Hasta La Gadget!

Disney’s got a huge stable of iconic characters already immortalized in plastic, but the company’s looking to virtualize its lineup with today’s announcement of crossplatform game / toy experience Disney Infinity. Like Activision megalith Skylanders, Disney Infinity pairs actual plastic figurines (enabled with NFC or something similar) with game consoles connected to a pad. The pad transmits those characters directly into the game, across any system the game is being played on. Unlike Skylanders, Disney Infinity‘s pad can apparently add up to three connections at once, allowing for character powerup additions and other in-game bonuses. The first characters available come from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, and Monsters University (we spotted Jack Skellington and other biggies in the reveal trailer as well); Disney promises that users will also be able to create their own universes (virtually) inside the game, beyond just playing in themed environments. 20 characters are said to launch with the game when it arrives this June for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PC, and mobile. Take a look at the announcement trailer just below.

Continue reading Disney Infinity challenges Skylanders for toy-based game crown, launches in June

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD

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It’s not hard to find a media app with some type of favorites system. It’s tougher to find one that lets us be very specific on just what a favorite can be. The new aTV Flash (black) 2.1 update, however, will let Apple TV modders be as exacting as they’d like: they can favorite individual videos, whole seasons and even broader search terms. Catch-up viewers get their own treat in the form of TV show playlists that simplify watching episodes back-to-back. A slew of further tweaks are inside, including iOS 6 support, so there’s every incentive to upgrade for those who rely on not-quite-official firmware for Apple’s living room hub.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Apple

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Source: Firecore

As we return from CES (and dive headlong into the North American International Auto Show) we’ve got a number of our favorite TV shows returning from break. While sci fi fans wave good-bye to one high profile series they can welcome another this week, and sports fans are just making it until the conference championship games on Sunday. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Continuum
Often recommended in our comments during its Canadian run on Showcase last year, this sci fi show finally starts airing in the US tonight. You can hit Wikipedia for a summary of the plot (it involves time travel) or check out the trailer after the break, but until we watch it’s going to be hard to explain. For now, just know it comes highly (and often) recommended by our readers, so it’s probably worth a shot.
(Syfy, January 14th, 9PM)

Fringe
Fox’s laws of science bending / universe and time stream jumping sci fi show finally ends its run this week. Unlike Continuum we’ve been watching every episode, but again, due to the presence of time travel as a plot device, your guess is as good as ours as to what’s going on at the moment.
(Fox, January 18th, 8PM)

Archer
Our favorite cartoon spy is back on FX this week. If you don’t know about Archer, you should immediately lock yourself away with nothing but a Netflix subscription to get familiar with the one of the more drunken and incompetent contributors to national security that there ever could be. We’re definitely in the Danger Zone.
(FX, January 17th, 10PM)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (January 14th – 20th)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Our CES plates were jam-packed full of eye-opening conversations this year. We had the chance to speak to top tech luminaries, entrepreneurs, celebrities and fellow journalists. Much of that opportunity arose from the return of our stage, parked right in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Grand Lobby. We blew things out this year, packing the schedule from the show’s opening on Tuesday morning to its close on Friday night.

Below we have a list of the interviews we did at this year’s show, both on-stage and off, so you can relive the thoughts, theories and comments that defined this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Continue reading CES 2013: Interview roundup

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Desktops, Cameras, Displays, Misc, Gaming, GPS, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, Laptops, Peripherals, Podcasts, Robots, Tablets, Transportation, Wearables, Wireless, Storage, Networking, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Sony, HTC, Nokia, Verizon, Sprint, LG, AMD, RIM, Lenovo, NVIDIA

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It looks like Netflix users in the US will soon have quite a few new TV series to choose from as they wait for Arrested Development to make its big return in May. The company announced today that it’s struck a multi-year deal with Turner Broadcasting and the Warner Bros. Television Group that will see a variety of animated and live-action series from the Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation, Adult Swim and TNT be made available for streaming. That includes the likes of Adventure Time, Ben 10, the Green Lantern animated series, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and TNT’s Dallas, the last of which is an exclusive deal that begins in January of 2014 — all the other series will be available starting March 30th.

Continue reading Netflix lands deal for Turner and Warner Bros. TV series beginning in March

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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