Taking a page out of the Hulu playbook, but awesomer, the South Park guys are streaming every single South Park episode in full at their official site, South Park Studios. What they get right: Streams are fast and vid quality is solid; every episode, from first to most recent is available (with one exception); and newer ones are uncensored. Yep, you actually get to hear your favorite childrens scream "What the fuck is going on?" in the Britney ep. Major point of suck: ads.
They're mercifully short, but you get hit with about three per episode (marked by the little white lines in the timeline), though you have a limited ability to jump around the ep to sorta avoid them. Still, they're less intrusive than the pop-ups that assault you at AllSP.com or the like. Which is probably a big part of why they're doing this—the online audience for South Park is huge, with lots of sites streaming eps and major torrent traffic. So why not get a slice of that ad revenue?
Ads are going to be a part of any free TV online equation, unfortunately. So are rights issues—for some reason the Britney ep is already available, but the first episode of the current season won't be up until April. WTF? But all in all, they get it as right as an official channel can for the time being, which looks startlingly like a glimpse at the future of TV. Update: Another reason living in Canada sucks: No access for Canadians.
Via- [http://gizmodo.com/371382/every-south-park-ever-online-for-free-legally]
GT provides us with an in-depth look at Mario Kart Wii, which is set for release on April 27th in North America.
You know what kids in developing nations need besides water, vaccines, and schools? MP3 players... and laptops, lots of laptops. Meet the Cranko, at least that's what we're calling it since Thanko's "Cranking MP3 Player" bores us to the point of Wal-marting razor blades. The 1GB capacity player from Thanko features a flashlight and 10 minute charge per minute of cranking. You know, just in case your spelunking adventures take you too far away from a USB port. Yours now for ¥6,000 or about $60.
In this GT featurette, we take "a six-minute odyssey through all things Smash." Here's one fact you may not have known about: the "game's music is made up of arranged versions of pieces by one of 39 renowned video game composers that originated in previously released video games."
The Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher today posted what some insiders are telling her may come next with the Yahoo/Microsoft buyout drama. One source (which she doesn't name) says Yahoo will likely call Microsoft to negotiate terms within 14 days.
In this GT featurette, we get to "check out the impressive features of the updated Unreal Engine 3 via an on-stage demonstration."
That's right, UT3 modders decided to bring Master Chief, Gears of War characters, Cloud, and even Spawn to the PlayStation 3.
Taking a page out of the Hulu playbook, but awesomer, the South Park guys are streaming every single South Park episode in full at their official site, South Park Studios. What they get right: Streams are fast and vid quality is solid; every episode, from first to most recent is available (with one exception); and newer ones are uncensored. Yep, you actually get to hear your favorite childrens scream "What the fuck is going on?" in the Britney ep. Major point of suck: ads.
Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii is set for release on April 27th in the US (April 10th Japan). GT provides us with a first look at the Japanese intro.
OK, so take this with a dashing of salt; the guys at Monster and Friends have apparently spotted the first pics of the iPhone App Store, which appeared on a user's iPhone in place of a connection error alert. The user, Drunkenbass of Monster and Friends managed to have a look around the Genres and Top 50 sections, and he spied a Facebook and Checkers app.
Here's a first look at Sonic Unleashed, set for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 -- "some in-game, some pre-rendered CG."
They certainly look like the genuine article, giving the impression that Sonic Unleashed will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, hopefully with gameplay that's more Sonic and the Secret Rings than it is Sonic the Hedgehog "Next-Gen."
