Engadget Podcast 146 - 05.15.2009

Josh Topolsky and Paul Miller walk into a bar, but the bar is a recording studio.

The bartender, who is the recording engineer, asks, "Why the long faces?"

"Sigh," Paul says, and looks down at his feet. "Nothing but a buncha crummy phone rumors and probably fake slim PS3 pictures this week."

"It's hard to podcast when there's no exciting news to podcast about," says Josh, staring off into the distance.

The door slams open: it's Nilay Patel. "I know what'll cheer you guys up!" he says as he slams three stiff drinks down on the table. "Trashing AT&T about the Slingplayer app!"

Smiles creep over Josh and Paul's faces. They nod, the engineer hits the record button, and history is made: The Engadget Podcast, volume 146.

Update: We added a video feed of your charming hosts from the recording studio after the break. It's definitely an experiment at this stage, so let us know what you think!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Around the World

00:01:42 - Wild and slim PS3 redesign caught on camera?
00:17:20 - AT&T issues official statement on SlingPlayer's 3G blackout for iPhone
00:28:49 - Microsoft's latest ad: iTunes and the iPod are crazy expensive
00:37:26 - Microsoft "Pink" specs leak out: Tegra, Snapdragon, OMAP 3, oh my?
00:50:57 - Fuzzy math: Palm Pre to run about $470 full retail?
01:01:29 - Hold the phone: T-Mobile G1 v2 to really be the Samsung Bigfoot?
01:06:13 - Motorola's first Android phone to be the T-Mobile G1 v2?

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Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

[Eric @ May 15th 2009 6:49PM]

It's quiet in here ... can you hear the echo?

[trent @ May 15th 2009 7:40PM]

Thanks, that should do it. If you had trouble hearing the podcast, try it again.

[artissco @ May 15th 2009 7:45PM]

Funny!

[Ungso @ May 15th 2009 9:53PM]

The idea isn't that you get all your music from the iTunes store, it's that you will over the life of your music listening you will have spent 30k to fill your iPod. Wes Moss is financial planner, he is advising you!

The flaw is that ad is for the Zune Pass and talks about the iPod making people think you can use the Zune Pass with the iPod!

[yopladas @ May 15th 2009 10:33PM]

Oooh, is this now a podcast on iTunes? I'd be easier if i could subscribe like that, as I am really too lazy to always download it or wait and listen to it... :P

But cool and nice; good stuff!

[yopladas @ May 15th 2009 10:36PM]

Heh never read past the download link.

Cool; maby have you all facing in some way for us to see you all? Or maby take advantage of the video and show some of what you are talking about?

nice stuffs

[deetsnai @ May 16th 2009 1:16AM]

Love the podcast. I only wish they were longer.

Anyway, I have two things I would like to mention.

1. I think a key point about the ps3 "home media center" conversation was missed. That being the complete failure to support netflix. If the ps3 is to be declared a home media center because of its network connectivity and robust processing power, then it must support some kind of applications that take advantage. Sony's own network services are a joke. It takes hours to download a 100MB trailer.

2. Besides the obvious arguments for both sides of the zune subscription commercial, a more important discussion would be why have zune commercial now? Is there a new zune on the market? No. Was there a picture of a zune shown during the commercial? No. What crawled up Microsoft's butt that made them want to create a commercial. In fact, the commercial says "consider switching from iTunes to a subscription service like ZunePass" , not iPod to zune.

[James @ May 16th 2009 3:07AM]

They oughta lock you four in that room and keep the cameras rolling - now THATS some good TV!

[David Kendall @ May 16th 2009 3:58AM]

Why Quicktime? I don't even have that kind of Bloatware installed on my computer and Quicktime Alternative doesn't seem to work either.

Just upload it to youtube, or link to the *.mov whatsoever.

Thanks though for the work and I'm happy to listen/see future podcasts!

[David Kendall @ May 16th 2009 1:54PM]

You can watch the stream with VLC (or anything else supporting streams):
http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/engadget/engadget_podcast_0514.m4v

Weeeeeeee!

[David Kendall @ May 16th 2009 2:15PM]

...which is not very good either since my bandwith is not high enough to stream the thing without interrupts. Please just host the file somewhere or youtube it, I am desperate :D

[James @ May 16th 2009 11:45PM]

I agree - either flash it up or just give us a download link. I just downloaded it to my desktop and watched it in vlc.

[Matthew Ledger @ May 16th 2009 11:41AM]

That the best podcast episode I have ever listened to ever.
Absolutely hilarious!

[flipmo @ May 16th 2009 4:12PM]

That made the first part of my otherwise agonizing day much much better. The podcast is usually great, but today it was exceptionally entertaining.

[video comment @ May 19th 2009 7:56AM]

Why didn't you add the controls to the video. I don't care what player you use just add controls so I can view in fullscreen.

Thanks for trying Engadget. I had to revert to my screensaver while watching your podcast. Maybe next week will be better.

[crhis @ May 18th 2009 6:05PM]

Yeah, I like the looser podcasts

[waterwagen @ May 18th 2009 4:42PM]

HILARIOUS. Classic podcast guys.

[schwebbie @ May 18th 2009 8:12PM]

Okay, I'm probably going to get flamed for this comment, but here goes.

I first listened to this podcast in my car with my iPhone plugged into my stereo. I had to turn the volume up a bit to overcome road noise, of course, but I found myself missing the last half (and seemingly critical) of nearly every sentence spoken by Nilay Patel. He'd get just to the most important part of his statement and quickly trail off. I turned up the volume, but found the other speakers' voices to be too loud for comfort.

I went back and watched the podcast on video, and it was clear from the meters on the sound board that Nilay was almost inaudible compared to the other voices, particularly when he trailed off.

I loved the content (that I could hear) and enjoyed the interaction between the guys, but it was a bit like hearing one side of a phone conversation.

So, Engadget, if you're going to do another interactive podcast, please make whatever adjustments are necessary to allow us to hear what *everyone* in the room has to say.

[zatch15 @ May 19th 2009 12:59PM]

Awesome stuff, guys. Great introduction into the visual world with the video include. :)

[za7ch84 @ May 19th 2009 1:04PM]

Awesome podcast this week guys. Thanks for including the video feed too! Keep up the awesome work... I really enjoy listening to you guys having fun and riffing.

[postmastersteve @ May 21st 2009 11:49AM]

Joshy T, you're the personality on these podcasts I usually feel the most contrasted to, but when you started going off about jam bands and Creed, you pretty much described my experience. And, really, not just with this episode 146 - with most of your episodes.
But keep up having fun with it, and I'll probably keep suffering my way through them. Rock on. Love the chiptunes.

[Jack42 @ May 24th 2009 6:26PM]

I like the idea of seeing everyone - I wish you had better camera angles. I wasn't able to see Nelay at all. Why not try again with cameras set so that your faces are not obscured with microphones? I would like to see your facial expressions when you are talking.