Considering that Hugo was a flick capable of earning 4 out of 4 stars from noted 3D hater Roger Ebert, it will be interesting to see how it’s received upon its home release February 28th. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and currently rocking a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the fantasy tale of a boy who crosses paths with legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès in 1930s Paris may be the best example yet of how an artist can make use of the effect. The two hour six minute flick will be available in Blu-ray 3D combo pack, and 2D Blu-ray editions, with a 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack and special featurettes on the making of the film and the real magician/director who inspired the story.

The release date is two days after the Academy Awards, and if this flick can snag Best Picture or Best Director it could become a turning point for 3D. New 3D movies are already on deck from other high-profile directors like Ridley Scott (Alien prequel Prometheus) and Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby), while big budget conversions like Star Wars — coming to theaters next week — and already-sold-out-for-Valentines Day Titanic test the waters for older movies. Add in sports broadcasts planned including UFC 143 tonight and the London Olympics in the summer, and 2012 is shaping up to be an especially rough year for 3D haters — you have our deepest sympathies. Those on the other side of the fence can check after the break for a press release with more details and (2D) theatrical trailer.

Continue reading Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’ Blu-ray 3D set for release February 28th — 3D haters beware

Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’ Blu-ray 3D set for release February 28th — 3D haters beware originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since kicking off its free 3D Experience channel, Sony has managed to notch up 10 million viewers in just short of six months. The channel offers up samples of music, movies, sports and documentaries for free, in an effort to tempt viewers into ponying up cash for the full experience. The channel, available on its Bravia 3DTV range and Blu-ray players, has now expanded from its five initial launch countries to 60. It’s currently offering tastes of forthcoming Sony titles like The Amazing Spiderman and content from last year’s World Cup, with a total of around 100 free snippets to peruse on the Japanese iteration of the channel. You hear Sony well up with pride in the PR below. Well, it’s had a pretty tough time recently.

Continue reading Sony’s 3D Experience channel tops 10 million views, some people like the extra dimension

Sony’s 3D Experience channel tops 10 million views, some people like the extra dimension originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see a handful of 3D tablets pop up at CES next week. In the meantime, however, Brando’s got a pretty good hold on the market, with the clunkily-named GADMEI T863-3D Tablet. The Gingerbread slate offers up 3D images and video on its eight-inch display, without the need for glasses. You’ll also get HDMI out, a microSD slot and a front-facing camera on the thing. With 512MB of RAM on-board, this $199 tablet won’t be the quickest one around, but at least you’ll be able to brag about being the first person on your block with a 3D slate, for whatever that’s worth. Video of the tablet in action after the break.

Continue reading Brando gives the world the sub-$200 glasses-free 3D tablet it demands

Brando gives the world the sub-$200 glasses-free 3D tablet it demands originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The newswires were buzzing with alternative energy developments this week as Inhabitat reported that Apple filed a patent for a hydrogen fuel cell-powered laptop that can last an entire week without needing a recharge. We also celebrated the warm winter holidays with a look at the world’s first solar-powered menorah, GE unveiled an awesome set of 3D-printed Christmas tree ornaments, and we brought you a first look at the dazzling LED-studded 2012 Times Square new year’s eve ball. We also showcased several amazing examples of paper technology as Sony flipped the switch on a paper-powered battery and Joon & Jung unveiled an alarm clock with a cute paper shell.

Eco transportation was a hot topic as well this week as Porsche unveiled plans to develop the third generation of its flywheel-boosted 911 GT3 R hybrid and the UK’s new hybrid double-decker busses hit the streets of London. We also showcased plans for a greenery-filled AirTrain that harnesses Nasa-patented air purifying technology and we brought you Foster + Partner’s plans for a striking new high-speed rail station in Galicia, Spain.

In other news, this week we saw Waterstudio launch plans for a floating Sea Tree skyscraper that provides habitat for flora & fauna, a scientist has harnessed bioluminescent bacteria to combat pollution in a fragile Florida ecosystem, and researchers developed a new breed of self-fixing electronics that use liquid metal capsules to heal themselves. Finally, we brought you several hot developments in wearable tech – a set of 3D printed eyeglasses, a site that uses your webcam to measure your clothing size, and the world’s first pair of over-ear headphones made with sustainable materials.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: hydrogen fuel cell-powered laptop, hybrid buses and bioluminescent bacteria originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Lumus teases 720p video glasses, takes transparency to a new level (video)

Lumus teases 720p video glasses, takes transparency to a new level (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s got some wonderful ideas here at E3 2011, but the company’s left quite a few threads for journalists to sew up — what’s the battery life like? How much will continuous client gameplay cost? Just how does that split-screen 3D monitor work? Sony’s 3D gaming czar Mick Hocking flew in from Liverpool to talk stereoscopy with the press, and we’ve got some answers for that last one. What you see above is an LCD panel that refreshes at 240Hz, and delivering 3D at 60 frames per second to each eye, by using the typical active shutter glasses technique of blocking light to your left eye when the “right” image is is displayed, and vice versa for the right eye. However, the glasses have a special button that makes both lenses of one player’s glasses display images for the left eye, and both lenses of another player display images for the right, allowing each to have their own 60fps feed all the time for private split-screen gaming.

While that potentially means you could use these glasses on non-Sony 3DTVs too and get the same effect (or, you know, just pick up a Sharp Quattron 3D or Vizio Versus, which do much the same thing) Hocking told us that this particular unit also does additional software processing to reduce ghosting. But what of games? The 3D guru said there’ll be a number of titles supporting the feature when the monitor hits this fall, and that other 3D titles could potentially (and easily) be patched if they also support split-screen to begin with. Hocking says developer enthusiasm’s been particularly intense for split-screen, even more so than the holographic and head-mounted display technologies that Sony’s working on, and we may see the feature integrated in Bravia televisions should the idea take off.

Sony’s 24-inch PlayStation 3D ‘dual-view’ monitor: here’s how it works originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s looking like we’re about three weeks away from our first dose of glasses-free 3D on a smartphone, and Sprint is going to be the one getting you all cross-eyed. But, before you can hold a device like HTC’s EVO 3D to your head, the FCC has to make sure it won’t be doing anything too nasty to your gray matter. The phone and its myriad of antennas — covering CDMA, EVDO, WiMAX, Bluetooth, and WiFi — all ran the gauntlet successfully, and, in the process, exposed a long list of componentry. No, sadly, there’s no teardown involved with this one, but we now know the model numbers of just about every major piece of equipment wedged behind that parallax-barrier screen, from its Qualcomm processor to its Broadcom wireless chipset. Really, though, you only need to know one thing: June 24th.

HTC EVO 3D walks its WiMAX by the FCC on its way to Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 04:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say what you will about Samsung’s questionable chaebol business practices and KIRFy ways, at least the company’s got the stones to openly target a specific demographic with its marketing pitches. This time Sammy’s new AF315 All-in-One PC is targeting stylish and sophisticated women who’ve moved on from their pink peddle pusher ways. The most notable features are that big 23-inch LCD coupled with Samsung’s switchable active shutter 2D / 3D technology and narrow 11-mm bezel. Otherwise, we’re looking at a Core i5 CPU, 1TB 7200RPM hard disk, USB 3.0, TV receiver, Blu-ray player, remote control, 3D glasses, and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo in the box when this thing ships in South Korea starting tomorrow for 2.19 million won or just a tad less than $2,000.

Samsung’s AF315 All-in-One 3D PC targets the sophisticated woman and those who aspire to be one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nobody likes being bothered while they’re really getting into a movie, and as we all know you can’t really get into a movie unless it’s in 3D. Right? Sir Ian McKellen took things a step further, not only watching a screening of The Hobbit in the third dimension but doing it in character, and looking ever so slightly perturbed at having his viewing session interrupted by a rogue photographer. The guy in the back doesn’t seem to mind, though.

Thomas: “Galadriel, is that new shampoo?”
Tim: “These glasses may be passive but I you may find me getting very aggressive if you use that flash one more time.”
Brian: “I’ll tell you what, you’re making me Gandalf the Red right now.”
Joe: “Would ‘one standard to rule them all’ be asking too much?”
Michael: “ZZ Top called, they want their roadie back”
Terrence: “Even Gandalf the Grey is powerless against the magic of these glasses which make any man look like a 90-year-old blind woman.”
Richard Lai: “Ha, no 3D for that flaming cyclops in Mordor.”
Darren: “One ring. Two Towers. 3Ds.”
Christopher: “Sir Ian McKellen: the latest victim of Rick Rubin’s Ambush Makeover.”
Sean Buckley: “Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee. What have I told you about interrupting me during my stories?”
Josh Fruhlinger: “You know how they say 3D is bad for children? This dude is 14.”

Caption Contest: you shall not interrupt Gandalf’s 3D viewing session originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 May 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like 3D isn’t just a fad, folks, so long as we’re talking about silicon — Intel just announced that it has invented a 3D “Tri-Gate” transistor that will allow the company to keep shrinking chips, Moore’s Law naysayers be darned. Intel says the transistors will use 50 percent less power, conduct more current and provide 37 percent more speed than their 2D counterparts thanks to vertical fins of silicon substrate that stick up through the other layers, and that those fancy fins could make for cheaper chips too — currently, though, the tri-gate tech adds an estimated 2 to 3 percent cost to existing silicon wafers. Intel says we’ll see the new technology first in its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, going into mass production in the second half of the year, and it’s planning 14nm chips in 2013 and 10nm chips in 2015. Also, 3D transistors won’t be limited to the cutting edge — Intel reps told journalists that they “will extend across the entire range of our product line,” including mobile devices. Three videos and a press release await you after the break.

Continue reading Intel will mass produce 3D transistors for all future CPUs, starting with 22nm Ivy Bridge (video)

Intel will mass produce 3D transistors for all future CPUs, starting with 22nm Ivy Bridge (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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