Buzz Out Loud 1400: iPhone 4 on Verizon: it makes calls (podcast)

The reviews are in, and they're just what we expected: the iPhone 4 on Verizon is really good at making phone calls. But that might not be reason enough to leave AT&T: find out why. Plus, UBB is going down in Canada (we hope), UFOs are real (for as long as the Internet will let us believe it), and we finally get around to your thoughts and comments in the Meatback loop. It's everything we hoped it would be. Oh, and I bought a MacBook Air, no big deal. What? What's the big deal? --Molly

Watch this: Ep. 1400: iPhone 4 on Verizon: it makes calls

43:21

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NEWS

iPhone Reviews are in…
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20110202/verizon-apple-iphone4-review/
http://reviews.cnet.com/verizon-iphone

Citing “unprecedented demand” for iPhone, Verizon urges employees to wait to buy
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/02/citing_unprecedented_demand_for_iphone_verizon_urges_employees_to_wait_to_buy.html

Verizon offering only unlimited data plan for iPhone 4
http://www.macworld.com/article/157625/2011/02/verizon_data_plan.html

Verizon to throttle heaviest users
http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/03/verizon-wireless-to-begin-throttling-data-speeds-of-heaviest-users-optimizing-content-starts-today/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheBoyGeniusReport+(BGR+|+Boy+Genius+Report)

AT&T Changes Tethering to Mobile Hotspot
http://www.tidbits.com/article/11938
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/att-details-pricing-launch-of-att-mobile-hotspot-app-coming-february-13-115124609.html

First Impressions using Honeycomb
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20030459-1.html?tag=cnetRiver

Google will not bring Honeycomb to smart phones
http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/03/google-will-not-bring-honeycomb-to-smartphones/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheBoyGeniusReport+(BGR+|+Boy+Genius+Report)&utm_content=Twitter

Ottawa to reverse CRTC Internet billing decision
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/932571–ottawa-to-reverse-crtc-decision-on-internet-billing?bn=1#article

Stewart, Colbert, and Hulu's thoughts about the future of TV
http://blog.hulu.com/2011/02/02/stewart-colbert-and-hulus-thoughts-about-the-future-of-tv/

Quick Hits

Microsoft Brings H.264 support back to Chrome
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/interoperability/archive/2011/02/01/greater-interoperability-for-windows-customers-with-html5-video.aspx

News Corp's MySpace Sale Options Include New Investors, Management Buy-Out
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-myspace-restructure-and-digital-write-offs-cost-news-corp-275-million/

Unreleased Apple iPad spotted at News Corp event
https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-apple-ipad-idUSTRE7119IN20110202

HP: Customers can return products with faulty chip
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20030438-64.html

Samsung refutes Galaxy Tab returns, says rate is below 2 percent
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/samsung-refutes-high-galaxy-tab-returns-says-rate-is-below-2-p/

Science News

Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/02/nasa.kepler.planets/index.html?hpt=C2
http://news.discovery.com/space/kepler-exoplanet-count-increase-110202.html

Happy Ending

Statistician cracks secret code behind lottery tickets
http://www.lotterypost.com/news/227079/1940460
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110202/01553412919/reverse-engineering-lottery-scratch-tickets-profit-not-fame.shtml

Is This UFO Caught By Multiple Cameras a Real Alien Spaceship?
http://gizmodo.com/5750864/is-this-ufo-caught-by-multiple-cameras-a-real-alien-spaceship

EMAILS

Dear BOL,

Molly has said usage based billing (UBB) is anti-competitive, anti-consumer and likened the internet to roads. However roads are a public good due to the inability to charge for usage, this is not the case with the internet and I think a closer analogy would be to the electricity grid. Similarly one could argue that, the more electricity consumed the higher the standard of living and therefore it should be unmetered. This situation seems to have the same pros and cons as UBB on the internet. Sure electricity usage may increase if unmetered, however it also encourages waste and the poor would be subsidizing the cost to the rich whom consume more energy. Ultimately UBB will allow the free market to allocate bandwidth to its highest value use, whilst efficiently distributing more resources to areas that need more bandwidth.

Also, why do you think it is anti-competitive and anti-consumer when UBB gives consumers a greater choice of plans even with the same number of providers? I honesty think many/most economics professors would be in favour of UBB. There is a plan for everyone, we have 1Tb and thats plenty for a huge family (8) of very heavy uses.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Christopher

—–

Greetings Buzztown,

At first, usage based billing for Internet seems natural if you think about it. Your Gas, Electric, and Water come that way and no one complains. When I first used the Internet back in the early ’90′s, it was billed at $2.50 per hour. At those prices, you got on, get what you needed, then got off. There was no always on Internet. If ISPs billed @ 10 cents or less per Gig it might work.

But, here is the problem. I don’t get ads on my other usage based services. If you charge more than 10 cents a gig then ad and flash blockers become cost savers. Video on the web will die. Goodbye Netflix. Goodbye live streaming CNET, TWiT and others. Goodbye VOIP. Goodbye online gaming. Goodbye automatic updates.

Goodbye Internet. It was fun while it lasted.

Love the show,

Henry C.
Livonia MI

—–

MEATBACK LOOP

Comedy is hard …

Hot dogs taste good …

MEAT-MAIL

Robert from Fontana California:

Regarding the peetree dish meat, I would NEVER eat that. I mean…would we really know what it is we are eating? How do they produce the “”meat”"? Don’t care to know and I wouldn’t dare touch the stuff. Its all legit meat for me.

—–

Hey Buzzcrew,

Brian, you seemed pretty disgusted by the idea of petri dish meats. You squealed at the processes and the names of the chemicals but, tell me, what are some of the things you ate recently? We all know that much of what we eat already have unpronounceable ingredients, and many of us are fine with how this leads to efficiency and ease in food production and distribution. Unless you eat all natural and organic (and I highly doubt any of you do), “”grown”" meat will be nothing new. In fact, like Molly pointed out, they are just growing animal tissue! In this way, petri dish meat will actually be more natural than the chemicals that we eat now. As someone who is grateful for the advancements of technology that allow us to get many foods at low costs, I cannot wait for a world in which all of our meat is made efficiently in a lab. (Okay, I may have overstated that.)

Love the show.

-Jack
”

“Dear Buzz Town,

I’m afraid your dreams of chowing down on Flintstone-shaped pepperoni blobs will have to wait.

Our product, and the research behind it, has been purchased by Skynet for use as an outer covering of some sort.

With Regrets,

DiMeatri

—–

http://bol.cnet.com, 800-616-2638 (CNET), buzz@cnet.com

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