TechnologyIQ with Douglas E. Welch

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Computer and Technology Jobs Available - Search By Keywords and Location

Check out our list of Computer and Technology jobs (and others) available via SimplyHired.com.

Enter your location for jobs close to you. You can also search on other keywords.

Monday, June 03, 2013

Free Old Oak Tree Computer and Smartphone Wallpapers for June 2013

Here is a selection of free wallpapers for your computer desktop or smartphone. Right-click and select Save Image As… to download them to your own computer. On your smartphone, click the image to see the full-sized image, tap and hold, then select Save to Camera Roll. You can then attach the wallpapers using your phone's preferences.

Desktop Wallpaper

Download full-sized version

iPad/Tablet Wallpaper

Download full-sized iPad/Tablet wallpaper

iPhone4/Smartphone Wallpaper

Download full-sized iPhone 4 wallpaper

iPhone5/Smartphone Wallpaper

Download Full-sized iPhone 5 Wallpaper

Previous garden wallpapers:

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Video: Jack Sparx and his Electric Toys from Maker Faire 2008

From the Maker Faire Program...

Jack Sparx and his Electric Toys

Electricity you can see and feel will thrill those that come visit me! Small and medium Tesla coils, a large Van de Graff gnerator that will shock you if you like. Learn how a Jacob's Ladder is built and see one displayed. If you enjoy lightning storms, you'll have fun as we play with my high voltage toys!

Web site: http://www.jacksparx.com

Topic(s): Science

Tags: Tesla+Coil "Jacob's Ladder" " Van de Graff generator"

About the Maker(s)

John Dyer [jd3@dyerelectric.com]
Dyer Electric

The first word I said was plug! I have been involved with electricity all my life. I have had careers as an electrical contractor, radio engineer, audio engineer and many others. Born, raised, and remain in Sacramento. Built and exhibited art, a radio station and science at Burning Man and other venues around the area.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Dorkbot SoCal 53 - SoCal Hackerspace Tour - Crash Space, Venice, CA - Sunday, June 9, 2013

As part of the 2013 Dorkbot SoCal Hackerspace Tour...

Dorkbot SoCal 53

***** Sunday, June 9, 2013
***** 1:00pm to 3:00pm
***** Crash Space
***** http://crashspace.org
***** 10526 Venice Blvd.
***** Culver City, CA 90232
***** No cover charge / donations to venue welcome

Video from DropLabs, first stop on the Dorkbot SoCal Hackerspace Tour

Come to Crash Space and learn about the hackersapce and some of their exciting projects:

Flipbookit
Mechanical animation kit.

Crash Library
Arudino-powered outdoor mini-library that tweets when people take out a book.

Crash Inspired
Mobile interactive night club experience - 2K RGB LEDs - on a truck -
controlled with Twitter!

Crash Space is a hackerspace in Los Angeles, and is part of the growing global hackerspace movement. They are a collection of hackers, programmers, builders, makers, artists and people who generally like to break things and see what new things they can build with the pieces.

-- dorkbot: people doing strange things with electricity --

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Maker Faire 2008: Bicycle POV

From Maker Faire 2008

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

On my iPhone/Android…Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon Cloud Drive for iOS | Amazon Cloud Drive for Android

With all the cloud services available, I have can access to most of my data almost anywhere I might be and on whatever device I wish. That said, before Amazon Cloud Drive, I didn't have an easy way to automatically see all of my photos on my Kindle Fire. The larger screen on the Fire makes it a better tool for showing off photos than my iPhone and now, with this app, everything on my iPhone now syncs over to the Fire automatically. Now I am not limited to sharing photos with those devices that can access Apple's Photostream via iCloud.

Amazon cloud screen 2 Amazon cloud screen 1

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Video: Maker Faire 2008: Swarm

From the Maker Faire Program (http://makerfaire.com/pub/e/1091)

About the Maker(s): Marnia Johnston

SWARM is built to explore the aesthetic possibilities in the emergent behavior of artificial systems. As a first step, Orbs are remote-controlled by human operators, but each Orb's sounds and color illumination is algorithmically generated in response to location and motion. Each Orb has sophisticated navigational sensors including GPS, accelerometers, and rate gyros. We are progressing towards sophisticated navigational algorithms, much like those used in spacecraft, that allow each orb to determine its location with high accuracy. From this, we can explore emergent and cooperative behavior like flocking as well as new possibilities in machine choreography. SWARM is not a simulation. SWARM is a platform for art of the 21st century.

Link: http://wiki.orbswarm.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Video: Maker Faire 2008: High-Tech Sand Painting

Computer control, magnets, sand and a large ball bearing turn simple movement into art at Maker Faire 2008.

Can't see the video above? Watch directly on YouTube!

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

On my iPhone…Clear To-Do Manager

Clear To-Do Manager

Sometimes I think I have tried every to-do list manager on the planet, but when Starbucks offered of Clear for free today, I felt I needed to try it out. I had heard a lot about its elegant design and it certainly does look good. I have only played with it lightly so far, but I am liking the gesture-based interface and its easy to read design elements.

If you have yet to find a to-do list manager that works well for you, you might want to take a look at clear and see if it can help you get your tasks in order…and hopefully, done, as well.

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

[Career Tip 30] Group projects require some ground rules so you can "Get it done!" Learn more at http://welchwrite.com/career/2009/04/29/archive-get-it-done/

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Video: Places LA: Dorkbot at Droplabs - Co-working/Hackerspace/Technology and more!

Dorkbot.org (people doing strange things with electricity, mostly in Los Angeles) has begun their SoCal Hackerspace Tour with Droplabs, a co-working/hackerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. Join us on this quick tour of the space and the surrounding collection of artists/engineers/techs and more.

See more Places LA videos in this YouTube Playlist

For more information, visit:

Dorkbot: http://Dorkbot.org
Droplabs: http://droplabs.net

Find more technology content on TechnologyIQ with Douglas E. Welch at http://techiq.welchwrite.com.

For more episodes of PlacesLA, visit My Word with Douglas E. Welch (http://welchwrite.com/blog/category/places-la/)

Music: "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Computer and Technology Jobs Available - Search By Keywords and Location

Check out our list of Computer and Technology jobs (and others) available via SimplyHired.com.

Enter your location for jobs close to you. You can also search on other keywords.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

On my Mac/Windows PC…BitTorrent Sync

BitTorrent Sync

From the folks that brought you the equally praised and vilified BitTorrent file sharing technology comes a file syncing solution similar to DropBox and other product. BitTorrent Sync allows you to sync files between any number of computers without using an intermediary server or system. Computers communicate directly between each other using BitTorrent technology. One major benefit is that you aren't limited to the file storage provided by the company, like DropBox, but only your own local disk space.

BitTorrent Sync is released under the BItTorrent Labs banner and it is beta -- still a work in progress, but I wanted to give it a try to compare it to DropBox, which I have been using to share and deliver large video files to clients and friends. The basic functionality seems to work well and quickly and I continue to use it to see what issues may arise.

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

On My Mac/Windows PC is an on-going series highlighting the software (and sometimes, hardware) I use on my Mac nearly every day. Look for additional On My Mac…posts in the coming weeks! -- Douglas

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

On my iPhone/Android…Forecast.io weather information

Forecast.io

Forecast.io is another great looking weather "app" that really isn't an app at all, but rather a web app that works on nearly any platform including your desktop browser, iPhone and iPad and Android tablets.

The folks at Forecast.io obviously spent a lot of time on the design of this app, as it is quickly becoming one of my favorite sources for weather information. It is easy on the eyes and conveys a lot of information in a very clear fashion. I especially like the next hour/next 24 hour weather descriptions, which can help you make better decisions without delving into the detail of the weather report. I also find that the weather radar presentation is better than most other apps and sites on the market. The animation is clear and smooth and really gives you a great indication of what is happening. I only wish I could zoom in a little further like I can with WeatherUnderground.

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

My Favorite Technology Things for April 2013 - Douglas E. Welch

My Favorite Things

As always, let me know what types of interesting items you would like to see and I will keep an eye out for them especially. -- Douglas

Links to all of these items, and more, are on my Pinterest Feed.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

On my Mac/Windows PC…FollowShows

FollowShows

Despite the fact that most of "TV" viewing occurs via my Internet link (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, etc) there are still a few shows I like to catch on broadcast television. Since my viewing is so sporadic, I have been looking for a site like FollowShows for a long time. It does exactly what I wanted.

What do I want? I want a site to remind me when my favorite shows are bring broadcast, when it is a new episode and place those reminder right into my Google Calendar so I don't have to check yet another site. Much like the reason I subscribe to so many RSS feeds, I want this information to come to me instead of having to go out an find it. That is exactly what FollowShows does -- and it does it well. What more could you ask?

Sign up for a free account, add your favorite shows and away you go. Visit the calendar page and you will find a link to add whatever FollowShows finds directly to your online calendar. I use Google Calendar and it works very well, even placing the shows in the appropriate times for my time zone.

Another great feature is the links on each show pointing to where I might watch the episode online via Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and more.

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

On my iPhone…Over text overlay app

Over for iOS

An app that does one thing really well -- allow you to overlay text -- in a variety of fonts -- over your iPhone photos. I didn't have much use for this until I started doing a blog series entitled Garden Alphabet. In this series -- and hopefully an upcoming poster -- I highlight a plant or flower and overlay the name on the photo in an artistic fashion. I started with the free version of Over, entitled Overgram. This free app adds an Overgram watermark to each image and limits the number of fonts you can use, so once the series became a regular feature, I upgraded to the paid version. Here are 3 samples...

You can crop your photos into the square format desired by Instagram or you can use the full frame photo. Annotated pictures can be saved to your camera roll (and then to your computer) sent via email of forwarded off to Instagram and other services for further use.

Over is a an app for very specific uses, but if you have those needs, it is an excellent choice.

From the iTunes App Store...

Add beautiful text to your photos and share them on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & Instagram. Create inspirational, informational or even funny images to share quickly and easily. In only a few seconds you can add captions, quotes, jokes, memes, poems or anything else you can think of to a photo.

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Video: TechIQ First Impressions 3: Pixlr.com Image Editing Web App

Who needs Adobe Photoshop or other expensive image editing programs when you only really need or use a few basic features. Pixlr.com image editing web apps give you much the same functionality but for free and available from any web browser. Check out Pixlr in this First Impressions video from TechnologyIQ.

Link: http://pixlr.com

Can't see the video above? Watch "TechIQ First Impressions 3: Pixlr.com Image Editing Web App " on YouTube

Download "TechIQ First Impressions 3: Pixlr.com Image Editing Web App " - iPod Ready Video

Watch all my TechnologyIQ Videos

Please Like and/or subscribe to my channel. It directly effects how often this video is suggested to other YouTube viewers.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

On my Mac/Windows PC…Pixlr Image Edtiing Photo Editing Services

Pixlr Image Edtiing Photo Editing Services

Not everyone needs -- or can afford -- the high powered image editing suites by Adobe and other manufacturers. For myself, I find that I most often need to resize pictures, overlay text and crop images to be used on my blogs. Amazingly, Pixlr provides all these features, and more, in a smooth functioning and feature-rich web took. If you were to hide the web browser menus, you might think that you were using a native application on your Macintosh or Windows PC.

If you have ever user Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Elements, most commands, menu choices and tool palettes are right where you would expect them to be, making Pixlr and easy transition. As a computer consultant, having a good, free, tool to recommend to people with some basic image editing needs is great and I am sure I will also be using Pixlr a lot in the coming weeks and months.

Pixlr screen

Pixlr screen2

From the Pixlr web site...

Pixlr is the creator of online, mobile and desktop image tools and utilities. Today we have three applications in our suite: Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express and Pixlr-o-matic. They are built in Flash and you need to have the Flash plug-in (get flash) to get it to work, however, 98% of all computers have flash so you are probably set. We also provide screengrabbing tools Pixlr Grabber and one click photo sharing imm.io. Pixlr is now part of Autodesk, a global leader in innovative design software and services.

Link: Pixlr

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

On my iPhone/Android…Any.Do To-Do list Manager

Any.Do for iOS | Any.Do for Android

A good to-do list manager is a helpful tool for anyone and there are thousands of different apps available for your smartphone. Any.Do is a good looking, good operating to-do list manager that also works on your desktop computer to allow for easy entry and maintenance.

From the iTunes App Store...

Millions use Any.DO every day to remember all the tasks they want to-do and make sure they get them done. Key benefits: Seamless cloud sync, Speech recognition, Alerts, Any.DO Moment, Snooze tasks, Google Task Sync, Notes, Sub tasks, Amazing Widgets, Repeating / Recurring Tasks, Missed call, Auto complete, In app actions, Gesture support & much more!

Get the most out of Any.DO:

Beautiful & Functional - Any.DO is beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.

Always there when you need it - Any.DO syncs seamlessly with the cloud so you can stay on top of just about anything across all your devices.

Any.DO puts the power in your hands - Drag & drop to plan your agenda, swipe off a task to mark it as complete & shake your android to clear your completed tasks. It just feels right.

Speak your mind - Instead of typing just tap the microphone icon and say what you want to do. Any.DO will automatically convert your words into text in almost any language.

Type less, DO more - Mobile typing can be a hassle; Any.DO’s auto-suggest predicts what you want to do as you type it.

Any.DO works for you - Simply add a time based reminder for the things you want to do and Any.DO will remind you just at the right time. You can even try some repeat options.

Better together - Share lists with your friends, family, and colleagues to accomplish even more. Here are some ideas: A shared grocery list with your spouse, plan an event with your friends or just make sure you’re on top of an office project.

Any. DO is available in different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Russian, Arabic & Hebrew.

Anydo screen

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

Video: Tip - Creating a Perpetual Garden Calendar Journal using your computer calendar

A Tech Tip from my gardening blog, a Gardener's Notebook...

Agn artwork

Use Google Calendar (and others) to create a perpetual garden calendar journal to remind you of what blooms when from year to year.

What's happening in your garden? I'd love to know! Leave your questions and comments here or on any of the web and social media sites linked below!

Can't see the video above? Watch "Tip - Creating a Perpetual Garden Calendar Journal using your computer calendar " on YouTube

Watch the "A Gardener's Notebook" Playlist for all related videos

Please like this video and/or subscribe to my channel on YouTube. Your LIKES directly effect how many others will see this video.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

On my Mac/Windows PC…Google Drive

Google Drive

NewImage

Google Drive is Google's answer to a wide variety of productivity issues. First, it provides web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications. Since these are based "in the cloud" your documents are available from any computer or mobile device wherever you have an Internet connection. Over the last several years, I have transitioned over to using Google Docs almost exclusively for my writing and other data processing needs. Where before I used Word and Excel, today finds me using Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Since the documents are in the cloud, they are great for editing and collaboration. When I am working on shared projects, such as CareerCampLA and other unconferences, most of our work is accomplished within Google Docs with changes being reflected in near-realtime. Version control is also available allowing you to see what was changed, when, and by whom. I also use this feature when handing off my writing to my wife for editing. (She is a college professor as well as a professional writer in her own right.) No matter where she might be, she can give me a quick edit which I can access immediately, so I can move forward with the project,

Google Drive also offers features that allow you to store nearly any file online and share it or retrieve it remotely. A Google Drive app for Mac and Windows allows you to edit files locally, even when offline, and have those changes synced back to the cloud whenever you next have a network connection. This would allow you to work on an airplane and then sync those changes once you land.

Finally various automation services allow you create Forms that can be embedded into you web pages and then store their data in an online Google Spreadsheet automatically and there is also an API that can be used by 3rd party services like IFTTT (If This Then That) to store information from other online services. In my case, I use IFTTT to store a collection of everything I share online into a spreadsheet for archiving and later retrieval.

Google Drive is a powerful suite of tools that I find can replace a large collection of expensive, local applications. I use it in some way every day.

Link: Google Drive

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

On my iPhone/Android…Feedly RSS Reader

Feedly for iOS | Feedly for Android

With the coming shutdown of Google Reader -- of which I have always been a huge user -- I went looking for alternative RSS readers for my Mac, my iPhone and, in this case, my Kindle Fire. Luckily, the first app I tried seems to be working out quite well.

Feedly was originally developed to tie into Google Reader and present a nicer window into the data store there. They have already committed to developing their own backend data strategy when Reader closes for good, so I am pretty confident that I will stay with it for the foreseeable future.

The program also provides and even better reading experience than Google Reader, which is a very pleasant surprise.

Feedly screen

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more

Thursday, April 04, 2013

On My Mac/Windows PC…XBMC Open Source Media Center

XBMC

So much of the media we consume these days comes from our computers rather than the television. I have had my computer connected to my television for many years now, so that I could show YouTube, DVD's and other videos on the larger screen. XBMC makes it realtively easy to get many of the computer-based video services onto your big screen TV using whatever computer you have at hand.

In my case, I am using a new Mac Mini which has an HDMI port that plugs into my 46" LCD TV. When I run XBMC on my Mac, it presents a large, clean interface that allows me to browse videos from a number of sources and also show pictures, play music and more. On most days, I am watching many YouTube videos based on the channels I have subscribed to there. Most channels produce videos in 720p HD and above, so the content looks sharp and watching it from my easy chair is so much nicer than huddling over my laptop or desktop computer screen.

My laptop, iPhone or Android phone can function as a remote control, using the free XBMC Remote apps so watching "computer" TV is just as easy as watching broadcast television.

XBMC isn't as easy to set up or use as an all-in-one solution like devices from Roku or Boxee, but it has the ability to play a larger selection of video content such as live streams from TwitchTV and more.

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

On my iPhone/Android…Sleep Time by Azumio

Sleep Time for iOS | Sleep Time for Android

As I have gotten older, I have had more issues with my sleep. Perhaps it stems from the fact that I am a night owl where my wife and son are both early risers, but it seems like wake up more frequently during the night. There is also this odd issue where both my wife and I wake up around 4am nearly every night. We have never been able to find an exact reason for it and it seems to occur regardless of what time we got to bed in the evening.

I have been looking at various sleep tracking technologies lately, including the FitBit, but they seemed a little pricey to casually purchase them. Recently, though, I have been introduced to a series of iPhone apps by Azumio that track variety of health related information relatively inexpensively. I first tried out their Heart Rate app, and more recently their Stress Check app, both which were recently available for free due to a promotion. Both of these apps use the iPhone camera and flash to register your pulse and other info. When I was using these apps recently, I saw that they also have an app called Sleep Time ($0.99). Since I had had good experience with the others apps, I thought this might be interesting to try out this app for monitoring my sleep habits.

My iPhone sits next to my bed at night already, since I often use it as my alarm clock, so that presented no inconvenience. Using Sleep Time, though, requires that the phone be lying face down on the bed. In my case, I found a good spot for the phone on the corner of my bed where I could plug it into power and still have it far enough away from my pillow that I wouldn't bump into it during the night.

The Sleep Time app uses the iPhone accelerometers to monitor movement during the night and then correlates that movement into 3 modes -- awake, light sleep and deep/REM sleep. It logs how long you are in each mode and even graphs it nicely.
I used the app for the first time last night and you can see the results in the screen shot. It was very interesting that my typical 4am wakeup is graphed although I don't really remember waking up. I guess this means I wasn't as "awake" as I sometimes feel when that occurs. It also shows something else I assumed -- I have a little difficultly falling to sleep sometimes -- nearly 30 mins -- according to the graph.

I'll continue to use the app and see what other info it gathers over the coming weeks. Of course, since this is just an iPhone and not a high-end medical device, who knows how accurate the data truly is and how deep the science behind it. As an inveterate data logger and archive about my own life, it is yet another piece of information that is cool to know, even if it isn't terribly medically useful. Still, seeing my typical 4am wakeup captured seems to be a sign that the app is recording some useful data.

The app also includes an alarm clock that seeks to wake you up at the best time during your sleep cycle. You set the time you need to awake and the app will use a 30 minute window previous to that time -- hopefully when you are already moving into light sleep or awake time -- to ring your alarm. I know that I HATE being shaken awake by an alarm clock when I am deep in REM sleep -- to the point of feeling quite lousy when I awake -- some an alarm clock tied more closely to my natural sleep cycles would certainly be a benefit.

I will update you on my further experiences with Sleep Time. It looks pretty interesting right now.

All Azumio apps are downloadable from the iPhone App store or iTunes.

Link: Azumio.com

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more!

I used the app for the first time last night and you can see the results in the screen shot. It was very interesting that my typical 4am wakeup is graphed although I don't really remember waking up. I guess this means I wasn't as "awake" as I sometimes feel when that occurs. It also shows something else I assumed -- I have a little difficultly falling to sleep sometimes -- nearly 30 mins -- according to the graph.

I will update you on my further experiences with Sleep Time. It looks pretty interesting right now.

All Azumio apps are downloadable from the iPhone App store or iTunes.

Link: Azumio.com

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

My Favorite Technology Things for March 2013 - Douglas E. Welch

My Favorite Things

As always, let me know what types of interesting items you would like to see and I will keep an eye out for them especially. -- Douglas

Links to all of these items, and more, are on my Pinterest Feed.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

On my Mac/Windows PC…Handbrake - Rip DVD to MP4 files

Handbrake

I find that I need Handbrake less as DVDs become less popular, but there is still an occasion when I need to turn DVD formatted video into something that my computer can understand (and edit). Once converted, you can play the video on your computer, iPhone, iPad, Android tablet -- pretty much anywhere. You can import it into your favorite video editing program, re-mix it, add titles and such and then export it to what file format you wish.

Handbrake is probably the quickest and easiest way to perform this task. You insert the DVD, select which track you wish to convert and click Convert. Handbrake converts in faster than realtime, so an hour long video should only take 30 mins or so to convert, perhaps less.

Previously in On My Mac/Windows PC...

On my iPhone/Android…Angry Birds Seasons

Angry Birds Seasons for iOS | Angry Birds Seasons for Android

Here is a little fun when you need a break from all your mobile work. Angry Birds has been around for a while. I must say I have enjoyed these seasonal levels more than the standard Angry Birds games…and it was free! Additional holiday-themed levels have also been regularly release. Very cool for chilling out during whatever holidays you celebrate.

From the iTunes App Store...

"Angry Birds Seasons takes the captivating gameplay of the original to a whole new level! From Halloween to Chinese New Year, the birds are celebrating different festive seasons around the world! With more than 300 levels and regular free updates, these special episodes offer more challenging levels of pig-popping action and golden eggs to discover.

Angry birds seasons screen

Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…":

"On my iPhone…" is a new series from TechnologyIQ, sharing real world examples of how I use my iPhone, interesting apps and more!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cool Project: Android controlled Minecraft ores project

Discovered via HackADay...

Here is a cool project combining a bunch of my interests -- electronics, Minecraft, computers and more.

Android controlled Minecraft ores project

Minecraft ore project

[Ryan] has a friend with a birthday coming up, and being inspired by ever 12-year-olds favorite game, he decided to make a Minecraft ore block with RGB LEDs. The block can change from diamonds to emeralds via commands send from an Android phone.

[…]

Read entire article at HackADay

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Flipboard Mobile Magazine App now allows users to create their own magazines

I saw an announcement today from Flipboard, that their latest version for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) now allowed users to curate their own magazines and make them available for other Flipboard users. This is accomplished through the a new content curation and search system in the app or via a web bookmarklet.

A complete description of this new feature can be found in this blog post on the Flipboard site:

To test out the new features, I created magazines for each of my blogs and loaded the last several posts into them. Here are some screenshots from the iPhone version of the Flipboard app.

2013 03 26 19 46 35

To use the Flipboard +FlipIt (Add to Magazine) bookmarklet, you first drag the bookmarklet to your Bookmark Bar. Then load up the blog post or web page you wish to add to the magazine and click the bookmarklet. The screen below then allows you to create a new magazine, select an existing magazine and also share it to various social media sites.

One complaint on the publisher side is that Flipboard users cannot easily discover and add these new magazines to their Flipboard. They must do a search on the name or author of the magazine and then add it from there. I think a one-touch solution would be better for both the publisher and the end user.