Comic Con International: Ultraverse & Malibu Comics

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials,

Okay, so this is happening.

My good friend Paul O’Connor who used to write for Malibu Comics back in the day and is now one of the founder partners of the app company Appy Entertainment (and creator of the Longbox Graveyard blog), dropped me an email a couple of months ago. He wanted to host a Malibu Comics panel at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego.

2012, it turns out, marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Malibu Comics; the company opened its doors in January 1987 and released its first three books in July of that year: Libby Ellis #1, Stealth Force #1 and Dark Wolf #1.

2012 also marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Ultraverse, Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm's big idea to launch a writer-based super-hero universe. He started to implement his UV vision in the summer of 1992. The convention season that year was spent rounding up the seven creators who would become the Ultraverse Founders - Len Strazewski, James Hudnall, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Mike Barr, Gerard Jones and James Robinson - which culminated in the first Ultraverse Founders Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

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Google+ Events aims to make parties more collaborative and fun

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Internet,

The newest Google+ feature announced at Google I/O is Google+ Events. The social network is aiming to become your one-stop shop for inviting your friends to a get-together, bringing in photos from your attendees into one place, and having a spot to go after the event is over to check out how everything went down. We've gotta dmit that it looks great in theory, the only problem is that we still don't see that much activity in Google+, while our Facebook news feed is flooded constantly with updates. Still, it's worth checking out the intro video that shows how it all works. Maybe if enough people get excited about it, we'll see a bit more traction on the Google+ side of things, right guys? Guys...? Hello?

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Watch this: Google I/O 2012 keynote - Day 2

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, PC / Laptop, Software, Videos,

Now that you've watched the entire Google I/O 2012 day 1 keynote, it's time to turn your attention towards the day 2 affair. We know, day one was packed full of a bunch of hardware announcements, so what more could Google have to say? Turns out, quite a bit. Day two brought us Google Chrome for iOS, Google Drive for iOS and Chrome OS, Google Docs offline capabilities, Chromebooks coming to retail stores like Best Buy, and Google Compute Engine, a rival to Amazon Web Services EC2. Kick back and check out the video of the presentation below--it's over an hour long, so you might wanna grab yourself something to drink.

Click to continue reading Watch this: Google I/O 2012 keynote - Day 2

Rdio unleashes new lightweight minimalist design

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Internet, Music,

We gave you an early look at the New Rdio redesign back in March during SXSW 2012, and then it was released to the masses just last month. Well, we've gotta hand it to the Rdio team, as they continue to improve the design for the enjoyment of the users. Today, Rdio has refined its design again, bringing more white space and a flatter profile to the forefront. The company says that this makes it lighter, brighter, and easier on the eye. What else? Speed improvements. We've been playing with it for a bit over on the Gear Live Rdio channel, and we invite you to do the same. It's good stuff.

Read More | Rdio

Google Chrome for iOS review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Internet, Software,

Google Chrome for iOS was announced during the Google I/O 2012 keynote on day 2, bringing Google's popular browser to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Well, kind of.

You see, Chrome for iOS isn't really Google Chrome as far as the rendering of web pages goes. It's no different than any other third-party or in-app browser in iOS. In a nutshell, it's a wrapper for WebKit. Even more disappointing, only Mobile Safari gets to use the souped-up version of WebKit on iOS, featuring the Nitro engine. Third-party apps don't get access to Nitro, which means that web pages will load noticeably slower if they've got Javascript in them. So, what exactly does Chrome for iOS have to offer? Let's take a look.

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Watch this: Google I/O 2012 keynote - Day 1

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Corporate News, Google, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Software,

Google made a bunch of announcements at the Google I/O 2012 keynote on day one. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Google Glass Explorer Edition. The Nexus 7 tablet. The Nexus Q. That's not even the whole of it. We're sure you've read all about it, but nothing beats watching the introduction for yourself. Now you can, as Google has released the day 1 keynote on YouTube. Check it out after the break.

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MobileMe shuts down tomorrow, time to migrate to iCloud

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Internet, Storage,

When Apple announced iCloud a year ago, it was with the intention of making cloud storage, syncing, and services mainstream. Demoting the computer to just another client that can access your centrally stored data. iCloud has been a success, but we know there are still some of you out there clinging on to your MobileMe iDisk storage for dear life. Well, while Apple has allowed you to continue to use the service, it's now coming to an end. MobileMe will shut its doors for good tomorrow, June 30th. You can still migrate your data to iCloud, and you should probably do that. There's no iDisk replacement though, so you might wanna just drag and drop any of that stuff over to Dropbox, which is a free (and awesome) replacement.

Read More | MobileMe

Google Nexus 7 tablet: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 7-inch display, NFC for $199

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Handhelds,

During this morning's Google I/O 2012 keynote, the new Nexus 7 tablet was revealed. This is the first reference Nexus tablet, and sports a 7-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LCD display. It will also be the first device to ship with the brand new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, which was also detailed this morning. The Nexus 7 is manufactured by ASUS, and on the inside you'll find a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1.2 megapixel front camera, and NFC. Google seems to be putting this one agianst the Kindle Fire, pricing it at $199 for an 8 GB model, and $249 for 16 GB. You won't find another 7-inch tablet with better specs for the price. When you buy a Nexus 7 tablet you also get $25 in free Google Play credit, as well as a bunch of bundled content. If you wanna order one, pre-orders are now live in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, and they'll start shipping in mid-July.

Read More | Google Play

Vizio Co-Star Google TV set-top-box features OnLive gaming for $99 in July

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Home Entertainment, Video Games,

Vizio has announced the Co-Star, its Google TV set-top-box that sets itself apart with two key bulletpoints:

1. The Co-Star comes with OnLive steaming gaming built-in as an app. Just launch the app, and as long as you have decent broadband, you can play a ton of video games.
2. Price: Vizio has priced the Co-Star at just $99. That matches it up nicely with higher-end Roku boxes and the Apple TV, and is half the cost of competing Google TV boxes that don't offer OnLive gaming out of the box.

Google TV has certainly had a rough time getting off the ground, and the Co-Star may be the product that offers it the boost that it needs, although we highly doubt it. If you're interested, Vizio starts taking Co-Star preorders next month.

Read More | Vizio

Watch this: Hands-on with the new Windows Phone 7.8 home screen

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Microsoft, Software, Videos,

Microsoft has released a preview showing how the next version of Windows Phone 7, 7.8, will visually look. As you might recall, when the company showed off Windows Phone 8, it also announced that there would be no upgrade path for any Windows Phone 7 devices. However, they also let us know that those users would be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 in order to get the most obvious and visual feature--the new Windows Phone home screen. Once upgraded to 7.8, users will be able to resize all of their tiles as easily as Windows Phone 8 users can, and in the video above Microsoft's Ben Rudolph walks us through the experience.