Review: LG Optimus 3D - Aesthetics & Features

For my final review on the LG Optimus 3D, I’m going to focus on the usable 3D elements and the look & feel of the phone itself. As mentioned earlier, the LG Optimus 3D comes with a 3D Hot Key in the same location where traditionally you would find a dedicated Camera button on other smartphones The hot key allows users to switch from 2D to 3D on the fly and switch back. Hold it for a couple of seconds and it takes you into the 3D Guide, which is your portal to all the 3D stuff in the phone; Games, Apps, YouTube 3D, the 3D gallery and the 3D camera.

Review: LG Optimus 3D - Real Time 2D - 3D Conversion!

The first time I was exposed to 2D – 3D conversion, I was on a 42-inch TV and I was watching The Dark Knight. So I was fairly impressed when I saw Nolan’s movie in 3D, knowing that it was a traditionally shot 2D movie. It was no Avatar, but it was cool nonetheless. I even remember Ashraf Ghori’s reaction when he discovered that you could just 3D something, with the flick of a button. From all the gimmicks in the 3D world, 2D – 3D real-time conversion is probably one of my favourites. It allows me to see in 3D things I’d actually want to. I want to insert an inappropriate joke here, but that’s for a later time.

The trick with 2D – 3D conversion is creating the second layer of image (which one eye perceives differently than the other) where it doesn’t already exist. Conventional 3D has 2 layers. Conversion involves creating an illusion of a layer, because the second layer does not exist. How it works, is by create a sharp contrast on-screen – between a large and small object, through overlapping objects, or through differing levels of brightness or clarity – which then forces the right and left eye to analyze things differently.

In continuing my review of the LG Optimus 3D, one of its features is real-time 2D – 3D conversion. Any video that you play on the phone, even those you take with its cameras can be converted, at the touch of an on-screen button, into 3D. First, let’s discuss regular videos: Any video that you see on the phone, be it something that you shot using the phone’s HD camera or a video downloaded into your phone. Once you start playing it, you have the on-screen option to convert the video into 3D. Converting takes about a millisecond as the screen spurts out the video in 3D within a fraction of selecting the option. Real time conversion, it definitely is. The results are not bad either! Bearing in mind that the video was shot in 2D and that conversion takes place on the fly, the results are comparable to that big TV that I saw conversion in. However, there’s the slight difference, that due to LG’s Parallax Barrier screen, you don’t even need those annoying glasses. So switch to 3D on a whim, switch back when you feel like it. All that, without having to put on or take off a pair of oversized glasses.

The cameras at the back of the phone also offer visual delights. Firstly, they look cool. They’re like little eyes at the back of your phone. Incidentally, I’ve decided to name this phone Leonard.

Look into my bulbous bug eyes..

Leonard’s cameras are capable of full HDMI recording, in 2D and 3D. While in 2D its output sits pretty at 1080p. Switch to 3D means you sacrifice a little bit of the quality (you now record in 780p) but you’re carrying around a little James Cameron in your pocket. Switching between 2D and 3D shooting modes is again done at the flick of an on-screen button, activating the second camera to give you a dual perception on whatever it is you’re shooting. As an experiment, I shot 2 videos, both of the same items on my desk, one in 2D (1080p) and the other in 3D (780p). Then I played the 2D one and converted it to 3D with the on-screen feature. Both videos displayed very good quality, however the video shot in 3D was better at depth perception (obviously) than the one that was converted to 3D, which still wasn’t far behind. The depth perception was not as strong in the converted video, but it was there. Interestingly enough, while watching the 3D video, I was given the option to ‘2D’ it. Upon checking what it was, the screen splits in two and you have 2 video feeds, one from each camera. So it actually shows you the 2 individual perspectives, which if you then flick the option again, becomes one video, with depth.

The video below gives a fairly well-marketed impression of the 3D camera. It's pretty sweet..

Review: The Samsung Smart TV. How Smart is Smart?

About a week before their launch on 6 April, I was invited by the folk at Samsung to have a look at their new product the Samsung Smart TV. Alongside me were a bunch of other technology related bloggers, like Paul ‘DaddyBird’ Castle, Magnus Nystedt of PCWorld, Mohammed Al Huraiz of Lochal Archade, Saurabh Chabra, the young chap from EMR8.com and the legendary Ashraf Ghori, creator of the Xero Error series

Brand Bowl & a midget Darth Vader

As is the tradition, every time the Super Bowl comes around you have a huge bunch of corporates running around creating various TVCs that they want to air during that time, seeing as almost the entire North American populace is watching the telly. Not including Canada of course. Or Alaska.

Brands usually spend the around the same as the GDP of an African nation to secure a spot during the Super Bowl. Suffice to say, getting a spot is quite the pinch to the wallet, so much so that even the Super Bowl organizers do their own bit to track overall sentiment and who basically wins the Brand Bowl. Many iconic TVCs have been conceived, produced, aired and made popular by the Super Bowl. In fact, PepsiCo has been notorious for creating some of their most popular ads for the Super Bowl spots, including the celebrity gladiator match with Beyonce, Pink, Britney Spears or the Pepsi Stuff ad with Justin Timberlake.

Come Super Bowl 2011, companies release their ads to the hungry eyes of the world to see. At the time however, young Mali was asleep. The following morning finds young Mali sitting at his terminal at work, clicking and typing away furiously, social media guru that he is. (Yes, Mali occasionally refers to himself in third person). His good friend Arun linked him to something. He said it was a Super Bowl ad. He said I'd like it.

One minute and two seconds later, total productivity = zilch. Amazement = +infinity. Star Wars fanboy = +500 Force.

What I liked about this ad, besides a bite sized Darth Vader, was that the parent played along and boosted the child's imagination. It also represented VW in a more relaxed fashion, playing along consumer passion points. T'was refreshing!

My bid goes to VW for this year's superbowl. Have you guys seen their Beetle ad yet?

Last one tonight I swear. Halo Trailer (Fan Made)

The following video is a fan made trailer about the upcoming Halo movie. By far one of the best fan made videos I've seen ever, with weapons, live action scenes, cinematic sequences. Brilliant!



Another movie I'm waiting to watch...


M


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Terminator: Salvation

And, while I'm at it, might as well put this up as well. Another (what seems to be) great part to what was an awesome concept.



Can't wait...


M


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X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Just a little something something for those of you who haven't already seen the trailer to this awesome awesome movie that has 3 of my favourite Marvel characters. Wolverine, Gambit AND Deadpool.



Yowza!


M


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Oh I like this song :)

The official video of Jack White (The Raconteurs, The White Stripes) and Alicia Keys' song Another Way To Die, the theme for the recent Bond flick, Quantum of Solace.



Not much of a fan of Alicia Keys, but I'll admit this song is brilliant. And it's stuck in my head so...

M


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Zack & Miri Make a Porno..

My brother is SO gonna talk to me about this one..... (And I'm SO watching this movie)



I LOVE THE MOVIES

xD



M




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Repo: The Genetic Opera

The lovely Miss Sana Syed showed this to me and, believe you me, I can not WAIT to feast my eyes on this...





:D


xx


M




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And we're back! + my first movie review... (I need better comeback titles)

So after a decent hiatus I have once again returned to my little website here. I do seem to be taking these breaks a lot now don't I?

Well a lot has happened over the past few months and I will update all in this post!

Firstly, SHOOFtv. They came to our University and recruited Troops for their Shoof Troops competition to generate footage for their soon-to-be-launched TV channel. 2 months of grueling work for the Look Mommy I Can Act! Troop worked out just fine as they walked away with the grand prize of AED 30,000 worth of camera equipment (which is up for sale btw!).

I was given the opportunity to be the host for their award ceremony and I have Uzma to thank for introducing me to the SHOOFtv team. Thank you. You gave me my first shot. :)

Soon after the competition was over, we had our exams. However there was a catch for yours truly.

Euro 2008. 7th - 29th of June, 2008. SHOOFtv were co-organizers for a Fanpark for Euro 2008 at the Madinat Arena at Madinat Jumeirah. They needed a host. They asked me.

I. Was. Thrilled. (To say the least) I'd have to comment on a private tournament, hold competitions and basically keep the crowd alive and pumped 15 minutes before kick-off and during half time. I am in heaven. Heaven is a microphone.

The catch however: My papers were on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. Four consecutive days and if I DID accept the job, it would mean that I was working on each night before each paper. This was a pickle indeedy-do! I was convinced I could do it. My papers started at 1pm every day, so if I finished all revision early then I could wake up at 8 every day for those first 4 days and study a good 4 hours until 12 where I set off to University to write my paper.

The hard part, I believed, would be to convince the parents. It turned out they were a bit more easily persuaded than I though. Struck up a quick deal: no life until papers, and I could go ahead and do the job. Big Brother, unfortunately, was not as easily convinced. But in the end he agreed, and now if I've screwed up my papers (which I think I haven't) then I'm REALLY dead. If I do well then, ha!

So I took the job and tonight is my last night. The big day, the finals, is here, and it's Spain Vs. Germany. The whole tournament boils down to this. Germany's chance for a fourth European Championship victory and Spain's first ever appearance in a European Championship final.

So after tonight I will have some more time on my hands and hopefully will blog some more. My laptop is at a service center so this is being typed from the family desktop. Not an ideal pc in a not-so-ideal location.



Anywhoo, my first ever movie review.


Now I don't watch hindi movies. At all. However my family does, so the other day when my brother asked me to rent out, 'Tashan,' (Attitude) I did and thought, 'meh why not just watch it with family.'

For the next 3 hours I was repeatedly reminded as to WHY I do not watch hindi movies.

Ridiculous plot lines, ridiculous acting, ridiculous costumes, ridiculous screenplay and a ridiculous ending.

Akshay Kumar was a leaping-from-rooftops character shooting the baddies without even looking and killing hundreds, while none of the million of baddies with guns could hit him. Apparently Indian henchmen are really bad shots. Even in the millions. And right after he DOES slaughter the horde of baddies, Saif Ali Khan says to him, "You can't kill me. You're not a killer."

wtf

Saif Ali Khan, I used to reckon as a class actor. Not anymore.

Kareena Kapoor was a train wreck.

The ONLY decent actor in the movie was Anil Kumar who kept up the Bihari persona very well. Other than that he blowed.

To all of them:

How on earth did you possibly accept to do such a movie. Jet Skis appearing from nowhere, people driving open top flaming cars THROUGH an explosion without so much as a scar. The same car was earlier SURROUNED (360 degree circle) by baddies emptying cartridges into it. Not one of the passengers got shot.

Jeez, why MUST you make movies so darn unrealistic. Stupid Indian directors (not a generalization though, there are some BRILLIANT directors back home.) As for the director of this movie, a debutant Vijay Krishna Acharya: don't quite the day job please. Ever.

Don't watch most hindi movies. They blow.


T@biscuitinabastket:

You're up.

:D
See ya soon!



xx


M

Filler

I hath noticed that I tend to use small blurbs when trying to write a post, just for the sake of posting. Look through my last 20 odd posts, and you'll find that most of them are either video posts or smaller, non-great-piece-of-writing pieces.

Aah, well. I must start to try and post more ARTICLES and PIECES on this here blog. I wish someone would give me a topic every 2 or 3 days. That way I'd write on them and my blog would seem partially intellectual.

I like my blog. I really do. I like the way the layout has finally found itself. I went from the all-white background that I initially started with and experimented with many different colors. The final layout, that you now see, is my finished product. Although I must be completely honest, I took some inspirations from a few other blogs. These are:

• The Inner Workings of a Little Teapot
  
• TooLazyToThink
• Random Acts of Reality
  
• Chaotic

So there. I pulled some ideas from these blogs and it helped me carve the final layout that you now see and, hopefully, adore.

Anyway, I'm glad I decided to start a blog.

Also, please help with ideas, and drop suggestions for articles that I should write on.

And, since I've been doing it a while, yet ANOTHER trailer... This time it's for the Hitman movie.



Cheers!!

xx

M

The Comebacks

Well, if I'm now promoting movies, why not promote another one eh?

Trailer says all.



xD

M

The Kingdom

From a moviegoer's point of view, this movie is going to be KICK BUTT. I'm really psyched to see it. Interesting enough story line, mixed with a heavy dose of adrenaline and the nice garnish of controversy, and there you have it, The Kingdom.

From what I've read on some critic pages, the best actor is Ashraf Barhom, who plays the Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi. He whoops Jamie Foxx's butt. Pwnd. From what I've seen I'd like to think that he's one of the plus points of this movie.

And, contrary to popular belief the movie was not shot in Saudi. It was mainly shot in Phoenix, Arizona. And here's the kicker for us, Emiratis and Expatriates alike. The movie was also shot in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates!! As for how controversial the movie is going to be, I'm gonna wait until AFTER I've seen it. After which I shall, depending on the movie, tear the movie apart, or, set it on a pedestal.

Enjoy the Trailer! Oh, and the song is, 'Bullet the Blue Sky' by U2. The song was from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, and it's a shoutout against the then-American policies towards South America. Bono was well involved in it, hence the band dedicated a song to it.




Can't wait!


M

Teh New(er) Page..

"Honey why're you calling me, So late,
It's kinda hard to talk right now.."

Aah, Hinder. Not much of a fan, but I have developed a particular liking to this song. Been listening to a lot of older more conventional music lately. Yes I have.

A friend introduced me to this older band. I really like them judging by what I've heard so far and I likey. Theory of a Dead Man, is what they're called. Pretty decent. They were signed by the terrible Nickelback, which probably shows in the similarity, but this band is far better. Songs AND Videos.

"Sit back, and relax,
And wait for the morning.."

I'm doing a lot better. Thanks.

My typical desi family (I love it either way) is now perpetually glued to the television screen. India Vs. England yaar.

BEOWULF!!!! Omg! *chokes* TEH MOVIE!!!!!! I've been waiting for this moment my entire teenage life! Robert Zemeckis directs this CGI movie. Ray Winstone, of no particular fame, plays the warrior Beowulf. He's done minor roles in The Departed and Chronicles of Narnia.

But HERE'S the kicker!

Guess WHO plays the Mother of the monster Grendel. The latter is the first villain, while his mother plays the final villain. Guess WHO??


Wait for it....



*cue drum roll*








Angelina Jolie! *wooot!*

I can't wait. *sigh*


Feast your eyes:




Ain't it Lurrrrflyyy..


"He looks to the left,
He looks to the right,
There in a golden ray of light,
Is his open man,
Just like he planned,
The whole world is his tonight.."


xx


M

I'm in love with RON BURGUNDY! [Gasp! TWO posts in ONE day!!]

For all of you that've seen Anchorman, here was an unused or deleted scene from the same movie. Champ's declaring his love for Ron. Aweshum.

My second post in the same day! Gosh! Will wonders never cease!




xx

M