One thing they don't make very clear is that since it's a proprietary (albeit over 11g) protocol, you're not connecting it to your server via WiFi. You MUST hard wire one of the players to your network.
Then I have this super expensive piece of hardware sitting NEXT TO my computer, which totally defeats the purpose of both standalone players and/or wireless. (I know you could run a long piece of cat5 to the nearest room you want it in or use a Bridge but that seems like a hack.)
Otherwise a very sexy looking product, the UI on the controller is almost worth the price of admission itself compared to the rest of the market.
Some interesting comments - My above statement is somewhat of a blanket reactionist statement that I make fairly often.
In reality - I help my keep my grandparents computer running (They're in their 80s and do an amazing amount with their computer - but it's an incredible eye-opener in regards to the huge usability failings of computers these days.), hack on some old hardware setting up a home music server, and ripping my CDs to it. (Which I'm thinking of rsync'ing with the one at work.) Etc.
But if I have the time I'd rather be working on my photography hiking, or hanging out with my girlfriend and/or other friends.
It's all about balance - Work / Play (Not necessarily in that order!)
I too have a PhatNoise's PhatBox. I have the version with SSA (voice-based navigation) which integrates with my stock Audi headunit and makes use of the built in CD changer disk buttons to control the system. It works incredibly well - even better than the ones that have text (ID3) displays because you can navigate by feel/sound and never have to take your eyes off the road at all!
An additional plus of the PhatBox is that it supports both OGG and FLAC in addition to WAV and MP3.
As to the harddrives - they use off-the-shelf (albeit the ruggeder line) of 2.5 inch drives.
I think your estimation is 1/2 right: unlike say the rainbow gathering - the BM crowd is quite tech heavy - Space battle ships built on ram 3500 trucks with turreted fire cannons? giant 16' solar (and battery) powered tricycles? Extremly powerful lasers? yeah - some pretty cool s**t out there!
the "normal" slideshow - the low res one (800x600 I think) is good to have for slower hardware.
The timeline OTOH only runs at 640x480 - and at first didn't work on some dual monitor configurations that well - but they seem to be de-emphasizing that mode at this point.
1.x has been out for quite some time now - I can only imagine that the Picasa folks were activly working on the next rev.. It'll be interesting to see what their purchase by Google will do to their release schedule...
* Picasa's speed is amazing! The core guys are really into inner loop optimization - how few cycles can you do a divide in?
* The fact that Picasa treats each directory of images as an album is actually quite nice - you can find your pictures outside of Picasa if you need to.
* You can create new virtual albums and move images to them - this leaves the pics in their original directories though.
* There is a high-res slideshow mode - go into Options > Slideshow and check "Do full-resolution slideshow" if your videocard has enough 2D performance, it's WAY better.
For what it is - a very fast and simple tool to keep track of your digital photos - Picasa is amazing. Even in its current 1.x state, it's faster and easier to use than prettymuch anything else out there on the market. Their target apparently was iPhoto on the mac which is notoriously slow. It is definitely photo management for the rest of them and i'd venture to say it does a darn good job at it.
A clone of a standard 3 pane interface - wow. I think many of us could write something similar in an evening.
Personally, Gmail's interface is much more revolutionary. It really uses DHTML in some very slick ways to make your experience faster. Even incorporating many keyboard shortcuts. (Except CTL+ENTER=send unfortunately.)
I want to see an around the globe trip!
on
LA to Oregon at Mach 9
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Slashdot Mirror
...for all your hard "work"
I've got more space and rich-text editing in my gmail account - unless they're going to take the features out tomorrow - I's real.
if you're getting a good deal or not. ;)
One thing they don't make very clear is that since it's a proprietary (albeit over 11g) protocol, you're not connecting it to your server via WiFi. You MUST hard wire one of the players to your network.
Then I have this super expensive piece of hardware sitting NEXT TO my computer, which totally defeats the purpose of both standalone players and/or wireless. (I know you could run a long piece of cat5 to the nearest room you want it in or use a Bridge but that seems like a hack.)
Otherwise a very sexy looking product, the UI on the controller is almost worth the price of admission itself compared to the rest of the market.
My biggest issue with the amps is their output - maybe enough for your den or bedroom, but not enough power for any decently sized speakers.
then just have it do the minimum scan on install, and then tell it what you want it to ignore, scan once, or watch under Tools > Folder Manager...
Problem Solved.
Picasa does NOT store your pictures in a database!
Picasa does NOT move your pictures around by itself.
It does rip a database of thumbnails for fast scrolling.
Even all of the edits are non-descructive! (Come back a week later and undo your crop/rotate/adjust highlights.) They are super careful about that.
See today's LA times for a look into Google's "make/buy cool stuff and give it away" methodology:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google18jan1 8,0,2075292.story
Some interesting comments - My above statement is somewhat of a blanket reactionist statement that I make fairly often.
In reality - I help my keep my grandparents computer running (They're in their 80s and do an amazing amount with their computer - but it's an incredible eye-opener in regards to the huge usability failings of computers these days.), hack on some old hardware setting up a home music server, and ripping my CDs to it. (Which I'm thinking of rsync'ing with the one at work.) Etc.
But if I have the time I'd rather be working on my photography hiking, or hanging out with my girlfriend and/or other friends.
It's all about balance - Work / Play (Not necessarily in that order!)
...turn on a computer.
well put, thank you...
Internet > WWW
Thank you.
Give it a shot.
It's a pretty neat app - not a general-purpose client per se. (not that that couldn't easily be fixed with a "compact mode".)
which is an incredibly cool app. (give it a try!)
and a very interesting set of engineers behind it to boot!
An additional plus of the PhatBox is that it supports both OGG and FLAC in addition to WAV and MP3.
As to the harddrives - they use off-the-shelf (albeit the ruggeder line) of 2.5 inch drives.
I think your estimation is 1/2 right: unlike say the rainbow gathering - the BM crowd is quite tech heavy - Space battle ships built on ram 3500 trucks with turreted fire cannons? giant 16' solar (and battery) powered tricycles? Extremly powerful lasers? yeah - some pretty cool s**t out there!
the "normal" slideshow - the low res one (800x600 I think) is good to have for slower hardware.
The timeline OTOH only runs at 640x480 - and at first didn't work on some dual monitor configurations that well - but they seem to be de-emphasizing that mode at this point.
1.x has been out for quite some time now - I can only imagine that the Picasa folks were activly working on the next rev.. It'll be interesting to see what their purchase by Google will do to their release schedule...
Picasa wasn't designed for the Über hacker set. But what percentage of computer users have that mindset.
Personally, yes I'd prefer a bit more power, but then again, you have to understand that it's still a 1.x release.
I really like Picasa's simplicity and speed.
I haven't seen the Kodak software, but the both Fuji FinePix and Canon software are pretty bad.
I don't think it even did a registration check when you had to put a key in the trial version.
It's pretty clean - if you look into who wrote it - they're no johnny-come-latelys to the desktop graphics software biz.
A few things:
* Picasa's speed is amazing! The core guys are really into inner loop optimization - how few cycles can you do a divide in?
* The fact that Picasa treats each directory of images as an album is actually quite nice - you can find your pictures outside of Picasa if you need to.
* You can create new virtual albums and move images to them - this leaves the pics in their original directories though.
* There is a high-res slideshow mode - go into Options > Slideshow and check "Do full-resolution slideshow" if your videocard has enough 2D performance, it's WAY better.
For what it is - a very fast and simple tool to keep track of your digital photos - Picasa is amazing. Even in its current 1.x state, it's faster and easier to use than prettymuch anything else out there on the market. Their target apparently was iPhoto on the mac which is notoriously slow. It is definitely photo management for the rest of them and i'd venture to say it does a darn good job at it.
mmm, I think we're talking about rollout by the end of the year. ;)
Very true - or the Picasa folks who just got bought by google!
We're working on some stuff. Soon, very soon, you'll hear of it. ;)
A clone of a standard 3 pane interface - wow. I think many of us could write something similar in an evening.
Personally, Gmail's interface is much more revolutionary. It really uses DHTML in some very slick ways to make your experience faster. Even incorporating many keyboard shortcuts. (Except CTL+ENTER=send unfortunately.)
cool nonetheless.