This Thursday on CNET Live

[ Music ] ^M00:00:08 >> Coming up on CNET Live, zombies. >> Plus robots, monkeys and giant squids. >> It's the music of Jonathan Coulton on today's CNET Live. ^M00:00:17 [ Music ] ^M00:00:21 >> Welcome to CNET Live, I'm Tom Merritt. >> Molly Wood: I'm Molly Wood. >> Tom Merritt: Brian Cooley is down in some outer water layer somewhere being James Bond or something we don't know... >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: He's not here though. >> Molly Wood: You'll understand later. >> Tom Merritt: You'll understand that joke in a minute. Give us a call, 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638. Actually, all the lines are full, finally. >> Molly Wood: I know. >> Tom Merritt: Before the show started, so... >> Molly Wood: Yeah, all our... >> Tom Merritt: Thank you for that. >> Molly Wood: Twitters [assumed spelling] have finally actually had an effect. >> Tom Merritt: But as soon as we take our first call, then bang, get in there. >> Molly Wood: Boom. >> Tom Merritt: Soon as you hear the drop, get in there, and Cheryl will set you up to be in line, to be on the show today. >> Molly Wood: Yes, she will. >> Tom Merritt: There she is. >> Molly Wood: Before we get to your calls, however it is time for things we crave. ^M00:00:58 [ Music ] ^M00:01:02 >> Tom Merritt: These are some of our favorite things from the crave blog at www.crave.cnet.com, and tying in the whole James Bond under water joke, it is the WooSim Waterproof printer. >> Molly Wood: Woosim. >> Tom Merritt: It looks like it might be rubberized. It's from South Korea, Woosim. They make a lot of waterproof gadgets, but they haven't made a printer until now, and now they have. So... >> Molly Wood: I... >> Tom Merritt: When you're in the bathtub with your rubber ducky, and your laptop, you need to print something out, this is what you need. >> Molly Wood: Do they also make an underwater laptop, because I got to say my question on this one is somewhat obviously, I think, which is... >> Tom Merritt: What are you printing [inaudible]? >> Molly Wood: Why? >> Tom Merritt: They do, they actually make some submersible computers, I don't know if it's like a whole lot, full on laptops, but they makes underwater devices, like UMPC type devices. >>Molly Wood: I think that it's... >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible] plug this into it. >> Molly Wood: Good for printing your last message to the world when your submarine is sinking. >> Tom Merritt: As the water is flowing in, awe, it want flash on my printer and stop me from printing my final notes... >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Tom Merritt: Will and testament. >> Molly Wood: From my waterproof flash drive... >> Tom Merritt: It actually... >> Molly Wood: There you go. >> Tom Merritt: Kind of reminds me of the Timemax [assumed spelling] Sinclair's printer, like sort of useless, cause it's only three inches, so it's... >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Small. It's probably some kind of special paper that's waterproofed too. >> Molly Wood: One would hope. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, so. >> Molly Wood: He just likes it because it's impossible to understand, and potentially useless... >> I will crack your [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Right? Mine is actually kind of the thing I'm craving today, and I wouldn't say useless, but maybe not that necessary, it's a French designer cell phone for the children. You can tell it's for the children, because of the cute little teddy bear, right there looking [inaudible]. >> [Inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: It has a clock right there in the thing. >> Tom Merritt: Oh, he ate time. >> Molly Wood: What I like about it is if you're going to do a cell phone for kids, and my like eleven month old already wants a cell phone. He has a [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: He's eleven months now. >> Molly Wood: To play with. Isn't that insane? >> Tom Merritt: That's crazy... >> Molly Wood: And... >> Tom Merritt: You were gone this time last year, weren't you... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Weird. >> Tom Merritt: Anyway... >> Molly Wood: But a few months from now... >> Tom Merritt: Time flies. >> Molly Wood: He's going to want that. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, he's going to want that French [inaudible] phone. >> Molly Wood: Well, he's not going to get it. >> Tom Merritt: Is that Eli's taste? >> Molly Wood: It's probably relatively expensive. But I'm just saying if you're doing a phone for kids, why does it have to look like some junky [assumed spelling], green and yellow thing. >> Tom Merritt: All right. I just like that it has a teddy bear that ate time, I'm kind of cool with that. Let's go to the phones, on line one is Maddy [phonetic] calling in from Hawaii. Hey Maddy. >> Hey guys. >> Tom Merritt: Maddy, helped us do a little sound check earlier, so this is actually... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: His second time talking to us. What's your question today? >> I am going to be moving to Los Angeles in about a week... >> Tom Merritt: I'm sorry to hear that. >> And I was wondering if it was worth using like the maps tool on the iPhone or like another phone, like a GPS. Or should I just get like a stand-alone unit for like my car or when I'm walking? >> Tom Merritt: For your driving around... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Well, you should know that the things that google does with the maps on the phone is actually not GPS, it's using Wi-Fi and cell towers to triangulate... >> Right. >> Tom Merritt: So it's not so good on the fly. It will be decent with navigation directions. I don't think most of them talk to you though. >> Okay. >> Tom Merritt: So you probably would want to get a GPS device that's going to do actual GPS, so you can get the turn by turn directions while you're driving, something that will talk to you, but... >> Molly Wood: Then there's a couple of... >> Tom Merritt: There is a way to have it combined; right? >> Molly Wood: Well, yeah there are a couple of options, if you already have a good bluetooth enabled phone that you really like, then you can get kind of just a stand alone bluetooth receiver... >> [Inaudible]. >> [Inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: And satellite receiver, I have the TomTom one, which I use with my trio, and it's a pretty hand setup... >> Okay. >> Molly Wood: Because it's way cheaper then a stand-alone GPS device. >> Okay... >> Molly Wood: And then [inaudible], it talks to your listening [assumed spelling] phone. >> Yeah, because I have a trio 700 P. >> Molly Wood: Oh, yeah, that'll work. >> Okay. >> Molly Wood: I have a 755 P, so it should work fine. Although I will say that there are some cool phones equipped with GPS coming out, that it might actually be worth looking at. The Nokia 6210 navigator is a GPS phone because Nokia just brought, I think Tele Atlas, or they brought some mapping company, and they're all about... >> Yes. >> Molly Wood: The built in GPS... >> Tom Merritt: Tele Atlas sounds rights. >> Molly Wood: And then the Garmin [assumed spelling] newbie [assumed spelling] phone... >> Tom Merritt: Which you're really excited about. >> Molly Wood: Be coming out in Q3, which I am fired up about. So that might actually be worth waiting for. Maybe you could pick up a cheap receiver now, and then if one of these like super, sweet GPS phones comes out, go for that. >> Tom Merritt: All right, thanks Maddy. Appreciate the call. Line one is now open. >> Molly Wood: Go, go, go. >> Tom Merritt: Let's go to Louisiana, Allen is on the line. Hey, Allen. >> Hey, how are you guys? >> Tom Merritt: We're doing great, thanks for calling. What can we help you with? >> I read somewhere that the Multi-touch on the MacBook Air [assumed spelling] is just a software update, and that possibly a program could be made to recreate the Multi-touch gestures, [inaudible] not as much as the iPhone. So I was wondering if you guys knew anything about that? >> Tom Merritt: I... >> Molly Wood: I haven't heard that it's only, I guess I would be a little bit surprised if it were only a software... >> Tom Merritt: My understanding... >> Molly Wood: Thing. >> Tom Merritt: Is that Multi-touch requires hardware. >> Molly Wood: Right. I think it probably requires some hardware, we did just this week, maybe late last week, there were some patent filings that came out from Apple about extending the Multi-touch functionalities. So they're definitely going to do more Multi-touch on laptops, but that made me think that it's probably more then just a firmware thing. If you're hoping that, so you're hoping that somebody basically will grow their own software that will let your retroactively enable your message [assumed spelling] probes to Multi-touch? >> Tom Merritt: No, he's right actually... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Mac News Networks says that Apple revealed to them that the Multi-touch is merely a software update, and that current Mac books could be given a software update to turn them into the Multi-touch. >> Molly Wood: Just look out, because it'll cost you twenty bucks. >> Allen: [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible] no, it's probably a good thing. >> Tom Merritt: T3 has pulled the article from it's website suggesting it was posted in error, previous information from it, [inaudible] out by Ifixit [assumed spelling], it suggested that the Air's Multi-touch is handled by a broad com chip, the same one used in the iPhone, so it sounds like... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: It's some confusing about whether this is true or not. If I had to guess, I'd still go with my original guess, which is I think you have to have some hardware to map the points that Multi-touch is using. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: But I don't know, it may be kind of halfway between true and false, in other words, the Trackpad on the Macbook could have the capability to interpret Multi-touch and stimulate [assumed spelling] it somehow... >> Molly Wood: Yeah, I would be... >> Tom Merritt: But that's just a guess. >> Molly Wood: I would be really surprised if Apple released an update that made the older one Multi-touch because it sounds like they're doubling down on selling more machines based on that capability, especially with that patent filing. So I definitely wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Apple to do it. If it turns out to be software only, yeah somebody might try to hack it, but I'm not positive. If you're looking for an excuse to buy an iPhone, make sure you wait until iPhone 2. >> Tom Merritt: All right, thanks Allen, appreciate the call. And we'll keep tabs on this, Listen to Buzz Out loud too... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: If it comes up, we'll try to talk about it there as well. >> Molly Wood: We'll look into it. All right, coming up, our musical guest, Jonathan Coulton. >> Tom Merritt: But first, Organic light-emitting Diodes or OLED displays have been showing up in MP3 player's, other portable devices, this last couple of year, people getting real excited about these. And they're finally coming to a commercially available television screen near you. It's a little TV screen though. >> Take a look. ^M00:07:31 [ Music ] ^M00:07:34 >> Hey, I'm David Katzmaier, senior editor from www.cnet.com. >> David Katzmaier: And I'm with the Sony XEL-1. This is an OLED TV, the world's first OLED TV. It's a lot smaller then most of the TV's that I do on these videos. Of course, you can see right here, it's only about eleven inches diagonal, but it is a standard television in all other respects. Of course, this TV is also extremely expensive, SONY selling it right now, for about twenty-five hundred bucks. But I guess that's what happens with the first generation of a new TV technology like OLED. That abbreviation stands for organic light-emitting diodes. The technology is based around these diodes that can get extremely dark. When you the turn the TV, turn the lights down and look at the TV in a dark room, the black [assumed spelling] on the TV are extremely dark, which really lends to a lot of pop and contrast on the screen. It's really, the best black levels [assumed spelling] of any TV we've seen so far. That's really the main benefit that we could see so far of the OLED. There's also excellent viewing angles on this set when you sit to the side, or [inaudible] and below the picture. It really doesn't get anymore washed out or dimmer or it does with a lot of typical LCD TV's. Besides from the price, there's a few downsides to this TV. It's 960 by 540 resolution, which is only about half of high def. Of course, other versions in the future we expect to have full 1920 by 1080 high def resolution. Of course with that tiny screen size, it's really hard to see, and it does look extremely sharp regardless. Of course, one of the first things you notice when you turn this TV this side [assumed spelling], is it it's extremely thin. The panel itself measures only about three millimeters thick. Of course, Sony had to built this stand on here, so there is on the base some inputs, and the electronics, and a little speaker for this TV, but the panel itself is really the cool part. You know, again it's extremely thin, so. Anyway, that's a quick look at the Sony XEL-1 OLED TV. >> And I'm David Katzmaier. ^M00:09:27 [ Music ] ^M00:09:29 >> Molly Wood: I love that video because it's the first time I've ever seen David Katzmaier look big next to a TV, because he usually look so tiny. >> Anyway, now it is time, I'm very excited about this for the musical genius of Jonathan Coulton, Tom. >> Tom Merritt: That's right, thank you, Molly. Jonathan Coulton, welcome to CNET Live. >> Jonathan Coulton: Thank you, [inaudible] be here. >> Tom Merritt: Thank you for coming to California... >> Sure. >> So that we would have a chance to drag you in here. Jonathan is a musician who has done his entire career pretty much online. >> [Inaudible]. >> You started by quitting your job around the time your baby was being born, is that right? >> Jonathan Coulton: Yeah. >> Okay. >> Jonathan Coulton: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: Tell us how that worked? >> Well, it didn't seem like a great ideal at the time... >> Yeah. >> Jonathan Coulton: It felt like, it felt like a pretty stupid and lame [assumed spelling] thing to do. But, you know, [inaudible], my daughter was just born, and I'd always wanted to make a living as a musician, and it seemed like the last possible chance. >> Tom Merritt: Was your wife able to like keep working, and you... >> Yeah. >> Spun it like I'll stay home with the baby... >> No... >> [Inaudible]. >> No, I spun it like I'm going to quit my job, and be a Rock Star. She was... >> And she followed that, that's love. >> No, she was like, well let's see, Mr. Fancy Pants... >> Okay. >> Let's see how it's goes. >> Tom Merritt: And [inaudible] of one of your songs... >> Jonathan Coulton: That's right, I just quoted that myself that was weird. >> So anyway, you, I guess, was it a friend of yours who suggested doing the thing a week podcast? >> Jonathan Coulton: It was somebody that I worked with at the software Company that I worked with. He said, he said, what are you going to do after you quit. And I said, I have no ideal. He said, you should write a song every week. And I said, well, that's impossible. >> Tom Merritt: And then how did you come up with the ideal of making it into a podcast, because you did it for an entire year as a podcast? >> Jonathan Coulton: Yeah, I, you know, it's just seemed like, it just seemed liked a convenient way to get it out there, and, you know I wanted as many people to hear it as possible because nobody knew who I was at that point. >> Tom Merritt: Well, I think that's one of the things that is differentiated, and probably helped you, is the fact that you're not worried about controlling the music. You give a lot of your music away free. I know you had a recent thing on your blog where you talked about how somebody made a hack video of how... >> Yeah. >> To steal all your music, and you're like well, it's there in a podcast, kind of free dude. >> Anyway [inaudible]. >> So, but what's your theory on that, how did you come about with that sort of open policy? >> Jonathan Coulton: You know, I had read, I had read a lot about created commons [assumed spelling], and the sort of growing theories about abundances in the digital world, and what that means about commerce, and all this stuff. So I, I, and I was sort of under the impression that I sort of agreed with the ideal that that obscurity is a much bigger enemy then piracy, you know, and so... >> Except for maybe Madonna. >> Jonathan Coulton: Well, except for maybe Madonna. >> Yeah, before that. >> Jonathan Coulton: Yeah, but what chance does she have of, of being, becoming obscure... >> Yeah. >> Even at this point. >> That's a whole different business plan. >> Jonathan Coulton: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it just seemed like the greatest way to reach as many people as possible, which was the most important thing. >> Tom Merritt: What, I sort of took that under advisement [assumed spelling], I hope you don't mind, I know you saw the blog posting where I invited people to boss you around. >> Yeah. >> And we got several comments directly to me through Twitter [assumed spelling] and on the, and The Future Soon edged out, as the song that they most wanted to hear, so you mind playing a little bit of that for us. >> Jonathan Coulton: I'd be happy to, this is sort of musings that you might have if you were 13, growing up in the 1980's, and reading Harmony [assumed spelling] magazine a lot. >> It's called the Future Soon. ^M00:12:28 [ Music ] ^M00:13:32 >> Actually the whole song is quite a bit longer then that. >> Yes. And you can get it at your website. >>Yes, www.JonathanCoulton.com. >> Tom Merritt: We can plug after every time you play, we can plug your website. >> Jonathan Coulton: All right, it's www.JonathanCoulton.com. >> Tom Merritt: Now, interesting, it's interesting to me how you come up with the ideals, not because I'm going to ask you right now in the interview, but because whenever I think about like, I wonder how he came up with that, I can go to your blog, and you blog about pretty much every song you've written, and you've got a little bit of the back story there. >> Jonathan Coulton: It's true, yeah. And it's, it's kind of a strange thing, and it gets stranger still, you know, it's something that I've become addicted to, is this ideal of opening up the creative process, because I've also starting doing these live, when I record, I actually setup a camera and do a live webcast of that, you know, and that also felt very strange, but now, I can't see, I can't really think of how I could do it, otherwise. >> Tom Merritt: What do you get out of that, that you wouldn't otherwise? Just, it sounds that's really scary as a musician to show the works, and all of the whole composition process? >> Jonathan Coulton: It is, it's very scary, and I think that, that one of the things for me. Well, first of all to be perfectly crass about it, it's a thing that I think people will be interested in, and pay attention to it. >> Sure. >> Jonathan Coulton: But on another level, and more personally, it's, you know, I'm sort of conflicted as a creative person. It's hard to be creative. It's hard to allow myself to be creative. And so, the more I sort of face these barriers head on, these fears head on, the more I imagine I'll be able to get pass them. >> Tom Merritt: It's the close your eyes, get on the Roller Coasters and go... >> Yeah, exactly. >> Sort of approach? >> Yeah. >> If you were afraid of snakes, then you should hug a snake. >> All right... >> I'm, I'm not a doctor, so [inaudible]. >> And there, you know, I read a story in the paper today that Boa Constrictors are headed to California. >> Great news. >> Hopefully, they'll be gone before your show tomorrow. >> What do you mean Boa Constrictors are like, a big, a big mass of them? >> Like one big massive ones from Florida are on their way to California. The Burma [assumed spelling] Pythons, my producers tell me. >> The Burma Pythons? >> Yeah. >> Good, good. >> [Inaudible] not Boa Constrictors... >> When are they suppose to... >> Burma Pythons. >> Get here because I have a show? >> Your show's Friday's... >> Yeah. >> At 9? >> Yeah. >> I think after that... >> Okay, great... >> [Inaudible], so you'll [inaudible]. >> Because I don't have any tickets [inaudible]. >> My producer is goating [assumed spelling] us to get you to play another song, and is going to leave it to your choice. What do you want to play? >> Jonathan Coulton: Why don't we do, you mentioned The Secret Layers before, why don't we do, this is a song called, Skullcrusher Mountain. >> It's a love song, song by a naval [assumed spelling] genius. ^M00:15:41 [ Music ] ^M00:16:46 >> I never noticed the yet before. >> Yet. >> He hasn't decided, he hasn't decided. >> Now, did the He-man people ever contact you about that? >> No, I wish that they had, though, I like... >> [Inaudible]. >> I liked He-man as a child [inaudible]. >> And [inaudible] you also have a store where you, I mean that's one of the ways. You're giving away your music, but you're also charging for it... >> Yes. >> If people want to buy it? >> For sale, and for free, depending on where you look. >> So it, it depends on where you look, or which is what you feel. I mean I have... >> Yeah. >> Actually downloaded your songs, all the ones from the podcast for free, and then went and paid for them later... >> Yeah. >> Just because I wanted to. >> Yeah, you know, I hear that from a lot of people, I get, I frequently get emails that say, you know, I just brought your whole collection, even though I already own it. >> Yeah. >> Jonathan Coulton: You know, thanks, thanks for putting it out there. You know, and it, it's, it means, it means so much to me, you know, and it really, I really think it's true that if people know that the money is going mostly to the artists that they, that they like, they're willing to support them. >> But you also have also have a T-shirt shop... >> [Inaudible]. >> [Inaudible] merchandise, and you have a skullcrusher mountain shirt. >> That's right. >> Is that skating the line at all with the... >> It, no I don't think, I don't think that's infringing of any, any copyrights. >> I hope not. >> Yeah, me too, now that's, now that we've mentioned it here, thanks a lot. >> Yeah. We could edit that, right? >> No one sees the live show, anyway. >> So if people want to follow you, they can follow you on your blog. They can follow you on your live stream? >> Yes. >> They can just listen to the music. >> Yeah. >> How can they get you to come play live? >> Jonathan Coulton: I use a website called www.eventful.com, and they have, this thing called demands, where you can go there, and sign up with your email address, and say I want Jonathan Coulton to play in this town. And, you know, at this point, I've played in enough cities; I know where I do well. But there, we're always sort of discovering new cities, and we really do use those numbers. So, you know, if I see that there are a 100 people in whatever town in the United States, I know, I sort of have an ideal of how big that's crowds going to be. And I can sort of figure out how to make it make sense to actually go there and play. >> Tom Merritt: So unlike, when I was growing up in Greenville, Illinois and just had to wait for the whims of artists to come to St. Louis, and drive 45 miles an hour, or 45 miles an hour, well, that was back in the days when the cars didn't go that fast. >> It was safety first in those days. >> I would drive 45 miles to go see the show. I could actually try to get enough people in my county... >> Yeah. >> To request you, and you'd come? >> And that's the ideal, it's, you know, it's sort of, it's sort of a street team ideal, if you can, you can actually prove to me that there's enough people there, then I'll come, I'll come and do a show. >> Tom Merritt: Is that how you got the show in San Francisco or... >> Jonathan Coulton: No, well, at this point, you know, I've been to San Francisco a couple of times, so I know that they're pretty big crowds. But the first time I used that, it was actually for a show in Seattle. And I'd never played anywhere near the West Coast before. And it was sort of overnight, I realized there were 75 people there on Eventful, and I went and played a show, and then there was like a 100 people showed up, it was great. >> The last thing I want to talk about before we have to get out of here is the DVD you're recording. >> That's right. >> So this is another way of delivering content to the fans, right? >> Yes, exactly, a lot of people have asked for live versions of the songs. And, you know, they're all studio recordings, and some of them have changed greatly, as I've learned to play them with just this guitar in front of people. So we're shooting that on Friday. >> In fact, the cameraman's in here right now. >> Yeah, in fact, we have a cameraman... >> There he is. >> [Inaudible] shooting the DVD. >> You can kind of seeing him back there, lurking in the [inaudible] >> Yes. >> Hi, Jeremiah. >> And so we're shooting that this Friday. And we'll edit that, and release that, yeah. >> When do you think that'll be out? >> This fall, sometime, I'm not sure exactly when, it depends on how much money I have to make it, [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Now, okay, I'm told we're like, we spent way too much time, because I just enjoy talking to you so much. But can you play us out with one more song. The second place song on the blog was Code Monkey, which is probably one of the more popular ones. >> I think that's appropriate... >> All right. >> This is a song about how it feels to be a software developer. ^M00:20:20 [ Music ] ^M00:21:18 >> At this very moment Eric Welsh [phonetic] is defending his family from the constant onslaught of online threats. >> All with Norton 360, automated all in one security that protects you online when you buy, bank or browse, keep up the good fight, Eric. ^M00:21:35 [ Music ] ^M00:21:53 >> Welcome back to CNET Live, thank you so much Jonathan Coulton that was a privilege... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: To be able to sit and talk... >> That was awesome. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah. >> It was all I could do not to shout over there, actually, and join in. >> Tom Merritt: Well, we must continue the show, time now for... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Download of the week. ^M00:22:07 [ Music ] ^M00:22:12 >> Download of the week is brought to you by our good friend's at CNET download.com. >> Purveyors [assumed spelling] of spyware free, free download. And of course, along with Jonathan Coulton, actually on the show, we thought we'd show you how to get the music of Jonathan Coulton. WWW.Jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads. There is the store, and you can download for pay or for free. In some cases a bunch of the songs, in fact take look [inaudible] week four, there's some free ones right there, you can sample. And if you like them, go ahead and throw a buck in the jar, and get yourself some tunes. >> Yeah, it's just a buck, do it. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, do it, come on. >> Molly Wood: All right, it is time actually, to get your calls, 1-888-900-CNET, [inaudible] 2638. Who is on the line? >> Tom Merritt: Looks like we have Robert in, or Roberto [phonetic], sorry in Portland. Hey Roberto, thanks for calling. >> Hi, how are you guys? >> Tom Merritt: We're doing great. How are you? >> Molly, I hope you got my Valentine's Day card the other day. >> Molly Wood: I did thank you so much... >> Awe, that's sweet. >> Molly Wood: That was so nice. >> Okay, [inaudible] and I'm glad to hear that your voice is back. >> Molly Wood: Thanks, me too. >> And I was calling; recently there was a first look at the Logitech Harmony one, universal remote. And it looks really, really nice. I'm having some issues trying to decide between one universal remote over another. It needs to be very user friendly because I'm the technie [assumed spelling] one in my house. And my wife needs something that's going to be very user friendly because she's not as tech oriented as me. But I was wondering if, I was looking at other models that have come out prior to this one, there's one that's called the Harmony 890, I believe, which is, had RF, and the... >> [Inaudible]. >> The Harmony One does not have RF, how much of, how important would it be to have a feature like that do you think? >> Tom Merritt: Well, do you have any RF controlled devices? >> I, I believe everything I have is just kind of standard... >> Tom Merritt: Is infrared [assumed spelling]. >> Remote control [Inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Yeah, infrared stuff, [inaudible] it make any difference if I had one RF device, right? >> Molly Wood: It shouldn't make a difference, the only other way that it might make a differences is you, you know, I have, for example a wall mounted flat screen. And then all of my components are in a closet behind that. And I use and RF repeater because it works better, like Tivo has a big problem with infrareds. So it works better to have this RF repeater in order to kind of balance the signal back in control, and control my devices in that closet. If you have nothing like that, you should be totally fine, and actually all of our editorial indications say that the Harmony One is going to be awesome. >> Yeah, I mean, everything seems so far, you haven't done a full review yet, so... >> Molly Wood: Right. >> I'm, I think I might wait to see something, I'm sure it'll be up fairly soon. But between now and then, I was thinking maybe I should just, I see like the Harmony One is the better reviewed of the, or it's looking like it's going to be a really good product, so. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, and at the very least, it's worth waiting just to be able to compare, you know, do a fair comparison... >> Sure. >> Molly Wood: Because it does look cool. Two Hundred and fifty bucks, and the Harmonies, once you set them [inaudible], as long as you do the setup, then it should be fine for your wife. >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, exactly, the setup is a little bit complicated... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: Because I have a 880... >> Molly Wood: We have that too. >> Tom Merritt: And every time, we switch devices, it's kind of a pain to go back and plug it in the interfaces. And it's great, they're suppose to fix some of that with the Harmony One... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: So, maybe it'll get better there. But then once it's all setup, it is pretty straightforward. There's a few quirks that I, I have to explain from time to time, but it's the best universal remote, I've ever seen, for sure. >> Molly Wood: Yeah... >> Okay. >> Molly Wood: Definitely. >> Great... >> Molly Wood: Hope that helps. >> Well, thanks so much. >> Molly Wood: Good luck. >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: All right, let's go to the phones again. And on the line in the District of Columbia is Abraham. You're a frequent caller, are you not Abraham? >> [Inaudible] thanks a lot for the advice you gave me last weekend [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Did it help? >> [Inaudible] Xbox 360, thank you very much. >> Tom Merritt: We need to start a loyalty points program [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible], what can we do for you this week? >> Okay, question. What do you think about the Apple Time Capsule, one [inaudible], as a backup, not a backup drive, but, you know, an external hard drive that I could use to put my digital movies on it. And if you guys think it's a good ideal using Tversity [assumed spelling] to scream it to my Xbox. What do you guys think about the product, The Time Capsule? >> Molly Wood: I don't know... >> [Inaudible] answer your first... >> Molly Wood: If it doesn't work for a Rush [phonetic], then it doesn't work for me. >> Tom Merritt: The rest of us [inaudible] having problems with the Time Capsule. It seems a little limited. I mean I think... >> [Inaudible]. >> If you're living in an entirely MAC universe, it's probably great, it should work fine. If you're trying to backup other computers that suppose to work, and then I know you have to buy that particular device, and sometimes it has problems working with other Wi-Fi routers that [inaudible] at the airport. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Tom Merritt: You may have to do some tweaking [assumed spelling] to get it installed, so. I haven't played with it myself, but that's kind of my overall impressions. As for Tversity, I think it's great, although Xbox is now supporting more Codec [assumed spelling]. So depending on what you need it to do, you might not need to use Tversity. But I would say if there's something that's not currently supportive by Xbox, go for it, it's a great program. >> Okay. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, an as for back up, there's so many options out there. I wouldn't, you know, just because Time's Capsules, gotten a bunch of attention doesn't mean that there aren't other good thinking backup choices out there, Drobo [assumed spelling] is one to check out. >> Tom Merritt: All right, thank you for that. Let's keep rolling in the calls. Here's Brent, in Salt Lake City, Hey Brent [phonetic]. >> How you doing? >> Tom Merritt: We're doing okay. How are you doing? >> Yeah, I think I'm... >> Molly Wood: You sound bombed. >> Getting, I'm getting a habit calling you guys. >> Tom Merritt: That's okay. We need callers. >> Okay. Well let me... >> Tom Merritt: The show would be really empty if we didn't have [inaudible] callers. >> [Inaudible] oh, [inaudible] >> [Inaudible]. >> Okay, I got a Creative [inaudible] 68. It's brand new, it hasn't been open, what it does, it goes on XP pretty good; you can import your stuff over to the iPod. But when you disconnect it from the iPod, you don't see no playlist, no nothing. But the screen's still on, the program's still there, but you don't see the playlist. Is anybody out there got any ideals? >> So you created a playlist in the software? >> Yeah, I created a playlist, zapped [assumed spelling] it, synched [assumed spelling] it, through the Ipod. It says it there, but when it goes, when I went into devices, it shows it's there, but when I go up to, get into the iPod, you know, push the buttons, nothing. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible] with the iPod? >> Yeah. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, I'm confused, are you trying to [inaudible], I'm a little confused about what you're trying to do. Are you trying to take a playlist from the creative, and synch it onto... >> No, [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Your iPod, or vice versa. >> Put it on, put it on the, on it. >> Molly Wood: [inaudible] you're trying to put a playlist from iTunes? >> Yeah... >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible] to the >> [Inaudible] what [inaudible], they have a program that'll do it. They have their own little sync [assumed spelling] program with it. >> Tom Merritt: With the Creative? >> Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible] where does the iPod figure in, that's where I got loss [inaudible] >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Okay. One more question. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, go ahead. >> Molly Wood: Where does the iPod fit in? >> Well, the iPod is, hooked, linked into it, you know how you put, you know, you link your iPod to it. >> Molly Wood: To what... >> And then... >> Molly Wood: The Creative? >> Well, yeah, you, yeah, work with the computer, with your line going to it. >> Tom Merritt: Are you trying to move music playlists from one music player to another? >> No, no. Just trying to get it running [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: You're trying to say it's out of the box... >> This is the first time I have worked with it. >> Molly Wood: Well, if it's the first time you've ever used it, and you're having problems thinking it, I would say, that you should go, if it's, you know, if you brought it recently... >> I know, I called... >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible] might just want to back to the store with it. >> Yeah, I called, I called Creative, and they hanged up on me three times. >> Tom Merritt: So [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: Well, you should just return it, and get something else. >> Tom Merritt: Creative won't work with iTunes, right? >> I don't know if it'll work. >> Molly Wood: It won't [inaudible] with iTunes. >> Tom Merritt: No, it won't. And you're just trying to get the same music that use to be on your iPod onto the Creative? >> Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: Okay. >> Molly Wood: Okay. >> Tom Merritt: So you need to get iTunes out of the equation, just turn it off, get, forget it... >> Yeah... >> Tom Merritt: Ignore it. >> It didn't even have iTunes... >> Tom Merritt: Yeah. >> On there, [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Ignore your iPod... >> [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Look at the Creative software, make sure it's seeing all of your music; right? >> Right. >> And then you're running the synch, and you're not seeing a playlist [inaudible] created in the Creative software; is that what's going on? >> No, not into the iPod... >> Molly Wood: So you're... >> Into the iPod. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, you're not going to see... >> Molly Wood: You're not, [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: You're going to have to recreate it, probably. >> Tom Merritt: You're not going to see any communication between Creative Software, and the iPod. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Right. In the iPod, there's no Creative list in the iPod. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, you're just going to have to recreate it in iTunes to put it on the iPod. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: As far as I know, unless there's some hack out there, you can't synch the iPod with the Creative playlist. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Oh really, you didn't, oh, okay. >> Molly Wood: So I hope that helps, and I hope we've understood you correctly. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, thanks for calling, Brent. And if it doesn't, just email us, or give us a call back... >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Tom Merritt: Yeah, next week. >> Molly Wood: And we'll get on it. >> All right, my friends, now it is time for the best of the web. ^M00:30:35 [ Music ] ^M00:30:38 >> Molly Wood: The best of the web is brought to us by our friends at www.webware.com. >> And this week's best of the web comes out of a kind of terrible story that happened here at CNET... >> Tom Merritt: A terrible true story. >> Molly Wood: A terrible and true story, [inaudible], this is the worst part. One of our co-workers went to a very common CNET eatery, some place that we often go for lunch; all of us, brought his lunch back to his desk, and found a live cockroach crawling around inside the bag. >> Tom Merritt: And he didn't order it either. >> Molly Wood: He didn't order it. It wasn't part of the [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: He ordered [inaudible] cockroach. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, it was not a cockroach, [inaudible] meal deal. >> Tom Merritt: No. >> Molly Wood: You know what I'm saying. So he brings it back, and then Rafe Needleman [phonetic] was kind enough to point out on www.webware.com, Clean Scores, which I went to here, you can basically, it's, right now, it's only works in kind of a few locations, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but you can type in the name of a restaurant, let's say, hypothetically, a... >> Tom Merritt: A restaurant called Mai's [assumed spelling]. >> Molly Wood: A restaurant called Mai's... >> Tom Merritt: Oh, it's right here in San Francisco, okay. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, for some reason, you will be redirected. And then once you're redirected, you get a score... >> Tom Merritt: Ninety-four, that's not bad. >> Molly Wood: A ninety-four out of a 100... >> Tom Merritt: That's not bad. >> Molly Wood: A ninety-four out of a hundred is what it is... >> Tom Merritt: [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: It's actually a pretty good score, so I don't know why it happened with that cockroach there. Last inspected, three months ago, so [inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: Cockroaches happen. >> Molly Wood: They give past inspections, like it looks like the last time that something like a cockroach could of happen was 1983. And then this... >> Tom Merritt: Oh, you mean in 2006... >> Molly Wood: [Inaudible]. >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible] in '83? >> Molly Wood: No, oh yeah, 2006, [inaudible] got in '83. And then one thing I also like is that they've got a list of sort of best and worst locations... >> Tom Merritt: [Inaudible] McDonald's. >> Molly Wood: So you can of immediately go, well, just cause the food will kill you, doesn't mean it's not tidy [assumed spelling]. >> Tom Merritt: It's clean, just full of cholesterol. >> Molly Wood: But, so you can be like, oh no, I love [inaudible] restaurants, although, you know, it gets a good score, so. >> Tom Merritt: It gets the same score, a ninety-four. >> Molly Wood: There you go. >> Tom Merritt: All right. Next Thursday, folks, we'll be hosting a very unique contest. All we can tell you right no, is that you have to watch, it's a race between CNET employers using a certain part of their body to dial the iPhone. >> See you next week, everybody. ^M00:32:32 [ Music ] ^M00:32:43 >> At this very moment, Eric Welsh is defending his family from the constant onslaught of online threats. >> All with Norton 360, automated all in one security that protects you online when you buy, bank or browse. Keep up the good fight, Eric.