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:
0.00000000 BTC
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!
Completely rewritten from scratch. Faster performance, and follows the iOS user interface design more closely.
No longer asks for your location. (Note: The location prompt was due to a mistake on my part when creating the first version of the app. No actual location data was ever collected or stored.)
Supports Push Notifications – get notified instantly when new podcasts or blog posts are published
Lets you listen to and/or watch the latest audio and video podcasts, as well as previous podcasts
Supports background audio and remote audio control
Option to let you view blog posts in Mobile Safari
You can now share interesting blog posts and/or podcasts with others via e-mail or Twitter (Twitter sharing requires iOS 5)
New Con Calendar – check out our upcoming anime convention schedule
Contact Us now lets you send us e-mail as well as call our voice mail line (requires an iPhone) or via Skype (requires the free Skype app be installed, available for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad)
The app is now ad-supported, using Apple’s iAd ad network. We feel that these ads are reasonably unobtrusive — they don’t bog down your phone, or jump out at you and annoy you like many other ads do. However, if you wish to show your support for Otaku no Podcast directly, there is an option that will allow you to remove all ads from the program for a small one-time fee.
Of course, with a rewrite of this magnitude, there are bound to be a few bugs still. If you run into one, we’d appreciate it if you could let us know about it.
Go grab the app today (it’s free). You can also check out a video (also embedded below the cut) on how the app works.
Finally, for all you Android users out there, don’t fret; my friend is hard at work on an Android version of the app, which should be out in the Android marketplace soon.
I hope you’ll forgive me this non-anime-related post. But I feel that we have to acknowledge the loss of a true visionary. In a statement released late today by the Apple board of directors, they announced that Steve Jobs has passed away.
I won’t say very much, because not only am I still in shock, but I really have nothing to add to what has already been said – there are far better bloggers and news outlets out there that are doing that, and I’ll link to some of them at the end of this article.
Even so, I can’t help but voice a few thoughts myself. (Because that’s the way I roll)
Love him or hate him, agree with him or disagree with him, I don’t think there’s a single person on this planet who would deny that he made a significant impact on the computing landscape. He brought the user friendly to computing. And let’s not forget his impact on the music industry. Before the iPod came out, MP3 players (those few that existed) were big, clunky, complicated, and had battery lives measured in minutes. Now, with each successive generation of iPod and the inevitable copycats, we end up with better products — both the iPods as well as the copycats have improved. And the iTunes Music Store finally dragged the recording industry kicking and screaming into the age of digital music. Only Steve could have got them to agree to drop DRM. And his creations have directly affected many other industries — desktop publishing, digital video, telecommunications… I could go on and on.
Many people have asked me why I use Macs and Apple products. My more frugal friends ask me why I insist on paying 2-3x of what the “other guys” charge for their tech. My Open Source advocate friends ask me why I persist in using a closed system. Well my answer is simple: Apple products do what I want and need them to do, and they do it well. I’m not necessarily saying that the other tools are bad — they serve the needs of many people just fine. But for my particular mindset, I just couldn’t think of doing it on anything other than a Mac. Apple kicked off the whole digital video revolution with products like iMovie and Final Cut, and while there are now some competitors in the space, I still think the Apple tools work better. The same goes for audio editing and digital photo editing. Yes they are more expensive than their PC alternatives. But they are built to last. I’m notoriously hard on technology, and I have managed to turn lesser (PC) laptops into nonfunctional, broken pieces of crap. (Just about the only laptop I haven’t managed to thoroughly destroy is the classic IBM Thinkpad.) Whereas my poor MacBook Pro has been dropped God knows how many times (trust me, it has the battle scars to prove it), yet still performs just as well as it did on day 1. It goes even farther than that. There are many people out there — including a certain Otaku no Podcast co-host — that still have more aged Macs that still perform beautifully (albeit a bit slowly by comparison), and these people use them every day.
And there is one thing I cannot help but respect him for: he had the — well, there’s no other word for it, “balls” — to tell us “You’re gonna do things my way.” This can be summed up brilliantly in the “Think Different” ad campaign. He wasn’t always right — Apple has certainly had its share of titanic failures — but even still, out of the ashes of those failures came the seeds for later successes. Take the Lisa, for example. A technologically revolutionary machine, yet a commercial failure — but it formed the core (if you’ll pardon the pun) of the Macintosh. Or his NeXT machines — again, a failure in the marketplace, yet the operating system at their core went on to become today’s Mac OS X.
Either way, the world has lost a truly remarkable individual. Our hearts and prayers go out to Steve’s family
Important note I have decided to donate all affiliate income earned during the months of October and November to cancer charities.
Earlier this year, we wrote about Amazon’s decision to terminate its California affiliates (of which we were one) due to the new CA sales tax law. This, of course, spurred me on to search for more affiliate programs, resulting in the new affiliate links you may have seen from various places such as Right Stuf, Crunchyroll, Best Buy, CDjapan (still pending, cross your fingers), and others.
Well, apparently Amazon reached a compromise with the state, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that requires Amazon and other out-of-state retailers to start collecting sales tax starting in September of next year. And, hot on the heels of that news, Amazon announced it has officially reinstated its California affiliates. So you should once again start seeing Amazon links popping up across the site. (Fortunately I have been too busy/lazy to remove all Amazon links when they terminated us. Now I don’t have to. Win!)
But that doesn’t mean we’ll be dropping our new affiliates. For one thing, some of them carry stuff that Amazon doesn’t. (Such as import CDs in the case of CDjapan, Crunchyroll memberships, etc.) But also, whenever I post a product, I’ll do my best to find you the best deal on it.
![[Play Now!]](http://media.otakunopodcast.com/images/PlayNow.jpg)
![[View our eBay Auctions]](http://bayfeeds.com/images/Right_Now_108x45.gif)
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.
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 
We are pleased to announce that a brand new version of the Otaku no Podcast app is 
I hope you’ll forgive me this non-anime-related post. But I feel that we have to acknowledge the loss of a true visionary. In a statement released late today by the Apple board of directors, they announced that 
