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Blake Lively Dress Shocks At “Sherlock Holmes” Premiere

12/19/2009 01:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments



It seems Blake Lively has reached a pivotal milestone in her career: The Slut Years. It’s usually Gossip Girl cutie Taylor Momsen who makes headlines for appearing pantless in public, but by God Serena van der Woodsen will not be outdone! The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants (pun intended) starlet showed up to the Sherlock Holmes premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in NYC on Thursday night in a sheer lace dress showing lots of leg and leaving little to the imagination.

Has the deepening recession gotten so bad that stars are now forced to go pantless? You be the judge! Check out more of Blake’s revealing little number:





Avatar Good So Far, but No New Moon

12/19/2009 01:32:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

James Cameron's blue man group's got nothing on Edward Cullen.

Avatar raked in a solid if not spectacular $3.5 million at midnight screenings, according to preliminary estimates. That's far short of the "absolutely freakish" record $26.3 million generated by New Moon's witching-hour debut last month.

But like Titanic, which started off just as slow but sailed into the record books as the highest-grossing film of all time, the jury's still way out for Cameron's budget-bursting follow-up.

Unspooling in more than 3,400 theaters in both 3-D and 2-D formats with a running time of almost two hours and 40 minutes and garnering near universal rave reviews, Avatar is expected to rake in upwards of $75 million to $80 million its opening weekend, according to early estimates.

Most prognosticators expect it to make a return on its eye-popping budget of $250 million-plus, but no one is quite sure where it will land on the all-time box-office list.

This much we know...it's got $247 million to go.

TVXQ Breaks Out a preview for upcoming single

12/19/2009 01:32:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments



TVXQ's own radio Bigeastation (which is ending soon), aired a preview of their upcoming single Break Out. Despite the recent lawsuit controversy, it's great to see these boys united as one for this track.

Despite all the controversies, the group is still popular as ever, as they are the 3rd most selling artists in Japan.

Check out the song preview now:


Stay tuned for the release of the full song and the PV!

Google’s Dashboard Approach to Privacy

12/19/2009 01:32:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

If you use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, or any of the ever-growing array of Google services, you may have cringed at the trove of personal data the company has gathered. To allay concerns, Google launched Dashboard, a single page housing privacy controls and settings for most of its services.

The Dashboard page, accessible at google.com/dashboard, gives you an overview of calendars or documents you share, your chat history, and sites you've authorized to access your Picasa pictures or Gmail contacts (such as a social networking site that can use your contact list to help you find other users, à la Facebook). You'll also find a list of search queries you've performed while logged in to Google. If you use the Google Toolbar and have enabled the Web history feature, you'll see your browsing history, too.

A Clean Search Slate

If seeing so much personal information stored on Google servers makes you uneasy, you can clear it or stop sharing it. Click Remove items or clear Web history, and remove some or all search terms. If you wipe your search slate clean, Google will assume that you want to opt out of saving such data, and it will automatically stop doing so. You can tell Gmail to stop saving your chat history, and decide whether YouTube can use your Google account info to target ads.

Google hasn't created any new privacy features or options for Dashboard; it has just made them easier to find. And faster, effortless control over our personal data is clearly a good thing. "It's definitely progress," says Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a consumer and privacy advocacy group.

But Dashboard is no privacy panacea. For one thing, it allows access to saved data tied to a Google account, but not to information (such as saved searches) tied to the unique identifier within a cookie. Google that says doing so would raise additional privacy concerns, because while logging in to a Google account verifies a person's identity, you have no such login option for a cookie. And allowing anyone sitting at a PC to see all of the searches tied to a cookie currently on that PC could reveal plenty of sensitive information.

It's a valid concern, but both Schwartz and Marc Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, say that if the cookie-associated data is that sensitive, perhaps Google shouldn't be collecting it at all. That consideration, along with Dashboard's clear nudge to sign up for a Google account, leads Rotenberg to conclude that the new step is just "privacy theater," primarily for show, and isn't a real step toward securing users' sensitive information.

Security Starts at Home

Google and other online companies could do more to protect account holders' personal data. But the new Dashboard's promise of fast and easy access to settings and controls is a step forward.

Paradoxically, though, Dashboard can bust your privacy: If bad guys guess or steal your Google account information, they will have the same access to your Dashboard data that you have. So be sure to keep your Google password safe.

Sex, porn, Jacko top kids' searches in 2009

12/19/2009 01:31:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , 0 Comments

Sex, porn, and Michael Jackson were among the most popular items kids searched for online in 2009, as tracked by Symantec's OnlineFamily.Norton.

Symantec on Thursday revealed the top 100 favorite search terms among children 18 and under found by its free OnlineFamily.Norton service, which helps parents monitor their kids' online searches. Though innocuous terms like Sesame Street and "New Moon"--a popular movie in the Twilight vampire series--made the cut, sex showed up fourth on the list for boys and fifth for girls, following YouTube, Google, and Facebook as the three top terms.

For boys, the top 25 search terms focused on social-networking sites, shopping sites, and certain adult terms. Girls seemed to favor subjects related to music, TV shows and movies, and celebrities.

Speaking of celebrities, to no one's surprise, the late Michael Jackson was the most searched for celebrity, coming in at number 12, followed by pop singer Taylor Swift at No. 13. Other hot stars that made the list included Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Beyonce, the Black Eyed Peas, the Jonas Brothers, Eminem, Rihanna, and Chris Brown (who was in the news this year after admitting that he assaulted ex-girlfriend Rihanna).

Searching for celebrities online, however, may be hazardous to your PC's health. Symantec has found found that these searches sometimes draw people to dangerous Web sites, which spew out viruses, spam, and other malware.

Kids seven and under searched for items related to video games, while older kids were heavy into music, with 34 percent of teens and 27 percent of tweens searching for music-related topics. The Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA" was the most-searched for tune among kids, while "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eye Peas took the No. 2 spot.



Tech terms that popped up on the list included MySpace at No. 8, MSN at No. 33, the iPod Touch at No. 98, and Bing last at No. 100.

To compile its top 100 list, Symantec tracked 14.6 million searches run by users of its OnlineFamily.Norton service and ranked the terms according to ones submitted most frequently to those submitted the least. The terms were collected anonymously, so none could be associated with any specific children or families.

New Film Trailer of Jennifer Aniston

12/19/2009 01:31:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments



The first official trailer for Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston’s new comedy The Bounty Hunter was released today! Gerard plays a bounty hunter hired to track down his ex-wife, played by Aniston.

The Bounty Hunter opens March 19!

Andy’s new film “happy family” photographs

12/19/2009 01:31:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Romantic-scientific film Future X-Cops which boast a cast of Andy Lau, Barbie Hsu, Fan Bingbing and Xu Jiao, it will open in the cinemas on 5 February 2010, its unique theme and top rated production made it the most anticipated film during the Chinese New Year holidays. Being his first film after his announced marriage, Future X-Cops has a different meaning for Andy. From the “happy family” photographs revealed by the film company, Andy bringing “his daughter home” show off a cute, handsome and full of responsibility father image.


In August 2009, Andy’s marriage with Carol Zhu Liqian create quite a stir as Andy whom had been in showbiz for more than 20 years can finally put down his idol image, it opens a new chapter for his life and career. Being his first film after his marriage, Andy’s character is a brave,upright cop and full of responsibility father. In this new film directed by Wong Jing, Andy is a cop whom time travel from 2085 to 2010, collaborating with Fan Bingbing, Barbie Hsu and Xu Jiao, these actresses came from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong respectively.

In the film, Andy, Fan Bingbing and Xu Jiao formed a family. In the revealed photographs, the young mother Fan Bingbing helping daughter Xu Jiao changing and meanwhile father Andy delivered food, it creates a happy family scene. The photograph used a futuristic gray color, from the decoration of the room show off the scientific element of the film. This is the second collaboration between Andy and Fan Bingbing as they collaborated in A Battle of Wits before.


There are many Chinese New Year films this year, within the 90 days slot, there would be a total of 53 films to be screen. Future X-Cops theme is special, other than “happy family”, the film’s action director is Ching Siu Tung, he specially design a series of “futuristic action scenes”. Meanwhile, the large scale computer effects make this film to be the Chinese film with the most special effects scenes. The film company has high confidence in the film as it express: “Believe when it is screened on 5 February, it would bring a refreshing audio and visual banquet for all audience.”

T-ara to release Christmas version of Bo Peep!

12/19/2009 01:30:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

As Christmas season is here, group T-ara will also be revealing a Christmas version of their current hit song ‘Bo Peep Bo Peep’.


The song ‘Bo Peep Bo Peep’ is off the group’s first official album ‘Absolute First Album’ released on 27th November, and the song has been receiving great responses from music fans.

Especially with the cute choreography for the performance, the song has been the talk of the Kpop town of late. And this time, the girls will give another surprise with the Christmas version of the song.

There will be a 180 degrees transformation in terms of their costumes, hair and accessories. The girls have prepared this as a present for fans this Christmas.

The Christmas version will be revealed through SBS Inkigayo on 20th Dec, and then on KBS Music Bank on 25th Dec.

ASUS Eee PC 1201N review

12/19/2009 01:30:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments



Six months ago netbooks all had 10-inch displays, fairly cramped keyboards, and couldn't manage to play a 1080p video even if they trained with the best of marathoners. The world's a lot different now: the King of Pop has passed away, the unemployment rate has dropped, and netbook manufacturers have realized 11- and 12-inch displays provide a more comfortable experience -- especially when paired with more powerful hardware that adds multimedia prowess.

We'll stop there with the Netbook 101, but looking at the past is necessary in realizing what a game-changer the ASUS Eee PC 1201N really is. The 1201N's dual-core Intel Atom processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and 2GB of RAM make it the most powerful netbook to ever grace the purchase pages of Amazon. But does the $500 machine fix all the issues and frustrations we've ever had with netbooks when put to the test? Can it make us forget about cramped keyboards, strained eyes and sluggish video performance? Find out in our full review.

Look and feel



At first sight of the 1201N we got the mental image of ASUS engineers attempting an experiment: deep in a Taiwanese lab the Eee PC 1005HA is placed on a machine, a switch is thrown, and out of the dust appears the wider and thicker Eee PC 1201N. We're okay with the strikingly similar design, and though the lid's glossy black finish is a fingerprint magnet, overall it's a slick-looking machine. (It would be nice if ASUS included a polishing cloth, though.) Our only reservation about the 1201N is that it doesn't feel quite sturdy enough -- unlike the aluminum Nokia Booklet 3G, the plastic chassis doesn't exude a toughness or have us confident that it could take a beating.

Wider than 10-inch netbooks, the 1201N is a bit harder to slip into a small shoulder bag (or purse), but it'll travel well in a laptop bag at just 1.2 inches thick and 3.2 pounds. There's also more room for ports: three USB, an HDMI, VGA, and a headphone and mic jack surround the chassis.



When you open it up, the 1201N continues to be fairly impressive, with a super-comfortable full-size chiclet keyboard. The matte keys have a nice tactile response and the wider deck accommodates two full-sized shift keys. The trackpad is actually flush with the case and only differentiated by a grid of raised dots that feel great on the fingertip. Two-finger scrolling was fairly smooth in Firefox 3, and definitely not as unpolished as recent HP laptops. ASUS's chrome rocker continues to peeve us; it's loudly clicky and the lack of dedicated right and left mouse buttons caused a few mis-clicks.

The 1366x768 resolution 12.1-inch LED-backlit display isn't flush with the bezel, but it's still plenty spacious and crisp -- we'd be remiss not to mention how lovely the green trees looked in a 1080p clip of the Amazon rainforest. A word of caution to those who hate glossy screens: the 1201N's screen is reflective enough to function as an effective mirror.

Performance, graphics and battery life



Packing a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 processor typically found in nettops, NVIDIA Ion graphics, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 5,400rpm 250GB drive, the 1201N is hot to trot on specs. The dual-core processor provided noticeably better performance than the standard netbook's single-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU -- everyday multitasking performance in Windows 7 Home Premium felt much snappier. The benchmarks back us up: the 1201N notched a Geekbench score of 1,106, higher than both the N280-powered HP Mini 5101's 920 and the NVIDIA Ion / N270-backed Lenovo IdeaPad S12's 826. For comparison's sake, the Intel CULV HP dm3t we just reviewed scored a 1,602, so while the 1201N is powerful for a netbook, it doesn't quite match up to a thin-and-light.

Speaking of Ion, the GeForce 9400-based chipset provided a pretty sweet multimedia experience on the 1201N. A series of trailers played back smoothly from an external Blu-ray drive with no pauses both on the 1201N's screen and a 42-inch 1080p HDTV. With Adobe's GPU-accelerated Flash Player 10.1, YouTube HD and Hulu HD were incredibly smooth on the 1201N's screen and over HDMI, but local playback was a little rougher: a downloaded 1080p, H.264 QuickTime video of Miley Cyrus struggled a bit with a few pauses here and there, although it was still watchable.



We've never bothered running games on netbooks with integrated graphics before, but the 1201N handled lighter games like WoW just fine. Our gnome was happy to make it to level four at 30fps. The more GPU-intensive Batman: Arkham Asylumn stuttered at the native res, but was surprisingly playable at 20 fps when we lowered it to 1024 x 768.

All that performance and graphics gain is great until you realize that it takes a hit on the 1201N's battery life. Its six-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 26 minutes with a 1080p WMV video running on loop, and we got about three and a half hours of runtime using the laptop to just surf the web and write this review in Microsoft Word. That's not terrible battery life, but it's not so great compared to other six-cell netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA, which runs for about six hours.

We did get a kick out of the bundled voice recognition software: we commanded it give us the weather in New York and it brought up a weather map within a few seconds. We almost wrote this paragraph without complaining about any preloaded software at all, but that was until ASUS' preloaded screen saver started up with hold-type music in the background. Seriously -- remove this crap before you do anything else with this laptop.

Wrap up



The 1201N is a new type of netbook -- although we aren't even sure it should be called a netbook, since it's more like a full-fledged laptop. Regardless of what you call it, at $499 the Eee PC 1201N quelled our netbook frustrations by delivering a more comfortable computing experience and far superior multimedia performance than its 10-inch brethren. It offers neither the stamina of a netbook nor the performance of a $600 ULV laptop, but it's a solid compromise between the two, and we're extremely happy with it. Just make sure you pack a spare battery or two.

5 Questions About Palm's 2010 Phone Plans

12/19/2009 01:30:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

By opening up app development and marketing the check out of its phones, Palm's hoping to turn the ship around next year and stop losing money. High on the priority list is to greatly expand the WebOS app store beyond its current count, which is more than 800. Palm also wants people to understand why its Pre and Pixi phones are better than the competition.

I've got my doubts that Palm can make this work, so here are some questions on how the company's plans for 2010 will go down:

Will We See Attack Ads?

Launching an all-out war against the market leader worked well enough for Verizon Wireless, but is Palm -- and by extension Sprint -- capable of doing the same thing? I agree with Palm CEO and Chairman Jon Rubinstein that Palm must make a better case for the Pre and Pixi in marketing, but the company has to be careful. Verizon's anti-iPhone ads worked because the carrier had a hot product on its hands. Sprint doesn't have that luxury.

Will Palm and Sprint Drop Prices?

It's no secret that you can get a Palm Pre for $80 and a Palm Pixi for $25 through Amazon. Yet when you buy direct from Sprint, the same phones cost $150 and $100, respectively. The discrepancy is silly for two reasons: Palm and Sprint can't advertise the lower prices in the aforementioned marketing push, and it makes them look like they're just trying to bilk customers who don't know any better.

What is the Approval Process Look Like?

Presently, Palm's App Catalog is only open to a select group of developers, resulting in a limited number of apps. But Rubinstein said the WebOS software development kit has been downloaded "tens of thousands" of times, paving the way for exponential App Catalog growth. When the floodgates open, how will Palm deal with all those new apps? It's not clear whether there will be any barrier between development and addition to the catalog.

What's the Incentive For Developers?

I think I know Palm's answer to this question. The planned Ares tool is supposed to make Web development easy. Also, Palm Pre users were fairly active after the phone's launch, downloading over 1 million applications in 18 days. The App Catalog itself is also well-organized and easy to use, so the potential is there. But developers go where the customers are, and I'm still not clear on how there's enough business in the App Catalog to make it more worthwhile to developers than the Android Market or iPhone App Store.

Will the Pre and Pixi Stick With Sprint?

There was a time when Verizon Wireless wasn't shy about its desire for the Palm Pre, but those plans have reportedly soured, and it's hard to see the carrier picking up Palm's phones in light of its love-in with Google. Unlike the iPhone and AT&T, the Palm Pre has failed to draw people to Sprint, as originally intended. Even Sprint is moving on, with new "Now Network" commercials that tout other phones in addition to the Pre. If Palm wants to sell more Pres and Pixis, they need to be available elsewhere.

Yamashita Tomohisa is Hot Right Now

12/19/2009 01:29:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Just how popular is Johnny’s heartthrob Yamashita Tomohisa (24) right now? Well the media are making a lot of the fact that he already has another prime time drama scheduled for January, just two seasons after his latest headliner. He played the lead role of a basketball player in the summer Fuji TV drama series “Buzzer Beat – Gakepuchi no Hero,” which aired in the “golden” Monday 9pm time slot.

Oguri Shun now occupies the autumn slot with the drama “Tokyo Dogs,” but will hand over to the second series of Fuji’s “Code Blue – Doctor Heli Kinkyu-kyumei” in January. This is described as the first time it has happened since the time slot became a fixture for the most popular drama series in 1987. And the return of Code Blue, in which “Yama-P” plays a medical helicopter pilot cadet, is in itself an indication of the popularity of its star.

The show also has some hot young female stars, including Aragaki Yui (21), Toda Erika (21), and Higa Manami (23). But perhaps the biggest indicator of Yama-P’s popularity is the fact that his image barely appears on the Fuji website for the show. A Google search reveals only distorted images from the original series or scans of DVD covers and the like. That’s how protective Johnnys are of their hottest properties.

Hyori’s 4th album 80% completed, expected release date is 2010 late Jan to early Feb

12/19/2009 01:29:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Sexy queen Lee Hyori will spend her year-end in the recording studio. She will not be appearing on various year-end programs and will be focusing on preparing for her 4th album.


According to Mnet.com, “All this while, she has been doing various activities like CF filming that she cannot focus on her album works as much. This year-end she will not be appearing on any shows, other than ‘Family Outing’. And she will be working on her new album.”

Hyori previously released her 3rd album ‘It’s Hyorish‘ in July 2008, and her 4th album was set to release October this year but it was pushed back till next year.

A company representative has said, “Because Hyori puts in effort to make every song, the album was late in delivery. Currently, the album is about 80% completed. But the remaining 20%, which is the most important part like title songs and others, will need more attention.”

The new album is set to drop either late Janauary or early February next year.

The representative said, “When we have decided with the title song, we need to prepare the costumes, choreography and concept, there is still much work to cover. And such will need around 1 month, so if fast enough, we will see Hyori’s album released at the end of January.”

Showcasing a different concept and choreography for every album release, much anticipation is in for Lee Hyori’s longawaited new album.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 catches FCC on a good day

12/19/2009 01:27:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Oh, to live the life of an FCC certification lab employee: setting up test benches, writing reports, playing with devices that won't be released for months or years. Instead, we're stuck enjoying their fun vicariously at an arm's length through a little portal we know as the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, where gems like the X10 occasionally pop up complete with pretty in-the-wild pictures, teardowns, and user manuals. What we're looking at here are test results for EDGE 850 / 1900 plus WCDMA Band IV (that'd be T-Mobile's and WIND's spectrum, by the bye), WiFi, and Bluetooth, so even if T-Mobile ultimately chooses not to offer it on contract, you should be able to score it one way or another N900-style. The user's manual is basically just 40 pages of good stuff plus a bunch of conformity statement mumbo jumbo, but it's still a good read -- so if you think this might be your phone of choice come 2010, have a look.

Apple's iMac sales jump 74% in U.S.

12/19/2009 01:27:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Even Apple couldn't have expected a sales jump this big, says analyst

Sales of Apple's iMacs in the U.S. jumped 74% during October and November over the same period last year, a retail research firm said today, making the desktop line refresh "a very big success."

iMac sales during the first two months of the final calendar quarter were up so dramatically that it had to take even Apple by surprise, said Stephen Baker, analyst with the NPD Group. "They've reaccelerated that [desktop] segment for Apple," said Baker, noting that the 21% jump in overall Mac sales were largely due to iMac sales. Sales of Apple's laptops -- the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air -- increased by just 5% year-over-year during October and November.

"It's hard to imagine Apple could have predicted those iMac sales, especially of the 27-in. models," said Baker.

Although sales of the less-expensive 21.5-in. iMacs were greater than those of the pricier 27-in. version, the big boost in sales of the latter, when compared to previous sales of Apple's top-of-the-line iMacs, was the big surprise to Baker.

"Apple often gets a big jump in sales after a refresh," noted Baker, "and we're on the cusp of that six- to eight-week period. We saw a big jump in March when Apple tweaked the internals of the iMac, but that didn't have the legs that this one seems to have."

Apple launched its revamped iMacs on Oct. 20, replacing the earlier 20- and 24-in. displays with 21.5- and 27-in. screens, and offering quad-core processors on the larger models for the first time. The 21.5-in. model starts at $1,199; the 27-in. version starts at $1,699, with the quad-core model going for $1,999.

When asked why the iMacs have done so well -- a turnaround of sorts for Apple, which has seen desktop sales drop steadily over the past several years -- Baker said simply, "I wish I knew."

But he was certain that Apple's problems in delivering 27-in. iMacs was not solely due to technical issues with the computers' graphics cards, a claim some authorized resellers have made after users began reporting major problems with new 27-in. iMacs.

"The [graphics problem] is probably not the only reason for the delays," Baker said, referring to Apple's current two-week span between ordering a new 27-in. iMac and shipping the unit. "Sales have been so strong that they've had to scramble for more product. But just because the 27-in. is outperforming Apple's expectations doesn't mean the [graphics] problems should be dismissed."

Apple has declined to answer questions about whether the 27-in. iMac delays were caused by an unacknowledged hardware glitch, but the company has issued a statement apologizing for the iMac's availability problems, and put the blame on sales. "The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement released to several news outlets.

The Mac mini, which was also revised two months ago -- including a $999 model that operates as a cut-rate server -- has experienced a sales spike as well. "That's one of the other hidden points in the October-November data," said Baker. "We've seen some decent increases in the Mac mini, which is doing pretty well."

Baker declined to ascribe the smallest desktop Mac's sales gains to the "Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server" offering, but acknowledged that that model was the biggest difference between the line before and after the Oct. 20 refresh.

"They're making some money on that model," Baker said. "The server edition adds another product to the line."

Apple's sales for the quarter will be solidly within the company's expectations, Baker predicted, and the Cupertino, Calif. computer maker is well placed heading into the new year. "They're sitting pretty good going into 2010," Baker argued. "Macs won't look as overpriced next year, especially in the back half of the year, as they did in 2009. The price declines of Windows PCs, especially netbooks can't continue to come down 25%, like they did this year."

Apple won't release its official sales figures for the final calendar quarter of 2009 until its conference call with analysts sometime in the second half of January 2010.

Sandra Bullock “Entertainer Of The Year” 2009

12/19/2009 01:06:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Sandra Bullock has topped EW’s annual Entertainers of the Year poll.

The star of 2009’s big sleeper hits The Proposal and The Blind Side beat the cast of True Blood to the top spot; pop sensation Lady Gaga came in third.

Singer Taylor Swift, 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin, Oscar-winning film legend Meryl Streep, actor Ryan Reynolds, American Idol star Adam Lambert, and Avatar director James Cameron rounded out the list of 10.

Shrek Forever After trailer hits web ahead of 3D release of fourth animated film

12/19/2009 01:05:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , 0 Comments

Anyone who though Shrek couldn't get any bigger, think again.


The loveable green ogre from the land of Far Far Away is back for a fourth (and supposedly final) movie - but this time in 3D.

Entitled Forever After, the new film sees Shrek now settled into domesticated life with his wife Fiona and their children.

But he feels over-domesticated and the local villagers are no longer scared by his ogrish roar.

In a bid to regain his mojo, he strikes a deal with trickster Rumpelstiltskin to try and inject some excitement into his life again.


But the pact goes awry with Shrek being whisked away to to an alternate Far Far Away, where he never existed.

This translates to Donkey being forced into cart-pulling duty, while Puss in Boots, who has grown fat and lazy, trades in his sword for a pink bow.





At the helm is underhanded Rumpelstiltskin, ruling the kingdom. Essentially, it's Shrek meets It's A Wonderful Life in what promises to be the final film about the Scottish ogre.

Mike Mitchell directs, while returning cast members Mike Myers (Shrek), Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona) and Eddie Murphy (Donkey) are joined by comedians Kathy Griffin and Kristin Schaal as a pair of witches.

Jon Hamm (Don Draper in Mad Men) also voices a dashingly handsome ogre.



Google: Best tech place to work in 2010

12/19/2009 01:05:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Glassdoor.com published their best places to work for the coming year yesterday, highlighting a number of key technology companies in the top 50.


At the top, Southwest Airlines with a rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 (classifying it as employees being “very satisfied”) with Google ranking at number 14. The company, famed for its practical jokes and revolutionary workplace style, slips 7 places since last year, yet still ranking higher than Apple, Intel and SAP America, at 22, 41 and 43 respectively.

Adobe seems to be the biggest slip, dropping 26 places, after employees said that the “technology is limited to their cloistered family of products”, such as Flash, Reader and AIR, and others blame the management and boards for lack of sales for products which don’t seem to generate much revenue.

However, Google isn’t exempt from the grilling after accusations of people skills ranging from “arrogant and stubborn co-workers” to “middle managers with little by way of people skills”; these could well be personal perspectives from individuals and may not represent the wider picture.

The restructuring issues are not unique to Google, as my time at Microsoft seemingly all those years ago was dogged by management reshuffles and reorganisation which never seemed to benefit anybody or any of the products in the long run. On the other hand I wasn’t there long enough to see the changes in full effect.



Microsoft does not appear in the top 50, yet has a rating of 3.6 (classifying it as employees being “satisfied”) based on just under a thousand reviews. In the long battle between the companies, Google can chime a victory in this area for being the better workforce to be part of.

Google employees’ average salary ranges between $32,000 - $40,000 and $140,000 - $202,000 for jobs including group product managers and directors, while Microsoft’s average salary at the moment seems to be stable between $44,000-$48,000 a year and $160,000 - $203,000 for the higher paid jobs such as senior attorneys and senior directors. (Estimations are rough, only; never been great with maths).

The 20 Dumbest Questions on Yahoo Answers

12/19/2009 01:05:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

From startlingly ignorant PC questions to appalling displays of sexual confusion, people have some pretty strange problems--and the depth of their cluelessness is nowhere more evident than on the pages of Yahoo Answers.

God bless the Internet. Where else can you assume a fake identity, pose the most inane question imaginable--like "Why can't I see my reflection in the mirror on a television?"--and then sit back and watch the answers pour in?

Crowd-source advice sites like Yahoo Answers have become a bit of a magnet for the maladjusted. Sure, there are plenty of average Joes just looking for ordinary information. But among the sites' many mundane queries, there's a sea of jaw-droppingly dumb discussions guaranteed to amaze and entertain.

I spent some time surfing through Yahoo Answers to find the worst of the worst, and boy did I find it. The spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all as found in the original queries--because why put lipstick on a dodo?

So let's take a look at the vital questions of our time, as posed by some of the deepest thinkers out there, along with the best answers I could come up with..

1. Backward Thinking

"I sold my only car to help pay for gas money, but now gas has come down in price. How do I get my car back?"

I tried to contact this guy, but it turns out that he also sold his computer to help pay for his Internet connection.
2. It's Caps Lock--Capisce?

"HOW DO I TURN OFF CAPSLOCK? I ACCIDENTALLY TURNED IT ON YESTERDAY AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO TURN IT BACK OFF."

Note to self: Register howtoturnoffcapslock.com; make millions.

3. Credit Crunch

"I wanted to see if my computer would read my credit card so i put it in the cd rom and it got stuck, how do i get it out?? I tryed toothpics but lost them in the process?? also the drive is making noises"

Oh, that's normal. Your system is just waiting for you to pay the required $1 processing fee for scanning the card. Simply fold a greenback into a tiny square and insert it into any USB port.

4. Mousin' Around

"My mouse stop working every time i lift it up from the table why is this? this is not just OS .i have linux and vista both same thing so its not drivers"

Yeah, no big deal there, either: Insert your credit card into the CD-ROM drive and tell your computer--slowly and distinctly--that you need the Air Mouse 3000 upgrade. You'll be good in no time.

5. Technical Difficulties

"I've been asked to write an application in my own handwriting....? is there a computer programme that will do this for me? they also want original ideas. do you know any?"

This reminds me of a letter to the editor I once read years ago: "Are there any undiscovered islands left in the world?" The response: "Not that we know of."

6. It's All in the Details

"I have an assignment about computer.. What is unimportant details about computer?"

Wait a minute--does this assignment also require original ideas?

7. Unknown Nuptials

"Am i married in any state? have i been divorced?"

I'll take "questions asked after a night in Vegas" for $500, Alex.
8. A Sticky Subject

"Where can i buy a really big jar of peanut butter?"

If this is from the same guy who asked the previous question, I'm getting concerned.

9. Fruit Frets

"I have ate two whole tangerines in about two hours what will happen to me?"

That all depends on whether you swallowed any seeds. If you did, be very careful not to eat any dirt or drink any water for the next two weeks.

10. Fat Chance

"How do i become obese fast? I want to look good by the end of the year."

You can start by eating two tangerines in two hours. Then run around in circles until you figure out what "obese" means.

11. Cantaloupe Hunting

"I thought cantelope was an animal!? i always thought that a cantaloupe was that animal that has the horns and they live in Arizona and stuff, but i was shopping for groceries yesterday and i saw they had cantaloupe meat on sale. so i was like yeah sure i'll try it, but what i saw, wasn't a cantaloupe. it was some white and green fruit thing! whats up with this?"

The store is guilty of mislabeling. The term it was looking for is "jackalope"--which is a cross between a jackfruit and a manilla envelope.

12. Hey, Babby

"How is babby formed????? how girl get pragnent?"

On the one hand, I kind of hope you never figure it out. On the other, maybe your parents don't know either--and it obviously didn't stop them.

13. An Academic Inquiry

"Why are there school? is a point to it?"

There are school so you can learn how is babby formed, silly.

14. Canine Law

"Is it illegal to name a dog after a movie?"

Only if that movie is Air Bud 2. As a practical matter, though, you might want to avoid calling out to your pooch on a crowded bus if you decide to name it "Bang Bang You're Dead" or "I'm Going to Explode."

15. Lost in Space

"What is the best place to ask questions online? i mean, or there any QA forums like on yahoo or anything?"

Hmm...a forum-like place to ask questions on Yahoo. Nope, haven't heard of anything like that. But if you find something, be sure to let us know.

16. Mathematical Matters

"Is there any possible way of making 2+2=5?"

The easiest way is to flip the positions of 4 and 5 on the number line. Another method is to use LSD (Least Sequential Denominators).
17. Sandwich Sensations

"Is it possible to feel like a sandwich?"

Sure. It's called LSD (Lettuce, Succotash, and Dill-pickle). It feels, like, weird...

18. About Those Drugs...

"How do you ask a question on yahoo answers?"

Hey, don't ask me. I'm still trying to find out if there's a forum-like place to pose questions there. Anyone? Anyone?

19. Spelling 101

"How do you spell government?"

Most of the time.

20. Turtle Trouble

"I was bitten by a turtle when i was a young lad, can i still drink orange juice?"

This is why old lads should be barred from Yahoo Answers. Seriously--where do they come up with this stuff?

Apple Tablet makes second video showing: still fake, still impressive

12/19/2009 01:05:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

It’s Friday and perilously close to the holidays, so we reckon we’re allowed to kick back and watch a little more Apple Tablet concept footage. Just like last week’s clip we’re calling fake on its authenticity, but we’re still mighty impressed by the rendering skills of whoever created it.



This time around, rather than an interactive home furnishing system we’ve got what looks to be a digital magazine or news site, with various touchable elements that call up separate stories and video. The Cover Flow style navigation system makes another appearance, and there are various gestures used to move between pages.

Interestingly, SlashGear reader Aidin Brown identified the app on the last video as IKEA’s free home planner, but fellow commenter Adam Bartholomew spotted that the app doesn’t actually run on OS X – you’ll need a PC instead.

Simon Cowell Leaving “American Idol” To Host “X Factor” In America

12/19/2009 01:04:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Simon Cowell will bid farewell to American Idol next May and begin starring in an American version of his hit British singing competition, X Factor, starting in 2011, according to a new report.

Cowell, whose Idol contract expires in May and who has been in talks with Fox since last summer, is preparing to announce the new arrangement with Fox early next year, The Times Of London snitched this week.

The acid-tongued music mogul and pundit “is poised to sign agreements with the Fox Broadcasting Company and ITV that will secure his place on primetime television in Britain
and the US for the next two years,” says a spy. The UK TV talent show hit features Cowell and two other judges helping to mentor X Factor contestants. Viewers vote on which singers stay or go…..

According to the Times report, Cowell host X Factor in Los Angeles beginning in September 2011, also to be shown on Fox.

Golden Typhoon Willing to Pay Billion to Keep Show Luo, Generously Films New MV in New York

12/19/2009 01:03:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Show Luo's newest 7th musical work <Luo Sheng Men> will start pre-ordering on December 22nd, Golden Typhoon Records Company dropped 30 million TWD on this album, this allowed Show to take a team of people to New York and take photographs as well as film an MV, he had to crazily change into 10 different styles of outfits at a low temperature of under zero degrees celsius, not only did Show get frostbite, it was so cold he couldn't speak right, loudly spoke : "Pig Style English".

Show Luo expressed that being able to travel to New York to have a photoshoot makes him very happy, this time his record company designed ten different models of clothing styles, increasing his level to "accessory category trendy man", only, less than 10 minutes of taking pictures already made his face stiff, four female employees held onto blankets being on call, once the photographer puts down his camera, the four beautiful ladies shoot towards Show like an arrow, making bypassing males stare in envy.

But Show Luo bitterly smiled saying: "They think that being served by four beautiful women must be comfortable, actually that day was very dry so when they touched my body it would often cause a soft electric shock, I was shocked so much that I kept complaining, really wasn't fortunate enough to enjoy it!"

Filming from day to night, Show Luo's ten toes were frozen so stiff that they curled inwards, he jokingly said that it was like binding his feet, sitting in the extra long Cadillac Limousine his record company especially rented for Show for two hours, costing $100,000TWD, his body was able to warm up a little. But with his optimistic personality he didn't forget to find joy in this sorrow, using his "super fast English memorizing method" to turn phrases he often hears like "Something Like That" into "Shang Xin Lai Le (Heart Break Has Come)"; "God Bless You" was turned into a Taiwanese version "Ji Ka Pi Xiu (One Paper Box)", everyone convulsed in laughter, he successfully helped the employees forget about the cold.

More information for ‘Wonder World’ themed 2009 SBS GaYo DaeJun

12/19/2009 01:03:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

More information has been released regarding 2009 SBS Gayo DaeJun to be held on coming 29th December.

The theme for this year’s Gayo DaeJun will be ‘Wonder World’ with different chapters to the concert like ‘Change’, ‘Romance’, ‘Surprise’ and ‘Legend’.

The confirmed performing artistes list is also out. Go under the cut for more.



2009 SBS Gayo Daejun The Wonder World opens!
The fusion of fantastic performances and emotional music!!
The best musicians of Korea gather for special music stages!
Don’t miss the show on December 29th! (9:55 PM KST to be exact)

This year’s Gayo Daejun will revolve around a “Wonder World” theme with surprising fantasy stages as well as gathering the most popular artists of Korea this year.

These special stages will be divided up into “Change”, “Romance”, “Surprise”, and “Legend” and performers will show edoff a shocking new side of themselves.

Confirmed Performers: G-Dragon, Park Jin Young, Super Junior, Taeyang, 2PM, SNSD, Lee Seung Gi, 2NE1, Son Dambi, Brown Eyed Girls, Kara, SHINee, etc.

Archos 9 dumps Win7 for Google Chromium OS

12/19/2009 01:02:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments



Windows 7 Starter Edition wouldn’t be our first choice of OS for the Archos 9 PC Tablet – after all, it lacks the handwriting functionality you’ll find in other versions – but at least it recognizes the touchscreen. Steve from UMPC Portal decided to load up Chromium OS on his Archos 9 (which we saw unboxed yesterday) but the end result is less than usable: since Chromium doesn’t recognize the touchscreen, nor have an on-screen keyboard, you’ll basically be stuck looking at the login page.

Of course, since you can plug in a USB keyboard and use the optical mouse, there are workaround ways to actually reach the Chromium OS desktop. That doesn’t add up to a particularly mobile solution, however; consider this a call to arms for Chromium OS developers to whip up some tablet-friendly features.

Twitter Hacked, Defaced By “Iranian Cyber Army”

12/19/2009 01:02:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

In case you haven't already noticed, Twitter went down for a while late Thursday night, Pacific Standard Time.
Although as of this
writing, all Twitter has acknowledged is "an unplanned downtime," there are various reports streaming in that Twitter was hacked by a group claiming to be the "Iranian Cyber Army."

Both GigaOm and TechCrunch recieved reports from numerous readers that Twitter had not only gone down, but had been hacked. TechCrunch posted the broken-English message that appeared in place of Twitter's homepage that reads, in part, "U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But THey Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples To….[sic]". TechCrunch notes that at least one other Web site has been defaced with the same message.

This isn't the first time Twitter has had issues with security. Over the summer, hackers obtained internal documents regarding Twitter's future plans, and turned them over to TechCrunch. In a controversial move, TechCrunch went public with some of the information it received.

As of this writing, three of the top ten trending topics on Twitter relate to the outage and hack. Me? I noticed the outage around 10:30 PM Pacific time tonight, assuming it was just another Twitter outage. It was only when I was finally able to log in to Twitter that I realized what had happened.

Update : Twitter now reports the following: "Twitter’s DNS records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed. We are looking into the underlying cause and will update with more information soon."



Firefox 3.6 rev 5 is out

12/19/2009 01:02:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Mozilla has made available for download Firefox 3.6 revision 5.

There’s little doubt that Firefox is the catalyst that’s made everybody’s browser a better tool. So even if you aren’t using Firefox as your default browser (as I do … by default is Google Chrome), it’s still worth keeping an eye on.

Firefox 3.6 is a minor update, but it still brings to the table some cool stuff. Here’s a listing of what’s new:
[NEW] Made some changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
[NEW] This beta is available in more than 70 languages - get your local version.
More than 100 bug fixes from the last beta to improve performance, stability, security and features.
The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
Support for the WOFF font format.
Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Performance still dominates the headlines, but it’s also good to see Mozilla building in more crash-resistance into the browser, as well as adding a feature that keeps an eye out for outdated plugins.

Notion Ink Tegra Android smartpad uses Pixel Qi display

12/19/2009 01:01:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

CES 2010 is likely to see a fair few internet tablets being announced, but SlashGear has heard about one particular model that has more than a little promise. Notion Ink’s as-yet unnamed Android “smartpad” is based on an unnanounced NVIDIA Tegra T20 chipset supporting 1080p Full HD video playback, has integrated WiFi, Bluetooth and UMTS/HSDPA, and – perhaps most interestingly – is the first confirmed device to use the Pixel Qi transflective display. Notion Ink are saving the live hardware shots for CES – hence the renders – but they did send us some photos of the 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 Pixel Qi panel in action, which you can see after the cut along with the full specifications.



The Notion Ink smartpad measures 6.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 1.7lbs; as well as the triband (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR it also squeezes in A-GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer and proximity, ambient light and water sensors. Connectivity includes USB, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone input, and there’s also a 3-megapixel autofocus camera with video recording support. Onboard storage is either 16GB or 32GB of SSD, and there’s an SD slot for augmenting that.



Initially – at least as it’s to be shown at CES – the smartpad will use the regular Android UI, with full gesture support. Navigation is either via the touchscreen or a trackpad, and Notion Ink have added a matte-finish anti-glare, oleophobic and scratch-resistant coating to the Pixel Qi display. Of course, the panel itself can be viewed indoors as a regular LCD, or outdoors in either transflective mode with reduced color vibrancy or fully reflective 64-level grayscale mode. Notion Ink say they’ve been developing a number of applications that should be added sometime after CES, including Office-style software, Flash-based titles and some graphics apps that include physics-based functionality. Ebook reading is also another possibility, and the company are in talks with several (unnamed) content providers.

Perhaps most importantly for a web-browsing tablet, battery life estimates are impressive. Notion Ink reckon the smartpad will be good for up to 48hrs standby on its integrated rechargeable Li-Ion battery, 8hrs of HD video playback and 16hrs of internet surfing over WiFi. It seems it’s the eight-core Tegra T20 chipset that’s primarily responsible for such longevity, though Notion Ink can’t share any more details on that SoC itself. Meanwhile media playback isn’t sacrificed, and Notion Ink have apparently played three 1080p HD videos simultaneously with only a small loss in frames. The company is still working on optimizing the hardware, so we might see even greater runtimes and performance by the time the smartpad launches.

The big issue remaining is price, and so far we’re not sure exactly what sort of MRSP Notion Ink expect their Android Tegra tablet to command. The general consensus seems to be that a $300 price point is roughly what the market expects; however we’re not sure everything on the smartpad’s spec-sheet could be brought in for that price, at least not without carrier subsidies. We’ll update with more information when we have it, together with video.


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