Steve Katzenberg of Dreamworks was also on hand to announce that all of the Shrek films will now be available in 3D, and they’ll be exclusively compatible with Samsung’s 3D Home Theater products.

Samsung also announced their “Dedicated to Wonder” new marketing campaign. This campaign will promote their new 3D products, and it will also make 3D stations available at retails stores so that customers can easily try out 3D home theater products before making a purchasing decision. Samsung will also be rolling out 3D advertising displays in IMAX theaters in April. Meanwhile, at the time Warner Center in New York, they’ve set up a massive 3D installation where folks can put on 3D glasses and come check out walls of 3D LED TVs.

Overall, we’re excited to finally have 3D LED TVs starting to make their way onto store shelves. Color us opportunists, but we’re even more excited by the fact that this probably means that LED TV prices for Samsung’s non 3D TV’s will come down in price.

Other news items:
·   Samsung’s 3D TV lineup includes the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series, and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series.
·   Available this month are the 3D capable 46” and 55” LED C7000, with the remaining 3D TVs rolling out over the next several months.
·   In the US, Samsung is launching a holistic marketing campaign under the name “Dedicated to Wonder.” The high-profile marketing effort will include television advertising and the first 3D Cinema advertising for a consumer electronics brand.

Set-Up:

LogMeIn was designed for even the least tech-savvy of us to use. Here was the process….

Step 1: Go to LogMeIn website and click Create Account

Step 2: Select the “Product Group” and choose “LogMeIn Access, Management and Networking”

Step 3: Enter in the usual information: name, email, password, country etc… and click Create

Step 4: Choose ‘Add this Computer’ and install the file

Step 5: Log in from LogMeIn Ignition on your iPhone

Step 6: That’s It!
There are some other settings and preferences you can tweak, but that’s all it takes to set up an easy to use and safe connection. After those 6 steps you’re ready to control your computer from virtually anywhere with your iPhone (over WiFi or 3G) or iPod Touch (over WiFi). You can even control your computer from any web browser. LogMeIn will run quietly in the background on your computer. It will display a transparent overlay to alert you of any active connections. Once again, there are no advanced router settings to fuss around with to get this to work.

The App:
Once you sign in to the app with your email and LogMeIn password you will see a list of your computers and their online/offline status. To login to one of your computers just click it’s name and enter in the log in info specific to that computer (LogMeIn will remember these credentials if you choose). At this point you will see your computer screen….on your iPhone….from anywhere…updating in real-time. It’s a beautiful thing. By default the mouse is always in the center of the iPhone screen and you use your finger to move the computer display (rather than moving the mouse). My recommendation is to change the default control setting so the mouse will move with your finger. It works very similarly to how your laptop touchpad works. Tap the screen to click, double tap to double click, two finger tap to right click, and use three fingers to scroll up and down (like a mouse scroll wheel). You can adjust mouse sensitivity, and the size of the screen on your phone, by pinching and zooming. There are a set of buttons on the bottom of the iPhone screen including disconnect, keyboard, right click/left click toggle, zoom, settings, alt-tab, and ctrl-alt-del. The keyboard button brings up the regular iPhone keyboard on the bottom half of the screen along with a row of other keyboard buttons not included on the iPhone keyboard.

I expected the control over WiFi (same network as computer) to be pretty smooth and fluid, and it certainly was. However, I did not expect the control over 3G to be almost nearly as fluid. It doesn’t react quite as quickly, but it comes very close. If I hover my mouse over an icon from my iPhone over 3g the tooltip pops up in under a second. You can also adjust the display resolution on Ignition. So if you find it’s too laggy, you can just lower the res, which will speed it up a bit.

Conclusion:
I’ve said it a couple times now, and I’ll say it once more: this app could not be easier to get up and running to control your Mac or PC remotely. The downside however, is that you’re certainly paying the price for the ease of use at $29.99. So it’s certainly one of the most expensive apps you may ever buy, but it very well might be one of the most useful. If you have a need for remotely controlling your computer(s) it will pay for itself rather quickly.
One feature I did not mention is LogMeIn ignition will also function as a pretty nice mouse and keyboard combo for your computer. This is great for media centers. Over WiFi the mouse movements are pretty smooth, although I will say they could be smoother. If you’re looking for just a mouse and keyboard combo to control your computer over WiFi you can use TouchPad Elite ($.99), which I highly recommend, or the Logitech Touch Mouse (free), which I’ve never tried. All in all I’m very excited that I have LogMeIn Ignition running on my iPhone; and I cannot wait to start using it on an iPad, controlling my computer with a big beautiful multi-touch screen.

The Good: Easy to set-up, easy to use, works with both PCs and Macs, very responsive over wi-fi

The Bad: Slight lag over 3G, $29.99 is much pricier than most iPhone apps

Then there is the Distinctive Assets gift baskets for those nominees who don’t take home the statue.

For us mere peasants who want to keep up with everything Oscar tonight,  you can using Twitter, Facebook or some iPhone Apps. The one app that’s been getting a lot of traction is the Vantiy Fair App and there is the live Oscar Twitter feed. Wolfgang Puck has already divulged what food is good for watching the Oscars and what he is preparing as the meal after the big event. Then of course there is the Official Oscars’s app.

For those who have cablevision and lost ABC a few minutes ago, they will probably appreciate these alternative ways of viewing the show and there is always the live webcast via the Facebook that will let you ask the celebs questions on the red carpet.

The purple striped messenger style bag is split into two compartments: one side for carrying your laptop, and one side for your miscellaneous objects. The interior of the bag is padded with a soft felt material so you know your computer isn’t going to get damaged or scratched. Even the divider between compartments is made of this soft padded fabric to protect your laptop from whatever you may have shoved in the neighboring compartment. Once I eased my 15″ full sized Sony laptop into the computer carrying compartment, I secured it in place with the stretchy velcro strap that goes over the opening of the compartment. The strong velcro strap made me feel like the laptop wasn’t going to fall out if the bag turned upside down while under my seat on the bus. The other compartment of the bag is also lightly padded and features a zippered pocket for carrying smaller doo dads. So now comes the truth test: is the extra compartment going to fit the magazine, power cords, and various stuff that I like to shove in my laptop bag? The answer is: sort of. One of the benefits of the case is that it’s pretty slim so you’re not going to feel like you’re carrying around some huge bulky bag. The downside to this is that I might have to pack lighter! That being said, the second compartment fit various loose papers, a magazine, my power cord, and a wireless mouse. It was a tight squeeze but definitely doable.

So the bag is completely packed to the gills, and I’m ready to close it up and get going. Both internal compartments load from the top and the bag has a quilted fold over flap that closes the bag shut. The flap connects to the bag with Velcro and has the added security of a small buckle to make sure that nothing falls out if the bag is shifted. The Velcro is a great feature for when you’re in a rush and forget to completely buckle your laptop in — you know that your papers and doo dads aren’t going to be all over the floor because the flap will stay in place. On the front of the bag but hidden under the flap when the bag is closed, are three compartments for storing your cell phone, extra papers, or whatever else you may need to carry. The bag also features a mesh side pocket, which held my water bottle securely in place.

 

There’s two ways you can carry this bag: one is across your body messenger style. The other is just to carry it on your shoulder like a shoulder bag. Unlike a normal horizontal messenger bag, this bag has a vertical orientation, so if it’s packed really tightly or if the strap is set to the wrong length, you may feel a little awkward carrying it. This can be easily fixed by adjusting the lengths of the straps. If you decide to carry it across your body or on your shoulder, the weight was pretty well distributed and I was thankful for the super padded shoulder strap. The padded strap relieved that “I just traveled on a bus for five hours” ache that is usually incurred with a standard bag. During the trip when I was reaching for my bag, I was happy to find that there is a tuck away carrying handle, perfect when reaching for the bag underneath your seat or just for added briefcase style portability.

When carrying my laptop is normally a huge burden, I felt much relieved when carrying it in this Speck PortPack Shoulder Bag. Almost an afterthought, the laptop’s weight was well distributed across my body and I had no problem carrying the bag around along with my luggage and purse. Well made and durable, I can see the case being my go-to laptop carrying case in many future trips.

The Good:
-Extremely well made and durable
-Combination of Velcro and buckles made me feel confident that my laptop wouldn’t fall out
-Added carrying handle made the trip feel that much easier when reaching for the bag under my seat
-Super thick padded shoulder strap for comfortable carrying

The Bad:
-Vertical orientation makes the bag a little more awkward than a normal horizontal orientation messenger bag
-With a 15″ laptop, it’s a very tight squeeze to use the bag’s additional compartment

The R80 series of notebooks are perfect for watching movies both at home and on the go with a built in Blu-ray optical drive. Additionally, the nVIDIA GeForce graphics card included in the R580 and R780 will appeal to the gamer in any household. The HD LED displays (17.3” – R780, 15.6” – R580, 14.0” – R480) provide the sharpest images and boldest colors with a proper 16:9 aspect ratio. With a built-in Webcam and integrated microphone, they are ideal for use communicating with friends and family over Skype or other VoIP networks. With an HDMI output, these models are perfect for college students or anyone who wants to play Blu-ray movies or stream HD video directly to their TV.

If you buy the laptop directly from them it will retail for $2275 and the specs are as follows:
– Intel Processor (2.26 – 3.2Ghz)
– 15.6″ HD Screen (900p or 1080p)
– 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M
– 500 GB SATAII Hard Drive
– 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
– Dual Layer DVD Burner
– Internal Bluetooth
– Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit
– One Year Limited Warranty

If you go ahead and send yours in to be pimped, it will cost you $525. The best part is if you are a techie gal, you will have your very own feminine hardcore Alienware laptop.