• Fox picks up the Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci-produced “Locke and Key” for a series commitment with showrunner Josh Friedman
• Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” is headed to TV, possibly with Eric Kripke on board as showrunner
• Seth Green and Matthew Senreich create new reality series ControlTV
• TBS calls new Conan O’Brien show “Conan”, premieres Nov. 8

• Story for Unbreakable 2 being refitted for third “Night Chronicles” film
• Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” may be in jeopardy
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson to star in “Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament” from writer Geoff Latulippe and producer Diablo Cody (Link)
• Mark Millar claims that “Kick-Ass 2″ has been greenlit; also wants Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp in “Nemesis”

• After 14 years of development, Duke Nukem Forever will be released next year
• Gearbox still working on Aliens: Colonial Marines title

• Tiny Apartment, the new webseries from Mike O’Gorman, Jessie Cantrell, and Pat Driscoll of Black 20 fame (www.tinyapartmentshow.com)
• Apple announce new iPod lineup, new Apple TV, November release for the new iPad software update
• Paramount on Netflix instant stream now

Geek Jerk Reaction: Resident Evil – Afterlife

This app allows streaming for all of your unprotected audio content directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch from your computer or up to 30 friends’ computer. The connection can be wifi, 3G or Edge for the iPhone and wifi for the iPod Touch. You’ll need a second piece of (free) software from Simplify Media for your computer where the audio content is stored, and it’s available for Macintosh, Windows and Linux. This is the software that actually streams the music. Best of all you can invite up to 30 friends to share music and have their entire music library at your fingertips. I have an iPhone 3G, iTunes, an iMac Core Duo, and it works flawlessly. I have tried it over wifi (best), 3G (better), & Edge (good) and have always been successful.

iTunes, Winamp, or Rhythmbox can be used as the music library application on the computer where the music is stored. Simplify also displays an artist bio page and lyrics for the currently playing song. Previously created playlists are also accessible. If you currently use last.fm, scrobbling is even available as an option.

A couple of things that should be noted:

Your host computer must remain on in order to stream music; the music is streaming from the computer, not the iPhone.

DRM protected music (including protected songs purchased from the iTunes Store) cannot be streamed. Although, all of iTunes music is now DRM-free, but if it isn’t, here’s how to fix that.

Cover art must be embedded in the music file in order to be displayed; Simplify Media will not grab the cover art.

If a call comes in while listening to music, it does not save your place or return to the app. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Simplify Media is a great way to have access to your entire music library anywhere your iPhone or iPod Touch has connectivity.

It’s free to share music from computer to computer [download page] and it’s currently $.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch [iTunes - link]. Software version 2.0 or above is requred for iPhone and iPod Touch.

First, let me say that I use these the most, but don’t confuse that with the best free apps ever made.

In no particular order:

TwitterFon

Facebook is ubiquitous, but Twitter is catching up. President Obama even uses Twitter. This app is actually pretty slick. It easy to share ‘tweets’ or take pictures on the fly. You can even reply, direct message, or ‘ReTweet’ easily right inside the app. Updating your Twitter status has never been so easy. You can follow people (even celebrities)  or have followers. Follow me by going to twitter.com/palaemon. Get it here.

Speed Dial #1

This app does one thing. One-touch dialing to whomever you want. It’s easy, simple and free. If you need more than one, there are
3 more. You guessed it: Speed Dial 2, Speed Dial 3, Speed Dial 4. As an added bonus, they are all different colors, so if numbers are not your thing, maybe colors will do it for you.  Get it here.

Vlingo

A nifty little voice recognition app. Use your voice to call a friend, get directions, or search Google. Easy, accurate, and I have to say It’s a little fun. Check out our full review of Vlingo here. Get it here.

NetNewsWire

RSS reader extraordinaire. This app is the way I catch up on my news, geeky or otherwise. You have to add your RSS feeds through newsgator.com, but you can delete right from the app. It has a built-in web-browser. This allows the user to not only view the basic feed info, but also see the article in its full glory. As an added bonus, there is an ‘open in safari’ button. Get it here.

Wikipanion

This is your basic Wikipedia app. Okay, so basic is totally an understatement. This is probably the most powerful Wiki app out there. The lengthy features include: bookmarking, lookup complete history, jump to topics, related links, move forward and backward through pages, search in page, adjust font size, email link, open in safari, look up in Wiktionary and landscape view. Whew! Get it here.

This app is currently  $15.99, so it’s one of the more expensive social networking apps around for the iPhone/iPod touch. But for What you get it’s worth the $$. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but unlimited text messages is $20/month or $30/month for families.

Okay, so instant messaging is all about keeping connected and staying in touch, right? Well BeejiveIM does that in spades. Not only can you have accounts to all the services listed above, you can manage your availability individually. For example, I want to be available to my spouse on MobileMe, but not all my friends on MySpace IM, or Facebook Chat… Check!

Another great feature is the ability to send SMS to your friends who refuse or are unable (read: old phone) to use email or IM. Using either an AIM or Yahoo! account, I can send IMs as text messages. The recipient is sent a text asking them if they want to receive or decline the message, and after they accept, then you are okay to chat. They still get charged the text message rates, but you are free to chat without worry. In order to send a text message, you can either manually enter a phone number or select it from your address book.

Okay, so we’ve talked about account set up and text messages. But what if the BeejiveIM app is closed? Everyone knows that 3rd party iPhone apps are not allowed to run in the back ground. Well, BeejiveIM has a nifty work-around: push email. In iPhone settings, choose BeejiveIM and turn on “push” and add your push-enabled email address.

If you already have a MobileMe account, then you are good to go. If not, get a free Yahoo! account. I used an old free Yahoo! account that I set up many years ago, but barely used and it work perfectly. Although, I have talked to people who have re-activated an old Yahoo! account and push just didn’t work. I have noticed that just setting up a new Yahoo! account just for BeejiveIM works well.

This feature works well with another great feature: BeejiveIM will keep you logged in to your IM services for up to 24 hours. As long as you open BeejiveIM once a day, you will essentially be connected forever. If the app is closed, and someone sends you a message, you will receive an email with not only the missed message, but a button that opens the BeejiveIM app so that a response can be made.

Let’s talk about features. Some of my favorites are:

Send/Receive Images/Voice notes through IM. Voice notes are done right in the app.
Send text/images as SMS/MMS to most carriers.
Easily switch between chats. Ability to shake iPhone to switch chats in BeeJiveIM.
Portrait or Landscape mode keyboard.
Push Notification.
Attachments available as a web link or in-line view.
Email chat log(s).
Buddy Icon support.
Growl-like display when typing.
Background wallpaper support.

This interface is sleek and beautiful. It’s exactly what you’d expect in a top-notch (who uses top-notch these days?) iPhone app.
It’s available for $15.99 here.

The new design eliminates the click-wheel completely and opts for an earphone cord-based click system. The controls are located a few inches below the right earbud and has 3 parts: + and - for volume control and a middle button for the majority of the controls. The new system allows for one-click play/pause, two-clicks track forward, and three-clicks previous track. Holding down the button allows for a completely new experience – VoiceOver. This brand new feature actually speaks the artist and track information by holding down the button. If the button is held down long enough, a tone will sound. After that, the Shuffle will speak the current playlist and the begin listing all the playlists. Simply click again when you hear your desired playlist, and you’re good to go.

With the new 4GB capacity, enough for 1000 songs, it’s no wonder that Apple has finally brought multiple playlists to the iPod Shuffle line.

The new Shuffle retails for $79 and is available in black matte and silver matte, the same color scheme as the iPod Classic.

On the upside is the new, smaller size; the belt clip as a mainstay; VoiceOver; and the larger capacity.

On the downside is the lack of color options and the removal of the click-wheel. While this doesn’t sound like a downside, users who may want to use their own earphones are out of luck. An adapter is said to be in the works, but who really wants to pay more to use their current earphones – effectively driving up the price of the Shuffle?

Basically  the Safari+ features are just bookmarklets.

Bookmarklets are little pieces of Javascript code that can be saved as ordinary bookmarks in your web browser.
They enhance your browsing experience by giving you super-instant access to useful tools and special functionality.

All one has to do is save a bookmark, edit the bookmark, and then use the bookmark.

Once on the desired webpage, just open bookmarks and choose the desired function. For find in page a window pops up asking for the text to search. It will then tell you how many matches and highlight them for you on the page.

Another one of my favorites is the links in new window bookmarklet. I like to go to news sites and open a few windows, but I hate having to go back and forth.

This option gives you little “double windows” icons for every link on that page.

Just select one and Mobile Safari will open it in a new window.

These are just a few. For step-by-step instructions and more bookmarklets (like Mobilize Page) go to http://www.ipuhelin.com/en/safariplus/ right on your iPhone.

The gameplay is simple and responsive.

The game uses 2 mechanics. Tapping anywhere on the screen makes the ball jump, and the longer you hold, the higher he jumps. The game also uses the accelerometer to move left and right.

The goal is that of any other platformer: Stay alive and don’t get killed! To kill enemies, just jump on top. Sometimes enemies need multiple hops to be killed.
The graphics are clean and crisp, yet simple.

The player gets checkpoints in the form of gold stars and is able to continue from that point if he dies. After each level statistics are given including a “beat by” time that offers the player an “acheivement-like” gold medal.

The game is broken up into worlds and levels. The free “lite” version has 3 levels in a single world. The full version is on sale untill March 3rd when they plan to release the complete 3rd world.

Free Lite version available here [iTunes link] and full version available here [iTunes link] for $1.99 until March 7th.

Top-sided tabs are a little odd if you’re used to the traditional location just above the current window. It may take some adjustment, but it does seem to free up some real estate for the page currently being viewed.

Top Sites is a contact-sheet-style page  that displays the internet’s most popular sites. You can’t add specific sites, but it does learn your visiting habits. Initially it lists sites such as: Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and eBay, but just visit your favorite geeky site (geekshow.us of course) a few times and pretty soon it will show up on Top Sites.

You can change the size of Top Sites to display 6, 12 or 20 webpages.

Another nice feature is the ability to search or browse your history in a Cover Flow-style view. Very nice if you want to go back to that one site, and you don’t remember the name, but you remember what the site looked like.

I’ve been using Firefox for the past few months because Safari 3 was just too slow, and the longer I left it running, the slower it got. The last few days I have basically been running Safari and I have had absolutely no issues. No slowdowns, no bugs, and no crashes.

Available free for MacOSX 10.5 and Windows. Download it here.

Have you ever played that game where the goal is to slide pieces around in order to complete the picture? It can be fun, but after you solve it once, the fun pretty much ends there. Well, take elements of that, add colors, geometric shapes & a subway theme and you have Subway Shuffle.

The object of this addictive puzzle game by R Aubrey Hearn is to get your subway car to its destination. Each color token (subway car) can only travel on its own color line. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, the first few levels are almost remedial, but the difficulty curve jumps quite a bit at about level 14. Although the play can be maddening,  it can be lots of fun at the same time. Sometimes you feel like giving up, but then you see the light. However, for those who don’t see the light, there are a few options. first, there is a hint button in the shape of a question mark. If you get stuck, just click the “?” and Subway Shuffle will move a token in the right direction. The good news is that you can use the hint repeatedly until it’s solved. (Is “solved” the right word if you used the hint button to complete the entire puzzle?) Second, if you make an obvious mistake, you can just hit the back button and it will move the last token  to its previous position and subtract a “move” from your current number of moves. Third, you may also skip to any puzzle you want from the  All Levels menu. There are currently 85 in the full version, and about 10 or so in the lite (aka free/demo) version. It’s not a lot, but that gives you a smattering of levels to try.

That brings us to the “move” tracker. This convenient feature tracks how many moves you make. On the downside, it also correlates that to the minimum number of moves it takes to complete said level. (84/22  -  yikes!) On the Levels menu, it shows you which puzzles you have solved (including how many “hints” you may have used) with one green check mark. You get a second check mark, if you solve it within the given number of moves. You also get a preview of the level map and how many moves it’ll take to solve. Let me just say that I’m not looking forward to level 84 with its 329 moves or the last level at 589 moves. That’s more than 17 times as many moves as number 24 (34 moves), and level 24 is a doozie. Let’s just say that there are YouTube videos showing how to solve it.

Subway Shuffle was designed and developed by an MIT Computer Scientist. It’s compatible with the iPhone and the iPod Touch with the iPhone software 2.0 update.

The lite version is available for free here and the full version is available for $2.99 here.

There’s also a free demo for the Mac at SubwayShuffle.com

Here’s a video from their website:

The update is supposed to fix issues with stability in Safari, Apple lossless files skipping, and correctly rendering photos saved from mail.

Get updating people!!

With the announcement of DRM-Free iTunes music January 6th, I hoped upon hope that the move was retroactive. No such luck. So, it will cost me $.30/song to re-download my newly non-protected music. I have more than 200 songs; that’s over $60. Uh – No thanks.

Here’s a way to do it with 2 pieces of software. 3, if you want ID3 tags and album art. All Free.

iTunes (You will already have this, of course) Otherwise get it here

iMove HD available here (154MB file)

Jaikoz Audio Tagger available here

You will use iMovie HD to strip the DRM, iTunes to convert it to MP3 or AAC. And Jaikoz to automatically correct the ID3 tags and add album art.

When you fist open iMovie HD, it’ll ask for a title for the project. The title makes no difference because you won’t be actually saving a movie file. In the iMovie HD window, select the ‘Media’ tab located between ‘Themes’ and ‘Editing’. You will notice the media browser at the top right portion of the interface . Select the ‘Audio’ tab and locate the playlist which contains purchased music, or search by artist/title.

Once you have selected the song, drag it to the iMovie timeline where it says “Drag audio here to build your project.” Or select “Place at Playhead.”

iMovie needs a picture, any picture to be added to the timeline in order for it to be tricked into thinking that it’s going to be exporting a movie. Once iMovie HD is done processing the image, you want to slect ‘Share’ at the top in iMovie’s menu bar and choose ‘Share’ in the drop-down menu.

Ensure that ‘Expert Settings’ is selected in the “Compress movie for:” drop-down menu. Selecting ‘Expert Settings’ mode will provide the options to export the file as an audio file. Select the ‘Share’ button.

In the Export… dialogue, select “Sound to AIFF.” (Apple’s version of a WAV file.) In the Export drop-down menu, Choose a directory you will remember for iMovie HD to export to, you can also title the file here, and select ‘Save’. Depending on your machine configuration, iMovie will compress and export the movie project as an audio file in a couple of minutes.

Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select “Create AAC Version” or “Create MP3 Version.”

Once completed right-click and choose ‘Get Info’ on the new file, edit meta data, and add album art. Or drag and drop your file(s) into Jaikoz. You may want to trash the originally purchased (unless you want to keep it for nostalgia) and AIFF audio files from your iTunes library.

Jaikoz’s main window is a little confusing, so just follow along. You want to drag your newly created DRM-free files directly from iTunes to the middle pane of Jaikoz. The free version of Jaikoz allows 20 edits per session. If you want to edit more, either restart the application after every 20th edit or pony up the $22 for the full licensed version.

Once the files are loaded into Jaikoz, highlight all the tracks. Right-click and choose “Auto Correct”

This is the easiest and best option. Jaikoz is a little slow (at least for me.) It uses the MusicBrainz database which is user-editable, ala Wikipedia. Sometimes this option doesn’t work OR it chooses the Greatest Hits of an artist, but you are wanting a particular album. In this case, right-click the file and select “Remote Correct,” Then a drop-down menu opens for you to choose “Manual Correct Tags From MusicBrainz.”

This feature is something that other [free] taggers do not offer. You can select any of the available options for that song/album/artist. The reason why it may have chosen greatest hits as its selection is because MusicBrainz data is ranked. The greatest hits might have a score of 89, but the album you want has a score of 66. Select the right one and choose “OK.”

Once you are satisfied, right-click the corrected tracks a choose “Save Changes.” Then right-click once more and choose “Close Files.” Rinse and repeat.

If none of these work for you, there is a third way. Go to MusicBrainz.org and search for that artist and find the album/track if available. Once selected, find the MBID for the track, release, or artist. Copy that in to the corresponding area in Jaikoz. There is a “MusicBrainz” tab along the lower third of the screen.

If you previously tried to auto correct this track, you will notice information already listed in this tab. Just delete all the fields and add the one you copied from MusicBrainz.org to the appropriate field. Once that is done, right-click track. Under “Remote Correct” choose “Update Tags From Existing MusicBrainz Id.”

Hopefully this works for you. If it doesn’t add the album art, iTunes does have a built-in option. Choose “Get Album Art” from the advanced menu. Unfortunately, it automatically checks every track in iTunes and not just selected ones.

When I first started watching Star Trek:The Next Generation in 1987 I was fascinated with the small handheld devices that the crew were using: PADDs (Personal Access Display Device). These allowed access to all the knowledge of the Federation and appeared to have virtual infinite abilities. I wanted one.

Along came 1989 and I made my first purchase of a device that kicked of my dream of owning my own PADD.

Sharp IQ-7000 (1989-1997)

Tech Specs: Screen: Mono 96×64, Memory: 16KB RAM

The Sharp IQ-7000 was essentially a glorified pocket calculator. What differentiated it from the pack was that it had a built in calendar for planning out your time and a contacts button to store al your phone numbers and addresses. It could take short notes and had all the normal calculator functions. The unique selling point what that it had a port to take custom application cards that converted a section of the device into a touch pad. These cards were bought as add ons and included cards that could manage your accounts, add a dictionary to your device or even boost the meagre memory up to 64KB (the first SD card?) This device kept my vision of the ultimate PADD open for a number of years until in 1997 when along came a device that was closer to my dream.

Psion Series 5 (1997 – 2001)

Tech Specs: O/S: Symbian EPOC, Screen: Mono 640×240, Memory: 4MB RAM + 6MB ROM, CPU: 32 bit ARM 7100 (18.432 Mhz)

This big selling point for me was that this device had a touch screen. I was one step closer to that PADD dream. This was a proper little computer that had most of the functionality of modern day devices. It accepted Compact Flash cards and hence you could build up the memory (I recall buying a 32 MB CF card for £80 ($120) and thought this was an amazing amount of memory). This device had a word processor, a spreadsheet app and even stored photos and took recordings. It’s database app was one I used a lot, filling it up with databases of Star Trek episodes and details of all my favorite films. I loaded it up with all my contacts, diary, personal data and databases and had access to them wherever I was. At the time this was all cutting edge stuff, and then along came a new kid on the block.

Casio Cassiopeia E-115 (2001 – 2003)

Tech Specs: O/S: Pocket PC 2000, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 32MB RAM +16 MB ROM, CPU: 64 bit NEC VR4122 (150 Mhz)

Now this was a proper little computer. It was even running a simple version of Windows. This device felt like my ultimate PADD. It was the right shape, it had a full color screen and no keyboard. Compared to the Psion it was ultra fast with a 150 Mhz processor and had no problems storing all the info I ever needed and was compatible with all my PC applications so a cinch to update and link to all my documents. It did play music and video, but that 32MB of RAM didn’t go very far (anyway the 5 GB iPod I got in 2001 sorted that need out). You now had the ability to install custom applications like simple games and apps that could simulate the night sky (cool!). The device was still a bit  bulky for carrying in your pocket and had terrible battery life (that big 3.8” TFT screen was cutting edge but power hungry). It took regular AA batteries and ate them like candy – very expensive. I needed something more fuel efficient.

HP iPaq 2250 (2003 – 2005)

Tech Specs: O/S: Windows Mobile 2003, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 64MB RAM + 32 MB ROM, CPU: 32bit Intel XScale PXA255 (400 Mhz)

This was the evolutionary step up on the Cassiopeia. The basic design was very similar with a screen only slightly smaller at 3.5” but this device had been on a diet with the weight dropping from 255 g to 164 g. It also had a rechargeable battery to save my pennies and a much faster processor. The cost of memory was rapidly coming down in price and was now up to 512 MB SD cards for £80. I could now store some video files (mainly clips from Star Wars) and store lots and lots of databases. I liked this device a lot. It hit a lot of my PADD buttons and I carried it everywhere in my pocket where it competed for space with my phone (these had yet to shrink to the ultra tiny devices of today).

HP iPaq 2750 (2005 – 2007)

Tech Specs: O/S: Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 128 MB + 128 MB ROM, CPU: 32bit Intel XScale PXA270 (625 Mhz)

In 2004-5 wi-fi was the big thing and home networks were springing up everywhere. My next device was a faster, slicker version of the previous iPaq. The big selling point was that it had wi-fi built in. It quickly connected to my wi-fi network and suddenly the whole of the internet was at my mobile fingertips. My mobile (cell) phone had already been doing this for a while over the WAP network (very slow, but it was still the internet). The iPaq gave a bigger cleaner internet experience with the big screen and ability to pick up email. Memory was now ultra cheap and I loaded it up with 4GB of flash memory and started to load full movies onto it (Star Wars being my first film). It even streamed video over the net and I remember getting live Shuttle footage from NASA TV showing the earth slowly rotating below. While surfing the net I found a piece of Windows CE software that created a Star Trek inspired interface. My gadget finally looked like a Star Trek PADD! I was now very close to my ultimate PADD.

Nokia N95 (2007 – 2008)

Tech Specs: O/S: Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60, Screen: Color 240×320, Memory: 8GB, CPU: 32bit Texas Instruments OMAP 2420 (332 Mhz)

Through 2006-7 the life of the Pocket PC was being overtaken by the increasing power of phone operating systems and software. My old Psion Series 5 operating system, Symbian had gone on steroids and had turned into Series 60. The Nokia N95 had a step down in processing power and flexibility from the iPaq, but gave me a camera, video, GPS, cool N-GAGE games and oh yeah, a phone! I also had the whole internet at my fingertips virtually anywhere (not just with a wi-fi signal). This was truly a gadget that I could carry anywhere, have access to the worlds knowledge and never get lost with. Was this my ultimate PADD?, No, I needed a touch screen.

iPod Touch / iPhone (2008 – )

Tech Specs: O/S: iPhone OS 2.2, Screen: Color 480×320, Memory: 32 GB, CPU: Samsung ARM (533 Mhz)

Now I have to admit, my iPhone is still in the shop. But with my iPod Touch and N95 I have full internet access on the move (courtesy of Joikuspot software). To me my iPod Touch is as close to my Ultimate PADD until they actually make one. It is portable, has a great touch screen and now with the Application store has been opened up to thousands of applications. Of course I had to search for a PADD application and my prayers were answered with ‘Tricorder’. I may not be able to shutdown a warp core with it, but I know feel like I’m on the Enterprise. Clearly the iPhone is closer to my goal and as soon as my contract runs out, a fresh one will more than likely be in my pocket.

Looking back at my Sharp IQ-7000 it’s hard to believe how much the portable orgainser has evolved. It was only 10 years from the Psion 5 to the iPhone and the technology advances were significant. What will the next ten years hold? Somehow I think my Star Trek PADD is still a few more years away.

GadgetGeek – Tech Reviews, News, and Future Views

In a letter to Apple employees, Steve Jobs acknowledges that his health issues were “more complex than [he] originally thought.” Jobs says he plans to return by the end of June.

(Just in time for WWDC…Coincidence?)

Windows 7

This is the successor to Windows Vista which, as most people will agree, never lived up to all the hype. Microsoft look to be following the Apple philosophy of quick and simple for this new version of Windows. The boot up times are expected to be significantly quicker than previous versions (I hope they also address the deteriorating boot up times you get the older the installation and the more software you install). Both the UI and appearance have been slim-lined from previous versions with the Task Bar now taking on more of a MAC-OS inspired Dock feel. The software has been designed to run on a wide range of machines including cheap netbooks (Microsoft are desperate to get rid of XP and I guess this is their answer!)

The Beta is available now with the full software not expected until late 2009 or early 2010. Microsoft have announced this week that there will be unlimited downloads of the Beta software until January 24th, so go get yours now.

Palm Pre

I’ve never owned a Palm, but looking at the pictures and specs on this new one and I could be tempted. It comes with Palms first new O/S in years and looks very tasty. Its form factor is aimed directly at the iPhone and Blackberry designs with a 3.1” multi-touch screen AND a Blackberry style QWERTY keyboard. It has the standard smartphone 3G and GPS and also a 3MP camera and flash. The Pre uses the new Palm Synergy feature to bring your Outlook, Google, and Facebook calendars together for one logical view of your day. And if you have the same contacts in different places, Pre can link them together, making it easy to find the information you need.

No date yet on when this is expected on the market.

Sony X1000 Walkman

This is Sony’s latest Walkman and appears to be created as a direct competitor to the iPod Touch. It comes with a bright 3” multi-touch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. Which I suspect will become the standard with new screens over the next couple of years. It has Sony’s very good hardware noise reduction built into the device which will enhance the already excellent sound quality that Walkman’s have (in my view better than iPods). Sony Walkman’s have always had excellent battery life and I expect this one will beat the poor battery life of the iPod Touch, especially with that cool OLED screen. The first players will come in the 16 Gb and 32 GB sizes (sound familiar?)

Expect this in the shops sometime this summer.

Asus Eee Keyboard

Now this is different. Asus have gone and stuffed all the innards of a PC into a keyboard!

It has a large 5” touchscreen and full wi-fi capability. Just connect it to a monitor or your TV through its wireless HDMI (yes wireless HDMI – I like it). It runs Windows XP Home, includes a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 1Gb of DDR2 DRam and a choice of 16GB or 32GB solid state drives for storage. It doesn’t have a built in DVD player, but if you are only going to use it for the internet and email this would not be a big issue. I like this concept and hope that this works well and has good battery life. I could really see this as a nice addition to my living room.

Expect this around September this year.

If I end up getting any of this cool tech, I will of course give your a much more detailed review.

In a word – No.

Oh it has web searches down pat. It even does voice-recognition for nearby searches fairly well. That’s all fine and dandy, but what about the Google “Apps” portion of the mobile software? Even though Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and more are all listed, they are actually just links to Google’s website. That’s right Mobile Safari is really handling all these Google “Apps.”

And some of them are pretty much useless too. Here’s why:

Gmail – add Gmail right to the mail app on your iPhone; there is no need to use the web version.

Calendar – you can only see one day at a time – no full month view for you.

Docs – sure, they’re viewable, but not editable.

Maps – are you kidding me? There is a Google Maps app built in.

YouTube – are you seeing a pattern?

I know Google is a Web-based product, but at least make it useful.

The Google Mobile App is separated into 3 sections: Search, Apps, and Settings. The Search section is pretty self-explanatory. There is a search box at the top that allows for text input. Planted on the left-side of that box is a spotlight icon that acts as a drop-down menu and allows the user to choose from these items: iPhone & Web, maps, images, news, shopping or Wikipedia. To the right of the search box is a button with a microphone icon. This allows the user to speak queries into the microphone rather than type them. What’s even cooler is that the Google Mobile App uses the iPhone’s proximity sensor. This senses that the phone is up to your cheek and shuts off the screen so nothing is pressed accidentally. Funny thing is: use of this sensor is supposed to be on Apple’s “no-no” list. I guess it pays to be Google.

The Apps section includes all of Google’s popular web apps. In addition to those listed above, it includes Talk, Reader, GOOG-411, News, Notebook, orkut, Translate, Earth and Blogger.

The third section is for settings. It allows preference changes for search, start screen and screen rotation. Normally, this would be rather lackluster and forgettable, but alas there is an Easter Egg. On the Settings screen, scroll down past ‘About.’ Try scrolling quickly – like you’re trying to get a half-page of extra screen from the bottom – and Voilà! You have an extra secret setting: ‘Bells and Whistles.’ Under this selection, the user may change the theme color, change the default sound to either ‘chicken or monkey’, or turn on ‘Live Waveform’ or ‘Open Links in App.’ Changing the theme color is fun because it opens up a color well for specific color choice. Neither of the new sound options are inviting or interesting. Who cares if you can see the ‘Live Waveform’ when you speak – you are busy speaking anyway. “Open Links in App’ only refers to searches – a nice feature nonetheless.

Overall the Google Mobile App is just a shortcut to their suite of web applications. The good thing is that it’s free, but the bad thing is that we have come to expect a lot more from Google. Check it out here.

Version 0.3.114 reviewed
For voice searches iPod Touch 2nd Gen required (with external microphone)
Price: Free

MacGeek

Keeping an Eye on Apple from a Geek’s Perspective

Dave here reporting live(-ish) from St. Louis, MO. My username Palaemon references a one-time character from an episode of Xena. I really liked the character and actually wrote on paper (gasp!) an outline of a series with him as the central character. (Wait – This is Geekshow not Dorkshow.)

Of course I love TV and movies; some of my favorites include Buffy, Angel, TNG, Star Wars, Friends, Doctor Who, anything Pixar, and Babylon 5 (get through episode 19 of season 2 – you’ll see!).  What geek doesn’t like games and music? Puzzle and action/adventure games are my favorite, and as for music I tend towards heavy metal (hey Wayne!)

My first computer was a Windows 3.1 Compaq from 1994. Although previously a Windows user, after meeting my partner, a huge “Apple Guy,” I gave the Mac a shot. For a while I had both Windows and an iMac. Now it’s all Apple, all the way, baby. In July the iPhone 3G joined my family of Apple devices and I started downloading apps. It’s really a mini computer in my pocket with the Internet accessible almost anywhere.

I have been part of Geekshow.us for about three years, first as a lurker, then as a semi-regular poster. I discovered the BuffCast and podcasting in general after its second episode and have been a fan of Two Geeks, Angel Investigations, GeekiNtertainment, and of course Geek By Night ever since. Seriously, I didn’t even know I was a geek. I thought that geeks and nerds were just different ways to say the same thing, however, Geek By Night showed me the way. Currently I listen to a few gaming podcasts, but all my geek news comes from Geekshow.us, and I am thrilled to give back to this community.

My focus at GSE will be in technology with an emphasis on Apple, the iPhone and its apps. I’ll showcase apps in a series called “Spotlight” and don’t be surprised if I have a few “Top 5” articles as well. Since I’ll be attending MacWorld San Francisco in Jan ’09, I’ll be posting some of my best finds.

In the past couple of months Archos have released their 5 series of PMP’s (Portable Media Players). They are calling them ‘Internet Media Tablets’ due to their wi-fi integration and built in internet browser. They are marketing a few standard machines with storage ranging from 60 to 250GB. These all allow video, picture and music storage – all pretty standard stuff. What appeals in this new range is the 5g version. This is due out sometime in the next couple of months and integrates 3G (HSDPA) capability.  This is nothing new, but at present there are not a lot of portable devices out there (apart from phones) that have this built in. We are seeing a few netbooks starting to build this in and it is something that I expect all similar devices to have as standard in the next year or two. We are seeing most (if not all) mobile phone manufacturers selling internet SIM cards wrapped in a USB stick. While great for mobile computing, you do need a computer and it does stick out ready to be knocked off. The beauty of inbuilt 3G is that these machines have the SIM card slot hidden away inside and when you turn them on, you can be online straight away. The Archos5g is small and portable and allows quick portable access to all your media and the internet. It does suffer with only having 30 GB of storage, but if you only keep your favorite stuff on it, it should be more than enough.

I got my hands on the update the day it came out and decided to wait a week or two before coming to any conclusions. Downloading apps from the Apple store is a breeze. You have two options to get your apps, from iTunes or from the new AppStore icon on the phone itself.

There were tons of free apps when the store launched and three times as many paid apps. Some apps are useless, while others are the best thing since sliced bread. My wife and I have had issues with some apps randomly crashing and/or taking the whole system with it. It seems that we experience this less and less since we are no longer just playing around and actually using the apps we are comfortable with.

There are a couple of new features added to the phone but the one most people asked for was a contacts button. Before, you had to go into the phone and there was an icon at the bottom for viewing and editing your contacts. Now there is an icon on the home screen that can be placed anywhere.

If you don’t have the 3G iPhone with GPS, you are not totally shut out when it comes to location specific apps. Using the cell tower triangulation technology, most apps will work fine. The apps that require more precise coordinates may seem buggy, but that’s to be expected without GPS.

The biggest expectation I had for this update was the ability to play games now. Sega has announced that the iPhone is about as powerful as the Dreamcast. This was no lie. With games like Super Monkey Ball being a launch title, this phone looks like it could be a great new gaming platform. The battery, however, is the only thing holding it back. Playing a simple tile game seems to drain my battery so fast that I have to plug it in to play.

Overall, I would say that Apple has finally made the iPhone worth the price, especially since they lowered the price. Now my only quarrel is with AT&T. Please lower the monthly cost. $200 a month for two phones is killing me!

One last thing I have to add, a new WordPress app was added to the store the other day, so this whole review was written on my iPhone.