Buzz Out Loud features Molly Wood, Rafe Needleman and producer Jason Howell, along with CNET's top tech experts reviewing the day's tech news. Each episode, the crew analyzes, interprets, and argues about what all this technology means and what it's doing to us. Fans can take part by calling, e-mailing, or commenting on the blog.
If the Internet breaks, the Tribe of Seven's secret library cards will re-start it. Also: Running your fingers through Princess Leia's hair... mmmm. And: Toss your zombie cookies now! Special guest: Dr. Kiki!
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
iPhone Bumpers — Sadly… Just thought you might like to know why you will only be able to order a free bumper until September 30th, well here in Ireland I just had an O2 sales rep tell me that I would not be able to get an iphone 4 until the end of September. Why you ask well it will come with a free case in the box.
Love the Show
Dara
P.s. I got a HTC Desire
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Add a rebuttal to your point about apple simply flashing a device to repair it, what about when someone uses an unauthorized app to overclock the phone, and it burns out part of the hardware as a result? I’m not a fan of subsidizing others’ curiosity and hobbies, so I think that Apple’s warranty policy canceling coverage for jailbroken phones is not only prudent, but fair for the rest of us.
Joey
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Should a jailbroken phone cancel the warranty? Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65.
Who knew -- Apple still makes computers, and today launched a bunch of new ones, plus a ginormous desktop trackpad to go with them. Also: The robot that will make you breakfast. Eventually. Guest: Darren Kitchen of Hak5.org!
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
Hello there buzzers out loud!
I just wanted to comment on a statement last week on episode 1276 about the convoluted process to receive the “”free bumper”". I agree that it seems like a mell of a hess, but as has been my experience with Apple, they’ve yet again exceeded my expectations. I purchased a bumper a few days after I received my pre-ordered iPhone 4 from the Apple Store. I’ve been meaning to go and inquire about getting my $30 back but last week I got an email saying that they noticed I purchased a bumper and will be refunded. When I looked at my bank account, the money had been returned. So, nice job Apple on the experience. Sometimes I think about it and get annoyed about being forced to buy a bumper or else I’d have an iPod touch that could sometimes make calls, but realized I bought one anyway to keep it safe and pretty. So overall it’s been a great experience.
The U.S. copyright office now says that there are instances in which you may hack, fold, spindle, or mutilate copy protection, but just a few, and don't go breaking any other contracts while you're at it. Also, Microsoft wants its employees to build Windows 7 phone apps... for free!
Voicemail (800-616-2638)
El, and Brian’s sweatgrip
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
Hey guys,
I just came across yet another apple developed antenna-gate video, which I am sure you have either seen or heard about already. This time apple targets the moto Droid X. It shows a “”typical”" holding position and it losing bars.
I am getting rather frustrated with Apple pointing fingers. They are simply glorifying the whole “”if they can do it, so can I”" theory. I’ve leaned since I was 5 years old that if other people are doing things that they shouldn’t be doing, I shouldn’t do them, period. Apple really needs to stop pointing fingers, accept it’s fault, grow up and move on. This is getting ridiculous.
BOL co-founder Molly Wood discovers "her people" in San Diego. Also, we're actually talking about white iPhones. How'd that happen? And Mama's taking our Kodachrome away.
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
In episode 1274 Jason mentioned that it would be cool when we have surface to surface laser in response to the story about the new plane blasting laser from Raytheon. It probably wouldn't be cool if you did have surface to surface laser since normally light travels in a straight line. Without the help of a conveniently placed black hole the laser beam isn't curving back down like a missile would. If you did have a black hole handy, both you and your target are pretty much screwed. Well you could bounce it off a mirror, if you just happened to have a mirror in the right spot at the right time. -Donnie Darko
Until recently every time I heard Rafe talking talking about getting hacked, or stealing codes, I constantly thought, ""I don't care, that couldn't possibly, happen to me"" and then I was playing World of Warcraft and someone sent me a message saying I would get into the Cataclysm Beta if I went to the site. So, since I was kind of bored I went to the site (even though I doubted I would actually do anything there) and it looked EXACTLY like the battle.net login for WoW, so like any other stupid little puppet I entered my info and logged in, and then, moments after, realized it was most probably the stupid thing I had ever in any way, done. And now I understand that Rafe isn't an insanely paranoid nerd, he is a justifiably paranoid nerd.
P.S. thanks for the laughs keep it up buzz peeps. (for the horde)
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Blackberry results!
Fri: What alternative (and clean) use of the iPhone 4 bumper can you dream up?
Joshua Caleb: Pacifier - that's why Steve Jobs gave them out, to shut people up!
Grant: Combine it with ballpoint pen, gum and paper clip to fix a broken engine, like McGyver
Founder and Owner of Jayce Inc: Get a Blackberry and you don't need a bumper! Duh!
Mon: What is your alternate use for the pain ray? "Simon O: A new drying section at the car wash
Tighe S: Make a bowl of popcorn!
Gigi G: How about using it in front of malls and stores to keep the smokers away!
Joshua Caleb: Attach to front of car for winter driving - burn off the ice on the road!
Tue: What is the strangest place you would expect to find a Horton Plains Slender Loris?
Mario: A Loris... in a Taurus.
Jennifer: I am sure they have those at IKEA. They have everything.
Wed: What is your favorite functionality cheat, or cheat code?
Arcgore: Who can forget Contra: u-u-d-d-l-r-l-r-b-a-select-start
Andrew P: Hold the reset switch at the same time when powering up your Atari 2600 and you will be invisible on Space Invaders
Terrence: Hot Coffee mod on GTA.
Thur: If you could give a robot one specific ability or talent, what would it be?
Dan: Robo Romeo - make the reobopocalypse uch more enticing.
Shari: I would give the robot the abili8ty to handle recess duty with kindergartners... esp when its 10 degrees outside and nobody knows how to zip a coat!
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Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65. Best guess: What was the last pic taken on Kodachrome?
Good news, everyone! Twitter's getting its own servers and Skype will now run in the background on an iPhone. But beware: The IPocalypse is nigh, Apple now has more software insecurity flaws than anyone, and robots can now move faster than you can blink.
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
That Guy…http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/8302/thatguy72210.jpg
Spotted: Crenshaw and Washington in Los Angeles
Equipment: 27″” imac and Nikon dSLR
Activity: Burning CDs of photographs
Profession: photographer?
kc
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Dear BOLers,
In reference to your “”that guy”" or “”those guys”" found squatting at Wi-Fi hotspots, I submit what a local (Houston area) coffee shop has done to combat the issue. Instead of cutting the internet they just covered up the electrical outlets. It keeps the desktops (and more) away and the laptops or mobile devices surfing the information superhighway…for period of time anyway. I like it because it keeps the seats open and my wife can watch a Netflix TV show and play cards. We have Wi-Fi at home but sometimes it’s good to get out of the house, and a cup of coffee is a small price to pay.
Blake
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Hey Buzz Crew,
I’m just catching up after being away for a few days, and I noticed there were multiple references to Rafe’s pending robopocalypse. I thought that, in addition to that wicked quadrotor you discussed a few months back, the teaching Honda-bots, the gun-toting DMZ bots and the blatantly-Cylon-Raider bots, we should add this borderline-frightening news in bot evolution.
I’m listening to episode 1273 and about halfway through, Rafe mentioned Nokia’s CEO being tossed out over screwing up the acquisition of RIM. Did he mean Palm or was there a separate incident where Nokia considered aquiring RIM as well?
Justin
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If you could give a robot one specific ability or talent, what would it be? Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65.
500 millionth, actually... but one of the press kits had an embarrassing typo in it. Also, everybody who makes slates is dropping Windows (except HP), we now have lasers shooting down airplanes, and a flashlight for the iPhone is actually a secret tethering app.
Well Actually, you don’t need to have a zune to have and use Zune Pass. You only need the Zune Software and pay for the subscription. The downloaded files are MP3s and work on all devices. You do get 10 songs with your $14.99 subscription which effectively brings the subscription to $4.99 a month (assuming $0.99 per mp3 song)
Thought you should know.
Wayne Dixon
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Hey hey!!
I don’t know if you guys have missed it but Rhapsody is $9.99/month for an all you can listen to service. I signed up a few months ago when they enabled downloading to Ipod touch/iphones. Just yesterday the ios4 update came through for multitasking and now I can listen to millions of songs in the background… Love the service and love the show!!
Ryan from St Pete
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Buzz Crew,
I think there is customer dissatisfaction about Facebook because its almost become obligatory to join. I only have anecdotal evidence, but it seems that when someone says they aren’t on Facebook, there is significant social pressure to join. I know several people who have begrudgingly joined, but continue to complain how they hate the service and its invasive nature (most joined so they wouldn’t miss out on event invitations, one person joined to help promote a webcomic he was working on). Notice all the groups that have similar dissatisfaction from consumers, airlines, cable companies, and IRS e-filing, all are to some extent unavoidable, and thus people are forced to use a service they are predisposed not to like. Facebook needs to work on making itself from a social obligation to something people want to use. Just my two cents.
Love the show!
Rich in Lovely Cleveland
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Hey BOL,
Yesterday you guys were talking about Ultraviolet, and Molly made the argument that DRM never works. For the most part, I agree with her. However, (and it pains me to say this because I do hate most DRM) I can think of one example of DRM that works beautifully: Valve’s Steam network for PC (and now Mac) games. They’ve accomplished this by doing the following:
1. The games are easy to access, and there is an “”offline”" mode for people with intermittent internet connections.
2. There is little to no performance impact.
3. The prices are very good, and there are frequent sales.
4. I can access the content on any of my computers simply by logging in.
5. It has spawned a flourishing indie game industry.
6. The friends list and ability for users to communicate across games is great.
When Steam first debuted, I was skeptical; but today I believe Steam has saved the PC games industry. Valve deserves some recognition for taking the concept of DRM and figuring out how to take it from a negative to the user and make it a clear positive.
Love the show!
Mike the surfer in FL
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The makers of the flashlight app successfully snuck tethering into the iPhone. Along those lines, what is your favorite functionality cheat, or cheat code? Could be anything! Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65.
Another decade, another attempt at an almost certainly ill-fated universal DRM scheme. Hooray! This time, it's UltraViolet, and no, Disney (meaning Apple) isn't on board. Also, new details on how Google and China reached their license renewal deal. Upshot: diplomacy in action. And Apple is closing in on surpassing Microsoft in actual revenue. Yowsa.
Two quick points between Friday’s Show and Monday’s Show.
1. I had the infection/virus on my router at home and successfully removed it over the weekend. It is a complete pain; essentially your router sprouts up pop-up ads and browser redirections no matter what browser you are using. It is especially common when clicking on Google links. There is no really simple way to remove all of the malware; but you have to reset your router and clear settings on your computer. (Big thanks to http://www.majorgeek.com for all their help. If you or anyone else happen to get this router infection, head over there and they can help you out). If you notice your computer having a lot of pop-ups or links in Google not working and bringing up “”Google Analytics”" then you most likely have it.
-Chris
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Hey Buzz Crew,
Improv Everywhere did the whole desktop at Starbucks thing back in 2008. And they did it epically with not one, not two, but three desktop computers. And did they use nice portable LCD monitors? No they used CRT monitors.
It's another Monday on BOL, which means breaking news interjections, stumbling analysis, and hilarious Brian Tong jokes that go RIGHT over Molly's head. Turns out you can not actually search for girlfriends on Facebook using the search term, "hot girls." Unless, of course, they self-identify. Plus, a pain ray update!
After El Jobso’s press conference on Friday I realized that there is a
known statistic that exists, that we’ll never see, that would be
fantastic to know. If AT&T knows that the iPhone 4 drops calls at a
rate of 1% higher than the 3GS, they must also know at what rate the
iPhone (pick your version) drops calls compared to other phones.
There is a story on TechCrunch
(http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/18/steve-jobs-att-2/) about how AT&T
refuses to defend itself if it means speaking ill of Apple, do you
think this could be another of those cases. Perhaps AT&T knows that
the iPhone drops calls at a rate of 2 to 3 times that of other
phones, but is afraid of offending the Apple machine?
We'll do you a favor and give you the news in a nutshell: free bumpers (even non-Apple bumpers) and full refunds within 30 days of purchasing your phone if you're still not happy. There you go. Also, Droid X is sold out, the Facebook movie is going to be cool after all, if the new trailer is to be believed, and it turns out Palm was in fact the belle of the ball for a while there, but RIM and Nokia both blew it. Plus: Drunk HULC!
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
The HIGH from a wave form is called a Bi-Neural beet. One freq in one ear and a slightly different beet in the other causes an offset in your BRAIN (BRAINS , mmmmmmm). 100Hz in the left ear and 105 Hz in the right gives you a cognitive beet of 5Hz, which is in the DELTA brain wave area. I use them to help with sleeping. I have had insomnia since I was a child an now I sleep semi-normally. Nothing is perfect and isn’t everything a trick of the mind?
Love the show. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!! (said in Molly’s screaming rock voice).
RWNairn
Live life
Don’t just observe it
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Saw this the other day and had to snap a pic. The worst part: This Starbucks is literally next door to a FedEx/Kinkos. Protip: To avoid looking like a dork, use the $5 you spent on a venti mocha frap to print like a normal person. http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/408/thatguy2.jpg
Travis S
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BLACKBERRY RESULTS!
What would Unicorn of Rock's first album be titled?
Simien – OMG! Double Rainbow! One Unicorn!
Mike from Paso Robles – Four Horsemen of the Upocalypse
What is your favorite Nicholas Cage film?
Gone in 60 Second – resounding winner
The Rock – runner up
An app that you would design for your phone
Joe S – Molly’s Rantillator! Give it a tech gadget or service and it unleashes her rant about its shortcomings!! Add on packs available. The AT&T sucks pack will be a top seller.
Favorite Remix so far
8 bit news is good news
Kyoto Drums remix
Ted Isham’s remix
BSG Throat remix
Juno Suk
Benito Gonzales
What do YOU think happened to the email that Rafe was reading in the Google Doc?
Tony Kwok – I think the Apple Forum moderators are to blame. Did the email reference Consumer Reports?
Brent Quick – Tom Merritt still has access and was screwing around with you!
What have you done to be “that guy” in the past?
Aaaaaand NOONE admits to being That Guy! How’s that for awesome! :)
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What alternative (and clean) use of the iPhone 4 bumper can you dream up? Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65.
On today's show, Buzz Out Loud gets you a tiny bit high ... using a sine wave. Could it be!? Also, we continue our long slog through the Story that Wouldn't End: the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Press conference tomorrow! Also, will the Droid X self-destruct if you try to mod it? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems like the phone world is all about picking your poison these days.
Email (buzz@cnet.com)
I read today in the Globe and Mail about poetry on e-readers (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/breaking-up-is-hard-lines-of-poetry-a-tough-fit-in-e-form/article1639820/). I don’t know if this has come up before on the show, but I thought that the problems associated with poetry in an electronic form which are discussed in the article were interesting, and it hadn’t really occurred to me how the flexibility of e-books, particularly with regard to font size, could change not only the visual aesthetic, but sometimes even the MEANING of poems when they are adjusted to fit the screen.
I particularly liked this small section of the article where the dilemma is explained by the article’s author, and then former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins explains the difficulty in a more poetic way (of course!):
“The critical difference between prose and poetry is that prose is kind of like water and will become the shape of any vessel you pour it into to. Poetry is like a piece of sculpture and can easily break,”"Collins says.
Nice!
Anyway, as a former English major and now a librarian I think that the growth of e-books has great potential for fostering literacy, and so I’m a fan (plus, I’m a tech geek of course… I am a BOL fan after all!) but I also thought that this was a great example of a resistance to technology that actually has a substantive basis (i.e. it’s not just poets being Luddites as one might expect!) and it’s also a great example of a problem that engineers are hopefully working to solve creatively!
Love the show!
Chad, the Librarian from Toronto
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Why all this talk about microcells? Why not use existing tech that everyone has like T-Mobile is doing. My old Blackberry could go through VoIP over WiFi. It is called UMA. Full bars all over my house, even in my basement. And when I visit my parents in Dubai, I turned off the GSM radio and I still got all my texts and could talk, using my minutes from my plan, but no roaming fees. London was the same way.
My hotel had open WiFi, and just about every pub had it too. Now that I am on Android, I am waiting for it to be able to do the same, and am keeping my Blackberry handy when I go to Europe next winter.
Caution, if you are on DSL and have the BitTorrent going full pace, you will get some choppiness, but it is easily fixed by turning it down. Since I moved to Cable, it has not been a problem.
James Allgood
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Hey buzz crew
In my time in NYC at Starbucks I saw a jut with a newly unbowed iMac. I think it was 27 inch but I can’t tell.the images are attached
Love the show
Nick
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What have you done to become “that guy” in the past? Send us a comment via Blackberry Messenger. Our PIN # is 24523C65.
