The Flickcast – Page 567 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

Apple Releases OS X 10.6.5

As of a few minutes ago, Apple released its Mac OS X 10.6.5 update to its flagship Mac operating system. Some of the bug fixes, improvements, etc. in this release include:

• improve reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers
• address performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture
• address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
• resolve a delay between print jobs
• address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
• resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
• address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
• resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
• improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
• resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
• improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
• resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5

Some good improvements there to be sure. Also, be on the lookout for an update to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch pretty soon in the form of iOS 4.2, coming soon . . .

If you update today be sure and let us know if you have any issues. We’re firing up Software Update as we speak. Or, you can always wait for the combo update if you feel like it. Should probably be along shortly.

Austin Comic Con Announces Full Lineup

Austin is home to some great festivals and other events. From SXSX to Fantastic Fest the town certainly has more than its share of pop culture events. Another event coming up is the Austin Comic Con which starts this Friday and goes through Sunday at the Austin Convention Center.

The event features speakers such as writer/director Tim McCanlies, Harry Knowles, Bionic folk Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, Billy Dee Williams, Walter Koenig, comic art superstar Joe Madura and Buffy’s Clare Kramer and Nicholas Brendon. For more info, check out all the details in this full press release for the event.

Celebrity Q&A panels, Film Screenings, “Drink & Draw” and Costume Parade highlight Austin Comic Con This Week
Austin Film Festival Screenwriters Panel, Artist Panels, Masquerade Ball and AMC’s Walking Dead Episode Preview Also Set

NEW YORK and AUSTIN, Texas—November 10, 2010 – A wide variety of entertaining and informative panels and comic industry sessions are among the programming offerings scheduled at Wizard World Austin Comic Con, this Friday through Sunday at the Austin Convention Center. Featured panels include Austin-based heroes such as screenwriter and director Tim McCanlies, film critic and pop culture guru Harry Knowles and filmmaker-wunderkind Emily Hagins. Austin Comic Con is sponsored by Austin Books & Comics, Alamo Drafthouse, Austin Chronicle, 101X FM and Dragon’s Lair.

Day programming begins on Friday with the popular “Wizard Art School,” as noted Marvel and DC artist Greg Horn leads a discussion on digital art, beginning at 2 p.m. in Room 9. Indy art sensations Rob Guillory (Chew) and Kody Chamberlain (Sweets) discuss their breakout Image hits in “The Art of Chew and Sweets” at 3 p.m. in the same room. Also at 3, in Room 8, “The Incredible Hulk,” Lou Ferrigno, sits down for an exclusive Q&A about the classic show and his status as a pop culture icon. At 4, the Women of Wrestling take the stage, as Torrie Wilson, Amy Dumas, Lisa Marie Varon, Christy Hemme and Jackie Haas discuss their special role in the sport of wrestling, in Room 8.

Continue Reading

The Flickcast – Episode 77: Popeye’s Revenge

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are on duty and discussing, dissecting and, in some cases, dissing some new movies, TV shows, comics, games and geek stuff. Among the topics this week are more on The Walking Dead, the debut of Conan’s new talk show, upcoming films Skyline and Friends with Benefits, George Lucas and the new Force Unleashed II video game, the Back to the Future Trilogy on Blu-ray and the bizarreness of Robert Altman’s 1980 film Popeye.

Of course, the guys also made new picks for your enjoyment this week including Matt’s pick of the drama spoof Fatal Instinct, featuring Armand Assante and Sherylin Fenn, and Chris’ double pick of Call of Duty: Black Ops and the upcoming Skyline, which hits theaters this Friday.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Review: ‘Morning Glory’

Let’s cut to the chase: I loved this movie.  It’s one of the best surprises of the year, and it’s a riot. The cast gels wonderfully, Rachel McAdams is adorable, Harrison Ford has his best role in years, and Diane Keaton is her kooky lovable self.

A superb cast is well utilized in this movie that takes us behind the scenes of a morning show called Daybreak. I have no idea how realistic the scenes about the production of a show are, but it is awfully fun to get a glimpse into the inner workings of a television show.

Almost every household has a morning show on in the background while the family bustles to get out the door, so the setting seems familiar and friendly. Becky (Rachel McAdams) is a plucky, high strung television producer who has just lost her job working on a morning show in New Jersey.  She receives an offer from fictional network IBS to try to salvage a sinking ship of a morning show calledDaybreak.

Daybreak consistently limps into fourth place in the ratings behind the other network shows.  Becky is warned that they lack everything they need for success-money, viewers, and  respect.

During her first meeting with the show’s crew she establishes her authority by firing the smarmy co-anchor (Ty Burrell, making a brief but memorable appearance) and answering a dizzying array of questions that are hurled at her in rapid succession.

Continue Reading

Tech Review: NoiseHush N650 Solar Powered Bluetooth Car Kit

Let’s admit it: it may be against the law in several states, but there are still plenty of people who still use their handheld cell phone while driving. Of course, that has a direct correlation with the amount of car accidents, which means it’s time to embrace the technology that will eliminate the need to take your hands off the wheel. That’s where the N650 Solar Bluetooth Car Kit from Noise Hugh comes in.

This bluetooth kit requires no hands, no ears, and most importantly, no cords. One of the main pains with bluetooth kits is having yet another cable reaching from your car outlet to the kit cluttering up your dashboard. The N650 is 100% solar powered, which it can take in through your windshield, so no wire clutter needed.

A main factor in deciding your bluetooth kit is, obviously, whether or not you can hear and be heard. The folks at Noise Hush definitely take their name seriously, as you can talk–with the radio up–and still be heard. The device also offers echo cancellation and full noise reduction.

As for hearing the other end, the device is basically one big speaker, so you should have no problem doing 55mph on the highway and hearing the other half of your conversation.

Continue Reading

Uwe Boll’s Newest Masterpiece, ‘Blubberella’, Gets A Trailer

Uwe Boll has given up. At least, that’s what he’s trying to give the impression of. From the man who brought us films like Postal, Rampage, and an upcoming documentary on Auschwitz, comes Blubberella, a film about an overweight half-vampire who takes her hungry vengeance out on Hitler and his band of Nazis.

If Lloyd Kaufman were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave at the thought that Boll is making films that could be considered more vulgar and pointless than his films. As if you needed any kind of proof that this film will be obscurely bad, cult hero Clint Howard is cast as a Nazi scientist in the film.

Boll regulars Lindsay Hollister and Michael Paré also join in the cast. You may remember Hollister as Steve Carell’s lonely overweight dance partner from Get Smart, and you may remember Paré from other decent films like Streets of Fire and The Philadelphia Experiment.

The film is begrudgingly making it’s way to theaters next year, but you can check out what we’re talking about with the full trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

Continue Reading

Game Review: ‘Pinball FX 2’ for XBLA

Pinball FX 2 is the most recent XBLA release from Zen Studios and a followup to their 2007 homage to the classic pinball arcade coin op machines of bowling alleys and arcades past. The game goes for a realistic feel in both gameplay and visuals and stops itself from becoming too videogamey. With the exception of a few changes in camera angle for special instances, nothing is really present to distract from the actual pinball experience players are expecting.

Gameplay:

Pinball FX 2 feels like a real classic pinball machine. The controls couldn’t be simpler. The bumpers on the controller act the same way the side buttons on the classic arcade machines would as players spend hours trying to rack up obnoxiously high scores that few ever achieve on a variety of tables. A player can also tap the analog stick to shake the table, but as with a real machine doing so too much will cause a tilt, ending the players turn.

The tables of Pinball FX2 all do a good job of differentiating themselves from each other with very different layouts and puzzles. Some are more challenging with increasingly varied puzzles while others are smaller in scale. The nice thing is players get the chance to try out tables before they purchase them. Since the game takes an a la carte approach, players aren’t forced to purchase more than they want with tables only costing about $2.50 each.

Continue Reading

New Browser ‘RockMelt’ Tightly Integrates Social Features

New browsers don’t come around very often. So us users are pretty settled-in, mostly sticking to tried-and-true browsers like IE, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari or perhaps for the adventurous types, Google’s Chrome or Opera. And while all of these browsers work well enough, and given the recent trend in browsers to slim down the features and focus on performance, it’s especially unusual to see a new browser that seems to be heading the opposite direction.

Meet ‘RockMelt,’ the social-enhanced browser backed by the likes of Mark Andreeson, the man who created the Netscape browser back when HTML was is its infancy. RockMelt, which is based on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser, aims to distrupt the market by tightly integrating social networking and baking it right into their new browser software.

You may expect it to play nicely with properties like Twitter and Facebook, and it does, but it goes far beyond that by taking your Facebook account and integrating it right into the browser. No need to open a new tab, visit Facebook, potentially log-in, and so on. It’s all right there. Frequent and somewhat routine tasks like sharing and search take on a whole new meaning within the RockMelt browser too.

Continue Reading