• Heavy Rain Film Adaptation on the Fast Track

    // Gradly // blog, Movies, News, PS3 1 Response

    The film rights to Heavy Rain have been owned for several years now, and it looks as if things are moving in a very positive direction. According to Variety, David Milch has signed on to adapt the game for the big screen.

    Milch was a co-creator and writer for NYPD Blue, John from Cincinnati, and Deadwood, among other things. He’s currently at work on a new series about horse racing for HBO called Luck. Once he’s done with the first season, he’ll begin writing Heavy Rain, Variety had to say about the project:

    David Milch is heading into “Heavy Rain,” signing to adapt the noir-style videogame with Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne producing through their Unique Features banner.

    As first reported on Variety.com, “Rain” is being developed via Unique’s first-look deal with Warner Bros., which is fast-tracking the project. Milch will start writing “Rain” once he’s finished work on the first season of HBO’s horse-racing series “Luck,” on which he’s creator and exec producer.

    “Heavy Rain,” based on the Sony Computer Entertainment game released last year, spans four days of mystery and centers on the hunt for a murderer known as the Origami Killer. Four characters, each following his own leads and with his own motives, take part in a desperate attempt to prevent the killer from claiming a new victim, with each character’s decisions affecting the plans of the other three.

    Milch has a big following from his role as creator/exec producer of “NYPD Blue” and “Deadwood.” “David Milch’s incredible ability to transform intense and complex storylines into gripping, popular drama makes him the perfect partner for us to have on ‘Heavy Rain,’ ” Shaye said.

    The game was created by Paris-based Quantic Dream, developers of “Indigo Prophecy,” and built around a 2,000-page script written by founder and CEO David Cage. Unique’s Dylan Sellers and Jonna Smith will join Shaye and Lynne in the development of the project along with Warner exec Courtenay Valenti.

    Shaye and Lynne, the former toppers at New Line, signed their first-look deal at Warners in 2008 a few months after the studio dramatically cut operations at the mini-major.

  • Apple goes HTML5

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Gossips, News, Rants & Raves 1 Response

    Apple has relaunched its entire website with a new design using HTML5, adding a darker, glossy navigation bar and speedy new animated page layouts for Mac and iPod pages.

    The redesign officially upgrades the site from “HTML 4.01 Transitional” to the latest HTML5, enabling such elements as a dynamically resized search field in the navigation bar that enlarges to accommodate search terms, as well as adding richer support for mobile features.

    The new Mac section debuts a new “product slider” interface, which animates a series of icons depicting the families of Mac products, Apple’s desktop applications, accessories, and server related products.

    A similarly animated iPod section presents iPod models and accessories, as well as a panel of “iTunes and more,” which includes links to download iTunes, purchase gift cards, and special sections for Nike+iPod, (Product)RED, MobileMe, and headphones.

    Apple goes HTML5

    Apple has been a big proponent of HTML5, with the company’s supported WebKit open source project not only working to follow the specification but actively contributing toward it as well.

    Last week, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) introduced a new HTML5 logo (depicted above) intended to promote visibility of the next generation of web technologies now being rolled out in modern browsers, using the “HTML5” brand to refer both to the HTML5 specification itself as well as serving as a “general-purpose visual identity for a broad set of open web technologies, including CSS, SVG, WOFF and others.”

    This announcement was received with scorn by many web purists who were upset that the public might be further confused by the semantic and technical blurring of simplified branding, rather than knowing the actual role played by each different web technology. This prompted the W3C to restate that the new logo “represents HTML5, the cornerstone for modern Web applications.”

    HTML5?

    Within the same news cycle, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), a team designated by the W3C to maintain the emerging HTML5 specification, announced that it would now be referring to HTML5 as simply HTML, because the specification would now be regarded as a “living specification” that constantly evolves, rather than being a designated version number going through a much more formal process of drafts and recommendations.

    This change erupted in more controversy from those who saw it as either a feud between the two groups or a simply a confusing miscommunication on overall strategy. However, the HTML5 brand actually has little to do with the way HTML is presented as a specification.

    Additionally, those complaining about the lack of an ongoing version number seem to assume that the WHATWG is compiling a specification that browser makers follow. In reality, such an effort would fail just as many other attempts by standards bodies to tell the industry how to work have, including the ISO’s Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite (rejected in favor of the industry lead and more practical TCP/IP) or the W3C’s own XHTML 2.0, an intellectual exercise maintained between 2002 and 2009 and virtually ignored by browser makers.

    When the W3C started over to create a more practical, precise and functional new version of HTML, it began working closely with Apple, Mozilla, Opera, Google, Microsoft and the parties to make sure the standard reflected what vendors wanted to and were willing to do, rather than trying to mandate impractical ideas that would never be supported by the browsers people actually used.

    It’s Already Been Broughten!

    The result, HTML5, was originally scheduled to publish a “candidate recommendation” by 2012, with at least two “100% complete and fully interoperable implementations.” Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, once said HTML5 was likely to be finished around 2022. These dates were frequently used by opponents of portions of HTML5, including Flash maker Adobe, to create fear, uncertainty and doubt about whether HTML5 would ever be completed, with the suggestion that everyone should just remain content with using Flash to build dynamic content.

    The new shift in viewing HTML5 as simply the latest iteration of HTML means there’s no reason to wait around for perfect compliance from every browser, something that still has yet to happen for even the decade old HTML 4.01. Instead, it motivates browser makers and web developers to use the specification that now exists to build real products, constantly evolving both along with the specification to deliver the best technologies as they become available.

    [via: appleinsider]

  • Apple patents magic gloves to use your iPhone in the cold!

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, iPhone, News, Rants & Raves 1 Response

    Apple has patented a new glove that works with capacitive touch screens. Several devices on the market use capacitive screens such as all of Apple’s mobile iOS devices: iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This highly advanced touch screen technology senses your inputs based on proximity sensors in the display, in addition to the human body’s natural conductivity.

    Because of these factors, devices like the iPhone cannot be used if the user is wearing something like a glove. Because of this, Apple is researching ways to build gloves that work around the issue. We can’t wait to see these stylishly overpriced Magic Gloves hit Apple Stores. For the full technical rundown of the patent view Patently Apple‘s report.

  • White iPhone 4 Issues Resolved With a New Miracle Paint?

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, iPhone, News, Rants & Raves 3 Responses

    Macotakara reports that Apple has teamed up with a Japanese-based company to develop a brand new paint for the white iPhone 4. This paint is dubbed as a “miracle painting material” and is meant to fix the white iPhone 4′s light leakage issues. The new paint apparently allows Apple to easily control the paint’s thickness prior to application on the iPhone 4.

    It appears that this new paint is truly a “miracle” as it looks like the white iPhone 4 will be launching soon. The device has already appeared in both AT&T‘s and Best Buy‘s databases.