As the digital world continues to grow, it’s difficult to keep up with the innovative and creative technology. The photography blog by Jamie Beck, From Me To You, has a collection of gorgeous photographs ranging from nature to fashion. Jamie is a style icon herself and was recently asked to photograph New York Fashion week at Bryant Park. Jamie’s posts on Fashion week included beautiful still images as well as a series of images with movement. In a recent post, Jamie explains how the images with movement work and coined the term “cinemagraphs.”

“We wanted to tell more of a story than a single still frame photograph but didn’t want the high maintenance aspect of a video” - Fast Company

According to the post, cinemagraphs are still images with movement that are created using “still and video equipment and use Adobe After Effects and Photoshop for editing.” Jamie uses  HTML5 instead of Flash when creating cinemagraphs because it is best for sharing on social media and for commercial or website graphics. Jamie states “the layers that HTML5 offers is also exciting and something we are eager to experiment with,” we’re eager for Jamie to experiment with them as well! The result is a beautiful image design with a life-like quality. Cinemagraphs help tell a story similar to the way a video or presentation would but in much simpler terms. The slight movement brings the image to life, whether it is a reflection of a moving car or windblown hair.

Jamie’s post on cinemagraphs discusses the importance of designing for Tumblr users and the differences between Tumblr and standard web design. The blog is full of great tips, interesting images, and inspiring content, check it out here! Good luck to Jamie in 2012 and we look forward to seeing what she produces next!

The iPad is an exciting mobile device that keeps pulling ahead of competitors such as the HP tablet because of its sleek design and its wide range of apps. The business world has a lot to gain from a portable tablet that can display presentations, demos and a number of other assets. When it comes to sales, its small profile is ideal for grabbing the attention of your prospects. The one problem with the iPad is its inability to play Flash-based assets, a key presentation platform.

For this reason, the iPad, has pushed CGI Interactive to be more creative and innovative, just as other technological advances have done in the past. As an interactive agency, we challenge ourselves to find the best solutions for our clients and converting Flash based interactive product demos, tutorials and presentations for iPad is no different.  Our team took on this challenge and now you’ll hear us say “Of course you can make Flash work on the iPad.”

They key to this challenge was to maintain the navigation and interaction without recreating these assets from scratch.  A piece we recently created for EMC was originally developed in Flash and output for desktop and web use.  CGI was able to convert the existing Flash piece and make it fully functional on the iPad.  In the final deliverable, you can easily navigate from section to section, just as the original Flash piece does.

In addition to these conversions, the CGI team is also looking at a number of app based solutions. If you have any questions, or have heard of other interesting iPad solutions, we’d love to hear from you.

So you have solved one mystery, a smart tablet would be beneficial to your business. Now, the next hurtle is picking which one: Motorola Xoom, Apple iPad, Blackberry Playbook, or HP TouchPad. Just because one tablet is more chic than the other, doesn’t mean it will perform better for your particular needs.

Here is a break down:

The first consideration when choosing a tablet is if you need 3G connectivity. If the answer is YES, check the carriers for each device and weight that against who you use for your cellphone plan. Most tablets are compatible with their smartphone counterpart. By purchasing a tablet that works with your current cell phone plan and accounts, you can simplify transferring information.

Other questions you may want to ask yourself:

How much will I be using my tablet and what will I be using it for?
Will I  keep large amounts of documents on the tablet all the time?
What apps would I like to make my business run more smoothly?
Will I be using it for video meetings?

Form follows function, so once these questions are answered, you can start looking at aesthetics such as display size, screen resolution, color, weight, etc.  To help with the decision process, a good practice is to read industry and user reviews to see if the features you like most are performing as expected.

A tablet purchase is more about creating an additional tool that extends the capabilities of the technology you are using within your day-to-day business. The purchase needs to be well thought-out considering all the options and thinking about what will work best for you.

Which will you choose and why?
Happy shopping!