Monthly Archive for May, 2010

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Google Unveils Google Chrome Web Store

By: Sam, May 19, 2010 in Internet and Television. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
The "Official Olympic Junk Store" commands passersby to "STOP" and "LOOK."

Hopefully Google's Chrome Web Store will have at least as good a selection as this place. Also, it will probably be shinier.

At the Google I/O conference today, Google unveiled the Chrome Web Store, which is–brace yourself–an online, browser-based store for web apps. Basically, it’s a centralized hub for web apps, some existing and accessible from anywhere and some exclusive to the Chrome Web Store. Some will be free and some will be paid. You’ll need Google’s Chrome browser or their upcoming Chrome OS to use the store though.

What’s the big deal? We honestly don’t think there is one. The last thing the world needs is one more app store of any kind, and the web itself, through a multitude of web sites, has already become a great place to learn about the latest and greatest web apps. The only thing new here is a centralized payment system, which we’re guessing is the thing that’s going to lure games like Plants Vs. Zombies and more elaborate print media like Sports Illustrated. The only real thing of interest is that, since it will be built into Chrome OS, many Chrome OS apps will essentially be web apps, which means you’ll be able to run them just about anywhere, which is pretty much the complete opposite of what Apple‘s done with their App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. In the end, we’re convinced that this will either emerge as a legitimate competitor to Apple’s application ecosystem by employing apps that run on nearly every kind of device, or will die the inglorious death of Google Buzz.

Super Tuesday! Super Surprises!

By: Sam, May 18, 2010 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .
Indiana Representative Mark Souder

Representative Mark Souder is all about abstinence, which means abstaining from sex before you're married. Once you've tied the knot however, it's apparently open season to sleep with whoever you want. Mark Souder: Leading By Example

It’s an even numbered year again, folks, and even though we won’t be electing a president in the fall, it still means it’s once again time for a “(somewhat) Super Tuesday” of primary elections. As if the votes themselves weren’t super enough on their own, some trademark Washington-style political bombs have exploded today.

Leading off, we’ve got news that current Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who’s running to replace retiring Senator Chris Dodd on the Democratic ticket has been lying about being a Vietnam veteran. According to today’s New York Times, he kept racking up deferments from the draft throughout the late 1960′s and eventually landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve in 1970, which meant he did lots of drills and organized a Toys for Tots drive. The problem is that he now goes around talking about how he “served in Vietnam.” Blumenthal maintains that he simply misspoke and when he says he served in Vietnam, he means he served (in the Marine Reserves) during the war in Vietnam. So it’s all just a big misunderstanding right? Well, despite it being Super Tuesday we won’t really find out how voters feel about this until August 10 when Connecticut holds its primary.

The other hot political story today is another one of Congress’s surprise resignations. This time our resignee is Republican Indiana Representative Mark Souder, who’s calling it quits in now that his extramarital affair with a part time staff member has come to light. So far pretty run of the mill, right? A Sit tight though, because there’s another shoe about to drop: Rep. Souder made a video touting his struggle to promote abstinence with his mistress. A video you can watch right now, right here. A big oops to be sure, but again, nothing that impacts Super Tuesday because it will be at least 60 days before a special election can be held to replace him.

So what is actually going on today, election-wise? Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter faces a tough Senate primary in Pennsylvania against Representative Joe Sestak, and there’s a special election to replace Rep. John Murtha, who died in February. Over in Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln faces a tough primary battle against the Lt. Governor, and a field of Republican hopefuls are also duking it out to run against whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee. Finally, in Kentucky Rand Paul (yes, Ron Paul‘s son) is in a close battle with for the Republican nomination to the Senate seat soon to be vacated by retiring Republican Jim Bunning. Paul wasn’t the favorite initially, but with the backing of Sarah Palin and those Tea Party folks, he’s polling ahead going into today’s vote. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a big night. Our fervent hope: CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer brings back the holograms.

Justin Bieber Gets Booted, Russell Crowe Keeps Booting

By: Sam, May 17, 2010 in Celebrities, Internet, Movies, Music and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , .
Animated Russel Crowe from South Park

Pictured: Russell Crowe at Cannes, 2010

Tweens all around the world are mourning the death of Justin Bieber‘s run on Twitter‘s trending topics list (say that three times fast). The social networking site for the short-winded among us (do we even have to explain what Twitter is anymore?) decided to re-jigger their trending topics algorithm to highlight things that are happening right now, not just things that are drawing Conan O’Brien‘s tweets.

And while we’re pouring out a bit of our Capri Sun on the curb for Justin, Russell Crowe is waving cigarettes in the face of criticism. After being asked if his version of Robin Hood had a bit of Irish in his accent, Crowe lashed out like an American Gangster and told the interviewer what was on his Beautiful Mind. He really showed that guy who was Master and Commander. After calling the stunned journalist’s portfolio a Body of Lies, Crowe hopped on the 3:10 to Yuma and did something really awesome with a sword so we could work in a Gladiator reference.

Field: $5.4 Million. Dreams: Priceless?

By: Sam, May 17, 2010 in Movies, Shopping and Sports. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
The Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa is for sale.

The "Original" Field of Dreams can be yours for just $5.4 million. For an even $6 million, we'll make sure Kevin Costner never stops by to tell you the story of the time he met Tom Petty on the set of The Postman.

Remember Kevin Costner? You know the guy from Dances with Wolves and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard? Oh, and also Waterworld, The Postman (Don’t miss a special appearance by Tom Petty as the mayor of the Bridge City!) and that old commercial for the Apple Lisa. Yeah, that guy. Back when he was really famous he was in a little picture called Field of Dreams that people got all excited about because it was about how special baseball and dads are. Well some of those folks (you may be among them!) are bound to get excited again because the actual house and fields (corn and baseball) from Field of Dreams are for sale.

Surprisingly enough, the actual “Field of Dreams” which was constructed for the movie is really in Iowa, in the town of Dyersville. USA Today reports that the couple that owns the property has decided it’s time to move on, and you can be its next caretaker/guardian/developer for the low low price of $5.4 million dollars. The sale is sad, in a way, because to their credit the current owners don’t charge admission and don’t allow anyone to reserve or rent out the field. Just like in the movie, anyone can just show up and throw a ball or run the bases. The only thing for sale are concessions and souvenirs, which seems fair. Former major league pitcher and current real estate agent Ken Sanders reports that most people who have inquired about the field want to preserve it, but that some possible purchasers have visions of hotels or even a water park.

While we hope the field stays just as it is, we’re pretty sure we know who’s been sniffing around the water park angle: a certain, former A-list actor who’s looking create a joint attraction based on his two favorite projects, Field of Dreams and Waterworld…

Law & Order: RIP

By: Sam, May 14, 2010 in Television. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
The cast of NBC's "Law & Order" poses in an official an authoritative manner.

Law & Order is dead! Long live Law & Order (SVU, Criminal Intent and now Los Angeles)!

One of the best things about Law & Order, aside from the fact that each and every episode is neatly self-contained, is that on very rare occasions, the team at the New York DA’s office loses the case. The series has used the occiasional courtroom loss sparingly but effectively over the years and by our calculations, the small degree of uncertainty this brings to any given episode of the show was good for at least five extra seasons Law & Order. We say “was” because earlier today, NBC announced that the current (20th!) season of Law & Order will be the last. Even worse, there won’t be a real series finale since NBC didn’t decide to cancel the show until after the last episode had already been shot.

While it’s sad that one of TV’s most consistently ok-but-not-great shows will be going away, don’t weep for the millions of dollars producer Dick Wolf and star Sam Waterston stand to make off of the endless stream of syndicated Law & Order reruns (yes, we’re looking at you, TNT). Although Wolf won’t have the pleasure of knocking off Gunsmoke as the longest running TV drama, Law & Order will tie the western at 20 seasons on the air. (So close, Dick Wolf. So close!) Of course the TV landscape will hardly be devoid of Law & Order shows, with Law & Order: SVU (aka “The Rape Show” aka “L&O: Disturbing Crimes Unit”) returning to NBC and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (now with even less Vincent D’Onofrio!) still runs on USA. Even better, this fall don’t miss the premiere of Law & Order: Los Angeles on NBC! (Seriously. This is completely real.) Sam Waterston’s not out in the cold either. Even if his TD Ameritrade endorsement deal ends, he’ll always be the face of Old Glory Insurance, at least until the metal ones decide to come for him. And they will.

Fox Tries Again with New Arnett-Hurwitz Show

By: Sam, May 13, 2010 in Television. 0 Comments
Will Arnett and Not Mitch Hurwitz

Pictured, right to left: Will Arnett and a puppet presumed not to be Mitch Hurwitz.

We love Arrested Development. We’ve made no bones about that. We were crushed when it was canceled and Prison Break was allowed to live on, devastated when former stars put the kibosh on the Arrested Development movie, and driven to tears when we found out Jason Bateman was in Extract (maybe he lost a bet?). But that’s neither here nor there.

Today is a new day, and Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz has teamed up again with former Arrested star Will Arnett for a new Fox offering called Running Wilde. Keri Russell plays the tree-hugging object of LA jerk Arnett’s affection, which beats our guess that it was about Oscar Wilde training for the Boston Marathon.

Running Wilde premieres this fall on Fox. And while we don’t expect it to land on TV Guide’s list of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time in our lifetime, please, for the sake of the children, make sure you watch this one.

Matt Lauer (Re)Joins Tiki Barber's NBC Cheating Club

By: Sam, May 13, 2010 in Celebrities and Television. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .
Matt Lauer and his wife, Dutch model Annette Roque (aka Jade)

Matt: She's had three kids with you and still looks like this? What the hell are you thinking?

It’s been simmering for a while now, but Today Show co-host Matt Lauer’s latest bout of infidelity (he should really have that checked out) has finally boiled over. The crack team at RadarOnline reports that Lauer has left his wife for a 26 year-old woman he began seeing while he was in Vancouver covering the Olympics for NBC. Apparently Lauer cancelled a Valentine’s Day trip home from Vancouver at the last minute and then decided to stay in Canada long after the the rest of the Today Show staff returned to New York. Coupled with the fact that he was repeatedly seen out and about “boozing and flirting with women – in particular two pretty Canadian broadcasters,” and it’s pretty easy to see why Putlizer-hopeful the National Enquirer is reporting that Matt moved out of his family’s home shortly after returning from the Olympics.

The kicker on all this is that this isn’t the first time Lauer’s done the whole getting busted for cheating thing before. Back in 2006 (while Annette “Jade” Roque, his Dutch supermodel wife was pregnant with their third child) Matt and Annette separated and she filed for divorce, though they later reconciled. Will twice be the charm for ending Matt’s marriage? If so it will put him ahead of Tiki Barber, who’s only been caught once, but still far behind Tiger Woods, whose celebrity infidelity record may never be broken.

After Losing a Second iPhone Prototype, Steve Jobs Puts on Some Norah Jones and Takes a Long Soak in His Solid Gold Tub

By: Sam, May 12, 2010 in Internet and Technology. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .
Apple's Fourth Generation iPhone

This photo comes courtesy of Gizmodo. Unless you're with the police. In that case, we made this image in Photoshop as a joke.

It hasn’t been a stellar couple of months for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He’s getting sued by just about everybody (we’re looking at you, Nokia and HTC). His iPhone OS fell to number three behind RIM and Google‘s Android. And fresh off of sending the gendarme into Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s house for picking up a prototype next-gen iPhone that fell off the proverbial truck, new pictures surfaced today of Apple’s worst kept secret.

A website in Vietnam posted pictures early this morning (well, early for us) of the newest iPhone. Gizmodo may have beaten the Vietnamese blog to the punch by getting pictures and videos up a few weeks earlier, but the Vietnamese were able to show off the new iPhone’s awesome touchscreen, Samsung SDRAM and home-brewed Apple A4 processor.

We can’t say we are at all surprised that Apple’s got a new bun in the oven; heck, this is the third update in as many Junes. We are just shocked – stunned, even! – that Steve Jobs’s iron curtain in Cupertino has rusted clean through.

EA Declares War on Used Games with Tiger Woods 11

By: Sam, May 12, 2010 in Sports and Video Games. 0 Comments Tags: .
Golf superstar Tiger Woods, the spokesperson for EA's flagship golf game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Every time you buy a used video game, Tiger Woods cries...Yeah...We're not exactly sure why this is a problem either.

Remember when you could just buy a video game, pop it into your console and play it online? Well, those days are numbered, as Electronic Arts has announced that starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (out June 8th for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and ), all EA Sports games won’t work online until you activate them with a unique code in the box. This means that if you borrow a friend’s copy or–gasp!–buy one used there will be no online play for you unless you give EA $10 (aka 800 “Microsoft Points”).

Why the sudden change on this? It’s all about stock market darling GameStop. Take a look at the charts in this article from Gamasutra, and this chart in particular. Despite the fact that GameStop, the largest video game retailer in the U.S., sells nearly twice the dollar volume of new games than it does used copies ($3.7 billion to $2.3 billion through January), they make lots more money off of the used games. In the last fiscal year GameStop made about $800 million off of new games, which seems pretty good until you learn that they made over $1.1 billion off of used games. This has to kill big game companies like EA, who make all their money the first time a game is sold but nothing after that. EA wants a piece of the action, and considering they’re on the hook for things like the servers necessary to run online games (when they’re not shutting them down), we can’t exactly blame EA for wanting to make sure everyone has given them a little dough before they play online. Still, this whole thing feels kind of sleazy, and this seems like a temporary solution at best. Although they rely on each other now, we can’t see EA and other big game publishers being best friends with GameStop too much longer when their interests are so divergent. Eventually, this could get ugly.

Glee’s Cory Monteith Turns 28, Realizes His Life is Super Creepy

By: Sam, May 11, 2010 in Celebrities, Movies and Television. 0 Comments
Cory Monteith

He's had 28 years to consider this, and he's pretty sure he isn't leaving here without your girlfriend.

A very special happy birthday to Cory Monteith. For those of you not in the know, Cory plays Finn Hudson on Fox‘s runaway smash hit Glee. Even though Mr. Monteith thrills us week after week with his dancing and singing (often at the same time), we can’t help but feel a little jaded. After all, he’s a full decade older than his television counterpart.

We’re not wagging our fingers at Fox, though, since stuffing older dudes into younger dudes’ roles is nothing new. We loved Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Brick, but none of us bought for a second that he was still in high school. Tim Matheson was 31 when he played Otter in Animal House (maybe he was a grad student), and who was Haley Joel Osment kidding when he thought he could pull the wool over our eyes in The Sixth Sense? Come on guy, an eleven year-old playing a nine year-old? Yeah, that’s rich!