As oil prices rise it seems that airlines are actually doing something to help the consumer rather than harm him or her. So far, there are two schools of thought. The first is to save money while the second is to add value. It's pretty obvious which is the one less popular with any corporation. That aside, it's interesting to know that those of us who enjoy consuming media on planes are the ones who will suffer/benefit.

US Airways is taking the more traditional route of trying to save money in the face of rising oil prices. They've announced that they will be removing the in-flight movie capabilities of about ten percent of their passenger aircraft. How does removing a single DVD player from an airplane going to help save money? Well, for some odd reason they don't use some fifty-dollar DVD player they picked up from Buy.com. The systems they actually use weigh five hundred pounds. So, you can see how cutting them out might save them a few bucks on fuel.

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Box Office

Fancy yourself a film fanatic? Have no fear as the Box Office app is here, allowing users to quickly access movie showtimes sorted by name or even your location (via zipcode or GPS/celltower location). Best of all, sort by RottenTomatoes score to find the best bang for your buck. All ticket links send you directly to Fandango. Did I mention that it’s free?

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Disclaimer: This remains but a rumour at this point, one that has been circulating the ‘net ever since Apple popularized touch-screen technology with the iPhone and the subsequent iPod Touch. But new information as surfaced that leads some to believe that the MacBook Touch does in fact exist, and that it’s coming in October!

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Not too long ago, Amazon.com began offering movies and TV shows on their website. Some were available via a streaming video player while others required the customer to download a video he or she would then play locally, on their own computers. The service was called "Amazon Unbox" and the theory was that the videos didn't come in a box.

Clever, right?

Aaaanyway, so here comes Amazon, again, with a new online video offering--this one entirely streaming. What this new service offers over "Unbox" isn't entirely clear--sure, streaming is better than downloading, in theory, but what happens if your broadband goes down in the middle of a movie? And what's so bad about waiting for a movie to download? Certainly, it's faster than waiting for the Post Office to deliver a Netflix DVD, right?

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Since the dawn of time…er…of the modern computer people have envisioned a myriad of methods to interact with PCs. They keyboard/mouse combination has, despite a varied assortment of competitors, become the de facto means of inputting information into a computer. Even for gaming, despite the prevalence of consoles and their nifty ‘controllers’, the old ‘board and mouse have weathered the tests of time. But together they’re rather bulky and cumbersome and at times restrictive. While laptops have consolidated the mouse function into a little pad, others still strive for a replacement without sacrificing functionality. The most discriminating of critics in this respect are PC gamers, who will demand the utmost accuracy and response. So it comes across as somewhat ambitious that OCZ Technology chose to target that audience when crafting the first ‘brain-computer’ interface available on the retail market; the Neural Impulse Actuator.

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Bookworms rejoice! Finally a gadget to keep all of your favorite volumes in the palm of your hand. The Amazon Kindle is just one of a number of new e-book readers on the market. At about 10.3 oz, the Kindle is made specifically for the purpose of downloading and reading e-books, electronic versions of the traditional cover-to-cover models adorning bookstore shelves. What’s even better is an e-book sells for a fraction of the price.

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So you want to Jailbreak that iPhone 3G?

As recently reported, those folks over at the iPhone Dev Team have been hard at work on a jailbreaking procedure for the new 2.0 update and the iPhone 3G (unlocking the 3G is said to be a different story and will be forthcoming in the near future). While footage of the Pwnage Tool 2.0 jailbreaking a 3G iPhone has been circulating around the web for nearly a week now, all details related to the release of the software simply stated ‘soon.’ Well, soon was Saturday when the Dev Team made the Mac-only available for download. As depicted in the video the Pwnage Tool makes jailbreaking a pretty simply, point-and-click procedure. Too easy for you? Get Windows then.

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Movie Madness: Dark Knight + Watchmen trailer leaked online

Okay, it’s every where. Batman this, Batman that. I couldn’t make this news post without mentioning the ahem Dark Knight. The movie has potential to set a box-office record, likely capturing the 2008 (to date) top box office revenue. The film has already set one record for premiering on the most theatres, narrowly beating out Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (4,366 Dark Knight to DMC 4,362).

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This week has been dominated by E3, which means all things console and videogame related. The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is host to hundreds of game developers, dozens of ‘booth babes’ and three key players: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. While all three had their news-worthy announcements at their respective public conferences held at the beginning of the week, Nintendo’s was relatively quite. That’s because on the eve of the festivities they decided to launch an preemptive strike by offering up a juicy bit of news: the Wii-mote is getting an upgrade.

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E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), the annual videogame expo, kicks off this week with keynote addresses from the industries biggest players: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.

On Monday, Microsoft made some significant announcements and Tuesday the onus was on Nintendo and Sony to respond. Below are some of the highlights from both addresses. We’ll let you be the judge of gets top honours for best keynote.

Nintendo Unveils Wii MotionPlus

Have you ever wished that the Wii-mote was just a little more accurate, a bit more responsive? Well, prepared to have your wish granted as Nintendo revealed the Wii MotionPlus add on for the standard Wii controller. This little device [pictured] plugs into the end of your controller and sets out to function in sweet harmony with the accelerometer and sensor bar to provide 1:1 flailing motion to screen. This means a superior level of accuracy, and immersion, in all games.

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