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PBS made a tablet just for kids
You buy a kid-proof tablet to give young ones a safe environment to play their favorite games and videos, so wouldn't it make sense to buy a tablet from an outfit making all that content? PBS thinks so: it's introducing the Playtime Pad, a self-branded Android slate (technically made by Ematic) that serves as a showcase for all its educational programming. It comes preloaded with over 25 PBS games and 120 videos, as well as preloaded PBS apps for streaming and creative play. Your children can watch Ready Jet Go without asking you to download something first, which might be important when they're looking for something to do in the middle of a road trip.
Bill Nye lands a Netflix show
Everyone's favorite bow-tied scientist is back with a Netflix series. Bill Nye is making a return to TV via a talk show, called Bill Nye Saves the World, set to debut in Spring, 2017.
ICYMI: Robot tattoo artist and healing coral reefs
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists were able to program soft materials to shift their shape on digital command, which is only a precursor to our biggest tech news of this episode: That an industrial robot normally used to put together cars was repurposed to delicately give tattoos to human beings. Considering the robotic arm is large and heavy enough to lift car doors easily, we'd like to invite you all to give this tattoo artist a try first, please.
ICYMI: Lung cancer detector and smart tape measure
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A new device is being tested to detect lung cancer by having patients breathe into it. A new tape measure that syncs to a mobile app can calculate distances by simply running it over an item, or using a laser to calculate height. We are super interested in this AI-written show from PBS, and VR fans might be interested in the news out of the Olympics. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Watch PBS Kids' latest show online, before it reaches TV
You don't have to be a grown-up to watch shows online before they hit TV. PBS Kids has started streaming Ready Jet Go, an animated series that teaches astronomy and Earth sciences, almost a month before its TV premiere on February 15th. There are only four 11-minute stories available right now, but you'll have a full dozen by January 29th. You don't have to be picky about where you watch, either, as the episodes are available both on the web as well as PBS Kids' dedicated mobile and living room apps. If your children are aching for something new to watch this winter (and can't catch Sesame Street on HBO), this might just fit the bill.
'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.
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.
PBS explains the magical math behind 'No Man's Sky'
No Man's Sky is impressive. It's a mind-bogglingly massive game and from what we've seen, it's pretty to boot. But enough about that -- let's talk about math. Specifically, the math that makes this game possible. The YouTube channel PBS Game/Show has collected the numerical information that makes No Man's Sky tick and presents it in a lovely, straightforward fashion for everyone to enjoy. No Man's Sky lead Sean Murray makes a few appearances in the video, of course, and we got a one-on-one, hands-on demo of the game with him during E3. Suffice it to say, 10 minutes isn't long enough to properly enjoy No Man's Sky -- but a lifetime probably won't be long enough, either. See for yourself below.
Why video game bodies look nothing like real people
Have you wondered why video game characters bear precious little resemblance to the people you see on the street? PBS has. Its latest Game/Show episode dives into the reasons why bodies in games are so exaggerated, and finds that it's largely about the psychological associations you make with geometry. Circular shapes tend to communicate liveliness, innocence and stereotypical femininity, while squares and triangles often suggest balance, hardness and (historically masculine) strength. They're meant as a shorthand that conveys what a character is about before you even start playing, such as a tough-as-nails Gears of War soldier or a friendly mascot like Mario.
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.
Super Mario World's gravity isn't possible on any planet
It goes without saying that Super Mario World is unrealistic, but have you wondered just how outlandish it is? PBS has. The broadcaster's Space Time show recently went out of its way to calculate the gravity of the game's planet based on Mario's jumps, and it turns out to be nearly eight times that of Earth. That's a figure that you don't even find on gas giants like Jupiter, and it's only feasible on stars. Moreover, Nintendo's plumber would need both superhuman strength to jump as high as he does as well as non-human blood -- the liquid would be so heavy that a heart couldn't pump it properly. Mario doesn't so much have his own world as his own universe, since there's no way that he or his environment could exist based on our understanding of physics.
Here's why 'Too Many Cooks' is tailor-made for the internet
By now, there's a good chance that you've seen or heard about Adult Swim's Too Many Cooks -- an epic, warped internet video that sends up the overly tidy world of '80s and '90s sitcoms. But just why did this video manage to click with so many people? If you ask PBS, it's because the 11-minute clip speaks directly to the heart of online culture. The internet is fond of absurdist humor that highlights the apparently meaningless, repetitive nature of life, PBS argues; Too Many Cooks plays on that love of the ludicrous by dismantling a formulaic, "perfect" TV universe where everything has meaning.
First hour of Tim Cook's interview with Charlie Rose is live
If you haven't seen enough of Apple's Tim Cook over the past few days, you're in luck. The soft-spoken CEO sat down for a two-hour interview with PBS anchor (and MacBook Air gravity defender) Charlie Rose. The first part of that conversation is streaming via the Hulu service; the second part of the interview will air on Monday. It's worth a look, either as embedded below or directly on Hulu's site. Non-US users may or may not be able to get to that video; unfortunately that's outside our control. It also appears that the CharlieRose.com website is now offline... wonder what caused that? Quite a bit of the interview focuses on the transition from Steve Jobs's tenure as CEO to Cook's leadership. Apparently, Cook was surprised when he originally got the call from Jobs in 2011 asking him to take over as Apple's #1. Cook also cites the dynamism of Apple's current executive and creative team, including new retail lead Angela Ahrendts. He refers to Google as Apple's primary competitor and lays it on the line on the craptastic v1 of iOS Maps: "We screwed up." Of course, no Apple exec interview is complete without some hints and teasing. When Rose nudges Cook on the question of an Apple television product, he responds "TV is one of those areas we continue to have great interest in; I choose my words carefully there." As Cook walks through the app launcher on his Watch, he notes "I may have some things on here that you shouldn't see just yet." Oh, Tim, you cad. [hat tip The Verge & Engadget]
Boy races against his dead father's ghost, unleashes feels
A YouTube commenter's story of racing the ghost car of his deceased father has been making laps around game and car blogs. Yahoo! Autos has the full tale, in which a boy's father dies when he's six and ten years later the boy boots up his dad's Xbox to find his father's ghost car to race against in RalliSport Challenge. "And so i played and played, and played, until i was almost able to beat the ghost," he wrote. "Until one day i got ahead of it, i surpassed it, and... I stopped right in front of the finish line, just to ensure I wouldn't delete it. Bliss." The comment was in response to a video by PBS's Game/Show asking: Can video games be a spiritual experience? We've placed the video after the break.
PSA: Xbox Live service limited, video apps hit hardest
Xbox Live is currently issuing a service alert to notify subscribers that Microsoft's online gaming hub is having issues with a handful of video apps and even the company's own Xbox Video service. According to the alert, some Xbox Live members are unable to download Xbox Video items that they've already purchased. Microsoft claims to be working on a solution, but so far no fix has come to light. "We appreciate your patience during this process and will update you again when we have more information," the alert states. Additionally, the alert notes that both the Xbox Live Twitch app and its PBS contemporary are experiencing playback issues, while the Netflix app is having trouble on Xbox One. Microsoft likewise claims to be working on solutions for these issues, and assures customers that more information will be coming shortly. [Image: Netflix]
Apple TV gets ABC News, PBS Kids and a brand new Flickr app
You'd think that the steady stream of new Apple TV content would have slowed to a trickle by now, but nope -- far from it. Apple has just delivered a handful of fresh channels that include the free ABC News service (not to be confused with the authentication-based WatchABC), PBS Kids and the cricket-focused Willow TV. Flickr's app has also received a long, long overdue revamp (shown below) with a densely packed Explore section, an elaborate personal page and improved search. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the new AOL On channel -- yes, you can now watch Engadget videos and other clips from our corporate overlords. Whatever content tickles your fancy, you just have to wake up your Apple TV to check it out.
PBS launches PBS KIDS Super Vision app to help parents engage with kids
PBS has launched a special iOS-based tool to help parents keep up to date with what PBS programs their kids are watching on PBSkids.org. Once parents have connected their iOS device to the website, they'll be able to monitor the content their children are watching, playing, and learning from. In addition, the app provides parents with educational followup content for activities once computer time is over. Parents can even set a timer for the child's PBSkids.org account that makes the computer the bad guy when it says "it's time to take a break." You can download the app for free right now off the iTunes store. Once that's done, here's how to connect your device to PBSkids.org. You can watch a demo video below. Step 1: On your child's computer or other device, go to pbskids.org Step 2: Click on the gear icon at the top right corner of pbskids.org Step 3: Click on the CONNECT TO APP button Step 4: A five-digit code will appear. In the PBS KIDS Super Vision App, tap the CONNECT NOW and enter the five digit code. Hit OK. Step 5: If properly entered, a CONNECTED message will appear on pbskids.org and your app. You are now ready to receive real-time info when your child is playing games or watching videos on pbskids.org
PBS gives parents a way to monitor what kids are watching on its site
The PBS KIDS website is a pretty great hub of entertainment for little ones. And even though there's nothing but useful learning content to be enjoyed there, PBS still wanted to make it easy for parents to monitor what their kids are doing on the site. Enter PBS KIDS Super Vision, an iOS application which promises to give you, the parent, a powerful tool that lets you do anything from keeping track of what the kids are watching in real-time, to limiting the amount of time they can spend on certain activities.
What you need to know about Aereo's battle with broadcast television
Today, the United States Supreme Court will spend one hour hearing the latest arguments in an old, important debate that affects everyone watching television in the US: Who owns the airwaves? ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and others use the broadcast frequencies our TV antennas pick up; the government regulates those frequencies; and cable companies pay broadcasters to re-broadcast those frequencies. But the answer to who owns them remains nebulous. That is at the heart of today's case -- "American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al. v. Aereo, Inc." -- being decided by the highest court in the United States. And the decision stands to leave a massive impact on how Americans consume television, regardless of which side wins.
PBS Game/Show offers a defense of cheating, even in multiplayer
No stranger to courting controversy, the latest episode of PBS' thought-provoking YouTube series Game/Show posits the idea that maybe cheating in video games isn't such a bad thing after all. First, the video draws a distinction between those who repeatedly flout the rules to ruin a game for others, and those who exploit a game simply to enhance their own enjoyment. The former group is commonly known as "griefers," and the video makes no attempt to defend what they do. However, it argues that the remainder are people attempting to create "optimal strategies" for the game, which then contributes to the overall evolution of said game. As an example, the video highlights the practice of quick-scoping in first-person multiplayer shooters. While this exploit allows practiced snipers to use their high-powered rifles with the same speed and accuracy as a pistol, the video points out that quick-scoping has become so prevalent that it is now regarded as just part of the game. Though once decried by fans, the technique has become ingrained and altered the way the game is played on a fundamental level, much like the slam dunk in professional basketball. Watch the video, see what you think, then leave your thoughts in the comments below. Alternately, skip the video, leave a comment anyway, then smugly pat yourself on the back for cheating on this video about cheating. [Image: PBS]
