Thursday, August 28, 2008

new PSP in October, PS3 in November

Sony has announced that a new PSP (PlayStation®Portable) system will be available on October 14:  the PSP-3000 will have a built-in microphone, support IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), and MPEG-4 will be playable.

Music Memory Stick Audio Format:
ATRAC3
MP3
MP4
WAVE
WMA
 
Photo:
JPEG
TIFF
BMP
GIF
PNG

In November, look for a 160GB PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) with Bluetooth...
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Thanks for your thoughts

For those that listen to the weekly radio show, you know over the last few months I had made quite a few trips to California to visit my Mom and stepdad Micheal who was diagnosed with Cancer about a year ago. Back in May, the cancer spread to his spine leaving him unable to walk. My mom went with the doctors and put him in a rehab facility while he underwent radiation therapy to weed out and kill the cancer. Michael was a former soldier and served the country in Korea and Vietnam. The battle he was facing was unlike the ones he had ever seen before.

Michael wanted to come home and be in the house where he and my mom had led a happy and fun life for the past 18 years.

Mom made the arrangements, and brought Michael came home. He was happy to see the bird and turtle and just as happy to look out the window and see his garden that he had not been able to tend to but provided him some comfort. Michael was happy to see the neighbors who stopped by and checked on him and my mom. He was just happy to be home.

Last night at about 3:30am, peacefully in his sleep, he went home again.

Your wishes during the last year have meant alot to my mom, to Michael and our family. He will be laid to rest in the Veterans Cemetary in Riverside.

To all Veterans, thank you and to those with a loved one facing this battle, our thoughts are with you.

Andy

share music wirelessly, BYOE (bring your own earphones)


The TechtalkRadio Product of the Week is the i2i Stream.

You can watch Andy's Tech Tuesday segment that was on KOLD at http://www.techtalkradio.com/koldtv/koldtv.htm (Tech Tuesday airs every Tuesday around 5:40am. His latest KOLD website column is at http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?s=8900102)

The i2i Stream allows you to broadcast to other i2i Stream devices...

Each unit comes with a neck lanyard, and a belt/pocket clip. Plug an audio player into the bottom of the i2i Stream, earphones into the top, and you can broadcast what you are listening to to other i2i Stream receiving units.

Every i2i Stream can broadcast or receive music via 2.4 GHz (that is useable up to 30 feet between units). There are seven channels to broadcast with, so if there can be at least seven people broadcasting seven different types of audio in the same area.

The sound quality is like that of CD audio: 10Hz-24kHz frequency response, and a 16bit @ 48ksps Stereo bit rate.

The rechargeable batter life is 5 to 7 hours, and is charged via a USB cable.

Inside the i2i Stream Two Pack box:
2 i2i Stream units
2 12” Audio Cables
2 28” Audio Cables
2 USB Charging Cables
2 Neck Lanyards
2 Belt/Pocket Clips

An i2i Stream One Pack is in the works:
i2i Stream
12” Audio Cable
28” Audio Cable
USB Charging Cable
Neck Lanyard
Belt/Pocket Clip

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Text Messaging the VP Running Mate Announcement

A First for a Presidential Campaign as the Democratic Running mate to the U.S. Senator Barack Obama was announced via an SMS Text Message.

Sprint sent out a press release this morning which stated traffic rose 255 percent following the announcement which was texted shortly after 3am EST.

The text was read as:

Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.barackobama.com Spread the word!

Just how widely used is text messaging? More than 48 billion text messages were sent each month in the US as of Dec 2007 according to CTIA- The Wireless Association.

Sprint hasn't played favorites here and has also stated that they would be standing by to share the news of U.S. Sen. John McCains pick later this month.

It's impressive that we've come to sending a Text Message to announce a Running Mate, Let's not picture Sen Obama sending this text message while driving. It's become standard place to send Text Messages, I would have been even more impressed had he twittered it!

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Wallace Wang Audio interview at TechtalkRadio


We talked with Wallace Wang today about his most recent book, My New Mac. 52 different task on working around the Mac are laid out in this easy to read Task Book. Listen in to why many technology users may have started to shift to the Mac and what drove the author to move in that direction.

It's all up on the Website at http://www.techtalkradio.com/books/mynewmac.html

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Xplore Technologies iX104C4 on TechtalkRadio


We talked today with Patrick Gray of Xplore Technology on the new iX104C4 Rugged Tablet for the Computer User looking for a Rugged Portable Solution. The device builds on the success of the previous iX104C3 and doubles the memory capacity and triples the storage while delivering performance in a Strong Sturdy form factor which, according to the company, can handle a 4 foot drop onto Concrete!

Tune in to hear more about the iX104C4 on TechtalkRadio
http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/xplore.html

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

BSOD at the Beijing Opening? Not quite...

A blogger onsite at the opening caught a couple of shots of one of the huge displays surrounding the stadium at the Beijing Opening for the 2008 Olympics.

While the typical Microsoft Naysayers are blasting BSOD jokes over one of the screens displaying blue with white text at the opening of the Beijing Olympics, it is, in fact, not OS troubles, but hardware (this error screen shows up as a prevention, stopping potential system damage; caused in this case by some USER error or hardware/driver error and not Windows OS)

Regardless…I wonder how many people Balmer called on the carpet over this mishap?

My First Video!

I've been working pretty hard these last couple of weeks putting together this website for a client who is in Florida. The site is about 100 pages. It took me rougly two weeks to get it done.

So, tonight, or should I say this morning... I decided to take a much needed break... I was browsing around the net to find out how I can add some 80s music to my myspace page... I found a really cool player that I could just add music too and upload to the myspace... I wanted to post the player in the myspace blog, but realized I couldn't do it. So I came to blogger and realized I couldn't do it there because it was only for myspace...

Then I saw that you can post videos in blogger. Andy is pretty much the "video" guru around here. So, I wanted to see how easy or hard it was and what better video to make then a video that includes "music"... The music, of course, that I grew up with and I love... the 80s!

Then I thought, well, I don't think I have a program on my computer right now that can do it... I looked around the home office and saw that I could load one program or another on the computer but then I wanted to see if they had anything free I can download quickly.

I found out that Windows XP includes a free video program called "Movie Maker" so I decided to take a stab at it... I only did about 5 songs and added some video effects and transitions.

It took me about 3 hours and about 25 minutes to encode the video, but here it is, My First Video...

Thoughts and comments are welcomed.



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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Archos New products featured on TechtalkRadio


We talked with GM and VP of Sales Ron Ferguson from Archos about the new Internet Media Tablet which combines the features of its popular media players with an Internet device with Wi-Fi and 3.5G connectivity. Archos is calling the product the Internet Media Tablet or IMT and has some really great features with a 5" or 7" Screen. For More information check out our website and our interview with Archos at http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/archosgen6.html

Monday, August 18, 2008

I present to you: "The Geekini"


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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

New Roxio Product Makes it easy to Create PhotoShows




Check out the New Roxio Online and Listen to our Audio Interview with Sean Penn of Roxio on the Service.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

kudos to SanDisk

After using Windows ReadyBoost, I cannot recommend it:  I did not notice any performance enhancement...
 
I was using ReadyBoost on a SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive.  I decided to cease using ReadyBoost, and use the drive for storage.  I was unable to format the drive (I suspect ReadyBoost may have written to the drive too much:  as with other types of storage, flash drives have limitations as to how many times they can be written to).

I contacted SanDisk for assistance.  We traded a few messages about troubleshooting back and forth.  After not being able to get it to work, I was told to send the drive to them...and they would pay for shipping!  (I had to print the label, and package the drive.)

I always tell people, BEFORE purchasing something, inquire as to the return policy.  I recommend you consider SanDisk for your memory and storage needs:  I was not put through "support-hell"...I gave them the benefit of considering their suggestions, and they trusted I had done reasonable effort to resolve the issue.

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When I plugged the new drive into a Windows XP computer, the U3 software launched...and seemed to be causing my computer to become unresponsive.  I was able to remove the software, but it did not go very smoothly.  I have an identical SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive with U3 software, and have had no problems with it.
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Monday, August 11, 2008

Setgo Transport

It's a "bag" designed to be worn over your right shoulder. It has compartments for phones, iPods, and more.

Some good photos of it are at http://www.setgogear.com/press/pictures.html

(I also found similar items:  the Gadget Shoulder Holster, and the Gadget Hip Holster...)

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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Spelling On the Road and Deserted Burgers

I am in California and visiting my Mom and stepdad Michael who has been recovering from treaments to battle cancer. It has been a tough road for him and we are optimistic that he will recover and regain use of his legs which have also been affected during his treatments. Your best wishes and thoughts for recovery are most appreciated.

In the trip out here yesterday, which we did in the car via the I-10 from Tucson to Huntington Beach, we saw some very strange things. One of them was a hamburger stand we went to many years ago when we lived in Coachella. This stand had some fabulous burgers and was one of the last stops between Coachella and Blythe. We always looked forward to stopping and grabbing a bite to eat here however when the road trips became less frequent between the two cities, we ended up forgetting the little burger stand.

On our trip we decided to make the stop and was surprised to see that the stand in Desert Center was closed. Not only was it closed but it deserted in a way you would see in a film such as I am Legend or Dawn of the Dead. Broken Glass, equipment and supplies still in stock and the floors crowded with debris. I grabbed my Camera and snapped a few shots:

Broken Glass and split counters with a Coke Machine still inside:




The Building itself has been vacant for some time. A Calender on the wall had 2004 as the last time the calender had been turned.



And lastely, looking inside the husk of the building - Abandoned



I found a link with a picture of the building in better times.
I can only imagine how this place looks at night, I think I would keep driving. On my trip I did notice something very strange. People have given up on spelling and I have the pictures to prove it. Tommorow I will share that with you. Thanks for reading.
Andy

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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Changes to the site

I am playing around with some changes to the TechtalkRadio Site. More than anything I would like to make the site more interactive, other then switching it completely to a Word Press or Blogger Blogsite, I'm not quite sure how to achieve it. Maybe comments sections? Visitor Reviews? More Tips? I could really use some of your suggestions.

I did change up the Tech Tuesday, now called Television tab and shorten it to the 5 most recent and current video segment. I am looking for a Program that can rotate the videos out with the click of an Image and have them play in the bigger window. I read that the way I have been doing them is better for the search engines but I would just like to see the page get more hits and again, have the interactive features. Would love some input on this.

It looks like our new Engineer for the Radio Show is an avid gamer. Although he kicked my butt in Team Fortress 2 on Sunday we've chatted about doing the occasional review on gaming for the show. Should be fun and he already have some titles he can write about.

Carol is doing a KILLER job on the Tshirts and it looks like we're going to be rolling on them soon. We have collected the funds to get them printed by all of the companies except for two, and we won't out them here! Our printer is Alladin Graphics in Apparel who does awesome work. They did the TechtalkRadio Banner seen in our Ustream segments when we do them in the hot, un airconditioned studios! Can't wait for Winter!

Catch ya tommorow
Andy

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