Episode 1206

You would not believe the rants in this episode ... coming out of Tom. No, seriously. Something about AT&T's ongoing attempts to have their anti-regulation cake and eat your Universal Service Fund fees, too just sends him into a frothing fury. Plus, there's rage to burn on the U.S. government reporting that there are essentially zero facts or evidence to back up claims of billions of dollars in losses due to digital piracy.
==Stories Covered==
=====Top Stories=====
US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars
Apple to unveil next-gen iPhone on June 22; Evidence of Verizon iPhone found in online logs?
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/rumor_apple_to_unveil_next_gen_iphone_on_june_22_evidence_of_verizon_iphone/
http://www.ismashphone.com/2010/04/data-sniffing-proof-of-a-verizon-iphone.html
=====Other Stories=====
HTC Studying Whether to Have Own Smartphone Software
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a9YAooOZlAnI
Value of a ‘Fan’ on Social Media: $3.60
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3iaf69ea67183512325a8feefb9f969530
Apple: US iPad Sales Are Booming, So Everyone Else Has to Wait Another Month
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100414/apple-us-ipad-sales-are-booming-so-everyone-else-has-to-wait-a-month/
Don’t try ebaying your ipad to israel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162992.html
Apple-Adobe rancor to result in lawsuit?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20002447-92.html
Flash Comes To the iPad Via RipCode
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/04/14/0127225/Flash-Comes-To-the-iPad-Via-RipCode
AT&T To FCC: Don’t Reclassify Us
Just give us our USF money and be quiet'''
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-To-FCC-Dont-Reclassify-Us-107883?nocomment=1
=====Kickers and Science=====
Samsung says “our TVs make you sick”
http://www.tvpredictions.com/samsung041410.htm
==Emails==
Hi Buzz gang, this is Matt from Virginia.
I’m by no means a developer, but I’m not seeing the connection between the game consoles and the App Store like the anonymous developer who called in. It seems to me that his complaint about developing for game consoles is the stringency of their rules. But it sounds like he knows those rules up front.
The complaints about the App Store is the capricious nature of Apple’s approval process, and how they can decide at any moment to take any app they want out of the store.
I’m sure it’s exceedingly difficult to develop video games for Sony or Nintendo, but I’ve never heard of a game being pulled off of every single store shelf because those companies changed their mind suddenly on what they’d allow.
Matt
ps- regarding Netflix, my stance has always been that I would pay 3 times as much for Netflix as I do now, if every movie I can get through the mail were also available through Watch Instantly, and I could get it in the highest quality available with decent surround sound. Unfortunately, I have not seen a marked improvement in selection after the WB deal, so I don’t have high hopes for these new deals. And the quality is awful. I’ve routinely called them to complain about Watch Instantly movies being displayed in 4:3 when they’re advertised on the Netflix site as 16:9 (though that’s for the disc). I also find it annoying that I have no way of telling on Netflix.com if a Watch Instantly movie is in HD. They used to have an “HD Genre,” but it appears as if they’ve removed that.
----
Hey BOL,
In relation to Mondays story about how changing passwords is not only a giant waste of time but also ends up costing companies a ridiculous amount of money. At my school we have have to change passwords every 21 days and it can’t be any of the last twenty passwords used, well on Monday we all got back to school after Easter Holidays and every student and staff members account was frozen because it had been over 21 days since we changed passwords. So everyone had to be taken to the administrative computer one by one to un-freeze their account and of course choose a new password. While I think I generally do a good job with my work I doubt anybody, anywhere wants to steal it. I think this might a be on the shortlist for the biggest ”facepalm” security measure of all time.
Love the show,
Mary Ellen from Ireland.
----
Dear BOL,
The one guy who doesnt know about the internet? Regis Philbin! Last week he asked if something was on the internet or the web. Kelly told him they were the same thing and he kind of blankly nodded. Ive never been more frustrated than when hearing him talk about technology and stuff like the Twitter.
Love the show!
Deb
==After The Credits==