A Few New Additions

RANDOM STUFF

Art Center Conference

While not related to the Mac I just have to put in a pitch for the conference I attended this week. Every two years Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, puts on one of the most amazing conferences I have ever attended. The conference theme this year was Serious Play. They posted a great blog summarizing the speaker's presentations. The theme two years ago was Radical Craft. I cannot recommend attendance at this conference enough. It will change the way you look at the world.

JPL Phoenix Mars Rover Landing

One of the speakers at the conference is the head of JPL. They are all excited about the newest Mars lander named Phoenix, which is due to land May 25th. Check out their web site devoted to the Phoenix.

TED

I also should mention TED, another outstanding, but very exclusive conference held in Monterrey California. The great thing about TED is that they have created very high quality podcasts of each of their speakers. Check out the TED download site. You will not be disappointed!


HARDWARE

DVG-567V HD Camera

Last week I mentioned Steve Holley turned me onto the FLIP Video camera. This week I am going to push the concept of that camera even further. I got one of the fantasy catalogs from B and H Photo this week and came across the DVG-567V HD video camera. It has the same form factor as the FLIP however it is a far superior device.It records to SD cards which you can plug directly into your computer for quick download. (Even easier if you use the SanDisk SD/USB card) It has an internal zoom lens and a macro/infinity switch for distant and close up video. Here is the best part! It shoots in 720p high definition!! You can also select among three different qualities/sizes of video capture.It is about the size of an iPod. Check out the specs and features below:I used it all for several days at the Serious Play conference. It is an outstanding device. Best part..it only cost $140 dollars. Be warned it does not ship with an SD card. If you add the cost of the camera and the cost of an SD card it is more expensive than the FLIP. The larger the SD card you use, the more record time you have. It only comes with PC software however the software is unnecessary because you can down load the QuickTime clips directly from the SD cards onto your Mac. Check it out at MacMall.

WEB APPLICATIONS

Photoshop Express

Adobe released a beta version of their free web-based photo tool called Adobe Photoshop Express.
iPhone News Application

Associated Press released a nice news aggregator this week for the iPhone. Check it out on your iPhone at http://www.apnews.com/ It can be customized to deliver news targeted to your area, multiple areas and world wide coverage. It works very smoothly.