Sexy or Funny?

Adobe -- Sexy or Funny? http://adobe.ly/19In0d9

What do brands need to make online ads more appealing? In recent research we found that a lot of people think TV ads are more important than online ads.

Adobe took to the streets to find out what was important to people in ads. More that two-thirds (68%) of UK consumers said ads should tell a unique story. However humour is even more important, 92% said funny ads are more effective than 'sexy' ones. Watch to see what people thought were their most memorable funny and sexy adverts.

Creative D5 Air Airplay speaker hits IFA, readies itself for a late-September release

There's nothing quite like a behind closed doors briefing at a busy tradeshow like IFA. Creative wasn't quite ready to take its new D5 Air out onto the showroom floor just yet, but the company did let us take a sneak peak at the thing in a small testing room room. As the name implies, this sound bar is an AirPlay speaker, so you can use it with devices that utilize Apple's proprietary streaming technology. We got a quick demo of the thing via an iPhone, and it sounded nice and loud.

The player has a small, square screen on the front that is "visible from any part of the room," according to the company, so you can sit on your couch and still see what's going on, while controlling it via your Apple device or the included remote control. Aesthetically, the single speaker system looks like exactly what you'd expect from Creative, all black, with the vast majority of the rectangle monopolize by mesh and shiny plastic ends on either side. There's also a black line with illuminated white dots that runs down its center, up to the iPhone / iPod dock on its top.

The D5 Air has a bass port built into the back and is constructed from a monocoque exoskeleton to help minimize vibration. It'll run you $399 when it starts shipping at the end of September.

[Source: Engadget]

Adobe’s First Major Feature Update For Creative Cloud Focuses on Edge and Muse

About 4 months ago, Adobe officially announced the launch of its new Creative Cloud subscription service, which gives the company’s users the ability to pay one monthly fee for access to virtually all of the company’s professional tools. Since then, Adobe launched two minor updates for Creative Cloud, including the addition of Lightroom 4 in June and an update to the Collage tool in July. Today, however, the company is launching its first major feature update to Creative Cloud and is also announcing a few updates that are coming in September. The focus of today’s updates is on Edge, the company’s HTML5 tool for creating animated web content and Muse, Adobe’s website-building tool aimed at print designers.

[Source: TechCrunch - Read more here]

Creative reveals Sound Blaster ZxR, Zx, and Z PCI-Express sound cards, pumps up the volume

Along with your first day at school, and (for the boys at least) growing your first peach fuzz mustache, many of you might also never forget your first Sound Blaster soundcard. In the present day (unless you're blessed with youth) only the Sound Blaster can be enjoyed again, and today Creative introduces its new Z-series. The latest PCI-Express cards use the firm's Core3D quad-core sound and voice processor and come in three variants: the Sound Blaster ZxR, the Zx and the Z. As you might have guessed, the more letters, the higher up the food chain it is. The flagship ZxR ($249.99) boasts a 127dB SNR, sockets for swappable Op-Amps, 80mW into 600 ohm headphone pre-amp, plus RCA / optical connectivity (via additional daughter board) and an external "ACM" control module for less fiddling around the back of your machine. You can save yourself $100 with the Zx model, if you don't want the ZxR's "DBpro" daughter board, and the Z edition saves a further $50 at the expense of the external controller. Want to dive into the full specifications? Plug in to the PR after the break.

[Source: Engadget]

YouTube breaks records with 4M Creative Commons videos

YouTube topped all records today by tallying up 4 million Creative Commons-licensed videos in its trove -- more than any other video hosting company in the world.

This means that users have literally millions of choices for snipping bits of footage, adding scenes, and building onto videos they're making. Everything in this collection comes branded with the Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning users don't have to get explicit permission to use the content from the creators.

YouTube launched its Creative Commons video library last year and since then it said its users have added in "40 years' worth of video." Much of the content is from well-known media distributors, such as C-SPAN, Voice of America, and Al Jazeera.

Creative Commons licensing has been available for some time on a growing number of video- and photo-sharing sites. Yahoo's Flickr has the record for the most Creative Commons-licensed photos, and Vimeo started up its Creative Commons-licensed videos in 2010.

[Source: cnet]