film

Abound Solar, a startup that received a Department of Energy loan, said this week that it will shut down one of its production lines and accelerate plans to make a more competitive solar panel.

As part of the change, the company will cut 180 jobs in Colorado, where it is based. Abound Solar makes solar panels with thin film cells made from cadmium telluride, the same material used by First Solar and General Electric.

In late 2010, Abound Solar secured a $400 million loan guarantee from the DOE to boost its production in Longmont, Colo., and build a new factory … Read more

If there's been one thing you could count on every year since the Academy Awards started honoring animated features, it's that Pixar would walk away with the Oscar. Through last year, six of the studio's eight films won golden statuettes.

But Pixar's 2011 entry, "Cars 2," a box office success but a critical failure, not only didn't win on Sunday, it wasn't even nominated. And that meant a golden opportunity for a slew of other animated filmmakers.

In the end, it was "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski's &… Read more

Foreclosures, bankruptcies, eviction notices, and tears.

That's the picture painted Thursday in a New York Times op-ed piece about a Hollywood film industry that is supposedly "contracting."

Hilary De Vries, a screenwriter and book author, writes about how Hollywood's middle class is hurting. We're not talking Brad and Angelina or Martin Scorsese. We're talking about the guy you might remember from a soap opera or the writing team for a lesser-known sitcom. De Vries offered anecdotes about how her neighbors--several cash-strapped actors and screenwriters--have lost homes to foreclosure. She described how popular eateries are … Read more

BodyGuardz has been around for a while, providing customers with an extra layer of protection for their device. In the past, the installation methods were cumbersome, if not impossible. The new application gel used when applying a BodyGuardz protective film makes installation a breeze.

Watch the video above as I apply the protective skin to my iPhone 4S. The entire process took less than 10 minutes, including talking throughout the entire process. In each kit you get two sets of skins, should you need to reapply a skin down the road. You will also get skins for the side of … Read more

Flixlab is a free app for iPhone that lets you quickly make movies and share them with your Facebook friends without a lot of hassle. A recent feature update includes a cooperative movie-making mode: you'll now be able to take pictures and videos of an event with your friend and then quickly share and combine the content from both of your iPhones into one video.

Flixlab takes all the busywork out of making good-looking movies by adding all the effects, transitions, and music automatically before you share them with your Facebook friends. Simply follow the app's step-by-step process … Read more

Google+ finally allows nicknames, Priceline is killing Shatner, and a solar radiation storm crashes communication systems.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

If you're a storyteller, wouldn't you want the chance to have "Gladiator" and "Blade Runner" auteur Ridley Scott help you with a project? And wouldn't it be great to have half a million dollars to spend on it?

That could be your future if you're the winner of YouTube's Your Film Festival, a competition to unearth the world's best storyteller that Google's video sharing site announced today.

Beginning February 2, YouTube will open up the film festival to anyone in the world who's 18 or older and has … Read more

A solar farm in California will be the largest to use an emerging type of thin-film solar technology, another competitive force bringing down the price of solar.

Japan-based Solar Frontier will supply solar panels built with solar cells that use a combination of copper, indium, and selenide. The project, which will produce 150 megawatts at peak times, will be in Kearn County, California and is expected to be completed next June.

Project developer Enxco and Solar Frontier said the thin-film technology has a favorable year-round energy production, not only during its peak output. The technology is "compelling to major … Read more

According to a recent study, 19 percent of you have lost your smartphone due to a fatal meeting with the toilet. Putting aside the disturbing fact that some people can't part with their phone for a precious few moments, wouldn't it be nice not to worry about your mobile device, should it take a tumble into the commode or any other body of water?

Well, it could happen, and even better, it could happen this year.

A company called HzO developed a nanofilm waterproof coating that can protect your electronics from the perils of water, but it's a bit different from some of the other solutions out there, such as NeverWet and Liquipel.

The difference is that HzO's WaterBlock is applied during the manufacturing stage instead of after, so it safeguards the insides of your phone, tablet, or MP3 player--and not just the outside.… Read more