9/08/2010 07:53:00 PM
kenmouse
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Mobile News
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Samsung Fascinate
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Verizon
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Yes, that fateful day is upon us, the Samsung Fascinate has made its debut on Verizon's online store pages, and it's arrived with a quite unusual (for a top tier handset) sweetener. When buying one Fascinate, you're given the option to obtain a second one for free. Well, the hardware would be free, you'd need two-year commitments on both phones with a minimum monthly data plan of $29.99 a piece, but it's still the nicest thing Verizon's done for us since it started throwing out free Pixi Pluses with purchases of Palm's webOS handsets. You should also bear in mind your initial outlay here is a quite lofty $400, with two separate $100 mail-in rebates bringing the cost down. So it's free in pecuniary terms, but probably not free of headaches.
9/08/2010 07:52:00 PM
kenmouse
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Games
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Microsoft
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Microsoft Kinect
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Technology
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Xbox 360
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Microsoft has chosen the small hours of the night to announce pricing of its second Kinect bundle, which is set for launch along with the standalone and 4GB options on November 4 in the USA and November 10 across Europe. The new package throws in the 250GB slim version of the Xbox 360 to accompany the newfangled motion tracker, a spare conventional controller, and a copy of the utterly unmissable Kinect Adventures! (it has its own punctuation, it must be good). Pricing is a bit on the painful side, with Kotaku reporting a $399 figure for the US and Microsoft confirming to us a £300 sticker for this "special edition" bundle for the UK.
9/08/2010 07:52:00 PM
kenmouse
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E-Asian
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SNSD
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SNSD are storming their way into the Japanese market.
Recently on the 8th, SNSD released their debut single ‘Genie‘ in Japan. On the same day, their debut single placed 5th in the daily Oricon charts, making it in the top five immediately after their debut.
Meanwhile, girl group KARA, who also entered the Japanese market last month on the 11th with their debut single ‘Mister‘, was also ranked 5th place on the daily Oricon charts on the day of release.
9/08/2010 07:51:00 PM
kenmouse
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Mobile News
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Nokia N8
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0 Comments
At last, an official date for Nokia's N8 flagship Symbian^3 handset. This one's been a long time coming, featuring the first of two major Symbian updates meant to bring Nokia's smartphone division in line with the competition. Look for it in the "last week of September" at Nokia's on-line shops for £429 SIM free, or free with £35 per month contract. Otherwise, it'll hit the UK high street shops on October 1st.
9/08/2010 07:51:00 PM
kenmouse
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Kno Tablet
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Technology
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0 Comments
Marc Andreessen is normally enthusiastic about the startups he’s invested in. Still, when I spoke to him last week about Kno, he surprised me by saying it will be “the most powerful tablet anyone has ever made.” And he’s backing up that claim with a new investment – Andreessen Horowitz has put even more capital into the company as part of a new $46 million debt and equity round. Silicon Valley Bank and TriplePoint Capital also invested in the round. Kno has now raised over $55 million.
The company is still planning on getting its first dual-screen tablet computer to market by the end of the year, says CEO Osman Rashid, although he won’t get specific on the price. It will be less than $1,000, but that’s as close as they’ll get.
It seemed like a bit of a stretch from the beginning, but it looks like India's $35 Android tablet is intent on proving the skeptics wrong -- the Indian government has just announced that it's awarded the manufacturing contract to HCL Technologies (makers of the once world's cheapest laptop), and that the first batch of tablets are slated to be available by January 10th. That initial run will reportedly only include the 7-inch model that we've been seeing all along, but there's also apparently 5-inch and 9-inch versions planned for launch at a later date. We also presume that the tablet is still hanging onto that $35 price tag (for university students, at least), but that key detail is curiously absent from this latest announcement.
9/08/2010 11:12:00 AM
kenmouse
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Movie News
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Natalie Portman
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0 Comments
Hot on the heels of some passionate festival buzz for her turn in the upcoming ballet film Black Swan, Natalie Portman has reportedly been offered the lead role in Warner Bros.’ 3-D drama Gravity, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The $80 million film, which is being directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también), is a survival story about a woman who’s stranded on a space station and her attempts to return home to Earth. The role was previously turned down by Angelina Jolie, and Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively were later rumored to be competing for the gig. But Cuarón has now reportedly offered the part to Portman without requiring the actress to do a screen test. Portman is expected to make a decision soon after reading the latest version of the script. Robert Downey Jr. has already signed on for a supporting role in the movie, which is scheduled to shoot early next year.
9/08/2010 11:12:00 AM
kenmouse
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Apple
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Featured Stories
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iPod touch
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Technology
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0 Comments
At Apple's last event, Steve Jobs called the iPod touch the company's "most popular iPod," and it's easy to understand why. In just a few short years, the iPhone-with-no-phone has kept in lockstep with Cupertino's halo device, benefitting from the same kind of constant hardware and software updating that has helped turned the iPhone into an iconic gadget. The touch has been right alongside the iPhone's meteoric rise in popularity, becoming the go-to second-pocket slab for millions. There are good reasons, too. Apple boasts about gaming on the device -- claiming it beats out both Nintendo's and Sony's offerings in sales... combined. While we can't concede that the device is a dedicated game console, it most definitely games. And it's still an iPod, an internet device, and a thousand other things thanks to Apple's vastly populous App Store. Now the player has once again reaped the rewards of iPhone updates, boasting a new Retina Display, the A4 CPU, two cameras which allow for FaceTime calling and 720p video recording, and all the new features of the company's latest mobile operating system, iOS 4.1. But despite all of the plusses, we still have to ask: is the little do-everything box still worth the premium price tag? We took a deep dive on the latest model and have the verdict, so read on to find out.
9/08/2010 11:10:00 AM
kenmouse
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Apple
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Featured Stories
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iPod Nano
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Technology
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0 Comments
Apple's sixth generation of the iPod nano is essentially the first complete rethinking the product has had since its debut in 2005. The previous form factor -- slim and light with a decently sized display and clickwheel -- has been all but abandoned. The new design is a complete departure; a full touchscreen device that brings to mind something more like a large, living postage stamp than a portable music player. Along with the radical hardware redesign, Apple has infused the media player with a brand new operating system as well -- an interface that looks and plays more like iOS than iPod. We've spent the past week or so knocking the nano around to see if it's worth your hard-earned dollars, and we've got the answers inside -- so read on for our full review.
9/08/2010 11:04:00 AM
kenmouse
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Apple iPad
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HyperDrive
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Technology
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0 Comments
For some people, 64GB of storage may not be enough. Especially on a tablet device that has full access to the iTunes Store, as well as Apple’s App Store (for both the iPad and the iPod Touch/iPhone). Racking up the movies, music, and games/apps to fill up 64GB of memory may seem like a feat, but we imagine that it can be a pretty easy endeavor for some. That’s why getting an external memory unit is a great fix. So, here’s the HyperDrive, manufactured by the guys who brought us the HyperMac batteries. This time it’s an external storage unit that, as the title suggests, can connect directly to your magical and revolutionary tablet device from Apple.
The HyperDrive does a few work-arounds to make it so that the iPad can register the external memory unit. The problem comes in the fact that the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit has a limit of only 32GB available memory, so the HyperDrive gets around that by creating separate, iPad-readable 32GB drives, which allows you to store up to 750GB of stuff with (relative) ease. The HyperDrive features a 3.2-inch color touchscreen, so navigation should be pretty simple, too.
9/08/2010 11:02:00 AM
kenmouse
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BlackBerry
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BlackBerry App World
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Mobile News
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0 Comments
According to Research In Motion, the company now has over 10,000 applications in their application store, App World. While 10,000 is not a number to be scoffed at, BlackBerry pales in comparison to Apple’s 250,000 apps and Android’s estimated 100,000 figure. RIM also has the challenge of fighting Google and Apple in the application quality department; BlackBerry apps are probably the most unpolished at this point. Let’s hope RIM’s developer conference — DevCon — will kick things into the next gear.
Well, thar she blows -- we just got this shot of the HP's seven-inch Zeen Android tablet that's shipping with the leaked PhotoSmart eStation C510 printer system just straight chilling in the wilds of China. Apparently this unit is a little bit closer to final than the one our other tipsters have been playing with -- and unfortunately, the stock Android homescreen has been totally removed in favor of the TouchSmart UI. As we'd guessed, there's also no Gmail app or Market access, although there is a homegrown email client and a fair bit of integration with Yahoo services like Mail and Messenger. Facebook is also preloaded, and the screenshot shows apps for 60 Minutes, MSNBC, and Dreamworks, so it looks like there'll be some video action going on -- and that Barnes & Noble logo all but confirms the Nook compatibility our previous tipsters had mentioned. There's also a printing app and that Coupons app, which we're guessing... prints coupons, but maybe HP's trying to surprise us.
We're told the software is better than on earlier Zeen units and that the previously-bad touchscreen has been improved, but that there's still work to be done before the projected late September launch. Don't get your hopes up about snagging this one without a printer, though -- we're told the solo SKU has been canceled, and only the $399 bundle with the Zeus printer will be available. Makes sense -- we're guessing it's all webOS for HP from here on out. One more pic after the break.
9/08/2010 10:59:00 AM
kenmouse
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Justin Bieber
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Technology
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Twitter
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0 Comments
Justin Bieber uses 3% of Twitter resources at any moment. According to a Twitter employee—talking to designer Dustin Curtis—Bieber has "racks of servers dedicated to him. I'm sure this will excite his haters (hello 4chan!) even more. Updated
Dustin confirmed to us that his tweet is not a joke. He was told about it by a Twitter employee. Since Bieber is almost a perennial trending topic, I'm not surprised. Still, and given the 180 million unique visitors every month, that's quite an achievement.
What is really important, however, is this: Now, every time that whale pops, you will have one more reason to slap him.
By now you've probably seen the reviews of the other Galaxy S phones -- the Epic 4G, Captivate, or Vibrant -- or at least gotten an idea of what Samsung's push into the Android market is all about in 2010. After hitting every other major US carrier with like-minded devices, the company has finally seen fit to unleash the Fascinate on Verizon. Up until this point, the Android offerings on Big Red's network have been varied, but not all particularly attractive beyond the Droid lineup. The Fascinate is arguably the first handset that gives something like the Droid X or the Incredible a proper run for its money. Of course, those are pretty high stakes in game that changes on an almost daily basis, and Samsung's options are not without their... idiosyncrasies. That truth is nowhere more pronounced than on its latest handset. So is the company poised to hit the market where it hurts with this final puzzle piece, or is this an incomplete picture? Read on to find out in our full review of the Samsung Fascinate!
9/08/2010 01:50:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Music News
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Rihanna
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0 Comments
Break out your iPods, ‘Crunchers: It’s time for a new tune from Bajan Mama Rihanna. The Grammy-winning pop tart premiered her brand new single — “Only Girl (In the World)” — during Tuesday morning’s edition of “On-Air with Ryan Seacrest.”
The song is produced by Stargate and serves as the first single to Rihanna’s forthcoming album — Loud –which is due in November. The euro-pop number currently follows the dance trend that is hitting up the dancefloor these days. It’s like “Please Don’t Stop the Music” on a caffeine rush and sure to become a hit for the Rated R hitmaker!
9/08/2010 01:49:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
IE
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IE 9
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Internet Explorer 9
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Microsoft
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Technology
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0 Comments
Looks as if the Internet Explorer 9 Beta has now leaked on video, and -- surprise, surprise -- it looks exactly like Internet Explorer! If you were out hoping for a major overhaul, it looks as if you'll need to pick a new wish to cross your fingers for. Design wise, the IE9 beta shown in the video past the break is no drastic departure from IE8, though the internals should obviously be revamped quite a bit. The rest of the world is still awaiting that September 15th launch date, but you and your impatient soul can watch an early build peak at 95/100 (so close!) on the Acid3 test with just a couple of clicks. Enjoy!
9/08/2010 01:49:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
E-Asian
,
SNSD
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0 Comments
Well it certainly seems like we’ve been waiting forever, but SNSD has finally granted our wish! Their Japanese promotion photos was recently revealed and the girls are as charming as ever.
And with them using Genie as their debut Japanese single, it was no surprise that this wave of promotional pictures wants us or our eyes to focus on their legs.
9/08/2010 01:48:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Mobile News
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Palm webOS
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WebOS
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0 Comments
We've heard about Palm's big plans for webOS 2.0 -- heck, we've even seen a handful of pictures here or there. And now we've been graced with lots, lots more. We're still not sure the exact origins, as they both came to us unsourced at around the same time. But, be it PreCentral forums or Chinese site Crooked neck (a.k.a. Wibozi), we're still graced with two dozen new screenshots that showcase features beyond Stacks and Just Type. Plenty of extra services are on display, including favorites like Dropbox and head-scratchers like MobileMe (we know Palm has something of an Apple complex, but the benefits of MobileMe are pretty minimal beyond iPhone integration). There's also default app selection for filetypes, which is a welcome addition we've enjoyed on our Android sets. Just in case all the screenshots go poof, we've got them in a gallery below. Let your imagination run wild, or at least in a bigger fence.
9/08/2010 01:47:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Android
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Eric Schmidt
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Google
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Google TV
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Technology
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0 Comments
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has used his IFA 2010 closing keynote to promise Google TV’s US launch in the fall, as well as confirming that users will be able to turn not only their Android phones but their iPhone into a remote control for the media-streaming set top boxes. Schmidt also revealed that there are more than 200,000 Android activations recorded every day, a figure that falls short of the 230,000 iOS device activations Steve Jobs reported last week.
As for hardware demonstrations, no especially big news from the stage but Schmidt did show augmented Street View functionality for Android; users can now navigate via Street View on their phone in a manner similar to the service on the desktop, dragging the icon around a 3D representation of the map. The CEO also showed close to real-time voice-to-text translation running on an Android device.
9/08/2010 01:45:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Celebrity-Gossip
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Ke$ha
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0 Comments
So, this one time, at band camp, Ke$ha was still just young Kesha Sebert—a Tennessee teen who brushed her teeth with ordinary non-alcoholic toothpaste and needed no shift key to type her name.
Clearly, though, she was already rehearsing for a life of destroyed denim and general Tik-Tokery way back in 2001 as a freshman at Franklin High School Band Camp. Watch it after the jump:
9/08/2010 01:45:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Glee
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TV News
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0 Comments
Oh. Em. Glee! Season two of the hit Fox series is just around the corner, and in an effort to promote the show’s Sept. 21 return, Fox released this teaser with Bones‘ Emily Deschanel and Michaela Conlin. Nice use of synergy, guys! But I can forgive the blatant plug for another Fox show, since the new promo appeals to my “Empire State of Mind,” and my inner Full House fan. There’s John Stamos! Who’s not given a chance to say a line! (How rude!) Check it out after the jump.
9/08/2010 01:44:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
ARM Cortex-A9
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Mobile News
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Samsung
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Technology
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0 Comments
We still consider Samsung's Hummingbird application processor to be among the very best for mobile computers, but this morning Sammy itself is stepping up the charge to make it look real old real fast. The freshly announced dual-core Orion promises to whip us all into a frenzy of geek lust with "5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung," 1080p video encoding and decoding at 30fps, embedded GPS, a native triple display controller, and on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface. Those last two bits mean you can drive two displays on your mobile device while feeding a third, such as a HDTV, all thanks to the one all-powerful chip inside. Availability for "select customers" is coming late this year, with mass production set for the first half of 2011. To say we're looking forward to it would be a massive understatement.
Oracle Corp. said it will pay Mark Hurd, its new co-president, an annual base salary of $950,000 and be eligible for up to a $10 million bonus in the current fiscal year.
As we tweeted over the weekend, Robert Pattinson was spotted hanging at the ultra-private Soho House Friday night in West Hollywood with some guy friends and his blond agent, Stephanie Ritz, his go-to date since Kristen Stewart is on location filming. Thought you all should know some more deets:
Charmaine Sheh and Raymond Lam were filming "Colorful World of Sister Fa" () yesterday. Before official filming, Raymond was reading his reports of leaving the hospital. Some viewers teased he didn't listen to doctors that he should rest, and Raymond smiled and shook his head. Talked about the work a day before, he expressed everything went well and he received many phone calls from friends, asking his condition.
Firefox just launched its fifth Firefox 4 beta, which includes a more streamlined interface, faster graphics and a new audio API that exposes raw audio data (see video above).
Dell said on Tuesday that it plans later this month to stop selling PCs downgraded to Windows XP, ahead of next month's deadline to stop nearly all shipments of PCs running the older operating system.
After spending a guys' night out in L.A. last Friday, Robert Pattinson packed up and hit the road with a few of his pals, stopping first in Arizona on Saturday night and continuing on to New Mexico..
The dramatic battle between Mark Hurd, HP, and Oracle continues. Yesterday Oracle announced that it was hiring recently-ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd as Co-President and a member of its Board. HP responded this morning by suing Hurd, alleging that he would potentially leak trade secrets to Oracle. Oracle has just responded to the suit, and it isn’t pulling any punches:
Hewlett-Packard is suing Mark Hurd, a day after word came of his hiring by Oracle.
Not only are Miley Cyrus and Ashley Greene costars in their new movie LOL, but they're also party partners!
Heard those rumors about Robert Pattinson starring opposite Angelina Jolie in an upcoming big budget flick? Totally not happening. And trust, we're a bit relieved—if you Team Robsten fans got so worked up over Reese Witherspoon, we can't imagine the chaos that would ensue if Angie's man-luring lips on the same set as K.Stew's dude.
Apple's new Game Center page lists the iOS devices that will let you get involved in this whole playing games with other people thing that's happening soon. Second-generation iPod Touch owners: you're in luck! iPhone 3G owners: you're not!
Swapping a trench coat and slacks for more traditional garb, Angelina Jolie touched down in Pakistan Tuesday to meet with victims of the heavy floods that continue to ravage the country.
Paris Hilton's remedy for a big-time cocaine arrest? The beach!
Bravo confirmed Monday that 'Real Housewives of New Jersey's' most controversial cast member, Danielle Staub, will not be returning to the show. However, despite rumors that Danielle quit to focus on her own show, sources tell me she was actually fired.
Joiln Tsai was recently in the mainland to promote her latest album "Myself". She made headlines after getting blasted by a well-known mainland TV personality for her appearance on his show. He wrote on his blog that her assistant refused to let her share the stage with other artistes, including veteran Taiwanese entertainers Frankie Gao (高凌風) and Lily Tien (田麗), even forbidding Gao to sing any songs by her ex Jay Chou. He criticized her saying it is a multi-star variety show, not the “Queen’s ascend to the throne”.
Heidi Montag has her hands full.
Apple has started shipping its new line of iPods.
YOU'D think that with 10 years of showbiz experience under her belt, Hebe most media-savvy stars.