Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report, the show about the tech news
that everyone's talking about. This week its holiday shopping, AT&T gets coal in the
stocking, and kitten belly. But first, it's the Gadget of the Week. Actually, I thought for
the last few Buzz Reports of the year (how crazy is that, right?), I'd toss of some of our
top picks from the CNET Holiday Gift Guide, because it seems SOME of you still don't
know that awesome gift guide is out there to help you shop.
So, this week, the Gadget of the Week is the Klipsch Image S4 earphones, a CNET
Editors' Choice. They sound really good, sure, and they're 79 bucks, which is a decent
price for good in-ear buds. But here's why I personally recommend them: they come
with a cleaning tool. Yeah. For digging out the ear wax that, and I don't care how diligent
you are, WILL start to build up in there. If they sold the cleaning tool separately, that
would probably be the gadget of the week. Anyway, find that and all our other
recommendations at holiday.cnet.com.
And now for the news. This past week was Cyber Monday, the big online shopping day
slash marketing idea that kicks off ... some more shopping. Anyway, it looks like Cyber
Monday was a winner this year. The stats are in -- traffic was up 8 percent, spending
was up 5 percent over last year ... retailers rolled out crazy deals, et cetera et cetera. It's
like a marketing thing that became a thing thing! And speaking of marketing, these
retailers just can't stop coming up with "special days" to make us "spend more." Now,
they're trying to call the day after Cyber Monday Encore Tuesday, like ... you could shop
a bunch more then. It's so bad that the marketers are calling Thanksgiving "Gray
Thursday," because you can start your pre-Black Friday shopping on the actual holiday.
WHAT? Gray Thursday? What's wrong with calling it THANKSGIVING. And maybe ... not
shopping. Where does it end? Pretty soon December 24th, instead of being Christmas
Eve when you trim the tree and go to midnight Mass and stuff? Pretty soon instead of
being Christmas Eve? It's gonna be Walmart Eve. It's sick!
Speaking of the end of the year, it's now the time of the year when we get the awesome
lists of what we've been doing with ourselves for the last 11 months. Like ... searching.
Google and Yahoo released their top search terms of 2009, which I always find
fascinating. This year, actually, the search terms seemed to paint an interesting picture
of each site's users. Like, everybody's number one term was Michael Jackson. but then
Google's included Facebook, Tuenti, which is like Spanish Facebook, Twitter, Windows 7,
a Turkish online game. Very, you know, internationally minded tech-savvy seeming kind
of stuff. And then Yahoo's top terms were mostly like ... WWE, Megan Fox, Britney
Spears, American Idol. NASCAR. So, I'm not like ... trying to say anything? Exactly? About
maybe the different types of people that use the sites? I'm just saying ...
In other news, it's time for our recurring segment: Everybody Hates AT&T. Literally. Consumer Reports
released its annual survey of wireless customer satisfaction this week ... and AT&T came in dead last. And
not just in San Francisco and New York. The survey covered 26 cities, and AT&T came in last in 19 of them.
The carrier says it's taking the "feedback" into "consideration," and stresses that the survey is voluntary,
so it's possible that only the unhappy customers are answering it. And you know, it's ok to have denial to
the outside world. It's expected. But please tell me you're not in that much denial INSIDE, AT&T. Because
we've all seen The Map.
Interestingly, Consumer Reports noted that customer satisfaction with the iPhone is the best of any
phone they've EVER tested, and 98 percent of iPhone users said they'd buy the phone again. So, I hope
AT&T saves a little extra money to buy a longer exclusive contract with Apple. Because without that
phone?
Yikes.
Ok, let's end on an adorable note, with a look at what's Clogging the Tubes. It's been a long time since we
had one that was this blatantly, almost PERVERSELY, ridiculously adorable. It's ... surprised kitty.
That's so adorable it makes me kind of cynical. Like, uh ... that's animatronic, right? Come on. OMG it's so
cute.
And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I'm Molly Wood, and thanks for watching.
