You Tube to allow video up to 1GB

What does that mean for you? MOVIES!!! Up to now You Tube has only allowed video's up to 100mb to be uploaded. That meant that if there was a movie on You Tube then it was normally broken up into parts. Most movie uploaders and watchers have been using other video sites like veoh, megavideo, google video, etc... to get their pirate fix. Now you can use You Tube as well as they have a new upload tool that will allow for uploads up to 1gb. 

http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=X--e2MeTQNs

Now your iPhone can take your pulse

iPhone App - Heart Monitor from John Ballinger on Vimeo.

This is pretty cool. I can't wait until it comes out for my G1 too. 

Free International Calling

Yes I said free. All you have to do is go to www.icondial.com input the number and make the call. The catch is that you have to listen to a short advertisement before the call is put through. I haven't tried calling internationally yet, but I did try some local numbers and it worked. 

It would seem that they are trying the same approach as Google... Advertising.  In theory it sounds great. I mean that it's worked great for TV and not to mention all the great free services that Google provides to us just so they can have the opportunity to pitch some advertisements to us. I just hope that the service takes off. It would be great to call anywhere in the world for free, but the sceptic in me says it won't last. So get it while the gettin's good. 

Ready for some Honda Goodness?

Looks like an autoblog reader spotted this out of a Honda Brochure. Supposedly this is the 2010 Honda Element. I would think though that if they have a brochure allready printed for it then it would be a 2009 model. You will notice that it gollows the 5 sided grill design prominent in new Honda models. Other than that and the side mounted blinkers it doesn't seem like much has changed. We'll have to see when it's released.

Also check out this comercial for the 2009 Honda Fit. I think this was pretty creative and I gotta give props to Honda for good advertising. 

Hulu has Anime!

For those fond of Anime prepare to get excited. Hulu.com now has some of your favorite shows. While the initial offering is limited be sure that there will be more comming. Here is a taste of what you can expect. 

Death Note

Naruto

Speed Racer



Astro Boy



Mushi-shi

Motorola gets serious about Android

Techcrucnch.com is reporting that Motorola is upping their Android team from 50 to 350 people. This shows the serious commitment that they have to supporting Android. One can only guess that they hope to rejuvenate their slumping sales. After seeing the hype for the HTC Android phone I can't say I blame them. 

Blackberry Curve II

According to tmonews.com this is the new Blackberry Curve II. It is also known as the the Javelin. It is said to have a new trackball that is silky smooth and does not allow for dust or other debris to enter hindering the performance. Here are the specs. Look for it by the end of the year. 

• Quad-band radios: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (no 3G)
• Wi-Fi b/g with UMA + GPS in one
• OS 4.6.1, featuring Safe Mode start up
• 480 by 360 high-res HVGA+ display
• 512 MHz Processor
• 256 MB onboard flash memory (more room for apps)
• Hot-swappable microSD slot - located under the battery door
• 3.2MP camera, includes auto-focus
• Glass cover - one piece glass cover will house the camera and flash, providing a very polished look and feel
• Micro USB charging/syncing port, w/ high speed data
• Dedicated Lock Button - will allow easy access to lock / hold the device when not using a holster
• “Sweet Spot” narrow keypad
• Battery Cover features a new easy to use, latch mechanism

TV on your PC

Well it's a glorious day for TiVo fans that also love watching TV on their PC. Nero and TiVo have come out with a $199 package that comes with a year of TiVo service, a Hauppage USB ATSC tuner, an IR receiver, and a Nero-branded TiVo remote. With TiVo for your PC you can transfer recorded programs to devices that play .mp4 video files such as the iPod and the PSP.

Paul Newman Dead at 83

Paul Newman died at his home last night after struggling for so long with cancer. His career has spanned more than half a century. He will always be remembered for his roles in such films as Cool Hand Luke, Butch Casidy and the Sundance Kind, and many others. His last role was the voice of Doc in Disney/Pixar's Cars. He was set to reprise his role in Cars 2 when he was forced to withdraw because of health concerns. Mr. Newman you will be missed.

$220,000 fine for downlaoding music illegally was overturned. Take that RIAA!

The hugely disproportionate fine in the Jammie Thomas vs. the RIAA has been over turned by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minnesota. We thought that it was odd in the first place that the RIAA in the original trial was not required to prove that Jammie Thomas had the file sharing software installed or even owned the account from which the alleged downloading occurred. Judge Michael Davis overturned the previous ruling saying that just having a file available for download did not constitute copyright infringement. He said that they would have to prove that the file had actually been downloaded. Yeah Jammie. Way to fight back against the RIAA.

SanDisk releases 16gb Mico SDHC card

There have been no announcement officially outing the new SanDisk 16gb Micro SDHC card, but it has been popping up in European retailers in the $80-$90 range. All those with phones supporting Micro SDHC rejoice. You too can know have the same memory capacity as a high end iPhone.

Captain Jack is back!

Variety magazine is reporting that Johnny Depp has signed on to reprise his role of Captain Jack Sparrow for 4th Pirates of the Caribbean film. Of course any one looking at the revenue generated by the previous films had to see this coming. Also it turns out that reports that Johnny will be taking on the role of the Lone Ranger were not entirely correct. His role will be that of Tonto. 

New VW GTI

VW's new GTI will make it's debut appearance at the Paris Motor Show. Check it out here. 

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/228558/new_volkswagen_golf_gti.html

Music News

My Space Music launches tonight. Universal, Warner, Sony and EMI are all signed on with the site. The site allows one to stream any music out of their catalogue for free. Users can also create play lists with up to 100 songs and can then share that music with their friends. Users can also download the MP3 files with no digital protection from Amazon's MP3 store and/or download them as ring tones from Jamster. This is of course 100% free. 

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music

I guess Metallica fans are not letting their disappointment in the audio quality of Death Magnetic keep them from purchasing the CD. The CD has sold 337,000 in its first full week, pushing its ten day total to 827,000. It's been the #1 best selling album for the last 2 weeks in a row.

Much to the surprise and lack of excitement to most of the world New Kids on the Block have reunited. Their first concert in 15 years at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s IZOD Center was reportedly  attended mostly by "mature" women clinging to their youth. They performed some of their more popular hits such as "Right Stuff" along with tracks off their recently-released comeback album The Block.

Last but not least Clay Aiken finally came out of the closet and surprised no one by admitting that he is gay. There will be a support group for all middle aged women who had hopes to one day marry make him settle down. Clay says that the reason he is now finally coming out of the closet is “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things,”...Was he hiding that he was gay?

Tech News

It looks like Nokia is jumping on the touch screen bandwagon with their new phone the "Tube". I guess you could say that it's better late than never. It's rumored to come standard with A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Symbian S60 OS, a  640x360 touchscreen, and 8GB SD card presumably for music.

This could very well be the worlds brightest and most powerfull flash light. This 4,100 lumens flash light can ignite paper, melt plastic, or even cook an egg. It is currently being reviewed for the Guiness Book or World Records, but you can get yours for $299 at http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/wicked_lights-74-0.htm

Panasonic reveals worlds longest lasting AA batery. Compared to Panasonics other batteries the EVOLTA is able to take 30% more pictures on a digital camera, play an FM radio for 14 hours more, and drive a RC car 8.7 miles farther than their current batteries. 

As a tribute to the closing of the Yankee Stadium lego builder Sean Kenney has built a scale replica of the fabled staduim out of legos. http://seankenney.com/portfolio/yankee_stadium_preview/

Movie News

It looks like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp will once again be reuniting for Disney's live action Alice in Wonderland. The film will be a combination of both live action and motion capture computer animation. The film will also be released in digital 3-D. Johnny Depp will be taking the role of the Mad Hatter. Mia Wasikowska a relative new comer to the business will tackle the role of Alice.  Look for the film in March of 2010.

Johnny Depp is also rumored to be taking the role of the Lone Ranger.

Bruce Willis will be making his directorial debut with an indie psychological thriller called Three Stories About Joan. It's about a young woman who goes through three tragedies in her life causing her to lose her grip on reality. Is it possible that this is Bruce Willis's answer to ex wife Demi Moore's directorial debut Streak? I don't know, but it's something to think about.

Cars 2 has been bumped up from a 2012 release date to a 2011 release date. What remains to be seen is whether or not star Owen Wilson will be returning to voice the sequel. It is rumored that an Owen Wilson impersonator has been hired to step in and voice the character. Also whether Paul Newman will return to voice Doc is unconfirmed as well as he is reportedly in poor health.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen also has some cool news. According to www.tfw2005.com the combiner Devastator will appear in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The confirmation includes the following details:

- Seven construction vehicles merge to form Devastator
- Devastator has lots of upper body strength, like a gorilla
- Not just green, some of the vehicles are red and yellow
- The previously seen Long Haul concept art (above) by Josh Nizzi is legit

Also it appears that Megatron will be returning to the sequel as a tank.

The Green Hornet may have another cast member. Michael Peña (who you may remember played in the film World Trade Center) has been reportedly offered a role in the up coming Green Hornet movie by Seth Rogan.

All the G1 awesomeness that you can take.

As some of you now know the T-Mobile G1 by HTC with Google surfaced officially today. T-Mobile had it's hands full trying to keep their website up as thousands of existing T-Mobile customers tried to pre-order the G1. 

The price of the G1 will be $179 with a 2 year contract and it requires one of 2 data plans. 

1. $25 for unlimited data and 400 messages

2. $35 for unlimited data and messages

Will this be the iPhone "killa" as it was code named? I'll let you decide for your self. It certainly has the potential to do it with the openness that it has. Here are some videos for you to check out and the specs are below.  

Processor	Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz
Operating System	Android
Memory	ROM: 256 MB RAM: 192 MB
Dimensions (LxWxT)	117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm (4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in)
Weight	158 grams (5.57 ounces) with battery
Display	3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
Network	HSDPA/WCDMA: Europe: 2100 MHz US:1700/2100 MHz Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control	Trackball with Enter button
Keyboard	Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS	GPS navigation capability with built-in GPS receiver and map software
Connectivity	Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera	3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
Audio	Built-in microphone and speaker Ring tone formats: AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MIDI, MP3, WMA, WMV 40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
Battery	Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery Capacity: 1150 mAh Talk time: Up to 350 minutes for WCDMA Up to 406 minutes for GSM Standby time: Up to 402 hours for WCDMA Up to 319 hours for GSM (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion Slot	microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter	Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features	Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

Internal T-mobile document.

http://www.geeksparadox.com/data/G1%20Product%20%20Service%20Guide.pdf

Check the link above to see an internal T-mobile document on their new Android phone the G1. There's not really anything there that stands out to me really, but there are some nice comparisons to the iPhone and Sprint's instinct. Good reading. 

I found this in the forum here.

http://tmonews.com

Honda's singing road?

This little stretch of road in Lancaster California plays music as your vehicles tires move over carefully grooves in the road. Honda paved the road with these grooves to help market the Civic. Apparently it sounds much better in a Honda Civic. Listen to the first video which is not in a Civic and the 2nd which is. The tune is to the William Tell Overture although you may have a hard time telling from the quality of this recording. The story goes that local residents are petitioning for the road to be repaved, because they can't stand the noise. 

Lots and lots of android goodness.

Tomorow is the big reveal and thanks to tmonews.com we have some more android goodies to bring you. 1st www.t-mobileg1.com went live today and really doesn't tell us much, but come tomorrow we should have some jucy tidbits to share with you. 

Here are a few pics of what to expect. Tell us what you think.

One-click Google search and easy access to all Google Applications - Quick and easy access to the Internet in one click. One touch access to Google applications:
Maps (including satellite, traffic and street views)
Gmail
YouTube
Calendar
Google Talk

Size–4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
Weight–5.6 ounces
Display–65K color screen, HVGA (480×320)
Talk Time–5 hours
Standby Time–130 hours

Expandable up to 8 gig memory…

No stereo bluetooth.

Gmail account required to sign in and use, no corporate access email available.

There is a required data plan associated with this device; it will not work without the data plan active, sorry no prepay.

GPS is confirmed. No video capture. 3.1 mp camera.

Palm OS2/Nova due next year.

All right all you Palm fan's out their. This should get you excited. Palm will be releasing their new OS sometime next year. Speculation puts it sometime around June/July. So for all of you that just are not liking Windows mobile, but love your Treo there is hope for you yet. With all the new Windows mobile hitting sometime next year, Google's Android hitting this year, and of course Apple's iPhone already out... You can be sure that Palm will be treading into some heavy competition. So be ready. Palm may just have an Ace up their sleeve. 

Coming June 2010 to a theater near you. The Green Hornet

According to Variety magazine Seth Rogan (Green Hornet) and Stephen Chow (Kato) have been cast in The Green Hornet. With their choice of actors it would seem that the film will have a comedic side to it. Look for the film in theaters June 25th, 2010.

Chevy Volt set to Coldplay's Speed of Sound

I think that it's rather ironic that they used Coldplay's Speed of Sound for a video of a vehicle moving around a track at 30mph. Either way it gives you a good look at the new Chevy Volt coming up. Will it be a success? One can only hope for GM's sake it is. 

Make way for the PS3 slim?

Japan's Nikkan reports today that mass production is beginning on Sony and Toshiba's cell processor in the 45nm flavor. The new smaller chip will be cheaper to produce and will consume about 40% less power than the current chip. That means that we may see a price drop in the Playstation 3 to compete with the drop in price of the x-box 360 to $199. Toshiba will no doubt be including the processor in more of their TV's and laptops as well.

Slot Music the new CD?

Three things you should know about slotMusic™:

• slotMusic is a versatile new physical music format for the 21st Century
• slotMusic enables consumers to instantly and easily enjoy music from their favorite artists
• slotMusic will offer exciting music from Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music.

Basically this is a microsd memory card. Yep the same kind that fit's in many phones and mp3 players. For me the big deal here is that it's music backed from major labels with out DRM (digital right management). Will it take off? Well only time will tell. The cool thing is that it's rumored to be priced in the $10 range. That would make it cheaper than many CD's, and because the SD cards will be coming in the 1GB flavor that means that you'll find video's, album art, and all kinds of other goodies. Look for them soon at your local Walmart and Bestbuy.

OK here's some more Android goodness.

While we are eagarly awaiting the launch of the new android phone next week it turns out that t-mobile prematurely placed a link on their website with a picture of the phone. They have since removed it, but we have a screen shot for you anyways. The phone will be called The T-mobile G1.

Also coincedentaly enough we have some spy pics of the phone in the wild. 

http://rizzn.com/blog/2008/09/gphone-spotted-in-wild.php

No other information is available at this time, but we will keep you updated!

Speak'n a Pirates...

Did ya' know dat today is International Speak Like a Pirate Day? Arrrrr... 

Well if ye be feelin like ya want to be Piratish today...  Here's a list of things to do.

1. Go see Blackbeard the Musical http://www.blackbeardthemusical.com/
   
2. Talk like a pirate as long as ye can
   
3. Play pirate games. http://us1.seafight.com/
   
4. Get a pirate name.  http://www.piratemerch.com/pirate_name_generator.php 

My pirate name is Cap'n Herb Roughknuckles. If ye don't like da name. Just do it again unitl it comes up som'in you want.

REVIEW: Blackbeard the Musical

http://www.blackbeardthemusical.com/

This is not my first time seeing Blackbeard. I saw the production last year. When it was performed for the first time. Back then I thought that it was pretty good, but still far from Broadway. Still I came away with some great tunes stuck in my head. *If you want to be a pirate...* 

This time Rob Gardner really upt the anty. The venue for example. Last time it was at MCC (Mesa Community College). This time is was at the gorgeous Herberger Theater in downtown Phoenix Arizona. The only trouble was finding a place to park. 

The music: The music was not drastically changed for this version, but there were some very good improvements. 1st the orchestra. At MCC the orchestra sounded to small. At the Herberger it sounded much more full. Also the quality of the songs improved. They sounded bigger if you can picture that. I would have to say that it just sounded like they belonged more in the tale of a Pirate than last time. 

The Story: Don't worry I won't spoil the story for you. I will however tell you that last time the story was very simple. This time Rob developed more complex relationships between the characters. This served to draw the audience into the relationships between all the characters so that by the end of the show your emotions are on a roller coaster that they don't want to get off of.

The set: Last time the set was movable. I really didn't have any complaint about it then. The new set is much bigger, but of course so is the venue. You could tell that a lot a work and detail went into the construction of the set. 

This musical has it all. Love, Action, and Laughs. If you want to see Blackbeard the  Musical pre-Broadway now is your chance, because there is no doubt in mind that this will be on Broadway. The show runs until September 27, 2008. Visit their website for ticket information.

Biden Said what?

Ok, Ok, I know that this isn't supposed to be a political blog, but this made me so mad. Joe Biden when asked how to respond to people who ask why should they pay more in taxes... Said “it's time to be patriotic." 

Biden thinks that those who make more and don't want to pay a higher percentage of taxes are un-patriotic?!

This bothers me. It wouldn't affect me directly because I don't make more than the $250k, but my employers do. They have already been cutting back on our benefits because of the economy, what do you think they're going to do when their taxes go up too. The money has to come from somewhere and trust me before they ever take a big hit they are going to cut back in any way possible. Four of our locations already cut all of their assistant managers. 

This is why this communist/socialist mentality does not work. The rich stay rich and the poor/middle class suffers.

Metallica's new album sounds better on Guitar Hero than on CD

Metallica fans are disappointed that Metallica's new album "Death Magnetic" sounds... well... Pretty Bad. Not that they are complaining about the music. It turns out that the CD version has been heavily compressed and hence sounds very distorted. Of course all the fans that rushed out to buy the CD are a little upset. Although I thought that they would have been more upset about the way that Metallica went after their own fans for "illegal downloading". 

The thing that really tipped the scale though is the fact that the music actually sounds better in it's uncompressed format which can be found on the new Guitar Hero III game. 

Could this be just one more nail in Metallica's coffin? Probably not. Their new album has actually been pretty well received all things considered. Check out the you tube video below. It demonstrates the difference in sound quality. In short it would seem that the CD has been over edited at the cost of dynamic range. All this to make the album louder. 

Please check out Ian Sheppards Blog which seems so be almost entirely dedicated to this. http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/

Want to go to Stanford? How about for free?!

http://see.stanford.edu/default.aspx

For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection is all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience.

Check out this Sneek Peak of the Knight Rider Season Premier

Like it or hate it. Let us know what you think.

Check out this teaser for Heath Ledgers real last film

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

I know it says that the video has been removed, but if you click the play button it will play the video still. 

This is the film that Heath Ledger was filming when he died. There was a lot of speculation that the film would not be made. Then some big names came in to back up the film. Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell to name a few. It turns out that Heath's character (Tony) takes different shapes during the film and so it is possible for Johnny and Colin to fill the remaining gaps in filming. This looks to be a very interesting film and I look forward to seeing it. Look for it in theaters sometime next year. 

2010 Honda Insight - Prius Killa

Ok so Prius killa is a little dramatic especially since knowing Honda... They won't have the production capacity to match demand. Here are the big talking points about this car. 

1. 60 mpg
2. $18,500 starting price

Making this car more fuel efficient and cheaper than the current Prius. Although I have a funny hunch that Toyota will have something up their sleeve. 

  

Tmobile G1 phone is commin 9/23/08

I don't think that I can remember a time where I have been more excited about a phone than I am with this one. Why? It runs Google's new Android operating system. now that may not sound like a very big deal, but it is.  

Apple realy changed the game when they brought out the iPhone. It had some pretty awesome new features like multi touch, accelerometers, full web browsing capability, but they closed down the software and released a restrictive SDK that tied developers hands from really making some awesome programs for the phone. 

The new Android platform is totally open and the only limitations to the software is the hardware itself. So here are a few pretty awesome clips of what we are to expect with android. 

Here is one of the awesome programs coming out for Android

Check out this site for more information on the cool programs coming out for Android platform. 

http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/

T-mobile will announce next Tuesday the specifications for the phone and reveal it to the public. 

Here is what is being speculated for the G1

• A-GPS
  
• 3G
  
• WiFi
  
• bluetooth
  
• 3mp camera
  
• slide out QWERTY keyboard
  
• full HTML web browsing
  
• compass and accelerometers
  

Come Tuesday I will have a full report for you on the what, when, and where of the G1.

Gusteez

Welcome to my Blog. I am Gusteez and I will  be posting information that I find interesting about technology, cars, movies, music, and any other little tidbit that I find interesting. I am not afraid to speak my mind so please don't take offence at anthing that i have to say. Having said that let's get started.