We are LIVE on Ustream.  This week we talk R2D2 XBox360, Chinese going too far, and even a bit of Ant-Man the movie… WHAT??? Seriously?? blech

Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• R2D2 XBox360 (SM)
  • Kinect version
  • Total R2D2 paint job
  • Gold 3PO controller
  • Star Wars Kinect Game
  • Star Wars for system sounds…
  • Must.Buy.Immediately.In.NOVEMBER!!! NOOOOO!~

• Not as Cool as R2 But Dad Hacks Wall-E Toy To Make Real Robot

Gold Sponsors:

Jeb Apps – Today in Geek History, Today in Movie History

• Want to wow all your friends with off-the-wall Movie Trivia?
• Want to know more about Geek History and share them with your friends?
• Today in Geek History and Today in Movie History are for you
• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
• After a long vetting period, Today in Movie History is now available on iTunes!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Happy Pandas, or Unicorn Treats, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

Deals of the Week / New Release

• New Released DVD’s / BR
  • Source Code – Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Action thriller where a guy gets amnesia and has to uncover his identity and a bomb plot at the same time
  • Red Planet – More realistic, gritty portrayal of space travel.. might be worth some of your time
  • Blues Brothers / Animal House – RIP Jon Belushi

Entertainment Geekly (new feature)

• FX Picks up Superhero movies left and right
  • Recently acquired Captn America (the one in theatres)
  • Already had TF: Dark of the Moon, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Thor, Tron: Legacy, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Green Hornet
  • Maybe they should rename themselves “TSN: The SuperHero Network
  • Most of these came from an epic 2008 deal with Marvel, before the Disney acquisition

• Ant-Man: the Film???
  • Ant-Man is the superhero persona of Hank Pym
  • Recently came to the forefront with the Avengers cartoon being so popular
  • Can shrink and enlarge at will, Super-Genius, Pacifist
  • Has pretty side-kick “The Wasp” (Janet Van Dyne)
  • Really worth a full featured film though???

• Wanna See What We’re Not Missing W/ WW?? (udg)
  • io9.com “We’ve seen the unaired Wonder Woman pilot, and it’s actually kind of worse than we expected. It’s bad in the ways that we were all expecting, but it’s also bad in other, more fundamental, ways.”
• Comic Con Trailers (udg)
  • Features- The Amazing Spider Man, Haywire, Sherlock Holmes 2, Dark Knight Rises Teaser

Geek Speak

• SDCC! – Tease it for next week, Everyone has hangovers, we’ll bring on some heavy hitters and have a good round-table

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• The Chinese Have Now Gone TOO FAR! (udg)
  • Cuz selling fake iTunes cards and really cheap Apple knockoffs on their sites weren’t enough, last week five supposed Apple stores were operating in China. Only they weren’t actually official Apple stores!
  • To make it worse, they were nearly flawless copies of the official stores. To the point that the employees thought they were working for Apple!
  • Two of those five have since closed. But, not for them being complete fakes. Nope, the only reason they are closed is because neither had a business license in the first place.
  • The iFakes hit the major media and were brought to light last week when blogger  BirdAbroad visited one and spoke to staff. The store she located and visited was in the southwestern city of Kumming, and is not one of the two that have been shutdown. There’s a video of how Apple Store-like the store is in our show notes.
  • What’s going to happen to the other 3 stores is unclear at the moment. Chinese law does deem the stores illegal, but it’s the Chinese. If they’re able to cough up a business license, there’s no guarantee they’ll get shut down.
  • One thing is certain- Apple is definitely going to be talking to Chinese officials and this could get interesting.

• Hacker Caught, 10 years in jail (SM)
  • Rogelio Hackett Jr. 25, of lithiuania, plead guilty to stealing 635,000 credit cards
  • Instead of light slap: Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200
  • Must pay $100,000 fine and serve 10 years in a jail
  • Guy had been hacking since 2002, and trafficing in purchased accts
  • Before you go all boo-hoo, the CC companies found that he bamboozled over $36 million dollars over the years
  • Yeah, I’m personally glad they threw the book at him

• Google’s Print Mag (udg)
  • Because you know they haven’t launched enough new stuff over the last few weeks, Google has now released the first US edition of its marketing mag Think Quarterly.
  • Actual print copies of the mag will be sent to a select and limited and are all kinds of lux with a magnetic cover, heat-sensitive end paper and a pretty blue ribbon fastener. Don’t fret though, us little people get to at least check out the online version.
  • The magazine is essentially a very pretty advertisement for how wonderful Google is, with a feature story highlighting the positive work done at Google. In addition to several pages dominated by advertising executives, the magazine also has several essays on the future of the Internet and society. I actually kinda dug it.
  • The UK version of Think Quarterly launched in March 2011, under the clear distinction that it is not intended to be a consumer magazine. Through Think Quarterly, Google may be taking steps to change its image from a familiar search engine to a group of innovative thinkers and strategists who have a real impact on the world.
  • But change their image with who? Well, potential advertisers of course. They are the people getting the snazzy print version, after all. The rest of us Googlers are just left with our Intarwebs.

• Samsung passes Apple in Smartphone Sales (SM)
  • Samsung passed Nokia for new sales in the last quarter
  • According to bloomberg, 18-21 million handsets were sold in the last quarter
  • Thats in comparison to the 20 million sold by Apple
  • Nokia has been sliding from their dominance for awhile now
  • M$ partnership has not helped them.
  • Lets be real, Everyone is waiting on the IPhone 5…

• Data Furnaces (udg)
  • Servers are energy hogs. Not just to run, but they get so bloomin hot you have to use more energy for the air conditioning that keeps the waste heat at by. This problem with inefficiency is only going to compound as the hoopla about the cloud continues.
  • Seems Microsoft has come up with a wacky-in-a-way-that-just-may-work solution: Distribute cloud servers to businesses and homes for use as heaters.
  • “Data Furnaces” as Microsoft dubbed them in a research paper on the subject would provide exhaust that, while too cool for energy regeneration (104-122 °F), is just right for space heating. Not only does this reduce waste, but it could increase the overall efficiency of the cloud servers involved by making it far more practical to locate specific servers near the areas they serve.
  • That’s a lot of win right there.
  • Obviously with issues like size, the fact heating systems are complicated, security, reliability, you get the point- this is something for way off in the future. But, it’s definitely got my interest piqued.

• Netflix Up, Blockbuster Wooing (SM)
  • Netflix made a profit, just not as much as investors had hoped.
  • To blame? The price hike announcement for September
  • Not all doom and gloom, their subscriptions are up 70% for streaming
  • Netflix talks with Dreamworks (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar)
  • Blockbuster is looking to capitalize w/ a $9.99 1-disc out plan
  • (still no streaming from BB)
• Fox Gets Stupid (udg)
  • In what is probably one of the lamest ideas I’ve heard in a very long time, Fox has just announced that it will only allow approved cable or satellite consumers free next-day access to its popular TV shows. Fans could previously catch shows the next day on Fox.com or Hulu.com for free.
  • Don’t have cable or want to pay for Hulu? Well then you’ll have to wait until 8 days after they’ve aired to watch it.
  • Got DISH? No worries!
  • “DISH Network is proud to be the first pay-TV provider in America to give customers the opportunity to take full advantage of the new Fox.com viewing experience — at no additional cost,” according to a Fox press release.
  • Hulu Plus customers will also still have access to Fox shows, according to a tweet from New York Times reporter Brian Stelter. Fox hopes to add more cable and satellite partners in the coming months.

Intarweb Goldmine

• What Ya Get For Being A Sound Sleeper In South Africa(udg)
  • A 50-year-old South African man woke up inside a mortuary over the weekend and screamed to be let out – scaring away attendants who thought he was a ghost.
  • His family presumed he was dead when they could not wake him on Saturday night and contacted a private morgue in a rural village in the Eastern Cape.
  • He spent almost 24 hours inside the morgue, the region’s health department spokesman told the Sapa news agency.
  • The two attendants later returned and called for an ambulance.
  • The man – whose identity has been withheld – was treated in hospital for dehydration.
  • The man woke up at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) on Sunday, demanding to be let out of the chilly morgue in Libode village, frightening the attendants on duty.
  • “At first the men ran for their lives,” said Mr Kupelo.
  • Officials have urged the public to contact doctors or the emergency services so they can they can pronounce someone dead before calling an undertaker.
  • “You begin to ask yourself how many other people have died like that in a morgue,” said Mr Kupelo.
  • “We need to [get] the message across to all South Africans that it is very wrong for them to conclude on their own that a person has died,” he said.

• Jaws Jumps into boat… Literally (SM)
  • Have a front row seat to Discovery’s shark week? Not as close as these guys
  • 6 researchers off the coast of africa got the scare of their life
  • After an hour of shark activity, 10 foot great white breached the water and jumped halfway on the boat
  • In a panic and apparently trying to eat a crew member, he thrashed all the way on board and then became stuck
  • Despite the danger to their lives, the scientists eventually rescued the shark after being towed to port, letting it go, being beached, pulling it back out, and finally getting it out to sea

• Mystery Prisoner (udg)
  • A mystery man arrested on minor charges more than three weeks ago remains behind bars in Utah while law enforcement officials try to determine his true identity, which he refuses to reveal.
  • “This is really a strange case,” said Lt. Dennis Harris with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “He just doesn’t want to be found.” The unidentified man, who has graying hair, a light beard and is believed to be in his 60′s, was arrested on July 1 for trespassing in a parking garage.
  • He was booked into jail on three misdemeanor charges and has thwarted any chance of release, with or without bail, by refusing to identify himself.
  • “I’ve been trying to think from A to Z why he would want to stay here … why he wouldn’t give us any information,” Harris said.
  • “He either has to be wanted by some other state or he could be on some other registry or database that has not shown up,” he added.
  • Law enforcement officials say the man is “fairly well spoken and educated,” but very guarded about his identity.
  • As a result of several short conversations with him, officers believe he may not be from Utah.
  • Officials gave the man a telephone calling card so he might contact friends or relatives, but he has not used it.
  • “He was very aware of what we were trying to do and he would not give us the slightest bit of information indicating where he was from or anything relating to his family situation,” said Harris.
  • “We’ve had a lot of people call in but nothing has panned out. Nothing,” he added.
  • Officials say in three weeks of jail the mystery man has shown a pleasant demeanor and has communicated that he is being treated well.
  • “He said the food has been great,” Harris said.
  • “I realize that sometimes people want to go to jail because they are homeless, have nothing, they are destitute. I’ve seen that over the years. I just don’t get the impression that’s the reason. He just doesn’t want to be discovered by somebody.”
  • Now in his fourth week of incarceration, the man added another twist to the story recently by hinting he had business of some kind outside prison that he would need to attend to.
  • “He said there was a point at some time that he would need to get out of jail,” Harris said. “That’s the closest I can find of what he wants to do. And that makes no sense to me whatsoever.”
  • I’m surprised I don’t know the guy. I seem to attract people like this.

• RDJ New Hazards: Exploding manholes
  • Imagine if you will, walking down the street
  • A rumble and a roar shake the ground and all the manhole covers explode into the air
  • This isn’t hollywood, welcome to Rio De Janeiro
  • Recently a manhole cover blew up into the air, injured 2 ppl, smashed into a nearby window, and ended in a parked car
  • This was the 130 of these in April alone…
  • Sparks from old transformers igniting “gasses” (read human methane) causing the random explosions around the city
  • Talk about some dangerous crap….

Extra Links

• Navy testing more lasers
• Q&A With The Man Behind The Lego LOTR Tower (udg)

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk social responsibility in a digital age, the intarwebz got broke, big brother is watching you… everywhere

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• The iCade Now A Reality (udg)
  • I mentioned during my April Fool’s Day rundown is that the glory of ThinkGeek’s “pranks” is that they often turn into real items. Well, their iCADE from last year is now up for presale. If you didn’t quite catch it from the name- it turns your iPad into an old-school arcade cabinet. You just slide your iPad in and it uses Bluetooth to connect so no cables to hook up.
  • ThinkGeek teamed up with Atari to bring back classics like Asteroids to the market for iCADE support. And to go with your iCADE comes the “Atari Greatest Hits” app with over 100 classic Atari games. You get pong for free right off the bat. The others are available in-app where you can get 3 for $1.00 or all 100 for $14.99.
  • The iCADE uses a unique API, which it will be opening up to developers so that they can add iCADE support to their games. ThinkGeek also teamed up with ION to develop the tabletop cabinet that features full button and joystick control.
  • Available for iPad and iPad 2, the iCADE is on presale now for just under $100 and is expected to start shipping on May 20, 2011. The first shipment that went on sale sold out in a day.

• Lil Thor: Marvel Releases Lil Thor Version of Our Beloved Lil Vader VW Commercial (udg)
  • Note the car’s plate is ASG4RD *giggle*

• Unique Marketing for Samsung Galaxy S2 (SM)
  • Bloggers put to the extreme unveiling and talking about the product
  • Toyota Raps

Gold Sponsors:

Jeb Apps – Today in Geek History, Today in Movie History

• Want to wow all your friends with off-the-wall Movie Trivia?
• Want to know more about Geek History and share them with your friends?
• Today in Geek History and Today in Movie History are for you
• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
• After a long vetting period, Today in Movie History is now available on iTunes!!!
• (BTM) Happy BIrthday George Takei- I found this out from my newly downloaded Geek History app.
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and IPhone

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• With Kinnect Sports Food Fight has a whole new meaning (btm)
  • New DLC for Kinnect sports available April 29
  • 320 Micro$oft points

• Hugo Nominees You Can Read Right Now… For Free! (udg)
  • The Hugo Awards recognize excellence in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. And because you know you don’t have enough to read, and I’m all about helping you find new stuff to add, I’ve stumbled upon a list of the nominees that are available for free online. Yup, free. And I’m not talking one or two. I’m talking 11 of the nominated Short Stories, Novellas, Novelettes and one movie. So, hope on over to our friends at TheMarySue.com and starting finding out how they earned their rank amongst the Hugo Award Nominees.

• WoW Patch 4.1 hit servers this week
  • trolls are definitely back… (Zul’Gurub, Zul’Aman, etc)
  • Guilder finder (like dungeon finder)
  • Guild Challenges

• Speaking of the Hugos, catch up on the Hugo award winning series Doctor Who (btm)
  • now 61% off on Amazon
  • Series 1 thru 4 featuring Hugo winning episodes:
    • “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances” (are you my mommy?)
    • “The Girl in the Fireplace”
    • “Blink” (Weeping Angels are the single scariest thing to me)

• Dexter Ultimate Prop Giveaway (udg)
  • I hugely heart me some Dexter. And Showtime is handing out the ultimate props. 5 lucky winner will score 2nd place prize packs including one pack of Dexter Collectibles, one Baby Harrison Pack, a Debra Morgan Pack, a Trinity Killer Pack and a Dexter & Rita Wedding Pack.
  • One person will snag the Grand Prize which includes a “Bowl Till You Bleed” Bowling shirt, “Thank You for the Blood” Card, Dexter’s Kill Bag and Blood Spatter Pictures. It’s pretty damn awesome. So, head on over to the link in the show notes and… no don’t I want to win it!!

• New Movies for 4th Week of April
  • Blow out -John Travolta at his best
  • Marvel “The Avengers”: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Vol 1 and 2 – Disney + Marvel = goodness!
  • The Girl Who Leapt through Time (Anime) – multiple genres, supposedly good
  • Dinoshark- (btm)(take Jurassic Park mix with Jaws and you get Dinoshark, just with a much lower budget and not as great acting but 1000% more cheese)

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Hobbit Updates
  • Ian Holms back on set for Bilbo
• WW Script Rewrite- AKA Your WW Train Wreck of the Week (udg)
  • It’s a REALLY good thing I missed the leaked pilot script for this because it included  scenes of Diana having a sleepover, and eating ice cream (“It’s been a three-scoop day!”), and teaming up with her press secretary Myndi to “scream like schoolgirls” over a Katy Perry video, and maybe even crying herself to sleep over her old flame Steve Trevor.  WHAT. THE. TRUCK. Seriously?!?!?
  • Even though they didn’t listen to us over the costume I guess the outrage over turning our beloved WW into Allie McFreakinBeal must have sunk in because, according to i09, it’s been rewritten.
  • The new script has  her lifting bad guys by the throat, gouging their eyes with her thumbs, kicking them into their air with those go-go boots and making obscene gestures at them. In a flashback, we see her pulling Steve out of a burning airplane, despite being told that doing so will be way too dangerous. Even her cat seems braver: In one scene, we discover it’s bitten her neighbor William Marston (named after the “Wonder Woman” creator), who tells Diana he thinks Wonder Woman is a fascist. And apparently, Diana’s glad the cat bit him.
  • Yup. Do you really need me to say what I think of the rewrite?

Geek Speak

• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Social Responsibility in a Highly Digital Age
  • Sadly there have been story after story in this country of people being beaten, raped, even stabbed to death in broad daylight with many onlookers witnessing the horrendous acts. Fear of getting involved has been the biggest reason that people use when stating why they did not do anything to help. When there is a madman with a gun, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t want to.  When you are outnumbered and the situation is violent and ugly, trying to break it up may get you killed. But, with the technological advances we carry with us on a day to day basis I would hope that more would be done to aid in crisis situations. And when I say more being done, I sure as Hell don’t mean put that shit up on YouTube.
  • By now I’m sure you have either heard of or seen the video of the brutal beating
  • of Chrissy Lee Polis. Chrissy is a trans woman that stopped in a Rosedale, MD to use the bathroom and was told by a male employee there that she needed to buy something first. Without warning, she is attacked by two women, one claiming that Chrissy was “talking to her man”- her man being the oh so friendly guy behind the counter that made her buy something first.
  • Employees of the restaurant not only stood around and watched as the two pummeled her, one of them also stood there video taping the incident. He was also kind enough to stop laughing long enough to warn the girls “Y’all better get the fuck up outta here before the cops come” while he’s zooming in on the poor victim who is now mid-seizure from getting dragged across the restaurant by only her hair and beaten.  Then bitches about the fact she’s having a seizure on “his” floor.
  • If you were there, what would you have done?
  • One of my twitter followers posed “Are they trained to break up fights? What about liability issues?”  My thoughts on that- there comes a time where that simply doesn’t fuckin matter. An older woman (Vicky Thom) didn’t give a crap about that and she tried but got hit. If the person video taping it plus the at least 3 employees seen standing there watching all jumped in to contain the situation, it would have ended.
  • Cyber Bullying Statistics

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• The Intarwebs Got Broke (udg)
  • So, remember last week when we talked Cloud? Well, the sky fell last week when Amazon’s cloud network crashed, taking with it  a host of web 2.0 companies – including Reddit, Foursquare, Hootsuite  and thousands of others.  Oddly, two of Amazon’s biggest Web Services’ biggest customers- Netflix and Zynga were not affected by Crash 2.0.
  • Amazon EC2 was believed to be impossible to crash, after hacktivist group Anonymous failed to take it down in December. So what happened?
  • The company said that an early-morning “networking event” caused a cascade of problems that started with a glitch at its East Coast facility. The glitch made its servers automatically create back-ups of themselves which eventually led to crashes in that zone. After roughly 3 days, Amazon had everything under control, with one exception- about 0.07 percent of the data storage in its restored eastern cloud service isn’t fully recoverable. Needless to say this is going to shake the faith that many have in the all mighty cloud.
  • As if this weren’t enough, this rare phenomenon came on the same day as the massive PlayStation network went offline after a then unexplained outage that left 77 million users frustrated to say the least.
  • After going down several times at the end of February and outages throughout March, this is just the latest in a string of problems for the network. And it’s still down as they struggle to completely rebuild it
  • The outage wasn’t the most frustrating thing for PSN users, believe it or not. Instead it was the lack of communication from Sony. To make matters worse, after nearly a week, they finally announced to the public yesterday via the US PlayStation blog that this was indeed due to a massive breach. They stated the “illegal and unauthorized person” obtained people’s names, addresses, email address, birth dates, usernames, passwords, logins, security questions and more. With 77 million users and an estimated $500 mill in annual revenues just from this service,  this makes it one of the largest-ever Internet security break-ins.
  • Sony immediately shut down the network as soon as they learned the information had been stolen. The company said user account information for the PlayStation Network and its Qriocity service users was compromised between April 17 and April 19. Going undetected for several days is a huge red flag and probably accounts for the entire rebuild.
  • While they saw no evidence credit card numbers were stolen, Sony warned users it could not rule out the possibility.
  • “Out of an abundance of caution, we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained,” they said.
  • Sony said it has hired an “outside recognized security firm” to investigate. Of course I’m hoping that firm has no links to China.
  • The timing is also rather unfortunate for them. Monday night Sony unveiled its first two tablets. Like most Sony products they use access to its media networks as a selling point. In the case of these tablets, Qriocity, which was also highly compromised and is part of this ongoing outage.
  • The incidents involving Amazon and Sony are believed to be unrelated and Anonymous is claiming they nothing to do with it.

• Apple secretly tracking your Location (SM)
  • Lets not get hysterical now, It’s pretty muddy data
    • precision is lacking, aggregates by week, no personal info really
  • Why you should care that Apple tracks you
    • Its not that they are tracking, its that there’s a unencrypted history on your handset
    • I.E. a beacon for hackers
  • Guess What? Android is a Much Bigger Offender (udg)
    • Haters always gotta be hatin’. According to industry expert Christopher Soghoian, the iPhone reports your location data to Apple twice a day, but Android reports your location data back to Google several times per hour.
  • App to dump your android location information (SM)
  • Yep, they all do it … and that’s the big dirty secret
  • Most apps cache data and then re-use to help speed things up
  • When you connect to their backend db, guaranteed there is logging
  • Not something to declare armegeddon on but why the huge history on the local phone?
  • Don’t forget the file is also located unencrypted on whichever computer you back up your iPhone. Of course you could put a password on your phone and your computer, but that’s kinda complicated to do, right?(btm)

• AT&T Admits it can’t handle the iPhone (btm)
  • (SM)Thats like the pope admitting he’s Catholic… everyone already knew
  • Explains they need to buy T-Mobile to expand their network
  • iPhone produces 24 times the mobile network traffic than a conventional phone
  • Between 2007 (iPhone introduction) and 2010 mobile network volume jumped 8000%
  • They expect the first 5-7 weeks of 2015 will see more traffic than all of 2010
  • (btm) I wonder if putting iPhones on multiple carriers will help reduce the load or will all carriers see this kind of increase as people who avoided AT&T sign up?

• Valve Probably Done With Single Player Games (udg)
  • According to journalist Geoff Keighley’s Final Hours of Portal 2 iTunes app, Valve may be leaving its single player days behind.
  • “Portal 2 will probably be Valve’s last game with an isolated single-player experience. What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out,” wrote Keighly, relating a comment made by Valve founder Gabe Newell.
  • Valve’s Portal 2 introduced multiplayer to the Portal games through a two-player co-op mode. Most of their major games now feature some form of multiplayer mode. In fact, the company’s primary single-player-only experience Half-Life hasn’t seen anything new since 2007.
  • Even outside of Valve, single-player-only modes seem to be on their way out. Even Super Mario now includes second-player support. Series like Uncharted or BioShock that launched as solo-only have added multiplayer modes in their second installments. Capcom has been slowly but surely pushing it’s once single-player only series, Resident Evil into a vehicle for multiplayer.
  • The comment from Valve is striking, though, in that it doesn’t sound like Newell and Johnson said they’d probably never ship a game that didn’t have a multiplayer mode somewhere in it. Rather, they told Keighley they “probably” wouldn’t make a game “with an isolated single-player experience.” That would mean no more modes that couldn’t connect in some fashion to other people.

• Samsung / Apple Rivalry Heating Up (SM)
  • Apple slapped a lawsuit on Samsung for their Galaxy S and copyright violations
  • Funny thing, Samsung (South Korean) manufactures a lot of the IPhone parts
  • (SM) I own one and it DOES look like an IPhone plus the interface is pretty slick
  • Lets say they win… and have to pay a “licensing” fee, what does that mean for the rest of the industry?
  • Samsung has since fired back their own set of lawsuits on copyright infringement
  • Can their partnership last through all this litigation?

• Latest update makes Color Nook more tablet like than ever (btm)
  • Android 2.2 support
  • Flash
  • App Store
    • Angry Birds (SM) – this is a must… #srslyaddicted
  • built in email
  • Ability for authors to sign books?

• WikiLeaks at it Again (udg)
  • WikiLeaks has done another dump of confidential government and military documents. This time they focused on the Prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. In all 779 classified dossiers on current and former detainees were released.
  • New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and a number of other media outlets have published, either in whole or in part, these classified files. So, will the government pursue them for espionage charges like they are pursuing WikiLeaks?
  • The Obama administration condemned the leaks in a statement: “These documents contain classified information about current and former GTMO detainees, and we strongly condemn the leaking of this sensitive information.”
  • In addition to shedding light on the actions of Al-Qaeda’s leadership before and after the 9/11 attacks, the documents pertain to the treatment of the detainees: While the Times reports that the documents “are largely silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantánamo — including sleep deprivation, shackling in stress positions and prolonged exposure to cold temperatures — that drew global condemnation,” it also notes that many prisoners appear to have been held for long periods without cause.

• Old Republic Expected to turn a profit, But will it? (SM)
  • Old Republic is a Star Wars MMO done by the Bioware folks
  • These were the same folks who did BG and KOTOR
  • EA expects to draw 500,000 subs in the first year and make a profit
  • Investment firms expect a million from the company
  • Puts 12 million (wow) into perspective, right?
  • One big hitch… Free to play MMO’s are here (LOTRO,  DDO, etc)
  • Can a new sub without current user base survive?

• Look Out Groupon, Here Comes FaceBook (udg)
  • When FB launched “places,” first thought was they were trying to compete with 4sqr.
  • Now they’ve launched Deals. And, again, first glance may seem like 4sqr. But, FB’s Deals are actually like Groupon.  See, with 4sqr, checking in to a place may get you a free app or 10% off. With Deals, like Groupon, FB users will be able to buy a certificate for some goods or services at an extremely discounted rate (typically 50% off) for future use. And you’ll be able to use FB credits to buy them.
  • Facebook is starting with 5 cities- SF, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta and San Diego. Any FB user can sign up for Deals notifications and the users in these 5 test cities will be able to see and use Deals now.
  • We suspected Facebook had plans to bring Credits to the real world since around the time of f8, the company’s developer conference, when Facebook announced its ambitious Open Graph. Looks like this is the start.

• Open home Wi-Fi leads to FBI raid on wrong houses(btm)
  • FBI raided homes of those suspected of downloading child porn
  • After its investigation, FBI finds that neighbors using open Wi-Fi were the actual culprit
  • Wi-Fi Alliance says router security is like seat belts, it only works if you use it
  • Set a password on your router, seriously.

• Xbox to Have Streaming TV Service (udg)
  • Streaming TV may not seem like a new concept for the 360. Microsoft already allows it via AT&T’s U-verse service. But, it looks like they are in talks with major TV networks and could be branching out.  Right now they are reportedly working with Australian TV Network, Foxtel, in bringing a wallet-friendly cable package to the 360.
  • Reports also indicate there is quite a heated battle internally at Microsoft over this with many employees believing that the Xbox franchise should remain as a strictly gaming platform. Others argue it already does video streaming and should evolve into more than just games.
  • In a recent interview Ross Honey, head of content acquisition for Xbox, stated “Microsoft Xbox is very interested in delivering great entertainment to consumers, entertainment in the broadest sense. From our perspective, gaming and TV are going to coexist.”
  • Just recently, Microsoft brought Kinect support to the 360 for the Netflix app now allowing for voice or gesture control of the Netflix interface to select any content.
  • Perhaps the days of a console being used simply for gaming will be over. I think we started to see that already before this announcement came.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Tweeting election results in Canada will get you fined (btm)
  • 73 year old Canadian law makes it illegal to announce or send messages about election results until all polls are closed.
  • Carries a $25,000 fine and up to 5 years in jail.
  • Election officials won’t be actively monitoring the Twitter but if there are complaints they will investigate
  • Law originally intended to prevent radio stations from announcing East Coast results and potentially affecting West Coast elections where the polls were still open.

• Kid Not Guilty til he opens mouth on Facebook (SM)
  • Guy stops up sink in library at closing
  • Ppl don’t find the stopped sink until the next day
  • 200,000 dollars of damage later…
  • Kid gets on Facebook and brags about it and subsequently gets caught

• And the Stupid Tattoo of the Week Goes to… (udg)
  • L.A. County Sheriff homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through tattooed gang members when he notice Anthony Garcia. Why? Well his tattoo depicted, in great detail, a 2004 liquor store murder scene.

• • Yup, every key detail was there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23 yo John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign- all under a huge banner that said “RIVERA KILLS.” Yeah, as in the gang Rivera-13.
  • It even gets creative with some screaming symbolism-  the helicopter shooting down what seems to be Mr. Peanut is a reference to the gang member’s alias, “Chopper,” while the lovable peanut mascot symbolizes a rival gang member, as the term “peanut” is a gang slang term for a rival gang member.
  • Apparently, the tattooed mural on the chest of Chopper–real name Anthony Garcia–evolved over time, with pictures of him taken at various points since the liquor store murder having new additions inked onto the scene. I’m guessing Chopper is now probably regretting his cockiness just a bit.

• Rules of Golfing During A German Bombing (udg)

• Computer opens grocery store, without employees (btm)
  • Grocery store was closed for Good Friday but computerized security system opened the doors on time at 8AM
  • 3 minutes later customers began shopping
  • Many honest customers used the self check-out lanes to pay.
  • Some realized there was no staff and left without paying
  • Owner is asking those that didn’t pay to fess up and pay. All money received will be donated to the Christchurch recovery effort.
  • Owner isn’t pressing charges yet, even though CCTV cameras recorded it all.

• Christ is Coming, get Tweeting (udg)
  • Could Facebook and Twitter be the salvation of man?
  • Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham thinks so according to the “prophecy” he gave ABC’s “This Week” host Christiane Amanpour.
  • “The Bible says that every eye is going to see [the Second Coming of Jesus],” Graham told Ammanpour. “How is the whole world going to see [him] all at one time? I don’t know, unless all of a sudden everybody’s taking pictures and it’s on the media worldwide. I don’t know. Social media could have a big part in that.”
  • The 58-year-old cited a verse that says Jesus will be coming on “a cloud and the whole world will moan.”
  • Graham was quick to point out that he is not saying Jesus will come back on Facebook or Twitter himself but instead he could make his announcement on the Silicon Valley social networks, or his arrival could quickly become a trending topic of the likes that no one has seen.

Extra Links

• Your IP address can be tracked to a half a mile
• Good reviews for latest version of MK
• The Little Guy Schools MTV
• Fukushima Reactor Battle Plan

• The original flying car for sale (btm)

• Last flight of the Endeavour (btm)
• Tesla CEO, Elon Musk will put a man on Mars in 10 years(btm)
• Who are you really talking to online? (btm)
  • Los Angeles woman met a Firefighter from Colorado in a message board for fans of HBO’s Deadwood
  • Began exchanging emails, letters, postcards, photos and talking everyday on the phone
  • Woman left her unhappy marriage but as she was preparing to move to Colorado was told that the Firefighter had died from Liver Cancer.
  • 7 months later her friends discovered the truth, the Firefighter, his son and 20 other family members were all characters created by a woman from the Chicago suburbs.
  • Chicago woman allegedly used a voice-altering device to disguise her voice and plotted out entire coordinating shorelines for her characters interacting with the LA woman.
  • Chicago woman had posed as a friend of the firefighter and introduced him to the LA woman becoming her friend
  • LA woman learned the truth while watching TV with the Chicago woman, who was visiting.
  • LA woman is now suing the Chicago woman.

• Hotel linens may have more bugs than you think (btm)
  • Hotels are now using specially designed RFID tags to prevent theft
  • tags can be sewn directly into towels, linens and bathrobes
  • Hotel in Hawaii has already saved $15,000 using the system
  • So far only the Hawaiian hotel and 2 others are using system
    • The hotels are remaining anonymous for security reasons

• Jersey Shore gone Wilde (btm)
  • Takes Jersey Shore transcripts adds Broadway actors and gives us re-enactments in the style of Oscar Wilde
  • Series of videos produced by Playbill.com
  • More entertaining than actual Jersey Shore

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan
• http://racomics.com

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• 10% off power rings
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

Intro Jeremy
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• If you have an item that is epicly awesome that should be featured in this section, contact the show at darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and we’ll see about getting it on the air

• Star Wars Home Theatre
  • Working R2 and C3PO units at the front
  • Blue accent lighting out the wazoo (almost looks tronish)
  • Working Star Ceiling
  • 120” projector
  • Working blast windows

• Star Wars School
  • It would appear that the monkeys and I need to move to Chlie. Why? Well, they’ve opened a Star Wars School where pint-sized Padawans can now attend an actual Jedi Temple.
  • Lucky geeklings between the ages of 6 and 12 years old can learn yoga and Taekwondo, combined with the teachings of Jedi values like wisdom and nobility. The lucky apprentices even get their own light sabers, because the school’s creator, William Berrueta, believes in crafting a fully immersive environment that is educational and entertaining.
  • Berrueta was inspired to offer the unique classes after ‘Star Wars: The Exhibition’ made its way to Chile in 2009. It was apparently the first time the country was able to check out the props from the film series in person. Over 200 items from the Lucasfilm archives were on display, including life-size starships and Darth Vader’s costume.
  • May the force be with you, lil ones, and may you not lose an eye during the light saber drills.
• custom arcade cabinets with over 250 preloaded games… think Mame, but polished (JP)
• Check out this Pepsi Display

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

• Convention Schedule
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 3/23/1910
Legendary Japanese Filmmaker (Seven Samurai) Akira Kurosawa is born in Tokyo, Japan

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Zombie Chuck Comic (JP – Steven to discuss)
  • fyffo.com for all things Zombie Chuck…
  • In my opinion… Lil is someone I would pick for my zombie defense league… Did you see her shoe throwing arm?? Straight to the skull! (JP)
  • (SM) I thought the style was kind of interesting but there wasn’t much meat there
  • (SM)The big zombie boss was really cool

Geek Speak

• C2E2 Panels and Hijinx
  • Thor Panel
    • (SM) Chris Hemsworth totally won me over with his charm. I was on the borderline for the movie, but now I’m going to make it a point to see it
  • The Walking Dead
    • (SM)Jon Bernthal (Shane) is the absolutely most hilarious guy IRL
    • (SM)Laurie Holden (Andrea) plays a really good straight person
    • (SM)Best.unplanned.Monologue.evar!
  • Battlefield 3
    • Jeremy and I actually argued whether the demo video was cut scenes or actual gameplay footage
    • Confirmed by EA that the video was PC gameplay
      • Jeremy happily admits he was wrong on this one… this is what we’ve been wanting from Companies for a looooong time, and was ecstatic that this was not cut scenes!
  • Boy Wonder?
    • (SM) I personally thought it was a powerful movie… definitely evoked conversations
    • Very Dark, Action Drama, About a kid trying to figure things out about his past
    • Are we talking about this one ? I was hoping we would… we’ll just have to be careful not to blow anyhting about it

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Netflix woes, and gains (SM)
  • Netflix went down hardcore Tuesday
  • “We are sorry, the Netflix website and the ability to instantly watch movies are both temporarily unavailable.
  • Our engineers are working hard to bring the site and ability to watch instantly back up as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
  • Service has been restored as of Today
  • Big Bombshell: there will be an original TV series airing on Netflix by Kevin Spacey
  • Billed as a Political  drama “House of Cards” (Based on book and BBC series)
  • Will probably preclude from seeing the stuffs from Showtime and HBO on the streaming service in any kind of a timely manner

• Microsoft sues B&N over Nook Color (JP)
  • M$ is going after Barnes and Nobles for using certain techs without paying a licensing fee
  • Range of functions cited that deal with the user experience
  • M$ is also heading in after the makers of the pared down Android Tablet
  • Microsoft says it’s tried to no avail to reach licensing agreements with Barnes & Noble and its hardware partners. “Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations and fulfill our responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year to bring great software products and services to market,”
  • While I am not a big supporter of suing…. nor of  M$ I do support the right to protect your IP… so if they own it… license it!

• “Wife said no.” Apple monitors iPad 2 returns (udg)
  • With over 1/2 million units sold the first day, 70% of those to new customers, the launch of the iPad2 was a total success. Apple being Apple, they monitor any returns to find out how many are coming back and, most importantly, why they are. If there was a major issue, they want to take action right away.
  • I’m sure Apple has seen faulty units come back repeatedly. Though one return specifically caught the attention of the staff and upper management. One fully-functional iPad 2 was returned by a man with a Post-It note attached to the display that simply read “Wife said no.”
  • Well, two Apple VPs learned of the return, found it amusing and decided to do something about it.  The man got his iPad 2 back with a new note attached to the screen. It said, “Apple said yes.”
  • Now, I’m guessing this is pretty much a one time shot. But, it’s an awesome story and I’m willing to be the wife is now an Apple fan now too.

• Quick Game hits (SM)
  • EA Sports goes green, eliminates manuals
    • Fight night champion is the last game with a manual
    • Plan to include the instructions in the game itself
  • Black Ops First Strike coming to PC (finally)
    • Should be called 3rd strike (PS3 and XB360 were first)
    • New maps and a zombie mode
  • The Old Republic Delayed, Blizzard rooting for competition
    • Probably until the second half of 2011
    • Blizzard co-founder “Frank Pearce” wants it to succeed as a successful Sci-Fi entity to help expand the user base
    • There are plenty of sci-fi MMO’s out there already so kinda funny
    • (SM)I just think he’s pissed that SW Galaxies sucked so bad

• Duke Nukem FINALLY.  And now with bonus smack a woman feature. (udg)
  • The await for Duke Nukem Forever has been a long one and as all the details of the game breed excitement, one of the latest ones has caused more than a little eyebrow raising.
  • Now, I know Duke Nukem games have always treated women as objects to lust over, and the most interaction you had with women in prior games consisted of paying them to strip for you. We get it. That’s just how he is. But this new feature seems just a bit too far.
  • A new mulitplayer mode will play like Capture the Flag. Only this time, the flags are women. Okay, so far, par for the course. Well, the mode will also allow you to slap captured “babe” if she “freaks out.” Yeah.
  • Official Xbox Magazine were first to unveil the mode in their April issue and also detailed four multiplayer modes which will support up to eight players each: Dukematch, Team Dukematch, Capture the Babe and Hail to the King.
  • Since this story has broken, Gearbox CEO, Randy Ptichford, has clarified it jus a bit. His tweet “Get it right, folks! In the DNF MP game “Capture the Babe”, Duke can give the girl a love smack on the booty – not face!” Oh well if that’s it…  Yes, booty over face is less offensive. My question is this- what’s the point?
  • We’ve discussed this point before on the show- games being geared toward men and ignoring the huge numbers of us girls that game. We expect big boobs, we expect the occasional stripper or hooker, we expect you to shoot a female zombie in the face if she’s coming at you. Hitting a button to “gently give” one a “reassuring slap” is pointless and crossing the line in my opinion.
  • Duke Nukem Forever is due for release May 3, 2011.

• AT&T to buy T-Mobile (JP)
  • Deutsche Telecom has officially sold T-Mobile USA to AT&T
  • 39 Beeellion dollars in cash and stocks was the going price
  • Experts predict a full year before the acquisition is final
  • If deal doesn’t go through, AT&T still on hook for 3 billion
  • This leaves 3 major carriers in US: Sprint, Verizon, AT&T
  • T-mobile to AT&T (funny press release after banging on AT&T’s network as a marketing ploy) – “Just Kidding, we love your network…”

• Sprint Integrates Fully with Google Voice (SM)
  • First major carrier to fully integrate service across its handset line-up
  • Available on smartphones AND its standard headset
  • Will natively use the google voice # for outgoing calls and text msgs
  • Free calls, text messages, call routing, voicemail management
  • Feature to be gradually rolled out to its customers

• Amazon Launches Android App Store (udg)
  • One day after being sued by Apple for their App Store trademark, Amazon has moved ahead and launched their impressive Amazon Appstore for Android anyway.
  • Why so impressive? For starters, it blew the Widows Phone 7 app market out of the water with launching 3,800 apps out of the gate, including (for the first day only) a free download of Angry Birds. But that’s hardly all. The best part? Free trials. That’s right- you don’t have to pay a thing to try out any app you like. Amazon has developed a way to embed an Android emulator into the browser so you can play around with the app for 30 min. If you like it, one click will buy it.
  • What gives them an even bigger edge over Google’s own Android Market is their personal recommendation. They are not getting into censorship, but they are maknig sure that they have a tight rein on quality control. So, if you download an Android app from them, you can be sure it’s not going to be a waste of $10 or blow up your phone.
  • When Amazon first announced their Appstore, most just rolled their eyes. It looks like they may be a major player now for Android apps and Google, embarrassingly enough, is going to have to step it up.
  • I should mention, AT&T Droid owners should refrain from getting to excited here. As of right now, they do not have access to the Amazon Appstore. According to Amazon, the company is working on enabling purchases from the Amazon Appstore in the near future though.

• Venture Brothers Fans Can Celebrate! (udg)
  • This past Christmas Venture Bros fans got a lil present- the announcement of a season five. What could be better than that? Well Season Six! Accourding to Jackson Publick’s blog, the real live Team Venture has signed a new contract with Adult Swim for not only 2 more seasons of the show, but some extra goodies as well. There will be a long-form (60-90 min) Venture Brothers special (platform of which whether TV or direct-to-DVD not yet determined) along with an 11 minute special they’ll be animating and producing entirely in-house.
  • Will 21 finally embrace his good guy destiny? Is Molotov really gone? Will Hank and Dean embrace their seemingly mapped-out fate in which they grow up to be the new Brock and Rusty? Will we all still miss 24? How many more times will they say “sphinx?” Thankfully, we’ll have at least two more years and a couple of specials to find out.

• “The Hobbit” finally starts shooting (SM)
  • production has finally begun after a long struggle
  • (change of director from del toro to peter jackson, strikes, contract disputes, legal actions,  etc)
  • Looks like production is still in NZ
  • The cast will star Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Ian McKellan will reprise gandalf, Cate Blanchett was galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Elijah wood as Frodo
  • Shot natively in digital 3D
  • 2 movies instead of 1
    • And there was GREAT rejoicing from within the G33K community!
    • ( I Loved the pics from set of Jackson sitting in what appears to be Bilbo’s house!) (JP)

• Well, Here’s the New Wonder Woman Costume. Begin Rant (udg)
  • It’s official. A take on the new Jim Lee designed costume used in Wonder Woman #600 will be the outfit of choice for the TV series. They dropped the lame spurs, horrible updated bracelets and her dumbass little jacket in this image, but that’s about it. And guess what? It looks just as ridiculous personified.
  • I’m staying away from the crazy heels,  tammy faye make-up job and dear lord those boobs. As an amply bosomed gal, yeah, one of those puppies is popping out. Last I checked my Wonder Woman didn’t need a wardrobe malfunction to distract a bad guy so she could catch him.
  • Kelley has been stating that it will not be a campy reboot. He wants something to showcase how complex she is. Really? And making her look like a spandex coated hooker/bad cos player is going to accomplish this how? Newsflash- when guys are complaining about a hot chick in spandex, you know you’re going something wrong. Click here to check out the Bleeding Cool post with some artist’s/fan’s responses to the new train wreck and their suggestions for changes.
  • P.S. The monkeys are mortified and eldest wrote a complaint letter stating “I know Wonder Woman. She is awesome. This cheap Walmart knock off is not.”

Intarweb Goldmine

• Billy Dee Williams Keeps Ewok Head in Box (SM)
  • Guy recognizes where his bread is buttered and is always glad to meet his cosplayers
  • One of the weirdest things given to him? An Ewok head in a box (creepy)

• Man Charged With Polygamy After He Defriends First Wife on Facebook (JP – ‘ll take this one)
  • This is one of those headlines I had to …. well… re read… a couple of times!
  • This guy 34 yrs old… married a woman he met online from Rhode Island… then got taken back to Michigan and imprisoned for outstanding warrants…
  • This is a story of judgement in my humble opinion… about how you should know who you’re marrying…
  • or at least monitor their internet activity more closely!! hahhahaa
• Yeah, Don’t Steal Computers from Peoples That Know How to Use Them (udg)
  • First off, if you don’t follow 18 year old entrepreneur Mark Bao on Twitter yet, you really need too. We’ve been following each other for awhile now and just when I thought he couldn’t get more awesome he proved me wrong.
  • So, Mark’s MacBook Air was stolen from a college dorm lounge a few weeks back. Did he just sit back and whine about it? Nope. He hunted down who did it and publicly shamed the guy who tole it by posting a video up on YouTube of the thief thinking he was all slick dancing to Rubber Man.
  • How’d he do it. Well, Mark had installed an online cloud back-up program on his laptop called BackBlaze. He logged into the service this weekend for the first time in a few months and realized that his stolen computer was still being backed up.
  • “I looked around the files and found that the thief a) didn’t remove the backup service and b) created his own user account on the system,” says Bao.
  • So, he could see the dumbass’s Safari browsing history. He’d visited a webmail site that contained his email address in the site’s url, which revealed his name. When Bao looked the name up on Facebook, he discovered they had mutual friends at Bentley U. Mark reported the friend-of-a-friend to the police, but also decided to have a little fun. He was able to get access to the photos and videos on the computer, including a video of the thief breaking out some completely lame moves and posted that to YouTube with the title, ““Don’t steal computers belonging to people who know how to use computers.” It was soon picked up at Reddit and racked up over 20,000 views. Within hours of the Reddit posting, the outed thief had returned the laptop to campus police and sent Mark a Facebook message with an apology and a plea that he take down the YouTube video. Yeah. The video remains up. You really need to go watch it, it’s hilarious.
  • Mark plans to sell the returned Apple and donate the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan fund. The new owner would be wise to wipe BackBlaze from the system.

Extra Links

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• 10% off power rings
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

• ShinyLines Power Geek Rings!!!
  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
  • Send darthmolen@gmail.com an email saying you want this ring. If there’s enough interest, we are going to make this available to the public

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we discuss the Mobile World Conference, Wonder Woman on NBC, Lots of gaming news, and even some SNAFU’s from the US government

Intro Jeremy
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• Kid saves Family using moves he learned from WoW (JP)
  • One of my CoWorkers sent this to me to share on the show… so special thanks to Mike for this one…
  • Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12-year-old Norwegian boy, saved himself and his sister from a moose attack
  • Skills used??? Taunting to draw the Moose away from his sister and after running in the opposite direction he then he feigned death the other skill he learned from the game till the moose lost interest. Then he ran home to tell his tale.
• Left 4 Dead Valentines
• Be my Portal Valentine?
• SuperHarmony (udg)
  • Are you lonely? Looking for someone special? Are you also okay with tights-wearing crime fighters or perhaps amoral megalomaniacs bent on world domination and/or life of crime?  Well dearies, than SuperHarmony is the dating site for you. Superheroes and villains need love too. Now SuperHarmony is bringing real happiness to some really super people. Why? Cuz love is super!

• MoSerious (udg)
  • Okay, so Michael Bolton from Office Space got nothin’ on me. I’ll blast my stuff and not roll up the window like a lil punk. Well today I had friend send me a clip of Mo Serious. Mo is awesome. He calls himself The SEO Rapper layin down rhymes that actually prove he knows his stuff. From design coding to page ranking, you definitely need to check him out!

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

• Convention Schedule
  • Milwaukee Anime Con – Feb. 18-20
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 2/16/1957
LeVar Burton, Star Trek: TNG’s Geordie LaForge, is born.

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Cowboys & Aliens Comic Giveaway (udg)
  • Geekosystem is all about sharing the love and right now that love comes in the form of 5 copies of the Cowboys & Aliens comic book that inspired the movie. Want one of these awesome hardbacks? You’re going to have to fight for it, but the fighting is fun.
  • Here’s the dealio- head on over to their Facebook Page and tell them what improbable but awesome match up you want to see made into a movie. The possibilities are infinite: Zombie Nuns vs Vampire Samurai, Mega Shark and Giant Octopus vs Sharktopus, Teen Wolf vs Team Edward- you name it!
  • Give them your unnatural (or surprisingly natural) pairing and you could take home a copy of Cowboys and Aliens.
• Marvel vs Capcom 3 (udg)
  • It’s been more than a decade since Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes debuted in arcades, yup I said arcades. Yesterday the long awaited Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds arrived for Xbox and PS3. So, what can you expect?
  • First of all, I haz a HUGE sad I don’t have a 360 so it’ll be awhile before I can actually try this game out for myself. While it’s only been out for a day, all the reviews I found agree on two things- it’s fun and the graphics are awesome. What more could ya want?

• This week on Blu-Ray
  • Dr. Who, a christmas carol
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Dungeons and Dragons 2 Movie Pack – (2000 original w/ jeremy irons and the direct to video Wrath of the Dragon God
  • Unstoppable (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson – train out of control, blah blah blah)

Geek Speak

• Mobile World Congress
  • Nokia, Microsoft joining forces
    • Microsoft offers Billions to a deep partnership (vs. google)
    • Plan is to make a 3rd ecosystem (behind android and Iphone)
    • Will still support Symbian developers (all 3 of them)
    • Some aren’t too hip to the movement (9 investors speak out – Next up, 9 Apple investors want Jobs to stop wearing turtlenecks)
    • Verizon not too hip about relationship (they were burned by kin – now have Iphone – why need more)
    • Is it a good move? Where do they go but to M$? (RIM, Palm OS, everything else)
  • Rumor: IPhone to get smaller version
    • This now spans 3 publishers (U.K. Daily Mail, WSJ, Bloomberg)
    • $200 (without subsidy) is the rumored price point
    • ? the size of the current IPhone
    • Obviously a software rev would be needed (yet more fragmentation)
  • Next gen Galaxy Tab and Galaxy SII hit
    • Tab = honeycomb, faster 1ghz dual core (bringing it up to spec), 1.23 lbs, dual cameras (8/2),  no USB or HDMI
    • Galaxy S II =  2.3 gingerbread, 8.5 mm thick 4.3”” SAMOLED, NFC Support, etc, etc.
  • XPeria Play Phone Specs and Hands on (exclusively on Verizon)
    • Vroom! Pretty much a standard Android phone but w/ the Playstation suite
    • You will have to re-buy your PSN content on the Android Marketplace
    • Both digital and analog inputs
  • Using Cell Phone as wallet coming 2012
    • Huge push for the “NFC” chip, w/ T-mobile adopting 2012
    • It’s a chip that sends wirelessly over very short distances, “4-inches”
    • Wave it over a terminal and it makes a payment
    • Apples name was dropped
  • Google unveils video editor for Honeycomb
    • Trying to catch up w/ some of the Apple staples
    • Will be able to edit video, sound track, etc to make your videos more “social friendly”

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• 150million PS2’s sold (SM)
  • and 1.5 BILLION units of software sold over its liftetime
  • Whopping 10k+ library of games
  • First launched in 2000 to Japan (that short ago?)
  • Perspective: 2 per minute = 285 years to complete sales

• Batman: Arkham City No Can Haz Multiplayer (udg)
  • If you’re like me and heart Arkham Asylum, you’ve probably been looking forward to its upcoming sequel to it, Arkham City.  If you were hoping to play Robin the Boy Wonder alongside your friend’s Batman, you’re gonna haz a sad though cuz Rockstar has confirmed that it will NOT have multiplayer or coop play, contrary to the rumors that have been flying around.
  • Why? According to an interview with IGN their “Thought process behind this was fairly simple: when we investigated adding multiplayer we asked, ‘If we use all of the energy that is required to create multiplayer and instead focus this on the single player, would that deliver a better overall game?
  • “With the game now coming to the final stages, I can honestly say it would not have been possible to deliver Arkham City the way we wanted to if we’d have added multiplayer
  • “So it might not be the fashionable choice, it might not get us an extra tick on the box, but we are convinced, and we hope that gamers will agree when they get to play the finished game, that we have made the right decision.”
  • Which, I gotta say, sounds fair enough. I’m still gonna hope to see multiplayer brought in the mix with Arkham Asylum 3.

• Activision Bails Out of Guitar Hero, Cancels Games (JP)
  • Following in the footsteps of MTV Games, Activision Blizzard has closed its music-game division
  • Hundreds of employees are being laid off, all 2011 games are cancelled
  • Latest Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock only sold 86,000 units
  • Decline of Genre, soaring cost of licensing and producing games, cited for closure
  • True Crime: Hong Kong also hit
  • 500 employees (7% of the total are slated to be axed)
  • Plans to ramp back up around a secret MMO from Blizzard will put them back above 7000 employees near the end of the year

• Zynga worth $7-9 billion (SM)
  • This up from the 5.5 billion in October
  • Perspective: EA is worth around 6 billion dollars
  • The debil is trying to rais some chump change (250 million dollars)
  • Despite not needing it, ppl are jumping at chance, public trade is rumor
  • Beotch slap: Facebook is valued at around $50 billion

• Pokemon Goes Online (udg)
  • Since the creation of Pokemon, you’ve been able to play it via handheld Nintendo devices, the trading card games with friends, you’ve been able to watch the TV series or films as a kid. But, you’ve never been able to play it online… until now.
  • Enter Pokemon Trainer Challenge. It basically takes the Pokemon trading cards and makes them digital so you can play against friends from your computer. It’s set for a live launch in April and will initially offer 3 preconstructed trading card decks and 14 virtual players to challenge. Nintendo is smart though so there will be a set of physical trading cards coming out the support the game. The Pokemon Black and Pokemon White decks can be used to unlock the virtual deck versions in Trainer Challenge and will be out April 6.
  • The game will be available to play at PokemonCG.com.

• Apple offers deal to wary publishers (JP)
  • The promise of “magazines” and subscription content has been there since release
  • Nothing has really materialized as the publishers and Apple has squabbled over rights and percentages
  • Finally, Apple has made a decision. Any subs you bring to the table, you keep everything, any subs that Apple brings to the table through its services, they keep 30%
  • Here’s what some content producers aren’t digging,
    • No details about Apple customers get automatically sent to them (apple manages and keeps all that data)
    • Price has to stay the same between ITunes and their website
    • Google is giving more generous terms on their platform
  • Rhapsody already threatening legal and drop-out over 30% tax
  • Netflix, Hulu Plus, Time magazine, etc still havent’ brought what they think of the new deal to the table, only time will tell

• Civ IV Theme Wins a Grammy in Music (SM)
  • Won a grammy for “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist”
  • First Video Game music to win such an award
  • Basically, its the opening theme song for Civ IV
  • Included in an album “Calling all Dawns” by Christopher Tin
  • Beautiful sweeping music accompanied by a Swahili vocal… gorgeous

• Don’t Mess With The Bieber (udg)
  • In case you missed the Grammys this weekend, Esperanza Spalding took home the win for best new artist. Which seems to have left some Bieber fans just a little bit pissed. One of them so much so that they decided to hack her Wikipedia page by adding “Quesadilla” to her name and then busting out the all caps for “JUSTIN BIEBER DESERVED IT GO DIE IN A HOLE. WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?” Okay, first of all Sunshine, punctuation is your friend and b. I know scrolling down is tough, but you are on Wikipedia so you could have actually read the answer to the question you seemed so interested in finding out.
  • Many of you listening probably have not heard of Esperanza. She’s now the first jazz musician to take home this award, is highly talented and rightfully earned the win.  So, pull your panties out of a wad Bieberites and expand your musical horizons just a bit, it’ll do ya good and for the love of all that is holy and sacred, stay away from Wikipedia unless you’re going to actually read and learn from it.

• Oops! US Gov Accidentally Shuts Down 84,000 Web Sites (JP)
  • In a HUGE effort to corral child pornography  ICE’s cybercrime center seized various domain that were purportedly involved in child pornography
  • They did manage to find a district judge to sign off on the warrant
  • However, they made a slight clerical error, mooo.com (from Freedns.com) was seized and it contained 84,000 sub domains of personal websites and small businesses
  • These were admittedly, not a planned part of the seizure
  • For 6 days these sites were redirected to a very scary page stating in legalese that these ppl were being investigated for child pornography
  • Eventually fixed
  • Recent homeland security press release mentions nothing of the error and there is no formal apology out there for the “inconvenience” of smirching their good names
    • Who smells a law suit or two thousand coming??

• Cool Tech: Hydrogen Powered Phone Recharger (SM)
  • Uses a disposable water fuel cell to produce Hydrogen energy
  • Being marketed as a hikers dream
  • Basically takes water and splits the hydrogen then runs it through fuel cell to make an electric current to charge a USB device or its own battery
  • Also see Hydrofill (shown at CES)

• Casting Sheet for WW Revealed (udg)
  • The casting sheet for the new Wonder Woman TV series is out and here are some key points:

• Wonder Woman is being cast older as Kelley has her in the script “late 20s to 30s.” No race is specified but there is a reference to black hair and blue eyes. She’s “a real woman who yearns to live a normal life.”
• Open ethnicity casting for Etta, Myndi and Steve Trevor
• Ed Indelicato, the cop from Boston (and he is still from Boston in the pilot) could possible have some romantic tension with Diana/Wonder Woman.
• Filming starts March 15 in LA

• [WONDER WOMAN / DIANA THEMYSCIRA / DIANA PRINCE] Female, late 20s to 30s. A kick-ass Superhero / Powerful C.E.O. / A vulnerable woman. Long flowing black hair, blue eyes. Amazon-like, muscular, an Olympian. The charismatic stage presence of a rock star. A crime fighter. Also, a real woman who yearns to live a normal life. She is accessible and appealing to all people, men and women alike…SERIES LEAD. ASP.
• [MYNDI MAYER] Female, open ethnicity, 30s. Publicist, Press Secretary and Wonder Woman’s confidant and nurturing best friend. Worldy and edgy. Sexy and persuasive, her appearance is part of her strength. She is beautiful and put together – dressed expensively in the latest fashions, plus she’s got a bit of bite, clever wit and sass. She’s the prodder of Diana’s social life…SERIES REGULAR. ASP.
• I like the fact that kick-ass is in there. The “rock star” part worries me just a  bit. The yearning to live a normal life part also sits a little off with me.
• WW = Princess Diana = Adrianne Palicki
  • Friday Night Lights star Adrianne Palicki has been chosen to embody Princess Diana in David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman pilot on NBC.

• • Twenty-seven year old Palicki, who also starred in Supernatural and the filmLegion, stands a lofty 5?11? tall. The news came just late this evening courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.

• • Oddly enough, Palicki had a brush with DC Comics before. She was in an episode of Smallville but was also cast as Siren in the Aquaman television pilot that was never picked up.
  • In high school, the actress played basketball and played track so it’s likely she’ll be able to keep up with the physicality of the role. Palicki can be seen next in the remake of Red Dawn with Thor star Chris Hemsworth

• Felicia Day Writing & Starring in Dragon Age Web Series (JP)
  • One of the fan-favorite geek girls out there is set to take on a new role
  • Felicia will be writing and starring in a 6 ep. web series based around a popular RPG “Dragon Age”, made by Bioware
  • Show has been dubbed Dragon Age: Redemption
  • another popular RPG out there (made by Bioware)
  • Previous credits include:
    • “The Guild” (wrote and starred – based on WoW)
    • Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (Co-star)
    • And frequent guest star for Joss Whedon

• Huge Rumor: AMD up for Sale, Dell might be interested (SM)
  • We reported back in january about CEO Dirk Meyer leaving
  • COO left last week (Robert Rivet)
  • There’s no management team really left
  • Current interim Thomas Seifert doesn’t want job
  • buzz is that company is up for sale, Dell is interested
  • This is the #2 chip maker IN THE WORLD!
  • Bigger than when AMD bought ATI (video chip maker)

Intarweb Goldmine

• Football and Porn – Kind of a No No (JP)
  • Imagine this: Biggest game of the year, you gather your family around the ol’ boob toob, chips, family, their kids, everyone watching the game
  • BLAM! Hardcore porn cuts in the middle and plays for 37 seconds
  • What do you do? A) Hoot and holler and make bets on who wins? B) run around screaming and telling your 3 year old that it was a nature clip of animals in the wild? B) Vote for it as better than 99% of the other commercials out there?
  • Well, one man Frank Gonzales, from Tuscon Arizona, made people choose, 80,000 of them to be exact, by slicing into the main feed and putting that stuff into the stream
  • Time Warner was so horrified, it gave each subscriber $10
  • Man, thats some expensive porn
• Alien Tumor Found in California Man (udg)
  • Like part of the storyline from the 1979 sci-fi classic “Alien,” a California man discovered he had a large,  alien-type tumor growing inside him complete with tenacles.
  • After Josh Abken, 36,  complained of back pains last year.  He thought he’d pulled a muscle, but the X-ray revealed something both frightening and bizarre. It was a soccer-ball-sized tumor that sprouted tentacles and had apparently been quietly growing inside him for almost a decade.
  • The tumor, dubbed “Gill,” began to apply pressure on Abken’s heart, moving his lungs out of normal position and causing his stomach to push downward. And it was partially calcified, or hard like a rock.
  • It took several hours of surgery, but thoracic surgeon Costanzo Di Perna successfully remove the cancerous tumor, giving Abken a new lease on life.
• The Fast and the Fantastically Stupid (SM)
  • Guy pegs out his car at 118 MPH, Tapes it for Youtube, Cop pulls him over
  • Claims to only have been doing 90-100 but this genius got real smart
  • He showed the cops the footage of the dashboard camera
  • Duh, it showed his speedometer needle pegged out
  • Guy gets charged with reckless driving and charged almost a $1000 for the incident
  • And they let geniuses like this drive every day
• Woman Calls 911 for Police Harassing Her At Her Door
• Grapes of Wrath (udg)
  • Sebastiano Russo, 75, seems to have just a lil bit of an anger issue. He and his ex-wife, Claire Russo, 71, live together as “a family unit” even though they divorced in 2003.
  • According to a witness Sebastiano arrived home drunk Tuesday around 11 p.m. and began an argument about bringing his new girlfriend to their mutual home, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He then threw a grape at his ex-wife’s face, then threatened to kill her and burn down the house reports the Orlando Sentinel.
  • Those “sour grape” actions landed the Orange City man a cot in the Volusia County Jail. He’s charged with aggravated battery on a person age 65 or older and a misdemeanor assault charge, according to Volusia County Sheriff’s Office records.
• In Honor of Tax Season: Silly Tax Hikes
  • own a vacation home in NY? Pay 1 million in taxes for being a year-round resident even though you don’t live there year round
  • 2.9 % sales tax on candy, soda, software, drect mail food items, and agricultural compounds like bull semen, and online sales
  • online
• Optimus Prime Gets a Parking Ticket
• Freed Chilean Miners Talk Drugs, Porn, Sex Dolls.. Wait, What? (udg)
  • The 33 men rescued from a Chilean mine were smuggled drugs and pornography during their time underground, but their request for inflatable sex dolls went unmet due to a shortage.
  • A new book disclosed that the men’s request for sex dolls was denied because their doctor was afraid jealousy could spread after only 10, rather than 33, dolls were found.
  • The bizarre details of the men’s lives down in the mine will be contained in a new book by journalist Jonathan Franklin, extracts of which were published in The (London) Sunday Times.

Extra Links

• 5 Amazing Things Invented By Donald Duck. Seriously.
• How to design MK Fatalities
• Zune Rebranding Rumored
• Google Street View Photography wins award

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• 10% off power rings
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

• ShinyLines Power Geek Rings!!!
  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
  • Send darthmolen@gmail.com an email saying you want this ring. If there’s enough interest, we are going to make this available to the public

Luxury Lane Soaps

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFT ED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream . Tonight we talk all things IPhone, Government oversight issues, new DVDS, and idiots in the intarweb goldmine

Intro Jeremy
Natali is out due to technical difficulties

Items of Interest

• DIY Star Wars Valentines
• Star Wars Job Chart
• Awesome PC Mods

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

• Convention Schedule
  • Milwaukee Anime Con – Feb. 18-20
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 2/9/2001
Saving Silverman starring Jason Biggs, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Neil Diamond and Amanda Peet is released  (I love that movie! Hilarious!!)

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Choose Your Own Doom (JP by way of UDG)
  • This is a new take on the Choose your own adventure books we loved as kids… and I for one, am super stoked…
  • This is a Choose your own adventure Zombie Apocalypse story!!!
• DVDs
  • Paranormal Activity 2 - Supposedly creepier than the original but I have yet to see the movie
  • Uncle Buck (blu-ray) – CLASSIC!!! Instant buy if you love John Candy or comedies in general
  • Thelma and Louise (Blu-ray) – One of Scott Ridleys most compelling stories. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are PERFECT together. 20th anniversary and I plan to see this again soon

  • I Spit on Your Grave DVD

  • This is a remake of one of favorite classic horror flicks… Interested in seeing this one

• Doctor Who: The Movie DVD

• I haven’t seen this one yet… but it’s Dr. Who… so it’s a must pick up!
• and one last I had to mention…

• Alice in Murderland

  • It’s a direct to DVD horror flick… but it does come with the tag line… through the looking glass and straight to hell!!!
• so it actually made my list!

Geek Speak

• Should Gov’ts be given veto power over top level domain names? (Please Read)

  • Gov’t wants capability to set up international power that allows countries to veto any new top level domains
  • 1 vote against would deep six the name
  • some upcoming suffixes? .car, .health, .nyc, .movie, .web
  • ICANN, a U.S. based company currently oversees the process
  • Trade Commission statement: “has merit as it diminishes the potential for blocking of top level domain strings considered objectionable by governments. This type of blocking harms the architecture of the DNS and undermines the goal of universal resolvability (i.e., a single global Internet that facilitates the free flow of goods and services and freedom of expression).”
  • Also a possible block to other international countries protesting that its a US based company that is overseeing the procedures
  • Discuss

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Look Into Our Eyes and We’ll Tell You What You Want to Eat
  • Riddle me this: A device at the supermarket scans your face and tells you what you might like to eat tonight. Now or Future? (closer than you think)
  • Kraft is planning such a device to be installed at the store
  • Scans your face and determines, gender, age, race, etc and then selects a probably recipe that you might like
  • Obviously face recognition can’t tell food allergies, special needs, etc
  • Combine that with online Kraft iFood Assistant account and favorites from KraftRecipes.com and you can start to see an actual product
  • The whole thing is powered by two Intel Apps that enable face recognition
  • No identifying information stored, all done real time

• HTC invests 40 million in OnLive (JP)
  • On its Web site, HTC said that it had invested into Saffron Digital, a London-based video delivery service that has optimized its services for mobile devices. The company will remain in its London headquarters and the management team will be unchanged, it said.
    • So why do we care? They also do OnLive the streaming video game service… and this could mean…
    • A potential HTC investment could imply that OnLive gaming is headed for tablets.

• AOL Buys Huffington Post
  • Online Newspaper that uses old school reporting in a new medium
  • Purchased by the AOL conglomerate for $300 million in cash and $15 million in stock
  • (SM) Smart ppl to ask for all cash from a shrinking company
  • Arriana Huffington, co-founder of news site, is the new president editor-in-chief of all AOL online content
  • Obviously with purchases of TechCrunch, Endgadget, Mapquest, and now Huffington, AOL is trying to position themselves as an online media provider
  • Claim to reach 250 million ppl worldwide with their content

• Charity Trying to buy Used Satellite (JP)
  • We take Internet access for granted here in the U.S. and in other places
  • 3rd world countries still don’t have a large penetration due to lack of infrastructure and technology
  • AHumanRight.org is trying to raise funds to purchase satellites and make a free network that spans the globe
  • First plans to station satellites over 3rd world countries as a first step in placing infrastructure to enable free Internet access
  • Needs $150k to start all the legal and lay the groundwork
  • Targeting Terrestar-1 which was owned by said company before they filed for bankruptcy
  • Another similar satellite sold for $23 million (5 billion to build and launch)
  • “Re-inventing the wheel isn’t something we would wish upon anyone, but William Kamkwamba’s story provides an example of the information disparity slowing down progress for the brightest minds,” said Grammatis. “William couldn’t afford the US$80 per year it cost to attend school so he spent his time at the library instead … over the span of four years he re-invented the windmill to provide himself with electricity. He shared his first Google experience with journalists: ‘He said, Do you know Google? and I said, What animal is a Google? And when I Googled windmill I found there was millions of applications! I said, Where was this Google all this time?!’”

• Verizon breaks record with IPhone pre-sales
  • Sold out in the first day, most coming in first 2 hours
  • Largest and fastest sale in company history
  • These were all sales to current customers
  • Sales to new customers start Feb. 10
  • Walmart Set to sell Verizon IPhone
    • Feb. 10, same as anyone else
    • 600 stores initially
  • Wanna switch? Ebay willing to pay for your IPhone
    • Next 2 weeks paying cash for used smartphones (feb 22)
    • $200 for IPhone 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy S, HTC Evo 4G
    • $500 for pristine IPhone 4
  • Devils in the Details for the Verizon IPhone
    • Verizon is installing a network throttling service on their whole network (called optimization by them)
    • Means, they could slow down everyone’s connection if too much data is being shoved through (Jp – and according to side by side tests… it’s already slower than and AT&T iPhone 4)
    • New data usage agreement: any extraordinary use of data will see a slow down in their data-transfer speed for remainder of month AND next billing cycle
    • So are these really “unlimited”??? Advertise what you sell folks
    • Termination fee from Verizon was raised to $350 from $175 ($325 by AT&T)
    • No more “stay loyal” discount
  • Verizon IPhone found with Universal Chip
    • recent breakdown of Verizon IPhone shows new silicone
    • Same chip as Droid Pro, allows both GSM (t-mobile,etc) and CDMA
    • Lacks the crucial SIM card slot however to differentiate between carriers
    • Still, its a building block towards a singular IPhone model
      • (also still lacking dual antennaes needed to use both sides of the chip in question) but just like a camera in the ipad… I bet it’s coming in the next version (JP)

• Hackers hack NASDAQ (JP)
  • Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year, and federal investigators are trying to identify the perpetrators and their purpose, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • The exchange’s trading platform—the part of the system that executes trades—wasn’t compromised, these people said. However, it couldn’t be determined which other parts of Nasdaq’s computer network were accessed.
  • Anyone who understands the affect the markets have on the economy should be worried at least a little… remember the small crash a couple years ago and the recession it sent us into…
    • just imagine that on a much larger scale… They need to get this locked down better and quickly.

• IPad 2 in Production??? (SM)
  • WSJ is reporting that the new IPad is in production
  • Faster Processor, front-facing camera for video conferencing
  • Thinner and lighter, same resolution
  • Only available through Verizon and AT&T at first
  • Since debut last april, sold 14.8 million units
  • Experts plan for Apple to sell 28 million of device
  • Already their market share has decreased, further reductions to only 50% predicted by 2013

• RockBand sold, MTV Games out of business (JP)
  • MTV games has ceased publishing operations according to sources…
    • Label behind Rock Band officially out of the publishing game, but “has not been completely dissolved,” according to reps.
    • The cessation of publishing effectively marks the end of MTV Games’ four-and-a-half-year experiment with the gaming industry. It began in September 2006, when MTV parent Viacom bought Harmonix for $175 million dollars plus a generous bonus structure. However, initial success gave way to unprofitability by 2009.
    • No mention was made of the MTV Games “incubation” substudio created in collaboration with prolific film producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean).

• Play Music, Smack your Friends (SM)
  • You no longer need 15 bikini models to make a human orchestra (done with conductive paint on models dancing around and closing circuits by “touching”)
  • Takara Tomy plans to release a toy that when you and your friend touch, if you touch each other, sounds will commence
  • (SM) You can see where this is going right? Slap party = instant orchestra!
  • Basically when touching someone, you close a circuit triggering a note
  • Only bummer? notes don’t get louder the harder you hit

(JP – imagine this same story if he shot the vids with 15 of his geeky dorky guy friends instead… think anyone would have picked it up and ran with the story… he’s a good marketer if nothing else… )

Intarweb Goldmine

• Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned… and knows google
  • Guy breaks up with girl, girl gets back at him
  • Girl gets mad and posts Meme’s all over google search
  • When you searched his name, a pic w/ captions would come up
  • Like a Virgin, Every man’s Prison Dream, Mulan, To be or not to be, loljk I can’t read
  • They’ve been trying for weeks to get them out of the search, to no avail
  • Lesson? Don’t piss a geek girl off that knows how to manipulate google

• Only 39% admit they curse out their computers
  • In a recent survey by Avira security, 61% of computer users out there have deluded themselves into thinking they don’t cuss at their troubling pc
  • 39% of them were honest and said that they did…
  • I want to know how many of our listeners would lie and say they don’t cuss out their computers…

• Rocket Found, Turned into Police Station
  • Imagine this, you’re strolling along in the park and you see a metal cylinder on the ground, curious you stroll up to it, only to find out it looks very similar to the MW2 RPG round head…
  • Here’s your options: Do you back away slowly, calliing 911 and get a bomb disposal unit, B) do you pick it up, sling it in the back of your truck bed, and then bring it to the pow-lice station to show them
  • Yeah, the genius in Lake City, FLA did just that, turning it into a police station after finding it in a park
  • Prior military police officer identified it as a live, high-explosive military round (M427 rocket w/ 2.3 lbs of composition B, a mixture of TNT and semtex)
  • U.S. Navy bomb disposal had to come pick it up after closing off main street for proper disposal

• Lady dies after Butt Implant
  • Lady flies all the way from the UK after finding a killer deal on Butt implants
  • This is where you inject silicone directly into you to enlarge the gluteous maximus region
  • Strolls into a hotel room for the procedure and then later dies after being transported to the hospital
  • First off, A HOTEL ROOM SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST INDICATOR OF TROUBLE
  • second off, PLASTIC SURGERY IS NEVER CHEAP
  • third off, IF YOU HAVE A HOOKER IN THE NEXT ROOM TURNING TRICKS, YOU PROBABLY WANT TO TURN AROUND AND GO BACK
  • It was a killer deal all right :s

Extra Links

• Costumes based on Anime Figures
• Superman Classic

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• 10% off power rings
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

• ShinyLines Power Geek Rings!!!
  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
  • Send darthmolen@gmail.com an email saying you want this ring. If there’s enough interest, we are going to make this available to the public

Luxury Lane Soaps

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFT ED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk Gamification, Twitter news, people getting sue-happy, and 1080p on your phone! that and much more

Items of Interest

• (JP) Big O Pc/ Xbox 360 console combined
  • Monster Pc with Built in XBox 360

• • Starting at $7,669, the Big O features a double-wide case with all the bells and whistles. base configuration, the CPU, both GPUs, and the motherboard all come liquid-cooled. Upgrade options include up to two six-core Intel Xeon X5680 CPUs, two 1,000-watt power supplies, and up to four graphics cards. All of that while impressive, is nothing compared to the bottom edge of the system, where Origin has built in a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 Slim.

• (SM) Infinite Adaptive Mario

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
• Ellen campaign???

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

• • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Free Ringtone HEAVEN! (udg)

• • http://www.brinked.com
  • Account is free (hint: use fake phone # for security purposes. Retyping their example # works just fine)
  • Upload and edit your own songs
  • Import & edit YouTube clips! (Yes I made the “Junkpunch: YOU KNOW WHY!”)
  • Download tone, sync phone and you’re set. Jinkies it’s awesome!
  • Ok, SERIOUSLY, SERIOUSLY addicting
    • (JP) I use Audiko.net same thing, no account required!

• iOS 4.1 Released and now in the Wild
  • Game Center (not including 3g)
    • (JP) no games using it yet… even one update moments ago that claims to have it, doesn’t show up in Game Center yet
  • HDR Photography
    • Slick. I love HDR, so this will be a cool feature
  • Various fixes around bluetooth

• Atari Restickable wall decals!!! (JP)
  • Asteroid, Centipede, or PONG!!!
  • Plus… use code PONG for $10 off a $30 order, good through 9/10/10 at 11:59 PM ET.

Geek Speak

Companies Adopt Gamification

• Good games sell better.
• developer’s goal is to design a structure and system of rules in which players will a) enjoy the process or journey, and b) create a sense of added value.
• fun process coupled with a system for incentives or rewards for a job well done can become downright addictive. (WoW, zinga games, mini ipod games that status twitter or fb)
• Ppl are seeking to take RL lessons from games

• • Nike +
  • Mint.com
  • Foursquare
  • etc?

How do we gamify our lives?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Gearbox buys Duke Nukem Rights (JP)
  • The story, and game, that just won’t buy gets a new chapter
  • Gearbox announced this bombshell at PAX proper
  • DNF is their first game, but more to come
  • Original creator, Alan Blum, now works for gearbox
  • Release date: xmas 2020

• Borderland raises their level cap by 8 (SM)
  • (another Gearbox)
  • There’s new DLC for one of our favorite post apoc FPRPG
  • “Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution”
  • What it won’t include is a new level cap raising and rebalancing
  • Good News? They’re giving those out for free
  • They plan an 8 lvl raise for all players, current cap is 61….

• New Parody RPG Fantasy University Aims to give Zynga a run (udg)

• • I’ve long stated FB game “addicts” have no right to call themselves “hardcore gamers.” The games just don’t qualify period. Until now?
  • Simutronics is hoping their new game Fantasy University will live up to the standards real gamers (yea I said it) look for.
  • It’s a parody-driven role playing game that mocks pop culture.
  • Players move around a game world, gathering quests and fighting beasties one whack at a time. But there’s more to the game than flavorless hack-and-slash. Fantasy University is funny, stylish and smart; in short, it’s no FarmVille.
  • With an art style created by Tracy Butler, the artist behind the web comic Lackadaisy, and a plot brimming with pop culture references, the game feels like Mad magazine’s take on the fantasy videogame.
  • Game is in beta test right now, which I have signed up for and from what I’ve seen looks pretty awesome.
  • Can it achieve it’s goal of drawing hardcore gamers into FB gameland? I think only time will tell. All I know is it’s not Zynga and that alone makes me root for them.

• Captive Freed by Twitter (SM)
  • Well, nobody knows if the twitter was what really aided in his release
  • Japanese journalist, not heard since Apr. 1, sends 2 tweets from prison.
  • i am still allive [sic], but in jail,” and “here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.”
  • Low lvl captor had an N70, wanted to use it to see Al Jazeera, journalist activated it for him, and then tweeted from it.
  • A days later he was free back in Japan
  • See? Twitter can save your life
  • Speaking of saving your life, this guys tweeted a live heart attack
  • Tommy Christopher, White house reporter for mediaite.com, suffered a major heart attack that was almost fatal
  • His response to the event? Live tweeting! “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. beat that”

• Journalist Benched Over False Twitter Report (JP)
  • Mike Wise, Journalist at The Washington Post didn’t think Twitter was that big of deal
  • To emphasize his point, he posted a fake tweet on Ben Roethlisberger (Pitt QB)
  • Instead of making his point, he got suspended when readers did their own fact checking and called him on his false report
  • 1/4 of all posts contain a link, 190 million unique visitors monthly
  • definitely a valid source of news finding
  • recent scoops: (us airways hudson river, dominican republic earthquake, Iran elections, fort hood shootings)

• Comic God Mark Millar Starts His Own Kick-Ass Magazine (udg)

• • You’re one of the hottest comic book writers on the planet. Wanted and Kick-Ass were already turned into A-list Hollywood movies and Nemesis scored its movie rights being snatched up after only 2 issues, so what’s next?
  • A print magazine of course!
  • British stores will be stocked w/ CLiNT, Mark Millar’s new monthly mag for “dudes.”
  • Will only be available to us US peeps via subscription for now.  Excited? So was I until the $61.99 stopped me.
  • Millar’s new passion project is the quest to create the ultimate magazine for young guys.
  • Will feature articles on movies, music, tv, as well as serialized comics.
  • One of the most awesome things? One of those comics will be the debut of his Kick-Ass sequel- Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall.
  • Ok, umm so what’s up with the name? Well rumor has it when the name Clint was printed in comic books in the early 60’s poor print quality made it look like a certain other c-word.
  • Wanna read a breakdown/review of the first issue? Check out what Comics Alliance had to say here.

• Windows XP Dying Oct. 22, Dell rushes it to grave (SM)
  • Oct. 22 is the final moratorium on XP downgrades for PC Makers
  • Dell is retiring it a month early in preparation
  • Sales of XP in stores was first halted in 2008
  • 60% of the personal computer market is still XP
  • 30% is a combo of Vista and Win 7
  • Apple? Up to 6%

• PS3 Blocks Jailbreaking with firmware update (JP)
  • Surprise Surprise, PS3 Jailbreak USB stick no longer works w/ new update
  • Sony calls the update “minor” but doesn’t really say whether it was to stop jailbreaking just unspecified “security features”
  • Prediction: There’s gonna be a war over the PS3 because it is more open than the XBox 360

• Microsoft Co-Founder Sues Everyone and Their Mother (udg)

• • Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen has gone on quite the insane little patent lawsuit run
  • Whose on his hitlist? Only Google, Facebook, eBay, Apple, Yahoo, AOL (seriously do they have anything left???), Netflix, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and YouTube (umm… doesn’t Google own it??)
  • The patents he’s citing describe tasks like:

• • • • “A site to offer suggestions to consumers for items related to what they’re currently viewing.”
      • “Enables ads, stock quotes, news updates or video images to flash on a computer screen peripherally to a user’s main activity.”

• • • • “allows readers of a news story to quickly locate stories related to a particular subject, among other things.”

• • There are sooo many things wrong with this on so many levels. Is the $18 BILLION he is currently worth not enough? Why now?? And how the Hell did AMAZON and a zillion other sites escape this mad spree?
  • Here’s a thought- let’s stop suing everyone and focus on making ummm… I dunno…. GOOD TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE CAN USE TO BETTER THEIR LIFE. Or a faster way to buy a new toaster. Either way, I’m calling bullshit on this one.

• 1080P in your Phone via Dual Core Processors (SM)
  • Already in the pipeline, should hit next year
  • 5x the graphics power, allows for both recording and playback @ 1080p
  • 2 x 1ghz arm processors, new graphics processor, faster memory (up to 64GB)
  • Dual Proc actually reduces the power consumption of more intense applications
  • Samsung, Tegra, and Quallcom all have announced different new processors
  • (SM) These will be SMOKIN!

Intarweb Goldmine

• Welcome back to school! Here’s your porn pen! (sm)

• • To sweeten their first day at primary school German children are normally given a cardboard cone filled with sweets, but schoolchildren in Essen this year opened their cones to find pens which project erotic images.
  • Who do the kids (and their screaming parents) have to thank? Why the Communists! No, seriously.
  • In a press release the German Communist Party stated that it had purchased the pens from a discount store, which had said the pens lit up at the push of a button. Oh something lights up alright, but it’s not the pen.
  • Don’t worry though, the Commies have offered to exchange the pens for something “more suitable for children.” And who says Communism is bad?

• Specially submitted by everyone’s favorite Geek Girl Kristin (JP)
  • Man calls 911 demands hugs and Hot cocoa and suprise, gets arrested
  • homeless man in Oregon was arrested for trespassing after sneaking into a local hot tub and calling 911 to request “a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows,”
  • Officers responding to the bizarre call arrived at the Beaverton, Ore., neighborhood pool to find Mark Eskelson sitting naked in a hot tub. According to statements made to police, he had been sitting in the water for around 10 hours and began to worry for his health when he realized he had no dry towels.

• Venezuelan Politician Offers A Bizarre Raffle Prize (udg)

• • For under $6 you could win the chance at a shiny new pair of…. breasts.
  • Gustavo Rojas, who is running as an alternate for the National Assembly in Sept. 26 elections is the genius behind this plan.
  • With over 30,000 implant surgeries a year in the image-conscious Venezuela, this costly procedure is in high demand.
  • Rojas admitted it’s a little unusual but followed it up with “it’s like raffling off a TV set or a telephone.”

• Frankenstein Cited For Monstrous Behavior in Ohio (jp)

• • Ohio police say a Toby Keith fan named Forrest Frankenstein threatened them and beat his head against a partition in their cruiser after his arrest.
  • When the judge asked 39 yo Frankenstein why he “went crazy” at the Aug. 27 concert in Cincinnati. Frankenstein replied that he had been drinking and didn’t really remember anything.
  • Frankenstein, of Hamilton, is being held on $80,000 bond on counts of menacing, disorderly conduct and vandalism.

Extra Links

• TI-84 to hack a PS3
• XBLA on Win 7
• Other info on M4R format

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Prof. Mordarm’s “The Wandering Geek Con Journal”

• Kickstarter Project by Lorenzo R.(aka @Prof_Mordarm), create a useful medium to inform people of Geeky Cons across the U.S., both big and small.
• Series of physical journals that will be written in and by the geeks, the panelists, the cosplayers, the vendors, & the fans. Everyone & anyone at a Con can write in this journal Allowing good, bad, and geeky experiences to liv on
• When enough content is gathered, these experiences will be published into easy to read (online, PDF, & hardcopy) editions each year. It will be the Geek’s version of the Farmer’s Almanac, but for Geeky Cons!
• To help get your own TWGCJ and/or support or if you have questions, check out the Kickstarter @ http://kck.st/cNUADw & also follow the project creator on Twitter for updates.

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! Tonight we break out the zombies, Lightning Rock’n’Roll, high tech garbage, and stalking gets easy, all this and more!

(JP) With gratitude and much respect, best birthday wishes to Mr. Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello.

Jeremy brought it up, Prof. Mordarm made the pic

Items of Interest

• You’ve seen Steampunk…helloo MarvelPunk (udg)
• • 19 yo Zachariah Perry Cruse, a sculpture student of Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana has created an Xbox 360 mod Tony Stark would be proud of.
  • It started as a rusty, fat Falcon HDMI Xbox 360.
  • It has its own Arc Reactor that glows in cool white when the console is turned on, in addition to a ring of light around the Arc Reactor that looks like the console’s power button.
  • Available on ebay, the sexy beast comes with matching red controller and a 120g hard drive with “Stark Industries” label.
  • Looking to bid on this? Good luck- current top bid is $3,200.
    • I think Microswerve should hire this kid immediately… his consoles beat any of the custom faceplate models on the market to date (JP)

• Walking Dead Official Trailer (SM)
  • (SM)I am officially in love with this series and its not even out yet
  • We saw pieces of this from SDCC
  • That they would keep Kirkman around speaks volumes towards how they want to get this right
  • Watch all the other stuff at that site… Zombie school? Count me in
    • (JP) So Glad Darabont is attached to this. He has done the best adaptations of Stephen King novels… He has a great way of handling horror/suspence subject matter. This should be amazing! now I have a new reason to look forward to Halloween!
• Age of Empires Getting a new treatment for online linked to Xbox360 and Windows Games Live (JP)
  • Sign up for the Beta at the link in the show notes…
  • Under an NDA for now, but as soon as  I can talk about it… I will
  • I can say I have always love AoE games and am excited about this…

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
  • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Tactical Bacon - ‘Nuff said
  • Delicious bacon, canned, so it has a 10+ year shelf life.
  • Approx. 18 servings per can (1 serving = 3 slices of bacon).
  • Net Wt.: 9oz
  • a must have for every Zombipocalypse survival kit!

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! Tonight we talk with Sillof.com about his custom figures, amy geek Star Wars Celebration V, 7 ways the zombie apocalypse won’t happen, Star Wars on Blu-Ray, Radios in Cell phones (are you kidding me)

• Possible hacked iPhone saga- weird call+5 images on camera roll+ 1.6gb data uploaded to her phone + Apple “not so” genius +AT&T (need I say more) = still no clue. I’m telling ya- CHINESE!

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

• • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Toshiba releases Dual Screen Tablet / Laptop
  • Released in Japan first, now available here in the U.S. as of Monday as pre-order, Aug. 29 in some stores
  • Based on Windows 7, Clamshell device, 1.8 lbs, 7 inch
  • Bottom window is a touch screen keyboard and a monitor when needed
  • Bit pricey, $1099
    • (JP) One very cool feature (reading like an actual book) and one very disturbing song in the video ad at the link
      • Lyrics “You need me, you want me, come touch me, come hold me” Is this a porno ad?

• First Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light DLC Free for 30 Days Upon Launch on Xbox 360
  • Square Enix brings good news to those looking forward to Lara Croft’s first downloadable adventure.-the first content pack will be offered for free on the Xbox 360 for the first 30 days after launch, once it is released.
  • The Xbox 360 timed-exclusive is set to launch today as the final title in the 2010 Summer of Arcade promotion on Xbox Live.
  • (JP) WTF May go on tiny soapbox for a minute here. five DLC already when game dropping tomorrow??? Ripoff? Why not included in game… this isn’t like a map pack add on)

• Apple Releases Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0
  • Solves specific issues regarding frame rates in Portal and Team Fortress 2 on certain Macs, as well as issues that could cause StarCraft II or Aperture 3 to quit unexpectedly or become unresponsive.
  • Also corrects image corruption issue when connecting/disconnecting external displays
  • The update is 69.2MB and is available via Software Update for Macs running Mac OS X 10.6.4.

• DEXTER SEASON 4!! (udg)
  • Ok, I NEVER watch TV, but I’ve seen every episode of Dexter. It freakin’ rawks and season 4 is no excepction.
  • You will never look at John Lithgow the same way again.
  • Get it now while it’s a steal.
  • Trailer for Season 5 premiered at SDCC but I can’t link it cuz MAJOR SPOILER.
  • You’ve got til Sept 26 to cram it in before Season 5 premiers  (JP – Can’t wait!! Love DEXTER too!!!)

Geek Speak

• Sillof.com Guest Appearance
  • Jamie aka Sillof

• SWCV Rundown – (hopefully amy_geek – dm sent)
  • Top 5
    • Break out cosplay best and worst

• Trinkets and stuffs

• Knock off Merchandise, Social Media and Starwars – Panels,

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Star Wars on Blu-Ray (SM)
  • Announced at SWCV when Jon Stewart asked the question
  • Deleted scenes, all 6 films, extended features
  • Only the “Special Edition”, original not included (HAN SHOT FIRST)
  • 2011 (WAAAAAA!)

• PS Plus Games go bye bye after subscription ends (JP)
  • Prchased a 3-month subscription to PlayStation Plus and wondering what will happen to the free games you’ve downloaded once your subscription runs out?
  • those “free” titles will cease to be accessible once the subscription expires.
  • Wanna play them again? Ante up for another subscription or purchase the game in the store.
  • Strangely, PSone games still work once the Plus subscription ends even though the games are clearly marked as “Expired.” Guessing this is a glitch so expect a mandatory firmware update.

• Xbox Live Titles For Windows Phone 7 Finally Revealed (udg)
  • Have finally announced a full list of launch titles for WP7 handsets, including Castlevania, Halo: Waypoint, Star Wars, Crackdown, and Guitar Hero, alongside a handful of newer properties like the ultra-cute ilomilo, produced in-house by Microsoft Game Studios.
  • In total, there will be over 60 game titles, with new offerings appearing every week in the Xbox Live Marketplace, just like its big brother console version
  • Microsoft has also shown off the full feature set of Xbox Live integration in Windows Phone 7, and users of the service should be pleased to discover that there’s not much missing from the version they know and love.
  • Will allow for full avatar integration (we’re talking fully rendered, interactive avatars) along with customization (clothes, accessories, and more). Messaging, friend lists / status, achievements, and leaderboards (with friend comparisons) are all here as well, making for a pretty complete mobile Xbox Live experience.
  • And also just like the console, every game will have a try-before-you buy demo to check out before spending your hard-earned cash.
  • You can visit the link in the show notes for a full review of the features that Engadget was able to preview. While many of the features were still very much in development, the review crew had great things to say about it and site a promising future for Xbox fans.
  • 

• Radio,RIAA Ask Congress for Radios in Cell Phones (SM)
  • There’s no money in radio anymore, user base dwindling
  • Most advert goes to either TV or online
  • Radio currently is only paying a portion of the licensing, online pays the full amt
  • Music industry is looking to make another 100 million from radio
  • Music business hurting, so squeeze radio, radio hurting, so make mobile device manufacturers build radio receivers in each device they make?
  • Have these ppl ever heard of I <3 radio??? Also, WTF with FM? Its power and bandwidth hungry
  • (JP) I love me my XM Sirius Radio. I only listen to Audible or XM in my car anymore

• MagicTalk = Free local phone calls to and from Computer? (JP)
  • Most services charge a fee to register a phone number and make calls to or from it on your computer (see skype and vonage)
  • Simple reason? It costs them money to register that phone # and act as a real telephone company
  • the Makers of Magic Jack want to change that by giving you a number for free tied to their software
  • How do they make money? They charge the phone companies when you receive a call and they charge for international calls
  • VOIP is one of the reasons the broadband providers want to regulate their bandwidth
  • JP – friend runs asterisk at home, and has a script that uses Google talk to make all outbound, his number from a similar service is free for incoming calls, but charges for outgoing calls. so this way, every call is an incoming call.

• The Zombie Cookies Plot Thickens (udg)
  • If you’ve been listening to our shows over the last few weeks, I mentioned an issue of some big names using technology that brings cookies (not noms, the ones on your computer) back to life and some people being not so happy about that. The plot has thickened.
  • Disney’s internet subsidiary and several of its partners are now being sued.
  • The attorneys representing people who browsed websites that employed the technology claim it was used to track them in ways that violate the sites’ privacy policies.
  • It appears as though the trackings, (including many minors) weren’t exactly random. The habits of one individual who browsed articles on depression, were uniquely tracked across a network of partners, according to the complaint.
  • The suit was filed in US District Court in Los Angeles against Walt Disney Internet Group, Clearspring Technologies, Warner Bros. Records, and several other companies that shared the cookies.
  • Seems they have an “information-sharing agreement” they failed to tell their users about.
  • The suit (which is seeking class-action status) was filed in US District Court in Los Angeles against Walt Disney Internet Group, Clearspring Technologies, Warner Bros. Records, and several other companies that shared the cookies
  • The suit alleges the companies violated a raft of laws, including the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Computer Crime Law, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and trespass and personal property statutes.
  • You may read a full copy of the complaint here
  • Flash cookies can store up to 100kb of data, which is roughly 25 times that of reg cookies.
  • To Adobe’s defense, company officials have stated in comments (PDF) submitted to the FTC that their policy “condemns the practice of using Local Storage to back up browser cookies for the purpose of restoring them later without user knowledge and express consent.”
  • (SM) for the record, Silverlight also has a local storage option… its a common and necessary technology from a developers standpoint
  • (JP- so do most of the aps on your smartphone .. .see Stevens previous note must for devs.)

• Blizzard Wins $88 Million Lawsuit Against Private Server (SM)
  • Lady ran a private server that people could connect to
  • Sold items online via paypal
  • IT WAS A MULTI-MILLION dollar business (3 million in profits)
  • This wasn’t a small operation, 32,000 players in one day
  • 427,393 strong in the community (x$200 for each circumvention)
  • She didn’t even show up in court to refute the claims
    • (JP – was she on a beach on her own private island sipping Mai Tais?)

• One Step Closer to Robots Taking Over (udg)
  • Researchers in the U.K. are working on a robot that will develop emotions as it interacts w peoples
  • Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire announced this week that they have finalized a prototype of a robot capable of learning how to express emotions
  • It is designed to form attachments, interact with people and show emotions through bodily expressions.
  • So far it’s mastered happiness, sadness, fear, excitement and pride.
  • The robots are designed to learn how to respond to humans by feeding off of facial expressions and other social cues
  • Modeling emotions and learning on children and chimpanzees (ut oh!)
  • Increase in speculation that robot companions will hit the market soon
  • Companions and caregivers= ok future. Spouses, not so much.
  • David Levy, British Artificial Intelligence Researcher predicts people will be marrying robots by 2050?!?
  • Dating and mating one is already almost possible thanks to TrueCompanion.com (you do need to bee 18+ to view their site)
  • I took one for the team and Roxxxy is only $1,495 right now- $5,000 off her base price.
  • Rocky, the male version is not yet available. Oh. Darn.
  • Ok, the FAQ even creeped me out.
  • But not as much as the video did. JINKIES!!!

• 5,000,000 Legitimate domains infected by Malware (SM)
  • Network solutions hosts a widget that serves up malware after you install it on your hosted site (Small Business Success Index)
  • One catch, this widget is installed by default on all the parked domains for Network Solutions…
  • Google it and thats like 500,000 parked domains serving up malware
  • Yahoo says 5,000,000…
  • Scary part? only 50% of the virus scanners can detect the malware…
  • You would think a HUGE company like Network Solutions would be more diligent on one of their base pages.
  • Read our link for full details on what the malware does and how prolific the problem is
    • (JP – Laundry list of things this touches is frightening!!!)

Intarweb Goldmine

• Melting IPod halts rush hour train
  • Smell of smoke made them stop the train for 8 minutes to find the source
  • Apparently an IPod exploded in someone’s hand
  • Not the first time, lawsuit in progress by mother of 15 year old claiming one had blown up in her sons pants.
  • 60 instances of overheating w/ 4 injuries recorded in the US alone
  • (SM) Is that an Ipod in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

• Boardng for the Lord
  • A Hungarian Roman Catholic priest has become a YouTube hit with his method of spreading the word on wheels.
  • The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45 believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people.
  • The video of him in action, Funny Priest Skateboarding, has so far attracted close to 170,000 hits and now also has a music version.
  • He learned his skills at the age of 14 at school but it was only later, when he served as a priest  and ihad 3 boyrs btwn the ages of 16 & 18 who’d never gone to chuch but started coming regularly after he showed him a few tricks, that he realized the impact his skill could have on youngsters.
  • His first board bore the papal coat of arms and he has since given away at least six to his young parishioners
  • Video here
  • (JP – This may be proof of a miracle… no cars wreck in the background of the video… I must admit if I was driving down the road and saw a priest on a board I would probably crash my dang car! also… rather hilarious that the song they edit to this video has cursing galore!!)

• Sumo Suit Athletics World Championships Went Down This Past Weekend
  • Began in 2008 and founded on the profound basis of “it just seemed a fun idea when suggested in the pub one day “
  • The premise is simple: you don a sumo suit and compete in a variety of events over an afternoon.
  • Medals are awarded for each individual event and also for the overall ‘athlete’ of the day.
  • Video here
  • Only one question… WHY?

• Robot That Sells Ice Cream, Reason #4,393 I Love The Japanese (udg)
  • Robots + Ice cream (“???????”) = EPIC WIN
  • Yasukawa-kun is currently working a Tokyo Summerland.
  • While the video is awesome, going to see Yasukawa-kun in action live is yet another reason a trip to Japan is #1 on my Bucket List.
  • For the record, I will try to translate the song for you all, but it’s hilarious!
  • And hells yeah I’m following him on Twitter.
  • Another clip of “Robo Cream”
  • Unfortunately I won’t be seeing Yasukawa-kun as Tokyo Summerland (a water park) lists the following warning on its site “Management strictly prohibits the entry of persons affiliated with crime syndicates and persons with tattoos (including non-permanent body stickers and body paint) into Tokyo Summerland. “
  • I have a permanent ban as well… (JP) I have been accused of being Yakuza on multiple occasions due to my ink.

Extra Links

• 8 and 16 bit demakes
• Top 10 SWCV Moments
• Healthy Bento Boxes
• Stewart grills Lucas (Polish 501st FTW, Lucas: It helps to be nuts)

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

FanboyScouts.com

• Ever wanted to award your loved one for the Kessel Run?
• Ever braved a Danger Room and wanted to show your friends proudly?
• Now you can with merit badges from fanboyscouts.com! 11 collectible badges
• Get ‘em while they are hot, and limited

Prof. Mordarm’s “The Wandering Geek Con Journal”

• Kickstarter Project by Lorenzo R.(aka @Prof_Mordarm), create a useful medium to inform people of Geeky Cons across the U.S., both big and small.
• Series of physical journals that will be written in and by the geeks, the panelists, the cosplayers, the vendors, & the fans. Everyone & anyone at a Con can write in this journal Allowing good, bad, and geeky experiences to liv on
• When enough content is gathered, these experiences will be published into easy to read (online, PDF, & hardcopy) editions each year. It will be the Geek’s version of the Farmer’s Almanac, but for Geeky Cons!
• To help get your own TWGCJ and/or support or if you have questions, check out the Kickstarter @ http://kck.st/cNUADw & also follow the project creator on Twitter for updates.

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk GENCON!!! UberDorkGirlie gives her rundown of the venerable geek conference, but no PICS of the famed slumber party, and much more…

(JP) Happy Birthday to WOZ!!! Steve turns 60 today! so we wish him a Power Geeky Birthday!

Gold Sponsors:
UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Kickstarter site for UberDorkCafe, these places just don’t build themselves
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World hits theaters Friday. (udg)
  • Based on comic Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O’Malley
  • Looks like a whole lotta awesome that does the comic proud

• JP – Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
  • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Geek Speak

• Gen Con- The best 4 days in Gaming

• • Indy this past weekend Aug 5-8 43rd year
  • I’ve not been to one since it left Milwaukee
  • Media Guests of Honor- Felicia Day, the cast of The Guild and Will Wheaton. Checked in to get my press pass, hit the goodie table, turned around – Felicia
  • )
  • Cos Play-
  • s
  • Tons of great artists, I’ll have to compile a list of all of them for ya for the site.
  • 

• • Jackass Chef there WHY? Hello stereotypes. I wanted to junkpunch.

Oh wait, there were games!

• Magic: The Gathering celebrated “Summer of Mulitplayer” with 5 multiplayer events each day
• True Adventures (producers of True dungeon live-action gaming event) raised $9,000 for the Gary Gygax memorial to be raised in Lake Geneva, Wi- the birthplace of Gen con.  (JP – I met Gary at GenCon in Indy like 20 something years ago… he introduced me to the 100 sided die! )
• Atari announced they are working on something new. Wouldn’t say what, but based on new domain names they recently registered, it points to a Neverwinter Nights MMO on the horizon.
• So… AWESOME weekend!!! And lots of hugs for everyone…

• • !
  • !

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Rubiks Cube Solvable in 20 Moves (SM)
  • Did you know that most human’s can solve a rubiks cube in about 40 moves?
  • What you are actually doing when you combine rubiks twists is called an algorithm
  • Well, the magic number for the fewest twists is called “God’s Number”
  • It only took 35 total years of google computer time to get to it

• 12 Core Mac Pro Now Commercially Available (JP) – The Sticky note of infamy was up on the Store page the other day… MAC refresh was there when the sticky was gone.
  • You’re gonna pay a cool $5k for the low end of this system
  • two 2.66GHz six-core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card (up to 3 monitors, dx11 support)
  • 21.5” iMac
    • i3 processor, discreet graphics, 1080p
    • $1099, No blu-ray option (Steve says this isn’t coming to any MAC despite demand from user base)

• Cookie Headset- I can haz any cookie? (udg)
  • “Meta Cookie” is an “interactive gustatory display” by Takuji Narumi of the University of Tokyo
  • Helmet with goggles connected to a camera
  • Person chooses whatever cookie they want out of ones shown to them
  • Handed plain cookie. Airtubes attached to helmet pump smell of desired cookie into nose
  • Wrong… just plain wrong I tell you.
  • (SM) This is a perfect way for Vegetarians to try Woookiee Cookies!
  • Speaking of Wookie Cookies… I think the postman ate mine! JP

• Droid 2 to release on Verizon with Special Star Wars R2D2 Edition (JP)
  • the worst kept secret from Verizon the Droid 2 will be available for pre-order aug 12th and will ship with Android 2.2
  • Amusingly, Motorola and Verizon also announced that they will offer a special edition Star Wars version of the Motorola Droid 2 in September. The R2D2 Droid 2 will come with Stars Wars content and it will be made to look like R2D2 Astromech droid from the Star Wars film. Motorola didn’t share a picture of the R2D2 version of the Droid 2
    • (side note regarding 2.2 FroYo on current droids – 2 hrs ago )

• Netflix getting closer to streaming 1st run movies (SM)
  • Paramount, Lion’s Gate, MGM
  • It’ll cost Netflix nearly 1 billion to do so
  • The deal will commence Sept. 1.
  • Ted Sarandos, taking a “pile of money” from USPS, giving it to studios ($600 million)

• Facebook hacked, Names and photos revealed (udg)
  • A bug in FB’s login system allows attackers to match unknown email addresses with users’ first and last names, even if set to private
  • If the address belongs to any one of the 500 million active users the site will return the full name and picture associated with the account.
  • Facebook has been under repeated attack for revealing way too much private info about it’s users over the past couple of years.
  • Their response was giving users more control over who could see what.
  • The name-to-email address extraction bug proves that doesn’t really work.
  • We can expect to see a fix to this soon?

• Games responsible for 5 billion of US economy (JP)
  • A study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that the video game industry added about $5 billion to the US economy in 2009.
  • Entitled “Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report” [PDF link], claims the industry directly employs about 32,000 people in the US and indirectly employs 120,000 (GameStop employees, video game media, manufacturing and distribution).
  • Average industry employee makes $89,781 a year. Obviously that’s not the GameStop employee, but that is the average of them all.  (Kiddies this means video game programming pays… testing… not so much!)
  • CA lays claim to 41% of the employees in the industrty
  • The annual growth rate of the industry exceeded 10% between 2005 & 2009

• Starcraft 2 Tourneys offer $500k total (SM)
  • We know how South Korean’s love their starcraft
  • One TV network locked down Blizzard broadcast rights in SK, GomTV
  • New league, Global Starcraft 2 League, hellbent on luring SC 1 players over to 2
  • Offering $125,000 PER TOURNAMENT, 64 player field, 1 a month for rest of 2010
  • Plans for grand finale in 2011, Nothing says progress like money
  • Scintillating Starcraft commentary

Intarweb Goldmine

• Prisoners thank Plants vs Zombies (udg)
  • Where? Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
  • The guard actually left the keys lying around while he became engrossed in a round of Plants vs. Zombies,  DUH!! Hello Prison Guard 101
  • Four of the inmates were caught soon after the escape, but one still remains at large
  • interesting side note… the guard should no longer have access to his idevice since he’ll be rooming with some of his former wards!! hahahaha

• Guy wants a roomate in SoHo who isn’t a Mac Fanboy (JP)
  • An ad posted to Craigslist yesterday is from an open-minded sort of guy who wants a roommate for an apartment in Soho. Sounds typical, right? Here’s the catch: He insists that prospective roommates not have an iPhone or an iPad.
• The ad states that “I refuse to live with anyone that has sold their immortal soul to Steve Jobs.” He’s also looking for a guy with Starcraft II experience, and wants any potential live-ins to post a link to their battle.net profile and to prove to him that they don’t own an iPhone.
  • The New York Observer found the guy, Vince Thomas, and he said he currently lives with another fellow who is a Mac fan, and Vince says he “just can’t take it anymore.” Vince has a Droid phone from Motorola, and apparently he’d rather talk about that instead.
• Vince has a point. Some of us love our iPhones. In social situations I don’t bring it up unless someone asks. I’m even feeling a bit guilty about the ‘Sent from my iPhone’ tag on my mail. If I write Vince I’ll be sure to change it to ‘Sent from my wonderful Droid, which is so much better than the iPhone I ditched.’
  • (JP) my bet is… this guy is no picnic to live with either!
  • (udg) Are you sure this guy’s name wasn’t Steven????

• Woman driven mad by McDonalds
  • Woman in Ohio gets incensed because MiccyD’s is serving b-fast and can’t get nuggets
  • Reached through drive-thru and punches 2 employees then smashes Drive-thru window
  • Gets 60 days in jail
  • Proof that fast food and McDonalds CAN drive ppl nuts…

• Woman quits job in style
  • Was sexually harassed at work
  • revealed her quitting in 33 pictures
  • Kicker? Her boss installed a spy for monitoring web traffic
  • He himself played 19 hrs of Farmville a week
  • UDG- SORRY THIS IS A HOAX!!! (woulda been awesome though)

Extra Links

• Net Neutrality: Argument For
• Geek Love: Edgar Wright Talks Scott Pilgrim

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

FanboyScouts.com

• Ever wanted to award your loved one for the Kessel Run?
• Ever braved a Danger Room and wanted to show your friends proudly?
• Now you can with merit badges from fanboyscouts.com! 11 collectible badges
• Get ‘em while they are hot, and limited

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!!  This week we bring on the Geek Scouts, Talking some really cool action figures, Getting all tin foil hats about China, and our first racy Intarweb Goldmine. Click here to download this episode