At times, it may seem as if politicians on either side of the Right/Left divide can agree on anything, but apparently everyone thinks that television commercials are too damn loud. Yesterday, the US Congress passed something called The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, which says that the FCC must require advertisers to …
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FCC Wants Broadcasters to Take “Value Tests” to Stay on the Air
What if broadcasters had to prove that they provided value to the public in order to keep their licenses? That’s an idea being proposed by Michael Copps, one of the five commissioners on the FCC, who told an audience at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism yesterday that the current licensing system in the US should be …
Two Minute Video: Samsung Netbook Tops 10-inchers
Buying a netbook is a tricky proposition. By nature, netbooks are fraught with tradeoffs and shortcomings in order to offset low price points and portability. Samsung’s 10-inch NF310 netbook gets a whole lot right without suffering from too many drawbacks.
While most 10-inch netbooks sport cramped 1024×600 resolution screens, the …
Origins: “Walking Dead” Director Frank Darabont on His Influences
AMC’s The Walking Dead will wrap up its first season this Sunday and in honor of the finale we have a little treat for you.
Best known for directing a pair of critically-acclaimed prison movies based on Stephen King stories — The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption — Frank Darabont is the man behind the runaway AMC hit zombie …
Emanata: Comics Rookie of the Year
Now that it’s December, it’s safe to anoint the best debut graphic novel of the year. Adam Hines’ Xeric Grant-winning Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One is an incredible piece of work–a frantic science-fictional meditation on the relationship between people and animals, and a virtuosic display of Hines’ range and power as a cartoonist. …
The Comic Book Club: “Brightest Day” and “Bring the Thunder”
This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Douglas Wolk, Graeme McMillan and Evan Narcisse talk about Brightest Day Vol. 1 and Bring the Thunder #1.
DOUGLAS: I really wish Brightest Day were better, in much the same way that I wished Blackest Night had been more …
10 Alien Types We Wish Were Real
Okay, so NASA hasn’t announced that it’s discovered evidence of extra-terrestrial life, as was rumored/hoped for as soon as today’s press conference was announced earlier this week. And while the discovery of an entirely new lifeform that redefines life as we know it is nothing to be sneezed at – Anything that actually deserves the …
Gowalla 3.0: All-In-One Check Ins Are Here
Popular location-based network Gowalla announced the 3.0 update of its mobile app, which integrates the service with rival Foursquare.
(More on TIME: Groupon Becomes Social Shopping Network)
With its new congruent app, Gowalla 3 has broken the barriers between the popular geosocial sites – a startling and quite clever campaign to …
Hulu Preparing To Launch International Service?
America is no longer big enough for Hulu. Having successfully launched Hulu Plus, the paid-subscription model for the streaming video-on-demand service, the company – co-owned by NBC Universal, Fox parent company News Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. – wants to expand internationally.
Talking to the Wall Street Journal, chief executive …
Flipboard iPad News Reader App Now Supports Magazine Layouts
If you’ve got an iPad and you use it to read news, chances are good that you’ve downloaded Flipboard by now. The free app pulls in links shared by the people you’re connected with across various social networks and displays pertinent headlines and excerpts in a nice magazine-style layout.
(More: Flipboard iPad App Makes a Magazine …
Global BBC iPlayer To Be Paid, iPad-Only Service
More details are emerging about the international launch of BBC iPlayer, the video-on-demand service that will stream content not only from the BBC, but also other British broadcasters and television producers, and it’s… not exactly what people were expecting. BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones has announced that iPlayer …
Writing Staff Fired From AMC’s Walking Dead
What’s the best way to celebrate the success of AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead, which finishes its first season this weekend? If you said “By firing all the writers and relying on freelancers to write the second season,” then it’s very possible that you’re series showrunner and executive producer Frank Darabont, who is reported to …