Tag Archives: plug-in

Alien Skin Eye Candy 7 Adds Realistic (and not-so Realistic) Effects to Photoshop

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I’ve been using Alien Skin plug-ins with Photoshop for years, so it’s nice to know that the company behind these plug-ins continues to improve their tried-and-true Eye Candy package for those of you who want to embellish your images with cool effects.

alien skin examples

Original Tennis Ball Image via Shutterstock

The latest version, Eye Candy 7 improves on past generations, adding a new suite of lightning effects to its already impressive realistic fire, smoke and other filters. The plug-in installs easily on either Mac or PC and works with Adobe Photoshop CS5 or later or Photoshop Elements 10 or later.  It includes a wide variety of effects and textures, including chrome, animal fur, reptile skin, wood, clouds, snow, ice, metal, rust, and many others.

eye candy screenshot 2

It’s also deft at placing perspective drop-shadows behind objects – a significant improvement over the basic drop-shadow feature in Photoshop itself. When combined with the extrude filter, it can be used to create a fairly convincing illusion of 3D depth.

alien skin drop shadow

You can also use Eye Candy 7 to add curved motion trails to objects, which is really helpful for adding movement to static images.

alien skin motion fx

Original Airplane Image via Shutterstock

The interface itself is easy to use, offering quick access to numerous pre-built effects, but once you drill into a specific effect, sliders and a large library of presets let you have a tremendous amount of control over the appearance of your effect. You can also zoom in, view effects in split-screen mode with the original selection, and save presets.

eye candy screenshot 1

Keep in mind that Eye Candy 7 is really designed for applying effects to selected objects, shapes or text layers, not as embellishment to a flat, full scene. That said, you can easily select areas where you want to apply effects using Photoshop’s robust selection tools – and this gives you a much more fine-grained control over effects.

alien skin landscape

Original Snow Image via Shutterstock

Filters automatically preserve your original selection, and store the effect-enhanced image in a new layer. For those times that you want to fill an entire image, Eye Candy offers a nearly endless variety of texture-making tools which can be used on all, or a part of your images.

alien skin textures

While Eye Candy 7 definitely can be used to create realistic (or at least semi-realistic) effects and textures, the huge number of controls available for each one will have you experimenting and playing around for hours. For instance, I found that with the right settings, the Rust tool could actually be used to add moss to objects – and that the Electrify effect could be used to create blood vessels. The possibilities are pretty limitless, and this single plug-in adds a huge variety of capabilities in a single package.

Alien Skin Eye Candy 7 retails for $199.99(USD) over on their website. However, if you buy today (February 20th), Alien Skin is offering a 30% off discount on all of their software. Eye Candy is also available in a demo version if you’d like to try before you buy.

VW unveils CrossBlue plug-in SUV with iPad mini headrests and 85MPGe efficiency (eyes-on)

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VW displays CrossBlue plugin SUV concept with iPad mini headrests and 85MPGe efficiency

America is the land of the SUV and so it's no surprise that Volkswagen came here to launch its CrossBlue plug-in concept. The SUV features a front-mounted diesel engine paired with an electric motor in a traditional hybrid configuration, plus a second, more powerful electric motor in the rear to drive those wheels in the back. This configuration gives it all wheel drive and also allows the ECU to either send power to or retrieve power from (in the form of regeneration) either motor to recharge the on-board battery pack -- which can also be juiced up by plugging into the wall.

The system is said to deliver an estimated 85MPGe efficiency, which is pretty amazing for an SUV, and 14 miles of pure electric driving should you wish. As it's a concept, it's anybody's guess just how it'll actually perform when it goes into production, but we couldn't help but notice something very much available today in the back seats: iPad minis. Yes, one was embedded in each of the headrests, rear-facing for maximum efficiency in keeping the kids busy during a long cruise. Again, this is just a concept, so no guarantees we'll ever see this on the road, but a VW rep commented that they hope to see this in production in a year or two.

Gallery: VW CrossBlue with iPad mini eyes-on

Gallery: VW CrossBlue concept

Continue reading VW unveils CrossBlue plug-in SUV with iPad mini headrests and 85MPGe efficiency (eyes-on)

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Google touts improved Flash Player security in Chrome for Mac, says it’s safer than ever

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Google touts improved Flash Player security in Chrome for Mac, says it's safer than ever

Needless to say, Adobe hasn't had the best of times when it comes to the overall reliability of its Flash Player on Apple-made devices -- so much so that Steve Jobs took it upon himself to write some thoughts about it a couple of years ago. Thanks to Google, though, Adobe can proudly say it's famed Flash Player is now more secure than it's ever been -- well, at least on Chrome. According to Google, both companies have been working closely since 2010 to find ways to improve the security aspects of the famed plug-in, noting that some of the most recent enhancements can now be found in the latest Stable release of the browser -- in which a novel plug-in architecture is used, allowing Flash to run "inside a sandbox that's as strong as Chrome's native sandbox." The Flash plug-in improvements within Chrome aren't just for Mac users, however, as Google has said Adobe's Player is now fully sandboxed on Windows, Linux and, of course, its own Chrome OS as well.

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Google touts improved Flash Player security in Chrome for Mac, says it's safer than ever originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kimera Systems wants your smartphone to think for you

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Kimera Systems wants your smartphone to think for you

When Google took the wraps off Now we all got a pretty excited about the potential of the preemptive virtual assistant. Kimera Systems wants to build a similar system, but one that will make Mountain View's tool look about as advanced as a Commodore 64. The founder of the company, Mounir Shita, envisions a network of connected devices that use so-called smart software agents to track your friends, suggest food at a restaurant and even find someone to paint your house. That explanation is a bit simplistic, but it gets to the heart of what the Artificial General Intelligence network is theoretically capable of. In this world (as you'll see in the video after the break) you don't check Yelp or text your friend to ask if they're running late. Instead, your phone would recognize that you'd walked into a particular restaurant, analyze the menu and suggest a meal based on your tastes. Meanwhile, your friend has just reached the bus stop, but it's running a little behind. Her phone knows she's supposed to meet you so it sends an alert to let you know of the delay. With some spare time on your hands, your phone would suggest making a new social connection or walking to a nearby store to pick up that book sitting in your wishlist. It's creepy, ambitious and perhaps a bit unsettling that we'd be letting our phones run our lives. Kimera is trying to raise money to build a plug-in for Android and an SDK to start testing its vision. You check out the promotional video after the break and, if you're so inclined, pledge some cash to the cause at the source.

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Kimera Systems wants your smartphone to think for you originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smart unveils third-gen Fortwo Electric Drive EV, we take it for quiet and speedy spin (video)

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Smart unveils third-gen Fortwo Electric Drive EV, we take it for quiet and speedy spin (video)

Now that Smart's second-gen Fortwo Electric Drive EV has gotten its year of time on the roads, the company is ready to announce its successor. For 2013, the car has received some mild tweaks to its design, but the real news is about what's hiding inside this rear-wheel driven EV. For the first time, you'll have to option of owning one outright, rather than being limited to a four-year lease at $599 per month. It's thanks in part to an improved battery, which is now rated for an average lifespan of 10 years. The car has also received a massive power upgrade to 47 horsepower (up from 27 previously), along with an extra boost if you floor the pedal -- this courtesy of a beefier engine and drive-train that gives it about 50-percent more power. Put it this way, this EV will get you from 0-60 in about 11.5 seconds, with top speed of 78MPH. Sadly, there's no concrete word on what kind of range to expect, but it should be well more than the 87 miles of its predecessor. Beyond that, Smart's added in GSM connectivity, allowing you the abilities to pre-start the car and keep track of its vitals remotely, among other features.

A quick drive around Brooklyn also confirmed how peppy and smooth the car was in use, however, not exactly on-par with our experience in Audi's A3 e-tron -- but it is considerably less. As our friends at Autoblog detail, the base model coupe is set to sell for a $25,000 MSRP plus fees, along with your choice of two chargers, which can cost up to $2,200 with installation. Here's the good news, the car itself actually works out to just $17,500 thanks to a federal tax credit. All in all, this currently makes the cheapest full-on EV you'll be able to get your mitts on. If you'd prefer to spice it up a bit, Smart will also offer a spruced up cabriolet variant for an extra $3K. Check out our chat with Smart about the car and the press release after the break for all the details.

Gallery: Smart Fortwo ED third-generation

Continue reading Smart unveils third-gen Fortwo Electric Drive EV, we take it for quiet and speedy spin (video)

Smart unveils third-gen Fortwo Electric Drive EV, we take it for quiet and speedy spin (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PSA: Adobe halts new installs of Flash on Android as of tomorrow

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PSA Adobe halts new installs of Flash on Android from tomorrowAdobe has been broadcasting as much as possible that Flash on Android is going away, although it's been offering a grace period for those addicted to the plugin. It's now time to wean yourself off. As Adobe warned earlier in the year, new installations from Google Play won't be an option from August 15th onwards. Any downloads after that point will be limited to updates for existing installations or to those willing to raid Adobe's archives -- assuming would-be users aren't already running Android 4.1, that is. While we'd still expect Flash to preserve some of its relevance in mobile as long as phones ship with it preinstalled, and alternatives like Skyfire persist, we'd strongly suggest getting comfortable with HTML5 and native apps from now on.

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PSA: Adobe halts new installs of Flash on Android as of tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road

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Ford Focus Electric hands-on

Believe it or not, EV battery life is still something of a Pandora's Box, even for automakers: they can tell you the battery pack's current and voltage, but not how it's really performing under pressure. Ford, GE and the University of Michigan are uniting to unlock that mystery through a new ARPA-E project. In its role, GE is developing a minuscule sensor array that will track the nuances of battery cells that existing technology misses; it will promptly hand the baton to researchers at the University of Michigan, who plan to both prove that GE's data is on the mark as well as develop tricks for predicting behavior. Ford handles the last mile, almost literally: it's planning to fit the GE sensor technology to one of its cars and test in a more realistic environment. Before you fantasize about knowing the lifespan of your Focus Electric's battery down to the minute, however, the new alliance is stressing that it's only just getting started -- there's another three years and $3.1 million to go before the project wraps up. If all goes according to plan, though, we'll have electric cars and plug-in hybrids that can not only tell when they've seen better days but can eke out extra miles through smarter battery designs.

Continue reading Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road

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Ford, GE and University of Michigan team up on sensor to track EV battery life, keep us on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ubisoft UPlay may accidentally contain web plugin exploit, Ezio would not approve (update: fixed)

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Assassin's Creed 2 - Ezio Auditore da Firenze

If you've played Assassin's Creed 2 (or other Ubisoft games), you may have installed more stealthy infiltration than you bargained for. Some snooping by Tavis Ormandy around Ubisoft's UPlay looks to have have discovered that the service's browser plugin, meant to launch locally-stored games from the web, doesn't have a filter for what websites can use it -- in other words, it may well be open season for any maliciously-coded page that wants direct access to the computer. Closing the purported, accidental backdoor exploit is thankfully as easy as disabling the plugin, but it could be another knock against the internet integration from a company that doesn't have a great reputation for online security with its copy protection system. We've reached out to Ubisoft to confirm the flaw and learn what the solution may be, if it's needed. For now, we'd definitely turn that plugin off and continue the adventures of Ezio Auditore da Firenze through a desktop shortcut instead.

Update: That was fast. As caught by Geek.com, the 2.0.4 update to UPlay limits the plugin to opening UPlay itself. Unless a would-be hacker can find a way to compromise the system just before you launch into Rayman Origins, it should be safe to play.

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Ubisoft UPlay may accidentally contain web plugin exploit, Ezio would not approve (update: fixed) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe confirms it won’t support Flash on Android 4.1, stops new Flash installs from Google Play on August 15th

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Adobe Flash Platform

Adobe was very public about dropping mobile Flash last fall. In case that wasn't clear enough, the developer just drew a line in the sand: Android 4.1 doesn't, and won't ever, get certification for Flash. The company is stopping short of saying that Flash won't run, but it's evident that Adobe won't help you if the web browser plugin doesn't install (or breaks in spectacular fashion) on that Nexus 7. Just to underscore the point, the firm is also halting new installations of Flash from Google Play as of August 15th. Security updates and other vital patches will continue on for existing users. Any fresh downloads after that fateful day, however, will have to come from Adobe's mausoleum for old versions. The company had already said that HTML5 was the way forward on phones and tablets -- now we know just how quickly it's backing up that claim.

Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1, stops new Flash installs from Google Play on August 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 23:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe Flash 11.3 checks in with security fixes, OS X silent updater and Firefox sandbox in tow

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adobe-flash-11-3-security-fixes-os-x-firefox

While feverishly revamping Flash with the all-new Next version -- to keep HTML5 from killing it -- Adobe is still plugging the current incarnation with smaller updates. To that end, Flash 11.3 just popped out of beta, which sees the company add a few notable goodies for the beleaguered plugin. On top of filling seven critical security holes, Adobe added a background updating feature for Mac OS X and signed the code in preparation for compatibility with Mountain Lion. That way it'll align it with the upcoming Gatekeeper feature in the next OS X release, though you'll have to dial its max security down one notch to get it. Lastly, sandboxing -- already in Chrome -- has been tacked on to Firefox as well, slowing hackers by isolating the plugin from critical system processes. All that fresh duct tape and polyfill should keep Flash rattling along -- until Adobe can pull the gleaming Next platform out of the hangar. Meanwhile, click the source for the download links.

Adobe Flash 11.3 checks in with security fixes, OS X silent updater and Firefox sandbox in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jun 2012 18:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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