Oki Pokey

Jeff has the day off today, so you know what that means: TOTAL CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION! Well, not exactly...Wilson has a little trouble getting the show started, but eventually we get off the ground and welcome our guest on today's show, Mr. Tim Geisenheimer. However, we only get to chat with Tim 1-on-1 for a second before Natali Del Conte pops in to help us out too, making it an all-star lineup!

So after a quick Seinfeld moment about the woes of moving Ikea furniture, we break into a story about a real life "Gaydar" developed by two MIT students which uses social networking data to determine the sexuality of a user. Our major issue with this "study" is that the computer program takes statistical analysis way too seriously. It assumes that if you have a high volume of gay friends, then you must also be gay yourself...interesting jump there. Subscribing to a "birds of a feather, flock together" adage, the two students trained their "Gaydar" to be "very accurate" on men, but not so great on bisexuals or women.

Speaking of women, apparently a group of 3,000 female participants voted the SHOWER RADIO the worst gadget ever invented. It's unclear whether or not they forced the women to choose overtly female-target gadgets (which tend to be cheesy anyway), but Natali has a few things to say about the other gadgets on the "worst ever" list, which include electric fluff removers at #8, egg slicers at #10, and the electric can opener at #18. Although I think we're all starting to doubt Natali's sanity after she tells us all the infomercial junk she's bought over the years...can you say...SLAP CHOP?

Have you heard about CNET TV's newest show called CNET Conversations? To kick off the first episode, CNET's Molly Wood and Ina Fried will sit down with Steve Balmer at the Microsoft offices in Redmond, Washington, and they're bringing questions from viewers. If you have a question for Balmer, head over to the CNET Conversations blog and ask it in a comment!

MMS on the iPhone photos

As promised, AT&T's iPhone finally has the capability to send multimedia messages to another phone number. Whatever AT&T had to do to gets its act together, the carrier did it.

The update went live just a moment ago, and I've successfully sent my first MMS on CNET's iPhone 3G. I was able to exchange photos both with another iPhone and a Samsung SPH-M330 on Sprint.

You'll need to connect to iTunes to receive the update, which should download in seconds. We were able to send an update immediately, but you may have to restart your iPhone first.

To confirm that your device is ready, go to Settings > General > About. Your carrier version should be "AT&T 5.5," and you'll need the latest iPhone 3.1 software update. Also, remember that owners of the original iPhone will miss out on the fun.

For more information, check out Apple's links for updating and enabling carrier settings. And if you're having problems, see Apple's troubleshooting tips or the MMS send failure fix from iPhone Atlas.

Welcome, AT&T iPhone, to 2003. Now we just need that tethering.

Though unlocked phones offer you the freedom of switching carriers on a whim, they can require a bit of tinkering before you can roam around the world. In most cases, you'll have to program the phone with the necessary multimedia settings to browse the Internet and send an e-mail or multimedia message.

The settings are available from your carrier, but if you prefer not to talk to a person, there are options available online. Sony Ericsson offers a very handy tool on its Web site that lets you configure your phone in a just a few minutes. After entering your handset model number, carrier, and phone number, Sony Ericsson will send you a text message with the appropriate settings. It then takes just the additional step of installing the settings on your device. To find the tool, look for the "Support" section on Sony Ericsson's Web site.

Nokia had a similar tool on its site, but it seems to have passed into oblivion. The only replacement information that I could find was a rather unhelpful list of instructions for downloading the settings directly onto your phone. If you've found a more helpful tool on Nokia's Web site, please let me know.

As an alternative, I found a site called ConfigureMyPhone that promises to deliver settings for your mobile browser, messaging, e-mail, and Java. It supports carriers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The tool is intuitive and will be familiar to users of Sony Ericsson's service, though each setting delivered to your phone costs $2.50 each.

Have you found other third-party sites for getting your multimedia settings? Let me know in the comments.

MMS finally arrives on the iPhone.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

Congratulations, iPhone, you can finally join the cell phone family. AT&T announced Thursday that the long-awaited multimedia messaging would arrive on Apple's device in the United States starting September 25. The iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G will support the service, but owners of the original iPhone will miss out since that handset lacks the proper radio.

In its brief statement, AT&T offered few reasons why it's taken so long to get such a basic cell phone feature. It only said MMS "required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One."

The carrier also said it appreciates the patience of its customers (it better) and that it knows that many iPhone customers are "eager" (that's putting it mildly) for the MMS rollout. Other iPhone carriers around the world have offered MMS since the 3.0 update went live earlier this year.

On the magic day, you'll need a software update before you can send your first photo to another phone number. As we reported last month, some users have seen the MMS commands on their iPhone after the most recent software update, but they've been unable to use them.

And in case anyone is keeping score, September 25 is three days after autumn officially begins on September 22. At Apple's WWDC in June, a company exec said MMS would come later in the summer. And one more thing: we're still waiting for that promised tethering support.

Though AT&T customers are still waiting for multimedia messaging to arrive on the iPhone, I got a surprise last week that made me think that the feature is on its way. After upgrading to OS 3.0.1, I noticed that my MMS commands had reappeared. I originally had them when testing the beta version of OS 3.0, but they vanished after upgrading to the full release.

I still can't actually send a multimedia message, but the fact that the commands are there is noteworthy enough. At first I thought it was a direct result of 3.0.1 (I haven't jailbroken CNET's iPhone 3G), but when I asked around the office none of my colleagues were showing the commands. I did some further sleuthing and found that I had AT&T version 5.0 while my colleagues had 4.0.

So, dear readers, I need your help. Are you showing MMS commands on your iPhone? The below pictures will show you what to look for. If so, what is your AT&T version? You can find it under Settings > General > About. Just look for the "Carrier" field.

If this is a sign that MMS is imminent, it wouldn't be surprising. Two months ago at WWDC, Apple promised that the long-awaited and sorely needed feature would arrive later in summer. Now that the end of summer is in sight, time is ticking. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's still infuriating that AT&T wasn't ready to support MMS when iPhone carriers in other countries were ready from day one.

More choices after taking a photo.

Note the camera icon on the left side of the text entry field.

I didn't imagine there was much room for innovation in USB-recording interfaces, but at the 2009 NAMM show--the annual convention for buyers and sellers of professional music gear (read: music gearhead paradise)--a couple of companies introduced some new takes on this very prosaic, but necessary, piece of gear.

The StealthPedal from IK Multimedia is a USB interface and MIDI controller that looks like a wah-wah pedal.

(Credit: IK Multimedia)

For the uninitiated: A recording interface is the bridge between your musical output and your computer. You attach it to the computer, then plug your instrument (or multiple instruments, or output of a mixing board) into it, and voila. There are countless types of interfaces at all levels of price and complexity, but for home musicians who just want a quick way to get their musical ideas down on their hard drives, an inexpensive USB interface is the way to go. M-Audio is probably the best-known brand at this level, although Tascam and Edirol (part of Roland) are somewhat common as well.

... Read more

(Credit: Nikon)

Has Nikon gone into the portable entertainment space? Come December 12, the camera manufacturer will be unleashing two multimedia playback headsets that mark its entry into a brand new genre.

The Media Port UP 300 (4GB) and the higher-performance 300X (8GB) work in tandem with Apple iPods and come with built-in Wi-Fi capability. Demo corners have apparently been set up in Tokyo for passersby to try out the headgear, which comes with a built-in screen for video playback/streaming and Web surfing. If this smacks of the Apple-friendly Myvu Crystal video playback glasses, you're not far wrong.

Despite this virgin offering, the Nikon pedigree should offer assurance of the quality behind the optics. Specs-wise, the rechargeable batteries deliver up to 120 minutes of video or 270 minutes of music. But what's really, really nifty are the embedded motion sensors for hands-free operation, which involves moving the head up or down, left or right for playback control. If anyone's passing through Tokyo and got to sample the UP, do share your experience. Another nice touch for bespectacled users: the UP comes with a high eyepoint and diopter adjustment.

There's just one little catch. Even if you're ready to cough up 69,800 yen ($680) for the basic edition, you'll have to befriend a Tokyoite, since the UP Store will deliver only within Japan.

(Via Crave Asia)

For those of you who want to play your multimedia files on a TV without the need to hook up it up to a PC, Iomega has a solution for you.

The ScreenPlay TV Link is a small Post-it-sized box that connects to your TV via a composite, component, or HDMI connection. You can plug any USB (FAT32 or NTFS format) drive into the device and access all of its content through an easy-to-use on-screen interface.

We were also very impressed with the various file types the TV Link is compatible with. On the audio side, you can play MP3, AC3 (for Dolby Digital encoded audio), WAV, WMA, and OGG files. For video, the TV Link will play MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, VOB (DVD), MPEG-4, DivX, and XviD-encoded movie files.

For more, read our full review of the Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link.