Animoto
Animoto is a free-mium web-based application that can be used to share photos and videos in a slideshow-esque way. With this service, you can create an account, choose a theme, upload photos and have a final product, available on the web, within minutes. Creating a similar slideshow in iMovie or MovieMaker would take significantly more time–exporting and uploading alone could take as long as 10-30 minutes or even longer!
Creating slideshows in this fashion is a great way for people to share memories with family and friends or for students to create a digital storytelling assignment. Animoto even has an Android and iOS App to give users the ability to create these multimedia presentations from a smartphone or tablet.
HDR Photography
High-dynamic range (HDR) photographs are a series of images that have been combined to allow a greater range of detail in the lightest and darkest areas of a photograph. The reason why this method was developed is because the human eye can decipher detail in situations where cameras struggle. You’ve probably looked a photograph and thought you remember it differently than what you see in the picture.
Assignment – Create an HDR Photograph
Things you will need:
- A camera, a tripod is recommended so your composition doesn’t change, and take at least three photographs (preferably in JPG format):
– one properly exposed image
– one or more under exposed (it will appear to be dark)
– one or more over exposed (it will appear to be light)
- HDR editing software
– Luminance is an open source application for Mac or PC
– View my tutorial about installing and using Luminance.
With practice, and of course some trial and error, you can create some pretty interesting photographs. For example, here is an HDR image of a sunrise when I was on vacation last summer at Virginia Beach.
Wix
Wix is a free web-based tool that allows you to create a great looking website without HTML coding knowledge/experience. Of course, there are benefits unlocked by a paid subscription, but for most beginners, the free site is more than enough to have a site up and running in no time.
Website creation tools like Wix are great for content creators who want to share their knowledge and content with the world. Just a few years ago, getting a simple, ugly site online took quite a bit of time and know-how. If you didn’t know HTML, or at least Dreamweaver, you were in for quite a treat. </sarcasm> Sorry that’s a bad HTML joke, although you could argue that I never opened a sarcasm tag. I’ll stop there.
Back to the present, these free web-based tools now help keep beginners and professionals on a more even playing field,lthough you can still tell a difference between the two. But if you are looking for a way to establish a web presence, without being a web developer, Wix will serve your needs well and allow you some flexibility to grow as you become more skilled with web design.
Screenhero
Have you ever tried to help someone trouble-shoot a computer question and it was just too difficult without seeing their screen? Or have you used a remote desktop application, one that lets you view and control another person’s computer, only to struggle with taking turns with controlling the mouse cursor?
Well, all of that is an issue of yesterday. Meet your new favorite application, Screenhero.
Screenhero is the typical screen-sharing, remote desktop application with a twist, there is a separate mouse cursor for you and your peer! This could be quite useful when instructing or collaborating on a given subject regardless of computing platform.
Interested in seeing it in action? Check out the demo video on YouTube.
Handbrake
Handbrake is free program is one of the most powerful tools available. It has a wide variety of uses, sure some of it’s uses stretch copyright laws, however it can be used to streamline video projects.
One basic function, of Handbrake, is video converting. This program accepts a variety of video files and allows you to create the popular MPEG-4 filetype (.mp4 or .m4v). Since there are TONS of different video formats and containers, not all of them playback well on different platforms. For example, Windows Media Video (.wmv) files don’t play natively on Macintosh computers, so converting these filetypes allow others to play these videos without installing additional software. Another common problem seems to be video file types that digital camcorders create, conversions of these files allow you to easily edit in simple video editing programs such as MovieMaker or iMovie.
Another important feature is the ability to compress video files. Sometimes it’s more important to transmit information rather than having a crystal-clear, high-definition video. Handbrake’s advanced functions meet this need. There are a lot controls that can be adjusted to the video quality and audio bit rates that can drastically reduce the file size of the video. Smaller file sizes are necessary when trying attach files to an email, making it low-bandwidth friendly or uploading a file to a host with maximum file size limits.
If you’re interested in using Handbrake, you can download it here.
Learning through the use of Podcasts
Today I decided to listen to the Engadget Podcast (iTunes Link or YouTube Vodcast) since I haven’t made time to keep up on their blog posts. Unfortunately episode 331 started off really slow, I’m talking about 8 minutes of updates and changes going on Engadget. If you can make it through the first 8 minutes, of episode 331 anyway, they began to get to tech news.
The hosts:
Brian Heater, Engadget Senior Associate Editor
Dana Wollman, Engadget Senior Reviews Editor
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget Senior Associate Editor
Jim Balsillie sells his stock in Blackberry
The first topic discussed was Blackberry. They led off this discussion with a staff member switched from his Android phone to a Blackberry 10 phone. Next, they talked about a questionable move by Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of RIM (Research in Motion), where he sold his stock in Blackberry in a time where the company is trying to rebound.
Is Apple developing the iWatch?
Next, they switch gears to Apple. There are rumors floating around that Apple may be developing a watch, more than likely would be an answer to how customers have been using the last generation iPod Nano. There was a lot of back-and-forth discussion about this topic but they brought up a product that is being released named Pebble.
Side note: here is an extreme iPod Nano fan creating his version of an iPod Nano “watch.”
The Microsoft Surface Pro is is short supply.
Next topic up was Microsoft, the Surface Pro was the main topic in this segment and they talked about how it is currently in short supply. I found it interesting that they think this is a conspiracy where Microsoft under produced Surface Pros to simulate a demand for it which has had, as they described it, “lukewarm reviews.”
The last topic of the podcast was about Toy Fair. According to Toy Fair’s website, it is a yearly event open to anyone who makes a living creating, buying and/or selling toys, to get together to see what’s new in the world of toys. They mentioned that this year the event wasn’t as “tech-heavy” as previous years, and that most of the new electronic toys featured augmented reality integration.
Overall it was interesting to hear about the latest tech gossip and learn more about the trends and rumors going around the leaders in the electronic industry.
Hello world! Today I am here to deliver the first ever recorded Media Rock podcast. I will warn you, this may get nerdy…
Listen to the podcast!
Show notes
Meet the guests:
Mike Shaffer – social media scientist
Ryan Lanciaux – web developer and programmer extraordinaire
Links:
Gmail iPhone App (view in iTunes)
Mailbox (view in iTunes)
Papyrus Font (Wikipedia)
Pocket (view in iTunes)
Paper (view in iTunes)
Google Drive (read the article)
128 GB iPad (Apple Store)
Next Generation Xbox (read article)
Steam Box (read article)
Music provided by, my friend, Troy Powell
Ryan Straube 