Hasta La Gadget!

It’s finally over — pro football is done for the year. In its absence we have a number of big returning shows to look forward to, including favorites like Community and The Walking Dead. Also of note, Syfy will air Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome this weekend, a show that already premiered months ago on YouTube (click here to watch it now), while Dead Space 3 arrives on your gaming system of choice. 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.

Community
October 19th is Thursday night. Correct your calendars as necessary. (See video after the break if you require an explanation)
(February 7th/October 19th, NBC, 8PM

The Walking Dead
Season three of AMC’s juggernaut has been rolling along well so far, we’ll join our favorite group of zombie apocalypse survivors for the second half of the story Sunday night — see the trailer after the break. Also worth remembering for fans is that the Talking Dead recap show has been extended to an hour and will air immediately after the episode at 10PM.
(February 10th, AMC, 9PM)

Top Gear
The best part about season 19? BBC and BBC America have narrowed the window between when episodes air in the UK and the US, so we’ll finally get to enjoy content while it’s still fresh. Check out BBC America tonight for the season premiere.
(February 4th, BBC America, 9PM)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Whatever the platform, Tapbots’ Tweetbot is known for supporting in-line content viewing that doesn’t always appear in other Twitter clients — it’s a survivor of the Instagram-Twitter fallout, for example. With the launch of version 2.7 updates for iOS, the app may have microblog media well and truly covered. The upgrade adds easy Flickr viewing, to accommodate Instagram exiles, as well as quick peeks at Vine’s 6-second video loops. Third-party app integration likewise expands its boundaries: links can now open in either 1Password or Chrome, instead of Safari. Both the iPad and iPhone releases are live today, so hit the relevant links to see the imagery you might have been missing.

[In-photo image credit: Steve Kovach, Vine]

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Via: Tweetbot (Twitter)

Source: App Store (iPhone), (iPad)

It was just weeks ago that BLU Products’ smartphones were largely dual-core models like the Vivo 4.65 HD. The company clearly wants to ramp things up, as it’s kicking off the Quattro line based around Android 4.0 and the quad-core, 1.5GHz Tegra 3. At the entry level is the $250 Quattro 4.5, which includes a qHD display at its namesake size as well as a 5-megapixel camera, 4GB of built-in storage and a microSD slot. The next step is, unusually, the biggest: the $300 Quattro 5.7 HD (what you see above) keeps the same storage, but jumps to the extra-large category while upgrading to a 720p display and an 8-megapixel camera. BLU sees the $350 Quattro 4.5 HD as the real darling. It beats its non-HD cousin with a curved, 720p screen touting Gorilla Glass, and throws in a larger 16GB capacity as well as a more light-sensitive 8-megapixel camera. The two smaller models ship to the US early this month, to be followed by the 5.7-inch behemoth in late March. When they arrive, every one of them will carry unlocked HSPA+ 3G that supports both AT&T and T-Mobile.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: BLU Products

Cold, frosty nights on the Antarctic continent are about to get a lot more cosy. The newly designed Halley VI Antarctic research station is set to open next week, and contains a few neat little tricks. Fixed structures typically struggle on the frigid continent due to moving ice and the threat of snow-burial. The Halley VI, however, has extendable legs that not only allow it to keep rising above snow level, but also mean it can be towed to a new location as required. There are eight pods in total which connect together, and are made up of research areas and living quarters. The larger, central red cabin provides a communal living area that houses its own special tricks — such as specially selected shades, a climbing wall and a herb garden — to fend off the intense winter blues. Whether the architects had been watching Star Wars Episode 5 at time of conception is unclear.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: io9

Source: Architectural Record

British regulator Ofcom gave EE special license to reuse 1,800MHz spectrum for its fledgling LTE network; to put it mildly, that rubbed other carriers the wrong way. The agency may be more open to a level playing field, as it’s proposing letting everyone follow a similar route, and then some. Following calls from H3G (Three), Telefonica (O2) and Vodafone, Ofcom has offered to let all UK providers repurpose both their 1,800MHz airwaves as well as the 900MHz and 2,100MHz bands. We won’t have too long to wait before a decision: Ofcom will decide on the proposal in the second quarter, which might come just in time for carriers to supplement whatever bandwidth they get from 4G auctions. Especially when hardware already exists that could use the frequencies for faster speeds, success could see the trickle of UK LTE become more of a torrent.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Ofcom (PDF)