I made Super 8 films as a kid—a lot of Super 8 films—and so, when I heard the news about Kodak making a Super 8 camera, well, it gave me a fuzzy jolt of 1970s-era nostalgia. As it turns out, Kodak announced this camera a year ago, then never came out with an actual model you could buy. This year? They announced it again, at the CES conference, and they’ve got a website with glorious images of the camera. (more…)
Founding a startup is risky. Using their apps (or other products and services) can be, too. That’s because aside from failing, startups are often acquired, for many millions of dollars, by the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. And when that happens, the startups often disappear. (more…)
Stop-motion animation requires planning, creativity, and patience. But with the Vine app, you’re limited to six-second clips, meaning you can think in seconds — a very limited number of seconds — when producing a stop-motion video. Embrace the limits with Vine, and experiment. (That’s what the winners of the Tribeca Film Festival’s #6SECFILMS competition did.) Here are five Vine clips for inspiration. (more…)
OK, that’s not what I think. In fact, I’m a fan of solitude. But in the world of The Circle, Dave Eggers’s compelling novel about a powerful internet company, solitude is viewed as, well, really strange. (more…)
When my daughter, who is 10 (and relatively sophisticated about Apple products), saw my iPhone 5 with the new operating system on it, she thought I’d bought a new phone. That’s pretty much how I felt, too. The new operating system, iOS 7, does make it seem like you’ve got a new phone. (more…)
If you’re thinking about getting your kid a cellphone, maybe just because she’s begging, or because her friends have them, watch this video first. (more…)
Today’s smartphones essentially have software from Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) at the forefront. Which means, when you look at your phone, you’re looking at a bunch of apps. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, in announcing Facebook Home, wants to change that. “Our phones are designed around apps and not people,” he said. “So we want to flip that around.” (more…)
A year ago, I wrote a column with a simple premise: Apple’s iCloud, its big-time foray into cloud computing, was a failure. (more…)
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a column about stylish, wireless home stereos. Now I’ve taken the next logical step: I bought one. (more…)
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a column outlining what I viewed as Google’s confusing and chaotic mix of products, including ones it introduced, developed, and then discarded — without much thought (so it seemed) to the customers who’d come to rely on them. Well, it’s happened again, this time with Google Reader. (more…)
ALLAN HOFFMAN 