Angry Puppy

…or is that some kind of cheesy New Year’s costume?

Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 was just released, and I have to applaud the post-installation landing page. (Note: I don’t necessarily recommend downloading this beta as your primary browser. Mozilla intends it for developers. Release Notes)

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Over at Into the Fuzz, John Slater, Creative Director at Mozilla issues a challenge:

“Answer the unanswered questions…who is behind this rampaging robot? Are the UFO’s in the background working with or against it? What’s the significance of it all? Post your theories in the comments section - the best one gets a Firefox t-shirt.”

In Windows-only news, Internet Explorer 8, which is expected to be released as a beta in 2008, has just passed the Acid2 test. If you’re not into web development, trust me, that’s not as exciting as it sounds. If you *are*, then, trust me, it’s more exciting than it sounds.

And rounding it all out, on Monday Apple released a security update for the Windows version of Safari 3. The issue addressed?

“Visiting a malicious website may result in the disclosure of sensitive information”

Fun.

There’s great news in a press release from New Line today. Although New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye once said that Jackson would never make The Hobbit during his watch, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have resolved their differences and Jackson is now slated to produce both The Hobbit and a sequel.

It’s unclear whether The Hobbit, or There and Back Again will be simply split into two parts or whether the backstory “The Quest of Erebor” (from Unfinished Tales) will also be incorporated.

Getting these films in reverse order from the books presents some interesting dilemmas. While The Lord of the Rings is dark and heavy, The Hobbit is more like a children’s bedtime story. If the film stays true to the original in tone, it will seem a bit of an anti-climax. Saving the world vs. helping some dwarves get some treasure back from a dragon?

Those familiar with only the Lord of the Rings will remember the you-shall-not-pass, Balrog-facing Gandalf the White who seems to steer the fate of Middle-earth. The Gandalf we know from the Hobbit, as seen though Bilbo’s eyes, spends more time blowing smoke rings, helping dwarves recover treasure and hanging out with Hobbits than saving the world. Of course, the trilogy reveals the greater story, but it will be interesting to see how this is handled.

My hopes:

There is plenty of material in The Hobbit alone for two films, so let’s pray we don’t lose interesting plot elements in the interest of time concerns while simultaneously ending up with long, panning shots of the ring twirling through the air as filler.

Dwarves of Middle-earth are not bumbling sidekicks. Though I understand the need for comic relief, I was disappointed with how far Gimli from the movies leans in this direction. The Hobbit is full of dwarves, so their personalities will have to be truer to the original than poor Gimli’s.

Ian McKellen. There’s no mention of casting in the press release, but in my head, he is Gandalf, so a re-cast would be a little tough to swallow.

In the January issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, producer Yoshinori Ono finally ends all ambiguity about Poison’s gender while talking about the upcoming Street Fighter 4.

“Let’s set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look like a girl.”

There, that clears it up.

The confusion was brought about as a response to criticism of violence against women, and Poison, originally a biological female, was ret-conned as a transsexual. Beating up digital women? No no no. Beating up digital transsexual women? Spinning Bird Kick time!  The line of reasoning here is unsettling.

So, what’s the lesson? Are North American audiences unable to deal with pre-operative transsexuals? Are the Japanese more comfortable with transgender people who just “tuck their business away”? Or is Capcom just giving an absurd answer to an absurd question?

Via Kotaku

In Tuesday’s vlog, we talked about using the Apple TV and Xbox 360 to watch downloaded shows and movies. There have been a few related news stories since then:

iTunes, which feeds content to the Apple TV, now offers TV shows in the Canadian store, a service previously available only in the US and the UK. You can find a mix of local shows and south-of-the-border content, including South Park and The Sarah Silverman Program.

If any US viewers want to see what they’re missing, just use the dropdown at the bottom of the iTunes home screen to switch your country. The interface for TV shows is not as slick as the US version - it looks more like what you see when browsing your own music in list view.

This brings up a general iTunes tip. You can’t purchase content from another country’s store (they know where your credit card is based), but you can browse and subscribe to foreign podcasts. This could be a useful tool to those studying foreign languages. Unfortunately, the only non-Western-European option is Japanese. If any of our Japanese-speaking readers find podcast gems in there, be sure to let us know.

Meanwhile, the Xbox live video store has also become available in Canada and several European countries: the UK, France, Germany and Ireland. The currency is still Microsoft points, a complaint that got edited out of this week’s vlog.

More news bites:

The Apple TV was ranked the second worst gadget of the year by Popular Mechanics. I don’t agree that it’s the second worst, but it is my number one most disappointing. Few devices this year had such potential but fell so short.

Apple TV Source reports a rumor that the maligned device might get an update in 2008, including the addition of an LCD screen. I’d much rather have a software update for what Steve Jobs himself has called a “hobby” project. With the ability to purchase directly from the Apple TV (bypassing iTunes) and the addition of a rental service, Apple TV would find a permanent place in my home theater setup. As it stands, I mostly use the iTunes playlist / iPhoto slideshow combo at parties to give my guests something to look at other than my cramped apartment.

The latest Xbox 360 dashboard update gave users support for DivX and xVid encoded files. Gizmodo reported this week that the PS3 should also have DivX support “soon”. The PS3, unlike the Xbox 360, is expected not only to play back DivX encoded files, but also to allow developers to use the compression format for in-game cutscenes.

In our first episode of the Angry Puppy vlog back in the fall, we were excited by all the geek-themed shows that the then-new season promised.

With great expectations comes great disappointment.

Bionic Woman, despite cameos by Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus, became all too human — in the bad way. And Isaiah Washington in any role? No, thanks. Heroes, though later redeemed, had to pass through the doldrums of a family-is-everything-in-the-Irish-mafia subplot before the second season could even really take off.

And what of Reaper? With the pilot episode directed by Kevin Smith and starring the devilish Ray Wise as, well, the Devil, the show earned a top spot in my DVR hierarchy. But after the third or fourth episode, it started to feel like another old CW teenfest, and episodes went unwatched.

I’ve been looking for any excuse to give the show another chance, and this may be it. According to Spoilerfix (via Adam Lubitow’s blog), Sock and Sam’s neighbors in their new condo turn out to be a gay couple who are somehow central to the episode’s plot. Are they the escaped souls that Sam has to capture? Do they help capture said souls? It’s not clear from the short synopsis posted.

A couple of lines got my imagination running in, I’m sure, the wrong direction. After being invited to dinner by their neighbors:

“Sock is offered some expensive scotch that he notices inside. During dinner when Sam spills something on his shirt and when Steve takes him into the bathroom to use a stain removing pen on it [...]“

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen both of these plot devices in less, shall we say, family-friendly fare. The episode, “Unseen”, is scheduled for January.