Show #83

[Download Show #83 as MP3]

Tech Headlines [Koby] (Computers, Cameras, Cell Phones, Big News)

• Record Gas Prices 20 Straight Days
• How Many have to Die for iPhone's 3G <-- this is a story full of exaggerated conjecture, and no real facts (Steven Responding :Exxagerated conjecture can be fun as long as we treat it like a gag)
  
• Google I/O<-- How techie do you want to go, because most people listening to talk radio aren't going to care about this.
  
• The Point
• RIM / BlackBerry
• iPhone
• Java Clients
• Samsung
• about 14 total platforms if you are serious about mobile
  
• Enter... Android
  
• World class webkit browser: Google Web Toolkit
  
• Pan around Street View
  
• Offline Content
• Google Gears
• HTML 5
• Amazon Ready to Unbox Video Streaming for Digital Movies
• They already do pay-per-download
  
• New Image-recognition Software lets Computers see like Humans do
• Some researchers at MIT have found a way to easily identify the subject of an image with only a small number of pixels
• If the concept can be honed, it could lead towards being able to index images across the internet with ease
• What's the minimum a human needs to see in order to recognize the subject of an image? The researchers say only 32x32 pixels (about the size of a Windows desktop icon)
  
• Tivo Adds Another VOD Service
• Tivo has had a VOD service for a while now. They use Amazon's UnBox service for this.
• Now they have announced a deal with CinemaNow to (at the very least) get Disney content.
• This shows that Tivo is willing to partner with more than one VOD service (any takers on Netflix coming to Tivo within the year?)
• This is also good for Tivo because there was a lack of VOD on their end before the Unbox deal and the more they add to their boxes, the more value they add to that 19.95/month subscription fee you'll pay for their box.
  

Tech Picks [Derek] (Software, Hardware, Websites, Reviews)

• Summize - Search Twitter Conversations
  
• Seesmic - Think Twitter, but with video
• If you have a webcam and you like the idea behind Twitter, you might want to take a look at Seesmic.
• Currently Alpha (pre-beta) & invite only, this service allows you to create short little videos that can then be uploaded. You can also record directly from the webpage, so no uploading necessary.
• The interface is slick and the concept might be overkill but they are working with various blogs to allow the ability to do video comments (see TechCrunch or Disqus).
• After using this a few times, I have to say the concept is extremely interesting. You are left with videos between 15 seconds and 1:30 long. People hold entire conversations this way. You can follow people like on Twitter or you can just select a specific conversation (it keeps a running tab on the more recent/popular ones).
• Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope
• We talked about this two-three weeks ago
• As I recall I was told that "Google Sky is better because you don't have to download anything"
  
• Build a Square-Foot Garden
• Thanks to Steven's kid, I have been recently shoehorned into subscribing to Wired again and somehow square foot gardening caught my attention?!?
• When you think of growing your own food, you probably think of endless rows of corn, the middle of nowhere, people in overalls and dial-up internet.
• With high-speed internet and no room to drive a tractor (well at least most of us)
• Based on a method of farming call biointensive which you can read lots about on Wikipedia, this cool little way to plant stuff that uses very little "land" and yields a fair amount of edible produce.
• There's even a guy that's written a book about it.
• VideoAssist
• Enables you to store the VIDEO_TS folders and access them from the nice Front Row interface.
• It uses some Applescript to do some fancy footwork in the background, it actually uses the Apple DVD player software and closes Front Row when you select a specific hard-drive based DVD.
• Perian
• Free, open source, plugin for Quicktime on Mac
• Adds support for
  
• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA and SRT

Gamer's Corner [Steven] (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

• Free Browser Game: Epsilon
• Puzzle Game
• "Manipulate Time and Space to Solve the puzzles
• Follow the bouncing ball
• Use wormholes to teleport the ball around and get tokens
• Very challenging in its later stages
  
• Race Driver: GRID demo races to a million downloads
• Mario to Anime - Too much damn time on their hands
• Synchronized Mario with random anime songs
• The sound effects are pitch perfect and on beat a lot of the times
• 11 minutes of goodness (we need to get some of this on the show)
  
• WoW Kil'jaeden down
• Latest and greatest end-boss in Sunwell Plateau
• SK-Gaming
  
• Down 3 days after released to the EU servers
• Downed 3 days later by a North America Guild
  

Show #82

[Download Show #82 as MP3]

Tech Headlines [Koby] (Computers, Cameras, Cell Phones, Big News)

• Comcast Buys Plaxo
  
  • After several various acquisition rumors, Plaxo has entered into an agreement to be purchased by Comcast.
  • What is Plaxo?
    • Contact/Calendar management
    • Sync your contacts/calendars across computers
    • Backup your Contacts/Calendar
    • Sort, edit, and remove duplicate contacts
    • Windows Mobile device sync tool
    • Newly done "Life Streaming" tool call Pulse
  • Potential issues involve that fact that Plaxo has a really bad reputation that stems from it's days as a source of spam
  • Also the issue that a lot of personal data is stored by Plaxo users on Plaxo (as well as their friends, family, and business contacts info) will Comcast farm this data? Will comcast do something with it or just leave it be.
  • Several people on the internet are looking to close their Plaxo accounts due to this purchase
    
• Microsoft/Yahoo Back at the Table (Stock Price Comparison)
  • Yep, that's right, the fat lady has indeed NOT sung a single note yet
  • Microsoft and Yahoo are back at the negotiation table for a partnership, not an acquisition
  • Current rumors have Microsoft purchasing Yahoo's search engine for implementation into Live Search
  • There are also rumors that Micr osoft will also buy Facebook do something with both companies to in essence, take over the internet.
  • Check out this article from Robert Scoble on Microsoft/Yahoo/Facebook (Why Microsoft Will Buy Facebook and Keep it Closed)
    
    • The basics of this talk about Facebook & Google and the lack of Facebook indexed results in Google searches
    • If Microsoft buys Yahoo's search and Facebook, then Microsoft/Yahoo's search has tons of relevancy because it can get to pages Google can't
    • excerpt: "Relevancy on Yahoo search will go through the roof when it has access to Facebook data and Google doesn’t. People will see that Yahoo has people search and Google doesn’t. That’ll turn the tide in advertising, and all that."

Tech Picks [Derek] (Software, Hardware, Websites, Reviews)

• Google Docs - Improved presentation support
• Google Calendar Sync
• HelloTxt
  
• Twistory.net
  • Shows your Twitter activity in a historical fashion
  • Allows you to sync up you or someone else's Twitter with Google Calendar, or any webcal compatible calendar, iCalendar
  • Check out my page @ Twistory
    
• Netflix Roku
  • We have one on the way
    
  • Once activated, the Netflix Player can be used in any of the 50 United States.
    
  • Remembers where you stopped the movie or TV episode and will pick up at that point the next time you begin watching it.
  • You can also choose to re-start from the beginning by choosing “Play from Beginning” on the player, or by rewinding.
  • Video quality depends on your Internet connection speed: The faster your connection, the better the quality. Slower connections are comparable to watching a VHS tape, while faster connections can provide DVD-quality playback.
  • The Netflix Player by Roku is HD-ready. Netflix is working to make movies and TV episodes available in HD. When they are ready, your Netflix Player by Roku will also be ready.
• YouTomb
• MIT project to track the take down requests by the DMCA
• TechCrunch Article
• iPhone 2.0 (June 9)
• America, Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, India, Austria, Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Canada, Singapore, Belgium, Jordan, Romania, Switzerland and Slovakia.
• 3G Support!
  
• To be announced by Steve Jobs at Apple's (WWDC) World Wide Developers Conference on June 9th
  
• Gizmodo Article
  

Gamer's Corner [Steven] (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

• Tactical Assassin 2
  
  • Free Browser Game
  • You are a sniper operative taking out roaming stick men
  • Great graphics, Fun and addicting
  • Don't leave or you will lose all your bought items
  • Codes do allow you to come back with preset equipment and levels
• Modded Full Spectrum Warrior to treat PTSD
• Virtual reality goggles, earphones and a scent-producing machine
• Plans of controlled, prolonged contact to lessen the effects of Post-Traumatic Syndrome
  
• XNA Games go 'LIVE' on Xbox for Indie Devs
• Opened the doors for indie gamers and community content game downloads on Xbox Live
• Only developers with "Premium" accounts can download the community packages currently
• top-voted Community games will be available to John Q. Public
• Guitar Hero IV to add mic, drums, and regular DLC
  
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith already in the pipeline (June)

Video and Bloopers from Show #82

Nice and uncut, here's the video from Show #82 -- now you see what really happens behind the scenes

Show #81

[Download Show #81 as MP3]

News

• Apple Stores (Online and Off) Out of iPhones
• For the past week and a half the Apple Stores have been out of iPhones.
• Does this mean that the much rumored 3G 2nd Generation iPhone is on its way or is it just manufacturing issues?
• So what does a 3G iPhone mean?
• Faster internet on what is probably the world's best mobile browser
• Better call quality
• Ability to surf the net while on a phone call (well you can do this on AT&T's 3G network, will the iPhone interface allow it?)
  

• HBO Shows come to iTunes Store (aka Death of Fixed Pricing)
• This past week, HBO and Apple reached a deal to bring HBO shows to the iTunes Store.
• This also marks the end of Apple's "fixed" pricing strategy on TV shows. Previously all TV shows were $1.99. Now with the HBO shows, some are $2.99 ("Deadwood" and "Sorpanos")
• Available shows include: "Sex and the City", "Sorpranos", "Rome", "Deadwood", "Flight of the Conchords", and "The Wire"
• This could soon usher in the return of NBC shows such as "Heroes" and "The Office" as the fixed pricing was one of the major reasons for NBC not renewing their iTunes Store contract.
  

Web Picks

• YouTube Format Hacking
  
• "Watch this video in higher quality." links all over Youtube
  
• Low and High Qualities now (HQ = 480 x 360 + 44 Khz audio ~ 900 Kbps)
• &fmt=6 = HQ : flash sorenson codec.
  
• Format 18 generates an mp4 (&fmt=18) - Compatible with IPOD. True Stereo. h.264 codec
• Embed High Quality videos, replace (VIDEO EMBED URL) with video ID:
  
• Video Keepers still work (keepvid)
• LifeHacker is a firefox Extension
  
• AC3 Codec - Play surround sound movies and audio files for FREE
  

Hardware

• AMOD GPS Logger

• Review 1
  
• Review 2
  
• Takes three AAA batteries
• Mac, PC, and Linux
  
• Bundled with JetPhoto (not Pro)
• Tools:
• Convert from NMEA format to GPX format using:
• GPS Photo Linker
• HoudahGeo (Mac)
• Pair down big files with GPSBabel
• Flickr, Mappr, Google Earth,
  
• Most GPS loggers just get position, altitude and speed, this one gets position, altitude, speed, heading, acquired satellites, hdop and vdop
• HDOP and VDOP = Horizontal/Vertical Dilution of Precision
• JDome - Interview with John Nilsson

Software

• DExpose2 - Expose for Windows
• Finally, someone brought Derek's favorite Mac OSX feature to Windows, and did it right
• Expose is a feature on Mac OSX that allows you to shrink all the windows open so that they are all displayed on your desktop. This allows you to find the window your looking for real quick with out having to Alt-Tab a ton of times or go through each window. On the Mac, it looks really nice
• This little utility which is free (our favorite price) installs and does exactly as advertised
• World Wide Telescope
• Think Google Maps but for the skies (and done by Microsoft)
• This little application made professional blogger/social media expert Robert Scoble cry
• Currently Windows only
• This thing is pretty cool. You can point to a point and space and it will zoom in
• There are tons of pre-defined coordinates to take you to several galaxies, stars, black holes, and even a couple of nebula.
• The up side here is if you have an ASCOM compatible telescope, you can connect it to your computer and use WWT to help you navigate the night skies
  

Show #80

[Download Show #80 as MP3]


News

• Koby out sick with Strep throat
  • Most sore throat's are viral infections and go away in a few days
  • Only a small portion are bacterial infections, its highly contagious, and spreads via air, surfaces.
  • Stopping medication early may lead to recurrences and serious complications, such as rheumatic fever or kidney inflammation.
• Microsoft (MSFT) withdraws the nearly $47.5B takeover bid for Yahoo! (YHOO)
  • Unsolicited bid by Microsoft (MSFT) to takeover Yahoo! (YHOO)
  • Announced in February
  • First offer $31, second $33, Y! wanted $37
  • All over for Yahoo? Said to be in talks with Google (GOOG), News Corp.'s MySpace.com (NWS), and Time Warner (TWX)
  • Google's shares rose $13.61
  • Take a look at this compare of MSFT, YHOO, GOOG, NWS, and TWX all together
    
• Skip an Ad? Not if you picked it
  • Hulu.com (Show #73)
  • Commercial Contests (T-Mobile NBA)
  • Al Gore's CurrentTV created VCAM = Viewer Created Advertising Messages
  • Targetted advert = more attention (see spike tv and G4)

• Microsoft Expands Zune Store and Updates Player
  • New software features and content to their all-in-one media store
  • "South Park", "Afro Samurai", "Battlestar Galactica", "The Ultimate Fighter", "Robot Chicken"
  • Approx. 160 Microsoft points per show ($1.99)
  • Subscription model available, $14.99 per month
  • New Store Software features
    • Drag and drop Zune cards (cards = friends playlists) to zune and they will be updated in real-time
    • Zune Pass Subscribers will automatically have friends songs downloaded to their zune
    • Non-Subscribers will have album art and information dl'ed only
    • Enhanced friends features (bio, location, etc)
    • Instant Friends - Media Moguls will automatically become friends for instant content and playlists
    • Album reviews (a la Amazon)
    • Reputation badges (a la ebay)
    • Windows Live Messenger will now pick up what ppl are listening to on Zune
  • Hardware Software updates
    • Auto playlists - Users can create an auto playlist that updates itself automatically as new music is added.
    • Browse videos - Consumers can browse their video collection by genre and series, plus they can preview videos before they play them on full screen.
    • Editing album and track information - Users are able to edit track or album information (metadata) quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop. The advanced metadata editing features make it easy to edit multiple tracks or survey albums and artist information
    • Organizing collections - In addition to sorting by artist or album, consumers can now sort by genre. While browsing by genre they can further sort music by artist, album or release year.
    • Gapless playback - Consumers will now be able to listen to an album without the brief gap between tracks, both on their Zune and in the Zune software. This is a must-have for live-concert recordings and compilation albums.
    • Syncing groups - Zune software now syncs to multiple Zune players simultaneously. Users can prepare which content on their computer to sync even when their Zune isn’t connected - Consumers can create custom sync groups for music, pictures and videos.
    • Zune reminders - Experience is improved when a Zune player’s memory is nearing capacity, via an easy-to-use tool.

Web Picks

• Twitterholic.com
• Ranks the top 100 of the Twitter world
• Its ordered by popularity (read: followers)
• It also shows # of friends, and # of updates
• Barack Obama is #1 at the moment, check out his stats4
• Steven Molen is officially part of the twitter craze
• TwitDir (A Twitter Directory)
  
  • Look up anyone on Twitter by name, screen name, or location
  • Get the top 100 followed (just like Twitterholic.com)
  • Get the top 100 updaters
  • Get the top 100 favouriters
  • Get the top 100 followers
  • Get the top 10, 100, or 1000 requirements
    • Find out how many friends, followers, updates, and/or favorites you'd have to add to make it to the top 10, 100, or 1000 of Twitter

Hardware

• Blackberry 9000
  

Software

• Software that make you Smarter
  

Gamer's Corner

• GTA IV - It's all the rage (They were talking about it on the First team on Fox Sports Show this morning)
  • The only game you can pay a hooker, hook it up, kick her out of your car, drive over her, and retrieve the money laying right beside her after you're done
  • You too can date a cyber byte with the ultimate goal of a shag fest, in a main stream game no less
  • Niko, an immigrant, is your single player anti-hero
  • Rockstar's RAGE engine coupled with NaturalMotion's Euphoria engine to produce outstanding graphics and natural kinesthesiology and Physics
  • Everything accessed from your phone - IMs, Missions, Multiplayer, hookers, etc
  • Online modes - 12 different types
  • Party lobby is outskirts of city with guns and cars to keep you occupied while waiting for friends
    • Free Mode (fully customizable with cops and all)
    • Team DeathMatch - cover system makes this not like quake
    • Mafiya Work - work to order from mob boss. first to complete gets the points
    • Car Jack City - Jack specific cars for points
    • Turf War - capture the point
    • GTA Race - Standard racing game
    • Cops'n'Crooks - 2 teams, lawmen and crooks. Lawmen trying to stop the crooks from escaping
    • Limited co-op - play with up to 4 friends