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Geek This Week:
Aaron: Picked up the MacHeist nano bundle 2 this morning for $19. This is a pre-cursor to the main event: MacHeist 4, which is supposed to come out later this year. This bundle sells for $19 and gives you 7 applications. They added three more programs you get just for tweeting that you made your purchase and then this morning an 8th program was added: Tweetie 2 beta.
The MacHeist bundle has always featured good programs at an incredible price and a portion goes to charity. The main bundle later this year is sure to be awesome but for now, head on over to macheist.com to score your programs!
Gozer: Lunar PSP. Cool begining, four heros in the past, that the game makes references to, starts off fighting this evil creature and some foreshadowing of who the main villan of Lunar is.
Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing
Sonic the Hedgehog – Sonic the Hedgehog
Miles “Tails” Prower – Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Doctor Eggman – Sonic the Hedgehog
Amy Rose Sonic – CD
Shadow the Hedgehog – Sonic Adventure 2
AiAi – Super Monkey Ball
Amigo – Samba de Amigo
Billy Hatcher – Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
Knuckles the Echidna – Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Big the Cat – Sonic Adventure
Beat – Jet Set Radio
Ulala – Space Channel 5
B.D. Joe – Crazy Taxi
Zobio and Zobikoa – The House of the Dead: EX
Ryo Hazukib – Shenmue
Jacky Bryant and Yukia – Virtua Fighter
Robo and Moboa – Bonanza Bros.
Chuith, ChuBei, ChuPea and ChuBacha – ChuChu Rocket!
Opa-Opa – Fantasy Zone
Alex Kidd – Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Banjo and Kazooiec – Banjo-Kazooie
Disturbed Track Pack 2
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Tech and Gaming News:
Valve confirms Steam for Mac, debuts in April
By Donald Melanson posted Mar 8th 2010 2:44PM
Eager gamers have no doubt already seen the teasers, but Valve has now finally confirmed that its Steam game distribution service and Source engine will at long last be headed to the Mac. According to Valve, the company’s current line-up of games (including the Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series) will be available to Mac users in April, while Portal 2 will represent the company’s first simultaneous release for PC and Mac later this year. Better still, Steamworks for Mac also boasts a new feature called “Steam Play,” which will let you buy a game once and, for instance, start playing it on a PC at work and then pick up where you left off on your Mac at home (we’ll give you a moment to let that sink in). Game publishers will have to enable that feature themselves, but Valve says it expects most to take advantage of it.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/08/valve-confirms-steam-for-mac-debuts-in-april/
TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL usher in a brand new interface, optional QWERTY remote
By Nilay Patel posted Mar 2nd 2010 6:53PM
Over three years after the original Series3 launched, TiVo’s back with Series4 — say hello to the new TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL, which will arrive in early April. The new slimmer hardware is nice, but the big news is the totally revamped HD interface built on Flash — yes, Flash — with all kinds of new options for discovering content from recorded, on-air, and internet sources. The new UI is only for the Series4, and TiVo’s pitching the Premiere line as a single-box solution for getting content on your TV, so although there’s long been support for services like Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand, it’s now being pushed to the front — content will show up in searches and be exposed on the main screen. There are also new partnerships with Pandora and FrameChannel, both of which will also come to Series3 boxes. And yes: there’s finally a capacity meter. We could kiss the ground.
Both models will do up to 1080p output and have single multistream CableCARD slots and eSATA jacks for storage expansion; the $299 Premiere will do 45 hours of HD recording on the 320GB internal drive, while the $499 XL will do 150 on 1TB and adds in THX certification. The bad news? There’s still no support for tru2way, so you still won’t have access to your cable company’s video on demand service — although one of the screenshots has a Comcast logo on it, so we’re intrigued.
There’s also a new optional Bluetooth slider QWERTY remote, which will ship later this year for an undisclosed price — we played with a hush-hush prototype at CES and we can say that it’ll be a must-buy for Premiere owners. We’re actually a little miffed that it’s not packed in the box as the standard remote — all that searching almost demands it. Same with the new Wireless N Adapter, which will be $90 and go on sale with the Premiere; it should at least be included with the Premiere XL. We’re okay with the omission of the new optional phone line adapter, though, it’ll be $30 and only sold online. Press release after the break, a full set of pics in the galleries, and PDF spec sheets at the read links.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/dnptivo-premiere-and-premiere-xl-usher-in-a-brand-new-interface/
Xbox Live Now Allows Sexual, Racial Identifiers
Policy update comes with “increased stringency and enforcement” to prevent abuse.By Steve Watts, 03/05/2010 at 09:02
Microsoft announced an update to their Xbox Live Code of Conduct today, which will allow users to “more freely express their race, nationality, religion and sexual orientation” in Gamertags and online profiles. “Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs,” wrote XBL general manager Marc Whitten. “However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox Live community.”
Microsoft has been fielding criticism about the policy, particularly in regards to gay and lesbian Xbox users who have felt that they couldn’t express themselves. The story hit last year of a lesbian being suspended due to her name. Later in the year, the launch of The Ballad of Gay Tony brought the issue up again, making users wonder why a word was banned if it was in a game title.
Of course, the spirit of the policy was to prevent abuse, and Microsoft promises that hasn’t changed. Whitten says that Xbox Live will be policing for people abusing the terms more than ever, and promises “increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms.” In other words, if you’re legitimately gay and want to express it on Xbox Live, go for it. If you want to use it as a pejorative, this isn’t free license to do so.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178234
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Test a Geek:
1) Q: What 1991 Sega Genesis game features two alien rappers who crash land on earth?
A: ToeJam and Earl, also the two funky alien rappers have also been rumored to appear in Sonic & Sega Racing in future DLC.
2) Q: What was the secret code name for the first version of TiVo? A: Because March 31, 1999 ( the possible first shipping date) was a blue moon, the engineering staff code named this first version of the TiVo DVR “Blue Moon”.
3) Q: Name the famous wrestler that recently guest starred on an episode of Chuck. A: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin guest starred on the fifth episode of Chuck’s third season titled ‘Chuck vs. First Class’.
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How To: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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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: Aperature 3, 30 Day Demo
http://www.apple.com/aperture/
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