“Zero Dark Thirty”

They find something every day to be outrageously outraged over, don’t they?

Claims that the Obama administration provided the “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmakers special access to high-level national security officials and shared sensitive information about the bin Laden raid have led to an internal Pentagon investigation of suspected security leaks.

So if anything happens we can now blame Obama.

Trailer…

• Upcoming film Zero Dark Thirty claims that Bin Laden might not have been found if not for a young female CIA analyst
• She devoted the best part of a decade to finding the terrorist
• According to colleagues, she was one of the first to advance the theory that the key to finding Bin Laden was in Al Qaeda’s courier network
• But, astonishingly, it has now emerged that truth may indeed be as strange as fiction. According to Zero Dark Thirty, a forthcoming film about the hunt for Bin Laden — whose makers were given top-level access to those involved — he might never have been found if it hadn’t been for an attractive young female CIA agent every bit as troublesome as Homeland’s Carrie Mathison

The criticisms from politicians and the CIA didn’t hurt Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” in its first weekend at the box office.

CIA insiders have confirmed claims by the film’s director Kathryn Bigelow that she is entirely justified in focusing on the role played by a junior female CIA analyst, named Maya in the film and played by Jessica Chastain. And just as in Homeland, the real agent has been snubbed by superiors and fallen out with colleagues since the Bin Laden raid in May last year.

But who is this CIA super-sleuth? Although the woman is still undercover and has never been identified, Zero Dark Thirty’s emphasis on Maya’s importance tallies with the account of a U.S. Navy SEAL involved in the raid who later wrote about it in a book.

An Oscar front-runner, Sony’s tale of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden brought in $410,000 from five screens in New York and Los Angles over the weekend. That’s a whopping $82,000 per screen, by far the best of any film in release.

Haven’t seen it don’t plan on doing so.

Foxconn Throws $1.6 Billion Into Sharp For Flatscreen Panels

Apple manufacturer Foxconn is investing $1.6 billion in Sharp and committing to buying up to 50% of the company’s flatscreen panels, reports Bloomberg.

This could be a move on Foxconn’s end to simply ensure that it has a decent supply for future products, such as the long-rumored Apple television.

Sharp is also “in trouble and their very survival is at stake. Maybe the tie-up will help,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research.

Whatever the reason, it’s a brave move on Foxconn’s part when you consider recent market research from iSuppli that indicates flat-panel TV sales are falling in the US.

Sony’s Concept PCs Yanked Straight From Star Trek?

Sony showcased three concept products, two of which consisted of a flexible material.

During CES 2012, DVICE came across a few rather interesting concepts presented by Sony that seem to borrow some esthetics from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Sorry Kirk fanboys, but Picard is The Man). The concepts were encased in glass, so there wasn’t any touchy-feely going on. But that’s ok, because if these products are any indication of what’s to come, then the future is looking rather slick.

Nintendo And Sony Rethink Unpopular SOPA Bill

A quiet update to the list of Stop Online Piract Act supporters (PDF) has shown that Nintendo and Sony have backed away from the proposed bill. Both were originally endorsing the bill as of November but quietly removed themselves from the list sometime in the past month. Neither has acknowledged the change in attitude.

Game developer EA has also dropped its SOPA support.

All three have an interest in curbing piracy of their games. They may have withdrawn support after seeing the full consequences of the bill, which could see site taken down or blocked if even just a small portion of its content was deemed illegal. As drafted, it would also compromise Internet security by taking apart the DNSSEC initiative the US government has wanted to prevent domain name poisoning attacks.

Samsung To Launch Google TV ??

Samsung Electronics, the world’s top TV maker, is in last-stage talks with Google to roll out Google TV, the head of Samsung’s TV division told reporters on Tuesday.

Yoon Boo-keun, president of Samsung’s TVdivision, said the company planned to unveil its Google TV at an event next year, but not the Consumer Electronics Show in January. He added that Samsung’s Google TV offering would differ from those of competitors.

Google TV — which currently comes built-in on certain Sony television models and on Logitech International set-top boxes — allows consumers to access online videos and websites on their TVs, as well as specialized apps such as video games.

Google Upgrades Its TV Software — Google TV to get massive Android software update

Google Inc. on Friday announced an update to the software for Google TV, a service designed to expand the company’s footprint into living rooms.

Google TV had such potential when it launched in October 2010. But for many users, the lack of Hulu — along with the awkwardness of the interface and lack of cooperation from TV networks and content providers — was a huge turnoff.

Now Google aims to fix that with a massive overhaul, upgrading Google TV with its Android operating system.

Google announced on its Google TV blog Friday that the platform will be upgraded to Android 3.1 (otherwise known as Honeycomb) for Sony devices Sunday, with the Logitech Revue set-top box getting its upgrade “soon thereafter.” Screen shots at link above.

The company said it simplified the Google TV software, which allows users to access the Internet and search for Web-video content through their TV screens. Google also said it improved the way people can simultaneously search for content on their live TV listings as well as Google’s YouTube video site, on-demand shows available on Amazon.com and Netflix.com, among others. Viewers can choose to limit their searches to just high-definition content.

Google has highlighted four key goals they’ve focused on to make the Google TV experience better.

• Keep it simple
• Make it easy to find something worth watching
• Make YouTube better on TV
• Bring more apps to TV

We’ll have to reserve judgment until we can install this software update on our Logitech Revue box, but for now, clearly this update has great potential. It makes perfect sense for Google — purveyor of Android, the Chrome browser, YouTube and by the way, the world’s search expert — to leverage these powerful capabilities in its TV set-top.

The hurdle Google needs to navigate is not so much a technical or software one, but a matter of negotiating and arm-twisting of content providers. Will the company gain cooperation from TV networks and movie studios, allowing their content to be searchable on the Google TV platform? That’s the key to Google TV’s success.

Read more: