conan o'brien

The Kindle Fire apparently does not impress Conan O'Brien.

CoCo went after Amazon's inexpensive tablet on his late-night show, with the help of perhaps the worst Jeff Bezos impression ever. The brief skit features the bizarro Bezos pitching some "simple solutions" for a few of the widely reported complaints about the Kindle Fire.

That oddly placed power switch? Duct tape, naturally. I won't spoil any more--watch the clip below for yourself and let us know in the comments if you think the televised lambasting is deserved.… Read more

August marks the 100th anniversary of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED), the smaller but most widely recognized derivative of the official Oxford English Dictionary, or OED. To celebrate, the lexicon published its 12th edition today that adds more than 400 new entries--many of which reflect the technological pervasiveness of modern society, like "woot," "mankini," and "jeggings."

COED Editor Angus Stevenson heads up a small team at the Oxford University Press's academic cabinet tasked with choosing the next words for inclusion, and the process involves keying popular words into a database that shows frequency of use in print and online.

Since publishing its first edition back in 1911, the COED's evolution shows the tremendous effects of social media and instant-access technology on language, creating new words but also modifying existing definitions of words like "follower."

What once meant "a person who imitates or copies" now earns a second and more widely used meaning: "someone who is tracking a particular person, group, etc., on a social networking site." Another example that's a little unsettling is the general term "friend" that loses gravity in its new form: "a contact on a social networking Web site."… Read more

Conan O'Brien has been at the TBS network for three months now, but the late night TV host and his show reportedly could have ended up on Microsoft's Xbox instead.

In an interview with "Conan" executive producer Jeff Ross, video game site Gamasutra reports that that Microsoft had pitched the Conan team about bringing the show to its Xbox game console as part of a larger digital content offering.

Discussions fizzled, but the news adds weight to a report by Reuters from back in November claiming that Microsoft was attempting to work out content deals with … Read more

Thanks so much to Props Guy Jim for Photoshopping The 404 Podcast into the "disappearing" photo from "Back to the Future"! The movie recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and check out this picture Jim snapped of the photo in action at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Thanks again Jim!

Mark Licea joins us for a chat about television programming as it's affected by streaming content providers like Hulu and Netflix.

As those two companies compete to offer the cheapest monthly subscription price, consumers face a decision to either stick with HD cable/FIOS and a DVR box or cut the cord and stick with Internet video.

Regardless of your decision, there's plenty of content available online for your entertainment, and our conversation naturally steers toward late-night programming and Conan's second week of shows on TBS. There's also the AMC zombie series "The Walking Dead" and "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO. On the other hand, sometimes we just want to sit on the couch and channel surf!

After the break, we run through a few voice mails that humiliate and educate our audience, and there's also a question for Jeff about his experience traveling through the TSA's new airport security scanners. We try not to get too serious about it, but everyone seems to have an opinion, so tune in to find out why Wilson will be taking a boat ride to CES next year.

Summer is officially over and no one is happier with the sun's absence more than The 404 Podcast. Fall also happens to be the ideal season for Renaissance faires, and this weekend I checked out Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park up by the Cloisters.

Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone in a centaur costume, but I did witness a "real" jousting tournament, not to mention a falconer and Black Wolf the Dragon Master himself, from the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment at the Clone Wars premiere.

Tune in to the first half of today's episode to hear the rest and click the slideshow below for photographic evidence of my nerddom.

Switching gears to the only tech story in the rundown, Toshiba introduces the Regza 12GL1, the first line of 3DTVs that don't require a set of cheesy glasses. The 20-inch flat-panel display provides "nine different perspectives of each single 2D frame," which are then "superimposed...to create a three-dimension impression of the image."

Don't worry, we're totally confused by that quote as well, but we also think it's really funny that you have to sit 3 feet away to get the 3D effect. The Toshiba 20GL1 will be for sale in Japan later this year for $2,900, so now might be a good time to take out that second mortgage.

Enjoy the show!

Conan O'Brien's new show is coming to TBS on November 8. In the meantime--perhaps as a creative way to get the word out--he is inviting fans to ask him questions about himself, his new show, and his past.

The controversial comedian announced in a video this week that anyone can ask him questions on the Team Coco Facebook page. He will then answer some of those questions in a follow-up video.

O'Brien didn't say when he would answer the questions, but his Facebook page is still soliciting them as of this writing. So far, there are … Read more

Both Natali Del Conte and Jill Schlesinger join the show today to talk all sorts of mischief, and what an apropos day because we have gifts! That's right, our good friend Joe from Hawaii sent in wooden plaques of our beloved 404 stickers, and they look fantastic.

As you can see, Natali is very pregnant and might pop any day. If you ask her, the New York City heat wave is not only crushing Con Ed; it's not helping her mood. Jill and all the women in the office are jealous, though, that she manages to keep her … Read more

Conan and Google have a lot in common. I want to like them both. But, frankly, I don't know what to think about either of them any more. Are they sweet, bright, innocent, lovely, amusing coves? Or are they narcissistic brands that want you to love them and want to tell you how precisely how that love will be?

I was more concerned than ever about Conan when he made his appearance on last week's "60 Minutes." I mean, he's no Roger Clemens. He's no Jose Andres. Did we really need to see his … Read more