Filed under: Action & Adventure, Drama, Casting, Fandom, Newsstand

With his first feature, Guy Ritchie made one heck of a name for himself amongst moviegoers itching for crime, action, and lots of testosterone. In the late ’90s, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was the quintessential guy movie — every man I knew raved about it with the passion usually saved for religious zealots. Many of those same moviegoers followed along with Snatch, but then slammed into the cinematic wall with his Swept Away. One might think this had something to do with Ritchie’s attempt to have a female lead, and that he wouldn’t dare enter those waters again. Nevertheless, he has with RocknRolla, which found its deal in May, and was cast in June.

If co-star Thandie Newton is to be believed, we shouldn’t worry about her presence in the crime feature. She recently talked to MTV and said: “I was the only girl for miles around. I thought I’d have to struggle to be a woman in that scenario. [But] Guy was so open to me having ideas.” Perhaps because of his inexperience writing ones that live up to the male characters he creates? Her character, Stella, is an “accountant who becomes more and more cooked as the story goes on. I think [Guy] was surprised at how dirty I played this character. I just kept pushing it and he loved it. He loves surprises.” Maybe this will be the big breakthough for Ritchie — female characters that don’t have sap that dies on the big screen, but rather, sass that rivals his memorable male characters. What do you think? Will RocknRolla re-inspire the admiration of his old fanbase with a lead like Newton and much less romance?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Handover technologies are nothing new, but Agito Networks is hoping to offer up scalable systems that can “hand voice calls over quickly and accurately between company WiFi and cellular networks.” More specifically, the startup system utilizes RF to tell when an individual is approaching “predefined points at the limit of the company’s WiFi coverage,” after which a mobile-based client cooperates with a RoamAnywhere router (which integrates with the company’s IP PBXs) in order to hand the call over. Reportedly, the actual transfer “takes less than one second,” and administrators can even set up RoutePoints and instruct calls to be sent directly to voicemail when users are off duty. Granted, it seems Agito is aiming its products at medium-to-large businesses looking to save on cellphone bills, and if all goes well, models ranging from $9,995 to $24,995 should hit the US by the year’s end.

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

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It’s been said that Rani Mukherjee will soon be tying a knot. Wanna know who her Dulha is? Who else, it’s Aditya Chopra. The twp had been dating each other and now there are marriage plans going on. It was rumored that the couple had been engaged. Well, the news has now come up to […]

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Filed under: News

In an interview with Gamasutra, Ryan Payton of Kojima Productions gives some information about the development process of Metal Gear Solid 4. Extraordinarily, over two hundred people are currently on the development team for the game, making it one of the largest single teams working in one place on a single gaming project. This bodes well for the game but, if so many people really are working on it, then why did it get delayed until 2008?

Nevermind - all that is water under the bridge now. We’re just glad to see that the game is getting the developmental attention it deserves. Payton also hints at some DualShock 3 innovations being used in the game that “people are going to really dig.” This is no surprise - Kojima has always been a big fan of using rumble imaginatively, ever since Metal Gear Solid 1.

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Filed under: Gaming

Nintendo already dipped its toes into USB keyboard support with a previous Wii update, but it now looks to have busted that functionality wide open with the just-released 3.1 system update, which also brings with it an enhanced “Everybody Votes” channel. Among the most welcome additions is keyboard support for the Internet Channel, which will no doubt make your couch-bound web browsing experience a fair bit more enjoyable. A separate update to the Opera-based Internet Channel is also available through the Wii Shop Channel, which includes some new shortcuts to ease your Wiimote-based surfing, along with nine additional favorites slots, an option to send favorite web sites to a friend, and a new “Widget View Mode” that’ll let you take advantage of Opera’s various community-built widgets. The update is free for existing users, or 500 Wii points for anyone that has yet to take the plunge. Still no word on that rumored Nintendo-made Wii keyboard though.

[Thanks, Mike]

Read - Joystiq, “Wii update 3.1 includes USB keyboard support, enhanced Everybody Votes channel”
Read - Huliq.com, “The new “Internet Channel” for Nintendo Wii”

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

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Filed under: Cell Phones

Last month, we reported that New York City’s subway system was being wired to bring cell phone reception to its subterranean stations. Besides bringing the conveniences of e-mail and voice to this otherwise uncharted territory, many New Yorkers felt a sense of relief that emergency calls from underground would now be possible. However, it seems that’s not exactly what the Metropolitan Transit Authority had in mind with last month’s announcement. In fact, by the sounds of recent statements made by the MTA, an emergency is the last time it would want people to reach for their mobiles.

MTA officials have indicated that during an emergency, all travelers should give their undivided attention to MTA employees — not to their handsets. Additionally, the MTA fears that hundreds of panicked travelers simultaneously calling 911 to report the same emergency could flood phone lines unnecessarily if the emergency has already been reported. We saw similar outages occur during Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, so this concern isn’t completely without merit.

Another concern raised by the MTA about cell phones in stations is much more ominous. According to MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin speaking to the Daily News, a cell phone may serve as an “accidental detonator during such an [emergency] incident.” Though Soffin, somewhat oddly, doesn’t elaborate on this statement, he seems to be suggesting that during an underground emergency, a flurry of cell phone activity could potentially set off a device that just happens to be there waiting to go off, but has nothing to do with the current emergency.

Are we then to believe that there are any number of explosive devices out there in New York’s underground that the MTA doesn’t know about?

From textually.org and Daily News

Related Links:

• Bridge Collapse: Why Did Cell Phones Fail?
• NYC Subway Stations Wired for Cell Phones
• Camera Phone Nabs Perv on NYC Subway
• Cell Phones Versus Terrorists

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Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Google (GOOG), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), PetroChina Co Ltd ADR (PTR)

MAJOR PAPERS:

• A WSJ.com survey found that economists are more optimistic about the economy and see a lessening chance of a recession, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) sold its shares in the China-controlled PetroChina Company Limited (NYSE: PTR), according to the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column, leading many investors uncertain about China’s stock valuations.
• The WSJ also reported that a jury in Nevada awarded $134.5M to three women who said hormone therapy drugs manufactured by Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), including Prempro and Premarin, caused their breast cancer.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The SEC began an inquiry into oversight of the New York State pension fund. The SEC is trying to find out if civil violations of federal securities laws were committed, the New York Times reported.
• Over 90,000 children’s products imported by J.C. Penny Company (NYSE: JCP) from China, Taiwan and Vietnam, were recalled because of dangerous levels of lead, the Associated Press reported.

WEB SITES:

• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) said on its blog that it has improved its service for the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges by providing pricing data in real time and hopes the SEC will approve their “Last Sale” proposal, which would allow users free and unlimited access to real-time last sale prices for the NYSE and Nasdaq stocks.

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We all know that Japan has some of the most advanced cellphones in the world, but whoever would’ve thought of handsets that smell? Apparently Sony did, releasing the DoCoMo SO703i that comes with GPS navigation, TV functionality, and audio player capability. Choose from nine colors and patterns, ranging from Romantic Gold to Exotic, Twilight, Flow and Gorgeous among others. What sets the DoCoMo SO703i apart from the rest of the handsets is the fact that they smell, not in a bad sense as they come in 11 choices including “Apple Pie”. These scents are released from a replaceable strip that is placed near the central hinge, lasting up to 3 months before a replacement is required. When will this idea actually arrive Stateside?

Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones

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A secret firm: Charlie’s chocolate factory.

A toy plant in China.

A reality on toys: a large quantity of them needs to be mass-produced. MaZm offers a visual documentary taken in one of Chinese toy making plant unique in its optimism, clean-looking feel while featuring the serialized cherished toys and the ’scandalous’ working conditions.

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Filed under: Breakfast, Recipes, On the Blogs

Looking for a creative and tasty breakfast this weekend? Something a little out of the ordinary that isn’t too energy intensive? Why not take a page out of Brys at Cookthink’s book and whip yourself up a batch of Leek and Potato Latkes? Because latkes aren’t just for Hanukkah anymore. He dresses a few up with a spoonful of caviar and tops the rest with a fried egg. After seeing this post, I wished fervently for the ability to crawl into my computer screen and magically travel through time and space to the kitchen where these puppies were created. Sadly, it was not to be.

On a different latke note, if you’re the type of person who learns through watching, you might want to check out this here little video in which my friend Scott and I make up a batch of potato latkes. So yummy.

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