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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
eXistenZ
Shane Buettner  |  Jun 05, 2013
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Extras
In spring of 1999, while the masses were jacking into The Matrix, braver souls were leaping into the alternate gaming universe of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ. Ostensibly, über game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is on a promotional tour with her newest game and game pod, which is an electrical organism that creates its virtual reality by plugging directly into the gamer’s nervous system via spinal cord bioport. She and her marketing man, Ted Pikul (Jude Law), come under attack and flee from realists who object to extreme gaming’s impact on humanity and its reliance on endangered mutant amphibians for gaming pods (!).
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Bourne legacy
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 05, 2013
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Extras
Interactivity
I knew Jason Bourne. Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), you’re no Jason Bourne.

The first Bourne movie not based on an actual Robert Ludlum novel, Legacy gets quite a lot wrong, frankly. The story brings us back to the era of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, when extreme measures were being taken to maintain the secrecy of the covert, overly ambitious super-soldier program that created Jason. A whole new crop of men has become the subject of some risky new behavior/performance-enhancing experiments, and as one of these lethal lab rats, Aaron is desperate for answers—and the necessary meds to keep his edge—despite the nasty opponents pursuing him at every turn.

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Audio Video News
CEA Jawbones FCC on Cable Waiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 05, 2013
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is crying foul over a cable operator’s request for special treatment from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is the latest shot in a long-running battle over who should control the security technology built into set-top boxes. In 2007, the FCC banned digital STBs with integrated security, instead requiring that all boxes use a removable CableCARD.
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Audio Video News
Our Insatiable Appetite for TV…& Gadgets
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 05, 2013
The American love affair with TV is stronger than ever. Motorola Mobility’s Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer study found that we watch an average of 23 hours of TV programming and six hours of movies each week—four hours more than the global average of 19 and six hours, respectively, and higher than any of the 17 countries surveyed. Looked at another way, we watch more than a full day’s worth of programming every week.
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Bluetooth Speaker Reviews
Review: RockSteadyXS
Brent Butterworth  |  Jun 05, 2013

Bluetooth speakers are like cheap econobox cars: Even in normal daily use, you're likely to push them to their limits. Most of the compact Bluetooth speakers I test put out 81 to 87 dB at 1 meter, loud enough for casual listening but not loud enough to get your foot tapping and your head bobbing.

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Track One
Devon Allman's Turquoise Soul
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 04, 2013

"It's rich. It's got depth that you'll never get from an MP3, and it's just cool, man. It's got more soul." That's Devon Allman, talking about one of our favorite subjects, vinyl.

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This Week
This Week in Movies & TV, June 4, 2013: Dead & Deader
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 04, 2013

A Good Day to Die Hard

The latest chapter of the popular, 25-year-old franchise is a Die Hard film with subtitles. But, fear not, ardent fans, it's just for a scene or two at the start and that's as arty as it gets. The rest of the film is standard slam-bam, big-boom, non-stop adrenaline-filled, Yippie-Kai-Yay thrill seeking.

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Audio Video News
Westone Introduces Adventure Series Earphones for Active Users
HT Staff  |  Jun 04, 2013
Westone, a Colorado Springs-based company specializing in high-performance audio and in-ear monitoring technology, today introduced the water-resistant Adventure Series Alpha earphones for active users.
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This Week
This Week in Music, June 4, 2013: Summoning “Ghost Brothers” with Mellencamp, King, and Burnett
Ken Richardson  |  Jun 04, 2013

Various Artists: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

New release (Hear Music/Concord; tour dates)
Photo of Burnett, Mellencamp, and King by Kevin Mazur

Indiana cabin, mid-1900s: Two brothers argue over a girl. One brother accidentally kills the other, and then the fleeing brother and the girl accidentally drive into a lake and drown.

True story. John Mellencamp learned it after buying the cabin in the early 1990s.

Soon after, Mellencamp got the idea for a musical based on that story. By 2000, he had begun work on the score (both music and lyrics), and he asked Stephen King to write the book.

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This Week
This Week in Music, June 4, 2013: Summoning “Ghost Brothers” with John Mellencamp, Stephen King, and T Bone Burnett
Ken Richardson  |  Jun 04, 2013

Various Artists: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

New release (Hear Music/Concord; tour dates)
Photo of Burnett, Mellencamp, and King by Kevin Mazur

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