Macgasm

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In this episode, Grant talks about the decomb filter in Handbrake.

[01.5 MB] [0:03:00] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

Like what I strongly suspect, most Apple fans who couldn’t make it to this year’s WWDC in San Francisco did this morning, I sat at my desk feverishly hitting the refresh button in my browser so as not to miss a single juicy detail. So I’m not going to bother listing them all out here since I know you already know them.

A few things did give me a moment of pause and cause me to experience a silent moment of reflection however.

First of all, is voice control coming to non-S 3G iPhones? I can’t imagine there is any possible reason why it wouldn’t. But I haven’t seen anything that states it will be a part of the update that will be released for the general public on the 17th. I just put the 3.0 gold master on my iPhone and I can tell you that voice control isn’t a part of it. I give Apple enough credit that I think it would be ridiculous for this to be an artificial differentiator between the 3G and 3Gs iPhones but it seems at this point that Voice Control is not going to be a part of the OS update.

On a more positive note I do like what Apple is doing with their MacBook line with the refresh. Well, except for the alarming trend of building batteries in. That’s irritating to me. I can appreciate that they last longer, take more cycles, and are supposed to be more environmentally friendly but I can’t swap them myself. And that’s garbage. I mean it tickles me in that place inside me that’s warm and soft and all about mother earth that Apple’s greening it up. But I hate not being able to have an extra battery at the ready for those moments when you find yourself without reliable source of AC power. I’m about due for a portable hardware update myself and thankfully there are still MacBooks with removable batteries.

Finally there is Snow Leopard. The next revision of the best OS in the universe. The upgrade cost of $29 is pure win but the fact that I can’t force it to install on my 2005 G4 Mac Mini is all lose.

Okay, that was my two cents. As always comments are more than welcome!

[Props to Engadget for the image]

Google has released the Quick search application today.  Search engines are currently working on next generation online searches applications, and it’s no surprise that they’ve been looking extend their search capabilities to the desktop.  We’ve seen early forays into that space by Google with the Google desktop, and Quick Search is another attempt into that space.  It’s quite clear that they’re looking to replace Spotlight.

As you type, suggestions will appear that match your query, ranging from applications and local files on your computer, to web search and navigational suggestions, to items from your browser history and contacts – and the types of results you can get will only grow over time!

Give it a go, you might surprise yourself, and like it more than spotlight or other application launchers and system search applications.

You can download Google’s Quick Search Here.

It’s giveaway time again.  To keep things simple, just click that retweet button you see on the left there, and tweet what it tells you to.  Do that and you’re in.  It’s that simple.

This time around we’re giving away Phone View.  We love the application and most of us here at Macgasm use it on a daily basis.  If you need to know more about the product you can check out the post here, or watch the screencast that’s embedded below.

This one’s running until the 16th of June at Midnight EST.  We will pick one winner at random from all the entries.  There’s gonna be a series of giveaways coming up in the near future, so keep your eyes open over the next couple of weeks.

Find my iPhone was one of the many new features revealed to us yesterday at the World Wide Developers Conference. A feature of MobileMe that would let you locate your iPhone should you *gasp* loose it! We covered it in our MobileMe round up already so I’ll spare most of the details. Just wanted to pass along a quick note to say that if you login to MobileMe now, under account you will see the new Find My iPhone button.

The feature is not yet active, but if you want you can go and stare at the page untill June 17th when it goes live along with the new iPhone OS 3.0. To use this feature and Remote Wipe, you’re going to be needing a MobileMe account too, so you might as well pick one up, even if it’s only for this feature I think it’s worth it.

I’m not sure what people expected when they signed a two or three year contract with a telco for a brand new iPhone. Did you expect them to bend over every time a new device drops so that you can get the latest and greatest in technology? I sure as hell didn’t. I signed a three-year contract for my iPhone 3G knowing full well that I’ll be stuck with it for three years. I accepted their terms and conditions and I bought it, in full, without any reservations. Who needs a new phone every year anyway?

I don’t get the freakfest that’s going on right now around the internet. You SIGNED A CONTRACT. I’m not in favor of having to sign a contract for a cellphone, but I knew what I was getting into, and I knew full well that there will be a new iPhone every single year. If you couldn’t deduce that trend based on iPod release schedules, I feel sorry for you.

I don’t get the entitlement people feel with technology. Why should you have the right to get a new device, when you signed a contract for a previous generation item? No company in the world will let you get away with that, no matter what industry they’re in. Why should cellphone companies be any different? This is also the primary reason I’m against leasing anything, or better yet, signing a contract for a computer.

Flip the contract concept on its head for a second, please!

It would be a whole different story if you were the one having a contract altered wouldn’t it? I mean, how would you feel if the contract you’ve signed with your employer gets axed because there’s a newer, better you, sitting in the recruitment office? Something tells me you wouldn’t stand for that would you.

Quid Pro Quo. You can’t have it both ways. Either a contract is binding, or it isn’t. I’ll prefer them to remain binding.

Next time you have to sign a contract take a minute and think about the implications. Stop being blinded by the shiny object being waved in your face, and decide if you really want to be tied into a particular model of a phone for three years. If not, take your ball and go home. It’s called purchase power, and until everyone realizes that the best way to get things changed is to stop giving into companies ludicrous policies and avoid them all together… nothing is going to change.

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In this episode, Josh talks about the impact of advertising.

[03.4 MB] [0:07:10] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

Just a quick reminder for everybody who bought an original first generation iPod Nano with the black or white plastic that your class action settlement claim form needs to be postmarked by June 10, 2009.

If it’s not postmarked by then, it’s too late. You will not be able to get your $22.50 from the lawsuit of excessive scratching.

Just thought I’d remind everybody. The website for all the details is ipodnanosettlement.com. I have postmarked mine and it’s in the mail. I’m not going to pass up getting settlement for them producing a product that scratched too easily. I passed up getting a refund from AIWA when I had a CD-player go bad, I’m not doing that again.