Buzz Out Loud 762: Linux for housewives

At least in Taiwan, the Linux version of the Asus Eee PC is very popular among housewives and students. Meanwhile geeks want the Windows XP version. Also on the show today Microsoft finally declares war on Apple's advertisements, and an Xbox 360 price cut may be coming as early as Sunday. Oh and there was something about the iPhone. Apparently people are excited about it.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 762

Apparently, one third of us have been copying DVDs!
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17914_1-9985794-89.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080708-breaking-the-law-one-third-of-us-residents-rip-dvds.html

Xbox 360 price cut coming July 13
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9985383-7.html

Wal-Mart spreadsheet claims 40GB PS3 “will be replaced” in August
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/09/wal-mart-spreadsheet-claims-40gb-ps3-will-be-replaced-in-augus/

Microsoft admits Windows Vista mistakes, criticizes Apple ads
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208803153

Linux for housewives. XP for geeks.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=342

iPhone 3G reviews: It’s fast, hungry, and still pretty
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9986195-1.html

Belgian operator will sell iPhone simlock-free
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/belgium_will_sell_iphone_simlock_free/

iPhone wannabes or smart alternatives? You decide
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-9985925-94.html

Aussie device ‘could speed up Web 100 times’ (Thanks Wayne!)
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=594743

The travails of receiving digital TV broadcasts
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-9985562-61.html

Getty Images and Flickr announce exclusive partnership to offer new collection of creative imagery
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=320377
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/great-photo-on-flickr-getty-images-might-pay-you-for-it/

Skooba’s TSA-approved bag — for real this time
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/08/skoobas-tsa-approved-bag-for-real-this-time/

VOICE MAIL

Braden
Putting that 7 cents a kilobyte in perspective.

Bill Portland
Question about TrueCrypt

E-MAIL

Hey almost BOL crew (minus the ranty one) I just came accross this story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080709.wgtiphone0709/BNStory/Technology/home

Basically it says that Rogers is going to offer the 6GB(still not unlimited grr) plan for $30 instead of $100 from launch day until August 31. As of right now (12:30 ADT) there has been no update on the Rogers Web site or the infamous ruinediphone.com other that on the latter there is a link mentioning a video address later today. If this plan also includes the minutes included with the previously announced then this might be a pretty good deal. Still lame that it’s limited but a lot better….
Love the show
Justin the engineering student
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Tom, as much as i love the feature too, I gotta say the new feature in Gmail has a down side to it and it is the person who is in your Gmail account can log you off too. so while someone else is checking your mail and see that you sign in he/she can log you off. so maybe when the happens you need to be the faster person and log the other person off and change your password as quick as you can. Its going to be a war game between logging each other off. Yay Fun!

love the show
Manuel

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Hey BOLers.

http://www.ubi.com/US/News/Info.aspx?nId=5336

This is Wayne the pixel fudger here in Quebec. I just thought I would share this with you. With this merger, there is going to be some serious realism infused into next-gen games. I worked at Hybride for 8 years on such projects as Sin City, 300, (and you favorite Tom & Molly….& Veronica) Snakes On A Plane. They do some very nice work there and with the emerging 3-D trend (insert groan here), Hybride is the logical choice for this kind of merger.

I know the owner of Hybride very well and I think with the extra cash from this deal, he’ll be able to afford Rogers’ iPhone price plan.

Heart the Show,

::Wayne B

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Long time listener (via podcast), first time “caller.” I started my computer this morning to find that the Internet connection was unresponsive. As a loyal follower of the show, my first response was to blame Comcast, curse a little, and start to reset my cable connection. Eventually I traced the problem back to the Zonealarm firewall I have installed. It turns out that one of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday updates crippled third party firewalls.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2221138/microsoft-fix-kills-web
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/ms_dns_patch_zonealarm_woes/

It appears that MS was making a legit DNS protocol update, but that they failed to tell software vendors building to their old system that it was going down. I smell antitrust if this lasts longer than a day and the Europeans catch the scent… oh well, off to uninstall Zonealarm and enable Windows Firewall (hey, it’s bundled after all).

Love the show, keep up the great work. All the best,

Evan
Washington, DC

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AT&T employee here and I just got an email asking me to wait a few days before buying an iPhone so customers could have the opportunity to get theirs first.

awwwwwwww,

Tracy