Every year, we get super excited about CES since it’s basically the Super Bowl of the digital world. This year is no different, with the major draw being new televisions technologies – 3D, 4K and curved screens. All of which sounds awesome but are mostly iterative upgrades to the HD TVs that were introduced 15 years ago.

Enter Dolby Vision, which is Dolby’s latest product. Although the company is best known as an audio giant, Dolby (one of our new most favorite clients) has unleashed a new way to visually experience television. Instead of focusing on resolution like so many other companies, Dolby has focused on brightness and how it can help mimic what the eye sees in the real world.

Without getting too technical, the unit of measurement for brightness is a ‘nit.’ Currently, displays have an average peak brightness of 100 nits, which is the same reference level from forever ago. Modern televisions take that signal and match it to their peak brightness – typically 400-500 nits. But to put it in perspective, the human eye experiences a much wider range in real life – anywhere from 0.0001 nits to 1.6 billion nits.

With Dolby Vision, Dolby has basically created a signal that allows viewers to experience a new kind of imagery that shows a wider range of colors, brightness and detail. In other words, it makes anything on TV seem unbelievably real by utilizing a signal that allows for a much larger range of nits and produces a true-to-life image. And yes, it is completely amazing when you see it.

We were lucky enough to team up with Dolby on this project, and trust us – Dolby Vision is off the hook. Check it out for yourself.

If there exists a more perfect pairing than Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei and skateboarding, you’d be hard-pressed to find one. Weiwei recently teamed up with SK8room to collaborate on three skateboard decks, which feature some of his most famous works.

Ai Weiwei, who is perhaps best known for his strong criticism of the Chinese government, joins the growing list of artists who have partnered with SK8room for similar projects, including Banksy and Damien Hirst. Weiwei’s decks pull from his installation pieces, Sunflower Seeds and He Xie, as well as his film, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, and feature quotes from the artist. To add to the awesomeness of the project, part of the proceeds goes toward Skateistan, a nonprofit NGO that helps empower youth through skateboarding and education.

The project combines three things that we are passionate about: art, skateboarding and doing good in the world. So for that, we give Ai Weiwei and SK8room two big fucking thumbs up.

At THIS IS RED, we are passionate about jazz. We love its innovative and collaborative nature. We love how it pushes limits and invites everyone to sit down and join in. And we love that Marian McPartland was a true embodiment of the spirit of jazz.

The little girl that would grow up to become jazz pianist Marian McPartland started out in England as a music prodigy, surrounded by and trained in classical music. But jazz captured her heart and became her passion. After entertaining troops in her native England during WWII, Marian headed to New York City and its vibrant jazz community.

Marian was a groundbreaker – as a white, British woman breaking into the jazz scene in the 1950’s, she had the cards stacked against her. In 1952 she landed a permanent gig at The Hickory House, a noisy steakhouse on 52nd Street that was the center of the city’s jazz scene. There she spent a decade collaborating and performing with everyone of note on the jazz scene – from Duke Ellington to Mary Wilson to Thelonious Monk.

In 1964, McPartland started spinning jazz records on a New York radio station where other pianists would drop by the studio unannounced, just to chat with their friend. A casual hello became a regular program in April 1979 with the launch of what would become the longest running cultural show on NPR – Piano Jazz.

Marian McPartland passed away last night, leaving us with the legacy of a woman who was as much a lady and beloved friend as she was a trailblazer and an inspiration. Her contributions as a pianist, radio host, educator, mentor, writer and composer will be treasured.

Like something straight out of Austin Powers, now you can get your own Mini Me. They’re called Mixee Me and while they’re not living miniature clones, they’re still pretty cool.

The figurines are the brainchild of Nancy Liang and Aaron Barnet, who make up the team at Mixee Labs. The Mixees are easily customizable through the free online design tool, which feels a bit like making a character on the Nintendo Wii. The design tool utilizes Blender, open-source software that allows people to design their Mixees without the knowledge required by traditional modeling software.

On a broader scale, Mixee Labs functions as a platform for people to create 3D products and sell them online. Currently you can find products from different creators, including jewelry, cufflinks and wallets.

The idea of 3D printing is catching on and is something that’s still primarily used to explore the technology. However, Barnet anticipates 3D printing will eventually focus more on custom manufacturing – but for now, the Mixees are enough.

With the Nielsen SoundScan mid-year report being released, there are a few clear trends emerging in the music industry:

1. Digital sales are declining
2. And are being replaced by streaming services
3. Vinyl sales are kicking ass

The first two points aren’t surprising, but the last one? Vinyl is making a comeback thanks to bands like Daft Punk and Vampire Weekend. So far, vinyl sales are up 33.5% compared to the same period in 2012.

All of which makes Universal Music’s latest project seem pretty damn smart. UVinyl, the label’s vinyl branch, is launching “The Vinyl Project,” a crowd-funded service that will release limited-editions of deleted albums if demand is high enough. Think of it as the Kickstarter of records. Currently, The Jackson 5’s “ABC,” Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and Sonic Youth’s “Goo” are being considered for release.

So while dads and hipsters alike celebrate vinyl’s return, we’re still crossing our fingers that our piles of cassettes will someday be cool again. Just kidding – we’re vinyl fans, too.

Let’s start off by saying that as of last month, an estimated 56% of American adults own smartphones. Add that to the fact that tablet sales are expected to surpass PC sales by 2015 and you start to wonder why everything isn’t optimized for mobile if more and more consumers are accessing the internet that way.

But the idea of creating an entirely different site for mobile users can seem daunting for companies from both a budgetary and analytical standpoint, which is exactly why responsive design has taken off in the last year. We’ve been shouting responsive design’s praises since before it was cool and still consider it a great option for clients – but why?

In a nutshell, responsive design uses queries to determine the resolution of a device and then uses flexible images and grids to size everything correctly for that specific display. The end result is a single website that works well on just about every device – whether it’s a desktop, tablet or smartphone.

The benefits of responsive design are pretty clear: you build and manage one website that works well across all devices. We could keep boring you with reasons to get on the bandwagon, but we’d rather you check out a game that shows off responsive design at its coolest. So go ahead – resize that shit.

If you’re like us, you’re still waiting for your acceptance letter from Hogwarts to arrive in the mail. Sadly, we’re starting to think that we’re actually muggles and will never get to be sorted (we’d definitely be Gryffindors). But thanks to Google Street View, muggles can still check out Diagon Alley, which is the wizard equivalent of Rodeo Drive.

Street View allows users to explore the Diagon Alley set that was used throughout the filming of the eight Harry Potter movies. The set itself is part of the London-based Warner Bros. studio tour where visitors can see various sets and props in-person.

Like previous Street View projects, Google’s latest addition focuses less on actual directions and more on giving users a chance to virtually explore areas that they otherwise might not be able to, such as the Louvre or the Great Barrier Reef. And for us muggles, we think that’s pretty damn awesome.

How does an iconic brand celebrate its 150th anniversary? – By paying tribute to an equally iconic artist. At the end of the month, Perrier will be rolling out limited-edition bottles inspired by Andy Warhol to celebrate the milestone.

The bottles also mark the 30th anniversary of Perrier’s original collaboration with Warhol. Back in 1983, Warhol was commissioned by Perrier to create a series of prints that evoked the beauty of the brand’s signature teardrop bottles. The collection will showcase four different label designs, which will also feature some famous Warhol-isms. Available on June 24, the bottles will be part of a larger campaign that will give one lucky winner an original Andy Warhol work – his 1978 “Space Fruit: Lemons” screenprint.

We’re anxious to get our hands on some bottles and for Perrier to kick off its sweepstakes. Until then we’ll just have to wait… but as Warhol claimed, the idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.

At THIS IS RED, we are all about technology and we love our gadgets. But what we really love is when smart people use their big brains to create simple solutions to real problems.

According to the World Health Organization, 250,000 women die from cervical cancer every year. And 30% of those women are from India. A lack of resources, laboratory infrastructure and trained medical staff has made it impossible to create and implement screening programs.

However, the results of a clinical trial that the National Cancer Institute performed in India may change that number through the power of a very simple solution – vinegar. NCI researchers borrowed a tried-and-true method called visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and used trained local women and a 4% vinegar solution. With this method, results of the test are visible to the naked eye within just one minute using a special light and if abnormal cells are noted, next steps are taken for formal diagnosis through the national health plan.

The results of the study, released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago showed a 31% reduction in cancer deaths during the course of the trial.

The study results are a really big deal – something so low-tech has the potential to reach tens of thousands of women in developing countries. Not just saving their lives but also employing local women to perform the procedure. Empowering women and saving their lives.

That’s not just smart. It’s heroic.

One of the best parts of summer is wasting time in an arcade trying to win enough tickets for some $5 prize. But since you’ve probably outgrown your arcade days, Google’s offering the next best thing: skee ball at home.

Officially called Roll It, the latest Chrome Experiment mimics the classic arcade game by turning your smartphone and desktop into a Wii-like setup across two screens. Utilizing the phone’s accelerometer, you can control the speed and release of the ball, which then makes its way to your desktop screen.

In addition to being multi-device, the game is also multi-player, allowing up to three players – because the only thing sadder than losing at skee ball is playing solo and losing.