Technology

Rings of Power avoided an infamous Game of Thrones mistake

Published

4 hours ago

September 29, 2024

Rings of Power avoided an infamous Game of Thrones mistake

Adar stands near an orc in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. — Ross Ferguson / Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2’s penultimate installment follows Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) as they and their respective Elven and Orc armies meet in battle outside the walls of the Elvish kingdom of Eregion. The conflict itself, known canonically as the Siege of Eregion, takes up the majority of the episode’s runtime, and for good reason. It already ranks high as one of the most impressive blockbuster battle sequences that has ever been brought to life on TV.

The siege takes place almost entirely at night, but you’re still able to perceive and understand everything that happens throughout it. That’s a testament to the work of director Charlotte Brändström and cinematographer Alex Disenhof, the latter of whom confessed in an interview with Collider that he was worried about how visually legible the battle would turn out. “As [a] cinematographer, I think, some of the scariest things you can read on a page are like, ‘A moonlit night,’” Disenhof admitted.

TV viewers have, of course, experienced the unique frustration of not actually being able to see what’s happening in a big, epic fantasy battle. One of Game of Thrones season 8’s most infamous episodes, The Long Night, was heavily criticized in 2019 for leaning so hard into dim, “realistic” lighting that caused most viewers to have a hard time making out what was happening on a moment-to-moment basis.

Elrond kneels on a battlefield in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. — Ross Ferguson / Prime Video

In order to avoid making the same mistake as The Long Night, Disenhof relied on one specific aspect of The Rings of Power‘s climactic siege — namely, the giant fireballs that Adar and his Orc army continuously launch at Eregion. “We let that be our guide,” Disenhof revealed. “I was able to use real fire, and fake fire that we lit with lights, as our key for a lot of the scene.”

Disenhof used the set piece’s fiery catapults and explosions to light every facet of it, including the performances given by its actors. “We had this experience where I could say, if a character, Elrond, say, falls down, and I could say, ‘Well, you know what, I really want to see his face here. Hey, Special Effects Department, can you light a fire 6 feet from his head? Or however close you can get it safely?,’ and use that and see it in camera,” Disenhof recalled. “It keeps the frame alive.”

The resulting battle is one that — whether you love The Rings of Power or not — feels like it was made with its audience’s needs in mind. If only Game of Thrones had made greater use of its available dragonfire when it had the chance.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 finale premieres on Prime Video on Thursday, October 3.

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Technology

Marvel and DC lose ‘SUPER HERO’ trademarks

Published

56 seconds ago

September 30, 2024

NewsAdmin

Marvel and DC lose ‘SUPER HERO’ trademarks

You know how Marvel and DC have held joint ownership over trademarks for “Super Hero” for decades? That time is apparently mostly over, as the US Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the companies’ claim to several of their trademarks, reports Reuters.

The cancellation comes as the result of a challenge from Superbabies Limited, a small company that produces a series of Superbabies comics about, well, superhero babies. Superbabies creator S.J. Richold decided to challenge the two comic giants’ claim to the trademarks after DC “attempted to block Richold’s efforts to promote The Super Babies,” wrote the law firm that represented Richold in a release.

Marvel and DC didn’t respond to the challenge by a July 24th, 2024 due date, resulting in the marks’ cancellation, according to the USPTO’s decision. As such, the office canceled four patents, the oldest of which USPTO records show was for the trademark “SUPER HERO,” registered in 1967. The two companies still co-own a “SUPER HEROES” trademark, registered in 2018, as well as a “SUPER-VILLAIN” trademark that they secured in 1985.

If you want to dive down a rabbit hole on the subject of Marvel and DC’s super hero-related trademarks, I’ve got just the thing. One of the lawyers involved in the Superbabies trademark challenge, Adam Adler, actually wrote up a two-part series of articles for Escapist Magazine lightly explaining how the companies came to jointly own the trademarks and what they’ve done to guard that ownership over the years. Adler links out to other articles with even deeper dives, too.

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Technology

Samsung drops another hint that Galaxy AI won’t be free beyond 2025

Published

22 mins ago

September 29, 2024

NewsAdmin

Samsung drops another hint that Galaxy AI won't be free beyond 2025

Take a close look at the press releases for the brand new Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, or Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultra, and you’ll notice a footnote pointing to a future where some Galaxy AI features require a payment.

As spotted by SamMobile, the exact text reads: “Fees may apply to certain AI features at the end of 2025.” That’s not particularly specific or definitive, but it does suggest that the Galaxy AI experience isn’t going to be completely free beyond the end of next year.

This isn’t new: the same disclaimer was included in the information we got alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series at the start of this year. This isn’t a surprise then, but it shows Samsung hasn’t changed its plans for charging for AI.

We don’t yet know which features might come with a price tag attached, or what that price tag might be – Samsung hasn’t said anything about that yet, but has gone on the record to say more Galaxy AI features are on the way.

The cost of AI

ChatGPT on a screen

ChatGPT has a paid-for tier (Image credit: OpenAI)

It’s not a huge shock that Samsung wants to start making some money from all the AI tools it’s stuffed into its devices: generative artificial intelligence requires a huge amount of computing power, and a huge amount of energy to run.

Both Google and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, offer users more advanced features and more powerful AI models for $20 (about £15 / AU$29) a month – although there are rumors that the price of ChatGPT Plus could more than double in the next five years.

Then there’s Apple: Apple Intelligence is rolling out over the next few months, free of charge, but there has been talk that more advanced features are eventually going to have a price attached, perhaps as part of an Apple One bundle.

For now, you can still use the AI features – covering image editing, live translation, note summaries, and plenty more – free of charge. If you start to reply on them regularly though, bear in mind that there might eventually be a cost attached.

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Servers computers

Unboxing rack server indorack 11520

Published

28 mins ago

September 29, 2024

NewsAdmin

berikut adalah unbox dari paket rack server product dari indorack 11520
Sumber : wwww.indorack.co.id

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unboxing rak server

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-uYVL6K5TfLQJUE2nbvffA .

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Technology

Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells

Published

43 mins ago

September 29, 2024

NewsAdmin

Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells

This robot face can smile
Takeuchi et al. (CC-BY-ND)

A smiling face made from living human skin could one day be attached to a humanoid robot, allowing machines to emote and communicate in a more life-like way, say researchers. Its wrinkles could also prove useful for the cosmetics industry.

The living tissue is a cultured mix of human skin cells grown in a collagen scaffold and placed on top of a 3D-printed resin base. Unlike previous similar experiments, the skin also contains the equivalent of the ligaments that, in humans and other animals, are buried in the layer of tissue beneath the skin, holding it in place and giving it incredible strength and flexibility.

Michio Kawai at Harvard University and his colleagues call these ligament equivalents “perforation-type anchors” because they were created by perforating the robot’s resin base and allowing tiny v-shaped cavities to fill with living tissue. This, in turn, helps the robot skin stay in place.

The team put the skin on a smiling robotic face, a few centimetres wide, which is moved by rods connected to the base. It was also attached to a similarly sized 3D shape in the form of a human head (see below), but this couldn’t move.

“As the development of AI technology and other advancements expand the roles required of robots, the functions required of robot skin are also beginning to change,” says Kawai, adding that a human-like skin could help robots communicate with people better.

A 3D head shape covered in living skin
Takeuchi et al. (CC-BY-ND)

The work could also have surprising benefits for the cosmetics industry. In an experiment, the researchers made the small robot face smile for one month, finding they could replicate the formation of expression wrinkles in the skin, says Kawai.

“Being able to recreate wrinkle formation on a palm-sized laboratory chip can simultaneously be used to test new cosmetics and skincare products that aim to prevent, delay or improve wrinkle formation,” says Kawai, who performed the work while at the University of Tokyo.

Of course, the skin still lacks some of the functions and durability of real skin, says Kawai.

“The lack of sensing functions and the absence of blood vessels to supply nutrients and moisture means it cannot survive long in the air,” he says. “To address these issues, incorporating neural mechanisms and perfusion channels into the skin tissue is the current challenge.”

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Servers computers

128 HP ProLiant BL460c Blade Servers Case Study

Published

59 mins ago

September 29, 2024

NewsAdmin

128 HP ProLiant BL460c Blade Servers Case Study

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Technology

Jack Black teaches Jason Momoa how to craft in Minecraft movie clip

Published

1 hour ago

September 29, 2024

NewsAdmin

Jack Black teaches Jason Momoa how to craft in Minecraft movie clip

Jack Black stands near a castle wall in A Minecraft Movie. — Warner Bros. Pictures

It may have taken around 10 years of on-and-off development, but a big-screen Minecraft movie is finally on its way. Warner Bros. Pictures released the long-awaited first trailer for the film, aptly titled A Minecraft Movie, in early September to mixed responses from both casual viewers and die-hard video game fans alike. While some seemed to immediately buy into the Jared Hess-directed film’s bright, colorful look and heightened, family-friendly sense of humor, others have already found its digital aesthetic and tone a bit off-putting.

Unsurprisingly, the film’s producers and creative team seem intent on winning over as many existing Minecraft fans as they can. During the online 2024 Minecraft Live event, a new clip from A Minecraft Movie was unveiled that fittingly focuses on the art of crafting in the cubic fictional realm of the Overworld. In the clip, expert crafter Steve (Jack Black) introduces two of the film’s Overworld newbies, Garrett (Jason Momoa) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen), to a crafting table and explains how to use it by creating an iron sword out of just a handful of materials and a hammer.

Unfortunately, when Momoa’s Garrett attempts to one-up Steve by showing off his own crafting skills, things don’t go how he expects.

Fans will no doubt be happy to see that the elements Steve uses to craft his sword, as well as the pattern he forms with them, all line up perfectly with how you create an iron sword of your own in Minecraft. Garrett’s pair of chain-linked buckets, however, seems to be an item unique to A Minecraft Movie. Players will have to wait to see whether it gets added to the game at some point in conjunction with the film’s 2025 release.

A Minecraft Movie still won’t hit theaters for another few months, so fans should likely expect to see a lot more footage from the film between now and then. Whether or not its future trailers and clips manage to sway players’ opinions better than its first teaser remains to be seen. Either way, it doesn’t look like Hollywood plans to back away at all from its ongoing bet on the viability and profitability of video game adaptations.

A Minecraft Movie seems like the kind of gamble that could either pay off extremely well or completely bust. For now, it looks like it’s gotten the crafting part of its source material right, so at least there’s that.

A Minecraft Movie is set to debut in theaters on April 4, 2025.