CNET Live: August 14, 2008 Video
CNET Live: August 14, 2008 Video Transcript
[ Music ] ^M00:00:06
>> Coming up on CNET Live how to boost the battery life on your iPhone.
>> Plus the download of the week helps you keep track of your computer drivers.
>> And we'll talk to DJ WWiij that's his real name. And we'll hear about how he's using Wiimotes to make music mixes. That's all coming up right here on CNET Live. ^M00:00:24 [ Music ] ^M00:00:31
>> Hello again it's CNET Live. Boy we keep musical chairs going around here. This week it's me Brian Cooley. I'm back and Tom's out and here's Donald Bell.
>> Woo.
>> Hello Donald.
>> There's nowhere else I would rather be than right here.
>> Good to hear that from you.
>> Yes.
>> So this is a great day to call with your music, Media Player, or Media service questions because that's what the man's all about, Mr. Music and Media. So this is a great day to call with those, or whatever's on your mind, 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638. Remember the calls free. I'm not sure we always point that out. But, it's a free call with free advice, that's about what it's worth.
>> We should start charging for that maybe.
>> Oh I don't know about that. Let's get the quality of the answers up first. Alright, you'll talk to Jamie when you call in and then she'll get you and put you through to us and we'll take your calls right here. But before we start those though let's look at a couple of things that Donald and I crave.
>> Woo. [ Music ]
>> Okay this is all coming at you from the CRAVE blog over at crave.cnet.com. I'm craving a ThinkPad this week Donald.
>> Why not?
>> Well I've got to ThinkPad and I use this little guy this X40 which is very limited not even a built in optical drive. So, it's just a lightweight. This is the opposite. This is Lenovo's first desktop replacement laptop machine. What I'm pointing out on it here is a 17 inch display, so it's a big monitor. And you've got your usual TrackPad, which I hate. But then, right next to it, check that out, that bigger four by three is one of those drawing tablets.
>> You got the wide screen TrackPad.
>> Yeah it's a digitizer TrackPad for doing artistic stuff. And a lot of folks like to use the pen as their mouse. And then right on the keyboard there I see a numpad built in which is kind of unusual for these guys.
>> Nothing more artistic than a numpad, you know.
>> Exactly. So, the, the big spacious machine for the accountant.
>> Or the artist.
>> Yeah it's all there. These are about 3,000 bucks and up. These are not cheap machines because they're, they're well horse powered as well. But, it's a first for Lenovo. I love ThinkPads.
>> It's a nice machine. I think it's probably a little too wide for, for.
>> It's a big boy.
>> It's a big boy. But, no it looks like it's got a nice, nice wide screen on there too.
>> Big old boy.
>> I am a little worried about that TrackPad though there's got to be a way to disable that maybe, or.
>> The Drawing Pad is right where your wrist would go, right.
>> Yeah.
>> So that, yeah there's got to be a way to turn that off. And even if you do have it off you're still putting on a ware on it every day without using it because you're just leaning on it. So, we'll see how that works.
>> The artist lifestyle, I'm sure they'll try and work around it. Yeah.
>> Yes of course.
>> Well I've got the JamVOX, which is a USB audio interface made by VOX the amplifier company.
>> Oh VOX.
>> Yeah like the.
>> Yeah.
>> Clapton's VOX amplifiers, right.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, so it's, it's a new take on that. It's an audio interface for your laptop that gets audio in and out. You can plug your guitar in. You can plug your mike in. You can get audio out of it. It's got built in speakers. It's like a little, having a little amp right by your computer.
>> It's like a little digital Pignose.
>> Yeah that's right exactly. But, the trick on this one is that it comes with software that lets you strip out the guitar part, like the lead guitar part of whatever song you want to kind of do a karaoke guitar part over, so.
>> Oh, so it's a lead eliminator compared to what we used to have those vocal eliminators.
>> Right.
>> Which are still out there.
>> So, it's, it's pretty neat.
>> Really.
>> Also comes with a bunch of like guitar amp, like immolation software so you can get, have like different kinds of.
>> The cool sounds.
>> [Inaudible] amps.
>> The fuzz the grime whatever it is.
>> Yeah the different effects and all that. So, it also just looks really cool to have next to your computer.
>> It looks bad.
>> Yeah.
>> So this is the same VOX the people who make the legendary amps.
>> The same VOX.
>> That gives it some creds.
>> It's about 350 dollars.
>> Yeah.
>> So, you're paying a little bit for it, but.
>> It's not, it's not a creative product.
>> No.
>> It's definitely a little higher price.
>> No, but, I think for the fun of being able to mangle your favorite songs.
>> Yeah.
>> You know.
>> Yeah with your own lousy lead.
>> Yeah.
>> Why not?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Let's get to your phone calls. Let's play lead phone here. I want to go to Vincent who's in Portland and see what he's got, grappling with in the area of Blu-ray playback. Hello Vincent welcome to CNET Live. You're on with Donald Bell and me Brian Cooley.
>> Thanks.
>> What's your?
>> So much.
>> Go ahead.
>> My issue is I have a Dell 30 inch panel, the 3008 and every time I try and plug up Blu-ray playback I have to load the resolution to 1920 by 1080. That is a need of resolution of 2650 by 1600.
>> Ha, yeah, two things are going on. First of all, for best resolution you wouldn't want to watch that Blu-ray disc above 1080 in terms of the vertical lines because then it has to kind of roughly interpolate each dot of picture to cover a dot and a fraction of your monitor. So, somewhere your graphics card, I think, pardon me, is making a decision to, and the driver of your Blu-ray drive are working together to say this is a certain resolution output and we're not going to let it get stressed because it would look ugly if you did that. Now, I know you want to fill the screen. So, I don't think it's your monitor. I think what we're looking at here is something in your graphics subsystem. Do you have a stock graphics card in there or did you hotrod that?
>> Nope I'm running on 8800 BT512 which is dual.
>> Yeah.
>> Compatible.
>> Yeah, right, right good card. Yeah it's not your monitor. There's something going on with the actual sensing of the source. And I don't know exactly. What kind of machine do you have?
>> I have a custom built.
>> Okay.
>> With an E, Intel E8400.
>> Yeah.
>> With two gigs of ram.
>> Yeah this is something to do with the system sensing the source and then the graphics card putting out. And I don't know enough about Blu-ray playback on machine, maybe one of our users does in terms of whether that's being throttled to a certain resolution, which is the correct resolution. You're watching it the way it should be watched. When you stretch it.
>> I hoping to run it in the window form though.
>> Oh, so, so it'll only play in a 1080 height. It won't play smaller or bigger?
>> It won't play either. I just get an error message that says you need to lower your resolution down.
>> Okay, and, and then it fills the screen because the screen has gone to 1080 as its res.
>> Yes.
>> Or the card has gone to 1080.
>> I also run into the same issue when I'm trying to stream my instant cue from Netflix. I have to lower the resolution down as well.
>> Hum, yeah something going on in your graphics subsystem. That's not a, I don't think that's a monitor thing. Let's put it out to the, to the callers here today. If anyone has an idea on this give us a call. It's early in the show, probably get some help on that. It's fairly machine specific. So, stand by, keep watching the show, and I bet we get some input on that from the users. Let's go now to talk here about websites on Apple services. We've got Steven calling in from Fresno at 888-900-CNET, got some lines open by the way. Hey Steven, welcome to CNET's CNET Live.
>> Yeah.
>> What's on your mind?
>> Alright, I'm [inaudible] to MacMedia in September and I want to start like a little website. Will MobileMe like work for that if I have a domain? And will it work with iWeb?
>> Okay, so what did we, what did we figure out here Don? We were mauling this around before the show.
>> It, I don't think that in the same way Dot and Mac did that MobileMe is going to be a great place for you to host a sight. So, I think what you're probably looking at is using iWeb. If you like the way iWeb works, finding a third party hosting service something like GoDad, and there's tons of them out there.
>> Yeah.
>> And building your pages and uploading them and managing them in iWeb.
>> Right.
>> The other thing you could do, I mean, if you're just trying to build like a basic little website and get it up and running, there's some services out there that can just do that for you. I mean, something even like Blogger is.
>> Yeah.
>> Is one for building a basic little site, but.
>> And GOOGlE's got a pretty simple web building tool. I forget what the ERL is now but they have, I've used that for some quickies. What, what kind of site are you going to be putting up?
>> Like, maybe like a journalism page, like, for a school.
>> Oh, okay. And do you need people to collaborate or is it just going to be your stuff you're publishing?
>> Collaborate.
>> Alright, so, that's going to be dicey because iWeb and MobileMe are not set up for, you know, collaborative, you know, oh you can share an account obviously if you give the credentials out. But, that's not the same as really collaborating. So, you know, I think iWeb is still dependant of MobileMe as I understand it.
>> Yeah.
>> There's no web hosting in MobileMe per say. There's content hosting and file storage and synchronization.
>> Yeah.
>> And then you want to take whatever URL you've got and point it to your, sounds like you've already been on iWeb, your existing iWeb page. But, I don't think you're going to find that MobileMe is going to, as far as we know, offer true web hosting.
>> Yeah, I think it's, it's going to be much more of a personal management of your information.
>> Yeah.
>> In the cloud but it's not really a hosting site.
>> Yes, okay, let's do, here we go, I know this always works. We've got Andre in Ontario with a question or a comment about our first question about the Blu-ray resolution we had on that Dell machine. So, Andre in Ontario thanks for calling. Help us out here. What was the problem on his machine?
>> Well, basically I, well hi by the way I love sure show anyway.
>> Thank you.
>> Basically I think the problem might be what he's playing it in. I'm assuming if he's using Windows he's playing it in the regular Windows Media Player, which I believe uses some sort of directional render. I don't really know the specifics but what he could try is downloading something called Media Player Classic. And it's an alternative Media Player that you can use. And, in the settings, in the output settings you can actually output using Direct X and that usually fixes any kind of interpolation and scaling issues. So, you should be able to run it at full resolution full screen.
>> Good point, good point. Okay so yeah that's called, what's it called Media Player Classic?
>> Media Player Classic yes.
>> Okay didn't know about that one. That's great. Andre thanks, appreciate the, appreciate the input on that one. I love to get an answer from the users for the users. Here's an iPhone question Donald about.
>> Oh great.
>> It sounds like Star Trek meets iPhone. Evan in Maine what's your question for us here on CNET Live?
>> I bought the Invisible Shield for my iPhone and.
>> The Invisible Shield I'm in the Invisible Shield.
>> No I know what he's talking about.
>> Hit me Donald I bet you can't I've got an invisible shield around me, oh sorry.
>> There's no way to get you out. Please don't, don't mind Brian go on.
>> And like, I was wondering like, I'm streaming videos and its one straight piece that goes along with like the button and the speaker slot. And the button piece look like, it's, it's split apart from the, actually in, on the videos it doesn't look like it did that to most people, on mine it split apart and it. Should it have done that and should I have applied the button piece separately or should it, should I have done the entire thing just like a full sheet of it?
>> A lot of folks use that Invisible Shield in fact.
>> Yeah.
>> Everyone I know that has an iPhone is using it.
>> Yeah, I mean I.
>> Everyone.
>> Yeah I think that there's something to that. I don't know how much is going to, it's a glass, glass front on the iPhone anyway.
>> Yeah.
>> So, you should be pretty okay wit scratching. But, as far as the little button piece, I don't think it should be splitting. I'm not sure how well that's, I mean the buttons recess, at least we're talking about.
>> Yeah.
>> The menu button on the iPhone.
>> Yeah.
>> Anyways, you shouldn't have to worry too much about that becoming scratched or warn out. It's probably going to become grimy after a while.
>> Right.
>> Talking out it all day.
>> Yeah so, so it's not the, yeah if you get scratches on it is your biggest issue. So, the piece that covers the button is what broke away, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, it shouldn't it shouldn't have broken away. I don't have one in front of me here to kind of poke with it and see why that happened. But, it's probably the, it's probably not a big problem. But if you're bugged by it, it probably didn't sound like it should've. So, that would be our guess is take it back if you can.
>> Yeah.
>> Alright, more of your calls coming up 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638. We have two lines open right now. So, jump on that. Coming up Jimmy Lesondak to show off his WiiJ skills here in the studio. But first Creative has been responsible for some of the most popular non iPod MP3 Players out there. And here's Jasmine France with a look at one of their latest and most interesting the Zen X-Fi. [Music]
>> Hi I'm Jasmine France senior associate editor for CNET.com and I'm here today with the Creative Zen X-Fi. Now this is Creative's follow up to the Zen. And, it adds a couple of really cool features we should talk about. But first the design, it's a thoroughly sleek design. One think that we don't like about is that it's plastic rather than metal. But, we'll kind of forgive that and I'll explain later. It's just got a silver back and then a black front. Now, at first, the controls might seem a little bit confusing because there's actually a nine digit control pad on the front here. And now, you don't really use the four outer keys right away. What that allows Creative to do is have add on apps that might need an iDigit Keypad in the future. Really you're just using the five main controls, the directional controls, which is pretty easy to get the hang of once you know what you're doing. You also have a play pause button, a shortcut button, a back button, and a contextual menu button here. On the side there's a standard mini USB and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. And if you flip it over onto the back that's actually where you'll find the power and hold switch, and then finally on the top you have your pinhole mike and FD card expansion slot. Another thing that adds value are these new in ear Creative headphones that they're including with the 16 gigabyte and 32 gigabyte versions of the player. Now, these will be a 50 dollar value if sold separately. So, we really like that. Finally there's two new features on this player that we haven't seen in the line and that is the Integrated X Fi sound effects. So, you can use the X Fi Crystallizer and Sound Opener on this. And of course it has built in Wi-Fi for the 16 gigabyte and 32 gigabyte versions. Now the reason we're willing to forgive the kind of cheap feeling construction is because this player is an incredible value. The 16 gigabyte version runs for 199 and the 32 gigabyte version for 279. There's also an eight gigabyte version without the Wi-Fi for 149. But you're getting a ton of features in a pretty compact package and at a great price point. So, you know, we can kind of forgive the lack of metal. I'm Jasmine France and this has been the Creative Zen X-Fi. [ Music ]
>> Alright, okay, we've got a big treat for all you Nintendo Wii fans and music fans out there. Joining me today is Jimmy Lensondak, one of the, also known as DJ WiiJ correct.
>> Yes.
>> Alright and.
>> Thanks for having me.
>> It's good to have you on, it's, you've developed a WiiMote DJ system.
>> Yeah I, I was messing around with some of the Wii hacks that people were doing, kind of a mouse on the screen and stuff. And I had just opened up my DJ software I was using at the time and was kind of, you know, doing point and click kind of mixing. And it started working, you know, actually pretty well. And I kind of came up with the idea, well what if I could, you know map out the buttons and kind of some of the movement and control different aspects on the software?
>> So, you're using an off the shelf DJ.
>> Right.
>> Software here. But you're using the WiiMote controls in order to, to cue up tracks and cut and scratch.
>> Yea.
>> You want to show as little bit about it.
>> Yeah. It's connected through Bluetooth and so anybody can pretty much do it. And, you know, I all the basic controls are in there. I can scroll through different tracks, I can, you know, pick a track if I need to key something fast forward or even kind of slow. Starting is the clicking motion and then I can, from there you know you do other kind of stuff like mixing another song or, you know, cross fade between two stuff, setting up effects kind of the same thing. You can tweak the different knobs by twisting your wrist and holding down the button combination. It's, it's pretty, you know, customizable as far as what you want to do.
>> Sure.
>> And what you kind of.
>> I'm looking at your WiiMotes here looks like, have you, you built out the little.
>> Yeah. I actually had a friend take out the little screen that was there.
>> Yeah.
>> And kind of put in some LEDS that run off the batteries so.
>> So that's not necessary for doing this.
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's.
>> It's for performance.
>> It actually kills sort of the function because there's no IR function anymore.
>> Yeah.
>> With the bright light and so we just.
>> Well the just look cooler.
>> Yeah, yeah. But in pictures you'll see like streams of light and stuff.
>> Sure.
>> But actually kind of looks better than I thought it was going to.
>> Yeah I'm sure especially I mean, so you're performing like this.
>> Yeah.
>> How well is that being received?
>> It's going pretty good. I've played in San Francisco a few times at the DNA Lounge. And I'm actually going up to Quebec on Sunday to play up there for Ubisoft.
>> Yeah.
>> So.
>> And this is, this is strictly the way that you're DJing. Were you a DJ before.
>> Yeah I was and I had, I had started from vinyl. I went up to CD player and then kind of onto the computer and I had a mini controller that wasn't even made for DJing with it just, you know, I kind of functioned it all out to do what I wanted it to do and started messing around with this. And I realized, you know, these work a lot better than.
>> Yeah.
>> This thing I men I can do whatever I want with this practically.
>> Well explain to me, it seems like it's really personalized the way that you work, like you've got every single motion the way that you turn the controller.
>> It is.
>> Doing something I can imagine it train wrecking really easily too.
>> Well, like with the software I used to code it, which is called GovePie, you know, you can, you can set any parameter you want to do whatever. And there's people out there that, I made a website DJWiiJ.com and people have went on there and got, you know, like the idea of doing the WiiJing but wrote their own scripts, even used different software to do, you know, the same kind of stuff. And so, it's pretty, you know, limitless of what you, you know, what you want to do if you want to change this to something else.
>> If someone wanted, if someone wanted to get started in doing this they go and get that, that GlovePie software?
>> They would get GlovePie, they could pick up a demo of a Traktor if they want to, you know, just see how it works.
>> Yeah.
>> And go to DJWiiJ.com and I have all the information on there with kind of starting kind of scripts and stuff.
>> Right.
>> For them to try, you know, try it out for themselves.
>> Cool, so I also saw on your site, there is, there is kind of like a Beta version of you working with this to scratch.
>> Yeah I had, I had found out a way that I could do some scratching and it almost works the same way as the as this movement but where it would be like I could cut in and out of the audio and kind of move back and forth. And it worked but it was kind of still like, like you said like a Beta like.
>> Yeah.
>> You wouldn't necessarily want to rely on it in like a live show or anything yet. I think, I think the thing will be is if a software company, you know, customizes their software to work with WiiMotes.
>> Sure.
>> Then things could get a lot better I mean, like eve with Ableton with the know turning I have to code it way different to turn knobs on this one than on Ableton.
>> Yeah.
>> And so, it's a lot of software, you know.
>> Sure.
>> Holding stuff back as opposed to, you know the WiiMotes.
>> Still seems like a fun thing to start playing around with.
>> It is, it is, and if anybody's, you know, interested in kind of just messing around with DJing and stuff it's not too hefty of an investment.
>> Alright well, DJ WiiJ thank you so much for coming.
>> Yeah thank you for having me.
>> And showing us what you got going on. Alright and coming up next we've got the download of the week right after this. [ Music ]
>> When Jack left for college he said he'd major in communication. But, they worried. Fortunately he had a good advisor. Best Buy live happier. [ Duck sounds ]
>> Brian Tong says he knows product.
>> Film.
>> But when he should be sitting at a lab desk what is he really doing? Dancing laughing and sub talk, you'll even find him in bed. Get the message Brian Tong. Product evaluation is not supposed to be a good time. [Inaudible] are not allowed to leave the lab. ^M00:19:31 [ Music ] ^M00:19:49
>> Okay welcome back to CNET Live. We both mixing there kind of cool.
>> Yeah I think I'm going to try that out.
>> I mean how much stuff he dives into on that interface. There's a lot going on Traktor it's just all over.
>> I just like, I like the Glow Stick like LEDs are.
>> You just want the LEDs, aright, keep those calls coming. Keep Don and Leonard sane. Both phones are open 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638. But first it's time for the download of the week. [ Music ]
>> Okay our download of the week is great for all you out there who are constantly hacking and smiddling and that would be the CNET Live audience. Would it? We get so many calls about how do I manage my drivers? How do I keep them in one place? I lost one. Where can I find the right one? Yada, yada, yada. This is a tool that's part of the answer. It's called Driver Magician Lite. And the Magician's kind of an over sell. It should be called Driver Backup Lite because that's really all it does.
>> It doesn't look as flashy as what a Magician.
>> Right.
>> Application.
>> I want to see some stardust and a pointy hat. But what it does is it finds all the drivers on your system automatically and then backs them up in one click. No hunting around through all those tears of directories you have to do this manually. I can't speak for whether or not it found every driver on my machine because I have it like you know burnt my machine down and rebuilt it to find out the hard way. But it found a large amount of them here. I mean I'm going through a long, long list, looks pretty thorough. And all you have do is hit select all down here for example. It checks them all off, start your backup. And you can tell it where to back them up. So, you can back them up to a pin drive for example which would probably be the most logical thing and have all your drivers on the USB drive then burn your drive down and reinstall and know that every key fiddly little driver you had to work so hard to locate is safe and sound because you've got the right version on your backup source. That's kind of cool. That is Driver Magician Lite. Okay, back to your calls at 888-900-CNET. Let's go into, this is an interesting thing here. We're on a Blu-ray kick today. Cory is in Maryland. Hi Cory welcome to CNET Live with Donald and Brian. What can we answer for you? You've got, turn your computer speakers down there buddy. Turn them down Corey, we're on a huge delay. There we go. Okay Corey what can we answer you about? You've got a Blu-ray question for us I understand.
>> Yeah I went into Circuit City the other day and I saw this nice Samsung [inaudible] it was like 60 inch five series.
>> Okay.
>> LTD. And it had a Blu-ray toy attached to it.
>> Okay.
>> And it looked really sharp. They were playing I think it was Hancock or something.
>> Okay.
>> And I was wondering I really [inaudible] where there's not a discernable difference between a 1080 and a 720P television. If I buy a 720 am I going to get the same picture?
>> Well, if you buy a 720 and you hook up Blu-ray deck to it you're going to lose some resolution because a Blu-ray Player is 1080P. And that's the nice thing about Blu-ray. It gives you the highest resolution and the progressive scan which is the most ambitious way to put the picture out right now. In experience though, I can tell you, my HDTV's are all 720s. I don't have a Blu-ray Player. I do use and Up Converting Player which is set to 1080 output. So, it's simulating 1080. It looks real good, but yeah, it depends how much you're into the picture versus how much you're into the movie.
>> Right.
>> If you're into the movie and you want it just to look great, it'll look great on a 720. If you're a video file you're going to notice the difference especially if you go to your friend's house and he's got 1080 monitor and a 1080 source.
>> I don't think it's worth investing in a Blu-ray Player if you're not going to be taking advantage of the 1080P.
>> Yes.
>> I think that's the bottom line.
>> Yeah.
>> If you, especially if you spend 80 bucks on an up scaling DVD player.
>> Yeah up scaling DVD players are great. And if you're buying a new TV right now to go the other direction I don't know that you should break the bank to go for 1080 especially if you're getting a scorching deal on a 720 but it has to be a scorching deal. If it's a just okay deal go 1080 because 720 is going to kind of fall off the back of the pack sooner or later the world is moving toward 1080s. So that's your smarter investment. But if you can get a really wicked deal on a 720 it's going to look really good. Don't sweat that. Okay let's go down to, here's a question here about photography. This one may get us into a lot of trouble. We've got Steven in Toronto calling in. Hi Steven welcome to CNET Live.
>> Hi thank you.
>> What's on your mind?
>> I have an Olympus Digital SR camera. And I just recently purchased it. And I will eventually want to get more lenses. But I haven't decided like down the road I might want to get a real expensive Cannon Body.
>> Yeah.
>> So, can I buy Cannon lenses for this camera?
>> Yeah, you would need an adapter. And I scoured around for a few minutes because we saw your call coming in and what you were going to ask there. I haven't been able to find any that go that way that take Olympus, that take Cannon lenses and put them onto an Olympus DSLR body. I find them to go the other way. But not that go the direction you want to go. I haven't had an exhaustive search. But I don't think it's out there. My hunch is, let's face it, Olympus is not the big dog in photography right now. So, there probably is not this huge market for folks buying Olympus bodies and wanting to use Cannon lenses. You know, Olympus kind of becoming a sideline player in the space, great good cameras, but they're not ending up being top of the stack. So, I couldn't find any so no. And you have to realize that when you do adapt digital camera lenses aside from the electronic contacts you also need to know if it's a four thirds lens or not because moving four third lenses to non four thirds bodies or vice versa is a mess if not impossible. So, that could be part of the reason there also. Let's go to the one here that has to do with a GoGear device.
>> Alright I've been reviewing a lot of these recently.
>> Yeah I've noticed that. And hopefully you can help this guy out. This is Shawn in New Jersey. Shawn welcome to CNET Live. You've got Mr. Music here.
>> Yea you sound really enthusiastic about that. Alright what can I do for you Shawn?
>> I, I got my, the Philips GoGear two months ago. And recently, it's been working find for two months, but recently it, when you plug it into the computer the computer doesn't recognize it's there so it can't charge or it can't put, put music on.
>> Yeah that, well that sounds like a bum deal. I, I don't know, if it's been working before and now it's not working I would, my first instinct would be to backup the music you've got on it and reformat the player to see if maybe somehow it got corrupted.
>> How, how do you, how do you reformat the player though? What do you do?
>> It's not even being recognized. You should, I'm thinking that there, in the settings menu of a lot of the GoGear Players there should be a an erase or a reformat option. But, if you're not finding that you might be out of luck. I think that's there though. There should be a, an erase disc or a reformat option that would just wipe it clean from the device. If not, you know, I would try to connect you to a different computer, even connecting it to a Mac of all things and using Disc Utility to erase it. Somehow it's going to be recognized on some computer. If it's not I would just get a new one, you know that, if it's not being recognized.
>> Yeah it might just have something fried in the hardware. So I assume you've tried different computers and different USB cables right.
>> Right thanks.
>> So, that's not it yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Sound like you've got to try and wipe it from inside its own menu and then do this.
>> Yeah, and have you tried booting up Windows Media Player.
>> Yeah he's gone now. So, hopefully he can work it out with the internal formats and bring it up.
>> I'm optimistic.
>> Donald's optimistic, boy I'm feeling better. Steven writes into CNET Live at CNET.com this week to ask. I love my new iPhone when it's not dead. I have to carry the charger around with me all day every day. I've heard this before. What can I do to keep the battery fresh, well at least fresher? Brian Tong has some answers for you today and for a lot of people on today's insider secret.
>> If you're like me, you love your new iPhone 3G. But, you're not really loving its battery life. I'm Brian Tong with CNET.com. In this insider secret, I have a bunch of tips that will help you maximize your iPhone 3G's batter life. ^M00:27:50 [ Music ] ^M00:27:58 Now, you can use some of these or all of these. So, it's really your call. And one other thing, most of these tips work with the original iPhone as well. Now, we know what uses most of your battery and it's the 3G. Now, 3G coverage is still limited. So, if it's not crucial turn it off and you can go into the settings, general, and the network to switch it off. You can also turn off the WiFi because when it's left on your iPhone is constantly looking to join new networks. Go to settings, then WiFi and turn it off here. But, you should know that if you browse the web frequently WiFi uses less power than surfing over the cellular data networks. You can also minimize the use of location surfaces because applications like Maps that actively use location surfaces use more juice. So, in your settings go to general and you'll find the option to turn off location services right here. Now, another power saver is turning off Push Mail and fetching data less frequently. The Push feature is set by default so that your iPhone gets your emails every time a new one comes in. But, do you really need every email instantly? Well, you can turn the Push services off and have your phone fetch for data less frequently. To set this go into settings, then click on fetch new data, and from here you can turn the push feature off. And then you can set how often you want your phone to fetch your email. Now, you can also click on advance to set different fetching options for your different email accounts. So, that's pretty cool. Now, what else? Turn of your Bluetooth if you're not using it. I know it's a pain for me to go into my settings every time I get in and out of my car. But, leaving Bluetooth on the entire day uses your battery. So, go to settings then general then Bluetooth to change this option. Now, if you're in a low or no coverage area switch the iPhone to airplane mode. In these type of areas the phone is actively searching for cellular networks. And switching to airplane modes will save you more juice. Now, here's one I didn't really think of initially but you guys can turn off the vibration feature. And I know, some of you will be disappointed about this one but it saves juice. So in the settings, go to sound and turn the vibrate feature off here. Now, you can also adjust the screen brightness to a lower level because no one really needs their screen to be set at 100 percent brightness. So, in the settings you find this one under the brightness option. And want another? Turn off the EQ, applying equalizer settings to your songs actually uses up more battery life. So, to do this you want to be in your settings, then go to iPod, and then EQ and turn it off. Also, set your auto lock on this prevents the iPhone from using more power when you're not even using the phone. It's in your settings under the general option and I set mine to auto lock after one minute. And finally make sure you go through at least one charge cycle per month. That means charging it all the way to 100 percent and then letting it completely run down. This will help prolong the life of your battery. Now, I know you guys are saying wow thanks Brian. Your tips have turned my iPhone 3G into the first generation iPhone. But, you don't have to use all these tricks. These are just some of the ways to get the most out of your battery. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com with your insider secret to maximize your iPhone 3G battery. [ Music ]
>> Just turn off all the cool features right.
>> All the cool stuff.
>> Yeah that'll work.
>> And you get adequate battery life.
>> Woo.
>> Try not to show it off to your friends when everything's disabled.
>> Alright let's go to our last call Donald. And we're going to go to Jonathan in New York. Jonathan welcome to CNET Live. You are the last call. What's on your mind? Hello Jonathan. Jonathan are you there? You have a question about iPod copying from iPod into the computer. Does that ring a bell? No, that's off the question forum. He wanted to know how to copy songs and media from his iPod to his computer going the unauthorized way.
>> Right. A common question and there's a couple ways to do it. There's software that can do it. You can even plug your iPod to your PC and have it so that you can view all your folders on your iPod.
>> Yep.
>> And then manually transfer like you would from a hard drive.
>> Okay so you can do it that way.
>> You can do it that way. There's also this application like SharePod and PodPlus you can find on the web that will do it in a prettier way.
>> Okay, good deal. Donald Bell thanks for joining us this week.
>> Oh it's been, been fun.
>> Thanks for coming.
>> Yeah.
>> Always good to work with you. Okay we're back next week Sherrie Bosher's [assumed spelling] going to be here with her plug in hybrids. And we'll talk all about said topic. That's going to be coming up next Thursday one specific four eastern. I think that's coming in [inaudible] but we've got to ask Merit next week for sure. We'll see you then. ^M00:32:13 [ Music ] ^M00:32:23
>> When Jack left for college he said he'd major in communication. But, they worried. Fortunately he had a good advisor. Best Buy live happier. ^M00:32:39 [ Music ]
Brian Cooley and guest host Donald Bell look at some new music gear and talk to DJ WiiJ.
