Podcast: Play in new window | Download (17.1MB)

With Aaron being on vacation this week, please enjoy this retro edition of The Geekcast! New episodes will resume next week.
********
The Geekcast #106

Show Notes:

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

**************
Items of Note:

I have created new album art. Your feedback on it is much appreciated.

Audio feedback from Mike J.

A new Geek’s View is going to be released for the Harman Kardon Drive + Play. To give you the full rundown of this great device, it will be a video edition. I hope to have this released within a day or two.

**************

Tech news:

Apple & Creative Announce Settlement. Apple and Creative announced a broad settlement ending all legal disputes between the two companies. Apple will pay Creative $100 million for a paid-up license to use Creative’s recently awarded patent in all Apple products. Apple can recoup a portion of its payment if Creative is successful in licensing this patent to others. In addition Creative has joined Apple’s “Made for iPod” program and will be announcing their own iPod accessory products later this year. Steve Jobs, commenting about the settlement said “Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent.”

14-year-old girl sues friend over missing iPod. A missing iPod resulted in a lawsuit in Wheaton, Illinois, when 14-year-old Shannon Derrik sued her friend Stephanie Eick for losing her brand new iPod. Shannon lent her iPod to Stephanie, who decided it’d be a good idea to give back the iPod by leaving it on Shannon’s desk rather than waiting for her to return from the restroom to hand it over in person, and at that point the iPod went missing. Shannon has sued for $475 in damages and court fees.

Apple updated Battery Exchange Program iBook G4 and PowerBook G4. Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances. The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

The affected models include:

12-inch iBook G4 A1061 ZZ338 – ZZ427 3K429 – 3K611 6C519 – 6C552 ending with S9WA, S9WC or S9WD
12-inch PowerBook G4 A1079 ZZ411 – ZZ427 3K428 – 3K611
15-inch PowerBook G4 A1078 and A1148 3K425 – 3K601 6N530 – 6N551 ending with THTA, THTB, or THTC 6N601 ending with THTC

Cox DVR’s getting converted to TiVo’s. TiVo has entered into an agreement to make TiVo’s service available to select Cox subscribers. Under the terms of the agreement, TiVo will customize its cable software for deployment on compatible Cox DVR set-top-boxes. TiVo’s downloadable software will allow Cox to deliver the TiVo(R) service in Cox subscriber homes without replacing existing DVR boxes, and without an install appointment. In this way, current Cox DVR customers who wish to enjoy the award-winning TiVo service, can quickly and easily add the benefits of TiVo to their DVR subscription.

Microsoft adds ‘one-click’ sex offender report tool. Young people using Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger to chat online with friends can now make a report to police with one click if they are concerned their online ‘buddy’ is a sex offender. Microsoft has partnered with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to introduce the safety element to the program. The new Messenger tab and features the CEOP Centre’s distinctive “report abuse” icon which links users in the UK directly to online police services. This allows young people and adults to report suspicious behaviour and instances of inappropriate contact of a sexual nature they have encountered whilst chatting in the virtual environment. The tab will appear on both MSN Messenger, and its replacement, Windows Live Messenger. As well as a ‘one click’ link through to a report to the police, each week, CEOP and Microsoft will provide a new safety tip as part of the tab, for example, how to safeguard your personal details or to how to spot a potential threat.

**************

Test a geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.

**************

How To: Play mp3’s within GMail.

Gmail has a built-in player for MP3 attachments. If you receive emails that include MP3 files, maybe a podcast or a public domain recording, you can listen them directly from Gmail. This is similar to the player used for voicemails from Google Talk. When you have an attachment in an e-mail there will be the normal download link but also there will be a Play link. Clicking on this will give you a flash-based player in a separate window. Google’s Gmail always has cool features.

You can easily find your mp3 attachment e-mail’s by creating a filter. To do this you need to add a new label. In the “Has Words” field put mp3 and check the box for “Has Attachment”. The action you want is to apply the label you created in the first step. Now any time you have an mp3 in your inbox, you can get to it quickly.

**************

Ask A Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast.

**************

Hack: Rename your digital photos in bulk

Digital photography is great but the obscure filenames your camera gives things are just plain old annoying. If you want to rename the 342 pics from your trip to the Grand Canyon it would be great to do this in bulk. Sure enough there is way in Windows to do just this.

1. First, open the folder containing your pictures and select View, Thumbnails.
2. Click the last picture in the folder you want to rename, hold down the Shift key and then click the first picture. Instead of this you can also click Edit, Select All.
3. Right-click the first photo, and select Rename from the drop-down menu.
4. Windows XP will highlight the filename for the first photo, enabling you to give it a descriptive name. After you type in the name, click the white space outside of the photo. At this point Windows will apply the name with a sequential number to each picture in the folder. Within a few seconds, all your pictures are renamed.

**************

The geek’s view: Stay tuned for a video showing the Harman Kardon Drive + Play.

**************

Related Episodes:

1. The Geekcast #106
2. Geekcast #24
3. The Geekcast #95
4. The Geekcast #89