iPhone 4S

Price-$200 for 16GB, $300 for 32GB, $400 for 64GB

Review-The iPhone 4S includes a few unique upgrades: Dual-core A5 Chip, 8MP camera, iOS5, iCloud and Siri. The phone and camera have much better graphics and are much faster. The new, iOS5 operating system, allows you to check the weather, the stocks, and all of your notifications with one swipe of the finger. iCloud allows you to share music and contacts between your phone and computer wirelessly. And finally Siri is a new gadget that operates as your digital assistant. Siri uses voice recognition to process your question and then gives you an answer to the best of its ability; but the reliability is nowhere near perfect.

Verdict-If you already have the iPhone 4 the upgrade isn’t worth the $200 more for these new features that aren’t completely reliable at this time. But if you don’t own an iPhone yet, it is a great investment and a very user-friendly phone.

Kindle Fire

Price-$200

Review-The Kindle Fire is a great gift for avid readers. The Kindle Fire has a 7” color touch screen, you can play games, watch movies and TV shows, read books and magazines, and listen to your favorite songs. The Kindle Fire is like the iPad, but you can rent books for free.

Verdict-The Kindle Fire is a great purchase if you plan to read a lot otherwise, the iPad is a much better investment.

Xbox Kinect

Price-$150 with Kinect Adventures Game

Review-The Xbox Kinect is a new console that goes with the Xbox 360. The Xbox Kinect is basically a motion sensor. It senses your motions and replicates them in the Xbox game you are playing. The Xbox Kinect is a great way to remain active while playing video games. It is also a fun way for the entire family to enjoy video games.

Verdict-The idea of a motion sensing console is a great idea, but this is the first one so it isn’t completely reliable yet and you will run into glitches occasionally. It is an excellent present for a video game enthusiast and can also be great fun for first time video gamers.

(Photos: Above by Andrea Stiffelman, Right by Todd Sumlin/Charlotte Observer/MCT)

Anna (Felicity Jones), a British exchange student studying in California, falls for Jacob (Anton Yelchin), and decides to stay in America overstaying her VISA. By violating her VISA, she is banned from the United States unable to return to Jacob. For the next years they struggle to maintain a long distance relationship. They try to maintain a life together, but on different continents.

The raw detail of their relationship is shown through realistic portrayals that make you become entranced in their struggle to be together.

Felicity Jones, a British born actresses, had an air of innocence and sweetness that makes you believe in what she says.

Anton Yelchin displays a versatile character throughout the movie showing the happiness and heartache that happens when falling in love.

From America to England each scene change illuminates the different lives both Anna and Jacob create for themselves. Their struggle to be together creates this antagonizing feeling for people watching.

The isolated feeling they get when they are apart is especially illuminated during their desperate calls to each other that happen usually when they are with friends or at bars. It is also portrayed extraordinarily well during the times that they decide to see other people, and shows that not even being a continent apart could make them not long for each other.

“Like Crazy” was a grand jury prizewinner at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and also has been up for many other awards. Both Jones and Yelchin have been up for awards for their performances.

This movie is not for moviegoers longing for a happy ending, this movie is a frustrating perfect portrayal of a long distance relationship. It shows the angst, as well as the happiness that goes along with trying to be with someone in a long distance relationship.

Lupe Fiasco's new album "Lasers" Has been received with ambivalence from himself, producers, and fans worldwide. It was released on March 8.

For a man who once believed that “hip-hop saved his life,” Lupe Fiasco is now realizing that hip-hop might also be the end to his life as he knows it.

After great struggle with Atlantic Records, as well as an internal struggle, Lupe Fiasco has finally managed to produce a haphazardly assembled and more-or-less inconsistent album to appease the demands of his producers and listeners – “Lasers.”

“Lasers” was released on March 8, following an online leak, and was immediately received with mixed feelings, which developed in the aftermath of Lupe’s two previous creative albums, “Food & Liquor” and, more recently, “The Cool.”

The ambivalence Lupe expressed stems from his conflict with Atlantic Records; through a series of failed album releases due to his strict contract with Atlantic Records, Lupe was not able to release the songs of his choice but was instead subject to the whims of the producers’ mainstream, moneymaking views.

In February of this year, Lupe revealed his feelings for the album in an interview with Complex.

“… ‘The Cool,’ is more of my own blood, sweat, and tears, and my own control,” Fiasco said. “With this record, I’m little bit more neutral as to the love for the record.”

And it becomes evident by listening to the music.

While three years ago Lupe was engrossed in preaching his philosophical viewpoints in his previous album, “Lasers” embodies a personal struggle with the entire ordeal he underwent. “Lasers” not only lacks Lupe’s fun vibe which permeated his Kanye West-inspired lyrics and unique subject matter beforehand, but he also focuses on the suicidal sentiments and low-key thoughts that plagued his mind during the production of “Lasers.”

In songs such as “Letting Go,” Lupe describes his overwhelming exhaustion and his bleak emotional state in the past few years. “Beautiful Lasers (Two Ways)” mixes an auto-tuned chorus, which breaks from most of the mainstream music in the exploration of his negative energy during the process. 
In “Words I Never Said,” the powerful lyrics alone carry the song and force his audience to reflect.

“Words I Never Said,” on the other hand, takes a stronger position, a form of social criticism, attacking the political scene, including Obama and Islamic fundamentalists; it also focuses on the war on terror.

One of the stronger songs with a clear message is “State Run Radio,” in which, as the name implies, Lupe foretells of a government-controlled radio where lyrical freedom does not exist since repetitive, catchy songs that lack substance are forced upon the people.

However, perhaps it is the success of the few of his songs that cause the great disappointment, which comes from the inconsistencies in the album “Lasers.” After all, while Lupe criticizes the current radio industry in “State Run Radio,” “I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now” hypocritically features uncreative lyrics, mainstream rap, and dull subject matter focusing on money and women.

“Coming Up” features a punchy pop beat reminiscent of the new-age Usher, again falling into the mainstream trap that Atlantic Records pushed for. Lupe shouts out to his listeners and strays from any focus of which he might have awkwardly built in the album.

Finally, there is great irony in the anarchy symbol on the album cover. After all, Lupe strives for a rebellious mix of prophetic verse which he tries to capture in the red “A,” but he falls short of this in his conformist, mainstream popping beats as well as auto-tuned choruses and lack of direction.

My rating for “Lasers”? Three out of five stars. Maybe three point five on a good day.

So this piques one’s curiosity: Is this the end of Lupe Fiasco, the unorthodox rapper who has fallen into a rut with record company contracts?

Well, probably not.

His album “Lasers” may fall short of his two previous fresh and groundbreaking albums, but in the larger sense of his music – when compared to the rest of the current hip-hop industry  – Lupe still maintains a certain uniqueness from other mainstream rappers. Chances are he’ll come back positively with an invigorated set of tracks in the next year or two.

At the release event, Lupe told the audience he would have more creative freedom next time around. “[They] promised me they would not come into the studio,” Fiasco said.

With this in mind, the crowd cheered Fiasco on, not wanting to yet accept the premature career ending of a man who had recently been a superstar, a representation of that big letter “A.”

The iPad, on the other hand, has managed to draw so much attention that the line awaiting the launch at Apple’s flagship store in New York City started on April 1st, two days before the product was released.

Clearly, there is something that sets the iPad apart from other tablet computers. Unlike other tablet computers, this one is widely believed to have a chance at replacing normal computers and notebooks. But is it really good enough at everyday tasks to replace a normal computer?

Overall, the answer is “somewhat.” Basically, the iPad would only be viable to replace a normal computer if that computer was only used mainly for reading, not interacting.

As far as the speed and quality of hardware is concerned, the iPad is top notch. When using it, I found the display to be excellent, with very vivid colors. However, the extremely glossy screen could be a problem when using the iPad outdoors. I was amazed at the speed of the iPad’s unique A4 processor, which Apple created itself for the iPad. Apps were loaded in seconds, and I could see no breaks in the smooth animations. I was unable to test the battery life, but if the Apple statistics are to be believed, it should run for an astounding 10 hours on one charge.

The design, as with most Apple products, is a strong selling point. The device is extremely thin and light, and uses the dark glass and brushed aluminum look that is present in the current iMacs as well.

The software, too, is well designed. The iPad’s operating system is basically a expanded version of the iPhoneOS used in the iPhone and iPod Touch, so it remains extremely intuitive and easy to use. Like its younger siblings, the iPad supports multi-touch gestures that make browsing the web and looking at pictures very simple and enjoyable. It retains the finger friendly controls, so operating it isn’t a hassle. The applications that come installed are a great fit for the iPad.

The iPads unique design and software make it a good eBook reader as well. The iBooks app makes the iPad behave very much like a real book, with nice animations to simulate page turns. The iBookstore has a vast variety of eBooks, which you can buy anywhere there is a WiFi connection. Although many people believe that the iPad will replace the Amazon Kindle, I disagree. The Kindle is much better suited for reading eBooks. It has an e-ink screen, which makes the screen look like a printed page, thus causing less eyestrain. Also, the Kindle screen is better for reading outdoors or in bright light, as it has a matte finish, unlike the iPad. Finally, the Kindle comes with a free 3G network, so you can download new books almost anywhere. The iPad, on the other hand, only has WiFi on its base $499 model. The model with 3G support costs $629 to start, with monthly pricing starting at 14.99 for 250MB per month.

The internet browser is very smooth, and shows web pages zoomed so that they fit perfectly on the screen. It is very easy to move around the page, all using your fingers, which, as Jobs said, makes the experience much more personal.

However, there are some flaws with the software as well. First, the iPad can run only one application at a time. That means its impossible to write an email while listening to Pandora radio, for example. This kind of functionality made sense for the iPhone and iPod touch, since most people wouldn’t use those devices to do two things at once, and the limitation made sure that the processor wouldn’t get bogged down. However, the iPad markets itself as more of a real computer than the iPhone did, and thus its disappointing as well as frustrating to see that Apple hasn’t removed this limitation.

Another problem that exists in the iPad is its limited browsing experience. The browser included (a mobile version of Safari) has no support for external plugins. Since much of the interactive web depends on these plugins (such as Adobe Flash Player, Microsoft Silverlight, etc.) Browsing is pretty much limited to reading and looking at the web. For example, since the recent Olympics used Silverlight to show the videos, it would be impossible to view them in the iPad.

Perhaps the most limiting flaw in the iPad’s design would be its keyboard. Although Steve Jobs did claim it was “a dream to type on” when he unveiled the design, when I tested it, it was extremely cumbersome. When I tried touch-typing, I realized that in order to do so, I would have to hold my hands in such a way that they did not touch the screen, so I could touch only the key I wanted to press. Not only does this get extremely tiring, it becomes hard to stay on the correct keys, because one’s hands could easily move forward or back without one noticing. This problem rules out using this device to write documents or make anything that requires a lot of typing. In some ways, typing with my thumbs like one type on the iPhone was actually more accurate. However, this method of typing has its own problem. The size of the iPad makes it really hard to reach the middle keys on the keyboard with one’s thumbs when one is holding the iPad with the fingers of one’s hand on the back as support. If one holds the iPad with only one’s fingertips, it’s easy to reach the keys, but uncomfortable for your fingertips. Overall, typing on the iPad’s virtual keyboard is cumbersome.

Even though these limitations mean the iPad isn’t suited for productivity applications, Apple is selling its iWork office suite for the iPad. The 3 applications that are part of the suite, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, have all been redesigned for the iPad’s smaller, touchscreen display. Although they work very smoothly, I doubt they will be very useful. Since typing is a hassle on the iPad, these applications will probably not be used to write or create whole documents, but rather edit them. I find the presentation application, Keynote, to be especially out of place on the iPad, because the device only has one port: the same one as the iPod. Therefore, you can’t actually connect the iPad to a projector unless you buy the $30 adapter to turn the port into a normal VGA port.

Since the iPad is so thin and simple, you need to buy extra adapters to get things that you would take for granted in a normal computer. The USB port adapter and an SD card reader cost $30 more together. A stand for the iPad which charges it costs another $30. If you want a dock that has a physical keyboard attached, you need $70.

Basically, in order to make the iPad more like a real computer, you need to buy a lot of accessories. Thus, its clear the the iPad is not designed to be a computer replacement. However, if one uses a computer only for reading web pages, writing emails, and looking at photos, the iPad would be a perfect alternative.

The iPad is like many of Apple’s products. They have been designed with simplicity in mind, not simply with a goal of cramming in all sorts of features. The iPad doesn’t do that many things, but what it does, it does really well. However, the limitation makes it seem as if Apple might be overdoing the simplicity here.

Directed by Breck Eisner, “The Crazies” follows Sheriff David Dutton, played by the underrated Timothy Olyphant, who watches over the peaceful town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. Since the population of Ogden Marsh is so small, pretty much everybody knows and respects each other. While the sheriff and his partner (played by Joe Anderson) watch a baseball game, one of the locals walks into the middle of the field with a shotgun, ready to shoot someone. The sheriff manages to kill the person and assumes he was drunk. After the coroner finds out that his BAC was 0.0, things start to go, well, crazy.

It turns out that there is a poison in the water supply, but how the poison got there will only be revealed to those who see the film. I will tell you, though, that the source is a little far-fetched, but nevertheless interesting. The sheriff and his pregnant wife, played by the lovely Radha Mitchell, now have to find a way out of the city, not only because there are zombies on the loose, but because the military quarantined the town, fearing that the virus will spread. This is where the film really kicks into high gear, since there are now two things the protagonists have to worry about.

“The Crazies” is both well acted and well directed, and is definitely scary. Olyphant does a great job as the hero, and it is a shame that he doesn’t get that many good film roles. Radha Mitchell also does well as the pregnant wife, but the chemistry between her and Olyphant was a little weak. Eisner does an excellent job at creating tense and suspenseful moments, but is now a proven master at jump scares. This film is packed full of jump moments, and some of them will bounce you out of your seat. The cinematography is also good for a horror film, and some set pieces are absolutely stunning, especially the terrifying car wash scene.

While “The Crazies” is fun, it is so full of typical horror movie clichés (the classic “wait here” line is present more than twice). False scares where there may be a jump but isn’t? Check. The protagonist is immune to the disease? Check. What about the cocky partner who doesn’t like to follow orders? You bet. However, these are used so regularly in movies today that it does not hurt the experience. But REALLY? Can’t there be anything new anymore? It’s a good thing the movie has strong characterization and a story that makes sense because this horror film would have ended up like all the others: in the $5 bargain bin.

Overall, “The Crazies” simply takes all of the usual horror movie formulas and presents them in a unique way, and it adds up to be a fun ride. It’s scary, sometimes sad, and mostly silly, but that is what makes it worth watching. You’d be crazy to miss it.