In case you haven’t noticed we’re living in the future. Technology continues to change almost every aspect of our lives. With 2012 upon us, let’s take a look into the crystal ball and predict some trends for the coming year:

The Tablet Market Gets Tighter 
While Amazon’s Kindle Fire is making a play to take on Apple, the iPad is still the king of Tablet Mountain. In 2012, more people will own tablets and more and more tablets will replace laptop and desktop computers. Google’s Android Ice Cream OS will dominate all non-Apple devices, with the tablet-optimized Windows 8 nudging it’s way into the market too. Microsoft is rumored to be working on an iPad killer (both from a price and performance standpoint) but when the iPad 3 comes out it won’t matter.

Dual-core Processors Become a Smartphone Standard
The iPhone 4S wasn’t the first smartphone to sport dual-core processors (that honor goes to the Motorola Atrix and the Bionic Droid) but Apple – and naturally the iPhone – is the gold standard that all phones will be compared to. The bottom line is that people do more with their phones and expect more from them. And any manufacturer that’s making a phone in 2012 without a dual-core processor, well, shouldn’t be making phones. And don’t be surprised to see some phone makers up the ante even more, Nvidia recently announced quad-core processors for tablets and smartphones.

Technology Continues to Kill Technology
Why carry multiple devices when you only need to carry one?  As smartphones like the iPhone 4S continue to replace other devices, expect things like the digital camera market to shrink significantly. In fact, it’s already happening. Remember the Flip video camera? They stopped making it back in April 2011. Why? Because of the smartphone.

If you want another example, look no further than the optical drive – they’ll start disappearing from laptops. Why? People are downloading things directly to a machine or to the cloud. Devices are getting lighter, why be weighed down with an optical drive when you never use it?

Mobile Phone Plans Change and New Communication Providers Emerge
Service providers like AT&T and Verizon continue to revise their phones plans to take advantage of their customers and help their bottom line – as Skype, Google Voice and Wi-Fi continue to take a bite of providers profits. New providers will also emerge, in addition, look for partnerships like the one Walmart and T-Mobile forged this past year to spin off prepaid plans and other services.

You’ll Finally Open a Facebook Account
The last few hold-outs that haven’t hopped on Facebook yet, will finally have to sign up. Why? Many web services (like Spotify and Turntable.fm) will require that you have a Facebook account to use their service. It makes sense, it’s easier to stay connected to the userbase this way and it’s an easy way to nix fake accounts and abusive users.

Google Wallet and Mobile Payments Become More Common
Using your smartphone to pay for something will become more common in 2012, as NFC chips become more of a standard in smartphones. In fact, the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, has built in capability for peer-to-peer connections there will also be more apps that utilize the tech.

HTML 5 Finally Comes Out of the Closet
HTML 5 will reinvent the web as web devs start to really grasp and utilize the language. In fact don’t be surprised if you see HTML 5 start to take the place of apps. Need further proof? This past November, Adobe announced it would no longer support or develop its mobile Flash Player because of how well received HTML 5 has been.

The Cloud Gets Control
Think outside the box. In addition to more people adopting the cloud for storage of their music, movies and other media, we’ll also see processing move to the cloud. Look no further than the iPhone 4S and the cool things you can do with Siri. When you ask Siri something, Siri in turn sends your voice request to Apple’s data center, in turn your request is processed there and the reply then sent back to your phone.

Google Googles did the same thing a year before and it’s been recently revealed that Google is working on a competitor to Siri that will do the same thing as the virtual assistant, Google’s new secret project is codenamed “Majel.”

Apps Continue to Dominate
Apps continue to make our lives better – and they continue to replace other forms of media, like games and websites. App development will continue to grow and apps will continue to get better.

Of course, no one can predict the future, but industry analyst echo what is we’ve mentioned here. Do you agree with our predictions or have your own?

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He’s been called by some Hollywood a modern day Walt Disney. He believes animation is an art form not a genre and he’s the director of the new film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Director Brad Bird with Tom Cruise on the set of M:I – Ghost Protocol. The partnership was started when Bird got a text from J.J. Abrams shortly after the release of   The Incredibles that read “Mission?”

Born Phillip Bradley Bird, Bird started training as an animator at the age of 14. Not only is he good friends with John Lasseter, the head of Pixar, in 2007 he was ranked by Entertainment Weekly as #23 on their 50 Smartest People in Hollywood list.

The Young Animator
At the age of 11, Bird was on a tour of the Walt Disney Studios when he announced he would eventually work there. Soon after his tour he started work on a 15-minute short that he submitted to the company. He so impressed the studio, Bird (at the age of 14) would mentor under animator Milt Kahl, one of Walt Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men and continued to follow his dream as he eventually attended the California Institute of the Arts, after he was awarded a scholarship by Disney.

While at Cal Arts, Bird met and became friends with another future animator, Pixar co-founder and director John Lasseter. The two formed a fast friendship which still continues. Bird would go on to adapt and direct the critically acclaimed The Iron Giant for Warner Brothers in 1999, although he’s best known for The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007).

Brad Bird at Pixar, behind him are storyboards for Ratatouille.

Bird also directed The Simpsons‘ episodes “Krusty Gets Busted” and “Like Father, Like Clown” – which is appropriate since Krusty The Klown is his favorite Simpsons character. On the subject of animation, Bird is pretty protective, “People keep saying, “The animation genre.” It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. But it doesn’t do one thing. And, next time I hear, “What’s it like working in the animation genre?” I’m going to punch that person!”

Brad Bird’s latest is Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and the director put his stamp on that movie too - Ethan Hunt’s code number is A113 – a classroom that Bird and Lasseter attended at Cal Arts.

Inspired by Animation
Today Brad Bird is one of Hollywood’s rising stars – and his star is only going to get brighter. For kids who want to learn how to get started in animation and become animators, it’s easy to get inspired. Disney classics are a great starting as well as artist like Mary Blair, or look no further than you’re own local movie theater. Who knows you could be the next Brad Bird.

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Using the iPad’s touch keyboard is bittersweet, it’s convenient but compact. And many people don’t like smudging the glass screen with even more fingerprints. Still as a productivity device, the iPad rules. It’s portable and versatile.

A wireless keyboard is just one of the great accessories the iPad supports.

The iPad is a revolutionary device, most notably it’s helped change how education, business, and medicine perform daily tasks. More and more it’s used for productivity – and not just for sending email.

Wireless Keyboard
If you want to use the iPad to write, a wireless keyboard is mandatory. Apple’s woreless keyboard is bluetooth enabled and features the same sleek design as the rest of the Apple line. Hint: Buy the rechargable battery pack, it will save you when your keyboard runs out of juice.

HD AV Adapter
Got a presentation you need to show to a client? Ready to show those photos of the holiday ski trip to Grandma? An Apple AV adapter can be just the ticket. The adapter plugs right into the 30-pin port and outputs to HDMI. Now you can mirror anything on your iPad on the big screen – apps, photos, videos, iBooks and more.

You can watch movies, play games and even show off presentations using the Apple AV cable.

Touchfire
TouchFire is an ultra-thin (we’re talking credit-card thin) and ultra-light keyboard overlay that provides some much needed tactile love to your fingertips – and it does so in such a sleek and elegant manner you’d think Apple made it themselves. It’s transparent (so yo can still see the onscreen keyboard) and fits snuggly to the iPad with magnets. It’s also super compact (and can be slipped into its own carrying case) so you don’t have to lug a larger keyboard.

Compatible with both the iPad and the iPad 2. Unfortunately – it’s not available just yet, TouchFire was a Product Design project on Kickstarter.com, hopefully it will be coming to a store near you soon.

Still Looking for the Perfect iPad Helper?
The are other great iPad accessories for your camera and more – and don’t forget about all the great productivity apps out there too.

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Did you get (or give) a Kindle Fire this holiday? Amazon thanks you – like Apple, Amazon is keen to keep its customers happy. And to that end, last week, Amazon updated the new Kindle Fire and iOS with new features.

The Kindle Fire has sold well over a million units in just a few short weeks.

It’s On Fire!
Amazon has been aggressively going after digital media technologies and trying to hard to maintain it’s foothold as a digital bookseller. Recently, Amazon’s first tablet, the Kindle Fire became a hot-seller and its iPhone and iPad apps are among the top downloads in the App Store. Still users complained about functionality for both the Fire – mainly one that didn’t allow users the ability to remove things from the carousel – and the Kindle Fire app, but thanks to a new update those issues have been addressed.

Kindle Fire Updates

• Users can now “edit” what shows up in the app carousel on the Fire’s home screen – before users couldn’t remove any items.
• Touch navigation has been improved.
• The OS and hardware are more responsive, web pages load much faster.

 
Kindle App for iOS

• Updated user interface for periodicals and text books – this includes access to the same selection of more than 400 magazines and newspapers that are offered on the Kindle Fire.
• “Print replica textbooks” are now available for the first time to iOS Kindle app users. This allows users to see full-color pages, the ability to zoom in/out and take notes as you read.
• The Kindle iOS app can now be used as a PDF reader. This feature was already available in iBooks.

 
Amazon & Apps
Driving tablets like the Kindle Fire and iPad are powerful apps. The Kindle Fire uses Google Android Apps, while the iPad uses apps that are developed exclusively for iOS. Apple’s App Store has four times the amount of apps than the Android app store but since app development is one of the largest and fastest growing sections of digital media, expect apps – especially Android apps to grow drastically in the next few years.

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He knows when you’re naughty and he knows when you’re nice. How does he know? Because he’s uses Apple’s iPhone 4S and Siri to help him find the answers. Recently Apple debuted a new commercial starring Jolly Old Saint Nick, and guess what kind of cell phone Santa uses?

“Directions to Raleigh, North Carolina.” Kris Kringle gets sleigh navigation from Siri. 

Jolly Voice Recognition
The iPhone 4S is used by hi-tech CEO’s and politicians, so it should be no surprise anyone that the world’s biggest gift giver also uses it. And why not, with Siri voice recognition you can easily access a library of information without lifting a finger. There are lots of cool things you can do with Siri - including checking the balance of your bank account and finding out where little Charlie Grant lives.

Check out the new Apple commercial for yourself:

What else did we find out from the Apple commercial? Santa has 3.7 billion appointments scheduled for Christmas Eve. Man, those reindeer are going to be tired.

Cleared for Take-Off
With an iPhone 4S in his pocket and the sleigh packed with gifts, Santa is almost ready to make his yearly trip. Santa One – Santa’s reindeer-guided sleigh – has been outfitted with new NextGen technology to make his journey even smoother and Santa has been cleared for flight by the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration made the announcement Thursday. Santa will be flying at 50,000 feet and using his iPhone 4S for directions, so this year he’s sure to make his faster time ever!

“The satellite-based technology the elves have installed on Santa One will ensure that Santa stays safe and reaches all of his rooftops on time,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the press release. “As a result of this improved technology, Santa will be able to deliver more presents to more children around the world.”

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We’ve seen it, and in short, it’s awesome. Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt in the new film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol directed by Pixar’s Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, The Incredibles).

Tom Cruise performed all his own stunts in the film, including the sequence where Ethan Hunt climbs the Burj Khalifa tower – the tallest building in the world.

Eager to prove himself in the live action genre, director Brad Bird takes a worn-out franchise and supercharges it. M:I 4 – Ghost Protocol is a check-your-brain at the door popcorn actioneer – and much like Bird’s first Pixar film The Incredibles, the action is like the Energizer bunny…it keeps going and going…

Making Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol  couldn’t have been easy, it’s obvious that Bird is out to prove himself – and he does. But this film shouldn’t be this good, the Cold War storyline is played out and the star is too. But instead of making a dud, the cast and crew turn out a blockbuster with both visuals and witty dialogue that are constantly assaulting you. But that’s not all, the ensemble cast, including Jeremy Renner (who is being groomed to take over the franchise from Cruise) and Simon Pegg keep Cruise, and the audience, on their toes.

“You’ll be on the outside of the building, I’ll be…on the computer…” Simon Pegg offers comedic relief in M:I – Ghost Protocol.

Old School Action
Like we said the storyline isn’t going to win an Oscar, it’s just there to propel Cruise and Co. through the eye-popping locales and jaw-dropping stunt sequences. The script is written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (two former Alias writers) and it does an solid job of keeping your interest. The “mission,” changes as the movie progresses but it doesn’t really make any difference. (Even the villain is forgetful, but don’t get hung up on any of that.) This is a roller coaster ride that plays out like an old James Bond movie.

Thankfully, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. To the writers and directors credit, it plays like a comedy at times with the drama being juxtaposed nicely against the jokes. For example, the first major action sequence plays out to “Ain’t That a Kick in The Head” by Dean Martin. Later, Simon Pegg goes in disguise as a Russian army official. It’s fun to watch Renner and Pegg play of each other too, that’s one of the added treats for M:I 4 – Ghost Protocol, a buddy comedy. Equally ridiculous are the film’s gadgets.

Director Brad Bird reviews a shot with Tom Cruise. 

The Amazing Brad Bird & IMAX
Director Brad Bird, is one of the new generation of digital filmmakers – he’s been called one of the smartest people in Hollywood. In M:I 4 – Ghost Protocol, the director keeps the action focused – and loves the IMAX cameras. He does a great job on keeping the story and characters on a straight line too – you never lose interest or your place. Speaking of places, you’ll visit Russia, Dubai and Mumbai and take in the sites in glorious IMAX – provided you see the film in an IMAX theater.

The signature scene where Tom Cruise climbs the world’s tallest building (Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai) is breathtaking and seeing it in any other format in a theater beside IMAX is ridiculous – especially since the film was shot specially using IMAX cameras. (The Batman Dark Knight preview that preceeds it, is equally amazing.)

In the end what could have become a tired, over worked visual effects spy-thriller is an incredibly enjoyable adventure – this is what the movies are all about. And believe it or not, Tom Cruise is still a great action hero, even though he’s pushing 50. Go see this movie – and if the option is available in your area, in IMAX.

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With only a few days left before Christmas, it’s time to kick back and take in some yuletide cheer. In fact, it’s almost become a family tradition to watch a Christmas movie favorite with the family. So while you’re waiting for Santa, check out our picks for the best holiday movies ever.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) encounters bizarre relatives and more in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

After the success of 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, a sequel was sure to follow. Christmas Vacation was next in line and it’s possibly the best of the bunch. Chevy Chase (the very first break-out star of Saturday Night Live, and who now appears in NBC’s Community), is the bumbling yet well-meaning family patriarch, Clark Griswold. And all Clark wants for Christmas is a perfect family holiday.

Try as he might — including sheeting the exterior of the house in lights (25,000 of them, enough to strain the local power grid) and even tolerating low-rent, low-luck Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) — Clark’s dreams are smashed to bits at every turn. And that’s where part of the film gets its charm. Look for Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) as Clark’s son Rusty and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld) as Clark’s stuck-up neighbor. With a laugh practically every minute, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the gift that keeps on giving.

Die Hard (1988)

“Now I know what a TV dinner feels like.” New York detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) finds himself in a tight situation.

New York cop John McClane wants to spend a quiet holiday and reconnect with his estranged wife, the only problem is his wife works in one of Los Angeles’ high-rise office buildings and the building has just been overtaken by terrorists. The terrorist put the building on lock down, unknowingly also locking in John McClane as he arrives at the office to met his wife for the company Christmas party. The rest of the movie plays out like a cat-and-mouse game as McClane starts offing the terrorist one by one.

Per usual, Willis is extremely likeable in the lead role and the movie’s action scenes are intense and well planned. Master thespian Alan Rickman shines as chief bad guy, Hans Gruber. Like Christmas the film returns each year – for a while it seemed that Die Hard was also returning each year, this movie spawned three different sequels (and a fifth rumored to be in the works) and countless knock-offs. Speed for example, starring Keanu Reeves was pitched to studio producers as Die Hard on a bus. But it’s this movie, that set a standard for action movies for years to come.

You think spending the holidays with family is challenging? Stream Die Hard on your iPad and you’ll soon realize that you’re not the only having a tough Christmas.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, strikes a blow for the common man, represented here by Jimmy Stewart.

Hollywood tends to make movies about larger-than-life subjects, so it’s interesting that one of the best films ever made is based upon the simple notion that it’s okay just to be an average person. It’s a Wonderful Life tracks the trajectory of ordinary citizen George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), a small-town guy with big-city dreams that never quite materialize.

In his darkest hour, an angel is dispatched from Heaven to render key psychological aid and show him what life—everybody’s lives—would be like if George had never existed in the first place. Director Frank Capra specialized in making films about “average” American characters and It’s a Wonderful Life may shock first-time viewers with its power and depth.

And the “Christmas miracle” that George receives is only miraculous in its timing; his neighbors come to his financial rescue because he’s spent his entire adult life protecting their interests. When the American Film Institute assembled its ranking of the most inspirational American films ever made, this one topped the list.

A Christmas Story (1983)

A time of simple joys – and the neatest BB gun ever manufactured.

Many people become nostalgic during the holidays about Christmases from their youth. Here’s a piece of nostalgia pie that is effective precisely because it doesn’t remember everything too fondly. Still, A Christmas Story gets the details correct, and that’s the main thing that needs to happen in a nostalgia piece. The charming story is set in the 1940s in hardworking Hohman, Indiana, and concerns the Christmas ordeals of Ralphie Parker, a nine-year-old who’s only ambition is to get the hotshot BB gun of his dreams—despite the resistance he meets from a succession of grown-ups opposed to the idea.

Pudgy, bespectacled Peter Billingsley was nobody’s idea of the ultimate kid star, and that makes him even more likeable as the long-suffering Ralphie. Numerous subplots flesh out the movie, including a hilarious one involving Ralphie’s father (played to ranting-and-raving perfection by Darren McGavin) and his obsession with a novelty house lamp shaped like a female leg. The movie perfectly understands the child’s view of Christmas and his single-minded desire to obtain the must-have gift of the season.

Scrooged (1988)

Bill Murray plays TV executive Frank Cross, Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum makes a cameo as his boss. 

A modern take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray as the curmudgeonly Francis Xavier “Frank” Cross, a modern-day television network executive who’s loaded with one-liners. While he’s got a fancy New York office and loads of success, he lacks any human warmth or soul.

As the Dickens’ story dictates, the greedy miser has to be shown the error of his ways and reconnect with his sense of humanity. Here, instead of a flying ghost, we’re given a setting-appropriate cab driver who’s able to show Murray a world beyond the hustle and bustle of New York City. Murray built a career playing smug characters who are often vicious with sarcastic put-downs, but he’s never been more hateful or foul than in Scrooged. With an awesome supporting cast and cameos by actor Lee Majors (“The Six Million Dollar Man”), singer Robert Goulet and jazz legend Miles Davis (as a street musician). Scrooged is a movie that ultimately shared the true meaning of Christmas, while laughing all the way.

White Christmas (1954)

Power Couples: (from left to right) Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby and dancer Vera-Ellen. Danny Kaye was the reigning funnyman of the day, while Crosby was a chart-topping crooner. 

Inspired in part by the classic title song sung by Bing Crosby, White Christmas was the  most successful film of 1954. The song went on to become the biggest-selling recording of all time (with more than 50 million copies sold), White Christmas demonstrates that “Glee” wasn’t the first show where characters just suddenly break out into song, and everyone instantly knows all the lyrics.

The movie reflects back on a simpler and more wholesome time period and makes for fine family viewing. The catchy tunes, all written by master American composer Irving Berlin, are some of the most memorable movie songs you’ll ever hear. The film’s direction, by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, is transparent and effortless. And the singing and dancing (and romancing) by the cast (Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen) couldn’t be more entertaining. Will the big Christmas show be enough to save the retired general’s ski lodge? Will Bing and Rosemary patch up their budding romance before the big finale? Will we hear the title song during the movie’s stirring closing? Will it snow on Christmas Eve? White Christmas is a grand piece of Christmas entertainment, and was the very first film produced in VistaVision, an early widescreen projection process.

Home for the Holidays
Holiday movies are now an understood part of most families’ Christmas traditions. No wonder films are a great way to bring the family together. Be sure to capture the memories with your DSLR camera or other means of digital filmmaking. And don’t forget – take time, to take in one of the Christmas classics above.

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When Tom Cruise who plays Ethan Hunt in the new movie Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, is seen hanging from the side of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, he’s really doing his own stunts. The Burj Khalifa tower is the tallest building in the world and it took a production effort almost as big to orchestrate the signature stunt.

Tom Cruise and Director Brad Bird on the set of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol.

In the movie, Ethan and crew must make their way to a higher floor – and do that from the outside of the building. To scale the glass building, Ethan is outfitted with electronic gloves but it’s all Tom Cruise doing the climbing. For the scene and film, which was shot in IMAX, the cast and crew planned for months:

“The Studio Will Never Allow That.”
Stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz was responsible for overseeing all of the stunts, “People are going to think it’s CG [computer-generated], but it’s not. You have to see it to believe it. When we were in meetings, they said, “Tom’s not going to climb that building. The studio will never allow that.” I said, “Tom’s going to climb the building, I guarantee it.”

For the shot, special mounts had to be made for the 65-millimeter Imax cameras and extreme safety precautions were put in place to ensure nothing fell from the building while shooting.

Even production personnel had to be harnessed to the building – since they had to work in open windows 2,723 feet above the ground. For the actors and crew they were so high above the ground, they felt like they were in an airplane.

“We spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out, how are we going to climb this glass and make it look real. In Prague, we had a [replica] section of the building brought over from Dubai and built it on stage. We knew the temperature of the glass and where the sun was going to be on the day of our filming, and we put 50-foot-tall lights on a rheostat so we could adjust them so it was like the sun.” said Smrz.

Even Tom Cruise, who refused to let stunt doubles take his place, had personal issues dealing with the extreme conditions, “It can get so hot up there that it could burn me, so we had to really play with different kinds of rubber, different kinds of materials with the wardrobe. A sequence like this — even for training as we’re trying to figure how we’re going to do it, it’s pretty intense.”

Rigging the Shot
Tom Peitzman is the co-producer and visual effects producer for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, explains the Hollywood visual effects work done on the stunt, “The visual effects work we had to do was painting out rigging because Tom was really climbing the building. But there were so many very large cables on Tom, we would actually be replacing the building pieces individually — instead of just painting out the cables.”

Peitzman also explained why the height of the building wasn’t the only problem: “With a mirrored-surface building, it created a reflections nightmare. We had helicopters in our shots, we had crew in our shots, we had all kinds of rigging. There were many times where we would see six reflections of Tom. So if he has four cables on him, we have 24 cables we have to remove.”

Tom Cruise in harness, a mile and a half above Dubai. 

Real Stunts, Real Bruises
In an age of digital filmmaking and visual effects dominating movies, it’s refreshing to see action on film done in-camera. The final shots are breathtaking, and not just for the actors, the onscreen action is amplified by IMAX. All the stunts including one sequence where the actor falls two stories, were all done by Tom. In a climbing harness for literally ten-plus hours a day, the actor never complained.

“I can send you out, but once you’re out, you’re coming back just as hard. [Tom] would impact the building pretty hard.” says Smrz, “I can only imagine how sore he was. But he never complained. He would hang up there for hours. He climbed, I want to say, five days in a row? As far as bruised ribs, there’s just no way around it.”

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, opens Dec. 21.

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Before the credits roll on the new Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol you’ll see the logo for the studio that was responsible for financing Tom Cruise’s latest action flick – the studio? Paramount, who in May 2012 will celebrate 100 years of movie making.

The Paramount logo has gone through many changes over the years. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will be the first film to feature the new 100 year logo. (Click the graphic above for a larger image)

It’s a White Christmas
The Paramount production White Christmas (1954), was the first Paramount picture to be shot and released in VistaVision – or wide screen. Vista Vision was a process that essentially doubled the visual size of the movie. For the film, Paramount produced a new logo or vanity card for VistaVision. The new logo featured the iconic mountain with canyons and trees around it and overall was more realistic. The logo, and mountain would be tweaked slightly but was the basis of the company’s brand for more than 30 years.

The Beginning & Beyond
Founded by Adolph Zukor on May 8, 1912 as Famous Players Studios (Zukor believed in talent and hired such Golden Age Hollywood luminaries as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Rudolph Valentino), Paramount would go on to become one of the major studios in Hollywood. It was William Wadsworth Hodkinson though (then president of the studio) that created the iconic logo.

The original Paramount logo created by the man who would be credited with inventing Hollywood. 

The studio would go on to become a filmmaking giant, with such blockbusters as Love Story, Chinatown, Saturday Night Fever and The Godfather. The studio also holds the distribution rights to the Star Trek and Indiana Jones franchise. The studio has a long history and is now owned by Viacom.

It all started with an idea to entertain people – and Paramount has done that for going on a 100 years. The craft of digital filmmaking is way beyond what Adolf Zukor could have imagined. Nowadays it’s easier than ever to make a movie – and you don’t have to start a movie studio to make a film, in fact you can go to film camp or just pull out your phone and shoot.

We proudly salute Paramount Studios and a 100 years of great films!

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Do you have or are you getting an iPad? Then you’ll want to have these essential iPad accessories we tested. All these accessories are Apple manufactured so they have the same quality as your Apple devices – even better, they work perfectly with your iPad.

Apple TV

Watch your favorite TV shows and movies using Apple TV.

For $99 you can wirelessly stream movies or TV shows from your iPad 2 to your HDTV with Apple’s AirPlay and Apple TV. TV, movies, games and iMovie’s you make on your iPad, all come alive on your TV. Streaming works almost flawlessly on the Apple iPad with Apple TV.

iPad Camera Connection Kit

Two adapters are included in Apple’s Camera Kit, they plug into the iPad’s 30-pin port. 

Plug either of the match boxed sized adapters (you get the pair for $29.99) into the bottom of your iPad 2 and then insert your camera’s SD card or a USB cable to connect a camera (depending on the adapter you’re using and view photos or video. The iPad supports standard photo formats, like .jpeg’s and RAW, plus MPEG-4 and HD video. It’s quick and easy to use the adapter, and a great way to download photos to your iPad on the go.

Apple AV Adapter

Play apps, games, movies, slideshows, whatever you have playing on your iPad for everyone in the room.

For only $39.99, anything you see on your iPad can be displayed on your HDTV or other HDMI device using Apple’s Digital AV Adapter – apps, games, movies, think of Angry Birds or Garageband on the big screen.  A built-in 30-pin connector allows you to charge the iPad while it’s mirroring and the adapter provides digital audio to screens that support DA. No matter if it’s a movie or walk down memory lane, the .

Apogee JAM Guitar Input

Turn your iPad into an amplifier using Apogee’s JAM Guitar.

Apogee – a world-class manufacturer of digital audio recording accessories for musicians, beat producers and engineers has a killer device in the JAM Guitar input ($99). Plug your guitar into your iPad and JAM and with Garageband jam out using the guitar pedals and amps included in GarageBand to modify the guitar sounds. You can record or just rock out using JAM, the sound is great and it’s literally plug and play.

Beat Maker and Media Viewer

You can do practically anything on the iPad, from learning music and beat production to turning your living room into a movie theater – and these accessories can help you do it. What are you doing with your iPad?

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