Art

At long last, there's a ship date for Spore.

Electronic Arts announced Tuesday that the much-anticipated new game from The Sims creator Will Wright will ship on September 7.

The company announced that the game--which tasks players with advancing a character progressively from primordial ooze to small tribes to cities to civilizations and into space--will launch worldwide on PCs, Macs, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones.

Previously, the company had said it would launch the game simultaneously on PCs and Macs, but had said nothing about timing or that the DS and mobile versions would come out at the same … Read more

NEC continues to use its LaVie G laptop as a blank canvas for artistic expression, whether it be for cars or Hello Kitty. In fact, the Japanese giant seems to use any excuse at all to release yet another design for this hapless computer. Case in point: the fourth anniversary of its direct-sales Web site. We're not kidding.

To commemorate this landmark event, NEC is releasing a limited edition of "pimped" laptops with illustrations by Toshiko Kimura, according to Akihabara News. (Who? And what is it about the Japanese obsession with the word "pimp"?) Anyway, … Read more

It's been a long time coming, but we finally have some actual details about the first game to emerge from the partnership between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts.

Known as Boom Blox, the game, which will be available in May only on the Wii, is from EA's casual games unit.

It will have more than 300 levels, "a cast of over thirty wacky characters" and seems to be built around letting players take on "Blox-laying chickens or...baseball-throwing monkeys" or cartoonlike grim reapers in tiki, medieval, frontier, or haunted themed settings.

EA has never … Read more

For the NVArt digital art challenge, co-sponsors Nvidia and the Society of Digital Artists asked artists to submit computer-generated images that could only exist in the imaginary realm (think liquid sculptures and slinking wicker cats). Organizers said they wanted artistically and technically outstanding images, but no fantasy creatures and game characters, as "these are too common in both digital and traditional fantasy art."

Indeed, contestants from around the world mined the deepest recesses of their imaginations to create highly unexpected and often stunning works that celebrate the boundless potential of digital artistry. For a look at the top … Read more

The Guitar Wars saga continues.

In the epic battle with Activision's Guitar Hero, Electronic Arts has reportedly disclosed that a version of arch-rival Rock Band is heading for the Wii. Gamespot reports that EA's chief executive mentioned the news in a conference call yesterday after the company posted its latest quarterly earnings. (MTV Games is the official publisher of the game, but EA distributes it.)

"In terms of pacing the next few quarters, you're probably well aware of the more than $2.5 million music downloads that have occurred on Rock Band," Gamespot quoted CEO … Read more

One of New York's most talked about tech start-ups these days is undoubtedly Etsy, the Brooklyn-based online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods. And it's continuing to generate headlines: co-founder Robert Kalin announced in a blog post Wednesday that the company has picked up an impressive $27 million in Series D financing.

The venture funding comes from existing investors Union Square Ventures and Hubert Burda Media, as well as Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, who will take on a seat on Etsy's board of directors.

Etsy is "almost break-even" when it comes to profits, Kalin … Read more

New York machine artist Stephen Conti is obsessed with steel robotics. Take a look at his highly polished articulated hands, tarantulas, and unmanned anti-personnel devices--all inspired by the science fiction genre known as cyberpunk. There's one steampunk-inspired bug in the batch as well, and all are executed with a watchmaker's precision and an aesthete's eye.

Nightmare warning: we abdicate any responsibility for sleep loss involving the Lethal Injection Attack Droid Prototype.

See the full gallery on Wired: Creepy cyberpunk fantasies come to life

Chances are you're not going to match the influence over the art world that Andy Warhol did with his pop-art pictures of Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, but at least you can have some of the fun.

BigHugeLabs has added a "Warholizer" tool that lets you upload a photo or modify one hosted at Flickr or Photobucket so it becomes a tribute to Warhol's bright, posterized art.

BigHugeLabs already offers a large collection of entertaining photo-effect tools. Along with the Warholizer, my favorites include the mock motivational poster maker, the ID badge maker, the … Read more

Getty Images, a major seller of stock photos and other licensed media, confirmed on Tuesday a New York Times report that it's for sale.

Or at least that its board is "exploring strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value," according to a company statement.

The company didn't comment on the Times' report that the most interested buyers were private-equity firms such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital, or that its price could go as high as $1.5 billion.

Getty hired Goldman Sachs as financial adviser and Weil Gotshal & Manges as legal adviser, the Seattle-based … Read more