Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report.
This week, violent video games, MySpace Karaoke, and
Bulgarian Idol. But first, the Gadget of the Week is
back!
The Gadget of the Week is the Sony Ericsson K850i. This
is one of the rare Sony Cybershot cell phones to be
released in the U.S. -- it's got a FIVE megapixel
camera built in, with four separate resolutions, all
these manual adjustments like ISO and white-balance
settings, and a camcorder. PLUS, it has a built-in
accelerometer and included games that take advantage of
it -- so, like, you can play this "Marble Madness"
game where you tilt the phone back and forth to keep a
marble on the thing, you know. And then other people
can use THEIR Sony Ericsson K850i to take a video of
you and put it on YouTube. Tradeoffs, people.
Tradeoffs.
And now for the news. This week, an incredibly violent
video game was released. It's a game in which you race
around a virtual world in a variety of different
vehicles, completing missions and eliminating
rivals using a twisted, exhaustive, arsenal of
weaponry. Yes, there are interesting new visuals and
incredible multiplayer features, but this
game is just sick. I am sorry to report, there are even
vicious assaults on BABIES. I am, of course, talking
about Mario Kart for Wii.
If you're looking for a less violent alternative, Grand
Theft Auto IV was also released this week. No babies
are harmed in THAT game.
In Microsoft news this week, I seriously did not want
to have to talk about anything having to do with
Microsoft, until they proved that they are so
disorganized and flakey that they not only let their
Yahoo "deadline" march by without any action or comment
whatsoever, they also biffed the releases of Windows XP
SP3 and Vista SP1 so completely that they had to DELAY
the update releases. Why!? Because they discovered at
literally the last NANOSECOND that the updates were
incompatible with their OWN SOFTWARE for managing
retail chains! Come ON, Microsoft! Get it together! I
do not want to have to do this! I PREFER to make fun of
APPLE!
In other news I wish I didn't have to report this week,
MySpace is launching a karaoke service. Users can just
... record themselves singing along to songs in the
MySpace catalog, and then upload themtheir profiles.
For ... sharing.
Oh ... no ... don't share, please don't share. The news
follows a report last week that Guitar Hero is planning
to add more instruments and VOCALS to its game, to
counter the popularity of Rock Band, which also
lets people sing. Because ...apparently, people really
want to sing. In public. No matter how much I,
personally, do not want them to.
Speaking of singing, let's have a look at what's
Clogging the Tubes, shall we? As "American Idol" heats
up in the U.S., I thought we should check out what
we're missing on Bulgarian Idol ...
I don't know what the big deal is. I've been singing it
that way for YEARS. You know. In PRIVATE.
I'm Molly Wood and this has been the Buzz Report.
Thanks for watching.
