Apple released the 10.5.4 update today. It is available via Software Update.
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Here is the trailer for the new Daniel Craig, Bond film — Quantum of Solace. It looks pretty good.

Quantum of Solace has a different director than Casino Royale. This time the Bond movie will be directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner, Stranger than Fiction). I’m hoping it is at least as good as Casino Royale.

Quantum of Solace hits theaters on November 7, 2008.

Starring:
Daniel Craig
Judi Dench
Gemma Arterton
Jeffrey Wright

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Here is the second trailer for the upcoming animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, set to hit theaters on August 15, 2008. Find out more at the official website.

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Friday night my wife and I had the evening all to ourselves, so we figured it would be a good time to go on a date, and what better date movie is there than Wanted? Heh

As I walked out of the theater after the movie, I declared, “Wanted - a ridiculously fun movie”. I don’t know how else to describe it — loads and loads of action, and not just any action, but the kind of action that makes you say, “Wow! Haha!” Wanted doesn’t take itself too seriously, and rightly so, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so damn fun.

I would never have imagined James McAvoy in the role of a highly-skilled assassin, but he pulled it off very well. I particularly enjoyed Wesley Gibson’s rampage on his coworkers as he starts to gain some much-needed confidence. Morgan Freemen plays the sinister head honcho reminiscent of his role in Lucky Number Slevin. Angelina Jolie kicks some ass, and leaves a trail of destruction on the streets of Chicago.

Wanted is Timur Bekmambetov’s American directorial debut, but I would say that he can stand against any of the top action directors in Hollywood. Wanted owes a lot of its style and camera work to predecessors such as The Matrix and Equilibrium (especially some of the gunfights).

Directed by:
Timur Bekmambetov
Starring:
Angelina Jolie
James McAvoy
Morgan Freeman
Thomas Kretschmann
Common

Rating: R

I saw the trailer for Death Race Last night when I went to see Wanted. It looks like another action packed Jason Statham movie. Death Race is a loose remake of Death Race 2000 (1975).

Ex-con Jensen Ames (Statham) is forced by the warden of a notorious prison (Allen) to compete in our post-industrial world’s most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.

Written and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring:
Jason Statham
Ian McShane
Tyrese Gibson
Joan Allen

Release Date: 22 August 2008 (USA)

Rating: R

DXG recently introduced the DXG-567V and aimed its sights at the Flip Ultra. Priced very closely to the Flip, the DXG-567V has a lot to offer, namely a much higher resolution (1280×720 vs. the Flip’s 640×480) and an SD slot with SDHC compatibility up to 8GB (as opposed to the Flip’s 2GB built-in memory).

Buy the DXG-567V:
DXG-567V at Buy.com
DXG-567V at Amazon.com
DXG-567V at MacMall

My DVD of Funny Games arrived yesterday, and I had a chance to watch it last night.

A little background first. Funny Games is a remake of a film from 10 years earlier by the same writer/director, Michael Haneke.

There is not a lot I can say about Funny Games without spoiling it for those who haven’t yet seen it, but I will say a few things. Funny Games kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the duration. I truly felt for the victims, and the antagonists were definitely believable. As a matter of fact, I have met some people with similar demeanors who I felt could be capable of such actions.

The acting was superb. Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, and Brady Corbet were all believable in their roles. I can’t say I liked Tim Roth’s character of George, but that is not to fault Roth’s acting abilities. And there is something about Michael Pitt that made him perfect for his role as Paul.

The ending was, how can I put this, atypical, unexpected, but not altogether climactic.

All in all, it was an entertaining film, and one that I am glad to add to my collection. My biggest complaint would be picture quality. The picture could definitely have been better. Funny Games is only 3.94GB on a single-layer disc capable of 4.37GB. In this day of dual-layer DVDs, a 111-minute film such as Funny Games could easily be transferred at a higher bitrate to fill a single-layer DVD or even higher still and distributed on a dual-layer disc. There were a lot of compression artifacts, and the picture just wasn’t very sharp at all.

Links:
Funny Games (2007) DVD at Amazon.com
Funny Games (1997) DVD at Amazon.com

Funny Games (2007) DVD at Amazon.co.uk
Funny Games (2007) Blu-ray at Amazon.co.uk
Funny Games (1997) DVD at Amazon.co.uk

Watch the Funny Games trailer:

Dino Dai Zovi has a fairly comprehensive list of the security-related features he hopes Snow Leopard will implement.

• Real ASLR (address space layout randomization).
• Full use of hardware-enforced Non-eXecutable memory (NX).
• Default 64-bit native execution for any security-sensitive processes.
• Sandbox policies for Safari, Mail.app, and third-party applications.
• Mandatory code signing for any kernel extensions.

Read the rest of the article for more details.

Speaking of electric vehicles, Ben Nelson has details on his conversion of a Kawasaki KZ440 to electric. This motorcycle has a range of about 20 miles and a top speed of 45 MPH.

[via hack a day]

What you see here is just a body prototype for a 3-wheeled elctric car without any specific drivetrain details, other than electric, 100-mile range, and 100mph top speed. Interesting nevertheless.

The prototype was design by Applied Technologies in Maumee, OH, and will be shipped to California where a team will work on the drivetrain for the car.

[via nbc24]