Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Bender’s Big Score

Published
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Skunkie
on November 30, 2007
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It seems this released slipped right under my nose! A few months ago I talked about the team behind Futurama getting together to release some new movies to DVD before airing on television. Well, just as the original article announced, on the 27th Bender’s Big Score was released. PolyVector and I must have forgotten completely. but never fear, we did pick up this title yesterday and immediately popped it into our Xbox360 (our current DVD player decided not to read the disc) and began watching the first of four feature length movies.

I don’t wanna give away what happens, but the team definitely seems a little rusty. Never the less, this is something that belongs in any Futurama fan’s collection. I enjoyed this despite the constant recaps of old happenings from previous episodes and the constant need of explanations of the plot (it seems a lot of live action films have been doing this as well). This is definitely the beginning of a fond relationship. I am sure the next three movies will get progressively better.

Welcome back Futurama, we have missed you!

Apple to Unveil 3G iPhone in 2008

Published
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Skunkie
on November 29, 2007
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Figures, right after we get our iPhone a new one is already getting ready to come out. Though I dunno if I could have waited till late 2008 for the 3G. While EDGE isn’t exactly great and 3G does offer much faster speeds, I think I do prefer the longer battery life rather than blazing fast mobile internet. If I needed to do anything serious using the iPhone I would just hop on a wifi connection rather than use the cell network anyways.

Bloomberg is reporting that AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson has stated that Apple will release an updated version of the iPhone next year that will be able to download content from the Internet at a faster rate.

In response to a question about the 3G iPhone release Stephenson is quoted as saying, “You’ll have it next year”. Stephenson indicated that he has no knowedge about pricing for the new model and indicated that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will determine the price.

In statements to Bloomberg, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster who follows Apple, stated that the “the prospect of a new handset may make some shoppers put off buying an iPhone this year”.

Steve Jobs on 3G and the iPhone
In his defense of a non-3G iPhone, Apple’s CEO Jobs said in September that the iPhone’s battery life would be reduced if supported on faster networks. The current iPhone models have eight hours of battery life. Jobs stated at a news conference in London that current 3G chips for mobile phones are “real power hogs”. He has also stated that “We’ve got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the five-plus-hour range,” and “Hopefully we’ll see that late next year”.

Apple is currently projecting to sell 10 million iPhones worldwide in 2008. Through September, Apple had sold 1.4 million iPhones.

You can view the entire report at Bloomberg.

[From Apple to unveil 3G iPhone in 2008, AT&T's CEO confirms]

And today we also have news of 4G networks from Verizon being shared with AT&T. While above states that the AT&T CEO confirms a 3G iPhone, perhaps Apple might hold out for 4G. I think that is more possible since Apple isn’t one to be too far behind in technology. otherwise why release the iPhone using EDGE when 3G is already here. Of course I could just be talking out of my ass, but I hope you enjoyed this anyways.

Verizon on Thursday confirmed a choice of its fourth-generation cellular Internet access that will dictate both its phone offerings and its compatibility with other networks. The company says it will use the new standard known as Long-Term Evolution, or LTE; the technology promises as much as 100 megabits per second in downloads and 50 megabits in the reverse direction while also cutting down latency to 20 milliseconds, making particularly intensive online games, high-quality two-way video, and other time-sensitive features more practical.

[From MacNN | Verizon confirms 4G access, to share with AT&T]

Apple Video News Network Launched

Published
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Skunkie
on November 28, 2007
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I am a little late to getting something out on this as it was officially launched yesterday, but there is a new 24hour internet TV network dedicated to Apple tech news.

The Digital Lifestyle [yesterday] launched a new 24-hour online network dedicated to Apple followers. The site mixes original programs with popular Apple/tech-related podcasts and YouTube material, as well as daily news updates and live coverage of breaking tech news events. Using live video technology from Mogulus, viewers can watch live broadcasts and participate by submitting their own video segments. Original shows include “Root Access,” a weekly live tech help show with a former Apple “Mac Genius” and “Gary’s Garage,” offering a look at Apple and other company’s products of the past.

[From MacNN | 24-hour Apple news video network launches]

You can check out the Digital Lifestyle site and even contribute to the station. I can’t wait for a desktop client or widget to be developed. Or perhaps even a vodcast (video podcast).

Boot Camp for Tiger Officially Expires Dec 31st

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Skunkie
on November 28, 2007
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Today beta testers of Boot Camp should have gotten an email (if they provided a legit one during the download process) that Boot Camp on their Tiger installs is going to officially expire on December 31st. For those that might not have given a real email, you can view the contents of what was sent out here:

Apple had already taken down the Boot Camp download some time ago. If you are not going to upgrade to Leopard than it looks like you might be out of luck.

Xbox Live

Published
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Skunkie
on November 28, 2007
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This evening we finally went ahead and purchased an Xbox Live Gold account. We decided to have the Gold account under PolyVector’s gamer tag thinking I’ll be able to join in mutiplayer games like Halo 3. Well, this is only half true. I can play under a guest gamer tag, but in order to use my account I would have to get a Gold account as well. I suppose that makes sense. So, I am watching PolyVector play to see if it is worth paying another $50 a year for me to have an account as well while I sit here blogging on the iPhone. I am starting to get jealous.

I am sure you are asking yourself right now why I don’t just play as a guest under PolyVector’s account. That is an easy question to answer, we are pretty compettive people and I want my stats to count under my gamer tag and not be sucked into PolyVector’s. And as I finish this up it is looking like we are gonna be getting me a Gold account.

If any has XBL go ahead and leave your gamer tag and we’ll see about getting a game going sometime.

Decision 2008 is Coming

Published
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Skunkie
on November 24, 2007
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. 11 Comments

I haven’t really had a chance to talk about this lately and it has been on my mind with the coming Republican YouTube Debate. I didn’t get a chance to catch the Democrat YouTube Debate, but thanks to YouTube it can be easily watched on their site.

Embarrassingly I don’t know anything about the current republican nominees. While being a very strong democrat I still like to know what I can about all candidates across the board. While I won’t bring up who I am supporting in this article I will say that I will be tuning in on Wednesday at 8PM on CNN to hear the republican nominees answer all the various questions the internet has brought to their table. In the mean time I will be catching up with the democrat debate I link to earlier.

Holiday Shopping

Published
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Skunkie
on November 24, 2007
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It has been a pretty productive weekend. Between getting a few things done around the house PolyVector and I were able to get all our holiday shopping out of the way. I think the only thing I have left is my parents. My sister wanted to see about doing a joint gift that would send my parents on an evening cruise with dinner and an open bar. I have been looking into that for he last day and so far I am not sure how I feel about it. I have been on one of the boats we are considering. The San Diego Harbor Excursion offers dinner cruises every night and they seem tto be the best bet, but I am still debating on if my parents would really enjoy it. I would love to be able to get them something they could do together though. It seems that they always divide their time between work and my other sister and her baby which currently live at home. I am not one for holidays as it is. I don’t believe in the reasons for celebrating during this time of year and the whole materialistic nature of the season really bothers me. But I am beginning to ramble. The real point of this was I suppose to get some things off my mind, though I think I am going to stop myself before it gets rough. Despite some disagreements I am excited to travel next month to San Diego and hang out with some of our friends and family.

Adventures in Turkey

Published
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Skunkie
on November 23, 2007
in Journal
. 4 Comments

Yesterday’s Thanksgiving experiment went pretty smoothly. I suppose like all first turkey attempts the bird took much longer than we anticipated. This lead to a late dinner, but it was worth the wait.


The turkey was 9lbs. and we cooked it with celery, carrots, parsley, parsley root, lemon, rosemary and thyme with your standard salt and pepper butter concoction. Along with PolyVector’s amazing garlic mashed potatoes and your regular Pilsbury Grands Home Style Biscuits, I’d say our first real attempt at Thanksgiving went off without any disasters what so ever. The pumpkin pie we had picked up fresh from the local Safe Way bakery the day before and it was surprisingly great. I didn’t except it tasting as good as it did for a store bought pie. Coming from San Diego I have come to expect really tasty pies from the Julian Pie Company or the master of Apple Pie herself, Sally (PolyVector’s mom). And to top the whole thing off dinner was accompanied by some Henry Weinhard’s gourmet root beer and pie is nothing without some awesome fresh ground dark roast coffee. You can find all the pictures we took on our Picasa Web Album.

Happy Turkey Day

Published
by
Skunkie
on November 22, 2007
in Journal
. 3 Comments

We wanted to wish everyone in the US a Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you had (or are having) a great day and the evening brings you a bounty of pumpkin pie (or similar delights). PolyVector and I are still baking our turkey and getting the mashed potatoes and biscuits ready for cooking. Don’t worry I do have pictures of the turkey and I will be taking other food related snaps as the evening continues. We’ll see if I get them up later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Oh and of course for those not in the US or not celebrating Thanksgiving we still hope your day has gone well and pie doesn’t have to be saved for holidays. ;) Happy Turkey Day to everyone!

Video Game Documentary

Published
by
Skunkie
on November 21, 2007
in Journal
. 2 Comments

Tonight on the Discovery Channel (I mean like possibly within the next 15 minutes) there will be an on going documentary split into five parts on Rise of the Video Game.

LEVEL ONE
Premiere: Wednesday, Nov. 21, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
In the 1950s, the Cold War quickly evolved between the world superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Mutually assured destruction enforced an uneasy stalemate, yet also drove computer technology to create missile simulations to predict the results of a nuclear war. This same computer technology was used to develop the first computer game in 1958 — Tennis for Two. The Space Race and the Vietnam war coincided with Steve Russell’s game Space War! and the emergence of the first true giants in the video game business — Nolan Bushnell and Atari. In post-World War II Japan, electronics and computer technology emerged to rebuild a land and economy devastated by the atomic bomb. Space Invaders and Pac-Man soon followed, and the golden age of video games was born. Among others, individuals featured in this episode include Steve Russell, Nolan Bushnell, Ralph Baer (considered by many to be the inventor of the video game) and Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man designer). Video games emerged as a form of entertainment where the player was in control, as opposed to the more passive diversion of watching television.

You know we will definitely be tuning in. So sit back and enjoy. This could be a very interesting look into video games.