3d

Shortly after Canon announced a hardware fix for autofocus problems affecting some of its high-end EOS-1D Mark III cameras, the leading SLR maker also has added a software fix.

Version 1.1.3 of the Camera's firmware "improves autofocus tracking" when shooting outdoors in bright environments or when shooting low-contrast subjects, Canon said. In addition, the firmware can speed the process of writing images to high-speed SD memory cards.

Canon's biggest rival for single-lens reflex cameras, Nikon, also released some new firmware for its brand new D3 and D300 models that endows them with the color … Read more

The race for the best 3D movie projection technology began in earnest last week with the release of Beowulf, and I'm here to judge the first lap.

Beowulf, which recounts the Anglo-Saxon adventures of a Swedish prince of that name, is the first wide release of a 3D movie, showing on hundreds of screens in 3D. And for the first time, viewers had the choice not only of watching with Imax 3D and Real D projection technology, but also newcomer Dolby 3D.

Based on watching the movie start to finish three times, the 3D winner is Dolby 3D--and not … Read more

Back in July, I thoroughly thrashed 3D Mailbox for producing a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Does anyone really need visual representations of e-mail messages? Isn't e-mail scary enough with all of the bogus sweepstakes offers and pharmaceutical enticements?

Based on the relative success of VisitorVille, an application for visualizing Web traffic, World Market Watch decided to venture into the e-mail space with 3D Mailbox, an application I labeled "extremely useless" this past summer.

The graphics of the free level are adequate; the avatars themselves are less polished yet still fairly attractive. However, the software is a total resource pig. It constantly grabs up to 95 percent of my CPU, unless reined in by adjusting the process' priority Process Explorer, which can't solve the problem completely.… Read more

Back in July, I thoroughly thrashed 3D Mailbox for producing a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Does anyone really need visual representations of e-mail messages? Isn't e-mail scary enough with all of the bogus sweepstakes offers and pharmaceutical enticements?

Based on the relative success of VisitorVille, an application for visualizing Web traffic, World Market Watch decided to venture into the e-mail space with 3D Mailbox, an application I labeled "extremely useless" this past summer.

The graphics of the free level are adequate; the avatars themselves are less polished yet still fairly attractive. However, the software is a total resource pig. It constantly grabs up to 95 percent of my CPU, unless reined in by adjusting the process' priority Process Explorer, which can't solve the problem completely.… Read more

You might have noticed if, for some reason, you have followed my work over the last couple of years, that I have a thing for 747s.

I can't really explain why that is. I suppose it's just that the jumbo jets are sort of a physical manifestation of adventure for me: When I see them flying overhead, I know they're off to some faraway place where I'd probably like to be going.

So when I heard about 3D Mailbox, an e-mail client that uses visual images as representations for e-mail messages, and the fact that the … Read more

If there was ever a comic book hero named Mapman, this would be his ride. Tele Atlas, a map content company out of Netherlands, is the owner of this orange van and the attached equipment. It creates maps of the roads it plies using a potpourri of location capture devices.

Mounted on top are four cameras, each capturing three images per second. The van can be configured with up to eight cameras depending on the landscape it is mapping, making it possible to capture 24 images per second when needed. Those are accompanied by laser scanners that help to determine … Read more

As ghouls swished gently over my head, it was as if the floor was shaking.

No, wait, that was the floor shaking.

At first I wasn't sure if 3D movie technology had advanced even further than I thought. But it turns out that Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't supposed to be that scary.

The crowd at San Francisco's Sony Metreon mall took the 30 seconds of rolling in stride, but there were all sorts of whispered queries as to whether that was the movie or an earthquake.

And when the lights came on after … Read more

A few months ago I wrote that one of the hottest tickets at this year's Cannes Film Festival was U2 3D, a 3D concert film about the popular band made using the technology of two companies helping to make 3D films a regular part of the movie going experience: 3ality and Real D.

Now, U2 3D is set to be accessible even to those of us who couldn't make it to the Riveria to hobnob with Leo and Bobby and the rest of the gang.

According to a release I got this morning from National Geographic Cinema Ventures, … Read more

The online mapping stuff just keeps getting better.

A company called EveryScape is launching on Monday a three-dimensional local search site that lets people "drive" down streets and even "walk" into buildings.

If you thought Google's Street View was cool, wait until you see how you can ski down the slopes in Aspen, Colorado, or whiz over taxicabs and pedestrians through the streets of New York, Boston, and Miami. The inside views of buildings are only available in Miami and Aspen right now.

The visuals are stunning as you fly through the front doors of … Read more