From Paintbox to PC: How London became the home of Hollywood VFX | Ars Technica

From Paintbox to PC: How London became the home of Hollywood VFX | Ars Technica: "For 12 years, McGee worked out of this room, painting onto the screen, his eyes left bloodshot and burning from the smoke as runners dashed in and out to empty overflowing ashtrays. It was a painstaking process; the Quantel Paintbox and its pressure-sensitive stylus were groundbreaking pieces of technology when they were released in 1981, but they had their limitations. "

Kickin' it old school in London.

PS4 boosts Sony to first full-year profit in three years | Ars Technica

PS4 boosts Sony to first full-year profit in three years | Ars TechnicaSony shipped 17.7 million PlayStation 4 consoles over the fiscal year ended March 31, bringing the total number of consoles shipped to an impressive 40 million. The strength of the PS4 helped Sony to reach its first full-year profit in three years, bringing in ¥ 147.8 billion (£936 million, $1.36 billion).

Their entertainment division, which is actually quite frugal, is also profitable. May they live on to make more top notch television! Nothing worse than big networks that make crappy content.

Dell spinoff SecureWorks' Wall Street debut didn't provide much hope for stalled tech IPO market - Silicon Valley Business Journal

Dell spinoff SecureWorks' Wall Street debut didn't provide much hope for stalled tech IPO market - Silicon Valley Business JournalLast week's tepid SecureWorks IPO didn't provide a sense of security for other tech companies who hope to go public this year.

Except of course, that secure computing is more or less a necessary requirement for the future of everything. Like Wall Street knows anything except churning clients for commission.

iPhone sales fall to 51.2M, Apple earns $50.6B in revenue in disappointing March quarter

iPhone sales fall to 51.2M, Apple earns $50.6B in revenue in disappointing March quarter Apple's second fiscal quarter of 2016 officially marks the first time ever that iPhone sales saw a year-over-year decline, as the company shipped 51.2 million handsets on its way to $50.6 billion in total sales.

I suppose it's never too late to go after Windows on the desktop. Plenty of cashmoola in that pile. It's easy to get distracting wasting time squashing Flipboard like a bug when you're having trouble competing with Microsoft.

Review: The 2016 Retina MacBook is a faster version of the same machine | Ars Technica

Review: The 2016 Retina MacBook is a faster version of the same machine | Ars Technica: "The growing number of USB Type-C accessories and peripherals can also help partially mitigate the port problem. Acer, for instance, will sell you a monitor that can pass power, USB data, and a display signal to your MacBook through a single cable."

Sounds elegant, or, nobody will ever need more than 640KB of RAM.

Apple taps Touch ID, 4K video in new iPhone 6s ads

Apple taps Touch ID, 4K video in new iPhone 6s ads: "While one is fairly straightforward and informative, the other is kind of … out there. We’re not entirely sure what to do with it, really. The entire Cult of Mac staff just watched it and had no words. But we really can’t stay mad at Neil Patrick Harris, who shows up at the end."

I'm for anything by Neil Patrick Harris who used the golden buzzer for PIFF, indicating his classy tastes and extremely good judgement.

A year with the Apple Watch: What works, what doesn’t, and what lies ahead? | Ars Technica

A year with the Apple Watch: What works, what doesn’t, and what lies ahead? | Ars TechnicaAbout a year ago, Apple announced and released its first Apple Watch. The long-rumored product was Apple’s first all-new product category since the iPad and its first under CEO Tim Cook. To say that expectations were high would be an understatement.

Baby steps.

Siri & Liam star in Apple's new Earth Day TV ad

Siri & Liam star in Apple's new Earth Day TV adMarking Earth Day, Apple on Friday debuted a new TV commercial, using Siri to promote its custom-designed recycling robot — Liam — and its branding as an environmentally-responsible company.

Born, as they were, in the North Sea.

'Silicon Valley' EP Alec Berg Tells How Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Made the Show Even Better

'Silicon Valley' EP Alec Berg Tells How Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Made the Show Even BetterThis year, one of those people was ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo — “a fan of the show,” Berg said — who actually sat in on the writer’s room one day a week. He kept the guys honest, which is usually good, though sometimes bad.

The only mistake twitter made was trying to be Instagram.