Neil Gaiman is making a ‘Good Omens’ miniseries for Amazon Video

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett fans, take note: Good Omens, a novel written by Gaiman and Pratchett, is being adapted into an Amazon miniseries. The six-part series will debut in 2018, with Gaiman serving as sole writer and showrunner. It’s a timely release, too — Amazon’s description says that “Good Omens takes place in 2018 when the Apocalypse is near and Final Judgment is set to descend upon humanity,” a feeling that some of us can relate to today.

Despite that seemingly dark introduction, the series (and novel it is based on) are more comedy than drama. “Almost thirty years ago, Terry Pratchett and I wrote the funniest novel we could about the end of the world,” Gaiman said in a statement, “populated with angels and demons, not to mention an eleven-year-old Antichrist, witchfinders and the four horsepeople of the Apocalypse.” Indeed, Pratchett (who died in 2015) was well-known for his rather unique blend of comedy and fantasy.

There’s no word on the show’s cast yet, but the BBC studios is serving as co-producer and the show will be broadcast on the BBC in the UK in addition to Amazon Video. Caroline Skinner (Doctor Who), Chris Sussman (Fleabag), Rob Wilkins (Choosing to Die) and Rod Brown (Going Postal) will serve as executive producers along with Gaiman. Plenty of Gaiman’s works have been adapted for the screen in one form or another, but Good Omens is notable as it was the first novel he published, way back in 1990.

Via: Variety

Source: Amazon

Kymco’s smart scooter combines alerts with a customizable design

Smart cars are everywhere. They talk to your phone and your house. In the future they’ll even carry on conversations with you and your passengers. But for now, automobiles are rolling maps, entertainment centers and charging ports for our connected lifestyles.

Motorcycles and scooters, on the other hand, have been slow to adopt any smart features. More so than with a car, taking your eyes off the road for even a few seconds while riding can be incredibly dangerous. But Taiwanese company Kymco thinks it’s found a way to make its scooters smarter without sacrificing safety. The company calls it the Noodoe experience.

The system adds a round “Smart Dashboard” to the instrument cluster that replaces the regular speedometer. The display has different widgets that displays the speed, time, weather, a compass that keeps you riding in the right direction while surfacing important locations like gas stations, and notifications from your Bluetooth-connected smartphone.

Kymco says the information is tailored to the riding experience. A quick glance should give you the details you need. Even the most elaborate dashboard, the Compass, is pretty sparse. It resembles a submarine’s radar display. To keep you going in the correct direction the edge of the circle glows in relation to the destination you input into the app instead of showing off a large arrow or street map.

The Compass also shows points of interest and any friends with the NooDoe system that you’ve added to the app as “blips.” What it doesn’t have are point-by-point directions, which seems like a missed opportunity. But Kymco says it will probably come out with rider-specific mapping in a later version of the system.

Currently, at least, it offers smartphone notifications. But unlike systems in cars that share info with your eyes or ears as soon as something happens, NooDoe’s alerts only appear when the bike is at a complete stop (where allowed by law). Likewise, these notifications disappear once the scooter starts rolling again. And you can’t act on those alerts either. The value here is that you have a chance to decide whether it’s worth it to pull over and, say, respond to a message.

But to the company Noodoe is more than just connecting a bike to a phone; it wants to give riders the ability to personalize their two-wheel experience. The speedo and clocks can be customized with your own photos, as well as color schemes and assorted fonts. If you’re especially jazzed about one of your creations you can share it in the NooDoe companion app with other users. You can also download creations made by other riders.

The result is what Kymco hopes is a unique experience. That may be true, but what it means for motorcycle and scooter riders is a way to get smart features that make sense for how they get around town that’s safer than mounting a smartphone to their handlebars. The NooDoe system is expected to debut in the US on the Like scooter in mid 2017.

Source: Kymco

Pioneer takes on Korg with its first analog synthesizer

If you want an analog synthesizer, but don’t have a lot of floorspace, then Korg’s Volca range is for you. Maybe hold that thought a sec. Until now, Pioneer has focused on the club crowd with its ubiquitous DJ decks and controllers. The company branched out into general music production with its Toraiz SP-16 sampler last year; today it’s stepping further into music-making with the Toraiz AS-1 analog sound machine.

When I fist saw the photos of the AS-1, my first thought was “that looks a lot like Korg’s Volca series.” And it does. Sure, there aren’t that many ways to present a small synth, but the general layout and basic concept really do resonate with what Korg has been doing (and doing well) for the last few years.

There are some key differences of course. The Volca series is made up of different synths for different jobs (drums, keyboards etc.), and each model costs around $150. Pioneer’s AS-1 is a straight up sound machine (though it will sequence those sounds into “songs”), and it weighs in at $499. The AS-1 is also slightly bigger than it first looks. The preset sounds it comes with cover all the bases — from strings to crunchy “acid” noises, but the real fun will be making your own.

While the AS-1 is a Pioneer product, it’s actually a collaboration with Dave Smith Instruments (based on the Prophet-6 if you’re wondering). This co-branding adds a chunk of credibility to Pioneer’s first venture into sound making, and somewhat explains the higher price.

The monophonic AS-1 will also play nice with Pioneer’s other gear, and not just the original Toraiz. If you own a DJM mixer and CDJs, you’ll be able to hook them all up together and “play” the tracks from the AS-1 via the CD turntables. That is, once it lands in stores some time in March.

A single image of the Nintendo Switch tells us three things

Nintendo has shown precious little of the Switch’s user interface so far — just a few seconds teasing the console’s menu during last week’s live stream and a fleeting glance during a Treehouse livestream. Apart from showing off the general layout and confirming the presence of the Nintendo eShop, Nintendo’s tease didn’t tell us much. Now, an image Tweeted out by indie developer Nicalis tell us a lot more: The Switch my have multiple users, menu themes and a couple of unannounced games.

The picture is strikingly different than other shots we’ve seen of the Nintendo Switch UI — draping the bright, white menu theme shown in Nintendo’s press conference with a darker theme. While it’s likely this is just a simple “night mode” setting, it hints at the possibility that the Switch could have 3DS-like menu themes. This shot of the UI also has a new feature: a change user button, suggesting the Switch is a more sharable device than Nintendo’s current portable. Finally, the image reveals two popular Nicalis titles previously unannounced for the Switch: Cave Story and 1001 Spikes.

Despite the Tweet reading like a playful tease for Nicalis games, it was apparently a mistake: the developer deleted the Tweet and image within an hour. Either way, more games, better sharing features and a darker user interface are all things we can get behind. Here’s hoping we’ll have access to all of it when the console launches

Use Roli Blocks to control Mac and Windows music production apps

Roli’s set of modular music gadgets have been around since November, but today the company announced an update that will come in handy for those who use desktop music production apps. The new Dashboard for Roli Blocks allows you to employ the LED touch-sensitive pad to control software like Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Cubase, Native Instruments Massive and a bunch more. With the Lightpad Block and Dashboard, you can upload pre-programmed scripts and edit as needed.

What’s more, Roli has a new Fader Mode for the Lightpad Block. This new feature makes it even easier to control the parameters you assign to the gadget with a new display mode. And yes, the tool works with both OS X and Windows software. The company is showing off a beta version of Dashboard at NAMM this week, but it’s planning to ship the feature to all Blocks users February 16th. If you’re not familiar with the gear, we caught up with RZA at CES to find out what makes the affordable gadget so compelling.