Apple, Electronics, Technology

Verizon Promoting The MiFi iPad?

0 Comments 10 March 2010

Though the iPad is only compatible with AT&T’s 3G network in the U.S., that hasn’t stopped Verizon from telling its employees to pitch its own data plans, shared via Wi-Fi, to prospective buyers of Apple’s new hardware.

Calling the nation’s largest wireless provider an “eternal optimist,” Engadget obtained a copy of an internal memo from Verizon, which calls the impending launch of the iPad an “opportunity” for the carrier to court new customers. Verizon salespeople could convince customers to buy a Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad and connect it to the Verizon 3G network with a device like the MiFi.

The company memo notes that the 3G-compatible iPad costs an extra $130, and claims the device will not be directly sold by AT&T. Since sales, customer service and billing will all be through Apple, Verizon believes it could convince some customers to use its data plans instead.

“Why pay more for the 3G version & get 3G service on an overloaded network with limited coverage?” the memo reads.

But a Verizon customer using the MiFi device to tether to its 3G network would pay about $60 per month for a 5GB data-only plan, a rate much higher than the $29.99 unlimited offered without contract by AT&T. And at Verizon’s price, a data-only plan would exceed the $130 premium for 3G connectivity in just a matter of months.

Prior to the iPad’s unveiling, rumors persisted for months that Verizon was a potential partner for data on the device. However, it is rumored that AT&T outbid Verizon by offering cheaper data plans without contract. AT&T’s iPad plans will also offer free access to AT&T’s nationwide hotspots.

Celebs, Drama, Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan wants $100M over E-Trade Ad

0 Comments 10 March 2010

Lindsay Lohan is suing E-Trade, saying the company is trading on her image with a TV ad that debuted during the Super Bowl and features a “milkaholic” baby named Lindsay (below).
Splash News

“And that milkaholic Lindsay wasn’t over?” the baby girl asks him suspiciously. “Lindsay?” the boy replies, just before a baby girl sticks her head into the frame and slurs, “Milk-a-what?”

Lohan’s lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, said the actress has the same single-name recognition as Oprah or Madonna. “Many celebrities are known by one name only, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit,” Ovadia said.

“They used the name Lindsay,” Ovadia said. “They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.” Ovadia wants an injunction to force the spot off the air, and the Lindsay camp wants every last copy of the commercial. Chris Brown, a spokesman for Grey Group, which produced the spot, is throwing cold milk on the controversy, saying it “just used a popular baby name that happened to be the name of someone on the account team.”

Ovadia said E-Trade has violated Lohan’s rights under New York state civil-rights law and used her “name and characterization” in business without paying her or getting her approval. The lawyer said that since the spot was seen by hundreds of millions of people watching the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics finals, the firm has garnered great profits.

She says Lohan is owed $50 million in exemplary damages, plus another $50 million in compensatory damages. E-Trade could not be reached for comment.

Disney, Movie Trailers, Movies, Videos

TRON: LEGACY Trailer

0 Comments 09 March 2010

Light cycles, laser discs and vintage arcade games — everything old is new again in “Tron Legacy,” this December’s 3-D sequel to the classic 1982 science-fiction film, “Tron.” After the film’s first official trailer opened wide in theaters last weekend, Disney has released it online this week, so viewers at home can witness the same frenetic techno-punk energy that fans have anticipated since the project was first announced at Comic-Con in 2008.

The trailer begins as “Tron” veteran Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) explains to young Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) that he’s received a signal from Sam’s missing father, Kevin (Jeff Bridges), the computer-programming protagonist of the first film. The information leads Sam to his father’s old arcade, a place that hasn’t seen action in 20 years. There, Sam discovers Kevin’s secret workroom and is inadvertently drawn into a digital world filled with vicious competitions and equally ruthless competitors. Wearing the white-and-blue uniform that his father wore nearly 30 years earlier, Sam eventually encounters Kevin, a broken man far removed from his heroic and youthful appearance in “Tron.”

Weeks ago, the “Tron Legacy” trailer premiered at special 3-D screenings around the country as the culmination of a viral campaign initiated on the Web site FlynnLives.com. The trailer, which offers the first extensive look at characters played by Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and more, is playing before Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” on 3-D, IMAX and regular screens.

In January, “Tron Legacy” director Joseph Kosinski told MTV News that the film’s 3-D approach has less in common with James Cameron’s immersive “Avatar” than it does with “The Wizard of Oz,” in the sense that 3-D effects will be relegated to the Tron world rather than the film’s reality-based scenes.

“When you make a movie, you can only make the movie that you would want to see,” Kosinski said of his approach to the sequel. “For me, it was taking what I loved about the first film, which was the design elements that Syd Mead and Moebius [a.k.a. Jean Giraud] did, which I feel is timeless, and extrapolate it forward 28 years. We’re saying in the world of the computer, it’s been thousands of years and it has evolved.”

“Tron Legacy” debuts nationwide on December 17, 2010.

Movies, Videos

Watch Alice In Wonderland Online – HERE!

0 Comments 09 March 2010

Are you ready to watch Alice In Wonderland?  Well, not the new one, this one is over 100 years old and it is the very first film based on Lewis Carroll’s classic.  The British Film Institute has restored as much as has survived of the first, 1903 silent film adaptation and posted it online. It may not have the modern special effects of Burton’s recent film, but if you’re as terrified by adults in bizarre animal costumes as I am, it’s actually far creepier:

Celebs

Sandra Bullock’s Touching Acceptance Speech

0 Comments 09 March 2010

Sandra Bullock won her first Oscar on Sunday night for her heartfelt performance in “The Blind Side” – and the actress gave an emotional speech to match.

“Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” the humble star began, then addressing the four actresses also nominated for Best Actress.

“Gabby, I love you so much. You are exquisite,” she said to Gabourey Sidibe. “You are beyond words to me. Carey [Mulligan], your grace and your elegance and your beauty and your talent makes me sick. Helen [Mirren], I feel like we are family through family and I don’t have the words to express just what I think of you. And Meryl [Streep], you know what I think of you and you are such a good kisser.”  After thanking others who worked on “The Blind Side,” Sandra praised mothers everywhere – including her own late mother.

“I would like to thank what this film is about for me which are the moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from. Those moms and parents never get thanked,” she said. “I, in particular, failed to thank one.

“So… if I can take this moment to thank Helga B. for not letting me ride in cars with boys until I was 18 because she was right,” Sandra continued. “I would’ve done what she said I was gonna do. For making me practice every day when I got home. Piano, ballet, whatever it is I wanted to be. She said to be an artist, you had to practice every day, and for reminding her daughters that there’s no race, no religion, no class system, no color, nothing, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love. So, to that trailblazer, who allowed me to have that. And this.”

But the comedienne ended her speech with a laugh.  “I thank you so much for this opportunity that I share with these extraordinary women and my lover Meryl Streep,” Sandra said.

Funny

Coconut Astronaut Squirrels!

0 Comments 09 March 2010

This is a pair of squirrels playing outerspace in the park with a couple of coconut helmets on their heads. YOU TWO ARE CRACKING MY SHIT UP!!

Miss Roberts, 46, leaves out two coconuts a week and suspends them on pieces of string from her washing line and watches her furry friends dig in.
She said: “The first time I saw them feeding I nearly died laughing, they looked like a pair of astronauts and even now I can not stop chuckling every time I see them.

“I make a large hole in the coconut so they can get to the flesh. They cannot get enough of them.

Is that not the cutest thing? Sure squirrels are glorified tree-rats and love to dive in front of my car, but they also play space. Now, are you thinking what I’m thinking? MAYBE PRIMATES AREN’T OUR CLOSEST RELATIVES AFTER ALL! Hello, operator? Get me the Smithsonian.