Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- A headphone "club" meeting in Babylon on April 20.
- Amazon extends AutoRip to vinyl records.
- Happy Audiophiliac April! To celebrate, here's what the Head-fi crew did to Steve.
LG is aiming to steal some of Samsung's Galaxy S4 thunder with a copycat billboard in Times Square.
In the heart of New York City, LG has updated its traditional billboard to tout its Optimus G phone. But the billboard is a virtual duplicate of the one for the Galaxy S4.
LG's billboard is a bit larger than Samsung's and towers above it on a Times Square building, potentially stealing the attention of busy New Yorkers.
Even LG's ad copy takes a swipe at Samsung.
The Galaxy 4S billboard tells people to "Be ready 4 … Read more
Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- NY Times posts violent takedown review of Guy Fieri's new restaurant in Times Square, New York.
- Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain rips into Guy Fieri.
- Guy Fieri's last name isn't really Fieri.
- How Sony is turning into a ghost in Japan and around the world.
- Seriously though, how cool is this vintage Sony Sports transistor radio?
- Head to Sonyvintage.com for more photos and specs on vintage Sony hi-fi products.
- Japanese photo booth 3D prints mini models of an entire human being.
Bathroom break video: Grand Theft Auto V gets a new trailer and screenshots.… Read more
NEW YORK -- Google is the big cheese in online advertisement, but offline, the search company still has a few things to learn.
Last night, Google took to one of the many jumbo screens in Times Square to promote the upcoming biopic "Lincoln," as well as Google+ Hangout, the video-chat service.
Sadly for Google, not even Steven Spielberg, the director of "Lincoln" and America's premier storyteller, could get passers-by to take notice. After the trailer for "Lincoln" made its debut on Google+ online, Spielberg and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt took part in a video … Read more
Leaked from today's 404 episode:
On this day in 1992, "Jeremy" premiered on MTV.
Great collection of what Olympic divers look like mid-jump.
NASA to air Mars landing in Times Square.
Digg unveils revamped home page.
FCC to Verizon: You don't have a right to block tethering apps.
Direction of Justin Bieber documentary to reboot He-Man movie.… Read more
It's a weird time for the NFL, to say the least. The league has been in a state of suspension since the Super Bowl in February, engaged in a lockout that seems, at the moment, to be lifted. And, of course, the NFL draft is about to kick off tonight amid the confusion. No better time to check out the latest edition of EA Sports' Madden franchise, which was unveiled today in playable form during an event in New York City's Times Square.
Enter EA Sports, which decided to engage in an unorthodox campaign of its own for this year's Madden 12 by putting the yearly cover athlete up for a bracket-based public vote.
In a shocker, the Cleveland Brown's gritty running back Peyton Hillis beat out the controversial Mike Vick, becoming the first cover athlete on EA's box in recent history who most people can't even recognize.
The cover photo shoot happened as a live event in Times Square, and alongside the session were the first playable versions of Madden 12, tucked away in a press tent. Needless to say, I stuck around to play (I'm a bit of a New York Jets fan, in case you didn't know).
I also spoke with Madden 12's art director, Mike Young, and executive producer, Phil Frazier, about how this year's version will fare amid a season that's still very much in flux. In addition, I asked about my continual pet peeve: Bill Belichick's mysterious absence from the Madden franchise. Check out the video above for the interview. Down below, I'll briefly discuss the game and my initial impressions.… Read more
The 404 Digest for Episode 783
Apple pulls a Christian iPhone app promising a cure for homosexuality. "But I'm a Cheerleader" is a satirical film about a fictitious homosexual-rehabilitation camp. Time Warner Cable is forced to remove 17 channels from its iPad app. Netflix strikes an exclusive deal for David Fincher's new show, "House of Cards." Netflix streaming may lose some Showtime programs. Pranks go digital with TxtSpoof. A visitor from Toronto controls Times Square video screens...for real this time. A conceptual solution to Jeff's multiuser iPad profile issue. Episode 783 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreJust as I--and many of you--suspected, the viral video claiming to demonstrate how to hack into the huge video monitors in New York's Times Square was a fake.
The video shows two people: one filming and holding an iPhone with a "video transmitter" plugged into the headphone jack, and the other with a "video repeater" that appears to hijack any screen it comes near, forcing it to display the video feed from the phone. Toward the end of the video, the repeater is attached to a helium balloon, and floated up in front of the Times Square monitor, which also acquiesces to the "hack."
As it turns out, there's more of a backstory to the video than its DIY aesthetic would seem to indicate. The faux hack was actually part of a subtle viral marketing campaign for the movie "Limitless." The only nod to the film comes in the moments before the Times Square screen is taken over--the movie trailer is playing on the screen before it's replaced with the iPhone feed.
While many people called the hoax, we didn't get it totally right. I and most others assumed the screen manipulation was the result of video post-production. In fact, Michael Krivicka of Thinkmodo, the marketing agency behind the video, says the apparent video hijack really did play on the Times Square screen.
"We basically rented the screens on Times Square," Krivicka told InformationWeek. "We had our own footage play on there, which had sync points that were looping every 60 seconds. So we basically synced up the footage on our iPhone and made it look, with rehearsed timing, like it's being hacked into. It was really simple."… Read more
It's either a triumph of hacking, or some pretty decent video editing. Either way, this video purporting to demonstrate the takeover of a number of video screens (including a rather famous one in New York) using only a transmitter and an iPhone is worth checking out. Watch and decide for yourself before we render our judgment:
The uploader of the YouTube video gives this explanation:
...the way it works is pretty simple: plug in my transmitter into the iphone 4 and play back any video clip. you can play it through the ipod feature or through the camera roll. the transmitter instantly sends the video signal to the video repeater and the video repeater overrides any video screen that it's being held next to. it doesn't matter what shape or size the hacked screen is because the hack video will simply keep its correct dimensions and the rest of the hacked space will stay black.Seems basic enough, until you consider that the headphone jack being used can't handle transmitting video, and if it could, Apple would have held a press conference to tell us about it. Therefore, we call hoax. Maybe we're missing something on the technical side, but one thing is for sure--these guys get an "A" for knowing what makes a good viral video.
What do you think? Is this thing for real? … Read more
AT&T is expanding Wi-Fi access in New York and San Francisco where customers have run into trouble with the carrier's overcrowded celluar network, according to the Associated Press.
The company is due to announce today that it will expand its Wi-Fi hot zone this week in New York City's Times Square, which launched in May. "Hot zone" is a term for a large, outdoor, public area covered by multiple hot spots.
AT&T is also eyeing new hot zones around New York's Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral areas, according to … Read more
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