Videosurf – A Video Search Engine For Multiple Video Sites

via MakeUseOf:

"It is almost 2010 and the tubes that we call the internet are constantly evolving and giving us new features. A couple of years back, video on the internet was new and exciting and as the services progressed, videos became a common thing on the net. Sites like YouTube paved the way for the video revolution.

Nowadays there are so many video sources on the internet it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for. Today I was browsing the MakeUseOf Directory and found this gem – Videosurf.

VideoSurf is a video search engine that allows you to not only search videos visually but it also allows you to search multiple sites all at once! Those sites include YouTube, MetaCafe, Comedy Central, Yahoo Music, ESPN, Hulu and many others. So if you are looking for full TV episodes, a funny video, or even a music video this is the place to search. Let’s see how it works.

Browse on over to VideoSurf and you will see a search bar, as well as people in the spotlight (famous people that have videos about them) and 3 more sections at the bottom. The sections are Viral videos, TV Full episodes and celebrity videos. So if the Pirate Bay downfall got you wondering where you can find TV shows or movies this might be a good alternative.

Go ahead and type something in the search bar and hit Search Videos. Don’t worry we won’t judge you because you searched for Hannah Montana or The Backyardigans (Who are we kidding hell yeah we will make fun of you!!)

They have old and new listings and a total of 29,393 videos which is a lot! If you are looking for that old school music video this might be the perfect place to find it. Go ahead and sit back, relax and watch them at your leisure or sort the video search engine’s results by relevance, popularity, age, length (short or long) as well as season and episode (for tv shows)

They sort by popularity first so you will see the videos with the most downloads first. Once you are done checking out your favorite rapper you can head back to the homepage to see some of the viral videos. I usually like this stuff and I could use a good laugh (I am on 37 minutes sleep today how’s that for funny?)

Ok so Acne isn’t funny and I am not the biggest sports fan so I choose the Best Science Teacher Ever video and clicked through. The original video was located here so they have lots of little sites crawled as well. When I went to play the video I saw this:

You can see they broke the video down into 12 clips so you can jump around. This works well on YouTube and Hulu but not on this video. Still this is an awesome feature and I can see this company getting scooped up by YouTube or someone else."

Booster: Online Mp3 Finder

via MakeUseOf:

Booster is new online Mp3 finder that lets you search, stream and download almost any song you want. The site has simple and clean design free of annoying banners.

To find a song, just type in an artist or song name and Booster will present a list of results with download and play links next to each track.

The site is new and still being worked on, there are more features such as online account and playlist creation are on the way.

Features:

• Search and download Mp3 songs online.
• Download as many songs as you like.
• Stream Mp3s online.
• Creating playlist is coming.

Check out Booster @ www.boostermp3.com

iPhone 3GS Can Play Back 720p, 1080p Source Videos?

via The iPhone Blog:

Can the iPhone 3GS play back 720p and even 1080p source videos, perhaps even output them to an HDTV? Looks like it might, according to WeiPhone.com who claim to have gotten just such functionality working via the FileAid app.

Of course, we’ve heard the iPhone 3GS chipset was capable of recording in 720p before. Hey, this time last year we even heard the older, less-powerful iPhone 3G might be able to handle 1080p.

So, while not surprising, it’s important to remember that the iPhone 3GS has a 320p (480×320 to be exact) display, so actually playing the files on the device — aside from heat and battery life concerns — would result in downscaling to such an extent that it’s pretty much pointless (perhaps why Apple doesn’t surface it as a feature at this point?)

It is interesting to consider, however, that Apple has another music event just a couple weeks away, and that Microsoft is making noise about the Zune HD outputting 720p to an external display. If Apple could flip a switch in iPhone 3.1 and enable 720p or 1080p overkill out via AV cables (better yet — HDMI cable!) then that’s one less checkbox in competitors’ corner, and one more feature for iPhone and iPod touch users to enjoy.

The New Windows Live Movie Maker is Here

via Digital Inspiration:

Microsoft has just released a new version of Windows Live Movie Maker which is a free video editing software available for both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows Live Movie Maker now includes several new and impressive transitions and visual effects that are easily accessible from the new Office 2007 like ribbon toolbar. You can even pin these to the title bar of the program for quick access.

Microsoft discontinued Photostory with Windows Vista but the same Ken Burns effect can now be replicated in Movie Maker using the new Pan & Zoom effects (see screenshot below).

Movie Maker can render videos in full High Definition (1080p) format and you also have the option to upload movies directly to YouTube just like in Google’s Picasa software.

The only disappointing part is that Live Movie Maker won’t probably work with your Windows XP system.

Update: In addition to Live Movie Maker, Microsoft has also released minor updates for Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Photo Gallery.

The iCube Room

According to IDEO Labs, the iCube room is comprised of three white walls and a floor, all about 10′ x 10′ in size. Onto each surface is projected a high-resolution, stereoscopic image. A viewer stands in the room wearing polarized 3D glasses — like you might use in a 3D movie — with small markers that stick out a bit from the frames.

The markers are illuminated by IR LED floodlights located on the perimeter of the room, and IR-sensitive cameras use those positions to determine the precise location of each eye within the room. From those positions, stereo images for each projector are calculated and rendered on the fly.

Take a look at this video clip (although you really need to be there and use these 3D glasses to really experience it):

Amazing 3D immersion technology from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

Try Augmented Reality Now

According to Wikipedia, Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.

General Electronics created a website which allows you to play with this amazing technology. Go ahead and try it.

Here is a quick demonstration:

Total Immersion is one the leading companies in this field. Check out their amazing video gallery in addition to other videos around the web demonstrating Augmented Reality technology.

Biggest Photoshop Disasters of 2008

By PhotoshopDisasters: