Ep. 931: Big butt small laptops

[ music ] ^M00:00:05 [ background music ] >> Today is Monday, March fifteenth, 2009. >> I'm Natalie Del Conte. >> I'm Tom Merritt. >> I'm Molly Wood. >> And I'm Jason Howell. >> Welcome to Buzz Out Loud, CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. This is episode nine hundred and thirty one. Tom is still in Texas at South by Southwest, Molly and Jason are in the studio in San Francisco, and I am happily back in New York City. >> Yeah, this is like logistical craziness going on here. >> I know, Jason - >> - today. >> Jason right now looks like a Maestro, like he is conducting a symphony over there. >> We'll see what happens. >> - instruments are computers and the three of us. >> Yes, that's right. >> Well Tom is still at South by Southwest, and there is still news coming out of South by Southwest. There is news that Kevin Rose is predicting new cut and paste for the iPhone, when the iPhone 3.0 software is released tomorrow. Also they're saying that it's gonna be more on par with the Palm three, but we don't, or Palm Pree sorry, Apple 3 Palm Pree. But we don't think that there are gonna be any applications that will run in the background, and that's one of the big perks of the Palm Pree. >> Frankly, I would rather have applications run in the background than cut and paste. As annoying as it is not to have cut and paste. >> Yeah. >> But background applications just make so much more possible. >> And yeah, exactly. You would get, in the long run you would get so much more out of that, which is probably the biggest reason why they're not. I mean it's not the biggest reason, but it makes them even less likely to allow that. >> Yeah, however I did not predict that there would be background applications on the iPhone for 2009. >> Yeah. >> I did predict that there would be cut and paste, so there. >> Why didn't you? >> Oh you did, that's right. >> So, I'm kind of pulling, I'm kind of pulling for this here. >> Can't we have it all? >> Next time can you predict both? >> Yeah. [ laughter ] >> I wish I'd have thought about that. >> With a little of the los dos, that would be awesome. >> Yeah, I want all of it. >> Yes. >> So Kevin Rose is usually pretty clairvoyant when it comes to the iPhone, he seems to know what's going on. And he spewed this knowledge all over Diggnation this weekend. So we won't know until, speaking of spewed, at the Diggnation event, we'll talk about that later. But we won't, we'll know tomorrow, the event will happen tomorrow. >> Yeah, the event is tomorrow. It starts at ten a.m. pacific, so you can probably watch Twitter starting any time at ten. Yeah, I am inclined to believe that this is true, if only because he was so specific about how the interface would work. So we'll see, we'll find out. >> He must be psychic. >> He's like what, 75% right I think? >> Yeah I mean lately he's had a, like I think in the past he had a worse track record, but lately he has just been nailing it left and right. I think he clearly has a good source. >> Oh you don't think it's psychic ability? >> Or psychic ability, yeah. Hard to say. >> I don't know if we have the facts about what went down at the Diggnation event, involving us later in the show. Should we touch on that now? >> Well we have a voicemail about it. So - >> Yeah. >> [inaudible] until after the - >> Yeah, that's at the end. >> So if you - >> And also, what are you talking about? >> So if you watch Scam School this week you'll see an open, the opening of the Diggnation, live Diggnation event on Saturday night. And the Buzz Out Loud crew was happily a part of that. Jason, can you explain? >> Well basically, Brian who is the host of Scam School, had what is it called, the human straw, where essentially he took - >> He meant curly straw. >> The human curly straw. >> I thought it was crazy straw, something like that. >> There we go, that's what it was. Well basically he took basically a beer bong and poured rum, milk, orange juice, malt liquor, a bunch of crazy stuff in this thing. >> Milk. >> Milk, yeah, looped to the tube coming from it around his body, in his nose, and out his mouth. >> What? >> And then kind of did this pose so that all the liquid started to pour out onto a cup that was lying on the floor. And then we were prompted to go out on stage and take a little bit of the liquid that was pouring out of his mouth. >> That came out of his nose? >> That came, yeah. Well it was a tube, you know. >> It never actually went through his person. >> Yeah, exactly. >> It was in a tube. >> It just kind of looped through inside the tube. And so we poured out of the tap of that liquid stuff, and we all toasted, and drank a little of it. >> We shot it, it was gnarly. >> Crickets, crickets. [ laughter ] >> I'm kind of stuck a little bit on the went up through his nose and out his mouth. Even if it's a tube, the tube went in his nose, right? Was there a wipey? >> Are you saying you wouldn't do it? >> Was there a wipey? >> No, but a lot of it had poured out of the tube before we ever got any. >> Don't get me wrong, like I'm a mom now right, so I'll do almost anything. But okay. >> Yeah, you know what? It looked a lot grosser than it actually was. >> All right, okay. >> But anyways, I think that's gonna, that's gonna come later this week on the Scam School episode, so you'll be able to see it. >> We were just trying to be festive. >> Yeah, festive. [ laughter ] >> So anyways. >> Anyway. >> Speaking of festive, there are screen shots now of a new Lenovo Not Book is what I'm gonna call it - >> Yep. >> - because it's sort of like the Sony Vio P. They're calling it the Pocket Yoga, and it looks a lot, the same dimensions as the Sony Vio P, except it's got some touch, a touch screen tablet where you flip it open and it'll work just as a tablet by itself. They have pictures of it, you can find them on Flicker, or on Gizmoto of the tablet actually in someone's jeans. >> Right. >> So that would be smaller than the Vio. >> Yeah, it would be very, yeah it looks very small and narrow, almost like I don't know, those old checkbook wallets for the people who still carry checkbooks. They're calling it the Yoga. >> Not loving that name. >> No. >> Why, because you have to have flexible fingers to make it work or something? >> I guess because it's, yeah, I don't know. I have to say, this thing looks absolutely stunning, and I am totally not understanding this particular form factor and why you would want it. Like I just think if you're gonna have a small screen, why do you need it to be small and narrow so that you can only, I don't, I don't get it. I get the carryability. >> If it's the same dimensions as the Vaio P I'm okay with that. But if this is, maybe this is just someone with a really big butt that it fits in their jeans, because I don't think it'll fit in a regular person's jeans. If it actually fits in your pocket then I have a problem with that. Because if it actually fits in your pocket, then I have a problem with that. Because I used the Sony Vaio P all weekend at South by Southwest, and that is as small as I want to go, I don't want anything smaller than that. >> Oh my God, Brett in Ohio in the chatroom just pointed out it's the freaking HP Jornata [assumed spelling], it's like the modern day version of the old Jornata from back in the early part of the decade. >> Wow, that's a throwback. >> That is crazy, it's like these old sort of tablet devices are coming, Apple should just reintroduce the Newton. >> Yeah right. >> If this is where we're going, why not? I have to say though if this is their final design in terms of the actual design, like it's gorgeous. >> It is. >> It looks like it's covered in leather with this like kind of belt around the middle. It's so beautiful. >> Well it looks like what they're trying to emphasize here is that the keyboard is large enough, even though it's a small netbook, and it seems like the design is built around having like the normal size keyboard. It almost looks like the new fangled Mac keyboards, the shortened ones without the numeric pad. It's like the same size as that, but you know, of course the screen is the same dimensions, that's kind of the rub there. >> Yeah, I think that the really short and really wide screen is, in terms of being able to see stuff and viewability, no, not real - >> We're not used to it, that's for sure. >> Also, it better have a 3G chip in there, because that's a big selling point of the Sony Vaio P. >> Definitely. >> But we don't know anything about it, these are, this is just - >> And a long battery life, because if you're carrying around something that small, you don't want to have to keep plugging it in. >> Yeah. >> And maybe you nailed it, maybe marketing wise they should license I Like Big Butts. >> There we go. [ laughter ] >> That can be their campaign. >> Big butts, small laptops. [ laughter ] >> About to make your laptop look little. Speaking of batteries, AMD apparently, an AMD rep has admitted on behalf of the industry that notebook and phone battery life figures are completely unreliable. Granted he admitted this in the context of promoting a new testing standard, Mobile Mark 2007, a new benchmark standard for measuring battery and phone life, or at netbook and notebook. Holy cow, notebook and phone battery life. But still said essentially FYI, like all the numbers that you've been getting from manufacturers and elsewhere are completely unreliable. No one actually knows how long battery's life lasts. >> Would you like some dressing on your word salad? >> God, thank you. I mean have some aphasia, I do. >> It's okay, it's Monday. You should have seen how long it took me to get through Loaded today. >> So let me get this straight. If I understood correctly they are saying you know what? The battery tests we used just aren't honest, they're ridiculous. So we're gonna switch to one that is also not that accurate. >> Well yeah, basically. Cause that's what I've heard about mobile markets, that it's just as unreliable. And what they basically said is the reason that these tests are unreliable, is that they don't take into account how people actually use these devices. >> But there's no standard for how to test it is the problem. >> Right. >> So you might have this new metric, but not any reliable way that one person is testing with going in sleep mode or running video, or running audio, or just web browsing. No one really knows how they're being tested, even if they come out in this metric. >> I think it's actually kind of the opposite. Cause I know that the testing itself, the testing methodology itself, and Dom and Eric would probably have a lot more to say about this - >> Oh I'm sure. >> - is that there is a specific way that they test everything, right? And phones we always test for talk time. And so you just, you leave it on talking and you know, until it dies. And the Mobile Mark tests are basically very high intensive graphics tests that are run on notebooks and desktops, and it's sort of to stimulate like if you were watching a movie and using you know, Photoshop at the same time, they're all stress tests basically. But they said that in terms of PCs, or a phone, it doesn't take into account how people will actually use the device themselves. So we don't know if people are in standby all the time, or if they're constantly talking. You know, so it's like in tersm of what they test versus what you do, I think that's where the battery life gets just kind of wildly disperate. >> Well here's one thing that you probably are doing, is getting on Facebook. Because a new report shows that Facebook traffic has jumped 149% since last year. So that's more than twice the number of people are on Facebook this year who were on last year. And we were talking about it earlier, it does feel like that. >> It feels like that, definitely. And it feels like actually it's been really recent to me. I feel like in the last two or three months, all of a sudden - >> Yeah, I would totally agree with that. >> - everybody, you know, my mom - >> Suddenly out of nowhere it's just spiked crazily. >> All my high school acquaintances and friends are all finding me too. >> Yeah, and that wasn't happening before. >> And it's the thirty five year and older crowd that's getting on Facebook, that demographic is up 23%. Whose mom is on Facebook? My mom is. >> My mom is on Facebook, and now all her friends have started friending me. No? >> My parents aren't, but my aunt is. >> My mother and also my like step-dad-in-law, father-in-law is also on, so I have like parents all around on Facebook, I have to be really careful. >> My sister's on Twitter but not on Facebook. >> Really? Wow. >> Yeah, she's holding out. >> Yeah, I'd like, I think there should be a poll, I think we should put a poll up on like Crave or something, whose mom is on Facebook. >> Yeah, and whose grandma is on Facebook. I don't have any living grandparents, but does anyone? >> Wow no, my grandma just started using email. >> Ah. >> Yeah. We got a long way to go. >> But I'm sure there are plenty of grannies on Facebook, Facebook grannies. >> Yes. But it goes to show that every time we talk about Twitter we should also talk about Facebook, which is roughly nine million times the size of Twitter at this point. >> Well that was the big Facebook announcement at South by Southwest. They didn't say it this way, but they're essentially trying to capture a lot of the things that are, people like about Twitter - >> Yeah. >> - and make them available on the home page. >> Yeah. >> Right, with the new redesign. Which I think - >> I've been using that seas mix since I've been back, I could care less about it. It's only status updates. It feels like Twirl. >> Yeah. No, I like, I actually really, apparently I'm one of only nineteen people, but I really like the new Facebook redesign. >> I like it too. >> Cause I really like Twitter, like that, it totally works for me. I think it'll take people some time to get used to, but it's sort of like - >> It always does. >> Yeah, I don't know. >> That's just how it goes. >> It's just, it's nice, get over it everyone. >> Things change. [ laughter ] >> Molly likes change? What? >> I know, right? Oh I like change, sometimes. >> Well here's something else that may be changing. Samsung is saying that the price of solid state drives will soon match hard drives price. Right now if you buy a hard drive with solid, or buy a solid state drive, it usually costs a bit more, between a hundred dollars and six hundred dollars more additionally to the price of your laptop. But Samsung is saying that may not be the case for long, they think that the prices are gonna come down, and that's just gonna be something that we don't have to pay a premium for, which is nice. >> Yep, fingers crossed, cause boy - >> It was an interesting analysis here of how the fact that with a hard drive, once you kind of save for the platter and the casing and everything, increasing capacity really doesn't add that much cost. But with Flash it's pretty much two dollars for a spot price of a flash chip. So a sixty four gigabyte drive is gonna cost a hundred twenty eight dollars just for the flash. >> Right. >> And that's why it's harder to get the higher capacity's price down. >> Yeah, because it costs essentially double as you double the capacity. But boy, I feel like yeah, I don't know. I'm waiting with baited breath for this, cause I feel like hard drives have just been getting more and more unreliable, weirdly. It seems like everyone I know, including myself, who's bought a new machine recently has had a hard drive - >> Hard drive issues. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it does feel like you hear a little bit more about it these days. >> I wonder if it's all a conspiracy to make the solid states more desirable. >> Or to just push us into the cloud. >> We still need a hard drive, sort of, just a little one. >> Yeah, I think so too. And we've seen the external drives fail a lot lately as well. >> Yeah. >> So this does feel like a conspiracy. >> I think it is. >> Oh yeah, my DirecTV DVR drive failed, that thing lasted less than a year. >> Yeah. >> My old, you know, they used a better drive or something in the old Tivo that they used to sell for DirecTV, cause that thing's been around for five years I think now. >> I know, that's what I'm wondering. Like are hard drives getting, are they too fast? I wonder if it's like the faster drives, the ones that are spinning faster are less reliable? I don't know. >> Or they're, to try to keep the prices down you know, and competitive, they're using cheaper parts too? Could be either one really. >> Yeah, I wonder. Because when I complained about Viv's hard drive dying, my HP mini 1000's hard drive died after two months basically. And when I Twittered that, tons of people wrote back and said, with stories about their hard drives dying really quickly. And my husband bought a Dell about a year ago, his hard drive died six months later. >> Wow. >> Like it seems to be epidemic lately. >> I still maintain it was the soda though. >> Shh. >> Sorry. [ laughter ] >> I mean it was the soda you were drinking that jinxed the drive. >> Yeah. >> Molly. >> No. >> Shame on you. >> It was just a, it was a thing, it was a conspiracy I tell you. [ laughter ] >> But it was a regular hard drive, not a flash drive. >> It was not a flash drive, yeah. >> Okay. >> Next time, next time. So - >> Something else that's been jinxed was AT and T service at South by Southwest. We're talking to Tom right now on his iPhone over AT and T. But when we were there, three of the four people traveling in our group, there was myself, Tom, Tom's wife, and Jason. We all had iPhones. And the first night it was fine, in fact Jason has a Twit pic to prove it. But as more and more people started to show up, the service just got worse and worse and worse, in which case at one point Tom and I were both standing there with our iPhones, and had to turn off 3G in order to just get a text message across. >> Well and what's amazing about it is that AT and T basically said, I mean you know, it sounds sort of logical to say yeah, there were a bunch of people all in the same place, happened at CES, you can't get a signal. But it was basically AT and T brought to its knees by all of the iPhones in attendance. And AT and T was like yeah, we were not totally prepared for that, and we're trying to get some things up, and - >> [inaudible]. >> - cells and the extra towers and the what not. >> So what do you think? I'm very near the convention center right now, I'm talking [inaudible], I found apparently to the chat room like Charlton Heston from Charlie's Angels. [ laughter ] >> We are your angels, except Jason won't like that. >> Your mission this week. >> I refuse. >> Yeah, I mean hey so far you know - >> You sound fine now. >> - there have been no disconnections, you know? >> Yes, but how's your data been? Cause I couldn't get into any applications that needed data. >> I could get into them this morning yeah, it was pretty tough earlier this week. It was kind of hit and miss. Like [inaudible] some applications like Twitter Phone would work better than other applications. >> Yeah, I had to resort to just Twittering over SMS. >> What AT and T said is to accommodate unprecedented demand for mobile data and voice applications at South by Southwest, we are actively working this afternoon to add capacity to our cell site serving downtown Austin. These efforts - >> I am told it was John Forsythe, not Charlton Heston, my apologiese. >> - are ongoing. At least AT and T acknowledged it, that's pretty impressive. But boy, that's a lot of iPhones all in one place. >> Yeah it is. I had the second most popular phone, the Envy. No, actually I was the only one there with the Envy. [ laughter ] >> I was gonna say, like what? >> And I will say this. Like I don't want an iPhone because it's the hip thing to do. But something like that, that can access Twitter in both directions makes it actually useful. For me it's like I can send it out, I can't receive. So when it comes to actually getting information while you're at South by Southwest, on where things are happening and what's going on and everything like that - >> Yeah. >> - completely useless for me. That's probably why everybody has an iPhone at South by Southwest. >> So what you really need though is just a smart phone. >> Yeah, just a phone that can get the - >> The Envy has a keyboard, but it's just a messaging phone. >> Yeah. And I guess I could use the web aspect of it. I never have, but - >> And actually crazily enough, the Wi-Fi at the South by Southwest convention center - >> It's great. >> - is great. >> Really? >> Yeah it was. >> Yeah. >> Hot bam. >> Fantastic. I streamed the entire BOL over the weekend over Wi-Fi, and no problems whatsoever. >> Wow, interesting. >> Yeah. >> I just feel like the iPhone is so unoriginal at one of those conferences. I wish I had something that was cooler - >> I know, it's yeah. >> - and I was the only one who had it. >> It's getting kind of embarrassing. >> MC [inaudible], I don't know if everybody's familiar with him, but he's kind of one of these guys like Jonathan Colton who's making his music and putting it online, and making his way that way. He was whipping around his G1 a lot, like oh you with your iPhone. >> Yeah. >> So I've got the G1, it does this faster. But not in a really tooly way, but just sort of like you know, a relieved - >> A balance, a balance, yeah. >> - without an iPhone. >> Or more in a URL iPhone [inaudible] and I mock you kind of way? >> A little bit, yeah. >> Yeah. I had that, I had that you know, that little fight with Garnet Lee the other day from One Up when I was on Cranky Geeks with him. But I was, I still maintain that the G1, too gen one for me. I'm not saying that there isn't an android phone in my future, but it's probably not that hardware. >> Well I'm excited to see what 3G is, cause I'm ready to get a new iPhone already. I dropped mine twice at baggage claim while I was Twittering. >> Ooh, ouch. >> [inaudible] when it comes to gadgets. >> I never knew anyone being harder on an iPhone than you [inaudible]. >> I know, it'll be my sixth one, it's pathetic. >> Seriously. I mean I've seen all these people here with like cracked glass on their you know, on their iPhone, like more than one person's still using it. And yours just die like flies. >> Yeah. [ laughter ] >> I am no commercial for the iPhone. >> Speaking of Twitter, anywhere you go, apparently, according to RS Technica today, a juror's Twitter posts, which happened shortly after a verdict was handed down, may actually lead to a mistrial. The juror evidently Twittered about the verdict after it had been determined, but before it had been handed down. >> Oh. ^M00:20:02 >> Yeah, so the verdict had been handed down at three forty five p.m., and then some posts that came at four oh nine p.m. said I just gave away twelve million dollars of somebody else's money. And then a few minutes later at four forty three, nobody buy Stome [assumed spelling], it's bad mojo, and they'll probably cease to exist now that their wallet is twelve million dollars lighter. And apparently even thought the verdict had been handed down, the trial was not done. >> Right. >> So technically they may have a case that he was violating his juror's oath in discussing the case outside. >> Also what the hell was he thinking. >> Yeah. Like who does that, come on. >> Someone who's addicted to Twitter obviously. >> Yeah. >> I think the Twitter addiction thing, I think you're right Natalie, that's gonna be huge, because it is a problem >> It's starting to become even more and more prevalent too that these things are happening, where it's like whoa we didn't you know, didn't think about the Twitter - >> The Twitter aspect, yeah. >> - you know, aspect of things. Like are they gonna start banning cell phones from court rooms because you might be Twittering from them? >> Or put it in your contract or something like that. >> Yeah, right. >> I mean if you - >> Well don't ban them from court rooms, but ban the jurors from having them. >> Right, right. >> Ban the jurors yeah. >> He didn't do it from the juror's box. >> No. >> He did it outside during a break. >> Right. Yeah, that's amazing. >> But it's still a violation, which you're talking to someone about a case - >> Or potentially. And if anything to me, it's just another example of how insane, it's how insane the Twitter thing is. Like members of Congress Twittering from the floor, I mean it's just like no one can stop. Like given the, what I find fascinating just psychologically is that given the opportunity to broadcast every thought that you ever have as it goes through your head, in place of actually like acting or living in the world, everyone will do that. >> Yeah. >> Myself totally included. Like it's just, people are just like I have to tell you, I have to tell you. >> It's the thing right now. >> You can say it's Pavlov's dog type thing, where you have a thought and you know right away that that's an appropriate thought for Twitter. >> Yeah. >> And you need to get it out, like you can't keep that inside of you. >> Yeah, you feel like it's a missed opportunity if you don't put it out there or something. >> Yeah. Like I get kind of mad when I can't Twitter about the thought. >> Yeah. >> I swear to God I think now in a hundred and forty characters. Like I am, my thoughts are being tailored to Twitter size. It's weird. >> I don't know what that means. >> Sound byte. >> On the whole I don't think it's a bad thing, it's just that people have to learn responsibility - >> Yes. >> Yes. >> - about when and where they'd use it - >> Restraint. >> - and kind of get used to that. >> Yeah. >> And also you know, realize that when you do post that, it's out there for good. >> Right. >> It's not like if the guy went and made a joke to his friend and nobody heard it. >> Right. >> Because on Twitter everybody sees it. >> I mean it's not a personal diary, and it kind of feels like it is sometimes, you know what I mean? >> Yeah. >> It's kind of like oh this is just where I put my random thoughts so I can remember them later and look at them, but actually there's all these people that are subscribed to your thoughts too. >> Right, yeah. >> So remember that. >> And then they comment on your, I mean it's the conversation part I think is what becomes so Pavlovian - >> Yeah. >> - is the ability to get that response, and like you just feel like you're talking to your friends all the time. It's very, it's an interesting phenomenon. But yeah, I think Tom is right, that you know, well all the internet does really is just expose people for the idiots or the jerks, or the irresponsible twits that they are, like it just makes it easier for them to have their moment. >> All right - >> And this is one of those - >> - tired of Twitter stories, so we should probably move on. >> Yes, we're sorry. Facebook, Facebook. >> - Sci Fi Network. >> Yes, the Sci Fi Network. >> Oh man. >> All right, so the Sci Fi Network changes its name from Sci space Fi, the way it is now, to SyFi, all one word. It looks like siffy to me. >> Oh you mean so they changed it from Sci Fi to SyFi? >> Right. >> Yes. >> Except that it's like siffy. >> Siffy. >> Well which will hereby be known as siffy. >> Siffy. Because apparently - >> They want people to announce it as Sci Fi, but essentially they're just trying to rebrand it so it's less geeky, which is their core audience. >> Right. >> So that's genius. >> And I know what they want to do is they want to broaden out, they want to do more wrestling, more horror films, more stuff that isn't sci fi so they can try to like gain a wider audience. >> Right. >> Each element is basically [inaudible], it's why MTV doesn't have videos any more. >> Right. >> But that's their thing. That's where they came from, that's their thing, that's what, that separates them from everything else. >> Well also don't change your name from Sci Fi to SyFi with a stupider spelling - >> Right. >> - in your attempt to branch out. Like how does that help you? You're still called Sci Fi, except you look like siffy. And then if anybody sees siffy on their channel guide, that's not gonna help, you're not gonna go like oh siffy sounds like a promising - >> I understand. >> - broad channel for - >> Also because they couldn't find any domain names. >> Probably, but it's just, it's just, just do it, right? Like have the same, MTV, they don't have any videos, but they're still called MTV. Just do what you're gonna do. >> Yeah, or the Eastern Sports Programming Network is no longer in the east specifically, but we don't care if we cal it ESPN. >> Right, who cares. And the name because it's branded, and then do whatever you want with your content. >> Right. >> That's just hilarious. >> Who was in that meeting where they're like I got an idea, let's confuse everyone, just change up the spelling. >> We're gonna change the name from Sci Fi to SyFi. >> It's brilliant. >> But no one's gonna recognize it as Sci Fi because it looks like siffy. >> Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. >> This is, wow, this is marketing gone horribly wrong. Hopefully Yahoo is not going horribly wrong with its new marketing initiative, which is new original content web videos, at least partly aimed at mommies. >> That's right. There's a new show with the former Miss USA, oh what's her name, Alli Landri [assumed spelling]. >> Alli Landri. >> And her, Alli Landri, and it's called Spotlight to Night Light. And it's about celebrity mommies. I watched the first series today. It's gonna be in English and Spanish, and I found out that celebrity nannies make a minimum of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. >> Dang. >> Are you kidding? >> No. >> Celebrity nannies? >> Celebrity nannies can make up to a hundred, or start at a hundred and twenty thousand per year - >> Wow. >> - per kid. If you have multiple kids you have multiple nannies. So I could care less about this topic, but I did find that interesting. >> But I'm getting a new job. Cause you know celebrity nannies are on TV all the time too, just saying. >> Are they? >> Oh I don't know. >> Which ones? >> I have no idea. >> They got to put up with all those celebrity brats, they should be paid more I think. >> Well they have to put up with the celebrities. >> That's who I'm talking about, the celebrity brats. >> The celebrities don't care about their kids. >> Nice. We had to set that up for you Tom. That's interesting. I feel like Yahoo so far hasn't really caught on with their kind of female efforts, like I can't even remember the name of that portal that they launched, Shine, which was whatever. >> Right. I think this has to do with their celebrity gossip-ish channel that they already have, OMG. So it'll be fed into there, and it'll be fed into Yahoo videos. And they also have another prime time show about daily TV, it's kind of a TV Guide type show where they, it's called prime time in no time. >> Right. >> Hosted by Frank Nisotero, or Nikotero, I don't know who he is. But I do think Yahoo has sort of the more general user audience, so this is something that may appeal to them. Doesn't appeal to me. >> Well there's no question that celebrities obviously are, continue to be a draw, and that there is unquestionably a celebrity baby boom. So I guess it makes sense that they're capitalizing on an actual trend. It's just whether anybody will want to watch it. I don't know, I guess we'll see. >> You're a mom, do you want to watch about celebrity moms? >> Nope. It'll just make me mad. >> You sound [inaudible]. >> Yeah, exactly. >> This woman that was on the show was an agency for celebrity nannies. So she, who knows what she makes out of that hundred and twenty thousand. >> Yeah, I'm sort of thinking well I know about kids now, maybe I should become a celebrity nanny. My kid doesn't have a celebrity nanny, he goes to school. >> Breaking news out of a chatroom, [inaudible] says Seattle Post [inaudible] that last edition will be published on Tuesday, on web only. >> They are? I win. >> RIP. >> I mean that's terrible. >> Right. >> But that is actually my prediction come true. >> Yes it is. >> Wow. >> It will make [inaudible] SeattlePI.com making it [inaudible] largest daily news [inaudible] entirely digital news project. >> That is a huge deal. That actually, I used to work for Associated Press in Seattle, and really respected the PI. Like it was a good paper at one point. Wow, that's crazy. >> That is crazy. >> Goodbye to the newspapers. By the way, for anyone who's listening, if you have not watched this week's Buzz Report, with Tom guest starring, and in our point counterpoint segment about the death of newspapers, it is not only timely, but hilarious. >> And intellectual. >> And intellectual, I know. It was like high minded and what not. >> And stuff. >> And things. [ laughter ] >> All right, here's something not so high minded. A man in the UK named Tom Burge is twenty seven, and he decided that he wants to start ripping off lead roof tiles because you can resell them for a lot of money. So he started using Google Earth to find buildings with lead tile roofs, and then he got in his car and drove there, ripped them off, and then proceeded to sell said lead roof tiles. And he made a hundred and forty thousand dollars, but he got caught, and he got eight months in jail. >> Wow. That's clever. It just goes to show that no matter what we think of technology-wise, like the world is out there thinking of something else better, some way to use it. >> Yeah, scratching their head going wait a minute, I've got an idea. >> Yeah, seriously. You know, lead on top of buildings. >> Alrighty. >> Where can I find them, I don't have a plane. >> I have no way to scan for lead roofs - >> And get on Google Earth. >> We obviously should block Google Earth - >> Obviously. >> - or we're going to lose all the lead. >> I think that we may have - >> We don't want to go roofless. >> We may have to declare the twenty first century, the century of unintended consequences. Like I think that that's basically you know, the technology has now gotten to the point where it's so pervasive, and it's so beyond anything we ever could have imagined, that I think everything from now on for at least the next few decades is just gonna be an exercise in trying to manage the unintended consequences of the things we've created. And hopefully I don't mean that in the you know, Armageddon way. ^M00:30:19 >> It's more in the discovery of fire way. >> Yeah. Yeah, discovery of fire way, not Armageddon way. Fingers crossed. >> I am not going to buy a house on Armageddon Way though. >> No, definitely not. Also, in other things that could potentially go horribly awry, apparently an American weaponry company has been awarded a contract by the US military to improve the state of the art in microwave blasters for ground troops, offering lighter weight, non-lethal, milliwave ray gun tech. >> Yeah, the microwaves that make your skin feel like it's on fire, but they don't cause any damage. >> Right. >> Right now they have to be mounted on Humvees [assumed spelling], we've talked about them before on Buzz Out Loud. But the new ones Raveon is making are going to be much smaller, and they even think in a few years they'll be able to make hand held versions of them. So literally hand held ray guns. >> Hand held ray guns. >> Wow. >> Now you may have seen these demonstrated on Sixty Minutes. They don't actually hurt you, they just paralyze you for a bit. You can't walk against it. And what the army wants to do with this is use it for crowd control more than anything else. >> No, no, no, these are different. These are the ones that hurt you. >> They hurt you? >> Oh yeah, these are bad. >> These are like the next step. >> They actually cause your skin intense pain. >> Intense. >> Oh okay, well that is - >> They don't permanently hurt you, there's no lasting harm. >> Right. >> So they're different than the ones that were on Sixty Minutes, which was using the sound waves. >> Which like repel you, yeah. >> And they're better, I mean you know, the idea is that they're better than the rubber bullets or the tasers or the right gas, or you know, beating with the sticks, or the other things that tend to happen in crowd dispersal. They think that just the owie, the owie guns might be better. >> And they're ray guns. >> And also they're ray guns. >> That's kind of cool. >> Which is really just our shout out to Jason. >> That's the point, that they are ray guns. >> Joe in the chat room points out that if you have a pacemaker, they will kill you. >> Oh that's true, there's that possibility, yeah. >> Yeah, so you will see, if and when they start to be used, they'll always - >> If you have a pacemaker you shouldn't be rioting. >> You shouldn't be rioting anyway, that's what I was thinking too. >> Yeah, good point. I'll give you that one. >> On to our voice mail? >> That's right, all right here we go. This is Tim, who's writing in about movies on the Wii, or calling in. >> Happy Monday [inaudible], this is Tim the DBA. I'm calling about your Saturday South by Southwest show where you were talking about whether there was demand for a Wii movie player. I would like that. I don't use any other movie technology, and it would fit with my family. We're not gonna get one of the high end gaming systems, we've got a Wii and a PS2, and that works fine for us. So adding movies onto Wii would be fun. LPS. >> There you go. >> Thank you. >> Tim's vote for movies on the Wii. >> I mean it only makes sense. I mean if all the other game machines are doing it, you kind of you know, these gaming systems are seen as the entertainment hub. >> Yeah. >> Wii is kind of behind for not offering it, it just makes sense that they would do that eventually. >> Yeah, I'd be feeling that. >> I mean if a Roku makes sense and you just wanted like a Roku on steroids with some gaming prowess, it's a Wii. Seems like a logical next step. >> Yeah, I totally agree. And it has a good remote, like using, you know, I use my X-Box now as my sort of media center console, for streaming movies and all that, and it's kind of a pain in the butt to have to use that controller, I'd much rather use a Wii mote. >> There'll probably be some kind of up converter for better definition. >> Oh maybe, yeah. >> A higher definition. >> Yeah, upscaling. >> We'll see what happens. >> Very interesting, very interesting. I wonder if you could do that, I wonder how you up convert that signal. That is a hacker project for sure. >> It is, up convert the Wii. >> Oh you know what? I haven't checked this out yet, but a guy came up to me at one of the tapings, who has done a website called officehax.com, H A X. And he said he started the whole business because he heard us complaining that eBay was so behind the times in their interface, and why isn't someone making an easier, more web 2.0 auction system, so he did. >> Sweet. We have the power. >> Yeah. So somebody go and figure out how to up convert out of a Wii. >> Yeah, that would be awesome. We'll totally pimp you up on this show. >> On to the email, to buzz@cnet.com. Erin wrote in and said is it a netbook, subnote, laptop? We're talking about the Yoga earlier, right. Finally a flowchart, now you know when it is, and isn't a netbook. Go to liliputing.com [assumed spelling], we'll put it in the show notes, pol.cnet.com [assumed spelling]. It's a hilarious flowchart to tell you not only if it's a netbook or not, but ultrathin or a laptop, if you like a plain old laptop. It's really fun. >> The cost, and then they have like a price conversion into pounds, it's just hilarious. It's very funny. >> Well we've been asking this question for a while now, so thank you for putting it into a flowchart for us. >> That's so ultrathin, yes. >> We'll just have to refer to this in future episodes. >> You've got a PC formerly known as a netbook, oh it's genius. >> Yeah, but there are no alternatives, like they haven't caught onto our names, like totebook, or notbook, or anything like that. >> Or notbook, yeah, it's only a matter of time. >> And then we need to insert our monikers because they're genius. >> Easily updated. Chris the commuter sent in a link to a story at brightbar.com, talking about how TV stations, this is quoting from the story, TV stations must alert viewers if their new digital signals don't reach areas covered by their soon to be defunct analog broadcasts. The Federal Communication Commission has ruled. The stations must also inform viewers if they might need new antennas to tune in digital stations, the commission said. The new rules were prompted by lessons learned after February seventeenth when a quarter of US TV stations turned off their analog signals. So apparently the FCC telling stations who are making the digital TV transition switch that they have to you know, take steps to ensure that people still have the TV, after the transition. >> Well at least they're learning from - >> Yeah, they're learning. >> - history, you know? >> Exactly. So that's good, maybe this will mean you know, an easier transition for the people who haven't gone yet. >> One more email from Jeff from Huntsville, Alabama. He says BOL crew, on Saturday's show you wondered why use Twitter hash tags when you can just use search. They are very specialized term like South by Southwest, or XWSW, there's probably no difference. But searching for pound lost or hash tag lost gets me tweets about the show. Searching just the term lost also gets me tweets about all people who lost their car keys for example. So the hash tags do help to separate the specific from the generic. Love the show. Hmm, that's a good point. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it's a fair point, because you know, right now on Twitter if you use a hash tag lost you're probably not hash tagging that you are lost. >> Probably not, if you do, then Lost fans will be annoyed with you. >> Yeah, exactly. They'll be like quit it, this hash tag's only for the show. >> Get off our hash tag. >> - the taxonomy for this sort of thing, like how do you know what the official tag is. >> Right. >> And eventually you know, it's just gonna, it's gonna bleed over I think. >> Indeed. >> That is true. >> I like them. [ laughter ] >> Well I think that's about it. You can go to cnettv.com to find a whole lot of stuff. I'm actually hoping to post today's video on CNET TV under the Buzz Out Loud feed, which I don't know is on, up on the page yet, so I might have to just include a link into the show notes. But I'm going to test out how this tricaster publishes video to CNET TV. So you know, take a look a little bit later. You might find us there. >> Here we go. >> Yeah. >> That's exciting, very exciting. This is when you guys are supposed to pimp all the stuff, but I'm in the studio so I'm doing it. If you want to find all the show notes, information about today's show, as well as of course stream the latest episode, you can find it all at BOL.cnet.com, as well as all the ways to contact the show. >> That's right. See you all tomorrow. >> Okay. >> See you tomorrow. >> Have a safe flight Tom. >> I'll be back tomorrow. [ background music ] >> Bye. ^M00:37:58 [ music ]