Hi, everyone, I�m Molly Wood and welcome to the Buzz Report,
the show about the tech news that everyone is talking about.
This week, double the gadget goodness, iPad buyers are made
of money, and the time-honored and torturous tale of trying to
get TV online.
But first, the gadget of the week.
Let�s do TWO gadgets of the week, since it�s Mobile World
Congress week in Barcelona and the fun phone news is
cracking.
First up, the HTC One X, which is approaching phablet territory
with a 4.7 inch screen.
But it�s got a quad-core processor, an 8-
megapixel camera, and wonder of wonders, it WILL run Android
Ice Cream Sandwich at launch!
Plus it comes with Beats Audio
built in, so it can be your little hotel room stereo, plus 25 gigs of
free Dropbox cloud storage for two years--you won�t even miss
the expandable memory.
Nice.
ALSO getting a lot of buzz, the Nokia 808 PureView.
A phone
with a 41-megapixel camera.
FORTY ONE.
Not only does it have
a 41-megapixel camera, but also five blades for a closer shave...
Anyway, the phone WILL have a bigger camera sensor than
most phones, so the megapixels aren�t a complete joke.
But it
will default to 5 megapixels for normal shooting, and let�s be
honest.
It�s OBVIOUSLY a marketing stunt to distract us from
how it�s a Symbian phone, and it�ll be six hundred bucks in the
U.S.
when it launches in May.
And now for the news.
Apple sent out invites to an event next Wednesday that we all
think will be the iPad 3 announcement.
The latest crop of rumors,
plus the invite, suggest some new touch technology--maybe
getting rid of the physical �home� button on the bezel.
Plus,
rumors say there could be three versions of the iPad--which
should feature a Retina display and a faster A6 processor.
And
some reports out of China EVEN suggest that the new iPad
could cost 70 to 80 dollars more per model than the iPad 2.
MORE.
The top of line model would be 900 bucks � about a
hundred dollars less than a MacBook Air.
UNLESS the new
touch technology refers to a new touch-screen MacBook Air.
Which would probably be two grand.
But whatever, I�m in.
AT&T this week floated the idea that hey, maybe mobile app
developers could pay AT&T for the data that their users
consume!
It would be like a fun benefit for the user, because
we�d download an app that didn�t count against our arbitrary and
way too low data caps, imposed by AT&T, and then the app
developer could pay AT&T to provide that data, which we all
already pay for anyway!
What an ingenious new business model,
AT&T!
Needless to say, response has been � tepid.
Speaking of bad news, if you had Toy Story 3, Tron: Legacy or
Mars Needs Moms in your Netflix instant streaming queue,
prepare for disappointment.
Starz is taking its 800 streaming
titles out of the Netflix library because the two companies can�t
agree on terms.
See, the problem is, Netflix wants to stay in
business, and Starz wants to ride the sinking ship of controlled
distribution and content withholding all the way to its early grave.
It�s exhausting, really.
But just in time for Game of Thrones, Season 2, HBO Go is
coming to Xbox!
So you can totally get HBO on demand through
your Xbox as long as you pay for the Xbox Live Gold account,
which is like 60 bucks a year, AND HBO access on your cable
system, which is like 60 bucks a day.
And by the way, good luck
finding Game of Thrones on demand ANYWHERE else.
ANYWHERE.
And that, children, is how the pirates win.
And that�s the Buzz Report for this week, everyone!
I�m Molly
Wood, and thanks for watching.