My iLife
28 Jan 2009 | Comments (1)The word on the street is that Apple’s iLife ‘09 has finally been released here in Japan! I guess that means that I’m off to pick up my copy tonight! Hopefully they have it at Sofmap store near Kyoto Station. They usually get Apple products on their release days. That would save me a trip to the Shinsaibashi Apple Store in Osaka.
I’m mostly looking forward to iPhoto’s new Faces and Places features, but I’m also interested in iMovie’s new video stabilization feature. I have some seriously shaky video of our off-road desert tour in Dubai and I can’t wait to see how well iMovie cleans it up. The demo for video stabilization looks amazing, so I’m pretty hopeful! I didn’t really like iMovie ‘08, so I reverted to the previous version. Hopefully iMovie ‘09 will renew my interest in Apple’s consumer video editing software!
Update: 2009.01.31
Well, I managed to snag one of the few remaining copies of iLife ‘09 at Sofmap Kyoto on release day. I’ve had it a few days now and all I can say is wow! It’s really great! I’m especially impressed with iPhoto’s Faces feature. It took several hours to process my whole library, but one it was finished it found family and friends with ease! It was especially accurate when finding Azusa’s face. Out of thousands of pictures it only returned two false positives. Amazing stuff!
As for my shaky Dubai video, well… Maybe I expected too much? iMovie did a good job of stabilizing my video, but not as much as I had hoped. I’ll see if I can post the before and after videos later today.
Update: 2009.02.01
I posted the stabilized video of our Dubai desert tour up on YouTube. You can watch it by clicking here. Remember, the original is hardly watchable, so shaky as it may be, this is a big improvement!
Top Gear in Japan!!!
24 Jan 2009 | Comments (1)Like many car fans, I love the British TV show Top Gear. I especially love the when they do crazy stuff with MINI Coopers like put rockets on them and jump them off ski jumps. Yeah! I think we could do that with our MINI too!!! Hmm… Maybe not!
Top Gear is always great, but I just saw an episode that takes the cake! The challenge? A 400 mile race across Japan in a new Nissan GTR. The competition? Efficient public transportation including the bullet train of course!!! Brilliant!!!
You can watch the episode by clicking here for part one and here for part two. Not only is the race great fun, but you get to learn a lot about driving in Japan and taking trains too! Oh, not to mention the GTR!
These videos are hosted on You Tube, so don’t forget to press the “watch in high quality” button just under the video!
Oh! By the way… I am the Stig!
Japanese Music on iTunes
20 Jan 2009 | Comments OffLately I’ve noticed that a lot of popular Japanese music has been making it over to the US iTunes Store. I was surprised to find Capsule’s new album the other week, but today I discovered something even better! I don’t know how long it’ll last, but my personal favorite Japanese band, Boom Boom Satellites, has magically appeared on the iTunes music store!
Boom Boom Satellites is pretty much a rock band with some heavy techno and pop influences. Oh, they sing in English too!
So, if you’re looking for some new and exciting music to start 2009 off with, why don’t you give them a try by clicking this iTunes link? Tell ‘em Jeff sent ya!
Next Page »