Hasta La Gadget!

The summer programming schedule has officially arrived, and this week familiar warm weather favorites return including Continuum, Falling Skies and Burn Notice. There are also a few new entire including TNT’s The Hero reality show and Sinbad on Syfy, plus a lengthy list of Blu-ray releases including a few classics and season five of Breaking Bad. The NHL Conference finals are in full swing, and tonight we’ll find out who’s joining the Spurs in the NBA Finals. All that, and we haven’t even mentioned the Game of Thrones season finale or the news that Dan Harmon is returning to Community. 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
Despite a plot centering around the always-tricky-to-pull-off time travel, season one of this Canadian science fiction show impressed us when it finally aired here, and now season two is ready to go on Syfy. The first season left plenty of juicy plot threads and cliffhangers for us to wonder about, and now we’ll find out if the show can continue to deliver on them. Check after the break for a season two preview.
(June 7th, Syfy, 9PM)

Falling Skies
TNT’s own science fiction effort returns for its third season this weekend and features a new twist in the battle against Earth-invading aliens — more aliens. The first two seasons have had some inconsistent quality and gotten bogged down in romantic or political plot lines occasionally, but the premieres and finales always suck us right back in.
(June 9th TNT, 8PM)

Mad Max Trilogy
All three Mad Max films get a Blu-ray set this week, and the third movie Beyond Thunderdome makes its debut on the format. We shouldn’t have to convince you this one is worth viewing, but you can see a few trailer clips after the break. Why is this set arriving now? A new flick, Fury Road, is due next year with Tom Hardy taking over the title role.
($34.86 on Amazon)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Microsoft’s Xbox spokesman Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb is giving fans a chance to take a very early hands-on look at the Xbox One’s new gamepad next week. On Monday June 10th, just a day before the official kickoff of E3, Hryb is taking to Microsoft’s Century City company store and allotting a solid 90 minutes for controller touching, as well as ogling of the new box and its always-on Kinect. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s right during Sony’s PlayStation 4 press conference!

As the event is both free and full of loosed next-gen hardware, Hryb suggests showing up well ahead of time — we’ll be on-hand, snapping your picture and distributing high fives. He also teases, “one or two other surprises” as well, which we’re hoping isn’t a free Kin for every person who gets in.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Major Nelson

Broadcom has focused most of its 802.11ac WiFi efforts this year on high- and low-end mobile chips. Today, it’s swinging that attention back to bigger machinery like PCs and set-top boxes. The company’s new BCM4350, BCM43556 and BCM43558 all carry more robust, 2 X 2 MIMO antennas that help them hit 866Mbps speeds and optimize traffic through beamforming. Any differences, Broadcom notes, revolve around everything but the WiFi. The BCM4350 carries a more PC-like set of interfaces that includes Bluetooth 4.0, PCI Express and SDIO 3.0; the BCM43558 drops the PCIe and SDIO in favor of USB 3.0, while the BCM43556 also sheds Bluetooth. Although we don’t know which companies plan to use the nimbler wireless technology, it should ship to gadget makers in the second half of this year.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablets, Networking, HD, Mobile

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Source: Broadcom

A few folks have already picked up LG’s 84-inch monster Ultra HD TV, but most videophiles are looking for something that’ll actually fit in their living room. Thankfully, the firm is prepared for those buyers too, and is now taking pre-orders for its 55 and 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TVs. Korean customers with money to burn can pick up the 55-inch set for 7.4 million Won (about $6,541) and the larger variant for 10.9 million ($9,635). Hardly cheap, but comparable to the competition and definitely an affordable alternative to LG’s $20,000 display. Check out LG’s official (machine translated) announcement at the attached source.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Source: LG

DirecTV subscribers with a penchant for travel have long had access to the Nomad (now GenieGO), a box that packages their DVR recordings for viewing on PCs and iOS devices. They haven’t had an Android app, however, until now. Like its iOS peer, the new GenieGO client (which is new, despite the version number) can either directly stream recorded shows or download them for offline catch-up sessions. Don’t expect just any old Android hardware to work, though — DirecTV can only vouch for compatibility with a small roster of devices that focuses mostly on Motorola, the Nexus line and Samsung. Nonetheless, any customer who has both a GenieGO and a Google inclination can give the app a shot at the source links.

[Thanks, Alex]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Google Play, DirecTV