2010年9月27日星期一

HP Closes 3Par Deal

Hewlett-Packard has completed its acquisition of 3Par, the data-storage specialist it won from rival Dell after a frenzied 10-day bidding war. HP closed the deal today, paying $33 per share, or $2.35 billion, for 3Par–significantly more than its opening bid of $1.6 billion.

2010年9月26日星期日

The Time is Now For Digital Textbooks

Punctuated equilibrium is a theory that says that evolution isn’t a straight line. Species remain the same for long periods of time, and then suddenly there’s a burst of dramatic change. That’s how I see digital textbooks.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Muck Rack Daily Brings You Some–But Not All–of the News That’s Fit to Tweet

Yet another news aggregator? Yup. And this one is even more meta than most: Muck Rack Daily is a news service dedicated to telling you what journalists are saying, via Twitter, about the news.

And yes, that sounds even more indulgent and navel-gazing than most media about media. There’s a logic here, though: Twitter is great because it’s immediate and unfiltered (when it’s working). But there’s a value in a service that pauses and sifts, too.

In this case, that work is done by Steve McGookin, a veteran of the Financial Times (and Forbes, for a minute or two, where I worked with him), who sorts through journalists’ tweets and lets you know what they’re talking about and what they’re saying.

Straightforward stuff, but it’s something that isn’t being done yet. Most aggregators either rely on crowdsourcing/algorithms to cull stories, which is interesting but crude, or they don’t do any sorting at all. And because McGookin is doing actual editorial work, via super-concise summaries, it’s much more useful than the “bunch of tweets = a newspaper” model that paper.li is pushing. (No annoying spam, either.)

Muck Rack Daily is a spinoff of Muckrack, one of the umpteenth Twitter-related sites generated by the guys at Sawhorse Media. Sawhorse co-founder Gregory Galant says the main Muckrack site, which simply tracks individual journalists’ Twitter acccounts, is generating 100,000 uniques a month. But this new site may ultimately be much more useful, and popular.

2010年9月25日星期六

The iPod Family(Part 1)

We're hard pressed to say the iPod family's fallen on particularly hard times, but being under such excruciating public scrutiny can take its toll on any dynasty; especially in a year like 2005, the family shaken to its core by so many tragic deaths. From the humble beginnings of the iPod that began the legacy so many years back, all the way up to the tragic loss of the iPod mini just yesterday, we felt it might be time to take a visit to the iPod family cemetary on this early autumn afternoon.

iPod Family
iPod family Tree

2001

first generation iPod
The first generation iPod-October 2001 - July 2002

2002
second generation iPod
The second generation iPod-July 2002 - April 2003
But a few mournful months after the passing of the 5GB iPod and the birth of the 10GB iPod, came a new 10GB iPod and the 20GB, which started at $499. Perhaps one of the least well-remembered of the iPod family, this iPod included the first non-mechanical (solid state) scroll wheel, though the center and circumference buttons remained tactile. Perhaps most groundbreaking was the official Windows support (via Musicmatch Jukebox, ironically), though the wired remote, calendar, and artist search were all significant as well. Eventually this iPod would undergo tattoos by Beck, No Doubt, Madonna, and Tony Hawk before being committed to history in April of 2003.

2003
third generation iPod
The third generation iPod-April 2003 - July 2004
This was the iPod—born of humbler pedigree—that grew up, provided for itself a higher education, and made its own way in the world. The third generation of the family rid itself entirely of mechanical buttons on its body, shed some of its baby fat around the waist down to 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.62-inches, and came forth at $299 for 10GB, $399 for 15GB, and $499 for 30GB. This was also the first iPod child to feature a remote connector and dock connector—which finally enabled USB 2.0. In September the 30GB iPod was priced at $399, and a 40GB model was released for $499.

Related theme:
The iPod family(part 2)
The iPod family(part 3)
The iPod family(part 4)
The iPod family(part 5)

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features .

2010年9月22日星期三

How to Rip DVDs to iPod, iPhone, etc. with Handbrake

Do you want to watch your DVDs on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? Here's a guide which explains how to use an excellent software - Handbrake to rip DVD's into MPEG-4 video files.

Requirements:
1. VLC player (Handbrake 0.9.3 and higher)
2. iTunes 6.0.1 or later
3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or later
4. 500 MHz processor or better with at least 16MB of video RAM
Step 1: Download Handbrake
Download Handbrake from here and install it. Handbrake is free. If you already have Handbrake installed, please check to see if your version is out of date. Several new improvements have been made recently to the program, specifically for the iPod and iPhone.

Download Handbrake

Step 2. Insert DVD
Grab a video DVD and put it into your computer. Handbrake can only convert standard video DVD's that you would normally play in a DVD player. If you have a DVD-ROM with video files saved on it as individual files (AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV, etc), Handbrake will NOT be able to convert these files. Handbrake only wants standard video DVD's.
Depending on your computer's preferences, the DVD Player application might automatically open. If it does, just quit it. Only one application should be accessing the DVD at a time.
Launch Handbrake. A screen asking you to select a DVD will appear. Select the DVD you've inserted into your computer and press the Open button.

Insert DVD

Step 3: Download VLC player
What version of Handbrake are you using? As of version 0.9.3, Handbrake will no longer natively rip DVDs. Weird right? I wonder if they were getting some pressure from the movie industry. But don't give up on Handbrake just yet. You can still use Handbrake 0.9.3 to rip DVDs, you just need to install VLC on your machine first.
If you see the VLC screen like the one shown below, then you need to download and install VLC.

VLC on Mac

VLC Download Page:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
The VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Handbrake now uses some components of the VLC player and it must be installed if you want Handbrake to read DVDs.
After you download VLC, you need to install it on Mac:
VLC for Mac OS X is distributed as a disk image. Download the .dmg file, open it, and copy VLC to your hard drive (for instance the /Applications folder). Open VLC by double-clicking on it.

Step 4: Source Settings
Handbrake will now scan your DVD. This makes take up to a minute or two depending on the contents of the DVD and the speed of your optical drive.

scanning

Title: By default, Handbrake will select the longest title in the list. However, this may not be the content you want.
Movies: If you are ripping a movie, the longest title is usually the main feature.
TV Shows: If you are ripping a DVD containing TV shows, you should see a list of several titles all about the same length. The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.
The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want these tracks.

Title

If you only want to rip one title but aren't sure which one, you can click on the Picture Settings button (bottom right of the Handbrake interface) and manually step through several frames of the title to see what it looks like.
NOTE: Sometimes Handbrake is unable to see every track on a DVD. We've noticed issues with very old DVD's from the mid-1990s (before the days of fancy menus and Bonus features) and some newer DVD's like Stealth. There are different techniques and methods to authoring DVD's Sometimes the tracks get nested in weird ways that prevents Handbrake from seeing them. Other DVD ripping applications like Mac The Ripper and OSex might be able to see these tracks. Look for the longest track. That is probably the main feature.

Step 5: Destination Settings
The Destination section has 3 settings you can modify: file format, codec and file destination.
File Destination: You can name your file and choose its destination using this box. Try to pick a location that has sufficient disk space to store the ripped file. On average, you need about 1 GB per full length movie.

File Destination Settings

Step 6: Select A Preset
Handbrake has a variety of handy DVD ripping presets for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox, Sony PSP and many more. Just select a preset and Handbrake will automatically fill in all the settings for you.

Preset

If you plan on watching this DVD on your iPod, iPhone or even Apple TV, we suggest you select iPod High-Rez and drop the average bitrate to 900 kbps. This will give you a nice high quality file that will work on both big (HDTVs) and small screens (iPod/iPhone) and won't take up a ton of hard drive space.

Handbrake - quality

Step 7: Picture Settings
Click on the Picture Settings button to launch a separate window. The only thing you really want to do here is to compensate for interlaced or grainy, compressed looking video. Handbrake will have adjusted everything here for you based on the preset you selected.
Sometimes video files will have horizontal lines in them. This is called interlacing. To get rid of interlacing, try turning on the Deinterlace option and select "Fast." The image below is animated and will toggle between when the deinterlace option is turned on or off. You can really see the difference around the edge of the flipper.
Handbrake - deinterlace

Denoise will help get rid of graininess and Deblock will help clean up blocky or compressed looking video. Experiment and try to make your video clip look the best possible.
NOTE: Your iPod really only wants video files that are 320 pixels wide by 240 wide. If you don't plan on watching this ripped DVD on anything else, you can mess around with the settings. Turn on the "Keep aspect ratio button" and decrease the Width until it says 320. Handbrake will auto-adjust the height to match the width. If your video source is 3:4 (full-screen), the height will be 240. For wide-screen content, the height will be a lower number. This is fine and isn't something to worry about.
But if you plan on watching this video on your TV with an Apple TV or an iPod Video dock, then you should keep the video size big. If you don't have the money for an Apple TV, there's this amazing iPod video dock called the Keyspan TuneView. If you want to hook your iPod Video up to your TV, you should check out the TuneView.

Handbrake - size

Step 8: Rip
Finally! Click on the Rip button and stand back. The encoding time will depend on several variables including: the duration of the video file, the speed of your computer, what other activity your computer is currently doing, the codec you selected (H264 or MP4) and if you decided to do a 2-pass encoding or not.

Handbrake - encoding

Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.
Handbrake will attempt to provide you with an ETA. The time will increase if you Pause the encode or do anything that will hog the processor like start a 3D render in Maya. We suggest you do your DVD ripping overnight or at a time when you don't need to use your computer.

Handbrake

Step 9: Import Into iTunes
Connect your iPod Video or iPhone to your computer using the cable it came with and open iTunes (Applications > iTunes).
Drag and drop the video file into your iTunes library, or select Add to Library... from the File menu.
Make sure the video file you just added to iTunes is in a Playlist that will get synced to your device.
Select "Sync"
The sync may take a few minutes. Once the import completed, you could find the file which is ripped by Handbrake on your iPod or iPhone.

2010年9月19日星期日

New iPod touch 2G Guide

A big surprise turn up at 9th Sep for all iPod fans – the new iPod touch 2G and Nano 4G released. It’s really lucky and exciting to get a new iPod Touch 2G. And in order to help iPod users to learn more about it, I collected some information for this new iPod touch 2G guide. And it also includes how to enjoy the multimedia on you new iPod touch 2G such as download free video to iPod, convert DVD to iPod and transfer music video from iPod to iPod and iPod to computer.

Price:
As expected, the biggest news with Apple's second-generation iPod Touch is its drastically reduced price. The 8GB version of the iPod Touch 2G is now $229 (down from $299), the 16GB is $299 (down from $399), and the 32GB is $399 (down from $499).

Size:
The new iPod touch 2G is smaller and lighter than the original, 3.5 inch touch-screen, measuring 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.33 inches and weighing 4.05 ounces. With its rounded edges, flush display and curved, more compact design, the iPod touch 2G is promised to be more comfortable to hold and more portable than ever.

New iPod Touch - size

Game:
iPod touch 2G users can choose from hundreds of gaming titles such as "Spore Origins" and "Scrabble" from Electronic Arts, and "Real Football 2009" from Gameloft available on iTunes or directly through the App Store application on the iPod touch. The App Store works over Wi-Fi, enabling users to browse, purchase and wirelessly download applications.

New iPod Touch - game

Battery and “Genius”
The new iPod touch 2G promises up to 36 hours of music playback or six hours of video playback on a single charge. It also works with the new iTunes 8 Genius feature, allowing users to automatically create playlists while on the go. These playlists can also be synchronized with iTunes 8 servers.

Others features in new iPod touch 2G
Build-in accelerometer for casual listening; more convenient volume control button on the edge; the newest improvements “Nike+iPod” which can help you track your workouts by slipping a Nike+iPod sensor into you Nike+ shoes.

Then, Let’s talk about how to enjoy multimedia on your New iPod touch 2G
Part 1: How to free download video to your new iPod Touch 2G.
I always download free video and music from Youtube and limewire.
Youtube streaming videos are all FLV formats, so you need to play the video with a flash player programe on your computer, and if you want to put them on your new iPod touch 2G, use a iPod video Converter to convert FLV to MP4 format.
I got this totally free Youtube downloader, just enjoy.
http://www.aiseesoft.com/free-youtube-downloader.html

Limewire is a fast and popular freeware working on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Through the P2P (peer-to-peer) network, you can free download various video and audio files by keywords searching. Most of its video formats is MPEG, so convert them and transfer to your iTunes then iPod touch 2G.
http://www.limewire.com/

Part 2: How to convert DVD to iPod Touch 2G
The new iPod touch 2G can only play MP4 and H.264 video, but DVD movie is MEPG, MPEG-2 video and CSS protected, so you need an application to convert DVD to MP4 video, then sync it to iPod touch 2G via iTunes.

convert DVD to New iPod Touch

To complete Part 1 and Part 2 I recommend you an iPod studio pack which includes a DVD to iPod converter and video to iPod converter.
You can get familiar with the apps by using this detailed step by step guide:
http://www.aiseesoft.com/article/download-dvd-pdf-youtube-videoto-ipod.html

Part 3: How to convert files back to your computer and transfer between iPod
Because iTunes prevents you from copying music or video from the iPod touch 2G back to computer, so you need a special tool to do that.
Yamipod, Aiseesoft iPod to Computer Transfer, Sharepod, iDump
And then re-add it to your iTunes library and sync it to other iPod touch 2G.

Free Trial: Free download Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite

view the datail of ipod nano chromatic/touch 2 converter

2010年9月18日星期六

Please Hurd, Don’t Hammer ’Em

Good thing Hewlett-Packard got rid of Mark Hurd. Because his heart evidently belongs to Oracle. Trotted out during the company’s earnings call Thursday, just 10 days after his appointment as co-president, the former HP CEO proclaimed his new employer market leader.

“Over the past 25 years I’ve competed against and partnered with Oracle,” Hurd said during his first public appearances on Oracle’s behalf. “I don’t believe there is any other company in the industry better than Oracle. There is no one else in the market with the software and hardware assets that can match it.”

Although there might have been last month when Hurd was still at HP (HPQ).

In any event, it was an interesting moment coming so recently after Hurd’s scandal-ridden ouster from HP and the breach of contract suit the company brought against him for accepting a job at longtime rival Oracle (ORCL). Evidently, he doesn’t think there’s much of a chance of HP preventing him from keeping his new job, and he’s not above indulging in a bit of theatrics to demonstrate it.

“This is a very well-run company,” Hurd said later in the call. “We want to grow, and we want to grow profitably. That’s my priority. We want to have the best sales force on the planet, and offer the best support. That’s what I am working on.”

2010年9月16日星期四

Wanna Beat Android, Apple? End iPhone Exclusivity.


Apple needs a Verizon iPhone as badly as Verizon subscribers (and their frustrated AT&T counterparts) want one. And if it doesn’t bring one to market soon, it risks being overrun by Google’s massing Android army. That’s the theory put forth by Bernstein Research analysts Toni Sacconaghi and Pierre Ferragu, who predict that Android’s installed base could exceed that of the iPhone in just five quarters–unless Apple ends exclusivity on the device in the United States and abroad.

And they’ve got the numbers to back it up. According to the two analysts, Android’s device shipment run rate has more than tripled in the past seven months, from 60,000 to 200,000 per day. That means there will be some 53 million Android devices shipped this year. “Even under the conservative assumption that Android’s run rate remains constant for the rest of the year, Android alone will contribute 25 percent points of y/y growth to the entire smartphone market,” Sacconaghi and Ferragu contend (click image to enlarge).

Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) is shipping “iOS devices” (a grouping that includes the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) at a run rate of 230,000.

That means the smartphone market is going to see a head-to-head battle for market share between Apple and Google (GOOG) sooner rather than later. Sacconaghi and Ferragu’s advice to Apple if it wants to win that battle: End carrier exclusivity in Germany and the U.S. and add new iPhone carriers in countries that currently have just one, like Japan and South Korea.

“[The iPhone’s] distribution vacuum, coupled with weak competitive offerings from other smartphone manufacturers, has made Android a strong alternative platform,” the analysts argue. “The key to arresting Android’s momentum then will be for Apple to broaden distribution. We believe that a CDMA iPhone is being developed by Apple and are modeling it to be distributed at Verizon (VZ) in mid 2011–various data points suggest it could actually be sooner, likely in early 2011. We believe Apple needs to strike distribution deals with these carriers, even if it has to sacrifice some pricing power since doing so would (1) still be accretive to company gross margins; and (2) take away the strong foothold it currently provides to a potentially formidable competitor.”

Assuming Apple does that and this all plays out as Sacconaghi and Ferragu foresee, what’s going to happen to RIM (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK)? Nothing good. “While Android and Apple are growing above market rates, other platforms are languishing in terms of developer support, and our recent proprietary research points to limited excitement among consumers,” the two write. “Given the continued momentum for Android and Apple, a scenario in which Nokia’s and RIM’s platforms get increasingly marginalized becomes a possibility.”

2010年9月14日星期二

Preschoolers Learn About Electronic Privacy–Firsthand

The latest front in the fight over electronic privacy doesn’t involve sex offenders, terrorism, or insider trading. In one California community, the battleground is preschool.

The conflict surrounds a one-year pilot program at the George Miller III Head Start center in Richmond, a suburb of San Francisco.

Funded by a $50,000 grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the program would, according to a San Jose Mercury News story here, outfit 200 preschoolers with shirts tagged with electronic locator devices, so teachers can monitor their whereabouts and, apparently, what they eat.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

2010年9月13日星期一

iPAQ converter - convert mpeg mp4 wmv avi to ipaq, rip dvd to ipaq

The tutorial includes two parts. The part 1 will show you how to convert mpeg mp4 wmv flv 3gp avi to iPAQ video step by step with Aiseesoft Total Video Converter. And the part 2 will show you how to convert dvd movie to iPAQ video step by step with Aiseesoft DVD Ripper. The detailed steps are as follows:

Part1. how to convert mpeg mp4 wmv flv 3gp avi to iPAQ video?
Aiseesoft Total Video Converter is a powerful iPAQ video converter which can convert various video formats including AVI, Divx, XviD, WMV, MPEG, MPG, FLV(YouTube video), RM, RMVB, TOD, MOD, ASF, H.264, etc to iPAQ video. And it is a video joiner, and video editor for you to convert video files to the formats you want, so you can enjoy you movie on all common digital players like iPod, Zune, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3, Archos, iRiver, Creative Zen, PMP, Smart Phone, Pocket PC, PDA, Mobile Phone, etc.

Here's the tutorial about how to convert mpeg mp4 wmv flv 3gp avi to iPAQ video with Aiseesoft Total Video Converter

Step1 Free to Download Aiseesoft Total Video Converter and install it.

Step2 Click the "Add File" button to import your videos. If you experience any problems adding videos by directly clicking the "Add File" button, you can click "File -> Add File" to add the video files you want to convert from your computer.

Aiseesoft Total Video Converter

Step3 This software can convert video to various video formats for PMP, Xbox 360, iPod, PSP, Zune, cell phone, etc. Click the "Profile" drop-down list to select the format "HP iPAQ Video(*.wmv)"

Total Video Converter - profile

Step4 If you want to customize the output quality, click the "Settings" button to open the Settings panel, where you can set resolution, frame rate, video bit rate, audio bit rate, sample, etc.

Total Video Converter - settings

Step5 Click the "Browse" button to specify a location on your computer to save the converted movie. If you want to open the output folder, you can just click the button "Open Folder". If you want to merge the added video files into one file, check the option "Merge into one file". By default, the the merged file is named after the first selected file.

Step6 When you get ready to convert the added video files, click the “Start” button to start conversion.

Part 2. how to convert dvd movie to iPAQ video?
Aiseesoft DVD Ripper is all-in-one, super fast DVD ripper software. The best DVD ripper can rip DVD movies to all popular video and audio formats. And it let you easily copy DVD movie to iPAQ video, iPod Video, Zune, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3, Archos, iRiver, Creative Zen, PMP, MP4/MP3 Player, Smart Phone, Pocket PC, PDA, Mobile Phone, etc.

Step1. Download Aiseesoft DVD Ripper and install it.

Step2. Insert your DVD disc into your DVD-Rom, then run the software, click "Load DVD" button and add the DVD file. You can also add DVD/IFO from your hard disk by clicking "Load IFO File".

DVD Ripper

Step3. This software can convert DVD to various video formats such as MPEG-4, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, VOB, etc. Click the "Profile" drop-down list to select the format "HP iPAQ Video(*.wmv)".

DVD Ripper - profile

If you want to customize the output video, you can click the "Settings" button next to the format field to open the Settings window and set video resolution, frame rate, bit rate, encoder, etc. See the figure below:

DVD Ripper - settings

Step4. Select Subtitle and Audio
Regular DVD movies usually have several subtitles such as English, French, German, etc. You can select one you prefer. You can also delete the subtitle by selecting "No Subtitle", Selecting Audio is the same.

Step5. After the above steps, click "Start" to start conversion.

How to use Mac The Ripper to rip DVD to iPod, iPhone, etc. on Mac

Part 1. Use MacTheRipper to minus the copy protections for free
Mac The Ripper is a free DVD ripper (extractor) for Mac OS X. It can extract commercial DVD movies to your hard drive, minus all the copy protections and region controls put in place by DVD publishers. Mac The Ripper removes CSS encryption, Macrovision protection, and sets the disc's region code to '0' for region-free by default, and is capable of removing RCE region protection as well, making an unrestricted copy of any DVD movie you own. It doesn't rely on the DVD drive to get the CSS decryption keys, so that means that you do not need to play the DVD with DVD Player in order to rip it to your hard drive unprotected. MacThe Ripper is also capable of removing UOPs, or User Operation Prohibitions, which are the settings that prevent you from skipping or fast-forwarding certain parts of DVDs, such as FBI warnings, previews, logos, intros, etc. Mac The Ripper is also able to extract discs with the new ARccOS protection, as well as DVDs that have been damaged or improperly mastered.
WARNING: Disabling UOPs can break the navigation on certain DVDs. If you disable UOPs, be sure to verify the DVD with DVD Player before you burn it to DVD±R disc.

Step 1. install MacThe Ripper
Download it from: http://www.Mactheripper.org. To install Mac The Ripper, simply mount the .dmg archive by double-clicking it, and copy the Mac The Ripper application from it to your Applications folder (or wherever you want it ), along with this Mac The Ripper Manual if you need it.
Step 2. convert DVD for free
To use Mac The Ripper, you should insert your DVD movie into your DVD drive and launch the Mac The Ripper application. Then, you should set the RCE options if applicable. If Mac The Ripper displays 'DISC RCE: -CLEAR-' after scanning the DVD in the drive, you can leave the 'RCE Region' popup menu on 'OFF', as it is by default. Only (and always) set the 'RCE Region' to 'OFF' when it says that RCE is '-CLEAR-'.
Once you've selected the type of extraction and options you want, you can go back to the 'Disc' tab and click the 'GO!' button (or hit the 'Enter' or 'Return' key) to start the extraction.

Mac The Ripper
Mac The Ripper - dvd extraction

Step 3, finish extract movie from DVD.

Mac The Ripper - extract movie from DVD

You can find a folder in the save location. The output files extracted by MacTheRipper are saved as .VOB format .
Tip: RCE region protection
region 1: North America; U.S. territories; Bermuda
region 2: Europe; Western Asia; Kingdom of the Netherlands; Egypt, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland; British overseas territories, French overseas territories; Greenland.
region 3: East and Southeast Asia
region 4: Oceania; Central and South America; Caribbean; Mexico
region 5: Africa, Central and South Asia, Belarus, India, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
region 6: Mainland China

Part 2. Convert the .VOB files to other video, audio formats compatible with iPod, PSP
After using Mac The Ripper to minus the copy protections, we can use Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac to convert .VOB files to formats that compatible with popular players such as iPod, iPhone(iPhone 3G), Apple TV, PSP, Zune, etc.
Step 1:
Download and install Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac
Note: If you just want to convert .vob file for iPod, You can choose this powerful iPod video converter for Mac. It can convert .VOB file to iPod video and iPod audio on Mac OS with powerful functions and fast converting speed!
Step 2:
Run Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac, click 'Add File' button to import the .VOB files, choose the output format, then click 'Start' to start the conversion. If you want to put the video on PowerPoint, you can choose .avi as output format.
Tip: Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac can rip DVD to all popular video and audio formats directly. It can rip DVD to videos including MP4, AVI, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV, etc and can convert DVD audio to MP3, M4A, AAC, AC3, etc. It is more easy to use than Mac the ripper. You can download it for free and have a try.
Step 3:
After the conversion is finished, You can transfer the converted files to the players. For example, use iTunes to transfer the mp4 video to your iPod, here are the steps:
1. Open iTunes and click "File" to add your converted videos to iTunes library.
2. Plug in your iPod to computer, then iTunes will detect your iPod as a device.
3. Select your iPod device on the left panel of iTunes, click "Movies" tab, check the videos you want to sync and click "Apply", done.
Recommend: DVD Converter Suite for Mac: all-in-one solution to convert DVD and Video to MP4, AVI, FLV, MOV, MKV, ASF, directly for your iPhone, iPod, PSP, iPod touch, Zune, etc. on Mac OS X.

2010年9月11日星期六

How to play iPod video on TV

You may often confused with how to play iPod video on TV without Apple TV? Here is a guide to do this.
Note: This method is not usable for the 6th generation iPod.

What You'll Need
In order to get your iPod connected properly to your TV, you'll need the following items on hand:
A video-capable iPod. Any color will do.
An iPod-compatible video. Load it onto your iPod through iTunes.
Note: iPod accepts mp4 video detail as: MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
If your videos are not iPod format files, you can use Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac to convert videos to iPod format files. Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac is one of the best video to iPod converters on Mac os which can convert MP4, 3GP, AVI, WMV, RM, MPEG, and FLV to iPod video with very high quality and various output settings in high speed(>300%). If you use Windows, you can use iPod movie converter for windows.
An A/V cable. If you don't already have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

A/V cable
Figure 1. A camcorder A/V cable has a three-plug RCA connection at one end and a three-banded 1/8" plug at the other

Setting Up Your iPod Video Options
Setting up your iPod video options lets you control how you export video. The iPod Video Options screen selects how your iPod handles video file playback.
To open these settings, choose Videos -> Video Settings from your main iPod menu. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Adjust to produce the video playback style you need.

Play iPod Video on TV
Figure 2. Videos -> Video Settings controls the way your iPod plays back video files

TV Out
Whenever you play a video file, your iPod must make a choice. Video iPods either play video on the built-in screen or they transmit a video signal out of the microphone jack. They don't do both. The TV Out option controls which behavior occurs.
Use this setting to choose from:
No. Playback remains on the iPod itself.
Yes. A TV signal is produced.
Ask. The iPod prompts you whenever you play a video file.
I always use the Ask option. Yes, it does add an extra step whenever I play a video file, but it gives me the flexibility to choose playback behavior on a case-by-case basis. I like that.

TV Signal
European and Australian television sets use a different signal standard than those used in America and Japan. If you live in the U.S., your TV works with the NTSC standard. European countries mostly use PAL. Make sure you've selected the correct signal for your country.
Widescreen
iPods can play back widescreen video, if only on exported video. The built-in screen uses a traditional 4:3 screen ratio, rather than widescreen's 16:9 proportions. Choose Yes to produce a widescreen signal, or No to export the traditional TV output.
Connecting the iPod to TV
It takes a few steps to connect your iPod to your TV. Start by inserting the A/V cord's eighth-inch plug into your iPod's earphone jack. In it goes, schnickt. Couldn't be eas.
Here's where it gets a little tricky. In order to make your TV play back the iPod signal, you've got to redirect the outputs. You can't just plug the yellow RCA plug into the yellow RCA jack and the red into the red or the white into the white. No. Those geniuses at Apple send the video signal over the red RCA output. (Normally it arrives on yellow.) The sound comes through the white and yellow plugs.
I ended up going to an Apple store and testing this on iPod after iPod. They all have this quirk. It was intentional. But hey, it's proprietary. Woohoo. So here's what you have to do:
- Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
- Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
- Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.

Play iPod video on TVPlay iPod video on TV
Figure 3. Left: TV jacks, unplugged; right: TV jacks, plugged with A/V cable.

After making all of these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Playing Your Video
On your iPod, navigate to the movie you want to watch and select it. Your iPod prompts you to choose whether to play the video with TV Off or TV On. (You set the TV Out option to "Ask," remember?) Choose TV On.Play iPod video on TV
Figure 4. Choose TV On to redirect the video through the earphone jack.
As your video starts, a status screen appears on your iPod and the video plays back on your television. The status screen tracks playback progress, just as it would in iTunes.Play ipod video on tv
Figure 5. The iPod video status screen shows playback progress.
Leave the television volume control at normal levels and use the iPod volume control to adjust the audio. The audio and video should both sound and look excellent.

2010年9月10日星期五

Watch Vikings vs. Saints Live on the Web, for Free, Tonight. But Don’t Get Used to It

Brett Favre and the Vikings limp into the Superdome tonight to play the Saints and kick off the NFL season. Great stuff, and if for some reason you’re not going to be in front of a TV, you’re not screwed: You can watch the game live on the Web, legally and for free, via NBC’s Football Extra feature.

Actually, even if you are watching on a big screen, it’s worth playing with the NBC webcast, just for fun: I’ve tried it a couple of times over the past couple of years, and it’s pretty good: The main attraction is the extra camera angles–in the past, they’ve included a shot dedicated exclusively to Favre, which I like. (Some of you, I realize, may choose other angles.)

This is a great, commonsense offering from NBC and the NFL: There’s absolutely no reason to watch football on a PC unless you have to, so it’s hard to see them losing eyeballs here.

Which means every Web visit–and Web dollar or dime–they do get is purely additive. (Note to those of you who like to gripe about this stuff–you will need to have Microsoft’s (MSFT) Silverlight installed to watch the stream.)

But don’t get used to it. After tonight’s game, NBC and the NFL are only offering this once a week, during NBC’s Sunday-night game. And it goes away entirely once the playoffs start. Beyond that, if you want to watch the NFL on the Web, you’ve either got to pay through the nose for a DirectTV package or try to find an illegal stream.

Meanwhile, note the utter absence of a Web marketing campaign telling you about the NBC feed. It’s been up and running since 2008, but I had to reach out to NBC this morning to confirm that it’s still extant.

It’s easy to understand why the Web games are a quiet experiment, unfortunately: NBC and the other broadcasters–CBS (CBS), News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and Disney’s (DIS) ABC are paying the NFL a collective $3 billion a year in license fees. So both sides have an incentive, for now, to keep the games a TV-only experience.

Big sports–and pro football in particular–are one of the last bastions of old-style TV economics. Once you see cheap and legal access to the games on the Web, on a regular basis, you’ll know that the TV/Web convergence is here for good.

2010年9月8日星期三

Taiwan Tabloid Sensation Next Media Re-Creates the News

Early in the morning on November 27, 2009, Tiger Woods allegedly had an altercation with his wife, Elin Nordegren, that culminated in a career-derailing car crash outside the couple’s Florida home. Details of what transpired are vague–the principals aren’t talking, and no cameras were present. Millions of people who followed the breaking story on CNN, Fox, ESPN, and TMZ had to satisfy themselves with watching file footage of the golfer and his wife.

The incident captured the world’s attention, but no one could actually see it–until an animated reenactment was uploaded to the Web site of an Asian tabloid just hours after it happened. The 96-second videoclip featured Sims-like doppelgängers of the couple and depicted the moments that everyone was clamoring to see: the vehicle colliding with a tree, an unconscious Woods lying in the street as the police arrived, even Nordegren chasing her husband’s SUV down the driveway with a golf club.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

2010年9月7日星期二

Newspapers Still Falling, Just Not as Freely

A reminder that the ad recession isn’t over by any stretch, at least for some industries: The newspaper business saw ads drop 5.6 percent in Q2, an industry group says. Google’s (GOOG) Q2, by the way: Up 24 percent.

If you’re feeling half-empty, you’ll note that this is in comparison with the spring of 2009, when the economy was still in shocked-and-awed mode. So the fact that newspaper revenue is continuing to decline is pretty grim, indeed.

Want to be more positive about this? No problem: You can note, as the WSJ does, that the industry’s rate of decline has decreased steadily over the last year: In Q2 of last year, it was an atrocious 29 percent. But things have been getting less bad since then, and the shrinkage had dropped to single digits by the beginning of 2010. Meanwhile some papers are doing even less bad: The New York Times (NYT) reported flat ad revenue last quarter, which qualifies as pretty good news indeed by today’s standards.

2010年9月5日星期日

How to play DVD on Mac

This tutorial includes 4 parts:
Part 1, DVD Regions
Part 2, How to play DVD on Mac?
Part 3, How to Unlock DVD Regions on Mac?
Part 4, how to copy protected DVD Movie on Mac OS X

Part 1, DVD Regions
Region 1: North America; U.S. territories; Bermuda
Region 2: Europe; Western Asia; Kingdom of the Netherlands; Egypt, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland; British overseas territories, French overseas territories; Greenland
Region 3: East and Southeast Asia
Region 4: Oceania; Central and South America; Caribbean; Mexico
Region 5: Africa, Central and South Asia, Belarus, India, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine
Region 6: Mainland China

Part 2, How to play DVD on Mac?
VLC is part of a remarkably sophisticated suite of VideoLan applications available for a wide range of operating systems, ranging from Linux to Windows and, of course, Mac OS X.
Download and install VLC and open it, then select File > Open Disc. Click on the Disc tab, click on DVD, select the device, and click OK
Or select File > Open File..., select your VIDEO_TS folder, and voila! You're watching your movie.

Play DVD on Mac

Part 3, How to Unlock DVD Regions on Mac?
Most commercial DVDs use encryption that keeps them locked to one or more “region codes,” meaning the discs you pick up in other continents usually won't play on an American DVD player. If you believe the movie studios, this encryption is a necessary tool in the ongoing war against piracy. Basically, it helps them release the same movie in different parts of the world—at different times and for different prices. However, because pirates rarely resell legitimate copies of movies (they are pirates, after all), this system's primary effect is to prevent movie collectors and frequent travelers from enjoying legally purchased films once they get home.
There are some multi-region DVD players out there. They are perfectly legal, but they tend to be pricey and rare. And if you are the jet-setting type who is likely to pick up foreign flicks in the first place, you probably want to watch them on the go using your laptop. That's why the most frustrating part of region codes is the way they affect laptop DVD players.
Although laptop DVD drives are technologically capable of playing any DVD, they typically force you to switch among region settings to play imported discs. Try switching this setting more than a fixed number of times (typically five over the entire life span of the computer), and the setting will be locked forever.
For example, if you switch from Region 1 (the United States and Canada) to Region 3 (parts of Asia) to watch a kung-fu flick you picked up on a trip to Hong Kong, you'll have to switch back to Region 1 before playing any movies you purchased at your local Best Buy. Watching that one Jet Li movie just burned up two of your five switches—and not even reinstalling your operating system will get you more. Fortunately, some clever programmers have created software solutions that circumvent disc regions entirely, turning your notebook into a portable multiregional DVD player.
There are plenty of programs for Macs that allow you to rip DVD movies on Mac. I recommend Aiseesoft DVD Ripper for Mac which allows you to rip DVD movies on Mac easily. This Mac DVD Ripper is fast in ripping DVD to all popular video and audio formats as it includes the features of DVD Ripper and DVD Audio Ripper. It can rip DVD video to video formats including MP4, AVI, MOV, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV, etc. and it can convert DVD audio to MP3, M4A, AAC, AC3, etc. It's the best solution to rip a dvd to video or audio formats on Mac. This solution has its advantages (chief among them is that watching movies off your hard drive uses far less battery life than reading them from an optical disc.)
If you do not want to spend money, I recommend downloading VLC, an open-source media player that sometimes circumvents region encoding. The DVD drives on different computers (including various Macs) come from diverse manufacturers, a.nd VLC plays out-of-region discs on some, but not all of them. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if it will work on your system until you try. Fortunately, the program is free.

Part 4, how to copy protected DVD Movie on Mac OS X
Copy protected DVD action can turn into failure if you don't have appropriate software. Very often DVDs are protected against ripping and thus copying the contents of the disc to your hard disk doesn't work. Even if you do succeed in ripping the contents of the disc, to copy protected DVD also means to fit the files on your recordable DVD since the latter can only hold 4.4GB of data while the original DVD is more than 7GB in size.
Copy protected DVD software for those, who have no experience whatsoever with backing-up DVDs, is big deal. DVD Copy for Mac

How to import music from iPod to iPod without iTunes

Ever since iPod was released, millions of people have been crazy about it. There appeared some assistant tools to manage iPod without iTunes:
1. Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac is one of the best Mac tools that can transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle, iPod backup for Mac. It is the best for iPod iTunes Mac software.
2. Aiseesoft iPod Transfer is another Windows all-in-one tool including iPod to iPod Transfer, computer to iPod Transfer and iPod to computer transfer.

Part One: How to manage iPod without iTunes on Mac. (Transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle, iPod Backup for Mac)
1. Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac.
For Intel:http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/mac/ipod-manager-for-mac.dmg
For Power PC: http://www.aiseesoft.com/downloads/mac/ipod-manager-for-mac.dmg

2. Connect iPod to Mac via USB.

Transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle:

Transfer Mac to iPod Shuffle:

Select “Music”, “Video” or “Picture”. Then click “Mac to iPod” to choose the files you want to transfer to iPod. Click “Open” to finish the transfer.

iPod Backup for Mac:

iPod Backup for Mac

Select files you want to backup. Click “iPod to Mac” and find the place where you want to transfer your iPod files to your Mac and click “Open”.

Part Two: Computer to iPod Transfer, iPod to iPod Transfer, iPod to Computer Transfer for Windows users
1. Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Transfer.
2. Connect iPod/iPhone to computer.

iPod Transfer

Computer to iPod Transfer
Click “computer to iPod” button to seek the files or folders that you want to import to iPod and click OK.

iPod to iPod Transfer
Pick the files that you need to transfer. Just click “iPod to iPod” button and it will show you the folder of another iPod that you want to transfer to. Click OK. The transfer can be finished automatically.

iPod to Computer Transfer
Check the file(s) you want to export in the file list. Click “iPod to computer” button to select the destination of the exporting files and start exporting files.

Hope it helps you!

2010年9月3日星期五

Using Windows Movie Maker to edit videos on PC for free

This is a tutorial which explains the process of editing videos on a PC using Windows Movie Maker and editing videos on Mac using iMovie. This tutorial will be a concise explanation of how to editing videos for free. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using dvd burner you can even take movies you've made and turn movies into DVDs.
You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

This tutorial includes three parts, this is part one:
Part 1. Using Windows Movie Maker to edit videos on PC for free
Part 2. Using iMovie to edit videos on Mac for free
Part 3. A table that compares free video editors.

Windows Movie Maker 2.1 makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker 2.1, you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes.

Windows Movie Maker- edit video

Step 1, Capture video
You can capture video from video device, import video, pictures, audio and music. MM2 will allow you to import the following file formats:
- Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav and .wma
- Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf
- Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv
If your videos are not the formats compatible with Windows Movie Maker such as MP4/3GP, FLV and MOV, MIDI, AIFF, AAC, you can use the video converter to convert the video to the formats supported by MM2 first.

Step 2, Edit movie
-Add Video Transitions.
Open your Windows Movie Maker project file. If Movie Maker opens in Timeline view, return to Storyboard view by clicking on the Show Storyboard link. From the Movie Tasks pane, under Edit Movie, select View video transitions . Choose the desired transition, select and drag into storyboard between desired clips. After inserting transition, sample the change in the Monitor to determine if it works in the way you desire. To change a transition you can Undo the action, right click on the transition in the Storyboard and select delete, or simply drag a new transition over the old transition.
-Add Video Effects.
Choose "View video effects" under the Edit Movie section and drag the chosen effect to the star in the lower left corner of the picture. Preview your movie to see the effects. Continue to add effects to other pictures if desired. Save the file. A video effect applies to the picture itself rather than the change from one picture to another as in a transition.
-Add Titles and Credits.
Under the Edit Movie section, choose Make titles or credits. You have several options for where to place your Windows Movie Maker title and credits. They may precede or follow a picture or video clip, or be used as an overlay.
Here are tips for you to add special effects to your movies using Windows Movie Maker

Step 3, Finish movie
Now that your movie is complete, you may wish to save the project in a different format.
Saving the project and saving the movie are two different things. The movie project is the working file so that you may continue to edit until you have a final version of your work completed. The movie file is the final output of your movie.
Windows Movie Maker compresses all the parts of your movie into a single unit. The file size is much smaller so that it can be used on a web site or emailed.
You also have the option to create a CD or DVD of your movie. These options are all under the heading Finish Movie. If you want to convert the movie made by Windows Movies Maker to other video format such as YouTube video, AVI, MP4, 3GP, you can use this video converter. You can also use free third-party software to burn the movie made by Windows Movies Maker to DVD for free.