Roumen.ganeffGetting better and better
xXx 3 is set to cast a trio of actresses, including The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev.
Orange Is the New Black star Ruby Rose and Bollywood star Deepika Padukone are also reportedly in talks to join the sequel, tentatively titled xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Nina Dobrev (seen here in The Vampire Diaries)
Roumen.ganeffWant. One.Now.
Dell does not produce its own display panels, but when it comes to unique “world’s first” monitors, it is sometimes years ahead of all of its rivals. At the International CES 2016, Dell introduced its UltraSharp 30-inch OLED display, the company’s first monitor to use organic light emitting diode panel. The product is designed for professionals and carries a rather extreme price tag, but this is going to be a dream display for years to come.
The Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q is a 30-inch display with 3840×2160 resolution, 0.1 ms response time and an unknown refresh rate (yet, it should be very high). The monitor can reproduce 1.07 billion colors, it covers 100% of Adobe RGB color space as well as and 97.8% of DCI-P3 color space (used for digital movie projection by the U.S. movie industry and is expected to be adopted in televisions and in home cinema), according to Dell. Just a few professional displays nowadays cover 100% of Adobe RGB. The manufacturer declares 400,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, but admits the value is only that because testing equipment won't go higher.
The UltraSharp UP3017Q ultra-high-definition display has very narrow bezels; the monitor itself is thin, but not remarkably thin like OLED TVs, possibly because it features internal power supply unit as well as complex logic inside. The monitor features a mini DisplayPort (mDP) connector, an HDMI port as well as a USB type-C port, which could be used for video and data connectivity as well as for power delivery (it can be powered using a type-C cable, or deliver power to another device).
Emissive electroluminescent layer in organic light-emitting diode is made of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. The organic semiconductor layer is situated between two electrodes and does not require a backlight. As a result, it can display truly deep black levels, unlike liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, which use various kinds of backlighting. Besides, since the emissive electroluminescent layer is very thin and can take different shapes, it is possible to build ultra-thin and even curved monitors and TVs using OLEDs.
While OLED technology can deliver deep blacks, high contrast ratio and exceptional colours, it is not free of drawbacks. The organic layer may burn down over prolonged amount of time, and colors can shift over time. To maximize lifespan of the OLED panel inside the UltraSharp UP3017Q, Dell integrated a special presence detector into the front panel of the display, which switches the monitor off when nobody uses it. Another disadvantage of OLEDs is a possibility of static image burn in. To reduce the chance of burn in, the UP3017Q has a special pixel-shifting technology.
The Dell UltraSharp 30 OLED monitor will cost whopping $4,999, which it becomes available on March 31, 2016, in the United States. The display at this point is only aimed at professionals, who work in color-critical environments such as graphic arts and photography. However, due to exceptional colors and contrast as well as ultra-fast response time, the UltraSharp UP3017Q will be a dream display for gamers, prosumers and other users, who value quality.
OLED panels are considerably more expensive to produce than modern LCD panels, partly because of lower yields. Last year an executive from LG Electronics said that yields of OLED panels had reached 80% and would continue to grow. At the International CES 2016, Kwon Bong-suk, the head of LG’s TV business, said that the company had cut prices of OLED TVs in the U.S. by 45% late in 2015. As a result, LG now expects sales of OLED televisions to triple this year. Price reduction of OLED TVs indicates that production costs of organic light-emitting diode panels are going down. Perhaps, over time, the Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q will also become more affordable, or Dell will release an OLED display for a wider audience.
Virgin Galactic is still reeling from the tragic loss of a crew member in its 2014 SpaceShipTwo crash, but it's nearly ready to soldier on. The private spaceflight pioneer is rolling out and naming the second version of SpaceShipTwo on February 19th,...
It's happened. Someone built a quadcopter big enough to carry human cargo. The future is officially here, and it's kinda scary. Scary in the cool way though. The same company that brought us the regular-sized Ghost drone has just announced the "184"...
Roumen.ganeffVinyl rips FTW
Vinyl is back. Even Sony is getting in on the game with the PS-HX500, a hi-res turntable that allows music lovers to digitize their record collections. The PS-HX500 stores the sounds stemming from your vinyl via USB, up to DSD quality. It features an...
Roumen.ganeffWhere is Unobtanium? :)
The periodic table of the elements
Scientists just filled in a few gaps
Elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118 have been added to the periodic table.
The new elements were added after the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) reviewed scientific studies published by teams of researchers in the United States, Japan, and Russia. The committee deemed that the researchers had “met the criteria for discovery,” as the press release notes, which essentially means that the researchers were able to create them in the lab, if only fleetingly.
These elements are among the heaviest in the periodic table and aren’t known to exist outside the lab. They’re highly unstable—just to formulate them in the lab, the researchers had to crash lighter nuclei into one another. The new elements existed for less than a second before breaking down into other elements.
These elements, which complete the seventh row of the periodic table, are the first to be added since 2011, when flerovium (element 114) and livermorium (element 116), also superheavy metals, were added. The new elements have been temporarily named temporarily named ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118). In the next few months, the teams that discovered these elements will propose new names for them. That's no easy task, but hopefully they will choose names that roll off the tongue a bit better than the placeholders.
Element 113, which was discovered by Japanese researchers, will become the first element to be named in Asia, according to The Guardian.
Though the periodic table was created in 1869, scientists haven’t yet filled it in completely, or answered many of the lingering questions surrounding these building blocks of the universe; as these superheavy elements decay, they become other elements that scientists cannot yet identify. Researchers still need a better way to measure an element’s atomic number more quickly and directly, as one member of the IUPAC notes. Some researchers, including some members of the Japanese team that discovered element 113, hope to continue their work in superheavy elements to discover those that lie beyond element 119, which has not yet been discovered.
Faraday Future—a secretive, California-based selectric-vehicle startup that’s been teasing a big reveal for weeks—finally pulled the sheet off its debut concept in Las Vegas Monday night, just ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show. We give them credit: It’s a looker, a striking, 1,000 horsepower LeMans-style racecar that seats precisely one.
Now, this won’t be the company’s first production car—that will come in the next few years, and will most likely be a sedan meant to compete with Tesla’s Model S or smaller Model 3. The FFZERO1 is purely a concept, meant to show off the new brand’s nascent technology and the innovation Faraday claims lies within.
This includes four electric motors—one at each wheel—to produce those 1,000 horses, and a slew of driver-centric amenities, including augmented reality and a majority of vehicle info displayed on the driver’s smartphone, which will sit mounted in the steering wheel. The car also has a dramatic tunnel through the chassis that channels air toward the batteries, keeping them cool.
"A team of 750 talented individuals from the likes of BMW, Tesla, Audi, Google, and Apple..."Though the reveal of the FFZERO1 was the big payoff of the hour-long presentation, the meat of it focused on Faraday’s broader vision of future mobility, which will manifest with its production vehicles. “We’ve assembled a team of 750 talented individuals from the likes of BMW, Tesla, Audi, Google, and Apple,” says Nick Sampson, Faraday’s senior vice president of R&D and product development. “Our goal is to make the world better by making mobility cleaner and more efficient.”
To do that, Faraday will deploy a customizable “variable platform architecture” to allow a single chassis system to work for a variety of vehicles, from supercars like the FFZERO1 to compact sedans to SUVs and pickup trucks. Like Tesla, its batteries will be low and flat, improving handling and safety for all the vehicles, and the modular construction will permit easy adaptation to any vehicle configuration.
The billion-dollar question, of course, is whether any of this actually happen. Tesla has struggled mightily for more than a decade to gain traction in the notoriously difficult automotive universe—and it also had roped in major talent from the beginning. What makes Faraday think they can start selling cars in just two or three years, as they suggested this evening?
The workforce of 750 personnel (550 in the U.S., 200 abroad) would suggest they’re serious, as does the investment in a brand-new factory outside of Las Vegas.
But where Tesla has always had to be creative and persistent about securing financing, Faraday has the apparent backing of some deep pockets from China, a technology powerhouse called LeTV.
China is keen on producing electric cars to help confront its pollution and energy woes, and because they’re less complicated than internal-combustion vehicles, and LeTV pulled in auto-industry veteran Ding Lei—who spoke tonight, as well—to develop vehicles in China and support Faraday Future in the U.S.
While the FFZERO1 is certainly an entertaining debut, the real test will be whether the company can produce affordable, practical electric vehicles for the mass market. Apart from some promising graphics showing the new modular chassis designs, we didn’t really see much of that tonight. We did, however, see a company that seemed quite serious about getting there.
Samsung ushered in last year by launching its first portable SSD, so it's only fitting the company should kick 2016 off by announcing a bigger, better successor. The new Portable SSD T3 is similar to the older T1 in more ways than one. It uses Samsun...
Cerevo unveiled its newest -- some would argue, wackiest -- invention to date at CES Unveiled. Dubbed the Tipron, this machine is equal parts autobot and long-throw projector. It stands just a foot and a half tall when completely folded (handy for wh...
Disney has sent out the Star Wars: The Force Awakens screenplay to members of the Writers Guild of America for awards consideration. The screenplay pretty much reflects the final film, including lines improvised or changed during the filming, and excludes any form of deleted scenes that were most definitely in the shooting script. That said, the descriptions in the screenplay give us some confirmations and clues that you might find interesting.
Hit the jump to get more info about Luke Skywalker, get confirmations about what exactly we see in Rey’s vision, dive into the the internal conflicts of Rey and Kylo Ren, and discover new details about The Force Awakens ending.
Warning: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens follow. If you haven’t yet seen the film, do not read the following post. It should also be noted that the following screenplay has not been uploaded to Disney’s official For Your Consideration website, and was obtained through third hand sources. While I can’t personally 100% confirm the legitimacy of the screenplay, it looks to be far too accurate to not be the real thing.
The script gives a name for the planet that we find Luke Skywalker on at the end of the film. The planet is referred to as “AHCH-TO” in this official script. The planet is described as having a “pristine and mighty OCEAN” with “endless BLUE, dotted with random, beautiful, mountainous BLACK ROCK ISLANDS, dotted with countless GREEN TREES.”
Interestingly Ahch-to is not a known planet in all of Star Wars lore, but “Ahch” is a Hebrew word meaning “brother.” Is this somehow a subtle way of suggesting that Luke is somehow her brother? How would that be possible? It could also speak towards Leia sending Rey to find her brother on this planet. It might also be a placeholder name — I could see them using it to stand in for “Act 2” as this moment leads to the second act of this sequel trilogy.
The script describes Luke Skywalker as being older now, with white hair and a beard. It says that he looks at Rey with a “kindness in his eyes, but there’s something tortured, too.” Most interestingly, it says that Luke “doesn’t need to ask her who she is, or what she is doing here.” Does this mean that he knows Rey is his child? Or does this mean that he knows because of the Force? The script only adds that “his look says it all.”
After Rey pulls Luke’s lightsaber from her pack, the script describes her holding it out to him as “An offer. A plea. The galaxy’s only hope.” And of course the script ends on “HOLD ON LUKE SKYWALKER’S INCREDIBLE FACE, amazed and conflicted at what he sees, as our MUSIC BUILDS, the promise of an adventure, just beginning…” It’s interesting that the script says Luke is both amazed and conflicted.
The screenplay confirms a bunch of the imagery that we see in the vision Rey experiences when she touches Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber:
The post Star Wars: The Force Awakens Ending Details And More Revealed In Official Screenplay appeared first on /Film.
Before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, franchise creator George Lucas had spoken a bit about giving up the reins to the sci-fi saga, equating the situation to a break-up. Disney didn’t want to make the kind of movie that Lucas had in mind, and so the studio and the man went their own separate ways. And now we get even more from the filmmaker about what he didn’t want for Star Wars, why he doesn’t have an Oscar, and what he’s going to do next.
George Lucas sat down with Charlie Rose for a nearly one-hour interview that covered everything from his career as a director and technological innovator, and he was pretty candid about Hollywood, making popular films and more. You can watch the full interview just below, but if you don’t have 54 minutes to spare, we break down some of the finer points of his commentary after that. Here’s the full George Lucas Charlie Rose interview from Hulu:
Starting things off with a bang, Rose made the mistake of thinking that Lucas had an Oscar already. Lucas clarified that he hadn’t won any Oscars, adding, “They don’t give Academy Awards to popular films.”
Indeed, Star Wars didn’t win Best Picture, but it landed Oscars for art direction, costume design, sound, film editing, visual effects, and score, not to mention nominations for Lucas for directing and writing. After that, the sequels never got that level of awards recognition again, and the prequels were far from awards-worthy. But that wasn’t simply because the films were popular.
While I understand what Lucas is getting at with that kind of comment, one can’t help but point out that some pretty popular films, such as The Departed, Argo, Slumdog Millionaire, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, have won Best Picture in recent years. But forgetting about that detail, Lucas says he doesn’t care about awards anyway and is fine with making popular movies:
Popular is okay with me. I think it’s a very important part of society. If you’re making a work of art or a film or whatever and nobody sees it, it does nobody any good.
However, in a bit of a contradiction, it seems that he’s had it with being popular, because for the rest of his career, he doesn’t want to make those kind of movies:
I’m gonna make movies that only I wanna see and I wanna do. I’ve always wanted to do that. I fell into popular movies by accident. I always disliked Hollywood theatrical movies. I didn’t want anything to do with them.
And part of the reason that he ended up not making Star Wars: Episode VII with Disney is because he didn’t want to make the movie that Disney wanted to make. We’ve already written about how Lucas said that Disney wanted to make something for the fans. And now we know that when he said that he thought fans would like The Force Awakens, it was a bit of a backhanded compliment. But now we get a little more from that train of thought, including one very poor analogy, and what could be a slight dig at The Force Awakens in retrospect.
First of all, when talking about the deal with Disney to sell Lucasfilm, the director refers to the Star Wars films as being like his kids, as many artists feel about their work. But then he equates the Disney deal to selling them “to the white slavers that takes these things, and…” He smartly laughs and moves on from that dangerous train of thought, and he has since apologized in a public statement. We get what he was trying to say, but c’mon, George. Anyway, he later adds what Disney wanted to do with Star Wars and vaguely talks about how it was different from his ideas:
They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. Every movie I work very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, make it new.
Knowing what we know now about The Force Awakens, it’s hard to argue with him calling it a “retro movie.” The film reuses plenty of elements (another Death Star-esque assault), settings (Jakku is just Tatooine), characters (just pick one), and more in what is essentially a remix of the original Star Wars with some bits of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi thrown in for good measure. There wasn’t much new beyond the fantastic new characters, which are the biggest reason to be excited for Episode VIII.
Don’t get me wrong, The Force Awakens is one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had at the movies in forever, and it’s a good place to start a new trilogy. It’s familiar enough to please fans hurt by the prequels, but has enough promising new pieces to pave the way for Episode VIII. But it’s safe, lacking true originality and is certainly “retro” as Lucas says. So it’s hard to slight George Lucas for avoiding doing what he already did back in 1977.
This is where we get into some rather insightful commentary by the director about what it’s like working in the studio system as a filmmaker, making it clear as to why he doesn’t want to do what the studios want him to do anymore. Thinking back to the times when the Soviet Union was a more prominent threat and headline-maker, Lucas said that when he was prompted to express his pleasure at being in America where they had all the freedom in the world, he responded:
I know a lot of Russian filmmakers. They have a lot more freedom than I have. All they have to do is be careful about criticizing the government. Otherwise they can do anything they want.
And when it comes to the Hollywood system, both back then and today, Lucas says, “You have to adhere to a very narrow line of commercialism.” And to show how dangerous that can be, with studios just wanting sequels, remakes and more, he reminds us:
You gotta remember, ‘Star Wars’ came from nowhere. ‘American Graffiti‘ came from nowhere. There was nothing like it. Now, if you do anything that’s not a sequel or not a TV series or doesn’t look like one, they won’t do it!
Indeed, the greatest movies in the world came from a place of originality before they were turned into popular franchises. And now studios are obsessed with just reworking what they know already can sell. It’s lazy, and while sometimes it does work, it’s hard for creativity to thrive.
So for the next phase of his career, Lucas plans to go back to his American Graffiti and THX 1138 roots and play with the filmmaking as best he can: “I’ve been fascinated with the true nature of the medium — it’s been used more as a recording medium, than as an art form unto itself.” Speaking about tone poems in Russia, Lucas says he hopes to look at how to “tell visual stories, basically without dialogue, without all the things you use to tell a story, and you just use the film itself. It’s kind of esoteric, it hasn’t come much further in one hundred years. I’m going to try and take it into something that is more emotionally powerful than most of the stuff we’ve done up to this point.”
Personally, I’m very interested to see what George Lucas can do outside of Star Wars at this phase in his career, and it would be great to see the ambitious filmmaker who wowed us so many years ago make some kind of comeback.
The post George Lucas Is Too Popular to Get an Oscar, Didn’t Want New ‘Star Wars’ to Be a “Retro Movie” appeared first on /Film.
Roumen.ganeffGreat show
Syfy‘s The Expanse is one of those shows that makes me feel guilty for cutting the cord. Sure, I’ll be able to experience this gritty space opera soon enough when it decides to hit a proper streaming service (you can watch it on Syfy’s official site right now, but it feels less than ideal), but it feels like it has the potential to be the next great science fiction show, a proper heir to the likes of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. Not being able to be part of the weekly conversation with a show that feels so far up my alley is more than a little maddening.
At the very least, it’s good to know that there will be plenty to explore when I do ultimate dive down this particular rabbit hole. Syfy has renewed The Expanse for a second season and it will premiere sometime in early 2017.
The news of The Expanse season 2 comes to us via TV Line, where they have a statement from Syfy network president Dave Howe:
The Expanse is firing on all cylinders creatively, building a passionate fan base among viewers and critics alike, and delivering on Syfy’s promise of smart, provocative science fiction entertainment. We can’t wait to see where the story takes us in Season 2.
While I haven’t had a chance to check out the show, I have read the first book in the series upon which The Expanse is based, and it’s very good. Written by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), Leviathan Wakes is a crackling read, filled with tons of action, morally ambiguous characters, wild genre concepts, and a rich, detailed science fiction universe that is big without being too big. Although there are shades of everything from Star Trek to Game of Thrones sprinkled throughout its pages, its closest cousin is probably the video game Mass Effect. Based purely on what’s been printed on paper and bound into book form, it’s easy to see why Syfy snatched this series up.
Set a few centuries from now, The Expanse finds humanity expanding deeper into the solar system. Mars and the moon are fully colonized. Cities and research stations have been established throughout the asteroid belt. But people will be people and a series of violent events soon bring various parties to the bring of war. Gun battles, mystery-solving, ethical dilemmas, and even a dash of wild horror ensue.
This renewal comes before the current 10-episode season of The Expanse reaches its halfway point, which sounds like a serious a vote of confidence from its network. Although season 2 doesn’t have an air date yet, it will increase to 13 episodes. To say whether or not cast members Thomas Jane, Steven Strait, Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, and Shohreh Aghdashloo return would be a spoiler at this point.
If The Expanse continues to do well, there is plenty more material to draw from. With five books already in print and more on the way, this series has the potential to stick around for a long time.
The post Syfy Journeys Into ‘The Expanse’ For a Second Season appeared first on /Film.
For many, the beginning of a New Year brings hope and inspiration to make some improvements and look forward to what the future holds. But author George R.R. Martin made sure that Game of Thrones fans weren’t feeling too good at the start of 2016, because on January 2nd he chose to deliver some bad news to those who have been reading the fantasy books that inspired the HBO TV series.
George R.R. Martin revealed on his blog that he missed the deadline to finish the next Game of Thrones book, The Winds of Winter. The author wrote:
“THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.
Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You’re disappointed, and you’re not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed… but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, “I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER” on or before the last day of 2015.
But the book’s not done.”
The book was originally meant to be finished in October of last year in order to be published this March, but the deadline was pushed back to the end of 2015 in order to meet that same deadline. But the end of the year has arrived and Martin says the book just isn’t done. And perhaps even worse, we have no idea when it will be finished now as Martin also says:
“I can’t tell you when it will be done, or when it will be published. Best guess, based on our previous conversations, is that Bantam (and presumably my British publisher as well) can have the hardcover out within three months of delivery, if their schedules permit. But when delivery will be, I can’t say. I am not going to set another deadline for myself to trip over.”
This is bad news for fans who read the books and watch the HBO series, because the motivation for setting The Winds of Winter release date in March was to have it arrive before the sixth season of the show. That’s because this season will have caught up with the books and will begin to spoil things that haven’t been revealed in the books yet. There have been some narrative differences already in how the TV series has progressed when compared to the books, but this season will really start churning out book spoilers.
Fans are undoubtedly upset and disappointed, but it sounds like Martin is just as upset with himself:
“I won’t make excuses. There are no excuses. No one else is to blame. Not my editors and publishers, not HBO … It’s on me. I tried, and I am still trying. I worked on the book a couple of days ago, revising a Theon chapter and adding some new material, and I will writing on it again tomorrow. But no, I can’t tell you when it will be done, or when it will be published.”
This is uncharted territory when it comes to adapting books into television, and I can only imagine the immense pressure Martin is feeling not only to deliver a good book but to keep up with the TV series. Now that he’s fallen behind, hopefully that pressure is off and he can just concentrate on writing a good book for the fans.
Only time will tell if the viewing audience for Game of Thrones will suffer with some fans possibly choosing to avoid the series until the book comes out, but I don’t think it will be too devastating since there are plenty who haven’t read the books who are loyal to the show.
The post Next ‘Games of Thrones’ Book Won’t Be Done Before Season Six Starts Spoiling It appeared first on /Film.
During the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans were hungry for any set photos they could feast their eyes on. Now with the film in theaters and breaking box office records, there aren’t any secrets that can be learned from set photos, but that doesn’t mean they don’t offer a cool glimpse at production, including the climactic lightsaber battle. This is especially true when they come from the film’s cinematographer Dan Mindel.
In addition, the first official stills of motion capture characters Maz Kanata and Supreme Leader Snoke, brought to life respectively by Lupita Nyong’o and Andy Serkis, have been revealed as well. But keep in mind that you may not want to continue after the jump if you haven’t seen The Force Awakens yet, because there will be some spoiler talk.
First up, here’s some of the behind the scenes photos from Dan Mindel’s Instagram:
As you can see, Mindel snagged an awesome shot of the snowy forest set from the surface of Starkiller Base when Adam Driver and John Boyega were shooting their lightsaber battle as Kylo Ren and Finn. And he also caught some cool shots of BB-8, as well as some monitor shots of Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the Millennium Falcon cockpit with Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and the moment after Finn and Rey escape from the TIE Fighters on Jakku. This makes me excited to see what kind of featurettes end up on the Blu-Ray and DVD release of The Force Awakens in a few months. You can see more at Dan Mindel’s Instagram page right here.
In addition, for those who have been interested in taking a closer look at Maz Kanata and Supreme Leader Snoke without paying for another ticket to the multiplex, Entertainment Weekly has released a small batch of images:
Ever since seeing Supreme Leader Snoke on the big screen, I’ve thought that doing motion-capture for the character was unnecessary, even with a master mocap performer like Andy Serkis behind the character. Previously, Serkis said that this was the best way to make the character work:
“The scale of him, for instance, is one reason. He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design — you couldn’t have gotten there with prosthetics. It’s too extreme. Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure and facial structure. You could never have done it [in real life.]”
However, Guillermo del Toro did a fine job created some rather ghastly, hollow ghosts in Crimson Peak with a combination of prosthetic and visual effects, and I wish they would have done that for Snoke as well. He just didn’t quite feel real, and I feel the same way looking at these Supreme Leader Snoke photos. That may be just because of the sheer size of that hologram. Perhaps Snoke will look better when we presumably get to see him in Star Wars: Episode VIII.
As for Maz Kanata, she looks great even in still form, something that’s not always easy with fully computer generated characters. However, I’m wondering what more there is to the character since she was originally supposed to go with our heroes to the Resistance base, and essentially just disappeared after the First Order attack on Takodana.
Hopefully these two new characters will have serve more pivotal roles in Episode VIII along with some new locations and characters. Because if there’s one thing this new Star Wars trilogy needs, it’s an expansion of the galaxy’s locations and inhabitants.
The post Fantastic ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Set Photos, Plus Stills of Maz Kanata and Supreme Leader Snoke appeared first on /Film.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens director of photography Daniel Mindel has been sharing photos from the movie's set throughout the past couple weeks.
The photos posted on his personal Instagram give us an intimate view into the making of the film, from Adam Driver and John Boyega battling with lightsabers, to Peter Mayhew's Chewbacca hanging out on set. The photo of Driver and Boyega's confrontation on the snowy set is a particularly cool reminder that the film used practical effects instead of creating the lightsaber glow in CGI. Check out some of the photos below.
Whirlpool has come out swinging at this year's CES with a slew of connected kitchen appliances and an app that will be integrated with Amazon's Dash Replenishment Service. It's actually one of many appliance brands to have the integration this year,...
The convertible tablet segment has certainly gained a foothold over the last year or two, and now we are seeing a lot of great designs in this space. Lenovo already launched the MIIX 700 tablet which is a 12-inch 3:2 design. For business users that want the ThinkPad line, Lenovo is now offering the ThinkPad X1 tablet, which offers a lot of firsts for this segment.
Let’s get the traditional information out of the way first. It is a Core m design, which means that it will be fanless, and Lenovo is offering up to the Core m7 with vPro. 16 GB of memory will be available, as will up to 1 TB of PCIe NVMe storage. You can also outfit the ThinkPad X1 tablet with LTE-A, and this is the first Windows tablet to offer LTE-A support. Since this is aimed at the enterprise, the back panel is removable for servicing, which should make a lot of IT departments happy. The display is the same resolution as the Surface Pro 3: 2160x1440, which means it is a 3:2 aspect ratio as well. I’ve found the 3:2 aspect ratio to be a great compromise between tablet and laptop. It also features an active digitizer and pen support.
The X1 Tablet also offers a ThinkPad keyboard, including trackpoint, which can snap onto the tablet. It has three adjustable typing angles, and the tablet and keyboard together weigh in at just 2.4 lbs. The tablet alone is 1.75 lbs, similar to other laptop replacement tablets.
The real innovation with the X1 Tablet though is the modular options which can transform the tablet into a couple of different solutions. The first is the Productivity Module, which adds up to 5 hours of battery life (for a total estimate of 15 hours), and adds a full size HDMI port, docking, and full size USB 3.0. It’s a smart way to increase the battery life and connectivity of the tablet, and the module just snaps onto the bottom of the tablet.
The second module is the Presenter module, which features a pico projector and HDMI port. When used with the included kickstand of the X1 Tablet, you can use the display for control and the projector for a presentation.
The final module is the 3D imaging module, which features an Intel RealSense 3D camera. You can use this to scan objects into software. Of the three, it’s likely going to be the smallest market, but it certainly is a smart use for the modular system.
Overall this looks to be a solid entry into this segment, and Lenovo is offering some truly unique and interesting ways to expand the capabilities of such a device. The X1 Tablet goes on sale in February, and starts at $899. The Productivity module which features additional battery, HDMI, and OneLink+ port, will retail for $149. The Presenter module which can project a 60-inch display from 2 meters, will retail for $279, and the 3D Imaging module will go on sale in May for $149.
Source: Lenovo
The trend of putting PC software on wholly impractical devices isn't stopping with the new year, folks. GBATemp fan Shutterbug2000 has managed to get Windows 95 running on a New Nintendo 3DS XL thanks to both DOSbox emulation and some ingenuity. Yo...
WARNING: AS SHERLOCK HAS ALREADY SCREENED IN THE UK, ABOMINABLE BRIDE SPOILERS FOLLOW...
"Is this silly enough for you?" asks one character during The Abominable Bride. "Gothic enough? Mad enough?" Well yes to all of those, but unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough either, especially when compared to the previous nine episodes of Sherlock, most of which worked better than this ingenious but ultimately flawed experiment.
George R.R. Martin has provided an update on the status of his next book in his popular A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, the basis for Game of Thrones, confirming Winds of Winter is not done, with no set date on when it will be finished or released.
"I won't make excuses. There are no excuses," Martin said in a post on his LiveJournal. "No one else is to blame. Not my editors and publishers, not HBO, not
David
& Dan
. It's on me. I tried, and I am still trying."
The author went on to say he's not sure when it will be done or published, noting he's still months away, "and that's if the writing goes well." Martin also said he has no intention of setting another deadline for himself "to trip over."
In a interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mike Colter, Marvel's Luke Cage, talked about what fans can expect from his upcoming Netflix series and how its musical "soul" will set it apart from its predecessors.
"It defines itself through sound that you can feel when you're watching the scenes, whether it's something that's actually a song that they're playing or actually just the pulse of the music that they choose thematically," Colter said. "'Luke Cage' is going to define itself in that way, and it's going to define itself in the locations that we're doing."
Hiroshi Shirai et al
Researchers transplant human-embryonic stem cell-derived retinal tissue into the retina of primate models.
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic eye condition that results in damage to the retina. It has no cure; over time, a person with RP loses much or all of their vision.
But scientists have gotten one step closer to finding a better treatment. Researchers at the RIKEN Institute in Japan have now succeeded in growing retinal tissue and transplanting that tissue into the retinas of rhesus monkeys with RP. Three weeks after the treatment, visual tests on two of the monkeys found their vision had improved.
In the study, published this week in the journal PNAS, researchers grew retinal tissue from stem cells and then transplanted the tissue into the retinal area of rats with advanced RP. The tissue grew and in some cases adhered to the cells already in the retina and formed connections—a key factor in the success of this approach.
Then, the researchers tried a similar approach on rhesus and macaque monkeys with end-stage RP. Similarly, the retinal cells grew and formed connections and synapses, allowing the new retinal tissue to connect and "talk to" the retinal cells already there. In order for a tissue graft like this to be successful, the cells need to not only grow and differentiate from stem cells but also connect to the cells already there to become one unit.
The researchers say that future studies will allow them to better understand how often the implanted retinal tissue is likely to form connections with the retinal cells already there. And while therapy like this for humans is still far out, they say that the monkey models will help them optimize for conditions that they would expect to see in humans.
Roumen.ganeffThis is where the Japanese horror movies take its model from
Japan, known for its famous fictional monsters, was paid a visit on Christmas Eve by a real-life sea monster. In Toyama Bay in Central Japan, visitors idling on a pier overlooking the water were greeted by a 12-foot-long red-and-white giant squid. Despite its massive size, this squid was believed to be a juvenile. Dead specimens have been measured as long as 43 feet.
Architeuthis dux, otherwise known as the giant squid spends its life in the abyssal depths of the open ocean. These gigantic, solitary predators feast upon other deep sea fish or squid and are themselves hunted by sperm whales in what must unfold into epic battles of giants in the blackness of the deep ocean.
They have been found dead washed up ashore or tangled in fishermen’s nets for centuries, but have only been captured on film alive twice before. In 2004, Japanese researchers snapped the first images of live giant squids that they had managed to lure up to their camera. In 2012, using the same technique, an expedition off the coast of Japan filmed live giant squid for the first time ever, wrangling with their iridescent lures thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean.
But the video of the Toyama Bay visitor is the most detailed and up-close viewing of a live giant squid yet. And certainly the first time a human being has ever been in the water with one of these creatures of the deep. CNN reports that the animal was filmed with a submersible camera, and joined in the water by Akinobu Kimura, a diver and owner of Diving Shop Kaiyu—an either bold or foolish move considering there was no way of knowing how a large predator unaccustomed to human interaction would react to his presence.
Kimura told CNN that "My curiosity was way bigger than fear, so I jumped into the water and got close to it." He further described his experience by saying that the “squid was not damaged and looked lively, spurting ink and trying to entangle his tentacles around me. I guided the squid toward to the ocean, several hundred meters from the area it was found in, and it disappeared into the deep sea."
The juvenile giant squid apparently moseyed around in the bay for a couple of hours before receding back into the deep.
Screenshot by author, from YouTube
3-D Printer Onboard The Truman
Life at sea is full of improvising. Ships can only carry so much stuff, and can’t easily go to a warehouse for spare parts, so when something is broken or doesn’t quite work right, the crew has to find a solution with what they have on hand. With a 3-D printer on board, that improvisation becomes really easy, as the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman are finding out. One of two U.S. Navy ships deployed to the Middle East with 3-D printers, the utility of the device seems immediately apparent.
Thinking decades ahead, the Navy has big plans for 3-D printing, like making human tissue on demand for medical emergencies, or custom-printing drones and missiles as a mission requires. For now, though, the printer is solving much simpler tasks, like lost caps and awkward funnels.
From the Virginia Pilot
Within their first weeks of deploying in November, sailors already had created and "printed out" custom dust caps and a wrench. A sailor in the "fab lab" designed his own solution after he and others grew frustrated that an oil cup on a machine was too small for a funnel.
"It required at least two people to get all the oil in the cup, so I figured we have this technology here, why not try something that would make this task easier," Petty Officer 2nd Class Raymond Lee said. "I came up with an extension that narrows the nozzle, cuts the manpower in half, ensures there's no spilled oil all over the deck."
Parts are designed with computers in the fabrication station, and printed to order right on board. It's a pretty great solution to an ancient sailor’s problem.
Watch a short video about it below:
Roumen.ganeffShe should take diving lessons from Portuguese footballers :)
Roumen.ganeffduude
