Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report, the show about the tech news
that e eryone's talking about.
This week, sweet, sweet Honeycomb, the lights are
back on in Egypt, and you'll be less naked next time you fly.
But first, it's the Gadget of the Week.
The Gadget of the Week is the LG Optimus 3D.
That's right ...
even the phones are doing
it now.
LG plans to show off the Optimus at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next
week, and since I won't be there, and maybe you won't either, let's check it out now.
There are hints that it will be a dual-core smartphone, but for sure, it will have a dual-lens
camera for taking 3D video, a 4.3-inch touchscreen capable of naked-eye 3D display, a
3D-capable HDMI output, and DLNA support for media sharing around the house.
LG
says the phone addresses the lack of 3D content by basically being a one-stop shop for
watching AND creating stuff in 3D.
Expect early buyers to delight their friends with lots
of videos of them going like this ...
And now for the news.
Egypt has restored Internet access to its protesting population,
after plunging that connected country into the dark ages for nearly a week.
As you probably know, there's been violence and unrest in Egypt in recent days as
citizens there protest over high unemployment and government corruption.
The crazy part about this is that most of the world didn't even care about the Egypt
protests until Egypt turned off the Internet.
Never mind that most of the population lives on like, $2 a day, that they have this
repressive dictatorship that horribly oppresses women, tortures citizens, and rigs every
so-called "election" in favor of the 30-year-old authoritarian regime ...
that's just like, life
over there.
But then they turned off the Internet, and the whole world was like, "THAT'S
WRONG!
They can't even TWEET!
How are they gonna read my CAKE BLOG?
How
will they get their BIEBER NEWS!?"
Ok, back to our pampered Western tech lives ...
Google held an event this week to show
off Honeycomb, the new version of Android that's specially made for tablets.
And I gotta
say ...
Apple better look out.
The Honeycomb demos took advantage of the dual-core
Motorola Xoom and delivered amazing graphics, useful widgets and multi-touch support,
and cool new video chat just like Facetime.
Plus, Honeycomb is more like a real
computer OS than iOS, even WITH the 4.2 multitasking.
Uh oh!
And Google unveiled a
new Web-based version of the Android Market that lets you download apps from the
Web and then automatically delivers them to your Android device -- phone, tablet,
whatever.
I'll tell you this much, folks.
Nobody at Google was wearing a black turtleneck
Wednesday morning, but they did just fine without it.
But speaking of Google, though, there was a tech giant CAT FIGHT this week, as the
Goog accused Microsoft of STEALING their search results for Bing.
Seriously.
They set
up a Bing Sting and everything.
While it's not exactly like the Bing folks just Googled
everything and copy/pasted it--it's a little more complicated than that--there are a few
interesting coincidences.
Now, Microsoft said they're not copying search results, they're insulted by Google'
accusations, and they think the Bing Sting is pretty damned shady, as a matter of fact.
But
they way I see it?
C'mon.
They probably did copy some results in some cases ...
you
wanna know why?
Microsoft ain't stupid.
And now they're like, hey, Google!
Thanks for
all the free advertising.
After all, who knew Bing was so scary ...
In other headlines this week, Amazon is reportedly going to roll out a Netflix-style movie
and TV streaming service that would be free for Amazon Prime members.
Like me!
Roll
it out, roll it out!
Rupert Murdoch unveiled The Daily, his iPad-only newspaper.
It'll cost 99 cents a week
and 40 dollars a year, and it's customized for iPad viewing with lots of video and
interactive videos.
And the fact that it's news you can only read on an iPad.
Man.
I can't
WAIT for a future in which I have to pay per device to get content.
That sounds
awesome, doesn't it?
Speaking of devices, Android this week overtook Nokia to become the world's biggest
global smartphone platform.
Hey, but no, really, Murdoch.
Make a paper for the iPad.
Why not?
And the TSA is testing software that will make the images taken by its full-body image
scanners a lot less naked.
Your picture will look more like a stick figure than a Playboy
centerfold.
So, that's nice and everything.
I guess they didn't do that in the first place
because ...
PERVERTS?
And finally, let's see what's clogging the tubes this week.
TLC's increasingly ridiculous lineup of shows gets a little good-natured ribbing in this
YouTube clip.
The best part is that for the first few shows, you almost don't realize it's a
gag.
Enjoy.
Ahh, it's funny because it's true.
Also, "Uterus Cannon" would be a great band name.
Just
sayin'.
And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone.
I'm Molly Wood, and thanks for watching.
