I produce this show out of my own pocket, primarily because of my love of all things anime and Japan. Unfortunately in this down economy, I need as much help as I can get. If you feel so inclined, a small donation to help offset my costs (server, bandwidth, equipment, etc.) would be much appreciated. Either make a purchase through one of our affiliates, bid on our eBay auctions, buy me something on my wish list, or use the handy donation button below.
Bitcoin Address: 14hYjheG9W7aWip7K wLPcfXxoXdALwDcma Total Donations:
0.01000000 BTC
I hope you’ll excuse me this little bit of blatant self-promotion, but I wanted to advertise my latest and greatest iOS app, SongTweeter!
One common thing on Twitter is to share whatever music, podcast, etc. you’re currently listening to, usually using the “#NowPlaying” hash tag. I was looking for an easy way to do this, and so decided to write an app. This app is small, and it does only one thing: lets you tweet whatever song/podcast/etc. you’re currently listening to. You can optionally add any text of your choice (e.g. the aforementioned #nowplaying hashtag) before and/or after the song title; and you can even optionally include album artwork.
We are pleased to announce the availability of Version 2.1 Build 63 of the Otaku no Podcast app, available now in the iTunes App Store. This release includes some bug fixes as well as quite a few new features.
FIXED: Improved loading performance.
FIXED: Some screens weren’t being properly resized when an ad appeared or disappeared.
FIXED: Ads now disappear immediately when you purchase ad removal.
FIXED: Improved the speed of scrolling in the Tweets tab, and added graphical indicators showing tweet type (standard, @reply and retweet).
NEW: Improved accessibility for VoiceOver users.
NEW: Added support for localization. We need translators! If you’re willing to help us translate the app into your native language, please contact us (use the “Support” link).
NEW: Added support for AirPlay for audio and video podcasts.
NEW: Audio playback position indicator now shows elapsed time and total track length.
NEW: Episode title and album artwork are now displayed on the lock screen and the multitasking audio controller. (iOS 5 only)
NEW: Added support for AirPrint. You can now print blog posts or podcast show notes of interest.
NEW: Calendar Detail View. Tap on any event on the Convention Calendar to get more information, including location and URL.
NEW: Tapping on a tweet now allows you to e-mail it, @reply to it or retweet it.
NEW: Added an About dialog box.
NEW: Added settings dialog with an option to include chibicasts when displaying latest audio podcast.
You’re probably wondering “gee, where the hell has the Otaku no Podcast crew been?! Surely they must be back from PMX by now!” Yes, in fact we have been back for a few days; however one of us is more or less incommunicado while she’s helping to housesit for a relative…. and I have contracted the Dreaded Con Plague of Doom. (Remember, people: Emergen-C. LOTS of Emergen-C.)
I hope to be in a well enough shape to record our inevitable PMX wrap-up podcast episode this weekend. And I’ve started finally ingesting the video and photos we took while at the show, and hope to have those posted over the next week or so as well. But in the meantime, I’ve started gathering up other peoples’ PMX-related postings, in particular photos and videos, and present them here for your enjoyment.
(Note: I will be constantly updating this post as I find more peoples’ photos and videos, so check back often! And if you know of any PMX 2011 photo and/or video posts that I don’t, please let us know so we can update this post.)
One of the benefits of today’s modern smartphones is easy, instant access to the data you need wherever and whenever you are. As anime fans and con-goers, this is especially desirable for us. Not having to fuss around with clunky paper-based schedules is something we’ve dreamed of for quite some time. And thankfully, a company has risen to the occasion and has created a solution for us – Guidebook.
The Guidebook app, available for free on both iOS and Android, is beautifully and elegantly designed. With it you can access convention schedules, exhibitor info (dealer’s room), main event info, maps and more. As you browse through the list of events, you can mark events you’re interested in and add them to your own personal schedule list. And, best of all, you can configure the program to warn you before an event starts!
If you’re part of a group organizing an anime convention, you might want to contact then about getting a guide made up for your event. From what I hear the rates are quite reasonable. In fact, at one point they were making guides for smaller organizations for free.
Speaking of guides (yes, I’m finally coming to the point), PMX, which is coming up in just a few days now, now has a guide in Guidebook! If you’re at all interested in going, and own an iOS (iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) or Android smartphone or tablet, you’ll definitely want to go grab the shiny new PMX Guidebook guide!
Download the free GuideBook app today for iOS or Android. Once you have the app installed, run it, click the “Download guides” button and search for the “Pacific Media Expo” guide (also free).
This is just a heads-up – PMX is coming up this weekend – Friday through Sunday, November 11-13, at the LAX Hilton:
Hilton Los Angeles Airport
5711 West Century Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90045
1-310-410-4000
Check out the PMX website for full details on the guests of honor and the various events that will be going on (there are a lot of ’em!). Also, the schedules are now online and can be downloaded in PDF format as a print-ready black and white or color version.
And, as I mentioned earlier, we will be running three panels/workshops!
“Otaku Podcasting for the Complete n00b,” Friday November 11 at 5 PM in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is basically the same old podcasting talk we gave at AX, Fanime, and Anime LA. If you’ve seen it already, you don’t need to come, but why not do so anyway to show your support? And if you don’t know what in blazes I’m talking about, then please come on by! If you’ve ever wanted to know how we run this dog and pony show called Otaku no Podcast, we will show you how it’s done, and you’ll learn that it is not only easy to do, but cheap as well. (which is why even weirdos like us can do it).
“Con Photography 101,” Saturday November 12 at 12 noon in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is for all you costly photographers out there. Ever come home from a day of shooting at con only to be met with pain and disappointment when you load up your pictures and look at them? Well, we’re here to help! If you’ve seen this talk before, you may still want to come anyway, because we’ve reorganized it somewhat. We’ll be focusing in (heh, pun) on tips and techniques for point and shoot camera owners first, but we’ll also cover what you DSLR owners can do as well (and why you point and shooters might want to upgrade). Besides, there will be swag!
And finally, Otaku no Podcast co-host and noted doll enthuses Michelle “Ms. Geek” Klein-Hass will be putting on a Dollfie Dream/Obitsu Doll Panel on Sunday November 13 at 2 PM in Workshops (Marina).
Online pre-registration is still open as well, and will be open throughout the con (trust me, folks, it’s a real time-saver). Prices are $50 for a full 3-day adult membership; $20 for a single-day adult membership (Friday or Sunday) or $35 for Saturday; $15 for children 12 and under; and children 5 and under get in for free. (Children must be accompanied by a paying adult). A 20% group discount is also available for groups of 5 or more who register together.
I have come up with yet another way to help the podcast! If buying stuff from our affiliates, or donating, is not to your tastes, then why not buy me some stuff?! (Why you would be willing to do this instead of buying stuff for yourself, I have no idea, but a guy can dream, right?)
I’ve put up a public wish list on Amazon and will be filling it with things.
Here are my promises to you:
Every item you see is on this list because I need it for something relating to the podcast. Either it’s an anime or video game I want to review, or it’s something I need, for example, a new shock mount to replace the one that I have right now that’s on its last legs; or supplies that I need for giving a panel or workshop at an anime convention (e.g. office supplies, printer ink/toner, etc.). You get the idea.
For all anime/video game type products, I promise to put up a review of it, either as a blog post/article or as part of a podcast episode. (This of course only applies to anime, video games, etc.; I don’t think you’d want to see a review of the latest HP LaserJet toner cartridge or something like that.)
Either way, whatever (if anything) people are willing to get me off this list means less money I need to spend out of pocket, which I can use instead towards paying for other things that the blog/podcast needs (equipment, servers, bandwidth, web hosting, etc.). And, of course, you will have my undying and eternal gratitude, not to mention the continuation of this blog and podcast.
View the wish list here or by clicking on the “Otaku no Podcast Wish List of Doom!” link on the right sidebar, just below the AnimeFinder™ (patent pending).
I would like to point your attention at 3 panels in particular. (Yes, as you might have guessed, we will be running some panels of our own!)
“Otaku Podcasting for the Complete n00b,” Friday November 11 at 5 PM in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is basically the same old podcasting talk we gave at AX, Fanime, and Anime LA. If you’ve seen it already, you don’t need to come, but why not do so anyway to show your support? And if you don’t know what in blazes I’m talking about, then please come on by! If you’ve ever wanted to know how we run this dog and pony show called Otaku no Podcast, we will show you how it’s done, and you’ll learn that it is not only easy to do, but cheap as well. (which is why even weirdos like us can do it).
“Con Photography 101,” Saturday November 12 at 12 noon in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is for all you costly photographers out there. Ever come home from a day of shooting at con only to be met with pain and disappointment when you load up your pictures and look at them? Well, we’re here to help! If you’ve seen this talk before (yes, we’ve given this one before as well), you may still want to come anyway, because we’ve reorganized it somewhat. We’ll be focusing in (heh, pun) on tips and techniques for point and shoot camera owners first, but we’ll also cover what you DSLR owners can do as well (and why you point and shooters might want to upgrade). Besides, there will be swag!
And finally, Otaku no Podcast co-host and noted doll enthusiast Michelle “Ms. Geek” Klein-Hass will be putting on a Dollfie Dream/Obitsu Doll Panel on Sunday November 13 at 2 PM in Workshops (Marina).
For more information on PMX, including guests of honor and other events, check out the PMX website. Online pre-registration is still open as well. Prices are $40 for an Adult Full (Fri-Sun) membership (before Nov 5th) or $50 (after November 5); $20 for a single-day adult membership (Friday or Sunday) or $35 for Saturday; $15 for children 12 and under; and children 5 and under get in for free. (Children must be accompanied by a paying adult). A 20% group discount is also available for groups of 5 or more who register together.
Those of us that have collections of anime videos on our hard drives (unlicensed only, please; and please support the creators by buying the title when it becomes officially licensed in your region, blah blah blah) are presented with a problem when we want to enjoy said content in places other than sitting right in front of your computer. I’ve been on a quest of sorts over the past few years to find tools to help with this scenario, which I’ve writtenaboutbefore. And, indeed, products like Air Video, Meridian Media Player and the WD TV Live work beautifully and allow us to free ourselves from the confines of our computer monitors.
But what if you want to enjoy your content when you’re out and about, away from home, and on the go? The WD TV Live isn’t an option for obvious reasons, and Air Video doesn’t work either, because you’re not within range of your WiFi network and your home computer. If you’ve got an Android phone, Meridian works well. And, indeed, it worked quite well for me, while I had an Android phone. But then, in January (or was it February? I forget) Apple announced that the iPhone was coming to Verizon.
Now I don’t want to get into any smartphone/OS holy wars here. Suffice it to say that, much as I liked my Android experience, I still prefer iOS devices and iPhones. The UI is more refined, the phone performs better and the battery lasts much longer. But, alas, there is no Meridian player for iOS. Yes, I could use something like the excellent (not to mention free) HandBrake to convert my video files and load them into iTunes, but that is a clunky extra step to have to go through. What I liked about Meridian was that all I had to do was mount my phone’s SD card and drag my video files onto it.
Well, I’ve finally found something comparable in the iOS world: ProPlayer. It can play just about every video file format under the sun, including those oh-so-pesky MKV files, and it supports one of the most common subtitle file formats (SRT). You can load your video content onto your device using iTunes’ app file sharing mechanism — not as easy as Meridian/Android’s drag-and-drop, but not too bad. And once the files are on the device, you can use the ProPlayer app to organize them in folders. You can even password protect certain folders of your choosing, for, ahem, “those” certain types of files that you’d rather your mother or girlfriend not see.
Now for the bad news. Unfortunately it doesn’t support the other most common subtitle file format, SSA/ASS. You can work around this by loading up said subtitles in an external subtitle editor program such as Jubler (really good, and it’s free too) and save them out in SRT format. It doesn’t support FLAC (lossless) audio tracks (but fortunately those are fairly rare, and can be down converted to AC3 or MP3 if needed). And it doesn’t support multiple audio tracks, which you don’t see very often “in the wild”; however if you’ve made rips of your own anime DVDs and preserved both the English and Japanese audio, it will only play the “first” audio track that it finds.
It is compatible with the iPhone 3GS and above (including the new iPhone 4S), iPod touch (3rd generation or later), and iPad, and can be purchased on the App Store for $2.99, a fantastic price for such a capable piece of software. Go grab it today on the App Store.
If you don’t know what in blazes I’m talking about, go back and read our post about it a couple years ago. But, for the lazy, here’s the Reader’s Digest version: basically, you e-mail your name, blog title and url, and a link to the list of anime you’ve watched (from sites such as MyAnimeList or Anime-Planet (both are free)), and the Reverse Thieves will randomly pair you up with another participant. You then look thorugh that participant’s list of anime and then suggest to them three anime that they might enjoy. Only — your identities are kept secret until the very end. The whole idea is to help get some inter-blog anime review participation going on, as well as broadening peoples’ horizons and getting them to maybe step out of their comfort zones and try something different.
We had a great deal of fun participating in years past, and with any luck we will be participating once again this year.
Unfortunately this almost slipped under my radar, and so I missed this when they announced it over a week ago. Which means that you have until the end of today (Wednesday, October 12) to respond if you’re interested in participating. Just e-mail your name, your blog’s name and url, and the link to your anime list, to secretsanta.rt@gmail.com with the subject “Secret Santa Participant” But remember, you only have until the end of today, so you better hurry!
![[Play Now!]](http://media.otakunopodcast.com/images/PlayNow.jpg)
![[View our eBay Auctions]](http://bayfeeds.com/images/Right_Now_108x45.gif)
I hope you’ll excuse me this little bit of blatant self-promotion, but I wanted to advertise my latest and greatest iOS app, SongTweeter!
We are pleased to announce the availability of Version 2.1 Build 63 of the Otaku no Podcast app, available now in the iTunes App Store. This release includes some bug fixes as well as quite a few new features.
You’re probably wondering “gee, where the hell has the Otaku no Podcast crew been?! Surely they must be back from PMX by now!” Yes, in fact we have been back for a few days; however one of us is more or less incommunicado while she’s helping to housesit for a relative…. and I have contracted the Dreaded Con Plague of Doom. (Remember, people: 
One of the benefits of today’s modern smartphones is easy, instant access to the data you need wherever and whenever you are. As anime fans and con-goers, this is especially desirable for us. Not having to fuss around with clunky paper-based schedules is something we’ve dreamed of for quite some time. And thankfully, a company has risen to the occasion and has created a solution for us – 
This is just a heads-up – 
I have come up with yet another way to help the podcast! If buying stuff from our affiliates, or donating, is not to your tastes, then why not 
Update 12/26/2012: Due to 
The 
