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Buzz Out Loud 1344: Gadgets for rich, white people (podcast)

Some Gamespot.com editors discovered that the Microsoft Xbox Kinect seems to have trouble recognizing darker skinned players. Plus, it pretty much requires you to have a big, giant house. So, you can see how we arrived at the obvious conclusion in our headline, there. Plus, why Hulu is, in fact, destroying the TV industry, and we're ok with that. And Facebook Beacon returns in the form of Deals. Clever, Facebook. Very clever. --Molly

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
4 min read

Some Gamespot.com editors discovered that the Microsoft Xbox Kinect seems to have trouble recognizing darker skinned players. Plus, it pretty much requires you to have a big, giant house. So, you can see how we arrived at the obvious conclusion in our headline, there. Plus, why Hulu is, in fact, destroying the TV industry, and we're ok with that. And Facebook Beacon returns in the form of Deals. Clever, Facebook. Very clever. --Molly

Watch this: Ep. 1344: Gadgets for rich, white people

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EPISODE 1344

NEWS

Facebook to Foursquare: You’re out
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20021697-36.html
Making Mobile More Social
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=446167297130
FaceBook – Some of the deals partners
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=446183422130

Mark Zuckerberg: “iPad’s Not Mobile…It’s A Computer…Sorry!”
http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-ipads-not-mobile-2010-11

Lawsuit: Apple turned iPhone 3Gs into “iBricks” to boost iPhone 4
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/11/lawsuit-apple-turned-iphone-3gs-into-ibricks-to-boost-iphone-4.ars

Skyfire’s iPhone browser ‘sells out’ due to shaky bandwidth
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20021738-233.html

Kinect out today; can’t connect?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/technology/personaltech/04pogue.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
http://reviews.cnet.com/xbox-360-games/xbox-360-kinect-xbox/4505-11457_7-34182443.html

Kinect has problems recognizing dark-skinned users?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6283514.html

TV exec: Hulu is destroying the TV industry
http://gigaom.com/video/dish-exec-hulu-is-destroying-the-tv-industry/

QUICK HITS

Twitter for Android update available
http://blog.twitter.com/2010/11/twitter-for-android-update-available.html

Samsung Galaxy S first smartphone to be WiFi Direct certified
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/03/samsung-galaxy-s-first-smartphone-to-be-wi-fi-direct-certified/

Internal Apple memo says software fix for MacBook Air displays coming
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/11/04/internal_apple_memo_says_software_fix_for_macbook_air_displays_coming.html

Jammie Thomas hit with $1.5 million verdict
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20021735-93.html

GADGETS
Jawbone Jambox brings boom to Bluetooth
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20021706-1.html

Convertible tablet turns into (get this!) a DESKTOP
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/gigabytes-booktop-t1125-convertible-tablet-also-converts-into-a/

KICKERS AND SCIENCE
Scientists on verge of creating holographic, 3-D displays
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-11-03-holographic-3d_N.htm

Social Media Sobriety Test
http://www.socialmediasobrietytest.com/

Sesame Street’ skit slaps ‘an app for that’ concept
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20021721-71.html

FEEDBACK LOOP

Email (buzz@cnet.com)

Hello all,

This is my fist time contacting the show, but I just couldn’t keep this one to myself. I’ll keep it short and sweet. I once made an awesome mixed tape including the best of the 50′s. I was very unorganized at this point in my life and the tape wasn’t for any girl in particular it was more like a preparatory project. But in my pile of random unlabeled mixed tapes I also had a copy of “C is for Cookie” by the famous Cookie Monster. So as you may have guessed on a rushed night of date prep, I grabbed the tape on the way out the door. In my sweet ride (93 chevy S10) I popped in my Mixed tape. Volume was up rather loud and … “HELLO EVERY BODY THIS IS COOKIE MONSTER, AND I LIKE COOKIES!!!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT LETTER COOKIE STARTS WITH? C. C IS FOR COOKIE AND THATS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.”
Anyway to keep it short she looked at me with raised eyebrows and broke into laughter. It turned out she was very easy going and we giggled about it all night as I tried to explain I was a hardcore fan of the alphabet. Love the show!!!

Alex

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I know Molly is a Halo fan, so she might be interested in what happened to my xbox, when I pluged in the kinect. I got home at like 12:30am, and did the whole set up. Then started playing, I was surprised to find out how 1:1 the movement is. I am not going to lie, it made me smile like a little kid. (actually i think for a breif peiord of time, I was 7 again.) So seeing how I had to work in the morning, I decied to check out the dash board, then the kinect chirped, and the Xbox froze. So I restarted it, and red ring. I unplugged everything waited, then pluged everything back up except the kinect. Worked fine. Turned it off, waited, plugged in the kinect. It froze again. Restarted to see the red ring. So i cleaned out the air passages with a can of air, nothing. I waited again turned it back on, still red ring. Then I used a little applied mechanics to see if that would help. (i hit it) It now started to make a ticking sound. Things are not looking good. So I looking on the internet, saw a “3 towel” solution, and tried it. Covered my xbox in 3 towels and waited. It’s kind of scary because it makes this low pitch sound that ever so slowly builds up. It built up in such a high pitch, like a thermal detonator, that I though my xbox was going to implode. Finally, the high high pitch leveled out. I waited 25 mins, took off the towels, it was warm, plugged everything back up and went to bed, including the kinect. Woke up for work, turned on my xbox, and it worked!! I use my xbox almost every day, and had no problems, hooked up the kinect and blam. I don’t know if it is the new dashboard, or the kinect, but I fear that my xbox will see red in the near future.

I wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

Brooks Tomlinson,

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bol.cnet.com – buzz@cnet.com – 800-616-2638

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