ThePowerGeeks.com

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk all abou the aftermath of C2E2, Some really cool star wars stuffs, and even get a gaming quick hit in.

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

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• 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
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