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Items of Note:
We have two amazing guests coming up on the show in the next two weeks! Mashable writer & movie buff Christina Warren joins us next week on her second visit to The Geekcast. In 2 weeks we welcome Chelsea Sexon from the movie ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’. Chelsea was instrumental in the development and release of GM’s EV-1. She will be joining us to talk electric cars and green tech.
If you would like to ask any of these amazing women a question, please leave us a voicemail or e-mail your questions to us.
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Feedback: Today we have some feedback from Joe talking about Apple and his thoughts on the iPad.
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Geek This Week:
Aaron:
Been reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest on my Kindle. The book is set in the late 1800′s and is a Zombie / Steampunk novel. I’m about half-way through and it’s really gotten good. I’ve never read anything even remotely in this genre and I must say I’m impressed. This is a solid book with a lot of action and just good writing. I really recommend you guys pick it up.
Been checking out an interesting check-in app for the iPhone called Miso. This app is for ‘checking in’ with TV and movies to let people know what you’re watching. I think it’s interesting, though I don’t normally keep my phone near me when I watch TV.
Gozer:
Splinter Cell Conviction –
Likes – the cover system and marking your targets, to track movement or to get quick kills, weapons and upgrades. You get points for stealth and kills. Nice reward system and awesome upgrades to weapons.
Dislikes – graphics, not up to par. controls are a little wonky, not sure bout the black and white to color stealth system. I missed Batman’s stealth control scheme.
Caught up on some old games. Batman Arkham Asylum and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Batman is one of the best 360 games ever. I was about 30% complete when it first came out then just stopped playing it. Finished the rest of it in about a day.
The Force Unleashed i picked up for $12 at BJ’s. That was a no brainer. Awesome begining, you play as vader and are pretty much invincible. Killin’ storm troopers and wookies and what not.
My new addiction is South Park let’s go tower defense from XBLA. Can’t stop playing it! this would be a fantastic game for iPad.
Peter Griffin playing modern warfare 2.
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Tech and Gaming News:
Microsoft Changes Increments of Purchasable Microsoft Points
How many of you have a small pittance of leftover Microsoft Points from your last Xbox Live Marketplace purchase, putting you in the untenable position of either letting the points go to waste or purchasing a new batch of points in a large increment that will probably only leave you with yet more leftover points after a purchase anyway? Well, good news: That’s less likely to happen now.
In case you missed it, at some point over the last couple of days Microsoft quietly changed the increments of points they offer for purchase online, with new increments of 400 rather than the old 500. Now, it’s $4.99 for 400 points, $9.99 for 800, $19.99 for 1600, and $49.99 for 4000.
It’s a small change, but one with great importance: Since most items on sale on the Xbox Live Marketplace tend to cost 400, 800, and 1600 points, it means you’ll now likely be able to purchase only as many points as you need in order to buy whatever item you’re interested in. Well, for the most part — Rock Band DLC, for instance, still ranges between 160-440 Microsoft Points, so there are still situations where you’re likely to end up with an annoying number of leftover points anyway. Nothing’s ever perfect.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178752
iPhone OS 4.0 paving way for Apple-branded car kit?
Apple dropped iPhone OS 4.0 on us last week but, there are apparently a few gems left to be discovered, like dedicated support for in-car use — possibly even with an Apple-branded mount of some sort. When put into this mode the iPhone generates a simple menu that’s fed over video output, while the handset becomes a remote control… which may or may not be a good idea as more and more states ban cellphone use of any kind while driving. The developer hooks for such functionality appear to be in the iPhone API and, while it’s all rumors at this point, Apple would be blind to not try and cash in on the auto integration market — even if it is a little late to the party.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/iphone-os-4-0-paving-way-for-apple-branded-car-kit/
Blockbuster Offering Game Rentals by Mail
Joystiq reports that the company is adding “Games by Mail” to its services. For $7.99 plus tax, users can add one game rental to their standard movie rental plan. Unfortunately, it counts towards their total number of available discs, but doesn’t charge users if they do not rent a game in a given month.
So how does this stack up? Blockbuster and Netflix offer similar pricing plans — $8.99 for one disc at a time, $13.99 for two, and $16.99 for three. But this is more directly a salvo fired at Gamefly, which offers game rentals at a higher price. The one-at-a-time plan is $15.95 after its introductory month. However, renting a game from Gamefly doesn’t remove a disc from your Netflix queue. If you have, for example, the two disc plan with a game rental from Blockbuster ($22), you would essentially be getting the service of a one-disc plan from Netflix along with a Gamefly subscription ($25). The difference isn’t very dramatic, though Blockbuster does allow more flexibility by letting users forgo the charge if a month goes by without renting a game.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178760
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Test a Geek: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast
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How To: Take things from your iPod to your computer
Senuti iPod rip. A colleague of mine bought an iPod touch off of his friend. There were some things he wanted form the iPod but wiped it clean so he could start building his own library. This reminded me of Senuti.
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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: Kanex XD for the Apple iMac 27″
Turn your Apple iMac 27 inch into a HDTV. Connect and play Blu-Ray DVD, PS3, and Xbox games at HD format. Fully utilize the backlit LED display to work and play hard. Audio pass through is enabled for a full screen HD experience.
Features:
Designed exclusively for Apple® iMac 27-inch Desktop
Toggle between iMac 27-inch OSX and HD playback by using Hot Key – command+F2
Toggle volume and brightness controls through your wireless bluetooth keyboard.
Support 2-channel audio pass-thru
Full screen playback with audio
Supports up to 1920×1200 resolution
Full screen HD playback of Blu-Ray DVD, Playstation 3, Xbox Elite, Direct TV, Dish Network or other components with HDMI output set at 720p.
Playback not possible on Apple LED Cinema 24″ because this display only accept 1920×1200 resolution and PS3, Xbox 360, Blu-Ray does not have a matching resolution at1920x1080. However depending on your PC DVI/HDMI video signal it will work because it has more resolution to select from to match.
http://kanexlive.com/products/item-id-3662.html
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