Google Acquisition Targets

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Turn It Up to 11: Tech's Contributions to Rock and Roll

By Patrick Miller / PC World (CLICK to read more)

"Rock music undoubtedly owes its legacy to a number of factors (the relative affluence of the Baby Boom generation, the tumultuous political climate of the Cold War, and remarkable advances in the field of recreational psychotropic substances, to name a few), but one element was absolutely crucial: technology.

Rock simply wouldn't have rocked without electric guitars, Marshall amp stacks, the Vox Box, amplifiers capable of projecting the music to the crowd, or stage effects that helped create a spectacle. Join us on a magical mystery tour through some of the greatest tech-milestone concerts, instruments, and music gadgets in the history of rock music."

Is dynamic range compression destroying music?

By CNET News (CLICK to read more)

"Dynamic range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording, mixing, and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio or iTunes is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-compressed.

Before we go any further, I'm not referring to the lossy compression used in MP3s, or lossless compression used in Apple Lossless. They've got their own set of problems, but dynamic range compression is a very different predicament.

To the casual listener compression can sound 'good,' mostly because it makes the music seem louder and punchier, and once music's natural soft-loud dynamic shifts are squashed flat music is easier to hear in noisy environments like cars or over iPods. Compression reduces the need to adjust playback volume--because it's always nearly the same volume--loud."

3-D HDTV is starting to get more in focus

By msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"As 3-D versions of movies continue to attract an audience, it’s inevitable that film studios and consumer electronics companies want to duplicate the success at home. The time is at hand, with Sony and Panasonic recently announcing a new advanced generation of 3-D TV products that should be available within the next year in the United States.

'Technology exists today that can make great quality 3-D experiences in the home,' said Rick Dean, chairman of the 3-D@Home Consortium, a group of companies cooperating on strategies and standards for 3-D TV.

But up until recently, the production and viewing of video in 3-D hadn’t changed much since the 1950s when 3-D movies such as 'House of Wax' and 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' lured viewers away from their TVs and back into the theaters, along with goofy-looking glasses."

Nintendo drops Wii price to $199

By Crave - CNET

"Nintendo has officially announced that the price of the Wii will drop to $199.99, effective on Sunday. The long-rumored $50 price cut comes in the wake of recent price drops for the PlayStation 3 ($299, with built-in Blu-ray player) and Xbox 360 ($299 for the 120GB version with built-in DVD player and Netflix support), which have boosted sales of the Sony and Microsoft consoles. (To date, the Wii remains the best-selling home game console of the three.)

Other than the price cut, there are no other changes to the current Wii bundle--you're still getting the console, along with the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers and the bundled Wii Sports game. By contrast, there's at least one rumor that the U.K. will get a Wii package that adds the MotionPlus peripheral and Wii Sports Resort to the mix. Meanwhile, white remains the only color choice in North America (Japanese consumers can choose black as well).

Nintendo also took the opportunity to officially announce the release date for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which had previously been slated for a vague 'fall 2009' window. The multiplayer Super Mario game will hit store shelves on November 15.

So, what do you guys think? Does the price drop make the Wii more attractive? Would you prefer a more enticing bundle? Or are you holding out for the Wii HD?"

VIDEO: Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now" Guy REALLY Follows Someone!

This video is hilarious...

Verizon Wireless to support e-book reader

By Wireless- msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"Verizon will be providing wireless book downloads for an electronic reading device, joining AT&T and Sprint in supporting electronic books.

IREX Technologies, a Dutch company, said Wednesday that it would start selling an e-book reader this fall for $400. It will have a screen with an 8.1-inch diagonal, in between the size of the two models of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle.

The Kindle was the first e-book reader on the U.S. market with a cellular Internet connection, supplied by Sprint Nextel Corp. AT&T's network will support upcoming readers from Sony Corp. and Plastic Logic Ltd."

Ticketmaster going paperless

By Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"Scalpers. Does anyone bear any fondness for this creature of the night, the guy who stands out on corner offering to sell to passers-by admission to an event at ten times the price everyone else had to pay?

Well, if Ticketmaster has its way, this profession will soon become a thing of the past, as the company is attempting to make paper-based tickets obsolete with a new paperless ticketing system.

The system isn't all that high-tech (unlike, say, offering airplane boarding passes on your cell phone). Instead of flashing a paper pass, customers would simply swipe the credit card they used to make the purchase and show their ID to the gatekeeper. Sounds slow, but it would probably eliminate the scalper element -- and at least it means there's no paper ticket to lose."

Google to let you comment on anything, anywhere

By Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"Ever wish you could speak your mind on some blog, but the jerk running it has the commenting system turned off? Well Google has good news for you: A new feature coming to the ubiquitous Google Toolbar will add a discussion system to every web page on earth. Just pop open the so-called Sidewiki window, speak your mind, and every other Google Toolbar user in the world will be able to see your thoughts when they access that page and click the 'comments' button.

Google is hardly the first company to try such a feature, but it may be the first that' finds success with it. I remember vividly a similar plan from a company (the name of which is now lost to the web) that let users leave Post-It style notes on any web page they visited, a sort of digital graffiti that let them tag pages, telling the proprietor and others exactly what they thought of the content."

5 things to hate about HDTV

By msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"It’s hard to say anything bad publicly about high-definition TV. Aficianados are rabid. Consumers are going ga-ga for high-def: 53 percent of households in the United States now own an HDTV, up from 23 percent in 2007, according to the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing.

Prices on sets have dropped as precipitously as the economy, and 32-inch HDTVs can be had for as little as $399 at Costco. Life is good. Can’t buy a house? Buy an HDTV.

And yes, the picture is spectacular – when you can get it. HDTV is not always easy to set up or to view. Unless you’re a home theater maven with a master’s degree in HDTV, you may find yourself lost in a sea of acronyms and acrimonious feelings toward the set at which you’re staring. That’s one thing to hate about it. Read on for more."

The Beatles: Rock Band Preview

This looks REALLY good! I want it!

SlashGear VIDEO: Zune HD User Interface Walkthrough

Oh, watchout iPod Touch...this is hecka serious NOW! I want one, dammit!

States give mixed signals on texting and driving

By Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"Fiddling with your iPhone behind the wheel can get you fined across much of the nation. But many states are more than happy to tweet you with up-to-the-minute directions on how to steer clear of a traffic jam.

It is a mixed signal that some safety experts and politicians say could be dangerous.

At least 22 states that ban texting while driving offer some type of service that allows motorists to get information about traffic tie-ups, road conditions or emergencies via Twitter."

Taylor Swift discusses her run-in with Kanye West

Using Reallusion's CrazyTalk 6.0, I animated a magazine cover of Taylor Swift and synced it with an audioclip of her interview on The View. Kinda funny...hope you like it.

President Obama lays into Kanye West

I took the famous Obama "HOPE" campaign poster and animated it using Reallusion's CrazyTalk 6.0 using the audioclip of him calling Kanye West a "jackass."

Today Show's Hot Trends for the Fall

See the trends for Entertainment, Technology (iPod, duh!), Food, and Fashion. Thanks Today Show!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Top 5 most playable ‘Beatles: Rock Band’ songs

By msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"You're dumb if you don't like the Beatles. That's a fact. If you do like the Beatles, you're even dumber if you haven't considered 'Beatles: Rock Band,' the new music game for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 that transforms your sing-along self into a virtual John, Paul, George or Ringo, complete with musical genius.

'The game is good, the graphics are very good — we were great,' said Starr when premiering the game this summer. And he's right on all three counts.

But not every song is as fun to play as it is to listen to. It takes chemistry and energy to really get things moving. So without further adieu, I give you the top five most enjoyable 'Beatles: Rock Band' songs when played with a band."

NerdBoyTV NOTE: I saw this on a video demo screen at Toys 'R Us. WOW, the graphics are AWESOME. Terrific way to pass The Beatles music onto the next generations. My 12-year-old loves it!

Speech-to-text the new touch for cell phones?

By msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"'DWD' — driving while distracted — by text messages, e-mails and phone calls is epidemic. And while no one has yet to come up with a technology that would automatically jolt a phone user from touching the device while behind the wheel, speech recognition software may play a role in reducing — but not solving — the problem.

'The trend on banning texting while driving can only help the cause for speech and voice application providers,' said William Ho, research director of wireless services at Current Analysis.

Some think that speech recognition could be the new touch for mobile devices, which have been dominated by touch-screen phones since Apple released its first iPhone more than two years ago."

VIDEO: Revealing Intimate Details on the Internet

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

iPhone NFL Kick off: Does Madden 10 play nice without buttons?

by iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews (CLICK to read more)

"The real NFL season is about to kick off, and EA has seized the opportunity to finally slide in the release of its much-anticipated port of Madden to the iPhone/iPod Touch format. It represents the meeting of the mobile entertainment industry's unstoppable force, Apple's black slab of wonder, with the gaming industry's immovable object. Available at $7.99 through the kickoff of the Steelers-Titans game tonight and $9.99 afterward, is it worth your hard-earned tailgate dollars? We played it last week here at the CNET offices and played it a lot more on our own iPhone last night, and here's our verdict."

iPod Nano vs. Flip Mino: Game On

By PC World: Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"The results are in and the iPod Nano Video is no game-changer, but that doesn't mean it won't dominate the competition. PC World has released a head-to-head comparison of the iPod Nano's video function against other popular video-enabled devices.

The comparison, of course, included the current darling and market leader in the camcorder world, the Pure Digital Flip Mino. When it comes to quality, the Nano just doesn't match up with the Mino. '[The iPod Nano] can't quite compete with a pocket camcorder such as Pure Digital's Flip Mino,' according to PC World's Tim Moynihan.

So the Nano loses out on picture quality, but, just like other devices created by Cupertino, this latest Apple gadget could still take a bite out of the competition."

VIDEO: How To Set Up Web Video Chat

Courtesy of HowCast.com

How To Set Up Web Video Chat on Howcast

SHOW #81 - NerdBoyTV: iPhone, Yahoo! Messenger 10, Steve Jobs

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee shares links to a video on typing faster on the iPhone, CNET's 2009 Back-To-School Review of laptops and desktops, Yahoo! Messenger 10 (BETA), a CNBC interview with Steve Jobs, and a video on notebooks versus netbooks.

VIDEO: How To Type Faster on Your iPhone

Sure, you’ve got the hottest phone on the planet, but all your friends on BlackBerrys are typing circles around you. Here’s how to even the playing field.

How To Type Faster on Your iPhone on Howcast

CNET's back-to-school 2009 retail laptop/desktop review roundup

By Dan Ackerman & Rich Brown / Crave - CNET (CLICK to read more)

"With laptops and desktops as standard equipment in many classrooms and dorm rooms, the back-to-school season is a busy one for computer shopping. We are once again scouring the shelves of big retail stores to find boxed versions of popular PCs, from entry-level systems starting at $349 to quad-core powerhouses.

Many of these are similar to those you'd be able to configure online from companies such as Dell and HP, but these are specific retail models that have slightly different names and features, and are--thanks to the deep discounts offered by brick-and-mortar store back-to-school sales--sometimes a better deal than buying direct from a PC maker."

VIDEO REVIEW: Asus Eee PC 1005HA Netbook

Review by CNET

DEMO: Yahoo! Messenger 10 (BETA)

Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta comes with new features. Improved Video Calling, Social Media status integration (Twitter). Find out more on http://blog.weebo.ro

Steve Jobs on CNBC

Steve Jobs interview right before the launch of the iPhone a couple years back ;-)

How To Make A Video Podcast

Here's a nice how-to video on creating a "video" podcast...you know, like NerdBoyTV! hehehe

MacMost Now 119: How To Make a Video Podcast on Howcast

VIDEO: How To Create A Podcast

Clever and concise video on how to create a podcast.

How To Podcast on Howcast

VIDEO: How To Navigate Around iTunes

In this screencast, we’re looking at the basic features and tools of iTunes and the way it’s set out. You can add songs, videos, visit the iTunes online store and do all kinds of things with iTunes.

How To Navigate Around iTunes on Howcast

VIDEO: Notebook versus Netbook: What are the differences?

Netbooks seem to be growing in popularity this year, but ever wonder what they have over a notebook or vice versa? Can’t decide which one to get? Albert goes into detail to help you choose which one is right for you, stay tuned.

Thanks for tuning it's a computer TV my name's Albert in today's a special episode. This episode is for -- more basic -- watchers or viewers. And that what I'm gonna play today is the differences between this. Which is called a netbook verses than this which is called a notebook. Now we look at it here's an Acer aspire one netbook and we are looking at here's a Toshiba notebook. And there are some very common you know obvious difference is but a lot of people don't really know and what's happening is that people are seeing this little. Very affordable very small very cute looking 400 dollars 300 dollar laptop.

How To: Notebook Vs Netbook on Howcast

VIDEO: How To Painlessly Lower Your Cell Phone Bill

How To Painlessly Lower Your Cell Phone Bill on Howcast

YouTube may rent streaming videos

By Christopher Null / Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"It's one of the great success stories of the Internet: Quickly going from novelty website to cultural touchstone, YouTube is now one of the most grade-A, top-line, and biggest websites on the net today.

It's also one of the web's biggest disasters, since it makes absolutely no money: Google reportedly will lose about half a billion dollars running the site this year. Aside from a few ads here and there, there's really no revenue stream for the impossibly popular site.

Solution? How about renting movies?

Streaming video has been the Next Big Thing for entertainment pushers for quite some time, and Netflix has famously embraced the idea of streaming entire films to its subscribers, a service that is becoming phenomenally popular. But getting people to pay for a streaming video on a per-view basis instead of getting a movie you can download outright (even on a time-limited basis) has been elusive.

Even trickier: The idea of doing all of this in the web browser as opposed to, say, Apple's approach, which lets movie renters watch a film on their computer, their phone, or their television via the Apple TV box."

AT&T: MMS for iPhone finally set for Sept. 25

By Ben Patterson / Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"After a barrage of criticism, AT&T ends the months-long guessing game and announces a launch date for picture messaging on the iPhone 3GS and 3G, a few days after its self-imposed deadline. Still no word on tethering, though.

Through its Twitter account and on its Web site, AT&T says that MMS functionality will finally arrive on the iPhone on September 25—a few days after the 'later this summer' deadline that the carrier initially promised—through a 'software update,' presumably iPhone Software 3.1.

The news comes on the same day as this blistering article in the New York Times, which describes the 'dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds' that iPhone users have dealt with thanks to AT&T's overloaded network."

VIDEO: How To Install Yahoo! Messenger

This is a good video by BeYourOwnIT.com on how to install the very popular Yahoo! Instant Messenger application. NerdBoyTV thinks that Yahoo! Messenger is THE best chat application available. The newest upgrade is awesome...nice video call feature.

How To Install Yahoo Messenger on Howcast

REVIEW: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000

TigerDirect.com reviews the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 Webcam. NerdBoyTV uses the Logitech Orbit that integrates much of the same "technology" of this webcam. I really like it.

Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 on Howcast

High-tech kids lost in face-to-face relationships

By Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech (CLICK to read more)

"Social networks and cell phones... you and I may find these technologies sacrosanct, but for kids getting weaned on this stuff, relationships in the real world may be suffering badly.

With the average teen sending or receiving over 2,000 text messages a month and spending nine hours a week on social networking sites, experts are worried that in-person, face-to-face social interaction is beginning to take a back seat to this twitchy, impersonal, and detached form of communication. The problem: When people rely exclusively on short bursts of written communication, those doing the texting miss out on the subtleties that come with a verbal and (especially) face-to-face discussion.

As the Wall Street Journal suggests, looking at a smiley face in an email isn't the same as seeing an actual smile on an actual face, and text-addicted teens are simply failing to learn the intricacies of bodily cues like eye movement and physical motion, not to mention all the nuance that comes with verbal conversation, cues which are learned only though a lifetime of practice in the read world. The result: Many fear we are raising a generation of kids who simply can't carry on a conversation -- or even look another person in the eye."