ROGER EBERT TRASHES TRON: LEGACY

Movie critic Roger Ebert has trashed the highly anticipated sequel to Tron, Tron:Legacy. The sequel is due on theatres this Friday and is expected to be a hit. Ebert thinks the action sequences are great, but you might want to a phone or beer bottle label to amuse you during the plot parts.

Ebert does praise the 3D effects during the action sequences as well as the musical score produced by Daft Punk. But he finishes the review on a downer, claiming the plot is "a catastrophe" and Tron Legacy is therefore unlikely to have staying power at the box office. [Gizmodo]

WINDOWS LIVE ESSENTIALS 2011 RELEASED

Microsoft has released the final version of it's popular Windows Live Essentials software.  This updated software installs Microsoft Instant Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Windows Mail, Writer, Family Safety, Windows Live Mesh, Messenger Companion, Bing Bar, Outlook Connector Pack and Silverlight.  All of this in one easy to install package.  Microsoft has made it so during the install you can choose which pieces to install, so installing the entire suite is not mandatory.

Messenger has been updated, but has a few glaring criticisms.  First is the use of nicknames or screen names.  Trying to be more like Facebook and LinkedIn, Messenger uses your real name.  Second is the inability to hide that you have a webcam.  No more lying that you don't have one as the person you are chatting with can now tell if you do or not.  And lastly, Microsoft has removed the ability to have one-way cam chats from Messenger.  These have long time Messenger users up in arms and vowing to find an alternative.

Live Mesh is a weird mix of peer to peer syncing, cloud syncing and remote desktop access.  The cloud syncing has 5GB on "SkyDrive", however it's not part of the real SkyDrive Microsoft uses for Hotmail photos and Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Live Photo Gallery has some much needed improvements including face recognition and geo-tagging.  One of the nifty new things it does is something called Photo Fuse.  It allows the user to create a composite photo out of a series of photos fairly easily.

The Bing Bar is somewhat dissapointing.  It doesn't look right in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and is completely off in the beta of IE9.  It also slows down the browser almost to a crawl.

The rest of the suite has had some minor updates as well.  Overall, if you have a current version of Microsoft Live Essentials installed, wait for the next release or just install those pieces you want. [Ars Technica] [Download]

FACEBOOK MOVIE GETTING RAVE REVIEWS

The soon to be released movie about Facebook, The Social Network, is receiving rave reviews.  Peter Sciretta of /Film stated it is his "favorite movie of the year (so far)."  The Sydney Morning Herald had this to say about the film ""This is an astounding film about one of the most important seismic shifts in communication in the modern age, and the way innovation and ethics are not often related."

While this is not the final cut of the film, it was screened for a select few reviews to gauge the reaction.  The movies production team was worried about people's negative reaction to coding, programming and arguments about typeface.  All that has apparently been laid to rest with the reviews of the preview.  Cinematical said that "with The Social Network, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin turn some fairly dry, nerdy content about fairly dry, nerdy characters into one of the must-see films of the year, and they don't waste any time getting right to it." [Gizmodo]

KINDLE 3 REVIEW

Engadget has posted a review of the just released Amazon Kindle 3.  Per the review the new Kindle is extremely iterative.  It is lighter and thinner than previous models and page turn is 20% faster.  Pricing for the WiFi model is   $139 and the WiFi/3G model is $189, which are competitive prices for this quality device.

Head on over to Engadget for the full review.