Posts

Showing posts from July 1, 2011

State of Georgia Preview: Raven-Symoné Returns to TV Tonight

Image
I'm not going to lie, I've loved Raven-Symoné since  The Cosby Show .  And even though I was not even close to being in the key demo for  That's So Raven , I watched it occasionally with my younger cousins.  Raven-Symoné is just so bubbly and fun that I can't help but love her. Tonight, she returns to television in a new ABC Family show called State of Georgia.  Sure, it's a bit formulaic, but it's cute and Raven-Symoné is always upbeat.  She stars as Georgia Chamberlain in this half-hour comedy.  An aspiring actress, she and her best friend Jo (R oswell's  Majandra Delfino), have moved to New York City so that Georgia can make it big.  Jo's socially awkward with a passion for science and strives to be accepted into the Physics department of a top university.   Grey's Anatomy's  Loretta Devine rounds out the main case as Georgia's Aunt Honey, who lets the girls rent out a portion of her lavish apartment. In the premiere episode Georgia heads

CBS Announces Fall 2011 Premiere Dates

Image
After today, NBC will be the only network left to announce the premiere dates for its fall shows.  Below is a list of the fall 2011 premiere dates for CBS' new and returning shows.  For more premiere dates for other networks Wednesday, September 14 8:00-9:00 p.m.  Survivor: South Pacific Monday, September 19 8:00-8:30 p.m.  How I Met Your Mother 8:30-9:00 p.m.  How I Met Your Mother 9:00-9:30 p.m.  Two and a Half Men 9:30-10:00 p.m.  2 Broke Girls  (series debut) 10:00-11:00 p.m.  Hawaii Five-0 Tuesday, September 20 8:00-9:00 p.m.  NCIS 9:00-10:00 p.m.  NCIS: Los Angeles 10:00-11:00 p.m.  Unforgettable  (series debut) Wednesday, September 21 9:00-10:00 p.m.  Criminal Minds 10:00-11:00 p.m.  CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Thursday, September 22 8:00-8:30 p.m.  The Big Bang Theory 8:30-9:00 p.m.  The Big Bang Theory 9:00-10:00 p.m.  Person of Interest  (series debut) 10:00-11:00 p.m.  The Mentalist Friday, September 23 8:00-9:00 p.m.  A Gifted Man  (series debut) 9:

Teen Choice Nominations 2011 Announced

Image
The Teen Choice 2011 nominations are in and below you can find all the TV related categories and nominess. Leading the pack is  Glee  with 9 nominations followed closely behind by  The Vampire Diaries  who have 8. The Teen Choice Awards will air in a two hour live show Sunday, August 7 on Fox. For more nominees in film, sport and music head to the  Teen Choice site  where you can also register to vote (permitting that you are between 13-19). Choice TV Show: Drama Bones Gossip Girl House Make It or Break It The Secret Life of the American Teenager Choice TV Actor: Drama Penn Badgley:  Gossip Girl David Boreanaz:  Bones Chace Crawford:  Gossip Girl Daren Kagasoff:  The Secret Life of the American Teenager Hugh Laurie:  House Choice TV Actress: Drama Emily Deschanel:  Bones Blake Lively:  Gossip Girl Josie Loren:  Make It or Break It Olivia Wilde:  House Shailene Woodley:  The Secret Life of the American Teenager Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Fringe Smallville Supernatural

True Blood Scores A Ratings High

Image
The return of  True Blood  on Sunday saw the ratings see a slight increase in viewers, maintaining the grip that vampires still have on popular culture. 5.4 million tuned in at 9 P.M. to find out what would happen to Sookie and the rest of the folks in Bon Temps; a 6 percent rise from last seasons premiere which was watched by 5.1 million. The executives over at HBO will also be happy by the extra 1 million viewers who watched the encore of the premiere at 11 P.M., bumping up the premiere figure to 6.4 million. These figures were on par with the season 3 finale, showing that a lackluster closer didn't deter viewers in coming back. The clever marketing campaign that HBO ran by revealing the first 8 minutes as well as multiple promos and the  TBWithdrawal  aspect also helped to build anticipation for the return of  True Blood  (other networks really should pay attention to how this campaign was executed). Whilst the percentage rise in viewers between seasons has probably reached a p

Big Brother 13: 'Dynamic Duos of the Past?!', Casting Update,Two HOH Rooms?!

Image
With the premiere of the 13th season of  Big Brother  around the corner, the anticipation and speculation is running rampant with rumors of what viewers are to expect next week when the doors to the  BB  house finally opens. Let's start with the casting first. The  Big Brother 13  Cast Will Be Revealed This Thursday Various media outlets and Big Brother sites are reporting that the cast of  Big Brother 13  will be revealed this Thursday on the  Early Show  @9am Eastern time. The date of the reveal makes sense and gives fans a week to look forward to seeing the Houseguests enter the  Big Brother  house in one week. Expect a slideshow of the cast Thursday and my initial thoughts about each contestant.

Pretty Little Liars: Night of the Dumbest Moves

Image
Love will make you do crazy things, but the young ladies of  Pretty Little Liars  took that sentiment to the next step last night by shooting themselves in the foot with their latest lame-brained schemes in the name of the 'warm and fuzzies.' A sigh doesn't even begin to do justice for the disappointment I have in my Little Liars this week. But that doesn't mean the episode was not jaw-droppingly excellent. While 'A' is circling them like flies drawn to a carcass, the Little Liars compounded their problems by ten by letting their emotions get in the way of executing their common sense skills when it came to deciphering between the matters of the heart and their safety. Let's read down the charges brought against each girl one by one.

Castle Spoiler: Season 4 Premiere's Title Revealed

Image
We are still a couple of months away from the season 4 premiere, but scoop about the fallout following that explosive cliffhanger in the season 3 finale is starting to arrive. Ausiello has revealed today that the first episode of the upcoming fourth season will be entitled "Rise". Pretty suggestive title for a show that ended its third season with a major character getting shot in the chest by a professional killer, right? It's obvious that Detective Kate Beckett will eventually be okay, but the most important thing we should focus on is how she will deal with the consequences of the events that took place during "Knockout". Ausiello has also hinted that two characters will "come to blows in the opening minutes" of the season premiere. Given that the episode is supposed to pick up not long after Kate was shot - according to  Castle 's creator Andrew W. Marlowe - things will be pretty intense from the get go. If I had to venture a guess at who thos

The Voice: Dates Set for Summer Tour

Image
The Voice  is a genuine hit for NBC, so it's no surprise that they're looking to go the way of American Idol  and  Glee  and have organized a live summer concert tour of the show. Eight of  The Voice's  finalist will be performing in the Sprint-sponsored tour: Beverly McClellan, Vicci Martinez, Javier Colon, Dia Frampton, Frenchie Davis, Casey Weston and Xenia. However, fans shouldn't expect to see the four celebrity judges (Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine) during the tour.   THR  is reporting that talks may have broken down over compensation for the judges. In any event,  The Voice  finalists will be appearing at six different venues for  The Voice  Live on Tour: July 27 - Gibson Amphitheatre (Los Angeles, CA) July 30 - MGM Grand Garden Arena (Las Vegas, NV) Aug 2 - Rosemont Theatre (Chicago, Il) Aug 4 - Bank of America Pavilion (Boston, MA) Aug 5 - Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre (Wallingford, CT) Aug 6 - Beacon Theatre (New York,

Alcatraz Nabs LOST's Jack Bender as Executive Producer, Director

Image
LOST  director Jack Bender has joined the new FOX series  Alcatraz  as a director and executive producer,  according to  The Hollywood Reporter . Bender is probably most famous for being the director of many  LOST  episodes. Starting with "Tabula Rasa" (the first episode after the J.J. Abrams-helmed two-part pilot), Bender directed all of the show's important episodes, including favorites such as "The Constant," and "Through the Looking Glass." Bender also directed the show's finale, and since then has been doing very little. He's directed the TV movie  Weekends at Bellevue  and has directed the pilot episode of the upcoming sci-fi series  Alphas.  It seems, though, that Bender is sticking with Bad Robot Productions, signing onto the Liz Sarnoff-helmed  Alcatraz . Before  LOST , Bender worked on shows such as  Carnivale, Alias, Felicity, Ally McBeal,  and  The Sopranos . Alcatraz  follows the story of police officer Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones

Pretty Little Liars Promo & Photos: Episode 2.04 "Blind Dates"

Image
I'm starting to think that the DiLaurentis family mystery is going to play a central role in this season of  Pretty Little Liars .  Who is Jason DiLaurentis hiding in his house?  Is it Ian or someone else?  How does Melissa factor into everything?  And why is she meeting with Wren in the middle of the night? In the July 5 new episode of  Pretty Little Liars, Spencer believes that the communication between Melissa and Ian continues to grow, so she approaches Wren for help in finding answers.  But is he willing to help her?  Are all of the girls ready for what they might find at the end of their search?  By the end of the July 5 episode we should have a pretty good idea what happened to Ian Meanwhile, Lucas scores a date with his dream girl next week, and Hanna decides to help him out.  But the date quickly becomes disastrous and when Caleb gets involved, the situation doesn't look like it will improve.  Emily's mother is happy to brag about her new scholarship, which causes

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Honeycomb tablet finally up for pre-order

Image
Lenovo’s IdeaPad K1 Android tablet has turned up for pre-order at Amazon, priced at $499.99 though with no sign of a ship date at present. What we do get is confirmation of US specs, which are broadly in line withpreviously leaked listings: NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 1GHz processor, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 300 nit capacitive touchscreen supporting 10-point multitouch, and all in a 10.4 x 7.4 x 0.52 inch chassis weighing 1.65 pounds. Connectivity includes a microSD card reader – to augment what we’re expecting to be 32GB of internal storage, based on the 130422U model number – along with a micro HDMI output, 3.5mm headphones socket and a “multi-function connector” that’s presumably to attach docking stations and other peripherals. There’s also a SIM card slot, though no mention of 3G/4G WWAN connectivity of any kind. Lenovo also makes mention of the IdeaPad K1′s “Hardware Digital Rights Management” system, which seems to be used for taking movie and music content on the go, while there’s

HP: Enterprise, not iPad, our TouchPad target

Image
HP has dismissed criticisms of its TouchPad tablet – which SlashGear reviewed earlier this week – suggesting that incoming webOS updates will smooth out any rough edges and that, rather than taking on the iPad 2 in the consumer market, the company’s main target is business users. “We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs” HP VP of worldwide developer relations Richard Kerris told The Loop, going on to point out that the tablet segment is still far from saturated. “This market is in it’s infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow” Kerris insists. “It would be ignorant for us to say that we are going to take it [the market] away from Apple.” Nonetheless, HP is looking to make the most of what advantages the TouchPad and webOS have over the iPad, even if they’re relatively short-lived. “We’re the tablet that when you take it out of the box it doesn’t ask you to connect to something to get started” Kerris

Apple and Microsoft join forces to beat Google in Nortel patent bid

Image
A consortium including Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony has beaten Google and Intel to a cache of potentially vital Nortel patents, after the company’s intellectual riches went up for auction. The consortium paid $4.5bn in cash for over 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning a broad range of wireless, telecoms and online technologies, including 4G, search, social networking and VoIP systems. Google had already put in a $900m offer to open up the proceedings, describing its interest in the patents as “a disincentive for others to sue Google.” In the end, though, the haul went for more than four times that amount, with Ericsson adding $340m to the pot and RIM contributing $770m. “The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world” Nortel CSO George Riedel points out in the company’s press release. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of Q3 2011, though non

Gmail and Calendar refreshed with Google+ matching themes

Image
It isn’t just Google+ which is new from the search giant this week. The company has also kicked off a significant refresh of its Gmail and Google Calendar services, with the interfaces of both getting stripped down. According to Google, “adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex.” Gmail has two themes to choose from, called Preview and Preview Dense, though eventually they’ll be selected automatically depending on the size of the screen you’re viewing your inbox on. Just as most people have already spotted, the modifications echo the new black bar running across the top of the Google search page; there’s also more use of shading and highlight to differentiate sections, and the whole thing looks cleaner. As for Google Calendar, those changes include auto-hiding of the calendar lists, the ability to collapse the mini month-view, and various buttons that were previou

RIM To Consider Splitting Co-CEOs

Image
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has just conceded to examining its leadership structure. The company has been facing mounting pressure since its disappointing earnings call that confirmed product delays and imminent layoffs. The co-CEO structure of Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis has long been criticized by shareholders and the company has finally responded with the possibility of splitting the co-CEOs. An open letter from an anonymous senior RIM exec was revealed this morning that railed off eight key complaints about the current state of the company. As if in response to that and to a shareholder request to split up the co-CEOs, RIM has agreed to make some changes—sort of. RIM’s response seems more like a way to buy some more time in hopes that things will turn around before either CEO needs to get the boot. Instead of allowing shareholders to vote on the matter at the Annual General Meeting, the company will set up an independent committee to study the leadership structur

T-Mobile Samsung Dart Hands-on and Unboxing

Image
Okay guys I have the Samsung Dart here to show you all, amazing I know. This little guy is absolutely what you would call a mid-range Android phone, and saying mid-range is being generous. Lately T-Mobile and Samsung have been pushing some decent little mid-range phones out this summer for all those kids and teenagers that are ready for summer and want a new smartphone for graduation or what not. Most have been pretty decent but this is the lower end of the bunch that is for sure. We’ll start off with a few specs just so you are up to spec. It is small and lightweight Android phone running on Android 2.2 and an old version of Touch Wiz, has a 600 Mhz CPU and a 3MP camera on the rear, but no led flash or anything although you do get a 2GB MicroSD card for all those photos and videos. At first I thought it was a 3.2″ screen like that of the Gravity Smart but quickly found out it was actually smaller, and had a lower resolution. Picture below shows the Exhibit 4G on the left, then Gravity

BlackBerry 6.0 Gets Google Search Update

Image
Amidst the negativity, including a scathing open letter to RIM’s Co-CEOs this morning from another senior exec, the company’s BlackBerry platform saw some updates today that will improve the user experience. The BlackBerry Desktop for Mac app got a 2.1 version that now supports PlayBook syncing and now the Google Search for BlackBerry 6 also gets updated. The announcement comes from Google Mobile Blog, revealing that several enhanced search features have been integrated that will make using Google.com on BlackBerry devices much faster and easier. There will now be autocomplete and search history queries that appear underneath the search box as you type. There will also have more comprehensive results pages with relevant images, videos, news, and more. Image search results can now be swiped through quickly and easily on a touch-enabled BlackBerry device, and a new local search feature lets you quickly find restaurants, shops, and other popular business categories nearby. The improved se

Apple To Ship 12-14 Million iPad 2s In Q3

Image
Despite all the fervor for the Apple iPad 2, the tablet actually shipped with disappointing numbers during its first two quarters of this year. Shipping estimates for the tablet were around 6.2 million units in Q1, but only 4.69 million were shipped. And in Q2 only 7 to 9 million units were shipped. This, however, wasn’t due to any lack of demand, but rather, a shortage of supply. With supply kinks worked out, new reports now suggest a much higher number expected for Q3. Apple COO Tim Cook had attributed the previous low shipment numbers to a major bottleneck the company experienced when they discovered issues with certain components. It was believed to be light leakage issues of display panels from LG, although this was not confirmed. Cook said that they had the “mother of backlogs” and sold all the iPad 2s that they could make. It looks like the problems are worked out now and reports from Asian components suppliers indicate that Apple is greatly increasing its Q3 iPad 2 parts orders

Apple App Store Hits 100,000 iPad Apps Milestone

Image
Apple still dominates the tablet landscape with an ecosystem of apps that has yet to be beat. The App Store has reached a new milestone today, now listing over 100,000 apps designed for the iPad. That’s a huge difference from what competitors, such as Google’s Android tablets, have to offer. The very first Apple iPad was introduced in April of 2010 with the iPad 2 released in March of this year. Apple did have quite a head start with the first competition-worthy Android tablets having only been released in the beginning of this year, such as the Motorola XOOM. However, the growth is still quite impressive, reaching six figures over the last 16 months in iPad apps alone, not counting iPhone apps that also run on the iPad. In contrast, Google’s Android Market currently has only 1,400 apps optimized for its tablets. Counting both smartphone and tablet apps, the Android Market has around 300,000 apps while Apple’s App Store has around 425,000 apps. The late release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Google Chromebooks On Virgin America For Passengers To Demo In-Flight

Image
Google’s first commercially available Chromebooks were released earlier this month after being announced at I/O 2011. In a new effort to promote Chromebooks, Google has teamed up with Virgin America airlines to allow their passengers to test out the notebook at select airport gates as well as in-flight from July 1 to September 30. The Chromebooks run a web-based platform called the Chrome OS with all software running in-browser and via the web. This idea of needing to be connected to the internet at all times to access software and files has many folks wary. Google has assured that most of the apps can be used even offline and that having data stored remotely or in the cloud is actually safer. Still not feeling it? Well, how about try it for free next time you fly Virgin, and they do have some cheap flights. As an incentive, you will get a free WiFi session onboard your flight if you choose to test-out the Chromebook. Select airport gates including in San Francisco, Chicago O’Hare, Bos

RIM’s Damage Control was Blandly Inevitable

Image
What can you learn from how a company takes criticism? Headlines-a-plenty today, as an anonymous “senior RIM executive” takes the time to pen an eight part breakdown of where the Canadian company falls short and what steps it needs to take if it’s to reverse its dwindling market share. RIM arguably did itself few favors with its response, either, a terse and defensive blast that questions the letter’s authenticity – admittedly something we have to take on trust – and then dismisses the concerns with a wave of the hand. [Image Credit: Giles Chiroleu] “It is fair to say” the press team deadpans, “that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.” As an example of an emu response, it’s textbook: get your meaningless soundbite out and then quickly ram your head in the sand, preferably sticking your fingers in your ears at the same time so that not even the faintest criticisms can seep throug

Big Brother 13: Pictures From The Renovated Big Brother House

Image
Summer backstabbing is just almost a week away as  Big Brother 13  is gearing up for another season of treachery and debauchery. The new cast of characters who will bring an abundance of tomfoolery and over-the-top dramatics to complete CBS's annual Crazy Cocktail have yet to be revealed, but rest assured that when the newbies are announced I will not only pick and prod over who will most likely win, but who I will most likely hate as well. While the  Big Brother 13  Houseguests are being interviewed and prepped like a turkey on his way to the slaughter, pictures from the newly renovated Big Brother house have been released to the public. My first impression is that the place is a culture clash of the Boston Season of MTV's  The Real World  and a Bravolebrity's wet dream. The rooms look pretty damn good, but we know that the  BB housemates will decimate the luster of the comfy atmosphere with the funk of drama, stress, and possible bad hygiene. Hopefully the latter will no