Gadgetory

hi i'm molly wood and welcome to the buzz report the show about the tech news that everybody's talking about let's get right into the gadget of the week because we've got a special show for you today the gadget of the week is the apple netbook rumor the word is that taiwanese manufacturer wintech will start shipping touch screens for a new apple netbook sometime in the summer and I'm here to tell you it's probably true why because first the last time there was a flurry of wind tech touchscreen rumors was in july two thousand seven right before apple launched the ipod touch in September yeah wind text got a leak second the new nine hundred dollar sony vaio p series not a netbook proves that it's perfectly okay to launch a super expensive netbook as long as it looks pretty and we all know apple luvs super expensive and pretty apple netbook take it to the bank oh and in case you're wondering i'm not even going to mention that new shuffle they announced that thing is ridiculous I mean the controls are on the cable of the junkie earbuds that no one even wants and you can't replace them unless you buy a dongle for them they cost extra that's just I am not mentioning that moving on and now for the news this week a buzz reports special report the death of the newspaper this is the week that newspapers turned terminal they've been on the ropes for a while in fact back in the buzz out loud prediction show for 2009 I predicted that one major u.s. newspaper would go online only this year man was i shooting low in newspaper bad news this week alone silicon alley insider estimates that printing and delivering the New York Times cost twice as much as it would cost to send every subscriber a free kindle minimal they refer to the technology of newsprint as laughably expensive and inefficient ouch also this week Time magazine put out a list of 10 US newspapers that it predicts will either fold or go digital in the very near future the papers include everything from the Cleveland Plain Dealer to the San Francisco Chronicle to the Miami Herald meanwhile new ID is for replacing newspapers are rolling out faster than breaking news media news group the fourth largest newspaper company in the u.s. is creating a new system for printing only the news you want on a special printer at your house great so we're well on our way to becoming a world of narrow-minded myopic ignorant fools I can't wait that's going to end well or we're all going to end up as well-rounded well-read intellectuals feeding our minds at the all-you-can-eat internet buffet oh look it's Tom Merritt CNET's resident expert hmm I think it's time for a little point/counterpoint Tom it's obvious that the death of newspapers will signal the arrival of intellectual armageddon where will we turn for high quality writing and reporting oh no Molly intellectual Armageddon happened a while back in the 1980s I think probably with the launch of Fox no I can guarantee you the web has just as much intellectual quality as any other journalistic mediums says you but we need newspapers as curators of information helping us discover news we wouldn't otherwise see in academia we call that agenda setting it's the idea that some snooty nose trained journalists like me knows more than people the web frees us from the chains of our oppressors who force us to read about gardening tips and puppies come on okay well a gardening tips are important and me it's not like people will educate themselves on their own you can't tell me that blogs are higher quality journalism you cannot trust these internet people trust them you can and trust them you will Mollywood it's the wisdom of the crowds they are wise like wizards except instead of embarrassing gallons with moons and stars they're in their underwear downstairs in the extra room and you get to pick what wisdom from which crowds you want to read in fact the web lets you sort it by region political bias and underwear brand exactly which means that people just start reading only the news they're interested in they continue to harden their own opinions they refuse to read counter arguments and they ultimately lower the level of the debate to constant close-minded partisan shrieking or maybe just maybe it will mean the monopolistic control of the news cycle by bloated corporations with business models stuck in the time of the spanish-american war will go under and we'll be able to experience a richer wider number of perspectives that allow us to open our minds and gain greater understanding well you're wrong that's where you're wrong and there you have it open debate in a free society and that's the buzz report for this week everyone I'm Mollywood and thanks for watching