Selected by christinawarren

• 
  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

• Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs

  Chris Rawson

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, FreewareAll new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users. That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra…

• Cisco adds Security Intelligence Ops to iPhone portfolio

  Michael Rose

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Filed under: Security, iPhone, App ReviewDespite some security-conscious enterprise experts pointing accusatory fingers at the rather bleak encryption story and only-recently fixed ActiveSync policy compliance on the iPhone platform, there's no doubt that IT and network professionals are grooving on the iPhone -- there are many apps designed for administrators to take control of their operations with a touch of a finger, and now Cisco has stepped in with an informational and alert resource that fits in your pocket. The Cisco SIO (Security Intelligence Operations) to Go free app [iTunes link],…

• Smoking kills... your Mac

  Chris Rawson

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and endsIt should be pretty obvious by now that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. What's not as obvious is that it might be bad for your Mac, too. According to The Consumerist, two different people got turned down for AppleCare maintenance because their Macs were used in a house with a smoker. Both people appealed their cases all the way up to Steve Jobs, and both of them lost. I've opened up a few computers that spent time in a house full of heavy smokers, and the insides weren't pretty. There was this disgusting brown resin built up…

• TUAW's Steve Sande provides gift ideas on the latest MacJury podcast

  Steven Sande

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Filed under: Odds and ends, Podcasts, HolidaysHere it is, T-7 days until Black Friday, and you don't have any gift ideas? I joined MacJury podcaster Chuck Joiner earlier this week to provide my ideas for gifting. This was part two of a holiday gift ideas episode on the popular podcast. Joining me on the podcast were MacMouseCalls support genius (and grandmother) Pat Fauquet, Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and The Mac Observer's Jeff Gamet. Storage seemed to be a popular gift idea from the panelists, along with iPhone / Mac jewelry, video tools, and even some freebies. I…

• MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW

  Casey Johnston

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am

  Filed under: Software, Cool toolsMacUpdate announced today the release of version 5.0.2 of the MacUpdate Desktop utility, which allows users to manage application and widget software updates on their Mac OS X machines. The new version of the application adds some features and bug fixes as well as support for more languages. MacUpdate Desktop can track software updates for 30,000 Mac applications, and it also provides update support for applications on the iPhone, although iTunes handles that pretty well. Updates can be triggered manually and individually, or set to install automatically when…

• 
  Download Squad

• Acrobat.com gets revamped and gets a mobile app

  Jay Hathaway

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Filed under: Office, Web services, Adobe, BlackBerry, iPhone, MobileAdobe's Acrobat.com service is getting a big update tonight, followed closely by a new mobile app for iPhone and BlackBerry. The name "Acrobat" goes hand-in-hand with the PDF file format, and Acrobat.com allows you to convert documents to PDF and save, store and view PDF files. It also features some other applications, including the Adobe BuzzWord word processor, a web meeting service called ConnectNow, and storage space for docs, spreadsheets and images. The new features include searching by filename (I'm still wrapping my…

• Trillian brings impressive multi-network chat to the iPhone

  Jay Hathaway

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  Filed under: Social Software, iPhoneTrillian, the excellent all-purpose chat app we've loved for years on the PC, just made the leap to the iPhone. There are a lot of things to love about this pocket-sized version of Trillian, including its great-looking interface and its support for several different chat services. You'll need to sign up for a free Astra account if you don't already have one, but it's nice that Trilian's existing desktop users can just plug and play with no account setup required. Little perks of Trillian on the iPhone include push notifications (yay!) and the ability to…

• Minim (now on iPhone): the game so nice we've reviewed it thrice

  Jay Hathaway

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Filed under: Fun, Games, iPhone If you've been a Download Squad reader for a while, you've probably heard about the 3-D molecular puzzle game, Minim. I reviewed it back in May, and Jason reviewed it again in July (oops!). However, I've got my hands on the iPhone version now, and it's worlds better than the Flash one we played before. The object of Minim is to match up various numbered molecules until you clear the board. When you combine two of the same number, they form a single molecule that's one number greater. Eventually, you'll wind up with just one left, and you've won the level. The…

• Google Earth for iPhone gets an update to 2.0

  Jay Hathaway

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm

  Filed under: Utilities, Google, iPhoneWhen Google brought its amazing global map application, Google Earth, to the iPhone, it was a match made in heaven. (Okay, it was match made on Earth, but bear with with me, here.) The pinching and rotating gestures on the iPhone made exploring the globe on a handheld device fun and easy. Well, now Google Earth is back with version 2.0, which introduces some of the useful features you've come to expect from Earth's sister project, Google Maps. You can grab it from the app store now. Although it's nothing earth-shattering (ha!), Google Earth can now access…

• Bump for Android: slick contact-sharing app not iPhone-only anymore

  Jay Hathaway

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Filed under: Social Software, iPhone, Mobile, AndroidBump, the impressive iPhone app that lets you trade contact info and other data by physically bumping two phones together, isn't just an iPhone app anymore. Bump for Android has arrived (so sayeth TechCrunch, at any rate), and it covers Bump's biggest weakness: you had to have an iPhone to use it. Between iPhones and Android devices, Bump now has the potential to become a common way of swapping contact info. In addition to the Android launch, Bump also polished up its iPhone app. The new version, which is in the app store now, taps into…

• 
  Christina Warren

• film_girl: @iamic sorry you had some unexpected stuff Ian. Enjoy your movies!

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:12 am

  film_girl: @iamic sorry you had some unexpected stuff Ian. Enjoy your movies!

• film_girl: @MacStainless working a bit and then maybe an afternoon movie at home or at the local amc. :)

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:11 am

  film_girl: @MacStainless working a bit and then maybe an afternoon movie at home or at the local amc. :)

• film_girl: @jeremywright heh -- working a bit. No liver massaging needed today though :)

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  film_girl: @jeremywright heh -- working a bit. No liver massaging needed today though :)

• film_girl: @andybugay sounds fun!! I love NPR!

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  film_girl: @andybugay sounds fun!! I love NPR!

• film_girl: @NHRanchoRelaxo nice!!

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:09 am

  film_girl: @NHRanchoRelaxo nice!!

• 
  Variety.com

• Vivendi blocking Comcast takeover of NBC U Vivendi blocking Comcast takeover of NBCU

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am

  TV News: French corp, GE at impasse over valuation -- Vivendi has officially become a thorn in the side of Comcast Corp.'s takeover bid for NBC Universal.

• 'New Moon' takes opening day record

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:23 am

  Film News: Makes $72.7 million, beating 'Dark Knight' -- "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" tore up the box office record for best opening day.

• Swell Season

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:43 pm

  Music Reviews: It's not that there's any tension on stage, but it was quite apparent that Swell Season is now more than ever Hansard's band.

• Golden Globes adding extra pizzazz

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:42 pm

  Award Central: HFPA shakes up kudofest with a live show and host -- What's a venerable awards ceremony to do when ratings are down, other newbie awards shows are nipping at its heels and the world in general is moving at a much faster pace than when it began? Change things up, of course.

• Four Seasons' Watkins rules junket jungle

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm

  Award Central: She helps Beverly Hills hotel hold No. 1 ranking -- Who you gonna call when you need to organize a press junket -- or (far trickier) reschedule dates at the last minute because talent is suddenly unavailable?

• 
  Smashing Magazine

• The Big Showcase Of Online T-Shirt Stores

  Callum Chapman

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:22 am

    T-shirts, as you’ll surely agree, play a big part in the design world. Sometimes, we designers don’t get the kinds of projects we want, and so we are left to apply our creativity in some other way, many of us opting to submit graphics in t-shirt competitions or printing them ourselves and selling them through shopping cart systems such as BigCartel. In this post, we bring you a showcase of online t-shirt store Web designs, all of which serves as a great source of inspiration for Web designers, graphic designers and even illustrators.You may be interested in the…

• The Death of The Boring Blog Post?

  Paddy Donnelly

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

    Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring. Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks?Too Easy?Because installing a WordPress theme is so easy, anyone can have a blog up and running in minutes. While this is great, and we now have a wealth of blogs on countless topics, perhaps…

• Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources

  Janko Jovanovic

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

     Buttons, whatever their purpose, are important design elements. They could be the end point of a Web form or a call to action. Designers have many reasons to style buttons, including to make them more attractive and to enhance usability. One of the most important reasons, though, is that standard buttons can easily be missed by users because they often look similar to elements in their operating system. Here, we present you several techniques and tutorials to help you learn how to style buttons using CSS. We’ll also address usability.Links vs. buttonsBefore we explain how…

• Designing Social Interfaces: Overview and Practical Techniques

  Dmitry Fadeyev

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

    The standard approach to interface design is to craft a channel that allows you to easily and efficiently control hardware or software; it’s all about the interaction between people and computers. But today, the two entities on each side of the user interface are changing: it’s no longer about people interacting with computers, but rather about people interacting with people through computers.This is the nature of the social Web. Social news websites, message boards, social networks, online stores and blogs all have some sort of user interaction going on, whether…

• Brushing Up On Photoshop’s Brush Tool

  Thomas Giannattasio

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am

     When laid by a learned hand, brush strokes can convey a sense of energy, tactility and humanness. These qualities speak to your audience’s subconscious, whispering ideas that words alone can’t convey. In the digital realm, a website with beautiful brushwork is a welcome break from the stark precision of most corporate websites.Mastering the digital brush is by no means easy. It carries the same difficulties as the sable brush hidden at the bottom of your art bin. In fact, the difficulty is multiplied by the disconnect between the hand and monitor. Developing Photoshop…

• 
  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

• Cisco adds Security Intelligence Ops to iPhone portfolio

  Michael Rose

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Filed under: Security, iPhone, App ReviewDespite some security-conscious enterprise experts pointing accusatory fingers at the rather bleak encryption story and only-recently fixed ActiveSync policy compliance on the iPhone platform, there's no doubt that IT and network professionals are grooving on the iPhone -- there are many apps designed for administrators to take control of their operations with a touch of a finger, and now Cisco has stepped in with an informational and alert resource that fits in your pocket. The Cisco SIO (Security Intelligence Operations) to Go free app [iTunes link],…

• Geotagged tweets now alive in Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1

  Steven Sande

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

  Filed under: iPhone, App Store Twitter has flipped the switch on some new features, including geotagging of tweets and automatic retweeting. As a happy user of Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1 [iTunes link], I was even more giddy when I found out that my favorite Twitter app already supports both of these features. The geotagging feature lets you optionally attach a latitude and longitude to your tweets. If you receive the tweet in Twittelator, you can tap on the sender's avatar icon to see the geotag and pull up a Google map of the location near where the tweet was sent. The app lets you…

• Navigon briefly cutting price on its popular Nav app

  Mel Martin

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhoneGee, we were just saying how competitive it is getting in the iPhone nav department, and Navigon has gone and cut prices for holiday travelers. For 10 days only, beginning today (November 20-30) Navigon's iPhone app, Mobile Navigator [iTunes link]will be on sale for U.S. $69.99 instead of $89.99 providing a $20.00 savings. In addition, Navigon's Traffic Live feature is also on sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99. Traffic Live is a one time charge, not a continuing cost. That's a significant saving for this very popular app, and puts it under similar featured…

• Virgin Mobile Canada: Fifth Canadian outlet for iPhone

  Ken Ray

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  Filed under: iPhoneThe iPhone is getting yet another carrier in the great white north. Virgin Mobile Canada has announced that it'll start selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the coming months. When exactly? How much? Can I get a Richard Branson ringtone? Actually, I can make my own ringtones, but what about the rest of it? We'll have to wait to find out. All the company said in its incredibly short notice was that it'll sell the phones online and in its brick-and-mortar stores at some point. Well, that and that its gotten some love from J.D. Power and Associates for its prepaid and…

• FunMail adds instant images to Facebook status & MMS

  Michael Rose

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  Filed under: iPhone, App ReviewAt the risk of invoking a round of reader rage, I'll admit that I've never really been that hyped on the idea of MMS on the iPhone (and, by the way, get off my lawn). If I want to send someone a picture, I've got their email address; I'll just send them a picture. No big whoop. I do have some friends and colleagues who 'came up' on mainline camera phones and they gleefully pop pics back and forth via MMS. I also appreciate the ability to decode the snapshots my wife sends from her Motorola RAZR, but overall I wouldn't rate it among the top iPhone features I was…

• 
  Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

• A Design Apart Q&A

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  “Content informs design; design without content is decoration. Content has the same relationship to design that product has to advertising. Good ads are based on the product; good designs come from and facilitate the content. This is one reason we bring content strategy to every design assignment, and one reason we insist on working with real content, not lorem ipsum (placeholder) content. Nothing is sadder than a beautiful design that works great with lorem ipsum but doesn’t actually support the real content.” A Design Apart: Q&A with Jeffrey Zeldman | Sparksheet

• As we were

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

  Title images from the early years of A List Apart “for people who make websites” are now available for your viewing pleasure. Were we really ever that young? NAME THAT FONT! Here’s a nice rainy-day activity for ya. Visit the ALA historical header images collection on Flickr and name the fonts used in individual images. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3035

• FontShop Fonts on the Web

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm

  FontShop announces that they are ready to deliver their font library as web type: [S]tarting today, Typekit users can pick from dozens of FontFonts, including FF Meta, FF Dax, and FF Netto. Plus, the Typekit service lets you test any of those FontFonts on your page before you publish. And tomorrow? Typekit is just one piece of a holistic strategy for FontFonts on the web. The library should be licensable in a more traditional way too. That’s where WOFF fits in. … Soon anyone will be able to license and download for their website the same professional quality FontFont they use in desktop…

• More Web Fonts

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Ellen Lupton and Jeffrey Zeldman talk about web fonts, part 2. That is all. This has been a belated part of Web Type Day.

• Web Type: Lupton on Zeldman

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  Today in Print, Ellen Lupton interviews Jeffrey Zeldman (that’s me) on web typography, web standards, and more. Part one of a two-part interview. Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is the author of numerous books and articles on design, a frequent lecturer, and an AIGA Gold Medalist. This has been a nutritious part of Web Type Day. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=2932

• 
  Guy Kawasaki

• GuyKawasaki: 100 words every high school graduate should know http://om.ly/cOHI

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:28 am

  GuyKawasaki: 100 words every high school graduate should know http://om.ly/cOHI

• GuyKawasaki: What if Earth had rings like Saturn? [video] http://om.ly/cOEj

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am

  GuyKawasaki: What if Earth had rings like Saturn? [video] http://om.ly/cOEj

• GuyKawasaki: How to save time http://om.ly/cOCs

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am

  GuyKawasaki: How to save time http://om.ly/cOCs

• GuyKawasaki: How to re-imagine the color of your room with no paint http://om.ly/cOCV

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:25 am

  GuyKawasaki: How to re-imagine the color of your room with no paint http://om.ly/cOCV

• GuyKawasaki: World AIDS Day: making awareness sexy http://om.ly/cOCO

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:25 am

  GuyKawasaki: World AIDS Day: making awareness sexy http://om.ly/cOCO

• 
  Twitterrati

• A Way to Cheat With Follow Friday

  Mark Evans

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 am

  Follow Friday (aka #followfriday or #ff) is a great way to give a public shout out to people who you know, do business with, or simply enjoy their work, blog posts or tweets. A problem with Follow Friday is that it happens on, well, Friday, when you’re fried by a long week of work. Unless you are disciplined, thinking about who you want to put on your Follow Friday list can be a challenge. For those of you who fall into this camp, an interest short-cut is The Twitter Tag Project’s Follow Friday! service, which automatically generates a #followfriday tweet that contains people. The…

• What’s Happening? Huh?

  Mark Evans

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  The oh-so-mysterious Twitter threw everyone a strange curveball tonight with some big news: It’s changing it’s tagline from “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?” In a blog post, Biz Stone said: Twitter helps you share and discover what’s happening now among all the things, people, and events you care about. “What are you doing?” isn’t the right question anymore—starting today, we’ve shortened it by two characters. Twitter now asks, “What’s happening?” It’s a small change but figure a…

• What Will Twitter Premium Offer?

  Mark Evans

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm

  According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the company plans to launch premium accounts that will provide customers with enhanced features and analytics. (Source: ClickZ) So, the question is what will enhanced features and analytics mean? In terms of analytics, Twitter could offer data such as how many times a tweet has been retweeted, how many times a link within a tweet had been clicked on, geo-location information now that the geotagging API is officially available, as well as information about how often a corporate name and brand has been mentioned over a certain of time. While this…

• RIP: Twitter’s Suggested Users

  Mark Evans

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:09 am

  It took longer than it should have but Twitter has finally decided to kill the suggested user list – the one that automatically added 20 high-profile people to follow for all new Twitter users. The list was sophomoric because it was all the cool people culled from a master list of about 500 celebrities, athletes and politicians on Twitter as opposed to provide new users with a useful tool that would help them find people who met their specific interests. In the end, all that suggested users really did was artificially promote the popularity of certain Twitter users such as Ashton…

• Measuring Your Importance on Twitter

  Mark Evans

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  Earlier today, I stumbled across a really interesting Twitter service called TweetLevel, which was created by Edelman that “measures an individual’s importance on Twitter”. TweetLevel determines your importance by using four metrics: influence, popularity, engagement and trust. Here’s how each metric is defined: - Influence: A combination of the number of posts made, and the number of retweets.- Popularity: The number of followers – the more followers, the higher the score- Engagement: The amount of talk spent responding and talking to other Twitter users- Trust…

• 
  VersionTracker: Mac OS X

• iVideo Converter 2.1.1 - Utility for converting multimedia files.

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:26 am

  Video : mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, H.264, XviD, Theora, avi, wmv, mov, flv, dv, 3gp, svq, mvk, ffv1 and more. Audio: mp2, mp3, m4a, aac, flac, alac, wav, wma, ac3, ogg and more. Other Formats: .avs, .dxa, .flic, .fli, .mlp, .mvi, .nsv, .pva, .nuv, .swf, .mts, .dca, .mpc, .mtv, dca, ... Support for multi audio channels videos (Surround, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, ...) Converts several Digital Video Camera formats. (.m2t, .m2ts, .mts, .mod, .tod). Extracting audio from video. Advanded converting options. Concatenate Files (AKA Stitching) Presets for iPod, iPhone, XBox 360, PSP, PS3, Apple TV, ... Preview…

• JiXii 3.0 - Jigsaw puzzle game, use pictures of your own choice.

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:05 am

  Start the program with a double-click or by dropping an image file onto the program icon. Scatter pieces by selecting a menu item (under "Puzzle") and drag pieces back to the right position. Rotate a piece, if necessary, by double-clicking it. Take your time & enjoy! Main features:Use your favorite image 5 grades image sizeTotal piece number ca.20 - 2400 Customize appearance and sounds(showing outline, puzzle board color, background color, selected piece highlight method) Display hints and the original imageTimer to keep your recordsSave as separate small puzzles, etc.

• Pukka 1.8.3 - Multi-account app for Delicious, Ma.gnolia, and other social bookmarking.

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:58 pm

  Pukka is a fast, light, multi-account application for Delicious, Ma.gnolia, and other social bookmarking services that works with any browser and as an external editor in NetNewsWire, NewsFire, and Vienna. It also offers Spotlight searching support and dock and menu bar integration.

• Solitaire 3D 4.5 - 3D solitaire games

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:54 pm

  Play your favourite Solitaire games, including FreeCell, Spider, Gaps and Klondike, all for free. Beautiful 3D graphics, fully customizable board sets, unique lighting effects, and much more make this a must for all solitaire fans.

• Vuze 4.3.0.4 - Find, Download, Play. Fullscreen HD video. Anytime, anywhere.

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm

  Vuze is the most powerful bittorrent software application to Find, Download, and Play HD video content on the Web. With the latest release, you get powerful new search capabilities, along with the ability to play your HD videos on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, and Tivo. Our award-winning P2P bittorrent technology enables users to quickly and easily download HD video with a single click.

• 
  Roger Ebert

• The Twilight Saga: New Moon / * (PG-13)

  “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (PG-13, 130 minutes). The characters in this movie should be arrested for loitering with intent to moan. The sequel to "Twilight" (1988) is preoccupied with remember that film and setting up the third one. sitting through this experience is like driving a tractor in low gear though a sullen sea of Brylcreem. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson return in their original roles, she dewy and masochistic, he sullen and manacing. Ah, teenage romance! One star

• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans / **** (R)

  "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans"(R, 107 minutes) Werner Herzog stars Nicolas Cage in a dire portrait of a rapist, murderer, drug addict, corrupt cop and degenerate paranoid who is apprehensive about iguanas. It places this man in a devastated New Orleans not long after Hurricane Katrina. It makes no attempt to show that city of legends in a flattering light. And it gradually reveals itself as a sly comedy about a rather courageous man. Cage and Herzog were born to work together. Four stars

• The Messenger / ***1/2 (R)

  "The Messenger" (R, 107 minutes) Two Army officers draw the hard duty of notifying the next of kin of a death in combat. Woody Harrelson plays the old hand at breaking the news. Ben Foster, plays the new man, wounded in combat in Iraq. He has a tendency to care about the people he's informing. Not Army policy, the veteran explains. You'll lose it if you let yourself care. With Samantha Morton as a new widow and Steve Buscemi as a father whose grief turns to anger. Directed by Oren Moverman, himself a combat veteran in the Israeli army. Three and a half stars

• Planet 51 / **1/2 (PG)

  "Planet 51" (PG, 91 minutes) Although not bowling me over, this is a jolly and good-looking animated feature in glorious 2-D. There's a twist: This time the alien is a human, and he lands on a planet occupied by little green men. On his world everyone speaks English, it's Fabulous Fifties, and the rain is made of rocks. Perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment. Two and a half stars

• Great Movie: Nosferatu (1922)

  To watch F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922) is to see the vampire movie before it had really seen itself. Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in cliches, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films. The film is in awe of its material. It seems to really believe in vampires.

• 
  Insanely Great Mac

• TomTom to release car kit for iPod Touch

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  In the flurry of recent iPhone GPS news, comes a second slightly less expensive car kit from TomTom

• Belkin recalls TuneBase accessories

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:59 am

  Company recalls accessories due to fire hazard.

• NAVIGON 1.3 Update w/ Traffic Live for iPhone 3G/3GS (Review)

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am

  A review of the latest update to NAVIGON MobileNavigator for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The big feature in the update is the new Traffic Live services.

• Other World Computing posts holiday gift deals with free shipping over $150

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm

  Selection of tech gadgets offer something for the Mac, iPhone, and iPod geek on your list.

• Business Card Reader -- App Scans Cards into iPhone's Address Book (Review)

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  This app essentially uses the iPhone camera to scan business cards, which then are inputting into the iPhone's Address Book.

• 
  PSDTUTS

• Matteus Faria Interview

  Emil

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  After one look at Matteus’s portfolio anyone would think this is the work of a veteran with a lot of skill, but most of you would be surprised to find out that he is only 17. With an amazing style of that integrates 2D and 3D graphic, age isn’t a factor for him. Matteus gives some great advice in this interview. He also talks about going to design school next year, how he creates his 3D work, and much much more. There is a lot to be learned in this interview, so lets get into it! 1. Welcome to Psdtuts+, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how…

• How to Create a Magician’s Hat in Photoshop

  Asher Abbasi

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how a magician’s hat can be designed in Photoshop. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and other Shape Tools. It shows a distinct use of different blending modes and focuses on other lighting techniques. Shadows are also explained in the tutorial and we’ll reveal some great beginner techniques. Let’s get started! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view…

• Dirty Design: Create a Grungy Thriller Book Cover

  Callum Chapman

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  We’re often told to not judge a book by its cover, but in most cases we do. If a book doesn’t have a nice cover, it probably wouldn’t catch our attention in the first place. In this tutorial, I’ll be teaching you how to create a dirty grunge book cover design complete with bleeds! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below. Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4…

• Create an Awesome 3D Anaglyph Poster – Psd Plus Tutorial

  Mark Mayers

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your 3D poster skills to the next level, then we have an awesome retro tutorial for you. Learn how to make and put to use Stereoscopic 3D images in Photoshop. Learn more at the jump! This Plus Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips Before the advent of computers, the movie industry relied on stop-frame or stop-motion animation to bring their monsters to life; special effect artists such as Ray Harryhausen used this technique on classics such as “One Million Years BC” and “The…

• Learn How to Draw Hand-crafted Pixel Art in Photoshop

  Russell Tate

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  In this tutorial, legendary Aussie illustrator Russel Tate teaches you how to draw with pixels. You’ll learn how to create awesome artwork in the style of eBoy and Army of Trolls. This article was kindly shared with Psdtuts+ by iStockphoto as part of a knowledge exchange between the two sites. Read on and enjoy! To celebrate this knowledge exchange, iStockphoto have created a special 15% discount for Psdtuts+ readers. Introduction Pixel illustrations are great for making computer icons, isometric images and even whole scenes. They can be made quickly and easily using Photoshop with a…

• 
  AIGA: Home

• Marking in L.A.: An Interview with François Chastanet

  Steven Heller

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Gangs use graffiti to leave their mark, but does the writing on the wall tell another story? Heller examines the calligraphic style called Cholo.

• The Employee/Employer Relationship at Design Firms

  Jessica Eve Goldfarb

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  A design firm’s greatest assets are its human resources, but how do you attract and keep creative talent?

• Case Study: National Park Foundation micro site

  Tracy Brady/Modernista! and Matt FaJohn/FL2

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Recently, FL2 and Modernista! partnered to create a site to bring visitors into the nearly 400 protected parks in the United States.

• Chapter Spotlight: AIGA Austin

  AIGA

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm

  What has AIGA Austin accomplished recently? What is “Design Ranch”? And (most importantly) what playlist best represents their chapter? Find out in the first of AIGA Charlotte’s new Chapter Spotlight series!

• 21 Writing Prompts for Design Students

  David Barringer

  10 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Students don’t like to write, you say? Maybe it’s the assignments that are the problem. Barringer proposes 21 ways to inspire student writing.

• 
  NETTUTS

• 5 More Helpful Video Quick Tips

  Jeffrey Way

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am

  As many of you might know, I post a sporadic video quick tip on Twitter once a week or so. For those of you who don’t follow us, here are the latest five. You’ll learn how to select anything and everything with jQuery, how to log PHP errors to a text file, how to change your website’s background with each WordPress post, and more. Each video does not exceed five minutes. How to Change your Website’s Background with Each WordPress Blog Post Watch on your iPhone Download the Mp4 Further Reading on this Subject How to Rename the jQuery “$” Symbol Watch on your…

• Sorting Values with JavaScript

  Andrew Burgess

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Lists and tables are often the best way to display data on the web; but you shouldn’t have to worry about sorting that information manually. In today’s tutorial, you’re going to make a jQuery plugin that will put all your ducks in a row with JavaScript ease! Preface So, how exactly does sorting work in JavaScript? It’s not too complicated: any array object has a sort method. If you don’t pass it any parameters, it will convert the objects in the array to strings, sort them pseudo-alphabetically, and return them. Usually, this is terrible; consider sorting the…

• How to Build a Custom jQuery Tabs Plugin: New Plus Tutorial

  Jeffrey Way

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  In this week’s 45 minute Plus video tutorial, I’ll personally teach you how to build a flexible jQuery tabs plugin. This plugin will automatically create the individual tabs, allow for auto-switching, fading, and plenty more – without being bloated. Why create a tabs plugin when there are plenty of them already available? Because too much abstraction is never a good thing. Become a Plus member. Join Tuts Plus For those unfamiliar, the family of TUTS sites runs a premium membership service called “TUTSPLUS”. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium…

• Build an RSS 2.0 Feed with CodeIgniter

  Drazen Mokic

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  In this tutorial, we will build a RSS 2.0 Feed with the PHP framework CodeIgniter. After this tutorial, you will be able to build a feed for any custom website in no time at all. Tutorial Details Program: CodeIgniter PHP Framework Version: 1.7.1 Difficulty: Easy Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes Step 1: What we Need First, we’ll take a look at the tools needed to get started. Besides an installation of CodeIgniter, we need a running MySQL database with some content from which we can build our feed. For this purpose, here are some dummy entries you can import. Create a database…

• 20 Email Design Best Practices and Resources for Beginners

  Matthew Kirk

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

  Even for experience designers, building email newsletters isn’t easy. You receive a lovely looking design, and you crack on with the development. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as it should in every email clients. Styles don’t display, images aren’t visible, etc. This is where these twenty best practices come in handy. 1: Keep the Design Simple Emails are not like complex website designs; they should be nicely designed, but somewhat basic. Try basing your designs on a main header image followed by the main content. The cleaner the design, the easier it will be to…

• 
  Virtualization.com

• Release: Univa UniCluster 5.0

  Robin Wauters

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm

  Univa UD, a provider of cloud management software products, today announced UniCluster 5.0, a major new version of Univa’s infrastructure and workload management software stack that provides the underpinnings of Univa’s cloud computing solutions. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• NextIO to Bring Virtualization Technology To IBM Cluster Solutions

  Robin Wauters

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:48 pm

  NextIO has announced it is working with IBM to offer customers integrated cluster solutions that incorporate NextIO technology, with availability in 2010. The solution will enable reconfigurable and on demand GPU compute capabilities for IBM iDataplex customers. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Release: Elastra Cloud Server (ECS) 2.0 – Enterprise Edition

  Robin Wauters

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:45 pm

  Elastra Corporation, a provider of application infrastructure automation software, has announced the immediate availability of Elastra Cloud Server (ECS) 2.0, Enterprise Edition. In this release, ECS lets customers compose, orchestrate and manage systems made up of Oracle databases, WebLogic Application Servers and other Enterprise-grade software as well as open-source applications like MySQL,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Zenoss Launches Version 2.5 Of Enterprise Product

  Robin Wauters

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:43 pm

  Zenoss, a commercial open source provider of IT enterprise management products, today announced the general availability of version 2.5 of its commercially licensed Zenoss Enterprise product. This latest version includes several new enterprise-grade scalability features targeted at managing today's datacenter as well as expanded management support for next generation datacenter technologies and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Release: Hyper9 Virtual Environment Optimization suite

  Robin Wauters

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:42 pm

  Hyper9 has announced the release of its Virtual Environment Optimization solution to provide better data, faster diagnosis and more reliable remediation associated with the virtualization of high performance applications. The critical nature of tier-1 business applications puts high demands on IT organizations to maintain predictable service levels and fast response times – standards that can be... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Subtraction.com

• Font Hunt

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm

  Giving back to Twitter department: earlier in the month I asked people who follow me on Twitter for recommendations for new typefaces. What I was looking for was an alternative to the typeface Klavika, which I quite like; it’s among the very best fonts that have been released in the recent past, in my opinion. Inconveniently for me, I somewhat subjectively regard Klavika as having been ‘claimed’ by a friend of mine who uses it more consistently and more effectively than I do. So I wanted something of my own, something similarly contemporary and similarly strong in…

• The Pencil Factory Has ”Fifteen Uses for Newsprint”

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm

  Fifteen Brooklyn illustrators reminds us of various other useful applications for newsprint. On sale for US$10.

• Introducing Basic Maths, a Theme for WordPress

  desk@subtraction.com

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  Things that have been keeping me from blogging: raising a brand new baby, having grown-up time with my girlfriend, walking my dog, holding down a day job and, now finally revealed: working on Basic Maths, a brand new theme for WordPress that I designed with my friend Allan Cole. After months of plugging away at in during whatever free time we’ve been able to find, we’re finally releasing it into the wild today, to coincide with WordCampNYC 2009. (In fact, I’m heading over to that conference later today, and Allan will be speaking there early this afternoon, so if…

• Watching Yankees Spending

  desk@subtraction.com

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:21 pm

  Last Wednesday The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their twenty-seventh World Series. After a nine year title drought, the victory predictably thrilled Yankees fans like myself while also re-igniting the old complaint that the franchise is a bully in the baseball market, that the team uses an obscenely resourceful payroll to effectively and unfairly buy championships. Actually, the pilot light for that particular criticism never goes out, whether the team has won or lost its most recent bid for the World Series (or even when they make no post-season appearance at…

• Hey Oscar Wilde, It’s Clobberin’ Time!

  desk@subtraction.com

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  Various comics artists interpret their favorite literary figure/author/character. Pretty entertaining.

• 
  CrackBerry.com blogs

• Sentient- New Premium Theme From Elecite!

  Bla1ze

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am

  Elecite has got an interesting new theme available. Sentient, looking like BumbleBee from Transformers is another from their cyborg series of themes. 6 user customizable icons take front stage to help get this one started and customized icons behind the "shield" keep the flow of the theme going nicely. If you wanna see Sentient in action, be sure to check out the video here. Sentient is currently available for the BlackBerry Curve 8900, 95xx, 96xx and finally, 9700 series devices for only $6.99, check out all the screenshots at the Elecite website. Purchase And Download Sentient Via…

• SmartSig Gives Your More Control Over Email Signatures

  Adam Zeis

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am

  I just checked out SmartSig and I have to say it is very cool. One of my long running gripes with BIS email signatures is that they show up at the very bottom of an email, after all the text in the email - even reply or quoted text. With SmartSig you can change that and have your signatures show up right where they belong. The app lets you choose custom signatures for email and SMS, and you can create and edit them right on your device. You'll need to delete your BIS signature for SmartSig to work properly, but from there you're all set. SmartSig runs on all devices with OS 4.3 and higher and…

• AT&T Curve 8520 Dummy Units Arriving In Stores

  Adam Zeis

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

    It looks like the AT&T branded Curve 8520 dummy units have started to arrive in some stores. The new device is ready for AT&T and was stated to be arriving "in the coming weeks", but no exact date just yet. We've seen this in the past over and over with dummy units and accessories popping up just a few days before the actual device is released. So if you've been waiting on this one, you may not have much longer to go. CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. AT&T Curve 8520 Dummy Units Arriving In Stores

• Seesmic Releases Twitter Application For BlackBerry Smartphones!

  Bla1ze

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:32 pm

  [ youtube video link for mobile viewing ] Seesmic, one the larger provides of desktop applications for Twitter has moved into the mobile market. As of now, heading on over to the Seesmic website from your BlackBerry will enable you to download the all new BlackBerry Twitter client. Features: All your timelines-Seesmic for BlackBerry groups all your Twitter timelines into one simple application. Whether you want to scroll through your friends timeline, check on a saved search, view a list or want to find a private conversation with a friend, everything is one click away from the main menu.

• Contest: Win 1 of 100 Free Unlock Codes For Your BlackBerry Bold 9700!!

  Bla1ze

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm

  As more and more BlackBerry lovers are getting their hands onto the BlackBerry Bold 9700 it's time for us to go ahead and have a contest for you all. We've teamed up with CellUnlock once again to bring you all 100 free unlock codes for ANY BlackBerry Bold 9700 carrier. In addition to the 100 free codes, CellUnlock will give away 100 more additional unlock codes if we can help them break 1,000 followers on Twitter so be sure to follow CellUnlocknet and give em a shout. [Contest will run until Novemeber 25th. Please enter only once, duplicate entries will be ignored and of course, big thanks go…

• 
  Film School Rejects

• New Moon Topples The Dark Knight’s Opening Day Record

  Neil Miller

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:28 am

  Despite my clear disdain for the latest entry in the Twilight series, as written in my review, I must admit that Summit Entertainment is doing something right. The marketing arm of Summit, that is. The production arm is having some trouble assembling a creative team that can deliver a movie that’s more than fan-service, but those marketers seem to be taking things to the next level. Reports are coming in today that The Twilight Saga: New Moon not only broke the midnight opening record with $26.3 million at 3,514 theaters, but it has also passed The Dark Knight ($67.1m) and Transformers:…

• Junkfood Cinema: Battle Beyond the Stars

  Brian Salisbury

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

  Editor’s Note: We hope you enjoy this new Friday afternoon column, Junkfood Cinema, by Brian Salisbury. It celebrates movies that are so bad, even though they are also sometimes so good. For more (coming each and every Friday), stay tuned to the Junkfood Cinema Archive. Also, please feel free to let us know what you think of this new weekly feature in the comment section below. Battle Beyond the Stars Directed by: Jimmy T. Murakami Written by: John Sayles & Anne Dyer Produced by: Roger Corman, Ed Carlin, & Mary Ann Fisher Starring: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, John Saxon, and…

• Michael Bay Still Loves Megan Fox

  Neil Miller

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  Despite their on-again, off-again routine of media spats, Michael Bay still has a thing for actress Megan Fox. Which means that her Transformers character Mikaela Banes will be surviving on into the next film, Transformers 3. While he was chillin’ at the Victoria’s Secret Show this week in New York, Bay was wrestled to the ground by USA Today reporter Andrea Mandell and forced to make a comment on Fox, who has been in the news lately due to some oddly acrobatic underwear photos she took for The New York Times (one of which can be seen above). On Fox, Bay said “I love…

• Mia Wasikowski is the New Jane Eyre?

  Robin Ruinsky

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:08 am

  I was looking forward to seeing Ellen Page as Jane Eyre, wondering how she would handle the role of the poor governess from the wrong side of the moors. The star of Juno might have been able to bring a new twist to a character that has been filmed at least nineteen times. Or could be a thousand. IMDb isn’t always accurate.  My favorite  Jane is Andrea Martin in the Second City TV “Jane Airhead”. Her work in the role stands alone. As for serious Jane’s the role has been played by Charlotte Gainsborough, Joan Fontaine, Samantha Morton.  Anna Paquin played the young…

• Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

  Neil Miller

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

  I was always taught that if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right. And in my mind, there isn’t a more apt application for such a life theory than in the adaptation of popular novels into films. When you think about these popular literary franchise — many of whom have rabid fan bases — it is hard to imagine making a movie (or in this case, two) out of them that are subpar. As we’ve seen with the Harry Potter franchise, the key is to take the story from the books and build upon it. Find good actors, dazzle the fan base with great special…

• 
  A List Apart

• On Web Typography

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Until now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many faces to which we’ll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they’re aesthetically unsuitable or because they’re just plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into the widening world of web type.

• Real Web Type in Real Web Context

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Web fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces will look on the web.

• Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  It's hard for clients to understand the true value of user experience research. As much as you'd like to tell your clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call you back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. David Sherwin creates a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise.

• You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  "Content-rich" is not enough. Most websites are not learner-friendly. As an industry, we haven’t done our best to make our content-rich websites suitable for learning and exploration. Learners require more from us than keywords and killer headlines. They need an environment that is narrative, interactive, and discoverable. Amber Simmons tells how to begin creating rich content sites that invite and repay exploration and discovery.

• Getting to No

  20 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.

• 
  The iPhone Blog

• Wired’s “We Really Hope Apple’s Making an iTablet!” Interface Concept

  Rene Ritchie

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  How badly does Wired’s publisher, Condé Nast, want to get their content on the still-mythical Apple iTablet? Badly enough that they’re working with Adobe to mock up their old content for this new (and still hypothetical!) medium. See the video above. (Warning! turn down your volume first!) Now, we understand when movies started they were just filmed stage productions, and so it makes some sense that this looks a lot like scanned magazine pages made slideshow — with a nice interactive map thrown in. The good news is that Apple’s iTablet is still unreal, so…

• Birdfeed Twitter Client for iPhone Goes 1.2

  Rene Ritchie

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  Birdfeed [$2.99 - iTunes link], one of the best looking, slickest working iPhone Twitter clients we’ve looked at, has just been updated to version 1.2 and is jam-packed with new, well-handled features: Geographic locations can now be attached to posted tweets using Twitter’s new Geo API, and a tweet’s location, if present, will now be displayed as a place name (e.g. “Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, New York”) in the tweet detail view. Tweet locations can also be examined in a new map view. Flickr accounts can now be used as photo sharing services for New photo…

• TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #76 — Game On!

  Rene Ritchie

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm

  Our podcast feed Download Directly Subscribe via iTunes Join Rene, Chad, and Precentral.net’s Keith Newman for Apple gaming, profit share, OnLive, private API, Facebook fallout, Verizon attack ads and AT&T strikes back, gPhone cometh, Palm Pixi, and all the news, plus your questions answered! Listen in! Credits Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat! Our music comes from the following sources: I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge This is a story by the iPhone…

• iPhone Apps for Less Addendum: Save Up to $30 on Navigon MobileNavigator

  Rene Ritchie

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:57 pm

  Navigon, makers of MobileNavigator [iTunes link] let us know that they’re now running a: special Thanksgiving promotion for its iPhone navigation app striving to help drivers avoid this year’s holiday traffic congestion. For 10 days only, (November 20-30) NAVIGON’s iPhone app, MobileNavigator will be on sale for $69.99 instead of $89.99 providing a $20.00 savings. In addition, NAVIGON’s Traffic Live feature is also on sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99. If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger, and price was your concern, how’s this deal do ya? This is a story by the…

• Gameloft: 13% of Revenue from iPhone, Nobody Making Money on Android

  Rene Ritchie

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm

  Gameloft — and other developers according to Gameloft — are cutting back on development for Google’s Android platform due to the “weakness” of the Android Market. According to Reuters, Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said: We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others. [The Android Market] is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.” Ouch. Harsh words. Meanwhile, with iPhone…

• 
  Hulu Popular Videos

• E! News Now - Cyrus Comments On Tour Tragedy

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:15 pm

  Disney darling Miley Cyrus sends her deepest condolences to the family of the fallen crew member via her personal website.Add this to your queueAdded: Sat Nov 21 03:15:04 UTC 2009Air date: Fri Nov 20 00:00:00 UTC 2009Duration: 01:16

• Stargate Universe - s1 | e9 - Life

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:51 pm

  While Scott and Wray visit loved ones on Earth, the crew's explorations turn up a startling discovery.Add this to your queueAdded: Sat Nov 21 00:51:04 UTC 2009Air date: Fri Nov 20 00:00:00 UTC 2009Duration: 43:04Rating: 4.2 / 5.0Closed captions available.

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - s14 | e150 - Thu, Nov 19, 2009

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pm

  California rock band Jack's Mannequin performs a song from their new album, "The Glass Passenger."Add this to your queueAdded: Fri Nov 20 06:26:04 UTC 2009Air date: Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 UTC 2009Duration: 21:41Rating: 4.0 / 5.0Closed captions available.

• White Collar - s1 | e5 - The Portrait

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm

  When an expensive portrait is stolen from a young woman, Peter and Neal set a sting for the cunning and deadly culprit. Neal must uncover the secret truth of the portrait's origin even as the net tightens around the villain – and around Neal himself!Add this to your queueAdded: Fri Nov 20 02:02:05 UTC 2009Air date: Fri Nov 20 00:00:00 UTC 2009Duration: 42:25Rating: 4.9 / 5.0

• Cougar Town - Topless

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:38 am

  Ellie, Jules and Laurie explore the resort hot tub.Add this to your queueAdded: Thu Nov 19 10:38:04 UTC 2009Air date: Wed Nov 18 00:00:00 UTC 2009Duration: 01:30Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

• 
  Holy Kaw!

• How to save time

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  Here’s a great tool: Sue Shellenbarger, over at the Wall Street Journal, has test drove three time management tools for us, so we don’t have to try them ourselves. Talk about time saving. The three tested methods are: • Getting things done. • The Pomodoro Technique. • Franklin Convey’s Focus. Read the article to see what she found. We’ve got lots more ways to get things done and hack your life, too. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• How to re-imagine the color of your room with no paint

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

  Want to see what your room would look like with different paint? Check out colorjive.com, a really cool site that takes your pictures and changes the colors of the walls in just a few easy steps. It's fun! And it could save a lot of fails. More cool design sites. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Common mistakes in social media and other insights on impact

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:03 am

  Over on SmartBlog, Mary Ellen Slayter interviews Olivier Blanchard (above), a seasoned brand strategist at BrandBuilder Marketing. Blanchard delves into his perspective on how businesses can maximize their return on social media. He shares, for instance, three common mistakes companies make when trying to measure the value of social media: Focusing too much on digital measurement. Not understanding the difference between nonfinancial impact and financial impact. Not establishing clear goals and objectives when launching a social media program. How can you avoid this fate, and what other…

• A geography of BBQ

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am

  As a newcomer to DC, people keep telling me that my BBQ education is about to begin. Though complete strangers and close roommates have preached the glories of BBQ, this article is the clearest introduction to the sauce I’ve seen yet. Did you know there are at least four kinds of sauce? Kansas City Style Sauce Texas Style Sauce North Carolina Style Sauce South Carolina Style Sauce Check out the article to see just how each of them differ. Hungry for more? There’s much more about food and recipes. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• France vs. Ireland controversial goal video

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:58 pm

  In case you haven’t seen the controversial goal in the France versus Ireland game, here you go. Total coverage of soccer. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 
  VMware Networking Blog

• Formation of VCE coalition

  Guy Brunsdon

  3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

  The Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition was announced this morning. This is a coalition between Cisco and EMC, together with VMware to accelerate customers’ ability to increase business agility. Apart from bringing a single point of contact for design, service, and support, the coalition introduces the notion of the “Vblock Infrastructure Packages.” These are ready-to-go infrastructure packages that are fully tested, integrated and validated. You can find more information (presentations, papers, videos, etc) at: Press Release Cisco’s VCE Coalition page EMC’s VCE Coalition…

• Special new ways to manage, monitor and configure virtual networks

  Guy Brunsdon

  9 Oct 2009 | 12:20 pm

  vSphere has SDKs and APIs for just about every component, feature and product (including the new vCloud API!). Just take a look at the VMware developer site. This is a powerful adjunct to vSphere enabling extremely powerful virtualization solutions. But this is a networking blog, so let’s talk about the vNetwork API. This is already a powerful toolset enabling you to extend the capabilities of your network. But we’re not stopping there. Those of you who caught Howie Xu’s (Director, R&D) presentation at VMworld would have caught a glimpse of how we are enhancing monitoring,…

• Blogging contest around the vNetwork Distributed Switch

  Guy Brunsdon

  5 Oct 2009 | 1:03 pm

  Apologies for the long time between posts, but this might get a few of you interested… Through to the end of this week, we are running a blogging contest around vDS (a.k.a. the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch). All you have to do is blog about a novel technical or business ROI topic around vDS. Once you have posted your blog entry, send an email to vmtn@vmware.com to submit the entry for consideration. Remember, you have until Friday October 9, so get your thinking cap on and write away! You can find more information on the competition at this entry at the VMware vSphere Blog. You can…

• VMworld is almost here … here are your must attend networking sessions

  Guy Brunsdon

  26 Aug 2009 | 9:02 pm

  **updated 8/27 to include room numbers!** VMworld is upon us next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We have a fantastic assortment of sessions from beginner level right up to the very advanced—something for everyone. Breakout Sessions As usual, we have a good assortment of networking sessions hosted by ourselves and our partners. I’ve listed the sessions in chronological order (I’m presenting the first two and then I’m done!). Srinivas Neginhal’s “VMware vSphere 4 Networking Deep Dive” (TA2525) is a 90-minute session and is also repeated at Thursday at 4:00pm. Session…

• vNetwork API Community Website launched

  Guy Brunsdon

  26 Aug 2009 | 5:12 pm

  Feeling creative? Have a virtual networking problem or idea? If so, then the vNetwork APIs could be for you. The '”vNetwork API Community” is now open for business at the easy to remember url of vmware.com/go/vnetworkapis The vNetwork API Community is hosted under the VMware Developer Communities website where you’ll find APIs, code samples, and other developer goodies for a range of VMware products and technologies.

• 
  Ars Technica - Infinite Loop

• Hacked Darwin kernel available for 10.6.2 on Atom netbooks

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  First the 10.6.2 update to Snow Leopard wasn't compatible with Intel Atom processors. Then it was. Then it wasn't again when it was finally released to the masses. Fortunately for the netbook-loving Mac OS X fans out there, the OSx86 scene is only too happy to offer a patched version of mach_kernel to enable booting 10.6.2 on netbooks once more. The kernel is the deep-down part of Mac OS X that generally handles direct communication between the OS and hardware. Speculation swirled that Apple was actively trying to keep Mac OS X from being installed on inexpensive Atom-based netbooks. However,…

• Students get discounts on Exchange-compatible Office for Mac

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am

  College isn't cheap these days, even if you're attending public university. In that case, pretty much any discount offered to students is welcome. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit has just announced that it's offering a special discount on the full Office 2008 Business Edition for US college students, offering them a 70 percent discount off the usual retail price. Even if you're not a college student, though, the Mac BU is offering a range of "holiday" discounts on Office as well. Office 2008 for Mac comes in two different editions. The Home & Student Edition includes Word, Excel,…

• After long wait, Camino 2.0 finally hits the streets

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Camino—the Gecko-based browser with native Cocoa interface and more seamless Mac OS X integration—has finally landed an official 2.0 release. The browser uses a much newer version of Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine (the same one used in Firefox) along with updated tabs and improved security features. However, Camino still lags Firefox in support for Web fonts and advanced HTML5 features like <video> and offline storage. Camino 2.0 has a number of new features over the 1.x series, which has been mostly in maintenance mode for the last couple of years. Tabbed browsing has…

• 1Password 3.0 now shipping, comes with cross platform tool

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

  After less than a month of public beta testing, Agile Web Solutions has announced that 1Password 3.0 is now final and available for purchase. Not only is the Snow Leopard-ified version of the software rife with all the same new features we discussed in October, it also comes with a new tool called 1PasswordAnywhere that allows you to access your encrypted keychain on any operating system. As we mentioned in our writeup of the public beta, the new version of the password and personal info manager brings much more than just Snow Leopard compatibility (technically, 1Password 2 works under Snow…

• Apple fourth best among build quality study for portables

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:15 am

  SquareTrade, Inc., a company that offers extended warranties on all sorts of consumer electronics, has published a study on laptop longevity based on 30,000 costumer experiences. The numbers show that Apple is fourth in terms of reliability, as machines from the Cupertino company suffered a smidgen over 10 percent failure rate over a two-year period and an estimated 17.4 percent rate over three years. Asus, Toshiba, and Sony all had lower two-year and estimated three-year failure rates, with Asus taking the top spot at just under 10 percent over two years and an estimated 15.6 percent over…

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  Filmmaker Magazine

• BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU @MOMA THIS WEEKEND

  Scott Macaulay

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:44 pm

  Contributing Editor Brandon Harris has posted on his blog a new preview of Filmmaker and MoMA's annual "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" program, which unspools at the museum this week. Screening will be the five films that will be competing for the Gotham Award we sponsor on December 1. (For schedule and film descriptions, visit MoMA's site.) Brandon writes that this year's program is the strongest we've put together in the six years of doing this series, and I agree. This isn't to say that previous years haven't been strong, but in the past we've always been able to indulge…

• THIS WAS MTV IN THE '90s

  Scott Macaulay

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pm

  It didn't used to be all reality shows. In 1990 MTV aired Buzz, an experimental video art collage show by director Mark Pellington. Genesis P-Orridge, William Burroughs, RU Sirius, David Byrne, and other transgressive thinkers (oh yes, and Jon Bon Jovi) were all featured in the debut show, which was openly inspired by Bruce Conner and other experimental filmmakers. Boing Boing noticed that the first episode has been been posted to YouTube, and I've embedded the clips below.

• OSCAR DOC SHORTLIST: THE COVE & FOOD, INC. IN; TYSON & CAPITALISM OUT

  Jason Guerrasio

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:42 pm

  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the 15 films that have made the shortlist for Best Documentary. Two of the most prised docs of the year made the list: Louie Psihoyos's The Cove and Robert Kenner's Food, Inc., as well as a few lesser known titles like Anders Ostergaard's Burma VJ and Matt Tyrnauer's Valentino: The Last Emperor. But surprisingly excluded were Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and James Toback's Tyson. The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on February 2. Best Documentary Shortlist: The Beaches of Agnes Agnes Varda, director…

• READY TO RECord

  Jason Guerrasio

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:53 am

  The Sundance Institute announced today the 13 artists selected for the New Frontier section at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. These works will be shown at New Frontier on Main, open to the public Thursday, January 21 through Saturday, January 30, 2010. (The full list of artists are below.) One of the artists chosen this year is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (pictured), who we discovered last year has an interest in the new media/digital artists on the Web as he's created the site hitRECord.org. In the Spring 2009 issue we talked to him about the site, which at the time was still not fully…

• THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD

  Howard Feinstein

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm

  The mountain came to Mohamed. I picked up a bug that lingered and made me miserable. But I had accepted the honor of being a juror for the Kieslowski Prize at the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival, which began last week and runs through November 22. Only six foreign-language films were competing for our votes, and, either at other festivals or through the kindness of European sales agents, I had seen them all. (The prize is sponsored by Screen, for which I am a reviewer.) Something told me I should cover myself as a journalist just in case I didn’t heal in time, since I had promised to cover…

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  Filmmaker.com

• Free Screenwriting Software Celtx Updates to Version 2.5.1

  Waldo

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:19 am

  So a new version of the Celtx screenwriting/pre-production software has been released. Version 2.5 offers several new features, including "Revision Mode" which locks page numbers while you make edits, Text Lock Mode, a Sketch tool to add images to the project, Studio Collaboration which is an integrated text messaging service for Studio users, and new options for PDF formatting. Celtx is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows in over 30 languages at no cost. Update 11/15/09: 2.5.1 Released. Bugs addressed: 1. Windows crashes when canceling add image dialog. If you cancel the add image dialog…

• A Writer Asks... How's the JVC GY-HM100U Camera?

  Waldo

  28 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

  ali wrote with the following question: I want to ask you for info on a specific camera- not sure if youve tried it out but i cant get an honest answer from a sales guy so id thought id try here. the model is gy-hm100u it is a jvc hd cam that records on sd card and it is made to drop and drag files directly onto apple final cut pro. I was wondering if the camera would be still compatable with adobe and if it would be difficult to transfer video to a pc. if anyone knows about this and has any advice please let me know. I dont want to buy something that will be too expensive and doesnt work well…

• Screenwriting Software Final Draft, Free Office Suite NeoOffice Updated

  Waldo

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:12 am

  Both the screenwriting application Final Draft and the free office suite for Mac, NeoOffice had updates this week. The new Final Draft, version 8.01 is said to include "even more new and improved features". Meanwhile, after months of testing, NeoOffice 3.0.1's major features include 10.6 Snow Leopard support, a new feature for saving files online called "NeoOffice Mobile", and native file locking support for local and networked volumes. Download it here for free. Bookmark/Search this post with: read more

• What's New In Avid Media Composer 4.0

  Ben

  27 Sep 2009 | 12:16 pm

     Additions to Media Composer version 4 include: • New "Mix & Match" capabilities let you mix video clips of any frame rate or field motion type regardless of the project’s type.... with no rendering necessary. • New Expert Decompose Feature. • Laptop editing enhancements for Time Code navigation and numeric trim value entry. • Multicamera editing enhancements.          Get More Details: + Watch a video of the new Mix & Match video capabilities + Watch a video about the new Transition Preservation…

• American Cinema Editors Honors Avid Media Composer

  Ben

  9 Aug 2009 | 9:32 am

  Daily Variety reports: "...the American Cinema Editors board of directors is honoring Avid's Media Composer software with the org's first-ever ACE Technical Excellence Award. ~snip~ The nod amounts to an unprecedented endorsement of a commercial product by ACE, which is coming down squarely on the side of one entry in the editing systems [competition]. ~snip~ The subtext of the kudo announcement is also a message to producers: ACE's members are frustrated about not having a choice of which tools they use, and they don't like being forced to use alternatives to Avid. ~snip~ Harry B.

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  IFC.com

• Pennan vs. Forks, towns made touristy by movies.

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:55 am

  Today, innumerable thousands of shrieking tweens (and older counterparts who really should know better) will descend on the nation's multiplexes, baying for "New Moon" blood. The phenomenon isn't limited to theaters: Forks, Washington -- where Stephanie Meyer set her novel without ever visiting -- has seen tourism jump way up, from 18,000 visitors in 2008 to more than 64,000 this year alone. Twihards come in hoards, over 100 a day, desperate for a scrap of town memorabilia, stealing dropped library cards and offering cheerleaders cash for their uniforms. It's all very impressive and…

• Fellini: The Ride.

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Here in America, we have solid theme park rides based on movies that, for the most part, make sense, like Universal Studios' "E.T. Adventure," or the "Wayne's World" roller coaster "Hurler" (since sold and de-"Wayne"'d by Paramount, but still). But in Rome, they're building a ride based on the Fellini film "City of Women." Yes, in an effort to shore up tourism in the city, Cinecittà Studios is going to give us Cinecittà World -- 400 acres of themed fun for the whole family, based on the many movies that have shot at the legendary studios over the year. Since there's some 630 titles to…

• Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009.

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Jeanne-Claude -- Christo's collaborator and partner -- died today in Manhattan at the age of 74. It was fitting, in a way, not only because the artist pair have been residents of the city since 1964, but because their last big completed project was "The Gates," which turned Central Park's walkways into a series of orange vinyl doorways and drapes, portways of color livening up an especially dreary winter. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been shorthanded as the people who "wrap" things, which only goes so far. A bigger part of their projects was to rendering the familiar temporarily strange,…

• Dissecting the Oscar doc shortlist.

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:35 am

  Bemoaning the failures of the Oscars in the Best Documentary department has become an annual ritual, like spazzing about filing your income taxes or dusting off stale jokes about March Madness obsessions. So the news that this year's doc shortlist of 15 potential nominees is full of omissions and small obscurities is not a surprise. Many folks would've liked to have seen "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil," "Collapse," "Crude," "Tyson," "We Live In Public," "The September Issue" or "It Might Get Loud" on the list. So it goes. Some of those omissions are reasonable -- there's not much in "Tyson" you…

• The Werner Herzog, Jr. awards.

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" open Friday, Werner Herzog's supposed latest exercise in unhinged lunacy. But as a colleague observed after a screening, "If you didn't know going in Herzog had made it, would you be able to tell?" I'd say probably not: there's none of his trademark stunning footage that was clearly dangerous to get. It's understandable that at 67, Herzog hasn't really endangered himself of late. But who are the filmmakers willing to take up his mantle of unusually arduous and potentially hazardous shooting? Some nominees: Benjamin Gilmour ("Son of a Lion")…