Google is working on a way for artificial intelligence to compress your photos -- Quartz

A compression method invented by the spoof HBO show Silicon Valley can actually work in real life to reduce image sizes.

The bizarre true story behind the "this is a work of fiction" disclaimer

The real reason movies have disclaimers at the end.

Roadie Wrap - YouTube [video]

The proper way to wrap cables.

For first time, carbon nanotube transistors outperform silicon

A big breakthrough in carbon nanotube technology just as Moore's Law is approaching the end for silicon.

HypeVR's Volumetric VR Video Rig Uses 14 Epic Red Cameras

HypeVR creates a "volumetric" camera rig offering limited movement through a VR video.

Kollaborate Server 2.0.2 - Aug 24 2016

• Support for recognizing and converting MXFs, FLVs and AVIs
• When drawing over a video in full screen near to the right edge, hold down shift to prevent the comment overlay from appearing
• Limited the screen area required to trigger the full screen comment overlay on larger monitors
• Fixed an issue where annotations couldn't be submitted
• If no other encoders are responding, send to the first available encoder even if the current file is longer than the encoder's maximum duration
• Fixed an issue where deleting a file would result in it still being selected invisibly, producing an error if you tried to delete something else
• Fixed an issue where clients would try to reconnect too often if the socket server was offline
• Double quotes are now prohibited from file titles
• Reduced logging when processing webhook events
• Several fixes to thumbnail generation
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

Kollaborate Premiere Panel 1.0.3 - Aug 24 2016

Improved compatibility with Adobe Premiere 2015.3.

Pro Media Tools 1.4.5 - Aug 4 2016

• QT Edit - New Quick Task: import timecode from Broadcast Wave (BWF) audio file
• QT Edit - Several conform improvements
• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where the Discard button does nothing when closing a batch that hasn't been submitted
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Open dialog in several apps to show at startup even if a previous file was automatically reopened
• Various other fixes and tweaks

Kolloaborate Server 2.0.2 is now out, a minor update to our self-hosted in-house cloud workflow platform. (These changes have already made their way to the cloud version of the site.)

The biggest change in this release is that MXFs, FLVs and AVIs are recognized as video files so thumbnails will be generated for them and if you have Kollaborate Encoder these files will automatically be converted to MP4s for playback in the browser. This only applies to files uploaded from now on.

Other changes

• When drawing over a video in full screen near to the right edge, hold down shift to prevent the comment overlay from appearing
• Limited the screen area required to trigger the full screen comment overlay on larger monitors
• Fixed an issue where annotations couldn't be submitted
• If no other encoders are responding, send to the first available encoder even if the current file is longer than the encoder's maximum duration
• Fixed an issue where deleting a file would result in it still being selected invisibly, producing an error if you tried to delete something else
• Fixed an issue where clients would try to reconnect too often if the socket server was offline
• Double quotes are now prohibited from file titles
• Reduced logging when processing webhook events
• Several fixes to thumbnail generation
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

This is a free update for all customers with valid maintenance and upgrade instructions are available in the installation guide included in the download shown after logging in.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).

The chemicals we off-gas change when we watch something funny or thrilling | Ars Technica

Air testing could be a future alternative to movie reviews.

MIT shows off amazing manipulation of objects in video | Nackblog

Dynamic video could allow CG and live-action objects to easily interact with each other.

Seagate's new 60TB SSD is world's largest | Ars Technica

Seagate announces the world's largest SSD with a 3.5in form factor.

QI | Why Are Actors So Overpaid? [video]

QI demonstrates the Kuleshov Effect.

How natural are nature documentaries? | The Verge

Interesting discussion about the tricks that documentarians perform to get the footage they need.

To Surprise a Voice

The art of subtitles.

A brief history of TV shows' opening credit sequences

How opening title sequences evolved over the decades.

How Sony, Microsoft, and Other Gadget Makers Violate Federal Warranty Law

You have a lot more control over devices you own than you'd think.

The Evolution of Steven Spielberg [video]

Chart Spielberg's directing evolution from Escape to Nowhere to the BFG.

Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense

Watch Sunspring, a short sci-fi movie written entirely by an AI.

2k is not 2048x1152

By creating frame sizes that are larger than the target but not large enough for downsampling to be effective may be degrading image quality.

Last week we released Pro Media Tools 1.4.5, a minor update to our suite of media management and workflow tools.

Import timecode from BWF files

QT Edit has a new quick task to import timecode from Broadcast Wave (BWF) audio files. You can either select a single file to import from or an entire folder. If you select the latter, it will match audio files to video files with the same name in the batch.

Conform improvements

We've improved the accuracy and reliability of conforming video files to different frame rates in QT Edit.

Other changes

• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where the Discard button does nothing when closing a batch that hasn't been submitted
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Open dialog in several apps to show at startup even if a previous file was automatically reopened
• Various other fixes and tweaks

 Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for media professionals. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.

CinePlay 1.4.2 - Aug 2 2016

• Added a thumbnail preview when hovering over the timeline (local files only)
• When deleting a marker from the Markers window, the next marker along is now selected automatically
• Fixed an issue where video could not be flipped
• Fixed an issue where the app could display an Open dialog even when a movie loaded at startup
• More accurate frame stepping
• Improved timecode accuracy
• Various other fixes and tweaks

Cut Notes for iPad 2.4.4 - Jul 26 2016

• Button titles span multiple lines and dynamically resize to fit in more text
• Fixed an issue where playback buttons may not work if the cut was initially loaded in portrait orientation
• Notes now reorder correctly when editing timecode
• Prevented users from accidentally switching back to the project view by swiping in the wrong place
• Fixed an issue where large button sets could not be scrolled after switching out of notes view
• Minor Kollaborate API tweaks
• Various other tweaks and improvements

CinePlay for iOS 1.6.2 - Jul 25 2016

• New Kollaborate authentication system. It should detect your previous login automatically but if not, please reauthorize by clicking the + button in the media view. Self-hosted customers should be using Kollaborate Server 2.0 or higher. 
• Added 2:1 and 2.40:1 aspect ratio masks
• Fixed an issue where timecode may not update while scrubbing
• Fixed an issue where the UI may hang while generating thumbnails
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.1.9 - Jul 19 2016

• Housekeeper - Support for trashing DaVinci Resolve render caches
• Housekeeper - Support for trashing failed Mac App Store software updates
• System Toolkit - Support for trashing CloudKit caches
• Housekeeper - Improved loading times
• CS Repair - Fixed an issue where Premiere may not automatically close
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

Kollaborate Server 2.0.1 - Jul 14 2016

• Various fixes for project / file subscriptions
• Fixed an issue where hoverscrub thumbs may not appear
• Fixed an issue where the Files view could appear empty
• Fixed an issue where subfolders in shared folders could be inaccessible to shared links
• Comment streams now show timecoded comments
• Various UI improvements to comment streams
• Improved reliability when disabling multi-factor authentication
• Fixed an issue where file titles could appear blank in certain situations in the email digest
• Improved support for importing comments with special characters into the Adobe Premiere panel
• Fixed an issue where Synced Sessions could stall for clients
• Fixed an issue where thumbnails may not be generated for videos shorter than 1 second
• Fixed an issue where newlines may not appear in certain comments
• Security improvements
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Kollaborate Encoder 1.1.2 - Jul 14 2016

If getting the queue fails on the first try, it retries up to 3 times. This is useful if loading at startup before the server has an internet connection.

Kollaborate Transfer 1.4.3 - Jul 14 2016

• Images are now resized with Retina displays in mind
• Fixed an issue where folders in the root directory of a project may not appear the first time the project is loaded
• Prevented authorization errors erroneously appearing at startup
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Cut Notes for iPad 2.4.3 - Jul 12 2016

• New Kollaborate authentication system. It should detect your previous login automatically but if not, please reauthorize from the settings menu. Self-hosted customers should be using Kollaborate Server 2.0 or higher.
• Improved calculation of drop-frame timecode
• Improved accuracy when running in manual sync mode
• Notes are now auto-capitalized
• Kollaborate thumbnail caching
• Fixed a crash when deleting notes
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

CinePlay for Mac was just updated to version 1.4.2.

Thumbnail hover preview

When hovering over the timeline, you now see a thumbnail preview of the video under the mouse cursor. This is a useful way of quickly scrubbing through a video or finding the exact position to skip to. If desired, this can be switched off from the Preferences window.

Note that this currently only works for video files locally stored on your hard drive. It does not yet work with Kollaborate cloud videos but this will be coming soon.

Other changes

• Added a thumbnail preview when hovering over the timeline (local files only)
• When deleting a marker from the Markers window, the next marker along is now selected automatically
• Fixed an issue where video could not be flipped
• Fixed an issue where the app could display an Open dialog even when a movie loaded at startup
• More accurate frame stepping
• Improved timecode accuracy
• Various other fixes and tweaks

CinePlay is a powerful playback and note-taking tool for video professionals. To find out more, see the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial. Kollaborate customers get cloud functionality in CinePlay free of charge.

The most recent OS X update, 10.11.6, appears to be causing instability for users of NVIDIA graphics cards and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Upon launching Premiere or After Effects, the system will kernel panic, which may either freeze the computer and show an error on the screen or automatically reboot. Kernel panics are almost always related to hardware or drivers and in this case it seems to only affect NVIDIA cards running on certain models of Mac Pro. While NVIDIA does offer Mac drivers separately, those drivers do not appear to solve the issue.

Adobe has successfully reproduced the issue and says it is due to a conflict with Apple's Metal graphics API, which Adobe apps are making use of for the first time in the 2015.3 release. They are planning to disable Metal in the next update until Apple and NVIDIA can fix the issues, but in the meantime you can either downgrade to OS X 10.11.5 if you have a backup or use Adobe Creative Cloud 2015.2 if you didn't delete it when you upgraded.

Alternatively, you can delete the Metal folder from each Adobe app bundle to disable Metal support yourself before the official update comes out. First backup each app, then right-click and choose Show Package Contents. Then navigate to Contents/PTX inside each app and delete the Metal folder in that directory.

This is a slightly dangerous way of fixing it but it appears to have worked for those who experienced the issue and may be the best way of solving it until Adobe releases the update.

CinePlay 1.6.2 for iOS and Cut Notes 2.4.4 for iPad are now out.

CinePlay 1.6.2 changes

• New Kollaborate authentication system. It should detect your previous login automatically but if not, please reauthorize by clicking the + button in the media view. Self-hosted customers should be using Kollaborate Server 2.0 or higher. 
• Added 2:1 and 2.40:1 aspect ratio masks
• Fixed an issue where timecode may not update while scrubbing
• Fixed an issue where the UI may hang while generating thumbnails
• Various other bug fixes and tweaks

Cut Notes 2.4.4 changes

• Button titles span multiple lines and dynamically resize to fit in more text
• Fixed an issue where playback buttons may not work if the cut was initially loaded in portrait orientation
• Notes now reorder correctly when editing timecode
• Prevented users from accidentally switching back to the project view by swiping in the wrong place
• Fixed an issue where large button sets could not be scrolled after switching out of notes view
• Minor Kollaborate API tweaks
• Various other tweaks and improvements

To find out more, visit the product pages for CinePlay for iOS and Cut Notes for iPad.