Welcome to the Buzz Report. I'm Brian Cooley in for Molly Wood, who is having
problems with her Martin Jet Pack and the last time we saw her she was somewhere
around Jupiter.
It�s the Logitech Revue, the first set top box that does Google TV.
In a typical home it will tie your cable or satellite STB DVR to your broadband connection
and all that video along with TV-optimized apps � thing is Android-based � all powered
by Google and of course highly searchable.
A year ago we might have laughed a bit and wished them luck, against Apple. But since
Apple doesn�t seem to take its own Apple TV real seriously, and Google�s got its Android
balls on lately, this might be a big hit. Check our full coverage at CNET.com and decide
if you�re ready to cede the last part of you life Google doesn�t already database.
Ever notice how just about every noun in the language is also the title of an academic
journal? There�s Nature. Science. Pediatrics. Now we need �Stupid�.
I mean, who does this? Leaves their roasting laptop on their lap for hours while it cooks
them. This CBS News story highlights a couple of people who are kind of disgustingly
scarred by their notebooks, usually thanks to long, slack-jawed game play marathons.
The advice? Yep, don�t use your laptop on your lap if you don�t recognize the message
that is pain.
The FCC pulled a sneaky one this week: Quietly removed the longstanding advice that
you should use a phone with the lowest SAR or Specific Absorption Rating.
The limit is 1.6 watts per kilogram of body mass.
But now the FCC has pulled that language from its site, and says the number is
meaningless in terms of cell phone health risks, and that any phone under the 1.6
number is safe.
It sounds suspiciously like saying driving any speed from the speed limit on down is
equally safe.
And it looks even more suspect when you consider that the entire cell pone industry is in
a full court press to invalidate a new S.F. ordinance that requires a SAR rating & warning
be posted on cell phones sold there.
Bottom line at his point: You won�t know if your cell phone is killing you until it does.
Big week for linguistics!
In remote northeast India researchers found a tribe speaking the undocumented
language Koro. Sounds like this
that means �I saw the man�.
A day later, we got this sound bite from HP:
which means, �we have no idea what we�re doing�.
You see an HP exec told a big tech conference in Spain that they�ll have a line of new
WebOS powered smarpthone on the market in early 2011. But back in June then CEO
Mark Hurd said �it doesn�t in any way make any sense� to buy Palm and it WebOS to get
into the smartphone business.
So a huge company has turned on a dime, in the middle of a CEO fiasco to hurry up a
new smartphone offense for a market that has had the air sucked out of it by Apple,
Android and RIM. Potential train wreck by huge company thinking its still disruptive in
3�2�(cut to next story)
And speaking of the phone biz, I�m sure AT&T was chuckling fatly as Verizon had to
admit this week it owes some 90 milion dollars to its customers for data charges on bills
that don�t even have data plans. Relax, no windfall here -- like 2-8 bucks is the average
refund, so like getting two unemployment checks that week.
But lemme� get this right: Verizon got busted for billing customers for a data connection
that wasn�t there. Isn�t that what AT&T does?
That�s the Buzz Report, I�m B.C. in for M.W. who should have her sea legs back next week.
