Crave

There will be no episode of Gadgettes this week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the US. So, have a listen to a classic episode from the Gadgettes archive. Remember to read this entire blog post in your own "hot breath" voice for the full effect. Go ahead. You know you want to. Enjoy!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Robotic snake surgeon tinkers with your heart via your mouth

Power Shirt charges gadgets as you walk

Ergoskin: Underwear that makes you sit up straight

Remember Ring (Thanks, David!)

The Body-laptop interface is knitted from Thneed which nobody, Nobody, NOBODY needs

3D Tattoo is like a secret between you and people with funny glasses

Giant mouth exhibit is just one stop on a gross, informative journey

(Credit: Mark Brooks/Natali Del Conte)

Today we're graced by the presence of an actual superhero. Yes, Natali Del Conte has been transformed into the marginally intimidating geek hero "Motherboard." Neither a mother nor a board, Motherboard was sent to this planet to fight crime with her magic gadgets. Too bad she must recharge every night on her magnetic induction bed. Find out the etymology behind our new superfriend and her trusty sidekick Green Show Boy, aka Mark Licea, by listening in!

Also on the show, we discuss the fallout from the Horizon Realty escapade and why the Wii has stopped selling so well.

Finally, we talk about Peter Jackson's latest complaint: the fact that Hollywood has run out of original stories. OK Mr. Jackson, we'll give you District 9, but we're pretty sure both King Kong and The Lord of the Rings may have been other people's ideas.

EPISODE 393

Maybe we should have used "So bad, but so good" as our show motto instead of "High Tech, Low Brow!" Today's show is a good example of that, and we kick it off with Wilson's brief and spoiler-free review of Bruno. We also talk about the rise of the Twitterns, Apple breaking the Pre-iTunes lovefest, and Jeff meeting Tony Hawk!

Tony Hawk plays his new game, Ride.

(Credit: Jeff Bakalar/The 404)

Check it out! Jeff was invited to an Activision event last night to preview Tony Hawk's new game, but he was pretty surprised when Tony Hawk himself showed up to show him around! As you can see, the game comes with an actual "skateboard" controller to jump, ride, and pop up to do tricks within the game. Jeff tells us that the game is very realistic, but popping up the board feels more like a snowboard than skating. Check it out for yourself when it comes out on October 13 for $120.

In other news, The 404 has decided to hire a young Twittern to update our Twitter. Social media, whether it's in short or long form, is super time-consuming...anyone out there want to be our Twittern? We're only half-joking...

In more important news, Apple has finally broken up the love affair between iTunes and the Palm Pre: the smartphone no longer works with the popular desktop software. Jeff owns a Pre and figures that the only thing to do now is to refrain from upgrading to the latest software, lest some savvy developer use the latest SDK to somehow crack Apple's padlock.

Also, start getting amped for tomorrow's episode where I, Justin Yu, will debut yet another band in a segment we like to call...deep breath..."The 404 Semi-Weekly Audio Draft Sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews." Jeez.

(Credit: Photobucket)

First, there was the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) epidemic. It struck thousands of early Xbox 360s and led Microsoft to announce in 2007 that it would repair all afflicted consoles free of charge and offer an extended three-year warranty on those machines.

The latest XBox 360 bug? The "E74 error," which has become enough of problem that Microsoft has had to announce that it will repair all consoles affected by it--and extend its three-year warranty to cover any potential E74 problems.

Like the Red Ring of Death, it's not hard to figure out whether you have an E74 error. Instead of your console displaying three red lights, death comes swiftly in the form of an E74 on-screen error message that appears along with instructions to contact Xbox 360 support.

According to Gamezine.co.uk, the E74 error is "either related to the AV cable, or the more fatal occurrence of a burnt-out scaler chip or even the death of the console's GPU." (Apparently, the error isn't 100 percent fatal, and while there are some suggested fixes up on YouTube, they don't always work--or they work only temporarily).

Here is Microsoft's official statement:

While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays "E74" on their screen.

After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three-flashing-red-lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007.

Microsoft also said it will refund anyone who paid to have an E74 error-afflicted console fixed. If you fall into this group, you should automatically receive a refund within the next 4 to 12 weeks. However, if you don't get your money back, you should go to the Xbox support page before November to get info on how to place a claim.

Gamemagazine notes that for now, the announcement covers only Xbox 360s in the United States. But it expects the warranty and refund to be rolled out around the world soon.

Comments? Anybody had their Xbox 360 offed by error E74? Is the console destined to be plagued by reliability problems, or is this just an isolated incident?

(Source: Gamezine.co.uk via Engadget)

Good luck getting that rock into those tight jeans

(Credit: Sakurako Shimizu)

Men, look down at your fingers; if there's a ring on there, it best be either a wedding ring, a ring of power, or this super authentic 1981 ATARI chip replica, 'cause seriously, you've got no excuse for wearing any other jewelry on your digits.

Handmade by Sakurako Shimizu in Brooklyn, N.Y., the 18-karat gold ring you see above is crafted to look exactly like the original Atari computer chip. Talk about geek cred--who even remembers what those chips looked like?

No word yet on pricing, but keep checking Shimizu's blog and I'm sure she'll update it once it goes on sale.

Click through to see more pics of this ring. Hey, at least it's not a toe-ring.

Today's gaggle of gadgets are all extremely inappropriate. Only one of them is inappropriate in "that" way.

EPISODE 130

A Bus Stop Ad that Displays Your Weight

Electric Cigarettes, with liquid nicotine, catching on in the U.S.

The reason cats act like they hate us

This belly button ring is not an alien appendage (thanks Peter!)

EMO jacket lets you feel what’s happening in movies

EA games on your iPhone

iPig speaker

Tool Time
Scratchophone Breathes New Life

What the hell?!
Cole Cleaner for lazy drinkers

Apropos (of) nothing
Amphibious Lounger

Pink Watch (bling Rx edition)
Would you like some bling with your Acer Aspire One?

E-MAIL
HELLO ladies … oh and jason,

i was browsing the interwebs when i came across this: My Little Pony doll things that were transformed into movie characters. now i know its not to tech related but you know damn well you cant pass up a my little pony chewbacca.

Cordially,
phatemokid

"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.

Tim Geisenheimer joins the show today along with our favorite former intern, Mark Licea. We talk about Tim's new Kindle 2 and how Amazon decided to release a free iPhone app. That's $359 down the drain for Tim. Along the way, we discuss the Red Ring of Death for the Xbox 360 and a surprise guest appearance by Justin Yu himself, who reveals he's been suffering from multiple outbreaks of yet-to-be-classified STDs.

The Geisenblogger himself shares a little bit about his online persona in the form of his Tumblr, Wordpress blog, and Twitter. "Thriller" has got to be one of the best albums ever made, but Michael Jackson apparently has a stash of songs he won't release to the public until after his death. While we're not too excited about that after the failure of his "Invincible" album, we are excited that he is trying to make right with Sir Paul McCartney for supposedly bequeathing the Beatles collection to him after his death. Take this all with a grain of salt as this is coming from the Internet and The 404.

A woman in Florida gets more than she bargained for when she calls 911 three times to report that McDonald is not giving Chicken McNuggets to her. It sounds crazy until you realize that McDonald's tried to offer her a cheeseburger called the "McDouble" instead of a refund. Finally, if you're a Sprint customer, the company is offering $100 in the form of a Visa gift card if you refer a new Sprint customer. For those of you who managed to sneak in the SERO plan, here's a way to get three months of free service.

A new kind of Natali Del Conte joins The 404. She references "Octo-pussy" and makes us play Marry/Boff/Kill. We can already tell that HR is going to be on us any second. She brings some big news to the show by announcing CBS will be streaming live online via Ustream.tv "The Early Show" on Saturday morning. It's their first attempt at an interactive, live show. We anticipate a rowdy chat room with Natali on.

On today's show, we chat about the worst kind of fanboys--forgetting the fact that almost all of us are Mac fanboys. (Come on! They just work!) The creators of the costumes from "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Chronicles of Narnia" bring happiness to a woman who lost her legs when she was younger. They turn her into a mermaid! We also discuss Microsoft's move to ban a user who admitted openly she was a lesbian from Xbox Live. Jeff hates on Digg's new StumbleUpon-like toolbar. And Natali discovers "Spanks for Men." It gives Justin the much-needed muscles. Finally, find out who won our "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360.

Episode 288