Verizon gets nasty with AT&T

[ MUSIC ] ^M00:00:07 >> [Molly Wood:] Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report, the show about the tech news that everybody's talking about. This week it's the global Kindle, the death of YouTube's defense against Viacom, and Verizon getting deliciously nasty. But first, it's the gadget of the week. The gadget of the week is the new version of the Dell Adamo ultra-thin, ultra-expensive notebook. Dell had a press conference this week that was actually about, like, custom baseball designs on laptops and then something about nail polish. But in the middle of it, a Dell vice president casually waved this redesigned Adamo in the air like a Samurai sword and then, poof, it disappeared. Rumor has it that the new Adamo is 9.99 millimeters thick, it's apparently silver, and it's probably even more expensive than the last model, which is currently selling for about 1500 dollars. And you know, Dell, if you're hoping to keep us whispering about your super-sexy laptop by giving us these little glimpses as though it were like the thigh of a supermodel -- well, it is working. Tell me more. In other gadget news this week, Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle 2 by 40 dollars, so it now costs 259 bucks. And Amazon announced an international GSM version that will use AT and T's network and partners worldwide for wireless downloads -- which is awesome. Like, if you're traveling you can get guidebooks, you could buy "The Lost Symbol," which everybody's buying, and all kinds of stuff. Plus you've got all those new international buyers. But see, here's the bad news: owners of the current Kindle -- such as me, who paid full price for it back when it was 400 dollars -- we will not be able to use the international wireless feature. Because our Kindles are on Sprint. They're CDMA. And Amazon CEO Jeff Bazos told Wired that people like me who paid the most for the Kindle and have pimped it nonstop to all of our friends and family should just sell those old Kindles at, like, a huge loss and then buy a new one that will work all over the world. Thanks, Jeff, I feel stupid. Big news in Viacom's copyright infringement case against Google-owned YouTube. Several Sources told CNET News this week that YouTube managers knew there was unauthorized content on the website but chose not to remove it. And there's evidence that YouTube employees may have uploaded copyrighted material themselves. And if it's true, this is the kind of evidence that could be a smoking gun against YouTube, because it would show that they didn't qualify for safe-harbor protection under the DMCA, because they knew that the infringing stuff was on the website and didn't do anything about it. Oooh. And then listen to me: "if it's true." How cute is that? Let's see, did YouTube managers and employees during YouTube's heyday when everyone on earth went there to watch, like, TV shows and movie clips, know that there was infringing material there or even upload it themselves to keep the site popular? Nooo. Anyway, that case just got a lot more interesting. Also this week the Federal Trade Commission unveiled new rules for bloggers. Now they have to disclose when they're paid to endorse a product or when they get something for free and then write about it. Yeah, welcome to my world, bloggers. Doesn't seem so glamorous anymore, does it? Now there's been a lot of talk about how this new rule is unenforceable, and there are billions of blogs out there, and what's a blog anyway, and people are just going to report violations because of their little blog beefs. But I have to say, you don't want to protest too much, bloggers. I mean, the FTC is basically trying to establish a moral code that says, you know, don't lie to your readers. So I'd say that the bigger your problem with that, the less I want to read your blog. By the way, CNET paid me to say that. And finally, it looks like Verizon is starting to play a little dirty. During Monday Night Football this week the company debuted an ad that takes direct aim at AT and T. Let's watch. >> Do you want to know why your 3G coverage works so well on Verizon Wireless? There's a map for that. Or why you can watch videos at 3G speed almost anywhere? There's a map for that. And if you want to know why some people have spotty 3G coverage, there's a map for that, too. >> Oh, snap. Wow, that is mean. That seems even, like, a little meaner than me. Wow, I love Verizon now. I'm going to get Verizon. What phones do they have? Palm Pre? No. No iPhone, obviously. Just kind of the -- I guess there's -- they've got a bunch of Blackberries, like the HTC Imagio, right. Dang it. So close, Verizon. So close. And that's the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I'm Molly Wood, and thank you for watching. ^M00:04:43 [ MUSIC ]