Life — daytime television, at least — will never be the same.

My Way News – Bob Barker Retiring After 50 Years on TV

Bob Barker is heading toward his last showcase, his final “Come on down.” The silver-haired daytime-TV icon is retiring in June, he told The Associated Press Tuesday. “I will be 83 years old on December 12,” he said, “and I’ve decided to retire while I’m still young.” He’ll hang up his microphone after 35 years as the host of “The Price Is Right” and 50 years overall in television.

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Breaking News: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit

We just received confirmation that Condé Nast, owner of Wired and other magazines/websites, acquired Boston-based Reddit earlier this morning, and will make the announcement later today. The price is not being disclosed.

I didn’t see this one coming.  Congrats to the Reddit guys, from whom I’ve stolen many a link over the years.

– it’s bAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaaaCK!

I’ll tell you what, exactly, is back a little later.   But it should be relatively easy to figure out.  heh heh heh

It’s been a while since the last entry in this series, hasn’t it?

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe Split – TMZ.com

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe have separated. The couple’s rep released a statement to TMZ Monday morning that says “We are saddened to announce that Reese & Ryan have decided to formally separate. They remain committed to their family and we ask that you please respect their privacy and the safety of their children at this time.”

(Thanks, Tim, for pointing this one out to me!)

• You’d think I’d be done blogging about a game system I don’t have a reservation for, wouldn’t you? HAH!
• Here’s another promotional video for the Wii. Shows little bits of a lot of games.
• Wii Play comes with the additional remote we all know you have to buy for the Wii. It has an impressive selection of simple games on it, including what amounts to “Next Gen Duck Hunt.”
• Will an updated version of the Wii be sold next year to include DVD playback? Is the price as high as it is because that’s what the retailers wanted? So this blog says.
• Haunting and harrowing tales of Toys R Us Wii pre-order camping.
• IGN has video of the menu interface for the Wii. Yes, we’ve now reached the point of getting excited over the menu system.
• Amazon is honoring the mistaken early Wii pre-orders they had last week, and still promise that more pre-orders are coming.
• Storm Troopers playing the Wii. How much longer before the next San Diego Comic Con again?

This week’s listings are brought you by me! That’s right, I’m selling DVDs on eBay this week. There’s a decent selection of discs that nobody has been on yet for less than $5. That includes SAMURAI JACK, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, RUNDOWN, APOLLO 13, and more.

Now onto the DVD releases for this week:

Full release list.

My highlights:

• Barry Manilow: First and Farewell
• Bob Dylan: The 1966 World Tour: The Home Movies
• Paul Mccartney: Space Within Us

Music for all sorts of Baby Boomers.

• Ellen: The Complete Series Megaset (14-disc set)
• Six Feet Under: The Complete Series (25-disc set)

Christmas is coming. And what better way to prank the person in your family who repeatedly gives you stale fruit cakes than by giving him or her 14 discs’ worth of ELLEN?

• Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America (2006)

Hey, it’s Halloween. Who am I to judge?

• George Burns: The TV Specials Collection (4-disc set)

I imagine there’s a lot of cool stuff in there.

• It’s a Wonderful Life: 60th Anniversary Edition (1946)

This would be my Unnecessary Special Edition of the Week, but I don’t think it’s completely unnecessary. I don’t remember six other previous releases of this timeless classic that I’ve never sat all the way through. So I’ll let it pass.

• The Kids in the Hall: Season Five

If I don’t mention it here, I’ll be castigated in the comments, I know.

• The Making of Miss Saigon

I don’t know why this is suddenly being released, but I figure you Broadway fans might be interested.

• Mission: Impossible III: Collector’s Edition (2-disc set) (2006) (Oct. 30)

It’s TOM CRUISE! He’s SO DREAMY! I do admit that I’d like to see this movie, having missed it in the theaters completely.

• Speed Racer: Vol. 5

This is a text book case of how to stretch out a not-terribly-long run of a TV series into as many boxed sets as possible.

Coming up next week: WORDPLAY: The movie all about crossword puzzles is coming to DVD! So is Pixar’s CARS, the next edition of JAMES BOND movie collections, and the 20th anniversary edition of TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. Christmas is coming, and the DVD industry is starting to pack the shelves.

Mac News: Commentary: Under IBM’s Hood, Oracle’s Linux Move, Apple’s Vista Surprise

Speaking of scary battles; based on the chatter I’m seeing it appears very likely that Apple is preparing a little surprise for Microsoft at MacWorld which happens at the same time as the Consumer Electronics Show in January. While Microsoft and partners will be talking about Vista in advance of the launch of that product at CES, Apple, along with Intel, will be launching Apple’s version of the Media Center with iTV and Leopard. That’s right — Leopard. It looks like this puppy is nearly ready if I’m reading the signs right — and Apple is clearly setting up for something big.

File this under unsubstantiated rumor, but it would be cool.

• Remember that Line Rider Flash toy I pointed to a few weeks ago? Some people have done some incredibly silly time-wasting things with it. Check out this YouTube video!
• How does an Etch a Sketch work? Now you know.
• How dumb is MySpace? Dumber than advertised.
• How MythTV detects commercials.
• RocketBoom‘s Amanda Cogdon is set to announce a deal to vlog at one of the Big Three TV networks.  Some cry “Sell Out.”  It is ironic, I’ll give them that.  Sometimes, though, you can only make great changes from within.
• Finally, someone explains with a chart how the whole UK versus Great Britain thing works.
• Coming later: Today’s new DVD releases.

File this under rumor, but interesting, nonetheless:

GameTrailers.com Forums – Tentative Best Buy Wii Inventory

After taking an average of diverse locations directly from Best Buy’s retail stock system(RSS) the total number units indicated is aprroximately 80-90 units. this ranges from 120 in the more popular stores to just 24 in bufu. not only that, but games such as red steel will be roughly 60 in number, and trauma center 30. these are just PRELIMINARY, that is the very first order for all stores.

He goes on to say that Best Buy should have their stock of Wiis on hand already.

Take it for what it’s worth. It gives me hope, even if it means calling in sick to work that day.  heh heh

Answers! Dancers! Prancers! Vixens! – washingtonpost.com

On this particular show, for instance, contestants must answer a minimum of six trivia questions. After each answer, the contestant must choose from among 13 dancers on stage who, ABC assures us, will all be “stunning.” Each dancer holds a scroll on which is written a dollar figure to be added or subtracted, for correct or incorrect answers, to the contestant’s total. A correct answer, combined with choosing a dancer holding big money, can catapult the player’s winning into the millions. But a wrong answer, and the wrong dancer, can wipe out winnings in an instant. The Answers and Dancers Show.

Sounds bad enough, but there’s one saving grace:

But there’s more. At any given moment, the 13 Million-Dollar Dancers, as they’re called on the show, may spontaneously break into any style of dance and, ABC promises, Shatner spontaneously “boogies with the beauties on stage.”

Yes, this is William Shatner’s upcoming game show. Bring it on!

I can’t wait.

• My name is really Rachel. Half the e-mails this week addressed their messages to Rachel.
• Russians girls are different than American girls. They do things — well, different things. For a small price. Usually monthly.  Via webcams. Fascinating.
• The most efficient way of reaching a potential reader of your e-mail is to embed it into a GIF file! (I know that’s done to circumvent spam protections. I know.)
• And if you’re a media relations kind of guy sending out an e-mail to everyone in your rolodex, make sure you blind CC: the list, so someone replying to you doesn’t send their home address out to a hundred members of the media. I thought we had gotten over that kind of mistake a few years back, but I guess the old favorites just never die.

• Top ten Wii launch titles. This one almost sells me on Elebits.
• Toys R Us takes your Wii pre-order tomorrow.
• Ellen gave away the first Wii last month. But, really, did he get the machine, or just a coupon for a free one in November?
• A report from the Fusion Tour stop in Texas. It’s more people waiting hours in line to play the machine.
• My biggest worry about the system is that you’ll be controlling your characters movements with the nunchuk attachment. I’m a right. My left hand doesn’t have that kind of fine motor skill with a joystick. I don’t think.
• Japan looks to get a flying game for the Wii first.
• Why the Wii will succeed, and it’s not the Wiimote.
• Nintendo says they’re expecting Wii shortages into the new year, even with 2,000,000 units to start.
• C|Net has a video review of the Wii, which isn’t loading in my browser at the moment. . .
• Six Wii misconceptions debunked.

• An Apple patent shows one way to have a touch sensitive screen on your iPod without scratching it: Use a bezel.
• New video of RED STEEL in multiplayer action for the Wii.
• Another very cool space shuttle launch pic.
• Omarosa had breast implants? Looks likely.
• The Shat’s new game show will take over the Wednesday night time slot vacated by Dancing With The Stars.
• We have a new Scrabble record, folks! Get back to memorizing your three letter word lists. You have a long way to go.
• Good news: the web is more secure this morning. IE7 has been downloaded over 3,000,000 times already.
• Firefox 2.0 is nice and all, but what about Firefox 3? It’s currently scheduled for Q1 2007 release. That’s insanely fast, though it looks like it’s the leftover bits of business that they ran out of time to plug into 2 — notably, the bookmark/history replacement system.

No, that title only sounds dirty if you have a dirty mind. Moving on. . .

Chris at Game|Spot has played a few of the Wii launch games now and filed some reports. Here are the links:

• Monster Truck 4×4 and GTO Pro (comes with steering wheel attachment!)
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent
• Red Steel

To sum it all up: Rayman looks like the most fun. The car games work thanks to the silly-looking steering wheel. Splinter Cell is a little too complicated a direct port of a Last Gen game. And Red Steel has gotten a lot better and plays like fun.

Now, here’s what I want to know: When will they port TIME CRISIS to the Wii? It should be a natural fit for this controller.

Remember: Toys R Us is taking pre-orders on Sunday. . .