Hasta La Gadget!

You can watch this video one of two ways: First, for the delightful dive into the under-appreciated world of color, the hues that shape the world around us. Or, if you’re feeling snarky on this glorious Friday morning, as one terrific send-off for the overhyped trainwreck that was Color, the social media network no one wanted (except, maybe, for its patents). More »

AAC files and the arcane don’t have much in common on the surface. After some digging, however, PBS’ Idea Channel has found that magic is an uncannily good analogy for digital music rights and explaining the thorny ethical issues that come with them. Both music and spells stem from grassroots cultures that give away their content for free, but (at least until an anti-magic clampdown at eBay) have since become businesses. That nature poses a key ethical question: when we’re used to a free experience and can copy songs or spells as much as we like, what does it take to keep us as honest customers? As show host Mike Rugnetta suggests, it’s a matter of personal responsibility — if we want more of either, we have to think of the commerce as showing support for future work. You can catch Mike’s clever train of thought after the break, and ponder what constitutes DRM for a potion while you’re at it.

Continue reading PBS draws link between digital music ethics and magic spells, somehow makes it look simple (video)

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Alt

PBS draws link between digital music ethics and magic spells, somehow makes it look simple (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 22:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To think that all those times people were cursing at their terminals every time they got the Blue Screen of Death, they should’ve been charging for admission. At least that’s the idea one would get after checking out PBS‘ latest Off Book short doc, The Art of Glitch. The six-minute video takes a closer look at a movement that views a typically frustrating electronic phenomenon and considers it to be glorious, wonderful art instead. From neon signs on the fritz to digital files that are edited to cause buggy behavior, the range of glitch art is as broad as the imaginations of the people who prize them. The short doc is the latest offering from a web-original series that looks at “cutting edge arts” such as animated GIFs and 8-bit creations. In the meantime, you can bug out on the finer points of glitch art by checking out the video below.

Continue reading PBS delves into the finer points of buggy behavior in ‘The Art of Glitch’ (video)

PBS delves into the finer points of buggy behavior in ‘The Art of Glitch’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LeVar Burton has to take a moment. He pauses, dabs his eyes with a tissue, taking it all in: the washed-out white room, over-exposed by the sun, filled with journalists, industry reps and friends in rows of folding chairs, red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Large balloons hang from the corners of the room, dressed up like hot air balloons, carrying small, empty baskets. A guitar sits next to an amp off the corner of the stage while the Reading Rainbow logo beams on a flatscreen monitor, largely unchanged since its heyday a quarter-century ago. Burton, too, appears mostly unchanged since those days, aside from closer-cropped hair, more neatly manicured facial hair and a smart, mustard suit jacket.

Reading Rainbow launches iPad app, we go hands-on

The Engadget Show 34: LeVar Burton and weather balloons over Alaska

There’s plenty to be emotional about, of course, hitting the stage on the tail of an introduction by producer Mark Wolfe, who calls Burton, “my best friend.” The return of Reading Rainbow – now in the form of an iPad app – has been a long time coming, the beloved children’s series having been largely MIA since being pulled from the airwaves in 2009, after a 26-year run. “This is two years in the making,” Burton begins in his familiarly gentle cadence as we sit down for an interview roughly an hour later, “and I’m really just overwhelmed with the response. It’s like making a movie. You’re just so close to it and you sometimes lose perspective, you can’t see the forest for the trees, that sort of thing. There’s so much that’s gone into it, so much work, so much sweat, so much blood.”

A lot, certainly, has gone into the launch, Burton singling out theme song composer Steve Horelick and singer Tina Fabrique in the audience. “It’s my first time meeting her in-person,” he explains, extending a hand to bring her up on stage. “Butterfly in the sky,” she begins, as though not a single day had passed in the last two and a half decades that she didn’t wake up singing that line. “I can go twice as high,” Burton joins in. By “take a look, it’s in a book,” nearly everyone in attendance adds to the chorus. It’s a surreal sight placed up against the standard fare of tech press conferences, where bloggers elbow one another to shoot tablets on stands behind bulletproof plexiglass, and before the crowd finishes singing “a Reading Rainbow,” Burton’s eyes aren’t the only misty ones in the house.

Continue reading Re-Reading Rainbow: an interview with LeVar Burton

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Software

Re-Reading Rainbow: an interview with LeVar Burton originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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