Category Archives: Gadgets

Interactive Moto X Advert in Wired Magazine

6 March, 2014Gadgets, Mobileadvert, Canon EOS 70D, Homer, magazine, mobile, Moto x, Motorola, smartphone, The Simpsons, WiredJames Moore

I am a Wired Magazine subscriber. The somewhat asinine aspect of this is that you still have to receive the paper magazine in the mail even if you just want to read via the iPad app. For this reason, the physical magazines typically end up getting recycled (or given to a friend) without being read. However, in an idle moment I flipped through an old issue and saw a rather nifty advert for the Moto X….

Moto X Advert (Before and After)

What looked at first to be a simple image of the smartphone was in reality a page in which you could change the colors of the ‘phone cover by pressing a button on the page. My curiosity go the better of me, and I pulled apart the page to see how this worked. Sandwiched between two pages was plexiglass, LEDs, four batteries, and various wires and contacts (buttons). The buttons allow you to change the back of the Moto X – the LEDs able to shine with eleven colors.

The guts of the advert

Apparently about 150,000 readers received the advert, so this was not cheap for Motorola to put together (but Google has the cash). Whilst I cannot say that this made me think more favorably about purchasing the Motorola ‘phone, I did think it amusing that the interactive advert of the Canon EOS 70D (a paper wheel, that fell off the page rather than spinning) looked somewhat shabby in comparison.

Canon EOS 70D

The “designed by you” campaign reminds me too much of “The Homer” – the car designed by Homer Simpson…

The Homer

Another Genuinely Useful Gadget: The Mu

22 February, 2014Gadgets, Travelgadget, plug, The Mu, travel gadget, U.K., USBJames Moore

The Mu

I will be heading back to the U.K. for two weeks later this year, and I was getting some of gear together that I intend to take with me. Amidst the various cables and adapters was The Mu. This is another genuinely useful gadget. The U.K. electrical plug is an impressive piece of technology, but has two notable features.

More painful then Lego to step on barefoot.
Cumbersome to pack, with a tendency to scratch or destroy everything else it is packed with.

The Mu makes the U.K. electrical packable with some amazing folding action.

I have the original, but I am looking out for the new version that sports two USB ports, with enough output to properly charge a tablet.

Pocket Tripod: A Genuinely Useful Gadget

19 February, 2014Gadgets, Mobile, Travelgadget, iphone, iphone stand, KickStarter, Pocket Tripod, travel gadgetJames Moore

At first glance, an ordinary piece of plastic

I will cheerfully admit to owning more than a few gadgets. Most are a clever idea, but poorly realized and of little longterm value. However, every-so-often you come across something that is genuinely useful….

A few twist and turns. Now we have an iPhone stand…

Last year, I supported the “Pocket Tripod” on KickStarter. This was to be a credit-card sized piece of plastic, that twisted and contorted into an iPhone stand. Typically, the travel iPhone stands are frustrating – small, lightweight, but ultimately useless.

Pull it apart for widescreen use.

This particular gadget (the Pocket Tripod) is actually well-machined, and does the job as it should. On those occasions when I need to prop up the iPhone on a desk (to use with a Bluetooth keyboard) or to play music, this does the job. Very easy to carry around, and a particularly ingenious design. I recommend it.

Google Glass: Part 1

14 February, 2014Gadgets, Internet, MobileAR, Augmented Reality, Glassware, google, Google GlassJames Moore

Google Glass

This is going to be a short post… I received my Google Glass a few weeks ago, and I although I set up the various Glassware applications and started wearing the device at work (but not in public), I have done little in the way of testing.

I am going to start to post observations and test from here on.

I was thinking of seeing how well the video camera would work for recording lectures, and have quickly discovered that this is not particularly feasible. After about 20 minutes of recording, Glass alerts me that the battery is running low. I had about 29% battery left at that point, and will see how long I can record with a fully charged device.

Voice command work largely well. Using the gestures is sometimes an easier way to accomplish a task though.

Overall, the device fees like a solution is search of a problem. The technology is extremely impressive, but needs developers to make Glass more than a novelty.

More later….

Innovative Advertising

6 February, 2014Gadgets, Internet Marketing, Online Learninggadget, internet marketing, online course, stukent, videoJames Moore

Open, and magically a video starts playing automatically.

I received a rather nifty package at work yesterday, one of the the more interesting examples of advertising I have seen for some time…

In the same way that some birthday cards play a message or tune as you open them, this mailer started to play an advertising video. A hidden magnet detects whether the cover is open or closed, and plays the video on a loop when open.

Video Player

Media error: Format(s) not supported or source(s) not found

Download File: http://www.dunsurfin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/stukent.mp4?_=1

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

I was impressed.

The mysterious “Ad”

I don’t really have need of the service (stukent.com/special), but I started to experiment with the package. At the bottom of the mailer I could see a Mini-USB port. Connecting a cable allowed me to see that the device showed up as external storage (Ad), with a video directory. Providing I replaced the existing video file there with nothing larger than 97.4 MB, I could play my own videos on the device. Neat.

When I have more time to kill, I am going to cut away the cardboard exterior, and see how I can repurpose this. Possibly in a small frame. Could make for a clever animated wallhanging.

Thank you mysterious stranger for sending me this. I hope you get some business out of this…

Mini-Recording Studio Wishlist

5 February, 2014Gadgets, Online LearningOpen-Sankoré, recording studio, screencast, ScreenFlow, wacom cintiq, windows surface pro, wishlistJames Moore

Earlier this year, I requested some equipment at work. Basically what I wanted was a room in which faculty could walk in and record reusable video content for online and hybrid classes. Something simple, yet flexible. My wishlist is below. This all could be accomplished using a Windows Surface Pro with Camtasia installed, but I think ScreenFlow is a better editing package. Having a dedicated room allows for more flexibility in presentation style, with faculty able to stand in the room (adjustable camera and desk), or sit at a stool.

I have been experimenting with the combination of ScreenFlow, Open-Sankoré, and the Wacom Cintiq tablet. So far I am impressed. Open-Sankoré is prone to the occasional crash, but this might be down to my testing on older equipment.

Item	Details	Notes	Cost
Mac Pro	Quad-Core and Dual GPU		2,799.00
Snowball Mic	Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone	Not ICE Model	59.00
Pop Filter	Blue Microphones The Pop Universal Pop Filter		28.99
Microphone Stand	PylePro PMKS15 Universal Compact Base Microphone Stand with Adjustable and Extendable Boom		$35.05
Webcam	Logitech C920 Cam		69.99
Microphone Stand for Webcam	On Stage MS7201B Round Base Microphone Stand, Black		21.95
Wacom Tablet	Cintiq 22HD Creative Pen Display		1999.00
Table (Adjustable Height)	Tubular Steel Adjustable Drawing Table with Multiple Supply Drawers – CraftMaster		$149.97
Adjustable Height Cabinet	Adjustable Height Cabinet Table with Casters		156.90
Stool	Balt Trax Stool, Model 34430 (Black)		182.00
External Drive	Portable Hard drives With thunderbolt docking station		654.95
Surge Protector	Belkin Pivot Wall Mount Surge Protector with 6 Outlets		14.49
Softbox Lighting Kit	ePhoto Digital Video Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit and Boom Stand Hair Light with Carrying Case H9004SB		109.99
ClipWrap	http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap		49.99
Monitor	Acer B296CL		499.99
ScreenFlow	http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/		99.00
TOTAL			$6930.26

iLoveHandles Trunk

9 July, 2013Gadgets, MobileBluelounge, iLoveHandles, iphone, Kii, Lightning, TrunkJames Moore

Trunk

Picked up a new gadget last week, the iLoveHandles Trunk. This is a bendable USB/Lightning cable for charging the iPhone. The beauty of this design is that the Trunk can be bent into shape so as to support the iPhone when charging – very useful when traveling.

Bluelounge has a clever little cable too (the Kii) – this one is designed to fit on your keyring for when you need it. Very clever (and with a locking mechanism, so you don’t loose the important bit).

Burning Chromebook: Day 4

23 May, 2013Gadgets, Internet, MobileChrome, chromebook, cloud9, dreamweaver, epub, google, shifteditJames Moore

I had not expected to find an equivalent to iBooks Author, but have installed a couple of epub readers. I don’t really anticipate having a great need for these, as I will be reading ebook predominantly on the smartphone.

Epub Readers

Today I concentrated on finding a Chromebook alternative to Dreamweaver. I had assumed that there might be a version of Amaya or KompoZer, but that was not the case within the Chrome Web Store. The best alternatives that I found were:

ShiftEdit

ShiftEdit looks like it will work for me. There is a Chromebook app which connects to the web service. The only thing that I did not find during my cursory testing was spell check, so I will have to use Google Docs to work around this.

MacBook Air	Chromebook	Notes
Office Word	Google Docs	No issues so far. Spell check does not seem to be available offline. This might be fixed by installing an extension.
Office Excel	Google Sheets	No issues so far.
Office PowerPoint	Google Slides	Some formatting issues with imported files. “Present” not an option unless using native slide format.
iWork Keynote	Google Slides Files	Considerable formatting issues with imported slides. Downloaded QuickTime mov, m4v, and mp4 files playable in Files.
iBooks Author	No equivalent.	Was not expecting to find an equivalent.
Dreamweaver	ShiftEdit.	Works well. Did not see spell check as an option.
Photoshop	pixlr	Tested with some basic cropping and resizing. Need to test more extensively.
Cyberduck	Have not found solution yet. I might be able just using Secure Shell Terminal emulator and SSH client.	Have not tested.
Safari	Chrome	No issues so far.
Twitter	TweetDeck	No issues so far.
Email	Gmail and Webmail	No issues with Gmail so far. Have to configure webmail.
Screenflow	Google Hangouts Screenr Screencastle	Have not tested.
iTunes	Google Play Music	Working well. MUsic Manager has uploaded the majority of my library.
Evernote	Evernote Web	No issues so far.
Dropbox	Dropbox	No issues so far.

Burning Chromebook: Day 3

22 May, 2013Gadgets, Internet, MobileChrome, chromebook, google, Google Slides, Keynote, PowerPointJames Moore

Native PowerPoint files don’t “Present”

Day 3 of testing moved onto using Google Slides. I was able to open up existing PowerPoint presentations, and was impressed that Chrome discreetly placed a link to other apps that would interact with the file. However, Google Slides did not allow me to present the slideshow (although it would for presentations created in Google Slides). The way round this was to import the existing PowerPoint presentation into a new Google Slide file. Importing created some formatting issues which were not there when I opened up the original PowerPoint file, so in future I would have to factor in time to make minor adjustments.

Imported PowerPoint files will “Present”

Unsurprisingly the Chromebook did not like native Keynote files. My options here would be to export from Keynote to PowerPoint and then display using Google Slides (or a cloud service like SlideRocket). Here, the export process created more formatting errors (and the rather nifty transitions and visual effects are lost). Sadly using iWork.com to present is no longer an option, with the service being shut down in 2012, but if I wanted to preserve all the features of the original Keynote file then playing an exported QuickTime file might be an aceptable workaround (providing I did not need to see presenter notes).

MacBook Air	Chromebook	Notes
Office Word	Google Docs	No issues so far. Spell check does not seem to be available offline. This might be fixed by installing an extension.
Office Excel	Google Sheets	No issues so far.
Office PowerPoint	Google Slides	Some formatting issues with imported files. “Present” not an option unless using native slide format.
iWork Keynote	Google Slides Files	Considerable formatting issues with imported slides. Downloaded QuickTime mov, m4v, and mp4 files playable in Files.
iBooks Author	No equivalent.	Was not expecting to find an equivalent.
Dreamweaver	ShiftEdit (Cloud9 IDE might be an option too)	Have not tested.
Photoshop	pixlr	Tested with some basic cropping and resizing. Need to test more extensively.
Cyberduck	Have not found solution yet. I might be able just using Secure Shell Terminal emulator and SSH client.	Have not tested.
Safari	Chrome	No issues so far.
Twitter	TweetDeck	No issues so far.
Email	Gmail and Webmail	No issues with Gmail so far. Have to configure webmail.
Screenflow	Google Hangouts Screenr Screencastle	Have not tested.
iTunes	Google Play Music	Working well. MUsic Manager has uploaded the majority of my library.
Evernote	Evernote Web	No issues so far.
Dropbox	Dropbox	No issues so far.

Burning Chromebook: Day 2

21 May, 2013Gadgets, Internet, Mobileapplications, chromebook, google, laptopJames Moore

Day 2 of the my adhoc testing of the Chromebook. I still like the keyboard, but the clicking on the trackpad feels uncomfortable – whilst at a desk using a regular mouse is a much more pleasant experience. Coming from the MacBook Air I have tendency to click on “Alt” rather than “Ctrl” when I copy and paste. These though are minor issues.

What I wanted to do was to find ways that I could match 80% of what I do on the MacBook Air. Here is what I have found so far:

MacBook Air	Chromebook	Notes
Office Word	Google Docs	No issues so far. Spell check does not seem to be available offline. This might be fixed by installing an extension.
Office Excel	Google Sheets	No issues so far.
Office PowerPoint	Google Slides	Have not tested.
iWork Keynote	Google Slides	Have not tested.
iBooks Author	No equivalent.	Was not expecting to find an equivalent.
Dreamweaver	ShiftEdit (Cloud9 IDE might be an option too)	Have not tested.
Photoshop	pixlr	Tested with some basic cropping and resizing. Need to test more extensively.
Cyberduck	Have not found solution yet. I might be able just using Secure Shell Terminal emulator and SSH client.	Have not tested.
Safari	Chrome	No issues so far.
Twitter	TweetDeck	No issues so far.
Email	Gmail and Webmail	No issues with Gmail so far. Have to configure webmail.
Screenflow	Google Hangouts Screenr Screencastle	Have not tested.
iTunes	Google Play Music	Working well. Music Manager has uploaded the majority of my library.
Evernote	Evernote Web	No issues so far.
Dropbox	Dropbox	No issues so far.

Dunsurfin

James Moore's extemporaneous website