Adobe Project Mighty

core77 reports: [edited]

The Adobe Mighty Pen is designed for sketching on tablets. The screen can distinguish between the pen's nib and your mitts, so you can draw with the pen, then erase with your finger. No more having to click a submenu to change the tool. And when you do need a submenu, you click a button on the pen itself to make it appear on-screen.

The second device is the pen's Napoleon Ruler. Adobe's VP of Product Experience Michael Gough was trained as an architect, and wanted to bring the efficacy of sketching with a secondary guiding tool to the tablet experience.

The pen and ruler are not available yet, and no release date has been given.

For a video demonstration, see below.


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Grenade Reload Protein Flapjack (Chocolate Browning)

Protein bars have three things in common. They possess daft names, upset your stomach and taste dreadful. The featured bar stays true to the first, but (for me at least) escapes the second and third.

The consistency is dry, chewy, not-too-sweet and with a pleasant mouth-feel and after-taste. The 70 gramme bar contains 280 calories, similar to a Kit Kat Chunky or a 45 gramme chocolate bar. However you get 14 more grammes of protein and a much slower release of sugars, helping to stabilise your insulin levels. One thing to note, if you're intolerant to oligofructose products, you should avoid these bars.

There are other flavours available, but I haven't tried them.

For those who study these things, nutritional details follow:

Energy: 279 Calories
Protein: 15.5 grammes
Carbohydrates: 32.4 grammes
Sugar: 18.9 grammes
Total Fats: 9.9 grammes
Of Which Saturates: 2.9 grammes
Dietary Fibre: 11.7 grammes
Sodium: 0.1 grammes
Salt: 0.4 grammes

Ingredients: Oat Blend (Jumbo Oats, Rolled Oats, Oat Bran) (34%), Oligofructose, Protein Blend (Soy Protein Isolate, Defatted Soya Flour, Whey Protein Concentrate, Casein Protein), Invert Syrup, Rapeseed Oil, (Vegetable Oil, Water, Emulsifier (E471)), Dark Chocolate Pieces (4.3%) (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Vegetable Fat, Soya Lecithin), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder (2.8%), Natural Flavour.

Price: £24.99 for a box of 24

Thanks to Zak Jordan for the heads-up
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Sony Xperia ZR

The Verge reports: [edited]

Sony has unveiled a new variant of its flagship Android smartphone, launching the LTE-enabled Xperia ZR with enhanced waterproofing for use at depths of up to 1.5 meters. The Xperia ZR is a mid-range smartphone and ships with a slightly smaller 4.6-inch display than the Xperia Z. While the device utilizes Sony's Reality Display technology, it only features a 720p panel.

The Xperia ZR still offers plenty of power with its 1.5GHz S4 Pro quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, with Android 4.1. The device also includes the same 13-megapixel sensor as the Xperia Z, and with an IP55/IP58 Ingress Protection rating, offers slightly improved water resistance compared to its bigger counterpart. Sony says the Xperia ZR will launch in "various global markets" in Q2 but has yet to set a price.
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€250,000 test-tube burger served soon in London

The Verge reports: [edited]

A hamburger created from bovine stem cells will soon be served in London. The €250,000 (roughly $325,000) burger is the result of years of research led by Dr. Mark Post in the Netherlands, who hopes to show the world that so-called "in-vitro meat" could become a viable food source.

The burger was crafted using cells from the neck of a slaughterhouse cow and techniques developed for the creation of organs. Stem cells have the ability to turn into a multitude of other cells, including the muscle cells needed for the burger meat. Dr. Post's team used tens of billions of muscle cells to create 20,000 thin strips of cultured muscle tissue, which amount to a quarter-pounder. Although his in-vitro burger has no fat, Dr. Post assures The New York Times that it tastes "reasonably good."

In the future, Dr. Post believes the cost of in-vitro meats will come down significantly, but admits there are major hurdles that will have to be solved by the scientific community before the mass production of meat could start. One hurdle isn't scientific, but cultural: persuading society that meat grown in a lab is safe to eat is a tall order.
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Olympus E-P5, Video Review

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London-Nottingham-London

London - Nottingham
Analogue - a-ha
Blood Red Roses - Sting
Big River - Johnny Cash
Aftermath - Vigilantes Of Love
Midas Shadow - Al Stewart
Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls - Sparks
Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
The Liberation (Red, Black & Green) - Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson
If You Go Away - Dusty Springfield
A Letter To Heaven - Wynona Carr
Why Get Up? - Robert Palmer
I Come And Stand At Every Door - This Mortal Coil
Cry, Cry, Cry [Live] - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Parting Shot - Vigilantes Of Love
Avalanche - Vigilantes Of Love
Dizzy Dean Movie - Charlie Peacock
Cannibals Hymn - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Abbey Road (entire album) - The Beatles
Perfect Stranger - Steve Forbert
Get Off Of My Cloud - The Rolling Stones
Lucille - Little Richard
Liar [2011 Remaster] - Queen
Available Space - Ry Cooder
Ms. Jackson (live) - Outkast
Miracle Of The Rosary - Elvis Presley
The Valley Of Malls - Fountains Of Wayne
Gun Shy (live) - Natalie Merchant
True Love - Elvis Presley
Good On the Sally Army - Cliff Richard
Rock Island Line (alt 2) - Johnny Cash
Crown of Thorns - Yngwie Malmsteen
For A While - Nina Simone
Afraid To Fail - Josh Rouse

Nottingham - London
6 Music - Sasha's Dance Mix
Spin On A Red Brick Floor - Nanci Griffith
Life On Mars? - David Bowie
Our House (Stretch Mix) - Madness
Mind Games - John Lennon
Girl In Saskatoon [Album Version] - Johnny Cash
Go (up) - Moby
Life In The Fast Lane (live) - Eagles
Life's Been Good (live) - Eagles
Democracy - Leonard Cohen
Words Of Love Spoken - Vigilantes Of Love
Wobbling - Victoria Williams
Front Porch - Slobberbone
Cinderella Man - Eminem
I'm Looking Through You - The Beatles
On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1) - Gil Scott-Heron
Just - Radiohead
Why So Close - James
The Painter's Link - Kate Bush
Boots Of Spanish Leather (alt) - Bob Dylan
Furry Sings The Blues - Joni Mitchell
Seven - James
A Million Days - Prince
I Think Ur A Contra - Vampire Weekend
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The Scientific 7-Minute Workout

The New York Times reports: [edited]

An article in the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal does just that. In 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall, it fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it (allegedly, Ed.) based on science.

“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article.

Work by scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and other institutions shows, for instance, that even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.

Interval training, though, requires intervals; the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of recovery. In the program outlined by Mr. Jordan and his colleagues, this recovery is provided in part by a 10-second rest between exercises. But even more, he says, it’s accomplished by alternating an exercise that emphasizes the large muscles in the upper body with those in the lower body. During the intermezzo, the unexercised muscles have a moment to, metaphorically, catch their breath, which makes the order of the exercises important.

The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.

The original article is available here, complete including a link to a PDF describing how to perform the exercises.
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Free Font - Clutchee

A decorative block face, designed by Sinisa Komlenic.

Available from Font Squirrel.
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AL13 iPhone case

ZDNet reports: [edited]

The AL13, referring to the abbreviation for aluminum in the periodic table and the fact the case weighs 13 grams, the product has the same brushed metal look as the iPhone 5. It's available for the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5, in five colors —black, silver, red, blue, and gunmetal. It's half the weight of most other metal iPhone cases, doesn't require any tools to install, and has a shock-absorbing rubber lining inside the metal.

The AL13 sells for $79. It is undoubtedly a premium product. But, for those who want the best case that money can buy to suit up with an iPhone, then you'll be hard pressed to find a better alternative than the AL13.
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Specialized Turbo

Wired reports: [edited]

The Specialized Turbo is their first electrically assisted bike. It’s been on sale in Europe for a year.

“Turbo” is an appropriate name for this rig. With a 342 watt-hour lithium-ion battery pack sending juice to a 250-watt hub-mounted motor, this e-bike will hit its top speed without breaking a sweat. It’s also the first electric bike that doesn’t look like a grade-school science experiment or a rejected Blade Runner prop.

This is among the few electric bikes that actually looks like a bike. It’s an odd blend of mountain bike ruggedness and city bike ergonomics. It’s sized like a 29er, but the lack of any suspension combined with the stiff tires that look like over-inflated tubes make it strictly something for the street. And be prepared to use your legs as buffers when going over ruts and uneven asphalt.

This thing is huge. The downtube, which holds the battery, is about the size of a softball bat, and every other tube had to be similarly oversized to maintain some semblance of visual balance. And although the frame is made of aluminum, the Turbo tips the scales at more than 50 pounds. You’ll feel every ounce of it as you huff and puff along without the electric assist and, worse, as you schlep it up and down the stairs to the train. Shouldering this thing is quite a workout, and will leave you with more than a few bruises and aching muscles if you aren’t careful.

Flip the motor to its highest of four settings — called, appropriately, “turbo” — using the red button near your right thumb and this thing flies. It’s like a tailwind on demand, providing superhuman boost that has you over the 20 mph mark in seconds.

The instantaneous speed is a blessing and a curse. While it’s crazy fun while riding, you must keep that hair-trigger acceleration in mind when stopped. Apply the slightest bit of weight to the pedal and the Turbo rockets forward beneath you. It’s best to hold the front brake when stopped.

If unfettered speed isn’t your thing, Eco mode drops the assist down to 30 percent of capacity to maximize range. “Off” is self-explanatory, and useful only if you really want to build up your quads. “Regen” applies a little drag to the rear motor while coasting to send power back to the pack. The pack is good for 45 minutes to an hour of moderate to high-speed riding.

Price: $5,900
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Joby Grip Tight Micro Stand

Digital Photography Review Connect reports: [edited]

The Grip Tight Micro Stand is small enough to carry it in your jeans pocket or even use as a key fob. Yet it's a nicely made and sturdy mini-tripod that firmly holds your smartphone in place and allows you to easily adjust the shooting angle.

The Grip Tight Micro Stand is two products. The Grip Tight is a foldable spring-loaded smartphone holder that screws on to any standard size tripod mount. The Micro Stand is a foldable micro-tripod that can be combined with the Grip Tight but also works well with compact cameras. The mount's socket joint is stiff enough to even hold larger models, such as a Micro Four Thirds camera with a kit lens.

It works well as a table tripod but doubles as a smartphone stand for watching videos or conducting Skype calls.

Price £25.00
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Google Glass - A 60 second introduction

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Nikon D7100

Digital Photography Review has published a very positive (85%/Gold Award) in depth review of Nikon's 24MP 'enthusiast' APS-C DSLR.

Edited snippets from the conclusion follow:

"The D7100 is a fast, responsive camera in most operational aspects. Most impressive though is just how many features it shares with its higher-priced full frame siblings. The D7100 one-ups its Nikon stablemates with an RGBW rear LCD which offers more efficient operation and gives the option for greater brightness than an RGB panel.

"The D7100 delivers outstanding image quality and detail rendition at low ISOs in both JPEG and Raw mode. Noise does start to become visible at the pixel level even at moderate ISO sensitivities, but is kept well under control given the pixel density of its 24MP APS-C sensor."

"The camera's auto white balance does a fine job of rendering accurate colors in all but the more extreme lighting conditions. We also find that the camera's default JPEG settings produce pleasing files that avoid prominent sharpening and/or noise suppression artifacts."

The D7100 maintains nearly every operational and handling feature we liked about the D7000, improves upon those we found fault with and offers a compelling upgrade in resolution, image quality and high ISO performance. And at a list price of £999 (body only), the D7100 inherits an impressive amount of features and performance from the much higher-priced full frame Nikon DSLRs.
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Behind the Scenes of The Empire Strikes Back

Some brilliant images here.

via Daring Fireball
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