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DGW Episode 896

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:51:27 -0700

First Alert FX-1 Multi-Colour LED Flashlight

LED Flashlight

Dick tried hard to resist buying another LED flashlight, but after 3 emails about it, and a further price reduction, Dick succumbed to the temptation. The First Alert FX-1 Multi-Colour LED Flashlight uses ordinary batteries to power its LEDs which have 10 different colours. Available in black and silver bodies.

Dick at the TWiT Cottage
After the Wine Train on Monday and a drive in a Tesla Roadster on Tuesday, Dick settled down with Leo in the TWiT studio to record this week's Giz Wizzes. Here are the highlights of today's show. Video from odtv.me. Sitting in the background is FunCrunch Julie Bernstein.

Dick at TWiT Cottage, Episode 896

Wine Train
Dick, being a train enthusiast, thoroughly enjoyed the Napa Wine Train. Dick and Leo's party were given a private railroad car. Dick finally met Jennifer, and they got on like a train on fire.

WebLoyalty
Dick bought his new flashlight from Buy.com, and Leo warns him and listeners about the danger of inadvertently joining the "webloyalty" programme and getting charged on your credit card. Other websites including Fandango and Orbitz also take part in this webloyalty. For more details, listen to Security Now! Episode 207.

Shoot-It
Listener Seth Combs finally gets his first iPhone app on to the App Store. It's called Shoot-It. You take your photo on the iPhone, send it to Shoot-It together with your message and addressee (for the US, the UK and Western Europe), and a proper postcard with your pic and message will be posted for you in the good old fashioned way. It so happens that Leo has just bought the app, and Leo wonders if Seth is related to Sean Puffy Combs, aka P. Diddy.

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DGW Episode 872

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:24:50 -0700

iPhone 3GS

Smartphone

Link: Apple

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

iPhone 3GS

Leo was tempted to buy the Palm Pre (Episode 862), but after Apple announced the features on the latest iteration of the iPhone, Leo got the iPhone 3GS instead. It has a faster processor and hence the "S" suffix for speed. In addition to the GPS which already existed in the iPhone 3G, the 3GS has a compass (as on the Android G1 in Episode 686) which in due course will enable more applications based on the magnetometer, e.g. like the Layar browser on Android. The Find Me feature on the Mobile Me service will help you locate your phone based on its network connectivity. The Kill Switch can remotely erase all your personal data on the phone via the internet in case you have lost the phone.

The auto-focus camera is now 3 megapixel, with the ability to change the focus after you tap a particular point on the LCD display, which also adjusts the white balance and exposure. It's now capable of capturing video (640 x 480), with software to do simple editing or trimming on the phone itself.

Some of the other more commonly requested features, such as "copy and paste", MMS and tethering, have finally found their way into the iPhone 3GS. Multitasking, however, is still restricted.

Video Trimming on the iPhone 3GS
Leo has tried the video trimming function oh his new iPhone 3GS, and it works for him. Here's Apple's demo video:

Apple's Demo of Video Editing on the iPhone 3GS

Scott-E-Vest Wardrobe in a Tom Bihn Bag
For his China Tour and MacMania 9 Geek Cruise, Leo has packed an almost exclusively Scottevest wardrobe, in his new Tom Bihn Tri-Star (see Episode 865) which, it is hoped, Leo will cover on a TTTT. Right now, Leo has finished the trip in China and should be in Japan on the Costa Classica. Follow his AudioBoos, and view Leo's gallery on Smugmug.

Ed McMahon Dies
Ed McMahon, whose appearance in the Johnny Carson Show is often the subject of reminiscence on the Daily Giz Wiz, passed away on 23 June 2009, aged 86.

Another Cheesy Infomercial
Jayzee, better known as Toyota Boy, notes that cheesy infomercials have often been the subject of conversation on the show, and has recently seen a really cheesy one. It's the Comfort Wipe, a toilet paper extension arm and holder. The original infomercial can be seen on YouTube, but perhaps a more interesting version is a spoof of it shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live, featuring President Obama, also available on YouTube.

Bidets Rule Supreme
Alex Lindsay is much enamoured with the bidets in Japan which wash your behind (and some even blow-dry you), and offer choices of water-jet speeds and temperatures, and temperature-controlled seats. They are available in the US and Alex has bought one for his family. An extreme example is the Bio Bidet Supreme BB-1000 with Remote that leaves nothing to the imagination, but there are more reasonably-priced toilet add-ons on Amazon for your more basic comforts.

Bio Bidet Supreme with Remote BB-1000

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DGW Episode 858

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:12:04 -0700

SmartSwipe

Security for Online Shopping

Link: smartswipe.ca

SmartSwipe

Back in Episode 450, Dick talked about the Compaq Smart Credit Card Internet Keyboard, which came with a smart card reader for online shopping with smart cards. The new SmartSwipe, made by a Canadian company called NetSecure Technologies, is a USB credit card reader. When you do any online shopping, swipe your credit card across Smart Swipe, and it protects and then enters the credit card information into the relevant fields on the website.

According to NetSecure, although traditional SSL encrypts the data in transit from the web browser on your computer to the secure server of the e-commerce site, hackers may still be able to access the information while it's on your computer or its memory before the data is encrypted. SmartSwipe uses a technology called Dynamic SSL, which interacts with traditional SSL. It encrypts the data at the SmartSwipe hardware itself and initiates the SSL key negotiation from SmartSwipe (and not from the personal computer), so that the encryption is extended further back to the earlier point in time where the information is read from the credit card. SmartSwipe works with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and JBC, but only on Windows XP and Vista and on Internet Explorer. Those who are interested in the security side of the technology may want to read up on NetSecure's documentation on Dynamic SSL to see if their claims are made out. Dell is now selling SmartSwipe as an accessory.

Squirrel iPhone Credit Card Swiper
Rumour has it that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is going to make an iPhone hardware and software solution, codename Squirrel, for accepting credit card payment on a card swiper connected to the iPhone. Here's the TechCrunch article.

The March of Technology
Dick is much amused by a frankfurter stand in New York with a red Neon sign flashing "Open". Wouldn't people know, muses Dick.

Waterproof Housing for the Nokia
Alessandro Abate is taking his Canon EOS 50D and a 300mm lens on an Alaska cruise to celebrate with his wife their 25th wedding anniversary. He wonders if Leo can recommend a waterproof housing for his cherished camera while kayaking. If he doesn't need to take photo while kayaking, Leo suggests a waterproof cinch bag, but if he wants to shoot through the protective cover, it's going to cost him.

Warnings from Sandrino
If Leo is going to name his autobiography "Just One More Podcast" (see Episode 812), Sandrino's wife, who is an attorney, is ready to collect their share of the royalties. Also, his daughter has just been accepted into the San Francisco Institute of Art and they may pay a visit to the TWiT Cottage while in the neighbourhood. Leo will be ready with his TWiT Mat.

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DGW Episode 826

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:21:09 -0700

Photojojo Bottle Cap Tripod

Tripod Mount

Link: Photojo

Photojo Bottle Cap Tripod

Faithful listener Mike Gunn from San Francisco (who last suggested the GE 911 Emergency Light Switch in Episode 758) has suggested another gadget to Dick, the Bottle Cap Tripod from Photojojo. It is screwed on to the tripod mount on the camera, and has a cap that fits over a bottle cap. The bottle of water or drink acts as the "tripod" itself, or monopod if you like. It pivots up to 15 degrees in any direction.

Soupy Sales
Dick and Leo talk about Soupy Sales and how he informed Leo's own sense of humour. There's a Soupy Sales on Twitter, although no one is quite sure if Dick and Leo are not sure that's the real one. Always irreverent, Sales once asked children to get those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of US Presidents" and mail them to him, which got him into quite a controversy.

The Soupy Sales Show, featuring White Fang

Gadget Repatriation
Leo is off to China soon, and Dick reckons Leo can get a whole case of Bottle Cap Tripods for $10. Leo finds it funny that he will be repatriating a whole lot of gadgets like the iPod back to China, where they were made. Dick doesn't travel outside the US any more. He's done it all with Bill Gaines, including travelling to Hong Kong.

A Guest Appearance
After Amber MacArthur (Episode 77) and Henry Laporte (Episode 252), Dane Golden is the third guest to appear on the Daily Giz Wiz, playing the voice of White Fang.

Old Clothes
Dick reminds Leo to take his old clothes with him when he travels to China. This is a reference, often made in older episodes, to Dick's old habit of travelling with his old clothes and leaving them behind at the end of the trip. Go back to Episode 61 for Dick's first mention of this habit, which generated a lot of empathy from the audience.

It's A Brand New Generation
David Sanders from Fort Wayne complains about the decades of therapy bills he'll have to pay for his young children who, having been subjected to the Daily Giz Wiz in the car, may have been irreparably harmed. Now, as the children get ready for school in the morning, his 5-year-old starts singing "It's a brand new day, it's a brand new week, it's a brand new Daily Giz Wiz ...", while the 8- and 10-year-old complete the jingle. David needs a jingle eraser gadget, or else Leo should employ a younger generation of Jingle Singers.

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DGW Episode 824

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:57:41 -0700

CCrane Z-Bar Desk Lamp

LED Desk Lamp

Link: CCrane

CCrane Z Bar LED Desk Lamp

The Z Bar Desk Lamp from CCrane has 66 LED lights, using only 9.6W, giving 112 lumens focused within a 50 degrees viewing angle. The Z shape gives it flexibility while the weighted base gives it stability. If your desk is too cramped, it comes with a desk clamp so that it doesn't take up more desk space.

TWiT: The Early Days
Leo explains the origin of the name TWiT. When the old gang from G4/TechTV, including Leo, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, David Prager and Robert Heron, got together for the podcast, they originally called the show Revenge of the Screen Savers. They soon got a cease and desist letter from G4. Eventually they asked the listeners to make suggestions for the name, and the winning entrant would get a surprise box of stuff from Patrick's garage - the "box of crap". Entries included Revenge Of The Green Saviours, SledgeCast, Saved By The Geeks, and This Week In Geek, the last of which was closest to what Leo wanted. In the end Leo decided on This Week In Tech, shortened to the acronym TWiT which became the name of the site and his podcasting network.

For a summary of the early episodes of TWiT (0 to 9), you can get Episode 81 of TWiT: The Early Years. It is a collection of tidbits from the podcasts (but not a best-of) outlining how the podcast evolved in the early days, badly put together by none other than myself, which I would have called TWiTbits.

TWiT Trademark
Leo has trademarked the brand TWiT for virtually all media, including audio, video, variety show and musical. Leo's lawyer questioned Leo about his involvement in variety shows. Of course we do variety shows. The Daily Giz Wiz. What about musicals? The Daily Giz Wiz. The only 4 media left are vinyl, cylinder, 8-track and wire recorder.

Just don't talk to Leo or Dane Golden about TWiT and Twitter.

Leo's Life Stories
Dick and Leo have often talked about Leo's autobiography and its title, the last time in Episode 812. Tom Pruett has 3 ideas for Leo's book, all of which lend themselves easily to TV production as well.

The PodCouple - Leo Laporte has recently lost his job at TechTV. Despondent, he wanders aimlessly until his friend Dick DeBartolo comes to the rescue and the two do a podcast together. The trouble is Dick is neat and tidy and Leo is a slob ...

The PodFather - An aging patriarch of an organised podcasting dynasty, Leo Laporte, wants to transfer control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant friend Dick DeBartolo. A story of power and greed, culminating in the Toothpick Bird and Spork Episodes.

Podman Begins - Explore the Podman legend and his emergence into a force for good. A disillusioned tech journalist Leo Laporte travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He comes back as his alter ego Podman, a mass crusader who uses his strength, intelligence and vast podcasting network to fight sinister forces. Don't forget his butler, Leo adds, Dick TheBartolo.

MAD 500
MAD 500 is out, with retrospective looks into different parts of MAD Magazine's past issues (or episodes as Leo persists in calling them). By MAD 502, Dick will have completed 40 years of unbroken contribution to every issue of MAD. You can get MAD 500 along with the 2 Obama-cover issues as a collection autographed by Dick from MAD Stuff.

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DGW Episode 812

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:36:46 -0700

Elgato Turbo.264 HD

Video Encoder

Link: Elgato

Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday

Elgato Turbo.264 HD

On the MacMania geek cruise to China, Leo is going to do 4 lectures: 60 iPhone apps, 60 free Mac apps, social networking tips (including Twitter), and using the Mac Mini as a Home Theatre PC. An icing on the cake for the Mac Mini Home Theatre is Elgato's Turbo.264 HD. H.264 is one of the MPEG4 compression standards. Its advantage is being able to compress videos into smaller files while maintaining quality. The disadvantage is that playback is very CPU-intensive, and the encoding process takes a very long time compared with other compression standards.

The Turbo.264 HD is a hardware encoder, using a USB connection, to speed up the encoding process. It accepts many input formats including AVCHD videos (e.g. from HD camcorders), QuickTime, AVI, DV, Xvid, WMV and Video_TS folders, encodes them using the H.264 profile, and outputs to a variety of formats for the iPhone, iPod, Sony PSP, YouTube, YouTube HD, 720p HD, and 1080p HD. Leo's experience is that it can encode videos twice as fast.

The Turbo.264 HD comes with Elgato's software for the Mac, and when plugged in, detects and gives you instant access to the videos on a camcorder. It also works with other video software on the Mac for importing or encoding videos, including iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut Pro and Elgato's own EyeTV.

For a similar USB hardware H.264 encoder for Windows, Leo has heard about the BlackMagic Video Recorder.

BlackMagic Video Recorder

DGW Scheduling
Because Leo is going away in July on his China tour, Dick and Leo are recording 6 shows at a time, starting with this session. Dick will have to come up with more gadgets for each session, and will be going off to Las Vegas for the National Hardware Show which starts on 5 May. Hence the first recording session for May will be on Monday 4 May, instead of the Tuesday. Dick is looking forward to bringing back an arm load of gadgets from the show.

The Hilton's Suffering
Conventions have been hard hit by the economic downturn, and the Hilton in Vegas is hurting. Leo thinks that's because they've stopped the Star Trek attraction, which reminds Dick of how he was berated by a PR lady for referring to the attraction on TV as "The Star Trek Experience", when it was "Star Trek, The Experience". For the full story, go to Episode 261.

Leo's Autobiography
Various names have been touted for Leo's autobiography (for a previous discussion, see Episode 665). Alessandro Abate suggests "Just One More Podcast". For Dick's, someone has suggested "I'll Be Here". Leo loves and repeats the motto used in Sandro's signature: "Never Surrender Dreams" (see Episode 797).

Dick's Lust For Life
When Dick loves something, he doesn't just admire it from a distance, but wants to be part of it, and that's what he's done with MAD and TechTV, the latter of which led to the Daily Giz Wiz. At the recent Turner Classics presentation at Barnes and Noble (Episode 783), Dick introduced himself to Robert Osborne, and now he's been invited to co-host a TCM special next year on A Night of Movie Satires.

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DGW Episode 799

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:43:04 -0700

SwissPen X1

Swiss Army Knife Pen

Link: VAT19

SwissPen X1 opened up

A heads-up from a listener whose email Dick has misplaced. VAT19 is selling the SwissPen X1, which is a pressurised pen, with a whole of other functions, like a Swiss Army knife. It also has a knife, a pair of scissors, a screwdriver, a nail file, a letter opener and an LED flashlight.

SwissPen X-1

The Digivina Does Not Exist
Yesterday's gadget was a hoax, Leo reveals. What a shocker!

My Email Buddy

My Email Buddy
"My Em@il Buddy" is a USB gadget that lights up, does a dance and plays a sound file when an email comes in, shown at CES 2009. Dick thought it would be a really annoying gadget, one of his more bizarre selections from CES. German writes in to correct Dick. He says that you can configure the My Email Buddy to do the routine (itself configurable) only when mail has come in from selected senders. For a photo of the gadget at CES, click here.

Leo has no recollection that this gadget has been covered on the Daily Giz Wiz. It wasn't. Dick did cover it after CES but he only did it on Leo's radio show The Tech Guy Episode 526, but not on this show.

There was a similar home-made gadget called the Availabot (for instant messenger applications). See Episode 119.

Rubber Stamping
Bill Gaines didn't have a secretary. He answered letters coming in for MAD using rubber stamps. His other quirks included berating people for not sending him bills and invoices promptly, and getting upset at Dick for his using one-time only typewriter ribbons.

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DGW Episode 751

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:17:12 -0800

ioSafe Solo

Disaster Resistant External Hard Drive

Link: ioSafe

ioSafe Solo

Dick went to CES 2009 early to attend a demo of the new product from ioSafe. The ioSafe Solo is a USB2 external hard drive, but it's no ordinary CompUSA External HDD Enclosure (Episode 67). It has a specially designed and constructed enclosure that is "indestructible", or disaster resistant. It can stay immersed in water up to 10 feet deep for 72 hours, and withstand heat up to 1550° (or about 760°), which will protect the hard drive in case of flooding or fire. Choices of capacity of 500GB, 1TB or 1.5TB. The disaster protection does come at a price - in terms of size and weight. It's about 5" x 7" x 11" and weighs 15 pounds. The price includes 3 years of warranty and a year of $1,000 disaster data recovery.

Ordeal by Fire and Water
The Solo Demo was one of the best CES demos Dick attended. The Solo was thrown into a swimming pool, and then put into a furnace with the temperature rising to 1200°F and up. After the ordeal by water and fire, the hard drive was retrieved from its steaming case, connected to a computer, and the data was still safe.

On the Road to Recovery
Ian Johnson from Vancouver discovered th Daily Giz Wiz about 6 months ago, around the time he broke up with his girlfriend of 7 years' standing. He couldn't get enough of the DGW and has now listened to the entire back catalogue. The slogan in the Monday Theme "The worse your life is, the better we sound" particularly resonates with Ian.

Jingle Submissions
Ian Johnson is a musician himself, and he wonders if Dick and Leo receive a lot of theme songs and jingle submissions. He has a few ideas for the Mail Bag and may in due course submit a theme or two.

The First DGW Jingle
Dick asks Leo which was the first DGW jingle. In a rare moment of lucidity, Leo remembers, correctly, that it was Mark Blasco's Opening Theme, which he wrote on a geek cruise. Then the first listener-submitted jingle was Paul Minshall's D-A-I-L-Y Closing Theme (or the gravy jingle). George Wood then arrived on the scene and more recently Dan Lueders. Not bad for someone who can't remember the iCap from the radio show just a few weeks ago.

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DGW Episode 740

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:23:49 -0800

Yashica KC600/Kyocera DR350

Early Digital Camera

Link: Business Wire on FindArticles.com

Dick's Gadget Warehouse

Yashica KC600

The Yashica KC600, also called Kyocera DR350, hails from 1997, with 640 x 480 resolution, removable memory, and optical viewfinder. With an included 2MB CF card, it could take 8 photos and sold for $599.

Kyocera DR350

DGW fan Pablo recently (in Episode 722) heard about Dick's first digital camera (the Casio QV-10, Episode 15) and wanted to donate the Yashica KC600 to the Gadget Warehouse. He got it for $300 but had to pay $150 for a 6MB CF card.

CES Reports on Stickam
Dick intends to talk about CES on Stickam from his hotel room in Vegas. Follow him on Twitter and TWiT Army to get the details.

Apple Quicktake
Three years before the Yashica KC600 was the Apple QuickTake 100, same resolution, 1MB storage for eight 24-bit photos, cost $750.

Dick and Leo surmise that at this CES, they will see 64GB USB sticks.

Apple QuickTake 100

Time to be Born
Leo asks Dick, if he could choose any time to have been born in, what time would he choose. 8.30 pm, says Dick. Leo would like to be born as late as possible, because he wants to see what the future holds. Dick wants to have been born in 1900, but with all the gadgets he now has.

Radio Leo
Jeff Royal from Braunfels, Texas (who last wrote in Episode 563) heard the request by a listener for a single weekly download of DGW (Episode 730), and thinks that there should be a single weekly download of all of Leo's podcasts. Not quite, but Leo already has something like that, an RSS feed of all of Leo's podcasts, all under one roof, called Radio Leo.

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DGW Episode 734

nobody@vox.com(InsideDGW) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:11:26 -0800

New Year Resolutions

New Year's Day Special

Festive

Dick asked listeners on the TWiT Army to write in about their New Year Resolutions. Here are some: that everyone gets a SpearHat (Episode 537); to quit smoking; to be debt-free; to watch a lot more TWiTLive: to keep the stress down to avoid the migraines; to spend more time with real people and less time on the computer; to help with a public service organisation; to stop buying any more yarn for 6 months; to eat less candy-coated chocolate and more broccoli; to learn Russian; to get a job that allows him to get the DGW gadgets plus a pair of Converse sneakers every month; to get a Titanium Spork (Episode 182) and a Toothpick Bird (Episode 282); to buy Good Days and Mad and get an audio book version of it; and never to have a New Year Resolution.

Twitter Offer
Leo offered a trip to France to anyone who decided to follow him. Dick thinks Leo should have added, "Transportation not included."

Withdrawal Symptoms
When Leo was away, Dick missed doing the show, and had to go on Stickam.

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