Hot Technology and Science News

The Star Wars galaxy is a weird and wondrous place, full of laser swords, aliens, and sentient robots. This can make trying to depict the banality of life there a bit difficult. So over years of tie-in material, writers have had to come up with oodles of new words to make the normal things people encounter in everyday life feel like they’re part of a galaxy far, far away... with some truly ridiculous results.

1) Paper = Flimsiplast and Durasheet

West End Games’ Star Wars roleplaying game of the late ‘80s—responsible for some of the early worldbuilding of what would become the Expanded Universe—infamously declared that there was no place for paper in Star Wars. The written word was noted on datapads and through electronic devices only. But eventually, not being able to just scribble something down at any time seemed odd, and so not only one, but two alternatives came to exist: Flimsiplast, a see-through acrylic, and durasheet, a “paper-like” material that was still not actual paper.

But paper is just one of those things to intrinsic to real life that it became too weird to exclude from the Star Wars universe—a lot of stories felt the need to mention ancient books and tomes—that it kept popping up in places in the EU anyway, although it stayed incredibly rare. So flimsiplast and durasheet had to be given weird properties—anything written on flimsiplast could be erased by liquid, and writing on durasheet faded to nothingness after a short time time. In retrospect, it’s amazing “paper-flimsiplast-durasheet” isn’t a game in the Star Wars galaxy.

2) Coffee = Caf

You can’t just get away with drinking booze or various colors of milk in the Star Wars galaxy. The stimulating boost of coffee is universally recognized delight even in the galaxy far, far away... as long as you don’t call it “coffee.” Like other words on this list, various permutations were tried in the old EU, from Coffeine to Stimcaf (to really drive home that it was meant to perk you up, but in a spacey way). Caf is the only one that not only stuck around, but also hopped over to Disney’s canon, too—Mon Mothma and the crew of the Ghost enjoy cups of Spiran Caf on Star Wars: Rebels.

3) Almost Any Tool = Vibrotools

Ah, Vibro technology, Star Wars’ easy way out when it comes to making something banal sound a little more scifi. Tons of gadgets we all know have been “enhanced” with a “vibro-” prefix in Star Wars. As the name would imply, this also gives them the power to vibrate at various intensities to strengthen their impacts, whether it’s the cutting edge of a vibroblade creating a nasty flesh wound, a vibrospade resonating to dig further into the ground, or a vibromop vigorously cleaning your floor (seriously). Vibrate everything!

4) Dice = Chance Cubes

Despite a galactic love of gambling, dice as we know them don’t really exist in Star Wars... sort of. Chance cubes have the same six-sided, cuboid shape, but they don’t have numerical symbols on them—instead they have alternating colors, like the cube Watto uses to gamble Anakin’s freedom with Qui-Gonn.

But there’s one very specific instance of “our” dice in Star Wars: Han hangs a golden set in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, ostensibly the pair he used when he won the ship from Lando Calrissian. In A New Hope, the dice were just standard, six-sided dice, barely seen in shots from the film. They were recreated as such for a scene in The Force Awakens, but were ultimately cut from the film altogether. When Rian Johnson decided to follow up with them for The Last Jedi, they were redesigned with alien symbols instead of dots.

5) Cameras = Imagers

There are two kinds of cameras in Star Wars: The Holocam, which is usually used to describe video recorders or security cameras, and Imagers, which, well... image things. Except, they don’t! Because in Star Wars a picture is usually referred to as a Holo, rather than an image. So your guess as to why the name “imager” even exists is as good as ours.

Image: The Screaming Citadel #1 by Marco Checchetto, and Andres Mossa.

6) Cravats = Spavats

This is a much more recent addition to Star Wars terminology. Luke dons a fancy spavat in the first issue of Kieron Gillen, Jason Aaron, Marco Checchetto, and Andres Mossa’s The Screaming Citadel miniseries to impress a weird vampire queen lady. It’s a long story, but the real delight here is getting to say the word “spavat.” I’m with Daily Dot writer Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, who recently opined on Twitter that it should absolutely be short for “space cravat.”

7) Ovens = Gassers

“Gasser” is a wildly unappealing piece of terminology, but it might be down to the fact that the term originates with the Gungans—an exploding one is mentioned in Jar Jar’s list of crimes he was exiled for in The Phantom Menace. This might at least explain why it’s such a silly and weird term in the first place, but can you imagine putting your meal in a “gasser” without grimacing?

8) Website = Infocache

Star Wars does have its own internet—the Holonet—so naturally, it has to have websites, ranging from news to entertainment to personal blogs. Kind of like Imager, it’s weird that the Star Wars term for a website isn’t more linked to its term for internet. But I guess when most visual forms of media are given “Holo-” prefixes, it might be a bit confusing to lump websites in there, too.

9) Watches = Chronos

How do you make your space watch seem spacier? Ancient Greek, apparently. Chronos, also known more formally as Chronometers, were (unsurprisingly) digital devices that were more like small chips that were attached to clothing than the wristwatches we’re used to. Bonus fun fact: Chrono is also the canonical, Star Wars equivalent of Time Magazine. Really!

10) Tape = Space Tape

Duct tape, like the Force, binds all things together. A handy piece of kit for any aspiring starship engineer, tape has had a few names over the course of the EU, with varying degrees of scifi-ness added to make it sound fancier than duct tape ever should. There’s mesh tape, Spacer’s tape, engine tape... but you have to admire the simplicity and brazen silliness of space tape, which first appeared in Barbara Hambly’s 1997 novel Planet of Twilight.

source:Gizmodo

Star Wars and Sphero were a match made in heaven. The company had spent a few years in relative startup obscurity when Disney came along with the design for a new droid debuting in the upcoming trilogy. The resulting BB-8 remote control device changed the company’s fortunes overnight. With The Last Jedi a few months away, the companies are looking to recapture the magic with another brand new, spherical droid and the return of an all-time Star Wars classic.

Once again, Sphero is offering us the first long look at a droid set to debut in a new film. Until now, BB-9E’s only appearance was on some Lego Star Wars: Episode VIII packaging that leaked out early. The new droid looks a bit like the adorable BB-8 gone over to the Dark Side. As the naming convention implies, the robot comes from the same astromech series as BB-8 — albeit with a black paint job to suit the needs of the First Order and a conical head similar to the R5 droid.

If hardware is hard, robotics are next to impossible. Even so, Sphero managed an impressive feat over its first five years, growing from a small Colorado startup with a glowing, smartphone-controlled ball into the maker of the most talked about piece of merchandise for cinema’s biggest blockbuster franchise.

Over the course of the past year, the company ramped up its product line from between one and two releases a year to five. In 2017 alone, the company released two new Star Wars toys, a Spider-Man figure, a talking Lighting McQueen car and a new, smaller version of its titular RC controlled ball.

But last week, it became abundantly clear that not all was rosy with the company — the company cut 45 jobs. That number represented more than a quarter of the company’s then 170-person staff. It was a regrettable end to a small hire spree Sphero had engaged in to ramp up for the demands of its Disney licensing deal.

As Sphero CEO Paul Berberian explained on a call with TechCrunch earlier this week, the company’s various branded products simply weren’t selling as well as expected. “The consumers have a bit of a movie fatigue and are just interested in a deeper experience,” the executive says. The company says the numbers weren’t make or break, but it was enough to prompt a serious bit of soul-searching on the part of the company’s higher-ups.

With the smaller staff comes a smaller product output. This year, the company will likely return to its earlier roadmap of one to two products a year. That means that a majority of the 10 to 15 product prototypes the company has in development at a given time will likely be put on the back burner.

This year also marks the beginning of a major pivot for the company, as it moves away from the branded offerings that put it on the map for mainstream consumers and pours more of its remaining resources into education. It’s a risky move from the outside. The world of STEM-learning robotics is a relatively new, but highly competitive one, with several startups and big-name companies like LEGO and Fisher-Price all vying for a slice of the pie.

But Berberian believes that Sphero has made significant inroads since it began aggressively targeting school curricula some five years back. The startup has invested millions in the category and has made its way into the hands of 1.3 million kids across 20,000 schools, by his count.

He also notes that while its branded product lines performed below expectations, the company’s own products outperformed what was anticipated. “Especially those that have a STEM core message,” says Berberian. “They were selling faster than the Star Wars products with a Star Wars movie out there, with virtually no marketing. Consumers are really interested in buying those products that have a deeper, richer experience that can help their child understand these 21st century skills.”

The all-in approach to education also appears to be about image. Berberian notes that Sphero never envisioned itself as a toy company, in spite of what it seemed like from the outside. And while he maintains that the Disney deal was the right one at the time, it may have pulled too much of Sphero’s resources from its prime directive of offering an engaging and accessibly programmable robotics platform.

“The deal with Disney was absolutely the right decision at the time,” he explains. “It elevated our brand, we got a lot of international and national coverage and delivered a great experience. The challenge is that everyone saw us as a toy company, making these mainstream toys. It turns out that the products were really popular and well received, but there’s still this risk in the consumer’s mind that if it’s called a toy, then it must not be of lasting value.”

This doesn’t mean that the company is abandoning that entertainment aspect. While the executive is careful not to tip his hand too much, he offers a little insight into a potential way forward in that regard. Berberian outlines a model similar to video game development, where partners do much of the heavy lifting for product design.

“If we continue to make some really cool toys,“ he explains, “that would be the model that it would be under, where we follow the model that has really worked for these high-cost development projects.”

Given the hardware and software platforms the company has developed with the intent of offering a flexible, programmable platform, such deals could make sense for the company moving forward. But Sphero’s not ready to announce anything just yet. From the outside, at least, it seems the company will require more time to get its ducks in a row before it takes that next big leap.

source: TechCrunch

The next Star Wars movie is out in three months. THREE MONTHS. But up until now, we haven’t seen a single image from it. That changed during the Super Bowl, though, as Disney, finally, revealed the first look at Solo: A Star Wars Story.

I mean - that looks pretty great, right? Definitely has that Star Wars feel. Lando looks awesome. It gave me chills.

Official Footage From Solo: A Star Wars Story Lucasfilm

Directed by Ron Howard, Solo stars Alden Ehrenreich, alongside Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Woody Harrelson, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany.

Expect a full trailer Monday morning.

Solo: A Star Wars Story opens May 22.

source:Gizmodo

Usually, when you fall in love with a cool gadget depicted in the latest science fiction blockbuster, the best you can hope for is that maybe, maybe, some gifted entrepreneur will be inspired to bring it to life in the years to come.

For the most part, that’ll be true of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (coming this December, as if you hadn’t already marked your calendar). As far as I know, you won’t be able to bring home a real-life spaceship or light saber — but you can buy your own BB-8 droid, thanks to a collaboration between Disney and robotics startup Sphero.

To be clear, this BB-8 isn’t as big as the one depicted on-screen, and it probably won’t be quite as smart or independent. But hey, it’s a Star Wars droid that you can control from your smartphone or tablet, which is pretty freaking cool.

When Sphero’s Chief Creative Officer Rob Maigret demonstrated the BB-8 for me, he used his iPhone like a remote control, rolling the droid around the room. He also used his iPhone to give it voice commands — for example, telling it to go on patrol. (At that point it started moving around the room on its own, looking for enemies.) And through his iPhone camera, we could actually watch BB-8 broadcast holographic messages recorded by other users — perhaps inevitably, the message riffed on the “Help me, Obi-Wan scene” from the original Star Wars.

Maigret said that underneath the hood, BB-8 uses much of the same technology as Sphero’s existing robotic ball, but with upgrades like a new inductive charging system. (In other words, you don’t have to plug in the BB-8 to charge it. You just place it on its stand.) And of course it has the movie droid’s distinctive and weirdly endearing shape — a robotic head floating above a rotating ball.

Sphero’s BB-8 will be launching tomorrow, on “Force Friday,” and will retail for $150. That may be a little steep for a toy, but as Maigret put it, “We think of it as more of a droid than an actual toy. It’s not a disposable piece of plastic. This is a piece of technology. Other Sphero products have constant iteration, and this will be the same thing. It will constantly get better.” (For one thing, he said BB-8 will actually adapt to your personality over time.)

Maigret said the partnership started about 18 months ago, when Sphero was part of the Disney Accelerator. Disney CEO Bob Iger heard about the startup and became a mentor, eventually tasking the team with recreating the BB-8 from the film.

Maigret, formerly an executive at Disney Interactive, is also a mentor at the Disney Accelerator, and that’s how he joined Sphero. The startup’s vision, he said, is to create “connected entertainment robots.” By connected, he means “connected to us, connected to the Internet, they’re aware, and their fundamental purpose is to entertain us and to relate to us.” Among other things, these robots can become devices for storytelling and media consumption, he said.

In the case of BB-8, he talked about how Sphero actually created animated scenes that it wanted the droid to act out. Once those scenes were refined, the team “pumped them into the hardware,” turning animated storyboards into physical behavior.

Over time, Maigret predicted that users will be able to program their own custom BB-8 actions (though not necessarily with official support from Disney or Sphero).

“The thing is, it’s a robot, it’s a droid — and people will figure out how to hack it,” he said. “We think that’s a good thing. We don’t have a kit that comes out on day one for it, but people will put two and two together.”

Want to see BB-8 in action? Maigret also did an on-camera demo with TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney, which you can watch above. And you can learn more about BB-8 here.


source: TechCrunch

Will Snoke steal the show? Can Caesar seize the day? Are you rooting for Groot? Digital characters are vying for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Last year we saw some gobsmackingly gorgeous blockbusters explode into movie theaters. This weekend, the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects will recognize the movie magic that created these stunning scenes -- and this year it's the battle of the digital characters, as every film features a major role that was conjured by computer-generated imagery.

Rachael in "Blade Runner 2049". Groot and Rocket in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Kong in "Skull Island". Snoke in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Caesar and chums in "War for the Planet of the Apes". Which of these CG creations will bag the Oscar?

The 90th annual Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles this Sunday, March 4 (while you're waiting, you can watch some of the nominated pictures on Netflix). And the 2018 nominees are...

MPC

'Blade Runner 2049'

Nominees: John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover

Also up for best cinematography, best production design and two sound gongs, the hauntingly beautiful "Blade Runner 2049" takes us to a future of flying cars and androids. Like most of today's blockbusters, it's a team effort among various effects companies, including Framestore, Double Negative and MPC.

Several dazzling sequences have visual effects front and center, like the eerie scene in which a human and a hologram overlap and merge. But perhaps the most impressive effects work is meant to be invisible, as MPC digitally recreates Sean Young's character of Rachael exactly as she appeared in the original film.

What are the chances?

"2049" has already won Bafta and Visual Effects Society awards. The digitally created characters are incredible, but perhaps even more impressive are the immersive environments. Of all the films on the shortlist, it's this one that builds the most complete world.

Marvel Studios

'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'

Nominees: Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner and Dan Sudick

Multiple Marvel movies have been nominated for this award, but none has won so far. By venturing beyond Earth for most of its run-time, "Guardians" takes the Marvel cinematic universe into full-on fantasy worlds. From epic space battles to a climactic punch-up between two shape-shifting living gods, "Guardians" is easily the most colorful and riotously imaginative of the films nominated.

What are the chances?

The Visual Effects Society recognized the swooping cinematography of the virtuoso opening scene, which combines a space battle with some cute dance movies from adorable arboreal Baby Groot. The question is whether the Academy will decide the sci-fi silliness serves a strong-enough story.

'Kong: Skull Island'

Nominees: Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus

The flamboyant visual styling, period music and over-the-top acting made this Vietnam War-era creature feature way more fun than it had any right to be, even if the story was monstrously bad. You can't beat the sight of a giant ape fistfighting helicopter gunships, especially when the inventive cinematography puts you right in the crashing choppers. And it's a mark of good visual effects when your entirely digital monkey has more personality than your star -- I'm looking at you, Tom Hiddleston.

What are the chances?

He might be 100 feet tall, but in this battle of the apes, Kong is something of an underdog. Smashing up helicopters and fanged beasties is one thing, but when it comes to soul and personality, he's no match for his "Planet of the Apes" cousins.

Disney

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

Nominees: Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Rian Johnson's galactic opus divided fans, but if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that it looked amazing. From the opening space battle to the fabulously opulent casino on Canto Bight to the lumbering walkers of the climactic battle, "Last Jedi" is visually stunning. The effects work of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), founded by George Lucas for the original "Star Wars", is a huge part of that.

What are the chances?

Almost all the films in the saga have been nominated for this award, but none of them has won since the effects wizards of the original trilogy took home special awards for their contributions to the craft more than 30 years ago. Will the cutesy porgs, glittering crystal wolves and crusty Supreme Leader Snoke be enough to change that?

Steve Zahn as a child-like chimp in "War for the Planet of the Apes." Twentieth Century Fox

'War for the Planet of the Apes'

Nominees: Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joel Whist

This film has an ape up its sleeve -- or rather, several apes. The intricately animated characters were conjured to life with heartfelt motion-capture performances by Andy Serkis, Steve Zahn and others. Animators from effects house Weta meticulously created the ape characters down to the most infinitesimal detail of hair, skin and eyelashes. Then they put them in various environments including snow and rain slicking their fur. But the real triumph is in the personality of sympathetic and soulful characters such as Caesar and Bad Ape.

It's also worth noting that this is the last chapter in this "Planet of the Apes" trilogy, which might see the Academy's voters reward the series as a whole. Something similar occurred with the "Lord of the Rings" films, which were of course the starting point for Andy Serkis' motion-capture journey. Could we see Weta and Serkis come full circle? And what does Andy Serkis have to do win a darn Oscar?

What are the chances?

"Apes" already claimed four awards from the Visual Effects Society, which named Caesar as the outstanding animated character in a live-action movie. If these incredibly soulful CG apes don't get their hairy hands on the 2018 Oscar, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

Hail Caesar!

Watch this: Andy Serkis: The godfather of motion capture

source:CNet News

Scientists have looked into the feasibility of lovable droids like BB-8 and R2-D2, and find they're good for more than just pushing a plot forward.

BB-8 poses with its best side front. Lucasfilm

If you ever find yourself in dicey situations like those faced by Poe Dameron and Han Solo, you might find a series of high-pitched beeps and tones like trusty robot R2-D2's helpful.

That's the conclusion of Robin Murphy, Texas A&M University professor of computer science and engineering.

Murphy considered whether the beloved robots R2-D2 and BB-8 from the Star Wars universe would be feasible in real life and found the Hollywood mechs actually have some practical features beyond just advancing an often convoluted narrative, especially when it comes to communication. She published her findings Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.

"The beeps and whistles project mental state, e.g., disagreement with whatever C3PO is nattering about, disapproval of a main character's dubious decision, and frustration at being thwarted in its job of helping the protagonist save the world," Murphy explains. "In real life, (roboticist) Robin Read has found that the types of beeps and whistles that facilitate the rebel-droid interaction can be effectively used by real robots in engaging children and adults."

But when it comes to getting around, the design of BB-8 turns out to be less realistic, especially for navigating the sands of Jakku as seen in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

"Anyone who has driven a car on a beach knows how quickly wheels can become buried in the sand and spin in place," Murphy writes, going on to cite the work of other scientists like Georgia Tech's Dan Goldman, who performed experiments with the Sphero BB-8 toy on sand to see how it did.

You can see one such experiment in the video below. While Murphy acknowledges a toy is different from an actual robot, it still demonstrates how BB-8 was clearly conceived more for a particular storyline than an actual setting.

Still, Murphy says Star Wars droids have had a very real influence on real-world robotics, pointing out that NASA's personal satellite assistant was inspired in part by Luke Skywalker's lightsaber training droid and Robonaut 2 aboard the International Space Station bears a certain resemblance to C3PO.

Murphy fails to chime in on the potential influence of some of the more effective battle droids, like the freaky Droidekas from "The Phantom Menace."

No worries, though. I think Elon Musk may have some thoughts on the risks of combining those type of droids with artificial intelligence that we can all heed instead.

source:CNet

New Mighty Muggs toys of C-3PO, Captain Phasma and Maz Kanata debut at Toy Fair 2018.

The new Mighty Muggs version of C-3PO makes the golden droid look more nervous than usual. Hasbro

Collecting toys and action figures can be a never-ending enterprise when you're a Star Wars fan.

This year's Toy Fair in New York already offered a sneak peek at "Solo: A Star Wars Story" action figures as well as a new Lego Millennium Falcon.

Now fans can add new Mighty Muggs toys of C-3PO, Captain Phasma and Maz Kanata to their wish list, according to StarWars.com.

Not only are do the new Mighty Muggs from Hasbro sport amusing smirks, they also change their facial expressions (three different faces per figure) when you press down on their heads.

Previously, Hasbro released face-changing Mighty Muggs of Star Wars characters Princess Leia, Rey, Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

All the coolest things we saw at Toy Fair 2018

source:CNet

The Star Wars actor hopes the Tattoine farmboy just ditched his cloak and is letting it all hang out at a nudist colony.

It's hard to say goodbye to an old friend, especially if the friend's been with you since 1977. Actor Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, says that despite that infamous scene in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," he's clinging to other theories.

"I refuse to believe that he's gone," Hamill told the BBC Friday. "My theory is he just teleported to somewhere else and left his robe behind. He teleported to a nudist colony, that's what I'm hoping."

In the film, an exhausted Luke, a Jedi legend who's come so far from the Tattoine farmboy he once was, dies peacefully on Ahch-To. It's a double whammy for fans of the original cast, since actress Carrie Fisher, who played Luke's twin sister Leia, died after "Last Jedi" finished filming, and won't be in the yet-unnamed Episode IX.

Fans will get to see Hamill again on Sunday, as he'll be one of the presenters at the 2018 Academy Awards in Los Angeles, along with castmates Kelly Marie Tran and Oscar Isaac.

As for Episode IX, whether or not Luke makes some kind of (flashback? dream sequence? Force ghost?) appearance, at least fans can be rest assured the movie has a script.

2018 sci-fi, fantasy and geek movies to get excited about

source:CNet News

Not that long ago at the Academy Awards, in a galaxy known as Hollywood, spacey stars Oscar Isaac and Kelly Marie Tran joined Luke Skywalker to hand out statues with sass.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" didn't get any Academy Award acting nominations, but that didn't mean the space saga didn't have a presence at Sunday night's Oscars.

Stars Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran and BB-8 all gathered in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre galaxy to present the awards for best animated feature to "Coco," and best animated short film to "Dear Basketball."

Hamill's been joking about the presentation almost since his inclusion was announced.

So..... anything good on TV tonight?

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) 4 Mart 2018

Hamill was a Force-fully fun presenter, dropping a joke about his Jedi retirement plan. "I'm here to pick up my monthly check under the Jedi pension plan," he cracked. "Apparently they never end."

Jedi pension plan? What, is that a 401(k2d2)?

— ThePeerless (@ThePeerless) 5 Mart 2018

And as he opened the first envelope, Hamill murmured to himself, "Don't say 'La La Land,' don't say 'La La Land.'"

Isaac got in a joke too, about how he could understand rolling droid BB-8. "I'm fluent in Yiddish," he said.

brb calling my mom to tell her oscar isaac just said he's fluent in yiddish https://t.co/vC5gAb6Fgh

— Leigh Lahav (@leighlahav) 5 Mart 2018

BB-8 is a member of the tribe?? I will take Oscar Isaac’s word as canon and accept that droid as a Jew and a Yiddish speaker.

— Rachel Goldfarb (@RachelG8489) 5 Mart 2018

But some thought the Star Wars stars could've shone more brightly.

Oh, #Oscars...you get Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac and Kelly Marie Tran onstage and all you hand them is lame dialogue about robot discrimination and Jedi pension checks? This blerd is about to lose it....

— Eric Deggans at NPR (@Deggans) 5 Mart 2018

source:CNet News

All hail the king: Marvel film is on track for a $218 million debut, destroying the previous record for a February opening.

All hail the king: Marvel's "Black Panther" ruled the box office over the Presidents' Day weekend, Walt Disney Co. estimates showed Sunday, shattering records and earning the second biggest opening weekend for a Marvel Studios film, trailing only 2012's "The Avengers."

The film, which stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther, collected $192 million in ticket sales over the weekend, Disney estimates, for the fifth-largest film opening weekend ever and the highest-grossing February opening weekend ever, beating the $132 mark set by "Deadpool" in 2016. Estimates show it's on track for a $218 million four-day holiday weekend.

MORE ON 'BLACK PANTHER'

Black Panther rules Marvel's world. Literally
Glorious 'Black Panther' is a Marvel blockbuster with teeth

The only four films to have opened higher are some major names: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," ''Star Wars: The Last Jedi," ''Jurassic World" and "The Avengers."

The film has demolished other records as well. It's the most-tweeted-about movie of the year so far, Twitter announced last week. It's also the fourth-biggest pre-sale movie in the history of ticket site Fandango, trailing only the last three Star Wars movies.

And numbers may continue to climb: Fandango reports that 61 percent of the "Black Panther" moviegoers it surveyed are considering a second viewing.

2018 sci-fi, fantasy and geek movies to get excited about

source:CNet

Sphero was ready to conquer the world last year. The company quintupled its product release schedule, flying high with the help of a Disney licensing deal that gave the world several Star Wars droids and talking Spider-Man and Lightning McQueen robots.

But following a holiday season that failed to live up to expectations, the company recently laid off 45 staff members globally, TechCrunch has learned, a move it says has impacted departments company-wide.

The majority of the layoffs were centered in the company’s Colorado headquarters, but staff cuts also affected its global offices in the U.K. and Hong Kong.

“We restructured our team on Friday to better align with our product needs,” a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch. “As we look to our product development schedule for 2018 and beyond, we weren’t going to go that deep, so we had to make some changes for how the teams were structured.”

The move is a step back for the company and a bit of a surprise for those who have been following its trajectory from afar. After participating in Disney’s accelerator back in 2014, the hardware startup got a small investment from the entertainment goliath and began production on a BB-8 toy released alongside 2015’s blockbuster Star Wars return, The Force Awakens.

In 2017 alone, the company released new toys based on R2D2, The Last Jedi‘s BB-9E, Spider-Man and Pixar’s Cars franchise, along with Sphero Mini, a smaller, sub-$50 version of the smartphone-controlled ball that started it all.

The startup had bolstered its headcount to meet the demands of its much accelerated output.

It’s telling, of course, that the layoffs come so soon after the holidays. While not disastrous, the final tally pointed to the need for a rethink in strategy going forward. “[Sales weren’t] exactly what we had expected,” the spokesperson said. “We still consider ourselves a young startup. It’s the right time to pivot.”

The decrease comes as it shifts toward a product roadmap more in line with the pre-2017 days — putting it at closer to one to two products per year. “That might be our sweet spot,” the spokesperson added. “We’re still pretty young, but the one part of our business that continues to shine is what we’re doing in education. This allows our company to focus on that vision.”

This restructuring finds Sphero investing much more of its existing resources into the education side of its business. The company has been operating in the category for some time, leveraging its hardware creations in an offering designed to target schools, but that side has largely taken a backseat to Sphero’s more commercial offerings until now.

Educational robotics — STEM/STEAM specifically — is an extremely competitive space, as well. CES last week was overloaded with companies big and small pushing into the category with a variety of different platforms, and from the looks of things, next month’s Toy Fair in New York won’t be much different.

But Sphero has the marked advantage of building on top of its own popular robotics platform. In fact, it ran popular pilot programs in its native Colorado that garnered coverage in places like Wired and The New Yorker last year and in 2016.

The company’s SPRK+ Education offers educators and parents a platform for teaching coding and robotics. Sphero’s package lets kids program its connected toys through coding, offering a real world robotics platform on the cheap.

“[Education] is something we can actually own,” the company’s spokesperson says hopefully. “Where we do well are those experiences we can 100-percent own, from inception to go-to-market.”

Sphero co-founder and CTO Ian Bernstein also recently left the company to spin out a new startup, Misty Robotics. It isn’t designed to be a direct competitor, focusing instead on home assistant robotics, but former staffers did join Bernstein at the new company. Misty will also have its own programmable robot, though its offering, the Misty I, is focused primarily on adult developers.

source: TechCrunch

A new state of matter makes the sci-fi sword seem possible. It could also give us computers nearly as fast as the speed of light.

Not just a sci-fi sword? 20th Century Fox

Researchers from MIT and Harvard in 2013 managed to get photons, which are basically particles of light, to play nice with each other and create a new state of matter. Harnessing such a breakthrough could lead to actual quantum leaps in computing and perhaps even give us a real-world lightsaber.

Now the same team has done it again. This time they observed not just photon pairs, but also groups of three photons interacting to make another completely new kind of photonic matter.

"What was interesting was that these triplets formed at all," explained MIT physics professor Vladan Vuletic in a news release.

The difference between normal light and what the researchers created is actually best illustrated by the example of a lightsaber like those in the Star Wars universe. Photons in those fictional lightsaber beams collide and crash into each other when they intersect, often with great consequences for the Empire or Jedi. But cross two beams of light from normal flashlights and the photons just pass right through each other like nothing.

By passing a very weak laser beam through a dense cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms, the scientists managed to make photons interact and bind together in pairs and triplets -- kind of like an atom-size lightsaber.

Vuletic and Harvard professor Mikhail Lukin are lead authors of a paper explaining their findings published Thursday in the journal Science. All this happens in a millionth of a second, but after it's over and the photons have traveled out of the cloud, they remain stuck together, which is a big deal because this interaction, or entanglement, could be used to advance quantum computing.

Lenovo's Star Wars AR lightsaber kit: just add phone

source:CNet

While Sphero has released a whole lineup of robotic, Internet-connected toys, it remains best-known for its BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Today it’s launching its next Disney tie-in — Ultimate Lightning McQueen.

This is a car that you can control from your iPhone or Android, based on the Owen Wilson-voiced character from Pixar’s Cars franchise. (Cars 3 is coming out on June 16.) Ultimate Lightning McQueen is available today for a price of $299.

“As our partnership with Disney has evolved, we’ve been able to start to look at further properties within the Disney portfolio,” explained Product Manager Jenica Watts. (Sphero’s initial connection to Disney was as part of the Disney Accelerator.) “One of the teams had the opportunity to build an amazing, lifelike Lightning McQueen.”

We’ve known for a while that Samsung’s been planning an Animoji competitor for its latest handset. Now that we’ve actually seen (the admittedly clunkily named) AR Emoji in action, we can testify to the fact that it’s some combination of compelling and creepy.

That last part first. Like the iPhone X, the Galaxy S9 takes advantage of its on-board face scanning technology to offer up an animated emoji that corresponds to the user’s facial movements, so you can send animated messages, sing cartoon character karaoke and the like. But, as is Samsung’s wont, the phone takes things an extra step, mapping more than 100 points in the user’s face and building a 3D avatar.

Once the scan is complete, users can customize it from a selection of hair styles, clothes, glasses and the like, before firmly taking up residence in the uncanny valley. The custom AR Emoji isn’t as adorable as Apple’s animals or benign as Nintendo’s Mii avatars. Instead, it straddles that uncomfortable line between cartoon and realistic 3D scan a bit uncomfortably.

It’s first generation, of course, and I’d expect that the company should smooth that line out a bit by the time the Galaxy S10 or even the new Note rolls around. For now, however, it’s a little uncomfortably creepy for my own taste. There’s good news on that front, however. The company’s offering up some default cartoon options — including a rabbit that’s a bit more anthropomorphic than Apple’s offering.

But Samsung’s got one big secret weapon on its side. The company no doubt ruffled some feathers at Apple’s big glass spaceship today when it announced a partnership with Disney, bringing the entertainment goliath’s beloved cartoon characters to its emoji offering. The company’s bringing Mickey, Minnie and the Pixar’s Incredibles to the mix.

It seems like a bit of a curveball that Disney opted to partner with Samsung, rather than Apple this time out — after all, the two companies have worked together in the past on things like the Mickey Mouse watch face. And of course, there’s been a fair amount of executive overlap between the two companies, between Steve Jobs’ involvement with Pixar and the fact that Robert Iger currently sits on Apple’s board.

Of course, those sorts of things aren’t a guaranteed promise of partnership, and Disney looks like it’s not trying to play favorites with content partnership. Take, for example, the media company’s licensing of Star Wars content for AR stickers on the Pixel 2.

source:TechCrunch

Commentary: CNET's Eric Franklin, a lifelong comics fan, will go back to the theater over and over to relive these parts of "Black Panther." Warning: Spoilers, and tears, ahead.

The more I've watched "Black Panther," the more I've come to appreciate how fantastic it is. (I've seen it four times now, about double my recent average for MCU films at this stage in their release.) I'll acknowledge that the movie isn't perfect. For starters, I really wish it was easier to see what was going on in that opening action scene. But I care less about perfection and more about how movies make me feel.

I've been a comic book fan most of my life, and I've been anticipating a Black Panther movie since I first started reading Christopher Priest's run in 1998. As a fan of the books, I couldn't wait to see how Wakanda and T'Challa would be interpreted. ("Civil War," of course, gave us a nice appetizer.)

But "Black Panther" carried an even larger expectation for me as a black person.

MORE 'BLACK PANTHER'

Glorious 'Black Panther' a Marvel blockbuster with teeth
The past, present and Afrofuturism of 'Black Panther'
Black Panther rules Marvel's world. Literally

A big-budget movie with a predominantly black cast set in a fictional country with the most technologically advanced society on Earth? All happening in what's arguably -- there is still Star Wars, after all -- the most popular current movie franchise? You wanna talk about stuff I've never seen before? Stuff I didn't think I'd ever truly see? Stuff I've been dying to see on screen since I was old enough to realize it was missing from my life?

So, yes, the movie worked for me as a film -- and as the ultimate fulfillment of this big-budget pop-culture representation I've been longing for. And the impact it's having (like the #BlackPantherChallenge to pay for underserved kids to see the movie and the push to register voters at the theater) is so great to watch.

Here are my favorite moments from "Black Panther" in the order they appear. There are at least 100 more moments that deserve to be on this list, but unfortunately the Time Stone is still tucked safely away in Kamar-Taj (last I checked), and I would rather prioritize seeing the movie another half dozen times right now.

1. Welcome to Wakanda

What happens: T'Challa, Okoye and Nakia fly into Wakanda.

Why it's on the list: This is the first time we see Wakanda in the film, and in the MCU. And it's worth the wait. As the sun rises on T'Challa and Nakia, powerful African vocals deliver Ludwig Göransson's incredible score. Okeye proudly tells T'Challa and Nakia, "We are home." The ship decloaks and flies over the Wakandan outskirts, revealing a deep majestic canyon and a taste of the film's amazing cinematography by Rachel Morrison, an Oscar nominee for "Mudbound." The ship then swoops through a valley where we see herds of animals rushing, almost as if welcoming the king back home. The herders themselves wave as the ship flies by. My favorite images from this scene, though, are the Border Tribesmen on horseback, racing along, signaling to the ship.

Drum beats reach a fever pitch, and T'Challa's line, "This never gets old," mirrors how I will likely feel about this scene even 20 years from now. Finally, the ship dives right into the hillside and climatically breaks through the holographic barrier to reveal Wakanda in all its glory as the horns come barreling into the score.

Marvel Studios

I shed manly tears experiencing these first shots of Wakanda. The scene did not disappoint.

2. The Challenge Day ceremony

What happens: The Dora Milaje, the four tribes and T'Challa's family festively dance and drain the river in preparation for T'Challa to arrive to his coronation.

Why it's on the list: This scene, an instant classic, is the reason to see a spectacle film. Once again, the music is key. It's festive at first and then builds to a majestic high (there's a lot of majesty in this score) as T'Challa exits the ship to the sound of everyone chanting his name. T'Challa takes a moment to truly appreciate what a big deal this is as he looks around at his fellow Wakandans swaying and bobbing in celebration of their soon-to-be new king. This scene could have easily been ruined by a voiceover preemptively explaining the lore of the challenge, but the filmmakers are smart enough to just let a scene be.

Marvel Studios

I loved every aspect of this -- from the symbolic shot of the spaceship leaving the frame to the effects when his powers are stripped away as everyone rhythmically shrugs their shoulders (god, I love that detail). This is also when you first get to see Ruth E. Carter's incredibly vibrant, eclectic costumes penetrate the screen.

It feels like nothing I've ever seen before.

3. Shuri names her new invention

What happens: Shuri introduces new footwear to her brother.

Why it's on the list: This whole Shuri as "Q" James Bond scene is one of the most entertaining, but my favorite joke is Shuri's meta sneakers joke. No, not the "What are those?!!" one, although I quite enjoyed that one even before I knew it was a Vine reference. The other shoe joke about her new "sneakers."

What sold me was not just Letitia Wright's brilliant delivery, but Chadwick Boseman's reaction and then her response to his reaction. It's subtle and easy to miss. Watch both actors next time you see it. Their performances in this scene, and especially this moment, are brilliant.

4. Killmonger walks to the throne

What happens: Yes, literally just that.

Why it's on the list: This is the best shot in the movie. Everything about it is incredibly expressive: the music, the crazy rotating camera angle, the acting (Michael B. Jordan's stylish swagger as he heads to the throne is noticeably different from the way the other Wakandans carry themselves), the sandals he's wearing. Wakanda has just been turned on its ear and this shot captures that perfectly.

5. M'Baku threatens Ross

What happens: Everett Ross, played by Martin Freeman, starts speaking, but gets cut off by Winston Duke's M'Baku.

Why it's on the list: Winston Duke's perfect comic timing is everything here. When Freeman starts talking, I cringed. I expected that tired cliche of the outsider explaining things to an antagonist in a way the main characters can't, getting them out of a bind. "Mr. M'Baku I'm not from around here, but if there's one thing I do know is that T'Challa..." UGH, no thanks!

Marvel Studios

But when M'Baku and the rest of the Jabbari basically bark him into submission, I was beyond relieved. And then, M'Baku threatens to feed Ross to his children. The implications of that line evoked too many "African savage" stereotypes for me. A big African black man threatening to feed the feeble white man to his assumably cannibalistic children?

But Ryan Coogler is a genius and I should have trusted him. He deftly subverted my expectation, and what followed was my favorite joke and delivery in the entire movie. It brings the house down every time I've seen it. Vegetarians, indeed.

6. T'Challa vs. Killmonger 1

What happens: T'Challa and Killmonger fight for the throne of Wakanda.

Why it's on the list: This is an incredible fight, though the first time I watched it, I wasn't really feeling it. It didn't hit me like a Winter Soldier kind of fight, which I guess is what I was expecting? But every time after that, it got better and better. I realized it tells a very specific story. The way the fight builds, T'Challa has a couple of chances to end it early, but instead shows mercy. As Erik gets the upper hand and you slowly realize T'Challa's not going to win, it's heartbreaking. The almost deafening score punctuates this.

Faceoff. Marvel Studios

The knee to the head, the punch to the gut. Killmonger's taunting question: "Is this your king?!" Nakia getting the Queen Mother and Shuri away. If you've watched this scene and you thought the fight was boring, watch it again and pay attention to the small details. Incredible.

This tweet perfectly mirrors my feelings on it:

7. Killmonger's vision

What happens: Erik Killmonger goes through the coronation ritual to become the new Black Panther.

Why it's on the list: This is, full stop, the best scene in the movie, from the way it's shot, again to the music, to the editing and writing choices. Namely the choice to use the kid version of Killmonger to talk to his dad. Erik has never gotten over the pain of losing his father. He's still that kid who found his father murdered by the king of Wakanda all those years ago.

Full disclosure: I've never seen an episode of "This is Us," but I'm now a huge Sterling K. Brown fan because of this movie, and mostly because of this scene. He kills it here and Michael B. Jordan is impressive, but it's child actor Seth Carr who makes this scene. His delivery of "People die ... that's just the way it is around here" is perfect. And as a guy who grew up on the west side of Chicago in the '80s and '90s, is something that's incredibly relatable for me.

8. The Dora Milaje trap Killmonger

What happens: Three members of the Dora Milaje trap Killmonger to attempt to remove his suit.

Why it's on the list: This moment speaks directly to me. One of the things I love in superhero comics is seeing highly skilled but otherwise regular humans believably keeping up with (and sometimes even beating) superpowered individuals. (See a depowered Storm defeating Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men in "Uncanny X-Men #201.")

Marvel Studios

In this scene, Killmonger has the powers of the Black Panther and one of his suits, yet three Dora (who don't have superpowers, just powerful weapons and know how to work as a group) are able to trap him with their spears and nearly take him out. He ultimately uses the powers of the suit to break free, but this sequence made the Dora even cooler than they already were.

I also have to believe writers Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole are also wrestling fans, as this is textbook "looking good in defeat," where a character comes close to beating another, stronger character, but is ultimately defeated, yet still having earned the fans' respect.

9. The final scene

What happens: T'Challa and Shuri visit Oakland.

Why it's on the list: T'Challa, forever changed by Erik Killmonger, comes to Oakland to start to slowly, thoughtfully help struggling black and poor people out in the world.

This scene impacted me in a way I didn't expect. It speaks to the 14-year-old version of me who wrote my own stories about cool sci-fi stuff happening in my neighborhood. In my stories, the main protagonist, the guy with the coolest weapon and fighting ability, was always black, because I frankly didn't see that enough in movies. Seeing this dramatized in a movie was like seeing a dream literally come true. It was an extremely emotionally complex moment. As the credits rolled, so did my tears.

Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies

source:CNet

Now you'll be able to see "Infinity War" even sooner than expected. 🙌

In the surprise-iest of surprise moves, Marvel started March off by moving up the "Avengers: Infinity War" release date for the entire world a whole week, to Friday, April 27. Everyone "will now be able to globally experience the film together, as it will be released worldwide on the same date," Marvel said in a statement.*

This all kicked off on Twitter thanks to @RobertDowneyJr, and you'll find the relevant parts below. (Seriously though, the move smacks of the "leaked" Avengers poster and all those adorable Mark Ruffalo stunts, and I'm even not mad about.)

Maybe parent company Disney didn't want Marvel to to have to compete with "Solo: A Star Wars Story" (which comes out at the end of May), or maybe it just understands that fans' love of all things Marvel Cinematic Universe-related is better served fast and furious this anniversary year. (And with three movies coming out this year, who needs time to breathe between them?)

On a scale of one to infinity, how excited are you to see #InfinityWar on May 4th? pic.twitter.com/72jYKj2ODG

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) 1 Mart 2018

Anything for you, Mr. Stark! How’s April 27th?

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) 1 Mart 2018

You mean these friends? @ChrisEvans @ChadwickBoseman @DanaiGurira @MarkRuffalo @DonCheadle @AnthonyMackie pic.twitter.com/8tKw3ziSVB

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) 1 Mart 2018

That’s a FANTASTIC idea! Done.

Avengers: #InfinityWar in theaters everywhere April 27th. pic.twitter.com/n5JhJWpnqc

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) 1 Mart 2018

The move isn't without precedent -- studios move films around all the time. What's different here is the manner and timing of the announcement. Usually films are pushed back, or kept in limbo for a period of time, and Marvel has been locked into this May 4 date (which is super close to the 10th anniversary of the MCU) for years. October 2014, to be exact.

Whatever the reasoning, fans are stoked and obviously soooo ready for more Black Panther. (OK, yes, and Iron Man and Cap and the rest of the team, sure.)

*Sounds like this may push back the opening date in countries like Australia, where the opening was scheduled ahead of April 27; note that IMDB still lists that country's opening date as Wednesday, April 25.

Watch this: 'Avengers: Infinity War' trailer

source:CNet News