7/23/2010 11:35:00 PM
kenmouse
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Mel Gibson
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Movie News
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Before we get to Leonardo DiCaprio and that racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-Semitic skeeze-basket Mel Gibson, gotta say, Inception is amazing with a capital A (which also happens to be the grade that E! gave the fab flick). If you haven't had time to catch the mind-blowing megamovie, then cancel your Friday night plans because it's a must-see—if not for the truly original storytelling (how often do you find that these days?), then to drool over the way gorge supporting cast (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page, anyone?).
Plus, Leo can do no wrong. Or can he?
While we all anxiously await the announcement of Inception 2, Leo lovers have been dying to know what the A-list actor is up to next—and the buzz is bewildering, to say the least. The L.A. Times is reporting that Leo is next set to star in a Mel Gibson-directed film about Vikings. True?
7/23/2010 11:35:00 PM
kenmouse
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Apple
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iPhone 4
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Mobile News
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Well, there's nothing like masking bad news with good news, right Apple? Just moments after quietly announcing that the white iPhone 4 is now scheduled to ship sometime between tomorrow and your New Year's Eve party, the company has also fired up its iPhone 4 Case Program. Just as Jobs promised last week at an emergency press event, this program will ensure that anyone who purchases an iPhone 4 prior to September 30th will be able to receive an iPhone 4 Bumper or select third-party case from the company at no charge. 'Course, you need to be located in a country or territory that Apple actually ships to, but if that's all squared away, feel free to hit up the App Store to download the iPhone 4 Case Program app. Once there, you'll need to sign into your iTunes Store account, select your Bumper or case and wait oh-so-patiently (read: "3 to 5 weeks"). Better hurry -- wouldn't want the servers to get overloaded, now would we?
Oh, and if you happened to have already purchased a Bumper, the company should be hitting your credit card with a full refund (including any applicable taxes and shipping) momentarily. As for the case / Bumper choices? Every single option is available in any color you like... so long as it's black, of course. There's a black Apple Bumper option, an Incase Snap Case, Belkin Shield Micra, Griffin Motif, Griffin Reveal, Speck Fitted and Speck PixelSkin HD, but again, don't go in hoping to select your favorite hue. Yeah, you're free to bicker about free things -- we won't judge.
7/23/2010 11:34:00 PM
kenmouse
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Apple
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iPhone 4
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Mobile News
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Folks hoping to snag a white iPhone anytime soon will be disappointed by Apple’s latest press release. The Cupertino company confirmed yet again that the white iPhone 4 has been “more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected.” Here is the full statement:
White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.
7/23/2010 06:35:00 PM
kenmouse
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Box Office
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Movie News
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How refreshing! Inception, a challenging, beautifully directed, impeccably acted drama has broken through the clutter of summer and is on the verge of collecting $100 million in only nine days of release. Its second weekend in theaters is sure to be strong, but will it hold high enough to keep Angelina Jolie’s spy caper Salt out of first place? It’s going to be a battle, but with both films likely to gross in the $35-$40 million range, it only portends good things for the movie business. Unfortunately, the other new release of the weekend, Ramona and Beezus, is unlikely to do much business. The G-rated family comedy, which based on the terrifically popular books by Beverly Cleary, has a built-in audience of young girls and their mothers who grew up on the once-timely stories, but it doesn’t look like there’s been much of a demand created in the marketplace for this movie.
7/23/2010 06:32:00 PM
kenmouse
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Games
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Microsoft
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Technology
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Xbox 360
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The Halo series is no stranger to special edition Xbox 360 hardware, so it should come as no surprise that the latest entry, Halo: Reach, is also privy to such treatment. What makes it special, however, is that it's the first special edition based on the new model -- 250GB HDD, built-in 802.11n WiFi, a silver (presumably matte, based on the picture) finish, and custom, Halo-inspired sounds. The $399 price tag also nets you two special edition wireless controllers and, naturally, a copy of the game itself. Look for this September 14th, and really, if you're not into glossy black (and we feel ya, brother), this might be in your best interest to pick up.
7/23/2010 06:32:00 PM
kenmouse
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E-Asian
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Kevin Cheng
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TVB News
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The day before, Dai Si Chung passed away from a heart attack. When he was alive, he had contract disputes with his apprentice Kevin Cheng. Earlier Kevin expressed that he is planning to attend Dai's funeral as a final tribute to him. To our surprise, yesterday "Teacher Dai Si Chung's Funeral Committee" issued a document stating that Kevin and Teacher Dai had too much gossips, his family expressed: "hope Kevin Cheng respects our decision, he is not suitable to attend the funeral. This is in attempt to avoid an awkward situation, the media causing a commotion and cause an emotional impact to the Dai family." The statement was also issued on Dai Si Chung's will.
Currently in Singapore, Kevin expressed that he will respect the decision: "I respect this decision. I absolutely do not want to cause unnecessary troubles for Teacher Dai's family, nor do I want to stir up made up news by the media. I will go pay my respects to him when the right time comes." Kevin also sends his blessings: "Hope Teacher has a good journey."
We've got to hand it to Samsung with its Galaxy S line. Coordinating the launch of a single family of devices across all four national US carriers (plus a regional or two) is a feat very rarely accomplished, and usually reserved for really unique handsets that those carriers wouldn't be able to effectively source from anyone else; HTC's Touch Pro2 is a prime example of that. Add to that the murky issue of exclusivity periods... and, well, yeah, Samsung definitely has reason to be proud here -- on the business end of things, anyway. Never mind the awesome contractual maneuvering that undoubtedly took place to make this all happen, though -- we all know that it's the hardware (and software) that really counts. Today we're looking at the first two models of the American run, the Captivate for AT&T and the Vibrant for T-Mobile; Verizon's Fascinate and Sprint's QWERTY- and WiMAX-equipped Epic 4G are still forthcoming, though we expect the Fascinate to be largely similar to these first two.
Beyond their simple appeal as sexy, high-end Android phones, what makes the Captivate and Vibrant especially interesting is that they are actually their respective carriers' only high-end Android phones at the moment. In other words: if 1GHz processors and high-res AMOLED displays are how you roll, these are basically the only game in town if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile -- particularly now that Nexus One sales are winding down. Do they rise to the challenge? Let's have a look.
7/23/2010 11:27:00 AM
kenmouse
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Angelina Jolie
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Celebrity-Gossip
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Sans beau Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie wowed the crowd Thursday at the annual fan convention Comic-Con in San Diego, Calif.
Clad in a fitted biker jacket over a black pencil skirt, the actress, 35, sat on a panel to discuss her new action-thriller Salt (out Friday).
She recalled how she took a bad spill performing one stunt -- and got freaked out afterwards when she couldn't hear anything.
"I thought I'd had a concussion, but I had forgotten that I had my earplugs in from [shooting] the gun!" she said.
The Oscar-winning actress famously replaced Tom Cruise in the movie about a CIA officer falsely accused of being a Russian agent.
Compared to her past thrillers like Wanted and Tomb Raider, Jolie said Salt is "a better action movie." She said her "style got meaner and harder and darker ... it wasn't as pretty."
7/23/2010 11:26:00 AM
kenmouse
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Adobe
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Apple
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Google
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HP
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Microsoft
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Oracle
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Technology
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Bad news, Oracle. You've slipped to second place for the first time in years. The good news is that it's in Secunia's ranking of the top ten companies with the most software vulnerabilities, which is now topped by Apple -- Microsoft remains in third place, followed by HP and Adobe. According to Secunia, Apple's vulnerabilities are mostly not in OS X, but in Safari, iTunes and other applications. What's important to note, however, is that Secunia's definition of "vulnerability" doesn't simply include dangerous, exploitable vulnerabilities, so the rankings don't necessarily indicate which software is the most insecure from a user's point of view.
One vulnerability that is potentially serious, however, is an issue with Safari's AutoFill feature recently discovered by Jeremiah Grossman of WhiteHat Security. According to Grossman, a malicious website can exploit the feature to pull data from a user's address book without their knowledge, which has been demonstrated to take "mere seconds" by a bit of proof of concept code (you can try out yourself if you're feeling trusting). Grossman also says he's informed Apple of the vulnerability but hasn't received a response, and suggests that the only "fix" in the meantime is to turn off the AutoFill feature completely.
7/23/2010 11:25:00 AM
kenmouse
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BoA
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E-Asian
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0 Comments
It has been revealed that ahead of her comeback, singer BoA had finished the filming of her comeback title song MV ‘GAME’.
The MV to BoA’s comeback title song ‘GAME’ will be revealed on 25th July through BoA’s official homepage, Nate and Auction etc. The composer to the song is known to be Jinu (hitchhiker).
As for the MV this time, the technique of flow-mo, also used to SHINee ‘Lucifer’ MV, is used.
Meanwhile, BoA’s comeback 6th album will be released on 5th August.
7/23/2010 11:25:00 AM
kenmouse
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Movie News
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Natalie Portman
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Here’s a bit of a treat for our Crunch-Lovin’ Movie Buffs: The first promotional still from the upcoming psychological thriller, Black Swan.
The film — which features actress Natalie Portman as a ballerina — will open the Venice Film Festival Sept.1. Swan — directed by lensman Darren Aronofsky and featuring Vincent Cassel and Winona Ryder — centers on the rivalry between two dancers at a ballet company in New York.
7/23/2010 11:22:00 AM
kenmouse
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Microsoft
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Steve Ballmer
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Technology
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It's hard to say that a CEO whose company has grown from $23 billion in revenue to $54 billion during his 10 year tenure isn't doing his job, but The Daily Beast is reporting on a small, vocal (and of course, anonymous) minority within Microsoft that wants Steve Ballmer out on the curb. The main criticism seems to be the share price, which has oddly tracked in inverse with Microsoft's revenue: it's about half of its $48.93 value back in January 2000 when Ballmer took over. With the strong support of his board and an another supposedly positive earnings call coming later today, it's hard to call Steve's position as "shaky" at the company, but with whispers of infighting, a symbolic battle with Apple over market capitalization, and a do-or-die mobile launch coming up, it's clear that he's under a lot of pressure to deliver. Right now any talks of replacement are hearsay and analyst fodder at best, but we'll be watching to see how this rumor develops during this 30th year of Ballmer's career at the company.
7/23/2010 11:22:00 AM
kenmouse
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HP
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HP Slate
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Technology
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0 Comments
We've sensed that something's been up with the HP Slate for a while now, and it looks like we've finally gotten the first solid confirmation that the Windows 7 tablet as unveiled by Steve Ballmer at CES in January won't hit the consumer market as planned -- speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just said that the Slate will be "more customer-specific than broadly deployed," and that it would launch the Microsoft-based tablet "for the enterprise" in the fall. That fits right in with HP telling us the other day that it was in "customer evaluations" as it prepared for the "next steps," and based on followup comments from Bradley and Palm head Jon Rubinstein, it certainly sounded like the company will focus Windows tablets at the enterprise and develop a variety of webOS devices for the consumer market. Of course, there's no official announcement yet, so we'll see what happens -- the only thing that we can confidently say is that the HP Slate has definitely succeeded the iPad as the tech industry's favorite vaporware tablet.
7/23/2010 11:19:00 AM
kenmouse
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Angelababy
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E-Asian
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Huang Xiao Ming
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0 Comments
If you’re like me then you probably could’t recognize this exceptionally good-looking actor from yesterday’s Appledaily, or at least not without reading the title (carefully for the 2nd time). Huang Xiao Ming and his rumored-girlfriend Angelababy are no strangers to accusations of going under the knife. Regardless of whether their faces are man-made, old pictures of celebrities always brighten up any dull article into an interesting one.
These days, Angelina Jolie may not be wearing blood vials or locking lips with her brother, but the 35-year-old mother-of-six insists she still has a wild side.
In season 1 of AMC’s hit show Mad Men, Rachel Menken comes to the advertising firm Sterling Cooper because she wants to give her department store, Menken’s, a makeover, so to speak. She wants to transform it from a successful department store into an elite one. “What kind of people do you want [coming into your store]?,” Creative Director Don Draper asks Menken. “I want your kind of people Mr. Draper. People who don’t care about coupons — whether or not they can afford it. People who come into the store because it is expensive,” Menken replies.
That was fast. Just a month after their engagement was confirmed, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr have gotten married.
Jay Chou wants to be a vampire. True story.
Here's a tidbit in today's Microsoft quarterly earnings that we previously overlooked: a $240 million cost of revenue "primarily... resulting from the discontinuation of the Kin phone, offset in part by decreased Xbox 360 console costs." In other words, the company took at least a quarter billion hit due to manufacturing, distribution, and support costs of the Kin (according to Microsoft's definition of "cost of revenue"). We don't know how much Xbox 360 offset, unfortunately, but we can add this figure to the $500 million Danger acquisition and the full marketing cost for the product (which we also don't know, but anecdotally, it was on par with other major campaigns) to reach... well, at least $800 million in regret for the folks in Redmond.
Microsoft ended the fiscal year on a strong note, reporting fourth-quarter profits of $4.52 billion, or 51 cents per share on Thursday.
Following in the footsteps of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber will make his acting debut in the season premiere of CSI on Sept. 23, CBS announced today. The multi-platinum singer will play Jason McCann, a troubled teen who is faced with a tough decision involving his only brother.
Get a load of this.
Someone's going to have to install a revolving door to accommodate all of Lindsay Lohan's visitors.
With their Chrome web browser, Google has always been obsessed with speed. And now they’re speeding up another aspect of it: how often stable builds are released. The goal now is to release a new stable version of the browser every six weeks — about twice as fast as they currently do, Google says. In other words, get ready for Chrome 6, 7, 8, and 9 coming soon.
Google Voice is great, especially if you’re on a mobile platform that offers a native Voice application (namely Android or BlackBerry). But if you’ve been using the service on a regular basis, you may have run into an odd issue: sometimes when you go to actually call someone there’s a lag, as if the phone isn’t altogether sure what it’s supposed to do when you tap on the ‘Call’ button next to a contact’s name. Today, Google is getting rid of that lag in its native applications.
HP's Jon Rubinstein -- formerly of Palm CEO fame, of course -- just mentioned in an interview with Fortune that webOS 2.0 is on track for "later this year." Considering that 2010 is more than half over, that doesn't leave a whole heck of a lot of time -- but with a mix of presumed kick-ass HP hardware in the pipeline running webOS, we imagine this should all dovetail nicely. On a related note, Rubinstein again drove home the point that they're developing new hardware "aggressively," so let's hope we finally see a Pre 2, a Palmpad, or heck, a frickin' LifeDrive 2 in the next few months.
