AmericanChopper
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Orange County Choppers builds Intel a Xeon-powered bike
Frankly we're a little surprised that anyone at Intel even watches a show about motorcycle building (don't they spend all their time in clean rooms trying to one up AMD?), but apparently the world's largest chipmaker has so much love for Discovery Channel's (and now TLC's) American Chopper that it commissioned Team OCC to assemble perhaps the highest tech bike in the world. This 250-horsepower workstation on wheels -- unveiled simultaneously in meatspace and Second Life in honor of the Xeon 5300 series release -- probably sports more digital kit than Sturgis or Laconia have ever seen, including either a quad or octo core chipset (sources don't make it clear), removable UMPC that doubles as a virtual dashboard, rear-facing cameras to replace the mirrors, full audio and video capabilities, GPS of course, and what sounds like a 3G data connection. The two-part build will air on July 12th and 19th, when you can probably expect to see Pauls Jr. and Sr. get into a shouting match over which OS to install on the chopper, as well as Mikey trying to play The Sims while barreling down the Taconic at 90 MPH.[Via The Raw Feed and CIOL]
American Choppers splice consoles for Christmas
Take a close look at this commercial for the American Choppers Christmas special, embedded after the break. Notice anything odd (and game-related, of course).Yep, that's a GameCube controller coupled with a slimline PlayStation 2. Did they even consider that the input plug for the GCN controller is almost the same width as the console? Wouldn't it be more of a hassle to, when searching for props, to instigate such a mash-up?In the fictional family's defense, they weren't expecting the cast to walk through their door. Life Lesson #64: always have a console, with coordinated controller, handy for when bikers show up unannounced.At least they're not holding the controller upside-down.
American Chopper leaving Discovery Channel
American Chopper has been in HDTV for...well...it seems like forever and now it might not be. Discovery Communication is moving the show from The Discovery Channel to TLC with the goal of returning their flagship station to its roots science and nature. There hasn't been any announcements if this will affect Discovery HD Theater but we aren't worried. Many of the mainstay shows on HD Theater, like Trading Spaces and Rides, comes right from TLC's lineup. But we are hoping that Discovery's soul seeking will bring the birth of TLC HD. That's not saying that we don't like Discovery HD Theater but rather the opposite as we love it. We just want to see more "science and nature" programs on it. Move the lifestyle shows to a station that is about life and bring back the nature stuff Discovery![via TV Squad]
