Episode 003 – The Apple conference, The new iPods and the iTV

News from the Apple Conference:
The new iPods: We don’t get the new full screen iPod that was so heavily rumored. There is more vibrant screen, higher definition support as in 640×480, instant text based searching, and the all important battery life has been extended. The new amazingly tiny iPod Shuffle.


If you have seen it then you will realize what I am talking about.This kind of resembles the parody iPod Flea:


I will say that the new Nanos with the aluminium body are very nice and I will probably get one.
iTunes 7.0: Finally it gets an update and whats this… The Music store now also features the Movie store. Makes sense to go along with the more vibrant screen and battery life in the new iPods. But One More Thing…
iTV: The iTV… Steve said they would change the name because iTV is a codeword. It is a set-top box that acts as a delivery system direct to your TV for all the media that you have on your PC. It can even bring down podcasts like your favorite tech guys, Bill and Joe. The iTV features the following connections:
>> 802.11
>> USB2
>> Ehternet
>> HDMI connector for all new big-screen flat panel TVs
>> Component video (RGB)
>> analog audio RCA jacks
>> Optical audio
This will definitely be an interesting contender to any future generations of Tivo and be an excellent delivery system for the future multimedia home theater systems.

Thanks for listening!

Episode 002 – Amazon.com video, Speeding up Windows XP, Ben Affleck and his iPod

Amazon Video Download Service: A new service from Amazon that will bring more network tv shows and movies on demand to your computer. Though some networks ABC and Disney probably won’t show up. Due to its relationship with Apple thru Steve Jobs and Pixar. Free episode available from Amazon. But don’t weep for Apple they might be announcing their own Movie Store to go hand in hand with their Music Store. Should be interesting how the consumer movie industry develops from this.

Archos Players: Bill’s original Archos Player… The one that I hope to get in case Apple doesn’t come out with a 100 gig Video Pod is a 100 gig Archos Jukebox that also acts as a DVR. Or my dream machine: Archos AV700. So clean


Why does XP runs slow?: This commonly known problem can be due to the pre-fetch cache. This is a bit of memory that stores information for your most commonly run programs and this is what slows down your boot up. **WARNING** This does involve Regedit and if you are not apt at performing registry edits you can turn your computer into a brick. The second component that slows down your machine is the fragmentation. This is easily fixed by doing a defrag. Bill mentioned Sysinternals as a source for a defragger that runs on your actual registry.

Ben Affleck is a Pirate: In preparation for an upcoming role as Superman, Ben Affleck told Jay Leno that he was watching all the original Superman TV shows on his iPod. This is interesting because those episodes aren’t available on the iTunes Music Store. This means that he must have used some third party software to pull the video the off the DVDs, encoded it for iPod, and enjoyed it as many thinks is appropriate. This brings the question of fair use into light.

Remove a Logo with Sugar: Are you anti-corporate America? You don’t want to represent the carrier for your phone? This is the little hack for you then. Additionally for those interested in seeing what my laptop looks like after I painted it you can see the image here.

Thanks for listening!!