given above for bookmarking them in your browser.

1. Weather Underground
   What you’ll want to do with this site is visit the URL in your browser first, enter in your Zipcode, and then bookmark that address. Then you won’t have to worry about putting in that information each time. If you’re using Opera I recommend enabling the small screen rendering that I mentioned above.
   
2. goMovies
   Just like the previous one, you’ll want to visit the URL, enter in your Zipcode, and then bookmark that address. Then each time you pull up your movie listings, it will automatically retrieve them for the theaters in your area. Opera users should probably set the zoom a little lower (I use about 80%).
   
3. Gmail
   The mobile Gmail site not only looks good, but gives you fast access to all of your emails. Using it you can read and compose emails, which makes it an amazing time saver! I’ve been using this for most of my mail needs since it is so much faster than the actual Gmail interface.
4. Google Calendar
   This gives you a quick overview of your upcoming events, but the best part is that you add items to your calendar from here.
   
5. Remember the Milk
   My favorite task manager now has the ability to sit inside of my sidebar. You can add new tasks and see what’s due. I’ve found myself using the service a lot more now that it is so condensed and easily accessible.
6. Google Notebook
   You can manage your entire Google Notebook from your sidebar.
7. Digg
   If you’re a Digg addict then I think this is a must. The mobile version of the Digg site gives you a fast-loading alternative to view the news. It’s nice when it only takes a second to load instead of 30-seconds like the normal site does sometimes!
   
8. Google Talk
   Chat it up with all your friends with this handy little Flash app.
9. Facebook
   I know that a lot of you are addicted to Facebook, and so I thought this would fit right in. It displays recent events from your news feed, upcoming events, and lets you change your status.
   
10. Twitter
    This is a really handy site for anyone that uses Twitter. You can update your status, and view recent entries from your friends. The small screen rendering in Opera is also really nice for this one.
    

–Overview–

I’m finding myself using sites in the sidebar more and more these days, especially since they often reduce the number of extensions you need to install. If you come across any sites that work well in the sidebar, let us know in the comments below. I’m sure there are a bunch of great ones out there, and I just wanted to get the ball rolling by listing off my top 10!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryGoogle Calendar in Your Firefox SidebarCyberNotes: Customize Firefox SidebarsOptimized Google Reader & iGoogle for Your SidebarYour Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

This article was written on April 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

Well, Blockbuster has apparently decided that it won’t be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to distributing digital media. According to Hollywood Reporter Blockbuster has begun developing a set-top box that will stream movies directly to your home, and an announcement will be made later this month regarding that. As expected Blockbuster didn’t want to comment on the rumor, but a spokeswoman said:

We’re talking to numerous companies and vendors about products, services, alliances and initiatives that can help us achieve our mission to transform Blockbuster into a company that provides access to media content across multiple channels — from our stores, by mail, through kiosks, through downloading, through portable content-enabled devices– so it’s not surprising that there are rumors out there.

The thing that really gets me is that this is going to be yet another box to add to our home theaters. Couldn’t they just partner with cable and satellite companies to help reduce the number of set-top boxes we have cluttering our homes? Having another box merely for streaming sounds like a waste of space.

What’s really going to be interesting is how much they’ll charge to get the box. I don’t think people would fork out too much money to get the actual unit, but maybe they’ll give it out for free if you sell your soul sign a rather lengthy service contract?

Hollywood Reporter [via Engadget]
[image via Flickr]

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Blockbuster Acquires Movie Download ServiceBlockbuster Lends Support to Blu-RayBlockbuster Video Wants Circuit City, Now!Five Free Blu-ray Movies with Blu-ray Player Purchase!New Poll: How Many Songs Are In Your Music Collection?

Flix On Stix does what it says on the label. You jam a USB stick or SD-card into one of its kiosks and pick a movie, game or TV show. The “flick” is then transferred to your “stick” and you can take it home to enjoy it.

Fees are based on how long you want to keep the movie, costing $1 for 3 days, $2 for 6, $3 for 9 days and $4 for 12 days. Once your time is up, the movie-file will self-destruct. There is also an option to buy.

The advantages over a DVD-kiosk are obvious: All movies are always available, you never need to return anything and – as the FAQ points out – you can’t end up with a scratched disk. On the other hand, you’ll have to watch the movies either on a computer, on a TV hooked up to a computer, or a TV with a USB slot.

The service has not yet launched, so the precise method of playback isn’t available. My money is on some kind of proprietary player and DRM combo, maybe bundled on the stick, otherwise how could you make the movie expire?

The idea is a great one, though. Many, many people have a USB stick on a keychain or in a bag, and it would be a big oversight if the machine didn’t also vend cheap sticks. And while BitTorrent is fast, it’s not as fast as walking to the corner store.

Flix on Stix [Flix on Stix via Everything USB]

See Also:

• Vending Machines Test Mental Agility
• Bike Inner-Tube Vending Machine
• Book Vending Machines To Kill Bookstores?
• Best Buy Vending Machines Landing at an Airport Near You
• The World's Weirdest Vending Machines
• World's Biggest Vending Machine: An Entire Store