Reply to Facebook

Facebook is testing a feature that would let you reply to your facebook status updates within the notification email. So when you recieve the email that so and so has commented on your post, you can simply hit "reply" and it will post on your facebook!

Top Vids of '09

As we get closer and closer to the end of 2009, YouzTube posted an online list of its top videos of this year. These include:
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
David After Dentist (37+ million views)

these were followed closely by the New Moon Movie trailer and Evian Roller Babies

So . . . . today, December 17 2009, is International Talk With A Fake British Accent Day. Facebook said so. And so now users all across the world will be annoying authentic Englishmen with their terrible fake accents starting today at noon. Don't miss out!

Smart Swipe

If you don't like giving your credit card number to internet sites, you'll love the smart swipe. It's a USB device that lets you swipe your card the same way a cashier would and lets you keep your data and personal info secure.

Let's bash A&T!

Your world, delivered . . . . but only in certain places. They have finally admitted that their coverage sucks in New York and San Francisco. And to make matters worse, gadget of the year went to Verizon's Droid this year, over the iPhone, specifically sighting the network's superior coverage over the iPhone. OWNED!!!!!! which acutally sucks, because I have AT&T . . . but also one of the oldest phones everrr . . . . .

FAIL!

It turns out that that giant light swirl in the Norwiegen sky was just another Russian technological fail. The Kremlin test fired a submarine based missle for the 13th time, and, once again, it did not work. Before this little hiccup, the missle was deemed Russia's latest and greatest technological breakthrough! And now . . . well, they're blushing, that's for sure!

La La La La La!

Apple has finally confirmed that they bought the music screening service La La.com. La La makes streaming music faster and brings it down to a lower price. And they have now developed an iPhone app which would allow users to stream songs to their iPhone for only 10 cents a song! This is great compared to the craziness of, what, like a dollar a song on iTunes??

3D Blood and Nuts

Sooooooo . . . . love movies where idiots fling themselves around and hurt themselves intentionally? 2010 just might be your year! Zombieland is planing on coming out with a 3D sequal and, even worse, a third Jackass movie is in the works and will be jumping out at you on the 3D screen very soon.

Game Rental Redbox

Redbox is a two dollar a day DVD rental machine which will soon offer video games. There are already kiosks in Nevada and North Carolina, but expect one near you soon!

Tweet Riot

Hey everyone! Happy December!!!!! (and happy birthday Rosie!)

So. . . . interesting story . . . . an executive from Def Jam records has been arrested for NOT tweeting. When a tween riot ensued due to an event held for hit singer Justin Beiber (who just makes me want to crawl into a corner and weep), the police told his label to post a tweet urging fans to leave the mall. He did not do so and was thus arrested.

This is complete idiocy because, i mean, think about it. How many times do you check your tweets while rioting????

Any Takers?

AOL is asking for 25,00 employees to voluntarily lose their jobs. This is due to the company's restructuring plan and one way or another, they will have to eliminate 25,00 jobs. So if you sacrifice yourself, you'll get a larger severance package than those who stay and are later laid off by force.

Not So Hot

If you go on your facebook today and see a picture of a bikini clad woman asking you if you want t see something hot DO NOT CLICK!!! She is a worm and if you click her, she'll get posted on your wall and initiate a chain of reactions on your wall and your friends walls.

Non-Smoking Mac People

Here's a good reason to quit smoking: it may shorten the warenty on your Mac. Two Mac users recently reported that their Apple warenties were voided. When one of them went to the Apple store to complain, an advisor informed him that the malfunction was due to the pesence of cigarette smoke in the house. It hardly seems fair, but if something like a computr can't handly the smoke, then it's most likely neither can you.

Righ Rez YouTube

YouTube just got a lot more awesome. As announced at the TV conference this week, users will now be able to watch videos in full 1080p resolution. Currently, the highest video quality on the sight is 720p. So yay!

Facebook and Pancakes

Facebook and pancakes have set a man free from jail! Amazing what good breakfast and modern technology can do, right? 19 year old Rodney Bradford was arrested for robbery and sentenced to jail for 12 days until a facebook status update cleared his name. It was said that the status was posted from his home within minutes of the robbery so obviously he couldn't have done it. So what does this have to do with pancakes??? The New York Times said that Rodney's status was indecipherable street-slang reading "On the phone with this fat chick, where are my IHOP?"
So . . . . . . . . . . how 'bout them Yankees?

Educated Santas

This week on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!, the NPR news quiz my dad always listens to on Sundays, a new and rather odd story came to the table. An education course for department store Santas is now in progress. As most of the men employed for this job are older and maybe not educated in the lingo of today's youth, they can take courses before they go on the job. Although they may feel cooler about themselves as humans, i don't really see how this would help. It's not like they're the ones Christmas shopping.

Club Hackers

Hundreds of Facebook groups have been hijacked by an activist group called "Control Your Info." If your facebook group's administrator quits, the role is open to anyone. This is an enormous safety problem because the new administrator can change the groups info at will and view personal information. So, for instance, your simple knitting club could show up as a hate group with you as a member. So watch out!

Rent the Runway

Okay, time to get honest here. How many women a month buy an expensive dress from a high end store, wear it out on the town, and then return it? So what if you could do that completely guilt free? Well Rent The Runway is now making that completely possible with their netflix -esque clothes service. You can pick out a dress from a high end fashion designer, and then it will arrive on your doorstep free of charge. You can then wear it out on the town and send it back! The one drawback is, well, it's kind of like using Hotel sheets. How many other creepy people have slept on these before me???????

Rockey Mountain HIGH

Skiing is no longer the only reason to visit Colorado. Yesterday, 72% of the mountain town population voted the de-criminalization of marijuana. This new law permits adults over age 21 to carry up to an ounce of weed. But, over posession is still a crime and police will continue to crack down on violators.

TWITTER PEEK

Like Twitter? Love it so much it's all you do? Well you're in luck! there is now a hand held device devoted intirely to twitter called the Twitter Peek. It send, reads, and replies to twitter. . . . and nothing else. This useless device will cost 99 dollars plus an 8 dollar monthly subscription fee. Now, if your mobile phone can do the exact same thing as well as making calls, then why the heck would you need this? The only thing cool about the Twitter Peek is the fact that it is the first device devoted solely to twitter.

Mad Young Teens

So because of this year's riveting World Series, that millions of people are watching and enjoying, the other huge amount of the population (especially all us theater geek that down really care about baseball) is raving mad about the cancellation of their weekly TV shows. This week, So You Think You Can Dance, and Glee among others were canceled to accomidate the population of baseball fans. And therefore, i have been deprived of Gleefulness for the past two weeks. :(

AT&T vs. Verizon

You know those Verizon Wireless commercials you see all the time that accuse AT&T of not having coverage? The add depict people walking around with maps above their heads that show no coverage and say "there's a map for that". Well, AT&T is now suing Verizon for those adds because they are deceptively making people think that AT&T doesn't get coverage in areas where there is no 3G, which is most untrue. They are asking for a restraining order against Verizon and the add.

Google Music

Google announced last week that it will be creating a new music service. Music based searches of songs will now include audio previews of songs and links to music sites. Another cool think is the fact that it will now be able to recognise fragments of lyrics in case you can't remember a song's title.

Technology for the Unborn

Don't you miss the good old days when not only youngsters but unborn babies weren't exposed to tons of unhealthy media? So do I. And it just got worse. The lullabelly is a gadget that straps around mom's belly and serenades her unborn baby. This is a little sickening to think about because, well, couldn't mom just sing to her baby? Not to mention the radiation that thing must be giving off!

Paranormal Box Office Activity

The new, extremely low budget horror film, Paranormal Activity has busted through the roof with box office sales, crushing Saw VI in its wake. It has been in theaters now for over a month and box office sale increase every week. Due to this success, Paramount Pictures is exploring the possibility of a sequal.

Disney Revolution

Word is circulation that Disney is about to revolutionize the home entertainment system with a new software called key-chest. This will make viewing easier in many respects. Viewers will publish the rights to a published work and then it will play openly on all of their devices (mobile phone, cable TV, and computer). sounds cool, huh?

Spektography

Lately, as I delve further into song writing, I've started researching other singer song writers. One of my favorites is Regina Spektor. As a child, she just kind of made up songs in the shower and played piano, and later began seriously writing songs. Now she's a nig recording artist.

She has several, zany albums out that consist mostly of her playing piano, doing crazy vocal gymnastics, and being totally awesome.

How to figure out what's popular.

According to Blair Herter, the best way to figure out which TV shows are the most popular is to check out which ones have the most illegal downloads on the Pirate Bay. Top illegally downloaded shows include Flash Forward, The Cleavland Show, Glee, and The Vampire Diaries.

Despite the massive popularity of all these shows, TV officials are insisting that viewers are actually stealing TV property.

"Aw, go cry into your piles of money TV exects!"
-- Blair Herter

The Swell Season

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who starred in and created music for the brilliant film Once, were on KCRW yesterday morning with their band "The Swell Season." They won the oscar in 2006 for thei brilliant song (used in the film) Falling Slowly. They played live in the Morning Becomes Eclectic studio yesterday morning with songs from their next album "Strick Joy" which comes out a week from tomorrow. They're playing November live 18-19. Don't bother getting tickets though, it's sold out.

In the studio, they spoke about how they took their relationship from the movie further and accidentally went public with it. Glen thought it was sort of stupid that everyone cared so much, like the balloon story. I see why they cared though. They are SO cute together! And Marketa had a cold, but she still sang beautifully. She always does. =D

Death Cab meets New Moon

As you must know, The second installment of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga, is coming to the big screen November 20th. Among many other artists, Death Cab For Cutie will be playing on the soundtrack. This has a couple pros and cons in my mind. The first being, I really like Death Cab. I like their poetry, I like Ben Gibbard's voice, and Twilight. . . I mean I get that it's a huge craze and all, but in my opinion, it's total crap. So I'm kind of mad that one of my favorite bands is playing on the soundtrack. But then, on the other hand, hopefully, it will make the movie a little more enjoyable to watch.

Caution Sidekick Users!

Okay, so not to be pessimistic, or anything, but basically, if you own a sidekick phone, you're screwed. A T-Mobile server know as Danger ironically enough, recently lost ALL of it's data due to a massive service error. So if you turn off your phone, or worse, let your battery run out, you will most definitely loose all of your personal info, data, and contacts. Just to be nice, T -Mobile has offered these users a free month of service, but if i'd lost all my data, i'd want at least 3.

Oscar Watch!

Finally, the yearly movie buzz has started up with the academy awards drawing nearer as we speak!

This year, the surge of eligible animated films has increased considerably, so the category may hold 5 nominees this year instead of the usual 3. A few of the many contestants are Up, Ponyo, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Monsters vs. Aliens and 9.

The question is this: Are animated films so much tougher to make that they should get a greater seat at the Oscars? Or should they just nominate the usual three movies.

I think five, but then again, I'm no expert.

Mobile Rockband!

Rockband is coming to the iphone sometime soon!

I'm becoming more and more interested in film making and movies, so periodically, i'll be blogging about that, so get ready to hear some reviews!

Disney and the PG E-Reader

Disney has come out with a new e-reader, only this time its PG. Disney Digital Books is an online application that gives you Disney classics pronto on the web. You get over 500 books for a yeahly subscription of only $79. All your old favorites turn interactive so you can read it like a real book, but also play game, answer trivia, and click on the big words to get a definition. It also comes complete with voices, music and sound effects, so you don't have to do them yourself as you read to your child. But i don't know, if your dad's an actor like mine, him doing all the voices while he read you bedtime stories was probably a really fun part of your childhood.

Beetle Borg

As we speak, the U.S government is designing cyborg beetles. This is for real guys, remote controlled cyborg beetles! Questioningly evil scientists at UC Berkley led by Hirotaka Sato have wired beetles with tiny electrons that allow them to steer and fly these artificial pets wirelessly using a remote control. This research is funded by Agency of the department of defence. And yeah, the idea of robotic animals is a little scary, an enormous swarm of cyborg beetle would be really awesome.....as long as it wasn't headed at me! It does make you wonder though, doesn't our government have anything better to think about?

Facebook Movie???????

If our good friend Facebook isn't already popular enough, a movie is soon to be made about the site. The film will be entitled "The Social Network," super original, I know! And will star Jesse Eisenberg as facebook founder Mark Zuckerberb, Andrew Garfield as co-founder Eduardo Saverin, and Justin Timberlake will play Napster founder Sean Parker. The movie will be about the inception of the hugely popular site. Should be . . . interesting.

Indoor Maps and Dating Help

Introducing Micello, or google maps for the indoors. This gadget will map the insides of buildings, shopping centers, and more. It will be a great help at conferences and conventions for those lost souls trying to find the bathroom or a good cup of coffee.

Another company is called Gelato, or "the friend feed of the dating world." This nifty sight imports you data from Facebook over Facebook connect so you don't have to come up with a whole new profile for dating sites in your quest for love, and so that your perspective mate can get a feel for what you're really like. Kinda creepy if you ask me.

And just a little side note, in case you were wondering: Netflix Watch Instantly app is coming to the iPhone!. . . . we just don't know when.

Efficient Earbuds

Sony Ericson has come up with a very cool contraption: eabuds that stop playing music when you pull them out of your ears! The MH907 will auhtomatically turn off and restart music upon contact with you ears! The same motion can also initiate calls if the buds are connected to your phone. Nifty, huh?






Here's another cool tidbit. Chrysler will be the first owner to provide digital owner's manuals for all 2010 cars. This means no huge, cumbersome manual taking up space in your car. The company estimates that this could save 930 tons of paper a year which is the equivalent of twenty thousand trees per year! Instead drivers will be able to refer to a DVD and full color printed user guide which is promised to be no longer than 80 pages. Yay for car companies going green!

3D TV's

Sony hopes to get a 3D TV into your living room by the end of 2010. Sony CEo announced that the company will be making Bravia TV'S, Vaio laptops and ps3 consuls that can all play 3D media. There are several versions of 3D media out there already, but sony is going with the active shutter method which uses electronic glasses that rapidly open and close in sync with the TV image.

News from Apple

As I said yesterday, Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at the apple conference after his liver transplant. IN only two years of being released, apple has sold 30 million iphones. they have 75 million apps in the app store and 1.8 billion apps have been downloaded. A new feature, genius, makes recommendations  based on apps you already have. this is al part of a new free itunes download called 1.3. 

iTunes is now the #1 music retailer in the world. Some cool features of itunes 9 are the genius playlist system. This is when you pick one song and iTunes automatically picks songs like it that go well together. Other updates include home sharing, improved syncing, and being able to manage iphone and the ability to manage your iphone and and ipod touch apps on itunes. 

Tunes, Phones, Pods. . .

At a recent apple conference, Steve Jobs announced the launch of iTunes 9, with a shiny new interface, and redesigned itunes store. In addition, itunes will automatically create geuis playlists and home sharing, which allows up to five computers to share music easily. 

The ipod and iphone also received updates which will allow a playlist of up to 30,000 songs. The iTunes LP made it's debut, a digital album format which allows creators to build mini, downloadable websites to accompany their music. 

Apple has drastically dropped the price of the ipod touch! The 8 gig ipod touch will now cost just $199! 

MIcrosoft Makes a Comeback

Motorola, once known as the flashy hardware company, is now getting serious about modern technology with "The Motoblur." "It's emblematic of the shift towards software and the internet as the main features in a modern mobile phone," says Motorola CEO Sanjay Jhan. Sadly for him though, that era really started with the launch of the iphone. Plus, who doesn't like apple gadgets better anyway? 

What Will They think of Next?

Hey everyone! Welcome to my first official media news blog! 

The Beatles Rock Band comes out this wednesday! Should be very fun to play! There is also a rumor going that original versions of the beatles music will soon be available on iTunes. Keep your fingers crossed. 

A new version of the Asus e-reader will be out soon. They are now issuing it in the regular tablet version as well as a two panel fold out version that is more like a real book. With this format, readers will be able to read their book on one side while having full internet access on the other. The tablet will also be equipped with a camera and microphone for skype calls!

Online Monopoly is coming soon. Players will be given 3 million  dollars to start with and can build wherever they want.