Kaleidoscope
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Brain-controlled VR lightshows could lull you to sleep
By most accounts, technology wreaks havoc on our sleep. Even tools meant to help us sleep better can make insomnia worse. But sleep and tech don't have to be mutually exclusive. Artists and researchers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University have created a virtual reality tool to induce sleep. The device, Inter-Dream, combines ambient music controlled by artists with kaleidoscopic visuals controlled by the user's brainwaves, via EEG.
Kaleidoscope VR film fest will embark on a world tour
Kaleidoscope's North American tour in 2015 was so successful, it's traveling the world this year to convert more virtual reality skeptics into believers. The film festival is heading to 10 cities outside the US, starting with Paris, France on March 1st. It will showcase over 30 VR experiences from developers around the globe using Wevr Transport, a curated content network that dreams of becoming the YouTube for VR.
Facebook acquires Mac development house for design talent
Facebook has just bought Dutch Mac development house Sofa, according to a company blog post. In the Mac world, Sofa is best known for four of the Mac apps that it makes: Kaleidoscope, Versions, Checkout and Enstore. However, Facebook's acquisition of Sofa had nothing to do with the Mac apps -- it was purely a purchase to get the company's design talent. "Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. But again, this is a pure talent acquisition for Facebook. And we've heard the main emphasis behind it is to continue to boost their [Facebook's] product design talent," according to TechCrunch. Fans of Sofa's apps don't have to worry about their future however. Though Facebook purchased the company, it did not purchase the rights to the apps. The company says that Kaleidoscope and Versions will live on, but Sofa will need to find homes for the apps at other development houses. Checkout and Enstore will also survive due to joint partnerships that were formed to create the apps.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Kaleidoscope Camera
Camera-equipped Macs can be an endless source of amusement for kids and big kids alike. Whether it's recording stupid faces in Photo Booth or playing with one of the myriad of fun little camera-based apps, being silly on camera is just plain fun. Kaleidoscope Camera is a simple little US$0.99 app that'll keep the kids amused for a little while longer. It produces a beautiful kaleidoscope effect using your built-in iSight or FaceTime HD camera and allows you to record the results to standard definition MOV files. There are no settings. Simply fire up the app and watch as your motion creates some quick and colorful imagery. It'd be nice to have some sort of control over the angle of the virtual mirrors to allow you to adjust the pattern created, but alas, no such luck. For $0.99 Kaleidoscope Camera is a fun, uncomplicated toy. If you're stuck for things to do and bored on a rainy afternoon, check it out on the Mac App Store, or hit the break to see what I made with it in about 30 seconds. If you've got any family favorites for keeping the kids amused using your Mac's camera, help us and your fellow readers out and post them down in the comments.
Holiday savings for designers with the Fusion Ads Holiday Bundle
The holidays have become rife with software bundles, bringing big savings to consumers (when there are enough apps in the bundle you don't already own). Fusion Ads is offering a bundle that will be of particular interest to designers. It's especially pertinent to web designers, but any designer who doesn't already own some of the included apps would be wise to take a look! The bundle includes seven Mac applications, plus a copy of the popular CMS, ExpressionEngine and related training products. It also includes credits for Postmark, an email marketing service, some icon packs and the Keynote Wireframe Toolkit for putting together web designs in Keynote. The Mac apps in the bundle include Versions, FontCase, Billings, DrawIt, ExpanDrive, TextExpander and Kaleidoscope (a slick app I'll be reviewing soon). Check out the Fusion Ads Holiday Bundle page for descriptions and links for all of the included apps, services and icons. The bundle will cost you US$79, with a total value of US$626, according to Fusion. That's some serious savings on some really great apps, and there are only 11 days left to grab it. People who purchase the bundle are also entered in a drawing for a MacBook Air, and those who gift the bundle can win a 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad. It's worth a peek!
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Morsel
Being a giant, beloved video game blog has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk with Morsel, a studio that started with little more than three weeks of experience and the burning desire to get totally rich. How did your company get started? Lead programmer Matthew Stenback: Morsel started last summer when my final exams finished up and I was doing everything I possibly could to stay away from a fast food or similar dreadful summer job. I had never programmed much of anything before, and hadn't really considered the intricate mechanics of games. However, I decided that I was going to make an indie game, it was going to make me rich, and this would be the start of an awesome summer. Apparently though, programming a game is pretty complex (who knew right?), and I was ready to bail out more than a few times in the beginning. However, I was lucky to team up with a really talented artist and musician who just so happened to have similar goals. So there was Morsel - programmer, artist, and musician - total combined experience making games: 23 days.
Snap Judgment: XNA Dream-Build-Play 2009 finalists
While nearly all of my demo appointments at PAX required me to absorb information about new games at blinding speed, the XNA Dream-Build-Play Finalists booth demo tasked me with getting a feel for six games in just under an hour. It would be difficult for me to develop any kind of deep analyses on these brief gameplay slivers -- instead, I've collected my initial, hastily acquired thoughts about the games after the jump.Here's the short version: They're all pretty fun, but Dust: An Elysian Tail is clearly the leader of the pack.
Ascent Media, Akamai & Sofatronic delivering end-to-end BD-Live solution
There's a lot to making a BD-Live enhanced movie go (just ask the people behind Iron Man), so Ascent Media's coordinating a three pronged approach to get connected discs out and working amongst the people. Sofatronic's Kaleidoscope tech is the backbone for developing interactive Blu-ray tech, while Akamai's network makes sure servers don't melt on day 1, and Ascent Media's Blink Digital group provides creative services to find implementations that appeal to viewers. Sounds great in theory, show us something we haven't seen before and make it work smoothly, then we'll be impressed.
sofatronic's Kaleidoscope software creates interactive applications for Blu-ray
Now that Blu-ray is the last format left standing, we're definitely hoping that it ups its own game in regard to interactive content. Thankfully, sofatronic is looking to make the development of interactive applications on Blu-ray Discs a good bit easier. Essentially, Kaleidoscope -- not to be confused with Kaleidescape -- enables users to work in a visual authoring environment and create "user interfaces and advanced interactive features without having to write Java code." Additionally, the program's framework "supports all available Blu-ray player models and automatically handles performance differences and compatibility issues," which sounds pretty impressive, we must say. Click on through for the full release. %Gallery-16694%
