Buzz Out Loud Podcast

On a very special Buzz Out Loud, we discover that we, much to our surprise and chagrin, are the cause for the ongoing economic crisis in this country. Who knew? Also, of course, we dissect at length the news that Apple is pulling out of future Macworld Expo conferences after this year, and the even bigger news that Steve Jobs won't be giving this last keynote. Heartbreak ensues.

EPISODE 874

Without Macworld, how will Apple create the buzz?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10124956-37.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/12/16macworld.html

What went wrong?
http://www.macworld.com/article/137596/2008/12/apple_kills_expo_reax.html

Microsoft plans quick fix for IE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7787445.stm
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212500756&subSection=Vulnerabilities+and+threats

Suit: Microsoft knew Xbox could damage discs
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/156941.asp

Report: Palm to battle iPhone, BlackBerry with new OS at CES
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081215-report-palm-to-battle-iphone-blackberry-with-new-os-at-ces.html

Yahoo updates privacy controls on search, pageviews
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-updates-privacy-controls-on-search-pageviews/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10125132-83.html

Nvidia targets Netbooks, Intel with 9400M chip
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10125087-64.html

Clearwire’s $150 dual-mode WiMAX / Sprint CDMA modem launches Sunday
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/clearwires-150-dual-mode-wimax-sprint-cdma-modem-launches-su/
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/double-impact-s.html

MySpace quietly begins encouraging users to use their real names
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/myspace-quietly-begins-encouraging-users-to-use-their-real-names/

World’s first computer rebuilt, rebooted after 2,000 years
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/2000-year-old-a.html

VOICE MAIL
Hayden from BC: Steve is leaving!

E-MAIL

Hey guys,

I thought this article about the emotional reaction to the end of the Phoenix Mars Lander was rather interesting. This article talks about how Twitter was used to anthropomorphize the Phoenix Lander, and, thus, cause the mission to gain alot more interest.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1270/1

Perhaps this technique can be used to humanize other things, like Brian Cooley.

Chris the Commuter

It won’t be ready until at least 2012, but Los Alamos National Lab is demonstrating an MRI-based liquid identification machine for airport security. The press release is here
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/15343

And a local news segment on the machine at the Albuquerque airport
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/15343

2 interesting bits:
1) There’s a Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency now? And you thought DARPA was weird.
B) If you can quickly identify liquid chemistry in a shampoo bottle, what other things can you identify? Could be lots of medical or industrial uses beyond saving you $4 for a bottle of water at the airport.

Love the show,
-Mark the supercomputer repairman

Hello Buzz Crew!

I thought this would be a good time to drop you a mail, as it is clear to me that you do not realize your contribution to the economic crisis.

Every time you give credit to a stupid rumor about a nonexisting product (Apple tablet, some cool new iPhone killer smartphone) you are directly influencing the economic slowdown of your country. Consumers are already reluctant when it comes to buying useless/redundant gadgets, but when they hear that maybe, someday, somehow a better/cooler/sexier product will come out they will hold out and save their money for that nonexisting product, which may never even make it to the drawing board. You should urge buyers to just go out and buy the best of what is out there.

by the way, do you actually realize how stupid is to give credit and report unfunded rumors? A 12 year old “analyst” can come up with random ideas for products, put it on a blog and a large media outlet will bring it as “industry inside information”.

example:

HTC is going to launch a touch phone based on x86 microprocessor architecture that runs a componentized version of Windows XP with multi touch interface. It will come out in Q3/09.

Dell will sell a netbook based on the dual core Intel Atom processor starting february 2009.

Apple is going to make toasters and coffee makers with bluetooth connectivity. The devices will connect to the iPhone and make you breakfast in the morning.

Guess which one is fake?

PS: when you say the word ANALyst in the context of an unfunded/undocumented report, imagine the place the “information” was pulled out of. But of course you can always mask false reporting by making up reverse report, like “Intel decided to put on hold plans for launching 24 core desktop processors in 2009 as market research shows low demand for the segment”.

Kaadi (Romania)

Hey Molly Tom and Jason and Cooley or whatever other people join in,

I saw this story on Massively and found it interesting, apparently employers are saying thanks but no thanks to anyone they find that plays World of Warcraft, The story mentions a recruiter was told by companies to out right avoid anyone that is found to be a player of WoW. I guess this is because most anyone who plays WoW gets no sleep, gets angry easily when someone messes up something important (raids), and is likely to shout the name of Leeroy Jenkins before single handedly screwing up whatever project is underway.

http://www.massively.com/2008/12/16/employers-screening-wow-players-during-recruitment/

For the record I play Lineage 2 and many other games, and steer clear of WoW because I can’t stand Blizzard’s art style and the endless quests and raids which I so often hear about from friends who play it for months only to finally quit saying it was a mistake and cursing it endlessly.

Love the show Oh and a suggestion for the live stream, maybe Jason could find an image relating to each story, and put it in the empty corner where the BOL logo usually is, and change it as you go along. Not sure what use that would have but I like images, not that Molly isn’t pretty enough

Byebye!

-Kassandra

It's a racy Buzz Out Loud as Natali Del Conte and Molly Wood double-team Jason Howell. Yes, by the way, that was the most blatant click-bait I've ever written. We discuss who's the bigger liar: Google or the Wall Street Journal. Plus, mobile news galore, including FCC approval of the Garmin Nuviphone. And then it gets too hot to remain in the studio and we flee to cooler climates.

EPISODE 872

Does Google want Net priority?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929270127905065.html
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/12/net-neutrality-and-benefits-of-caching.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081215-google-backing-off-net-neutrality-with-isp-deal-not-really.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10122935-38.html

Gmail views PDFs
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/fast-pdf-viewing-right-in-your-browser.html

Obama mobile application
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/obama_iphone_app_now_available.php

Microsoft releases its first-ever iPhone application
http://www.pcworld.com/article/155482/microsoft_releases_its_firstever_iphone_application.html

Nuvifone gets FCC approval
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/14/garmin-nuvifone-gets-fcc-approval/

Push to talk BlackBerry
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/15/sprint-launches-blackberry-curve-8350i-first-push-to-talk-black/

Estonia mobile voting
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_estonia_cellular_voting_1

Gym car looks ridiculous
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/12/get-pumped-up-o.html

A movie about Facebook?
http://gawker.com/5109810/facebook-movie-book-deals-confirmed-by-fabricating-boston-author

Internet or sex, which would you choose?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10123138-52.html

VOICEMAIL
Roger the therapist: Fast-talking WoW stuff

E-MAIL

Hi Buzz-town -

Although attributing the increased college drop out rate to World of Warcraft addiction being completely unsubstantiated, I too think she could absolutely be right (although it would be interesting to know if there has been an steep increase in WoW subscriptions). I graduated from a 5 year Engineering program in Canada in April, during my first year I had 5 friends who played Final Fantasy XI (although its not WoW, its similar) - 2 of them failed out in first year, and a third failed out 2 years later. During our last two years my remaining gaming friends quit playing FFXI and switched to WOW, although I wouldn’t describe most of their behavior as an addiction - it was a little excessive. My only friend who still plays the game after graduation from University, is very involved in game and is a the guild leader of a 100+ member guild - unfortunatly hes having trouble striking a balance between relationships online/ingame and those in the non-virtual world. We haven’t lost our friend yet, but I can see how easily it could happen.

oh and I love the show.

Jillian

***********

Hey buzz Crew:
Today, I finally gave up, and tried to download Google chrome to test if it's better than Opera (I think opera is so much better and cooler that Firefox), then what the .... ?
Google has blocked Iran's IP range or maybe as I have searched the whole middle east IP rang, and we can not download the browser, why Google why? Why? Why? Why Google why? We are blocked?
To make sure I connected a VPN with USA IP address that I use to watch Hulu.com and get past the stupid filtering, and then I was able to download it, so only USA? Or every where except Middle East and Iran?
Siavash
It’s true!
http://www.surfchrome.com/index.php/home/news-list-mode/89-google-chrome-blacklists-syria-iran-north-korea-and-more

***********

While it’s good to get it out of Beta, the real answer as to why - may be Android.

It is very likely Android will be moving to PC platforms in the next few years - maybe not in time for Windows7, but by 2010? Netbooks first, maybe low end desktops as well. The leap from smartphone to netbook cannot be that far away, with their closed and proprietary components(no dealing with every random driver out there, yet). Why not push hard to get it out before Windows7? Undercut them, remove a LOT of their thunder, and be a real competitor.

Once you do that, you get a netbook loaded with Google Apps, Docs, Gears, Talk, Chrome. Everything most basic users need. Keep an eye as to when Docs goes live, and Android development.

Of course, theory only - but sure does sound interesting, right?

–dave

***********

It’s been almost two years since the CES where we reviewed Digeo’s Moxi, a CableCard DVR that could finally bring some competition to the market that TiVo’s been holding. Last week, with little fanfare, Digeo soft-launched the Moxi on Amazon, and a full launch is expected next month. It’s a far sleeker device than what we reviewed last year–perhaps the outcome of the company’s refocusing efforts at the start of this year. The bad news is that it’s $800 (TiVo Series 3’s initial price point), and it won’t order pizza from Domino’s. The good news is that there are no additional monthly subscription fees for TV listings and updates, and it includes 500GB of storage that you can extend using any eSATA drive. Add that all up, and it’s actually cheaper than TiVo’s new high-capacity unit with lifetime service.

Whatever the price, I’m happy to see a new consumer DVR option in the market. TiVo’s been alone on retail shelves for quite some time now, and it’s time they see some competition in this space. In the long run, I think it will be good for everyone.

Richard Gunther
Washington, D.C.

P.S. I had to have it, so I ordered one, and it’s tracking to arrive today. Besides, I don’t really like Domino’s anyway.

***********

Wow - I listened to Thursday’s podcast (episode 870) as I was walking Sander (my dog) and all I can say is wow. When I got home I checked the mirror for my scarlet A.

I don’t know how it went from a funny idea I had while out “in the wild” with my NetBook to me looking to steal husbands, but dang - not what was intended! In fact, I wasn’t even thinking of the idea for myself - just as a funny idea. Mostly b/c it allowed me to suggest an online dating site with Matchbook in the name!

Also, while I’m complaining - I’m bummed that Molly wasn’t there on Wednesday to appreciate the fact that my netbook fits in almost all my purses - that’s almost the best part!

Cheers,

Hester (AKA Heather in Boston)

***********

Hey JaMoTo??,

In the last few weeks many of the members of Buzz Town have been creating there own vertions of “In the wild BINGO.” There have been many places that the BINGO cards can be found so, i created a category on the buzz town wiki where anyone can index there BINGO cards in one place. The index can be found at http://buzzoutloud.wikia.com/wiki/Category:BOL_Bingo.

lightningboy7

***********

Hey Guys,

I was browsing the internet when I can across a mug that says on one side “In These Troubled Times” and the other side it says “DRINK!”. Just thought that I should run this by you guys. LINK: http://www.zazzle.com/in_these_troubled_times_mug-168795800428642129

Steve

Episode 871

Chrome breaks outta beta
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10120965-2.html

Nintendo Wii outsells Xbox 360 more than two-to-one
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/peripherals/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212500018&subSection=All+Stories

Sony’s PS3 A sinking ship: Sales plummet (SNE)
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/sonys-ps3-a-sinking-ship-sales-plummet-sne

Acer Aspire One goes official on AT&T’s 3G network
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/acer-aspire-one-goes-official-on-atandts-3g-network/
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/12/acers-99-netboo.html

Android susceptible to apps that turn on roaming
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F12%2F149242
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/11/g1_roaming/

Cellphone jammer crammed into key fob, ends texting / talking while driving (thanks, Greg and Michael and Jordan et al)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/12/cellphone-jammer-crammed-into-key-fob-ends-texting-talking-wh/

FCC Commissioner blames World of Warcraft addiction for huge college dropout rate
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/fcc-blames-college-dropout-rate-on-world-of-warcraft-addiction

Five PC power myths debunked
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2008/12/pc_power_manage_1.html

NFL launches “Game Rewind”, every game on-demand in HD with no commercials
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2008/12/nfl-launches-game-rewind-every-game-ondemand-in-hd-with-no-commercials.html

Russian hopes to cash in on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7778767.stm

Puppy Cam: Viewed 15 million times, for 773 years
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/puppy-cam-viewed-15-million-times-for-773-years

E-mail
Hello Buzz crew,

Since you talk about it SO MUCH, yesterday I finally signed up for Twitter . And looking for CNET celebrities to follow, I went to see who does Rafe Needleman follow. Guess who. Yahoo’s top search term for 2008. That’s right, Rafe Needleman follows Britney Spears on Twitter. I just can’t imagine Rafe listening to "Baby One More Time," so, may I ask why?

Love the show.

Regards,
Bernardo

**********

Have you all been following the USPS outages? I am 2 episodes behind (been to cold and rainy to walk my dog), so apologize if you've mentioned.

http://www.usps.com/homearea/onlinesysteminterruptions.htm

Seems it is affecting small business, too:

http://cbs3.com/local/Loca.l.Business.2.884808.html

LTS,

/John in Fairfax

AAAAAND its fixed.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10121982-38.html

**********

Hey JaMoTo / buzz crew +1,

I think the whole ‘In The Wild’ bingo game is great, and I’m just
waiting for someone to run up and snap a picture of me, being that I
bring my Kindle everywhere and I am a ‘Kindle in the wild’.

Anyhow, after yesterday’s show where Molly mentioned a Retro Edition
of BOL Bingo would be fun, I decided she shouldn’t be denied and I
made one up and attached it below. I’ve also uploaded it to my Flickr
account so it can be shared with the citizens of Buzz Town. It can be
found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98865482@N00/3102895508/
I hope you enjoy it. Love the show!

-Aaron the Delorean driver (and Kindle in the wild)
New York

**********

Hi guys!

In the last show, Molly made a comment about how the ustream
video-page “isn’t an RSS-feed”. Well, now it is! I used Yahoo! Pipes
to create an RSS-feed of your live video shows. I wrote it up in the
forums, at:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=320004&messageID=2926270&tag=forums06;forum-threads

Hope you like it!

–Oskar

**********

Ahoy Buzz Brigade,
Regarding episode 870 on LTE, y’all made a few missteps about the facts.

First off, the commonly held misconception is that LTE has anything to do with GSM. This is similar to the misconception that WCDMA, more commonly known as the tech behind UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA and HSPA+, has anything to do with GSM. While the tech that preceded GSM for AT&T, TDMA, was the technical precursor to the speaker-buzzing wonder iPhone fans know and love, HSPA (the 3G in the iPhone 3G, etc.) is only GSM’s successor because that was the preferred upgrade path of most GSM carriers. LTE is OFDM-based (as is 802.11g WiFi and…gasp…WiMAX in higher-speed modulations), and is thus another completely different underlying technology with no built-in backward compatibility to either GSM or HSPA. However, the majority of GSM carriers across the world, plus many CDMA carriers (Verizon being one of them) have chosen LTE as their upgrade path. It’s like saying that Mac OS X is a technical upgrade to OS 9…while the same company is going with the precedent as the successor, OS X is based on BSD/Unix while OS 9 is based on some witch’s brew Apple cooked up eons ago.

To be clear, I’m not bashing LTE, though WiMAX is out in the field now whereas LTE has so far not ventured out of lab doors. But to say either technology is the technical successor to either GSM/HSPA or CDMA (which has a direct 3G upgrade, EvDO) would be flawed. Though the same standards board responsible for GSM and WCDMA also dreamed up LTE (3GPP)…

Second and finally, though tests confirm that LTE, at similar range to WiMAX it seems, can provide link speeds comparable to WiFi, you won’t see speeds like those in the wild for quite awhile. The reason is mostly that of backhaul. To provide 100 Mbps to a subscriber, LTE not only needs a liberal swatch of spectrum (something only ClearWire, the WiMax guys, has), but it needs a tower connected to some serious backhaul. To give you an idea of how serious this backhaul would need to be, think about your local cable company’s node, that serves a few hundred people. If your cable operator is Comcast and you just got a speed upgrade, they can offer a total of 114 Mbps over an entire node on the downstream, and 30 Mbps on the upstream. This would be enough for a single LTE customer to get full-speed access. Then again, AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS have the infrastructure for LTE at the node level, but you’re still looking at more bandwidth than anybody is pushing over copper or cable right now. Of course, if Verizon rolls it out in FiOS areas (WiFiOS anyone?) it’ll work on the backhaul side, but…

…you have the problem of femtocells. Anyone using a femtocell for LTE has their internet connection as the bottleneck for service. You can’t get 100 Mbps over a 6 Mbit cable connection. Of course, if Verizon allowed femtocells to hook directly into customers’ FiOS installs, independent of the 10-50 mbps download and 2-20 mbps upload limits on users’ accounts, that’d work. But that’s about the only solution if they want to actually get the speeds they’re boasting about.

Hope this clears things up and love the show!

Ian (the Colorado college student, iansltx on Twitter)

On today's show, we discover that "scareware" is a thing (that never should have been) and that you can tell a bad business idea by the bad name. Also, PlayStation Home comes out (in beta) after a year and a half in development, and it seems kind of lame, and we talk about the few folks making money in TTT (These Troubled Times).

EPISODE 870

PlayStation Home opens its doors
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7777122.stm
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_SONY_PLAYSTATION_VIRTUAL_WORLD?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-11-07-55-27

Reselling MP3s: The music industry’s new battleground?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10120951-93.html

Verizon ups ante on LTE deployment: 2009
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081210-verizon-says-early-lte-deployment-in-2009.html

U.S. district court puts scareware on ice
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081211-us-district-court-puts-scareware-on-ice.html

Report: Tumblr rolls into new financing round
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10121055-93.html

YouTube videos pull in real money
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html

iPhone copy and paste now working between Safari and Mail
http://gizmodo.com/5107138/iphone-copy-and-paste-now-working-between-safari-and-mail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10121068-37.html

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/apple-and-atandt-bring-back-iphone-home-activation/

Google doubles Street View coverage in U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10120351-2.html

VOICEMAIL
Jason from Georgia: gimme that song

Jomo? the Janitor: riding robots, yippee!

Roy: Spare a thought for the Kiwis
http://roythekid.tumblr.com/post/63980981/my-voicemail

E-MAIL
Hi Guys,

Just listening to Tuesdays show and wanted to chime in, myself a being Java developer by profession. The promise of write once, deploy anywhere actually did pan out, but only on the server side. Java is still the number one most used programming language and many of the most popular web applications are powered by a Java back-end.

Now, to the point you made in the show, it did fail as a client/presentation layer for a few reasons. Firstly, the overhead of downloading the entire JVM and the fact that the browser would block while loading an applet made it obnoxious to load an applet based page, especially for those with slower machines/connections. One major reason why Flash took off was because the plugin was small in size and the overhead of install and running were/are negligible. It is unfortunate, because there are a ton of people with proficieny in the Java language, which is arguably superior to Flash and definitely has a much richer developer toolset.

GNC may take off if it can avoid the pitfalls of client Java while giving a more familiar programming environment than Flash does, but it should be noted that a huge part of the upcomming Java release is focused on browser performance. The new version of the JVM will give the ability to download components on an”as need” basis, and the applet initialization will now be non-blocking. This could be a huge step forward for Java in the browser, though I fear the bad reputation is already ingrained in the minds of the average web user, and it may be too little too late.

Love the show!
Nick the Software Engineer from Boston

Nicholas Bonatsakis
Software Engineer

**********

hi guys,

The google list was “fastest *rising* google searches” right? The Yahoo list was just plain old “most searched” terms. Maybe Google gets 10 000 000 brittney searches last year and only 1000 more than that number this year, meaning it didn’t make the “fastest rising” list. Perhaps Yahoo’s gets a consistent 90 000 000 and that would qualify brittney for the list cus their list isn’t about rising searches.

Adel

**********

Hi Tom, Molly and Jason +1,

I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning and came across a story that would tie in very well with Jason’s idea of having the holograms in your car, from a few episodes ago. Although, this seems like a scary slippery slope to head towards. Scientists in Japan claim the can “read images from the human brain.”

Here is the link:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20081211TDY01306.htm

I, for one, am not entirely sure I’d want to “see” what’s going on in someone else’s brain, but I can only imagine where that might go…(I’ll keep those thoughts to myself).

Anyway, thought you BOL chieftans might enjoy the story and run away with it (and please do).

Always love the show and keep up the great work.

Nuno, nthsquare in the chat and forums.

**********

Okay, okay, okay

That dude by the trian called in about the singing captcha, but I’ve got a better idea- RAPTCHA! A couple lines pop up from a popluar hip-hop song and it uses the built-in mic to validate what you rap! Amazing! Surely that would fool the phishbots. LOL

(T&C’s): warning, may cause immediate removal from current location and user may be relocated to a place with pearly gates.

Love the show

Chris the Designer from Bristol, UK

**********

Bonjour Dame et Messieurs,
This is Katie Noor, Elam’s wife!
Yesterday you decided that you might have created/discovered a “love
connection” between Elam and Heather from Boston because of a comical
cut & paste error.
Just wanted to say that, in the future, I would appreciate it if you
would at least…consult me before trying to set my husband up with
random citizens of buzz town. I mean, I don’t even know this Heather
from Boston. I disapprove. Back off Heather, he’s taken!
Love you guys!
Katie

**********

Hi JaMoTo and Guest
I am sick of hearing about BOL Bingo. I cant contribute because there are a few products on the list that are unavailable here in OZ. So I made one for us. Presenting BOL Bingo Australia!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23696006@N08/3099539782/
Sam
Melbourne, Australia

**********

Hey Buzzards,

In regards to the no smiling policy for Indiana driver’s licenses, they will continue to allow facial hair right? Because my friend (photo attached), and every Hoosier who can grow one, should be entitled to the half-beard.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/33/l90579e347fa2d74bb8136fob2.jpg
btw, i’m subscribed to the audio/video combo podcast through itunes but i never receive a video version… am i doing something wrong??

~dave (indianapolis, in)

**********

Buzz Out Loud Video (Past episodes!)
http://www.ustream.tv/cnetstudio/videos

Episode 868

The mouse hits 40-year milestone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7768481.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7761262.stm
http://news.cnet.com/2300-1041_3-6248261.html

Rumor: Apple’s iTunes going DRM-free starting Tuesday
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/08/rumor_apples_itunes_going_drm_free_starting_tuesday.html

(Or not, says News.com)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10118706-93.html

Voluntary campus-wide music licenses could stop the lawsuits
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081208-voluntary-campus-wide-music-licenses-could-stop-the-lawsuits.html

Google’s answer to Java, Flash, Windows: Native Client
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10118792-92.html
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F09%2F1459230
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10118019-16.html

Sony to lay off 16,000
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10118970-92.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiP0oocLk1KY

Tech Spending to Grow 1.6% in 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/12/09/tech-spending-to-grow-16-in-2009/

Free crapware removal from Support.com
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10118333-1.html

Indiana bans driver’s license smiles, for security
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F09%2F1315248

MySpace ‘Connects’ with Google for MySpaceID
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10118553-2.html

HP unveils displays that yields to the touch
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10118330-1.html

Voice mail
Joe from Boston: Singing by the train

E-mail

Hey Tom Molly Jason and Guest, B from New Orleans I just wanted to
comment on the bingo like game that we are all playing ( to get
pictures of certain items in the wild). I just heard someone say, get
a picture of Steve Jobs with a g1 in his hand and natali said that
someone was gonna have to force it in his hand. This disturbed me a
bit, does the movie fight club ring a bell. This is how it all starts
first pics of kindles in the wild, then netbooks, then someone
kidnapping Steve Jobs and putting a g1 in his hand to get the picture.
This must be all apart of Molly's evil plan.?.?.? Love the show

Sent from B’s iPhone

**********

In response to your hunt for Android phones [Android chaser jingle
anyone?], engadget reported on Sunday that China has announced a new
phone running on the OS. It’s going to be called the QiGi i6. Pricing
hasn’t been announced yet but the touch screen looks every bit as
responsive as the G1. However, in these troubled economic times [drink]
they did have to cut a major part of the phone’s design out: the
keypad. As Android doesn’t natively have an onscreen keyboard this
seems like a fairly big omission because when you buy it you’ll have no
way of making any sort of text input like URLs, text messages,
phonebook entries, etc. Here’s the original article:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/07/video-of-chinas-android-running-qigi-i6-in-action-unearthed/

Oh, and if you haven’t already heard, Wal-Mart has officially announced
it’ll be carrying the iPhone in 8GB and 16GB but mentioned nothing of
the illusive 4GB one.
http://www.pmptoday.com/2008/12/08/official-walmart-iphone-3g-starts-at-197/

Love the show
Alex from the UK

**********

Hey for those of us in rural areas, the bingo is impossible. How
about a little cultural bias to help us with the last mile problem,
like:
guy on a tractor using a cell phone
Cows with headphones
opportunistic wifi deer
someone surfing on a 26K dial up in the wild

Love the show!

Anthony Soucek [so-check]

**********

Hey Jamoto+1,

Do you guys remember when molly was talking about netbooks with 3g
capabilities and how it would be better then the gigantic cell phone
thats trying to be a netbook? Well here you go

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/08/contract-laden-3g-acer-aspire-one-hitting-us-at-just-99/

love the show

Brad from buffalo

Episode 866

Listener co-host details: E-mail buzz@cnet.com with your name, phone number, preferred time of day (with time zone). We are shooting for doing the interviews next Monday 3-4 p.m. PST and Wednesday 4-5 PST.

Facebook Connect opens up
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113604-2.html

So does Google Friend Connect
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113648-2.html

Koobface’ Virus Attacks Facebook
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/koobface-virus.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10113981-83.html

eBay holiday contest overrun by automated scripts, honest users disgruntled
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/04/ebay-holiday-contest-overrun-by-automated-scripts-honest-users-disgruntled/

First NFL game in 3-D fumbles, then recovers
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/N/NFL_3D?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-05-07-43-16

Some Xbox owners see poor-quality Netflix streams
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10113937-93.html

Online reporters now the journalists most often jailed
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/12/05/0532240.shtml

Martini Life launches as hub for affluent individuals
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113329-2.html

Obama sports white earbuds, doesn’t rock Zune
http://www.macworld.com/article/137347/obama_ipod.html

Voice Mail
Daniel: beaten to the Netbook girl

E-mail
Hi Buzz Crew:

In episode 863, Jason brought up the notion of having holographic passengers. (For the sake of discussion, let’s ignore the fact we don’t actually have a viable holographic system.) My engineering side kicked in, and I started thinking about the equipment that would have to be added: computers, projectors, power conversion (since there’s no way this thing’s running on 12 V), etc. In short, this is one option that’s not going to fit in a Prius. Maybe an Escalade assuming you were not planning on using the back for anything else. The cost of this thing would be enormous. That said, if one or two holographic passengers qualifies me for the HOV lanes, I’m in.

Craig (in VA just outside DC)

**********

Hey JaMoTo (+1)

With all the talk lately about who watchs ads on the TiVo, I was happy to find a new article circling around the net lately. There is an affliction that is now dubbed “TiVo Guilt”.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/02/tivo.guilt/?iref=hpmostpop

Also on the TiVo viewers and how many commercials they watch, I have noticed a strange pattern in my boyfriend’s TiVo habits: When we are watching something live, he gets very indignant that he can’t fastforward the commercials, but when watching something pre-recorded, he promptly forgets we have a TiVo. We’ll make it halfway through the break and he’ll suddenly go “Oh yeah, TiVo!” and begin fastforwarding then, having just watched half the ads. This process will repeat for subsequent breaks. It’s an odd little phenomenon, no?

Love the show!
Amy in cold London, Ontario, Canada

**********

What’s goin’ down, BOL crew?

I know you talked about this a few days ago, but today, my cousin’s macbook-pro collapsed horrendously the other day due to a virus. I didn’t believe it at first because I’ve had an ibook g4 for over three years and I have never had a problem with it. He took it to the local apple store. They said that he should purchase more than one type of virus software, but they didn’t sell any at the apple store.
My cousin had to go to CompUSA to buy clunky and terrible virus protection software that completely harshes the mellow of his computer, increasing its boot time by a considerable amount.

I thought you all might like to hear about this.

Love the show,
Ian the high school student from Milton, Georgia

**********

Who hates Apple and has the money to fund Psystar? The answer should be obvious:

The Beatles.

Think about it.

-Jon
(a.k.a. “TenaciousWii”)

**********

Hi guys,
Go to the kogan website and order the international one. It costs about ?500 ($600). I knew it sounded too good to be true.

Love the show,
Eoghan (Owen) in Ireland.

EPISODE 865

Listener co-host details: Email buzz@cnet.com with your name, phone number, preferred time of day (with time zone). We are shooting for doing the interviews next week.

Smartphone numbers are in: iPhone sales exceed Windows Mobile sales for first time
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/04/smartphone-numbers-are-in-iphone-sales-exceed-windows-mobile-sa/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081204-apple-rim-winners-in-shrinking-smartphone-market.html

Recharge your cell phone by talking into it
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F03%2F2320200
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7764537.stm

Google was 3 hours away from DOJ Antitrust Charges
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F04%2F1412218

Firefox users targeted by rare piece of malware
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/120408-firefox-users-targeted-by-rare.html

Apple to sell a $99 4GB iPhone at Wal-Mart?
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/12/04/apple-to-sell-a-99-4gb-iphone-at-walmart/

World’s second Android phone now on presale
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/12/04/worlds-second-android-phone-now-on-presale.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10113308-94.html

Report: Comcast usage monitor coming in January
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10112892-2.html

Apple believes someone is behind Psystar
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F04%2F1528233

Monster Cable sues Monster Minigolf
http://consumerist.com/5101473/monster-cable-sues-monster-minigolf-for-trademark-infringement

Doctor performs amputation by text message
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F03%2F2345206

Voice mail
Alex: Facebook phishing?

E-mailL
Morning JoMoTo
A Buxx card uses real money. It’s a preloaded credit card designed for
teens so that they have a card to use but can’t run up a big bill. Both of
my kids have them and it teaches them how to keep track of spending,
budgets, etc.
Love the show

Dr. Mom from Twitter

**********

The final version of the Double BOL BINGO- with full descriptions and proper names.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33039348@N04/sets/72157610707558064/
http://www.box.net/shared/qvrycdsv8b#Double_BOL_BINGO
I’d have to say this was quite fun- though frustrating to a level of ridiculous at moments. Taking a hard look at what technologies actually have impact and presence and how people use said technology kept me interested throughout. Also: Finding a Segway outside of its protected preserves is very unlikely. Though the number of Kindle+Segway combos are probably much higher in number than Kindle+BlackBerry Storm combos.

Victory!

David in Provo (TrojanBee)

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

As soon as I heard that I could win Cnet stickers on the live stream, I ran off. One of the only places you will ever see segways in Tarpon Springs, Florida is Fred Howard Park Beach. After about an hour of running throughout the beach, I found a nice little pack of segwayers. I then ran to the main center of Tarpon into many of it’s coffee shops, I found an Asus eee PC, though I’m not sure of the model. Admitably, the Zune and the GPS were those of my neighbors.

Pictures:
http://photobucket.com/BOLbingo

Please excuse the HORRIBLE quality as I took them with my phone. Due to my limited texting privaleges, was force to take a picture of a picture.

-Chris from Florida
-AKA PacGamer

**********

Hey Tom, Molly, Jason & Random Host,
I had just finished listening to Slashdot Review's daily podcast dated 3 Dec 08, "SDR2008-12-03", and I am seriously traumatized!!! They talk about a doctor, funded, by DARPA, who is working on re-animating the dead. You'll have to listen to the episode but this totally frightening to me. It's like a zombie movie in the making. DARPA is funding this so soldiers on the battle field can be quickly put into suspended animation so they won't die. What happens when it goes wrong? What happens when the re-animated creatures go awry? I am all for the advancement of science, but this is scary.
Love the show!!!
Kory - From Landstuhl Germany

In today's show, Molly gets a new favorite metaphor, Apple deletes the very thought that you should run antivirus on a Mac, .Tel gets our wallets at the ready, and poor widdle Windows' market share drops below 90 percent. The horror!
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 864

Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10111958-83.html

Twitter CEO: The revenue’s coming soon, but I won’t tell you how
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10112037-2.html

.Tel them where to find you
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/tel-them-where-to-find-you/

Vista SP2: What's inside?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1745

Windows 7 Beta 1 to arrive January 13?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=613

Windows drops below 90 percent market share
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F02%2F1857253

Vlingo one-ups Google with a better voice-powered iPhone application
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13549_7-10111763-30.html

Logitech makes 1 billionth mouse
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F03%2F1311210

PayPal brings allowances into the 21st century
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/paypal-brings-the-weekly-allowance-into-the-21st-century/

Scientists report mental ‘body-swapping’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120202527.html

BOL named an iTunes ‘Classic’
http://www.veronicabelmont.com/2008/12/itunes-best-of-2008-awards/

VOICE MAIL
Shalin: Cooley loves space!

E-MAIL
Hi Molly,

Hopefully the attachment won’t be a problem with security software on the CNET network but here’s the BOL Bingo card! Feel free to email back with items to swap, remove, and/or replace. Enjoy!

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=318627&messageID=2919376&tag=forums06;forum-threads

Holly in NYC

(hollyhock on Twitter, watchBOL chat, CNET forums)

Hello Buzztown.
In Episode 863, Commander Mark wondered if it would be possible to have the BOL podcast automatically emailed to him each day while he was on his 7 month "Navy cruise".

If buzztown isn't able to come up with a suitable automated method, I'd like to volunteer to email him the podcast manually each day. I'd like to do that as a small thank you for his service.

Feel free to pass my email along to Mark for this purpose.
MC Fisticuffs.

PS. I think you should add "somebody typing 'Brittney Spears' into a search engine" to in-the-wild Bingo.

Hey JaMoTo,

It’s amazing how Molly coined the term “net-box” and Brian came up with portable xbox 360, and suddenly there is one on engadget. It is awesome how BOL pushes technology along. They should keep this moving along and create a netbook + net-box, but then I guess it would just be a super battery draining, overheating, carpal tunnel inducing netbook with an enormous power supply that sounds like a vacuum cleaner. Oh well, I guess we have some more hurdles to jump before we get to this point.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/03/ben-heck-outdoes-himself-with-xbox-360-portable/

Love the show,
Brendon the Food Scientist

As a loyal user and fan of the iPhone from day one, I always enjoyed
your talks about it and didn’t fully understand the hate until all the
twitter talk got to me today.

Understand it’s the popular thing and you have to talk about it. You
won’t lose me as a listener, but could we get a AIM chaser or
something?!? Maybe a cool jingle too???

Bob
The Nuclear Engineer

Hi BOL -

Here’s what I see in the wild every day — BOOKS! Books. They’re not just for geeks anymore. (Note jeans tucked into boots.)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6590/photopa5.jpg

Amanda

I just listened to Tuesday’s show where you mentioned that Apple store employees do not suggest antivirus software. When I worked for Apple tech support it was considered a fireable offense to flat out say “Macs can get viruses.” In stead we were told do dance around it and say something along the lines of “while it is certainly possible for viruses to be written for a mac, you only need to worry about antivirus software if you have windows installed.”

Ian from Saskatoon

CORRECTION:
Hey Molly,
I am writing regarding an incorrect quote in your write up for today's Buzz Out Load, the link to DVR commercial skipping: 50 or 97 percent? Depends on who you ask.
The original article for Ars Technica "DVR commercial skipping: 50% or 97%? Depends on whom you ask" incorrectly quotes Garth Ancier saying "a full 97 percent of them are skipping the ads." The correct quote is "We've seen more like 30% of people watching our commercials on DVR," (not 3%) The quote was taken from a Q&A session for Garth Ancier's keynote speech at the Future of Television conference.
Can you please make the correction in your article?
I have spoken with the Ars Technica journalist, it was a simple mistake in notes, he is making the correction as well.
For reference, here is an article from Multichannel News covering Garth Ancier's keynote speech which has the correct percentage:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6615738.html

Thank you for your help,
Devin

News of the Yahoo demographic's searching habits arouses a sudden love for space in Brian Cooley today. Also, the Nokia N97 gets a chilly reception, especially in light of all those delectably cheap Netbooks flooding the market. Pownce disappears, Apple suddenly starts recommending antivirus for Mac users, and Microsoft claims the Xbox 360 pwned Black Friday.

EPISODE 863

iPhone beware, the Nokia N97 is coming (PC World)
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081202/tc_pcworld/iphonebewarethenokian97iscoming
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10110873-1.html
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1274500

Netbooks dominate cyber-Monday, at least on Amazon
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154754/

Asus: $200 Netbooks next year
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/02/asus_200_dollar_netbook/

Pownce to shut down after Six Apart sale
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10110443-2.html

Microsoft: Xbox 360 Routs PS3 in Record Black Friday Sales
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154778/microsoft_xbox_360_routs_ps3_in_record_black_friday_sales.html

Forbes: Nintendo making $6 profit on every Wii sold
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/01/forbes-nintendo-making-6-profit-on-every-wii-sold/

Data shows Wii games discounted fastest
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/25/data-shows-wii-games-discounted-fastest/

Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10110852-83.html

DVR commercial skipping: 50 or 97 percent? Depends on who you ask
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081202-dvr-commercial-skipping-50-or-97-depends-on-whom-you-ask.html

Cell phones are even worse than chatty passengers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120201066.html

No escaping Britney Spears: 2008’s top searches
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10110841-2.html

VOICE MAIL
Dwight the key grip: so close to bingo!

E-MAIL
Molly,
You know how you we a little peeved about Apple's new proprietary but not proprietary “mini display port”. Well here is a Gizmodo story that gives you a glimmer of hope!

http://gizmodo.com/5100514/apples-mini-displayport-might-not-be-bs-proprietary-port-after-all
- Elam

**********

Great idea for a CNet Channel broadcast through CBS affiliates. I would have to say from a technology standpoint that couldn't be difficult and really shouldn't require the person to manage it. I personally have an auto updating video playlist in iTunes that nearly does this already. Just subscribe to all of your RSS feeds and then play through the list starting at a certain time every day. Once that's done playing go to an "off air" static screen until the next day, that's if you run out of video in the 24 hour period. It could probably be done with Automator and some apple scripts come to think of it. Interesting…might have to play with this for fun. jason

Regards,

Daniel

**********

Hi buzz crew,
Sorry for any typing mistakes but I am writing this on a blackjack 2. I just wanted to let you know that I saw my first Netbook today at a coffee shop. I really wanted to get a dell mini9 but chickened out because I didn’t know how I would deal with a ridiculously small keyboard.
(Ironic I know.)
So apparently this guy with the Netbook had the same problem as me because he had a full size usb keyboard connected to it! What is the point of a tiny little glove compartment computer if you need to lug that beast around with it?

Buzz You Long Time.
Dave in Saratoga, NY.

**********

Dear BOL Crew,

First of all, thanks for a great daily podcast to keep me up to date on tech.

I will be going on a 7 month navy cruise soon and I don't want to miss my daily BOL fix. Available bandwidth during the cruise does not allow me to download podcasts or anything else. There just is not enough bandwidth. I have also tried getting BOL via your RSS feed, but it does not work again due to bandwidth limitations.

I can received email attachments, but I don't know if there is a way for me to setup before my cruise an automatic daily email attachment with the BOL audio file.

Can you recommend a solution?

Thank you! I love listening to BOL daily when I am on tierra firma.
Mark

Commander Mark
Supply Officer
P.S. You need to do a show from a navy ship while on cruise. We could fly you on and catapult you off! (0 to 150 mph in 3 seconds!)

(How would http://www.podlinez.com/ work for you? -JH)

**********

Hey guys,

There is going to be a protest about the Australian Internet Censorship on the 13th and I was wondering if you could give it a little publicity.

http://www.stopthecleanfeed.com/

Cheers,
Brad
The Australian