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Roku will stream the first season of 'Game of Thrones' for free
If you and your nearest and dearest have been meaning to check out Game of Thrones but haven't gotten around to it yet (or don't have an HBO subscription), you can stream the first season for free on Roku over the holiday season. The monstrously popular series' first 10 episodes will be available at no cost during Roku's second annual Stream-a-thon, which runs December 26th to January 1st.
Apple adds Sesame Workshop kids’ programming to its TV slate
Apple has a large and ever-growing slate of shows in the works, including dramas, comedies, sci-fi originals and thrillers, and soon it will include programming geared toward children. Variety reports today that Apple has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, to create live-action and animated series as well as a show featuring puppets. Sesame Street will not be included, however, as HBO has exclusive rights to new episodes.
Alexa's new kid-friendly skills have a layer of parental control
Amazon's Alexa skills let you add all sorts of functionality to your Echo devices, and there are more coming every day. You can order a pizza, manage your video streaming binges, find out when your package has shipped and even book a hotel with your voice. But why should grown-ups have all the fun? Amazon has just announced kids skills in the US, which have a layer of parental permissions to help adults feel safe in adding them to their children's Echo devices.
Elmo takes the spotlight in new YouTube series
Sesame Street's producers realize that kids these days are spending their days glued to devices other than their TVs. Its presence on YouTube has more than two million subscribers, and it recently launched Sesame Studios to test new ideas on web-savvy kids. But that doesn't mean that the regular Street channel is being neglected, since it's about to devote the next six months to making Elmo a YouTube star. The Sesame Workshop is launching the "Love to Learn" campaign that'll see the channel providing a series of themed videos between July and December. Each month will tackle a different topic, from Animals and Music through to Cooking and Kindness.
Sesame Workshop launches an experimental new YouTube channel
The organization that's made Sesame Street for nearly 50 years is now looking to branch out in a different way on YouTube. In addition to the existing Sesame Street channel, Sesame Workshop is now launching Sesame Studios, a channel specifically for new and experimental educational videos. It's designed as a way to reach a new generation of kids that spend more time with smartphones and tablets than sat in front of the TV. NPR is reporting that, despite the name, the stars of Sesame Street won't be appearing in any capacity, and will instead groom a whole new group of cute characters to win our hearts.
'B' is for burn rate: Sesame Street launches a venture fund
PBS staple Sesame Street has come a long way since it relied on donations from viewers like you, having recently made a historic deal with HBO. Now its nonprofit arm, Sesame Workshop, will dole out capital itself via a partnership with VC firm Collaborative Ventures. Called Sesame Venture, it will help companies that are focused on education, family development, nutrition, health and social development. The newly created fund, known as "Collab + Sesame," will invest up to $1 million in promising startup firms.
'Sesame Street' begins its first HBO season on January 16th, 2016
You won't have too much longer to wait to see how HBO handles Sesame Street. The network says it's launching the 46th season of the kids' show on January 16th, 2016 at 9AM (Eastern and Pacific). You'll have streaming access to five years' worth of episodes on both HBO Go and HBO Now, too. Just be prepared for a different experience than you remember from your childhood. Sesame Street pisodes will run 30 minutes instead of a full hour (ostensibly to help kids "focus"), and there are "updates" to both the show's iconic opening as well as the homes of its best-known characters.
Recommended Reading: Watching football without cable
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Unbundling: Beginner's Guide to Football without Cable by Joe Ovies WRAL Sports Fan As football season approaches, live sports remains a stumbling block for fans who are eager to cut the cord. If you're looking to examine your options ahead of kickoff, this piece takes a look at the current state of streaming in regards to both college and NFL action.
HBO's exclusive deal for 'Sesame Street' cuts out Amazon and Netflix
With HBO finally doing battle directly against streaming video subscriptions from Netflix and Amazon, its biggest strike against those two comes today with an exclusive deal for Sesame Street. Most of us have grown up with Big Bird, Cookie Monster and the rest available primarily through PBS and they'll still be there, but with this five-year deal, HBO gets a nine-month exclusive (cable and streaming) on new episodes. Sesame Workshop CEO Jeff Dunn called the arrangement "a true winning public-private partnership model," that will give it the funding to keep making new episodes of the show, and a new Sesame Street Muppet spinoff series.
Sesame Street's executive producer on staying relevant after 46 years
Thanks to Netflix, Amazon and YouTube, the competition for kid's eyeballs is fiercer than ever, but that's not slowing down Sesame Street. Now in its 46th year, the show is making a bigger and bigger push into social media, with often hilarious (but secretly educational) results. I sat down with the show's Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, Carol Lynn-Parente, shortly after meeting my new best friend, Cookie Monster, to talk about the show's digital life and more.
Cookie Monster: The Engadget Interview
It'd be wrong to say that the cast of Sesame Street just discovered the internet. As it is, the show's characters have dozens of games and mobile apps, with a large video archive that goes at least as far back as "Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco." It would seem, though, that someone over at the Sesame Workshop has been working to bring Big Bird and co. into the twenty-first century. For starters, Big Bird only just issued his first tweet ("tweet" -- get it?) last week. Meanwhile, PBS Kids just premiered Cookie Monster's first movie, The Cookie Thief, and, in an effort to promote it, also came up with this ingenious gif generator that basically lets Cookie take over your browser.
Comedy Central bringing 'Key and Peele' and 'South Park' to Chromecast (update)
Sure, there are plenty of hilarious videos on YouTube, but even the best parkour-fail clip can't compare to a bang-on episode of South Park or Key and Peele. In that case, your Chromecast is about to get a a few more laughs thanks to the Comedy Central mobile app getting support for Google's streaming stick. There's some kid-friendly fare en route too -- Sesame Street Go and Nickelodeon will soon be castable to your flat-screen as well. You'll almost positively need a cable subscription (or know someone with one) to access the respective TV-network content, and to pay a separate fee to beam Big Bird to your big-screen. Don't have those? Well, until then, there's always Scrabble to help pass the time. Update: Today's news also includes the addition of TuneIn, Encore Play, EPIX, and YuppTV joining the ranks of the Broad City, Spongebob and Cookie Monster outfits. [Image credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP]
Sesame Go video service offers constant Cookie Monster for $4 a month
If you were looking for another streaming service to pitch a few bucks to each month -- and you have a few Sesame Street fans in the house -- Sesame Go might be your next subscription. For $3.99 per month or $29.99 for a year (you can cancel whenever), the US-only service will stream to PCs, Mac and mobile devices. It'll run within a web browser, which should mean less concerns about whether that fingerprint-addled tablet is compatible or not. The service starts today -- visit Sesame Go for details on how to get (how to get) a free two-week trial.
Roku can now tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street with new PBS channels
Big Bird (or "Big Yellah," as we like to call him) and his Sesame Street cohorts are now available for streaming on your Roku box. Not just that, but his non-avian colleagues from PBS and PBS Kids are also making the trip, arriving today in new PBS and PBS Kids Roku channels. The two new channels offer more than the on-demand access to PBS programming you'd expect; PBS Digital Studios' work is also available to stream (we're quite fond of it, if you couldn't tell). While it's not 100 percent clear what exactly is available at any given time, PBS' announcement says "hundreds of videos" can be accessed, which are pulled from the archives, from national and local daily programming, and include biggies like NOVA, Frontline, and American Experience (it stands to reason that heavy hitter Downtown Abbey won't be available, given its exclusive license with Amazon starting next month). PBS Kids is similarly well-stocked, with "more than 1,000 videos," which includes everything from Curious George to, yes, Sesame Street. There's a short teaser video of the service being used just below the break, should you not be able to contain yourself until you get home. Update: According to Roku, not all Roku players support the new PBS channels. "Both PBS and PBS Kids are available immediately for all Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku LT, new Roku HD players and the Roku Streaming Stick in the US," the company says. Heads up!
Hasbro's Toy Fair 2013 booth tour: Transformers, Furby rockers, Iron Man and more
Oh, the wondrous experience that is Toy Fair. And that particular experience, as you may know, includes anything from NERF hoop games and foam fusillades, to boxing robots and itty-bitty, tinkering novelties. To make things even better, though, Hasbro was kind enough to invite us over to its 2013 showcase in NYC, where the prodigious toy maker was exhibiting some Furby amigos known as Party Rockers, Iron Man's Sonic Blasting figurine and Arc Fx Mission life-sized mask, a Sesame Street play-and-learning system for toddlers, as well as a Transformers Rescue Bots Beam Box which enhances the experience by allowing the toys to mesh into a game that can be played on a TV set. There was also a little Star Wars and Star Trek action, of course -- and the good news is you, too, can see it all, just head past the break to take a look at the vast gallery and a quick video showing off a few of Hasbro's new toys.
Sesame Street hits CES with augmented reality app for kids, we go hands-on (video)
At this year's CES, Qualcomm's got a big show -- but not all of it has to do with bleeding-edge performance and kick-awesome graphics. In fact, the San Diego company has a bit of a family side. It's partnering with Sesame Street to highlight its Vuforia platform, an Augmented Reality-based SDK that gives developers handy tools to make the most out of their apps. The program on display, called Big Bird's Words, is a word recognition tool to help children learn vocabulary. As you'll see in the video below, Big Bird himself lets the young 'uns choose a word and, using the rear camera, hunt around for it in a real-world environment. If the camera picks up an incorrect word, Big Bird indicates that you need to keep looking. Since this is just one application on the platform, this particular concept could be used for a plethora of different types of apps, such as dictionaries and translation programs. %Gallery-175380% Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.
Kinect adds Sesame Street and National Geographic to Xbox Live, makes motion control wholesome fun
Kinect -- it's the Xbox 360 peripheral that just keeps on giving, now with more edutainment. Yes, that collision of worlds typically yields cringe- and boredom-inducing interactive experiences. Not so with this marriage of MS' motion-controlling sensor and the fine folks behind TV mainstays like Sesame Street, National Geographic and Disney. The newly inked content partnerships will see the creation of specifically tailored episodes of Kinect Nat Geo TV, in addition to a season's worth of Kinect Sesame Street TV for Xbox Live, letting your youngins play virtual connect the dots with Elmo. Plans are also underway for a virtual storybook effort, codenamed Project Columbia, aimed at indoctrinating children into the fundamentals of reading, and Rush, a videogame that'll lead adults and their tots alike through Pixar's virtual worlds. These various family-friendly titles and TV shows are set to rollout sometime next spring, so if you need to get your little ones' blood pumping (and slim down those love handles while you're at it), it looks like X's prepping to mark that spot. Official presser after the break.
Wii pay-per-view programming introduced in Japan
Not only are we still waiting for the TV Guide Channel that Japanese Wii users have been indulging in for the better part of two years, but now Variety is reporting that Nintendo has teamed up with a dozen corporate partners to tease us with a Japanese pay-per-view service for the console. Premiering last Saturday, Wii no Ma (Wii's Room) currently has 120 titles, including episodes of Sesame Street and Pocket Monsters, available for prices ranging from ¥30 - ¥500 ($.35 - $5.63). According to Variety, titles can also be viewed on your Nintendo DSi handheld, a device known for its sonority and large, appealing display. No word yet on when we can enjoy a Stateside version, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear something. In the meantime, there's always PlayOn.
Found Footage: Sesame Street does the iPod dance
Big Bird, Grover Elmo, Cookie Monster, Snuffy (my bad) and the Sesame Street gang have been cool since I left my crib for the big-boy bed. Here they give some love to their favorite music player. Not too shabby for a bunch of 40-year-old dudes (except Elmo, who is young enough to be hip to the iPod). Snuffy isn't in this one as they couldn't find earbuds to fit. My mistake, I guess they could. Honestly, I surprised that Apple hasn't used this. Sunny days to all. Thanks to Chris Hollomon for the tip!
Elmo Live ready for pre-order by dutiful parents
Although it hits retail on Thursday, you might want to get your pre-order in now given the way these things tend to go scarce near the Xmas rush. We're talking about Elmo Live of course, the singing, dancing, and story telling robot with wobbly red limbs and interactive sensors scattered around the monster's face and ticklish belly. Available now for about $65 pre-tax at all the usual on-line shops for our tiniest consumers. We've dropped in the video after the break as a reminder of things to come.[Via I4U]Read -- AmazonRead -- Wal-martRead -- ToysRUs