Archive for the ‘ Technology ’ Category

My Threadless Shirts Have Arrived!! (HD Video)

My first threadless shirts have arrived! I bought these two shirts during the 24 hour free shipping (international) promotion over at Threadless.com and waited patiently for close to three months before they arrived. I actually got a little (just a little) concerned when Jun Kit got his less than a week after he ordered his, but trusted God that they’ll arrive safely in any case.

I bought the Geek shirt and the AV shirt (they’re actually both geeky shirts, I know) cos I’m proud to be a geek! :P

When a prosumer camera meets a pro photographer (Photo)

Taken on a Samsung WB500 in the Dual IS mode

Taken on a Samsung WB500 in the Dual IS mode

I don’t usually post single photos on this blog, but I had to share this one with you guys. Like I mentioned, I’m now reviewing the Samsung WB500 for Gear65. It so happens that I met Willy Foo, Chief Photographer of LiveStudios.sg at today’s Linksys by Cisco’s Media Hub launch event. I, of course, had to let him play with the camera and ask about his thoughts on it, and I didn’t regret the decision one bit. I mean, who better to learn about a camera than the expert himself?

He showed off how good the Dual Image Stabiliser mode on the camera was by taking this amazing shot! When a prosumer camera meets a pro photographer, this is what you get!

So what do we think about the camera so far? Well, you’ll just have to stay tuned for next week’s Gear65 on Tech65.org to find out for yourself! :P

Unboxing an iPod (HD Video from Samsung WB500)

Another HD video! Just got the Samsung WB500 for review at Tech65, so I decided to do a test HD video with it. So far, the camera has proven itself to be very powerful, more than I actually know how to take advantage of! Will be testing it out for the next two weeks, so email me at daniel at tech65 dot org if you want me to find out something regarding the camera.

Watch out for it to appear on Gear65!

The closest thing I have to a lightsaber (HD Video)

More videos! This time, I found WiiSaber, this fun application that runs on any mac with a bluetooth, and connects to your Wii Remote, producing lightsaber sounds just like the Lightsaber Unleashed app for the iPhone. I’m still looking for one that makes the sound come out of the remote’s speakers though. If you know one, let me know!

P.S. This is the second HD video I’ve uploaded onto YouTube in 24 hours, and I realised that the HD version isn’t available this time. I’m not sure if it’s because there’s a limit to how much HD videos you can upload, or if it’s still processing the HD version.

Updated: The HD version was still processing after all. Check out the HD version above!

My favourite watch: The Casio DB-E30 (HD Video)

After almost a year, I’m finally wearing my watch again (thanks to a broken strap and too busy to send it for repair), so I decided to make a Gear65-esque video about this cool watch. I know, it’s not as cool as that LG watch phone we talked about on Episode 103 of 65bits, but it’s cool enough for me!

Oh, by the way, the HD version can be found on the youtube page!

Upgrading a Macbook’s RAM (HD Video)

My dad and I upgraded his MacBook’s RAM from 2GB to 4GB last night, so I took the opportunity to play with my HD camera again. Oh, and sorry about the shakiness. This was completely ad-hoc, and the mini-tripod wasn’t suitable for this kinda recording, but I had turned the motion stabiliser off before recording, thinking that I’ll be relying on it (The shaking was me trying to adjust/remove the tripod).

Otherwise, hopefully you can see what HD video is like from the Sanyo Xacti HD1000, at 720p, 30fps.


Upgrading MacBook (Aluminium) RAM from Daniel Tsou on Vimeo.

P.S. This video is available in HD!

Unpacking the rig from Intel

So Intel sent me their Core i7 rig to play with, and I decided to share with you guys my unpacking experience!

The specs for the rig:

  • Intel Core i7 Extreme 3.2GHz (4 cores, 8 threads)
  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • 3 GB RAM
  • ATI Radeon HD 4800 with 512MB
  • 80GB Hard drive Solid State Drive!!!
  • Samsung 22″ display
  • Microsoft Wireless desktop

UPDATE: Just found out that it’s not using a 80GB HDD but an 80GB Intel SSD!!!

I underestimated the rig they sent me

I know Intel said they’ll send me a machine, but I wasn’t expecting this…

I mean, look at the size of that box! And a 22″ Wide Screen display?? Woah… My desk is once again full of gear

Anyway, Intel sent me this gear for me to test out the new Intel Core i7 chip, and I will be using it to render videos with Adobe CS4 to really put this machine to the test, which, frankly, I have no doubt it will perform. Stay tuned for more on Tech65.org!

In the meantime, I’m gonna crash in bed before Interesthink3 tonight, and after 5 days of awesome serving at the I Dare You and Encounter Jesus camp for DARE.

Table full of gadgets!

Taking the opportunity to test out some photo tools: Mbedr, an embedded flickr service, and Phlook.com, a local start-up for photo hosting etc. So I took a picture of all the gear I’m using now (they’re not all mine, most of them are review units, office laptop etc…)

Photo hosted on Phlook.com

Gears, gears and more gears
Photo hosted on Flickr and embedded using Mbedr

HD horrors with Final Cut Express

Ok, I’m totally on a roll now. Getting quite annoyed (thank God not agitated or pissed, just annoyed…) after discovering a big truth regarding HD video and Final Cut Express.

So as most of you know, I bought a new HD camera to film videos for Tech65. Today, I decided to give a hand at editting my first HD (720p) movie, so I imported the files from the camera into a folder on my iMac before importing it into a new Final Cut Express project after discovering before hand that “Log and Transfer” (quicktime link) doesn’t work with this camera. I was happy that I could just edit as usual with the HD files in the project, before discovering the following:

It looks quite normal doesn’t it? Just to explain what you’re looking at, the left window is the clip I would like to add into my sequence, while the right window is a preview of my sequence now. I edit by setting a start point and an end point (called in and out points) in the left window and drag it into the right so that it drops into my sequence.

Read more