conan o'brien

The 404 712: Where we don't take on anything (podcast)

Thanks so much to Props Guy Jim for Photoshopping The 404 Podcast into the "disappearing" photo from "Back to the Future"! The movie recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and check out this picture Jim snapped of the photo in action at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Thanks again Jim!

Mark Licea joins us for a chat about television programming as it's affected by streaming content providers like Hulu and Netflix.

As those two companies compete to offer the cheapest monthly subscription price, consumers face a decision to either stick with HD cable/FIOS and a DVR box or cut the cord and stick with Internet video.

Regardless of your decision, there's plenty of content available online for your entertainment, and our conversation naturally steers toward late-night programming and Conan's second week of shows on TBS. There's also the AMC zombie series "The Walking Dead" and "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO. On the other hand, sometimes we just want to sit on the couch and channel surf!

After the break, we run through a few voice mails that humiliate and educate our audience, and there's also a question for Jeff about his experience traveling through the TSA's new airport security scanners. We try not to get too serious about it, but everyone seems to have an opinion, so tune in to find out why Wilson will be taking a boat ride to CES next year.

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The 404 679: Where we delivereth thy podcast episodeth (podcast)

Summer is officially over and no one is happier with the sun's absence more than The 404 Podcast. Fall also happens to be the ideal season for Renaissance faires, and this weekend I checked out Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park up by the Cloisters.

Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone in a centaur costume, but I did witness a "real" jousting tournament, not to mention a falconer and Black Wolf the Dragon Master himself, from the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment at the Clone Wars premiere.

Tune in to the first half of today's episode to hear the rest and click the slideshow below for photographic evidence of my nerddom.

Switching gears to the only tech story in the rundown, Toshiba introduces the Regza 12GL1, the first line of 3DTVs that don't require a set of cheesy glasses. The 20-inch flat-panel display provides "nine different perspectives of each single 2D frame," which are then "superimposed...to create a three-dimension impression of the image."

Don't worry, we're totally confused by that quote as well, but we also think it's really funny that you have to sit 3 feet away to get the 3D effect. The Toshiba 20GL1 will be for sale in Japan later this year for $2,900, so now might be a good time to take out that second mortgage.

Enjoy the show!

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Ask Conan a question, get a Facebook video reply

Conan O'Brien's new show is coming to TBS on November 8. In the meantime--perhaps as a creative way to get the word out--he is inviting fans to ask him questions about himself, his new show, and his past.

The controversial comedian announced in a video this week that anyone can ask him questions on the Team Coco Facebook page. He will then answer some of those questions in a follow-up video.

O'Brien didn't say when he would answer the questions, but his Facebook page is still soliciting them as of this writing. So far, there are … Read more

The 404 618: Where push the eject button (podcast)

Both Natali Del Conte and Jill Schlesinger join the show today to talk all sorts of mischief, and what an apropos day because we have gifts! That's right, our good friend Joe from Hawaii sent in wooden plaques of our beloved 404 stickers, and they look fantastic.

As you can see, Natali is very pregnant and might pop any day. If you ask her, the New York City heat wave is not only crushing Con Ed; it's not helping her mood. Jill and all the women in the office are jealous, though, that she manages to keep her … Read more

Conan performs at Google, and people laugh

Conan and Google have a lot in common. I want to like them both. But, frankly, I don't know what to think about either of them any more. Are they sweet, bright, innocent, lovely, amusing coves? Or are they narcissistic brands that want you to love them and want to tell you how precisely how that love will be?

I was more concerned than ever about Conan when he made his appearance on last week's "60 Minutes." I mean, he's no Roger Clemens. He's no Jose Andres. Did we really need to see his … Read more

The 404 572: Where it's time for a downgrade (podcast)

Jeff Bakalar is out sick today but luckily Natali Del Conte is back from her sojourn to San Francisco and fills in on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. I hope you had a better weekend than mine; I almost had a sleepover at the Apple Store after my iPhone inexplicably broke...again! The display on my 6-month-old phone stopped working, so I've decided to stick it out with a budget Samsung flip phone until the fourth-generation iPhone comes out.

Downgrading to a single-function handset from an iPhone requires some adjustment, but I'm quickly getting used to (and even enjoying) the simplicity of having separate dedicated devices for music and phone calls.

Boredom arrives much quicker without a smartphone, of course, but who really needs all those silly apps? I'm having a great time rediscovering the simple mundane pleasure of scrolling through "settings and options." What time increment should I set my auto-dimmer to today? The possibilities are endless!

Last night CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with Conan O'Brien to get his personal take on the "Tonight Show" fiasco that left poor CoCo without a network to call a home.

Unfortunately, neither NDC nor I had a chance to check it out, but Wilson gives us the rundown on Conan's amicable responses and explains why Conan starts crying halfway through the segment. Check out CBS News for the full interview.

There are also plenty of hilarious Calls From the Public to play today including one listener who finally debuts an impression of Jeff that you won't want to miss. If you have something to tell us, leave us a message at 1-866-404-CNET or shoot us a line at the404(at)CNET(dot)com!

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The 404 558: Where we lose big on a Double Down (podcast)

This is an image of a new KFC sandwich called the Double Down. If you can't tell, it puts a twist on the classic sandwich and replaces the bread bun with two boneless white-meat chicken fillets (your choice of Original Recipe or grilled) hugging two slices of bacon, Monterey Jack AND pepper jack cheese, topped off with the Colonel's own "secret recipe sauce." Coronary artery bypass graft on the side, please.

Rather than try this monstrosity ourselves, we'll refer you to NPR's nutritional rundown--not surprisingly, the taste testers tell us that the sandwich contains 1,380 milligrams of salt, nearly the maximum daily amount recommended by the American Heart Association. Anyone else think they should have kept the meat on the inside and used two hash brown buns? Maybe for Double Down 2.0!

There's a lot to talk about on today's episode of The 404 Podcast that won't give you a heart attack--news like Conan O'Brien announcing a new late-night talk show to debut this November.

Fans of Team Coco who didn't get tickets to see him live on the "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" will be able to watch the comedian every night on the basic cable network TBS. George Lopez's "Lopez Tonight" will follow the show at midnight.

We also continue our conversation about the dangers of multitasking with an older story about a woman in Florida who crashed her car into the back of truck while landscaping her lady parts. Ex-con Megan Jones told the cops she was meeting her boyfriend and wanted to be ready for the visit, which we certainly respect, but some things are just better left at home or in a truck stop bathroom stall.

We're down to crunch time for tax season and we've got CBS MoneyWatch.com's Jill Schlesinger, aka The Financial Decoder, on the show tomorrow to help you cram and answer your pressing questions, so send all your financial Qs to the404(at)cnet(dot)com!

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Is Conan using Twitter to sell himself to Fox?

I don't know who decided that when it comes to the time for a brandy and toke, every American TV should feature a middle-age man with difficult hair sitting behind a desk.

Perhaps it was a middle-aged man with difficult hair who spends his whole day sitting behind a desk.

However, Conan O'Brien, he who made so many feel sad that he was being given a lot of money not to work, seems to have decided that he will become America's most future-focused, Web-aware middle-aged man who sits behind a desk.

Conan first wafted onto Twitter in February … Read more

#OMGConan: The big Digg party Twitter hoax

AUSTIN, Texas--Did you hear that Conan O'Brien, fresh off his ugly divorce with NBC, is joining Internet TV network Revision3, home to the mega-hit Diggnation?

That was the hot word blasting across Twitter Saturday night, with 426 tweets posted with the hashtag #omgconan in just four hours. The first tweet with the news, from @jimraymonds, hit just after 8 p.m. local time: "Holy [cow] Conan is on Revision3."

And the flood picked up from there: "Wow, Conan is actually joining Revision3!" wrote @tuckerman just seconds later. And then, quickly, "Conan O'brien just … Read more

The 404 533: Where we drunk e-mail each other (podcast)

Fair warning: reading the title of today's show should be an easy goal to achieve, but this morning's 404 podcast preshow had us all so shaken up we skipped the entire intro altogether. Three grown men squealing about creepy crawlers is a pathetic sight to see, but luckily Mark Licea hops into the studio and gently ushers us back into adulthood. And while we're on the subject of adults, don't fast-forward through our story about a surprisingly coherent drunk e-mail we received from Molly Wood last night. Got a funny drunk text story? Leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us about it!

One week ago, Sarah Killen's life painted a picture of the typical Twitter user: a couple of mundane posts a day about morning coffee, Oscar commentary, and her love for peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. All that changed last Friday when she became the first person to get "followed" by former "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien. Conan has more than a half million followers but never followed anyone back; so how did the Lovely Button catch his eye? And how many gummy dinosaurs do we have to eat before we get some love?

We've all eaten our fair share of trashy food, but swallowing a whole USB key might be a little challenging. Florin Necula got into some trouble with the Secret Service, who suspected him of using card readers to steal money from ATM machines. When confronted about the crimes, Florin had no choice but to consume his Kingston USB flash drive that contained incriminating evidence against him. Even more miraculous is that the feds were able to extract the key from his body, intact and still readable! We have our suggestions for what he should have done with the stick, but maybe we'll save that for Thursday.

Plenty of owl-related voice mails as well as a quick discussion on the future of 3D in the home on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. Thanks for listening!

EPISODE 533 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more