Making An Artsy Video With Animoto

Thanks to MidWeek‘s creative director Gina Lambert, I just learned about the video creation platform Animoto. It actually launched a couple of years ago, but a few weeks ago it was nominated in the category Best in Services and Applications in the 13th annual Webby awards. Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.

“Nominees like Animoto are setting the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. “It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the nearly 10,000 entries we received this year.”

Animoto lets you create dynamic, professional-quality videos online from your own photos and music. The heart of Animoto is its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that is programmed to think as a director and editor using the same sophisticated post-production skills and techniques that are used in television and film.


The technology takes into account every nuance of a song: the genre, song structure, energy, rhythm, instrumentation and vocals. Videos are produced in widescreen format and can be e-mailed or embedded on websites and social networks, shared on mobile devices, and downloaded in DVD-quality formats for display on computers, televisions or large projection screens.

Using the website can’t really be any easier. It’s as simple as: upload your pictures, pick a song from either your library or Animoto’s collection, and click. Voila, you have a slideshow! You then have the option to remix it, upgrade the quality, send it off via e-mail or to YouTube and more.

Interestingly, the founders of Animoto Productions include veterans of the entertainment industry who share a passion for helping people better share their stories and express themselves through online media. They seek to bridge the gap between high production value inherent in film and television, and the “more amateur” feeling of most user-created Internet videos we see out there today.

Sign-up for your free Animoto account at www.animoto.com. Also, note the Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and you still have a chance to vote for Animoto if you enjoy it as much as I do (but you have to vote by April 30!): http://pv.webbyawards.com. The winners will be announced on May 5.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Animoto
The Animoto iPhone app was initially introduced in late December 2008, and in less than two weeks became a Top Free App in the Photography category. Similar to the web version, the app automatically turns your iPhone photos into high-quality, professional-style music videos that capture the immediate onthespot energy of your events, travel and other memorable moments. Once you create your videos with the app, they can be shared and watched both on the iPhone and a regular web browser.

“The iPhone is the perfect mobile device for viewing and sharing an Animoto video,” said Brad Jefferson, CEO & Co-founder of Animoto. “The Animoto iPhone app now allows users to create their Animoto videos from their iPhone without ever touching their computer. It’s like having a highly-paid professional video editor in your pocket.”

As with the web version of Animoto, the app uses high-end motion design and music-analyzing technology to create videos from your selected photos and music. The Animoto app is a free download from the iTunes App store. For more information, visit iphone.animoto.com.

Nintendo’s New Wii MotionPlus

Last week Nintendo announced the much-anticipated Wii MotionPlus accessory, to hit stores on June 8. This takes the motion-sensing controls of the Wii to the next level of precision and performance, especially when the sequel to Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, launches six weeks later on July 26.

“Wii MotionPlus represents a new evolution in video game control. The variety of fun games in Wii Sports Resort show off its incredible precision,” says Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “Developers around the world are busy working on new ways to incorporate Wii MotionPlus controls into inventive experiences for consumers.”

When used with specific games such as Wii Sports Resort, the Wii MotionPlus tracks your movements in finer detail and with greater accuracy than before. The MotionPlus builds upon the existing innovation of the wireless function of the motion-sensing Wii Remote controller. It’s sensitive to the slightest twist of your wrist or turn of your body, and your movements are replicated exactly on the TV, allowing you to become more immersed in your game.


Wii Sports Resort takes the inclusive, fun and intuitive controls of the original Wii Sports to the next level, introducing a new set of entertaining and physically immersive activities. The deep control enhancements of the MotionPlus allow veteran Wii users and newcomers alike to enjoy the precision, whether it’s cruising along on a water scooter, dueling with swords or throwing a Frisbee.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory will retail for $19.99, and Wii Sports Resort is bundled with the MotionPlus for $49.99. Visit www.nintendo.com for more information or any updates. So far, the only third-party games known to be compatible with the MotionPlus are Electronic Arts’ Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (both launching June 16). Since the release of the product is so close to this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2009, I anticipate there’ll be more compatible games announced at E3 in early June.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Trapster
Within the last year, “an unnamed individual” living in my house (not referring to myself) was pulled over for speeding multiple times. In two of these instances, speeding tickets were actually issued, and the other times, luck prevailed. All violations were very minor (i.e. going 30 mph in a 25 mph zone), and any of us could have been caught. These situations all could have been avoided with better situational awareness, possibly if he had Trapster.

Trapster is the first and only real-time speed trap sharing system. Think of it as the modern way of flashing your headlights at other drivers to warn them of speed traps, speed cameras and red-light camera alerts. The trap reports are real-time and updated instantly when a trap is reported.

You can rate others’ traps and send private instant messages to other Trapster users to communicate. Right now I’m on the Mainland for work, and it works great up here too, especially with lots of highway patrol out on the prowl for spring break speeders.

I’m in no way promoting speeding, but it’s always good to have better awareness. Download Trapster for free at the iTunes App Store or visit www.trapster.com to see a flash demo along with more information. Please drive safely!

Managing Money Free With Rudder

Rudder is a free online money management tool that reminds me of Mint (www.mint.com). It provides automated financial reports and projections combined with intuitive alerts to help you make better decisions.

The initial setup is similar to Mint, but not as streamlined. Rudder asks you to pick your financial institution and username/password. My bank wasn’t listed, so that didn’t help me much. I imagine if it can find your bank, then your information would be instantly populated. It then identifies your recurring bills and expenses, and you have to enter in your income manually.

Rudder uses a Forward-Focused Budgeting Philosophy, meaning instead of analyzing the past, it assesses your monthly financials to predict your cash flow. The What’s Left Budget Calculator knows when you receive your paycheck, bills due, credit card payments and gives you the maximum you can spend. You also can use the Simple Spend meter to measure your discretionary spending and the Intuitive Budgets, Trends and Alerts to identify any problem areas to stay on your desired financial course.

Since I couldn’t load my bank account in Rudder, I wasn’t able to get any of these to work. But, if you are able to configure your account, you also can receive daily, weekly and monthly e-mails (without having to log into your account).

I see Rudder only providing a general overview of your finances, and it is a small pain to setup. It doesn’t actually teach you to manage your money efficiently, it’s more of a tool that shows you what you have left in your account.

If Rudder couldn’t find my bank, other local Hawaii banks are probably missing from there as well. I was disappointed that Rudder does not have an iPhone app, whereas Mint does.

Overall, Rudder is easy to use and good for your full financial picture tracking. Try it out for yourself at www.rudder.com.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Skype

In my column about a month ago, you may remember the Fring app with which you can make Skype calls. Adding onto that, two weeks ago Skype announced its very own iPhone app that you can use to make Skype calls and do instant messaging.

“Skype software for the iPhone has been the No. 1 request among our users,” says Scott Durchslag, Skype’s chief operating officer. “We are delighted to deliver on this request and put Skype into the pockets of millions of people around the world who are carrying iPhone and iPod touch devices. Skype for iPhone will open up new ways for more than 400 million Skype users to stay connected and take their Skype conversations with them.”

This app includes the core capabilities you Skype users are familiar with: free Skype-to-Skype calls from any Wi-Fi zone to other Skype users; call any phone number for a fee, send/receive instant messages, and seeing your Skype contacts if they’re online/available to instant message or talk.

The biggest flaw with this app is not being able to make Skype calls using the iPhone’s 3G. Perhaps it’s because this capability is seen as competition to your AT&T service. But you can log in to your Skype account using the 3G (or whatever data service is available) and utilize the instant messaging feature, but you can only make the actual Skype calls with Wi-Fi. Find Skype for iPhone app at the iTunes App Store, or for more information, check out: www.skype.com/download/skype/iphone.

Discover The Fun Of Geocaching

I was hiking with some friends a couple weekends ago when we ran into a group toting an ammo box. My friend asked them what it was for, and the man holding it said it was to replace a geocache (pronounced geo-cash) that went missing. Since my friend saw the lost ammo box on the trail months ago, we chitchatted with the group for a couple of minutes about the misplaced box, and went on our way.

After the folks were out of earshot, my friend asked me what geocaching was, and if there was cash in that box. I thought geocaching was fairly popular, but that’s when I realized not everyone knows what it is.

First, know that a geocache has nothing to do with money - it’s not that kind of cash. It’s high-tech treasure hunting with a GPS device where you can find hidden treasures in containers (such as that ammo box, but could also be as small as a film canister) using specific GPS coordinates. You, as a geocacher hiding a cache, can place it anywhere in the world (including underwater, in between rocks, in a tree or just about anywhere you can think of to make it challenging). You just need to accurately log its coordinates with a GPS device.

“The most difficult cache my husband Randy Phares and I have attempted was the Green Island Lighthouse in Taiwan. It’s a two-parter, and since we were unable to search for the first part due to heavy traffic, we had to climb over rocks, bushes, and dig through trees, sand and rocks. Our only hint was that it was at eye level on a wall, but we eventually found it after digging through different rocks on the wall,” Chang adds with a laugh.

When you head out on your treasure hunt, it’s probably a good idea to take a pen and paper with you so you can take some notes about your experiences. Once you find your cache, sign the logbook, and then you can take the item inside the container as long as you trade it for something of equal or greater value. Note: There are keiki-friendly caches too, so when you do those, make sure to bring a little toy to trade.

When you’re finished with your find, be courteous and put the cache back exactly how you found it, branches covering it, etc. Then, when you get home, you can log your experience on www.geocaching.com and the cache owner will be happily notified of your find/log.

Trackable items are loads of fun. It’s interesting to see where they end up. For more information and to begin your own geo-caching adventures, create a free account at geocaching.com and enter in a ZIP code to find caches near you.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Groundspeak’s Geocaching

In addition to geocaching.com, Groundspeak’s Geocaching iPhone App allows you to use your iPhone to play in the world of high-tech treasure hunting without a devoted GPS device.

Although it’s probably preferable to use a dedicated GPS device, the Geocaching app gives your iPhone direct access to the Geocaching.com database that has 700,000-plus geo-caches worldwide. It allows you to search for nearby caches, read cache descriptions and hints, log finds and post your notes from the field. You also can save your geocache listings for quick retrieval, look up trackable items and filter out your previously found caches.

Geocaching app takes advantage of the iPhone 3G’s internal GPS chip for navigation a user-friendly interface with a simulated compass arrow. The app also allows you to save geocache listings for quick retrieval, look up trackable items and filter out geocaches you already found.

Download the Geocaching app for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store, or visit http://www.geocaching.com/iphone for more information. It’s a little pricey for an iPhone app, but worth it if you’re up for the challenge.

“My favorite here in Hawaii is the LOST cache,” says veteran geocacher Walan Chang. “Since I watch LOST all the time, I really appreciate the beautiful view, and the sense of where the cast was while they were shooting at that location.

Kickin’ Okole With Street Fighter IV

As a kid I spent hours and hours playing Capcom’s original Street Fighter II on my then-cool Nintendo 64. Years later, here I am again ... After standing in a long line, I was one of the first lucky people to see the much-awaited Street Fighter IV in an Akihabara, Japan, arcade last summer. Now the game officially released here in the U.S. last month, so I don’t “have to” go all the way to Japan to enjoy it.

After 20-plus years of the Street Fighter franchise, you’ll still see your favorite classic 12 world characters: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison, along with six brand new and diverse folks with a 3D and more-adult look. Now you’ll also see Abel, a mixed martial arts grapple-style character; Rufus, a big-looking guy with a deceptive amount of speed (he also has the same name as my late cat); Crimson Viper, a female fighter with sweeping airborne fire attacks; El Fuerte, a pro-wrestler who specializes in air throws; Gouken, Ryu and Ken’s sensei, who obviously has some extra tricks he didn’t teach those two; and Seth, the game’s final end boss.


To unlock the complete cast of characters, you’ll have to complete the game multiple times. After doing so, you’ll see playable fan favorites Cammy, Sakura, Akuma, Fei Long, Rose, Gen and Dan. As with other Street Fighters, you can perform all sorts of powerful super combos, but air blocking and parrying were taken out of this game completely. Instead there’s an emphasis on focus attacks, super combos and the revenge-filled Ultra Combo system.

Throughout the years, my favorite characters were always Chun-Li or Ryu. Even though the classic characters were re-imagined for the “new generation” of gamers, I can’t stand the way my gal Chun-Li’s body was re-done. She looks like a muscle man! Despite that, I’m able to kick some serious butt with her fancy moves (i.e. Spinning Bird Kick). I guess those huge thunder thighs pay off! And my other guy Ryu - he can still shoot out those fireballs, and even do extra powerful fireballs that do more damage than the regular ones.

A new feature you’ll see is that each character has his/her own focus attack, a multipurpose offensive and defensive ability that can be charged to one of three levels by pushing/holding the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. The negative side of a focus attack is that it makes you vulnerable to damage since you need to stand still to charge it.

Street Fighter IV’s single-player mode is fun to play if you’re on your own, especially for putting your combos to work. The training mode also gives you the opportunity to practice, but with instructions to follow, and is a good resource that challenges you to improve. The multiplayer mode is supported online and offline. Online you can challenge others somewhat anonymously, and offline go head-to-head against your family and friends.


In addition, I found the builtin move list extremely useful while you’re in the middle of gameplay. It saves you the trouble of looking up every single move in the manual. While I was playing my husband the past couple weeks, it was driving him nuts every time I pulled up that list to look up the advanced moves.

Street Fighter veterans won’t see much change with the good ol’ traditional “2D” six-button gameplay, but the fight backdrop locations have dramatically changed. Basically everything that made the legendary Street Fighter II a hit in the arcades and our living rooms back in the ‘80s has been brought back to Street Fighter IV. The gameplay on my PlayStation 3 (PS3) was pretty much the same as it was in the Japanese arcade, only it was on my TV and I wasn’t using a PS3 controller there.

Street Fighter IV retails for $59.99 ($79.99 for the collectors edition), and is rated T for Teen. Find it for the PS3, Xbox 360 or PC at your nearest GameStop (www.gamestop.com), Toys N Joys (www.toysnjoys.com) or Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com). Visit www.streetfighter.com for more information on the game.