Thursday, July 23, 2009

Comic-Con: Alice in Wonderland Teaser Trailer

Perhaps the most interesting footage shown this morning at the Disney Comic-Con panel was the short teaser trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Patton Oswalt, who was moderating the panel, flipped for the footage and demanded it be shown three times. This was probably for the best, because aside from the very short teaser Burton had nothing else to show from the film. The teaser starts off with the Mad Hatter questioning Alice, shows her falling down the rabbit hole, and then quickly glimpses all the main characters including Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen, Stephen Fry’s Chesire Cat, and a smattering of scenes meant to show off the 3D elements, all cut to MGMT’s Kids. We also caught our first glimpse at an eyepatched Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts. In the Q&A, Burton mentioned that it was very difficult for him to get used to shooting with green screen. He mentioned that he stuck to a fast and involved method of shooting with his actors to help maintain a sense of reality. Burton also mentioned that they didn’t use much motion capturing in the film—instead, they stuck to animating the digital characters by hand. Overall, he felt the most difficult aspect of making this film is the process he’s currently stuck in, editing and putting together all of the many pieces of the film.

In contrast to many other Alice adaptations, Burton mentioned that the film will utilize elements from the two Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass), as well as reference smaller material found within those books such as the poem Jabberywocky.

Towards the end of the panel, Burton unveiled Johnny Depp as a surprise guest. He didn’t stick around for too long, but did reveal that he unfortunately can’t see films in 3D, so he’ll probably never get to experience this film fully.

For a film that seems to be the culmination of Burton’s career, the footage so far looks promising. It’s currently scheduled for release on March 10, 2010.

All Blogging Credit goes to SlashFilm

Monday, July 13, 2009

CrunchPad Tablet to Arrive Soon?

You must have heard about Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad web tablet concept by now. Well then you should also know that the device is said to arrive really soon. According to various sources the CrunchPad is expected to be available “as soon as possible” and an official release should occur sometime in July or August.

The CrunchPad will cost around $300 but will you pay that much for just a web-oriented device? That’s right, the CrunchPad will only get you Internet access! There’s no internal hard drive and there’s no Windows support. It’s not a netbook tablet but an Internet tablet that boots straight to its WebKit browser. The device will offer you a 12-inch touchscreen, Flash support, an Atom processor and support for a physical keyboard.

The CrunchPad might just be the gadget we’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately it will be quite useless when there’s no Internet support, wouldn’t you say?

via Bits, via mobilewhack

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Starting June 8th, Square Space giving away 30 iPhones in 30 days via Twitter. Here's how to win:

To enter the contest, just send out a tweet with the #squarespace hashtag included. We will randomly choose one (1) winner per day who will get their very own, brand spankin new 3GS iPhone!

We'll be announcing winners on this page and via our Twitter account, @squarespace, so subscribe there to see if you've won!

Check here for more info...

Friday, May 29, 2009

Hulu’s Desktop Wants You to Keep Internet TV Out of the Living Room

Hulu’s newly released Desktop application may or may not put Boxee on the ropes, but it could end up being the best thing that ever happened to the Mac mini.

Released Thursday by the popular television content aggregator whose major partners also happen to be some of the biggest Hollywood content producers, Hulu Desktop signals a major move away from the “online only” model that once served as a thin veneer of protection against the ire of cable companies that pay good money to get content from Hulu’s partners.

Still trying to have it both ways, Hulu issued comical Terms of Service with the desktop product that purport to prevent users from using the software on “Prohibited Devices,” to whit:

“You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV), mobile devices (such as a cell phone device, mobile handheld device or a PDA), network devices or CE devices (collectively “Prohibited Devices”).”

In the real world, however, don’t be surprised to see news of an AppleTV hack by this weekend (if not before); and Mac mini users who employ that device’s excellent media server capabilities with a connection to plasma screens in their living rooms should be sitting pretty, too.

Will you use Hulu Desktop or stick with your web browser? Will you keep the content on your computer screen or take it into the living room? Let us know in comments below.

Grabbed from CultofMac Posted by Lonnie Lazar in AppleTV, Media, News

Monday, May 25, 2009

I'm Going to empty my Sack before you do!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Have we found the missing Link?

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution.
A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.
Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.

Scientists say the cat-sized animal's hind legs offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright - a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
"This specimen is like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists," lead scientist Jorn Hurum said at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History.

Read More

Monday, May 18, 2009

Cube Fights!!!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Courtesy of the Onion

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Green Light: Chandelier from Apple Packing Material

Eric Lawrence crafted a chandelier from the molded Styrofoam packing material Apple used to use for shipping laptops. What once cradled MacBooks now lights up with 16 bulbs (5W compact fluorescents) that generate little heat but produce the same light as 20W incandescents. His creation, called Styrolight, won the Sustainable prize in