srsly

We take our tech, toys and gadgets srsly. Mostly reviews of stuff we happened to think are worth our while.

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I simply adore these wallpapers. More at crowquills.com.

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Everyday.me is a timeline for your eyes only.

Everyday.me for the iPhone is like a Facebook timeline for you, and you alone. You get to generate a massive combined timeline of all your Tweets and Facebook statuses in the past. It's very similar to Momento, which I have been using for the past year. Just like Momento, you can write entries to be viewed in the app, or import your existing social media feeds. For now, the app only supports Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

It seems easier to glance through your feeds in Everyday.me because you can scroll through it endlessly back in time, but there doesn't seem to be a way to go to a specific date like in Momento.

Another difference is the ability to view your feed online in a web browser, which also means your feed is backed up in the cloud. Momento does not do this, but it allows you to back up your data through iTunes file transfer. Another interesting feature is the quaterly/annual reports, where you receive a summary of what you've been up to all these months.

It's not yet available on the AppStore, but you can sign up for a private beta at Everyday.me.

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Adobe Creative Suite 6 Review

Keeping up with the yearly updates, Adobe recently released their next major release, Creative Suite 6. I'll only be covering Photoshop and After Effects, and the features that I personally got excited over, because giving a thorough review of all the new features in CS6 might take me a few months.

Photoshop

Dark UI

The new dark user interface is more befitting of an image editing program. I have grown accustomed to the dark background in earlier versions of After Effects and I am glad it has found its way into Photoshop. I find it to be less distracting, and highlights your image rather than compete with it. Purists need not worry, because you can always switch back to the old light grey interface.

Crop Tool

I use this a lot, and it's great that they updated this simple tool. It feels like Adobe actually bothered enough (cared, even?) to go back to one of the most basic tools and give it a new lease of life. The humble crop tool does the same thing, but the user interface is jazzed up. The image moves to centralize itself as you crop, and in addition to that you can straighten your image as well. It automatically crops as you straighten so you don't get white corners. This is another one of those "what took Adobe so long" features. I've been using a tool like this in iPhoto and Picasa for the longest time.

Adaptive Wide Angle

This is Adobe sorcery at its best. Place a distorted fisheye image in, draw some lines on the parts of the image that need to be straightened, and hey presto, you got a nice straightened undistorted extreme wide angle image. Brilliant.

Patch tool and move with content aware

If you liked content aware fill, you'll love this. It's basically the same thing, just easier to apply. Instead of making a selection, hitting content aware fill and crossing your fingers, you select the offending object, move the tool towards a nice empty sample patch, and poof, it's gone. The effect won't be perfect all the time, but there are ways to polish it.

Move works in a similar way, but instead of removing an object, you move the object.

Oil Paint Filter

I've been using this as part of the Adobe's Pixel Blender plugin before CS6 was launched. I've tried many paint filters and this is by far the fastest way to get a good looking painterly effect. It seems like they added a new lighting parameter, that creates an 3D-ish embossed oil painting look. I don't see myself using this, but it certainly is an option.

After Effects

3D Camera Tracker

This is my favourite new feature of the entire Creative Suite. Once the domain of dedicated matchmoving apps like Boujou, this feature finally comes default in After Effects. Instead of spending a ridiculous amount of time plotting points and tracking them one by one in the older versions of After Effects, all you need to do is activate the 3D Camera Tracker, wait a few moments while the software does its analysis and you will see multicoloured points on your footage.

Right click on any point, and you are able to add a text, solid or null object that attaches itself to the points on the footage. Your object will look like it is moving along with the camera movement in the footage. This is a huge time saver, now with matchmoved graphics getting more in vogue these days. The video above was done in a little over 10 minutes.

Global Performance Cache

The global performance cache is a combination of various features that contribute to an overall faster preview.

For example, when you hit the spacebar to preview your composition, changes in one layer would not require After Effects to render the entire composition again. Only the layer affected will render again, saving time. Cached frames are also stored in the event of an undo, so you can change your mind and go back to your previous edit immediately. I watched with glee as the green preview bar reverted to the original length as I toggled the visibility of the new effect I applied.

TL;DR Faster previews.

Rolling Shutter Repair

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I was unable to get footage out of my Sony NEX-5n with a pronounced rolling shutter effect. But sufferers of this plague will be able to fix their footage with this feature. 

Ray-traced 3D

After Effects CS6 now comes with fully raytraced 3D rendering. This may save a little time if you find yourself switching in and out of a 3D package, just to add a little bit of 3D flair in your video. Shadows, specular, reflection, the works. When I first tried it out, I was puzzled as I couldn't find the geometry settings required extrude and bevel my shapes and text. Turns out you have to switch the renderer from classic 3D to ray-traced 3D using the drop down menu on the top right of your footage. This feature requires quite a bit of horsepower from your CPU. If you're thinking of using this feature on a low end system, like a MacBook Air, no. Just no.

Creative Cloud

Good news and bad; first the good: In this release, they are pushing for the Adobe Creative Cloud, a new way to obtain a license for CS6 without spending a huge sum of money at one go. This is great for freelancers and studios just starting out. All you need is to pay a low price of US$49.99, and you can download and install the entire CS6 Master Collection, plus use all of Adobe's cloud services, like cloud syncing service and the ability to publish apps and websites straight from CS6. The great thing is that this also ensures you get the latest version of CS, so you no longer have to sacrifice upgrading to the latest and greatest because it's not in your budget. I think this is an excellent way to combat piracy as well.

The bad news? It's not available in South East Asia yet. I sent an email to an Adobe representative enquiring about when it would reach the SEA shores but they don't have an answer yet. 

Conclusion

Adobe has made an offer difficult to resist with the Adobe Creative Cloud. Unfortunately it's not available in South-East Asia, so you're stuck with the regular off the shelf price of S$2867 for CS6 Production Premium. If you're a professional that depends on Creative Suite on a daily basis, you're probably already using Creative Suite 6. If you're a student, good news! The education version of CS6 Design & Web Premium is available at S$139.

If you're dealing with media on a daily basis, there's no question about whether to get CS6. This is easily the best release of the Adobe Creative Suite to date. It's faster, and a joy to work with. Just make sure you have the hardware to support it.

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Farlite 200 Lumens LED Torch

Mustafa has a huge selection of torch lights in the basement level. Spent almost an hour browsing through the entire range before settling on this beauty over here. I'm not sure if this is an OEM model, since I saw 3 of the exact same models under different packaging and brands. This in particular is from Farlite. It comes with a 200 lumens Cree XR-E LED bulbs. It is very, very bright. I really like the aesthetics of this torch light. It almost looks like a light saber. Glow in the dark power toggle button on the other end of the torch. Comes with a pouch.

Costs $30 at Mustafa. Comes with 2 AA Duracell batteries.

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Zillionz Counting Money Jar

This is a Zillionz Counting Money Jar, and it's brilliant. It looks like an inconspicuous plastic jar that I use to store my spare change, however if you look at the lid, you'll notice an old school digital LCD, and a slot to pass coins through.

This slot actually detects which coin you put in and the LCD displays the total amount of money in the jar. So far it has been pretty accurate, except when you slot a coin halfway in and take it out. It will just count it in. There's a certain technique to get your coin in, since there's a button the coin pushes as it goes in, and this provides a bit of resistance, but you'll definitely get the hang of it. Right now I'm slotting coins in like a pro. Out of the box it is able to detect Singapore coins.

I bought it at the toys department at OG in Chinatown and it costs $19.90. Highly recommended if you're like me and don't have a coin pouch in your wallet.

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App Review: Camera Awesome.

I came across Camera Awesome on Fstoppers recently and I was immediately blown away with what this app has to offer. It is a camera app unlike any I've seen so far with a variety of advanced features which many photographers/ photo-enthusiast would crave for.

With features such as image stabilization, big button (damn useful for the self-shots photos!), slow/fast burst mode, timer, interval and white balance adjustment, what more can you ask for. This is basically features you find on a standard compact camera.

This is something really cool, you can basically set the camera focus and exposure points separately. In layman's term, you can focus on one part of the screen while letting the app control the exposure based on another which you've selected. (goodbye bad exposures!)

  Composition guides to help you compose your image before you shoot. I believe most of us commonly adhere to the rule of thirds (grid mode), therefore, this is a good time to try out the other 2 rules of composition, Golden and Trisec.

The Horizon function for those who tend to take slanted pictures.

Beside the fact that Camera Awesome is an awesome camera app, it also has a built in photo-editor. The 1-tap Awesomize function is the most idiot proof way to make your photos look brilliant. The witty loading screen while your photos are being 'awesomized' is probably the designer's way of telling you that 'magic' is being done to your photos. 

It also comes with presets, filters and textures which you can use to enhance your photos. (similar to what apps like Instagram and Camera+ offer)

For the social media junkies, the app allows you to export full resolution edited images to a variety social networking sites such Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram.

The best part of it all, it is absolutely FREE on the app store. The free app comes with 9 free presets, filters, textures and frames. In conclusion, I believe this will be a great addition to the iPhone homescreen. 

(The app is available here.)

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UNIQLO WAKE UP

Looking for a new, unorthodox wake up alarm tone? UNIQLO has created yet another quirky, but oh-so-beautiful app, this time allowing you to wake up to different music based on the weather outside. You can even opt for the mandarin alarm music vocals. The lovely music is Cornelius x Yoko Kanno. The app is so pretty, looking at the design is enough to perk you up on the gloomiest days.

   The app is free, and available here.

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Girls, is your period schedule running amok?

Now, unless your bodily functions run like clockwork, chances are, your period usually do not occur on the exact same day every month. And we all know how annoying it is when you know it's that time of the month soon, but you're not sure when exactly.

Naturally, you run into a fit of paranoia and rush to the toilet at the slightest hint of a discharge.

Ok, sorry for being so graphical, but you get the gist.

No worries girls! Here's Captain America to the rescue!

Download the Period Tracker Lite and see it work its magic!

This app works by gathering your period data, i.e. the start and end dates, it will then tabulate information like your fertile period, the start of your ovulation cycle and the forecasted date of your menstruation. Of course, first-time users would have to input your data for at least 3 to 4 months for the app to tabulate accurate forecasts. After that, however, it's pretty much on autopilot mode; all you have to do is to enter the day your period starts and ends.  

   What's cute about this app is that you can even enter text and indicate your moods and other symptoms, thus resembling a journal. 

  Of course, I am sure there are better apps out there, and if you would like to share them, please do! For now, I am happy with this free and fuss-free app. 

Alright, now wave goodbye to bloody nasty surprises!

(You can read more about this app here) 

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>Using a mobile device, a typical page takes an average of 12 seconds to load in Singapore, Google data shows. >That is far slower than the 4.6 to 6 seconds in Hong Kong and South Korea. The first step is acknowledging you have a problem. I'm on Singtel and I get what appears to be full 3G reception when I'm in the city, until I actually try to use it.

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Camera Apps for iPhone; introducing VSCO CAM

I recently purchased the VSCO CAM on the Appstore for $0.99, and I must say it is quite a lovely app with beautiful filters. Being the iPhone photography addict that I am, I have been downloading tonnes of camera apps, testing out the editing, filters and shooting, but have never been able to settle on one. VSCO CAM comes in close, however there are still certain limitations.

For the sake of comparison, here is a list of my favourite camera apps based on my personal experience, and why I am so inclined towards the new VSCO app.

(I am currently using an iPhone 4 which is about a year and a half old.)

Default iPhone Camera app By Apple, free

Taken with iPhone Camera app, HDR format

Pros: The HDR format is a joy. The app is also easily accessible from the lock screen and snapping photos with volume buttons is a big plus point.

Cons: Slow. Takes a few seconds to process photos before being able to snap the next one. Editing, including rotating and cropping, is glitchy. The image may appear to have been edited but when uploaded, it resumes its original image.

Summary: I seldom use it, unless I am attempting to snap a fleeting moment; the Camera app is quickest to access (from my lock screen).

Camera+ By Tap Tap Tap LLC, $0.99

Taken with Camera+, edited with “Clarity” and “Cross Process”

Pros: Photo processing in the background allows simultaneous shots, which is one of my favourite features. There are tonnes of filters and adjustments including cropping, rotating and touch exposure/focus. It has the ability to upload multiple photos at once to social media websites (although the Facebook upload option has been a little glitchy for a while now).  The ”Clarity” option is helpful in enhancing photos, especially those underexposed or taken under dim lighting.

Cons: The lightbox option feels clumsy. Although it saves your edits and allows for changes later, it does not directly save the edited photo to your iPhone Camera Roll. You can only do so by manually saving the photo to your phone, after which the edited photo disappears from the lightbox. Hence the original photo will be lost forever. Some glitches previously have also caused my photos to disappear from my lightbox. 

Recently, it has been taking me centuries (an overstatement) to load the camera. Even the iPhone camera is sometimes faster. But perhaps this is because my phone is getting old and slow.

Summary: For a while, this was an app that replaced my default camera app on the iPhone. I used it often because of background processing which allowed me to snap photos simultaneously. The “Cross process” filter is lovely, although it can get a bit too much.

Hipstamatic By Synthetic, LLC, $1.99

Taken with Hipstamatic, using the Blanko Freedom13 film. Lenses range from left to right: Americana, Helga Viking and Lucas AB2

Not much of a post-process app, but you can mix and match different lenses and films for different effects and save them as favourites to be used every time. There are many lens/film packs to purchase, most of them $0.99 each. All photos are confined to the square format, mimicking the 120 film.

Expansion packs I bought: Wicker Park HipstaPak, America HipstaPak, Retropak One, NSW Always On FreePak, Cowboys & Aliens FreePak, Camden HipstaPak, Williamsburg Starter HipstaPak. 

Pros: Superbly analogue photos and has the element of random inconsistencies. It has great user interface and delicious graphics. I really like its default landscape mode as it feels really good as a camera. Background processing allows it to also take photos really fast (about a second interval). It also has integration with Instagram which makes it easy to upload photos on the social network.

Cons: The filters are good, but to the point that they look too analogue. Most of the filters are way too dramatic and tend to look overdone. Hipstamatic has yet to come up with a mild cross process-esque filter that does not scream, “SPAM ALL THE PHOTO FILTERS!”

Summary: I used Hipstamatic to take photos during my holiday in Korea, as it is fast to load and quick to snap photos with its background processing ability. I also need not worry about post processing as all the photos would be ready to upload once they are snapped. 

I don’t like borders for my photos hence I always use the Blanko Freedom13 film from the America HipstaPak. My favourite lenses are currently Americana, Helga Viking and Lucas AB2, although they too are slightly overdone (too green, too blue, too yellow). If only they had an intensity adjustment, the app would be perfect.

Instagram By Burbn, Inc., free

Taken with  Instagram, edited with “Rise” filter and Blur tool

Any smart phone user would not be unfamiliar with this app. Available for both iPhone iOS and Andriod, it marries social media and photography. 

Pros: Filters are good, with a range from mild to intense. One good feature is the integrated blur tool which allows for post-editing psuedo-tiltshift/ depth of field. Instagram is also the easiest and most efficient way of uploading to multiple social media platforms at once with just one button. The best part has to be that it is available for free.

Cons: Not a good app to take photos (tends to be blur). Also, posting too many photos at once can be irritating for your followers as you will be spamming their news feed. 

Summary: It is a must-have for all iPhone users. Pity it doesnt have a web/PC/Mac/iPad version for better viewing on bigger screens. However there are many third-party apps/galleries created just to view Instagram, such as InstaPad for iPad, or Instagrid for the computer. I use Instagram a lot but I stagger my photos because I don’t want to spam my followers’ photo feed. Social media always entices more with likes and comments. Did I mention that it’s free?

Pudding Camera By KTH, free

Taken with Pudding Camera, “Vintage Brown” filter

Pros: The “Vintage Brown” lens is very popular amongst those who use Pudding, giving off a warm, rustic vibe. It offeres many different camera modes and lenses, including the Triplex, Motion and Fish-eye. Background processing allows it to snap photos really fast; in fact it is the fastest camera app I have used, even faster than Hipstamatic or Camera+ (less than a second interval for the next photo).

Pudding has its own social media platform, pudding.to, which is strangely very similar to Instagram’s interface and layout. Like Hipstamatic, there is no need for post-processing as the lenses and camera are set prior to shooting.

Cons: At a maximum of 1280px, the resolution is small and comparatively of poorer quality.

Summary: It is a good app but to compromise with poor resolution turns me off. Also, it can look a little too old and dull. I seldom use it as my friends use it too, and the photo treatment looks exactly the same.

VSCO CAM By Visual Supply Company, $0.99

Taken with VSCO CAM, edited with “fill” option and with filter 09.

The camera is only recently launched on the appstore, and from some sample photos I have seen, it looks really promising.

Pros: It has a minimalist user interface for a multi-functional filter app. It allows for background processing, but takes about 5 seconds before allowing the next shot. I like the “fill” option, which fades out the photo and gives it an overexposed, dreamy feel. Instagram is an option for upload — it brings you directly to the stage where the photo is already on the filter page, so it is a shortcut without having to manually upload the photo on Instagram.

Cons: The app lacks basic editing functions such as rotate and crop. I also encountered a strange problem with landscape photos, as it doesnt seem to be able to rotate them automatically when using the in-app camera. Like Camera+, photos taken are not saved to Camera Roll. Saving photos to the Camera Roll takes quite a bit of time.

Summary: VSCO looks promising and I really dig the filters that they provide. Coupled with background processing means I get the best of both worlds — fast snapping and awesome editing. The simple, pretty interface does not hurt one bit. I am looking forward to trying out the app outdoors.

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Capacitive Stylus Roundup: Just Mobile Alupen, Nomad Brush, 3M Smart Pen

The market’s absolutely saturated with stylus accessories for iPads, iPhones and other capacitive touch screen devices. I own far too many than I admit, but there are 3 that I kind of like. The Just Mobile Alupen, the Nomad Brush and the 3M Smart Pen. There may be a strong case against the use of styli on an iPad, but with apps like Draw Something and Paper, I find myself needing one.

The Just Mobile Alupen is thick, and it’s great for drawing, but writing could be a pain. It feels like a marker, and performs like how a marker would too. The tip is large, and precise control is hard to achieve. It was the first capacitive stylus I bought with a soft rubber tip, and I was floored with how responsive it was, compared to a rough foam tip stylus I purchased from Dealextreme that required quite bit of pressure to produce a mark. Maybe great for Draw Something, but not so for Penultimate or Paper.

The Nomad Brush is light, thin, and in place of a rubber tip is a brush that somehow registers a signal on a capacitive screen. It’s great for painting apps like Brushes, Procreate or Artrage, but only because it feels like a paintbrush. Its responsiveness is somewhat marred by the fact that you can’t just lightly glaze the brush over the screen. You have to apply a bit of pressure. There is almost no way to precisely draw with this brush. But if you’re a traditional painter, you just might feel more at ease with this.

The 3M Smart Pen is by far my favourite. Here’s the backstory: I have been searching for a styli with a smaller tip and even better responsiveness than the Alupen for quite a while. I needed something that would allow me to write legible text in the Paper app. I was so keen on purchasing the Wacom Bamboo Stylus because almost every site that reviewed it said while expensive, it was the best that money could buy. Looking around Amazon reviews I found out that there was a problem with the rubber tip. It wore out too easily. It was an expensive stylus, and according to a shop in Funan, the replacement rubber tips would be sold at quite a high mark up, and would only come in when it comes in. I continued my search, and came across the Power Support Smart Pen on Lester Chan's blog. Turns out it was sold for $39.90 and had a 3M logo on top. I then found a 3M branded stylus that looked exactly the same for $35. Score.

It's probably not as well weighted as the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, but it was cheaper, and from initial tests, performs pretty darn well. It's entirely silver coloured, and to me it doesn't look bad at all. In other styli, the rubber tip is a mushy, hollow thing. On the 3M Smart Pen, the tip is mushy, but when I squeeze it I find there to be something solid inside. This seemingly innocuous feature is the reason why this stylus is so precise when used for writing.

I can finally write legible text in Paper.

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Customize your iPhone Message tones.

Isn't it fustrating that every other person on the bus or train is using the same iPhone message tone and not knowing who's phone actually made the alert? Tri-tone and Glass has got to be the most common message tones heard in public.

One of the many new features of iOS5 is the ability to customise your iPhone Message tone. Similar to the Custom Ringtones which you can set previously, the Message tone is also in the .m4r format. There are a number of ways to go about making your own ringtones and message tones but if you are lazy, you can browse sites such as free-ringtones.cc to download tones that you want.  After you have downloaded the custom tones, simply add them to your iTunes library, sync wirelessly (another feature of iOS5) to your iPhone and voila! You now have custom message tones on your iPhone to choose from.

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3G network too congested? Upgrade free wifi network instead.

The Government is in talks with various parties to upgrade the country's free public Wi-Fi system and ease mobile network congestion here caused by an unexpected surge in Internet data usage.

via straitstimes.com

A rather strange solution.

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Create unique websites without writing code | Muse (code name)

Muse (code name)

Design and publish HTML websites without writing code

Create websites as easily as you create layouts for print. You can design and publish original HTML pages to the latest web standards without writing code. Now in beta, Muse makes it a snap to produce unique, professional websites.

via muse.adobe.com

Let your creative run wild and be set free from coding obstacles with Adobe Muse, a software that lets you design and publish websites without the hassle of writing your own codes.

Beta version is complimentary till early 2012. Available on both Mac and PC.

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Looks like unlimited detail in games wasn't a hoax.

via youtube.com

Nice lengthy interview with Bruce Dell by [H]ardOCP. Even includes a realtime demo!

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Autodesk releases a 3D sculpting tool for the iPad

via youtube.com

In a few years' time I might be able to use Maya on my iPad.

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Unlimited real time "atom based" 3D rendering.

via youtube.com

I'm still in shock. It could be an elaborate hoax though.