Palm Pre Will Work with iTunes & Twitter Search

Palm revealed today that the upcoming Palm Pre will include Palm media sync, which will allow it to synchronize with iTunes to transfer DRM-free music, photos, and videos.

Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s Chairman, and Roger McNamee, a Palm director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, made a presentation at the Wall Street Journal‘s D: All Things Digital conference, where they talked about iTunes support and other new Pre features.

Palm Media Sync
Thanks to Palm media sync, users will be able to connect their Pre to a PC or Mac via the USB cable, select “media sync” on the phone, and iTunes will launch on the desktop computer. The user will then be able to choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

“We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it’s just one of the ways we think you’ll be amazed by webOS,” said Rubinstein.

Twitter Support
One of the hallmarks of the Palm Pre’s webOS is giving users access to online information, and there’s a new addition to this: Palm also announced that Twitter search will be integrated into webOS universal search.

This function will allow those with a Pre to look for a contact or an application on the device, and also search the Web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and now Twitter.

Source

‘Alien’ Prequel Confirmed By Tony Scott

On Thursday, we expressed our unhappiness about Fox seeking to crack open the Alien vault and do either a remake or a prequel. It was well-informed talk from Bloody Disgusting that got it started, and Collider now has confirmed we’re getting another Alien movie.

It’s going to be a prequel, according to Ridley Scott’s brother Tony, who, along with Ridley, runs Scott Free, the company that will produce the new movie. “Yes, Carl Rinsch is going to do the prequel to Alien,” Scott confirms. Rinsch is a commercial and music video director who works for Scott Free, so Ridley is kind of keeping it in the family.

Source

Anime Network Taken Off Comcast, Put on DirecTV

A.D. Vision‘s Anime Network television service has announced on its web forum on Friday that it will no longer be available on the Comcast cable service provider in the United States. At the same time, The Anime Network announced it is available on the VOD service from the DirecTV satellite television provider. The network is also offering the first five episodes of the Kiba, Mezzo, and Azumanga Daioh anime series on the Ovi Phone Service for select Nokia phones.

Thank you to Prede for the news tip.

Update: The American anime distributor Funimation put its Funimation Anime video-on-demand content on Comcast earlier this month. This move coincided with the removal of Comcast‘s own Anime Selects package from the same cable provider.

The Anime Network was available as one of DirecTV’s Pay per View Channels in 2006. It later became part of DirecTV’s Video On Demand offerings.

Source

Patriot Paintball Pistol Twin Pack – No Co2 Required

What is your kid doing cooped up in the living room with the Xbox 360 throughout the entire summer? Banish that thought by introducing him to the great outdoors known as your backyard, and make the entire experience all the more interesting and interactive with the Patriot Paintball Gun Twin Pack.

Aim, fire, SPLAT! This serious adults-only set of paintball pistols is not for the faint hearted! Complete with safety goggles and two tubes of biodegradable water soluble paintballs so they wash off your clothes, this is quite possibly the most fun we’ve ever had with a couple of pint-sized pistols. Take a few pot shots at the wipe clean target or unleash a multicoloured messy attack on your enemies! The high powered paintball guns are pretty accurate and shoot well over long distances; just pull back the loading lever, push back into position, aim and fire! Your paintball guns require no batteries or CO2 making them very easy to use and lots and lots of fun! All you have to do is make sure your paintball pistols are locked and loaded with paintballs and you’re ready for a quick firing frenzy! Extra paintballs can be bought separately.

Who knows? Instead of playing a paintball simulation on the Xbox 360 itself, your teen might pick up a love for the sport and end up being a professional one day instead. The Patriot Paintball Gun Twin Pack retails for £29.95.

Source

Madden NFL 10 To Feature Online co-op

If there’s one thing football games lack nowadays, it’s the feeling of comradery that comes from playing with teammates. When it’s one person versus another person, the whole teamwork thing kind of gets thrown out the window. Well, no longer will you be forced to play online all alone, as EA has revealed that Madden NFL 10 will include online co-op gameplay for the first time on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Head past the break for a trailer where some of the folks behind the game explain the new feature and what they hope it will mean for the future of Madden.

Source

Joss Whedon Working On ‘Dollhouse’ Role For Summer Glau

With “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” terminated, the door is open for former “Firefly” actress and Mutant Enemy alum, Summer Glau to guest star on Joss Whedon’s new series, “Dollhouse.”

“If anybody thinks [bringing Summer onto 'Dollhouse'] hasn’t occurred to me already, then they have not met me,” Whedon said. “I mentioned it to her before ['Sarah Connor'] was canceled. I was like, ‘You know, we should get you in the ‘house.’ But first we have to come up with something that works.”

And Whedon says the role he’d like to see her play isn’t necessarily a new doll.

“Summer would be perfect to play an active, but she’s done that [type of role] a lot,” Whedon told Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello. “I’d rather see her play someone who talks too much. The most fun I have is when I get somebody who’s good and comfortable at doing something, and then I make them do something else. Summer said to me, ‘I would like to play a normal girl before I die of extreme old age.”

Source

Marvel Brings Back Original ‘Human Torch’ In New Series

On the “Fresh Ink” portion of G4’s Attack of the Show, Blair Butler announced that as part of the celebration of its 70th Anniversary, Marvel Comics is resurrecting the original, non-Fantastic Four Human Torch, who debuted in 1939 in Marvel Comics #1, which was published by Marvel precursor Timely Comics. Golden Age maven Alex Ross is supplying the covers and the concept, while Mike Carey (X-Men Legacy, Ultimate Fantastic Four) is writing the new Torch mini-series, which Marvel claims will restore the original Torch to a place of prominence in the Marvel Universe.

The Original Human Torch was one of a triumvirate of popular heroes at Timely Comics that also included Namor the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. The original Torch, who is unrelated to the Johnny Storm character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the Fantastic Four, was actually an android fashioned by the scientist Phineas T. Horton. When first exposed to oxygen at his press conference/unveiling, the Torch burst into flame, rebelled against his creator and became something of a science fiction monster before learning to control his power to surround himself with flames and vowing to use it for the benefit of humanity.

Source

Samsung Bendable OLED Prototype

We are all looking forward to the days when our computer screens will be as thin as a piece of paper, and it would appear that Samsung’s new ultra-thin flexible AMOLED screen is about ready to herald in that era.

Sure, this 6.5 inch flexible OLED that you see here is just a prototype, but you can at least see how flexible it is. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could spindle it. That is, roll it up like a kid who plays “telescope” with an ordinary piece of paper.

I can think of one application for this technology that I saw in a movie. In Red Mars, Val Kilmer has a mobile computer that must have a very flexible AMOLED screen. This screen took up a minimal amount of space, as he was able to retract it into its tiny case like a window blind.

I realize that many of you might not remember that 2000 movie, which was set in the year 2050. As I recall, the AMOLED was able to recognize Martian landmarks just by holding the screen up to them. I’m not certain if Samsung is working on that, but they will probably have it perfected by the mid-century. That isn’t a quote from the company, but it is a personal prediction.

In the meantime, let us all sit back and dream of classrooms of the future, where the teacher hands out a test on very flexible AMOLED paper. I would imagine that after the students were finished, he or she could stack them in a pile, put them in a machine, and they would have their grades in seconds.

Think of other uses for AMOLED displays while you are at it, and put them in the comments section.

Source

Tricorder-like Device Detects Vital Signs From 40 Feet

Here’s the closest device yet to a Star Trek tricorder. Developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, this 15″x8″x6″ device can check body temperature, heart rate and respiration of victims up to 40 feet away. This “Standoff Patient Triage Tool” (SPTT) could be particularly useful for detecting vital signs of disaster victims buried within tons of rubble.

Instead of spending the 3 to 5 minutes per person to just to determine how injured someone is, this can do that in 30 seconds. It works with frickin’ lasers, using Laser Doppler Vibrometry to determine vital signs. It will be rolled out for its first trials this fall, but it’s still under development, with a goal of eventually shrinking it into the size of a thin laptop.

Sure, it has a long way to go before it can detect obscure diseases such as the Star Trek tricorder pictured above right, but this is yet another confirmation that some Star Trek technology is on its way. The SPTT is off to a good start, with its creators hoping for commercialization sometime after the middle of next year.

Source

‘Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’ Being Developed

THQ has officially confirmed work on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, yet another game set against the backdrop of Games Workshop’s gritty tabletop universe. Relic has again been handed developer duties on the title, though unlike Dawn of War, the console-focused Space Marine will be an action RPG that lets players control individual units through a “narrative-driven story campaign and in wide-scale online battles.”

In development for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it’s unclear what ties, if any, the project has to the leaked Space Marine footage that made the rounds late last year. However, judging from this IGN-hosted trailer, the game certainly looks to keep more with 40K‘s combat-heavy fiction when it eventually decides to chainsword retail shelves.

Source

Next Page »