New toy on sale in UK : Apple IPhone

Apple boss Steve Jobs has confirmed the iPhone will go on sale in the UK on November 9.

At a packed press conference in the Apple store on Regent’s Street, Jobs confirmed it will cost a mouth-watering £269.

The announcement ended two days of feverish speculation about the cost of the phone, the date of its arrival in the UK and its deal with O2.

Mr Jobs said: “It is a breakthrough phone. It is a very powerful phone and it is super easy to use.

“It is the best iPod we have ever made.”

Earlier this month Apple slashed the cost of the iPhone in the US from its launch price of 599 US dollars (£298) to 399 dollars (£198).

Asked why the device was more expensive in the UK, Mr Jobs said: “The majority is, of course, the VAT. The US price doesn’t include any sales tax and the UK price does. That is the majority of the difference.
“Then there is a little bit more because it is more expensive to do business here.

The IPod wil be perfect to test all the Social Networking sites I am working on at the moment.

Written by TechStickle on September 19th, 2007 with no comments.
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Three Out Gay Actors up for 2007 Emmys

It is an amzing milestone that not one nor two but three out actors, have been nominated for acting awards (including two in straight roles).

Nominated actors are

• T.R Knight for Supporting Actor Drama Series (Grey’s Anatomy)
• Neil Patrick Harris for Supporting Actor Comedy Series (How I Met Your Mother)
• Sir Ian McKellen for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Extras)

Neil Patrick Harris who plays Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother came out last year and currently stars in the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. He shot to fame in 1989 at age 16 when he played a teen-prodigy doctor on the hit Doogie Howser, M.D. “It was a very fast but wonderful education,” he told PEOPLE in 1998.

Fans of Grays Anatomy will know that TR Knight came out last year also.
“I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there,” T.R. said in a statement to the magazine. “While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.” he said to People Magazine.

McKellen’s category was actually part of the Creative Awards presented a week ago Saturday night where McKellen lost to Stanley Tucci for his work on Monk.

“Having spent his youth scaling the peaks of Shakespeare with spectacular bravado in his native England, Mr. McKellen has recently acquired international stardom in not one but two cult series of movies, ‘X-Men’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ In those fantasy films Mr. McKellen portrays commanding creatures of metamorphic gifts unknown to ordinary humans…” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times). A not unworthy role model for us me thinks.

Written by TechStickle on September 17th, 2007 with 3 comments.
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David Beckham Naked with a Motorola

Gorgeous gay favourite David Beckham is splashed all over the press this weekend, posing “naked” with a Motorola phone. This latest ad is part of a “Become Beckham” campaign that somehow is supposed to make you think you’ll be the soccer star by purchasing a series of stylish products.

Becks became the global face for Motorola last year and exclusively carried a RAZR throughout the World Cup

Written by TechStickle on September 16th, 2007 with 2 comments.
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Torchwood - now I can see what all the fuss was about

Being back in the UK, I can take advantage of seeing fantastic UK TV programs, as they go to air. Thankfully BBC 3 started showing Torchwood (Dr Who spin off) from the beginning. (It was first shown in 2006).

Episode 1 Season 1 “Everything Changes” introduced me to Bisexual Timelord Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and crew. It started with a body. PC Gwen Cooper’s at a crime scene: what she sees there will change her life forever.

Russell doesn’t mess about with this opening episode - you’ll meet every regular cast member within four minutes of the start. Add in rain, helicopter shots and a Weevil. Director Brian Kelly has done a wonderful job.

Its great to see an actor who is gay, playing bisexual 51st Century character Captain Jack Harkness in a BBC Sci Fi drama. In real life of course John Barrowman is openly gay and married to partner architect Scott Gill. Barrowman is a great out gay role model. After watching the show last night, I had to go over to You Tube to watch the Jack and Jack kiss at the end of the season, as I cant possibly wait for 12 weeks for that!

Written by TechStickle on September 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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Will London have a Gay Mayor?

With 235 days yet to go, till the London Mayor elections, former senior police officer Brian Paddick has said that he does not think his sexuality will be an issue with the voters. Brian Paddick was the UK’s most senior out gay policeman until his retirement as Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in May this year. Brian is one of three candidates in th runnning for the Liberal Democrat nomination for Mayor of London. He said today that he did not regard being an openly gay man as an electoral disadvantage with Londoners.

“I think the majority are quite relaxed about an individual’s sexuality,” he told the Evening Standard.

“Clearly there are a lot of people who for moral reasons or some other reason find homosexuality difficult to deal with.

“But from my experience if you are good at your job and they trust you, sexuality becomes a non-issue.

“If you are useless and cannot be trusted it becomes an issue. I will be completely open about who I am. If we have to go over the past, we go over the past.”
Paddick has been criticised by the right wing for his liberal views, particularly in Lambeth over the smoking of Cannabis.

Written by TechStickle on September 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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Air New Zealand offer Pink Flight for Mardi gras

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Air New Zealand is delving into the gay and lesbian market with a special themed flight that will feature drag queens, pink cocktails and a cabaret performed by the flight crew.

The destination for the airline’s one-time “Pink Flight,” scheduled to depart San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 26, is the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, one of the world’s most well-attended gay events, said Jodi Williams, an Air New Zealand marketing director.

“We are looking at tailoring the inseat entertainment and having gay-friendly movies and contests and different music and things like that,” Williams said. The airline also plans to throw a “Get-Onboard-Girlfriend” going away party for its passengers, who will pay an average of $1,000 roundtrip.

The flight will be modeled after an Auckland-to-Sydney trip Air New Zealand made this year for the gay Mardi Gras, according to Williams. Before that full flight, the crew put on pink feather boas and sang for its couple hundreds passengers, she said. source

Written by TechStickle on September 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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Heroes Zach not gay

Heroes lovers, I was suprised last night to find out that Zach is not gay. Looks gay to me!

An NBC publicist told AfterElton in a phone conversation that Zach “is not gay”, that it was something that was “for sure” and “in all certainty.” AfterElton contacted NBC for confirmation after being told by Thomas Dekker’s management (Dekker plays Zach), the character of Zach is absolutely straight.

For those of us who have followed the show closely and taken even a cursory look at NBC’s marketing efforts around the show (which have repeatedly insinuated, implied and led most viewers to believe that the character is gay), this is interesting—and troubling—news.

What does it mean when a network’s website portrays character as gay, and yet the publicity department suddenly claims that he isn’t? Or when the series creator and writer are quoted in an interview conducted before the show premieres that the character is, indeed, supposed to be gay? [Ed. Note: See creator Tim Kring's response to the controversy on the AfterElton.com blog.] That’s not even factoring in all the loaded dialogue and the character’s gay-friendly Myspace page (how many straight teens love Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Velvet Goldmine, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch?).

Is it possible for a character’s very sexuality to be mis-marketed? Or is there a different, more disturbing situation occurring?

While hats are off to Dekker for landing the plum lead role in the upcoming Terminator spin-off series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles (as announced on Thursday), it does make one wonder exactly where the pressure to bury the character’s gayness might have come from.

Two scenarios seem the mostly likely: for unknown reasons, NBC suddenly shied away from the idea of a gay character. Or Dekker’s management wanted Zach to be straight. (Dekker’s management declined to comment on the topic.)

Considering that Dekker has notably played gay on television before – in a hilarious turn as an obsessed gay teen fan on the short-lived 90210 satire Grosse Point – why should there be any concern on his part with playing gay? Indeed, so many actors have now done so it seems hard to believe it should be an issue for any actor. It’s beyond disheartening to think that in 2006, a peripheral character’s sexuality could be such a volatile matter for studios, actors, and management – particularly when it’s obviously not an issue for the show’s fans.

As for NBC, the network wasn’t able to explain exactly how Zach got “gayed” in the promotional materials, but they suggest that it’s all some kind of miscommunication. However, in the entertainment industry, where shows, careers, and breakout phenomena are based on a myriad of interlocking, carefully-thought out parts, “miscommunication” can mean anything from a genuine “mistake” to “change of mind.”

A few things are clear, and can be backed up by evidence from interviews with the show’s creators and in the show’s official publicity materials: Zach was conceived as a gay character, he was developed as a gay character, and as of the November 20th “Homecoming” episode, he was a gay character. And yet a decision was made by someone – be it studio execs, talent management, or otherwise – to “straighten him out”. To get a better idea of how the character of Zach – or perhaps more importantly, public perception of Zach – has changed over the last few months, let’s pull a Hiro Nakamura and jump back in time…

Zach appears in the series’ very first episode as the newfound best friend and only confidante of Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), a Texas cheerleader who has recently discovered that she has the ability to regenerate instantly. What by all rights should be a peripheral, two-dimensional role (each of the other “heroes” has their own rather unrealized sidekicks) manages to be more than that thanks in no small part to Dekker.

Zach is an awkward but surprisingly self-assured kid whose sensitivity makes his sexuality a subject for debate with the other kids at school. In the first episode of Heroes, there’s a crack about Zach getting an erection in the locker room – typical high-school gay-baiting. Zach doesn’t operate within the school hierarchy – he’s a loser who hangs out with a pretty cheerleader, and for that he’s labeled an outsider.

The character, played by 19-year-old Thomas Dekker, disappeared during the show’s hiatus because producers and the actor’s manager couldn’t agree on his sexual orientation.

“(Dekker’s) manager threatened to pull him from the show because he was up for the John Carter role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and she didn’t want him playing a gay character because it might affect FOX’s interest in hiring him,” Heroes co-executive producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview posted on popgurls.com. “It got really ugly. I was very upset by it – I was not happy about it at all.”

source

Written by TechStickle on September 6th, 2007 with no comments.
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David Hoyle : Magazine at the RVT

Last night we saw the artist formerly known as The Divine David. David (now Hoyle) is back at the RVT with weekly performance event for just three more weeks. David Hoyle presents this live magazine format ‘gone awry and put through the punk-cabaret mixer’. Songs, interviews, dances, adverts and films with a weekly theme.
Last nights theme was HIV und AIDS, where Hoyle presented a film made that day, of his pre-HIV and post-HIV test. Nowadays in London this is a 10 minute test, so there was no hanging around for the results.

Just in case of a positive result, the RVT provided the staff with masks and gloves.

Fortunately and quite suprisingly for Hoyle, the result was negative.

Touching on the theme of self abuse, unprotected anal intercourse, saunas, gay asians and the value of “self” Hoyle managed to bring a level of hilarity with sensitivity and satire to this delicate subject.

We were please to see Hoyles peer support in the forms of Mark Trevorrow, Boy George and Betty (Blue Lips) Bourne.

See it!

Written by TechStickle on September 5th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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We are now back from Barcelona

We are now back from Barcelona, went to Gareths’ birthday on Spain, arranged, decorated dragged up and appeared in Girlies 40th birthday, had mum down (twice once for the Queens garden party), been to Wales once, missed the summer (what summer), won the Triv night int he Queens head, met up with friends from school and finally had a weekend in London! , been to Kew Gardens, seen David Hoyle (twice), seen The DE Experience (3 times), been to the west end (two many times to count), promised to stop drinking alcohol (too many times to count)….
Here are some highlights on this blog (blogging category) to keep up.

Oh, and set up the office, developed a couple of social network sites and a few bits and pieces in the day time.

Still to go, visit Andy in Manchester, visit dad in Cornwall, visit June in Wales, visit Alan in Brighton, get my bike to cycle to work, get my car for weekends away…

Written by TechStickle on September 5th, 2007 with no comments.
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Pink ladies at Steves 40th Grease Party

Written by TechStickle on September 5th, 2007 with no comments.
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