EPISODE 199 - Master Of Segues

The show before our 200th brings the return of Dennis, but now Jabari is out. Sitting in for him is our good friend Sheena Johnson. It's nice to get a female perspective from time to time on the show. So what might Sheena be offering her thoughts on along side us this week?First off is the news of Apple unveiling their new iPad called The New iPad. The biggest improvement on the thing is its Retina display. It's still incredibly overpriced (standard practice for all things Apple), it still has no USB ports and it's horribly uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time. Even Dennis, our resident Apple apologist isn't impressed with the third generation tablet. Two years ago I would've called Dennis our resident 'fan boy' in that sentence. But even he is having a hard time getting on board with some of Apple's recent decisions. Primarily the one to move away from desktop computers. Being someone who comes from broadcasting, Apple confused me with their decision to turn their highly successful Final Cut Pro video editing software into nothing more than a glorified app. They want broadcast editors to start editing with their fingers! On a 10-inch screen! Yeaaahhh... that's not going over well. More of our thoughts on the new... err, I mean The New iPad on this show.I impress Charlie -- no easy feat I might add -- with my broadcaster segue skills as we transition from the DVD segment, to last week's poll results. As the producer, it's my job to try and smoothly transition us from topic to topic. And on a show where we go from talking about a man with a DIY sperm bank to cakes being frosted with poop, that's no easy task. That's why when I saw that THE KILLING's first season was coming to DVD, I had to put it at the end of the list. It's star, Joel Kinnaman, was the subject of the 'We Ask You Poll'. Perfect! The poll, which asked your opinion of Kinnaman landing the role of Robocop, gave Dennis a chance to offer his thoughts on one of his favorite films getting rebooted since he was absent last week. Find out what other sci-fi travesty with which he compares it.Fox has confirmed they're canceling their dino-drama TERRA NOVA after just one season. The big budget, Spielberg-produced series about a group of people that travel back in time to the age of dinosaurs to save humanity and its future garnered pretty decent ratings, but the raptors in suits at Fox didn't seem impressed. They'd rather stick with tired, worn out shows like THE SIMPSONS or programs that should've never been created in the first place like the NAPOLEON DYNAMITE cartoon. Because of its respectable following all around the world, Fox says they'll offer TERRA NOVA to other networks before completely pulling the plug. Don't hold your breathe though.Perhaps they could strike a deal with Netflix since the streaming media company can't seem to do so with cable operators. It was revealed last week that Netflix was trying to partner with cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner to package their service with premium cable tiers. But before they even pulled up chairs to the negotiating table, Comcast shot 'em down. It recently launched its Streampix service on Xfinity. And Dish Network is working on a similar on-demand deal with Blockbuster. Meanwhile, Verizon has struck a deal with Redbox to do their own streaming offerings as well. Looks like nobody wants to play with Netflix. Which is fine, all they gotta do is keep their prices low, continue to grow their titles and for god sake... get 5.1 surround sound working! Then I think they'll be just fine. Especially if they find a way to do even higher quality and faster streams.Another story of note, IKEA is going to start selling houses. Insert flimsy, missing parts and/or collapsing joke here. But don't rush to judgment just yet. The pre-fabricated houses are actually being designed and built by a company called Ideabox. And, unlike that shaky coffee table held together by three tiny wooden dowels, the homes arrive fully assembled! As you'll hear, the guys are not as forgiving as I am. Sure, the places look like sheds with sliding glass doors, but the insides are nice... in the photos... despite being furnished by IKEA....... I think it's time for another of my genius segues. See ya next week for our 200th show!!!