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Items of Note:
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Gozer got his Egon Spengler figure w/slimer. Check out my unboxing video.
Listener Feedback:
Mark on Twitter says in reference to episode 150: @thegeekcast Listening to the new episode about cell phone menus, here’s a trick on verizon, press * when the voicemail starts it will skip.
Matt on Twitter says: good show yesterday… are you going to ban live shows since I’m such a distraction?
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
iPhone saves the day with the built-in iTunes Store! Yesterday my wife and I were at a children’s talent show that her company was putting on. It was a great time to see these kids show off their talent and to gain some praise. While we were there, one girl was going to sing to the song Hurt from Christina Aguilera. It ended up that as she got onto the stage, her iPod stopped working and of course the DJ didn’t have the song.
The girl helping to put on the show went around to everyone asking if they had an iPod with the song on it so this girl could do her song, but no one was able to help. Luckily I had my iPhone 3G S with me (as I always do). I asked which song she needed and just three minutes later, it was searched, purchased and downloaded to my phone. This is one of those stories that Apple would probably eat up because it shows the sheer power of the iPhone when certain situations arise. It’s also a situation where improvements to the software made a difference. There used to never be an iTunes store and then when it was released, it was wifi only. My iPhone saved the day and this girl was able to perform her song just as she had planned!
Gozer:
Wii Sports Resort. Wii motion plus is what Wii shoulda been from the get go. The motion is very natural. It tracks your movements very precisely. There are alot of awesome new games. Swordplay is awesome. It moves exactly as you would move a sword. Some other modes are: frisbee with a dog, wakeboarding, ping pong, waverunners, canoeing, archery and the classic bowling ( which can be thrown automatically). Never thought i would buy this, thought it was just another gimmick, but it is really worth it. Also good to play with your significant other.
Picked up a nice coby portable dvd battery. Skeptical about buying coby. Got good reviews on amazon. I have a phillips dvd/ipod player that is awesome. Downloaded season 5 of the wire onto my ipod. It is going to be a very fast plane ride to california.
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Tech and Gaming News:
Infinity Ward Says Fans Will Determine Modern Warfare 2 DLC
Community manager Robert Bowling says more than two DLC packs possible.
We reported last week that Activision is planning two downloadable content packs for Modern Warfare 2. But if you were nervous about only having two opportunities to spend money, don’t worry; Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling says there will be more where that came from, and it will depend on you. In an e-mail to MTV Multiplayer, Bowling outlined the company’s plans. “As far as DLC goes, we love it and plan to support Modern Warfare 2 heavily with post-launch support,” he said. “We’ve confirmed we’ll be doing at least two map packs which were announced at E3 as a timed exclusive for the Xbox 360. The fact that we confirmed at least two map packs doesn’t mean there won’t be more; honestly we plan on shaping our DLC based on community feedback from the full game, and the first two DLC map packs. Therefore, the community will really determine what comes after that.”
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3175524
Chevy Volt to get 230 mpg rating
Ultra-high mileage for GM’s electric-drive Volt could give it a marketing boost.
The Chevrolet Volt, GM’s electric car that’s expected to go on sale in late 2010, is projected to get an estimated 230 miles per gallon, the automaker announced Tuesday. That exceptionally high government mileage rating could give the Volt a major boost. For the first time, car buyers will easily be able to compare electric cars with ordinary gas-powered cars.
“Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us,” said GM CEO Fritz Henderson.
Determining fuel economy for an electric car is a tricky matter. While General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) has been working with the Environmental Protection Agency for years on the issue, the agency says it has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM. Basically, you will be able to drive the Volt for about 40 miles using the lithium-ion batteries. For those driving less than that, gas mileage is essentially unlimited. It is only after 40 miles that the Volt will start using gas.
“Most Volt drivers will operate on a daily basis without having to use a single drop of gas,” said Henderson, saying that three out of four drivers travel 40 miles or less a day.
Fuel economy for hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius is displayed in the same way as it is for any other gasoline-powered vehicle. It gets 46 mpg, for example, versus 19 mpg for a V-6 Ford Mustang. That standard works because all the energy used by the Prius ultimately comes from burning gasoline. The Prius just uses that energy more efficiently than other cars do. The Chevrolet Volt, on other hand, runs on electricity that comes from two sources — a battery as well as a gasoline engine.
When gasoline is providing the power, the Volt might get as much as 50 mpg. But that mpg figure would not take into account that the car has already gone 40 miles with no gas at all. So let’s say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That’s the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be just 62.5 mpg.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/11/autos/volt_mpg/index.htm?postversion=2009081116
Nielsen: 360 has most ‘active users’ in 2009, Wii has fewest
We imagine those six multicolored lines you see above are going to cause quite a stir among the various fanboy contingencies — they represent the percentage of “active users” on different consoles in the first half of 2009, according to survey data compiled by Nielsen. As you can see, the Xbox 360 dominated the charts, while the ubiquitously successful Wii came in dead last by a huge margin, ranking below the PS2, original Xbox and GameCube.
Our initial reaction to this data was that Nielsen is high on pot, but we can kinda understand what caused the Wii’s disappointing placement on the list — the chart is tracking the percent of console owners who use their gaming hardware on a regular basis. Everyone and their dog owns a Wii by this point, but very few actually play them consistently, according to Nielsen’s findings.
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Test a Geek:
1. What was the name of the first cell phone that had iTunes integration? The Motorola Rokr
2. After the success of Battlestar Galactica, what TV show did NBC revive for a season? Bionic Woman
3. What is the name of the store where you can buy applications for the Blackberry? App World
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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: Songbird
In Steve Job’s ultimate wisdom, Apple has refused to release a Linux client of iTunes so we must find alternatives that have similar feature sets. One such app is Songbird. Songbird is actually based off Firefox, in fact, it essentially IS Firefox skinned and optimized for audio. It supports most of the major features of iTunes like grouping, rating, album art, and playlist, but also supports the major advantage of Firefox: plugins. There are plugins for things like lyrics which automatically will locate lyrics and save them for the track you’re listening to, a clone of coverflow called mediaflow, as well as last.fm support with scrobbling.
Songbird also fully supports iPods, although I believe it is limited on Linux since it has to be reverse engineered. When you plug in your iPod with Songbird running, it will see it and list in just like in iTunes and you can transfer music just as in iTunes as well as play music right from the iPod.
The unique feature of Songbird is the ability to “play the web”. If you browse to a website from within Songbird that has audio content on it, a frame will open with the audio content listed and you can then download and save it or stream it. It may not be iTunes, but its darn close and just as functional.
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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 Hangover
Heard alot of hype about this movie. Went to see it with the wife. It was definetly funny but a little cliche too. The basic premise is that these 4 guys go to vegas for a bachelor party. The main character feels somewhat obliged to bring his wierdo borther in law to vegas with his friends, a dentist and a teacher. They get the night started by taking a few shots on the roof of Caeser’s Palace. Then in flashes foward to the next morning and they are trying to figure out what happened and where the groom is. The end of the movie is brilliant, you find out what exactly happened but in such an awesome way. The presentation is really the only thing that separates this movie from some national lampoon movie.
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