Google Celebrates Pac-Man’s 30th Anniversary With Playable Logo

The front page of Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of the legendary Pac-Man video game today with its very own Pac-Man game embedded in the Google logo.

The game had office mongers and gamers glued to the homepage.

HBO Shows In Production For Fall 2010

True Blood, Entourage, Hung, Bored to Death, Boardwalk Empire, another season of Treme, Season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Eastbound & Down, In Treatment, How to Make It in America and more are all in production at HBO.

Grease Sing-A-Long Might be Coming To Your City

On July 8th select theaters will screen Grease, the 1978 musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as a Sing-A-Long version.

The current roster of cities include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Seattle, Miami and San Diego.

You can click HERE to get more information about the event and request your city to be added.  So put on your leather jackets and poodle skirts and join other Grease fans for a fun “Summer Night”.

The Jawbone Icon

The new Jawbone Icon ($100) has the requisite Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR functionality but also features NoiseAssassin 2.5 noise elimination, improved audio clarity, a smaller, lighter body, up to 4.5 hours of talk time on the built-in rechargeable battery, automatic volume control for keeping sound levels consistent between calls and support for the MyTalk software platform, which allows you to customize functions of the Icon via downloadable programs.

The remaining battery life is displayed on your iPhone’s status bar

Custom ICON audio tones whisper important information like remaining battery life and caller ID into your ear.

Jawbone ICON uses standard micro-USB charging technology, so you don’t have to carry more cables!

Easy-to-operate On/Off slide switch and one simple-to-use button lets anyone and everyone use their Jawbone ICON with unparalleled ease.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Book # 5 To Be Released On November 9th, 2010

Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, revealed today that the fifth volume in Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series will be on sale nationwide Tuesday, November 9th, 2010. The cover will be purple, which follows the red, blue, green, and yellow of the first four installments. Summer and fall promotions leading up to the release will be announced in July with the cover and title of the book.

“I feel like everything in the series has been leading up to the fifth book, which is about change and the different ways Greg and his best friend, Rowley, deal with it,” said Jeff Kinney. “To me, this book is the lynchpin in the series, and I’m excited to be writing it.”

This new book follows the momentum generated by The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary, a nonfiction book with all-new material by Jeff Kinney that, with over 2 million copies in print, has topped the Wall Street Journal’s nonfiction bestseller list since publication.

Twentieth Century Fox’s live-action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, which debuted in theaters March 19, 2010, generated over $61 million in ticket sales. A second movie is due in theaters March 25, 2011. A 16-month wall calendar with photographs and dialogue direct from the first movie is in stores this summer.

“Since April 2007, Jeff has written and illustrated two books a year,” said Charles Kochman, executive editor of the Wimpy Kid series. “Despite the demands of making the second Wimpy Kid movie, Jeff has been working hard to ensure his fans have a new Wimpy Kid book this year, and to remind readers with Book five why they fell in love with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson.”

Foodspotting App For iPhone

Foodspotting is a visual local guide that lets you find dishes instead of just restaurants. Powered by people who take pictures of their food (for badges and glory), Foodspotting makes finding good food easier by letting you see the foods around you.

Flip through photos of the closest, latest, or top-rated entrees, or search for a specific dish to see users’ recommendations and photos.

You can download the iPhone app HERE.

Comic-Con Documentary Featuring Stan Lee & Joss Whedon In The Works

A documentary is in the works involving Morgan Spurlock, Legendary Pictures chief Thomas Tull, superhero legend Stan Lee, Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon (who’ll direct Marvel’s The Avengers film) and the blogger Harry Knowles.

They’ve teamed on Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope, a feature documentary that will follow seven people from around the world as they travel to the geek summit that is Comic-Con in San Diego.

Spurlock will film the documentary. He’s best known for directing Super Size Me.

LOST To Address Unanswered Questions With DVD Extras

TV Guide reports that two and a half hours is not enough screen time for LOST producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to tell the whole story they wanted to tell us.

An ABC source confirms that after Sunday’s series finale, titled “The End,” the season six DVD (as well as the complete series collection, out on DVD and Blu-ray on August 24th) will continue the saga with upwards of twenty minutes of additional storyline.

“It’s in production now,” confirms the source, who couldn’t yet confirm the actual running time of the new scenes. “Damon and Carlton wanted to offer fans answers to additional questions they couldn’t get to in the body of the final show.”

Lindelof and Cuse have also ordered up some spectacular packaging that should make the DVDs a must-purchase for show fans.

Revolutions – The Very Best of Steve Winwood

Revolutions – The Very Best of Steve Winwood will be released on June 8th, 2010, it is a portrait of one of the most influential musicians in rock history, a singer-songwriter, peerless vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player.

With tracklistings personally selected by Steve Winwood from his five decade career, the CD contains the following hits:

1. Gimme Some Lovin’ (The Spencer Davis Group)

2. I’m a Man (The Spencer Davis Group)

3. Forty Thousand Headmen (Traffic)

4. No Face No Name No Number (Traffic)

5. Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)

6. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic)

7. Glad (Traffic)

8. Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith)

9. While You See a Chance (Steve Winwood)

10. Valerie (Steve Winwood)

11. Spanish Dancer 2010 (Steve Winwood)

12. The Finer Things (Steve Winwood)

13. Higher Love (Steve Winwood)

14. Back In the High Life (Steve Winwood)

15. Roll With It (Steve Winwood)

16. Dirty City (Steve Winwood featuring Eric Clapton)

17. Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do? (Steve Winwood)

You Can Win A Day In The Wienermobile

Oscar Mayer wants to know, “What you would do if you could ride SHOTBUN for the day?”

Four lucky winners will get to ride SHOTBUN in the Wienermobile and $5,000 to help spread their own good moods.

To join the mission, click here to enter the contest to ride SHOTBUN and tell Oscar Mayer what you would do with the Wienermobile. For every entry, the brand will donate one pound of food to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization.

Sign in now, the contest ends on July 31, 2010 and you can enter once a day!

Introducing Google TV

Today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, leading industry players announced the development of Google TV—an open platform that adds the power of the web to the television viewing experience, ushering in a new category of devices for the living room. Intel, Sony, and Logitech together with Best Buy, DISH Network and Adobe, joined Google on stage to announce their support for Google TV.

Over the past decade, the Internet has created unprecedented opportunity for innovation and development across the world, but so far the web has largely been absent from living rooms. With Google TV, consumers will now be able to search and watch an expanded universe of content available from a variety of sources including TV providers, the web, their personal content libraries, and mobile applications.

Google TV is based on the Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser. Users can access all of their usual TV channels as well as a world of Internet and cloud-based information and applications, including rich Adobe Flash based content – all from the comfort of their own living room and with the same simplicity as browsing the web. When coupled with the Intel Atom processor CE4100, Intel’s latest system-on-a-chip designed specifically for consumer electronics, the new platform will offer home theatre quality A/V performance. Sony and Logitech said they would be delivering products based on the new Intel Atom processor and running Google TV later this year. While Google TV is designed to work with any TV operator, at launch the user experience will be fully optimized when paired with DISH Network.

Google TV expands video choice from the hundreds of channels available today through a pay TV provider to the vast storehouse of video content available through the web and streaming videos. The Google TV experience is complemented by the ability to watch streaming video from leading content platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube. Google TV will also have the capability to run apps from the Android Market.

To navigate the array of content that will now be available through a single device and on a single screen, Google TV introduces an integrated search experience to help viewers easily find relevant content across over-the-air and pay-TV channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. Google TV also features an innovative home screen to help viewers quickly organize their favorite content and personalize their TV viewing experience. Some of these features are only available with advanced integration from DISH Network.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest 35th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Editions Due On September 14th

Warner Home Video has announced DVD ($39.92) and Blu-ray ($49.99) editions of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest for the 14th of September. Extras will include a full-length commentary by director Miloš Forman and producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, Completely Cuckoo – A feature-length documentary about the making of the film, a brand new interview with producer Michael Douglas, deleted scenes, and the original trailer. The 35th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Editions will also contain unique collectibles honoring the film and its legacy, such as playing cards, posters, character cards, pre-production correspondence and fascinating movie trivia.

Best LOST Finale Party Invitation Ever

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Stephen King Presented Literary Award At The 15th Annual Los Angeles Public Library Awards Dinner

Last night my wife and I had the privilege to attend the 15th Annual Los Angeles Public Library Awards Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. The goal of the Dinner is to augment critical funding and proceeds from the event assist the Los Angeles Public Library in providing literacy programs, books, materials, activities and public access to the latest electronic information resources.

Stephen King was presented the prestigious Literary Award for his tremendous contribution to literature. We had an opportunity to meet with the author prior to the event, enjoy dinner with colleagues and then listen to King speak about his personal experiences with libraries.

At the cocktail party we had a small window to meet with my favorite author. I asked him about his future books; the Dark Tower sequel and Dr. Sleep (The Shining sequel) and whether they would come to fruition. King smiled coyly (but did not respond) and his agent quickly said that he would like to see them both happen.  When I told King about my blog, THE FIRE WIRE, he joked that in Maine it would be pronounced, “THE FI-AH WI-AH”.  Stephen was kind enough to sign my copy of “Blockade Billy” and shared that this was the first copy that he has signed publicly.  He was quickly whisked away for photo opportunities with the Los Angeles high society.

The dinner was held in the hotel ballroom. The walls were covered with large graphics of book covers from past award recipients. Event pamphlets along with a copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing” were on the table for each guest.  The paperback book had a sticker commemorating the event.

After dinner Mr. King was awarded The Literary Award and spoke for about 8 minutes.  He was warm, gracious and very down to earth.

The author joked that he had been in a suit only once before in the past 14 months and that if it hadn’t been a library event, he probably would have not made the trip as he does not like to travel.

“Libraries are the reason I am here”, the famous novelist stated. He fondly remembered reading musty dog-eared detective book club trilogies, Ellery Queen, Raymond Chandler and Earl Stanley Gardner from the small library (if you call it that) from his rural Maine town. “These books opened a whole new world to me”. After reading the Frank Norris thriller, McTeague, King thought to himself, “I want to do this!”. It was a life changing experience for him.

Stephen reflected on his 5th grade school and the fact that there were no library books available to him. One day a green bookmobile arrived and the future author was introduced to his first Ed McBain novel which led to him reading 30 more McBain books that summer.

In later years, Stephen King met his future wife, Tabitha at the Fogler Library at the University of Maine – Orono where they both worked.  His wife still teases that she “shelved books” while her husband could only cart books. “She still holds this over my head to this day”, Mr. King laughed.

During their early stage of marriage, when finances were tight King’s wife cut up their credit cards but kept the library cards. “These things cost money”, Tabitha pronounced. “She was ahead of her time even then”, Stephen noted.

The Kings read books to their children that they checked out from the local library as hardcover books were $5.95 at the time (the cost of a bag of groceries).  The writer remembered longingly looking at the latest novels in the Bett’s bookshop window the way that people would look at food – “They (books) filled my mind”, he reflected.

It wasn’t until Stephen King received his first advance from Carrie that he bought their first hardback book to build their home library.

40 books later, King is one of the most famous and wealthiest authors on the planet.  He is the Charles Dickens of our generation. 10% of his earnings largely go to assisting local libraries as they require upkeep, books and internet services.

Along with the award Stephen King received a $10,000 honorarium. Finishing his speech, the magnanimous author held the check up and said, “If you want to know where this is going, I’m giving it back to the library…so it’s staying in the family”!

Both my wife, Patricia and I were thrilled that we could attend the event.  We met some marvelous people and had a wonderful time.  We want to personally thank, Jennifer Essen, The Associate Director of Communications and Marketing for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles for the generous invitation and her time.

If you would like to support the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, you can find more information HERE.

(Written by Larry Fire. Photographs by Patricia Fire)

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Ciclotte: Ride On Design

Ciclotte is an innovative exercise bike, designed and Made in Italy combining idea, form and technology in rethinking the traditional aesthetic and functional values of an exercise bike.

Ciclotte has been manufactured using exceptional materials like carbon, steel and glass fibres and represents a complete innovation in the fitness sector thanks to the unique technology of the epicycloids transmission system.

Designed by Luca Schieppati, a young designer from Milan, and manufactured by the Lamiflex Group in Bergamo, Ciclotte breaks with the designs of gym equipment that have always emphasized the functional aspects, to address a target market of progressive, dynamic users that appreciate both physical and aesthetic lines.

The concept of the Ciclotte was created from the need to introduce a design into everyday living, which could be a real expression of contemporary living where work and relaxation, exercise and entertainment share a single dimension, within fluid spaces where all objects can interact with one another.

Thanks to its lines, which are the result of research that was inspired by ergonomics and providing the essentials, Ciclotte is both a piece of fitness equipment and a furniture accessory that can be integrated into the most varied living contexts: home, office, gym and the outdoors.

The large wheel on the Ciclotte forms the cornerstone of the project. A large circle that is reminiscent of the old fashioned motorcycles from the end of the 1800’s, which has been transformed into an object of superior engineering, destined to become a must in the world of interior design and luxury fitness. Other distinctive features include the unusual carbon handlebar, the touch screen display inspired by home automation systems and the support arms with their unique curvature.

From a technical viewpoint, the Ciclotte has been designed to faithfully reproduce the dynamics and performance of on-road pedalling, and is also ideal for high intensity aerobic training like spinning.

Ciclotte is a follow on from the Ciclò project, an innovative prototype of a single wheel city bike, which is now part of the permanent collection exhibited at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan after having participated in various international exhibitions. (Thanks for the tip Meredith)

Official Twitter Application For iPhone Is Available At The App Store

Twitter has released the official Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod touch. Early last month Twitter announced that it had acquired the popular Tweetie app in order to develop it into an official Twitter client for the iPhone platform, with developer Lorne Brichter joining Twitter to continue developing the application under the official company banner. Twitter for the iPhone is essentially a direct update of Tweetie and retains most of the same interface design and functionality while adding a few new features to bring the user experience more in line with Twitter.com features. New features include a reorganized search that combines tweets and users, display of Top Tweets and Suggested users, the ability to sign up for Twitter from within the application and add additional accounts and more actions such as Retweet on the main actions bar. Twitter is available from the App Store for new users as a free download; existing Tweetie users will receive the new app as an update to Tweetie.  An iPad version is also under development.

Free Bruegger’s Bagel & Cream Cheese

Become a fan of Bruegger’s Bagels on facebook and receive a coupon for a free bagel and cream cheese.  Click HERE to join and nosh. (Thanks for the tip Meredith)

Who You Gonna Call?

For their latest mission, Improv Everywhere brought the movie Ghostbusters to life in the reading room of The New York Public Library at 42nd Street in New York. The 1984 movie begins with a scene in the very same room, so the improvisation group figured it was time for the Ghostbusters to make an encore appearance.

Man As A Machine By Henning Lederer

For thousands of years, human beings have used metaphors as ways of understanding the body. We talk about our ‘ear drums’, or our ‘mind’s eye’. When we are in love we say our hearts are ‘bursting’ or ‘broken’. When we are nervous we say we have ‘butterflies in our stomach’. When we are impatient we have ‘itchy feet’. These familiar images help to explain the unfamiliar and to comprehend the complexity of our bodies.

The visual crossover between industrialization and science in Fritz Kahn’s artwork demonstrates surprisingly accurately how human nature became culturally encoded by placing the knowledge in an industrial modernity of machine analogues. He produced lots of illustrations that drew a direct functional analogy between human physiology and the operation of contemporary technologies. Therefore, by illustrating the body as a factory, Kahn was able to relate the body’s complex organic interior to the industrialized space so common in society during that period of time (the poster was created in 1926).

From the moment that Henning Lederer got to know Kahn’s poster “Man as Industrial Palace” in 2006, he had the idea to animate this complex and strange way of explaining the functions of a body. He wanted to continue Fritz Kahn’s act of replacing a biological with a technological structure by transferring this depiction with the help of motion graphics and animation. In addition to the moving images, as a framework, Henning created a cabinet for his work including a mixture of old and new technology. This new version of the “Industrial Palace“ is an interactive installation for the audience to interact with – and by this to explore the different cycles of this human machinery.

A premium coffee table book filled with illustrations entitled, “Fritz Kahn – Man Machine” can be ordered HERE.

Here is an animated video created by Henning Lederer based on the poster by Fritz Kahn: Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace) from 1926.

Best Visual Illusion of 2010

Here is the mindbending winner of the Best Visual Illusion Contest 2010.

Wooden balls roll up the slopes as if they are magnetic, but really they are rolling down, due to oppositely perceived orientations.

Pick Up TV Guide’s LOST Tribute Issue This Week

TV Guide will release their LOST tribute issue this Thursday featuring articles and pictures that celebrate 6 seasons of the thought provoking series.  The unique cover is a photo mosaic filled with hundreds of images from the program.

Burgerville Offers Personalized Calorie Counts on Receipts, You Want Thighs With That?

Burgerville, a fast food chain in the Pacific Northwest that highlights local, seasonal food, will provide custom nutritional information on receipts. The receipt system is being rolled out to all 39 Burgerville locations this week.

“It started first with guests interested in customizing our food. For those who have allergies or are health- conscious, how do they know if they’re on track or not?” Burgerville CEO Jeff Harvey tells FastCompany.com. So Harvey did some research on Nutricate, a system from SmartReceipt that offers personalized nutritional information on receipts. The system is already used in many hospitals and employee cafeterias, but Burgerville is the first fast food chain to adopt it.

Burgerville’s receipt system doesn’t just shock customers into making different food choices–it also suggests what some of those choices might be. “One of our signatures is a real ice cream milkshake with seasonal fruit–it has the best quality ingredients, coming straight from the farms, but the calorie count could be as high as 800 calories. So guests will get a recommendation saying, for example, if you like the blueberry shake, you might consider getting a blueberry smoothie next time,” Harvey says.

Burgerville customers who tested the program in a pilot were satisfied with the results, however. “Most all of the feedback was positive, and no guests were shocked by the info. I don’t recall getting any negative feedback,” Harvey says. (Thanks for the tip Don – Reprinted from Fast Company)

New Dates For Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!: There’s a Party In My City! Announced On May 19th

Today new dates for Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!: There’s a Party In My City! were announced.

DJ Lance and the Gabba gang may be coming to your city! Check the list HERE.

American Express Cardmembers get early access to tickets starting tomorrow at 10 am local time. A special pre-sale for members of the Yo Gabba Gabba! online community will start next Wednesday, May 26th (just sign up for their email list and you will be sent the information next week). Check HERE for all of the important dates and links to buy tickets.

Head to www.YoGabbaGabbaLive.com for the announcement and for information on a special Yo Gabba Gabba! Dance Party! One of the cities is Los Angeles so count us in, we’ll be there!

Etymotic hf2 Headset & Earphones

I am a huge fan of high quality headsets, and own several on ear and over the ear models.  After a long day, there is nothing quite like falling asleep to great music.  As a side sleeper, I have never been able to comfortably wear my headset in a natural sleeping position, as it is fairly big and bulky.  This past week I discovered the Etymotic hf2 Headset + Earphones ($179).  These award-winning high fidelity earphones are truly remarkable.  They offer exceptional sound quality, are compact, and best of all they can be worn while comfortably sleeping on your side.

Etymotic was the first company to create and patent in-ear noise-isolating, high fidelity earphones over 25 years ago. At its core, Etymotic is a research and development company. The founder, Dr. Mead Killion, an audiologist, engineer, inventor and jazz musician built his company with the mission to design products that measure, improve and protect hearing, and to enhance the listening experience of music lovers everywhere.

If you are concerned with ear safety, countless studies have proven that using noise-isolating headphones reduce the need to increase volume, as external noise is automatically blocked out.  So even in the loudest of environments, you can listen to your music at a normal volume.

The headset comes with a variety of eartips to ensure that your fit is customized for your comfort as well as ensuring that you can enjoy total noise-isolating performance. My experience with these earphones allowed me to hear parts of my music that I had not previously heard with other products.

The hf2 when used with your iPhone, allows you to talk and listen to conversations and music with greater accuracy, detail and noise isolation than previously possible.  A great feature of this headset, is when you receive an incoming call, the device mutes and pauses your music automatically and begins to play again when you hang up, so you won’t miss an incoming call or your favorite song. The inline microphone and control pod lets you answer calls manually and allows you to manipulate the music playback functions on your iPhone or iPhone 3G. The hf2 is compatible with the iPhone (2.5 and 3G versions), Blackberry Curve and other music smartphones with a 3.5mm/4-contact phone + stereo plug.

The hf2 comes complete with:

- Etymotic hf2 Headset

- Assortment of Eartips: two sizes of triple-flange tips and one set of extra-long foam tips

- Filter tool with 2 replacement filters

- Storage pouch

Etymotic means true-to-the-ear. With these earphones you are able to hear music the way the artist intended for it to be heard…simply sheer listening pleasure. (Reviewed by Meredith Fire-Hess)

Full True Blood Season 3 Trailer

HBO has released the full trailer for the third season of “True Blood,” premiering on Sunday, June 13th.