Month: December 2014

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Playing With The 7″ Kindle Fire HDX!

7-inch-Kindle-Fire-HDX-tablet

I recently got a 7″ Kindle Fire HDX, and I have to say that I am quite happy with it.  It has a good looking screen, and while it doesn’t have all the apps of Google Play, it has more than enough to keep me entertained, but really what I use it for is a comic book reader.

It is the perfect size for comics, and the screen makes the colors pop.  While I like physical comics better, they look great on the HDX.  I was hoping since comiXology was now owned by Amazon that the app would be more integrated like their own comic books, which shows how far through the book I am, and the book shows up on the start screen.  Still, it works well, and there is time for Amazon to improve the integration.

Other than that it is a pretty standard tablet.  It plays music and videos, and it lets me make Skype calls with its front facing camera.  Nothing too exciting, but if it didn’t do those things it would be a pretty lame tablet.  Amazon is also making an investment in video games buying a couple of well known studios, Double Helix for one, so there should be a lot of decent things to play if Strider and Killer Instinct Season One are anything to go by.

If you are looking for something that does everything, this is not that tablet, but if you are looking for a fast and cheap comic book reader that almost does everything, you could do a whole lot worse.  I am having fun with mine, and I am sure that you would enjoy it too.  Plus if you ever want it to be a plain Google tablet you can always root it.  Maybe that will be a post in the near future.

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The Force Is Strong With Star Wars: Rebels!

star-wars-rebels

I missed the launch of Star Wars: Rebels because I don’t have Disney XD, and I don’t see myself paying for it any time soon, but I will say that Star Wars: Rebels is good enough to have me considering it.  I was upset that Disney canceled the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon, or as it is known in geek circles the best thing to come out of the Prequel Trilogy, but by returning to the time of the original trilogy Disney has got me excited for The Force Awakens!

The plot is simple, an orphan boy Ezra Bridger falls in with a group of smugglers, but he soon finds out that they are more than what they seem, and the Jedi aren’t all gone after all.  I know the Jedi part was a minor spoiler, but since they spoil that in the trailers, I feel like I can let that slip as well.

So far, I am not a huge fan of the look of the cartoon, but I am liking the characters and the tone.  Which is far more important, and after watching the show in motion for awhile, the look has started to grow on me.  I am genuinely interested to see what else is going on in the Empire besides Luke and Leia.  I am also wondering if we will see these characters pop up in a certain new movie coming out next Christmas.

If Disney XD was still airing Tron: Uprising I would be calling Comcast right now to get the Disney XD channel.  As it stands now, I will patiently be waiting for them to re-air episodes on the plain ‘ol Disney Channel (like how I watched show for this post) or Netflix (please don’t make me wait for Netflix!).  If Disney can build on the success of these two cartoon shows, we should all be in for a treat with The Force Awakens!

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Guardians Of The Galaxy Blu-Ray Update!

Guardians-of-the-Galaxy

Well Marvel’s mega-hit Guardians of the Galaxy has made it to home video in time for Christmas!  I thought I would give you my eyes on impressions of the release.  There aren’t any directors cuts or anything, so my thoughts on the actual movie itself haven’t changed, and you can read them here.

The disk transfer looks great.  The color palette really pops in high definition.  I am guessing this movie is going to be running in loops on high Hi-Def TVs in electronics stores for years to come.  It just looks amazing.  It is nice to see a comic book movie really embrace the original medium’s eye candy color scheme.

The special features are all pretty standard.  There is a making-of, a gag real, and some deleted scenes.  There aren’t any scenes that you will be disappointed didn’t make the theatrical release, but there are a couple of good jokes.  I won’t spoil them for you, but they are worth watching.  Still, they probably would have slowed down the pace of the movie to leave them in.

If you are a comic book fan, or just a Marvel movie fan, then this Blu-Ray is a must buy.  If you are just a fan of good movies, then this movie is still worth the price of admission.  It might even be worth it just to have another good movie to show off what your TV can do.

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Mad Max Looks Insane!

I was a little late with this trailer, but it is my site so things get posted when I say so!  Or unless The Paladin gives me that dispointed look.  Anyway … I thought the next big trailer would be Ant-Man.  It wasn’t.  It was Mad Max: Fury Road, and it looks amazing.  I was worried the series would suffer being separated from the 80’s (well the first one came out in ’79, but close enough), but it looks like it made the translation to the 20-teens quite well.  This movie is running up my most anticpated films of 2015 list.

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Orphan Black Continues To Be Great!

Orphan-Black-Season-1

While I have my problems with Comcast, I was quite happy that they let me watch season two of Orphan Black for free even though it aired last May.  For those of you that have not watched the show you are really missing out.  This is one of my favorite new shows.  BBC America (USA)/Space (Canada) have a winner on their hands.

Much like last year, Sarah Manning is continuing to look for answers about her past with the help of her clone sisters.  Well most of them try to help anyway.  The latest clone she has discovered, Rachel, actually works for The Dyad Institute, and Rachel is doing everything in her power to bring the clones back under company control.

What I love about the writing of this show is that they are actually letting us figure things out.  There isn’t one big secret, and they are stretching it out for forever.  There are a ton of secrets, so you constantly feel like you are learning and progressing.  It also helps that there are only ten episodes a season, so there isn’t any filler.

Tatiana Maslany continues her tour de force performance as Sarah Manning and the rest of the clones.  She gives all the sisters such unique personalities that you never confuse them, but she is never overacting.  If she isn’t nominated for an Emmy this year it will prove that the award has no meaning.  The rest of the cast continues to be good, but this show is all about the clones, and Maslany is playing the roles perfectly.

I can’t wait for May for season three to come out.  I need to know what happens next.  It is a great time to be a geek with so much good Sci-Fi all over the place.  If you are not watching Orphan Black you should be.