arts

Video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software announced better-than-expected earnings on Thursday thanks to recording-setting sales of Grand Theft Auto IV.

For the second quarter ended April 30, net profit was $98.2 million, or $1.29 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $51.3 million, or 71 cents per share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2007. Sales were up more than 160 percent to $539.8 million for the period, blowing away analyst estimates of $499.1 million.

The company also raised its forecast for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Take-Two said it expects to … Read more

The public-art organization Creative Time unveiled an interactive exhibit called "Playing the Building"--a 9,000-square-foot, site-specific installation by renowned artist David Byrne (lead/founder of retro-pop group Talking Heads).

What once served as a soaring waiting room for passengers to board ferries bound for South Brooklyn until 1938, the Battery Maritime Building in lower Manhattan was transformed into a massive sound sculpture for which all visitors are invited to sit and "play." The project consists of a retro-fitted antique organ in which the innards are replaced with relays, wires, and light-blue air hoses, and placed … Read more

Bomomo is a wonderful Flash-based art application that runs in your Firefox or Safari browser. Instead of giving you some simple MS Paint-like tools like a paintbrush, bucket, and eraser, everything in Bomomo is dynamic and moving, leading to some kaleidoscopic creations that you can either e-mail to friends or squirrel away to your hard drive. I spent about 15 minutes layering effects on top of one another, and while the results aren't nearly as professional looking as SXSW Interactive winner Viscosity (review), if you know what you're doing you can create some really gorgeous abstract creations.

What … Read more

I was joking with an editor of mine this afternoon that CNET News.com should put a little permanent widget on our front page that says something along the lines of, "Has Electronic Arts announced a timeline extension of its offer to buy Take-Two Interactive today? Yes or no." And then it would have a little check-box for each choice.

Now, in all fairness, most days, the "No" box would be checked. But let's be honest here: On an awful lot of days, we'd have to toggle it to "Yes."

Today would … Read more

We're in the "fourth wave" of LCD technology, according to Samsung.

Moving from the first LCD notebook screens, to monitors, to high-definition televisions, the next iteration of the technology is ... Thomas Kinkade?

At a press event Tuesday evening in San Francisco, Samsung introduced a prototype hybrid LCD TV and art display it is calling the Digital Masterworks Art-TV. Though not a shipping product yet, the TV is set to be a 46-inch widescreen display with a fine art frame in place of a traditional bezel. The display will feature 1080p resolution, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 500 … Read more

With Electronic Arts' much-anticipated evolution game, Spore, not scheduled to hit store shelves until September 7, it seems that it is stoking fans' interest by releasing bite-size teasers every week or two.

Last month, EA released the first video of the game's cell stage, in which players evolve their creatures from primordial murk.

And on June 17, it will release the game's creature creator, allowing anyone to make Spore creatures for free that they can use later on when the game is out.

Now, it has put out the first video and detailed screen shots of the tribal … Read more

The adventures of Art Lebedev's keyboards continue. We thought there might be a lull in news from the Russian design firm now that it has gone to market with its "Optimus Maximus," the most-hyped keyboard of all time. Silly us. Now the company is already onto its Next Big Thing, the "Optimus Popularis."

Although it's still very much a work in progress, Electronista says it differs from the Maximus by not using OLED displays, though some keys will have symbols that change with different software. The Popularis is also smaller, though don't expect … Read more

It's a simple fact that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the "USPTO") is inundated with patent applications. Given the sheer volume of applications, patent examiners can only spend a limited amount of time examining those applications. Further, given the fact that an applicant for a patent does not have to conduct a "prior art" search before filing, it is virtually impossible for an examiner to turn up all of the prior art that is relevant to a patent application.

Unbeknownst to many patent practitioners, however, the USPTO is getting ready to wrap up … Read more

A Swedish art student who claimed to have created the "biggest drawing in the world" using a GPS device and an international package delivery service has admitted that the drawing is a hoax.

Erik Nordenankar had claimed that he placed a GPS device in a briefcase on March 17 and then sent the case on a 55-day trip around the world with DHL. He originally stated on his Web site that he had given DHL specific travel instructions on the route that the briefcase should take to yield the drawing. After the package allegedly traveled over 6 continents … Read more