Who Would Have Guessed? Blackberry Users Love MySpace

When I think of Blackberry users, I think of accountants, lawyers and anyone else who wears a tie and carries a briefcase. You know, really boring people. MySpace users, sorta the opposite.

But there must be some significant overlap, because 400,000 people downloaded the MySpace Blackberry application in the last week, says MySpace - it was launched on November 12.

Both RIM and MySpace say this is a record - no other application has been downloaded so quickly onto Blackberry devices, and MySpace has never had an application on any platform be downloaded as often.

MySpace also says that 15 million messages have been sent and received via the mobile app, and users have updated their mood and status more than 2 million times.

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YieldBuild Launches Self-Serve Ad Optimization In Public Beta

YieldBuild, an ad optimization platform that helps users manage multiple ad networks and position advertisements on their webpages, has launched its self-service program to the public. When we last covered the company, YieldBuild was still in private beta and only sites with more than 500,000 monthly visitors were eligible to participate. Now, web publishers of any size are welcome to join, and the installation process has been streamlined to require only a few snippets of JavaScript.

YieldBuild helps publishers maximize their ad revenues in a number of ways. To begin, the publisher ties their accounts from Google AdSense and similar services to their YieldBuild account. Next, they designate a number of hotspots on their page where ads can appear, but don’t necessarily have to (for example, I could tag five possible ad spots on a page and let YieldBuild figure out the ideal configuration). YieldBuild will automatically display different configurations to different visitors until it figures out where each ad should be placed for optimal results. The service also takes into account ad appearance, adjusting font size and color as needed. In the past the system would take around 100,000 visitors until it had ‘learned’ the ideal settings, but the new algorithm needs only a fraction of that traffic.

YieldBuild has also recently introduced support for CPM ad networks, and allows users to not only perfect the placement of their ads, but also which ad networks should be used at a given time to maximize revenues. Other players in this space include Pubmatic and Rubicon Project which also offer management for multiple ad networks, but focus less on the actual placement and formatting of the ads.

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Google Makes Major Interface Change To Search: SearchWiki


We’d noticed an increasing number of people emailing on a large-scale bucket test (a product change tested on just a percentage of total users) that Google has been conducting for months - adding a Digg-like voting feature to search results (which also changes the ranking) as well as user comments.

Tonight, Google apparently said “what the hell” and turned it on for everyone.

The changes are called SearchWiki, and are a dramatic departure from Google’s streamlined, algorithm-rules approach to search. It takes features from Digg to allow users to vote site results up or down, as well as features from Wikia Search to allow users to add comments, move search results, add search results, etc. The result are customized results that appear every time you do that search in the future (assuming you are logged in).

Here’s a demo video:

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BitGravity Testing New “Multiview” Product; This Is How I Want To Watch Sports

Content Delivery Network BitGravity is testing a new product they’re calling Multiview (at least internally) that delivers up to six different synchronized high definition video streams at once. The viewer sees the normal view but can click on any of the other views at any time, and audio is obviously synchronized. The result is this: the viewer is put in the producer’s chair, and can switch camera angles at any time.

Why would you want this? I’m speculating, but an obvious use is sporting events. Instead of watching whatever is on screen, viewers could watch particular players instead. And if a particularly interesting play happens, users can switch cameras to see it from different angles.

There are other obvious uses for this too. As usual, the pornography industry may be the first to try it out.

This is also a view into the future, where video breaks away from the bonds of broadcast television. The Internet is interactive - so let viewers interact.

To see a Multiview test, go here, which shows a driving trip from six different camera angles (it’s Google street view on steroids). Not sure if they’ll keep this live now that we’re pointing to it.

Note that the BitGravity guys are known for doing random stuff to show off their network. But from what we hear, Multiview is being productized.

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54 Mind-blowing Digital Paintings

Here we’ve collected together over 50 legendary examples of digital painting in Photoshop. This hyper-modern medium blends traditional painting techniques with a digital canvas to produce stunning results. Featuring Cris de Lara, Alon Chou, Frederic St-Arnaud and others.

Please note: this article contains some mild artistic nudity.

1. Marta Dahlig

Marta is a long-standing Deviant Artist. She is 22 and from Poland, and she has been with DeviantArt since early 2003. During that time her amazing artwork and community involvement has made her work easily recognizable on the Deviant Art site. Her series of the seven deadly sins are pure perfection and a must see for any aspiring digital painter.

2. Daniel Conway

Daniel is a 23 year old lad who is currently living in the UK. He has spent 3 years studying both traditional art and digital animation. Currently however, he has been teaching himself the art of digital painting. His self teaching has certainly paid off, because his portfolio is truly amazing.

3. Marek Okon

Marek is also another digital painter from Poland. He is 27 and has some incredible talent. While he has been painting and doing web design for a while, it was only recently that he started he digital painting career. As you can see by looking at some his work, Mark is very into the sci-fi world. As a result, his work creates scenes that are truly creative and futuristic.

4. Cris de Lara

Who says all digital painting has to be complex sci-fi art? Cris has an awesome digital painting portfolio filled with a wider variety of subjects. Cris is currently living in Canada and started her jump into the digital painting world by learning traditional painting first. She first started with oil painting, but has now grown into doing work with comic books, illustrations, and TV.

5. Artgerm

Artgerm is the studio head and creative director of the talented digital painting studio Imaginary Friends. He is obsessed with Manga comics and this shows in some of his work. When not painting, he studies various other medias and styles as well as designs t-shirts.

6. Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe

Lorenz is a freelance digital artist born in Germany. After finishing his studies, he decided to freelance full time and has been doing quite well at it. He mostly works with clients in the entertainment industry such as movies, video games, and books. The majority of his digital painting skills are self taught.

7. Alon Chou

Alon started working at a gaming studio doing 3D modeling work, but was more interested in his 2D work so he decided to leave his job. Today he works as a freelancer doing digital painting and other 2D jobs. Mostly he does character and scene designs for games and movies.

8. Linda Bergvist

If you are into CG and digital painting, you have probably seen the EXPOSÉ and EXOTIQUE books. If so, you have also seen some of Linda’s work. Here digital paintings are no stranger to collections of great digital artwork. She likes to use a combination of Corel Painter and Photoshop to create her digital painting masterpieces.

9. Aleksi Briclot

Aleksi mostly works in the video game industry using his talents as a digital painter for creating concept imagery for game designs. Aleksi’s work isn’t limited to sci-fi digital paintings, but can also be found in books, comics, and a variety of magazines.

10. Goro Fujita

Goro was born in Japan, but moved to Germany where he currently lives today. Shortly after high school, Goro began freelancing with graphic design and programming. This led to his interest in animation and digital painting. Today he focuses mostly of digital painting and 3D animation. He currently works as a visual development director for feature films.

11. Jason Chan

Jason is from San Francisco and has been pretty successful in the digital painting community. His unique, child like sci-fi style has allowed him to create his own little niche in the community. You may have seen some of his work on the popular card game, Magic the Gathering.

12. Bobby Chui

Bobby started learning about digital painting by being an extremely active member on the CG Society website. Today he is not only an amazing digital painter, but also the owner of Imaginism Studios in Toronto. It is here where he teaches other about digital painting techniques. His art has won a number of awards and is very different from many of the other artists featured here today.

13. Robert Kim

Here we have another amazing young deviant artist who is filled with talent. Robert is 22 and from Calgary, Canada. He draws much of his inspiration from games, anime, and art. His digital painting offers a nice change from the complexly detailed images of many other digital painters. His style crafts together a mix of creative imagery and traditional painting to formulate an outstanding finished product.

14. Craig Sellars

Currently, Craig works as a freelance visual development artist. Mostly this means he works in the video game industry as a concept designer. In the years past he has worked with Walt Disney Features and the behemoth video game company Electronic Arts.

15. Vitaly Samarin Alexius

Vitaly was born in 1984 in south central Siberian Russia. In 1998 Vitaly moved half way across the world to Toronto. It is here that he began his journey into learning the world of art, Photoshop, and digital painting. He has a created a style unique to his name which he likes to call “dreamisim.” He currently works as a photographer and illustrator.

16. Frederic St-Arnaud

You have probably seen a ton of Frederic’s work without even knowing it. He has been in the business for over 11 years and has worked some really big names. He has learned everything from basic drawing to 3D animation. Some of his most popular projects include major motion picture posters such as Sin City, Indiana Jones, and Death Race.

17. Raphael Lacoste

Raphael grew up in France, but currently lives in Canada with his wife and son. Originally Raphael studied the fine arts, but later on in his life he began studying 3D animation. Currently Raphael is working as an art director for video games and other CG related work.

18. Taeyoung Choi

Taeyoung started out as a drawing instructor, but slowly worked his way into the world of digital painting and 3D animation. He mostly focuses his skills on the gaming industry to create character and background concepts. He has won several awards and features in an older edition of the EXPOSE book.

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