arts

How Electronic Arts resurrected its DOA Simpsons game

Don't call it a comeback.

"The Simpsons: Tapped Out" made its quiet return late last week after suffering through one of the more embarrassing meltdowns in app history when Electronic Arts pulled the game from Apple's App Store just a few days after its first launch in March. Simpsons fans had overwhelmed the server, causing connection problems, while massive bugs made for a terrible playing experience.

The incident is a lesson for any developer looking to launch a game with any amount of anticipation: be sure you're ready for the demand. Also, don't rush … Read more

Artist uses water to create illuminated graffiti

We live in a world full of LED lights, but the everyday illuminated fixture simply can't inspire like the Water Light Graffiti art wall.

Created by French artist Antonin Fourneau and his team at the Digitalarti Artlab studio in Paris, this piece proves that when you mix modern technology with traditional art, something quite compelling can happen.… Read more

SimCity starts beta sign-up, adds Mac compatibility

A deluge of SimCity news came from EA and Maxis at the massive Gamescom gaming expo yesterday in Cologne, Germany.

Interested architects can check out the SimCity closed beta sign-up Web page that gives anyone with an Origin account the chance to get an early preview of the urban planner. The page does not, however, list when the beta occurs or how long it lasts.… Read more

iPhoneography gets the red-carpet treatment in L.A.

If you have an iPhone, you've probably taken a photo or two (or hundreds or thousands) with the device. Maybe you've kept it casual, snapping the occasional cat, kid, and road trip photos and uploading them to Facebook, Google+, or another social network.

Maybe, like the talented Crave readers featured in our Instagram series, you've taken your iPhone photography further than pointing and shooting and gotten hooked on a photo enhancement app or two. Or maybe you've become so passionate about iPhone photography that you spend countless hours and numerous apps perfecting galleries upon galleries of iPhone creations. Most of the photographers featured in the first-ever LA Mobile Arts Festival fall into the latter category. … Read more

Samsung keeps prior art parade marching against Apple

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Samsung today brought out early technology relics in hopes of busting Apple's design patents for the iPhone and iPad -- the very ones Apple has pointed at it like howitzers.

The South Korean technology giant called upon a pair of experts -- one in person, another by video deposition -- to make the case that others had beaten Apple to the punch, effectively rendering those patents useless.

Samsung's argument relied mainly on foreign patent designs and an early prototype for a tablet that never made it into commercial production. However, Samsung also brought out … Read more

How tweets reveal where you live

Monday's top-story rundown knows where you live:

Just when you think it's safe to tweet, here comes WeKnowYourHouse.com. The site is a social media experiment designed to show how easy it is for tweets to be used against you. If a Twitter user has location turned on, and they send a message with the word "home" in it, then the site will display it along with a Street View image of the location. Similar to PleaseRobMe.com, it showcases how some users may not be aware of how much information they are sharing.

But you … Read more

Tag your desktop with Graffiti Art Windows 7 Theme

If you think graffiti is an eyesore, you probably won't be downloading Graffiti Art Windows 7 Theme from Windows7Theme. But if you see graffiti as art that reflects and enhances the urban streetscape, this free package of 10 high-resolution, high-quality desktop wallpaper images can do something much the same to your PC, without requiring a single can of spray paint. These 1,920x1,200-pixel wide-screen images celebrate the colorful chaos of graffiti art, and they're great, representative examples of the genre. As the name implies, Graffiti Art Windows 7 Theme is for Windows 7 systems.

The free theme … Read more

How to add missing album art to iTunes

How many times have you ripped a CD in iTunes only to find no album art or the wrong art staring you in the face?

iTunes is adept at finding artwork for albums that you buy through the service. But it can falter at tracking down art for music not in its database. There are a few different ways to add the right artwork, but here's one option for manually adding any image you wish as cover art for an album.

First, right-click on the album in iTunes and select Get Album Artwork from the popup menu. If that … Read more

Electronic Arts: Digital sales will surpass boxed game sales in years

Electronic Arts expects sales of digital games to surpass those of boxed games in the coming years.

"There will come a point, whether it is two or three years from now, when we say: 'We are doing more in digital media now than we are in physical media,'" EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore told Reuters.

As a result, the maker of "Battlefield", "The Sims 3," and "Crysis 3" is likely to increase its range of mobile and free-to-play games.

EA will serve up more than 40 social mobile and free-to-play games … Read more

iPhone-controlled art doubles as climbing wall

Climbing walls have come a long way since phys ed lecturer Don Robinson glued real rocks to a hallway wall at Leeds University in 1964. Just down the street from my office, walls made of plywood reinforced with steel frames sport dozens of different types of holds and graded "problems" -- perfect for staying in shape during the rainy winter months in Portland.

But not everyone lives within walking distance of an indoor climbing hub, so Munich-based design studio Lunar Europe thought up a pretty sleek art piece that doubles as a climbing wall and syncs up with an iPhone app.… Read more