Technology is a fast moving and growing industry and marketers are now starting to utilizes the potential of some of these mediums of technology to there advantage. One that I will be talking about is video's in print.

In a marketing stunt to promote its fall TV series, CBS Corp. has inserted thousands of tiny screens in copies of the Time Warner Inc. publication Entertainment Weekly for the month of September 2009.

The screens measure two and a quarter inches diagonally and play about 40 minutes of clips from new and old CBS shows.

The video begins with a cheeky intro to the "video-in-print" technology, starring characters from the show "The Big Bang Theory."

After that, the reader/viewer can push a spot on the cardboard insert that holds the screen and watch a clip of the sitcom "Two and a Half Men." Push another to see a preview of the new crime-investigation spinoff "NCIS: Los Angeles." Another delivers an ad for PepsiCo Inc., which is helping fund the promotion.

The player, developed and made by Americhip Inc. of Los Angeles, is much like the chips that play music in some greeting cards and magazine ads and is rechargeable.

The audio quality is good, but beware: There are no volume controls, and in a quiet environment, it’s prettyloud. This is surely a intentional design feature, aimed at getting the attention of people nearby.

Upon getting to the ad, there is a 5-second delay before anything happens — there is enough on the page to probably hold the unassuming reader’s attention for that long, if nothing else the eerie stare from Neil Patrick Harris — and then a 5-second still promo before the promo for the player’s developer, Americhip.

As impressive as this step is, the true marriage of print and digital multimedia still seems quite far off, and eons away from the streaming updates in the newspapers of Minority Report fame.


Side Note - My last name is used in this video.

Reference: Wall Street Journal, Wired

Sony's new "bendable" and transparent organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology is being shown in prototypes featuring an OLED a mere 0.2 mm thick. The prototype devices are a Vaio notebook, a flexible e-book, and a Walkman bracelet.
The OLED screen is transparent and flexible, and the viewing angle range is almost unlimited. OLED technology has a number of advantages over LEDs, including higher efficiency, faster response times, and no requirement for backlighting. The devices also have very low energy needs.

Sony demonstrated an OLED television in 2008 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a flexible 0.2 mm thick OLED audio player at this year's show. Several other companies, such as Samsung and LG, are also working on flexible OLED displays.

The devices on show at CEATEC JAPAN are all at the concept stage and there is no indication of when, or even if, they will ever be marketed.

The Sony Reader and Walkman redone with flexible OLED technology.
(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET )


Vaio with flexible OLED screen.
(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)



Reference: CNet, Physorg.com

So I am sure that you have all noticed the bar code doodle logo that Google is using today. They are using it for the celebration of the 57th anniversary of the invention of the bar code.

On that note, have you ever even thought about how the bar code was invented? This intrigued mind did and this is what I found out about the creation of the bar code.

Their research began in 1948 after Mr Silver, a graduate student at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, overheard a local food chain boss asking one of the institute's deans to design a system for reading product data automatically.

Mr Silver and Mr Woodland, a fellow graduate student and teacher at Drexel, first tried using patterns of ink that glowed under ultraviolet light, but it proved too expensive and unreliable.

Mr Woodland then came up with the linear bar code, and later replaced the lines with circles so that they could be scanned from any angle. The pair patented their “bull’s eye” design the next year.

The bar code was first trialled in 1966, and in 1970, the familiar Universal Product Code (UPC) design, still used around the world, was agreed on as an industry standard.

The first item to be scanned using UPC was a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974.

Neither inventor made a fortune on the idea because they sold the patent in 1952 for a moderate sum before it was commercialized.

Mr Silver never even witnessed the bar code’s success, having died in a car crash in 1962.

Reference: Telegraph.co.uk

In today's world of computers there are hundreds of different tutorials out there on Photoshop manipulation. More than likely you have seen different styles in which have inspired you and your creativity. However today's post is going to be on some photos that look like they have been Photoshoped but are not. The photographers just took different approaches and angles to achieve their results.

Typography is the a form of science meeting art. Space, size, type treatment/effects, contrast, color selection – and much more – go into every piece of design that involves the use of type. The impressive works of art below are all focused on typography art that are guaranteed to inspire your next typography project.

Lyric portrait

Ash Dreams

Chinad0ll

Steven Paul Jobs

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke by Steve Yee

The new Sony PSP Go was launched this week, it has gotten some various opinions and reviews. The PSP Go has a slick new look with a crisp clear screen to the new gaming format. The PSP Go is a sleek-looking device, which is 16 percent lighter and 35 percent smaller than its predecessor, the PSP 3000. The screen has shrunk to 3.8 inches from 4.3 inches. The Go supports Bluetooth but, most importantly, the UMD drive is gone. That means all content, including games, must be saved to the device's 16GB internal memory or a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. The Go retails for $250, and it looks like a 16GB Memory Stick Micro card will set you back somewhere between $60 and $80.

Go Game

Instead of buying games from your local video game shop, all PSP Go games must be purchased online from Sony's PlayStation Store. Early reviews are complaining about the download speeds when you buy a new game from Sony. The average time seems to be at least an hour if not two to download a title directly to the Go. The problem may be the fact that the PSP Go's wireless connectivity is 802.11b. Why Sony didn't go with faster choices like 802.11g or the newly approved 802.11n connectivity is puzzling. Another downside: no background downloads. If you're downloading a game to the Go, the device will be busy for a few hours. The alternative is to download games to your PC or PS3 and then transfer them later on.

Controller

While the layout may be different, the control scheme on the PSP Go is little changed from earlier PSP models: a four-way d-pad on the left, the standard quartet of geometrically coded Sony controls (circle, square, cross, triangle) on the right, select/start buttons in the center, and the PlayStation "home" button to the left of the screen.

Digital Media Support

The Go boasts the same support for music, video, and photo files as earlier PSPs, so you should have no trouble transferring gigabytes of media from a PC (or via the M2 flash media card). Downloadable movies and TV shows can be purchased directly from the PlayStation Store over Wi-Fi (no more need to use the PS3 or PC as an intermediary). Despite early rumors of a PSP-centric music store, Sony's instead opted for a partnership with eMusic. In other words, users can purchase DRM-free tracks from any online music store (Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and so forth) and simply copy them over to the PSP.

Sony will be releasing software called Media Go to help users manage the PSP's content on their PC (this replaces the older, and not terribly useful, Sony Media Manager software). The company is also promising a feature called "Sense Me" that will analyze your music library to play music based on a mood you choose.

PS3 Intergration

Again, it appears the existing interoperability between the PS3 and the PSP line will be carried over to the PSP Go. That includes the ability to cross-load some games and media, as well as the Remote Play option (access PS3-based content from the PSP over the Internet).



References: PCWorld.com and CNET.com

So I ended up doing a blog the other day about the Samsung ST550 and well I ended up buying one. Good thing I did to because it's awesome! So I took it for a nature walk and here are some of the pictures that I took yesterday at Phillipe Park in Safety Harbor, Florida. Enjoy the pictures and to make it more effective listen to this promo song by the band "Soft". There CD Gone Faded comes out on October 23rd.

Since we are now in the fall season, the first thing that comes to mind is Pumpkins. Right? Pumpkins are a trademark of the fall season; however have you ever wonder the history of the pumpkin and the Jack-o-Lantern. Well here is a little history on the Jack-0-Lantern.

History of the Jack-o-Lantern

People have been making jack-o-lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o lanterns.

Steve Dahlke

On that note let's talk about a Pumpkin carving expert and his works. Steve Dahlke has been carving for 20 years. His love for carving started when he was only 19 years old. When Steve was 19, he was already creating scary faces and works of art on pumpkins weighing approximately 60 lbs or more. In 1989, his carving took first place at the pumpkin weigh off in Elk Grove, Illinois. Steve enjoys carving all types of pumpkins but his specialty is carving pumpkins weighing well over 500 pounds. Here is some of his work.











Reference: Pumpkins and More: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/history.html

How would you like to print out your photos on the go. Now you can with the Polaroid PoGo - short for Polaroid-on-the-go - is a pocket-sized, ink-free digital photo printer that produces full-color photos wirelessly from Bluetooth-enabled cell phones and via PictBridge from digital cameras. Weighing only eight ounces, Polaroid PoGo™ provides consumers with a convenient solution for sharing digital images trapped on cell phones and digital cameras. Connecting via Bluetooth or PictBridge, Polaroid PoGo uses a revolutionary ZINK Zero Ink Zero Hassles Printing Technology to produce borderless, full-color, 2-inch by 3-inch prints in less than 60 seconds.

The paper that it uses produces water-resistant, smudge-proof, tear-proof, photos complete with a sticky backing just in case you want to adhere them to something. You get the PoGo printer, connection cable, AC adapter, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and 10 sheets of Digital Instant ZINK Photo Paper to get started. Polaroid claims that you can get 15 prints from a single battery charge.

You can get your own Polaroid PoGo Instant Mobile Printer at Amazon for around or less than $49.99. You can alsol get the Zink Paper for about $19.99