ping

Buzz Out Loud 1350: Must-pee TV (podcast)

Brian Cooley's on the show today to issue some bizarre challenge to the chat room, related to an old Dick Van Dyke movie he thought was only available on 16-millimeter film. That kind of thing just happens when he's around. Also, iOS 4.2 delayed, Facebook's Gmail killer, and why is working at Google so bad? Too much time in the ball pit? --Molly

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

iTunes Ping comes to Twitter

There's a crucial new partnership for Ping, the social music service that Apple launched as part of its iTunes 10 unveiling this summer: Twitter users can now link up their accounts.

"Once you've linked the accounts, whenever you post, like, review, or tell your friends why you purchased a song or album on Ping, this activity will also be tweeted to your Twitter followers--complete with playable song previews and links to purchase and download music from iTunes," a post on the Twitter blog explained.

This is big, because Ping was one of those rare Apple product … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1341: The Power of Tong (podcast)

It's "Glee" meets BOL! Ok, no, don't panic, there's not that much singing. But it's Brian Tong's first day in the co-host chair, and we are having a good time. Off the rails. In the news today: Facebook app developers were evidently selling your personally identifiable information, which Facebook could barely be bothered to punish them for. Also, group gifting on eBay and a new low in "journalism" junkets. --Molly

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

The 404 689: Where it's a work in progress (podcast)

Apologies to all the live listeners, this morning's broadcast had to start later than usual to give Wilson some time to tweak our new studio set-up we mentioned last week.

We have an all new tricaster, new mic stands, HD video, and more, so definitely be sure to check out the video feed to see all the improvements, because we're all really excited and have Wilson plus the rest of the CNET crew to thank for helping with the installation!

As hard as it already is to stay away from Starbucks' seasonal coffee flavors, here's another reason to avoid the overpriced chain of cafes: shoppers will soon see the arrival of "ping marketing," a tactic that bombards shoppers' smartphones with electronic discount coupons as they pass by participating stores.

The vouchers are delivered in the form of a text message, and the technology relies on GPS satellites to keep track of your location in relation to the partnered storefronts. Britain's O2 network is the first to test out the opt-in service, where customers can sign up for a six-month trial that releases information about their age, gender, and interests to relevant retailers. We're all in agreement that this crosses the privacy line, but is anyone else worried that tech companies are just poaching ideas straight from "Minority Report?"

While other fathers teach their sons how to throw a baseball or catch a fish, Luke Geissbuhler went the NASA route and helped his son send an iPhone into space. They fitted a small weather balloon with an HD camera, an Apple iPhone (to track GPS location), and several handwarmers before launching the contraption into space.

Sixty minutes and 90,000 feet later, the balloon actually broke the thermal wind barrier and burst after 10 more minutes, but not before it recorded 100 minutes of footage from take-off to landing. In their self-shot video, the father/son team reported that the contraption had to survive "100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over a 150 mph, and the high risk of a water landing." Somebody needs to give Papa Geissbuhler the official "Best Father of All Time" award, right now.

Check out the rest of the full show below for more stories, including Sprint adding 4G access in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and don't forget to add @BlakeStevenson and RT this message for a chance to win Blake's awesome 404 Halloween poster!

Episode 689 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

RIM BlackPad today?

  Links from Monday's episode of Loaded: Research in Motion venturing off to the tablet world Stuxnet corrupted Iran's first nuclear power plant iPhone 4 on sale in China Ping, Apple's social music service, gets an update

Buzz Out Loud 1316: Robo-hairdresser meets Bionic soldier (podcast)

The movie studios seem to be encouraging piracy by launching $30 movie-streaming rentals. RIM preparing marathon Blackberry announcement. Stuxnet virus successfully infects nuclear plant computers in Iran. Who to call on Earth if you're a space alien. And a bonus: Two robot stories!

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

Genius sidebar gone in iTunes 10.0.1

The latest version of iTunes seems to have done away with a feature that many people have come to use regularly: the Genius sidebar. Instead of a Genius sidebar with options for finding new songs based on the ones in your library, there is now a Ping sidebar that gives you access to the social network's ratings and purchasing options.

This may be useful for Ping users, but the Genius sidebar was used by many to quickly find new song and artist recommendations and may be frustrated by its absence. The only Genius feature still remaining in the iTunes … Read more

Apple makes progress with Ping

Apple has made a small but important change to Ping that improves it considerably. It's not enough to make the much-maligned social network a real winner, but it's a good a start: An update to iTunes now allows you to interact with Ping directly from your music player, instead of having to make a visit to Ping itself.

So now you can recommend songs to your friends, and see the music they recommend, at the same you're actually listening to songs.

It's a such an obvious feature that it's hard to believe that Apple didn'… Read more

The 404 666: Where we mark the sign of the beast (podcast)

We've made it to episode #666, and there's even a Call From the Public from the Dark one himself congratulating us on making it this far. The truth is that every day we get to do The 404 is a miracle, so thanks to all the listeners who make this show possible!

On this especially evil episode, we're chatting about researchers working to develop prescription music playlists, Caroline McCarthy's first look review of Sorkin's Facebook movie "The Social Network", and a whole lot of backlash from the entire state of Tennessee.

With more and more music discovery sites like Pandora and Apple's Ping network popping up, it seems the next evolution of music classification is coming in the form of prescription music playlists.

The Emotion Classification in Contemporary Music is a three year project led by a team at the Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK, who are the trying to classify music for search and organization according to emotional content. Of course, one of the major hurdles in the research are all the genre-bending artists in addition to your own personal relationship to a piece.

The article uses The Cure as a good example or a emotionally polarizing artist, which leads us to a discussion about what songs invoke certain feelings or memories within our own canon. It's probably easy to guess which of us connects to each of these three songs.

"The Social Network" finally drops in theaters on October 1st, 2010 but CNET's own Caroline McCarthy got to check out an advanced screening and posted her thoughts on her CNET blog, The Social.

She tells us that the movie is more than just a bunch of glorified status updates and poking- it's a story about how a Web site changed the way that friends communicate with each other, or in her words: "the ambiguity of friendship, identity, and social status."

She also runs down quick performance reviews of all the actors in the movie, including a surprisingly positive take on Justin Timberlake's depiction of Napster co-founder Sean Parker.

Be sure to check out the full review for more in-depth analysis, but if you're just looking for a quick take, Caroline awards "The Social Network" four out of five stars...but seriously, read the review.

Episode 666 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more