May 9, 2012
It's hard to overstate the impact of digital photography. Over the last two decades, virtually every aspect of how we take, keep and share photos has been transformed. But despite the explosive innovation around digital picture-taking, the end result has actually changed very little. A photo is still a photo. And a poorly focused photo is still as bad as ever.
Ren Ng aims to fix that.
Ng is the founder of Lytro, a Mountain View, CA start-up that has been lauded by tech-obsessed first-adopters and photo enthusiasts alike. The product that has everyone so excited? A compact "plenoptic" digital camera. The camera, a short square-edged tube, uses a unique sensor resembling an insect's multi-faceted eye to capture "all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space." Pair the camera with Lytro's proprietary software, and the result is an image that can be focused and refocused after it's taken. Use Lytro's special Flash widget to post that photo on your blog or site and...
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May 8, 2012
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has launched a newly redesigned “For Your Consideration” (FYC) website for Academy members at www.emmysfyc.com. The site, developed and run by the Television Academy in conjunction with one of its development partners, TrueLogic Software, provides members with an affordable and efficient, privacy-protected means of screening submission materials for the 64th Primetime Emmy® Awards, which will be broadcast live coast-to-coast, Sunday, September 23, 2012, exclusively on ABC.
Every Friday through June 22, Television Academy members will receive an email update listing all program submissions that have been posted to the FYC site that week for viewing. On June 11, the Academy will post a complete ballot with all potential nominees on its member website; prior to that, all voting members of the Academy will have received Scantron sheets in the mail for the first round of voting. All Scantron voting sheets are due at 5:00 p.m...
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May 7, 2012
There is no shortage of stories about lone developers who made an app for the iPhone or iPad and had runaway success. But in the real world, the majority of app makers struggle to break even, according to a recent survey by marketing firm App Promo. Though the survey's methodology is a bit on the light side, numerous developers that we spoke to agree that the results—59 percent of apps don't break even, and 80 percent of developers can't sustain a business on their apps alone—are close to accurate.
High expectations
Apple often boasts that the App Store offers users hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from. But while the incredible variety may benefit consumers, the mature market can make it more difficult for small developers to get noticed.
"Over the years I have seen visibility of applications I've worked on greatly reduced," developer Pat McCarron told Ars. "Right now your app is likely not going to be found if you never break the Top 100 or Top 200 lists...
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