Pictomio – Photo Management and GeoTag App for Windows

Posted in News, Photography, Software, Utility, Windows

It’s been around for a few years now, but Pictomio is well worth checking out if you’re looking for a free photo management suite. Amongst its cooler features are an EXIF editor, GeoTaging of photos and a cool 3D image carousel for previewing your images. Please note that this app also installs the OpenCandy adware which is how the developer pays the bills I guess – if you want to remove it, just use MalWareBytes after installation.

BlenderBottle – Low Tech Cool Idea

Posted in Lifestyle, News

We’ve all been there. You make a milkshake from a packet, give it a really good stir with a spoon, sit back and take a big gulp of your refreshing beverage, only to cop a golf ball sized nugget of powder that makes you cough your lungs up. That particular first world problem won’t affect you, if you invest in one of these trendy looking BlenderBottles.

The secret to the BlenderBottle is ball-shaped wire whisk made of 316 surgical-grade stainless steel that lives in the bottle. You add your ingredients (powdered shake, smoothie, whey protein, fajita mix etc), drop in the ball and give it a good shake.  The manufacturers reckon that the ball will not rust, chip, or peel, so you can leave it in there if you’re just drinking water. No word on price yet, but the bottles will be out early this year.

Plasma TV that pops up from under your bed? We got you covered …

Posted in Digital Home, Gadgets, Lifestyle, News

So here’s a pretty awesome setup. The Underbed Lift is a chassis mounted TV system that lives under your king (or queen) sized bed. When you want to watch some TV, you simply press a button and the TV emerges from under the bed and into a perfect viewing position. Prices start at $15k, so I guess I’ll make do with my iPad and Plex.

Wireless Network Watcher – Wifi Tracking Utility for Windows

Posted in Internet, News, Software, Utility, Windows

Sure you might think you’ve got your wi-fi network locked down, but there’s always a chance that someone’s gained access to it. Despite the commonly held perception that protocols such as WPA2 are secure, they’re actually fairly easily circumvented.

Wireless Network Watcher is a small (free) Windows tool that enables you to keep tabs on exactly what’s on your network at any one time. It shows the IP address, MAC address, NIC details and  the computer name connected to your wi-fi, enabling you to ensure it’s only friends and family who gain access to your valuable bandwidth.

SunCalc – Awesomely useful website for photographers

Posted in News, Photography, Websites

If you’re a photographer, amateur or professional, then you’ll know that the two best times of the day to photograph landscapes is the golden hour – that period of about an hour after sunrise and before sunset. At that time the rays of light from the sun are at their softest and you get far better photos as a result. The rising and setting sun also make pretty awesome subjects for photographs. the difficulty lies in working out where the sun is going to be at a particular location in order to get the most your time shooting.

SunCalc is a terrific Google Maps mashup that enables you to see exactly where the sun’s going to rise and set and indeed where it will be at any hour of the day. You can click around the map to set a location, manually search for an area and set a specific time and date. So for instance if you wanted to take a photo at the coast at the weekend, you can find out ahead of time exactly where the sun will be at all times.

The Tèo – the 21st century teaspoon

Posted in Gadgets, Lifestyle, News

What’s the old maxim? If you want to get rich, design a better mousetrap? Well the folks over at Alessi obviously took that to heart, because they’ve reinvented the common-or-graden teaspoon. The Tèo spoon is made from high grade stainless steel and was designed by Karin Santorso from the LUCY.D studio. To use the spoon you simply pull the string up through the centre of the spoon where it not only squeezes out that nice rich tea juice, but means you don’t have to get your hands dirty. It’s available for purchase now on Amazon for $29.00.

Font Squirrel – Top Notch Free Fonts for Designers

Posted in Mac, News, Websites, Windows

Fonts are expensive items to purchase, but they’re essential tools of the trade for designers and one of those costs you just have to factor into your quotes. However thanks to movements such as Creative Commons and public spirited font designers, there’s a growing portfolio of very high quality fonts out there that are completely free even for commercial use.

Font Squirrel is a site devoted to cataloguing the best of the free-for-commercial-use fonts on the web. You can view the most popular downloads, most recent additions or by style (sans serif, pixel etc). The site’s team also curate a series of packs of similar fonts (calligraphic, grunge etc) so you can get all you need in one hit.