Boomerang for Gmail: A Smart Way to Manage Your Inbox

Did you wish you could schedule the emails you send and receive for a later time? Well with the Chrome and Firefox Extension Boomerang you may get your wish.

Boomerang will let you schedule emails to show up in your inbox when you’re ready. You can also schedule sent messages, for example if you wanted to send a timed “thank you” message or schedule a happy birthday email.

 

How it Works

It works by placing a Boomerang drop-down menu in your Gmail message bar. You choose when and how to schedule your message. Common options like in an hour, tomorrow, and next week are readily available but you can also choose a specific time.

What’s really nice about scheduling with specificity is that you don’t have to entire an exact date and time stamp if you don’t want to. You can enter things like “next Wednesday” or “Today at 5:00 PM” instead.

 

 

Boomerang is worth a look if you are frequently frustrated with your inbox. Right now it’s in private beta, but you may be able to find some invites floating around the interwebs.

 

Check out Boomerang for Gmail

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Are You Ready for the myTouch HD?

TmoNews is reporting that the myTouch HD and the HTC Emerald are one in the same. Some people thought that T-Mobile’s secret Project Emerald had suggested a Sidekick branded device from HTC. It looks like a new Sidekick phone will be pushed back to 2011

The myTouch HD is the follow up to the myTouch Slide. Features include the same HTC Sense “Espresso” UI and Genius Button. HTC’s myTouch HD will features a touch only design, display between 3.7-4.3 inches, and may be the first T-Mobile phone with a front facing camera. It looks like HTC is trying to keep up with iPhone 4.

 

If you are looking to upgrade this should be a great phone.

 

What do you think of the myTouch HD?

 

Read the full post at Android and Me.

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First-Ever Factory Integrated Mobile Hotspot in the 2011 Audi A8

The A8, Audi’s luxury sedan, will be the first vehicle with a factory installed mobile hotspot. Shipping this fall, the Audi A8 will have an adapter capable of connecting up to eight devices via WiFi or Bluetooth.

 

The Audi system called the Marvell Mobile Hotspot will support:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Laptops
• Digital Camera
• Gaming Devices

 

How does this affect you?

Pricing for the 2011 model has not yet been announced, but the 2010 A8 has a base MSRP of $78,400. So if you can afford this ride, you'll also be surfing the net in style. Will we soon see no surfing while driving laws?

 

What do you think of the Audi A8?

 

Read the full post at Gear Log.

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New Android Tablet from Dell Drops Tomorrow, Cheaper than iPad

Tomorrow you will be able to get your hands on the new Dell Streak. This 5-inch tablet device will be $300 with a two-year AT&T contract or $549 for an unlocked edition. The Dell Streak uses Google’s Android OS, has front and back facing cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, and a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (Nexus One).

 

I don’t know how I feel about this device as it sounds really nice and at the price is a great deal, but it may just fall into the category of “Why do I need this again?” Many other phones, pads, and pods offer the same thing the Dell Streak offers. Why is this device any different from the rest other than price?

 

It’s too big to be a comfortable smart phone and too small to be a “real” tablet. Oh and if you want the $300 deal from AT&T you have to get it with a full data and voice plan. Dell is also not the biggest name when it comes to mobile devices. So maybe we’ll see some Kin numbers or it could be in Droid territory. Who knows?

 

How does this affect you?

 

You have so many choices now with phones and tablets that you may just want to check it out tomorrow at a local AT&T store. But with the Droid 2 coming out and the HTC Evo, the Dell Streak seems a little late to the party.

 

Would you buy a Dell Streak? Let me know in the comments!

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Google Updates Gmail Contacts Manager

Today Google announced an update to the contacts manager in Gmail. Photo by gaharoni

 

The Official Gmail Blog had this to say:

We're constantly reviewing user feedback about Gmail, and for a while now the number one request has been for a better contacts experience. You’ve asked us to generally make Contacts easier to use, as well as for specific improvements like sorting by last name, keyboard shortcuts, and custom labels for phone numbers. So, by popular request, we're happy to announce that an overhauled version of Gmail Contacts will be rolling out today.

 

The best part is that Google says that Contacts now works more like the rest of Gmail. Well thanks Google – are we sure Gmail is out of beta yet? Don’t get me wrong, I love Gmail, but the contacts manager was a royal pain at times. So it's good to see that Google listened to their user’s feedback and resolved some issues with Contacts.

 

Google added some features based on feedback and requests:

• Keyboard shortcuts (go to Contacts and hit "?" for the full list)
• Sort by last name (look under "More actions")
• Custom labels for phone numbers and other fields
• The ability to undo changes you've just made
• Automatic saving
• Structured name fields, so you can adjust titles, suffixes, and other name components
• A bigger, more prominent notes field

 

How does this affect you?

Well if you use Gmail, this is great news. Your life just got a little bit easier in respect to Gmail. From the image above you can see it looks much cleaner and is better organized.

 

Do you use Gmail? If so, do you like this update to the Contact Manager? Let me know in the comments!

 

Read the full post at The Official Gmail Blog.

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Papermaster is Shredded by Apple

Jason O’Grady from ZDNet has a great article on Mark Papermaster, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering, losing his job due to “Antennagate”. Papermaster has worked at Apple since April 2009 after leaving IBM.

 

This is what O’Grady had to say:

Speculation abounds that he’s the first casualty of the iPhone 4’s problematic antenna design, but neither Apple nor Papermaster have given a reason for the departure. One could reasonably assume that he may have been asked to resign for the design flaw in Apple’s golden goose — the iPhone 4.

It’s suspect antenna design has been a publicity disaster for Apple — dubbed “Antennagate” –and has lead to rumors that its successor (the iPhone 5) is being to rushed to market and that it could come as soon as in January 2011 — six months earlier than the traditional summer time frame for iPhone launches.

 

Someone had to pay for “Antennagate” and it looks like Papermaster is the first. It also looks like Apple is trying to sweep iPhone 4 under the proverbial rug and get iPhone 5 out ASAP.

 

Could we see a new iPhone by the holiday season? Will we see anymore job loss at Apple due to this fiasco?

Read Jason O’Grady’s full article at ZDNet.

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Live-Action Star Wars TV Show Cost Too Much

It looks like the live-action series is back on hold according to Mr. Lucas.

Ever since the Star Wars prequels came out, there has been word that LucasFilm would produce a live-action Star Wars television series. Delays have caused some fans to become disillusioned and lose interest. But there have been few gems outside the original films with the Clone Wars animated series and the Lucas approved Star Wars Specials by the Robot Chick guys on Adult Swim.

As some of you know, a new comedy Star Wars animated series is in the works. It will be produced by Seth Green and may feature the everyday mundane problems of the Star Wars universe.

 

So where does this leave a live-action Star Wars series? Back on hold it seems.

Read the full post at Screen Rant.

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America’s First EV Quick Charge Station in Portland

Portland, Oregon became the first city in the US to have a public* quick charging station for electric vehicles. This charging station should charge a battery to about 80% in just half an hour. It was installed by Portland General Electric (PGE) in a parking lot located at their headquarters.

 

*Even though technically public, this charging station is located in their parking lot and not on the street. So the station is really only public for PGE pass holders only.

[Update]: From an Engadget reader; apparently it costs $3 to park, but the charging is free. So charge away Portland!

 

The grand opening was led by Governor Ted Kulongoski, charging a Nissan Leaf.

The Governor had this to say:

Quick-charging stations are an exciting advancement in our effort to bring electric vehicles to Oregon. By making charging convenient and available for public use, we are telling car manufacturers that Oregon is ready for the next generation of electric vehicles.

 

It’s good to see some states taking the steps necessary to move towards EV’s. Hopefully other states will come on board soon.

 

What do you think of the new wave of Electric Vehicles?

 

Read more about the EV Quick Charge Station at Engadget and Inhabitat.

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PVC Speakers Pipe Tunes In Style

You gotta love PVC. Accidentally discovered in the 1800s and widely used because it’s cheap, durable, and easy to assemble.  PVC pipe is mainly used in construction, but also some uses include home-made ladder golf setups and potato guns (you know you had one as a kid). These Sea Cucumber speakers, available on Etsy for $200, will at least be a conversation starter at your home parties.

I personally would have not used for these. Doesn’t really match my decor, but I do admire the ingenuity to put these together. According to ikymagoo, maker of the speakers, the Sea Cucumbers are great as PC or iPod speakers.

 

Each Sea Cucumber speaker houses a 3 inch magnesium/aluminum alloy full range driver. They are un-powered, so you’ll have to pair these with an amp to play your music.

Have you seen any other clever and unique uses for PVC pipe? Let me know in the comments!

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No More Fail Whale?

Looks like twitter is down again. But something new came up for me (see above). Is the Fail Whale gone?

 

Have you seen this before?

 

[Update]: Looks like the Fail Whale is still going strong.

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China to Build Bus-Tram Hybrid That Cars Can Drive Under

Called the “Straddling” bus, this crazy idea is a cheaper, greener and faster alternative to commute.

 

Some of China’s major cities have huge traffic problems. The 3D Fast Bus or 3D Express Coach was proposed by Shenzhen Hashi Furture Parking Equipment Co. Ltd. The 3D Fast Bus looks like a subway or light-rail train but above the street on rails. It has two levels; one for the passengers on the upper level and the lower for vehicles no taller than 7 feet.

 

 

The 3D Fast Bus will be powered by electricity and solar energy. It will also go to speeds up to 37 mph carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time without blocking other vehicles. It is estimated that the 3D Fast Bus will cost approx 73 million to build and a 25 mile path for it only about 10% of building a subway. Shenzhen is hoping to reduce traffic jams by 20-30%.

 

 

 

Read the full post at China Hush.

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Microsoft Street Slide: Better Than Google Street View

Microsoft Research demonstrated a new street-level image viewing option that way better than Google Maps Street View last week.

 

From Microsoft Reasearch:

“Street Slide is a novel browsing interface for street-level imagery that combines the best aspects of the immersive nature of “bubbles” with the overview provided by multiperspective strip panoramas, figures to attract significant interest, in large part because of the ingenious way in which Microsoft Researchers tackle problems with current street-side imagery on the web.”

 

 

This looks great, but Microsoft is great at teasing us by showing us really clever technologies that they have developed. The problem is that they tend to show us these great ideas well before they can deliver them to customers.  One example would be MS Surface.

Google and Apple, on the other hand, tend to develop without any public updates or rumors and then drop a new product (mainly for increased hype). Pretty much saying, “Look at this cool technology! It’s ready for you to use”.

Both business approaches have their own merits, but it seems like Microsoft previews these amazing technologies to far in advance of launch, if they launch at all. Basically showing their hand to the competitors and giving them time to develop a competing product doesn’t seem like a smart business strategy.

 

What do you think of Microsoft’s new Street Slide?

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Why Do Intelligent People Fail?

While surfing the interwebs, I came across a post by Matt Mullenweg about lack of motivation. His post featured 1 of the 20 reasons Why Intelligent People Fail by Michael Anissimov. These 20 reasons were excerpts from In search of the human mind by Robert J. Sternberg. Photo by unsoundtransient

Anissimov posted his 20 reasons on his site recently and this made me wonder why do intelligent people fail? You’d think that people with higher intelligence would have a lower failure rate, but this is not always true. I’m not going to list all 20, but here are my top 5 from Anissimov’s post:

 

1. Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance.

This is true for anyone in fact. Motivation is a powerful force for all of us. Lack of motivation can lead to excessive procrastination. These two can seriously derail any progress on a goal or project.

 

9. Fear of failure. People may not reach peak performance because they avoid the really important challenges in life.

Fear of failure is another biggie. This holds so many people back it’s not even funny. Some people hedge their bets and reason if they only put in 60% and fail, it’s ok because they didn’t try their hardest anyway. Doesn’t make a lick of sense, but we’re not always logical.

 

 

10. Procrastination. Some people are unable to act without pressure. They may also look for little things to do in order to put off the big ones.

I have fallen prey to this myself. As I said above, procrastination and motivation can tag team you and stop you from completing your goals. By having some type of strong motivation, letting procrastination control your life is much harder.

 

19. Lack of balance between critical, analytical thinking and creative, synthetic thinking. It is important for people to learn what kind of thinking is expected of them in each situation.

Some people are great critical thinkers, but lack creativity. Others are very creative, but cannot take that inspiration and combine it with other ideas to make a complex solution. For these reasons, you may want to partner up with someone who can balance your weakness. Like peanut butter and chocolate (A favorite quote by The Ren Men)

 

20. Too little or too much self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence can gnaw away at a person’s ability to get things done and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, individuals with too much self-confidence may not know when to admit they are wrong or in need of self-improvement.

Yep. This may one of the biggest reasons why intelligent people fail. Being humble will help with continual self-improvement, but if you are an expert, be confident in what you know. It’s a balance. Pretty much never stop learning and growing.

 

Bonus

 

5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely seem able to do anything about them.

I had to add in this as a bonus. This goes back to my peanut butter and chocolate comment. If you are an idea person, find a salesman to partner up with. Your team may accomplish 10 times as much than working alone.

 

Do you have any thoughts on why intelligent people fail? Let me know in the comments!

For the other 14 Read Why Intelligent People Fail from Michael Anissimov.

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So You Thought You’ve Pirated Everything Huh?

Just because vinyl records are analog, it doesn't mean you can't pirate them. All you need:

• A Wood Box
• Glass
• Window Cement
• Silicone Mixture
• Liquid Plastic
• A Drill Press

Yeah I know, that doesn't sound easy. Well not all piracy is fun and games.

 

But if you have some free time to kill. He is a quick run down:

Step 1: Make a box out of wooden strips around a glass plate. Make sure everything is air tight by sealing off the edges using window cement.

Step 2: With the side of the record facing upward, place the record inside the box. Put some window cement where the whole in record is located.

Step 3: Mix the silicone (use smooth on OOMOO 30 or OOMOO 25) for a good 3 minutes before placing into your mold.

Step 4: Pour! Try to start from one corner and let it fill-up the mold. Half a centimeter should be good, but make sure it's even. Now let it dry for 6 hours.

Step 5: Carefully peel the silicone from the cast. Use a cutter to remove the excess.

Step 6: Pour the liquid plastic on top of the silicon cast.

Step 7: You can brush off air bubble you may see, but make sure nothing spills over the round form.

Step 8: Very carefully loosen the plate from the silicone form. Now here is the fun part; using a drill press, bore a hole through the center of the plate. You can also use the silicone form as template make more copies.

 

You have your very own pirated record.

 

See the full gallery on posterous

 

Want to know how records are made? Check out MikeSense.com.

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British Develop the Most Powerful Wind Turbine

British architects Grimshaw and engineers Arup have unveiled this design for an offshore wind turbine and possibly the the most powerful.

 

Could our future oceans have thousands of these 885-foot-wide structures? It’s an interesting thought, but the engineering needed to commercialize these wind turbines seems immense.

 

The video above is the new Aerogenerator X Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. This new design in wind turbines it to be completed by 2014 and instead of using a traditional vertical structure, it will rotate horizontally.

 

The design for British company Wind Power would produce twice as much power and have half the weight of the company’s current design. It’s about 10 megawatts per hour. It would take about 50 these to replace a typical coal plant. Hey but it’s a start right?

Top and above images are by Grimshaw

 

Wind Power Limited had this to say:

“The Aerogenerator X is considered one of the only real alternative solutions available to help deliver the UK’s offshore wind strategy in a reliable and cost effective manner. It does not have the same weight constraints as a normal wind turbine and the blades do not suffer weight-induced fatigue. This new design is half the height of an equivalent horizontal-axis turbine and its weight is concentrated at the base of the structure.”

 

Above diagram is by Arup. Click for larger image.

 

What do you think? Will we see these bizarre looking wind turbines in our future oceans?

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No Jacket Required: Motorola Coming for Apple

Motorola has fired another salvo at Apple by taking out a second full page newspaper ad for the new Droid X. It's pretty much a flame war here folks. I'm guessing Motorola had to respond to Apple's "Droid Death Grip" video.

 

 

He is the wonderful quote burn from Motorola:

At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly.  That’s why the Droid X comes with a dual antenna design.  The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket.  For us it’s just one of those things that comes as a given when you’ve been making mobile phones for over 30 years.

 

In my previous post Apple is not "Too Big to Fail", I mentioned that Apple's rivals would have a field day with the “Antennagate”. It seems like everyone is jumping on the "Let's Bash Apple" bandwagon.

 

What do you think of Motorola's ad? Let me know in the comments!

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Our Galaxy Rich in Earth-Like Planets

Looks like there are more earth-like planets in our own galaxy than scientists first thought. Earlier this month a co-investigator on the Kepler satellite mission in the hunt for other Earth-like planets prematurely announced his findings to a conference in Oxford, England.

 

This leak announcement came from astronomer Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard University.

Sasselov had this to say:

Planets like our own Earth are out there. Our Milky Way galaxy is rich in this kind of planet.

 

Read more at Science Insider.

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New Payment Options for the Android Market

Android developers will have more ways to satisfy customers in the near future according to Google's Tim Bray. He mentions that the Android team is working on "introducing new payment options" for the Android Market.

 

From the Android Developers Blog:

In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to highlight the changes:

• In Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.

• Section 13.2 is new in its entirety, covering indemnity for payment processors for claims related to tax accrual.

These new terms apply immediately to anyone joining Android Market as a new publisher. Existing publishers have been notified of this change via email; they have up to 30 days to sign into the Android Market developer console to accept the new terms.

 

Right now, T-Mobile is the only carrier that lets its customers put charges for mobile apps on their monthly phone bill. This is great news for anyone who doesn't like or know how to use Google checkout. I know I would like a PayPal option and it would be welcomed by other many people as well.

 

Read the Android Developers Blog Post.

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Was Nexus One a Loss Leader for Google?

Chris Brogan’s post on Blogs as Loss Leaders inspired me to write this post. Ironically he got his idea from Chris Voss. Basically Voss was explaining that his blog was a loss leader, because it didn’t exactly earn revenue. But the flip side is that it leads to other things that can earn money and possibly at a higher rate.
Photo by Steve Snodgrass

To better understand what a loss leader is; imagine a supermarket selling sugar or milk at less than cost to draw customers into the store. Now scale this formula up about 1000 times and you have Wal-Mart. That’s just one example, but you should know that loss leaders are as old as retail and some companies just use them better than others. So why do I think Google’s Nexus One was a loss leader?

Nexus One as a Loss Leader
Before the Nexus One was delivered to the world, what were your options if you wanted an Android phone?  Well, let’s take a walk down memory lane:

• G1 (T-Mobile) – Released October 22, 2008
• myTouch 3G (T-Mobile) – Released August 5, 2009
• HTC Hero (Sprint) – Released October 11, 2009
• Motorola CLIQ (T-Mobile) – Released November 2, 2009
• Samsung Moment – Released November 1, 2009
• Motorola Droid (Verizon) – Released November 6, 2009
• Droid Eris – Released November 6, 2009
• Samsung Behold 2 – Released November 18, 2009

Out of all of these phones only 3 stand out: the G1, myTouch 3G and Motorola Droid (the fastest selling android phone). And of those 3, only the Motorola Droid was pushing the upper limits for smartphones when it was released.
So what is my point? Back in 2009, rumors were going around that Google wasn’t happy with current lineup of Android devices. This may have prompted them to build a “What-If” phone. So January 5, 2010 the Nexus One was born – with a little help from HTC.
Jumping back to the present and with Google essentially ending Nexus One’s life, some have said that Nexus One was a failure due to low sales. Mainly due to the much criticized direct sell method by Google. Sure sales weren’t at the level a major release smartphone should have been, but Google didn’t make a great effort either. I am sure that T-Mobile offered to carry the Nexus One in their retail stores. The Nexus One could’ve had 3 times the sales if T-Mobile sold it in their stores.



I don’t believe selling millions of phones was Google’s primary goal. Their goal may have been more of a large scale market research / development project. Their audience wasn’t exactly customers only but technology geeks, developers and manufacturers. It’s not like Google couldn’t afford to go ahead with a possible project like this. They seem to buy a new company every month.
In my humble opinion the Nexus One was more of an effort to push phone manufacturers (HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG) and carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint. AT&T doesn’t count: see iPhone) forward with Android.  Once the Nexus One was released, the passion mobile developers had for Android was definitely known; possibly causing the Android OS to be more attractive to the manufacturers stated above.
Another good reason why Google released the Nexus One may have been to alert these same manufacturers that Google could enter the market with an excellent phone. Mainly a warning shot. There is no greater motivator than the bottom line.

Loss for Gain
So did Google achieve the goal of loss for gain? If you look at the recent stats, I would say yes.

Back on June 23, 2010 Google posted the following to their Official Blog:

Every day 160,000 Android-powered devices are activated — that’s nearly two devices every second, used for the first time by people from New York to New Zealand.
Android started with one simple idea: Provide a powerful, open mobile platform to drive faster innovation for the benefit of consumers. This idea has come to life around the world. Today, there are 60 compatible Android devices, delivered via a global partnership network of 21 OEMs and 59 carriers in 49 countries. The volume and variety of Android devices continues to exceed even our most optimistic expectations. In some instances, Android devices are selling faster than they can be manufactured.

“Selling faster than they can be manufactured” – Any company in the world would love to say they couldn’t make enough of their product to keep up with demand. Also the Android OS is no longer limited to just smartphones. You will soon see a version of the Android OS on tablets, netbooks, laptops, and tons of other mobile devices in the coming months.
You may be thinking right now that Google didn’t lose much since they charged $529 per phone. That would be true if retail price and cost to design, develop, manufacture, and bring to market were equal. The fact is most companies take an initial loss on a new product for future gains; when cost goes down due to economies of scale. Essentially the more you produce the cheaper it becomes to make a product. Also new methods for faster manufacturing and cheaper come into place over time.
So considering the Nexus One was only on the market for about 6 months, means that Google may have taken a large financial loss. But that was worth the loss if the gain was increased market share and large brand recognition, which Android has currently.

 

Droid Incredible by HTC

After the release of the Nexus One, take a look at the 2010 Android Phones:

• Motorola Backflip
• HTC Aria
• Dell Aero
• HTC Evo
• HTC Droid Incredible
• HTC myTouch 3G Slide
• Samsung Behold II
• Motorola Droid X
• Motorola Droid 2

I believe that Android still would have been a great platform without the release of the Nexus One, but we may not have seen the phones we have available today. But that’s only speculation as most of this post is…just speculation.

What do you think? Was the Nexus One an overall winner for Google?

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Painted With Light

Gizmodo issued another Shooting Challenge a couple weeks ago. This time it was Light painting...a body. It may sounded silly but Giz almost promised they would achieve the most memorable Shooting Challenge results yet. Here were the details from Gizmodo:

 

The Challenge

Photograph a person who is somehow augmented by light painting. What they meant by that: glowing exoskeletons, cartoony heads and psychedelic auras. They wanted someone to reimagine the portrait with light. The light painting shouldn't been a stereotypical someone spelling a word or neat glowing orb in the background. The light had to be part of a subject.

They were not looking for the use of light painting that's more subtle in which someone could use a flashlight to control general exposure in a scene. They were looking to see trails of light.

 

Photo by minamac88

 

The Method

Light painting is an specific version of long exposure photography. You'll want to set your camera on a tripod and expose shots for 10-30 seconds or more while (probably another subject) draws with a light source, like a flashlight, LED, candle, sparkler or glowstick.

 

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 800px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560x1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the larger image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.) DO THIS!! IT MAKES OUR JOB MUCH EASIER!
6. One submission per person.

 

The deadline was July 18, 2010 by 11 pm. Gizmodo received 46 People Painted With Light.

 

Mark Wilson, Gizmodo writer commented

In one of the most difficult Shooting Challenges yet, you were asked to not only paint with light, but paint forms and figures that were actually interacting with or modifying a human subject. The results were so, so, so cool.

 

Lead Shot - Star Child

Out of all the shots I tried, this one was my son's idea and came out pretty good. Using one of their LED swards that changes colors. Using a Canon 7D with the 18-135 lens. ISO 400, f16 with 15 second shutter. No Photoshop processing other than sizing.
[Giz note: It's as if he's coming through a portal.]
-Brandon Flowers

 

Touched by an Angel

We're located in Hilo, Hawaii, so we try to have a wide variety of backgrounds, from tropical forests to urban/industrial buildings. We use a Canon 40d camera, with a Sigma 50 mm 1:1.4 lens, and use long exposures and a crew of friends to try different shots. The photo was taken with a 32 second exposure, at 1.6 and iso 100. We aim to depict colors and lights towards movie, comic, and video game references. This shot was inspired by the ideas of urban angels as well as the comic book "Constantine." We took the shot in a flood canal off a forest road a few nights ago, and were trying to outline the graffiti or find the best ones for a good background while torching our models with flashes and making them stand still in with cars headlights ruining shots and causing a lot of respawns.
-Kelsey Ito

 

Smoker

Canon EOS 1000D, 27s f13 @ ISO 100
A self portrait. What's the most practical thing you can do with a trail of fire surrounding you?
Light it up...
My thanks to my dear mum for her help with this shot.
-Bart Tieman

 

Forcefield

I have photographic proof (taken with a Canon PowerShot s90, f/2.0, 8 second exposure at ISO 160) that my new Dynomorphic Tachoid Bubble Shield is impervious to Dalek fire! However, I did have to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.
-Brian Hall

 

Some Light Gaming

My friend Greg had the idea to make a video game out of light and have him playing it. The first idea was to do Super Mario Bros... we ended up doing pong. All the credit goes to Lauren, Greg, and Sean (in the photo) for doing the actual painting. I just took the picture.
Bulb (roughly a minute exposure), f16, iso200, d300s with a 16-35 f4 at 16mm. On camera SB-800 fired front curtain.
-David Ullman

 

Skeletor

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i
Lens: Canon EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings:
Shutter: 93 seconds (bulb mode w/remote)
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
I set up the camera on a tripod, took my position and pressed the remote. This was actually my first attempt, all the others didn't seem quite as good. I stood in the corner of the room and traced over myself with a small LED in the hopes that it would look like a skeleton, starting with the feet and working up, 'drawing' the hands last.
[Giz note: So simple, so effective.]
-Will Norton

 

WINNER - Tron

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8 L @ 24mm, 30 second shutter, ISO 100, f16, two small lights from Walmart for the floor and the tires and rider and a large shop light for the trailing light

Out with the girlfriend for some beers and wings and we started brainstorming for ideas for this weeks photo challenge, end result was the Tron bike idea. We put down tape so we could keep the the lines on the floor straight and used garbage can lids as guides for the tires. It was just the two of us so it took two photos to create the grid on the floor, 1st photo for the lines left to right and the 2nd photo for the lines back to front and a 3rd photo to get her on the bike with the tires and the lines on her and the trailing light. The images were then layered together in photoshop. Took us 75 images to get the 3 that we liked and it was in the garage in the middle of the day so we had to black out the windows and keep the doors closed.. Let just say it was really hot in the garage.
[Giz note: Holy @&#;%]
-Satnam Sidhu

 

The note on the winner is so true. Is this all that is needed to get people to be more creative? Just issue a challenge? What do you think of these incredible images?

 

Read the full post and see all of the 46 amazing photos at Gizmodo.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog