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TikTok gives parents even more control over what their teens see
TikTok is introducing new content filtering controls to its "Family Pairing" feature, letting parents filter out videos containing specific words or hashtags.
Landmark update adds keywords, flight on claims
Today's Landmark update is bound to make many players smile, starting with an optimization pass that should improve framerates and help out lower-end PCs. But it's the addition of the keyword system that is particularly noteworthy, as it will give more depth and purpose to gear. Keywords will "allow items and abilities to communicate with each other," mostly to share bonuses and passive effects. Weapons now have a specific damage type (such as water), and armor now contains cool bonuses like increases your critical strike to 100% when your armor is reduced to zero. The team also announced that players can fly over claims (as long as they have permission) and can snag even more claim expansions as the limit has been increased from five to eight.
Google lands patent for automatic object recognition in videos, leaves no stone untagged
Google has already been working on patents that could pick out faces and song melodies in our YouTube clips. Now, it might just have the ultimate tool: the technique in a just-granted patent could pick out objects in a video, whether they're living or not. Instead of asking the creator to label objects every time, Google proposes using a database of "feature vectors" such as color, movement, shape and texture to automatically identify subjects in the frame through their common traits -- a cat's ears and fast movement would separate it from the ball of yarn it's attacking, for example. Movie makers themselves could provide a lot of the underlying material just by naming and tagging enough of their clips, with the more accurate labels helping to separate the wheat from the chaff if an automated visual ranking system falls short. The one mystery is what Google plans to do with its newfound observational skills, if anything, although the most logical step would be to fill in YouTube keywords without any user intervention -- a potential time-saver when we're uploading that twelfth consecutive pet video.
CCP expands EVE's asset search functionality
If EVE Online is truly spreadsheets in space as some of its detractors (and even fans) have surmised, thus far it's been a spreadsheet with fairly limited search capabilities. Now thanks to the efforts of CCP developers, finding your random crap spread across the cosmos in various New Eden station storage facilities just got a lot easier. The latest EVE Online dev blog has the details on the asset search functionality updates, and they include new keyword searches and a complete listing of keyword values. "There [is] definitely more we can do with this in the future but we started this rather late and [we] didn't want to add lots of broken functionality, but rather a few simple options that work and cover the basics and a bit more," the dev blog explains.
WIREDoo search engine gets running man stamp of approval (video)
MC Hammer already proved that you only need one hit record. But can you get by with just one search engine? Not if you believe his pitch to the Web 2.0 Summit this week, which promoted a "deep search" technology called WIREDoo. The rapper-approved tool emphasizes relationships rather than keywords, which yields very different results to Google's. Type in 90210, for instance, and instead of pages of links about the TV show, the pre-beta WIREDoo brings up stuff about the neighborhood -- schools, homes, the crime rate and other supposedly useful information. You'll find the full presentation after the break, but don't expect any nostalgic dance moves -- Hammer is serious about this, just like he was about those revolutionary tablets.
Kevin Costner sells 32 oil-water separators to BP, testifies before congress
When filming his critically acclaimed documentary Waterworld, Kevin Costner became interested in cost-effective technologies for separating oil from water (such as in the aftermath of an oil spill). Today, he appeared in front of a House committee to drum up interest in the oil-water separator he's been developing over the years in partnership with Louisiana's Ocean Therapy Solutions. It is claimed that the device can process some two-hundred gallons of water a minute, using a centrifuge processing technology that sucks in polluted water, separates the oil, and stores it in a tanker before sending the water itself (now some 99.9 percent purified) back into the gulf. (A company called Enviro Voraxial has a machine that relies on a different technology to process some 500 gallons per minute, which BP is also looking into.) BP has reportedly ordered thirty-two of Costner's machines for testing, although it will be a matter of time before it's determined whether they do the job safely enough to aid in the gulf clean-up effort. What can we say? Our man's come along way since he starred in Sizzle Beach, USA.
BP damage control extends to purchasing search terms like 'oil spill' on Google, Yahoo
If you're looking for the latest updates on the Gulf Oil Disaster, you're probably not wondering "how BP is helping," but that hasn't stopped the company from snatching up keywords on various sites. "We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf," BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News. We regret to inform ol' Toby that if it cannot manage the oil spill, managing its PR is not going to placate anybody.
Keyword Manager updated for iPhoto '08
While I wasn't exactly dying without Keyword Manager in iPhoto '08 just yet, thanks to its new built-in keyword abilities, I am nonetheless relieved to see that my favorite iPhoto keyword plug-in for power users has just been updated for the latest version. While the major new feature in Keyword Manager v1.3 is of course iPhoto '08 compatibility, I have noticed what I believe is a new, dedicated Keyword Manager button added to the controls in the lower left of the iPhoto window (or has that been there all along? I've always just used the keyboard shortcut to invoke it so I never looked down there). Also on the new features list is slightly better performance when selecting many photos, an updated UI for the Keyword Manager windows to match iPhoto '08's new Adjust palette UI, and updates to the Danish translation of the plug-in. It is also worth noting that Keyword Manager still works with iPhoto '06 as well.A demo is available from Bullstorm Software, while a license costs $19 USD (or €19).
iPhoto '08 does tagging right
I've been waiting (impatiently) for a tagging UI like this to come to iPhoto for some time now, and I'm generally happy to say that iPhoto '08 finally does tagging well (for the sake of this post, however, I'll be using the terms 'tags' and 'keywords' interchangeably, since iPhoto refuses to adopt the web 2.0 terminology). If you display keywords beneath your photos (View > Keywords or shift-command-K), you can simply click below your photo in that field (even if it doesn't have any keywords yet) and begin typing. iPhoto will attempt to auto-fill from your keyword library, or it will add new keywords you create on the fly. For keyword ninjas this still might not replace powerful plug-ins like Keyword Manager, but it's definitely a step in the right direction for the general iPhoto user. Since it's barely been 24 hours, Keyword Manager understandably hasn't updated yet, but I don't find myself gasping for breath without it. Thanks to this improvement and others which I'll explore, iPhoto has gained respectable features that finally allow users to manage their library with the power of tags. Read on to see what else is new with iPhoto's keyword features.
iPhoto Keyword Assistant and Manager plugins updated
The two major keyword plugins for iPhoto have both been updated recently. First up is everyone's favorite free alternative, Ken Ferry's Keyword Assistant which we've covered in the past. This new 1.9.4 version adds a panel with tag keyword auto-completion, and it can also alphabetize the keyword list.Next is Keyword Manager, a shareware plugin for iPhoto that brings some more robust features to the table for seriously serious iPhoto keyword junkies. New in version 1.2 is: Copy and paste keywords between photos Jump directly to next untagged photo Fixed crash bug in Dutch version Minor stability bugs fixed Japanse localization German localization Chinese localization A demo is of course available, while a single license to Keyword Manager is $19 from Bullstorm Software.
Keyword Manager 1.1 adds major keyword management features, more
Keyword Manager from Bullstorm scored a license purchase from yours truly the day we found it, and the feature-packed iPhoto keyword plugin recently had an unassuming but handy upgrade to v1.1. Clicking on the "What's New?" heading at Bullstorm's site reveals a strong list of new features, including: Address Book auto-completion Share keywords between photo libraries Alphabetic sorting of keyword lists Preferences windows Built-in software update If you've been looking for an easier-to-use and more powerful way to wrangle your iPhoto library, I highly recommend giving Keyword Manager's full-featured demo a try. One of its most useful features, besides highly streamlining the tagging/keyword assigning process, is its ability to filter keywords in a search. This is something iPhoto is sorely lacking, but Keyword Manager makes it easy to pick keywords to both search for and exclude. This feature alone is easily worth a good portion of the plugin's $19 USD (€19 in Sweden and EU) for a single license.
Keyword Manager for iPhoto
For as long as I can remember, Ken Ferry's Keyword Assistant has been the only iPhoto plugin (at least, AFAIK) for adding some real power and, dare I say, "tagging" to iPhoto's keyword system. Now there's a new kid on the block by the name of Keyword Manager, and it definitely brings some interesting features to the table. Keyword Manager uses two separate windows that both have their own keyboard shortcuts for toggling visibility. The first is a Quick Assigner window (pictured on right) which, as you might guess, allows you to quickly tag add keywords to your photos. It offers keyword completion (via a slick drop down menu) and support for multiple word keywords. The second panel (on left) is a very nice Keyword Manager, allowing you to organize keywords in a hierarchy to help keep your organization in check. Naturally, since both of these panels have their own keyboard shortcuts, you can call them even when in iPhoto's full-screen mode. All this is done with a very nice iPhoto Adjustment Panel-like UI.Now Keyword Manager is pretty impressive, but I think they're reaching just a little too high by charging $19 for a plugin, especially in light of Keyword Assistant being free. I think $14.99 would hit the sweet spot for a plugin like this, but then again, I admittedly haven't plunged into organizing my increasingly sprawling iPhoto library yet, so YMMV.[Update: Commenters Jools tipped us off to promotional codes at VersionTracker that drop the price to $12 in the US or €12 in the EU: VT-542U845 (US) and VT-542E845 (EU). No word on how long those codes are good for, but that's a much more reasonable price in my book.]Keyword Manager is available from Bullstorm, and a demo is available which allows you to assign keywords 75 times before requiring a license.Thanks Bernt
MailTags 1.2.1 available, 1.3 to feature IMAP syncing
Dave Caolo posted about MailTags last August, but in case you're unfamiliar: MailTags is a fantastic plugin for Mail.app that allows you to both tag your messages and create iCal todos right from within Mail. MailTags' abilities go far beyond simply adding a few keywords though; you can also set projects, categories and priorities for messages and use all this new metadata to create a far more robust organizational system than simply filing messages in a 'todo' folder. Once MailTags is installed, a whole new set of search and rule criteria (such as due date, project, keyword and more) are baked into Mail.app for running searches or creating Smart Mailboxes and rules. It's a pretty amazing plugin, and I urge you to check out Scott Morrison's Indev site for the full details on everything MailTags is capable of.While MailTags 1.2.1 issues a host of bugfixes but no serious new features, I found out about it from this Hawk Wings post in which Tin Gaden states that MailTags 1.3 will have a new feature many users have been wishing for: IMAP tag syncing. So if you use Mail.app and MailTags on more than one Mac, you can soon keep your tags, as well as (I'm hoping) projects and priorities all in sync.With all that said, go take MailTags for a spin. It's donationware, so show Scott some PayPal love for the hard work he's putting into this most excellent of plugins.
