Archive for May, 2009
About Those Other App Stores [Announcements]
May 29th, 2009
Why does the iPhone get its own app roundup every week? W-w-what about the rest of us? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS SMARTPHONE? We should explain.
We’ve given Apple’s App Store quite a bit of coverage from the start, and rightly so—it was (and is) a flawed product, but it’s consistently updated with new, interesting material. The other thing is, people use it. A lot.
Seeing this, other companies have since joined in, or announced plans to do so in the near future. Some of these solutions have been around for months, others for much less, but so far none have earned the same steady coverage as the App Store, and a lot of you have asked us why.
In short, these other stores hadn’t really hit their stride. The Android Market suffered from late implementation of paid apps and limited developer interest; now it’s got a fine payment system, more users, and sits on the cusp of exploding. BlackBerry App World materialized almost spontaneously, met with apathy by a userbase that was used to getting apps elsewhere, and debuted chock full of content we’d already seen; now, it’s gaining steam. Microsoft is about to open their solution, and Nokia just did. Palm’s is basically imminent. So we’re doing something about it.
Starting tomorrow with the Android Market, we’ll be doing periodic roundups for non-iPhone app stores. Since none of these stores have the same kind of volume Apple’s does (yet!), our roundups will fall on a rotating schedule, so no matter which smartphone you’ve got in your pocket you can expect a heaping, fresh serving of nutritious, delicious apps every few weeks.
Of course, you’re all part of this: if anything useful, interesting or strange shows up in your phone’s app store, shoot us a link at our tips line, with “BlackBerry/Android/Whatever App Roundup” in the subject. Happy downloading.
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Would You Ditch Cable For Hulu? [Question Of The Day]
May 29th, 2009
The Hulu Desktop app has been a welcome addition to my HTPC experience—and it is looking more and more like I will be ditching or downgrading my satellite service at the end of the year.
According to the poll I ran earlier this week, it seems that you guys are also poised to make a break from your cable service. It seems pretty clear that this sort of technology is what the future holds for television, but do cable providers have anything to worry about right now? Do you plan on ditching cable for online content like Hulu?
How Regular Movies Become "IMAX" Films [Imax]
May 29th, 2009
Pretty as it is, 70mm film has been deemed too expensive for shooting Hollywood productions. So this is how IMAX preps finished movies for the up close and personal demands of IMAX.
(Left, 35mm reel. Right, IMAX reel.)
Before we move on, let’s explain IMAX film. Technically, it’s a 70mm standard that—unlike the 70mm that was popular back in the day with big movies like Lawrence of Arabia —has been turned sideways on the celluloid. So while typical 70mm motion picture film runs vertically and takes up 5 perforations on the film strip, IMAX runs horizontally and takes up 15 perforations. Yes, that means that the IMAX 70mm standard is three times bigger than normal 70mm and nine times bigger than 35mm.
Now do you know why we’ve been making such a big deal about it?
Kodak estimates their 35mm film stock to run at an equivalent of 6K digital resolution—that’s 2K better than the famous 4K Red One camera. As Kodak makes IMAX film out of the same ink/material that they make 35mm film, to scale, you can argue that IMAX reaches a theoretical equivalent of 18K digital, or 252 megapixels. In real application, even an expert we talked to within IMAX doubted if the viewer can see 18K projected, estimating that 12K might be a more accurate guess.
IMAX film is—unquestionably—far more impressive than any other standard on the block, analog or digital. So how the heck can IMAX claim they can take a normal 35mm film, like Star Trek, and play it on IMAX screens?
(Left, 35mm reel. Right, IMAX reel.)
To be fair, this insanely high resolution 70mm film format is only used in the huge free-standing IMAX theaters found in museums and parks throughout the world. As you might recall from our previous story on IMAX “retrofitting” in multiplexes, IMAX’s digital projection system used in those theaters is a mere 3K or 4K in resolution. There’s definitely a double standard, and though it’s still an impressive theater experience, it’s not the same and you have the right to feel a bit ripped off if you’re expecting a 70mm print.
But regardless of the film’s destination, it is carried through roughly the same process known as DMR (which, enigmatically, stands for “digital re-mastering”), which starts with a digital encoding of a standard 35mm Hollywood film, and ends with a remastered, (usually) higher-resolution digital format for multiplexes, and a bunch of reels of remastered crazy-high-resolution 70mm film for the true IMAX theaters.
During my day at IMAX HQ, I kept referring to the process as “uprezzing”—the same mundane miracle that allows DVDs to play on HDTVs. But every time I used this term, it was met with a shiver from production personnel. After seeing their process, I still think “uprezzing” fits, but blowing up a film’s resolution requires a lot of tweaking and artistry, so I can appreciate their reaction a bit more.
When IMAX converted Apollo 13, the first 35mm movie to be converted to IMAX, the whole process took three months. Now, a team of about 20 digital artists can convert a movie in three weeks with the help of a powerful render farm.
Source film generally arrives at IMAX pre-digitized in either 2K (2048×1080) or 4K (4096×2160) resolution. In the case of the Dark Knight, some footage reached 5.6K and even 8K. It leaves IMAX at anywhere from 4K to 8K resolution, sharpened with film grain reduced.
The staff views the movie while analyzing general trends like lighting and coloring in a film. Each movie has a certain overall look, and then each scene (exterior night, interior day, spaceship orbiting planet, etc.) has a certain particular lighting and coloring of its own, so they note all of the overarching trends—the keys to each scene type—and then they tailor uprezzing (or just polishing) algorithms to take them into account. The algorithms are unique to the film but the result, after all the painstaking customization, is a fairly automated hit-the-render-button-get-an-IMAX-movie video-scaling process.
Well, almost. About 80% of the film’s frames come out of the automated process looking great. It’s the remaining 20% that’s the real bitch. Sometimes the process arranges pixels in ways that bring forth unforeseen oddities in the image. These tainted frames are either sent back through the render farm again with tweaked settings, or they are fixed by hand.
I watched a member of the IMAX team screen a clip from Night at the Museum 2 in which Owen Wilson is green screened in front of a pile of sand. He had just a few frames of the film looped on his monitor, less than a second of real material, and they looked fine by my account. (Our apologies for a lack of pictures, but acquiring studio rights to images has proven difficult.)
Of course, this was a 20-inch display, and the film would play on a screen…a bit larger than that.
So the film analyst urged me to look closer, at which point I noticed an aura of softness around Wilson’s figure, killing the texture of the sand. With a keypress, the screen snapped to the same frames in the 35mm, which looked fine. The automated uprez process had highlighted some of the intentionally hidden seams of the special effects.
That footage was sent back to the artists to fix by hand, as are a lot of the 10,000 to 20,000 frames of film IMAX processes during a day of DMR work.
That’s just the artistic side, which happens for both the multiplex digital IMAX and the 70mm film IMAX —there’s also the delicate matter of assembling all this film properly back into one big strip for the the true IMAX theaters and their film projectors.
IMAX reels and 35mm reels don’t line up in a convenient 1-to-1 ratio. Because the film is physically bigger, there are almost five IMAX reels for every reel of 35mm. Not only do they have to make sure every single cut from one reel to the next is smooth, they have to make sure everything stays in the right order, a huge pain, especially when just a few frames are being fixed at a time.
The film part of the process culminates in a scene-by-scene analysis of the 70mm dailies—172,800 frames for a 2-hour movie—viewed on a lightbox with the 35mm film right beside the IMAX uprez. If the in-and-out points are the same, things are generally fine. If not…it’s gonna be a long night.
But even with all this earnest work of artists and video wizards, will that original 35mm content look better when either upscaled or just cleaned? I’m going to say yes, not because I’ve had the opportunity to analyze a pre- and post-DMR film with my own eyes, but because a staggering amount of the staff’s efforts are simply to eliminate film grain. And while, to me, that’s a sin to do for archival film restoration or 1080p Blu-ray transfers, I can understand the necessary evil when a movie is expanded to epic proportions and the audience is forced to sit in ridiculously close proximity to the screen. Nobody pays to see blackheads the size of a house, especially on Ben Stiller.
Besides, regular IMAX movies shot on IMAX 70mm film are always going to look better. Anyone who’s ever used Photoshop knows there’s no way that digitally enlarging an image will ever look as good as an already-large image in its native resolution. Parts of The Dark Knight were shot for IMAX, and I’ve seen that footage on true 70mm IMAX projection. I’ve also seen plenty of 35mm movies (like Star Trek) up on the IMAX screen, projected from a 70mm film print, after DMR. There is absolutely no comparison. Star Trek is fun to watch on a big screen. The Dark Knight is so ridiculously detailed that your brain can barely process it.
As much as I can admire IMAX’s DMR process and the truly staggering amount of effort going into digital enhancement, this does beg one question of Hollywood: You’ve got hundreds of millions for talent and marketing, but you don’t have enough cash to buy a truckload of 70mm film and deal with tricky cameras? I find that hard to believe.
Read more from Gizmodo Goes to IMAX
Maker Faire This Weekend [Maker Faire]
May 29th, 2009
Reminder to you lucky bastards in the Bay Area: Maker Faire—the world’s largest DIY festival—is happening this weekend at the San Mateo Event Center. There’ll be huge Tesla coils, battling battleships, cybernetic giraffes, and lots of crazies running around. Like Burning Man, but safe for kids. [MF]
There are throngs of reality shows devoted to documenting dangerous professions…but what about professional blogging? Like other sedentary, computer-focused jobs, we are faced with the prospect of turning into deformed freaks from years of hunching and typing. If you face a similar fate, these gadgets can help.
Posture and Eye Strain:
USB Vision and Posture Reminder: With each passing day, I can feel my posture slipping further and further into the realm of Quasimodo. In order to prevent a full-on hump, this USB vision and posture reminder can be employed to nag you back to health. Just set it atop your monitor and it will sound an alarm / flash LED lights when you get within 13.7-inches of the screen. [USB Geek via Link]
Gunnar Optiks Eye Strain Glasses: Another way to prevent eye strain and headaches from staring at the computer all day is to wear a pair of these yellow-tinted glasses from Gunnar Optiks. According to our own tests, they actually work pretty well. [Gunnar]
Chaise His and Her Chairs: There are plenty of comfortable chairs out there that can be used to help posture, but these Chaise chairs are among the most unique. As you can see, they mold to the human form—lifting, separating and, in most cases, enhancing. [Amateur DeDesign via Link]
Gaining Weight:
Trek Desk: Another consequence of using the computer all day is weight gain. The Trek desk provides a cardio workout by fitting a treadmill in with your workspace. This particular version also features a stability ball chair accessory that will work your core and promote better posture. It’s also bouncy—and bouncy equals fun. [TrekDesk via Link]
Springflex UB: The Trek Desk dealt with cardio and core, and now the Springflex can jump in and handle the strength training. According to the product page, 120 exercises can be performed by simply attaching the arms to your desk. [Skymall via Link]
RSI and Carpal Tunnel:
Foot Mouse: One way to eliminate the risk of developing injuries like RSI and Carpal Tunnel is to avoid using your hands all together. As the name illustrates, the Foot Mouse lets your feet do the surfing. The footpad on the left has programmable buttons, while the right pad is used to move the cursor. Unfortunately, you will probably need the coordination of a drummer to make this device practical. [Bili Inc via Link]
Fit Fingers GripGlider: This bizarre-looking contraption claims to reduce the pain associated with RSI and carpal tunnel by strengthening the wrists with “dozens of exercises.” [Link]
Swiftpoint Triped Mouse: The Triped mouse is designed to combine the mouse, touchpad, and the digitizer pen into one ergonomic device. It’s also a great way to flex those penmanship muscles. Seriously, cursive is becoming extinct—and when forced to actually write something down, for most of us it looks as though we did it with a hook hand. [Simtrix via Link]
Neck Pain and Other Physical Ailments:
The Cool.con Reflexology universal remote claims to relieve pain from just about anywhere on the body using spines that stimulate pressure points on the hand. [Funshop via Link]
Vertical Traction Kit: If you have neck pain from slouching over the computer all day, this rather frightening device helps to ease pain by stretching out muscles and the spinal column. [Link]
Dell’s Mini 9 vanishes from retail site as red Studio XPS 16 returns (update: Mini 9 is on the outs)
May 29th, 2009
We don’t want to point fingers, but at the same time Dell’s Studio XPS 16 red option suddenly returns — now a “Merlot” instead of once-axed “Crimson” — the Mini 9 conspicuously goes missing from the company’s website. Coincidence? We think not. It’s a regular murder mystery, and it looks like we have our prime suspect here, caught… erm, red-lidded. Catching the killer, though, won’t bring it back, but at least its younger brother, the Vostro A90, still seems to alive and kicking.
Update: We just got off the phone with a Dell customer service rep who told us the same thing a handful of our tipsters heard: the Mini 9′s being phased out, with its official “End of Life” possibly as soon as Monday. Shed a tear for our 2008 netbook of the year.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Read – Merlot red Studio XPS 16
Read – Dell.com search for “Mini 9″
Read – Refurbished Laptop stockroom
Filed under: Laptops
Dell’s Mini 9 vanishes from retail site as red Studio XPS 16 returns (update: Mini 9 is on the outs) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
N97 disassembled on video… sort of
May 29th, 2009
Are you dying to see Nokia’s latest, the N97 ripped to shreds in glorious moving pictures? Well, that’s too bad: we don’t have that. What we do have, however, is a series of photographs of said shred-ripping, turned into a video. A creepy, silent film, if you will, complete with subtitles. Lack of movement and sound aside, it gives us a pretty great look at the innards of the handset, if that’s what you’re into. Sure, it’s not The Goldrush, but if you want to see the N97 in a talkie, there’s always that Royksopp video, right? Full video after the break.
[Thanks, Mike]
Continue reading N97 disassembled on video… sort of
Filed under: Cellphones
N97 disassembled on video… sort of originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 18:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Continue reading Volleyball-playing robot has Mac mini brain, heart of a champion
Filed under: Robots
Volleyball-playing robot has Mac mini brain, heart of a champion originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Yeah, you heard it right: another volume of Guitar Hero — the game you either love to hate or love to love — is making its debut on September 1st. This one, Guitar Hero 5, promises a bunch of features that are party friendly, such as the ability to play through sets with no players actively playing, allowing anyone to join in at any time — because we all know how many ragers are built around GH, right? It’s probably no coincidence that the release date comes exactly one week before that other music game, The Beatles: Rock Band. So, which one are you buying?Filed under: Gaming
Guitar Hero 5 hits the streets September 1st, one week before the Fab Four originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXV: HiPhone Nano meets Aura in a knock-off of modest proportions
May 29th, 2009
[Via PMP Today]
Filed under: Cellphones
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXV: HiPhone Nano meets Aura in a knock-off of modest proportions originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.