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Walmart is getting ready to announce ad-friendly Vudu originals
Walmart is reportedly developing at least six original series for its Vudu streaming service. It's set to reveal a few of them to advertisers at a presentation this week. According to Bloomberg, it's been in talks with studios to reboot old family-friendly shows.
The cyberpsychologist is in
My first session with a cyberpsychologist didn't go so well. She asked me to lay back on the couch, relax, and "think of cyber." "You know," she said, "what you do when you're angry." "Well, I don't really cyber when I'm angry-" She cut in, "Do you have penetration problems?" "No!" I stammered, "I ... I have I guess what you'd call cyber ... toys? I mean, when I want to penetrate a-" "Oh," she said acidly. "Then you must be dealing with feelings of cyber-castration. You were cut off from a network as a child, weren't you?" "Network!? Wait. Do you mean cyber, or do you mean cyber?" Okay, so my first cyberpsychology session might have actually been all in my head, but I'm far from alone in my confusion about whether the spokesperson for cyberpsychology — apparently a real term — means cyber (as in security) or cyber (as in sex).
High-tech TV: How realistic is the hacking in prime-time shows?
A group of five impeccably dressed high school girls are almost murdered dozens of times by the same, mysterious stalker and the police in their idyllic small town are either corrupt or too incompetent to care. How do the girls fight back? Hacking, of course. At least, that's one way they do it on Pretty Little Liars. "Hacking" is the deus ex machina in plenty of scenarios on Pretty Little Liars and other mainstream programs, allowing people to easily track, harass, defend and stalk each other 30 to 60 minutes at a time. But how real is it? To determine the feasibility of the hacks presented on shows like Pretty Little Liars, Sherlock, Scandal, Arrow, CSI: Cyber and Agents of SHIELD, I spoke to Patrick Nielsen, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
Every single episode of 'CSI' hits Hulu Plus exclusively this April
You read that headline right: Every episode of the wildly popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and all its spin-offs are coming exclusively to Hulu Plus. As the Hulu blog tells it, over 300 episodes of the series'll appear on the streaming service come April. Hulu also points out that this deal means that past seasons will be added ahead of future season premieres (CSI: Cyber, anyone?) as well -- unlike its South Park deal, though, there's no word on day-after streaming yet. Hulu says that watching Horatio Caine (David Caruso, above) and crew's antics back-to-back would fill around two weeks total. How many vacation days do you have left?
MIT thaumaturges work to turn any windowed room into a camera obscura
Those interested in criminology, forensics or the basics of voyeurism probably have a decent grasp on what a camera obscura is. For everyone else in the audience, allow us to explain. Used since way before your birth, these chambers are designed with an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen; you just need a room with a hole in one side, which allows a fine amount of light to pass through. If you've ever watched [insert crime drama here], you've probably seen those magical investigators take a blurred shot of a room wall, zoom it in and somehow draw conclusions about the origins of life. Now, MIT's own Antonio Torralba and William Freeman have developed a method that can "transform the entire setting into a pinhole camera." In other words, any room with a window can be repurposed for forensics. On that note, you should probably consider moving your... operations center to a windowless bunker, STAT.
AR goggles take crime scene technology to CSI: Miami level
Dutch researchers are looking to catapult crime scene investigation into the 21st century through the use of augmented reality (AR). The prototype system, designed by the Delft University of Technology, employs a pair of AR goggles, two head-mounted cameras and a portable laptop rig to allow investigators to build virtual crime scenes by tagging evidence and placing objects they are viewing. After mapping an area, additional law enforcement personnel can review the investigator's work and request additional information -- asking the CSI to define or place additional objects. Researchers hope that the 3D renders will be used as court-admissible evidence in the near future; the technology is set to be tried on a real Dutch crime scene later this year. We can see it now: Lieutenant Horatio Caine whips off his shades and tosses on a pair of (equally stylish) crime-fighting goggles... YEAAAAAAAAH!
Westinghouse is bringing new LED HDTVs to CES, acronym lovers reportedly 'delighted'
In January, Westinghouse Digital likes to drive on down to Nevada and show off its wares for the next 12 months at CES. Everything in Las Vegas is super-sized, which is great inspiration for Westy's new 70-inch LED HDTV that'll pump out 1080p episodes of "proper" CSI at 120Hz, with an 8ms response time. If your inner-city apartment doesn't have a 70-inch wall, then perhaps you'd prefer the new 46-inch ultra-slim LED HDTV that's so slender, it probably disappears if you look at it side-on, or something. The company's also gonna be showing off its first ever Bluetooth Soundbar that comes packing two 12 watt speakers, a class D amplifier and enhanced bass so you can really enjoy those opening bars of Who Are You.
The Perfect Ten: MMOs in movies and television
While 1982's Tron explored what virtual life might be like inside a massive video game, it wasn't until fairly recently that real MMOs have crossed the divide between niche and mainstream to be referenced in television and films. Depending on how you see it, this mainstream acceptance of geek culture can be a thing to be either celebrated or shunned. What's for certain, however, is that we've only started to see the beginning of such mentions. In today's Perfect Ten, I cobbled together a list of the first 10 MMO references that I know of from movies and TV shows. Some might be nothing more than a background detail or a throwaway line, while others are completely centered around the advertisement, er, massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. I tried hard not to use "cheats" such as fake MMOs featured in shows like The Guild, so this list is all about real-world titles with no sugar substitutes. Ready? Insert quarter and hit player one!
CSI Virtual MasterCard app bringing mobile payments to iOS, Android and BlackBerry
Shortly after MasterCard announced plans to become entangled with Google Wallet (and a few months after those ambitious Isis plans were shelved), it looks as if the aforesaid company is diving into yet another mobile payment arena. And this time, it's personal. MasterCard and CSI Enterprises already offer a smattering of customized business cards for those with highly specific needs, and soon that partnership will extend to iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS. We've confirmed that the CSI Virtual MasterCard app is currently scheduled to launch in July, presumably enabling folks with a GlobalVCard to use their mobile device of choice to make payments. What's interesting here is the inclusion of RIM and iOS; there's no BlackBerry device (nor iOS device) on the market today with NFC, which leads us to believe one of two things: that's either changing by July, or this here service won't rely on NFC at all. Needless to say, we'll keep you posted -- nothing like another way to more easily indebt yourself.
Researchers develop 'blood camera' to spot crime scene stains in a flash
Could inspecting a crime scene for even the most minuscule blood stains one day be as simple as taking a picture? It will if some research now being conducted at the University of South Carolina in Columbia pans out. A team there led by Stephen Morgan and Michael Myrick have developed a so-called "blood camera" that uses a combination of infrared light and a transparent layer of the protein albumin -- the latter of which acts as a filter and is able to highlight blood stains by filtering out wavelengths that aren't characteristic of blood proteins (or so we're told). That's as opposed to current methods for detecting blood at a crime scene, which rely on the chemical luminol to make the stains appear in the dark. As New Scientist notes, however, that method can also dilute blood samples and make DNA difficult to recover, and create false positives. The researchers don't seem to be stopping at blood, though -- they say the camera could also be easily adapted to detect trace amounts of other materials that aren't visible to the naked eye, like drugs or explosives.
Real world CSIs look at videogame tech to help solve cases
While TV-based crime scene investigators use futuristic moon technology to solve mysteries, real world forensic scientists say the biggest advancements need to come from how investigators collaborate on cases. North Carolina State University recently received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help develop crime scene mapping tech (right) derived from the Unity game engine, allowing teams to create a virtual reproduction of crime scenes.Using environments made up of 3-D laser scans and 2D models, investigators would be able to share detailed information with other scientists through the platform's website, reducing wait times and travel budgets.The IC-CRIME platform (Interdisciplinary, cyber-enabled crime reconstruction through innovative methodology and engagement) won't be ready for at least three years, but scientists seem confident in the platform's future potential growth in catching scumbags. Also, turning the lights on in the lab might help the process. Those rooms always look so dark on TV.
CBS bringing Diagnosis Murder, some other stuff to gaming platforms
CBS announced today that it's bringing a wide array of its TV programming to the video game world, mainly via the PC, Wii and DS. As you can see after the break, the company revealed equally insipid-sounding game versions of Survivor, Hollywood Squares, The Amazing Race, and Criminal Minds, but we don't see how we're supposed to care about any of it when it was also revealed that a Diagnosis Murder game is in the works. We're assuming it's a Visceral-developed "dark" take on the DM mythos, with a Gothic Dr. Mark Sloan walking a demonic version of Los Angeles, solving murder mysteries with a caduceus-shaped staff dipped in angel blood. We assume this because we laid out the design doc pretty clearly in our letters, and we can't fathom why CBS would want to disappoint us.
CSI: Deadly Intent demo investigates Xbox Live
Major Nelson has told the internets that a CSI: Deadly Intent demo is now available on Xbox Live. Developed by Telltale and featuring the cast of the show, the game tasks players with solving grisly murders in Las Vegas. Presumably, this will be done by pointing, clicking, zooming, enhancing and analyzing reflections. And by spouting one-liners, of course. Add the CSI: Deadly Intent demo to your Xbox 360 download queue
Telltale's next franchise announcements 'around October,' not necessarily comedies
Known for perfecting the episodic release, Telltale Games says it's stepping into "new genres." CEO Dan Connors told VG247 as much in a recent phone interview, and the idea for this move is coming from a somewhat expected place -- television shows like The Sopranos, Lost and True Blood. "We've already evolved the genre in a lot of ways ... but we believe there's a lot of head-room to make more dramatic advances in storytelling and drama inside of this genre [adventure games]." Considering the company's past work with franchises like CSI though, you could say this tale has already been told. (YEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)Though Telltale will be at PAX alongside us and everyone we know, don't expect any announcements just yet. Connors says the soonest we'll be hearing about anything is "around October," so, ya know, get comfy.
Ubisoft and Telltale serving up justice with CSI: Deadly Intent
If you've always wanted to get elbow-deep inside a human chest cavity in the name of scientific justice, here comes your shining moment. Ubisoft and CBS are teaming up once again to release the seventh gaming adaptation of the popular crime-solving TV show, titled CSI: Deadly Intent (the debut trailer for which is posted after the break).This time around, Telltale Games is developing it for the Wii, DS, 360 and PC, and it guest stars Lawrence Fishburne as lead investigator Dr. Raymond Langston. Sounds like a recipe for success. We bet it'll make (puts on sunglasses) a killing in the NPDs."YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"%Gallery-68279%
Star Trek, CSI Blu-ray boxed sets doing BD-Live right with dynamicHD
Implementations of dynamicHD on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs so far have been some of the best examples of the potential BD-Live holds that we keep hearing about, but rarely see. For those Star Trek fans that picked up TOS box set this week, it not only ties them into the www.cbs-bdlive.com website, but also brings home interviews, behind the scenes looks and other highlights from FEDCON in Europe that is going on from today until May 3. Next up to tie Internet downloads into the disc based experience? CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The First Season hitting May 12. You can check out the website to see who is watching right now and where, set up watching parties and share quizzes. Imagion AG demoed a lot of these features for us on HD DVD during CES '08, and some got a peek at them on Terminator 2: Ultimate HD Edition, check out the official press release after the break and let us know if this is enough to change your opinion on BD-Live.
Ubisoft bringing select titles to Mac gamers
Through a partnership with TransGaming Inc., Ubisoft is poised to bring select titles to Mac gamers (yes, we repeat: "Mac gamers") through retail and digital download channels. The two most significant offerings will be Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding, although Ubisoft will also provide CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Petz Sports to retail locations for the first time. Those games are currently only available through Ubisoft's website. You can download Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding for Mac from Ubisoft's site (and look for the other games on retail shelves) next month.
CSI Mac: How did that file get so big?
I don't know much about real-world forensics, except for what I see on television, but one thing I do know is that when you're faced with a troubleshooting mystery, you have a couple of choices: shrug your shoulders and fix the problem, or figure out what went wrong in the first place to try and prevent it from coming back again. While I don't always have the time or the smarts to suss out the root cause of every Mac issue, sometimes the issue is so curious and the cause so interesting that I feel compelled to investigate until I get to the bottom of it.Recently, when one of my colleagues came in with a slightly-full hard drive, I went to my go-to disk space checker (the capable OmniDiskSweeper) to see where we could save a gigabyte or two. In addition to the usual suspects of iTunes podcasts long gone stale and legacy backups of Entourage databases, I came across the file you see above; it lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Chess. Why on earth would a support file for Chess.app be 1.5 gigabytes? That's crazy talk. I would love to delete it, but a file that large... might be useful or important.Where did this bulky bucket of bits come from? Read on for the answer.
Bargains on Bully and bullet hell
If you're the type to never pay retail on anything, especially video games, the like-minded misers at the Cheap Ass Gamers community have found two worthwhile Wii deals for you: Bully: Scholarship Edition - $26.99 (Amazon) Castle of Shikigami III - $19.99 (GameStop) If you haven't looked into shoot-em-up Castle of Shikigami III before, make sure you check out the videos we posted a couple of months ago -- there's a flying butler! Amazon also has CSI: Hard Evidence on sale for $19.99, but we have a feeling that not many of you will be too excited to pick up this video game adaptation of a poor man's Law & Order.[Via CAG]
CSI finally returns to Second Life
According to CSI fan website CSI Files, April 2nd will see the second part of the 2-part CSI:NY/Second Life adventure, previously reported. The site gives a plot description based on script drafts, and cautions that the details could change at any time, but the investigation of the murder that began in 'Down the Rabbit Hole' will continue.From the plot synopsis, however, it doesn't sound like the show's characters will return to SL itself necessarily, but given that the assassin's identity was taken from a resident, there has to be some sort of connection. 'Down the Rabbit Hole' will re-air on March 26th, presumably to let viewers revisit the plot to avoid confusion.[Thanks, Elle!]