Tag: TV

Last night saw the final round of competition between Watson, the 'Jeopardy'-playing supercomputer, and the two contestants selected to represent all mankind. Our delegates performed admirably, but, at the end of the day, that bundle of neurons we call the human brain simply couldn't stand up to that room full of servers and the avatar with 42 "thought threads" (a nod to the greatest book ever ...

Yesterday saw Day Two of the great showdown between man and machine on 'Jeopardy.' So, how did Watson do? Well, to say he spanked Jennings and Rutter would be an understatement. But the supercomputer did suffer an embarrassing setback during Final Jeopardy. The category: U.S. Cities. Watson's answer: "Toronto?????" Apparently its vast database of knowledge doesn't include third-grade geography. ...

Last night, IBM's Watson made his television debut, taking on two of the most successful champions in 'Jeopardy' history, Ken Jennings (winner of 75 matches in a row) and Brad Rutter (who holds the all-time Jeopardy cash winnings record). In the first round of play, the IBM supercomputer got off to a roaring start, trouncing the two champions early on. But Brad eventually caught up with Watson, ...

Next week, two channels will begin broadcasting 3-D programming around the clock, albeit to a limited audience. 3net, a 3-D joint venture from IMAX, Discovery and Sony, will launch on Sunday night, just one day before ESPN begins full-time broadcasting on ESPN 3D. For the moment, 3net plans to air many of the same shows on loop, including 20 hours of original programming in February. The ...

Meet Max Page, the 6-year-old boy who plays a bite-sized Darth Vader in Volkswagen's latest Super Bowl commercial. Max, who was unmasked on the 'Today Show' this morning, has a congenital heart defect that forced him to get a pacemaker at an early age. But that hasn't stopped him from pursuing his dreams in Hollywood. He's already appeared on 'The Young and the Restless,' starred in a handful of ...

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are coming back to Hulu after a nearly year-long absence. In a blog post, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced that his streaming company had reached a new agreement with Viacom, meaning that, as of today, 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report' will once again be available on Hulu, and Hulu Plus. The agreement will also allow Hulu to stream current episodes of shows ...

A number of Foursquare-esque, TV-centric social networks have sprung up recently, asking you to "check-in" while watching your favorite programs. But while services like Philo simply clog up your Twitter feed with messages like "Bobby is watching '30 Rock'," 'IntoNow' offers a unique gimmick that has it pulling ahead of the pack. The new iOS app integrates 'Shazam'-like functionality that can ...

Haven't had enough 'Angry Birds' yet? (Seriously? You haven't? What's wrong with you?) Well, get ready, campers: the pig-smashing avian avengers are coming to TV. That's the plan, at least. Rovio CEO Mikael Hed told the British TV industry news site C21Media that, with the game coming to desktop PCs and game consoles, and Mattel working on a board game (not to mention the plush toys and ...

On Tuesday, the FCC and the Department of Justice finally approved a major merger between Comcast and NBC, after more than a year of debate and what federal regulators called the most acute scrutiny a media merger had ever faced. The deal gives Comcast control over NBC Universal's TV and movie subsidiaries, in exchange for about $13.75 billion in cash and assets. Comcast will own 51-percent of ...

As bizarre (or impossible) as it sounds, 'Pac-Man' will soon be transformed into a live-action television show. According to Deadline, it will resemble 'Wipeout,' a highly physical, slapstick game show. The show commemorates the game's 30th anniversary, and should provide just as much brain-numbing enjoyment (or, at least, just brain-numbing) as the original. ...

You can work out all you want, but if you spend a good part of the day sitting in front of a TV or computer screen, you could still be putting your health at serious risk. According to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, people who spend more than four hours per day watching TV, surfing the Web or playing video games are 113-percent more likely to suffer ...

Despite a weak economy and more online options for viewers, satellite and cable operators will, once again, increase their prices in 2011. According to The Hollywood Reporter, analyst Craig Moffett predicts that most of the average price increases will be in the mid-to-low single-digit percentages. If you're a glass-half-full kind of person, these increases will, for the most part, be smaller ...

We knew it was coming -- so to speak -- but now it's official: 3-D porn will soon be here! Penthouse has just announced that it will be launching an all-3-D porn channel in the second quarter of this year. "We started shooting in 3-D this past summer, and have significantly invested to perfect 3-D production quality," said Marc Bell, CEO of Penthouse publisher FriendFinder Networks. "Consumer ...

The Samsung D8000 is the company's new top-of-the-line TV, and it's a stunner. It's a miraculously thin, Internet-connected, 3-D, LED-backlit piece of beauty. It even comes with a touchscreen remote that lets you watch video and check your social networking accounts. But the most impressive things about the D8000 are the incredible viewing angles (the picture being almost perfect even from the ...

Comcast has used CES as an opportunity to announce that it is finally embracing online streaming content in a big way. While most other cable companies (and many content providers) are fighting against the rising tide of streaming media, Comcast has decided to jump in head first. At some point later this year, Comcast will begin offering live TV streams to iPads and Android tablets within the ...