Carl Conrad

About one year ago, I already mentionned why I loved Fring. now Fring has recently released an official version (V1.0.1.4) for the iPhone 3G or the iPod Touch.

It installs in a snapshot and off you go… Once signed in, I recovered all my previous settings and contacts. When used for a call, you will be prompted which service to use for each call - Skype, SIP or Cellular in my case - could not be easier.

Pros:

• Straightforward install for the Apple AppStore
• Support of numerous services
• Access to the iPhone contact list

Cons:

• No resident software, software needs to run to receive incoming calls
• WiFi only, no calls when connected on 3G or EDGE networks

Tags: Fring, iPhone, iPod, VoIP, WiFi

A special post to welcome the launch of Origin by Arturia.

Most powerful synthesizer on the market, Origin goes beyond the traditional definition of synthesizers. It is a hardware DSP system that houses several synthesizers in one machine. Some of these synths come from the past, such as the Minimoog, some are totally new and innovative.

Loaded with modules extracted from the best synthesizers of all time, Origin lets you combine these modules and take advantage of the additional possibilities put onboard. The result: a new type of sound accessible through an extremely intuitive interface.

A glimpse at the specifications:

• Create your own synthesis patch by connecting independent modules. These modules are either innovative modules we introduced (such as Galaxy) or taken from the best synthesizers ever made (such as the Moog Modular, the Yamaha CS-80, the Roland Jupiter-8, the Minimoog, the ARP 2600, the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet VS).
• Alternatively, use an existing synthesizer recreation: the Minimoog, the ARP 2600*, the Jupiter-8* or the Prophet 5*
• Superb audio quality with TAE® engine in a hardware chassis. 24 bits/44.1 kHz supported.
• High-Quality Real time Effects: Phaser, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Distortion, Parametric EQ*, Bit Crusher*.
• 500 presets created by a selection of international sound designers
• 16/32 step advanced sequencer allowing you to program three sub-sequences at a time and to perform live.
• Multi mode allowing you to play 4 instruments at a time, for example a Minimoog, a Jupiter-8*, a modular patch and an ARP 2600*.
• Creative Macros, advanced LFO’s, innovative modulation sources, different Joystick modes.
• Advanced Preset browser.
• Analog Audio Connectivity: 2 audio ins, 10 audio outs.
• Digital Audio: SPDIF out, USB 2.0
• Built-in expression pedal and footswitch control inputs
• MIDI : In, Out, Thru or USB 2
• Up to 32 voices of polyphony
• Also a MIDI controller offering 33 encoders, 21 potentiometers and 1 joystick
• Ergonomic hardware design and quality manufacturing in France and Germany.
• Origin lets you open dedicated software on your Mac and PC in the form of Origin Connection an ergonomic application allowing to archive preset, exchange data, upgrade firmware.
• 160 pages manual in English.

A keyboard version is planned to be released too.

Let’s wish Origin will find its market, the team behind it really deserves it.

Two months ago, I posted about Matt’s wonderful video shooted all around the world (check Where the hell is Matt).

Today, Ian Usher, a 45-year-old Australian man, is seeking to reach his 100 goals in 100 weeks. As he was walking out of the door of his house in Perth, with no belongings other than his wallet and passport in his pocket after having sold his life on eBay! on the 29nd of June 2008 (check ALife4Sale.com), Ian needed a new challenge. He has begun a new bet: achieving 100 goals in 100 weeks…

The list of goals:

1. Sell my life
2. Tomatina Festival
3. Festival of the Dead
4. Carnival at Rio
5. Elephants Round-Up
6. Learn to fly plane
7. San Francisco
8. Los Angeles
9. See the Grand Canyon
10. Las Vegas
11. Climb Statue of Liberty (or at least walk round it!)
12. Drive across America on Route 66
13. Juggle with fire clubs
14. Paraglide
15. Gallop on a horse along a beach at sunset
16. Learn to play the harmonica
17. Learn to play didgeridoo (circular breathing)
18. Dive off the top board at Bishop Auckland swimming pool
19. Meet Richard Branson
20. Set up the BlindsidedNetwork.com support forum
21. Skydive in a wind tunnel
22. Night skydive
23. Nude skydive
24. Skydive from either a helicopter or a balloon
25. Slim down to and maintain 70kg
26. Develop a six pack stomach
27. Have a bit-part role in a Hollywood movie
28. Cannes Film Festival
29. Meet 10 new people from ALife4Sale
30. Sort out my tattoo
31. Snowboard at Whistler
32. Ride the long surf at Hawaii
33. Get Paula Campbell into top 10 in a Google search
34. Bognor Regis Birdman
35. Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Festival
36. Sedgefield Ball Game
37. Ride the Wall of Death
38. Dive with whales
39. Dive with manta rays
40. Shark cage dive
41. Swim with a 10+ metre whale shark
42. Hammerhead shark reef
43. See an iceberg
44. Ride an elephant
45. Ride a motorbike at over 250km (150mph) on a public road
46. Drive a car into water off a jetty
47. Gather 5 Ian Ushers in one place
48. Take the controls of a helicopter
49. Big bungee jump
50. Kingda Ka rollercoaster
51. MIG flight
52. Bobsleigh run
53. Dive to the Titanic in a submersible
54. Sleep in a Japanese capsule hotel
55. Memorise the poem “If…” by Rudyard Kipling
56. Weightlessness flight
57. See Uluru
58. Pyramid at Chichén Itzá
59. Snowboard on Dubai indoor ski slope
60. See Table Mountain
61. San Fermin Bull Run Festival
62. Learn how to lucid dream
63. See Machu Picchu
64. Have a workplace romance
65. See the statues on Easter Island
66. Join the Mile High Club
67. Learn to speak Spanish
68. Learn to speak conversational French
69. Walk on the Great Wall of China
70. See “Christ The Redeemer” statue in Rio
71. Taj Mahal
72. Christ of the Deep
73. Bonneville Speed Week
74. Climb the Eiffel Tower
75. Enter a $1000 poker competition
76. Oktoberfest
77. Learn to kite surf
78. Have a hawk land on my hand and eat
79. Work in a soup kitchen on Xmas day
80. Go to Israelite Bay
81. Raise $50000 for Bowel Cancer Research
82. Greenpeace, go aboard the Rainbow Warrior
83. Iguazu Falls
84. Niagara Falls
85. Victoria Falls
86. Ice sculptures - Sapporo Yuki Matsuri
87. Red crabs march
88. See the Northern Lights
89. See Everest
90. See Mount Rushmore
91. Go on a dog-sled ride in the wilderness
92. Watch a baby being born
93. Do a wingwalk
94. Stay a night in an underwater hotel
95. White water rafting
96. “7 peaks in 7 days”
97. Ride an ostrich
98. See an active volcano
99. Spend a night in a haunted house - alone!
100. Secure a book deal for 100goals

As of today, Ian’s current status is: in 5 out of 100 weeks he has reached 6 out of 100 goals. Be strong and take care Ian.

Tags: Ian Usher

May be not. Media RSS is a media syndication format extension to RSS developed by Yahoo! in 2004. More than a simple technical niche extension, Media RSS is a powerful while easy to implement means of sharing media and in particular photos.

From the insider point of view, support of Media RSS simply consists in adding some <media> tags if a RSS feed already exists.

As you can do with standard RSS feeds, Media RSS feeds help you keeping in touch automatically with the latest posted items of various sites.

Dealing with digital pictures, Frame Channel allows for easily pushing contents of Media RSS feeds to digital photo frames.Media RSS may still not widely available but no doubt that it will gain notoriety as RSS did. As usual, it is a matter of available implementation. Several photo sharing sites such as Photobucket and Smugmug already provide support for Media RSS,  KoffeePhoto photo sharing is the latest to date to announce its support of Media RSS.

Tags: KoffeePhoto, Media RSS, MRSS, photo sharing

Just a couple of days after the announcement of the reconducted partnership between Mozilla and Google and although the link is not yet active, Google has just announced its soon release of its new open source browser, Google Chrome. Among the sources, Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox.

The Google Chrome download link is to be made active tomorrow, no doubt it will be heavily downloaded and commented.

Tags: Firefox, Google, Mozilla

Mozilla Labs introduces Ubiquity. While still in a very early stage, Ubiquity is a pretty impressive functional addition to future Firefox. Ubiquity’s goals are to:

• Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
• Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone (not just Web developers) to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)

Better than a long speech, check out the video and test it by yourself.

Let’s hope this will also run with Thunderbird…

Tags: Mozilla, Ubiquity

Mad about your iPhone? Here is a good way to spend a lot of time playing with its virtual keyboard: write posts on your WordPress blog. Install WordPress for iPhone now and off you go!

WordPress for iPhone is a free application available from the AppStore and installs very easily.

WordPress for iPhone supports the minimum requirements to efficiently post on your blog. Text, title, tags and categories are supported. WordPress for iPhone allows for posting on multiple blogs (wordpress.com hosted or not), supports local and remote drafts, allows preview of posts and, last but not the least, publishing of the posts.

You want to post what you see? Easy, take a picture, WordPress for iPhone allows for including photos available on your iPhone into your posts.

While WordPress for iPhone does not feature all the plug-ins available for WordPress, it provides a rather complete featureset for an efficient blogging on the go.

The only limitation may reside in your ability to write long posts using iPhone’s virtual keyboard, you will have to be patient.

Tags: iPhone, Wordpress

In an answer to McCain’s advertising against Barack Obama, Paris Hilton gives us some clues of what she would do at The White House.

Tags: Paris Hilton

Lucky Matt who met a sponsor to shoot this second movie. The starting idea is pretty simple, Matt travels and gets shooted while dancing somewhere around the world. Some edits and the video is posted on the web.

The result, probably a nice and efficient viral marketing campaign for his sponsor. Sceptical? Check out the viewing statistics on YouTube (6,176,614 views and 24,057 comments as of now) and other video sharing platforms.

14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands.

Links:

• Where the hell is Matt?

Tags: Matt

Poke, Write on your wall, Show picture to everybody, etc.. Would we accept in the real life what we accept on Facebook? Probably not, have a look at this brilliant video from the BBC Three show ‘The Wall’…

Tags: Facebook