iPod




iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001. Devices in the iPod range are primarily digital audio players, designed around a central click wheel — with exception to the iPod Shuffle, which uses buttons because of it's size. As of October 2005, the line-up consists of the video-capable fifth generation iPod, the smaller iPod nano, and the display-less iPod shuffle. The full-sized model stores media on an internal hard drive, while the smaller iPod nano and iPod shuffle use flash memory. Like many digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. In January 2007, Apple announced the iPhone, a device that combined the features of the video-capable iPod with mobile phone and mobile Internet capabilities.
Apple's iTunes software is used to transfer music to the devices. As a free jukebox application, iTunes stores an entire music library on the user's computer and can play, burn, and rip music from a CD. It can also transfer photos, videos, games, and calendars to the models that support them.
Apple focused its development on the iPod's unique user interface and its ease of use, rather than on technical capability. As of October 2004, the iPod is the world's best-selling range of digital audio players and its worldwide mainstream adoption made it one of the most popular consumer brands. Some of Apple's design choices and proprietary actions have, however, led to criticism and legal battles.



History and design
iPod came from Apple's digital hub strategy, when the company began creating software for the growing market of digital devices being purchased by consumers. Digital cameras, camcorders and organizers had well-established mainstream markets, but the company found existing digital music players "big and clunky or small and useless" with user interfaces that were "unbelievably awful",so Apple decided to develop its own. Apple's hardware engineering chief, Jon Rubinstein, assembled a team of engineers to design it, including Tony Fadell, hardware engineer Michael Dhuey, and design engineer Jonathan Ive, with Stan Ng as the marketing manager. The product was developed in less than a year and unveiled on 23 October 2001. CEO Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1000 songs in your pocket."
Uncharacteristically, Apple did not develop iPod's software entirely in-house. Apple instead used PortalPlayer's reference platform which was based on 2 ARM cores. The platform had rudimentary software running on a commercial microkernel embedded operating system. PortalPlayer had previously been working on an IBM-branded MP3 player with Bluetooth headphones. Apple contracted another company, Pixo, to help design and implement the user interface, under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.Once established, Apple continued to refine the software's look and feel. Starting with the iPod mini, the Chicago font was replaced with Espy Sans. Later iPods switched fonts again to Podium Sans — a font similar to Apple's corporate font Myriad. iPods with color displays then adopted some Mac OS X themes like Aqua progress bars, and brushed metal in the lock interface.
The name iPod was proposed by Vinnie Chieco, a freelance copywriter, who (with others) was called by Apple to figure out how to introduce the new player to the public. After Chieco saw a prototype, he thought of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the phrase "Open the pod bay door, Hal!", which refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship. Apple had previously registered the name "iPod" for Internet kiosks, but never put it to use.

गेअर्स औफ़ वार

gears


Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal Tournament series) using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006 in select stores in the United States, it was broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12, 2006. The game was released on November 17, 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating.[1] A limited collector's edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" that detailed much of the game's backstory.
Gears of War centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. In cooperative play, the second player plays as Fenix's friend and fellow soldier Dominic Santiago, or "Dom". The two soldiers join Delta Squad, and battle the Locust Horde through the course of the campaign.






Multiplayer
Gears of War supports both split-screen, regular multiplayer over Xbox Live and System Link। There are two multiplayer modes in Gears of War, Cooperative and Versus mode. Multiplayer also adds the "downed" state, which works similar to down comrades the player must help in the single-player missions. When a player has taken too much damage from enemy, their character becomes incapacitated instead of dying instantly. The player remains in this state until they bleed out and die, other players can revive their teammates (in the Execution versus mode or as leader in Assassination only), or are revived by another player. A player can only be revived twice, and on the 3rd down they are dead instantly. However, in cases where the damage is severe as to cause mutilation or disintegration of the body (including chainsaw attacks, short range shotgun blasts, boomshot hits, sniper headshots, or grenade explosions), the player is dead instantly.


Film
On March 20, 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make the Gears of War film, with Stuart Beattie writing the script along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who will be producing it। The film is scheduled to be released in the year 2009.[15] Producer Wyck Govrey said of the film adaptation, "I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are."


Future developments
News of the franchise's future has emerged multiple times since the game's release. PC Gamer accidentally released an image in its 2006 holiday issue where Gears of War can be seen in a Games for Windows display, which led to suspicion that Gears of War would be released for the PC; however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up.Possible leaked pictures were released on February 4, 2007, leading to more suspicion of Gears on the PC. In an interview with Xbox fansite Team Xbox, Mark Rein stated that the game would eventually come to the PC; Epic was not currently ready to release it on that format, but the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament is "helping (Epic) get optimization on the PC."
Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film. On November 21, 2006, Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing and Interactive Entertainment Business Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy, through sequences on E-Day and the battle of Jacinto Plateau, as well as information on Adam Fenix and his research (which the character finds in Gears). Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it isn't fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.
At the 2007 Game Developers Conference Bleszinkski confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War possibly set to be released in 2008.

Spid3r m@n 3

Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 superhero film that is the third film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. Sam Raimi, who directed the previous two Spider-Man films, returns to direct the third installment with a returning cast that includes Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris and J. K. Simmons. The film also stars franchise newcomers Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard and Thomas Haden Church. Spider-Man 3 will be commercially released in multiple countries on May 1, 2007. The film will be commercially released in the United States in both conventional and IMAXMay 4, 2007. theaters on

After finally being able to find a balance between being Spider-Man, and spending time with Mary-Jane Watson, Peter Parker begins to feel secure in his life. One night, Peter finds his costume has changed; it's now black, with the ability to enhance his powers. Bringing out the darker, more vengeful side, the suit begins to influence Peter. After becoming more egotistical, Peter makes a decision to abandon the suit. Also, two new villains, Sandman and Venom, arrive in New York City with overpowering abilities

Filming

The film's budget is officially $258 million, which makes it the most expensive film ever made in nominal U.S. dollars, breaking King Kong's budget record of $207 million. It would also be third, in adjusted dollars, to War and Peace's budget of $560 million.Camera crews spent ten days between November 5, 2005, and November 18, 2005, to film sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony Pictures Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus

Music

Originally, Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, did not plan to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman had said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's vacancy. In December 2006, however, producer Grant Curtis announced that Elfman had begun collaborating with Christopher Young on the music for Spider-Man 3.Young will keep the themes for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin and compose new themes for Sandman, Venom and the love story. and could not comfortably adapt his music.

Release

Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere in Tokyo on April 16, 2007,which garnered positive reaction from Japanese viewers. Extra film critic Gerry Penacoli, who attended a preview screening before the film's premiere, described Spider-Man 3 as "more intense -- you still have great action but certainly it's the deepest of the three

Sequel

In an August 2006 interview, Marvel producer Kevin Feige said he anticipated more sequels to the Spider-Man films "because of the wealth of stories in the comics".Producer Avi Arad felt that some issues come to an end, but due to the character's age and his complex love life, the story is still continuous. Although Tobey Maguire has not signed on for another sequel, the actor has denied reports that he will not return, stating, "I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if... the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that's worth making, then I'm up for it."