Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T), Smartphones

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) had their biggest decline in more than 5 years after the largest phone company warned of “softness” in its consumer business and that more of its customers have had their service disconnected for failing to pay their bills.

In late afternoon trading, the exclusive seller of the iPhone, was down $3.51, or 8.6%, to $37.52. The company’s mobile phone and corporate business has not been hurt by the slowdown, Bloomberg News quotes Chief Executive Randall Stephenson as saying.

Shares of AT&T have jumped 12% over the past year. This year, though, the picture is different. The Nasdaq Composite Index has plunged about 8% in the early days of 2008 amid declines by stalwarts such as Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). AT&T has dropped almost 9%. The tech index hasn’t had a positive day yet this year.

What’s going on here? I don’t think it can all be profit taking. Investors seem to be concerned that the slowdown in consumer spending will hit corporations as well. That won’t be clear for another few months. It certainly kills some of the buzz from the Consumer Electronics Show.

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES, Features

We’re awfully disillusioned by the lack of 3G data — a phone with a display, a keypad, and an overall look this sexy deserves better. Be that as it may, though, anyone who thinks they can plod along happily on EDGE alone owes it to themselves to have a nice, close look at the ROKR E8 when it comes out later this quarter. The landscape QVGA screen was awfully bright and crisp (though the eerie, dim blue lighting plaguing the room could make it seem artificially great), the glossy black shell is pretty gorgeous, and it’s hard to deny the cool factor on a mighty morphin’ keypad. Complaints? The usual 3G whining aside, we’d have preferred a full circle for music navigation instead of the funky three-quarter thing we have here. Call us fickle!

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Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola’s press conference is done and we were pretty stoked to finally see the MOTO Z10 announced. The handset features some pretty swank video editing tools like the ability to overlay text on the 30fps QVGA video you’ve shot, adding a soundtrack from your device and finally uploading your content directly to YouTube. Connectivity to get all this crafty business done is via HSDPA — who wants to wait for EDGE to do its business? — memory is expandable up to 32 GB once that becomes available and the Z10 also packs stereo speakers to listen to your tunes. The still camera is of the 3.2 megapixel variety and is apparently one of the quickest on the market and able to shoot at 3fps. No word on pricing but the plans are to see it shipping some time this quarter.

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES

We won’t fault you if you can’t recall the original Iqua Snake handsfree system, but it seems its maker has chosen CES as the venue to launch the long-awaited successor. The Iqua Snake 2 curiously mounts to one’s headrest and wraps around to get all upside your grill, which looks mighty 1) dorky and 2) obnoxious, if we may say so ourselves. Nevertheless, the company claims that its design will facilitate clearer conversations and adjust to fit nearly any driver, but we still aren’t sold on having a barrier between us and the passenger’s seat. Nevertheless, those totally digging it can order one now for around $90, and if you’ve just got to see more, head on down to Autoblog and take a peek.

[Via Autoblog]

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Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek

We already told you about IESB’s little chat with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, but that chat also included a bunch of tidbits regarding the upcoming G.I. Joe flick. (Side note: Does anyone really care about this film? Yeah, I loved the action figures and all, but I’m not excited about this for some reason. Maybe the 2008 hype machine has finally worn me down?) Lots of stuff is talked about, including the decision to cast Marlan Wayans in the role of Ripcord. Bonaventura says, ” A lot of people are fans of his from the comedic point of view obviously for all the right reasons, but what I think everybody forgets about is how damn good he was in Requiem for a Dream as an actor. And, when we were trying to figure out who would be the right element to make this combination work of Duke as the leader and Ripcord as the best friend who sorta gets Duke in trouble all the time and Duke has to bail him out all the time and have fun with him, we needed a guy who’s gonna be funny and we needed a guy who was going to be a good actor.”

On when we’ll be hearing who was cast as Destro: “Within the next two weeks, I will comfortably tell you that. We don’t have a guy chosen, we have the list down to about 4 or 5. All of them are of the English, Irish, Scottish persuasion shall we say.” Same goes for the casting of Zartan, as well as Hawk. They then talked a bit about story, which Bonaventura described via this interesting analogy: “If you would you say the original GI Joe movie was like the original Batman movie with Jack Nicholson then I would say this is like Batman Begins.” You can head on over to IESB to read more from their interview with Bonaventura; G.I. Joe is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters in August of 2009.

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Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom

When Variety first announced (though it had been confirmed earlier) that John Singleton would be directing a big-screen version based on the popular television series, The A-Team, they also mentioned that Ice Cube was in talks to star as B.A. Baracus — a role once owned (and, some would argue, still owned) by Mr. T. Sure, the man has been busy churning out kiddie fare, like Are We There Yet (and its sequel), but if you ask me Cube is the only guy I see taking on this role, while also making it somewhat believable. He’s loosened up a bit, but I’d like to think the dude still has some edge left.

BlackFilm recently sat down with Ice Cube while he was out promoting his latest “comedy” First Sunday, where they asked him about the role of B.A. Baracus. On whether he’s considering it: “Hell yeah, especially with John Singleton directing!” On what he would bring to the character: “I wouldn’t try to duplicate what Mr. T did, but I will have the same impact on you when you were little watching the TV show. I’m going to bring my own flavor to it and I am going to do the mohawk.” Great — sounds like he already has the role. So does he? “I don’t know. They want me to do it if all the business works out right. I was a fan as a kid and that would be, not a dream come true, but it’s definitely a good thing to do and I would put it on my resume for sure.”

So, Ice Cube with a mohawk? Would Mr. T pity that fool? And who else could you see joining this film?

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Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Ever since The Hollywood Reporter commented on the “as-yet-unslotted” release date for Transformers 2, the entire online community was buzzing with rumors the film had officially been delayed. While director Michael Bay continues to leave cryptic fanboy-ish messages on his blog (”Transformers 2 is coming soon!!!!”), IESB managed to sit down with robot producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to get the real scoop on where, exactly, the highly-anticipated sequel is at right now.

When asked whether they had a start date in mind to begin shooting, Bonaventura said they were currently targeting June 2. Seems pretty reasonable; things should be going along as planned, right? No so fast … Bonaventura also claims work still has to be done on the script — a lot of work, it appears — and that cannot happen until the strike is over and done with. He says, “We’re no where because of the strike, we won’t know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we’ll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He’s designed a lot of great stuff already. He’s got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he’s ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it’s the target date we’d like to go for but, you know, we’ve got to get some writers to help us.”

Bonaventura was also asked about the sequel’s budget, but didn’t divulge much except for saying that “Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody.” Am I the only one afraid of Michael Bay wanting to deliver a “bigger” anything? So there you have it: They’re working on it, but until the strike is over, not much can be done.

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Filed under: Action, Horror, Thrillers, Movie Marketing

I can just see Eli Roth grinning ear to ear about this news (you can too, look at the photo). I’ve never agreed with claims that violent movies influence violent behavior, but I also don’t imagine violent movies are necessarily good for people who already have violent tendencies. Yet a new study argues that violent movies do in fact help to lower crime rates. According to the New York Times, a research paper was just presented to the American Economic Association concluding that “would-be assailants” choose to go see violent movies instead of performing violent acts themselves. That’s right, murderers, rapists, muggers and the like apparently get their rocks off by watching actors perform their favorite bad deeds. Then, not only have they been kept out of trouble for two hours; they are also satisfied for days afterward. The reasoning behind this conclusion is based on data that shows crime rates are way down on weekends when a new violent movie is in theaters, and they stay down for a good period of time beyond that opening weekend.

That could be a neat coincidence. But how does the study indicate that the “would-be assailants” are actually part of that movie’s audience? It seems a little too easy to think that violent people are pacified by violent movies. Attracted to them? Sure. Influenced by them? It can be argued. Subdued by them? I doubt it. At least not most of them, anyway. One of the economists who wrote the paper, Professor Gordon Dahl, pointed out that young men attending a movie have chosen that activity over drinking alcohol and/or taking drugs, either of which might have led to violent acts. He went on, however, to argue that Hollywood should actually be making less violent movies that still have the same appeal … such as Adam Sandler movies over gory horror movies. The New York Times makes sure to let us know that Dahl is in fact a Mormon who doesn’t allow his kids to watch violent movies; he even just bought one of those DVD players that cuts out offensive content. I have to agree with Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council and say that this is one of the goofiest studies I’ve read about in a long time.

[via Fark.com]

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[CES 2008] A number of computers have two types of graphics processors: a fast one (or more), in a discrete graphics card and a more basic one, in the chipset that is soldered on