Category Archives: News

What to watch this month: ‘Orphan Black,’ ‘Kimmy Schmidt,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & more

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Winter is coming to television this month. That’s right–Game of Thrones makes its long-awaited return and the world will know the fate of beloved character Jon Snow. With Thrones also comes one-two comedic punch from HBO, Silicon Valley and Veep. Elsewhere, the Walking Dead spinoff takes the high seas, Orphan Black journeys further down the rabbit hole, Kimmy Schmidt begs to be binged, AMC is preparing a miniseries starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. It’s a jam-packed month for new TV. Jump after the break for premiere dates, posters, and previews. Continue reading What to watch this month: ‘Orphan Black,’ ‘Kimmy Schmidt,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ & more →

Kanye finally gives in, drops ‘The Life of Pablo’ on all major streaming services

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Despite his efforts to lock down his new album exclusively on Tidal, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo is finally available to stream across the other major services including Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music. Whether or not this decision was made by Kanye or his record label Def Jam may forever remain a mystery. Whatever went down behind the scenes, though, ultimately doesn’t matter; fans of Kanye’s music who simply wouldn’t succumb to subscribing to Tidal just to listen to TLOP (myself included) now have many options to hear the new music. Previously Kanye had also said that TLOP would never be put up for sale. Though a physical copy of the album still remains nonexistent, ‘Ye is selling it as a digital download on his website for $20, for those of you who prefer to own music as opposed to streaming it.

If you follow Kanye on Twitter, then you’re well aware about the “living breathing changing creative expression” that is The Life of Pablo. Since the album’s February release, ‘Ye’s been going back into the studio to update many of TLOP‘s tracks including “Wolves” which now features Sia and Vic Mensa again. At the very end of March, Def Jam told The New York Times that “a newly updated, remixed and remastered version” would be uploaded on the aforementioned streaming services. The label went on to say that “In the months to come, Kanye will release new updates, new versions and new iterations of the album.” So, if you want to capture TLOP as it plays now, it’d be wise to download the digital copy for keeps.

Now that my TLOP boycotting phase is over (that extended exclusivity window was wack!), excuse me while I plug in my headphones and bump ‘Ye’s latest collection.

Snapchat encourages cohesive communication in latest app update

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The ever-evolving social media and communication platform Snapchat received a major update today, and this one effects the way users chat with friends. Typical software updates have enhanced the app’s flagship feature, you know, sending snaps; fun filters, lenses, and geofilters make snaps unique and even more personal. This latest update, however, focuses on a completely separate section built into Snapchat, one that has been yearning for an overhaul for some time now. I’m talking, of course, about Chat.

When we first launched Chat, our goal was to emulate the best parts of face-to-face conversation. Chat 1.0 was all about the joys of being here — when most apps told you when your friend was typing, Chat let you know that your friend was listening. Two years later, we’ve learned a ton about how people talk, but our goal remains unchanged. We want Chat to be the best way to communicate — second only to hanging out face-to-face.

Chat 2.0 is here. So, what’s new? Click on to find out. Continue reading Snapchat encourages cohesive communication in latest app update →

Apple announces newer, smaller iPhone & iPad, springs fresh Watch band collection

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Today, Apple CEO Tim Cook led a town hall meeting packed with press to introduce new products including expected, iterative updates to iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Though the presentation did not include many surprises, it was still an exciting affair, especially for those of you who are still clutching your 4-inch iPhone 5s for dear life. Looking to upgrade your iPad but the iPad Pro is too big for you to lug around town? You too will also like what you see here. Own an Apple Watch and want to spice up your band collection? Look no further. Go on, jump after the break for a full breakdown of all the major announcements coming out of Apple’s latest keynote. Continue reading Apple announces newer, smaller iPhone & iPad, springs fresh Watch band collection →

Sony solidifies PlayStation VR launch details with bundles starting at $399

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Virtual reality is on the cusp of going mainstream. While VR innovators Oculus and HTC are readying their headsets, Sony is prepared to attack the market with PlayStation VR. You see, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require powerful computers to run effectively, and not everybody invests in such pricey machinery. PS VR, formally known as Project Morpheus, simply requires a PlayStation 4 video game console to run, and Sony has the most potential to succeed here first because it can rely on its 36 million PS4 units sold since the console’s release in 2013. No doubt about it–advantage: Sony.

As we inch closer to fall, Sony’s finally made some key launch details known. PS VR releases this October starting at $399. At that price you’ll get the VR headset and all of the required cables plus stereo headphones. On launch day (still TBA), the PlayStation Store will offer a free copy of The Playroom VR so new owners of the headset will have an immersive game to demo when friends come over.

What doesn’t come in the $399 package is the PlayStation Camera and PlayStation Move motion controllers, the former a required PS4 accessory to make PS VR work. The Camera tracks your movement and the controllers bring your arms and hands into the action. The Camera ($49.78 at Amazon) and Move motion controllers ($28.85) have always been sold separately from the PS4. When PS VR comes out, however, Sony has also prepared a “launch bundle” that will include the Camera and two Move motion controllers, in addition to an exclusive title PlayStation VR Worlds. This $499 package will be available to preorder starting Tuesday, March 22 at 10AM ET at participating retailers, including Amazon. The aforementioned “core bundle,” which assumes that you at least already own the Camera, will not be available for preorder at this time. Update: Sony’s performed an about-face here and has decided to make the core bundle available for preorder on Tuesday, March 29 at 10AM ET.

Launch lineup and spec talk after the break. Continue reading Sony solidifies PlayStation VR launch details with bundles starting at $399 →

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ comes home in April with bonus content galore

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Chewie, you’re coming home. Disney’s announced that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will become available to own next month. It initially rolls out across digital platforms on April 1, followed by Blu-ray and DVD releases on April 5. A 3D version is also in the works for those of you with capable living room setups. Both the Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack and DVD releases will come packaged with lots of bonus content including a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary including exclusive interviews with the cast and filmmakers. For the full breakdown of bonus content, which also includes deleted scenes and featurettes on building BB-8 and an inside look at John Williams crafting the iconic score, pop after the break.

Now here comes some more good news (or sour news), depending on your perspective. Disney is teaming up with retailers Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and its own Disney Store to offer fans even more exclusive bonus content. Each retailer offers unique collector’s packaging and special goodies inside. For example, Target’s includes 20 minutes of new content including exclusive interviews with the cast and a special look at the movie’s costumes and weaponry. The Disney Store, on the other hand, is including a limited lithograph set inside. All of this extra stuff is welcome, but retailer-exclusives pretty much forces fans and collectors to hunt down various copies of the same movie! Be sure to click after the break where you’ll find images of these bundles and links to order them.

J.J. Abrams latest resurrection was a box office smash, breaking records left and right. It’s most significant record has to be outpacing James Cameron’s Avatar to become the highest grossing domestic film of all time. It raked in $928.79 million in North America (compared to Avatar‘s $760.51 million). It could not, however, steal the golden crown from Avatar. Cameron’s technological marvel performed better internationally and that amounted to a worldwide gross of $2.79 billion. The Force Awakens ended up resting at a still wildly impressive $2.05 billion overall gross. Continue reading ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ comes home in April with bonus content galore →

Status update #7 on your favorite new and returning shows

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The fun never stops in TV land. Here’s our seventh status update on the fate of your favorite new and returning shows. ABC dominates the scene here having renewed the majority of its lineup in one fell swoop. Get your fix below.

ABC is feeling extremely confident about the bulk of its primetime lineup. To prove it, the Alphabet network has handed early renewals to 15 of its current drama and comedy series. Fairy tale drama Once Upon A Time will return for a sixth season next fall, and so will its Sunday night companion, freshman FBI drama Quantico. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t going anywhere, having secured a fourth season under its belt. Sitcom Fresh off the Boat, another Tuesday night entry, will continue for a third season. ABC’s Wednesday night lineup remains in tact; The Middle (season 8), The Goldbergs (s4), Modern Family (s8), and black-ish (s3) are all coming back next season. The same can be said for Shonda Rhimes’ “TGIT” Thursday night lineup that includes Grey’s Anatomy (s13), Scandal (s6), and How to Get Away with Murder (s3). Elsewhere, reality veterans Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, Shark Tank, and America’s Funniest Home Videos are staying put on the network. ABC has yet to seal the fates for the following series: Castle, Nashville, The Muppets, Last Man Standing, Dr. Ken and midseason entries American Crime, Galavant, and Agent Carter.

Jump after the break to discover what else has been greenlit recently for another go-around! Continue reading Status update #7 on your favorite new and returning shows →

What to watch this month: ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Daredevil,’ ‘Bates Motel,’ ‘The Americans’ & more

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Spring is fast approaching as we enter the month of March and typically this would mean that most shows begin their sprint to the May sweeps and then hibernate until fall. That’s still true, but today we live in a different TV landscape where networks are prone to promote and debut new and returning series throughout the year, not just in September and midseason. Throw in streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and this March all of a sudden is the new September in TV land. Preview the many must-see shows premiering this month after the break. Continue reading What to watch this month: ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Daredevil,’ ‘Bates Motel,’ ‘The Americans’ & more →

Flight of the Conchords announces summer tour featuring new material

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Your favorite folk comedy duo is going on the road again! Bret MacKenzie and Jemaine Clement, the two halves that make the whole band Flight of the Conchords, are kicking off their first U.S. tour since co-headlining 2014’s “Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Tour.” The name of the tour, fittingly, is “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords” and it will make 28 stops this summer. It begins in Cleveland, OH on June 11 and wraps in Los Angeles, CA on July 27. In between it will hit up major cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, San Fransisco, San Diego, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Boston, and New York City. Jump after the break to see all tour dates and locations, and click here to point your browser to ticket landing pages. Tix go on sale this Friday, March 4 at 10am.

According to a press release, Bret and Jemaine will showcase brand new material on the summer tour. Longtime fans are well aware that new FOTC songs are rarities ever since the band’s HBO sitcom ended after two memorably fun seasons. The Grammy-winning duo referenced a U.S. tour this past summer and shared their enthusiasm about bringing their music back to the stage. “I really don’t like the studio part of music. I more enjoy playing live and letting others take care of the recording,” said Clement.

Set to electric mandolin–Flight of the Conchords are coming to town! Continue reading Flight of the Conchords announces summer tour featuring new material →

Leo, ‘The Revenant’ & ‘Mad Max’ win big at 88th Oscars

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Let’s not bury the lead here. Last night at the 88th Annual Academy Awards, audiences were witness to a feat once thought maddeningly impossible: Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor. We did it! His movie, Revenant, went into this years Oscars with 12 nominations and came away with 3; in addition to Leo’s momentous win, the Academy also awarded the painstakingly gritty film’s director Alejandro G. Iñárritu with his second consecutive Best Director win (see last year’s Birdman) and it also won for Best Cinematography. The film with the most wins of the night was Mad Max: Fury Road. It swept the majority of technical categories including Best Sound Mixing and Editing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production and Costume Design. Spotlight surprised at the end of the ceremony when it was crowned Best Picture; earlier in the night it won Best Original Screenplay. Elsewhere, Inside Out was named Best Animated Feature, 87-year-old composer Ennio Morricone was recognized for his already iconic score set to Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, and Ex Machina deservedly managed to beat out Star Wars, Mad Max, The Martian, and The Revenant for Best Visual Effects. Click here for the full list of winners.

The show itself, though it ran long by 30+ minutes, was relatively entertaining throughout. Host Chris Rock ran with the #OscarsSoWhite diversity problems surrounding the telecast leading into it. No doubt his controversial monologue resonated with audiences; muted laughs and applause told the story well. Personal highlights throughout the night included surprise appearances from Star Wars, Toy Story, and The Minions characters and a powerfully emotional musical performance by Lady Gaga. And of course, Leo is now an Oscar-winning actor.

Facebook extends the Like button with new Reactions, Twitter adds GIFs & Snapchat offers on-demand geofilters

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The Like button has been a Facebook staple since 2009. It gives the social network’s massive user base a quick and easy way to react to posts shared. Over the years, the Like button has heavily influenced the way we interact with media across other social platforms including Facebook-owned Instagram and competitors Twitter, Periscope, and Vine. Simply tap to tell a friend you acknowledge and like what they’re saying. But therein lies the issue, and today Facebook took a major step to remedy it.

Say your best friend is having a bad day because his family pet passed away, or she didn’t get accepted into her first-choice college. “Liking” posts of this nature really doesn’t make any sense now does it? And yet we still do it, since clicking that thumbs up button tells your friend that you’ve read and sympathized with them (without you having to actually comment on the matter).

Introducing Reactions, “an extension of the Like button” that gives Facebook users more ways to react to a post. Now if it’s not appropriate to “like” something, you can express love, humor, excitement, sadness, and anger. The Like button remains, but now if you hold down the Like button on mobile or hover over it on desktop, you’ll be presented with a heart icon representing Love and four emoji faces aptly named Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry. It’s almost as if the cast of Pixar’s Inside Out came to save the day!

It’s interesting to note that Facebook put a lot of effort into choosing these specific reaction emotions. “For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most,” says company Project Manager Sammi Krug in a blog post. “We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer.”

Curious as to why they simply didn’t add a “Dislike” button? “It would have been too binary,” Krug told Engadget. “This way, though, you’ll have more ways to express yourself. That’s the goal.”

Want to try out the new Reactions? Facebook is rolling out the new feature across its desktop and mobile platforms worldwide starting today, so be on the lookout for it!

Learn about new updates at Twitter and Snapchat after the break. Continue reading Facebook extends the Like button with new Reactions, Twitter adds GIFs & Snapchat offers on-demand geofilters →

Kendrick Lamar steals the show at performance-heavy Grammys

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The 58th Annual Grammys were all about the performances last night, and for the most part, they did not disappoint. Among the many beautiful duets, it’s hard to point a finger at which one was best. Early on we got Andra Day and Ellie Goulding belting out “Rise Up” and “Love Me Like You Do” and later breakout artists Tori Kelly and James Bay showed off their magical harmonies with their hit songs “Hollow” and “Let It Go.” Sandwiched in-between there was an impromptu performance shared by a cappella group Pentatonix and the iconic Stevie Wonder. The awards ceremony also showcased a stripped down version of “In the Night” by The Weeknd, the one and only Adele (whose technical issues couldn’t take away from her remarkable rendition of “All I Ask”), Brittany Howard’s pipes with her soulful band Alabama Shakes, and Lady Gaga–assisted by Chic’s guitarist Nile Rodgers–wowed the crowd with a colorful tribute to the late, great David Bowie. The ultimate showstopper, though, was Kendrick Lamar who eloquently rapped his way through his To Pimp A Butterfly hits “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright.” The theatrically poignant performance started with Kendrick in prison chains and ended with a freestyle that touched on the “modern slavery” plaguing African American communities in our nation today. It truly was one for the ages and I think we can all say in unison that Kendrick Lamar is the voice of hip hop for our generation.

Kendrick is among the big winners of the night; he took home a Grammy for Best Rap Album (To Pimp a Butterfly). Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars claimed Record of the Year with “Uptown Funk,” Taylor Swift’s 1989 was crowned Album of the Year, and Ed Sheeran’s popular ballad “Thinking Out Loud” was named Song of the Year. Meghan Trainor (somehow) ended up beating out James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly, and Courtney Barnett for Best New Artist.

Head over to Grammys.com to view the full list of winners.