Sony brings the Holodeck to life, throws in giant sea monsters for free (video)

The Holodeck is real and there's no Lt. Barclay to make things awkward. Using a combination of a Steadicam, multiple EyeToy cameras,PlayStation Move controllers, projection mapping, motion tracking, spandex-clad actors and giant rubber sea monster tentacles, Sony Europe, Studio Output and Marshmallow Laser Feast shot three web videos to highlight the immersiveness of movies rented or purchased from the PlayStation Store. Impressively, the shots rely exclusively on visual tricks, with zero editing or postproduction work. Is this the future? See for yourself after the break and relive the joy of the Holodeck without having to interrupt Worf from one of his weird workout routines. 

Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/03/sony-brings-the-holodeck-to-life-throws-in-giant-sea-monsters-f/

3DConnexion announces SpaceMouse Pro for 3D aficionados, galactic rodents

3DConnexion's SpaceMouse Pro won't do much to quench your nostalgia for Hickory, Dickory or Dock, but it could make your three dimensional workflow a bit easier. Announced yesterday, this new peripheral boasts a proprietary "six degrees of freedom sensor" for smoother 3D navigation, along with a quintet of QuickView keys, providing instant access to 12 different viewing angles. Compatible with both PCs and Macs, the mouse also features four "intelligent function keys" to control your most frequently used apps, as well as an onscreen display for instant feedback. Designers, engineers and astronauts can grab the SpaceMouse Pro for $300, at the source link below.

 

 

Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/30/3dconnexion-announces-spacemouse-pro-for-3d-aficionados-galacti/

New Samsung chip has two of everything: two cores, 2GHz, 2560 x 1600 graphics

Sammy's current Cortex A9-based chips are hardly slackers -- the Galaxy Note already proved that to any lingering doubters. Nevertheless, the next-gen Exynos 5250 SoC promises to double that sort of performance, by harnessing two Cortex-A15 chips clocked at 2GHz each, along with a GPU that can output resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA). It's like big.LITTLE computing, except without the LITTLE. Samsung reckons it'll start mass producing the 5250 for use in high-end tablets by the second quarter of next year, which should be just in time to stop NVIDIA from getting too cocky.
Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/30/new-samsung-chip-has-two-of-everything-two-cores-2ghz-2560-x/

Must See HDTV (November 28th - December 4th)

Welcome to the midseason break -- while many shows are either already on hiatus or getting ready for one, cable favorites like The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles are just getting restarted. Of course, given the season that's not all there is to watch with a slew of movie debuts and one-off events like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and Grammy nominations taking place as well. Check below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listings of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
This week is a good one for 3D fans, in theaters Martin Scorsese's Hugo is racking up the acclaims for its integration of effects and story, while at home viewers can finally experience Werner Herzog's trek into the Chauvet Caves of South France, exposing the oldest known human drawings. The entire documentary is filmed in 3D to help bring the shape and depth of the cave paintings alive, and by all accounts it's effective. Since you're probably not on the (very short list) of people who will ever be allowed access to the cave and its delicate relics, this is your best shot at taking a step 35,000 years into the past at an entirely different era of humankind. Check out the trailer after the break, but after seeing this one in theaters earlier this year we can definitely say 3D is the only way to watch.
(November 29th, $18.99 on Amazon)
College Football
The last week of the college football season means everything comes down to these games to decide conference championships and who goes on to which bowl games. From the Big East being decided by the result of West Virginia vs. South Florida, to a couple of brand new conference championship games for the Pac-12 and Big Ten, to the always classic ACC and SEC football championships, and even a few rivalry games like Baylor/Texas and Oklahoma/Oklahoma State -- it's all here. No matter which team you root for there will be something at stake this weekend, so arrange your schedule accordingly.
The Take
After jumping into the original programming game earlier this year with Moby Dick, Encore is ready to push The Take, a British crime drama. Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson, The Dark Knight Rises) stars as Freddie Jackson, an ex-con fresh out of prison who is trying to take over London's underworld with the help of the rest of his similarly crooked family. As you can tell by the name, the theme here is that everyone and everything is available for a price, we're willing to spend an hour of our time and see if this is a series worth watching thanks to its strong cast, check out a quick trailer embedded after the break.
(December 2nd, Encore, 9PM) 

Blu-ray & Games

• Cave of Forgotten Dreams (3D)
• 30 Minutes or Less
• Our Idiot Brother
• Another Earth
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
• The Smurfs (3D)
• The Art of Getting By
• Smallville: The Complete Tenth Season
• Sly Cooper Trilogy (PS3)

Monday

• The Closer (winter premiere), TNT, 9PM
• Rizzoli & Isles (winter premiere), TNT, 10PM
• House (fall finale), Fox, 9PM
• Bored To Death (season finale), HBO, 9PM
• The Sing-Off (season finale), NBC, 8PM
• Urban Legends (season finale), Syfy, 11, 11:30 & 11:59PM
• You Deserve It, ABC, 9PM
• Giants/Saints Monday Night Football, ESPN, 8:30PM
• Terra Nova, Fox, 8PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 9PM
• American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior, Discovery, 9PM
• Enlightened, HBO, 9:30PM
• Rock Center with Brian Williams, NBC, 10PM
• American Guns, Discovery, 10PM

Tuesday

• Victoria's Secret Fall Fashion Show (special presentation), CBS, 10PM
• Ringer (fall finale), CW, 9PM
• Scott Turow's Innocent (special presentation), TNT, 9PM
• Sons of Anarchy (season finale part 1), FX, 10PM
• Auction Hunters, Spike TV (season finale), 10PM
• Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
• Glee, Fox, 8PM
• 90210, CW, 8PM
• Man Up!, ABC, 8:30PM
• New Girl, Fox, 9PM
• Raising Hope, Fox, 9:30PM
• Knights of Mayhem, National Geographic, 9PM
• Sanctuary, Syfy, 10PM
• Parenthood, NBC, 10PM
• Covert Affairs, USA, 10PM
• Flashpoint, Ion, 10PM
• Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan, G4, 10PM

Wednesday

• I Hate My Teenage Daughter (series premiere), Fox, 9:30PM
• Blue Mountain State (season finale), Spike, 11PM
• Mythbusters (fall finale), Discovery, 9PM
• Whitechapel (season finale), BBCA, 10PM
• Christmas in Rockefeller Center 2011 (special presentation), NBC, 8PM
• Grammy Nominations Concert Live!, (special presentation), CBS, 10PM
• Ricochet (special presentation), TNT, 9PM
• West Virginia/South Florida college football, ESPN & ESPN 3D, 7PM
• Survivor, CBS, 8PM
• The X-Factor, Fox, 8PM
• Inside The NFL, Showtime, 9PM
• Harry's Law, NBC, 9PM
• Nova, PBS, 9PM
• Rocket City Rednecks, National Geographic, 9 & 9:30PM
• Psych, USA, 10PM
• The Real World, MTV, 10PM
• Law & Order SVU, NBC, 10PM
• The Ultimate Fighter, Spike, 10PM
• American Horror Story, FX, 10PM

Thursday

• Weed Wars (series premiere), Discovery, 10PM
• Big Shrimpin', History, 10PM
• Eagles/Seahawks Thursday Night Football, NFL Network, 8PM
• Community, NBC, 8PM
• The X-Factor, Fox, 8PM
• Parks & Recreation, NBC, 8:30PM
• Bones, Fox, 9PM
• The Office, NBC, 9PM
• Less Than Kind, DirecTV 101, 9PM
• Call Me Fitz, DirecTV 101, 9:30PM
• Whitney, NBC, 9:30PM
• Burn Notice, USA, 10PM
• Prime Suspect, NBC, 10PM
• It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, FX, 10PM
• Beavis & Butt-head, MTV, 10PM
• Good Vibes, MTV, 10:30PM
• The League, FX, 10:30PM
• Gigolos, Showtime, 11PM

Friday

• Pac-12 College Football Championship: Oregon/UCLA, Fox, 7:30PM
• MAC College Football Championship: Northern Illinois/Ohio, ESPN2, 6PM
• The Take (part 1 of 4, series premiere), Encore, 9PM
• Game of Your Life (special presentation), NBC, 8PM
• Nikita (fall finale), CW, 8PM
• Supernatural (fall finale), CW, 9PM
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cartoon Network, 8PM
• House of Payne, TBS, 9 & 9:30PM
• Sanctuary, Syfy, 10PM
• Onion News Network, IFC, 10PM
• Boss, Starz, 10PM
• X-Men Anime, G4, 11PM

Saturday

• The Ultimate Fighter (season finale), Spike, 8PM
• Conference USA College Football Championship Game: Southern Miss/Houston, ABC, 11AM
• SEC College Football Championship Game: Georgia/LSU, CBS, 3PM
• ACC College Football Championship: Clemson/Virginia Tech, ESPN & ESPN 3D, 7PM
• Big Ten College Football Championship: Michigan State/Wisconsin, Fox, 7:30PM
• Oklahoma/Oklahoma State college football, ABC, 7PM
• Texas/Baylor college football, ESPN, 2:30PM
• Primeval, BBCA, 9PM
• Saturday Night Live: Steve Buscemi / The Black Keys, NBC, 11:30PM

Sunday

• Neverland (part 1 of 2), Syfy, 9PM
• Hung (season finale), HBO, 10PM
• Around The World In 80 Ways (season finale), History, 11PM
• Lions/Saints football, NBC, 8:15PM
• 60 Minutes, CBS, 7PM
• The Cleveland Show, Fox, 7:30PM
• The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
• Once Upon A Time, ABC, 8PM
• The Amazing Race, CBS, 8PM
• Allen Gregory, Fox, 8:30PM
• Family Guy, Fox, 9PM
• Leverage, TNT, 9PM
• Dexter, Showtime, 9PM
• Desperate Housewives, ABC, 9PM
• The Good Wife, CBS, 9PM
• Boardwalk Empire, HBO, 9PM
• The Cleveland Show, Fox, 9:30PM
• Hell on Wheels, AMC, 10PM
• Homeland, Showtime, 10PM
• CSI: Miami, CBS, 10PM
• Pan Am, ABC, 10PM
• Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/28/must-see-hdtv-november-28th-december-4th/

Sharp AQUOS SH-01D appears on NTT DoCoMo, offers up glasses-free 3D

Not content with brandishing a medley of LTE-packed smartphones this season, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has confirmed a December release for Sharp's AQUOS SH-01D. While it lacks any 4G chops, the Android phone is cocooned in waterproof protection and packs a 12.1 megapixel camera on the back. An OMAP 4430 1GHz dual-core processor runs Gingerbread on the 3D-capable 1280 x 720 ASV display -- all crammed inside a waifish 9.7mm frame. Despite a recent visit to the FCC, there's no word on whether the water-defiant device will brave the Pacific ocean to arrive on these shores. However, any ex-patriots gasping for the SH-10D's potent screen will be able to grab one on December 2 and can unravel more specification mysteries in the Google-translated press release below.

Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/28/sharp-aquos-sh-01d-appears-on-ntt-docomo-offers-up-glasses-free/