Cinematic Psychedelia: ads play over the top of a Scorsese film
So our interpretation of a 'trippy' moment was blown out the water not so long ago, as a set of movie goers experienced a set of advertisements playing over the closing minutes of Martin Scorsese's Hugo.
EA ‘probably’ invested $500m in The Old Republic says analyst. Star Trek Online now Free-to-play
An incredibly ambitious MMORPG based off the most lucrative of science-fiction IPs was never, ever going to come cheap. But few, surely, would have imagined the possibility of Star Wars: The Old Republic costing up to half a billion dollars(!), such is the total investment made by EA, a Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz proposes.
Sony launches 'Dot Switch' promo
Doing a classic Apple: bringing technologies together, yet keeping vague on details. Sony have just released a short promotional trailer about what they're called the "Dot Switch."
In the demo, the user uses his Sony Xperia phone to activate various Sony technologies as he/she walks by them, including a gramophone (we're just as confused as you on that one), a Bravia TV set, a set of confetti cannons (again, confused), and finally a device that's revealed by a robot arm removing the tray cover.
Indie Game: The Movie. A videogame film worth watching to premiere at Sundance
Of the significant amount of buzz surrounding this year's Sundance Film Festival, this has definitely captured the hearts and minds of we nerds: a feature documentary about the pains of the 21st century independent artist that is the indie game designer.
Indie Game: The Movie Official Trailer from IndieGame: The Movie on Vimeo.
The iPad That Fell From Space And Lived To Tell The Tale
Like it or loathe it, like a good portion of modern consumables, Apple’s iPad is far from the most robust pieces of technology, and the day it finally gives in to the strains you impart on it is something we all fear.
Where aesthetics and ergonomics often come at the cost of shock absorption and damage proofing, it’s no wonder accessory manufacturers have enjoyed terrific growth in the wake of ever more expensive, yet ever more everyday, electronic gadgets; from smartphones, to tablets and immensely popular e-book readers. Meanwhile, companies such as Motorola have built whole marketing campaigns around the ruggedness of its phones – such as in the case of its ‘Defy’ handset which was labelled, hyperbolically perhaps, as ‘life proof’.
Intel-Powered Smartphone Performance ‘Better Than Any Other’
Tests carried out on the latest handsets powered by Intel chips has concluded performance exceeds the levels seen in current, at-market smartphones; including Apple’s iPhone 4S and Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S2. The results come from a series of ‘benchmarking’ tests carried out by website Anandtech on Intel’s ‘Medfield’ reference platform.
Chatroulette is now 'safe for work,' makes money off 50,000 naked men
It goes without saying that Chatroulette was definitely a hit in 2010. That was before one in every two random people you connected to had some form of genitalia out on display. However, founder Andrey Ternovskiy has a rather ingenious way of both controlling the pornographic content, and making money off it at the same time.
Facebook, Tumblr and Google +'s buggiest pages are works of Social art
Anybody found a page called 'Glitchr' on their respective social networks, as mentioned in the title? Turns out that they were created as an art project by Lithuanian, Laimonas Zakas.
The Facebook page, thus far has over 14,000 likes since the story went viral through multiple tech blogs, and is a primary focus due to it being the largest social network of all. The completely harmless page takes your chat navigation bar and spreads it down your screen in an almost wave-like style. Kind of like when your computer freezes and your open window sporadically multiplies as you drag it across the screen.
Nostalgia in the form of Video game maps drawn from memory
It seems weird seeing these drawings at first; but then you realise just how much detail of a video game world can be recalled soully from your memory. This is what tumblr blog Mapstalgia has chosen to celebrate.
Tom Hanks sci-fi web series to stream on Yahoo this spring
Tom Hanks has elected for his animated vision of a post-apocalyptic future, called 'Electric City,' to premiere on Yahoo this spring. Extra details were revealed by the man himself via a Q&A at CES.
The series has been gestating under-the-surface for a while. The 20 episode series that Hanks and his company 'Playtone' have been working on for years is going to comprise of 3-4 minute long captures of ambiguity within a dystopia.
Slipknot members establish film production company
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan (a.k.a the Clown) are set to lift the veil on a new production company, Living Breathing Films, at the Sundance Film Festival next week.
This eclecticist outfit, ran by self-admitted movie buffs (Corey bought $10,000 worth of DVDs when Slipknot began to make money) seems to be aiming straight down the same vein as the band they originate from. "Our movies are going to be psychological. They’re going to affect you. When The Exorcist came out people got up and left after 15 minutes and that turns us on," Crahan told Rolling Stone. "If I haven’t got someone to leave in five minutes for at least one of my films then I’m not doing my job."
Flash mob take over London Underground in their pants
A pretty standard commute on the tube, over-run with 150 participants in the worldwide, social-organised event 'No Pants Day' ('Trousers' for we Brits).
What if Skyrim was set in 2012? [VIDEO]
So it goes without saying, Skyrim has been a huge success. We gave it some love in our review, and from the millions of copies it's sold, you guys loved it too. But a burning question that...wasn't exactly burning remains: what if Skyrim was set in the present day?
Web connected robot gives your online notifications their own scent
Meet Olly: a small, rather minimalistically designed gadget which is, according to creator Mint Foundry, a 'web connected smelly robot.' What does this mean? If sight and sound are already stimulated by the very device with which you are reading this from, then imagine adding smell to this combination.
Your girlfriend/boyfriend messages you on Facebook or Twitter, for example. Instantly your nasal capacity is filled with the scent of their perfume, due to Olly emitting that individual scent as part of the notification.
Murdoch tweets about Myspace: ‘We Screwed Up in Every Way Possible’
We've received a personal insight, via Rupert Murdoch's Twitter account, into what the man on top of the world of News Corp thought of his organisation's Myspace conquests. The good thing is he saw it to be the catastrophe that we noted it to be also.
Many questions and jokes about My Space.simple answer – we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons.
Windows 7 comes to iPad thanks to OnLive App
We never thought we’d see the day, but Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS is now available to iPad owners after cloud gaming service OnLive has designed and readied an app for Apple’s market-leading tablet that allows you to use the PC giant’s first operating system partly designed for use with touch-screens. To accommodate the iPad’s touch controls even further, the user-interface has been tweaked to allow for pinch-to-zoom and flick-to-scroll controls.
Ericsson cuts the USB cord. Transfer data using your body
Video game developer sentenced to death in Iran
Former US Marine and developer at Kuma Games, Amir Mizra Hekmati has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to death for developing a game that's critical of Iran, with the courts going so far as to call him a spy for the CIA.
Hekmati was accused specifically on propaganda charges: creating games intended to influence the public opinion surrounding US operations in Iran.
$10m Reward Proposed To Inventor of Star Trek-esque ‘Tricorder’
Aiming to “make 23rd Century science-fiction a 21st Century medical reality”, X Prize Foundation’s organizers have offered up a prize of $10 million (£6.5m) to anyone who can invent a Star Trek-alike medical ‘tricorder’ – influenced by the tool used by Spock and Bones in the popular sci-fi show. Launched at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the foundation’s competition page for the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize reads:
“Imagine a portable, wireless device in the palm of your hand that monitors and diagnoses your health conditions. That’s the technology envisioned by this competition, and it will allow unprecedented access to personal health metrics. The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where, and how they receive care.”
Chaotic Moon's modestly named 'Board of Awesomeness'
Chaotic Moons Labs is showing a 30 mph motorized longboard controlled by the use of Kinect and a Samsung Windows 8 tablet at CES 2012. Being the chiefs of tact, this device has been given the name of the "Board of Awesomeness."