Juicy to the Core: This week in Apple News

It's been quite a fun week for Apple. For those of you only slightly paying attention, I'm gonna give you a quick run down!

Last week, negativity came against Apple for the iPhone devices allegedly recording and retaining GPS information of the users. Apple admits that iPhone GPS info is, in some cases, gathered anonymously and transmitted to its servers in an encrypted fashion, but Apple says the information is not retained.

 However, developers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden recently revealed that the iPhones keep an unprotected record of everywhere they've been on the devices themselves. Thus, as is the next logical step these days, 2 idiots have decided to sue. Vikram Ajjampur and William Devito are the assholes who, no longer content with hours upon hours of enjoyment Apple and their iDevices have given them, claim that Apple is "secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users", and are pushing for a class-action suit.

Wednesday night marked the Season Premiere of South Park on Comedy Central, and the episode was Awesome!! I don’t want to give away TOO much, cuz I highly recommend you catch the ep on a re-air, but it again showcased South Park’s uncanny knack for remaining the most topical and timely cartoon ever produced.

The episode was a send-up of not only the 2009 Horror film The Human Centipede, by writer/director Tom Six, but also Apple’s recent “stranglehold” over the market place with their smart devices, and their “customer oppression” by way of their “contracts” and consumer monitoring. The result? Poor Kyle becoming slave to Steve Jobs’s and Apple’s newest technological breakthrough – the HUMANCENTiPAD. Glorious!!

And last, but not least, this week marked the debut, FINALLY, of the eagerly awaited, White iPhone 4! Is it cool looking? You bet! Is it worth actually going out to buy? … eh … No. It’s not. At least not for Apple devotees. For general consumers that have been planning to upgrade to a smart phone, and just kinda a want a good one right now? Then, yeah. White iPhone 4 is for them. You’ll have the coolest, most gawked over phone on the train.

Everyone else already ran out and bought the BLACK iPhone 4 when it was released for Verizon back in February (raises hand), and/or they are waiting for the iPhone 5 which should be announced/released in the next 2 months or so. The only question for them is - how important is it for you to have a White iPhone, and how soon? One can assume that Apple will eventually release a White iPhone 5, but there’s no telling when that will be. 

THE VOICE in my head ...

Admittedly, I was all set to tear apart NBC's newest singing competition show, The Voice; Tuesdays @ 9pm. The comparison to FOX's American Idol is immediate and expected, and within the first several minutes of watching it, the similarities are all so blatant. The cheesey and smarmy back stories of the contestants ... the contrived in-fighting between coaches a la Paula v. Simon ... even the "get-to-know-you and hang out with your family while you perform" host Carson Daly who, despite his competency, is NO Ryan Seacrest. Plus the show being billed as "about  TALENT alone"? Oh please. Get over yourself.

But then, maybe 15 or 20 minutes into it, a funny thing happened. I actually started to LIKE it. The coaches (not "judges") compete against EACH OTHER to assemble a crew of 8 potentially great singers into their stable, only making selections based on what they hear. Once they "approve", they swing around to see just WHO they put a bid in for and that's when it becomes interesting. The coaches only have till the end of the song to decide if they want to work with the contestant or not, and once its over, it is then the CONTESTANT'S choice of who's team they want to join. So there you see the coaches, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, and country music star, Blake Shelton, doing the pleading, groveling, petitioning, and ass-kissing to get the contestants to choose them.

And just how ARE the coaches? - Pretty good! Snaps to Mark Burnett Productions for assembling an excellent and capable crew with a good amount of chemistry. Cee Lo is the best of bunch, being "part Randy Jackson, part Steven Tyler". He's easily and obviously the most knowledgeable of the 4 and shows a real interest in actually making someone a star. But Adam Levine is very good too, being the "Paula" of the group, with none of the crazy, yet twice the genuine sincerity. He and Cee Lo play off well with each other. Blake is the "Simon" - hard-nosed and straight up, like any good country singer should be. The most difficult to impress, but seems almost as capable a coach as Cee Lo when it comes to singers he's actually interested in. And then there's Christina Aguilera. Unfortunately, she's "J.Lo meets Kara DioGuardi, with a dash Paula thrown in". Kinda useless, X-tina couldn't care less about the singers up on stage. She's in it for the bicker-flirting with Levine and promoting herself every chance she gets. But that's ok. I've learned to respect and appreciate Aggie for all her screwball antics as of late.

So I suggest that you check it out and get in on the ground floor. The Voice is very entertaining overall with some good singers, some great coaches, and a fun mechanic. A nice little surprise was Frenchie Davis, former American Idol contestant that got booted due to some ... *ahem* .... scandalousness ... showing up to compete. It's nice to see her still going for it, as well as other musical hopefuls who would never make it on Idol aside from the "let's laugh at the Freaks" segments during the open auditions. (although my favorite PART of Idol) 

NBC's finally got a winner with this ... I think The Voice is gonna be huge and Idol should be paying close attention.

Game ... Over. A street fight that ends the only way it could ...

Ahhhh ... Just like the good old days. An old fashioned parking lot brawl. 2 combatants going at it, trying t prove their point. A gaggle of their peers innocently enough bystanding, awaiting the outcome. And the standard expectancy of today - someone whipping out a digital device to record the show and share.

Oh, but did I mention that the 2 people slugging it out aren't "people" at all? Nope! Street side skirmishes are no longer solely reserved for just humans! Check out what happens when these two GEESE decide to throwdown! ... Seriously ... It's an ending that you won't see coming ... or maybe you will :)

                  

I scream, u scream, we all SCREAM 4 ...

The 4th installment of the Scream franchise which only took 11 years since the last one to come out. Scream 4 finds Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott returning to her hometown to promote a book she'd written about her experiences, only to face some new copycat killers putting on the Ghostface mask, and making unnerving phone calls to would-be, slash-potential victims.

Is Scream supposed to be "scary" at this point? I'm gonna say - No. Scream has always been a semi-comedic homage to slasher movie/horror films. Penned by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, both masters at what they do best, the original gave an intelligent wink and smile to the genre, while offering unexpected shocks and genuinely scary elements at the same time.

Of course what everyone remembers is the twist at the end of the 1st film with Billy and Stu being revealed as the killers. Unfortunately, however, 3 sequels later, that's all that remains. Waiting for the big "whodunit" reveal at the end, all the while ignoring the fake-outs of the movie making u SUSPECT who it might be ... tripping and yawning it's way through a bare semblance of a plot.

Character development is all but out the window as we just watch the body count rise and (I guess) we're left to appreciate the "new" and "inventive" ways the teenagers get chopped up. Scream 4 still has the "self-referentialism" (not a real word) and "socio-pop culture examination" (not a real term) as its predecessors, but it all feels tacked on and a bit hollow.

It's got the obligatory jam packed cast of young hollywood, but it also cradles the unnecessary: Anthony Anderson as a cop? Does he REALLY need to still be playing these roles at this point in his career? Adam Brody as another cop? Does anyone even remember who that IS anymore??

the rating system:

Loved it - one of the best movies I've seen in a long time and worth every cent of the ticket price. I can't state enough how much u need to go see this movie ...

Liked it - it was an enjoyable flick for the most part and I'm glad I watched it. Will I run out to buy it when released on video? ... Probably not.

Leave it - ranging from the truly forgettable to the "wait a minute ... that didn't make any sense" in the 1st 5 minutes after I leave the theater. Basically - a whole lotta nothin.

Loathed it - a movie that literally makes me ANGRY after I exit and for days and weeks after. Angry that I wasted my time and money, and angry that such a piece of shit was ever made and that people actually received payment to do so.

the verdict:

Leave it. The only good in Scream 4 was Hayden Panettiere who's terrific in her role, cute as hell, and finally succeeding in again making me a fan. Rory (better than Macaulay but not as good as Kieran) Culkin was very good as well, but the original cast of Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox Arquette just seemed bored, while new star Emma Roberts and cameoers like Shenae Grimes, Kristen Bell, and Anna Paquin were just as useless as they are in everything ELSE they do.

The movie suffered from going back in the same well way too often and not pulling up anything new ... even though it seemed to think that it did.

Cool Pics From The Web...

Yet another batch of cool artwork from the web! A double dose on St. George's Day for you!

Smurfs 3D - New Poster

Below is a new poster for the upcoming Smurfs 3D movie, a guilty pleasure I know I'll enjoy regardless of how bad it turns out to be!

Marvel Parodies Lil Darth Vader Volkswagen Commercial For Thor Movie!

Remember that awesome Volkswagon Superbowl ad with the super-cute little Darth Vader?

Now Marvel have done a parody vid for the upcoming Thor movie which is just as cool.

Doctor Who Airs Tonight On BBC1 - Pics Galore!

I think just about everyone I know is excited about tonight, the night that Doctor Who returns to our screens for its 6th action packed season.

Below are a number of screen shots and promotional images to whet your appetites, and remember - someone supposedly dies in tonight's episode! I'm betting River...