design

It starts with two empty rooms, but with your creative efforts becomes your dream home. Home Design Story is an iOS game that lets you experience all the joy and pain of interior and exterior home design. While it's offered free of charge, you will need to earn coins and gems to purchase items and the process can be a little slow. You may be tempted to spend your own money to speed up the process.

Home Design Story requires two things from the player: creativity and spare time to play. The game is centered around buying items from … Read more

Apple fanatics may find themselves foaming at the mouth over some retro conceptual Mac computer photos featured in Hartmut Esslinger's upcoming book "Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change."

The book explores Esslinger's journey as a German designer who worked with Sony, Louis Vuitton, and others before moving on to Apple in 1982. Apple hired Esslinger to transform the successful yet scattered startup into a brand with a globally recognizable design mantra. … Read more

Sweet Home 3D for Mac is an interior design application that lets you lay out your furniture (or even your house). Sweet Home 3D for Mac is a free download and installs easily.

Sweet Home 3D for Mac lets you arrange and rearrange furniture in a framework house so you can get the optimum layout. You start using Sweet Home 3D for Mac by laying out the dimensions of your room, floor, or house. The more accurately this is done the better, as a few inches can make a huge difference in layout potential. After that, you can grab images … Read more

I'm not a big fan of the subscription pricing model for software, especially software on the critical path for production work. I like knowing that in five years I won't still be paying for software that I didn't really need to upgrade, or that if Adobe suddenly decides a subscription is worth $99/month, I'm not caught flat-footed looking for a Photoshop replacement because I don't really own the version I've been using. But some people like it, some don't; some think it's overpriced, others think it's a steal. (Read our survey results on that.) … Read more

In 2012, technology design went square, and I don't mean boring. Rather, the past year signaled a shift to sharp 90-degree angles as a design element. By itself, that change may not seem significant, but when you consider that so much in tech -- from hardware to software to Web design -- was built on the concept of rounded corners, you see that it is a notable design shift. Apple didn't follow the pack (Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of square corners), but plenty of its rivals did.

Microsoft was the biggest promoter of square corners, not … Read more

You're a budding or aspiring filmmaker. You wrapped up all your shots and you're ready for post-production and distribution. Or you're an avid videographer or adventurer with a million video clips of family gatherings begging to be showcased on a TV. Cyberlink PowerProducer offers a video-production program for these folks and anyone looking to create DVDs or Blu-ray Discs.

Cyberlink PowerProducer is a user-friendly suite that lets users create and burn movie discs, complete with high-quality menu templates and Blu-ray support. The suite doesn't offer much as a real movie editor, per se -- you won'… Read more

America has fallen behind in the space race, folks. Oh sure, NASA may have little dune buggies rolling around up on Mars, but can Curiosity or Opportunity pop a bag of popcorn? Didn't think so. That makes it kind of hard to watch such outer-space classics such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Spaceballs." There is only way to settle in with a bag of popcorn for a true sci-fi experience, and that is with a space-age microwave. And it's the U.K. that has it.

The Fagor Spoutnik is a microwave on its … Read more

Joining the battle to control as much of the production process as possible, LG has reportedly begun designing its own processors.

The South Korean electronics maker plans to unveil in-house designed mobile processors at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, according to the Korea Times. The company reportedly has more than 900 chip designers working on chips to be used in smartphones and Web-connected televisions.

LG is making the switch as part of Chief Executive Koo Bon-joon's focus on increased "independence and dignity," the newspaper reported. CNET has contacted LG for comment and will update this report … Read more

Sometimes, it's nice to just sit back and enjoy yourself as a mind-bending light show and distorted ambient music collide in the name of digital expression.

Throughout October, Belgian artist Romain Tardy displayed a mesmerizing art installation titled "Pagan" on an exterior wall of the Museum of National Antiquities in Toulouse, France.

The light show -- somehow inspired by a bacchanalian head from the third century -- consists of stars, lines, and abstract figures breaking apart and merging back together. Musician Squeaky Lobster provided the eerily calming music for the event, ensuring a total transformation of the senses for most observers. … Read more