Paul Smerdon

The R-Strap from BlackRapid is a new take on the traditional strap that ships as standard with most cameras.  Instead of being worn around the neck or shoulder, the R-Strap sits diagonally across the body. The camera is attached to the strap by a tripod screw and rests upside down near the hip when not in use. Although it sounds strange, this configuration provides better access to the camera and distributes weight in a far more comfortable manner.

Compared to conventional designs, it's much easier to bring the camera into shooting position. This means that you're able to acquire your subject, compose and shoot in the time it may take to remove a standard strap from your shoulder - important if you don't want to "miss the shot." Also, the fact that the camera rests with the lens pointing backwards makes it less likely to be damaged by impacts as you walk around.

Unlike a standard strap, the R-Strap can also store a cell phone, memory cards and other accessories in compartments built into shoulder area. These compartments use magnetic closures, which in addition to being almost silent, are easy to operate without looking. The build quality and overall attention to detail is very impressive.

The only thing that I would cite as a negative is the fact that if any part of the strap fails your gear is probably toast. While this is also true with traditional designs, the single point anchoring mechanism on the R-Strap seems a little more precarious. It is more than able to securely hold my Nikon D300 w/ grip and 70-200 f2.8 VRII but it's certainly on your mind the first couple of times you use it. That said, I haven’t experienced or heard of any problems with the current design.

BlackRapid offers the R-Strap in a number of different configurations that are mainly distinguished by storage capacity. There is a model specifically for women, as well as accessories that allow you to combine R-Straps to carry multiple camera bodies.

The R-Strap is comfortable, secure and offers offers quick access to your camera. Highly recommended. 

Despite somewhat limited programming skills, I've given some thought to a few ideas for web applications. While none of these ideas have moved beyond the conceptual phase, I've found Balsamiq Mockups to be an invaluable tool for refining them.

Mockups is an Adobe Air based application that allows you to quickly build navigable wireframe versions of websites or desktop applications using a drag and drop interface. Thanks to a good number of built in controls, and an active community site that allows users to share templates, almost anything can be created within the program. After dropping and positioning the various elements onto the canvas, the user can easily link them together and click through the site in order to get a better understanding of how it might work. It's even possible to export a HTML version of the page, using a secondary program called Napkee.

Applications such as Mockups are extremely powerful because they let you visually communicate your idea without having to actually build a functioning website or program. They're also very useful for evaluating different interaction models and page layouts. 

Mockups works very well overall, but there are a few areas that could use improvement.

Some users may not like the visual style of the program. The mockups themselves have a very rough, hand drawn appearance, and the much derided Comic Sans typeface is used throughout the application. In my experience, this was not a major issue since Mockups is more about the function of the idea rather than its appearance, but there are those that would probably appreciate a more professional design language. 

Editing linked designs is another area that could use improvement. This may be different for other versions of the program that use some sort of backend, but the desktop version requires that the user manually link every element, even when those elements are the same across multiple pages. You can work around this by cloning pages that you've already created, but a more elegant solution would be nice.

In my opinion, the only major drawback to Mockups is that it's built on Adobe Air. While this allows the program to run on a variety of platforms, it sacrifices speed as well as native look and feel. The good news is that new releases of Air dramatically improve performance, and the developer of Mockups is constantly working towards making the program behave more like a native app. It still has quite a way to go, but new releases occur frequently and the company seems to have a genuine interest in making sure its customers are happy.

If you're looking for a rapid prototyping tool for application design, I would strongly recommend Balsamiq Mockups.

Tweetie is the latest entry in a growing number of apps for posting updates to Twitter. Unlike other programs that rely on Adobe's AIR platform, Tweetie is a native OS X app which allows it to be more tightly integrated with the operating system.

Tweetie's interface is very simple. Icons for switching between the timeline, @ replies, DMs, and search are all arranged along the left side of the window. The program smoothly animates the transitions between each section and provides breadcrumbs at the top of the window so that the user can navigate backwards. The interface is well executed and very responsive.

The program also includes a number of features that are missing in other apps. Tweetie has robust support for multiple accounts which are presented as icons in the bar on the left of the window. You can also follow and unfollow directly from within the application, access complete user profile information, and view direct messages as a conversation thread in a similar manner to iChat. For a 1.0 release, the program is extremely well polished and stable.

Tweetie probably isn't for everyone. Those that prefer the column style layout of TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop will most likely stay with those apps until such features are available in Tweetie. Also, users that work on both Windows and Mac platforms may appreciate the consistency of the same application in both environments.

Tweetie is available in both free (ad supported) and paid versions.

Download Tweetie

While the rest of the US auto industry is on life support, Tesla Motors finally took the wraps off their entry into the sports sedan market. The Model S is completely electric, seats seven, has a 300 mile range and goes from 0-60 in under 6 seconds. Unlike other electrics, it also looks beautiful.

Tesla seems to have come up with exactly the type of vehicle that the industry needs to move beyond its niche status. While there has been plenty of hype surrounding the idea of plugin electric cars, so far they have not been a commercial success, mainly because they were hideously ugly or impractical. On both fronts, the company seems to have gotten it right with the Model S.

It remains to be seen how well this vehicle will compete with sports sedans from Germany and Japan in terms of build quality and reliability, but Tesla has established a fairly good track record with their two door electric Roadster.

If I was in the market for this type of car, the Model S would definitely be on the short list.

The Big Three should be taking notes.

Flight Control lets you assume the role of an air traffic controller as you try to guide various types of aircraft to a safe landing. In its current form, the game includes four different types of aircraft and one airport. While this may seem limited, the different speeds and unpredictable approach patterns of the aircraft present a great challenge.

The controls are very simple and intuitive and the graphic style and music are top notch.

There is tremendous potential for expansion with this tittle as well. Additional airports and aircraft immediately come to mind, but different weather and emergency scenarios could also be interesting. Also, control over the speed and altitude of the aircraft would be something to consider, but would add another layer of complexity and would alter the feel of the game.

I've been playing this game almost non-stop for the last couple of days. It's a bargain at $.99.