Would You Eat These Star Wars Pop-Tarts?

Here at IGN, we pride ourselves in taking video game and entertainment media journalism extremely seriously. And not even just "journalism" in quotes or journalism in italics, but even just the word journalism all on its lonesome!

But when we don't, (which is and should be often because video games and movies are supposed to be fun) we have completely stupid IGN water cooler conversations about terrible marketing opportunities and popular franchise cash-ins we wish existed. Like Star Wars Pop-Tarts: Frosted Han Solo in Carbonites.

So then I made them. But would you eat them?

May The Frost Be With You.

Brian Altano is IGN's Executive Editor of News & Features. He would totally eat them. Be sure to follow him on Twitter at @agentbizzle.

Source : ign[dot]com

IGN UK Podcast #157: GMA-zing

This week a hungover Luke, Keza, Chris and Rich recall the events of last night's Games Media Awards, where our very own Ms. MacDonald won the inaugural Games Writer of the Year award.

We also get round to hazily discussing the biggest news stories of the week as well as ponder just what the hell that mystery trailer of Sony's could be teasing.

Download it here through the magic of mouse-clickery, or saunter over to iTunes at your leisure:

IGN UK Podcast #157: GMA-zing – 31.86 MB

right click to save

Subscribe to IGN's Podcast Series

Remember, if you've got something to say to the IGN UK team, grab us on Twitter page, our Facebook page, or via email at ignukfeedback@ign.com.

Source : ign[dot]com

Catch Me If You Can Caught on Blu-ray

The Spielberg titles on Blu just keep coming! Paramount Home Media Distribution will bring the Oscar-nominated hit, Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, to Blu-ray December 4, 2012.

On a modest $52 million budget, the film, based on the extraordinary true story of Frank Abagale Jr, a young man who forged checks and posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, grossed over $350 million worldwide.

Catch Me If You Can will come to Blu-ray with a digital remastered 1080p hi-def presentation, mixed in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. Extras will be ported over from the original two-disc DVD set. Goodies include the following:

• Catch Me If You Can: Behind the Camera
• Catch Me If You Can: The Casting of the Film:

- Leonardo DiCaprio as “Frank Abagnale, Jr.”

- Tom Hanks as “Carl Hanratty”

- Frank’s Parents: Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye

- The Strong Family: Martin Sheen and Amy Adams

- Jennifer Garner as “Cheryl Ann”

• Scoring: Catch Me If You Can
• Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction:

- Meet Frank Abagnale

- Frank Becomes a Pilot

- Frank’s Careers

- Frank Gets Caught and Turns His Life Around

• The FBI Perspective
• Catch Me If You Can: In Closing
• Photo Galleries:

- Cast

- Behind-the-Scenes

- Costume Design

Suggested retail for the Blu-ray is set at $22.98. You can pre-order the film on Amazon for $16.98.

Be on the lookout for a review of Catch Me If You Can in December! And hopefully this announcement means Paramount is only a few months away from releasing Munich on Blu-ray. Fingers crossed.

"Do you realize how many great advancements of mankind have been tied to speed? This is a moment in history, right here, right now." Become a friend of R.L. Shaffer on Twitter, Facebook or MyIGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!

Source : ign[dot]com

Amazon Unveils New Products, Partnerships

Today at a media event in Santa Monica, Amazon announced an assortment of heavily-rumored products, including a new Kindle eReader.

The backlit 'Paperwhite' Kindle reader will surely tempt to eReading aficionados. The new eReader sports a white background that is reminiscent to paper, easier on the eyes, and is gently backlit.

The new Kindle has 25% more contrast, 212 PPI, 62% more pixels. It also has a more accurate touch capacitive screen. Light Guide took 4 years of research and development. "It's exactly like ambient light."

They're going to leave it on all the time, so they worked on 8-week battery life even with the light on.

The new Kindle is 9.1mm thin, 7.5 ounces.

The new Kindle also comes with a brand new feature, called "Time to Read." By clicking the bottom left corner, the Kindle will tell you how much time is left in the chapter, and how much time it will take you to finish the book. The Kindle tracks your average reading speed, adjusts the timers based on your individual reading speed.

The new touchscreen paperwhite Kindle will sell for $119, and will ship October 1st. The 3G version offers free 3G at $119.

The $79 Kindle has also received a minor upgrade, with faster pageturns a black body, a price drop, and a "new name: the $69 Kindle."

New Kindle Fires

Amazon updated its Kindle Fire with a faster processor, doubled the RAM, and cut the price by $40. For only $159 you can get a pretty serious 7-inch tablet.

But the Kindle Fire bump was small news when compared to the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon's new tablet, which has an 8.9" HD IPS display, at 1920 x 1200 resolution at 254 PPI.

The Fire HD has an OMAP 4470 processor, made by Texas Instruments.

Amazon has updated their display, which features 25% less glare with a laminated screen. The Fire HD also has dual stereo speakers, two antennas, and a MIMO-capability, which supposedly makes the internet 41% faster internet than the iPad, and 54% faster WiFi than the Nexus 7.

Amazon also unveiled a feature across their tablets capabilities, called Whispersync. Whispersync will save your progress in a book, even if you're listening to it as an audiobook. For Games, Whispersync saves your progress, unlocked levels, and more. If you ever have to reinstall your games you won't have to start over.

The Fire HD will start at 16GBs.

No word yet on pricing or release date.

Developing...

Nic is the Editor of IGN Tech. He loves technology almost as much as The Great Gatsby, The Idiot, and Life of Pi. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

The iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup Continues

While the media's patience wears thin and the Android platform continues to grow its market share, the 'net is bursting with iPhone 5 rumors ranging from the plausible to the laughable and everything in between.

Source: T3

The most believable (and corroborated) set of Apple hints now surrounds the unannounced device's release date. iMore reported today that, coinciding with an iPhone 5 event, pre-orders for the next-gen smartphone would begin on September 12, or nine days before the alleged release day.

All of this information comes to iMore by way of "sources who have proven accurate in the past," a character we've seen a few times before, and since.

Source: BGR

His distant cousin, BGR's "trusted source" and apparent AT&T insider, also outed a late September release window for the iPhone 5, citing a rescheduled employee training event and an "all hands on deck" policy as the reasons for suspecting that timing.

The Apple press conference on September 12 is almost certainly the platform for Apple's iPhone 5 announcement, but the question is whether or not release will follow so quickly. For comparison, the iPhone 4, which released over two years ago (a longer development timeline that most), was announced on June 7 at WWDC 2010, then introduced to store shelves June 24 internationally. Apple is no stranger to surprises, or to swift turn-around times, so the September and October rumors sound like reasonable guesses.

Over the past week, images and even video have "leaked" from Japanese manufacturers, French journalists, and American speculators. The footage swam over the Pacific from Japanese site Macotakara to deliver a purported first full look at the casing that will be holding the new iPhone. While this seems to be in line with other ideas about the wraparound middle-back cover, there's no way to know if the video is a good-looking farce or the real deal.

Source: iPhone 5 Guides

Other rumors about the casing and display have circled around a 4-inch screen and a thinner, higher-resolution LCD panel.

Blogs all across the tech-interest sphere have been claiming for months that the days of the 30-pin iPhone dock connector won't continue with the iPhone 5. Although a consensus on the smaller connector has yet to be reached, it's not unthinkable to imagine that Apple may be going to the micro-USB standard, if changing at all.

Leaked images of what may be the iPhone 5's motherboard have also given rise to some spurious speculation. While some contend that the SIM card slot from the pictures looks to support micro-SIM cards, those infamous sources are claiming some insider knowledge about nano-SIM cards for the iPhone 5.

IGN will be on-hand at the September 12 event and keeping tabs on all the rumors (and eventually facts) about the iPhone 5 and Apple's next generation of mobile devices.

Sources: 9to5 Mac, The Verge, Macotakara, BGR, iMore

Dan Crabtree is an I.T. guy and freelance writer with words on IGN, and a league of other gaming news outlets. His dog is considered handsome and well-read. You can find him (the human) on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Charlie Sheen Talks WWE/Daniel Bryan Storyline and His Potential SummerSlam Appearance

It was a bit of an awkward situation for the WWE recently when the man they’d promoted as their “Social Media Ambassador” for the 1000th episode of RAW, Charlie Sheen, quit Twitter just a couple of weeks that episode aired – cutting off his main social media connection in the process.

Sheen ended up appearing on the 1000th episode periodically via Skype, which ultimately led to a war of words between the actor and wrestler Daniel Bryan – which, given how WWE operates, most fans assume is setting up some bigger confrontation between the two, likely at SummerSlam, which will take place in Los Angeles again.

Wrestling Wrap Up: WWE RAW’s 1000th Episode

That potential turn of events hasn't been met enthusiastically by some WWE fans, who’d prefer Bryan not be in a storyline so outside the wrestling world. But for the time being, there hasn’t been any actual confirmation on Sheen returning to WWE or specifically at SummerSlam.

Today, at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, I had the chance to ask Sheen about his recent appearance on WWE RAW and the controversial actor said, “Well, the numbers worked for us. Because I cancelled Twitter, I had to do that as a backup plan. It was fun. It was the deepest into that world I’d ever gone. And I guess the guy who was egging me on is a real problem. And he and I will solve that later. Print that.”

Sheen then added, “It was a promotional tool for our show [Anger Management] and I think everybody is going to win on that one. But it was exciting just to step into a different world that I didn’t ever really believe existed – and still don’t!”

When I asked him if perhaps he might look to solve those issues at a televised event on August 19th (as in, SummerSlam), Sheen replied, “Oh, there’s gonna have to be a lot of money on that one, but yeah, if it’s the right look at that moment, sure, why not?”

All of which would seem to imply... It’s probably a safe bet you’ll see him there. The question is, do you want to see him there?

Source : ign[dot]com

Could Ptch be the Instagram of Videos?

The production company behind Shrek and Madagascar thinks it has the next killer social media app on its hands.

Referring to Instagram’s unlikely success among a sea of photo-sharing apps, Dreamworks Animation CTO Ed Leonard told Fast Company, “They had a very particular vision about creating something that had a strong point of view and ease of use. We're trying to do a similar thing in the world of media mashup."

Ptch, available now for video-equipped iOS devices, allows users to mix, share, mashup and re-remix media content with friends. The app is more involved than many existing social video apps, but giving users more editing options than filter selection should make for better videos.

Ptch’s dead-simple drag & drop interface lets you import content (the Ptch team calls it “Living Media”) from your camera roll and other social networks, and lets you mashup video clips with photos, add captions or a soundtrack, and apply “themes” for a finishing touch. Ptches are limited to 60 seconds, so your friends can’t subject you to more than a minute-long montage of how cute their kids are.

Sound familiar? The Ptch team acknowledges they’re not the first social video app. The spin, they say, is the option to make your Ptches available to friends for further remixing and mashing-up. So if you post a video from an Arcade Fire concert, I can replace the audio with a Coldplay song and make you look like a sap. Ha!

Ptch is a free download in the app store. The app team, which is being run as a startup within Dreamworks, plans to generate revenue from micro-transactions—licensed audio & video content, premium “themes”, etc. Unfortunately, no plans have been announced to let you pitch your Ptch-es to Dreamworks Pictures; looks like your Bee Movie sequel will have to wait.

Source : ign[dot]com