If you haven't already heard, Apple Canada is offering 12 days of free downloads for the holidays starting fom December 23 (tomorrow) through January 3! The download could be either free music, TV episodes, movies, apps, or books from iTunes and each will be available for 24 hours only. Check out the details on their site: http://www.apple.com/ca/itunes/12days/

Other companies offering an avent calendar type promotion include Gameloft. You are going to have to follow Gameloft on Twitter though to find out what the daily offer is. Sometimes they offer free downloads of their games on different platforms. Other times it is just a trailer or trial version or desktop wallpaper.

I got the chance to watch an advanced screening of Tron: Legacy on Wednesday. I have never watched the original Tron from 1982 but with all the hype generated around this new sequel, I was really looking forward to watching it. Plus I like glowy things and Tron: Legacy has so many mesmerizingly glowy things. It certainly has benefited much from the advance in technology.

Turns out you don't need to watch the original at all to enjoy this movie. It did a very good job of providing backstory and stands very well on its own. Garrett Hedlund stars as Sam, Kevin Flynn's son (the protagonist from the previous film). Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn and also plays Clu.

Kevin Flynn is a genius programmer and the CEO of Encom. A sudden and mysterious disappearance of Kevin Flynn leaves his young son Sam orphaned. Years later, Sam recieves a message from his dad's friend Alan Bradley regarding a page he received originating from the office of the abandoned Flynn's Arcade. Sam investigates and discover's his dad's secret office and is somehow whisked away into the Grid - a digital world of his dad's creation. There he meets Clu, a program his father create years ago to handle things in the Grid but apparently he has turned bad and gained control of all the Grid. Sam manages to escape from Clu with the help of Quorra (Olivia Wilde from House), a fearless and mysterious program of the Grid who knows where his father is. Together they must race against time to make it out of the Grid alive.

The movie had awesome special effects - did I mention cool glowing costumes and set? An amazing musical score by Daft Punk carried the atmosphere of the movie very well. The actors did an amazing job but the only thing I didn't like was how fake the younger Kevin Flynn seemed. Disney had to digitalize Jeff Bridges' face to turn back the clock but everytime younger Kevin or Clu spoke it was rather uncanny. But that is a small detail. This move is full of eye candy and you will love it. I would recommend the movie to everyone whether or not you are a Tron fan! But if you are a Tron fan, I am told that there are many references to the original movie. It is not likely to disappoint. However if you can watch in non-3D choose that option. The movie had practically no 3D effects!

Tron: Legacy is in theatres today! Go see it! I highly recommend it. I want to go back and watch the original Tron now. And I hope they will make another one!

In other news, I am currently in a contest that BestBuy is hosting on Facebook. It's the Unboxing Day contest and I'm currently in the top 3 and need a lot of help to stay there. I need people to vote for me and you can vote every day until Dec 31. Everytime you vote, you get entered into a weekly draw for a $150 BestBuy giftcard! So the more you vote, the better the chance you will have! Please vote for Jenny Lee (Xbox Unboxing). Thank you very much! http://apps.facebook.com/unboxingday/gallery.php?sort=2

Best Buy had the midnight launch of World of Warcraft:Cataclysm on monday. There are two versions available. The regular game goes for $39.99 and Collector's Edition is $84.99. For $45 more you get exclusive in-game content, trading cards, art book, soundtrack, behind the scenes DVD and a mouse pad.

It was fairly quiet at the Cambie location. They also hosted a costume contest again. This time two winners got an HP AMD Quad Core and Triple Core respectively. I heard that downtown Futureshop also hosted their own contest. There were a lot of good costumes. In my mind I thought that the person who paints themselves blue would win. And I was right. A girl showed up late with her boyfriend. They both had awesome costumes and but she was all blue. She won the quad core laptop and a guy that dressed up like some kind of mage won second. There were also incentives to line up early. The first 50 people at the Cambie store would get a Steelseries Original WoW MMO mouse! More than 50 people were sitting outside by 9pm already waiting in anticipation.

In addition to the costume contest, there was a draw for the WoW:Cataclysm Collector's Edition...And guess who won it! Blue girl's boyfriend! They are so lucky! What are the odds?! They left shortly after receiving their prizes. A lucky person also won a large vinyl WoW poster.

It was also the midnight launch of Inception and Shrek 4...not that anybody cared.

In other news, I am currently in a contest that BestBuy is hosting on Facebook. It's the Unboxing Day contest and I'm currently in the top 2 and need a lot of help to stay there. I need people to vote for me and you can vote every day until Dec 31. Everytime you vote, you get entered into a weekly draw for a $150 BestBuy giftcard! So the more you vote, the better the chance you will have! Please vote for Jenny Lee. Thank you very much! http://apps.facebook.com/unboxingday/gallery.php?sort=2

Hi all,

I really need some help with a contest I am in. This is a daily vote and I need all the votes I can get. If you can, please take the time to vote for Jenny Lee.

You will need facebook to vote. But if you do you get entered into a draw for a weekly $150 BestBuy giftcard! Each vote is an entry ballot so vote for me daily! 

http://apps.facebook.com/unboxingday/gallery.php?sort=2

Thanks in advance!