They fully deserve to be Internet stars, with the video having gained over 612,000 views so far!

Channel 4 Seeks New Presenter For Future Family Series In Partnership With E.ON

Channel 4 is looking for someone with a passion for technology and gadgets to join the presenting team for Future Family, a major new documentary series in partnership with E.ON.

The new five-part TV and web-based series will follow an average family as their lives are transformed using futuristic technology and gadgets.

Featuring the latest environmental and energy-saving technology, Future Family will look at how new developments could change the way we live, from how we work and play, to relaxation, how we power and heat our homes, as well as eating and staying healthy.

As part of the presenting team, the new talent will be given the opportunity to front the Future Familyseries of web videos, in which they will help demystify the technology featured in the show.

The online series will showcase fantastic and futuristic inventions and practical how-to videos offering advice on saving and generating energy in your home. It will also offer the audience the opportunity to submit their own inventions.  Further details will be announced closer to launch date.

Do you have what it takes?
The new presenter can be of any age, male or female, but should have a genuine passion for technology. They will be engaging and have the ability to speak about the latest gadgets and energy saving inventions with credibility.

How to enter
For an opportunity to become the show’s resident technology expert, email futurefamily@twofour.co.uk or visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnWQaFuhKk

Applications close on 30th May 2011.

Applicants will receive an email requesting that they complete a short application form and provide a link to a one minute video clip of themselves talking about a piece of technology that interests them.

Should they be successful, applicants will be contacted by the production team to discuss the series in more detail. A screen test will be required as part of the final selection process.

Future Family will air on Channel 4 this autumn and will be Channel 4’s first peak-time Advertiser Funded Programme.

For more information please contact:
Paul McCormick on 0207 009 3107 or paul.mccormick@3-monkeys.co.uk
Cara Ponton on 02476 181 303 or cara.ponton@eonergy.com
Matthew Robinson on 0121 777 4277 or matthew@mrtvpr.co.uk

I came across Fun Booth 2 some weeks ago which, rather than distorting your face like the built-in Photo Booth effects, gives you a whole heap of props to throw on to your head and face. The most interesting part of this is the advanced face detection so rather than placing a pair of sunglasses onto the screen and you having to adjust your position to make them look like they’re sitting on your nose, the software does that for you and if you move around, the glasses will stay where they should on your face which makes it ideal for video chatting – and for the kids who won’t stay still!

As you can see from the interface above, it’s very much like Photo Booth. The Inspector window contains all the props such as eyewear, facial hair, headwear, masks and objects. You can choose to wear one prop at a time, or combine props so you could be wearing glasses, a beard and a hat all at the same time.

When you have taken silly photos of yourself you can browse through them through the built-in Photo and Video Library which is beautifully designed and send them via e-mail, right within the application itself, aswell as send to iPhoto, Flickr or via FTP.

If you record video of yourself wearing the props then you can upload that directly to YouTube, once again right within the app.

You can even use the props in realtime when video chatting in iChat.

As yet my friends and family haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy Fun Booth 2, otherwise you’d be seeing them in the screenshots instead of the yellow guy – and believe me, face detection works much better on a human face. But, I know they are going to love it as the Fun Booth iPhone/iPod touch app was very well received when I downloaded it 7 days ago. Like it’s big OS X brother, the iPhone app has face detection and gets it spot on. From within the app you can then e-mail your photos, assign to a contact or upload it to Twitter and Flickr.

Fun Booth 2 for Mac OS X costs $19.99 but a free trial before you buy is available.

Fun Booth for iPhone/iPod touch costs $0.99/59p – iTunes link.

Wondershare Video to iPhone Converter for Mac is an ideal tool that can convert various video formats including MPEG1, MPEG2, MP4, 3GP, FLV, AVI, WMV, AVCHD (MKV, TS, MTS, M2TS, TP, TRP, MOD, TOD), etc. to iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0 on Mac. The output files also can be played on iPod and Apple TV.

You can grab this giveaway, here.

Late last night I opened it up to have a look around to see the new features. The UI is pretty much the same as ’08. I think there are a few cosmetic differences mostly on buttons and also the new Project Library pane which is hidden until you click it’s button and it slides out.

When you create a new project you are given the opportunity to have a theme. You can choose from None, Photo Album, Bulletin Board, Comic Book, Scrapbook and Filmstrip. I created a very quick demo video using the Comic Book theme.

Apart from adding a few titles to videos I created last year, I haven’t spent any extensive time in iMovie ’08 but found that it was quite a basic program. One of the first things I noticed in iMovie ’09 were the newly added animated titles, aswell as Maps and Backgrounds. These are a lot of fun. I put together a very quick transitions demo video after 2am this morning to show just some of the new features added. The globe blows me away and will be great for holiday/travel videos!

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I’m now considering buying a Kodak Zi6 HD Camcorder in the months ahead just to give me a good excuse to waste more time in iMovie ’09. If you enjoy shooting video then I think you’ll enjoy the improvements in this. A few people have asked me to compare ’09 to ’06 and all I can say is I don’t know as I never knew ’06. I downloaded it free from the Apple site last year, but it never wanted to work for me.

Despite my disappointment over the Flickr integration in iPhoto ’09 yesterday, I have to say that iMovie ’09 has restored my faith in the iLife ’09 suite and if anyone asks I’d say yes, it’s well worth the upgrade.

Looks like the big brother to my AHD200 has finally arrived and as you can see in this review here the recommended price for this model is £250, so it looks like QVC have a fabulous deal on today.

Created with iStopMotion 2 which is very addictive and a lot of fun. This is the first time-lapse video I created a couple of days ago.

Specification

• Digital video camcorder (video resolution): HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) / up to 30fps, 16:9 ratio
• Digital still camera: 8M (3200 x 2400 pixels)
• Sensor resolution: 5 mega pixels
• File format: MOV (AVC MPEG4) / JPEG / WAV
• Internal memory: 6MB for storage
• External memory: SD card (Min. 256MB up to 32GB SDHC)
• LCD Display: 2.4″ TFT panel
• Digital Zoom 4X
• HDTV (Component out) / NTSC/PAL colour system supported
• Voice Recorder
• Built-in microphone and speaker

Video and Audio Quality

For a camera that cost me £109 (usually around £150 on Amazon.co.uk) I am blown away by the video quality. Of course, the demonstrations I’d watched before purchase were the very reason I went for this as it was so unlike regular camcorder footage. Going from a dark spot in a room to a light one didn’t give this any trouble in adjusting. This is one of the stills from the footage I took. This image was captured in iMovie by freezing the frame and taking a screengrab.

The audio is fine although I do find that the microphone can be quite sensitive at times. I took some video in my relatively quiet home office and there was a bit of a hum which I couldn’t identify. With most of the videos I take and plan to take, I will almost always be taking the original sound out and putting music over the top, so that aspect doesn’t really worry me too much. But, in some environments the sound is absolutely fine.

Samples

I put five videos onto Vimeo last night. I didn’t fiddle with them too much as I didn’t have the time, but I have been asked by a few people to show them some examples as they are interested in picking one of these up. So, I’ll let these speak for themselves…

The Noisy Purple Room (3s) Original audio.
The Baltic Art Centre (54s) Original audio.
Chavs on Macs (13s)
Outside the Baltic (14s)
Newcastle upon Tyne (1m 10s)

Final thoughts

I was never going to be in line for a top-of-the-range HD camcorder simply because I don’t take any serious video. I am definitely more of a still photography girl and I was having to juggle the two yesterday. This particular camcorder is very easy to use and that’s one of the things I like about it most. Just simply pull out the screen and it switches on so you’re ready to shoot in an instant. I am more than happy with the results of the Aiptek AHD200.

Does anyone know of a way to speed up a video I’ve captured – to make it look like a time lapse thing? The video will be captured on my high definition camcorder and not via iSight, so that rules out the likes of Gawker which was used by my mate Nathan when he created this bit of marvel.

I edit movies in iMovie 08. I have had a look through the help files and I don’t think that speeding up a clip is something that can be done in there. How about Final Cut Express 4.0? If anyone can help then you’ll get a virtual hai-five!

So like I said, I was going to write a lengthy one on this but I’ve just seen my feelings already expressed excellently by my Twitter and Flickr contact Michael Mistretta – and I think he’s done a better job of it than I would have