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Items of Note:
We have a custom URL for Facebook! You can now get to us just by heading on over to www.facebook.com/TheGeekcast!
A big shout out to Slice of Scifi for pimping The Geekcast and a congratulations for their spiffy new website. Great job!
Another shout out to Kory and Dave over at TechTubs. We’ll be appearing on their show soon. Enjoy a promo and check out their site: www.TechTubs.com
Don’t forget this week The Geekcast starts podcasting twice a week!
There’s still time to enter our contest! Win a copy of the movie Mind Meld! We have two copies of the movie Mind Meld to give away via iTunes. The contest begins today and ends on Wednesday, November 4th! To enter, send an e-mail to geekcast@gmail.com with your name, e-mail address and home town.
“Tailored to the most hard-core Star Trek fans, Mind Meld gets you up close and personal with the stars of the original television series. Its premise? Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner sitting together and having a quiet, earthy chat about old times. There isn’t much new information about the show–though old cast resentments are addressed–but viewers learn a great deal about the personal lives of everyone’s favorite spacemen. The two discuss the pressures of filming a weekly show and the difficulties of maintaining one’s dignity as an actor while wearing pointy ears. The personalities of both men shine through and it becomes obvious why they were cast as they were; Nimoy really is more thoughtful and reserved, while Shatner is extroverted and showy. The best part of Mind Meld is witnessing the genuine fondness the two men share for each other. It’s clear that they really were (and are) best friends, even when the cameras stopped rolling.” –Ali Davis
This contest is only open to U.S. residents and you must have existing iTunes account.
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
Big Bang Theory season 2.
Big Apple Con and meeting celebs like tons of BSG actors, Linda Hamilton and more!
Gozer:
I took advantage of the toys r us buy 2 get the 3rd free. Got some games for my cousin so Robert if you are listening right now please fast forward! I basically picked up 5 games for $80. Got Ghostbusters, turns out he bought the game the next day. Also picked up Gears 2 and the 3 pack of Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Planet. Awesome deal. $80 and i got 5 games.
Final Cut Pro 7. Shhhta Wars Dan is coming over for Halloween and he is going to give me a code for Final Cut Studio. I am very tempted to upgrade, for $300 to Final Cut 7. Not sure if i should. There is just so much that final cut has to offer i really don’t think i will see much of a difference between the last version and 7.
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Tech and Gaming News:
Apple redesigns iMac and 13-inch MacBook, revamps Mac Mini
Apple revamped its desktop and laptop lines Tuesday, dramatically redesigning the iMac all-in-one and MacBook laptop, and also adding a few updates to its Mac Mini line of small-scale desktops. It also introduced a handful of updated peripherals, with a multitouch mouse bringing the most thorough changes.
New iMacs
The biggest news Tuesday will be the new iMacs, which move from aluminum and polycarbon design to aluminum and edge-to-edge glass, mirroring the look of Apple’s line of MacBook Pro laptops. The new iMac will come in 21.5 (1,920×1,080) and 27-inch (2,560×1,440) models, each with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Starting price for the 21.5-inch model is $1,199, with the 27-incher beginning at $1,699. Apple will also offer step-up models for each screen size, coming in at $1,499 for the beefier 21.5-inch model, and $1,999 for the higher-end 27-inch iMac.
As for specs, Apple has mostly opted for raw speed over adding more processing cores. All but the $1,999 iMac come with Intel Core 2 Duo chips, but the CPU speed in the lowest model now starts at 3.06GHz. That used to be the fastest chip available in Apple’s previous highest-end iMac. The one exception is the $1,999 iMac, which starts with Intel’s most recent quad-core chip, the core i5 at 2.66GHz, and upgrade options for that model go all the way to the even faster Core i7 at 2.8GHz.
Other new iMac features are relatively straightforward for the systems themselves. There’s no Blu-ray option, as was rumored, but you do get an SD Card slot on all new iMacs. The 27-inch version also lets you use its mini-Display Port input as a video input (via a dongle from Belkin), which means you can use the larger iMac as a second monitor. The GeForce 9400M remains the standard graphics chip, with upgrades available to Radeon HD 4670 and Radeon HD 4870 chips. Storage options go as high as 2TB on the 27-inchers.
13-inch Unibody Polycarbonate MacBook
Apple has also revamped its best-selling laptop, the 13-inch MacBook. The new version retains the white polycarbonate look, as well as the $999 price.
With every other laptop in Apple’s current lineup using the “Pro” moniker, the single non-Pro MacBook was starting to look a little dated. While many industry watchers expected Apple to lower prices on the white polycarbonate version, the company has given the system an upscale makeover, keeping the price the same.
Like the aluminum MacBook Pro models, the MacBook now has a unibody chassis, although in this case, it’s still made of polycarbonate. A separate bottom panel has a matte non-slip feel, as opposed to the glossy white upper body. The unibody construction means the battery is no longer removable–also like the current Pro lineup.
We got a chance to get our hands on one of the new MacBooks this morning. While still recognizably a MacBook, the new version has more gently rounded edges on the lid, making it look slightly thinner from a side angle. The touch pad is the same large glass multitouch version found on the MacBook Pros, and is dominated by the wrist rest. Also like the Pro versions, the 13.3-inch display is now LED backlit, which is better for both power consumption and environmental concerns.
Internal components, including the Nvidia GeForce 9400, are either the same, or very similar to, current models. Some features found in the 13-inch MacBook Pro that you won’t find in this new MacBook include the SD card slot and backlit keyboard.
While consumers have long called for lower entry prices for Mac laptops, Apple has always been reluctant to stray into the lower-margin sub-$1,000 market. With this new upscale version of the MacBook, Apple is giving a slight recessionary nod to buyers, without having to dive into the Netbook price wars.
The new Magic Mouse and wireless keyboard
You’ll also find new peripherals in the box with a new iMac. Apple has made a wireless mouse and keyboard the default options, and both have received redesigns. The keyboard now has an all aluminum body, but the new mouse, dubbed the Magic Mouse, is far more interesting. The sleek, touch capacitive design behaves similarly to the track pad on Apple’s laptops. Of course the standard two-button usage model works as you’d expect, but you can also simply drag your finger down the middle of the mouse to scroll up and down. It also supports accelerated scrolling, like the iPhone, along with a few gestures for lateral and 360-degree movement, depending on the application. A new aluminum body Apple Remote is also available as a $16 extra
New Mac Mini
Finally, Apple gave a nod to the Mac Mini. The core design remains the same for the most part, with a few minor tweaks to its CPU, memory, and hard drive capacity. Prices remain the same at $599 and $799. Far more interesting is the new server iteration of the Mac Mini. This model starts at $999, and instead of a DVD burner, you get the Snow Leopard version of OS X Server, along with two 500GB hard drives.
All of these new products are available today, except for the Core i5-based iMac, which goes on sale in November. We’ll also be posting hands-on slideshows and videos of the new MacBook and the new 27-inch iMac shortly, so stay tuned.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10378884-1.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
NPD’s
September 2009 Hardware Sales
Nintendo DS — 524,200
PlayStation 3 — 491,800
Wii — 462,800
Xbox 360 — 352,600
PlayStation Portable — 190,400
PlayStation 2 — 146,000
For software, the top story of the month has to be Halo 3: ODST which, thanks to a generous ad campaign and the Halo name, managed to more than triple any other software sales for the month. Those numbers are certainly impressive for a game that started as an expansion. The predictions that called for the PS3 to come out on top also claimed its software sales wouldn’t be as optimistic, and that idea was spot-on as well. The PlayStation 3 only had two showings in the top ten software sales. Perhaps more disappointingly, the PS3 version of The Beatles Rock Band is the only one that didn’t chart. On the bright side, one game that did make the cut was Batman: Arkham Asylum, which seems to show that exclusive content can help overcome a lower install base.
September 2009 Software Sales
Halo 3: ODST (360) — 1,520,000
Wii Sports Resort (Wii) — 442,900
Madden NFL 10 (360) — 289,600
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) — 258,100
The Beatles: Rock Band (360) — 254,000
Madden NFL 10 (PS3) — 246,500
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360) — 236,000
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) — 212,500
Guitar Hero 5 (360) — 210,800
The Beatles Rock Band (Wii) — 208,600
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176565
Microsoft begins restoring Sidekick data
Microsoft has begun the process of restoring data to Sidekick owners who have been without it since a massive outage began at the beginning of the month, the software giant said Tuesday.
In a statement, Microsoft said it has posted a tool to T-Mobile’s Web site that allows Sidekick owners to restore their address book.
Although it initially feared that much data might be lost, Microsoft said last week that it expected to be able to recovermost, if not all, of the information. However, the company also said that the process of bringing back the data will go beyond this week.
Here is the full statement:
The Danger/Microsoft team continues to work around the clock and has completed its latest round of rigorous tests. We are now ready to make the first phase of the content restoration process available to you, starting with personal contacts.
This data restoration effort is only necessary for the minority of customers who lost data from their Sidekick devices.
Beginning today, log into the My T-Mobile website, where there will be a recovery tool to restore contacts you may have lost during the recent service outage. This tool will enable you to view the contacts you had on your device as of October 1. With a few clicks and a confirmation, you will be able to restore these contacts to your Sidekick. If you have recreated some of the same contacts on your Sidekick since October 1, you can choose to keep both sets of contacts, merge them, or just keep the set of contacts now on your device. You may also edit any partial or complete duplicates on your Sidekick after restoration.
We continue to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to restore your data. We’re making solid progress on the next phase in this restoration process, including your photographs, notes, to-do lists, marketplace data and high scores.
We appreciate your ongoing patience.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10378731-56.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
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Test a Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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How To: Prep your PC for Windows 7
When Windows 7 drops this Thursday, you can either spend many, many hours watching a progress bar, or you can boot into a clean, speedy system with that new-OS smell. Let’s get your system set up for a proper Windows 7 upgrade. If you’re jumping into Windows 7 for the first time this Thursday, or soon after, you won’t find yourself facing an entirely new-looking, strange-acting Windows. Most of Windows 7’s features are refinements, tweaks, and speed-ups from Vista. Lifehacker editors have been using 7 ever since the Windows 7 Beta dropped in January, and we’ve found a few things worth noting and, in some cases, crowing about, like these 10 things to look forward to in Windows 7, or Windows 7’sunderhyped features.
Considering that we know that 86% of you are upgrading to Windows 7, we thought it might be worth a little guidance for getting to ready to do just that.
Before You Upgrade, Part 1: What You Can Upgrade To
Are you running Windows XP? You can upgrade, but you’ll have to do a whole-cloth “custom” installation, which will either wipe out your current system or, if you’re planning on dual-booting, require some hard drive partitioning.
Running Windows Vista? You can do an in-place upgrade from a Vista edition (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate) to an equivalent or lower-scale edition of Windows 7 (Starter, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate), assuming you’re not moving up from 32-bit to 64-bit. Yeah, it’s that simple. Ed Bott at ZDNet took a woefully confusing upgrade chart Microsoft prepared and made an easier-to-grasp, plain-English upgrade chart that’s definitely worth checking out.
Before you buy an upgrade disc, though, you’ll want to ensure your system meets the minimum specs for 7. Here they are in table form, stylishly cribbed fromWikipedia’s Windows 7 page:
Need to double-check one of your system’s stats against what Microsoft calls the bare minimum? They offer a free Upgrade Advisor download for Windows systems that will tell you whether your hardware and peripherals can live in the Windows 7 world.
Finally, if you’re planning on upgrading from the Release Candidate you’ve been testing out and running happily since what seems like forever, know that it takes a bit more than just popping in a disc. Microsoft doesn’t really want you to pay only an “upgrade” price to move up from a free system, but it can be done. Our own How-To Geek posted a detailed walkthrough of a Windows 7 RC to RTM upgrade at his home away from Lifehacker. Basically, you’ll need to edit a single file on the Windows 7 installation disc, which requires a disc-to-hard-drive copy and a free extraction tool. If that’s not your cup of tea, or you’d rather fulfill your licensing obligations, you’ve got until March 2010 before the Release Candidate starts nagging and auto-rebooting on you.
Before You Upgrade, Part 2: Back Up Your Data
Even if things go swimmingly with your upgrade, you’ll want to have a fall-back copy of your music, pictures, documents, application data, and other important files. If you’re doing a “custom installation” from Windows XP or any system without a Windows license, it’s an absolute must. Our readers voted up tools like Cobian Backup, SyncBack, and Acronis True Image in ourHive Five for Windows backup tools, but also suggested online, auto-monitoring tools like Mozy Home and Carbonite—which aren’t free for more than token amounts of data, and probably can’t get you backed up in time if you must jump into 7 this Thursday.
For absolute security in knowing that you could completely revive your current Windows system if 7 turned into a disaster, do what Gina did by hot-imaging your PC’s hard drive with DriveImage XML.
Upgrade Option 1: In-Place Upgrade from Vista
This one is the easiest option, since all your data files stay in place, your just-as-you-like-them computer settings stay in place, and you don’t need to touch anything with the word “partition” involved.
The downside? Depending on how “clean” a user you are—in terms of removing unnecessary applications and keeping your media library trim and in one place—and the speed of your hardware, an upgrade to Windows 7 can take a seriously long time. Chris Hernandez charts his extensive testing and finds that a “super user” on mid-range hardware could wait more than 6 hours for a 32-bit upgrade to finish. That’s a worst-case scenario, but if you feel like you’ve got a lot of applications and data that might hold things up, there is a way to get tidy in a jiff.
First off, install Revo Uninstaller and kill off any applications, helpers, monitoring programs, and anything else that you’re not really using in Vista. (Won’t it feel nice to have a cleaner system when you start up Windows 7?) Next, read our step-by-step guide to separating your data from Windows on a stand-alone partition. You’ll benefit from doing this with any version of Windows, and especially if you’re planning to dual-boot any time soon.
Separating your music, pictures, movies, Office documents, and other non-application files from the stuff Windows needs to run means that Windows 7 only looks at your core C: drive for an upgrade. From a peace of mind perspective, that also means that if things don’t go well with your upgrade and you decide to run a clean install, you’re in a better position to do so. Best of all, Windows 7’s “Libraries” features makes it easy to access music, pictures, documents, and videos anywhere on your system, right from the Start menu.
Upgrade Option 2: Upgrading from XP or a Clean Hard Drive
Windows XP users can still get the Upgrade price discount, but there’s no actual “upgrade”—you’re doing a whole new install of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive, or at least a blank partition. If there’s space enough on your drive, do as we suggest above and create a new partition for just your data, but you’ll also want to back up your application data, in this case.
Microsoft has posted an official XP-to-Windows-7 migration video guide, and offers a User State Migration Tool that claims to capture desktop and system settings, user accounts, and the files you want and brings them over to your new Windows 7 system. The How-To Geek’s partner in blogging, mysticgeek, also details how to use Windows 7’s Easy Transfer tool with a USB drive to migrate files and settings. Obvious, but fair, warning: Be sure to run these transfer utilities in XP first, back up their file loads, and then run them in Windows 7, unless you’re planning on dual-booting (detailed just a bit down this page).
Concerned about your favorite programs’ compatibility in Windows 7? We’ve run down how to set up and use Virtual XP Mode in Windows 7. An official, final, and free download of XP Mode should arrive this week for Windows 7, possibly at this page.
Upgrade Option 3: Dual-Boot Windows XP or Vista with 7
Technically, you could use our guide to dual-booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista to set up a crazy schizo-system with all three Windows versions available, but we’re assuming that unless you’re a developer, you probably want to at least move on from Vista, given 7’s compatibility with, and improvements over, the much-maligned OS.
If you set up dual-booting, you can still use the User State Migration Tool or Windows 7’s Easy Transfer tool to save time setting up your accounts over again in Windows 7—you just don’t have to worry about putting the horse before the cart this way.
“Upgrade” Option 4: Boot Camp on a Mac
There’s nothing too new about installing Windows 7 on a Mac with Boot Camp that hasn’t already been done already with XP and Vista. Stroll over to our Boot Camp how-to guide to read up on how to set up a Windows system right next to OS X, with extra pointers on getting devices like Mac keyboards working properly in Windows.
Upgrade Option 5: Load Windows 7 on a Netbook
It’s entirely possible to load Windows 7 onto netbooks that shipped with XP, Linux, or some other system—it’s just not quite easy. If you’re up for a little ISO imaging, USB installing, and file compression, our sibling blog Gizmodo can walk you through installing Windows 7 on almost any netbook. You’ll need a minimum of 1GB of RAM and 8GB of hard drive space on your netbook, along with a 4GB thumb drive and a valid copy of Windows 7. PC World just posted a guide to getting Windows 7 on your netbook in a half-hour, but we’ve yet to try out their technique.
If you’ve already gone through an upgrade to Windows 7, be it beta, release candidate, or (*cough*) retail, tell us what made the move easier for you, or what lessons you learned the hard way, in the comments.
http://lifehacker.com/5385127/prep-your-pc-for-windows-7
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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: Paranormal Activity & Zombieland
Paranormal Activity: First of all you should wait to watch this in your own home!! This movie has no soundtrack and you want to hear all the creaks and footsteps in this movie. This is what makes this movie scary. If you go to the theater be prepared for idiots who make their comments and people talking. I had to sit through two asian dudes speaking in another language for the first fourth of the movie. I finally turned to them and said very loudly STOP TALKING!! They stopped talking but then this other dude who was sitting far away from me made his comments throughout the movie and yawned quite frequently! WTF Reminds me of when we went to go see urban legend in yonkers. But this movie i was very serious about watching!
The movie was really cool and very scary in a simplistic way. There were barely any special effects. Everything is very blair witch in that the movie really messes with your head. Your own imagination makes this movie really scary. If i had to give an example of all this movie is i would ask you to think of anytime you heard a bump in the night and walked outta your bedroom and looked down your stairs to see what the noise was. Of course the movie goes beyond anything that anyone has ever experienced. It is definitely a scary movie without the gore or the torture.
Zombieland:
Saw the movie with my 47 year old cousin and my 15 year old cousin. First of all i don’t know what it is with strange little people that take your tickets at movie theaters. This dude must have been 60 years old and 4 feet tall. He takes the ticket from my 47 year old cousin and says, “I knew you were going to see Zombieland.” My cousin the replies, “oh yeah how’d you know?” The creepy little old man then says, ” because you look like a zombie.” Then proceeds to laugh. My cousin turns to me and says omg that was so awesome he just said i looked like a zombie.
The movie was slightly disappointing. I felt that this movie had too much of the young romance skinny dorky smart guy gets the girl b.s. If you took this part out of the movie then this movie would have been totally awesome. The beginning of the movie goes over the rules of living in zombieland which sets the stage for the rules popping up throughout the entire movie “fringe” style. They also have this whole slow motion montage to ” For whom the bell tolls” Totally awesome.
Perhaps the best part was the surprise cameo. All i will say about this cameo is that all you ghostbusters fans need to see this movie. This scene is fairly long but throughout the entire scene i was laughing and going ohhhhhhh that’s awesome.
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