Hock Show Weekend Top Five for February 28th – March 6th, 2010
1. It’s the Acadamy Awards! The Oscars, a gigantic party where movies that nobody saw are rewarded with tiny gold men that will go in a box somewhere and be forgotten about almost immediately. This year’s big winners? “The Hurt Locker,” a sad story about an injured cabinet, Sandra Bullock for her work in the “Speed” and “Miss Congeneality” movies, and Jeff Bridges, though he probably won’t remember.
2. Apple Doesn’t Want Your iPhone App. Apple went through the app store and deleted just about every iPhone App from the store that didn’t do much. Now they’re basically saying, “If you want to make a cosmetic app, too bad.” That’s interesting, because so much of what the iPhone does is fluff, but if it gives us better apps? Maybe it’s worth kicking the developers in the ass a bit.
3. If You Haven’t Donated Money to Haiti, the RIAA Would Like to Speak With You. The RIAA, who is a public relations wunderkind what with suing grandmothers who don’t own computers and teenagers who certainly aren’t making $200,000 in babysitting money. Now, they’re claiming that the sales of the (really terrible, come on, I linked it a couple weeks ago) “We Are the World” remake are slow because people are downloading it illegally. Somewhere in their litigation they should have a weird, out of place rap breakdown.
4. Alice in Wonderland Was Weird. Johnny dressed up as Elijah Wood (who probably would’ve been cheaper), and Tim Burton’s creepy but kind of interesting take on Alice in Wonderland, which has pushed Avatar out of 3D theatres, even though it’s barely in 3D. It’s a weird trip, kind of but not really appropriate for kids (erring on the side of “Chronicals of Narnia”). If you know the novels or the various film versions, it’s worth checking out. If not? Why not?
5. Ubisoft Changing the Way You (Don’t) Play Games. Ubisoft has announced their new DRM, and it’s…bad. It constantly checks your internet connection, and if it can’t find one, then it shuts down. So anybody living out in the boonies or with an intermittant connection? Is screwed from playing Assassin’s Creed or Splinter Cell. It’s a horrible, horrible idea that I really hope doesn’t catch on to devlopers of single player games that are actually, you know, good.