Happy Holidays!

This is my final post of 2011! Thank you for continuing to support this blog and sending in news. It's most appreciated.

I would like to wish you a fantastic holiday season, whatever you may be doing, and all the best for the New Year.

Donald Faison talks Star Wars and LEGO on Conan

Donald Faison, who plays Turk in the comedy Scrubs, discusses the power of the force and being a blerd with Conan O'Brian.

Microsoft Kinectimals bound onto the App Store

After bringing the excellent My Xbox LIVE and Halo Waypoint to the App Store. Microsoft has launched Kinectimals, its Tamagotchi-like sim, which ties-in with the company's Xbox 360 game!

How long before Sony brings its IP to iOS?

Kinectimals (iTunes)

New Girl

Critically acclaimed smash hit comedy New Girl makes its UK television premiere, with indie golden girl Zooey Deschanel making her TV debut as Jess Daly. Newly single after walking in on her boyfriend with another woman, Jess is in desperate need of a place to live. Answering a flat share ad, she crash lands in the lives of three single guys she has never met before.

Nursing a broken heart, she arrives on their doorstep with an unusual line in house-warming gifts, including a Dirty Dancing DVD (which plays on a constant loop), a model BFF and a neat line in personal theme tunes.

Jess is an unlikely addition to the digs: Nick is still smarting from his own break-up; Schmidt is a ladies man who thinks it's a winning manoeuvre to remove his shirt at the drop of a hat; and Coach is a personal trainer with serious anger-management issues. But as their relationships progress, Jess and the boys come to realise they need each other more than they ever realised and end up forming a charmingly dysfunctional family.

New Girl takes a fresh and outrageous look at modern male and female relationships. The show premiered in the US with over 10 million viewers making it Fox's highest-rated autumn sitcom debut in a decade. The cast also includes Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone.

Kinect with LOVEFiLM on Xbox LIVE

LOVEFiLM, an Amazon company, launches on the Xbox 360 and Kinect tomorrow giving a million more film fans access to the movies they want to watch in an instant.

The movie viewing experience will be transformed as, for the first time, LOVEFiLM members watching on Kinect for Xbox 360 will be able to use voice commands and gestures to control LOVEFiLM Instant – the movie streaming service – with ease via their Kinect enabled consoles.

Xbox 360 users will be able to watch thousands of movies via LOVEFiLM Instant including exclusive content such as the award-winning drama Gran Torino and teen phenomenon The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, with forthcoming titles The Dark Knight, breakout comedy The Hangover and dark romance Blue Valentine becoming available in time for Christmas.

LOVEFiLM Instant is available from just £5.99 via a huge range of devices including PCs, iPad®, Internet-connected TV sets, Blu-ray players, tablets and games consoles. Becoming an Xbox LIVE integrated film service provider is another milestone in LOVEFiLM’s ambition to bring the service to as many homes as possible.

Simon Calver, CEO of LOVEFiLM, said:

“It is an exciting day for LOVEFiLM customers who have known this was coming. Launching LOVEFiLM Instant on Xbox 360 and Kinect means we are bringing the service to a million more living rooms.

“LOVEFiLM members in the UK can access our content in another exciting, innovative way and all for one straightforward price.  The simplicity of our pricing and the ease with which customers can use LOVEFiLM Instant should make us the first choice for those film fans who want fantastic entertainment at great value for money, anytime, anywhere.”

Stephen McGill, Director of Xbox & Entertainment for Microsoft UK said:

“It’s very exciting to see the launch of Amazon’s LOVEFiLM on Xbox LIVE.  Xbox owners will be eager to get started, using their Kinect-enabled consoles to interact with LOVEFiLM’s extensive catalogue of movies in ways that will only be available on Xbox 360.”

LOVEFiLM is Europe’s largest subscription service, streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet and sending DVDs by post.

Not yet a customer? Sign up here, and select the ‘LOVEFiLM Instant’ option.

Stand Up To Cancer this holiday season!

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and Lucasfilm will continue their collaboration this holiday season when they release never-before-seen outtakes from the highly popular star-studded video clip that urges fans to Use the Force for Good. The campaign continues to raise funds for groundbreaking cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. Just in time for holiday shopping and due to popular demand, SU2C and Lucasfilm have added a fourth design incorporating the iconic image of Darth Vader to their line of co-branded tees, which feature Star Wars™ artwork alongside SU2C’s signature upward arrows and slogans such as “Blast Cancer” and “Use the Force for Good.” This new exclusive Darth Vader t-shirt bears the slogan “Do Not Underestimate the Power of SU2C,” and will be available for purchase in late November. The full line of tees is available for purchase at store.standup2cancer.org/shop with proceeds benefiting SU2C.

In addition, a new behind-the-scenes look at the Star Wars video tribute featuring celebrity Star Wars enthusiasts and SU2C Ambassadors— Aziz Ansari, Zach Galifianakis, Bill Hader, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Jaime King, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg and Emma Stone—who were joined by Star Wars alum Samuel L. Jackson, can currently be viewed on the Star Wars YouTube channel, youtube.com/starwars, alongside the original video tribute. This new behind-the-scenes video not only captures funny outtakes from the all-star cast, but also highlights candid moments where the cast members express why they participated in the original Star Wars video tribute. With approximately 800,000 hits on YouTube so far, the original Star Wars video tribute encourages fans to Use the Force for Good and join Lucasfilm in donating to Stand Up To Cancer.

“To build a grassroots movement of people determined to end this disease, cancer and references to it have to become part of the pop culture zeitgeist,” said Sue Schwartz, SU2C co-founder and partner at Robertson Schwartz Agency. “Lucasfilm’s willingness to highlight the fight against cancer with an icon like Star Wars is a huge boon to our efforts. Everyone at Stand Up To Cancer is eternally grateful to Lucasfilm and our celebrity ambassadors for ‘Using the Force for Good.’ We look forward to continuing this campaign through the end of the year to raise funds for life-saving cancer research.”

A Charlie Brown Christmas on the App Store

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!"

Help Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang as they struggle to find the true meaning of Christmas. Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, narrates the rebirth of the 1965 animated classic as an interactive storybook complete with original scenes and dialog and digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Play Schroeder's piano, finger paint with the gang, go carolling with the Peanuts choir, and participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest to unlock decorations for your very own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With something to discover on every page, this is one interactive Peanuts adventure you won't want to miss this holiday season!!

Features:
* Original dialogue from the 1965 animated classic
* Captivating narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown
* Charming soundtrack featuring music and sound effects from the original show
* Decorate your own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
* Participate in the Lights and Display Contest to unlock rewards
* Educational features such as word and note highlighting to help improve reading and musical skills
* Hear individual words spoken with the tap of a finger
* Touch and drag objects to make them “spring” to life or tilt to watch them slide and move
* Objects that literally pop out of the page to delight you and your family!

A Charlie Brown Christmas (iTunes)

Spielberg: The Man, The Movies

He's the most famous director in movie history, whose creations have poured out of the cinemas into popular culture. But what goes on inside his head? What drives him? What is the key to Steven Spielberg? Covering his career, his movies, his relationships, and his extraordinary gift, Empire Magazine celebrates - with dazzling photographic evidence - Hollywood's most beloved director in this unique special edition.

Updated for 2012, this new iPad edition of Empire’s Spielberg celebration features:

– Original trailers from every single title in the director’s filmography.
– In-depth critical appraisals of all of his films, from 1971’s Duel, right up to the present day.
– Detailed features covering topics from Spielberg’s early Super 8 movies to his experiences in TV, making the Indiana Jones saga and more.
– Behind-the-scenes ‘making of’ features on some of the director’s biggest films.
– Interviews with key Spielberg collaborators.
– A special Q&A session with the director himself answering questions from some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
– Exclusive video interview with Spielberg and director JJ Abrams.
– Selected clips from classic Spielberg movies.
– Exclusive photography

Spielberg: The Man, The Movies (iTunes)

Sony set to battle Apple in your living room

Apple TV is seen, by some, as a trojan horse and there's every possibility that it could challenge Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony in the home video game console space! Why? Add a faster processor, the App Store echo system and tether Apple TV to an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and boom! However, imagine an Apple television that acts as a point of convergence with voice control (Siri) and we're in the Star Trek universe as envisaged by conceptual designer Michael Okuda.

Longtime followers of Apple wouldn't have been surprised by the news that Steve Jobs had told Walter Isaacson, his official biographer, that he'd "cracked it".

“'I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.'”

Sony has entered the fray and promises to deliver a next generation TV experience to rival Apple. Presumably BRAVIA Internet Video will underpin this and the XMB (ported from its PlayStation brand) is a compelling alternative to Apple's iOS. However, Sony has lost significance in the past decade and Apple is more than capable of delivering Steve Jobs' vision into the living room.

"Siri, Star Trek: The Next Generation series 3. On screen."

Store Wars: Apple vs Android

This made me smile. Apple and Android locked in a deadly lightsabre duel for dominance of the mobile space. Darth Mac! Surely a mistake?

Hat tip @HokusBloke.