Episode 660

Not like "@acedtect, pack up your stuff." No, we mean all these poor Yahoo folks are getting pink slips this week, and we're voyeuristically following their misery on Twitter. It feels sort of wrong. In other news, we discuss mergers and acquisitions, then pretty soon we can't take it anymore, so we talk about what space smells like. It's a jam-packed day. 
==Stories Covered==
*Getting fired at Yahoo: A Twitter log
*Google loses enthusiasm for ad tie-up
*Yahoo and News Corp. continue marathon discussions; possible bid to counter Microsoft
*Teen hacker re-unlocks Apple's iPhone
*Apple TV software update: First impressions
*Walt checks out ThinkPad X300, also fits in manila folder
*6 percent of Web users generate 50 percent of ad clicks
*Quitting Facebook gets easier
*Facebook bans 'forced invites' in apps
*ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue
*New Net neutrality bill frowns on ISP 'favoritism'
*Microsoft has no answer for their broken Xbox Live DRM
*T-Mobile HotSpot users will get five years of Starbucks Wi-Fi access after AT&T switchover
*A machine that tastes espresso, but prefers only the good stuff[
*Outer space has a smell
*Will Wright's 'Spore' to release Sept. 7
==From The Phones==
*Mike from Tacoma: Question for Molly.
*Frank from Illinois: Apple TV sucks.
==Emails==
===iPod Touch upgrades in Singapore===
Dear Tom, Molly, and Jason,
With reference to show 659 when someone e-mailed regarding getting harassed to pay $20 for an upgrade on their iPod Touch?
I have it worse--I live in Singapore, which is one of the places which does not have an iTunes store. So, on top of being harassed for $20 to get more icons repeatedly, I have to endure that fact that it's not even possible to do so even when I wanted to initially, because Steve won't accept a credit card from Singapore. I tried asking the Apple store in Singapore if I could pass my iPod Touch to them and get them to do upgrade it--they said that they couldn't. Although Apple seems to want to make money from me, they make it really difficult for me to give it to them. I gave up trying and clicked on "no thanks" after the third or fourth try.
Love the show!
YY from sunny Singapore
===It's not about the $20===
When Apple changed the iPod software so that you couldn't create an on- the-go playlist of podcasts that play one after the other (instead the podcasts will only play one at a time and you have to manually start the next one), I downgraded my iPod software to the version that worked as I want and now only buy first-gen Nanos that do what I need it to do.
I was confronted with that screen (mentioned by the folks with the iPod Touch) that wanted me to upgrade the software and it, too, didn't have a "no" option. After getting it many times (where I answered "don't ask me this again" and "cancel"), it finally quit asking.
So it is either as Tom says, bad code, or iTunes is just a slow learner. It has nothing to do with the $20. On a previous podcast, a reader provided the reason for the $20, which seemed quite reasonable at the time.
Tre
===iPod sync issue from yesterday===
Hey Buzz crew,
Andy here to follow up:
So, here's the inconvenient solution grabbed from a forum on Apple.com: "Disable your Internet connection, then connect your iTouch. It will bring up iTunes, but it not load in the January Update page."
Hope that helps Kevin and anybody else who has this problem. Love the show!
Andy
===Sony hater from show 659===
Dear Buzz crew,
How do you decide on which type of calls gets played in the show and which are put at the end of the shows? However you decide, I think that Sony hater (voice mail played on show 659) should've been relegated to the end of the shows. Please mention on your show that if it wasn't for Sony, there would not have been portable music players, remember the Walkman! If it wasn't for Sony, the gaming industry won't have come so far so fast. Back than, you were forced to pick between NES (mostly for kids), Sega (which was not bad), and PC (which most people had to use their keyboard to play their games). Without Sony's involvement in the gaming industry, everyone would still be using game cartridges. Companies like human beings make mistakes, even Google and RIM, don't bash Sony too much.
Enjoy the show very much,
Ronald
===Format war===
So if Hillary is HD DVD, and Barack Obama is Blu-ray...does that mean Mike Gravel is HD VMD because nobody knows he's even running?
Alan, New York
===Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0===
Hey you guys,
Can you please explain at some point what difference is between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0? I have no idea. Also, while you're at it, maybe review the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0? Is it that Web 1.0 was all about just pushing information out to people, and Web 2.0 is more interactive and is more about stuff like social networking and advertising?
This may be a sort of dumb, basic question and I should probably know the answer to this so if you don't answer it, no problemo.
Gracias,
Fordo