Buzz Out Loud 1386: Sex in Space (podcast)

On today's show, the importance of studying sex in space (any volunteers?), whether News Corp will try to revive the corpse of MySpace (FrankenSpace?), and we win the orientation-switch choice wars! Hooray! All the iOS 4.3 news you can shake a stick at, plus Sandy Bridge benchmark goodness and Robots 1, Humans 0 (in Jeopardy, anyway). --Molly

Watch this: Ep. 1386: Sex in Space

41:56

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NEWS

Apple Seeds iOS 4.3 Beta to Developers: Personal Hotspot, AirPlay Video Streaming, New iPad Gestures
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/12/apple-seeds-ios-4-3-beta-to-developers/

iPad 2 will take pics, shoot flicks
http://www.9to5mac.com/47070/ipad-2-will-take-pics-shoot-flicks

Will Apple remove the Home button on the next-gen iPad?
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/will-apple-remove-home-button-next-gen-ipad-a

iOS 4.3 Beta Brings Software Option for Rotation Lock or Mute on iPad
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/12/ios-4-3-beta-brings-software-option-for-rotation-lock-or-mute-on-ipad/
http://gizmodo.com/5732058/apple-finally-lets-you-choose-what-your-ipads-side-switch-does

Next-Generation iPad to Launch in the U.S. on April 2nd or 9th?
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/13/next-generation-ipad-to-launch-in-the-u-s-on-april-2nd-or-9th/

HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/13/hps-todd-bradley-all-but-confirms-webos-tablet-for-february-9th/

MySpace Sale, Merger or Spinoff Being Weighed by News Corp., Official Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/myspace-sale-merger-or-spinoff-being-weighed-by-news-corp-official-says.html

Should MySpace just die, already?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20028201-36.html

T-Mobile makes U-turn on data cap cut
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20028389-94.html?tag=cnetRiver

Intel’s ‘Sandy Bridge’ for laptops tested
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20028200-1.html

Quick Hits

Windows Phone 7 update to patch home-brew, side-loading hack
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20028286-75.html

Google patches 16 Chrome bugs, pays first $3133.7 bug-hunting bounty
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9204882/Google_pays_record_bounty_for_Chrome_bug?taxonomyId=85

Google Translate Adds Conversation Mode
http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/mobile/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229000597&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

Microsoft “ran out” of Xbox 360 consoles at the end of Dec.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20028385-17.html

Gadgets
Sony: PSP2 “is as powerful as the PlayStation 3″
http://www.techspot.com/news/41965-sony-psp2-is-as-powerful-as-the-playstation-3.html

Exclusive: BlackBerry Dakota gets pictured; the touch and type BlackBerry you've been waiting for
http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/13/exclusive-blackberry-dakota-gets-pictured-the-touch-and-type-blackberry-youve-been-waiting-for/
Plus: next-gen BlackBerry Curve
http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/13/exclusive-next-generation-blackberry-curve-appears-brings-specs-with-it/

IBM’s Computer Wins “Jeopardy!” Practice Round
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/13/tech/main7243091.shtml

Science News (Happy Ending edition!)

Scientist says NASA must study space sex
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/13/032207/Scientist-Says-NASA-Must-Study-Space-Sex

VOICEMAIL

Tom: What’s up with all these “keynotes”?

LG Optimus and touchscreen gaming: yea or nay?

EMAILS
Hi Brian and Molly,

Regarding Google dropping native H.264 support in Chrome: as a
developer/researcher who’s spent the last couple of months getting
video to work in a semantic web environment I can tell you the lack of
a ubiquitous codec across platforms is a massive headache. Web video
is in a shockingly bad state, not only is there no consensus on what
formats to use but the majority of tools do not write video files in a
particularly web friendly way — for example they don’t prepend
timings ‘meta’ data to allow skipping into the middle of a video
without waiting for it to download (so called “”pseudo-streaming”").

Initially I was sceptical of Google’s decision to drop H.264, but if
this is a way of breaking the malaise and pushing things forward, I
think I can live with it. If the industry wasn’t so distracted by the
various format wars they might be able to offer better tooling for
producing video, and easier server-side support for streaming it.

WebM may not be as versatile as H.264, but it’s good enough for
‘amateur hour’ and sharing family videos with your social network. If
you happen to require something a little more professional, you can
switch to H.264 and ask your viewers to download an appropriate codec
(or use a plugin like Flash). I think that sounds reasonable.

As always, love the show… :)

Simon
Liverpool UK

—–

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