Media

Sure, maybe "Snakes on a Plane" was ultimately a disappointment, but it appears that letting fans take their hand at writing choice lines of movie dialogue--i.e. Samuel L. Jackson's now-infamous "I've had it with these (expletive) snakes on this (expletive) plane!"--still may have some footing as a marketing strategy. VH1 entertainment blog Best Week Ever is reporting that the team behind the upcoming movie "Transformers" has launched an online contest to encourage fans to come up with the perfect line for protagonist-bot Optimus Prime. Unfortunately, it appears that the winners … Read more

Is anybody surprised? Of course not.

Call him the Internet's own Zorro. Mr. Stephen Colbert, one of Comedy Central's most notorious late-night personalities, has successfully angered the powers-that-be at Wikipedia (and gotten banned!), flooded YouTube with his "Green Screen Challenge" videos, and wreaked havoc on the results of an online poll to name a bridge in Hungary. Fans love it, but he usually manages to tick somebody off each time.

Now he's gotten on the nerves of Gawker Media-owned auto blog Jalopnik, who aren't too happy that he used a rough cut of a … Read more

Rocketboom anchor Amanda Congdon's blog, Amanda UnBoomed, took on a new meaning when she allegedly got fired. The site of a University of Texas sophomore, UnFaced.com, is following a similar path.

UnFaced is a site that employs technology designed to identify frequent viewers of users' Facebook profiles and calculate compatibility with them.

Economics student John Arrow, founder of UnFaced--"all about UnFacing Facebook. Whatever that means," according to its About page--seems to have found another meaning for the word.

Hours after school newspaper The Daily Texan wrote about UnFaced last Monday, describing the site as a &… Read more

If you find yourself limited by the constraints of today's emoticons, fear not: Help is on the way.

New Scientist reports that researchers at Bournemouth University are developing software that will change expressions on your own photo to match the emotions you want to convey.

So far the experiment includes only six emotions. But we think it's still better than some of the alternatives.

Renee is searching for true love. Shaina wants to find the world's best band. Taryn is just looking for an adventure.

It was bound to happen: MySpace meets reality TV.

The two pop culture trends will converge in the form of "Project MyWorld, a TV show that will document the lives of three young women as they trek around the world to meet their virtual friends in real life. You can find out who accomplishes her mission first (if any of them does) on DirecTV Oct. 2.

"Three fearless females will embark on the journey of a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Nostalgia was in the air in the city's Portrero Hill district this week as Kevin Rose, Patrick Norton and Dan Huard laughed and shared drinks together. Once upon a time, the three joined forces daily to tape a little show called "The Screen Savers" on the now defunct-but-well-loved 24-hour cable network TechTV.

But on Tuesday night, Sept. 26, the occasion of their meeting was a launch party for Revision3, a new Web-based network of downloadable programs aimed at the on-demand generation. With 11 shows, all starring or produced by the pros of former TechTV fame, the … Read more

Amanda Congdon is out to prove that there's life after Rocketboom.

Congdon, you may recall, left the videoblog this summer as its popular host after an acrimonious breakup with its founder. Since then, she's decided to take her career on the road with something called "Amanda Across America."

The sponsored, five-week journey from New York to Los Angeles is designed to promote "green" issues (as well as herself, presumably). Congdon is chronicling her trek, which will include interviews with politicians and environmentalists, on Blip.tv, MySpace, Flickr, Wikia and probably a bunch of other … Read more

Well-known venture capitalist Roger McNamee said that the Internet has released the chokehold media companies used to have over content distribution, creating investment opportunities that could affect everything from education to politics.

McNamee, who founded Elevation Partners in 2004 to invest in media and entertainment, spoke at the Technology Review's Emerging Technology Conference at MIT on Thursday.

He said that the notion of community in integral to his view on media.

"The Internet we see today is about aggregation, but that's just the first step. The thing that's forming now is community," he said. "… Read more

If you want to watch NBC programs before they air, get a Viiv PC.

NBC Universal has cut a deal with Intel in which individuals who own Viiv PCs will be able to download and view certain programs before they air on the network, according to Merlin Kister, director of consumer client marketing for Intel.

Some television networks have offered first-run shows simultaneously with broadcast, but offering shows to PC owners before they broadcast is quite unusual. Some of the shows could be available up to a week in advance. In other cases, viewers may only get previews in advance. … Read more