Jake Ludington's Digital Lifestyle

CaseSmpl iPad and Kindle Fire Case Review

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:57:01 -0800

For those of us who own a tablet computer, a case is a necessity you can't be without. Sure the iPad Smart Cover offers a clever solution for protecting the screen, but it doesn't do anything to protect the rest of your iPad. Seven inch tablets, like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet need protective cases too.

After trying a bunch of different cases along the way, I wound up using the CaseSmpl eReader ballistic nylon case for my Kindle Fire. The case goes beyond the simple protective cover and offers additional storage for many of the things I keep with me all the time. The iPad case offers similar protection and even more additional storage because of the size difference between the Kindle Fire and iPad.

Liquid Image Ego WiFi Mountable Camera

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:16:03 -0800

I'm a hack as a snowboarder and a very casual cyclist, so the idea of attempting to recording myself doing any extreme sports is laughable. I do appreciate the snowboarding videos put out by companies like Burton to generate excitement around their new product line and have even attended a couple snowboarding movie debuts. My real interest in wearable cameras is in the area of life logging, where you record anything in your field of view. When done properly, wearing a camera can also be a good way to put an otherwise nervous interviewee at ease when recording a conversation (with permission, of course).

The new Liquid Image Ego, which includes WiFi and the ability to stream back to a WiFi connected source looks like a great middle ground for both types of activities. While the company isn't billing the Ego as a wearable camera, it is most definitely a mountable camera for mountain bikers, car enthusiasts, and motorcyclists. It can also be mounted on a helmet, but I think the company would prefer you buy one of their other models instead. For life logging, with the right attachment, you could easily wear one of the cameras with you anywhere and not find it too distracting.

Lenovo IdeaPad YOGA Bends Over Backwards

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:30:00 -0800

Lenovo's classic boxy ThinkPad design hasn't ever been something destined to win design awards, but the company is challenging laptop design conventions with the IdeaPad YOGA. Part Ultrabook and part Windows 8-powered tablet PC, the IdeaPad YOGA combines the Ultrabook form factor with a functional tablet implementation that makes touch computing make sense on a product with a keyboard.

While the IdeaPad YOGA unit I saw at Digital Experience is still a protype that was heavier than the promised 3.1 pounds of the shipping model, it still felt far lighter than the competing Envy 14 I examined at HP's booth. The 13.3-inch screen displayed the Windows 8 touch interface with what they say is a 1600x900 screen, though we weren't allowed to interact with Windows 8 for some reason, so I couldn't verify the screen specs. The real fascination for me is the way the screen folds over on itself.

Titan II Brings Giant Screen, LTE and Mango to AT&T

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:04:09 -0800

When a phone form factor looks like it's better suited for the side pocket of my cargo pants, I'm fairly likely to dismiss the device based on size. That said, the HTC Titan II, which will soon be available from AT&T has a fairly amazing looking 4.7-inch screen that almost makes me want one. The Titan II is running Windows Phone 7 Mango, comes with a 16-megapixel camera, 4G LTE radio, and a 1,730mAh battery to power that enormous screen. Just how big is a phone with a 4.7-inch screen? Check out some of the photos I took comparing the size of the Titan II to an iPhone 4.

Here's the front view of the Titan II in my hand:

Here is the Titan II compared to the iPhone 4:

A side view of the Titan II and iPhone 4:

And here is the back of the Titan II:

The design reminds me of something like the HTC Thunderbolt or a giant sized version of my old Google Nexus One. I don't have very large hands and holding the Titan II made me think I'd need to use it with two hands for most functions, rather than the one-handed navigation I'm frequently able to do with my current myTouch 4G or with an iPhone 4.

Protecting Personal Data in Windows

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:17:08 -0800

I want to protect my laptop data from being accessed if my computer is stolen. What can I do to protect my laptop running Windows?

Before you non-laptop owners blaze by this because you think it might not apply to you, read on - protecting your personal information stored in Windows requires a similar procedure whether your computer is a laptop, desktop, tablet, or any other form factor. Portable computers are more likely to be stolen than their desktop counterparts because we take them in public and are easier to transport quickly.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't protect yourself if your computer sits under a desk. At the very minimum, disabling Windows autologon, forcing you to type in a password each time you login to Windows will slow down novice data thieves. I talked about disk encryption when I featured TrueCrypt awhile ago. Recognizing encryption as a valuable safety mechanism is a good first step, but you also need to be aware of what you should encrypt. Beyond encryption, you need to be aware of all the places Windows leaves your personal information exposed, so you can have a comprehensive protection strategy.

According to Time Magazine, 591,000 laptops were reported stolen in 2001. I haven't been able to find an updated report, but latop and tablet sales continuing to grow, tt's safe to assume that number went up over the past 10 year. In December 2004, Margita Thompson, Press Secretary to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a laptop stolen from her home. More recently, a laptop containing Social Security numbers and personal information of 98,369 UCal Berkeley alums was stolen. While I cite two high profile thefts here, presumably most of the 591k people from the Time article are normal people like you and me. There are ways, including the drive encryption I mentioned earler, to protect yourself.

How to Fix Error: Automation server can't create object

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:48:51 -0800

Windows Media Player is causing me problems. I added some unrecognized songs to my music library. I attempted to use the Find Album Info feature of Windows Media Player to rename the files, find the album art, and do all the other basic stuff to get track info for my new songs. Instead of finding the names and info for my songs, WMP gives me an error message instead. No matter what I do I can't make the error go away. Not sure if this helps, but the error says:

An Error has occured in the script on this page

Line: 1
Char: 243
Error: Automation server can't create object
Code: 0
URL: http://fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com/FAI/scripts/default.js

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?

How can I fix this? I tried removing Windows Media Player and adding it back. I checked to see if Windows had any updates. Nothing seems to work.

You certainly tried the most obvious solutions to the problem, but the likely cause of the error is something in Internet Explorer, which isn't as obvious. Read on for the steps you need to fix your automation server can't create object error.

Import AVCHD to Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:12:30 -0800

AVCHD camcorders have become the norm for most camcorder manufacturers, including Canon, Sony and Panasonic. I currently use a Canon AVCHD camcorder for most of my video recording needs. When I recently used the latest version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD to edit one of my videos, I realized I had no idea how to import the files from my AVCHD camcorder into Movie Studio HD. The list of import options under the Project menu does not include one for AVCHD. Instead of throwing my computer out the window in frustration, I dug around until I found the solution.

How to Convert WMA to MP3 Audio Files

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:50:32 -0800

Brian writes, "I have a problem that I need help with. After years of ripping my CDs with Windows Media Player, I recently acquired a new iPhone. From what I can tell, my iPhone will not allow me to play the WMA files created when I used Windows Media Player. Is there anything I can do to convert WMA to MP3 or M4A? I really don't want to have to re-rip more than 600 CDs."

I personally prefer to avoid converting a compressed audio format like WMA to another compressed audio format like MP3, because both formats throw some audio data away when you create the file. When you ripped your CD to WMA format, you lost some of the audio in the process. When you convert an audio file from WMA to MP3, you take a file that already had some missing information, interpret it as a new file format, and potentially lose even more information. In theory, the audio information you lose is inaudible to humans, but sometimes making that generational transition from one format to another causes the changes to be audible. If you have the original CD, you'll get a better sounding MP3 file by re-ripping the tracks. I do understand that ripping 600 CDs (or even 100) sounds like a daunting task best to be avoided. What's the best way to convert WMA files to MP3?

SnagIt - Still My Favorite Screen Capture App

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:26:56 -0800

Screen capture is a fundamental part of Windows dating back to the earliest days of the operating system. You can capture everything on your screen simply by pressing the PrtSc key, or single out the window you are currently viewing by using the Alt+PrtSc key combination. Both of these keyboard actions grab a bitmap image of the screen and make it available to the clipboard. You can then paste your screen capture into a Word document, Evernote Note, or open Paint and create an editable graphics file by pasting the contents of your clipboard. You can repurpose that image data in just about anything that accepts bitmap input. If this powerful functionality is built in, why would you ever spend money on screen capture software?

Which Digital Media Converter is right for you?

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:55:54 -0800

It's been more than seven years since I first wrote about Digital Media Converter as a video conversion solution. The product has evolved nicely over time and adapted to various changes in video formats, adding features as customers and power users like me requested them. What started out as a simple way to batch convert your DivX AVI files and MPG files into something you could play on an iPod has become a great video conversion suite with two distinct versions, depending on your specific needs. The original version does batch processing and converts most common file formats, but lacks some of the more advanced features. Digital Media Converter Pro fills in the rest of the gaps. So how do you know which version of Digital Media Converter is right for you?

Mail Attachment Downloader

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:52:41 -0800

I frequently rely on my Gmail inbox as a backup for any attachments I send or receive via email. Gmail and most alternatives offer virtually unlimited storage, so deleting those messages simply isn't necessary. What if you want to download a bunch of those email attachments all at once? It isn't practical to click and download repeatedly. Mail Attachment Downloader solves this problem by offering the ability to download attachments from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL, without impacting other aspects of your inbox.

Link to a Specific Time in a YouTube video

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:19:17 -0800

"Is there an easy way to link to a specific time in a YouTube video. For instance, I want my boss to watch something starting at about five minutes into a video, but don't want to waste his time with the first five minutes."

I'm sure your boss will appreciate your concern for his time. Here's hoping the subject matter of the video is actually relevant to your work. ;) YouTube makes it incredibly easy to start a video from a specific point in time by adding some additional text to the end of the URL.

A Better Windows SSH Client - Private Shell

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:45:08 -0800

For years, I've used PuTTY as my SSH client on various versions of Windows. While PuTTY has a tiny footprint, it lacks some ease of use I'd prefer when working with things like SSH key management and more effectively handling things like copy and paste between my local machine and the remote computer I connected to. Enter Private Shell, a better Windows SSH client by virtually any measure. Possibly the best reason to use Private Shell is easy of key management, I've never found it easy to manage key pairing on a Windows computer, but with Private Shell I never have to think about it, the steps are right there easy to follow. Copy and paste between the remote computer and your local Windows computer are greatly simplified, making it a snap to store frequently used commands in a text file or clipboard manager for ready use. You can securely store connections for later use, including stored connections to most popular databases including MySQL, Postgres, and Oracle, as well as CVS or SVN repository access. Should you want to connect using VNC or a secure connection to an email server, Private Shell handles those too.

Automatically Scan Documents to Evernote

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:04:47 -0800

One of the key things helping me achieve my goal of eliminating paper from my life is scanning documents and storing them in my Evernote account. I'm keeping a backup copy of the digital files too, just in case. I use Evernote for so many things it just makes sense to store things like receipts and papers I may or may not ever refer to again in there too. I had been scanning documents to a folder and then adding them to my Evernote account after scanning, but automating the process makes more sense. The one additional requirement here is a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, which is by far the best scanner I've ever used. ScanSnap hardware isn't cheap, but it scans both sides, dumps blank pages, automatically rotates your document, and will perform OCR if you want it to. In other words, the additional expense quickly pays for itself in time saved. Assuming you've got a ScanSnap, here are the steps to follow to automatically store your scanned paper in Evernote.

Better Computer Power Management with SmartPower

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:34:41 -0800

Power management in Windows has worked fairly well since Windows Vista shipped. You can control far more variables about when and how things turn on and off. Even in Windows 7, the hibernation and sleep features aren't as smart as I'd like them to be. Most laptops include a solution from the laptop manufacturer meant to further enhance power management, but they still don't nail it.

I have a fair number of background processes I want to complete before my computer shuts down for the night. I have backup operations I want to run at times when I'm guaranteed to be sleeping these are things that benefit from a more granular control over the power management features. For instance, if I'm uploading a video, I may want to call it a night before the upload completes. There's no good way to be sure you can upload a video and shut your computer down. Or at least there's no good way without installing SmartPower.