After debuting the final chapter in our 404 Superhero series (thanks Hayato!), we break into chats about the next-gen air-con, an Xbox autographed by Palin, cell phone crackdowns, and a Nintendo inflatable cushion that raises questions of hygiene...yikes!
THE FOUR-OH-FORCE!
(Credit: Hayato Shimizu)Thanks again to Hayato Shimizu for making the image you see above, which features all three of The 404 hosts as their respective superheroes in the Four-Oh-Force! You can always depend on us to save you from a bad day! Well...except for Sundays, you're on your own there.
Lots of stories to get into today, like this Nissan car with a built-in revolutionary air-conditioner that blocks "unpleasant smells" from entering your car. Having driven with Jeff and Wilson before, I can say without hyperbole that I'm more worried about the smells coming from inside the car, but I'm sure that invention is in development as well.
We also talk about San Francisco cracking down on cell phones in the car and a Sarah Palin autographed Xbox 360 fetching 1.1 MILLION DOLLARS on eBay, but the weirdest story of the day comes from Nintendo, who is developing an inflatable cushion for the Wii used to simulate riding on the back of an animal or being in the driver's seat of a vehicle. There are a million and one jokes to be made here, and we get to about 4,297 of them in the second half of the show, so be sure to check that out. Nintendo has officially lost its marbles.
A big apology goes out to everyone who couldn't leave a voice mail last night--we've since cleared it all out, so please call us back at 1-866-404-CNET and leave another message!
EPISODE 402
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Meet Koufax
(Credit: Last.fm/R0BB23)Even with Justin gone for over a week, the show must go on. Caroline McCarthy once again takes the reigns, all while helping to diversify the show. First, we're treated to a mashup made in hell, Rick Astley vs. Nirvana in a little tune called "Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up". You've been warned. To make things worse, we hear William Shatner's beat-poetry version of Sarah Palin's resignation speech.
Today's Last.fm/Beck's Beer semi-weekly Audio Draft band is Koufax, a tight rock outfit with a love of horns. Its latest record, "Strugglers," is available now.
Also on today's show: new details regarding the AT&T/4chan controversy and we'll touch on Sprint's acquisition of Virgin Mobile.
EPISODE 391
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We invite Natali Del Conte onto today's show to have some fun with us, but you should've been there in the preshow--she went berzerko! We calm her down a little bit and she talks to us about her Palin/Twitter fallout and her upcoming appearance at Comic-Con 2009. She also dispels rumors about drugs in her undergarments, and we get to a few more exciting stories on the show!
NDC as Lara Croft
(Credit: Natali Del Conte)If you're wondering why there's a photo of Lara Croft to the left of this paragraph, look again: it's actually Natali Del Conte, host of Loaded on CNETTV. She'll be at this year's Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, so be sure to look for that soon! We love it when Natali comes on because we always seem to bring out the dirty side of her, or so we think.
Today's show starts off a little rough because Natali just can't seem to get the Wi-Fi in the studio to connect to her computer, so we're warning you to brace yourselves for a classic NDC scream in the beginning of today's show. After that, everything runs smoothly (as smooth as it can get on The 404).
We get to talking about Sarah Palin resigning and the ridiculous speech that sort of made sense, but didn't say anything. I think NDC put it best when she said that the former Governor of Alaska is very good at the art of "saying without saying." We all watched the speech, too, and after several 17-minute viewings, I still have no idea what the heckbeans is going on. I guess she's not so much of a Maverick after all.
Daniel enjoys the weekend with Becks and The 404
(Credit: CNET/The 404)The next story in today's show rundown is about the city of Boston launching a complaint-filing iPhone application. Sounds like a disaster waiting to strike, right? I'd have to agree with you. Now that all citizens of Boston have an open forum to complain, I imagine a flood of the most mundane little squawks about graffiti, potholes, smells, street lights, etc...stuff that you normally wouldn't give a **** about.
After we report on the story, we go around the table and list off a few complaints that we have with the city of New York, and if you think Boston is bad, just wait, there are a few good ones in there. Are you listening, New York?
Finally, we want to send our thanks to our pal Daniel for sending us a very kind e-mail with a picture of what he did this weekend. He writes, "Hey Guys, Wanted to let you know that I spent sometime with the 404 and a Becks this weekend. Feel free to post this to the blog or whatever. Really love your show, keep up the work and congrats on the sponsor." Now if that isn't the most ideal way to sponsor a show, I don't know WHAT is! We jest, but we seriously appreciate pictures like these, they make our day. By the way, our new iTunes album art looks GREAT in Cover Flow!
EPISODE 376
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Have a great Independence Day and enjoy this 404 Throwback episode #187 from September 18, 2008 featuring CNET Smartphones Editor Bonnie "The Bonch" Cha!
We finally get our hands on the much coveted Bonch aka Bonnie Cha, Senior Editor for CNET.com. No, we don't grill her on the latest cell phones at CTIA or the proper way to make a Superman cape. Instead, we try to guess Sarah Palin's e-mail password, run through a list of Jeff's mancrushes, do the Cha Cha on the air, and take a visit to the Sex Museum, aka Wilson's cellar.
Wow, did someone open up a tank of nitrous oxide in here? Today's show is literally 40 minutes of constant laughter, and we owe that to our special guest, Bonnie Cha! She's a Senior Editor of mobile phones at CNET and one of the first people I ever met at the San Francisco office. Please don't be operating heavy machinery while listening to today's show! We do taint, tarnish, and otherwise frack up Bonnie's "innocence" by explaining the science behind "Supermanning that ho," which goes over surprisingly well with her. We also debut a service called Cha Cha that allows you to text or call a 24/7 concierge service that will literally answer any inquiry, such as "Is the 404 going to be taken off the air tomorrow?" or "Why is Bonnie's nickname The Bonch?" Of course, all of these questions can be answered using another service; here in 2008 we call it Google. Furthermore,why would I use the Cha Cha when I know Wilson will always be within arm's length of a computer? The man is physically tethered to the Internet. Finally, we take a look at the NBC fall lineup and Bonnie asks the question that's on all of our minds: Jeff, how can you like Sex and the City and still urinate standing up?
EPISODE 187
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On today's show, Wilson and Jeff hate on Target's gift card that doubles as a disposable digital camera (I still think it's cool), Sarah Palin is offered an exclusive adult movie deal, and last but not least, we mourn the end of an era: As of today, there will be no more porn in the workplace.
It's sad but true, according to our CNET News team, a forensic team in Utah is putting together a software program that can analyze and detect adult images on your monitor. The days of simply clearing your cache and browsing history to hide your surfing tracks are over! OK, I'm totally joking, the bigger question to ask here is who looks at porn at work!? You'll have to listen to the show to get our full opinion, but I'd really like to know what kind of person feels the need to check out porn at work. Who are you, David Duchovny? Get back to work!
EPISODE 225
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Nothing makes you feel better on a Monday morning than thinking about how much smarter you are than an Alaskan governor. After lightly touching on the Katie Couric and Sarah Palin interview, not to mention once again obsessing over the gorgeous Tina Fey, we discuss a handful of stories including the untimely death of a chef, kinky iPod accessories, Krispy Kreme heart attacks, and the future of the digital retirement home.
In a last-ditch effort to alleviate his parents' disappointment, Jeff won't be on the show tomorrow. Instead, we're super excited to have Clayton Morris, rising star of Fox's weekend edition of Fox and Friends. On today's show, we make the best of Jeff's last day and speaks to a number of stories including a notable Web site, VotefortheMILF.com. If you click on that link, the site redirects you to a page featuring a video of the Alaskan governor! In all likelihood, the site probably wasn't created by McCain's people. But hey--if that's all that Palin has going for her, milk it lady! PEW PEW PEW!
Episode 194
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We finally get our hands on the much coveted Bonch aka Bonnie Cha, Senior Editor for CNET.com. No, we don't grill her on the latest cell phones at CTIA or the proper way to make a Superman cape. Instead, we try to guess Sarah Palin's e-mail password, run through a list of Jeff's mancrushes, do the Cha Cha on the air, and take a visit to the Sex Museum, aka Wilson's cellar.
Wow, did someone open up a tank of nitrous oxide in here? Today's show is literally 40 minutes of constant laughter, and we owe that to our special guest, Bonnie Cha! She's a Senior Editor of mobile phones at CNET and one of the first people I ever met at the San Francisco office. Please don't be operating heavy machinery while listening to today's show! We do taint, tarnish, and otherwise frack up Bonnie's "innocence" by explaining the science behind "Supermanning that ho," which goes over surprisingly well with her. We also debut a service called Cha Cha that allows you to text or call a 24/7 concierge service that will literally answer any inquiry, such as "Is the 404 going to be taken off the air tomorrow?" or "Why is Bonnie's nickname The Bonch?" Of course, all of these questions can be answered using another service; here in 2008 we call it Google. Furthermore,why would I use the Cha Cha when I know Wilson will always be within arm's length of a computer? The man is physically tethered to the Internet. Finally, we take a look at the NBC fall lineup and Bonnie asks the question that's on all of our minds: Jeff, how can you like Sex and the City and still urinate standing up?
EPISODE 187
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Our surprise guest today is Bristol Palin, daughter of would-be VP Sarah Palin! We regrettably rescind our drooling over yesterday's picture of the Governess--it's fake! Today's show is chock full of Google goodness, atom smashing, motherfrakkers, and a tried and true geekout on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie! Special bonus: Senor Space Beer returns to The 404!
And now for a subject near and dear to my heart. After releasing a positively craptastic CGI effort, the folks over at Playmate Toys unofficially announced that the sequel will be a back-to-basics live-action movie! To me, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Not to sound like an old whippersnapper, but kids these days just don't understand the time and effort that goes into costuming. Movies like Batman and the original TNMT benefit from the added realism of live action costumes, and all these new movies that rely on present form CGI won't hold their own (at least visually) in the next five years, especially if the movie is preceded by a cartoon. Who wants to see a CGI version of their favorite cartoon like Ninja Turtles? If they're coming to the big screen again, I want to see REAL-LIFE versions of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Rafael! Check out this list of awesome cinematic FX characters to keep your hopes up for TNMT II. TURTLE POWER!
Episode 176
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Welcome to the working week! We're back after a very relaxing Labor Day Weekend. We welcome Natali back to the office and catch up on some political news. Don't fret, we mostly just make fun of Palin's daughter's redneck boyfriend. Other stories from today include MySpace suckage, CraigsList prostitution busts, an Amy Winehouse mental health update, and a Justin PSYu Foundation report!
After an extended weekend, it's usually difficult to drag yourself back into the office, but it's easy when there's so much to talk about! First things first: how come nobody told me that God of War contained so much gratuitous nudity!? As good of a game as it is, yikes! (not complaining). We very briefly discuss Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy and her redneck boyfriend before realizing we have absolutely no political foundation to stand on, so we move onto more familiar topics: bikinis and guns. Have you seen this picture of VP potential Sarah Palin!? If this fake, then it's the best Photoshop job we've ever seen. That's a mighty large barrel you got there, Mrs. Palin. Maybe you and Ahnold should have a battle royale for rights to Most Deadliest Governor. "GIVE THESE PEOPLE AEEEUUUURRRR!!!"
Episode 175
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Fridays at The 404 are awesome, especially before a holiday weekend and especially when Justin gets his panties in a bundle over the term "hipster." With news like Brett Ratner's dream to make a Guitar Hero movie, the world's greatest hacker releasing an autobiography, and even more heartwarming "Calls from the public," how could you not love Fridays?
So it's official: David Duchovny has officially admitted his powerlessness over his addiction to lovemaking and has checked into rehab. Sounds like his next project with Gillian Anderson could be the SeX-Files. Isn't every man addicted to sex? I want to know how they treat a sex addiction. Shock Therapy? A secluded mountain rehab center filled with nymphomaniacs sounds like a recipe for disaster. Also on the show, Senator McCain, riding the wave from Daddy Yankee's endorsement, chooses Sarah Palin as his VP. Aside from looking like alternative vocalist Lisa Loeb and channeling Stifler's mom, we're not quite sure why Alaska's governor made the ticket. Maybe we can ask Morgan Spurlock's twin brother?
EPISODE 174
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Wilson Tang is an associate producer for CNET TV. He's a part-time artist and filmmaker and has written and directed several films. He likes long walks on the beach and girls.
Jeff Bakalar is an editor for CNET Reviews, getting all the dirt on the gaming industry. After spending a few years in the world of film production, he has settled down and currently lives in New Jersey. He's an avid writer, gamer, and full-time pessimist.
Justin Yu can be found tinkering with printers and other peripherals for CNET, when he's not adjusting his headphones, riding his bike, or eating hot dogs for breakfast.

