Netflix and Amazon’s LOVEFiLM are each getting a burst of new content, its been announced, with DreamWorks and Disney each promising fresh on-demand titles for the cord-cutting favorites. On Netflix, a new deal with DreamWorks will see more than 300 hours of new programming based on existing and upcoming franchises such as Turbo added, while
As promised a while ago, Amazon’s Lovefilm service is now streaming even more Disney titles through the film studio’s own Movies on Demand section. Additions include Wall-E, Lady and the Tramp and live-action flicks like the Chronicles of Narnia. And yep, even Bedknobs and Broomsticks has finally made the digital transition. The streamable back-catalogue now includes the likes of Dumbo and Ratatouille — check the full press release after the break for more.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Amazon
The upcoming Star Wars film seems to be all set to go, with director JJ Abrams saying that production for the new film will “most likely” begin its preparation stages “at the end of the year.” This means that production for Star Wars: Episode VII could officially begin at some point early next year. Abrams
The tattoo-laden, musically-inclined game developers behind Frequency, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central are taking on Disney’s Fantasia, this morning announcing next-gen Kinect game Fantasia: Music Evolved. Like its last game franchise, Harmonix is keeping exclusive to Microsoft game consoles with Kinect — the game is planned for launch some time in 2014 on both Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Fantasia: Music Evolved — which we’re assuming must feature Master Chief somewhere given the naming convention and Microsoft exclusivity — aims to turn gamers into aspiring orchestra conductors. Er … sort of. The game is played by using both your arms to synchronously gesture in a variety of directions, with two on-screen icons indicating how to place your arms and which direction you’ll be gesturing toward. Ostensibly, the game asks players to conduct various pop songs (Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” and Queens’ “Bohemian Rhapsody,” among others), occasionally punctuated with a push, depth-wise, for various auditory flairs (among other things). You are the sorcerer’s apprentice, conducting the heavens (as it were). Moreover, the songs get remixed as you go along, with players choosing one of four musical styles to introduce dynamically as the track continues to play in the background. If it sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is.
Gallery: Fantasia: Music Evolved
ABC dipped its toe into live network TV streaming with the Watch ABC app on the web and iOS earlier this month, and now it’s followed up with a version for Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablets. Unfortunately, despite the Amazon Appstore listing it’s still not in Google Play so other Android devices can’t get easy access yet. At launch the press release mentioned Samsung Galaxy hardware will also be supported this summer, but there’s no word beyond that.
Of course, the same location restrictions still apply no matter what platform, with Watch ABC currently available in NYC and Philadelphia only. Through the end of June anyone in those areas can tune into the live streams, however after that it will require authentication with a participating cable or satellite company. Viewing areas will also start to include into other markets throughout the summer and fall based on ABC’s agreements with its affiliates. The Watch strategy has worked well so far for Disney’s cable networks (ABC Family is up next), whether its push to bring live network TV to the internet is spurred by Aereo or Nielsen’s new ratings, we hope more can watch it soon.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD, Amazon
Source: Amazon
Next-gen gaming won’t be truly immersive until it blows, Disney Research believes, and it has the Kinect accessory to fix that tactile omission. Aireal uses a focused blast of air, fired from a compact cannon designed to sit alongside a sensor-bar like Kinect, to make action on the screen feel all the more realistic; shown off at SIGGRAPH in July, the cannon can track a player around and synchronize with the gameplay.
In the brief demo video shared on Aireal so far – you can see if from the 0:44 point – a gamer plays a goalkeeper simulator, with balls fired toward them on-screen. The challenge appears to be knocking as many of the balls away, using physical movements tracked by a Kinect; the Aireal sits next to it, firing puffs of air at the player to recreate the sensation of objects impacting.
Disney Research describes the system as creating “interactive tactile experiences in free air”, and it relies on the inherent stability and range of a vortex of air. By spinning the flow of air around the central axis, the blast can be made far more precise and reach further into the room.
The developers – Rajinder Sodhi of the University of Illinois, along with Matthew Glisson and Ivan Poupyrev of Disney Research Pittsburgh – don’t say exactly what the range of the Aireal cannon actually is, only “large distances.” The system is “scalable and inexpensive” they claim, though would presumably need to be made more compact if it wanted to gain living room acceptance.
However, you could easily imagine Microsoft integrating Aireal into a future version of the Kinect sensor bar, which was updated for the Xbox One revealed earlier this week. The new Kinect has more accurate motion-tracking – now capable of identifying not only skeletal movement, but musculature and force, and even measuring heart-rate – as well as advanced microphones for voice control of the next-gen console.
So far, though, attempts to make gaming more immersive have tended to treat the sense of touch with relatively broad strokes. At most, there’s some sort of haptic feedback from vibration of the gamepad; the Xbox One controllers, for instance, have tunable vibration to suit the on-screen action, but harness systems and similar to spread the sensation across the player’s body have generally met with resistance.
Disney Research’s approach – though perhaps less targeted than strapping vibration motors across your torso – does away with the issues of clumsy bodywear, and it could also be used to good effect in media types other than gaming, such as movies and TV shows. Whether that will make it an acquisition target for one of the big game companies remains to be seen.
VIA Geek; ExtremeTech
Disney Research Aireal adds real force-feedback to Kinect gaming is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
While we’ve already heard some details of Disney’s future plans with the Star Wars franchise, the company has announced its next Star Wars project, called Star Wars Rebels. It will be a cartoon series that will air on the Disney Channel, and as you’d expect, this show will be aimed at the younger audiences, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the older-generation Star Wars fans also enjoyed the show.
As for details about the new show, they’re slightly limited, but we’ve been given a good idea on what to expect overall. The series will take place in an era between Episode III and Episode IV, and Dave Filoni is hopping on board as executive producer, who is the same person behind the The Clone Wars series, and it seems he’ll be bringing a lot of the original Clone Wars staff on board as well.
The show will also be based on concept art from the late Ralph McQuarrie, who designed the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Battlestar Galactica television series, and the ET movie. A one-hour pilot episode is already in production and is set to air in the fall of 2014 on the Disney Channel, with further episodes airing on Disney XD.
There’s no word on which characters will make an appearance, and what the plot will be exactly, but we can probably expect appearances of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, possibly showcasing the years that come after their separation at birth, but before their reunion on the Death Star, although we could also see more storylines appear throughout the show.
Of course, we still have over a year and a half until this show premieres, so we’ll most likely get more details in the future, but we’re interested in seeing what the art style will end up being, and if any popular names will show up to do the voice acting for the show. Plus, this is Disney’s second movie/TV project, and we would be surprised if we didn’t hear about more in the near future.
VIA: io9
Star Wars Rebels cartoon series coming fall 2014 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Twitter would really, really like to make ad-driven TV experiences central parts of its service, and it just confirmed that laser-like focus through an expanded deal with ESPN. The sports broadcaster will soon show in-tweet video highlights of football, soccer and the X Games; Twitter, in turn, gets a guaranteed volume of promoted tweets to parallel ads inside the videos themselves. While we’re not looking forward to the new marketing pitches when they surface in the year ahead, we’ll be happy if we can catch more replays without losing our place in the social stream.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Wall Street Journal
Netflix scored a big coup with its semi-exclusive Disney deal late last year, but the newly expanded content didn’t reach everybody in one shot — just ask the British and Irish, who’ve been left high and dry so far. To viewers’ relief, the companies have mended that gap with immediate availability of Disney and Disney-Pixar movies in Ireland and the UK. The initial mix includes not-quite-recent movies like Wall-E as well as back-catalog classics like The Aristocats; the months ahead will see Netflix’ selection catch up slightly by introducing the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie, among other titles. Combined with the upcoming additions of some DreamWorks and Marvel movies, the Disney pact should hopefully keep the kids (and, we’ll admit, ourselves) entertained just as the summer is about to start.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Netflix (1), (2)
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