Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Over at BlueBeat.com, the best MP3-selling Website you've never heard of, has got it all for your listening pleasure, the entire Beatles catalog in MP3 form for just 25 cents each! Get them while you can (which won't be long). In other news, file sharers might buy more music, Bittorrent might save the Internet, and Apple could save the networks (but kill cable).

Listen now: Download today's podcast

BlueBeat first with legal Beatles downloads — or at least a hell of a lot of cheek.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/beatles-finally-sale-online-bluebeat/story?id=8960464

Study: File sharers spend more money on music
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10387976-71.html

uTorrent 2.0 To Elimininate The Need For ISP Throttling
http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-2-0-to-elimininate-the-need-for-isp-throttling-091031/

DVR, Once TV's Mortal Foe, Helps Ratings
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/business/media/02ratings.html

Apple pitching iTunes subscription TV model for $30 a month
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091102/apples-itunes-pitch-tv-for-30-a-month/

Snow Leopard Update Blocks Intel Atom, Kills Hackintoshes
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/snow-leopard-update-blocks-intel-atom-kills-hackintoshes/

Apple Says Booting OS X Makes an Unauthorized Copy
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/11/01/195232/Apple-Says-Booting-OS-X-Makes-an-Unauthorized-Copy

Unconfirmed reports say Droid may also be headed to T-Mobile
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=15838

Nintendo chief: the Wii has stalled
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10387926-235.html

Free 3G Wireless For Nintendo’s Next Handheld?
http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/11/02/1530221/Free-3G-Wireless-For-Nintendos-Next-Handheld

An entire baby Wiimote peripheral
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2009/11/an-entire-baby-wiimote-peripheral/

VOICE MAIL
Matt from Orlando: Pagers FTW!

E-MAIL

No, I'm not a lawyer but given that Joe Wilson is my congressman (oh, the pride I feel), maybe I'm a bit more entitled to blurt things out...

I found this text for the beginning of the 4th amendment..
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,..."

So what I'm thinking is this: couldn't we define email as an extension of your "papers" I'm not sure what they meant by "effects Perhaps some other member of this BOL community can weigh in.

LTS

(love the show)

Brad Edwards
Columbia, South Carolina

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

You’ve been getting me excited about the Nook, with its ability to loan a book out to a friend for up to two weeks. But I just heard that not only won’t you have this option for all publishers (which you may have mentioned), but even when a publisher supports it, you can only loan a book ONCE. So if I loan you a book and you’re too busy to even start it, I can’t loan it to you again, and nobody else can benefit from me loaning it out either. Thanks for wasting my ability to loan out that book!

Sources:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60148&highlight=nook+lending
http://webfloss.com/nook-just-turned-down-suckish-road/

Dan Vanderboom
Milwaukee, WI

**********

So three guesses where I went today. I’ll give you a hint it rhymes with the Ficrosoft Smore. Yes, the wait is over and I’m happy to announce (although a I’m tiny bit bitter) that the Microsoft Store is in fact a success. First of all the place is HUGE and loaded with all
the best Microsoft using hardware (and no doubt the most expensive).
In the store there are plenty of Zunes and sleek laptops, but the things that seemed to really seemed to put the asses in the seats were the gigantic touched screened computers, Xbox 360 games as well as some surface like gaming tables. Now this store does look a lot like an Apple store and it would have been nice to see some originality but all in all I have to say that Microsoft did this right. Although I have yet to have seen the new Apple store that is under construction as of now. All I know it that It has swallowed the store next to it and is now twice as big as before. So needless to say I’m freaking out over what’s behind that big black box inclosing it and so are the people judging by how many of them were trying to sneak peaks through the crack in between the doors Apple better come back with something FREAKING AWESOME to top this new store.

- Aaron in OC

Amazon's trying to compete with PayPal with a new service that brings one-click shopping into the rest of the non-Amazon world. We also kick around a rumor of Netflix coming to the Wii and discuss Google and Yahoo music searches. Oh, and then Cooley and I get deep about business models and copyright. That's near the end, though--if you don't like lectures.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Google music search announced. Still doesn’t work for Tom
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10385755-93.html

Yahoo yells that it’s had it since June
http://www.ysearchblog.com/2009/10/28/play-that-funky-music-with-yahoo-search/

Amazon to take on PayPal with PayPhrase
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE59S0FH20091029

Confirmed: Netflix streaming coming to the Wii very shortly
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2009/10/confirmed-netflix-streaming-coming-to-the-wii-very-soon.html

Google tells FCC it’s still blocking calls, but fewer of them
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2009/10/google_voice_tells_fcc_its_sti.html

Microsoft and Yahoo delay signing search deal
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-and-yahoo-delay-signing-search-deal-2009-10
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10385671-56.html

NBA brings League Pass to iPhone, Android; out-of-market package runs $40
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-nba-brings-league-pass-to-iphone-android-out-of-market-package-runs-40/
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE59S2NM20091029

Twitter users warned about new phishing attack
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10385661-245.html

Xerox claims printable electronics breakthrough
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/10/29/038210/Xerox-Claims-Printable-Electronics-Breakthrough

40th anniversary of Internet working without a crash
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/today-internets-40th-birthday/story?id=8945743

VOICE MAIL
Joe about LSU and Gmail

Sloan on his experience in Gmail

RogueTess on the Slate name

E-MAIL

Hey Buzzers, I just read a rather startling article on Slashdot. The article says that amazon has patented a new ‘invention’ that will replace words in all kinds of text documents(book, reviews, etc) with synonyms in an effort to track pirating. As an author I find this very disturbing, I don’t want amazon to go changing my hard work just so they can track piracy.
So my question to you is, is this for real and am I understanding it right. Please advise.

Future best selling author,
JoshuaCaleb

P.S. Keep up the great work.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/28/2236235/Amazon-Patents-Changing-Authors-Words

**********

BOL folks:

My son is approaching the age where a cell phone may come in handy for communicating and coordinating activities. Things like “Running 10 minutes late.” “Meet me at Field 3 after soccer practice.” I’ve been looking for a cheap and light texting-only device. Perhaps the TwitterPeek can do that? Hmmm.

Keep on buzzing,
ymt

**********

Holiday Help Desk
November 23-December 23
4 PM ET/1 PM PT
Coming soon to http://live.cnet.com/
More details to follow!

Microsoft shows "Pink" (sort of), MMS disaster, er, feature about to launch on iPhone, Wii gets price cut, Archos new Win7 tablet looks great (too bad nobody will notice), and MIT has a synthetic eyeball on the way that amazes us. Oh yeah...and about that cuddle party...

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Microsoft’s “Pink” project emerges, sort of
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10360516-56.html

AppleInsider claims to have details on new iMacs
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/24/apple_ready_and_waiting_with_redesigned_imac_line.html

2009 PC sales way better than expected, thanks to notebooks, Netbooks
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10359945-260.html

Intel LightPeak tries to minimize — but not eliminate — computer cables
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10360047-264.html

Intel shows Larabee graphics technology, putting it in direct competition with Nvidia and AMD
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220100672

Report: AT&T is girding for a rocky launch of iPhone MMS
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Nervous-About-Smooth-iPhone-MMS-Launch-104606
http://www.facebook.com/ATT?v=feed&story_fbid=138625780868

PS3 Motion Controller details
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10360590-52.html

Wii price cut
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10360550-1.html

Microsoft not going to buy EA
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58N1EK20090924

Twitter direct message bot
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10360158-245.html

Bank sues Google for its own stupidity
http://mashable.com/2009/09/24/bank-sues-google-identity/

Archos tablet due out Oct 22
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/24/archos-9-tablet-due-october-22-for-499/

MIT eyeball chip is way better than eye patch
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/09/mits-eyeball-ch.php

ie8 runs 10 times faster with Chrome plug-in
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/ie8-runs-10-times-faster-google-plug-in-115

VOICEMAIL
Joe – panasonic licensed game machine dvd hybrid

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

I am frustrated! I was hearing all the reports of people getting their Windows 7 Launch Party approvals and I was waiting for mine.

Well, I finally got my response on the morning of September 24. And you know what? They rejected me! They finally must have reached that mystery cap when they finally read my application.

Just thought you might like to know there is not an unlimited number of these party packs going around.

Chris

PS, if any of your listeners want to invite me and some friends to their launch party, let me know what is going on in north-central WV!

**********

Hey Buzzers,

I’m a long time listener to the show (since the 300s) and a professional web developer. On occasion, Internet Explorer-related stories come up and, from how you report them, it seems like you don’t quite understand how bad the Internet Explorer (IE) problem really is. Below I’ll provide some info on that and also how that has to do with Google Chrome Frame.

History of IE and why it’s crap:

On the web, primarily three programming languages are used to present sites: HTML for the content, CSS for the styles, and Javascript for interactivity.

HTML (until recently) has been fairly stagnant and is well supported -- even in IE. Javascript, though inconsistent across browsers and not particularly fast, isn’t all that relevant to web developers yet, since the vast majority of web pages only use of small amounts of it and because new libraries make writing cross-browser Javascript fairly easy. Although faster, better javascript will become much more important as the web shifts from web pages to web apps, it’s not a big issue right now.

The most important thing right now is good CSS support, as styles, unlike scripts, are essential to any website.

A good measure of this support is the Acid 2 test, a test put out by the Web Standards Project in 2005. Safari and Opera have passed the test since 2006 and, although Firefox didn’t pass until 2008, it was always pretty good. Chrome has passed since its release. Internet Explorer, however, did not pass until earlier this year with version 8, and versions 6 and 7 failed MISERABLY (see screenshot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid2#Non-compliant_applications).

This has been a huge source of developer outcry and a big pain because, not only are IE6 and 7 bugs so numerous, but they’re often totally random. A good (but incomplete) list is at: http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html. Please take a quick look and you’ll see just how ridiculous some of the bugs are.

Even worse than how bad older versions of IE are, is the speed (or total lack thereof) of its upgrade cycle. This is largely due to corporate applications depending on IE6. Many of these apps were built when IE6 market share was at 90% and corporations figured that they could take advantage of rendering flaws in IE to speed development time and then simply mandate that employees use it. Therefore, even 8 years after IE6 was released, it is still one of the most popular browsers online, despite various campaigns to bring it down (http://www.bringdownie6.com/, http://www.ie6nomore.com/).

Since it has a 15-25% user base, developers are still frequently required to support IE6. In a recent project I worked on, a complex, flexible grid-based layout was required. Although I was able to create this in about 6 hours for Opera, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, adding IE support took an additional 25!!

To Microsoft’s credit, they’ve improved IE dramatically in versions 7 and 8, largely due, I believe, to competition from Firefox. However, the slow upgrade cycle has largely nullified these changes from a developer point of view.

The bottom line:

IE6 is total crap, version 7 is better but not good, and version 8 is solid, but all of them are way behind browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. However, due to the slow upgrade cycle and dependent corporate applications, developers must continue to support even IE6, the lowest common denominator.

Google Chrome Frame, unlike how you guys described it, doesn’t make IE into Chrome under the hood. Rather, it installs the Chrome rendering engines along side IE’s. Developers can then specify, through a tag in their site, whether to use the Chrome engine, but all sites will render with IE’s engine by default (this is how the backwards compatibility is maintained). This is a fantastic solution since most users on IE either can’t switch or like the IE interface, but many of them would be willing to install a plugin, especially if the site won’t work without it (comparable to Flash).

Even if Chrome Frame doesn’t solve the problem all together, it creates one more case in which web developers don’t have to worry about IE (6 in particular) and hopefully makes convincing clients to ditch it a bit easier.

Keep on Buzzing,

Ethan Resnick

P.S. The Acid 3 test is out now, and it tests a wider array of features. Chrome, Safari (Desktop and Mobile) and Opera get a 100%; Firefox gets a 94%; and Internet Explorer 8 gets a 20%. Unfortunately for Natali, the “huevos” browser only gets a 1%, while the Android browser gets a 93%.

3D TV? Augmented reality in your contacts? The world is getting awesome. Unless you have an Xbox 360. But it's birthday season too. fourty years ago today, the first bits were sent over the nascent Internet. One year ago today, Google gave out comic books to announce Google Chrome.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Happy 40th birthday, Internet
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/02/happy-40th-birthday.html‘

Google Chrome turns one
http://www.pcworld.com/article/171301/google_chrome_turns_one_a_few_questions_and_answers.html

Gmail outage causes sky to burn, rivers to run with blood
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-issue.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10323837-265.html

Hot Coffee finally cools off with $20 million settlement
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/09/hot-coffee-finally-cold-with-20-million-settlement.ars

Xbox 360 'Least Reliable' Console
http://www.pcworld.com/article/171303/xbox_360_least_reliable_console.html

PS3-compatible phone coming in October
http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/09/02/012251/PS3-Compatible-Phone-Coming-in-October

Sony to throw its weight behind 3D TV
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2d5adde2-9727-11de-83c5-00144feabdc0.html
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/siliconalley/media/is_sony_trying_to_shake_up_the_movie_distribution_business_2009_9.html

Build your wwn $2.8M petabyte disk array for $117K
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/02/138209/Build-Your-Own-28M-Petabyte-Disk-Array-For-117k
http://mashable.com/2009/09/01/backblaze-online-backu/
http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

Study: Smartphones to slay personal navigators
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10323197-1.htm

Augmented Reality in a contact lens
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/0

VOICE MAIL
Daniel on all caps

EMAIL
When trying to fix a video problem with a doc cam at a school, I found this helpful troubleshooting page from the manufacturer. Check out the solutions under video problems. “Ask a student who plays video games to hook it up for you.” SERIOUSLY?!?!

From this troubleshooting page from the manufacturer:
http://www.ken-a-vision.com/troubleshooting.asp

Susan the VA school tech

**********

Yeah, sorry about the audio quality of the call. I was on the road and my bluetooth device is kinda lame. I’d be so much easier if I could just hold the thing to my ear, but apparently that’s distracting.

Anyway, the software is called Cylay: http://www.cylay.com/

It allows a user to remote lock, send messages to the phone, set off an alarm, locate it on a google map, backup via their servers or google, remote wipe, SMS forward and prevent poweroff if lost/stolen. It cost me $20 a year and it’s awesome. The only draw back is that you have to have a Jailbroken iPhone to make it work, but there are millions of reasons you should jailbreak anyway, so this will just add another one to the list.

LOVE-THE-SHOW

-Jesse
San Francisco

**********

Hey Buzzcrew
will from Ventura

i think i have an answer to the netbook name issue

I am taking a computer class at the local comunity college to
suplement my highschool education, and my class is studying moble
computing at the moment. My professer calls netbooks “Sub-notebooks” i
think that is the PERFECT word to describe them seeing as there is no
geting aroind they fact thats what they are. (also i hate marketing
buzzwords, i mean just call it search and be done)

and molly the word you where looking for a few days ago is iKwanDo

May your blade never dull!

PS sorry for the awful typing/spelling but my computer does not work
at the moment and i am forced to use my iPhone

Pope Benedict XVI has embraced Facebook but it's just an app. So you can't write on the pope's wall or poke him. We also are excited for the queen to get her golden Wii. And we're still somewhat excited about the Palm Pre. We also discover the meaning of PORN: Private Online Retail Network.

Episode 980

No visual voice mail on Palm Pre
http://gizmodo.com/5264854/palm-pre-doesnt-have-visual-voicemail
Best Buy stores only getting four Palm Pres for launch day?
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/21/best-buy-stores-only-getting-4-palm-pres-for-launch-day/

New version of Chrome…still no love for Mac
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/21/2054230
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/05/speedier-google-chrome-for-all-users.html

More Americans play games than go to the movies
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/21/2221246

Her Majesty the Queen gets a gold-plated Wii
http://gizmodo.com/5264715/queen-elizabeth-is-getting-a-gold+plated-wii

Pope joins Facebook
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54L3AS20090522

Apple rejects iPhone app over access to Kama Sutra
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10247565-37.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/22/apple-says-no-projec.html

California wants to reinstate ban on violent video games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66714

Google StreetView in Germany
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66727

Energy Star standards are not as useful for servers
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/22/0714225
http://www.infoworld.com/d/green-it/energy-star-servers-merely-first-step-258

1,000th episode coming Thursday, June 18. Want to be on the episode? Post a video of yourself. MUST be less than 30 seconds long. And send a link. No attachments. Could be well-wishing, could be memories, epithets we don’t care. We’ll choose from all the messages we get and play a selection on the 1000th episode as well as post them in the Wiki.

Want to get involved in the production of the show? Find your favorite BOL moment, clip it out of the MP3, or video, and send us the moment. For video, please upload to a video hosting service and send us a link. Email either to buzz@cnet.com

VOICEMAIL
Garrett from Grand Rapids goes Cooley-spotting

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz,

I can really see the possibilities for Google’s new tracking/ad delivery idea: “Hello, we see that your parachute has not deployed. Would you like to buy a reserve?” Yes, Google has gold here. LTS.

–
Nathan Pilling

**********

Dear BOL,

In show #977 Brain Cooley mentioned the work with Dove prisms that invert and reverse the world. His statement included a bit of hyperbole.
I’m a behavioral optometrist and we use prisms in our work.
The brain researcher Karl Pribram did a good bit of this work and I had the chance to chat with him about this work.

Prism after effects of simple prisms that shift images side to side or up and down last about the same amount of time the prisms are actually worn.
Put on the prisms, reach for an object and miss to the side. In a few minutes we recalibrate the movement.
After 5 minutes of wearing the prisms, when you take them off your hand moves in the opposite direction.

A fallacy that is often promulgated about the Dove (inverting and reversing) prisms is that after a period of time the world looked normal to the wearer.
This is not true.
What happened is that the conscious perception never flipped but the motor patterns were rewired so that all movements were made accurately.
Normalization, when the prisms come off, then does happen but takes a while.

Pribram did say however that they never should have done this work with humans.
The new software remains in the brain and later in life, during emergency types of situations, such as may happen when driving, the person might use the wrong motor software.

Perhaps an overzealous researcher or grad student wore the Dove prisms too long and then made an error in judgment in just such a situation.
To my knowledge there was no suicide as Cooley mentioned.

IN DEEP BASS VOICE: LOVE THE SHOW

Paul – the behavioral optometrist

**********

I’ve thought Ben was the new Alex for a while, but….

Google search counts for names on the bol blog:

Ben: 249
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+ben

Paul: 399
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+paul

Alex: 378
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+alex

Fordo: 129 (by herself! But, tied with Remy?)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+fordo

Remy: 129
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+remi

Here’s the chart, that doesn’t always work.
http://sites.google.com/site/bolalexscale/

Seeing how the cyborg is real and the mutants are not, I think the cyborg will win this. Yes the cyborg is real. He's a filmmaker with only one eye so he figured he'd put a camera in the empty socket. For now it's only a red LED, but soon it will be a camera. Also Apple gets sued over touch tech and Africa gets fiber cables to it's shores.

EPISODE 948

Apple sued over touchscreen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123920026450801313.html

Costing Africa’s new cable ties
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7987812.stm

All music services now have variable pricing
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10214556-27.html
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/04/variable-music-pricing-comes-to-amazon-lala-rhapsody-too.ars

FCC begins work on national broadband plan
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/08/2655965-fcc-gets-going-on-national-broadband-plan

Kindle owners stage e-book price protest
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10214054-1.html

Blind readers protest Authors Guild
http://www.gearlog.com/2009/04/amazon_kindle_has_the_blind_se.php

Report: Spies hacked into U.S. electricity grid
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10214898-54.html

Circuit City.com not as dead as the brick and mortar version http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/07/circuitcitycom-to-relaunch-in-the-coming-weeks/

Corsair’s ultra speedy 256GB SSD sneaks out, hits the bench http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/corsairs-ultra-speedy-256gb-ssd-sneaks-out-hits-the-bench/

The new TV remote: Your bare hand?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10214415-1.html

Filmmaker prepares for in-head camera implant
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7279999&page=1

Riiflex Wiimote weights up for pre-order
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/riiflex-wiimote-weights-up-for-pre-order/

VOICEMAIL

Jason in Cincy Mutant Chronicles seems to be pre-releasing their movie

Chris in St. Louis About Natali’s camera.

*****
E-MAIL

Hi Buzz Crew -

I thought I’d share this with everyone. I noticed yesterday that after Apple’s announcement that the iTunes Music Store is now 100% iTunes Plus that I still had over 350 tracks that have not been flagged for the $.30 update. According to Apple Support in the thread below, there are several reasons for this.

Now, it makes sense to me that free downloads might not be eligible but I was particularly dismayed to learn that songs that have: “… been modified from the original file that you purchased,” I can’t get an upgrade. On this point, Apple said “When a file has been modified, such as a replacement for a corrupt file, the original is no longer accessible and the iTunes Store does not recognize the two files as being the same.”

This is really annoying and unfair. In my library this affects about 250 tracks to which Apple offered me 10 free downloads.

Best,

Peter in Seattle

*****

Hey Buzz Crew,

On yesterdays show you had an email about the MLB app for iPhone
regarding streaming video. You were postulating about possible
technologies in the 3.0 firmware that would allow for this to happen,
such as Flash. In fact during the 3.0 firmware announcement Apple
actually specifically mentioned a new Video Streaming framework for
developers to use in their apps, and even brought ESPN up to demo
their sports app using the technology.

If I were a betting man, I’d wager that MLB is already working with
the Beta SDK to incorporate live streaming video into the MLB at Bat
09 app. Unfortunately, given MLB’s history, i’d also bet that they
will be using the new in app purchase functionality to charge extra
for this feature when it is available (obviously after the 3.0
firmware release sometime this summer).

Kind Regards,
Nick the Software Engineer from Boston

*****

Hi Tom/Jason/Nat/Random Rotating Host

Regarding MLB.tv, it's a shame Grant (emailer on episode 947) didn't have a good user experience. I did want to clarify though that the top streaming option is in fact 720p30 (1280×720 at 30 fps). However you have to be able to reliably stay connected to that feed in order to enjoy it - if your bandwidth doesn't maintain enough speed to maintain the connection, then yes, you will get dropped down to a lower resolution and lower data rate. This isn't MLB cheating you, it's just them trying to maintain your viewer experience by dropping the quality down to match your needs. In full disclosure I've worked closely with the MLB team for 2 years now on their Live (and this year VOD) video options, but I'm not trying to shill for them here, just set straight the options they are offering.

Andy B

*****

Dear BOL -

I was hungry. So, I pulled out my mobile phone and searched for a McDonald's. The phone checked my Google and Microsoft health records, and advised that based on the medicines I had recently picked up at CVS, perhaps I should consider Subway instead of McDonald's. I agreed, and it gave me directions to the nearest Subway.

It was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk instead of driving my GM/Segway Puma. I copied some songs I recently discovered on Yahoo's music service (and purchased from Amazon's MP3 store) to my phone, and listened to them on my A2DP headset. The onboard directions only interrupted the music occasionally to give me turn-by-turn walking directions (wait, are turn-by-turn directions even allowed on this phone?).

Upon arrival, my phone said that based on the pedometer data it received from my DSi, I had earned enough "fitness credits" to qualify for double meat on my sub - what a wonderful reward! I ordered and paid for lunch from my phone, and even splurged and bought a cookie for dessert. My phone scolded me for this decadence by immediately fattening my Mii, then automatically interfaced with CVS to pre-order an insulin refill. It then automatically tweeted my lunch details to Natali.

This technology is terrific! Thanks for the always-wonderful show.

/John in Fairfax

A new scanner developed by Kaminsky and friends can help find Conficker-infected machines. We're so drenched in Conficker news at this point that I think the Girl Scouts have started selling Confickerdoodles. We also analyze Netflix's Blu-ray-rate hike, and try to decide why they're fighting over toilets in space.

EPISODE 942

Netflix to hike up monthly Blu-ray fee by up to $8 a month
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10207302-2.html

New method for detecting Conficker discovered, debuted
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/03/new-method-for-detecting-conficker-discovered-debuted.ars

YouTube gets Disney
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123844481702470815.html

American Airlines to expand Wi-Fi in planes
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/1247225

Apps to dominate CTIA Wireless 2009
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-10207651-51.html

Skype app for iPhone to launch Tuesday, but not in Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/30/skype-iphone.html

Is Google pulling tethering apps from the Android Market?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/is-google-pulling-tethering-apps-from-the-android-market/

Contrarian Google launches investment fund
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10207853-76.html

Two dead in NY: May be payback for an online scam. That’ll learn ya’.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/31/sports/s070646D86.DTL&tsp=1

Dead Wii guy
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2348477.ece

Man uses 35 cable modems to provide Wi-Fi, sued by Comcast
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/comcast-goes-after-illegal-resale-of-its-internet-service.ars

Microsoft kills Encarta — what took so long?
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/10286-msn-encarta-to-be-discontinued/

Cold War standoff over ISS toilet
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/1332257

VOICEMAIL
Robert the Kiwi
Why so Mac-centric

Christian from Browntown
Natali, don’t fear helicopters.

E-MAIL
It seems to me and to many others who listen to the show that Natali Del Conte is quick to stereotype and judge all those who live between the two coasts of the United States. She has made disparaging remarks about the southern states, rural areas and, most recently, even the viewers of ‘The Family Guy’. I don’t watch the show and I have no idea what the target demographic is, but she implied that they would be the most likely to still have analog TVs, a condition that seems to be a mark of shame in her world. Not only is this assumption probably wrong, it is what Christopher Hitchens calls poor comedy: “jokes that
only stupid people laugh at”.

Furthermore, I can’t help but think that Natali’s cute face and ability to turn her head to the right angle for a photograph is the only reason she has a job in tech journalism. I’m sure her looks have granted her many a door opening that would otherwise have been closed. Who’s judging now? You know what it’s like, Natali. I don’t expect this to be read on the air, but that is your decision.
I continue to listen to the show and except for the occasional inane
comment, I enjoy it immensely. Thank you.

Matthew Dattilo
Jeffersonville, IN

**********

You said my last name on the podcast! Sort of! Why don’t I have any of that Dairy Queen money?

Eric Brasure

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Regarding Vicente’s email in episode 941 and previous emails about the E74 error. I can, in fact, confirm that there is not conspiracy that the E74 error and RRoD are the same error that was just changed in the NXE update. You see, I have had BOTH errors in my short 2 years of owning an XBox 360. I got the E74 error last year and then, about 2 days after updating to NXE, I got the RRoD. Thankfully, I got then in that order so that it was covered by my regular warrantee for E74 and the extended RRoD warrantee later.

Love the show,
Dan from Wisconsin

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

I know you guys have a big hate on for my preferred mobile OS, but you forgot to mention that Windows Mobile has supported Skype for years now. And guess what? It runs on either WiFi or cellular data connections and can be minimized and run in the background!

…but I guess the fact that the iPhone has just come out with a limited functionality version of Skype is the big news

…love the show!

Mike

**********

Hey Buzz crew,

I was watching the (unintentionally) funny 60minutes “The INterwbehszor iz ze inFECTED”
episode and like many other finns (tho I live in Sweden) noticed the “hacker hunters” lack
of knowledge about his “enemy”.

At about 10:46 of this video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4901282n
They show a picture of what they claim is a russian hacker group and even point to one
saying this guy is called Tempest etc.

Little does he know he has just been pwned by a Finnish internet joke and that the picture
is about 5 years old.

This picture was originally used as part of an internet joke called Isän Maan Puollustajat:
http://www.pelulamu.net/viznut/web/isanmaa/
Basicly the picture was taken from IRC-Galleria (http://irc-galleria.net/index.php) and then
added to a page with a lot of badly writen neo-nazi huff and buff and has been online for
at least 5 years. The guys in the picture were neo-nazis, but have apparently given that
up once they grew up.

As a funny coincidence the name Tempest is the name of a finnish demoscener whose
work was stolen by Timbaland (judge yourself based on the evidence, I believe it tho,
Timbaland is a waste of air if you ask me), the same guy who came up with the joke was
also collecting material for Tempest vs. Timbaland: http://www.pelulamu.net/timbaland/

So, maybe CBS should do a bit more fact checking on who they have on as their “experts”.
There is a lot of Finns laughing at 60minutes right now and this “news” is actually been
picked up by a lot of the mainstream media as well.

Just thought I let you know, maybe you at least get a good laugh out of it, I know finland has

Love the show as they all seem to say.

//uskomaton
A Finn living in Swede

We have finally hit on an appropriate term for very small lightweight laptops: the Buttbook, as in small enough to fit in your butt pocket. We also talk about Gmail's new undo feature for e-mail and Molly ponders that age-old question: should she buy land or a jaunty beret?

Episode 935

Take it back: Gmail gets ‘Undo Send’ Labs feature
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10200370-2.html

Chrome only browser left standing after day 1 of Pwn2Own
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/03/chrome-is-the-only-browser-left-standing-in-pwn2own-contest.ars

iPhone 3.0 OS reveals new iPhones, iPods and the mysterious “iProd”
http://i.gizmodo.com/5175348/iphone-30-os-reveals-new-iphones-ipods-and-the-mysterious-iprod

AT&T: No-contract iPhones coming next week
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10200602-37.html

Palm bets the farm on WebOS
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/palm_results/

YouTube gets NCAA games
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10200699-93.html

LaCie merges with online-storage start-up Wuala
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10198704-2.html

February NPD numbers give Sony reason to celebrate
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/npd-feb.ars

Wii shortage finally nearing its end, says GameStop exec
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/20/wii-shortage-finally-nearing-its-end-says-gamestop-exec/

Online game gets banking license
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7954629.stm

Last Battlestar tonight — Tech of BSG
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10201021-1.html

Voice mail
Hank in Boston
Why $10 for the iPod Touch?
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/21results.html

E-mail
Note-Apple doesn’t actually own the word POD-at least according to the registrations at the Trademark office.

If you visit the USPTO web site you can poke around the register, looking things up. It’s all public record

If you look up the word “POD” as the full mark and currently registered-you get 22 hits. Everything from clothing and surfing gear to medical equipment.

581 more Registered Marks feature the word “pod” as a prefix, suffix, or somehow also in the mark.

Apple owns….10 of them.

This, by far, does not encapsulate all of the information regarding the law suit-TM is very technical and we shouldn’t assume that just because the word Pod appears a lot that they don’t have a case-but it does speak to Tom’s VERY well put point that pod is much bigger than Apple.

I’m not sure I want to put them in the Monster category yet, there is at least some connection between the goods in this case (unlike Monster’s shut down the mini-golf campaign) so we’ll just have to wait and see.

**********

Hey Buzztown
Chris the former Snowmen Hunter here. Just heard Episode 934 and I hate to break it to my fellow geeks but… Flying cars will NEVER HAPPEN. I’m sorry, but it’s true, and you know it in your heart.
Here’s an illustrative conversation:

Woman: Honey, do you think you should pull over to get some gas?
Man: No dear, we’re fine. You can go for 50 more miles after the E line on the fuel gage.
Woman: Are you sure? I’m just worried that…
Man: Hut, hut, hut. Sweetie, I got this. Trust me.

This conversation has been brought to you by magic of the in-dash black box clawed from the wreckage of Honda 2015 Flying Car.

Don’t get me wrong. The flying cars will technically work fine. Human nature… Not so much. Let me ask you this: You see those beater cars on the highway, teen agers just learning to drive, the jerk who’s always zipping around and tailgating EVERYONE and the guy who takes such poor care of his car the left front wheel comes flying off at 60 mph and his axle digs a furrow you could plant corn in on 880. Do you wan these people flying over your head? Exactly.
Look around the DMV. Do you want those people look like pilots to you? That is a future that will kill us all.

Love the show,
Chris
P.S. Sorry, but no jet packs are coming either.

**********

First, I am not sure where the caller lives but I’ve not seen this chargers in Toronto or any part of Ontario I’ve been in. Maybe in winterpeg (Winnipeg). However I hope they would use different connectors for high and low voltage charging. I can see someone plugging in a low voltage block heater into one of the high voltage parking lot chargers the story mentioned, and wondering why their engine is smoking when turned off.

-ZZ (Toronto Geek)

**********

Hi Guys and Gals,
Andrew the Research Manager from Barcelona again, hoping that someday one of my e-mails will get read on the air!

Natalie’s laughing at the size of butts used to show the smallness of the Lenovo Pocket Yoga “not-book” got me thinking, and I’ve got a couple of proposals for names for this new, so-far difficult to name, category………drum roll Jason please…

Butt-top !

and if you’re really into alliteration(like Tom seems to be) I propose (my personal favorite)…

Butt-book !

that could really stick….”too small for your lap, but not for your butt…the new Lenovo Butt-book” or something like that

saludos/regards,
Andrew

A bat hitched a ride on the space shuttle Discovery and I think it's going to be a long long time till touchdown brings it down again. Of course, IBM apparently wants to buy Sun too. We also cover the hot new features in the latest software update for the Nokia 5800. Oh, and the iPhone too.

EPISODE 933

IBM to buy Sun?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/technology/companies/19sun.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10198901-92.html

iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10198292-37.html

What iPhone OS 3.0 promises users and developers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10198525-37.html

Nokia 5800 NAM gets v20.2.014 major update
http://symbianworld.org/1357-nokia-5800-nam-gets-v202014-major-update/

Amazon’s Kindle targeted by patent infringement suit
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/amazons-kindle-targeted-by-patent-infringement-suit.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13512_3-10198880-23.html

Steam gets into micropayments with in-game DLC
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10198392-2.html

House of Dead says f-word more than any other video game
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10198183-62.html

Xbox Live has family games from Hasbro for free
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-17FamilyGameNightPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Psystar releases new $599 Mac clone
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/18/psystar-releases-new-599-mac-clone/

Computer science enrollment up
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=14861

Did bat hitch a ride to space on Discovery?
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/1232233

Voice mail
Anonymous
Play more voicemails

Gatlin
Happy Birthday Windows 3.1

E-mail
Hi guys (”love the show?”)

Generally, I’m against “paid premium content” though I’ve subscribed to ESPN insider and NY Times Select (or whatever it’s called), but I thought this was a great way for the Rocky News staff to keep providing service to the Denver community:

http://indenvertimes.com/

THE DEAL IS SIMPLE.

You pledge to pay as little as $4.99 a month, and if we reach our goal of
50,000 pledges by April 23 we will go live with our site to revive a tradition of distinguished reporting and editing with 21st-century electronic delivery.

It's an investment, one worth $4.99 a month to encourage a bold, creative effort to continue a vision based on a 150-year Denver tradition.

**********

Hey B.O.L.,

Windows Mobile revamps their entire ui, gives you flash to go along with a new mobile browser, a free backup solution, and some great devices that will come with it and you guys get all worked up over cut&paste and mms on the iphone? Really? Tell me why? I propose that each host should own a phone from a different os to level out this iphone lovefest. Tom can use a windows phone, natalie a blackberry, and jason an iphone.

Loving the show just a smidge less,
Emiliano the Mechanical Engineer

**********

Hello BOL.

The problem with maps is the licensing, the maps that google use are not licensed for routing and navigation, as presented in this ( http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html ) terms of using the google maps api:
Scroll down to restrictions: you must not use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user’s sensor-enabled device.

Google licenses the maps from TeleAtlas/Navteq and I am sure both companies would prefer that you pay them for their maps. again … and again … and again. for each GPS enabled device that you own.
Now we will worry about map DRM …

Thanks!

Best regards…

Khaled A.

**********

Dear Buzz Crew:
I just wanted to say congratulations and Happy New Year to all Persians around the world (those who listen to this Podcast), this Friday would be the end of winter and start of the spring which is the start of our new year, we call it "Norouz" (translated: the new day).
So Happy Norouz to all Persian BOL Fans around the world.
Love the Show,
Siavash From Iran.