Vally Media News

Motorola Droid Shadow

2010-05-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Gizmodo has once again found another left behind phone prototype, only this time they say the cops will not be involved. The phone is the Droid Shadow, which is said will be the Droid 2. It will be exclusive to Verizon, just like the Droid. It will have a 4.3 inch screen and an 8 megapixel camera that shoots in 720p.

Pirate Bay Blackout

2010-05-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

The BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, which has been a foe to movie studios for years, was offline on Monday. The reason being that movie studios won an injunction for the site's bandwidth provider to stop servicing the site. Pirate is currently looking for anew host. This is the third host that it has lost in the past couple of years.

More Facebook Privacy Changes

2010-05-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

After lots of complaints about Facebook and its current privacy settings, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, has announced they will be modifying the privacy settings on the site. He promises the settings will be easier to use and understand, and that they will not sell your information to ocmpanies

Pocket Fan For IPhones

2010-05-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

The company HMB_Tec has created a gadget for the Iphone, that is a functioning fan that connects to the headphones socket on the phone. The company predicts it will be a hit for the upcoming 2010 summer heat wave.

Flying Car Soon to be Released

2010-04-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), in association with the department of defense is getting ready to launch a new flying car for soldiers in the field. If it succeeds, the car will be able to seat four, cruise in the air like an airplane, drive on the ground like an SUV, go 250 miles on one tank of gas, and it wouldn't require a runway to get airborne. Proposals for a prototype are being accepted starting May 27.

MIcrosoft Reveals New Phones

2010-04-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft revealed the meaning of their secret "Project Pink." They announced that they are coming out with two new phones called Kin One and Kin Two. They are said to be very different form the upcoming Windows Phone 7, and are based on social media. They will run a Zune-like browser and will support Zune programs. A major turn off for many people though is that the phones will have no third party application support.

Conan Returns to Late Night

2010-04-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Conan O'Brien has recently struck a deal for his own late night talk show beginning at 11 PM on TBS. After several months of negotiations with FOX, he finally decided to go with the cable network instead due to reservations from local FOX affiliates. Conan will be squaring off with other big cable late night shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Initially Conan and his people were cautious to join TBS at 11 PM, because another show was already filling its spot, The George Lopez Show. As you might have guessed, Conan was not eager to push another late night host of of their time slot, but Lopez himself gave O'Brien his blessing and practically sealed the deal. Conan's new show is expected to air around November.

TBS's promo for the show can be seen here:
http://www.tbs.com/video/index.jsp?oid=214157&eref=sharethisUrl

Swag Bucks

2010-04-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

A website called swagbucks.com rewards you for searches you use on its site. The site is free, and rewards you if you use it as a search engine as opposed to using Google. For eveyr search you do, you can earn "swag bucks" which are redeemable on the site for prizes ranging from DVDs and electronics to amazon gift cards.

More information in the video:

Dotcom is 25

2010-03-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

25 years ago was the first time "dotcom" was added to the end of the internet address. Five years later fiv eother companies added dotcom to the ends of their addresses, and by 1990 there were one million web addresses ending in dotcom. Happy birthday .com!

Australia Top 3 Biggest Internet Censors

2010-03-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Australia has been listed among the top three countries that censor their citizens internet viewing right up against North Korea and Iran. Recently they have proposed legislature to further restrict public internet access to many sites, which are debatable whether they should be restricted or not. Other countries are looking down on Australia for this, saying that they are "Enemies of the Internet"

Einstein Theory Confirmed

2010-03-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

After new studies, Einstein's theory of relativity has officially been confirmed. His theory was based around how gravity works outside of our galaxy. This conformation of his theory has thrown out competing theories that would rule out ideas like dark matter and dark energy. However, it would appear that those things do exist now that the theory of relativity is a real fact.

Google Adds Bike Directions

2010-03-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

Google Maps has added directions for bikes, adding on to their car maps features. It took Google six months to map out the bikes lanes and all the roads that include them. Its said it will make living in busy cities where not everyone has a car much easier.

Microsoft Wants to Charge Internet Usage Tax

2010-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has been plagued with viruses and hacker problems for many years now. No matter how much they try, the problem still persists. Their new solution to this problem is to get more funding...from their customers. Microsoft wants to use new tactics like quarantining and inspecting suspected hackers. They've already spent millions on trying to fight the hacker problem, and they think something like an internet usage tax will be the perfect way to get them more money to solve the problem.

Young Girl Accidentally Kills Herself

2010-03-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

A three year old girl in Wilson County accidentally shot herself on Sunday night. her father had left a semi-automatic gun on the counter and the girl supposedly mistook it for a Wii controller. She shot herself in the abdomen and was fatally wounded. As of now, no charges have been filed.

Hulu Pay-Only on the IPad

2010-03-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Although Hulu is free for users on the web, it appears that Ipad users will require a subscription to use it. Sources say that Hulu has been looking for a way to make profit for some time now, and this may eb the answer. Hulu runs on flash, so they are creating non-flash operated version of the site for the Ipad, which will defintiely cost them money they hope to get back wiht subscriptions.

Apple Sues HTC

2010-03-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Apple is suing HTC over supposed iphone patent violations. HTC is the manufacturer of the Nexus One. The company says the heard of the lawsuits from the media, and they are surprised that apple wouldbe suing them over such a thing. Steve Jobs responded by saying that they had a right to not just sit and watch as people steal their inventions.

The Military is Now Allowed to Use Twitter

2010-03-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

The U.S. military has officially given the to members of the military to use social networking websites such as facebook, twitter, youtube, and other sites. In the past, they were not allowed to use them, and even now they are restricted to only using the sites on non classified military computers and they are only allwoed on certain sites. The are not allowed to visit sites that promote gambling, pornography, or hate crimes.

Apple Found Using Child Labor and Contaminating Workers

2010-03-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Apple admitted recently to cases in its factory where child labor has been used in its factories in China. Since then, the workers have been fired and say they are now reviewing employment contracts and regulating factories more closely to prevent this in the future.

Also in one of its factories in China that more than 62 workers were exposed to a toxic chemical called n-hexane that causes blurred eyesight and muscle degeneration. Most of the infected workers have returned to their jobs but some are still in the hospital.

Greenpeace Scolds Facebook

2010-02-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

Greenpeace made a complaint to Facebook about its data server now located in Oregon running on coal. They said that it is vital for big companies like Facebook to start converting to renewable energy sources, instead of continuing to pollute.

However, Facebook replied to this complaint by explaining that in Oregon's cooler climates, they dont need to use fans and cooling systems which uses less energy than running them somewhere else on renewable enrgy sources. Most experts agree with Facebook and say that Greenpeace si being a little too harsh.

Japanese Create "Elastic Water"

2010-02-22T11:41:00.000-08:00

At Tokyo University scientists have revealed a new substance called elastic water. Its made of 95% water, along with clay and a number of other organic materials. The substance looks like jelly, but it is strong and malleable. People are saying this could be a great alternative to plastic because its less damaging to the Earth and works just as good.

Government Uses Odd Methods to Fight Wars

2010-02-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

It has been found that over the past three years the Pentagon has spent over $15.5 billion funding research to combat IEDs (improvised explosive devices.) IEDs are one of the biggest struggles the military deals with in wars, and it is extremely difficult to defeat them. So, the government is funding new and curious ways to fight them, including using robots, lasrs, chemical detectors, and even specially trained bees.

Farmville Is World's Biggest Video Game

2010-02-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

Farmville has become the world's largest video game with over 20 million active users. That's more people than use twitter and the entire population of the United Kingdom. Zynga, the company who runs Farmville form San Francisco is said to make over $ 150 million a year from Farmville and other games and applications they own.

School Spy on Students

2010-02-19T11:38:00.000-08:00

A school in surburban Philadelphia was caught activating the cameras in school issued laptops used to spy on the students at home and at school. The school said the feature was originally activated to monitor thefts of laptops. Students were outraged and put tape over the cameras and microphones. Since the discovery the spying has stopped.

"Please Rob Me" Website

2010-02-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

A new website has been created called "Please Rob Me" that tracks all location based updates from sites like Foursquare and Twitter, which allows people to see who is home, and who is not. Hopefully the upside to this site may be that people may become more aware of what they tweet about.

Man Smashes TVs in Walmart

2010-02-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at a Walmart in Atlanta a man named Wesley Strellis walked into the electronics section of the store and began smashing flat screen televisions with a steel baseball bat. The other shoppers stood by and watched, before he finally put down the bat and was arrested, after destroying over 29 TVs. The man reportedly got the bat from the sporting goods section of the store, and destroyed over $22,000 worth of merchandise. Police are still not sure what prompted the outburst.

Solar Flares Interrupting GPS Signals

2010-02-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

UK researches from Cornell say that the sun is heading into a new period where its solar flares will give off extra radiation and elevated surface activity. This isn't threatening our planet, but it will affect the transmitting between Earth's satellites and many GPS systems.

The interruptions they say should not be dangerous, but will ultimately result in triangulation errors.

iPad Interest is Low

2010-02-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Public interest in the iPad has shown to be very low. A study taken by an online marketplace did a survey and results showed that 61% said they did not have interest and did not need an iPad. Only 9% said they planned on getting one while other factors depended on the others purchasing one or not.

Google Develops Real-Time Translator

2010-02-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

Google is in the process of developing a speech-to-speech translator for phones. This would allow a person to speak on the phone with someone who is speaking in a different language and the phone will translate it to your native tongue. The translator would let you set the translated language to whatever language you want, in real time, allowing you to have a normal paced conversation with someone who doesn't speak your language. The feature is said to be being developed for the Android.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation Merger

2010-01-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-21T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Stars of Mass Effect 2 Revealedt

2009-12-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Bioware has announced the cast for the voices of the new game Mass Effect 2, ad the list is star studded. Listed among the main characters were Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, and Keith David

Gwen Stefani and Courntey Love Sue Guitar Hero

2009-12-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

Gwen Stefnau and Courtney Love are suing Activision,the maker of Guitar Hero, for some miscommunication over their characters, or husband's characters. The characters of both Kurt Cobain and Gwen Stefani are not only available to be played ofr their own songs, but for other songs on the game as well. This has infuriated Stefani and Love alike, and subsequently, they are suing. Activision however has filed a countersuit claiming that both of the artists knew this, and for them skipping out on contractually obligated promotions.

Norway's Cloud Spiral Explained

2009-12-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

A spiral cloud in the Norway sky left many screaming UFO's, but it was revealed recently that the spiral was nothing more than a failed Russian missile launch. The missile was supposed to be Russia's great missile yet, with a launch range of over 5,000 miles. However, this was the thirteenth time the missile failed, so, the missile might not be so great.

Disk Plus On Demand

2009-12-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

300/300,000 titles are available to watch on Amazon.com with TeVo or on the PC. If these DVD purchases are a hit then it will be the new way to get them faster.

JooJoo Launched

2009-12-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Previously called the CrunchPad, the production contractor went ahead and renamed the $500 tablet the "JooJoo" after an investor backed out. The tablet has a 12.1 inch touch screen and boosts directly to an internet browser via wifi. The production of the product has lead to many legal arguments, with the production contractors ending up on top.

Apple Buys Lala

2009-12-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

Apple has bought the music steaming service Lala recently. The site before was known and made popular by allowing streams at a faster rate than most for as little as ten cents per song. They also had an app for the Iphone app allowing them to stream the songs to their Iphones. Apple is not commenting on their motives of the purchase.

Facebook Changes its Privacy Settings

2009-12-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

Anounced by Mark Zuckerberg on December 1st, Facebook is now changing its privacy settings that allow you to change the privacy on a post to post basis. For example, if you wanted to post something but didn't want everyone to see it like your parents, you can make it viewable to only your friends. The changes will be put in place over the next few weeks.

Comcast Buys NBC

2009-12-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

Comcast has purchased a majority share of NBC from GE. This also includes affiliated networks like SyFy, Bravo, and USA, they also purchased Hulu and Universal theme parks. The final total for all of this rounded out to around $6.4 billion. Comcast is also bringing some of its networks to the share, like E!, Style, and G4. Overall, this is estimated to be worth around $7.25 billion.

Youtube To Stream TV Shows For a Fee

2009-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Youtube has announced that it is soon going to be streaming popular TV shows on its website the day after the show has aired. The streams will be going for the same same price it is to download an episode on Itunes, which makes many people question whether this is a god idea on their part. They say that it doesn't matter, because people who download episodes generally only watch them once.

Black Friday Madness Ensues!

2009-12-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

Black Friday has past, and the results are in. Spending went up with a .5% increase, and overall Americans spent $10.7 Billion. Wow! Now, people are going on their computers to try and find holiday deals online. A Blackberrie Storm goes for $10 on Amazon.com (with the purchase of a contract as well :\)

Youtube Direct

2009-11-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

Youtube Direct was released which gives major news outlets access to user videos as a source for reporting the news. They can request permission for usage of videos from amateur news anchors on the site and therefore possibly be used on television. However none of the people in the footage used will be paid.

The Google Phone is Coming!

2009-11-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

The rumors were true, and Google is coming out with a phone that is similar to the Iphone. It has a full keyboard as opposed to full touch screen, and is supposedly going to hit the shelves early next year.

DVD to Blu-Ray Exchange Site

2009-11-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

A new site called DVD2Blu-Ray has a catalog of over fifty titles that allows people to exchange their DVDs of those names and exchange them with Blu-Ray discs of the same name. All you have to do is send the DVDs in a prepaid envelope and they'll send you the Blu-Ray for around $8.

Youtube Gets Subtitles!

2009-11-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

Youtube will now be adding the new feature pf putting subtitles on all videos. This will be extremely beneficial to the hearing impaired and will also include subtitles in 51 languages, so you can understand videos in any languag

Sprint Makes a Deal With the NFL

2009-11-23T12:13:00.000-08:00

The NFL network signed a deal with Sprint to be the exclusive provider of NFL live games. You can watch these live games on your palm pre using Sprint TV of the NFL Mobile Live application. It's also free for Sprint users with a data plan.

Google Chrome OS Released

2009-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Google Chrome OS was revealed at a press conference on the 19th, which is free for download just like Google chrome. One of the new features is a seven second boot time and also boasts that you don't need to have a big hard drive because most of the information is stored by Google itself.

AOL Lays Off Many People

2009-11-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

AOL has announced that it is going to fire 2,500 people, and its looking for its staff to volunteer. The people who give themselves up will get a bigger severance package than those who stay. Also, AOL will be selling Mapquest to Microsoft.

Computer That Simulates a Cat's Brain

2009-11-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

IBM has officially created a computer that is as complex as a cat's brain. 147,456 processors, it still runs eighty three times slower than an actual cats' brain. They're saying now they have about enough power to eventually simulate a human brain, and even create one that interacts and runs as a conscious being. Which is bad.

Zune HD has Free Games!

2009-11-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Zune HD is now going to have free games with version 4.3 which will enable 3D games. This will unlock a ton of new games that will be very enjoyable for Zune owners.

A pipe break or a river?

2009-11-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

Today a pipe broke on the right side of Van Nuys Blvd. The firetrucks are trying to fix the problem. It is so deep it comes up to the bottom of cars and kids feel a pull to play in it. It is making cars driving nervous, and is wasting a lot of water!

Warner Allows Music on Youtube and Free Concerts

2009-10-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Warner Music Group is now allowing certain artists' songs and music videos to be seen on Youtube. As part of the deal they get a large portion of the money from the advertisements on those videos.

Also Yahoo! is showing free webcasts of concerts in promotion for Guitar Hero 5. They are calling the program Guitar Hero Fridays and will be starting with a concert of Weezer.

Microsoft Copy Cat

2009-09-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is recruiting Apple Store managers to come and work for Microsoft stores that are in development. The company is wooing the managers over by giving them pay raises and paying for moving expenses. They even plan on imitating the genius bar. Good luck with that one Microsoft.

In other news, the house built entirely made out of legos in Dorking, England was demolished. It was offered for free to anyone who could take it to a new location, but when there were no takers, they just decided to get rid of it.

New Amazon.com Feature

2009-09-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com is coming out with the "AmazonBasics" store, which sells basic products like usb cords, blank discs and flash drives for a significantly lower price than its other competitors. People are suspecting that if the store does well, then major companies will have to drop their prices as well.

Also, the FCC is putting a ban on Internet companies slowing internet speeds while people are streaming things. The purpose for this practice was to get people to watch shows online less so that they would not drop their cable companies.

Left 4 Dead 2 Banned and Itunes Prices Raise?

2009-09-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

A company that represents artists and collects fees for them is asking Itunes to pay them more. The4 company would like if the artist was paid for each time a 30 second clip of material is played, and paid for songs played in TV episodes bought on Itunes. If the company gets what it wants, we can expect to see a major price raise in songs and other things bought on Itunes the future.

Also, Left 4 Dead 2 was banned in AUstralia because the country deemd it "too violent". The game shows human on hum,an violence against people with a rabies-like disease and was said to be too violent for anyone under 18

Star Tours Gets Revamped and MMS Comes Early

2009-09-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Star Wars attraction at Disneyland called Star Tours was announced to be closed down in 2010 for remodeling. It was originally opened in 1987 and has not been changed since. It will reopen in 2011 and will include 3D graphics and new voice overs from Yoda voice Frank Oz.

Also, MMS messaging for Iphones was released a little earlier than anticipated, but only to certain customers. Apparently there is no rhyme or reason why, and no standards for who gets it early and who doesn't.

Steve Jobs and Apple Keynote

2009-09-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

This year Steve jobs came out and talked a little about the new things itunes has to offer us. First, he said somethings about the Iphone; 30 million iphones were sold in the last 2 years, 75,000 apps were sold, and 1.8 billion downloads were made. he also introduced the new iphone os 3.1 wiht an app store now makes suggestions. Also, now 30,000 ringtones for $1.29 each are available in the itunes store.

In itunes 9 news........
-Itunes is now in 23 countries, and is the #1 music retailer in the world
-8.5 billion songs sold, with 100,000,000 paying accounts
-Genius mixes plays endless mixes of songs from your library
-There's improved syncing, which also allows you to sync albums and faces from iphoto, as well as managing apps on ipod touch and iphone
-Another new feature is you can stream music from other libraries in your home. With home sharing you can copy songs tv shows movies etc. with 5 authorized computers in the home
-Theer's a redesigned store
-And another new feature itunes lp: has lyrics, chronology of albums, videos, pictures, etc.

He-Man Movie Canned

2009-09-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Warner Bros. has decided to not do the planned live action He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie that they had originally planned to do with Mattel. Luckily Mattel still got away with rights to all of the material, and they can still take the movie elsewhere, it is still a major setback for the movie and He-Man fans everywhere.

Also, a Norwegian bus driver got his named changed to the ultimate nerd dream: Julius Andreas Gimli Arn MacGyver Chewbacka Highlander Elessar- Jankova. It is the longest nerd name recorded in history. he realizes that he spelled "Chewbacka" wrong, and says he will correct next time he changes his name.

Anger Over PS3 Price Drop and Family Guy Outrage

2009-09-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

After the PS3's dramatic price drop PS3 put out commercials saying that "You can't believe everything you believe on the internet, otherwise I'd a Nigerian millionaire by now!" The Nigerians were sincerely upset by this statement and they demanded a public apology. They obliged, and nixed the commercial as well.

Also, the March 8th episode of Family Guy got 179,997 complaints to the FCC, which is a bit over the norm of all shows collectively with 578 complaints.

Yoko Drops the Ball and LOTR Author Gets Paid

2009-09-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

One of Apple's big announcements today was actually released yesterday by Yoko Ono in a magazine article. The announcement was that the entire Beatle's catalog was going to be available on Itunes. Sorry Apple, she just couldn't keep it in.

Also, after a long law suit, ti was finally decided who would gets rights to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, New Line Cinema, or J.R.R. Tolkein. Tolkein won, and apparently they owe him millions upon millions of dollars.

New Fantastic Four to Come!

2009-09-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Fox is planning on picking back up on the "Fantastic Four" series, and is planning on hiring Akiva Goldsman, famous for writing "Batman and Robin" (my personal favorite in the previous series) to write the next film. Although considering it killed the series, which would make most people weary, I am excited for this new film.

Also Ebay sold Skype for $2 billion, whihc means they lost $1.1 billion in the sale.

WOW and IPhone News

2009-09-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft is now featuring a new option for people who would like to pay about $30 more where you can switch sides of the battles. So if you have $30, you don't have to worry about being stuck as solely an Elf or scary Ogre.

The Iphone now also has the capability to send pictures and videos using MMS messaging. You can get this but a simple Iphone software update, however it is only available for 3G, and 3GS Iphones.

Wikipedia, Possibly More Reliable

2009-09-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia is going to launch a new feature called "WikiTrust" which will only be available to registered users, which uses a colored coated system to highlight which information on a page has been there the longest without being changed. This feature will allow people to see which information is the most trustworthy, hence, "WikiTrust".

Also, an app for the iphone that tracks where your iphone is, helped police for the second time this month catch criminals who had stolen a victims phone. it costs $99 a year, but hey, it just might be worth it.

New School Year, New Posts to Come

2009-09-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog post for the 09-10 school year. Soon there will be media posts. Yup!

The Webby's

2009-06-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Webby Awards were given out last night, hosted by Seth Meyers. Trent Reznor won for artist of the year, the inventor of the world wide web Tim Burners Lee won the life-time achievement award, and Jimmy Fallon won for person of the year. The winners are only allowed to have a five word accpetance speech and Fallon's speech said, "Thank God Conan got promoted!"

New Wii Products and Wii Imitators

2009-06-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

At E3, Microsoft debuted its new rival to the Wii, called Natal for the xbox 360 that is similar to the Wii that it is interactive, but it uses a motion sensitive camera instead of something you wear. Nintendo then came out with a new version of theirs as well, which is called the Wii Vitality sensor, which detects your stress levels.

Twitter News

2009-06-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

A new, apparently more efficient alternative to twitterberry for blackberries, called ubertwitter, has gotten a lot of praise recently. You can do everything you could do with twitterberry, and more. Its said to be easier to post photos and you can also attach maps so people can know where exactly you are posting your tweets from. You can also disable this feature if you don't want people to know where you are all the time.
Also, Good magazine has a new feature where you can view many of their data charts and pictures from things in the magazine on flickr, along with other things that are put in the magazine as a sample.

Pre Updates & Glowing Monkeys. Wonderful

2009-06-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

Verizon has said that it will now be carrying the palm pre, which is a surprise to many who thought its sole carrier was Sprint. Because of this, it seems that Verizon's stock has suddenly rose and Sprint's suddenly dropped. Another update about the pre is that it will actually be able to sync up to itunes. However, many6 suspect that Apple will find a way to block the pre's access to this.

Also, Japanese engineers have stated that5 thery have geneetically engineered monkeys to glow. For real. They took marmosets and when exposed to ultraviolet light, their feet glow. As you can see, we use the technology of today for extremely useful purposes.

Twitter TV

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Twitter has teamed up with a production company to create a reality series to track down tweeting celebrities. This has caused much upset among celebrities who tweet, including infamous tweeter Ashton Kutcher, who says that, "Its all fun and games until someone gets stalked."

Also, an artist downloaded an Iphone app for fingerpainting that landed him the cover of the New Yorker. The artist, Jorge Colombo promises a new cover every week.

Search Wihtout a Warrant Legal?

2009-05-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, if you own a cordless phone, a wireless router, remote car door opener, or even a cell phone, the FCC can search your home with out a warrant. According to the Communications Act of 1934 the FCC has the right to search your home without a warrant to check if you are transmitting unprotected frequencies.

Also, Youtube just released the statistic that around 20 hours of footage is being uploaded to the site every minute. Other sites are boasting they get more footage per minute, but its still pretty impressive.

New Ghostbusters

2009-05-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

A new Ghostbusters movie is coming out with a lot of alumnai from the first movies, like Dan Akroid, Sigourney Weaver, and Bill Murray. The movie is said to be centered around a new generation of Ghostbusteres taking over the business. Its said start filming this winter.

Also, the people from Blu-Ray are trying to develop 3D technology that wouldn't require those cheap red and white glasses but instead the nice ones who get in theatres. However it would require a 3D compatible TV.

Next Generation Iphone Rumors

2009-05-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

The next generation of the Iphone is rumored to be released on July 17. New features include a camcorder, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a built in FM transmitter, digital compass, and a 32 GB hard drive. It will be listed under the same price as the current Iphone.

The television show Robot Chicken is now collaborating with Spore, to create a downloadable game as part of Spore Galactic Adventure.

New Guitar Hero

2009-05-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Three new versions of Guitar Hero are coming out: Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero. Guitar Hero 5 has features such as being able to drop in and out of songs and change players, instruments, and difficulty levels while playing. Band Hero is basically a family-friendly version of the game and DJ Hero actually has a turn table with buttons on it and mainly focuses on genres like hip hop and electronica.

Also, Manny Ramirez of the L.A. Dodgers was suspended for fifty games for using performance enhancing drugs. He had just signed a 25 million dollar contract and because of his suspension will probably lose 7.7 million dollars of his salary.

Paying for Online Content? Not So Much Murdoch

2009-05-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

Rupert Murdoch and his company the News Corporation are trying to get people to have to pay for online content that they read. Murdoch has a stake in Myspace and Hulu, but doesn't seem to be having much luck at the whole making people pay thing.
Also, the new Kindle has been announced called the Kindle DX, that is larger and has a bigger screen than the old one. It auto-rotates and has a lot more memory space. It's listed at $489.

Sorry, the Pictures Won't Go Onto the Page

2009-05-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

An Imax movie is being made of the trip some astronauts will take up to the Hubble telescope. Not only will it be in Imax, but it will be in 3D. The movie will be called Hubble 3D and is scheduled to come out in the spring of 2010.
Also, the Webby Awards winners were announced, with Jimmy Fallon winning person of the year. Trent Reznor won artrist of the year for letting his fans download the album for free before it was released, and Sarah Silverman won bets actress for her Matt Damon video. Twitter won with break-out of the year, and G4 won for bets mobile entertainment site. Congrats to all the winners!

Best-selling Smart Phone of the First Quaretr of the Year Is....

2009-05-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

It was announced that the best selling smart phone of the first quarter of 2009 is the Blackberry Curve. The Iphone came in second, followed by the Blackberry Storm, the Blackberry Pearl, and the T-Mobile G1.
The white house has officially created their own facebook, twitter, and myspace pages. The pages are supposed to help sort out information, while also helping people, like how the white house twitter page gives links to accurate information about the swine flu. we'll see how well that works out for them.

Free TV and Phones

2009-05-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

Disney has made a deal with Hulu that their ABC shows will be able to be viewed on the site. Shows like Lost and Grey's Anatomy will be able to be viewed as well. Disney is said to be getting 30% of the income of the site. However other Disney owned channels will not be available, like Disney Channel and ESPN.

Also Palm is offering free palm pre's to people who are willing to say their opinions about the phone on sites like Twitter and Facebook. The select few will get the phone and service free for six months.

New PSP

2009-05-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Facebook's chief privacy officer is rumored to leave Facebook. He has not confirmed this, but has said that he may need to take a leave of absence while he campaigns for Attorney General of California in 2010.

Also, the new PSP relase is soon, and it is rumored to be called the PSP Go. It would no longer use drives and discs and would instead have downloaded contact.

Iphone News

2009-04-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

News has leaked that instead of Apple making an Iphone with Verizon, Windows is making a deal with Verizon to develop an Iphone type cellular device that would run on Windows mobile. It would have many of the same features as the Iphone, so if you like lamer rip-offs of the Iphone this might be for you.
Also, a Youtube video has been released of someone playing World of Warcraft on an Iphone, and people speculate that there is an app for the Iphone of WOW. Also, developers of WOW have let the game be released to more modes of viewing. Nerds and Nick Bell rejoice.

Holograms are Cool

2009-04-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Verizon is working out a deal with Apple to be a distributor of Iphones once AT&T's exclusive contract runs out. Verizon is already selling Iphones in Europe, but officials of both Apple and Verizon aren't making any statements.
Also, now GE is claiming to have developed a technology that would have the content of 100 DVDs on one disc. Suppsoedly they are using holographic technology, but thy are still trying to develop a way to mass produce these discs in a cheap, efficient way.

Myspace is going extinct. Any Takers?

2009-04-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Myspace is being abandoned by its officials. Even Tom is leaving the company! However rumor has it that a former facebook exec Owen Van Natta will be taking over.
Also, Apple's Steve Jobs is said to return after leaving for having pancreatic cancer all the way back in 2004. So, now he's back. And people are happy. Yayyy!!

New Ninja Turtles

2009-04-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

The founders of the illegal download site "The Pirate Bay" were recently found guilty of copyright infringement and could face up to a year in jail. However now the lawyers are trying to call a mistrial, because supposedly the judge had ties to pro-copyright organizations.
Also, plans are set in motion to make a live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The film is supposed to focus more on the turtles origins. Friday was the series' 25th anniversary, and to celebrate the Empire State Building lit itself up in green light.

The Billionth App

2009-04-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

It was predicted that Apple will sell its 1,000,000,000th app early on April 23. the person who downloads it got an ipod touch, a macbook pro time capsule, and a $10,000 itunes gift card. They also found that Crash Bandicoot is the most downloaded, paid-for app. Which makes sense, considering Crash Bandicoot is god.
Blue-Ray is showing mercy on people who chose the wrong format, and is allowing people to trade in their HD-DVD discs for blue-Ray discs of the same movies.

2009-04-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

People are buzzing about Susan Boyle, a 47 year old woman who tried out for Britain's Got Talent, who's performance was so surprising she is now a Youtube star and many are requesting she make her own album. the battle between Ashton Kutcher and CNN has finally ended with Ashton winning. The battle was to see who would first make it to 1,000,000 followers and whoever won would donate 10,000 mosquito nets to people in Africa. There is also a website called namechk, where you can type in your name and it tells you what social networkign sites you are registered on.

2009-04-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

On June 8th, Apple will hold a conference where it is rumored that the new version of the Iphone will be released. Some new additions are that it will be motion sensitive, and there will be a hand held camcorder in it. Also, the Playstation 3 has come out at a selling price of $399 which many think is too overpriced in this economy. Lastly, the hand held reading device called the Kindle, was found to be shut off if Amazon thinks you're being too picky and returning too many things, as happened to a man recently. He eventually got it turned back on after arguing that all of the things he returned were defective.

hamsters and birds in technology

2009-04-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

The residents of a town In England banded together to thwart a Google Street car with a camera on top because they thought it was an invasion of their privacy.
A new website that models Twitter was ste up called Flutter, that has users make status updates like Twitter, only they are limited to 26 characters.
People from MIT developed a wheel for hamsters that generates power the more the hamster runs on it. Also a website now shows you the statistics on topics that are searched on Wikipedia. The site is called Wikirank.

Twitter, Ipods, and Youtube

2009-04-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Twitter was hacked by two teenagers recently putting unwanted tweets on people's pages using "worms". One of the teenagers Mikey, who is only seventeen, said he did it to "show the flaws in it's infrastructure". Way to go Mikey.
In Korean Youtube, the government disabled user accounts so that they could monitor what the users looked at and commented on. However, if a user switched their country to anything other than Korea in their preferences, they could avoid the whole thing completely. Also, it was fond out that the new ipod shuffle only costs $21.77 and they are selling it for 300% more.

Code Cracked

2009-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Realizing that high speed internet is pricey, especially considering today's economy, the FCC is trying to make broadband internet available at cheap prices for everyone. In the bigger perspective, America's internet speed is already low compared to the rest of the world. America's internet runs on three megabits per second, while Australia runs on 100. In short, we have some catching up to do.
A viewer of the show Fringe cracked the code that of images that flashes before commercial breaks. Each image corresponds with a letter of the alphabet, and the image sequence usually has something to do whatever the show is about that week.

Rumors and Movies Leaked

2009-04-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

A full length pirated version of the new film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was recently leaked onto the internet before the film was released. A reviewer for a Fox Entertainment blog downloaded the film, and hen made a review about it shortly after. His work fired him and saying that the company did not condone that type of behavior. Sony is also in talk with Youtube about releasing some of their full length films on the site, such as Spiderman 2. Also, a new version of the Iphone is said to come out with new features such as FM radio, and some Imovie-like features to go along with its new camera.

Video Game News (Sorry, photos still not working)

2009-04-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Konami is releasing a video game version of Saw, a horror survival game based off of the film. the company hopes it will have as much success as it did with its previous horror survival game, Silent Hill. Speaking of Silent Hill, Nintendo Power5 intends to release a new version of the game called Silent Hill: Shattered Dreams. The producers claim that is not a remake, but a reimagining. Finally, with Sony experiencing its most successful sales this past year, executives have high hopes for the sales of the PS3.

The Feed- April 1, 2009

2009-04-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

The first headline today discussed how Nintendo was rated last in a list of eco-friendly electronic companies. On a scale of 0-10, they were rated a 0.8, saying that they do virtually nothing to try and be green. In other gaming news, the announcement of the next Jak and Daxter game which will be available for the PS2 and the PSP. Also, the Wii preview for the nintendo game Punch-Out was released, saying it was basically like the game form the 1980's, only with a Wii controller.
Sony reduced the price of the PS2 in an effort to increase hardware sales, and according to many, it probbaly will. A new game form Razer, called HellRazer: Triple Helix was announced to be released in fall of 2010. The game features a motion-sensoring controller called the anaconda, which leaves many wondering if controller will really inhance the experience.
In celebration of April Fool's Day, an olde game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, raised the price of the horse armor, which is known to be virtually useless from $2,50, to $5.00, while making all of the other DLC half-price.

Episode 173- The CommandN

2009-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

On this episode, with Amber hosting solo, they talk about Twitter, and how it proposes to make money. They already have advertisements in the corners of their pages, but now they are making applications that give twitter services, even a Google-earth like twitter application. also, the car insurance company, Geico, plans to use the YouTube star "Numa Numa Boy" in some of their commercials. They also touch on the new outrage over the enw facebook layout. The company has heard over a million complaints from users and are planning to tweak it, including adding real-time updates and using other filtering techniques.
In an interview with Chris Campbell, they discuss a new way to make a video file size smaller, without making the video display size smaller. Apparently, it involves only Quick Time Pro or similar software. A viewer gives a good review of a home media center manager called Plex, similar to Apple Tv, that runs on Mac Os 10. Lastly, they talk about a website called StillTasty.com, where you can type in any food you want and find out how long it will be good to eat.