Category: News

“Arrested Development” has just begun its fourth season on Netflix, and while it’s getting mixed reviews, there are more than enough fans who want to see another one.

The show, which enjoyed success through three seasons on Fox several years back, just didn’t get the ratings it needed. After it was canceled, it garnered a cult following that can be described in some circles as rabid. So when Netflix announced they would be bringing it back for a 15-episode run, fans anxiously awaited the late-May start date. Some celebrated with “Bluth Parties” where guests dressed as their favorite characters.

The new season has drawn some criticism, however, mostly for the new format; instead of including all the characters in every episode, due to problems getting all the actors together at the same time the producers decided to make each episode focus on just one character. A major issue with this format is that part of what made the show work so well the first time was the Bluths playing off one another.

But that’s not to say there aren’t people loving the new season, if for no other reason than they’re enjoying seeing their favorite characters back together again. And if asked, it’s a good bet many of them would say they want another season. Ted Sarandos of Netflix says it’s possible.

“We would love to do more, and we have a deal in place that says that there could be. The problem is logistics. They (the actors) were all working full-time and doing this show in between, and they did it for the love of the show and for Mitch Hurwitz. If we can muster up that love again, we’d love to do it again. And we have talked openly about a movie scenario, too,” he said.

Hopefully the cast can work out their busy schedules and make it happen for us fans or, barring that, perhaps the movie will finally come to fruition.

The new season is up in its entirety on Netflix streaming now.

Image: Netflix

We’ve seen tablets explode in popularity in just the last year or two, and as of right now, it doesn’t look like anything is going to slow down that momentum. According to IDC, in 2013, tablet shipments will pass portable computer shipments worldwide. This is partly thanks to tablets 58.7% growth year-over-year, and partly due to the PC market’s apparent slump in the past few quarters. IDC’s report credits much of this ecosystem change on tablets’ abilities to meet most core users’ needs while maintaining a lower price point. The average selling price of a tablet is expected to dip to a low $381, while the ASP of a PC in 2013 is around $635. For most users, it makes more sense to spend half the money when a tablet can handle all of your daily tasks. After surpassing laptop shipments, IDC expects tablets to take the crown from total PC shipments in 2015.

Tablets will only continue to get faster, more usable, and more affordable, and while I don’t think the PC will ever go the way of the dinosaur, I think it’s pretty clear the direction the average consumer’s computing is going to go.

Come comment on this article: Worldwide tablet shipments to surpass laptops in 2013, all computers in 2015

Apparently, these celebrity spats are serious business. Just ask Kelly Osbourne, who, after appearing in the July edition of Cosmopolitan, decided to reignite a “feud” that had already fizzled out; considering it started early last year (2012). Osbourne, when asked about it, instead of brushing the subject aside, seemed eager to discuss it in the article accompanying her latest pictorial.

During the discussion, the person who was made famous because of her father’s historic antics pulled no punches while talking about the ring leader of the Little Monsters. “I loved Lady Gaga. I totally believed in everything she stood for, until I realized she’s a great big hypocrite. Don’t say, ‘When you see bullying, intervene,’ while letting your fans send me death threats. If my fans did that, I would not stand for it. You can say whatever you want with your millions of monsters. I know the truth. You bells and whistles mean nothing to me. You’re feeding on the freaks and geeks to further your career? Do you really care about the gay community? Because if you did, you’d stand up for it more than you do.”

While this particular spat will go the way of many celebrity stories–that is, soon to be forgotten–is it noteworthy that Osbourne’s invocation of Lady Gaga brought the eccentric artist back into the limelight? A quick look at the Google Trends results for “Lady Gaga” clearly reveals the amount of conversation surrounding her has decreased. Granted it has been almost two years since her last studio effort, which would help explain the reduction in conversation. However, if you follow the “any publicity is good publicity” strategy–considering Gaga’s outrageous fashion sense, she’s already well aware of this approach–Osbourne actually did Gaga a favor, as the singer prepares to release her latest creation, Artpop.

One last thing, considering Osbourne was ripped by Gaga fans when she last went toe-to-toe with her, how bad do you think the reaction will be this time? Undoubtedly, Osbourne’s Twitter will tell the upcoming tale.

Twin giraffes were born in New Braunfels, Texas earlier this month, only the second set of their kind in the U.S.

The twins are a female, Wasswa, and a male, Nakato. They will be living at Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in Texas but will be available for the public to check out. Officials say it’s extremely rare for twin giraffes to be born and survive, which is why they waited to long to announce the births; they wanted to ensure the animals would make it. Usually, twins are stillborn.

“Both Wasswa and Nakato are thriving,” said Tiffany Soechting, an animal specialist at Natural Bridge.

Wasswa reportedly weighed 95 pounds and was 4.5 feet tall when she was born. Nakato weighed 125 pounds and was 5.5 feet tall when he was delivered.

Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

Fans of terrible 90s movies may remember Face/Off. In the film, John Travolta and Tom Cruise switch faces. Through the power of video editing magic, one YouTube parody filmmaker has brought the magic of Face/Off to other movies and celebrities.

In this famous scene from A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise have their faces swapped. The result is actually pretty creepy:

YouTube user FaceMashups has a number of these videos. They are all equally hilarious and terrifying.

Here’s Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Stewart:

Here’s Penn Jillette and Neil deGrasse Tyson:

[h/t: BabsonMcChonkers via Reddit]

Ed. Note: This is a cross post from the blog of LetsMove.gov. You can find the original post here.

Today, a group of student helpers joined First Lady Michelle Obama for the summer White House kitchen garden harvest. For this harvest, the First Lady invited children from two New Jersey communities that were affected by Hurricane Sandy and invited back all the children who helped plant the garden in April so they could see the fruits of their labors. First Lady Michelle Obama and the students got their hands dirty picking produce from the garden.

So we’re here to harvest and we’re going to clear this out, right?  Right, Sam?  I know I’m going to be pulling up some radishes and doing some lettuce, but you guys are going to help harvest everything that’s over there.  

After they were done harvesting they had a chance to try some of the vegetables they picked — on a grilled garden pizza. 

We’re going to actually get to eat what we harvest today.  So in addition to doing some harvesting, you guys are going to help — we’re going to do some veggie flatbread pizzas with the vegetables from the garden.  You guys up for a little cooking, too?

Watch a video of the planting below or on youtube:

Want to plant your own garden? Check out the Let's Move gardening guides:

• How to plant a kitchen garden
• How to plant a school garden
• How to plant a community garden

The PC market is in rough shape and new projections from IDC show that we’re probably not even close to hitting bottom yet. According to IDC’s latest numbers, PC shipments will decline by 7.8% in 2013 and will continue to fall by another 1.2% in 2014. The firm sees a slower decline in 2014 mostly because companies that still use Windows XP will likely upgrade to Windows 8 machines once Microsoft stops supporting the older operating system next year. The continued fall of the PC market is still being driven by the rise of tablets as portable computing devices that can serve users’ web browsing needs at a much lower cost than traditional PCs.

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While hosting an event for the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month celebration at the White House, President Obama, while speaking to the celebration’s attendees, took a second to explain the noticeable stain on his collar. For those of you who were hoping for a presidential scandal, I have some bad news. The mark, which happens to be lipstick, was courtesy of a friendly greeting. President Obama was quick to clear any misconceptions up, apparently in an effort to avoid being restricted to the Presidential Couch when it comes to sleeping arrangements.

A transcript of the President’s humorous exchange:

“I want to thank everybody who’s here for the incredible warmth of the reception. A sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar. I have to say I think I know the culprit. Where’s Jessica Sanchez? It wasn’t Jessica. It was her aunt. Where is she? Auntie, right there. Look at this. Look at this. I just want everybody to witness. I do not want to get in trouble with Michelle, so I’m calling you out right in front of everybody.”

For being called out like that, I’m sure Jessica, like everyone else it seems, said “Thanks, Obama.” Considering the pockets of vitriol surrounding Obama’s second term, the fact that his sense of humor is securely intact is perhaps a little surprising to some.

Video courtesy of CBS News.

It’s always sad to see a family of 4 killed, but that’s unfortunately what happened over the weekend in Washington state.

The AP reports that a family of 4 was killed when their SUV crashed into an irrigation canal near George, Washington. The coroner reports that those killed were 33-year-old Dioselina Buenrostro, 35-year-old Gabriel Ochoa, 4-year-old Yesenia “Jessie” Ochoa, and 9-year-old Sandra Ochoa.

Since the accident, the police have released the details of the crash. It appears that the SUV hit a car, then hit a guardrail and finally plunged into the canal. The SUV went underwater and pushed about 100 yards before it came to a stop. Unfortunately, the adults died at the time of the crash, and the two young girls died later at the hospital.

Unfortunately, Washington State is no stranger to cars plunging into waters. The I-5 bridge north of Seattle collapsed last week sending three cars into the water. Thankfully, there were no casaulties in that incident.

This accident is the latest to emerge from what has become a particulary violent Memorial Day weekend. In Chicago, 6 people were shot and killed in separate events. In central Texas, two people, including the shooter, were killed after a chase across two counties.

Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t make a ton of public appearances outside a few friendly media interviews, the occasional (well, it happened once anyway) congressional hearing, and his company’s carefully choreographed press events. He’ll make one tonight at the AllThingsD D11 conference in Southern California, and I’ll live blog the event here.

Cook is a very well-trained CEO when it comes to the media spotlight. His appearance last year at D10 didn’t produce a lot of fireworks but shed a little light on a man who was a bit of an enigma until he was thrust into the spotlight upon the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in October 2011. Nonetheless, like Jobs, he’s the only public representative of Apple that anyone can take seriously when trying to predict what tech’s most influential company will do next, and his appearance tonight will be dissected like a Federal Reserve meeting.

The event kicks off at 6pm PT, and (Verizon LTE connectivity willing) I’ll update this page frequently. Until then, here’s what I wrote last year at D10, reflecting on Cook’s appearance.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Flash analysis: Steve Jobs
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era

After the Oakland Raiders took D.J. Hayden in the first round, a pick NFL.com correspondents referred to as the one that shocked the world, all eyes (at least those that follow the NFL) were watching to see if the risk would yield some kind of reward. The risk related to Hayden involves an injury he suffered while playing in college, a ruptured vena cava, an injury that has a high fatality rate:

[Oakland Raiders coach Dennis] Allen said he isn’t sure whether there’s any correlation between Hayden’s current situation and the ruptured vein Hayden suffered last November during a practice at the University of Houston.

“We can’t rule that out, obviously, but right now I don’t know exactly what the correlation is to it,” Allen said. “But we don’t anticipate it being an issue.”

Hayden underwent surgery to repair the ruptured vena cava, which supplies blood to the heart from the lower body. He was cleared by doctors to resume football activities last month after surviving an injury that is 95 percent fatal, by some accounts.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Hayden’s health is of concern to football fans, and when news about Hayden having to be hospitalized because of abdominal pain, thoughts about lingering complications surfaced, which culminated when Hayden sent following tweet:

My stomach hurt so bad right now

A $6 billion scheme has been uncovered by U.S. authorties today that indicts the founder of Liberty Reserve and others involved in the scheme.

Wired reports that the $6 billion scheme that was just revealed today in court documents is the largest international money-laundering scheme ever prosecuted. This was the result of Liberty Reserve serving as the hub in which cybercriminals used to transfer funds among each other. In short, Liberty Reserve is responsible for the transfer of dirty money.

Liberty Reserve was a favored tool among hackers and cybercriminals as it only required a user’s email address to set up an account. It was also popular for only charging 1 percent on all transactions while offering to hide account numbers for only 75 cents more. As you can plainly see, it’s obvious why the service was so popular among the online criminal underground.

During last week, arrests were made in Spain, Costa Rica and New York, One of those arrested was Arthur Budovsky, a Costa Rican of Ukranian descent and founder of Liberty Reserve.

It should be noted that Liberty Reserve was a legitimate money transfer business. The company had plenty of legitimate customers who are now caught in the crossfire of the U.S. prosecuting the site for serving criminals. It’s similar in a way to Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload as it was taken offline, and its founder indicted, for a few instances of copyright infringement while legitimate users of the service were left without recourse. It will be interesting to see if legitiate users of Liberty Reserve will come forward in the coming weeks demanding recompense.

Who knew you could turn performing tricks on a BMX into an art form. For BMX trickster Tim Knoll, he makes it look pretty easy. Some energy drink company or other marketable brand trying to be cool needs to check this guy out. Just imagine all the cool ways this guy could get to the fridge and/or convenient store to pick up a Mountain Dew.

Knoll has released other videos in the past. In a span of 2 years, he’s released 3 videos. So enjoy what you can, because it seems as though he doesn’t like to share very often. And yes, that’s an 8-bit version of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs. Simply incredible.

A raspberry has now gone where no raspberry has (presumably) gone before. The photo of the Earth’s curvature above was not taken with an expensive camera aboard a rocket. No, it was taken using a Raspberry Pi — the $25 single-board computer — and a Raspberry Pi camera, a new low-cost peripheral that started shipping two weeks ago.

Raspberry Pi was created by Eben Upton, who’ll speak at TEDGlobal 2013 during Session 11, “Tech Impact.” So how did his devices end up 40 kilometers in the air?

In March, high-altitude-ballooning enthusiast Dave Akerman had the idea to bundle both pieces into a lightweight piece of foam — in the shape of the Raspberry Pi logo, naturally — and launch them airborne aboard a balloon. On Monday, he finally got the clear weather and the CAA clearance to do so. During the device’s three-hour flight, the Raspberry Pi camera took these amazing photos of the Earth below.

The timing is fortuitous, as Thursday’s new edition of Wired UK makes Raspberry Pi its cover subject. The magazine’s coverline: “How Raspberry Pi conquered the world.” And now, the air.

A leading Nordic beverage company, Olvi, just reported an 85% increase in soft drink sales and its impressive  growth is attributed almost entirely to the new range of Angry Birds sodas. This is one of the most tangible examples of how mobile game companies have started to have an impact on old industries, particularly in Scandinavia where franchises like Minecraft and Angry Birds have recently forged high-profile licensing deals.

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Matt Kemp must be one of the nicest professional athletes in existence. Earlier this month, he gave $250,000 to tornado victims in Oklahoma. Over the weekend, he flew a terminally ill fan out to see the Dodgers play on their home turf.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Kemp and his fan, Joshua Jones, 19, have met. During a baseball game three weeks ago, Jones’ father asked if Kemp could come over to say hi to his son. Jones got all that and more. In fact, Kemp gave Jones his jersey, cleats and hat.

Cut back to this past weekend. Kemp flew Jones and his family out to Dodgers Stadium to see him play. He also introduced Jones to Dodgers president Stan Kasten, Angels player Mike Trout and fellow Dodgers player Clayton Kershaw. The team’s official Twitter feed captured a few moments with Jones at the game, including his meeting with Kershaw:

.@therealmattkemp welcomes a friend from San Francisco, Joshua Jones to Dodger Stadium: vine.co/v/bVLWQ6wnP6Y

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 27, 2013

.@claytonkersh22 visits with Joshua Jones: twitter.com/Dodgers/status…

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 27, 2013

To put icing on the cake, the Dodgers won their game 8-7. It was undoubtedly the perfect ending to a great night for Jones.

[h/t: Yahoo Sports]

A J.C. Penny billboard appearing in California has been raising some eyebrows for the apparent similarity to one history’s most infamous characters. The news about the billboard, which is located around the 405 freeway near Culver City, in Southern Californiastarted making the rounds after it was popularized on Reddit, which was then referenced by an article in The Telegraph, which, in turn, also gained popularity on the aforementioned Reddit, as the story completed its Inception-like journey. The billboard in question appears in the lead image, and in the original Reddit that started it all, the post’s title says, “This Kettle looks Like Hitler.”

With that in mind, what say you? Can you see the resemblance? When asked about it on Twitter, the J.C. Penny account replied as follows:

@huffingtonpost Totally unintentional. If we’d designed the kettle to look like something, we would’ve gone w/ this: twitter.com/jcpenney/statu…

— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 28, 2013

While many people see the similarities–especially when the image is blurred–it seems like a bit of stretch. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped the topic from growing legs and jumping into the (fleeting?) world of Internet trends, especially on Twitter. Apparently, it was a slow work day back after all that Memorial Day fun. Whatever the case, if you happen to own one of these kettles–use the following image to correctly identify it:

And it starts annexing other parts of your cabinets for personal use, then perhaps the people who noticed the similarity were on to something.

Would you believe there’s more than 20 minutes worth of video game scenes in the history of cinema? Depending on how deep you want to dig in the annals of cinema history, it actually looks pretty easy. In fact, if you stay until the end of of the credits, you’ll see they actually left off some movies.

I think it’s safe to say that the 80′s ruled in terms of including video games in movies. As proven by the fact that Freddie Krueger killed some teens with the Power Glove. Not to mention that Kurt Russell’s character from The Thing, MacReady, completely ruined what was thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment because of losing a game of chess. They even did video game rage better in the 80′s.

Kasey Kahl, who was a contestant on “The Bachelorette” in 2010, was sentenced to three years of probation and community service for a felony assault charge stemming from a bar fight last January.

The 30-year old reality star pleaded no contest to the charges after he was accused of breaking a man’s nose outside a Fresno, California bar. He was also accused of hitting the man’s girlfriend. His attorney, Gerald Schwab, says Kahl could get the charges expunged from his record if he does his community service and complies with the terms of his sentence.

“He does a lot of charity work,” Schwab said, according to the Fresno Bee. “He is a good kid with a good heart, he just got himself in a bad situation.”

The fight allegedly began when Kahl approached a woman outside the bar and began talking to her, but after she told him to “stop talking to her” because she had a boyfriend, Kahl began hitting the man on the face. The woman said she jumped on Kahl to get him off her boyfriend and was hit in the process.

Sony and Microsoft have left a lot of question marks surrounding the used game policies for their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game consoles. Earlier rumors suggested that Microsoft is looking to take control of the used game market and may only allow certain retailers to sell pre-owned products. TV host and industry pundit Geoff Keighley recently said that Sony may also incorporate some form of digital rights management (DRM) for used games, a policy that didn’t sit well with PlayStation enthusiasts. A thread on video game message board NeoGAF suggested that Sony fans reach out to executives through social media and email to try to reverse the company’s still unconfirmed stance on used games. The thread has since garnered nearly 5,000 responses and was successful in getting Sony’s attention.

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