Hasta La Gadget!

There you were, thinking your NECA-produced Portal gun replica was super neat all on its own. Well, okay — it is — but wouldn’t it be even cooler if you could use it to make a baby companion cube levitate in mid-air with it? That question is exactly what lead to Hack a Day’s creation of just such a device, as seen in the video below the break. By reappropriating a magnetic floating globe’s parts and attaching said parts to both the gun and a homemade companion cube, Hack a Day were able to recreate at least part of the magic Chell experiences in her Aperture Science adventures. Of course, if you move the gun too much, the companion cube will fall out. Just think what that does to its psyche! You monster.

[Image credit: Caleb Kraft, Hack a Day]

Continue reading Your Portal gun isn’t as cool as Hack-a-Day’s Portal gun (which actually levitates a companion cube)

Filed under: Gaming, Alt

Your Portal gun isn’t as cool as Hack-a-Day’s Portal gun (which actually levitates a companion cube) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 02:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year Starz pulled its online content library back from Netflix and now it’s relaunching the old Starz Play branded websites and apps (iOS and WiFi only for now, 3G and Android coming soon) for authenticated streaming, similar to HBO Go and Showtime Anytime. There’s also an Encore Play site, and it plans to launch one for its Movieplex channel in the future. Currently, the services only support logins from Cox cable subscribers, but if you’re not on that pay-TV provider you may not be missing out after all.

Starz has already licensed its content to providers like Comcast for streaming through its Xfinity website and apps, deals which it tells The Hollywood Reporter cover about 70 percent of its customers. Like HBO and Showtime, this probably is not a prelude to offering its service beyond the tethers of cable and satellite, but as exec Ed Huguez puts it, “it is an expression of (Starz’) brand and user interface.” That likely only applies domestically however, as Starz also announced it’s licensing its content to the cable-free HBO Nordic service, and one can see how building up its technology means it could serve up its own streams internationally some day. Even if you get Starz, if your provider is large enough to handle its own business when it comes to online services this probably won’t affect you. However, for customers on smaller cable companies or in the future when deals get renegotiated, you may have another app to add to your drawer for TV Everywhere-style viewing.

Continue reading New Starz Play website and apps stream only to Cox customers, but you might not need them

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

New Starz Play website and apps stream only to Cox customers, but you might not need them originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first “all hands” meeting of a CEO is always a time for high drama, so we’re expecting big things tomorrow. New boss Marissa Mayer is telling employees about her plans to turn around the faded internet giant on Tuesday, with the same slides she used in closed-door board meetings in an act of “radical transparency.” Yahoo’s fortunes have been on the slide for a while, after Scott Thompson’s scandal-ridden departure, patent clashes, security breaches and the sale of its Alibaba stake in order to spend $3.65 billion on quelling a shareholder revolution.

A report from AllThingsD says that Mayer’s likely to introduce progress and goal tracking as a measure of performance. The new system will run from the company as a whole right down to individual employees, something that she picked up from her tenure at Mountain View. The same report has revealed that Mayer’s pushing to improve the consumer experience in its Homepage, Mail and Flickr offerings (amongst others) at the expense of advertising — a move that’ll win her plenty of fans used to the minimalist Google homepage.

Filed under: Internet

Marissa Mayer planning to reveal her plans for Yahoo’s turnaround tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re a fan of Valve’s Portal game, then you’re probably familiar with some of the “characters” from the game, such as the Portal turret. Well it seems that the folks at Valve have managed to get their hands on what looks like a pretty good replica of the turret, but not only does it look good, it moves as well! This was put together by the folks at Weta Workshop and comes complete with flashing lights and a motion sensor that will track people in the room. Of course there aren’t any actual guns built into the turret, but it does playback gunfire sound and the flashing lights simulate the bullets being shot out. It’s pretty impressive and most definitely not a machine we’d want to come across dead in the night. Either way you can check out Valve’s unboxing of the Portal turret replica in the video above where you can also see it in action!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Portal 2 Level Creator arriving on PC and Mac this May, Valve’s Portal clone for Android pulled over legal issues,

…by different I mean it looks exactly the same as the famous robot from Portal 2. An achingly short video of the replica was posted at Valve’s Facebook account, with no further details provided other than an acknowledgement from the Valve Store Facebook account, which said “Hello friend.”

The turret – which seems like a life-sized replica, or if not has to be at least 3 feet tall – has the customary glowing red light, blurts out sound bites and best of all, has machine guns that protract from its shiny body. But since the turret doesn’t hate you, the guns have been replaced with blinking lights paired with gunfire sound effects.

I’m not sure if Valve – or anyone for that matter – will be selling the replica, but I am sure that there are thousands of people out there who would buy it in an instant.

[via Facebook via PC Gamer]