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The Da Vinci Code

Though I was originally somewhat sceptical to the casting of Hanks, the filmatic equivalent of chemical food additives, in the role of Langdon, what we’ve seen so far at least seems to promise a competent thriller with the right sort of atmosphere.

Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks
in “The Da Vinci Code”

The second theatrical trailer is now available in streaming Windows Media and QuickTime format from Yahoo‘s website in a number of different resolutions.

Or, you could simply download the QuickTime files to files to your harddrive by right-clicking on these handy links:

QuickTime low resolution trailer

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Google Calendar

I’ve gotten possession of screenshots from Google’s long delayed new Ajax calendar application, which will be called “CL2″. It was only a matter of time before someone broke down and leaked these – as far as I know these screen shots are the first on the public web. Previous ones were almost certainly photoshopped fakes. Om Malik also recently posted with some additional details and has been trying to track down more information. Now we have it.

Quentin Tarantino

Details on the joint Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino horror/thriller flick from the Weinstein Co. are starting to emerge. For starters, the name of the flick had been rumored to be chopped down from the previously annouced Grind House to the simpler Grind - but Rob R. contacted Harry over at AICN to deny that rumor.  Rob and Quentin have each confirmed the rumored subjects of their respective halves of the double-feature; Rob will be shooting a zombie flick in Austin, which is currently named Project Terror (contrary to earlier reports that it would be called Planet Terror), while Quentin will direct a faux-slasher flick called Death Proof.

Yahoo! Music Engine 1.1

Yahoo! pushed out an upgrade of its Music Engine client late Monday night, as announced in a revealing and sometimes hilarious post by lead developer Ian Rogers on the Yahoo! Music Blog. The upgrade is significant; reading the specs I expected a jump from 1.0 to 1.5, but Ian and his team made a modest leap to 1.1.

Xbox-Scene

Xbox-Scene snagged exclusive pre-release pics of TeamXtender.com’s Pack 2 XCM 360 Faceplates in a variety of colors (nice bezel). Faceplate fanatics can check back Sunday for a comprehensive review of Pack 1 from Xtender, Madcatz, Pelican, MS, Joytech and more.

Pinnacle Systems

If you use Pinnacle Systems’ line of Studio software, there’s an update (10.5) that adds the ability to export your content to PSP and iPod. Even better though, is the coming export capabilities in their PCTV line. You’ll be able to record TV shows, and fairly easily move them to portable devices. In addition, they are announcing new Mobile Media products, designed specifically to move portable content around.

Blu-Ray Disc

After years of waiting and hundreds of Engadget posts, the much-anticipated but seemingly just-out-of-reach high definition optical disc technology known as Blu-ray has finally, at long last, been given an official launch date by Sony. Early-adopters, you have just under three months to lie, cheat, and steal your way to getting off on Tuesday, May 23, because that’s when you’ll need to be on a 12-hour line at Best Buy to get your anxious little mitts on a Samsung BD-P1000 and eight critically acclaimed launch titles such as “Resident Evil Apocalypse,” “XXX,” and “A Knight’s Tale”- with another eight classics like “Species” and “SWAT” to follow on June 13th. Also available soon after launch will be more Blu-ray hardware, including Pioneer’s BDP-HD1, Sony’s BDP-S1, and several BD-equipped Vaio PCs, also from Sony. As we’d heard before, the Samsung player will retail for around a grand, and Sony will be charging $23.45 for new flicks and $17.95 for catalog titles.