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May 08

Roku can now tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street with new PBS channels

Roku can now tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street with new PBS and PBS Kids channels

Big Bird (or “Big Yellah,” as we like to call him) and his Sesame Street cohorts are now available for streaming on your Roku box. Not just that, but his non-avian colleagues from PBS and PBS Kids are also making the trip, arriving today in new PBS and PBS Kids Roku channels. The two new channels offer more than the on-demand access to PBS programming you’d expect; PBS Digital Studios’ work is also available to stream (we’re quite fond of it, if you couldn’t tell).

While it’s not 100 percent clear what exactly is available at any given time, PBS’ announcement says “hundreds of videos” can be accessed, which are pulled from the archives, from national and local daily programming, and include biggies like NOVA, Frontline, and American Experience (it stands to reason that heavy hitter Downtown Abbey won’t be available, given its exclusive license with Amazon starting next month). PBS Kids is similarly well-stocked, with “more than 1,000 videos,” which includes everything from Curious George to, yes, Sesame Street. There’s a short teaser video of the service being used just below the break, should you not be able to contain yourself until you get home.

Update: According to Roku, not all Roku players support the new PBS channels. “Both PBS and PBS Kids are available immediately for all Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku LT, new Roku HD players and the Roku Streaming Stick in the US,” the company says. Heads up!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Science, HD

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Source: Roku

Feb 11

Hasbro’s Toy Fair 2013 booth tour: Transformers, Furby rockers, Iron Man and more

Posted in: Today's Chili

Oh, the wondrous experience that is Toy Fair. And that particular experience, as you may know, includes anything from NERF hoop games and foam fusillades, to boxing robots and itty-bitty, tinkering novelties. To make things even better, though, Hasbro was kind enough to invite us over to its 2013 showcase in NYC, where the prodigious toy maker was exhibiting some Furby amigos known as Party Rockers, Iron Man’s Sonic Blasting figurine and Arc Fx Mission life-sized mask, a Sesame Street play-and-learning system for toddlers, as well as a Transformers Rescue Bots Beam Box which enhances the experience by allowing the toys to mesh into a game that can be played on a TV set. There was also a little Star Wars and Star Trek action, of course — and the good news is you, too, can see it all, just head past the break to take a look at the vast gallery and a quick video showing off a few of Hasbro’s new toys.

Gallery: Hasbro’s Toy Fair 2013 booth tour

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Hasbro

Jan 08

Sesame Street hits CES with augmented reality app for kids, we go hands-on (video)

Posted in: Today's Chili

At this year’s CES, Qualcomm‘s got a big show — but not all of it has to do with bleeding-edge performance and kick-awesome graphics. In fact, the San Diego company has a bit of a family side. It’s partnering with Sesame Street to highlight its Vuforia platform, an Augmented Reality-based SDK that gives developers handy tools to make the most out of their apps. The program on display, called Big Bird’s Words, is a word recognition tool to help children learn vocabulary.

As you’ll see in the video below, Big Bird himself lets the young ‘uns choose a word and, using the rear camera, hunt around for it in a real-world environment. If the camera picks up an incorrect word, Big Bird indicates that you need to keep looking. Since this is just one application on the platform, this particular concept could be used for a plethora of different types of apps, such as dictionaries and translation programs.

Gallery: Sesame Street augmented reality application hands-on