WWDC: Lion, the Switch, and the Boredom
WWDC ’11 is in the can, and its message is clear: You want iOS on everything. No really. You do.
But here’s a little spoiler, Apple: No, I don’t.
Read MoreAuthor: Danny X
Apple’s WWDC 2011 keynote kicks off soon, some already sad at what they’re not getting
In the past, the WWDC keynote has been shrouded in mystery, with no press releases or comment from Apple leading up to the event, and even the signage at Moscone West being deliberately vague, giving only a hint to what might be discussed.
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Boxee Box gets another update, cements its position as the best HTSTB money can buy.
Much has been said of the Boxee Box, D-link’s fledgling foray into the world of home theatre set-top boxes, running the gamut from “streamlined” and “Polished” (agreed!) to “Disappointing” (…not so much). While it’s true that D-link’s little box has been lacking in some key areas (cough cough MUSIC PLAYER cough), when it comes to ease of use and across-the-board file compatibility, Boxee sits in a class that is simply untouchable by heavy hitters like GoogleTV, Roku, and especially AppleTV. Now, after a scant 6 months, Boxee has widened that…
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Adobe and the mobile revolution: tablets, napkins, and the creative process
It’s been a busy month for Adobe so far. Hot on the heels of the recent preview of Photoshop on the iPad, Adobe has today released the official Photoshop Touch SDK for tablet devices. The fact that Adobe has decided to release an SDK is exciting, since it strongly indicates that not only are we a step closer to a full-featured Photopshop app for tablets, but also full Photoshop integration into the core builds of third-party applications. From the press release: The Photoshop Touch SDK and a new scripting engine…
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Valve ARG suggests GlaDOS is still alive
Man I love Valve. I mean besides creating one of the best online ecosystems available to gamers in Steam, offering up arguably the best value for gaming maybe ever in Orange Box, and gracing the world with one of, if not the, most unique, entertaining, and challenging puzzle games ever in Portal, they just seem like really, really fun dudes. Take a look at last year’s promo material for the launch of Steam on OSX, particularly the Half Life 2 release. It’s that kind of tongue-in-cheek satirical slant Valve seems…
Read MorePhotoshop on the iPad: Does it change anything?
Am I getting an iPad? Well that’s a fairly loaded question, filled with doubts and questions as to the practicality of such a purchase. I mean, it’s not a phone, and it’s not a laptop, and given that my day job means I spend a lot of time in teh photoshopz, the iPad doesn’t really fill a productivity niche for me, short of the ability to present concepts and materials to a small group in a quiet room. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want one.
Read MoreGoogle Creative Labs thinks the world is full of interesting things
See the presentation here. Last year at Advertising Week in New York City I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Andy Berndt, managing director of Google Creative Labs, entitled “87 cool things”. The point of the hour-long session was not to see what Google was doing at the time, but to see how Google sees the world, and its fascination with content creators the world over. This year they’re back with “The World Is Full Of Interesting Things”, basically an updated presentation on the same theme. In it…
Read MoreToronto, Then and Now: An exercise in photographic reverse-engineering
Came across this interesting experiment today by Damon Schreiber on the Electroblog. Spawned from a random Google search, Schreiber was inspired to take shots of Toronto from 1977 and recreate the same shots in 2007, being as painstakingly meticulous as one can to make sure the content, staging, positioning, depth-of-field, aperture, lighting, and even time of day are accurately reproduced. The origins of the idea, and indeed the source of the original shots of Toronto from 30 years ago, are all explained in great detail on the photoblogger’s site, and the story…
Read MoreJaws turns 35, still looks fake
It was on June 20, 1975 that audiences first bore witness to perhaps the greatest opening sequence in cinematic history: that of Christine Watkins taking her drunk boyfriend down to the shores of Amity Island for a little moonlight skinny dipping. We all know how that turned out, and audiences became so horrified and fascinated that some, even today, have trouble going into the water. Jaws was a watershed film, a monumental success born of monumental failure. The well-documented reports of problems with writing, staffing, production, and pretty much everything…
Read MoreRock Band 3: Rock Out with your Natural Talent Out
Remember when Rock Band first arrived on the scene? It, along with the venerable classic Guitar Hero, proved that it is possible to get up off the couch and interact with a game in a way that no Wiimote could ever hope to deliver. And the world lost its friggin’ mind. Suddenly people who had no interest in gaming had a way to channel their inner rock star without feeling like some pimply-faced teen or the pressure to be Teh Pwnerer; it was just a fun piece of kit that…
Read MoreNASA captures solar flares, confirms human insignificance, all in glorious HD
What you’re looking at above is awe-inspiring for two reasons; one, it’s a Gizmodo story that has nothing to do with a leaked iPhone, and two, it’s some of the first imagery and data sent back from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). In it, NASA was able to capture a full solar flare (or “prominence eruption”) in action, as well as several views of the Sun’s temperature variances and magnetic fields through several different wavebands. The purpose goes far beyond snapping pictures of the impossible, too: SDO is designed to…
Read MoreNeither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor Cylons, nor old Jimi Hendrix songs…
It’s been done before, countless times; people with more time and money on their hands than they know what do do with turning cars into iconic movie props. Sometimes the results are spectacular; sometimes, not so much. This latest contender is from Dean Shorey, the master ride mechanic for Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, NY. This too-cool-for-words homage to Starbuck’s weapon of choice, made from an old mail truck, is also road-worthy, so it’s not only sporty, but practical, too. …right? Some more pix, as well as a story about…
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