Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Facebook's changing its privacy policy, and Molly and Rafe predict there will be groups. I don't think anyone cares about regional groups, but hey, I could be wrong. We also talk about why Steve Jobs personally approved an app that currently doesn't work. And Richard comes up with a brilliant idea for the future of news.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Google alters news indexing to accommodate pay walls
http://www.pcworld.com/article/183526/google_alters_news_indexing_to_accommodate_pay_walls.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSGEE5B11Y120091202

AT&T customer satisfaction tanks
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120209-att-customer-satisfaction.html?hpg1=bn

AT&T gives up on Verizon ad lawsuit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10407717-266.html

New Facebook privacy controls just weeks away
http://www.pcworld.com/article/183505/
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=190423927130

Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/12/sprint-fed-customer-gps-data-to-leos-over-8-million-times.ars
http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/gps-data

TomTom aggregates anonymous driver speeds; compiles list of most congested cities
http://richdemuro.com/tomtom-aggregrates-anonomous-driver-speeds-co

Google wants to eliminate drivers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10407264-1.html

Web giants unite against Digital Britain copyright bill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8390623.stm

Steve Jobs intervenes, approves Knocking streaming-video app
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/12/steve-jobs-intervenes-approves-knocking-streaming-video-app.ars

After Apple agreement, Psystar officially halts sales of clone Macs
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/12/02/after_apple_agreement_psystar_officially_halts_sales_of_clone_macs.html

Black screen of death not a Microsoft issue after all
http://www.prevx.com/blog/141/Windows-Black-Screen-Root-Cause.html

Dane, who ripped his DVDs, demands to be arrested under DRM law
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/01/dane-who-ripped-his.html

VOICE MAIL
Richard from California has an idea for CNN

E-MAIL
Google phone a certainty?I think they are right… But noting the way many people think. HTC
made the last google developer phone and in doing so got access to the
source code for 1.0 very early. This almost forced a partnership on
the G1. Simmilarly google is essentially forced to work with a
particular manufacture every launch in ever generation ( i.e. Droid
2.0). I would argue that in an attempt to not be “evil” that the phone
they launch is a developer version that will allow them to more
tightly control a symultainous launch. Thier current version is a bit
dated.

Making thier own consumer phone bypassing both hardware partners AND
wireless carriers is risky and potentially evil. Specifically given
that they have advertised this project as an open project.

Wallace R. Fanning

T-Mobile's parent company is considering buying Sprint Nextel, meaning we'd have only three big cell phone companies in the US. But in a weird way that could be good for competition? We're not sure ourselves, actually. Also, a rogue ad hits the New York Times and we discover Pirates only see in 2D. Eye-patch FTW!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Rogue ad hits New York Times site
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10351460-83.html
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/what-to-do-if-you-saw-an-antivirus-pop-up-ad/
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090913/home-delivery-the-new-york-times-serves-up-some-malware/

T-Mobile owner eyes multibillion dollar bid for Sprint
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/6180195/T-Mobile-owner-eyes-multi-billion-dollar-bid-for-Sprint.html

Intuit to acquire Mint for $170 million
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/13/intuit-to-acquire-former-techcrunch50-winner-mint-for-170-million/

Japan’s cell phones may get DRM, at music industry behest
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/14/0137225/Japans-Cell-Phones-May-Get-DRM-At-Music-Industry-Behest

Twitter officially makes ads an option
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-twitter-officially-makes-ads-an-option/

MMS For iPhone rollout begins, two weeks early
http://consumerist.com/5358089/mms-for-iphone-rollout-begins-2-weeks-early

As it nears obsolescence, 802.11n approved
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8254085.stm

Microsoft: Windows 7 upgrade can take nearly a day
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-upgrade-to-windows-7-can-take-up-to-a-day.ars

Valve co-opts L4D2 boycott by giving leaders free trip to HQ
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/09/valve-co-opts-l4d2-boycott-by-giving-leaders-free-trip-to-hq.ars

Last.fm to take over CBS HD broadcast stations in four markets
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-last.fm-to-take-over-cbs-hd-broadcast-stations-in-four-markets/

VOICE MAIL
Alex on micropayments

Daniel on Palm’s brilliant PR move

E-MAIL
I work as a tech for a movie exhibitor and wanted to share some technical details about your ongoing discussion of 3D.

Tom, the reason you may have experienced flicker or strobing in the past is the rate at which you are presented frames. The old active glasses that came with computer video cards often were limited to 60Hz, giving only 30 frames/sec to each eye. Our modern Digital Cinema 3D uses what’s called ‘tripple flash’ alternating EVERY frame to each eye three times. In other words it’s operating at 144 frames/sec from film’s standard 24 fps times 6 (3 flashes of the same image * 2 eyes). This is easily fast enough that ‘persistance of vision’ eliminates the strobing.

At our chain we actually have many rooms setup with two projectors, one for each eye. This completely eliminates strobing as the screen never goes dark.

As for camming a 3D film, you’d simply scrap the 3D aspect and hold one lens of the glasses over the camera and just record one eye’s worth. Makes it 2D, but you still have something. You can even try this in the studio right now, cover one eye. Congratulations your world is now in stunning 2D!

And for the show notes… Even traditional 35mm film is shown as ‘double flash’. The slow 24 fps you’d get if you only showed each frame once nearly everyone would say is flickering. But just by blanking and flashing the same image a second time (48 flashes/sec) you see that familiar film effect to the light level. BTW, when the shutter does block the light for the 1/96th of a second over and over for 2 hours it is actually near dark in the room. i.e. You’re sitting in the dark for half the movie!

Perhaps to long and off-topic now, but I hope you share this around the crew.

LTS! (and thank you)

Dustin Hollon

**********

Hey Ballers
I cant believe you guys haven’t covered CEDIA, awesome developement in cablecard, they announce cablecard tuners will be available for your current machine! None of this “Certified PC crap! Ceton had a couple of tuners that should ship in the 1Q of 2010. 4 HD streams at once, sign me up!
love the show
Jon the electrician, Tacoma

**********

Watching Episode 1061, about the iPhone at Microsoft event. Coca-Cola will fire you for bringing/eating Lays Chips because they are owned by Pepsico. Even if you bring them from home for lunch/dinner. Drinking a Pepsi product is also forbidden….”Even Off The Clock.” If you are caught outside of work with these items can also lead to termination.

Thanks guys. Love the show
Ross

On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, we sadly report on the state of the broken toilet in the International Space Station. It means astronauts have to split up which toilets they use in order to load balance. No. Seriously. Plus we touch on the Amazon 1984 ironic mistake of the year.

EPISODE 1022

Amazon remotely deletes all copies of George Orwell books

Amazon says it won't repeat Kindle book recall

Kazaa to return as subscription service

Meanwhile RIAA notices DRM is dead

Toshiba will sell Blu-ray player this year

Digg redirects short URLs to Digg

Could Apple really dictate iPhone terms to Verizon Wireless?

Apple's iPhone "wrecking" the cell industry

Kingston unveils 256GB thumb drive for well-heeled memory fiends

Parajet SkyCar flying vehicle evolves, now ready for pre-orders

New space station toilet "out of order"

Alaskan blob is an algae bloom

French Spin

VOICEMAIL
Eric from Maryland about 1000 year DVDs

Chris from Portland with Prius response.

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

Interesting article on today's New York Times talking about why Japanese smartphones haven't gone global:

Despite their great technological advance (the article cites e-mail capabilities in 1999, camera phones in 2000, third-generation networks in 2001, full music downloads in 2002, electronic payments in 2004 and digital TV in 2005), Japanese phones suffer from "Galapagos syndrome", meaning that they "are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands -- fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins" (citing a professor from Tokyo's Keio University).

The article also makes an interesting point about how much Japanese manufacturers are focused on developing hardware and gave little or no attention to software, unlike western manufacturers (like Apple, with iTunes and the App Store)...which could be one of the reasons why Japanese manufacturers aren't successful internationally.

Thought you would like to read it.

Love the show.

Henrique from Brazil

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to let you hear from someone who appreciates
ComcastBonnie. When I had my Comcast service installed, the tech
didn't bring cablecards like requested. I twittered my frustration and
within five minutes Bonnie replied asking if she could help. By the
time we finished, she had the tech's supervisor call about the problem
and offered to have someone drive the 20 miles to my house with
cablecards on a Friday evening. She even called a few hours later to
check up on the situation.

So unless you are a total d-bag, she seems to do everything that she
can to help.

LTS,

Tom the Sign Guy

I just received a phone call from Comcast's Executive PR Department this morning regarding my blog and Twitter posts. After a year of calling and begging for a technician I will now have a special "PR Repair Technician" come out first thing tomorrow morning and fix the lines. I now also have my own personal PR Liaison to call if I ever have any trouble again.

Yes milking the situation was totally a douchey thing to do, but sometimes its the only way to get a giant company to actually listen to you. Cindy Wood, my liaison, did not even ask me to take my blog post down. Instead she wanted my input on to how they can make their Twitter support my effective since social media is a brave new world for them and they're learning as they go along. Even though I still hate Comcast, I like to give credit where its due and give them a shoutout for handling the situation in a classy manner.

I'm writing this from my phone since they managed to accidentally cut off my Internet access completely until tomorrow, so please excuse any typos :)

Best,
The Rocco

Blasted XP didn't warn me that my hard drive was full! Therefore, half of the podcast didn't record. Thankfully, I was able to salvage yesterday's episode from the Ustream recording, so here it is! Special guests include ZDNet's Andrew Mager, SXSW Event Director Hugh Forrest, and Blogger's Rick Klau.

EPISODE 930

Happy Pi Day!
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/13/happy-pi-day.html

Facebook: It’s party time for the social Web…on the iPhone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196472-2.html

Facebook Adobe AIR application
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=23723376453#/apps/application.php?id=23723376453

A touch-screen Bold?
http://i.gizmodo.com/5170004/touchscreen-trackball+less-blackberry-bold-leaked

Apple adds still more DRM to iPod Shuffle
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/apple-adds-still-more-drm-ipod-shuffle

Amazon invokes DMCA defense against non-Kindle books
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

Report: Wii may stream movies
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10196100-93.html

MSNBC launches interactive-theater game
http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/?p=342

At SXSW, attendees confront Twitter saturation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196526-2.html

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube come to FiOS
http://newteevee.com/2009/03/14/twitter-facebook-youtube-coming-to-fios-tv/

Google Reader side bar
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196233-2.html

Rocket scientists shoot mosquitoes with laser beams
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680870885500701.html

Chat with Mager about SXSW
http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/

E-MAIL
Hi JaNaTo,

Blimps are back in style!

“Pentagon to Build $400 Million Spy Blimp”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4989425/Pentagon-to-build-400-million-spy-blimp.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/13/usa-air-force-airship

The thing will fly at 65,000 feet, so it will be out of the range of most fighter planes and missiles. Plus it will recharge hydrogen fuel cells using solar panels. Now if only I could get my car to do that! I mean the whole recharging thing…not the flying 12 miles in the air…although that would be cool too…and scary…

- lucky, from the watchBOL chatrooms

**********

This is how the theaters I patronized in Taiwan worked. You got an assigned seat, but there was no tiered pricing. Also, not really any way to tell them where you want to sit (or maybe that was just the result of my pitiful Mandarin). At least you don't have to stand in line for two hours and then rush the auditorium, diving with coats and various other artifacts to save seats for all your friends in the concession line.

One other curious thing about the Taiwanese movie theater: no candy at the concession stand. You can get a hot dog (on an oversized sub bun) and popcorn, but the only sweet option is, of all things, a CHURRO. Really. Go figure.

Love the show,

Jomichael

**********

The current space shuttles were put into service in 1984-1992, making them at most 25 years old. However, all of the shuttles were built to the original design. Construction of the original Enterprise test orbiter began in 1974, making the shuttle design more than 35 years old. Using the car analogy, the shuttles were from the 1977 model year, but build in the 1980s.

dfilpus

**********

Buzz Crew: The Neilsen report that says online networking is more popular than e-mail is only referring to web-based email (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc.), not POP email sent through ISPs.

This was confirmed by several news sites investigating the report. Check out these links:

http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=3&action=blog&subaction=viewPost&post_id=9671&blog_id=81

http://www.cbc.ca/news/blogwatch/2009/03/social_networks_blogs_bigger_t.html

I think a lot of reports missed this and made it sound like it was referring to all email. Nope.

bahead

Our resident nasal storage expert Rafe Needleman is on the show to explain some quantum physics to you. Rafe also schools me in why latency doesn't matter to bandwidth but he still won't admit that he need 60 Gbps. And we realize that the only way to save the world is by drinking more whiskey. Time to get to it.

EPISODE 901

Charter gets bragging rights with new 60Mbps broadband tier
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/01/charter-gets-bragging-rights-with-new-60mbps-broadband-tier.ars

iPod / iPhone CES pavilion sells out in record time, quadruples to include Mac products — goodbye, Macworld?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/29/ipod-iphone-ces-pavilion-sells-out-in-record-time-quadruples/

India’s $20 laptop coming February 3rd, take that Negroponte
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/30/indias-10-laptop-coming-february-3rd-take-that-negroponte/

More juicy details surface on Google’s alleged GDrive
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10153275-2.html

Stanford’s Quantum Hologram Sets Storage Record
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F30%2F0025240

Gears of War DRM screwup makes PC version unplayable
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/01/pc-gears-of-war-drm-causes-title-to-shut-down-starting-today.ars

Judge’s ruling that WoW bot violates DMCA is troubling
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/01/judges-ruling-that-wow-bot-violates-dmca-is-troubling.ars

Microsoft adds fancy search option for Firefox
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10153155-2.html

Robot reassembles itself after being kicked apart
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/29/robot-reassembles-it.html

Power In Scotland From Tides and Whiskey
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F30%2F0329218

VOICEMAIL

Jeremy from Denver
iPhones are not dual touch

Beast 33
You were surrounded by the 404

Alex from Buffalo Linux
Well actually

EMAIL
Heya Buzz Crew,

In Episode 898 there was some quick talk about using portable keyboards to take notes on PDA’s. I have taken notes on PDA’s in some form since the days of the Tandy Zoom and Apple Newton, through Palm and Windows CE, and up to a few different smartphones yet I have never made the jump to using a keyboard accessory. Celios has an Android proof-of-concept that might change that. Their REDFLY device (currently available for Windows-based smartphones) is described as “a smartphone terminal with a large screen (7 or 8 inches) and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop.” Though not a fan of the Windows Mobile offerings, Engadget says the Android concept is “exactly the sort of magic that could make this hardware lovable.”

While I love having a laptop, there are times when I wish I could leave it behind if only to reduce my sync’ing devices by one. I know I can get it now for a Windows Mobile device, but they have always felt underpowered. There is, however, great promise from the various Android hardware manufacturers not to mention the Android platform itself. Toss in a REDFLY and the upcoming massive SD storage and I think our portable future looks pretty bright.

Love the show.

Ryan from Castle Rock, CO

**********

Hey JaNaToX,

In episode 900 you guys were discussing pet cloning, and Tom made a
comment about cloning his dog Jango. Well, I just thought I’d remind
Tom of how slippery a slope that could be. Remember the last time a
Jango was cloned? A galaxy wide civil war ensued, and in the end the
clones turned evil and wiped out the entire Jedi order. So just be
careful with that, Tom; the balance of the Force is at stake.

Shawn,
Youngstown

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I just had a few comments about the “Google Drive”.
Microsoft actually does have a similar service called Skydrive.
Along with that, they have a desktop application called Live Mesh to automatically sync up folders to Skydrive, as well as allowing remote desktop from the web. However, from what I’ve seen it relies on ActiveX, meaning it only works on IE. Hopefully they’ll be able to fix that and expand to other browsers. Another drawback is that there’s only 5 GB of storage per user, but at least it’s free.
I look forward to seeing if Google can do any better in terms of storage space and interoperability.
Link to Live Mesh
http://www.mesh.com

Love the show,
Victor the PC gaming advocate.

**********

Hello Buzz’ers, greetings from Denmark.

As one of the hapless barracuda victims, I finally made it through to
Seagate support Wednesday and was told, like Derek of episode 897, that
the request needed to be escalated to a Seagate supervisor who would
consider the issue, but I fear holding my breath for the decision will
be unhealthy.

However, others may be interested in knowing that there are some
homebrew recipes on fixing the problem out on the net.

Be WARNED though, the procedure is intricate, involves construction of
electronics, opening the harddisk, will void any hopes of warranty and
may fry your data BEYOND SALVATION if you are not careful, so if the
harddisk contains the only proof of you winning the state lottery or
something else you really care about, heed the advice of getting some
data recovery professional to do it. Also, I haven’t tried it myself so
I have no idea if its works or not. Even if it looks convincing, I will
try my luck with Seagate first.

But for the really brave, really desperate or really foolish, the link I
have saved for myself is this:

http://forum.hddguru.com/tutorial-resolve-lba-seagate-7200-bios-don-recognize-t11040.html?hilit=7200

(If you are really foolish, you shouldn’t do this yourself, but
obviously you will not be listening anyway

Considering the cryptic commands I admire the perseverance of those who
figured out the solution.

Love the show; keep up the good work.

Christian

**********

Hi JaNaTo,

I’m a little behind, so it was only recently that I became aware of
the kufuffle surrounding Molly’s leaving as a regular co-host. So,
though I’m not a member of the Buzztown administration, I humbly
submit this citizen’s resolution to the Buzztown Council, which I hope
expresses what most of us have been feeling.

BUZZTOWN RESOLUTION OF 29 JANUARY 2009

WHEREAS Tom and Molly have been, without a doubt, the heart and soul
of Buzz Out Loud (but don’t ask me to say who’s which), and as such,
Molly will be sorely missed as a regular co-host;

CONSIDERING that we had our doubts when Veronica left the show but
Jason has proved his worthiness, and (gasp) the show got even better
post-Veronica;

RECOGNIZING that Natali has huge shoes to fill but also possesses
talent and savvy commensurate with said shoe size (along with amazing
hair, despite her frequent lamentations on the subject);

ACKNOWLEDGING that Buzz Out Loud has undergone many changes over the
years and managed to remain consistently more entertaining than TWiT
(sorry Leo, but it’s true);

WHEREAS we citizens of Buzztown, as purported early adopters, should
welcome change (just as we welcomed the new Facebook layout, right?);

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE CITIZENS OF BUZZTOWN that we be open to
the very likely possibility, nay near certainty, that Buzz Out Loud
will get even better with Natali as regular co-host if we just give
it half a chance.

BE IT FURTHERMORE RESOLVED that when she appears on Buzz Out Loud,
Molly do her utmost to rant as much as possible (recognizing, of
course, that a Mollyrant cannot be forced).

SO SAY WE ALL (right?)

Peter the translator from Montreal

Scientists have redone the math and found that black holes created by the Large Hadron Collider might last a little longer than they thought. But they're still pretty sure the LHC won't kill us all. Maybe check that math once again folks, just to be sure. We also have lots of White House news around the BarackBerry and whether the tech of the President's house is really up to snuff. And Rafe will tell you about how in Russia the system operates you.

EPISODE 896

First e-mailing prez: Obama keeps his BlackBerry
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10148329-38.html

White House already well wired, Bush staffers say
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481647,00.html

Obama is "Failure" at Google, "Miserable Failure" at Yahoo
http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-obama-is-a-miserable-failure-16286

Trojan hides in pirated copies of Apple iWork ‘09
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F23%2F0127253

Apple issues critical QuickTime security update
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10148926-37.html

Facebook now twice as big as MySpace? Oh boy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10148855-2.html

Seagate says it now fixes 7200.11 drives for real
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10148231-1.html

Russia to develop a national operating system
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F23%2F1450224

Monty Python’s free Web video increased DVD sales by 23,000 percent
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/monty-pythons-free-w.html

Microsoft brings back DRM
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F22%2F1914201
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090123-microsoft-misses-memo-launches-drm-laden-mobile-music-store.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10148896-27.html

Pope to launch Vatican on YouTube
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7846446.stm

LHC-made black holes could last for minutes
http://arxivblog.com/?p=1136

VOICEMAIL
Bailey in Lawrenceville On webkit and gecko

E-MAIL
I left a vmail too, but thought I’d sent the link for you:

2000-2003 DVDs would have qualified: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/anticirc.html

But since 2003 this passage has applied:

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2006/11/new-dmca-exemptions-granted

So HD-DVD is a no go. Also note:

A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Later!

Frank L.

**********

Buzzkins,

Some of us up here in the thermally challenged North will benefit from a delay in the DTV Transition, for a reason none of you mentioned. I went out in mid-December and purchased my coupon-assisted Converter Box. When I hooked it up to my Analog Adequate rooftop aerial, I was rewarded with a big Digital "NO SIGNAL". I live 28 miles from the big city transmitters, and not in flat country. Now I need to install an even bigger, amplified signal rooftop antenna. The big problem with this is that there is snow and ice covering my roof, and it will be there until Spring, or until Climate Change.

Bob the Geek

Canandaigua, NY

**********

Hi Buzz!

So I think Packet 8 VOIP just went out of business. I woke up with my
phone not working, their 800 number off and no more website. Ugh.
Since this is the second VOIP I’ve outlasted (sigh, Sunrocket), I’m
switching back to a landline. I still need that number for work, so I
just had a grueling phone session with ATnT. I think I would have
preferred an hour at the dentist.

Curse you Vonage for not having service in my area and long live the
land line!

Sheala, GA

**********

Hey Tom, Jason and Natali,

I have rebuilt Podcaster from the ground up. I took away the search directory and resubmitted it to the app store and it got accepted yesterday, 1/22/2009. You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/rssplayer (iTunes store link) or you can read more about it at http://rssplayer.blogspot.com. I stripped a lot of the features away and will be adding them back 1 by 1 in every updated. So that’s it. Just keeping you in the loop.

Thanks for a great show
Alex

**********

Just thought I’d respond add to the discussion yesterday about “older
people” and the DTV changeover. According to an Ars Technica article, the
exact opposite is true and it is younger people who are unprepared.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090123-nielsen-6-million-households-still-not-ready-for-dtv-day.html
Quote: “One phenomenon that continues to hold steady is that young people
show much higher levels of complete unreadiness than the late middle aged
and elderly. 8.8 percent of households under 35 are totally unprepared, as
opposed to just 4 percent of those over 55.”

Love the show,
Luke in Connecticut

We're coming to you from CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada and it's all about Netbooks today. I'm sure we'll get more buzz about 3D TVs and more later this week. Also, Ellie doesn't like it when we call out the title of the show, but that makes it easier for Jason to find them for his special edition! (And please excuse a bit of distortion in today's episode. Sorry! -Jason)
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 886

Yawn— MacWorld (woohoo iTunes DRM free!!)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10133230-37.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-apple-mwsf-announcements-new-macbook-pro.html

Apple activates iTunes downloads over 3G, with a caveat
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10133349-1.html
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2009/01/06/apple-labels-both-win-with-drm-free-itunes-tiered-pricing

Free Nine Inch Nails albums top 2008 Amazon MP3 sales charts
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-free-nine-inch-nails-albums-top-2008-amazon-mp3-sales-charts.html

AMD’s Neo processor debuts in HP notebook
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-amds-neo-processor-debuts-in-hp-notebook-whoah.html

Asus says Netbooks can be upscale with the S121
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131423-100.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/asus-s121-with-worlds-first-512gb-ssd/

…and new Eee PC with swiveling screen
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131412-100.html

MSI XSlim MacBook Air-like thing
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/msis-super-thin.html

LG’s Watch Phone: production please?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/lg-shows-off-gd910-watch-phone-production-later-this-year/

LaCie breaks off quad-interface 2big Quadra RAID drive
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/lacie-breaks-off-quad-interface-2big-quadra-raid-drive/

Google’s Android runs on a Netbook — Google OS in the offing?
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=316
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090105-android-netbook-port-leaves-some-pondering-google-os.html

Phishing is a minimum-wage job
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F06%2F2213256&from=rss

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone announced
http://www.cnet.com/8301-19515_1-10131943-234.html

Pay-as-you-go airline charges by the minute
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/01/new-airline-pla.html

What piracy? Movie biz sees record box office in 2008http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090105-what-piracy-movie-biz-sees-record-box-office-in-2008.html

E-MAIL

Hey jamoto,
As one of your UK listeners, I’d just like to clarify the ‘liveness’
of the BBC iPlayer. It actually broadcasts tv shows on the internet an
hour after they are first broadcasted on tv. Just thought that you
should know.

LTS,
DanieInHell

**********

Hey Jamoto++,

Web Developer Matthew Horoszowski (say Horoshofski) here and just
wanted to point out this article,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/4126913/Mind-game-where-players-use-brainwaves-to-float-ball-through-hoops-unveiled.html
,
which talks about a new game that uses your brainwaves to control a
small ball and move it through hoops and things.

Guess that one prediction for this year down!

**********

Hey JaMoTo + 1:

On the dial tone issue from Monday’s show: when someone moves out of a
house or and apartment, the phone company *should* leave dial tone on
the line, but with no account information. This gives access to 911 and
611 (to be able to call the company to fully activate the line). When I
worked for BellSouth, that service was called a QuickServe.

However, QuickServes can be disabled if the line is needed at another
residence or business and no other cable pairs are immediately
available, hence the reason that Tom’s line didn’t have dial tone.
FWIW, no dial tone, no 911.

Barry Stubbs

**********

Stop it!!! Stop with the announcing of the title in the actual show!!

Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP!!!

<3 Ellie

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

In today's show, we find out that the demise of humanity is imminent (or that all of our robot mythology is fundamentally rooted in self-hatred), the RIM BlackBerry Storm takes the world by drizzle, and Microsoft hopes that actually giving you songs will convince you to buy a Zune. Oh, and we don't care about Yahoo Glue. In case you were wondering.

EPISODE 857

RIM BlackBerry Storm arrives
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-storm-verizon/4505-6452_7-33311850.html

Meet the first multitouch consumer laptop: HP’s TouchSmart tx2
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10102285-1.html

Mozilla revenue $75 million in 2007, up 12 percent
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081119-mozilla-revenue-75-million-in-2007-up-12-percent.html
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10102627-12.html

Microsoft, labels try to revive subscriptions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10102846-56.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10103777-49.html

Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10102414-93.html

Web debut for Guns N’ Roses album
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7739133.stm

Yahoo brings its Glue to the U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10103776-93.html

Hey, remember Lively, Google’s Second Life, yeah, me neither. It’s gone.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html

Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10103645-64.html

IBM gets DARPA cognitive computing contract
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103355-52.html

VOICEMAIL
Lee the exhaust guy: swarming with e-books

Daniel: MMS on the iPhone
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/20/mobispines-iphone-mms-application-for-the-entire-universe/
Mobispine press release: http://www2.mobispine.com/press/readpress.dot?inode=4568

E-MAIL

Hello Buzz crew. Like many others, I downloaded the Xbox New
Experience update last night, wasted about 20 minutes tweaking my
avatar so I don’t look like a punk kid, upgraded to LIVE Gold, and
made a beeline for the Netflix player. Microsoft and Neflix have
provided an amazing service to Netflix subscribers. It’s a little
disappointing that you can only browse titles in your Instant Queue,
but the interface is slick and easy to use. I selected an episode from
the (otherwise disappointing) current season of Heroes. Within
seconds, I was watching the smooth playback in high definition. You
can scan forward and backward through the video using a coverflow-like
view that shows thumbnails from the show.

The only downside was that I had to switch to my TiVo to order pizza.
If the Xbox Netflix viewer is anything like what we can expect to see
from TiVo, then bring it on. Can you imagine Pizza AND Netflix in one
UI? Now THAT’s a great user experience.

- Richard
Washington, D.C.

**********

Hey JaMoTo and the extra crew member!

Looks like we’re not immune from the big media companies as much as you are in the States. According to The Age…

The Australian film and television industry has launched a major legal action against one of Australia’s largest Internet service providers for allegedly allowing its users to download pirated movies and TV shows.

The action against iiNet was filed in the Federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network.

(Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/film-pirates-put-iinet-in-the-dock/2008/11/20/1226770617457.html)

The interesting thing is, the Seven Network is in this suite. For those who don’t know, we have 3 major commercial television networks, namely the Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten. The last 2, offer Australians on-demand downloading of their shows on their website, and the Nine Network themselves have locally produced shows on the iTunes store. So why is the Seven Network resorting to suing when they could just easily join the other two networks by providing Australians more legal alternatives to the torrents? This goes for the other companies in the suit. If they really want to kerb illegal downloading, why don’t they open some US-exclusive options like Hulu to the Australian audience? You guys (maybe it was The 404, I can’t remember, haha!) said yourself that Hulu’s catching up to YouTube in terms of revenue.

It’s great to be an iiNet customer at this stage too. First the trial of the internet filter, now this from the entertainment industry. I’m with iiNet myself, so it’ll be interesting what’s to come.

Love the show guys!

Cheers!

**********

Mark

For the teacher and others who are having problems with HDCP issues there
are HD Strippers that are adapters or boxes that they themselves are HDCP
compliant and then pass through the signal without the HDCP DRM. a famous
example is the HDFury:

http://www.hdfury.com/

Robert Clark
Prince Albert,SK

**********

A hobo is a traveling homeless person who takes work when they can get
it. A tramp is a traveling homeless person who does not work.

Hobos are also governed by a code of ethics, have a duly appointed hobo
king, and a rich hobo-only written language based on a series of
pictographic symbols and codes which they used to communicate things
such as marking a good place to sleep, where you can find someone
willing to give you food, and what towns have cops that will beat the
crap out of you.

So I think Tom will be doing a decent service by launching a hobo social
site. I would give it a square missing it’s top line.

–Keith from New York, not a hobo

**********

JaMoTo,

I just wanted to take a quick moment to ask that you recognize the BOL chat room moderators on the show as they do an absolutely fantastic job of making the chat extremely user friendly and pleasant.

I’m sure you guys are generally too busy either getting ready for, or actually executing, the show to really notice how hard they work at helping new users along and just generally making everyone feel comfortable within the community.

I’d list them all by name but I fear that I would forget someone and feel terrible about that - suffice it to say that if someone has a gold star next to their name they are nothing short of awesome personified.

Not as anonymous as I used to be,
Snit