FreshArrival

Today’s Front Pages.

Michael — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:21:26 +0000

The Newseum is, well, a museum of news and journalism that used to be in Virginia, but less than a month ago reopened on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. after being closed for 6 years. Each day, on their website, they display over 600 front pages of newspapers in PDF format from (currently) 57 countries. It’s a fascinating glimpse into what the world is reporting on any given day. Some cool features: they have a version that lets you see the papers by dragging around a map; there’s an analysis page that gives a short overview of what’s making headlines in the day’s papers without having to scrutinize each PDF; and, there’s an archive that chronicles “events of historical significance.” Careful, you could easily spend hours browsing all of the goodies here without even knowing it!

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Ed: For you Mac users out there, someone wrote an awesome Automator script that pulls the front pages from the papers you like and combines them into one PDF. I want a Mac.

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SomethingStore.

Richard — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:12:07 +0000

SomethingStore is a site with a simple aim… you send them $10, they send you something. That’s pretty much it. From the site: “Yours may be a cool gadget, rare book, table game, handmade necklace, reverse clock, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, popular video game, big-box retailer gift card, the latest version of a software, a set of kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans, garden tool, kitchen appliance, unique home decor item, electronic equipment, magazine subscription, office supply item, or …Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.”

People seem to be getting some intriguing stuff. Might be worth it!

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Also out today is the Nintendo Channel… I haven’t really played with any of the features other than being able to download game demos to your Nintendo DS. Oh. My. Goodness. So. Awesome.

Delish is a new Mac app which is currently in beta and shows you a visual representation of your del.icio.us bookmarks. I’m not doing it justice. If you have a Mac, go check it out!

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isnoop.net.

Adam — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:18:31 +0000

Today, the FreshArrival motto, “One amazingly cool thing, every day”, would be an understatement.
In fact, if you count all of the incredible little web-apps or tools on this page, there are 27 cool things. But I’ll leave the counting to you.

You may recognize isnoop.net from the now-defunct Gmail invite spooler, where everyone and their dog got their first Gmail addresses back when they were invite-only. isnoop.net gave out more than a million email address invites, but they were asked to cease and desist by Google in 2005. Oh well, now Gmail is open to the public.

But wait, there’s more! isnoop.net also offers some cool Mac (and Nintendo Wii) games, blogs, some web “toys”, internet and map tools, and more. My favorites are DodgeMail (letting you put email addresses on the web without being spammed to pieces), Comics Strip Snagger (your favorite comics are emailed to you, every day!), and Magnetic Words (just like the magnetic fridge with those little magnetic words, open to the whole world).

VISIT SITE

ed: Photoshop Express supports Flickr now!

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WWF Posters.

Michael — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:08:42 +0000

No, not *that* WWF (besides, they’re WWE now). These posters for the World Wildlife Fund are incredibly clever. I love how they get the message across without the need for large amounts of text or anything drawing attention away from the picture. They deal with topics ranging from global warming and pollution to deforestation and poaching. Penguins happen to be my favorite animal, so consequently, this is one of my favorites from the gallery.

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The Animal Book.

Michael — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:42:00 +0000

This short film sounds incredibly interesting, and just looks amazing. Here’s the synopsis from the film’s site:

The Animal Book is the story of two sisters who exist in a threatening world of giant machinery; a city of cog-mechanized buildings, where cars cruise shark-like through the streets. Even their sun is a giant lightbulb and the moon a stud-riveted mirror. When a snatched retreat to the sisters’ broken playground is interrupted by a flying book, one of them is offered an opportunity to escape the world for a better life.

Just watch the trailer. Immediately, the music evoked shades of Danny Elfman, and the stop motion animation reminded me of Tim Burton. Throw those two guys into a blender, and add a dash of a steampunk-esque world, and you get The Animal Book.

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Audioengine AW1 Wireless Adapter.

Richard — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:34:44 +0000

Our friends at AudioEngine recently released their newest product, a pair of devices that work seamlessly to let you stream music from one room to another. They’ve dubbed them the AW1. In my testing, they work brilliantly, and couldn’t be simpler to set up and use.

Nearly identical in size and design (the receiver has a planet icon on it, and the transmitter has a rocket icon, get it?), the receiver and transmitter are both tiny (the exact measurements are 100 x 30 x 10mm, and if you know how big a USB plug is, you can probably figure out their size from the picture) and contain one USB plug and one 1/8 inch audio jack. This simple combination allows for all sorts of audio streaming possibilities, a number of which are pictured here, and I’ve tried a few: for example, plugging the USB from the transmitter into my PC and plugging a set of speakers into the 1/8 inch audio output of the streamer, and plugging the 1/8 audio output from my PC into the transmitter, the transmitter’s USB port into an AC adapter, the receiver’s USB port into another AC adapter and the 1/8 inch audio output into the AUX input of the Altec Lansing SoundBlade, which I’ll be covering here soon. Each time I tested a new configuration, the AW1s connected to each other instantly and I was able to enjoy what seemed like CD quality sound throughout FreshArrival Labs (they have a 100 ft range).

One thing I noticed was that only one AC adapter is included. I guess Audioengine is banking on the most likely scenario (you’re either streaming to a computer or iPod dock/speakers of some kind, and you’ve got a USB port somewhere on that device)… but even if you aren’t streaming to or from something that isn’t USB enabled, you can always just use an iPod or iPhone USB charger for power. Still, I think that the system would be a bit more flexible if it came with dual AC adapters.

The AudioEngine AW1 is priced at $149, and if you’d like to stream music wirelessly through your house, office or similar place without the need for full control of what’s playing (like with the Sonos system, for example) the AW1s let your music roam wherever you do, for a reasonable price.

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Magic Pen.

Richard — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:39:29 +0000

Magic Pen is a Flash game that combines the laws of physics and crayon drawing to create a unique experience that will result in the death of a lot of your time. How many levels can you beat?

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Also, Worldometers is both amazing and depressing, depending on what section of the page you’re looking at.

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It’s film festival season in San Francisco,

Richa — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:13:16 +0000

and the San Francisco International Film Festival, one of the oldest film festivals in the US, began April 24. This, along with the interminably titled San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, is one I never miss. The past couple of years have been great ones, as far as my festival happiness quotient goes, and surprisingly, a large portion of the great films I saw were documentaries. Here are a few of my favorites from the festivals in the past couple of years, as well as one I’m going to be seeing soon:

The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief - This documentary about host clubs in Japan, as told through the story of the most popular club in Osaka, is gorgeously made and intensely thought-provoking.
Air Guitar Nation - It is hard to separate from the awesomeness of this documentary’s subject matter (The U.S Air Guitar Championships) to focus on the film-making, but that is excellent too. C. Diddy forevah!
Planet B-Boy, much like Air Guitar Nation, focuses on a competition, but is of a decidedly more serious bent. Which doesn’t prevent it from being fun. This documentary has it all: pathos, style, and some sick moves.

Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara - A dreamy and contemplative look at the artistic process of acclaimed Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara, this documentary chronicles his largest exhibition to date. Gorgeous.
Dust is a documentary about just that: dust. It promises to be a fascinating look at something that I never think about except in a vaguely annoyed fashion.

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Eggcorns.

Richard — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:36:17 +0000

What is an Eggcorn? I just found out a few days ago, and thought I’d share. An eggcorn, simply put is, according to GOOD Magazine “a type of common and somewhat logical language goof named after a misspelling of “acorn.” The best way to illustrate this is with a few examples.

jar-dropping, as in “Now go download this jar dropping trailer!”
alterior, as in “Is there an alterior motive behind your actions?”
mindgrain, as in Folks this has not been a very good week and I now have a headache that I hope it does not turn into a mindgrain.

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ReadBurner.

Richard — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:19:13 +0000

If you read a lot of blogs, chances are pretty good that you subscribe to them in Google Reader. ReadBurner turns the Google Reader feature of sharing an item with your friends into something more social and publicly available. Basically it’s the del.icio.us/popular page for Google Reader. I think it’s a pretty cool way to find some new things on the web.

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Tengu.

Peiling Tan — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:04:50 +0000

I chanced upon this in Catalog and if you ever get lonely in your cubicle, you gotta get Tengu. Tengu lights up and lip-syncs to music, or your voice, or whatever noise happens to be around at the time. Tengu has different facial expressions that you can match to different music. When there’s no sound he’ll simply fall asleep, as soon as he detects some noise he’ll wake up again. FYI this little man got his name from Japanese folklore and represents one that plays tricks on people and generally gets up to mischief.

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EarthLED Evolux.

Chris Hathaway — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:06:12 +0000

Caring about the environment has opened up an entire new genre for geeks, since most of the advances involve cool new (and sometimes space-age) technologies. So, let’s face the facts; CFL’s are so last year. I mean, a light bulb that only lasts 3-5 years? I think we can do better. EarthLED brings us the next generation of lighting in the form of high lumen, very low wattage LED bulbs and tubes. The Evolux is 13W that will replace a 100W incandescent bulb or 13W CFL. The list of advantages is impressive: brighter at startup, much longer lasting, no mercury, etc… then the kicker, a $90 dollar price tag. Obviously not something you’ll outfit the entire house with, but certainly a candidate for the front entryway, to show the world how much you care.

I’m not as impressed with the how site borderlines SEO spam, however. Hey, EarthLED, here’s a link so you can shorten your page title:

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Potting Shed Creations.

Chelsey — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:12:35 +0000

This stuff makes me really happy. What perfect gift material! I can’t decide which product is my favorite.

There’s this little apple tree kit that comes in a cute little bag. Then they have these Garden Sprinkles, which are really just seed packets but the tins are reusable as fridg magnets. Their rice hull pots are probably the most earth-friendly item on their roster. If I had to choose, though, I think I would go for these wish gardens—they are like little magic spells that you grow, and they are only $11.

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Message Beans.

Chelsey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:09:13 +0000

What’s cheaper than a singing telegram, has fewer carbs than a cookie cake and is infinitely cooler than a greeting card? A message bean! For only $15 you can send someone a little-bit-o natural magic. Well, alright, I guess a plant that has “Happy Birthday” written on it isn’t natural, but it’s pretty darn nifty.

And do these wizards of horticultural laser writing inscribe just one side of your bean? No! They write a message on one side and put a “complimentary image” on the other.

I also kinda wish there was a bean that said something like “screw you.” There would be such a long, climactic wait for the insult to appear. But what would the image be?

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