text:
Performance Evaluation / Close-Out of Ground Water Cleanups
You will need the free Adobe Reader to view the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more."Elements for Effective Management of Operating Pump and Treat Systems," November 2002. OSWER 9355.4-27FS-A.
Available on-line from OSWER PDF (22pp, 547K)
Summarizes key aspects of effective management for operating ground water pump and treat systems, based on lessons learned from conducting remedy optimization evaluations at 20 Superfund sites. Includes discussion of setting system goals and evaluating cleanup progress, as well as evaluating remedy performance and cost effectiveness."Methods for Monitoring Pump-and-Treat Performance," June 1994.
Office of Research and Development Publication EPA/600/R-94/123, NTIS Order Number PB95-125456.
Available on-line from OSWER:
Part 1 - Introduction and Monitoring Hydraulic Containment
PDF (48 pp, 2.6MB)
Part 2 - Monitoring Acquifer Restoration, Evaluating Restoration Success/Closure, Chem-Dyne Site Case Study, and References
PDF (63 pp, 1.6MB)
This publication provides guidance for monitoring the effectiveness and efficiency of pump-and-treat remediation systems, with emphasis on the "pump" part of the technology rather than chemical enhancements. The report includes sections on monitoring hydraulic containment, monitoring ground-water restoration, evaluating restoration success/closure, a case study, and references. It includes performance criteria, monitoring objectives, and protocols for evaluating effectiveness of containment and restoration systems.
"Methods for Evaluating the Attainment of Cleanup Standards, Vol. 2: Ground Water," July 1992.
Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation Publication EPA/230-R-92-014
Note: This is a very large document that may take several minutes to download.
PDF (363 pp, 5MB)
This document provides site managers and their contractors with statistical methods for evaluating whether ground water remediation has met pre-established cleanup standards for one or more chemical contaminants at a hazardous waste site. The statistical methods allow for decision making under uncertainty and permit valid extrapolation of information that can be defended and used with confidence to determine whether the site meets the cleanup standard. This document, the second in a series, provides sampling and data analysis methods for the purpose of verifying attainment of a cleanup standard in ground water. The first volume addressed evaluating attainment in soils and solid media."General Methods for Remedial Operation Performance Evaluations" January 1992.
Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory (now National Risk Management Research Laboratory--NRMRL), Ada, Oklahoma, Publication EPA/600/R-92/002, NTIS Order Number PB92-166842
Available on-line from NRMRL PDF (45 pp, 232K)
This research report explains technical considerations and principles necessary to evaluate the performance of ground water contamination remediations at hazardous waste sites. It presents generic principles for formulating site-specific evaluation strategies. (It is not a "cookbook".) It emphasizes the development of monitoring stategies which ensure that sampling locations and schedules are meaningful, and to the use of data reduction, presentation and interpretation techniques.
See also:
"Close Out Procedures for National Priorities List Sites," January 2000.
OSWER Directive 9320.2-09A-P, 45p. plus another 85p. of appendices.
Available on-line from OSWER HTML
This guidance document describes the key principles and expectations that should be consulted at the time to Close Out Superfund's National Priorities List Sites. The Close Out Procedures for National Priorities List Sites are organized into five principal areas: Remedial Action Completion, Construction Completion, Site Completion, Site Deletion and Partial Deletion. The purpose of the guidance is to briefly summarize key elements of the various close out options for actions at sites.
Superfund Help: Acronyms | Topics | Frequent Questions | Publications | Sitemap


text:
|Order Pickers/Packers Needed
|Post Date:
|Friday, November 9
|Job Title:
|Order Pickers/Packers Needed
|Our client, an industry leader for marketing fulfillment, is looking for motivated and dedicated candidates to work in a fast paced environment. We need pickers and packers who are quick, have attention to detail and can perform the duties listed below:
- Accurately pick and pack items for shipment
- Label and prepare items for shipment
- Complete required paperwork and time-tracking documentation
- Assist team members in meeting and exceeding customer expectations
- Maintain a clean, organized and safe work area and comply with all safety and quality policies
- Ensure all work performed follows required Quality Control (QC) processes
- Ensure all work is completed within time restrictions
- Be respectful and non-threatening to others
- Perform all other duties as assigned
Working hours: 1st shift M-F 7:00AM
- 3:30PM + OT as needed 2nd shift M-F 4:00PM
- 12:30AM + OT as needed.
Job Requirements for this position are:
- High School Diploma or its equivalent preferred
- Warehouse experience preferred
- Basic math and reading skills
- Must be able to read and understand written and verbal instructions
- Ability to pay attention to detail
- Ability to work in a team environment
- Ability to lift/move up to 45 pounds solo and greater weights in a team-lift environment
- Physical requirements include: lifting, carrying, bending, stretching, and standing for long periods of time. Attendance is essential at this client. Candidates need to be on time and at work when scheduled.
1st and 2nd shift available ASAP.
Pay rate is $9.00
- $9.20 per hour.
If you are looking for a great opportunity please apply at www.randstadstaffing.com
Once you have applied please call the Randstad office at 763-428-6627 or 763-428-6673.
Randstad is a world leader in matching great people with great companies. Our experienced agents will listen carefully to your employment needs and then work diligently to match your skills and qualifications to the right job and company. Whether you're looking for temporary, temporary-to-permanent or permanent opportunities, no one works harder for you than Randstad.
To apply for this position, please CLICK HERE
|Contact Information:
|Human Resource
|Contact Phone:
|Contact Email:
|Misc. Info:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Subscribe Why Does Adele Make Us Cry?
We already know that Adele's Grammy Award-winning Someone Like You features on many iPods of the broken hearted and is a tearjerker - but did you know there's a scientific reason behind it all?
A study conducted by British psychologist John Sloboda about 20 years ago looked into why particular parts of songs triggered a physical reaction (such as tears and goosebumps). The result - certain songs contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura".
An "appoggiatura"?
In music speak, it's a "type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound."
And Someone Like You is loaded with them.
The Wall Street Journal breaks the song down even further - fascinating stuff.
Songs are successful when they turn on the waterworks, written well and performed by Adele.
- Tags:
- Adele


text:
Parent Directory | Revision Log
|Links to HEAD:
|(view) (annotate)
|Sticky Tag:
DIRED was bombing when attempting to delete a marked file that was already gone. This just adds a sanity check.
Werkowskis source kit 1.03.7
Fix headed boilerplate.
Copy new_compiler branch to trunk.
*** empty log message ***
Dired Up Directory corrected ':UP -> '(:UP) in nconc.
Dired Up Directory modified to reflect changes to pathnames in X3J13 standard. List replaces simple vector of directories, : up and truename used to move up tree. Extra copy of defcommand for Dired Up Directory deleted.
Changed ARRAY-ELEMENT-FROM-MARK to use AREF for the Netnews stuff. I documented this to be an internal interface since a few other modes use it.
Added new header with RCS FILE-COMMENT.
Merged systems-work sources as of 12/10/90.
Changed uses of lisp::predict-name to ext:unix-namestring.
*** empty log message ***
*** empty log message ***
*** empty log message ***
Initial revision
This form allows you to request diffs between any two revisions of this file. For each of the two "sides" of the diff, select a symbolic revision name using the selection box, or choose 'Use Text Field' and enter a numeric revision.
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text:
LINCOLN — Cecilia Hall's athletic prowess stands on its own merits, but the sentence had barely left the questioner's mouth before she provided proof.
"Your coach says you can even walk down the court on your hands," the questioner asked.
"Yeah. Wanna see?" Hall asks.
Before you can say another word, Hall, Nebraska's 6-foot-3 middle blocker, has done a literal 180 before your eyes, her height now towering heels-over-head in a Devaney Center hallway, the soles of her shoes coming perilously close to the ceiling.
"If they had big people in Cirque du Soleil, she could be in that," Husker volleyball coach John Cook said.
Hall's athleticism has never been in question, but only now are her volleyball skills and confidence catching up. The total package has developed enough for the redshirt sophomore from Linkoping, Sweden, to become a fixture in No. 10 Nebraska's starting lineup this fall.
Hall fits a pattern of several recent NU middles — an exceptional athlete, skilled in multiple sports, but who came to Lincoln still raw in terms of volleyball skills. Players like Nebraska senior Hayley Thramer, who was an all-state basketball player in high school, and true freshman Kira Larson, who holds numerous North Dakota state high school track and field records.
Track and field was Hall's first sport as well, where she competed in the long jump, high jump and triple jump. She's a relative newcomer to volleyball — she didn't begin playing the sport seriously until her freshman year of high school. For comparison, Nebraska freshman Amber and Kadie Rolfzen committed to the Huskers before even playing a high school match.
Cook recruited Hall to Nebraska after a tip from a high school coach who visited one of NU's offseason camps. There was no doubt, Cook said, she had the physical tools to be a contributor.
"She's 6-3. She touches 10-foot-6 (jumping). She runs like a deer. She is quick," Cook said.
"She's a great athlete. She's starting to figure out the game a little bit. She just makes progress every week."
The big jump for Hall has come in the past two weekends. Over the Huskers' previous three matches, she has 16 kills while hitting .519 and added 17 blocks. That includes eight kills on 12 attacks in a five-set loss at No. 4 Texas and a career-high eight blocks in Nebraska's sweep at Illinois last Saturday. Her 1.11 blocks per set leads the team and ranks seventh in the Big Ten.
"I just feel more comfortable," Hall said. "I feel like I've been through it, if you know what I mean. I'm still making, like Coach said the other day, rookie mistakes, but overall, I feel like I'm less-error than I used to be."
It's a welcome sight for No. 10 Nebraska (9-2, 2-0 Big Ten) as the Huskers continue to look for ways to get more offense out of Hall and sophomore Meghan Haggerty, NU's other starting middle. The Huskers are heading into the meat of the conference schedule where they figure to see a ranked opponent each weekend.
Getting the Huskers' middles involved on offense will discourage opposing teams from sending two blockers at Nebraska's outside hitters and keep defenses off balance.
The offensive rhythm between new setter Mary Pollmiller and the middles is improving slowly, but steadily, as Pollmiller learns her hitters' tendencies. For example, Hall likes to run a quick attack best, because she admittedly says there's less time to think about it. Meanwhile, Haggerty excels at running attacks behind the setter.
"A lot of work is going into it," Pollmiller said. "(Assistant coach Dan Meske) works with the middles every day. They work by themselves a ton just to get the different things with blocking, footwork even without hitting the ball. Then, when we get in (practice), they talk more, and I talk to them more. It helps."
There couldn't be a better time to show off that balance than this weekend, when the Huskers host a pair of ranked foes at the Devaney Center starting with No. 8 Minnesota (14-1, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday in a match that can be seen on the Big Ten Network. Saturday, NU faces No. 23 Wisconsin (14-1, 3-0) at 7 p.m. on NET.
The Gophers will bring to town their own weapon in the middle in senior Tori Dixon, who Cook called a national player of the year candidate. The 6-3 Dixon plays all six rotations and leads the team in kills (4.2 per set) and blocks (1.33 per set) while ranking second in service aces.
"It will be a good opportunity for us to shut her down," Hall said. "We have played teams with good middles, but this will be a real test."


text:
Engine Overview
The F414-GE-400 is the U.S. Navy's newest and most advanced technology fighter engine in production. This afterburning turbofan incorporates advanced technology based on the proven design of GE's F404 to provide the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet with a durable, reliable and easy to maintain engine.
The engine entered production in late 1998 after a highly successful Engineering and Manufacturing Development program that was completed on time and on budget. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet production deliveries to the U.S. Navy are expected to continue through at least 2014.
The F414-GE-400 turbofan builds upon the excellent reliability, operability and readiness of the F404 engine. The combat-proven F414 has delivered excellent reliability and 35 percent more thrust than the original F404. It has significantly improved the Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet's range, payload and survivability. Advanced technology features such as a Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC) improve operational characteristics of the engine while the latest materials and cooling techniques allow for higher temperatures and pressures without sacrificing component life.
In December 2003, the Navy awarded Boeing a system development and demonstration contract for the EA-18G to replace the EA-6B Prowler. The EA-18G Growler made its first flight in August 2006 and achieved initial operational capability in September 2009 on cost and on schedule.
The F414G provides 22,000 lbs. of thrust and was produced for the Saab JAS 39 Gripen Demonstrator, a multi-role attach and reconnaissance aircraft and was recently selected by Switzerland for the Gripen NG.


text:
Thursday, April 24, 2014
On Maine Politics
By Steve Mistler firstname.lastname@example.com
State House Bureau
and Michael Shepherd firstname.lastname@example.com
State House Bureau
There's been a lot of rhetoric during the debate over expanding publicly funded health insurance for the poor. And an oft-cited study by the Kaiser Family Foundation has been dragged into the fray.
The study, released in November, attempted to project the coverage and cost impacts of Medicaid expansion in each state. It showed that Maine would save $690 million over the next 10 years if the state expanded eligibility for the health care program. The savings were confirmed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, although the group certainly wasn't advocating for expansion.
Democrats and advocates of expansion have seized on the estimate in their push to expand Medicaid. It took a while, but Republicans have since attempted to discredit the study.
Among their arguments is that the study is based on every state participating in expansion. Clearly, not every state plans to expand Medicaid, so the study — and the savings — are flawed, the argument goes.
But according to Chris Lee, a Kaiser spokesman, the savings projections for Maine won't change if the state participates in expansion and other states don't. In an email, Lee said the variance in state participation would "change our national projections, but not the projections in other states that do undertake the expansion."
Republican criticism of the study doesn't end there. And there are policy decisions that no study can measure.
Chief among them: Will the federal government continue to reimburse states for their additional Medicaid recipients at 90 percent after fully reimbursing them from 2014 to 2016?
Some Republicans don't think so.
Gun show loophole
A bill designed to stop private sales of guns if buyers aren't screened for prior criminal activity remains in the Senate after narrowly winning the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee's endorsement on May 2.
Sometimes, the amount of time a bill is tabled can signal that it is controversial or destined for defeat. It's not yet clear whether the latter fate awaits L.D. 267, a bill that's part of the ongoing national debate over the effectiveness of closing the "gun show loophole" as a preventive measure against gun violence.
The bill is certainly controversial.
Licensed gun dealers in Maine are already required to run background checks on buyers at gun shows. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, would require private citizens who sell at shows to make background checks. Failure to do so could result in a civil penalty of $2,500 for the first violation and $5,000 for subsequent violations.
Last week, the National Rifle Association sent out an action alert saying the bill effectively "criminalized" gun show sales.
Opponents have also questioned the effectiveness of closing the loophole.
Proponents of the bill cite a 15-year-old investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that found gun shows were responsible for 26,000 illegally sold guns. The Northeast was responsible for 8 percent of those gun sales.
The vintage of the ATF study provides a clue about the bureau's enforcement capacity. The bureau is responsible for monitoring gun shows to track sales. It told the Arizona Republic in 2007 that it didn't have the resources to adequately patrol for illegal activity.
Each of the bureau's 25 field offices is required to monitor six gun shows every year. A report this year by the U.S. Department of Justice inspector general said that 18 of the 25 field offices met the fiscal year 2011 goal of attending at least six gun shows. The field offices in Boston — the one that oversees Maine — New York and Newark, N.J., were among those that didn't meet the inspection quota.
(Continued on page 2)


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"This design is so adorable and danty. It matches our invitations and just ties our whole princess them together. I've ordered from tiny prints on many occassions and have never been disappointed. I was wondering however, is it possible to have my thank you message printed on the back from you as well?"
"We haven't used these as yet, but I'm 100 % sure that we will be envied :) I'm satisfied with the quality of the paper. The design is so simple but very elegant at the same time. Thanks as always Tiny Prints."
"We chose this card as the thank you notes for our daughter's princess-themed birthday party. We were thrilled with the way they turned out. They are on very high quality paper & the design is simple & sweet. Love them!"
"These cards are beautiful. They can stand alone or compliment t he matching announcements and labels. The paper quality is amazing. The shade of pink is just lovely. Tiny Prints has the best customer service. I love this company! I searched for many weeks for just the right announcements and thank you notes and so glad I went with Tiny Prints!"


text: Jon Allen's debut LP, Dead Man's Suit, was released in June 2009. Dead Man's Suit is a testament to the art of quality songwriting – Jon studied at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, founded by Paul McCartney, who has praised Jon on his penmanship and offered up help in the form of writing sessions. His critically acclaimed first single, "Going Home", has been championed by BBC Radio 1's Jo Whiley, and was featured on a worldwide Land Rover TV commercial in 2008. The revenue from the Land Rover sync gave Jon the freedom to self-fund the recording of his album and media campaign. He's toured with KT Tunstall, Jose Gonzalez, and Damien Rice, and has performed with Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris.


text:
The Circle of Life: Women and Business in AfricaOctober 2, 2013 | By France Griggs Sloat
Josephine Lando began making dresses in high school. It was a hobby at first, but soon her friends began asking her to make them dresses, too. By the time she finished boarding school and returned to her home in Rongai, … Read More
Alumni Profile: Victoria RaymondOctober 2, 2013 | By France Griggs Sloat
VICTORIA RAYMOND Bachelor of Science in biology, 2004 Certified Genetic Counselor, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich.
A Matter of Degrees | Victoria Raymond loved math and biology, but was advised against majoring in both. So she stayed … Read More
Poetic Therapy: Healing Wounds Through Words of WarOctober 2, 2013 | By France Griggs Sloat
Chris Collins saw a lot of bad things on his tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Explosions. Injured soldiers. Dead civilians. But what haunts him most is the image of a young Afghani boy, about 8 years old, who had stepped … Read More
Former Bengals QB Virgil Carter found a home off the field teaching statistics at XavierOctober 2, 2013 | Michael Barras 4
Most avid football fans know that one-time Cincinnati Bengals assistant coach Bill Walsh, under the tutelage of Paul Brown, was the "Father of the West Coast Offense"—the high-powered, short-pass game that Walsh eventually took with him to the San Francisco … Read More
Drawn to Xavier: It was Blob at First SightOctober 2, 2013 | Michael Shaw
Drawn to Xavier is an historically accurate* account of life at Xavier. It is quite possibly the world's only cartoon blog that is both dedicated to a venerable Jesuit university and to the proposition that humor is not quite as close … Read More
The Lesson of Life: Joe Pichler's Climb up the Food ChainOctober 2, 2013 | By France Griggs Sloat
Joe Pichler calls himself "the luckiest man in the world." It wasn't always so.
The man who would one day lead one of the largest grocery chains in the country began life happily enough as the fifth of six children … Read More


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127 W Washington Ave, Sunnyvale, CA | Directions 9408637.376191 -122.030870
Mon-Thu 11am-9:30pm
Fri 11am-10pm
Sat 5pm-10pm
Sun 5pm-9pm
Neighborhoods: Heritage District
Great Italian – my husband and I love the food and the people at il postale Joe is wonderful
Good Italian restaurant – Il Postale is an Italian gem of a restaurant in Sunnyvale. Lamb shank, fillet, artichoke appetizer, clam chowder, pasta pomodoro etc and lot more are there in Menu. Great wine collection. Excellent service. Parking facilities are also available. One of my favorite Italian restaurants. I can't wait to go back and eat there again!
Great food; reasonable prices...poor service; very noisy – Service was at best just average. Lively and noisy so if you're looking for a quiet dinner then go elsewhere. Calamari appetizer was average at best. Lots of selection on the wine list. Caesar salad was just so-so,.I expected a lot better at an Italian restaurant. My filet mignon was probably one of the best I've ever had. Cooked exactly the way I asked, medium rare. Tiramisu for dessert was a disappointment....we shared the dessert and only finished half of it (party of 4)....it was very mushy. The service was inconsistent...we were waited on immediately but had to flag her down afterwards for our appetizer order...then to get more water...then to place our entree order...then to order another bottle of wine..then to order our dessert...and the place was not at full capacity.
Would I go there again?...probably not due to the service and noise level...but the food was very good and the price was reasonable, but that's about it!
Stands out, even on a busy night – My boyfriend took me to Il Postale for Valentine's Day, and I was floored. The moment we walked in, the owner greeted us and made sure we were comfortable while we waited for a table. He said it'd take 30 minutes, but it only took 10. Our waiter treated us like good friends, joking around with us and making sure that we were taken care of throughout the meal. Sounds cheesy, but I was blown away, especially because they were so busy. The food was ordered and on our table within 10 minutes, and it was delicious. I had the baked rigatoni with Pinot Noir, and tiramisu for dessert.
I was most impressed by the fact that it was Valentine's Day -- every table was taken -- but they were still personable, precise, and relaxed. They must be incomparable on a slow night!
When we left, several members of the waitstaff said goodbye to us. If you're looking for a warm, familiar restaurant in a romantic setting, there is no choice but Il Postale. I will definitely be going back.
Best italian, Great customer service – One of my favorite Italian restaurants. They have a good variety of food and reasonably priced. Lots of parking in the area. I would much prefer to go there than Piatti.
OK Service, but bad food and attitude – my wife and i went there tonight afer reading the great reviews from here. upon entry the hostess was abot to lead us to a table when the manager screamed NO and sent us back to the door. then after about 5 minutes of standing there we were given a table right next to the door.
food: the bread was cold as ice! i had to ask the waitress to bring me warm bread and she just took it back to the kitchen, toasted it and brought it back to me. we ordered the spaghetti and gnocchi. the spaghetti was average at best and the gnocchi was terrible. i had to send it back to get it "fixed" before i could even eat it. very miserable. their wine list and drinks menu were extensive though and the wine i ordered was very good though quite overpriced.
Great service and consistent food – We've been regulars there for 10 years, and have never had less than excellent service. They have many great dishes: our favorites are the lamb shank, fillet, artichoke appetizer, clam chowder, and pasta pomodoro. Their wine list and martinis are very good.
Although the quality and cooking of their fish is excellent, those dishes tend to get suffocated from heavy sauces, so I would ask for sauce on the side. Also, desserts are not an emphasis there, though we rarely order it.
Overall, we love the place because of the atmosphere, location, great service, and plenty of great, reliable menu choices, and we look forward to the opening of their second restaurant in Campbell late 2006.
best chicken saltimbaca – On a recent trip to CA we had a chance to eat at Il Postale What a great place. Old world feel in a very quaint neighborhood. Great food Great service.
Very good Italian Food! – We went here for a friend's birthday. There was about 10 of us, so we made reservations. The atmosphere is nothing fancy, but the food is fantastic. The table started off with Calamar (which I don't eat) and everyone at the table thought it was really good. It was mixed with shrimp, too. I had the Penne Bolognese which was more than just good. It came with a HUGE meatball which was delicious. Everyone else got various items from the menu and not one person gave their dish thumbs down. Parking is hard to come by on the street, but I'm sure the good folks at Macy's across the way won't mind.
Incredible customer service, awesome food – This is seriously one of the best dining experiences I've ever had. Our server, Jason, was awesome. He voluntarily left the restaurant briefly to go to another store so that he could get our daughter some apple juice, which they just didn't happen to have. How often does that happen? We loved the food, they were always right on the spot with water and lemonade refills, and the food came out quickly, hot, and exactly as ordered. We loved this restaurant! Don't miss it!
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text:
News - The Lion King
02.28.2013 - The Lion King is highest grossing show on Broadway
First news for this year, although the news are not 'new' anymore, but perhaps
you are interested anyway: The Lion King is named the highest grossing show on
Broadway according to BBC
and since the news is already almost one year old you can assume that it is a
fact now. With more than 850 million USD (at the state of April 2012) it is
well deserved I must say, especially when you consider that not all of the
shows are on stage all the time. For instance the great Broadway performance
period in San Francisco is now over.
In addition a new performance will air in São Paulo, Brazil on March 7th, 2013.
12.20.2012 - Free TV premiere of The Lion King
This Christmas The Lion King will roar for the first time ever in free TV
in different countries. The German TV channel RTL will air the movie at 8:15 pm
on the 23rd of December. Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata are
also shown at 8:15 pm on 27th, respectively 29th of December (2012).
Also in other countries like Brazil the movie aired for the first time.
Update: 4.8 million people were watching, which corresponds to 13.6
percent market share according to quotenmeter.de.
For the smaller TV channel Super RTL, who aired "Simba's Pride" and "The Lion King 3" with 1.67 million respectively 1.19 million watchers was also a huge success. (Source: quotenmeter.de)
05.25.2012 - New The Lion King Blu-Ray and DVD box
Amazon offers in Germany since 8th of Mai 2012 an additional trilogy beside the wooden box. Obviously as a new edition in a slipcase like for instance from the release in French:
If this includes a new edition of the movies are unknown for now, until I
receive the box and check it. I will put it here, when I find out.
In addition in 6th of Mai 2012 also the Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3 were released in the USA as single DBD or Blu-Ray Combo packages. See here.
04.25.2012 - Audio Problems with the German Simba's Pride Blu-Ray Disc
As you may have read at amazon, or an other online shop, there is a problem
with the German audio track in the Simba's Pride Blu-Ray Disc. It manifests
in (annoying) high pitch voices, especially in scenes with Vitani and Kiara,
and some music scenes. However, Disney offers to exchange the disc, in case
you are affected by it. Simply write an email to email@example.com and
receive the instructions for the exchanging process. In my case, it was quite
fast, within 3 days.
Not all discs seems to be affected, but the problem can also be a bad combination of BD player and BD. A detailed explanation of this problem is still not known and not mentioned by Disney. At least, with the replacement Disc, the problems are solved for many people, but not all of them.
11.09.2011 - German Blu-Ray Disc arrived
The German trilogy Blu-Ray disc Box arrived today. It is a nice, but somehow cheap looking wooden box with an engraving portrait of Simba. It contains all three movies as Blu-Ray Disks, but not the 3D version. This is an extra disc. Also I ordered the special collectors DVD edition with some figure characters. I hope it comes soon. Take a look here.
Some more information and pictures will follow soon.
11.07.2011 - Review and updates on the cinema and Blu-Ray Disc release
After 8 years The Lion King roars in the cinemas here in Germany again. The sneak preview was yesterday and the official release will be at 10th of November. An incomplete list of the release dates is shown below:
- 25 June 2011: UK (Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere)
- 28 July 2011: Ukraine
- 12 August 2011: Mexico
- 19 August 2011: Paraguay (sneak preview)
- 25 August 2011: Israel
- 26 August 2011: Brazil, Poland
- 27 August 2011: US premiere in California
- 16 September 2011: USA, Canada, Paraguay
- 23 September 2011: Iceland
- 30 September 2011: Turkey
- 5 October 2011: Netherlands
- 6 October 2011: Argentina, Greece
- 7 October 2011: Ireland, Pakistan, UK
- 8 October 2011: Japan
- 13 October 2011: Kuwait
- 14 October 2011: Taiwan
- 22 October 2011: Hong Kong
- 25 October 2011: Singapore
- 6 November 2011: Germany (sneak preview)
- 10 November 2011: Germany
- 30 November 2011: Spain
- 22 December 2011: Portugal
- 6 January 2012: Sweden
- 23 March 2012: Russia
The movie started in most of them already and it was supposed to run only for 2 weeks, but due to the big success Disney extended the period, so you can still be lucky and watch the movie in theatres. On the first weekend in the US The Lion King performs best at the box office with a gross of 29.3 million USD. That's a record, only "The Return of the Jedi" was more successful on its re-release. It even outdo three new releases like Contagion, which only grosses 14 million USD. Again, Disney was surprised by its success, expecting only an incoming of 12-13 million. Even on the second weekend TLK is still on the top of the box office slightly eased of down to 22 Million. One reason of its big success is for sure founded in the next generation, who couldn't see the movie in cinema. Their parents, who were kids for 17 years, when TLK was released for the first time and now they show the movie to their kids. In addition, TLK wasn't challenged by other kids movies at these weekends.
In most countries the cinema release was planed as advertisement for the Blu-Ray release, mostly two weeks in advanced. So, after two weeks after the cinema release the Blu-Ray should be available. In some countries like Spain or Germany it is on the same day. In Germany it will be the 10th of November.
The overall experience of the cinema and the Blu-Ray version is
terrific, considering we are dealing with a movie that is 17 years old and
the 3D effect was added afterwards. Let's first start with the cinema
3D version.
At the moment there is no way to get closer to the Pride Lands than with the 3D version of TLK. You will be thrilled when you see see Zazu flying over the far landscape of Africa, the heads of all the different animals and to Mufasa on top of Pride Rock, or when Simba is struggling through the thorn bushes or the jungle. The arrangement of the z position of the different plants, rocks and characters are very lovely. Some of them look so real, you want to touch them. The overall impression is heard-warming and I wouldn't believe it, when someone told me for one year that the movie will look like this in 3D. Still, there are some issues that cannot be unmentioned here, although some of them are not surprising: For instance when the Zebras are dashing through the water in the Circle of life scene, the water is only visible in one layer. It's not surprising when you think how difficult it is to even make 2 dimensional drawing of that scene. Also there are some scenes where the focus point are not realistic, which feels strange to the audience e.g. when Nala is lurking in the grass to pounce on Pumbaa, the grass way before and behind is totally focused. But these are only minor things. One that spoils the movie, at least a little, is that the retreating clouds in the Mufasas ghost scene are missing when Simba is chasing after him. Also there are some color changes and issues like different tones of the night sky, or Simbas whiskers are orange, when Timon and Pumbaa tried to wake him up, after they found him lying in the desert. The crocodiles in the "I just can't wait to be King" scene are also reworked like in the DVD and IMAX edition. However, the "Morning Report" scene is not in the theaters version.
The sound is completely new arranged and mixed as well. The songs are more clear and brilliant now, but the special effects are too decent , or in other words: the sounds are dull. This is especially noticeable during the "Stampede" scene or other action scenes with a high proportion of bass. However, in case the volume is turned to high enough values you won't loose much of the TLK feeling like in the DVD 5.1 sound mix edition, where the main goal was to create a sound mix that really includes the audience into the movie.
Blu-Ray Disc
The Blu-Ray discs basically have the same version of the movie as the cinema release and therefore containing the same glitches and mistakes. Except for one glitch we discover so far. The shadows of the hyenas are not there in the 3D cinema version and 3D BD while Scar is speaking to the lionesses after Mufasas death:
But the sound mix
seems to be the same, so I won't repeat it here. It's still amazing to
see the characters, the background... better: the whole movie in such
focused high resolution frames.
The bonus material on the Blu-Ray discs is the same than announced on the previous news. The new documentary about the movie is informative, but also uses a lot of already known sequences from previous bonus features on the Laserdisc and the DVD. However, there are a quite new things I briefly want to mention here:
Pride of The Lion King
This 40 minutes long documentary video is constructed as a reunion meeting, where some of the artists, the producer and directors meets again to talk about the different stages during the production of TLK. They talking about all the fun they have and the things went wrong. Also they reveal new facts that wasn't heard on the different bonus material before. For instance that Rafiki was supposed to be a cheetah and Scar was a leader of an enemy group of baboons fighting against Mufasas pride. But not all parts are about the movie, they also have a lot of clips about the musical production and interviews with Julie Taymor.
The Lion King: A Memoir
In contrast to Pride of The Lion King, A Memoir consist of small interviews with Don Hahn and some clips in between from the DVD and LD bonus feature. Also he talks about the production and the heavy earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994 which forces the team to shift their working place. This is especially hard during the main production stage.
Deleted scenes
As mentioned in the previous news there are 4 never seen before deleted scenes, which I want to shortly summarize here:
Zazu flatters: As the title already suggested, Zazu tries to flatter Mufasa after he confronted Scar. It's obvious why this one was canceled, because the joke was to bad.
Mufasa's song or "King of the Wild" Yes, this is a song written for Mufasa to explain Simba the circle of life. It's okay, but it's good that it didn't appear in the final movie, because Mufasa is so mighty, powerful and respected that he simply didn't need a song to get the message to the audience. ;)
Scar wants Nala as his Queen: In this scene Scar tries to convince Nala to be his made, therefore Nala leaves the Pride Lands. This is basically the same scene than in the Broadway musical, so no musical idea at all!
Simba and Nala reunited: Nala's exile is picked up again and continued, because now she has another reason beyond finding help in the jungle. Also Timon is there more jealous about losing Simba to this lioness.
Zazu flatters Scar: Zazu now has really to compare in words Mufasa and Scar. He tries hard not to lie about Scars regency and somehow he seems to like it.
Interactive Blu-Ray gallery
Based on the Java language in the Blu-Ray system, they designed a gallery with:
- 165 pictures about the different characters as high resolution images. They look great and I didn't see all of them.
- 115 about Visual design: Great pictures from the early background drawings with the awesome African nature. They would make great desktop pictures.
- 84 storyboard pictures.
- 50 layout and background pictures mostly from the LD.
Bloopers and Outtakes
Some artist came together again to draw the scenes of the synchronisation Outtakes and Bloopers from the original recordings. It staring Mufasa, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Scar and Nala. In my opinion it's funny and worth watching it. For the German release they also translated everything, but not with all of the original cast, which is rather unfortunate. They would have better do a German synchronisation of the documentary "Pride of The Lion King" and "Don Hahn: A Memoir". In case you want to watch it without using the BD, then take a look on youtube. It should be probably easy to find there.
In addition there are an introduction video to 3D featuring Timon and Pumbaa, which
reminds me strongly to these "Safety Smart" series. An advanced feature using your
computer, or some Apple product like iBook or iPad called Disney's Second Screen is also
available. While watching the movie on your Blu-Ray player you can see production notes,
fan facts, concept arts, or playing little puzzle games on your computer in sync with
the movie. There are some nice hints in there about a character called Mee-Too and
Bhati. A lion cub and a fennec, the playmates of Simba.
Although the discs didn't contain all the bonus material from the Platinum release - what is really a shame when you think of the space left on the disc - but it's still accessible through a feature called "Disney's Vault". To use it, you need a Blu-Ray disc player with a internet connection, because the content is download to your player.
The menu of the BD is beautiful and not such a ugly animation of Zazu like the last one. Instead it contains different scenes of the movie projected at a key point. For example there is a nice background image of Pride Rock and a few clips are projected on it. Then it goes to the elephant graveyard and so on. The menu itself is well structured and you easily find what you want.
A compiled table, which is still work in progress, with the comparison of the different medias and bonus features are available here.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata
In the trilogy set there is also a Blu-Ray disc version of Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3. Starting with Simba's Pride the image quality is good considering the low-budget production. They cleaned up the characters and the backgrounds, although you can see that the backgrounds are not in such a good shape than on TLK Blu-Ray disc. But it looks much better compared to the DVD version. The sound is good as well, not remixed for 7.1 though, but with 5.1 DTS-HD, which is rather unfortunate, but not surprising. The BD disc contains the same glitches than the DVD version, e.g the "flying" paw of Kiara during her attempt to rescue Zira, or the switching scar from the right to the left ear of Zira. And here again I was amazed by the quality. I've expected much worse. The start menu greets the audience with a few screenshots, concept arts and the "We are one" score as background music. The bonus features are unfortunately the same as in the DVD version, except of a new documentation about insects with Timon and Pumbaa.
The Lion King 3 is very similar to Simba's Pride. They didn't spend too much time for cleaning up the scenes, but because the movie is much younger the quality is better than in Simba's Pride. The backgrounds are really nice and can compete against The Lion King ones. But the bonus features are again the same as in the DVD version. The menu of the disc contains short clips from the different stages of the movie.
Best of The Lion King
There are also news on the Soundtrack. There is a new compact disc called "Best of The Lion King", which is a collection of songs from all three movies. See below for a track list:
- 01 Circle Of Life
- 02 Grazing in the Grass
- 03 Can You Feel the Love Tonight
- 04 Warthog Rhapsody
- 05 Kube
- 06 This Land
- 07 Digga Tunnah Dance
- 08 The Morning Report
- 09 Love Will Find a Way (End Title)
- 10 The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- 11 Be Prepared
- 12 They Live in You
Also there is a German version called "Best of König der Löwen" available, which contains for the first time ever the German songs in Simba's Pride. Unfortunately not all of them are included, though. "Er lebt in dir" and "Ziras Wiegenlied" is not inside, but better than nothing.
For the cinema release Disney has released lots of new merchandising like plush toys, clothes, mugs and other goodies. Take a look here.
Further updates are coming soon...
05.26.2011 - Confirmation and release dates
This is an overview of the different release dates and features of the Blu-Ray Disc and the cinema release of The Lion King. In the United state the dates are the following:
- On September 16, 2011 The Lion King will for the first time ever appear in 3D in theater
- On October 4, 2011 the BD in high definition and 3D will be released as well as an 8-disc special collectors edition
The dates for Germany, Switzerland and Austria:
- On November, 10 2011 The Lion King will for the first time ever appear in 3D in theater
- And as well on November, 10 2011 the BD in high definition and the Triology containing The Lion King, Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1 1/2 will be released
Concerning the Bonus material and different boxes the following information seems to be
For the 8 Disc edition:
- Disc 1: The Lion King Blu-ray 3D Feature Film
- Disc 2: The Lion King Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 3: The Lion King 1-1/2 Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 4: The Lion King 2 Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 5: The Lion King DVD Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 6: The Lion King 1 A533; DVD Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 7: The Lion King 2 DVD Feature Film + Bonus
- Disc 8: The Lion King Digital Copy Feature Film
The Bonus material for The Lion King:
- Never Before Seen Bloopers
- 4 Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes
- Deleted Song
- The Morning Report: Extended Scene
- Disney Second Screen
- Pride of The Lion King
- The Lion King: A Memoir-Don Hahn
- Disney Sing Along Mode
- Interactive Blu-ray Galleries
- Audio Commentary
- Disney's Virtual Vault: Classic DVD Features Powered By BD-Live!
And for The Lion King 1 1/2:
- Timon and Pumbaa's Vacation Safari
- Deleted Scenes
- Timon: Behind the Legend
- Before the Beginning: The Making of The Lion King 1 1/2
- Music Video
- Timon and Pumbaa's Insectapedia
- "One by One" Animated Show
- Proud of Simba's Pride
- Timon and Pumbaa: Find Out Why
- Music Video
So far it seems to be the same, that were before on the LD, or the DVD, but perhaps there will be some new bonus material. The Memoir from Don Hahn and a few other seems promising. Don't forget to preorder it on amazon, or whereever you like, before it's to late. ;)
Now a small overview over the different announced boxes: The Lion King 4-disc 3D Combo Pack, containing the
TLK BD, a 3D BD, the DVD and a digital copy. Also there will be a 2-disc BD and DVD Combo Pack
available and finally the one disc DVD set. And of course the 8-disc collector edition already discussed
Now some technical specs: The Lion king will appear on BD with a resolution of 1080p and aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Simba's Pride and TLK 1 1/2 will have an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Concerning the sound, TLK will be for the first time ever available with 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in English and for the french and spanish tracks in 5.1 Disney's Enhanced Home Theater Mix (DEHT).
Source: disney.com
05.11.2011 - Blu-Ray Disc extras and poster
Stitchkingdom has revealed some yet unconfirmed extras of the Blu-ray Disc. Among them is a technique called "Second Screen", which allows you to watch the movie in synchronisation with the bonus features. In addition to that, the following bonus material may appear on the BD:
- Pride of the Lion King
- The Lion King: A Memoir ? Don Hahn
- Bloopers and Outtakes
- Deleted and Alternate Scenes and Song
- The Morning Report (Extended Scene)
- Disney Sing Along Mode
- Interactive Blu-ray Gallery
- Disney's Virtual Vault — DVD Legacy Bonus
It's not very obvious what all this material will contain, but for instance the Memoir could be very similiar to "The Making of The Lion King" with Robert Guillaume. I'm especially interesting in the bloopers and outtakes. This may something what was never seen before.
Perhaps I also have found the future poster for the release. It looks better in large resolution, but still a little work on it wouldn't harm anyone. The new title style is what bothers me most.
Source: Stitchkingdom.com
04.28.2011 - The Lion King DVD re-release
The DVD of The Lion King will be re-released with a new cover as well. It's
looking better, but still far from perfect. In general, I don't like these
modern, quickly CGI rendered looking covers.
See for yourself:
Source: Amazon.com
04.24.2011 - The Lion King Triology Eight-Disc Box set
On Amazon.com
is the Lion King Eight-Disc Combo Box set available for preorder. It contains
the Lion King Diomand Edition and a 3D version on each BD. Surprisingly Simba's Pride and
The Lion King: Hakuna Matata will be on board as well. Further there will be
a version on DVD for each movie and a digital copy. This is quite a huge
box set and the price is just as well. 100 USD, if you preorder the box it is
'only' 74.99 USD.
The box itself seems to be very nice, but the DVDs and Blu-Rays still have their questionable cover art. Perhaps this won't be the final layout, so hope for the best.
03.31.2011 - Update on the Blu-Ray front
Well, this is a little update about what's going on at the moment: First, there
are a few more dates, you will be happy about to hear. The Lion King will be
back at the cinema in the United States in October 2011. In Germany the release is
planed for November 2011.
Further Lori MacPherson, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, announced at a press conference a 3D version of The Lion King for the Blu-Ray release. The date for this release is now officially confirmed on a flyer in the "Tangled" DVD at least for Fall 2011. He also mentioned Timon and Pumbaa will give a small introduction to the world of 3D in Disney movies to children.
And finally, as you can see below, they have improved the cover art for the Blu-Ray release and fixed some issues. It's about time! But still this modern design leaks of the magic and powerful outline from the old layout. In my humble opinion a timeless movie deserves an even timeless design and not some modern hyped 3D looking.
Source: DVDtown
01.20.2011 - Amazon.com lists the Lion King Blu-ray
Amazon.com already lists the Lion King Blu-ray with a new cover. But it seems to be without 3D. Further you can set up an 'alert', when the disc becomes available and then get notified. I found the cover in bigger resolution. Judge for yourself:
Update: It appears to be a fan cover as you can read in the subtitle. But the interesseting thing is, that the assumed original cover is listed there, too. Maybe Amazon didn't updated the article, yet. Nevertheless the rumor mill keeps going.
01.03.2011 - New Cover for the Blu-Ray release
Happy New Year!
Stitchkingdom revealed some information about the Blu-Ray and a front cover from the future Lion King release in fall 2011:
Honestly, it looks very creepy, to say the least. I really hope the final release won't look like that. Further they say in the announcement, there will be some new Menus, of course and new animtion with Timon and Pumbaa, but hopefully they don't look like the guys on the cover.
I'm still wondering why they are planing to bring a direct 3D BD release and don't mention any IMAX 3D. But there is definetly something going on there. :)
Source: Stitch Kingdom
11.14.2010 - TLK Trailer on "Beauty and the beast" Blu-Ray
The trailer from the last news is indeed on the "Beauty and the beast" Blu-Ray, but in much better quality than the youtube version. In other words 1080p with four different audio tracks. So far it's looking very good. A small appetizer is below:
Unfortunately the trailer doesn't came up when starting the blu-ray, but it's located under "Bonus Feature" with some other clips. Have fun. :)
07.30.2010 - First Lion King Trailer for Diamond Edition?
Youtube has a video, which seems to be the first Trailer of the Diamond Blu-Ray Edition. It claims that it will be released, as expected, in fall 2011. But the quality in 1080p seems to be quite bad and it looks more like an upscaling. I guess the 'real' trailer will be first to be seen on the "Beauty and the Beast" Blu-Ray. Then we will know for sure. ;)
06.23.2010 - 3D Version of The Lion King
Empire Online reports that Don Hahn, the producer of the Lion King, has provided some information of a 3D version of the movie. But read for yourself:
[...] First, Hahn revealed that Beauty And The Beast isn't the only Disney classic about to go 3D. A certain cartoon starring a warthog and a meerkat will be returning to cinemas too. "I'm actually trying to work out a 3D conversion of The Lion King. I'll be doing that when I go back to the States in a couple of weeks," he said, explaining that we shouldn't expect to see it for a while yet, since the Disney boffins are taking their time in making Simba, Zazu et al pop out of the screen. "It's going to be spectacular – we will do a good job for ya! The technology is tremendous. We did A Nightmare Before Christmas a few years ago and Tim thought it was better than the original because it allows you to walk onto the set." [...]
I think this sounds promising, although I have mixed feelings about seeing Simba, Zazu, Rafiki and Co in 3D. At least, they are developing a new technology to convert the images and with it a hope that it might be looking good and will not ruin the best movie in the world. But we will see.
Further he says that they are still in the beginning of the process, so it will eventually comes for the 20th birthday of TLK? Unfortunately I have no more information and it was just a wild guess.
Source: Empire online
03.27.2010 - Further rumors on the Blu-Ray Release
First a very belated Happy New Year. :)
Some news on the Blu-Ray release of The Lion King. Actually this time from two different sites now. First from Ultimatedisney:
[...] Beyond that, a big October 2011 splash is expected for one of Disney's biggest all-time titles; The Lion King is set to bow on Blu-ray then. As always, all of these plans are subject to change until they're formally announced (and sometimes even after that). But we had to pass this news along to give you an idea of how long you'll be waiting for these highly-anticipated high-def debuts and standard-def returns.
And thedigitalbits:
[...] He also posts word there that Disney currently has The Lion King set for BD release in October of 2011. Bang-up job, Jeremy!
Source: Ultimatedisney
06.15.2009 - 15th anniversary of The Lion King
Unbelievable, but true: The Lion King has its world premiere right today for 15. years in the Radio City Music Hall. I've thought about a lot of things to celebrate this event, but I can't come up with something that fit this historical day properly. So I decide to write down the story about the Lion King in order to set focus on the movie itself. I think it's useless to say, that this is a lifetime job, but I want to highlight some important facts considered with TLK.
Unfortunately I write down this story in German. If you are capable to read german, or babelfish or something like that isn't stupid enough for you, you can read it here: 15. TLK Jubiläum
I try to translate it as fast as possible, but I have a lot of other work to do right now. -.-
Anyway, Happy Birthday my beloved "The Lion King". :-)
03.10.2009 - Blu-ray and DVD re-release notifier
Well, some time has paste again, but I dig out something new on the web, what might interest you: A notifier for future TLK releases. For some time it wasn't there and it is a nice and interesting step, although I believe the rumor mill will reveal the date much earlier before Disney announce it. But you'll never know.
Nevertheless, this site wasn't there for some time ago, like I said and probably it's a general notification system for all Disney movies, but it could be usefull, when you're not surfing the web for news all the day. ;)
12.31.2008 - Happy New Year and maybe a release date for The Lion King
And now another year is nearly gone, so I wish you a happy new year and that the future year have some more news on TLK. :)
Apropos News: For some time I digged out this:
It is from a brazil website, that talk about a conference of Disney, which also took place in Brazil. I don't report this earlier, because I don't know what's true about it. I even don't know, yet. So be careful with such news, but perhaps it's possible to help predicting a release date.
And there is another point, I become aware of. The next year will be the 15th anniversary of The Lion King. I don't know how to appreciate this special event, but I hope I will came up with something.
01.17.2007 - The Lion King on Blu-Ray Disk!?
There is a trailer on the new new "Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest" DVD, where is a list of upcomming releases
of Disney movies, who will be released on Blu-Ray Disk.
In case you have the question: what is a Blu-Ray Disk than
take a look on the following links:
High-definition video
I'm looking forward to this release, because I'm interesseting to know in wich way the new standard improves the movie and maybe the audio quality. Furthermore, of course, I hope that Disney takes their time to port the Movie so that we can enjoy TLK on a larger TV, perhaps to get as well the feeling back when we were in theatre or the IMAX, if you have the necessary hardware equipment.
Source: A List of Blu-Ray Releases
01.01.2007 - Happy New Year
I wish you a happy new year and that all your hopes and
dreams come true. ;)
Maybe I this year I have enough time to complete or set some more stuff online, anyway.
04.01.2006 - There will be a fourth The Lion King Movie
Due to Information from Soti and Andreas Deja (the animator of Scar),
there will be a fourth The Lion King Movie. The story take place before
Simba to the time where Ahadi was King. We'll see when Mufasa and
Scar were young and who Nala's Father really is.
Also Disney will use approved method and artists like Hans Zimmer, Lebo M and the old producer Jay Rifkin. Furthermore there will be 5 new songs, where the title of two of them are known, yet: "Follow your path" (by Ahadi) and "The Lion in the moon" (by Uru).
For more information please visit the thread on the Savannah, but it's in german.
btw: April Fool! :-)
Source: pride-lands.org
03.31.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Voice Actors Listed
Bernardo C. sends this link, a comprehensive list of voice actors in Kingdom Hearts II.
The Lion King characters are voiced as follows:
Cheech Marin as Banzai
Jim Cummings as Scar (possibly Ed too)
Cam Clarke as Simba
James Earl Jones as Mufasa
Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Young Simba
Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa
So they couldn't get Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick,
Jeremy Irons, or Whoopi Goldberg, and I'm unsure how
Jonathan Taylor Thomas fits into the picture (surely he's too
old to voice Simba convincingly anymore-after all, they got
someone else for the "Morning Report" song). But they did
get James Earl Jones, apparently...
I'm still wondering about, in what way Jonathan Tayler Thomas will povide his voice for young Simba? Or do they use old material? That's really confusing....
Source: lionking.org
03.29.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Released in US
The game is now generally available, Lion King world and all, and
Gamespot has a positive review.
Via Bernardo.
Source: lionking.org
03.25.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Website Updated
The official U.S. website for Kingdom Hearts II has been
updated with detailed information on the Lion King world
and a lot of screenshots (though the dialogue subtitles
are still in Japanese).
There is also detailed voice cast information on the main news page, in anticipation of the March 28 ship date.
Thanks to Ryan R.
Source: lionking.org
03.03.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Voice Actors Confirmed
KHInsider.com has an official list of the voice
actors who will appear in this game; there are lots of big names from
original Disney movies, including James Woods as Hades and
Bruce Boxleitner as Tron, and appearances by Dan Castellaneta,
Christopher Lee, Sean Astin, and others as well, reprising familiar
roles or taking over for others.
Unfortunately, however, it appears that no original Lion King voice actors are present; but then, nobody else is confirmed for known Lion King roles, so keep an eye on this site for further updates.
Via Bernardo C.
Source: lionking.org
02.11.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II U.S. Release Date Confirmed
The official press release from Square-Enix
confirms that Kingdom Hearts II will be released in the U.S. on March 28,
2006. (Via Ryan R.)
In it, there's information about an "all-star" voice cast, which suggests that the original voice actors might be featured in the game. As Bernardo C. notes, the IMDB page for the game lists Jeremy Irons as the voice of Scar.
Source: lionking.org
12.28.2005 - Kingdom Hearts II Scar/Simba Footage Posted
If you just can't wait to see how the Pride Lands sequence ends in
the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II game, a lengthy video has been
posted here showing the
climactic battle with Scar (featuring a few additional characters).
Scar seems to be considerably harder to defeat than he was in the movie. (He also seems to have only one facial expression...)
Source: lionking.org
12.20.2005 - Kingdom Hearts II U.S. Website Online
Ryan R. notes that the U.S. website for Disney/Square Enix's
Kingdom Hearts II has gone live. The game, featuring many
licensed Disney characters and settings, will reportedly contain
a full Lion King world; although the site currently doesn't have
information about that world, it's expected that it will be added
as more content is developed for the site.
The release date for the game is given by the site as "Spring 2006". The Japanese version (which requires a Japanese PS2) will be released December 22. The English version is widely expected to feature voice work by the included movies' original actors, in keeping with the previous game.
Earlier Kingdom Hearts II news and press materials here.
UPDATE: The exact release dates, according to GameSpot, are: North America: March 1, 2006 Japan: December 22, 2005 Europe: Spring 2006
Source: lionking.org
12.13.2005 - From the Lion's Mouth
Source: lionking.org
11.14.2005 - TLK Expanded Score Unearthed
It's been circulating from hand to hand for a while now, but now it's been posted on an official page at Hans-Zimmer.com that a long-lost "Lion King Expanded Score" has appeared on several download sites and is achieving broad acknowledgment among fans of Zimmer's music and TLK alike.
This score contains 21 tracks, 16 of which consist of
never-before-released instrumental music from Hans Zimmer's original
masterpiece score. The linked site contains track information and a
message discussion board, where more information can be obtained
on how to find a copy of the score.
Source: lionking.org
08.24.2005 - Lion King Level in Kingdom Hearts II
Ryan R. e-mails with this bit of info:
I think it should be mentioned that the sequel to Kingdom
Hearts(which features Simba as a summon) will have a
actual Lion King world. The creator of Kingdom Hearts II,
Tetsuya Nomura, has told people in numerous interviews of
The Lion King being featured as a stage in Kingdom Hearts
II, whereas in Kingdom Hearts 1, the idea for Lion King to be
a stage was denied. Hopefully this can get Lion King fans to
check it out in the game which will be released this Winter.
Sounds like something to look forward to. Ryan mails in a follow-up (09.30.05) that it has yet to be officially confirmed by Square-Enix that the TLK world will be in the game, but it remains a strong possibility.
Confirmation of this development is reported; thanks to Zala, Ryan, and Seryi for forwarding the news!
High-res scans of the Japanese press material are available at RPGamer.com. An even better site, full of well-processed scans and screenshots, is at Kingdom Hearts Ultimania.
Source: lionking.org
02.14.2005 - DVD Exclusive Awards for TLK 1 ½
Simba B. alerts me to this information posted at UltimateDisney.com by Luke:
The Lion King 1 ½ took home five trophies at last night's DVD Exclusive Awards in Los Angeles. The direct-to-video "in-between-quel" earned the award for Best Animated DVD Movie Premiere, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing honors for a DVD premiere. One of the film's lead personalities, sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane, animated by Alexis Stadermann), was commended as Best Animated Character Performance.
Source: lionking.org
2/14/2005 - DVD Exclusive Awards for TLK 1 ½
Simba B. alerts me to this information posted at UltimateDisney.com by Luke:
The Lion King 1 ½ took home five trophies at last night's DVD Exclusive Awards in Los Angeles. The direct-to-video "in-between-quel" earned the award for Best Animated DVD Movie Premiere, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing honors for a DVD premiere. One of the film's lead personalities, sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane, animated by Alexis Stadermann), was commended as Best Animated Character Performance.
Source: lionking.org
01.09.2005 TLK Going Back In the Vault
According to Amazon.com
, all three Lion King movies are set to be discontinued
n January 31, 2005. Get yours now while supplies last!
Thanks to Jess Walzak!
Source: lionking.org
10.14.2004 Vinyl Special Edition Soundtrack
For those fans who still have the means and the desire to play
vinyl records, Disney has now apparently released a
Vinyl Record Version of the Lion King
Special Edition Soundtrack. It's got a unique art overlay (which, I presume,
doesn't interfere with the playback), and looks really hot. Might be worth
collecting even if you don't have a vinyl record player! Price is
Thanks to Roku!
Source: lionking.org
09.21.2004 TLK Trilogy Boxed Set Art
A forum at UltimateDisney.com has the box art for the upcoming TLK Trilogy collection.
Looks like it's little more than a bunch of pre-existing
clip-art composited together. Too bad they couldn't have commissioned
some new original art... but I suppose it could have been worse.
Thanks to Lindsay M. for spotting this!
Source: lionking.org
09.07.2004 6-Disc Lion King Trilogy DVD Set Available for Preorder
Set for release on December 7, 2004, there's a new six-disc
"Lion King Trilogy" set that you can preorder from Amazon.com
or Circuit City . List price is $69.99, but the retail chains
have lower prices than that.
Thanks to Lion Queen for the info!
Scroll down to the 05.05.2004 entry to see the box art for this set; also note that it's been out in Region 2 areas (such as the UK) since June 28. Thanks to Mark H. for pointing this out!
Best Buy has it too (thanks Bryan B.).
Source: lionking.org
09.02.2004 "Simba's Pride" Special Edition DVD and Soundtrack Released
The Special Edition re-release of Simba's Pride is now
available everywhere, including Wal-Mart and DisneyDVD.com.
Laura (aka "coolraptor") has submitted this review:
First off, the bonus lithograph pictured on the Disney Store website is the same one that came with the DVD. It comes in a large envelope almost as nice (maybe nicer than) the litho itself. I own the original DVD release of SP but this one actually looks clearer onscreen. I don't know if it's possible that the quality could be better than the original DVD release but I swear it looks better¿for example, during the opening as the sun is rising I see details on the elephants I don't remember seeing before, such as the actual folds of skin whereas in the original DVD all I saw were silhouettes. The colors in general appear a little less intense than the original DVD release in general the film is "not so orange".
I did see the aforementioned change in Kovu's facial expression during the one instant in the Crocodile Attack screen. Why that was done beats me...he gasps straight at the camera for a split second before turning his head to the left at which point the animation looks identical to the original release. Also I noticed how the screen fades a little faster right after the Upendi sequence so we don't see Kiara and Kovu going from walking to the beat of the song to a regular walk. I had to skim through most of the movie (a bit busy today :) so if there are any other miniscule changes I did not see them¿it'll have to wait either until tomorrow when I get to actually watch the film and maybe for sharper eyes than mine.
Chapters are all the same except that the chapter entitled "Alligator Attack" is now called "Crocodile Attack". Menu pages are nice, not nearly as fun as TLK 1.5 but also no horrific 3D animation to deal with as per TLK:SE. The "Matter-Of-Facts" option is a bit annoying turned on¿it supposed to be a pop up of interesting facts you can choose to have on while watching the film. A great idea, except for the fact the pop ups block virtually the entire screen!
"One by One" short is an uplifting sequence, using a longer, modified version of the song One by One, about kids escaping their rather depressing town to go to the surrounding veldt to fly kites. "Find out why" shorts are fun but there's only five of them¿I recall quite a few more shorts existed during the One Saturday Morning run. The Timon and Pumbaa's virtual tour is possibly the least interesting of the three virtual tours and here we finally get subjected to some bad 3D animation, including the duo's new pet elephant Gertie (and yes, eventually she starts talking). Rafiki's challenge is a gourd shuffling game that plays for about five rounds. Pride Land Games consist of three games (two mathematical, one a shape game) that are extremely basic. Of all the bonus features, in fact, the Proud of Simba's Pride is by FAR the most interesting. We get to see some of the storyboards, character model sheets, and hear a few lines that never made the film, including one by Mufasa (or more accurately perhaps Mufasa's ghost) where he blames Simba for the war between the Pridelanders and Outlanders. Also, it made me respect what is still my least favorite of the TLK trilogy a little bit more when I learned how some of the things we see in the film were done intentionally to invoke a deeper meaning. For example, the animators explain how during the original we always see Pride Rock from the right but in the sequel it is nearly always shown from the left to cue in viewers that this is a different story to be viewed from a different perspective. They also try to explain some of Simba's behavior during the sequel that I had previously considered irrational. As I said, in all it made me respect TLK 2 just a bit more.
So in conclusion: the film looks a bit better and cleaner to me and the bonus features, with the exception of the Proud of Simba's Pride featurette, are disappointing. Which leads me to the question: Where are the deleted scenes? I could've sworn I had read somewhere that some of the pencil tests that have been floating around online for years (i.e., Vitani and Nuka's introductions, Zira's suicide) would be included here. I even played the games and did the safari in the hopes that maybe we would get them as rewards at the end. But there is no sign of these at all. So if someone else figures out that they are on the disc and how to get them, let the rest of us know, OK?
The soundtrack has also been re-released, according to DisneyStore.com; it doesn't contain all the songs from "Return to Pride Rock", the original edition of the soundtrack; the original (non-TLK-related) Lebo M. songs have been omitted.
Source: lionking.org


text: This would be tough to judge unless you've been to them all to compare. But I can say that SFA has to be the worst simply because Superman is housed in Gotham and Two Face isn't. Its like the whole park needs to be re-themed as Gotham, not the portion of the park behind Wild One.


text:
Podcast #205 - News from Computex 2012! - Ultrabooks, Trinity Motherboards, New products from Corsair, and much more!
Subject: General Tech | June 7, 2012 - 03:21 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: trinity, ROG, PSU, podcast, nvidia, LAMD, Intel, corsair, computex, asus, amd, a85, 680M
PC Perspective Podcast #205 - 06/07/2012
Join us this week as we talk about all of the news from Computex 2012! - Ultrabooks, Trinity Motherboards, New products from Corsair, and much more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular
- MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malvantano
Program Schedule:
- 0:00:25 Introduction
- 1-888-38-PCPER or email@example.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- 0:03:15 MSI Radeon HD 7950 Review
- 0:10:00 ASUS Sabertooth X79 Review
- 0:11:10 DV Nation RAMRod system review
- 0:18:25 Samsung Series 5 Chromebook review
- 0:19:10 Intel Ultrabook Ivy Bridge reference review
- 0:21:47 AMD loses monthly Catalyst updates
- 0:25:20 Ultrabooks
- 0:36:00 MAINGEAR 11-in gaming machine
- 0:37:00 Sandisk PCIe SSD competitor
- 0:42:00 Trinity / A85 Motherboards
- 0:45:30 ASUS says THEY have the overclocking record
- 0:46:30 Macbook coming with ultra high-res display?
- 0:51:00 Gigabyte X79S motherboard
- 0:53:00 LSI shows SF-2000 driving smaller flash
- 0:59:30 Corsair has...
- 1:05:30 NVIDIA wants discrete GPUs in Ultrabooks
- 1:07:30 NVIDIA shows GeForce GTX 680M GPU
- 1:11:00 ASUS MARS III dual GTX 680 card
- 1:13:00 3DMark for Windows 8 Screenshots
- 1:15:00 AMD releases Brazos 2.0
- 1:16:45 New ASUS ROG Gear
- 1:21:00 ASUS shows off beastly concept motherboards
- 1:24:10 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- 1-888-38-PCPER or firstname.lastname@example.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- Closing
Day 2 of Computex
Subject: General Tech, Shows and Expos | June 7, 2012 - 03:06 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: computex, computex 2012
The Tech Report had a chance to see Lucid's latest new product to enhance the ability of your computers graphics, it is called XLR8 Dynamix software and it seems almost designed to emulate what Ryan saw in his Rage testing. Instead of lower quality textures being an issue, in this case Lucid is attempting to dynamically reduce the quality of background textures to allow for higher frame rates on lower powered GPUs.
From AMD they saw the first Brazos 2 chips, which you can read about here. They caught snaps of Gigabyte's GA-X79S-UP5 server board with a combination of 14 SATA and SAS ports for a huge amount of storage and picked up a bit of news about the fastest mobile chip on the planet.
"Here comes our second helping of Computex coverage. We've got the skinny on Nvidia's Kepler-based mobile GPU flagship, AMD's 2012 E-series APU platform, a decked-out Sandy Bridge-E motherboard from Gigabyte, and Lucid's latest GPU virtualization mojo, which boosts fluidity on Intel IGPs by dynamically tweaking texture detail."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- The Awesome and Unusual and Crazy From Computex 2012 @ TechwareLabs
- Computex 2012 Day 2 - Hotel Walk of Fame Part 1 @ Ninjalane
- Computex 2012 Day 2 Coverage Blog @ Ninjalane
- OCZ: We will plug Lightning into your Thunderbolt @ The Register
- Solid state storage for the enterprise and consumers: Q&A with Alex Mei, CMO at OCZ Technology @ DigiTimes
- MD5crypt Password Scrambler Is No Longer Considered Safe @ Slashdot
Computex: MSI Showing Off Five G-series Gaming Notebooks
Subject: General Tech, Mobile | June 7, 2012 - 09:36 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: video, trinity, msi, mobile, laptops, Ivy Bridge, Intel, gaming notebook, gaming, computex, amd
MSI has been busy at this year's Computex trade show. In addition to the company's graphics cards and motherboard displays, MSI is showing off four new G Series gaming notebooks. Three of them are running Intel Ivy Bridge processors while the fourth machine is powered by a top-end AMD Trinity APU. Included in the new G series is the GT70, GT60, GE70, GE60, and GX60. The only AMD system is the GX60. Let's take a look at that one first.
The GX60 has a similar exterior build as the other G Series notebooks, but has vastly different internals and does not appear to have the same audio technology as the Intel-based notebooks. The desktop replacement class (read: heavy and not so great battery life heh) laptop features an AMD A10-4600M APU, AMD A70M chipset, and AMD Radeon 7970M graphics card. Other features include MSI's "SuperRAID" storage with up to two SSDs in RAID and a mechanical hard drive, Steelseries keyboard, and a Killer E2200 gaming network card. Another interesting feature is the system's ability to output to up to three displays with AMD Eyefinity technology. The system was able to pull a respectable 30 frames per second on the Unigine Heave benchmark and will have an MSRP of around 1,000 British Pounds (~$1,557.70 USD). According to eTeknix, the AMD Trinity-based notebook will be available soon.
The Intel Ivy Bridge based systems get a bit more love than the AMD Trinity system with SuperRAID support, up to 32GB of RAM, MSI Audio Boost (powered by Dynaudio or THX TruStudiio Pro depending on model), gold-plated audio connectors, Turbo Drive Engine and NVIDIA discrete graphics. The Intel and AMD G series laptops all get 1080p displays and custom backlit keyboards built by SteelSeries. The AMD system may well have MSI Audio Boost, gold plated connectors, and the like but MSI did not seem to tout them on the GX60 like they did for the Intel ones. The GX60 does at least get the SteelSeries keyboard and SuperRAID tech. Anyway, onto the Intel gaming rigs.
MSI GT70 and GT60
The MSI GT 70 is the largest and fastest gaming notebook at the MSI booth with a 17" 1080p display, quad core Core i7 processor, SuperRAID storage, THX certified Dynaudio sound, Turbo Drive Engine, Killer E2200 NIC, and a NVIDIA GTX 680M mobile GPU with GDDR5 RAM. The GT70 utilizes MSI's SuperRAID to the fullest with two SSDs and a mechanical hard drive for up to 700MB/s read speeds. The system further features a backlit keyboard from SteelSeries that has five LED pattern modes (Normal, Gaming, Wave, Breathing, and Dual Color) and various selectable colors to choose from. The GT70 was pulling about 45 frames-per-second on the Unigine Heaven benchmark and P20,000 on 3DMark Vantage. Consumers should expect it to be available for around 2,500 British Pounds (~$3,894.25 USD).
The MSI GT70 gaming notebook
The GT60 is a smaller version of the GT70 with 15.6" chassis, slightly slower Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor at 2.9GHz, and only a GTX 670M graphics card. It features the same MSI technology as its bigger brother, the GT70, but may not have the exact SuperRAID setup. Otherwise it has Dynaudio, 1080p display, the backlit SteelSeries keyboard, and lots of other goodies. No price info on this one to report, unfortunately.
MSI GE70 and GE60
The two MSI GE branded gaming laptops are the budget versions of the GT70 and GT60. They feature slower IVY Bridge processors, a downgrade in the Intel chipset to H76M, and a GPU downgrade to a NVIDIA GT650M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. The displays are still 1080p, but they do not have Dynaudio (only THX TruStudio Pro), and the SteelSeries keyboards are not backlit. Of the two, the GE70 has a slightly faster Intel processor. They do both feature Turbo Drive Engine technology and likely SuperRAID though the setups are likely limited versus the bigger GT70's chassis. Again, no word on how much these will cost or when they will be shipping.
All the notebooks have a nice black finish to them and the SteelSeries keyboard looks pretty nice. I'm interested in the AMD GX60 myself as I find Trinity neat. The Intel-based systems are definitely power houses though, especially the GT70 and although I don't expect battery life to be anywhere near great these would be a good choice for gamers that demand the portability of a laptop platform.
Update: the press release does clarify that the GT70 and GE70 have 17.3" 1080p screens while the GT60 and GE60 have 15.6" 1080p screens. It also lists USB 3.0 compatibility on the Intel-based notebooks along with a built-in 720p 30fps webcam for video conferencing.
Below you can find a video by eTeknix that goes into more detail on the MSI gaming notebooks. You can further find the official MSI press release here.
Computex: Sapphire Shows Off Passively Cooled Radeon 7770 GPU
Subject: Graphics Cards | June 7, 2012 - 02:40 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: video, sapphire, radeon 7770, passive cooling, graphics card, gpu, computex
Not to be left out of the Computex news, graphics card manufacturer Sapphire Technology unveiled a passively cooled AMD Radeon 7770 graphics card running at reference clock speeds. Following the release of the company's factory overclocked Vapor-X 7770, the new Sapphire HD 7770 Ultimate 1GB card is the first to sport a passive cooler – other vendors are going in the opposite direction by using custom (active) coolers to push up reference clockspeeds for factory overclocked cards.
Source: AnandTech
What makes the sapphire card neat is that the company did not have to underclock the GPU or memory in order to make a passive cooler feasible. With this card, you will get a silent GPU with the same specs and speeds as the reference 7770 we recently reviewed. The card looks to take up about two PCI expansion slots and utilizes a horizontal stack of vertically aligned (if that makes sense?) aluminum fins connected to the GPU via four heatpipes. Because of the cooler, the card is about 25% longer than a reference card, so keep that in mind if you are considering this for a HTPC build using a tiny case.
Beyond the cooler, which is arguably the most important aspect of the card, the Saphhire 7770 Ultimate 1GB is nearly identical to AMD's reference design. The only major change is that Sapphire had to move the GDDR5 memory chips to the opposite (top, when installed in the case) side of the PCB in order to accommodate the cooler. With that said, the video outputs on the graphics card are a small improvement over the reference design with an additional DVI port (thanks to not needing a full fan grill in the second PCI slot) bringing the total to two DVI ports, one full size HDMI, and one full size DisplayPort. Otherwise, the GPU is stock, running at 1GHz while the 1GB of GDDR5 memory is likely running at 1125 MHz (stock speeds). The Cape Verde-based graphics card contains 640 stream processors, 1.5 billion transistors, 1.28 Teraflops of compute performance, and a Texture fill rate of 40 giga-transfers per second (GT/s). The full specifications of the 7770 GPU core can be found in our review.
The MSRP of reference AMD HD 7770 cards is $159 but expect the Sapphire card to come in a bit above that number thanks to the custom cooler. You can find more photos of the passively cooled Sapphire GPU over at AnandTech who managed to snag some good shots of the card at the company's Computex booth.
In case you missed it, our video review of the HD 7770 card is embedded below in which we show off the (7770 and 7750) card also show off several custom 7770 designs from MSI, XFX, and others. It should bring you up to speed on what the 7770 is and where it stands in terms of performance with other cards from AMD and NVIDIA.
Computex: ASUS G75VW Allegedly World's First 802.11ac 5GHz Laptop
Subject: Mobile | June 7, 2012 - 01:54 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: wireless, gaming laptop, gaming, computex, ASUS ROG, asus, 802.11ac, 5GHz wifi
Earlier today we posted a couple of teaser photos showing off some of ASUS' upcoming products. One of the devices was a gaming laptop called the ASUS G75. Engadget has managed to get their hands on some more information regarding a variant of the G75 – the G75VW. According to the site, the gaming laptop is rocking an Intel Ivy Bridge processor, GeForce GTX 670M, and DDR3 memory (known because of the CPU used). That hardware is then powering a 1080p display, which the GTX 670M should have no problem driving but is a bit depressing to see on a high end laptop of this size (approximately 17"). The real kicker though is in the wireless card that it is allegedly packing: an 802.11ac card.
The ASUS G75 gaming laptop
Engadget states that although the information sheet next to the laptop at ASUS' Computex booth did not list any 802.11ac compatibility, wireless chip maker Broadcom (manufacturer of chips that are used in many wireless routers and NICs) has stated that it does in fact have an 802.11ac NIC in it. Senior Vice President Michael Hurlston told members of the press at Computex 2012 that the ASUS G75VW is the "World's first 5G Wi-Fi laptop." He further stated that the computer would be arriving in the hands of consumers "very shortly."
Interesting stuff, and although the "5G Wi-Fi" – so called because it is the fifth generation of consumer grade Wi-Fi (though not the 5th gen if you count all iterations of the wireless 802.11 standards) – is not yet official and set in stone, it is very close and I would not be surprised to see the technology in a laptop like this particular ASUS at this point in the game.
And to think that I just got done upgrading my network to Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n about two months ago! Even so, I'm excited for the upcoming standard because I want to test its usefulness in getting live TV from my CableCARD tuner to the living room and Katy's wireless laptop without stuttering – something even wireless N with MIMO can't do with devices in the same room. So far, the only thing stable enough has been wired Cat5e Ethernet (both 100Mbps and 1000Mbps hardware seem to work without issues). And because it's proving difficult to get a wired connection from the router to the TV (Xbox 360 used as Windows Media Extender), I'm ready to try out some 802.11ac stuff to see if it can really deliver on the increased bandwidth!
Computex: ASUS Shows Off Two Beastly Concept Motherboards
Subject: Motherboards | June 6, 2012 - 08:12 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: zeus, wolverine, power phase, motherboard, dual gpu, concept, computex, asus
ASUS has a history of showing off crazy high-end concept motherboards that are not likely to come to market but may help influence future motherboard products by getting the creative sparks of innovation flowing in engineers' minds.
At this year's Computex 2012, Asus showed off two concept motherboards that it is calling Zeus and Wolverine. While Zeus tackles Thunderbolt and integrated GPUs, Wolverine approaches the problem of getting clean power to the CPU by pushing the limits of the number of power phases that can be integrated into ATX-sized motherboards.
You will notice on the Zeus motherboard that the bottom of the board holds a bank of two 8 pin and two six pin power connectors. The two eight pin connectors are labeled VGA 1 and VGA 2 while the two six pin connectors are labeled VGA 3 and VGA 4 respectively. At first this seems like a regular X79 chipset (socket 2011) based motherboard with giant heatsinks for overclockers. After doing a double take (at least I did), you will notice that the board has no PCI-E connectors!
Source: AnandTech
Instead, the board has a large heatsink, and under that heatsink are two GPUs in CrossFire configuration. Tech Power Up believes that the GPUs being used are two AMD 7800 "Pitcairn" series mobile graphics cards in CrossFire configuration. While the desktop variants are fairly low power, they would need active cooling or a larger heatsink, which I think is what lead them to consider that ASUS may be using mobile-class cards. Reportedly, ASUS did not create this board to suggest GPU integration, but to show off dual Thunderbolt ports on an X79 motherboard.
Connectivity on the board includes a socket 2011 CPU, eight DDR3 DIMM slots, ten SATA connectors, (and on the rear IO panel) a WiFi radio, eight USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 channel analog audio output, optical audio output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, and two eSATA ports.
As far as the dual GPU integration goes, however... I don't expect we'll be seeing a move in the industry like this any time soon, at least not on high-end Enthusiast boards (though I could see an argument for small form factor (SFF) budget gaming systems from OEMs). Dedicated graphics card technology moves at such a rapid pace compared to motherboards that it is just not feasible to market a feature like this to enthusiasts. While they may keep the same motherboard for years, those same users will likely upgrade their graphics cards at least once to stay current. Further, with the cost of these high-end motherboards already approaching exorbitant, adding integrated GPUs that don't mesh well with the purpose of a high end system pushes the cost higher and demand to a point that these boards just don't seem realistic.
While Zeus was more of a powerhouse with a twist (albeit one that isn't really feasible to market), the other motherboard – Wolverine – is a "because we can" board but one that could have an impact on the industry today. ASUS has taken its Digi+ digital power to the extreme by packing as many power phases as it could into an ATX form factor motherboard. In total, they managed to place 40 power phases onto the PCB – notice how the CPU socket had to be shifted to the right to make room!
Source: AnandTech
Other features on the board include eight SATA connectors, four DIMM slots, three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, LGA 1155 socket, and three PCI 3.0 x1 slots. On the rear the board features four USB 2.0 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, a WiFi radio, Gigabit LAN, BIOS buttons, optical audio output, 7.1 channel analog audio output, and what looks like two eSATA ports.
Granted, I'm not suggesting that we will be seeing motherboards coming out with 40+ power phases anytime soon. I can see this influencing future designs, however. Even heavy overclockers (water and air cooling levels) don't really /need/ 40 power phases but we could start seeing vendors put out boards with half of that and still have it be a big improvement.
What do you think of the two new ASUS concept motherboards? You can see more images of the boards over at AnandTech's gallery. Do you think they are on the right track? If not what areas do you think motherboard manufacturers need to improve?
Computex: MSI Debuts New Z77 Mini-ITX Motherboard
Subject: Motherboards | June 6, 2012 - 06:04 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Z77, msi, motherboard, mini-itx, Intel, htpc, computex
MSI is showing off a lot of motherboards at Computex 2012. One in particular that stuck out to me was a mini ITX motherboard that sported Ivy Bridge compatibility, four SATA ports (2 which are SATA 6Gbps), and PCI-E 3.0 compliant making it perfect for an high performance HTPC build. The motherboard in question is the MSI Z77IA-E53 and as the name suggests it is based around Intel's Z77 chipset.
The mini-ITX form factor motherboard sports MSI's ClickBIOS II UEFI BIOS and its OC Genie II technology as well as THX TruStudio Pro audio. Other features include an LGA 1155 socket for Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge (Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium or Celeron) processors, two DDR3 DIMM slots (up to 16GB of 2800MHz), and a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot at the very bottom of the motherboard.
On the back of the board, the Z77IA-E53 features HDMI and VGA video outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port, Gigabit LAN, PS/2 port, optical audio outpu, three 3.5mm jacks for analog audio output, and WiFi and Bluetooth radios.
Unfortunately, there is no word yet on pricing or availability.
AMD Releases Brazos 2.0, dual-core Bobcat for low power platforms
Subject: Processors | June 6, 2012 - 05:08 PM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: Zacate, Hudson-M3L, FCH, E2-1800, E2-1200, computex, brazos 2.0, brazos, Bobcat, amd
Today AMD is officially releasing their Brazos 2.0 parts. This is a case of good news/bad news for the company. The good news is that they have an updated product that is based on their very successful Brazos 1.0 platform and that particular part has sold over 30 million units and is included in some 160 designs. The bad news is that AMD did not improve the product dramatically over what we previously had.
While Brazos will not beat these Intel offerings in pure performance, they do match up nicely in terms of price and battery life.
It is well known that AMD cancelled their original Bobcat 2.0 28 nm parts last fall (Krishna and Wichita), and instead worked on improving the fabrication of the current Brazos APUs. Little is known as to why those original 28 nm parts were cancelled, but perhaps the overriding reason is that there simply would not be enough 28 nm production through the first three quarters of 2012 to enable AMD to adequately meet demand on these parts (all the while sacrificing higher margin GPU wafer orders on the 28 nm node). We also must consider that AMD could have been counting on GLOBALFOUNDRIES to have their flavor of 28 nm HKMG process up and running, which of course at this time it is not.
These new Brazos 2.0 chips are still manufactured on TSMC's 40 nm process, but that particular process is very mature at this time. This has allowed AMD and TSMC to squeeze every last drop of performance and efficiency out of the aging 40 nm node, and in so doing has allowed AMD a bit more headroom when it comes to the Zacate APUs that Brazos 2.0 is based off of. The two new processors are the E2-1800 and the E2-1200.
The E2-1800 is a dual core Bobcat CPU featuring an APU with 80 stream units based on the older HD 5000 series of parts. AMD has renamed the GPU to the HD 7340, though it has little in common with the GCN (Graphics Core Next) based HD 7000 graphics units. AMD increased the core CPU speed from the E-450 by 50 MHz and the GPU portion by 80 MHz. This gives the E2-1800 a core clockspeed of 1.7 GHz and the graphics runs at a brisk 680 MHz. This continues to be an 18 watt TDP part and the die size is the same 75 mm squared.
A tour through the booths at Computex 2012
Subject: General Tech | June 6, 2012 - 01:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: computex, computex 2012, nvidia, corsair, asrock
The Tech Report have been every bit as busy as Ryan, trying to get in as much of Computex as possible and post the sights to the web. They dropped by Broadcom's booth to see new ARM based SoCs which will be used in the next generation of 802.11ac routers, taking wireless beyond gigabit speeds, with USB 3.0 added on for easy media distribution. They snapped a few pictures of the ASRock motherboards we saw earlier this week, including the dual Thunderbolt Z77 Extreme which features a DisplayPort in port to allow you to use a Thunderbolt display without needing Lucid's Virtu to translate. They also saw Corsair's surprise new SSD controller from Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD), which will provide SATA 6Gbps and can use either ONFI or Toggle DDR NAND. NVIDIA was showing off the new GT 640 which will use a 28nm Kepler chip sport 384 shader ALUs and cost under $100 and should bring a bit more power to low end machines, though don't expect a huge jump from the previous GTS450
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Computex 2012 Day 1 - Hit the floor sleepy @ Ninjalane
- Computex: Zalman prepares T1 chassis for affordable victory @ Kitguru
- SilverStone unveils the Raven RV04 and Fortress FT04 @ Kitguru
- Techies beg world to join the 1% on IPv6 launch day @ The Register
- Trend in mobile computing: Q&A with Intel's Gregory Bryant @ DigiTimes
- Samsung takes a seat with Intel and IBM at the Linux Foundation @ The Inquirer
- Windows Phone 8 launches on 20 June @ The Inquirer
- Ubuntu 12.10 Sets To Make ARM Even Stronger @ Phoronix
Computex: Gigabyte Shows Off GA-X79S-UP5 WiFi Socket 2011 Motherboard (Hi-Res Photos)
Subject: Motherboards | June 5, 2012 - 08:40 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: X79S-UP5 WiFi, x79, socket 2011, Intel, gigabyte, computex
Although Ivy Bridge is the new hotness, socket 2011 is still the company's top-end enthusiast and workstation platform. And to to be forgotten, Gigabyte dedicated some space at its Computex booth to show off a new high-end X79 socket 2011 motherboard. The Gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5 WiFi is a EATX motherboard with a 2011 socket that is surrounded by heatpipes and VRM heatsinks (we recently reviewed the X79-UD5) The board further supports eight DDR3 DIMM slots, eight SAS connectors, six SATA ports, four PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (up to 3 way SLI/CrossFireX), one PCI-E 3.0 x1 slot, and one legacy PCI slot at the bottom of the motherboard. It also has internal connectors for front panel audio, SPDIF, Firewire (1394), TPM, one USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 headers, and four fan headers (one of which is for the CPU).
Integrated Gigabyte technology includes the company's all-digital and "3D Power," dual UEFI BIOSes, 8 phase VRM, Gigabyte Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi card, 110dB SNR (signal-to-noise ration) HD audio, and 3X USB power and On/Off Charge to charge iPads and tablets even when the computer is powered down. Quad channel memory and socket 2011 processors give CAD engineers, video editors, and other 3D modelers the most performance possible out of a single socket workstation system.
Rear IO for the X79S-UP5 WiFi board includes a PS/2 port, four USB 2.0 ports, a firewire port, UEFI BIOS reset and overclock profile buttons, four USB 3.0 ports, two eSATA ports, a USB/eSATA combo port, Gigabit LAN, optical audio output, and five analog audio outputs.
In short, this is a motherboard that Gigabyte has packed to the brim with features for enthusiasts. Below you will find several high-resolution images of the new socket 2011 motherboard. If your internet connection is ready, dive right in!
Gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5 WiFi Motherboard Images
Overhead view:
Even considering my bias of my favorite color being blue, the board looks really nice, especially the heatsink designs which really make the board stand out.
CPU socket area:
Here we can see the 2011 socket, VRMs, and DDR3 DIMM slots.
More photos after the break!
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