art

Amazon is developing a virtual art gallery that could give patrons an opportunity to buy expensive works of art online starting this summer, according to media reports.

The Art Newspaper reported Thursday that Amazon has reached out to "at least 125 galleries" with the goal of offering more than 1,000 art objects on its site. So far, according to one unnamed dealer, Amazon has lined up 109 galleries.

An Amazon spokesman declined comment, saying "We have not made any announcements about art."

Last month, another art Web site, GalleristNY, reported that Amazon has reached out … Read more

Congrats to Ron G. of Chittenden, Vt., for winning a SwingTip golf-analysis system in our June 7 giveaway, and to Katie D. of Rockaway, N.J., for winning a package of Kanex travel tech last week. This week's prize would help Katie keep all that new gear safe as she trots the globe.

We're giving away a pair of P^cubed Pick-Pocket Proof Pants, which, as their name suggests, help keep your gadgets and other valuables safe from thieves while you travel.

The pants have a number of high-capacity pockets that both zip and button, with a triple-secure hidden passport/money pocket that provides three possible levels of security between your wallet and the world. Two front pockets accommodate smartphones as large as the giant Samsung Galaxy Note. … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- To Electronic Arts, Nintendo's Wii U console plays second fiddle to some of the faster-growing areas in the video game business.

That includes the other next-generation consoles, Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4, as well as the current-generation systems and mobile devices, according to Frank Gibeau, head of labels at EA.

"I think it's fair to characterize that Xbox One, PS4, and mobile are the highest growth platforms that we're looking at right now," Gibeau said in an interview with CNET on Monday.

EA would rather invest in those … Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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