Gadgets Future

Adobe has added an online and free edition to its Photoshop application range, called Photoshop Express.

The idea behind Photoshop Express is to present a very easy to use online photo editing experience, offering tools such as resize, tint, distort, cartoon coloring, and sketch . Adobe has also taken into account the popularity of social networking and has implemented the ability to upload and download photos directly from the most popular networks into Photoshop Express.

A gallery feature has also been implemented that allows you to share the photos you have with others. These can be shown in a number of ways, including a basic grid selection, in 3D, or via a slideshow option.

Users can sign up to use the online app to edit their photographs and use the 2GB of storage offered. The service is currently in beta, and Adobe will be using feedback from users to continue to improve upon the experience. A paid-for subscription version of the service is also currently in the pipeline.

Read more at the Associated Press article and the Adobe press release.

Matthew’s Opinion

I had a quick look around using the “Test Drive” option, meaning you don’t have to sign up to see the service in action. It all looks very pretty and slick, but if the service is anything like the test drive I did, then speed is going to be an issue. I got loading screen after loading screen whenever I chose to look at anything that wasn’t already on the page–even if that thing loaded within the existing page. This is a beta, however, and I am sure Adobe will continue to refine the experience.

I’m a bit skeptical as to what a subscription version of the service will bring. I don’t believe Adobe should charge for features, as it has a paid-for range already for that. Keeping the online version free, but fully featured, will attract the most people to the service. If you start adding subscription-only features, then I’d see that as a negative and potentially confusing halfway measure between its online and boxed products.

Over at security conference CanSecWest, hacker Charlie Miller has successful broken into a macbook air, winning him both the slimline notebook and $10,000 in the PWN 2 OWN contest. The exploit, will remain a secret until the show’s organizers are have passed the information on to, we presume, Apple. What we do know is the Miller managed to hack the Mac in just two minutes by browsing to a website containing malicious code.

Two other notebooks remain to be won, if they too can be cracked. The Mac might have fallen first because it was less secure. More likely is that contestants ignored the Linux and Windows boxes in favor of trying to win Apple’s svelte and desirable notebook.

Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest [MacWorld]

Conference page [CanSecWest]

Solid State Drives (SSD) not only continue to get bigger storage, but they are also getting smaller in size. Super Talent is offering a 256GB SSD, which is the world’s smallest 256GB SATA drive, according to the company’s website. It is also 40% thinner than other 256GB SATA drives available. The dimension of the 256GB SSD drive is 100.2mm x 69.9 mm x 12.5mm.

They are many advantages to having an SSD drive. The drives are especially useful in portable electronics and devices. That is because they consume up to 85% less power than a typical spinning drive. They also generate less heat and allow for extended battery life.

As SSD drive capacities increase while prices decrease, we will surely see more SSD drives in laptops and mobile devices. There are just too many advantages to using them over typical hard drive technology. One of the biggest barriers in mass adoption of the drives is price. That should take care of itself over time.

Read more from the Super Talent website.

Word-a-day calendars might improve your vocabulary, but unless they’re electronic, they’re not exactly great for the environment. Here’s a more creative and lasting alternative that you don’t have to wait for a new year to try out: the key calendar from Takumi.

I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it seems that you move the key every day to keep track of the date. It would be very cool if turning the keys revealed some kind of secret compartment (you could set it to deliver a love note on your anniversary or something) but I don’t think that’s an option yet.

Apartment Therapy says the calendar “plays upon both the metaphorical and also the innate physical desire to manipulate the mechanical as an effective way to keep track of the days of a month.”

I just think it’s pretty.

Pantone just had to release USB flash drives that come in a host of colors - 14 in total, to be exact. You will be able to choose from 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities, and these can be customized according to your whims and fancies (restricted to company names and logos). Prices start from $10.99 upwards. Guess you’ll have to whip out the color code table before placing an order for the color of your choice…

Just like (nearly) everyone else, Dell takes the plunge into the world of high definition with its Inspiron 1525 notebook, by throwing in a Blu-ray drive. Interestingly enough, the Inspiron 1525 won’t exactly break the bank as it retails for $880 upwards, depending on the configuration. Other features include the ability to send videos to HDTVs courtesy of HDMI and a Broadcom Media PC accelerator to help with HD video playback, since the integrated graphics platform doesn’t have enough muscle to do the job alone. Will you be picking this up as your primary Blu-ray player?

While the announcement from Toshiba pulling HD DVD support essentially killed of the format, we can now officially declare it dead. The HD DVD Promotion Group has officially been closed, which removes any chance of resurgence of the format. The group, as of March 28 quietly shut themselves down, and so we have it, HD DVD is done. A quick visit to the hd dvd Promotion Group website, presents the simple message:

“The HD DVD Promotion Group was dissolved as of March 28, 2008, and the website was closed accordingly.”

Now lets move on to the next question; Will movie downloads begin to take shape, will we begin to see Blu-ray adoption or will most people just choose to continue with the standard DVD?

Via [Register Hardware]

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Crumpler Crisp E 1800 Camera Bag

This bag here is the Crisp E. It’s the little baggy that hangs on a strap,belt,or baggy making your butty look sexy. It looks high and looks low for any e-vice that beeps or buzzes so it can suck it and swallow it inside its supersoft little selfYes, that’s right , it’s got supersoft slippertex lining on the inside and super tough rawhide strong Chickentex on the outside. There’s a mesh pocket inside too, because we all love stockings and it’s also got protective fat ass padding.

It comes with a digital storage card holder and the Prince Charles protective seal to keep out corgis and dust. It’s also got a removable shoulder strap, battery loops and a detachable belt loop to hang from your loop !

FeaturesMade from Crumpler 1000D Chicken Tex TM with SlippertexTM lining Removable shoulder strap Mesh pocket Digital storage card holder Protective padding Battery loops Detachable belt loop

Technorati Tags: gadgets

Samsung has unleashed a set of classy and user-minded point-and-shoot cameras to augment their L-series line of digital cameras, the L210 (10.1 MP), L110 (8.2 MP), and L100 (8.2 MP). Besides the megapixel count, all three models share the same core specifications—a 2.5-inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. Interestingly, “ease of use” is the philosophy behind the latest Samsung additions. One helpful feature incorporated is the Function Description, which provides brief and easy to understand descriptions of the menu system—reducing the learning curve for new users. Another feature included is the Photo Help Guide, which offers users step-by-step tutorials, shown directly from the camera, on how to take better photos.

While they may be easy to use, Sammy is going all out with its new ‘L’ line of cameras, adding features such as a photo slide show function, auto macro, face detection, red eye correction, and a self portrait mode. The interesting tidbit about the self portrait mode is that the cameras use their face detection technology to remove the “guessing” when taking a self photo. They will not allow a picture to be taken when the subject’s face is out of center. For those with shaky hands, don’t fret. All three are equipped with an optical and digital image stabilizers that work in tandem to ensure clear, perfect shots—which should come extremely handy with the cameras’ SVGA quality video recording capability.

The Samsung L210, L110, and L100 is available now in silver, black, or red; with an MSRP of $269, $229, and $199 respectively.

Via [Samsung]

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Posted Mar 28th 2008 2:29AM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. gadgetsWe knew the Army’s supposedly-dead Land Warrior high-tech uniform program still had some life in it, but now it appears that good marks from tests in the field might mean it’s going to make a full recovery. The Army sent the 4/9 Infantry (aka the “Manchus”) off to war loaded down with the 16-pound Land Warrior kit, and after some on-the-fly adjustments that made the gear lighter and more functional, the soldiers had talked Land Warrior up to the point where the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Combat Brigade Team has now officially requested 1,000 more Land Warrior rigs. The main change is the removal of six pounds of inessential gear, but the crew in the 4/9 also requested and added in a “digital chem light,” which allows buildings and waypoints to be marked in green on an electronic map, and restricted Land Warrior deployment to team leaders and above. There’s still some tricky funding problems to solve — some $102M needs to be set aside for the request — but the Land Warrior project managers say it’s looking promising. Now if we could only get some of that HUD monocle action on the civilian side, our morning coffee run would be a lot more interesting.