tron

The 404 389: Where we elect Jeff Bakalar the new mayor of Hoboken

Today's show welcomes Eric Franklin, host of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, who comes on to talk about the new Watchmen Blu-ray/DVD. We also talk about Xbox Portable, Hoboken's newest mayor, Comic-Con, and, of course, Beck's Beer/Last.FM Audio Draft!

The first half of today's show features Eric Franklin, the better half of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, AKA The 404 West Coast Continent. Like me, Eric is a huge "Watchmen" fanboy, so he joins us to talk about the 3-hour long "Watchmen Director's Cut" Blu-Ray and DVD, which features deleted scenes from the original theatrical release. If you're obsessed with the graphic novel, we recommend waiting for the "Ultimate Cut" edition to be released this holiday season; that one is 3 hours and 25 minutes and intercuts back and forth between the movie and the comic within the graphic novel, "Tales of the Black Freighter." We also talk about the movie's reception, critical acclaim, and what you should know before checking it out. Read Eric's fanboy review on Crave.

We also talk with Eric about the "Alice in Wonderland" trailer that debuted at Comic-Con this year, along with a few more disappointing sequels that prove the well of original stories is long dry.

Today is Friday, which means it's time for yet another 404 semiweekly audio draft sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews 5000! My pick for today is Why?, an established group on SF's own avant label Anticon Records. The group dug its roots in what some people call "post hip-hop," but its first album "Oaklandazulasylum," can be more accurately described as spoken-word-style poetry with more poignant lyrics and instrumentation. Out of the three full-lengths released to date, today's highlight "Alopecia" stands proudly as Yoni Wolf, Josiah Wolf, and Doug McDiarmid's most harmonically "indie rock" record, but in my opinion, Why's best trait is the relationship between the three essential instruments: vocals, melody, and percussion. Yoni's vocals and lyrics explores rhythms with diction and imagery that might sound delineated, but, in fact, it layers seamlessly with the music behind it. "Fatalist Palmistry" is today's draft pick, so give it a listen and let us know what you think!

EPISODE 389 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Report: Daft Punk to score 'Tron 2.0'

For a certain kind of geek, there's no more important film than Disney's 1982 cult hit "Tron."

The story about a man trapped inside a computer who must continually fight for his life by riding light-bikes across a digital playground didn't do so well at the box office but gained a massive following in the years since.

Now, Disney is working on "Tron 2.0," a sequel to the original, and word is that the studio has chosen Daft Punk, the French electronica duo that is itself a cult favorite, to write the … Read more

Make them hit the walls

LightBike Free is a limited, one-player version of LightBike, a racing game in which you compete in vehicles similar to the light cycles in the classic movie Tron. You steer by tapping the left or right side of your touchscreen, as you build walls to try to box in the three competitor bikes--while trying to avoid their attempts to trap you before the 40-second clock runs out. You navigate with both a behind-the-bike, third-person view and an inset overhead view, and you can tap the center of the screen for a temporary speed boost. You can choose one-, three-, or … Read more

The Trons

The short list of awesome robot bands has a new addition called The Trons. Straight outta' New Zealand, this four piece, all-robot band fits somewhere between the garage rock of the Zombies and the driving guitar and synth rhythm of early instrumental Stereolab.

Ham, Wiggy, Swamp, and Fifi handle The Tron's rhythm guitar, lead guitar, drums, and keyboard, respectively. Lucky attendants of the Ignition Fringe Festival in Hamilton Central, New Zealand will be able to check out the rest of The Trons' robotic repertoire on June 21. The rest of us will have to content ourselves with domestic robot rock. … Read more

Gadget report from Yuri's Night at NASA

There was an amazing party last Friday at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., celebrating the anniversary of the first human spaceflight, which was made by Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin. While CNET News.com has already penned a great article on the event, I thought I'd add my two cents on some of the cool gadgets I spotted at the party.

Peter Foucault's drawing robots drew a steady crowd the entire night. These two little robots had Sharpie pens mounted on them and were contained within what looked like a little robot boxing ring. Only … Read more

Honda commercial pays homage to 'Tron'

There are some science fiction movies that you just have to love, no matter how awful they are. "Tron" is one of them. (Can you believe it was made a quarter of a century ago?) PSFK has been kind enough to post a YouTube clip of what I think is a very apt homage to the Disney proto-cyber classic on the part of Honda: