So, we had to drive home this weekend to go to a First Birthday party for the daughter of some close friends. I don’t know what exactly we were expecting, but there was a lot of kids there. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking how could I have thought there wouldn’t be. It’s really not all that shocking; I don’t exactly hang out with babies a lot. The craziest thing was that I have no idea how to tell how old a baby/infant/child is. There were kids there that I assumed were like 8 or 9 and they were only 3! WTF?!?! I don’t know if it’s all the HGH pumped in milk these days or if I’m just totally clueless. It’s confusing because I’m under the impression that they are potty trained by like 2 and can dress and probably feed themselves by 3. I have no idea if that’s right or not, but if the boy looks like he’s 8, he should act like an 8 year old. Yeah, I’m probably not a good first choice for babysitter… If you came here for gadget or tech news, you have to hit the jump. (Oooh, Google Gon’ Kill iPad!)

That’s right ladies and gents; it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! So, step right up and prepare to have your mind blown as Geeky Popular unleashes the only Kindle 2 review that matters!!

Ever since Amazon released the original Kindle in 2007, the e-reader has been near the very top of my list of things I couldn’t live without. However, it was never something I ever really considered buying because at that time is was something like $400 and that was way too steep for my tastes. Then, in February 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle 2. Again the gadget leapt to the top of my desired toys list, and again it was never seriously considered due to a price tag of $359. The ridiculous price tags made me lament the fact that I could at times act completely reasonable and was denying myself something I felt I needed to have. As though Amazon could read my thoughts, they dropped the price to $299 and then again to $259 in October of 2009; right before Christmas. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I made it a personal mission to get myself one, and I invested way too much time ensuring that my day would come. Now that my two and a half year wait is over, was it worth it? Is the Kindle everything I’d hope it would be or has it left me wanting more? Follow me behind the jump to find out. (Kindle Goodness This Way!!)

Man, it seems like only a few hours ago since I posted HP’s preemptive strike against the iPad, and now we know exactly what HP’s bringing to the battlefield. The guts of the Slate definitely sound impressive with a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor rocking UMA graphics, 32 or 64GB of internal flash memory that can be expanded with an SD card, 1GB of internal RAM that you can’t upgrade. If you’re keeping score, Apple maxes out at 64GB flash memory, they have no SD slot to add more, and speculation points at 512mb RAM, but who knows how much internal RAM there is since Apple’s not saying. That’s a solid 1-0. (Follow The Beatdown Here!)

Awwww snap, son!!! HP is ready to throw down with the turtle-necked one from Cupertino. While the entire world is drinking 300,000 gallons of iPad flavored Kool-Aid, Hewlett-Packard wants you to know they’ve got a Tablet too. In fact, they not only will be releasing a tablet sometime soon, but they’re gonna give us one with expandable memory via SD Port as well as a front facing camera. Yup, HP figured out how to give the option for adding memory as well as a camera for video chatting while Apple couldn’t or wouldn’t. Oh yeah, they’ve also figured out how to get an actual OS in the Slate instead of shafting us with the same system that comes on my iPod. Either HP is staffed by super-genius robots from the future, or Apple is ran by a ginger in disguise who is the President of The Turtle-neck Wears of America Association. I’m gonna go with the latter. You can watch the HP Slate video below and decide for yourself. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

April Fool’s Day is a special day for anyone who loves gadgets, and they can count on their favorite tech news type of sites to have full coverage of the shenanigans from some of the biggest names in the tech and gadget industry. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. But first, I want to throw a massive Geeky Popular style shout out to my little sister who’s celebrating her birthday today. A couple years ago I decided to prank her by waiting like two weeks before I called her to tell her happy birthday. Everyone else says I just forgot and was too lazy to call, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Happy Birthday Meg!! (The Shenanigans Are This Way)

Since I already talked about gadgets and other tech news early today, let’s see what’s new in the world of hacking and pirates…Last week the MPAA got their way when US District Judge Stephen Wilson ordered the founder of Isohunt, a place where pirates be, Gary Fung to pull all the .torrent files that held infringing content. Which I’d assume amounts to pretty much all the files. Now, my stance on piracy is quite firm in that I really have no problem with it. If a movie studio can afford to pay Julia Roberts $500,000 a minute for a shit movie that had Jacob the Werewolf and that douche from The Hangover in it, they can afford for me to not buy the DVD or go see it at the theater. That being that, I also recognize that when a torrent site such as Isohunt is told to pull its illegal content, they’re probably dead in the water. Looks like pirates may need to find shelter in a Bay or with a Green Monster if they plan on Jack Sparrowing the complete second season of Adventures of The Gummi Bears. Since I don’t have any piratey videos, why don’t you reminisce with the theme song from the aforementioned cartoon. Oh, and for good measure, gadgets and gadgets and tech news and tech news and hacking and hacking! AHAHHA!! Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

So here’s the deal, every Friday I’ll be doing a post that covers a bunch of junk that I either missed, or didn’t post about earlier in the week. If there’s something extra tasty that I wrote about, I’ll probably be including it as well. Like the rest of this glorious blog, the Friday post is still a work in progress and the format could change drastically from week to week. What I’m trying to say is that in no way do I or the rest of GP’s staff endorse or guarantee that every Friday’s post will be in any way similar to any done on a previous, or future, Friday. (Side-note: You’re probably thinking, “I know Mike doesn’t have a staff. Why’s he fronting on my crew?” You’re wrong sucka!! I do, in fact, have a staff. Who cares that it consists of myself, TheMrs., and our two dogs aka Team RamRox. Do you have a staff? DO YOU?!?!)

I’ve already admitted to the fact that I basically hate Apple and Stevie J., but I had no idea they could be such little gingers. During a panel at last week’s GDC (Game Developers Conference) a developer of a basically unknown app trashed the App Store declaring that he, “absolutely fucking hate[s] the iPhone app store.” Well, Ol’ Jobsy got his panties in a bunch and now that guys app has been yanked from said App Store. Way to be adults about it, Apple. There are people all across the interwebs that have said Google’s Nexus One has been a failure. Well, Google decided to stick it’s tongue out at them while yelling, “Nuh-uh!! Our phone is too good and is selling just fine and I’m telling my mommy!!” All this happened in the same week that Microsoft decided they may be giving its pathetic excuse of a game console, the Xbox 360, the option to use an external USB Hard Drive to solve space issues. Of course, they’re only going to let you have an extra 16GB of space because they’re Microsoft and they do what they want, damnit! Nice to know that the three biggest tech companies in the world can be such spoiled brats…

This week was also the week in which some genius, who’s actually the head of the International Actors’ Federation, was asked about Internet Piracy and responded with this gem of a quote, “To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp. We all want to be a bit like Johnny Depp. But we’re talking about a criminal act. We’re talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do.” I haven’t talked about Piracy here yet, but if you know me you know that I don’t really have a problem with it. But, I’ve never thought, “Man, if I download the latest episode of The Office, I’ll be just like Johnny Depp since he was a pirate and I’d be committing an act of piracy.” I’m convinced that at least 90% of the population are complete morons…We’re going to try to end each week with a few choice videos that I haven’t shown yet. So, let’s get to the ones for this week since they’ll wrap up this glorious day in which I got my tax refunds back. (Side-note: It was so awesome to check my bank account this morning and see the numbers I saw. It was just like in Office Space when they check their account and realize they totally screwed up on their big stealing plans only there was nowhere near that many zeroes. I did, however, get to buy a Kindle, so expect an unboxing extravaganza Monday and my full review later in the week.) The first video is an awesome one done by Penguin Books speaking on the future of books and ebooks. The next video is Sony’s first ad for their upcoming Playstation Move. They take some shots at the Wii and the 360 and it works, even though I don’t think the Wii is in any trouble; I actually wrote up a nice piece on that over at TheSpin last week. And I’m gonna top off this Friday-flavored Sunday with a cherry that is cleverly disguised as the debut trailer for Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming reboot, Predators. I’ve loved every film in the Predator franchise, even AvP: Requiem, and this one looks to be stupid dope. Can.Not.Wait. So, there you have it, GP’s inaugural Week In Geek, I only hope it was as good for you as it was for me. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

If you’ve been paying attention and readying yourselves for the GP quiz that will be given one week before the robot apocalypse, you know that I don’t have a lot of love for Apple, or for gingers but that’s a post for another day. My reasoning for the disdain is fairly easy to explain: the company and its fanboys think they are too cool for school. They’re not. Yes, I’m sure a $1500-manila envelope fitting laptop that doesn’t have any drives is perfect for someone with little computer knowledge and money to waste. At least it looks purty, right? My biggest problem surrounds the iPhone though. I hate that it is the best phone out right now. I hate that no other company can get their shit together enough to put out a phone that’s at the very least almost as good as Stevie Jobs’ juggernaut. I also hate the fact that any shred of “coolness” that the phone had in its early life has been destroyed by the sheer numbers of people who own one. The iPhone is the new Motorola Razr and I hate the fact that if I get one and actually answer the phone in public, I’ll have to live with the embarrassment that comes with using the same phone as the 40 year-old WASP that can’t figure out how to keep his kids from screaming in a restaurant and his botox using wife and his 66 year-old ultra-snotty mother and all three of the aforementioned screaming kids (who just so happen to be gingers) that are all under the age of 15. I also hate that, despite all of this, unless Google releases an Android phone that can seriously compete with the functionality of the iPhone, I am doomed to buy one. So, if you wanna know why I hate Apple, there’s a couple reasons for you.

The problem is, no one at any other company seems competent enough to produce a phone that can compete. No matter how they try, the iPhone still seems to shit on them. Take Google’s Nexus One for instance. The hype that lead to its announcement was only rivaled by Apple’s own iPad announcement. (Side-note: Seriously, everyone was talking about the mysterious “Google Phone” for weeks leading up to its unveiling, same as with the iPad. When it was announced people were drooling as well as being kinda “meh”, same as the iPad. Wouldn’t it be awesome if the iPad failed as bad as the Nexus One?) Then came the release of the Nexus One and no one really paid attention. Well, 135,000 people were paying attention but compared to the Droid and the iPhone, that’s peanuts. Each of those phones hit the million-sold mark at this point in their life, at this rate it could take the Nexus One almost two years to get their. Just because I’m a bit of a masochist, let me point out that the iPad took in 120,000 pre-orders in its first day; God I hate Apple… Maybe releasing the phone in an unlocked model that is usable on AT&T’s 3G network will help. Probably not. If people aren’t buying the phone now at T-Mobile’s reduced price, I doubt they’ll buy the $529 unlocked version. All I can do is hope that AT&T gets the Android phone that finally lives up to the hype and slays the Goliath that is the iPhone.

Now, for something completely different. I will go to the grave saying The Wire was the greatest TV show of all time. In the show’s fourth season of the show, a few episodes include segments with Marlo Stanfield and the fact that he raises homing pigeons. I was always amazed by this fact; the thought of homing pigeons in the slums of West Baltimore is incredible. Almost as incredible as the fact that Mike Tyson also raises homing pigeons and in fact races them. Apparently the folks at Animal Planet heard about this because Tyson is tapped to host a show about pigeon racing. Yeah, shit is bonkers. The fact that a dude who was at one time one of the scariest men on the planet raises pigeons is mind-boggling. I’ve got a feeling this will be the best animal related show next to The Dog Whisperer. There’s no trailer for the show, tentatively titled “Taking on Tyson”, but there is a truly epic video of Tyson’s greatest knockouts which you’ll find below. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

I’m not even gonna lie to you, I’m kind of obsessed with the Amazon Kindle. I’ve wanted one since the bulky original was released just over 2 years ago. Of course, it’s a bit hard to justify buying a near $300 device to read books when you can just straight up buy the books. I’ve done all the fuzzy math possible and figure that maybe after buying and reading something like 75 books the money saved on e-books as opposed to buying the physical copy would equal the amount I spent on the damned thing. If that last sentence confuses you as much as it does me, basically Kindle books are cheaper and if I buy enough of them the Kindle would have paid for itself. Don’t sleep, I like to read a good bit, but 75 books is kinda effing daunting! Still, the Kindle is at the tip-top of my most wanted gadgets list right now and I’m not sure what can dethrone it.

I do know that it probably won’t be the iPad which will be available on April 3 and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow at 8:30am EST. (Side-note: I don’t know all that much about time and time-zones, but it seems to me that Eastern Standard Time and the area that falls in that time zone craps on the area encompassed by Greenwich Mean Time. What I’m saying is, instead of everything being GMT-5 or +3, it should be EST +/-. It may be just me, but my opinion is the one that counts around here. That’s right…) Anyway, I’m not gonna go off too much on the iPad right now as I’m waiting to learn a bit more about the device that I think its gonna be as big a failure as AppleTV. Seriously, do you know anyone with AppleTV? I sure as hell don’t and consider myself a better man because of it. (Side-note: Yes, I just said that I’m better for NOT knowing anyone dumb enough to waste money on AppleTV. If, in retrospect, I find out someone I know does own the device, I’ll be like Inigo Montoya when he found the six-fingered man and tell that person to prepare to die. That’s how I roll.) Apple and Steve Jobs of course think they are God’s gift to man and can do no wrong and really want to beat Google to be the ones to rule the world. That’s why they’re releasing a magical device that is way better than any netbook even though you can only do one thing at a time on it. Oh yeah, this revolutionary device also delivers the greatest web browsing experience of all time as long as you don’t want to go on a website that uses flash in any way. Yeah, I’ve got no love for the iPad and I think I may hate Apple. If you drink the Kool-Aid that the turtle-necked one sells, you can go ahead and pre-order yours tomorrow and start counting the days until you own a giant iPod Touch. Sucker.

I don’t feel like posting anything else about those devils at Apple. so allow me to leave you with the latest from everyone’s favorite cartoon band, Gorillaz. Plastic Beach was released earlier this month and the videos for Stylo ft. Mos Def, and Super Fast Jelly Fish ft. De la Soul are both stupidly good. The groups latest has Damon Albarn taking Dangermouse’s spot in the production booth. I’m not sure if that’s the right move or not, but these two tracks are definitely a bit retarded. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.