This also makes me wonder if we’re going to get even lower powered lights for cameras, and focused lights for production.

Now power your entire lighting package by using a simple phone jack! (Well, not really, but perhaps soon.)

Visit our friends at Crazy Gadgets for more info.

Kindle iPhone App

Kindle iPhone App Page View

It all makes sense now, why would Amazon, who would like to sell more Kindles, allow an app that fully functions as an actual Kindle? Yup, that’s right, you can transfer and read Kindle books on your iPhone or ipod touch, but connecting directly to the Kindle Store to instantly purchase the next best seller…think again. To download books, you need to open your browser on your iPhone or touch and go to Amazon.com like any other schlep downloading a book. Oh, and if you’re a newspaper or periodical reader, forget about it. The app doesn’t support those formats yet.

Ha! And you thought you had it made you thumb-scrolling, App-addicted FOOLISH consumers!

On the other hand, if you simply want to use your iPod/iPhone to read a book you’ve already downloaded and have been reading on your Kindle, the app will remember where you left off and resume at that point. Not bad as a Kindle auxiliary device that can show color, for those of you who read comic books on your Kindle in beautiful shades of gray. Frank Miller rejoice!

Here’s a nice Kindle App review for your ganderization: Comparing Kindle 2 With Kindle’s iPhone App

(Thank you TheHDRoom.com for the usage of your image.)

Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life were rendered for film at 1536×922. HD’s 1080p resolution is 1920×1080. So how can these films be released on BluRay in true, native 1080p resolution? The answer? ONLY if they re-render the films over again at the higher resolution.

A short time ago Pixar and Disney announced that both Toy Story I & II are being re-rendered in actual 3D for re-release in October 2009, as a prelude to March 2010′s release of Toy Story III also in 3D. These would have to be re-rendered in higher quality to insure a native 1080p BluRay release as well.

For the latest DVD releases of Toy Story I & II, Pixar/Disney raised the technological bar by transferring the film directly from the digital frames instead of going to film, then back into a video transfer. The results were stunning. However, standard DVD has a resolution of 720×486 (with rectangular pixels for those ‘technical’), and that resolution is clearly lower than the master files.

However… Both films were created at 1536×922, and are far below the 1900×1080 resolution of 1080p HD (however higher than the 1280×720 of 720p HD), and therefore if they were transferred to 1080p HD, they would look soft and low resolution. (Take a look at the new compilation of Pixar’s shorts recently released on BluRay disc to view some of these lower resolution files on your 1080p quality system.)

It’s my understanding that all of the earlier pixar films were rendered at 1.5k (1526×922); whereas Pixar/Disney’s Cars was their first film to be rendered at 2048×1080; commonly referred to as 2k.

When you consider that the highest resolution of hidef video is 1920×1080, you can clearly see why both Cars and Rattatouie are available in 1080p HD, and none of the previous Pixar/Disney films are as of yet.

So, in order to have nice 1080p HD releases of the previous Pixar/Disney films (in this case Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life), it’s going to REQUIRE a re-render of the entire film in a higher resolution to accomodate a new release.

What also excites me about the idea that Pixar/Disney is re-rendering the films, is the fact that rendering/shading technology has improved so dramatically since those films were originally made, and I hope that the original sources can be ‘plugged-into’ the new software and higher and more natural results will be rendered. I’m sure it will be amazing…

Personally, I can’t want for a my 1080p BluRay of Monsters Inc. I only hope that they aren’t just transferring the film in it’s original rendered resolution and calling it 1080p. When I find out, I’ll update the story.

“‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes!”

Unbelievable! In a non-funny attempt to prove that we Americans (the more fortunate?) can get malaria from mosquitos too, Bill Gates chose to release his little friends on an unsuspecting group of technologists at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, California.

Read the original story here…

It’s an amazing waterfall at Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan (a shopping and entertainment complex).

Watch, be impressed, and enjoy!

I’m truly impressed by this combination of water and technology. It’s amazing, well thought out, and remarkably engineered. Bravo!

The Google Android phone was released today. Will it be able to compete with the iPhone? Absolutely! We examine the Android Phone, the new iPhone 3G, the new iPod Touch, and the new nanos.

You’ll love getting the new fools updates on the newest digital revolution releases! You won’t be disappointed!

For those who may not know, The Flintstones was originally a prime time animated show like ‘The Simpsons’ today… and was just as ‘adult’. It’s amazing what we now consider kid-friendly…

Anyway, here’s the photos… Enjoy!

Here’s a link to the original story at www.tvshowsondvd.com.

One Frame of Lowry Digital Images breathtaking restoration of “North by Northwest”.

As per Variety today:

Demos joins Lowry Digital Images
Exec named senior algorithm scientist
By DAVID S. COHEN

Gary Demos has joined Lowry Digital Images. Demos will be a senior algorithm scientist at Lowry, which is an industry leader in digital film restoration and image enhancement.

Demos received the Gordon E. Sawyer Oscar in 2006 and has received scientific & technical awards from the Academy in 1985, 1995 and 1996. Lowry was acquired in April by Indian-owned Reliance Big Entertainment.

(Click here for the original Variety Story Link.)

I’ve written about the amazing work of John Lowry and Lowry Digital Images for years (See this post about the James Bond remasters). John’s company remarkably enhances and restores image quality that has never been visible before. Using computer algorithms, John has been able to pull out image information that was previously invisible to the naked eye, and actually deliver new masters (and now negatives) of classic motion pictures that are SUPERIOR to the original NEGATIVE of the movie. AMAZING.

A number of years ago I produced a documentary entitled “Crossing the Frontier: Making ‘The Last Starfighter’”on the groundbreaking work of Gary Demos and his then company “Digital Productions” as they pioneered the use of computers to replace models in visual effects. The innovations at the time ignited the computer generated imagery (CGI) effects work of today. I’m exceptionally proud of that documentary, and I’ve always been inspired by his pioneering spirit.

Gary invited me to his office years ago, and shortly before the hidef standard was declared, he had brilliant proposals that were fresh and revolutionary. He was also working on remarkable compression technology that actually improved image quality by dropping dirt and noise information from a source instead of image quality. So in essence, his compression would actually reduce the size of the source material while IMPROVING THE QUALITY! I left his office amazed by the possibilities, and remarkably impressed by his passion and talent.

When I heard today that these to pioneers had teamed up, I needed to blog to truly report that this is a special day… a day that I believe is going to change the way we enjoy movies forever. There’s a long list of films that Lowry Digital Images has already processed, and Gary’s innovations have already been influential to the industry as a whole.

(Lowry Digital Images has processed, the Star Wars Original Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, All of the James Bond films prior to Casino Royale, North by Northwest, and so many more…)

I’ll be updating and adding to this post over the next few days, so come back and learn more about this amazing union!

This announcement has made my year!

Coming soon…. a blog speculating about why ONLY ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ is the only Indiana Jones film coming to BluRay, and what Lowry Digital Images has to do with this.

Inventor Denny Klein described his invention of Hydrogen Technology as a ‘unique electrolysis process.’ Though this is pretty exciting stuff, it raises several questions:

1. Is the by-product truly just Oxygen, Hydrogen, or a weird combination of both?
2. Will there be a more deadly bi-product like Chloride or Fluoride floating in the air if we use water from our tap?
2. With the right filtration system, can we use anything that has water in it….. urine, 7-UP, beer? (Oh, wait a minute, we take back that last one).

Klein has been around for a few years, but the timing couldn’t be better for him to find himself an eternity of fame, let alone his 15 minutes. Here’s a link to his patent info on the invention and a couple older articles. Go Denny, go!

UPDATED EDITORIAL: There was a period of time when bottled water cost more than gas. Today the average liter of water at a 7-11 costs $1. So a gallon of ‘clean’ water costs $3.79 a gallon… the same price as a gallon of gas in Los Angeles today. Of course at 100 miles on 4 oz. of water, this new system is far more efficient, and if the byproduct is clean oxygen, is it not poetic that this new energy source might actually improve the air over the smog-machines we currently drive? I’d much rather fill up a ten gallon tank with water than with gas any day.

Also, if the 4 oz. per 100 miles figure is correct, than this car would get 3200 miles to one gallon. (Why fill up with more than on gallon?)

Fictional thought: All I can imagine now is how excited the powers would be if they found a nearby planet that had oceans of oil… Some way to get there and harvest that oil could be created…. well… what if another nearby race looked at the Earth’s water supply the same way.??? Or did this already happen in the miniseries ‘V’?