studios

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out with Grammy Award winner and multi-Platinum recording artist Nelly. He talks about all the tech he can't live without, and how he co-founded Vatterott College in St. Louis and the Extreme Institute to teach students skills for making music.

Nelly also talks about his MacBook Pro, Canon EOS 7D that he uses for shooting videos, and the Monster Diamond Tears headphones that surprised him with their sound.

I'll break down the best dSLR cameras for shooting video with Kevin that broadcast professionals are using today. And … Read more

You're exploring a new city when time slips away. Darkness now falls and a chill settles in your bones. The growing rumble in your stomach is starting to scare small children who pass by. But don't even think about the neon-tinted, lowest-common-denominator fast food chains--what you need is a hot slice of pizza from a local joint that's still open. The new Pizza Compass app for iPhone and iPad from swaggering (and most assuredly apocryphal) "creator" Zeus Gorham Munkist and small development shop Oak Studios aims to get you there ASAP.

The Pizza Compass app … Read more

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out on the set of "NCIS" with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto, the show's fan-favorite quirky forensic scientist. She talks about her role as the social media ambassador for CBS during "Tweet Week" and how she used Twitter to help keep the Hope Gardens shelter for families open.

Pauley bring hers own tech on set, including the dirtiest Macbook you've probably ever seen, and she shows us some of the fun set pieces in Abby's lab. She also talks about … Read more

Android photo editing apps come in all shapes and sizes, but few can call themselves "all-in-one." Fotor Photo Effect Studio tries to hold that title, but comes up a little short in one category. The photo-editing and filtering features are fine, but the app's camera is too unstable to be used.

This app lets you take, edit, and filter photos in the same app. Sadly, the app's camera produces some shockingly bad images. Despite having a cool zoom feature, the photos come out as a pixelated mess more often than not. You don't have to … Read more

FX Photo Studio (iPhone | iPad) lets you edit images on your iPhone, add multiple effects, then add stylized text for a unique look. The app includes all the basic image-editing controls such as brightness, contrast, and color balance, along with cropping and rotation tools.

But where FX Photo Studio shines is in the amount you can do with your photos by selecting from an enormous number of effects. As of this writing, FX Photo Studio includes 190 high-quality effects you can add to your images. You can also combine effects for virtually limitless combinations. But while the app features a … Read more

Finding suitable applications for altering photos on a smartphone can be difficult. Photo Art Studio, while feature rich, fails to perform its functions and is difficult to use.

Download and installation of Photo Art Studio completed quickly and without any user intervention needed. The program started up seamlessly and did not require any sign-in information to use. The menu is well designed, although there are no tutorials or user instructions. Moving to the photo editing part of the program is easy to figure out due to the large main buttons. The next screen allows the user to select a layout … Read more

After evaluating more than 4,000 submissions and commissioning more than a dozen half-hour pilots, Amazon Studios is ready to roll. The "Hollywood" division of the online shopping giant is making 14 pilots available on Amazon Instant Video in the U.S, and the Amazon subscription services Lovefilm UK and Lovefilm Germany, to watch for free and rate and review them.

The pilots include shows from established talent and studios, as well as up and comers who cut their teeth online.

The lineup includes a big slate of comedies, led by "Alpha House," starring John Goodman … Read more

Today, it's easier than ever to download a song or convert a song you already have to a ringtone for use on your phone. The App Store is filled with tools that promise to do this on autopilot and myRingtoneCreator is one such option; but the overly intrusive ads are very distracting.

In fact, the first thing you'll probably notice about myRingtoneCreator is just how many ads appear when you open the app. Two separate pop-up ads appear that need to be closed before you can access the main menu, and then there are two large, animated banners … Read more