Helios just announced the Helios Odyssey - essentially a networking media hub that can stream content to multiple X-Line players, including UPnP-enabled devices. It is also capable of supporting up to 1TB storage capacity, where a fanless, passive cooling design brings the future of digital media entertainment (minus the PC) to your living room. The amount of information the Odyssey can store amounts up to approximately 1,300 movies, 250,000 songs, 250 HD movies and innumerable potential for virtually any other information. You can stream it through an Ethernet cable or a wireless LAN connection, further enhancing its flexibility. An open-source, Linux core holds the promise of innovation and creativity, and boasts a P2P client and RSS feeds among others as new installation packages are made available. Hopefully the upscaling capability of the Odyssey lives up to the standard set by its predecessors.

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Queen of soaps wants to marry Karan Johar. Ekta kapoor had said recently that she would love to marry Karan. Both are 30-plus, fiery, feisty, famous and eminently single. And although both are off-camera celebrities, they get mobbed big-time in public places. Ekta and Karan both are very successful people and both have made their […]

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Filed under: Industry, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Intel (INTC), Oracle Corp (ORCL), EMC Corp (EMC)

While gold and commodities around the world enjoy one heck of a bull market, the performance of technology stocks is steadily improving.

Last night, Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) once again reported solid results, although margin improvement was a little light and the software giant got a big boost from positive currency movement. Oracle’s solid results follow a boost in outlook from Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC). Also, with EMC Corporation’s (NYSE: EMC) offering of VMware Inc (NYSE: VMW) being a huge success, equity offerings for the tech sector are also picking up, with Equinix Inc (NASDAQ: EQIX), the data-center company, completing a secondary this week. Improved IPO and secondary markets for tech stocks have usually meant good things for tech in general.

Also, just the general tone in technology is pickup up as both Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) are remaining very active in the acquisition market as the two search-engine giants scoop more web-centric applications and Web 2.0 products.

While CNBC and Bloomberg focus on the booming commodities market, do not forget technology is beginning a very nice bull market.

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Filed under: Blu-ray, New Releases

Although this week we don’t get quite the quantity or quality of Blu-ray releases that we did last week, we can relish in the fact that if you compiled bits and pieces from each movie, it could possibly make the most bad-ass movie of all time.

Just imagine werewolves, cowboys and the Japanese doing battle against vampires, Nazis and Yankees as Halle Berry comes on screen to spout some nonsense and just looks pretty. You really can’t get any better than that.

• Underworld: Unrated
• Black Book
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Tekkonkinkreet
• The Wild Bunch
• Wyatt Earp
• Gods and Generals
• Gothika

But if this week’s releases don’t satisfy you, just wait until next week when we’re invaded by the undead - now that’s something werewolves, vampires or Nazis just can’t kill.

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Filed under: Dessert, Beef, Baking, On the Blogs, America

When I was a kid, my mom only made meatloaf occasionally. It wasn’t in the regular dinner rotation and so when we heard it was on the menu, instead of complaining (ala Randy in A Christmas Story, singing-songing “Meat-loaf, beet-loaf, I hate meat-loat.”*) we’d celebrate. My mom made good meatloaf, filled with grated carrots and potatoes, seasoned with spaghetti sauce spices and baked in a white stoneware loaf pan (also the vessel for many a loaf of banana bread). It was the kind of meatloaf that got even better the next day and made a really excellent sandwich.

Serious Eats has declared October 18th National Meatloaf Appreciation Day. They are inviting everyone to participate in the festivities. It’s easy to be involved in the celebration. All you have to do is make a meatloaf before October 16th and take a picture of your creation. If you have a blog, post the picture and recipe and send the link to the folks at SE. If you’re not the blogging sort, send the picture and recipe to them via email (make sure to go over and check their post for the complete instructions). They’ll put up a round-up of all the meatloaf creations on the 18th.

Continue reading Celebrate National Meatloaf Appreciation Day with Serious Eats

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Filed under: Computers, Google, E-Mail Addiction

Gmail, everybody’s favorite beta product, may be getting ready for its first major update since launching in 2004. At the time of launch, Gmail was revolutionary, breaking the mold for what a Web mail application could be with unprecedented ease of use, storage and attachment size allowance. But in the ensuing years, Gmail has aged and other services have caught up. While many still consider it to be the best Web mail system, it could definitely stand to add a few new features.

Now, it seems an update is in the works — this according to texts and screen shots spotted by Google translators. You see, Google gets help from everyday users across the globe with translating text for the localized versions of the company’s own sites and services. Google saves a bunch of money by using the general public instead of several expensive translation services — unfortunately that makes it kind of hard for the company to keep any secrets. Just check of the screen shots of Gmail-related text awaiting translation into various languages.

One of the rumored new features is one that many of us has been clamoring for: the integration of Google Gears — an experimental technology that allows you to access Google’s online services when you’re offline. That would give Gmail users the ability to read and draft messages when they’re away from an Internet connection, something that’s always been a shortfall of Web-based e-mail.

Also amongst the piles of untranslated texts are phrases that seem to point to an account activity tracking feature. So, if you suspect your girlfriend of snooping, or are just plain paranoid that someone may have gotten hold of your password, you’ll be able to see when and where your account has been accessed from.

When Gmail might receive this update, or how drastic the facelift might be are currently unknown. Here’s hoping the answers are ’soon’ and ‘really drastic, with out ruining what we already love’.

From Googling Google

Related Links:

• Iran Blocks Access to Google and Gmail
• Google Offers 250 Gigs of Storage for $500
• Review: Windows Live Hotmail

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Deals, Warner Brothers, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Tom Cruise, Comic/Superhero/Geek

Though we’ve known for some time now that Happy Feet director George Miller was circling the live-action Justice League of America movie, Variety is just now reporting that Miller will indeed helm the film. With the threat of a strike looming in the distance like a nasty storm cloud or a drunk ex-girlfriend who has no business being in the same place you are, Warner Bros. is feverishly forging ahead in order to have a big superhero movie for 2009. This summer, Christopher Nolan will debut The Dark Knight, his follow-up to Batman Begins, and since Bryan Singer is busy filming Nazis with Tom Cruise, his follow-up to Superman Returns won’t be ready until at least 2010 (if it ever does get off the ground). So, with all that in mind, it’s do or die time for Justice League. But will the rushed script, casting and production schedule ultimately hurt the finished product. Um, I’ll let you answer that one.

So now that Miller is onboard, our attention immediately turns toward casting. Variety says that Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Aquaman will most likely be the primarily characters in the film. For those wondering, both Christian Bale and Brandon Routh will most likely not be involved (and Nolan has already requested that the studio hold off on JLA until his Batman films are done, but apparently that ain’t gonna happen). Casting rumors pop up every single day; I believe the latest one has Ryan Gosling playing Batman and Tom Welling playing Superman. However, nothing is official. I’ve already made it clear how I feel about this film — that, as cool as it sounds to have a live-action flick featuring all my favorite superheroes, now is just not the time. Especially seeing as it’s going to be rushed into production, why not just go the CGI route, or the motion-capture route? Why force this? Nurture this project, protect it; it could be the geeked-up movie event of the decade. I dig Miller, but I’m super scared. What about you?

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Shorts, Fantastic Fest, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies

What’s so frickin’ great about Austin? That’s a question I hear all the time — because I spend a good deal of time there and I love the city allllmost as much as I love Philly. (Yes, Philadelphia. Stop laughing.) Well, you could spend paragraphs talking about Austin’s night life, its restaurants, its awesome women and its world-renowned music scene — but for me it’s all about the film festivals. In March it’s South By Southwest and in late September it’s time for Fantastic Fest, baby, the slickest, screwiest, most user-friendly genre festival this side of the continent. Although only three (3!) years old, FF has already earned a very solid rep among filmmakers, studios and movie nerds.

Although I show up mainly for the scary stuff, FF ‘06 offered an impressively wide array of cinematic goodies: Abominable, Blood Tea and Red String, Broken, Bug, Edmond, The Fountain, Frostbite, Hatchet, The Host, Isolation, The Living and the Dead, Renaissance, Roman, Severance, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Tideland, Wilderness, The Woods … plus a surprise screening of Apocalypto with Mel Gibson in attendance. Plus you can drink beer and eat cheese fries while you watch the movie(s)! Sorry but I’ve been to six Sundances and I never got to eat cheese fries while watching a horror movie. ‘Nuff said.

So what does the Alamo Drafthouse have in store for us next month? Well I’ve only seen a few of the titles, but I did get to offer my .02 to the programmers — as did SXSW kingpin Matt Dentler and the movielords at Twitch and AICN. So while that’s not a promise that you’ll love all the flicks, you can rest assured that the slate was constructed by and for the genre junkies. Dig on in…

Continue reading Fantastic Fest Starts Today! Full Slate Right Here!

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Just a few months removed from rumors that Vodafone would offload its stake in Verizon Wireless altogether, the two networks have announced that they’ll share a common selection for their fourth-generation data networks: Long-Term Evolution. Endorsed by the 3GPP as the official way to burn wireless rubber in the next few years, LTE is a progression of GSM’s UMTS platform, making it an ironic choice for CDMA stalwart Verizon and a huge blow for the CDMA Development Group’s competing UMB standard. It seems that the unusual move was influenced by the fact that the sister networks — two of the world’s largest — should probably enjoy some semblance of technological synergy if they’re going to carry on their blissful matrimony for the foreseeable future, with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg saying the company has been looking for “stability” in the relationship. Whatever the case, don’t throw away that brand spanking new VX8550 or anything rash like that — the companies aren’t looking to roll anything out for another three or four years.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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