TechnologyIQ

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... Send to Kindle Sketchup TextWrangler Disk Inventory X  |  WinDirStat iMovie Tweetdeck Celtx Scriptwriting Software LogMeIn Kindle Reader MarsEdit Blog Editor Cyberduck Minecraft Dropbox Garageband MPEG Streamclip...

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.   Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…": Trickle Passive Twitter Client Pinterest Stitcher Radio - Podcast management and playback imo Kindle Reader iMap Weather Radio Linked...

Discovered via HackADay ... Here is a cool project combining a bunch of my interests -- electronics, Minecraft, computers and more. Android controlled Minecraft ores 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

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.   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 s...

Send to Kindle    "Reading your documents and web content on Kindle is now easier than ever. Use Send to Kindle applications to read on your Kindle devices and free reading apps on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android." The truth is, despite my computer geek leanings, sometimes I like to kick back with a nice book (or ebook) and read unencumbered by my laptop. I have been using  a similar browser plugin in for Google Chrome  that allows me to send longer content to my Kindle for a while and I have really enjoyed it. It is a more comfortable experience for reading and, as a result, I seem to retain a bit more of what I have read, instead of just skimming the content. Clicking the Send to Kindle button (or using the browser add-ons) will format the blog post for easier reading on the Kindle and then send it to any of your registered devices. In my case, I can send it to my iPhone, my Kindle Touch, my Kindle Fire or the Kindle app on my Android phone. Previously in On My Ma...

Trickle for iOS Launch Trickle, log into your Twitter account, and your device becomes a Twitter wall displaying your timeline. Great for monitoring Twitter while doing something else. This allows me to get more information from Twitter since it is rare I have the time to monitor my Twitter timeline constantly.  Trickle works in either portrait or landscape mode. From the iTunes App Store... " Trickle is a passive Twitter client. Simply launch Trickle and let it do its thing. Trickle is NOT a full-featured Twitter client. Instead, Trickle is designed to do just one thing – display tweets. Tweets are displayed individually so they are easy to read. New Tweets will push in from the right as they arrive. Trickle handles all the work leaving you free to do other things. "   Previously in "On my iPhone/Android…": Pinterest Stitcher Radio - Podcast management and playback imo Kindle Reader iMap Weather Radio LinkedIn LiveStrong CalorieTracker Skype Fli...

Google finally unveiled its Google Keep service for real today, after an early reveal misstep last week, and it seems like everyone who was spreading rumors was really, really, wrong. So wrong, you have to wonder what they were thinking. Keep had been labelled an Evernote killer/replacement/competitor, but it seems obvious that many had no idea what they were talking about. For me, after a few minutes of playing around, it looks to be a minor update to the original Google Task To-Do Manager rather than the Evernote Killer some had proclaimed. Of course, this has always been a problem in the tech world. People take it upon themselves to over-hype something that is really fairly minor. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Keep has NOTHING to do with Evernote at all. There is no way to grab and archive web pages, tag notes or any of the many other services Evernote provides. Overall, I am not quite sure what all the hype was about. I think Google has been the victim of others try...

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Originally posted to Careers in New Media ... When sharing YouTube videos, we often just link to the entire video and let people decide what they want to watch. While this is fine for short videos, sometimes we would rather refer people to just a specific portion of a much longer video. Perhaps we are highlighting a quote, tip or idea. YouTube provides some basic tools for specifying a start time when linking or embedding a video, but with the addition of a few parameters to the video URL, you can direct viewers to a very specific segment. For example, if you are linking or embedding a video, you will see these options on the YouTube page: If you check the checkbox, you can either enter in a time, or the time will be taken from the point where you are currently viewing in the video. This results in a URL in the form of:  http://youtu.be/E-GekEZOwLQ?t=11m54s  . The video will start playing at this point and continue unit the end. If you want want to specify both a start and end t...

The latest update for Apple's iOS is now available for download and install directly on your device or via iTunes. This update contains an update to correct another passcode bypass and other smaller updates. See the video below for information on downloading and installing iPhone/iPad Updates.  

This post originally appeared in A Gardener's Notebook with Douglas E. Welch... One of my favorite gardening books, The New Sunset Western Garden Book , is now available for your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The price is $19.99 and I am thinking of purchasing it for my iPhone. I think and iPad would be more usable, though, due to its larger screen size. I'll have to look at some more iPhone screenshots to see how usable it might be. From the iTunes App Store... "Green thumbs go digital! Sunset Magazine's unparalleled reference guide for Western gardeners springs to life for iPad, iPhone, and the web on Inkling. Now, dig deeper with almost 30 how-to videos, more than 100 slideshows with high-res photography, easy navigation, and additional features and content not found in print. As the best-selling gardening book in the country, the New Sunset Western Garden Book is already the go-to resource for any gardener in the West. With the beloved print book rebuilt for y...

Sketchup Have you ever wanted to create a 3D model of something on your computer, even if you weren't a designer or engineer? Google Sketchup could be a program for you. Using an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, you can be designed rooms, buildings, devices and more in just a few minutes. This is a powerful program, though, so you might need some extra help to get started. Never fear. There are a ton of tutorial resources available online to help you learn the basics. Sketchup Video Tutorials on YouTube Free for Basic Version From the Sketchup Web Site... " Model anything you can imagine. Redecorate your living room. Invent a new piece of furniture. Model your city for Google Earth. There's no limit to what you can create with SketchUp. SketchUp makes 3D modeling fun. We believe powerful software can also be a pleasure to use – the secret is intuitive tools that work the way you think they should. Apparently, millions of people agree. See dozens of great Sk...

PInterest for iOS  |  PInterest  for Android One of my favorite aspects about Pinterest , the online social media and sharing site, is its visual nature. After hours of reading miles of text in web pages, ebooks and more, glancing through some pictures to find neat stuff to use and share is a great change. Further, scanning through visual information like this seems almost perfectly designed for iOS and Android devices of all shapes, sizes and capabilities. I have the app installed on my main iPhone 4, my Kindle Fire and my Droid phone running Android so I can get a quick hit of Pinterest no matter where I might be. From the Google Play Store... "Pinterest is a tool to find your inspiration and share it with others. Use it to collect things you love, organize and plan important projects, and more. Features Pin images from around the web Explore pins and boards you’re interested in Get inspiration from DIY, Travel, Food and other categories Pin with your camera" ...

TextWrangler You would think in these days of high-end graphics, fancy fonts, desktop publishing and the World Wide Web,  you wouldn't have much need for a "simple" text editor. The fact is, though, I find myself using (and needing) one almost every day. The fact is, underlying all of these new technology are a lot of simple text files that are better edited in a text editor than something fancier like MS Word. Word processors can insert hidden code and other cruft that can lead to esoteric troubles when cutting and pasting into web sites and blog posts. TextWrangler gives me the tools to clean up text and make quick and dirty HTML edits quickly and easily. It even has direct FTP capabilities that allow me to upload and download HTML files directly from/to my web server. Programmers will find even more tools inside TextWrangler, including color highlighting of code, indentation and more. Free From the Macintosh App Store... " TextWrangler is the leading freewa...

Stitcher Radio for iOS  |  Stitcher Radio  for Android While it contains the word radio in its name, Stitcher Radio is really about podcasts and podcasting. Stitcher allows you to listen to podcasts from all your favorite sources -- including mainstream radio like NPR and CNN -- and manage them all directly on your iOS or Android device. For those people who don't want to manage their podcast subscriptions in Apple iTunes, Stitcher provides a powerful, but easy-to-use interface that informs them of new shows that are available while also providing an excellent environment for listening. If you are looking for podcasts, blogs and YouTube channels to add to your own personal viewing schedule, check out my series, Subscribed, on Careers in New Media . There I highlight those blogs and shows I personally subscribe to. There are currently 27 sites highlighted in that series. From the Google Play Store... "Listen to your favorite news, comedy, sports and talk radio shows on yo...

In this First Impression , a web site perfect for weather geeks like me -- WeatherSpark.com ( http://weatherspark.com ) More location-specific weather info than you can imagine. There is so much depth of information here, you might end up spending hours investigating it all. You have been warned! (LAUGH)   Can't see the video above? Watch "TechIQ First Impressions 002: WeatherSpark.com" on YouTube   Download "TechIQ First Impressions 002: WeatherSpark.com " - iPod Ready Video   Watch all TechnologyIQ Videos Please Like and/or subscribe to my channel. It directly effects how often this video is suggested to other YouTube viewers. Follow TechnologyIQ on Twitter Like TechnologyIQ on Facebook Circle TechnologyIQ on Google+

Every so often, as updates are released, I will post a list of updates that have been made to items previously featured in  On My iPhone/Android. Runkeeper for iOS  |  Runkeeper for Android Update Notice: " If you're a weight-concsious night runner, this one's for you! With this update you can enjoy your evening jaunts with a soothing new "night mode" theme, adjust your workout settings on the move, and track your weight goal progress with ease. Night mode Track your workouts in the dark with a new color scheme specifically designed for dimly lit. Switch back to day mode and use it like a flashlight if you get scared. Use Night mode in the day too - you've never been one for conventions. In-Activity Settings Change audio cues, visual themes, auto-pause and screen orientation during your workout. Avoid accidentally hitting the screen rotation button Weight logging and Visualization tools Enter and track your current and historical weight over time See how you...

I was invited to join this site, Happify , which seeks to help you build more happiness into your life in a variety of ways. Since it is beta right now, you can only join via invite. It just so happens, though, that I have 5 invites to give away . Here is some more info on Happify... At Happify, we're on top of all the latest cutting-edge research. And it's that research that informs the interactive, science-based online experience we've developed for you -- to teach you the skills of happiness. Optimism, self-confidence, gratitude, hope, compassion, purpose, empathy - these are all qualities that anyone can own. You just have to learn how. And doing so will change your life. Visit Happify for more info!   Add you comment below about why you would like an invite to Happify and I will send them out on a random basis. Make sure to include your appropriate email address so I can send you the invite.

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 Education / MIT’s Free Creative Learning Class Teaches You How to Learn Almost Anything Technology / Focus@Will says its music app boosts concentration, opens it to public beta Technology / Bookish Combines Expert Reviews and Data to Recommend Your Favorite New Book Technology / 12 Excellent Free Mac Apps For Graphic Designers Technology / Ribbon Sells Your Stuff Anywhere on the Web With One Easy Button Technology / New iOS app Winston is your Siri personal assitant for news | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog New Media / Livestream releases software version of Studio video switcher, gives producers an even more portable option Technology / Techmeme: You can download Firefox 19 for Windows, Mac, and Linux right now Technology / Sunrise for iPhone May Be the Last Calendar App You Ever Use Technology / Remains of the Day: Adobe Updates Reader and Acroba...

Here is a playlist of all the TechnologyIQ videos I produced in February 2013. You can find all my past videos on my YouTube Channel. If you enjoy a video, please click the Like button or Subscribe to the YouTube Channel. Doing that directly effects how many other people see my videos.   Point at each video thumbnail for more information and scroll through the available videos using the < > arrows in the lower right corner.   Visit Douglas E. Welch on YouTube