The Power Geeks #20

DarthMolen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:47:55 +0000

What We Are Playing

Steven – America’s Army 3, Bejeweled Blitz, the usual (JP – has account merger ? for SM)
JP – No time for games this week. (ok maybe a couple on my iPhone… but nothing new!) But My son got his first tooth today!

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

Apple Locking Out Jailbreakers (JP)
- Apple changing boot rom to block 24kpwn exploit that allows hackers to “unlock” the 3GS
- “Unlocking” is breaking it open so you can use other app stores besides the one apple uses, and other networks besides AT&T
- Apple estimates that of the 4 million unlocked phones 38% of them use pirated software
- First time Apple has ever had to change a boot rom in the middle of production
  - Not so fast… These reports look to have been wishful thinking on apple’s part Unbreakable BootRom not quite what Apple hoped for?
Facebook Now Has 30,000 Servers (SM)
- Added 20,000 servers in 18 months
- Guess how many images they store? 80 billion images (20 mil x 4 sizes)
- Storage isn’t the problem, its delivery w/ 600,000 photos served a second
- 25 terabytes of log data daily (1000x the mail delivered by USPS)
- 230 engineers for 300 mill users
- All of these crazy numbers
- Farmville reached 60 million users
Start your car from your iPhone??? (JP)
- - That’s right there’s an App for that too…. a really crazy expensive one… when you add in the additional hardware and yearly service fees
    - The SmartStart can either be installed separately for $499 or mated to an existing remote starter for $299
      - plus $30/yr service fees, but hey… it can unlock the doors too!
Nintendo preparing new handheld (SM)
- Rumors already rampant, NVidia has won a contract to deliver a big upgraded chipset for the next-gen DS
- Nintendo TS (Tegra System)
- Its the same chip that is in the Zune HD
- Some claim that the new chip will be at least as fast as the Wii but with HD capability
- The chipset should be backwards compatible with current DS games, whether nintendo supports that or not… (I suspect they’ll not include a DS slot and make u buy the games over again on the DS Store)
- Should be unveiled late 2010

L4D2 no longer Banned in Australia —– They just neutered it instead (Cole)
- We talked about before on the show….
- After a series of edits which removed “considerable amounts of gore from gameplay,” Australia’s classification board has given the game an MA15+ rating.
- Their new report (PDF) says, “No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground. …
  - (JP – I am not a fan of censorship at all… I hope this crap doesn’t start to catch on here!)

Free to Play DDO is getting some buzz (SM)
- was $50/15 a month, now free.
- Buy new upgrades with turbine points which can be bought or earned in game
- A fan actually started to play because we recommended it… I played for a level, havent had time to go back.
GameStop Director unloads millions in stock and people take notice (JP)
- Leonard Riggio, chairman of the board at Barnes & Noble and director at GameStop,
- He sold 60 Million worth of stock making people speculate that bad financial news is coming for GameStop
- Are they hurting?

Blockbuster finally pulls their head out of their backsides and partners with Tivo to stream movies
- DVR juggernaut TiVo has partnered with the floundering rental company
  to give TiVo users the ability to rent and stream movies from
  Blockbuster through their DVR boxes.
- The new service is available in the
  TiVo Series2, TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL models and Started Oct 13th
- I believe this should be filed under the category… Too little too late, but only time will tell.

Geek-Speak

Zombie Apocalypse
- Each talk about our packets
- What did we score on the FB quiz?
- Jeremy’s backup plans
  - The Guys over at FilmSnobbery.com held a contest to see who could come up with the best Zombie Escape plan. I won!
  - Beginning Oct 19th The Girls over at Geek Girls Network are going to be holding Zombie Week with prizes, and contests and all kinds of cool Zombie Goodness!
  - Prizes for their contest include :
    Honorary ZU Faculty membership
    
    AUTOGRAPHED copy of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride, Prejudice & Zombies
Cool Zombie Goodies Available on the web:
- Zombie Board Game: Last Night on Earth
- Intramural Zombie Hunter League TShirt

Deal of the Week

Contest

We had our final winner in the Triazzle Giveaway last week… but fear not faithful listeners…

I was contacted today by the developers and Nov 1st they are going to be releasing a special Holiday edition $0.99 but we will have codes to giveaway!!!

Look for more contests to come in the future…spread the word… the more listeners we get… the more stuff we can get to giveaway to you guys!

Intarweb Goldmine

Rejected Stars Wars Marketing products
- I was bummed because I would have bought some of these too….

Next Week

Next week Jeremy will be working on a review of new DLC Game on XboxLive Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space by TellTale Games

Sticking with our Zombie Theme: Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space pits the Freelance Police against the surreal and supernatural, with the duo facing off against a demon-possessed Santa Claus, gigantic robots, and an emo vampire amassing an army of rave-loving zombies.

Contact Info

On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent and @FueltheFighter

email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com prcole@fuelthefighter.com

Sponsors

Doghouse Systems

- New System – Under $1000 – Still handcrafted with care
DoghouseSystems VS

-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)

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
- New Sticker This week (JP)
- They even have hats – Quest-giver hat
- Stickers, Patches, Pins
- Go online jinx.com or call them @ 1-888-JINX-COM - 888.546.9266

ThePowerGeeks.com » australia