Cisco’s Making a Tablet? That’s Like Apple Making a Connected Grid Router.

Cisco today added its entry to the array of Android-based tablets competing with Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, and the device is all business. With front- and rear-facing cameras, HD output, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and an optional dock with a speakerphone, the Cius aims to add portability to Cisco’s enterprise telepresence products.

Weighing in at just over a pound, the Cius “offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud,” according to a Cisco (CSCO) news release (in full below). The pitch to IT departments is that the tablet offers a lower-cost alternative to laptops and desktops for mobile workers. No details yet on price or carrier arrangements.

By the way, Cius is pronounced “see-us” (and for heaven’s sake, don’t transpose the vowels when you’re typing; a cuis is a guinea pig-like rodent).

Cisco Simplifies Mobile Collaboration with First-of-its-kind HD Video-Capable Business Tablet

New Android-based Computing Device Uses Cisco Collaboration Architecture and Virtual Desktop Integration to Deliver Mobile Computing, Collaboration and Communication Services

LAS VEGAS – June 29, 2010 – Cisco today unveiled Cisco Cius , a first-of-its-kind mobile collaboration business tablet that delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video.

Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform. In addition to full telepresence interoperability, Cisco Cius offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud.

Based on the Android operating system, Cisco Cius is an open platform for communication and collaboration whose form factor and applications are designed to more securely connect employees on-the-go with the right people in real-time, and to provide those workers with the ability to access and share the content they need from any place on the network.

Cisco Cius offers IT professionals new options when it comes to equipping mobile workers with computing devices. Through virtual desktop integration, Cisco Cius offers flexible computing options with cloud-based services, providing dramatically lower capital costs and cost-per-user for desktop maintenance.

Businesses can also tap into the growing Android developer community that is building business-class productivity applications with appropriate IT controls. The combination of applications and flexible computing options provides a compelling alternative to today’s PC-on-every-desktop paradigm.

ANNOUNCEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Product Features

* The Cisco Cius is a lightweight portable business computing tablet offered with an optional HD audio station equipped with a telephone handset speakerphone, HD DisplayPort and USB ports.
* The Cisco Cius tablet features a front-mounted 720p HD camera which refreshes at up to 30 frames per second; a seven inch, high-resolution widescreen super VGA touch-target display for real-time and streamed video, and single-button TelePresence interoperability that can be utilized either when the tablet is docked, or being used remotely via Wi-Fi.
* The tablet has a 5-megapixel rear facing camera that can transmit streaming VGA quality video and capture still images, and dual noise-cancelling microphones for audio conferencing.
* Cisco Cius features an eloquent contacts-driven user experience, designed to enables users to quickly reach their important contacts.
* An on-board accelerometer readily orients applications for viewing in portrait or landscape modes as the user rotates the device to their preferred viewing orientation
* Cisco Cius supports 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi for enterprise campus mobility and 3G cellular services when off-campus. 4G services will be available at a later date. Bluetooth and Micro-USB means users can work untethered and share data with a PC.
* A detachable and serviceable battery offers eight hours life under normal usage.

Que? That’s Spanish for “Where the Hell Is My E-Reader,” Right?

Customers who pre-ordered Plastic Logic’s Que ProReader expecting delivery June 24 received something else instead: An order-cancellation notice.

“We’ve been working hard to bring the world’s first product based on plastic electronics technology to market–and have decided that delaying the device a bit longer will result in a better product for you,” Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta said in a message to pre-order customers. “With that in mind, we need to let you know that since your unit will not ship on June 24 as planned, our automated ordering system has automatically cancelled your order.”

Archuleta didn’t specify a new ship date, which was probably wise since the Que has now missed two of them. Nor did he offer any detail on the company’s rationale for further delaying the product.

A spokesperson for Plastic Logic, however, insists the company is simply refining it. “The market for e-readers is changing rapidly, and they want to make sure that the product they deliver is the right one for their target business customers,” she said. “They continue to refine the product, technology and features.”

Let’s hope they continue to refine the price as well. At $650 and $800, the Que seemed a bit pricey for a standalone e-reader, even one targeted at enterprise. Now, with Apple’s (AAPL) iPad redefining user expectations for multipurpose e-readers and Amazon (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) dropping prices on the Kindle and Nook to well below $200, Plastic Logic seems to be pricing itself out of a market it hasn’t even managed to enter yet.

Iridium Patents Soar Anew in Licensing Deal

A collection of satellites called Iridium became a symbol in the 1990s of overambitious engineering, and later a turnaround story. Now the network may also be linked to the imaginative financial engineering going on around patents.

Intellectual Ventures, a Seattle firm known more for acquiring patents than dispensing with them, announced a deal this week to sell rights to a large portfolio of satellite communications patents to Thales Alenia Space, a Franco-Italian joint venture that recently won a contract to supply a new fleet of satellites to Iridium Communications. Where did the inventions come from? Mainly the original Iridium project.

The man who can explain this circular-sounding process is Vincent Pluvinage, a veteran in patent-trading circles who runs a unit of Intellectual Ventures in Silicon Valley. His six-person team focuses on what he calls “strategic” acquisitions–pools of patents costing $10 million to $50 million or so–that can be repackaged and bring a return to the firm widely known as IV.

A key focus for the group is large technology-development efforts that churned out a large number of patents, whether or not the companies developing the technologies were successful. “If we find a situation like that, what we ask ourselves is, what other assets could we assemble that would be synergistic–then where could we redeploy the assets and create a return,” he says.

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How to play iPod video on TV

You may often confused with how to play iPod video on TV without Apple TV? Here is a guide to do this.
Note: This method is not usable for the 6th generation iPod.

What You'll Need
In order to get your iPod connected properly to your TV, you'll need the following items on hand:
A video-capable iPod. Any color will do.
An iPod-compatible video. Load it onto your iPod through iTunes.
Note: iPod accepts mp4 video detail as: MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
If your videos are not iPod format files, you can use Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac to convert videos to iPod format files. Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac is one of the best video to iPod converters on Mac os which can convert MP4, 3GP, AVI, WMV, RM, MPEG, and FLV to iPod video with very high quality and various output settings in high speed(>300%). If you use Windows, you can use iPod movie converter for windows.
An A/V cable. If you don't already have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.


Figure 1. A camcorder A/V cable has a three-plug RCA connection at one end and a three-banded 1/8" plug at the other

Setting Up Your iPod Video Options
Setting up your iPod video options lets you control how you export video. The iPod Video Options screen selects how your iPod handles video file playback.
To open these settings, choose Videos -> Video Settings from your main iPod menu. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Adjust to produce the video playback style you need.


Figure 2. Videos -> Video Settings controls the way your iPod plays back video files

TV Out
Whenever you play a video file, your iPod must make a choice. Video iPods either play video on the built-in screen or they transmit a video signal out of the microphone jack. They don't do both. The TV Out option controls which behavior occurs.
Use this setting to choose from:
No. Playback remains on the iPod itself.
Yes. A TV signal is produced.
Ask. The iPod prompts you whenever you play a video file.
I always use the Ask option. Yes, it does add an extra step whenever I play a video file, but it gives me the flexibility to choose playback behavior on a case-by-case basis. I like that.

TV Signal
European and Australian television sets use a different signal standard than those used in America and Japan. If you live in the U.S., your TV works with the NTSC standard. European countries mostly use PAL. Make sure you've selected the correct signal for your country.
Widescreen
iPods can play back widescreen video, if only on exported video. The built-in screen uses a traditional 4:3 screen ratio, rather than widescreen's 16:9 proportions. Choose Yes to produce a widescreen signal, or No to export the traditional TV output.
Connecting the iPod to TV
It takes a few steps to connect your iPod to your TV. Start by inserting the A/V cord's eighth-inch plug into your iPod's earphone jack. In it goes, schnickt. Couldn't be eas.
Here's where it gets a little tricky. In order to make your TV play back the iPod signal, you've got to redirect the outputs. You can't just plug the yellow RCA plug into the yellow RCA jack and the red into the red or the white into the white. No. Those geniuses at Apple send the video signal over the red RCA output. (Normally it arrives on yellow.) The sound comes through the white and yellow plugs.
I ended up going to an Apple store and testing this on iPod after iPod. They all have this quirk. It was intentional. But hey, it's proprietary. Woohoo. So here's what you have to do:
- Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
- Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
- Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.


Figure 3. Left: TV jacks, unplugged; right: TV jacks, plugged with A/V cable.

After making all of these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Playing Your Video
On your iPod, navigate to the movie you want to watch and select it. Your iPod prompts you to choose whether to play the video with TV Off or TV On. (You set the TV Out option to "Ask," remember?) Choose TV On.
Figure 4. Choose TV On to redirect the video through the earphone jack.
As your video starts, a status screen appears on your iPod and the video plays back on your television. The status screen tracks playback progress, just as it would in iTunes.
Figure 5. The iPod video status screen shows playback progress.
Leave the television volume control at normal levels and use the iPod volume control to adjust the audio. The audio and video should both sound and look excellent.

How to use Mac TS converter to convert TS to MP4, MOV, etc on Mac OS X

What is TS?
Transport stream(TS, TP, MPEG-TS, or M2T) is a communications protocol for audio, video, and data which is specified in MPEG-2 Part 1, Systems (ISO/IEC standard 13818-1). Its design goal is to allow multiplexing of digital video and audio and to synchronize the output. Transport stream offers features for error correction for transportation over unreliable media, and is used in broadcast applications such as DVB and ATSC. It is contrasted with program stream, designed for more reliable media such as DVDs.
TS format is a container format that encapsulates pocketsize elementary streams and other data.
Important elements of a transport stream: Packet, PID, Programs, Program Specific Information (PSI) , 1 PAT , PMT , PCR , Null packets

How to play TS files on Mac?
You need media player to play TS files on Mac OS X:
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It supports Mac, linux, Windows.
How to convert TS to MP4, AVI,MOV, etc on Mac?
You need a video converter for Mac to convert TS to MP4, AVI, MOV, etc on Mac. Then you can put them on iPod, iPhone, PSP, Xbox 360, iMove, other potable players.
Step 1: Download TS Video Converter for Mac:
We recommend you Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac which can convert TS to MP4, Convert TS to AVI perfectly. This Mac TS Video Converter also can extract audio from TS and Convert to MP3, M4A, etc. Compared with other video converters, this TS video converter for Mac provides you with better output quality, more advanced functions and higher conversion speed. You can download free trial Version here: for Mac intel users, for Mac PowerPC users. Then install and run this program. The trial version should be fully functional for what you want to do.
Step 2: Load the TS files you want to convert



Click the "Add File" button to browse your computer hard disc and add the .TS files you want to convert to the program.
Step 3: Output Settings
After you added TS files, you can select an output format for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files.
The TS Converter for Mac supports comprehensive video formats including AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP4, XviD, 3GP, FLV, etc.
If you don't know what formats your device supports, you can just select the format according to the device name. Of course, if you don't want to use the default video and audio encoding settings, just click the "Settings" button to customize these settings.



Step 4: Edit your TS files
This TS Video Converter for Mac set video brightness, contrast, saturation, crop video, trim video/audio and even merge multiple files into one file.

Step 5: Start the conversion
Click the Convert button to start conversion and then you can just go out for a walk or take a nap, and the conversion may have been finished when you come back: )

Modifications of transport stream specification for random-access media (M2TS)
Transport Stream was designed for tape and broadcast, but it required modifications for usage with random-access media devices like new generation of digital camcorders that record onto DVD disks, hard drives or solid-state memory cards.
Random-access based systems may save data packets into a temporary buffer if a storage device is not ready, for example on device startup. Packets are written out of order, and to keep track of them, a 4-byte timecode (TC) is added to standard 188-byte packets. The result is a 192-byte packet. This is what is informally called M2TS stream. Sony calls it "BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream". JVC calls it TOD (possibly an abbreviation for "Transport stream on media") when used in HDD-based camcorders like GZ-HD7.[9] M2TS transport stream is also used for AVCHD video files, which often have MTS extension.

How to put movies on an iPod

How to put movies on an iPod is always a problem that most iPod users are confused about. There are many tools can help you to convert video on iPod, such as avi iPod Converter for Mac, Mpeg 4 iPod Converter, 3gp converter for iPod and so on. Those tools can help you to put avi, wmv, 3gp, Mpeg on iPod easily. This is the easiest way to put movies on an iPod. You can also put movies from one iPod to another one and from computer to your iPod directly with iPod transfer tools.

This guide includes two Parts:
Part 1: How to put movies on an iPod for Windows (convert & transfer)
Part 2: How to put movies on an iPod for Mac (convert & transfer)

Part 1: How to put movies on an iPod for Windows
A. With Converter
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter.



Step 2: Add Video
Click “Add File” button to load your movies that you want to put on iPod.
Step 3: Choose output format
You can choose your output format according to your iPod’s generation from the drop-down list named “profile”. You can also adjust the settings of your output video by clicking “Settings” button.
Step 4: Start Conversion
Click “Start” button to begin your conversion.

B. With Transfer
Step 1: Free download Aiseesoft iPod Transfer.



Step 2: Plug iPod
Plug your iPods or iPhones to computer
Step 3: Find movies
Find the movies that you want to put on your iPod from the other iPod.
Step 4: Transfer
Click “Transfer” button

Part 2: How to put movies on an iPod for Mac
A. With Converter
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Video Converter for Mac.



Step 2: Add File
Click “Add File” button to load your movies that you want to put on iPod.
Step 3: Profile and Settings
Choose your output video’s profile from a drop-down list and you can also adjust the settings of your output movie.
Step 4: Conversion
Click “Start” button to begin your conversion.

B. With Transfer
Step 1: Download and install Aiseesoft iPod Manager for Mac.



Step 2: Plug
Plug your iPod via USB cable.
Step 3: Find Movies
Find your movies you want to put your iPod from your local disk.
Step 4: Transfer
Click Transfer button to begin your transfer and seconds later you will get your movies on your iPod.

Hitwise: Google Gained Search Market Share in May

In the search market, Google is either losing share or gaining it and the direction it’s going depends on whose data you believe. According to comScore’s (SCOR) May search market report, Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo gained share, ostensibly at Google’s expense.

Not according to Experian Hitwise, though, which reports that Google (GOOG) gained share in May, and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing and Yahoo (YHOO) lost it. In a report issued today (see table above; click to enlarge), Hitwise said Google increased its share of the U.S. Internet search market to 72.2 percent in May from 71.4 percent in April, while Yahoo’s share declined to 14.4 percent from 15 percent and Bing’s to 9.2 percent from 9.4 percent.

FCC Split as It Moves to Re-Regulate Internet Lines

A split Federal Communications Commission kicked off an effort to re-regulate Internet lines Thursday, releasing for comment a plan to give the agency more authority to police Internet providers.

The FCC’s five commissioners voted 3-2 to launch its re-regulation effort, with the agency’s two Republican members dissenting. The proposal would reverse a 2002 decision by the FCC that deregulated Internet lines.

The vote basically kicks off the FCC’s effort to change the way it regulates phone and cable companies’ Internet lines. After a few months of public comment, the agency is expected to issue an order this fall that would implement its changes.

“We need to reclaim our authority,” said Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. “I, for one, am worried about relying only on the good will of a few powerful companies to achieve this country’s broadband hopes and dreams.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Like E-Books? Amazon Sells More of Them, For Less, Than Apple. For Now

The introduction of the iPad and the iBooks store has lots of people forecasting doom for Amazon’s Kindle. And Citigroup’s (C) Mark Mahaney, an Amazon bull, acknowledges that Apple (AAPL) will eat into the Kindle’s share: He’s convinced, quite reasonably, that Amazon needs to overhaul the Kindle very soon, and cut its price below $200, to stay competitive.

That said, Mahaney points out that Amazon (AMZN), with its long-established relationships with publishers, still offers book buyers a wider selection of e-books than Apple does. And it sells its books for less. From his note published Friday:

• 88% of NY Times Fiction and Non-Fiction Best Sellers are available on Amazon’s Kindle vs. 63% being available in Apple iBooks;
• The average price of the Best Selling eBooks available on both platforms is $11.23 on the Kindle and $12.31 on the iBook platform – a 10% difference;
• All in, about 50% of NY Times Fiction and Non-Fiction Best Sellers are available on both the Kindle and the iBook platform; and
• For the eBooks available on both the Kindle and the iBook platform, 80% had the same price, whereas Kindle prices were cheaper for 20% of the books by an average of 11%.

Those gaps will narrow over time, assuming that Apple pushes hard with publishers to do so. And assuming it does, the real difference for buyers ought to be: Do you want to read e-books on a multipurpose device (the iPad)? Or one that costs a whole lot less, and does much less as well (the Kindle)? My guess is that even after Apple eats into the Kindle’s share, Amazon is going to find plenty of people who just want an e-reader. We’ll see..

Where to Download iPhone and Apple TV Firmware Files

Where to Download iPhone Firmware Files
Below you can find the direct links to the iPhone Firmware Files for every released firmware version. Please note that if you use Safari you must disable the auto unzip feature. It may be easier to just use Firefox!
iPhone Firmware 1.0.0: iPhone1,1_1.0_1A543a_Restore.ipsw
iPhone Firmware 1.0.1: iPhone1,1_1.0.1_1C25_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.0.2: iPhone1,1_1.0.2_1C28_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.1: iPhone1,1_1.1.1_3A109a_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.2: iPhone1,1_1.1.2_3B48b_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.3: iPhone1,1_1.1.3_4A93_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 1.1.4: iPhone1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0.1_5B108_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0.1_5B108_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.0.2_5C1_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.0.2_5C1_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.1.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.1.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.2.0 (2G): iPhone1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw.
iPhone Firmware 2.2.0 (3G): iPhone1,2_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw.

Where to Download Apple TV Firmware Files.
Below you can find the direct links to the Apple TV Firmware Files for every released firmware version.
Apple TV Firmware 1.0.0: OS-dot-DMG 1.0.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 1.1.0: 2Z694-5248-45.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.0: 2Z694-5274-109.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.1: 2Z694-5387-25.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.0.2: 2Z694-5428-3.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.1.0: 2Z694-5485-1.dmg.
Apple TV Firmware 2.2.0: 2Z694-5499.dmg

How to convert videos such as MP4, WMV, MOV and AVI to DVD for Free

DVD Flick is a free DVD authoring program that allows you to take a video file saved on your computer and converts it into a DVD that can play back in a DVD player, your computer, or Home Cinema set. The software allows you to add audio tracks and subtitles to your DVD. Your original video files may be in any of the following container formats: AVI, MOV, MPG, WMV, ASF, FLV (Flash video), Matroska and MPG. Supported codecs include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, XVid, DivX, WMA and WMV (Windows Media Audio and Video), MP3, OGG Vorbis, H264 and On2 VP5/6. The program is open source.
DVD Flick is the all-in-one tool that can convert:
AVI to DVD, FLV to DVD, HDMOV to DVD, MKV to DVD, MJPG to DVD, MPG to DVD, M2V to DVD, MP4 to DVD, M4V to DVD, NSV to DVD, NUT to DVD, QT to DVD, MOV to DVD, RM to DVD, SMK to DVD, OGM to DVD, WMV to DVD, ASF to DVD, 3GP to DVD, 3G2 to DVD for free.
DVD Flick supports DVD Authoring, ISO image creating, DVD burning also in one tool.
System requirements:

• A Pentium or AMD K-6 processor. Pentium 3 or later recommended, the faster the better.
• 64 MB of free physical RAM, 128 MB or more is recommended.
• Windows 2000, Windows XP , Windows Vista (If you are Mac user, use this Mac dvd creator)

Download the latest version of the DVD Flick website
If you are using Mac, Please click here to download the Mac DVD Creator

1. Download and run DVD Flick



2. Click "New project” button to create a new project.
3. Browse your hard drives to select path to the folder, where the resulting DVD folders
(AUDIO_TS, VIDEO_TS) will be saved. It is highly recommended to use NTFS file system in your OS, cause the temporary m2v files in most cases exceeds 4GB limit for FAT32 file system. Additionally, don't use non-English letters to the browsing path, because the errors could occur during DVD authoring process.
4. Add your title - select the video file or files for the project. DVD Flick supports these video file types: AVI, FLV, HDMOV, MKV, MJPG, MPG, M2V, MP4, M4V, NSV, NUT, QT, MOV, RM, SMK, OGM, WMV, ASF, 3GP, 3G2.
5. Title added. Left bar indicates how many bytes is used on the blank DVD disc with the default preferences. The percentage depends on the video file size which you have added in the previous guide step.



6. Edit title.
(1) General settings for the "Title".
reate chapters every: Purpose of the chapters usage is forward/back skipping forward during the DVD viewing. It is recommended to use this option.
You can also use fixed numbers of chapters - check "Create" button.
Aspect ratio is an auto detected value received from video file's frame dimension.


(2) Video sources for the "Title" - this tab informs us about video codec, frame size, Aspect ratio value, frame rate - Frames Per Second.


Frame rate. Check the bottom listing:

• 23,976 FPS - NTSC Film Format
• 25 FPS - PAL Format
• 29,97 FPS - NTSC Format
• 30 FPS - NTSC Format Reccomendations for the non-standard
• 12,5 FPS - PAL Format
• 15 FPS - NTSC Format Warning! Remember the format for your file - it will be the same "Target format" in "Project settings" .

Add a file to a title: This option allow to you to add new file or files to the "Title". It could be additional videos for this DVD, cutted scenes for examples, etc. Important thing is the same FPS for the main video file and the additional file.
Remove a file to a title: You can also remove a file to a title.
(3) Audio tracks tab.
Remove an audio track: Press "Edit" button, then remove from the "Audio track sources" additional audio track.
Add an audio track: Press "Add" button on the ”Audio track sources" tab, select the audio file from hard drive, check in the new "select audio track(s)" window track(s) you wish to add. Press "Accept" button. DVD Flick could extract audio tracks from all supported video files (AVI, FLV, HDMOV, MKV, MJPG, MPG, M2V, MP4, M4V, NSV, NUT, QT, MOV, RM, SMK, OGM, WMV, ASF, 3GP, 3G2), and also native audio file formats: AAC, AC3, Flac, MKA, MP3, MP2, MPA, OGG, WAV, WMA
Select language for the additional audio track. Select the audio track, and then select from the”Track language" list box.
(4). Subtitles tab.
Add subtitles. Press "Add" button on the "Subtitles" tab, and then select from disk file with subtitles. DVD Flick supports these subtitles formats: AQT, JS, RT, SMI, ASS, SRT, SSA, TXT. Subtitle settings. Press "Edit" button to change subtitles settings. Select the language you need. Other settings are for the Font, Font size, and placement of the subtitles. As usually, press "Accept" button to save setting. "Force display" option will force subtitle displaying during playback, even they were not selected in menu.



If everything was made rightly, we will see this window with the changed settings for subtitles. There are no more editing tabs for "Title properties". Press "Accept" button to save preferences.
7. Project settings. At the DVD Flick main window press "Project settings" button.
General tab.
Select a "Target size" for your DVD from list box. The default value is "DVD (4,3 GB)", default values could be changed by pressing "Use as defaults" button. If you need to select custom DVD size just scroll up the list box to the "Custom" value and the bottom "Custom size" option will be enabled for editing.
"Encoder priority" allows to you to use "DVD Flick" with high priority in your operating system to decrease full encoding time.



Video tab.
Set your DVD "Target Format".
"Encoding profile" for better encoding performance is highly recommended to select as "Normal" or "Best". "Fastest" and "Fast" mode decrease full encoding time, but with the lower quality results.
"Target bitrate" is more easy to use as "Auto fit". This option will calculate bitrate for encoding automatically depends on DVD "Target size" and will be set as maximum possible value. If you have some advanced experience with DVD encoding, you can set "Custom bitrate".
Set up advanced video options - press "Advanced" button.
Check "Second encoding pass" to improve output encoding results. It is highly recommended to use this option, but it wills increase full encoding time.
Check "Half horizontal resolution" to enable Half D1 DVD Mode - one of the standard for DVD, decreases frame size to 352x576 for PAL and to 352x480 for NTSC (instead of 720x576 (PAL) and 720x480 (NTSC)). Could be used as a possibility to decrease encoding bitrate, for more video length on one DVD disc.
Check "Add overscan borders" to make your DVD with black left and right borders to view all the source video on your TV.
Deinterlace option is not recommended to use.
Check "Force MPEG-2 recompression" to recompress your mpeg-2 video source files, do not check option if m2v files were encoded with Cam Video Tool 4 DVD Flick.



Burning tab.
If the "Create ISO image" is set, the ISO image file will be created on your disk, in the "Project destination folder". ISO image could be useful, if you prefer to burn DVD using another application, supporting ISO images. "MDS" (Media decriptor) file will be created also. If you want to burn your DVD with DVD Flick, check "Burn project to disc" (red arrow). if you are using DVD+RW, DVD-RW disc, check "Automatically erase disc if it is rewritable". If quick erase will be not possible, ImgBurn (included in DVD Flick installation package) will make full erase for rewritable discs.
Accept all "Project settings" using "Accept" button. Now we are ready to burn our DVD.

8. Create DVD.
Press "Create DVD" button at the main window.
DVD Flick will ask for confirmation to proceed - press "Yes".
Additional warning about "Project destination folder" - Press "Yes".
"DVD Flick Progress" window shows to user all executed steps.
When the DVD burning will be done, we will see this window. Press "Close" to return to the DVD Flick main window. In the main window you can save DVD Flick project to your hard drive.

DVD Flick is only for Windows PC users. If you are Mac user, you can use this best DVD creator for Mac. It is a professional Mac DVD Burner program that converts almost all popular video formats such as FLV, MPEG1, MPEG2, MP4, DAT, 3GP, 3G2, MOV, AVI to DVD on Mac. And it can burn DVD movie playable on portable or home DVD player on Mac.

If you want to convert iTunes videos to DVD, you need to get the videos from iTunes to computer .
And then use DVD flick to convert iTunes videos to DVD for free.

If you want to burn YouTube videos on DVD, you can download the youtube videos to your computer.
And then using DVD flick to burn YouTube videos on DVD for free. If you are a Mac user, use this best dvd creator for Mac to help you. You can also copy videos form other video sites such as veoh, google video, iFlim, vidilife, blip.tv, music.com, zippyvideos, dailymotion, devilducky, etc and then burn them to DVD using this methods.

Here are some other DVD burner.
DVD Styler
DVD Styler is an open source DVD authoring system for Windows and Linux. It converts MPEG files, which you can drag and drop into its window, create NTSC/PAL DVD menus which are highly customizable (you can set image backgrounds, put text and images anywhere, change the font and colors, etc), set chapters for the movie, etc.
DivXtoDVD Perl Script
DivXtoDVD is a Perl script for Linux and other Posix systems (like BSD, Unix, Unix-like operating systems) that converts a DivX movie to DVD compliant files (AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories and files). It uses transcode, ffmpeg, mjpeg and dvdauthor to do the job in one step. The software is open source. Note that this is different from the commercial ConvertXtoDVD software which was also formerly named DivXtoDVD. If you're looking for the latter, a trial download is available.
ImgBurn
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:
Read - Read a disc to an image file
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing
Q DVD-Author
Q DVD-Author is essentially a GUI front-end for dvdauthor and other related tools found on a Linux system. You can create DVD menus, convert your projects between PAL and NTSC (and vice versa), create sub-menus, add subtitles, transcode your input videos from other formats, apply multiple audio streams to the videos, give menus multiple soundtracks, create a DVD slideshow, create animated menus, etc. This is an open source program that works under Linux and other Posix OSes.
KDE DVD Authoring Wizard
The KDE DVD Authoring Wizard allows you to create a DVD from a DVD-compatible MPEG-2 file (that is, it doesn't do the conversion from other formats for you). You can add multiple files and create a menu of the playlist if you wish. Your DVD menu can have multiple pages, a soundtrack from OGG or MP3, animated thumbnails and be in the NTSC or PAL format, be in 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 full screen, etc. This DVD authoring tool works under Linux. It is open source.

Top 5 Best DVD to iPod Converter Review

You may haven’t figured out how to rip your DVD to your iPod, and played in the right resolution for your iPod. And often, you are confused about which software is the best one. Everybody has its own opinion about that. Here, I give you top 5 best DVD to iPod Converter Review. You can choose what you think the best DVD to iPod Converter among them. I will take 6 points into review.

1) Cost/Performance: Everybody wants to gain more with less money.
2)Video Quality: Someone often uses the video iPod to watch movie, so the output video quality should be considered seriously. Top DVD to iPod output without any loss in the video and image quality of the exports. To enjoying the high definition video is of great pleasure. Or else, not only your eyes may get hurt; the annoying jumpy and mosaics will also bother you.
3) Speed: Convert DVD often takes time, an hour DVD movie takes around thirty minutes to convert to MPEG-4 movie, if you have multiple DVDs to be converted, a high speed converter would be your best bet, or else, you will waste much time on the conversion, and your computer will be tied to the process.
4) Quality of DVD: Sometimes, rip DVD to iPod according to the original DVD quality, or the types of the DVD to determine the ripped file quality.
5) Easy to use: There are still many iPod users knew little about computer, so complicated parameter settings will strain their brain, as a result, a application with simple interface and steps is the acceptable.
6) Personal Demands: For example, someone just wants to convert part of the DVD video, or others want the special output video format like Apple TV compliant forms and etc.

Concerning the above factors, I've selected five DVD to iPod converters for reference.
DVD to iPod Converter for Windows Review:
First: Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite.
Second: Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter.
Third: Tipard DVD to iPod Converter.

Comment: After you install Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter, You will be greatly impressed by its friendly interface. In addition to its top conversion function, it provides the function to optimize your conversion file, set the parameters for you, crop video, trim video, select subtitle etc. If you have many DVDs must be converted and cropped. Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter meet your needs.

We tested Tipard DVD to iPod Converter, it is amazing that Regardless of the DVD media we used, the ripped files looked and sounded great. It is also combined with many useful features, trim your video clips; crop the play region of video; set the video effect. If you care about the Cost/Performance, and you care about the video/ audio quality, Tipard DVD to iPod Converter is suit for you.

As for Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite, It is the top favorable software, I believe. The reason is that it combines DVD to iPod Converter, iPod to Computer Transfer and iPod Movie Converter into one. With this powerful software, you not only can rip DVD to your iPod, but also convert any video formats to your iPod supporting one. As well as Transfer music and video from iPod to computer. If you want to Rip DVD and convert your favorite video including the FLV format to your iPod with one and inexpensive software, Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Suite is the best one.

DVD to iPod Converter for Mac Review:
First: Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
Second: Tipard DVD to iPod Converter for Mac

Comment: Similarity, the above two Mac software is same on the main function. As for the interface, it’s up to you preference. Frankly, Tipard DVD to iPod Converter for Mac take a little shorter to convert, but considering the video quality, Aiseesoft DVD to iPod Converter for Mac ripped DVD video is more remarkable. Of course, you can test it by yourself. You would found the video conversions are just as clear as the original, sometimes even better.

SCO to Sponsor Next Season of “The Biggest Loser”

SCO’s long-running campaign against Linux may have finally been dealt a death blow. Late Thursday, the judge presiding over the company’s legal battle with Novell (NOVL) rejected its request for a new trial and upheld an April jury decision that determined Novell, not SCO, is the rightful owner of key Unix copyrights.

“SCO argues that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the ‘verdict cannot be squared with the overwhelming evidence and the law,’” Judge Ted Stewart wrote in his decision. “The Court respectfully disagrees. The jury found Novell’s version of facts to be more persuasive. This conclusion is well supported by the evidence. There was substantial evidence that Novell made an intentional decision to retain ownership of the copyrights….Therefore, SCO is not entitled to a new trial.”

So it seems that after seven years, this charade by SCO is finally over. What will it tell the bankruptcy court now? Earlier this year, former U.S. District Judge Edward Cahn, the company’s bankruptcy trustee, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the jury decision will not dissuade it from pursuing its lawsuit against IBM (IBM). Said Cahn: “The copyright claims are gone, but we have other claims based on contracts.”

Thursday’s ruling would seem to be a setback for those plans, but SCO has a history of pressing on in the face of repeated defeats. We’ll have to wait to see if one of its Iraqi Information Minister-style press releases is forthcoming.

In any event, the stoning has begun on Wall Street, where SCO stock is trading around five cents a share.

Palm Scratches Off First of HP Merger Suits

Palm has cleared from its decks at least one of the lawsuits filed by shareholders over its pending merger with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday, the company said it reached a settlement with investor Steve Ubaney, who sued it in early May alleging breach of fiduciary duty.

“The proposed transaction is the product of a flawed sales process and is being consummated at an unfair price,” Ubaney said in his complaint, arguing that the deal–which will pay common shareholders $5.70 per share–did not maximize Palm’s value as well as it should have. An understandable point given that preferred shareholder Elevation Partners stands to recoup $8.50 a share on its initial $325 million investment, thanks to the liquidation preference it was able to negotiate.

Now Palm (PALM) has persuaded Ubaney to drop his claim, although just how isn’t clear. Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, and in its SEC filing, Palm says they “will not affect the amount of the merger consideration that Palm stockholders are entitled to receive in the merger.”

So one shareholder suit down. But still a few more to go. Says Palm: “A number of substantively similar putative stockholder class action suits also remain pending in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara County.”

AT&T Breach Exposes iPad Owners’ Email Addresses

Well, this doesn’t bode well for Apple-AT&T relations…

A security breach at AT&T has exposed the email address of thousands iPad owners–among them a who’s-who of the media and political elite.

Valleywag reports that by exploiting a vulnerability in the AT&T Web site, hacker group Goatse Security was able to collect email addresses associated with the SIM integrated circuit card identifiers, or ICC IDs, in the 3G version of Apple’s (AAPL) new slate device. And it collected some 114,000 of them–from New York Times Co. (NYT) CEO Janet Robinson to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel–before notifying AT&T (T) of the breach so the carrier could repair it.

Interestingly, AT&T claims it was a business customer who alerted it to vulnerability on Monday, and not Goatse or Valleywag. The carrier says that the only information compromised were ICC IDs and the email addresses attached to them. And contrary to some rumors making the rounds, AT&T says it is not advising iPad 3G owners to disable 3G.

Obviously, this is an ugly humiliation for AT&T. But as a security breach, it’s not devastating. The only data compromised were email addresses and ICC IDs. The former could be sold to spammers, and I’m not sure there’s much ill to be done with the latter. Which is not to downplay the severity of the incident. AT&T’s negligence here is deeply troubling–and worth remembering every time we entrust our personal data to someone else.

AT&T, which would not tell me how many exactly Apple iPad 3G users are affected, did release the following statement:

“AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC IDS. The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS is the e-mail address attached to that device.

This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses.

The person or group who discovered this gap did not contact AT&T.

We are continuing to investigate and will inform all customers whose e-mail addresses and ICC IDS may have been obtained. At this point, there is no evidence that any other customer information was shared.

We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.”

How to convert DVD to mp4 format files on Mac OS

Aiseesoft DVD to MP4 Converter for Mac is a powerful MP4 Converter for Mac OS X users. It can convert DVD to MP4 files and extract audio from DVD that can be played on iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, PSP and so on,. It supports various settings, such as selecting DVD subtitle and audio track, choosing any chapters or titles to convert, trimming DVD title or chapter, setting video brightness, contrast, saturation, and even converting all selected DVD titles or chapters into one file.
Note: This guide is for Mac users, If you use windows, Please see How to convert dvd to mp4 files on windows PC !

You can download the latest version for free form the product page of DVD to MP4 Converter for Mac, (choose intel version OR PowerPC version according to the processor of your iMac / MacBook / Mac Pro...)

Reference of Aiseesoft DVD to MP4 converter for Mac:
Source: DVD-Video, DVD IFO file, DVD folder.
Output Video formats: MP4, AVI.
Output Audio formats: M4A.
Support Devices: iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, PSP, PS3, Cell Phone, Creative Zen, iRiver, PMP, Archos, MP4 player and MP3 player.

Launch the program. You will find that this powerful Mac DVD to mp4 converter has a very cool and pretty friendly interface. All the buttons which you may use can be found easily, It is designed for the common, so it is easy to use. To advanced users, it is as easy as a piece of cake. Now let's start the conversion from DVD to MP4 by following this step by step guide:

Step 1: Add DVD Movie
Click the Load DVD button, browse your computer, find the DVD folder of the movie you want to add from your hard disc or DVD-ROM, open your DVD folder, select the VIDEO_TS folder and click OK.



Here you may ask: I just favor one part of DVD not the entire DVD, and hope to save it into your portable player in order that to watch it anytime and anywhere, how can I do that? It is easy, after you add your movie, you can choose any titles or chapters that you want to convert by ticking the check boxes before them.

Step 2: Output Settings
MP4 is a new container format which allows you to combine different multimedia streams into one single file. Multimedia containers are for example the well known AVI, MPEG , Matroska, OGM. MP4 is the global file extension for the official container format defined in the MPEG-4 standard.

At the bottom of the main window, you can name the output file for the current title/chapter, and select a subtitle to put on your movie, select an audio track. Then finish all the settings including selecting an output format, clicking the Settings button to set the video and audio encoding settings, choose if to merge the selected titles or chapters into one file, and set an output directory to save the output files.

If you don't know much about the details of mp4 format, you can select a format according to the name of your portable player. For example, you can select 'PSP Video MPEG-4(*.mp4)' when you want to rip DVD to PSP on Mac, and the default setting works great.

Step 3: Start Conversion
After setting the output settings, you can just click the “Start” button to start converting your Movie. You can choose to shut down your computer or open the output folder after the conversion so you don't have to sit before your computer waiting for the conversion to finish.

Aiseesoft DVD to MP4 Converter for mac can also trim, crop videos and capture pictures, these functions are the same as DVD Ripper for MAC. You can learn more from how to edit, crop, trim DVD clips on Mac OS X .

Buy Now (only $29.00) 　　Download Intel Version 　　　Download PowerPC Version

How to convert DVD movie to iPhone Video MP4

This Guide will show you how rip your DVD with Aiseesoft DVD to iphone converter in an easiest way and explain how to split/join/subtitle/crop/trim the video files when converting.

Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone converter helps you rip DVD and convert DVD to iPhone MP4, M4V video (MPEG-4) H.264, and rip DVD audio to iPhone MP3 and M4A audio formats, all process will be accomplished with high quality and super fast conversion speed.

Here is a step by step guide of Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone converter to give you tips and hope helpful for you!

The whole Guide is divided into THREE parts, here we go:
Part one: How to convert DVD to iphone video in an easiest and common way.
Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone converter, install and start it.

Add your DVD into your DVD-Rom, or click the “Add…” button to open your DVD file, and add the DVD you want, you can also click the drop-down menu of 'Add…' button to add files, and you also can click “Load IFO File” to add files.



Set the output file



After you add video files, you can select an output format for each video file and find the destination folder on your computer for saving the output files.
-- Click the “Profile” drop-down menu to select the output format you need to convert;
---Click the “Open Folder” button to find the destination folder for saving output format;
If you want to convert DVD by default settings, just click “Start” button to begin the conversion. It is the easiest and common way to convert only needing 3 simple steps.

Note: You can click “settings” button to open the settings’ window and set the video parameters (such as resolution, frame bite, encoder, and bit rate) or audio parameters (such as sample rate, channel, encoder and bit rate, etc)

Part Two: Powerful editing function let you improve the quality of output files
Crop – Click the “Crop” button, in order to cut off the black edges of your DVD movie and let you enjoy it in full screen.



Tips: Move your mouse cursor to a box on the frame around the video, and drag the frame to crop your video. Or you can choose a crop option from 'No Crop, Cut off top and bottom black edges, Cut off top black edge, Cut off bottom black edge, Cut off left and right black edges and Cut off all black edges'.

Next part: Tips about using Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Converter to convert DVD movie to iPhone?

Free Trial: Download Aiseesoft DVD to iPhone Converter

How to Convert Real Audio to MP3

Convert Real Audio files to MP3:

Tool required: Real Audio to MP3

If you are Mac user, please visit Aiseesoft Audio Converter for Mac!

Step 1: Add File

Click the "Add File" button to import your Real Audio files, or click the "File" menu to open the drop-down menu, then select "Add File" to import files.

Step 2: Output format

Click "Profile" drop-down button and choose MP3 option.
It is optional to set your output MP3 parameters.

Step 3: Set output folder

Click "Browse" button to choose output folder for saving your converted MP3 files.

Step 4: Convert Real Audio to MP3

Click "Start" button to finish your conversion in few seconds.

Tip: Trim audio clip or join files

Just click "Trim" button to open the trim window. Merge selected audio files into a whole one by checking Merge into one file for successive listening.

Need more helps, explore: how to convert Real Audio to MP3

USC’s Henry Jenkins on Multimedia Storytelling: What Can Journalists Learn From He-Man?

When it comes to narrative multimedia, how can we reimagine storytelling from the ground up? What if templates for new models were right in front of us? In a recent post on his blog, University of Southern California professor Henry Jenkins addressed the topic of “He-Man and the Masters of Transmedia.”

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Hulu’s Growth Curve Flattens Out

ComScore’s newest video data are out. The takeaway: In April, Google’s (GOOG) YouTube dwarfed every other site. And Hulu came in second, with about 960 million views.

Does that sound familiar? It should: YouTube has always been at the top of comScore’s (SCOR) tallies. And since last November, Hulu’s U.S. video views have bounced around in the same zone, somewhere between 900 million and a billion views a month.

In other words, Hulu’s growth curve appears to be flattening.

Should Hulu be concerned? Not necessarily. The company–a joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, Disney’s (DIS) ABC and GE’s (GE) NBC–says it is now turning a profit, which few (if any) competitors can say. And it says it’s on a pace to double revenue in 2010 from the $100 million it generated last year.

Still, it looks as if Hulu’s most recent growth spurt came last fall, when it added ABC’s primetime shows to its lineup. Unless the company has a very big partnership announcement up its sleeve, it won’t have a new slug of inventory to show off next fall.

CEO Jason Kilar and company have plenty of other issues to deal with. Like: How to launch that subscription service at a price that makes sense, with shows that people want to pay for and that its network partners feel comfortable putting online.

So maybe this isn’t a huge priority. But a flat growth curve can’t be fun to look at, no matter how well the site is working.

Sony Could Invest in Panel-Making

To reach a targeted surge in flat-panel television sales, Sony Corp. (SNE) may invest in future liquid-crystal-display panel production lines as part of its joint venture with Samsung Electronics Co. if the demand warrants it, a top executive said.

Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the company expects panel supply to be tight this year at its television operations, although he expects to meet Sony’s own forecast for a 60 percent sales increase to 25 million units in the fiscal year ending March 2011.

After two straight years in the red, dragged down by heavy restructuring and losses at its television and videogame units, Sony is forecasting a return to profit during this fiscal year. It is also looking at new products, including a device similar to Apple (AAPL) Inc.’s iPad tablet computer, according to Mr. Oneda, who is retiring from Sony in June after 41 years at the company.

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