SATURDAY ROUNDUP: SHOW EDITION

REASON TO WORRY?
The LA Times seems to think that Apple's OSX.3 Panther will have PC users considering making "the switch." But then again, there's that nasty little details of an Apple costing TWICE AS MUCH AS A PC!

SHUT DOWN
MIT has shut down the TV File Sharing System reported earlier this week citing legal concerns.. Party Poopers.

SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM
TechDirt is reporting that "white collar" spam (spam actually advertising legitimate uses) by corporations is getting worse as companies turn to cheaper methods to advertise. That bites.

TV NO LONGER "MUST SEE"
SlashDot reports that online computer gaming communities are contributing to the steady decline in television ratings.


LIFTOFF!
For Model Rocketry fans, Apogee Rockets has released a new SATURN V rocket which has the same flight profile as it's 363' cousin.


RIGHT ON TARGET
CNNTECH reports that an Israeli company is developing the "Corner Shot." A rifile which can bend around the corner to engage the enemy, keeping it's user safe behind cover.


COOL TECH OF THE WEEK - WIRELESS MP3 PLAYER FOR YOUR CAR!
Gizmodo reports on the Omnifi - a wireless MP3 digital media player with a 20GB hard drive for your car! Broadcast your favorite tunes wirelessly to your car stereo.

TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
Tired of using that small screen on your PDA to surf the net? IBM has an idea ... TWO SCREENS and link them wirelessly.

TRICK OR TREAT - HALLOWEEN ROUNDUP EDITION


LIGHTS, CAMERA ACTION
Logitech - maker of popular webcams - is going into the camcorder business - with a line of "affordable digital camcorders." Though the company isn't straying too far from what they know as the digicams can only shoot 320 x 240 images at up to 20fps with MPEG 4 encoding making them tempting to email users rather than videophiles.

JUST ADD WATER
Rapid Prototyping (or 3D printing) is now morphing into instant manufacturing as manufacturers can create products directly from digital files, take advantage of "on demand" technology, and eliminate costly overstock. Could discount outlets be a thing of the past?

RUMORING DIFFERENTLY
IChat AV may be coming to Windows. COOL!


JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
LeapFrog introduces the LEAPSTER KIDS portable Game Console. So, instead of playing "Frogger," kids can learn how to read on the go. WAY COOL.

WHERE DO YOU WANNA GO TODAY ... IN 3D
Microsoft announces that the next generation Windows OS use more cutting edge graphics, taking advantage of a computer's graphical processing power to present graphics more like cutting edge video games.

ROTTEN APPLES
The new Panther version of OSX (10.3) can accidentally erase your external hard drives, so make sure you disconnect them before upgrading. Oops.

SEE YOU IN COURT
The RIAA is taking 80 more kids and grandmothers to court after 124 settled for their lemonade money and retirement checks.

THE HANDWRITING IS ON THE WALL ... NOT
Researchers in Mexico have invented a new type of anti-graffiti paint.

BOOK `EM DANO
SlashDot reports that an Austalian man has been arrested over the Nigerian Scam after bilking $1.5 million out of greedy internet fools.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
Microsoft may be trying to swallow up Google.


CAN YOU SWITCH ME NOW?
CNN Tech reports that when the new rules go into effect November 24th which allows users to switch cellphone carriers and keep their phone numbers, that millions more cellphones may need to be replaced causing a looming environmental disaster as users toss their old units out.

How's that for a run-on sentence?

EXTREME MACHINE
Intel releases the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition chips on Monday, promising high performance for serious gaming.

THURSDAY ROUNDUP:


MARS ATTACKS
Sixty-Five years ago today, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air scared the living daylights out of America with their live broadcast drama of HG Welles Epic Novel THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Within an hour, a great portion of the country was in hysteria believing that the earth had been invaded by Martians at Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

The entire broadcast can be heard here or here (as well as some of the Mercury Theater's other compelling radio dramas).


GOIN' DVD
The DiVA 489 is a DVD-R recorder which records using Windows Media Player 9 compression. That means a maximum of 16 hours of programming on a single disc. Your mileage may vary.



PDA-GAMEBOY WAR
E-R is fond of saying that if GAMEBOY made a PDA, it could corner the market. But with Tapwave's Palm PDA called ZODIAC, it may be the other way around.

BY ANY OTHER NAME ...
Since it's name is now synonymous with SPYWARE, CNet reports that GATOR is changing it's name to "Claria." I would have thought "Evil and Annoying spyware" would have been a more accurate choice.

THE NEW ART
Plasma TV Screens can't be called a "boob tube" anymore as many technophiles are turning to them to display ART. And thanks to the Internet, owners have a worldwide gallery at their disposal.

BLOWBACK
Some music artists (like Chuck D, and DJ Moby) are beginning to see that the RIAA terror campaign is doing more harm than good.

One artist even went to far as to accuse the RIAA of protecting corporate profits while hiding behind the excuse of "protecting artists' rights."

"I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection."


THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE KITTY
CNet reviews Napster 2.0. So far, users are evenly split over it, but CNet seems to think it's worth a look. The good: A Huge Catalog of music, unlimited burning onto CD, and widespread WMA file compatibility. The Not So Good: Tied only to one computer.


WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DAVE?
It's shades of the HAL9000. Logitech's new Orbit Quickcam Webcam uses software which "can actually follow your face as you move."

Is it me or does that give everyone the willies?

I WANT MY CELLPHONETV
Gizmodo has a story about Nokia going deeper down the hybrid cellphone rabbit hole by adding DIGITAL TV TUNERS to their future cellphone models.

Okay, I'm going to come right out and say it ... CAN WE PLEASE HAVE A CELLPHONE DESIGN WHICH DOESN'T DROP A DAMN CALL?!

WEDNESDAY ROUNDUP:


TRANQUILITY BASE, HERE ... THE EAGLE HAS LANDED ... AGAIN?
Space Daily is reporting that President Bush may announce a new manned space initiative which will outlines a return to the moon.

Space exploration actually exploring. Now there's a novel concept.


HERE KITTY, KITTY
Napster 2.0 launches today.


MUST SEE PCTV
Canopus announces USB TV Tuner for laptops. No price yet, but my VISAs quaking!

JFK-CGI
Showbizdata reports that ABC has yet another special on the Kennedy Assasination. In this latest treatise, they use CGI, maps, blueprints, physical measurements, more than 500 photos, films, and autopsy reports to reconstruct the assassination of President John Kennedy 40 years ago.

The result? There's "no room for doubt" that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. All that time and money to tell us what the Warren Commission knew 40 years ago.

Oh gee, what a surprise.

YAHOO TECH TUESDAY
Yahoo Tech Tuesday focuses on music this week. Talking about iTunes, how to rip CDs into MP3s, and other cool tricks.

GET AN ILIFE
AppleInsider reports that Apple's popular ILife suite of multimedia products will get a makeover for the new year. The new ILife, which is skeined to be released in January, will include a new and improved iTunes 5.0, The and updates to iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. No word yet on when iTunes 5 will be available to Windows users. But considering that Apple is being deluged by PCers wanting to download music, E-R guesses that it won't be long after.

DMCA - IT'S NOT JUST A BAD IDEA, IT'S THE LAW
Slashdot reports that the Library of Congress has posted a list of legal and illegal activities under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Behavior that is 'verbotten' includes skipping commercials on DVDs, playing CDs in PCs, and reading eBooks on PDA's.

Take me away.

FREEBIES
If you hate Windows so much that you're willing to try anything to replace it, but you fear the Penguin, you may want to try FREE-BSD. Version 4.9 has just been released and it includes DVD Player support.


MOD OF THE WEEK
As a new E-R feature, we highlight this cool BOOMBOX MOD. Called, THE BASS-STATION, the Boombox includes wireless 802.11b, a 120GB hard drive, and an MP3 decoder. Besides being able to play MP3s, it can also stream audio to other devices in its local area network and double as a file-server for file-sharing.


LIFE IMITATING ART - MUGGLE STYLE
Nokia is developing a picture frame which will play video - much like the moving, framed pictures in HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE.

DATA BYTEING BACK
A new study reports that the average person creates about 800MB of data every year. It goes on to say that in 2002, 5 "exabytes" of new information was stored in print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media. That's 5 million terabytes -- or 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes -- which is enough data to fill the print collections of the entire Library of Congress 500,000 times!

Welcome to the information age.

LEARNING YOUR ABCDVDPCs
The Post reports on a new study showing that infants and children are going digital earlier these days. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers are spending more time watching DVDs and playing on computers than reading books (though I don't know of many babies reading these days). The effect? Children are becoming far more media-savvy. And that isn't necessarily a good thing.

TUESDAY ROUNDUP:


HAPPY HALLOWEEN from the DETRIOT SCIENCE CENTER!


DVD.VISION.TIVO
Thanks to Gizmodo, we now have word that Pioneer has come out with a new line of TiVo digital video recorders with built-in DVD recorders. With either an 80 GB or 120GB hard drive, the Pioneer DVR-810H or DVR-57H will save up to 120 hours of programming on it's hard drive and burn tivo'd shows onto DVDR in about 3 minutes for one hour of TV time. The are currently pricey, but the future is here and it's name is PIONEER.

YOU'VE BEEN CHEATED
OHIO Officials claim AOL has been cheating customers who called in to cancel their service by continuing to charge them. We've heard this before. Is this a deliberate strategy by AOL?

LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR
According to TECHDIRT, drivers in the U.K. who are being caught by red light cameras running the lights are paying an extra $332 in insurance premiums for a first offense, a second costs $870 and a third amounts to a whopping additional $2,405!

State Farm may be there, but their there with their hand out.

THE DELL MADE ME DO IT
CNN Tech reports that hackers are using an interesting defense in trials against them: THE COMPUTER DID IT!


VIDEOBOY
AKIBALIVE reports that Japanese company AM3 are releasing an adapter setup which will turn a Gameboy Advanced into a movie player! No plans to release in the States yet, but the adapter and several movie cards will be available in the land of the Rising Sun next month. Cost - $35 USD


WHAT DO YOU WANT TO WATCH TODAY?
Redmond announced yesterday that next year Microsoft will release the Portable Media Center - software which will play in a new PMD (portable media device) and will allow users to listen to music and watch movies on the road. Though too early to set a price, MS officials did say that the new device will allow users to listen to "thousands of hours of music, watch digitally recorded TV shows or home movies, and store and view digital photo albums."



CAN YOU WATCH ME NOW?
Nokia has announced the new Nokia 7700 TV Cellphone. And this prevents drop calls ... how?



A BIRD IN THE HAND
Antelope Technologies has announced a new modular PC which is palm-sized, but comes with a giant sized pricetag - $3,970! Dude, seriously, this ain't 1993. For that kind of money, one can purchase 13 pocketPCs.

EZ-Ds AREN'T THE RAGE
Disney's much hyped 48 hour DVDs (a DVD which will fades into uselessness in two days) aren't very popular. The reason seems to be that nobody wants to pay for what amounts to a $7 movie rental.

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
SLASHDOT reports that the ban on Internet taxation ends Saturday. A bill is working it's way through Congress which would make the ban permanent, but will it get passed in time?


SERIAL KILLERS
PDA Live reports that Socket Communications, Inc. is shipping a Cordless Serial Adapter with Bluetooth Wireless Technology which eliminates the need for serial cables.

I thought USB did that.


HAPPY 48th BIRTHDAY, BILL GATES!

ALWAYS (1989)

With the wild fires burning Southern California, ALWAYS is a good film to watch right now.

You can learn alot about that these guys and gals do to fight forest fires.

RUBBING IT IN
The RIAA says that the bad press they've endured over their terror campaign against file sharing is LESS than expected.

Why would anyone mind if you go after kids' lemonade money or elderly social security checks?

They also brag that CD sales are up and that's due to their strategy. Course, it doesn't have anything to do with the lowering CD prices. Why would it?

DUDE, YOU'RE GETTIN A DELL
Dell launches it's MP3 player this week. 15 and 20 GB capacity. Starting at $249.

Too bad their tech support still bites.

NOTHIN' BUT NET
Hauppauge brings convergence of TV and Computer one step further with it's MediaMVP. Listen to and watch digital music, pictures and videos on your TV set, from your PC over your home Ethernet LAN!

GET THE PICTURE
Is this what Europeans do with 6 weeks of vacation every year?
Some people have way too much time on their hands.

FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES
If you fly alot, this device may help you to keep leg room at a premium ... and your sanity as well.

ONE MAN'S TRASH
Got junk you can't sell? List it on FREECYCLE - the eBay of junk.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
Michigan's governor is cutting funds to a program which provides laptops to sixth graders. Here's an idea ... TRY TEXTBOOKS.

HEAVY ROTATION
DAILY TUNES - an website which recommends downloads from iTunes with direct links so you don't have to search.

I WANT MY MTV
Students from MIT have figured out a way around illegally sharing music by "broadcasting" it over cable TV signals. I'm glad they're doing something contructive rather than wasting their time with such folly as writing lunar landing programs.

HERE KITTY KITTY
Napster is offering prepaid download cards - aimed at teens who don't have credit cards to pay for music downloads.

MAKING THE SWITCH
With a recent court decision allowing cell phone users to keep their numbers, switching cell phone carriers may become more frequent. That could also lead to lower prices and better service. And that's a good thing.

MEMORY BLOCK
New hi-tech glasses have been invented to help people remember things. The glasses The eyeglasses are attached to a mini-computer programmed to remind the wearer of things, then flashes a reminder onto tiny screens built-into the lenses.

And 5 seconds later, students will be using them to cheat on tests.


RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT
Emergency vehicles have been using the technology for years. An infra-red device which can change stop lights and give the right of way. Now some enterprising company is taking the technology COMMERICAL! If you've ever seen THE ITALIAN JOB (now on DVD) you know what a BAD idea this can be.