j5 create‘s background in USB display adaptors means they know a thing or two about using both hardware and software to create unique solutions. j5 Create’s Wormhole cable is one such solution as it joins two computers into one…and they don’t even have to be running the same OS. Fred shows Jeffrey and Steve some of the benefits of this innovative technology, which won a CES Innovation Honoree award.

At its most basic the Wormhole switch is simply a USB 2 cable that connects between two computers, but clever software allows the computers to work together, with one keyboard and mouse being shared between the two. The OS of the two devices doesn’t have to be the same and an Android tablet being controlled by a Windows PC is perfectly possible. Files can be seamlessly transferred between the two machines as well. Pretty smart.

Moving on to a second product, j5 create has a very desirable line of small docking stations for laptops that are little more than foot-long shiny tubes with a plethora of ports. Branded “ultrastations” and connecting via USB 3, these take full advantage of the faster data rate to provide a myriad of connections, including HDMI, through a single USB 3 cable. Nice.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of The Geekazine Podcast and Steve Lee of Netcast Studio.

Finally back in the saddle, after getting back from Vegas I got violently ill and was down for the count on Monday. Glad to be back and still on the mend. The studio is in a state of shambles as the gear has been arriving over the past couple of days. I have a great deal to catch up with you all. One thing make sure you are subscribed to the Special Media Feed we are going to be pushing a boatload of content at you and we do not want you to miss a single interview from CES. Lots of gold in those interviews.

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J5Create may be familiar to Apple Macintosh users as they’re designers of aesthetic Mac accessories, but their latest gadget will be of interest to those of us with a foot in the PC camp. Here Todd talks to John about their new Wormhole Station.

The Wormhole Station combined with the Wormhole cable creates a keyboard and mouse switch which not only controls both a PC and a Mac from one mouse and keyboard but also moves files seamlessly from one computer to the other. Even cooler, you can set the configuration up so that moving the mouse cursor off one side of Mac screen transfers the cursor to the PC screen. It’s a bit like having a dual monitor setup, only with two OSes!

If you like the sound of this, it’s available in both laptop and desktop configurations. Available now, the Wormhole Station will set you back $109.99 and the cable is $39.99. The CES folk like it so much, they gave the Wormhole Station an Innovation Honoree Award.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

Over the break, there’s been a bit of discussion by some of the big names regarding the reasons why Windows Phone 7 handsets haven’t been flying off the shelves this holiday season. Charlie Kindel started the debate with “Windows Phone is Superior; Why Hasn’t It Taken Off?” and largely faults the relationship between the OEMs, Microsoft and the carriers.

MG Siegler responded with a fairly weak response largely citing the mantra of “too late and not enough apps” but as can be seen from today’s news of 50,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the latter argument really isn’t that valid.

As usual, Robert Scoble hits the nail on the head. People buy Android or iOS because it’s a safe bet and they don’t want to look stupid or uncool by buying something else. Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and RIM’s Blackberries simply don’t have the gold-plated appeal of a sure-thing.

And he’s right. I was a big Palm fan and look how that turned out. I do feel stupid. After spending years waiting for Palm to move from PalmOS to WebOS and then HP promising to do big things. I bought in with a succession of Pre phones and pre-ordered a TouchPad. Maybe I shouldn’t be so shallow and have a less of an ego, because WebOS is a great operating system and even with the smaller app selection, it does 99% of what I need a phone to do. But when everyone else is, “Have you got this app and that app” on their Galaxy S IIs and iPhone 4Ss, you do feel a bit of a chump.

So thanks, HP. I feel stupid.

microsoft logo

I’m not sure if Microsoft is following Apple’s footsteps from a few years ago, but it was announced earlier today that after CES2012, Microsoft is pulling out of Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

From Microsoft’s Blog: “We have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES. We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.”

For the last 20 years, Microsoft has been a big part of CES. The opening keynote has been given by Microsoft’s Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer during those 20 years.

Now, there have been some posts that say Microsoft is pulling out completely. As far as this blog goes, it sounds like Microsoft is only relinquishing the Opening keynote spot. Not the Microsoft booth.

Still, one has to wonder what this means for the Consumer Electronics Show. The opening keynote was always a hot ticket for the show – How do you replace that? Better yet, is there anyone that can replace that?

Xbox 360

A new interface for XBox 360 game console users allows you to use your voice to navigate through the games, TV shows, movies and music.

Steve Ballmer showed off this technology back in September, but starting this Tuesday, this becomes reality. It adds not only remote gesture control, but also remote voice commands. Therefore, if you don’t have a Kinect motion controller, you still can control without a remote.

The Associated Press got a special demonstration of the new features. When the Microsoft employee said “XBox Bing ‘Iron Man’,” a search for Iron Man came up. When the employee said “XBox, show movies,” a list of movies from various sources appeared.

With over 57 million XBox units sold, Microsoft is expecting to make a real impact in the cord cutters market. Adding pay channel partners like Verizon FIOS means that XBox will get into the Over the top TV market with a vengeance. You will have to use over-the-air or alternate cable methods to get network TV like NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

The real question is how this will affect your household. Will you cut your cord over this update? Will you start to use the XBox as more than a gaming system?

apple

Apple sold more than 4 times what they normally do on Black Friday – was said in a report on 9to5Mac. But here we have Cyber Monday, and Apple is back to full price. Are they missing on another record sales day?

It was the first time in a long while that Apple put discounts on their products like that. But this Black Friday, they broke the norm and gave discounts on Macbooks, iMac, iPods and iPads. The best deal out of the lot was the Macbook Air, which was $898. A 16 GB iPad was discounted to $450. What was really missing was the 4S discount (which I would have updated iPhone if there was a $30-50 discount).

However, after Friday, the prices jumped back up to their original amounts. While stores like Best Buy have some great discounts in accessories, the only deal tablets will be anything but Apple.

Is a One day a Year Sale for Apple Good or Bad?

This is the true question: Would Apple continue to have 4x the sales if they would have participated in Cyber Monday? What about Saturday or Sunday?

No matter what, this Cyber Monday will continue to bring some great deals. Microsoft’s $299 Dell computer is already sold out. Amazon Cyber Monday will have computer accessories go on sale all week.

Black Friday Weekend Brings 24% increase

The numbers are coming in and there is a 24% increase this year. 14.1% comes from mobile devices. This means people are using their smartphones and tablets to buy gifts. Of course, it’s a lot different than having that old Pentium computer in the den and slow internet connections. Best part is you could shop while lying in bed, so the kids wouldn’t peek and see the cool stuff your getting them.

So now the question is: Will Cyber Monday be as fruitful as last year? They stole the crown in 2010 for the busiest shopping day of the year. Now that people have had a whole weekend to get some great deals, will Monday continue to overshadow, or be overshadowed?

Tuesday is Eco-Day in Cyber Week?

A lot of retailers are using the whole week to make deals. Last Saturday was “Shop Local” day, which people were encouraged to visit the Mom-and-Pop shops. Tuesday is Eco-Day, buying items that are green in nature. No word if Wednesday and Thursday are going to get categorized.

So we could be having a great holiday season, but we are far from over in shopping. A lot of deals are to be had, so keep your eyes out. CyberMonday.com is a website to watch for today, but CyberWeek.com will be on the case all week long.

I want to thank the Gadget Professor Don Baine for stepping in while I was in Los Angeles. Many of you asked how to get more of Don’s show, well you can subscribe to The Gadget Professor here at GNC in the second column of the website.. Ok lost of tech and I get you all caught up on the past week.

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Credits:
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Wireless expert WDS is reporting that high failure rates in Android handsets are costing mobile network operators as much as $2 billion per year in dealing with repairs and returns. Reviewing the four leading mobile operating systems, its study found that Android-based devices seemed more prone to failure as 14% of technical support calls on Android were for hardware, versus 11% for Windows Phone, 7% for iOS and just 6% for BlackBerry OS.

Simplistically, Android handsets were twice as likely to suffer a hardware fault that an Apple or RIM device. The study suggests that cheaper hardware, software customisations and OS updates all contribute to the failure rate and in turn, the increased impact on the network operators to provide technical support and customer service. WDS analysed over 600,000 technical support calls from July 2010 to August 2011.

“One thing we must be absolutely clear on,” says Tim Deluca-Smith, Vice President of Marketing at WDS, “is that our analysis does not find any inherent fault with the Android platform. Its openness has enabled the ecosystem to grow to a phenomenal size, at a phenomenal rate, and it’s this success that is proving challenging.”

He added, “The Android customer experience differs enormously between devices and this means that the way in which Android devices are retailed and supported must consider factors such as the hardware build and quality of components.”

If you are thinking about buying or upgrading your smartphone, you might want to bear this research in mind before you purchase.

The full WDS whitepaper can be downloaded from this page.

ZDNet is reporting that Canonical is intending to make the next release of Ubuntu, 12.04, a LTS (Long Term Support) release with intention of then expanding Ubuntu beyond desktops and laptops into smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, with a target of 2014 for an all-platform release.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, in an interview said, “This is a natural expansion of our idea as Ubuntu as Linux for human beings. As people have moved from desktop to new form factors for computing, it’s important for us to reach out to out community on these platforms. So, we’ll embrace the challenge of how to use Ubuntu on smartphones, tablets and smart-screens.” The full announcement is expected at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, which starts tomorrow and runs for a week in Orlando, Florida.

Having already been in discussions with partners for around 18 months, it seems that this is more than wishful thinking, but one can’t help feel that the whole Palm-HP-WebOS debacle bodes badly for any company wanting to get in on the smartphone and tablet space. If HP can’t make it happen with a solid OS and Zen of Palm, what hope has Canonical? When quizzed about this, Shuttleworth said that he saw “Android as its primary competitor…..We’ve also already heard from people who are already shipping tablets that they want Ubuntu on the tablet.” And of course, “Ubuntu already has a developer and customer base.”

While there’s no doubt that the mobile space is still maturing and there’s plenty of change still to come,  I have a hard time seeing Ubuntu on anything but a small niche of tablets and an even smaller niche of smartphones. iOS and Android have their foothold and Microsoft will be a solid third if Windows Phone 7 continues to deliver and Windows 8 delivers as expected. A fourth player is going to have difficulty making inroads, especially one as relatively unknown as Canonical and Ubuntu.

Smart TVs are a more plausible destination as the internal software is of less concern to the consumer. Most people buying a TV are looking at the exterior brand such as Sony, Samsung or LG, and not what’s inside, although this may change if a “Powered by Roku” or “Google TV inside” campaign runs. Plenty of change to come in this space too.

I wish Ubuntu every success.

This show is pretty close to the seven year anniversary of the show. It has been a great run, and I want to thank all of you for being loyal fans.. You will get a chuckle at the beginning of the show as I for some reason have no idea what day it is.. Lot’s of tech and thanks for all of the emailed comments.

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Credits:
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Yahoo!

Dear Yahoo!:

It’s time. Time to make a decision. Time to stop holding onto the past. Time to realize you were on the top of game in 2000, but now it’s 2011. Time to see that Yahoo! is Yahover.

Can you turn the company around as Jerry Yang talked about during AsiaD in Hong Kong? Anything can happen. But you are not willing to put the money in to do that. Investors are weary and you have no leadership.

If I was your business analyst (and that isn’t even my profession), I would tell you what I tell other companies that choose not to sell:

1. Change your name
2. Set a new 2-year business plan
3. Get a CEO that knows Social Media
4. Re-build your look and feel
5. Re-build your clientele

Did I just say “Change your name?” YES! When I hear Yahoo! I think of a company that was on top of their game back in 2000. Eleven years later and I don’t associate Yahoo! with today. I associate Google, Microsoft or Facebook. I even have a better chance of associating AOL  with 2011 over Yahoo!

Even the best business person will buy land just for the land. They’ll strike down the building and create a new epicenter. If the roof leaks and the foundation is shaky; if the building takes more energy to keep going, then rebuilding might take less money than repairing.

I wouldn’t fret, though. You really helped shape the Internet. You should be proud of that. Now it’s time to save what’s left of the company and maybe put together a new venture. I hear Microsoft is putting together a bid, among others. It’s not going to be $31 a share as in 2008, but I would guess it will be comparable.

If you are going to keep it, then find someone that can turn this company around. Get a CEO that knows what’s going on in the new media space. Someone that is active in Social Media. Someone that will bring new blood into the company.

Sincerly:
Someone that doesn’t want to hear about this anymore.

Today’s show was held in a Google Hangout and we had one of the best discussions ever on the Satuday Morning Tech show. Enjoy the show and please send me feedback on the format @ geeknews@gmail.com

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Xbox TV partners

I watch over a lot in the Over the Top Television space. Internet TV, IPTV, whatever you want to call it, it’s a great way to get watchable content without having a full cable lineup.

Last week, Steve Ballmer announced their TV initiative over XBox Live. Over 40 providers have signed up for this venture, including Comcast, HBO, BBC, Rodgers on Demand (Canada), Televisa (Mexico), and other countries including Germany and Italy (20 in all). Best part, if you already have an XBox 360, you have the hardware to do this.

“Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360 and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.” – Press Release

Add to conventional TV line-up the on-line video providers like Crackle, YouTube, Zune and more. Then there is audio content from Last.fm and iHeartRadio. Finally, Social networks like Twitter and Facebook to round off the service.

The Game System that Became More

Whereas companies like Roku that integrated smaller games like Angry Birds, XBox won’t have that problem. It’s a game system over a TV content distributor. You can play Gears of War, Tweet about it, then watch a video on how to play Gears of War (or another show).

Unified Dashboard in XBox Live

With the unified dashboard (looking similar to the Zune software), you can browse your shows, play the games, work your social networks and more. You will connect to the Comcast Xfinity service to get all that service has to offer.

Getting Rid of the Remote with Kinect

This might be the best part about the XBox TV. By using voice controls and your Kinect, you can gesture to a channel, play, pause and move on. It might get harry if you have more than one person wanting to watch different shows. Still, could you imagine a world without a remote control?

It won’t all be free, though.

Right now, to get HBO Go, you need to have a cable subscription with HBO. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon – especially with channels like HuluPlus. Of course, that is just like many of the OTT systems out there. Pay for a subscription and get the content.

Once again, there could be conflict if you have multiple family members where one wants to play a game and the other wants to watch a movie. So this might not replace a cable box or DVR just yet.

The Xbox Live TV service is expected to come out before the holiday season. The announcement comes before then so you can plan purchasing an XBox 360 or Kinect system for your loved ones to connect up quick. While the OTT solution is more pricey than a Roku or Apple TV, it does do more than just watch video, view pictures or listen to music. It also has some great game titles. It also has a new way to browse through your content.

Monster show tonight with a Ton of stories, I only cover the upcoming iPhone announcements ever briefly as most of you will get the details early tomorrow morning. I want to welcome all of the new Google+ Listeners as those following me over their has exploded! Subscribe to the show and get signed up for the newsletter.

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iPhone

Recently Microsoft rep Steven Sinofsky has been blogging about the next version of their OS, Windows 8.  He has announced and documented extensively the changes and benefits we can expect.  He showed off the Explorer ribbon interface and improving file management, to name two things.  Yesterday, however, Sinofsky wrote about the future of Windows start-up times.  If you are interested in the technical, very geeky, details of hibernation, cold starts, kernels, and the like, then I recommend you head over to his blog post for the details.  You will also find lots of graphs and charts that compare Windows 8 to Windows 7.

If you just want your PC to start up quickly when you really need it, without all of the technical jargon,then check out the video post below, which was included in Sinofsky’s post.  You will see a laptop with no power cord and no battery go from dead to ready-to-use in about 8 seconds.

Yahoo!

It’s another chapter in the failing Yahoo! book. Yesterday, Carol Bartz – then CEO of Yahoo! got an ceremonious firing from the board. Now, with the dust settling, and Jerry Yang saying the company is still not for sale, where does the now-less diminished company go from here?

Rebuilding Phase – a Name Change, perhaps?

I get told time and again – If you want a fresh start, infuse with a new name. Yahoo! is pretty much a name dragged in the mud. Yahoo! represents the internet from 1999. It’s 2011 – Time to get with the times. Put away the preppy clothes, the teased hair and go with something a little more modern.

A new name could bring confidence back in the company and the customers. A fresh logo that means “The future of computing is here”. Then, of course, you will have to back that statement up…

Fire the Board of Directors? Including Jerry Yang.

Jerry Yang says "Yahoo is not for Sale"

Om Malik said it best – Fire the Board. If you’re gonna shake up things, do it right. The board has been flailing since the Microhoo! days. Get a new cast to make decisions and get things done. Om has a great list of who should be on this board.

I am going to take it one step further. Jerry needs to step back even more. The new board has to have free-thinkers with no pressure from Yang. They have to take a major left-turn to keep their businesses satisfied.

Get Back in the Game

During Bartz’ 2 year CEO run, a lot of programs were shut down or sold. Whatever is left should also get some type of a face-lift. Collect the patents and figure out a new plan.

Yahoo might even want to start talks with Facebook. Put a new presence in this social network (since they’ve pretty much destroyed all their social network opportunities). Since they also have a partnership with Microsoft, this might be a really nice fit overall.

Open Up to Everyone

Google does this so well (ok, maybe not with YouTube, but everything else) – Open up to the community. Ask what you want. It worked with Linus Torvolds in creating Linux. Take the information and create something around that.

With items like business email, you cannot do that, but with consumer products like search and home page, open it up and let the consumer feel they have a hand in sculpting.

There has to be 3 items that people are clambering for in the last few years that could be easily integrated. Show the people that you are listening to them.

These are just a few ideas. In thinking of it more, the name change most likely be the best move. After all – if you think Yahoo!, what do you think of? A website that is the future, or a company that represents the past?

Like a lot of people, I purchased the Lion upgrade on the first day of availability from the Apple App store.

I upgraded two late-model Mac Minis along with an older 17” MacBook Pro. The Lion upgrade solved a freezing problem on the Mac Mini I use as an HD-DVR. However, it created a number of serious problems on the MacBook Pro – Lion would not work with my Verizon USB aircard, it would not back up to my HP Windows Home Server, and it would not work properly with the Ubercaster podcast recording application.

After living with these Lion-induced problems for more than a month on the MacBook Pro, I downgraded it back to a prior (and fully functional) Snow Leopard backup image. Everything is now back to normal, with everything once again functioning the way it should.

My MacBook Pro is no slouch, yet it seemed a bit sluggish running Lion compared to Snow Leopard.

If you have a Mac that’s more than a couple of years old, and/or you are running a variety of software and hardware that Lion likely won’t support and/or that may never be updated to run properly on Lion, I would strongly suggest skipping the Lion upgrade.

I found the Lion interface changes mostly annoying. On a computer (as opposed to an iPod), I prefer normal scroll bars. In Lion you can turn the scroll bars so that they remain on, but they are thin little gray lines that I have a hard time seeing and grabbing with the mouse. I don’t like the changes Apple made to the Finder in Lion, nor do I like the changes they made to the Spotlight Search functionality. I found the changes to the Mail program to be of dubious value, as well as the cosmetic changes to the Address Book adding no functionality.

Snow Leopard runs perfectly well and just might be the new XP.

A few days ago we received the sad news that HP was discontinuing webOS devices.  The only good news out of that was for gadget lovers – HP has slashed prices on the recently released TouchPad (it’s already out-of-stock at Walmart online).  The bad news for HP, beyond the bad press and bad stock prices, was that Microsoft leaped on the news and immediately began recruiting webOS developers for their Windows Phone platform.

Microsoft’s Brandon Walsh reached out to webOS developers on Twitter, and began the process of bringing them over to Windows Phone.  He even went so far as to offer free phones and other tools.  At last check, he had received more than 200 replies.

While HP has killed off the hardware-making side of their webOS business, they are hoping to keep the software alive by licensing it to third-party hardware makers, as Google does with Android.  That means HP needs to keep these developers on board.  That will be difficult with no agreements in place yet to ensure the OS’s future.  Still, they are trying their best to maintain ties – see their blog post The Next Chapter for webOS.

Given the current state, it will be hard for HP to hold onto these developers, and given what they have already done, it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t pull the plug on the software side of webOS at any moment.  This has been a short ride for HP and webOS, and I can’t help but think that they didn’t give it it’s deserved time and effort.  Consider it a premature death.

Meetup in Albuquerque is on for next week if you want to attend please email me ASAP. We are also collecting prizes for show #700 if you would like to donate a product or service drop me a line. This show gets very serious almost out of the gate we all need to make sure we protect our freedoms.

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Space Hotel.
1994 Tablet.

Show Links:
Canada Police State?
HP #1
HP #2
HP #3
HP #4
Reid Hoffman Interview.
Juice-Jacking.
TextBook P2P.
Chegg for College Students.
$*(* AT&T
Scoble on Google+
Yankee’s Bashing or Trademark Violation.
FBI_Surveillance_VAN?
S&P Retaliation.
Cut your Headphone jack in Half and Patent it.
DHS Scanning us on the Streets?
Darpa we found it.
AES Cracked?
NASA Space Weather Video.
NASA says Aliens to destroy us over Environment?
iPhone for T-Mobile?
Lion Updated.
Microsoft App Store.
70/30 AT&T & Verizon Iphone.
Music Publisher says Uncle.
Redbox Coupons and Tricks.
Netgear SetTop Box.
MafiaaFire Plugin.
uTorrent 100 Million Active Users!
Follow the BitTorrent Money.
CTRL-F “Find”
Energize Me!
Fox ask those cut off to cry!
Vid.ly = Very Expensive.
Netflix vs Amazon Video.
Nomad.
Cover some P2P Tracks.
1 Million Dollar Vacation to Space.
HDHomerun.
Skitch.
Foursquare adds Events.
Firefox 7 Beta.

I’ve been a fairly happy Apple/OS/X user for the past three to four years. Before that, I was a Windows user that finally became disgusted enough to finally make the jump.

Most computer users are well aware of the arguments, both pro and con.

Up until now, I’ve been happy. Up until now, everything simply worked. Ahem, up until now…

What is different now? It’s called Lion. Depending on what you use your machine for, Lion can be great. However, there’s a dark side to Apple’s latest feline incarnation. If you use a wide variety of software with your particular Mac, chances are Lion is going to break things – perhaps things that you rely on. Say, a podcasting application called “Ubercaster” that no longer functions 100% for starters, or how about a Verizon USB 3G aircard that worked fine in both Leopard and Snow Leopard, but Lion somehow just cannot recognize?

Being a long-time Windows user, I’m used to the new version of the O/S screwing things up, sometimes royally. However, that bad Microsoft habit of releasing half-baked, buggy operating system updates seems to have migrated from Redmond down to Cupertino.

It wasn’t as if I expected something like this might happen. I’m prepared – I have a backup machine in the form of a 13” white plastic Macbook that I purposely kept on  Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, the most recent Snow Leopard updates Apple has sent out have broken Ubercaster entirely on that machine, rendering the backup machine rather useless at the moment for podcast recording. The Ubercaster application will no longer load, even the latest updated version.

Ubercaster still works on my Macbook Pro running Lion, but the setup is now unreliable.

Also, Lion seems to not even work properly with Apple’s own hardware. When I touch the touchpad on my 3-year-old Macbook Pro 17 it no longer makes the screen wake up after it has turned off – it’s now necessary to hit a key to make the screen come back on.

What was Apple thinking? Probably of money.

Looks like someone is messing with my net connections while I am streaming the show. Twice in two weeks the net connection has went dead while live time to do some digging. Lots of tech tonight but the last two shows the intro has slipped a bit in length. I will get that re-aligned next show. So far nothing but postive feedback on the HD version of the show. See the bonus links in the show notes and check out our iTunes network provider listings.

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Listener Links:
Special Offer .co for $13.99 Use Promo code: geek1399
JRWounds.com
Feds on Passwords.
ParaHawking over Nepal.
GitKit.

Bonus Links:
Tech Podcast Network on iTunes.
Pro Med Network on iTunes.
Travel Cast Network on iTunes.

Show Links:
One Million Downloads Day 1
Lion Review.
Lion Install Checklist.
MacBook Air Teardown.
ISS catches Re-Entry.
Atlantis Lands for Last Time.
TSA and Naked.
LTE 28 New Locations.
Microsoft Q4 Earnings.
Google Malware Detection Good?
Medical Tatoo?
Summer Time Video Blues.
Listen and Win.
Collabracam.com
Facebook iPhone Revolt.
Lodsys Suing Everyone.
Apple + Hulu
Google Business.
Chrome for Lion?
Nokia -692 Million!
Is Cloud Good for Environment.
AT&T abandoning DSL?
Roku 2.
50,000 Free Albums.
Technical Volume Torrents.
M.I.T. Data Theft.
Firefox 64 Bit Edition.
Carabiner Key?
Cricket On YouTube.
19% Drop Phone in Toilet.
Google Toolbar RIP on Firefox.
Sync Office and Google Docs.
*** Energy Saving Tips.

Apple owned the news cycle today and I spend some times on the announcements. Failure to prep on my part has me pushing the giveaway one more show. Huge amount of tech news today due to all the conferences so I have an action packed show for you.

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Geek News Central Facebook Page
Purchase GNC gear from the Ohana Store!
Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links
iOS 5 Pre-Show

Show Notes:
iOS 5 Copied Android pretty good.
iOS 5 cool features.
OS X Lion 24.99
Apple cuts the cord.
iOS 5 Hands On.
Movie and TV MIA from Apple?
Some Questions on Apple Announcements.
ISP’s to complain about Cloud.
Mozilla Webian Shell.
Google Chrome OS to be challenged by Apple Cloud?
Bitcoin form of Money Laundering?
Google Told Bad Boy by Chinese !
Solar Bubbles.
Mars base Station?
Hackers find way into Gmail via Adobe.
Siemens hack to be shown.
AT&T gets some help from other companies?
Hackers play with Sony!
Tweet Marketing.
xBox Kinect Advances.
xBox at E3.
Tethering issue with Android phones from Verizon?
Shuttle to the launch Pad.
YouTube Killing P2P?
Android Mobile is smoking!
Sony PS3 Claims!
Playstation Vital.
Google Calendar Update.
Mother Nature kicking Butt.
25% of US Hackers on Fed payroll?
Antimatter the experiments continue.
RSA Says SecureID compromised.
LightDims.

Microsoft made some big announcements today at the E3 gaming show, most surrounding the Xbox, but a few involved Xbox Live in Windows Phone. However the bigger, or at least more interesting, Windows Phone news came from Microsoft Vice President of Windows Phone Joe Belfiore, via his Twitter account.

Today an Apple fan got excited about the fact the volume up button can be used to take a picture.  Mr. Belfiore responded, good-naturedly, that Windows Phone can do a good bit more.  It was a rare bit of humor from Redmond, which tends to stick to the policy of ignoring Apple completely (while sometimes borrowing an idea).

Perhaps the Windows Phone team has some reasons to be happy.  After all, they are definitely on the rise, while Apple may be running a bit low on new ideas as they have slipped behind Android and are looking over their shoulder at Windows Phone.  Today’s announcements didn’t break any new ground, but seemed more like playing catch-up.

Make no mistake though, Apple can never be counted out and may have something huge brewing that hasn’t yet made it into the rumor mill.  But, at least for one day, it seems Microsoft may have a leg up.

-

It was a bit of a surprise when Microsoft didn’t have a problem with developer Chris Walsh’s ChevronWP7 to “fix” NoDo installs that weren’t working, even inviting him to visit their headquarters.  It now comes as less of a surprise that Microsoft is endorsing Walsh’s latest tool, especially since it helps to get those “hacked” phones back on the official update path.

The new tool, called “Walshed Phone Support Tool” solves the issue behind the “80180048″ error code in the Zune app, and an equivalent one in the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac app, that has prevented the upgrade from even starting.

The ChevronWP7 tool was used by Windows Phone 7 users who wanted to receive the NoDo update before it became available.  The patch was delayed several times due to a variety of issues.  Unfortunately, ChevronWP7, while working flawlessly, rendered devices as “unofficial” and not eligible for future updates.  The new “Walshed” tool will fix that and put those devices back on the right track.  So, Microsoft’s endorsement of both has become a win-win for them.

Perhaps the next platform update, known currently as “Mango” will go much smoother.  Given that this was their first update I can grant some slack, but if they want to make a real dent in the mobile market they will need to get it together.

Today Microsoft announced that it had purchased Skype for 8.5 billion dollars. Skype will be run as a separate business division with in Microsoft and its CEO Tony Bates will report directly to Steve Balmer Microsoft’s CEO. For those of you that are not familiar with Skype it is a soft ware application that allows users to make voice calls and chats over the Internet. Calls that are to other users on the Skype service are free, while calls from Skype to landline or mobile phones do cost a small fee. It had over 663 million register users as of 2010 with 170 million that are active and it continues to grow. According to Microsoft they plan to bring the Skype support to Xbox, Kinect and Windows Phone. They did indicate that Skype will continue to develop and work on other platforms. Whether this remains true only time will tell. There is always the fear that over time development for the other platforms like Linux and the Mac OS X will fall by the wayside and become after thoughts.

One of the biggest problems when a company the size of Microsoft buys a company like Skype is that the smaller company will simply be swallowed up by the Microsoft culture. That what has made Skype popular with users will get lost and the urge to make it more popular with Wall Street will override the users interest. An Ars Technica article also bring up the point that Microsoft already has a its own voice and chat platform Window Live, which has more active users then Skype at 330 monthly active users. So where does Skype fit in, will it be its ability to do Skype to landline calls, which Windows Messenger doesn’t do. No one knows, there was no mention of it at the announcement. The more I think about this the more I believe that the only group that this announcement is good for are those who own stock in Skype. Unfortunately for the users and employee of Skype I don’t see a rosy future. I certainly hope I am wrong. Hopefully Microsoft can use it expertise to improve Skype UI and security.  The last Skype update was to say the least not very popular with most users.  It is possible that Microsoft will do everything it says it will and Skype will become an even better product for everyone.  I am just not holding my breath on it.

The month is winding down, but I could not be happier the team of writers at GNC have been kicking out some pretty awesome content. The refresh of the show formula so far is working and the feedback so far has been positive. I am on the search for existing talent across the new media space. Do you know of a show that is considered to be at the top of the class in their genre? If so I want to talk to them… Big thanks to the Insiders for all their support and of course the Ohana for being part of the show.

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Follow @geeknews on Twitter
Geek News Central Facebook Page
Purchase GNC gear from the Ohana Store!
Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Show Notes:
Finding that Perfect Domain.
Google Garage.
Boost your Brain Power with 9 volt battery!
TomTom has some explaining to do.
** Watch the ESA Video.
X Marks the Spot!
Voyagers in Deep Space!
Endeavor getting built!
Endeavor Facts
Qik Apps Updated.
Tungle purchased by Rim.
PSA Notices now on Seized Domains.
Ukrainians Shut down Adult P2P Site.
P2P Used for Movie Distribution.
Windows 8 Store Settings in Cloud?
Internet oh how far we have come.
New Type of Shovel?
DualLink Sync Cable.
High Speed Camera on the Cheap?
Upload Images into Google Doc Spreadsheets.
Chilling Effects.
Gmail / Outlook Sync Expanded.
Wireless Lockdown?
Custom Gaming Machines by Walmart?
More Free Android Apps over iOS.
Progress off to ISS.
Social Spy.
Copyright Blocks 81 yr old Jazz recordings.
Chrome gets Patched.
LTE Outage.
2028 Computers become Aware?
Amazon Cloud Issues.
Apollo 18 Films?
HP Gets Huge NASA Contract.
Is Part of your Brain Sleeping?
White iPhone.
YouTube Founders buy Delicio.us
Facebook DMCA Broken.
DOJ No more Microsoft Oversight.
Apple iPhone 5 in testing.
Hackers have Playstation Credit Cards?
Microsoft Revenues.
Only 5 Million?
Samsung swings again at Apple.

Working on the Format pretty happy tonight with the time adjustment, hope you agree and looking for feedback on the adjustments being made. Lots of tech as always, thanks for your email comments on the show and the supporting material for the show. Guess the terminator was wrong today was not Judgement day but how far off are we from having the machines from taking over? I am currently reading Paul Allen’s Idea Man this is a great book highly recommend you pick it up..

Subscribe Today: Audio | Video | iTunes | Zune
Download the Show File

Follow @geeknews on Twitter
Geek News Central Facebook Page
Purchase GNC gear from the Ohana Store!
Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links
Info on WebM
Hubble IMAX.
Review of Hubble IMAX.
Hubble IMAX and how the 3d Version was Made.
Hubble Discoveries.
NASA Loosing Test Equipment.
Apple Tracking our every Move.
More info on Michigan State Police cellphone copying.

Show Notes:
Dakota Lapse Amazing Video!
Terminator Judgement Day.
Curry and Winer?
Amazon Library?
No More YouTube on Roku.
Hard Drive Hole Puncher.
Crackle comes to iPad.
Micro UAV used at Nuke Plant.
Apple Tracking is simply no Good!
Space/Earth Photos.
Mars Ice.
Blue Origin Who, What and Where.
Hubble at 20.
Real JFK UFO Request Memo or a Hoax?
140k Old “The Thing”
Download Squad RIP.
AT&T Sob Story on why nees T-Mobile.
Flip Alternative.
Yahoo Buzz RIP.
Warpia Wireless Streamers.
Apple Money, Money, Money!!
Google Daily Deals.
Unique Packing Material.
AWS Outage Observations.
Twitter Trends.
Credit Card Thief to do Hard Time.
Apple Not Green?
NYT @ 100k Subscribers Already?
Movie Theaters Scream bloody Murder.
What happened to this Human Variant?

Y Buzz

Yahoo! continues to condense the Yahoo! Giant. This time, it’s Yahoo! Buzz – the Digg-like site that aggregates news articles. In a statement made on the website, it says:

Yahoo! Buzz will be discontinued as of April 21, 2011. As of this date, you will be unable to access the Yahoo! Buzz site. This was a hard decision. However this will help us focus on our core strengths and new innovations.

We appreciate your patronage.

The Yahoo! Buzz Team

In the last 6 months, Yahoo! has continued to close down properties. Yahoo! 360, MyBlogLog, AllTheWeb and more. All put in mothballs.

Some properties continue to thrive – for now. Delicious almost saw demise, but Yahoo! corrected by stating the bookmarking site is actually “For Sale” (unless it did get sold. Last time I heard, the sale was unofficial news). Other sites we saw for sale were Yahoo! HotJobs (sold to Monster) and it’s search engine (to Microsoft).

No word why Buzz isn’t getting sold. Maybe they tested the market waters and no one wanted it.

Do You have the Buzz Widget on your Website?

One thing to note – if you installed the Buzz widget on your site, you might want to take it off.

No, not the Google Buzz widget. That’s still around.

Yahoo! Buzz launched Feb 26, 2008 to tepid fanfare. They launched to counter Digg. Earlier this year when content farms got hit with a new Google algorithm, Digg had to restructure. I guess Yahoo just wanted to be done with it.

Samsung Galaxy S

Every week we hear either a patent that Apple applied for, then the next week it’s a story on how Apple is suing another company for their patents. Some of these patents are pretty ridiculous.  Some of it feels more like a squatting practice. So when will patent squatting become more a monopolistic practice for a company like Apple?

Owning a patent is pretty easy. You create something, then go to the patent office, make sure no one else has something similar and patent it. If someone is watching your patent, they can make changes and patent it for themselves.

Case in point: I remember a story about a little girl that invented the clip for your sunglasses onto a visor. A patent was issued for a metal clip, but someone found it and changed the design, using plastic. The end result was the little girl was out millions.

Then there is the option of wading through all the patents, find something that doesn’t have one and patent it. I remember when someone found that pnumatic tires were not patented (or the patent expired), therefore applied.

This week, it’s Apple going after Samsung Galaxy devices. More specifically, the look and feel of the Samsung devices are too close to Apple’s. They are even complaining the packaging is too close to Apple’s.

While I understand looking too close in packaging, I don’t understand on looking in devices. In some cases, it might actually be the opposite.

After all, Samsung put out a white tablet before Apple did.

Still, let’s look at the Galaxy line. The only thing that looks “Apple-ly” is the top of the device. The Galaxy S has a square button and a contoured design in the back. The bottom “call” buttons look a little like an iPhone’s. Yet, the icons are squared – not rounded like iPhone.

Nitpicking on patents sometimes seems to be really petty. There are some cases where it’s important, but a patent on how you can unlock a phone using a graphic? A visual experience when flipping through songs?

When does it become too much? Can it become a monopolistic practice? I am not a patent lawyer, but if Apple has patent complaints on each mobile device, Apple could work out a deal with the companies, then get a percentage of any device you end up buying.

When does it become a non-Apple patent? How much of a “Graphical experience” must I change to be able to unlock a phone?

A few months ago we learned about certain patents in Android that Apple owned. It also risked certain open-source programs because of functions that were under the microscope.

Can a patent become open-source?

So if I put together a new mobile device, I could easily be hit with an infringement if my look and feel of anything matches that of others. It’s not just Apple, either.

One of the positive points to HP buying WebOS last year was they obtained not only the patents by Palm, but also by all the companies that Palm ended up consuming (Handspring, for example). They are older patents, but definitely cases could be made.

Then you have the opposite – Microsoft vs. i4i. Microsoft wants to make the challenge process more complex. If the challenger doesn’t have their paperwork in order, they could easily loose. In i4i’s case, they sold the product for 4 years before applying. That could invalidate the patent simply because of it’s prior use and saturation in the marketplace. After all, you cannot throw out seeds out of a plane, then lay claim to all the plants that are grown.

Back to Samsung – Apple. Once again, I see some things that Samsung should change to not mimic the iconic iPhone. With these software changes, the phone looks different. Apple holds a lot of cards in mobile devices. No different than Microsoft holds in Windows, IBM holds in servers and Facebook holds in social networking.

Let’s just hope that these lawsuits don’t hold off a company that makes the next big thing in technology.