On set with the cast of the upcoming Syfy show, Defiance

We take a set tour and talk to the cast of Syfy Channel's upcoming TV show, Defiance, a show that is just one piece of a much larger world.

When Defiance launches in April 2013, it will be much more than either Trion Worlds’ newest massively multiplayer online game, or Syfy’s latest science-fiction series. It will be the first-ever true cross-medium entertainment franchise.

It is a massive undertaking, requiring multimedia coordination between two completely separate, and yet now inextricably connected sides of the same property, working towards expanding the same universe following a failed alien invasion that left the Earth a changed place. Trion’s game will take place in the remains of the Bay Area and follow hunters searching for an alien mineral, while the Syfy TV show will focus on survivors in the city known as Defiance. 

Walking around the massive set in Toronto, it’s obvious that the show will have a big-budget feel. And playing the third-person perspective shooter MMO, it’s clear that the last four years of development have resulted in what looks like yet another hit for Trion Worlds in the ultra-competitive online gaming space.

“Defiance is the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard of,” said actor Grant Bowler, who plays Jeb Nolan in both the game and the show. “When I got asked to look at the show, I initially had no idea that we were going to be here doing this. This idea of bringing those media together, TV is in everybody’s home, and we play our games, generally, on our TV at home. It’s a natural fit, but I think it has always seemed so complicated and difficult to do that, it’s been beyond the realm of the possible.”

According to Bill Trost, lead game designer at Trion Worlds, from the very beginning the game developers in San Diego have been working with Syfy as a partner. They’ve had regular calls and meetings and discussions on how to craft this new intellectual property. 

“It’s something we’re excited about,” Trost told us in a recent exclusive interview. “It’s something that hasn’t really been done in that way before.”

It’s taken a lot of work to craft a story that begins in the game world in the Bay Area with two of the protagonists of the TV series leaving the area, then picks up in the show with those same two characters driving into Defiance, which rests atop what was once St. Louis. 

“When I started doing TV in the early ‘90s, the idea of having something that was as immersive and gigantic as this overwhelming mythology would not have been possible,” said Kevin Murphy, who wrote and executive produced Desperate Housewives, Reaper, and now Defiance. “Something like Game of Thrones or Defiance would not have been possible because TV was much more close-ended. Now, with the advent of online, you can really do a lot of things you were not previously able to do. We’re really trying to see how far can we push those boundaries. What can we take advantage of in terms of creating an actual world that is unlike anything that we know today, but at the same time is very familiar.”

Both the show and the game take place 30 years in the future after an alien race known as the Votans attempted to immigrate to Earth. The governments of the Earth decided to turn away the Votans, which led to a disastrous war that partially terraformed the Earth and forced the two races to attempt to peacefully coexist.  Players will enter the universe as “Arc Hunters,” exploring the Bay Area and looking for alien technology that occasionally falls from the sky.  Although there will be TV characters migrating in and out of the game world, because the locations are so far apart there’s plenty of space for two separate stories to be told.

“There are big events and small things that will cross over from game to show,” said Trost. “Everything from the flora and fauna in the game world and the television show matching up, to these huge crossovers with characters both coming from the game world and going into the show, and from the show coming into the game world.”

When the game debuts, the first crossover will already be well under way. 

“I’m finally in two places at one time,” joked Bowler. “My character, Nolan, starts off in the video game and then goes into the series. When we launch the video game, there’s a point where Nolan leaves, and then exactly in that way, we begin the television series. So right from the beginning, there’s a synthesis between the two. The two worlds of game and show are connected, and they’ll stay that way.”

The show features some of the creative minds behind Syfy hits Farscape and Battlestar Galactica, which bodes well for this new series. While the game will focus more on action, the show will involve more character development and drama — and there’s plenty of drama to go around with so many different alien species living together in one town.

“I play Irisa and she’s an Irathient alien [a subspeciaes of the Votans],” explained actress Stephanie Leonidas, who is almost unrecognizable with all the prosthetics on. “There are many species of alien in Defiance. The pilot is about Irisa and Nolan’s journey to Defiance. Nolan is basically her father figure. And then the show picks up from when they get there.”

The series is being filmed in Toronto, where a full-sized recreation of the town of Defiance has been built outside of large sound stage areas.

“What we’ve done up there is build an entire city,” said Bowler. “What’s really exciting about it is, there are different parts of town. There are parts of town that are built from parts of old billboards, bottles, or anything that comes to hand. They’re the more affluent, or commercial parts of town. Then there are the poorer parts of town that are built out of old shipping containers, or pellets and crates. It’s amazing to see this town and to be able to work within this set.”

Thanks to the online game, Syfy is already thinking about season two of the TV series. That’s a luxury that a typical show doesn’t get. Given the success Rift has had in the online space and the positive momentum End of Nations is riding on, the odds are good that the past four years of development will result in a quality Defiance game world. Given the loyalty and devotion that online gamers have to their games, the thinking is that they’ll also gravitate to a TV show that involves the same world and some of the same characters.

“I think there’s a huge appetite for this,” said Leonidas. “It’s exciting to combine both the game world and the TV show. If it all works well, it could be really exciting for people who watch TV and play games. People that have never experienced an online game might want to go play and gamers who don’t watch Syfy may want to watch the show.”

That’s exactly what Syfy and Trion Worlds had in mind when they ventured into this uncharted territory four years ago.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

4 ridiculous deaths for the iPhone 5 [videos]

Apple's new iPhone 5 is a pretty piece of equipment. But these four videos show how to change all that in no time.

With each year’s release of a new iPhone, YouTube fills to the brim with videos of people (and companies) “testing” the durability of Apple’s handset. This year is no different. While so-called drop tests (like this one) can be useful for (clumsy) people looking to purchase a new handset, many such videos have slipped into the realm of absurdity. Beyond that, a surprising number of early adopters appear to have purchased an iPhone 5 with pure destruction in mind. Below, we’ve rounded up the four best, most preposterous ways to completely annihilate an iPhone 5. Enjoy.

Gravity

Hammer and knife

Glue 

.50 caliber machine gun

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Obama Does Reddit AMA: President Answers Questions and Crashes Site

President Obama answering questions on Reddit. Image via Reddit.

If you had any doubt that the presidential candidates were trying to use every possible piece of technology and social media to communicate with voters, this should seal the deal. Today President Obama took to Reddit, a growing social media and forum site which has become a landfill of cat photos and animated GIFs, to participate in one of the site’s AMAs, or Ask Me Anything sessions. AMAs have become popular with other well-known individuals; users ask questions and the individual, well, answers.

The president began the question and answer session at around 4:00 p.m. ET, and within moments had received hundreds of questions. (You can see Obama’s answers here.) At points the site even went down, returning an error message when users tried to update or log on. Many wondered if it was really the president on Twitter and on the service itself. The Obama campaign confirmed it was in fact the president with a photo of him at his computer and a tweet.

The president fielded questions on internet freedom, the space program, the most difficult decision of his first term (the surge in Afghanistan) and the White House beer (“it’s tasty”), among other things.

“Im thrilled, obviously, but what makes this even more exciting is that President Obama is doing this AMA from Charlottesville, VA — the same place where 7 years ago, Steve Huffman and I started the company that’d create Reddit. (We were undergrads at UVA),” Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian told ABC News in a quick email.  

Reddit and Ohanian have also launched an “Internet 2012″ bus. The bus will make its way from Denver to Danville, Kentucky, with organizers talking to Americans, including students and startup founders, about how they use the Internet and about legislation around it.

After an hour, Obama had hundreds of comments and questions on Reddit. The site still appeared to be up… for at least some.  His closing comment: “If you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience — NOT BAD!”

ABC News’ Mary Bruce contributed reporting.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Student Edition will hit the shelves of select retailers tomorrow

In order to get a piece of the currently ongoing “back to school” sales frenzy in the United States, Samsung has released a Student Edition of its Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 slate. Set to go on sale in select retailers tomorrow, the tablet’s special edition bundle includes $100 worth of free accessories and an exclusive glossy white color.

The abovementioned free accessories include a keyboard dock and USB adapter, which supports USB flash drives, as well as peripherals such as USB mice. The price of the tablet has not been changed. Samsung is still asking the highly acceptable $249.99 for it.

While many will say that this is Google Nexus 7 money, keep in mind that Samsung’s offering features a microSD card slot, which might make a lot of difference for students. You can check out our review of the slate here.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Double transforms your iPad into a $1999 telepresence robot

California-based Double Robotics has come up with a piece of kit, called Double, that turns your iPad into a telepresence robot. Cost? $1,999.

Imagine you’re at your company, seated at your desk, when this iPad perched on a kind of pared-down Segway rolls up beside you. On the screen is the face of one of your co-workers located in another country who today is poking about your office, getting to know the layout, meeting some new people, asking a few questions. After a brief chat, it rolls off to the other side of the office. You look up five minutes later and do a double-take as you notice two of these devices having a conversation with each other by the water cooler.

Thanks to Double Robotics’ iPad-on-wheels – otherwise known as ‘Double’ – such a scenario could one day become a reality.

Double, which its maker claims offers the “most elegant way to be somewhere else in the world without flying there,” comprises a pair of wheels, a battery-powered motor, an adjustable pole and an iPad holder.

The telepresence robot is controlled remotely by someone using Double’s app on another iPad. The app enables the operator to move Double around its location, with its minimalist design helping to ensure it doesn’t get in the way of ‘real’ on-site workers. The length of the pole can also be adjusted using the app, allowing its user to talk face-to-face with co-workers, or peer over partitions to see what others are up to when they think no one’s  looking.

Weighing a delicate 15 pounds (7 kg), there’s little chance of Double causing any damage to furniture, or humans for that matter, should its operator fail to see upcoming obstacles.

The California-based firm behind Double believes its creation offers a unique teleconferencing experience, allowing you to move around a location freely, meeting co-workers in any location, although presumably the bathroom will be off-limits.

Double Robotics suggest its robot could be used by companies who regularly communicate with remote workers, as well as school campuses, “enabling potential students to walk the halls and talk to professors.” Museums and galleries could also use Double, offering tours to those too far away to visit in person.

While some may consider Double to be an unnecessary luxury, the museum/gallery idea is certainly an appealing one, where anyone on the planet could work their way around such places using simply an iPad and an app.

Of course, there are already a number of telepresence robots like this in existence, but what makes this one stand out is its reasonable price – $2,499, or just $1,999 if pre-ordered – iPad not included. The firm is set to ship its first batch this December, with orders placed from this week going out early in 2013.

Take a look at the slick promo video below to see Double in action. Would you like to see one of these rolling about your workplace?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com