Usher To Preview Looking For Myself At Off-Broadway Show

Singer tells MTV News 'Fuerza Bruta' matches the 'more artistic' music on his upcoming album.
By Jocelyn Vena

<P>This Saturday (and this Saturday only), Usher will appear in New York City's "Fuerza Bruta," an off-Broadway show where no one speaks, but the story is told through bright lights, music and dancing. In the lead role of Running Man, <a href="/music/artist/usher/artist.jhtml">Usher</a> will also use the show to preview his June album release, <a href="/news/articles/1682140/usher-looking-for-myself.jhtml"><i>Looking for Myself.</i></a> </P><P> </P><P>Fans in the audience will likely get closer than they've ever been to the singer, as the audience stands during the performance, becoming another member of the company. With several weeks until his album release, Usher explained to MTV News at a rehearsal why he wanted to use this show to preview tracks. </P><P> </P><P><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:764205/cp~vid%3D764205%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A764205" width="460" height="260" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed> </P><P> </P><P>"I felt like the natural elements as well as the emotion of 'Fuerza Bruta' would definitely speak or be significant to some of the stories and I guess hopefully a connection [was there]," he explained of tying this performance to his album. "When we began to explore different directions [for the performance like] maybe we use some of their music, maybe we use some of mine ... and before you knew it the idea came together. We tried it, I got on Running Man and it worked." </P><P> </P><P>The show will stream his entire album, which drops June 12, and he thinks the mind-bending artistry of "Fuerza Bruta" works with the sound he's created on it. "This is more artistic of an album than I've had in history," he said. "And I felt like yeah, it would be a lot for me, but I was willing to at least try it. There were many times I had seen the show and I only hoped that I would be able to make it happen." </P><P> </P><P><center><a href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1617615"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/s/spotted/banner/spotted.jpg"></a></center></p>

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Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge

Halo may have made its way to the Atari 2600, but wouldn't porting a retro game to this '70s-era console be more appropriate? MAKE Magazine has the skinny on former Atari dev Scott Williamson's port of the Cinematronics shooter Star Castle. Though Atari execs decided the title was too complicated to bring over in the '80s, Williamson took it upon himself to make that transition possible. The result of some serious coding is 8K of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM's worth of good ol' space war. But he didn't stop there -- he redesigned the cartridge with a transparent casing and LEDs that flash during gameplay. Click through to the source link for the full step-by-step.

Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Reportedly Canceling WWDC Orders for Multiple Tickets

According to developer reports, Apple is canceling the WWDC ticket orders orders of companies that purchased multiple tickets on a single credit card.

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Square's feeling good, on pace to take $5 billion in payments per year

Despite growing competition from PayPal, Intuit and Verifone, it appears that Square's business is still going gangbusters. The grandaddy of all smartphone payment systems is set to take $5 billion in payments this year, up from $2 billion a scant six months ago. According to company COO Keith Rabois, such expansive growth has been fostered by the fact that Square makes the cash from transactions available to merchants the next business day -- a feature greatly appreciated by small businesses. Clearly, Huey Lewis was right, and you can see what we mean after the break.

Continue reading Square's feeling good, on pace to take $5 billion in payments per year

Square's feeling good, on pace to take $5 billion in payments per year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TED-Ed website launches in beta, lets teachers customize video lessons

Last month, TED announced its new education initiative -- fittingly named TED-Ed -- with a YouTube channel showcasing teachers' lessons presented as animated videos. Today, the program moved forward, as TED opened up a beta version of a website meant to complement those lessons. Though there are plenty of study aides here, ed.ted.com is really about the grown-ups on the other side of the classroom. The site lets teachers with a TED account "flip" videos from TED-Ed and YouTube -- i.e., customize them to include multiple-choice and open-answer questions and links to additional info on a topic. Currently there are 62 videos and 238 "flips" available for viewing, but TED is gearing up for a full launch to be timed with the new school year in September.

Continue reading TED-Ed website launches in beta, lets teachers customize video lessons

TED-Ed website launches in beta, lets teachers customize video lessons originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Java Application Deployment Platform Jelastic Raises $2 Million from Russian Venture Funds

Jelastic, a U.S./Ukrainian/Russian provider of a cloud-based deployment platform for Java apps, has closed a $2 million Series A funding round from Russia and CIS-focused Almaz Capital Partners and Foresight Ventures, a global fund with a bias towards Russia and the US. Jelastic, which competes with Heroku and Google App Engine, offers developers of Java applications a hosted platform based around standard software stacks, which it says helps avoid lock-ins and code changes. The company launched its public beta in October 2011, and since then has picked up over 15,000 unique users.

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Oracle v. Google trial reveals renders of original Google phone design

Not all the news coming out of Judge Alsup's courtroom concerns IP infringement and dollar signs, as some renders of a never-before-seen Google phone have made their way out of the courtroom and onto the web. It appears that before the T-Mobile G1 came to be, Google had its heart set on a portrait QWERTY design for its initial Android offering -- and different from what was found in the first Android emulator. Evidently, it was slated to pack at least a 200MHz chip, 64MB of RAM and ROM, a miniSD card, 2-megapixel camera with a dedicated shutter button and a non-touch-enabled QVGA display. That's a far cry from modern smartphones, but this thing was set to be sold five years ago, so such meager specs are to be expected. Intrigued? More pictures and details can be found at the source below.

Oracle v. Google trial reveals renders of original Google phone design originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jack Osbourne Welcomes Daughter Pearl

Jack Osbourne and his fianc?e, Lisa Stelly, have welcomed daughter Pearl, the couple confirm to HELLO!

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Mase Addresses Maybach Signing Rumors, Preps Comeback

'I think I'm meant to do it,' says rapper, who drops a new verse on Wale's 'Slight Work' remix.
By Rob Markman

Mase
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/ Getty Images

Mase went from Harlem World to on top of the world to his own world, and now he wants it all back. It was 13 years ago when the charismatic rap star with the boyish smile unexpectedly pulled the plug on his flourishing career so he could dedicate his life to God.

On April 20, 1999, Mase called New York radio DJ Funkmaster Flex to announce his retirement from rap months before his sophomore LP, Double Up, was scheduled to drop. "I gotta do what makes me happy. A lot of people gonna say I'm crazy, I'm leaving money behind and a lot of things, but it's just how I feel in my heart," he said on the radio 13 years ago. "Once God puts something in your heart, you know, God talks to everybody different."

He tried his hand at a comeback with his gold-selling Welcome Back album in 2004 and then again as a member of 50 Cent's G-Unit crew, but it was all short-lived.

Well, M-A-dollar sign-E is back at it. On Tuesday night, Wale dropped his "Slight Work" remix featuring French Montana, Diddy and Mase. Right after that, the former Bad Boy rapper called Flex on Hot 97 to catch up. "Nobody gets as many chances as I got," Mase said over the phone with a chuckle. "I think I'm meant to do it. That's the conclusion I came to."

Last week, after a picture of Rick Ross, Montana, Omarion, producer Rico Love and Mase in the studio was posted online, rumors began to swirl of a Maybach Music signing. Montana suggested to XXL magazine that a deal may be in the works, but Mase wouldn't confirm whether he was planning to sign with Rozay.

"[Rico Love] just called and asked me to take a ride with him — I didn't know who was gonna be in the studio," Mase explained. "I got there and everybody was there, and they just said, 'Take a flick.' The next thing I know I got a Maybach chain, I got 20 beats from Kanye. The stories just keep getting crazier."

If he does return to music full-time, Mase wants to do things on his terms. He feels that his strong religious association has restricted his musical output. "I can only do music if I can do it the way I can do it," he said. "That's what be making me stop. I don't want to do music in a box, like everybody say what I can't do, 'he can't say this.' "

While the slow-flowed MC says that he will always put God first, he is ready to take the gloves off while in the studio. "I'm taking all my limitations off," he promised. "They gonna have to pray for me."

Should Mase return to rap for good? Tell us in the comments!

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Nas To Release Life Is Good On July 17

God's Son sets date for 10th solo album and will drop 'The Don' video and 'Daughters' single in the coming week.
By Rob Markman

Nas
Photo: Michael Loccisano/ Getty Images

Nas is finally ready to welcome all of his fans to the good life. It's been four years since the Nasty One released his last solo album Untitled, but on July 17, the Queensbridge rap great will drop Life Is Good, his 10th solo shot.

"It's been a long time; it's been years since I released a solo studio album, so this record is everything," Nas told MTV News in March at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. "This is everything that I've got to say — I guess you've got to live a little and you put that in your music, so it's coming from my life."

Since his classic 1994 debut Illmatic, Nas has stood as one of rap's premier artists. Though he has grown from a local New York prospect to a global icon, God's Son has managed to stay true to his Big Apple hip-hop roots. On last summer's single "Nasty," the much-revered MC rode atop a break-beat-inspired rap production that was reminiscent of rap's golden era of the late 1980s. The album's second official release, "The Don," follows a similar path and even features production from the late Heavy D, as well as Salaam Remi and Da Internz.

Earlier this month, Nas was the subject of VH1's "Behind the Music" series, and it was there that the usually private rap star opened up about some pretty personal subjects. Esco and those close to him gave backstory to Nas' epic battle with one-time rap foe Jay-Z and spoke on the death of the rapper's mother and his messy divorce from R&B singer Kelis.

One thing that Nas didn't expound on, however, is his recent tax trouble with the I.R.S. It has been reported that the rapper owes more than $6 million in back taxes. He will wait until his album is released to address that subject. "My side of the story is on the record and I speak about it on the record," he said when he appeared on "RapFix Live" in late March.

Before his July 17 release, Nas will drop another single. The No I.D-produced "Daughters" will drop on May 1, while the video for "The Don" is scheduled to premiere April 27.

Are you looking forward to Nas' Life is Good? Tell us in the comments!

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TEEN FICTION: 'Two Peas In A Pod'

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James Cameron-backed Planetary Resources to search the universe for Unobtainum

Planetary Resources will reportedly announce later today that it's developing and selling low-cost spacecraft to mine asteroids close to the Earth. The space exploration and natural resources venture is led by X-Prize creator Peter Diamandis and NASA's former Mars chief, Eric Anderson -- with cash backing from James Cameron, Eric Schmidt and Larry Page amongst others. Within a decade, the company hopes to kickstart a 21st century gold rush by selling orbiting observation platforms to prospectors with significant rewards -- a 30-meter long asteroid could hold as much as $50 billion worth of platinum at today's prices. The company's own teaser materials promised that the project would add "trillions of dollars" to the world's GDP, which sounds like a film we saw recently.

James Cameron-backed Planetary Resources to search the universe for Unobtainum originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Andreessen Horowitz Made $78M Off $250,000 Investment in Instagram

Andreessen Horowitz revealed that it made $78 million off its $250,000 seed investment in Instagram's billion-dollar acquisition in a post that was meant to quell criticism that it "fumbled" its involvement with the company. "Ordinarily, when someone criticizes me for only making 312 times my money, I let the logic of their statement speak for itself," wrote general partner Ben Horowitz. "However, in this case, the narrative that some critics put forth has the nasty side effect of casting two outstanding entrepreneurs?Kevin and Dalton Caldwell?in an unfair light and glosses over an important ethical issue that we faced." While Andreessen Horowitz was one of Instagram's very earlier investors, it said it didn't follow-on because of a conflict of interest with another company it funded.?The firm had supported Picplz, another photo-sharing concept that didn't end up having as much momentum as Instagram. The company behind it eventually changed changed course and turned into App.net, which gives other mobile developers landing pages and other tools for acquiring users.

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The Nerve of 'Do as We Say, Not as We Do' Foreign Policy (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Microsoft updates SkyDrive with support for ODF, Twitter

There's no day like today for the titans of tech to beef up their respective clouds with abandon. First, Google went and updated Chrome's Cloud Print with the convenience of FedEx and now Microsoft's taking a spin at the remote wheel, enhancing its SkyDrive service with support for ODF (Open Document Format) -- an XML-based file type for documents and spreadsheets -- and an increased browser upload cap of 300MB. Twitter also gets a nod or two in this feature refresh, as users entrenched in Redmond's ecosystem will have the ability to share to the social service, in addition to sending out shortened image links. We'd normally advise you to check out the release for more info, but the tech company's kept this missive short and sweet. See for yourself at the source below.

Microsoft updates SkyDrive with support for ODF, Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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