Robocop Remake Not For Kiddies

Just a quick update on the upcoming Robocop remake. Joblo tells me that the producer of the film, Mike Medavoy, reckons the new one will most likely be rated R. None of the shonky PG rated Robocop shinanigans.

Medavoy says, “Well I was involved with the original ‘Robocop,’ and it was an R, and the likelihood is that this will be an R... It’s likely to be an R unless the director cuts back on some of it.”

Seeing as Darren Aronofsky didn't shy away from Requiem for a Dream's rating I think Robocop will be in safe hands.

KITT Sells More Fords

More news on the cool, hip, "now" Knight Rider rejigger that Ford and NBC are going to attempt to shove down our throats in the shape of a stupidly large 2009 Ford F-150 FX-4 that apparently KITT can transform into.

As seen in this preview clip KITT does a drive-through pickup of the telly show's heroes by allowing them to jump into his F-150 tray. He then transforms back into his usual 2008 Shelby GT500KR Mustang form magically getting said heroes from the tray into their seats without chopping them in to mince meat.

Autoblog has a write-up on the "thinking" behind this seemingly rediculous transformation with Executive Producer Gary Scott Thompson explaining. To quote Autoblog "the idea for having KITT morph into a truck came to Thompson when he needed his main character and that week's damsel in distress to make a quick getaway without KITT having to stop for them to get in, so he imagined the car as a pickup." Riiiight, apparently he hasn't heard of convertibles.

Thompson also went on to say that the GT500KR is "about the same mass" as the F-150. Huh? The Mustang has a 3,800 lb (1,700 kg) curb weight and the F-150's curb weight is between 4,881 lb (2,213 kg) and 5,411 lb (2,454 kg).

Terminator Salvation Stars Release Candidate Terminators

Joblo has this cool poster image of the T-600 terminator that will star in the new Terminator: Salvation flick due out May next year (June is Australia). Yes, I said T-600, not to be confused with the Sony Ericsson T600. This is the model BEFORE the T-101/T-80/T-800/T850 Arnie model and apparently it has some issues.

I've seen in promotional materials that the skin on the T-600 looks terribly plastic and word on the street is it just blows off in chunks revealing the bulkier-than-Arnie's endoskeleton underneath.

This helps us figure out the time setting for the new film in that it's obviously before John Connor found and used the time machine to send Kyle Reese back to stop Arnie... because Arnie hasn't been made yet.

This also might explain the no-comment comments from McG about Arnie's involvement in the film off-camera where some people guessed he was being scanned in 3D. McG did however say that the film will end in a cliffhanger, obviously preparing for a follow-up.

Maybe we'll get to see the scene that was originally meant for T2 where John Connor breaks into the T-800 factory then into the time machine facility to send off Kyle. I've always wanted to see a production line of Arnies.

Interested tidbit, the time machine design meant for the un-filmed scene was recycled for use in Contact with the spinning rings crossing over each other.

North Americans Can't Play Scrabble

Kotaku tells me today that US and Canadian Facebookers can no longer play Scrabulous due to the ongoing lawsuit from Hasbro (the legal owners of Scrabble which Scrabulous is a total rip-off of).

Personally I'm surprised it has taken this long for them to be (partially) shut down the application but then again, Hasbro did just release their own Facebook Scrabble application made by EA.

Of course, I'm not from North America so I can still play Scrabulous if I feel so inclined.

I'm Internet Famous!

Here's the blog post I did about the recent work I've done on StreetAdvisor's media processing service. Very exciting reading.

http://blog.streetadvisor.com/streetadvisor/2008/07/streetadvisor-1.html

Here is a sample Before and After shot showing the new image processing vs the old:

New Harry Trailer Hits The Web

As the marketing machine for the new Harry Potter flick (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) winds up you'll be seeing more and more of this kind of thing but for now, all we have is this teaser trailer (below) and a bunch of photos.

The Half-Blood Prince is based on the 6th and second last book in the series but seeing as the money machine is making the final book a two-parter this is the third last film.

Directed by The Order Of The Phoenix director, David Yates, the film is due for a pre-Christmas release this year with most countries getting it in November and poor Australia getting it on the 11th of December.

Alternative video location and more pics availabe over at Movieweb.

Transformers the Fallen Is The Fallen

The upcoming sequel to the highly successful Michael Bay-ified reinvention of Transformers has the title Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. At first glance you may assume that "the fallen" in question might be Megatron or some other fallen character but it's actually the name of the new bad guy.

According to Movieweb "The Fallen" will be introduced in a 5-part comic series tying the first Transformers movie to the new one. Writer Chris Mowry tells us they are going to "...explore the background of The Fallen - the main villain of the movie - as well as expand on the 'Reign of Starscream' story that we're doing and tie everything in to what this next movie is going to be.".

So there you go... pretend it's a Star Wars title and you'll be OK.

Jetpacks Rock

Ever since I saw Boba Fett go flying with his jetpack safely secured to his back I've wanted to have my own personal flying machine. That said, I didn't want to bash into the side of Jabba's sail barge nor fall into Sarlacc's mouth and of course he must have been wearing asbestos undies to avoid charring his cheeks... but I digress.

Below is a video of the Martin Jetpack in action and while it's not quite as compact as Boba's (or Jango's for that matter) jetpack this one is actually real... and noisy... and expensive. The video only shows it hovering with the aid of two burly gents holding it in place while the pilot sits there going deaf but you get the idea.

According to Engadget the Martin Jetpack will set you back a tidy $100K USD (that's the price of a Tesla Roadster!), can only hover for around 30 minutes and rise to 8,000 feet. People who buy one will also have to complete 15 hours of flight training as well as a "safety screening".

Either way, it's a step in the right direction. No more roads!

Microsoft Wants You To Touch Its Ball

You've probably heard about Microsoft's giant multi-touch screen Surface project. You may have even been fortunate enough to play with it. Well that's all passe now as Microsoft Research has decided that a coffee-table sized flat surface just doesn't cut it any more, now it's all about spheres.

The ingeniously named Sphere is coming out on Tuesday at Microsoft's Faculty Summit in Redmond and Engadget says "...the prototype relies upon an infrared system to detect hands, fingers, and objects as well as an internal (not external like Surface) projection system developed by Global Imagination (and customized by Microsoft) to deliver its multi-touch UI. At the moment, Microsoft is demonstrating photo manipulation, a spinning globe, 360-degree video, and a simple Pong-like game, the latter giving us a taste of future gaming possibilities."

Fun?

One Step Closer To Tourists In Space

Sir Richard Branson's dream of commercial space flight took one step (for mankind) closer to reality today as Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo carrier craft was unveiled.

To some it may just look like two regular jets with a birth defect but take a closer look and you'll see that there are two engines on one side of each craft. This is to accomodate SpaceShipTwo, the actual craft that takes the rich people into space (ticket prices will be around $200K a piece). Kind of how the old space shuttles would sometimes piggy-back on a passenger jet.

With a 140-foot wingspan (42.6 meters), it's now the largest all carbon-composite aircraft ever made. The new craft is named Eve after Richard Branson's mother (Mrs. Branson). More pics and a write-up over at Engadget.

KITT's A Transformer Now?

We all know that the last Knight Rider outing was an abomination and should never have seen the light of day no matter how cool the Mustang was. After such a dismal failure I've had high hopes for the reinvention of the reinvention but what I'm hearing out of ComicCon is not good.

First we have the new Attack Mode KITT (hit up Shadowy Flight for more pics) which looks plain ridiculous and is far from an improvement over the previous attack mode KITT.

Then we have the preview clip (below) where it looks like the director wanted less cowbell and more Fast and Furious neon lighting, more lasers and a chick that looks like whatshername from Transformers... and they STILL have Val Kilmer doing a bad job of KITT's voice! Oh, and KITT doesn't just make a minor change to his appearance to avoid the bad guys (in the telemovie he turned into a white Mustang) he can actually transform into a totally different vehicle, one that Ford is having trouble selling at the moment and needs some extra marketing (and a drop in fuel prices) for people to consider purchasing.

With this news I have to say that my interest in the remake of a remake of a remake is making me sad and unhappy. I'll give the pilot a go but I'll have my thumb hovering over the delete button while watching.

Dexter Season 3, Hopefully Not As Bad As Season 2

Movieweb has a promo video (see below) for the upcoming season 3 of everyone's favourite serial killer, Dexter Morgan.

Showtime went out of their way to avoid the story line from the second book in season 2 ultimately making a horrible mess of one of TV's best characters. The annoying British chick, Dexter not killing anyone for episode after episode, it was all too much. I just hope that they don't screw up season 3.

From what I saw in the promo, Showtime are avoiding the 3rd book's story line which explored the supernatural side of Dexter's "Dark Passenger". A lot of fans were disappointed with book 3's departure from the normal world in which the first two books were set but I quite enjoyed it.

The fourth book in the series (Dexter by Design) is due next year and Season 3 of the TV show starts on September 28th this year.

Tim's Crap of the Day

I got this hilarious video today with the following text:

It's a worry if these buffoons are debating agricultural issues in parliament.

As they say, politics is show business for ugly people.

The "buffoon" in question is Mr Jason Wood MP, Member for La Trobe.

Robocop Greenlit With Aronofsky Directing

Further to my post the other day about Darren Aronofsky being in talks with MGM to do a remake of Robocop comes a JoBlo report that they've stopped talking and have started acting.

MGM has greenlit the project with the aforementioned Aronofsky at the helm and David Self at the writer's desk. It has a 2010 release date but no mention of when/where/how the film is set or what the plotline is or who will be starring... probably Christian Bale if you ask me.

I'm looking forward to this one.

2009 Chevy Camaro In Melbourne, Wears Black

You've probably already heard that the 2009 Chevy Camaro has come out of the closet and waved its 1970s inspired butt around a bit. Well, not only did it wave said butt around at GM HQ in the US it also waved its butt around at GM Holden’s Melbourne headquarters where the Aussie team involved in the design of the Transformer car were present.

At the Melbourne reveal a few earlier versions of the Camaro hung out with their cool little brother who was dressed appropriately for the occasion in Melbourne black. Included amongst the old folks was the 1969 Camaro SS of reigning V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander.

More photos and video over at CarAdvice.com.au.

550 Km Prius Gives Hope For All Electric Vehicles

A Toyota Prius-based taxi in Cairns, Australia had clocked up 550 kilometers in travel before it required a battery pack replacement, that's around 340,000 miles for those living in the olden days.

This is obviously good news for Toyota as it may alay some of the fears behind people taking up their whale-shaped hybrid but it's also good news for all electric vehicles and hybrids.

The NiMH battery tech in use by the Prius is pretty old in comparison to packs in some of the newer vehicles coming or already on the road. To hear that a battery pack will sustain thousands of charges and discharges for up to 550 Kms (easily twice more than I'd ever drive in a single vehicle) means the rather hefty replacement cost may never need to be forked over and maybe when it does happen battery tech will have improved enough to make them cheaper and more efficient.

The taxi company mentioned that their Prius cost half as much to run and half as much to maintain as a regular vehicle in their fleet. Imagine the savings if they used a car that didn't rely on fossil fuels for propulsion.

So, Does He Go In The Woods?

I don't usually post stuff about religion or politics but this time I just had to. My childhood was shaped by what some may have considered a modern Christian church at the time, especially when compared to catholicism and the like, so what Catherine Deveny, the author of this editorial written in the wake of World Youth Day, says sounds quite familiar to me. I also have close family members who are currently on the path of righteousness and feel the need to try and take everyone else for a ride.

Some quotes from the article for you to chew on:

"I don't give a stuff what people believe in, but it won't stop me poking at it or prodding it. Why should religion be any exemption? Telling me I'm going to hell won't bother me because I have the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn and Bertrand Russell's Teapot in my heart. Google them if you are in the market for some red hot enlightenment."

"...I do care that religion impacts on political discourse, public policy and that it stunts the ability of people to think for themselves and question. And that it kills people and causes suffering. But most of all I care that the invisible electric fences that are wired in the minds of children brainwashed by religion are difficult to remove. And impossible if you don't even know they're there."

Games For Windows Live Free To All + DX11

Snubbing E3 Microsoft announced at their own GameFest gaming conference that, as of now, Games For Windows Live (the PC equivalent of Xbox Live) multiplayer features are now free to all.

"The move to free means that achievements, enhanced "truskill" matchmaking, cross-platform play with the Xbox 360, voice and text chat, friends lists, are all now free to Windows gamers. This change to free is for all Games for Windows LIVE titles, past and future."

Also at their love fest, Microsoft announced Direct X 11.

The company calls DirectX 11 a "big step forward for gaming, adding features onto existing DirectX 10".

Key components of DirectX 11, will include:

• Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows
  
• Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
• New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
• Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
• Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

That's great and all but will we ever see games using it? There are only 3 games I can think of off the top of my head that use DX10 and the only one I played is Crysis. Meh... let's wait and see.

Esquire E-Ink Edition

We've dreamed of full colour video magazine/newspaper covers in sci fi for decades now and even Harry Potter has magic covers on his biology text books but after reading this bit of info from Engadget the "fi" part can be dropped from "sci fi".

Using E-Ink (which is freaky when you see it in person) Esquire Magazine's September edition will have 100,000 copies printed with an E-Ink cover. Until 2009 the technology in use is exclusive to Esquire and the blinking "The 21st Century Begins Now" text will cease to blink after the battery runs out in 90 days.

E-Ink is currently available in a series of e-book readers and other devices like mobile phones and watches.

Not quite the full motion video I'd hoped for but definitely one step closer.

Lightning GT, An EV For The Aston Martin Lovers

You may have heard that at the British International MotorShow another performance EV was announced, the Lightning GT. With a range of between 150 and 180 miles per charge and a 0-100 time of "under 4 seconds" this Aston Martin-esque car is squarely set to compete with the Tesla Roadster.

While the Tesla Roadster looks more like a Lotus this new entrant has taken design cues from Aston Martin setting itself up for the upper class.

More photos and video of the enveiling over at Autoblog Green.

Zero Punctuation Does Conan

"Yahtzee" is at it again in this Zero Punctuation review of Age of Conan. He played as much as he could naked (his character was naked in-game, not him) with the amazing discovery that he felt far from hindered with the lack of body armour. Other silliness follows...

The Dark Knight, Best Movie Ever?

We knew the latest Batman flick was going to be big but seriously, THIS BIG!? It broke all opening day/night/midnight/weekend records at the US box office and is sitting in the number 1 movie of all time spot on IMDb after over 100,000 votes.

With an opening weekend of $158.3M (kicking Spidey 3 into second place with its feeble $151.1M) The Dark Knight sure seems to be raking it in. I saw it at Gold Class on Sunday night (late session) and am frankly amazed people love it so much. Sure, it was good, but the best movie ever!? I didn't have the buzz upon exiting the theatre as I did after viewing Batman Begins... am I the odd one out here?

Another bizarre little note I'd like to make while on Batman is that the majority of the lead actors and of course the director are not US born. First up you have Christopher Nolan (director) who was born in London, UK then you have Christian Bale (Batman) who is Welsh. Of course we then have the late Heathcliff Ledger (The Joker) who is a Perthican (Australia), Michael Caine (Alfred) who doesn't even attempt to hide his Londoner accent and finally Gary Oldman (Gordon) another Londoner. Cillian Murphy (The Scarecrow) who is Irish got himself a little cameo role too.

Electric Dance Floor

Engadget has an interesting write up on a club in the UK which has an electricity generating dance floor. The up and down motions of the dancers cause the floor to push in and out generating electricity, not through magnets and coils like you may think but through a piezoelectric system. The generated power is then used to power some parts of the club.

Now all we need are for gyms to harness the wasted energy from people cycling and running on the spot to use in powering those very same machines or even the 50 plasma screens around the gym that show ads to the paying customers.

Max Headroom: Read the Damn Signs!

This video goes right to the top of the "holy crap" pile. Autoblog tells me the father and his ten year old son were unharmed after the roof of this drive-through bank collapses after being knocked over by the dude's caravan/trailer.

That's what you get for being a lazy bugger and not pulling over to use an ATM.

Ghostbusters Game Trailer

With each piece of news I hear on the upcoming Ghostbusters game I get a little more excited. I loved the film(s) as a kid to the point of dressing up as the guys (mum's handbag made a great proton pack) while running around fighting off invisible ghosties. Now, I can do all that sans the handbag and running.

Kotaku has the new Ghostbusters game trailer showing (see below) and I'm a little concerned (as Luke Plunkett is) there is a little too much movie footage in it. That said, some of the commenters have pointed out that the makers of the trailer are spoofing the original movie trailer but with bits of the game in it.

Wireless Woofer Wakes Neighbours

Over at Hi Fi Ring is a little write up on this baby, the HSU Research ULS-15 subwoofer. This explosion in a box will kick you in the guts with its 1000W BASH powered amp that can push enough air to produce 10Hz plus it has all the usual subwoofy stuff like phase switching and low frequency cutoff.

But what makes the ULS-15 unique is that it is wireless! Yep, no more worrying about where that rediculously long subwoofer cable is going to go or who will trip on it. Don't like the subby up the front? Well, just move it to the back of your room and switch the phase over... done.

Don't get too excited though, the ULS-15 pricing starts at $1,299 USD ($1,337 AUD) in a satin black finish up to $1,499 USD ($1,543 AUD) for the piano gloss black finish. Also, no mention of what frequency the wireless operates at so your guess is as good as mine if you'll be screwing up your wireless internet connection.

BSG: Ubernerd Toast

This is just so crap. I'm sick of hearing the stupid word "frack" in Battlestar Galactica (it was cute the first time round but when you hear it 10 times in one minute it grates!) but the worst use is when you hear the term "frackin' toasters". Yes, we get it, they're metal so we'll call them toasters... hahaha. I prefer Bender's use of the term "meat bag" personally.

Anyway, someone thought it'd be a great idea to take this annoying term and make it a literal term. So I present to you this nerdiest of nerdy things I've ever seen... a frackin' toaster.

Yes, it makes cylon emblazoned toast for your eating pleasure... don't choke on it.

Thanks for making me angry Engadget.

Terminator Salvation Teaser Trailer

Hot on the heels of yesterdays post about the new Terminator movie (Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins) comes this cool teaser trailer for the film. Check out the scene that flashes past where a giant robot arm grabs someone out through the roof.

Halo Warthog In Transformers 2?

I caught wind of some new photos from the set of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen today with most car-oriented websites all oggling the yet-to-be-identified silver concept car (of which two are visible). What I'm more interested in though is the Halo Warthog looking vehicle on the truck up in front of Optimus Prime. Does Master Chief know Michael Bay has taken off with one of his troop carriers?

More photos and story over at Seibertron.

Radiohead Gets Weird(er)

Do yourself a favour, go watch the new Radiohead video clip (available below) then when you're finished go and play with the video in real time. Yes, you can manipulate this weird 3D "video" in real-time as it's playing. Go on, what are you still reading this for! Shove off!

Thanks for the heads-up Engadget!

New Terminator Movie Might Actually Be Good

Putting memories of the not-so-good Terminator 3 aside I have some interesting news on the upcoming Terminator 4, or Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins to be more precise.

Movieweb is reporting on a blog update over at the production's website from visual effects superviser Charles Gibson who talks about the challenges he's facing working with McG and how this film is going to be quite energetic.

If you saw the flashback sequences in The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode Dungeons & Dragons you might get an idea of what we're in store for where the world of the future glimpsed in past Terminator movies is the setting for the entire film.

This will be the first non-Arnie Terminator film but don't forget that Christian "Batman" Bale is playing John Connor so when May 22, 2009 rolls around make sure you have the cash to see Avatar and Termi 4.

Xbox 360 Dashboard Overhaul

You've probably already heard about the fall update (that'd be spring here on the good side of the planet) to the Xbox 360 dashboard. You may have even already seen the screenshots and funky little video. Well screw you, here they are again!

For everyone else, this is what the crusty old dashboard will be replaced with in about 3 months. A more 3 dimensional and clean look with the new avatars making an appearance. Of course knowing Microsoft there'll be ads all over it when we do eventually see it.

Western Aussies Most Deadly Drivers

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released its annual road safety report yesterday and for the third year in a row Western Australia has scored the worst (or best depending on how you look at it) road toll with 10.4 deaths per 100,000 residents.

The next worst region was Tasmania, with 8.3 deaths per 100,000. Queensland had 7.9 deaths per 100,000, South Australia 6.8, Victoria 6.3, New South Wales 5.7 and the ACT had just 4.4 deaths per 100,000 people.

Zero deaths would be preferable but the only way to do that would be to stop people driving.

American Muscle vs German Engineering

Before I even start I have to say that I love the Audi R8. It's a sexy beast and goes like the clappers. That said, the Corvette LS3 is also a hot number with it's raw grunt but is starting to look a little dated. Of course the R8 is easily twice the price of the Corvette.

Anyway, what I like is irrelevant in this video from WebRides.tv where they take these two mean machines for a spin on their "Super Lap" course. Looking at the numbers the lighter, more powerful Corvette should be the obvious winner but then again, the R8 does have all wheel drive.

Also, don't worry about the progress bar on the video either as it's totally out of whack, the video finishes before it even gets half way. :)

Microsoft Kicks Sony Square In the Enix

E3 2008 has kicked off with a big bang with most of the noise coming from Redmond's corner. The news so far is that the Xbox 360's dashboard redesign has been confirmed complete with the Mii-like avatars and US users will be getting more HD content via Xbox Live Marketplace but the biggest news came from Square Enix's head honcho Yoichi Wada.

Yoichi-san stood up proudly and announced that the next Final Fantasy game in the series (XIII) will be released simultaneously on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Yes, on the Xbox 360. This is a series that has been Playstation-exclusive for years on end with only a few bits and pieces thrown out to the Xbox owners now we're getting simultaneous releases... nice one.

iMiEV Ain't Gonna Be Cheap

Here I was thinking that a smaller EV would be cheaper than a larger EV but apparently the Mitsubishi iMiEV is going to go on sale in Japan in 2009 for the handy price of only 4 million yen ($38,899 AUD / $37,496 USD). Fair enough, you might say, but that means it'll be around the same price as the larger and cooler looking Chevy Volt.

If I was judging on looks alone the Volt wins hands down but if I was judging on the mechanics of the vehicle the iMiEV wins as it's purely electric. Decisions, decisions!

Tim's Crap of the Day

I got an email this morning from Tim with the following instructions:

GO TO THE FOLLOWING SITE, it is Portuguese but it doesn't matter:

http://www.tatuagemdaboa.com.br

1 - TYPE YOUR FIRST NAME ON THE 1st LINE
2 - TYPE YOUR LAST NAME ON THE 2nd LINE
(Skip your e-mail address.)
3 - Click on 'Vizualizar' and watch what happens ... & don't ask me how they do that!

Looks like a clever overlay on a Flash video... well done though. :)

PS: Don't worry, it's not going to download a virus or anything.

The First Production EV To Go On Sale In Australia?

South Korean car manufacturer CT&T has announced it will be opening a manufacturing plant in Fiji (of all places!) for their little electric cars.

As per the company's website, the eZone is basically a fancy golf cart that can go 70km or 110km on a single charge (depending on the battery pack you get) and can only reach 55 kph top speed. Still, according to their video, it only costs $5 a month maintenance (no mention of your electricity bill), has zero emissions and uses zero oil.

Seeing as Fiji is neighbours of New Zealand and Australia perhaps we'll be seeing these little buzz boxes on our streets sooner than any other production EV, just so long as they stay out of my way in my iMiEV. Thanks for the heads-up ABC.

Check out the promotional video below and try not to cringe at the odd choice of voice over talent.

Personal Public Transport

One advantage of driving yourself around in your own vehicle is that you can come and go as you please but it's a bit of a drag on the planet and your pocket. One advantage of public transport is that you utilize shared resources and they often run on renewable energy sources but you need to wait for the next train or bus or whatever.

Now, imagine you take these two advantages while ditching the disadvantages and put them into the one solution. The solution, developed by Jay Andress and Andy Webster, comes the "Liberator Car" from MonoMobile. It's a small electric car that is handy for short distances but, using the wheels attached to the roof, connects to a public monorail system for longer distances. The rail will also recharge the car's batteries for a fresh start when you "land" after whisking you away at up to 200 mph (320 kph).

Autoblog Green tells me these two gents are looking for $10 million in funding for a 1 mile test section of monorail. "They expect it would cost upwards of $500 billion to add a MonoMobile infrastructure to the existing interstate highway system but say the increase in transportation efficiency and productivity would save almost an equal amount of money each year."

James Cameron's Avatar: First Official Artwork

The news blowing around the internet today is that someone scored a crew t-shirt from James Cameron's latest film Avatar. No, nothing to do with Aang and his gang of benders but rather a feature film with the story "...of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival."

I'm not going to go into an over excited ramble on what the image MIGHT tell us (yes, the Na'vi female-like character is holding a bow and arrow, appears to have a tail and ears and only 3 toes) but I'd just like to point out that this film is Cameron's first "proper" film since 1997's Titanic. He's been bumming around directing exploration documentaries (oh, and a short stint on Entourage) for a while so it's good to see one of the industry's best back at what he does best. Remember, this is the guy who brought us Aliens and The Terminator so sci fi is no stranger to him.

The film opens in the US on May 22nd, 2009.

Batman vs Megatron

Ever wondered what the current Batmobile (AKA The Tumbler) would look like if it was to join forces with Optimus Prime, become an Autobot and fight the evil decepticons? Personally I haven't but Jolin and JesterJJZ of Jester Pictures have not only wondered, they've Photoshopped together what it might look like.

Witness the artwork on the original site (hi res available) and thanks go to Autoblog for the heads up. I love the detail of the transformed Tumbler.

Mitsubishi iMiEV Available Next Year

Some good news on the electric vehicle front today from Mitsubishi. Apparently, due to crazy oil prices, lots of successful testing and positive public response, Mitsubishi is pushing the release of its funky jelly bean iMiev forward a year.

Originally the plan was to lease them out to commercial and government fleets during 2009 with a retail launch to the Japanese public in 2010. Now they're saying that Japanese car buyers will be able to grab their own jelly bean by this time next year.

No mention of a US or Australian release. :(

Vegas Baby, Vegas!

Among all the other bits of information in this post at tv.com was one paragraph I've been BUSTING to hear for ages. Yes, the coolest, hippest show currently on TV is finally returning.

"According to multiple online reports, Entourage will return for its fifth season on September 7. The show will feature a new roster of guest stars, including Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester, Giovanni Ribisi, and Kevin Pollak."

JOY!

Seagate Releases 1.5TB Hard Drive

Today Seagate announced their new Barracuda 1.5TB hard drive due out in August. Yes, that's 1,500 GB of data on one hard drive spinning around at 7,200 RPM.

As part of the marketing spiel Seagate pronounced that the jump from 1TB to 1.5TB is the "largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives.". Of course they can pretty much say that each time a new drive comes out.

You can be assured these things will be far from cheap but maybe now the price of those tiny 1TB drives might drop.

Be The Driver: Corvette ZR1's 'Ring Video

GM has released the in-car footage of the Corvette ZR1 doing its record breaking lap around the Nürburgring last month.

This piece of American engineering made it around the 'Ring in 7:26.4 and reached almost 180mph (around 290 kph) at the end of the straight just before the finish line (see screenshot).

View the video over at Autoblog

Fallout 3 Banning Fallout

Further to this morning's post about the game Fallout 3 being banned down south comes the reason for it being banned.

Corresponding with the list of various "chems" are small visual representation of the drugs, these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe and blister packs. In the Board's view these realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method bring the "science-fiction" drugs in line with "real-world" drugs.

That's right, the drug use is too realistic, not the killing. Pfff... did they not see Bioshock? Seriously, who in their right mind would pick up a giant syringe from the soggy carpeted floor of a run-down underwater city and shove it into their arm?

Read the full report over at Kotaku AU.

It's Official, Xbox 360 Price Drop

I just got some spam from the Australian Xbox site telling me that I can now get (another) Xbox 360 for the low low price of $349 AUD (around $333 USD) RRP.

Obviously that'd be the arcade edition but this still means the Xbox 360 is now cheaper than the Nintendo Wii!

A quick check on the Kmart website shows that you can pick up a 360 for $299... $50 off the RRP.

Who Rose The Electric Car From The Dead?

Chris Paine, the director of the controversial documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" is back again with a sequel and this time the electric car wins!

Autoblog Green is reporting that Chris has tentatively scheduled this revenge film for a 2009 release and titled it "Revenge of the Electric Car". Interestingly there's no mention of it (yet) on IMDb.

I guess with the Telsa Roadster, Chevy Volt and others all making big noises in the media it makes sense to bring the topic up again.

Zero Punctuation Does Lego Indiana Jones

This time "Yahtzee" bashes on the poor little Lego Indy. The review brings up some of the annoying things in the game including the one where the AI of the second character is stupid, but he doesn't mention the fact that if you had friends you could get them to play along with you and if THEY get in the way you just smack them upside the head.

I'm almost finished the game in story mode and have collected all kinds of crazy shiz in the game. I've unlocked a bonus level (Young Indy) plus almost have all the characters. It's fun, it's not too hard and it's very rewarding... and haven't cheated once!

Fallout 3 Banned In Australia

Damn, now the world really knows we're a bunch of stupid hicks here in the land of Aus. Kotaku tells me today that Fallout 3 has been refused classification by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification which means, basically, we can't get it (legally).

I guess if the publisher sees fit they'll produce a cut down edition like Rockstar have done with past GTA games but seriously, this isn't the 1980s any more.

You know, I think now that it's banned, I might want to actually play it.

Darren Aronofsky In Talks To Direct Robocop Remake

Movieweb is reporting that a story in the Hollywood Reporter about Red Dawn mentions that the studio responsible is also in talks with Darren "Pi" Aronofsky / Darren "Requiem for a Dream" Aronofsky / Darren "The Fountain" Aronofsky to direct the remake of 1987's Robocop.

You may recall that the crazy dutch director Paul Verhoeven was at the helm last time round so I'm not sure how Aronofsky will do in comparison. Just so long as he doesn't make it an emo fest like a certain Taiwanese director did with a certain large green super hero.