Want to Know what happened while this site was updated the past week? Here's the rundown: 

Conversely, How BAD Were MTV's VMAs? The internet pop culture scene is all abuzz at the bizarro would we live in these days, where The Emmy Awards are more entertaining than MTV's Video Music Awards, the latter of which aired last night (Thursday). For whatever reason, although Jack Black was funny alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar for the MTV Movie Awards some years back, he seemed terribly out of tune tonight, no pun intended. In fact, the only favorable comments I could find about the show (and believe me: I looked) was from the paparazzi photo blog Egotastic, which said, "There were a few highlights, like OK GO doing a live version of their treadmill dance, Abigail Breslin, the little girl from Little Miss Sunshine (one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time), Sarah Silverman's dig at Paris Hilton (which could have been better), Al Gore bringing the environment back (like Justin Timberlake is bringing sexy back), and, um... That's it, actually." Yet even the critic over at Egotastic had to rhetorically ask, "Seriously, since when are the Emmy Awards more entertaining...than the MTV [Video Music Awards?]" Agreed.

Nike's Next "Sports" Sponsor: Jennifer Aniston. While their sponsors have understandably been sports stars for the most part, it has been reported by various sources that Jennifer Aniston is set to sign a deal with Nike. The alleged talks involve Aniston being the part of an international campaign, which would be highlighted in a commercial played during February's Super Bowl. In one of various explanations for choosing a non-sports celebrity, The Internet Movie Database explained the choice this way: "Aniston is a keen runner and regularly appears in tabloid magazines jogging around her Malibu, California, home."

"You're Fired!" Trump Fires Caroline. In all the many seasons of The Apprentice so far, three constants have always remained: one being Donald Trump, the second being "George" to his right, and the third, Carolyn, to his left. Well, as of next season, fans will have to settle for two out of three: Donald Trump has fired Carolyn Kepcher for good. The allegations are that she became too engrossed in her own fame due to the show. This makes Carolyn no longer the general manager of Trump National Golf Club in New York. A source printed in this weekend's People Weekly claims: "This has been brewing for over a year. He has tried to get her on the phone, and she was either off giving a speech or was hard to reach....With the book, the speaking engagements and these endorsement deals, he's looking at that and thinking, 'She's supposed to be working for me. Yet, she is off creating her own empire.'" Yet to hear Trump's representative Jim Dowd's respond to the firing, his only comment was that "Trump wishes her the best.". 

Star Trek TOS Gets FX Upgrade. The internet sci-fi sites are abuzz over the latest news about Star Trek. It seems that the original series (or "TOS," as it's often nicknamed) will be upgraded, not unlike the Special Editions of the Star Wars movies. The upgrade will be syndicated on television when completed, and will include totally revamped special FX, digitally enhanced audio and restored video, as well as a new theme song. The latter has many fans concerned more than any of the other revamping. Says one here-anonymous message board source: "The original theme song is a classic. I can see updating a puppet alien here and a cheaply done phaser shot there, but the theme song is classic, and should remain as it always was...as classic TV."

NBC Apologizes For Emmy "Lost" Skit. Perhaps the most controversial Emmy moment was when Conan O'Brien acted like he was sent to the island of Lost...after a plane crash. Though quite relevant given the show's series premiere two years ago, the timing couldn't have been more inappropriate, given the recent fatal plane accident in Kentucky.NBC apologized Monday for the skit, saying "In no way would we ever want to make light of this terrible tragedy." NBC added that while the skit was meant to emcompass the most memorable scenes on recent television, "The timing was unfortunate, and we regret any unintentional pain it may have caused."

Aniston's Topless Photog Let Loose. Some time back you may remember how a photographer was raked across the coals for taking topless photos of Jennifer Aniston. Well all charges against the photog were dropped by Jennifer this week...provided he promised to never publish the photos. Photographer Peter Brandt took the racy photos in L.A. last year, while Jennifer was at her home...yet Brandt insists to this day that he took the photos totally legally. In fact, Brandt's representatives sent out a statement this week, insisting that "Even though they were legally obtained...Peter pulled the photos from publication." It would appear that the only nudity fans will see of Miss Aniston are in the movies; in her film The Break-Up, a blurry shot of Aniston's behind is seen, as her character walks naked to the kitchen.

Sharon Stone Confirms Third Adoption. Sharon Stone, 48, has confirmed reports that she has adopted a third son. Quinn will be the adoptive sibling of Stone's other two children: Roan Joseph, 6, and Laird Vonne, who is 15 months old. Stone had taken steps to adopt Quinn back in June, but only recently confirmed the adoption to television entertainment news program Extra.

Big Brother Attempts One Week In One Hour. Viewers and "house guests" alike were shocked this week when as an apparent ratings ploy, one week of contests in Big Brother All Stars was performed in one night. As a rule, a person is eliminated Thursday night, live, followed at the end of the show with a new HOH. That HOH then nominates two people for eviction, which often airs Sunday, with those nominees' attempt to "veto" their nomination on Tuesday, and so on. This week's Thursday telecast had a "whole week in one night," when no sooner was Danielle evicted from the house, then Janelle won as the new HOH, and had to make her nominations...live. Her choices were Erica and "Chicken" George. Then all five house guests competed for the Power Of Veto, which was won by Erica, who vetoed her nomination. In her place was Mike Boogie. In the end, however, only Erica and Will could vote on who was eliminated, and due to both of their alliances with Mike, George was next to go. The show was so action packed that they didn't air the typical end-of-show HOH competition, which airs Sunday.

Rock Star: One Gone, One Surprised, Two "Boos." Rock Star Supernova reached a fever pitch last week due to the comments made by Dilana, about various other members of the house. It was enough for even co-host Dave Navarro to insist to Rock Hopeful Dilana, that "You don't rag on your peers like that." Apparently her fans would agree, with the often-safe Dilana reduced to the bottom three this week, amidst a scattering of surprised gasps and boos from the live studio audience. However, regardless of a performance of "Psycho Killer" which was hardly flawless (it is rumored by some message boards online that she even forgot to sing most of the words), It was Ryan who was next to go, amidst a very loud, audible roar of boos. Ryan himself was particularly shocked as he insisted he would've given them many good songs through the years, but he respected their decision. In the end, the only wild card that follows into next week is Dilana. Can she get her fans back in time for the finale...which airs in two weeks? People can see if she can "bring it" next Tuesday, during the next performance show.

Multimedia & Game News:

It's September, Bear With Us. Okay; so it's September 1st and we've just now rebooted Techtite News...as it were. So forgive us if most of the news stories below are relatively "old" for game news, given the limited game news this time of year. It'll pick up soon enough as the holiday shopping season takes full swing...as it almost always does.

Dead Rising: X-Box Game of the Year? Capcom reportedly has already shipped no less than half a million copies of their X-Box 360 title, Dead Rising...and to hear gamers tell it, there's a reason why. Whether you're a fan of the Romero zombie films, or a fan of cult hit zombie tales like Return of the Living Dead and Evil Dead 2, there's no denying this game has wide appeal. Yet the real "fun" factor is how the action takes place in a super sized shopping mall, which you can ransack at will, for any apparel, weaponry, or health items you wish. Jump the counter of the fast food court for a bite of food (health), or go to the hardware store for a good weapon against the undead. Even the clothing stores are well stocked, allowing you to go against the undead in casual attire, a spiffy new suit, or even a kid's superhero costume. The game is that "open" with opportunity. Suffice to say that the full review ---and perhaps even a feature story of all the cool "little" things we uncovered within the mall--- is coming next week, but for now we're all just having too much fun.

"Just Cause" For GTA Clone. What if someone retooled the Grand Theft Auto series with less controversy and maintained the fun factor? Imagine if the lead character was a CIA operative setting out to overthrow a corrupt South American kingpin. Hero Rico Rodriguez may not shoot down cop cars, but he can grapple a helicopter in mid flight and commandeer it for himself on the way to his next mission. X-Box Live subscribers got a taste of what every game site is talking about this week, via a 600+ megabyte demo. The demo is just a small taste of the over 1,000 square mile island that the full game is said to encompass, complete with various small villages and even larger cities to explore. The full game is slated for release for later this month (September 26th).

Time Pilot Goes "Live." The cult hit arcade game Time Pilot has just been added to X-Box Live this Wednesday. Time Pilot is a classic arcade game in the spirit of Asteroids, but with much more advanced graphics. You must time travel from 1910 to 1930 and even to the future to combat various fighter planes in history. Each level ends with a "leader" plane that must be eliminated in order to make the jump to the next era in time. The first level is playable for free, with the full game available for 400 X-Box Live "credits" (which, based on the average price of a 1600 point X-Box Live card, is around the equivalent of $5).

Steam Pops Cap On Mini Games.  Log onto Steam lately? Theres a whole lot of new games in town, all thanks to PopCap games. Fans of X-Box Live Arcade will remember some of the titles that are now available to Steam fans via their PC: Bejeweled 2, Feeding Frenzy 2, Zuma Deluxe, and Astro Pop, for example. Yet PopCap has made many additional games for the PC that have yet to be seen on X-Box systems, like Pizza Frenzy, DynoMite, Talismania, and Chuzzle, among others. Fans of the Steam game service can either buy individual games from the PopCap collection for a $19.95 each, or buy the whole collection for $89.95, which, at 17 games, is a savings of almost 250 bucks. There is a downside however: unlike X-Box Arcade ---which always offers a free demo before purchase--- we've yet to see a free demo offered on Steam, which means you'll have to fly blind when choosing each game; a strange offer indeed, when many of the games have been offered online via Arcade Town, with free demos, for many years. Still; if you like the idea of clicking the little Steam Valve to play all your games on the fly, this idea is pretty good, as offers go.

Free Galactica Recap Goes Live.  X-Box Live may be the focus of most of this week's news, but it's just been so ripe with updates lately. Anyway; among the non-game video available on X-Box Live is a short video called "The Story So Far," for people who'd like an update to the Sci-Fi channel's Battlestar Galactica series. At over 400 megabytes this is both a top quality video, and more than worth the long download time.

Lumnines On Your Mobile Phone. Okay; so this is pretty old news if you're really into the mobile phoen gaming scene. Yet this news editor has only now gotten into the whole "cel phone plays games" thing, and yes, you can play one of the coolest PSP games ever on your mobile phone...presuming your mobile phone can play mobile games. It may not have as wide of a screen, and it may be much more limited, although it has received rave reviews so far from sites like IGN. Lumines has often been considered the Tetris for a new generation, where random sets of two different colors of blocks fall from the top of the screen, with the gamer combining as many blocks of the same color as possible.

New Releases: September 1st 2006.  This week saw the release of various titles on multiple systems. PSP saw the release of Capcom's Ultimate Ghosts 'n' Goblins, based on the older arcade title. X-Box 360 saw the release of both Enchanted Arms and Saint's Row. Playstation 2 has both Digaea 2 and Xenosaga Episode III. Game Cube has to settle for One Piece Grand Adventure, but not for long, with the highly anticipated Lego Star Wars ][: The Original Trilogy slated for release on all systems September 12th.

-------------------------------

 News we missed...?

Be your own reporter at Techtite's Letters page!