In this special episode of The Bleeding Edge, we take a look at Gear Live’s latest Mind Camp event. Held semi-annually in Seattle, Mind Camp is a gathering featuring some of the smartest tech geeks around. Here is what we have for you:

• How Sparky Became A Dancing Borg
• Bre Pettis Interview, Maker Faire
• Michael Kaltschnee Interview, Hacking Netflix
• Amal Graafstra Interview, RFID Implants
• Breakin’ Stuff: Melting Hard Drives (Literally) with The Shmoo Group‘s Pablos
• What Is Mind Camp?
• Andru Gets A Mind Camp Massage
• Mind Camp 2.0 Video Montage

Best part for me? The massage. Hurt so good, and had me feeling like a new man. One note - the Xbox 360 contest that we mention in this episode is now over, and the winner will be announced shortly.

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Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 015: Seattle Mind Camp, Melting Hard Drives, Sparky Is Turned Into A Borg

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We just put a bunch of time into playing with the Samsing MM-A920, and are reporting back with our thoughts. This is Sprint’s dedicated multimedia phone, offering easy access and navigation of music, games, and video clips on the go. With external navigation, stereo speakers, BlueTooth, camera, and a host of other features, how does the phone stack up? Read on for our full review.

Click to continue reading Gear Live Review: Sprint Samsung MM-A920 Review

Gallery: Gear Live Review: Sprint Samsung MM-A920 Review

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In this show we show off Verizon Song Identity, get an inside look at Windows Desktop Search, and stream DivX to the Xbox 360:

THE WIRE
PSP Firmware Upgrade
Net Neutrality Bill Voted Down

GIZMATIC
ZVUE 200a

UNWIRED
Verizon Song Identity Service

WEB GEMS
Interview with Brandon Paddock, Windows Desktop Search

HACK ATTACK
How To Stream DivX To Your Xbox 360

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IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

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Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 014: Stream DivX To Xbox 360, Verizon Song Identity, Windows Desktop Search

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The Gear Live Forums have just undergone a nice upgrade, adding quite a few requested features. Here are the improvements that were added over the weekend:

• “Next/Previous thread” links in thread view page.
• RSS Support. Individual threads can be subscribed to, or the entire forum globally.
• Show/hide capability to forum man page, enabling specific forum clusters you are interested to be shown.
• “View today’s active topics” link to main forum page.
• “New topic” button in the thread view.
• Added database storage of “read topic” IDs so that you can use different browsers with different computers and retain your read topic info.
• Changed the behavior of the input filter such that tabs are converted to four spaces so that code examples posted in the forums will retain indenting.

Go ahead and check out the forums and let us know what you think.

Read More | Gear Live Forums

Gallery: Gear Live Forums Updated

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In an attempt to give you a glimpse of the madness that is E3, we focus this video on some of the standard sights and sounds, along with a couple of the more obscure things that we found on the show floor. This would include something as grand as EA’s 360 degree video wall, to something as silly as a 9900-watt car subwoofer.

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IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

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Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 005: E3 2006 Booth Montage

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We caught up with EA while at E3 and got a preview of the upcoming adventure game, Superman Returns. We show you how Superman flies at 800 miles per hour through Metropolis, how open-ended the gameplay is, and the ingenious way that the game plays without ever allowing Superman to die.

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IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

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Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 004: Superman Returns Preview (Xbox 360)

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In this special episode, we sit down with Microsoft’s Peter Moore and hit him with questions about the Xbox 360. We sat with Chris from The Chris Pirillo Show, and of course, Andru, Jake, and Jesse of the Gear Live crew. We cover such topics as:

• Lumines Live
• Xbox Live Vision Camera
• Xbox 360’s lack of motion control
• Xbox Live Anywhere
• Games for Windows
• HD DVD Player
• PS3 built to drive Blu-Ray format

We want to thank Peter Moore for taking the time to sit with us for this interview session.

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IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

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Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 013: Interview: Microsoft’s Peter Moore

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In this episode we speak with Brian Dezayas of Alienware about their new portable SLI machines, the Dell aquisition, and the Limited Edition Superman notebook and desktop computers.

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IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

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Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 003: E3 2006 Alienware Interview

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So, the Gear Live crew is back from E3, and we hope you enjoyed the coverage we have brought you thus far. You can look forward to a bunch more video footage over the coming week. For now, I wanted to let you guys in on a horrible Apple Store customer service experience I had a few weeks ago, and how the LA Grove Apple Store went above and beyond to fix it. During E3, my MacBook Pro went belly up, and I was left with a useless computer at one of our biggest coverage events of the year. Below is the email I am sending to the LA Grove store, as well as the Seattle store that I made the original purchase at:

Dear Grove and UV Apple Store staffs,

I recently had encounters at your stores that I wanted to tell you guys about.

I live here in Seattle, and frequent the University Village Apple Store often, spending probably close to $8-10,000 per year on Apple products. I am one of your bleeding edge consumers who knows the ins and outs of all Apple products, probably before the stores know about them themselves, as I am also a CEO and journalist who has close ties to Apple PR and has attended multiple Steve Jobs keynotes.

Click to continue reading A Horrible Apple Store Experience Turns Good

Gallery: A Horrible Apple Store Experience Turns Good

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I’m not an expert in branding or picking product names, but as I thought about the ramifications of Nintendo’s choice of product name for their next console (Wii, in case you missed it), I’ve been thinking more and more about what a terrible choice it was.

First, Nintendo released a one-sheet explaining the name.  This includes how it’s pronounced, what it means, and their ‘vision’.  It strikes me that if you have to go to all that trouble, you picked the wrong name.  The name should just resonate.  People should be able to feel it right away, and the pronounciation should be clear.

The Big N explained the decision behind the name in a statement, which we’ve provided for your reading pleasure:

Introducing… Wii.
As in “we.”

While the code-name Revolution expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that seperates videogame players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games… and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people playing it. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of videogames that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because it’s really not about you or me. It’s about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.

Click to continue reading Wii: Thoughts On Product Naming

Gallery: Wii: Thoughts On Product Naming

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