Buzz Out Loud 887: Flip a you-know-what

CES has officially begun and we discuss a slew of offerings from the show floor, as well as the Steve Ballmer keynote. Also, Tom is offered the chance to record his voice for TomTom GPS devices. That's a lot of Tom!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 887

Ballmer Keynote
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131585-100.html
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/ces2009-microsoft-keynote.ars

Windows 7 goes Beta this Friday
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135791-56.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10136418-75.html

Windows 7 might not come in '09
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135943-56.html

CES Press conference roundup:
Samsung: super thin OLED
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135532-100.html

Vizio takes the cover off Connected HDTV: Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Yahoo! and more
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/vizio-takes-the-cover-off-connected-hdtv-netflix-blockbuster/

Yahoo! recaps a day of setting the Internet-on-TV movement on fire with Widgets
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/yahoo-recaps-a-day-of-setting-the-internet-on-tv-movement-on-fi/

Wall-mountable Blu-Ray player
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10134004-100.html

Audiovox, PlayStation 2 roll out
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135464-100.html

Acoustic Research Harmony killers
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10133953-100.html

LG’s 240Hz LCDs flash backlights really fast
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135326-100.html
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135175-100.html

LG to implement noise-canceling in many of its phones
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10134765-100.html

The Sony P-series Lifestyle PC: Just don’t call it a Netbook
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131906-100.html

OQO launches world’s smallest Vista PC with OLED screen
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090107-oqo-launches-worlds-smallest-vista-pc-with-oled-screen-see-notes.html

Pols hit panic button as DTV coupon program goes broke
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090107-pols-hit-panic-button-as-dtv-coupon-program-goes-broke.html

New energy efficiency rules for TVs sold in California
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F07%2F1946223

E-MAIL
Hey Tom, Molly, and Justin,

I was listening to show 886, and something caught my attention when
Natali was talking about the Giffen good. She said that when demand
increases, price increases when talking about high-priced technology
products. What she was actually referring to is called a Veblen good;
a Giffen good is when the price of an inferior good, a good that low-
income people generally prefer (ramen, bread, etc), rises and those
low-income people end up buying more of that good. A Veblen good is
like a Giffen good, but Veblen goods are generally luxury goods, such
as that new 17-inch MacBook Pro or a Lamborghini, etc. People buy
these Veblen goods at higher prices because it is considered to be a
mark of your financial status.

Sorry for such a long email, feel free to truncate it however you
wish, just wanted to clear that up.

Love the show, keep it up!
Daniel Byon

***********

Hey jamoto,

In Replyness to Daniels Email from Wednesday, I am also a UK listener and would like to say that the BBC does indeed broadcast their tv shows live on the internet. To clarify, the BBC iplayer is where viewers can watch shows from up to 7 days in the past and they also have a bbc watch live service which at this very moment I am watching live tv on the internet and on my terrestrial tv. This was also in place last year so Tom, you do get another correct prediction from 2008.

Chris Hisgrove

***********

Hi Buzz crew,

Tom, did I heard correctly in episode 884 that you'd love to get your voice on a TomTom? That's great news!
An even better news is that you don't even have to license your voice to us. You just have to record a few voice commands, convert them in a TomTom format and publish yourself on our TomTom HOME platform where Buzz-fans from all over the world can download it for free and put it on their TomTom. I'd sure be one of them!

It's a rather easy process for geeks like us and I'd be very happy to assist.

All the best,
Jeff from TomTom and long time listener

PS: Love the show

***********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Hope your enjoying CES. I’m stuck in snow snow and more snow…

I was listening to yesterday’s show (1/7) where you talked about a 10
meg max download over 3G for iTunes on the iPhone. While this is
true, I just go to your www and download the mp3. This works fine, so
I’m not sure why AT&T doesn’t block this then?!?

- Bob, the Nuclear Engineer