First look: New Chrome Webstore app: PostPost brings awesome news reader to your screen (don’t miss this!)

If you’ve seen Paper.li or Flipboard, you have seen hints of what PostPost is doing, but it takes you into Facebook, among your other networks, and shows you the content in a whole new way. Very visual, great for big screens. You gotta see this, I get a first demo.

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New ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ Trailer Brings The Alien Onslaught

One of the most anticipated films of the year, and another entry to the quickly expanding alien invasion genre, is that of Jonathan Liebesman’s Battle: Los Angeles. Mixing elements of District 9 and Black Hawk Down, but playing with a much larger scale battlefield, Battle: Los Angeles is set to take moviegoers to the front lines of a key location during the world invasion.

The film has seen two trailers and numerous posters, reminiscing on real life UFO sightings throughout history, but each has only shown slight reveals of the aliens and their tech, leaving the rest to your imagination. As refreshing as it’s been to have not been shown all in a theatrical movie trailer, the third Battle: Los Angeles trailer has just released and it presents a whole new look at the film and what it entails.

The latest Battle: Los Angeles trailer focuses on the action and horror as we get up close and personal during the intense and action-heavy beginning of the alien onslaught. We also finally get some decent screentime for the film’s star, Aaron Eckhart. Watch and enjoy:

I am completely sold on this movie. While there are quite a few shots from previous trailers and footage, there is a lot of new content in this teaser. What really works for Battle: Los Angeles is how grounded in reality it is. Even in this particular trailer, almost the entire first minute follows the characters enjoying everyday life until that first scene of the strange “meteors” hitting the battleship. The impact of that hit emanates into the feeling of anxiety watching the events unfold.

The film takes place in Los Angeles as we spend our time with a platoon of Marines fighting for survival, but in the background the aliens are attacking locations all over the planet, hence the international title of the movie being World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles (franchise alert!). The most interesting new footage unveiled with this trailer is by far the large vehicle coming out of the ground at the end, which looks quite similar to the alien mothership from District 9. That should cause some problems for the characters played by Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Lucas Till and co.

Ready to be colonized? I’m cheering for the aliens.

Share your thoughts in the comments and with us on Twitter @rob_keyes and @screenrant.

Battle: Los Angeles invades theaters on March 11, 2011.

Source: Yahoo! Movies

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CBS Brings Old West Justice to Modern San Antonio with ‘Desperado’

Exciting news for starving Western fans, CBS is aiming to combine modern crime drama with outlaw justice.

The network, along with executive producer, Anthony Zuiker is developing the upcoming series – titled Desperado.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Desperado will focus on a group of policemen in San Antonio who clean up the streets with Eastwood-style prejudice.

No casting or timeframe information is available, but with CSI veteran Anthony Zuiker producing, along with relative unknowns Matthew Weinberg and Kyle Ward, TV fans have reason to be excited.

Currently, Ward is the only writer known to be working on the show – for now.

With the notable exception of FX’s Justified, few have tried to adapt the down-home feel and shoot first attitude of 50s and 60s shows like Gunsmoke and Wanted: Dead or Alive for 21st century audiences. Justified‘s recent success on cable may have spurred CBS to give it a try on network TV.

While comparisons to Fox’s effort may be unavoidable, the two series are unlikely to share more than premise – Desperado’s CSI pedigree will probably make it lighter and more action-oriented. This may prove to be a strength rather than a weakness – after all, Steve McQueen’s character didn’t stop to ponder the subtle morality of law enforcement while aiming down a short-barrel Winchester.

Writers for the new series will have to work hard to differentiate Desperado from the other procedural crime dramas on network TV. Art direction will be equally important, since even with the Texas setting, today’s San Antonio doesn’t exactly scream OK Corral.

There’s a lot of competition out there, even within the bounds of the same network. The CSI trifecta, Blue Bloods, and the revival of Hawaii Five-O will all be competing for time slots and mindshare, to say nothing of more exotic procedurals like Criminal Minds and Medium. Fox’s new action/comedy cop show The Good Guys is based and shot in Dallas, but low ratings are leaving a second season in doubt.

Screen Rant will be watching for cast info and a timeframe for Desperado‘s pilot.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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Amazon brings Black Friday deals to the UK

November 14 2010 by admin in News |

Black Friday has become the traditional day for big discounts on shopping in the US. Now Amazon is bringing the concept to the UK.

Taking place the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday sees US retailers offer the kind of discounts that often have bargain hunters queuing up late at night to be first through the doors at opening time.

For years, those of us outside the US have looked on jealously as tech blogs excitedly talked about leaked deals on gadgets in the run up to the last Friday of November. This year will be different as Amazon is bringing the Black Friday concept to the UK. On its website, the retailer promises “Unbelievable, pinch-me-to-prove-they’re-real, Black Friday deals” which will be unveiled on Monday 22 November at www.amazon.co.uk/blackfriday.

This is the first time we’re aware of the term “Black Friday” being used in marketing in the UK, although Apple did offer modest discounts to UK customers on that day last year without actually labelling it as Black Friday. Given how competitive the retail sector is, might we see Amazon’s UK rivals like Play.com offer similar discounts? Give it a few years and maybe Brits will be celebrating Thanksgiving too.

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First look: Aweditorium brings indie music discovery to iPad (the Flipboard of music)

Thanks to Rackspace (they pay me to roam the world looking for world-changing technologies and technologists). This video was developed for Rackspace’s building43, which has a shorter version of this video if you would like to check that out:

Ever since I got my first Elton John album back in something like 1976 I have loved discovering new music. But in the age of MP3s and iTunes it just isn’t that easy.

How can you sift through a bunch of new bands you haven’t heard of before and get emotionally committed to them? It’s tough.

One year I stuck around for SXSW’s music festival and listened to a bunch of bands I hadn’t heard before. That was magical. But it’s hard to have those experiences.

Don’t tell me to go off and listen to iTunes or Spotify, either. Those are great systems if you already are in love with a band or a musician. But how do you listen through hundreds of new bands, looking for one to fall in love with?

I didn’t have a good answer until I saw Aweditorium. It was yet another example of an app that was made for iPad. Made me feel like it was magical.

It presents a grid of new artists. I hadn’t heard of a single one. You use your hand to fly through the grid. Up, down, left, right. Then you touch a band’s picture. And the music plays.

Nice. But now, what else is going on?

First, there’s a really great full-sized, high-res photo of the musician. Second, details about the musician shows up as I listen.

Finally, if the band really gets my attention, like Lissie’s “Wedding Bells” did, you can click a little icon at the bottom of the screen and see a video interview stored on YouTube. But wait, there’s more! Click HD and a music video of the band will start playing. It all looks awesome and it is awesome.

Get bored and you can hit the grid icon at the bottom right, go back to the grid, and find someone else.

Anyway, this is an app you really should download on your iPad. It’s free. Or, just watch the video to get an idea of how well this experience has been thought out. Simple, huh? But that’s the point. The iPad has changed our expectations of what apps should do. This one is a winner and I hope to see more. I call it the Flipboard of music, but that’s really unfair. Flipboard is the Aweditorium of social news.

It makes sense that this is a great app, too, because founder James Miao was the developer of thesixtyone, which was a great website for music discovery. They took what they learned on that site and started over on the iPad. Here’s a video with James that I filmed where he shows off Aweditorium.

Some things this leaves me wanting for, though:

1. I’d +love+ to see if any of my friends on Facebook were liking any of the music in this app. Imagine if a little number on each tile changed everytime another friend of yours “liked” that artist?
2. I want to go see a lot more of these bands now. I’d love to ask this app to tell me when my favorite artist was in town, so I could go and see them.
3. I want more more more. I’d love to have all sorts of music in this app, not just indie music.

These are little nits, though. This is an app I haven’t been able to turn off for hours.

What’s next? If you’re developing a great iPad app, I want to see it. scobleizer@gmail.com

UPDATE: Read what the Next Web has to say about it: gorgeous, immersive, music discovery for the iPad. MacStories says “you have to try it.”

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