Dennis Hopper Dies at 74

Dennis Hopper, whose pot-addled Billy in Easy Rider and psychopathic Frank Booth in Blue Velvet helped put the icon in iconoclastic, has died after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.

The legendary actor died about 9 a.m. Saturday surrounded by family in his Los Angeles home.

Taken ill with flu-like symptoms last September, Hopper later said he was suffering with prostate cancer. Family members told PEOPLE that the disease had spread to other organs in his system.

Early Rebel Role

Born in Dodge City, Kansas – his father, Jay Hopper, reputedly was an intelligence officer in the pre-CIA Office of Strategic Services, which explained his son's peripatetic American upbringing – Hopper was 19 when he was cast in his very first movie opposite none other than James Dean: 1955's Rebel Without a Cause. Hopper played a character named "Goon."

Really, Kristen Stewart?!? Actress Compares Paparazzi to Rapists

Look, Kristen Stewart. It's refreshing to find a humble celebrity that doesn't desire fame or attention. We understand you feel that way.


But show business has also provided you with millions of dollars, the chance to make a living out of your dream and a gorgeous boyfriend. You simply must calm down a bit.

This message needs to be said because the Twilight Saga actress has gone a step too far her in anti-fame agenda. In a new interview, she compares the experience of being photographed to a rape. Yes, a rape:

Upcoming iPhone display practically confirmed to be double resolution


You've seen it in San Jose, you've seen plenty of it in Vietnam, and now, apparently, you're seeing the iPhone 4G display waving at you from the center of Europe, namely the Czech Republic. We haven't been able to corroborate that these fellas do indeed have a legitimate next-gen iPhone part in their paws, but hey, that's what they claim. The guys from superiphone.cz have gone above and beyond the leaker's call of duty, by taking the supposed next-gen screen under a microscope and figuring out its pixel density and display technology. According to them, the new iPhone will sport an IPS panel, much like the other handheld device Apple introduced this year, with a cool 960 x 640 resolution. This quadruples the total number of pixels from the iPhone 3GS -- making rescaling of current apps a straightforward affair -- while also giving Apple the right to claim the highest pixel density yet seen on a phone. You'll find similarly zoomed-in pics of the Nexus One and iPod touch screens at the source, and the answers to all your iPhone-related questions at WWDC in a few days' time.

New Skype 2.0 app for the iPhone allows voice calls over 3G


Skype has just released software version 2.0.0 for Apple’s iPhone via an App Store update. Improvements listed for the new version include:
  • Call using your 3G connection. Skype-to-Skype calls on 3G are free until at least end of August 2010, after which there will be a small monthly fee (operator charges for data will still apply).
  • Near CD-quality sound for Skype-to-Skype calls using wideband audio (SILK codec) on iPhone 3GS and 2nd generation iPhone touch.
  • Enhanced call quality indicator.
  • Improved start-up time.
  • Fast access to the dial pad from iPhone home screen.

SNSD chosen as Korea’s best ‘pop girlgroup’

So Nyeo Shi Dae has been chosen as Korea’s best ‘pop girl group’.


Neo Bob did a surver amongst 541 people from 10th till 28th May on ‘Which is the leading pop girlgroup for mass culture?’ and the results show So Nyeo Shi Dae at #1 with 38.2% of the votes. Groups WonderGirls and KARA are at #2 and #3 position on the survey results with 35.6% and 23.4% of the votes.

Shin JaeKyu representative of Neo Bob said, “By ‘pop girl’ we are talking about the leader of trends amongst the new generation females. Through this survey, we got to know how much of such an influence So Nyeo Shi Dae, WonderGirls and KARA have on their fans. So Nyeo Shi Dae, who is at #1, are not only leading in terms of their albums, but also in terms of vvarious genres like CF appearances and corporate sales. So Nyeo Shi Dae is representative pop girlgroup who inspires the 3040 ‘uncle’ fans.”

An iPhone Lover’s Take On The HTC EVO 4G


Back in January, I wrote a post entitled An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Nexus One. At the time, the Nexus One was soon to be released as the latest and greatest Android phone, and a number of iPhone users were wondering whether it was worth it to switch for the benefits of Android (and perhaps more importantly, another network besides AT&T). My take: it was the best Android phone yet, but it wasn’t better than the iPhone. Now I’m going to do the same type of review for the new HTC EVO 4G phone, which Sprint is launching next week.

At Google I/O, the search giant gave the phone away to every attendee complete with one month of service to try it out. Just as with the Nexus One, I’ve decided to use it as my primary phone for the past week or so to get a real sense of the pluses and minuses of the device. Just as with my Nexus One review, this isn’t meant to be an all-encompassing review or roundup. Instead, this is just my reaction to the device as an iPhone user.

Dell Streak's Gorilla Glass screen: torture tested for your amusement (video)


So we've been hearing rumors about the Dell Streak being some kind of a rugged bad boy. Word is, the Gorilla Glass display on this 5-inch slate is good enough to withstand pretty much anything a human would care to throw its way. Them's fighting words where we come from, so we did the only thing a responsible tech blog can do -- we put them to the test. Should you be brave enough to follow us after the break, you'll come upon our best efforts to destroy our own Streak prototype, albeit with little success. Then again, the end result might be less important than the journey there, which is not to be missed.

American Idol‘s Top 10 Get Their Game On For the Summer Tour

While American Idol winner Lee DeWyze and runner-up Crystal Bowersox bask in Season Nine’s finale afterglow, the remaining Top Eight Idols are enjoying a breather before a 51-city American Idols Live! Tour, which kicks off in Auburn Hills, Mich, July 1.

At a celebratory dinner at Gordon Ramsay at the London in West Hollywood, PEOPLE joined Didi Benami, Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, Tim Urban, Siobhan Magnus, Aaron Kelly, Michael Lynche and Casey James to talk about the three-month road trip.

“Seeing America is going to be amazing,” says Lynche. “It’s going to be cool to see everybody’s hometown and I hope we have a chance to go see somebody’s haunts.” Adds Benami, “And seeing all of the people who have been supporting us the whole time. I am really looking forward to playing for all the fans that voted and getting the reaction we didn’t get in the studio.”

On a technical point, James says, “I’m looking forward to playing full songs! That’s really exciting for me because chopping songs into one and a half minutes takes the soul out of the songs.”

Another day, another fashion disaster as Britney Spears dons see-through dress, Ugg boots and trilby

Only Britney Spears is capable of taking several fashion no-no's and rolling them into the one outfit.


The singer, notorious for blatantly shunning the advice of stylists, revealed another display of her poor fashion sense today when she stepped out in a see-through nightie-style dress, trilby hat and ugg boots.

To make matters worse, she unwisely chose bright red underwear which could clearly be seen through the poorly-fitting dress.

Windows XP SP2 retirement looms, puts users in tough spot

Half of all corporate PCs running XP stuck on soon-to-be-obsolete SP2

Half of the enterprise computers running the aged Windows XP operating system are still relying on the soon-to-be-retired Service Pack 2 (SP2), a researcher said today.

According to security risk and compliance management provider Qualys, 50% of the several hundred thousand PCs it monitors for its clients are still running Windows XP SP2.

"The normal thing for IT is not to muck around with something that works," said Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for Qualys, as he tried to explain why corporations have stuck with 2004's SP2 and not updated to SP3, which debuted two years ago.

Microsoft will officially retire Windows XP SP2 on July 13. After that date, although it will continue to provide security updates for XP SP3, it will stop issuing patches for the older SP2.

"I would expect that come August, SP2 will be getting hard and harder to defend," said Kandek, referring to the lack of security updates. "I expect to see reliable exploits of unpatched vulnerabilities three or four months later."

Facebook Crushing All Comers with 540M Unique Visitors, Google Says

Facebook.com is the leading Website in the world with 540 million unique users, reaching 35.2 percent of the total Internet population through April. The social network racked up 570 billion page views, according to Google's new DoubleClick Ad Planner 1000 list. Yahoo.com, which boasts 600 million users, was not far behind Facebook with 490 million unique visitors, good for a 31.8 percent reach. Microsoft actually grabs more traffic combined than any Website in the world.

Google said Facebook.com is the leading Website in the world with 540 million unique users, reaching 35.2 percent of the total Internet population through April.

The social network, which boasts nearly 500 million total users, racked up 570 billion page views, according to Google's new DoubleClick Ad Planner 1000 list.

This list tracks the top 1,000 global Websites ranked by unique users and includes stats on each site's Web population reach, page views and whether the site has digital advertising. Google, angling for impartiality, did not include any of its properties in the study.

Miriam Yeung: Redo song record not because of off-tune

It was reported that when Miriam Yeung sang the high notes (this line of the lyrics: "Talks about friendship more and more") to her new song "飲酒思源" she sounded like she went off-tune. To avoid damaging her Pop Queen status, Miriam demanded to take back the song and record it again. Yesterday Miriam attended the RTHK series "毒戒" press conference and denied that she wanted to record the song again due to being off-tune. However, she does admit that her voice suddenly became sharper and felt that the emotions could be expressed better, so it would be best to record the song again.

When asked about wanting to record her song again due to being off-tune? Miriam said: "Recording the song over again due to being off-tune is something impossible. With the current high technology, a little off-tune is not a problem, 2 seconds off can be easily fixed. The producer requested that I go that high when I sing that part of the song and that I should sound sharper. If he discovers that I went off-tune he will immediately request me to sing it again. How can an off-tune piece be released? You think the 30 people who listened to the song before its release has hearing problems? People shouldn't exaggerate so much." However, Miriam does admit she could express her emotions better and can record the song again. She said: "When I was recording, I experienced asthma issues which affected my breathing while I sang. The song released to play on the radio stations is just a demo, it cannot be placed on the actual CD. It's just like acting, when the expressions aren't done well or dialogue isn't said well, then you can NG a few more times. This is normal in music production as well." Miriam denied that she wanted to take the song back and said some people felt the first version was better, can just air the first one. Even her husband Real Ting felt that her first version was good.

Motorola Shadow and DROID 2 appear in Verizon inventory


DroidLife has gotten their hands on some images which appear to show the Motorola DROID 2 and the Motorola Shadow lounging around Verizon Wireless’ inventory system. The information comes just hours after the Wall Street Journal published a piece saying Verizon Wireless “plans to add two Motorola smartphones in July.” More Android love for Verizon Wireless? We hope so.

Google not in top 1000 websites

People were quick to point out that Facebook was the #1 website in Google’s list of the top 1000. That’s great, but where is Google in the list? They are either not as popular as we once thought, or they omitted themselves from the list. I’ll leave you to decide which one is more likely.

Google has no problem publishing website statistics for every popular website on the internet though their AdPlanner service — but they refuse to publish their own information for “competitive reasons”. Doesn’t this seem a bit shady to you? If you owned one of these websites, and you wanted to keep your web stats private for some reason, you’d be out of luck.

Google should put themselves on this list — I think it’s only fair that they allow people to view statistics about Google web properties through their own AdPlanner service if they are going to reveal everyone else’s information without asking.

'Idol' winner Lee DeWyze: 'I'm free to do what I want now'

The paint-store clerk from Mount Prospect, Ill., was at a loss for words when he learned that he'd won the ninth American Idol title. But in a conference call on Friday, Lee DeWyze had plenty to say.


Q: What do you feel America saw in you and kept viewers voting?

A: In the beginning, I was more reserved. But I'm a real guy, off the camera and on. I wanted the show to be about me and about my music. And I think that people saw that I can connect with an audience. I know what it's like to be starting out and having a goal and trying to reach it. I connected with every song the best I could and the audience.

Miley Cyrus on Glee: ‘Honestly, Musicals?’

MILEY Cyrus hates the hit US TV show Glee — because it’s not very realistic!

The Hannah Montana star says she can’t understand why the program is so popular.

“Honestly, musicals? I just can’t,” the mouthy 17-year-old told Billboard magazine.

“What if this was real life and I was just walking down the street on Rodeo Drive and all of a sudden I just burst into song about how much I love shoes?”

Insiders recently expressed their fears that Miley — who was left red-faced earlier this month when a video hit the internet of her grinding with a 40-plus-year-old man — will go down the same destructive path as Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan.

“Everyone in Hollywood is worried that Miley is on the path to becoming the next Lindsay Lohan,” said one prominent Hollywood casting agent.

“It’s the oldest story in showbiz — when a child star grows up and loses his or her entire fan base.

“For every Jodie Foster that exists, so does a Gary Coleman.”

What should Ballmer do with Zune?

After spending the last few years focusing on building a credible search engine and fixing Windows, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is now turning his eye, Sauron-like, toward Microsoft's consumer products.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that two longtime leaders in its Entertainment and Devices Division, President Robbie Bach and Chief Technical Officer J Allard, are stepping down. Although both executives are best known as the public faces of the Xbox, they also bear some responsibility for the Zune, Microsoft's portable media player and associated software and services. Bach was assigned to fix Microsoft's digital-media strategy in the mid-2000s, and he helped launch Microsoft into the MP3 player business and spike the partner-driven PlaysForSure program. Allard's team helped design and launch the original device.

Ballmer's first priority will be reversing Microsoft's market-share slide in mobile-phone platforms and coming up with an answer to the iPad and other portable computers that run a competitor's mobile OS. But he's also got an opportunity to clean up after another missed opportunity in digital media. Here are some suggestions that can help turn Zune from a punch line into an asset.

Apple iPad offers “freedom from porn” – but not in Berlin

Apple’s Steve Jobs famously offered us “freedom from porn” in his ongoing war with Adobe Flash on the iPhone and iPad. But notoriously liberal Berlin has a different take on the matter, perhaps offering us freedom from being told what to do by Apple…


Billboards announcing the arrival of the iPad on Friday have been going up all over Berlin, but one of them in the subway station of Rosenthaler Platz is quite different to the rest. As you can see from the images below, the iPad appears to be about to offer an entirely new experience of porn.

But, to be serious for a moment, as far as we can tell the images are not stuck over an existing iPad billboard but have in fact been entirely created by “ad busters” having a little fun with the Apple campaign…

Big Bang bags 3, while DBSK wins 1 in absentee at the MTV WS VMAJ


Group Big Bang won 3 awards at the MTV World Stage Video Music Awards Japan (MTV WS VMAJ) while Dong Bang Shin Ki also won the ‘Best Group Award’ with the song ‘Share The World’ even though they did not attend.

The MTV WS VMAJ was held on 29th May in Tokyo Yoyogi National Staidum, and Big Bang won 3 awards – ‘Best New Artiste Video Award’ and ‘Best Pop Video Award’ as well as ‘Best Collaboration’ for Big Bang’s collaboration with W-inds for the song ‘Rain Is Fallin’. This is only 1 year after the group’s Japanese major debut in June 2009.

More videos under the cut.

Summer Blockbuster Movie "Triple Tap" Starring Daniel Wu, Louis Koo, Charlene Choi and Li Bing Bing to hit theatres June 30


Directed by HK's famous and well-renowned director Derek Yee Tung-Sing, the suspense action movie <Triple Tap> (鎗王之王) starring Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, Charlene Choi and Li Bing Bing will release on June 30. At a recent 12-hour Beijing promotion for Triple Tap, Director Derek Yee was quick to point out that <Triple Tap> is not a sequel to the 2000 movies <Double Tap> starring Leslie Cheung and Alex Fong Chung-Sun and are instead completely different. In <Triple Tap>, Koo plays a champion shooter who becomes a hero after encountering and lethally shooting a band of armed bank robbers, but is suspected to be the mastermind behind the heist by a crack shot police officer played by Daniel Wu

Recently married Daniel Wu was asked about whether or not marriage will affect the types of movies he will choose to appear in. Daniel explained that there will be no difference for him between choosing roles before and after being married - he will continue to film the types of movies he likes and wants to film which is most important to him.

Super Junior 4th album is up #7 on international album sales chart

Super Junior’s 4th album is said to have gone up the international album sales chart.


According to international album sales chart Media Traffic on 27th May, Super Junior’s 4th album is up #7 with sales of 75K, surpassing other artistes on the chart like Black Eyed Peas and Kesha.

Ahead of Super Junior on the chart are artistes like Rolling Stones, Justin Bierber, Lady Gaga with album sales of 164K, 160K and 115K respectively. Fans’ responses are, “This is Super Junior’s domination. They have surpassed the Asian market”, “I hope to see Super Junior move up the rankings on the chart” etc.

'Sex' and 'Persia' open strong, 'Shrek likely to end up on top for holiday weekend

Both Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia, the weekend’s two new releases, opened to solid numbers but it’s Shrek Forever After that’s likely to win the weekend. Carrie Bradshaw and Co. added an estimated $13 million to its coffers that already boasted $14 million from its Thursday shows. The R-rated comedic romp is now on track for a $50 million 4-day weekend, less than the $57 million earned by the original back in 2008.


Meanwhile, the Jerry Bruckheimer action epic Prince of Persia bowed Friday with approximately $10 million for a 4-day take that could translate into somewhere between $35-$40 million. Still, the movie that’s likely to dominate the weekend once all the numbers are in is Shrek Forever After. The PG-rated animated flick earned an estimated $11 million on Friday, a number that will likely grow to over $55 million for the four-day holiday frame. The rest of the top five will be rounded out by Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood. Robert Downey Jr. and crew took in another $4 million Friday, while Russell Crowe generated close to $3 million for his historic actioner.

Ke$ha Sued By Ex-Managers

Garbage-chic pop star Ke$ha has been slapped with a $14 million lawsuit by her former managers, who claim the “Tik Tok” star squeezed them out of her career under pressure from her songwriter, Dr Luke.


DAS Communications sued Kesha and Dr. Luke in Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday. Bosses at the firm claim the singer signed a contract in 2006 agreeing to pay their New York-based company 20 percent of her earnings if they secured her a big music deal. Per the agreement, Ke$ha could end relationship if she didn’t get a major label record deal in a year.

The managers struggled to fulfil their side of the deal but Ke$ha reportedly dismissed the deadline and continued to work with DAS. In 2008, executives set up a deal with Warner Bros. Records – but Ke$ha’s songwriter/producer pal Dr. Luke allegedly halted the negotiations and “induced, intimidated and convinced” the singer to fire DAS as her representatives in September that year.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Should Rule Business Smartphones

Microsoft shook things up this week with some high-profile departures, and a reorganization of the Entertainment and Devices division that has CEO Steve Ballmer directly controlling the future of Microsoft's consumer technologies. When it comes to smartphones, Windows Phone 7 should arguably be the de facto platform for business professionals, but Microsoft may be delivering too little, too late.

Microsoft is ubiquitous with business computing. The vast majority of organizations rely on Windows as a server operating system, and Active Directory as a directory framework. Many businesses use Microsoft Exchange as their messaging platform, Windows as the desktop operating system, and Microsoft Office for office productivity applications.

Microsoft isn't just involved in these areas--for most of these technologies Microsoft virtually owns the market. It holds a preeminent role in all areas of business technology...except smartphones. Somehow, Microsoft conceded the business smartphone market to RIM, and the BlackBerry OS.

'Hurt Locker' downloaders, you've been sued

Producers of Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker" have made good on a promise to file copyright lawsuits against people who have illegally downloaded the movie via file-sharing networks.

Voltage Pictures, an independent production company, filed a copyright complaint on Monday against 5,000 John Does in federal court in Washington, D.C. According to court records, next on the company's to-do list is to learn the names of the John and Jane Does from their Internet service providers.

Attorneys for Voltage wrote in the complaint that unless the court stops the people who pirate "The Hurt Locker," then Voltage will suffer "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money."

Voltage has asked the court to order anyone who downloaded the movie illegally to destroy all copies of "The Hurt Locker" on their computers and any other electronic device that they may have stored the film.

Huang Deng Hui happily enjoying suncake, but Vic Chou receives orders to sweep the floor


Vic Chou's movie "Love you ten thousand years" was filmed in Taichung. Vic together with Huang Deng Hui, Li Bo En and Chen Shan make up the members of "Monkey electric boy band" in the film. The four of them kept eating suncake and Li Bo En who was recently trying to go on a diet ate 4 pieces at one go, but according to the script Zaizai has to pick up the broom and sweep the floor clean from cake crumbs.

"Love" film was shot in Taichung, director Kitamura praised that the local weather is very good, rarely encounter rain while filming, "For filmmakers, this place is great!" The crew also visited the many of the well-known local attractions, Chun-An painted village, Confucius Temple, Dadu mountain, Creative Park and the Taichung International Airport, the audience can feel the unique culture.

Flo Rida praises GDragon, “He is a friend who has that American influence”

American rapper Flo Rida praises Big Bang GDragon.


Flo Rida had an interview with Mnet ‘PopCorn’ recently when he said, “Just coming here to work with G-Dragon was definitely something big.”

Flo Rida had his concert performance in Seoul on 21st and 22nd May. And there was great interests when it was announced that GDragon is invited as special guest appearance. The 2 had performed GDragon’s song ‘HeartBreaker’ which features Flo Rida.

“Calling For Love” Audience Don't Buy Ah Sa's Bill, Mike He Performs Blandly

Idol drama "Calling For Love", which is the collaboration of China and Taiwan including Hongkong, took over "Autumn Concerto" showing at CTS. Before showing, the gimmicks was plently, however, when showing the feeling was weak. Before showing, "Calling For Love" had already gained sufficient 'eyes', Mike He matching Ah Sa for a relationship, this combination was out of expectation but within logical.

WangXi Entertainment 28 May Reports: Idol drama "Calling For Love", which is the collaboration of China and Taiwan including Hongkong, took over "Autumn Concerto" showing at CTS. This drama is led by Charlene Choi and Mike He with Taiwan's Idol Drama Sect-Mother Angie Chai as the producer, hence, with a mighty team, but the ratings of the first episode has yet to break 1, not even exceeding "Autumn Concerto" which is showing its second round now. In the two episodes of "CFL" which was broadcasted previously, the story developed slowly, the kiss between male number one and supporting actor did not catch the audience's eyes. This is related to Ah Sa's position in Taiwan's filming market, and it is also related to the producer.

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