Tysinger Creative Design Group

2009-05-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

Report: Apple in Talks to Buy Twitter

On May 5, 2009 - 8:41am.

Los Angeles - Following rumors of buyout talks with first Facebook, and then Google (NASD: GOOG), Valleywag reports that Apple (NASD: AAPL) is now in "serious negotiations" to acquire the Twitter microblogging service for as much as $700 million. The report cites "a source who's plugged into the Valley's deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position," who says Apple hopes to announce a deal by June 8, the kickoff date of its annual developers' conference.

200 Million

2009-04-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Facebook Hits 200 Million Users; Launches Charities Page
Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook has reached 200 million active users, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," wrote Zuckerberg.
Facebook Hits 200 Million Users; Launches Charities Page

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2009 - 8:20am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook has reached 200 million active users, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," wrote Zuckerberg.

To that end, the company launched Facebook for Good, a new page "where people can share their stories about how Facebook has helped them give back to their communities, effect change or connect with a distant relative."

It also partnered with 16 charitable and advocacy organizations, including Kiva, Unicef, Livestrong and American Red Cross, which have create virtual "gifts" that members can purchase and post on one another's profiles.

Facebook said the organizations will receive 90-95% of the cost of the gift, with the remaining going to administrative expenses for the transactions.
To that end, the company launched Facebook for Good, a new page "where people can share their stories about how Facebook has helped them give back to their communities, effect change or connect with a distant relative."

It also partnered with 16 charitable and advocacy organizations, including Kiva, Unicef, Livestrong and American Red Cross, which have create virtual "gifts" that members can purchase and post on one another's profiles.

Facebook said the organizations will receive 90-95% of the cost of the gift, with the remaining going to administrative expenses for the transactions.

2009-04-13T11:58:00.001-07:00

Along With Apple, Amazon MP3, Others Hike Digital Song Prices

Seattle - While Apple (NASD: AAPL) got the most coverage for launching variable pricing yesterday at the iTunes Store, where top songs may now be priced at $1.29 and catalog tracks at 69 cents, the change affected much of the rest of the digital music retail market, with similar price hikes seen at Amazon MP3 (NASD: AMZN), RealNetworks' (NASD: RNWK) Rhapsody, Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) ($1.24) and Lala.

Ars Technica noted that the price increases have not been uniform across all sites, as the Black Eyed Peas' new single "Boom Boom Pow" costs $1.29 on iTunes, but can be purchased for 99 cents at Amazon MP3, and for 89 cents from Lala.com.

NPD Group recently said that 16% of U.S. digital music purchasers bought tracks from the Amazon MP3 store last year.

Billboard reports that hip-hop tracks were the most likely to see a price hike at the iTunes Store, as ten of the current top 20 were raised in price to $1.29, compared with 29% of top country songs, 25% of top rock songs, and 13% of currently popular alternative tracks.

Tysinger Creative Design Services

2009-03-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

(Click on Picture to enlarge Tysinger Creative Services)

Conficker C April Fool's Virus

2009-03-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.

Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.

Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.

Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

Amazon Kindle 2

2009-03-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Earth's Biggest Electronic Book Selection: 240,000 Books
At Amazon, we've always been obsessed with having every book ever printed, and we know that even the best reading device would be useless without a massive selection of books. Today, the Kindle Store has more than 240,000 books available, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs. This is just the beginning. Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle. We won't stop until we get there.
Whether you prefer biographies, classics, investment guides, thrillers, or sci-fi, thousands of your favorite books are available, including 102 of 111 books currently found on the New York Times® Best Seller list. New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are $9.99, and you'll find many books for less.

2009-02-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Google adds ads to Google News searches

Google has extended its AdWords program to Google News searches, delivering text ads on the right side of the search results page, just as Google has long done with regular Web search results.

Josh Cohen, a business product manager at Google, announced the move Wednesday in a company blog:

In recent months we've been experimenting with a variety of different formats, like overlay ads on embedded videos from partners like the AP. We've always said that we'd unveil these changes when we could offer a good experience for our users, publishers and advertisers alike, and we'll continue to look at ways to deliver ads that are relevant for users and good for publishers, too.

The ads are intended to be tailored to news search terms, but the two aren't always on the same page, so to speak. While the news search understood that "spring training" was related to baseball, for example, only one of the top three ads presented made that connection, as the example below illustrates.

Faced with a much tougher economy, Google is working harder to make money off more of its properties. In recent months, it's begun showing ads in Google Earth and Google Finance as well.

Google has begun placing text ads beside Google News searches.

(Credit: Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET News)

2009-02-27T08:46:00.001-08:00

Analysis: 7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Twitter's Success

By any measure, the growth and popularity of Twitter has been phenomenal. To say that Twitter has hit mainstream isn't really the right metric to use. It's more powerful to note that for a large group of Twitter enthusiasts, to spend even a day without using it would be as bad (or perhaps even worse) than not having email. It has become just that necessary. How did the site get to this point? And what are the lessons that any entrepreneur might be able to learn from how it got there? Here are a few thoughts on the real secrets behind Twitter's success:

Firefox, Chrome, Safari Rise in Browser Share

2009-01-03T21:45:00.001-08:00

Minority browsers grew in popularity again during the month of December, according to tracking figures from Net Applications. Marketshare for Mozilla's Firefox reached 21.34 percent, up from 20.78 percent in November; Apple's Safari jumped from 7.13 to 7.93 percent, and Google's new, Windows-only Chrome browser shifted from 0.83 to 1.04 percent. This marks the first time the software has been over the 1 percent mark.

The trend comes at the expense of Opera -- which held on to a 0.71 percent figure -- and more significantly Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which slid from 69.77 to 68.15 percent. Despite its inclusion with Windows XP and Vista, the browser has been on a continuous decline since the beginning of 2008, when it controlled approximately 75 percent of the market. Net Applications notes, however, that December's drop was lower than the one experienced in November.

The group similarly cautions that browser use during December was unusually residential, which may have skewed statistics. Browsers like Firefox and Safari tend to be more popular at home than at work, figures are said to show.

Usage of Macs in browsing is meanwhile said to have risen as a whole during December, climbing from 8.87 to 9.63 percent. Windows usage fell from 89.62 to 88.68 percent, while Linux use held to 0.85 percent.

2008-12-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

HP MediaSmart Servers offer a central location for digital media on a home network

Digital media consumption is growing rapidly thanks to the low cost and easy to use digital cameras and camcorders available today. Many people are now making home movies in digital formats that can easily be shared online and stored on the computer.

The biggest drawback of the move to digital content is that the media has to be backed up and places higher demands on storage systems. Sharing the digital media around a home network can also be difficult for the less tech savvy.

To meet the backup needs for consumers who feast on a glut of digital content, HP has introduced a pair of new home media servers called the HP MediaSmart ex485 and ex487. The two devices share many of the same features and both use an Intel Celeron 2GHz CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM.

Other features include HP specific applications that make managing and sharing digital content easier. Bundles software includes HP Media collector to copy and centralize digital files from across the network, media streaming to stream photos and music to network computers, iTunes server to share music libraries, and HP photo view and Photo Publisher services among others.

The home servers also act as a central backup device for networked computers and are compatible with Apple Time Machine and Windows Home Server Backup. Both systems can be upgraded with up to 9TB of storage.

HP's Jason Zajac said in a statement, "A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices. The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."

Both the ex485 and the ex487 are slated for retail availability in February and pre-orders will begin on January 5, 2009. Pricing will be $599 for the 750GB ex485 with the 1.5TB ex487 retailing for $749.

HP also recently introduced its first iPhone App for wireless photo printing.

HP MediaSmart Servers offer a central location for digital media on a home network

HP also recently introduced its first iPhone App for wireless photo printing.

No Jobs at MacWorld

2008-12-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Buzz Watch: Steve Jobs Pulls The Plug On MacWorld, Signature Keynote

Authored by Jay Baage on December 16, 2008 - 4:18pm.

This is just in - 2009 will be the last year that Apple (NASD: AAPL) will exhibit at IDG's MacWorld Expo, and Steve Jobs will not hold his signature keynote (which usually steals some of the thunder from the rest of the tech crowd gathered in Las Vegas for CES). Instead Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote. The reason, according to Apple's spin doctors, is that the company believes that expos and trade shows like the one hosted by IDG, parent company of the Macworld brand, are a twentieth century fad of little value to Apple with its popular consumer products and marketing reach:

"Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple's Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways," the company said in a statement posted to its website.

It's a bold move, but is it really in the best interests of the company and its customers? Apple often opts to stay away from industry events and not engage in debates about the future direction of consumer electronics, technology and digital entertainment. Fine, but how much longer is the lone wolf strategy going to work? And is it smart to give Apple's biggest fans gathered at MacWorld the cold shoulder? I'm sorry, but it is just not the same to experience watching Jobs in person at MacWorld as it is going to look at an iPhone in the Apple store or on the Apple website. Aside from raising more questions about his long-term health, this move further removes Steve Jobs from the public eye. Stock market analysts have long called for something of a succession plan for Jobs at Apple, but so far those questions have not been addressed in a satisfactory way. Immediately after the announcement, Apple's stock fell by nearly 2% in after-hours trading.

"In business, perception is everything. So it's tantamount that Steve get up on stage and keep up the image. Macworld is still a huge media event, mainly his keynote," an analyst said to The Guardian.

Wii Fit Most Searched For Product for Christmas in UK

2008-11-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

Wii Fit, Nintendo’s popular video game, is currently the most searched-for product by UK Internet shoppers in the run-up to Christmas. During October there were more UK Internet searches for Wii Fit than the Nintendo Wii, the most popular product last Christmas. After Wii Fit and the Wii console, the third most searched-for gadget is the Apple iPhone.

Circuit City: Chapter 11

2008-11-11T18:24:00.000-08:00

Richmond, Va. - One week after announcing plans to close 155 stores, consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC) on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said that it plans to continue operating under a $1.1 billion debtor-in-possession credit facility -- which will allow it to pay vendors and other business partners -- while working to restructure its operations.

2008-11-06T18:30:00.001-08:00

Machinima.com Lands $3.85 Million For Expansion

Los Angeles - Machinima.com, a community website focused on showing user-generated and professional videos, gameplay and trailers from video games, has raised $3,85 million in new financing. The round was led by MK Capital and other private investors. The Machinima network is the ninth most subscribed YouTube channel and serves more than 30 million videos views per month. The new round of financing will be used to fund "business expansion."

Boo! It Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Rock Band Get Beatles Mania

2008-10-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

MTV, Beatles to Collaborate on New Music Video Game
Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 30, 2008 - 8:58am.
New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks on Thursday announced a deal with the Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, to create a Beatles-branded music video game. The game -- which apparently will not be part of MTV's "Rock Band" franchise -- was conceived with input from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Star, approved by Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, and will feature "LOVE" project co-producer Giles Martin as Music Producer.

Adobe Air

2008-10-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

Companies like eBay, AOL, and NASDAQ are already using Adobe AIR to deliver engaging RIAs to their users' desktops. With Adobe AIR, you can:

Establish a more persistent connection with existing customers
Deliver fully branded experiences with desktop functionality
Leverage existing personnel, processes, and infrastructure
Develop and deliver RIAs efficiently using proven Adobe technology
Increase the ROI of your web investments

2008-10-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

Google Seeks BayTSP Records in $1 Billion Viacom Suit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2008 - 10:25am.

San Jose, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has demanded records from anti-piracy firm BayTSP as part of its defense against the $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Viacom (NYSE: VIA) over its YouTube site, MarketWatch reported. Google believes the documents will refute Viacom's argument that it is unable to police its own content on YouTube.

Flash Player 10 Coming Soon

2008-10-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Barclay said Flash Player 10 is being made available at the same time as Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4), which takes advantage of Flash Player 10 technology.

"We're providing unprecedented creative control for developers and designers," with Flash Player 10, Barclay said. In addition, he said the new release is available immediately on Windows, Mac and Linux, including new support for Ubuntu 7 and 8. "Linux is a first-class citizen for us," he said.

Barclay said users can take advantage of the 3-D capabilities through easy-to-use APIs and with an enhanced drawing API.

"Another major improvement is the ability to create your own effects with Adobe Pixel Bender, which can be applied to content live to do things that up to now could only be done on the desktop," Barclay said. The Adobe Pixel Bender also features a multi-threaded calculation engine that can be used for other purposes.

Indeed, Adobe Flash Player 10 extends the expressive capabilities of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product line with new levels of Flash technology integration to streamline collaboration and enhance the design/develop workflow, Adobe officials said.

Users can create custom filters and effects with Adobe Pixel Bender, which is the same technology behind many filters and special effects in Adobe After Effects CS4 software. Developers targeting Adobe Flash Player 10 can use these filters, blend modes and fills to animate effects or change the effect on rich media content at runtime. Flash Player 10 also enables new capabilities and performance improvements in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. This includes easy-to-use 3-D effects that enable designers to design in 2-D and easily transform and animate in 3-D.

"Our clients expect innovation," said Tim Barber, partner and creative director for Odopod, a design studio and member of the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA). "With the improved visual performance and awesome new 3-D effects in Adobe Flash Player 10, we can now use Adobe Flash CS4 Professional to create cool Web experiences that were previously impossible. For us, this means fewer boundaries to the creative process."

iPhone Wins 3G Battle

2008-10-24T09:10:00.001-07:00

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) is now the third-largest mobile phone company in the world, behind Nokia and Samsung, and its iPhone outsold RIM's (NASD: RIMM) BlackBerry in the recent quarter, the company revealed in its earnings statement. Apple said it sold 6.9 million of its iPhone 3G devices in the quarter ended Sept. 27, compared with 6.1 million BlackBerry units sold by RIM.

Gettyimages Pays Big!!

2008-10-23T19:33:00.001-07:00

Seattle - Getty Images (NYSE: GYI), a provider of celebrity and stock photography, footage and multimedia products, announced on Thursday its acquisition of Jupiterimages, a unit of Jupitermedia, for $96 million in cash.

Microsoft In Graphic Design Market: Acrylic

2008-10-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

The name Acrylic is actually the project codeword. The graphics application itself is based on a product called Expression, which Microsoft gained when they bought out software development company Creature House, in 2003. window.google_render_aAcrylic contains a mixture of digital photo editing tools, vector-like drawing and natural painting tools. All features which have got some design professionals
seeing Acrylic as a direct challenge to the graphics industry's
established packages, such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel's Draw and Painter.

Whether Acrylic makes it off the drawing board is yet to be seen. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are so established in the professional graphics market, that any new application had better be of a very superior nature. Especially now that the Adobe and Macromedia merger has gone ahead, making Adobe an even larger force in the graphics industry.

The Acrylic beta download is available from Microsoft's web site and is time limited until 1st October 2005. It is available only for Windows XP, although no word has been released as to whether there will be a Mac version in the final release - should there be one.

This is an interesting move for Microsoft, which has rarely made serious attempts to gain inroads into the professional design market. It's previous graphics tools being very much based on the home user market. However, Microsoft has also been working on a new digital document management system, called Metro, as a possible contender to PostScript and the PDF file format.

However, Metro won't be available until their next operating system update, Longhorn, is released. Metro will also require printer manufacturers to rewrite driver software. PostScript is also so deeply ingrained in the design, print and publishing industry, that any new technology would have to offer some very special features.

With Macromedia now safely under Adobe's control, perhaps we have found the new counterbalance for the design software industry?

AOL Launches Digital City Website

2008-10-20T12:20:00.001-07:00

AOL announced the launch of Digital City, http://www.digitalcity.com, a new, magazine-style site that enables readers to stay on top of the latest entertainment trends and stories from around the world. Digital City takes a new approach to geo-blogging by showcasing original content with a local slant, but global appeal.

In addition to daily posts on topics ranging from the arts to fall festivities, Digital City has weekly features focusing on news and trends in entertainment, concerts, nightlife and dining. The monthly blogazine "Drink World" is devoted to the global culture of drinking.

"We’re excited to launch Digital City and to continue our legacy of providing consumers with compelling local entertainment information" said Chris Spanos, General Manager of AOL Local. "From the serious to the irreverent, Digital City is sure to inform and entertain readers"

Website: http://www.digitalcity.com/

Mac Book Pro Unveiled

2008-10-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

Product Features
Redesigned MacBook with thin, strong aluminum unibody frame and 15-inch LED-backlit glass display

New glass trackpad with 40 percent more tracking area and supports more Multi-Touch gestures

2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM (max), DVD/CD SuperDrive

Dual NVIDIA graphics (integraed and discrete); Draft-N Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 2.1; Gigabit Ethernet; Mini DisplayPort video output

Preloaded with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system and iLife '08 suite of applications
Processor, Memory, and Motherboard

Hardware Platform: Mac
Processor: 2.53 GHz Intel Core Duo
Number of Processors: 2
RAM: 4000 MB
RAM Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive
Size: 320 GB
Type: Serial ATA
Cases and Expandability
Size (LWH): 9.82 inches, 14.35 inches, 0.95 inches
Weight: 5.5 pounds

Visit my website: www.tysingercreative.com

Lamborghini Gallardo Revealed

2008-10-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

5.2L V10, 40 valve, 552 hp @ 8000 rpm
6 speed manual (standard) or 6 speed automatic transmission
11 mpg city / 24 mpg hwy

This post is a guilty pleasure of mine. I have loved Lamborghini's since I was a kid and I love to see the new models revealed. So maybe I will post an automotive media news clip from time to time.

TV Media News...The Goofy Goober WIns

2008-10-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

Nick's SpongeBob Soaks Up 7.7 Mil. Viewers
According to Nielsen Media Research data, the Oct. 13 SpongeBob special averaged 4.1 million kids 2-11, 2.7 million kids 6-11 and 2.3 million ‘tweens 9-14

Oct 15, 2008

-By Anthony CrupiSpongeBob’s reign of error ended on a high note Monday night as Nickelodeon’s poriferan protagonist drew 7.7 million viewers with his new half-hour special, SpongeBob SquarePants’ “WhoBob WhatPants?”According to Nielsen Media Research data, the Oct. 13 SpongeBob special averaged 4.1 million kids 2-11, 2.7 million kids 6-11 and 2.3 million ‘tweens 9-14.On the night, the WhoBob episode was TV’s most-watched program among the three demos. The special also was ad-supported cable’s number-one entertainment show in terms of its overall delivery.The antic episode was notable for the sheer amount of mayhem perpetrated by the aquatic hero, who in the first five minutes alone, destroys a birthday cake, fries a wad of his boss’ hard-won cash and shatters his snail pal Gary’s shell with an overexuberant hug. While SpongeBob was busy alienating the rest of Bikini Bottom, the net launched a new WhoBob WhatPants? game on Nick.com. The game generated 2.6 million plays, ranking as the number-one game on the site since its launch.

visit my website: www.tysingercreative.com

Twitter Set To Eat Spam...So To Speak

2008-10-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

Twitter founder Evan Williams tweets about the company's plans to hire a spam engineer. (Credit: Twitter)
Twitter is stepping up its actions to fight spam, which has been plaguing the site since earlier this year and appears to be spiking this w eek. The company is looking to hire a spam engineer, preferably one who has worked at a big search or e-mail company, according to a tweet by founder Evan Williams.

That person would likely work closely with the "spam marshal" that was hired in August.
The hiring move was praised by the Twitter community.
The latest job posting "is another sign that Twitter is maturing as a business and is using its VC funding wisely," says a post on the Stop Twitter Spam blog. "And it's a refreshing move by a company who seems to understand that cutting engineers when your product is 'ready' is a short-sighted move that will hurt you in the long run."
Twitter also has changed the way it handles suspended spammer accounts, replacing the entire suspended page instead of redacting the Web links but leaving them in the profile section.
However, the suspended profiles remain viewable in Profile Search, and people may still stumble across the suspended sites with the rogue links that way, notes Chris Boyd, research director at security specialist FaceTime Communications.

"All in all, a good move to combat the increasing amounts of rogue profiles clogging up Twitter--and kudos to them on waving the banhammer at so many spam profiles overnight. Quite the bloodbath, from the looks of things," Boyd wrote in a blog post.

visit my website at: www.tysingercreative.com

2008-10-16T07:33:00.001-07:00

Google released two announcements on Thursday that further advance the company's goals toward being a power player in television advertising in addition to the Web.
First, the company announced that Harris Corporation, which manufactures communications equipment for business and government clients, will be integrating Google's advertising platform into the products it sells to media and communication companies. That means that Harris clients can use Google's service to manage ad inventory, which Mark Piesenan, director of strategic partnerships for Google TV ads, said will "offer media companies the opportunity to leverage (Google's) automated online marketplace, providing a new and efficient sales option for their ad inventory."
Additionally, Google has partnered with CoreMedia Systems, which makes an advertising analytics product called CoreDirect. The CoreDirect software will now start indexing statistics from Google TV ad campaigns.
These partnerships are on the behind-the-scenes side of things, but Google has also been making some network partnerships as well: last month, Google announced that it would be selling some TV ad time for NBC Universal, and will also be selling inventory for Dish network and Bloomberg.

Visit my website: www.tysingercreative.com

Adobe Acrobat 9

2008-10-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

Deliver the richest, most engaging PDF communications anytime, anywhere
Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro Extended software now includes Adobe Presenter, Adobe LiveCycle® Designer ES, and Adobe 3D Reviewer software.
Ideal for business and technical professionals. Use Acrobat 9 Pro Extended to:
Create interactive presentations
Use included Adobe Presenter software to liven up your slides with video, voice-over, demos, and interactive quizzes.
See features
Compare Acrobat 9 products ›
Bring people and ideas together
Gather feedback, build consensus, and get everyone on the same page through interactive document reviews and real-time collaboration.
Communicate with impact
Include audio, video, images, 3D, and maps in your PDF documents for reliable cross-platform sharing.

Visit my website: www.tysingercreative.com

2008-10-15T12:33:00.001-07:00

Adobe CS4 Packages

6 Different Creative Suites:

Creative Suite 4 range

CS4 Design Premium

The top range for graphic designers, which includes print design software, as well as web and mobile design tools.

Creative software included comprises of InDesign, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe Bridge CS4, Adobe Device Central CS4 and Version Cue CS4.

CS4 Design Standard

Includes most of the above print-based graphic design software, but excludes the web design tools of Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium

Comprises of tools for the design and development of web sites, interactive and user-interfaces, mobile device content and digital presentations. Software applications include; Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Fireworks, Acrobat 9 Pro, Soundbooth CS4 and Contribute.

Web Standard CS 4

Similar to above, but lacks some of the more professional design, graphics and audio tools. Adobe CS4 Web Standard does not include Photoshop, Illustrator or Acrobat Pro or Soundbooth.

Creative Suite 4 Production Premium

The creative production suite for designers and editors who work with video graphics, audio and interactive design media. As well as some of the previously mentioned graphics software tools, Adobe Production Premium CS4 includes digital video editing and post-production tools such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, OnLocation and Encore.

Adobe Master Collection CS4

The Master Collection is, as the title suggests, the top of the range Creative Suite bundle and includes most of Adobe's new design and development software tools, print, web, video, sound and multi-media.

The Adobe CS4 range is scheduled to ship in October 2008. Adobe has also announced education curriculum and licensing programs for students and teachers.

2008-10-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Fastest Mac Ever!

Apple release professional grade Intel Macs, with up to 3GHz of quad core computing power.

Fastest Mac ever for graphics professionals – the Mac Pro

For Mac graphic designers the wait is over, as Apple to release their professional grade computers.

Apple have released the replacement to their high-end G5 driven computers, the Mac Pro. The new range of Mac Pro workstations are powered by 64-bit Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors and complete the transition of Apple computers to the Intel processor.

Running at speeds of 2GHz, 2.66GHz and 3GHz the new Macs contain 2 Dual-core processors, making them essentially quad-core machines.

Apple's own tests claim the Mac Pros are up to 2 times the speed of the Power Mac G5 computers. However, for graphic designers it may still be too soon to jump ship to the Intel chip powerhouses.

The reason for this is that not all graphics software publishers have converted their applications to universal binary, which allows them to be installed on either PowerPC based Macintoshes, or the new Intel Macs. Older PowerPC software will still run on Intel Macs, but not at full speed. Quark are ahead of Adobe in this case and have just released QuarkXpress 7 in universal binary format, to coincide with Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Adobe CS3 for Macintosh is not reported to be ready until the middle of 2007, at the earliest. Although, a downloadable beta of Photoshop CS3 has recently been released.

Another reason that may prompt Mac designers to hold-off from purchasing a Mac Pro immediately, is the recent announcement, by Intel, of the release of its Core 2 Duo suite of processors. There have been no announcements as to when, or whether, the next batch of Mac Pros will come with these chips installed. But, if Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 3 is not out until 2007, then graphics professionals may decide to hang on for the very fastest Macs available at that time.

Graphics cards choices

Apple has been keen to push the customizability of the new Mac Pro computers and claims 4 million build-to-order options. This extends to the choice of graphics card and a new Mac Pro can be custom built with a choice of three graphics cards. The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT comes with the standard configuration, but the faster ATI Radeon X1900 XT may be desirable for high end graphics, 3D design or video and broadcast work. The top of the range Quadro FX 4500 provides a 3D stereo graphics port for stereo-in-a-window applications and is targeted at high-end scientific visualization.

Hard disks storage, memory and expansion slots

It is possible to add up to 2 terabytes of internal hard disk storage to an Apple Mac Pro, although the standard configuration comes with a single 250GB SATA hard drive. The Mac Pro uses 667MHz fully-buffered ECC memory and, with eight slots, it is possible to add up to 16GB of RAM memory.

External hard disk storage solutions are addressed with 4 Firewire ports, 2 of which are Firewire 800. It is possible to install up to two 16x SuperDrives which support dual-layer DVDs and there are also numerous other expansion options for audio DSP solutions, video capture cards, data acquisition devices or a Fiber Channel card.

Apple's web site

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iPhone Competition: Black Berry by Verizon

2008-10-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

The iPhone dynasty - with an amazing near 10 million phones now in the hands of consumers - is about to be challenged like never before by two new touch screen phones: The T-Moble G1 coming Oct. 22, and the BlackBerry Storm, to be sold exclusively by Verizon at a still-undisclosed date this fall.

Both are brilliant smartphones that just may reach the genius status claimed by the iPhone. Both have touch screens, location detection, lots of powerful applications and long lists of features that both rival and beat the iPhone.

Yet both will be introduced at a time when consumers are reeling from the nation's economic collapse and reacting by tightening their purse strings. Consumer spending on new tech toys is taking a huge hit and these are perilous times to introduce anything new.

The BlackBerry Storm for Verizon does away with the familiar BlackBerry physical keyboard in favor of a glass touch screen like the iPhone. But unlike the iPhone, the Storm provides tactile feedback. When you push a letter on the virtual keypad, springs beneath the glass make it noticeable, just as if you were pushing a real key.

The storm also has a higher-quality 3.2-megapixel camera that also records video, compared to the 2.0 still-only iPhone camera.

BlackBerry is also working furiously on getting more applications for the phone, though it lacks a central store like the iPhone.

But because of the huge BlackBerry business base, the Storm is going to find a ready and loyal audience. And having the Verizon EV-DO network - vastly superior in coverage and performance than the often overwhelmed AT&T network used by the iPhone - the Storm will provide great e-mail and Web browsing.

The Storm will come with 1 GB of on-board memory storage and a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB of additional storage. The iPhone comes with up to 16 GB of built-in, non-removable or expandable storage.

The Storm also has a removable and replaceable battery. The iPhone battery can't be removed by the user.

Verizon hasn't said how much it will cost or when the Storm will be available, only sometime this fall.

That's because it probably wants to get all the hype out of the way for T-Mobile's coming T-Mobile G1, the first phone to work on the much anticipated Google open-source Android operating system. It was shown off last month and has had so much hype surrounding it that T-Mobile says it has sold out of preorders.

No figures have been released on how many preorders have been received but HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the G1 handset, predicts that T-Mobile will sell 600,000 to 700,000 units through the end of the year and as many as 2 million by the end of 2009.

It's a consumer-oriented phone that will be able to download music from Amazon.com, access all the social networking sites, instant messaging and texting services and the various Google features like Gmail, YouTube, Maps and documents.

Here's a video of the T-Mobile G1 from MobileBurn.com taken at last month's introduction show-and-tell in New York.

2008-10-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

Adobe CS4 Previews

2008-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Adobe CS4 Information:

Adobe say that the software downloads will demonstrate the direction of features in the forthcoming Adobe Creative Suite 4 and showcases technologies aimed at streamlining and simplifying design, development and production

Dreamweaver CS4:

Includes Related Files Toolbar, Code Navigator, Live View Mode and interacts with Flash elements.

Fireworks CS4:

Redesigned to fit Adobe applications, export to PDF, compatible with AIR, Flash and Flex.

Soundbooth CS4:

Part of the Production Premium Suite is an audio editing software tool for video professionals. You can edit multiple audio samples on many tracks and match volume levels across different audio files.

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Flash CS3 Tutorial:
How to move or resize a whole Flash animation at once

How do I move all the graphics in all layers and frames in a Flash animation in one go? I have tried selecting all the frames and layers and then dragging them to an other location on the stage, but this doesn't work. Do Adobe or Macromedia have a built in solution for this?

This is an often asked question, unsurprisingly, considering that the size, shape and position of elements on web pages change so often (especially when client's change their mind).

Therefore an easy to use technique to move the whole of a Flash animation on the stage at once can become an essential requirement.

In this instance, the successful method is not as immediately obvious as it might be. Simply highlighting all layers in a Flash animation and trying to move them will not indeed achieve the desired result.

The solution, however, can actually be quite simple, if a bit tricky (so remember to always work on a copy of the file). To move or resize an entire Flash animation on the stage, we use the following steps.

How to move a complete Flash animation in one go

To move the complete animation to another part of the Stage, requires firstly that all layers are unlocked. (To avoid moving unwanted layers, make sure that they are hidden of locked). Then;

Click on the Edit Multiple Frames button in the Flash animation Timeline. This is a crucial step.

Now there are two options. Either drag the onion skin markers so they cover all the animation frames. But an easier method may be to click the Modify Onion Markers button and then select the option to Onion All.

Next, select the Edit menu and then Select All.

It is now possible to drag all the elements of the whole animation to a new part of the stage.

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