Raise Your Marketing IQRaise Your Marketing IQ

Windows: Ever download a movie from—oh, I don’t know—some far-reaching nether-region of the internet, and when your download finishes realize the video is split into multiple parts? AVI Joiner quickly combines those split videos in just a few clicks.

Using it could not be easier. Just run the app (AVI Joiner.exe), drag and drop the files you want to join into the Files to be joined pane, make sure they’re in the correct order, and click the Run AVI Joiner button. The app will ask you where you want to save the joined video (name it and make sure to add the .avi extension to the end), then sit back as it fires up a command line and starts the joining process. I joined a couple of 700MB files into a 1.4GB video in roughly a minute.

This awesome little app was built courtesy of the Lifehacker Coders group over at the Productive Geek forums. You can currently grab the download hosted over at drop.io here. (For a portable version, grab the AVI_Joiner.zip file; if you want an installer, grab the setup.exe and install.nsi files. Make sure you grab the newest versions, and if we happen to hit a bandwidth cap at drop.io, be sure to let me know.)

AVI Joiner is a free, open-source application for Windows only.

Filed under: SDK

Engadget has just confirmed with “extremely trusted sources” that iPhone OS 3.2 contains rudimentary support for video calling, which could explain that mysterious space at the top of the iPad’s leaked pictures they received.

Engadget’s sources said there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and — most importantly — run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. Video calling in just part of the screen (the other part left open for other apps) would be indicative of some basic type of multitasking.

Engadget also confirms that “iPhone OS 3.2 supports file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you’ll be able to pull files off the web and use them in other apps, and there’s at least the beginnings of SMS support buried within the code.”

While our sister site is quick to point out that it’s not sure if any of the code will ever be implemented, they’re starting to get the feeling that Apple didn’t tell everything there is to know about their latest creation…

TUAWiPhone OS 3.2 supports video calling, file downloads, SMS and…multitasking? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPhone only: Fring, a VoIP and chat app for the iPhone, got a nice update this week that lets users make video and voice calls over a 3G connection. Best of all, it’s still free.

We’ve mentioned Fring before because it’s a great way to turn your iPod touch into an iPhone, but until now the only way you could make calls with it was via Skype. The new update bypasses the need for Skype and lets you call or video chat with your contacts right from Fring using your iPhone’s 3G connection (and, of course, Wi-Fi when you’re near a hotspot).

If you already have Fring on your iPhone, you don’t need to download anything else. The app will auto-update the next time you open it. If you get an error message on your first attempt at a voice or video call, click on More -> Go Offline and open Fring a second time.

Even if you don’t have access to a 3G connection (we’re looking at you, unlockers), Fring is a great app to have around anyway. It keeps you connected to all the friend and buddy lists you have spread out all over the place on AIM, Google Talk, MSN, and so on.

Windows only: Popular BitTorrent client uTorrent just released its 2.0 release candidate yesterday, complete with UDP tracker support and a new transfer cap feature to help you monitor your bandwidth usage—and video streaming is in the works for 2.1.

The UDP tracker support has been added to lower the resource load on the tracker end, allowing torrent sites to support more users without slowing (see our post on the 2.0 beta release for more details on UDP). uTP support has also been vastly improved in this version, allowing the client to automatically regulate bandwidth usage so you can download your torrents without slowing down the network for others—no messing around with preferences required.

Possibly the most useful feature, though, in the new 2.0 release candidate is a transfer cap, so you can keep track of how much bandwidth uTorrent is taking up over a defined period of time, and even tell uTorrent to stop torrenting once you reach certain limits. This should come in extremely handy for users whose ISPs are capping their bandwidth—now you don’t have to worry about exceeding your cap.

Also worth mentioning is the uTorrent 2.1 alpha release, which shows the first signs of a video streaming feature, which would allow you to begin watching videos as you’re downloading them—very useful for those who want to watch something now, but don’t want to wait for the whole download to complete. You can even configure it to stream through your favorite media player, like VLC or Windows Media Player.

uTorrent 2.0 RC1 is a free download, Windows only.

iPhone 3GS: It’s been a long time coming, but Apple’s finally approved a (notable) live video streaming app for the iPhone 3GS. Ustream is one of the first out of the gate, and it seems to deliver on its promise.

Ustream already has an app in the Store that lets you record video and upload it to Ustream, YouTube, or other locations—but not live, and that’s kind of the whole point of Ustream.tv. After another phone-to-phone live video app was approved last week, Ustream’s potential has been fully unlocked, allowing for live record-and-stream on 3G or Wi-Fi connections.

Lifehacker East lacks a 3GS to try the app out with at the moment, so if you’ve given it a shot, tell us how it’s working in the comments.

iPhone only: Previously mentioned mobile VoIP and chat application Fring has updated their iPhone app with support for streaming video calls. It’s a great feature, but it does have a catch.

If you’re unfamiliar with Fring, it’s a messaging application that integrates with everything from Skype and Google Talk to Facebook and AIM. For most, the VoIP feature comes via Skype. With the new update, iPhone and iPod touch users with a Wi-Fi connection can make and receive video calls via Fring or Skype and watch your contact from your phone. Unfortunately the video chat is only a one-way video thing for now, meaning either you can watch your friend talk or your friend can watch you talk. This is, of course, a limitation of the iPhone and its non-front-facing camera. The folks at Fring assure us that two-way video calls will be available as soon as the iPhone gets a front-facing camera.

Two-way video or not, it’s great to see a first step in this direction for the iPhone. Video calling may not be an everyday sort of event (I do plenty of things while I’m on the phone that the person I’m talking to doesn’t need or want to see), but it’s certainly got its place, and it’ll be nice to take video chat out of our computer monitors.

Fring is a free download.

Windows/Linux: Free, open-source application PhotoFilmStrip creates video from photographs quickly and easily, complete with effects, a soundtrack, and smooth zoom in/out effects (commonly referred to as the Ken Burns effect).

The cheesy cat video above demonstrates PhotoFilmStrip in action. Creating your video from still images with the app is a breeze. Just drag and drop pictures you want to use into the application, select the effects you want to use (if any), determine the settings for the pan and zoom Ken Burns effect, and, when you’re done, add some background music and export the video to DVD, XviD, or one of the other supported formats. (It can even export in HD.)

PhotoFilmStrip is a free, open-source application for Windows and Linux only. (Mac users, iMovie actually comes with its own Ken Burns effect for still images.) As FreewareGenius points out, it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it handles what it does really well. If you give it a go, let’s hear how you like it in the comments.

If you’re hankering for some nostalgic video game action this weekend, you’re in luck. Check out this selection, spanning the last 20 years or so, of commercial games released as freeware.

There are a variety of web sites that catalog old games—the MakeUseOf link catalogs a number of them—but RemainInPlay takes a unique angle. Rather than include any free games from past, they only archive games that were once commercial products and released again as freeware.

What this means is that instead of playing games that weren’t all that great when they were released free, you’ll find games worth playing in their heyday. Quake III Arena, see here in the screenshot, cost $50 when it was initially released, and remained extremely popular for years after. Now you can grab a copy for free. The archives at RemainInPlay dip back well into the 1980s to help you enjoy a little retro-DOS gaming fun.

Have a great source for games—retro or otherwise—to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Android: Ustream brings its streaming video service to the Android platform with a new app, allowing shooters to stream feeds instantly over 3G or Wi-Fi, save them for later web sharing, and even chat with video watchers in real time.

Ustream isn’t the first live video streaming app for Android sets, as the previously mentioned Qik app hit the Android market a few months back. What Ustream claims to have over its competition is a system that limits lag and doesn’t let it “build up” over the course of a mobile broadcast. Streamers can also ask questions and post comments to their viewers via Ustream chat or Twitter. Ustream has a similar, but Wi-Fi-restricted, non-streaming iPhone app.

Ustream is a free download, available in the Android market. My (rooted and custom-ROM-running) G1 force-closed when trying to open the app, and Download Squad experienced similar problems, so if your own phone fails to launch Ustream, assume there’s a fixed version coming down the line.

Firefox with Greasemonkey: The YouTube Auto Buffer Greasemonkey script tweaks the popular video sharing site to fix some of its most common annoyances. Specifically, it stops videos from automatically playing, turns on HD/HQ playback for all videos, and hides in-video advertisements.

All three of the tweaks YouTube Auto Buffer makes can be toggled, so if you’d really like to get rid of in-video ads but don’t want to always watch videos in HD or prefer that videos play automatically, you can just disable the two unwanted features. Or at least they can be toggled in theory. I had trouble getting my preferences to stick, so your mileage may vary.

Either way, it’s a nice little script that aims to fix some users’ common YouTube annoyances. For some other YouTube-specific tweaks, check out our very own Better YouTube Firefox extension. (With any luck, maybe we can convince Gina to incorporate some of the YouTube Auto Buffer features into said add-on.)

YouTube Auto Buffer is a free download, works with Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension.