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Review: Movie411 caters to movie buffs who download movie covers and images

Movie411 captures information about even the most esoteric and ancient movies and saves the information along with their movie covers to your computer. The program works without glitches and offers an intuitive user interface.

Movie411 downloads as an executable file directly to your computer. You will need to manually create a shortcut on your desktop for easy access to this program. The program is very handy if you want to quickly find and save information about a particular movie. There are no Help files, though, so you learn as you go, but the user interface is rather intuitive so it'… Read more

'Into the Pixel' shows extraordinary video game art

While the next generation of gaming comes later this year, you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on a new system to see great graphics, as plenty of gorgeous games are coming for existing platforms.

"Into the Pixel" -- a juried video game art exhibition that shows off some of the greatest concept and production art around -- makes a return to the E3 2013 gaming expo in Los Angeles from June 11 to 13. We've gathered high-resolution images from all the winners, ranging from popular titles such as League of Legends to up-and-comers like Destiny. … Read more

Review: PicsArt Photo Studio offers a streamlined editing experience for iOS

PicsArt Photo Studio doesn't offer many features that other photo editing tools don't already, but it is well crafted, smartly designed, and filled with options. When combined, these options allow you to do everything from frame and text-tag your images to filter and add masks and effects to photos.

What PicsArt Studio has done is combine many of the most common features provided in other free photo editing apps into a single interface. In many cases, this would have led to a messy, convoluted design, but it works here, even with the text labels on each of the … Read more

With Skillfeed, Shutterstock aims to rework online training

Shutterstock has launched a new subscription service called Skillfeed designed to connect professionals who need to learn how to use their computers with creative types who want to make videos that do the teaching.

With the $19-per-month service, subscribers can watch as many videos as they want, either longer-form courses or shorter "snacks" good for smaller periods of free time, said David Fraga, Skillfeed's general manager. And content contributors get paid: Shutterstock keeps 70 percent of the proceeds, but the rest is divided among all contributors based on what fraction their videos were of the total time … Read more

Review: Moving Art features dozens of artistic films with deep social integration

The new Moving Art app from Louie Schwartzberg takes a series of videos of locations and landscapes and combines them into arresting imagery in video format. Displayed on the iPad's gorgeous retina display screen, the results are at times breathtaking, but can at times suffer from a lack of direction.

The result of Schwartzberg's work is an engaging but often slow and very large app that can be soothing but will certainly be best for a certain audience. Open the app after the long download process, and Moving Art gives you a number of videos to choose from. … Read more

If Earth had rings like Saturn, the sky would look like this

The sunsets would be impossibly beautiful. The evening sky would glitter with a thousand silver arcs. If Earth had rings like Saturn, you'd only have to look up to get a spectacular show.

Veteran astronomy artist Ron Miller has created some stunning views of what our skies would look like if Earth were a ringed planet, and they make me want to launch a Kickstarter campaign to make it happen.

In a recent article for sci-fi blog io9, Miller presented his wild visions of a ringed Earth and what the sky would look like from various places on our … Read more

Disney making 'Star Wars Rebels,' a new animated show

Disney said today that it has begun production on "Star Wars Rebels," a new animated television series. It will air in 2014, first as a one-hour special, and then will continue as a regular series.

The special will be shown on the Disney Channel, while the series will air first on Disney XD channels globally, Disney said. It will be produced by LucasFilm Animation.

The announcement that production has commenced on "Star Wars Rebels" comes just two months after Disney shut down "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," a popular and long-running cartoon series. What's unclear is whether the announcement of "Star Wars Rebels" will do anything to ease the enmity toward Disney that has sprung up in the wake of the "Clone Wars" shutdown, as well as the closure of LucasArts, the video game arm of LucasFilm. … Read more

Want a 10-foot-tall painting of 'Star Wars' action figures?

Do you still have your original "Star Wars" action figures? Mine are tucked away in storage, but looking at Rob Burden's artwork makes me want to dig them out.

The San Francisco artist is so obsessed with his old "Star Wars" figures that he does 10-foot-tall oil paintings of them, like "The Birth of a Jedi," above. The works don't portray the characters from the series, but the actual action figures themselves.

Now he's taking his passion to new heights on Kickstarter with a $24,000 campaign to produce two enormous 10x14-foot "Star Wars" canvases. … Read more

Report: EA to scrap Online Passes for games

Electronic Arts will be dropping Online Passes from all of its future games, citing lackluster player support, according to a report by Venture Beat.

EA Senior Director of Corporate Communications John Reseburg revealed the news. "Yes, we're discontinuing Online Pass," he said. "None of our new EA titles will include that feature."

EA is not the only game publisher that elects to bundle an Online Pass with new copies of its games. The one-time codes are designed to restrict access to key features, such as online multiplayer. Players who buy a second-hand version of the game are given the option to purchase an Online Pass for a fee, prior to being able to play with others. … Read more