Thursday, September 25, 2008

Show #98



[Download Show #98 as MP3]

News
  • Amazon Hopes to Speed Up Your Downloads
    • Ever wonder why downloading your friends latest photo often takes longer to download than a 4MB song on Apple's iTunes Music Store?
    • Amazon wants to make that a thing of the past
    • Simplify the world of CDN - content delivery networks
    • Think of it this way, they spend the $$ to put servers "close" to you (near the major ISPs) -- that makes downloads from that server blazing fast
    • Then they sell a service to content providers that don't want to set the service up themselves pay-as-they-go style
    • This lets smaller services that don't have the money of say Apple with their iTunes Music Store product offer blazing fast downloads too
  • Users Complaining about Spore DRM
    • DRM only allows 3 installs before you must call EA for more (E.G. Windows)
    • Only 1 account allowed, but multiple screen names with separate Sporepedia entries / achievements
    • Users downgraded Amazon rating in protest
    • Now creating creatures that say "DRM Sux" and "EA Sux"
    • Lows and Highs of DRM (Discussion - Good Guy / Bad Guy)

Tech Picks

  • ChaCha Mobile
    • You're in a bar with a group of friends when an argument breaks out about Steven Tyler's age. Your friend is positive that he's 55. You know he can't be younger than 60. With no Internet access, how do you find out how old he is?
    • Search engines give you lots of answers, and that's how we like it, but you need a human to filter that to get the answer you seek.
    • People know how to ask questions, it's one of the first things they learn how to do when they talk. What they want is an answer.
    • Send a text to 242242 (ChaCha) or call 800-2ChaCha

Power Tip

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

DC Universe:
 Mortal Kombat:
Batman
Superman
Catwoman
Green Lantern
The Joker
Shazam/Captain Marvel
The Flash
Wonder Woman
Deathstroke
Lex Luthor
Darkseid 		Scorpion
Sub-Zero
Sonya
Jax
Shang Tsung
Liu Kang
Raiden
Kitana
Kano
Baraka
Shao Kahn


Intarweb Gold Mine
  • ISS gets Wi-Fi
    • Punchline = "If you're ever up on the space station, you can twitter us your status with your space-age iPhone"
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Show #97



[Download Show #97 as MP3]

News
  • Downloads OR Blu-Ray -- which will reign supreme?
    • What about both? 20th Century Fox Thinks So
    • It's been thought that downloads would wipe out physical media
    • Disney says its customers don't want to choose sides
    • "Consumers want to consume different movies and programs in different ways. To limit any of those things wouldn't be good for the industry," said Lori McPherson, general manager of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. "But as content creators, we have to be responsible about how that content is windowed so that we keep the industry healthy."
  • Study Show Gaming not bad for Kids
    • Pew Internet and American Life Project
    • Full Report Here. questionnaire with answers Here.
    • $50 million initiative to study digital content and its effects on how kids learn, play and participate in civic activities. (anything public is considered civic)
    • Breaking Paradigms:
      • Not anti-social - Most interact with somebody online when they play
      • Carnage happy - 74% reported racing games, puzzle games, sports titles, etc as their favorites
  • AOL finally accepts that they aren't the only content provider on the Internet
    • GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail
    • News through Relegence
    • RSS Reader
    • Competing Services
  • IPhone 2.1 released
    • Better Reception
    • Faster software installs
    • Increased 3G speed
    • Fewer Dropped calls
    • No OS instability fixes mentioned
    • IPhone 2.1 Jailbroken (Pwnage Tool)
  • Release Date for Wow: Wrath of the Lich King (Nov. 13, 2008)
    • The continent of Northrend
    • The Death Knight class
    • Inscription, a new profession (actually will be available in the 3.0.2 patch, which is now on the PTR)
    • New raids and dungeons. All raids will be available in 10- and 25-player versions, and the first one will be a retooled Naxxramas.
    • Wintergrasp, a non-instanced outdoor PvP zone with siege vehicles and destructible buildings (and a raid boss)
    • Level cap raised to 80, with new spells and talents for all classes

Tech Picks


Power Tip

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)
  • Wow gets new item type - Heirloom Items
    • Bind to Account (you can pass item to alts)
    • Buy with Dungeon Tokens
    • Scales based upon level
    • Tokens itemized based upon Dungeon Level
    • High level non-scaling to come
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Show #96



[Download Show #96 as MP3]

News
  • NBC Dumps Silverlight for Adobe Flash
    • Olympics done flawlessly online with Microsoft Silverlight
    • Dump Silverlight because Adobe has a larger install base
    • First broadcast of the NFL didn't work on new tech
  • XBox 360 Price Cut
    • Comparison chart
    • Arcade (no Hard Drive, 256 MB storage) = $199
    • 60GB (hard drive, headset) = $299
    • Elite = (hard drive + HDMI + headset) = $399 (still no wi-fi chip on-board)
  • Are we moving toward cloud computing? (Discussion)
    • (Steven) Acts indifferent, then thinks about Internet and asks for explanation
    • (Derek - Explains succintly the concept of "cloud computing")
  • Google's machine, which is really a network of machines, offers
    • Amazing computing power
    • Redundancy - No loss of data [Article]
  • The device:
    • Under $200
    • Green (low power processor / flash memory)
    • No charge for applications
    • Easy to update, completely automatic
    • No optical or magnetic hard drive = fewer moving parts = longer life
  • The service:
    • No charge for applications
    • Server cost subsidized by Google with advertising

Tech Picks


Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)
  • Spore PC Release
    • (Metareviews)
    • Cell Stage = Flow (float around and eat things)
    • Creature Stage (Sims + WoW Lite)
    • Tribal Stage (rhythm game + rts)
    • Civ Stage (civ lite)
    • Space Stage (Moo2 but not as good)
    • Passively shares creature, vehicle, and building creations
    • Behind the Making of Spore
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Show #95



[Download Show #95 as MP3]

Tech Headlines (Computers, Cameras, Cell Phones, Big News)

Tech Picks (Software, Hardware, Websites, Reviews)

  • IPhone Developers in a "Cone of Silence"
    • Apple was expected to lift the NDA on July 11th when iPhone 3G launched
    • iPhone Developer's Cookbook is ready for publishing along with several other titles however publishers are scared of being sued
    • People are even scared to discuss the development of applications on blogs and forums online, the Apple website reminds people to mind the NDA.
  • IPhone Game Sleeve and Interface????
    • Some talk about IPhone becoming major games platform
    • Buttons and interface are the big hurdle for this reality.
    • All rumors, but photo on Internet of Belkins sleeve might have solution

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

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)