I think it would be fair to say that Cambridge Audio has successfully moved from being a budget hi-fi brand into a solid middle tier player with several of their products receiving praise from audio and home cinema magazines. Consequently, I was interested to see what Cambridge Audio was demonstrating at CES this year, especially as it’s a British company. Scott has the interview.

The DacMagic Plus is a digital-to-analogue converter that will take the digital output from a games console, PC or smartphone, analyse and upscale the signal and then produce a clean analogue signal vastly superior to that produced by the original device. Let’s be honest, the DAC in your average games console or PC probably cost pennies to the OEM so it’s unlikely to be hi-fi quality. The DacMagic Plus has a pair of digital inputs, both optical and co-axial, plus USB input for high data rates (24 bit). There’s also an optional Bluetooth adaptor which uses the new AptX high quality codec. Output is to headphones, phono (RCA) and XLR.

The StreamMagic 6 is a new network music player that streams from a wide variety of sources – PC, uPnP, DLNA, Internet radio, Pandora – and it connects to the network either by ethernet or wireless-n. Cambridge Audio provides an on-line music portal which lets the audiophile choose their listening selection from a PC or tablet before sending the playlist to the StreamMagic. This neatly avoids the problem of poking around thousands of tracks on a tiny screen trying to find the ones you want. Round the back, like the DacMagic Plus, two digital inputs can take signals from sources such as smartphones or music players.

Overall, two great products that are definitely worth checking out.

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live.

Sennheiser is one of the big names in headphones, so it’s not unsurprising that a few of the latest models were released at CES. Nick hears the latest for sound buffs from Eric.

First up are the HD 700s, an open headset approaching reference standard. With a wide soundstage, angled transducers give it a sound experience similar to listening to a speaker array; other features are designed keep the sound as pure as possible. These headphones are aimed at audiophiles who want to hear every nuance of the recording. Pricey at around $1000.

Next are the HD 800s, a futuristic-looking headset that takes audio purity and quality to an amazing level. Every detail has a purpose in the design, giving unparalleled acoustic reproduction for the total audio purist. Even more pricey at around $1500.

And finally, the Sennheiser Amperior brings the world-famous HD 25s to portable devices by optimising the impedance to give superior sound from a smaller unit. Suitable for all MP3 players, Apple iPods and iPhones, the Amperior comes with an inline remote and mic. Available from March for around $350.

Interview by Nick DiMeo of F5 Live.

Sony‘s CES focus this year is on electronics, content and network services combining to deliver high quality entertainment anytime and anywhere. Supported by a slew of product announcements, new connected devices range from TVs, Blu-ray players and A/V receivers through to tablets, smartphones and PCs and on to camcorders and mobile music players. Sony is combining these with online services for music, video and game delivery, creating a great user experience (as they say). TVs, PCs, smartphones and tablets are key to this experience as the four main devices used for entertainment.

“Sony is committed to designing technologies for every aspect of consumer entertainment – in or out of the home, on the go, in the air, at work, at play, or wherever life takes you,” said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. “When these products are combined with Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), which offers innovative services like Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited, as well as PlayStation Network, the user experience is truly unmatched and only made possible by a company like Sony.”

The Bravia TV line has been expanded in all three areas; entry level BX, step-up EX and flagship HX. Brightness and contrast levels have been increased and picture quality improved with Sony’s X-Reality and Motionflow video technologies. In particular the latter helps to reduce blur caused by rapid camera movements which is often a problem with LCD screens. Sony is sticking with the Google TV platform with a new network player and Blu-ray player featuring Google TV. Certain Bravia models will link seamlessly to these devices to provide Google TV features directly on the TV.

Sony’s Vaio range of computers will continue to be updated with more entertainment feature and new designs that fit with consumers’ needs and increasing mobility. At CES, Sony will be demonstrating new technologies and prototypes for a range of technologies including glasses-free 3D.

In the smartphone space, the Xperia brand has done reasonably well, but increasing the smartphone share in North America is now one of Sony’s highest priorities. Sony Ericsson will be subsumed into Sony Mobile Communications and all new phones will carry Sony branding. The latest addition to the Xperia line-up is the Xperia ion, Sony’s first LTE smartphone coming with an HD 720p display and aluminium body. Also new is the Xperia S which comes with 3D image capture.

On the imaging front, no less than 13 new Handycam camcorders are being unveiled. A new image stabilisation system called Balanced Optical Steady Shot has been developed that controls the complete optical path from lens to sensor as a single floating unit. This reduces handshake blur by up to 13 times compared to the previous models. There’s a new camcorder model with a built-in video projector that has improved brightness and enhanced audio. The trusty Bloggie range now has a “Live” model which will live stream HD video over a Wi-Fi connection and there’s an unboxing over at sister channel TPN.tv. Of course, Sony has a bunch of new Cybershot digital still cameras.

Finally, it wouldn’t be CES if Sony didn’t announce a Walkman or two. The new Z series of MP3 players comes with an application interface and connectivity to both Sony’s Music Unlimited and the Android Market. Content can be played from Z series devices either wirelessly using DLNA or via HDMI to Bravia TVs. To further improve the audio experience, no less than eleven new Balanced Armature earbud-style headphones are now available as well.

That’s it – a quick overview of the products on show at CES by Sony and they all look like fun.

Sennheiser today announced that it would be presenting its latest in-ear headphones, the IE 60 and IE 80, at CES in January. Extending the Professional line, the new models build on Sennheiser’s experience in the music business and are aimed at audio enthusiasts who want the best possible sound quality from MP3 players and smartphones.

“The IE 60 and IE 80 ear-canal phones are ideal for discerning listeners who want to hear music with the finest possible detail,” explained Eric Palonen, senior product specialist for Sennheiser’s consumer electronics division. “Based on the huge success of our earlier models and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers, we developed new models that have an even more innovative design.”

The IE 60 has passive noise attenuation of up to 20 dB, with a frequency response of 10 to 18,000 Hz, tuned to deliver modern rock and pop. The IE 80 provides a frequency response of 10 to 20,000 Hz with a passive noise attenuation of up to 26 dB, but its special feature is a unique sound tuning function. By using a miniature rotating control, the user is able to increase or reduce the bass response to suit the music being played.

The IE 60 and IE 80 are available now for MSRPs of $250 and $450 respective, though you can find them online for about half of that. Still, serious prices for serious sound. The full spec sheets (.pdf) are here and here, respectively.

tommyknocker USB Connected Doorbell

Ding Dong. That might a sound you hear constantly and could drive you batty. But what if you could have Jay-Z as your doorbell tone? Every time someone rings the button, you hear Pink Floyd’s “Time” start playing.

That is what the New Jersey company Predominance wants to do. They have developed a digital doorbell that can play whatever songs you have on that USB stick.

The Tommyknocker (http://www.tommyknockerdoorbell.com)  is not a computer, but a digital doorbell. You would replace your electonic doorbell on the inside of your house with the Tommyknocker. Once you connect power lines and mount to the wall, you simply just have to plug in a USB stick with MP3′s and set your doorbell ring.

You do have to convert other audio formats to MP3. It doesn’t give a time limit, so you could be rocking out to some Kings of Leon while you answer the door. Definitely better than “DING”.

The history of advancing technology is long littered with accusations of copyright infringement along with charges of outright thievery.

The problem seems to stem from ever-changing definitions of what comprises a song, a performance, or a book. Back in the days when the player piano was invented, musicians themselves seemed to define a song as a live performance. Hence, the spreading invention of mechanical player pianos and reproduced sheet music would somehow destroy music itself.

Of course, what actually happened was that rather than being destroyed, music was promoted and ultimately became more popular.

Music is not the piano rolls, nor is it vinyl records, audiocassettes, or CD’s. These are simply physical transmission mediums. It could also be equally argued that MP3 or other digital file formats are not the actual music either, though they are heavily intertwined.

Can’t we as consumers be honest? How is it that so many of us can think nothing of illegally downloading media, yet wouldn’t think of stealing a physical object without paying for it?

Those who continue to rationalize that it’s “okay” to illegally download copyrighted music, movies and other copyrighted materials are thieves. Would you enjoy having your stuff stolen? Are excuses popping up in your mind why wrong is right and right is wrong? If so, you failed the test. If you have to make an excuse to yourself or anyone else to justify your behavior, you are wrong. If you find yourself the victim of a thief, how can you then turn around and complain? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?

The solution to the problem is easy. Get what you want by legitimately paying for it. If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t be a thief by stealing it.

On the other hand, if you don’t like the less-than-stellar behavior of certain media-production organizations, the solution is equally easy. Don’t consume their products. Turn them off. Pull the plug. The world won’t come to an end. You will survive. The age we live in is filled to the brim with alternative entertainment and information sources that make it possible to reduce or completely eliminate the need to consume copyrighted material, if that is your wish.

Amazon came first with the cloud music storage service, but Google tried to trump them.  While I never tried out Amazon Music because I just didn’t find it compelling enough, I have been test-driving Google Music for a couple of weeks now.  Why did I find it more alluring?  Storage space!  Now Amazon is upping the ante, though.

While Google has no paid plan and no space limit, simply offering 20,000 songs of storage, regardless of file size, Amazon now has a different, but  also intriguing, plan.  It does come with one important, and potentially deal-breaking, caveat – you have to buy the music from the Amazon MP3 Store.  The unlimited storage they are advertising is for music you buy FROM them.  Although, if you already have an account, and have uploaded a bunch of non-Amazon purchased music you will also have unlimited storage….for a limited time.  How limited remains to be seen.

If you are wondering just how much space 20,000 songs takes up, well, I can’t say for sure, it varies based on your file type and encoding.  However, I can say that my 11,000+ songs (most at 256 KBPS) total approximately 90 GB.  That’s only slightly more than half of the number of songs that Google Music is willing to store in the cloud at no charge.

I am a big fan of Amazon and a regular customer, but for now I am happy with my choice of Google Music.  Amazon will need to go a bit beyond today’s announcement to sway me.  With this market still being new and just starting to heat up, though, I expect that they will be forced to compete with, not only Google, but the upcoming Apple threat as well.

If you feel that white headphones mark you as just one of the herd, and that black headphones are a bit dull, then you’ll want to check out MIYA headphones, because these come in more colour combinations than you can possibly imagine.

Each set of headphones has 18 colour changeable parts and you can build your own headphones from the builder on the MIYA website. There’s a picture of it below. Now you can have headphones to match your clothes – imagine a set in lurid colours to go with your Lycra sportswear.

They’ll work with any device that has an audio 3.5 mm jack, so that’s most mp3 players, iPods and so on.

Price is HKD 388 (Hong Kong dollars) but there’s HKD 150 off if you order before the end of June. There’s a checkout code on the website for the discount. For comparison, HKD 400 is about US$ 50 or GB£30.

Can’t comment on the audio quality as I haven’t got a pair myself. Let us know if you get a set.

Tom interviews Ross from iGo, which will probably be familiar to anyone who’s traveled on business. These are the guys who provide all the portable power equipment to keep your gadgets charged up – I’ve even got a few bits’n'pieces from them – and at CES, they were showing off a few of the their latest toys.

First up was a portable speaker ($19.99) that runs for a couple of hours off a pair of AA batteries and works with any device that has a 3.5mm jack. Next was a folding device stand ($14.99) designed to hold a smartphone or PMP at an ideal angle for viewing video. Then there is KeyJuice keychain battery ($19.99) for emergency charging of your iPhone, iPod or iPad. Also shown were wall and car USB chargers, each with two USB ports. Finally, they offer iPad docks and keyboards, though they’re not shown in the video.

Interview by Tom Newman of The Fogview Podcast.

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If you swim a lot you know how difficult it is to find earphones that you can use while swimming. Sticking earbuds in your ear produce a muffle sound and can be dangerous. However swimming for a long time without music is boring. The Finis SwiMP3.1G offer a unique solution to this situation.

The SwiMP3.1G use bone conduction to transfer the sound through the cheekbone into the ear. The device secures snuggly to the goggle strap and lays on the cheekbone. The music or sound from the mp3 player then goes from the cheekbone to the ear. Because the sound doesn’t have to go through the water it is much clearer than normal earbuds. It has 1GB of storage enough for about 250 songs or 15 hours of music.

The company Finis has been around since 1993 and was founded by John Mix and Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer Pablo Morales. They have done a lot of working to improve a swimmers efficiency in the water and also their enjoyment. The SwiMP3.1G is the latest of these inovations.

Interview by Esby Larsen of  MrNetCast.com

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Scott Friedman presents the WOWee One (www.woweeone.com), a portable speaker that when placed down on a flat surface uses that surface to create extra bass from what is a very small portable unit designed to be used with portable playback devices such as iPods and other MP3 players.

Interview by Jeffry Powers of Geekazine and Esby Larsen of MrNetCast.com

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Samsung announced the TicToc MP3 players back in July but they’ve only recently started shipping in UK. Aimed unashamedly at a young female audience, coming in blue, pink, black and Hello Kitty variants, this is a fashion accessory as much as an music player. I’ll try to get in touch with my feminine side to give the TicToc a fair review.

So what do you get for your money? A tiny 4GB MP3 player, a dock, a clip-on case and a set of headphones, plus instructions and warranty. First impressions are good – although plastic, the build quality is excellent and everything has a smooth touch to it with rounded edges. Everything is white with blue highlights and grey lettering and it looks good. The TicToc itself is only 36 mm long and has just one button and one 3.5 mm socket. Later, I’ll discover that there are three little lights as well.  It’s a minimalist approach but sometimes less is more.

I was intrigued by the 3.5 mm socket as it doubles as both the earphone socket, data connector and charger, so it was time to stop looking and start playing.  Frankly it’s easy.  The TicToc drops into the cradle and the cradle’s USB connector plugs into the PC.  It’s at this point you see the lights for the first time: they’re under the skin of the plastic, behind plus, minus and next track symbols.  When the player is docked, the lights show the charging status of the player.

The headphones are of the in-ear, noise-isolating type and are colour co-ordinated with the TicToc player. There are a couple of different-sized ear adaptors in case you have small or large ear canals. I found them comfortable to wear but more on the sound quality later.

On the PC, the TicToc appears as two drives under Windows 7. One partition is read-only and holds the TicToc Player application. The other contains the music files. Loading the TicToc with music is simply a case of drag’n'dropping your mp3s. It also supports .aac, .wav, .wma, .ogg and .flac but I only tried .mp3 and .wav.

I’ll come back to the TicToc Player app in a moment, but now that the TicToc is charged up, let’s play some music!

This is where it gets fun. With only one button, how do you control the player?  Well, it’s all to do with how you hold it… If you hold it vertically, pressing the button adjusts the volume. If you hold it horizontally, pressing the button moves between tracks. And if you give it one good shake, the voice guide announces the artist and track, which is pretty handy on a device with no screen. Give it a couple of shakes and it swaps between playing albums, general shuffle, fast tracks and slow tracks. It’s pretty cool and doesn’t take long to get used to.

When you first turn on the TicToc  (just press the button), an enthusiastic female voice will tell you how much battery you have left.  Samsung claim 12 hours play time and while I never completely drained the battery, it seems about right. After listening for a few hours from 100%, I would have 80% battery left which would be on target for 12 hours.

The TicToc will then start playing music. And how does it sound? Well, as with so many of these small players, the sound quality is let down by the headphones. With the supplied earphones, the sound is very much to the treble end with disappointing bass. They’re not the worst headphones I’ve ever used (a pair of Jabras currently hold that accolade) and on the plus side, the ‘phones were comfortable: I had no problem with them in-ear for several hours.

However, plug in a set of half-decent headphones, say, some Senneheiser CX300s, and the TicToc is hugely improved. Still perhaps little thin in the normal mode, but to improve the sound output, the TicToc comes with DNSe -  Digital Natural Sound engine. This allows the player to apply enhancements such as rock, R&B, dance and concert hall, which fill out the music nicely and brings it to life. And let’s be honest, the TicToc isn’t being marketed at audiophiles. For listening while walking to work or working out at the gym, it’s perfectly acceptable and actually quite good.

Returning to the TicToc app, this is where some of the magic happens. Although you can load music onto the player simply by drag’n'dropping, if you want the voice guide or you want the fast and slow playlists, then the TicToc app has to be run to analyse the music on your player and add in the extras. You can also use the TicToc app as a music player.

The voice guide is pretty good at converting the artist and track name from the mp3 tag into speech. It probably wasn’t fair to ask it to pronounce Abba’s Chiqichita right but it got S.O.S. spot on. This was my first exposure to this kind of feature and overall, I was impressed. There’s also a fast and slow playlist function which you can enable if you give the TicToc a couple of shakes. If you look at the screen shot, you’ll see the F and S labels next to each track, indicating whether the software thinks it’s a fast or slow track. If you disagree with the analysis, you can right click on the track and change the tempo.

There was only one thing that did annoy me. When the TicToc is playing in normal mode, it plays by folder which is usually the same as an album. However, when playing a folder, it seems to ignore the mp3 track number. I’m not sure what order it plays them in – I thought it was alphabetical to start with but it wasn’t always the case. It’s so irritating – Samsung please fix this.

In the end, I didn’t really need to get too in touch with my feminine side because the TicToc looks great, is funky to use and sounds good. The little cradle is a nice touch which sets it apart from the competition and much better than a cable with a 3.5 mm jack on the end. I think it would a perfect player to keep in your handbag or with your sports gear, ready to go.

RRP is £39.99 for the 2 GB version and £49.99 for the 4 GB.  Thanks to Samsung for providing the review unit.

We’ve been hearing quite a lot about Internet-delivered video content lately. Trends sometimes seem to advance slowly over a long period of time but then tumultuous market shifts seem to happen overnight.

Blockbuster just filed for bankruptcy. Blockbuster was unable to reconfigure their business structure to compete effectively with Netflix. It seems that Netflix has won the ongoing war.

Streaming video and video podcasts have been around for several years – these are not new ideas. However, what is new is the proliferation and increasing popularity of set-top boxes.

Back in the 1980’s backyard satellite TV dishes were a hobby among people that were looking for something different and as many choices as possible. That quest for choice ended up going mainstream in the form of commercial cable and satellite providers offering hundreds of channels.

Starting in 2004 people began experimenting with Internet-delivered content in the form of podcasts. I believe that podcasting happened as a direct result of broadband availability getting to a certain critical mass, combining the existing elements of RSS, MP3’s, etc. into a new form of communication. This new form of communication offered something very different along with unprecedented levels of choice.

Internet-delivered content of all kinds is rapidly becoming mainstream.

I believe 2010 is the year of the app. Apps suddenly seemed to have come out of nowhere to seeming to pop up on every device imaginable. Why the sudden popularity of apps? Desktop and laptop computers have been around for a long time, along with full-blown applications. What has really happened is that computers have now shrunk down to the point where they not only are in our pockets in the form of smartphones, but they are also showing up in HDTV sets and plenty of other devices. These devices we are running these apps on are actually quite powerful computers in their own rights.

There is now a wide variety of content that is heading for every computer-enabled screen you own, especially your HDTV.

The other day I heard a song on the radio that I wanted to buy. Yes, I know not too many people listen to the radio, but my new used car has a crappy stereo in it that won’t take an auxiliary jack for my iPod, and I don’t have an FM transmitter yet. The new stereo is in the budget, just haven’t done it yet. Anyway, I wrote down the name of the band (Pearl Jam) and the song (Just Breathe) and when I got home, I fired up Amazon and looked for the album and particularly the song in MP3 format.

Usually for the low, low price of ninety-nine cents, I can download a single song from Amazon’s MP3 store, and then toss that song onto my iPod, or onto my media-server PC, and that’s that. I am a fan of Amazon’s MP3′s because of the lack of DRM, and because their customer service is outstanding. One time I had a failed download of an album, and I simply wrote to customer service and they reactivated my purchase for a second download, free of charge. You can’t beat that kind of service, and I tend to reward vendors with great service by my return business.

So, I’m surfing through the albums, and I see I can buy the physical CD (Backspacer, in case you were wondering), an album that was released in November 2009. But I cannot buy and download it in MP3 form. Not any of the singles, nor the whole album. Older Pearl Jam albums are available as MP3′s, but not this one. So, I go over to iTunes, where I’ve never spent a penny to buy any song, and find that I can get the song for $1.49, or the album for $14.99. But if I bought it that way, I’d have to accept their DRM, and keep the song only on iTunes or my iPod, and never be able to use it any other way.

I’m not interested in doing that. I want an MP3 of the single. I don’t want to buy a CD, I don’t want to be locked into anyone’s DRM, I just want this song. I’m sure Pearl Jam, or the record label they publish on, has decided that Backspacer cannot be made available anywhere but on CD or on iTunes. And I find this to be backward and ineffective. I’m not a fan of Pearl Jam’s music most of the time, but here was a song I wanted, that I was willing to pay for, but they weren’t willing to sell me. They lost a sale. And they probably lost other sales as well. Not everyone uses iTunes or wants to. How many others went out looking for that song, especially since it is getting incredible air play now, and found that they could only buy it one way, which may not have been a way they wanted to buy it.

I am disappointed. I suppose at some point the album will become available through Amazon’s MP3 store, but by then, I’ll likely have forgotten about the song or gotten so frustrated with the band’s lack of foresight that I won’t give them any of my hard-earned money.

It is unfortunate that this is how they want to do business. No wonder people go out and pirate music. In ten minutes I could have found this song on a torrent and had it ripped to my iPod, and had it not cost me a thing, and the band would not have benefited from that action. Yet what other choice did the band give its listeners, after they walled themselves into the iTune walled garden?

Makes me wonder if they thought this through, and how long it will take them to release the album through Amazon MP3?

If you like vintage records then you’d love Cliff Bolling. This guy is such an enthusiast that he digitized his collection, started a website, and began uploading his music to it to share. The first thing that comes to mind is copyright of course. But most of these records are apparently no longer for sale so there is no damage to the artists. But even if they were it is unlikely that 1 out of 100,000 people would know about these artists and an even smaller percentage would buy one of their records. So let’s say one of the artists would like to get paid some small amount if possible but the records are not being made anymore nor are they being made in CD format or available in MP3 format at online music venues. Likely the musician’s target audience is as old as he is. Let’s say 60-80 year olds. Likely they are not surfing the internet to get his 1940 hit in mp3 format and since the music is not available in physical form they cannot get it that way. The way I see it is the musician needs a new younger audience so the only way that audience will be created is by good people like Mr. Bolling sharing his collection online. The problem most artists, musicians, writers, etc have is their obscurity not people pirating their materials. If no one knows about your work how you can sell it? Would it be better to have 1 million downloads of your 1942 song go out free to possible new customers or have zero downloads go out? The answer is obvious. If no one knows about you are you really in business? Last year my cousin said he had just bought a USb turntable to convert old records. They were from her family’s skating rink back in the day. He said he and his son had a great time listening to all those songs that you rarely hear now. I bet at least a few mp3 downloads happened from that experience.

As of today Mr. Bolling’s website is down. According to the article update linked at the bottom of this post, apparently it is not due to the dreaded RIAA. But it is due to a huge traffic increase due to his press coverage online. Yahoo is his hosting company which according to a quote from Mr. Bolling “the option I’ve subscribed to offers unlimited bandwidth and unlimited data transfer” should not have ripped his site down. This goes to show another example of companies promising unlimited cell minutes, data transfers, and bandwidth only to go back on their word when unlimited gets to be too much for them. It is a tough battle for us normal people trying to share media we like with others. Between gangs like the RIAA and controlling internet service providers there may be a shift in the near future. There will always be sharing online but more and more people will begin trading hard drives with each other as storage devices get cheaper every day. If I were Cliff Bolling I would just transfer my domain to godaddy, make a smaller website, and upload my mp3s to places that will host for free then link to each song from his site. Filefront is a good service that I use sometimes. I don’t see that they would have a problem with any copyright stuff either.
Original article link.

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Show Notes:
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iPod Touch Software Update Cost Money?
Open Office 3
Technology Overload
Gene Pain Theraphy
Weird Places
Do you Read?
Symantec Guide to Internet Security
Is the Earth Core Softer?
Software Tool Reduces Vista Overhead
Global Amazon MP3
iPhone SDK Leaked
Windows 7 20011 versus 2009?
Cut the Methane Please
Mini Bar the calls home to Mama
Google Penalties Updated
Scoble and Mark Zuckerberg
Shel Israel
25 Million Free Songs Part 1
25 Million Free Songs Part 2
Lego at 50
Target tells Blogger we don’t talk to Bloggers!
Podcast Faq a great Podcast Resource
Google and Domain Tasting
Telco Immunity held up in Congress
Asteroid Images
NYC Bermuda Triangle

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Show Notes:
More Leopard Issues
Marc Orchant
Marc Orchant blog post
Geothermal Easier to get to?
PayPhones RIP
Fame and Money Online not that easy!
Dinasour Mummy Found
Quicktime Vulnerability in Wild
QuickTime Flaw and Second Life
DiggFilter!
MP3 Format Gaining Speed
$999.00 Complete DNA Test
Cheap 2 Port HDMI Switch
Matt Cutts on PayPerPost
Apple Concept Flashlight
Yes the Audience is Online and you can reach them!
LiveJounal Sale Article 1
LiveJournal Sale Article 2
LiveJournal Sale Article 3
Who clicks on Ads Articles Slam Some Women
PayPal Store Widget
IRC Spy Engine DeadPool
Truth in Advertising on Magazine Subscription Inserts
Shuttle ready to go to ISS
Astronauts at the Cape
Young Girls win prestigious Science Contest
FCC wants to Cap Cable Growth
MP3 Blogs Fly Under RIAA radar

Gems I Found:
Cover Up?
Missing for 5 Years just shows up?
Cheapest Family in America
Comcast and TimeWarner not playing in 700mhz Auction
RIAA Copyright Angle Rejected

Huge thanks to the Sponsors of the show and your support of our sponsors. Lots to chat about today and a pile of content to get through. Tell 20 of your friends about the show and help us grow.

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Listener Links:
OSX Trojan
NASA Exploration Assignments
UFO Files Reopened
NASA contest Submissions
HP Ad on YouTube
www.savetheinternet.com
Free MP3 may cost you a lot
Home School Link
Bieberlabs.com
iPhone AT&T Earnings
No Cash
Hak5
www.findingdulcinea.com

Show Notes:
How Many Computers do you Have?
iTunes 7.5 Soon
Windows Vista +1
Windows Home Server Review
RSS Logos and Design Consideration
Advocacy group goes after Comcast
Sony OLED
iPhone Invention of the Year
Zune 2 and Podcasting Support
Sprint Wimax in trouble
Verizon Fios 150+ HD Channels
Miracle X-Ray Machine
OpenSocial will be King
So you are a Media Company now ehhh
Whois Database Spared
NYT Blogrunner Reviewed
PayPerPost RIP and good Riddance
ISS Solar Panel Rip
Professors starting to allow Wikipedia for Class Usage
OiNK Shutdown Worthless
Apple Trojan
Blogrunner.com

Caught my Eye:
Cool Stuff
Good Deed
Seed Bank
Chris Angel Trick Reviewed
Don’t Run with a MP3 Player

Late start tonight but I have a couple of mini job opportunities available for those looking for some extra tech work. Also looking for Wikipedia expert.

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My Facebook Profile
Comments to 619-342-7365 e-mail to geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links:
Dumb Product
Have Camera go to Jail
Fair Use under Attack
Simpson’s Domain

Show Notes:
AddThis
MadKast better use their own Product
Are you a Digital Pack Rat
SoundExchange trying to leverage DRM
Microsoft causing War in Open Source?
Pencil Removed from Brain
Thai Police officer Punishment
Linspire CEO Quits
Defcon 2007 Reporter Outed Update
Old News Cooking a Laptop
Lets Nuke a Meteor
FTC to look at Targeted Advertising
FeedBuddy
Apple facing lawsuit over iPhone keyboard
iPhone Sim Hack is the real deal
Xbox 360 Thermal Issues
Fake Steve Jobs Outed
VC Investment hitting high levels
Windows iPhone File Browser available
Nixie Tube clock really cool DIY kit
Halo-Themed Zune
Microsoft 1.5 Billion MP3 Award Struck down
Patch your iPhone Now!
MovableType Version 4 almost Ready
Knocka.TV
Photosynth Team Film Shuttle
DMOZ Editors helping Mahalo.com (not surprised)
WSJ PC Questions
Shuttle Launch on Wednesday
Progress docks at ISS
Congress cannot count to 100
SoundExchange aught Lobbying
Blogging issues with companies Stick
IT Staff not keeping up with Workplace Gadgets
New Spammer Tricks

Help a geek get out of the Doghouse and win a big prize, listen and win. Thanks to all the contributors on todays shows. Hard to rate your own show but this one was about a 9!

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Comments to 619-342-7365 e-mail to geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links:
Programming and Coding CheetSheets
Robot Dreams
Online Converters
Zamar.com
Canada Facebook
Hitachi Tags

Show Notes:
SoundExchange Stay of Execution
1 Million dollar Reward
Screencast Zoomit
Prince
NFL Fair Use
VideoCounter.com
GrandCentralStation and Google
AllofMP3.com
Zend and PHP
GPS Notification
Universal and iTunes
Recording Industry vs The People
Useful Websites
Vi Guide
EDGE Down
No Window and Airplane
Ten Thoughts on iTunes
iPhone Firmware
iPhone Cost
iTunes 7.3 Bad Bugg
Shuttle on 747
iPhone Root Password
Live without China Products
Radio Open Source RIP
100k of Stupidity

Fun show tonight and a massive amount of tech to talk about. This has been a whirlwind week and I am ready for the weekend. Join me on the Tech Podcast Round Table on Saturday

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Tech Podcast Network Live Round Table

Twitter Me http://www.twitter.com/geeknews
Comments to 619-342-7365 e-mail to geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links:
First Alert New Fire Extinguisher
ITunes DRM Embed
Mountain Dew
VideoPile.com
Microsoft Surface
Physics Illustrator Video
Physics Illustrator Download

Show Notes:
Apple and YouTube
MAX – Headphone
iTunes and MP3 Burn Issue
ISS Spacewalk
New RealPlayer to rip YouTube video
AACS Hacked Again
Will RIAA Sue Sneaker Net?
Make Internet TV
Fix8
Zune Firmware Update
RIAA Campaign Contributions
Quicktime Updates
June 8th Shuttle Launch
Korea blocks VOIP
Animate Yourself
FeedDemon 2.5
Startup Search
Microsoft Surface
Popular Mechanics Review of Microsoft Surface
Google Gears
Hackers Tap Town Coffers
Online Criminals Mask Tracks
DRM 128 vs 256
Mahalo.com a Directory?
Hubble Photos Amazing
Software Piracy
Mozilla Firefox Update
Fedora 7 Released
Google Street Camera Van
LiveJournal Outrage
15 Google Street Views
Solar Roof on Hybrid
EMI Making deals with Everybody
Google Audio Ads

Next stop the Windy City and a special podcast from Chicago with the RawVoice Crew and Mom. Great show tonight with lots of great links and tidbits

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Listener Links:
10 Vista Myths
Meizu M8
Meizu M8 #2
Bootlegging Bootleggers Bootlegged
NeoShooter
Are you a Minesweeper Adict?
NAB Podcasting Summit

Show Notes:
Do you care about RSS?
IDG to go Digital
OS X on Windows Machine Possible!
WiFi for Criminals
Walmart Sleeping with Microsoft
Google Radio Ads
Google Supplemental Index?
Using DOS in Vista
400 Million in Podcast Ads?
Nokia Video Podcatcher
YouTube Classic Shows
APOD
Google helps Pirates get Rich!
Nokia E90
Steve Jobs DRM Bait
$100 EMI DRM Challenge
Firefox Support Site Version 2.0
Get Traffic without Search Engines!
Azuerus calling home to Mama or the RIAA?
Cell Phones DRM PlayforSure
P2P Effect on Music Sales
Javascript Widgets, Plugins etc
Veoh Re-Launch
ISS temp loss of Power!
Saturn Moon Spray?
Beta Test Windows Home Server
Given MP3 by Mistake
Universal and no Fair Use!
BestBuy.com Website Escapades

Lots of great content tonight and some more serious topics that I would love to get some feedback on including what one question would you ask Bill Gates if you had the chance.

Sponsors:
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Listener Links:
Software Inspector
iPod Versus a Zune
MagnaTune
Amarok
iBloks

Show Notes (Non Exclusive)
GWT
Gates DRM
WeedShare
YouTube Home Page
Pingable Sites
Video Stumble
Coke Cooling Tips
FCC and Wifi
AutoRuns
Map the Internet
10K Challenge
New Bandages
Bosch Parking
Microsoft i’m a Zune!
Skype Lie Detector
ISS Solar Panel
ISS New Truss
Comets Ingredients
Google Domains and GoDaddy
9 Million Macs
Solar Flares
MP3 File Informationals

In what can only be described as a stunning turn of events it appears that Russia has agreed to shutdown AllofMP3.com as of this writing the site was still up and online. I am sure that many will be disappointed if the site indeed gets shutdown. The question I have is where will it re-surface next? But I think everyone knew that the sites days were numbered.  [TechCrunch]

Sharman Networks, Ltd., owners of the KaZaA peer-to-peer file-sharing network, have sued entertainment companies for copyright infringement. Yep, that’s right, the company that makes it possible to swap bootleg digital music is suing the music companies.

The crux of Sharman’s argument is that the entertainment companies used unauthorized versions of the KaZaA software, called Kazaa Lite to find the users who were illegally swapping tunes. Kazaa Lite doesn’t include the advertisements that help pay for the authorized version of the product. Lawyers for Sharman also say that the music industries efforts to stamp out music piracy violates the terms of usage for the KaZaA network.

Dave’s Opinion
Some people get what they deserve while others make noise just to hide the truth. The recording entertainment industry says swappers violate copyright law, the file swapping network says the recording industry violates copyright law. What a cat fight!

We should all give up our next concert tickets in favor of a seat in this court room … I think this will be a better show.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Sharman Networks
Kazaa Lite