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Barely Related: Reading Rainbow makes big bucks
Are you ready, weekend? Because we're coming for you. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Barely Related: Star Wars cast, Doctor Who in Terminator
Good day, you lovely ladies and gents. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Terminators: The Video Game announced by Reef Entertainment
Reef Entertainment, UK-based publisher of the upcoming Rambo: The Video Game, has announced that it intends to create a game based on the Terminator franchise, titled Terminators: The Video Game. Reef did not specify a genre, release date, or supported platforms for the game. Really, the company's announcement didn't say much, other than they recently acquired video game rights for both 1984's The Terminator and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and that they intend to create a "high quality, authentic and exciting" game that does "great justice" to the films. That usually works out well. No word on whether Michael Biehn, who has had both good and not-so-good experiences with video games as of late, will be reprising his role as Kyle Reese, or if that other guy who's kinda famous for being in the Terminator movies will be back.
Lenovo's war-torn ThinkPad Terminator edition hands-on: it's not for sale... yet
During my discussions with Lenovo's team about the research involved in reshaping the ThinkPad line, they clued me in on the beast you see above. That, friends, is cutely referred to as the ThinkPad Terminator edition within Lenovo's walls, and it's essentially a prototype T431s that's stripped of its retail garb. The lid's paint is torn back in order to expose the edges that enable wireless radio transmissions to be sent and received, while the bottom has been left in its rawest form. Think of this as the space shuttle before its paint job, or Mr. Schwarzenegger before his green room appearance. The goal here was to showcase the underlying rigidity of the machine, without the retail coat of paint covering up the magic within. Obviously, Lenovo has no immediate plans to actually ship this thing, but I can assure you I'm begging the team to reconsider. Looking to join the cause? Go ahead and give 'em an idea of the premium you'd pay in comments if these were released in limited quantities. Or, just enjoy the gallery below. Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here! %Gallery-183000%
The inside story of Lenovo's ThinkPad redesign
"When you talk to end users about ports, they'll tell you how much they need them. They'll talk about the vast number of USB devices that they have. It's easy to hear that and determine that you need five or more ports based on what these people report. When you watch these people work, however, and you're more overt in your methods -- you rarely see that happening. "Sometimes, there's a conflict between what someone reports they need and what they require." So begins the backstory of the latest ThinkPad overhaul as told by Corinna Proctor, the senior research manager at Lenovo's User Research Center. Clearly versed in the art of separating whimsical wishes from bona fide requirements, she spoke to me in a phone interview alongside two of her colleagues in the run-up to today's unveiling of the redesigned ThinkPad T431s Ultrabook. The machine itself is still very much a ThinkPad -- it's black, it's understated and it's tough as nails -- but those who appreciate the evolution of technology will no doubt recognize some changes. Changes that began as mere notions some 18 months ago. %Gallery-183000%
Cambridge University starts Doomwatch unit, hires Skype co-founder to fight the future
Despite warnings to the contrary, Cyberdyne, SkyNet and Demon Seed are technological terrors that currently exist. No matter, as we've now got someone leading the fightback -- Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn. He's part of a team of scientists, engineers and philosophers at Cambridge University's newly-minted Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Aping the plot of beloved '70s TV series Doomwatch, the unit will investigate the fringes of science fact, including biotechnology, artificial intelligence and climate change. He'll be joined by Huw Price and Baron Martin Rees, who we hope will travel around the country in a minivan and fight ghosts, just like these guys.
DARPA's 'Avatar project' aims to give soldiers surrogate robots, make James Cameron proud
In a fevered mash up of blockbuster films directed by James Cameron, DARPA is looking to put soldier controlled bi-pedal robots on the battlefield. Think Terminator meets Avatar. The agency has set aside $7 million of it's $2.8 billion 2012 budget to develop an "Avatar program" that will "develop interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier's surrogate." DARPA isn't talking about simple remote control rigs, either -- these 'bots are being designed to clear rooms, and facilitate sentry control and combat casualty recovery. The new budget also sets aside $4.1 million to design laser countermeasures to protect military weapons, well, lasers -- ensuring that the future's robot soldiers will be nigh indestructible when they rebel against their human hosts.
Terminator T-1 mod gives us a taste of our future in GTA IV
We often kid about the grim future we all know is humanity's destiny, when the robots rise up and take the planet from us. We never try to think about what it's like to be them; what it's like to be in their chrome feet. A new mod for GTA IV on the PC from William Peddell brings us closer to understanding our future nemesis, replacing protagonist Niko Bellic with an eerily accurate Terminator. Peddell is quite adept at custom skins, having produced a number of mods celebrating Resident Evil, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted and many more. His mod profile page showcases hours of hard work. But in the end we're partial to his "Terminator T-1" mod, since it's such a strong teaching aid -- especially in the video above. When the robots rebel, we'll know that standing directly in front of their guns isn't a viable course to victory.
Ladder-climbing robot brings us one step closer to extinction (video)
Will finding high ground save you when SkyNet becomes self-aware and Terminators annihilate the human race? Doubtful, thanks to Japanese robotics company Muscle Corp., which has built a robot that can climb ladders...and other stuff. "Dream Robo" certainly isn't the first wall-climbing robot, but its eerie anthropomorphic shape is guaranteed to send its victims into paroxysms of terror when it slowly, inexorably make its way up the side of a building to sate its hunger for human blood. Muscle Corp. President Hirofumi Tamai says the robot only took three months to build, with 15 companies collaborating to create the vertical killing machine. The device incorporates five motors: two in the shoulders, two in the legs, one in the back, all of which can be seen in action in the video above. No word on the specs of the beams that rain hot, fiery death from its chitinous, soulless black eyes, but we'll be honest -- our fear wouldn't allow us to inquire.
Eye-tracking microdisplay delivers Terminator vision, distracts joggers
The folks at Fraunhofer IPMS have done it! After years of tireless research and promises of Borg-like eyewear, the group has delivered a prototype of the world's first bidirectional, eye-tracking OLED microdisplay (got all that?) at SID 2011. The rig is much like a monocle, except with a transparent OLED display inside, which overlays digital information on top of the reflected light that usually hits your eyeballs. What's more, there are integrated photodetectors inside and special software to monitor the direction of your gaze, allowing you to interact with your newfound augmented reality using only the flick of an eyeball. Fraunhofer foresees joggers taking in movies while out for a run, which sounds more than just a little dangerous. We, on the other hand, envision a world in which the first thing anyone does upon meeting someone new is discreetly check their relationship status on Facebook -- finally fulfilling the social network's full creep potential. One more pic and the poorly translated PR after the break.
DARPA aims to make soldier of tomorrow impervious to sneak attacks with 360 degree vision
DARPA is currently soliciting proposals for the development of Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras, also known as SCENICC, for those who prefer brevity. This latest project is a visual enhancement system that seeks to meet all of our armed forces terrorist-hunting and war-waging visual needs. The system, which is purely theoretical at this point, will provide a 360-degree, three-dimensional field of view for soldiers in the field. This optical omniscience is obtained through the use multiple cameras, including images from airborne drones. Soldiers will have real time 10x zoom capabilities and can operate everything via voice commands. As if that weren't enough, SCENICC employs augmented reality to identify and track targets in a way (we presume) not unlike your garden variety T-800. As this bit of kit is years from production, our commandos will have to make do for now with smartphones and wrist displays to keep an eye on enemies of the state.
Georgia Tech gurus create deceptive robots, send army of Decepticons to UGA campus
A score from now, when the entire world is burning and you're fighting to remember just how rosy things were before the robots took over, you can thank a crew of brilliant researchers at Georgia Tech for your inevitable demise. Sad, but true. A new report from the institution has shown that Ronald Arkin, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing, has been heading up experiments that have introduced the art of deception to mechanical beings. Yeah, lying. On the surface, it seems that this bloke's intentions are good -- he'd like for deception robots (or Decepticons, if you will) to be used in military / search and rescue operations. According to him, robots on the battlefield with the power of deception "will be able to successfully hide and mislead the enemy to keep themselves and valuable information safe." They'll also be able to mislead your offspring and convince them to rise up and overtake your domicile, slowly but surely ensuring the eventually destruction of the human race. But those are just minor details, you know?
Boy, have you seen this indie Terminator project?
Have you ever played a Terminator video game -- Terminator Salvation, perhaps -- and thought to yourself, "Man, I could make a better Terminator game than this." Apparently that's what Kevin Bryant and The Original Studios thought. Now, what started as a Gears of War mod titled FPS Terminator has become a full-blown indie project developed using Epic's free Unreal Development Kit. Though the final campaign is expected to have nine chapters, a demo for the project is now available, which you can download from our compatriots at Big Download. It's only a proof of concept at this point, with Bryant hoping he'll be back ... with another demo this fall. Check out a video after the break.
Terminator 5: Revenge of the Microsoft Fanboy (video)
We know things can get pretty hairy in the war between man and machine. Even in times of peace a foul-mouthed forum troll slagging off your favorite consumer electronics company can be too much to bear. But violence is never the answer. Yes, we're looking at you Mr. Down-on-his-luck series 800. Watch the Leon Wang created story unfold after the break.
How the Terminator's .45 Longslide with laser sighting came to be (video)
While Arnie's one-handed reloads on his Winchester 1887 may make that shotgun the most iconic weapon of Terminator 2, his laser-sighted .45 Longslide was definitely king in the first. Laser sights are something you can buy in any gun shop today, but back in 1984 they were extremely rare -- and expensive. The one for the movie was custom made by SureFire, a company that specializes in tactical flashlights. Lasers at the time were helium neon, requiring a whopping 10,000 volts to power on and a constant 1,000 volts to stay bright. To manage this on a shoestring budget in the '80s the weapon had a wire running up Arnie's sleeve to a battery inside his jacket and a switch he had to activate with his other hand. (A non-functional prop was used for close-ups.) Crude, but effective, and, most importantly, cheap -- SureFire representatives received only a T-shirt and some other assorted movie swag. Now, what kind of weapon could we get for a box of Engadget shirts...
'The Terminator' iPhone game coming to PS Minis
According to its website (and an ESRB classification), Elefunk dev Big Head Games is bringing its The Terminator iPhone / iPod Touch game (released last summer) to PS Minis. There's no date yet for the cross-compatible PS3/PSP title (described as "run-and-gun" by the ESRB) which casts players as Kyle Reese in a prequel to the original Terminator film. iTunes users haven't exactly been kind to the mobile version of the game, but we've yet to see what changes (if any) BHG will be making for the Minis release. Wait -- did we just write this without making a single cringe-worthy Terminator reference? Hmm. Off day, we guess. [Via Destructoid]
DARPA job posting talks of developing an autonomous, grenade-wielding robot
DARPA's just put up a pretty interesting job posting... if you're the wary-of-our-future-being-controlled-by-robots type, anyway. The call involves a new research and development program called ARM. Basically, DARPA's looking to build a robot that can use its arms to dexterously and autonomously grasp objects. The quote from the job posting which is raising eyebrows around here says that the bot should be able to "hold an inert grenade with one hand, and pull the pin with the other hand" without any direction from humans. Now, we're not really trying to hit the alarmist angle, and we're all for advancements in robot tech... but it seems to us we'd have less to worry about if the job posting had said "should be able to hold a kitten in one hand, and pet it with the other." Right guys?
Terminator: Salvation BD-Live director commentary impressions
One of the main problems with initial Blu-ray director's chat sessions was a lack of feeling any life or interactivity, but Warner gave it another shot this weekend by offering audio over BD-Live as a moderator bounced audience provided questions off of director McG while watching Terminator: Salvation. Despite a less than stellar reputation, BD-Live has continued to slowly creep along, adding features and enhancements, so we wanted to if this event bodes well for the future of internet enabled discs. Check after the break for our impressions, plus a few clips of the director talking about what he did and didn't like about the finished product, director's cuts in general, and the possibility of doing another Terminator movie. %Gallery-79793%
Terminator: Salvation Blu-ray review roundup
It didn't crack the podium on our most anticipated Blu-ray poll behind current number one selling Star Trek, but Terminator: Salvation's feature-laden release December 1 has already made the review circuit and come away with some widely varying opinions. The good news is the picture doesn't disappoint, with a clear transfer and elaborate special effects, although BigPictureBigSound's reviewer found a few issues with a bluish matte line appearing at times, plus a few notes about compression and noise in clouds of dust and smoke also noted in other reviews. On the audio front, the DTS-HD MA soundtrack by all accounts is an impressive treatment, with the only "problem" that viewers might want to dial back slightly on the bass to avoid waking the neighbors. Of the extras included in the U.S. release of the film, the only real issue seems to be a lack of seamless branching, requiring viewers to forego the Director's Cut and its extra few minutes of Moon Bloodgood in order to walk through the flick in Maximum Movie mode with director McG and others showing how they pulled off many of the shots. The European edition released by Sony does feature seamless branching, although CNET UK and DVD Times both complained of slow loads and glitches on their players as a result, with the latter also finding some possible compression issues from being squeezed on one disc. Whatever your choice, check the reviews and make it soon as Warner is planning a one time only BD-Live community screening with the director answering questions via audio December 5.
In-game ad spending to reach over $1 billion by 2014
In a future where unfathomably large sums of money are spent trying to get you to buy things, only one man can make a difference. We haven't found that man, so until he shows up we're going to buy a new Dell and maybe some Pepsi. We don't know why this urge has struck us -- maybe it has something to do with all those ads we just saw in [INSERT LATEST ACTIVISIONBLIZZARD TITLE HERE].We know not what fate awaits us in this future, but since everyone will be too busy buying stuff it probably doesn't matter. It's not like the machines will rise up or anything, right?
