ABC 2010-2011 Schedule

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As one TV season ends, another begins.  Every year the big networks hold their own press events to preview their new programming to advertisers and audiences.  The Upfronts is a time when the networks release program information to the public like the creators, producers, and cast behind their new fall and mid-season shows.  Be sure to look after the break for trailers, synopses, and creator/producer/cast information behind ABC’s upcoming TV lineup.

10 new series :: 6 new dramas (Body of Proof, Detroit 1-8-7, My Generation, No Ordinary Family, The Whole Truth, Off the Map) – 3 new comedies (Better Together, Happy Endings, Mr. Sunshine) – 1 alternative (Secret Millionaire)

11 cancellations :: Better off Ted, The Deep End, Eastwick, FlashForward, The Forgotten, Hank, Happy Town, Lost (well, not cancelled but…), Romantically Challenged, Scrubs, Ugly Betty

Returning series held for mid-season :: V, Supernanny

ABC head Steven McPherson on keeping V & dropping FlashForward :: “It was a Sophie’s Choice.  In the end, FlashForward didn’t engage audiences like we hoped.  For V, I get more anecdotal calls and emails than any other show on the schedule.  A huge part of rebuilding the network is about taking chances.  Some shows just don’t work out.”

Drama

Body of Proof: Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) was in a class of her own, a brilliant neurosurgeon at the top of her game. But her world is turned upside down when a devastating car accident puts an end to her time in the operating room. Megan resumes her career as a medical examiner, determined to solve the puzzle of who or what killed the victims. Her instincts are sharp, but she’s developed a reputation for graying the lines of where her job ends and where the police department’s begins. It turns out her career isn’t the only thing that will need to be rebuilt; Megan’s family has taken a backseat to her ambition, and now she’s discovering there’s a lot of work to do when it comes to dissecting her relationships with the living.

Starring Dana Delany, Jeri Ryan, Geoffrey Arend, John Carroll Lynch, Windell Middlebrooks, Nic Bishop, and Sonja Sohn.  [Fridays @ 9PM]

Continue reading ABC 2010-2011 Schedule →

Google I/O 2010: WebM, Android 2.2, Google TV & more

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This week thousands of developers gathered at Google I/O 2010 in San Fransisco to find out what Google’s got up their sleeve for the next year (and beyond) and how their contributions can make things better for the end user.  At this year’s event Google introduced a new video standard, demoed their latest software revision of Android, and pulled the veil off their latest foray into a whole new market–television.

WebM: Flash, HTML5, h.264–these are all video codecs that power different types of video players on the Internet.  WebM is a new video codec developed by Google.  The plan for the WebM format is to make it open-source and royalty-free from the get-go.  WebM is packaged into three parts: VP8, a high-quality video codec under a royalty-free license; Vorbis, an already open source and broadly implemented audio codec; and a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container.  According to Google, “VP8’s efficient bandwidth usage will mean lower serving costs for content publishers and high quality video for end-users.  The codec’s relative simplicity makes it easy to integrate into existing environments and requires less manual tuning to produce high quality results.”  So far, the following companies are backing the new WebM standard in their browsers: Google (duh), Mozilla, Opera, and Adobe.  (Mozilla already updated their Firefox to support it, Opera says their browsers will support it “soon”, Adobe will inject VP8 support into Flash too, and Chrome support comes on on May 24.)  Google will also implement it in the YouTube player (HTML5 & WebM, sittin’ in a tree…).  WebM also has a list of hardware supporters including AMD, ARM, Broadcom, NVIDIA, Skype, and T.I.  But the big question is if Microsoft and Apple will adopt it.  At this point, there’s no word if Apple will jump on the bandwagon (big surprise there), and Microsoft has stated it will support WebM in Internet Explorer 9 (but users will be required to install the VP8 codec themselves).  If there’s any tech company out there who can develop and push out a new open source video codec it’s Google.  With the on-going battle for dominance between the aging Flash and up-and-coming HTML5, it will certainly be interesting to see if Google can emerge out victorious with WebM.

Continue reading Google I/O 2010: WebM, Android 2.2, Google TV & more →

iPhone constructivist monument

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Russian art collective Electroboutique has gone ahead and created this impressive, Tatlin’s Tower-inspired constructivist iPhone monument.  Says the builders:

A giant distorted iPhone 3G, shaped as Tatlin’s Monument to the 3d International. Tatlin’s work is considered one of the avant-garde icons, whereas iPhone is a bright techno-consumerist icon of today. Back in the 20’s of the last centuries avant-garde artists have invented design as a way to bring art into people’s homes. During the 20’s century designers were gradually taking artistic ideas and implementing them into product design. Today we see companies claiming their products are art objects themselves; art has to re-define its role in the society again. The Monument to 3G links together the beginning and the current state of nearly a century of art-to-design dialogue and follows the strategy of re-claiming the designers’ ideas back into art.

[Via Gizmodo; Electroboutique]

This exquisitely designed building is a danger to us all

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Tokyo Mode, designed by Prop Studio.

Prop Studio has submitted this proposed building design into an international architecture competition to be constructed at a fashion museum in Toyko’s Omotesando district.

The structure aspires to provide an introspective for visitors to contemplate how fashion has shaped humanity in the 21 century. The building is divided into rotary levels that sit over top of each in an undulating fashion. Each floor houses a thematic fashion collections from past eras ranging from the 1920s to our contemporary period. Complimented with a skybar, the open terrace overlooks a fashion runway on the level below it.

Sure it’s a site to behold, but just one construction error and everything comes toppling down.  Check out more pictures of “Tokyo Mode” in the gallery below.

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

The Objet printer can print anything!

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Well, maybe not anything, but it can certainly print whatever’s produced on a computer monitor.  Legacy Effects, a film production company, uses a 3D printer made by Objet Geometries called Eden260V that can shape and print out a physical production of any computer designed model.  This new technology is known as rapid prototyping, and it was most recently used to create the suits seen in Iron Man 2.  The actors’ bodies are scanned and the suits are “print-to-wear” with only a coat of paint necessary to round out the final product.  Watch the video above for a more elaborate explanation of the Objet printer and look at all the different types of models it can produce.

[Via Engadget]