Neowin.net

Oh, could not resist this, (I know it's not tech related, but it gave me a chuckle none the less!) while browsing Slashdot, I came across this story.

Now usually I treat the Sun with some distance (being 3000 miles away...) but I had to post this as a fun part to the day.

N'Sync star Justin Timberlake and his boy band pals are to hit the big screen as Jedi knights in the new Star Wars movie.

But unfortunately for fans they are all bumped off within seconds by savage androids.

The boys got involved because producer George Lucas’s 13-year-old daughter Katie is a fan of the band and badgered her dad to give them a role.

A film source said: “All of them play Jedi knights in an arena battle on a planet called Geonosis. They are only seen for half a second in the background getting blown up by droids. There is then a short, blurry shot of N Sync dying."

“It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene but getting all the lads involved in the movie should pull in N'Sync fans. The lads are all interested in films and when George asked them to take part they leapt at the chance.”

News source: The Sun

Apple, which declined to comment on the products, has begun dropping big hints ahead of launches.

"This one really takes the cake," said Mac Observer, www.macobserver.com, commenting that the company had been stepping up the hype for its events for six months.

"The rumors are flying and Apple has all but ensured that they will continue to do so."

Apple launched its first consumer device in nearly a decade with the iPod and Jobs said he was considering developing a Windows version of the device.

The iPod links to the Macintosh through the iTunes software. That is based on Apple's cross-platform QuickTime media player, which would allow Apple to port the iPod to Windows, said financial analyst David Bailey of Gerard Klauer Mattison.

Apple might also extend its vision of the personal computer as the hub of the "digital lifestyle" by introducing a consumer device for video, Bailey speculated.

He raised Apple to Outperform from Neutral Wednesday, forecasting that Mac fans would buy new gear with the maturation of OS X, the new operating system announced last year, new desktop computers and a higher profile for Apple thanks to its new retail stores.

But with the threat education spending could dip in the weak economy, hurting a key Apple market, and the product transitions in store, Bailey reduced his earnings per share forecast for fiscal 2002 by 3 cents to 52 cents, compared with Apple's 2001 loss of 27 cents, which was driven by a first- quarter loss of 73 cents per share.

Apple, one of the first to feel the chill of the cooling economy in late 2000, suffered with the rest of the personal computer industry in 2001, repeatedly cutting its sales forecast.

But the stock fared well, rising 45 percent and attracting investors with a horde of cash worth more than half the current stock price and a strong brand name.

It also introduced OS X, the most substantial upgrade to its operating system since it introduced the Macintosh in 1984 and began touting the personal computer as the digital hub.

Certainly Apple fans are salivating, even if they are wary of the hype.

"I hope I fall out of my chair and knock myself out," wrote "Antman" on a MacObserver forum. "Ok ... maybe not that last part, but Apple has its work cut out."