Buzz Out Loud 810: A Big Mac or a Zune?

If both of them get you free Wi-Fi, which one would you rather have? Also in the news today, Google's Street View team doesn't care for a little turnabout, the patent process gets smarter thanks to the Web, and IMDB is now delivering movies and TV. Yeah, really. Maybe we're the only ones who thought it was weird. With special guest, Leo Laporte!

EPISODE 810

IMDb now serves full-length videos
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10042280-26.html

Everyone but Apple joins new 'buy once, play anywhere' group
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-everyone-but-apple-joins-new-buy-once-play-anywhere-group.html

Google audio search graduates to lab project
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10042536-93.html

T-Mobile’s Google-based phone nears
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122150409898737579.html

Street View operatives object to being snapped
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/16/street_view_crew_privacy/

Zune 3.0 to debut with ‘extra value meal’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10042174-75.html

Program brings Web’s collective wisdom to patent process
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/15/crowdsourcing.patents.ap/index.html

Porn passed over as Web users become social: author
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/wr_nm/internet_book_life_dc

VOICE MAIL
Lorenzo
What about Best Buy Digital Download service?

Kyle
Trapped in Facebook hell!

E-MAIL

Wally: I had a thought about why Podcaster was not allowed on the app store. I think the reason Podcaster was denied is not for the reason we think it is. When Apple said it was because “it duplicates iTunes Functionality”, I think they meant in a literal sense. If you think about this, the majority of podcasts are delivered as MP3’s. What format have the majority of online music stores been offering their music.. MP3.. All these online music stores would need to do to bypass the mobile iTunes store is give you a free RSS feed and a Web interface (either within Podcaster or their own modified variant). That’s exactly how Podcaster would duplicate mobile iTunes functionality.

Hey guys, I head you talking about Podcaster on the last episode and realized this was an application that I had to have in my collection. I knew it was asking for donation and figured I'd give it a whirl, see how well it worked, and maybe throw them $5 or $10. I went through the process of getting in the “Ad Hoc” network of the application and after receiving confirmation I was told I had to “donate” $10 before I could even try the application. I refuse to support developers who force donations down your throat to access their apps. I have donated multiple times to developers who just ask for it, as well as tried to donate to the iPhone Dev Team. In my humblest of opinions, forcing a “donation” out of your users is just as bad if not as worse as Apples literally shady confirmation process. Anyway, keep up the show, and I love the more regular occurrence of guest hosts.

~Jacob “The Under Appreciated Nerd” Tapp Phoenix, Ariz.

Hi JaMoTo (and appropriate suffix for whomever your additional co-host is),

In regards to Google’s plans to sail away from international law, I can understand how the idea that Google being above the law would be quite scary. They already have unprecedented control over our private data and although they currently do not have a remit to utilize it, this could change in the future.

However, for me there is one plus side to their potential untouchability. Being based in international waters would mean that the U.S. government would not be able to demand that Google hand over my (and your) private information under any counter-terrorist (or other) guise.

Is it wrong to trust Google more than the U.S. government? At least Google doesn’t care what I “shop privately” for.

Transatlantic love for the show,

Andrew the Medical Student from London

Hey Buzz people that are in studio today,

I’m writing in reference to episode 809 when you were talking about AT&T U-verse. U-Verse uses what is referred to as FTTN or “Fiber to the Node” in which, fiber is run to a node, and then from the node, users are connected by traditional copper cabling, thus limiting the potential throughput. Specifically, U-Verse isn’t really true fiber, its VDSL which stands for Very High Bitrate DSL.

This is completely different from Fios which offers FTTP, or “Fiber to the Premises”, which is a direct fiber line to your home. This is typically much faster and more reliable of a connection, and its what we think about when we think about fiber connections. The difference is, of course, that Fios or Fiber to the Premises, in general is extremely expensive in the “last mile”, and fiber to the node is relatively cheap in comparison, because the last mile is solved by traditional cabling that probably already exists or is much cheaper to roll out overall.

Also, the last statement Verizon made is that they do not plan on throttling or limiting Fios, so we’ll see how that works out, I hope they don’t. They really have no reason to, at least for a while. Their last mile problem is basically solved.

Hope that helps clear that up,

Love the show,

Max