Film News: 'Breaking Bad' star joins Penn, Gosling, Brolin in period police drama -- Bryan Cranston is in negotiations to join the cast of "The Gangster Squad," the Warner Bros.-Village Roadshow period police saga opposite Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Michael Pena and Anthony Mackie.
Read MoreTV News: Guild says dispute centers on producer's support of unionization efforts -- The Writers Guild of America East has announced that the National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint against ITV/Kirstall for allegedly firing an unidentified producer for his support of the guild's efforts to organize ITV employees.
Read MoreA small army of multitouch tablet computers has been launched this year to take on Apple’s iPad, which has managed to sell 25 million units and attract 90,000 tablet-specific apps in just about 15 months, and is already in its second generation, the iPad 2. So far, none of these contenders has gained any significant traction with consumers or app developers. [ See post to watch video ] Now, the world’s largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard, is entering the fray. On Friday, it will start selling the TouchPad, a 10-inch tablet with a slick, distinctive software interface. The TouchPad starts at $500, the same entry price as the iPad 2. I’ve been testing the TouchPad for about a week and, in my view, despite its attractive and different user interface, this first version is simply no match for the iPad. It suffers from poor battery life, a paucity of apps and other deficits. The TouchPad comes in two versions, with 16 or 32 gigabytes of storage and, at launch, offers only Wi-Fi connectivity, though a model with a cellular data option is planned. The TouchPad presents running apps as ‘cards’—when you tap one, it fills the screen and is ready to use. Clever Interface I like the interface a lot. Instead of a screen full of app icons, the main screen of the TouchPad’s operating system, called webOS, presents running apps as “cards”—large, live rectangles that you scroll through in a horizontal row. When you tap a card, it fills the screen and is ready to use. To minimize it, you just swipe up on the bezel surrounding the screen. A second swipe takes you to a screen from which you can launch or download a new app. To get rid of a card, you just flick it upward, and it disappears. Multiple cards can run in the background. And these cards are clever.
Read MoreQ: When Apple’s MobileMe service goes away in June 2012, what happens to the stuff I have stored on iDisk? Will Apple still store my material someplace else remotely on one of its servers that I can access via my laptop? Will I still have some sort of .Mac mail system that I can access when on the road and using a computer other than my own? A: Apple says it won’t continue to have the equivalent of the iDisk online storage system, accessible directly from the cloud, after MobileMe gives way to its new iCloud service. It advises iDisk users to copy their online files to their Macs or PCs before next June. However, it says the new service will still support mac.com and me.com email accounts, and they will still be accessible via the Web. It promises details later, but has in the meantime published a document answering common questions about the transition at apple.com/mobileme/transition.html
Read MoreYou’d think that after years of using hidden cameras to bust alleged pedophiles on MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” Chris Hansen would be an expert at avoiding a highly public sexual predicament. As it turns out, he's not. Last weekend, the National Enquirer turned the tables on Hansen, who is best known for confronting would-be sex offenders on the controversial "Dateline" series. In a hidden-camera stunt right out of his own show, the tabloid says it captured footage of Hansen on a date with Cristyn Caddell, an anchor at NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, Fla., who is apparently “young enough to be his daughter” (she’s 30 to his 51). The Enquirer reports that it filmed as the pair arrived for dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., then drove to Caddell’s apartment in Palm Beach, where they spent the night. Hansen lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons but has recently been spending time in Florida to investigate the disappearance of James "Jimmy T" Trindade, a local man who left on a boat trip for the Bahamas in 2006 and hasn’t been seen since. A source told the Enquirer that Hansen and Caddell met at a West Palm Beach club during one of Hansen’s trips, and that the two “got on so well that she ended up going back to his room at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach—and later boasted to pals about staying the night with him.” According to the Enquirer, Hansen and Caddell have been involved ever since, regularly meeting in Florida and once in New York.
Read MoreCisco Systems a year ago broached plans for a different kind of tablet, targeting businesses rather than the consumers that Apple mainly targeted with the iPad. Those plans are getting clearer. The big Silicon Valley networking-equipment maker on Wednesday disclosed estimated street pricing for what it calls the Cius –- $750, though Cisco said an introductory promotion could reduce the price below $700. The Cius is scheduled for global availability on July 31. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreLegit News: Actresses reprise roles on Broadway -- Bernadette Peters and Jan Maxwell are set to reprise their lead roles in the Broadway transfer of the Kennedy Center's revival of "Follies," which also will star returning thesps Danny Burstein and Ron Raines.
Read MoreInternational News: BARCELONA -- Jaume Collet-Serra's L.A-based Ombra Films is teaming with Spain's Vaca Films and France's La Ferme to produce apocalyptic horror movie ''Welcome to Harmony.''
Read MoreIn Today's Issue Prime-Time Metered Market Tuesday Ratings: Solid Victory for America’s Got Talent and The Voice on NBC National Ratings in Prime Time: Week of June 20, 2011 Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air Tonight: Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits : Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time: Another Secretary for Murphy Brown __________________________________________________________________ PRIME-TIME METERED MARKET TUESDAY RATINGS: Solid Victory for America’s Got Talent and The Voice on NBC Tuesday 6/28/11 Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only. All times are ET/PT. Household Rating/Share NBC: 8.0/13, CBS: 4.9/ 8, ABC: 3.1/ 5, Fox: 2.3/ 4, CW: 0.5/ 1 Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday 6/29/10): NBC: +38, CW: no change, CBS: - 9, ABC: -21, Fox: -47 Yesterday’s Winners: America’s Got Talent (NBC), The Voice (NBC) Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): Combat Hospital (ABC) Ratings Breakdown: It was an easy Tuesday overnight victory for NBC, which featured a one-hour edition of America’s Got Talent from 8-9 p.m. (#1: 7.9 rating/14 share) and the two-hour final performance show of the season for The Voice , which was above-average at an 8.0/13 from 9-11 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown The Voice (NBC) 9:00 p.m.: 8.5/14 (#1) 9:30 p.m.: 8.0/13 (#1) 10:00 p.m.: 8.0/13 (#1) 10:30 p.m.: 7.5/13 (#1) Effective next Tuesday, a two-hour edition of America’s Got Talent will fill the Tuesday 9-11 p.m. block (out of an encore telecast at 8 p.m.). Second-place CBS populated the evening with repeats of NCIS (#2: 5.6/10), spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles (#2: 5.5/ 9), and The Good Wife (#2: 3.7/ 6), which moves to Sundays at 9 p.m.
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