Neathings.com

MusicMinder, the first application from neathings, is now out in the form of a public beta.  There are many ways to get the app, but the easiest is to go to the following link:

http://developer.palm.com/webChannel/index.php?packageid=com.neathings.musicminderbeta

You can also check out the app and all future apps developed by neathings at the brand new webOS portal. [the portal has since been replaced by this very site]

The application is still in beta, so it is not complete.  There is room for improvement in both speed and user interface.  Please check the app out and leave a review!

The alpha version of my first application, MusicMinder, is now complete.  This application is to help you keep track of songs you hear while out and about.  When you start up the app, you are presented with a list view of the current songs, which display the lyrics you entered, along with the location at which you heard the song.  Tapping on the plus button at the bottom allows you to add a new song to the list.  from here you can enter in where you head the song, some of the lyrics, as well as the artist, title, and any additional notes you wold like to save.  The button on this page do exactly what you would expect.  Click on the search lyrics button, and you are taken to a Google search of the lyrics you have entered.  Click on the Youtube button to do a Youtube search, and click on the Amazon button to search amazon’s mp3 store for the song.  Press save or do a back gesture to go back to the list of all of your songs.  Tapping on any song lets you edit any of the information that you have about it. Swiping a song allows you to delete it from the list permanently.

Continue reading MusicMinder alpha is complete

After cropping my videos to a 16:9 format using the previously mentioned How to crop a 4:3 video to 16:9 with Windows Movie Maker tutorial, I was left with a puzzling problem. Since Youtube disregards pixel aspect ratio (PAR), and widescreen DVD resolution files do no have square pixels, the only option was to encode the movies in HD 720p.  Now this is great if you are dealing with HD video, but then why did you want to crop it in the first place.  It is a waste of file space and bandwidth to use an HD output format on an SD video.  So, I set out to create some custom output profiles for Windows Movie Maker.

Continue reading Adding Youtube Output Profiles in Windows Movie Maker

Since Youtube started using the new widescreen 16:9 video format, I have been trying to figure out how to make my videos fill the player.  Trouble is, I only had a 4:3 camera, and used windows movie maker to do all of my editing.  as it turns out, windows movie maker has no build in cropping feature.  It does, however, allow for very easy creation of custom effects.  This msdn site was used as the basis for creating this custom effect.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb469712(VS.85).aspx

Turns out, it’s very easy to create your own custom cropping tool.

Continue reading How to crop a 4:3 video to 16:9 with Windows Movie Maker