The Hock Show

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/ref=amb_link_6857402_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1DK8E0QJP0MTASH9Q7R7&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=12http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/ref=amb_link_6857402_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1DK8E0QJP0MTASH9Q7R7&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1266825702&pf_rd_i=49699466825702&pf_rd_i=496994 (ignore game cards and accessories)

Dan: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps

Hock Show 31: Hock Show

February 27, 2013 Podcast No comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:00 — 61.3MB)

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Hock-Show-Episode31.mp3

1. Montae Te’o’s Fake Girlfriend Is Cooler Than Your Real Girlfriend. Just a month ago, Motae Te’o was on top of the world. A serious contender for the Heisman as a linebacker, preparing for the National Title game with undefeated Notre Dame, and riding that into a top ten spot in the NFL Draft. Then his grandma died. Then his girlfriend died. Only, she didn’t. Only she didn’t exist. And he knew that. Only he didn’t. It was all a scam. It was all a cover-up. It was all his plan. It was all some dude’s long game. Only people knew her and she was real. Only she’s not.
http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/01/18/monti-teo-catfish-producers-girlfriend-hoax/

2. The Glee Is a Lie. When the producers of Glee wanted to cover “Baby Got Back” on the show, they wanted to do it in some crazy way. So they turned to the Internet, of course, and found Jonathan Coulton’s weird, folksy cover of it. Then, depending on who you believe, they might have just lifted the music track wholesale without telling Coulton and recorded new vocals for it. They certainly refer to “Johnny C” and not “Sir Mix-A-Lot” on the track. But thankfully, Coulton owns the rights to the song and he…wait…no. He doesn’t. Sort of.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/18/did_glee_rip_off_jonathan_coultons_cover_of_baby_got_back/

3. Lance Armstrong Is a Cheating Cheater Who Cheated. In a desperate grab for attention on both their parts, Lance Armstrong appeared on a special on Oprah’s OWN to admit that he used performance enhancing blood treatments throughout his storied career. It wasn’t a big shock to people in cycling, all of whom do the exact same thing but haven’t been caught. However, he is now excluded from ever being elected to the MLB Hall of Fame.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/17/sport/armstrong-doping/?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/17/forgive-lance-armstrong-redemption/1843073/

4. Apple Locking Screenshots to 1.0 Versions of Apps. In order to curb apps that use mocked up screenshots and shots from other programs to sell programs, Apple is making significant changes to its store submission policies, including locking developers from changing their screenshots after the app has been posted to the store. This will prevent scams from occurring, however, will also lock out legitimate programmers from advertising new features without resubmitting the entire program.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/01/new-itunes-app-store-submission-policy-could-help-cut-down-on-scams/

5. Mega’s Launch Is One of the Stupidest Things I’ve Seen In Awhile. Say what you will about Kim Dotcom, the guy knows how to throw a party. Seated on his emperor’s throne and staging, he treated reporters to food, drink, music, a fake FBI raid that ended in a dance off, and a really boring question and answer session about cloud storage. Now he’ll have all these great memories to take with him next time he winds up being raided by government agencies.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/mega-launch-a-fake-fbi-raid-dancing-girls-oh-and-human-rights/

Matt: Top Movies

Dan: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

and books from the year. damn hyperlink. fexing my shit.

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps

http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-cart-life/17-6963/

Vote for Heather Hjelle! http://m.zipscene.com/macaroni-grill-opera/promo/?id=Hh151

Hock Show Episode 30 – Hemi-cyst

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hock-Show-Episode30.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:14 — 39.6MB)

1. Nvidia Handheld Console Announced. It’s a portable system that runs Android games (like the Ouya) and can hook up to your computer (and thus play Steam games, like Valve’s console) but otherwise doesn’t offer much other than hooking up your computer to your TV a bit more easily. I don’t know who this machine is for, but it certainly seems to be the future of gaming as far as console/PC integration.
http://kotaku.com/5973641/nvidia-out-of-nowhere-announces-a-new-gaming-handheld

2. All Your Amazon CDs Are MP3s Now. If you’ve bought a physical CD on Amazon.com since 1998, they’re looking for you, because your music is on their cloud. Any CD taht Amazon has secured the rights to sell in digital format is being offered in this form through what Amazon is calling “autorip” as in, they’ll automatically rip it for you. Sweet, now I don’t have to go dig up my copy of Cher’s “Believe.”
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/buy-a-cd-from-amazon-after-1998-check-amazon-cloud-player-for-mp3-tracks/

3. Monopoly Getting Rid of a Piece. For the first time since the 1950s, Monopoly is changing up their classic line-up of pieces. A vote is currently ongoing on Facebook to determine which of the battle ship, wheel barrow, race car, shoe, iron, thimble, dog, or top hat will be removed from the game to be replaced with one of a 1970s robot, helicopter, guitar, ring, or cat. The Facebook poll will run through February 5th.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20130112-hasbro-aims-to-jazz-up-monopoly-with-new-token.ece
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/monopoly?fref=ts

Five Predictions for 2013:

Matt:

1. Three new consoles will be announced at E3, one by Microsoft, one by Sony, and one by a player that hasn’t been in the hardware market yet (and no, not Valve)
2.Major League Baseball will announce sweeping changes to its Hall of Fame voting process.
3. Google will leverage its ownership of Motorola to sell tablets to students using Google Libraries as the chief selling point.
4. Blizzard will release the first hard details for their new MMO, which will be accompanied by a Blizzard “Season Pass” for subscribers to all their games services.
5. The original cast of Star Wars (including Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams) will sign on for the new film, which will be announced along with the release date at ComicCon.

Laura:

1. Disney will release hard details of their newest movie at Celebration this summer in Orlando, Florida, simultaneously thrilling and pissing off fans around the world.
2. Taylor Swift will miraculously have a boyfriend for more than four months and may even get engaged this year.
3. While 2012 was the year of sequels and remakes, the sequels coming in 2013 may turn out to be the best in their franchises (I’m excited for Elysium) –Also predicting not many animated films this year, unless they debut a MLP movie.
4. iPhone clear. I see it happening.
5. There will be a new motion console released that will go beyond PS3 and Kinect.

Dan:

1.3D Printing – Someone is going to think of the thing that we can’t live without printing, and soon we are all going to need a 3D printer for some unforeseen reason.
2. Drones being used to patrol interstates. These damn things are going to patrol the skies and keep the population inline.
3. Television industry will collapse to the same level that print newspapers are in free fall.There is just so much to watch online from a number of providers and networks. Having a network or studio as a brand for go programming is going to mean less since it is online with the same access and availability as a network program.
4. Major legislation will be passed down that impacts Kickstarter and other crowdfunding too much money is being moved around without traditional corporate America.
5. Cyber attack on Chicago.

Matt: Top Movies

Dan: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps

Hock Show Episode 29: Intersections

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hock-Show-Episode29.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:00 — 48.5MB)

1. The National (Hockey League) Nightmare Is Over. Just in time to play five games and send everybody back home, the NHL and its player union finally reached an agreement to end their lockout. In the end, players will get $300 million in transition payments, a higher salary cap (and floor), better pension, and the owners get a contract termination clause. This deal is set to expire in 2020, so get ready for another lockout then!
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/NHL-union-reach-tentative-agreement-to-end-lockout-010613

2. Samsung Eliminating Android Phones. Starting later this year, Samsung is starting to move towards the Linux Tizen operating system.They’re not willing to fully get off the Google train quite yet, but if they can roll out Tizen efficiently, it’ll be a big hit to Google, leaving Motorola as the only major manufacturer of Android phones.
http://bgr.com/2013/01/03/samsung-tizen-phones-confirmed-280492/

3. Sorry, Virginia, There’s No Firefly MMO. Weird social media pranksters “The Yes Men” announced that they would be launching a Kickstarter as Dark Cryo Entertainment for their Firefly MMO FUO, with the consent of Fox, despite no licensing deal and Fox cancelling their own Firefly MMO. Well, it’s all one big hoax. Sorry, Firefly fans, the series is still dead.
http://kotaku.com/5973406/firefly+inspired-mmo-appears-to-have-foxs-blessing-to-go-ahead?popular=true

4. Newsweek Ends Its Run. After 80 years, Newsweek ended its print run with a simple picture reading #LastPrint Issue. They will be going forward with online and tablet editions of the magazine, but it’s a huge loss to the print industry as well as doctors offices everywhere. I’ll miss it, but as I know too well, it’s an increasing reality of the print industry.
http://mashable.com/2012/12/23/newsweek-final-cover/

5. Happy Caturday, Jail! A cat was captured sneaking into the Arapiraca prison in Brazil this week. That wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy, except that it had a cellphone. drill bits, and jigsaw blades taped to its back. No prisoners have come forward to claim the incredibly useful cat, but Dr. Evil and Dr. Claw are the top suspects.
http://news.yahoo.com/cat-caught-sneaking-saw-phone-brazil-prison-145407675.html

Matt: Top Movies

Dan: Top Games

1 The Walking Dead
2 Just Dance 4
3 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
4 Spec Ops: the Line
5 Hotline Miami
6 XCOM: Ememy Unkown
7 Halo 4
8 Dark Souls: Prepared to Die
9 2K Strategy Super Pack
10 The Darkness II [Download]

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps

Thrift Shop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

Hock Show Episode 28: Fresh Contacts

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hock-Show-Episode28.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:00 — 65.0MB)

1. Apple Maps Kill. Australian authorities this week stated that anybody looking for the city of Mildura in southeastern Australia should not use the iPhone’s map app to find it. The reason being, Apple’s directions for Midura take you out into the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, a desert with no active water sources and an average daily temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit. Australia already has enough ways to kill a guy, they don’t need the help. On the more positive side, Google has rereleased their map application for iOS 6 devices.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413025,00.asp

Dan: I installed and used the new Google Maps App for my iPhone4 today. It worked great! It has turn-by-turn and vector based maps. No reason to have a separate GPS unit in the car if you have an iPhone, if you ask me.

2. Facebook to Turn Policy Voting Off…Wait, What? Facebook announced this week that if voting on their public policy features did not reach 30% of active users (around 300 million people) then they would turn off the voting for these changes in the future. Here’s the problem with that, I’m pretty sure nobody knows about this feature. They got .2% voter turnout, but I’m sure it would’ve been much higher had it been as in your face as all the adds for terrible apps.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/10/tech/social-media/facebook-policy-vote/index.html?hpt=hp_bn5

3. Download All Your Tweets for No Reason! Twitter has released an archival feature on its social networking service that will allow you to download every tweet you’ve ever tweeted. Apparently, this is something people were asking for. It’s currently buried as a Beta setting in your profile settings, and gives you an HTML file with all the metadata attached stored for eternity, so you can forever remember the time you wasted an hour replying to Snooki, trying to get her to retweet you.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413285,00.asp

4. No, THIS Is the Matrix. Scientists at Oxford University and the University of Washington have been working on a testing process that will determine whether or not the universe is one giant computer simulation, and whether or not that will help us contact other universes working on the same platform. Unfortunately, Earth-2 is running on a Mac. They’re totally serious about all of our experiences being a computer program, though, and I just have to say, I want a patch.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/whoa-physicists-testing-see-universe-computer-simulation-224525825.html

Dan: For the last couple years I have been thinking about this hypothesis. There are a lot of bright-sides to this notion. For one, if we are a simulation then the possibility of an afterlife is VERY real. The unexplainable might be very explainable. In the movie The Matrix they talked about glitches in the Matrix, but how about real glitches like the Universe expansion speeding up, Bermuda Triangle, hell just missing people! So I have been thinking about this a lot lately, then I play video games were the computer generated opponents are programmed to try and survive and I wonder, how is this any different than us? We are all here for a bit, but once we are gone, that is it. We are gone and reality for us is deleted, isnt that the exact same for computer opponents? Arn’t they “thinking” (processing) pretty much they same thing? Stay alive, run away do anything so I don’t end. Just silly deep thoughts, in the end nothing we do will change the facts about the reality of reality. Minecraft gets really creepy if you think about it too hard.

5. More from the Wasteland Around THQ. Just when you think it couldn’t get better for erstwhile publishing giant THQ, it just…does. Always. In an attempt to advertise their next (and possibly last) big game project, Metro: Last Light, THQ is giving away Steam copies of 2010’s Metro 2033 for free to anyone who “Likes” the game’s Facebook page. Another endearing attempt by the former industry leader to make its fans happy on the way out.
http://www.geekosystem.com/like-metro-2033-facebook/

DAN: Final note. Playboy this month had an article about the Miami Zombie and “Bath Salts” synthetic drug. They are saying that the “OMG! BATH SALTS ARE GOing to KILL EVERYONE” crazy was a scapegoat for the Miami PD they had a posible race riot brewing. The author actually did Bath Salts and he said it was basically the same as low grade Ecstasy. He re counted all the other Bath Salts supposed cases and there is very little if no proof that any of the crazy naked violent criminals this summer had anything to do with Bath Salt usage. It was used by the media, medicine and cops nation wide as an easy explaination for real mental health issues. As a county we need to stop jumping to the easiest the fix conclusion and move on. Bath Salts are now illegal, but it will do nothing to stop crazy people from going crazy and doing crazy things like eating people faces. The same goes for the school shootings. This isnt a gun control issue, this is a mental health issue. In the 80’s we (society) decided that it would be cool to save money by shutting down most all mental health hospitals. We are really paying for that decision now. We need doctors and frankly rubber rooms to put cray people in to protect the rest of us. You can’t make being nuts illegal, and laws don’t protect people from going nuts and harming others. This is a hard problem with a very hard and costly series of solutions. Everyone pull your head out of your ass and realize these people are nuts, they are not just simply law breakers that will stop if you theaten to give them some jail times. I never seen a ring that could block a hole and I never seen a prison that makes freaks normal… and that is the truth, Ruth!

Laura: Top Movies

Matt: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Laura: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Matt: Android Apps

Hock Show Episode 27: Generalizations

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hock-Show-Episode27.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:30 — 76.5MB)

1. Square Enix Doesn’t Have the Best Marketing Department. When searching for clever ways to get people interested in the new Hitman game, there are a few marketing strategies to turn to. I mean, grassroots, ARG type campaigns are really popular for a reason, right? Something you probably shouldn’t do: Allow people to take out fake “hits” on their Facebook friends, complete with the app sending wall postings letting them know that an infamous Hitman is coming to kill them for their “Duck Lips.” Yeah.
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/square-enix-invents-horribly-insulting-facebook-promotion-for-hitman-absolution-subsequently-apologizes/4467/

2. Capcom’s Officially Gone Nuts. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of it’s two biggest franchises, Capcom has announced a free downloadable PC game scheduled for release December 17th. Megaman X Street Fighter will put you in the boots of Megaman II-era Megaman as he takes on eight Street fighter characters and gains their powers. It’s…uh…ok?
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/08/street-fighter-x-mega-man-is-a-free-pc-8-bit-crossover-availabl/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

3. You Can No Longer Tweet Your Grainy Photos. After a spat about their photo sharing services, Instagram pictures can no longer be displayed on Twitter. They can’t actually stop you from Tweeting them, but they show up badly cropped on Twitter’s photo cards. I’m not sure why you would think anybody would want Instagram if you can’t use it for something like Twitter, but then again, I don’t understand why you would want Instagram in the first place.
http://mashable.com/2012/12/05/twitter-instagram-issues/

4. Google and Apple Together Again. In a weird Superhero team-up akin to Iron Man and Superman buying up land in Georgia in a Walking Dead comic, Apple and Google are pairing up to bid more than $500 million to buy the remnants of Kodak. At stake is Kodak’s digital patents including photo-sharing patents that neither Google nor Apple have been able to make use of previously. By the way, this isn’t the weirdest pairing for patent buy-ups, Microsoft and Apple (along with others) bought Nortel last year for $4.5 billion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-08/apple-joins-google-in-500-million-plus-bid-for-kodak-patents.html

5. G4 Officially Rebranded as Esquire TV, Will Begin New Programming in Early 2013. Attempting to corner the apparently underserved metrosexual market, NBC and Hearst Media are combining to make the Esquire channel. No word on how this will be different than the half dozen other metrosexual channels on cable right now, but it will take the place of formerly gamer/young-male centric G4 which will shut down at the end of the year.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-hearst-corp-close-deal-399481

Laura: Top Movies

Matt: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Laura: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Matt: Android Apps

http://www.diamondsofthesea.com/december-diamonds-merman-christmas-ornaments.aspx

Hock Show Episode 26 – The Totally Discovered Country

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hock-Show-Episode26.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:00 — 65.0MB)

1. Bungie Marketing Materials Leaked. Details on Bungie’s next gaming product were leaked online this week, showing their new game called “Destiny” about humans 700 years in the future trying to protect earth from an alien invasion. I’m just guessing you’ll play a guy named Blaster Chef trying to put a stop to the Convent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20529785

2. Hamburger Sorry for Being Ham. Angus T. Jones, who is shockingly not a new McDonalds Land Character, came out this week and said that he feels that his show “Two and a Half Men” is “from the Devil” and “complete filth” on a video that circulated around the internet this week. Charlie Sheen agreed. Angus quickly recanted parts of that statement before hopping into a hot air balloon with Birdy and the Fry Guys.
http://www.eonline.com/news/366472/angus-t-jones-apologizes-for-two-and-a-half-men-misunderstanding-i-m-blessed-to-be-on-the-show

3. This Story Blows. Bazooka Gum is ending the comic strip included on the gum wrapper, which has been included since 1953. The wrappers will now be “fuschia and yellow” to match “skateboard and graffiti culture,” so it’s nice to know it’s still 1985. The comics will be replaced by “codes for videos and video games” so expect to be able to buy “Destiny” in a pack of gum soon.
http://gawker.com/5964623/after-nearly-60-years-bazooka-gum-is-killing-its-iconic-comic-strip

4. David Beckham Leaves, Having Accomplished His Goal of Even One American Watching Soccer. David Beckham arrived in the United States five years ago with a goal. To continue playing semi-competitive soccer well into his 30s. No. To make it as a movie star. No. To change the minds of just one person in the U.S. to think soccer was cool. And he did that. So now he’s headed back to his home planet, having won the MLS title. Until he buys the team, or that Spice Girls Re-Re-Re-Re-Reunion tour doesn’t work out.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2241909/David-Beckham-hailed-peers-LA-Galaxy-stint-ends.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

5. THQ Coming Back, One Penny at a Time. THQ launched their own Humble Bundle this week, and has raised more than $2.4 million selling their back catalog of games. The bundle (usually used by Indie companies looking to get exposure) isn’t the highest grossing of all time yet, but for $6 (or whatever you want to pay) you can get six – seven* Triple A games and donate all or none of that money to THQ to help them get back on their feet. Or not. *Offer only partially available in Germany.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-raises-over-2-4-million-in-just-over-a-day/

Laura: Top Movies

Matt: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Laura: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Matt: Android Apps

Hock Show Episode 25 – The Foibles Frontier

December 3, 2012 Podcast No comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:00 — 62.3MB)

1. $1 Billion Spent Online on Black Friday. Probably due to a ton of sales as companies are refusing to wait for Cyber Monday sales and shoppers are refusing to go out in the cold and shop. One of the bigger winners was Amazon, who was matching online sales prices (and undercutting Steam with some of their sales). Tablets and clothing made up the largest percentages of sales this year, with Apple taking in over 80% of new tablet sales.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57553937-93/shoppers-spent-record-$1b-online-on-black-friday/

2. “Gangnam Style” the Most Viewed Video on YouTube. Move over “Baby,” Psy’s awesome K-Pop hit has reached 817 million views on YouTube (and still hitting several million per day) and 5.5 million “likes” (the next most “liked” video is “Party Rock Anthem” which has 1.6 million). Now, to be fair, half of those views came from “Hock Show” cohost Laura Gough, but still, it’s pretty impressive.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/gangnam-style-most-viewed-youtube-video-time-134533498.html

3. You Shall Not Pass (Products Online!)! Tolkien Estates continues their love/hate relationship with Warner Brothers by leveling a $80 million dollar suit against the company this week. While Warner Brothers is preparing to release the first Hobbit movie in December, the Tolkien family is unhappy with how Warner is handling the licensing of online products, mainly that they don’t have the right. And thus the LotR slot machine and other online products are violations of their licensing deal. Which is too bad because those slot machines are amazing and fun.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/tolkien-estate-sues-warner-bros-393212

4. HP Isn’t Worth Much. Hewlitt-Packard admitted to what amounts to an $8.8 billion dollar accounting error this week after severely overvaluing the software company (Autonomy) that they acquired earlier this year. Autonomy apparently made themselves seem like a $10 billion dollar investment after counting hardware sales as software bundles, counting shipments as sales (something that software companies do all the time anyway), and selling “service” contracts as software sales. In total now, HP is down $12.7 billion for this year.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/11/surprise-hp-discovers-new-internal-disaster-takes-8-8b-charge/

5. Somebody’s Got to Like the Surface, Right? Microsoft’s Surface tablet has come under some fire since debuting alongside the just as abysmally rated Windows 8. But it had one thing going for it, and that was Oprah’s constant shilling for the surface as part of her “Favorite Things” promotion. One problem: All those Tweets she’s been sending about how much she loves the Surface? Are coming from an iPad. Now it’s probably not even Oprah herself Tweeting, and there’s no Surface app for Twitter yet, but isn’t all that just sort of a further indictment? Hmm.
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2012/11/19/oprah-plugs-the-surface-on-twitter-uses-an-ipad-to-do-so/

Matt: Top Movies

Laura: Top Games

Matt: Top Books

Laura: Top Songs (iTunes)

Matt: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps
(Android 4.2 Update accidentally deleted December from the calendar -lol)

http://hockshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Hock-Show-Episode25.mp3

Hock Show Episode 24 – The Voyage Dome

December 3, 2012 Podcast No comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:00 — 51.3MB)

1. Hostess Is Dead, Long Live Hostess. The Hostess Food company officially closed its doors last week, ending a long bankruptcy and strike process, and officially opening its classic brands for liquidation. And companies are already lining up to buy the brands like fat kids lining up to buy Twinkies. The top bidder right now appears to be Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo Foods, the owners of Sara Lee. I always knew that Sara Lee was a Bimbo.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/17/15245611-mexican-company-bimbo-may-be-eyeing-twinkies?lite
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4PVFXX60X44/TAje57Lv6WI/AAAAAAAADcQ/1Gr3QfddrLE/s1600/bimbo+promo.jpg

2. THQ Is Dead, Long Live THQ. Once one of the biggest gaming companies in the industry, THQ is currently being valued at around $1.00 per share and less than $75 million for the whole company. The company has pushed back the release of all games on its current slate indefinitely and is probably looking at a firesale fairly soon. One industry giant, Ubisoft, is rumored to be looking to acquire THQ, though THQ officials are saying they’d rather have an injection of cash to release their current publishing table. Though, I’d be excited if we had Ezio in WWE ‘14.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/11/05/thq-seeking-more-cash-south-park-game-release-slips/

3. Silicon Knights Is Dead, Lon…You Know What? Never Mind. Silicon Knights, the makers of infamous flops Too Human and X-Men Destiny, lost its court case against Epic Games this week. They were suing Epic over the use of Unreal Engine 3 code, saying that Epic was limiting access to key features and tech support so that SK (among others) couldn’t get any Unreal 3 games to market until Gears of War launched. Epic countersued, however, saying that SK broke its contract with them and wasn’t authorized to use the Unreal 3 Engine for any games. A judge ruled this week in favor of Epic, meaning SK has to destroy any unsold copies of its games using Unreal 3 (which is all of them, including two they’re making right now), and essentially destroying the company. Unless they just remake Too Human as a Skyrim mod and put it up on Kickstarter, I guess.
http://www.webpronews.com/court-orders-silicon-knights-to-destroy-copies-of-too-human-x-men-destiny-2012-11

4. In News Not Involving Death, John McAfee…Aw, Damn It. John McAfee, the creator of McAfee Anti-Virus is on the run from police after being accused of killing his neighbor in Belize. What’s even worse, he’s afraid his cell phone company is listening in to his private phone calls! Thankfully, he has a whole internet to turn to so he can figure out how to fight the man. So he turned to an internet message board this week, using his own published screen name (stuffmonger) to ask how to stop the fuzz from using his phone to trace him. Maybe he could give all their computers a virus! In other news, he’s also started a blog about his, ehem, travels, and he claims that he’s still at home and the police just keep missing him somehow.
http://gizmodo.com/5960826/mcafee-on-the-run-stops-to-ask-for-tech-support

5. Truly, This Is the Age of teh Internetz. A Dutch man, Anil Kheda, has been charged with hacking and theft this week. His crime? After his character was deleted from a not popular online game in 2007 named “Outwar” he hacked the Outwar servers, stole the code the game was using and created his own game “Outcraft” making $10,000 in subscriptions in the process. Then, he offered the Outwar people to shut it down if his demands were met. Those demands? $1,500 or give his character back. Oh, and how did police discover that Kheda was behind the scheme? The Outcraft domain was registered in his name and address. Welcome to the digital age.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/11/stolen-code-9-month-hacking-spree-lead-to-criminal-charges/

Matt: Top Movies

Dan: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid?hl=en

Laura Android Apps
(Android 4.2 Update accidentally deleted December from the calendar -lol)

http://www.looneylabs.com/games/fluxx

Hock-Show-Episode24

Hock Show Episode 22: The Wrath of Pong

December 3, 2012 Podcast No comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:00 — 47.6MB)

1. May the Magic of Disney Be With You. Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion this week, which basically means that George Lucas got $4 billion (don’t worry he’s giving basically all of it to educational trusts). What does Disney get out of the deal? Star Wars, which was rushed into production, ILM, the Lucas Arts company (which they really don’t have any interest in), and Skywalker sound. So expect that next John Carter movie to be killer.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/30/disney-star-wars-lucasfilm/1669739/

2. Hurricane Sandy a Weird Social Media Storm. People were live tweeting how wet they were during Katrina, but I don’t know that it was ever this bad. Before the storm had even hit, photoshopped pictures of Sandy destroying New York like some kind of Godzilla movie. And people live tweeted how much battery they had left without power. We live in a strange world.
http://www.imediaethics.org/News/3558/Fake_photos_abound_in_hurricane_sandy_coverage.php

3. The End Has Finally Come for Bucky Balls. Super powerful magnetic balls that were popular for no real reason and then put on a production hold because people thought it would be cool to give tiny magnets to children are officially off the market according to manufacturers Maxfield and Oberton in a snooty letter on their website. News that is truly not changing your world.
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/02/magnetic-buckyballs-toys-discontinued/

4. 14 Year Old Boy to Play the Masters. At what point is it too far? I guess if they can compete then they can play, right? Well, chances are this guy can’t compete and so this is just some weird attempt to get exposure for him and the event. In case you’re curious, his name is Guan Tianlang, he’s from China, he is their amateur champion and he likes Power Rangers, cookies, and can’t sleep without a nightlight. So we have that in common.
http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2012/11/14-year-old-chinese-amateur-earns-spot-in-2013-masters.html?hpt=hp_c3

5. No Doubt Is Totall Racist, You Guys. No Doubt released a new album this year to the shock of just about everybody, and was ready to release a video for their single “Looking Hot.” The video was pulled hours after a promotional clip leaked online however, showing Gwen Stefani dressed up as a Native American princess being abducted by the band dressed up as cowboys (later to be saved by English Indian band member Tony Kanal). Apparently, this is TOO FAR! However, if I’m being honest, I thought their weird tribute to reggae on “Rock Steady” was more racist than playing up old western tropes.
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=772908

Matt: Top Movies

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/10/26/all-the-pretty-doritos-how-video-game-journalism-went-off-the-rails/

Dan: Top Games

Laura: Top Books

Matt: Top Songs (iTunes)

Dan: iTunes Apps