Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

If certain video and computer games are proving to have better stories, characters and production design than a lot of movies and TV shows, then the Sci Fi Channel’s latest announcement subscribes to the Don Corleone theory of business: keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The channel is joining with gaming company Trion to develop something that’s both a TV show and an online game. The as-yet-untitled show is expected to premiere on your TV and PC in 2010.

There have been many movie and TV-based games but the consensus among gamers is that most of them have sucked. And movies or TV shows based on video games have generally suffered the same fate (see Boll, Uwe.) But Sci Fi Channel officials are quoted as saying that their writers will work side-by-side with gaming designers from day one in the hopes of achieving what many industry observers have hoped would be the next chapter in interactive entertainment. As Sam Howe, Sci Fi Channel president, told the L.A. Times:

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It could be the first 21st century plague. Or a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. In any event, a Santa Fe, New Mexico man is leading the charge to get wireless hotspots banned from public buildings in his city, claiming he and others are ultra-sensitive to Wi-Fi radio frequencies.

No medical or scientific groups have come out yet to substantiate claims like these, which have been making the media rounds for the last couple of years; a British woman who is trying to raise awareness about what some are calling electro-sensitivity received some press last year. Her story (and even the photo of her in protective headgear, which looks like a beekeeper’s helmet) may remind you of a Todd Haynes film from 1995, “Safe,” starring Julianne Moore as a woman who was having unhealthy reactions to toxins in air, water and food - “environmental pollution.” Are we now on the cusp of spectrum sickness?

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It’s a different kind of web that has snared Indiana Jones in his latest cinematic adventure. In his first three films, he was always lurking through some spiderweb-draped cavern of one sort or another, and he managed to survive each one. But now (cue John Williams music)...will he live through the danger that is the World Wide Web?

Its US premiere is May 22nd, but “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is screened at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend and the high-speed lines will be on fire as soon as the last credit rolls on the screen at the Salle Lumiere Palais. It’s the latest example of media conglomerates vs. the 21st century as they find themselves once again at the mercy of anonymous bloggers and web-based critics. Already there have been several traditional-media stories about negative early reviews of “Indy 4” at Harry Knowles’ Ain’t It Cool News website - the pioneer in Internet influence on the media - and how those reviews may have influenced Paramount’s Cannes plans for its Steven Spielberg blockbuster. 

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Just when gadgets are going sleeker, sexier, and slimmer, mankind has gone in the other direction. That is, went bigger, larger, and rounder.

Isn’t technology supposed to make our lives better and not our waistlines bigger? But it looks like this comic from Clubic.com perfectly describes it all. For me, this isn’t just about the man and the television but rather the whole technology and gadget innovations we’ve seen throughout the decades. That, as technology progresses, so should man, but it looks like the reverse is happening.

Read [Wired]

The MPillow is the gift for that geek in your life who just can’t get to sleep. You can connect to your computer wirelessly to download your own music or access music provided by the MPillow servers. At the same time you can select which lighting option you prefer from the technogel translucent plastic gel that allows the lighting to change “colors and intensity as the music or sounds change creating the perfect ambiance for the user.”

So with your own disco and flashing music going on under neath your head you are bound to get to sleep easily!

Maybe somebody should explain that this was invented years ago. When I was at college an evening on the beer, crashed on the bed with the lights and music on and the room spinning was pretty much the same thing.

Via [Pocket Lint]