disney

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Ed Catmull, president of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, said at the D10 conference today that technology can lead to better art.

He was quick to say, "Technology is not a goal. It really is to make a great movie."

But the point he was making is that adapting new tools forces artists to rethink everything about their work; that getting people out of their comfort zones leads to better art.

Referring to the first animated film, "Bertie the Dinosaur," he says, "Years later, we don'… Read more

This Friday, 25 bars and restaurants around the San Francisco Bay Area will adopt Scenetap, a social analytics app that uses facial recognition technology to gather real-time data on customer relations and crowd sizes. Don't worry, the cameras only analyze facial features to determine approximate age and gender of clients entering the bars, and the restaurants swear that they won't upload videos of patrons stumbling out and doing whatever people do outside of bars at 4 a.m.… Read more

New York sex offenders hoping to hide behind an online video game avatar are now out of luck. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced today that New York has partnered with several tech companies to purge thousands of registered sex offenders from online gaming networks in what he dubbed "Operation: Game Over."

"We must ensure online video game systems do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators," Schneiderman said in a statement today. "That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming networks as a vehicle to prey on underage victims.&… Read more

Jeff's back from his trip to the Dominican Republic, so we ask CNET Labs editor Joseph Kaminski into the studio to tell us what it's like to be stranded on an island owned by Walt Disney.

We'll also give our prediction for tomorrow's Apple iPad HD announcement and learn more about weapons from the future that disrupt speech patterns and jam cell phone signals.… Read more

Goodbye "Scarface" streaming on Netflix. Goodbye streaming of "Young Frankenstein," "Toy Story 3," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Beetlejuice," "Gangs of New York," and many more.

Netflix's 4-year contract with Starz ended as of yesterday, meaning that streaming of all of Starz's movies has ceased. According to CNNMoney, Starz content accounted for 2 percent of users viewing time.

Starz announced that it would end its streaming deal with Netflix last September. In a statement, the company wrote, "This decision is a result of our strategy … Read more

Neither Steve Jobs' widow nor a representative of his trust will be on the ballot when Disney shareholders meet in March to vote on re-electing the company's board of directors, Reuters reports. That's despite the fact that the Jobs trust is Disney's largest shareholder.

Jobs had been a Disney board member, and the company's top shareholder, since Disney bought his Pixar studios in 2006, and he'd been helping Disney move forward into the digital era, Reuters reports.

Jobs died of pancreatic cancer last October.

The Steven P. Jobs Trust owns nearly 137.3 million shares, … Read more

Kids of all ages will enjoy Disney Screensaver, a free animated screensaver from ScreenSaverGift that displays background images of your favorite Disney cartoon characters with active but pleasant 3D screen animations. It's not loud or flashy, but its colorful motion and upbeat background music make it an amusing distraction that will be especially appealing to the small ones.

As with the developer's other free screensavers, Disney Screensaver basically installs itself, as we discovered when we opened our screensaver properties. We selected Disney from the list, and Windows displayed a preview of the screensaver, a scene based on the … Read more

When you get a chance to interview Kermit the Frog, you don't pass it up.

Kermit has been the most famous frog in the world for decades. And with the success of his new film, "The Muppets," which has already earned $56 million domestically, he's been making the rounds, sharing his thoughts on everything from meeting presidents to why he never seems to age to what it's like to work alongside his girlfriend, Miss Piggy.

But this is CNET. We wanted Kermit to talk about iPhones. And Twitter. Technology, in other words. We couldn't get the frog who has sung so eloquently about rainbows to tell us how he feels about the most famous double rainbow in the world, or about how often Miss Piggy texts him, but he did dish about his preference for Apple's devices. … Read more

Google said today it has licensed hundreds of Disney movies for play on YouTube's premium movie channel, making it partners with three of the top six Hollywood studios.

Only a handful of titles will be available for rent immediately, but Google said it expects to add hundreds more in coming weeks. Some of the titles YouTube will feature include "Alice in Wonderland," "Winnie the Pooh," "Cars" and "Cars 2."

Google clearly knows an opportunity when it sees one. Netflix is staggering, having alienated subscribers by raising prices and then spooking them … Read more