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Items of Note:
A correction to the last episode about Songbird. It ends up that the software runs on all operating systems. We apologize for the error.
Gozer is on vacation this week, so we have a special treat: guest hosts!! Please enjoy this special edition of The Geekcast as Aaron geeks out with Allen and Mark!
Listener Feedback: There is currently no feedback. Our voicemail and e-mail inboxes are lonely.
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
I saw District 9 on Tuesday afternoon and it was really interesting. The movie has not seen lots of hype from advertising and seems to be gaining traction from word of mouth, ALA Star Trek. The movie decimated the box office last week with $37 million in ticket sales, pushing off the (why on earth would you pay to see this garbage) movie GI Joe. District 9 is directed by Peter Jackson and seems to have roots with the Halo backstory. Word on the street is that Jackson was working on a Halo movie and for whatever reasons it was scrapped in favor of District 9. Without giving anything away, the movie focuses on aliens that live here on Earth after their ship encountered problems. It is shot in a half-action / half-documentary style that makes it both fun and interesting. The special effects are top-notch and the story really evokes emotion, which is rare for a scifi movie. Overall, this movie is best movie to come out since Star Trek.
Also this week I’ve been geeking out to Big Bang Theory from Netflix. I was only able to get the first disc of the first season and that is unfortunate because this show is great!! The six episodes went by really quick and even my wife enjoyed it. The show features two geeky guys that live in an apartment together and of course the good-looking (and single) woman moves in across the hall. Where this show differs from ‘formula’ TV is that the writers are quick, witty, and really appeal to geek humor and how it’s seen by outsiders. There isn’t ‘technobabble’ that makes no sense and you even see some of the embarrassment they feel as the two main characters interact with everyone else. I’m excited for the next disc to come!
Allen:
AT&T Bandwidth rant
Privacy Concerns on iPhone via Pinch Media
Mark:
“Ben there, Dan that”, “Splosion Man”
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Tech and Gaming News:
Apple Keynote Event Scheduled for Early September?
MediaMemo reports on claims from music industry sources that Apple is planning a keynote event for the week of September 7th. Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7.
But in true Apple fashion, the company has been noncommittal about the exact date of the event and what it will be showing off. Given the apparent inside information held by media executives, the report suggest that the event may highlight Apple’s rumored “Cocktail” iTunes album enhancements.
Given that Apple has tipped off music industry executives, its a fair bet that the event will incorporate music in some way. Perhaps it will show off the new Cocktail format that Apple has been working on, which bundles full-length albums with other goodies like album covers and interactive bells and whistles.iPod updates are another likely possibility, with evidence pointing to the possibility of revised iPod touch and nano models offering built-in cameras. Rumors of Blu-ray support, iPhone app organization and social media integration in iTunes 9 are another possible topic of discussion for the event. Finally, rumors have pointed to the possibility of an announcement regarding Apple’s much-rumored tablet computer as early as September.
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/13/apple-keynote-event-scheduled-for-early-september/
Sony officially announces $299 PS3 Slim
At a press conference in Cologne, Germany, preceding the opening of the Gamescom Expo, Sony finally took the wraps off the new console. Earlier Tuesday, Kmart.com jumped the gun on the announcement and accidentally posted an ad on its home page that revealed a price cut to the “old” 80GB and 160GB PS3s to $299 and $399 respectively and hinted at the impending arrival of the new PS3 Slim.
The Slim is hitting stores the first week in September and will cost $299. Hirai says it has the same features and functions as the “old” PS3 but is 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive. It’s unclear how Sony will sell the old 80GB PS3 at the same price as the new Slim, but we’ll have more details as they emerge. Until then, feel free to comment.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10312144-1.html?tag=mncol;title
iTunes sells 25% of all music in the US, 69% of digital
Music sold through the iTunes Store makes up a full quarter of all music sold in the US, according to a new report from the NPD Group. The market research firm noted that paid digital music downloads have continued to grow since 2007 (from 20 percent to 35 percent this year) with the help of iTunes, Amazon, and Walmart’s online offerings, and that digital music sales may even equal CD sales by the end of 2010.
iTunes remains in the lead for all music sold in the US at 25 percent of “music units sold,” up from 21 percent last year and 14 percent in 2007. Comparatively, Walmart (meshing its online and physical CD sales) remains in second place overall with 14 percent of all music sold, while Best Buy came in third. When looking at onlyonline sales, iTunes made up 69 percent of the digital music market in the first half of 2009 and Amazon MP3 came in second at eight percent.
CDs, however, aren’t dead (yet). They remain the most popular music format at 65 percent of all music sold during 2009 thus far, with Walmart leading the physical sales market with 20 percent share. NPD’s VP of entertainment industry analysis Russ Crupnick pointed out that big box retailers shouldn’t be dismissed for this exact reason—so long as the majority of music sold in the US is still on CD.
He warned, however, that the trend may not last for long. “Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products,” Crupnick said. “But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010.”
Indeed, NPD reported earlier this year that 17 million people stopped buying CDs in 2008 despite the fact that the number of music listeners is going up. CD sales have been tanking for quite some time, but a leveling out in 2010 seems pretty ambitious—it would mean a 20 percentage point growth over the next year for online music, and a 20 percentage point drop for CD sales. Still, the writing is on the wall for CDs, even if teenagers still like them—for sharing burned tracks with each other, that is.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/itunes-sells-25-of-all-music-in-the-us-69-of-digital.ars
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Test a Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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How To: Create fancy video overlays and effects with CamTwist for the Mac.
CamTwist can be found at http://www.macupdate.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: FreeNAS – open source NAS appliance OS http://www.freenas.org
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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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