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ICYMI: Tiny sperm motor, tablet for the blind and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-597195{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-597195, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-597195{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-597195").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: Male fertility issues usually contribute to about half the cases of infertility in couples, which is why some German researchers invented a tiny little Spermbot designed to help sperm swim faster. The Spermbot is a tiny metal helix that uses a rotating magnetic field to help drive sperm towards fertilizing an egg.
What's on your HDTV: 'Review', 'American Summer', 'Reading Rainbow'
We're checking in a bit late with this week's selections of what to watch -- luckily the highlights are yet to come. For anyone who writes or reads reviews, Comedy Central's Review with Forest Macneil is ready to scratch your scoring itch in a funny, out of control way each week. Last season Forest reviewed addiction, theft, racism, orgies and many other topics -- we can't wait to see what season two brings. Netflix is ready this week with Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, a prequel to the movie. ESPN also has its final 30 for 30 of this round of documentaries, as Angry Sky focuses on Felix Baumgartner predecessor Nick Piantanida's three attempts at setting a highest jump record. Finally, this weekend a collection of Reading Rainbow episodes is coming to Netflix.Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Weekends with Engadget: Android Wear review, ditching social media and more!
This week, we reviewed Google's Android Wear platform, examined a few practical steps toward ditching social media, watched a sniper hit his target without looking and took a look at the phenomenon of social media activism. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
Daily Roundup: Windows 9 gets morphing powers, Reading Rainbow wins Kickstarter and more!
Today, we watch Reading Rainbow become the most popular Kickstarter project ever, look at a mood-sensing blanket from British Airways, evaluate Samsung's new flash memory and learn about Windows 9's morphing abilities. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
'Reading Rainbow' is the most popular Kickstarter to date
As it turns out, there are a lot of people who want LeVar Burton teaching kids how to read. The Reading Rainbow remake has just become the most popular Kickstarter project, ever -- it broke the record with over 91,600 backers on June 30th. That puts it ahead of legendary efforts like the OUYA game console, the original Pebble smartwatch and the Veronica Mars movie, and it still has roughly two days left to go as of this writing.
Funding push would put Reading Rainbow on phones and game consoles
LeVar Burton had no trouble crowdfunding Reading Rainbow for the web; now, he'd like your help bringing it to living rooms and pockets everywhere. His team has announced a $5 million stretch goal that, if reached, will port his literary initiative to mobile devices, game consoles and set-top boxes. Yes, that would return the program to TV (if not quite in the traditional sense) after an eight-year hiatus. The goal would also expand free student access to from 1,500 classrooms to 7,500. Burton already has over $3 million as we write this, but there's still some distance to go -- if you're interested in putting Reading Rainbow on your kid's Android tablet or Xbox, you'll want to make a pledge at the source link.
Backers pledge over $1 million to bring Reading Rainbow to the web
Few things in this world are as moving as a potent mix of nostalgia and passion. Don't just take my word for it: just look at the more than 22,000 people who backed LeVar Burton's vision of bringing Reading Rainbow to the web on Kickstarter. That's more than a million dollars raised in less than a day, and it's all to help kids realize that theeeeeey can be anythiiiiiiiiing.
LeVar Burton on Google Glass: 'It disturbed me'
"It disturbed me. I was skeptical... [and] I'm a person that's very open to technology." That's the reaction LeVar Burton, the man best known from Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation, first had when encountering Google Glass backstage at Engadget Expand. Burton, a self-described edutainment pioneer, acknowledges the disruptive power new technologies can have on media and culture -- after all, he did help transform television into a worthy educational tool/babysitter with his PBS program. But even with that storied success, and his company's current inroads into digital with an iPad Reading Rainbow application, Burton still had a "knee-jerk" response when confronted with Glass. Although his celebrity status and the resulting paranoia could have something to do with it.
Live from Expand: LeVar Burton
For more than 20 years, LeVar Burton helped kids discover the magic of books through the beloved PBS show Reading Rainbow. Both Burton and the program have returned, albeit in a form more befitting of the early 21st century. The actor-turned-educator joins us on stage to discuss how technology can be used to expand young minds. November 9, 2013 1:15:00 PM EST Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from New York City right here!
Re-Reading Rainbow: an interview with LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton has to take a moment. He pauses, dabs his eyes with a tissue, taking it all in: the washed-out white room, over-exposed by the sun, filled with journalists, industry reps and friends in rows of folding chairs, red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Large balloons hang from the corners of the room, dressed up like hot air balloons, carrying small, empty baskets. A guitar sits next to an amp off the corner of the stage while the Reading Rainbow logo beams on a flatscreen monitor, largely unchanged since its heyday a quarter-century ago. Burton, too, appears mostly unchanged since those days, aside from closer-cropped hair, more neatly manicured facial hair and a smart, mustard suit jacket. Reading Rainbow launches iPad app, we go hands-on The Engadget Show 34: LeVar Burton and weather balloons over Alaska There's plenty to be emotional about, of course, hitting the stage on the tail of an introduction by producer Mark Wolfe, who calls Burton, "my best friend." The return of Reading Rainbow - now in the form of an iPad app - has been a long time coming, the beloved children's series having been largely MIA since being pulled from the airwaves in 2009, after a 26-year run. "This is two years in the making," Burton begins in his familiarly gentle cadence as we sit down for an interview roughly an hour later, "and I'm really just overwhelmed with the response. It's like making a movie. You're just so close to it and you sometimes lose perspective, you can't see the forest for the trees, that sort of thing. There's so much that's gone into it, so much work, so much sweat, so much blood." A lot, certainly, has gone into the launch, Burton singling out theme song composer Steve Horelick and singer Tina Fabrique in the audience. "It's my first time meeting her in-person," he explains, extending a hand to bring her up on stage. "Butterfly in the sky," she begins, as though not a single day had passed in the last two and a half decades that she didn't wake up singing that line. "I can go twice as high," Burton joins in. By "take a look, it's in a book," nearly everyone in attendance adds to the chorus. It's a surreal sight placed up against the standard fare of tech press conferences, where bloggers elbow one another to shoot tablets on stands behind bulletproof plexiglass, and before the crowd finishes singing "a Reading Rainbow," Burton's eyes aren't the only misty ones in the house.
Distro Issue 48 arrives with the Nexus Q, Levar Burton and more
After a brief respite to recover from last week's hot dog and homemade ice cream comas, our tablet mag is back in action. Getting our e-publication affairs back in order, Brian Heater sits down with Levar Burton to chat about Reading Rainbow, a new iPad app and Star Trek gadgetry. Hitting on another bit of childhood nostalgia for many of us at Engadget HQ, Alexis Santos drops by NASA's Launch Control Center (LCC) for a tour after more than three decades of operation. On the review front, we roll up our sleeves and put both the Nexus Q and the Samsung Series 9 through the wringer while offering some in-depth impressions. "Eyes-On" takes a peek at the Google booty offered to I/O attendees, "Hands-On" our latest gadget outings and Gaikai's founder admits his reliance on the PowerPoint gods in the Q&A. Don't take our word for it. Snag your copy of the e-magazine with a few clicks on the download links that follow. Distro Issue 48 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Reading Rainbow launches iPad app, we go hands-on (video)
The rainbow chairs, miniature hot air balloons and child care at yesterday's Reading Rainbow press event were a welcome change from the standard mood lighting and Adele songs that set the scene for most tech launches these days. Of course, this wasn't just any press event -- this was Reading Rainbow, the eagerly anticipated return of the beloved children's program cancelled by PBS back in 2009 after a 26 year run. Host LeVar Burton was clearly emotional when he hit the stage, dabbing tears before discussing the two-year journey that culminates today with the release of the Reading Rainbow iPad App. Burton gave a quick demo of the app on stage (including a little technical hiccup, resulting in the sly TNG nod, "I'm not an engineer, I just play one on television"), and after a brief, misty-eyed rendition of the Reading Rainbow theme song by its original singer, Tina Fabrique, the walls behind us opened up to reveal a group of kids sitting on beanbag chairs around a table, putting the app through its paces. We also managed to get some hands-on time with it, without having to elbow any small children in the process (not that we weren't willing to do what it took to get the story). Check out some impressions and video after the break.%Gallery-158604%
Reading Rainbow app coming tonight, will be subscription-based (updated)
If you're right around my age (a couple years past 30), you'll probably also have fond memories of watching Levar Burton's Reading Rainbow program on PBS all those years ago. Burton, in addition with his work on Star Trek, has remained a pretty well-known figure for both Trekkies and those in education. Late last year, he announced that Reading Rainbow would be coming back as an iPad app, and the app is arriving on the App Store this evening. The app isn't quite live yet as of this writing, but it will be a subscription affair for kids. For $9.99 a month (or slightly cheaper if you buy in six-month installments), the app will deliver books, interactive educational content, and other videos and information. Some of the books included (which have been supplied by a number of various educational partners) will be read by Burton himself, while some will be performed by other speakers as well (just like the original TV show). It might be a bit much for simple nostalgia, but if you have kids currently looking for this kind of content, it sounds like a great deal. The Reading Rainbow app is set to go live later this evening. Update: The app's now out, so head over to the App Store and check it out!
Reading Rainbow roaring back with RRKidz iPad app, 'disruptive' ebook technology in tow
LeVar Burton may best be known 'round these parts for his role in Star Trek, but he'll soon be known as the guy who made childhood reading relevant again. It wasn't that long ago that today's up-and-coming adults were soaking up all sorts of useful knowledge during their summers, glued to a PBS station and doing their darndest to climb inside of mum's CRT television. And now, their kids will be doing likewise -- but with an iPad. Burton has plans to produce an educational RRKidz iOS app that enables readers to "explore topics of interest in a multimedia-rich environment, with voice-over-enhanced children's books, familiar videos of Burton at real-life places, and games." In order to do so, he's planning a "disruptive" technology that'll bolster a conventional PDF book with basic animations, voice-overs and games "in a matter of hours." There's no specific time table on a release, but we're guessing Burton's moving along as usual pace: Mach 5.
Reading Rainbow to be rebooted for iPad
Reading Rainbow, a TV show geared toward encouraging children to read books, aired for over 20 years on PBS before the network's financial troubles forced the show to shut down in 2006. Reading Rainbow is coming back, but in a very next-gen fashion; rather than a TV show, Reading Rainbow will now be an iPad app. According to Fast Company, former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton has launched a for-profit venture, RRKidz, that will produce a multimedia twist on Reading Rainbow's old TV format. The venture's first project will be an iPad app. Featuring 300 books at launch, the app will include voiceovers, animation, games, and videos. According to Burton, RRKidz has technology at its disposal that will allow them to enhance a PDF children's book with multimedia content "in a matter of hours." When launched, the app will have a monthly subscription model, which Burton hopes will encourage children to explore more titles. App developers and ebook writers have already discovered that the iPad is an ideal device for getting kids excited about reading, so Reading Rainbow's move to the device is a welcome one.
