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Items of Note:
A big thank you to everyone who stopped by last Wednesday to join us for our live coverage of Apple’s iPad event! We had a great time chatting it up and bringing you all the details as they broke.
We’re looking to answer YOUR tech questions! Please send us your questions via e-mail or leave a voicemail and we’ll play it on the show and answer your question!!
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
I found a new obsessive game for my iPhone: Drop7. This game from Area Code Inc (http://www.areacodeinc.com/drop7/) is a tetris-like game that combines a drop aspect with numbers. You have to clear out columns and survive as long as possible. The bottom line: it’s addicting as all hell. It’s officially taken over as my time-suck, pulling that title away from iValet.
Also LOVING BetterTouchTool for my Apple Magic Mouse. This AWESOME utility (found at http://blog.boastr.net/) allows not just for expansion of the usable gestures but it also allows you to create custom gestures with a huge array of options. The best thing of all is that you can have program-specific gestures. For example, if I three-finger click while in Safari, I get a new tab with Google.com loaded. It’s incredibly awesome and makes my mouse a thousand-times more useful. I will admit though that the gesture I wanted and use the most is the Apple-included two-finger swipe to navigate forward and back in Safari.
Gozer:
Star Wars one man show.
Mass Effect 2. Yes i bought it. Couldn’t really get into the first game but figured i would give this one a shot. I am definitely sucked in at this point. You play a commander Shepard, customize your character. Basically there are these reapers that are destroying human colonies throughout the galaxy and you have to investigate what is going on. This is an awesome sci-fi / roleplaying / action game. Role playing aspect i took a jack bauer approach. The action is similar to gears, great cover system. Squad based mechanics are awesome.
Three words: Austrian Death Machine
Totally wanna make another music video for “Get to the Choppa” with video from Predator.
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Tech and Gaming News:
Nexus One update bringing pinch-to-zoom, Google Goggles, updated maps, T-Mobile 3G fix
You read that right, folks. The update to Google’s Nexus One that was thought to just be a basic 3G fix instead has been loaded with other goodies, including:
Google Googles (Visual search – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4) will now be baked into the ROM.
Google Maps is being updated to sync starred items and search suggestions with the desktop version, and it automatically switches to night mode in Navigation to make it easier to read.
The aforementioned 3G fix.
And pinch-to-zoom. Yes, multitouch in the browser, gallery and maps.
Keep an eye on your notifications bar, which is where you’ll be alerted that the update is ready for you. Google says it will be rolled out gradually and that you might not get the update until the end of the week.
http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-one-update-bringing-pinch-zoom-google-goggles-updated-maps-3g-fix
Amazon agrees to higher prices in e-book dispute
by Jennifer Guevin
Amazon said Sunday that, while it still believes a $14.99 price tag for e-books is “needlessly high,” it will have to give in to Macmillan’s demands to sell electronic versions of its books at a higher rate than Amazon’s usual $9.99.
The announcement comes after Amazon temporarily pulled Macmillan books from its Web site in a dispute over e-book pricing. Macmillan and other book publishers have asked Amazon to increase the sales price of e-books on its Web site. But Amazon stood firm in its contention that anything above $9.99 was too high–that is until now.
“We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles,” Amazon’s statement read. “We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”
Macmillan books will eventually return to Amazon’s sites. And Amazon will charge between $12.99 and $14.99 for electronic versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. No time frame was given for the change, but on Sunday afternoon, top sellers from Macmillan–including Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Middlesex,” Ishmael Beah’s “A Long Way Gone,” and Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”–were still only available from third parties via Amazon’s Web site and could not be bought from Amazon directly.
Amazon’s statement hints at the precarious position it is in. On one hand, it wants to be known by consumers as a low-cost e-book distributor. On the other hand, if it can’t work out deals with all of the major book publishers, it risks being able to offer customers only a limited selection of titles.
Now, as Amazon said in its announcement, “Amazon customers will…decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10444878-93.html?tag=mncol;txt
Game Room Won’t Feature Teen, Mature Rated Games
Microsoft representative says only E and E10+ games will be in their virtual arcade.
By Kris Pigna, 01/31/2010
“Games available for download within ‘Game Room’ will carry either E or E10+ ratings,” this representative said to GamerBytes (via Kotaku). “We currently have no plans to feature titles of those [higher Teen and Mature] ratings.”
The reasoning behind this is where things get a little tricky, though. Originally, GamerBytes reported that Microsoft elected to get an ESRB rating for the Game Room feature itself, rather than have to rate every title that will launch within it. As such, they limited themselves to E and E10+ games only, and will have to continue to do so for every new game released for Game Room. The logic here is this will save Microsoft tons of money in ESRB rating fees since they supposedly wouldn’t have to rate future games for the service.
However, as GamerBytes’s report now notes, this logic doesn’t entirely hold water: Even if they limit themselves to only E-rated games, how will the ESRB know what new games are allowable unless they’re rated anyway?
But whatever the reason, the bluntness of Microsoft’s statement remains: No plans for Teen or Mature rated games any time soon. So for anyone hoping Game Room may eventually contain such gleefully violent classics (?) as Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage, you’re out of luck.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3177774
Quick news story: Oscar Noms!!!
(CNN) — Below is the list of nominees for the 82nd annual Academy Awards. The Oscar ceremony will take place on March 7 and will be televised by ABC.
Best picture
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“Up in the Air”
“Inglorious Basterds”
“Up”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“A Serious Man”
Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz Inglorious Basterds
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/02/academy.award.nominations.list/index.html
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Test a Geek:
1) Q: In what year does Mass Effect 2 begin? A: Mass Effect 2 begins in the year 2183.
2) Q: Besides the Motorola Droid, what is the name of the other Android phone Verizon currently sells? A: Droid Erris
3) Q: Ahhhhyeeeee What other governor starred with me in the smash hit Predator? A: Jesse “The Body” Ventura starred with me in predator and was also the 38th governor of Minnesota.
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How To: Use Google Voice on your iPhone.
Google has put the power of HTML5 to work to finally bring a rich Google Voice web app to the iPhone (and Palm webOS).
The robust web application can be accessed by visiting m.google.com/voice on your mobile device and works with phones running iPhone 3.0 software and above and Palm webOS.
The new HTML5 web app includes a few extra bonuses like a sleek design for yourGoogle Voice inbox, the option to create homescreen icons for individual pages and the ability to display your Google Voice number as the outbound caller ID so you can easily receive return calls. You can also send and receive text messages for free.
You can also place home screen icons onto your iPhone’s screen for each individual portion of Google Voice, such as an icon for voicemail and a second for your contacts. Each one has its own icon! Google has done a fantastic job with this implementation of the product and it looks like a jailbreak is no longer needed for halfway decent access to your phone features.
Aside from that, Google has also changed their dial-in feature for listening to voicemail. Now when you call in, you don’t have to press any buttons to hear a message. This works great for me since my iPhone is in my glove compartment when I drive and I depend on the iPhone’s Voice Control feature to make and receive calls.
Get it at http://m.google.com/voice. If you have an invitation, sign up at http://voice.google.com.
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Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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Open Source Software: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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Hack: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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The Geek’s View: The Hurt Locker
97% on rottentomatoes.com
Follows staff sergeant William James as he takes over a small counterforce that is specially trained to handle IED’s ( improvised explosive devices ) James loves his job a little too much. He is an adrenaline junkie and also extremely reckless. For example, there is one sequence where he comes across and IED and he proceeds to take off his bomb suit because he says that if he’s gonna die he wants to be comfortable. His character is not very believable but the situations in the movie are real. How the soldiers behave and the protocol that they follow in dealing with threats.
Saw it for rent on dvd, but waited till it was available in blu ray. Amazing DTS-master audio. I have this huge blown up 360 controller cardboard cut out and during one of the explosions in the movie, it knocked it off the wall and knocked over another resident evil standee that i have. I have never had a movie knock over anything in my theater room!
Everyone is saying that this will win best picture, i don’t know about that, but i do know it is a damn good movie.
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