If you’ve seen the movie Pitch Perfect then you’ve already fallen in love with actress Anna Kendrick and her unexpected and infectious Bellas audition song featuring only her voice and a yellow cup. The simple song is currently the most popular track available for download on iTunes off the movie’s soundtrack. It even managed to climb Billboard’s Hot 100 list. The song is so hot that an extended, more produced version of the track has been made and soon it will find its way to radio stations this month. Though the remixed version strips away the track’s inherit a capella nature, it still manages to delight. The radio version is called “When I’m Gone” and you can preview it in its entirety in the box embedded above. And if you still haven’t seen Pitch Perfect, what are you waiting for?!
Category Archives: Article
Kanye West’s Pasttell clothing line makes an appearence, yet still nowhere in sight
So here’s a long story made short.
Rapper Kanye West first introduced his concept clothing line called Pastelle in Spring 2006. Over three years later, we still do not have any definitive information about it. Although it appears Kanye has worn nunmerous peices from what is now called the Past-Tell line, not a single article of clothing or accessories have been released yet. According to its Wikipedia page, Kanye has made it known that “The first Pastelle Clothing store will open up late 2009 in Chicago — followed by the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco launch.” The website Past.Tell.Museum has been idle ever since its creation.
Today the blog The Black Nouveau has “sourced” three photos of what may be future Pasttell jackets and shirts. As the official announcement of the clothing line keeps getting pushed year after year, I’m skeptical if Pasttell will ever become a reality. Now, though, with Kanye taking a break from touring, maybe he will find some time to fulfill the promise he made three years ago.
[Via The Black Nouveau; Wiki]
[Thanks, Corey Z.]
Brian Austin Green talks about potential Terminator:TSCC comeback
IGN sat down with actor Brian Austin Green to discuss his new role in Smallville and his past role as Derek Reese in the brilliant and greatly missed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles series.
I talk to [Sarah Connor Executive Producer] James Middleton all the time and I really hope that it returns. And I know that a lot of people from Warner Bros., all the way through, really wish and hope for the same thing. And the end of the day, we have some of the greatest fans ever. I so appreciate the people that are fighting as hard as they are to bring the show back. And of course, I would love for it to happen. Ultimately, if it doesn’t, I’m also really proud of the fact that we have two amazing seasons of television on DVD and Blu-ray, that people can watch from start to finish. I’m proud of every episode. I can watch the whole thing and say, “Yeah, I was a part of something that was really big and really much bigger than television is used to.” Maybe it just wasn’t the right time… But everyone did their work and it paid off. It’s because of the fans that it went two seasons, it really is. So it was a joint effort and it was kind of one of those sort of fun, global crossovers between us making the show and the fans watching the show. There was this really large group of people that made it happen and we made two amazing seasons so far. Let’s hope for the best and keep our fingers crossed for more… And if not, we can still be happy with what we have.
Green also talks about the possibility of a straight-to-DVD TV movie that ties up loose ends from the Season 2 finale. Like Thomas Dekker (he played John Conner) said before him, Green said that “there’s a really good possibility of it happening.” He goes on to say “I thought we really set ourselves up for something unique and incredible, if we get the chance to come back and finish it. And hopefully we will. .. I think it can end up being a really amazing finish to it all.” I whole-heartedly agree. Raise your glasses, readers: here’s to The Sarah Connor Chronicles making a well-deserved comeback to network TV!
[Via IGN]
Megan Fox is hosting the season premiere of SNL
Life and Style picked up the scoop from “an insider close to the star” that Megan Fox will be the host of the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. The source says, “Megan is psyched to have gotten this opportunity. She has a lot of surprises in store for the audience. This is the perfect opportunity for her to show off her comedic skills, as she’s launching her new movie Jennifer’s Body [on Sept. 18].” The source also hinted that she will star alongside funnyman Andy Samberg in the season’s first SNL Digital Short. I am so excited, I cannot wait for–…and I just jizzed in my pants. Be sure to catch the 34th season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 26 on NBC.
[Via IGN]
CBS & PepsiCo to make video-embedded ads a reality
The future has arrived, people. Video advertisements will start to populate your magazines this fall!* In a joint venture with PepsiCo, CBS will be promoting its fall TV season lineup in the September 18th issue of Entertainment Weekly with an interactive video advertisement. More specifically, the ad will promote the CBS Monday prime-time lineup and PepsiCo’s PepsiMax soda. They call it “Monday to the Max.” This issue will feature the first video ad to appear in print, said George Schweitzer, CBS marketing president.
The battery-powered advertisement is manufactured by LA-based Americhip. CNET has the details on the technology: “the screen, which is 2.7 millimeters thick, has a 320×240 resolution. The battery lasts for about 65 to 70 minutes, and can be recharged, believe it or not, with a mini USB cord–there’s a jack on the back of it. The screen, which uses thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) technology, is enforced by protective polycarbonate. It’s a product that has been in development at Americhip for about two years.”
Advertising Age got the scoop on how it’s going to work: “When Entertainment Weekly readers open the magazine to the ad pages, they will see a small screen flicker on and start to load a video. A brief segment featuring actors from “The Big Bang Theory” will explain how to use the player, while talking about features from Entertainment Weekly and the different video selections a reader can choose. By pressing one of five different buttons, readers can watch a video montage of [the CBS Monday lineup programs].
*The insert advertisement will only appear to EW subscribers in the New York and Los Angeles areas. Subscribers from elsewhere and newsstands will receive regular print versions of the ad. So if you want to be one of the first to witness the potential future of advertising, find a friend who is a subscriber to EW in those areas…or move and become one!
Schweitzer: “It was axiomatic: If you ran an ad in TV Guide, people would watch your program. Not anymore.” Does this new ad tech seem gimicky? Yes. Could it potentially be the future of ads? Who knows. Although no pricing was specified, I am sure the decision to use video technology on a battery-powered chip in a magazine did not come cheap. Let this first try be a test run for marketing companies. I am interested to see if such a promotional ploy could work. Be on the lookout this September and decide for yourself.
[Via Gizmodo; CNET; Advertising Age]
Study: Moviegoers have synchronized blinks, miss up to 15 min. of footage
A recent study has gathered interesting findings of people’s blinking habits and when they blink during a movie. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found that “the flow of visual information to the brain is halted by up to 450 milliseconds with every blink, and we lose up to 6 seconds of information every minute.” New Scientist relays this information in layman’s terms: “This means moviegoers who sit through a 150-minute film have their eyes shut for up to 15 minutes.” It was also found that people tend to blink in unison during the same parts of a movie. A researcher noted that “”This is the first study to demonstrate that blinks are excellently coordinated during video playback.” After several tests, the researchers went on to conclude that these synchronized blinks occur during “non-critical” moments, so at the end of an action scene or as Gizmodo humorously noted, “whenever Megan Fox is off screen.”
[Via Gizmodo; New Scientist]
Dr. Dre + HP = revamped “digital music ecosystem”
Computer-maker HP, musical genius Dr. Dre, and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine have announced a joint collaboration to make audio sound better, from what you hear on your computer to the earbuds or headphones you use on the go.
Iovine to CNET News: “We have to fix the entire chain. Our position is to go to all the sources and try to improve sound and educate people…We can’t put anything weak in the line. Whoever puts out things that sound bad shouldn’t be as cool as something that sounds great.” Iovine added: “I just want our product to sound better. The record business committed many, many mistakes in the last 10 years, and I’m right in there. One of them was letting its product get degraded. It’s one thing to let it get stolen, it’s another to allow it to be degraded because then you really don’t have a chance…video games and TV quality are getting better and the quality of our work is getting lower. If that happens, then music will become disposable. That’s something we can fix.”
This is very interesting news for the music industry. In today’s digital age of the MP3 format, iPods, and computers, it is very important that the sound of music quality does not disintegrate. The iPod earbuds that ship with every iPod, for example, do not produce good enough sound for the listener. Also, many computers are not constructed with speakers than can boast the proper bass and sound required for MP3s to be played at their potential. In the end, it is all about music being played the way they were meant to be heard and I believe that this alliance between HP, Dre, and Interscope will lead the way in incorporating premium sound capability in all mediums from MP3 players to PC laptops. Sources spilled to CNET News that “HP will release premium-priced laptops, headsets, and software featuring the “Beats by Dr. Dre” brand sometime this fall.”
[Via CNET]
Offical Windows 7 upgrade chart, are you kidding?
This is unbelievable. It’s actually quite obnoxious. It is the official Windows 7 upgrade chart from Microsoft. Moving or upgrading from one OS to another is supposed to be an easy task. One company that gets this right is Apple. When a new version of OS X comes out, a Mac customer simply goes to a store, picks up a single copy of the new OS, and downloads it to his or her computer, hastle-free. One company that gets it completely wrong is Microsoft. To start things off on a bad note, Microsoft stocks the shelves with more than one copy of a new OS (usually more than 4 versions). To make things more confusing, they create a chart like the one posted above. An upgrade chart is supposed to be helpful and aid a PC customer in the upgrade process. What this chart does is make things so much more confusing and aggrevating; it presses the fact that there is more than 1 single version of Windows 7 and Windows Vista and it makes things less clear with terms like “custom install” and “in-place upgrade.” This chart contains 66 different senarios to choose from; also, it “includes an entire row dedicated to a product that doesn’t exist: Windows Vista Starter 64-bit edition (Vista Starter is available in 32-bit only)”–that’s blasphemy!
So, what is there to do? Leave it to ZDNet’s Ed Bott to clean up the chart and make it readable. He completed a revised and more sensible chart in about an hour. If you are thinking about upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 7 this October, take a look after the break for Bott’s chart. Microsoft, get your act together! You attempted to “wow” us with Vista, and that was a disaster (initially). Now you are trying to pick yourself back up with the positively reviewed Windows 7. Releasing more than one version of an OS and creating an upgrade chart that makes matters worse is bad, very bad. A confused customer is not the end goal. Shake it off, and let’s look forward to Windows 7 releasing without a hitch this October.
[Via Engadget; ZDNet] Continue reading Offical Windows 7 upgrade chart, are you kidding?
Kid Cudi & Keri Hilson cover Complex Magazine
Musicians Kid Cudi and Keri Hilson cover the August/September issue of Complex Magazine.
Click here for the Kid Cudi interview. Click here for the Keri Hilson interview.
Check out the gallery below for additional images from the mag photo shoot.
Analyst fondles new Apple tablet
Today Barrons is reporting that one lucky analyst has actually seen and handled the hyped and rumored forthcoming Apple tablet device. From the article…
One veteran analyst who has seen first-hand a prototype slate-style computer from Apple says the device could be announced in September for release in November.
Whatever the exact dates, the computer industry is so anxious to see what Apple introduces that it has held off on competing designs until Apple CEO Steve Jobs gives the device his final blessing. “It’s close enough now to a final design that in Asia, there’s no other product in the waiting room or in the bullpen,” said the analyst. “There are dozens of ODMs [original device makers] making products for Lenovo and other PC makers that are all waiting to see what the Apple product is.”
The new device, which may retail for $699 to $799, could fulfill a variety of multimedia functions currently taken up by a gaggle of individual consumer electronics devices. It could be a home media center, somewhat like the current Apple TV, and it could be a gaming machine, opines Jon Peddie, head of Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon, Calif. “Gaming will be a big part of what this is about,” he adds.
The machine impresses with its display of hi-def video content, says the veteran analyst, who asked not to be identified. “It’s better than the average movie experience, when you hold this thing in your hands.”
…
A second source confirmed to me that news of the new device “is all over the supply chain in Asia.” The biggest question at this point, and the least understood by anyone outside Apple, is whether the company’s App Store will be the exclusive distribution point for software for this device.
As Steve Jobs says, it’s the software that defines these things.
So, what do we gather from this? A September announcement, a November release, a $699-$799 price point, media center and gaming capabilities, and computer manufacturers have put production on hold until official specs and other information is released. More rumors added to the spinning, gigantic rumor mill. What do you have up your sleeve, Mr. Jobs? September cannot come any sooner.
The Onion: Apple releases the iPhone 3GI
“I am proud today to introduce to those who really, truly deserve it, our most incredible iPhone yet,” announced Apple CEO Steve Jobs, extending his seemingly empty left palm toward the eagerly awaiting crowd. “Not only is this our lightest and slimmest model ever, but as any truly savvy Apple customer can clearly see, it’s also the most handsome product we’ve ever designed.” …
“Oh my God, I can’t believe how much faster you can get online with this,” said Delaney, who exited the store holding a cupped hand up to her ear and yelling into her wrist about how wonderful the new phone was. “The reception is so clear, and you can pretty much get a signal no matter where you go.”
The Onion at its finest. Click here to read the full article. It’s genius.
[Article and Images via The Onion]
Bill Gates on Chrome OS, Natal
This week Bill Gates sat down with CNET for an engaging interview about physics lectures that Gates is releasing for the public to view for free. The Richard Feynman lectures are very interesting; they “take notions such as gravity and explain how they work and the broad implications they have in understanding the ways of the universe.” Although this is quite intriguing, the tech-related goodness forms near the end of the interview when Gates is asked to spill his thoughts on Google’s latest announcement concerning their Chrome OS.
Gates: “…there’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there, and packaged in different ways, and booted in different ways. So I don’t know anything in particular about what Google is doing. But, in some ways I’m surprised people are acting like there’s something new. I mean, you’ve got Android running on netbooks; it’s got a browser in it. In any case, you should make them be concrete about what they’re doing. It is kind of a typical thing. When Google is doing anything it gets this–the more vague they are, the more interesting it is.”
Later Gates is asked about his views on the current state of Microsoft, a company he left in the midst of a Vista crisis and a potential Windows 7 comeback. Gates says he recently visited the MS Cambridge labs and sees a bright future for Project Natal. Interestly, he lets on that the Natal camera technology will cover more than video games with the Xbox 360; it will evolve the computer interface as well. Exciting stuff. Brilliant man. Click the source link above to read the interview in its entirety.