Category Archives: Web & Technology

Jamie Lidell on iMaschine

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Even if I risk becoming a Native Instruments fanboy here, this is another great showcase of one of their products, presented by the even greater Jamie Lidell. NI released an iPhone app called iMaschine which according to the video is a little all-in-one sequencer, drum machine, synth and recorder to play around with and build little songs. As Jamie does impressively in this video, apparently without editing: building a beat, putting some bass groove on and some chorus and finally verse vocals on top of it, all lying comfortably in bed like on a sunday morning. Pretty amazing for 4,99 EUR in the app store. Let’s see if I get out of bed this weekend if I get this little toy right now.

Awesome grant for birdhouses

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The second Awesome foundation grant this year goes to (drumroll..) Jay Cousins and his idea to build bird houses in the city! Here is a bit of his plan:

“Make a little birdhouse in your Keats” will show people how to make bird houses from trash and then place them in public spaces – trees, lamp-posts, street signs and buildings. This process will educate people about waste, and engage them directly in improving directly their urban environment. The birdhouses themselves will create a provocation, bring birdsong to the streets and make the keat’s just that little bit nicer for everyone in it. The project would manifest in workshops – street actions and documented online with a how to replicate in your own keats.

Awesome! We look forward to seeing this in action.

Jambox Test

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Die Jambox von Jawbone ist ein kompakter Lautsprecher mit Mikro, der per Bluetooth Sound abspielen und aufnehmen kann. Ans Telefon gekoppelt ist er so eine Boombox für den Park oder ein Telefonkonferenzgerät. Funktioniert auch mit Computern, die Bluetooth können. Ich fand das kleine Teil im Test sehr sympathisch, danke an Vreni von K-MB für das Testgerät (schade, dass ich’s zurück geben muss, den Parktest hätte ich gern noch gemacht..)

Why the bike lane is not always the safest place

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A guy gets fined for not riding his bike on the bike lane and shows us in the video why it is actually dangerous to ride on the bike lane. I feel with that guy. Not only have I been fined by police once for that (at 4am, in Göttingen, on a totally empty street, 80 EUR!!!) I also happen to have had some bike accidents, including one where I was mislead (yes, mislead, not drunk or something, mislead!) by arrows on the street directing me directly into a metal barrier which was grey and thus hard to distinguish from the dark night. So I crashed into it and had my left hand stitched afterwards and wearing a cast for three weeks. So I feel with that guy, watch what happens when you take the bike lane.

Testing the Starplayer app

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Only two weeks ago, Heineken came out with the Starplayer iPhone app, which lets players estimate situations in Champions league football matches, while watching it on tv. I had the chance to test it from the beginning and I have to say it’s pretty impressive overall. The concept to run a game simultaneously to popular football games and let players worldwide play against each other is as simple as it is genius and the app is very well done. There are few things I did not like so much: 1st) I fail a lot, and I think I am not he only one, so it’s pretty difficult and on the edge on being demotivating. 2nd) it takes a lot of energy, the phone is almost empty after a match and 3rd) there are some minor usability flaws, like images that look clickable but aren’t. Here are some screenshots and explanations:
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Adventskalenderraten

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Jetzt wird gerätselt! Gesucht wird ein Bild in den Weiten des Internets. Jeden Tag erscheint dazu in einem anderen Blog ein Beitrag mit einem Hinweis. Hier geht’s zur Übersicht mit allen bisherigen Hinweisen. So wissen wir also schonmal, dass eine Person mit Zigarre und ein findiger Bursche involviert sind.

Und hier ist der Hinweis für heute:

“Es ist nicht der Opa von Sven Väth”

Ich habe mir jetzt fast alle Hinweise durchgelesen und ich muss sagen, ich habe eine leise Ahnung. Aber noch zu leise, um mich hier zu einem Versuch hinreißen zu lassen. Schönes Spiel, viel Spaß beim Raten!

TV on the iPad: Tizi

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I admit, I still love to watch tv. Here is one tool which let’s you carry around the screen: a DVB-T tuner for the ipad. I could test it and it’s definitely approved, it works fine and fast and is very easy to handle. Here is a little foto session to see how it works.

Tizi is a little box which receives the DVB-T signal with an antenna and creates a wifi you connect on with the ipad or iphone. With the Tizi app (free) you can then watch digital terrestrial television. In Berlin there are most of the major channels (ARD, ZDF ect.) on and some digital radio stations. Price: 150 EUR at Gravis.

Had it not been so cold, I could have even taken it downstairs to take out the garbage.

Martina from TLGG gave me this gadget to test it. Thank you!

Animago Awards 2010 Winners

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Gestern war ich auf der Animago Conference und der anschließenden Verleihung des Animago Awards. Animago bringt Spezialisten aus der Animationsfilm- und Special Effects Szene zusammen und zeichnet herausragende Arbeiten aus. Ein richtig guter Nachmittag im Potsdamer fx Center mit erhellenden Vorträgen zum Beispiel zur Visualisierung von Architekturprojekten, zum Worksflow beim Aninmieren und Special Effects, vom Unterschied zwischen Modelling, Composing und Shading, zur Produktionspipeline von Pixar Pictures und vielen beeindruckenden Beispielen aktueller Produktionen wie Moby Dick oder dem neuen Eastwood Film “Hereafter”.

Besonders der Vortrag von Thomas Zauner, von ScanlineVFX, eine der bekanntesten FX Firmen der Welt, die sich besonders auf die visuelle Simulation von Flüssigkeiten, Feuer und Rauch spezialisiert haben, war fantastisch. Tatsächlich ist es für den Zuschauer inzwischen überhaupt nicht mehr zu erkennen, was realer Film und was nachträgliche eingebaute Effekte sind.

Abends wurden die Animago Awards verliehen und auch hier gab es einige herausragende Arbeiten zu sehen. Wenn möglich, habe ich hier die Filme eingebaut, leider sind nicht alle online zu sehen oder haben nur Trailer.

Hier ist der offizielle Award-Trailer, toll geschnitten, der einen Überblick über die Einreichungen vermittelt, nach dem Klick dann alle Gewinner-Filme.

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Interactive touch display DJ console

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Unfortunately, this is only an interaction mockup. But hell, what a great idea! The American designer Gerg Werk put together an ideal digital system to install in clubs so DJs would only have to bring a flash drive with their setup and music and plug it in. It’s a touchscreen that emulates several decks and is controlled by different finger gestures to perform the most important DJ functions, like pitching, cue points, equalizing, mixing and even looping. Watch this very juicy and goodlooking project presentation: