‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ generates $400 million in 24 hours, bests its predecessors to become biggest entertainment launch of all time

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Infinity Ward’s latest first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched one week ago on November 8 and on that day the game sold over 6.5 million units in North America and the UK generating over $400 million in sales. MW3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Does this all sound familiar to you? Well that’s because this is the third consecutive year that the Call of Duty franchise has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment. It started in 2009 when Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies and generated $310 million in sales; and then it happened again the very next year when Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies and made $310 million.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick shared his enthusiasm about the franchise’s success in a press release. “We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories. Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings,” two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”

Same time, same place next year, people?

[Via PRNewsWire]

Xbox.com undergoes cosmetic changes, promotes a “Social” landscape

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Before the fall dashboard updates arrives to Internet-connected Xbox 360s, Microsoft flipped the switch on updating its Xbox website. The homepage has been revamped to feature content in the “Metro”-style layout that is coming to Xbox and with Windows 8. The “My Xbox” section of the website has been renamed “Social” and this is the new destination where gamers will go to login to their Xbox Live profiles away from the their consoles. The updated Xbox Live portal is organized in four categories. Home gives gamers a quick glimpse at their recent activity, their friends’ recent activity, online friends, messages, Xbox Live events and related news. Friends provides a list of all your Xbox Live friends, online and off. In Messages you can read and send messages to your friends. And in the Activity section you can view your recent activity, out of your friends who recently played the games you did, and you can view all of your played games, achievements, and gamerscore information. Also in this section you can set Beacons, a marker that notifies your friends that you want to play a certain game with them. You can have up to three Beacons active at a time, and you can add custom descriptions. For example, you can set a Beacon for Halo 3 and add a description like “Let’s play from 7-10 PM.” No matter where you navigate in Social, your avatar will follow you, as will links to view your account, redeem codes, add Microsoft Points, view your Download Queue, and visit your profile. In addition to updating the My Xbox section of the site, Xbox Live members can now browse, preview, and download media such as movies and TV shows in a browser and this content will be attached to your Live account; this means that all downloaded media can be viewed on any PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone that your Live account is connected to. Check out the new Social portal at Xbox.com right now!

[Via Xbox Forums]

Droid RAZR by Motorola available now for $299 on Verizon Wireless

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The latest edition to the Droid smartphone family is officially available for purchase. Verizon launched the super slim and sleek Droid RAZR on November 11, 2011 at precisely 11:11 AM. If you’re ready to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon Wireless, the modern RAZR can be yours for $299.99. The 4G LTE handset can be purchased at Verzion stores and online. If you feel like brushing up on the phone’s specs, flash back to the mid-October introduction.

Mars500 crew returns home from simulated mission to space

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Well here’s a story worth following up on. Last summer a six man crew embarked on a simulated journey to Mars, in Moscow, Russia. On Friday November 4, the Mars500 experiment concluded and all six crew members returned “home” healthy, safe and sound. For 520 days the team essentially pretended to fly to the distant Red Planet, explore its features, and return to Earth. Their objective was to simulate the psychological and physiological stresses of a real space mission to Mars, and according to the latest reports the data collected from this experiment will indeed be useful for further space exploration. When he stepped out of hatch of the Mars500 spacecraft, European Space Agency participant Diego Urbina said this: “On the Mars500 mission, we have achieved on Earth the longest space voyage ever so that humankind can one day greet a new dawn on the surface of a distant, but reachable, planet.” And for that we are all thankful and truly impressed, might I add. Though weightlessness was not experienced for obvious reasons, the team was forced to wear space suits and endure many other symptoms of a space mission including communication delays. Even though they were stationed on Earth, messages sent to and from the Mars500 simulator could sometimes take up to 25 minutes to reach its destination. During their trip, stress and hormone levels, sleep patterns and moods were monitered closely and dietary supplements were tested. For science! And the future of real space exploration! Watch the crew return to Earth in a video embedded after the break.

[Via BBC News; Engadget] Continue reading Mars500 crew returns home from simulated mission to space →

Barnes & Noble announces Nook Tablet, updates and drops prices of Nook Color & Nook Simple Touch

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Kindle Fire, meet your head-to-head competition. Today Barnes & Noble announced their latest e-reader, the Nook Tablet. On the outside, the Nook Tablet looks nearly identical to its predecessor the Nook Color. This time around, it’s almost entirely what’s on the inside that really counts. The Tablet is fast, packing a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The 7-inch multitouch screen (1024 x 600) displays 16 million colors ultra-bright and features full IPS lamination to reduce reflection and glare and offer extra-wide viewing angles and clarity. The display can play full HD 1080p content. Battery life is quite impressive, too. The Tablet offers up 11.5 hours of reading time or 9 hours of video viewing. There’s 16GB of onboard storage, and this can be expanded with an SD card. Built-in WiFi allows for web surfing and downloading books, magazines, newspapers, comic books, apps and other content. (Note that though the Tablet runs Android Gingerbread, users will not have access to the Android Marketplace.) It’s thinner than the Color weighing in at 14.1 ounces and it features a soft touch back design. A built-in microphone allows users to take advantage of the new Read and Record feature which allows parents to record narration and let their kids play it back when they’re reading their favorite stories. The newest Nook also sees an upgrade in entertainment selection. It comes preloaded with Netflix and Hulu Plus apps for movie and TV show selections (Flixster with UltraViolet is coming soon) and Pandora, Rhapsody, Grooveshark, and MOG are available for streaming music.

During their press event, B&N highlighted their Tablet’s advantages over Kindle’s Fire. In addition to featuring a better display with superior viewing angle, more than 2X the memory, a lighter design, more RAM, and better content rendering, Nook Tablet owners will also have the assurance that if they ever need product support they can visit a local Barnes & Noble store to resolve their issue. That is something Amazon sadly can never offer as it is strictly an e-tailer. The Nook Tablet is now up for preorder at $249 and it releases next week on November 18. That is a fat $50 more than the direct competition coming from Amazon, so be careful when you’re shopping this holiday season.

Besides announcing the Nook Tablet, B&N also took time to refresh and make cheaper their other e-readers. The new and improved Nook Color will ship with B&N’s “largest software update ever” that will bring Netflix, Hulu Plus, and music streaming apps to the device, as well as a refreshed library and enhanced shopping experience. The new Color ships this December at $199. Existing owners of the Color will automatically receive the update at no cost over WiFi next month. And finally there’s the tried and true Nook, now renamed the Nook Simple Touch. It will also come preloaded with a software update that will enable better battery life (users can read for up to 2 months for one hour a day). The update, which is now available for existing Nook owners to download, also makes the screen crisper and the page turn rate faster. The rebranded Nook Simple Touch is available to buy today at a low $99 with “no annoying ads.” Stings a bit, doesn’t it Amazon? Game on.

[Via Barnes & Noble] Continue reading Barnes & Noble announces Nook Tablet, updates and drops prices of Nook Color & Nook Simple Touch →

YouTube musician Kina Grannis has fun with jelly beans in new stop-motion music video

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Have you ever heard of jelly bean art? Well it exists. And now so does a jelly bean music video. YouTube star Kina Grannis wrote a song called “In Your Arms” and developed a music video with director Greg Jardin involving 288,000 jelly beans. The insanely impressive stop-motion video, which includes a total of 2,460 individual frames, took 22 months (1,357 hours) to complete. Sure the song is catchy and Grannis has an infectious charm about her, but it’s the sheer level of dedication put into this music video that has elevated to viral status. In under a week it has amassed about 1.5 million well deserved views. After you wipe the saliva off your mouth when the video ends (and that’s either because you’re so impressed or you’re craving Jelly Belly jelly beans, or both) make sure you jump after the break to watch a seven minute making-of video that shows just how much hard work and patience was required to make the music video a reality. With “In Your Arms” Grannis has proved she’s a creative force to be reckoned with, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Continue reading YouTube musician Kina Grannis has fun with jelly beans in new stop-motion music video →

Jimmy Fallon becomes Justin Bieber to sing “(It’s Not My) Baby”, teams with Timberlake for another History of Rap

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If you’ve been following the last in pop culture news, then you should be aware that a 20-year-old California woman filed a paternity suit against teen idol Justin Bieber. Biebs is denying it of course, but that doesn’t mean late night host and Bieber impersonator Jimmy Fallon can’t play around with the hit single “Baby” and intelligently turn it into “(It’s Not My) Baby” noooo! Jimmy hits all the right notes and Roots rapper Black Thought plays a convincing Ludacris feature in the spoof embedded above.

And as the post title alludes to, Jimmy teamed up with Justin Timberlake yet again for “History of Rap 3.” That one’s waiting after the break. Continue reading Jimmy Fallon becomes Justin Bieber to sing “(It’s Not My) Baby”, teams with Timberlake for another History of Rap →

Jimmy Kimmel’s Halloween candy challenge makes kids cry, everyone else laugh

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During his monologue on Halloween night, Jimmy Kimmel issued a fun challenge for parents: to say that they ate all of their children’s Halloween candy, record their reactions, and upload it to YouTube. Kimmel stitched together a bunch of the most entertaining videos and the compilation sits above. It’s funny; almost every clip involves a young child hearing the devastating news and immediately drooping their heads in tears of sadness and frustration. You’ll want to make it to the end because the final clip involving two brothers might just be the best thing I’ve watched in a while. Enjoy!

The future of productivity… according to Microsoft

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The company behind Windows has manufactured a glimpse into a future “where technology extends and highlights our productive capabilities.” The concept video, embedded above for your wonderment, includes ideas for products that take advantage of current technology (speech recognition, data visualization, etc.) and magical things that have yet to be invented like glasses that translate speech in real time and transparent refrigerator doors with data overlays. Microsoft “see[s] technology moving from a passive tool to a more active assistant, helping us get things done, and strengthening our interactions with one another.” Tap play and journey into Microsoft’s vision of the future. Spoiler: so many screens. It’s good to know that physical QWERTY keyboards will still exist in the future, right? Right?

[Via MicrosoftBlog]

‘The Hobbit’ production vlog #4

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Peter Jackson is at the very top of my list of people who are awesome. The behind the scenes video diaries he’s been churning out from the set of the upcoming two-part prequel The Hobbit are simply fascinating. The theme of the fourth vlog is 3D filmmaking. Jackson and his crew are shooting The Hobbit in 3D using RED EPIC cameras and 3ality lenses. The camera department is home to a grand total of 48 RED EPIC cameras on 17 3D rigs. Interestingly, all of the different camera rigs are named after Jackon’s family members and inspirations. All of the scenes from the film are being shot at 48 frames per second at 5K resolution for a more realistic and immersive picture. The diary explains how everything from the set design to makeup is affected by the way in which the high-res 3D camera rigs pick up colors and tones. Oh and get this–even the concept art is drawn in 3D with red and blue colored pencils! Go behind the scenes with Jackson in the video above. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey releases December 14, and part two subtitled There and Back Again comes out one year later.

Comedy trailer roundup: ’21 Jump Street’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Project X’

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Check out these trailers for three upcoming comedy films. First up is a red band trailer for 21 Jump Street, a film based on the 1980s crime drama that starred a young Johnny Depp. The theatrical adaptation stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as young undercover cops investigating crimes at a high school. It hits theatres March 16, 2012.

Jump after the break to watch the trailers for Wanderlust and Project X. Continue reading Comedy trailer roundup: ’21 Jump Street’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Project X’ →

Megan Mullally joins ‘Breaking In’ as the FOX series undergoes creative changes

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The show that won’t die just cast a big-name star. Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) is joining the FOX comedy Breaking In as a series regular. She will play the new boss at Contra Security, overseeing the missions played out by the ragtag team of break-in experts Cam, Cash, Josh, and Melanie. Where does season 1 Contra boss Oz (Christian Slater) factor into the shakeup at the top? That plot detail is still under wraps. The addition of Mullally is part of “significant creative changes” for the show heading into season 2, according to Deadline. The source reports that “the “mission of the week” concept where members of the Contra team go out of the office on a different assignment in every episode will be scaled back as Breaking In will segue into a more office-based comedy.” The show came so close to death (twice!), so a change in the way things will play out is expected. Creators Adam F. Goldnberg and Seth Gordon did a fine job introducing the characters during the series’ seven episode debut season; let’s hope the dynamic between all of them doesn’t change too much in round two. The entire cast is expected to return when Breaking In comes back to FOX this spring, even Odette Annable who is now a series regular over at the FOX medical drama House.

[Via Deadline]