With the launch of the Apple iPad, along with the rise of tablet-based devices in general, the mainstream tech media began to sound the death knell for dedicated eReader devices, the Kindle included. Surely they would be eclipsed by tablets that could do far more than just read books, right? Well, not so fast. Amazon seems to have a trick or two up their sleeve with the latest iteration of their device, dubbed the ‘Kindle 3.’

Right out of the gate, the Kindle 3 has positioned itself at a price-point far below the iPad and even below some of the Android-based tablets that are starting to pop-up in the sector. The latest Amazon Kindle 3 ($139/Wi-Fi Only; $189/3G+Wi-Fi) lowers the price of entry while adding a long list new features and improvements.

The latest eReader from the retail giant features a faster 6-inch e-ink display with improved contrast, a sleek new graphite color, an included leather cover with integrated LED light, a new WebKit-based browser, and double the storage. It’s unclear why, however Amazon has dubbed their browser “experimental” at this point. Perhaps there are some bugs that need to be worked out with browsing on this device?

Be sure to hit the jump for all of the drool-worthy specs of Amazon’s latest Kindle 3.

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In the previous millennium, when I was an idealistic young thing attending Barnard College, the women’s college affiliated with Columbia University, there was a lot of talk about who before us had walked the hallowed halls: anthropologist Margaret Mead, writers Edna St. Vincent Millay, Zora Neale Thurston, Francine du Plessix Gray, Patricia Highsmith and Ntozake Shange, recent United States ambassador to the U.N. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, musicians Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Vega (whose song “Luka” was then on all the airwaves), NPR’s Susan Stamberg, nationally syndicated columnist Anna Quindlen, choreographer Twyla Tharp, pre-Omnimedia Martha Stewart, whose daughter had also recently attended.

We students looked up to these women, our heroes. No trivia about them was too slight to swap and discuss. But I can only remember a couple of times when the name Joan Rivers was mentioned, and then only with a smirk. It seemed unbelievable that someone like her—brash, crass, undignified, disfigured by plastic surgery even then—could have once been part of our very serious undertakings in academia and feminism. Above all, we were earnest, and serious, and she was not.

The truth is that we failed to recognize Rivers for the pioneer she was. Those were the early days of “Seinfeld.” The backstage world of stand up comedy was still a mystery. There was no Comedy Central. We had no idea how brutal the world was in which she had risen. What a boy’s club. We were feminists, but we still thought we had to be ladies, or at least decorous. We disapproved of Joan Rivers.

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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• The Fantastic Four reboot is still happening, and now with a completely CG Thing.

• We can’t wait for Stone’s Social Network, but these parody posters are pretty damned entertaining as well.

• Because we love lists, Adult Swim brings us a list of the Most Invasive Surgeries on the network. Mind you, this is before Children’s Hospital aired.

• Leonardo DiCaprio has passed on Mel Gibson’s viking picture. We can only imagine what that phone call sounded like.

• Want do get women like Don Draper? The Mad Men School of Seduction can help.

• The second half of Caprica‘s first season gets a trailer, and it looks pretty cool.

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With Comic-Con still pretty fresh in our minds we bring you yet another photo gallery so you can get more of an idea of what the show was really like. This gallery, which features pretty much the rest of our collective group of photos taken by your favorite Flickcast team members, features costumes, babes, booths and even a few celebs.

When you click through to look at the gallery prepare to be entertained, amused, captivated and maybe even be ready to learn something. Actually, you probably won’t really learn anything except that Comic-Con was pretty awesome.

But heck, you already knew that, didn’t you? Enjoy the gallery and prepare to be amazed.

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Now that things have settled down a bit and we’re getting back to what we call normal here at The Flickcast we can get back to our usual Friday business of bringing you previews for new TV shows. Today, as we often do, we’ve got previews of Syfy’s Eureka and Haven to share with you.

First up on a Eureka episode entitled “The Story of Oz” Carter visits Zoe and a rocket race gets, well, explosive. Just the ting you want to do in a town full of quirky geniuses, make things explode.

Next up on a Haven episode entitled “Consumed” Audrey investigates her past and a mysterious agrarian ailment. That’s the thing with pasts, sometimes they should stay buried. Unfortunately, sometimes you also have to dig them up, with tragic or unwanted results.

Things kick off tonight on Syfy at 9/8C with Eureka followed at 10/9C by Haven. Check out previews for both shows after the jump.

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Gene Simmons coming to Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock isn’t much of a surprise. He is as synonymous to rock ‘n’ roll as he is with sexual promiscuity. The man does call himself the Demon on stage when in full KISS attire after all. Much like Ozzy Osborne’s appearance in Brutal Legend, Gene will take on one of the legendary rock figures, the Demi-God of Rock.

In addition to being a figurehead of the game’s Quest mode as explained in the video below, Gene is also the narrator of the game. The trailer also begins to explain the transformation of the Rock Warriors into their special forms and the benefits received once enough stars have been collected. It is definitely a different take on the Guitar Hero formula than what has previously been presented but it feels like a good move for the series.

While Rock Band is moving towards a more realistic view of the music genre, Guitar Hero is embracing the fun of the metal lifestyle with harder songs and more dramatic imagery in an effort to set itself apart and give it its own signature feel.

Take a peek after the break at the new “Quest Mode” trailer and some new screens for the game. Plus, we’ve also got the “Re-Record” trailer for you as well.

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I’ve been a fan of director Gareth Edward’s film Monsters since I first saw the film during SXSW many months ago. I gave it a positive review and was particularly impressed with Edwards’ ability to craft a story, have interesting characters and have cool monsters all in the same film.

In the months following the film’s debut at SXSW it has picked up a distributor, played at several more festivals and should be coming to you soon enough. To help move that along and get you interested, Magnolia Pictures has released the first trailer for the film out into the wilds of the Internet.

In it you get to see a glimpse of what Edwards’ film has to offer and regardless of the comparisons to something like Cloverfield, Monsters deserves to stand on its own eight feet, er, tentacles. Watch the trailer and then watch the movie when you can. You won’t regret taking the chance.

Check out the trailer after the jump. And keep checking back here for all your Monsters info as I will be keeping track of this one and whatever Edwards does next.

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The Kids Are All Right opens with shots of 18-year-old Joni (a wonderful Mia Wasikowska) playing scrabble with friends and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) sniffing a crushed Sudafed with his skateboarding buddy Clay, all to Vampire Weekend’s “Cousins.” Joni and Laser are gorgeous, smart and nice. Despite the minor drug use and usual teenager angsts, they are, for the most part, very much all right.

But this movie is really about their parents—their mother Nic, a perfectionist, workaholic OB-Gyn (played by Annette Bening, who has made a career specialty out of wound-tight women), and their other mother, easy-going, nurturing earth girl Jules (a very fine Julianne Moore), who has maybe let her life slide past her. A long-married couple, Nic and Jules have, as parents do, put their kids first for so long that they have lost touch with themselves and each other.

And yet they remain very self-aware and caring people. When they question Clay’s rightness as a friend, it comes couched in a language of earnest self-actualization and higher consciousness that is both insightful and ridiculous: “It’s just that he seems… untended.” And “Is he the kind of friend who will help you grow?”

Untended Joni and Laser certainly are not. Nic and Jules are extremely conscientious parents, and a great deal of the humor in the early part of this film comes from the overmothering Joni and Laser endure. Nevertheless, Laser feels the lack of a male role model and it is at his urging that Joni, having recently turned eighteen, the age at which she can legally request contact, learns the identity of their sperm donor and gets in touch with him.

The sperm donor is Paul, played by the miraculous Mark Ruffalo, who can shade a dozen layers of feeling and thought into a single moment. I’ve sometimes found that his extraordinary openness can come off as ambivalence, but his characterization of Paul is founded on a bedrock of emotion. Paul is not only open to contact with Joni and Laser, he welcomes it.

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Being in the movie news game usually makes it easy for us to know about all the new and upcoming projects. It’s our job. Every so often, however, a film sneaks by and makes everyone in the office do a double take. The film in question this time is Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage.

There were a few posters for the film surfacing last week at Comic-Con, but nobody knew much about the project — until now. The first trailer has hit the net, and the film looks to be a tribute to classic Ray Harryhausen films with actual use of stop motion animation.

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage comes from TV sci-fi director David Winning and from the plot synopsis, this project looks to be quite an adventure. “When the Sultan’s first born is taken by an evil sorcerer, Sinbad is tasked with traveling to a desert of magic and creatures to save her.”

Not enough for you? Did we mention Patrick Stewart is narrating the film as Sinbad? That alone should be reason enough to check out the trailer after the jump.

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage is set to hit theaters on January 1, 2011. Until then, check out the trailer after the jump.

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All week long, we’ve been bringing you coverage and interviews with the people who brought us DC’s newest animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood. We spoke with star Bruce Greenwood, who talked about working with the talented John DiMaggio, who fans know best as the voice of Futurama’s Bender.

John has lent his voice to other DC properties, such as Batman: Brave and Bold and Superman: Doomsday, but now he’s taking on one of the biggest roles in DC’s rogues gallery: the Joker.

John brings a quiet insanity to the character, similar to what Ledger brought to the role, but differing from Mark Hammil’s vaudevillian approach to the character. And being the killer of a teenage boy, he needs all the insanity he can bring.

Check out our interview with DiMaggio after the jump, as he discusses his doubts in his performance, as well as his dedication to the fans for resurrecting Futurama. Batman: Under the Red Hood is currently in stores.

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What ultimately surprised me about this comedy is how sweet it is underneath the prickly premise. Based on a more scathing French film called The Dinner Game (1998), this Dinner has been toned down a bit for American audiences but it still has a bit of bite.

Paul Rudd plays Tim, a mild mannered businessman trying to get a promotion at work. He has earned the promotion but is forced to deal with typical office politics in order to seal the deal. He is horrified to find out that the good old boys at the office partake in a monthly dinner party in which each man brings the biggest idiot they can find to amuse the masses. They ask Tim to join them in a few days, promising that if he can find such a person, the job is all his.

Tim wrestles with the moral dilemma he faces. He’s visibly disgusted with the whole idea, but he really, really wants the job. He has been trying to get his beautiful girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) to succumb to his marriage proposal, and he believes that if he is financially secure she’ll be more likely to take the plunge.

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The remake none of us were waiting for, and that has been rumored for a year, has finally been made official today. You will soon once again be seeing Total Recall at a movie theater near you.

Columbia Pictures officially announced Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard, Underworld films) as the director for the project. It has been report that he will be working off a script written by Kurt Wimmer, who recently wrote Salt and Law Abiding Citizen. Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents over at Columbia Pictures, stated that negotiations are almost finalized.

The original Total Recall, was based on the immortal Philip K. Dick’s story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. The original follows Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Quaid who is a seemingly unsophisticated construction worker, who is haunted by a recurring dream of journeying to Mars.

He buys a literal dream vacation from a company called Rekall Inc., which sells implanted memories. It turns out he is a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth, and he must restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence that commercial powers had over the red planet.

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