On 9/9/09 Apple had 100's of journalists and bloggers out to show us the latest iPods for the coming year. The big news is the iTouch gets the faster processor of the iPhone 3GS (but no camera or built-in mic!) and the Nano gets a video camera with H.264 recording. The compression and 16 effects built in are great, you only get 1.5 hours of record time and 7 hours of capacity on the 8GB version, so bring a charger!

Other features are a pedometer built in that syncs to Nike+ online, an FM tuner with RDBS (station and song ID) which syncs to wishlists for tracks in iTunes and a 15 minute recording buffer for radio! It's almost like pausing via a TiVo, but you cannot save the content.

Finally, iTunes 9 is launched with easy music and movie sharing between computers in your home, and the ability to receive additional media when you buy an album like photos, lyrics, and video clips for movies and music.

Watch my G4TV video below for more details!

Video Game - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

PeopleBrowsr at the TechCrunch Real-Time CrunchUp 2009

Last fall my buddy Brian Solis of bub.blicio.us introduced me to Jodee Rich of peoplebrowsr.com and I saw an amazingly powerful client that wrapped a unified, albeit noisy interface around all of the Web 2.0 properties. That's right, Flickr, YouTube, RSS feeds as well as Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed could all be accessed in a single dashboard.

I was hooked on the idea, but it needed some honing to make it more usable for the non-power set. A few months of Jodee's team tirelessly working on the interface, and we debuted search.peoplebrowsr.com at the TechCrunch Real-Time Crunchup in July 2009.

You can see how enthused I am over our work, in the video above. Take a look at the features, then give the service a try and let me know what you think of it!

During the 2009 South by Southwest, I participated in what we had originally believed to be a private screening of Bruno. Instead of a showing of the entire film, we were treated to a dozen rough edits and clips of the movie that were used during its production to gauge audience response; some of these were eventually included in the trailers such as the one above. I has happy to see the obviously photoshopped photo, in which his adopted baby is covered in bees, showcasing Bruno's beekeeping hobby. This alone is absurd, along with naming his son the "traditional African name of OJ," demonstrates how twisted and elaborately thought out Cohen's comedy is.

Sacha Baron Cohen has clearly and intelligently contemplated his audience's reactions to his actions, and will once again earn him the acclaim and more which he enjoyed with is 2006 film, Borat. It is safe to say that his newest endeavor should not have worked based upon knowledge of his previous success.

The clips I saw at South by Southwest were jaw-droppingly hilarious and I honestly, was shocked to behold how once again, people fell right into his trap. Thanks to his over the top deadpan delivery and this unsuspecting subjects' reactions, his painstaking preparation, lightening fast responses, transform Cohen's Bruno into a veritable comedy. Whereas The Office is able to shock and awe you with highly scripted characters performing absurd antics, Cohen is able to achieve this with just a few people (himself and the producers off-camera) in the know.

Of course I know that editing and post-production can help make even reality TV funny, but considering this movie will have some modified context, it will still blow your mind. It is all about the subtle details too, not just blatant comments. Notice the words on the shirt of the baby who he received in exchange for an iPod in the clip above.

I cannot wait to see his custom Vespa (OK, so it's just the seat cover) with "the baby on the handlebars." Obviously that near accident with the car didn't happen with the baby on board. As I guy born and raised in the Midwest, he took liberties with my people and that's OK by me. Lets see what kind of lawsuits he gets into this time over their own embarrassment.

People need to take things they see and hear with a grain of salt and call others out in real-time on the absurdity. I cannot wait to see this movie in full.

Nice work "Bruno" - what I have seen so far rocks my world!

Topgear from the mouths of children!

Top Gear season 13 is on the air again from BBC 2 in the UK and BBC America; if you don't have those, it can be found on the torrents of course. Check out this 30 second trailer from BBC showing what young Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hamster, I mean Hammond were like as dreaming children.

Also, you'll see a guest appearance from young "big Stig" (from the America South episode) or maybe he was just a chubby child...

Even if you don't like cars, this is quite an entertaining show to watch!

Tiger Direct PC Build competition at CES 2009

Last year I was invited by the Max Borges Agency to attend their Tiger Direct/CompUSA (they bought the trademark and domain name) PC building competition with many of my industry buddies in television, print and online media.  Jim Louderback from PC Magazine and Patrick Norton (now at Revision 3,) Tom Merritt from CNET and my old buddy Al Hernandez from Fox news were worthy competitors, along with the some 30 techsperts.

In 2008, my tower PC was built in lightning time, then I booted up Windows Vista.  This was my achilles heel.  The box was supposed to grab an IP address then ping a server, with sweet victory mine.  What wasn't worthy was my installation of Windows Vista.  It did not see the wireless adapter correctly, and therefor did not attach to the router and grab and IP.  A quick reboot found the adapter and attached, but not before a hot-on-my-heels competitor pinged the server before me!

In 2009 it was supposed to be different.  I was going to take the championship and donate $10k to my charity.  But with the constant change in schedules that make up CES, I was unable to make it to the race in time; due to a last minute request for me to demonstrate the G4 TV "Best of the Best" winning products to the Chairmen of the major cable networks.  Their demo took priority before the contest.

Fortunately I did make it over at the end, and my buddy Al won first place.  Alison Haislip had fun with getting everyone psyched out over my PC building skills, and I was able to make an appearance, in the end.  I guess he ended up with the big check AND the cheerleaders.  Enjoy!

Panasonic CES 2009 Thin was in...

At last years CES, Panasonic had the talk of the show; a 150" plasma that matched the yearling weight of a Jersey cow (that's 770 pounds for you non-diary folk.)  Now I doubt any of my walls could hold that screen in place, but maybe I could replace a window with it.

This year thin was in, and that TV was shunned to a room at the back of the booth, next to the 3D screens they have created.  Since I am personally not into 3D displays, as they typically require silly colored or LCD shutter glasses, and we cannot show that off on our standard definition broadcast, I stuck with covering the things that Panasonic is known for - great cameras and displays.

Here's the clip showing their 1/3 inch plasma, 1080p HDC-HS300 Camcorder and Viera Networked plasma screens.  You may be able to notice the dry air of the Las Vegas desert and hotels was taking a toll on my voice...  I sound a bit scratchy!

CES 2009 Best Of from G4 TV

Another day has passed since returning from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and my dry throat and irritated vocal chords are nearly recovered enough to return my normal voice.  We showcased 100's of products live and you can replay them until your mouse breaks from G4TV.com/CES at your leisure.

For those of you in a hurry however, the other hosts and I gave a rundown at the end of our six hours of broadcasting on what are our favorite items that launched at this years show.  Here's the clip.  Enjoy!