The 404 679- Where we delivereth thy podcast episodeth (podcast)

The 404 679: Where we delivereth thy podcast episodeth (podcast)
Summer is officially over and no one is happier with the sun's absence more than The 404 Podcast. Fall also happens to be the ideal season for Renaissance faires, and this weekend I checked out Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park up by the Cloisters.DragCloseThis content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone in a centaur costume, but I did witness a "real" jousting tournament, not to mention a falconer and Black Wolf the Dragon Master himself, from the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment at the Clone Wars premiere. Tune in to the first half of today's episode to hear the rest and click the slideshow below for photographic evidence of my nerddom.Switching gears to the only tech story in the rundown, Toshiba introduces the Regza 12GL1, the first line of 3DTVs that don't require a set of cheesy glasses. The 20-inch flat-panel display provides "nine different perspectives of each single 2D frame," which are then "superimposed...to create a three-dimension impression of the image."Don't worry, we're totally confused by that quote as well, but we also think it's really funny that you have to sit 3 feet away to get the 3D effect. The Toshiba 20GL1 will be for sale in Japan later this year for $2,900, so now might be a good time to take out that second mortgage.Enjoy the show!Justin's Renaissance faire adventures (photos)...See full gallery1 - 4 / 5NextPrevEpisode 679PodcastYour browser does not support the audio element. Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) |Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video  Follow us on Twitter!The 404Jeff BakalarJustin YuWilson TangAdd us on Facebook!The 404 Fan PageThe 404 GroupJustin YuJeff BakalarWilson Tang


No up-front costs to sell music on Audiolife

No up-front costs to sell music on Audiolife
This is a big deal. As any self-financed musician knows, CD manufacturing is a big investment. Print runs for CDs with a jewel case and nice color insert generally start at 1,000 for close to $1,000, though you can get away with spending a few hundred bucks for a short run, if you're willing to pay quite a bit more per disc. This is all well and good, if you sell all of the CDs you print. If not, you're left with some expensive drink coasters. Instead of charging you up front, Audiolife takes $5.49 from the sale of each physical CD. That's slightly more than CD Baby, which charges a $35 one-time fee, plus $4 per CD sold. But, of course, CD Baby assumes that you've already paid to manufacture CDs. Audiofile will also let you design and sell T-shirts (they keep at least $4.82 per shirt, depending on the type of shirt) with no minimum purchase, and create and sell ringtones either from MIDI files or samples of the actual song (they'll pass along 50 cents per download, but the phone company sets prices). The online store isn't a static Web site, but rather a widget that you can place on your band's home page, or on social-networking sites like MySpace, which is still a necessity for musicians (though it's been surpassed in total users by Facebook). If you're only interested in digital distribution, Audiolife may not be the best deal. They take a cut of $3.00 of each album download and $0.30 of each single-song download sold through your online store, and don't distribute them to third-party stores like iTunes. In contrast, CD Baby lets you keep 91% of all revenues from downloads, minus its one-time up-front payment of $35 and any fees from third-party stores, and Tunecore takes no cut but forces you to pay an annual fee of $10 per song or $20 per album. Both of these services will redistribute your songs through major stores such as iTunes. I've read through the Audiolife FAQ, and I can't find any obvious gotchas--artists retain the rights to their music, deals are nonexclusive with other distribution sites, and their bulk price list looks pretty competitive with Disc Makers, if you want to buy a bunch of CDs to sell at shows, give away in press kits, or send to radio stations. With no up-front costs or exclusivity contracts, there's not much to lose--if you find out that Audiolife isn't serving you well, you're free to move on.


Easily save Web pages, documents in iTunes for use with iOS devices

Easily save Web pages, documents in iTunes for use with iOS devices
Step Two. We now have to tell PDF Services that it can save PDF formatted files to iTunes. Open a new Finder window and click on your Home Folder (your username). Click Library, then PDF Services. You may notice other aliases in this folder (Evernote, for example, takes advantage of this function). Screen Capture by Joe AimonettiSwitch to your first Finder window and drag the iTunes alias into the PDF Services folder in the second window. You can also rename the alias to something like "Save PDF to iTunes" (the file name is what shows up in the Print Dialogue Box).Step Three. Find a Web page that you'd like to save for reading later on your iOS 4-enabled device with iBooks installed. For the purposes of this hint, I used Matt Rosoff's article on iPhone Atlas Handicapping the mobile music services. From the application menu bar (in this case, Firefox) choose File > Print.Step Four. In the Print Dialogue Box that appears, look at the lower-left corner for the button that says "PDF". Click it to reveal the drop down menu for PDF Services. Screen Capture by Joe AimonettiChoose "Save PDF to iTunes" (or whatever you renamed your iTunes alias). If iTunes is not already open, it will launch and add the PDF to the Books section, ready to be synced the next time you plug in your iPhone or iPad.Screen Capture by Joe AimonettiStep Five. Sync your iPhone or iPad. Be sure you have checked to sync Books in your device preferences. You can now launch iBooks on your device and read Web pages or other documents saved as PDFs right from your iPhone or iPad.Screen Capture by Joe AimonettiBe sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Submit a fix to MacFixIt! Email Us.


Ears-on with Audio Technica's ATH-W5000s

Ears-on with Audio Technica's ATH-W5000s
The W5000s offer wooden enclosures, a frequency response of 5Hz-45kHz, 102 dB/mW sensitivity, 40 ohms impedance, 53mm drivers and a neodymium magnet. In addition, 3-millimeter gold-tipped, oxygen-free cabling helps ensure excellent delivery of sound to the sensitive drivers. We're used to these specifications in high-end cans, but what always differs is comfort and sound quality.Although the W5000s are certainly comfortable, the D5000s are more so. We borrowed three audio fans' heads from the Crave office to decide between the two, and the D5000s were unanimously declared to be the most enjoyable to wear.Bear in mind we're operating on first impressions here--our full review after exhaustive listening and testing will be with you next week--but we're pleased so far with the performance from these cans. Immediately, the W5000s demonstrate their strengths with clarity, high-frequency emphasis and an enjoyable mid-range, making them undeniably capable of conveying blistering detail.Yet despite AT's patented "Double Air Damping System," we feel the low-end performance was less prominent. It's an extremely clear bass, full of beefiness in the mid- and upper-bass, but that low-end rumble doesn't deliver the skull-shaking, club-mimicking explosiveness needed by bass nuts. This won't be an issue, we feel, to many listeners, but if you crave more boom for your buck, you may well prefer Denon's bass-heavy D5000s.Overall, the W5000s deliver a crystal-clear sound with a fairly warm voice, but noticeable emphasis in the treble. Expect the full lowdown next week when our review drops, but the 'phones are on sale now for around 415 pounds ($819). Until the review's ready, feel free to check out our round-up of high-end heaphones, our article about why lossless audio is important (we're looking at you, iTunes shoppers) and of course, our review of two high-end headphone favorites: Denon's AH-D5000s and Sennheiser's open-backed HD 650s.May peace and massaged ear drums be with you.(Source: Crave UK)


Retina Display iMac to debut in October-

Retina Display iMac to debut in October?
An all new iMac will reportedly debut around October, with a high chance of sporting a Retina Display. At least, that's the latest scuttlebutt from DigiTimes.Citing the usual "upstream supply chain sources," DigiTimes claims that Apple's suppliers will start shipping components for the new iMac this month. Those sources also said that Apple is looking to expand its Retina Display across all product lines, which means the new iMac has a "high chance" of getting the high-resolution screen.Apple is reportedly pushing the Retina Display for all its products in a bid to outshine its rivals in screen resolution. Since Retina Displays are an expensive component, other PC vendors are unlikely to jump on the higher-resolution bandwagon at this time.Beyond launching a new iMac this year, Apple will also refresh both the iMac and Mac Pro next year with brand new models, according to the sources.Related storiesMac Pro, iMac updates: Wait till next year?The Once and Future Mac desktop: sorting fact from rumor post-WWDCApple desktops get (almost) no love at WWDCAs with many reports from DigiTimes, this one should be eyed with some skepticism.It seems doubtful that Apple would debut a new Retina Display iMac as late as October and then push out yet another refresh next year. October also seems an unlikely launch date as Apple will certainly be busy unveiling the new iPhone and kicking off iOS 6 around that time.Another report also throws DigiTimes' intel into question. The New York Times' David Pogue recently said that an Apple executive told him that new models of the iMac and Mac Pro are in the works but "probably" won't be released until 2013.


Retail sites see 27 percent traffic jump on Christmas Day

Retail sites see 27 percent traffic jump on Christmas Day
Following suit with other major holiday shopping days, Christmas Day also saw a jump in online traffic this year. According to marketing firm Experian, the top 500 U.S. retail sites had 27 percent more online traffic on this year's Christmas Day compared with last year. A total of 115.5 million people in the U.S. visited sites like Target, BestBuy, Sears, and Apple's online store.Looking at the past seven-week period, online retail traffic went up 10 percent over 2011, and each major shopping holiday had traffic increases this year, according to Experian. Thanksgiving had a 6 percent increase, while Black Friday had a 7 percent jump, and Cyber Monday went up 11 percent. Of the sites that saw the most traffic on Christmas Day, Amazon won out, with nearly 25 million visitors. It was followed by Walmart with more than 7 million visitors and Target with more than 3.5 million visitors. Amazon has also been the most visited site throughout the entire holiday season.According to Experian, many of these shoppers were searching for tech gifts -- tablets topped the charts as the No. 1 most searched-for product. The marketer tracked traffic from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day and saw that visits to Apple's iTunes store increased by 193 percent, while the store on Apple's Web site saw a 155 percent increase. The top product search terms people queried were iPod Nano, iPad Mini, and iPad 4. For Amazon, the top product search terms were Amazon Kindle, Kindle Fire, and Kindle.


Researcher- Mac notebook batteries can be hacked

Researcher: Mac notebook batteries can be hacked
The chip that helps control your Mac notebook's battery could be the latest target for attackers. A report in Forbes today details the findings of Accuvant security researcher Charlie Miller, who claims to have found rather lackluster security guarding the firmware that controls various notebook battery functions and data stores. Culling through a battery firmware update Apple released back in 2009, Miller pulled out two passwords that would grant access to that firmware, giving would-be attackers the ability to alter readings sent back to the OS and even add small software programs that stay off the hard drive. Miller noted that he outright permanently disabled seven notebook batteries during testing.A key part of the exploit, Miller told Forbes, was that the batteries use the same passwords, making it an easy hack once you have the right credentials. Potentially complicating that is the fact that Apple builds its batteries into its notebook computers versus making them removable. That change began in 2009 with the 17-inch MacBook Pro, and trickled down to the other models, resulting in considerable battery life gains at the expense of easy replacement. This means if a battery were to somehow be compromised, it's a trickier fix. At the same time, it means potential attackers need to gain control of that system before they can do anything, short of taking apart the machine.So far the hack is a proof of concept, and has not yet been documented in the wild. Miller told Forbes he plans to detail the exploit as well as show off a fix at next month's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.An Apple representative declined to comment on Miller's findings.


Reports- Apple won't get 'iTV' without a fight

Reports: Apple won't get 'iTV' without a fight
The Apple TV might soon be called the iTV. But U.K. television network iTV won't be happy about it.Speaking to Pocket-Lint in an interview, Mike Large, iTV acting group director of communications, said his company values the iTV brand and has "vigorously defended" it in the past. He stopped short of saying iTV would go to court with Apple, but indicated his company plans on being the only firm to use the iTV name."iTV has a very strong brand, and a highly valued IP," Large told Pocket-Lint. He went on to say that licensing the name, another option for the company if Apple decides to change the Apple TV's name to iTV, wouldn't be acceptable because it could "muddy the waters."Although Large didn't want to target Apple directly, the U.K.'s Mirror publication spoke with an anonymous source within iTV who was more direct, saying that the company would fight until the bitter end to make sure Apple can't use its name."You only have to look at recent problems with the iPhone 4 to see not everything Apple produces is gold dust," the source told Mirror. "We all take our iTV brand very seriously and we'll do everything in our power to protect it."Of course, Apple might decide to keep the Apple TV moniker. It could also decide to use iTV in the United States (iTV doesn't own the trademark in the States) and call it the Apple TV elsewhere. It could also, of course, call it something entirely different.An Apple spokeswoman said the company "does not comment on rumors or speculation."


Report- Study finds iAds twice as effective as TV ads

Report: Study finds iAds twice as effective as TV ads
The first study results on the effectiveness of Apple's iAds are reportedly in and they appear favorable for Apple and its advertisers.The study, obtained by Advertising Age but not publicly released, was reportedly funded by Apple and one of iAds early advertisers, Campbell's, but conducted by research firm Nielsen. The results of the study are noteworthy, especially when comparing iAds to television ads, according to AdAge. (We asked Nielsen for our look at the results but Nielsen says it's proprietary information for Apple and Campbell's.)According to AdAge, Nielsen claims that people exposed to iAds in the study were twice as likely to remember the ad than people who watched a television ad. In addition, five times as many people reportedly remembered the Campbell's brand from the iAd.In what is surely an important factor for advertisers, the rate that iAd viewers reported intent to purchase the advertised products was four times that of television viewers.Nielsen didn't say how many people were involved in the survey, only that the TV and mobile surveys were conducted separately and it was a five-week analysis.It's also important to note that Campbell's iAds were "weighted to reflect the iPhone and iPod Touch universe in terms of age, gender, and income, while TV survey results were weighted for a general TV audience," reported AdAge.Apple launched iAds in April 2010 to provide a more interactive look and feel to mobile advertising.