Kinect, OS X and iPad Come Together In Futuristic Cubes

By Federico Viticci

As if being able to display Kinect’s captured images on OS X wasn’t enough, the solid community behind Kinect’s incredible hacks managed to manipulate the data recorded by Kinect and output everything on OS X using cool futuristic cubes (a system called Box Cloud). These neon cubes may vary in size according to the distance of the subject from the camera – it’s overall a pretty cool thing to look at.

But modders and hackers took the whole concept a step further and allowed iPad users to control “planes of interest” using their multitouch tablet. With the iPad you can change the colors visualized on screen, adjust zoom by tilting the device. Somehow, it all comes together in the video below.

It’s only hacking, but we like it. [via Engadget] Read more

Slap The Nano →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Slap The Nano

We’ve wrapped a memory-metal wristband with soft silky silicone. Slap’s flexible, spring-steel band lies flat and rigid until you slap! it onto your arm. Snap Slap open, then snap Slap shut around your wrist. (Say that 10 times real fast.) The Slap band self-adjusts to a comfortable fit, exactly your size.

Griffin’s latest accessory for the iPod Nano looks like an interesting alternative to those Nano wristbands that have been floating around on eBay. Available at $24.99 here.

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The Glif, A Success So Far →

Linked By Federico Viticci

The Glif, A Success So Far

The Glif’s designers hoped to raise $10,000 to produce a few hundred iPhone 4 tripod adapters. Dan Provost and Thomas Gerhardt planned to do most of the fiddly final assembly, packaging, and mailing themselves. Instead, the project brought in $137,417 in crowdfunded contributions via Kickstarter over 30 days. The pair have been scrambling to keep up with success.

Whole post is worth a read. I can’t wait for my Glif to arrive. [via DF]

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Twitter for iPad: Bitter Sweet Imperfection

By Federico Viticci

Twitter released an update to their official iOS app last night. The update includes the much talked push notifications for messages and mentions which, especially on the iPhone, really help in keeping track of what’s happening on Twitter when you’re not in front of your computer. I want to focus on the iPad version, though.

People went hard on criticizing Twitter for iPad when it first came out. Admittedly, it wasn’t the easiest “upgrade” to perform: until two months ago, users were accustomed to Osfoora HD and Twitterrific, two great clients that I still keep on my iPad because I don’t mind using them every once in a while. They’re beautiful and powerful pieces of software. Twitterrific has a huge userbase, but it doesn’t differ much from the iPhone version nor does it try to walk away from the standard established by Apple in Mail.app (sidebar in landscape mode, popover in portrait) being incorrectly used in thousands of other apps. I like Twitterrific, but it doesn’t give me the sense of trying something new, something revolutionary. Apps like Twitter for iPad, Aweditorium and Flipboard do. They bring a new, fresh experience to a new kind of device that seven months after its release still manages to surprise me. Read more

Going SSD On Your Mac

By Federico Viticci

Those who follow me on Twitter know that a couple of weeks ago I upgraded my MacBook Pro (15-inch model, late 2008) to the new generation of hard drives: I bought a Solid State Drive, also simply known as SSD. Many have been asking and sending emails about the best tips to follow while changing a MacBook’s internal drive and upgrading to SSD, but the truth is there is no real “guide” or “tutorial” to follow. Yet another list post of must-read tips would be useless as my experience and setup is different than yours, and I’m not forcing anyone to follow steps and procedures that might just waste time.

So instead of putting together a tutorial, here’s the story of what I did. Read more

OmniFocus 1.8 for iPhone Adds Background Sync Completion, Improved Due Reminders, Lots of Fixes

By Federico Viticci

Following the 1.2 update for iPad, the OmniGroup today released OmniFocus 1.8 for iPhone, an updated aimed at improving performance of the app on iOS 4.2 (still in GM version for developers) and the behavior of due reminders.

On iOS 4.2, OmniFocus 1.8 takes advantage of the sync completion API to complete in-progress sync even if put in the background. The app can now also perform automatic sync as it enters the background. This is something OmniFocus users have been requesting since the first betas of iOS 4.2. As for due reminders, they are now presented when the app is active, not just when OF isn’t the active app. The developers also implemented a custom sound to differentiate OmniFocus’ alerts from system and other 3rd party apps alerts.

OmniFocus for iPhone is available at $19.99 here. You can check out the full (and huge) changelog below. Read more

Facebook Neue Safari & Chrome Extension Removes Ads, Makes Facebook Twitter-like

By Federico Viticci

Developed by Milind Alvares of Smoking Apples (and Beautiful Pixels) Facebook Neue is an extension for Chrome and Safari 5 that does one thing very well: it makes Facebook simpler. The extension removes the ugly ads from Facebook (sorry Mark, I’m tired of Coca Cola ads) and resizes the main container to two columns, making it more Twitter-like. As Milind says it’s far from feeling exactly like Twitter, but I like this new layout. It makes everything readable and elegant.

Also in the extension:

I also selectively hid some of the settings in the sidebars, such as application links, or that language settings button next to the chat toolbar. I was happily using this until I realised I could very well just convert this into an extension and share it with everyone. Some more bug fixes, and a redesigned login page later, version 1.0 was ready.

I’m sure some of the changes, like the fixed masthead or the rounding of image avatars, are not going to be universally appreciated, and I’m okay with that.

I love it. Go download it here.

Google Docs Editing Finally Comes to iPhone and iPad

By Federico Viticci

Finally, Google has announced that they’ll roll out Docs editing for mobile devices in the next few days. The feature, first announced several weeks ago but never actually deployed, is now ready to go for Android and iOS devices. All you have to do to edit a document on a mobile browser (including the iPad) is pressing the Edit button in Google Docs. That’s it.

In the next few days, we’re rolling this out to English-language users around the world on Android with Froyo (version 2.2) and on iOS devices (version 3.0+) including the iPad. We’ll be adding support for other languages soon. And as before, we also support editing of spreadsheets from your mobile device’s browser.

Well done, Google. A simple implementation we were all waiting for. Check out the promo video below. Read more

Steve Ballmer On “Various Tablets”→

Linked By Federico Viticci

Steve Ballmer On “Various Tablets”

From Ars Technica’s interview with Steve Ballmer:

I won’t give you an answer, because it will all depend on what you want, and we’re going to have various things coming at various times coming over the next months and years, and some things, I think you will see things that you will fall [in love with]—I know I’m seeing things that I’ll fall in love with, and I know there will be more things that I desire.

Here’s the difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple knows what you want, or at least leads you to think you want what they’re offering. It’s a rather simple strategy. Microsoft, or the current Microsoft in the Ballmer-era, is going to have “various things” coming at “various times”. The HP Slate demand provides a good example.

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