April, 2016

• 12 April

  Adobe’s spring video update sticks to essentials

  

  Compared to last year’s NAB show where Adobe announced some really innovative new tools, this year’s NAB updates for the video applications in Creative Cloud are more yawn and less “yay!” That doesn’t mean there aren’t important workflow enhancements that will make day-to-day production easier; there are. There’s just nothing particularly glamorous about filling essential …

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• 12 April

  5 ways you know you’re at an analyst summit (and no, it isn’t as sexy as it sounds)

  

  I spent the day at an analyst summit in Shenzhen, China. The company: Huawei, which invited me along for a chance to interview some executives and learn more about the world’s third-largest phone brand. The objective: get to know how the maker of gadgets and networking equipment is doing. As the presentations droned on, it dawned on me that, while …

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• 12 April

  Google will let you navigate around your phone, hands

  

  Need to use your Android phone but your hands are tied up? A new voice feature from Google can help. Voice Access, currently in beta status, allows you to move around the screen, jump to other screens and open apps through your voice. You can utter specific commands, such as “Open Chrome” or “Go home.” Voice Access also places numbers …

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• 12 April

  Lensbaby Twist 60 bends your background

  

  Enlarge Image The Twist 60 has a conventional Lensbaby design. Lensbaby The barons of bokeh look to the past for their latest lens, the Lensbaby Twist 60. It reproduces the idiosyncratic characteristics of the Petzval lens, which renders out-of-focus areas with a lot of curvature. Unlike the other resurrection of the Petzval lens from Lomography, Lensbaby’s has a more conventional …

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• 12 April

  Actress tweets a glimpse of Audrey Horne in new ‘Twin Peaks’

  

  Rumors of Sherilyn Fenn reprising her role as the quirky and captivating Audrey Horne in director David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” revival series appear to be confirmed. On Monday, Fenn tweeted a current photo of herself dressed as Horne with the message “Audrey Horne Lives,” followed by three cherry emojis. Her tweet has since been removed from Twitter. It’s possible that …

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• 12 April

  Mark Zuckerberg takes veiled shot at Trump at F8 conference

  

  For Mark Zuckerberg, politics was just as important as product announcements during his biggest speech of the year. The Facebook CEO even took a shot at Donald Trump. Kicking off the social network’s F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg rejected calls to build more walls that separate people. It was a none-too-veiled shot at the Republican presidential front-runner, who’s promised to build …

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• 12 April

  Hello bots, goodbye apps? Facebook cooks up chatbots, video drones, social VR

  

  Download the audio version of today’s episode:Facebook Messenger isn’t just for friends. It’s also for having awkward conversations with company chatbots. Mark Zuckerberg revealed some examples of how bots will operate in Messenger, along with other ways Facebook is expanding its reach. Watch CNET Update below for a quick recap of the biggest news from Facebook’s F8 conference: Now playing: …

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• 12 April

  Impossible Project’s instant camera catapults Polaroid into the modern age

  

  Polaroid instant cameras have been around since the 1940s, but really hit their stride in popular culture in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, documenting the rise and fall of bell-bottom pants and feathered bangs. Digital cameras and smartphones may have been the death knell for Polaroid, but a group of enthusiasts called the Impossible Project swooped in to continue manufacturing …

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• 12 April

  PC shipments nosedive worldwide

  

  The good old PC just can’t catch a break. Global shipments of personal computers tumbled in the first quarter from a year ago, research firms Gartner and IDC said Monday. Based on preliminary data, Gartner pegged the drop at 9.6 percent, while IDC tagged the fall at 11.5 percent. Last quarter was the sixth in a row of declines for …

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• 12 April

  Share Dropbox files with your Facebook Messenger friends

  

  Facebook has spent a lot of time beefing up app integration inside its Messenger platform, adding support for services ranging from Uber to payments to goofy animated images to lighten the mood. On Monday, Dropbox and Facebook announced Messenger users now have the ability to easily share files stored in the cloud-storage service using Facebook’s messaging platform. In order to …

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