finale

Buy a sweet space suit for $10,000

The commercialization of space travel is well on its way. That means you can't just pop over to NASA and borrow a space suit for your private space flight, which leaves room for some upstarts to get in on the space-clothing action.

Final Frontier Design is working on a lightweight, relatively inexpensive space suit and is looking for $20,000 on Kickstarter to boost the project. The company has already built two generations of suits but is looking to improve the design with a retractable helmet, better gloves, a carbon fiber waist ring, and higher operating pressure.… Read more

The 404 1,071: Where we say goodbye to Hollywood (podcast)

We'll wait until tomorrow to go over all the Apple announcements from WWDC, so today's show is all about Jeff's return to the East Coast and his E3 wrap-up. Jeff and Scott Stein agree that the show lacked the hardware announcements everyone expected, with Nintendo playing serious catch-up with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Jeff and I then envision a potential future without E3 or maybe even a move to New York, where my co-host wouldn't be forced to play next-gen hockey games as the LA Kings.

Moving on, we'll talk about Microsoft registering … Read more

Super Speed Internet & Browser Assistant

Super Speed Internet & Browser Assistant by Slamet Yanuar is free software that promises to improve browsing speed, help parents block sites, and block malicious activity. Unfortunately, its redundant features, poorly designed interface, and overly technical terms take away from its usefulness.

The application presents a compact interface crammed with 12 tabs that include General Statistics, Distributed Proxy, and Cache. On the General Statistics tab, it shows information such as Cache Hit Ratio and Connection to the Tool. It also shows Money Saved and Cost, although it isn't clear how this is determined. Each line of information is in … Read more

Final Cut Pro update addresses PCI-e performance

For those who use Apple's Final Cut Pro X video and movie production suite, an update is available that addresses the program's performance and image quality of broadcast monitoring when using PCI-express and Thunderbolt devices. The update also addresses syncing performance when using multicam setups, and adds localization support for Simplified Chinese.

The update is available through the Mac App Store application, so if you have Final Cut Pro X installed, you can find this latest release in the Updates section within the program. Note that this update is for the latest Final Cut Pro X version of … Read more

Muramasa VIII headphones heavy in weight, price

If you're a headphone fanatic who enjoys the finer things in life, the Muramasa VIII by Final Audio Design could be the ultimate luxury purchase.

The Japanese company may not be very well known, but it has already released some of the most expensive in-ear headphones around. At a cool $8,000, the Muramasa is one of the more costly pair of headphones we've seen. They're also the first over-the-ear cans by the company.

Final Audio Design previously made headlines with its Piano Forte X-VIII in-ear headphones, which were almost $2,700. The Muramasa VIII now take the top spot for the company's priciest headphones. … Read more

More with less: Why Bump, others kick features to the curb

More is not always better.

Bump Technologies said today it has radically overhauled its hit iPhone and Android apps, ditching little-loved tools that allowed users to trade music and app recommendations and concentrating Bump 3.0 entirely on enabling photo and contacts sharing.

When Bump launched three years ago, it took off immediately by making it dead easy for people to share contact information with others: simply bump iPhones with another user of the app and voila! Since then, the company added Android support, expanded its feature set, and racked up more than 75 million downloads.

Along the way though, … Read more

PluralEyes refocused for Final Cut Pro X's multicam

Apple updated its Final Cut Pro X software two weeks ago support footage from multiple videocameras, and now Singular Software has followed suit with its PluralEyes plug-in that's designed for just that scenario.

PluralEyes lets video editors synchronize multiple video and audio tracks by analyzing each track's sound, and it's become widely used as a way to ease the tedious, important, but sometimes difficult chore.

"The latest update of Final Cut Pro X added new multi-camera editing features, and these are now fully supported by PluralEyes," said Singular Chief Executive Bruce Sharpe in a statement … Read more

Final Cut Pro X update brings multicam back into the picture

Apple is pushing out an update to its Final Cut Pro X software this morning that brings back a feature pros feel was left out in the company's remake of its high-end video editor.

Now among the video editing software's tricks is support for multicam editing, the feature--which as the name suggests--lets editors view, cut together, and synchronize footage from multiple cameras.

Multicam editing was present in previous versions of the Final Cut Pro suite, dating back to 2005 but was not included in this latest version of the editing suite. Under the new system, multicam works with … Read more

The 404 952: Where time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana (podcast)

Leaked from today's episode of The 404 Podcast:

HTC and Facebook pair up for the HTC Buffy phone, a Facebook-powered smartphone modified to use HTML5 as an app platform. The ESRB and CTIA will soon unwrap a cross-platform rating system for mobile applications. Science has spoken: sarcasm is for smarties, according to the neuropsychologists at USF. With Final Fantasy XIII-2 only a few months away, Square Enix proposes to release a new Final Fantasy game every year.… Read more

WeVideo: The next big thing?

On Day 2 of the Streaming Media West Conference, I got a chance to check out the brand-new, full-featured online video-editing platform called WeVideo. In short, I was very impressed.

WeVideo is basically a Final Cut Pro clone in the cloud. You don't have to install or buy anything to use it (the basic free account), and it performs in real time, with very little waiting for rendering.

Obviously, WeVideo's use of the cloud is a huge convenience that helps free up your hard drive. But more importantly, it enables what is perhaps WeVideo's biggest selling point: … Read more