Technical Happenings

iLife 09, IPhoto Review

I have had iLife 09 for 5 days.  I’ve been using IPhoto and the new features are well integrated and the faces technology is very impressive.  I started testing by uploading to  flickr, facebook and the mobileme gallery, all worked first time and the process was (as you would expect) very simple.   I had downloaded the 3rd party add-ons to Aperture, which do the same processes, but these were just not as slick.  I then wanted to test faces, but needed to leave my computer on overnight to process my pictures (12,000).  You then just select a picture and name a person.  Even without any learning the faces algorithm does a great job, but its real power comes when you train it a little; it displays a selection of faces, that it thinks match and you just click to say correct or incorrect.  Once i had it trained it displays 100’s of photos it thinks the face is in and on the whole it is correct.  Its a great way to see your pictures, but, also makes you feel a bit old when you pictures go back years.  I’m sure an aging timeline could be easily integrated.

WD TV HD Media Player

WD HD TV

Ive been considering the Apple TV, PS3 and a number of other media center devices, but for now i have brought the WD TV one.  I do not really need a games machine and the Apple TV does not play all the formats i wanted.  Also this costs less than £70.  What i liked about it was that it enables you to plug in your USB key or USB hard drive and play back multimedia from them at up to 1080p on your HDTV via the HDMI / composite outputs. Its fairly small at 1.6- x 4.9- x 3.9-inch and will be easy enough to take to friends to show off films or pictures.

Its had stacks of use over the Christmas period and even plays some format not advertised as supported such as m2ts .

I think I’ll end up with the Apple TV later on, but think the current  version is overpriced

Tagging the world – IPhone killer application!

Sekai Camera is the killer iPhone application, just point your camera anywhere around you to have instant feedback about whatever is on your screen. Directions, reviews, messages, offers, and any tag you can imagine will appear floating in front of you, adding a graphic overlay to the world. Using the iPhone 3G, camera and the GPS to the internet connectivity and its microphone. you can create social tags on the world. see information about places and objects around you, overlaid on the real-time video. and add your own information.

Take a look at Tonchidot – tagging the world