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 more CEO scandal, the almost complete
erosion of electronic liberties, and search that reads your mind.
But first, it's the Gadget of the Week.
The Gadget of the Week is the Samsung Galaxy Tab. On paper, it looks like the best iPad competitor yet.
It's a 7-inch slate with a high-res display, Android 2.2 with Flash support and the Android Market, 16 or 32
gigs of RAM, GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back that takes video, and a front-facing camera for
video chat. It's got WiFi, 2.5G and 3G wireless capability, and a stated 7 hours of battery life. So, you
know, it's the sex. Pricing ... has not been announced. And it's making me nervous. Reports say it will go
for anywhere from 200 to 400 bucks with contract or a thousand dollars without. And if it's a thousand
dollars ... well. You know. Point: iPad. C'mon, don't screw it up, Samsung. This thing looks awesome!
And now for the news. GOOD drama in tech-exec land this week! First, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison went
ahead and offered his buddy Mark Hurd a co-president job there, just a few weeks after HP booted him
over doctoring expense reports to cover up the most sexless affair in history. Apparently one board's sin is
another board's competitive opportunity.
BUT, THEN, HP sued Hurd, saying look, buddy, we paid you millions of dollars to go away quietly and
not say a word about our corporate trade secrets, and now you're planning to go give them all to Oracle?
Hell to the naw.
In response, Oracle said HP was just making it really, really hard for them to work together, what with all
this hostility and wild accusations. It's really not cool.
Oh, rich white guys. You should get a Bravo show.
In other news this week, Google showed off a new feature it calls Instant Search. INSTANT. So, when you
type, Google predicts what it thinks you're looking for and pops up searches until you find what you need.
And it IS amazing, and it's CLEARLY a super amazing technological feat, to serve that many results pages
one after the other in real time, as you type. Wow.
But admit it. Aren't we all just waiting for the easter eggs where you're typing a little innocent thing and
you get a super dirty results page? I know I am!
In more serious news this week, the ACLU wants a federal court to make it unconstitutional for border
guards to search your laptop, phone, or other electronics for no reason whatsoever. Yeah, no, they currently
are TOTALLY ALLOWED TO DO THAT.
The border searches are an exception to the Fourth Amendment, which would otherwise require some sort
of suspicion or reason for a warrantless search. The exception has been around since 2008, and it's being ...
fairly definitively abused. So. That's working its way through the courts now. Go ACLU. Hey, unrelated.
You guys know all about Truecrypt and creating hidden, encrypted partitions, right? Ok, just checking.
Speaking of warrantless searches, an appeals court said this week that the FBI and police agencies DON'T
NEED to get a warrant to use your cell phone to track your location. Or to get records from providers about
where you've taken your phone in the past. The court agreed with the Obama administration, which said
you have no expectation of privacy when it comes to, uh, where you are. Wow. What has happened to you,
America? It's enough to make me go off the grid.
If it weren't for the fact that I'm like one of these college kids in this University of Maryland study. They
took away their cell phones and social media for a day. And most the students reported actual withdrawal-
like symptoms, like anxiety and the shakes. I know. I understand. It's going to be ok. Can I borrow your cell
phone, actually, because we've been taping in here a while and ... haha .. yeah ... no reason ... hahahaha ...
And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I'm Molly Wood and thank you for watching.
SOMEBODY GET ME A DROID!
