Comic Sans Appraised

Amusing and thoughtful site that focusses on the history, use and misuse of this much maligned font, along with a selection of free alternatives.

Thanks to Julie for the link
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Knife Sharpening Essentials

SFGate reports: [edited]

Eric E. Weiss sharpens knives for restaurants and caterers, and operates a booth at three weekly farmers' markets...

"I sharpen knives in two ways, one freehand and one with a jig that I've modified to suit my needs. A jig holds the knife like a clamp and it's attached to my table. It's like having a third hand, especially helpful with big knives."

"You should definitely be using a sharpening steel - the tool that comes with any knife set - every time you're done with your knife. Hold it straight up and down on your table. Start from the heel or the guard, depending on your knife, and draw it straight down at a 25-degree angle. Two or three times either side is all you need. More than that, you start removing your edge."

"Dishwashers are my No. 1 nemesis. People seem to think that any knife can be put in a dishwasher. But in fact it's like sandblasting your car in order to clean it. The knife is banging against the basket, getting chips, nicks, dents, dings. And if the knife has any sort of quality steel to it, the dishwasher can remove the edge in two, three washings."

"Some people think dull knives are better than sharp knives because they're safer. Wrong! You're pushing and exerting much more pressure on a dull knife. So when you finally break loose, in most cases, your fingers are in the way. A sharp knife will give you a clean cut. Skin cut from a dull knife is essentially torn skin and takes longer to heal."

"People ask me, "How complicated can it be, sharpening a knife?" As complicated as it is to build a good car! That's an exaggeration, but meaningful. Metallurgy has come so far just in the last 20 years that, compared to what used to be three, maybe four types of basic metals used, now there are 50-plus metals used for knives."
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Robot Headphone Splitter

fredflare.com reports: [edited]

A robot can be an especially helpful fellow. This little silver guy wants to facilitate the groove in your friendship and love. Turn up the jams and share music with a friend thanks to his mad earphone-splitting skills.

Compatible with any device with a 3.5 mm headphone socket such as MP3
players, PDAs and computers. Eyes of the robot are the headphone sockets. Includes key chain attachment.

Price: $14
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Magic Shutter

Price: £1.79
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Word Lens

Engadget reports: [edited]

Augmented reality and optical character recognition have just come into their own, beautifully intertwined into an instant translation app for the iPhone. Download Word Lens, pay £2.99 for a language pack, then point it at a sign and watch as it replaces every word with one in your native tongue.

We just gave it a spin, and while it's not quite as accurate as this video claims, it's still breathtaking to behold - especially as it doesn't require an internet connection to do any lookup. Sadly, it only translates to and from English and Spanish for now. Still, Babelfish, eat your heart out.
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Nikon D7000

Digital Photography Review have published an in-depth review of Nikon's latest 'pro-sumer' DSLR.

Precis of their conclusion:

"In most respects, the Nikon D7000 is an excellent enthusiast's DSLR. The camera produces great image quality in most shooting situations, and it shines in low light, providing (just about) useable images right up to its ISO ceiling of 25,600."

"Ultimately, the D7000's specification is hard to argue with. A newly developed, 16.3 MP resolution sensor, 6 frames per second continuous shooting, 1080p full HD video and an abundance of customization options place this camera firmly into the semi-pro segment of the market."

Price: £1200, including a 18-105mm lens.
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Board Game Remix Kit

Board Game Remix Kit reports: [edited]

Liven up your Christmas by remixing the boardgames in your house to make brand new games.

The Boardgame Remix Kit works with all the great family favourites. It's got twenty five games that you can play using the boards and pieces you've [probably, Ed.] already got.

As well as smoothing out or speeding up a standard game, the kit can turn Monopoly [Monotony, Ed.] into a family poker tournament, Trivial Pursuit into a surrealist parlour game; Scrabble into fight between a wasp and a robot, and Cluedo into a zombie invasion.

Available as an eBook, real book, card set or iPhone App. For a sample PDF, click here.
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Lunatik & TikTok iPod Nano watch straps

kickstarter+ reports: [edited]

The idea to use the Nano as a watch was an obvious one ever since the product was announced. We wanted to create a collection that was well designed, engineered and manufactured from premium materials and that complemented the impeccable quality of Apple products.

TikTok is a simple snap-in design. It allows the user to easily and securely snap the Nano into the wrist dock. It cleanly and simply integrates the Nano and transforms it into a modern multifunction timepiece.


LunaTik is designed and intended to be a premium conversion kit for someone that wants to dedicate their Nano to being a watch and the newest conversation piece with their friends. It is forged from Aerospace Grade Aluminum and then machined via CNC into its final form.


The straps are made from high grade silicone rubber and the hardware is solid stainless steel. The watch cases and straps will be produced in the same factories that produce the watches for companies like Nixon, Diesel, Vestal, and Nike.

TikTok will retail for $34.95 and LunaTik will retail for $69.95.

For an article on how Scott Wilson raised $500,000 for the project click here.
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Miluira Retro Lekky Car

Boing Boing reports: [edited]

The Miluira Retro is a splendid-looking one-person electric vehicle, due to ship around March 2011. It will only go 35km on a charge at a top speed of 60km/h, and I'm sure it'll cost the world, [c.£50,000, Ed.] but you'll be the sharpest looking spendthrift on the road.
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LG investigating 'quantum dot' TVs

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

LG is to co-operate in the development of quantum dot-derived LED TV displays capable of generating "brighter, richer colours" while consuming a fraction of the energy of today's LEDs.

The South Korean giant said it will work with QD Vision, the US developer of the electroluminescent quantum dot LED - aka QLEDs. The two will try to figure out how to build QD's sub-pixels into a large, flat-panel display matrix.

Quantum dots are semiconductor materials in which the electrons and positive holes are energetically confined in three spatial dimensions. They exist in nanocrystal structures made using a chemical deposition processes.

It's a tricky notion to get your head around unless you're a quantum mechanics boffin, but the upshot is that you apply a voltage to the things and they emit light. Crucially, the voltage is very low, and the light is of a very tight frequency band, resulting in very specific, accurate colours.

Combine electroluminescent quantum dot and a control mechanism and you have a QLED. QD has red, green, blue and yellow sub-pixel QLEDs that can be combined into a single, colour pixel.

Like OLEDs, QLEDs don't require a backlight, but being inorganic they are more stable than OLED pixels. QLED colours are 30-40 per cent more intense than OLEDs can produce, says QD. Since they generate light of a specific colour, they don't require filters to be placed in front of them, which, like the absence of a backlight, will allow very thin screens to be made from QLEDs. And cheaper ones too.

Indeed, QD reckons its QLEDs will not only be printable, but also able to be laid down on flexible substrates.
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Smush.it

smushit.com reports: [edited]

Smush.it uses optimization techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a lossless tool, which means it optimizes the images without changing their look or visual quality.

Smush.it reports how many bytes would be saved by optimizing the page's images and provides a downloadable zip file with the minimized image files.
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Arcam rCube portable speaker system

Register Hardware have published a very positive review of Arcam's £500 high-end amp/speaker module.

Extracts follow:

"At 200mm square, the rCube is small for a premium speaker system... but, at 5kg, light it is not. That probably has something to do with the cast aluminium base and cabinet made from 12mm thick MDF."

"The touch-sensitive controls on the top of the unit have been kept to a minimum and simply let you turn the unit on, adjust the volume and activate the wireless streamer, about which more below. Everything else is managed from a remote."

"Buried in the aluminium base is a user replaceable rechargeable battery, so you can take the rCube anywhere you fancy and enjoy between two and eight hours of mains-free music. Recharging takes about one hour."

"Inside the cabinet are three amplifiers driving four speakers, two set into each side of the cabinet. That's a combination rated at 90W RMS – 35W from each mid-range driver and 10W from each tweeter – and is enough to fill even a large room with sound."

"No matter what I played on it – and I listened to everything from Nine Inch Nails to Carole King, and Tangerine Dream to Tannhauser – the reproduction was always a bright, clear, focused, taught, powerful and superbly detailed sound, that never failed to impress."
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$1,000,000 Porsche Design Advent Calendar

GQ Magazine reports: [edited]

Each of the five in existence - one of which is available at Harrods, natch - stands at 1.75 metres tall, looks like something out of Tron: Legacy and has something arguably as good as Olivia Wilde in a skin-tight bodysuit behind each of the 24 windows.

The big-ticket items are a P'6910 Indicator Chronograph in rose gold, a fully customisable kitchen and an 8.5-metre RFF speedboat. Other good days include gold sunglasses, writing implements, cuff links and award-winning Bounce:S² running trainers so you can burn off that extra helping of Harrods Courvoisier VS brandy butter.
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Tron Light Cycle: Yours for $55,000

Pocket Lint reports: [edited]

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Tron: Legacy, Florida bike shop Parker Brothers Choppers has built 10 custom-built Tron Light Cycle replicas.

The bikes are road-legal, and are constructed from a steel frame, fibreglass bodywork and a Suzuki TLR1000 V-twin engine. You get a choice between physical gauges or an iPad dock to display your statistics on the tablet’s touchscreen.
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Publishers on iOS vs Android

Fast Company reports: [edited]

So what will it be, the iPad or an Android tablet? If you're a consumer, the choice might be tough. But if you're an app developer, says paidContent, the choice is simple: focus on the iPad. The reason? Google is preventing many Android tablets from embedding Android Market - thereby limiting publishers' ability to monetize.

“Setting up a paid in-app subscription is definitely harder on Android," according to Nic Newman, a tablet developer. What's more, “it’s not as obvious to publishers how they can make money easily through Android as with iPad - it’s a choice of one or the other. The road to monetization on Android is a lot more complex.”

Why is that? Because Apple is a one-stop shop: it makes both the machine and the iOS system that runs on it. Android, however, is just an operating system. Android phones and the forthcoming proliferation of Android tablets have various manufacturers.

With such a decentralized set-up, it appears that Google is trying to implement quality control. "You can have Android Market if it leads to good implementation," the company has said. Makers of Android tablets must contact Google's Android Compatibility Team in person, potentially slowing the development process.

If certain Android devices fail to earn the right to run Android Market, then consumers will likely opt for tablets that do acquire that certification - or skip Android altogether and run for the nearest iPad. It's not yet clear which side will win this battle for the hearts and minds of publishers and readers: Google-driven democracy or the Steve Jobs-led autocracy that is the Apple app store.
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'Enthusiast' compact camera group test

Digital Photography Review have published a group test of the Canon Powershot S95, Panasonic Lumix LX5 and Nikon Coolpix P7000.

A precis of the conclusions follows:

"...of the three, we're most impressed by the Canon S95 and Panasonic LX5, which combine excellent image quality with hassle-free ergonomics and genuinely compact bodies. The Nikon Coolpix P7000 turns out great images but is considerably larger and heavier, and- crucially - its poor operational speed is impossible to overlook... this makes it a profoundly unlikeable camera."

"As far as image quality... all of them are capable of detailed, colorful results in JPEG mode, and even in poor light, noise is well-controlled considering the size of their sensors... if we had to pick one camera purely on the basis of image quality we'd probably plump for the S95, for its sharp, detailed JPEGs."

"If you're looking for a genuinely 'compact' compact camera the Canon S95 is worth serious consideration. It's the smallest and least-expensive camera in this group, and it is comfortable and easy to use, as well as being slim enough to fit inside a shirt pocket."
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Orange offers iPad on the never-never...

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Orange has announced how much it is prepared to subsidise the Apple iPad, and it pushes the entry-level fondle slab down below £200 with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

You'll have to agree to pay Orange £27 a month for the next couple of years, less a couple of quid if you're already indentured to Orange. So, including the £200 down payment, you'll be handing over £848 for 1GB of data a month (plus 1GB of off-peak data).

Buy the same 16GB slab direct from Apple (£529), and pay O2 or Vodafone a tenner a month for a similar quantity of data (excepting the off-peak allowance), and you'll be paying out £769 overall - but that assumes you've got £529 burning a hole in your pocket now.
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11" MacBook Air or iPad?

I got the chance to play with an 11" MacBook Air during a recent visit to Westfield's Apple Store. It is beautiful to look at, very slim, and very, very light (1kg). My iPad, in its Apple case, weighs 875g. The 11" Air is only 50mm longer, and 23mm wider than the iPad. And the Air's screen gives you an extra 262,656 pixels (count 'em) to play. Plus a full-size, 'proper' keyboard.

On the negative side, it's not cheap (starting at £849, ramping up to £1250 if you max out the storage and buy an external dvd drive... iPads start at £429). And the battery life is half that of the iPad's (5 vs 10 hours).

I can imagine it being an excellent machine for a 'mobile' professional, it is the perfect platform for typing, blogging, emailing and web-browsing.

The lack of a SIM slot surprises me, as it means that all mobile browsing will require access to WiFi, or the addition of an (ugly) 3G USB dongle. Anyone who has used a 3G-enabled iPad will tell you how enjoyable it is to be 'nearly-always-online' (3G networks permitting!).

For many people it will have too little storage (128GB) to work as a primary computer, and the iPad is still a much better sofa-browsing/bung-in-a-bag machine. However, if it packed 3G capability and 512GB of storage, I can imagine a lot of people using it as a main computer/iPad replacement, with their iPhone (other smart phones are available) joining the bag-free 'key, currency, communicator' kit.
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Glif for iPhone 4

Studio Neat reports: [edited]

The Glif is a simple iPhone 4 accessory with two primary functions: mounting your iPhone onto a tripod and propping up your iPhone at various angles.


The Glif is made from recyclable rubberised plastic, and is small enough to fit snugly in your pocket, purse, or backpack. It has a 1/4" thread that fits any standard tripod or camera mount. The Glif is designed to work with a caseless iPhone 4.

Price: $20 - Shipping will begin in 2-3 weeks.
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Free Font - Classic Round

My Fonts reports: [edited]

Classic Round. It’s classic. It’s round. Classic design; present-day roundness. Versatile. Soft. Warm. Peaceful. For text and display use.

Medium and Medium Italic versions available for nowt.

via Font Squirrel
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