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Buzz Out Loud 1564: Molly's new iPhone 4 is no Halloween trick (Podcast)

In the tech news this week, Stephen and Brian bust me for buying an iPhone 4 on eBay to tide me over until there's a phone I really want--or until my Verizon contract is up. Nicole Lee joins us to talk about Nokia and Microsoft's new baby, the Lumia 800, and Sony's plans to get serious about making smart phones. Plus, stock advice from the gang, the coming nightmare that is the Stop Internet Piracy Act, and Computer Love.

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor
Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.
Molly Wood
9 min read

In the tech news this week, Stephen and Brian bust me for buying an iPhone 4 on eBay to tide me over until there's a phone I really want--or until my Verizon contract is up. Nicole Lee joins us to talk about Nokia and Microsoft's new baby, the Lumia 800, and Sony's plans to get serious about making smart phones. Plus, stock advice from the gang, the coming nightmare that is the Stop Internet Piracy Act, and Computer Love.

Watch this: Ep. 1564: Molly's new iPhone 4 is no Halloween trick

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EPISODE 1564

NEWS

GOTHAM MEETUP in NYC
http://www.cnet.com/gotham/

Nokia debuts Lumia 800, 710, first Windows Phone handsets
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20125664-85/nokia-debuts-lumia-800-710-first-windows-phone-handsets/?tag=TOCcarouselMain.0

Flex it, baby! Nokia’s new interface is seriously twisted
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20125870-264/flex-it-baby-nokias-new-interface-is-seriously-twisted/?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

Sony Will Buy Out Ericsson's Stake In Sony-Ericsson Mobile For $1.47 Billion
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/sony-will-buy-out-ericssons-stake-in-handset-venture-for-1-47-billion/

Sony: We’re phasing out feature phones
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42749/sony-we-are-phasing-out-feature-phones

Netflix beat estimates, but subscription numbers are cloudy
http://allthingsd.com/20111024/netflix-beats-estimates-but-subscription-numbers-are-cloudy/

Netflix loses 800,000 U.S. subscribers in Q3
http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-loses-800000-us-subscribers-in-third-quarter/

May be taking a loss on Kindle Fire to fuel ebook sales
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/kindle-fire-to-burn-amazon-earnings-fuel-e-book-sales/
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-building-millions-more-kindle-fire-tablets-than-planned-2011-10?op=1

House takes Senate’s bad Internet censorship bill, tries making it worse
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/house-takes-senates-bad-internet-censorship-bill-makes-it-worse.ars

The U.S. requests more user data than any other country http://mashable.com/2011/10/25/us-data-google/

Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support

Twitter partners with XFactor — vote for contestants via tweet
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/10/twitter-tv-and-you.html

Quick Hits

Steve Jobs book may be Amazon’s 2011 top seller
https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/us-amazon-jobsbook-idUSTRE79N5GO20111024

Sony Courting Aaron Sorkin to Write Screenplay for Steve Jobs Movie?
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/25/sony-courting-aaron-sorkin-to-write-screenplay-for-steve-jobs-movie/

YouTube Close to Announcing Video ‘Channels’
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203687504577000071926368522-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html

BlackBerry outage: RIM faces US class action
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/27/blackberry-outage-rim-us-class-action

Nintendo loses nearly $1 billion as Wii sales plummet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20126369-17/nintendo-loses-nearly-$1-billion-as-wii-sales-plummet/?tag=mncol

Gadgets

Brave New Thermostat: How the iPod's Creator Is Making Home Heating Sexy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20125166-54/in-nest-labs-finally-an-apple-of-home-energy/
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/nest_thermostat/all/1

Hey buzz crew (especially TMFKAAG – the Molly formerly known as a gadgette),
Admit it : every so often you just wish you had that post-it note block with you to write down some vital information you’re bound to forget. After all, who on earth carries arround a smartphone with a built-in notes application, right ?
Here comes the post-it watch to solve all your problems. The photos are self-explanatory. Yes, you an actually order them. In bulk.

Love the show, Jonathan

PS : Molly, I hope you appreciate the link en français.

Post-It Watches
http://www.fubiz.net/2011/10/24/post-it-watches/

Stephen’s Video Pick of the Week….Yeah

2 Cats sitting at a news desk sent to us from the brilliant mind of Dane Strom. Thanks Dane!

VOICEMAIL

Maurice in Ft Lauderdale has a scoop on the iPhone 4S

Matt in Orlando reminds us that Anonymous is going to take down Facebook on the 5th of NOV

EMAILS

Hey guys, I felt a little let down by your Ice Cream Sandwich coverage last week. Molly said she was excited about it but was let down… to me it seemed like she had already decided she wanted an iPhone 4S and wanted to find every little thing wrong with ICS and the Galaxy Nexus.

No mention from you guys about the data manager app, pre-canned call responses or improved notifications which all seemed pretty cool on top of other improvements. Plus the whole “”I know more megapixels doesn’t equal better camera but I still want more megapixels”" seemed a little off.

I’ve been listening since before Veronica would even speak up on the show and I love you guys but please give us android fans a fair shake.

Lub da show,

Jeremy in North Carolina

—–

Hello Buzz-taculous,

I’ve never written in before and I hate for my first email to be a “”Well-Actually”" but your recent comments really got my “”Obnoxious Correcting Nerd”" in a tizzy. I was just listening to episode 1563 and I noticed that you guys seemed to think that 5mp in the Galaxy Nexus is a bad thing. While it is entirely possible that they wanted to do some cost cutting, it is actually more likely that they did it to IMPROVE picture quality. In photography everything is a trade-off. When you pack more pixels onto a sensor it usually comes at the cost of low-light/high-ISO quality. Cellphone sensors are tiny and so getting the requisite amount of light on the sensor is difficult. If you have a smaller pixel density, you increase the amount of light per pixel and which lets you get better pictures in low light. Since most cellphone pictures seem to be taken in crappy light, this will have a significant improvement on the quality of the final image.

Also, 85% of people don’t need more than 5mp. On the web, 5mp is overkill. You can easily get 8×10 prints which is larger than most people print. One more thing, as you increase the number of pixels you need to increase the quality of the lens or else you start out-resolving the lens. You also start running into physics problems where the light-wave cannot “”fit”" into the pixel. The pixel can actually become smaller than the wave length and you don’t improve the quality of the image at all.

I am a semi-professional photographer who is seriously into the tech of photography so please forgive me for the “”Well-Actually”".

P.S. The Lytro is cool for the tech of it. However, I’ve been able to do a faux version of that for several years. Set your focus to infinity (makes everything in focus) and blur in Photoshop.

Kenny Larson

—–

You know which button I miss most on Facebook? It’s not a “”dislike”" button, it’s the “”I don’t care”" button. As in: Did your kid see a dog and say something that you find funny? I don’t care. Is this person that I have not seen for 10 years listening to The Killers right now? I don’t care.

Love the show,
/Angelika
Stockholm, Sweden

—–

Hi Buzz Crew,

I love your show and used your commentary topics to create my Halloween Tombstone decorations for my front yard (putting them up on Saturday).

It’s perfect for the crowds of people that storm by my house every morning on their way to BART to go to work.

I’m sure I might have to switch out a few during October, since tech news changes so fast.

Kate

Computer Love

Here’s the story:
Until recently I had never been able to share the geeky side of myself with many people. Then I met Chris.* I was looking for certain things in a guy--1) shares my religion 2) shares my interests 3) able to hold a conversation... and Chris is all of those things. I love that.

But there's one thing he's not: hot.

I don't mean only physically. I'm very picky about that but he's cute enough. Nice hazel eyes. And not too scrawny or anything. The real problem is how he dresses–like a geek. He even sounds like a geek...
As geeky as I am--and I can't deny that I am–I don't fit the stereotype nearly as much as he does. Part of me really respects anyone who's able to let their geek flag fly, because they are always going to be judged for it and even persecuted. I've been picked on for it too. But the rest of me is really uncomfortable dating someone who my friends, and I as well, don't think is "cool." It sounds so mean... But I would also bring up this point--I think there's a big difference between not hiding your geekiness VS not trying to be stylish. I think Chris is a mixture of both those things. Like, he doesn't know how to be stylish and he also doesn't see the need to try because that's just who he is. I'm not satisfied with that.

We haven't been on a real date yet (we've just hung out in group settings). But we email each other all the time and we are getting to the point of labels. When is it okay for a girlfriend to start trying to dress her boyfriend? As much as I hate how he dresses (tall white socks with shorts--help me out here, guys, you KNOW that's bad), I'd also hate to insult him. So how can I avoid that and still get what I want, which is for him to change his style? Or do I need to just get over it? I realize I probably AM worrying overly much what other people think and even being superficial my own self.... Otherwise why would it matter what he wears...

(His name is changed)

Thanks ya'll.
Anonymous

—–

Hi Molly, Brian, and Steven,

I’m a 14 year-old and need your advice. On the first day of 9th grade, I met a girl, let’s call her A (in case she might be listening.) I know I’m young and foolish, but she is the perfect person for me. First of all, she is the first person my age, that I have seen in LA that has a Kindle and is an avid reader. Secondly, she is tech savvy and possibly an Apple fangirl. She actually brought her MBP running Lion to school to do homework.

And MOST importantly, every time I talk to her I have a smile on my face and feel happy wondering how I was lucky enough to meet her :)

The thing is I don’t know how I should pursue this. I considered asking her if she wanted to do anything over the weekend, but I know for a fact that both of us have hectic schedules due to the rigorous high school we are going to.

I want to eventually ask her out, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship especially since I have her in most of my classes.

When do I do and when do I know when the time is right?

Thanks,
Abner

—–

Hey, Buzz Crew! I know this isn’t your normal computer love story, but thought it was worth sharing anyway. My husband and I just got married a couple weeks ago (yay!), but my mother wasn’t able to come due to emergency knee replacement surgery. (boo!) What’s a geeky couple to do?! We had a guest hold my iPhone running Skype on our end, and someone helped my mom connect her laptop to her 42″” HDTV so they could watch the play-by-play! She invited over everyone she could find, and they even had pizza and cake after the ceremony as their own mini “”reception.”"

Thought you guys would enjoy our high-tech solution, and might share it for anyone else in our kind of situation. Thanks for all you do.

- Amanda S. in Cortland, NY

—–

A few years ago, my boyfriend at the time and I were doing a long distance relationship. As a way to hang out over more than AIM or racking up phone bills, my boyfriend got me into this new game called World of Warcraft. We would spend hours running around, questing and leveling together. I guess I can blame him for my raiding addiction now.
Well, After that relationship fell through, I had already joined a raiding guild. It’s amazing how well you get to know someone’s personality when you’re working with them 3 nights a week, whether you actually see them or no. I’ve had a few relationships come out of WoW, though because we never met, they didn’t last too long. But I have heard of many couples who’ve met up on game and gone on to long lasting, happy marriages. WoW, it’s the gamer’s eHarmony.

Sarah

—–

http://bol.cnet.com, 800-616-2638 (CNET), buzz@cnet.com

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