Thursday, May 29, 2014

'X-Men: Days of Future Past' Continuity Problems; Can They Be Fixed?

Several fans and critics seem to think that the 'X-Men' timeline has been damaged forever, while others believe this is a full reboot and that there are no continuity errors. 


If you haven't seen X-Men: Days of Future Past yet, there will be plenty of spoilers below, so read on at your own risk.

In one of his only interviews leading up to the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer addressed the several continuity errors that fans have noticed, including Wolverine's adamantium claws somehow returning after they were sliced off by the Silver Samurai in The Wolverine, and the fact that Trask Industries founder Bolivar Trask is played by Peter Dinklage in this movie and African-American actor Bill Duke in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.

Here's what the director had to say about the continuity in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
"Some things you let go. In X-Men: The Last Stand Bolivar Trask was an African-American guy, in X-Men 1 I personally wrote the line that of course I now regret: 'When I was 17, I met a young man named Erik Lensherr' and then in X-Men: First Class I changed that! Some of these I hope the audience will forget about but for the bulk of it I pay attention to the universe."
While some fans may have forgotten about the continuity problems, many others have not, with several different viewpoints surfacing regarding how X-Men: Days of Future Past affects the 14-year franchise, leaving several lingering questions about certain characters and story aspects.

One of the big questions that has lingered since the end credits scene in The Wolverine is how the older Professor X (Patrick Stewart) is still alive, since he was killed in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand at the hands of the Dark Phoenix/Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). There is a theory that Xavier shifted his consciousness into his twin brother, although that family connection isn't exactly explained.

In X-Men: Days of Future Past's 1973 scenes, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) still has his bone claws, since he hasn't gone through the Weapon X program that infused adamantium into his skeletal system. However, in scenes set in the year 2023, the metal claws are back, even though the Silver Samurai sliced them off in last year's The Wolverine. Many believe that future Magneto (Ian McKellen) was responsible for the repair of his claws, but it is never fully stated in the movie.

The subject of Wolverine's claws gets even trickier when you take into consideration that the ending of X-Men: Days of Future Past hints that Wolverine/Logan won't even go into the Weapon X program at all. Of course, since Logan can't remember much about his past, it isn't exactly known when he enters this Weapon X program initiated by William Stryker, played by Josh Helman in X-Men: Days of Future Past. It's possible that he goes through the program in the 1980s, when X-Men: Apocalypse is reportedly set, but Wolverine never retracts his claws during the final scene in the year 2023, after the future was saved, so it isn't known if he has the adamantium claws or bone claws.

The last scene takes place in the year 2023, with Wolverine waking up at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in a peaceful future, after the Sentinels have been erased from the timeline. The scene includes Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and the big surprise inclusion of the resurrected Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Cyclops (James Marsden). After the Sentinels were destroyed, it created a whole new timeline that is only tied to X-Men: First Class, meaning Jean's death never happened. Badass Digest's piece indicates that the original trilogy, X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand ceased to exist, after the mutants were revealed to the world decades earlier than in the previous timeline, when Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is prevented from killing Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage).

With X-Men: First Class taking place in the 1960s, X-Men: Days of Future Past set in the 1970s and X-Men: Apocalypse set in the 1980s, it appeared that this prequel franchise would eventually merge with the original X-Men trilogy, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, since X-Men: Days of Future Past created a whole new timeline after the Sentinels were destroyed. The new timeline renders a lot of these continuity errors moot, such as the two different versions of Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: The Last Stand and Wolverine's claws, since it isn't known if the Weapon X program even exists in this timeline.

Several other plot points have been addressed over the past few days, such as how Magneto even got his abilities back to begin with after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, where a serum removed his powers, the ages when Charles and Erik first meet, and many more. Do you even care about these continuity errors? Are you willing to "forget" about them and move on like Bryan Singer suggested earlier this month? Chime in with your thoughts below.
  
X-Men: Days of Future Past was released May 23rd, 2014 and stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page. The film is directed by Bryan Singer.

Fast and Easy way to Upload Recorded World Cup Video to YouTube

Read this post you will get to know how to upload World Cup Video to YouTube with Highest Quality with the all-in-one Ultimate Converter.

Fifa World Cup 2014

The 20th Fifa World Cup heads to Brazil between 12 June and 13 July 2014 - and the five-time champions will be hopeful of lifting the trophy again. But with Spain and Germany in good nick, and other surprises sure to come to the fore, the month-long football festival will not be one to miss.


Upload World Cup Video to YouTube

As the most truehearted fan, if you have free time and sufficient money heading to Brazil for watching this world-anticipated World Cup on live, that's definitely awesome. At that time you may take your camcorder to record the whole journey as well as the most important football party. And after coming back, you maybe so excited to share these wonderful moment with your friends and families by uploading recorded world cup video to YouTube.

That being said, how to upload so many FIFA World Cup video with big volume and uncompatible format onto Yoube really makes you scratch head. Most often, people prefer to take the HD camcorders like JVC HD camcorder, Sony HD camcorder, Panasonic and Canon HD camcorder with recording high definition videos in format likes mod, tod, mts, m2ts, etc., which are not supported by Youtube, so the first thing you need to do it to make those HD formats to become the supported video formats of YouTube like MPEG4, MP4, FLV and so on.

Take it easy! Now I will offer some tips for you to compress or convert World Cup Video to MP4 format which is perfectly supported by YouTube. 

Software you need: 

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate or Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac

Overall, it is an all-in one program which is a great combination of Blu-ray\DVD ripping program and video converting product as well.  With it, you can convert World Cup Video as well as your BD/DVD discs to Youtube compatible MP4/FLV/F4V/SWF format you need. It really is easier said than accomplished. What' more, this skilled World Cup Video Converter is also articularly made to fix the World Cup Video issues by converting them for playing on mobile devices to MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV, M4V, DivX, XviD, MOV format with major outcome top quality.

Guides on converting World Cup Video files to MP4 for Youtube uploading

Step 1. Free download Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate, install and launch the program.

Once you run it, click "Add Video" button to load the World Cup Video files you'd like to convert. When all the videos are loaded to the program, you can preview the videos.


Step 2. Select best supported format by Youtube.

Click on "Format", and select output format from the drop-down list. Simply follow "Common Video -> H.264 Video(*.mp4)" for uploading to Youtube. Otherwise, you can select "Flash Video" -> "FLV-Flash Video Format(*.flv) ","F4V (*.flv)" or "SWF-SWF Format (*.swf)" which is also accepted by Youtube.



Step 3. Settings.

You can customize the A/V parameters based on your personal requirements. Adjust the resolution, bitrate, frame rate or codec to meet your requirement by clicking "Settings".

Step 4: Start converting World Cup Video to mp4 format.

After the above steps are done, you can click "Convert" button to convert your recorded World Cup Video to MP4  format. 

This World Cup Video Converter supports batch conversion so you may load multiple World Cup Video files and convert at one time. You may also merge them into one file by checking the box "Merge into one file" before conversion starts. After conversion you can click "Open" button to get the generated mp4 files for playback or edit.

In this way,you can upload your World Cup Video file on YouTube and share with your friends at everywhere and whenever.

What's more:

2014 FIFA World Cup - Official TV Opening

You'll be seeing a lot of this cool animation during the television broadcasts from the World Cup in Brazil, which kicks off on 12 June.



Related articles:

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3 release date June 2014 - available in October?

The much anticipated iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 release date is in June and will be available for purchase in October, according to reports.

Apple has not made an official announcement regarding the concrete launch of its tablet line – iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. However, it was predicted that the tablets will be introduced alongside the iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 at the company's annual Worldwide Developers' Conference happening on June 2. Consumers can start queuing outside the Apple Store for the tablets on its usual window.

Previous reports claimed that iPad Air 2 will be the only tablet that Apple will release this year. According to reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple is prioritizing the iPad Air 2 more than the rumored iPad Mini 3 and iPad Pro.

"Compared with lower-margin iPad mini with Retina display, which shipments has been tepid, higher-margin iPad Air was a hot selling item in 4Q13, which will slow Apple in developing new iPad mini models," Ming-Chi Kuo said in his report to investors.

"We believe Apple plans to launch upgraded iPad Air early this year, and will accelerate development of 12.9″ iPad," Kuo added.

Meanwhile, rumors claimed that iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 will sport the TouchID fingerprint sensor, which was skipped on the previous iPad Air. The fingerprint scanner was first seen on the iPhone 5S, which was released earlier than iPad Air. The tablet will also pack an iOS 8 that will come with rumored features and functions such as the split-screen multitasking feature in mobile devices, which will enable users to use two applications at the same time.

Moreover, iPad Air 2 was also rumored to pack the next generation of A8 processor with 64-bit architecture that delivers faster performance. However, others speculated that the tablet will be powered by Intel processors just like the MacBooks.

Google Readying 3-D Mapping "Tango" Tablets For Developers

3D Project Tango
Google is reportedly getting ready to release 4,000 prototype tablets that would help advance the company's Project Tango, which is a 3D mapping and modeling effort involving multiple robotics experts from around the world. The story was first published in the Wall Street Journal last week.

Google may provide these specialized tablets to developers attending Google I/O next month. The idea would be to see what sorts of applications and use cases developers would come up with.

According to a description of these "Tango tablets" (not Google's term) in the article the devices would have a 7-inch form factor: 

The device would come with a 7-inch screen and will be equipped with two back cameras, infrared depth sensors and advanced software that can capture precise three-dimensional images of objects, said these people.
There are a range of immediate potential uses for the Tango technology: gaming, augmented reality, environmental or interior design, indoor navigation and assistance for visually-impaired persons (who could listen to auditory cues based on mapping information). There are also commercial and ad-related applications of the technology — however the advertising dimension (so to speak) is further out.

Project Tango could, in one sense, be seen as an indoor Street View equivalent (though the technology doesn't take "pictures"). It could greatly accelerate Google's effort to map indoor spaces with the aid of third parties. I also wonder whether Google would be able to put a version of the Tango technology in special Glass headsets.

 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Best MP4 Players to Play MP4 Files in Windows/Mac

This article mainly discusses convert all kinds of MP4 files to play on Windows/Mac without limitation.

MP4 as the most popular container formats for smartphones and tablets. Now you may have got many MP4 files on your computer and want to play MP4 in Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player. However,due to codec issue, you will find that MP4 files are not supported by Windows Media Player by default and apple products like QuickTime Mac is unable to play MP4 format especially when users to upgrade their Macs to Mountain Lion or Lion. 


In order to make MP4 files working perfectly on Windows and Mac, you may try some effective workarounds. As your player cannot find a suitable decoder for the mp4 file, you may try to download an appropriate codec like MP4 Splitter or Elecard MPEG-4 Codec Pack to playback mp4 format. Otherwise, you can take a look at the top 3 reliable and accessible MP4 players for Windows and Mac listed as below, and choose the best one for MP4 video playback.

Top 3 MP4 Players for Windows:

1. Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate

Supported OS: Windows 2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 8.1 

Best integration of a blu-ray ripper, a dvd ripper, and a video converter to quickly complete BD/DVD to video and video to video conversion. Most important it has a built-in player to preview you loaded mp4 videos before conversion.

2. VLC Player

Supported OS: Windows 8/7/XP/Vista/2000

VLC is an open source video player that does bring a lot to the table, as it allows you to listen to radios, watch movies and it even plays streams, webcams or disks. It's the perfect tool for the MP4 format as it can be accessed on all important platforms such as Windows, Mac and Linux. It doesn't require the installation of any codec pack as well, but it does provide complete support for tons of media formats, which surely make it the perfect video and audio player you can find on the market. It's also available as a free of charge solution.

3. GOM PlayerSupported OS: Windows 8/7/XP/Vista/2000

Gom Media Player is a free video player. It has a wide range of built-in codec so it can recognize all regular video and audio formats, including but not limited to AVI files, RealMedia files, Quicktime files and MP4 among other types. 

Top 3 MP4 Players for Mac

1. Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac

Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.7 Lion, Snow Leopard10.6, Leopard 10.5 

An all-in-one solution to backup BD & DVD, rip BD/DVD, and convert video footages to any popular video/audio format. Besides that, it has a built-in player to preview your mp4 video before conversion.

2. MPEG Streamclip

Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later 

MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, lightweight MP4 player, editor for Mac and Windows.  Any people can get MPEG Streamclip Mac for totally free. It offers great file conversion features, which make the whole process very simple as well. Operations such as joining, trimming or rotating the video can easily be done with the MPEG Streamclip application.  

More features:

-  Manage audio track

-  Work as a recorder

-  Preview all frames

-  Modify the aspect ratio

-  Work with frames

3. MPlayerX

Supported OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later 

MPlayerX is an open-source project which aims to be the most powerful, beautiful, easy to use multimedia player on Mac OS X. It is able to decode almost any file format on your computer. Additionally, MPlayer is inspired by QuickTime Player X, with a black interface and in-frame minimal controls. All of this helps users to focus on the contents, rather than software itself.

- Play almost any format of file or stream.

- Multi-touch. Control the player with your fingers.

- Intelligently detecting the encoding of the subtitles. No need for encoding conversion.

- Direct pass through. Connect, play, enjoy your home theater.

- Multi-monitor support. Wanna work while watching your collection? just drag and F.

- Apple Remote support. Watch your favorites in sofa, more comfortable.

-Automatically find the next episode. Enjoy the whole afternoon, with just one click.

- Forget where you stopped playing last time? MPlayerX won't.

- Youtube.com support: MPlayerX could stream youtube audio and video. Just input the URL of the webpage in youtube.com which you may find in the address bar of the web browser, MPlayerX will play it for you seamlessly.

So how can we easily play MP4 Files in Windows/Mac with MP4 Players alternative?

The mp4 players above are a powerful media player for viewing movies or videos on Windows and Mac. While, I find problems with low video quality or incapability of mp4 video playback with some players, and I will meet crashing issues when watching.

An quick workaround I find to solve the issues is to convert the MP4 to common formats (like AVI, MOV, MPEG, WMV, etc) to fit the local media player with Video Converter Ultimate from Pavtube. If you are Windows users, you can try iMedia Converter for Mac. Both are 20% off now on New Site Special.

Below is easy steps for you, you can convert mp4 files to compatible formats for watching on Win/Mac. 

Step 1: Add mp4 video files

Run Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate, and then click "Add Video" add to import the mp4 video files to the converter.

 

Step 2: Choose output format to fit your media player.

In “Format” drop down list box, you may select best video format for plaing.

For example,

You can choose "WMV HD(*.wmv)" from "HD Video" for Windows Media Player.

And select "MOV - QuickTime(*.mov)" from "Common Video" for QuickTime Player.

 

Step 3: Start Convert

Click “Convert” in the main interface to start transcoding mp4 videos.

After conversion, you can use converted MP4 files for playback easiliy and smoothly on your media player. Now choose the best method to play .mp4 extension video files on PC and Mac!

More Tips: