'Look out, here comes the Spider-Man'

New photos have been posted to Facebook page for The Amazing Spider-Man movie, starring Andrew Garfield (as Peter Parker/Spider-Man) Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen and Sally Field, which is slated for release July 3, 2012. See the trailer and check out the photo album!

Price is right

Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles

I know. Everyone is still playing Skyrim (except me **grumble, grumble**).

But if you happen to be taking a break from playing with virtual dragons and steeds and want to save some cash, now is the time to stock up on some solid mobile games as many game developers are having pretty awesome holiday sales on their apps.

Electronic Arts (The Sims, Madden NFL), Gameloft (Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six) and Big Fish Games (behind a variety of bestselling puzzle mystery casual games) have reduced the price of a number of their apps down to $.99. That's a saving of almost $4 to $5 for some of the more popular (and expensive) listings from the last couple of years.

I, myself, bought Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles and Tom Clancy's Rainbox Six: Shadow Vanguard for iPhone and Shadow Guardian for Android (Kindle Fire edition) — all at $.99 — pretty immediately.

List of Gameloft games on sale on iTunes
• Silent Ops
• BackStab
• Fast Five the Movie: Official Game
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard
• N.O.V.A. 2 - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
• Spider-Man: Total Mayhem
• Iron Man 2
• James Cameron's Avatar
• The Settlers
• Assassin's Creed - Altaïr's Chronicles
• Gangstar Rio: City of Saints
• 9mm
• Gameloft Action Pack (iPhone only)
• Gameloft Sports Pack (iPhone only)
• Rayman 2: The Great Escape (iPhone only)
• Driver (iPhone only)
• Warplanes (iPad only)

EA has listed their sales and deals here: eamobile.com/dailydeals

Get the games while the sales last. Happy holidays!

Break-stuff Bane

The new movie poster for next summer's Dark Knight Rises is out. See Bane? Those familiar with the comic book story line (and Superman's!) may see a bit more woven in the poster than the average fan, but still, pretty dark, right? And so, the legend ends, they say. Well, I suppose all great, awesome, amazing things must come to a conclusion eventually. Though director and writer Christopher Nolan (seriously, standing ovation) apparently is finishing up his own personal Batman trilogy, it is likely that hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office will equal future Bruce Wayne stories coming to the screen from separate sources. (Do I make a New 52 reference here?)

Anyway, in other news, should you be heading out to see the new Mission Impossible entry MI: Ghost Protocol, consider heading to one of the IMAX theaters slated to be showing an exclusive 6-minute preview of Dark Knight Rises on Dec. 16.

Who else is getting excited?

Enter the Batman

Some of the scenes for the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, that is slated to come out next summer are being filmed in Newark, N.J. Production was scheduled for Thursday and Friday in the city.

As a mega Batman fan and lover of pretty much all things DC Comics, how awesome would it be to take part in that — even to just catch a few glimpses of the cast? Hopefully, Newark Mayor Cory Booker (follow him on Twitter) gets to enjoy some of that; I hear he's a comic book geek, too!

Sigh. Where does he get those wonderful toys? Where, indeed. 

Full story: Batman movie to film in Newark

P.S. I need Batman: Arkham City to happen to me. Birthday presents?

Apple calls it 'magical'

Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPad
during an event Wednesday. By the way,
am I the only one who thinks he looks
like he's going to kiss it? (Paul Sakuma/AP)

The iPad, Apple's new entry in the tablet category, is finally here, ladies and gentlemen.

General reception, besides some snickering at the name (come on, I heard you laughing, too), seems fairly positive. But, what does it offer besides a pretty display? Will it have the easy elegance and power that the iPhone offers?

The basics:
• The iPad has a 9.7-inch touch screen, is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds
• It comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage
• The basic models will cost $499, $599 and $699, depending on the storage size
• All models have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built in; a version with pay-as-you-go 3G data plans from AT&T will be available in the U.S., but those models will cost more depending on memory
• The Wi-Fi only version will be available worldwide in March, and the 3G version in April.

Anyway, as much as I whined and pouted, I wasn't able to manage a hands-on with the device, so I'm still formulating my final opinion on it. But other bloggers have plenty of thoughts to offer:

• Engadget gets to play with the iPad and compares 3G costs on the iPhone vs. iPad.
• Pulptone: How the iPad could affect the comic book industry
• New York Times: With Apple Tablet, Print Media Hope for a Payday
• MSNBC: iPad reactions: Nothing could have met hype

So, who wants one? I know I do :)

Wish I were there

For the curious (aka everyone on the planet):
Engadget and MacLife (among many, many others) are live-blogging the Apple news conference event. Join in!

P.S. Apple is calling their lovely new creation an iPad. We'll discuss later. :)

Think different(ly), squared

So, a very important leader to millions across the United States of America will take to the podium tomorrow. His carefully crafted speech likely will deliver great news, news so many have been waiting with bated breath to hear. News that could shape a generation. News that will make techies either groan or squeal with unequaled, unabashed joy.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is seen
during an Apple event in September
in San Francisco
(File Photo / AP)

Yup, you got it: I'm not talking about President Obama and his State of the Union address — I'm talking about Steve Jobs and the Apple announcement slated for 10 a.m. (PST) Wednesday.


"Come see our latest creation," Apple beckons. Such mystery. Rumors everywhere suggest that the focus of the news conference will be the ever elusive tablet. But the tiniest of supposed intel leaks to (by?) the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere (Read iJournalism: Why Even Steve Jobs Can't Keep Secrets Anymore) has produced more questions than placated any suppositions. What will it do? What will it look like? What will they call it? What in the world were they thinking?

But seriously, what if the new Apple product being announced tomorrow is NOT a tablet? Will a plague befall mankind? What if, all along, Apple intended to introduce something else, and we all ruined it. I imagine the product marketing meeting could have gone something like this:

Jobs: "So, we all ready with the iPhone 3D with helicopter capabilities?"
Designer: "Yes, Mr. Jobs, we even added in a button that turns your phone into a voice-controlled car, but listen! Everyone thinks we're making a tablet."
Jobs: "But we did make a tablet... in, like, 1994. They didn't like it."
Board member: "No, she means the public thinks we're making a new one that will be far more awesome than that. Like an iPhone, but bigger."
Jobs: "Nothing's more awesome than an iPhone."
Designer: "Yeah, I know, right, but we designers were bored the other day and totally already made a new tablet if you want to go ahead and debut that instead!"
Jobs: "Fine, I guess so. If that's what the people want, but..."
Board member: "Do it. Otherwise Google, our evil frenemy, will beat us to it, and then I — and my money — will be sad."
Jobs: "Tablet it is."

For serious, though, tablet or no, what will Apple and its new product be bringing to 2010? Will it revolutionize? Add a new challenger to the e-book battle? Ultimately disappoint? I can't wait to find out :)