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Twitter is keeping its 140-character limit
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on The Today Show on Friday to celebrate the company's 10 anniversary. While there, Dorsey confirmed to host Matt Lauer that Twitter's 140-character limit will not be expanded to 10,000 characters, as he had previously suggested. "It's staying. It's a good constraint for us," Dorsey said. "It allows for of-the-moment brevity." Of course, Dorsey also once said Twitter "never planned to reorder timelines next week," just days before announcing the new algorithmic timeline that's now rolling out for everyone.
Bluetooth: the Next Big Thing?
Watch out Walt Mossberg, Al Roker's got your number on this whole "technology pundit for the common man" thing. He teamed up with Cat Schwartz on the Today Show to get to the bottom of this whole Bluetooth sensation that's sweeping the country. Will something finally dethrone infrared from its dominant role in our wireless lifestyle? Only time will tell. Video is after the break.
The Today Show's Meredith Viera licks the MacBook Air
There's nothing quite like hearing a group of network talk-show hosts heaping praise on a piece of technology they barely understand to jumpstart your day. We think you'll agree that listening to Matt Lauer loudly declare "It's awesome!" and watching Meredith "You're blowing the whole schtick" Viera vigorously mime licking the new MacBook Air is pretty wretch-inducing stuff -- though Al Roker informing us that if you want the SSD, you'll only have to pay "a little bit more," was definitely one toke over the line. Thanks for ruining our breakfast guys. Every breakfast.Watch the video after the break. We've included the crew's earlier encounter with the iPhone just in case you needed your memory jogged.
Al Roker discovers Xbox 'recall' on Today Show
Sadly we can't embed video from the Today Show, so you're just going to have to follow the link, but you can pretty much imagine the exact moment Microsoft's PR department went nucking futs. During a Today Show segment about the "video game wars," somehow it was written into the tech guy's voice-over that there was an Xbox 360 "recall." We all know this is far from the truth. After the segment finishes the tech guy quickly corrects the "recall" error, but Roker ain't havin' none of that. Roker restates it as a "recall" and then says, "This one, they are voluntarily saying to bring this back, what's wrong with it?"Microsoft gave the same song and dance to the Today Show that they've given everyone, saying that there is something wrong, but they won't say what. On the bright side for Microsoft, the Today tech guy does say the Xbox 360 is the one to own. He says the PS3 is the most "high-tech" because of the Blu-ray player and calls it the "Trojan horse," which has Roker asking if people will jump out of it and kill everyone. Yes, he does actually say that.They then show off the Wii and awkwardly state that it's the #2 "player" and the Xbox 360 is #1 ... um, well in context of those three systems that is true, but please let us not bury the PS2 yet, which according to Nielson and overall sales is definitely #1. Oh well, it was just another video game piece by the mainstream, they flubbed a nice bit and in the end Roker was actually most bothered by the idea that Nintendo's Miis don't have arms. And here we thought the little Greeks popping out of the PS3 killing everyone would have been far more frightening.
The Wii makes its way to the Today Show
In this minute-and-a-half clip from the Today Show, Weatherman Al Roker takes a turn at trying out Wii Sports: Tennis. The man very much has no idea what is going on as he swings wildly without any sense of timing, making us wonder if the press is even worth it. If Al Roker makes the thing look broken, doesn't that deter from the console's (and game's) appeal?As always, the video is embedded into the post past the break.
Today's hottest game video: Today Show Wii
It seems like all of the PS3 fanboys are busy camping for consoles instead of watching YouTube; today's most-played game video again features the Wii. This clip, at a respectable 55,000 views (down from yesterday's record-breaker), shows Al Roker briefly trying to play Wii Tennis.In the unflattering -- to Roker and Nintendo -- clip, the newscaster and visiting expert swing wildly, barely able to serve and return one point. Maybe they'll rehearse next time.See the clip after the break.
Video Sandwich: October 27, 2006
Two very different and random videos tonight: the first video shows Australia's Today Show going absolutely ga-ga about the PSP. They take a look at the Passport guides, and the Talkman translator guide. Their impressions about the software are overwhelming glowing, as if Sony ::cough:: paid for this spot. Strangely, they keep on telling the viewers to just take the systems away from the kids, and use it for themselves. The kids are too busy playing with their DS games to notice you taking the PSP away from them, anyways. Hilarious moment: when they talk about the $1000+ PLAYSTATION 3, because in Australian dollars, it is. Still evokes a very Twilight Zone kind of feeling.The second video shows a very impressive parody of the original dustball ads that Sony ran to promote the PSP. It highlights one of the PSP's less attractive attributes: the dumb loading times. One has to wonder if this stigma will stick with the PSP for much longer: games like Daxter show impressive lack-of-load times that prove great developers can do amazing things with the system.
HD DVD Mobile Experience drops by the Today Show
The HD DVD Mobile Experience is on its way to the Digital Life Expo this weekend but stopped by the Today Show earlier this morning for public relations and Al Roker talked with paid HD DVD consultant Omar Wasow for a bit after the weather about this new DVD format and promotional tour. The paid advocate 'explained' to the millions of viewers the differences between the two new formats by stating that Blu-ray is "more popular with gamers" and that HD DVD is more of a "mass consumer device" because of the [$500] cheaper price and, you ready for this, the format has more titles. Who would have thought six months ago that in the middle of October, the HD DVD format could state on national television that its format has more titles? (22 more titles by our count) While Blu-ray does have more studios backing the format, HD DVD has been keeping their title lead since the format's launch and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. We just wonder if the tour stopped by the show just because it was in town or did it have something to do with the fact that Universal Studios is a major backer of HD DVD and is a sister company of NBC Universal who produces the Today Show?
Today show, Dancing with the Stars debut in HD, how did they look?
Last night was the beginning of a new seasor for ABC's Dancing with the Stars, and also the first time the show aired in HD. We didn't get a chance to check it out here, but TV Squad did in SD, and complained that the show wasn't letterboxed and many bits of text on the screen ran off on the edges. While we feel for our SD brethren, one of the many complaints we hear frequently is that shows aren't framed properly to take advantage of widescreen HDTVs so if they err a bit on the side of 16:9 that's ok with us. Also this morning was the first episode of the Today show in HD, complete with new set and host Meredith Viera. With The View, GMA, the Today show and rumors about Oprah going HD we may have reason to start doing all-day HDTV Listings.Read - Dancing with the Stars: Week 1 (season premiere) - TV SquadRead - A look at Meredith and the new Today show studio - TV SquadRead - The Today Show goes HD on NBC! - AVS Forum
