pizza

OK. So we promised you on last week's episode that we would do a single-purpose gadgets episode this week. Turns out, promising that type of thing in advance isn't such a good idea as we actually had to work to find gadgets that fit the theme. So we made it, but admittedly by the skin of our collective teeth. It's all worth it for the segments, though. Patience, young grasshopper!

Sony responds to Kindle onslaught with Reader Touch and Pocket

Pancake machine churns 200 flapjacks per hour (thanks, Peter Lee!)

Ramen robot!

Multiblade pizza slicer guarantees perfect-sized slices

Lava Lamp returns as Mathmos Fireflow

A Propos (of) Nothing The Wall-E USB drive is too cute for even baby talk to describe

This week in hello kitty Hello Kitty limited edition Casio Exilim EX-Z2

It’s About Time Darth Vader clock radio has no patience for your sloth

PRETTY Bugatti Diva espresso machine inspires poetry

Potty Time Public urinal lets you pee into the wall

Kill Me Sony’s new “Girlz Play Too” campaign

Pink Watch (Kill Me Edition) ChicBuds “by women, for women”… Read more

Maybe we should have used "So bad, but so good" as our show motto instead of "High Tech, Low Brow!" Today's show is a good example of that, and we kick it off with Wilson's brief and spoiler-free review of Bruno. We also talk about the rise of the Twitterns, Apple breaking the Pre-iTunes lovefest, and Jeff meeting Tony Hawk!

Check it out! Jeff was invited to an Activision event last night to preview Tony Hawk's new game, but he was pretty surprised when Tony Hawk himself showed up to show him around! As you can see, the game comes with an actual "skateboard" controller to jump, ride, and pop up to do tricks within the game. Jeff tells us that the game is very realistic, but popping up the board feels more like a snowboard than skating. Check it out for yourself when it comes out on October 13 for $120.

In other news, The 404 has decided to hire a young Twittern to update our Twitter. Social media, whether it's in short or long form, is super time-consuming...anyone out there want to be our Twittern? We're only half-joking...

In more important news, Apple has finally broken up the love affair between iTunes and the Palm Pre: the smartphone no longer works with the popular desktop software. Jeff owns a Pre and figures that the only thing to do now is to refrain from upgrading to the latest software, lest some savvy developer use the latest SDK to somehow crack Apple's padlock.

Also, start getting amped for tomorrow's episode where I, Justin Yu, will debut yet another band in a segment we like to call...deep breath..."The 404 Semi-Weekly Audio Draft Sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews." Jeez.

Here's something that would be perfect for those long road trips. The Porta-Pizza Oven is a portable pizza-size oven that plugs into your car's 12-volt outlet. The oven features top-mounted heating elements, a high setting for cooking frozen pizzas, and a low setting for warming last night's leftovers or that loose slice you found in your back seat. Nice!

The unit features a fold-out carrying handle, but I'm quite tempted to permanently mod one of these into my glove compartment! I wonder if it features iPod connectivity...

(Source: Stupidiotic)

I smell a trend, and it smells like greasy pepperoni: Pizza chains Domino's and Pizza Hut both put out announcements on Thursday concerning their new social-media publicity strategies. In other words, there are new ways to bring the habit of stuffing one's face with mediocre pizza into one's ever-increasingly digital lifestyle.

Pizza Hut, for one, will be giving away free orders of "Stuffed Pizza Rolls" (Did you just hear that little cry? It was my arteries screaming for mercy at the mere thought of this) on July 4 to its Facebook fans and Twitter followers … Read more

A pizza stone can make all the difference in the world when it comes to just what your pizza will taste like, and the Mario Batali Chianti Pizza Stone can take that flavor a step further. It takes pizza out of the oven and on to the grill. The 14-inch pizza stone sits on a red enameled cast iron frame, which in turn sits on your grill. Your pizza is far enough away from the flames that it's safe, but not so far that it doesn't get the full effect of the flame. This combines for a crunch … Read more

Pizza, quite possibly, is the world's perfect food. Bread, sauce, and cheese form a deceptively simple base, while toppings can provide everything from nutrition to heart palpitations. Having a veggie slice may not necessarily make pizza healthy, but compared with a pizza loaded up with sausage, pepperoni, ground beef, linguica, ham, salami, and more cheese, it certainly is. While this amusing meat combination should rarely ever make it to the table, it does highlight an essential fact about pizza. It is customizable. That goes for how you prepare it too.

The Pizza Grill Topper brings the pizza oven into … Read more

Pizza isn't known for its ideal portion size. But the Pizza Sticks Pan turns out individual-size pizzas with little more work than it takes to make a pizza in the first place. Even better, you can top each pizza stick separately: you can have olives on your pizza while your children enjoy pepperoni. There's minimal chance of getting a stray topping.

The Pizza Sticks Pan comes with a dough cutter so that you can easily fit dough to the pan, which holds five pizza sticks at a time. The cutter has a certain similarity to a cookie cutter: … Read more

Pizza is an amazingly complex thing for a food item so seemingly simple. Bread, cheese, sauce, that's it. That's enough to get you going. Oh sure, you can drown your pizza in a sea of toppings, but the essential structure starts from basic everyday ingredients. The deceptively complex nature of pizza is both a good thing and a bad thing. Endless varieties abound, and there are certainly great pizzas to be found, but it is all too easy to order up a lousy pizza. Good thing you can bake your own.

But don't pick up that pizza … Read more

One of our listeners is upset that Pizza Hut is hiring interns to Twitter for them. We try to show the difference between astroturfing on blogs and hiring someone to Twitter legitimately. We also decide that when GREP is outlawed, only criminals will GREP. And Blu-ray's getting cheap. But do we care?

Blu-ray in every home? Backers aim for $99 players http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/blu-ray-in-every-home-backers-aim-for-99-players.ars

Google: Search changes in images http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8009400.stm

Google news timeline http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10223607-2.html… Read more