Dogear-Nation

The regular team is back – temporarily – before Michael Rowe heads off on vacation. Michael, Andy and Michael examine the shinyness of virtual world voice chat and new iPhones, but then realise that the GPS system is about to crash. Oh, and there’s a discussion about ten big tech failures too – any nominations for the official Dogear Nation list?

This week’s editor (Andy) would like to apologise for all the Skype chat noises during the episode – the beating will continue until performance improves!

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What’s Cool?
Michael R — Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse? | The Onion [bonus link - BFG 9000!]
Michael M — kiambogo tweetup, and cool and unusual ice cube trays
Andy — new Polaroid instant digital camera

TOTDIS (guess the acronym)
The Future is Here….The Virtual World for Large Meetings! – CISCO (epredator)
Second Life Gives Avatars Real Voice (kevinaires)
Second Life Has Skype In Its Sights (andypiperuk) [bonus link - Sparkle IM iPhone SL chat app]

Technotronic
Source Reveals Specs And Release Date of Next iPhone (carolinabigblue)
Sony Pictures CEO hates the Internet (epredator)
Owners’ rights to copy DVDs (lx5)
GPS system ‘close to breakdown’ (andypiperuk)

The 10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade (duckboxxer) – do you agree with this list? suggest your own ideas in the comments!
Facebook an OpenID Relying party (uncommonman)
Early Adopters and Finding “The Next Shiny Object” (andypiperuk)
The Great Address Book Cleanup (lx5)

Taking a sidetrack
SOMESSO conference in 3 minutes
ipadio and ipadio iPhone app

Final thoughts
Michael M — soap and LEGO architecture
Michael R — regrets [bonus link - despair.com] and off-the-grid for 2 weeks
Andy — following up contacts from conferences

The best leftover listener links
Cloudy day: Google falters; Packets lost in key cities (mikerowe01)
Augmented Reality & The Web: Present and Future Scenarios (mikerowe01)
Ebay claims victory in luxury fakes dispute (lx5)
Brussels fines Intel record $1.4bn on grounds of antitrust (lx5)
German motorway strewn with notes (lx5)
Visa Develop Bank Card With Its Own Keypad And Digital Display To Combat Online Shopping Fraud (kevinaires)