Category: Playroom

In celebration of 'A New Hope,' whose 35th birthday is next year, the always anniversary-conscious George Lucas will unveil all six of his beloved 'Star Wars' films on Blu-ray. Lucas, who personally announced the 2011 release plans at the recent Celebration V event, promised that the new editions would be formatted with the "highest picture and audio quality," along with extended special features. ...

The undisputed 'King of Late Night' is making a comeback -- this time, on the Internet. According to The New York Times, more than 3,500 hours of footage from Johnny Carson's tenure as host of 'The Tonight Show' has been preserved digitally and archived on the Web for fans to enjoy. It took about 2,000 people to complete this two-phase project, which mostly spans the years between 1973 and 1992 ...

The rumblings started as far back as 2007 -- that the seemingly doomed-from-the-start Apple TV would get a makeover into a screenless iPod touch with an HDMI port. Those rumors started making the rounds again around the launch of the iPad, but an iOS-based Apple TV was still nowhere to be seen. Now, our friends at Engadget claim to have an exclusive scoop on the new Apple TV, which will get new ...

We were very impressed (and only slightly disturbed) by architecture grad and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda's 'AR Kitchen' video earlier this year. Matsuda has been exploring a possible future of augmented reality interfaces with his videos, imaging a world when AR is less a gimmick than an integrated part of daily life. Matsuda has said, "The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply ...

Although, for a time, the video game industry valiantly staved off the recession while other enterprises suffered, console game sales did eventually stagnate before precipitously dropping. Online gaming currently thrives, though, particularly with enormously popular titles like Zynga's 'FarmVille' and 'Mafia Wars.' Other services like Xbox Live, which reportedly generates billions in revenue, ...

Thanks to a deal with Epix, Netflix's Watch Instantly catalog will soon see a windfall of new online content, consisting of both new movies and classic franchises, such as 'Star Trek' and 'James Bond.' Epix, a joint Paramount-MGM-Lionsgate network for video content, will also eventually grant access to box office winners like 'Iron Man 2' and 'Dinner for Schmucks.' Under the five-year ...

Musician Arman Bohn has created his newest music video with a decidedly fun piece of technology: the Nintendo DSi. To create the video for his song "Brain Games," Bohn drew images in the DSi's 'Flipnote Studio' program, and then exported them to 'After Effects' for editing and animation. In the video, anthropomorphic letters and numbers cavort as they watch Bohn perform on a TV monitor, ...

We're sure you're familiar with Redbox's kiosks, which offer DVD rentals for $1, and can often be found on your way out the door of your local mega-mart. Now the company is updating its services to offer high-def Blu-ray rentals. Of course, the HD discs will set you back slightly more than the $1 DVDs, but, at $1.50, the price bump is hardly a deal breaker. Roughly half of the company's 26,000 ...

The days of YouTube's 10-minute upload limit are officially over, as the site has decided to give users a chance at a real 15 minutes of fame. In a recent blog post, YouTube explained that the move to extend the time limit of non-partner videos came as a response to overwhelming user demand. It was only after the site was able to better refine its ContentID copyright protection system, though, ...

Michael Jackson is dead. And his family, apparently, wants to keep it that way -- even in the world of iPhone games. According to MTV, Jackson estate lawyers recently forced gaming company PopCap to change a character in one of its iPhone apps, 'Plants vs. Zombies,' because said character bore a striking resemblance to the King of Pop. From now on, the Dancing Zombie character will no longer be ...

James Cameron might not have had the chance to film his famed blockbuster 'Titanic' in three dimensions, but a research team is set to do the next best thing: create a 3-D map of the wreck. On August 18th, an assemblage of scientists, including archaeologists and oceanographers, will embark on an expedition to map the ship's wreckage and debris field in 3-D. Expedition leader David Gallo told ...

In a surprise announcement Thursday at Comic-Con, Guillermo Del Toro said that he's agreed to direct a new 3-D movie based on Disney's Haunted Mansion theme park ride. (One would assume a movie based on a ride would be dumb, but, alas, not the case.) According to Wired, the live-action movie will reintroduce the ride's mythology, and the plot will focus on a main character called the Hatbox ...

The (highly?) anticipated trailer for 'Tron: Legacy' is out! Fans of the original (read: red-blooded Americans) will probably be divided, just as they are with any other sequel-rehash that's been plumbed from the shallows of Hollywood's finite pool of originality. But we'll give this one a chance, because the inimitable Jeff Bridges has returned to reprise his original role as Kevin Flynn, as ...

You aspiring video artists probably remember YouTube Play, the challenge put forth by no less than the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to find the best art vids on the Internet. As you may also recall, this event, the first biennial of its kind, will exhibit the 20 best entries at each of the Guggenheim outposts in October; and now, the judging panel has finally been announced. And what a ...

If you can't get a ticket to Arcade Fire's two-night stand at Madison Square Garden, don't fret. According to Spinner, the Canadian indie rock group will stream its August 5th concert in New York City on YouTube. The band recently released a trailer (after the jump) promoting the streaming concert, which will be captained by a well-known director. (Rumor has it, Spike Jonze.) [Ed. Note: We think ...