Technology is advancing quickly.  Check what engineers are able to do today.  Those are robots that fly like something out of a movie or like a UFO.  They fly very precisely and doesn't seem to require a lot of human controls.

There are many uses for this.  I'm not sure what right now, but I'm sure it'll be used for surveillance.  The one thing I know will be that we will be seeing for UFO's in the sky very soon or maybe SkyNET will be beat them to it.

Probably one of the few videos sites that doesn't seem to make changes to their site.  Granted Vimeo is a great site.  It's always about the video.  Ads and comments are always at the end of their list.  When the annouced an new and improved Vimeo it made me wonder how could they make it better?  Have they improved they're already great codec for they're video player?  Have they sped up the site searches and downloads?

Even though I don't know how it'll be, since it's open to a select amount of Vimeo users.  All is pointing to a more expansion of just not the desktop experience, but mobile as well ask the living room experience.  Let hope that 2012 will bring us more great shorts and animation for all to see.

If you haven't noticed, the development of Gingerbread on the HP Touchpad has come to a screeching halt.  Most of the Roms (Xron, CM7) haven't been updated in a while.  So what does it all mean?  Well the developers are starting to move onto next Android OS.

If you haven't known, Ice Cream Sandwich was made to be used for both phones and tablets.  Gingerbread on the other hand was only made for phones.  HP Touchpad users will be able to have a true tablet OS (aside from webOS).

It seems that the CyanogenMOD are the furthest along.  It seems everything works except for the front camera.  Wifi, video and touch all work.  The only downside is that hardware video acceleration doesn't work which is a minus.  As far as I know there are three people tweeting their progress.  I'm not sure if they belong to the CyanogenMOD team or not, but it's good to see all this progress from around the world.  Check out their twitter: @yjwong

Adobe Max conference is taking place this week.  Slowly, but surely, there are things that are trickling out.  There are a lot of things that would make a lot of motion graphics designers happy.  The video below shows something that is new, but isn't really new at all.  What you're about to see is image mapping, but in this case it's video mapping.

What the program does it takes the environment of the video and makes it into 3D.  Once calculated, a virtual camera can be set and you can change the view point.  You can zoom in out , pan etc.  Just like image 3D mapping, you can't go to the extremes.  Just subtles only.  In addition you can have people (who have been rotoscoped) be placed behind objects and other things.  Also you can change focus areas and what not.

The great thing about this is it's pretty automatic.  The user doesn't have to use a 3D program and texture objects in 3D space.  It's all calculated by the program.  We're sure this will be implemented in a couple of years though.

Also did any notice how the video below the screen is like floating in the air.  They look like their using projection mapping on the stage there.  Pretty neat.

Looks like Windows Phone Mango update will be making the rounds this week around the world.  Several European carriers are announcing today or tomorrow.  Canada is on the same boat as well.  Here in the US, At&t are announcing and probably pushing out the update tomorrow.

All I can say is FINALLY.  People with Windows Phone right now have been waiting for this.  It's finally catching up with the likes of iOS and Android.  It'll be a welcome update.  Hopefully it's not too late.  With the current released winphones that are lacking is the front facing camera.  I think that it was a bad idea for Microsoft to not include this in the debut of Windows Phone last year.  A lot people are who got a phone last year, aren't probably gonna get new phones this year.  With the economy as it is and most people are gonna be under a two year contract.  Therefore, they've got another year before they'll will eventually upgrade their phones.    And it seems like all the new Windows Phone are coming with front facing cameras.  It's a pity though.  Microsoft should have been ready from the start.

Hopefully that Mango update can persuade current users to stick it out and hopefully this Mango goes much smoother than the other Windows phone updates.  As far as the Mango update goes, not all phone will be updated at the same time.  Let watch some video of the Mango update and hopefully it does make the rounds this week.

With Sony and their Nex line, they introduced a small compact camera that give the users the quality of a DSLR. The only problem was there was some issues with first generation of their line. Most notable was that the Nex 5 didn't have much to differentiate itself for the Nex 3. Only adding a 1080i video and aluminum metal body. Also the lack of manual video controls was the major drawback to the Nex 5.

Jump a year later and Sony is about to release the Sony Nex 7. This camera is not geared to the "regular consumer". It's geared more towards the "indie/budget film photographers. What people complained about with the Nex 5 was answered in the Nex 7. I'll just get some of the most notable ones. The Nex 7 has dials. Two new dials which are programmable by the way. Now people can change aperture and shutter quickly and efficiently. It's also got a built-in viewfinder which is digital but very indistingushable from an optical thanks to the OLED.  Also the hotshoe on the Nex 7 is the same as the more expensive cameras on Sony's line.  This allows it so that you're not stuck using something just for the nex line.   Another great addition to the Nex7 and all of the Sony camera lines is the touchscreen LCD.  Now you can get fast quick focus immediately.  All this comes in a slightly bigger package, but not noticeable really for what you get.

The biggest question on everyone's mind though is that how will the video be?  Everyone knows that the Nex line is known for it's photo quality, but how about in filming.  That's to be determined later when it actually releases.  The biggest is the full manual controls in video mode which what kept the Nex 5 from becoming king.  Another addition and great addition in my opinion is the addition of 1080p at 60fps.  Not interlaced, but progressive.  Smooth motion without the lose of resolution.  Will it also incorporate the same image stabilization that the Sony HX9v has (which probably has the best image stabilization around for a consumer camera).

Will the new Sony Nex 7 be a big hit.  From the looks of it, it will very likely be.  With Panasonic GH3 bound to rival the Nex7, makes you wonder what Canon and Nikon are doing.   Anyways check out this video on the new camera coming out this October.