Show #79

[Download Show #79 as MP3]

News

• Skype Announces Monthly Subscription Plans
  • Plans are
    
    • 2.95/month for US and Canada
    • 5.95/month for US, Canada, and Mexico
    • 9.95/month for US, Canada, and 34 international countries
  • This kind of payment plan was previously unavailable
  • You were limited to 3/12 month subscription plans
  • 33% Discounts on 3 or 12 month subscriptions
    
• Apple Updates the iMac
• Apple's iPhone vs. R.I.M.'s BlackBerry
• Top 10 Reasons Why the iPhone is NO Blackberry <-- this will probably bring about some interesting discussion
• Go over precedents on taking over the corporate market (windows 95 anyone?)

• Customs Agents Can Search Your Laptop, Mobile Phone, and Digital Camera at the Borders
• Microsoft Says they'll Pay More for Yahoo ($33/share, Yahoo wants $37)
  

Hardware

• Digital TV
• Upgrade Coupons: https://www.dtv2009.gov/
  

Software

• JiveTalk IM Client
  • BlackBerry
    • 19.95 for single device
    • 29.95 for a user license
      
  • iPhone
  • Windows Mobile 6
    

Gamer's Corner

• Unreal Tournament Super Mario Mod
  • PC or PS3
• Omega Pedal for Rock Band
  • $80 to $150
  • PS3 or XBox
• 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
  • Engaging from the limited amount of time that we had to play with it, compelling story line, beautiful graphics, all 10's online look to be valid.

Show #78

[Download Show #78 as MP3]

News

• Tax Day is behind us
  
• Sony PlayStation 3's new Firmware v2.30 is out
  • New PlayStation Store Interface
  • DTS-HD Master Audio [DTS Site] [Wikipedia]
    
    • Home theater fans have long lamented that the PS3 could not decode the new DTS soundtracks at their highest resolution, especially since movie studios like Fox have opted for DTS-HD Master Audio on many Blu-ray releases.
    • Without getting too technical, DTS-HD Master Audio offers 7-channels of lossless audio at 96K sampling frequency and 24-bit depths--which means that the sound sent to your receiver should be identical to the studio master.
    • While some sticklers will point out that the PS3 can't output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bitstream format, it's definitely a non-issue. Decoding the audio at the source is actually better than having the ability to bitstream high-resolution soundtracks, since it means even people with older HDMI-capable receivers can enjoy the high quality audio. Sure, your receiver won't light up the pretty DTS-HD Master Audio logo, but who cares--you still get the same great sound.
  • Store updates resumed on Thursday the 17th
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue released on the 17th too
• http://kotaku.com/380293/konami-cockblocking-metal-gear-online

Hardware

• USB Turntables
  • Listener question: "How do I import my old LPs [Records] and put them on my Windows Media Center?" -James Geitz, Santa Barbara, California
  • Use the USB Turn Table to get the songs into the computer
  • You'll want to tag and album art the Mp3 files, We recommend you use Tag & Rename for this part. This program can grab album info from Amazon (including album art)
    

Web Picks

• Jott
• Evernote
  
• Copy and paste all types of information from the Internet
• Take pictures from your phone and send it to evernote
  
• auto index capability from text in the copied (or snapshot)
• Access from anywhere with a web client
  
• scanR
• Use your camera phone as a scanner
  
• MuxTape
  
• Mix and Match songs from CD's to create and share your own CD to the internet
• "Favorite" capabilities
• Integrates with Amazon for music purchase
  
• MyGADs
  
• Create webpages of important information
• Use Text Messages, Instant Messages, or MyGads Website to access the information
  
• Business or Personal accounts available
  

Geek Out

BET Programming coming to XBOX Live

• Programs from: Iron Ring (MMA), College Hill, Hell Date, Comic View
• Full length select episodes
• Targeted at the growing segment of African-American console gamers
• Free download of the premiere episode of Iron Rings for the first week

Computer Games Make Players Less Violent

• According to a recent study, a session in front of World of Warcraft can reduce stress and make players more calm
• This kind of puts a wrinkle in people's argument that video games make people violent and that violent games leads to violent behavior
• We have long taken the stance that violent games does not equate to violent behaviour, in fact several of our friends claim to play violent games because "Where else am I going to blow up a cop car with a rocket launcher just because"
• There is some element of truth in that we as people will live out unrealized actions in a fantasy world because to do it in the real world is just plain wrong. Several people in fact claim that violent video games help keep them in check, by allowing them to get out aggression against imaginary objects and people rather than real ones.

Show #77

[Download Show #77 as MP3]

News

• Digg gets suggestions
  • Similar to http://diggsuggest.smashsworld.com/?u=derekalfonso
• Microsoft Gives Yahoo "3 Weeks Before They Get Hostile"
• http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/09/ap4873177.html
  
• 10 Ways to get the best seats on airplanes [SeatGuru.com]
  
• Warner seeks to offer unlimited digital music as part of your internet service
  • Around $5/mo surcharge
  • R.E.M., the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Green Day are all Warner
  • A source close to one of the UK's largest ISPs, who would not be named, said: "Conversations are definitely happening with Warner, but the idea is that eventually all the major labels will come on board. The music industry is shifting more and more to an 'access' model, and we're actively looking at services where unlimited tracks would be bundled into a tariff."
  • Sony BMG and Universal are meanwhile understood to be collaborating in a partnership known as Total Music, which would approach ISPs with a united front and offer their entire music catalogue in return for a share of the monthly revenues.
• iPhone SDK Beta 3 is out
  

Software

• SeatGuru by TripAdvisor
• Flickr Adds Video
  • Videos are currently limited to 90 seconds, this has been noted to be changed at a later date
  • Inline player
  • Currently for Flickr Pro users only.
    

Web Picks

• Mahalo
  
  • If Google's goal is to index the world's data then it's Mahalo's goal to curate that index and only pick out the best results
  • Take for example if you search for "Paris Hotels" on Google, you'll get a zillion responses and probably not a lot that are overly helpful in picking a hotel for your trip to Paris
  • Now do the same search in Mahalo you will get information on Luxury Hotels, Moderate Hotels, and Affordable Hotels. You will also get a "sidebar" that gives you facts on Paris, other Mahalo pages that could assist you in planing a trip to Paris, and some top picks for hotels.
  • How do they do this? They have a team of people that sort through searches being done and then finding the best results. You can also sign up for an account and add to their results list by installing a toolbar in your browser that lets you "recommend sites" and attach that recommendation to a search term/phrase
  • Another cool thing is if a page does not exist for your search, you can request it be made. This request goes to the Mahalo folks and they start working on finding the best search results for that page. It can take some time though
  • The downside is, not every search is going to pull back something and they are not going to make pages for extremely one-off kinds of searches. But if it's something that a lot of people search for then chances are they've got 20-60 great links for you to click through.
  Lightsaber duels
  • 1 of 2
  • 2 of 2

Gamer's Corner

• Hands-On Metal Gear Solid
  • Killer deep story line
  • New intuitive game controls
  • Sensational graphics
  • Epic sound effects and soundtrack
  • Updates at OMGMetalGear.com
  • Game play videos and full review at GamePro
• JavaScript Mario
• How cool is that?
• Large Mario
  
• TinyWarz

• Fun fully web-based game (no flash, all javascript)
• Creator = Vladimir Loscutoff
• Multiplayer online persistent world, apocalyptic feel
• Not text based, icon and picture based GUI
• Build your armies and your crews by collecting "sets" (think MoTG)
  
• Level up by killing bandits and later on, other people
• Customize your units and armies
• Turn / Time based
• Free option
• Micro-payments option through Paypal available for more advanced units
• One word: Addicting
• Beginners Guide: http://wiki.mobrulestudios.com/index.php?title=NewPlayers:FoolieGuide

Show #76

[Download Show #76 as MP3]

News

• Plant a tree, and watch it grow, thanks to Google
• $5.50 dontation
• Six months, starting as a seed, transplanted
• IOC wants China to open Internet during Olympics
• Kevan Gosper, vice chairman of the IOC coordinating commission, said blocking the Internet during the Games "would reflect very poorly" on the host nation.
• He also said the Chinese had an obligation under the so-called "host city agreement" to open Internet access to 30,000 accredited and non-accredited journalists expected to attend.
• A spokeswoman for the Chineese goverment said China's "management" of the Internet followed the "general practice of the international community."

  She acknowledged that China bans some Internet content, and said other countries did the same. She declined to say if the Internet would be unrestricted for journalists during the Olympics.

• Radiohead have teamed-up with iTunes to launch a Trent Reznor-inspired remix project
• Each track must be downloaded one at a time from iTunes
• Song: Nude
  
• radioheadremix.com
• Presidential Twitter
• Hillary Clinton
• Barack Obama
• John McCain has one as well but we can't seem to find it, if someone knows where it is, please let us know and we'll be sure to link it
• Microsoft Office Open XML Format Becomes ISO Standard
  

Software

• Firefox 3 - Ships in June
• Whoops up on IE and Opera memory tests
• Google Browser Sync
  
• Office Productivity Suites
• SSuite Office
• The Fifth Element
• 48 MB after install
• OpenOffice.org
• Microsoft Office
  
• 7 Whole-disk Encryption Apps Put a Lock on Data
• InformationWeek compares 7 disk encryption utilities
• Software looked at includes: TrueCrypt, Windows Vista's BitLocker, Dekart Private Disk, DriveCrypt, FreeOTFE, PGP Desktop Professional, and 7-Zip (for encrypted archive files).
• The conclusion says that for those that want something quick, to the point, and easy to use they should look at TrueCrypt but if they want more than just disk ecryption then to look at PGP Desktop Professional
• How does Photoshop Express compare to Aviary
• Photoshop Express
• Aviary
  

Web Picks

• Trim Windows XP Down to what you need

Gamer's Corner

• Wii Shortage Due to US Recession?
  

Show #75

[Download Show #75 as MP3]

News

• Obama puts his tax returns online
• Summary Table
  
• 2006 Return
• 2005 Return
• 2004 Return
• 2003 Return
• 2002 Return
• 2001 Return
• 2000 Return
  
• With Firefox 3, Microsoft has room to worry
  
• The "Spam King" goes to Jail
• YouTube goes High-Qual
• All new MacBook Pro
• Researches map the protines in human spit

Web Picks

• RateMyCop.com
  • now here's an extremely controversial site
    
  • tell the public about your experiences with cops & rate them on how they did
  • it's your chance to have a voice against the cops who did you wrong.
  • see- now only names and badge numbers are given out (which is already public information), and already thousands of law enforcement officials are outraged and trying to get it taken down.
  • I'M OUTRAGED!! if they were doing their jobs correctly and FAIRLY- they wouldn't have to WORRY! but because we have SO MANY underpaid, corrupt officers who have access to entirely too much privileged information, they are gonna use it to their benefit, no matter what.
  • I think this is what AMERICA NEEDS- someone to CHECK the police officers- we're all about checks and balances right?
  • The host- Godaddy.com removed the site but it was quickly picked up by another host
• RateMyProfessor.com
  
• AideRSS.com
  • If you're anything like Michael and Derek (well mostly like Michael), then you have a ton of RSS feeds that you read through on a daily basis. This might keep you up to date on the latest happenings but sometimes things can get lost in the shuffle when you have over 200 unread RSS items.
  • This is where AideRSS comes in. You feed it your RSS feed list, and it helps determine different kinds of feed lists based on all the feeds' feed ranks. This will get you a nice list of "Top Stories" so that you can get to the "meat" of your RSS subscriptions right away, and wade through the rest later.
  • You can adjust the feeds to help bring in more stories from certain sites, and increase the number of stories you want to see
  • Its a great way to get to the good stuff a little quicker, when you don't have the time to wade through it all.
    

Gamer's Corner

• Nazi game
  
  • http://news.filefront.com/no-nintendo-nazi-game-for-america/
  • so the new york times is saying that a controversial game will NOT be released in north america... but Alten8, the maker of the game, says nintendo has not blocked this wii game (but they ARE definately releasing it in europe... weird?)
  • its funny that they say its controversial... when just weeks ago i read an article on digg about the "five popular brands the nazis gave us," including Volkswagon & IBM.
    
  • this game is called "imagination is the only escape"
  • some seems to think it could be a good history lesson... i mean after all we DO teach about the holocaust in school, its not a big dark secret.
    
  • in the game, you are playing as a young prisoner, which i don't think is too bad- afterall, many of these games have kids playing as gangsters and killers
    
  • i did not read anywhere that you can switch and play the 'nazi' role as well, because THAT in my opinion would be sick, and going way too far with it.
    
  • i don't have a wii but when this game comes out i wanna know what ya'll think about it (but like alot of violent video games, you should probably play it before you give it to your kids)
  • so email Suzy with comments about the game in general or critiques once you get a chance to play it
    

Geek Out

• Laptop of 2015
  
• what i wanna know is- "will we be able to SIT on the thing???"
• instead of folding, it one screen slides into place next to the other
• uses two super bright organic LED panels
• only 3/4 of an inch thick

Show #74

[Download Show #74 as MP3]

News

• Google Sky Released
• Reznor takes home a cool $1.6m
• Advertisers shun user-generated video
• Apple Launches 802.11n AirPort
  
• Drive-By Movie Making
  
• iPhone / Exchange / Market Take Over? (Discussion)
• http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3726471
• http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/01/survey-iphone-gained-share-mac-dipped-slightly-in-feb/
  

Hardware

• Sony Introduces 2 new HDMI Equipped Photo Printers
• 3.6 vs 3.2 inch screen size
• Different Colors
  

Web Picks

• Steven: Flickrvision.com
  • 2D / 3D View
  • Real-time AJAX
    
• Derek: Multiple RSS Feeds
  • Combine, Blend, Mix, and Match your RSS feeds
  • Yahoo! Pipes (My Netflix Movies HTTP or RSS) [Ridiculous Control over your RSS]
    

Gamer's Corner

• World of Warcraft 2.4 Content Patch
• Cool Trailer

• Brace yourself for the Fury of the Sunwell, the next content patch for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. You have traveled through the Dark Portal and braved the perils of Outland; you faced off against the might of the Burning Legion itself, and you prevailed. Now the journey that began with the arrival of the draenei on Azeroth and the blood elves' inclusion into the Horde is about to come full circle as a mighty army gathers to purge evil from one of Azeroth's most important loci of power: the ancient, magical Sunwell. Explore the mystical grounds of the new 5-person dungeon, Magisters' Terrace, where one of the Burning Crusade's most notorious villains is preparing to make his desperate last stand. Lead your raid group straight into the heart of the Sunwell Plateau to confront the most terrifying and deadly agents of the Burning Legion. But beware, for your enemies will not go down without a fight. Expect the demons to send in their most ferocious, brutal, and powerful officers. Your greatest challenge yet awaits. The new dungeon and raid content is not the only new addition of this upcoming patch. More than a dozen new daily quests will provide fresh new challenges, and a brand-new faction stands ready to reward you for your bravery and commitment. The call goes out to the strongest, most cunning, and bravest heroes to join the Shattered Sun Offensive in the battle to reclaim the Sunwell.

Show #73

[Download Show #73 as MP3]

Fun Non-Gas Using Activities a.k.a. News

• Google Caves to Pentagon Wishes
• Google's Street View removed images at the request of the Pentagon from public streets where anyone could walk and take the same pictures and/or video and post them to the Internet.
• Ostensibly, the government was concerned that the images, which included views of the entrances to military bases, were a threat.
• The question remains whether the government had the right to request that the images be removed.
• Will porn be the cause of a the shutdown of Tudou
• Tudou, a hugely popular streaming video site, think YouTube for China, has been instructed to shut down by the SARFT (The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television)
  [China Herald] [PoynterOnline] [Isaac Mao] [techblog86]
• The rumor can be summarized quickly. China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) supposedly instructed Tudou to close its doors, and word is it's because the people responsible for taking down illegal material missed some porn.

• As for its potential shutdown, Danwei, one of the most reliable sources on Chinese internet news, tracked down some facts but nothing conclusive. One unnamed Tudou source told a Chinese source that they haven't been asked to shut down.

• Meanwhile, Marbridge Consulting, whose staff watch the Chinese tech industry closely for a variety of clients claims to have confirmed with unnamed authorities that Tudou has been ordered to shut down, but they don't say whether the report they've translated is accurate in saying that the shut-down may be temporary.

• Apple iTunes is now fully integrated with facebook through a built-in music section
• Can see artists/preview their music
• purchase individual tracks and entire albums
  
• smart to partner instead of creating their own (more diversity for everyone)
• Apple Announces iPhone Enterprise Features & iPhone SDK (Development Kit)
• Enterprise Features
• Exchange Support
• Push Mail/Contact/Calendar with Exchange Servers
• Also coming are global address list, Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication and certs, enterprise class WiFi (WPA2 / 802.1x), security policies, enterprise configuration tools, and remote wipe
• Also Microsoft and Apple have partnered and developed an ActiveSync for the iPhone to allow better integration with Exchange
• iPhone SDK (Development Kit)
• This is a full fledged development kit
• Contains access to pretty much all of the iPhone's advanced features (multi-touch, accelorometer, video/audio layer, etc)
• Mac only development
  
• $99 "entry" fee, this gets a certificate to sign your applications with
• The App Store will be the only way to distribute your application(s) to iPhone/iTouch users
• Apple will monitor applications available in the App Store rejecting those that are malicious or adult in nature
  
• Both the enterprise features and third party application support will come in the iPhone 2.0 software
• Free iPhone upgrade. Again, Touch users are going to have to pay for the new features
• Available in June
• Suzy: Hulu opens it's doors
• hulu.com opening to public
• i checked it out and it seems cool but i don't understand how some of is drawbacks affect ME... derek?
• i like that they have all the superbowl commercials grouped together for you.. but then again i'm an advertising major...
• Web Browser Beta Bash!
  
• Firefox 3.0 b4
• Improved platform features such as: support for HTML5’s window.postMessage and window.messageEvent, JavaScript 1.8 improvements, and offline data storage for web applications. (who cares)
  
• Performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization resulted in significant gains over previous releases in the popular SunSpider test from Apple, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run much faster, and continued improvements to memory usage drastically reduce the amount of memory consumed over long web browsing sessions.
• Beta 5 Schedule
• Internet Explorer 8
• Five things you'll LOVE or HATE about IE8
• WebSlices - Web developers have work to do, but sort of a neat idea. Think RSS feeds to clips of the main content from a page.
  
• New Favorites Bar - Links bar renamed, add RSS and WebSlices = New Favorites Bar
  
• Activities - Lots of options added to the right click menu on webpages: Map, define, translate, etc.
  
• Crash Recovery - Firefox has had tab/session storage for a long time, IE finally gets it
  
• Easier-to-Identify Domains - Domain portion of the address is black
  
• Wider release of IE8 planned for summer
• Anyone can download now
• Currently the build is targeted at developers
• Second beta slated for summer for a wider audience
• More information from InternetExplorer8.net