Hasta La Gadget!

For all the dimensions that Doctor Who has explored on TV, the third has been a rarity — there was an early 3D experiment in 1993 for the series’ 30th anniversary, a 2010 trailer, and that’s that. For the show’s 50th birthday, the company is willing to make a return trip through a two-part 3D special. Most of what’s in store for the unique event is being kept secret, although we imagine we’ll see plenty of Sonic Screwdriver action. We’ll have to see how closely the special’s broadcast date aligns with the official anniversary in November; hopefully, it’s far enough into the future that Whovians can prepare with a little TV shopping.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: BBC (1), (2)

For a while many months ago it was impossible to get away from Farmville. If your Facebook friends list is anything like mine, you were probably swamped with requests to help build barns and other things in the game. We don’t hear too much about Farmville anymore, but that may be changing.

A half-hour animated television series based on the Farmville video game will be directed by Brett Ratner. Ratner is working with a television production company called Six Eleven Media from Canada and he will also be the executive producer. Other executive producers working on the animated series include Charles Bishop and Nina Gelb.

Farmville is still incredibly popular with the Wall Street Journal reporting the game attracts millions of players each day. It’s unclear exactly what the animated show will be about and what age group it will be aimed at. Presumably, we’re talking about a show aimed at kids with lots of game tie-ins.

Zynga is likely hoping the game will appeal to older fans of the video game as well. It also remains unclear exactly what the show will be about. I’d wager it will be a cartoon based on farming with some sort of agricultural and green elements for educating kids. There’s no word on when the series will premiere or what networks it will air on.

[via Wall Street Journal]

Farmville cartoon coming to television is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The TiVo Mini has yet to make its retail debut, but cable provider Suddenlink is now serving up the DVR extender for use with its own services. According to Zatz Not Funny, the outfit is pricing rentals of the boxes between $6 and $12 depending on a customer’s location, and presumably their service package as well. That rental fee nabs users the privilege of slinging live TV from a TiVo Premiere DVR on their network to another television set, in addition to searching for and watching recorded shows. While dynamic tuner allocation is on the hardware’s roadmap, it doesn’t appear to be switched on just yet. Waiting to pick up the hardware from retail shelves rather than take Suddenlink up on its offer? TiVo’s pint-sized offering is slated to ship this spring.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Zatz Not Funny

Some British cable subscribers will soon have a new master: international telecom giant Liberty Global has just acquired Virgin Media for $23.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal gives Liberty an even larger stake in Europe than it had before and, if you believe the new partners, creates one of the bigger broadband companies on the planet at 47 million homes covered across 14 countries. Liberty also sees Virgin as good at tackling the business and mobile spaces that have been its relative weak points. How this will affect the UK isn’t immediately apparent, although Virgin Media will continue to run under its existing name — that moebius logo isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. We’ll at least have some room to ponder the consequences when the buyout isn’t poised to close until sometime in the second quarter.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Liberty Global (PDF)

With every second that ticks by, Samsung sells three TVs. Find that claim a bit dubious? You shouldn’t, especially when you consider the source: company prez BK Yoon. Speaking at a press conference in Monte Carlo focused on the multinational’s home appliance division, TechRadar reports that Yoon tossed out that figure in reference to the company’s living room dominance. Yoon also went on to highlight the $184 billion in sales Samsung raked in last year, though, according to its 2013 earnings report, TV sales were flat year-over-year. Still, that demand must be sufficient enough to have those sets selling like hotcakes. And with the growing popularity of Galaxy-branded phones, tablets and, yes, even cameras, it seems Samsung’s bottom line may continue to see even further padding.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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Source: TechRadar