Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

CBS may have teamed up with Netflix in the US to satisfy those of us with an Enterprising bent, but the company has taken a different tack in the UK and Germany. Instead, the firm has signed a deal with Lovefilm to bring CBS and Showtime-owned shows to Amazon’s streaming network. The press release promises that users will be able to watch classic Star Trek, Voyager, The Good Wife, Dexter and Californication instantly, although a brief check of the UK site reveals that you may need to wait a short while more before you can immerse yourself in the Delta quadrant / Hank Moody’s psyche.

Filed under:

Comments

Scanadu Scout tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in black

Scanadu tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in black

Scanadu clearly knows to tap into our collective Star Trek dreams, as the company just reached $1 million in funding for its Scout tricorder. The backing so far comes from people in 91 countries, including luminaries like Eugene Roddenberry (who else?) and Steve Wozniak. That figure is more than symbolic, we’d add — backers who’ve paid for a Scout can now get theirs in black rather than a clinical-looking white. Should the new color option prove tempting, it’s not necessarily too late; as of this writing, there’s still a few days left to make a pledge.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Indiegogo

Acer shows off Aspire R7 Star Trek edition, we go eyes-on at Computex

Acer shows off Aspire R7 Star Trek edition, we go eyeson at Computex

No, we’re not making this up. We’ve always thought the Aspire R7 bore an uncanny resemblance to the USS Enterprise, and now it appears that Acer’s officially in on the fun, too. Our friends at Engadget Chinese stumbled upon a new version of the starship-esque convertible at Acer’s Computex booth today — the company manufactured just 25 of these special-edition notebooks, one of which it plans to offer up on eBay from June 14th through the 24th, with all proceeds going to charity. This variant is unique enough for us to look past the device’s shortcomings, and perhaps place a bid of our own. Star Trek (and industrial design) fans can get their fix in the eyes-on gallery just below.

Sanji Feng contributed to this report.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Engadget Chinese

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: biospheres, X-wings and energy-creating shoes

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Inhabitat's Week in Green biospheres, Xwings and

News that Amazon will add three large biospheres to its downtown Seattle headquarters had the tech world buzzing this week. The domed structures will feature a mix of workspaces and gardens, and they’ll be flanked by a public park. Amazon’s big announcement wasn’t the week’s only surprise, though. A multinational consortium announced plans to develop a Dubai-style artificial island with a space hotel and a zero-gravity spa off the coast of Barcelona. And new research finds that “pinkhouses” — vertical farms that use only pink light — are much more efficient than those that use the full light spectrum.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Klingons to invade Bing translator, BIjeghbe’chugh vaj bIHegh!

Klingon to invade Bing translator, BIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!

Though some may look down on Star Trek‘s fictional Klingon language and invoke the infamous phrase uttered by William Shatner — “Get a life!” — Microsoft’s Bing translation team doesn’t see it that way at all. As part of a marketing join-up with Paramount Pictures, the service will be offering translation of the fictional tongue to and from its other 41 languages to support the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. According to the LA Times, the translator was developed with the aid of Klingon-fluent Microsoft engineer Eric Andeen, who said that it’s as much about the passion for linguistics as for Star Trek. Originally developed by a language specialist based on a few words ad-libbed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture by ‘Scotty’ actor James Doohan, Klingon has taken on a life of its own thanks to fans and sites who developed full dictionaries and on-line translators. The Bing project will fire up later today, so why not check it out at the More Coverage link? After all, ghojmeH ta’vaD He tu’be’lu’!

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: LA Times

3D Systems will turn you into a Star Trek figure for $70, we go faces-on (video)

Image

When the company that helped invent 3D printing asks you if you want to be turned into a Star Trek statue, the only right answer is: “how soon?” Naturally, we immediately shot off a couple of selfies (front-facing and profile) and ticked off a couple of personal details: I wanted a phaser, naturally, and poor Tim got stuck in a red shirt, to help bring out the natural Riker in that beard of his. Sadly, we only had the option of the Original Series, in the lead up to launch, so you’ve got to use your imagination. As for the inscription on the base, Engadget Show producer Benjamin (who you can see after the break) asked for “Peace and Long Life,” in keeping with his pointy-eared Vulcan theme, and I went with “May the Force Be With You,” because, let’s face it, I was always more of a Star Wars guy anyway. Tim wanted the simple, but expressive “Khaaaaaaan!” but sadly didn’t make it in under the wire, so he’ll have to get creative with a Sharpie.

Once you send in two photos, fill out the specifics and pay the (admittedly somewhat steep) $70, someone at one of 3D Systems’ fulfillment centers will convert your image into a 3D model, import it into the company’s software and then print it out using the Projet 660pro. It’s a rebrand of the high-end device we saw at work at Laika’s Portland studios, printing out faces for the then-forthcoming stop-motion feature ParaNorman. The printer is capable of rendering objects in impressively high resolution, far more than you’ve been seeing on those consumer printers you’ve heard so much about.

Comments

Source: Cubify

Must See HDTV (April 29th – May 5th)

Must See HDTV April 29th  May 5th

This week the NHL joins the NBA in celebrating its postseason, with plenty of games on the schedule for each. There are a number of premieres and finales this week, as well as the debut of individual seasons of Friends on Blu-ray. 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.

Star Trek: TNG S3 / The Best of Both Worlds
The third season of Star Trek The Next Generation comes home this week remastered in HD, and it should be a good for fans. If you can’t live with its cliffhanger ending until the fourth season arrives, The Best of Both Worlds Part 1 & 2 are also being released, edited together as a single episode. either way you get it, judging by the first two seasons, the adjustments should be well-received.
($59.99 and $14.99 on Amazon)

The Americans
FX’s cold war spy drama closes out its first season this week. While it hasn’t grabbed the mindshare of other popular cable series yet, the quality of the writing and acting is still there.
(May 1st, FX, 10PM)

Parks & Recreation
It appears that NBC’s best remaining comedy will be renewed after this season, so this week’s season finale will represent only the start of a vacation for the residents of Pawnee, IN. The Office finally getting yanked from the stage, 30 Rock calling it a series recently and Community… well. Let’s just hope we have more PnR to look forward to this fall.
(May 2nd, NBC, 9:30PM)

Filed under: ,

Comments

Acer teases May 3rd reveal of a tilt-screen laptop deemed worthy of Star Trek (video)

Acer teases a laptop with a tiltable screen deemed worthy of Star Trek video

Our eyebrows are officially raised. Acer has revealed that it’s going all-in with a promotional connection to Star Trek Into Darkness, and it’s hinting at the May 3rd unveiling of a “unique” laptop that it believes would be at home in Captain Kirk’s universe. We doubt that many people will still use Windows 8 in the 23rd century, but there may be some truth to the claims of novelty: a brief clip shows a clamshell design whose display can tilt outward like that of a desktop monitor, most likely to improve the comfort of touchscreen input without going the full convertible route of PCs like the Dell XPS 12. We’ll know soon enough whether or not Acer’s PC is the stuff of sci-fi or remains firmly grounded in reality.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Acer

AIA crowdfunds a space program ad that would run in front of Star Trek (video)

Aerospace industry wants a NASA ad in front of Star Trek, prefers real space travel video

As a federal agency, NASA can’t run commercials — a problem both for rallying broader public support and fostering the next generation of astronauts. The Aerospace Industries Association has both cultural and very practical reasons for improving that public awareness, so it’s taking the unusual step of crowdfunding an ad purchase to get the American space program in front of as many eyes as possible. The project would cut a 30-second version of NASA’s We Are the Explorers promo (after the break), minus the administration’s official endorsement, and run it in at least 50 major movie theaters for eight weeks following the launch of Star Trek Into Darkness on May 17th. The crowdfunding is ostensibly to demonstrate our collective love of space, and would directly translate any money raised beyond the $33,000 goal into ads for more theaters. A cynical industry move? Maybe — but we won’t build starships without a public that’s interested in seeing them beyond movie screens, which makes the ad a noble enough cause in our minds.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: SlashGear

Source: Indiegogo

Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering Star Trek logo (video)

Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering 'Star Trek' logo (video)

Before quadrocopters become Skynet’s roaming recon fleet, they’ll begrudgingly entertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London “spring” to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness of Earth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete with epic music and movie cut-scenes sure to send even the most Vulcan of trekkers to sickbay with hysteria. If anyone behind the promotion is reading — please, whatever you do, just don’t give them phasers.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Ars Electronica (1), (2)