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Items of Note:
We have begun our live-streaming of the show! You can now watch Aaron and Gozer record the show and also participate in a chat room with us! This will allow you to view the show live and see how the magic happens. Even better, it will let you interact with us as we record which may be a lot of fun. We’ve never done this before, so there are bound to be hiccups and glitches, but if you bear with us, this could be really cool. We currently record on Wednesday evenings and start between 7:30 and 8:00 pm Eastern and we go for about 60-90 minutes.
Check out our YouTube channel. Gozer finally finished his Ghostbusters is Hiring application video. I apologize in advance for the poor resolution. It was shot with a Canon Powershot. I had charged up my Camcorder only to find that the next morning it hadn’t charged at all. The ending of the 2 min video is my first attempt at using visionlab studios fx software. Don’t be too harsh on me!
Listener Feedback:
A shout out to kingRidiculous for being a long-time listener and also for checking out a test setup of the upcoming live stream.
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
Went to NYC last week and decided to head on over to the Apple store on 14th street. I have been to every Apple store in Manhattan except this one and it was on the way back from Penn Station. My iPhone 3G S needed some juice, so I docked it and played with their display iPhone. Lo and behold I found the game FlightControl on their demo unit.
This is a simple game for the iPhone where you are an air traffic controller. As planes come on the screen, you must tap and drag a path for them to fly and lead them to the runway to land. The game gets very hard very quickly. It’s also insanely addictive. There are planes, biplanes, jumbo jets and helicopters. Each flies at their own speed and you must ensure that there are no mid-air collisions. If a collision occurs, the game is over.
Within 5 minutes of playing the game, I bought it on my iPhone. It’s a fantastic deal at only $0.99, which is the current sale price. At some point it will go up to $2.99 but even then it’s still worth it.
You can check out more from the FireMint website at http://www.firemint.com/flightcontrol/ or you can purchase FlightControl directly from the App Store.
Gozer:
Went to NYC for our 4 year anniversary and is was fairly geeky. This trip included stops at Toys R Us, The Apple store and Nintendo World. Toys r Us in times square is just a fun place to go to and i think is much bigger than FAO Shwartz. Times square is now open to sit in folding chairs and there is this big open stadium seating area. Also saw the naked cowgirl…uhhhh 70 years old. eck. Went to the Apple store the morning of the 4th of July. Didn’t spend too much time there because, like always there were a ton of people there. Also having a wife not that interested in tech stuff doesn’t help either. The coolest stop was at Nintendo World, which is located at 48th street right near Rockerfeller Center.
Walked into Nintendo World and Mario was on a small flat screen and he was talking to me. All of a sudden he turned into Wario and proceeded to break wind. Of course i started laughing hysterically because farts are funny. The entire first floor is devoted to the DS. The second floor is devoted to the Wii. The best part about this store though is the mini museum. It is just a couple of glass cases with a small history of Nintendo crammed into it. They had everything from the original NES with Robby to every Gameboy ever made. They also had the prototype original Nintendo which was called the Advance Video System. This NES prototype can only, aestheticaly, be described as an old cassette tape player. It came with a huge keyboard and infared wireless controllers.
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Tech and Gaming News:
Gmail leaves beta, launches “Back to Beta” Labs feature
We get asked all the time why Google keeps its products in beta for so long. And Gmail, five years after launch, is consistently a subject of this questioning, even of jokes.
Some people thought that once we opened sign-ups, Gmail should have come out of beta.
Others said that once we integrated chat, developed new anti-spam technology, expanded to 53 languages, shipped a mobile app, added group chat, launched an iPhone UI, added a vacation autoresponder, launched Gmail Labs, subsequently modified the vacation autoresponder with a Gmail Lab, launched 48 other Labs, launched video chat, enabled open protocols and APIs (POP, auto-forwarding, IMAP, and the Contacts Data API), let you POP mail in from other accounts, added a delete button, rearchitected our entire javascript code base, and added key functionality to get large companies, startups, universities, and many other organizations (in addition to Google itself) running on Gmail, we should have come out of beta.
Some people think we should wait until we launch < one of ongoing secret projects >.
Others say that, over the last five years, a beta culture has grown around web apps, such that the very meaning of “beta” is debatable. And rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we’re moving to a world of rapid developmental cycles where products like Gmail continue to change indefinitely.
The end result (many visible and invisible changes later) is that today, beta is a thing of the past. Not just for Gmail, but for all of Google Apps — Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Talk.
However, we realize that after five years, this leaves some of you wrestling with some tough questions. How will you ever get used to using Gmail without that familiar grey “BETA” text greeting you when you log in everyday? What example will you cite the next time you make an internet joke about perpetual betas? Don’t despair… for those of you long-time Gmail-ers who might feel some separation anxiety, we’ve got a solution. Just go to Settings, click on Labs, turn on “Back to Beta,” and it’ll be like Gmail never left beta at all.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gmail-leaves-beta-launches-back-to-beta.html
Webcasters agree to pay music royalties
After years of tweaking and rewording agreements, commercial webcasters have agreed to royalty rates for music they stream online, according to a statement from SoundExchange, a not-for-profit organization that collects and distributes digital music royalties.
The formula, which includes revenue sharing and song monitoring, is considered experimental, however “pureplay” webcasters say the new terms are viable. “Pureplay” webcasters include Internet radio Web sites and others who stream music online.
“For this we are truly thankful and want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone involved,” Pandora Internet radio founder Tim Westergren wrote on the Pandora blog. Pandora is one of the largest Internet radio sites with about 30 million registered listeners, according to Westergren.
Under the new terms, “pureplay” webcasters agree to pay artists and rights owners, through SoundExchange, a minimum percentage of all their U.S. revenues up to 25 percent and to pay a more significant annual minimum royalty. The agreement provides for three rate classes, under which webcasters can choose alternative rate structures.
“Pureplay” webcasters breathed a collective sigh of relief once the agreement was announced because many feel the new deal will replace an outdated and unfair rates set by a 2007 issued by the Copyright Royalty Board.
“This is an agreement we’re proud of because it shows that both sides can address the business concerns of the webcasters while giving artists and copyright holders the potential to share in the revenue growth of webcasters,” said John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange.
Under the new agreement, there will be rate classes: Larger “pureplay” services will pay the top rate, 25 percent of total revenue. They must also agree to provide more comprehensive reporting about the sound recordings used than regulations currently require, according to the statement.
Through 2014, small pureplay webcasters will have the option of paying the greater of a percentage of revenue or a percentage of expenses and in certain circumstances have less stringent play list reporting requirements in return for payment of an additional “proxy fee.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/07/web.music.royalties/index.html
Google plans Chrome-based Web operating system
Google announced Google Chrome OS on its blog Tuesday night, saying Netbooks from unnamed manufacturers will include it in the second half of 2010. Linux will run under the covers of the open-source project, but the applications will run on the Web itself.
“Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small Netbooks to full-size desktop systems,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, said in the blog post.
The move has widespread implications. One is that it shows just how serious Google is about making the Web into a foundation not just for static pages but for active applications, notably its own such as Google Docs and Gmail. Another: it opens new competition with Microsoft and, potentially, a new reason for antitrust regulators to pay close attention to Google’s moves.
With Google Chrome OS, the company hopes to start afresh with personal computing. “The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no Web,” the blog post said. “So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome–the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to rethink what operating systems should be.”
Among the benefits Google touted are “speed, simplicity and security,” Pichai and Upson said. “We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware, and security updates.”
Google is talking to Netbook partners now, and the project will become open-source “soon.” It will run on members of the x86 and ARM processor families, Google said.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10281744-2.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
2010 Independent Games Festival Opens Submissions
Think Services, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Entries to the 12th annual festival are due in both Main and Student Showcase categories by November 2009, with Main Competition finalists to be announced January 4, 2010.
Games selected as finalists will be available in playable form on the GDC show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
http://www.gametab.com/news/3041457/
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Test a Geek:
1) Where did the word Google originate from? A: It originated from a mispelling of “googol,” which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros.
2) What was the name of the company that created the first netbook line? A: The name of the company that created the first netbook line was Psion.
3) Who was the creator of the original Napster? A: Shawn Fanning was the creator of the original Napster. The name Napster was based on Fanning’s hairstyle based nickname.
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How To: Use Google Voice on an iPhone
Google Voice is now out of beta and Google is sending out invitations to people on their waiting list. If you’re looking to use your existing contacts to dial out with your GV number, there are two easy ways for this to happen on the iPhone.
Method 1: Speed Dialing
For each contact you should create a new number called GV or something similar. For the number, enter the following sequence:
“Your Google Voice number,,2,,the contact’s number,#”
By dialing your GV number you can use option 2 to dial out. The commas pause the speed dialing, allowing the GV system to catch up. So you dial your own number, pause a couple of seconds. Then you press 2 and enter your contact’s number. Finally it sends the # to confirm the dialing. Once this sequence completes, the call connects. While the method is slow, it’s a 1-touch way to dial your contacts.
Method 2: GV Mobile
GV Mobile is a dialer app for the iPhone that makes is very easy to dial your contacts. It utilizes your existing address book and internet connection of the phone to create a call. When you open the app you can choose a contact or dial from the number pad. Once you hit Call, the app works to send the correct information out to Google. A few seconds later your phone will ring. Once you pick it up, the call will then connect and ring to the person you’re calling.
The app utilizes the ‘click to call’ abilities of Google Voice and the setup for the call takes a few seconds. The bottom line though is that it works as advertised. GV Mobile has a free and paid version. If you’re going to use GV a lot, the paid version of GV Mobile is well worth the couple of dollars. You can get GV Mobile from the App Store.
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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: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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