visual

Puppeteers, CG meet to create 'Real Steel' robots

LOS ANGELES--Big-budget sci-fi movies and computer-generated visual-effects are inseparable and probably will be for years to come. That doesn't mean there isn't still something magical about using engineering and craftsmanship to make lifelike, "in the flesh" versions of the other-worldly or futuristic characters these movies bring us onscreen.

That's part of the reason director Shawn Levy decided to build huge, gadget-rich "puppet" versions of the boxing robots from the new Hugh Jackman action movie "Real Steel," which opened in theaters yesterday. The Dreamworks film takes place in the near future when human fighters have been replaced by mechanized pugilists.

There are plenty of CG shots of the automaton ring warriors training and going at it round by round. But Levy had Legacy Effects construct working "real life" versions of the creatures via animatronics to interact with Jackson and the other actors on-set.

During a recent press event for the flick, Levy said he was amazed at how well the robots worked and how easily his cast rubbed elbows with them. … Read more

Platlas: The world's first social-platform atlas

Facebook is in flux, or let's say, full epic swing.

On the eve of F8, Facebook's annual developer conference, the world's busiest social network is expected to undergo its most radical change yet.

Facebook, now 7 years old, appears on the verge of becoming a full-on consumer brand powerhouse--where entire industries like publishing, film, and television will live and conduct commerce at an unprecedented rate and scale, industry watchers say. As Facebook grows and evolves, it's also becoming a more complex platform to understand and navigate. That's why Platlas, the world's first social-networking "… Read more

The 404 905: Where we go twice as high with Bridget Carey (podcast)

Bridget Carey makes her first appearance on CNET TV today. She's the host of an upcoming daily tech news show on CNET called Checked In, so be sure to follow her on Twitter so you don't miss the first episode.

She'll help us out with our story rundown today and gives her take on LeVar Burton bringing back "Reading Rainbow" as an iPad app, an LA film studio constructing an underground "post-apocalyptic" fortress, and the resurgence of AOL e-mail addresses as a pre-Internet status symbol.

The 404 Digest for Episode 905

"Reading Rainbow" to be rebooted for iPad. LA porn studio begins construction on "post-apocalyptic" underground bunker. AOL e-mail as status symbol? Follow Bridget Carey on Twitter. The 404's daily bathroom break: Justin and Jeff's "Reading Rainbow"/Husky Dance Mash-up.

Episode 905 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

How to add LED-style alerts to your Android

A lot of Android smartphones don't have an LED that can display color-coded alerts like the G1 or Nexus One. It's pretty handy to simply glance at your phone and already know if the alert you were out of earshot for is actually something important to check. NoLED is a useful little app that allows you to see a small colored dot or icon on your screen which will identify your different alerts received.

Note: It's recommended that you only use NoLED on AMOLED screens because it is not as battery-friendly on SLCD screens; however, it can … Read more

Trippy video tracks 'iPhone fireflies'

Watch the HD video below and you'll see a beautiful visualization of how 880 iPhone users moved around Europe in April.

The video, produced by European Web site CrowdFlow, shows iPhone positions as points of light on a map of Europe. CrowdFlow got the data by convincing volunteers to upload iPhone logs, which periodically show iPhone locations. CrowdFlow's points of light fade and spread out the longer it's been since an iPhone's position was recorded at a particular spot.

The project takes advantage of an iPhone feature that collects the location of nearby Wi-Fi and cell networks. This feature caused a stir when it came to light in April that iPhone users were being tracked without their knowledge.

CrowdFlow is combining data from iPhone logs to create an open database of Wi-Fi and cell networks. The goal is to make it easier to visualize how these networks are distributed. This video showing iPhone locations flickering like fireflies is one result. … Read more

A Star Wars video game unlike any other

Video games tend to be more enjoyable on a large screen, but what happens when you harness the power of a 20-foot-wide multitouch display that runs at 8,160x2,304 resolution? Some incredible pew pew.

Fleet Commander, designed by computer science grad student Arthur Nishimoto and developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Chicago, is perhaps the most tantalizing "Star Wars" concept game ever made.

Under development for several years, it currently harnesses the power of a giant multitouch LCD wall to "explore how a real-time interactive strategy game that would typically rely on complex keyboard commands and mouse interactions [could] be transferred into a multi-user, multitouch environment," according to EVL. Fingers are tracked via TacTile software. … Read more

Windows 8 and anxiety over HTML5

By sending signals that it's inclined to move Windows 8 coding toward HTML5 and JavaScript, and away from more familiar programming tools, Microsoft has "horrified" developers, according to a post at Ars Technica.

Citing a demo of Windows 8 given by Microsoft Vice President Julie Larson-Green at the recent D9 conference, Ars Technica author Peter Bright called attention to a comment several minutes into the video. Pointing to a new app in the upcoming Windows 8, Larson-Green said that "this application is written with our new developer platform, which is based on HTML5 and JavaScript."… Read more

MetroPCS releases visual voice mail

Excuse us for not getting to this yesterday--E3 and Apple's WWDC keynote kept us a tad busy--but MetroPCS sneaked out a little announcement of its own yesterday by unveiling a visual voice mail service.

Like the services available on other carriers, MetroPCS' visual voice mail will enable customers to listen to individual voice messages without having to scan through their entire lists. Voice mails will show up on the phone's display along with the contact's picture and they can reply to the message by calling back or by sending a text message or an e-mail.

The … Read more

Apple's and Samsung's lawsuits in visual form

It didn't take long for Samsung to strike back at Apple, with the company yesterday filing lawsuits of its own in three different countries.

If you're scratching your head about what's at stake and where things are being filed, or if you're looking for a breakdown of the issues, intellectual-property watcher Florian Mueller has put together a handy chart (similar to the one he created for Microsoft and Motorola's legal spat), which does a good job of breaking down exactly what courts are involved and the specific claims from both parties.

The chart (embedded below) … Read more

Microsoft's LightSwitch tool hits second beta

The latest member of Microsoft's Visual Studio family is one step closer to a final release.

Microsoft today is releasing the second beta of LightSwitch, a software tool aimed at developers who want to build business applications that run as both native and Web applications.

The new version, which becomes available MSDN subscribers today, and everyone else on Thursday, adds a handful of new features from the previous beta, all aimed at increasing what can be done with the software.

The first is support for publishing applications to directly to Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud services platform. This is … Read more