Brendan Mitchell

Video Jukebox Anyone?

Brendan Mitchell — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:06:00 +0000

Want to download a video from YouTube (or most websites?)
Install this plugin for Firefox http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Of course most files stored on YouTube are in Adobe’s Flash format (.flv), so you will require something to play them back. You can use VLC, but wouldn’t it be better if you could us QuickTime? Download and install Perian (you’ll need to restart your Mac afterwards). Now QuickTime can playback .flv files, plus numerous other formats it couldn’t before. If you have QuickTime Pro on your Mac, you can even export the .flv files to different file formats, if not then download Evom by The Little Factory it’s simply drag and drop from here, drop the .flv onto the Evom window and choose the file format you want, that’s it!

And all of that is free!

Still talking about video, need to Rip a DVD, or want to play them back on your iPod, iPhone or hard drive? Then download Ripit by The Little Factory it costs $20, but it’s child’s play to use, and the results are very impressive!

Now I know how I’ll be spending the next couple of months, transferring my DVD collection to the hard drive that’s hanging out the back of the Mac Mini I have connected to my flat screen! Now if only the Mac Mini could connect properly to my surround sound and I’d be sorted!

A Balancing Act

Brendan Mitchell — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:43:36 +0000

Too many ideas, too little time!

That may sound a little arrogant, but it’s actually a genuine problem, and I’m not the only one. Some may say it’s a good problem, but I’m not so sure.

It’s frustrating as hell to have an idea or a solution, that you know you have to let go or forget about, as you have 20 more waiting in the wings to be fulfilled. And if that’s not frustrating enough, when I pass on and explain a really good idea to someone else, someone that I know could do great things with my concept, they unfortunately, are too short sighted to see the full potential to do anything with it! So at the end of the day, I simply have to do it myself.

As Friedrich Engels said, “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”

A few months ago I decided I’m going to change the world… well I never said my ideas were small, or easy… if they were, I guess anyone would take up the task and do it… but they’re not, so I might as well do them myself. I’ve set a time frame of ten years… that may seem like a long time, but it’s not really, as when you think about it, the world’s a pretty big place!

Going Down The Tubes

Brendan Mitchell — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:29:43 +0000

Need I say more?

Does My iPad Look Big in This?

Brendan Mitchell — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:54:31 +0000

iPad

Brendan Mitchell — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:39:11 +0000

After five years of speculation and 15 years after The Steve canned the Newton (still have my three in the attic!), Apple have announced the iPad.

I have mixed feelings on the iPad, from a business & user perspective, I think it’s great, it’s been well thought through and it looks gorgeous, sure the big black area that surrounds the touch screen area is a bit too much, but hey, I’m sure there’s a lot of electronics in that thing, you’ve got to put them somewhere!
but…
No multi-tasking! so no background apps like Skype or Facebook running while you do something else. This is a major gripe, it’s the one thing that will kill the iPhone if they don’t sort that out soon.

No camera! WTF (so no using it for Skype or video based instant messaging), talking of which, come on Apple, where the hell is iChat for your mobile devices!

No proper display output! (not even Apple’s own mini DVI?!) the iPad would be the most amazing presentation device for any road warrior, if it had a proper way to output the display! (although we all know these things can do it, as how else does The Steve demo these at these events, so who knows, maybe they’ll finally make a proper cable that connects to that 32 pin connector!)

No Near Field or RFID!? OK that may sound a bit strange, but that’s becoming more and more prevalent, why it hasn’t been incorporated into the iPhone yet I’m at a loss… sure you can add RFID to SIM cards (so fine for the iPhone), but that’s no good for the iPod Touch or iPad, so hardware integration is a must. I’m positive the next iPhone will have it built in, which will be great, no more Oyster cards to travel on London Underground, simply swipe your phone and the database picks up your ID, and if no account is recognised, an App on your iPhone engages and you pay there and then… or no more credit cards, place your iPhone near a terminal, an App launches, enter your pin et voila, all paid, you could even send your receipt to your no paper account!

These are all things that will come in version 2 no doubt, but they should be in version 1… although none of this will stop me ordering one straight away which I shall of course put down to requiring for testing & development purposes for no paper

Damn you Mr Jobs, Damn you to hell

The Apple iPad

Brendan Mitchell — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:46:57 +0000

mmmmmmm…

not quite what I was expecting from Apple!

Left a bit, a little bit more, ah there you are

Brendan Mitchell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:53:43 +0000

Staying with the Augmented Reality theme, BrightKite announced last month that their partnership with Layar to offer AR of your BrightKite friends posts over live video on your mobile, is now available on the iPhone (originally only available for Android)

Another AR app recently launched on the iPhone is Wikitude, that overlays live video with Qype information. This is another area that AR has enormous potential, aggregating your various data streams and combining them into a single place. The more collaboration there are amongst these types of services the better a user experience for everyone!

Original BrighKite blog post
Post on Augmented Planet about Wikitude & another about Layar
Brightkite iPhone App
Layar iPhone App
Wikitude iPhone App
Qype iPhone App

The Business cARd

Brendan Mitchell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:27:40 +0000

I stumbled across these pieces this morning. First a business card and a video ident sting for E4, both of which use the popular method of using a pattern encased in a square, but the third example uses a different approach, whereby the camera recognises any pre-stored image, in this case a photograph on a postcard.

More info here:
AR Particle Beam
The Artvertiser

Augmented Reality Coming To A Bookshelf Near You

Brendan Mitchell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:43:50 +0000

Having already tested the water with an issue using e-Ink technology, it’s interesting to see Esquire extending the user experience of their paper based magazine with online media, I see this as a terrific medium for marketeers & advertisers, but also educational titles or children’s books where the story or information can be brought to life in a way that cannot be achieved using print media alone.

At Vision360 we created numerous projects for live events using Augmented Reality that allowed delegates to control screens and access further information, plus additional languages, but it’s an interesting development to see AR being utilised in mainstream magazine publishing, hopefully it won’t be long before we see more of this type of thing.

more info about the Esquire project here here

Here’s a couple more examples of AR, the first is a simple 3D flash file, the second is an iPhone App.

The Thing is

Brendan Mitchell — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:25:37 +0000

The best things in life aren’t things