Saturday 14 April 2007

Show Audio

Tech News

Leo just purchased the Nokia N95 cell phone. It, according to him, has to be the “smartest” phone until the iPhone.

Sandisk announced the 4gb Sansa Connect mp3 player. It has built-in wireless networking so you can purchase songs when on-the-go.

Apple proclaimed that the 100 millionth has been sold, making it the fastest selling music player in history.

There were numerous death threats sent to a blogger known as Kathy Sierra. Tim O’ Reilly then posted a “Blogger’s Code of Conduct” draft.

Best Buy, owner of the Geek Squad, has been sued because one agent was caught recording a customer in the shower.

Apple has delayed OSX Leopard. According to them, they had to move several developers from that project to the iPhone.

Guests

Q Veronica Belmont - Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360

• More about learning rhythm than playing the guitar
• Game is $80 (includes plastic guitar)
• Must hit notes coming down on screen
• Veronica feels like absolute rock star playing
• Company that created the game, Harmonix, announced a new game: Rock Band allowing you and friends to play guitar, bass, drums
• Xbox 360 and PS2 versions have different songs
• Veronica has also been fiddling with a karaoke game: Singstar Pop

Q Chris - Photography tip

• When using rule of thirds, make sure to keep background in minda
• Switch off all focus points on camera except the middle
• Move subject into focus point
  • Then hold button half-way down
• Point/shoot cameras take a second or two to focus

Q Dick DeBartolo: Monster Outlets to Go

• Very flat
  • Dollar-bill length
• Four very widely spaced outlets
• Has little built-in circuit-breaker
• Cut-outs on device to fold power cable
• Check out some behind-the-scenes at Mad Magazine on MySpace

Hour 1

Q Gary from Buffalo, NY - Security on WiFi

• If just doing email, you can use secure email
  • Example: If using Gmail, you can go to https://gmail.com instead of http://gmail.com and session is secure
• Leo uses service called HotSpotVPN to encrypt everything. Puts traffic through secure tunnel.

Q “System Recovery” partition (safe to remove?)

• Has backed up the partition
• Any partitioning program can remove it
• Compaq or Windows updates may expect that partition to be there
• System recovery discs may also need that partition to ensure machine is a Compaq

Q Christine from Temecula - Windows Vista & Windows Vista

• iTunes is crashing the entire computer
  • Screen goes black, then blue
  • Seems like a spontaneous update
• Apple has released iTunes 7.1.1 that has Vista support, but there are still some issues
• Try installing Quicktime first, and then install iTunes
• If the computer is crashing only when iPod is connected, download Microsoft’s update for iPods
• There may also be a hardware issue

Q John from Pasadena - Live broadcast video to a website

• Will be very costly
• Bandwidth covers both uploads and downloads
• Whenever someone is watching a stream, they are constantly downloading
• Justin.TV is often down because there are too many people watching

Hour 2

Q Mike from Santa Barbara - Registry cleaners

• Registry cleaners are like voodoo
• Leo doesn’t recommend them
• Windows Secrets discusses whether registry cleaners are worthwhile
• If you really want one, try JV16 Powertools or EasyCleaner

Q Monitoring/controlling a house remotely

• Project that needs to be Mac-Compatible
• Try D-Link Securicam wireless security camera
  • You simply log onto it via the Internet

Q Justin - Justin.TV

• It’s Justin from Justin.TV!
• Built some custom hardware
• Using EVDO
• Four room-mates work on various aspects of the project
• When Justin went on a date, the news spread like wildfire via Twitter
• There is lots of product placement
• Can’t go watch movies or TV much anymore

Q Steve from South Pasadena - Home theater system DVD player

• Doesn’t know whether go Blu-Ray or HD-DVD
• Most DVDs you’ll be watching will be normal DVDs
• Blu-Ray Casino Royale first HD discs to break 100,000 sales
• Most movies that adults are interested in would be on HD-DVD
• Most movie stores do not even sell HD discs
• LG BH100 is a dual-format player
• Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player is a cheap $300
• Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player is about $490
• Could also go with an Oppo 1080p upscaling DVD player
• Listener Greg says, “I have a Toshiba HD-DVD and an Oppo. The Oppo upscales DVDs better than the Toshiba and while they’re not as good as HD-DVDs, they’re really really good on a 71″ 1080p set.”

Hour 3

Q Ditching a Lenovo T60 for a MacBook Pro

• MacBook Pro is probably a bit heavier
• Yes you can run Windows on a Mac, but won’t run as well as a dedicated PC
• You just bought this; stick with it
• Vista upgrade works will, but you can stick with XP if that’s working fine for you

Q Steve from Detroit - Countodown clock for blogs

• You can embed a “bug”
• Clocklink.com has basic HTML countdown clocks for you to use
• Take a look at the privacy policy before using

Q Viewing live webcams on a cell phone

• Easy if its a series of pictures
• If its a live stream, need 3g network
  • At least Verizon’s EVDO
• Figure out what kind of software is required by stream
  • Make sure browser on phone is compatible
• Opera web browser is compatible with many phones