Crave

Today's episode of The 404 is especially passionate, maybe because we know it's the last one of the week. No show tomorrow, but look out for two special throwback episodes coming your way Friday and Sunday. Anyway, onto today's stories. As the title states, we're taking a trip back to our childhood and remembering some of our favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs and music videos. They've had so many hits that it's hard to pick just one, but I'll always love the video for 1979, and judging by the 5,298 five-star rating, I'm not alone, but who says it has to end? Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan recently announced plans for a new album! "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope" will include 44 songs and will be available for free!

Of course, if you want hard copies and album art, you can also get limited edition EPs with collectors art and high quality audio. The album won't be finished for awhile, but Billy says the music will sound more like the Pumpkins' first few albums: "psychedelic, atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty." We can't wait!

Next, we run through a slideshow of the eight technologies to thank the 1980s for. The list includes the Walkman, the Personal Computer, the CD, and more--mostly these things just give us an opportunity to make fun of how excited everyone was to run a 4.77MHz processor with TWO floppy disk drives.

In any case, the list leads us to the strangest hypothetical situation we've ever posed to each other: if you had to choose between using a COMPUTER or a WASHING MACHINE for the rest of your life, which one would it be? The catch is that you will be banned from using whichever product you don't pick for the rest your life. The rest of the world would go on as normal, so only you are are making the decision. Listen to the show to hear our choices (I think you'll be surprised) and leave a comment on this blog telling us you think.

We finally have another contest for all the gamers out there! Jeff got his mitts on two copies of EA NHL 10, which improves on the NHL 009 gameplay with a new "board play" feature that allows skaters to pin opponents against the boards and kick the puck. If you want to win the game, you're going to have to work for it. Here's what you do: take a picture of yourself standing on the ice of a hockey rink with your most creative 404 sign! Best sign on the ice gets to choose between the XBox 360 or PS3 version, and don't even think about using Photoshop or Jeff will hunt you down.

Since there's no show tomorrow, you have plenty of time to call 1-866-404-CNET and leave a funny/bummer/impression/hate/idea/question voice mail, and if you can manage to produce a coherent thought, we'll play it on the air! Have a great weekend everyone, we'll miss you! :)

Before 2007, the 2K series of hockey video games was tough to match. It seemed 2K had a perfect sense of gameplay, physics, and true-to-life NHL action. When EA Sports revamped its franchise in NHL 07 by introducing the Skill Stick and a new game engine, the tide immediately turned.

With the 2009-2010 NHL season fast approaching, both hockey games look to improve on their respective formulas. While each game tries to create an accurate hockey simulation experience, only one title is able to deliver a winning combination.... Read more

(Credit: Jeff Bakalar/CNET)

Ask any diehard hockey fan out there and he'll tell you that last year's NHL 09 was close to being the best hockey game ever made. After countless critical acclaim and 19 sports-game-of-the-year awards over the past two years, the EA Canada team is back with NHL 10.

Along with Chicago Blackhawks young superstar Patrick Kane as this year's featured cover athlete, the game promises plenty of improvements, from board play to first-person fighting.

We sat down and played a full three periods in Stanley Cup Final fashion, Penguins versus Red Wings, to find out what's new in NHL 10.... Read more

"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by the lovely Beyonce turns out to be Justin's ringtone. Find out how we found out on The 404 today. It's in the same vein of how we discovered about his obsession with Disney music and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

(Credit: Gizmodo)

On today's show we talk about video games, and no, Justin doesn't tune out. EA is pushing the iPhone/iPod touch platform pretty hard with releases of Madden NFL and the venerable Wolfenstein. We hopes it's the updated version and not the sprite-based classic Wolfenstein 3D, though killing Nazis on the subway train does sound like a lot of fun. Also in gaming news, a company called OnLive has announced a new "streaming video game service." Cool, except we don't want to wait two seconds for Chun-li to land a punch on Baraka.

(Credit: Gamespot)

Jeff flips out when the NHL announced it will stream hockey games live with multiple camera angles. Only catch is that it will cost you 20 BUCKS A DAY. In reference to our phone book story yesterday, "boxed water" is now in. Anyone ever hear about tap water? And FOX News has announced it will launch a new social network dedicated to "fair play and fair speech".

Win a chance to win a copy of Wheelman for the Xbox 360, starring Vin Diesel, if you enter our caption contest for this photo of our beloved Justin Yu. Feel free to make fun of his glasses, face, the Lexmark printer behind him, or that lumberjack flannel shirt. Funniest caption will get a copy of the video game and major props on the show.

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

Ericka Boeke in a 404 sandwich.

(Credit: Matt Fitzgerald/CNET)

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

WiiWare

• Bruiser and Scratch (Steel Penny Games, Inc., 1,000 Wii points): Help Bruiser and Scratch get out of a lost world by solving 48 puzzles in six areas. Meet up with friends and foes in this mind-bending adventure.
  
• Hockey Allstar Shootout (Big Blue Bubble Inc., 500 Wii points): It's the season for hockey so why not celebrate the coolest sport around? Participate in up to three challenges, all with varying difficulty.
  

Virtual Console

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, Sega Master System, 500 Wii points): This version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was made exclusively for the Sega Master System featuring different gameplay and graphics.
  

Update: The Sonic game in this Virtual Console update is not the Sega Genesis version of the game but for the previous console, the Sega Master System.

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!

(Credit: Michael Kanellos)

First machines learn to dominate the sport of emperors (chess). Now they are on the verge of dominating the sport of electricians.

Nuvation, an engineering services company, concocted an air-hockey playing robot that vanquishes nearly all of its opponents, according to former Craver Michael Kanellos. It wins more than 90 percent of its games, according to the company. (Or, to put that it Genghis speak, it fights with the strength of 10 men!)

The robot exists mostly as a way to show off the company's skills. Nuvation effectively specializes in taking other people's hardware and software and developing new systems that the original developers didn't think of. The air hockey terminator basically consists of an industrial robot rigged with an optical sensor that's programmed to follow, and react to, a specific moving object. That would be the puck covered with a shiny, metallic decal.

The robot, by the way, does live up to its advance billing, according to Kanellos. In watching it for a half an hour at the Freescale Technology Forum, the bot never lost a goal and scored many. Granted, none of the players he witnessed were off-duty roofing contractors tanked up on a 12-pack of Keystone Lager, but some players were pretty good nonetheless. The most eerie moments come when the robot would block a shot without even moving. It mocks you with its stillness.

Engineers at the company gave him some tips on beating it. He can't reveal them but offered these clues: Women do better than men and, if you can't master your anger, your anger will master you.

(Credit: Crave UK)

Gear4 popped by Crave UK yesterday to talk about a super-secret new product (which we're not allowed to talk about--but you will be excited when we can). We were also given the company's brand-new Bluetooth receiver for hi-fi systems. It's called the Blustream RX and although we've not had a chance to test it fully yet, it's looking to be a promising nugget of kit.

It's a very weighty unit, shaped like a hockey puck and roughly the size of a British three-pin plug. We were surprised at how solid this thing is. It doesn't have the plasticky budget feel of many Bluetooth accessories, but rather a weight akin to the epicenter of a neutron star.

It'll pair with any Bluetooth transmitter--PC, mobile phone, some MP3 players--and hooks up to your hi-fi via stereo cable. There's no gold plating, but that shouldn't matter--the very nature of Bluetooth means your music may begin in lossless format, but it'll be wirelessly transmitted with lossy compression. Clearly it's not intended for audiophiles, but it's offering convenience to anyone with a hi-fi, regardless of its sonic prowess.

At 50 pounds (about $100) it's by no means going to break the bank. It'll be on sale soon and you can expect a hands-on report next week.

(Source: Crave UK)

Major League Baseball might not be a fan of Sling Media, but the National Hockey League on Wednesday announced its support of a forthcoming Sling feature called "Clip + Sling."

The NHL is the first pro sports league to make a deal with Sling. Clip + Sling is a feature that will allow Slingbox users to select clips of live or recorded television and share them with others. Though the content can only be clipped by Slingbox users, anyone can access the Web portal that will host the clips. The 2-year-old company also has a Clip + Sling licensing deal with CBS, which it first announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. The service is currently in private beta, and will be open for public beta later this summer, Sling said.

In a statement, the hockey league called Sling's technology "a natural fit" for its fans. It's also arguably a wise move for the NHL, which doesn't have a lucrative TV contract like those of pro baseball, football and basketball, and has been relegated to an obscure cable channel known as Versus. While the NHL does give fans the option to watch games online via its Center Ice Online feature, it doesn't seem to be as fiercely protective of its content as, say, MLB.com.