Items tagged with (NYSE:DIS)
Today is May 4th, better known as Star Wars Day. With this in mind, Disney dropped a bombshell on us this morning in the form of the first official look at the “real life” lightsaber that it’s been developing in [relative] secret. Although we doubt this realistic prop will sever limbs of cocky Jedi Knights that don’t have the high ground, it’s no doubt cool. The lightsaber is seen in a short video clip posted on the Disney Parks YouTube page and shows the “energy beam” extending, backed by the classic sound effect. The lightsabers will be available to use at the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel at the Walt Disney Resort. This interactive hotel will...
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One of the key selling points of the Disney+ streaming service is The Mandalorian, a new series based in the Star Wars universe set 25 years prior to the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is a remarkable epic, and as you might imagine, computer graphics play heavily into its creation. Fortunately for geeks like us, Industrial Light & Magic posted a nearly 5-minute video highlighting some of what goes into shooting an episode of The Mandalorian. At the heart of it all is a massive 270-degree semicircular video wall and ceiling. It spans 20 feet high and is 75 feet in diameter, and is powered by seven high-powered machines. "Digital 3D environments created by ILM played back interactively...
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Verizon Wireless is teaming up with The Walt Disney Company to offer subscribers of its unlimited wireless plan a free year of Disney+, the upcoming streaming service that goes live on November 12, 2019. The freebie perk also extends to new Fios Home Internet and 5G home Internet customers, Verizon announced today. No small perk, an annual subscription to Disney+ runs $69.99. Alternatively, users can sign up for a monthly plan priced at $6.99 per month (which comes out to $83.88 per year). "Giving Verizon customers an unprecedented offer and access to Disney+ on the platform of their choice is yet another example of our commitment to provide the best premium content available through key partnerships...
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A company that was voted the worst in America in a poll (twice, actually) is ceding control of Hulu, the streaming giant that is on a mission to let the world know it has live sports (I can't watch an NBA playoff game without that message being repeatedly hammered home), so that it can join the happiest place on earth. Or put another way, Disney is assuming full operational control of Hulu in a streaming deal reached with Comcast. The move is effective immediately, the company's involved announced today. As part of the deal Comcast is entering in a "put/call" agreement regarding NBCUniversal's 33 percent ownership interest in Hulu, paving the way for Disney to purchase the shares five years from...
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Kids these days have no idea what the web was like in the early days, back when America On-Line trial CDs littered store counters and instead of Googling, you would Ask Jeeves. They can get a taste what online life was like in the dial-up era, though, in the most awesome of ways—by visiting Marvel's Captain Marvel website. Let's talk about Captain Marvel for a quick second, and then we will get back to what makes the website such a treat for us nostalgic types. Captain Marvel is an upcoming superhero movie based on Carol Danvers, who is played by Brie Larson. It has been in development since May 2013, and when it hits the silver screen later this year, it will be Marvel's first superhero...
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Imagine if at the end of a Cirque du Soleil performance the participants took their bows, then ripped off their faces to reveal a robotic skeleton. That would be incredible, right? As farfetched as that scenario sounds, don't be surprised if someday in the future, acrobatic stunts are performed by robots. We've seen some remarkable things in the field of robotics, the latest of which is an acrobatic robot being developed at Disney Research. Image Source: Disney Research Called Stickman, the slender robot is able to pull off some impressive acrobatic feats through a series of sensors and on-the-fly calculations. There's a two-minute long demonstration on YouTube that shows off Stickman's ability...
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Disney's theme parks are wonderful places to visit, and that it true whether you are a young child who is eager to meet characters like Mickey Mouse, or an adult who just wants to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a bit. Taking a vacation to one of the parks is also an expensive endeavor. While it is not the same thing, you can now take a stroll through Disneyland and Disney's other theme parks through Google Maps using its Street View technology. Zooming in with Google Maps and looking at 360-degree photos is obviously a very different experience than actually visiting a theme park, like California Adventure that sits next to Disneyland or the Epcot at Disneyworld. But in lieu...
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Disney certainly isn't letting its Star Wars IP go to waste, not after purchasing Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and gaining the distribution rights to all subsequent Star Wars movies, in 2012. And to Disney's credit, it has done a phenomenal job with the Star Wars universe. To keep the good times rolling, Disney announced it will create another Stars Wars trilogy, led by The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. "We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi," said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. "He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy."...
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Every Star Wars fan has dreamed of becoming a Jedi, and every so often we are afforded the opportunity to live out those fantasies in a video game. Advances in technology help make these experiences increasingly realistic, such as using motion controls on the Wii in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Star Wars: The Clone Wars—Lightsaber Duels. Disney and Lenovo are going to take things a step further. The two companies have teamed up to deliver an augmented reality experience that will have you wielding a lightsaber in the most realistic fashion yet. The experience is called Star Wars: Jedi Challenges and it is being built for a new consumer AR headset that Lenovo is developing in collaboration...
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Hardcore geeks are typically split into two factions—Star Trek and Star Wars fans. If you fall into the latter category, we have good news. Disney has released the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which picks up where Star Wars: The Force Awakens left off. It is the eighth episode in the Star Wars saga, which can get a little confusing with Star Wars: Rogue One thrown into the mix. Let us explain. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas for a cool $4.05 billion in 2012, it announced plans to release three more main episodes every two to three years, those being Episode 7 (Force Awakens), Episode 8 (The Last Jedi), and Episode 9 (not yet named). Rather than make rabid...
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What was simply known as Episode VIII is now Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm announced the official name for the next Star Wars movie in the ongoing Skywalker saga, though stopped way short of providing any details about the plot or who exactly is being referenced in the title. In other words, Lucasfilm answered one question and raised many others, all just by revealing the title. Here is what little we do know. The Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson, who's resume includes directing three episodes of Breaking Bad (Fly, Fifty-One, and Ozymandias), as well as The Brothers Bloom and Looper. He also won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film...
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Here we go again folks, there's another Star Wars movie on the horizon and you better buckle up because it looks to be another action packed ride. Disney dropped its second official trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first in the Star Wars Anthology series that are to fill the gaps between the releases of the sequel trilogy that kicked off with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Films in the Anthology each will focus on a side story, with Rogue One centered on a female heroine tasked with stealing plans for the Death Star so the Rebel Alliance can look for vulnerabilities. The new trailer is jam packed with eye candy, some of it obvious and others more subtle. Darth Vader makes an appearance,...
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Galaxy in Turmoil, the fan made remake of what would have been Battlefront III (had Electronic Arts not cancelled the project) might at one time seemed like a long shot to see the light of day, but now the odds may have tipped in its favor. That's because Valve has agreed to host the freebie release on its wildly popular Steam distribution platform. This is a major development that has the game's developer Frontwire Studios super excited, though the Russian outfit never stressed too much over the possibility that Disney might close the project down. It only had "mild concerns" on occasion, and now that Valve has agreed to ship the title, it's confident the title will reach the finish line and...
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Researchers at Disney and Carnegie Mellon University have been toying around with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and we mean that in the literal sense. RFID tags are typically used for high tech inventory management in a variety of industries, but researchers concocted a way to make RFID technology feasible for interactive games using physical objects. Using a framework the researchers developed called RapID, they showed how inexpensive RFID tags can sense when a physical object is moved or touched in near real-time. The research team demonstrated a handful of use case scenarios. One included a tic-tac-toe board that mirrors the physical game on a computer monitor with added sound...
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It's said that behind every successful man is a great woman, and true to form, we're seeing some fantastic female leads in the new Star Wars movies. Just as Daisy Ridley took the spotlight in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as Rey, it looks as though Disney's forthcoming Rogue One: A Stars Wars Story will also focus much attention on a capable female character. The first trailer for Rogue One surfaced today and it doesn't take long to figure out that there's no 'damsel in distress' storyline taking place. Instead, we're introduced to Jyn Erso, a rebel in need of a cause and a bit of a spark plug played by Felicity Jones. She gets her cause—to investigate a major weapons test by the Galactic Empire...
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Not only is the Force strong with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so are box office ticket sales. The newest Star Wars flick kept the momentum going and pulled in an additional $153.5 million on its second weekend in theaters, pushing the overall tally to $1.09 billion. In doing so, Force Awakens became the fastest movie ever to hit the $1 billion mark. That's just one of many records Force Awaken has broken. Its second weekend ticket sales total was also the most in the history of big screen movies, and with a domestic total of $544.6 million, it has a good chance of unseating Avatar as the highest grossing movie in the United States, a mark that sits at $749.8 million. The good news for other...
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First of all, no spoilers here -- feel free to continue reading. And secondly anxious fans new and old lined up in record number over the weekend to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first in a new trilogy set decades after the events of Return of the Jedi. It's also the first Star Wars film to be distributed by owner Disney, though that's not the only reason this weekend was a historical event.The Force Awakens raked in an estimated $238 million in the U.S. during its first three days on the big screen, including $57 million in Thursday night preview viewings. Combined with another $279 million from international ticket sales, The Force Awakens debuted to $517 million over the weekend,...
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Nearly four decades after the original Star Wars movie met the silver screen, fans new and old are lining up in record number to see the newest installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In North America alone, pre-sale tickets have now topped $100 million, obliterating the previous $25 million record for The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.At least half of that tally is from pre-sale tickets for the flick's opening weekend -- following a premiere earlier this week in Los Angeles, Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out Thursday night in select theaters and then releases generally the morning of December 18 (Friday).You might be surprised to learn that opening weekend tickets are still available despite...
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Sorry all you rebel scum, but I've joined the Dark side. You can too through a new collaboration between Google and Disney that will see all of your Google accounts get a themed makeover. Or if you'd rather, you can join the Light side, otherwise known as the losing side at the moment (though not by much). Once you choose a side, Google will get busy transforming your online experience in a number of fun and creative ways. After choosing the Dark side, the background for my Gmail account changed to reflect my path, though there's quite a bit more to enjoy than just glorified wallpapers and the such. When you fire up Google Maps, the little "pegman" icon (the little figure that you drag and drop...
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The Star Wars prequels may have left a bad taste in moviegoers' mouths, but boy oh boy, Episode VII, otherwise known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, looks like it's going to atone for all three of them. Don't believe it? Have a look for yourself in the new and full official trailer, which debuted at halftime during Monday Night Football. Force Awakens kicks off a brand new trilogy in a setting that takes place around 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi. There are new leads this time around, including Rey and Finn, played by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, respectively. Both are again featured in the trailer, as are iconic characters like Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. Full...
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Could you imagine an Internet without videos? We'd miss out on Batdad's hilarious antics, Kimbo Slice would have never gotten a shot to fight professionally, and Justin Bieber wouldn't be a mega star. Come to think it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all, though that's getting off topic. Videos are a major part of the Internet experience, though us mere mortals are easily distracted, much to the chagrin of advertisers. Disney is looking to change that. Through Disney's Accelerator program, the company along with a couple of venture capital firms are investing in a startup called FEM Inc. You've probably never heard of FEM, though one day you might -- it consists of former Google employees and...
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Well, that didn’t take long. Two weeks ago, word spread out that Verizon was ready to push new Custom TV FioS bundles that would allow customers to pick and choose what channels they wanted to pay for on a monthly basis. Customers are able to choose a basic package of channels, and then select from at least two of seven additional themed packages (i.e. Culture, Entertainment, Sports, etc.). So if you have no interest in sports at all, you wouldn’t have to purchase the Sports package. Needless to say, ESPN wasn’t too thrilled about this arrangement and quickly made its objections known. ESPN wants its cash no matter what, with The Wall Street Journal writing a week ago, “Verizon does not have...
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