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Contact info: | Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/geekcast | TheGeekcast.com | geekcast@gmail.com | Skype & Gizmo: Geekcast | 206-98-geek-1 | Show notes: send blank e-mail to geekcastpodcast-subscribe@yahoogroups.com | Frappr Map: Frappr.com/thegeekcast
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Items of Note: The Apple store in Lake Grove, NY will be opening this Saturday and I will be podcasting from the store. If you see me, feel free to say hello!
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Tech news:
Apple rolls out new hardware and schedules events for September 12th.
Apple has just updated the entire iMac line to include Intel Core 2 Duo processors in each model. In addition they have added a 24 inch model as well as lowering the price of the low end model to $999. The iMac line up now includes 4 models: 1.83 GHz and a 2.0 GHz 17-inch, a 2.16 GHz 20-inch and the new 2.16 GHz 24-inch. The 24 inch can hold up to 3 gigs of RAM, has a 250 gig hard drive, an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory (upgradable to the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory), a SuperDrive, and builtin iSight. Bluetooth and Wifi are built in, and the base price is $1,999.
Along with the iMac, the Mac mini also has been updated. Both models now have the Core Duo processor. The $799 Mac mini now has a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor and the $599 model gets you a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor. Pricing remains the same, as do all the other specs.
Apple to hold ‘Showtime’ event on September 12th. Apple has confirmed that it will hold a special event on Tuesday, September 12th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, California. The invitation sent out features Hollywood premiere-style spotlights and reads simply, “It’s Showtime.” The event starts at 10:00 a.m. PT. It is rumored that movies will be showing up in iTunes. Analysts have also speculated that Apple will launch a new iPod nano and video iPod models. These are just some of the movies to expect within the first six months to a year:
From Walt Disney Pictures: James and the Giant Peach, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Aladdin, Chicken Little, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Sky High, Ice Princess, National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
From Disney/Pixar: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars.
From Miramax: Cold Mountain, The Hours, Chicago, Cinderella Man, Scary Movie 1,2,3 and 4.
From Touchstone Pictures: The Royal Tenenbaums, Pearl Harbor, The Sixth Sense (with Hollywood Pictures), Unbreakable, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Shanghai Noon, Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, King Arthur, Hidalgo, Open Range, Signs, Reign of Fire.
From Lion’s Gate Entertainment: American Psycho, Dogma, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Open Water, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, The Punisher, Fahrenheit 9/11, Crash, Alone in the Dark, Hostel, Saw 1 and 2.
Not all of the above will be available for download immediately but instead there will be a slow rollout over the first six months during which they will be joined by ever newer releases. Pricing is expected to be from $9.99 to $14.99.
See new Battlestar Galactica content available online. The first Battlestar Galactica webisode has been released, titled ‘The Resistance’. This is a glimpse of what has happened between seasons 2 and 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Sci-Fi is releasing episodes every Tuesday and Thursday until the season 3 premier in October.
Vivendi to buy BMG, settle Napster claims. Vivendi’s Universal Music, the world’s largest seller is vaulting to the top spot in music publishing after agreeing to buy BMG Music Publishing for $2.1 billion. German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, BMG Music Publishing’s parent company, also said it would pay Vivendi $60 million to settle litigation related to financing it once provided to Napster.
Sony delays PS3 launch in Europe. Sony will delay the European launch of PlayStation 3 by about four months to March and cut its target for worldwide shipments this year by half. Sony had planned to launch the new version of its blockbuster PlayStation console in November, setting the stage for a three-way showdown with Microsoft and Nintendo during the key holiday-shopping season. Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony’s game unit told reporters that Sony will ship 2 million PS3 units this year, half the previously forecast 4 million, but will make up the lost ground to hit a target of 6 million consoles shipped by March. Sony said it still planned to launch the PS3 on Nov. 11 in Japan and on Nov. 17 in the United States.
Firefly Marathon on SciFi, September 18th. The SciFi Channel is running the entire series of Firefly starting at 8 am Eastern on September 18th. For anyone who’s missed this great short-lived show, now is the time to check it out.
Google Expands Online News Index. Google is expanding its online news index to include stories published years ago, continuing efforts to create new sales channels for long-established media while it strives to make its own Web site even more useful. The news archive to be unveiled includes old articles provided by a long list of media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and The Washington Post. Other leading information storehouses like LexisNexis, Factiva and HighBeam, also have opened up sections of their databases to Google’s expanded index. Until now, Google’s 4-year-old news search service has focused primarily on stories posted on the Web during the past 30 days. The new archives feature will only share excerpts from stories related to users’ requests, which are expected to range from seminal moments in history to minutiae about sports and science. To see the full stories, Google’s visitors will be sent to the Web sites that own the content.
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Test a geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.
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How To: 2 ways to get the most out of GMail.
Encrypt all GMail use:
An undocumented hack makes it possible to not only login securely but also encrypt all of the traffic between your web browser and the Gmail servers. The hack is to simply type in your browser’s location bar:
https://gmail.google.com
You’ll notice the “s” that’s put into the address. Normally, when you connect to Gmail, you connect to the default http://gmail.google.com and are immediately redirected to a secure login page whose address begins with https. A simple change that makes all the difference. Just make a bookmark to https://gmail.google.com in your web browser’s Bookmark Toolbar to make always accessing Gmail in a secure fashion easy.
Mange multiple GMail accounts in Firefox:
Gmail Manager 0.5.1 is a Firefox extension that allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. It displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets. You can download GMail Manager from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1320/
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Ask A Geek: 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: Stay tuned for a video showing the Harman Kardon Drive + Play.
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