Apple MacBook Pro 13in: where’s the Turbo Boost?

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

The Apple MacBook Pro 13in is a glorious laptop. It’s thin and light, gorgeous both to look at and to use, and it packs no small amount of power in its tiny chassis. Yet our tests have uncovered a performance issue that will affect every user.

We ran our new Real World Benchmarks on the top-end model, with a dual-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M processor, 4GB of DDR3 and a 500GB hard disk. It’s a very fast laptop for its size, as a final score of 0.70 shows – that’s only around 20% slower than the top-end quad-core 17in model. Yet it’s not quite as fast as it should be. (more…)

Intel Thunderbolt FAQ

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Intel’s Light Peak technology has made a surprise early appearance in Apple’s MacBook Pros, under the new name Thunderbolt. But those leaving the Apple store with a shiny new laptop will find it’s not as simple as plugging in and getting started. We run through the facts.

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Deck.ly: the TweetDeck update that breaks Twitter

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Twitter. Some people love it, some people don’t see the point. Others, like me, don’t see the point, make a song and dance about deleting their account, then sheepishly create a new one months later and admit that everyone else was right. Not my problem, Twitter must have got better in the interim.

But I think we can all agree that Twitter’s appeal lies in its short and sweet format. The 140-character limit is what makes “following” someone so appealing: it keeps things snappy, streamlined and often surprisingly creative. Even the most interesting Twitter user will post tweets that aren’t for you; the key is that every tweet is short and sweet and as easily skippable as any other.

At least it was, until a light bulb pinged on above the head of some bright spark at TweetDeck. Yes, its new deck.ly feature lets you keep typing beyond that 140th character. Instead of a warning red – you’re droning on… – you get an encouraging green: keep typing, you really are fascinating! (more…)

Christmas TV guide for geeks

Friday, December 24th, 2010

As usual this Christmas there’s the best part of naff-all on the main channels, so for some real techie viewing it pays to look around the schedules – which is precisely what I’ve done. First, a disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea how good these programmes will be, I’m going in blind with the rest of you. So fingers crossed, here’s some geek content you might not have spotted…

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iPhone app of the week: Game Dev Story

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Yes, there are billions of Angry Birds lovers out there, and we’ve all wasted time on Cut The Rope. But what about a game for the less casual, um, casual gamer? What’s out there for the real geeks and gaming buffs of the iPhone world? Game Dev Story, that’s what.

It’s as retro as they come. You’re the titular game developer, a fresh-blooded start-up at the perfect point in history: the birth of gaming on the personal computer. (more…)

Creative ZiiO tablet review: first look

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

The Android tablets are coming thick and fast now, with Creative the latest to head into our offices with new hardware. The Creative ZiiO comes in both white 7in and black 10in varieties with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of storage, and from our few minutes with it it certainly has potential.

The key is that, rather than just another tablet clone, the ZiiO does its best to play to the company’s strengths. (more…)

3D TV: in the home, on a budget and… on the news?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

This is the final part in a series of blogs based on a seminar by Buzz Hays, chief instructor for the Sony 3D Technology Center in Culver City, California.

It’s the most important consideration when it comes to filming in 3D: what types of production does the technology really suit? The huge vistas of Avatar used the 3D effect better than any film we’ve seen so far, but can shots still look good when scaled down to less epic proportions? Buzz Hays believes it may be something far smaller scale than cinema that eventually shows what 3D can achieve.

Filming on a hand-held budget

If we move way down the scale from Avatar towards smaller productions, one technique crops up more and more. (more…)

Why 3D and modern filmmaking techniques don’t mix

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

This is the fourth in a series of blogs based on a seminar by Buzz Hays, chief instructor for the Sony 3D Technology Center in Culver City, California.

To be done well, a 3D film really needs to be 3D from the outset, as the tools and techniques that work in three dimensions are very different to those most cinematographers have grown used to. In fact, some even require a step back in time to a more artistic age of cinema, as Buzz Hays explained.

Depth of field

Take depth of field, for example. It’s a staple of modern films, commonly used to direct the viewer’s eyes to the key point of the screen, guiding us through the scene as the director intended. Yet it’s an effect that simply doesn’t work in 3D. (more…)

From the Pole to Pandora: the shaky progress of modern 3D

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

This is the third in a series of blogs based on a seminar by Buzz Hays, chief instructor for the Sony 3D Technology Center in Culver City, California.

As senior producer of 3D Stereoscopic Feature Films for Sony Pictures Imageworks for more than five years, Buzz Hays has been there for the peaks and troughs involved in getting 3D cinema into the mainstream. Over the course of an afternoon he led us through many aspects of 3D, but for this blog I’ve collated his experiences of working on various films into one timeline. It begins a mere six years ago on a train, and ends with the revelation that Avatar was, in some respects, a disappointment…

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Why bad 3D, not 3D glasses, is what gives you a headache

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

This is the second in a series of blogs based on a seminar by Buzz Hays, chief instructor for the Sony 3D Technology Center in Culver City, California.

3D is an ever-evolving process, which is why the effect can be such a hit-and-miss affair. But those who insist 3D glasses give them headaches are a little wide of the mark, according to the man who trains the filmmaking pros.

“It’s not the technology’s fault, it’s really the content that can cause these problems,” explains Buzz Hays. “The more care taken when making the content, the better off everyone’s going to be. My mantra is that it’s easy to make 3D but it’s hard to make it good – and by ‘good’ I mean taking care to make sure that this isn’t going to cause eyestrain.”

There are several common mistakes that can cause discomfort, and easy ways for that to be reduced, yet they’re only just being learned and put into regular use. (more…)