Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- F-bomb makes it into mainstream dictionary.
- Someone broke into Steve Jobs' home in Palo Alto.
- Hair-raising 4D movie theater chair gives you goosebumps.
- The CNET iPhone 5 rumor roundup.
Bathroom break video: Opting out of Olive Garden's bread bowl.… Read more
The Internet already has jokes about the news of Osama's death and last night's subsequent broadcast, and someone already created a Google Maps location for Osama's compound on "Cave Street" with four pages of hilarious reviews. We also have a story a programmer living in Abbottabad, Pakistan that accidentally livetweeted the death of bin Laden, as well as more random topics like Tom Tom's privacy flub, the bacteria content of your steering wheel, and a Finger-nose stylus for your touch screen devices!
The 404 Digest for Episode 811 Osama's compound pops up on Google Maps, with reviews. Programmer unknowningly liveblogs the events in Pakistan. TomTom supplies driving data to police to set speed traps. Your car steering wheel is dirtier than a public toilet seat (good thing I drive with my knees). Eyes Wide Shut-esque finger-Nose stylus for touch screens.Congratulations to @Blood_Nut and @Steamypeas for their winning entries in our #Gunnar404 contest. Direct message us @The404 to claim your Gunnar Optiks Performance Eyewear!
Episode 811 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreI am not a film critic, but I find Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz's recent action movie "Knight and Day" quite a snooze, for the most part. Spoiler alert: There's one thing I like about the movie, however, and it's the idea of the "Zephyr," a perpetual battery about the size of a regular AA that has enough power to run a small city, forever.
Now powering a small city forever with a tiny battery is quite an ambition and will take at least until 2020 to get (I am an optimist). For … Read more
Wilson's taking a day off to devote more time to early-morning photography, so Mark Licea sits in his seat to fill in. We received a handful of listener responses about yesterday's TSA scanner conversation, so we spend part of the first half clarifying our stance on the issue, but also discuss our typical Friday stories--Asians, vacations, video games, Apple, Kool-Aid, and paper airplanes just a few things you can expect to hear on today's show!
A 17-year-old geek bearing a striking resemblance to Wilson in middle school is getting heat from Apple after running a six-figure business out of his home selling white iPhone 4s. Six months ago, high school senior Fei Lam contacted Apple's Chinese supplier Foxconn and somehow convinced them to sell him white iPhone 4 parts.
He used those parts for Whiteiphonefournow.com, a site specializing in converting black iPhone 4s into the missing white version. After selling more than $130,000 worth of parts since, Lam just received a letter from a private investigator hired by Apple to investigate accusations of stolen goods, but there's no word yet from Apple about what they plan to do with the litigation. Another reason explaining Wilson's absence today!
Social networks are all fun and games until someone gets outed for digging Asian girls--that's the lesson of the week for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose old Friendster profile is making the rounds on the Internet for comments made about Asian females under the "What I Enjoy Doing" heading.
We'll grant Zuckerberg some slack since he was just a 19-year-old teenager at the time, and the rest of the content is equally lighthearted--he also lists "coding," "IN n Out," "bad life decisions," and "defeating nemeses" under the same category.
Our final story of the day comes from South America, where Brazilian Christians have banned the use of all USB connections and their associated products after claims that the logo for USB resembles the Satanic trident.
The Web is divided on the origin of the USB logo, but some suggest that the artist based the design on Neptune's Trident, with three shapes adorning the points that symbolize several connections to one destination.
Unfortunately, the ban on USB devices means that flash drives, mice, keyboards, and printers all fall under the same devil-worshiping umbrella, so hold onto your parallel port cords and PS/2 extensions--someday you might need them in Brazil.
Episode 713 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more"Stoopid Andy"--not as stupid as his name implies (TM)--joins us on the show today along with MTI, otherwise known as Mark Licea, to fill in for Justin, who again is enamored by a printer.
You may not realize this, but Stoopid Andy is a bit of a computer genius. We spend a good portion of the first half of the show talking about how he transcodes Blu-ray movies that he owns over to an MKV file in H.264 using a variety of pieces of hardware and software. He does this just so that he can watch his movies in HD and Dolby Digital surround sound anywhere in his house. Kind of cool. But I think most consumers would rather just watch it on Netflix or rent it from iTunes.
Speaking of iTunes, Apple has changed the home page of its Web site with a mysterious message that reads: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget. Check back here tomorrow for an exciting announcement from iTunes." As much of a fanboy as Wilson is, he's got nothing when it comes to speculation other than the rumors that have already been floating around the Web. We're hoping for iTunes music subscriptions or more streaming-media services from the cloud. We're going to be really disappointed if it is just the already announced iOS 4.2 download or the iTunes 10.1 download.
Facebook's new messaging service press conference started just right after the show was over today, so we don't have much feedback on that, except that tweens will certainly embrace it. We also mention that Wal-Mart will be offering free shipping to all its orders between now and December 22, but it's a little odd for everyone in the studio because there isn't a Wal-Mart within New York City!
Finally, we don't have time to get to the voice mails, but Wilson does point out that Jeff is dearly missed, and will hopefully be making his return tomorrow! *fingers crossed* He may have just decided to stay in sunny Hawaii and finish playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. You can leave him a message by calling 1-866-404-CNET (2638) or e-mail us at the usual address. Oh! And tell your friends about the show!
Episode 709 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreAgainst all odds and defying logic, The 404 has miraculously reached our 404th episode. As shameless self-promoters, we're not afraid to pat ourselves on the back, and we invite a whole cast of friends to help us! A huge Calls From the Public today, plus the origin of The 404 and a Best-Moments Reel!
Nobody thought we would make it to our 404th episode, and yet here we are! Life just doesn't make sense sometimes, does it? For this milestone episode, we've invited a ton of our favorite guests and friends of the show to join in the celebration, including Clayton Morris, Caroline McCarthy, Natali Del Conte, Randall Bennett, Tim Geisenheimer, Maggie Reardon, MTI, and more!
We kick off the show by telling the story of the show's humble beginnings, when Randall Bennett was the host and it was called The Dudecast...is "The 404" an upgrade or a downgrade from that? Anyway, Wilson also whipped up a hilarious Best-Of reel featuring a handful of funny and memorable moments on The 404, including the first appearance by Space Beer and Subject to You, the Fry Daddy, grocery-bagging competitions, the new Mayor of Hoboken, and many more.
Finally, we end the show with a massive Calls From the Public. BIG, big thanks go out to everyone who left us a congratulatory voice mail. We appreciate them all! If you left one for us and didn't hear it in the show, be sure to download the audio version--we strung them all together at the end of the episode!
As we finish up our 404th episode, we want to thank all the people that make The 404 possible: Bonnie G,Jason Howell, Blake Stevenson, Gknee, DakLives, the Chatroom, Jamie Lewis, 404 Photoshoppers and historians, our patient managers, Natali Del Conte, Mark Licea, Rich Peterson, Cheryl Holloway, all the guests and their PR, Sarah the Intern, Dan the Mantern, and of course, any females that have ever listened to or even heard of The 404. This list is truncated, so we apologize if we left anyone out!
EPISODE 404 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreAfter a ton of hype and much deliberation, we finally get the official Palm Pre review from CNET Editor Bonnie Cha. She lays out all the pros and cons of the device, including the keyboard, app switching, battery life, and much, much more. Also, Jeff finally decides whether or not to buy one; tune in to hear the verdict!
We've been talking about the Palm Pre smartphone for a few weeks now, building up hype and getting excited about the release like everyone else, so we're especially excited to have Bonnie Cha come on today's show to give us her final review. If you have the time, be sure to check out her written review as well. So it turns out that she really likes the software. The multitouch is responsive (albeit with a slight lag), app-switching and push e-mail worked flawlessly, and the contact integration with Facebook, Outlook, etc. all impressed Bonnie, but don't rush out to buy it without hearing the negatives.
She also has a few complaints: as expected, the keyboard is pretty tiny and requires a rather long learning curve depending on the size of your fingers. In fact, Bonnie's got pretty small hands and even she had problems typing on it, so be sure to check one out before you buy. Next, the battery life pooped out after only one day of usage, which can be attributed partly to a faulty AIM client, but it's still something to keep in mind.
Overall, Bonnie fully recommends the phone to Sprint customers, including Jeff, who's been calling her at home to get insider's secrets since the phone was first announced. In the end, Jeff finally decides to at least go check it out on opening day, Saturday, but with no guarantees that he'll buy. No matter what phone he gets, we'll still have a great time with a live smashing of his old HTC Mogul on next week's show, so make sure to look out for that as well. Leave a comment below, though, and let us know what you think about the Palm Pre. Are you going to buy it? Is it worth the money to upgrade? Do you hate the phrase "iPhone killer" as much as the Bonch? Let's hear it.
Mark Licea AKA MTI fills in for Justin Yu's diminutive shoes on this beautiful snow day, who's out with a genital warps outbreak. (Mwuahaha... Wilson would like to thank Justin for giving him the power to write the blog post/show description.) Mark gives us his one word review of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3: "Yeah". Also, Jeff can't wait to catch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, which seriously got a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only reason why Wilson wants to see it is because Kristin Kreuk is in it. (Volume off, of course).
We find out today that Judd Apatow will be taking over the production of Ghostbusters 3, the long awaited sequel. We're just worried that Seth Rogen will be in it smoking a doobie the whole time, while the original Ghostbusters try to break out of a nursing home instead of a mental hospital. Plus, we don't think that New York City can take any more monsters, even if it is Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Some one please let J.J. Abrams know that because apparently he has an idea for the next Cloverfield movie. This time with more vomit-inducing camera shake. Finally, Nokia phones can take a beating but don't survive the fryer.
Tonight might also be the end of the world. A small asteroid will swing by our planet tonight, barely scrapping by at 40,000 miles from the earth's center. To keep that in perspective, the diameter of the planet is only 7926.28 miles. Who knows you might be able to catch the streak of light tonight? But we know one person who won't be sad today: James Mincey. He's a California DJ, who won "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360. We'll be sending that his way soon. We've got more giveaways coming up, so please send in your calls and e-mails and keep on listening to the most irrelevant podcast on the Internet. Tomorrow, we've got Dr. Michael Breus on the show to explain to us how to stop our wet dreams.
EPISODE 289 Download today's podcast… Read moreMark Licea, aka MTII, fills in for Justin Yu's diminutive shoes on this beautiful snow day, who's out with a genital warps outbreak. (Mwuahaha... Wilson would like to thank Justin for giving him the power to write the blog post/show description.) Mark gives us his one word review of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3: "Yeah". Also, Jeff can't wait to catch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, which seriously got a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only reason why Wilson wants to see it is because Kristin Kreuk is in it. (Volume … Read more
Don't get your longjohns in a knot; even though we'd love more love makin' (not to each other), that show title is actually an inside joke about one of the stories on today's show. We invite our resident love guru MTI back onto the show to get his expert opinion on making love to vegetables, how to use a headset in the boudoir, and more passionate stories from around the Internet. It's all love today on The 404!
Today's show is all about helping you out in the sack. Unfortunately, we can't be there … Read more
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