Loaded: Gang wars Video

Loaded: Gang wars Video Transcript

>> Microsoft and Yahoo start a gang war. Amazon shows some HD-DVD sympathy and the physics of home-run hitting. It's Thursday, April 10, I'm Natali Del Conte and it's time to get loaded. ^M00:00:11 [ Music ] ^M00:00:13

>> This Yahoo-Microsoft thing is turning into an epic battle that seems to involve every big Internet giant now. The two opposing teams are Yahoo, Google and AOL versus Microsoft and News Corp. So allow me to sum up. Yahoo announced that it will be doubling in Google's add sense to see if they can make some money outsourcing contextual search advertising. This is a trial run that will last two weeks and only affect 3% of Yahoo searches in the US. Microsoft shot back with a statement that in essence said, we don't like this, we're not backing down. Then the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo was in advance talks with Time-Warner to fold the company into AOL. [Inaudible], but then the New York Times reported that News Corp maybe joining Microsoft on the off fence. It's all pretty exhausting, but to be clear this is a lot of hoopla and talks, so nothing is for sure until the proverbial fat lady sings. I for one cannot wait for her to sing. Office Depot joins the ever growing lists of companies going green. The Office Depot green line up of products includes typical office supplies, such as recycled content copy paper, notepads, file folders and envelops, but also includes new energy efficient light bulbs and remanufactured in-can toner cartridges. The company will also be offering the line of recycled chairs and furniture manufactured with less chemicals. All these will launch on April 22, which is Earth Day. ^M00:01:32 [ Music ] ^M00:01:33

>> Baseball season is in full swing, although it's been pretty painful for me, so far as a Giant's fan. Recently Kara Tsuboi went to the other side of the base to visit the Oakland Ace, where baseball is not quite as depressing. She talked to the experts about the physics of hitting home runs. Take a look. ^M00:01:49 [ Music ] ^M00:01:51

>> Hey there, I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNET News.com. When it comes to baseball, there's a lot more going on than just see the ball hit the ball. There's some real physics behind the way a pitcher throws or batter bats. We've got all the signs broken down for you. Connecting with that ball on the right part of your bat, known as the sweet spot can make the difference between winning and losing the game. Can you show us on your bat like where you wanna hit the ball?

>> I wanna hit the ball in this area right here.

>> And it's like, seriously, like a two-inch range for you.

>> Probably I'll go with that.

>> And that could sit it over the ball.

>> Yeah.

>> Hopefully.

>> Hopefully.

>> To find that sweet spot, Scientist Paul Doherty from San Francisco's Exploratorium said, you first need to identify the point of mass on the bat.

>> And if you just put both hands under a baseball bat moving together. They will automatically, end up right under what physicists call the center of mass.

>> Hitting the ball at the tip of the bat or too close to the handle could give you a blooper and seriously sting your hands.

>> Here's the sweet spot, there goes three, two, one. That handle just drops straight down. What that means is that in your hands, it doesn't jump forward or back. Action and reaction in physics says, when you throw air down the ball gets thrown up, so you can make a fat -- a rising fast ball. You can make a curve ball based on how you spin the ball. As the ball is spinning, the seams interact with the air around the ball. As this one spins, one seam, two seams as it travels. If I were to do it this way, I got one, two, three, four seams, as it spins. ^M00:03:25 [ Sound effects ] ^M00:03:26

>> To watch Kara's full report, head on over to News.com. Your presentation is now working Google Presentations or in PowerPoint. Google Docs added the ability to save your presentations as a PPT files, which means you can open it up in PowerPoint. Previously, a presentation that was born in Google Docs stayed in Google Docs. Now, it's portable on and off line, which is useful because only Google's text editors work with Google Gears for now. This is a nice new feature, but remember that Zoho and Microsoft Office Live Workspace both already do this. The BBC's iPlayers gonna make its living room debut in England. In a few months, the iPlayer will work with the Wii's Opera browser in the UK only. The BBC says that they have [inaudible] the iPlayer for the Wii, but it will be a stand alone application in the Wii menu, so you can go straight to it rather than navigating the browser window. If Google did this, you could consider getting rid of your cable provider and just paying your Internet bill to watch TV. Do you think people will really permanently switch to online TV from regular set top cable though, tell me what you think, loaded@CNET.com. A little more sympathy for HD-DVD owners, Amazon will now give a $50 credit to anyone who bought an HD-DVD Player after February 23 of this year. We reported earlier this year that Best Buy is doing the same, and yesterday we mentioned that Wal-Mart is giving full refunds. If you didn't buy yours from anyone of these retailers, I recommend you either sit tight, see if your store does the same or at least recycle it. Don't put it in the land field. Those are your headlines for today and that wraps up your week of getting loaded, but be sure to tune-in to CNET TV tomorrow for your weekly wrap up with the Buzz Report. I'm Natali Del Conte, and you've just been loaded. ^M00:05:01 [ Music ]