Crave

(Credit: W Joey Jones)

What happens when one extremely popular tech TV show with an attractive female host blatantly takes the slogan of a much lesser known Internet radio show with three mildly humorous, if not a bit awkward, post-pubescent manboys? You're about to find out on today's episode of The 404, where Attack of the Show's GadgetPr0n stole our tagline, "High Tech, Low Brow." Now, I'm a little unwilling to compromise my relationship with Olivia Munn, the , but Jeff and Wilson are heated and propose an all-out battle for the right to the slogan!

The new simulated reality video game DJ Hero keeps on adding musicians to the growing list of special guests- this time, they just recently announced a collaboration with Daft Punk. The game will come out on October 30th, but we're pretty psyched to mash-up tracks from those French Robots. Well, Jeff and I are- Wilson is still confused about how the game works and why people listen to music in the first place.

Which brings us to a huge Calls From the Public- we got so many voicemails over our three-day weekend that we have to take the entire second half of the show just to play them all. Of course, we have to re-visit the dreadful washing machine/computer hypothetical that got drummed up on Thursday's show. In a world where humans are enslaved by free-thinking computers, the man atop the washing machine reigns supreme King. This fall, look out for Wilson G. Tang break-out role in...THE CLEANER.

Jeff Bakalar makes his return on Fat Tuesday--how appropriate. Justin reveals to the world that he loves Alvin & the Chipmunks, on top of his fascination with Disney music. Disney we can forgive, but really? An Alvin & the Chipmunks cover of "Uptown Girl?" And we figure out that Alvin wears a giant "A" because he's committed adultery.

On today's show, Justin learns some new racial slurs from Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." Jeff tells us to check out Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"and reveals to us that he once was a professional wrestler known as "The Flying Daisy." In actual news, newspapers are asking the federal government for a bailout. Get with it! Newspapers are going the way of the dodo. On top of that, it's National Pancake Day, so head on over to your local IHOP! Let Fat Tuesday's debauchery begin in earnest.

Chances are, this jacket will look cooler on you than it does on me.

Jasmine and Donald are giving away a $300 iPod jacket along with some other audio goodies, but first you have to hear them rant about the only MP3 player you can buy with a built-in AM radio.

Plus, "rad" headphones from Japan, MP3 players with decent video capabilities, players with line-in recording, and holiday price drops. And Donald offers some advice on keeping the peace in an iTunes home.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

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(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

Fans of AM radio have largely been left out in the cold by MP3 player manufacturers. The excuses are many, but the main reason most device makers avoid the feature is because of the relatively large space required of an AM antenna, thus inhibiting the overall compactness of the final product. PoGo Products briefly came to the rescue with a line of AM-friendly MP3 players, but the company ceased production of the line after only a few years. Filling the void is the C. Crane Witness AM/FM MP3 Player, a basic radio-turned-MP3 player reminiscent of the Radio YourWay LX. Even with its throwback design and monochrome display, the Witness will cost you a pretty penny--$229.95 for 2GB--but AM radio fans have little other choice, and will likely be plenty pleased with the features on offer. Read the full review of the CC Witness.

The Spyder turns like a car but drives like a motorcycle.

(Credit: CNET)

What gets 35 miles per gallon and goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds? You might suggest a motorcycle, but you would only be 66 percent right.

BRP's Can-Am Spyder uses three wheels, two in front and one in back. The Spyder isn't exactly a motorcycle, a trike, or a three-wheeled car. BRP suggests calling it a roadster, but that designation is a stretch as well.

We got our first chance to ride the Spyder this week, when BRP brought a few of them to our offices.

A BRP representative gives me instructions on driving the Spyder.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The learning curve was fairly quick--the BRP representative explained the controls, then we shot off down the street. Actually, we were only going about 20 mph, but it felt fast, as we're used to looking at the world through a wide expanse of safety glass.

Within the hour, though, we were speeding along at 45 mph with no fear. The Spyder uses a traditional motorcycle-style gear shift, down by your left foot, and a clutch lever over the left hand grip. Similarly, the throttle is on the right hand grip. But you activate the brakes on all three wheels with a pedal at your right foot. And unlike most motorcycles, the Spyder has a reverse gear.

The fact that it has three wheels makes parking particularly easy, as there is no kickstand to worry about. But you can't lane-split, like you can with a motorcycle.

The steering dynamics are also more car-like, as you have to turn the handlebars instead of leaning, as you would on a motorcycle.

The Spyder has handlebars similar to a motorcycle.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The Spyder offers a variety of car-like safety gear, as well. It uses an anti-lock braking system, along with traction and stability control. Sensors detect when either the rear drive wheel is slipping, or when one of the front wheels leaves the ground. In the former case, the Spyder retards the engine spark, slowing down the big belt that transmits power to the rear wheel.

For stability control, the Spyder retards the engine spark, but also applies light braking to the front wheel that's still on the ground.

This safety tech makes the Spyder practical for every day driving. During our relatively short drive time, we tried out the brakes and found them well-tuned. They weren't grabby and we could stop the Spyder quickly, with no loss of control.

Steering felt a little awkward, as we had to stretch our arms far out for tight turns. The Spyder accelerates quickly, in keeping with BRP's claim of 4.5 seconds to 60 mph. With a 990cc Rotax V-twin engine, the Spyder is legal on all roads. And in a number of states, including California, you don't need a motorcycle license to drive the Spyder. But you do need a helmet, and gloves; and a good motorcycle jacket is a good idea, too.

The Spyder offers some storage space under the front hood, suitable for a laptop, suit jacket, and any other work necessities. BRP claims 35 mpg with the Spyder under normal driving conditions. With its 6.6 gallons, it should have a range of about 230 miles.

CNET Editor Brian Cooley comes buzzing up the alley.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

One thing we noticed while driving the Spyder was that it attracts a lot of attention. The unique styling had people coming over to where we parked, wanting to ask questions about it. Cars would match our speed so they could look over the Spyder as we rode along.

The Can-Am Spyder is available through outlets selling recreational vehicles, such as Sea-Doos and ATVs. The base price is $15,500.

Check out our photos of the BRP Can-Am Spyder.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony today announced an addition to their line of accessories for the Alpha digital cameras, the HVL-F58AM flash unit. A follow-up to the HVL-F56AM, the flash features Sony's new Quick Shift Bounce system, an innovative design where the flash head can pivot 90 degrees left or right on a horizontal axis (see photo). This lets the flash stay in the same orientation as the camera, even when the camera is held sideways for vertical shots such as portraits. You will now be able to make full use of the built-in bounce card even when the camera is rotated for vertical shots, a very useful benefit. This is in addition to the traditional pivoting up and down.

The HVL-F58AM has a guide number of 58 at 105mm and ISO 100, it also recycles in as few as 5 seconds. There is a large LCD screen that is 13 percent larger than its predecessor, a modeling flash for previewing flash effects, and high-speed synchronization at speeds up to 1/4000 of a second. As well as auto wireless flash control to control several wireless flashes. The HVL-F58AM will be available in September for about $500.

In my previous blog posts titled "Disappointed with DirecTV" (part 1, part 2) I described the problems I've had getting my DirecTV equipment upgraded for compatibility with the company's new MPEG-4 satellite broadcasts.

Today, I'll be reviewing the centerpiece of this upgrade: DirecTV's HR21-700 digital video recorder (DVR).

Since there's a great summary of the features of this product in this PDF from dbstalk.com, I won't try to rehash all the details. But I do want to describe my experiences using this gizmo, and compare it directly to my older HR10-250 TiVO DVR.

First, the "-700" in the model number is pretty much irrelevant. As I understand it, these numbers distinguish units made for DirecTV by different contract manufacturers. On the HR10-250, the "-250" part referred to the size of the hard disk. That certainly isn't true on the HR21-700, so don't be misled. According to that dbstalk.com review, the HR21-700 comes with a 320GB hard drive, but I suspect the particular model of hard disk may vary. I haven't opened mine up, and I don't know how to get the software user interface to tell me the size or type of hard disk inside.

On the outside, the HR21 is a handsome product. It has a nice "piano black" finish and appropriately dim blue LEDs on the front panel. I hate it when consumer electronics gizmos use bright LEDs, especially for home-theater applications; DirecTV got this right. The center control has a blue-lit ring around it, and the lighting appears to spin when the DVR is performing certain functions, like resuming play after a pause.

The remote control, on the other hand, is relatively colorful. The face is white and gray; the buttons are mostly white, black, and gray, with a bright-orange SELECT button in the center, an orange dot on the REC button, and a set of red, green, yellow, and blue buttons that serve various special functions in the user interface. It isn't as comfortable to handle or use as the HR10's TiVo "dogbone" remote, though, and I think it has more buttons than it really needs... three to turn things on or off, separate BACK and EXIT buttons, etc.

The user interface on the HR21 is a mix of good and bad. A lot of the features are just awkward-- odd mixes of hierarchical menus and commands associated with all those buttons on the remote. There are some very nice features, such as easy access to a list of the last several channels viewed-- the HR10 could pop back and forth between the current and last channel, but that was never quite good enough for me.

My disappointment with the HR21 comes from the major features it doesn't have. The biggest failing is the inability to assign the two tuners in the unit to different channels and flip back and forth between them. I used this feature all the time on the TiVo HR10, since it was so convenient. I could take advantage of commercial breaks or boring sections of one show to use the other tuner to look for other shows, pausing and resuming one channel or the other as I flicked back and forth.

The HR21 can record two shows, or record one channel while watching another, and it's possible to switch between the tuners in these modes, but it's much more awkward than the TiVo solution and in practical terms it isn't worth bothering with most of the time. Since this is one of the most attractive features of the HR10, and the HR21 has all the hardware needed to implement it, I can only assume that this feature was deliberately omitted by DirecTV. My guess-- and it's only a guess-- is that the feature is patented by TiVo. Of course, it seems to me that many of the features of the HR21 could be covered by TiVo patents, so I've often wondered if DirecTV got some kind of patent license from TiVo as part of the two companies' earlier cooperative development efforts. I just have no idea what the real situation is.

Another major missing feature is the lack of tuners for local digital TV broadcasts. The older HR20 had these, but the HR21 dropped them, presumably for cost reasons. DirecTV will soon introduce another gizmo called the AM21 that hooks up to the HR21 via USB and provides those missing digital TV receivers. It looks like this is probably how I'll get this capability back after DirecTV (or its local contract installer) screwed up this part of my upgrade, but since the AM21 isn't shipping yet, I can't get DirecTV to tell me for sure whether they'll be able to send me one.

Other features, such as slow-motion playback, are badly implemented. The slow-motion feature sometimes takes several seconds to engage, making it virtually impossible to play back a specific scene in slow motion. When it works, it's also not nearly slow enough. It's so bad that I've basically given up on this feature entirely, relying instead on the freeze-frame and frame-advance features, which work quite well-- even a little better than on the HR10. Similarly, skipping to the beginning or end of the recording buffer often doesn't work as documented.

One thing I find very strange is the way the HR21 implements multiple video formats. The HR10 was very limited in this respect; it can output in 480i (standard-def interlaced video), 480p, 720p, and 1080i (the major modes of digital TV broadcasts) but it gave no further control over letterboxing or stretching the video to help it display properly on the TV. The HR21 offers all of these extra capabilities, but most of them don't do anything useful. Sometimes the standard modes-- the ones that correspond to the basic modes in the HR10-- clip off parts of the active area of the TV program. This is very noticeable and irritating when captions are clipped off in commercials or news programs.

The other problem with the HR21 is that it's not very reliable. Although all the signal-strength measurements are very high, I get frequent video and audio errors. For a second or two, all or part of the screen will dissolve into green blocks and noise, or the audio will stutter. In some cases, I can be sure these errors are not caused by problems receiving the signal, because I can rewind five or ten seconds and the program plays through normally. Since it's playing the same bits the second time, any problems have to lie in the playback circuitry and software.

The HR21 has also recorded entire programs without an audio track. It doesn't help to stop and restart the playback; there's just no audio there as far as the HR21 can tell.

On the other hand, the HR21 hasn't yet rebooted spontaneously, as the HR10 used to do once every month or two. So that's good.

There are some other things I like about the HR21. For example, I record the local and network evening news programs and watch them when I get home. The HR21 is smart enough to treat these recordings as part of the live recording buffer, so as long as the unit is still tuned to the same channel, I can watch one program followed by the other without having to dip into the list of recorded programs.

That list is very well organized on the HR21, with similar programs being grouped together. The HR21's hierarchical list still has room for improvement, but it's better than the HR10's flat list.

The HR21 also makes it easier to select a program in the guide for recording one or all upcoming episodes. With four speeds, rewinding and fast-forwarding are more useful than on the HR10, and the HR21 matches a traditional TiVo feature: after fast-forwarding through commercials, hitting Play causes the unit to back up a few seconds so no part of the program is missed.

I've taken a lot of detailed notes about the behavior of the HR21, but I think I'll skip all of that for now and just deliver the bottom line: the HR21 has some nice features, but the key features it's missing, and the unreliability of basic functions like recording and playback that I've observed on my brand-new model, make it a less than satisfactory product.

I'll continue to accumulate notes on the HR21 and I'll probably post a follow-up in the next few months, especially as I gain experience with some of the unit's advanced features and I get that AM21 or some other way to restore local digital-TV broadcast capability.

MJ's back in the high life again.

Just when you though it was safe to walk around the graveyard at night, Michael Jackson's Thriller is back to remind us that's not such a good idea. It's about time we reflect on MJ's music (not his personal life) and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the biggest selling album of all time. Legacy Recordings just reissued the CD with shiny new packaging, a bonus DVD, and previously unreleased tracks, such as remixes by and/or with Kanye West, Will.i.am, Fergie, and Akon.

And to add to the big event, Michaeljackson.com is presenting "Thrillercast," a year-long podcast series featuring music icons and celebrities. These intimate interviews take you behind the scenes of Thriller and how MJ influenced their lives. The first episode is now available (today) and features Darryl Daniels from Run-D.M.C.

Listen to the new Thriller remixes

Listen to ThrillerCast Episode 1 with Darryl DMC Daniels

At $200, the Sony XDR-S3HD is the cheapest HD Radio yet. But why pay anything at all?

(Credit: Sony)

Sony just sent me the XDR-S3HD tabletop HD Radio to review. I'm not quite done with it yet--I'm still evaluating the sound quality and reception versus the Polk Audio i-Sonic--but it appears to be a perfectly capable HD Radio. The big advantage of the Sony is that it's the first name-brand tabletop HD Radio that's available for under $200. That edges out the earlier Sangean HDR-1 ($250), as well as the Boston Acoustics Recepter HD and Cambridge SoundWorks 820HD (both $300). (While the Radiosophy HD100 is available for a scant $99, the photos alone don't exactly inspire confidence). The relative advantages and disadvantages of the Sony versus those competing models will be covered in the full review later this week, but the bigger question I keep running into when reviewing these products is this: is the HD Radio format good enough to justify the purchase of a dedicated radio?

HD Radio's extra stations
For me, the supposed increase in sound quality just isn't that much of a selling point--you're just hearing those same lame Clear Channel playlists, albeit on a digital rather than an analog band. But the multicast (or HD2) stations are a different story. They're substations that offer alternative programming that's unavailable on the analog dial. For instance, New York's WPLJ offers adult contemporary music on its main station (analog and digital), but has two multicast stations--95.5-2 and 95.5-3--that play '70s and '80s music only, respectively. And because the industry is trying to hook people on HD Radio, these HD2 stations--for the time being, anyway--often broadcast free of commercials.

OK, now we're getting somewhere: there's some exclusive content dispersed throughout the HD Radio dial, so maybe it's got some value after all. But then I remembered something. When Tivoli Audio announced its two new NetWorksGo Wi-Fi radios last June, CEO Tom DeVesto defended their lack of HD Radio reception by saying that it was essentially superfluous: most of the multicast HD2 stations would still be available, just via Internet streaming instead of over the air. So I decided to put DeVesto's claim to the test.

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