| Newegg Daily Deals: BenQ XL2730Z Gaming Monitor with FreeSync, Asus Z97-A Motherboard, and More! Posted: 26 Mar 2015 01:10 PM PDT |
| How To Use YouTube’s Built-In Video Editor Posted: 26 Mar 2015 12:09 PM PDT Split clips, adjust brightness, and add filters with ease We've covered some of the best free video editing software available for the PC, but sometimes all you need is a quick brightness tweak or audio adjustment, and YouTube's built-in video editor is more than capable. It's not the most complicated software, but we'll run you through the basics in case you wanted to use something in a pinch. 
Unlike most video editing solutions, YouTube's editor doesn't work with local media. Every single clip, video, and still image has to be uploaded to YouTube before it can be added to the editing timeline. There's also the fact that YouTube doesn't accept uploaded audio files. Fortunately there's a huge library of royalty-free music available through the editor, but if you want to use your own audio, this isn't the editor for you. 
Editing individual videos is easy and even includes a side-by-side effects preview. There are two separate editors. One for single video manipulation—for fairly simple editing, for uses such as lightening a video that's just a bit too dark—and one with a full-on timeline view with support for multiple clips. The former offers rudimentary control over videos with "Quick fixes," "Filters," and "Special effects." YouTube even includes an "Auto-fix" option that's surprisingly good at taking care of obvious problems. There's also some simple stabilization, clip trimming, and a "Blur All Faces" option that does its best to blur the faces of everyone in your video. Head to your YouTube Video Manager and click the edit button to get started. If you're looking to actually edit separate clips together, the YouTube Video Editor is what you'll want to work with. All of the videos you've uploaded to YouTube—unlisted, private, and public—should be visible in the videos tab. Click and drag videos to the timeline to insert them into your project. The timeline is magnetic, so videos will automatically split and snap when you drag them around. There's no way to insert gaps (unless your source footage has some) so don't worry about accidentally inserting flash frames. Click the camera icon to upload still images—this is useful if you're creating a slideshow or montage. 
Splitting clips is a cinch. Click anywhere along the timeline or the video progress bar to move your cursor. Tapping the scissor icon will split the current clip at the indicated point. Select videos by clicking on their thumbnails in the timeline to access the individual video editing controls that we talked about before. The YouTube Video Editor actually offers fine control over stabilization, brightness, contrast, and even audio settings like pan, bass, and treble. The editor also includes rudimentary transitions that are entirely drag-and-drop. Stick a crossfade or wipe between clips if you're not comfortable with standard cuts. 
Enter Text Here! Just don't try to do anything too complicated. The biggest problem with the YouTube Video Editor is how it handles text. It's easy enough to add a title. Just click the "Text" tab, drag your text animation of choice to the front of your timeline, and tweak it to fit your needs. It gets a lot more complicated when you want to add text to specific sections of videos. There's no separate layer for text, so the only way to overlay text is to tie it directly to a clip. It's a lot of work, but by splitting a video into multiple clips you can add text to individual sections. Of course, you can always use annotations to make things easier, but some people disable them. When you're satisfied with the results, give your video a name and click the "Create Video" button to publish the finished product on YouTube. It'll take a while for it to process, but once it's done you've got a fully edited video, ready for sharing. There's not really all that much else to the editor. It's not the most beautiful piece of software, but it gets the job done and works perfectly fine on nearly any machine since none of the source material is stored locally. Use this for quick editing projects like stringing together vacation footage, but stick to dedicated software for serious projects. Already a YouTube Editor master? Drop some tips in the comments below! |
| Notebooks Makes Ready 2-in-1 Chromebook Models for Release in Q2 Posted: 26 Mar 2015 11:58 AM PDT  Chrome OS versus Windows, round 2: FIGHT!
After getting off to a slow start, Chromebooks finally began to grow in popularity as lower cost alternatives to Windows-based machines. And for a long while, Chromebooks represented the top selling laptops on Amazon. Now that Windows laptops can be bought for $250 or less, Chromebooks aren't as enticing, but what about 2-in-1 systems? We're about to find out as laptop makers ready 2-in-1 Chromebook models for a second quarter release. Citing sources from within the upstream supply chain, Digitimes says Intel is planning to partner with Google and notebook players like Asus, Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Quanta Computer, and Pegatron Technology to launch convertible Chromebooks next quarter. Initially these will be 11-inch to 13-inch devices. Like traditional Chromebooks, these 2-in-1 devices will compete on price. They'll also target students in the U.S., as that seems to be the niche that's most responsive to Chrome OS. After that, laptop makers will push 2-in-1 Chromebooks into emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. There's no word on specific pricing at this point, though it's expected these devices will undercut Windows 2-in-1 systems by about 10 percent. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Leap Motion's Hand Tracking Technology is Headed to Razer's OSVR Headset Posted: 26 Mar 2015 11:28 AM PDT  Handy dandy VR
We spoke with Razer about its Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem at the Consumer Electronics Show a couple of months ago and were excited about the possibilities. Even more intriguing is the announcement that Leap Motion has partnered up with Razer to integrate its motion-tracking capabilities right into Razer's OSVR headset when it ships to consumers later this year. The OSVR Hacker Dev Kit will have an optional faceplate with Leap Motion's hardware and software embedded. This will make it the first VR headset with natural motion control technology integrated right into the head mounted display, which will open up a whole new world to developers. "By letting the user connect directly with the VR environment, hand tracking allows virtual reality to be as natural and intuitive as interacting with the real world, giving the user a powerful sense of presence and immersion," said Michael Buckwald, CEO and co-founder of Leap Motion. "We're pleased to partner with OSVR to bring our technology to the OSVR Hacker Dev Kit, helping developers enable the true potential of VR." What this will do for developers is allow them to write code for a single platform that works across multiple hardware devices, Leap Motion says. And for consumers, that means a consistently smooth experience, as the integrated OSVR motion plugin supports multiple motion device types. Motion tracking is really the next step VR. It's something other companies are working on as well, including MindMaze with its neuro-goggle headset and of course Microsoft and its HoloLens platform. According to Leap Motion, this collaboration with Razer is "the first in a future lineup of head mounted displays thta will feature Leap Motion's technology built-in," suggesting that other headsets will see the same kind of integration, perhaps even Oculus Rift. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| MSI 970A SLI Krait Edition is First AMD Motherboard with USB 3.1 Posted: 26 Mar 2015 10:46 AM PDT  Introducing USB 3.1 to AMD
MSI is laying claim to the world's first AMD motherboard with USB 3.1 support. The board in question is MSI's new 970A SLI Krait Edition, which sports a black and white tuxedo theme that would probably look pretty nifty inside a white theme enclosure. But behind the looks is a USB 3.1 interface that allows for transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, double that of USB 3.0, and 20 times faster than USB 2.0. Earlier this year MSI rolled out the Z97S SLI Krait Edition based on Intel's Z97 chipset. It too brought a black and white color theme but no USB 3.1 support. Now AMD is getting the fancy pants treatment. The 970A SLI Krait Edition is a socket AM3+ board with support for AMD FX, Phenom II, Athlon II, and Sempron CPUs. It has four DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of DDR3-2133 (OC) memory, two PCI x16 slots, two PCI-E x1 slots, two standard PCI slots, six SATA 6Gbps ports, a single GbE LAN port, and an assortment of USB 3.1, 3.0, and 2.0 ports. MSI touts high quality components and build quality such as solid capacitors, "Dark Choke" with a special core design that allows it to run a a lower temp with a higher capacity, isolated audio PCB, and so forth. No word yet on when the MSI 970A SLI Krait Edition will be available or for how much. As a point of reference, the aforementioned Intel version runs about $110 street. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Amazon Takes Storage Wars to the Cloud, Now Offers Unlimited Plans Posted: 26 Mar 2015 09:06 AM PDT  Never run out of cloud storage again
The future of cloud storage is likely to come down to price and supplementary features rather than allotted storage space. Looking to push the issue, Amazon today announced a pair of unlimited storage options with Amazon Cloud Drive that are available to anyone and everyone, not just Amazon Prime members. Amazon isn't the only cloud provider that offers unlimited space, but it might be the first to pitch it to home consumers on a standalone basis. Microsoft also offers unlimited online storage through OneDrive, though you have to subscribe to Office 365. So does Dropbox, though it's aimed at Business users and is significantly more expensive at $15/month than Amazon's. And then there's Google, which offers unlimited storage through its Google Apps Unlimited and Google Apps for Education services. As for Amazon, it's new Unlimited Photos Plan is free for three months and then runs $11.99 per year, so about a buck a month. You can store as many photos as you like in Amazon's Cloud Drive, plus 5GB of additional storage for videos and other documents and files. The second option is Amazon's Unlimited Everything Plan. It too is free for the first three months, and then $59.99 per year ($5 per month). You can store whatever you want with this plan -- photos, videos, files, documents, movies, music, etc. "Most people have a lifetime of birthdays, vacations, holidays, and everyday moments stored across numerous devices. And, they don't know how many gigabytes of storage they need to back all of them up," said Josh Petersen, Director of Amazon Cloud Drive. "With the two new plans we are introducing today, customers don't need to worry about storage space—they now have an affordable, secure solution to store unlimited amounts of photos, videos, movies, music, and files in one convenient place." If you're interested in trying out either plan, go here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
