CNET Live: January 29, 2009 Video

CNET Live: January 29, 2009 Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:08

>> Coming up on CNET Live, one of my favorite moderns, Ben Heckendorn [assumed spelling] joins us. Plus, we're going to show you how to turn your iPhone into a magical mouse. No mushrooms involved. And Ben Heckendorn will probably allow me to apologize for mangling his name. Plus some more on Windows 7, your calls and video questions. CNET Live starts now. ^M00:00:28 [ Music ] ^M00:00:35

>> He won't.

>> Hey everybody. Welcome to CNET Live. Off to another roaring start. I'm Brian Cooley [assumed spelling], he's Doctor Tom Merritt and there is Brian Tong [assumed spelling]. Hello BC.

>> What's up guys? Back in the house.

>> Back in the house. We got the full slate. We're dying to get to your calls at 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638 and also we've got a video question coming up today. We want to remind you to send those in anytime you want to. Post your question to any of the major video sharing services, send us an email to CNETlive@CNET.com.

>> CNETlive@CNET.com. Oh would you look at the time.

>> Oh.

>> It's time for things we crave.

>> Yes.

>> These are some of our favorite things from the crave log at crave.CNET.com. Fast Finger has a new keyboard out and it's a good old fashioned Windows keyboard.

>> Yep.

>> Except for the layout of the keys.

>> Huh?

>> Oh it's not devorack [assumed spelling], it's not QWERTY, it's ABCDEFG.

>> Oh for crying out loud. Too simple.

>> [Inaudible].

>> Now it's got the QWERTY underlay silk screen below those. This switchable? No, that's just a guide.

>> I think it's just a guide actually. I think you're meant to use this thing. I mean I suppose you could reprogram it right.

>> Who knows?

>> I mean you could put whatever layout you want. It's a normal Windows keyboard with the Windows keys and everything else.

>> I assume.

>> Are all in the same place.

>> A driver is what maps these to what the.

>> Yeah, it's probably a driver setting, so sure. You can re-map it.

>> [Inaudible].

>> But the.

>> What's the idea?

>> Important point is it's printed.

>> Yeah.

>> On the top of the keys, ABCDEFG.

>> So what do you think?

>> I think, if you've used QWERTY keyboards all your life like I have.

>> You're going to hate this.

>> This is going to be a mess.

>> Yeah.

>> This is not going to help.

>> Yeah.

>> But if you're starting out, maybe it would be faster.

>> This is like.

>> To pick up because you don't know where the letters are.

>> This is like people who you know aren't taught how to read time on analog clock anymore. I don't think anyone, does anyone take typing classes anymore? Where do you learn to type?

>> Keyboard, they call them keyboarding classes.

>> Keyboarding classes.

>> Yeah because you're doing word processing.

>> Oh interesting.

>> Yeah.

>> OK. I'm glad that's still out there because otherwise, where would you learn QWERTY? Otherwise you, this would be the natural way to use a keyboard.

>> Yeah.

>> You going to get one?

>> You say, you say you've used the ABC things on car interfaces before.

>> On cars. A lot of the automotive interfaces you can switch qwerty to ABCD, there's a setting in there and in the car when I'm hunting and pecking in a very different environment, ABCD feels real natural. QWERTY doesn't have any advantage in the car to my mind. But on a keyboard, slam dunk.

>> I'm fascinated with it. I don't think we have a price.

>> I think you need one.

>> Twenty eight bucks. Twenty eight bucks.

>> Well that's a good price. That's not bad.

>> I just bought a new laptop. I don't think I'm going to need it.

>> All right, forget that. Here's one.

>> Yours is cheaper.

>> I'm going cheap this time yeah, I've actually got it right here. This is, this is a little wireless AP. It's a wireless and AP,. TrendNet, one of those you know, kind of second tier providers. They call it the Easy N Upgrader, which is the message. Slap this on your existing router instead of buying a new N router. Those are still kind of shaping up and they cost a lot more. So I'm going to stick this on my router, see how it works to give me an N wireless configuration.

>> So it's essentially just a wireless part of a router.

>> That's it.

>> With an Ethernet input.

>> It's an AP.

>> So you could still use your old router for the hard wire.

>> Yeah.

>> And then you change.

>> And.

>> You turn off the wireless on your old router?

>> You can leave both radios on.

>> Oh you can?

>> So you get two SSID's.

>> I like that.

>> So you can run web and WPA which works in an environment where you've got some old devices that only do web.

>> Or leave the slow one open for you know.

>> Another idea.

>> The folks in the neighborhood and then keep the fast one for yourself.

>> And this is on a cable of course so I can move it around a little bit or as long a cable as I want.

>> Yeah right.

>> And still get coverage. Which you can't do with a router. It always wants to be where it wants to be.

>> That's so nifty.

>> So Rick Broyto [assumed spelling] found this for twenty four dollars delivered in the Cheapskate blog on the CNET blog network. That's one of the reasons I bought it.

>> All right, time for your questions. Don't forget, you can submit links to video questions if you want your face on the show. Record a video, upload it to your favorite hosting service, then send us the link, CNETlive@CNET.com. Here's Fabio from Brazil.

>> Hi guys, this is Fabio from Brazil. I'm here in some [inaudible] party I think you can see people connected behind me. It's the largest event with connected people. My question is, which tools do you recommend to build and to host a podcast? Love the show. Bye-bye.

>> All right, thanks Fabio. Appreciate that.

>> OK, first things first. Tell us how you did that really cool shot.

>> No kidding. He was, his head was stable and he was moving all around.

>> He was locked on the camera as he moved. That's Hollywood caliber shooting. I love that.

>> OK, we need, we need you to tell us how you did that. But as far as podcasting, my set up that I use when I podcast like The East Meets West or certain laser podcasts from home.

>> Yeah.

>> I've got an Alisus [assumed spelling] mixer with USB. I would recommend getting the fire wire one. If you don't you've got a fire wire port thought and that allows me to do multiple mikes. I have a separate desktop or actually I use a laptop for Skype, so I can have my guests.

>> OK.

>> Coming into the mixer separately and all that goes out into one computer. I use Audacity to record and mix and edit. Although you can use Garage Band for that as well. And then this is where it gets different. You can upload your file to a lot of different services. Pod Blaze is one, Podomatic is another. They're free services that'll kind of take care of everything once you've created your podcast file. They'll create the RSS feed for you, they'll create a directory, id3 tags, all that sort of stuff. So you could look at those. What I do is I upload my files to archive.org which we have had on as a guest.

>> Yeah.

>> Before. And then they're hosted for free. And then I use Feedburner pointing at a word press blog to create the RSS feed.

>> How clever.

>> And a lot of people to subscribe.

>> I like the hosting idea. Very clever.

>> Yeah.

>> OK. A couple things I'll add to that, not a lot. I do all my podcasting through CNET. A couple of the tools we use here included Audio Shell is a great way to tag your files and add thumbnail art. OK, album art to your podcast file for the upload. We love that and we all use it here. Of course Audacity, I echo that with Tom. One of my secret tricks is the Berringer [assumed spelling] 1002 mixer. It's one of the various mixers out there, I have a picture of it right here. There's so many of these little portable mixers. You've got the Alisus, I use the Berringer, but this one.

>> See I went the opposite direction. I had a Berringer and it crapped out on me.

>> Oh yeah.

>> So I bought an Alisus and it's been solid.

>> They're junk. But they're so cheap you can buy several and the thing about the 1002 is it runs on 9 volt batteries or off of shore power. So if you have any hum in your system which is common at home, where you have all kinds of AC wiring that isn't great, run this thing on batteries and you can kill most of the hum and because it runs on batteries it's great for the field.

>> I found a good solid power strip that actually helps with the hum too. Like one with a fuse on it. Not a.

>> Oh clean that up a little. Yes.

>> Cheap one you know, get a nice solid one that has a fuse.

>> Yeah.

>> And a good solid construction.

>> Hum can be the bane of a home podcast.

>> That'll help get rid of a lot of hum too.

>> OK, let's go to the calls.

>> Yeah, let's pick up Nathan in Pennsylvania. Hey Nathan, thanks for calling CNET Live.

>> Hey Tom, I just had a question about your insider secret about [inaudible]. Is there any way I can use Vista and Dol Boot Mac OSX?

>> There is actually. It's, it's a little bit tricky. Let me pull up this, I've got a dual boot Leopard in Windows Vista guide from DailyAps.net, so what you'll do is you'll install Vista first, you're going to have to go into Vista and create a new volume, about five gigabytes at the least maybe more and then you'll have to make sure that that's unallocated. Then you're going to have to hop on over to the OSX 86 project to create a DVD of OS 10 that will be bootable on PC. Once you've got all those things gathered together, I'll put this link in the show notes at blog.CNETtv.com and there's a lot of switches and things you have to run to make sure that you get OS 10 properly installed on the volume and to make sure that Vista sees it and you can put it in the boot loader. But if you follow this, it's a really well done guide from DailyAps. It should get you all the way there.

>> And will that, I have another question regarding with this and with the, can I, I remember you had an old video about that and it made it so half the stuff didn't work. Will this completely do it like the wireless and [inaudible].

>> It depends on your computer Nathan. The reason that all the stuff didn't work on that is I was using an old Think Pad from 2004, but I was putting OS 10 Tiger on it. So the drivers didn't all work. If you go to the OSX 86 project, they actually have a really good guide that tells you, here are the drivers that work, here are the ones that don't, here are the specs you want to follow. So take a look at that.

>> OK. Let's move on to Ike. Ike's calling in from Connecticut. Question about again, in our OS theme show here today, he's got a question about Vista and where he can install that. Hello Ike, welcome to CNET Live.

>> Hey guys, how you all doing today?

>> Good. What can we do for you?

>> Yeah, I have an Acer Aspire 1, [inaudible] NetBooks and I was thinking about putting Windows Vista on that.

>> Vista. OK well here's the, to refresh everyone's memory, an Aspire 1 is going to have an Adam running at 1.6 gig, the memory in that guy, how much RAM do you have? The base 512?

>> No I have 1 gig.

>> You've got a gig and beyond that in terms of, I don't think you have a problem with your, with your graphics on that except unless you want to go to the high end Aero interface which I don't think you're going to pull off on that machine.

>> No, I just want some basics.

>> I think it's going to.

>> It's going to have to be Vista Basic.

>> Yeah and it's going to be eh right.

>> You're going to get none of the arrow. You're not going to get all the features like Media Center and anything like that.

>> Yeah.

>> But you could do it if you just want to do it.

>> Yeah I just want to do it.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm one of those weird people who actually likes Vista.

>> I'm all for that. So yeah give it a whirl. I mean it should run.

>> Yeah, it's not going to be razor sharp, but it's, it should run fine. You're within the minimum required spec window so you should be OK on that. So good luck and if you do it, let us know how that works out for you.

>> All right, thanks a lot guys.

>> Thanks.

>> Yeah, like shoot a video and send it to, send us the link, CNETlive@CNET.com.

>> Good idea.

>> Coming up, Ben Heckendorn, game console modder extraordinaire. But first, something new and free for the iPhone. It's called air mouse. Take a look.

>> There are a lot of reasons you may want to control your computer remotely. Like if you're giving a presentation or couch surfing with your giant living room monitor. You could get a traditional air mouse for between fifty and a hundred bucks or for about six dollars you can use your iPhone to control pretty much any application on your computer. I'm Jessica Delcort [assumed spelling] from Download.com with your first look at Air Mouse version 1.5. Air Mouse replaces your keyboard and mouse so you can control the computer remotely. It works by creating a local wireless network with your computer and your iPhone. First you'll need the software to create the server. You can download air mouse server for Windows or Mac, free from Download.com. After you get the server app installed, start up air mouse on the iPhone. There are two ways to control the screen. The first and easiest way is with the touch pad mode which lets your finger stand in for the mouse. You can scroll in either direction by placing your finger within the arrow lines. If the keyboard gets in the way, shake once to make it disappear and again to recall it. You can also use landscape mode which supports multi-touch in addition to virtual mouse keys. The second way to control the air mouse app is really similar to a hardware air mouse. It takes a little bit of practice to master, especially because you need to move your arm in an arc. Your left and right mouse buttons are still there and you can scroll within the yellow arrows. As cool as this is, we haven't even gotten to the best part yet. You'll notice that the keyboard has common buttons like control, alt and the Windows or Mac button, but if you press another button on the screen, you'll also be able to see a control pad for the function buttons, Home, Delete and so on. There are also four free keys you can program to launch useful applications like iTunes for instance. But there's also a control panel for your browser which is equipped with basic navigation buttons and a control panel for your media player which lets you skip tracks, adjust the volume, pull up the menu and so on. What's really neat about these sub-menus is that they'll pop up automatically when you start using the media player or a website. The buttons are also customizable from the settings on your air mouse server app on your computer. I highly recommend getting air mouse if you ever wish you had a remote controller for more than just iTunes. And if you do, you should also check out the full demo video on the air mouse site. That's www.MobileAirMouse.com. I'm Jessica Delcort and this is Air Mouse 1.5 for the iPhone. ^M00:12:31 [ Music ] ^M00:12:35

>> Joining us now is Ben Heckendorn from his work shop in Wisconsin. Ben, thanks for being on the show.

>> Hey no problem. It wasn't too bad to travel here.

>> Yeah, right down the Skype line to us. Looking good.

>> Yeah no bags or anything.

>> Yeah. For, for the people who don't know what you do or haven't seen some of your mods all over the internet, can you kind of give a brief summation of what kind of stuff you work on.

>> Yeah, basically I take video game systems you know, the Atari, a lot of Xbox stuff now and I make them into new portable versions like a hand-held Atari for instance or lately I've had like an Xbox laptop. And yeah and people seem to like it. So that's what I do.

>> Is that your job?

>> Yes, I get asked that a lot. Yes it is.

>> So, so if people want to buy these mods from you, they can, they can actually contact you and buy and have you do it for them?

>> Yeah, I don't make a lot of them because I'm only one person. But I'm usually always making something. So usually, there's kind of a waiting list but persistent emails, not annoying, persistent I would say.

>> It's a fine line.

>> Hey Ben, what is your background? Because you've obviously as we looked at some of the products you've done, the mods you've done, you've got really, you're not just doing this at the garage level. You've got great facility with being able to do production quality stuff. What's your background before this?

>> Well first I'll say, I do actually use my garage. It doubles [inaudible].

>> It's a great garage then.

>> It's involved. Not with my car in it because you know, that would not be cool.

>> No.

>> For instance as far as electronics, it's just self taught. I had one of those Radio Shack kits when I was a kid you know, like a thousand years ago. That was pretty fun. Then I have a background in graphic arts. I used to be a graphic artist before I you know, went full time into the exciting world of electronics. But that's pretty much it. I destroy a lot of stuff too. You know, it's not like I'm perfect. I mean, I've got old graveyards, well you know parts of graveyards.

>> The old break a lot of eggs cliche right?

>> Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I won't lie. That's one of the reasons I have to charge so much is because.

>> There's one of them now.

>> The calls keep coming in.

>> Hey Ben I seen you on CNET Live.

>> Let's take a look at some of the stuff you've done. We've got some stills for you. Yeah, that's probably what it was.

>> Where was I?

>> We've got some pictures, yeah we've got some pictures here of the Guitar Hero pedal. So this is, instead of having to use the guitar, is it like a wha-wha pedal?

>> Well that, it was about a year ago someone suggested that I should try making a controller for persons that have disabilities and so I thought OK a foot pedal and you actually use your toes to go click, click, click to click the strumming and then you use your heel to do the wha-wha. So it's like [inaudible] you know all that. So yeah, that's what that was all about.

>> And then you've also done the WII portable. I think this is probably one of my favorites that you've done. Where you've took the Nintendo WII and squished it down into like a Notebook platform.

>> Yeah, I did that for M Gadget. They wanted me, well I write how-to's for them and that's actually the fastest I ever did something. I made that within two months of the system being released and I think I made that whole projects in like two weeks. It was very quick. Yeah I mean, some people criticize the design actually as being too like simplistic and monochromatic but you know, I like making things that look like that.

>> Well you can blame Nintendo for the original inspiration then.

>> Yes, thank you Nintendo for the color white.

>> Now a couple Xbox mods that are pretty popular, the Xbox one handed controller.

>> Yes. Again, that was something that came up as a request. Someone was like hey, I could use this. There was someone that was injured I'm like oh OK I'll build it. Then I put it on my website and I was surprised at the amount of interest in it and so since then I've been making more. Actually if you've got the video, I'm working on one right here if you can see it.

>> So that's the internals of the one handed controller?

>> Yes, as you can see it's not quite done. But yeah, see how this works is you get your knee like this and.

>> I like the design of that one better.

>> Yeah you can move the whole thing. One of the analogs is you move the whole thing against your knee and then your character is like this one, so yeah that's.

>> And then of course I think the one you're probably most famous for is the Xbox portable. The Xbox 360 laptop.

>> Ah yes. I don't think I'd put it in my lap though, might be a little warm but.

>> No, yeah, you'll end up with that dermatological disease that turns your legs red if you do that. So don't. I recommend against that as well. Are you working on anything else right now? I mean you showed up you're working on one of the one handed's. You got any new ideas in the pipeline?

>> No not really. I'm just trying to finish up a bunch of Xbox 360 laptops. I've got a controller that the guys probably not going to terribly appreciate this but, this is actually a sip and puff controller that you can use if you just you know have this facility. I mean you can do it like this, move it around and it's got little holes and you can sip and puff on them to activate like the X button, the Y button, whatnot.

>> That's fantastic.

>> Yeah, well he had, he had an original prototype that was built by a guy in Montana and the, one of the guys basically wanted me to make a, for lack of a better word, sexier looking version. So that's what I'm working on.

>> So they brought you in for the, for the design in other words.

>> Yeah, check it out, even made my own analog joy stick for it. Look at this thing.

>> Oh that's so Atari, look at that.

>> Totally.

>> It's not Atari actually, this is how an analog joystick works.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> I mean, it's just big.

>> That looks like the one I took apart when I was a kid.

>> And never put back together.

>> Because I mean that's it, yeah that's the, that's the internals. No.

>> Hey Ben, do you ever get any guff from the original equipment makers about re-engineering their gear? Is there any hot water zone there you have to tread around?

>> There was a little guff once. I won't say what company it was with. It would probably surprise you if I, if I said, but no. Actually I hear from people from Microsoft every so often and they'll, they like the stuff and the access controller for instance, which is a production model, we're actually making Xbox 360 versions. So you know, we deal with Microsoft for that. So no I haven't had any horse heads left in my bed or anything like that so.

>> Not yet.

>> Not yet.

>> You'd notice. I mean, they're hard to miss.

>> Yeah.

>> Can't miss those.

>> Oh you know and the blood.

>> They're big and stinky.

>> If folks want to, to get in contact with you, if they want to order mods or give you ideas, how would they do that?

>> Well I have a website, www.BenHeck.com and I've got an email on there and you know, they can send it away. We also have forums where people can discuss things they've done themselves.

>> Ben, really appreciate you taking the time to you know, Skype us and get on the show and show us some of this stuff you're working on. We want to check back with you some time later in the year maybe and see how things are going.

>> Yeah, no problem. Good talking to you.

>> All right. Thanks man.

>> Thanks man.

>> Yep.

>> As he said, BenHeck.com is the place to find his works. It's time to take a quick break but we will be back with the download of the week, show you a few ways to maintain OS 10. Right after this. ^M00:19:36 [ Music ] ^M00:19:41

>> Watch every game from the NCAA Championships live online, for free with NCAA March Madness on Demand. But please, use with caution. ^M00:19:52 [ Music ] ^M00:20:07

>> When the biggest stars meet the biggest laughs. Biggest today. [ Laughter ] The Late Show with David Letterman.

>> Why are we laughing?

>> I'm not sure.

>> Week nights on CBS. ^M00:20:22 [ Music ] ^M00:20:26

>> OK, welcome back to CNET Live. You know the phone number, 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638.

>> It is now time for the download of the week. I almost looked at my watch again.

>> Am I boring you?

>> I'd already done that joke. I couldn't do that again. It's time for the download of the week brought to you by our good friends at CNET's download.com, providers of free spyware, free software. It's a two-fer today. I got two. This is Onyx is the first one and I'm pulling up the download page for it which is not nearly as descriptive as pulling up the actual.

>> Look at that app.

>> The actual app itself.

>> Whoop that app on me.

>> Onyx itself is a maintenance app.

>> OK.

>> So I'm pulling it up here.

>> Checking your smart status [inaudible].

>> Don't need to check but it will do that, it'll verify your start up volume for you. It can do all kinds of things like you know, put in your password. Yeah that's [inaudible].

>> Do the wrong, all those things.

>> But you can see. It's got the options for cleaning, looking at utilities, maintenance. A lot of the things it does are things that OS 10 would automatically do overnight.

>> Yeah.

>> But if you're like me you probably turn off the computer at night.

>> OK.

>> To save on a little bit of power.

>> Yes.

>> And so you can use this to actually go and, and have it do some of those things during the day, intentionally.

>> Oh I see.

>> Kind of clean up some of those, those fragmented files.

>> A little flexibility in the scheduling that takes place.

>> Yeah exactly.

>> The other one's called Cocktails. You've got my attention.

>> Yeah, Cocktail time is another maintenance one and I've got to get this one launched now as well. See the problem was.

>> You're just maintaining the hell out of this computer aren't you?

>> I was so fascinated with Ben's mods that I didn't actually.

>> You navigated all around them.

>> Yeah, I didn't actually get them launched in time. But here you go. Here's Cocktail. It's more of, of a settings app on steroids.

>> OK.

>> So you kind of, you can go in and do a lot of things to settings, change you know, some options around databases and spotlight, things that you won't find easily. You'd have to go in to terminal otherwise to do. Kind of puts the nice to-do on it.

>> OK, nice interface on it.

>> Yeah.

>> All right, good stuff. Onyx and Cocktail.

>> Cocktail and Gooey, both available at CNET's download.com.

>> OK. Continuing on with our calls, 888-900-CNET. Lauren is here from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hello Lauren, welcome to CNET Live. How can we help you?

>> Hey guys, how are you?

>> Good.

>> I'm running the HP DV9000 series [inaudible].

>> Yep.

>> It's running dual core 2 gigahertz, 4 gigs RAM, a [inaudible], 256 8400 in video card.

>> OK.

>> And I'm just wanting to know like, I've tried putting XP on here and I can't find a lot of these drivers for like, for putting XP on it.

>> You mean Vista.

>> Properly. So I'm wondering if I use the beta version of Windows 7, will that have all the same kind of driver support as Vista does?

>> Now Lauren, OK, so you mean you've tried Vista and you've had driver problems. Right?

>> No, no, no. It came with Vista Home Premium.

>> Oh, you did a retro-grade.

>> And I wanted to put XP back on it.

>> Right.

>> Yes.

>> And like, I don't have a problem with 64 bit Vista because it runs nice.

>> Right.

>> It's just I'd like to see if Windows 7 works on it and it needs at least needs a format. And if I do use Windows 7, will that give me more than 45 minutes battery life?

>> The good news is that, that Windows 7 driver base is similar or more expanded than the Windows Vista base. So it'll likely, I don't know this for 100% certainty, but it will likely run fine if Vista runs fine. Now as far as battery life goes, 7 is a little easier on the system so far from our tests than Vista. So I can't guarantee better battery life, but there's a small you know fifty fifty chance that you would get that.

>> And what particular drivers did you have a hard time with, if any in particular when you tried to go XP?

>> Actually the wireless N card.

>> Oh OK.

>> As well as the HP QuickTime. Like all those buttons on the very top wouldn't work for me at all. It wouldn't.

>> Yeah.

>> Play media player.

>> Yes.

>> I don't care about QuickTime or the HP QuickPlay sorry, as much as I do about Windows Media Player. But the bar, like my touch bar on the very top would not do anything period.

>> Yeah, those are so manufacturer and model specific, I can't imagine that those are the first priority on a beta of a new OS. So you're going to have to, now it gets pretty deep, you're going to have to snoop around in maybe a user group that maybe people have, have tried this already. Let me just look real quick here.

>> I'm finding several people who claim to have done it, when you just kind of poke around in the forums and none of them are mentioning any driver issues. That's, so you know, that's, that's a negative result. We're not, we're not guaranteeing that but that's a good sign anyway that it would work fine.

>> OK and will it play like all my games that I currently have on it like Steam. Is Steam compatible with 7?

>> That is a really good question. I don't know that Steam is compatible with 7. Again, almost everything that runs on Vista, runs on Windows 7. Let me do a quick search and see if anybody's talking about Steam on Windows 7. In fact, 7 forums has got a threat about it. Some people had some issues with random crashing but when they installed a fresh copy it worked fine. So you know, it's, it's going to be buggy because it's a beta and it's not built for it, but it sounds like you get an indeterminate performance from Steam. But maybe if you start fresh with a new install it would work better.

>> All right, thanks for the call Lauren. Appreciate it. OK.

>> Last week we showed you Windows 7 and told you how to get it. This week, Seth Rosenblat [assumed spelling] is back with some tips on how to dual boot Windows 7 with your current Windows. Take a look.

>> Installing the Windows 7 beta might sound intimidating, especially when you have to factor in that for many users a drive partition is required. If you don't have a separate hard drive to boot from. Partitioning a drive that's already in use sounds tricky, but in fact it's not very complicated at all. ^M00:26:20 [ Music ] ^M00:26:30

>> Hi, I'm Seth Rosenblat for CNET download.com and in this insider secret I'll be taking you step by step through the install process for setting up a dual boot Windows machine. This will work for any operating system but what we're talking about today is Windows 7 beta. Ready to get your hands dirty? First off, download the Windows 7 beta and burn it to a DVD or a 4 gig thumb drive. When Microsoft gives you your serial number, write it down. Now your next step depends on your current Windows operating system. If you're using Vista, you have a built in partition manager, so you may want to skip ahead for the Vista instructions. If you're using XP or earlier, go to download.com and grab the Easeus partition manager. That's spelled E-A-S-E-U-S. It's a free partitioning program. Start it and click the drive you want to partition. Then hit the resize button. The colored portion of the bar is your existing data and it should be on the left side. The right side should be gray. Drag the slider to shrink your C drive, keeping an eye on the size of the new partition. Sixteen gigabytes is the minimum recommended for Windows 7. Hit OK and you'll have just resized your C drive. Hit create to change that partition into a usable drive space. Give the volume a name you'll recognize, click apply and you're good to go. Vista users don't need a separate partitioning program since that feature has been baked in. There are several ways to access the feature but the quickest is go to go your start menu. Right click on computer. You might be asked for credentials before continuing. In the left pane, go to storage and then disk management. Right click again on the partition you want to change and then choose shrink volume. You want to create a space that's big enough for Windows 7. That's around 16 gigs. Create a new simple volume in the free space. Label it something sensible and we're ready for the fun stuff. Put the Windows 7 disk in but don't let it install. If you install it now, it'll wipe out your current C drive and you'll probably blame me. Nobody wants that. Your drive is partitioned, Windows 7 beta disk is ready to go, so now you just need to reboot your computer. The Windows 7 installation screen will pop up. Choose install now, then custom. This will allow you to choose which drive gets the new operating system. The next page, where do you want to install Windows, allows you to choose the partition. Make sure you select your new, empty partition, then hit next. Enter a username, the password and then your serial number. The following options concern the network you're on and can be adjusted later. That should bring you right into Windows 7 beta. The whole installation process should take about an hour from start to finish. Although I've heard of some people going from zero to 7 in a quarter of that. Oh and if you're curious about the new features in Windows 7, we've got a first look video to get your started on that too, as well as a couple quick tips. If you'd like to switch back to your original operating system, simply reboot and you'll be presented with the option to switch operating systems during the boot cycle. Good luck with your new dual boot and Windows 7 adventure. For download.com, I'm Seth Rosenblat.

>> I'm not going to blame you Seth.

>> I'll blame him.

>> Blame.

>> I blame you.

>> It's a beta OS, we're not going to blame anybody for crying out loud.

>> Yeah, that's true actually. All right, shall we get last.

>> Lightening round.

>> Last couple of calls. Dillon from Scotland. Haven't heard from you in a while. How it's going buddy?

>> It's going all right. How are you?

>> We're doing well. What can we help you with today?

>> I'm, I like your new laptop by the way.

>> Oh, thank you very much. Thank you for noticing.

>> Yeah, so basically I had a question. I had been set up for hopefully, well our new I Mac will be coming soon and I was wondering if you've thought of any you know, kind of like a decent [inaudible], when new ones would be coming out because I'm kind of getting sick of waiting.

>> Yeah the eternal question of when to buy. BT, you've got some inside on this I think.

>> Yeah, I don't know if Dillon [inaudible] I don't know if you've read some articles about how you know, there was a potential design in the heating issue with Apple to sign the used quad cores or dual core processors in iMax, and that may or may not be behind the delay. We don't know how accurate that is. But at least talking to my retail sources you know, a lot of times we'll check inventory levels, also part numbers showing up in the system. None of that has happened. Also, we really haven't heard much chatter other than people wanted a new I Mac and hoping it would come around Mac World. So I would hope by March, but really your guess is as good as mine. We, we just don't know where they're at with these things.

>> Yeah this was a Christmas present so.

>> Yeah, so unfortunately we, we're all in the dark on this one right now so. Sorry we couldn't give you a better answer.

>> I'd say buy.

>> What?

>> I have another question.

>> Go ahead. Tom says buy. Don't buy right now.

>> Buy a new one later.

>> No.

>> All right, last call is John in Ontario, Canada. Boy we're doing a lot of Ontario today aren't we? Hello John, you're the honor of being the last call on CNET Live today. What can we do for you?

>> Hi. I'm going to university soon and I'm wondering I can get a MacBook, like the new ones with the aluminum casing and everything for twelve hundred bucks, well Canadian prices or buy like a regular NetBook and buy a really powerful gaming computer like 8 gigs of RAM, a quad core you know, [inaudible] kind of thing and which would you choose and what model would you recommend if you go with a desktop?

>> Interesting. You can do either one for about the same amount of money.

>> Yeah.

>> Well yeah I mean, a real powerful desktop for gaming is going to cost you more than that MacBook.

>> No, actually [inaudible] Shop, well in Canada we have a [inaudible] Shop and it's costing us, it's costing about somewhere around a hundred dollars and I can probably scrounge up another hundred dollars from somewhere else.

>> All right.

>> You can get a quad core with six or eight gig and a decent video card for eight something, nine hundred.

>> Decent.

>> Yeah, decent.

>> I'm thinking Alienware types stuff.

>> No, no, no.

>> OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> We're talking a mid-range PC.

>> Right, right.

>> OK.

>> And then what NetBook would you pair with that?

>> Maybe.

>> Let's see.

>> 2140. The HP 2140. It's our current favorite.

>> Yeah.

>> Flat out.

>> I would go, I would go that route. If you could, if that's your, if that's your plan, if you're like you know, I got this amount of money and what, how should I spend it, I would go with the desktop NetBook combo because, then you can, you're going to have to find a good syncing solution so you can keep like documents and files separate or synced together.

>> Yeah.

>> Then you take that NetBook with you to class. It's going to be a lot lighter than a MacBook, but you still got the powerful desktop at home.

>> Plus you're going to college, someone's going to steal at least one of your computers. You'll have one left.

>> Oh please.

>> I mean that's the way to go.

>> He's going to college, where are you going to college?

>> [Inaudible] laptop will get stolen right?

>> Yeah, well you know what and that's the nice thing about a NetBook is you can hide it away in a backpack a lot easier.

>> Yeah.

>> Without people noticing.

>> But yeah, you do want to be careful of that.

>> All right. Good luck with that. All right.

>> Appreciate the call and good luck in college. That's it for this week.

>> Good show.

>> We want to see you on the show next week actually. So please, sit down right now.

>> Yep.

>> In front of your camera, record a question, a good question, make it about thirty seconds. We're picky but we want you to do it and then upload it to your favorite video host and send it to us CNET Live at CNET.com.

>> And if you don't, we're just going to sit here for a half an hour and stare at the camera. We'll be on strike.

>> You don't want to see that.

>> No you don't.

>> Next week, 4 pm eastern.

>> 1 o'clock Pacific time.

>> 11 am Hawaiian guys, you know how it is.

>> See you.

>> Thanks for watching everybody. ^M00:33:49 [ music ] ^M00:34:00