Streaming Picks of the Week
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 Well, October has finally come by, and that means it’s once again time for the Podcast Awards! And, just like last year, we think it’d be really cool if you could nominate us!
It’s really easy and will only take you, what, maybe one or two minutes tops. Just head on over to podcastawards.com and enter our name (Otaku no Podcast) and our URL (http://otakunopodcast.com/) into the categories category for which you’d like to nominate us. We suggest you nominate us in both the Cultural/Arts as well as Food and Drink categories category. (You do know that we’ve done some food-related video podcasts, right?) (Update: nominations for multiple categories are against the rules. Please only nominate us for Cultural/Arts.) Of course you’re also welcome to nominate us for the People’s Choice category as well!
Better hurry though; you only have until the end of day on October 15th, 2012 – that’s less than 2 weeks from now!. So get cracking! And thanks for your support!
 Even though it’s still ridiculously hot here at Otaku no Podcast HQ, we must still acknowledge that, yes, fall is upon us. Which, for many, unfortunately means it’s Back to School time. (DO NOT WANT!!) But you can at least console your soul (and fill time which would otherwise be spent staring at empty space) with yet another season of new (and returning) anime!
Unfortunately my usual go-to source for the inevitable fall previews, Japanator, has yet to post their fall preview guide. Fortunately, other individuals and news outlets have jumped in to fill the void. ANN has an upcoming anime page, and a helpful ANN forum user has posted a fall 2012 preview chart. But the Master of All Preview Charts (as far as I am concerned) @cowboybibimbop has posted his masterpiece fall 2012 anime chart as well. (viewable below the cut, or by clicking the link above. Also be sure and keep an eye on his @animucharts Twitter account for updates.)
What am I looking forward to, you might ask? One word: Little Busters. (Okay, that was two words.) Naturally, since it’s based on a Key property, I’ve made a note to lay in an extra large supply of tissues. J.C. Staff will have to do an extraordinary job, they have some pretty damn big shoes to fill. I am also really looking forward to Robotics;Notes, the third installment in the Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate series (both of which I loved; Steins;Gate more so than Chaos;Head, which I thought was OK)
So what shows do you have your eye on? Let us know in the comments or on the Twitters (or the Facebooks).
 With the release of iOS 6, Apple’s latest operating system for their mobile devices (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad), Apple has removed Podcasts from the built-in Music app and broken them out into their own app.
Unfortunately their Podcasts app is not quite ready for prime time. It has some bugs, and more importantly, it has some limitations. The Podcasts app isn’t integrated with Siri, plus doesn’t work with some car iPod control systems or iPod speaker docks. Plus it has some other bugs, and in general isn’t quite ready for prime time.
But not to worry! I’ve found a little hack that you can perform that will bring Podcasts back into the Music app, and have put together a little video on the procedure.
Watch this video on YouTube or via the embedded player below the cut.
 In case you’ve missed my most recent upload to our YouTube channel, I’ve been busy (in what little free time I have) working on the next version of the Otaku no Podcast app. One of the new features I’ll be rolling out is the ConFinder, a neat graphical searchable database of anime conventions. You’ll be able to search near wherever you are (the app uses your location) for an anime convention. The conventions will be displayed on a map and will be easily browsable, and you can even add them to your calendar right from the app.
Of course, in order for this to work, and be as awesome as possible, I need to put together a comprehensive database of anime conventions. And for that I need your help!
So do you have a favorite anime con (or cons) you try and make it to every year, come hell or high water (or financial destitute)? Does your school’s anime club run a convention? Is there an anime convention in your city, or a neighboring city? Then please tell us about it! Whether it’s a large mega-con or a small fan-run con, we want to hear about it.
Fill out the form below the cut, or by clicking this link. And you have our eternal and undying thanks.
 Crunchyroll is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the best things to happen to the anime community (and the anime fan). Gone are the days when you had to agonize over whether or not you felt like buying the (highly priced) first volume of an anime DVD series, only to find that, ehh, you didn’t really like it, and so there’s $30 down the tubes. Now you can easily surf through hundreds of anime titles online, and watch whatever you want, whenever you want, while helping to support the companies that bring it to you. Karmic win!
The problem with that is that not all of us prefer to watch our anime on our computer screens. I mean, if you’ve got a nice shiny large-screen HDTV sitting in your entertainment center, wouldn’t you rather use that? Well, now you can, thanks to Crunchyroll’s brand-new PS3 app!
With this app, and assuming you have a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!, you can watch all of their available content, as well as easily access any series that you have in your Queue (very handy, that). Those of you without premium memberships can watch a subset of available content, including the first episodes of titles that Crunchyroll is currently simulcasting.
Unfortunately, the app currently only streams in 480P, and is only available to folks in the USA and Canada. But it does the job, and does it well, and they will be adding 720p and 1080p, as well as opening the app up to more international markets later this year.
Go grab it today! It’s available for free in the PlayStation Store.
 At their Worldwide Developers conference last month, Apple announced the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 6. One change in iOS 6 is that podcasts will be removed from the iTunes Music app, and will be broken off into their own app.
Apple recently released their Podcasts app. It is compatible with all devices that run iOS 5, so you can start using it now; and when iOS 6 comes out, this app will be the new way of downloading and listening to podcasts on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
In this video I show you how to subscribe to and listen to Otaku no Podcast using the new Podcasts app.
Watch the video on YouTube or in the embedded player below the cut.
 Fair warning: this post is going to be very light on news (even more so than yesterday’s), since (as predicted) we didn’t go to any events today, other than the charity auction and closing ceremonies. So this blog post will consist of mostly me summarizing our weekend here at AX, and pulling various opinions out of my… er, personal space.
Well, another Anime Expo has come to an end. I am now safely back home at Otaku no Podcast HQ, a little bruised and worse for wear, but otherwise very happy. Planning an event the size of AX is no small feat, and the staff have once again done an excellent job.
When we got together to record our wrap-up of last year’s AX, I expressed concern at how they would top their efforts that year. Well, they certainly tried. They were definitely basing their GoH selection on the popular trends in the anime world — with the popularity of Fate/zero (and the fact that it just recently ended its 25 episode run – perfect timing!) the whole Fate/zero related guest roster made perfect sense; and no one can deny Yuki Kajiura’s impressive musical contribution to countless anime (and of course there’s FictionJunction too); not to mention LiSA, with her undeniable meteoric rise in popularity following on from Angel Beats! and GirlsDeMo (popular in and of themselves). Did they succeed in besting themselves? Ultimately, the old saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” applies. To me personally, nothing could top Mikunopolis – that was truly epic. But that’s not to say that this year’s con was not enjoyable. Quite the opposite. It just didn’t have that “BAM!” like last year.
 Not a whole lot to report today. We didn’t really go to any panels. The day was spent mostly wandering around the (Xbox huge) dealer’s hall and artist’s alley, and attending Masquerade. So today’s post will consist of mostly miscallany.
I’m sure I’ve missed tons of industry announcements, even at the panels that we went to (it’s hard to keep up sometimes). I’ll be going over the news coming out of AX later this week when I’ve had a chance to recover and decompress, and I’ll certainly post about it and/or talk about it during our inevitable wrap-up podcast, which we’ll most likely be recording sometime this coming weekend. So you can look forward to that.
 Note: the same grammar/typo/accuracy disclaimer from yesterday’s update also applies here. Didn’t take any notes, so my only reference is a log of my liveblog, which can be somewhat hard to follow at times (even for me, and I wrote the darn thing).
Attending an anime con usually involves a certain level of Con Drama™. Fortunately I’ve been able to avoid this bit of unpleasantness. That is, until today. Unfortunately, today we had Drama™ and we had it in spades. I won’t go into the (disgusting) details, but in brief, today’s flavor of Drama™ involved missing bath towels, and a broken toilet, and resolving it to our satisfaction basically flushed the rest of our day down the drain (heh, there’s a metaphor for you!).
 Before we start, I’d like to apologize for any factual errors as well as grammatical errors/typos. It’s been a long day and I’m way too tired to do anything but a cursory look-over of this post.
Day 1 got off to a promising start – I actually managed to get out of bed before half the day was over! (A miracle where conventions and I are concerned) Also, amazingly enough, the shuttle service has actually seemed to improve a little. They finally retired those ancient decrepit school buses and have a fleet of decent looking tour bus style buses. Reasonably comfortable, if a bit hard to get on and off (very steep stairs, and lots of ’em). We arrived at the LACC right around noon time, and headed toward the Press & Industry registration area — and a Line of Lesser Doom. It was fairly short as AX lines go, but it moved at a snail’s pace. At least it wasn’t as bad as what I’d heard it was yesterday (so our arriving late and not being able to do badge pickup yesterday may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise). A bit more efficiency in the line would be a good thing; for example, why not pre-print everybody’s badges? You know who’s registered, so why not print their badge and have it ready for them when they check in? Paper isn’t that expensive…
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