Fight for your digital rights!

Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report, the show about the tech news that everyone's talking about. This week, it's your music in the cloud, Sprint going to bat against Ma Bell, and my new house in Kansas City, Kansas. But first, it's the Gadget of the Week. The Gadget of the Week is the Samsung Series 9 laptop. Otherwise known as hot, hot, gadget porn. I first fell in love with this sweet little MacBook Air competitor at CES, thanks to its OUTRAGEOUS thin and swoopy looks. And now our editors come along and say the speed, the sexy design, and the long battery life make it one of the best ultrathin Windows laptops we've ever reviewed? Looks AND brains? Break my heart, why don't ya! Of course, the 13-inch model is also almost 17-hundred dollars, so, relax, there, honey. Like all the hottest of the hot ... it's out of our league. But a girl can dream. And now for the news. Amazon launched a new cloud that lets you store your music in the cloud and then stream it from anywhere. The first 5 gigs are free, and you have to pay after that. No, you heard me right. Amazon launched that. Not Google or Apple. BOOM. THANK you, Amazon. Now, sure, if you're a DJ, it's probably not for you. And it doesn't play back music on iOS devices, so ... maybe not for you iPhone users either. But if you're an Android user, just like, Web user, or me, you're PSYCHED. Less psyched? The music labels. Obviously. Sony Music says the service is TOTALLY unlicensed, other label execs said they were shocked that Amazon didn't even ASK them, and there's talk of lawsuits. But Amazon says it has the legal right to store your music without extra licensing, and let's be honest, we consumers WANT this. If the music labels are going to take on someone as big as Amazon and publicly prove how anti-consumer they really are? Then fine. Let's DO this. FIGHT. FIGHT!!! Speaking of fights, Sprint is vowing to fight the AT&T T-Mobile merger with media campaigns and government lobbying. And considering that every single consumer I've talked to, many analysts, and even the Economist say the move would return us to good old Ma Bell monopoly days, I'm grateful for all the help we can get. Fight, Sprint. FIGHT!! Man, we've got a whole This is Sparta thing going on today, don't we? Google this week announced a new recommendation button, just like Facebook's Like button. It's called +1, because Google is nerdy like that. And when you see something you, uh, like. I mean, plus one, you click the button and it tells your friends and contacts and the rest of the world that you like ... I mean, plus one that thing. It's kind of like a social network, but not REALLY a social network, because who would actually say, out loud, that they're competing with Facebook? Even though they totally are. FIGHT! Headlines this week: Nokia announced it will stop using the Symbian mobile operating system after 2012. It's surprising news, I mean, I thought they were going to die with Symbian, like the Spartans! But now they're going to die with Windows Phone 7 ... like the Spartans. Just kidding ... Kansas City, Kansas is the winner of Google's Ultra High Speed Internet! All those cities that renamed themselves Google or made their mayors jump in frozen lakes are crying in their megabits now. And all 145 thousand people in KC will be rocking one GIGABYTE per second Internet connections soon. Wonder what real estate is like there? In reasons why I love the Internet, a female cobra escaped from the Bronx zoo this week, and ended up with hilarious Twitter account and 150-thousand followers, at my last count. Which is totally hilarious and wonderful. Is, um, anyone still trying to find the deadly poisonous actual cobra, though? Ha ... ha ... And finally, let's have a look at what's Clogging the Tubes. In reasons why I both love AND hate the Internet, Rebecca Black. 13 years old, nothin' but ambition, puts out this cheesy auto-tuned video, and ignites the white-hot hatred of the anonymous mass of Internet. The video has 66 million views and 1.2 million "dislikes." This week, she passed Justin Bieber as the most hated video on YouTube. Like Bieber? She's doing just fine. Reports say she's making 127-thousand bucks a week from Friday, she's donating most of the money to Japan or her school, she's been on the Tonight Show, and Lady Gaga is a fan. But as usual with the Web ... it's all about the parodies. And Hitler. Thank you, Internet. I'm glad I live here. And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I'm Molly Wood, and thank you for watching. Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report, the show about the tech news that everyone's talking about. This week, it's your music in the cloud, Sprint going to bat against Ma Bell, and my new house in Kansas City, Kansas. But first, it's the Gadget of the Week. TURN RIGHT FROM LEFT The Gadget of the Week is the Samsung Series 9 laptop. Otherwise known as hot, hot, gadget porn. I first fell in love with this sweet little MacBook Air competitor at CES, thanks to its OUTRAGEOUS thin and swoopy looks. And now our editors come along and say the speed, the sexy design, and the long battery life make it one of the best ultrathin Windows laptops we've ever reviewed? Looks AND brains? Break my heart, why don't ya! Of course, the 13-inch model is also almost 17-hundred dollars, so, relax, there, honey. Like all the hottest of the hot ... it's out of our league. But a girl can dream. And now for the news. Amazon launched a new cloud that lets you store your music in the cloud and then stream it from anywhere. The first 5 gigs are free, and you have to pay after that. No, you heard me right. Amazon launched that. Not Google or Apple. BOOM. THANK you, Amazon. Now, sure, if you're a DJ, it's probably not for you. And it doesn't play back music on iOS devices, so ... maybe not for you iPhone users either. But if you're an Android user, just like, Web user, or me, you're PSYCHED. Less psyched? The music labels. Obviously. Sony Music says the service is TOTALLY unlicensed, other label execs said they were shocked that Amazon didn't even ASK them, and there's talk of lawsuits. But Amazon says it has the legal right to store your music without extra licensing, and let's be honest, we consumers WANT this. If the music labels are going to take on someone as big as Amazon and publicly prove how anti-consumer they really are? Then fine. Let's DO this. FIGHT. FIGHT!!! Speaking of fights, Sprint is vowing to fight the AT&T T-Mobile merger with media campaigns and government lobbying. And considering that every single consumer I've talked to, many analysts, and even the Economist say the move would return us to good old Ma Bell monopoly days, I'm grateful for all the help we can get. Fight, Sprint. FIGHT!! Man, we've got a whole This is Sparta thing going on today, don't we? Google this week announced a new recommendation button, just like Facebook's Like button. It's called +1, because Google is nerdy like that. And when you see something you, uh, like. I mean, plus one, you click the button and it tells your friends and contacts and the rest of the world that you like ... I mean, plus one that thing. It's kind of like a social network, but not REALLY a social network, because who would actually say, out loud, that they're competing with Facebook? Even though they totally are. FIGHT! Headlines this week: Nokia announced it will stop using the Symbian mobile operating system after 2012. It's surprising news, I mean, I thought they were going to die with Symbian, like the Spartans! But now they're going to die with Windows Phone 7 ... like the Spartans. Just kidding ... Kansas City, Kansas is the winner of Google's Ultra High Speed Internet! All those cities that renamed themselves Google or made their mayors jump in frozen lakes are crying in their megabits now. And all 145 thousand people in KC will be rocking one GIGABYTE per second Internet connections soon. Wonder what real estate is like there? In reasons why I love the Internet, a female cobra escaped from the Bronx zoo this week, and ended up with hilarious Twitter account and 150-thousand followers, at my last count. Which is totally hilarious and wonderful. Is, um, anyone still trying to find the deadly poisonous actual cobra, though? Ha ... ha ... And finally, let's have a look at what's Clogging the Tubes. In reasons why I both love AND hate the Internet, Rebecca Black. 13 years old, nothin' but ambition, puts out this cheesy auto-tuned video, and ignites the white-hot hatred of the anonymous mass of Internet. The video has 66 million views and 1.2 million "dislikes." This week, she passed Justin Bieber as the most hated video on YouTube. Like Bieber? She's doing just fine. Reports say she's making 127-thousand bucks a week from Friday, she's donating most of the money to Japan or her school, she's been on the Tonight Show, and Lady Gaga is a fan. But as usual with the Web ... it's all about the parodies. And Hitler. Thank you, Internet. I'm glad I live here. And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I'm Molly Wood, and thank you for watching.