richard mackney

Movie T-Shirts

I had a surprise delivery the other day from http://nerdoh.co.uk who design and produce movie inspired T-Shirts. What I really love about their designs is that they are not blatantly ripping off movie logo’s but creating links to things within the movies that, at first glance you would not relate to a movie. In fact, to get some of them, you really need to be a movie geek!

Nerdoh! Bring you a new range of movie t-shirts that are made to a superior premium quality, screenprinted to exacting standards (none of this transfer rubbish that will wash off after a day), with unique, subtle designs from cult films.

Nerdoh creeps into the fictional realms of movie corporations, places and subtle references only the avid fan will know.

Do YOU recognise these?

• The Titty Twister Bar
• Mos Eisley Cantina
• The Nostromo
• The Big Kahuna Burger
• Jack Rabbit Slims Diner
• Shop S-Mart
• Camp Crystal Lake
• Stark Industries
• InGen Corporation

Why not visit http://nerdoh.co.uk, follow them on twitter @nerdoh or become a fan on Facebook

 Let me know if you can guess the movies from the T-Shirts pics above ...

Energizer Rechargeable Solar Flip

As mentioned in the video above, this is an AA or AAA battery charger from Energizer. It comes with an AC adaptor but also a solar panel to recharge your batteries. The pack also includes 2 x 2000mAh rechargeable Energizer batteries and feels quite solid with a rubberised finish. It claims to be weather resistant, so the solar panel can be left outside on a table unlike many of the cheaper panels. It has built in smart charging technology to avoid battery damage and also has a built in LED torch.

I was quite impressed with this solar charger today, I had two flat AA batteries and left it on the windowsill from about 9am until 4pm and in those seven hours the charge status on the device now reports full. I need to do a full test with the batteries to check they do have a full charge, but I don't see why this would be reporting wrong. It was quite a bright day today (with all the snow) and the unit was not in direct sun for all of those seven hours.

Important note: the USB out socket did not charge my iPhone, however, once the batteries are charged I will use my Energizer AA battery emergency iPhone charger or my iGo PowerXtender for iPhone

If you are thinking of getting one of these solar chargers, make sure you have a really good hunt around. I have seen some ridiculous prices listed for these devices (up to £70!) but you should be able to pick one up in Maplin for £34 with free delivery (if you are quick).

Product Features (from their website)

• Compact and portable design
• Charges from AC power supply or in direct sunlight
• Convenient "On the Go" top-up
• USB charger "out" to charge other devices
• Solar panel can be rotated for maximum exposure to the sun
• LED Flashlight
• LCD Screen to show charging status indication
• Charges AA and AAA batteries
• Supplied with 2 x AA 2000mAh rechargeable batteries
• Fast charging time: 8 hours using the mains adaptor and 21 hours using the solar panels
• UK and European plug included

Charge times:

Mode	900mA	1300mA	2000mA	2450mA
AC mains	3	5	8	10
Solar	9	14	21	26

Christmas Tree TimeLapse 2009

This year I've done the timelapse on the iPhone using an app called TimeLapse (currently £1.19) taking a pic every 5 mins. Quality isn't as good as the video last year, but it was much faster and easer to produce.

I attempted to use ReelDirector on the iPhone (currently £2.99 on special offer) to pull all the images together, but it seems to do a pan and zoom effect to each picture rather than letting you just flick to the next shot. This is a shame because the shooting, editing, uploading and writing of this post could of been done so easily on just the iPhone alone.

I dropped all the shots onto the desktop and dragged them into Adobe Premier Elements to create the following video (music is added with YouTube's AudioSwap).

Last years Christmas Tree TimeLapse video is in HD resolution as I used my SLR camera on a tripod with a slow shutter to get the blur.

Oh, yes, it's the same tree and decorations ... recycle, recycle, recycle!

Update:

I've just tested iTimeLapse Pro iPhone app (£1.79) It even renders the video & music! here is my sample: http://j.mp/5jCXZN

 

Related posts on richard.mackney.com

• TimeLapse on the iPhone
• Train Track TimeLapse (HD)
• Christmas Tree TimeLapse

 

Wine Notes iPhone app

Trying Slowmo iPhone video app

I downloaded Slowmo the iPhone app a few weeks ago but hadn't really had a chance to play. Basically it will slow down or speed up iPhone 3GS video and save or email the result. It's pretty cool and well worth 59p!

When sending to Posterous the video is trimmed/compressed by the iPhone, so the quality shown here won't be representative of the quality you can get when the video file is taken direct from the iPhone.

I found that when you load a video into Slowmo, the iPhone trims it first and then if you save the edited video to the camera roll and try to email from there it seems to trim it again. This double trim seems to result in Posterous not knowing how to display the file.

So to combat this, the video above was edited in Slowmo and then emailed direct from the Slowmo app to Posterous (8.4mb) - this way it only got trimmed once. PixelPipe could also be used to send a raw video file without compression.

The Posterous Autopost to YouTube sent a higher quality file.

RedLaser barcode scanner iPhone app

This was featured on The Gadget Show the other day and also due to the Google logo being a barcode today I think this has made RedLaser the number one app in the store.

It was £1.19 and worth it! I've just scanned the barcode of a DVD and it's given me a price comparison listing. How sweet is this going to be when out in a store and you want to check prices!

WOW, Augmented reality is making the ironing look much more interesting!

You really have to see this on the iPhone 3GS to believe it. It will show tweets, photos, pubs and other points of interest just by moving the iPhone around. It uses your gps location and inbuilt compass to know what direction you are pointing.

I just need to attach it to my eye now. Augmentation is gonna be the next big thing, yeah?

TiltShift for iPhone

I'm a big fan of Tilt Shift photography and love the effect that it creates. I have experimented with 'Fake' Tilt Shift photography using digital manipulation in Photoshop but have not tried any 'real' techniques with proper lenses ... yet.

Producing a fake miniature tilt shift firstly requires the right subject shot from the right angle, the best I have been able to achieve so far using Photoshop is a fake miniature beach. With a high viewpoint, pumped up saturation and a narrow angle of focus I created the following:

I thought it would be really cool to be able to take a quick snap while out on location, apply some fake tilt shift effects and then instantly upload it to the online communities that I'm involved with (flickr or twitpic etc). So to do this we need an Apple iPhone (ideally the 3Gs with 2048x1536 resolution) and an application called TiltShift which is currently £1.19 in the iTune Store. With the app you can take a pic or load a pic from the camera roll and apply the area of focus, drag with your fingers on the screen and apply the saturation etc.

I stumbled upon a great shot taken by one of my flickr friends, hedgewytch (@hedgewytch on twitter) when she was in Barcelona recently at Parc Guell (Gaudi) ...

 

I applied quite a high level of saturation and quite a harsh outer blur, and I think it makes for quite an interesting miniature with the people resembling models. I think this app has legs and I'm looking forward to taking my own 'high level' shots and uploading some live tilt shift miniature fakes :)

Original photo credit goes to Hedgewytch with her kind permission.

 

Perfect Photo iPhone App

FocalLab for iPhone

I just wanted to quickly share an iPhone app that I downloaded recently, It's called FocalLab and it's currently only 59p.

I was looking for an app that created selective blurring and soft focus on iPhone photo's. What's great about this app is that the interface allows the changing of the selection and the graduation by dragging and pinching your fingers on the screen.

The filter available are: Dreamy Blur, Soft Focus, Zoom Blur and Motion Blur