rendering

The site iDealsChina is at it again, posting what it claims are CAD renderings of the next-generation iPhone, which many presume will be called the iPhone 5.

The site says the "mold engineering" drawings were created to help guide accessory manufacturers in the production of their protective cases. Some similar drawings leaked in advance of the iPad 2 launch and an iPad 2 mockup that was spotted at CES in January ended up looking very similar to the actual iPad 2, which went on sale today.

If the purported renderings are to be believed, the next iPhone will … Read more

Safari has always felt more finished on its native Mac home than its Windows port, and version 5 is no different. Though the improvements made in Safari 5 lack the visual pop of the biggest changes in Safari 4, such as the Cover Flow-inspired Top Sites and history browsing and the interface refresh, Safari 5 contains just about the same level and quality of changes--with one caveat.

The biggest new feature that comes in Safari 5 hasn't been fully implemented yet. A new add-on network won't be officially available until later this summer according to Apple, but Safari'… Read more

RaceRender Video Processor is a program that can create and edit videos. For freeware, it has a great deal of functionality, despite its plainness.

The design of this program's interface is very basic, and its layout is fairly easy to navigate. The Help manual is extensive and covers pretty much any topic you need to know. A good Help manual is much appreciated since RaceRender is a complicated program, especially for users with little video editing experience. We were able to import a video file into the program with no trouble, and we discovered a few useful features, too. … Read more

Apple recently released a support document that explains why Microsoft PowerPoint slides appear blank with a white background or fail to render properly in the iPhone and iPod Touch Mail app.

The problem is a caused when documents, which are subject to display size limitations, are converted to HTML Web pages before being displayed on the iPhone or iPod. Large images or multiple medium-size images used on a PowerPoint slide result in some not being visible in the converted content.

It is important to give the slides time to render before giving up, because some slides take longer to convert. … Read more

Apple's latest iteration of Safari has a lot to offer, putting it among the top browsers in its category, but those who like to customize their surfing experience may need to look elsewhere. Version 4 features the Nitro engine, which runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3 (according to Apple) and it was certainly blindingly fast in all of our testing. The browser supports all modern Web standards, like HTML 5 and advanced CSS effects so you don't need to worry about whether Safari will work correctly on your favorite sites. Though Safari 4 … Read more

Initially met with some skepticism, the Windows version of Apple's Safari browser has developed into a strong Web-surfing candidate. Previous versions felt unfinished, but Safari 4 can stand should to shoulder with the other major Windows Web browsers--depending on what kind of experience you want.

Safari lacks most customization features. Skins and other aesthetic tweaks exist in the Mac version, but not here. Just about the only thing you can alter is the font. However, the new version represents a radical departure in look and feel, and the changes are for the better. Safari now looks much more like … Read more

It's not much to look at, but this program quickly and easily helps users convert files into PDF format, and comes at no cost.

PDFCreator has a very basic interface that won't win it any beauty contests. However, by keeping the visuals to a minimum, users will be able to quickly and easily navigate the program and get right to the task at hand. PDFCreator appears as a small, white, rectangular box with a thin strip of command icons along the top. Here you can print, look at options, navigate your files, and open new files. Below the … Read more

Here we go again. The gadget blogosphere is abuzz Wednesday with images of what may or may not be Microsoft's next-generation portable media player, the ZuneHD.

The renderings surfaced on the Windows Mobile Power User site without attribution or the more colorful flair of the earlier images leaked to Engadget on April 10. The big debate, of course, is whether these renderings are real or not--and more importantly, whether the accompanying specs have any validity.

Based on a source from Zunited, Engadget's saying the images really are the ZuneHD, but no one's quite buying that the alleged … Read more

I miss the old SGI. Silicon Graphics was widely regarded as the greatest computer company in Silicon Valley back in the 1990s. Sometimes forgotten--but not gone--SGI was one of our greatest success stories and one of our greatest tragedies.

Apple may have had more revenue by virtue of shipping millions of small systems, but SGI's hardware spanned the range from video-game consoles (the Nintendo 64) to workstations to supercomputers. SGI's Unix-based operating system, IRIX, was one of the most sophisticated in the industry.

I used to lust over SGI machines. I'd obsess over lists of used SGI gear, looking for a great deal that would let me have my own IRIX box at home. In 2004, I finally bought an Octane with MXI graphics... but that was years after these machines were effectively obsolete, and I paid less than 0.5% (1/200th!) of the original retail price of the machine.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, SGI was not well managed, losing huge amounts of money because its leaders would not… Read more