CNET Live: October 2, 2008

[ Music ] ^M00:00:05 >> Coming up on CNET Live, Real Networks is getting into a real big fight with Hollywood over DVD copying. Plus we'll tell you what Baltimore is about to be famous for besides Crabs. Here's a hint, the answer sounds like a question. All that and more coming up right now on CNET Live. ^M00:00:21 [ Music ] ^M00:00:28 >> Hey, we're back sitting down. >> I like this. >> It's comfy. All right. >> Yeah. >> We're keeping this set aren't we? This is the all new look, folks, hope you like it because we're not about to change it. >> I'm not standing up. >> No, we're done with that. It's CNET Live, the all new sitting down version. Brian Cooley, Tom Merritt, most importantly, you're here, hello, welcome. >> Hello. >> [inaudible] We're taking your calls at 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638. >> Yeah, when you call, Christine will get you all set up - - >> Yeah. >> - - tell you all the things you need to know like maybe turn down the volume on your laptop while you're calling. And then we will get you on the show and try our best to help you out with your tech questions, your gadget questions, whatever it is you need help with. >> Before we start that though, we always kick it off with a couple of things we crave. ^M00:01:11 [ Music ] ^M00:01:15 >> These are some of our favorite things from the crave log at crave.cnet.com, and mine has to do with crabs. >> Now I'm nervous. >> No, not what you're thinking, it's Baltimore getting WiMax. >> Oh. >> Actually it has nothing to do with crabs, but I guess, what is Baltimore famous for? >> Baltimore supposedly - - we had a big discussion - - >> Crabs? >> - - if you're one of our callers or viewers from Baltimore, please get through at 888-900-2638 and tell us what else Baltimore is famous for. Crabs aren't that high on the list. >> No, what they got first ahead of everybody else - - >> Yeah. >> - - well except for Reno, is WiMax, this is Baltimore Xohm - - >> Xohm, yeah. >> - - service. So anywhere you go in Baltimore, if you have the proper WiMax card in your device, you can get two to four megabyte per second internet service, $10 for 24 hours - - >> Yep. >> - - $25 bucks a month at the start for a month. >> Way better deal, hello. >> And no contracts. You don't have to sign a contract. >> [inaudible] explain to folks - - >> You just pay as you go. >> - - they'll say, "I'll just go to a coffee shop," no, this is no hopping around - - >> Yeah. >> - - this one big hotspot citywide. >> That's fine, go to a coffee shop - - >> And then when you walk - - >> - - you can use WiMax there. >> Right. >> Well go next door, you can use WiMax there. >> WiMax there. >> Go home, you can use WiMax there. >> No logging on and off and on and off. >> Now a lot of people criticize this, say it's not going to work as advertised. Marguerite Reardon of news.com actually wrote up a really good article - - >> Yeah. >> - - explaining why this will have the same problems as [inaudible] Wi-Fi. I disagree with her, but she had some good points, so it does remain to be seen whether WiMax will really be the palliative that will solve everything. >> How much did you pay for that word? You bought that when you came in the studio, didn't you? >> It's a $6 word. >> I don't even own one that's that big. And by the way, the other technology for this is called LTE, long-term evolution, it's battling WiMax, and AT&T and Verizon are behind that one, that's why there is a big question mark over both. >> Right. And LTE is a year or two years down - - >> Yeah, farther out. >> - - down the pipe, this is launching right now. >> Right now. I've got something way more simple. I've got the email bell. You know those bells when you - - >> You've got mail. >> - - drive in the gas station? >> Yeah, the old time like full service gas stations, yeah. >> Full service gas station, now they don't care if you drive in, just pay your money and get the hell out of here. There's a guy named Milton Alberstadt who has a company called miltonsbells.com and he sells driveway bells. But I was reading his blog and he's also rigged one of them to the serial port on his machine with a little batch file - - >> So this isn't a sound effect on your drive? >> No, there's the bell, it's the actual - - >> You plug this thing in? >> - - bell. You love this? >> Oh, I like that, yeah, [inaudible] >> And so he's got a rule, a rule running in Outlook, when certain emails and certain keywords come in, tell the soundcard to run the thing that powers the bell, and give me a ding, ding, ding, ding. >> And you get an actual ding, ding, ding? >> Absolutely. >> Oh yeah. >> I love that. >> That's brilliant. >> Check that out. >> That is a beautiful marriage of old and new technology. >> Of old and new, that's why I liked it so much, you have no reason for it, but you know what, for some of us, it takes us back. >> All right, let's get to your calls at 888-900-2638. Where do we start? Let's start with Michelle, I think she's been holding on the line. Hey, Michelle, thanks for calling in to CNET Live. >> Hey, how you guys doing? >> We're doing great, what can we help you with today? >> Okay, we have an Apple Wi-Fi router and we use Skype for our main phone line. Our problem is we got a Belkin compatible phone off of the Skype website, but it won't hold the calls. >> Okay, so your Belkin Wi-Fi phone is dropping the calls, it's dropping the connection? >> Constantly. >> Let's see, okay, so you've got the Belkin phone connecting to your Wi-Fi router? >> Yes. >> And then that's how it's accessing the Skype. Does the Belkin phone that you have have an Ethernet connection? >> I think so, yes. >> Okay, have you tried directly plugging it into your network router? >> No, we have not done that. >> Okay, that's the first troubleshooting step I'd take, plug it in directly and see if the problem goes away. If it does, then you've got to troubleshoot some Wi-Fi interference. We've got a couple videos on how to get the most out of your Wi-Fi, speed up your Wi-Fi, reduce interference. There's several things you'll want to go after there, but that would be the first step to troubleshooting it. If you find out you still have dropped calls, then I'd start looking into drivers, firmware. I'm sure you've got the latest version of Skype, right? >> Oh yeah. >> Okay, so then it gets a little trickier if it's not the Wi-Fi interference, but the Wi-Fi interference would be my first guess. >> And one thing to think about, now as I understand, you've got Belkin, Apple, AirPort, and Skype all working together, is that right? >> Yes, we do. >> [inaudible] supported lists here - - >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> - - especially if your router is what they call a Pre-N, one of the latest cutting edge routers. >> Okay. >> If it is, those are called Pre for a reason, the spec isn't fully baked yet, and it may be that your Belkin Skype phone, if I have this right, isn't happy with your AirPort router. Okay, so your AirPort router is the router, that's not Pre-N yet. >> [inaudible] >> Apple is doing everything baked, right? Yes. >> So yeah, there's always problems with Apple routers and non-Apple products - - >> And other non-Apple routers. So you [inaudible] >> So that's [inaudible], that's why we want to troubleshoot that Ethernet connection - - >> Yeah. >> - - because that - - >> I thought you had a Belkin router, you mean you've got a Belkin phone and the AirPort is your router, okay. So good luck with that, and let us know next week - - >> Yeah. >> - - if you - - >> Try that out and give us a call back. >> Let's go to Greenville, South Carolina, Brandon's here with a question - - >> Hey. >> - - about backup. >> Hey, how you guys doing? >> Hey, Brandon, what's new? >> Well I've looked at some of your tutorials on backing up computers and so forth, and Tom did one on what comes with Windows. But I was looking for another program, something that's a little more simple to use that can back up my whole computer to my external hard drive where I can basically click a button, it backs it up, and then you can do incremental backups. >> Almost too many choices here. Tom and I were kicking this around and it's like wow, a glut of good programs. I use one called Second Copy, we give it five stars, we love it over at download.com where the reviews mostly live for these kind of programs. But we found a handful of others that got four or five stars. Backup software is easy to find, what I like about Second Copy is that it's very easy to deal, the configuration is easy, and I've never had it crap on me. I've never looked out there and said, "Oh, it hasn't been running for the last two or three weeks." I find that it's usually always stable and solid and happy to have me and my data protected. And it's pretty cheap, I think it's 30 bucks when you buy the real version, but it's not free. >> Yeah, we got alcohol 120 percent driver max [inaudible] it's more of a way to backup your - - >> Yeah. >> - - drivers and stuff. But there are a ton of these things out there. Also Carbonite - - >> For online. >> - - for online. If you want to have something you can use no matter what computer you end up being on, Rafe Needleman over at Webware swears by Carbonite, he says it's one of the best things going. >> So those are some of our picks, but that's not exhausted, go to download.com and check them all out there. Now coming up we're going to be talking about Real Networks preemptively suing the Hollywood movie studios to protect their new just released DVD copying software, RealDVD, which the studios call Steal DVD. It allows you to rip your DVD - - >> [inaudible] >> - - to your PC hard drive. The studios of course don't like the idea, they say Real is getting completely out on their own here, and they want an injunction against Real Networks to stop distribution of the software. You know about this story, I know this audience does, what do you think? Give us a call and join us on the conversation we're going to have about this at 888-900-CNET. >> But of course, watching DVDs on your PC screen, but watching them on a massive plasma HDTV is another. David Katzmaier [phonetic] has a first look at LG's new monster. ^M00:08:36 [ Music ] ^M00:08:39 >> David Katzmaier here, senior editor with cnet.com, and I'm sitting next to LG's 60PG60. This is a 60-inch flat panel plasma TV, as you can see, it's pretty darn gigantic, and in person it seems even larger. Of course this TV has 1080p resolution and it's LG's most expensive plasma this year. One of the real reasons why it's so expensive is it has THX display certification, it actually is certified by THX to comply with color and a lot of other issues, we'll get to that in a minute, but first I want to draw attention to styling here. I really like the look of this TV. From the side it almost looks like one big pain of glass, that's because the front of the TV is one big pane of glass. This frame around the side here just kind of blends right into it, so it's a really sleek look. There's a stand below that swivels. And the entire TV, I really just like the understated classy look of the set. Around back you'll find three HDMI inputs and one PC input along with a pair component video inputs. The side panel has a fourth HDMI input, so there are plenty of ways you can connect to this TV. The feature section includes plenty of ways to adjust the picture. If you go into the expert manual, you'll find oodles of controls including a 10-point IRE system for adjusting the gray scale, we love that, as well as a full color management system. One note, you can't change any of the parameters when you're in THX mode, so if you go into THX, everything is grayed out and you're pretty much stuck with their settings. When we took the TV into the lab though, we really did like the THX mode best, even after calibrating the other modes, THX just really delivered the most accurate primary colors including greens and cayenne [phonetic] especially were very accurate compared to what we could get even after calibration. On the downside, this TV doesn't have the best black levels compared to a lot of the other high end plasmas out there, its blacks were just a little bit lighter than we expected. But overall, it produced an excellent picture. That's a quick look at the LG 60PG60, and I'm David Katzmaier. ^M00:10:27 [ Music ] ^M00:10:29 >> All right, so you get a big TV and here you are, you want to watch DVDs, and our crowd, people like us, we don't want to just sit there [inaudible] we want to rip these guys to a drive, build a server, get a library of movies. So let's talk about this RealDVD thing. >> Yeah, it's [inaudible] >> That's been like the big story [inaudible] >> Exactly, it's not so much for the home, let's say I've three or four DVDs and I'm taking a flight to Tokyo - - >> Yep. >> - - and I know if I play that DVD, all of that spinning is going to use up my battery - - >> Right. >> - - but if I can play them right off the hard drive, I'd be able to make it through the whole flight, right? >> Yep. >> Without having to bother, fumbling around trying to find a jack - - >> Oh, you want to build a big server on your - - >> - - to recharge. >> - - you know, at home that has all your movies and [inaudible] >> Has all your DVDs on there, exactly. >> And your music is done that way. >> A lot smaller than some big 500-disc changer. >> Yeah. >> So there are lots of places out there that sell DVD ripping software right now. >> Yeah, so what's new with RealDVD? >> Real has come out because, hey, we're Real Networks and we need to save our business model - - >> Right. >> - - we figured out a way to do this. And they're touting it as, "What we've done that's amazing is we copy the entire DVD, it keeps the copy protection. So we're not circumventing the copy protection - - >> Right. >> - - and then we lock it down further so that the movie studios won't get mad because you won't be able to transfer this thing to a bunch of other devices, it'll be locked to the player that you burn it to." >> So what they do is they kind of make the actual DVD kind of an elastic holder, you can stretch the parameter of it without breaking it so that it can be used on several other machines, the content that you rip from it, but it's not in the wild, it's not willy nilly. And you've got to pay 20 bucks for every additional machine up to four more - - >> Yeah. >> - - that can play that same still protected copy of the movie. It's an add kind of a model here, they're stretching the protection off the physical disc. Now we've got competing lawsuits here, Real has sued the studio, which was really weird, saying, "We want you to hurry up and tell us if you do or don't like this." Most companies will hide in plain sight and just hope no one notices, and then of course there was a counter suit by the studios, the MPAA - - >> Oh, what a surprise. >> - - going right back saying, "No, you can't do this." Apparently Real does have an agreement with the DVD Copy Association, we don't know the exact language, I was unable to find the exact text of the court case, it's not up yet on the district court servers that I could find before show time. I'd love to see what the exact language is, saying, "We have the right to do this, this, this per contract." But the bigger question here is how much of an appetite is there for this, and do you really want to - - >> There's huge, huge appetite for this. >> Yeah? >> Yeah, but the thing is, is there a huge appetite for it from Real? >> Within this legal wrap or - - >> Yeah. >> - - or that it's really just stretching? >> Kaleidascape won a court victory saying - - >> Yep. >> - - "Hey, if we keep the copyright protection in place, no problem." There are literally hundreds, if you go to download.com and do a search, there are hundreds of DVD - - >> Yes. >> - - rippers, you've got a bunch of them right here, [inaudible] DVD rippers. >> And they live in that gray area of is it legal will for fair use or - - >> In fact - - >> - - for personal use it probably is. >> - - Flip4Mac even says it's not a gray area, we have - - >> Yeah, they have a license for DVD CCA. >> And a bunch of these DVD rippers have a license from DVD CCA and DVD FLLC, this falls under that Kaleidascape court decision - - >> Same thing, yeah. >> - - saying this is a legal way to do it because we're not circumventing the copy protection, we leave the content scrambling system that protects the DVD on the DVD - - >> Yeah. >> - - so we're not breaking any laws. Real is pretty much doing the same thing, maybe they're doing it in a different way but - - >> The language of their contract and their license will be what this turns on, is do they exact same permissions in their license contract with DVD CCA? >> They don't have a license, that's why they're suing the studio. [inaudible] >> They might have, I believe they have a license like these guys do with the DVD CCA, the question is - - >> Oh, they do? >> - - are they the exact same terms, that's the question. And so that's what this will come down to. >> Well there's questions here which is why is Real bothering to do this, is it because they have a bigger name - - >> Yeah. >> - - I guess. They did the same thing with Real Networks player where they allowed it to save streaming. >> Right, most people have never heard of these other pieces of software that do this, they're all onesie twosies [phonetic]. >> Yeah, but they're out there like crazy. >> Yeah. >> And then why are movie studios suing Real when there's plenty that they allow to go [inaudible] >> [inaudible] this big name and we wouldn't talk about it if they were suing Drive-in. >> Well we've talked about it a bunch on this. >> But here we are talking about it much more, about them suing real, and everyone is talking about it, there are 800 articles about this in the latest Google search, you wouldn't get that with a suit against Drive-in. >> So as a consumer, the bottom line here is who cares? >> Nothing new. >> Don't worry about Real - - >> Nothing new. >> - - don't worry about the studios, go to download.com, search for DVD ripper and get one that works for you. >> And what this really is is not DVD copying, the essence of this is what rights do they have to do copy protection stretching? >> But they're not, that's what bothers me [inaudible] >> The studios are saying this is a DMCA violation, but DMCA says you can not circumvent copy protection, they're not circumventing it - - >> They're not. >> - - they're keeping exactly in place. >> But the question is are they using in it in a way it was not intended to be adapted? >> They're not using it at all. >> Well they're keeping it in place, they're allowing the copy protection to stay there. >> Yeah, they're leaving it exactly where it is. >> But they're allowing another - - >> That's like saying I can pick up the DVD and put it in another player 'cuz that's circumventing copy protection. >> Right, exactly, that's where it's interesting - - >> Yeah. >> - - does physical media have a different set of use case than digitized media? >> All right. Time to take a quick break, but we'll be back with the download of the week right after this. ^M00:15:10 [ Music ] ^M00:15:43 >> Brian Cooley, you know he's an expert at Car Tech, but did you know how fast he drives? This is exclusive video of Brian Cooley driving 56 in a 55 miles per hour zone, and Brian Cooley doesn't even keep both hands on the wheel. Brian Cooley, you can trust him with Car Tech, and you can trust him to break the law. Paid for by the people who seriously think you should drive 45 in the middle of 75 mile per hour rush hour traffic in the fast lane. ^M00:16:07 [ Music ] ^M00:16:26 >> Keep the calls coming at 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638, the call is free, we're here standing by to talk to you. >> Good calls right now. >> I know, really good ones. Where do you want to go here? First we have download of the week coming up, but we got some good calls. >> Oh, right, right, right, right. Let's do the download of the week, shall we? ^M00:16:40 [ Music ] ^M00:16:45 >> Download of the week is brought to you by our good friends at CNET's download.com, purveyors of spyware-free free software, and we've got a new version of something called Rockbox out this week, it was released actually a little over a week ago on September 23rd. Rockbox 3.0 is the software, and what it does is it changes any of the music players that it is compatible with to a Rockbox player. So it expands the functionalities, it gives you the ability to play more formats than the player is playing natively - - >> Yeah. >> - - it gives you some games that you can run on them if they have the proper screens and capabilities. A lot of accessibility features like talking menus and things like that to help people out. If you have an old iPod, this is a great thing to do with it because you can play FLAC on it, you can play [inaudible], you can play all kinds of alternative formats that the iPod doesn't support. >> Not available for the latest iPods yet, we're a generation behind typically. >> I believe they are still one behind - - >> [inaudible] >> - - well actually it's two behind at this point. Yeah, they don't have the iPod classic but they have the iPod video 60 and 80 [inaudible]. >> This is a good [inaudible]. >> And yeah, they have the iPod Minis, the Nanos, I mean, it really is meant for people with older music players. >> Yeah. >> And we did a video on how to update your player to use the Rockbox software - - >> Okay, [inaudible] yeah. >> - - that you can find at CNET TV. >> Nice. >> The nice thing is you can keep the original firmware when you put the Rockbox on and choose which one, it makes a little boot loader - - >> Oh, the little boot loader, yeah. >> - - you can choose which one to go into. If you want to use the old iPod software or the old Arco software. >> Now that seals the deal for me. >> Yeah. >> That seals the deal. Okay, let's get back to your calls at 888-900-CNET. Let's move onto a good call here from Joe, good in some ways, troublesome in others because we are not in his market in Canada, but we'll try and help him out nonetheless. Hello, Joe, welcome to CNET Live. >> Hey guys, how's it going? >> We're doing good. >> I'm calling because I want to know - - I'm on [inaudible] in Canada and there's three phones right now that I am deciding between, the Blackberry Curve, the Motorola Q, and the HTC Touch Diamond. I heard that the HTC Touch Diamond had a lot of problems, is that true? >> Well is the HTC Diamond even out in Canada, it's not out in the United States yet. >> Yeah, the Touch Diamond is out in Canada, yeah. >> Okay. One of the problems with the HTC Touch Diamond when we got our hands on it in June was it wasn't compatible with the 3G networks in the United States. >> Yeah, that's the country. >> So if it's not 3G in Canada, that could be an issue. We're not up to speed on the particulars for your marketplace as Brian said. >> We found the call quality was kind of iffy on it, which is a big deal, and we found that it was kind of under processed or that it was sluggish getting around between various menus. And it uses that touch flow interface which is kind of like a more elaborate version of cover flow on an iPod, so you're doing a lot of swishing and swinging and finger dragging if you want to really use the interface the way they've designed it. And we find that it needs more clock speed to power that, they didn't power it enough. >> Now the one thing the HTC Touch does have that the other two that you mentioned don't, is Wi-Fi. >> Oh, good point. >> You've got the ability to use Wi-Fi - - >> Big point. >> - - I don't know how much of a big deal that is considering the call quality issues. >> Yeah. >> I mean, we've reviewed - - which Blackberry Curve is it, 8330? >> I'm pretty sure that's the one, yeah. >> That's the most recent one. >> The latest. >> You know, we give that four out of 5 stars, we give the Q9 3.5 out of 5 stars because of some design quirks, for instance, that extended battery on the Q9 actually gives a little bump on the back which we found annoying. >> Right. >> Not a huge deal though. So you know, if you were putting a gun to my head and saying, "Pick one for me right now," knowing what I know, I'd say Curve. >> Yeah, I'd say Curve just to go with the crowd that's already gone ahead of you, on he other hand, if you're camera-centric bear in mind that your HTC Touch Diamond has got the best camera or the best resolution at 3.2 mega pixels, which is getting into real camera range. >> Right. >> The other two are still toy cameras. >> Yeah, Curve is a 2 and the Q9 is a 1.3. >> Those are both toys, yeah, 3.2, you've got a real resolution, I don't know how good the picture quality is. All right, good luck with that. >> [inaudible] >> Moving on, let's take a controversial question from George shall we, in the city of post-season baseball, Chicago, Illinois. Hey George, thanks for calling in. >> Hi, how are you guys? I really love your show. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Every week is a delight. Here's my thing, [inaudible] musician, I'm a DJ and a producer and I would like to use Mac OS X on my PC. I put a lot of money on my PC, so I have like a [inaudible] byte hard drive space, I have two gigs of memory and [inaudible] so everything should be working with the OS X. But for some reason I can not actually upload OS X on my PC, can you help me with that? >> Yeah, okay, there's a couple of things to know about this. OS X has a checker built into it to make sure that it's being put on a Mac. Apple doesn't want you to put OS X on anything but an Apple product. So if you want to put it on a PC, you have to break that license agreement. Now some people say that's breaking the law and that you shouldn't do this at all, it's definitely a legal gray area. There is a website, wiki.osx86project.org that covers all the different machines, all the different flavors of Apple, and gives advice about how to install them on PCs. So I've got the installation guide up here and I'll put this in the show notes at blog.cnettv.com, and you can go down if you want to put 10.5.2, it's got three tutorials about that, it also has just sort of a general OS X 86 Leopard upgrade installation guide for complete beginners. Now the thing to know about this is to get these installed, a lot of times you have to download a crack that subverts that check that's built into OS X 86. That is where you're getting real legal issues because that could be considered piracy or DMCA depending on how you downloaded it. If you download the crack and it's got the whole operating system, that's piracy. If you download the crack and then do it yourself, you could be violating Digital Millennium Copyright Act. So a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that you're going to be risking here to do it because Apple doesn't want you to do it. But as far as the practical value of it, yeah, you can do it, it's not easy, but it's doable. I did a video on how to - - I put one on my ThinkPad, and this OS X 86 project will at least point you in the direction of all the information you need to know. >> And George, most importantly on this project, when it gets really frustrating and you're having a hard time dealing with it, remember you got a new Trader Vic's opening up on North State first week of December, 1030 North State Street, I will see you there. >> Is that right, a new Trader Vic's - - >> It's true, yeah. >> - - on State? >> Late November, early December. >> Good to know, let's take a trip. >> [inaudible] >> Brian gets lots of email not just about Trader Vic's, but about all those hot new cars he's always testing, but what about something we can actually afford? He takes up that question, how to research used cars in today's insider secret. ^M00:23:27 [ Music ] ^M00:23:30 >> Hey folks, Brian Cooley here, a lot of you watch my Car Tech videos on CNET, and then you write in and say, "That's a great car, but I'm looking for a used car, one that I can afford, what have you got?" Well we aren't doing used car reviews yet, but in the internet era, I've bought like 7 or 8 used cars and most of them I bought online. So I figured I'd share with you my process and the sites that I use. ^M00:24:00 >> First you've got to find the kind of car you want. For a typical late model used car, sites like Auto Trader, cars.com, and the big boys like that are important because of their scale. Big matters because the more traffic they get, they more sellers they'll typically attract, and that means the more cars on their virtual lot. This allows you to really survey the landscape and establish what's out there in terms of trim levels, model year, options, color, and most importantly, condition. Now on the other hand, if you're looking for a vintage or collectible car, then it's really eBay or Hammings. Now eBay of course needs no introduction, but I also find that Hammings, which comes from the old Hammings Motor News magazine, has a large number of collector car listings that I don't see on eBay. Next up, you want to identify problem areas, by this I mean the Achilles heel that consistently and uniquely afflict certain models and years of cars. For this kind of information, I'll Google the model year, the make of the car, and the phrase "problem areas" or "buyers guide." What you're looking for is a tip sheet from either an enthusiast site devoted to that kind of car, or at least a vibrant forum thread where car buffs are talking about what goes wrong on that car all the time. Now it's time to set a value. The sites for this are pretty well known, we're talking about kbb.com, the Kelly Blue Book, NADA guides, which is the National Automotive Dealers Association, also search completed listings on eBay, that's a fascinating barometer of what a car is worth. And if you're looking for a nice collectible, I'm a real big fan of carsthatmatter.com, which also puts out a handy pocket book version. Next, check the history of the car you've identified, the one you want to buy. Sites like Carfax and AutoCheck are the ones that run down title history, [inaudible] against things like the transfer of owner, emissions inspections, and other recorded events. Now I should warn you, title washing is still quite possible when cars are moved between states, so you may still get stung, but that's where these AutoCheck sites guarantees can be nice, they'll back up the veracity of the car's history. Finally, a couple of sites for ownership support. I love All Data DIY. They give you access to a full list of TSBs, technical service bulletins, recalls, and service procedures in this really cool online illustrated format. It costs $27 a year for the first car, and $17 a year for each car after that. And there's a new site that holds some promise, it's called driverside.com, it rolls up a lot of stuff in one place like your car's current value, here's repair cost, parts cost, and a marketplace to buy and sell cars. Well those are my used car buying bookmarks, the ones that I personally use. Now you may still buy a lemon, but if you do, it won't be for a lack of doing your homework. ^M00:27:00 [ Music ] ^M00:27:04 >> Now we need one on how to sell my used car so the people who watch that can buy it from me. >> Okay, I'll work on that next. >> Oh yeah, we'll try to get the iss >> Yeah, and everyone is bitching about why isn't Craigslist in there, because Craigslist is full of fraud, that's why. >> Well you said pirates. >> Aargh. >> It sounded much more interesting when you said it that I imagined Johnny Depp. >> No Craigslist is one [inaudible] of ever buying cars, I kid my beautiful friend, Craig Newmark. I just don't happen to use it. >> He is a beautiful guy. All right, let's take more of your calls, 888-900-2638. We had three calls, but somebody dropped off. >> So pick one. >> Be patient people, don't drop off, we will get to you. >> Don't make us come find you. >> All right, let's take Joseph, I think he's been waiting just a little longer than Brent. Joseph in Memphis, you are on CNET Live, what can we do for you? >> Hey guys, how y'all doing today? >> We're doing great. >> I had a question about bandwith, I know Comcast put their limit in on the [inaudible] and I download BitMeter to my computer. >> Okay. Well that's just one computer though. >> Yeah. >> You want to track it all don't you? >> Yeah, through the router if possible. >> Yeah, okay. >> What kind of router do you have? >> The Linksys, it's a WRT54G. >> Classic. >> WRT54G, you want to use the Tomato firmware. >> Tomato. >> Just look up tomato router in a search engine and that'll take you to the website, and you download this firmware. Be very careful to pick the correct firmware for your router model number, follow that fact closely because I didn't when I shot the video on this and I bricked my router, which you can get back with TFTP, but that's a whole different call. So you download that Tomato firmware, make sure you get the right firmware, flash it to the router, and the way you do that is you just go into the admin screen and say update firmware, point it to the Tomato firmware. The Tomato firmware has a bandwith metering option that you can set up that will tell you exactly how much bandwith is going through your router to and from your ISP. So it'll count everything you've got hooked up to your network, your Xbox, your phone, your computer, however many computers you got, and you can even have it set up to alert you when you reach a threshold. So if you're on Comcast and they say they've got a 250 gigabyte max, you can have it alert you when you get to 200 or 225. So for the Linksys, that's what I'd recommend. Anybody else out there that's got a different router, look around, there's DVWRT, there's a few other different third-party firmwares for different kinds of routers that'll help you do this. Some routers even have this built in, so you might just check around in your admin screen. >> When you did this on your router, does it fundamentally change the interface of the router, is a whole new - - >> Yeah, it changes the interface [inaudible] >> So goodbye to Linksys firmware. >> Yes. Now if you don't like it, if you go in and you flash it and you're like - - >> Yeah, I really [inaudible] >> - - I don't like this Tomato thing, you just go download the firmware from Linksys and restart. >> Oh okay, and run over, as long as you don't brick it you're okay. >> Yeah, don't brick it [inaudible] >> And then it gets hard. >> Okay. >> Yeah, don't put the wrong firmware on, that would be my one [inaudible] >> That's the key, all right. >> Okay, thank y'all. >> Yeah, the video of me doing that where you shows you how to correctly do it just posted at CNET TV [inaudible] >> And the video on bricking your router goes up when? >> That will never go up. >> Okay, good. Good luck with that, Joseph. >> Did we burn that tape, Charlie? >> And by the way, I'm going to do the exact same project, I didn't know about Tomato router until just now, so thank you for calling. One more, we're going to go to Brent in Ohio, I think Brent is going to be our last call. Hello Brent, welcome to CNET Live, what's on your mind? >> Hey Brian, Tom, how you doing today? >> Good. >> Good. I'm calling, I am interested in using the new iPhone Touch more as a calendaring device, almost like a Palm Pilot than as an iPhone. I'm an iCal user on the Mac - - >> Yeah. >> - - and I have not heard anything about how it deals with calendaring. >> That's interesting. What do we know about this? >> Well I had Brian Tong [phonetic] give me his take on it because I don't use the Touch, I've used the phone, and he basically said, "You know what, it's the same functionality as the iPhone, you can set alarms, assign which calendars sync with it. So I use it to sync my Outlook calendar here at work with the iPhone using iCal - - >> Yeah. >> - - it works fine. >> It should be the same functionality, I mean - - >> Every once in a while you get those kind of syncing problems you get with anything where you all of a sudden have double versions of everything. >> Yeah. >> But that's just typical of syncing. So iPod Touch seems to work just as well as the iPhone, and for that, it works as well as any other syncing calendar environment can work. >> So go to it, I think you'll enjoy it, it should work out pretty good. That's from Brian Tong who has deep knowledge of these things. >> Yes, he does. >> You know, next week we do something different, yeah, we open the phones 30 minutes for the show like we always do, but next week we're not just taking your calls, we're not just taking your emails, we're taking your face. You can start sending us - - >> Ooh, take your face. >> It sounds painful, doesn't it? Well if you have a webcam, we're starting to encourage folks starting next week to send us your question as a video. Just record yourself to your webcam or whatever visual device, you've got your camcorder hooked up to your PC, whatever, keep it about 15, 20 seconds, don't go on for three or four days, and then upload that video question to any of the big hosting services, YouTube, or whatever, send us the link. Email it to cnetlive@cnet.com and we're going to roll your question in as video right here on the show as if you're coming at us on a live video link. And in the future, I promise, we're going to have live video questions as well, but this is our first step to get there. So do a video question, send us the link, cnetlive@cnet.com. >> Now you want an example of how this is done, actually crafty Brian Tong has already made one for you. Here's an example of a video question. Take it away, Brian. >> Hey, what's up, Tom and Brian? It's your boy, Brian. I wanted to know what the main differences between the iTunes music store and the Amazon music store are, so maybe you guys could help me out. Thanks. >> I'm putting right over my [inaudible] I'm telling you right now - - >> What are Aria [phonetic] and Shawn doing in the background, they're like playing rollerball with the [inaudible] >> I don't even want to know, but that's what it should look like. >> [inaudible] >> More or less. >> Yeah, and then the answer of course is Amazon, all DRM3, iTunes only partly DRM3. >> Partly DRM3. >> Which would give you a more substantive answer if we did this for real. >> Yeah, for real. Okay, so that's it for this week, we'll talk to you next week, remember 12:30 the phones open. 1:00 is the show Pacific, 4:00 Eastern, and you can email us your questions any time between now and then, cnetlive@cnet.com. >> Show starts at 10:00 a.m. in Haiwaii and [inaudible] for watching. >> [inaudible] please. All right, thank you. ^M00:33:00 [ Music ]