Digital Arts "Digital Arts"

Apple touts MacBooks' greenness

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:29:00 GMT

Apple isn't what you would call a Greenpeace darling, though few multinational corporations are. That being said, Apple has been trying to clean up its environmental act in recent years, and now the company is aggressively advertising the green merits of the MacBook lineup with a new television ad.

YouTube experiments with high-quality video

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:19:00 GMT

Searching for YouTube videos is fun, but the videos are usually of such a low, compressed quality that sometimes it's hard to actually see what is going on. But YouTube is trying to fix that problem. It already supplies one option: You can set your YouTube account settings to play HD video when available, or you can attach "&fmt=18" to the end of the URL to display videos in a higher 480x260 quality. But now YouTube is supporting an even higher quality 1280x720 video format (identified by "&fmt=22" at the end of a link). The results are a pretty dramatic difference.

Elven Legacy: Colorful, Nonlinear and Turn-Based

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:53:00 GMT

Check out the new trailer for Paradox and 1C Publishing's Elven Legacy, a fantasy strategy game that looks real-time but isn't. I know, an honest-to-goodness turn-based strategy game without Stukas or Spitfires or Tigers or U-boats! It's like spotting a Bald Eagle in Kamchatka or something.

How 10 famous technology products got their names

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:36:00 GMT

Coming up with a great technology product or service is only half the battle these days. Creating a name for said product that is at once cool but not too cool or exclusionary, marketable to both early adopters and a broader audience, and, of course, isn't already in use and protected by various trademarks and copyright laws is difficult--to say the least.

Top 10: Best viral videos from the 2008 US election

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:43:00 GMT

After what seems like an eternity, the process of selecting the next American president is almost over. As in all good elections, it had cheap shots and low blows coming from all sides, tears shed, harsh words said and regretted later, brother turning against brother, and so on and on.

New MacBooks: What Apple got right

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:54:00 GMT

Apple's new MacBooks are finally here, and the upgrades they feature are more than modest. The new Apple laptops sport slimmer designs, brighter and more power-efficient LED-backlit screens, new graphics systems, buttonless trackpads, and more. The updates have led some people to wonder whether now is the time to switch from a PC to a Mac.

Gaming finally comes to the MacBook

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:53:00 GMT

Well, I got my wish. Last week, I wrote that I was hoping that Apple would finally give us a non-crippled video system in the MacBook, and on Tuesday, the company certainly delivered. The new MacBook will unquestionably perform better graphically in leaps and bounds compared to its predecessor. I'm not the only one who feels this way, either--a straw poll of Mac game developers shows unanimous support for the new graphics system.

Tokyo Game Show shows brain-controlled game

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:58:00 GMT

A computer game partially controlled by brainwaves will be demonstrated at this week's Tokyo Game Show, the developers said Wednesday.

Why online video advertising is struggling

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:18:00 GMT

Online video is in the midst of a crisis. It's not a crisis of creativity -- the amount of content being uploaded every day, and the range of quality programming are truly astounding. Rather, the crisis lies in revenue. Making a profitable business out of online video is extremely difficult – and this means less work for the video pros who are editing and designing this content.

Photosynth does amazing things with photos

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:26:00 GMT

Photosynth.net , a fairly new Web site from Live Labs, Microsoft's applied research arm, automatically stitches together your digital photographs to create a somewhat abstract but high-resolution three-dimensional re-creation (dubbed a synth) for the world to explore. The 3D photo reconstructions suggest the improbable offspring of a David Hockney collage, Apple's QuickTime VR, and Microsoft Research's excellent WorldWide Telescope. In any event, it's one of the more mind-blowing things to appear on the Web since Google Earth.

Industrial Resolution

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:48:00 GMT

I've just seen the replacement for HD on BBC technologies website Super Hi-Vision, man oh man I was just getting my head around rendering to 1920 X 1080 in 3D and now we're heading towards 7289 X 4320 pixels in the not too distant future.

The future of the Web is 3D, not video

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:22:00 GMT

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley has posted an interesting description of his company's long-term plans and prospects. YouTube's (and Google's) goal is to allow anyone to easily upload video to the 'Net and make that content available on any device. He also makes a bold prediction that online video will be the "most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication" in ten years.

Why Chrome won't rule the world (yet)

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:38:00 GMT

I like Google's new Chrome Web browser a lot -- as in, I think it's going to change the desktop world in a way we haven't seen since Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina released the first modern Web browser, Mosaic, back in 1993.

Smoke, mirrors and Google's privacy policies

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Hi, my name's Cringely, and I am powerless over my Google addiction. ("Hi, Cringely.")

High end digital still cameras to shoot video

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:49:00 GMT

Announced in the last few weeks is that Nikon will be producing the D90 - a digital still camera which can also shoot digital video. Now, of course, there have been other digital still cameras doing digital video for quite a while, but it is the specs. that are intriguing with this announcement.

Google's Chrome: 7 reasons for and 7 reasons against

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:31:00 GMT

The first beta of Chrome, Google's long-in-development Internet browser, became available Tuesday afternoon for Windows Vista and XP users, with Mac and Linux editions soon to follow. There's ample reason to be excited about the release, and just as much reason to be wary.

What's next for Apple laptops?

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:32:00 GMT

It's always a bit of a delicate dance, running the laptop division at a computer company -- certainly at one that's as vertically integrated as Apple, and certainly when the next generation of the company's popular MacBook and MacBook Pro lines are being prepped for release.

Whipping the Apple TV into shape

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:01:00 GMT

Those who know me know that I have a love/hate relationship with my Apple TV. I love it because it's just such a clever and convenient way to deliver iTunes Store purchases and media I've obtained in other ways to my TV and AV system. I hate it because it's far-too-prone to doing nothing in an impudent sort of way as I impotently mash the Apple Remote's controls over and over again.

Web 2.0's most ridiculous sites

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:33:00 GMT

The world loves Wikipedia, flocks to Flickr, and listens to Last.fm. And why not? Web 2.0 sites like them harness collective knowledge, promote interaction and communication, and improve the more you use them.

Milli Vanilli, the Chinese, Apple and forgiveness

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:19:00 GMT

Remember Milli Vanilli, the late 80's-early 90's chart-topping pop duo eventually exposed as lip-syncing frauds? Being "economical with the truth" (whether outright lying or creating a breach of faith) will always be discovered, but whether there are consequences depends on how people perceive the untruth and how they are affected.

What's coming next in Apple's laptops?

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:18:00 GMT

You can never be sure what advances will find their way into the next round of Apple hardware updates until practically the moment Cupertino makes the big announcement. But that doesn't mean it's not fun to guess a little bit.

Apple should apologize for leaving Mac users open to identity theft and malware

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:34:00 GMT

For the entire history of Mac OS X, Apple has had a grand time poking fun at Microsoft about a lot of things, but Cupertino has made a point of getting its licks in over Redmond's track record with security. The malware problem, the effortlessness with which Windows XP was attacked via Internet Explorer and other vectors -- oh, what a fun time Apple had.

Five Lightroom 2 features that should excite you

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:54:00 GMT

Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 has been out for less then a day, and I've already heard from a number of people asking about the new version. A few current users have asked if it's worth the US$99 (approx. £50) upgrade from Lightroom 1.0. Others who have been on the fence about investing in a $299 (approx. £150) photo workflow tool have asked about what Adobe did that make Lightroom 2.0 an improvement over the initial release. (I've also gotten a couple of the inevitable, "Which do I choose: Aperture or Lightroom?" questions, to which I say, download the 30-day demos and see which one feels right to you.)

Turning the to-do list into an art form

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:39:00 GMT

Some of us can't get through the day without an artfully constructed to-do list (complete with tick boxes, in certain cases) and a monitor entirely ringed with Post-It notes. When Canadian animator Jeff Chiba Stearns realized his addiction to scrappy paper reminders had got out of hand, he got creative.

The Mac keeps driving Apple

dialogbox@digitalartsonline.co.uk — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Some 48 hours removed from the light and heat of Apple's third-quarter earnings announcements, a couple of things deserver further examination. And no, I'm not talking about the "Did someone just cough? Sell! Sell! SELL!" mentality that seems to have gripped the investment community.