Plex for Mac, a sneak peek at v9
Version 9 has been a long time coming. Most had given the idea up, as vaporware, and pure conjecture. The kind of tales you send kids to bed with. But here it is, video evidence that it exists! For those who aren’t in the loop, Plex is an offshoot of XBMC a media center app for the Mac. In its current avatar, it is miles ahead any of the other Media Center apps (Boxee, XBMC) for Mac/PC.
The future is bright, Plex v9 will enhance the usability many-fold. Since I use a Mac Mini as my Media Center Portal, I am looking forward to Plex in its new avatar.
Tally ho!
Plex/Nine First Peek from Elan Feingold on Vimeo.
Penultimate for iPad update – wrist protection
What a wonderful update waiting for me this morning – Penultimate with wrist-protection!
The problem of capacitive multi-touch screens is that they don’t lend themselves to scribbling notes with your finger or an appropriate stylus. Natural note taking (and believe you me, I know a thing or two about that), involves resting your wrist on the surface, as you scribble on. Capacitive screens register that and you end up with a number of extra scribbles where your wrist rested.
Penultimate is a cheap app available from the iTunes store and puts forth a digital canvas on which you can scribble your thoughts. It works great for the most part, but before the update this morning, the following could be your experience while scribbling notes.
Enter wrist protection! The app actively monitors the surface of the iPad screen for what it can interpret as a wrist (by calculating surface area I presume). And to my utter delight, it works like a charm. It manages to detect my wrist as I scribble away, every time. Kudos to the devs. Apps like these make me so glad to own an iPad. My productivity will certainly go up a wee bit more now.
AND to enhance your iPad note taking experience, might I recommend Pogo Sketch stylus? Made for capacitive screens, it is quite portable, and yet very usable.
Back again, for real.
It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Rest assured I have been working quite hard, updating myself, as well as my gadget collection in the meantime. First things first. Yours truly won an iPad, mid-April, in an awesome giveaway sponsored by a leading gadget site. Needless to say I am thrilled by the booty, and am enjoying my iPad to the hilt. The last month also saw Kindle pass through the family, but, it was a fleeting visit, and I had to return it, for reasons I will expound upon, some other time.
The reason for no updates in a month (or so) is a borked WordPress install. Due to rather complicated htaccess rules on my server, my remote publishing app (Blogo) could not see the XMLRPC file. I tried a number of tricks from my repertoire, but it broke something or the other. I have finally simplified the htaccess file, and all is back to normal. I am using a new theme, and have added a number of new plugins. It may not work per spec, so do let me know if you notice something amiss.
Back!
After a prolonged vacation in India – marred by illness, I am back home. It was loud, hotter than hell, dirty, dusty and so crowded, but it was my home in India. We just had an amazing time, when I was up and able. We managed to visit Mount Abu and Jaipur this time, however would’ve liked to visit so many more places. Delhi, of course, received the royal treatment, and amongst the most visited sites were: Chawri Bazaar, Chandni Chowk, and the Max Hospital in Saket.
There were some good times, meeting old school friends and their spouses – Gautam, Mandeep and Manav, my friends from the days of yore. It was great to reconnect and go out for dinner with the guys. The family also went for an Indian Premier League match, Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super Kings – the latter won. The crowd, the game, the atmosphere was electrifying! We visited the paranthe waali gali, and tasted the unique fried paranthas from shops dating back to the 19th century. A very unique experience indeed!
But most of all, it was just amazing to be back with my brother and dad. Them, I miss each day, and to be able to spend nearly four weeks with them – I can’t stress on how much good that did to the soul.
But here I am back to the daily grind. Watch for further updates!
EOS T2i announced!
This is the camera I am going for. DSLR and 1080p (variable frame rate) video, how could anyone ask for anything more?
