seth

Hulu racks up four more original shows

Hulu keeps scoring new original TV shows. With three already under its belt, the streaming service announced today that it will be adding four more original shows that will include some big name actors, according to TechCrunch.

The new shows come at the same that the streaming service is announcing that Hulu Plus has now hit 2 millions subscribers, according to TechCrunch. It had about 1.5 million subscribers in January, so that means that it has added a half-million people in the last four months.

The new shows -- "We Got Next," "The Awesomes," "… Read more

SNL's Seth Meyers pours cold water on Kindle Fire

I know that many people are feeling very passionate about Amazon's new Kindle Fire.

It provides a wonderful alternative to the iPad, the Apple store, and the need to show off your latest gadget to your lover over a candlelit dinner.

So I am grateful to AllThingsD for having sat up late last night to watch "Saturday Night Live." There, the collected wits decided to expose one slight chink in the Fire's fanning flames: its potential lack of cachet.

So here we have Seth Meyers bringing us the latest news.

At the 45-second mark of the … Read more

Jimmy Fallon and Seth Green on Google+: Sorry

Google+ is already so famous, so powerful, and so ubiquitous that it has made it on to Jimmy Fallon's late night show. Which must be called something like "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

With Seth Green in attendance, the two hip comedians in suits decided to gauge just how famous, powerful and ubiquitous Google+ really is.

Their conclusion: We're sorry.

Green offered the observation that Google+ was the preserve (or, perhaps, reserve) of the "new technological mafia."

"The best way to overthrow the Facebook giant is to offer something that's invitation only,&… Read more

The 404 854: Where we don't point fingers (podcast)

Researcher in the Asian Journal of Andrology claims that the size ratio between your ring and index fingers has a direct correlation to the size of...another body part. There's a cheesy pickup line somewhere in there that we're too lazy to create.

In other news, Verizon is introducing tiered data plans and eliminating the unlimited model; Facebook is about to launch "something awesome;" and the slacker generation gets a new King on today's episode of The 404!

The 404 Digest for Episode 854

Finger length has anatomical significance. Facebook to launch "something awesome." Verizon confirms tiered data plans and hot-spot charge for July 7. Why young men are refusing to grow up.

Episode 854 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Your dad wants to fight for the right to paaaarty!

Forget the tools and ties for dear old Dad this Father's Day. What he really wants is the Beastie Boys' new tunes on vinyl--or so the message goes from a new video uploaded to YouTube by the band on June 15.

Because of an Internet leak of the Beastie Boys' "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two" album, the band was forced to stream the entire thing (the explicit version), on its Web site before the actual June release date. By the end of April, the CDs and digital downloads of the album were (and are) made available on iTunes, Amazon, and Best Buy.

The focus for this new video, however, is on the sale of the vinyl format, which Mike D. says "...will be slightly different than the other formats. But please know that our corps of engineers and experts have been on this, making sure the wait is worth it and that I can personally tell you that in my humble opinion, the test pressing of the vinyl sounded banging on my home hi fi." … Read more

The 404 822: Where there's too many chefs in the kitchen (podcast)

The Internet can be a breeding ground for bad ideas, and today's show highlights a few of them, like naming your kid after a Facebook button, making a fatal planking error, and replacing McDonald's cashiers with robots. There's good news today too, though--Seth MacFarlane just got the green light to reboot "The Flintstones."

The 404 Digest for Episode 822

Israeli couple names their kid "Like." Australian man planks to death...this is probably the Internet's fault. McDonald's in Europe to replace cashiers with touch-screen terminals. "The Flintstones" getting a reboot by Seth MacFarlane.

Episode 822 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

SCVNGR at SXSW--high-flying, or head in the clouds?

AUSTIN, Texas--Hailing the 2010s as "the decade of games," Seth Priebatsch, founder of the Google-backed start-up SCVNGR, brought a bright dose of dreamy enthusiasm to the first official keynote of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Saturday afternoon.

Plowing through problems from education reform to global warming, and how they could be addressed by applying the principles of games, the skinny Priebatsch showed up for his talk, "The Game Layer on Top of the World," in a bright orange polo shirt with matching sunglasses perched atop his head and spoke with the jerky staccato of … Read more

The 404 750: Where it's the Battle Hymn of the Rabbit Mother (podcast)

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! According to the lunisolar calendar, this year's animal zodiac celebrates the rabbit, the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle. Jeff can't get enough talk about Chinese cultural traditions, although this day of celebration is a little bittersweet for me thanks to a present I received today from Amazon.com.

Rabbit Mothers aside, Verizon subscribers and AT&T haters are celebrating today for the release of the Verizon iPhone. Early reviews are already in, and it turns out the Verizon iPhone is indeed...a phone; which is more than we can say for the AT&T version.

CNET's cell phone expert Kent German already ran anecdotal testing to compare the data and call quality of the Verizon handset, and Big Red's version definitely has the advantage in almost all of the trouble-prone test sites in San Francisco. Keep in mind that this may change depending on your location, but if you were waiting to see if Verizon would deliver on its promise for better service, it did.

Like a good Apple fanboy, Wilson already has a digital copy of News Corp.'s experiment iPad-only newspaper, The Daily. He played around with it for a little while before the show, and even though he refuses to say anything bad about it on the recorded segment, I'll throw him under the bus to tell you that he wasn't entirely happy about the loading speed of the category carousel on the front page. We're also wary of a daily newspaper that updates itself at noon every day...is this today's news tomorrow?

We can't say anything too incendiary about The Daily since we live in fear of Peter Ha, a friend of the show who's also the tech editor for the good afternoon paper. He's booked to guest host tomorrow's episode of The 404, so we'll wait to grill him on it then.

Google also gave its Android Marketplace a makeover yesterday, and although it's been criticized in the past for being too difficult to install and pay for apps, the company hopes to change that with a new interface that allows users to access the store with their Google IDs. You can search for apps on desktops or laptop computers, and the apps will automatically download and install on your Android phone.

The new Android Market will also allow in-app purchasing, so you can add levels to games and other enhancements to existing apps over Twitter to all your friends. Check it out at http://market.android.com.

Mubakalar finally approves of a few voice mails that we listen to after the break, so keep them coming! The phone number to call is 1-866-404-CNET.

Finally, if you're looking to back up your data so this doesn't happen to you, consider today's Deal of the Day, brought to you by Kodak.

It's the Western Digital 1TB Portable USB Hard Drive for $99.95 from B&H Photo and Video. The drive is portable, easy to use with any USB 2.0 port, and is made from recycled materials to decrease your digital footprint on the environment. Enjoy!

Episode 750 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Seth Rogen: Lucas believes we'll all die in 2012

I confess to have joked, once or twice, about the world ending in 2012.

The question though is, does George Lucas take it seriously?

I only ask this question fundamental to everyone's 401K plan because Seth Rogen, he who occasionally tries to make pornographic movies for money, claims he was stunned into reconsidering the meaning of life after (and during) a recent encounter with Lucas.

The Toronto Sun quoted Rogen as having a particularly illuminating conversation with Lucas during a meeting about an unnamed movie.

Rogen told the Sun:"George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk … Read more