The Simpsons in Game of Thrones!?

Nah, just kidding. What I meant to say is that The Simpsons show had an opening sequence parodying the Game of Thrones opening. I'm a big fan of the Simpsons and Game of Thrones. I absolutely love the Simpsons for their parodies and seeing their version of the Game of Thrones opening just amazed me. They did a great job, making the animation with great similarity and homage to the original sequence, right down to using the original score, the flaming rings transitions, buildings rising from the ground, the spinning gears and machine parts, the aerial view of the map, the growing tree and even some of the names (eg. Burns Landing a parody of Kings Landing). You have to see the videos together to appreciate the amount of effort they've put in. It's stuff that this that keeps me addicted to the show.

I've embedded the Simpsons opening, Game of Thrones opening and just for fun, a rock-violin cover of the highly cinematic Game of Thrones theme. Enjoy.

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Opening Sequence of The Simpsons - Season 23 Episode 15 - 4 March 2012





Opening Sequence of Game of Thrones





Game of Thrones Theme Covers by Jason Yang and Roger Lima

iPad 3? No, it's the New iPad.

A simple meme comic I made regarding the New iPad name.

After many, many rumours of a new iPad for months after the release of iPad2, Apple has released their new iPad and named it, well, "The New iPad".

The internet has been abuzzed with rumoured names like:
1) iPad 3 - a direct sequel to iPad 2.
2) iPad 2S - following the naming sequence of the iPhone 3G-3GS and iPhone 4-4S.
3) iPad HD - following rumours of a Retina Display screen.

Apple officially unveiled their new iPad and just called it that, The New iPad, showing everyone time and time again that Apple rumours are what they are, rumours. This new iPad is essentially the iPad 3rd generation, going by the same naming convention as their iPod, iPod Nano and iPod Touch lines. It'll probably just be released as iPad, further adding to the confusion.

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With that out of the way, here's just a quick summary of what the new iPad is all about:

1) 9.7" Retina Display (3.1million pixels, 2048x1536 resolution)
2) 5 MP BSI camera
3) Dual Core A5X processor w/ quad core CPU
4) 3G/4G LTE antenna
5) 652g (heavier than iPad 2)
6) 9.4mm thick (thicker than iPad 2)
7) iOS 5.1
8) 10 hr battery life (claimed by Apple)
9) 16/32 GB storage (non-expandable)

And that's about it. If you're wondering, what's so special or ground breaking about this new tablet, the answer is nothing, or unless you want to count the Retina Display. It has a nice screen, good colours though artificially saturated by the GPU, high resolution display. It is a worthy upgrade from the original iPad but it hardly warrants the upgrade from the iPad 2.

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With Apple setting the benchmark (whether good or bad, you decide), the competition will find ways to try to best it. Android tablets are coming out strong, with some tablets already better than the new iPad specification-wise. In terms of performance, Android is not as smooth or may not have the same eye-candy as iOS, but apps on Android are more stable and crash less often according to a recent study. Furthermore, Windows 8 tablets are just about to show themselves later this year and are already looking pretty good themselves, as can be seen in the demo below. Also Windows 8 has the advantage of being able to run in both a tablet mode and a desktop mode on the tablet, thereby allowing more flexibility and possibly heralding the true tablet PC though this still remains to be seen.

In the end, tablets are still a new commodity and their future is still yet unpredictable. It will still be as exciting to see how they will turn out to be a year later as it is now, 2 years after Apple released the first iPad.

iPhone 4S Siri and Samsung Galaxy S2 Voice Talk.. (Video)

Just some thoughts on the new iPhone 4S Siri. While many people are won over by the new iPhone 4S personal virtual assistant, it should be noted that there have been similar apps and implementations on Android phones at least a year earlier. Voice recognition technology is nothing new but it is now set to gain huge momentum with Apple joining the race and popularising it.


With smart phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) merging, people have been using their phones to perform countless tasks. It soon made sense that the phone is sort of like a personal assistant to you. However, unlike a real assistant, you can't just talk to a phone and tell it what to do, at least until the last couple of years. Apple has introduced Siri on the iPhone 4S and Samsung has made Voice Talk on the Samsung Galaxy S2, both of which can take your commands and perform tasks for you. Meanwhile, Google has Voice Actions for its Android OS.

Here's the introduction video on Siri for iPhone 4S by Apple.

Clearly Siri is an advanced voice recognition tool implemented by Apple. Although Apple did not came out with the technology (they bought the Siri company back in April 2010), they certainly improved it drastically and integrated it well with the iPhone, allowing people to perform tasks such as web searching, sms-ing, writing notes, emails and more on the phone just by speaking to it.

While Siri is only available for the iPhone 4S (a key feature for drawing more sales), there have been similar apps like Vlingo on Android for years. Google Android has also introduced Voice Actions last year, where you can tell the phone to call, send sms, do map navigation, web search and more. But one thing that Voice Actions disappoints is that it does not "talk back" to the user, making it less than pleasant to use. Most people would like a human touch like vocal response, after all, you would like an assistant to at least reply when you give an instruction.

However, mobile phone companies like Samsung has also experimented with the idea of a talking personal virtual assistant by having it integrated into their latest phone, the Samsung Galaxy S2 with Voice Talk, which by the way came out four months ahead of iPhone 4S, and sparking a growing interest in voice recognition technology.

I have embedded 3 demo videos of the Voice Talk in action.

Voice Talk on Samsung Galaxy S2 - go to 1:03 for demo.



Another demo of Voice Talk on the Samsung Galaxy S2


A more comprehensive demo of Voice Talk



Based on what we have seen so far, Samsung's Voice Talk can answer your questions and perform tasks for you and talk back to you. One thing that sets it apart from Apple's Siri is that it can be voice activated by saying "Hi Galaxy", whereas you have to long press the home button on the iPhone 4S to activate Siri. There is also an option to turn on "Driving Mode" where the user can control the phone solely by speech, without ever having to touch it. Very impressive. Siri may lack such functions, however, Apple takes it a step further by actually having artificial intelligence. Siri has the ability to understand what you are actually saying and come up with various yet appropriate responses. There is no more need to memorise specific words or commands for the program to understand.

Of course, both implementations are not 100% perfect and they still fumble when they cannot recognise the voice due to accents, languages or the environment. However, given that voice recognition is the direction we are heading, it wouldn't be long before these hurdles will be overcome. There have been lots of research and developments done on voice recognition and the results are unimaginable, but they are still out of reach of the consumers.

It is welcoming to see companies like Google, Apple, Samsung, Vlingo and even Microsoft pushing such technology to the consumers. While Apple now has the upperhand with an advanced Siri, Google is reportedly throwing their own version in Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which will debut on 19 October 2011 (tomorrow!). How will the future of "talking to electronics" turn out?


One thing for sure, our phones will be able to make us laugh..


Funny Siri Answers 1


Funny Siri Answers 2

New Trailer: The Avengers

 

 Title: The Avengers

Date Released: 1st May 2012 (Singapore)

Synopsis: When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

"Read more" for the trailer and a trailer analysis clip from IGN to find out who the enemy is!

The Avengers Trailer

The Avengers Trailer Analysis

Note: The main enemy is Loki (Thor's brother). So looks like the bulk of the movie will be about Thor confronting his brother, yet again. How did he survive the fall in the latest Thor movie and how did they come back to Earth after having their portal destroyed is beyond me. I did not read the comics so I have no idea. But no matter, I believe this is going to be an explosive movie. All the previous Marvel movies have led up to this Marvel superstars show.

New Movie Trailer: Red Tails

If you know who George Lucas is, you'd want to watch this movie. If you haven't, you'd want to watch too when you realise that he's the mastermind behind LucasFilm's very successful Star Wars series. We pretty much have not heard much from him recently until now. He is back to produce Red Tails, a World War 2 movie about African American pilots battling their enemies and race discrimination back home. This movie is about dogfighting and features some really impressive visual effects. Feel excited now? "Read More" to view the trailer.



Release Date: Estimated 19 January 2012 (Singapore)

Note: This being a George Lucas' LucasFilm production, the visual effects job naturally went to Industrial Lights and Magic, the best visual effects studio in the world. And I can say, based off the trailer, the visual effects are just fantastic.

Red Tails Trailer:




Source: YouTube

Coming Soon: John Carter (Video)

Title: John Carter

Release Date: 7 March 2012 (Singapore)

What's with that weird symbol you say? What's so important about this "John Carter"? Beats me. But look at that small word above the J and O. It's "Disney". So being a Disney movie and with a title card looking this awesome, it could only mean 2 things - this movie will have sword fighting (think Pirates of the Caribbean) and it will rock so hard that people will start dressing up like the lead characters again.. Right? Right...? "Read More" below to check out the trailer.


Synopsis: Civil War vet John Carter is transplanted to Mars, where he discovers a lush, wildly diverse planet whose main inhabitants are 12-foot tall green barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, who is in desperate need of a savior.


PS: At least there's sword fighting but I don't think people will start dressing up like John Carter after all. Lol.




Source: YouTube

New Music: Rebecca Black - My Moment (Video)

Rebecca Black is back with her second song, My Moment. Overall, I find this song much better and easier to listen to than Friday. She sings better here, similar to many pop songs that you hear on the radio nowadays. Strangely enough, this video has received over 412 000 dislikes compared to 231 000 likes as when I first viewed it.. I kind of like the song.. Listen to it and judge for yourself. :)

"Read More" to view the video.







Source: YouTube

Coming Soon: The Amazing Spider-Man (Video)

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man

Release Date: 5th July 2012 (Singapore)


On July 20, 2011, the world was given a glimpse of The Amazing Spider-Man movie, nearly a year ahead of its release. 2 theatrical trailers were released. Confused about whether this movie is a new deal or a sequel to the last 3 Spiderman movies? "Read More" to view the trailer and find out more about the history of the movie.

The last Spiderman movie was just shown in 2007 and it only took 5 years for a reboot of the movie. Wondering why? Here's a quick not-so-boring background explanation.


Sony Pictures, who wanted to milk the spiderman series as much as possible cause that's how they make easy money, had plans for a Spiderman 4 and even had their greedy sights on a Spiderman 5 movie. However, the original Spiderman movies' director, Sam Raimi, couldn't agree with Sony Pictures on the plot's creative development. Basically that means how the movie story should be told. Raimi, eventually have had enough, told the Sony Pictures execs to F off and quit, taking Tobey "Spiderman" Maguire and Kirstin "Mary Jane" Dunst with him, thinking that Sony is screwed about making a Spiderman movie without Spiderman.

Sony and its partner, Columbia Pictures, said "meh, we can easily find replacements" and hired a new cast and crew. Too stubborn to let the cash-raking spiderman die and instead of continuing the series with the new crew, which would turn out utter rubbish to see a sequel where Peter Parker is played by a different actor, Sony decided to reboot the series as The Amazing Spider-Man. It's also confirmed that this would be the first in a new series.

NB: This movie is not a retelling of the first 3 movies, they are a new story altogether. The focus will be of Peter Parker developing his super powers. Plus there's no Mary Jane in this one.. :(

Teaser shot of Andrew Garfield as the Amazing Spiderman

Teaser poster

Source: YouTube.com

New Movie Teaser: The Dark Knight Rises (Video)

The Dark Knight Rises is the last film in the Batman trilogy by director Christopher Nolan and continues to star Christian Bale as Batman. It is stated for a July 2012 release. The trailer below is only a teaser, no actual story is revealed. "Read More" to view the teaser.

The Dark Knight Rises teaser poster

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser:





Source: YouTube

New Movie Trailer: Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are back after two years to star in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
"Read More" to view the trailer.


Singapore Release Date:
15 December 2011


Synopsis:
Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

Trailer:





Note:
The trailer for Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows uses the exact same music as the first movie trailer. The song is Unstoppable by ES Posthumus. =)

Sherlock Holmes Trailer:


ES Posthumus - Unstoppable



Source: YouTube

New Movie Trailer: Puss In Boots 3D

People familiar with Dreamworks' pet series Shrek will be delighted to know that one of its characters, Puss In Boots is getting his own spin-off film, which chronicles the events that lead up to Puss in Boots meeting up with Shrek. Called Dreamwork's Puss In Boots, the film has been teased since April and will hit the screens at the end of 2011. "Read More" to check out the trailer.


Singapore Release Date: 24 Nov 2011

Teaser Trailer:





Theatrical Trailer:




Source: YouTube

New Movie Trailer: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (Video)

The fourth movie of the Mission Impossible series is debuting this December and the trailer is finally released. Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt. One of the producers is JJ Abrams, by the way, one of my favourite directors. "Read More" to view the trailer.


This movie will be released in Singapore on 15 Dec 2011.

Here's the synopsis according to IMDB:
"The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name."


Trailer here!





Source: YouTube, IMDB

New Movie Trailer: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Video)

With just a month left till the premiere of the very last Harry Potter movie, no clips or images have been shown yet and fans are awaiting impatiently for glimpses of the final movie.

Wait no more, for Warner Brothers have just released the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 yesterday. Read more to view the trailer.














This is it, the trailer for the 8th Harry Potter movie, a full decade since the Sorcerer's Stone debuted in 2001.

Enjoy.




Edit: Oops. This is actually the second trailer that was released. The first one was released back in April 2011. I actually posted it on my facebook but I had forgotten about it (probably cause it received little attention then when the Harry Potter season was still 3 months away). So anyway, here's the first trailer.




Source: YouTube

New Music: Shayne Ward - Gotta Be Somebody (Video)

Shayne Ward released this single early November 2010. It's actually a cover of Nickelback's Gotta Be Somebody back in 2008, which I absolutely loved ever since I first heard the song on the radio. While I like some of Shayne Ward's songs, I very much prefer the original Nickelback's Gotta Be Somebody to Shayne's cover. There's no denying that Shayne Ward has an fantastic voice, but for some reason, he chose to go with a deliberately over-processed electronic voice in this one, very evidently present when he sings the first line in the song. This ultimately disappoints fans.

Overall, the song is rather high-pitched, a very big contrast against the low Nickelback's version. Shayne's version is still great, with energy and a catchy beat, but it is just not as powerful as the original. It should be out on Singapore radios in the coming weeks.


Shayne Ward - Gotta Be Somebody (2010)





Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody (2008)

New Movie Trailer: Green Lantern (Video)

Come 2011, yet another comic book character is hitting the giant screen. Just a couple months back, at Comic Con 2010, . the Green Lantern movie was officially announced. Among comic book fans, a Green Lantern movie is highly anticipated, proven by the loads of fan-made Green Lantern movie trailers found on YouTube (admittedly, some are pretty impressive).

So DC Comics and Warner Bros have teamed up to bring what the fans wanted. Here's the official debut of the Green Lantern movie trailer. Hit the main post for the trailer.

Titanic 2 is neither a sequel or a good movie (video)

There are some movies that should be made and others not. Unfortunately Titanic 2 is of the latter. While its name may fool people to think that it is a sequel of the 1997 James Cameroon's Titanic, this movie is of no relation to that most successful blockbuster of the 90s. The movie was released in August 2010.

The story goes like this. The Titanic went down in April 1912 after striking an iceberg whilst on its maiden voyage. And 100 years later, on April 2012, some smart company decided it was a great idea to recreate the ship, name it Titanic 2 and sail its maiden voyage on the same day, same time and along the very exact same route. Unfortunately, in the middle of the journey, global warming caused the Arctic icecap to breakaway, which sent a tsunami filled with icebergs heading towards the Titanic 2 (surprise surprise). Needless to say, the icebergs hit the ship and sank it. That's really all to it.

Just how bad is this movie? An average rating of 2 out of 10 from 1357 voters should suffice to say. I haven't watched this show though I've caught bits of it on YouTube, thanks to a very kind person who decided to upload the entire movie. I've watched the trailer and it was already enough to put me off. It is very obvious that the film is a low budget production. Apparently, many people felt the same way. The trailer below has over 3300 dislikes vs 600 likes. Judge for yourself and leave your comments below.

You can follow the links below if you want to read more.



Sources:
1) Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
2) Wikipedia

She-Hulk crashes into Marvel vs Capcom 3: FTW, the latest in a line of unexpected characters (Video)

The Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds developers have been slowly releasing teaser videos of their characters and gameplay every now and then ever since it was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year. The latest video features the official debut of She-Hulk.

The Marvel vs Capcom game series is well known for its huge variety of playable characters from the Marvel comic books and Capcom range of franchises. While most of the characters are insanely popular, more often than not, there will always be a few relatively unknown and/or unexpected ones that make an appearance. Some of which includes Dante from Devil May Cry, Frank West from Dead Rising, the Okami Fox from Okami, etc. Now, She-Hulks joins the ever growing list.

Not being a Marvel comics fan, I don't know who She Hulk is. In fact, I've never heard of her before. But she does look similar to the Hulk, who's also covered in green skin and wears purple pants. Ok, I'm feeling too lazy to go read up more about her, though I do know that she is a lawyer. Also, I definitely can't deny that her combos in MVC3:FTW are wicked. Check out the video below for clips of her moves.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Promo Video Released, Pokes Fun At iPad's Lack of Flash (Video)

Since the iPad was announced, there were plenty of imitators that released their own version of the tablet, running either Windows 7 or Andriod. However, none of them was as hyped up as the Samsung Galaxy Tab. There are supposedly two sizes available, 7in and 10in, but the 10in is not being released yet.

Anyway, with the release of the 7in Galaxy Tab coming very soon, an official promotional video has been released. Obviously trying to show that it's better than the iPad, Samsung just had to poke fun at the iPad's lack of features, I suspect partly in revenge for the accusations Apple shot at Samsung a few months earlier.

While the iPad is basically nothing much than a bigger and more glorious iPod Touch. Its hardware is rather simple and functionality is limited to the apps that can be created on it. Where the Galaxy Tab shines is the smaller and more portable size, 7 inch is easier to hold with one hand and its lighter. To add more features than the iPad, it can browse the web in its entirety with Flash enabled, take photos, do video chat and even stream video to watch on a nearby TV. Since it runs Andriod OS, it's open to the over 80,000 apps on the Andriod Market.

To me, a big plus is that the 7in size is a good balance between comfort, portability and convenience. Based on the video too, it looks like it's more comfortable to use than an iPad, although I find that the iPad might be better at playing games, though that's not I will plan to use the Galaxy Tab for if I had one.

"Michael Jackson The Experience", Minus The Glitter Glove, Plus The WiiMote (Video)

Game companies will do anything for money, especially when it comes to exploiting a celebrity (think Hannah Montana). Now that Michael Jackson has passed on and his legacy is very much alive, Ubisoft was quick to take advantage and made a MJ-dancing video game for the Wii. Check out the trailer in the main post.

While the trailing is actually quite impressive, reminding me of the "This Is It" movie trailer, I have a strong inkling that the game is going to be quite thrashy. I wouldn't criticise the graphics, given the limitations of the Wii. With that, I would say the visuals are not too bad, though MJ looks a bit.. erm.. gay? However, I doubt playing the game will make you feel as accomplished than if you were to say, learn the real dance moves. I know I'm being mean, but there are much better ways to appreciate MJ than to dance unnaturally while grasping a wiimote.

Non-Newtonian Liquids, They're Much Cooler Than The Name Suggests (Video)

Newton, especially in physics, is an important word. The father of physics and the SI unit of force. Issac Newton is so respected in the physics world that his name is synonymous with physics itself. While generally everything in the world obeys the laws of physics, there are always some that don't. In this case, non-newtonian liquids.

A non-newtonian liquid is one that is liquid in nature but behaves like a solid. There are lots of examples out there, including shampoo, tomato ketchup, paint and even our blood. I'm not really a scienc-ey person, ever since I graduated from junior college four years ago. So, I shall let the video below do the explanation. It's kind of like Mythbusters style, except that its on a much lower budget and is somewhat quite entertaining too. And like this post, its from G4TV too. Haha.



Source: Wikipedia - Non-Newtonian Fluids, G4TV