Digital Technology for Digital Living.
March 30, 2007
Rembrants Sing Thundercats Theme
Remember a band called The Rembrants? If not, don’t feel bad. The Rembrants were pretty much just a one hit wonder from the 1990’s. Their only hit song was “I’ll Be There For You” (aka the Friends TV show theme song).
Well, if you happen to be a fan of the classic cartoon Thundercats (1985), you might suffer a slight Rembrants flashback. Part of the DVD extras for Thundercats - Season Two, Vol. 1 is music video of the Thundercats theme song sung by The Rembrants. In case you are curious, here’s a behind the scenes promotional video of the music video I found on Vmix.
Where’s Mumm-Ra when you need him?
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March 26, 2007
Sony Adds TV Shows to iTunes
Last week Sony Pictures Television made its programming available for the first time in Apple’s iTunes Store (US).
Episodes from current shows “‘Til Death” and “Rules of Engagement” as well as from classic series including “Starsky & Hutch,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and “NewsRadio” were added to iTunes’ offerings for $1.99 each.
Season 1 from Spiderman, the animated series, was also added to iTunes. The series features Neil Patrick Harris (Starship Troopers, Doogie Howser), Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210) and singer-songwriter Lias Loeb.
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March 22, 2007
Apple TV Unpacking Photos
Guess what showed up in the mail today? You can see more Apple TV unpacking photos here.
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methodshop | Comments (1) | Music, Digital TV
March 21, 2007
Retro Games In Stop Motion
Pes from EatPES.com frequently makes stop motion short films and commercials, but their latest work titled “Game Over” is a masterpiece.
Game Over is a medley of several 1980s arcade games including a stop motion version of Centipede done with cup cakes and a pizza and pillow case version of Pac-Man. Seriously, it’s great stuff and will be one of the easiest 5 star ratings you’ve ever given to a Youtube video.
If you get a chance, head over to Pes’ site and watch some of the other stuff. I recommend the Bacardi commercial. Amazing work.
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March 20, 2007
Apple TV Shipping
I got an email from Apple this morning at 4 A.M.. Guess my Apple TV is on its way. And it looks like they gave me a discount. I only got charged $281. It’s listed for $299 on Apple.com. I pre-ordered my Apple TV the day it was announced. Maybe I got the discount because it got delayed a month?
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methodshop | Comments (0) | Music, Video, Digital TV
March 15, 2007
TiVo CEO Promises Cheap HD TiVo
Think paying $800 for a Series3 HD TiVo box without service is insane? You are not alone. Consumers weren’t exactly excited about coughing up that much $$$ for the Series3 and TiVo sales have slumped. In fact, TiVo just reported a Q4 net loss of $18.7 million.
With products like Apple TV and a Windows Vista CableCARD coming out soon, TiVo has to do something before they are quickly phased out of the digital living room.
So what’s their solution? Just make it cheaper I guess. TiVo CEO Tom Rogers had this to say in his quarter results commentary: “We will be highly focused this year on launching a lower-priced, mass appeal High Definition product.”
That vague quote doesn’t exactly guarantee a cheap HD TiVo during 2007, but hopefully they can come up with something during the next 9 months. Whatever they are going to do, they better do it quick. I already pre-ordered an Apple TV and if it lives up to expectations, my Series2 TiVo will be making a brief cameo on eBay before it leaves my living room.
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March 14, 2007
Gyroflex Pro Review
Spend a lot of time on the computer? Who doesn’t these days. After awhile you’ll probably develop wrist pains. A quick and easy way to exercise your hands and fingers everyday is to spend a few minutes with the Gyroflex Pro.
The Gyroflex Pro uses gyroscopic inertia (centrifugal force’s younger cousin) to increase strength and coordination in your hand, wrist, arm and shoulder. It also aids in the prevention and rehab of certain injuries, helps with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and reduces stress.
To use the Gyroflex Pro, just pull the starter cord and hold on tight. After a few sessions you’ll improve your coordination, strengthen your grip, build your forearms, and really exercise your hands and fingers.
Specs & Features:
- Measures: 4″ x 1.375″
- Weighs: 10 oz.
- Build strength while improving coordination
- New easy grip outer sphere for better control and prolonged usage.
- Generates up to 32lbs of pressure when maximum RPM’s is reached
- Exclusive new design for ease of starting.
- Increases total arm strength
- Improves coordination
- Aids in prevention of carpal tunnel syndrome
- Reduces stress
I know a graphic artist who wears a rollerblading wrist guard because he has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Honestly, it looks a little dorky. Walking around your office while wearing a rollerblading wrist guard isn’t exactly the best way to meet girls. Maybe I’ll buy him a Gyroflex Pro and try to save his nightlife from social destitute.
Besides graphic artists, anyone who has to do repetitive hand motions all day like secretaries, computer analysts, porn movie fluffers and athletes, can benefit from this little ball.
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March 09, 2007
Blockbuster Online Denies Problems
According to bloggers and a flood of angry comments on the Internet, operations at American DVD rental service, Blockbuster Online, have come to a screeching halt. Angry customers are reporting that they have not received movies from their queues for weeks. According to one customer, repeated calls to Blockbuster customer service were fruitless and when he finally did get through, a customer service rep told him that their mail rental system was shut down.
However an official spokesperson for Blockbuster denied the existance of any problems when contacted by Ars Technica.com. “We’ve been continually shipping product. If a customer feels like they are not getting a movie, they should follow up with our customer service. But in terms of product being allocated and shipped, there has been no interruption.”
Despite what the spokesperson says, sites like DVDRR.com have been flooded with negative comments like this one from a Blockbuster Online user named Cat: “No dvds have been shipped for over a week despite 3 open slots and 26 available titles in my queue. Emails and phone calls to customer support have not succeeded in getting this resolved, just promises that are not kept. I will be canceling and switching to Netflix.”
Is it just a random coincidence that Blockbuster Online users didn’t receive any DVDs last month? Or is Blockbuster being less than truthful about possible problems with their rental service? Blockbuster is engaged a tough battle against Netflix, the market leader in online rentals. Admitting to significant service interruptions might persuade users to switch to Netflix.
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March 08, 2007
Air Guitarist Bjorn Turoque
In this clip from Late Night with Conan O’Brien, “professional air guitarist” Bjorn Turoque (pronounced “b-yorn too-RAWK”) talks about his book To Air is Human and shows off some of his trademark moves. But being a professional air guitarist isn’t all fortune and fame. Before you rush off and join Bjorn on the air guitar pro circuit, keep in mind that Bjorn’s air guitar career has ruined friendships and prevents him from having a girlfriend.
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March 06, 2007
Geekiest Tattoo Ever
The tricky thing about tattoos is that they are for life. Permanent. Forever inked into your body. People always talk about getting a silly tattoo, but usually that’s all just talk. Then once in awhile you hear about someone getting a really bad tattoo. My favorite bad tattoo example is either an 8-ball or a donkey on a surfboard smoking a joint. But now I guess I need to add room to that list.
This guy (see image) decided to not only get a bad tattoo, but he added a super nerdy twist to it. In case you don’t know what his head/body tattoo means, it’s a piece of HTML code currently used when making web pages. Like I said, very, very nerdy. What makes it worse is that this tattoo is on his neck. Imagine having to explain your HTML head/body tattoo to everyone over-and-over again the next time you are at a wedding or social event.
Plus think about this. Sure, today HTML is currently a commonly used computer language. But the Internet is evolving fast. I wouldn’t expect HTML to still be that relevant in the next 10 - 20 years. Hopefully techniques in laser tattoo removal will make significant some strides during the next couple decades.
More Picts: Geeky Tattoos [pics]
methodshop | Comments (7) | General
March 05, 2007
Handbrake for Windows
Do you have a ton of DVDs? Want to watch them on your iPod? For years, the best DVD ripping program, Handbrake, was only available for Mac. But the unthinkable has happened. Handbrake has been ported for Windows. It’s still in the experimental beta stages, but you can download a PC version of Handbrake now.
If you are unfamiliar with Handbrake, it’s a GPL’d multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. Here’s a MethodShop.com tutorial on how to use Handbrake.
Features:
- Can encode directly from DVDs (even encrypted ones) or from VIDEO_TS folders
- Supports AC3, LPCM and MPEG audio tracks
- Outputs MP4, AVI or OGM files
- Outputs AAC, MP3 or Vorbis audio
- Supports 2-pass encoding
- Supports encoding of two audio tracks
- Includes a bitrate calculator
- Supports picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
Links:
PC users looking for a super DVD-to-iPod easy solution should use DVD Copy by InterVideo.
methodshop | Comments (2) | Music, Video, Software
March 04, 2007
Perfect iTunes EQ Settings
We’ve all seen the EQ setting in iTunes, but not many of us know exactly how to use it to its full potential. In this article, Rich Tozzoli, Senior Editor of Surround Professional Magazine breaks each EQ slider down and helps you get the most out of your music.
Tutorial: Demystifing the EQ sliders in iTunes
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