- On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent and Kristin is @GeekGirls
- email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and geekgirls@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
The Power Geeks #35
by DarthMolen on Jan.27, 2010, under The Latest Shows
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We talk the Apple iPad Unveil this week among other things that include Sun Sale, Internet in Space, and Walking Dead Pilot
Geek Speak
Meet the iMaxiPad! (check out all my iPad name jokes KDR)
Specs:
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“It’s 0.5-inches thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7-inch IPS display.
- Powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip – fruits from an acquisition in 2008 (PA Semi)
- has 16GB to 64GB of flash storage.
- It has 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. 30-pin connector, speaker, microphone, accelerometer and compass
- 10 hours of battery life
- 1000 hardware sensors on the device for multitouch sensitivity
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Wi-Fi only versions: 16 GB $499, 32GB for $599 and 64GB for $699
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3G models: (extra $130) $629, $729 and $829.
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250MB data a month for $15/unlimited data for $30 a month – no contract! – Kicker, its on the AT&T Network
- (Steven)They haven’t specified which “unlimited” Plan it will be – AT&T unlimited Data is 5GB
Apps:
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same App Store as the iPhone, Reworked IWork, IBooks App Store (epub format)
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Can either run it small, 1:1 pixel, in the center of the screen. Or “pixel double” it and run it full screen, in a low resolution mode
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“We rewrote the user interface of every one of our apps to take advantage of the larger display that comes with the iPad.”
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sync the apps you already downloaded to your iPhone to the iPad as well, so you don’t have to pay twice
- SDK has been released into the wild, for the larger screen (not IPhone 4, Iphone 3.2)
Just Like the iPhone, but BIGGER: (KDR)
- You can turn iPad, and an accelerometer will adjust by itself. “You can see the whole webpage. “
- keyboard
- zooming and swiping
- You can watch YouTube (even in high def) and TV shows & movies. It’s not widescreen though, and looks closer to 4:3 than 16:9
- No flash
- PDF opens in new window
- Web browsing
- Music player appears to be an iTunes/iPod hybrid
- syncs
- WiFi + 3G
Stuff that makes the iPad different from any other Apple Product:
- Built-in calendar
- SJ says “It’s so much more intimate than a laptop.” – uh, with neck cramps and all? -KDR
- Cross platform device: You can sync photos with Mac & Windows, but if you’re on a Mac, you can get photo data like events from iPhoto
- eBook reader app called iBooks – download directly onto your bookshelf, like the Kindle – ePub format might mean you can import your own ePub books
- Katie Doyle brings up the point about extended reading – eye strain, Kindle was designed to similate an actual book for prolonged reading(Steven) I thought the IBook was its strongest point! Its the singular thing right now that would make me guy one.
- iWork – new version of Keynote (presentations), Pages (word processor), and Numbers (spreadsheet) apps (gots tons to say abput this KDR)
- Full mechanical keyboard and iPad dock available
- carrying case with a stand too
- “Apple is really good at creating lustful objects”(Steven)
- “Combining tech with performance arts” (KDR)
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oh yeah – no effing camera or webcam, also boo
Tech,Gaming, and Geek News
- Star Wars Inspired Shoes & Apparel (KDR)
- (Steven) My favorite, is the t-shirt w/ luke and vader sword fighting in the adidas symbol
- (Steven) I’ve heard through twitter that the quality of shoes are a bit crappy
- Google Founders to sell stock, cede majority over 5 years
- Eventually they will each get 2.75 billion for the planned sell down
- Their controlling interests in google will go from 59% to 48%
- “They are both as committed as ever to Google and are integrally involved in our day-to-day management and product strategy,” Google said in an e-mailed statement. “The majority of their net worth remains with Google.”
- Will that hold up if a majority owner decides to vote against their mantra “don’t be evil”?
- Stocks fell $32.97 or 5.7% after the news was announced
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- Astronauts on the International Space Station finally have a live Internet connection and made their first direct Twitter post Friday to prove it.
- Space Internet uses the station’s high-speed Ku-band antenna, so it is active whenever the station has that connection.
- To surf the Web, astronauts can use a station laptop to control a desktop computer on Earth. It is that ground computer that has the physical connection to the Internet.
- (Steven)Damn, there goes my diabolical plan to infect the space station with a virus and turn it into the Death Star!!!!
- Oracle Buying Sun Finalized
- $7 Beeeellion dollars!
- Now the high end DB company will have high-end hardware to pair with its engine
- Very good in my estimation in the sense that it give them a way to differentiate from M$
- Oracle selling itself as one package, no integration required, if your willing 2 pay
- One thing 2 watch? Sun owns MySQL a lightweight product that can run small and large DB’s for free or little money
- Scott McNealy the founder of 28 yrs will be stepping down
- THE WALKING DEAD Pilot Script (KDR)i cannot not stop the squeeee about this!!!!
- TV adaptation set for AMC
- Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Mist”) is writing and directing the pilot
- Kirkman says: It will be 110% faithful to the series in tone, but not telling the story page by page.
- AMC will have some limitations. The only restriction so far – no F-Bombs.
- Kirkman has “high hopes for the show’s gore content”
Intarweb Goldmine
- Man plans to jump from balloon at 120,000 ft.
- Felix Baumgartner plans to step out of a perfectly good balloon and plummet down to the earth
- He will exceed the speed of sound WITHOUT equipment to propel him
- “The fact is you have a lot of different airflows coming around your body; and some parts of your body are in supersonic flow and some parts are in transonic flow. What kind of reaction that creates, I can’t tell you,”
- “want to make space exploration safer”?
- Is designing a space suit from the ground up to make sure he doesn’t incinerate himself on the way down
- Video Game Related Injuries Up, Tree Climbing Injuries Down in UK
- Number of kids under 15 reporting injuries caused by outdoor activities have fallen sharply since 2002
- Video Game injuries have raised by 60% in the same time period (thumb injuries are the main reported accident)
- I have wonder if the UK hospitals have had to come up with a special thumb splint for console-thumb-itis
- Firms Fined after Worker Dies in Vat of Chocolate (KDR)
- 2 chocolate processing companies in NJ have been fined for safety violations following the death of an employee who fell into a giant vat of chocolate (after he was hit by a mixing paddle)
- Prisoners fight for right to play D&D
- guy in jail for beating somebody with a sledgehammer to death, gets his D&D supplies taken away
- Was running a campaign with 3 others when he was reported for “gang” activity.
- “promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling,”
- 50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid (KDR)
- 7. asterisk – Notice the second S. Say /AS-TER-ISK/, not /as-ter-ik/.
- 29. “irregardless” – See the real word, regardless.
- One not included -
Especially ..not EX-pesh-a-llee. There’s is no “X”
Contact Info
Sponsors
Doghouse Systems
- New System – Under $1000 – Still handcrafted with care
-Performance in WoW is still great: 40 Frames / sec @ 1920 x 1280
-Don’t forget their laptop which has 2 graphics card built in, the mobius, at a mid-line desktop price
-If you want all the bells and whistles, they can handcraft that too, just call them up during normal business hours, they’ll talk with you, find out your needs, and recommend the system that you need (not the one that costs the most)
-877-DHS-DHS2 (347-3472)
-Don’t forget their laptop which has 2 graphics card built in, the mobius, at a mid-line desktop price
-If you want all the bells and whistles, they can handcraft that too, just call them up during normal business hours, they’ll talk with you, find out your needs, and recommend the system that you need (not the one that costs the most)
-877-DHS-DHS2 (347-3472)
Jinx
- Lifestyle apparel for your inner-geek
- Men’s, Women’s, all sizes
- Specific Collections? They got them,
- World of Warcraft – Home is where the hearthstone is, Baby-T = “My other stroller is [Epic]“, Tanks, Your Welcome
- They even have hats – Quest-giver hat
- Stickers, Patches, Pins
- Go online jinx.com or call them @ 1-888-JINX-COM - 888.546.9266
3 Comments for this entry
Leave a Reply
January 29th, 2010 on 4:06 pm
Great episode and great points of view on the iPad. I like Steven’s take on the lack of multi-tasking, it is something I have a problem with too. At this price point (lowest being $499) I would expect it to run just as well (if not better) than a $199-$299 Netbook. Having to close each app when switching between them on a $499 tablet computer is a joke in 2010.
And that leads me to my other problem… the overall package, the intended use does not justify the cost of this thing. Seriously, as cool as it is, it is pretty much a novelty item – something you set by your couch and occasionally look at – $499+ is way too much of a starting point for that.
January 31st, 2010 on 1:14 am
Alot of bloggers aren’t very pleased with the new iPad.There was just 2 much hoopla about it and lots of blogers got disapointed.You see, I for one see great deal of the awesome potential of the device. Third-party applications for doing tunes, games, papers and magazine and FFS books, tons of good stuff, but they failed to sell it very well (aside from the books). It feels kind of incomplete
February 2nd, 2010 on 9:57 pm
You know.. I have an Asus eee which is capable of most of w hat the ipad does. and there are many websites that sell kits to make it capable of having a touch screen. so yeah.. no point in this. It’s a shame because I know that sometimes I’m not a fan of Apple’s products, but this one I was kind of hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
And w00t for talking about The Walking Dead.