Buzz Out Loud 936: Natali blushes, Molly rants
Playboy opens up its back catalog of magazines to the Internet for free, and we're all at a loss of words. Tread lightly, buzz brigade. Also, IE8 users are downgrading to IE7 after only one weekend of use. Something smells Vista-ee in here.
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Episode 936 |
Someone pays: Sony charges publishers for
PS3 bandwidth
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/someone-pays-sony-charges-publishers-for-ps3-bandwidth.ars
IE 8 users downgrading to IE 7
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/browsers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216200082&subSection=News
Kindle firmware update
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10200969-1.html
Skype office phone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10201830-92.html
Universal Remote’s days are numbered http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/22/2126206
Dell is dull: Smartphone canceled for lack of interest
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161755/dell_is_dull_smartphone_canceled_for_lack_of_interest.html
Salesforce.com teams up with Twitter for customer service
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2238979/salesforce-pairs-twitter
PC World writer ludicrously misinterprets the deal
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161757/salesforce_tweets_a_bit_too_loudly.html
Kodak Gallery’s new TOS requires minimum yearly purchase or else they’ll delete your photos
http://www.kodakgallery.com/TermsOfService.jsp?cm_mmc=email-_-crm_20090313_tos_test_v6-_-core-_-terms_service&sourceid=912127311103&offer=
http://db.tidbits.com/article/10156
Playboy online
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343502,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121
Is “E74″ the
Xbox 360’s new Red Ring of Death?
http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/is-quot-e74-quot-the-xbox-360-s-new-red-ring-of-death-/1299076
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/
New Zealand government throws out section 92A (the blackout protest provision)
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/61A3AA59631F4CB7CC25758200175796
Update on space bat
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7146764
Voice mail
Kevin
iPhone evidence?
Derek
The truth about micropayments
E-mail
Regarding the gentleman who left a voicemail on Friday’s podcast wanting to know why Apple is charging ten dollars for a firmware upgrade to the iPod Touch, why don’t they just give it away for free, I’d like to propose the following theory:
Apple is a company.
Companies make products.
More often than not, they sell these products to consumers for money.
Now here’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to BUY the product. If you’re happy with your iPod Touch as is (after all, you liked it enough to buy it in the first place, didn’t you?) than don’t pay the ten dollars, and continue to enjoy your device! If you’d like the fancy new bells and whistles, then pony up the ten bucks. Because the real question could very well be, “Why isn’t Apple charging MORE for their firmware upgrade?” In fact, they could be charging THIRTY dollars, and they’d be well within their rights to do so. That’s the beauty of this capitalist society we live in. And speaking of which, I know that times are tough right now, but really? It’s ten dollars. You’re going to be Oh-Kay.
And to Molly, who feels that Apple shouldn’t even charge for updates to OSX because they are essentially “service packs”– I believe that Microsoft is hard at work on a “service pack” to Window’s Vista, called Windows 7. And I’m pretty sure they’re going to charge for THAT.
Love the show.
Mike
Tom Merritt appears on
CNET TV, specializing in help and how-to and the ever popular Top 5
lists. He also co-hosts CNET's The Real Deal podcast. 
Jason Howell can
often be found producing Buzz Out Loud from the audio studios at CNET,
updating XML feeds from the comfort of his cubicle, and saying "uh-oh"
from time to time. 
So its a "Fan Boy Line" that they can do what ever they want - really Molly so Apples going out of business because they charge for an upgrade??
I love your comment "They have no need to have any kind of moral code", what's sad is I watched a doco here in Aussie about Americans dying because they cant afford medical treatment and you're worried about your iPod update - get some perspective!!
But yes agree about the "its just $10" comment - although if you got the latest iPod touch then clearly you've got some money.
Like the show, love I save for friends and family :-)
Colin, absolutely not an Apple Fanboy
in previous episodes of gadgettes, molly did not like the phrase "you don't have to buy it" because we might be more inclined in the future in accepting poorer products coming out from quality companies.
"cant afford medical treatment" - argumentum ad misericordiam. the topic right here, right now, is the iPod touch. please stay on topic.
on the last note, $10 and "clearly you've got some money", well, you can't really tell people what they could afford.
I assume Apple doesn't charge for the updates because it keeps paying iPhone customers, well, paying iPhone customers. These releases are substantial releases and a lot of work goes into the OS development.
I have no problem paying for an upgrade if its worthy of my money. Apple also allows you to skip previous updates and doesn't charge to jump to the latest version.
Agreed, if you can buy an iPod Touch, and you bought it because you liked it then, no one is forcing you to update. I also don't care if you think it's rude to make assumptions about someone's finances. If you can buy an iPod Touch, you've got $10. It's the same people complaining about this update that drink $5 lattes at Starbucks. Give me a friggin break. Deal with it Molly. Wah, its not fair. Well its like Mom always said to me, "Life isn't fair."
Get off Mike's case. So what if he's a "fanboy" is that a sin these days? I happen to agree with him and I'm not ashamed to be an Apple fanboy.
I disagree with your take on the situation. Since the Microsoft monopoly, service packs and general updates to software have been free. When there is a version change, then there is a cost. Imagine if we would have had to pay a fee to upgrade the from Windows 98 release version to second edition. Or if we would have had to pay for XP service pack 2. Most people would be at an older vulnerable version of the software. The point is that Apple is expecting a payment for features that they will build upon in the future. These are features that should have come with the original product but were not ready. There should not be a cost for these additional features. They should release them so that they can continue to build upon a known stable platform instead of trying to accommodate for people who refuse the service pack. And just because a person has an expensive phone, it does not mean that $10 is not a lot of money. Believe it or not, some people give iphones as gifts to their poor college sons and daughters.
The smartest thing Apple has done is to switch to Intel processors and allow Windows on it's computers. Now Apple is basically Dell or Gateway and thank goodness. How long before they abandoned OSX?
If Windows 7 is as good as they say it would be smart for Apple to abandon OSX and license Windows 7. The money they would save would be tremendous. If Windows 7 is better than OSX why keep investing in R&D. Apple will probably offer a Microsoft Windows 7 only version and that will be the end of Apple's OS for the desktop.
Apple should be loyal to it's shareholders and use Windows 7. If they don't Microsoft will regain all it's market share in a few years and Apple's share price will suffer. If they allow a Windows only version for all their hardware Apple will see tremendous growth. Apple do what is good for the shareholders, offer a Windows 7 only option to OSX.
Today's discussion on Playboy not being "dirty" reminded me of a friend I had in high school. His family was fairly religious, he was a boy scout, etc. At 15, his parents actually bought him a Playboy every now and then because they felt it was better to give him something tame to satisfy his "curiosity" rather than leaving him to seek other, dirtier magazines that they would find objectionable. Believe it or not, it worked. As long as I knew him, he never expressed a need to find other sources of adult entertainment.
We've bought three new PS3 games in the last month based entirely on trying out the free demo level downloaded from the Sony store. For the game companies, if the game is any good, then I'd bet that the networking fees are just noise (especially at the cost of the games!).
I almost certainly would never have signed up to the Sony PS3 network if there were a monthly fee, since I'm just a casual gamer.
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by sprior913
March 24, 2009 7:27 PM PDT
- You missed the point about smartphones being used as universal remotes. It's not really that anyone wants to multitask all their devices to be a remote control. It's that some of these devices are currently cheaper than devices that are being sold as home theater/home automation remotes. So instead of getting a massively overpriced home automation touchscreen desktop controller I can now buy an iPod Touch cheaper even though I never plan to plug headphones into it. So it's not that those devices are necessarily expected to multitask - they will just be repurposed as dedicated inexpensive controllers!
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