Microsoft has decided on Los Angeles for next year's Worldwide Partner Conference, which will bring around 15,000 people to the city, generating 50,000 hotel room nights and $45 million local spending, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today. The move comes as the city tries to also woo Comic-Con. more ›

A couple weeks ago we wrote about Microsoft's insidious sponsorship of Seth MacFarlane's November special, Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show" on November 8th and it now appears that Microsoft can't handle MacFarlane's humor and has dropped the sponsorship. After Microsoft execs attended the October 16th taping, a Microsoft spokesperson stated "We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of 'Family Guy,' but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand." In a twist of reality the company is now behaving exactly like the John Hodgeman parody character. more ›

Looks like "Family Guy"/"American Dad"/"The Cleveland Show" creator Seth MacFarlane is coming through on the idea of a music/comedy variety show. When we attended his "Family Guy" Pre-Emmy party (check out the vids) we marveled at his cabaret prowess an it looks like there were additional admirers at FOX and...... Microsoft? Yeah, MacFarlane will shill Windows 7 as part of the "Almost Live Comedy Show" special as part of an all-Seth MacFarlane night on November 8th. According to Variety, MacFarlane and co-host Alex Borstein "will use what is described as ridiculous and bawdy comparisons to describe what's 'as simple as Windows 7' and what's 'more difficult than Windows 7'" during live-action segments of the show. more ›

At a time when Hollywood has scaled back significantly on Web video productions, . more ›

Now that E3 is over we have had a moment to catch our breath and look back on the week. The most talked about announcement was Project Natal. We asked Ali Miller to describe her impression of the Natal unveiling more ›

So far E3, which is happening this week in town, has been filled with celebrities who love video games. At the EA press conference Pete Sampras played Grand Slam Tennis. At Ubisoft James Cameron described Avatar in detail and Pele shared his love for football and Academy of Champions. Joel McHale hosted the Ubisoft press conference revealing several times which games he was most looking forward to playing (Splinter Cell Conviction) and saluting the 'geeks' at The Los Angeles Theater. more ›

Last night's victory for North Carolina over Michigan State not only brought the Tarheels their fifth national championship in school history but it also gave one lucky LAist reader an XBOX 360 Elite. Brian Flanagan, also known as "Brifdog," and his "Brif Defeats LAist 09" bracket racked up a total of 148 points to beat out the field of LAist readers and staff members. Congratulations Brian and thanks to everyone for playing. Also, thanks to the good people at Microsoft for hooking us up with a very sweet prize. more ›

Not only will a national champion will be determined tonight in Detroit when North Carolina and Michigan State square off in the final of a very uneventful NCAA tournament, but we'll also have a winner in the LAist bracket contest. Going into tonight's action, we have a tie between "JK's Picks" and "Bracketology" but neither of those brackets has either the Tarheels or Spartans winning it all. In third place, we have "Brif Defeats LAist 09." If Ty Lawson and company prevail tonight, Brif just might do as the name suggests and defeat all of the LAist readers who participated. We'll just have to wait and see. The winner will receive an XBOX 360 Elite System thanks to our friends at Microsoft. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) more ›

what with all the booth babes and swag bags and throngs of gamers huddled outside the LA Convention Center chomping at the bit for a taste of the next Soul Calibur or Resident Evil or Final Fantasy. But that isn’t to say that the entire industry is at a loss for its bespectacled past. In fact, the reinvented, invite-only E3 (as of 2007) and the creation of E for All (which welcomes the public) is highly indicative of the scope of the gaming world. So its hard to argue that the industry is more popular now than it ever was. That being said, read on to find out the highlights of this year’s E3.
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We ran into former Microsoftee and current FastCompany.tv man and ubiquitous Web 2.0 presence Robert Scoble at Hollywood & Highland today, in front of Level 3 Nightclub, where Community Next: The Next Generation of Media and the Web is underway. more ›

This past week, LAist got a chance to travel up to San Francisco to check out the Game Developers Conference. GDC is universally known as one of the most fun and exciting of the industry's gatherings, where publishers, press, and lecture attendees convene to discover the latest in gaming technology. This year we got to see a ton of kickass stuff, including an exclusive look at the new Street Fighter title from Capcom and a drunken jaunt on the Wii Fit. Check out more photos from GDC after the jump. more ›

Photo by victoriabernal via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

As you might have guessed, we're pretty big into gaming over at my house -- our console set-up includes the both generations of the Xbox, not one but TWO PS2's (one for the living room, one for the bedroom), a Dell XPS with a wide-screen monitor (for PC gaming), a Nintendo Gamecube, a Nintendo 64, an SNES, and a Gameboy -- oh, and possibly a Sony PSP floating around somewhere. Our 50" big-screen is optimized for the best gaming experience, with surround-sound Bose speakers and wireless networking. more ›

In honor of what would be Jimi Hendrix's 65th birthday today, I am posting my impressions of The Experience Music Project in Seattle. more ›

It's too hot for C-SPAN: Bush rocks out -- slightly -- to a band playing “Guantanamera” at a Hispanic heritage month event. "It's time to end the tradition of holocaust denial that has only deepened the pain of those whose parents and grandparents suffered the unspeakable horror of ethnic cleansing," Mayor Villaraigosa said about City Council's calling the 1.5 million Armenians killed a genocide. "When we don't speak up, when we are silent, what... more ›

Guitar Hero was in full-effect at E-For-All more ›

Who isn't a Halo fan-boy at this point *cough* me, 'cause I heart my trusty Wii, but maybe I could still get down with some Halo-the-movie live action phun. Description: Fans of Halo eagerly await the feature film version of the hugely popular Xbox game from Microsoft and its subsidiary Bungie. Neill Blonkamp will make his directorial debut from a script by Alex Garland (The Beach). Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as... more ›

Sure, the inaugural E For All doesn't really hold a candle to the bloated spectacle of old E3, but then again, the new low-key Santa Monica-based E3 doesn't hold a candle to the old E3 either. more ›

If you happen to find yourself driving around at 11pm tonight, you'll likely see long lines of (mostly) men standing outside of Best Buys, EB Games and Gamestops all over greater Los Angeles. Do not be alarmed. It's just the hardcore gaming faithful lining up to claim their midnight copies of Halo 3, the biggest video game of the year. For the completely uninitiated, Halo is the sci-fi shooter franchise that is basically the... more ›

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pissed about the "hundreds of billions" of dollars swallowed by piracy and counterfeiting and it has taken the outrage to our fair City of Angels ("...and Demons," as the press release says). The Chamber has released results of a Gallup survey, coinciding with this week's Counterfeiting and Piracy Awareness shenanigans claiming that one-quarter of all Angelenos are admitted pirates. But we're certain that percentage is far greater. In fact,... more ›

Photo by dogseat via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

photo via KTLA more ›

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Here's some tech news that made the cut this week: • Professional social networking site Linkedin has seen its traffic spike over three hundred percent in the last year. I wondered why I started getting all those Linkedin invites recently. • Speaking of social networking, watch out for the Facebook backlash. And, in a related story, what's a site like Facebook worth anyway? • Intel has joined the $100 group (aka one laptop per... more ›

Thousands of video game addicts, cosplayers and booth babe fans shed tears last year when the Entertainment Software Association announced that it would be scaling back the size and focus of future E3 Expos. The game industry and fan bacchanalia had previously attracted a record attendance of over 60,000 visitors and 400 companies in 2006. Instead of being held at LA's own Convention Center, the "more intimate" show will take place this year in... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Mark in Santa Monica. He asks: I'm new to the Mac and was wondering which web browser I should use. Safari, Firefox or something else? Which web browser to use can sometimes be a hard question to answer. The three major ones for the Mac that I use... more ›

Some tech tidbits that caught my eye this week. • Yahoo and Microsoft are getting cozy. Is there a marriage in the works? • Wally Schirra, pioneer astronaut and 5th man ever to go into space, died of a heart attack this week. He was 84. • Digg has a bad couple days. Is the honeymoon over? • Speaking of obscure digits that unlock encrypted HDDVDs, the guys who are fighting to protect their... more ›

In like a fox and out with a yodel? Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Many have speculated that Microsoft would eventually spring for big Y, as a marriage with the online media giant increasingly appears to be the most viable option to compete with Google in the great war of search and online advertising. Always a fun rumor to kick around, but today it's being corroborated by the WSJ, and considering... more ›

Some interesting tech-related news from around the web this week. • Imitation may be a form of flattery (the sincerest kind, so they say) but AOL, I think you might have taken it a bit too far. • AT&T Chief Edward "Moneybags" Whitacre is retiring. His going away present? $158.5 Million. Not a bad present. I bet he won't try to return it. • Apple issues a fix for the battery issues that plague... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Will in North Hollywood. He asks: I know there's a method for updating Mac OSX all the time and sometimes I get the window popping up saying I have updates. Should I always update when it tells me to? That's a good question and an important one to... more ›