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After Math: Things that shouldn't cost this much
Samsung unveiled the latest iterations its Galaxy Note line during which time the company showed off a plus-sized phone that costs more than a laptop -- specifically, the brand new Book S laptop debuting at the same dang press conference. That ain't right. And that ain't all. Take a look.
Yet another 'Game of Thrones' episode has leaked
When you have the world's most popular show, keeping a lid on new episodes is tough, apparently. After Game of Thrones' fourth episode hit torrent sites due to a leak from HBO partner Star India, episode 6, due to air on August 20th, was accidentally released by HBO Nordic in Spain. It was quickly pulled after an hour, but during that brief period, someone of course managed to copy the episode and it quickly appeared on torrent sites and the infamous Freefolk Game of Thrones leak Reddit.
After Math: Come out and burn
As the current presidential administration keeps trying its best to be America's last, let's take a moment from the existential horror of nuclear annihilation at the hands of the world's other wannabe king and see who's been killing it in tech this week. Game of Thrones roasted way more horses and stuntmen than necessary in the name of VFX (spoilers, duh), Nissan is shelling out nearly another $100 million in hopes that the Takata airbag scandal will just drag itself into the woods and die already, and Facebook quietly took the Groups app out behind the woodshed mere days after axing the teen-targeting Lifestage app. Numbers, because how else are we going to accurately describe the literal decimation of the global human population when this pissing contest is over with?
ICYMI: Pedestrian tracking bot and earthquake simulation
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford engineers are using a robot to understand the way humans move through a crowded space. University of California, San Diego researchers are using the world's largest outdoor shake table to simulate earthquakes and fire to a six story building. If you can get into topics unrelated to Dallas and police shootings this weekend, German churches are using wifi to try to lure new attendees. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: Squashing brain cancer and autonomous drones arrive
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The Airobotics drone system can autonomously launch UAVs and perform basic maintenance, like swapping out batteries. Researchers designed a device that agitates bubbles in the blood to get more chemotherapy into the brain by using ultrasonic waves. And Game of Thrones fans might want to see this Night King carved from fruit. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: Raining tiny satellites and the laundry-folding machine
Today on In Case You Missed It: A company called FoldiMate is selling a standalone machine to sit alongside a washing and dryer and fold about 20 garments at a time for $850. Cornell University engineers are sending tiny interstellar computers to the ISS this summer, there they will act as satellites and, eventually, collect information from our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri. We also round up the week in our TL; DR segment. If you grew up playing The Sims, this piece of news might interest you. We're also very interested in the Visa payment ring the Olympic athletes can wear in Rio. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
'Game of Thrones' is now a pinball machine
Stern Pinball, a regular at CES, usually bringing along its latest machines. The company has a history of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist and that explains why we're here playing Game Of Thrones through the medium of pinball. (Update: There are also, predictably, GoT slot machines somewhere in Vegas. So that's this evening sorted.) With a dragon to aim at, and red LED-reproduced animations from the TV series, the pro machine is fun enough for GoT and pinball dilettante alike. Take a closer look after the break.
Yet again, 'Game of Thrones' is the world's most pirated TV show
For the fourth year in a row, Game of Thrones has won the dubious honor of being the world's most pirated TV show. The annual study, carried out by TorrentFreak, reveals that an estimated 14.4 million people snaffled HBO's opus this year. By comparison, only 6.9 million people wanted to watch second-placed The Walking Dead and 4.4 million catching The Big Bang Theory. The easy explanation for all of this is that HBO is a pricey pay-cable channel where access is expensive, while AMC and CBS are far easier to access.
ICYMI: Tortilla tunes, Russian selfie safety and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-281613{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-281613, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-281613{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-281613").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Some genius decided to engrave a record into an uncooked flour tortilla and the thing actually plays. Russians keep doing such risky things for selfies that the government just launched a selfie safety campaign. And Google's Street View is being taken to a whole new level with an algorithm that stitches together frames to create seamless tours.
Watch how a CGI-heavy 'Game of Thrones' zombie battle was made
(Warning: spoilers ahead.) The spectacular Game of Thrones 'Hardhome' battle scene with white walkers, zombie-like wights and wildings is pretty VFX-heavy, judging by a new video from effects house El Ranchito. Highlights include Jon Snow slashing a walker into shards of crystal, battle scenes with the giant Wun Wun, and wights -- so many hordes of wights. Despite having TV's highest budget, the show doesn't rely overly on digital effects, using them sparingly on gore and dragons, we imagine. However, Snow actor Kit Harrington said that the 'Hardhome' battle "is so CGI-heavy it's unlike anything I've ever done on Thrones."
'Game of Thrones' pirated 3.5 million times despite HBO Now
HBO seemed certain that offering customers the option to watch without a cable subscription through its $15/month "HBO Now" app would help curb the rampant piracy afflicting its most popular shows. Nope! Variety reports that the latest episode of HBO's megahit "Game of Thrones" has been illegally downloaded 3.5 million times, in a single 24-hour period. That's a new record. Per Danish piracy tracking site Excipio, this season's episode six edged out last week's record-setting 3.22 million downloads. And given that Excipio only really covers P2P piracy, not direct download websites, those numbers are probably a little light. This, of course, comes after the first four episodes of the season were leaked online a full day before the HBO premiere in April. It's enough to make one to just up and start murdering popular lead characters. [Image Credit: Getty]
'Game of Thrones' crowned as 'most pirated' show for third-year running
Interactive apps, multiple theme-tune remixes, constant recommendations, memes or trans-Atlantic and server-collapsing debuts are but mild indicators of Game of Thrones' public success. What's the real measure of a show's popularity? It's how many people pilfer it from the internet. In this regard, our friends in Westeros have no need for a drawbridge, an army or one single drop of wildfire -- its crown as the "most pirated" program continues for the third year running. Torrentfreak estimates the show peaked at over 8 million downloads, nearly double that of the second place series: The Walking Dead. Despite increasing ways to legitimately watch TV online, the number of shows being downloaded suggests there's still an appetite for free -- or an unwillingness to wait for shows to legitimately arrive in your territory. We've got a hunch that waiting isn't something GoT fans are particularly good at.
See how digital effects put the spectacle into 'Game of Thrones'
Game of Thrones has a healthy $6 million-per-episode budget, but that's still nothing compared to the average Michael Bay blockbuster -- especially for the special effects needed to fill in the magic (and gore). That's where the creativity of effects house Mackevision comes in. If an epic shot can't be done "practically" in camera, characters are filmed against a green screen or threadbare set. Then, elements like terrain, castles, crowds of soldiers and even CG water are added. As you can see in the video below, with a touch of artful compositing, lighting, shading and color-timing, the result is a seamless final shot. If there's any money left over, they may even add a dragon or three.
'Game of Thrones' Season 4 hits Google Play and Amazon just days after the TV finale
The fourth series of Game of Thrones came to its conclusion just a few days ago, but HBO isn't leaving anything to chance. Knowing that single episodes are smashing piracy records on Bittorrent, the company has quickly made the whole season available to download on both Google Play and Amazon. As it stands, Amazon is the best place to get your Lannister fix, pricing the full season at £16.99 for a standard definition copy and £23.99 for an HD download. Google, on the other hand, has it up for £18.49 and £24.49 respectively. If you're after individual episodes, prices start at £1.89 on both services, letting you witness some of the biggest battles (like the one pictured above) the seven kingdoms have ever seen. Update: Tesco is hitting the launch hard too, offering Game of Thrones Season 4 for £17.99 in SD and £23.99 in HD. However, it's also throwing in 1,000 Tesco Clubcard points and a free 10" Finest pizza with every purchase.
Watch 'Game of Thrones' mysteries explained (or disproved) with science
Sure, works of fiction are hardly subject to the rules of science, but the folks behind It's OK To Be Smart set out to explain many of the enigmas surrounding Game of Thrones. In the PBS digital short that awaits after the break, topics like the plausibility of Daenerys' dragons, winters that last a decade, the origins of Valyrian steel and more are given real-world significance through the lens of scientific explanation. Also, it's decided that the planet on which Westeros resides should be called Hodor -- an honor of which he's pretty deserving, if you ask me.
Sky's raising Now TV package prices, but don't blame Game of Thrones (update)
If you've invested in Sky's super-cheap Now TV box, the chances are that you've also been enjoying the company's introductory pricing it offers on its streaming packages. Sky's entertainment and movie bundles are currently priced at £4.99 and £8.99 per month respectively, but are set to rise to £6.99 and £9.99 later this month. At first glance, it looks like the broadcaster has chosen the optimum time to recoup some of the investment its made in exclusivity for shows like Game of Thrones, but the reality is a little less scandalous. Prices were actually meant to shoot up in March, but Sky decided at the time to extend the introductory offers until May 29th. So while it appears like the Lannisters are after yet more coin ahead of the cut-off in the coming weeks, it was actually the plan all along. It's probably not the news you were hoping for as you wait to see whether Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons can conquer the seven kingdoms, but the Now TV honeymoon period originally had an earlier deadline, so you've still had better luck than Ned and family. Update: Since the time of writing, Sky has decided to put the price hike on hold, for now at least. The note on Sky's Now TV forums doesn't offer any new timeline, but we assume it means you'll be seeing out the current series of Game of Thrones, and watching all your favourite characters die, no doubt, at the current monthly rate.
Viewers see red as Game of Thrones premiere crashes HBO servers
Viewing of the Game of Thrones season debut came to a crashing halt yesterday thanks to server problems with HBO Go. The cable outfit first reported the problem late yesterday via Twitter, and finally restored full service early this morning. That set off a firestorm of complaints, and even conspiracy theories that the service was trying to shut out passcode borrowers. HBO denied all that, of course, saying that the service just suffered "overwhelming demand" -- no doubt from viewers anxious to see if GoT could top last season's debauchery.
Game of Thrones Ascent launches alliance vs. alliance
Last August, Disruptor Beam announced plans to enhance endgame in Game of Thrones Ascent by adding alliance vs alliance combat. Players looking forward to the large scale battles and diplomatic dealings of AvA can now jump in and have at altering the balance of power in Westeros as the system is now live. The post explaining the new system is quite lengthy, but here's the idea in a nutshell: Alliances will earn victory points by establishing and fortifying camps as well as attacking or assisting other alliances, and to the victors (the ones with the most points) go the spoils (special rewards). After a period of time, a new phase will begin and all points and camps will reset. The system, which is meant to evolve, will offer different rewards, different goals, and potentially different ways to earn victory in different phases. For an in-depth look at AvA, check out the devs' detailed guide. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Game of Thrones: Ascent to introduce item enhancements and alliance PvP
Big changes are headed to browser-based social MMO Game of Thrones: Ascent. In a lengthy and detailed developer blog, studio Disruptor Beam outlined the challenges it sees with keeping players engaged in GoTA at the endgame point and how it plans to address those challenges. The main problem, it appears, is that there currently isn't enough to do after finishing volumes one and two of the story. Disruptor Beam determined that the lack of options upon the completion of the story leaves players with no reason to play, noting, "There needs to be something more to our endgame." The studio has a two-part plan to keep players engaged. The first is item enhancement, which allows players to modify items to adjust their attributes and unlock new abilities. Improved items can be made permanent so they persist through reincarnation. The second part is alliance vs. alliance combat and diplomacy, which enables players to create alliances of up to 500 members and declare war (or form peaceful bonds). Alliances will be able to own camps and use those camps as launch points for attacks against other alliances. According to Disruptor Beam, both of these features are still in the deep testing phase. The studio hopes to have them rolled out in the next few months. In the meantime, it appears as though Game of Thrones: Ascent is growing more and more into a fully featured MMO every day. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip]
Game of Thrones' Dinklage to voice main companion in Destiny
If you're a Game of Thrones fan, there's no denying the fact that Tyrion Lanister is one of the most enduring characters in both the books and the HBO series. Actor Peter Dinklage is to credit on the TV side of things, and now the seasoned vet is branching out to do some voice work in Bungie's Destiny MMO. As your interactive companion, Ghost, Dinklage's voice (sans faux British accent) will be with your character wherever you go in the game. In addition to Dinklage, Bungie is also working with the iconic Sir Paul McCartney for the game's music.
