This week, we're on a horse, splish, splash, we'll be swimmin' in trash and Thundercats, Thundercats, Thundercats... Hooeeeeeeee!!!
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
With over ten years of audio engineering experience, Nick's addition to PLuGHiTz Corporation is best served when he is behind the mixing board every Sunday night to produce the audio side of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Piltch Point and PLuGHiTz Live Night Cap. While mixing live every week, his previous radio show hosting experience gives him the ability to co-host as well, giving each show a unique flare with his slightly off-center, yet still realistic take on all things tech. An integral part of the show, you can find Nick always enveloped in coming up with new (and sometimes crazy) ideas and content for the show and you can always expect the most direct opinion on the stories that he feels need to be shared with the world. During the few hours where Nick isn't sleeping or working on ways to improve the company, he spends his free time going to hockey and football games and playing the latest titles on Xbox 360. Email him for his gamertag and add him today for a fun escape from the normal monotony and annoyance that the Xbox LIVE gaming community can sometimes be!
Jon is a F5 Live co-host and UpStream contributor as well as the Chief Cash Officer of PLuGHiTz Corporation. We don't know how he wears so many hats so well or how he still finds time to feed his need for all things tech but some questions are best left unanswered. If you're up for a challenge go find him on Xbox Live @shinobiJon and if you figure him out...let us know.
Josh has come from the Brazilian wilds to bring yet another perspective on the gaming industry as well as today's up-and-coming technology. You may have seen him at GameStop over the past two years, or if you're a lover of Largo High School Productions, you have seen him up on stage doing his thing the last 4 years. On occasion, you can catch him on Xbox Live mowing down zombies in Left 4 Dead or making it rain on Madden 2010.
It seems that if you put Ville at the end of any app on Facebook these days, it will end up being extremely successful. FrontierVille on Facebook, is no exception. The Wild West-themed game that lets virtual pioneers tame a piece of wilderness has attracted 20 million players since its June 9 launch, making it the third most popular Zynga game after FarmVille and Zynga Poker. The game combines elements of FarmVille with a robust mission structure and a "living world," which means constantly keeping nature and varmints at bay ranging from bears to snakes. Sounds like a kid version of Red Dead Redemption to me but I guess I can see the appeal.
I know everyone was curious and extremely interested to see what HP would do after buying Palm a couple months ago and the only things we've seen so far are a possible line of WebOS printers and a huge amount of departures from the company and the merger. The most recent casualty is the former Senior VP for Product Development, Mike Bell. Bell had served 16 years at Apple before jumping ship to work for Jon Rubinstein but has now donned the color of blue, as he will be joining Intel to become the new Vice President for the smartphone division. More specifically, Bell will act as the Director of Smartphone Product Development in Intel's Ultra Mobility group.
The world is more than familiar with social networking giant Facebook and this is starting to scare Google a little bit. That is an odd statement to make and I had some concern that a hole would rip in space and time but it's true, and maybe they should be.
AMD posted its earnings this week to the anticipating masses of investors and the rest of the tech industry. AMD has made great strides in the past twelve months to really make an impact in the market and everyone was hoping that the numbers would show that AMD's effort really were holding water.
One of the elements of the Star Wars movies that truly impacted me and made the franchise truly memorable is the music created by John Williams. Williams has been known for creating the score for various hit movies, like the Indiana Jones movies to more recent films like The Terminal or Harry Potter. He truly shows great aptitude for being able to capture a moment on the screen with nothing but a few subtle notes, to having you go on a thrill ride as Luke destroys the first death star.
If you have traveled to the New York area in the past month or so, you might want to buy a time machine and change your plans because everyone will want to see this. The first 3 Saturdays of August, the Bloomberg administration will be placing 3 dumpster-pools on Park Avenue between 40th and 41st. Yes, you read that right, dumpster pools.
Apple has been under the technological and consumer microscope since the release of their iPhone 4. There was the issue where a user had the screen break within the first few hours of owning it, calling the quality of Apple's glass into question. Of course, everyone knows about the overall shortage of handsets across the country. People who had pre-orders at Best Buy, RadioShack, AT&T and Apple still haven't received their phones a full 3 weeks after the launch and are still not being told when they might receive them. Their biggest public issue, however, has been reception.
It's time for us to add more fuel to the Apple iPhone 4 fire! Bloomberg has reported that "someone familiar with the matter" claims that Apple's own antenna expert, Ruben Caballero, informed Apple management that the iPhone 4 antenna blueprint could make for some severe reception problems, could drop calls and cause a major engineering challenge.
In yet another testament to science fiction becoming science fact a revolution has started in the advertising industry all the way across the world in none other than Japan. Take a trip back to June 21st. 2002 when Minority Report staring Tom Cruise was released. The personalized digital ads seen in the movie have become a reality. The digital billboards displaying these ads are outfitted with cameras that can determine gender and age group even if you are just passing by and glance at the billboard.
1 vs 100 has met another tragic fate, this time on Xbox Live. Microsoft announced this week that it will not be renewing 1 vs 100 for a third season.
We don't have much information, but we ran across some sources that have let us in on some special Microsoft happenings in the near future, specifically with the Xbox 360 Dashboard. We remember last year when the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, changed the way users interacted with their console and with Xbox Live. It seems like Microsoft has chosen to take it one step further in this possible refresh.
The Internet is an interesting place. You never quite know what is going to happen next in the viral world. The only thing you know is that there will always be something exciting coming around the corner. This week we had the pleasure of watching hundreds of Old Spice commercials made over the course of just a few days.
We've talked about net neutrality since this show started over three seasons ago and have been following the developments in business, federal and international policies and laws regarding it. New to net neutrality discussions or need a brush-up on some of the topics? Here's some reference:
You guys remember Thundercats, right? Nobody can forget the classic cry of Lion-O: Thundercats Thundercats Thundercats Hoeeeeeeeeeeeee (yea you know me).