Thursday, August 23, 2007

Resurrecting the Champ (2007)





When a struggling reporter encounters a former boxing champion living on the streets, his journey to uncover the truth becomes an opportunity to reexamine his own life.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: When a struggling reporter encounters a former boxing champion living on the streets, his journey to uncover the truth becomes an opportunity to reexamine his own life.
Genres: Drama, Adaptation and Sports
Running Time: 1 hr. 51 min.
Release Date: August 24th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence and brief language.
Distributors:
Yari Film Group
Production Co.:
Battle Plan Productions, Phoenix Pictures
Financiers:
Yari Film Group
Completion Bond Provider: Film Finances, Inc.
Filming Locations:
Calgary, Canada
Produced in: United States

War (2007)





An infamous assassin, named Rogue, sets off a crime war between rival Asian mobs. An FBI agent is determined to bring down the killer after his partner is murdered.

Also Known As:
Rogue
Rogue (Lionsgate)
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Action/Adventure, Thriller and Crime/Gangster
Running Time: 1 hr. 31 min.
Release Date: August 24th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong bloody violence, sexuality/nudity and language.
Distributors:
Lionsgate
Production Co.:
Fierce Entertainment, ACE Media
Studios:
Lionsgate
Filming Locations:
Vancouver, Canada
Produced in: United States

The Nanny Diaries (2007)






A 21-year-old New York University student becomes a nanny to a family on the Upper East Side who turns out to be the family from hell.The story of the journey of Annie Braddock, a young woman from a working-class neighborhood in New Jersey, struggling to understand her place in the world. Fresh out of college, she gets tremendous pressure from her nurse mother to find a respectable position in the business world although Annie would prefer to trade in her blackberry for an anthropologist's field diary. Through a serendipitous meeting, Annie ends up in the elite and ritualistic culture of Manhattan's Upper East Side--as remote from Annie's suburban New Jersey upbringing as life in an Amazon tribal village. Choosing to duck out of real life, Annie accepts the position as a nanny for a wealthy family, referred to as simply "the X's." She quickly learns that life is not very rosy on the other side of the tax bracket, as she must cater to the every whim of Mrs. X and her precocious son Grayer, while attempting to avoid the formidable Mr. X. Life becomes even more complicated when Annie falls for a gorgeous Park Avenue Hottie, and she's forced to explore her identity as never before.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: A 21-year-old New York University student becomes a nanny to a family on the Upper East Side who turns out to be the family from hell.
Genres: Comedy and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.
Release Date: August 24th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language.
Distributors:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)
Production Co.:
FilmColony
Studios:
The Weinstein Company
Filming Locations:
Toronto, Canada
New York, New York, USA
Produced in: United States

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)





In his latest misadventure, Mr. Bean--the nearly wordless misfit who seems to be followed by a trail of pratfalls and hijinks--goes on holiday to the French Riviera and becomes ensnared in a European adventure of cinematic proportions. Tired of the dreary, wet London weather, Bean packs up his suitcase and camcorder to head to Cannes for some sun on the beach. But his trip doesn't go as smoothly as he had hoped when the bumbling Bean falls face first into a series of mishaps and fortunate coincidences, far-fetched enough to make his own avant-garde film. Wrongly thought to be both kidnapper and acclaimed filmmaker, he has some serious explaining to do after wreaking havoc across the French countryside and arriving at his vacation spot with a Romanian filmmaker's precocious son and an aspiring actress in tow. Will Bean be arrested by the gendarmes or end up winning the Palme d’Or?
Also Known As:
Bean 2
Bean II
Bean Sequel
French Bean
Mr Bean's Holiday
Mr. Bean's Holiday
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: Mr. Bean travels to the South of France on holiday, causing the usual mayhem and ending with an unscheduled screening of his video diary at the Cannes Film Festival.
Genres: Comedy, Adaptation and Sequel
Running Time: 1 hr. 28 min.
Release Date: August 24th 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: G
Distributors:
Universal Pictures Distribution
Production Co.:
Working Title Films, Tiger Aspect Productions, Canal Plus, Motion Picture ETA Produktionsgesellschaft
Filming Locations:
France
London, England UK
Paris, France
London, England, United Kingdom
Produced in: United States

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

How-To: Beware of the Fake "Nokla N95" Phone

As if buying cell phones on ebay wasn't annoying enough already, with a bajillion things that you should know, it's about to get a lot worse - at least if you're thinking of purchasing a Nokia N95 phone.

Learn how to spot the fake Nokia N95.

Learn how to spot the fake Nokia N95 in this How-To.

Behold the "Nokla N95" touch-screen smartphone. A clone of the N95 that's manufactured by some scrubby company in China. Sellers claim that the phone has a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and even a touch-screen display! Unfortunately what they usually don't tell you is that the "Nokla" is dual-band 900/1800 which makes it pretty useless in the USA.

How to spot the fake Nokia N95 phone

The good news is that it's a clone, but not a very good one. There's some telltale signs that you need to watch out for when it comes to the N95.

Spot the differences between the Nokla N95 and the Nokia N95 - front view

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two phones, frontal view. Note:

The stylus-driven menu buttons (red box). The fake N95 has a "touch-screen" with a stylus, and the easiest way to spot the counterfeit is by checking this area. If you see a row of little icons (compare to the real N95, bottom), then it's a knock-off.

Wrong buttons and no dual-slide. (yellow and green boxes) In place of the real N95's Menu/Multimedia Key buttons, the fakey N95 has a Play button (yellow box) and a Stop button (green box). This is mainly because it doesn't have a dual-slide mechanism, so whoever designed the knock-off dropped the playback buttons anywhere. And since there's no Symbian OS, there's no need for the menu buttons either.

Back view of the real and fake N95s:

Back of the Real and Fake Nokia N95

The Color. The real Nokia N95 comes in two colors: Silver/Plum and Silver/Sand (sort of a silvery-yellowish color). The plum and sand colors refer to the back cover of the phone (which includes the sides too). However, the counterfeit has a back cover that's black.

Lens Cover Thumb-Switch (orange box). Doesn't exist on the fake N95, but very prominent on the real thing.

Nokia Logo (teal box). When the two phones are looked at from this angle, note the difference in the logo placement, size, and direction (it's flipped on the fake).

Some random camera oddity on the fake (purple box). Not sure what this piece is supposed to be, but there's some random design on the Nokla N95 (the knock-off) that's in the shape of a 3. Don't be fooled!

Also note that the buttons on the fake look cheaper and are raised slightly higher than they're supposed to be.

Some more pictures as a reference (the fake N95):

The Nokla N95 open.The Nokla N95 in the box.The Nokla N95 in...a different box.

If an auction refers to a "replica", "Nokia N95-inspired", "NOKLA", or sounds way too good to be true, avoid it like the plague.


The latest Nokia cell phone blog entries can be found on the main page.

DVDFab Platinum 3.1.7.0




DVDFab Platinum is all you need to backup DVDs. DVDFab Platinum 3 is brand new, is completely rewritten, is based on 5 years of DVD copy software development.
DVDFab is simply the easiest way to copy a DVD movie. Just insert the movie and a blank DVD then press Start. Your entire movie - including menus, trailers and special features - is copied to a single DVD with just one click, and everything happens automatically.
Backup your entire DVD - including menus, trailers, and special features - onto one or multiple discs.

FEATURES:

A. DVD to DVD
1. 5 DVD to DVD copy mode available: Full Disc, Main Movie, Split, Customize and Clone.
2. Full Disc: All movies, menus and trailers, is copied to a DVD with just one click.
3. Main Movie: Just copy the movie, with specific audio/subpicture.
4. Split: Copy a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5 discs with 100% quality, and preserve original menus on both discs. Ideal for episodic/season DVD movies, TV series, etc.
5. Customize: Personalize your DVDs! Want to make a DVD with only your favorite titles? How about cutting out those annoying commercials? Or selecting specific audio/subpicture? No problem! You can select just your favorite titles, specify the title playback order, with or without original menus, to create a DVD with only the stuff you want!
6. Clone: Make perfect 1:1 bit-to-bit copy of DVDs:
--- Make perfect dual layer DVD copy by using the original layer break position.
--- Copy data DVD disc, like PS2 DVD.
7. Very fast copying speed, normally it's about 10 - 20 minutes.
8. Burn to any blank DVD Disc (DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL).

B. DVD to Mobile
1. 3 DVD to Mobile copy mode available: Generic, iPod and PSP. More devices support can be added manually.
2. Generic: Convert DVD title to PC MPEG-4/DivX/XVID/H.264 AVI/MP4 file.
3. iPod: Convert DVD title to Apple iPod MPEG-4/H.264 MP4 file.
4. PSP: Convert DVD title to Sony PSP MPEG-4/H.264 MP4 file.

C. Benefits
1. Remove all DVD copy protections, like CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs, ARccOS, RipGuard, FluxDVD, CORE X2, etc.
2. Constantly updated to support latest DVD copy protections.
3. Backup scratched/dirty disc:
--- Even if some information (IFO) cannot be read, you can still copy Main Movie or Customize.
--- Recovery from DVD reading (VOB) error.
4. Constantly updated to support latest DVD burners and blank DVD discs.
5. Constantly updated to support more mobile devices.
6. FREE lifetime upgrade.
7. FREE lifetime support via e-mail, worldwide.

Works on Windows Vista/XP/2000/98/ME.

August 20th, 2007
DVDFab Platinum 3.1.7.0 Updated!

New: Added support for a new ARccOS protection as found on "Half Past Dead 2" (R4).
New: Added support for a new CORE X2 protection.
New: Verify disc to make sure it's burned correctly.
New: Added option "Verify disc after finished burning" in "Settings -> DVD -> Write".
New: Added AutoPlay handler on Windows Vista.
New: Added display for actual DVD size, like "Quality: 56% (7655 MB -> 4300 MB)".
New: Added support for DVD image file ".img" and ".nrg".
New: Updated language files.
Fix: "Error while reading" in certain cases.
Fix: Workaround for authoring error as found on "The World Is Not Enough" (US).
Fix: A crash problem in certain cases.
Fix: Several minor problems.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Adobe Photoshop Elements v5.0.2



Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 software combines power and simplicity so you can do more with your photos. Instantly fix flaws or adjust color and lighting with new advanced controls. Quickly drop your photos into customizable layouts and show off your creativity with dynamic web photo galleries created using Flash technology. And view all your photos and video clips in one convenient place.