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While cell phones were once well known as a critical device for business communications needs, it seems as though they’re now no longer popular for this use solely.  As more and more users turn to their cell phone for entertainment purposes rather than business needs, it is quickly becoming the ‘must-have’ consumer gadget.

A new survey conducted by Artificial Life finds that almost half of U.S. mobile phone users turn to their devices for entertainment and on the go access to gaming, music and video content.

According to the surveys findings, 46 percent of U.S. cell phone users use their devices for entertainment. Also, of the 200 respondents to the survey, 87.5 percent of smartphone owners said they access this type of entertainment content.  In addition, 33 percent said they use their phone for entertainment over any other purposes like email, GPS and Internet browsing.
 
As phones continue to advance technologically to offer enhanced memory, robust architecture and increasing speed, the demand for high end mobile devices is climbing.
 
Even those users who do not own a smartphone (56 percent) responded to the survey that they want to own a smartphone so they can utilize these types of advanced features.  Music, gaming and video were desired by about one-fourth of these respondents while 33 percent expressed value in mobile gaming.
 
It’s motivating to witness more U.S. consumers, handset manufacturers and carriers taking advantage of the new capabilities of 3G smartphones, including rich 3D gaming, social networking, music and videos, from anywhere at anytime.

Individuals are now seeing the value in mobile phones beyond business productivity, and are beginning to see them as tools to complement their hobbies and lifestyles in fresh and exciting ways.

Everyone’s carrying phones with digital cameras built-in. That leads to some really great ideas of how to leverage the speed and convenience of having a digital camera with you at all times.

Ideas like, 1) leave a trail of digital bread crumbs when walking in a new city, 2) capture a whiteboard after a meeting, and even 3) be prepared if an accident should happen.

Read the Ten Great Uses for Your Camera Phone from DigitalTips.org (which is produced and managed by the Consumer Electronics Association).

The Godfather is remembered as a dark picture. But over the years it has become less dark than intended.

The opening scene of the best-picture Oscar winner is the ultimate example. Emerging from shadow is the face of Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto), the father who asks Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) for a favor on the day of the Don’s daughter’s wedding.

But when director Francis Ford Coppola saw the 1972 film on a screen for its 25th anniversary, he thought, “Gee, the picture doesn’t look like I remember it looking. This very, very beautiful photography of (cinematographer) Gordon Willis over the years had faded.”

The movie is back to its inky finest — thanks to an assist from Steven Spielberg — on The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration.

The Godfather was a victim of its own success. It earned $135 million in the USA.  To meet demand, Paramount quickly made large numbers of copies to ship to theaters. As a result, the negative was ultimately destroyed through the practice of printing it so much.

A decade ago, Paramount stored all its Godfather film elements in a cold vault to help preserve them until a full digital makeover was possible. No matter how seriously the studio wished to solve the problems at that time, it would not be possible until digital technology provided the tools.

Fast-forward to 2005: Coppola, looking to renew the preservation effort, wrote to Spielberg when DreamWorks was acquired by Paramount. Could Spielberg, who had been involved in restoring Lawrence of Arabia, spur on the project? It was an offer Spielberg could not refuse. He set into motion the two-year process.

No single usable Godfather negative remained that was suitable as a source. In the end, Harris and the preservation team gathered a bunch of backup film elements and an Italian-subtitled print used as a color reference.

Over months, the restoration technicians carefully scanned the material and then began cleaning up the footage in its digital form, 4K files (meaning the video is made up of 4,000 lines of horizontal resolution, more than four times the quality of HDTV).

In addition to digitally removing scratches and repairing damage — more than 1,000 man-hours of dirt removal was performed on The Godfather— the technicians were able to fix errors that were more than three decades old.

This just goes to show you the power of digital technology as it is applied to restoring motion picture film. At iMemories, we deploy similar technology to restoring everday home movies, that are priceless and treasured to everyday people.