vegas

This week on preGAME, we're joined by CNET editor Scott Stein as we jump into a LIVE demo of Heavy Rain for PlayStation 3 a whole two weeks before the game hits stores! Joining us over the phone to talk us through the demo is Petro Piaseckyj, the game's managing producer.

Before we fire up our Heavy Rain demo, we discuss the reputation dogging movies adapted from video games. We thought the Prince of Persia Super Bowl ad looked decent, but we remain skeptical.

Want a first look at the new Fallout game? We've got the brand new trailer for Fallout: New Vegas. Watch with us as we examine it live!

Want to be a part of our live taping? Make sure you head to http://cnet.com/live/pregame every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. If you missed any of the stories we talk about on today's preGAME, make sure to check out our links below.

Back in NYC after CES, the gang discusses show highlights, from tablets to Netbooks to 3DTV.

Plus, find out who won out custom ZuneHD giveaway, Joey pitches an idea for laptops with swappable keyboards, and we debate the perfect price point for the Apple tablet.

Related links: >>The coolest laptops of CES >>What, exactly, is a smartbook? >>Slate-mania grips PC makers

>>Watch the Digital City live every Monday at 3pm EST on CNET Live! >>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes >>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page >&… Read more

Today is our first day back from CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and we're pretty lucky to return with our sanity (and organs) fully intact.

On today's episode of The 404 Podcast, we spend the first half wrapping up our coverage and giving you an impromptu slideshow of our experience broadcasting live from the CNET stage.

Of course, we have to spend some time thanking everyone involved with the back-end production, and of course, the dedicated listeners who showed up to watch the live show.

A special thanks goes out to Blake Stevenson for helping us design the very first The 404 stickers and Props Guy Jim for hooking us up with The 404 temporary tattoos!

We'll let you know how your mitts on that stuff very soon, so stay tuned!

The second half is all about Andrew WK, or at least the idea of him. AWK is under the media spotlight regarding a video confessional lecture in London last month, where the artist openly admitted that Andrew WK is simply a fabrication of a group of individuals in "the spirit of commerce."

Andrew claimed that "I'm not the guy you've seen from the I Get Wet album...I'm not that same person. I don't just mean that in a philosophical or conceptual way. It's not the same person at all."

He then goes on to tell us that he actually auditioned for the role of Andrew WK and gives little detail after that; watch the video here. We have so many questions about who actually wrote the album, when the current Andrew WK donned the mantle, and why this story sounds suspiciously reminiscent of The Dread Pirate Roberts from "The Princess Bride." We're going to try to get Andrew back on The 404 to chat with us about the controversy, but the bottom line is that Jeff and I support the music and the message behind it, regardless of who performs it.

It's good to be back! We'll go back to our normal format with a Calls From the Public segment tomorrow morning, so give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us what's on your mind!

Dan, Scott, and special guest Playboy's Scott Alexander, discuss the seedy underbelly of the CES/Vegas experience, from Taser demos to trade show food to disastrous blackjack runs.

Our regular NYC show returns Monday 1/11, and audio for this special CES edition will be up soon -- check out the video version now.

Related links: >>The coolest laptops of CES >>What, exactly, is a smartbook? >>Slate-mania grips PC makers

>>Watch the Digital City live every Monday at 3pm EST on CNET Live! >>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes &… Read more

A new technology from Zyxio allows you to control your PC by breathing. Obviously this is good for accessibility, but it could also mean good and bad news for gamers. We'll discuss. We also rundown the latest news from CES, including the Intel keynote. And we talk with the winner of the Apps for Innovation contest about his Web site that makes it easy for you to find out what the government is about to do to you and gives you a chance to make a comment.

You'll know we're recording this episode from the stage before the show has actually begun because of the loud machinery crunching away in the background as vendors ready their booths. In the meantime, we cover Google's official introduction of the Nexus One, a 3D network arriving on your TV, and Microsoft's tablet computer. You heard me right: Microsoft.

CES Unveiled http://ces.cnet.com/

Sling unveils a quartet of new devices http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10426064-269.html

Microsoft … Read more

We are on our way to CES in Las Vegas so there will be no new episode today. Instead, here is an excerpt from episode 1131 where we preview the type of tech that is expected to be found in abundance at this year's CES.

We're back! Jeff and Wilson are joined in the studio today with "Kenri," and Justin chimes in from San Francisco via phone. It's back to our usual shenanigans again, and we recount our holiday break. Plus, we have an apology to make to James Cameron.

Jeff tells us about his near-death experience on the ski slopes. Listen to how a patch of ice almost did away with our favorite CNET emcee. Wilson recounts his Christmas vacation to visit his dear ole Ma. Finally, Justin tells us about how he's currently sunbathing in California, while we all freeze to death here in NYC.

With the exception of "Kenri," we all caught James Cameron's "Avatar," and boy was it mind-blowing! The film is just incredible to watch, and we're pleasantly surprised to see it bring in more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide. Wilson is not sure though that the movie is any good in 2D. The clips and trailers still look silly, so we're still recommending people catch it in IMAX 3D or Real3D. (Editors' note: please catch "Up in the Air." Two words: Vera Farmiga.)

Tomorrow is the first day of CNET's annual International CES coverage. There won't be a show tomorrow because we'll be en route to Las Vegas. We'll be hosting a live show Wednesday at 5 p.m., Thursday at 4 p.m., and Friday at 4 p.m. PST. We have some surprises up our sleeves, but honestly, we're just trying not to kill ourselves while partying it up in Vegas. If you're there, come by the CNET booth in the North Hall at the Convention Center.

Every year product life cycles in the consumer marketplace grow ever shorter and we see ever faster turnover in cameras, phones computers, and so on. On the audio side, the latest and greatest receivers become yesterday's news faster than you can say "HDMI 1.4." It seems like no receiver can stay current for more than a year or so.

Speaker companies show a little more restraint and "refresh" their lines every few years, but even then new models rarely demonstrate actual performance improvements over the previous generations' models. Speaker manufacturer Magnepan doesn't play by those rules; it invests years of development in each of its models before introducing a new speaker. It has to sound better--a lot better--than the outgoing model before it's released to the world.

And not just in the opinion of the designers. New-model Magnepans undergo extensive "blind" listening tests with a wide range of audiophile and non-audiophile listeners (the listeners don't know whether they're hearing the old or new model). The new speaker must consistently score better than the old model before it goes into production.

When I first heard the Magneplanar 1.6 back in 2008 I said it was the best under-$2,000 speaker on the market. Incredibly enough it was 10 years old at the time! The Magneplanar 1.6 has stayed in production for 12 years, but now it's about to be replaced with the new Magneplanar 1.7.

Magnepan, based in White Bear Lake, Minn., builds nothing but panel (boxless) speakers. Not only that, Magnepan designs forgo conventional dome tweeters and cone-type woofers. As I pointed out in my August 14, 2008, blog that's why the company's Magneplanar 1.6 speaker mostly avoids sounding like a speaker. The speaker earned the top position in my Top 10 greatest audiophile speakers blog earlier this year.

The new Magneplanar 1.7 is also a flat-panel design, 64.5 inches tall and a mere 2 inches thick! The new speaker looks a little more contemporary, thanks to its aluminum, wrap-around edge molding. The old model was a two-way design, with a 48-inch-tall aluminum ribbon tweeter and a 442-square-inch mid/bass panel. The Magneplanar 1.7 is a three-way design, with a woofer, tweeter, and super-tweeter. The super-tweeter comes in around 10,000 hertz and is said to produce wider dispersion and better-resolved treble than the Magneplanar 1.6 did.

The other big difference is the Magneplanar 1.7 is a "full-range" ribbon design.… Read more