Ticketmaster and Live Nation Merger

It's been announced by the Department of Justice that the ticketing companies Ticketmaster and Live nation will merge to make a new company called Live Nation Entertainment. However, the department of justice is putting strict conditions such as licensing their ticketing systems to other competitors, and not being able to retaliate against a venue should they go with another ticket provider, to maintain healthy competition.

Youtube Does Rentals

Youtube will be offering five films form the Sundance film festival for rental. Each movie will cost $3.99, and will be viewable for a 48 hour viewing period. Such films include the talked about documentary, The Cove. Youtube hopes that the success of this will encourage bigger studios to allow rentals of their own movies for Youtube.

The Kindle Soon to Have Apps

Amazon has announced that they will soon expand their e-readers to have their own app store, created by third party developers. Such apps may include things like text books with interactive quizzes, travel books, calculators, and even some games.

Apple Soon To Release New Tablet

Apple has announced that next week they will be having an invite only event where they are said to be revealing their long awaited tablet. The event will be in San Francisco on January 27th, where they have said they will be revealing their "latest creation." There's been no conformation over whether it is the tablet, but most are pretty sure it will be the tablet. people speculate there will be Iphone updates and OS updates as well revealed at the meeting.

Google Maps Helps With Haiti

Google Maps has recently been using its services to help with Haiti relief. Since the devastating earthquake has made it hard to see complete damage from the ground, Google Maps has been using its satellite images to help relief organizations assess the damage to the infrastructures of major buildings in order to help.

The "I'm With Coco" Rally First Account

I attended the "I'm with Coco" rally yesterday at NBC Universal along with an estimated 500 other supporters. The rally began at noon continuing on until 4 o'clock. Mike Mitchell, the creator of the "I'm With Coco" logo was there as well, and was giving out t shirts in different sizes to supporters. Despite the huge mob, (there are no such things as lines at Conan rallies) I managed to get a t shirt for me and my sister. The rally took place in some of the worst rain L.A. has seen in years, but us ralliers pressed on for a better cause. Many, if not most people's umbrellas were destroyed, and the radicals came out in swim wear and painted orange.People had banners and signs, and many chants were going around, some of which I started including, "We want Coco, Lenos' gotta go," "Who's wet, we're wet, we're all wet for Conan!" and of course shouts of his name and nicknames. many news outelts and people frmo sites such as TMz came out to interview and film the mob. People from funnyordie.com alos came out and did a fake fight between Asian Conan and Asian Leno. Around two hours after the rally started, cast and band member La Bamba greetd the crowd in a pope-mobile like car, and later came Tonight Show blogger Aaron Bleyart and writer Deon Cole. Towards the end, Conan came out and ran along side the protestors up the street, causing a stop in he traffic on the street. miraculously, as Conan ran with the crowd towards Gate 2 of Universal, the rian that had gone on for hours stopped, and everyone screamed and ran joyously. Tonight Show staff then came and rewarded the ralliers with pizza and drinks, while Conan gave a speech thanking everyone for all the support. The grand finale was Andy standing from a top a building on hte street giving a speech, and finally Conan at the edge of the roof waving with a large banner of his "I'm With Coco" logo hung on the building, and the crowd below.

Later that day the Tonight Show's blogger Aaron Bleyart blogged about the event and saying the firts 40 commentors and attendees of the event would receive "I'm wet for conan" buttons, which is sure to be a collectors Item in no time. Unfortunaterly, the future for Conan at the Tonight Show still looks grim, and the New York Post and TMZ report that this will be Conan's last week on television with NBC, but nothing has been confirmed. The fans and rallies knew this, but we all came out anyway. The general consensus was that even though Conan may be getting booted and we can't change that, its still incredibly important that we all came out and showed our support, and stuck it to NBC who didn't give him the chance and didn't believe in him.

For videos and more pictures of the rally, go to these links:

http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/18/live-conan-obrien-rally-protest-the-tonight-show-im-with-coco-nbc-jeff-zucker-supporters-facebook/

http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/18/conan-obrien-photo-picture-protest-nbc-jay-leno/

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/galleries/im_with_coco_-_conan_obrien_rally/%2072157623114797997 (I'm actually in one of these pictures! :D)

Netflix Extends to the Wii

Netflix has announced that they will be making their online movie streaming service to the Wii gaming console, much like the deals they have with the XBOX 360 and the PS3. It will be at no extra cost to those who already have a subscription through the movie service. All thye ahev to do is go online and request a disk, and insert it in the Wii every time they're tryign to stream a movie from the service.

Spiderman 4 Scrapped

Sony announced that the Sam Ramy Spiderman 4 starring Toby McGuire is canceled. The studio apparently was unhappy with the choice of the Vulture as the villain and the over plan for the film. The studio plans to start over the series, focusing more on Peter Parker as a teenager, with an unknown director and star

NBC Ruins Late Night

After a mere seven months of the Tonight Show being hosted by Conan O'Brien, NBC decided to breech their contract with the host signed six years ago to allow him to host the show in the 11:35 slot. Since The Tonight Show first aired in 1954, the show has aired in the 11:35 slot. Last year, Jay Leno stepped down from his post as host of the Tonight Show, handing it over to Conan as had been planned for many years. However, as NBC has been doing bad in the ratings and Leno consistently beta Letterman in the ratings in previous years, NBC felt they couldn't let go of him. So, they give him a talk show starting at 10 o'clock, before the 11 o'clock news, canceling and bumping many primetime shows that NBC already had in the time slot. After seven months of this new line-up, NBC received horrible ratings beginning at 10 o'clock when Leno's show airs. This also affected the rest of the line-up, including the news, the tonight show, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. As a result, NBC has decided that the only solution to solving the destruction that bringign Leno back to TV is, to give him a show in a better time slot. This is a breech of the $80 million contract that NBC signed with O'Brien in 2004. NBC's plan they proposed was that Leno would have a half hour show starting 11:35, and the Tonight Show would begin at 12:05. This left Conan with a few options after this betrayal: he could take his $80 million and leave television, take his show to another network where NBC would fill out his $20 million a year salary, or eat crow and take the 12:05 slot. Yesterday, O'Brien released a statement saying he would not continue doing the tonight show if it were to be moved to the 12:054 slot, saying he would not stand by and watch the destruction of the greatest program in broadcasting history. There is much talk about O'Brien taking his show to Fox if NBC stays with Leno, and Leno talking over the Tonight Show. No matter what happens, NBC has made a huge betrayal to the beloved host, forever tarnishes its reputation in integrity and excellence in late night.

Lost Premiere Delayed For Obama

It is rumored that the premiere of Lost's 6th and final season on February 2nd may be delayed due to a speech by President Obama on the health care bill. This has put fans into a panic, but it is said that he may wait to make his speech until negotiations for the bill have finished.