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There’s still no official word on the potential live action retelling of Pinocchio, but there might be a new wrinkle to the story. To recap, the Warner Bros. project was originally going to be directed by Tim Burton with Robert Downey Jr. set to play wood carver Gepetto. Kick-Ass writer Jane Goldman was hired to rewrite a script by Bryan Fuller and then Burton dropped out. Downey, who viewed this as a real passion project, suggested his Tropic Thunder director Ben Stiller to helm the project and then we heard Stiller was actually in talks. Since then, we haven’t heard anything.

The latest news on the film relates directly to the star. It seems that not only will Downey play Gepetto, he may be playing Pinocchio too.

Bleeding Cool first reported this rumored update on the project. The details are scarce but one is that Gepetto will be considerably younger than the version we’re used to seeing in the Disney film. Meaning no old-age make up for Downey. Second, while the actor is likely to play Pinocchio, there’s no word if the performance will be motion capture or just voiceover. That decision will likely depend on whatever budget is eventually approved.

I wouldn’t expect any official greenlight on Pinocchio until Stiller’s upcoming film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, is completed. He not only directs but stars in the remake, which is out this Christmas. After a brief reel at CinemaCon in the Spring, there’s already Oscar buzz for the movie. That would add another two months of publicity and insanity to Stiller’s schedule. Plus, Downey has to shoot The Avengers 2 in early 2014. So maybe, if everything works out, this would get in front of cameras next Summer.

Do you like the idea of Stiller directing Downey in both roles?

• Ben Stiller in Talks to Direct Robert Downey, Jr. in ‘Pinocchio’
• Robert Downey Jr. Wants Ben Stiller For ‘Pinocchio’?
• Jane Goldman Writing Tim Burton’s ‘Pinocchio’ Starring Robert Downey Jr
• Leonardo DiCaprio Earned $77 Million Last Year, Leads Forbes List of Hollywood’s Highest Paid Actors
• DreamWorks Animation Announces 2009-2012 Releases
• Rain of Madness Movie Trailer

Patrick Ballesteros takes us back to the year 1983, when He-Man was still new, and imagines the various denizens of Eternia as third graders. Everyone say, "I have the power!"

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J.K. Rowling has a new book out—a book that has, in fact, been out for months. Rowling has just been unmasked as the author of the crime novel The Cuckoo's Calling, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

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This trailer for Jeff Bridges' new movie Seventh Son is relentless with the monster action. This movie adaptation of Joseph Delaney's The Spook's Apprentice looks like a less inspired Willow mixed with the new Hansel And Gretel movie. Which... could be a good thing?

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Alice in Wonderland‘s $1 billion box office take got Disney wondering which of their other animated features they could do over as live-action films. Not surprisingly, the answer has been “a lot of them.” There’s the Sleeping Beauty retelling Maleficent coming next year, and the Kenneth Branagh-directed Cinderella due out the year after that. The studio also has reinterpretations of Peter Pan and Beauty and the Beast in the works, though those aren’t quite as far along yet.

Now the next property in line for the reboot treatment is Rudyard Kipling‘s The Jungle Book, which Disney made into a movie back in 1967. Justin Marks has just been set to pen the screenplay. Hit the jump for more details.

First published in 1894, Kipling’s short story collection features (among other things) the adventures of a boy named Mowgli who loses his parents in the Indian jungle. He’s taken in by a pack of wolves, who raise him with a little help from Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. Not all of nature’s creatures are so welcoming, however; Mowgli’s enemies include Shere Khan the tiger.

The book has been in the public domain for decades, and has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times over the years. In fact, Disney’s take isn’t even the only Jungle Book movie in the works right now. Warner Bros. put their own version into motion a little while ago with Steve Kloves (Harry Potter) writing.

Marks is so far the only name attached to Disney’s Jungle Book. The project is still in the very early stages, and as such has no director, producers, or stars on board. Marks’ credits include Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li and the Universal sci-fi project The Raven (not to be confused with Relativity’s Edgar Allan Poe-inspired The Raven). In addition, he previously worked with Disney on an early draft of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[Source: THR]

• Josh Trank’s ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ Adaptation Adds ‘Hanna’ Screenwriter
• ‘Harry Potter’ Screenwriter Steve Kloves to Write and Direct ‘The Jungle Book’ For Warner Bros., While Disney Picks Up Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Graveyard Book’
• Gore Verbinski To Produce Futuristic Jungle Book Movie
• Not Dead Yet: New Screenwriter For Disney’s ‘King of the Elves;’ He-Man Reboot Still Gestating at Sony
• Rod Lurie to Direct ‘Borderline’
• Mark Wahlberg To Officially Produce Non-Poe ‘The Raven;’ Ricardo De Montreuil To Direct ‘Lowriders’

Nu finns Filmåret i siffror för 2012. Helt nya statistikområden presenteras, bland annat antalet debuterande långfilmsregissörer, siffror för biografernas genreutbud samt finansieringsstatistik som visar hur en svensk films snittbudget ser ut.

For the latest entry in his Illustrated Aliens series, Andy Martin takes us to Planet Six, where his part-claymation, part-hand-drawn aliens find themselves engaged in a small argument that escalates quickly into a violent battle. The clay will fly.

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Trailern för The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug togs emot med blandade reaktioner. Själv tänkte jag på att det såg ut som att den var helt animerad. Värst var Legolas. Har Orlando Bloom åldrats med fasansfull hastighet och är nu rynkig som ett katrinplommon? Plötsligt drabbad av svår acne? Vad kan annars förklara att alvens ansikte är helt utslätat med lysblå ögon så det ser ut som att han är från en videosekvens i ett dataspel? Och vad gör han förresten där? Legolas förekommer ju inte alls i boken The Hobbit.

Men det är inte uppdykandet av Legolas plastiga nylle som orsakat nätkommentarer lika giftiga som Shelobs gadd.

I trailern fick vi för första gången se den nya karaktären Tauriel, en av skogsalverna, spelad av Evangeline Lilly (Lost). En välbehövlig kvinnokaraktär, kan tyckas då det inte finns en enda kvinnlig karaktär i boken The Hobbit (den enda som ens nämns är Bilbos mamma Belladonna Took).

Är det en god nyhet med en ny påhittad kvinnlig karaktär? Näe, så fan heller! Anser en skara kränkta Tolkien-fans på diverse forum, fans som drabbats av partiell minnesförlust vad gäller andra stora förändringar gjorts vad gäller karaktärer och story tidigare.

Vi plockar några av de nätkommentarer som följde på nyheten om Tauriel.

»Please tell me this is some kind of a joke – please!!!«

»If this is a joke, this is the cruelest joke that can possibly be divised.«

Buhuhuuu! Det måste vara ett skämt. Orimligt annars. Det är bara för grymt att ha med en kvinna! Men tyvärr, signaturen Hamfast Gamgee svarar:

»It’s no joke, I’ve heard it too! Unless PJ is playing a joke on all of us. But it might not turn out quite like this. I’m not sure the actress in question was selected for her brains, anyway!«

Nej det måste vara bara för att Evangeline Lilly är snygg som hon får vara med killarna. Trots detta är det sannerligen inte lätt att ens förstå varför man sätter in en (en!!!) kvinnlig karaktär:

»Also, I don’t see why there must be a strong female character. They didn’t change The Hunger Games to give a strong male character to pander to boys. I don’t understand why we can’t enjoy the story as written.«

(Känner dock här att kommentatorn faktiskt tycker att Hunger Games hade vunnit på detta könsbyte.)

På en sida med The Hobbit-nyheter kan läsare rösta vad man tycker om tilltaget med nykomlingen Tauriel. Det finns inget alternativ i stil med »Äntligen, vilken fantastisk idé!« men däremot kan man rösta på att »det är okej men fel skådis i rollen«, eller min favorit:

»Sounds too much like trying to hook in female viewers at the expense of the storyline.«

Alla bokstavstrogna surpottor därute som klickade på detta alternativ (ni var 638 stycken, eller 18 procent av alla som röstade), jag har några frågor till er:

För det första. Ja så tänkte man kanske. Och? Vi är många kvinns nu som är griniga till gränsen av sammanbrott över att ständigt få titta på mäns aktiviteter på vita duken. Så om det kan locka oss att se filmen är väl det en bra anledning?

För det andra. Man förutsätter alltså att det bara kan vara varelser med snippa som uppskatta att det är fler kvinnliga karaktärer på vita duken?

Och för det tredje – hur skulle detta paja storyn? Tolkien nämner att det är mängder av skogsalver i boken, utan att precisera kön?

Och apropå om man förstör storyn genom liknande tilltag: Den första Sagan om ringen-filmen innehåller en av mina absoluta favoritscener i hela trilogin. Frodo har precis blivit knivhuggen av en av nazgülerna och en skärva från Mordor-bladet är på väg mot hans hjärta. Enbart Elrond kan läka honom, så vilken tur att en underskön, visst, men även duglig Arwen dyker upp i exakt rätt ögonblick! Scenen när hon med den döende Frodo framför sig i sadeln rider genom ett sandigt landskap är helt fantastisk. Det är något med att det är mitt på ljusan dag, att de enda träden är något slags stora enar, och så de sju ringvålnaderna med sina elaka stora svarta hästar som ser ut att när som helst få tag i henne… det är så nagelbitande snyggt gjort.

Men i boken är det inte alls Arwen som utför detta hjältedåd. Det är den manliga alven Glorfindel, en karaktär Peter Jackson valde att hoppa över i filmen.

Nu fick Arwen i och för sig i resten av filmen nöja sig med att vitklädd och porslinhyad och tårögd skrida runt och viska alviska kärleksbetygelser i Aragorns öra, men hon har denna mäktiga scen på CV:t i alla fall.

Men inte ens denna lyckade förändring från originalet har alltså lyckats blidka de troende.

Tyvärr är det nu så att det går ett rykte om Tauriel som även jag deppar över. Det är att hon skulle vara ett potentiellt kärleksintresse för Kili. Jag hoppas det inte är sant. Jag vill ha en hjältinna! Inte ett heterosexuellt alibi åt den stora mansskocken.

Jag ska byta spår här lite. Den här texten är inte en känga åt Tolkien som uppenbarligen inte var intresserad av att ha med kvinnfölk i sina böcker, skrivet är skrivet, det var för länge sedan då jämställdheten var kassare än nu, och då han inspirerades av nordisk mytologi och hjältesagor som är väldigt mycket äldre i en tid då jämställdheten var ännu sämre så tjänar det inget till nu att klaga på böckernas könsfördelning. Nu blickar vi framåt och jag vill rikta mig till alla som antingen skriver fantasy eller som konsumerar fantasy.

Fantasyvärlden (den västerländska pratar jag om nu) har haft det extremt svårt att frigöra sig från Tolkien – nio av tio fantasyvärldar är ett slags obestämd medeltid med bredsvärd, helstekta grisar, hästar. Och vita män. Männen är kanske korta (dvärgar) eller spetsörade (alver), långa (jättar), genomskinliga (andar) men nog tusan är det vita snubbar alltid.

Det är uppenbarligen så fruktansvärt svårt att ta sig ur den vita heteronormen. Det måste vara kungar som styr länder. Det ska vara blonda lockar under hjälmen. Kvinna bör vara vacker, räddas av stark man, sedan gifta sig med man. Få manliga ättlingar som för vidare blodslinje. Och så vidare.

Jag läste en väldigt bra artikel som handlade bland annat om den vita heteronormen i fantasy. Där sätter författaren Foz Meadows verkligen fingret på inkonsekvensen i dessa fantasivärldar:

»/…/it’s impossible for black, female pirates to exist anywhere, that pixies and shapeshifters are inherently more plausible as a concept than female action heroes who don’t get raped, and that fairy tale characters as diverse as Mulan, Snow White and Captain Hook can all live together in the modern world regardless of history and canon, but a black Lancelot in the same setting is grossly unrealistic.«

Fans och författare försvarar sina vita, manliga, heterosexuella världar med näbbar och klor och använder märkligt nog argumentet att det vore orealistiskt om världen inte såg ut på det viset.

Som jag brukar säga: det är ju hitte-på! Kan man hitta på att man kan flyga på en drake kan man hitta på att det inte är samma himla patriarkat i varenda fantasybok/film som i vår egen värld (hej Game of Thrones)!

Hur skulle Tolkien själv reagerat på att man ändrade på hans historia på detta sätt? Jag berättade om Tauriel-ilskan för min pappa, det största fantasyfreaket man kan tänka sig, tillika den som introducerade mig för Middle Earth vid späd ålder. Hans sms-svar löd:

»Jag kommer att tänka på en engelsk 1800-talsförfattare, Samuel Butler, som skrev »Det finns inget Shakespeare skulle tyckt bättre om än en bra vaudeville på Hamlet«. Nördarna kan ta sig i häcken.«

Drew: The Man Behind The Poster is finally ready. We’ve been covering the documentary since 2010 and after several clips, trailers and even a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2012, the film will have its world debut at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. It tells the story of Drew Struzan, the prolific poster artist who made posters for the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films, as well as Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Shawshank Redemption, Harry Potter and many more.

Not going to be in San Diego? The film will hit limited theaters on August 16 and then video on demand in the Fall thanks to distributor Kino Lorber.

Deadline broke the news of the plans and says the screening will take place Friday July 19 at the Gaslamp 15 in San Diego. The full San Diego Comic-Con schedules will start to be released later this week.

Directed by Erik P. Sharkey, Drew: The Man Behind the Poster will open in New York August 16 at the Cinema Village before its rollout. Read all our past coverage of the film here.

Here’s the official trailer once again.

Additional source: THR

• New Trailer For ‘Drew: The Man Behind The Poster’
• Help Complete The Drew Struzan Documentary ‘Drew: The Man Behind the Poster’
• New Clip from Drew Struzan Documentary, ‘Drew: The Man Behind The Poster’
• Star Wars Bits: Joss Whedon Wouldn’t Bring Back Original Characters, Plus Lando, George Lucas Museum, Drew Struzan And More
• Update: Drew Struzan Has NOT Been Asked To Do Posters For New ‘Star Wars’ Movies
• New Drew Struzan Work Anchors Mondo’s Universal Monsters Gallery Show

This is Glas, a 1959 Oscar-winning short subject documentary by Bert Haanstra about glass making, and it is the most mesmerizing thing you'll see today.

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I sommar tänkte jag roa mig – och förhoppningsvis er – med att titta i backspegeln. Som IT-skribent kunde jag nog inte födas en bättre tid. I punkens år 1977 föddes jag och det innebar att jag var i alldeles lagom ålder för att uppleva hemdatorrevolutionen med Commodore 64 och Amiga, för att sedan vara med när Internet och webben började nå allmänheten i början och mitten av 90-talet.

På Facebook uppstod en liten diskussion om gamla sökmotorer före Google-eran, i samband med att någon berättade att Altavista lägger ner den 8 juli. Om du använde webben före Google så kommer du säkert ihåg AltaVista. Sökmotorn lanserades för 18 år sedan och nu är det dags för pension, har nuvarande ägaren Yahoo! beslutat.

AltaVista lanserades den 15 december 1995, som ett projekt av DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation – ett företag som bland annat byggde servrar. Tjänsten hade utvecklats av programmerare i DEC:s lab, och syftet var att ta fram tjänster för att söka efter och hitta filer enklare. Jag har även läst om att AltaVista från början var ett rent tekniskt experiment för att demonstrera prestandan hos DEC:s serverplattformar.

Jag minns när jag första gången fick se AltaVista, och hur imponerad jag blev av snabbheten och mängden webbsidor de indexerat. Det måste ha varit på våren 1996, när jag gick sista terminen på gymnasiet.

AltaVista, 1995

Under det tredje och sista året hade vi två dagar yrkespraktik på schemat, eftersom det var en yrkesorienterad linje (grafisk tryckmedia, med inriktning på typografi och reproduktion), och jag hade praktik på ett ställe i Ljungby som hette IdéCentrum. Här samlades en massa småföretag inom mediaproduktion, och man höll också i olika former av utbildningar.

Mitt i byggnaden fanns en datorsal med Internetanslutna datorer. Nu är det här preskriberat, inte minst på grund av att yrket jag utbildade mig inom (repro) datoriserades och försvann i samma veva som jag gick ut gymnasiet, så jag kan väl erkänna att jag var en lat och enormt skoltrött och dålig elev. Jag vet inte ens vilket företag jag på pappret praktiserade hos, men de var inte speciellt engagerade i praktikanter, så jag åkte till IdéCentrum för att sitta framför Internet hela dagarna.

Före jag, av en några år äldre datornörd, blev introducerad för AltaVista, var det WebCrawler som var den främsta sökmotorn på webben. Faktum är att WebCrawler fortfarande finns kvar, med i stort samma logotyp, fast numera fungerar den som en metasökmotor.

1996 såg AltaVista ut ungefär som Google gör idag. Webbsidorna var väldigt nerskalade, och förstasidan bestod i stort sett av en logga och ett sökfält. Hade man inte fallit för att, liksom de flesta relativt stora webbsajter, bygga om hemsidan till en så kallad portal i slutet av 90-talet, kanske sökmarknaden sett helt annorlunda ut idag.

20 servrar och 500 GB lagringsutrymme

Två år senare hade AltaVista uppgraderat sina system ordentligt för att kunna hantera den ökade mängden sökningar som gjordes med tjänsten. Hos Wikipedia berättar man hur plattformen såg ut:

As of 1998, it used 20 multi-processor machines using DEC’s 64-bit Alpha processor. Together, the back-end machines had 130 GB of RAM and 500 GB of hard disk space, and received 13 million queries every day. [Källa: Wikipedia]

Det här kan man ju jämföra med tekniken som krävs av Google. Hur många servrar Google använder sig av är inte officiellt, vilket har lett till att många tekniker försökt räkna ut det. En del har tittat på kartor för att ta reda på hur stora Googles olika datacenter är, och baserat på detta räknat på hur många servrar som får plats.

En liten del av ett av Googles datacenter

Siffrorna varierar väldigt mycket men generellt kan vi vara rätt säkra på att det rör sig om ”miljotals”. Och hur mycket lagringsutrymme man ha sammanlagt går också bara att spekulera i. Det är betydligt mer än AltaVistas 500 GB under 1998.

Men så såg webben annorlunda ut 1998. Visst hade boomen kommit igång men antalet existerande webbsidor har sedan dess ökat i ett rasande tempo. En före detta kollega berättade att han i början av 90-talet fått ett telefonsamtal från en kompis, som jobbade på ett av Sveriges universitet där man var väldigt tidigt ute med Internet och webben. ”Nu har jag besökt alla webbsidor på Internet”, sa killen, ”vad gör jag nu?”.

AltaVista blir en portal – som alla andra

Runt millennieskiftet skulle alla relativt kända sajter bli portaler. En portal kan ses som en startsida varifrån man nådde allt nödvändigt på nätet. Det var röriga sajter med tonvis av länkar. De ville vara en sajt som passade alla. Så också AltaVista.

AltaVista 2000

Runt omkring år 2000 sprack den så kallade dotcom-bubblan. Fram tills bubblan sprack puttade investerare in kopiösa mängder pengar i de mest besynnerliga webbsajter (min favorit är MsFreckles, som plockade in 30 miljoner som de snabbt brände på nån slags TV-program, för att därefter få panik och inse att affärsplanen helt och hållet saknade intäktsmodell, varpå de började försöka sälja schampo och annat på provisionsbasis, för att sedan gå i konkurs – fem månader efter start).

Vad som hände över i stort sett en natt runt år 2000 var att riskkapitalisterna och andra investerare ville att bolagen började tjäna pengar. Portalerna fick panik och började pumpa in tonvis med annonser och reklam för att generera intäkter. En del överlevde efter att ha trimmat verksamheten genom att till exempel göra sig av med alla internationella kontor där webbdesigners och mellanchefer satt och rullade tummarna.

AltaVista 2002

Trenden att ha så fullsmockade webbsidor som möjligt började avta och 2002 såg AltaVista annorlunda ut. Nu hade man skalat bort större delen av portalverksamheten och fokuserade på att hjälpa användarna att hitta rätt på webben.

Google krossar alla konkurrenter

Mitt under alla sökmotorers förvandlingar till portaler hände dock någonting. 1998 lanserades en ny sajt som gick under namnet Google.

Google 1998

Det var också en sökmotor men den hade två styrkor gentemot de övriga; för det första var designen helt avskalad och hemsidan innehöll inte mycket mer än en logotyp och ett sökfält, och för det andra var sökalgoritmen helt överlägsen de övriga. Google hittade helt enkelt det surfarna sökte efter. Och dessutom presenterade de resultaten på sidor som innehöll bara just detta – sökresultat.

Därefter gick det snabbt. Nu var det rätt många år sedan Google lanserades, men sedan flera år tillbaka dominerar de sökmarknaden totalt. Internationellt har Yahoo! och Bing en del andelar, fast i Sverige är det Google som gäller hos de alla flesta.

AltaVista 2013

AltaVista har dock bitit sig kvar. Tjänsten har bytt ägare några gånger, och idag är det Yahoo! som äger den. Men nu har företaget valt att koppla ner AltaVista för gott. Den 8 juli 2013 stänger söktjänsten dörrarna och AltaVista går i pension.

Under mitten av 90-talet var AltaVista det självklara valet av sökmotor – idag är det nog inte många som kommer att saknar den, av annat än nostalgiska skäl.

©2007-2013, TkJ.se - Sveriges ledande IT-blogg | Läs artikel | Kommentera artikel
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Submitted by: Unknown

A 2010 campaign for The History Channel by photographer Seth Taras…

Normandy, 1944/2004

Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1937/2004

Berlin Wall, 1989/2004

Eiffel Tower, 1940/2004

(via PetaPixel)

Elysium has been a movie of great interest since it was announced, thanks simply to the fact that it is the new film from District 9 writer/director Neill Blomkamp. Seeing footage from the film got us more interested in the project, as the picture’s vision of Earth as a rubbish bin is reinforced not only by the gleaming cleanliness of the space station Elysium, but by the weird, cobbled-together tech we see star Matt Damon wearing. That stuff is prolonging his life, but also turning him into a force that threatens Elysium.

That tech is on display in new photos featuring Damon, Wagner Moura, and Alice Braga. We should see more from the film soon, as Sony is starting to ramp up a proper promo campaign for the August release. (Elysium was originally scheduled to be released a couple weeks ago, but pushed to August.)

The trailer will likely make all the actors’ roles more clear — and those of Jodie Foster and Diego Luna as well — but for now gaze at the two new shots below. 

Elysium opens on August 9.

In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), a hard line government official will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (Matt Damon) is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

• ‘Elysium’ Viral Marketing Promises A “Better Life” Away From Earth [Comic Con 2012]
• ‘Elysium’ Set Photos: What Tech is Matt Damon Wearing?
• New Images: Matt Damon in ‘Elysium’ and Ryan Gosling in ‘Only God Forgives’
• Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’ Moved to Summer 2013, ‘RoboCop’ Pushed to 2014
• ‘Elysium’ Video Blog: Neill Blomkamp’s Matt Damon Sci-Fi Action Film Impresses [Comic-Con 2012]
• First Official Image of Matt Damon in Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’

Note: Image above is merely a concept device, not the Catwalk

We’ve been hearing about the Nokia ‘Catwalk’ for some time now (not to be confused with Verizon's 'Laser', though they may be analogous), a sister device of sorts to the Lumia 920 but with a focus on an aluminum chassis to make it more nimble. Now, Italian blogger and personality Flavio has revealed the supposed specs for the device.

Is there anything revelatory? Not really. The device will feature the same 4.5” display but with octaOLED, S4 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 16GB of storage (down from 32GB), 2000mAh battery and an 8.7MP OIS camera with Xenon flash (Correction: no Xenon flash, but LED instead). No mention of a microSD card for expansion, however.

The big difference is in weight and thinness, as the ‘Catwalk’ will reportedly chop off just over 50 grams in weight (132g) and about 2.3mm in thickness (8.4 versus 10.7mm on the 920).

Call us crazy, but those minor refinements for the ‘Catwalk’ could be a big deal as it will make Nokia much more competitive with those who desire a lighter, thinner phone.

No carriers were announced though T-Mobile was speculated as being one carrier in the US (something we've heard personally too). Launch of the device is said to be May 15th with actual availability to carriers for sale being “the end of June”.

Hopefully more details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks. It will be real interesting to see if AT&T “refreshes” their 920 with this updated model akin to the HTC HD7s in the past.

Source: Flavio (Twitter); via PocketNow; Thanks, Joel H., for the tip!

Believe it or not, we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the massive critical and box-office bomb that was the Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation. Released May 28, 1993, the movie had the unfortunate timing to come out just two weeks ahead of another, much better cinematic adaptation involving dinosaurs that you may remember: Jurassic Park. Yet when it comes to evaluating each movie's place in Hollywood history, Super Mario Bros. may have actually been the more prescient of the two. That's the conclusion of Karina Longworth, who performed some cinematic paleontology for Grantland, re-reviewing the movie after playing the original NES game. As she puts it: "Super Mario Bros. was the product of an older generation callously pandering...

Continue reading…

The Daily Telegraph has produced a list of bestselling mobile phones over the last 40 years. While we celebrate the 40th Birthday of the mobile phone, what's interesting to note is how Nokia dominates the list with 13 of the spots taken by hardware produced by the Finnish manufacturer. Unfortunately no Windows Phones are present, but this illustrates just how strong the Nokia brand is.

Here's the full list:

• 20. Nokia 2850. One of the few clamshell designs from Nokia. Came out in 2004 and went on to sell 35 million.
• 19. iPhone 3GS. Sold around 35 million.
• 17 & 18. Samsung Galaxy SII and SIII – each of these has sold around 40 million units.
• 16. Nokia 6230 – announced in 2003, sold 50 million, and still one of the loudest phones we’ve produced.
• 15. Nokia 3100 – released in 2003; sold over 50 million. Pink and blue were the best.
• 14. Motorola StarTAC – 60 million sold.
• 13. Motorola C200 - 60 million sold.
• 12. iPhone 4S – launched in 2011. Estimated at just over 60 million sales.
• 11. Nokia 5130 – one of the phones to debut XpressMusic; 65 million sold.
• 10. Nokia 6010 - selling 75 million and coming with a colour screen!
• 9. Nokia 1208 – tough and affordable; 100 million sold.
• 8. Nokia 1600 – Do you recall playing Soccer League on one of these? 130 million people do.
• 7. Motorola Razr V3 – last non-Nokia on the list; sold more than 130 million.
• 6. Nokia 2600 – very nicely designed keyboard on this one; sold 135 million.
• 5. Nokia 3310 – the popular device sold 136 million.
• 4. Nokia 5230 – one of the youngsters on the list; launched in 2010 and went on to sell 150 million.
• 3. Nokia 1200 – born 2007; sold 150 million.
• 2. Nokia 3210 – The chunky gem, selling 160 million.
• 1. Nokia 1110 – sold an astonishing 250 million after it went on sale in 2005.

Sure, we'd like to see Windows Phones in the above chart (like the Lumia 920 - pictured above), but there's still some way to go before Nokia's now smartphones can compete for the 250 million sales position. The Nokia 3210 certainly brings back some memories. Do you remember owning one of the older mobile phones by Nokia? 

Source: Telegraph, via: Nokia Conversations

If you've always felt that children's television shows are lacking in lessons on anarchy, you're in luck: the ubiquitous Hello Kitty franchise is set to be mashed up with the aesthetics of hair metal band Kiss, reports USA Today. The show's working title is Kiss Hello Kitty, and it's being produced for The Hub — the same network that aired the surprise cult hit My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The new show is set to be about four Hello Kitty characters living the rockstar dream and creating anarchy in each scenario they're put into.

Kiss frontman Gene Simmons will be executive producing the show, which is based off of the sometimes cute and sometimes disturbing "Kiss x Hello Kitty" clothing line from 2010. While Simmons'...

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The next entry in Electronic Arts' visually stunning Battlefield series is set to be released this fall for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. EA DICE announced Battlefield 4 alongside a 17-minute trailer that opens on a couple of soldiers listening to Bonnie Tyler's power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and proceeds to showcase the cinematic setpiece moments that titles like Battlefield 3 and the Modern Warfare series have come to be known for. The first person shooter's gameplay doesn't appear to have changed much from the series' last entry, but it's hard to find many similarities to the 2002 title, Battlefield 1942, that started it off. The game will be available for $59.99.

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Luna Lee performs Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" on a gayageum, a "traditional Korean zither-like string instrument" (Wikipedia). She freaking nails it. There's lots more if that strikes your fancy.

Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna (via Reddit)

One of the biggest questions about Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Ender’s Game involves the battle room. Any fan of Orson Scott Card‘s classic sci-fi novel knows much of the book’s excitement, character development and action takes place in a massive zero-gravity chamber where students of Battle School wage war and practices the techniques they learn about in class. The challenge of portraying that on screen is among the biggest hurdles for the upcoming film, so what better image to use for the teaser poster?

Ender’s Game is about a young boy (Asa Butterfield) who is recruited from Earth to a space-set Battle School. There, he’ll learn to be a military leader by commanding teams of other young kids in zero gravity war games. Co-starring Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin and Viola Davis, the film will be released November 1. Check out the poster below along with some quotes from Hood about the film.

Thanks to Yahoo Movies for the poster. Click for hi-res. Hood talks about it below.

Speaking to Yahoo, Hood described the Battle Room:

This is the high school football field, only it’s in three dimensions. It’s the size of a football field in all directions: up, down, left, right. And the idea is teams jump out from opposite ends of this amazing space and play this amazing game of 3D paintball, almost.

He then revealed that, though it’s a cube in the book, Hood’s Battle Room is a sphere:

“What if we could see through? What if we could see out of the space, and we’re moving around the Earth and turning at the same time?” He said he felt that would create “a really strange, disorienting experience.”

We’ll have so much more Ender’s Game soon you can’t believe it. A trailer is coming, along with a report from the set, interviews and more. It’s about to get all Wiggin up in here in the coming months. But first, what do you think of the poster?

In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.

Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite.  Arriving at Battle School, Enderquickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soonordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School.  Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.

Based on the best-selling, award winning novel, ENDER’S GAME is an epic adventure which stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley,Viola Davis, with Abigail Breslin and Harrison Ford.

• First Look: Harrison Ford Scolds Asa Butterfield In ‘Ender’s Game’
• Orson Scott Card Describes Zero Gravity Scenes From Set Of ‘Ender’s Game;’ Reveals Cameo
• ‘Ender’s Game’ Filmmakers Describe the Visual Style and Approach to War
• ‘Ender’s Game’ Production Photo Shows Asa Butterfield and Co-stars in Training
• Viola Davis Boards ‘Ender’s Game’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’
• Harrison Ford Confirmed For ‘Ender’s Game,’ Abigail Breslin Signs On

Annabel de Vetten of Conjurer's Kitchen really puts the death in "Til death do us part" with this morbid wedding confection. Instead of flowers and flourishes, her latest wedding cakes are decorated with chocolate animal skulls.

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Animator BlackMeal pays tribute to Marvel Comics with this brief but wonderful animation. It would also serve quite nicely as the Marvel Studios production logo at the start of the studio's films.

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No matter which country you live in there are always people in authority seeking to limit which websites you’re able to view.

Admittedly some sites are quite rightly deemed repulsive to society in general and 99% of the public have few problems with them being hidden away. However, the blocking of ‘normal’ sites is much more controversial.

China is infamous for its Great Firewall and its censorship of anything it pleases from Twitter to YouTube. Iran also has concerns that its citizens’ minds will be influenced by Western thinking via the web. Overall, oppressive regimes tend to see some websites as having a destabilizing effect, so they censor them to maintain control.

In recent times the notion of website blocking has become fashionable in the West too, mainly because certain domains are viewed as offensive to the music and movie industries. The Pirate Bay is blocked in many countries and just this week the UK added another three sites to its ISPs’ filters – KAT.PH, H33T and Fenopy.

But, as mentioned countless times in the past, these filters represent mere temporary roadblocks for the determined and today we bring news of an exciting project that allows almost anyone to access any site they like in seconds. Best of all, it takes just a few minutes to setup and it’s completely free.

The Graduate School of University of Tsukuba, Japan, has just launched the VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project with the aim “to expand the knowledge of Global Distributed Public VPN Relay Servers.” We’re very happy to help them with that today.

How it works

Volunteers have given the University access to dozens of VPN servers located all over the world which people can access from pretty much any device running Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and more. No sign up or user registration is needed. Once connected the user’s IP address is hidden and switched for one issued by the VPN of their choice selected from dozens around the world.

Protocols and the SSL-VPN client

Several protocols are accepted, such as L2TP/IPsec, SSTP and the popular OpenVPN, but things get really streamlined for those who select the SSL-VPN option. This requires the easy installation of the Windows freeware client SoftEther VPN but it’s straightforward and only takes a couple of minutes.

The beauty of running the client (which is also developed by the University and will soon go open source) soon becomes apparent. Not only does SoftEther offer SSL-VPN tunneling via HTTPS to pass more easily through NATs and firewalls, it has another trick up its sleeve.

The client comes with a nifty pre-configured plugin which displays a list of all the available VPN servers offered by VPN Gate (see below). This enables the user to activate, disconnect, or switch between VPNs with just a click. This means that there is no need to set up each VPN connection manually in an operating system, although that can be done if the user prefers.

Unblock any site in an instant

Want to unblock The Pirate Bay, KAT.PH or H33T in the UK? Easy, just select any server that isn’t in the UK and preferably outside Europe. Want to access YouTube in China? Simple, just access any non-domestic VPN server. US citizen who needs to use Hulu overseas? Fine, just pick a United States server. UK citzen who needs to access the BBC iPlayer abroad? A UK server will provide the solution.

Once a server is selected and connected to the client, simply use your regular browser and other Internet applications as usual and traffic will be diverted through the VPN.

Tests

TorrentFreak carried out some basic tests yesterday and got some decent results. We successfully unblocked all of the blocked torrent sites in the UK, accessed Hulu from outside the US, and watched the BBC iPlayer and TVCatchup services from outside the UK.

Also, since the people at VPN Gate apparently have no problem with people using the service for video transfers (they mention YouTube specifically), we conducted some limited BitTorrent runs on half a dozen servers around the world. In each case we connected to a VPN server via the SoftEther Client and carried out tests with a service such as TorrentIP to ensure that our IP address when using BitTorrent had actually been changed. All but one of our tested servers worked fine while another appeared to block torrents.

Performance, logging and offering your computer as a server

As might be expected, performance changed from server to server but in each case browsing and transfer speeds were more than acceptable for a free service. Each server shows its available bandwidth so picking one with more tends to yield better results. That said, we tried a couple of slower ones and they performed just fine too.

While VPN Gate offers anonymity to a point, they do keep connection logs for around three months. In common with most other VPN services they do not monitor your activities but will comply when ordered to do so by the local courts, in this case those in Japan. However, each VPN server has its own logging policy and many appear to delete logs after a couple of weeks, if they keep them at all.

To give an outline of how the logging might affect users in real-life situations, we can look at a few scenarios.

If a US citizen carried out file-sharing on a US VPN server, he might be logged by those carrying out six strikes in the US. However, if that same user selected a server overseas, he would not be monitored by six strikes. Equally, an Iranian or Chinese citizen looking to carry out activities frowned upon by his or her government would be advised to use servers located outside their respective countries.

Finally, please use the services responsibly – respect the volunteers offering their services and consider becoming one yourself. If you have a Windows computer and can offer your bandwidth, click here for more information.

Source: Free Access To Dozens of Anonymous VPNs Via New University Project

Good news for fans of old video games — accessories maker Hyperkin is unveiling a retro console that will play almost any cartridge you can throw at it, reports Slashdot. Named the Retron 5 for its five slots, the machine will handle the same trio of NES, SNES, and Genesis cartridges as its predecessor, the Retron 3, as well as Famicom and Game Boy Advance games — not to mention Mega Drive, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, and original Game Boy titles. HDMI out means you’ll get a clear, digital signal to your HDTV, and Hyperkin says that it will upscale your games to 720p. There are a bunch of built-in niceties, like the ability to save and resume at any point in the game, overclocking to speed through slow parts, and a PS3-like...

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