Media

I don't mean to sound all grumpy, but now that the news of Grumpy Cat getting a movie deal has sunk in, I'm feeling pretty frowny about the Internet-famous cat's future in Hollywood.

Don't get me wrong. I have serious love for Grumpy Cat. The three-Grumpy-Cat-moon image is the background on my iPad. I very nearly bought that hideous Grumpy Cat belt at Hot Topic. I might still buy it.

Let's just say the announcement of producer Todd Garner and his company aiming for a "Garfield"-style feature film about the feline doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me. After all, he was the man behind Adam Sandler's 2011 flop "Jack and Jill." What, was Martin Scorsese not available, or just not interested?… Read more

Steve Wozniak thinks like Mitt Romney.

Well, a little. It's not that he quite believes corporations are people too. It's more that he thinks corporations should be taxed like people too.

Corporations like Apple, for example.

At a conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Woz told Sky News on Thursday: "Criticism of Apple's tax policies is extremely warranted, in my mind, but my explanation is rather long and difficult."

It's a pity he wasn't asked to testify before the Senate last week. Its members seemed to have all day to listen to Tim Cook. … Read more

When Netflix's "Arrested Development" landed this week, it was with more of a thud than, say, whatever sound would be produced by the catlike agility of a Tobias Funke.

"Arrested Development" succeeded in generating tremendous hype for Netflix, but the initial lukewarm reception suggests the show kicked the can down the road, rather than rocketing the company forward, in regard to its ambitions to become a high-profile source of original programming.

Original shows and films are en vogue now, with the likes of Hulu and Amazon investing in exclusive programs. The hope is that the … Read more

Physicists can sometimes feel neglected.

Not always the party types, their lack of screen presence makes them seem weird, peculiar, and other-worldly.

Famous actor and renowned non-Scientologist Will Smith intends to narrow that gap. He knows that physics is the core of human life.

How can I make such a provocative statement?

Well, because I just read an interview he and his son Jaden gave to New York magazine, one intended, I think, to promote their new movie "After Earth."

In it, Smith boldly goes where few actors have gone before in declaring: "At heart, I am … Read more

Apple will be beaming Justin Timberlake to your iPhone this fall, when he headlines more than 60 acts at this year's iTunes Festival in London. But you'll need to vie in local media competitions if you want a chance to see him bring "sexy back" in person for free.

Other top performers include Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson, and Jessie J.

Every night in September, performances can be watched live or on-demand by iOS users around the world on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, as well as on iTunes on computers or Apple TV. … Read more

GamePop will continue to hand out free gaming consoles for the next month in the hopes that it will spur preorder interest for the upstart game system that plays Android games on your TV, its maker announced on Thursday.

BlueStacks, which also makes an eponymous desktop Android app player, has extended the GamePop console giveaway, saying in a prepared statement that "...due to the high demand of preorders it is extending its offer of giving the console itself away free to the end of June." You can preorder the console for free at GamePop.tv. … Read more

Much like the vanishing photos sent with Snapchat, a new Web app lets you send self-destructing messages from your work computer.

New York-based app maker Lamplighter Games last week launched OTR -- for "off the record" messaging -- a browser plug-in that lets you send messages that disappear within 5 seconds of being read.

"We both love using Snapchat, so we thought it would be fun to put Snapchat in the browser," according to Kris Minkstein, who co-founded the company with his brother Andy. "We figured since you're in front of your computer all day at work that you're going to end up sending a lot of these photos to probably the guys sitting next to you at your cubicle." … Read more

Twitter released new versions of its iOS and Android apps on Wednesday intended to make tweeting easier than ever, and sharing photos a far better and quicker experience.

Twitter tweaked its apps in a number of ways, the company said in a blog post. Most prominently, it said that it is now faster than ever to tweet a photo. When a user wants to add a picture to their tweet, they'll now see a full preview of that image, rather than a cropped version. At the same time, Twitter said, sharing a photo from an iOS or Android camera … Read more

The Bluth's crackerjack legal counsel Barry Zuckerkorn keeps advising them take to the sea whenever they want to circumvent rules, and some viewers of the new "Arrested Development" season are doing just that. They're just heading to pirate-infested waters.

The episodes that debuted this weekend on Netflix have quickly become a hot pirated commodity, with TorrentFreak saying they've had more than 175,000 downloads in the past two days. Unsurprisingly, the illegal downloading is brisk in English-speaking countries where Netflix isn't available, such as Australia. … Read more