The new feature allows you to skip every commercial on recorded programs starting at 1 AM the night after you record. I’m sure television studio executives are having full-on seizures right about now. This is much more than simply being able to push a button and automatically fast-forward through commercial. What Auto Hop does is completely delete commercial and connect the ends of the program for nonstop play.

How awesome is that? This means that you don’t have to pick up the remote to fast-forward; all you need to do is hit play and sit back. If Dish Network is able to weather the inevitable legal storm that this feature will raise from TV studios, I might switch from DirecTV to get this feature alone. However, there is a catch – at this point, Auto Hop only works for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, and only with select “PrimeTime” programming, and only the day after initial broadcast. It’s too bad that they don’t let it work with all commercial programming.

[via Engadget]

Made by NHK and Panasonic, the display has a maximum resolution of 7,860 x 4,320, has almost 34 million pixels and other numbers bigger than the ones that your TV has. It also has “a new drive system to stabilize the picture throughout the panel, by scanning several pixels simultaneously in the vertical direction.”

I predict that in a hundred years, Sony will partner with ImprovEverywhere to bring us Liv3Theatr, an Ultra Hyper Mega 26-Hit Combo Finish High Definition Display that looks so real because it is real. Pick a channel and Sony will teleport improv actors behind your display to perform whatever show is on that channel or teleport you to where the show is being held. If you can find the remote.

[via Diginfo via Reddit]

What we have here is a video of the demolition of the screen on a defunct LG plasma display, courtesy of a microwave transformer. By connecting the high voltage leads of one of these dangerous transformers to the screen of this plasma, YouTuber Aussie50 puts on a spectactular lightshow, while risking life and limb.

Amazingly, the display doesn’t just peter out after a couple of minutes of high-voltage, but keeps going for almost 15 minutes. Needless to say, playing around with plasma screens and microwave transformers is really dangerous stuff, and you could kill yourself in an instant if you accidentally come in contact with a spark – or flying glass from an exploding plasma screen. Suffice it to say, do not try this at home. Leave it to the professionals (or the professional lunatics like Aussie50.)

[via Doobybrain]

The Energy Stream Radio&TV 120 has built-in Wi-Fi and can stream music from over 15,000 internet radio stations and over 2,000 internet TV channels. In addition, it’s can play a wide variety of audio and video formats through its internal speaker (or headphones) and its 2.4-inch LCD screen. It’s got 4GB of on-board storage, and can be expanded up to 16GB extra using a MicroSDHC card.

Energy Sistem hasn’t posted its dimensions or weight, but the entire device is clearly small enough to carry around in your backpack or bag, though it looks like it might be a little big to fit in your pocket.

If you’re interested in the Energy Stream Radio&TV 120, it sells for €89.90 (~$119 USD) over at Energy Sistem’s website.

Keep an eye out this weekend on the National Geographic channel because the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark is going to be featured. If you have ever wanted to know how the bricks of awesome are made, this is the show for you. Hopefully, they’ll also show how LEGO comes up with the designs for the stuff they package.

I bet the job of the guys and gals that come up with new kits is a highly coveted position. Check out a clip from the episode here to see what the show will be like. This should be a really cool episode. And set your DVRs for Saturday, January 21 at 8pm Eastern.

(P.S. If you happen to live in Europe, it looks they already ran this on the show Megafactories, and you can check it out on YouTube now.)

[via Brothers-Brick]

Sony is using a red, green, and blue LED for each of the corresponding pixels on the screen. That means that the 55-inch prototypes it’s showing off at CES each have about 6 million LEDs to generate a 1080p image. The tiny LEDs are mounted directly to the front of the display. The contrast is said to be so high that it can’t be measured.

The TV also promises some very intense colors and perhaps the most awesome image quality ever. The LED tech allows the set to have a 1.4 times wider color gamut than conventional backlit LCD screens. There is no word on when the tech will come to market or how much it will cost. You can count on it taking a long time and being expensive when it lands though.

You choose the color and this entire rear end of a Porsche is hand-built, with 100% original parts. Also available are other cars, like this 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, which holds a 52″ Sony LCD. It’s neat and all, but it would be cool if you could get the front end too, and create a nice Portal effect in your home, but that’s just me.

[via Autoblog via Dvice]

The show was trying to figure out how fast a cannonball could travel, when it misfired and shot hundreds of feet in the air, eventually going through someone’s home, hitting another roof and finally entering a minivan and hitting the dashboard.

When it hit the first home, it entered through the front door and bounced around, heading to the second floor before leaving through a back bedroom wall.

“This cannonball was supposed to go through several barrels of water and through a cinder block, and then ultimately into the side of the hill,” according to J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Jj-CErr0VOY

The team was at the Camp Parks Military Firing Reservation as usual and they must have fired this thing with enormous power to do so much devastation.

[via cbslocal]

TVs require not just a higher scan rate to display content in 3D, but special built-in hardware to decode and handle 3D signals. However, Marvel Digital’s 3D converter box lets users of non-3D televisions watch content in 3D using old-school anaglyphic 3D technology. Instead of red and blue glasses, Marvel uses amber and blue glasses to view 3D content.

Now before you get all excited about watching that Avatar 3D Blu-ray disc on your older TV, it looks like this box can either produce simulated 3D visuals – from 2D sources, as well as display any content that’s in 3D “side-by-side” format. I’m pretty sure Blu-ray discs are encoded in sequential format, so those probably won’t work, but I suppose you could give it a whirl if your disc player supports 3D. On the plus side, DirecTV and XBox 360′s standard 3D format is “side-by-side,” so you should be able to watch this content in 3D.

In addition to supporting analglyphic 3D, the box will also work with proper 3D TVs (and passive or active shutter lenses) to simulate 3D from 2D content, but many sets already offer this capability. To use the 3D converter box, simply place it inline with your HDMI connected device, and it should take care of the rest for you. It offers full support for HDMI 1.1 through 1.4 specs, and can pass-through 1080p HD video. Keep in mind that “side-by-side” 3D cuts resolution in half, though.

I’m tempted to order one of these just to see how well it works, since my TV doesn’t support 3D. Priced at just 60 bucks, it’s not much of a risk. If you’re interested in giving it a whirl for yourself, you can order the 3D converter box from Marvel Digital.

Artist Guilherme M. Schasiepen took a stab at what he envisions the iTV to look like, and it actually looks pretty slick in his concept renderings.

The so-called “iTV” Apple TV was mentioned as a possibility in Steve Jobs’ recent biography, and rumors have surfaced from time-to-time of Apple trying to crack the living room more holistically than its current Apple TV set-top box.

Guilherme’s concept design melds the slim aluminum and glass industrial look of today’s iMac with the brains and UI found in the latest iOS devices like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. You can also check out an animated 3D rendering of Guilherme’s design here.

The Apple iTV in these concepts has an interface very reminiscent of the current Apple TV, but with a full applications interface, a multi-touch screen, and Siri voice-activated remote control. Pretty much all technologies readily available, and within reach of Apple. About the only part of the concept design I’m not sold on yet is the idea of glasses-free 3D. Thus far, such displays are wildly expensive at large sizes, have poor viewing angles and bad artifacts. I’m unconvinced that Apple will dive into the 3D space until the technology has advanced more, and 3D glasses aren’t Apple’s style.

According to the Jobs bio, the Apple TV would “seamlessly sync with all of your devices and iCloud,” and would “have the simplest user interface you could imagine.” Frankly, I’d just be happy with a TV that looks this good, has a great picture and Apple TV built in. The rest of the features are a bonus. That said, I’m still not 100% convinced that Apple wants to play in the low-margin, slow-turnover business of HDTVs. It’s not like with phones where people want to upgrade every 2 years. Even with today’s advancements, most of us keep our TVs at least 5 years if not much longer.

[via 9to5Mac via SlashGear]

This device is called the MeoTune and it’s a Wi-Fi-enabled 1-Seg TV tuner that will work with Android and iOS devices. It will tune into local TV channels through regular airwaves (no cables required!), and content is viewed through a special app. The MeoTune has got a battery life of 4 hours, which sounds adequate. It can also function as an emergency charger for your smartphone, which is cool.

It’s an interesting device that offers a view into the way that the Japanese use their smartphones. It will probably not make it to the US, and if it ever does, it’ll need a different digital tuner module to be compatible with our networks.

[via Ubergizmo]

The streaming deal in place now will last through February 2012, and then it’s gone. Netflix says that in the beginning Starz was only a small portion some of its mainstream content and now that it has more content providers, Starz is only 8% of its mainstream stuff. I’m not buying that, Starz is almost all of the mainstream content I want to watch. The rest are artsy films and other crap I don’t care about.

Once Starz is gone, I guess I will have to go back to watching on satellite to see the stuff. The content I will really miss are the Starz original shows I won’t be able to watch when I feel like it such as Spartacus. Netflix, you had better replace Starz with some good stuff.

[via Business Insider]

Hitting the activate button will give you access to all of the regular functions. Otherwise, just lay your head down and relax. This combination device will put the power in your pillow for just $40 (USD). You can get it from Brookstone. Who needs to get up ever again?

[via Redferret]

The LED TV Coat has only got 160×120 resolution, so it won’t beat your HDTV, however it’s wearable and portable, so that’s definitely cool. Dave can pipe video into it through an iPod or media player, and the whole thing is powered by a 12V battery. It’s made up out of a bunch of flex boards with LEDs on them, connected by ribbon cables, then hot glued to the coat. A digitizing board converts the video signals into RGB serial data streams to generate the LED images.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Dave built this coat to wear to Burning Man, where he’ll probably try to do some mass hallucinations. For now, you can catch The Simpsons being streamed on his LED TV coat.

[Cathode Corner via Geekologie]

The dock – or stand or holder, whatever you prefer to call it – is handmade and made to order, so you can have one that’ll fit either the original iPad or the iPad 2. It looks nice I guess, although I am a bit concerned about the lack of padding on the inside. Or are the iPad’s screen and case tough enough to withstand a few brushes against wood?

You can order the retro tv iPad dock from Etsy seller miterbox for $60 (USD). Now if only there was an app that could turn the iPad’s screen black and white.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

There are a lot of portable TVs out there in the market, like the Vizio Vmb070 which offers 7 inches of television goodness. While it’s already convenient per se, I’m looking for something that’s a bit more convenient. And if you have an iPhone, then I’ve got some pretty good news for you.

And that convenience comes in the form of the Cydle i30 TV Tuner because all you need is the tuner itself along with your iPhone and you’re all set.

The Cydle i30 looks like a clip-on stand that wraps around your smartphone and comes with an adjustable antenna. The tuner transmits the signal and streams the video to your iPhone via WiFi so you can enjoy watching live programs and events, something that isn’t possible with the internet TV streaming options available nowadays.

No exact release dates or prices are available as of now because the device is still going through the motions and making its way around the block in the FCC. But the Cydle i30 is definitely something that’s worth keeping a close eye on.

[via Mobiledia via Oh! Gizmo]

I love the attention to detail in the drawing, like the broken Narsil sword from Lord of the Rings, the District 9 rifle and that… that pixelated hammer. Is that from Donkey Kong or Ice Climbers? I wish I was geeky enough to be able to identify all of these items, but alas, I’m not. Here’s a numbered version of the drawing:

I wonder if Tenten can fit all those weapons in a single scroll. She probably can. You can buy the weLoaded T-Shirt at Supermarket for $25 (USD). I think I’ve found my new wallpaper.

[via likecool]

I’m a big fan of science fiction because it gives us a look at what could possibly be. Many of the inventions found in classic science fiction have actually come to fruition, thanks in no small part to science fiction itself. I’ve compiled this list of the coolest things I’ve seen in movies and television shows that I wish were real.

Hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II (Watch Here)

I can only imagine that Santa Claus was very confused in the winter of 1989 when he was getting letter after letter about hoverboards. First seen in Back to the Future Part II, the hoverboard was Marty McFly’s souvenir from the future (it’s okay for Marty to take that to 1985, but not OK for him to take the Sports Almanac). I know I’ve been waiting for this to really come out for my entire life, but my friend said his cousin already has one and that they’re coming out soon, so I’m going to start holding my breath.

Neuralizer from Men in Black (Watch Here)

Out of all the cool gadgets from Men in Black, the neuralizer is probably the coolest. It’s part of some of the funniest moments of the film, the most touching moment of the film, and one of the only gadgets mentioned in Will Smith’s rap (though “noisy cricket getting wicked on ya” deserves a mention). Not only does it erase people’s memories, but it’s a great excuse to wear cool sunglasses. Now that I’m thinking of it, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the real Men in Black have one of these things.

Sonic Screwdriver from Doctor Who (Watch Here)

The Doctor’s gizmo of choice on the long-running BBC series Doctor Who can do pretty much anything. The sonic screwdriver has been known to open locks, transmit information and thoughts, perform medical diagnosis, triangulate positions of ghosts, sink ships, operate computers, weld, scan for life-forms, uncork wine bottles, and anything else you can imagine. No Time Lord leaves his home without a sonic screwdriver and it, combined with his TARDIS and psychic paper are part of what makes the Doctor so special. Oh, but it doesn’t work on wood.

Lightsaber from the Star Wars Saga

Prequels notwithstanding, Star Wars is still a big deal. (While I’m on the prequels, though, Darth Maul’s DOUBLE lightsaber? The coolest.) What more is there to say about the lightsaber that hasn’t already been said? It’s maybe the coolest idea ever and it’s hard to imagine a world in which lightsabers aren’t something that everyone knows about. Most of the items on this list are things I’d like to own, but I really think I would end up cutting off a limb or two with one of these.

Holophonor from Futurama (Watch Here)

In Futurama’s 31^st century, the holophonor is a musical instrument that projects images relating to the music being played. Only a few people have the skills necessary to play it, and they can’t play it very well. In order to impress Leela, Fry takes up the holophonor and is, unsurprisingly, not very good. In a moment of desperation, Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil for his robotic hands. With the Robot Devil’s hands, Fry becomes a universally renowned holophonor player, but when the Robot Devil attempts to collect his payment, Fry must choose between the hands and Leela.

Transporter Beams from Star Trek (Watch Here)

Transporter Beams were first used in the original Star Trek series so they didn’t have to show ships landing on planets in order to save money in the effects and props department. Little did they know the transporter would become a science fiction staple. In the many, many reincarnations of Star Trek the transporter is always present. For all the real inventions we now have thanks to Star Trek, going from point A to point B instantaneously has got to be next on the list- even if it means maybe encountering an evil, mustachioed version of yourself.

Point of View Gun from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Watch Here)

This device appeared in the (in my opinion underrated) movie version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Created by Deep Thought and housed on the planet Magrathea, the gun, according to the Guide itself “conveniently does precisely as its name suggests”. When fired at someone, the gun makes that person take on the point of view of the person firing it. This comes in handy for Trillian since Zaphod Beeblebrox has a tough time seeing things from other people’s point of view.

Soylent Green from Soylent Green (Watch Here)

With our own population growing larger and larger, the time is drawing close to think of new and innovative ideas to curb poverty and starvation. The idea may be found in the titular product from the 1973 film Soylent Green. Described as a high-protein plankton, soylent green is introduced as the superior product to soylent red and soylent yellow, the demand skyrockets, and food riots become out of control. I think it’s time to start looking into this miracle food source before– I’m sorry, it’s made of what?!

It’s safe to say that Samsung’s D9500 3D 75-inch HDTV will be snatched up by people who want the biggest flat screen on the block. This recently announced TV [KOR] comes with LED backlighting and its panel offers 1080p resolution and a 240-Hz refresh rate. The TV has Smart TV, which is a feature that includes built-in WiFi, so users can Skype, play games, and access the web. Of course, users will need to wear 3D glasses to get the 3D experience.

This July, Samsung will release this monster in Korea for approximately $17,600 (USD), which is likely because it’s the first TV of it’s size and the panels aren’t mass-producible yet. Personally, I’d rather have Sharp’s 70-inch Aquos for about $2,800.

[via Akihabara News via CrunchGear]

The TV measures about 3.74″ (w) x 2.24″ (H) x 0.67″ (D), which I guess makes it the equivalent of a somewhat thick 42-inch HDTV in 1/12th dollhouse scale. But I guess that all depends on the size of your dolls. If you’ve got really small ones, you can pretend it’s a 70-inch set, right?

The tiny TV was made by a guy named Amatheria over in Seville, Spain (he also makes tiny IKEA furniture), and it even can play video and audio that you load into it via a USB connection (but not over-the-air TV). The TV itself appears to be made from plastic and cardboard, and is engraved with various speaker and button details, as well as logos for the guy who made it.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The only thing not to like about this little TV is the price – it’s listed for €195, which works out to be about $284 (USD). I’m pretty sure you can get an actual 42-inch TV for just a little more than that at Wal-Mart these days. Sure, developing a shrink-ray will set you back a couple of billion dollars, but that’s okay, right?