Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report ? the show about the tech news that
everybody?s talking about. This week, that?s Facebook, cell phones, and something called
Twestival. But let?s get started with the Gadget of the Week.
The Gadget of the Week comes from the Mobile World Congress cell phone show in Barcelona
this week ? the Samsung Blue Earth touchscreen phone. It?s extremely gorgeous, it?s made from
recycled plastic, it has an Eco mode that uses less energy ? and it has a SOLAR PANEL ON THE
BACK FOR CHARGING. Yep. PLUS gorgeous, unlike that Motorola Renew we checked out last
week. Mmm-hmm. Well played, Samsung. Well played.
Now, to the news.
Speaking of saving the world, Buzz Repoort Special Correspondent Natali del Conte reports in from a very special dot com party.
?Welcome to Twestival New York?
Ah, remember when all the internet a-holes used to go to dot com parties and just get all wasted? Well now they are all grown up and giving to charity. Oh Bill Gates, you?re such a good influence.
A judge dismissed a privacy lawsuit against Google this week. Christine and Aaron Boring had
accused Google of violating their privacy by putting pictures of their house on Google
StreetView, even though they lived on a private road. The judge found the Borings had no case,
and, impressively, managed not to sneak in ANY snotty references to their name.
Nintendo launches the new DSi on April 5 in the United States. It?s the third version of the most
popular portable gaming device in the known universe. If you pre-order now, you could have
one by Christmas of 2012!
And finally, in Barcelona this week, the GSM Association revealed specs for a universal mobile
phone charger that would use a micro-USB connection. It would also be much more energy-
efficient than other chargers, and of course reduce waste. Most major phone-makers have
signed on to the standard, and most phones around the world will use the universal charger by
2012. Except Apple phones. Apple is not on board with this. Because they hate the earth, they
hate industry standards, and they hate you. I mean. What else am I supposed to think? F**k
you, too, Apple.
And now, for the big buzz of the week. Facebook clogged the tubes big time over the weekend
when it changed its Terms of Service for the site. The NEW terms said, in a nutshell, Facebook
has a permanent license to everything you post on the site for ANY purpose, even though they
only PLAN to use your stuff to promote Facebook. AND, they have the permanent right to your
content EVEN IF IT?S ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE, as long as you have a ?share this on Facebook?
LINK on that page. Ok, as many people pointed out, the New York Times, CNET, and god knows
how many other sites have that link on their pages, so ? did they ? I mean. Who ? is in charge
over there?
Luckily, like EVERY time Facebook ties your privacy to the tracks, our hero arrived. Furious
Facebook users.
Later in the week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled back the new terms of service, issued his usual
line about how they could have communicated things better, and said they were working on
some new terms of service that everybody could understand without freaking out.
Yeah, you know what? Mr. Facebook? The problem isn?t that we DON?T understand this crap
you keep pulling. The PROBLEM ? is that we DO.
That?s the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I?m Molly Wood, and thanks for watching.
