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'The Late Late Show' takes a shot at iPad Mini

After a whirlwind of Apple announcements, it's nice to take a quick break and chuckle at the experience after all the hype settles down.

During yesterday's "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS (disclosure: CBS is the parent company of CNET), the amusing Scottish talk show host took on the iPad Mini during the opening monologue.

In a futile attempt to explain the latest and greatest Apple product to the general audience, Craig points out that many people continue to repeatedly purchase the same thing in different sizes. You might have a laugh as the eccentric comedian tries to explain that 8 inches isn't really that small. … Read more

The 404 899: Where we take you to school (podcast)

Wilson begins this episode of The 404 Podcast with a few words of encouragement to our young listeners starting their first day of school today.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Tang excelled in all his classes and never once printed a cheat sheet on a Coke-bottle wrapper--unfortunately Jeff and I can't say the same for our own salad days. Anyone know how to calculate the area of a triangle?

Aside from recalling our high-school days, today's show rundown kicks off with Nike's announcement of the long-awaited shoes from "Back To the Future II." Nike's head designer Tinker Hatfield invited members of the press to a big announcement that's likely to coincide with this preview trailer showing Marty McFly's closet full of Air Mag 2015s. Power laces and light-up soles!

We'll also break news about a partnership between Google and Zagat's (rhymes with "da cat") Restaurant Guide, shed some light on reports about Netflix capping multiple streams, and you'll also find out how you can rent the studio set from the Conan O'Brien late-night show!

The 404 Digest for Episode 899

It's about time: Nike goes "Back to the Future." Conan writers put studio up on AirBnB. Scan shows what the right 3DS thumb stick add-on might look like. Google buys Zagat, in original-content gambit. Video voice mail from David showing a retro pinball arcade.

Video voice mail from Tessa and Matt on a backpacking trip in the Sierras. Justin's Daily Bathroom Break Video: Going to the Store: Normal Guy, Normal Walk.

Episode 899 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Don't call Netflix's CEO 'Greed' Hastings just yet

For those Netflix customers who may be thinking about dumping their subscription in September when the company plans to raise rates as much as 60 percent, here's one more thing to consider: to determine where the company is headed, it might help to look at its past.

CEO Reed Hastings has a long, if imperfect, record of serving customers, which no one else renting movies online can match. For a decade, Netflix has created technologies and features that have continuously provided customers with more and more savings and convenience when it comes to renting movies. How can we forget … Read more

Rumor: Apple's iPad 2 ships from Foxconn in 100 days

According to sources in Taiwan talking to DigiTimes, Apple's initial shipments of the much-anticipated iPad 2 are 100 days away with expected stock levels to be between 400,000 and 600,000.

The end of February could be the target ship time for the iPad 2, according to this report.

"Apple originally planned to start mass production in January, but because the device's firmware is currently still in testing, Apple has been postponing the schedule. Since Foxconn's new plants in Chengdu are still in pilot production, iPad 2 will be mainly supplied by its Shenzhen plants, … Read more

Letterman pokes fun at Gray Powell, iPhone 4G

This is how far the saga of the iPhone 4G has spread into popular culture: David Letterman took time to poke fun at Gray Powell, the Apple engineer who last month lost what could be a prototype iPhone 4G while drinking in a bar.

The phone that Powell misplaced was found at the bar that the 27-year-old had visited to celebrate his birthday. It was picked up by someone who has yet to be identified, and that person sold it to Gizmodo, a gadget blog, for $5,000. Powell's story has been covered extensively by many of the major … Read more

The 404 Podcast 503: Where everything was better in the '90s

In typical 404 fashion, this morning's show started later than usual, mostly because we couldn't shut up about all the things that made the 1990s one of the best decades ever.

Some of the conversation leaks into the beginning of the episode, including a chat about the evolution of video games since the '90s. It's hard to imagine a time before you needed a toy chest to hold all the plastic instruments you need play a simple game!

You can get your 404 fix every day of the week (thanks to Nick for the image above!), but the most random stories always end up on Friday. Today is no different, with Wilson's first story about mysterious cookies that offer "natural supplemental endowment." Called the F Cup Cookie, the treat is quickly gaining popularity in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, because of their promise to increase bust size in three weeks or less! Rest assured, we've already ordered three boxes to test the claims ourselves.

Should the film industry provide heart health warnings prior to showing movies with heavy 3D imagery? It might be worth the discussion, especially after a 42-year-old Taiwanese man died after watching "Avatar" in 3D.

The man started to feel uneasy during the screening of "Avatar" in 3D and was quickly taken to a hospital where a scan showed a brain hemorrhage. Sadly, the man died 11 days later. Doctors reported that "the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms," a claim that opens up our conversation about possible preshow warnings.

We've spent all week stuffing your SASEs full of 404 stickers, and if you already got yours in the mail it's YOUR turn to do some work for US! Take a picture of where you stuck your 404 sticker(s) and tattoo(s) and send it to us at the404(at)cnet(dot)com. If you do, there's a good chance we'll show it on the air! Take a cue from Cheryl, the Official 404 Grandmother who sent us a picture of her grandson fully covered in them! Nice work, Cheryl!

EPISODE 503 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Visit the new MacFixIt on CNET!

We're moving! We're currently migrating all MacFixIt articles to our new home in CNET. We'll be redirecting all traffic to the new site this afternoon, but if you want to get a sneak peak you can visit the site now at http://reviews.cnet.com/macfixit.

All of our latest articles are available now on the new site. We're still in the process of moving some of our older content over to the new site, but it will all be available tomorrow. You may also notice that the posts don't show any comments from the … Read more

Snow Leopard cannot be installed on Macintosh HD the disk "cannot be used to start up your computer"

When trying to install Snow Leopard, some people are having a problem where the installer will not recognize the current boot drive as a valid destination for Snow Leopard. Instead, it will display the drive with a yellow triangle on it, indicating something is wrong with that drive. When the drive is selected, the installer claims the system cannot boot from the drive.… Read more

Mac Malware Update: Unauthorized downloads of Snow Leopard infested with Trojans

Several Web sites have sprung up over the last couple days offering users free upgrades of Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Of course, these sites are socially engineered ploys to trick users into downloading malicious software.

Much like the iWork '09 and Adobe CS4 infected install packages we reported on in the spring, these Snow Leopard download sites are enticing users to get a free copy of the popular software, only to add a malicious version of a DNS Changer Trojan to their Mac.… Read more