Silent Hill Movie Poster Winner Unveiled

Sony's TriStar Pictures announced Monday afternoon the winner of the Silent Hill Movie poster contest. Chuck Waite, of El Cerrito, CA., won the poster competition over four other finalists.

The winning poster, which can be seen on the film's website WelcometoSilentHill.com, will be on display in theaters across the country prior to release of the film. Waite will also receive a cash prize of $2500.

The contest began on December 5, 2005 when Sony TriStar Pictures asked for fans and ametuer artists to sumbit artwork for a movie poster for the upcoming film Silent Hill. More than 2,050 sumbissions were received.

Silent Hill will be released to theatres on April 21, 2006.

Related News:

1. Silent Hill Movie Poster Finalists Announced
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Announcement: Queen + Paul Rodgers Opening Set List Will Be Posted Here

We'll be doing something a little different around here on March 3, 2006. Check back here at around 8 p.m. EST to get real-time updates on what Queen + Paul Rodgers will be playing as they play their songs.

It's the opening night of the U.S. tour and there has been much speculation as to what the band might be playing.

To view the Set List on March 3, aim your Web browser here:
http://www.thewebisode.com/blog

Black Venom Costume For Spiderman 3?

Look at this picture folks, it may seem you are looking at a black and white photo, but look again. Spiderman is wearing a black costume in this photo. I wonder if it will stay that way for the movie.


Here is a newer photo from the Spiderman 3 trailer:



















RELATED NEWS:

1. Spiderman 3 Teaser Trailer

Higher Frame Rates Make Better Gamers?

Video games with higher frame rates, the rate that each screen changes, results in better performance in first-person-shooter games, according a February 2006 Research Report, by Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The higher the frame rate, the easier it is to track and hit on screen objects, the report found. However, the report added that a higher resolution or image quality did not affect gamer performance and only a small impact on how enjoyable a game is.

WPI's Kajal Claypool, one of those involved with conducting the study, said the results should enable players to adjust the setting on their consoles to improve their performance and help manufacturers design game platforms that give players a better experience.

It seemed kind of obvious that a higher frame would help gamers while playing first person shooters, since the higher the frame rate the more fluid the animation is, thus the more like-like the experience is. But, I am a bit surprised at the report's findings that a higher resolution does not affect gamer performance or that it greatly enhances a gaming experience.

Related Links:

1. Kingdom Hearts II Voice Cast Unveiled
2. FINAL FANTASY XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Xbox 360 Version Launch Announced

Survivor...The Roller Coaster?

Paramount's Great America theme park, located in California, is unveiling a ride based on the hit CBS reality series Survivor. The ride will not only include a roller coaster, but it will also feature an endurance immunity challenge and the opportunity to be placed in one of two tribes during your ride experience.

The ride will be decorated with 40-foot tall torches, exotic tribal relics and tropical landscaping similar to what has been seen on previous Survivor episodes. Themed music from the show also will be part of the ride.

"Paramount's Great America is thrilled to open the world's first reality coaster," says Rod Rankin, senior vice president and general manager of Paramount's Great America. "The alliance between Survivor, TV's hottest real-life adventure show and coaster thrills is the perfect combination for a ride experience unlike any other," adds Rankin.

I enjoy watching Survivor, but come on...a reality ride? I guess this will be good for the fans who are so desperate to be on the show and never get the chance. I wonder if backstabbing and lying will be part of the ride like it is part of the show.

Newspaper Industry Spending Millions To Reshape The Minds of Advertisers

The Newspaper Association of America announced plans to spend $50 million on an ad campaign targeted at advertisers across the nation.

The campaign is aiming to convince advertisers to use the online and print and newspaper medium for their ads because of their multimedia offerings and the desire of readers to use newspapers as a resource for information.

"Newspapers are aggressively communicating their true strengths by better defining the quality and size of their audiences, proving consumer engagement with newspaper advertising, and highlighting the expanded footprint today's newspapers deliver through their core products along with Internet sites, ethnic and youth publications, and more," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

The campaign's print and online advertising aimed at media planners and buyers will be placed in newspapers across the country beginning next month, as well as targeted trade magazines and online. NAA developed the campaign with The Martin Agency of Richmond, Va., whose recent ad campaigns include GEICO insurance and UPS's "What Can Brown Do for You?"

While it is great that the NAA has decided to do this, but I feel it is too little, too late. This is something they should have done years ago. The newspaper industry has been fighting a losing battle by doing everything they can to protect their print business. For years the trends have shown that the online medium is where more and more people are getting their news and information. The newspaper industry has treated their online medium as an unwanted step-child that they aren't sure how to handle.

Related Links:

1. The Future of Local Newspapers

theWEBiSODE's Online Store Now Open

Now you can own your very own theWEBiSODE.com merchandise. Our online store is finally open. You'll find great stuff from clothing for men, women and children to things like mugs and hats. Everything in the store would make a great gift for someone you know or even for yourself. Plus, you get to look really good while promoting your favorite Web site, theWEBiSODE.com. More stuff will be added frequently, so keep checking back.

Click here to buy stuff now!

Place Your Bets On American Idol?

Whether you love American Idol or hate it, now is your chance to make some money off of it. Pinnacle Sports is the first established bookmaker to offer odds on who will end up winning this season's American Idol.

So far the top three is rocker Ace Young, Katharine McPhee (my personal favorite) and Paris Bennett.

"This marks the first time that any sportsbook has offered betting on who'll win American Idol this early in the show," said Simon Noble of PinnacleSports.com. "American Idol has easily become the most popular entertainment event with our bettors and easily surpasses the Grammys in popularity. Wagering on the show is so popular that we took single bets of up to $10,000 last season."

I feel it is still way too early to risk betting money on who is going to win. Then again, gambling is all about the risk, so go at it. I think I'll sit this one out though, at least for now.

Here is a list of current odds (Click on any of the names below for more contestant information):

• Ace Young 7-to-2
• Katharine McPhee 4-to-1
• Paris Bennett 5-to-1
• Chris Daughtry 8-to-1
• Kellie Pickler 8-to-1
• Taylor Hicks 10-to-1
• Lisa Tucker 11-to-1
• Heather Cox 22-to-1
• Will Makar 24-to-1
• Stevie Scott 27-to-1
• Jose 'Sway' Penala 29-to-1
• Patrick Hall 31-to-1
• Becky O'Donohue 45-to-1
• Mandisa 47-to-1
• Ayla Brown 65-to-1
• Bobby Bennett 65-to-1
• Brenna Gethers 65-to-1
• Bucky Covington 65-to-1
• David Radford 65-to-1
• Elliott Yamin 65-to-1
• Kinnik Sky 65-to-1
• Gedeon McKinney 65-to-1
• Melissa McGhee 65-to-1
• Kevin Covias 65-to-1

Related Links:

1. Sirius Radio To Air Show Dedicated To Sports Betting

Yo Adrian! Here Come The Rocky Balboa Toys

If you haven't heard yet, yes there is a new Rocky movie in the works. Rocky VI, otherwise known as Rocky Balboa, will be hitting the theatres in December 2006.

Additionally, there will be an onslaught of Rocky toys and games to coincide with the release of the new film.

JAKKS Pacific Inc. announced a deal with MGM to have exclusive rights to produce and distribute toys and games based on all six Rocky films. These include action figures, play sets, accessories, role-play items and sports toys.

"Rocky is an amazing franchise and we are thrilled to create an action figure line based on the dynamic characters from each film, including the highly anticipated Rocky Balboa," said Jeremy Padawer, vice president of boys entertainment and pet products, JAKKS Pacific Inc. "In addition to creating really great toys, we have designed a launch schedule that we believe will build a buzz for the product and enhance the collectability of the line."

I wonder if the Rocky action figure from the first Rocky film will look like he is 30 and the Rocky action figure from Rocky VI will look like he is 60.

XM Radio vs. Sirius

Earlier we had a faceoff between Netflix and Blockbuster Online. Today, we are reviewing the heated rivalry between XM Radio and Sirius satellite radio.

If you are like most people you still have yet to purchase a satellite radio and are undecided about which subscription service to go with. XM? Sirius?

I've had the pleasure of using both services. Yes, I said "pleasure" because going from regular terrestial radio to satellite radio was liberating. I was no longer a slave to commercial after commercial. I wasn't stuck hearing the same song 10 times a day until it was so played out I felt like smashing my radio.

So, before we begin discussing which service is better, which ever you choose, you will be glad you made the jump to satellite radio. Also, if you don't have time to read the following few paragraphs, I'll include a chart at the bottom of the story to make things a little easier.

Many people listen to radio for music, and this is probably no different for satellite radio. If your main desire behind wanting satellite radio is for the music, then I am sorry to tell you that this review won't help you much. Both XM and Sirius are dead even on this front. A few might nitpick and say XM plays more of this band or Sirius plays more of that artist. This might be true, but generally you will find the same array of music choices on both services.

Now, Talk Radio, the second big reason to listen to radio. The simple question to this answer is "Do I want Howard Stern?" If so, you'll have no choice but to choose Sirius, because this is the only place you can "legally" hear his broadcast. Now, if you completely hate Stern, you'll be glad to hear me tell you that I enjoyed XM's offering of talk radio more than Sirius'. XM offered NPR and one of my favorite talk radio hosts Phil Hendrie.

However, Sirius is far superior when it comes to Sports. If you're a Sports fan, don't even look at XM, unless you're just a baseball fan, since XM has exclusive rights to air every MLB game there is. Sirius, airs every NFL and NBA game. Additionally, each game has a dedicated channel to both the home team and the away team. When Sirius has a radio called the Sportster, you know they mean business when it comes to sports.

Here's the chart I promised. I've scored each category on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Superior and 1 being Poor:

• Music: Sirius 9/XM 9


• Talk Radio: Sirius 7.5/XM 8


• Sports: Sirius 9/XM 7


• News: Sirius 8/XM 8


• Quality of Service: Sirius 8/XM 8

The Winner: If you based a winner on my point scale given above Sirius slightly leads over XM. Like I said earlier, you'll be very satisfied with either service. It all depends on your individual taste. If you like Talk Radio, other than Stern, , go with XM. If you need to have Stern, go with Sirius.

Finally, we'd like to hear from you, leave a comment or send us an e-mail with your questions, comments or concerns.

Related Links:

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Willie Nelson's 'Gay' Cowboy Song Debuts on Howard Stern's Sirius Show

Brokeback Mountain, a gay love story involving cowboys, is gaining a lot of exposure at both the box office and the academy awards. Now, to coincide with the "gay cowboy" theme of the movie, legendary country singer Willie Nelson revealed his song titled 'Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond Of Each Other)' on the Howard Stern show on Tuesday.

The song was originally written in 1981 by Texas-born, NYC resident musician/songwriter Ned Sublette, long before gay cowboys were the current topic of conversation according to a representative of Lost Highway Records.

The song is now available to download from iTunes. Also, a video of the song is in the works and is being made by the Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe, the team that created such films as Super Troopers and Club Dread.

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1. Academy Award Nominations
2. Cheney Already Found On Parody T-Shirts About His Hunting Skills
3. 85-Year-Old British Lady To Climb Mt. Everest

Cheney Already Found On Parody T-Shirts About His Hunting Skills

Vice-President Dick Cheney is being portrayed on T-shirts making fun of his "accidental" shooting of lawyer Harry Whittington while hunting in Texas. It seems the act of producing these parody t-shirts is happening quicker than the news of the hunting accident itself.

On Monday, many members of the media criticized the White House's delay of reporting the shooting incident.

The Cheney t-shirts and other items can be found at Cafepress.com. Some examples from the Web site include T-shirts that read, "Guns Don't Kill People...Vice Presidents Do, " while another reads, "Dick Cheney Shot Me And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt."

"We have an average of 300,000 individual searches for merchandise in our Marketplace everyday," explains CafePress CEO and Founder Fred Durham. "Today, merchandise related to the Cheney shooting has entered into the Top 10 for all searches. It's the perfect example of entrepreneurial spirit found in the CafePress community; once again the pulse of America makes it to the CafePress Marketplace."

Related Links:

1. 85-Year Old British Lady To Climb Mount Everest

IPTV Poised to Give Cable and Satellite Television a Run for their Money

IPTV, or Internet Protocol Television, is gaining a lot of interest these days, and not just from tech geeks. A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 56 percent of all U.S. adults have heard of IPTV and a large portion of those expressed interest in adopting IPTV on their TV's and home PC's.

Additionally, when those were polled were asked about what features of IPTV are they most interested in, most said it was the prospect of saving money over traditional cable and satellite.

Other features listed are:

• The ability to select the time you watch a program on demand
• The ability to receive a broader array of programming content to meet your particular interests
• High-definition viewing
• Digital video recording
• Interactive program guide with navigation and search functions

Twelve percent of adults say they would sign up and try IPTV immediately if it were only available for their PC, and 57 percent say they would wait and see how others like it. Almost one in five (18 percent) say they would try IPTV immediately if it were available for their PC and could be sent to TV's in their house using a set-top box, and 59 percent said they would wait and see how others like it. Minorities say they would ignore IPTV for their home PC (31 percent) or their TV (23 percent) as they are happy with their current service.

IPTV seems to have a bright future, especially with the freedom it gives for not only the viewer but for the producer of IPTV video content.

Moishe Plugs Nightcops

Click here to watch a video of Moishe plugging Nightcops, the upcoming faux documentary presented by none other than the Webisode.com.

Listen to Moishe's Podcast.

Kingdom Hearts II Voice Cast Unveiled

Square Enix and Disney's Buena Vista Games have released the list of voices behind Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to Kingdom Hearts, one of the top 10 best-selling Playstation 2 titles of all time.

The cast list is as follows:

Haley Joel Osment as the main character Sora
David Gallagher as Riku
Hayden Panettiere as Kairi
Jesse McCartney as the mysterious boy Roxas
Brittany Snow as Namine
Christopher Lee as Diz
Steve Burton as Cloud
Rachael Leigh Cook ("She's All That," "Josie And The Pussycats") as Tifa
Mena Suvari ("American Beauty," "Rumor Has It") as Aerith

There will also be characters from the FINAL FANTASY series including the talents of:
Hedy Buress as Yuna
Tara Strong as Rikku
Gwendoline Yeo as Paine from FINAL FANTASY X-2.

In addition, many of the original Disney film star voice actors are reprising their role for this project, including:
Ming-Na as Mulan
James Woods returning as the villain Hades
Zach Braff as Chicken Little.

Kingdom Hearts II is a highly anticipated game and will include the chance to explore Disney themed places from such films as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Mulan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Steamboat Willie and Tron as well as revisit worlds from the original, including Aladdin, Disney Castle, Hercules, The Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

There will be over 100 Disney characters in the game as well as the introduction of several new characters.

The game will be released in March with an MSRP of $49.99.

85-Year Old British Lady To Climb Mount Everest

An 85-year old British woman plans to reach the summit of Mount Everest with her little dachshund Daisy sometime this Spring.

Mary Woodbridge has been training to make the dangerous hike and has been chronicling her training on her Web site.

Besides making the climb with the dog, Woodbridge plans to go it alone with out sherpas because she would 'feel sorry for the boys.' Also, she is taking a new route that nobody has taken before. This new route will skip all the campsites placed along the way and she will attempt to go straight from the base camp to the summit. Additionally, she will not take any additional oxygen supply.

Woodbridge's reply to why she is taking on such a challenge at her age was simply that 'You always have to set yourselves new challenges.'

If I was a betting man, I would put my entire life savings, all $23.72 of it, against her and the dog making it.

1GB iPod Nano Released

Apple has introduced a smaller iPod Nano with a smaller price tag to go along with it. Previously available in 4GB and 2GB models, the iPod Nano is now available with a 1GB model. This smaller model is available for $149. You can purchase one here.

"Now everyone can afford an iPod Nano, with our new 1GB model starting at just $149," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. "The iPod is the world's most popular digital music player with over 40 million sold, and now even more music lovers can experience the unrivaled combination of iPod and iTunes."

Apple also lowered the prices of their iPod Shuffle. The 1GB model will sell for $99 and the 512MB model will sell for $69. These can be bought here.

Apple seems to be covering all of the price points with the new Nano model and price changes.

In other related Apple news, the iTunes music store will begin to offer episodes of Showtime's "Weeds" and "Sleeper Cell." Like most other videos purchased through iTunes, each episode will sell for $1.99 per download.

"We're thrilled to expand the iTunes video catalog with premium content programming from Showtime," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "With over 12 million videos sold, iTunes provides the best way for consumers to discover, purchase and download video online."

Related Links:
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2. the WEBiSODE Podcast
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Google, Volkswagen Team Up For Navigation System

Google and Volkswagen are combining forces with nVidia to develop an in-car navigation map system that will be capable of displaying three dimensional images with great detail. It is reported to be unlike any other navigation system available today.

It might include such features as a vehicle-centric touchscreen interface tied into Google's Earth software. Also, it will feature accurate 3D maps and real-time traffic updates.

It will take advantage of increased accuracy of GPS, dead-reckoning and laser-radar images, plus enhanced car-to-infrastructure communication.

This all sounds great, but it might work and look too good. Drivers will be too busy admiring how good and detailed it looks rather than keeping their eyes on the road.

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Google's Caching Of Content Ruled OK By Nevada Court

Defenders of Property Rights applauded the recent ruling by a Nevada District Court that Google and other search engines are allowed to cache Web content without violating copyright laws. Nancie G. Marzulla, President of Defenders of Property Rights, called the decision "a groundbreaking step in the new information market place."

"We always knew questions of property rights would arise during the current clash between Old Media and New Media," stated Ms. Marzulla. "This ruling goes a long way toward defining fair use in this new information-based environment."

This ruling, which was found to be protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, will help Google's plans with their Google Book Search, where users can search the text within a book through the Google search engine.

GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl XL Ad Is A Go

After a standoff and weeks of negotiations, GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl XL television ad will air after all. Some might recall that GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl ad from last year was censored.

"This showdown went down to the wire. We were about out of time and had produced our 14th and final attempt. I'm ecstatic about being in the Super Bowl again," said Bob Parsons, founder and president of GoDaddy.com.

GoDaddy, a registrar of domain names worldwide, produced 14 different spots that tried to win approval from both GoDaddy and ABC television. However over the last several weeks, ABC Television network's "Standards and Practices" division had trouble approving what they were being shown.

"GoDaddy.com's commercial may not appeal to everyone, but I guarantee it will be 'GoDaddy-Esque.' That means it will be FUN, edgy and just a touch inappropriate," Parsons said.

No word yet on exactly what will be included in the approved ad.

Related Links:

1. GoDaddy's Timeline For Their Quest for Super Bowl Ad Approval

Company Creates New Way To Add DVD's To Your iPod

The new video iPod released late in 2005 has been a big success. However, many people, especially the less tech savvy ones, found it difficult to import DVD's and other personal video files to their new iPods.

A new service called TVMyPod may be able to change that difficulty by doing the dirty work for you. The good news is that the service is free, the bad news is that they will only load new DVD's that you purchased from them into your iPod.

Yes, we know what you are thinking..."That sucks!" Well, in a way, yes it does, but this may be the beginning of a new type of service that makes it easier for those less inclined to get new media on their iPods, PSPs and any other type of portable media device.

The success of a service like this will be measured by time and money.

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