Latest stuff from Apple's last Macworld outing.
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
Greatest stuff ever i must say. Whoosh.
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
-- Nokia N97
N96 was never meant to be Nokia's flagship phone with its mediocre feature upgrade from N95, always sitting on a wobbly throne.
At last, Nokia unveils the "dethroner" - an N series ofcoz, S60 5th edition (touch screen os, like 5800 Xpress Music), and a slide-out keyboard.
Now THIS, is the introduction that should have been, for a Nokia touchscreen. Not like the crappy 5800 ones.
I like the fact that Nokia chose the path of making the main screen a desktop-like experience, with its widgets (clock etc) and to do stuffs, more like Windows Mobile than say, the rows of icons of iPhone.
As an N series, you can expect the usual stuffs (and better) since N95. So i won't bother mentioning all of them. Notable ones however are...
Full specs at >> http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n97-2615.php
And... ofcoz, some pre-prepared "hands-on" video...
At last, Nokia unveils the "dethroner" - an N series ofcoz, S60 5th edition (touch screen os, like 5800 Xpress Music), and a slide-out keyboard.
Now THIS, is the introduction that should have been, for a Nokia touchscreen. Not like the crappy 5800 ones.
I like the fact that Nokia chose the path of making the main screen a desktop-like experience, with its widgets (clock etc) and to do stuffs, more like Windows Mobile than say, the rows of icons of iPhone.
As an N series, you can expect the usual stuffs (and better) since N95. So i won't bother mentioning all of them. Notable ones however are...
- 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches, 16M colors touchscreen
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- 32 GB internal memory
- 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9-18.3 mm
- 150 g (beefy as expected)
Full specs at >> http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n97-2615.php
And... ofcoz, some pre-prepared "hands-on" video...
-- Mapple
The Simpsons' latest episode parodied everything Apple - from Steve Mobs, to Mipod, Mytunes, Myphone... and their legion of fans. It's so true till i have to 
...
The screen crash is a parody of Apple's own Mac ad, back in 1984...
The irony is, Apple really does have a legion of mindless humans now, who suck up everything Apple... oh, what a dream come true.
...The screen crash is a parody of Apple's own Mac ad, back in 1984...
The irony is, Apple really does have a legion of mindless humans now, who suck up everything Apple... oh, what a dream come true.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
-- YouTube widens (Edit: Nov 27)
YouTube videos now display in widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio. To be precise, it's 640x360 resolution (thought the height might be resized to fit the original video's height).
[On another note, there's also a HD 1280x720 resolution version for a while now. NO, it's not HQ, it's much better. And clicking on the HQ link won't get you this either. More info on this at the end.]
About time I'd say, black bars at the top, and too much wasted empty space at website's sides. But to tell the truth, most videos still aren't widescreen (esp home videos). But professionally produced videos like movie trailers, game trailers, n most animes are in widescreen now... so it's better to move on.
Announced here >> http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=0i22UDAOfj8
But one more thing... the embed code still defaults to 4:3 aspect ratio.
So... what to do but manually adjust them... though it's not exactly 16:9, hehe.
And to commemorate this, i've digged out these 4 MVs that are available in HQ.
02 给我一首歌的时间 (Spare me a song's worth of time)
This one reeks of Usher... ugh. But his moves were smooth and the song itself is my favorite. Female lead is the same one from 阳光宅男 (Sunny Otaku).
03 蛇舞 (Snake dance)
The "Queen" is Lara from 南拳媽媽. Also duet-ed with Jay in 珊瑚海 (Coral sea). I expected this video to be "hotter"... oh well. Check out the "蛇" character when it appears at the beginning and the end... haha, very cute.
06 说好的幸福呢 (Where is our promised happiness?)
Poor female lead had to run around barefooted in the cold weather (a storm was approaching when the filming of MV took place). Gotta love the decos around the piano.
11 稻香 (Paddy fragrance)
And so far only 01 龙战骑士 (Dragon Warriors), 04 花海 (Flower ocean) and 08 流浪诗人 (Wandering poet) are left without MVs. The others are readily searchable at YouTube.
Check out...
YouTube HD
To link to a video that is HD 1280x720, just append "&fmt=22" to the end of a YouTube link. And for those who don't know yet, add "&fmt=18" to link to HQ.
For example...
Just look at the Japanese characters when fullscreened, they don't lose any details at all. It looks better than normal divx/xvid .avi version. THIS, is the result of using H.264 codec.
And how about... zombies...? Left4Dead's AWESOME intro movie from the game itself, in HD. Turn off the lights, plop in your headphones, watch it full screen!!!!
Oyeah.
[On another note, there's also a HD 1280x720 resolution version for a while now. NO, it's not HQ, it's much better. And clicking on the HQ link won't get you this either. More info on this at the end.]
About time I'd say, black bars at the top, and too much wasted empty space at website's sides. But to tell the truth, most videos still aren't widescreen (esp home videos). But professionally produced videos like movie trailers, game trailers, n most animes are in widescreen now... so it's better to move on.
Announced here >> http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=0i22UDAOfj8
But one more thing... the embed code still defaults to 4:3 aspect ratio.
So... what to do but manually adjust them... though it's not exactly 16:9, hehe.
And to commemorate this, i've digged out these 4 MVs that are available in HQ.
02 给我一首歌的时间 (Spare me a song's worth of time)
This one reeks of Usher... ugh. But his moves were smooth and the song itself is my favorite. Female lead is the same one from 阳光宅男 (Sunny Otaku).
03 蛇舞 (Snake dance)
The "Queen" is Lara from 南拳媽媽. Also duet-ed with Jay in 珊瑚海 (Coral sea). I expected this video to be "hotter"... oh well. Check out the "蛇" character when it appears at the beginning and the end... haha, very cute.
06 说好的幸福呢 (Where is our promised happiness?)
Poor female lead had to run around barefooted in the cold weather (a storm was approaching when the filming of MV took place). Gotta love the decos around the piano.
11 稻香 (Paddy fragrance)
And so far only 01 龙战骑士 (Dragon Warriors), 04 花海 (Flower ocean) and 08 流浪诗人 (Wandering poet) are left without MVs. The others are readily searchable at YouTube.
Check out...
- 05 魔术先生 (Mr. Magician) and 10 乔克叔叔 (Uncle Joker). They are "back to back" MVs, since these two follow the Magician vs Joker theme, and share the same stage in the MV, literally. Watch Jay flirt with chicks in 乔克叔叔 and also dressed up as a clown, swinging around.
- 07 兰亭序 (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion) is a disappointment from 青花瓷 (Blue and White Porcelain), 发如雪 (Hair like snow), and 东风破 (East wind breaks) due to its simplicity. White background!! Simple sets!!? nooo...
- 09 时光机 (Time machine) is another interesting one. Featuring the main characters from Doraemon (except the robotic cat himself) and the drawer time machine. VERY cute!!
YouTube HD
To link to a video that is HD 1280x720, just append "&fmt=22" to the end of a YouTube link. And for those who don't know yet, add "&fmt=18" to link to HQ.
For example...
- Original link >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62io5Jj-QaI
- HQ link >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62io5Jj-QaI&fmt=18
- HD link >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62io5Jj-QaI&fmt=22
- Most videos aren't 1280x720 ofcoz, adding "&fmt=22" won't give u HD, and it will default to the low quality ver.
- Watch these videos fullscreen!!!
- Older processors might struggle with playing these videos.
Just look at the Japanese characters when fullscreened, they don't lose any details at all. It looks better than normal divx/xvid .avi version. THIS, is the result of using H.264 codec.
And how about... zombies...? Left4Dead's AWESOME intro movie from the game itself, in HD. Turn off the lights, plop in your headphones, watch it full screen!!!!
Oyeah.
Friday, November 07, 2008
-- Windows 7 (edited Nov 9)
Windows 7 is the next windows after Windows Vista, which will probably be available late 2009 or early 2010.
If you're thinking it's too soon for a new one, it's just that the period of development till the release of Vista from XP took too long (7 years). Try thinking back to the Windows 95-2000 era... oh yeah.
So what's to be excited about Windows 7? Think Windows Vista done right, not Vista SP3 (Vista SP2 will be released next year). Lots of juicy details was revealed about the next Windows at PDC 2008 (Professional Developers Conference).
Images taken from:
Neowin's PDC coverage >> http://www.neowin.net/news/category/live/pdc (videos too) and
Paul Thurrott's Windows 7 previews >> http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/
If you're expecting heavy visual changes like XP to Vista, then no, it's not happening. Windows 7 is mainly focused on polishing up Vista on the surface, as Vista already brought major changes under the hood too (which brought many compatibility issues).
Revamped Taskbar and Notification Area (system tray)
As you can see from the image above, the major visual (and usability) change is the taskbar in Windows 7. It's thicker, and uses icons only, and comes with an improved system tray.
Edited: 9 Nov. Partly as a reply to WenDi,
Just to show how un-docky the taskbar is (it's dubbed the Superbar now actually), here's how it can look like.
Small icons, with text labels. You wouldn't notice it's the new taskbar wouldn't you?
Other than the window previews, there's a progress bar integrated into the icon "box" too.
Definitely not a blatant dock copy.
Start button and menu
Let's take a look from left to right, starting with the Start button and menu.
The Start button gets some animation. The 4 colors actually "glows out" when moused over (there's a video of this later under Jump List).
In Windows 7's Start menu, you can now add your own shortcuts to the RIGHT SIDE (the blackish transparent part), like Videos for example (which went missing in Vista).
The Search function in the Start menu now displays the results in the whole Start menu, instead of just at the left side in Vista.
Taskbar icons
And to (simply) clarify the next few icons to the right. Icons without borders sit at there like Quick Launch shortcuts. But once started up, there is a border to indicate it is a running application (akin to the blob under the icon in a Dock).
And in a case of multiple opened windows, the border becomes layered as seen directly above. And in Internet Explorer's case, multiple tabs.
New Window Previews
Here are the window previews brought over from Vista (which is one of Aero's features), but improved upon.
Since windows from the same application are grouped together now, there is a need to differentiate them from the taskbar.
>> In Vista, if "group similar taskbar buttons" is used, when you hover your pointer, you get this stacked thumbnail (seen on the right). Which is useless and makes it hard to manage the grouped windows (and why i don't use this option).
In Windows 7, there are multiple previews as seen above. And to differentiate more, there are text labels above the preview. AND... the thumbnails are there to be clicked on.
And as you can see at the example above, it's Internet Explorer (IE8 to be exact) with multiple previews, and those previews are taken from IE8's opened tabs, not because of multiple IE8 running. Nice integration... which hopefully Firefox can make use of. (though i question what will happen if there are more than 10 tabs opened, which is normal these days).
These certainly eased my worries of ditching trusty old taskbar into something dock-ish... which IMHO, is more suitable as a application launcher only. And well... it gets better than this!!! a continuation of Window Previews below...
Window Previews with Aero Peek
In Vista, Aero was clearly underused (the most useful being the live previews). With Aero Peek, Microsoft made good use of transparency together with the window previews. Which is...
Pausing over the thumbnail brings the window forward. Ofcoz, best explained through the video, below.
Really well thought out i must say.
Jump List
A new feature to Windows 7 is Jump List. Jump List contains commonly used features or in Paul Thurrott's words "commonly-needed actions that are associated with the object you're clicking".
Windows 7 -savvy apps (like WMP12 down there) are able to put in more specific applications task while non-savvy ones still get a default list of actions. I'll have to see how this one turns out for normal apps.
To pull up a Jump List, just right click on an icon. Jump List are also available at the Start menu (it expands into the right side of the Start menu) and System Tray too. Take a look at the video below.
Taskbar Colored Hovering
And adding on some subtle difference when hovering over the icons...
Pretty cool.
Windows Media Player thumbnail toolbar
Less reason to bring up WMP, but useless for those already using WMP taskbar toolbar and those that don't use WMP.
I'm hoping Microsoft allows other applications to add in this kind of feature.
Though if you can't wait for Windows 7, you can shuffle the buttons NOW with this free app here >> http://nerdcave.webs.com/taskbarshuffle.htm. Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/95/98 supported.
Taskbar buttons sorting allowed (at last!!)
You can now sort the icons around according to your liking. I thought I would be able to sort around taskbar buttons in Vista... pfft... it's a wonder how this feature didn't struck Microsoft's mind earlier.
Though if you want sorting of taskbar buttons are tray icons NOW, grab Taskbar Shuffle >> http://nerdcave.webs.com/taskbarshuffle.htm
Notification Area improvement
[The official name for system tray is Notification Area... believe it. But for the sake of familiarity (myself included), i'll use system tray instead.]
Since connecting to a network is very much a part of our lives now, there's now a Jump List for quickly connecting to a network instead of needing a new window to select.
Also, to clamp down on system tray icons cluttering the taskbar. There's only 4 icons by default - Action Center (new to Windows 7, which is used to troubleshoot problems), Power, Network, and Volume. New icons are not displayed by default.
The option to change the behaviour is at "Control Panel > Notification Area Icons", where you can choose to - Show icon and notifications, Hide icon and notifications, and Show only notifications. You can also choose to display all icons as before ofcoz.
I'm liking this. Check out the short video below.
Desktop Gadgets
Vista's Sidebar is no more, and all the Gadgets are dropped on to the desktop straightaway (not that you can't pull the gadgets out of the Sidebar and on to the desktop already using Vista). Good riddance. Sidebar eats up too much precious workspace... but i still won't use it even if there's no Sidebar.
Windows XP users who want these kind of gadgets on their desktop can use Avedesk.
But to tell the truth, I wish Microsoft could've given a choice to hide gadget in another layer, like Mac OS's Dashboard. And Dashboard sure could use an option of leaving the gadgets on the desktop.
Now that the gadgets are at the desktop, there's a new feature to "peek into the desktop". Just mouse over the vertical rectangle beside the time and date...
...and the opened windows goes transparent. Click on the rectangle, and it'll "Show Desktop".
Just a fancy way show the desktop, but i think it's less jarring to have the window borders still there just take a peek, as opposed to Win-key + D keyboard shortcut.
Peek into Desktop in action...
I wish the fading animation would take longer so that it's less jarring.
And at here, i got lazy to write the other new stuffs coming to Windows 7, like...
very excited about it already.
Snap to Side
Talking bout native multi-touch support, there's this really useful feature called snap to side that is demonstrated together with touch in this video.
If it's not clear enough, this is what happened - drag a window to the top of your display, and it maximizes ; drag a window to the left of the display and it "docks", eating 50% of your screen ; drag to right, and it'll eat away the other 50%.
Really useful in some work related scenarios.
Aero Shake
And there's this little feature that wasn't demonstrated at all at PDC 2008...
Grab an active window, give it a shake, and all other non-active windows will minimize away. Hopefully there's a keyboard shortcut for this like Mac OS.
And as you can see in the video, you can have text beside the new bigger taskbar icons too, once launched.
If you're thinking it's too soon for a new one, it's just that the period of development till the release of Vista from XP took too long (7 years). Try thinking back to the Windows 95-2000 era... oh yeah.
So what's to be excited about Windows 7? Think Windows Vista done right, not Vista SP3 (Vista SP2 will be released next year). Lots of juicy details was revealed about the next Windows at PDC 2008 (Professional Developers Conference).
Images taken from:
Neowin's PDC coverage >> http://www.neowin.net/news/category/live/pdc (videos too) and
Paul Thurrott's Windows 7 previews >> http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/
If you're expecting heavy visual changes like XP to Vista, then no, it's not happening. Windows 7 is mainly focused on polishing up Vista on the surface, as Vista already brought major changes under the hood too (which brought many compatibility issues).
Revamped Taskbar and Notification Area (system tray)
As you can see from the image above, the major visual (and usability) change is the taskbar in Windows 7. It's thicker, and uses icons only, and comes with an improved system tray.
- From a purely Windows user perspective, the new Taskbar is some sort of a Quick Launch + classic Taskbar + group similar taskbar buttons combined.
- For Mac OS users, the new Taskbar works like a Dock, but with a very well thought out window previews (improvement from Vista) as you will see later.
(to be more specific, there are no widgets and magnify ofcoz) - For Linux users, the thickness makes it looks very much like KDE... and the similarity ends there, lol.
Edited: 9 Nov. Partly as a reply to WenDi,
Just to show how un-docky the taskbar is (it's dubbed the Superbar now actually), here's how it can look like.
Small icons, with text labels. You wouldn't notice it's the new taskbar wouldn't you?
Other than the window previews, there's a progress bar integrated into the icon "box" too.
Definitely not a blatant dock copy.
Start button and menu
Let's take a look from left to right, starting with the Start button and menu.
The Start button gets some animation. The 4 colors actually "glows out" when moused over (there's a video of this later under Jump List).
In Windows 7's Start menu, you can now add your own shortcuts to the RIGHT SIDE (the blackish transparent part), like Videos for example (which went missing in Vista).
The Search function in the Start menu now displays the results in the whole Start menu, instead of just at the left side in Vista.
Taskbar icons
And to (simply) clarify the next few icons to the right. Icons without borders sit at there like Quick Launch shortcuts. But once started up, there is a border to indicate it is a running application (akin to the blob under the icon in a Dock).
And in a case of multiple opened windows, the border becomes layered as seen directly above. And in Internet Explorer's case, multiple tabs.
New Window Previews
Here are the window previews brought over from Vista (which is one of Aero's features), but improved upon.
Since windows from the same application are grouped together now, there is a need to differentiate them from the taskbar.>> In Vista, if "group similar taskbar buttons" is used, when you hover your pointer, you get this stacked thumbnail (seen on the right). Which is useless and makes it hard to manage the grouped windows (and why i don't use this option).
In Windows 7, there are multiple previews as seen above. And to differentiate more, there are text labels above the preview. AND... the thumbnails are there to be clicked on.
And as you can see at the example above, it's Internet Explorer (IE8 to be exact) with multiple previews, and those previews are taken from IE8's opened tabs, not because of multiple IE8 running. Nice integration... which hopefully Firefox can make use of. (though i question what will happen if there are more than 10 tabs opened, which is normal these days).
These certainly eased my worries of ditching trusty old taskbar into something dock-ish... which IMHO, is more suitable as a application launcher only. And well... it gets better than this!!! a continuation of Window Previews below...
Window Previews with Aero Peek
In Vista, Aero was clearly underused (the most useful being the live previews). With Aero Peek, Microsoft made good use of transparency together with the window previews. Which is...
Pausing over the thumbnail brings the window forward. Ofcoz, best explained through the video, below.
Really well thought out i must say.
Jump List
A new feature to Windows 7 is Jump List. Jump List contains commonly used features or in Paul Thurrott's words "commonly-needed actions that are associated with the object you're clicking".
Windows 7 -savvy apps (like WMP12 down there) are able to put in more specific applications task while non-savvy ones still get a default list of actions. I'll have to see how this one turns out for normal apps.
To pull up a Jump List, just right click on an icon. Jump List are also available at the Start menu (it expands into the right side of the Start menu) and System Tray too. Take a look at the video below.
Taskbar Colored Hovering
And adding on some subtle difference when hovering over the icons...
Pretty cool.
Windows Media Player thumbnail toolbar
Less reason to bring up WMP, but useless for those already using WMP taskbar toolbar and those that don't use WMP.
I'm hoping Microsoft allows other applications to add in this kind of feature.
Though if you can't wait for Windows 7, you can shuffle the buttons NOW with this free app here >> http://nerdcave.webs.com/taskbarshuffle.htm. Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/95/98 supported.
Taskbar buttons sorting allowed (at last!!)
You can now sort the icons around according to your liking. I thought I would be able to sort around taskbar buttons in Vista... pfft... it's a wonder how this feature didn't struck Microsoft's mind earlier.
Though if you want sorting of taskbar buttons are tray icons NOW, grab Taskbar Shuffle >> http://nerdcave.webs.com/taskbarshuffle.htm
Notification Area improvement
[The official name for system tray is Notification Area... believe it. But for the sake of familiarity (myself included), i'll use system tray instead.]
Since connecting to a network is very much a part of our lives now, there's now a Jump List for quickly connecting to a network instead of needing a new window to select.
Also, to clamp down on system tray icons cluttering the taskbar. There's only 4 icons by default - Action Center (new to Windows 7, which is used to troubleshoot problems), Power, Network, and Volume. New icons are not displayed by default.
The option to change the behaviour is at "Control Panel > Notification Area Icons", where you can choose to - Show icon and notifications, Hide icon and notifications, and Show only notifications. You can also choose to display all icons as before ofcoz.
I'm liking this. Check out the short video below.
Desktop Gadgets
Vista's Sidebar is no more, and all the Gadgets are dropped on to the desktop straightaway (not that you can't pull the gadgets out of the Sidebar and on to the desktop already using Vista). Good riddance. Sidebar eats up too much precious workspace... but i still won't use it even if there's no Sidebar.
Windows XP users who want these kind of gadgets on their desktop can use Avedesk.
But to tell the truth, I wish Microsoft could've given a choice to hide gadget in another layer, like Mac OS's Dashboard. And Dashboard sure could use an option of leaving the gadgets on the desktop.
Now that the gadgets are at the desktop, there's a new feature to "peek into the desktop". Just mouse over the vertical rectangle beside the time and date...
...and the opened windows goes transparent. Click on the rectangle, and it'll "Show Desktop".
Just a fancy way show the desktop, but i think it's less jarring to have the window borders still there just take a peek, as opposed to Win-key + D keyboard shortcut.
Peek into Desktop in action...
I wish the fading animation would take longer so that it's less jarring.
And at here, i got lazy to write the other new stuffs coming to Windows 7, like...
- new "My Documents" which will be called Libraries (e.g. Pictures Library, Videos Library), together with the new Homegroup for easier file sharing across a network.
(Yes, it'll be a pain in the arse for those who just learned Vista's folder structure) - Device Stage, so that I don't have to use NOKIA PC Suite anymore.
- new lightweight WMP12,
- improved and added features for Calculator,
- Wordpad and Paint gets the ribbon called Scenic Ribbon, like Office 2007.
- Native multi-touch support and also improved hand writing recognition (think writing down a calculation and it'll calculate for you), which will give more power to tablets.
very excited about it already.
Snap to Side
Talking bout native multi-touch support, there's this really useful feature called snap to side that is demonstrated together with touch in this video.
If it's not clear enough, this is what happened - drag a window to the top of your display, and it maximizes ; drag a window to the left of the display and it "docks", eating 50% of your screen ; drag to right, and it'll eat away the other 50%.
Really useful in some work related scenarios.
Aero Shake
And there's this little feature that wasn't demonstrated at all at PDC 2008...
Grab an active window, give it a shake, and all other non-active windows will minimize away. Hopefully there's a keyboard shortcut for this like Mac OS.
And as you can see in the video, you can have text beside the new bigger taskbar icons too, once launched.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
-- F***king click!
Looks like dumping dedicated buttons on the new MacBooks was a bad idea. Some people are reporting that the click is not registering, or it being inconsistent.
I myself thought it was brilliant having such a huge touchpad... but meh... i was wrong.
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/05/apple-probably-prepping-a-patch-for-mysterious-clicking-issue/
On the other hand...
Justin Long at a table with piles of cash on it.
MAC: "I'm sorting out my finances. Mock Vista, mock Vista, mock Vista... fix launch problems. Mock Vista, mock Vista, mock Vista"
PC: "It seems everything you've launched this year has had problems."
MAC: "You're right - I'd better put it all into mocking Vista"
[Justin Long is the Mac guy in the Mac vs PC ads if you didn't know. Joke from a poster at Engadget. Brilliant one i say]
I myself thought it was brilliant having such a huge touchpad... but meh... i was wrong.
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/05/apple-probably-prepping-a-patch-for-mysterious-clicking-issue/
On the other hand...
Justin Long at a table with piles of cash on it.
MAC: "I'm sorting out my finances. Mock Vista, mock Vista, mock Vista... fix launch problems. Mock Vista, mock Vista, mock Vista"
PC: "It seems everything you've launched this year has had problems."
MAC: "You're right - I'd better put it all into mocking Vista"
[Justin Long is the Mac guy in the Mac vs PC ads if you didn't know. Joke from a poster at Engadget. Brilliant one i say]
Thursday, October 30, 2008
-- BigDog Beta
Still remember the rather creepy but amazing quadruped robot - BigDog? If not, here's a reminder how cool it balances itself in complex terrains and situations.
How did they manage to do that? Let's take a look back at BigDog Beta, with some early testing footage.
Pretty amazing isn't it? hahaha. Check out RHex, also by Boston Dynamics... feisty little thing it is.
How did they manage to do that? Let's take a look back at BigDog Beta, with some early testing footage.
Pretty amazing isn't it? hahaha. Check out RHex, also by Boston Dynamics... feisty little thing it is.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
-- Mac vs PC : Musical
While Apple's "Mac vs PC" ads serve to fuel the fanboys war, how about a musical... yes, musical, that brings a message of "What can't we just get along..."
Beware of heavy gore before cuddles... NSFW.
Though admittedly, amongst the 3 new "Mac vs PC" ads, these 2 are rather funny... haha
(this one is kinda ironic actually, think about it)
Those 2 above are direct attack at Microsoft $300 million ad campaign... featuring these 3 ads below. 300 million!! yeap, hence the 2nd ad above. And try to listen out for the word "Vista" in the 3 ads below... lol.
(clearly, this ad in itself is to counter Apple's earlier "Mac vs PC"ads)
The next two ads feature, Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld (which aired earlier than the one above). There's no clear message from these Seinfeld ads though, interpret them as you see fit... but they are kinda funny in itself (if Seinfeld comedy is your taste).
And I just have to mention this if you haven't noticed yet - Apple's ads are Microsoft/Vista bashing (instead of focusing on Macs or Leopard's good points), while Microsoft's ads are... well, redeeming itself. But that's not to say that the ads aren't effective.
Beware of heavy gore before cuddles... NSFW.
Though admittedly, amongst the 3 new "Mac vs PC" ads, these 2 are rather funny... haha
(this one is kinda ironic actually, think about it)
Those 2 above are direct attack at Microsoft $300 million ad campaign... featuring these 3 ads below. 300 million!! yeap, hence the 2nd ad above. And try to listen out for the word "Vista" in the 3 ads below... lol.
(clearly, this ad in itself is to counter Apple's earlier "Mac vs PC"ads)
The next two ads feature, Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld (which aired earlier than the one above). There's no clear message from these Seinfeld ads though, interpret them as you see fit... but they are kinda funny in itself (if Seinfeld comedy is your taste).
And I just have to mention this if you haven't noticed yet - Apple's ads are Microsoft/Vista bashing (instead of focusing on Macs or Leopard's good points), while Microsoft's ads are... well, redeeming itself. But that's not to say that the ads aren't effective.
Friday, October 03, 2008
-- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Nokia has officially unveiled their first S60 touchscreen phone. And if you still didn't know, you've most probably seen it first in Batman: Dark Knight, when Morgan Freeman's character used it as a jammer.
At the core, it's the same old OS - Symbian S60, but 5th Edition (my N82 is S60 3rd edition, and they skipped no.4 due to us Chinese, ahaha). However, lots of tweaks has been done to make it suitable for finger-based touch, like button and icon size increment.
The height and width is exactly like my N82, but thinner. So it's not exactly very small either. Ah, but it's lighter.
The display is 3.2" with a good whooping 640x360 resolution (not as high as Touch HD, but definitely better than iPhone). And it comes with all the features you can expect from a Nokia, like Wi-fi, A-GPS, 3.2mp Carl Zeiss camera, 3.5mm jack...
Specs wise, this phone is very good for its price. At about RM1300+ before tax (direct convert, so i expect RM1500), you get all those features. Compare that to other touch based phones...
And note that this is NOT Nokia's flagship touchscreen phone, it's actually a mainstream phone. Which is why it's a XpressMusic, not N series.
Input can be done via finger, stylus (as seen above), or the plectrum. Stylus is used for handwriting input, while plectrum can be used if you're too lazy to pull out the stylus or don't want to smudge your screen.
If you're wondering why didn't Nokia dump the "old-fashioned-stylus", it's because Nokia's market is not US of A (iPhone land), but EU and Asia (where handwriting recognition is still used).
Anyway, head over to Jen's buddy's site >> http://symbian.smashpop.net/ to get some videos on some finger navigation. Let's just say, it's no where near as good as iPhone, but this is their 1st S60 touch afterall, and i think it's a job well done.
Or here's an official demo by Nokia themselves... which doesn't help make it look easy to use...
At the core, it's the same old OS - Symbian S60, but 5th Edition (my N82 is S60 3rd edition, and they skipped no.4 due to us Chinese, ahaha). However, lots of tweaks has been done to make it suitable for finger-based touch, like button and icon size increment.
The height and width is exactly like my N82, but thinner. So it's not exactly very small either. Ah, but it's lighter.
The display is 3.2" with a good whooping 640x360 resolution (not as high as Touch HD, but definitely better than iPhone). And it comes with all the features you can expect from a Nokia, like Wi-fi, A-GPS, 3.2mp Carl Zeiss camera, 3.5mm jack...
Specs wise, this phone is very good for its price. At about RM1300+ before tax (direct convert, so i expect RM1500), you get all those features. Compare that to other touch based phones...
And note that this is NOT Nokia's flagship touchscreen phone, it's actually a mainstream phone. Which is why it's a XpressMusic, not N series.
Input can be done via finger, stylus (as seen above), or the plectrum. Stylus is used for handwriting input, while plectrum can be used if you're too lazy to pull out the stylus or don't want to smudge your screen.
If you're wondering why didn't Nokia dump the "old-fashioned-stylus", it's because Nokia's market is not US of A (iPhone land), but EU and Asia (where handwriting recognition is still used).
Anyway, head over to Jen's buddy's site >> http://symbian.smashpop.net/ to get some videos on some finger navigation. Let's just say, it's no where near as good as iPhone, but this is their 1st S60 touch afterall, and i think it's a job well done.
Or here's an official demo by Nokia themselves... which doesn't help make it look easy to use...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
-- new touches
HTC has just officially unveiled 3 new PDA phones into the Touch family.
All tech geeks including even iPhone 3G users are focused on Touch HD, no doubt due to its whopdeedodily humongous screen. The display is...
Despite having (almost) the same dimensions as iPhone 3G, HTC managed to pack in features better than the iPhone, giving it a good spanking, spec to spec, everywhere.
Also, the features that Windows Mobile users get to enjoy ever since... ever since, while Apple haven't got to implement yet and also purposely crippled...
The only downside... it's heavier than iPhone 3G (which is already heavy enough).
>> http://www.htc.com/www/default.aspx
- Touch Viva, for people on budget,
- Touch 3G, adding 3G to the original Touch, but remaining relatively light (96g only),
- and Touch HD, the king of touchscreen Windows Mobile devices.
All tech geeks including even iPhone 3G users are focused on Touch HD, no doubt due to its whopdeedodily humongous screen. The display is...
- 3.8 inches (iPhone's 3.5 inches)
- 480x800 in resolution (iPhone's meager - 320x480)
Despite having (almost) the same dimensions as iPhone 3G, HTC managed to pack in features better than the iPhone, giving it a good spanking, spec to spec, everywhere.
- main 5 megapixels camera with autofocus (iPhone's 2MP fixed focus)
- front VGA camera (or 640x480 or 0.3MP, which even my N82 can't do)
- HSDPA 7.2Mbps support (while Steve Jobs is only touting 3G!?)
- microSD slot
- Pocket Office (yes, it can edit Office files)
- and more... like FM, TV-out...
Also, the features that Windows Mobile users get to enjoy ever since... ever since, while Apple haven't got to implement yet and also purposely crippled...
- COPY and PASTE!!! (no kidding...)
- FULL Bluetooth features with A2DP support!! (so you can freely transfer anything to anyone, and can use the Bluetooth headset of your choice)
- FREEDOM to install any software you want (without having to jailbreak)
The only downside... it's heavier than iPhone 3G (which is already heavy enough).
>> http://www.htc.com/www/default.aspx
Saturday, September 13, 2008
-- The future of inks
Esquire, October issue...
Now... imagine the future of pr0n mag...
..
...
Well... not so bright...
It's just limited to black (grey?) and white, as seen in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. And the one on the mag is really simple, it just lights up the "backdrop". *hopes shattered*...
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ink
Anyway, off topic... TechSpank "episode 2" (just started up hence the low views, but professionally done show, and i like this wacky guy), somehow... featured our local blogger-turned-politician - Jeff Ooi of Screenshots. Check it out.
Oh well... just a flash, but I'd like to know the reason he/they chose Jeff Ooi... lol.
And i'll say it here. I like Facebook's new tabbed layout. I want a quick look at someone's Feed and Info, i can view them straight... frikkin EASY!! instead of having to frikkin search through thousands of frikkin applications to look for that frikkin "misplaced" Info.
Now... imagine the future of pr0n mag...
..
...
Well... not so bright...
It's just limited to black (grey?) and white, as seen in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. And the one on the mag is really simple, it just lights up the "backdrop". *hopes shattered*...
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ink
Anyway, off topic... TechSpank "episode 2" (just started up hence the low views, but professionally done show, and i like this wacky guy), somehow... featured our local blogger-turned-politician - Jeff Ooi of Screenshots. Check it out.
Oh well... just a flash, but I'd like to know the reason he/they chose Jeff Ooi... lol.
And i'll say it here. I like Facebook's new tabbed layout. I want a quick look at someone's Feed and Info, i can view them straight... frikkin EASY!! instead of having to frikkin search through thousands of frikkin applications to look for that frikkin "misplaced" Info.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
-- Let's Rock... not
Apple's event this year is named Let's Rock... clearly an overstatement. Trying to outdo themselves each year is nto an easy job afterall. Let's take a quick look at the refreshes...
Shuffle, refreshed again with new colors.
It's a refresh of the older duller colors, which is now... much less duller. But overall, I'd say i like the new colors much more than the older ones.
Classic - 6th generation refreshed, a bump from 80GB and a drop from 160GB.
Now only available in 120GB. Thinner than before. And new Genius feature (along with iTunes 8).
Why only 120GB? Most probably Samsung or whoever the HDD manufacturer came out with a thinner drive, which also explains why Microsoft released a new 120GB Zune.
Nano - 4th generation, back to 2nd generation retro.
Comes with accelerometer for auto landscape/potrait rotate. New UI with Genius feature. Only 8GB and 16GB now.
The new UI definitely has the iPhone/iPod touch looks to it. And the screen is still the same 2" that you get in the fatty 3rd generation Nano.
Not forgetting, curved edge and still thinner than last gen (there must be a limit someday!).
Touch 2nd generation, praised.
Now with the curved edges like the iPhone 3G, obviously. Thinner (or feels thinner due to the curved edges). Dedicated volume buttons at the side!! Speaker!! Nike+ integration!! (shoes transmitter thingy). Same 8GB, 16GB, 32GB.
The black plastic patch is Wi-Fi antenna (if you're wondering why, it's because radio waves can't go through metal), looks more integrated now.
Volume buttons are godsend if you've used the 1st gen touch. Imagine having to press the Home button twice to bring up volume control, and then u'll have to look at the screen to control it.
As for speaker, take not there's no dedicated hole for it, so the quality is questionable.
The BEST PART is... the price point shifted down. In USD, it's a 100$ drop. For Malaysians, (most probably) new 32GB will get old 16GB's price... and so on and so forth.
Do check out Touch's gallery and give the 360 view a spin... very cool.
iTunes 8, +Genius, ~combined List and Album Art view, +Grid view
Genius
First thing, the Genius feature... which "...makes playlist from songs in your library that go great together", which I shall not bother using.
It requires Internet connection, collects information, recommends songs from iTunes store (wtf!), so NO, i myself know what kind of songs i like and go great together... and i buy CDs.
List View (with Album Art)
Apple did away with the Album Art view, and combined it with List view.
The arrow button circled in red toggles the display of the album art. I personally have some playlist in List view and some in Album Art view, and iTunes auto hide list that do not have Album Arts... neat.
And overall, the scrolling through the new List view with album arts is smooth, unlike the now gone Album Art view, which is a little jerky.
Grid View
Then, the new Grid view... which was already available in WMP11 a long time ago.
A slider controls the thumbnail size. 1st time starting up iTunes 8 will create this thumbnails, which will take a while or forever, depending on your arts collection.
To play a song from the Grid view,
- hover on top of the thumbnail and a Play Album/Artist/Genre icon will appear,
- clicking on it will randomly play a song under the Album/Artist/Genre.
If there are multiple entries underneath (like if I sort by Artist, with multiple albums under it), moving the cursor above the thumnail will scroll through the images like on OSX.
Double clicking the thumbnail will bring you to List view with that Album only.
Now... complains!
- as you can see, I'm playing the song - 牛仔很忙 (niu zai hen mang),
- but there's no speaker icon beside the song (as pointed out in the above image).
- and, a click at the "point to the song" button brings me to the List view
- why? because I played it from List view.
- If you play the song from List view or Cover flow view, you can see the speaker icon on both. But you can't see it in Grid view. And it points back to List or Cover flow, depending on which u played it from.
- If you play the song from Gird view, you can see the speaker icon in Grid view, but not the other two. And it points back to Gird view.
So,as you can see, it's sort of "separated" and looks pretty slapped on. Hopefully this gets corrected soon. And don't put your hopes up on iTunes 8 being lighter on the memory.
Images retrieved from
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
Shuffle, refreshed again with new colors.
It's a refresh of the older duller colors, which is now... much less duller. But overall, I'd say i like the new colors much more than the older ones.
Classic - 6th generation refreshed, a bump from 80GB and a drop from 160GB.
Now only available in 120GB. Thinner than before. And new Genius feature (along with iTunes 8).
Why only 120GB? Most probably Samsung or whoever the HDD manufacturer came out with a thinner drive, which also explains why Microsoft released a new 120GB Zune.
Nano - 4th generation, back to 2nd generation retro.
Comes with accelerometer for auto landscape/potrait rotate. New UI with Genius feature. Only 8GB and 16GB now.
The new UI definitely has the iPhone/iPod touch looks to it. And the screen is still the same 2" that you get in the fatty 3rd generation Nano.
Not forgetting, curved edge and still thinner than last gen (there must be a limit someday!).
Touch 2nd generation, praised.
Now with the curved edges like the iPhone 3G, obviously. Thinner (or feels thinner due to the curved edges). Dedicated volume buttons at the side!! Speaker!! Nike+ integration!! (shoes transmitter thingy). Same 8GB, 16GB, 32GB.
The black plastic patch is Wi-Fi antenna (if you're wondering why, it's because radio waves can't go through metal), looks more integrated now.
Volume buttons are godsend if you've used the 1st gen touch. Imagine having to press the Home button twice to bring up volume control, and then u'll have to look at the screen to control it.
As for speaker, take not there's no dedicated hole for it, so the quality is questionable.
The BEST PART is... the price point shifted down. In USD, it's a 100$ drop. For Malaysians, (most probably) new 32GB will get old 16GB's price... and so on and so forth.
Do check out Touch's gallery and give the 360 view a spin... very cool.
iTunes 8, +Genius, ~combined List and Album Art view, +Grid view
Genius
First thing, the Genius feature... which "...makes playlist from songs in your library that go great together", which I shall not bother using.
It requires Internet connection, collects information, recommends songs from iTunes store (wtf!), so NO, i myself know what kind of songs i like and go great together... and i buy CDs.
List View (with Album Art)
Apple did away with the Album Art view, and combined it with List view.
The arrow button circled in red toggles the display of the album art. I personally have some playlist in List view and some in Album Art view, and iTunes auto hide list that do not have Album Arts... neat.
And overall, the scrolling through the new List view with album arts is smooth, unlike the now gone Album Art view, which is a little jerky.
Grid View
Then, the new Grid view... which was already available in WMP11 a long time ago.
A slider controls the thumbnail size. 1st time starting up iTunes 8 will create this thumbnails, which will take a while or forever, depending on your arts collection.
To play a song from the Grid view,
- hover on top of the thumbnail and a Play Album/Artist/Genre icon will appear,
- clicking on it will randomly play a song under the Album/Artist/Genre.
If there are multiple entries underneath (like if I sort by Artist, with multiple albums under it), moving the cursor above the thumnail will scroll through the images like on OSX.
Double clicking the thumbnail will bring you to List view with that Album only.
Now... complains!
- Black background is very jarring from iTunes' majority light color.
- Grid View is a seperate entity to List and Cover flow view.
- as you can see, I'm playing the song - 牛仔很忙 (niu zai hen mang),
- but there's no speaker icon beside the song (as pointed out in the above image).
- and, a click at the "point to the song" button brings me to the List view
- why? because I played it from List view.
- If you play the song from List view or Cover flow view, you can see the speaker icon on both. But you can't see it in Grid view. And it points back to List or Cover flow, depending on which u played it from.
- If you play the song from Gird view, you can see the speaker icon in Grid view, but not the other two. And it points back to Gird view.
So,as you can see, it's sort of "separated" and looks pretty slapped on. Hopefully this gets corrected soon. And don't put your hopes up on iTunes 8 being lighter on the memory.
Images retrieved from
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
Saturday, September 06, 2008
-- Nano 4G
Original post - 8/31/08
Lots of rumor flying around regarding iPod nano's new looks...
This one below is just a mock up by someone.
The "craziest" decision would be the curved front (if this is real), which would introduce more glare to the screen.
And this strap above further reinforces the new nano's shape and look... (or maybe some idiot is just too free). Coming this September (as usual).
3rd link for 3D rendering by someone else.
Retrieved from:
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042519/new-ipod-nano-mock+up-takes-the-sting-out-of-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042034/is-this-case-for-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5040823/kevin-rose-ipod-rumors-price-cut-new-itunes-80-features-and-tall-rounded-nano
Added part - 9/6/08
A few days later only... and we get this early casing shot...
another render...
and... whoo! spy shot! looks real enough.
This and the new iPods coming real soon - Tuesday, Sept 9th
Retrieved from:
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/01/hands-on-with-hamas-ipod-nano-4g-case-at-ifa/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/04/yet-another-ipod-nano-4g-render-sure-why-not/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/ipod-nano-4g-leaked-in-actual-factual-really-real-spy-photo/
Lots of rumor flying around regarding iPod nano's new looks...
This one below is just a mock up by someone.
The "craziest" decision would be the curved front (if this is real), which would introduce more glare to the screen.
And this strap above further reinforces the new nano's shape and look... (or maybe some idiot is just too free). Coming this September (as usual).
3rd link for 3D rendering by someone else.
Retrieved from:
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042519/new-ipod-nano-mock+up-takes-the-sting-out-of-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042034/is-this-case-for-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5040823/kevin-rose-ipod-rumors-price-cut-new-itunes-80-features-and-tall-rounded-nano
Added part - 9/6/08
A few days later only... and we get this early casing shot...
another render...
and... whoo! spy shot! looks real enough.
This and the new iPods coming real soon - Tuesday, Sept 9th
Retrieved from:
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/01/hands-on-with-hamas-ipod-nano-4g-case-at-ifa/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/04/yet-another-ipod-nano-4g-render-sure-why-not/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/ipod-nano-4g-leaked-in-actual-factual-really-real-spy-photo/
Sunday, August 31, 2008
-- Hari Kebangsaan...
Hari Kebangsaan?? pffft.
Happy Birthday Hatsune Miku!!
一周年おめでとう、ミクちゃん！
From the official blog (http://blog.piapro.jp/2008/08/post-101.html)
Who is she?
Crypton's singing synthesizer software, which is based on Yamaha's Vocaloid2.
What is Vocaloid?
Grabbed from wikipedia:
"Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody"
Well, that was Vocaloid, she's a Vocaloid 2. Yeah, she's a "singing software"...
. And her birthday is today... 
How did she became so popular? Most probably started off with her songs getting lots of hits on NicoNicoDouga (whom today remains the greatest source for Miku song and videos) which was then spread far and wide by anime fans who frequent Nico.
This song became one of her earliest hit songs and sort of became the official "Miku song" for a quite a long time. (the other being leek spinning Ievan Polka)
Miku Miku Shite Ageru
(animated by fans)
Yeap, her popularity was totally driven by fans themselves - songs, arts, videos, paper figures... There's even a 3D animator called MikuMikuDance created specially by fans.
Official illustrations for Crypton by Kei (http://kei-garou.net/blog/archives/2007/08/vocaloid2.html)
Who's the other 2? More on them below.
More arts of Miku.
Below is one of her more professionally done hit song - Melt
Miku's voice can be adjusted to pronounced english words too, but it just won't be that accurate (but but, pretty accurate engrish
). There are also english Vocaloid-2s - Sweet Ann, Prima and Big Al... just not popular .
So, one year later, with her popularity established... we get a manga, cameo appearance in anime, figures!..
Figma series Miku
(Figma series are very posable, unlike normal static PVCs, hence the joints)
Nendoroid series Miku
Nendoroid Miku, joined in by her lil sis and bro, Kagamine Rin and Ren... also by Crypton
Talking bout Rin and Ren, they're also Vocaloid2, but the voice is provided by a different voice actress. Both got popular really quickly too because of Miku.
...and ofcoz, popular enough to be cosplayed!!
The Vocaloid family.
Miku's oniisan - Kaito (in blue) and oneesan - Meiko (in red)... they're from the 1st Vocaloid. Got pulled out from oblivion by Miku... hahaha.
And let's see the whole family in Nendoroid form dancing...
(also animated by fans ofcoz)
Two more? Yes, those two standing on top are the more popular derivatives of Miku:
- Yowane Haku (meaning "Speaking weak words") and
- Akita Neru (which sounds like "I’m tired. Gonna go to sleep").
If a song by Miku turns out bad... they take the blame, sort of...
Cosplays of them!
More derivatives!!
But I do know the pink hair drill girl on the right is Kasane Teto
亜北ネル、初音ミク、鏡音リン、MEIKO、KAITO、鏡音レン、弱音ハク
Akita Neru, Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Meiko, Kaito, Kagamine Ren, Yowane Haku
THE END
>> http://www.crypton.co.jp/mp/pages/prod/vocaloid/
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku#Hatsune_Miku
>> http://blog.piapro.jp/2008/08/post-101.html
>> http://kei-garou.net/blog/archives/2007/08/vocaloid2.html
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrome34/tags/vocaloid/
>> http://danbooru.donmai.us/wiki/show?nordirect=1&title=yowane_haku
>> http://danbooru.donmai.us/wiki/show?title=akita_neru
Happy Birthday Hatsune Miku!!
一周年おめでとう、ミクちゃん！
From the official blog (http://blog.piapro.jp/2008/08/post-101.html)
Who is she?
Crypton's singing synthesizer software, which is based on Yamaha's Vocaloid2.
What is Vocaloid?
Grabbed from wikipedia:
"Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody"
Well, that was Vocaloid, she's a Vocaloid 2. Yeah, she's a "singing software"...
. And her birthday is today... How did she became so popular? Most probably started off with her songs getting lots of hits on NicoNicoDouga (whom today remains the greatest source for Miku song and videos) which was then spread far and wide by anime fans who frequent Nico.
This song became one of her earliest hit songs and sort of became the official "Miku song" for a quite a long time. (the other being leek spinning Ievan Polka)
Miku Miku Shite Ageru
(animated by fans)
Yeap, her popularity was totally driven by fans themselves - songs, arts, videos, paper figures... There's even a 3D animator called MikuMikuDance created specially by fans.
Official illustrations for Crypton by Kei (http://kei-garou.net/blog/archives/2007/08/vocaloid2.html)
Who's the other 2? More on them below.
More arts of Miku.
Below is one of her more professionally done hit song - Melt
Miku's voice can be adjusted to pronounced english words too, but it just won't be that accurate (but but, pretty accurate engrish
). There are also english Vocaloid-2s - Sweet Ann, Prima and Big Al... just not popular .So, one year later, with her popularity established... we get a manga, cameo appearance in anime, figures!..
Figma series Miku
(Figma series are very posable, unlike normal static PVCs, hence the joints)
Nendoroid series Miku
Nendoroid Miku, joined in by her lil sis and bro, Kagamine Rin and Ren... also by Crypton
Talking bout Rin and Ren, they're also Vocaloid2, but the voice is provided by a different voice actress. Both got popular really quickly too because of Miku
....and ofcoz, popular enough to be cosplayed!!
The Vocaloid family.
Miku's oniisan - Kaito (in blue) and oneesan - Meiko (in red)... they're from the 1st Vocaloid. Got pulled out from oblivion by Miku... hahaha.
And let's see the whole family in Nendoroid form dancing...
(also animated by fans ofcoz)
Two more? Yes, those two standing on top are the more popular derivatives of Miku:
- Yowane Haku (meaning "Speaking weak words") and
- Akita Neru (which sounds like "I’m tired. Gonna go to sleep").
If a song by Miku turns out bad... they take the blame, sort of...
Cosplays of them!
More derivatives!!
But I do know the pink hair drill girl on the right is Kasane Teto
One last family group hug!!
亜北ネル、初音ミク、鏡音リン、MEIKO、KAITO、鏡音レン、弱音ハク
Akita Neru, Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Meiko, Kaito, Kagamine Ren, Yowane Haku
THE END
>> http://www.crypton.co.jp/mp/pages/prod/vocaloid/
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku#Hatsune_Miku
>> http://blog.piapro.jp/2008/08/post-101.html
>> http://kei-garou.net/blog/archives/2007/08/vocaloid2.html
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrome34/tags/vocaloid/
>> http://danbooru.donmai.us/wiki/show?nordirect=1&title=yowane_haku
>> http://danbooru.donmai.us/wiki/show?title=akita_neru
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