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March 23, 2009 12:07 PM PDT

Buzz Out Loud 936: Natali blushes, Molly rants

by Jason Howell
  • 13 comments

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.


Listen now: Download today's podcast

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

December 8, 2008 12:33 PM PST

Buzz Out Loud 867: Of peanut butter and shotguns

by Tom Merritt
  • 2 comments
It is a tale told down throughout the ages. Google's Internet access is a large jar of peanut butter, and As Natali reminds us, you don't kill bugs with a shotgun. Even if it is fun. If you take nothing else away from this show, at least remember that.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 867

UK ISPs switch on mass Wikipedia censorship
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009938o-2000331777b,00.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10116543-93.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/07/how-the-great-firewa.html

Technology start-ups to be given £1B fund
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/07/nesta-plan-technology-startups

BlackBerry Storm firmware update
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10114383-1.html

WalMart: Wiis and iPhones
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4B608520081207
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4YIU21gLaSY

Google to sell truly open Android dev phone
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/12/08/1324256.shtml

ViaSat satellite approved for broadband in 2011
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081206/tc_pcworld/usbroadbandinternetsatellitescheduledforlaunchin2011

Spore most pirated game of 2008
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/06/spore-tops-list-2008039s-most-pirated-pc-games

EMI joins Tap Tap Revenge
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336325,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

Computer scientists find audio CAPTCHAs easy to crack
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081208-computer-scientists-find-audio-captchas-easy-to-crack.html

TiVo launches Netflix streaming for its Series3 DVRs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10114609-1.html

Voice mail

Anon from NH - Facebook and eyeballs

Lee in Boston - Podcast guilt

E-mail

Tom, Molly, Jason and whatever other wayward employee you happen to snag
out of the office today,

I guess you have dramatically underestimated your audience with respect
to the difficulty level in the bingo card. Perhaps you should look at a
task you might have previously considered impossible. I think you
should require a picture of Steve Jobs in the wild using a Gphone.
Just a thought.

Love the show,
Vic the Texas Rancher Pilot

**********

Hi Guys,

This is Chris the Frapper Map guy.

Is it just me of you've missed to talk about the opening of Amazon MP3 Store in the UK ?
If I missed it please let me know which episode so I can go back and re-listen. If not, please do mention on your next talk, it's quite important for us here to know this. It's even got cheaper price compare to iTunes !
Here is my blog post talking about it : http://www.toogeektobetrue.com/2008/12/04/amazon-mp3-store-uk-launches-with-songs-cheaper-than-itunes-take-that-apple/

Cheers ! Love the Show !
Chris Prakoso

**********

I figured by Monday you'll be talking about the Consumer survey that claims that Google uses 21 times more bandwidth then it pays for, and I wanted to chime in.

First of all, the numbers are right. The costs are drastically different between what I pay and what Google pays for bandwidth, but Its comparing apples to oranges, consumers to business... of course the numbers are going to be dramatically different.

The company doesn't even get "Costco level" economics. You buy a jar of peanut butter at the grocery store you pay one price, but if you buy a two gallon jar at Costco, you get a much better cost per weight and comparatively Google buys jars as big as your house.

Their conclusion shows just how little this company understands their own numbers. Using the peanut butter example, they look at Google's massive jar and then their own and are shocked by the fact Google's rates are a lot better then theirs. Rather then put their blame on the ISP's for their apparent shafting, they point the finger at Google cause they buy in bulk and say they're not paying their fair share.

The fact is everyone is paying their fair share, its just that anyone who wants Google's rates will have to pay mortgage on their peanut jar. Ok... so the analogy is getting a little wonky here, but you get the point.

These 'facts' are being used in a net neutrality argument regarding infrastructure costs... but the problem is what it always has been... ISP's are bottle necked at the 'last mile' and Google's express lane to the still free flowing internet backbone has absolutely no effect on the problem the ISP's got themselves into by overselling and saturating their connections at the local level and now want someone else to foot the bill.

Ben @ Nova Scotia

**********

Hello Tom, Molly, Jason, & other,
This is Jerry, the US Navy Seabee serving in Italy. Please inform
CMDR Mark that if e-mailing him the show doesn't work out, I would be
willing to burn him a CD each week of that week's shows and mail it to
him. If he is being deployed to Europe or the Middle East I could
mail it for free and it should get to him fairly quickly. Just give
him my email allias, and we will give it a try.

As a "Dirt Sailor," I would be more than happy to help a shipmate
out. I know this method doesn't sound like the best but when I was
deployed to Iraq my wife would shoot video of her and our baby boy
each month and mail a DVD to me. The significance of those DVDs &
what the did to keep me going can not be overstated. Perhaps Buzz Out
Loud will not hold such a high significance for CMDR Mark but it would
be one more thing to look forward to and help to time fly by.

Keep up the great work,
Jerry

October 30, 2008 12:25 PM PDT

Buzz Out Loud 842: Forking Google

by Tom Merritt
  • 3 comments

Google has joined the OpenID crowd, but just like Microsoft and Yahoo, you can't use the OpenID on Google, but you can use Google credentials other places. Unlike Microsoft and Yahoo though, Google has decided to tweak the OpenID implementation a little to make it better. That means that it's nonstandard and won't work for all standards-compliant OpenID servers. Bullies. We also admire the new DRM-free music store from clothing retailer, Hot Topic. Really.


Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 842

TiVo to stream Netflix
http://newteevee.com/2008/10/29/october-surprise-tivo-to-stream-netflix/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10078711-1.html

MTV and Apple announce Beatles music project
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/30/rock-band-the-beatles-now-official/

Motorola: No Google Android ‘GPhones’ til next christmas
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/motorola-no-google-android-gphones-til-next-christmas

OpenMoko working up Android-based handset?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/30/openmoko-working-up-android-based-handset/

Hands on: Windows Media Player 12’s surprising new features
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081030-hands-on-windows-media-player-12s-surprising-new-features.html

Court rules hash analysis is a Fourth Amendment “search”
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081029-court-rules-hash-analysis-is-a-fourth-amendment-search.html

Google abandons standards, forks OpenID
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/google-doesnt-use-openid/
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/10/29/2043218.shtml
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081029-openid-being-balkanized-even-as-google-microsoft-sign-on.html

Study shows social networking at work is good
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/29/2212254

Hot Topic launches DRM-free music service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10078414-2.html

USB Port is neither USB nor Port, just amazing
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/30/usb-port-is-neither-usb-nor-port-just-amazing/

Voice mail

Shane in Vegas - iPhone firmware 2.2’s nifty new feature
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2008/10/downloadpodcast.html#more

Erin in New York - You know who else uses wireless mics
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081029-rockers-refuse-to-throw-the-horns-for-white-space-broadband.html

James Irvine - Decentralized search

E-mail
Hey Buzz Crew
Just thought I’d let you know there is a hybrid F-150 in the works saw it on auto blog and I’ve tried the RFID package at the Chicago auto show and it is SWEET asked them how much the RFID’s cost $. 25 but you have to buy them in packs
Love the show
Tristan
P.S.thought you might find it cool that As an aerospace welder our shop has been working on an X prize rocket I’d give you more details but I can’t

**********

Hi Buzz Crew,
I know you guys don’t like it and maybe you think its stupid but I will admit it: Google Goggles is a good thing. When I heard about it on your podcast I immediate activated it for my main Gmail account. I keep it on level one but I know sometimes when I am really drunk I can’t even do those simple calculations on my calculator that is right next to my computer.
So maybe people won’t admit it but I will. Sometimes I send out stupid (drunk) emails. (To bad this isn’t used on my phone too :)
You guys have always said that Google doesn’t do anything stupid (non-productive). Believe me people will use it, even if they don’t admit it.
For those of us who like the service,
Thurman
Brooklyn, NY

**********

In response to the caller's question on Episode 841 "What use is Google Earth"? - I work at an architecture firm in Dallas, TX, and we use Google Earth to place 3D models of client projects (created in Google SketchUp) into their actual location during the design process. This allows us to present our designs to our clients in a 3D format that they can manipulate from their own computers. This also has the added benefit of populating Google Earth with a few more 3D buildings for the people who just use it to look at stuff. There's my two cents - Love the show!

Chase

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About Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Buzz Out Loud features Tom Merritt, producer Jason Howell, and a rotating roundtable of CNET's top tech experts reviewing the day's tech news. Each episode, five times a week, the crew analyzes, interprets, and argues about what all this technology means and what it's doing to us. Fans can join in the show by calling 1-800-616-2638, e-mailing at buzz@cnet.com, or commenting on the blog.


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Meet the Buzz Out Loud hosts
Tom Merritt 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. See profile
Jason Howell 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. See profile
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