multimedia

This is an update of a deal I wrote about last year.

Mother's Day is about six weeks away, leaving you ample time to do something really special. Forget the flowers, the chocolates, and all the usual stuff; this time, give her something personal, something unique, something homemade.

For example, you know all those photos in Mom's phone, the ones she's been collecting for years but never bothers to download or print? Why not turn them into a slideshow, one you can burn to a DVD and show during the Mother's Day festivities?

Ah, right, you … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A new front opened Monday in the fight to own place-shifting devices when Sling Media, a subsidiary of EchoStar, filed a lawsuit against two of its rivals that accuses them of patent infringement.

Sling, maker of the Slingbox devices that allows users to watch and control their home television from anywhere, filed suit against competitors Belkin International and Monsoon Multimedia. Both are California companies that make devices that compete with the Slingbox at lower prices -- Belkin's @TV and Monsoon's Vulkano.

The announcement comes on the same day Dish Network, a key technology partner of EchoStar, announced an expanded version … Read more

Neither Apple nor fellow defendant LG Electronics infringed on patents held by Alcatel-Lucent, a Southern California jury said today.

A jury in a federal court in San Diego reached its decision following a two-week patent trial, Bloomberg notes.

Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, sued the two companies in December 2010 for alleged infringement on three of its patents covering video technology. The matter went to trial late last month.

The lawsuit targeted Apple's portable iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, along with computers such as MacBooks and iMacs -- effectively, anything that included Apple'… Read more

A California jury must once again decide whether Apple is infringing another company's patents.

Apple, along with fellow defendant LG Electronics, begin a trial today with Multimedia Patent Trust in a San Diego, Calif., court.

Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, sued the two companies in December 2010 for alleged infringement on three of its patents covering video technology.

The lawsuit targets both Apple's portable iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, along with computers such as MacBooks and iMacs -- effectively, anything that includes Apple's QuickTime video technology. For LG, it's nine … Read more

Evernote for Android lets you keep track of your ideas using multimedia notes with text, voice clips, pictures, attached files, even location stamps. Also, it automatically backs up to your cloud-based Evernote account for easy access from any data-connected device.

Evernote's interface is incredibly sleek and easy to navigate, which is a big accomplishment, considering the myriad features the app offers. On the Home screen are four large buttons to get you started creating notes: New note (for text), Snapshot, Audio, and Attach. At the bottom of this screen, you can choose to view your notes, notebooks (folders for … Read more

Bottom line: Version 10.6 of iTunes brings a handful of enhancements to Apple's ubiquitous media software, and adds support for 1080p video.

Review: As one of the most popular programs for managing music and video content on a personal computer, Apple's iTunes software has become an indispensable part of our digital life.

Interface The look and layout of iTunes 10 is essentially identical to that of iTunes 9, with just a couple of noticeable differences. The first is that Apple has updated its logo for iTunes. Rather than the old-school music note-over-CD icon, you'll see a … Read more

Gone are the days of walking over to the bookshelf, grabbing an Encyclopaedia Britannica, and flipping through the pages to look up whatever piqued one's curiosity. The leather-bound print edition set of reference books is now defunct, the company announced today.

However, Encyclopaedia Britannica is also quick to say that this change isn't its swan song. Now, in the digital age, the company will focus on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools.

"In spite of our long history with print, I would like to point out that no single medium, neither books nor bits, is … Read more

What if your favorite sci-fi or fantasy character broke loose from the book you were reading and went on a rampage?

Your first step (after scrambling under the bed) might be to call the police. And they, of course, would want the suspect's description--to hand off to their sketch artist.

That's where Brian Joseph Davis comes in.

In a mashup of high and low culture, the writer and artist has been creating police composites based on descriptions of characters in novels: Dr. Robert Vaughn from J.G. Ballard's "Crash," Gary from Colson Whitehead's "Zone One," Aomame from Haruki Murakami's "1Q84," even Humbert Humbert from Nabokov's "Lolita" and Edward Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."

The unconventional portraits form the basis of Davis' Tumblr blog/crowd-sourced art project "The Composites." … Read more

Sometimes a painting is so beautiful you just want to reach right into it.

Of course, if you happen to be in a museum, that impulse could get you tackled by a security guard.

But Greek multimedia artist Petros Vrellis seems determined to let people satisfy the urge. He's currently at work on a project that would let viewers stir the skies of one of the West's most iconic paintings: Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night."… Read more