Can Netflix kill Blu-ray? Video
Can Netflix kill Blu-ray? Video Transcript
Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report ? the show about the tech news that everybody?s talking about. This week, bright lights, fast cars, and Point/Counterpoint. Let?s begin with the Gadget of the Week, courtesy of one Brian Cooley. Brian Cooley here, the Gadget of the Week is this really cool Blackberry (beep) thatm the Gadget of the Week is this 2010 Mustang Shelby. I?m at the track with it, are you kidding me? Yeah, right. Now that is living. Look for his full report on those cars, coming up soon at CNET TV. And now for the news. In the headlines this week, Netflix announced that it will raise prices for Blu-Ray rentals. A lot. For the heaviest users, the monthly cost will increase from one dollar ? to NINE DOLLARS per month. For three-disc users, the price goes from 1 dollar to four dollars. It?s all part of Netflix?s top-secret plan to kill Blu-Ray. Or ? uh ? Netflix. On Saturday, March 28th, more cities than you might imagine took place in Earth Hour ? an event dedicated to raising awareness about global climate change. Basically, cities turned off the lights for an hour, and the results were quite impressive. Actually, and I?m not gonna lie here ? my first thought was ? we are using WAY too many lights on this planet. CHINA. And, uh, Vegas. Ok, let?s get to the big buzz of the week: the Conficker worm. The insidious worm was set to blow on April 1. It?s infected some 10 million computers and is basically a giant sleeping botnet, and security researchers weren't EXACTLY sure what the worm would do when it started "receiving instructions" on Wednesday. So, you know, they panicked. And everyone else panicked, and the whole thing was Y2K all over again. But then the worm began phoning home on schedule, just like it's done a few other times since its rapid spread, and, you know, it didn't really do anything. THAT WE KNOW OF. I mean, all this hype may have been exciting and overblown, but that doesn't mean Conficker isn't still a ticking time bomb of cyber doom, just waiting to receive the crucial command that will cause it to shut down the world's infrastructure. TOM: OR it's just like every other worm and is sitting waiting quietly for someone to order up its services in order to send out spam. MOLLY: Oh, look! It's Expert Tom Merritt. It must be time for a little ? The question: are massive botnets and cyber attacks the inevitable harbingers of doom? The answer: obviously, yes. And scares like Conficker do more harm than good, because they convince people that the security industry is crying wolf every time just to get attention. TOM: I'll grant you that there's too much crying wolf, but it's because these security threats aren't likely to take down the Internet. That would be counterproductive for the people who wrote it. They want it to LIVE on the Internet and pass around their data, not kill your dog or light the lakes of the world on fire. Doom they do not harbinge. MOLLY: How can you say that? So ... weirdly? These botnets are the equivalent of the world's most powerful computers, and then some. Conficker is way too sophisticated to be the work of some script kiddies. This thing is an instrument of death, and we'd be LUCKY if it were merely government created. It'll keep spreading, and there will be no way to stop it! TOM: Again yes, it will keep spreading, but it's being used mostly to send you ads for Viagra. And it's already easily stopped. Patch your computers folks. Or switch to Ubuntu. The thing is fixed, you're just not keeping up. The solution is in your own hands. MOLLY: I think the sheer size of this infection shows that people are simply too stupid to protect themselves. Security doesn't work. I think we should all switch to Mac. TOM: YOU think we should switch to Mac? You're Molly Wood. You can't say that. I think you've been infected with conficker. MOLLY: Well, that's where you're wrong. TOM: Maybe I am....... MOLLY: Yeah, no, you're right. I can't believe I said that. And that?s the Buzz Report for this week, everyone. I?m Molly Wood, and thanks for watching.
Related Videos
Will Office 2010 kill Google Docs?
This week on the Buzz Report, Tom Merritt and Molly Wood square off in a point/counterpoint over whose office suite will reign supreme. It gets ugly.
Ep. 942: Fill up on Confickerdoodles
A new scanner developed by Kaminsky and friends can help find Conficker-infected machines. We're so drenched in Conficker news at this point that I think the Girl Scouts have started selling Confickerdoodles. We also analyze Netflix's Blu-ray-rate hike, and try to decide why they're fighting over toilets in space.
Booyah for Ouya gaming console
Ouya stirs up the gaming world with $99 console, Viacom channels go dark on DirecTV, and what went wrong at Netflix amid its price-hike fiasco.
Netflix raises prices on Blu-ray Disc rentals, Google starts throwing some big bucks around, and we explain how to declare your pirating habits to all of your Facebook friends.
LG's entry-level Blu-ray player packs Netflix and YouTube at a reasonable price, but the BD370's image quality is a step below the best.
Ep. 1447: Mirrored boats and 3DTV hate
Brian Cooley joins the show today to talk about the new privacy bill of rights--which apparently does nothing that browser Do Not Track buttons don't do, and exempts the federal government while doing it. "It" being "nothing." Also, T-Mobile tries to win new customers with new unlimited plans, Apple may get into the Netflix-killing game, and whether we should ban the "Twilight" books just to save ourselves from Facebook scams. --Molly
The Spotify interview, Netflix rage, and a Facebook divorce!
The U.S. launch of Spotify has been much awaited, and we talk with Chief Content Officer Ken Parks. Fans rage over Netflix price hikes of as much as 60 percent, and a woman sues a man for ending Facebook relationship.
The LG BD300 deftly combines Blu-ray and Netflix streaming in a single box, although there are better standalone players without Netflix.
Panasonic's SC-BT200 is a 7.1 home theater system with built-in Blu-ray and solid sonics for the price, but it doesn't have the Netflix streaming found on some of its similarly priced competitors.
Panasonic's SC-BT300 is a 7.1 home theater system with built-in Blu-ray and its tall-boy speakers help deliver very good sound quality, but it doesn't have the Netflix streaming found on some of its similarly priced competitors.