Gadgetory

Oh hi i'm molly wood and welcome to the buzz report alright i'm trying people I'm trying hi I'm Brian Cooley in for Molly Wood on maternity leave welcome to the buzz report first the gadget of the week it's the package shark a brand new device for opening these stubborn hard to deal with plastic molded packages you know the ones they're really stiff when they refused to come apart until they suddenly do package shark neatly opens round ones small ones thick ones tall ones even dr. Seuss books but if you study their video on their website and carefully parse the utter lack of any detail it offers you come to a depressing realization package shark is a box cutter so keep opening these molded packages the old-fashioned way nothing wrong with it nothing going to be wrong with it hmm now the news the geneva auto show is underway and while there are many important innovations coming out of it i'm going to tell you about this one because i think it makes the best cocktail party conversation it's BMWs new lane departure warning system formerly known in their Munich engineering center as their ass thumper you see when you straight out of your lane the car rattles your seat bottom with what they call haptic feedback it's a device built into the seat cushion the vibration is meant to simulate that ratatat tat attempt of those lane divider dots before you actually drift across the real lane divider dots and kill somebody possibly yourself now using tiny video cameras and image processing software the car hopefully we'll know when you intend to make a lane change versus when it should turn on this rum pum blur and warn you that you're making one you don't want to make otherwise you'd be beat into submission by your car like some Teutonic red-haired stepchild oh by the way in California this technology is considered sexual harassment and this is the year when Sunday March 11th becomes the new improved start of daylight savings time now unlike that y2k deal a few years ago which was kind of abstract and hand with great aplomb by the IT community this one is a very clear issue and as the world in a fit and I think it's all microsoft's fault peru's if you will the support page that helps you update your windows mobile device it makes James Joyce seem approachable for example if you connect your device directly to a PC follow the instructions for windows mobile users who connect to a pc to synchronize if you do not synchronize your device or a phone with a pc follow the instructions for windows mobile users who do not connect to their pc to synchronize duh just buy yourself a Rolex they're usually off an hour anyway and with any luck the one you buy i'll be off in the right direction and word of new research hit my desk this past week positing that America's kids are actually doing homework much of the time they're online you know I thought about it and I can actually see that I can see the kids nurturing the 3 R's online reading how they'll crack iTunes drm writing on myspace how they'll decapitate their teacher and doing the arithmetic of how many years they'll serve for the above two offenses but honestly the survey really showed a refreshing candor on the part of America's youth just nineteen percent download music only fourteen percent use email just nine percent instant message and a scrawny five percent read blogs oh and my calculation ninety-nine percent will pull your leg until it dislocates I'm Brian Cooley this has been the buzz report thanks for watching you