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'Mad Men' will stream for free on IMDb TV starting July 15th
It'll hit Amazon Prime Video in some non-US territories starting Friday.
'Mad Men' creator's Amazon series 'The Romanoffs' debuts October 12th
Need proof that Amazon is increasingly focused on blockbuster shows? Here's Exhibit A. Amazon has announced that The Romanoffs, the anthology series from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, will premiere on October 12th... and it'll have a star-studded cast, to put it mildly. New actor additions include Mad Men alumni Cara Buono and Jay R. Ferguson alongside familiar names like ER's Noah Wyle and Office Space's Ron Livingston, and that's on top of an existing sea of stars. Amazon had already lined up Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and John Slattery as well as Aaron Eckhart, Diane Lane, Amanda Peet and Paul Reiser, among others.
Vimeo partners with Lionsgate to expand its on-demand library
Vimeo and Lionsgate have announced a partnership today to offer nearly 80 of the studio's TV shows for rental in over 150 countries. The roster includes Orange is the New Black, Mad Men, Casual, Weeds, Nurse Jackie and others. The service will go live on October 18.
What's on your HDTV: 'Mad Men' finale, 'Battlestar Galactica'
After seven seasons (the last one stretched out as far as it will go), AMC's flagship series Mad Men is coming to an end this weekend. While some will say goodbye to Don Draper and the rest of the crew (Google Play put together a "fan experience" to help you look back), there's a slew of other finales hitting this week. Castle, Arrow, CSI: Cyber (well...), Elementary, Scandal and a number of others are wrapping up their seasons, so it's a good time to binge and catch up. The NBA and NHL playoffs are also cranking up the intensity, so sports fans will want to see which series go the full seven games. On Blu-ray, Wet Hot American Summer is arriving along with the original Battlestar Galactica series, while gamers can start playing Project Cars on consoles too. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Recommended Reading: The record-breaking all-electric '68 Mustang
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. Dark Horse by Michael Zelenko The Verge Converting one of the most beloved American muscle cars to an all-electric machine sounds crazy enough, but Mitch Medford wanted much more than that. After putting 800 horsepower's worth of batteries, converters and motors in a 1968 Mustang, he eyed the record for that model: the 170MPH mark set by Carroll Shelby himself -- a man that's synonymous with these classic cars in the States. In fact, some models of Ford's iconic two-door still bear his name. The Verge chronicles the story of the Zombie 222's (as it's called) origins and Medford's quest for history at the Texas Mile.
What's on your HDTV: 'Interstellar' Blu-ray, 'Mad Men', 'Archer'
The NCAA men's basketball tournament is down to its Final Four, and this weekend we'll find out which two move on to the championship game. Of course, we'll be glued to the couch watching Interstellar on Blu-ray. The film will even bring its IMAX sequences home The Dark Knight-style, pushing black bars aside to fill up the 16:9 screen. On TV, AMC's Mad Men begins to run its final few episodes, while we also have the season finale of Archer on FX. PS4 gamers can check out a new Metroid-ish shooter called Axiom Verge, while on Xbox One the free MMO Neverwinter is launching. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Must See HDTV for the week of April 8th: Desolation of Smaug, Mad Men and Justified
Now that the men's NCAA basketball tournament is over, it's back to the post-March Madness grind. The second Hobbit movie is out on Blu-ray this week, but TV viewers will be waiting until Sunday for the premiere of the final season of Mad Men. Tonight though, we're tuning in to the season finale of Justified as our favorite Elmore Leonard character stomps around the hills and valleys of Kentucky doing his U.S. Marshal thing. Today is also the day the world is introduced to Titanfall on Xbox 360. Check after the break for trailers plus our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
Peripheral Vision 010: RJD2 on the power of uncertainty
"I went from being a DJ to being a producer, to realizing that I needed to branch out and have more things I could use to make records," John "RJD2" Krohn explains. "So I started immediately buying old stuff. I had built out my tool set and component set enough and felt comfortable enough doing it that the next step was to go into building modular synth components." This is the garage of a man who's branched out. Its interiors echo the outside of the suburban Philadelphia home he shares with his family next door, those front lawn childhood playsets traded in for the toys of one of the most successful and diverse indie music producers around. There's recording equipment, a slew of live instruments, including two drum sets and synths of all stripes, plus a number of self-assembled musical components in various states of disarray. Krohn, a micromanager of sorts, has happily injected himself in nearly every aspect of the music creation process, from production, to vocals, to live instruments to running his own record. Building his own equipment was, naturally, the next logical step. Among other things, the components assembled on his workbench lend an air of uncertainty that has driven his compositions and recordings over the years. "I never know what things are going to sound like until I finish them," he says. "Having an idea and exploring that idea as you're recording it is very exciting to me. That excitement pushes you and inspires you to put more time into a thing and really get every minute component of it right. And that is enormously satisfying."
Must See HDTV (April 2nd - 7th)
Baseball is officially back and March Madness is just about to wrap up as we officially move into the "spring" segment of programming, marked by the return of Mad Men on AMC. That's not all, with one half of Syfy's videogame / TV show combo making its debut and our favorite show, Justified, airing its finale. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Mad Men AMC's main showpiece is ready to return. Now in its sixth season, you should be familiar with Don, Betty and the rest of the crew, but if not you can check out the trailer embedded after the break. (April 7th, 9PM, AMC) Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One - Avengers Assembled Now set in a new case (shown above) the boxed set of the first round of Marvel / Disney films is finally ready for release. If you're a collector / fan that just has to have it, the price on Amazon has dipped even lower, and it packs an exclusive look at the next set of flicks. ($149 on Amazon) Defiance The game end of Syfy's ambitious MMO shooter / TV show combo launches this week on consoles and PCs. Taking place on Earth as aliens and humans both try to recover after years of war, it's certainly something new, but we can't tell yet how well the two halves will come together before the show starts airing in a couple of weeks. ($59 on Amazon)
Google60 simulates 'Mad Men' era punch card web searches, BYOB
If you've ever pondered what Google "web" searching would have been like in the 60s, the Google60 art project has got a pretty natty-looking response. Created by designer Norbert Landsteiner of Google BBS fame, it lets you enter your search term via punch cards of the era, then heads off to the tape archives for text, news or image results -- which it furiously outputs on a simulated typewriter-style printer. The project uses actual sounds from an IBM 129 keypunch and Teletype Model ASR 33, while paying homage to the classic IBM system 360 mainframe in the image above. So, hit the source, pour up a scotch and have a gas searching, man.
Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight
Dish Network customers have been without AMC and its family of channels since July 1st, but thanks to a settlement between the satellite company and Cablevision's former Voom HD unit, AMC will be back on the air starting tonight. The possibility of a settlement leaked out late last week via a court filing, and it looks like Dish CEO Charlie Ergen will avoid taking the stand Monday after all. According to the terms, Dish will hand over $700 million in cash plus its 20 percent stake in Voom, and receive 500MHz of video and data spectrum licenses in 45 areas. In a separate deal, Dish and Cablevision spinoff AMC Networks have a new multiyear deal that should bring back AMC (on channel 131) in time for The Walking Dead to air tonight, and all of its other channels (IFC, WE tv, Sundance and for the first time, Fuse) starting November 1st. While Dish had previously claimed the channel deal was being held up by AMC's distribution of its shows via iTunes, Netflix and Amazon, now that lawsuit is over those concerns seem to have faded away.
AMC dropped from Dish Network, cuts a new deal to stay on with AT&T U-verse
As June expired, so did AMC's contract with both Dish Network and AT&T U-verse. While negotiations continue with AT&T and its channels remain on for the moment, AMC is already firing at Dish for dropping its channel immediately (after shifting it to an entirely different channel number a few weeks ago), claiming no negotiations have even taken place. As we heard in May, AMC maintains that the real issue is a court case between the two over the Voom HD debacle. For its part, Dish is telling customers the problem is fee increases requested by AMC and "devaluing" its programming by offering it on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com. As a result it's swapping in commercial-free HDNet Movies for AMC, and replacing two other AMC channels, WE and IFC, with Style and HDNet (soon to become AXS TV). We'll see how these negotiations go -- it's not too bad now but let's see how viewers react once the new season of Breaking Bad starts airing July 15th. Update: As we went live, AT&T has announced it reached an agreement with AMC Networks, so it's only Dish Network that's on the hotseat now. [Thanks, @soulfliesfree]
Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don't expect any changes in the US
Hulu Japan has mailed in a status update noting that its content library has increased by more than 300 percent since launching last fall, now amounting to over 800 films and around 6,900 TV shows. Newly added to that list is Mad Men and more notably, "select HBO shows" including Entourage and Sex And The City today, followed by Entourage and Band of Brothers later this year. Of course, similar to the situation that sees Showtime favorites like Dexter available on Netflix in Latin America but not here in the States, it doesn't make it any more likely HBO will suddenly become cord-cutter friendly at home -- this is an international deal only. Hulu does have more good news in Japan though, now that it works on more devices with the Wii coming soon and "aggressive expansion" planned for the rest of 2012. While it doesn't help the list of Hulu Plus-compatible Android phones grow any faster, there is a quick trailer celebrating the new content, viewers on either side of the Pacific can check it out after the break.
Dish Network, AMC dispute could see the network's channels dropped this summer
It wasn't that long ago that Dish Network was proudly offering AMC HD to its customers (especially since DirecTV didn't, which has since been rectified) but now the company is willing to let the network's contract expire this summer, taking new episodes of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead away from subscribers. The source of the sudden animosity, according to a press release from AMC, is continuing litigation between it and Dish Network over dropping the Voom HD channels back in 2008, leading to them going dark soon after. The LA Times reports Dish Network claims the denial of its appeal on a decision in the case has nothing to do with its sudden change of heart is solely about AMC's high renewal cost for a relatively low viewership. Whatever you believe, the sniping and threats will likely continue right up until the contract runs out June 30th, which is at least long enough for this season of Mad Men to finish on its own.
8-bit Mad Men Choose Your Own Adventure looks awesome, is awesome (video)
Hearing "8-bit", "Mad Men", and "choose your own adventure" all in one sentence is a bit too much for us to handle. But yes, that's very much what we have here. So, if you just can't hold out those final few days until the next season of whiskey swilling misogyny, then hit up the video above and make your own story in the meantime. Just don't forget to take your shoes off before bursting into Cooper's office.
Bang & Olufsen's Beolit 12 sends the FCC a little bit of Don Draper
Imagine when the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 12 (label after the break) came through the double doors of the FCC's underground bunker. Seeing the golden honeycomb speaker and faux-Bakelite styling, the technicians all dashed home to slick back their hair and put on sharp suits before subjecting this particular iPod dock with AirPlay capabilities to the usual multimeter and rulers treatment we expect from our boys. The top area is hollow to keep your futuristic-looking iDevice from sticking out and ruining the illusion that you're living in 1964 (did you see the brown leather carrying strap?). Since it's been approved by the Government, we can only assume it's not long for these shores, and since it's a B&O device, we can expect it to retail for four or five times what you'd expect to pay.[Image courtesy AMC TV]
DirecTV adds AMC-HD next week, too bad Mad Men is still six months away
After slowing its pace of adding HD channels dramatically as of late, DirecTV has finally satisfied one of the loudest and longest running customer requests by announcing AMC-HD will come to its satellites starting September 9th. There's still a pretty long list of channels it's not offering yet, but if you're on contract and just want to enjoy some Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Mad Men (when it returns in March) in HD then today's Facebook posting (just hours after it was dug up by the satellite sleuths at DBSTalk) is exactly what you've been waiting for. [Thanks, Joe & Casey]
Netflix adds Mad Men in the US today, CBS content in Canada and Latin America later
We're not sure how Don Draper would have sold a 60 percent price increase on your most popular service package but maybe Netflix executives can make a guess after they start watching the first four seasons of Mad Men today on Watch Instantly. Netflix's Lionsgate deal will keep reruns flowing for years to come, while a new agreement with CBS International is bringing its programming -- including Showtime shows like Dexter that were recently yanked from the US Netflix service -- to viewers in Canada (who already had Mad Men) and Latin America (where it locked up a cache of telenovelas yesterday). This CBS agreement is separate from their (also non-exclusive) US deal that brought Star Trek back, but international viewers will still get to both TOS and TNG, as well as shows like Twin Peaks and 90210. Check the press release after the break for more details on the international deal, the source link for a time warp back to 1960s NYC or hit the comments below to explain how canceling your $7.99 per month service is a stand against greedy corporations.
Netflix brings Mad Men to Watch Instantly starting June 27th
If Netflix is going to be called "reruns" by people like Comcast CEO Brian Roberts then at least it's good reruns. It just announced a new deal with Lionsgate that will see the first four seasons of popular AMC series Mad Men made available on Watch Instantly starting June 27th, with future seasons -- Lionsgate has series creator Matt Weiner signed for three years, while AMC just cut a deal for two more seasons -- added annually after their broadcast run ends. The only way this could be better was if we lived in bandwidth-capped Canada where Mad Men is already available under a separate deal.
Netflix launches in Canada today: streaming only service for C$7.99 per month
As expected, Netflix has kicked off its first offering outside the United States by opening up a Watch Instantly portal for Canadians this morning at Netflix.ca. With no discs available at all, the only option is a $7.99 Canadian ($7.80 US) plan for streaming that works on PCs, PS3, Wii, iOS family and many other devices -- interestingly the Xbox 360, Samsung TVs, and Blu-ray players from VIZIO or Insignia are off the compatible list until later this fall. Content availability also seems to be different for our neighbors to the north (English only for now, French is on the way Quebec), with the Netflix blog specifically calling out Superbad and Mad Men as up for streaming, which aren't currently available on Watch Instantly in the US. Unlike our recent Caribana experience we weren't able to cross the border and check it out for ourselves, but owners of Maple Leaf-certified IPs are invited to check out the selection (one month free trials are available) and let us know exactly what we're missing -- more details including Canadian distributors and device availability are in the press release after the break.
