>> [music ] It's Wednesday January 8, 2008.
>> I'm Molly Wood.
>> I'm Tom Merritt.
>> I'm Jason Howell.
>> Welcome to Buzz Out Loud through this podcast of indeterminate length, our audience at the CES stage gets more awesome every day.
>> Wow that was loud.
>> That was loud and it was exciting. It's episode 638 and we are very happy to be joined by the lovely Zadi Diaz today.
>> Thank you guys I'm really happy to be here.
>> Yeah thanks for stopping by, Zadi is the host of the show formally called Jet Set now called Epic-fu. It's a video podcast that you can get, how many different ways can you get it?
>> You can get it a hundred million ways.
>> I watch it on my Apple TV sometimes.
>> Apple TV yeah, iTunes, all those video social networking sites, you can get it pretty much anywhere. Epic-fu dot com would probably be the best way to get it.
>> Is Epic-fu one word?
>> Yeah.
>> And then some of the folks may not be familiar, as I am, what the show's about?
>> Yeah it's a weekly show covering internet pop culture music, tech and art, heavily on the art and the music. I try to give something to the tech community.
>> I thought about a lot of cool like, offbeat websites from your show.
>> Yeah we like offbeat things; we're really high on the whole cultural thing trying to find things that people are really paying attention to. So we try to bring those things out.
>> That and your chair swirling.
>> And the chair swirling.
>> That's the other reason to watch. Alright let's get in the news. Xbox 360, according to the register so just so you know, saying that they might back blue ray. The quote is Albert Penelo, group marketing manager for X-Box hardware saying basically we're gonna keep doing HD DVD but if it doesn't work out we'll do blue ray.
>> See now this is the stage rat in the war, everybody's going all mercenary and they're just gonna wait, sit back. Is it even a war at that point? Like if everybody stops shooting and just wait till wins?
>> Yeah it's the Korean War.
>> And then no one does win.
>> Just do the de-militarize zone.
>> Hide in your bunkers for years. Now that is brutal like, they really, at least some of the HD DVD backers are saying no and sticking with them, but then you got Microsoft just being like. They don't pull it out.
>> This guy from Microsoft is basically saying he doesn't think it's going to affect the sales of the Xbox 360 one way or another so they gotta be glad that they didn't put an HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360 at this point.
>> Yeah that's true made it extra known. Well they were probably had to, I think at the time we speculated that they might be hedging their bets even then when they made it an external drive and all it's like it was a good idea.
>> Do you have any HD players?
>> No, we don't actually. Oh no, we do, we do. No we don't.
>> You don't have a techno side yet?
>> I have a techno side, you know and actually I don't have an Xbox but we're not either or. Blue ray to me is kind of like if my mother doesn't have it yet, and I think that's the way it goes for most people. Kind of like, you don't have that technology and it's like how can you partake in it?
>> That's the best possible advise when it comes to formality actually.
>> Still I think just sit it out.
>> Wait until it's the one that your mom would buy.
>> Do you watch the HD stuff?
>> Yeah, actually I do so.
>> So there you go.
>> Yeah. There you go. We were at the HD DVD, the Toshiba HD DVD booth yesterday and there was, the heartbreak continues. They were just saying come to the booth and get a free HD DVD movie, really. I don't know, maybe if they had been saying that before and maybe that was their plan all along but it was just devastating, like it felt like a fire sale. It was just like, free movie for anyone that comes to the booth.
>> Do you think today it will be come by the booth and just take one of the players.
>> Really, yeah.
>> A little bit of inspiration, yeah.
>> These little pieces of fiber glass right here, they're really pretty.
>> How about fixture?
>> I don't know.
>> Just have a red light district for HD.
>> The FCC going to step in on the Comcast BitTorrent throttling affair and actually investigate. That's pretty interesting news.
>> Yeah, according to a slash dot posting, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said the commission will investigate the interference of Comcast with your BitTorrent.
>> There you go.
>> They're going to look into the alligations that there was packet shaping, that Comcast was interfering specifically with BitTorrent. Comcast denies it, they say oh no no, we were just doing some general network maintenance, if it killed you BitTorrent downloads we're sorry, but we're just trying to keep people from sucking up all the bandwidth. A lot of people have investigated and said no, you were doing things that specifically kill the RSI packets for BitTorrent and that's going to be the first tested network neutrality I think.
>> Well it's interesting because people forget that the FCC has a specific policy calling for network neutrality at a technical level and this actually them possibly enforcing that.
>> It'll be interesting to see where this goes, obviously network neutrality has been a big issue within the past couple of years especially last year and the FCC really hasn't gotten the best support but.
>> You think they can clean up their image?
>> Yeah I think they're trying to, I think any steps towards that would be positive but we're still waiting to see.
>> Yeah the Coalition of Consumer Groups asked the FCC to fine Comcast a hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars for every subscriber effected.
>> Wow.
>> So that would mount up pretty quickly.
>> I mean, even the FCC's like, we don't need our teeth to be that big. Like little baby teeth.
>> Comcast is you know, they're not backing down.
>> They said they will cooperate though, with the investigation.
>> Yeah.
>> Because they didn't do anything wrong.
>> They said we have not blocked any websites or online applications including peer to peer services according to David Cohen, executive VP of Comcast.
>> We'll see in 3 to 4 years when that investigation is complete.
>> Meanwhile, AT and T wants to filter more of your content.
>> Yeah at the ISP level, good idea.
>> I can't wait for that.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah actually that's pretty brilliant.
>> The right choice, filter my content. ATT, Microsoft, and NBC working on solutions to filter copyrighted material at the ISP level to fight piracy so in other words they're saying, the DMCA doesn't work which we all knew, but they're also saying that so, we have to look at every bit of traffic and try to stop any kind of unauthorized files. But how are they going to tell?
>> It's impossible to tell I mean, if DRM is any kind of indicator it's impossible. I mean I think you have to kind of bend after a while. You have to kind of meet at a middle ground so it's just gonna be a lesson for them I think.
>> I can totally understand them saying that they need to find a solution and that the current solutions aren't working. I just think once they start talking about traffic shaping, they're kind of going down the wrong road.
>> Very dangerous road to go down.
>> Absolutely.
>> NBC's Rick Cotton even said that the volume of P to P traffic itself is unacceptable because it's "dominated by copyrighted materials".
>> Well do you think this is also has to do with the whole rumor like, oh well if the chains are getting so clogged up and we have to figure out what to do with all the copyrighted material, all this video content going on it's like, kind of trying to declog everything.
>> Yeah.
>> Well at least they're using it as an excuse right?
>> Right, if nothing else.
>> Well I think there's a, I mean I can't believe I'm taking the devil's advocate role in this case, but I think there is probably a bandwidth problem, there is a legitimate concern for them about copyrighted content clogging the tubes; which is totally like, come on, there's no question that a majority of P to P traffic is possibly made up of copyrighted content right? Even if it's 52 percent, like it's a solid percentage of P to P traffic that's made up of copyrighted materials, you can't fault these guys for at least trying to address that problem. It's just that sometimes you wish that there were more technologically minded people at the decision making level.
>> If you've undrmed MP3's out there from the Amazon store purchased legally, how are you going to tell?
>> Yeah.
>> Are they going to like, look at the watermark and then compare it to your IP address and then try to say, oh yeah that's that guy?
>> Well isn't that what watermarking would do though? What do you mean?
>> Water marking would be able for the Amazon to go back and look at your account maybe and find out if you purchased it and whether you're sharing it but would the ISP be able to filter it you know? At that level.
>> Yeah, well I don't know if the ISP would be able to but I think that's part of the goal of watermarking is there will be some filtering possibilities.
>> Is this going to catch people doing illegal things, in other words?
>> Right, yeah, I don't know.
>> I get an MP3 from Amazon I pay for it. An AGC undrm W3?
>> Right that's true, if it's any and all traffic not just P to P, I don't know. It's messy is what it is, a bad idea.
>> Yeah. Let's get to something not messy, WiMax.
>> WiMax easy, easy peasy, practically a done deal.
>> Well first of all there's a bunch of devices here at CES that are coming out in April with WiMax. Intel is behind it right?
>> Yeah, yeah Tom was saying the other day that he had seen some vans driving around that said Intel WiMax on it and then it turns out that Intel is in fact, producing a WiMax chip. You know, you walk by their booth and they're just saying this year we're gonna do a WiMax chip for notebooks and Asus has said we'll be on board in putting out notebooks with WiMax built in. We don't care if there's WiMax network, you're gonna be able to do it. No but that's cool you know, it's like.
>> Well somebody's gotta start it right?
>> Somebody's gotta get it going. It's like those first people that were putting blue tooth into devices and everybody is like, what is that even for? Like me.
>> Well and then going along with that, the CTO of Sprint Barry West said on Tuesday in a panel that Sprint will definitely roll out WiMax in April. I think it's Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington D. C. I may have Chicago wrong, but I know it's Washington D. C. and Baltimore.
>> Right.
>> So there will be at least 3 cities that you'll be able to use your.
>> 3 cities that will have excellent Asus sales. They say people will be excited about the rates, I wonder what kind of rates and how that will be. I'm pretty curious about that.
>> Is it a whole other thing then? Another thing to have to subscribe to?
>> Right, exactly, which always adds on and.
>> I mean the ideal thing is if this gives me voice, internet, and everything like my cellular, in other words, for mobile WiMax because this is mobile WiMax right? So I have the ability to make all my calls through it, get all my data through it, all at one, it could be a lot cheaper because you wouldn't have to pay 2 separate plans.
>> Yeah, that's true. Assuming it's reliable enough and ultimately widespread enough because then once you leave your 1 of 3 cities.
>> Yeah it's gonna have to be doable right?
>> You have problems, yeah.
>> You're gonna have to have some other way of making those calls.
>> Yep.
>> This seems like the kind of story you might cover on Epic-fu eventually.
>> Yeah.
>> Queen Elizabeth the second is apparently quite a video game player according to the publication People. The 81 year old head of state for the empire is a big fan of Wii bowling.
>> Wii bowling. Just go ahead and enjoy a mental picture, we'll wait.
>> That's what I was saying, I want video of this, she can start a whole entire kind of movement for royal.
>> I want the internet community to basically be like, just somebody take a little spy cam in there please.
>> Come on Prince William, you're in your twenties.
>> I think we have a whole like, there could be sponsorship around this.
>> The royal Wii.
>> The royal Wii, we stole that.
>> I'm not the first person to make that joke.
>> The U. K. People says that actually the Queen is very text savvy, she's reportedly had a cellphone since 2001, a Blackberry since last year, and she listens to her iPod regularly, and apparently the people says it contains over a hundred thousand songs which Carolyn says that must mean that they must have made it especially for her, since the 168 version only holds 40,000 songs.
>> I think it's pretty cool, I mean it shows that technology isn't really intimidating for older people. Which there are older people that do find, oh my God how do I, gaming I don't know.
>> Or a lot of people think that.
>> Is it okay, like, I'm a little scared to call the Queen an older, like, I mean I totally.
>> She is ageless.
>> Right? No I was like, I don't know if we can say that.
>> Now the question is, can you picture the Queen like, reclining in a chair in her living room with the lights all out playing like a Playstation 3 in the future? [ laughter ]
>> Call of Duty.
>> Wii bowling. I'm picturing her playing Cooking Mama cook off. [ laughter ]
>> Flipping pancakes for the Queen.
>> Queen for the win!
>> I like it. Bloomberg quoting some people saying that iTunes users will be allowed to rent films, at least that's the headline; people say, in the bathroom.
>> Well, what do you need for a good Apple rumor, right?
>> Yeah, why not, 2 people. Right?
>> That's a perfect source.
>> Exactly.
>> One person and another person. [ laughter ]
>> We talked about this a little yesterday but the rumor is it'll be announced at Mac World. Titles will rent for 3 dollars and 99 cents for 24 hours according to Bloomberg, and In Gadget also saying that apparently Warner Bros., Fox, Disney, Paramount, and Lions Gate will all be onboard for the movie rental store.
>> So we talked on Monday about sort of the lead up to this where they were trying to assign all of those and now they report that they are onboard so.
>> And how long can you rent them for?
>> 24 hours.
>> 24 hours for three ninety-nine and what is Blockbuster or Netflix?
>> I don't go there.
>> Yeah Netflix you can keep it as long as you want.
>> And then as many as you can in a month.
>> I've had Netflix movies cost me sixty or seventy bucks because I forget to send them back.
>> So in your opinion which one would you find yourself?
>> I always use Netflix, yeah.
>> If I didn't do Netflix I would do this or go into the rental store, maybe.
>> Right.
>> Although it isn't DVD quality.
>> I know the clock starts ticking when I rent a movie, especially if I take it from some place like Blockbuster but I don't want it to feel so breathing down my neck, like 24 hours.
>> It feels like, well maybe I have something to do or something comes up then.
>> There's a power outage.
>> You never know.
>> What if you wait until the 23rd hour and play like, half way through and just stop, oops I'm sorry.
>> There you go. You should test it when it comes out and see that happens. Is it when you start playing or is nope, sorry you're files expired.
>> They'll probably make that clear because a lot of them do this, like 24 hours from the point you start playing. Eventually what you do is start it and then stop at 5 minutes in and then wait.
>> Yeah, hit pause indefinitely.
>> Then a dialogue box comes up and says, would you like to rent this movie again? Click here, one click we'll charge you.
>> Four more dollars!
>> We'll make it real easy.
>> Yeah, the clock is little. I don't like it.
>> Alright we also have lots of articles out there about what's coming up in Map World so obviously it sounds like there's gonna be some sort of movie rental situation. Upgrades for the iPhone, upgrades for the laptop, maybe we'll see a tablet like thing.
>> Maybe the Buzz Out Loud listeners don't know, but I recently went public on Gadgets and said that my new Zune has made me want a second Gen iPhone.
>> Wow, can you believe that?
>> Just email me now, I don't care. But it has 3D, it has copy and paste, and has push email, I just wanted to do this with my little pictures, I just want to flip through them, I love it. [ laughter ] It's too pretty.
>> Just play it long enough, she always comes around, eventually.
>> It's horrible but I'm not getting a Mac with.
>> All the upgrades, I just want to copy and paste, it's simple.
>> Copy and paste, come on.
>> It's a little upgrade, not much to ask for.
>> I used that thing for 2 weeks and I was amazed at how the lack of copy and paste made me go absolutely batty.
>> Yeah I had to do a whole hack on how to like, tag delicious stuff because you can't copy paste, so just whole way to trick it into getting you some bookmarks and anything, it's crazy weird. Also Wired saying HD contents along with the rentals, so you do need to download some Hi Def versions of the video, TV shows maybe and maybe some films, so I don't think there's going to be a new iPhone though.
>> You really don't think?
>> No, I mean they might announce that it's coming later this year.
>> Yeah, I don't think it will be available. I think they will announce the Second Gen but I don't think it will be available.
>> Details about it?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, that's possible.
>> Because some of those upgrades, people are just clamoring for so much that I think you almost have to say like, okay it's coming.
>> So what are you saying the upgrades are going to be?
>> Well Steve Jogs has said that there will be a 3G version so I definitely think he's going to announce, and AT and T said it too so I think that at the very least he'll announce a 3G version and I do think it's gonna get the push email support. There's been enough kind of desire for this sort of smart phone features, that I think they want to sell a bunch of iPhones to a bunch of corporations and CNET is one company that said, it doesn't support exchange in a push capability so we can't have iPhones as our corporate phones so that's just a sales avenue I think, makes a lot of sense.
>> Of course the SDK is definitely gonna come. He already said that, that developer's application for making third party apps for the iPhone will come. And I bet there are some they will launch with, that they've already given some people the SDK and they'll have those for sale for 6 dollars in the I10 store.
>> Yeah emailed it.
>> However they do it.
>> And this is our last podcast, this is an entree right, for us, this is our last Buzz Out Loud podcast until Mac World or it's out Monday.
>> Monday, yeah.
>> But is it keynote on Tuesday? Or is it on Monday?
>> Keynote is on the 15th correct?
>> Tuesday, so we'll have a podcast on Monday.
>> Then we'll just stop and say last podcast on Monday.
>> And I can use it like I do.
>> Final story, EGM outs blacklisting publishers according to PC World.
>> Yeah, this is a little bit interesting, it's Electronic Gaming Monthly and they're basically naming names. They're saying these specific game publishers refuse to give us content or games or trailers or anything like that because we don't publish positive reviews.
>> Or because they didn't like the negative that they gave them.
>> Yeah. It's a little inside obviously because we're in the tech media. But a little close to home for us.
>> But it's a good thing for Electronic Gaming Monthly to do, to say fine you're gonna be like that, we're gonna tell people.
>> I think its okay for them to do that but I also think because that we've talked a lot about how the review system works and we get loaner units? Because of how that works like, everybody's got companies that drag their feet, don't want to give you things on time, or like Apple they give everybody else stuff. They have a ranking order you know, in which people receive product and if you're on the lower end of the list.
>> You don't get it.
>> You're out of luck.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean EGM could also have come out and just said we're gonna guy all our games.
>> Well see, you're wishing they would go farther is what it sounds like. Yeah.
>> But that's why this is Game Stop's opportunity to come around and say we're gonna buy all our games, forget you publishers.
>> Alright let's get some email to Buzz at CNET dot com. Like I said we haven't been taking voicemail's this week just because of the time crunch but we will be starting to take them next week. HD download problem. David, Broken Arrow Oklahoma, you all, Molly, are always saying the digital downloads of HD movies are going to make disks obsolete. I say a lot too. Are you going to buy a 50 gig HD movie at 10 adp and with true HD audio and then erase it from your hard drives when you could buy another one? Because if I buy something I want to keep it. It doesn't matter if it's a disk or a download; I want to keep it so I have the option of watching it again. If I want to keep my HD downloads collection I currently have, almost 100 blue ray movies, I'm going to need to start with what? A hundred terabyte hard drive? I'm thinking the price of what will negate any price advantage of download of media and while we're at it, you will need two 100 terabyte drives you can back up all of the media in case your hard drive crashes. Oh, but Microsoft's DRM probably won't allow copies. So enjoy the show. [ laughter ]
>> I like it when Tom takes the tone, the tone with them. That's not a bad point actually, but I wouldn't mind having two hundred terabyte hard drives. What's the big deal with that?
>> Do you really need that much? I mean what is it? 50 gigs on a blue ray machine?
>> Yeah, 50 gigs.
>> So obviously he.
>> And they don't use all of the 50 gigs just for the blue ray movie.
>> He is a high consumer of blue ray movies.
>> I'll say. A hundred blue ray movies already? Dude, haven't you heard there's a format we're in? Hello?
>> Dave is sort of at the end of the belt curve I think so, no Dave it doesn't sound like the downloading thing will work for you right away, although stores get cheaper all the time.
>> Yeah.
>> And, and I mean there's gonna be co decks that are created; it won't be 50 gigabytes that it has to be. It doesn't have to be exactly the same type co deck that's used on a blue ray or HD DVD disk. They'll create a co deck that will get that down but keep the quality.
>> Dave in Broken Arrow is saying, yes it will! [ laughter ]
>> And that's his tone.
>> Maybe some people do, but 50 gigs that's what you gotta deal with then.
>> Greg the MASCOM student in New Orleans, Louisiana not New Orleans, Los Angeles which is what I almost said because he just wrote L. A. Hey gang, a article of KBBC TV talks about CES moving to a new venue because of increased costs and hotel rates and there's a link to an article, to the KBBC, the local Las Vegas television station about it, or CES has apparently come to the LVCC, to the hotel industry and said, we'll be here next year in 2009 but after that no guarantees, it's getting too pricey.
>> Yeah, I heard the same thing, they're basically, the CEA is kind of saying look, the hotels are gouging, they're flat out gouging, and companies are having to cut the number of people that they're able to send, they're having to cut the size of their displays on the show floor because they literally can't I mean, our hotel is normally like a hundred and fifty bucks a night. For CES? It's four nineteen.
>> Four something.
>> I think four nineteen a night.
>> I mean even parking, we're surprised they raised it to ten dollars, it's thirty dollars to park.
>> What?
>> Really?
>> Yeah.
>> That's insane.
>> I was completely floored.
>> Yeah.
>> That's incredible. Of course if you pay in euros it's not so bad. Or if you pay in Wii's.
>> If we had Wii's. Yeah.
>> Just drop a Wii at the parking lot.
>> 90 Wii's.
>> See if you can trade or do an exchange.
>> It's interesting to contemplate though, whether CES will suffer the E3 fate. Because if you move to, Vegas is almost the only place that can handle a multi hotel, multi acre, kind of show like this. You bring it to L. A., you know? What do you do? Take over Disney World?
>> Good idea!
>> Now we gotcha.
>> There we go.
>> Do it! Do it! Do it CEA!
>> Water parks, rides.
>> Disney World, yeah! [ laughter ]
>> I'm totally going on the Dell roller coaster monster.
>> Oh yeah.
>> This ride could be sponsored by.
>> I totally would, I love it!
>> They would be fighting for who gets to have Magic Mountain. Alright Mike from Tulsa, Oklahoma's our last emailer here he says, this is why Nintendo doesn't sell DS games on the Wii. After listening to episode 635 where you both were questioning this, I fought for a bit then I realized that the DS hardware would not even be able to save games on the device to play at a later time. It's very possible that the DS could boot up and install a demo in RAM but as soon as you turn it off the demo would be gone, which is true, they said it's how it would work. I could maybe see them selling a small card the size of a game on which full games could be stored. But I don't see the necessity. Well Mike, you just gave the solution.
>> Yeah.
>> You don't see the necessity, that's perfect.
>> Plus I don't care about the technology. All I want is brain age on my Wii. Make it happen Nintendo.
>> We were actually excited about playing DS games on the Wii that actually transferring them from the Wii. Leave them on the Wii, we'll play them there.
>> I admit though, we missed the point about storing completely because it was all about our selfish, we don't want DS's we just want brain age.
>> Alright, well Zadi thank you so much.
>> Thanks a lot guys.
>> Yeah, thank you.
>> Good to have you by and let people know again where they can find Epic-fu.
>> Epic-fu dot com and we do weekly so see you there.
>> After the show we're gonna talk about where you came up with that name. I like it.
>> We have our best of CES finalists announced for CNET and, I know I say goodbye and then I forgot that I have to do this. There's nominees in ten different categories, they're up on the site at CES dot CNET dot com. However, if you go to the site after like two thirty, three o'clock today, you'll see the winners because if you're here in Las Vegas, at two pm right here at the CNET stage, Bryan Cooley will be announcing the winners of best of CES in ten categories as well as the best of show, and the people's voice award that the folks have voted on. That voting just ended earlier this morning so, go to the site, CES dot CNET dot com, see some of the best products we have found here at the show. Alright thanks again.
>> Alright, thank you. Bye everybody.
>> You can find us a EOL dot CNET dot com.
>> EOL dot CNET dot com. Goodbye.
>> Yeah, bye! [ applause ] [ music ]
