Kinoma Notes — Blog

For the last several years, you haven’t been able to turn on the Discovery Channel without seeing these guys:

They are Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, otherwise known as “the fun one” and “the stern one that sort of looks like a walrus”.

They’re the creators and stars of Mythbusters, which goes to extreme (and entertaining!) lengths to prove or disprove myths in a reasonably-scientific manner.

We love these guys, and we’re happy to announce that today you have another way to enjoy them in Kinoma Play through their work with Tested.com.

Tested.com is a fun, interesting site focused on technology and computing. It was founded by Will Smith and Norman Chan of Maximum PC, but it really started to take off when Adam and Jamie joined the site in 2012.

The podcasts

Every week (more or less) you’ll find new episodes of two podcasts: This Is Only A Test — The official podcast of Tested.com, Tested brings you the week’s technology and science news. There’s no jargon here, just solid explanations of the week’s news — and plenty of wacky tangents. Make sure you stick around after the outro for fake outtakes! Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project — Norm and Will discuss topics of interest with Adam — nothing is off-limits! Still Untitled covers everything from hot-button issues within the maker community to experiences from Adam’s life to questions from the audience.

Where do I find them?

You can find Tested.com podcasts and lots of other great content in Kinoma Guide, which you can generally find on your Home screen.

The Tested collection is in Entertainment & Comedy > Tested.

If you don’t see Kinoma Guide on your Home screen, you can always add it from Apps.

Enjoy!

Have suggestions for other interesting content? Please take a moment to let us know! Send links and short descriptions to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy.

Troma is a true Hollywood institution — both in the sense of “an organization with an historically-significant role” and — considering the crazy movies it’s created — “an organization providing care for people with special needs”.

Those people include directors like Quentin Tarantino and Peter Jackson — see his first two films if you dare — and countless others who revel in the (as Slate put it) “gleefully tasteless” and campy pictures that Troma has turned out by the hundreds since 1974.

Troma Pictures is one of the longest surviving independent film companies. If you’re into B (and C, and D…) movies you’ve probably seen a few of their works. Even if you’re not, there’s a good chance you’ve seen at least part of their first cult classic — The Toxic Avenger.

The movies

Just between us, not every Troma movie is worth watching all the way through. Here are a few highlights from the Troma catalog:

• Cannibal! The Musical — The first feature from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, this is an early peek into their sense of humor and musical talents.
• Class of Nuke ’Em High — Things go (very) bad at a high school localed next to a nuclear power plant. Bonus: Features a performance by The Smithereens.
• Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD — A New York cop becomes a superhero after being exposed to the spirit of Japanese opera. Of course.
• Surf Nazis Must Die — A black mother breaks out of her retirement home in order to deliver sweet revenge to the nazi surfer gang who killed her son.
• Tromeo and Juliet — Troma fixes Shakespeare’s dowdy old play, finally!

And now, here’s Trey Parker singing “Shpadoinkle” in Cannibal! The Musical. Warning: You will not be able to get this song our of your head today.

The sky is blue and all the leaves are green.
The sun’s as warm as a baked potato.
I think I know precisely what I mean,
When I say it’s a shpadoinkle day.

Where do I find them?

You can find Troma movies and lots of other great content in Kinoma Guide, which you can generally find on your Home screen.

The Troma Movies collection is in Entertainment & Comedy > Movies.

If you don’t see Kinoma Guide on your Home screen, you can always add it from Apps.

Enjoy!

Have suggestions for other interesting content? Please take a moment to let us know! Send links and short descriptions to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy.

TechCrunch is one of the few sites I devour on a daily basis.

Originally created by the (now infamous) Michael Arrington in 2005, it’s currently run by AOL and represents the star property of a collection of sites known as The TechCrunch Network.

As tech sites go, it’s one of the best out there for for getting the day’s most important tech news and analysis in one convenient place.

Today we’re happy to announce that the complete collection of TechCrunch Network podcasts is immediately available in Kinoma Guide, under the TechCrunch TV brand.

The shows

TechCrunch TV not only features a bunch of great shows, but most come in both video and audio-only flavors.

• Ask A VC — Our readers get to ask top VCs their own questions
• CrunchWeek — A weekly wrap-up show
• Fly Or Die — ‘Fly’ or ‘Die’ verdicts for new products
• Founder Stories — Talks with founders about lessons learned at successful startups
• Gadgets — The TechCrunch gadget team demos hot new tech products
• Gadgets Podcast — A weekly podcast about the latest gadget news
• Gillmor Gang — Industry experts and thought leaders mix it up
• In The Studio — Talks with Silicon Valley’s top thinkers and movers and shakers
• Keen On — Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy
• TC Cribs — Behind-the-scenes tours of tech giants and startups
• TCTV News — Breaking tech news, interviews, demos and company profiles
• TechCrunch Makers — Going inside tech hardware makers to see their latest products

Under Event Podcasts, you’ll also find a selection of podcasts that are updated regularly during select industry events.

• CES — Interviews and demos from the yearly show in Las Vegas
• Crunchies — Our yearly competition and awards ceremony to recognize top startups and technology innovation
• Disrupt — Interviews, keynotes, Startup Battlefield demos and backstage interviews
• SXSW — Interviews from the annual SXSW event in Austin

Where do I find them?

You can find TechCrunch TV shows and lots of other great content in Kinoma Guide, which you can generally find on your Home screen.

The TechCrunch TV collection is in the Technology category.

If you don’t see Kinoma Guide on your Home screen, you can always add it from Apps.

Enjoy!

Have suggestions for other interesting content? Please take a moment to let us know! Send links and short descriptions to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy.

If you like comedy, definitely check out Splitsider — the site about comedy and the people who create it.

Splitsider showcases the best comedy coming out every day. And if “behind the scenes” stuff is your thing, they also chronicle how the internet is changing the comedy landscape.

Splitsider recently started their own podcast network. Today we’re very happy to announce that the full collection of Splitsider podcasts are now available in Kinoma Play!

The shows

• A Funny Thing — True, hilarious stories of pain, terror and joy told LIVE at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theaters
• The Complete Guide To Everything — From North Korea to Nicolas Cage, Tim and Tom leave no stone unturned in their humble quest to make the world a more informed place
• The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show — Jeff Rubin (from CollegeHumor) presents interviews with interesting people who have turned their obsessions into professions, as well as expert analysis on geeky things that probably don’t warrant analyzation.
• It’s That Episode — Craig Rowin (UCB Theatre) invites guests over to his apartment to watch any episode of any TV show they want
• Left Handed Radio — A half-hour sketch comedy podcast show
• Make Yourself Comfy — Abra Tabak invites her comedian friends over to create a fully improvised show
• You Had To Be There — Comedians Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer invite one comedian, one musician, and a small audience of friends to hang out in Sara’s apartment in Brooklyn

Where do I find them?

You can find Splitsider shows and lots of other great content in Kinoma Guide, which you can generally find on your Home screen.

Splitsider Comedy Network is in the Entertainment & Comedy category.

If you don’t see Kinoma Guide on your Home screen, you can always add it from Apps.

Enjoy!

Have suggestions for other interesting content? Please take a moment to let us know! Send links and short descriptions to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy.

Hello, fans! This release of Kinoma Play for Android gives you a faster, smoother experience than ever before — plus two new apps.

OpenGL Inside

OpenGL is the standard for rendering 2D and 3D graphics. The most important thing to know? Most Android phones now include hardware acceleration for OpenGL.

This Preview 3 release represents two years of development and optimization work to natively support OpenGL in the platform that powers Kinoma Play.

The result? Graphics and video operations are typically 4X faster, with some operations as much as 19X faster! Here are the benefits:

• Lower power consumption, which means better battery life
• Less CPU usage, which makes more power available for other tasks
• Better responsiveness, particularly on high-res phones and tablets
• Faster and smoother scrolling through lists, grids and more
• Full HD playback (1920x1080), even on older tablets

OpenGL support requires Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or later.

Insta Photos

Kinoma Play’s new Insta Photos app is a fast, beautiful Instagram browser — a great way to follow your friends, family and favorite Instagram users.

One standout feature: Once you add Insta Photos, new Instagram photos will automatically appear Kinoma Play Dashboard as they’re posted. For all the details, please see the Insta Photos app page.

kChat

The new kChat app is Kinoma’s take on realtime chat. It’s simple, beautiful, and supports some of the most popular chat services so there’s no need to flit from one app to another to stay in touch.

kChat is perfect for when you need to be mobile, but still need to be reachable. See the kChat apps page for the complete scoop.

Get it today!

To update immediately, go to Play Store (or “Market” if you have an older OS), choose Menu > My apps, then select Kinoma Play (Preview) and press Update.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We’d love to hear them. Come talk to us in our community forum.