Buzz Out Loud Podcast

The monarchy comes to Twitter, but of course the Queen doesn't sully her fingers on the keyboard, she has a royal twitterer do that. We also discuss whether the new Universal Music Group deal with TuneCore will change the landscape of music. We also absolve North Korea of the botnet.

EPISODE 1016

Universal/TuneCore deal opens major doors for indie artists
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/universaltunecore-deal-opens-major-doors-for-indie-artists.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10283224-27.html

Korean DDoS Bots To Self-Destruct
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/10/0452256/Korean-DDoS-Bots-To-Self-Destruct
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/07/pcs_used_in_korean_ddos_attack.html

Looks like it's not DPRK either
http://intelfusion.net/wordpress/?p=593

Google's Schmidt initially opposed to Chrome, says Microsoft is welcome to port Internet Explorer on over
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/10/googles-schmidt-initially-opposed-to-chrome-says-microsoft-is/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10283555-250.html

Report: 20% of online video fans watch less TV
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/report-20-of-online-video-fans-watch-less-tv.ars

New York Times Considers $5 Monthly Web-Access Fee
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a8GofbbtFf8w

Google image search gets usage rights filtering
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10283315-2.html

Clippy stars in new Office 2010 promo video
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10282944-56.html

Royal household turns to Twitter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8144381.stm

But there will be no twittering from the end-zone
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Trenches/entry/view/28161/no_fun_league_bans_in-game_twittering

VOICEMAIL
Joe from Baton Rouge has a mulitfunction device issue of his own

RogueTess has good news for recent Kindle purchases

EMAIL
sup Buzz Crew

Regarding Pandora and the 40 hours per month cap; couldn't anyone just create an additional account, therefore getting 40 hours per account per month for free?

Granted 99 cents a month isn't a lot of money to spend, but in these troubled times -DRINK- , it could be a relatively simple alternative for any frugal music listener.

Stay awesome,
Terrence the Fraud Analyst from Madison, WI

**********

Hey, Buzz-keteers:

I know there's only about one day of voting left - and you've already received a couple of kickin' campaign videos for Molly's effort to become President of the Internets - but I had some extra time last night when it turned out I couldn't sleep. So I thought I'd whip up a little website to go along with everything else that's been done to-date.

It's not much, but it helped me pass a couple of hours. And maybe it can be used as an information portal or something when our new benevolent overlord takes office in the fall. Pardon the strange URL, but - hey, whaddya want for work done at 3 AM: http://www.wix.com/pbrentwilliams/mollywood

Good luck, Miss Molly! Love the show!
http://www.wix.com/pbrentwilliams/mollywood

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Regarding your discussion of lithium polymer batteries (lipos for
short) in episode 1015, they are not immune to exploding.

Lipos are a common power source in electric powered radio controlled
models, particularly RC helicopters, due to their high energy-to-
weight ratio. If they are compromised, they can spontaneously combust.

Also, if the cells are overcharged, they can outgas, causing a
condition called puffing, and can explode if charging is taken to an
extreme. Special cell-balancing chargers are typically used to avoid
overcharging battery packs consisting of series-connected cells.

This doesn't instill my confidence in lipos as a power source in cars,
particularly if you're in a crash.

Love the show.

Alan in McKinney, TX

AT&T unveils its new prepaid plan, which we think only Jason Bourne could love. Also, analysts say Android is poised for 900 percent growth, the University of Missouri gets in bed with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and we give cute nicknames to some of our fave technologies.

EPISODE 971

Google Android will grow 900 percent in 2009, analysts say
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Android-Will-Grow-900-Percent-in-2009-Analysts-Say-557897/

http://www.gizhq.com/2009/05/11/analysts-expect-android-to-grow-900-percent-in-2009/

University of Missouri requires students buy iPhone or iPod
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/University-of-Missouri-Requires-Students-Buy-iPhones-540478/
http://iphonetouch.blorge.com/2009/05/11/missouri-journalism-school-requires-iphone-or-touch/

Twitter's trouble with repeat users
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/technology/internet/11drill.html?_r=1

The future of newspapers is now: New York Times Reader v2 released
http://www.webkitchen.be/2009/05/11/the-future-of-newspapers-is-now-new-york-times-reader-v2-released/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_york_times_desktop_reader_gets_a_makeover.php
http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-peace-rss/

Garmin Nuvi delayed
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/10/garmin-delays-nuvifone-g60-yet-again-q3-launch-now-planned/

AT&T goes to daily plans
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/att-has-a-prepaid-twist-talk-all-day-for-3/

London government will slow your roll…or your car
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1180194/The-car-makes-speeding-history–slowing-vehicle-going-fast.html

Commercials on the Web?
http://newteevee.com/2009/05/11/we-interrupt-your-web-browsing-to-bring-you-tv-commercials/

Verizon Netbook coming soon?
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/05/11/verizon-hp-mini-1151nr-netbook-launching-may-17th/

Google is up to something in Search
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20090511_searchology.html

VOICE MAIL
Alison the librarian
Textbook profits

Tami from SC
Kindles no problem for high schoolers

E-MAIL
Hi buzzerz,
Yakov, the computer programmer from stamford.

I know you all hate on windows mobile. But i have a windows mobile phone with 3G and Wifi, and a guess what i have an app that turns the phone into a wifi hotspot. Yea, just because the jesus phone doesnt, or can’t do it, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
http://www.wmwifirouter.com/
(link via Rich)

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

I thought you might be interested in this little tidbit. In Vista (and the Windows 7 Beta I believe), they removed the “My” from the documents, movies, and music folder. Interestingly enough, they have re-added these in the windows 7 RC. It appears to be a preventative measure with the new libraries feature. Before they re-added this, you had two documents “folders.” Your documents folder and the Documents library, both named simply “Documents”. I found this whole change rather ironic since they only managed to remove the “My” tag for one release.

Josh

**********

Hi Tom and Natali-
Welcome Back!

Here’s a quick overview of what you’ve missed!

Apple almost bought Twitter, then EA Games, but settled on sending
Rafe into a rage.
Cooley annoyed Tennessee, hillbillies and pre-paid cell phone users
while scoffing at space.
Molly ranted about numerous things. Then she upped her Geek Cred Level
by knowing the Konami Code.
The MPAA got even stupider.
Microsoft talked about Windows.
Amazon decided to save trees by charging a lot for the new Gigundle.
Buzz predicted they would the day before it happened. Spooky.
The government said there’s 95 percent saturation knowledge about the
digital television switch but cable companies are still sending flyers
to compel digital cable boxes.
We learned the world may end, again, with the imminent LHC power up.
And we heard the phrase ’silver ooze’ for the first time.

Sheala, GA

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.

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

Justin Yu is not a virgin, but he plays one on this podcast. And that's just the kind of thing you get when you have a member of the 404 on the podcast. We also evaluate the new nearly-buttonless iPod Shuffle, some online gaming stats, and Google's new ad-targeting system.

EPISODE 928

New talking shuffle
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/11ipod.html?sr=hotnews
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10193443-37.html

iPod touch 2G finally jailbroken with NitroKey
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/10/ipod-touch-2g-finally-jailbroken-with-nitrokey/

Speaking of hacking…Chinese hack iTunes gift cards
http://i.gizmodo.com/5167465/get-200-itunes-store-vouchers-for-260

TelstraClear rejects New Zealand copyright code
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2252415/TelstraClear-rejects-copyright-code

Report: Online gaming drops on PC, Wii beats out PS3
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/npd-group-online-gaming-rising-wii-beats-out-ps3.ars

NBC Universal content now available on PlayStation Network
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/10/nbc-universal-content-now-available-on-playstation-network/

Google launches cookie-based ads
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/giving-consumers-control-over-ads.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10193423-93.html

Google crowd sources Maps
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10193481-2.html

$1Million Xbox lawsuit
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-03-11-lost-xbox_N.htm?csp=34

Facebook launches in Arabic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/10/facebook-launches-arabic-version

Could Fuller take Trek back to TV?
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/11/1214223

Star Wars TV series also in the works
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40384

Kutiman Mixes YouTube
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2009/03/11/kutiman-mixes-youtube/

VOICEMAIL
Kim in PA
Kiss the floor musicians!

Paul in Austria
Don’t pick on FireWire

E-MAIL
Hi Tom:
Pinkeltje
It’s Dutch.
I once spent a year in the Netherland so I recognized the word structure of “Pinkeltje”.
The Dutch like to add je or tje to the end of words to denote that they are small. (A booklet would be a boekje.)
And Philips is a Dutch company.

So it’s a small pinkel.
I’m afraid I don’t know what a pinkel is….

Darlene in Edmonton Canada

**********

Hi BOL
I have been noticing lately that there has been some discussion on assigned seating in movie theaters. Well it’s becoming more popular here in the Kansas City area. AMC headquarters is based here in the area and they have recently opened a new venue of theaters that are designed for in-theater dining, with recliners and assigned seating. The theater staff also serve alcoholic beverages under certain circumstances. The prices are the same for all seats so Molly should be pleased,no first class seating, just first class service for everyone.

I just thought the listeners might want to know that a new movie experience is coming to theaters.
http://www.amctheatres.com/theatres/domestic/studio30/

Enjoy the show
Jimmie from KC

We get tricked into supporting Robot teams we don't know anything about, plus we talk about Pluto's pimps, also known as the Illinois Assembly. And speaking of pimps, Cook County Sheriff's are trying to get Craigslist to stop helping prostitutes. Thank goodness Veronica was here to set them straight.

EPISODE 925

Sheriff files lawsuit over Craigslist’s red-light district (Updated)
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/03/sheriff-sues-craigslist-over-mass-levels-of-prostitution.ars

Seattle paper may shift to online-only: reports
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_hearst_pi

Palm investor: Pre will trump iPhone
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=13994

Alternate iPhone app stores being launched
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629876097346481.html

Portland nonresidents rejoice: Clearwire’s WiMAX service to expand to major markets this year
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/06/portland-non-residents-rejoice-clearwires-wimax-service-to-exp/

Fox to strip extras from rental DVDs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10189988-1.html

Hulu content returns to Boxee in a different form
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10190493-2.html

Google, Universal in talks to create MTV Music competitor
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/google-in-talks-with-universal-for-music-video-spinoff-site.ars

Blackout Ireland rallies support against P2P disconnections
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/blackout-ireland-rallies-support-against-p2p-disconnections.ars

Al Gore backs environmental top-level domain
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10190119-38.html?

Illinois declares Pluto a planet
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/0436206

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous
Questions about Zillion TV

Ernie from East Bay
One more detail about Intel and TSMC

E-MAIL
Hey guys - Obama said he still plans to hire a CTO and that the forthcoming CTO will work with Kundra, the federal CIO. The CIO will work more on operations (infrastructure and personnel) and the CTO will focus on strategy and policy. For more on the difference between the roles of CIO and CTO, take a look here:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=853

So Padmasree Warrior is still alive for CTO! (I’m rooting for her, too) - Jason Hiner

**********

Hey,
You’ve probably heard about a town in France called “Eu” that wants to change it’s name because it doesn’t show up in search results.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5799368.ece
What I really find interesting is what happened after this story hit the web: http://www.google.com/search?q=eu+town
Cheers,
Adrian, the student from Romania

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’m a relatively new listener (only a hundred episodes or so) and I’m not sure if you’ve covered this already, but there is a great program that I am part of called FIRST Robotics. Basically its a program for high school students where we build robots and collaborate with engineer mentors. (FIRST=For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Here’s the site http://usfirst.org/
Also, if you read this email, I just want to say…GO TEAM RUSH 27! Good luck at Kettering!
Insert ‘Love the show’ here,
Patrick the robotics dude

**********

T.V. Raman and Charles Chen are two Google employees who are working on solutions which allow blind persons to use Android devices including new touch screen input and speech/tactile output methods. This makes eyes-free phone usage possible. This link will take you to a page where you can find some links, including one to a New York Times article that discusses this topic.

http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative#Android_Accessibility

Keep up the great work.

Dan

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’ve got a little bit of a rant to get off my chest. In episode #923 one of you implied that dsl is slower than cable, thus streaming would be worse. This drives me nuts!! It may be true that in larger cities, cable options are much faster than dsl options, but I live in a small city in a more rual area, and the dsl speeds avalible are faster than cable speeds! Not only that, but they are quite a bit cheaper too! I have a 7.1 mb dsl connection, and the default cable connection is 6 mb. Just something to think on.

Derek the small town IT Pro

Episode 876

In these troubled times, RIAA can’t afford to sue you
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127003-93.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-recording-industry-moves-away-from-lawsuits-enlists-isps-in-piracy-figh/

Universal Music seeing ‘tens of millions’ from YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10126439-93.html

Silent protest planned for Jobs-less keynote,
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/19/silent-protest-planned-for-jobs-less-keynote

Gates Foundation to help libraries be better free ‘net cafes
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081218-gates-foundation-to-help-libraries-be-better-free-net-cafes.html

Number of landline-free households up 10 percent in U.S.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081218-number-of-landline-free-households-up-10-in-us.html

LCD TV revenues to dip for first time ever
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10126273-92.html

Toshiba to OEM laptops with OpenSolaris
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F19%2F1332225&from=rss

NPR now lets you roll your own podcast feed
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/npr_now_lets_you_roll_your_own_podcasts.php

Samsung Electronics will launch Google phone in Q2
http://english.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200812190010

Trek creator’s widow dies aged 76
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7791210.stm

Voice mail

Oaf-er? SoCal - Nova? Really Palm?
DEBUNKED! http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Chris the Podcaster - Don’t hire podcaster?!!!! Really?

Anonymous - Monstrous problem

E-mail
Happy Holidays, Buzz-folk!

It may seem like $6 million is a lot to pay to have a space shuttle delivered (BOL 875), until you realize that $2.5 million is just for the bubble wrap! Not to mention all the !$&#^*# foam peanuts…

LTS/KUTGW!

Regards,
Steve L.
South Jersey

**********

I think buying the space shuttle is a great idea! I want to chip in with $1000 USD, but since i can’t send actual money i figured i should send you $1000 USD in winkeys. I’m sure Oleg Teterin will be more than happy to buy them from us once we raise enough for the shuttle. In theese troubled times i can only afford $1000USD and i dont know how much that is in winkeys so please send the change back….preferably in sets of or :-o. Thank you and Love the show! - HinDRAncE

**********

To the Nearly Omniscient Leaders of the Buzz Army,

I heard your cries of suffering over the way Firefox skips over drop
down lists on the Mac. I too felt this pain in the past, but today I
bring you good news.

For some reason, Apple decided that the default behavior of OS X should
be to only set the focus on lists and text boxes when tabbing through a
screen. They did have the foresight, however, to let users change that
behavior in the “Keyboard and Mouse” preference pane.

Check out this handy blog entry for the full details, and fear no longer
the Firefox:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/apple/why-doesnt-tab-work-for-drop-down-controls-in-firefox-on-os-x/

Matt The Java Developer

**********

Hey JaMoToNat,

There's a cool Facebook Group where Aaron Sorkin himself has been answering posts, in an effort to do some background research for his Facebook script. I'm a huge fan of his writing, so it made my day when he posted back. Other actors like Josh Malina and Kim Webster have posted as well.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33807262256

Love the show,

John in San Diego

**********

The hardware website Sharkeyextreme.com does a price check of various computer parts every month, and they just started checking SSD prices.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/article.php/10704_3787791__6

Long story short: prices vary considerably, this seems to depend on drives which are enterprise vs consumer focused, SLC vs MLC. budget speeds vs higher speed. etc.

Best deal though: OCZ “core V2″ 30gig drive is $70 or 2.33/GB

Worst Deal: Super Talent MasterDrive PX 64 GB goes for $807 or $12.61/GB (though i would assume its Crazy fast though)

check it out

Faiz

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 853

Microsoft launches online store: Is there deeper meaning here?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10849
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10097239-75.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153874/microsoft_opens_online_store_im_not_impressed.html

PSP outsells PS3 and Nintendo (Wii and DS) outsell anything you can think of
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081114-october-npd-sales-the-console-market-is-all-about-pricing.html

Nintendo’s Wii Speak a new front in war against used games
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081113-nintendos-wii-speak-a-new-front-in-war-against-used-games.html

Google brings speech recognition to phones
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/11/14/google-iphone-app-already-lists-voice-function-but-its-not-there/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10092525-2.html?tag=mncol;title

Universal Music Group: We're still selling tunes, amazingly
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081114/universal-music-group-were-still-selling-tunes-amazingly/

Obama to deliver weekly address via YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10097321-38.html

Lawmaker plans bill on Web neutrality
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AC7SU20081114
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081114-is-government-regulation-needed-to-ensure-net-neutrality.html

GirlInYourShirt: $75 buys your start-up marketing for a day
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/13/girlinyourshirt-75-buys-your-startup-marketing-for-a-day/

DNA strands modified into tiny fiber-optic cables
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/14/135213

Purified urine to be astronauts’ drinking water
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AD3MB20081114#

Voice mail
Eric from Michigan: Wii Fit!

Chris from Austin: the girl and the netbook

E-mail

This is Kevin Yeaux from openSUSE again. We’re on our way to our first
release candidate for openSUSE 11.1 on November 27th, but there was some
other big news today: Banshee, the open-source music player sponsored by
openSUSE/Novell, just released it’s 1.4 version.

The biggest news in here is for owners of the T-Mobile G1 Android phone:
full support for the phone’s music playing capabilities. Full automatic
or manual synchronization, cover art, and the ability to import music
purchased on the Amazon MP3 store into your computer.

The other major news is that there is a beta release of Banshee 1.4 for
Mac OS X. Also included are many areas of UI polish and bugfixes.

Banshee is a Mono-based open-source media player that supports music,
movies, podcasts, features Last.fm integration, and more. Banshee is the
default music player for openSUSE.

For more info, see http://www.Banshee-Project.org and
http://abock.org/2008/11/13/banshee-14-hits-the-streets-packed-with-awesome/

Thanks, and *love* the show, ya’ll.
–
Kevin

**********

I think I can explain why RIM went with the suretype keyboard on the new BlackBerry Storm. I have the Pearl, which has the same double lettered keyboard.
I can type so much faster on this phone than I can on any other; even my friends with full QWERTY phones can’t nearly keep up with me. And I think I know why: You can just hit the general direction of the key you want, the area you are aiming for is twice the size of a normal key. The phone software does an excellent job of guessing what you mean, and it learns new words as you type. It also has the added bonus of doing punctuation for you! On a touchscreen, that would be even more usefful.

Good job!
Ryan from Fresno

**********

This is in response to the netbook email you guys received in episode 851. Upon hearing the email, I recalled a recent Kotaku.com article (http://kotaku.com/5083584/the-number-one-location-for-portable-gaming-is-home). I wouldn’t be surprised if people bought these netbooks and just used them around the house. I think Kotaku puts it best saying ” ‘portable’ can be defined as ‘will work on the toilet or in bed’ “.

Love the show! Not a long-time listener, but hope to be a… future long-time listener…?

-Alex M.
Berkley, MI

**********

In addition to having a trademark on a word (CBS ) or a logo (think about the CBS Eye) you can also protect what is called Trade Dress . Remember this branch of law is about protecting indicators of source-that is the mark by which consumers know your products from someone else’s. Pretty much anything that can be tied to a specific good or service, or a source of those goods and services, is protectable. That includes how that good or service looks/is packaged. Need easy examples?

Think about how all McDonalds look the same on the inside. Or how, even without the label, you’d know what a Coke bottl e looks like (or a Mrs. Butterworths for that matter.) These aren’t names or logos per se, but you’d know what the goods/services were anyway. This Trade Dress can apply to both the packaging of the goods, or the goods themselves. Usually the Office will not say something is inherently distinctive (and instantly protectable under TM law) but will require a showing of acquired distinctiveness (meaning you have to show that consumers have come to associate the trade dress with your products only).

Now I know what you’re thinking-isn’t it incredibly dangerous to grant Trademark protection to how a good is shaped etc? Isn’t there a possibility that the Office would be granting a Patent in perpetuity for a design or invention that should only be protected by Patent’s limited term? And you’re right-it is tricky business. This is why the good people at the USPTO get paid to do what they do. It is a very tricky job to separate those elements of packaging/the goods that are protectable to those that are functional or patentable etc-but this is what is done. It is incredibly complex at times and would bore the Buzz audience beyond repair to explain it in full detail-so go look it up if you want to know more.

So let’s get back to Lego-Apparently they were granted a EU Trademark for the design of their blocks (which is to say that the EU office originally thought that there was something about the Lego block in its appearance that made it distinct from other building blocks and that consumers would recognize it as a lego block based on its shape alone). Mega Block , which brought the cancellation suit, must have said something like “wait a minute! This a patent/functional thing and the EU should have never granted protection for this design. We should be able to make competing blocks and the protection is baring us from doing so.”

(For a point of reference think about how the coke bottle, while protected, doesn’t prevent Pepsi from putting soda in a bottle the way that the protection here might prevent Mega Block from making toys.)

What has happened is that that court has agreed and cancelled the protection for Lego. This will get appealed, clearly, and we’ll have to see what happens.

Also-this analysis involved a little guesswork because I”m not that familiar with how EU trademark law works-but it works roughly the same.

For the record-I didn’t find any trade-dress protection for the Lego block in the US.

-Anon.

The Large Hadron Collider comes online tomorrow (Wednesday, September 10), so we're just kind of assuming we'll be here for tomorrow's show. Of course, if it uses .NET, we're definitely doomed, if Computerworld's speculations about the daylong outage of the London Stock Exchange are to be believed. In any case, if today is our last show, at least we brought balance to the force. We discuss new Zunes and new iPods in (mostly) equal doses.

EPISODE 805

Microsoft confirms Zune details
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10034897-56.html
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-08ZuneFallUpdatePR.mspx

Live blog: Steve Jobs hosts Apple’s music event
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10035213-37.html
http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2008/9/8/predictions-for-tomorrows-apple-event.html

Judge waves gavel, says Avada Kedavra to Harry Potter Lexicon
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080908-judge-waves-gavel-says-avada-kedavra-to-harry-potter-lexicon.html

Feeling the heat, Google pledges to discard user data after nine months
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-feeling-the-heat-google-pledges-to-discard-user-data-after-nine-months/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/another-step-to-protect-user-privacy.html

Wilmington, NC, kills analog dead as broadcasters go all-digital
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/08/wilmington-nc-kills-analog-dead-as-broadcasters-go-all-digital/

Google to sell TV ad time for NBC Universal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10035881-93.html

HP laptop claims to break 24-hour battery life barrier
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10035354-1.html

London Stock Exchange suffers .NET crash
http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_suffers_net_crash

Google to digitize newspaper archives
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/technology/09google.html

VOICE MAIL
Steve in Sacramento
Amazon’s nefarious reviews policy

Anonymous musician
I play old games

E-MAIL
Mike:
Many of the posts railing against the DRM used on Spore are highly inaccurate. its true you need an Internet connection to activate initially…bad. You also only get three installs…also bad but uninstalling will credit you with an install. The error is the claim that it phones home every time you play. It only connects if you stay logged in to share content. If you don't log in you don't need a network connection. I like a good anti DRM rant as much as the next guy but at least get the facts right. P.S. I'm writing this on a Kindle in the wild

http://www.dailypress.com/news/chi-harry-potter-suitsep09,0,5060236.story

“Rapoport’s attorney, Lizbeth Hasse, said, “We are very much encouraged that judge recognized as a general matter, and an important one, that copyright holders do not have the right to stop the publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works.”

The ruling detailed instances in which the lexicon went too far in quoting from Rowling’s novels and in referring to two guides that the author had published. The judge also awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. $6,750 in statutory damages.”

I haven’t been able to find the decision myself, but if this is the case (that the fair use line was explained), I have to think that this a good thing for copyright overall. According to the NPR story I heard this morning, it sounds like a lot was made about the difference between simply cataloging the HP world in an encyclopedia and the countless other books that are written about HP that offer their own specific and new content. It’s a hard line to tow between writing about the experience of Harry Potter and writting Harry Potter. All accounts I’ve heard so far indicate that the Judge got this one right (IMHO). This makes way for the idea that so long as something is mostly your work, and not a rehash of someone else’s, there is a fair use defense available.

I know this is more in the geek than tech realm, but imagine a world where a YouTube video maker could use this decision to justify some of the creative and great things they make…

LTPC

Frank L.

Good Evening JaBriMoTo!
Long time listener, and occasional contributor Elam here.

Interesting you four should talk about the new Microsoft Guru positions opening up around the country because I JUST got back from my final interview with Microsoft this afternoon where I was told that I was their top candidate for the first and so far only Guru position in Minnesota!

I was also concerned about the fact that it might be a commission sales position; however, I was pleased to find out that not only was strictly salary, but there would be no “sales performance” related tracking or requirements.

As far as your little Guru-Genius Prizefight, I don’t know how I would feel about that…Although I have an A+ Certification, I have a feeling Apple Geniuses would wipe the floor with me. Which is sad, considering my starting salary as a Guru would be $3-7 per hour more than the GlassDoor.com Average for Apple Geniuses! Sad…

PS: Is “Geniuses” right? Or is it “Geniui”? Help Me Out.
Elam, Minn.

Terrance
Greetings and salutations,

I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing the tech come to life, but please, for the love of Pete, leave the 3 seashells ALONE.

Be well.

Richard
Is it a coincidence but the day the Large Hadron Colider go’s on line PayPal is closed for maintenance? Will there be a notice on PayPal's site that says closed for maintenance, may open if we are still here!

just a thought

Richard from the U.K.

If it dose go black hole, I will know 1 second before you, as I and nearer than you I will try to post on the blog so you know its coming.