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Clueless Star Brittany Murphy Dies at 32

12/21/2009 12:41:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Clueless star Brittany Murphy has died, TMZ has confirmed.

The 32-year-old actress went into full cardiac arrest early Sunday morning following a 911 call from her husband, Simon Monjack. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy," her family says in a statement. "She was our daughter, our wife, our love and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this time."

Murphy starred in such films as 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City and Don't Say a Word, and voiced the part of Luanne Platter in the Fox animated series King of the Hill.

Former boyfriend Ashton Kutcher immediately twittered, "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother, Sharon."

Murphy began her career at age 9 on Broadway in Les Misérables, and went on to several short-lived television gigs before landing her role as Tai in 1995's hit comedy Clueless.

Another banner year for the star was 2002, when she starred opposite Eminem in 8 Mile and became a tabloid favorite for dating Kutcher during and after their film, Just Married.

When that relationship fizzled, Murphy's tumultuous dating life didn't end for years later.

The actress was engaged several times—first to former agent, Jeff Kwatinetz, then Little Black Book production assistant Joe Macaluso—before marrying screenwriter Monjack in 2007.

Hollywood Mourns Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy's former co-stars and friends in Hollywood express shock and sadness over the actress' sudden and untimely death this morning in Los Angeles.

Many stars shared their grief via Twitter.

Lindsay Lohan writes, "My deepest condolences go out to all of Brittany Murphy's loved ones& may she rest in peace....She was a great talent w/a beautiful soul xo"

Kim Kardashian writes, "I am in shock that [Brittany] Murphy has died! Clueless is my all time favorite movie. My prayers go out to her family & husband"

Khloe Kardashian writes, "OMG!!!! This is horrible news when anyone passes. I'm so sorry for her family. Send prayers out please!"

Jessica Simpson writes, "Brittany Murphy was an incredible ray of Light to so many people. Her smile was contagious. My prayers are with her family and loved ones."

Russel Simmons writes, "I met Brittany murphy before her star rose its tough to find peace in fame. I wish her peace and happiness in her next lifetime"

Alyssa Milano writes, "[Brittany] and I did a USO Tour together in 2003. [Love] She was a sweet soul, with a lot of talent and heart."

Hilary Duff writes, "RIP Brittany Murphy forever in our hearts"

Fred Durst writes, "What a sweet human being. My prayers are with her friends and family."

Film critic Roger Ebert writes, "She had a genuine quality."

Soleil Moon Frye writes, "I was so blessed to know your grace...I will never forget the beautiful school girl you were and woman you became."

Holly Robinson Peete writes, "Brittany was so sweet when I met her. Flew to Vegas together once - I remember her mom being lovely.My condolences to all of her loved ones"

Alicia Silverstone shared the screen with Murphy in "Clueless," the film that shot both actresses into stardom -- and Silverstone shared her shock over Brittany's death with People magazine, saying, "I always felt connected to her as we shared a very special experience in our lives together. I feel love in my heart for her -- and hope she is at peace. This is truly sad."

Silverstone adds, "I'm so saddened to hear this news. I loved working with Brittany. She was so talented, so warm, and so sweet."

Ashton Kutcher Remembers Ex-Girlfriend Brittany Murphy

Ashton Kutcher is mourning the death of Brittany Murphy, who reportedly died Sunday morning of cardiac arrest.

He tweeted Sunday afternoon, "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany’s family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon."

The actor adds, "see you on the other side kid."

Kutcher, 31, and Murphy, 32, costarred in the 2003 comedy Just Married, and were romantically involved offscreen.

'Avatar' tops weekend box office: $73M

12/21/2009 12:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

It looks like Avatar's going to be all right. So long as it doesn't turn into New Moon.

Hollywood's most expensive movie ever launched with an estimated $73 million Friday-Sunday that fell short of 2009's opening-weekend record, but, with awards season and word of mouth primed to fuel weeks of ticket sales, set the James Cameron space epic on a course to potentially become one of Hollywood's top money-makers of all time.

Elsewhere, if the question was Did You Hear About the Morgans?, the box-office answer was no.

Running through the snowed-in standings:

• Avatar's opening-weekend audience was mostly male (57 percent), over age 25 (62 percent), parked in a 3D theater (59 percent)—and pleased. Fox said moviegoers graded Cameron's first dramatic film since Titanic an A.

• Worldwide, Avatar grossed $232.2 million, the studio said, a record for a non-sequel, non-franchise film opening amid an East Coast blizzard.

• Avatar's ultimate success is TBD. Said Fox exec Chris Aronson: "We have always felt this movie is a marathon, not a sprint."

• If the budget-buster keeps making money mid-week, if it stands down Sherlock Holmes next weekend, Avatar may be on its way to $300 million, Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said, a domestic take that would put it, more or less, among Hollywood's top 30 films of all-time.

• Here's why it would be bad for Avatar to play out like New Moon: New Moon made more than half of its money in its first, crazy, record-setting 72 hours. If Avatar does that now—if it flames out fast—it's sunk like Titanic, the maritime disaster. (Fast and furious was fine by New Moon, which cost a fraction of the who-knows-how-big-its-budget-was Avatar.)

• Among this year's openers, Avatar's weekend ranks as the sixth-biggest, behind Star Trek, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and, at No. 1, New Moon, which broke the bank with nearly $143 million.

• Sure, the snowstorm hurt Avatar—the movie's ticket sales on Saturday were down as much as 86 percent in slammed regions like Baltimore—but it apparently took out most of its wrath on Hugh Grant's and Sarah Jessica Parker's Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which opened in fourth place, with just $7 million.

• The Princess and the Frog, last weekend's No. 1 film, fell to second, with a presumably snow-depressed $12.2 million.

• Among holdovers, Up in the Air ($3.1 million; $8.1 million overall) got a Golden Globes bounce; Invictus ($4.2 million; $15.8 million overall) didn't.

• Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones didn't get great reviews, as might be expected, and isn't getting awards-season buzz, as was expected. To make matters worse, it looks like it got taken out by the same Did You Hear About the Morgans? storm: $41,000 at three theaters, down 65 percent from last weekend.

• Among Oscar hopefuls bowing in limited release, Nine ($246,933 at four theaters) performed way better than its reviews. Everything else failed to match Avatar's $21,147 per-screen average, although Jeff Bridges' Crazy Heart ($82,204 at four theaters) came pretty close.

• 2012's Top 10 run ended after five weekends. Worldwide, the $200 million movie has made $733 million—yes, $733 million.

Here's a look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

Avatar, $73 million
The Princess and the Frog, $12.2 million
The Blind Side, $10 million
Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $7 million
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $4.4 million
Invictus, $4.2 million
Disney's A Christmas Carol, $3.4 million
Up in the Air, $3.1 million
Brothers, $2.6 million
Old Dogs, $2.3 million

Google, Microsoft Bing Deals Benefit Twitter

12/21/2009 12:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , 0 Comments

Recently crowned most influential Twitter user Pete Cashmore believes that Twitter has been saved by its real-time search deals with Google and Microsoft Bing.

"It did look a bit hairy for Twitter this year," Mashable founder Cashmore told UK newspaper The Telegraph.

"They've had this flat period over the last few months. Twitter just isn't good at user retention. But the Google deal has come along, and I think that is pretty much their salvation."

"It's given them a revenue stream of what is rumoured to be millions of dollars a month. And it gives them a traffic 'hosepipe' that means every time you search for something that's very 'now' on Google, you're getting results from Twitter. Google's real-time search is essentially Twitter."

"Social media is becoming the web, and social media is becoming the media. There's very little on the web that hasn't had this social element built in to it. It's integrated in to every site you use now."

Twitter Real-Time Search

Cashmore says services such as Facebook Connect -- allowing web users to take their Facebook identity with them when they sign up to new sites -- has made the whole process "incredibly simple" for those companies trying to build social features in to their web presence.

Previously companies had to scramble to build their own platforms to leverage web users' appetite for user-generated content, social interaction and sharing, reports The Telegraph: "You were just left with lots of sites that asked you to join their new social network, meaning people had to keep creating new profiles, creating new networks. It wasn't ideal," said Cashmore.

In his Telegraph interview Cashmore says the halo effect of Twitter's success has been felt across the blogosphere: "It's changed the attitude of the readership on blogs. Before Twitter, blogs had a bit of an engagement issue; people didn't really get comments, readers were consuming things in a more passive way, reading an article and then clicking off to another site.

"One thing that Twitter -- and Facebook too, to a degree - have managed is to increase engagement. That's made blogs like ours much more 'sticky' -- there's more activity going on, more comments, and people are becoming used to having feedback."

But Cashmore sounded a warning bell around social media and privacy concerns: "It's going to be a mess next year. As a society, we're really pushing towards the inevitable of making more and more information available on the web."

"You can't put that information back in the bottle once it's out there. The internet just prefers information to be free.

"Some good things will come out of that, some benefits from people being 'searchable'. It will bring opportunities for connecting and networking and finding other people like you. But you're going to lose a certain amount of control [over personal information] along the way."

The 24-year-old founder of social media blog Mashable forecasts a growing demand for location-based services and "real-time everything" next year.

"Location is definitely going to be the next wave. Especially now there's GPS and the full web on so many phones."

Cashmore rates cult location-based social media site FourSquare as one to watch out for: "I think it will be big next year, especially after South by Southwest. It should see a huge pickup at the gathering of the geeks."

Android Stealing Consumer Attention from iPhones?

12/21/2009 12:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , 0 Comments

Google's Android is increasingly attracting attention, says new data from ComScore. Polls suggest that the number of consumers planning to buy Android mobile devices has more than doubled since summer 2009, while the number of those planning to buy iPhones has slightly decreased. Still, the majority of consumers are looking at BlackBerry smartphones.

Google's Android operating system is gaining the interest of increasing numbers of U.S. consumers—and potentially distracting them from Apple's iPhone, according to a Dec. 17 report from ComScore.

When in August mobile users were asked which phone they planned to buy in the next three months, 7 percent said the T-Mobile G1 or T-Mobile MyTouch—the only two Android-running devices available at the time—while 21 percent named the iPhone. When the question was asked again in November, 17 percent of respondents said they planned to buy an Android-supported device and 20 percent said they planned to shop for an iPhone.

Among those with eyes for an Android smartphone in November, 8 percent named the Motorola Droid in particular. Verizon Wireless has thoroughly advertised the Droid, which is currently exclusive to its network, and ComScore calls the effort a success, noting that while Android's market share is small, it has doubled over the course of the year, reaching 3.5 percent in October.

"With handsets on multiple carriers, from multiple manufacturers, and numerous Android device models expected to be in the U.S. market by January, the Android platform is rapidly shaking up the smartphone market," Mark Donovan, ComScore senior vice president of mobile, said in a statement Dec. 17.

"While iPhone continues to set the bar with its App Store and passionate user base, and RIM [Research In Motion] remains the leader among the business set, Android is clearly gaining momentum among developers and consumers," Donovan continued.

ComScore additionally found that iPhone and Android users behave differently than other smartphone users, engaging with more mobile media and making use of the full capabilities of their devices—which should offer developers and carriers more encouragement still. Averaging numbers from polling in July, August and September, ComScore found that 94 percent of iPhone users and 92 percent of Android users said they interact with "mobile media" on their devices, while only 80 percent of other smartphone users said the same. Android and iPhone users also equally turn to their browsers for news and information—80 percent in both cases—while only 65 percent of other smartphone users do.

However, while Android and iPhone owners use instant messaging and engage in social networking more than other smartphone users do, e-mailing broke up the pair, with 70 percent of general smartphone users saying they e-mail on their phones versus 63 percent of Android users and 87 percent of iPhone users.

Dominating the survey, however, was a desire for RIM's BlackBerry handsets. Among those asked in November which smartphone they planned to buy in the next three months, 18 percent—a higher percentage than for any other device—said the BlackBerry Pearl, while another 13 percent named the BlackBerry Storm and 11 percent said the BlackBerry Curve. The BlackBerry Bold and Tour also made the list.

Only 2 percent of consumers said they planned to purchase a Palm Pre, while 1 percent planned to buy a Palm Centro. On Dec. 17, Palm announced a net loss of $81.9 million for its fiscal second quarter of 2010, citing low demand for Palm smartphones on the Sprint network, which also offers several handsets running Android.

Big Bang awarded the Best Newcomer Award at 42nd Japan Cable DaeSang

12/21/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Currently doing their promotional activities in Japan, 5-member group Big Bang has been awarded the Best newcomer award at the 42nd Japan Cable DaeSang.


They were awarded the Best newcomer award with their Japanese single ‘Let Me Hear Your Voice’ during the award ceremony aired on Japanese cable channel TBS at 7pm on 20th December.

It was known that other Japanese artistes like Sakura Maya, Hilcrhyme and Scandal were also awarded the newcomer award. But Big Bang has emerged as the best newcomer. The members also did not expect to win the award.

Meanwhile, recently on 12th December on TBS music ranking program ‘CountdownTV’, the boys are also ranked #5 for ‘Singers who showed most prominence for this year’.

Annie Leibovitz Shoots Britney Spears For Candie's

12/21/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

The last time Britney and Candie's shoes teamed up for a campaign. we were treated to this psychedelic photo of a pink-themed Kentuck Derby Day set somewhere maybe in Narnia, co-starring Britney and a clearly confused horse. It was a shot Buzzfeed called one of the worst Photoshop jobs of the year.


Methinks this time will go a little smoother. Word hit the Internet today that Britney's new Candie's ads will be shot by none other than famed celeb portrait snapper Annie Leibovitz, who shot "those" scandalous photos of Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair.

Leibovitz is currently having some financial issues, which may explain her willingness to shoot what, some might say, is a campaign slightly beneath her artistic pedigree. But hey! It's 2009. Who isn't having financial issues? And besides it's not like Leibovitz isn't famous for shooting the famous in the first place. Plus, the Candie's shoot could be dope.

According to Women's Wear Daily (via New York Magazine), Annie shot Britney in, "various states of undress." So we all have that to look forward to. The campaign is for Candie's Spring/Summer 2010 line, so look for it next year.

LG eXpo unboxing and hands-on

12/21/2009 12:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments



We're not sure we'd be able to find a piece of hardware that made us adore Windows Mobile 6.5 the same way we adore puppies or a hot cup of cocoa, but that doesn't mean that the usual suspects -- HTC, Samsung, LG, and the like -- aren't producing some magnificent hardware on which to run it. Today we've had a chance to give LG's new eXpo for AT&T a quick once-over, and on paper, this is a hell of a handset: 5 megapixel autofocus cam, a fingerprint sensor that doubles as a d-pad, Snapdragon power, a WVGA display, full QWERTY, and most notably, support for an optional microprojector add-on. Sadly, a ship date hasn't yet been assigned to the PJ, but does the basic package hold its own against the similarly-spec'd Tilt2? Let's check it out.



Physically, we're going to go out and a limb and say that this is as good-looking of a phone -- or darn near it, anyway -- as the Tilt2 and Touch Pro2, phones that we think set a benchmark for the way a modern landscape QWERTY WinMo slider should look and feel. We didn't have one of HTC's units handy for comparison, but the eXpo definitely feels like it's up to the task with solid construction, a thick-but-not-too-thick shell, and a metal battery cover; needless to say, it's a huge step up from the cheap, plastic-heavy Incite of old and its giant, mirrored bezel. One look tells you this phone means business -- it's understated while subtly giving off "hey, I'm a pricey smartphone" vibes. That's generally the sweet spot, we think.



Turning our attention to ports and controls, let's start with arguably the most important: the keyboard. The eXpo's is quite good, but it's not the best we've used -- and on a device like this, we can understand how a typing experience that rates even a solid 8 or 8.5 on a 10 scale could still be a deal-breaker for some. The keys are wide and clicky, the spacebar is perfectly placed, and the numeric keypad is in a normal perfectly-squared pattern (unlike the Tilt2, where it annoyingly shifts back and forth from row to row), but it's totally flat and makes a strange, disconcerting "crushing plastic" sound when certain keys are pressed. We're tentatively going to chalk that up to a problem with our review unit, but it gives us some pause about the build quality of the keys specifically. Depending on the device you're coming from, you might also be thrown off by the lack of a second Shift key (we weren't personally).

The fingerprint scanner doubles as an optical trackpad, but it's not a very good one. Fortunately, 6.5 Professional doesn't really require any directional input (the Touch Pro2 doesn't have any d-pad whatsoever), but if you were hoping that this would be as good as the trackball or trackpad you used on your last BlackBerry, you're in for a disappointment. For a trackpad to be comfortable and effective, it's got to be smooth, fall on the large side, and have just a little doming to it -- and the eXpo's falls flat in every category. It's actually a bit concave -- that's bad -- and the chrome ring surrounding it acts as a ridge that gets in your way; not only does it not feel great to run your thumb over, but it has a tendency to interrupt your motion, too. Again, though, it's really not a big deal for usability -- LG obviously through this functionality in here as a bonus since it figured it'd have the fingerprint sensor on there anyway.



Up top, the eXpo features a power / lock button alongside a micro-USB slot covered by a plastic flap. We're not huge fans of these covered flaps -- they're finicky, particularly if you're lacking fingernails -- and they have a tendency to get screwed up or broken over time, especially when you've got to uncover it daily to recharge like you do here. Plenty of devices in the market have proven that micro-USB is a robust enough connector type to withstand everyday abuse, and there's no reason LG couldn't have left it uncovered here; we're guessing they just wanted a "clean" look. The real kicker, though, is that the port doubles as the eXpo's headphone jack -- yes, that's right, it lacks the all-important 3.5mm standard connector. We'd started to genuinely believe that manufacturers had learned their lesson here, and this would've been a great opportunity for LG to differentiate considering that the Tilt2 also lacks the jack. At any rate, it's strong evidence that neither LG nor AT&T consider this a very consumer-friendly, media-heavy device, and neither should you.



The screen looks great -- as most WVGA mobile displays tend to these days -- but at 3.2 inches, a stylus or well-placed fingernail is definitely required to get some things done, mainly because 6.5 just isn't as finger-friendly as it could be (a well-worn complaint, we know). Alas, for some reason, LG elected not to put a stylus in the phone's body, which means you've got to tie up the external stylus to an anchor point in the upper left corner of the phone. True, Nokia does this from time to time, but we'd argue 6.5 is less finger-friendly than S60 5th Edition; on an N97, for example, you can easily go without the stylus, but we found ourselves constantly working our stubby fingernails on the eXpo. That said, the on-screen keyboard was up to the task using thumbs alone -- it's easily as pretty as HTC's, has XT9 integrated, and gets the job done when you're not feeling like sliding open the physical board.

You might think that slipping a mighty 1GHz Snapdragon processor this package works wonders, but after using the eXpo for a while, we're not so sure. It's not that the Snapdragon isn't a brilliantly capable core, it's that it's simply not playing in the same league as a bone-stock WinMo 6.5 build like the eXpo uses -- it's like trying to race a Ferrari in a parking garage (don't anyone dare make a The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift reference here). In terms of everyday usability, we'd venture that an old-school 528MHz MSM7201A (like that found in the Tilt2) would work just as well -- and you'd get more battery life out of it to boot. Cores like OMAP3 and Snapdragon excel at powering flashy, modern, animation-intensive user interfaces, and considering that 6.5 is basically a tweaked version of a UI we saw early this decade, it doesn't need (nor can it really take advantage of) this kind of processing power effectively. Gaming capability alone might justify it, but goodness knows WinMo isn't anyone's mobile gaming platform of choice these days. Perhaps the one place where you'd think the Snapdragon would pay dividends -- browsing -- didn't seem to have much of an effect; we didn't have an MSM7200-based phone side by side to benchmark it, but the eXpo doesn't scroll or zoom in IE Mobile with the creamy smoothness you might expect (it's not bad, it's just not anything special). We can't believe we're saying it, but yeah: this might be the first, last, and only time we wish a Snapdragon phone had an MSM7200 series chipset instead. Revel in it, because you won't see us making that statement very often.



Wrap-up

Who is the eXpo for? Simple: if the Touch Pro2 / Tilt2 make you salivate and you're on AT&T, the eXpo definitely deserves your attention before you make a purchase decision. The forgettable Incite had left a bad taste, but LG's latest entry for AT&T totally changes course -- it's not just a far better device, it's a serious competitor in the business power-user market segment with quality construction, good looks, and virtually every feature (and then some) that a 2009-spec phone playing this field should have. If you spend 8 hours a day wearing headphones or you can't go more than a few minutes without Super Monkey Ball, look elsewhere -- but if you live your life one PowerPoint presentation at a time, give it a serious look. And just remember -- when that microprojector accessory finally hits retail, we'll all be insanely jealous of you anyway.

Another Reason Why I Wish All My Friends Had iPhones: Blipr

12/21/2009 12:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

I’ll say it right off the bat: there are tons of ways people can communicate from iPhone to iPhone, not in the least by simple SMS or, you know, calling each other.

Then there are iPhone applications like Skype, eBuddy and Nimbuzz that allow you to call and/or IM your friends over the Internet waves, sans extra carrier charges.

Here’s another fun one to add to the mix: Blipr (iTunes link).

When you install the free app, you get a unique BliprID that you can share with your friends. Using that ID, your iPhone-carrying friends can add you to their contact list once they’ve downloaded and installed the software program from the App Store too. Once connected, you can use the tool to send messages to each other, with or without added sound bites.

Since it supports push notifications natively, you’ll soon find that Blipr’s a much more enjoyable – and cheaper – way of communicating with your buddies than sending a text message that cannot include fart, animal, burp sounds or other short audio snippets. The tool also runs in the background, so once turned on you can do anything you want and still receive Blipr messages on your iPhone.

Blipr also supports EMOJI icons if you have them enabled on your device. And finally, you can check the history of your conversations much like you can with text messages, and replay the sounds that came with them.

The small company behind the app, Return7, aims to generate revenue from the app by offering paid sound packs (e.g. Christmas themed audio bites) straight from the app.

Sadly for them, they’ve already jammed so many sounds (over 100) into the free app that there’s little reason for anyone to pay for more.

2PM’s Heartbeats for Jaebeom

12/21/2009 12:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Jaebeom is physically gone but he is emotionally still by 2PM's side. 2PM members decided to split up the income from their first album with Jaebeom.

One insider said, "In November, 2PM members talked things over with JYP Entertainment before their album release. They all agreed to split up the money earned with Jaebeom. They said that Jaebeom is their leader forever and made the decision."

2PM is not like other groups. Though Jaebeom is not with them to promote their first official album, they still decided to do this for their leader. Because 2PM is staying away from most interviews and all variety shows, this is a way for them to speak out towards Jaebeom publicly.

It's not clear how much money will go to Jaebeom, however, after their promotions end, they will calculate everything at JYP Entertainment and decide the final amount.

Another insider said, "They want to share this moment with Jaebeom. There's no other purpose. It's not about the amount of money, so please just look at their kindness."

This is an extremely generous act, which is pretty rare in the music industry. With the six members calling out for their leader so loudly, hopefully Jaebeom will be returning soon.

Singers of 4 major record companies gets nothing at due to copyright disputes

12/21/2009 12:37:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , , 0 Comments

"JSG Selections Round 3" was held last night, the results were as predicted previously by the media [Oriental Daily]. All the singers from HKRIA's four major record companies (Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, EMI) received no awards. Instead, Hotcha, TVB fadan Kate Tsui, Elanne Kong and FAMA were able to make it into this round for the first time. Suspected to be part of the copyright disputes, Sherman Chung's "Letter To Myself" and GEM's "Game Over" were not affected and are often sung. Joey frankly said that the more singers there are, the more lively the atmosphere is. Asked if she is worried that TVB will make changes to accommodate "their people" (artists), Joey said: "Don't say that, they have made the effort, each having different mechanisms. Singers are just participating, there is no right for us to criticize."

Yesterday afternoon, TVB held "JSG 10 Ten Gold Song Awards Ceremony" press conference at TVB city. The four major record companies had all their artistes including Eason Chan, Kay Tse, Fiona Sit and Khalil Fong attend. Among them, Joey and good friend Charlene Choi were like twin dolls. Although the organizers arranged them to arm wrestle, but instead they suddenly pretended to kiss in public, it was a hilarious scene.


No more water-blowing


Joey and Ah Sa laughed and said that they are most worried about no "water blowing" (chatting), Ah Sa said: "The biggest impact is that we won't have as many friends to blow water with, like Eason Chan, Hins Cheung and Kay Tse. From now until tomorrow night, there will only be Joey and I left." Just returned from Beijing, Miriam Yeung expressed that she does not know about the news, she will just participate in the award presentations like normal.


TVB Production/General manager (Performing Arts & Music Departments) Chan Ka Yeung expressed: "TVB and record companies are friends. We are just temporarily stopping the collaboration, it is not forever. (Reducing the acceptability of the award ceremony?) No, we have always considered the opinions from the Department of Music and the votes. Copyright is just a factor in the final decision. It is just one or two artist that cannot be in the vote. (Will this affect the overall award presentation?) The issue has not ended yet, maybe tomorrow there will be a settlement?" Asked if they will continue to stop broadcasting the "4 major record companies" MV and songs, Mr. Chan expressed: "We are still discussing about this issue, actually the copyright contract will last until the end of the year. (How come broadcast of those MVs have stopped when its not the deadline yet?) We do not want any extra problems, we already said after the discussions are completed first!"


Right: Ah Sa (left) & Joey (right) kissing instead of arm wrestling

" JSG SELECTIONS ROUND 3 " RESULTS

Kary Ng "Here We Are"
Sherman Chung "Letter To Myself - 給自己的信"
Ivana Wong "Moon Said - 月亮說"
Kate Tsui "Hit Me"
Charlene Choi "Survivor - 生還者"
Denise Ho "Diamond Sutra - 金剛經"
Chilam Cheung "She's Too Sincere - 妳太善良"
Linda Chung "Miss You Day and Night - 日夜想你"
GEM Tang "Gameover"
Hotcha "Feelings For Me - 對我有感覺"
FAMA "Entertainment Circle Murder Case - 娛樂圈殺人事件"
Leo Ku "No Legs Little Bird - 沒有腳的小鳥"
Elanne Kong "Show You"
Miriam Yeung "Turns Out Quite Happy - 原來過得很快樂"

Most Popular Commercial Song: Joey Yung "Double Winner 雙冠軍"
Recommended Newcomer: Jon Wong (王梓軒)

[Source: Oriental Daily]

Selena Gomez Abandons The Internet

12/21/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

The cute-as-a-button Selena Gomez has turned her back on the virtual — because hateful comments from Interwebbers left the Disney star devastated.


The Wizards of Waverly Place star, 17, used to regularly film videos with bestie Demi Lovato to share with her fans on YouTube.com, but has stopped uploading the funny clips in recent months because she came across so many hurtful messages.

“I’ve given up the internet. I don’t read comments, and I don’t go on any of the sites anymore, and I just feel better. And it’s not about being a celebrity – you get on MySpace, Facebook, there’s all these different outlets where people can just feel like nobody’s watching them so they can just say whatever they want to say, and that gets dangerous sometimes.”

"Alvin and the Chipmunks" Sequel Hits Flat Note

12/21/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , 0 Comments

The tune selection might be different, but otherwise it's the same old song with "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," which Fox opens on Wednesday.

Having successfully made the full-length CGI transition with their 2007 smash hit (grossing more than $350 million worldwide), Alvin and the boys apparently had nothing left to prove, judging how very little about this contractual obligation of a sequel feels fresh or inventive.

That obviously shouldn't deter families looking for a little harmless holiday distraction, but it would have been nice if more of an effort had been made for their hard-earned money. Would, say, even 3D have been too much to ask?

Instead, the concept of new and different takes the form of the Chipettes. The chipper but ambitious Destiny's Child-like girl group -- they made their debut back in 1983 for the "Alvin and The Chipmunks" animated series -- provides potential competition, not to mention love interests, for the 'Munks.

Anna Faris, Christina Applegate and Amy Poehler do the vocal honors, while Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney are again on hand to voice Alvin, Simon and Theodore, respectively.

Also back is Jason Lee, as the hapless Dave Seville -- at least, sort of; scheduling conflicts confined him to a handful of scenes, most of them with him laid up in a hospital bed in a body cast.

David Cross returns as the conniving, ex-record exec Ian, and Zachary Levi (TV's "Chuck") steps in as Seville's slacker cousin Toby, but they're essentially slumming it in their respective roles. Then again, director Betty Thomas and writers Jon Vitti, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger haven't exactly provided them with much in the way of inspiration.

That leaves those chipmunks to do the heavy lifting, and they handily squeak by with their appearances seamlessly integrated into those live-action sequences thanks to that ever-improving CG technology.

And if you've ever wondered how Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" or Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold" sounds delivered at a sped-up, high-pitched squeal, this likely is your only chance to find out.


I Spent $300 Million on This Movie and All I Got Were These Lousy Papyrus Subtitles

12/21/2009 12:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments



When someone's spending $300 million on the most technically ambitious film ever, you'd think some of that money would go towards making a custom font. Apparently James had other stuff to worry about, though, because Avatar's subtitles are in Papyrus.

According to the countless tweets on the subject, what may be the second most hated font of all time (because nothing is worse than Comic Sans) spends some considerable time up on the screen. According to this post, it's been the font used in all of the promotional materials up until this point.

So, is it actually Papyrus, or a custom-built font that just happens to look exactly like Papyrus? Here's a sample:


You decide.

ICD Ultra Android tablet hands-on

12/21/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments



As you may have noticed, we had a chance to get our hands on a fairly interesting little tablet made by ICD dubbed the Ultra. The 7-inch, touchscreen tablet (resistive in the version we saw, but with capacitive versions to come) sports quite an impressive set of specs, including a 1GHz Tegra T20 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, 4GB of hardwired storage, 2G / 3G radios, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, HDMI out, USB 2.0, and a microSD slot. The device also has an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The version we had a chance to play with -- a prototype running Android 2.0 -- was blazingly fast when it came to 1080p playback and web browsing (as you can see in the video), but was pretty incomplete as far as the rest of the software was concerned (though the company says they're working on optimizing the experience all around). In terms of pricing, ICD reps didn't have a solid number, though they said they expect the Ultra to sell for somewhere in the $249 price range, with potential for free, subsidized versions depending on what kind of deals they work out with partners. We expect to see a whole slew of devices like this at CES in just a few weeks, but this is nice a taste of things to come. Check out our exclusive hands-on pics in the gallery below!





Mass Effect 2 screenshots preview new interface and aliens

12/21/2009 12:35:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Looking at BioWare's long-term support for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, it isn't surprising to hear that Mass Effect 2 will be getting DLC following its release. Producer Adrien Cho would not reveal details in his interview, but that Mass Effect fans will be seeing more add-on in the sequel. Nothing has been set in stone, but Cho mentioned the possibility of "full expansion packs," in addition to smaller updates like armor or weapons:

This goes back to the whole sequel part: during development process of the first game we had so many things to worry about, but for Mass Effect 2 we'd gone through that before and we were like, 'we could've done that better'.

Downloadable content was always on our radar from day one. The team's actually been transitioning some members into creating DLC content already. What I can say is that we're going to be offering a lot more range of content from maybe a weapon, a new gun to new armours, new helmets, side quests up to full expansion packs. So a lot more variety to keep players engaged. For someone who wants a new weapon, they can have one, but I'd want more hours for the Mass Effect universe and those are going to be in the pack.

Cho also noted that it is unlikely this series will ever port over to the PlayStation 3, mostly because the developers are already settled into working with the 360 and simply don't have the time and resources to start altering technology for a different console.

On top of that, new Mass Effect 2 screenshots were released today, showing us what the updated interface will look like, along with a few more alien close-ups: Quarian, Salarian, Vorcha, and Geth. The Illusive Man, voiced by Martin Sheen, also gets a nice glamour shot. January 26 is still weeks away, so get your Shepard-fix here, in the meantime.









Dong Bang Shin Ki Xiah is Mozart

12/21/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments



Some official photos of Dong Bang Shin Ki member Xiah JunSu’s upcoming musical ‘Musical Mozart’ has been released!

Almost could not recognise him in first sight!

More photos under the cut!

[Hot!] SBS Gayo DaeJun performance lineup revealed!

12/21/2009 12:33:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

After all the teasers that SBS has been showing regarding the upcoming 2009 SBS Gayo DaeJun, many music fans are all hyped about what to expect for the music festival this year.


The performance line-up for the concert has been revealed! We see the appearances of many idol groups and also solo singers, together for some special stages.

Go under the cut for the full details!

Show: SBS Gayo DaeJun
Date: 29th December 2009
Time: 9:55 PM KST
Official site: http://tv.sbs.co.kr/2009gayo/
Male Group:
SHINee - ‘AMIGO’, ‘Ring Ding Dong’ & ‘JoJo’ (Remix) + performance
2PM - ‘I Hate You’ & ‘Again & Again’ + ‘Heartbeat’ (Remix) + Acrobatic Performance
Super Junior - ‘Sorry Sorry’ & ‘It’s You’ (Remix) + performance
Beast - ‘Bad Girl’ & ‘Mystery’ (Remix) + performance
MBLAQ - ‘Oh Yeah’ & ‘G.O.O.D Luv’ (Remix) + performance
2AM - ‘This Song’ & ‘Friend’s Confession’ (Remix)
Solo:
Son Dambi - ‘Crazy’ & ‘Saturday Night’ (Remix) + After School Joint Performance
Lee Seung Gi – ‘Will You Marry Me’ + ‘Let’s Break Up’
JYP- ‘Honey’ + ‘She is Pretty’ +’ No love No more’ + performance
Younha - ‘Password 486′ + ‘1,2,3′
Kim Tae Woo – ‘Love Snow’ (feat. slime)
GDragon - ‘Heartbreaker’ + ‘Korean Dream’ (ft. Taeyang) + ‘Hello’ (ft. Sandara Park)
Taeyang - ‘Wedding dress’ & ‘Where u at’ (Remix) + performance
Baek Ji Young – ‘Like Being Hit’ (dance ver.) + ‘My ear’s candy (ft. 2PM’s Taecyeon) (Remix)
Female Group:
T-ara – ‘Lies’ & ‘Bo Peep Bo Peep’
After School - ‘Diva’ (Remix) + ‘Because of You’
KARA- ‘Honey’ + ‘Wanna’ + ‘Mister’ (Remix) + performance
SNSD – ‘Gee’ + ‘Tell Me Your Wish’ (Remix) + performance
2NE1 - ‘Fire’ + ‘I Don’t Care’ (Remix) + ‘Let’s go party’
Brown Eyed Girls - ‘Abracadabra’ + ‘Sign’ (Remix) + performance
Davichi - ‘8282′ + ‘I made an accident’
4Minute - ‘Hot issue’ + ‘Muzik ‘(Remix) + performance
F(x) – ‘LA chA tA’ + ‘Chu ~ ♡’
Jewelry - ‘Variety’ + ‘Love story’
Special Stage:
Lee MoonSae Stage - SHINee JongHyun , Super Junior Kyuhyun , Kim Tae Woo, Baek Ji Young
Lee Seung Chul Stage – SNSD, Davichi, Seo In Young
Trot joint stage – Park Hyun Bin, Jang Yoon-jeong & Song DaeKwan
Special Change Stage – Brown Eyed Girls, KARA, 4Minute & SNSD
Dance Stage – KARA Nicole, 4Minute HyunAh, SNSD Hyoyeon, After School GaHee, Jewelry Ha JooYeon & 2NE1 Gong Minji
8090 Legend Stage – Super Junior, 2PM, SNSD, 2NE1 & T-ara
Wonder Girls overseas instant call video message
Baek Ji Young & Lee Seung Gi & Kim Tae Woo & Son Dam Bi joint stage

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