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Nick Jonas Ditching Those Other Brothers...For Now

10/28/2009 01:16:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

It was only a matter of time until one of the Jonas Brothers decided he's the Beyoncé of the group and we're glad it's Nick Jonas.

The young one confirmed today that, about six months ago, he started working on a side project in Nashville with four musicians not named Jonas.

Hence, the debut album from Nick Jonas & The Administration is due out sometime next year.

(Sounds like Nick is taking his nickname Mr. President a little too seriously but when you're a little millionaire at the age of 17, you can do whatever you want.)

The admission from Nick puts to rest the speculation that the teen was branching out on his own and comes hours after Mama Jonas spilled the beans.

Earlier today, Parade magazine released quotes from its Sunday issue in which Denise Jonas says, "Nick is working on a solo act-it's called Nick Jonas and The Administration. Shhh! He's at the photo shoot for the album cover right now."

Of course, the question remained, would this mean the end of the JoBros?

Hardly, according to the heartthrobby trio.

Ticking off their points of discussion one by one, Joe, Nick and Kevin (or whoever does their blogging) wrote on their website today that "The Jonas Brothers are NOT breaking up!" as well as "We are ALL excited about this project AND what we are doing TOGETHER!" and "We plan to make music together for as long as we can."

"A three chord strand is not easily broken", read another message from Joe and Kevin, "and one thing's for sure…this three chord strand is stronger now than it's ever been."

They're also planning another world tour for next summer, which is a relief, but still...

"This project would only expand the Jonas brand," a source reassured E! News. But strengthen the brand like how Justin Timberlake breaking out on his own helped *NSYNC?

"The music is amazing and really shows off Nick's vocal range," the source added.

In the meantime this will give Kevin plenty of time to get married and Joe can, uh, what's he got going on? Oh, right! He's maybe romancing Demi Lovato. See, everyone wins!

Windows 7 endless reboot answer evades Microsoft

10/28/2009 01:15:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Microsoft support offers ideas, but some PCs still crippled after upgrade attempt

Users remained stymied today by endless reboots after trying to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7, according to messages posted on Microsoft's support forum.

An answer has yet to be found for all users, who began reporting the problem last Friday after watching the upgrade stall two-thirds of the way through the process. Most users said that their PCs had displayed an error that claimed the upgrade had been unsuccessful and that Vista would be restored. Instead, their PCs again booted to the Windows 7 setup process, failed, then restarted the vicious cycle.

Several Microsoft engineers, including the company's senior group manager for Windows supportability, have offered advice, but on Monday users continued to publish complaints on a growing forum thread.

"I think I've gotten to the point where trying to install Windows 7 is simply not worth it," said "Chimaera717" around 1 p.m. ET today. Chimaera717 was one of the first users to gripe about reboot hell. "I'm more content with actually having a working computer. Anyone know if we can get our money back?"

Earlier, Microsoft support engineers posting to the thread urged users to burn downloaded upgrades -- which were delivered as disk image, or .iso, files -- at their DVD drives' slowest speeds to reduce the chance of corrupting the data, one possible explanation for the endless reboots. At the same time, one user pointed others to a document published last July on Microsoft's support site that spelled out a possible solution.

Late Monday, Paul Aaron, Microsoft's senior group manager for Windows supportability, chimed in with a link to another support document. "From reading through the article, it looks like there is a service running in the background that is preventing the upgrade from completing," Aaron said. "Hope this helps."

The document, published in early September, noted that the "iphlpsvc" service -- which offers IPv6 connectivity over an IPv4 network -- may cause Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrades to hang at the 62%-completed mark. The fix that Aaron highlighted requires users to modify the advanced system settings of the PC.

Those instructions didn't do anything for some users, who said that their systems were still crippled.

"You people at Microsoft just don't get it, do you?" protested a user tagged as "FJP57" on the thread. "The problem for many here is that the store-bought upgrade, not just the download, is failing in all types and makes of computers. Read the posts. It's not isolated. There is NO BOOT MENU OPTION TO LOAD VISTA AGAIN. IT'S GONE. The boot cycles over and over again. It's that simple. This is not an operator error. It's a Microsoft problem."

The endless reboot is among the top active threads on Microsof's Windows 7 installation support forum. Only the thread that outlines the problem college students have had upgrading using a discounted $30 download has more messages and views.

According to Microsoft's head of support, however, the endless reboot problem isn't on the company's top list of concerns. "It's very early in the process," said Ben Bennett, the director of Microsoft's Windows consumer global support group, in an interview Monday afternoon. "In terms of the top issues of customers who choose to upgrade, the XP-to-Windows 7 [upgrade] is up there on the list for lots of reasons. The netbook upgrade scenario -- how do I upgrade my netbook to Windows 7 -- is also a big one. And another is, 'Where are my applications?' after people have upgraded. They wonder what happened to e-mail and photo editing, for example. Those are the top issues so far."

Overall, said Bennett, the volume of support calls and queries for Windows 7 is lower than Microsoft expected. "With Vista [in 2007], sales were not quite what we expected, but Windows 7 is very different," Bennett said, as he declined to quantify the difference between Vista and Windows 7 support volume, saying that it was in part reliant on sales. "But on the pure support side, Windows 7 is similar to our lower volume expectations. It's still very, very early, but volumes are lower on the support side with Windows 7 while volumes are higher on the sales side."

Microsoft's long-term expectations are that it will field a smaller number of support calls and questions for Windows 7 compared to Vista, Bennett said.

Some users whose PCs are constantly rebooting disagreed with that rosier outlook for Windows 7.

"I have to say that my system is a very generic Windows Vista Home Basic install that I've done nothing to," said someone nicknamed "tjtull" in a message posted around 2 p.m. ET today. "I haven't added any fancy video cards or drivers to it. The machine I'm trying to upgrade is a notebook computer that has nothing special about it and no peripherals attached to it. Not to grouse continually about this, but I find it inexplicable that a vanilla upgrade from the same software company would not work on my vanilla install."

Check Out Adam Lambert's Artistic Vision

10/28/2009 01:15:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Adam Lambert unveiled the cover for his forthcoming debut CD, For Your Entertainment, on his official site this afternoon, and to paraphrase the sadly under-appreciated 2003 single from current Dancing With the Stars contestant Mya: This cover’s like…whoa! A publicist for 19 Recordings reveals that the image was shot by Warwick Saint in August in New York City. And, to put it mildly, it’s a little more, um, out there than the pensive-yet-ultimately-benign images we’ve come to expect from Idol runners-up. (If you’re not familiar with the show’s post-second-place oeuvre, do check out Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, of course.) Is America ready for this particular jelly? Some of my EW colleagues aren’t terribly optimistic, but might I remind them, we’re dishing a dude who sailed through Grand Ole Opry week with a hyper-sexual, sitar-infused take on “Ring of Fire.” Anyhow, while the Glambert nation collectively wipes its brow, catches its breath, and attempts to unlock its eyes from Adam’s hypnotic gaze (good luck!), here’s five things I think the cover art reveals about the artist and his debut disc, set to drop Nov. 23.

1) I’m catching homages to Michael Jackson (a single glove on display), Madonna (and a fingerless glove at that!), and Prince (the For Your Entertainment font is more than a little reminiscent of Purple Rain, no?). Clearly, the season 8 runner-up has no shortage of (formerly brunet, now cerulean) ambition, and whether you think Adam is deliciously gutsy or ridiculously presumptuous for subtly inserting himself into that A-list galaxy, at least you can’t accuse him of playing it safe.

2) And anyhow, more likely than not, Adam Lambert is actually an alien from a distant planet. Yes, that planet looks a little bit like it resulted from the collision of a Jem cartoon, The Neverending Story, Starlight Express, and K-Tel’s Power Glam Explosion (hat tips to my colleagues Samantha Harmon, Joe Lynch, Leah Greenblatt, and Mike Bruno for their unfiltered first impressions), but perhaps the extra-terrestrial has come to teach us something? Glam is back. Unicorns are real. And boring people are going to be zapped with giant lasers and turned immediately to dust. (Okay, this paragraph kind of went and did its own thing, but I missed a screening of The Fourth Kind to try to get this item up ASAP, and I’ve got space creatures on the brain. It’s too late to apologize.)

3) Lit properly, Adam Lambert’s locks resemble bird feathers. I won’t lie: That makes me a little jealous. Under similar conditions, all you’d see on my noggin is the unfortunate emergence of male pattern baldness.

4) The suggestion of nudity in this photo is going to make my mom a lot of Adam fans go weak in the knees. Oh, I know, dude might very well be wearing pants in this picture, but fans who threw sex toys at the stage during “Whole Lotta Love” during the Idol summer tour don’t need to know that, do they? Well played, Mr. Lambert!

5) I know Adam came out on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but any theories/worries/suspicions that he would tamp down the gay while promoting FYE just went the way of the leftover milk in my cereal bowl this morning*. I mean, good, bad, or totally insane, this album cover is outre, playing up Adam’s pouty-lipped, yellow-mascara’d androgyny. America, get ready to taste the rainbow, metaphorically speaking.

Rainie Yang “Nine Slaps Nonstop” Show Luo Wants to Kill Someone

10/28/2009 01:15:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Show Luo (Xiao Zhu) and Rainie Yang filmed the CTS idol drama <Hi My Sweetheart> and slapped for real. When the director gave the signal, Rainie did not utter a word and “papapa” gave nine slaps on Show’s face. Show was astonished and almost became infuriated. He immediately looked into a mirror and sourly said, “Is my face red? No one has slapped my face before, Rainie Yang, you’re in big trouble!”

Actually, once Rainie finished slapping him, she was astonished as well because Show’s face wasn’t only red like a pig’s liver, but it was also swollen. It looked like he was a poor little boy who experience family abuse. Though, this is due to Show’s own physique; his skin and blood veins are rather weak. A little soft hit may cause a contusion, but on top of that he cares a lot about his appearance; his face is more important than his life. He even said it himself that when he was young and fought with classmates, he threatened them saying, “You want to fight, let’s fight, but try to touch my face if you dare.”

<Hi My Sweetheart> is scheduled to premiere on November 1st, and it’s still filming in Kaohsiung right now. This slapping scene is about the “violent girl” Rainie who was mad at Show for lying to her, and immediately slapped him. The script said that it is three continuous slaps, and plus the director has to film the long, short, and close shots, so it became nine slaps. Since Show started filming dramas, he had never been slapped before. When he saw the script, he thought the slap will just be an angled effect, so when Rainie slapped for real, Show’s whole expression was stunned. Though, because everyone was staring at them, and they are from the same company, he can only hold it all in.

Firefox gains 30 million users in eight weeks

10/28/2009 01:15:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser has gained 30 million users over the past eight weeks, as it continues to gain on Internet Explorer.

Chief Executive John Lilly revealed the increase in user adoption in a Twitter post on Monday, and Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, confirmed it to ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

"We've seen a significant increase in the number of users for Firefox," Nitot said. "Firefox checks for new versions every 24 hours, when it's running, and when it checks, it pings the Mozilla server. We count the number of pings."

Lindsay Lohan 'could be dead in year' says concerned father

10/28/2009 01:14:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Lindsay Lohan's father is deeply concerned about his troubled daughter, fearing she could be 'dead in a year'.

Michael Lohan, who has been estranged from the actress for several months, claimed she is addicted to prescription painkillers and there is 'nothing left of her'.

His comments came after Lohan has been photographed looking bloated and glassy-eyed at several parties in New York and Paris.

The star was out again at a charity event in Los Angeles last night, working the red carpet in a little black dress.

He claimed in Grazia magazine: 'She needs long-term rehab. I fear the worst. Look at Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger - who was a close friend of hers.

'It could be a year, a month, a week - who knows? She has a plethora of medicine you can't mix and can't drink with.'

The latest allegations of painkiller addiction come after a difficult few years for the Mean Girls star.

She checked into rehab several times in 2006 and 2007 after being arrested for driving under the influence.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles judge told the 23-year-old to 'get serious' about attending an alcohol education programme for her probation.

The judge extended her probation by a year following an August 2007 conviction for being under the influence of cocaine and DUI.

She was ordered to complete an 18-month alcohol education program, serve 24 hours in jail and perform 10 days of community service.

There were great hopes for her career after stellar turns in Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, but in recent years Lindsay has found her personal problems have overshadowed her career.

Lindsay has denied her dad Michael's allegations of prescription drug abuse, saying: 'I'm so hurt that someone who calls himself my father needs to use the press to communicate with me.

'I have not spoken to my father, nor have I responded to his threatening and erratic messages over the last several months.

'It's so sad that he needs to stay in the media spotlight by using my name and making up excessive lies. He should instead try to be a real father.'

And after Lindsay's new role as 'artistic adviser' for Ungaro didn't win over fashionistas at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month, the actress said she plans to spend more time in Paris working on the autumn/winter 2011 collection.

She told the Sunday Times: 'I feel I am on the cusp of something new. I just need to be here more.

'I didn’t expect everyone to be completely loving the collection. It is the same with everything I have done. I knew that people were going to target me. I am a target. I don’t know why I am, but I am, and I accept that.'

Lindsay also denied recent rumours she had been dropped from her record label Casablanca and was looking forward to recording a third album.

The troubled actress, who has been blonde for three months, showed off her slender figure in a little black dress and platform heels as she arrived at Richard Branson's party last night.

Also at the third annual Rock The Kasbah event was Sharon Stone, Paula Abdul, Gavin Rossdale, Lindsay Price and retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

The host Richard was wearing his right arm in a sling following a recent injury.

Court rules partial provisional disposition of exclusive belonging terms for TVXQ’s contract with SM Ent

10/28/2009 01:14:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

The court has gave out the final ruling on the lawsuit between the 3 members of Dong Bang Shin Ki and SM Entertainment.

Seoul Central Court revealed on 27th October a citation of their ruling for the lawsuit between the SM Entertainment and TVXQ Hero JaeJoong, Xiah JunSu and Micky YooChun.

It was revealed, “We see that part of the terms in their contract has much destroyed the good morals of the whole contract. SM Entertainment should not interfere with its singers’ independent unique activities and also contract to perform and other entertainment activities.”

Previously in July, the 3 members of Dong Bang Shin Ki has revealed their 13-year long contract under SM Entertainment, which meant that they will possibly be working under SM Entertainment for life, and has applied for the effect of provisional disposition of the terms in their contract. And the 2 parties have engaged in a lawsuit as SM Entertainment insist that the terms under their contract are reasonable.

The court also revealed, “Through the individual agreement, there is high possibility for group activities to continue, but for the provisional disposition of the existing activities and the profit allocation, it is invalid and difficult. We will have to dismiss the application for the full provisional disposition of the effects of the exclusive belonging terms in the contract.”

Updates: The 3 members have announced that they will agree to the court rulings on this lawsuit.

Windows 7 is an all-ages show

10/28/2009 01:13:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

My great aunt is 92 and, as of Friday, she's a Windows 7 PC.

Now, Hilda is already not your typical nonagenarian. She is frequently online, does her finances in Quicken and recently abandoned AOL for Gmail (something I still haven't gotten my parents to do).

Unfortunately, while her mind is quick as ever, her Windows XP PC had slowed dramatically over the past few years, becoming nearly unusable. It's one of those things that many find so irksome about Windows PCs.

In any case, Hilda (I'm sparing her some spam by not including her last name) decided she needed a new computer and I offered to help. It was just a day after Windows 7 had made its debut and we headed to a local computer store. I found her a basic PC, monitor, and printer for $450 after rebate. She didn't really need the monitor, but it helped me a great deal as I transferred all of her files from her old PC to the new one.

If it were still the Windows Vista days, I might have been tempted to downgrade her new computer to Windows XP, so she wouldn't have to adjust to the new operating system.

But, with Windows 7 working so well, I actually felt comfortable she could make the switch, even though she's at the other end of the age spectrum from Kylie.

It took me almost no time to set up the new computer, but several hours to transfer over her settings and documents and then re-install Quicken and her other programs.

Amazing techie that she is, it took her almost no time to adjust to Windows 7's new look and feel. It's a few days in and I'm glad to report that things have continued to be smooth.

"It really is not very different from the XP I used before," she told me in an e-mail this week.

[Via Cnet]

Cecilia Cheung pregnant with twins? Nic Tse admits her health has changed

10/28/2009 01:13:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung should get younger brother and sister to play with Lucas. Earlier it was rumored that Cecilia was pregnant with twins and is currently at home resting. Nic had never confirmed that his wife was pregnant or not. Yesterday Nic was asked if Cecilia was really pregnant with twins? He reluctantly admitted that his wife's health has "changed" recently.

Yesterday Nic was asked to confirm the news of Cecilia's pregnancy? Does she have twins? Nic said with a smile: "Honestly speaking, Cecilia's health have changed. (Does she have twins?) We haven't done the check up yet, haven't seen the doctor yet, so I cannot say so yet. Because her health had just changed, so we haven't seen the doctor yet. When it's time to admit, I will announce the good news to everyone."

Asked if he's excited to become a father by his comment that his wife's health has changed? He frankly said that he has always liked to be a father. His father Patrick Tse has 8 brothers and sisters, and currently he only has Lucas temporarily. Nic smiled and said that Cecilia wanted to have 5 children, he feels that having 3 is enough. He's afraid that he won't be able to take care of 5 kids.

"1st Brother" of EEG Nic attended <EEG Powerful Star Group Photo> event and expressed that he currently has a two year contract with EEG and there are no discussions for renewal yet. Asked when he renews his contract, will he request for even more freedom? He expressed that he has enough freedom now.

Natalie Portman Equates Meat-Eating With Rape

10/28/2009 01:12:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

First, she admits to cutting herself, now she's making criminals of meat-eaters. Make no mistake, Natalie Portman is all grown up and not some shrinking violet.

Penning what amounts to a Harvard-caliber book report for the Huffington Post, the actress and animal rights activist holds forth on her devotion to veganism and her opinion that those who choose to feast on flesh without regard for the moral implications might as well change their name to Roman Polanski.

The 28-year-old—with whose glowing self veganism clearly agrees—starts off harmlessly enough, crediting Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals with her transition from 20 years of vegetarianism to eschewing all animal byproducts.

"I've always been shy about being critical of others' choices because I hate when people do that to me," she writes. "I'm often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., 'What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what'll you eat?').

"I've also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else—a historically dangerous stance (I'm often reminded that 'Hitler was a vegetarian, too, you know.') But this book reminded me that some things are just wrong."

That's where the criminalization of carnivores comes in.

Rejecting the simplistic thinking that "This is tasty, and that's why I do it," Portman backs Foer's argument that a little more thought at the dinner table wouldn't hurt anyone…least of all our four-legged friends.

"He posits that consideration…which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if that's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it)."

And if sensationalizing the act of meat-eating (and, incidentally, grossly discounting the severity of rape) is what it takes for her to get her point across, well, so be that, too.

Though, in fairness to Portman, her detailing of the "copious amounts of pig shit sprayed into the air" will likely make even the most ardent bacon-eater rethink their brunch menu.

That Harvard really teaches you how to turn a phrase.

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