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Fauxto changes name to Splashup, adds new toys

Fauxto, the Webware for photo editing that looks a lot like a desktop application, has a new look and feel. It's relaunched as Splashup and has added several new features that in many ways bring it closer to Fotoflexer, one of its main competitors. This was an interesting product for me to come back to, mainly since it was one of the first Web-based photo-editing apps I got to look at after starting at Webware, and since then the genre has seen tremendous growth.

The real draw to the app has always been its use of layers, which give you a very powerful way to manipulate and create new images using bits and pieces from one or more original photos. Up until a few months ago, other Web-based photo-editing apps didn't have this functionality.

The biggest change since I looked at the service late last year is the addition of undo controls that let you go back a step in case you make a mistake. It's also gotten much better at linking up with places where your photos might reside, such as Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa. Similar to how other Web photo-editing services have handled this, you simply need to authenticate Fauxto to each service by logging in, then you can freely browse all your albums. Originally you were limited to whatever was on your hard drive, or a URL. Likewise, saving is now far better, and you can save locally (in multiple formats) or export the shots back to the site or origin, or whatever supported sites you've given login credentials.

There are also some new tools that are aimed at the higher-end user such as a lasso and cropping tool, along with a tool that lets you take any selected imagery and copy it into a new layer. For grabbing quick shots of your face, there's now a built-in Web cam tool that will take a quick snapshot, although it's nowhere near as advanced as Fotoflexer's iteration that does on-the-fly filter and liquefy effects. … Read more

Skateboarding for eco-conscious riders

My colleague Hunter Smith of frog design has used his entrepreneurial spirit to launch a budding start-up based on his two greatest passions: eco-design and skateboarding. Hunter's company, aptly named SuperGreen Boards, employs some of the most advanced eco-friendly technologies for producing custom longboards, slalom, and speedboards.

SuperGreen Boards uses bamboo, which is not only beautiful, strong, and flexible but is also sustainably harvested. Maple wood, known as the gold standard for skateboards because of its strength under the pressure of the rider, takes a minimum of 100 years to mature before it can be used. Bamboo, in comparison, … Read more

LG UP3: Shiny, tiny, in the U.K. sometimey

LG's latest MP3 player, the UP3, takes all the look and feel of the FM37 or the T54 we saw at IFA. Its shiny all-metal casing houses a player that can play MP3, WMA, OGG (w00t!) and ASF video files. Video may cause a little eyestrain on such a tiny 65,000-color OLED screen, the resolution of which is currently unknown.

The UP3 will come in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities and costs about 45 pounds (around $93) in South Korea. Currently there's no U.K. launch date, but such a release would compete with the iPod shuffle, … Read more

Samsung combo player news; BD-P2400 officially canceled

Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of speculation regarding the status of Samsung's upcoming Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player--the BD-UP5000--and the high-end Blu-ray player, the BD-P2400. Finally, Samsung has made an official announcement. First, the bad news: The BD-P2400 is officially canceled. The BD-P2400 was supposed to be the step-up to the BD-1400, adding HQV video processing, but now those who want HQV will have to go for the combo player.

Now for the good news. Here's exactly what Samsung told us about the BD-UP5000:

Status of BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player:

The Duo … Read more

Heads up on the VW Space Up

Is there such a thing as a mini minivan?

Volkswagen's Space Up, which was unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo auto show on Wednesday, certainly seems to qualify.

The four-door Space Up is just 3.68 m (12 feet) by 1.63 m (5 feet) compared to the VW Touran minivan, which is roughly 4.3 m (14 feet) by 1.8 m (6 feet).

The Space Up follows the two-door Up that debuted at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show. As with the Up concept car, the drive train for all of the gasoline, diesel, and electric drives for this … Read more

Hard-Fi: the joys of turning it up to 11

Playing music and movies really loud is a lot of fun, too bad most of you are missing out on that part of the experience. Obviously, the speakers built into TVs aren't up to the job, and that's the way 80% of you experience TV. HTIB owners are likewise out of luck. Yeah, they may boast of having "1,000" watts on tap, but if you believe that, well, puhleeze! That 8 pound amplifier may, on a good day, squeeze out a few hundred watts.

If you really want to feel something when you're watching … Read more

Silicon Valley Geek-out (Ashlee Vance's book is out--finally)

My pal and host of our Open Season podcast series Mr. Ashlee Vance finally had his magic tome: Geek-Silicon Valley hit the streets. It's an entertaining read and considering that Ashlee spends the majority of his time talking smack about software companies it's good to see that he can actually write :>

Link to The Duck Rabbit minisite

Microsoft opens beta of Popfly mashup builder

Microsoft started an open beta program for its consumer-oriented mashup builder Popfly on Thursday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Popfly is a hosted application that enables people to assemble mashups by dragging and dropping components, rather than writing code. It's built with Microsoft's Silverlight Web browser plug-in.

When Microsoft released the alpha in May, it had prebuilt "blocks," or connections, to popular Web sites Flickr and MySpace.

Now it integrates with Facebook and people can create gadgets (also called widgets) that run on Windows Vista or Windows Live.

There are a growing … Read more

Save your drivers from oblivion with DriverMax

A great tool for when you're mucking about with reinstalling an operating system or just want to have several fail safes going is DriverMax, which backs up your drivers one at a time, a few at a time, or all at once. From registration to implementation, DriverMax works fast, runs smooth, and even does more than mere safe-checking.

Sober thoughts on dealcoholized wine

A few years back I wrote a monthly letter on marketing and business strategy, but there was a section at the end called Tobak's Great Wine for Techies. I think that was the only part anyone read. It had tutorials on wine varietals, regions, aging and storage, plus monthly wine pics, on-line resources, all kinds of stuff to help folks enjoy great wine without breaking the bank or taking a class.

You can check out the archives here.

I'm only bringing this up because 26 days ago I decided to go sober for a month. I've gone a week or two before but never a month. I don't know what I was thinking, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

About two week in I recalled reading about dealcoholized wine. I got on-line and found a handful of wineries in the business of making wine without the buzz.

They all use roughly the same process. They make the wine using typical fermentation techniques, then employ a filtering process to remove virtually all the liquid, including the alcohol. This produces a kind of dealcoholized wine syrup. Then they add water back in and bottle it.

Ariel Vineyards, owned by J. Lohr, claims to have won a gold medal in a blind tasting against wines with alcohol. The website also listed about 20 awards. This got my attention.… Read more