[ Music ]
^M00:00:07
>> Jasmine France: It's Wednesday, June 30, I believe, yes. Yes, it is. And you are listening to the Crave podcast. I'm Jasmine France.
>> Donald Bell: And I'm Donald Bell.
>> Jasmine France: And just screwed me all up moving it to Wednesday. Of course, it was my own fault, but --
>> Donald Bell: It has to be Tuesday. We have to time travel.
>> Jasmine France: It always has to be Tuesday. So we have plenty to talk about today. But we're just going to try not to bore you.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah --
>> Jasmine France: You know though we always do.
>> Donald Bell: We always do, and I've always been tempted to do the first thing right off the bat, is to talk about the thing that everyone's already talking about, but man, jasmine and I are both craving this pretty badly, so we have to fit this in.
>> Jasmine France: I'm real excited about it.
>> Donald Bell: And this is Hulu Plus. This is an announcement yesterday that Hulu is coming to all sorts of devices, including the iPad, the iPhone, and Xbox, the PS3, all kinds of stuff, and bringing the entire catalog of Hulu content, unrestricted, full seasons of your favorite TV shows and all that stuff for 9.99 per month. This has been a subscription option that people have been talking about for a long time coming, and it's finally here -- or at least it's coming out to a few different devices right now, and there's, I think, a few different beta people who were getting access to -- to at least Hulu on the iPhone and the iPod.
>> Jasmine France: Which, if you follow on Twitter, I think, or you "like" them on Facebook, you may be one of the first few people to be invited to their waves of, you know, beta testing for the Plus -- for the Plus subscription. Now, I feel it's important to mention here that free Hulu is not going away.
>> Donald Bell: No.
>> Jasmine France: They will still have free Hulu, which I think is basically remaining the same, which a lot of times they'll have five trailing episodes of a season, you know, just a few, a handful, but what you'll get with Hulu Plus is just a lot more content.
>> Donald Bell: A lot more content and deeper catalog of content for each season; whereas, the free version of this stuff, you'll get the most recent show and then it's kind of all you can have access to. And some of the free stuff that people just don't care about probably. And the hands-on that Rick Broider did on our Crave blog, which you can find at crave.CNET.com. You mentioned that even these -- he actually had access to the Hulu app on the iPhone, and so a lot of the free content which you don't need a subscription for is in the app, and it's things like the most recent episode of ^IT30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Parenthood, Gray's Anatomy,^NO things like that. Some -- some -- and there's movie content out there, too, like ^ITSupersize Me^NO. They're all on the free option, it's just like when you have the paid-for option, you get much more stuff. So --
>> Jasmine France: Right. So it's kind of -- it's similar to what Netflix is doing without the DVD.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. And so this is the killer thing for me right now, that un -- the bad news is that -- at least in the ad that went up, that was on Hulu and has now been taken down -- it says the Xbox 360 portal for this isn't going to happen until, you know, the beginning of 2011. So I'm kind of bummed about that because right now I'm doing a lot of Netflix streaming from my Xbox and would love to have a Hulu option right next to it. That said, the fact that, you know, you can have both the Netflix and Hulu apps on the iPad or on a lot of these other devices, some of these -- I think, there's like a Samsung TV, a few different TV options that would have it built-in. On your computer, obviously --
>> Jasmine France: Which is great --
>> Donald Bell: -- it's going to be really cool.
>> Jasmine France: -- because I refuse to pay for cable.
>> Donald Bell: Exactly!
>> Jasmine France: So I'm very excited.
>> Donald Bell: This is going to be it, and we'll stop talking about it. But that is, I think for me, as someone who's just totally allergic to paying a cable bill, a big deal where this is something that I would actually pay for at $10 a month on the top of what I pay for Netflix. I think that one-two combination plus whatever ala carte thing I need to buy through iTunes begrudgingly is going -- is going to cover it for me. Plus terrestrial stations --
>> Jasmine France: I agree. 25 bucks a month and then you get free over-the-air stations for your TV. I mean, I can't wait until this really comes full mainstream, you know, on TV, so it's - there's -- you know, the user friendliness, I think, to -- to your living room. I mean, if you're not watching on the computer which is what I do, but the user friendliness of getting it on your TV is still kind of trying to catch up a little bit, I think, with, you know, these services, but once it is, I mean, I think, yeah, I think our Netflix subscription for unlimited streaming and then a few DVD's is 15 a month or something, and then this would be 10 bucks a month, and that's 25. So much cheaper --
>> Donald Bell: I even have like a cheaper -- I have a cheaper plan for -- on Netflix. I think I have, like, the $8 plan or $9 plan.
>> Jasmine France: Yeah. But that's not unlimited streaming is it?
>> Donald Bell: No, I don't think it's unlimited -- it might not be unlimited, but it's enough for what I -- for what I --
>> Jasmine France: It wouldn't be enough for me. I need unlimited everything. I watch way too much TV. Anyway, so moving along, let's talk about --
>> Donald Bell: Let's talk about the display that I really want to -- what's going to make Hulu on your TV inadequate, eventually, is the fact that you're going to be watching it on a 3D television that doesn't require 3D glasses. This is another story on CNET's Crave blog, obviously. Talking about how Microsoft is on track to develop a glassesless -- or a glassless version of a 3D display. This is a - this is a Molly Wood, you know, constant rant is that, like, 3D TV, call me when I don't need to wear glasses. Well, that's part of what they're showing here is, basically, it's kind of -- it's a mixed version of Connect -- kind of Microsoft Connect, in that it uses a web camera to track you and track who's, you know, who's watching, and direct a separate -- a separate image to both the left and right part of the screens, so depending on if you're standing to the left or the right of your television, you could get two separate images, or it could -- you could get a stereoscopic image, one that's kind of gone -- going to your left eye and one going to your right eye for a 3D effect. So it does face tracking and motion tracking to see who's in front of the TV and how to shoot the image to you. But, essentially, you don't need to wear glasses, the technology, you know, at least in this version, it requires there to be an extra reflective piece of Plexiglass in front of the display in order to get this effect. So there's a lot technology here, but the end result is something that's more like the Nintendo 3DS where you can look at it and you don't have to have glasses and you get all the benefits of 3D without having to, you know, shell out 70, $100 a pair for your glasses, and, also, you know, not everybody in the room can enjoy the 3D effect unless they've got the glasses on too.
>> Jasmine France: Right.
>> Donald Bell: This seems to be where things would go. This is not just, you know, a load BS. This is totally rocking my world. Except in typical Crave fashion, this is vision of the future that's probably two to five years off.
>> Jasmine France: Oh yeah.
>> Donald Bell: And, you know, so I can -- I can want it pretty badly right now. I also saw something like this done with motion tracking and the Wii a few years back. There was a little hack where someone, you know, duct tape the Wii remote to their, you know, hat and --
>> Jasmine France: Was it their head?
>> Donald Bell: We did 3D tracking that way too. This is kind of like that, but I'm excited to see that Microsoft, the company, is already delivering the Connect and is kind of committed to this motion tracking software, and is committed to delivering content through something like the Xbox or this [inaudible] software is -- they have a vested interest in making this happen. I think it's cool that they're working on it.
>> Jasmine France: Right. Well neat. I still don't like 3D, but whatever.
>> Donald Bell: [Laughter] Even if you don't have to do anything for it and you just switch off the 3 D effect if you don't want it?
>> Jasmine France: We'll see.
>> Donald Bell: All right.
>> Jasmine France: I'm not convinced that it won't hurt my head still, but we'll see.
>> Donald Bell: What you will be grateful for --
>> Jasmine France: This is awesome. This next thing is awesome.
>> Donald Bell: Okay. I'm glad I've got you on board for what's next.
>> Jasmine France: In our robot series, this is roburt -- [Chuckle] roburt -- robot life guard Emily -- called Emily -- that's hilarious. And emergency integrated lifesaving lanyard.
>> Donald Bell: It's not robot in like the Osomo sense, that's going to walk up stairs or shake your hand, but it will save your ass --
>> Jasmine France: It's actually really, really good idea.
>> Donald Bell: -- when you're drowning in the ocean.
>> Jasmine France: Really awesome idea. I'm surprised it's taken this long for something like this to come out.
>> Donald Bell: So it's a flotation device that has a built-in motor on the bottom of it, and sonar technology that can detect movement under water and then swim towards whatever that movement is. So it's -- there's probably some fine tuning to make sure it's not just swimming out towards any fish that might be there, but this little kind of automated lifeguard is -- which is called Emily, you just kind, you know, rev the motor, throw it out to sea, and then it's going seek out anything that it can detect as like a person flailing in the water that needs help without you having to do much. So supercool.
>> Jasmine France: Really, really neat. Love it.
>> Donald Bell: And, you know, it's not -- it's not as awesome as, you know, some -- a robot that shoots lasers or, you know, crushes people.
>> Jasmine France: It's still exceedingly handy.
>> Donald Bell: But, yeah, this is a robot that looks simple enough to manufacture in quantity and could actually save your life.
>> Jasmine France: Right. And especially if, you know, somebody's a lost at sea and you have all this area to cover and if you have several of these -- if they can interact, you know -- if they can all be in the same area.
>> Donald Bell: Lost at sea at night, you know, and, you know, like, I can't see you but I know someone just went overboard, let's have, you know, the sonar robot.
>> Jasmine France: Let's have Emily find them.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. Or, like, just have, like, a whole team of Emily's out there. Then, actually, if you had more than one, they might seek each other out.
>> Jasmine France: That's what I was wondering if they were -- if they're able to search in the same area without, you know, running into one another.
>> Donald Bell: You could make it a little more sophisticated, put some like, you know, GPS chips in them to kind of sense that they're all in it together.
>> Jasmine France: Right.
>> Donald Bell: That would make it work.
>> Jasmine France: Agreed.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah.
>> Jasmine France: Very cool, though. And especially to me because I have this irrational fear of getting lost at sea.
[ Laughter ]
>> Donald Bell: I don't know if that's an irrational fear, that might actually be a self-preserving fear.
>> Jasmine France: Well, I don't ever go out to sea, so it's kind of irrational.
^M00:10:16
[ Silence ]
^M00:10:21
>> Donald Bell: All right. Well this one goes on the other end of robotics. Well, I don't know -- actually, I think this is practical, but you have to have much kind of broader vision for how this is a practical application. This is --
>> Jasmine France: Tell me how this is practical, Donald.
>> Donald Bell: Okay. This is a new technology for self-folding sheets of origami that are controlled by robotics and, basically, just kind of low voltages to fold up the sheet, okay. So you can see a picture of what the sheet looks like right now -- when I say "sheet," that sounds bad, but it's a sheet. And you -- by applying these low voltages, the different little folds of the -- of the sheet will fold up into whatever shape that, you know, you kind of program the sheet to do. So it's kind of hard to describe. And like a lot of things in Crave, better to show off in video form. So they're calling this programmable matter, and I think that gets to --
>> Jasmine France: Shape one boat.
>> Donald Bell: -- that gets to what makes this cooler than the little demo might make you think. Which is the idea that --
>> Jasmine France: Just a step in the right direction.
>> Donald Bell: -- that by applying, you know, just a low voltage electricity, you can make some -- you can make a sheet of paper into an object that you might need. So this is -- the idea that they came up with -- there was a few -- some were like if you wanted like one sheet of paper that could be multiple things. It couldn't even be just a sheet of paper, it could be something larger than that.
>> Jasmine France: Such as somebody mentioned in the chat room, bed spread, self-making bed.
>> Donald Bell: I don't know if you want this on, like, on top of you or it could fold you up in it. But if you had to, like, travel lightly, say, you know, the Mount Everest traveller, and you wanted something that could turn into an ice pick or turn into a seat or turn into a tent, I think that the idea that there's -- that things in the future could be -- could change form. I mean, shape shifting products is a really cool idea.
>> Jasmine France: Right.
>> Donald Bell: Even something that could be -- if you could apply this to housing, like tents or like temporary structures that can fold up and become other things or shrink down. The idea -- I've seen this idea as like -- actually, practical applications in space where there -- they send out, like, the little solar collectors that are all folded up, and, then, you know, by applying a small voltage, those would, like, fold out these giant structures that can actually collect sun -- so solar panels would be a really cool application for this. But also just -- and this is something I've come up -- I've -- not come up with, but I've thought about a lot too, is the idea of like tablets or like portable handheld devices that are one screen when you need them but when you don't --
>> Jasmine France: You fold it up. Well, I have a -- I've been thinking about that one for a while.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah.
>> Jasmine France: I've been asking for that for a while now. But that doesn't need to be self-done, I don't think. I mean, that doesn't need to be automatic.
>> Donald Bell: But it could be, right. You just leave -- you leave the tablet on your
>> Jasmine France: If you leave it out then it --
>> Donald Bell: -- you leave it out for a little while, it realizes that you've been ignoring it, and then it folds up into like a little cube. That would be pretty cool.
>> Jasmine France: That would be a neat little extra. I think the things you were mentioning before are a lot more, you know, practical.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. I think that there's plenty of space and military applications for this right off the bat. But I do think that, like, most things like that will trickle down to being some really silly consumer uses for technology like this. But I do like the idea of a future where your objects can transform into other objects, whether things can become smaller or bigger depending on how you need them.
>> Jasmine France: Or how about this one. This is another favorite from the chat room here. Teenage girls can have big shirts to show their dads and then transform into tiny ones after they leave the house.
>> Donald Bell: The self-folding mini skirt right [ Laughter ] Oh, that's awful.
>> Jasmine France: You just press a button and it went from an a knee-length skirt to a butt-length skirt. Oh, teenagers, okay.
>> Donald Bell: I could have used one of those.
>> Jasmine France: Moving right along. I think this next thing is pretty sweet, even though I think --
>> Donald Bell: This goes right down to, like, something that the technology for this probably came out as, like, some really futuristic, like, military application.
>> Jasmine France: And now it's --
>> Donald Bell: And now it's trickled down to a $10 --
>> Jasmine France: Now it's a Cupman.
>> Donald Bell: Ramen heat detection guy.
>> Jasmine France: Person thing.
>> Donald Bell: So this is Cupman 2, the sequel to the Cupman 1. And it's basically --
>> Jasmine France: So cute.
>> Donald Bell: Did you read this one. Do you want me to describe it?
>> Jasmine France: Well, I mean, basically, what it does is you put it on the lid of your Ramen or whatever, and then when it's -- when the Ramen's ready, it will change color, the area that it's touching the Ramen.
>> Donald Bell: Right. So it's like a hypercolor --
>> Jasmine France: Right.
>> Donald Bell: -- dude.
>> Jasmine France: I like hypercolor anything so this is really neat even though I don't --
>> Donald Bell: Except actual hypercolor shirts. They just show off like where you're sweating.
>> Jasmine France: Yeah. But the straws are neat. Hypercolor straws are cool. And these are cool. I mean, I don't eat Cup a Noodle, but, I mean, it's, you know, it's a cute little thing.
>> Donald Bell: This actually makes me want to eat Cup a Noodles.
>> Jasmine France: And they hang off the edge and they're all bendable and you can -- I like the guy who's hanging of the edge.
>> Donald Bell: So if you're wondering what the difference is between the Cupman 2 and the Cupman 1: A. You can go to our Crave blog at Crave.CNET.com; or you can also take a look down here. Here's the Cupman 1. You basically look like a little guy who is just barely hanging on to your cup of Ramen or your Cup a Soup.
>> Jasmine France: I like that one better.
>> Donald Bell: They also look like he might be trying to make babies with your Cup of Noodles. But -- [Laughter]
>> Jasmine France: Why did you have to do that right when I was drinking my tea? I almost ruined the key board.
>> Donald Bell: So the Cupman 2 is more of the laid back guy, he's just kind of like --
>> Jasmine France: Yeah, man. I thought they were bendable. Bummer.
>> Donald Bell: No, I don't think so. I think --
>> Jasmine France: Apparently not.
>> Donald Bell: -- there's two different models you can get -- Cupman 1 and Cupman 2.
>> Jasmine France: So I was wrong about that.
>> Donald Bell: So Cupman -- Cupman 1 is more of like the -- the really stressed out, barely hanging on; the Cupman 2 is taking it easy. He's, like, whatever, your Ramen is done. I'm just -- I'm just taken --
>> Jasmine France: My butt feels nice. It's nice and warm over here.
>> Donald Bell: But this is kind of -- this is kind of cute, and if you've got someone who's really into Ramen or Cup a Soups or something like that, ten bucks.
>> Jasmine France: Cute little gift.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. Why not.
>> Jasmine France: Absolutely. I would -- I personally want this next thing as a gift. I don't know about the rest of you all, but -- I think they say that it's creepy, but I think it's awesome. It's a Hello Kitty chainsaw.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. We're rounding -- this is the kicker. This is the -- this is the No. 1 item -- Crave item, I'd say, of the week is the Hello Kitty chainsaw. And not just like --
>> Jasmine France: It's awesome!
>> Donald Bell: And what I love about this isn't just that it's Hello Kitty, you know, actually there's nothing -- I don't inherently love anything that's Hello Kitty. What I love about it is that it's like the most, like, beat up obvious -- like it feels like a Hello Kitty chainsaw that has gone through more than it's fair share of hacking people to death and cutting down some trees. And I've even got like the little details where, I mean, I don't -- I'd imagine this is not like a -- a standard thing for a chainsaw, but like the gold, like, little handle on it. Adorable. But, yeah, the -- there's no place that I've seen from all the links that are in the store it's actually buy this.
>> Jasmine France: It's looks like art.
>> Donald Bell: I think it's more of a concept thing.
>> Jasmine France: Yeah. No, it looks like art to me, yeah. Just a piece of art which is -- it's still a cool piece of art.
>> Donald Bell: Yeah, in that sense, it does imply that, look. Maybe you can make your own, you know, your own version of this.
>> Jasmine France: I kind of don't see how this is at all tech related, however, so, I mean, although, we do a lot of Hello Kitty stuff so --
>> Donald Bell: I think this is more -- this is more falls into the DIY camp of things where, you know, you want to -- someone has made their own awesome DIY Hello Kitty chainsaw that looks like, yeah -- it's --
>> Jasmine France: Still, it's cool even if it isn't tech related.
>> Donald Bell: Also we -- on Crave, we love having things that could probably kill you, whether those are, you know, robots or giant light sabers that actually shoot lasers or Hello Kitty chainsaws.
>> Jasmine France: It could be anything, really.
>> Donald Bell: It could be anything.
>> Jasmine France: You have to be prepared for all of these potential situations.
>> Donald Bell: Right.
>> Jasmine France: Of course. Okay. Well that's all we have for today. I think. Right? It's done?
>> Donald Bell: Yeah. That was a great one.
>> Jasmine France: Well, if you want to get ahold of us, you can send us an e-mail at craveshow@CNET.com. Make sure you put the "show" in there, because otherwise we don't get it.
>> Donald Bell: Or it probably gets forwarded to us but.
>> Jasmine France: It might get forwarded to us.
>> Donald Bell: [Inaudible]
>> Jasmine France: Make sure it's craveshow@CNET.com.
>> Donald Bell: And call us too.
>> Jasmine France: Or give us a call at 1-800-720-CNET, that's 2608. All right. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
^M00:18:30
[ Music ]
