Speaker 1: The following program is produced by the Tech Talk Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of tech Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor.
Speaker 1: Everybody was tied up this week.
Speaker 2: It's been a busy week.
Speaker 1: For so many people, and we thought, you know, what,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do this week for the show?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: And we decided where has tech gone in the last
Speaker 1: twenty years? Tech Talk Radio has been on the year
Speaker 1: since nineteen ninety six, and we went back. We found
Speaker 1: a show from this week twenty years ago. Now this
Speaker 1: is interesting because we cover a lot of technology that
Speaker 1: was just beginning twenty years ago became enormous and again
Speaker 1: a lot of it is still using. Some of this technology,
Speaker 1: some of it not being used anymore. Some that didn't
Speaker 1: really make the mark, like Adobe Flash that was kind
Speaker 1: of big. But we got a chance twenty years ago
Speaker 1: to talk on the grand opening of Magnolia Home Theater
Speaker 1: at best Buyden you've probably seen them, well, they opened
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. This week they have their big grand
Speaker 1: opening and what's cool about it. We talked with a
Speaker 1: couple of members of best Buy that came into the
Speaker 1: studio when we were doing the show to tell us
Speaker 1: all about what they had going on, and it's neat
Speaker 1: to hear where that technology was twenty years ago, with
Speaker 1: plasma screens, the size of speakers, the whole bit to
Speaker 1: where we are today. Oh well, he d we think
Speaker 1: about it. So many changes and all of these changes,
Speaker 1: all of this stuff that we have today happened because
Speaker 1: of what happened back then. Also, a little later on,
Speaker 1: we're going to hear a discussion that I had with
Speaker 1: Blake Crekorian. Now, sadly Blake passed away back in twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen at the very young age of forty eight. But
Speaker 1: Blake was just so well loved in the world of technology,
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, and Blake was one of the co founders
Speaker 1: of Sling Media, and that technology is still being evolved
Speaker 1: and used today, and what that company came up with
Speaker 1: was just amazing. So again they were at the forefront
Speaker 1: of that. Also Email Google, you know Google Mail, It
Speaker 1: was a normal enormous and we were one of the
Speaker 1: people that were hanging hanging out the invitations for people
Speaker 1: to get Gmail accounts back then twenty years ago. So again,
Speaker 1: sit back, relax, listen to a twenty year visit. The
Speaker 1: twenty year look back with tech Talk Radio and Technology
Speaker 1: here with tech Talk Radio, and we begin the show
Speaker 1: with co host Randy Malick. So, how was the week
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 3: It was good, A lot of stuff going on. Microsoft
Speaker 3: found another vulnerability.
Speaker 1: Magine that this was like a nasty one too, Windows
Speaker 1: two thousands.
Speaker 3: It was taking Windows two thousand. A lot of people,
Speaker 3: especially corporations, are still using Windows two thousand, and it
Speaker 3: just went one after it. I mean.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And that's one that took them a long time to
Speaker 3: find apparently, but it's there. And they said something like
Speaker 3: forty percent to fifty percent of corporations now still use
Speaker 3: Windows two thousand.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And there's some limitations. You know, some companies
Speaker 1: that may want to do that. Their software is only
Speaker 1: written to specifically work with two thousand and investing in
Speaker 1: it to getting to work with XP or server. You know,
Speaker 1: suddenly you've got a whole different ball of wax and
Speaker 1: a lot of money exactly. And Windows is named their
Speaker 1: new operating system, Yeah, Vista Visa. It's going from Longhorn
Speaker 1: to Horn was.
Speaker 3: The code name for what the past couple of years
Speaker 3: or so, keep it Longhorn.
Speaker 1: I kind of like that kind of that Texas appeal.
Speaker 1: I could get into that but.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be called Windows Vista and it should come out.
Speaker 3: They said late next year that it's in beta testing
Speaker 3: with ten thousand beta testers right now.
Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to take a look at
Speaker 1: it yet.
Speaker 3: No, I haven't been able to. I'm not on that
Speaker 3: beta test.
Speaker 1: I've got the sixty four bit. We still. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get the board this week, I guess, and we're going
Speaker 1: to be trying Windows XP sixty four to see how
Speaker 1: that operates and what the difference is. So that should
Speaker 1: be kind of fun.
Speaker 3: Well, it'll be nice once they get actually software out
Speaker 3: there were running at sixty four, and I mean, for
Speaker 3: all intents and purposes, just going to double the speed
Speaker 3: of everything, right.
Speaker 1: Hopefully, I mean hopefully to sixty four. I've seen it,
Speaker 1: you know. But then now you're gonna need a new memory.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need, you know, a better graphics card. Of course,
Speaker 1: at least that's what.
Speaker 3: Our peripherals won't work with it necessarily.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to tell my wife that's why I
Speaker 1: need a new graphics card so that my computer will work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can come up with something better than that.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. I want to show you something you can
Speaker 1: find out more information about this little puppy, I'm holding
Speaker 1: my hand. For those of you listening on the radio
Speaker 1: not watching the video version of this, yeah, you may
Speaker 1: have a hard time seeing this, but this is the
Speaker 1: Logitech V five hundred. Have you seen these? No, once again,
Speaker 1: we have a full review on our website, but this
Speaker 1: is available from Logitech. It's for those those that want
Speaker 1: to have a cordless, wireless mouse optical mouse for use
Speaker 1: with a laptop. Blue ten is a blue tooth USB
Speaker 1: two point zero. Well, I'd like to be able to
Speaker 1: say it's Bluetooth, but this is the nice thing. It's
Speaker 1: very small, fits in the palm of your hand, and
Speaker 1: it has a a what, I don't know what you
Speaker 1: would call this. It's kind of a virtual scroll button.
Speaker 1: You can press the button up, press the button down,
Speaker 1: but there's no button. It just kind of works with
Speaker 1: the movement of your finger. You can also go left
Speaker 1: and right, which is also very cool if you're looking
Speaker 1: at spreadsheets and that type of stuff, like using Excel.
Speaker 1: But it's a little button on the back. You push
Speaker 1: that button and then a little USB key comes out,
Speaker 1: plugs into your your your laptop and you're ready to go.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna ask you what you're plugging to
Speaker 3: the laptop and it fits right into the mouse. It's
Speaker 3: just a little jack sit right out this right out
Speaker 3: the end of it.
Speaker 1: If you're tired of using that little touch pad that's
Speaker 1: on your you know, laptops or notebooks, or maybe you
Speaker 1: want something small for a desktop computer as well, this
Speaker 1: is an excellent replacement. Long long battery life on this too,
Speaker 1: I think from what I've heard, it's almost a.
Speaker 3: Year and the review is on tech talk radio dot com.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Check that out there and comes a nice little carrying
Speaker 1: case and that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: And that was your demo, right, this was, Yeah, they
Speaker 3: sent that to you and you have mine in the
Speaker 3: cars working on it. Yeah, I see. He gets all
Speaker 3: the toys.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, I would love to get this toy.
Speaker 1: I would love to be able to get a huge
Speaker 1: plasma screen. And my you know, because we had a
Speaker 1: new house built a couple of years ago and we're
Speaker 1: living in it now, but we have speaker holes but
Speaker 1: no speakers. We know what kind of what we want
Speaker 1: to put in there, but we haven't been able to
Speaker 1: fully one hundred percent make the decision yet and sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, finding how you're gonna put all that together
Speaker 1: can be kind of a challenge, and us, being the
Speaker 1: gear heads that we are, we could spend hours upon
Speaker 1: hours in stores looking at stuff, whether it be computers
Speaker 1: or audio visual. Well, there's now a new place you
Speaker 1: can go for audio visual. It's in Best Buy and
Speaker 1: it's called the Magnolia Home Theater and its stores. And
Speaker 1: we've got with us a couple of representatives from best By,
Speaker 1: Sergio Rodriguez, who's a manager for Magnolia Home Theaters, and
Speaker 1: Brandon Kelly, a sales professional, to tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about it. Welcome to the show, guys. Hello, thanks
Speaker 1: having us, Good to have you. This is something I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say, this is something new for best Buy because
Speaker 1: best Buy for years has had you know, large screen
Speaker 1: TVs and stuff. What separates this from maybe the traditional
Speaker 1: just walk in and look at a TV? How is
Speaker 1: my Magnolia Home Theaters different sur jail?
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, thank you very much. Actually it's a very
Speaker 5: good question. I know out there there's a lot of competitors.
Speaker 5: But one of the big things about Magnolia at the
Speaker 5: store within a store that offers home theater enthusiast state
Speaker 5: of the art experiences in the home like environment.
Speaker 1: Now, when you say that this way, you'll be able
Speaker 1: to walk in and not only see how it'll look,
Speaker 1: but here maybe the sound that would come out of that,
Speaker 1: or maybe some speakers that you would want to get
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 5: Exactly precisely depending on for example, you said that you
Speaker 5: had a home with hose, you want the speakers in
Speaker 5: the wall. We have both the speakers in the wall
Speaker 5: that are ready to demo as well as maybe floor
Speaker 5: standing or even speakers that hang on the wall.
Speaker 1: So, now do you also have this set up so
Speaker 1: that when somebody comes in, they're going to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of almost replicate what their home environment would
Speaker 1: because not everybody has a home theater. Some have smaller
Speaker 1: living rooms, maybe some have brighter rooms, some have track
Speaker 1: lighting put in. Can they kind of see how that
Speaker 1: looks inside the Magnolia home theater.
Speaker 6: Well, you can't do everyone's house because it's almost impossible.
Speaker 3: To bring your house down.
Speaker 6: But we have in our speaker room, we have different setups.
Speaker 6: I mean, you can move stuff around if you really
Speaker 6: need to to find out try to replicate what you
Speaker 6: would have in your home.
Speaker 1: Also, now, Randy, I don't know what kind of system
Speaker 1: you have. Did you go for the plasma?
Speaker 3: We'll see. We're in the midst of a little remodeling
Speaker 3: project at home. Unfortunately, the wife does not consider a
Speaker 3: plasma screen part of a remodeling project.
Speaker 1: Although when you get the refinancing you always throw that in.
Speaker 3: It's like, we came out about Oh, I think we
Speaker 3: came out four or five thousand dollars under what we
Speaker 3: thought it was going to be, so I thought, wow, hey,
Speaker 3: that's certainly justification, right exactly. Unfortunately, she has this thing
Speaker 3: about like saving the money or something. I have some
Speaker 3: crazy scheme like that.
Speaker 1: Brandon, I'm wondering, why are we seeing the huge dropping
Speaker 1: prices for some of this home entertainmentertainment type of hardware.
Speaker 6: Well, the technology is getting a lot cheaper. They're perfecting
Speaker 6: in the art of the plasma, the DLP, all that
Speaker 6: kind of stuff, so prices are coming down and it's
Speaker 6: a lot easier to buy them now.
Speaker 1: No, Sergio, having a store like this within a store
Speaker 1: is that kind of a challenge, because now do they
Speaker 1: still have the TVs in one section or basically all
Speaker 1: of that audio visual is now part of the Magnolia
Speaker 1: Home Theater.
Speaker 5: It's a well, basically the department is one, but we
Speaker 5: carry brands for everyone. So if you're an enthusiasts once
Speaker 5: it's a particular brand name, let's say Premium and Audio Video,
Speaker 5: we have that as well as we have every other
Speaker 5: brand and product that we've carried in the past.
Speaker 1: So now you would be carrying them the Elite series, yes, excellent.
Speaker 1: Now tell us about some of the brands that you're carrying.
Speaker 6: Brandon, Well, we do the audio end, a video portion,
Speaker 6: and the video portion. We do Mitchebuc Diamond Vision. We
Speaker 6: also have high end plasmas like Fujitsu, Pioneer, Elite, a
Speaker 6: lot of different types of speakers. Where we normally carried
Speaker 6: only Sony Yamaha clips that type of thing, we now
Speaker 6: do Vienna Acoustics, Martin Logan, Boston Acoustics, Definitive Technologies, and
Speaker 6: also Dennin receivers.
Speaker 1: Even now, are these products that you're going to see
Speaker 1: adding incredibly? I mean, let's talk Elite system I know
Speaker 1: the price point in those can be kind of up
Speaker 1: there for the real enthusiasts. Are they still going to
Speaker 1: be able to find stuff for people that are budget minded?
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I think so, especially when it comes to
Speaker 6: like the receivers, the DNA. We have their full line.
Speaker 6: We have anywhere from their one of their cheapest stereo
Speaker 6: receivers all the way.
Speaker 4: Up to their flagship model.
Speaker 6: I mean yeah, we carry quite a different, large assortment
Speaker 6: of price points for everyone.
Speaker 1: So really what so basically by this being different, it's
Speaker 1: basically that you're offering more product and you have professionals
Speaker 1: now that are trained specifically, like you, Brendan, you can
Speaker 1: answer answer those questions people have, like some of the
Speaker 1: misconceptions regarding plasma or what is a better situation DLP
Speaker 1: versus plasma As a matter of fact, what is the
Speaker 1: deal with plasma? We've heard, you know, for years, Oh
Speaker 1: you want to go to DLP, and now we're finding
Speaker 1: out Wait a minute, now, maybe plasma is what you
Speaker 1: really want anyways, a better picture, lower costs.
Speaker 3: And heard things about or I one lasting longer than
Speaker 3: the other. And you've heard that a million times.
Speaker 6: Right, I mean I've been dealing with plasmas for four
Speaker 6: years now and there's a lot I mean back then
Speaker 6: there it was an untested technology kind of Now they
Speaker 6: have TVs that have half lives of thirty four thirty
Speaker 6: or twenty to thirty years they have. They're a lot
Speaker 6: more affordable too, because you can hang them on the
Speaker 6: wall older styles where you know, when they first came out,
Speaker 6: we're fifteen thousand dollars and people were scared that kind
Speaker 6: of technology to hang on your wall. It's a little scary.
Speaker 6: But now, I mean, the technologies come so far. The
Speaker 6: pictures are absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 4: We have a.
Speaker 6: Trained staff that know how to hang them up the
Speaker 6: right way. And I mean there were myths out there
Speaker 6: that the gas leaks and it's poisonous, all that kind
Speaker 6: of stuff that's not really true.
Speaker 1: Now, what about HD is can somebody come in and
Speaker 1: learn all about HD and maybe even get their home
Speaker 1: equipped for this type of technology?
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, HD is definitely here in Tucson. It's not
Speaker 6: as where it could be, but I mean definitely. There's
Speaker 6: a lot of channels and we usually have high DEF
Speaker 6: programming playing at all times at our store.
Speaker 1: Oh awesome, I don't know, Randy Celtics mynd Wane, Well, that's.
Speaker 3: Kind of what I was thinking. What if what if
Speaker 3: let's let's talk costs a little bit? Yeah, okay, let's
Speaker 3: say yeah, look, look at the manager. Let's say somebody
Speaker 3: somebody comes in and of course not very often do
Speaker 3: you have people probably walk in and say, yes, I
Speaker 3: I was wondering how much I could say, how much
Speaker 3: I could actually spend? Uh, What's what's the upper limit
Speaker 3: I could spend on this? You probably have people come
Speaker 3: in saying, gee, I'm on a limited budget, how can
Speaker 3: I get into HD.
Speaker 5: That's a very good question. And we get that question
Speaker 5: a lot. Yeah, you know, it is the best buy.
Speaker 5: We we do have a price point for everyone. The
Speaker 5: biggest thing that I do want people to know is
Speaker 5: when you come in here, we'll ask you some questions.
Speaker 5: And not everyone's gonna be able to come in here
Speaker 5: and buy the whole entire package it once. So we
Speaker 5: have expert people as well as installers. They can talk
Speaker 5: you to it. We can do consultations when they can
Speaker 5: come out to your home see what is uh we
Speaker 5: can fit and what's perfect for your home and then
Speaker 5: we can go from there.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, one of the other things that people when they
Speaker 1: go in they want to be able to do it
Speaker 1: one stop. They wouldn't be able to look at you. Well,
Speaker 1: they don't want to buy their stereo there maybe get
Speaker 1: their their sound system somewhere else. Again do it one
Speaker 1: stop and that's what make Nolda a home theater at
Speaker 1: best Buy is kind of bringing to them. But also
Speaker 1: things like you know, power power is very important, especially
Speaker 1: when dealing with plasma. You gonna have power protection on that.
Speaker 1: Do you guys carry all of that plus you're cabling
Speaker 1: and the whole bit.
Speaker 4: We do pretty much the whole enchilada. I mean we do.
Speaker 4: It's one person.
Speaker 6: You come in, we can talk to the people and
Speaker 6: we can be their their person from from when they
Speaker 6: start looking all the way till it's they're happy in
Speaker 6: their home and everything set is worked up perfectly.
Speaker 4: So we offer the complete package installation.
Speaker 6: Ah good, the Panamax search protectors, all the cabling because
Speaker 6: those are extremely important components in that system.
Speaker 4: Excellent.
Speaker 1: You can have a little fourteen inch television and some
Speaker 1: killer speakers, still not everything you want to have kind
Speaker 1: of the combination of it. Yesterday was the grand opening
Speaker 1: here in Tuson of Magnoldi, a home theater, which you
Speaker 1: can find at best Buy. They've expanded these. They have
Speaker 1: them at in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Miami, Philadelphia, Providence,
Speaker 1: and again here in Tucson, and Sergio Rodriguez who is
Speaker 1: a manager of the Magnolia Home Theater in Tucson, which
Speaker 1: you'll find on the Broadway location. And Brandon Kelly, who
Speaker 1: is a sales professional there. Let's let's talk about the
Speaker 1: experience when somebody comes in to do their shopping at
Speaker 1: the best Buy Magnolia Home Theater. What sets out apart
Speaker 1: from maybe some of the competition that's out there, is
Speaker 1: what is Mangoli Home Theater striving to do well?
Speaker 6: Our biggest thing is we have the single point of contact.
Speaker 6: It's always my guy or my girl. Whoever you deal with,
Speaker 6: they go to you for everything we have. We give
Speaker 6: out cards of course, with our names, our email addresses
Speaker 6: if they need any questions and stuff like that. It's
Speaker 6: one thing that you have to deal with a lot
Speaker 6: of different people. You deal with your salesman with installation,
Speaker 6: but it all comes down to the one person you
Speaker 6: talk to the first time. We can get things done
Speaker 6: for you that most people can't.
Speaker 1: And you'll kind of carry it throughout the whole sales
Speaker 1: process from them helping to decide what system they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to maybe after the installation of follow up letting
Speaker 1: them know, hey.
Speaker 3: How is everything.
Speaker 1: Everything's going? Well, that's one thing I've I've liked about
Speaker 1: kind of the philosophy. But behind this, what about the
Speaker 1: technology though? The technology has got to be pretty amazing
Speaker 1: because stuff comes and goes, and you know, we hear
Speaker 1: about new stuff all the time. TVO has become huge
Speaker 1: DVR that capability. Where are we seeing in terms of
Speaker 1: sound and video.
Speaker 3: And sound and video.
Speaker 6: We got a lot of new different types of receivers
Speaker 6: and types of speakers that we normally haven't seen on
Speaker 6: a normal best by floor. New speakers by Martin Logan.
Speaker 6: We have electrostatics. They're amazing speakers that just have a
Speaker 6: great range of sound. We have bipolar speakers from Definitive
Speaker 6: which actually do omnidirectional sound, so you put it away
Speaker 6: from your wall a little bit and the sound comes
Speaker 6: from everywhere because it bounces.
Speaker 4: Off the walls.
Speaker 6: There's drivers on both sides of the speakers. And even
Speaker 6: stuff like the new TVs we're getting. We're getting ten ADP,
Speaker 6: which is a very high resolution brand new technology just
Speaker 6: came out. We only have what two TVs right now
Speaker 6: that can even do that.
Speaker 1: It has been in the past what seven seven eight?
Speaker 1: I right, what's what is that?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 1: Do you get?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 1: Dude, the bike Polish speakers get better with prozac? Engineer, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll stop to crack the mic legs next time. That's
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got a funny engineer here. Ruh.
Speaker 1: So I was thinking I was good. I was thinking
Speaker 1: that I just did ask. So you got all these feakures,
Speaker 1: You got this this ten ten eight. Now that gives
Speaker 1: you a better experience, a better video experience. But really,
Speaker 1: can it get any better than that?
Speaker 4: It will someday virtuality maybe one day.
Speaker 1: Yes's what I'm wondering. You never have like three D
Speaker 1: type of television down the line?
Speaker 6: Possibly, doubt it with the way technology.
Speaker 1: Moves now, how about picture size? Screen size?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 1: Because let's face it, you know again, I said, the
Speaker 1: guy watching on a nineteen inch television with the great
Speaker 1: sound system not getting the best experience. I understand that
Speaker 1: the screen sizes now are getting even bigger.
Speaker 6: Yeah, depending on the type of technology. I mean, we
Speaker 6: have plasma TVs that we can get up to an
Speaker 6: eightiance plasma. We have dlps that go sixty one. Sony
Speaker 6: even puts out of seventy. Also, projectors. We do in
Speaker 6: focused projectors, they can get up to three hundred feet
Speaker 6: big for if you really want that big a screen.
Speaker 1: Wow. So if somebody wanted to do like a backyard
Speaker 1: you know, drive in type movie, they could do.
Speaker 5: That backyard or a dedicated home theater room.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, movie theater.
Speaker 5: You get a lot of people that actually come in
Speaker 5: asking for that. You know, they're like, hey, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm remodeling or I'm refinancing. Then what I want
Speaker 5: to do is me and my family. What we do
Speaker 5: is we we do family knights. We do family movies.
Speaker 5: That's what our family does. So they come in and
Speaker 5: they dedicate one just one room for that, and the
Speaker 5: projection systems are perfect for that.
Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, I was gonna say, somebody, you know having
Speaker 1: a house built, do they want to come see you
Speaker 1: guys before they lay their plans for their their their
Speaker 1: framing and everything else. I mean, can they get into
Speaker 1: you that early or do they have to wait till
Speaker 1: the walls are up and everything else.
Speaker 5: You can actually start the as early as you want.
Speaker 5: But if you ever want to do a consultation, it
Speaker 5: doesn't matter if you're not at that stage, if your
Speaker 5: walls are up. You already painted. Our installers still can
Speaker 5: go from there.
Speaker 1: Tell us when it comes to somebody wanting a warranty
Speaker 1: or something like that, what type of warranties are offered
Speaker 1: on some of this hardware which you're talking in eighty
Speaker 1: inch you know plasma.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, on most of the brands we carry, their
Speaker 6: higher end products, their high performance parts, they usually offer
Speaker 6: a two year manufacturer's warranty. Sometimes those might not be
Speaker 6: able to you might have to set it off to them,
Speaker 6: or there might not be the the facilities here in
Speaker 6: Tucson that they could get them fixed, so they have
Speaker 6: to send them off. But we also do offer a
Speaker 6: in home service on our TVs. We offer different types
Speaker 6: of performance service plans, make nolly agreements that they can
Speaker 6: purchase along with it to get not't necessarily extend a warranty,
Speaker 6: but a little bit more protection on their stuff for
Speaker 6: longer amounts of times. Because I mean, you're paying a
Speaker 6: lot of money for these products, and we definitely offer
Speaker 6: that kind of service too.
Speaker 1: Excellent and you offer that one on one service. You
Speaker 1: got the warranties and it sounds like you guys have
Speaker 1: all the hardware. How often does this stuff change out
Speaker 1: that you suddenly get a call, hey, we've got you know,
Speaker 1: something new from Pioneer. We get something new in the
Speaker 1: line of speakers that you guys will put it on
Speaker 1: the show roup.
Speaker 6: We get stuff new all the time. I mean, they
Speaker 6: just came out with the ten ADP. We have one
Speaker 6: of those TVs on the on the floor. We can
Speaker 6: get another one. We're just waiting for it to come in.
Speaker 6: Technology changes so often that they all of a sudden
Speaker 6: we look in the back and there's a new product
Speaker 6: and we're like, oh great, we get to play with it.
Speaker 6: We put it out, play around with it to make
Speaker 6: sure we know how to work it for when the
Speaker 6: customer has a question about it.
Speaker 4: We're gonna be able to be on top.
Speaker 1: Of it real quick. I don't want to get two technical,
Speaker 1: but what is the difference between DLP and plasma.
Speaker 6: They're kind of two different types of things. The plasma
Speaker 6: is a gas injected TV. Usually they're flat panel, so
Speaker 6: they're roughly about three inches thick. It's a type of
Speaker 6: TV you can't really fix or work on, but it
Speaker 6: has the best picture, great contrast ratio, so very very
Speaker 6: bright picture. Or as a DLP is they call it
Speaker 6: a micro display. It's not as thin, it's usually about
Speaker 6: twelve to sixteen inches deep. It still uses a projection.
Speaker 6: It's a rear projected unit. It uses the DLP chip
Speaker 6: by Texas Instruments to create a really lifelive picture. Not
Speaker 6: as bright, you can't see it from all angles. But
Speaker 6: it's definitely a great technology.
Speaker 1: Excellent and the minimum somebody is going to spend now
Speaker 1: on getting some kind of a plasma, let's say forty
Speaker 1: two inch plasma, just to give them an idea of
Speaker 1: that and sound. And I'm sure I know it's going
Speaker 1: to be dependent on what they combined, but say minimum ballpark,
Speaker 1: they want to come into Magnolia Home Theater and take
Speaker 1: a look.
Speaker 6: Well, we have plasmas on the best buy side too,
Speaker 6: We still offer both of those. We have some very
Speaker 6: cheap around two thousand dollars all the way up to
Speaker 6: we have a pioneer for you know, was it thirteen
Speaker 6: thousand dollars. I mean, we have a lot of different
Speaker 6: things there now to fit any budget.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Our listeners be able to access this information on the
Speaker 1: best buy a website. Yes, actually there is.
Speaker 5: It's on the best buy a website and has an
Speaker 5: attachment to the Magnolia website as well.
Speaker 1: Magnolia website. What's that address? It's a Magnolia HiFi dot com,
Speaker 1: Magno High Fight dot com and of course best Buys.
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 4: That's actually Magnolia ht dot com.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, there you go, magnoliahd dot com and of
Speaker 1: course best by dot com. Uh. Sergio Brandon, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming in, for having us. Thank you.
Speaker 1: We will be back with another segment, a twenty year
Speaker 1: look back tech Talk Radio. That's standing by.
Speaker 2: Now back to tech talk Radio.
Speaker 1: It was this week twenty years ago. What was happening
Speaker 1: in the world of tech Now with Randy Mallick and
Speaker 1: Andy Taylor.
Speaker 2: That's me on tech Talk Radio.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you guys from Best Buy Mangolia
Speaker 1: Home Theater for coming in and talking to us about
Speaker 1: technology and everything. Here's an email we got for Steve
Speaker 1: from Steve for you, says Randy. I was listening to
Speaker 1: your program while driving and I wonder if I can
Speaker 1: still get the Gmail offer we talked about. Did we
Speaker 1: end up giving away a ton of those?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gave away By the time this show aired
Speaker 3: today was airing right now, so far twenty one.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty one people sign up for Gmail. Got a
Speaker 3: comment back from a couple of them. I'll just take
Speaker 3: that email from you and we'll make sure make sure
Speaker 3: that Steve gets one of those Gmail accounts, gets those
Speaker 3: Gmail accounts. I did have a guy comment all right
Speaker 3: what he was looking to do with the Gmail. And
Speaker 3: for those of you weren't listening last week, Gmail is
Speaker 3: Google Mail, and it's it's in beta test right now,
Speaker 3: and it has been for a better part of a year.
Speaker 3: And it's by subscription only, by invitation only, and I
Speaker 3: just happened to have invitations I can send you. So
Speaker 3: if you'd like to get a free invitation to Google mail,
Speaker 3: and it holds two gigabytes of storage space. That's one
Speaker 3: of the big big deals about it, just email me
Speaker 3: at Randy M Randy M at tech talk radio dot com,
Speaker 3: randym at tech talk radio dot com, just say hey,
Speaker 3: I want the email.
Speaker 1: The nice thing about it is I've got forty nine
Speaker 1: invites to give out. I gave away one, so if
Speaker 1: if you go over they can you can just send
Speaker 1: those to me and I'll go ahead and send the
Speaker 1: invites from tech talk radio at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: That would be fine, we can do that, so that'd
Speaker 3: be neat. And the comment he had was, you're not
Speaker 3: able to check your popmail server is like you and
Speaker 3: I will check your email through Outlook or your normal
Speaker 3: email through Google Mail. That's true, it doesn't have that
Speaker 3: feature like Yahoo does. But what I do is I
Speaker 3: forward all of my email. I take all my email
Speaker 3: from like my Yahoo account, my normal just Comcast account,
Speaker 3: all of that, and just forward it right into Google
Speaker 3: so it all comes into the same place. That way
Speaker 3: I can get it anywhere I'm at. Also, Google has
Speaker 3: an outstanding spam filter. I mean I rarely, rarely have
Speaker 3: anything slipped through, and that just since yesterday it caught
Speaker 3: almost ninety spam messages that would have gone into my inbox.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm seriously bombarded with spam on a regular basis.
Speaker 3: Now what I did.
Speaker 1: Don't know how dangerous spam is. When we think, you know,
Speaker 1: spam is just stuff in a can, it's really I mean,
Speaker 1: that's where your spam should go in the can.
Speaker 4: Get it.
Speaker 1: How bad is spam?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's it's terrible. I mean because it's taken many,
Speaker 3: many forms, some of them look like legitimate offers and
Speaker 3: can fool an unsuspecting person. Bottom line of I don't
Speaker 3: I don't give anything out to anybody that comes in
Speaker 3: an email unless I absolutely know that person's email address
Speaker 3: it came from. If something comes to you from your bank,
Speaker 3: something comes to you from outside source saying hey, sign up,
Speaker 3: or or put your email address in here, or give
Speaker 3: us your credit card number or anything like that, it's
Speaker 3: it's bound to be bogus. Just don't do it, because
Speaker 3: your bank will never ask you to enter any of
Speaker 3: your account information on an email they send you. Absolutely
Speaker 3: if you go to their website, then that's a different story,
Speaker 3: right even then if you seek them out. Be careful,
Speaker 3: you just do be careful.
Speaker 1: Just be like you're you know, you're driving on a
Speaker 1: unicycle down the freeway.
Speaker 3: Be careful well, and spam. Of course, you've got your
Speaker 3: normal You've got your normal porn stuff that comes over
Speaker 3: and droves, you've got I mean goodness, I don't know
Speaker 3: where I picked this stuff up. My email address long ago,
Speaker 3: got on a list somewhere, and it's just it's just endless,
Speaker 3: and it could come from anywhere in the world and
Speaker 3: you can't stop it. You gotta be carefu about a filter.
Speaker 3: Filters works, filters do work.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: We got an emailing from Jim. It says Jim. Jim says,
Speaker 1: I would like the personal antiviras software you were speaking
Speaker 1: of on eight fourteen's show, Thank you very much. At
Speaker 1: the last week's show, were you talking about antivirus software?
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember what antivirs software co be talking about?
Speaker 3: Grysoft, boy, I don't think we discussed that last week.
Speaker 1: May maybe we mentioned something, and I'm sorry I couldn't remember.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for an anti Anavira software you'd like
Speaker 1: to try out, there's a lot of people that recommend
Speaker 1: Grysoft g r I s O F T dot com. Now,
Speaker 1: from what I remember, wasn't grysoft software free? I mean,
Speaker 1: I wasn't freeware where it's it's not like trial where
Speaker 1: it was free.
Speaker 3: Well, it used to be, and maybe they had an
Speaker 3: upgraded version you could purchase. Was that the deal, the
Speaker 3: basic version and the special version was for.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought. I don't see anything on here
Speaker 1: now about it being free. I see it the ABG
Speaker 1: anavirus editions from Grisoft now available with no obligation for
Speaker 1: trial period of thirty days and during that eval period
Speaker 1: you get a test at the full functionality, and then
Speaker 1: you'll also have access to the tech support team as
Speaker 1: well for the duration of the trial license. So if
Speaker 1: you have any questions or anything comes up. But I
Speaker 1: remembered it is, I kind of sworn it originally was
Speaker 1: a freeware program that was supported by people making donations,
Speaker 1: and it looks to me like maybe that's maybe that's
Speaker 1: not the case anymore. Find out for yourself. Go to
Speaker 1: grysoft dot com, g ri I, s o ft dot
Speaker 1: com and you might be able to get some more
Speaker 1: information about that.
Speaker 3: Hey, there's some ratings out for satisfaction surveys.
Speaker 1: What is that.
Speaker 3: Well, Google and Yahoo lead in customer satisfaction and Google's
Speaker 3: a little bit ahead of Yahoo when it comes to
Speaker 3: when it comes to that they're they're big rivals, of course,
Speaker 3: But according to Americans in an e BusinessWeek study released
Speaker 3: this week, they said, it's according to web porthole, search engines,
Speaker 3: all that sort of thing, and Google came out on top.
Speaker 3: That's no surprise, and Yahoo was right in their second.
Speaker 3: And then among PC companies highest satisfaction rates. What do
Speaker 3: you think top one is one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: Dell Well, No, no, how about the.
Speaker 3: HP, Well one you're not going to think of because
Speaker 3: we don't always refer to a well, no, we don't
Speaker 3: always refer to it as PC as a PC. Oh, oh,
Speaker 3: technically it is, I mean Apple.
Speaker 1: Apple really yeah, wow, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: But Apple users are adamantly Apple users, and they're fiercely
Speaker 3: defend their their products. So that's no surprise because it's
Speaker 3: it's almost I mean, people that like Apple, they love it,
Speaker 3: and they're anti PC in many cases.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I've never had somebody call me and say,
Speaker 1: and I know what happens, yeah, and you know, but
Speaker 1: I've never had anybody call me and say, my Apple's crashed.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: I mean honestly, it's like, I don't know I have
Speaker 1: a blue screen on my Apple.
Speaker 3: However, you even heard that? To be fair, how many
Speaker 3: people do you know? How Apple compared to the uh probably.
Speaker 1: Percentage would be only about five percent of the people
Speaker 1: that I know.
Speaker 3: I know one person that has an Apple really and
Speaker 3: I don't like him very much, and I don't talk
Speaker 3: to well because he well, I just don't like him.
Speaker 3: I just saw an Apple sitting at his desk. You know,
Speaker 3: someone's into like really into Apple if they've got an
Speaker 3: Apple laptop on their desk.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well my my using the graphics business, my
Speaker 1: co hosts for another project that I do has an
Speaker 1: Apple Mac and it's yeah. The only downside for me
Speaker 1: is like if I come across something really cool that
Speaker 1: I want him to be able to see, it's it's
Speaker 1: a little more of a challenge for me for him
Speaker 1: to be able to check it out. Exactly like Windows
Speaker 1: Media files. You know, I can't no quick time. It
Speaker 1: has to be quick time, and I'm sure there's a
Speaker 1: way he could do it, but you know, not that way.
Speaker 3: But in reverse, quick time works very well on PCs exactly.
Speaker 3: It's they just speaking. They're speaking a whole other language.
Speaker 3: But great machines, outstanding. But the second one, as far
Speaker 3: as leading the PC race, Uh, what do you think's
Speaker 3: top there?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 3: The IBM, you know type computers?
Speaker 1: Well I would I don't think it would be IBM.
Speaker 1: Uh problems to HP or is it? No? Not gayway?
Speaker 3: It would be Dell, Dell see Dell and then HP
Speaker 3: right after that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. People have asked me, Andy, what do you recommend
Speaker 1: when it comes to laptops? And I'm sorry I tell
Speaker 1: people Dell, I just do. Dell is a steady line.
Speaker 1: They seem to be, you know, on the ball when
Speaker 1: it comes to that, and there's so many different we're
Speaker 1: both using Dell's in here. Which what's your model?
Speaker 3: Mine's a Dell Latitude so they're a little older. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we have I don't on laptops, tell you the truth.
Speaker 3: I don't really always keep up to date. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: our other toys, our main computers at home, we're always
Speaker 3: tinkering with and always have the latest and greatest. But
Speaker 3: when it comes laptops for what you use them for, guys,
Speaker 3: you can get by with a one point five gig processor.
Speaker 1: Now, the other one I like process. The other one
Speaker 1: I like is Toshiba. Tshiba is very good. I like
Speaker 1: their wide screens, which is, uh that's kind of a
Speaker 1: neat thing to do. And and then probably uh Panasonic
Speaker 1: for its sturdiness, uh Panasonic handline. Then you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: I haven't looked into it for a while to see
Speaker 1: what they're doing with their tough books. But the tough
Speaker 1: books are generally I think what is what the military uses?
Speaker 1: These are like really sturdy, sturdy laptops. If you're somebody
Speaker 1: in the construction the construction trade, or you know, you're
Speaker 1: somebody that hauls this stuff everywhere you go. H tough
Speaker 1: book is something you would want to be thinking about.
Speaker 1: All right. We did get an email in it's just
Speaker 1: what is the name of the program you guys were
Speaker 1: mentioning last week for your home computer that causes all
Speaker 1: new windows to open full screen? Did we get the
Speaker 1: information on that?
Speaker 3: We did?
Speaker 1: Hold on, I think I have here. You sent me
Speaker 1: an email on this.
Speaker 3: I did, Yeah, we'll have that.
Speaker 1: It's called ie New Window Maximizer, that's right. And when
Speaker 1: you click a link that causes a new window to open,
Speaker 1: it always opens full screen.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it installs itself in the startup section of Windows
Speaker 1: so that it runs automatically. Uh. And there is a
Speaker 1: weblake here. It is it's www dot Jisoft Jiisoft dot com.
Speaker 1: And your friendly Anne sent you that information.
Speaker 3: So that you know she did, and I forward that
Speaker 3: to you and that it does work real well. I've
Speaker 3: seen it work on her machine.
Speaker 1: If you're somebody that's out there that it's looking. We
Speaker 1: got some emails this week from people who are looking
Speaker 1: to use their digital video camera and maybe do a
Speaker 1: little more with it and be able to because you know,
Speaker 1: now you can take all these images. And it used
Speaker 1: to be you'd throw them on a videotape and you'd
Speaker 1: throw them in a closet somewhere. Once in a while,
Speaker 1: you'd take them out when relatives came and you'd.
Speaker 3: Watch them exactly.
Speaker 1: But now people want to do so much more with
Speaker 1: their video cameras, and that includes editing, adding titles. And
Speaker 1: before the titles you would add would look really you know, cruddy,
Speaker 1: and you had to buy a character generator for eight
Speaker 1: hundred bucks. You know, Now you can do this stuff
Speaker 1: all with software on your PC. And Sony announced this
Speaker 1: week a new package that they're putting out, the Home
Speaker 1: Studio line from Sony Media Software and Sony believe it
Speaker 1: or not, develop some software for the high end, for
Speaker 1: the top end professional for video editing that you could
Speaker 1: use to create an entire you know, documentary, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to, you know, do a short film, you could
Speaker 1: actually do it using this software. Well, this software is
Speaker 1: geared more at the home consumer user, somebody with a
Speaker 1: video camera that wants to get a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of use out of that. The products are putting
Speaker 1: out is the Vegas Movie Studio plus DVD and what
Speaker 1: this does is allows you to import an edit video
Speaker 1: from a DVD. HANDICAM allows you real time audio and
Speaker 1: video event reverse. There's more tutorials as a part of
Speaker 1: this audio video synchronization, detect and repair. So in case
Speaker 1: it loses sync when you're bringing into the system.
Speaker 3: That's annoying, isn't it that happens?
Speaker 1: That happens, and the way to fix it usually as
Speaker 1: you describe it, or you can spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time to get it to match. Also native VST and
Speaker 1: DirectX audio plug and support. So if you run a
Speaker 1: high end or or I want to say, maybe even
Speaker 1: mid level audio editing programs that have DirectX features which
Speaker 1: give you sound effects like the flange and reverb and
Speaker 1: some of ney things, you can now input those into
Speaker 1: your video presentation.
Speaker 3: You use this, don't you like it?
Speaker 1: I use the high end program Vegas Video.
Speaker 3: What is this thing? Run?
Speaker 1: The product that they have out You can find out
Speaker 1: more information on the Sony website. But you can buy
Speaker 1: all three of the programs. I'm going to mention here
Speaker 1: for about one eight nine. Now for somebody who if
Speaker 1: you'd like to be able to use. You've gotten, You've
Speaker 1: spent you know, five six hundred dollars on this camera
Speaker 1: that has you know, FireWire and USB streaming, then this
Speaker 1: is something you want to be looking at because you've
Speaker 1: spent all that money. Now why not make it look
Speaker 1: really good in your PC. They've also as part of
Speaker 1: the package included Acid Music Studio and Acid Music Studio.
Speaker 1: Great program, very functional and allows you to create with
Speaker 1: beats you can buy and there's a huge Acid library
Speaker 1: that you can actually go online and purchase what they
Speaker 1: call beats and musical instruments and create music that you've done. Basically,
Speaker 1: you've done, You've laid out the sound and honestly you
Speaker 1: don't have to be have a music degree or really
Speaker 1: know how to play music to be able to put
Speaker 1: this stuff together.
Speaker 3: What kind of machine would you run this on? What's
Speaker 3: kind of the minimum?
Speaker 1: Then? You know, I would say at least a Pennium three.
Speaker 1: I mean I've been able to get the previous version
Speaker 1: of Acid to run on a Pennium three seven fifty,
Speaker 1: so you'd be fine with that. You have your memory,
Speaker 1: and also if you're gonna do any video editing, you
Speaker 1: want to have a lot of hard drive space. That
Speaker 1: is one thing you want to make sure you have.
Speaker 1: But with hard drives, you know, coming down and costs.
Speaker 1: You know, you buy one hundred and sixty gig by
Speaker 1: hard drive, you'd be fine, you know, and that's not
Speaker 1: that much money.
Speaker 3: I wanted to buy it. It's funny you mentioned that
Speaker 3: about a hard drive because I went in the other
Speaker 3: day to fix my brother's computer, which he conveniently didn't
Speaker 3: have plugged into a surge protector. Lives in the Midwest
Speaker 3: and they tend to have thunderstorms on occasion there, just
Speaker 3: on occasion. Yeah, no APC, no tripping, absolutely nothing, and
Speaker 3: it just took out the hard drive, just destroyed it.
Speaker 3: And I went out to he had a forty gig
Speaker 3: hard drive, which is fine for him. I want to
Speaker 3: have to try to buy a replacement, the smallest one
Speaker 3: that they sell in the store right now, just most
Speaker 3: generally at most stores, one hundred and sixty gig to start.
Speaker 3: So I looked around and went down to our friends
Speaker 3: down at s WUS and they set me up able
Speaker 3: to find an eighty gig.
Speaker 1: An eighty gigi, got a decent price on it.
Speaker 3: All bit exactly cool because he's not particularly savvy when
Speaker 3: it comes to computers, and I didn't want to have
Speaker 3: to go through one hundred sixty gig and partition the
Speaker 3: thing and all of that, because it's easier just to
Speaker 3: have it. Here's your sea drive there you go. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and that'll work out just fine for him. But one
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty gig the minimum you BUYO razing.
Speaker 1: But now now with three hundred it's becoming Uh.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: The problem is that in a lot of systems, like say,
Speaker 1: if you're installed XP, then you have to get you know,
Speaker 1: some kind of partitioning software to be able for it
Speaker 1: to see all of that. Because that that happened with
Speaker 1: me about a one, no, about a two hundred and
Speaker 1: only saw up to a certain amount. Then you'd have
Speaker 1: to I had to repartition it.
Speaker 2: And it was just it.
Speaker 1: Was a nightmare to make it do. If I if
Speaker 1: I was someone who didn't know what I was doing,
Speaker 1: which is most of the time, then you.
Speaker 3: Know, all right, exactly all right.
Speaker 1: To tell you about the other piece of software that's
Speaker 1: in this Sony.
Speaker 3: Package Tangent, Yeah, sorry, the.
Speaker 1: Sound Forge Audio Studio, uh, and the sound Forge Audio
Speaker 1: Studio basically everything you need to produce a professional quality
Speaker 1: audio on your home PC. So if you would like
Speaker 1: to speak into a microphone and record that audio and
Speaker 1: then have it mixed with some music you've created from
Speaker 1: the ACID Studio program, you can do that. So you
Speaker 1: can create a real nice narration and then lay it
Speaker 1: down on your video with the video editing software program.
Speaker 1: It's pretty neat one two three is what they're they're
Speaker 1: saying you could do it with you know, as far
Speaker 1: as uh set all this stuff up and going the
Speaker 1: price again one eighty nine to ninety five. And you
Speaker 1: can find more information at Sony's.
Speaker 3: Webs Is there a demo on that like a trialware?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 1: I believe you can and you check out Sony's website.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you can demo the stuff out of
Speaker 1: if it's fifteen days or thirty days, just to see
Speaker 1: how well it works. You may not be able to
Speaker 1: save your ACID projects, but at least you'll be able
Speaker 1: to lay the stuff down and see how it'll flow
Speaker 1: on your PC, which is really kind of a it's
Speaker 1: kind of a neat thing to see. It's good stuff.
Speaker 1: Also got some email from this is.
Speaker 8: As a Bubba Bubba Bubba Bubba listener out there, Bubba says,
Speaker 8: I'm thinking about learning how to create websites, and i'd
Speaker 8: like to have these websites have flash elements and other
Speaker 8: things like that on it.
Speaker 3: Macromedia studio, what could I get?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Macromedia got sold right or yes they did, yeah,
Speaker 1: by Adobe. Is it still available? Can you still purchase
Speaker 1: Macromedia Studio out now?
Speaker 3: I saw it in the store the other day. Oh good,
Speaker 3: Yes you can. Now if there's something that could be
Speaker 3: an old, old copy they have, but I saw it
Speaker 3: for sale right now.
Speaker 1: If they're maybe, if they're they're not well versed on
Speaker 1: how to use, you know, and create a website. What
Speaker 1: are some things that we could probably recommend that would
Speaker 1: make it a little easier.
Speaker 3: Well, you mean to do flash and all that sort
Speaker 3: of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I had a Macromedia Studio. Is is
Speaker 3: a little If you're a person that's used front Page
Speaker 3: and those type things to create websites before, Macromedia Studio
Speaker 3: is a whole different level. It's it is. It could
Speaker 3: be a little bit tough sometimes.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say front page is very easy.
Speaker 3: Page is great. I mean that if you want to
Speaker 3: throw together a website that looks really nice. Uh front
Speaker 3: page is very very user friendly. But that Macromedia studio
Speaker 3: that has flash and hash has uh what a shockwave
Speaker 3: and those type of things build in that just make
Speaker 3: just dynamic sites.
Speaker 1: That can be a chore that can Here's let me
Speaker 1: give you a link to try this one Www dot
Speaker 1: mixhfx dot com. And what they do is they provide
Speaker 1: a program that allow you to input your text and
Speaker 1: try different elements that are pre done and put it
Speaker 1: within a flash file and then save it out to
Speaker 1: your website. So you don't have to be a flash
Speaker 1: programmer to be able to do this. But that website
Speaker 1: again is www dot mix FX. That's FX dot com.
Speaker 1: It's our twenty year look back this week twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Well it's happening in the world of tech. We continue
Speaker 1: with more coming up on tech Talk Radio and now
Speaker 1: back to tech Talk Radio and now more of the
Speaker 1: twenty year look back this week in two thousand and
Speaker 1: five with tech Talk Radio. Here's this new product that
Speaker 1: allows you to watch TV over the internet.
Speaker 3: Now, like what kind of TV.
Speaker 1: We're talking television, your cable.
Speaker 3: Okay, so multiple channels.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm sitting here in a studio. I can
Speaker 1: log in to my my computer here on the notebook
Speaker 1: and fire up a program that's right on my desktop,
Speaker 1: and I can watch with TV at home. And I
Speaker 1: want I want to change a channel, I can change
Speaker 1: it right here from the remote the remote control.
Speaker 3: So like if you have all the cable channels, HBO
Speaker 3: or whatever the hell right, you can watch any of them.
Speaker 1: I can watch any of them and say I'm sitting
Speaker 1: in a hotel room and Washington, DC, and I want
Speaker 1: to watch HBO or watch something I captured on my DVR.
Speaker 1: This gives you the capability to do it over the internet.
Speaker 1: All you need is a broadband connection. And I got
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to Blake Gregory in last week.
Speaker 1: He's the CEO for a company called Sling Media. You're
Speaker 1: going to see a lot about this product. It was
Speaker 1: so popular in the first you know, when it first
Speaker 1: came out that flew off the shelves two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty bucks a pop. But you gotta find out what
Speaker 1: this technology is about. Here's the interview we did with
Speaker 1: Blake Grecory. Blake, I gotta tell you it's rare that
Speaker 1: I find a product that is going to keep me
Speaker 1: up till one o'clock in the morning, just playing around
Speaker 1: with it and reading about it and finding out why
Speaker 1: this is the coolest new technology.
Speaker 2: On the face of this planet.
Speaker 1: I might be stretching it a little there, but really
Speaker 1: streaming video has now come of age with sling Media, we.
Speaker 7: Think so as well. It's it's finally bringing I think
Speaker 7: a lot of the uh, the promise from from so
Speaker 7: many years to actual reality and in a pretty inexpensive
Speaker 7: and simple to use product.
Speaker 1: Now, tell us a little bit first about the company,
Speaker 1: sling Media. When was the company founded and was this
Speaker 1: your intention from the start?
Speaker 7: Yeah, so, so sling Media was was founded a little
Speaker 7: over a year ago, though actually we had been incubating
Speaker 7: the sling Box as well as a couple of other
Speaker 7: products for for the past several years. And uh, and
Speaker 7: our intention, you know, has been and continues to be
Speaker 7: a pretty grandiose, you know vision, and in what we
Speaker 7: really want to become is a new kind of consumer
Speaker 7: electronics company that's really focused on just delivering this great
Speaker 7: digital media experience is for consumers at real attractive price points.
Speaker 7: The way the Slingbox just just just for all the
Speaker 7: listeners out there, this you know, sling box, personal broadcaster. Basically,
Speaker 7: you take the product and you put it in your
Speaker 7: house and you plug whatever TV source you have into it.
Speaker 7: And whether that's I don't care if that's direct TV
Speaker 7: or a cable box or a TVO replay, whatever it is.
Speaker 7: And basically what we do is we we redirect that signal,
Speaker 7: that living room experience to wherever you happen to be
Speaker 7: in the world with a broadband net connection. Now, now
Speaker 7: there's plenty of different scenarios sitting in the office and
Speaker 7: watching TV back home. It's it's a wonderful thing to
Speaker 7: destroy office productivities in the workplace and uh, you know,
Speaker 7: actually today, for example, the PGA Golf Championship is on
Speaker 7: the first the first round and not sitting here, you know,
Speaker 7: in the in the office and uh and and tuned
Speaker 7: in and watching it and watching it through the weekend,
Speaker 7: you know, sitting on the on the on the couch
Speaker 7: in in my back in my backyard, I have a
Speaker 7: little little bungalow in the back and just sitting there
Speaker 7: watching it. I think there's plenty of different applications. Some
Speaker 7: people who just use this around the house, turning their laptop,
Speaker 7: any laptop into a wireless LCDTV that rooms around the home.
Speaker 7: That's how my wife uses it. She actually never uses
Speaker 7: the darn thing outside of the home.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: And we've got a TVO downstairs in the family room,
Speaker 7: and just about every single night now she's upstairs in
Speaker 7: our little office or just laying in bed, checking email
Speaker 7: and continuing to watch and control the TVO from downstairs.
Speaker 7: So there's a lot of just applications around the home.
Speaker 7: Same thing I had left for rook this morning, and
Speaker 7: what was the laptop doing. It was sitting there in
Speaker 7: the kitchen when we were getting the girls ready, our
Speaker 7: daughter's ready for camp. It's sitting there in the kitchen
Speaker 7: being a wireless TV and they're watching Teletubbies or something.
Speaker 7: I don't know what it was. But then clearly, you
Speaker 7: know you have the work applications people using it at
Speaker 7: work all the time, especially people who are even like
Speaker 7: news junkies who just have CNN or CNBC or something
Speaker 7: going on in the in the corner window. But then
Speaker 7: obviously the mobile professional person who's traveling, either either domestically
Speaker 7: or traveling abroad. Wherever you are in the world, with
Speaker 7: the broadband net connection, you can watch and control your
Speaker 7: living room TV.
Speaker 1: For example, say you're at a hotspot like maybe one
Speaker 1: of the coffee houses whatnot, and you don't want to
Speaker 1: watch what they're watching on TV.
Speaker 2: You can fire up and watch.
Speaker 1: Whatever you want and you that's the thing I think
Speaker 1: that's amazing about this. You're not stuck. And that's the
Speaker 1: question people ask me. They say, well, are you stuck
Speaker 1: with one channel?
Speaker 7: No? Yeah, not at all, I mean, And that's where
Speaker 7: That's where There's been a lot of a lot of
Speaker 7: streaming video services, and most of them have some monthly fees,
Speaker 7: but they also give you a very a subset of
Speaker 7: what you really want. The beautiful thing about this product
Speaker 7: is that it gives you exactly what your experience is
Speaker 7: in your living room. So all the channels all the
Speaker 7: same channel guide if you happen to have a DVR,
Speaker 7: gives you that DVR experience and watch pre recorded shows.
Speaker 7: You know. I'm a big Daily Show fan as an example,
Speaker 7: and I was traveling in Singapore a few weekends ago,
Speaker 7: and I got stuck there and I was sick of
Speaker 7: watching the you know, the darn you know, CNN World
Speaker 7: News in my hotel room or whatever or whatever. That
Speaker 7: is exactly exactly and I'm sitting there. I'm in a
Speaker 7: hotel room. I have broadband access actually was even free
Speaker 7: in my hotel. What did I do? I fired up
Speaker 7: my laptop and I logged into my TiVo back at
Speaker 7: my house and I watched in real time pre recorded
Speaker 7: shows of the Daily Show that I had from my
Speaker 7: from my living room TVO. The sling box itself has
Speaker 7: an infrared emitter or an infrared blaster. So what happens here?
Speaker 7: For example, I'm sitting here at work right now, and
Speaker 7: when I look at my sling Player that's on my laptop,
Speaker 7: my remote control that's on my client, on my sling
Speaker 7: Player client that's on my PC looks very different than yours.
Speaker 7: So mine, I actually have a real TVO, a direct
Speaker 7: TV TVO from remote control. Oh and I it looks
Speaker 7: exactly like the remote that I have back at my house.
Speaker 7: And I basically click a command like here, I'll click
Speaker 7: the TiVo button. And as I did that, what happens
Speaker 7: is my sling Player, my PC is sending a message
Speaker 7: back to the sling box, and the sling box is
Speaker 7: actually telling the TiVo to go issue this command. Nice,
Speaker 7: so you can just you know, control exactly whatever commands
Speaker 7: you have in your living room, you get you know,
Speaker 7: wherever you are.
Speaker 1: So if somebody wants to sit in their backyard and
Speaker 1: have coffee but still watch the news, well out being
Speaker 1: tied with being inside, they could do that with even
Speaker 1: a wireless connection exactly.
Speaker 7: I mean, how to be honest, The way that I
Speaker 7: use it the most is kicking back in the hot
Speaker 7: tub in the backyard with the with the laptop. I
Speaker 7: haven't lost the laptop of the water yet, but it does.
Speaker 7: It does work great and that and this is one
Speaker 7: of the things that you know, the product I think
Speaker 7: finally delivers on on what streaming video has promised for
Speaker 7: a while. The beauty of the sling box is that
Speaker 7: it worked in existing infrastructure. So most people have said, hey,
Speaker 7: you eto two eleven eto two eleven, b there's no
Speaker 7: way in heck you can you can stream video reliably
Speaker 7: over that signal. Well, in fact, our core technology, which
Speaker 7: we've we codenamed Lebowski, it's kind of now called slingstream.
Speaker 7: But the way that I want to keep calling it
Speaker 7: Lebowski because well, my marketing guy's fighting me on it,
Speaker 7: But Lebowski, Lebowski, that's what it is. The big Lebowski.
Speaker 7: So the way Lebowski works is we have core technology
Speaker 7: that's in the sling box is stream optimization technology that
Speaker 7: will dynamically adjust all automatically dynamically adjust the video bitrate
Speaker 7: in a vari video parameters to deliver a smooth video
Speaker 7: experience to the consumer, regardless of what network they're on,
Speaker 7: and regardless of what network congestions, network congestion or network
Speaker 7: conditions occur. At a certain point in time, Lebowski will
Speaker 7: automatically adjust the video so you see smooth video.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed that it was Now my upstream is
Speaker 1: only about three hundred and fifty six K, which is
Speaker 1: a basic cable, that's sure, and then my download here
Speaker 1: is one point five. I would assume that even with
Speaker 1: a greater upstream or even a greater download, it's going
Speaker 1: to look even.
Speaker 7: Clearer, even even clearer. And that's where there's there's consumers
Speaker 7: now that are getting really excited. You see on the
Speaker 7: forums guys that are going and upgrading their service. You know,
Speaker 7: like Comcast, as an example, has if you're in a
Speaker 7: Comcast area, I think you pay another ten dollars a
Speaker 7: month and you get I get seven hundred and sixty
Speaker 7: eight kilobits upstream. Boy, the quality you want to believe.
Speaker 7: And actually, one thing I'm really excited about this morning
Speaker 7: is that we just have an internal release of software
Speaker 7: that we'll be probably releasing next week sometime that actually
Speaker 7: bumps the speeds up when you're outside the house. So
Speaker 7: now I'm sitting here in my office right and I
Speaker 7: have theoretical seven hundred and sixty eight upstream, right, But
Speaker 7: usually you don't get anywhere close to that, right, Yeah,
Speaker 7: But actually, with this new firmware built, I'm sitting here
Speaker 7: right now watching seven hundred and forty kill a bit
Speaker 7: per second on average video coming out of my house.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 7: The quality is just it's it's actually pretty darn good.
Speaker 2: Well, it has a lot of practicality.
Speaker 1: The other the other benefit too is you know I
Speaker 1: can stream video, I can stream audio from my home.
Speaker 2: I have no problem streaming audio.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, setting it up and trying to explain
Speaker 1: to somebody how to set it up can really be
Speaker 1: quite a challenge streaming video.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even think about it.
Speaker 1: But this makes it all very easy, step by step
Speaker 1: and has a well laid out guide the software to
Speaker 1: install on the host and of course your your laptop
Speaker 1: or wherever you're going to be working at. Now, can
Speaker 1: you install it on multiple you know, I want to
Speaker 1: say client PCs that you know you won't have one
Speaker 1: on the laptop, maybe another one in the house.
Speaker 7: Yes, absolutely you can. You can install the sling Player
Speaker 7: client on on a countless number of PCs. Now, So
Speaker 7: for I have a desktop PC here at work, and
Speaker 7: I have the sling Player loaded there, and I have
Speaker 7: you know, we have a couple of laptops in our house.
Speaker 7: All you need is your sling Finder ID, which each
Speaker 7: sling box has its own unique ID. You need the
Speaker 7: Slingfinder I d in your password and you can get
Speaker 7: in and watch it. And eventually in the coming months
Speaker 7: will actually be showing and announcing support for other devices.
Speaker 7: So now imagine you have your sling Player on your PDA,
Speaker 7: we're on your cell phone, and you'll be able to
Speaker 7: watch and control your sling box and your TV from
Speaker 7: from a handheld device.
Speaker 1: Well, that was going to be one of my next questions,
Speaker 1: and I noticed the company is very sharp. You're calling
Speaker 1: it sling Media. But the benefit I see here also
Speaker 1: is you know, I talk about streaming audio. Is somebody
Speaker 1: who wants to have this capability with radio not every
Speaker 1: radio station is streamed over the internet, and somebody who
Speaker 1: is in maybe stuck in Florida working for three weeks.
Speaker 2: Is that something we might see down the line.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well there's well there's two things. One, there's nothing
Speaker 7: precluding you from just cooking up an a MFM radio
Speaker 7: to the to the slingbox right now, so you could
Speaker 7: sling your your audio no problem. The one thing that
Speaker 7: we have thought about is maybe just coming out with
Speaker 7: a dedicated product that maybe just did radio. But a
Speaker 7: simple thing is right now, take an AM FM radio
Speaker 7: and receiver and plug it into the slingbox and away
Speaker 7: you go.
Speaker 1: What's the minimum requirements they're going to have to have
Speaker 1: to be able to get the most out of the
Speaker 1: sling box experience.
Speaker 7: Sure, so, so we first off, actually along the lines
Speaker 7: of listening to our customers, we just released a new
Speaker 7: version of the sling Player that also works on Windows
Speaker 7: two thousands. A lot of our a lot of our
Speaker 7: early customers were screaming at us for not supporting two
Speaker 7: K because a lot of people have still their work
Speaker 7: PCs that are on two K. So we're Windows two thousand,
Speaker 7: Windows XP. What we what we do say is you
Speaker 7: need a Pentium four equivalent. I think at a I
Speaker 7: think at a giggahertz is what we say. But but
Speaker 7: we've had people that have been using on you know,
Speaker 7: on on lower end celerons Pentium three laptops that were
Speaker 7: running at five hundred megahertz. It basically, if you can
Speaker 7: stream an audio video file like from Windows Media Player
Speaker 7: from the Internet and you and you're happy with that
Speaker 7: with that level of of of CPU utilization, sleen Player
Speaker 7: will work just great.
Speaker 1: If our listeners want to get more information about Sling
Speaker 1: Media Blake, where can they go, Well.
Speaker 7: They can first off go to our website which is
Speaker 7: www dot slingmedia dot com. And again the product is
Speaker 7: available nationwide in all Best Buy and all CompUSA stores.
Speaker 7: We actually had had sold out when we released the
Speaker 7: product that went on and they went really really fast,
Speaker 7: and now we're we're happy to say that that we've
Speaker 7: we've caught back up and I think over ninety ninety
Speaker 7: something percent of the stores now should should have product
Speaker 7: in stock.
Speaker 1: So I know I'm going to have to get this
Speaker 1: unit back because I know the media pool is clamoring
Speaker 1: to get a look at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to pry it handy.
Speaker 7: Well, thanks a lot, and we're really glad you enjoy
Speaker 7: it and it's been great also. I mean there's places
Speaker 7: to go that we have even links on our website
Speaker 7: that bring you to places like AVS forums, some other
Speaker 7: community third party forums cool where you can see for
Speaker 7: yourself how consumers are using it and how delighted they've been.
Speaker 7: You know, we really want to do things differently here
Speaker 7: at Slings. We want to be a real sort of
Speaker 7: approachable company and really transparent and you know, we're a
Speaker 7: bunch of consumers here and we want consumers to know
Speaker 7: that we just want to provide just great experiences and
Speaker 7: you know, well we'll have places where we fall short,
Speaker 7: and there's places where we can improve the product, but
Speaker 7: we want to listen to our customer base and and
Speaker 7: be again really transparent about it.
Speaker 1: Blake or Corey and CEO of Sling Media, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show with us.
Speaker 2: You sound like a cool guy. You're ever in two
Speaker 2: son love take you out for beer?
Speaker 7: Hey, that sounds like a plan. I've been I've been
Speaker 7: known to travel places for for free beers.
Speaker 4: There you go. Good deal.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll keep an eye on the company once again.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you, and we'll have more of tech talk
Speaker 1: Radio standing by and now factor tech talk Radio.
Speaker 2: I do hope you've.
Speaker 1: Enjoyed kind of a look back twenty years ago this
Speaker 1: week two thousand and five. That's what tech talk Radio
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