Loaded: The Malthusian trap Video

Loaded: The Malthusian trap Video Transcript

>> Two music labels in the U.K. try to take on iTunes. Apple installs more software behind your back. And, some Loaded viewers have some very strong opinions about procrastination. It's Wednesday, July 23, I'm Natali Del Conti and it's time to get Loaded. ^M00:00:14 [ Music ] ^M00:00:16

>> Two British music labels are gonna try to take on iTunes with a subscription-based music service. So far, no one's really been able to make this work with the U.K.'s BSkyB and Universal are planning to try. The service would let users pay one monthly fee for an unlimited on-demand jukebox service bundled with a set number of monthly downloads. The exact monthly price hasn't been set just yet, but the service is supposed to launch later this year. The Child Online Protection Act was ruled unconstitutional again this week in Federal Court. This is a law that prevents "Harmful content" from being available online to minors. The problem is that it's too vague and too broad restricting from fairly benign artistic expression. It would also force all websites to provide only family friendly content. This is clearly not the way to go about protecting children from adult content. This act was already shut down in the Supreme Court in 2004, but it could go back there now. WordPress has released an iPhone application that lets you blog your little heart out from the iPhone. You can write a post to your blog, tag and add categories, upload photos from your iPhone and auto-recover posts that get interrupted if you get a phone call. The application can support multiple WordPress accounts as well. You can find more information at wordpress.iphone.org. Sony announced three new Walkman phones this week, the W302, W902 and the W595. These are all highly targeted for portable music. Two of them are candy-bar phones and one of them is a slider. The 902 has a 5-megapixel camera, which is just about the best resolution you can find in any camera phone these days. Each of them have different desirable features, but it's noteworthy that the Sony Walkman is one of the highest quality sounding MP3 players, so if you're an audiophile and you just can't handle iTunes music compression on an iPhone these are some phones for you to check out. For more information head on over to sonyericsson.com/reveals or wait for CNET editors to give them a test run. Apple's taking some heat form the anti malware organization for iTunes 7.7. Windows users who updated iTunes in the last week or so have noticed that the new software automatically installs MobileMe controls in Windows XP and Vista control panels. The control panel is called MobileMe Preferences and it lets subscribers log into the service, set seek options for Outlook or Internet Explorer and access MobileMe's online storage. The user agreement does not mention that this will happen and it isn't easy to uninstall either. This is the second time that Apple has attempted to auto-install its software behind the scenes during an iTunes update. Remember the Safari debacle -- shame on you Apple. Garmin announced a new series of Nuvi GPS units and they're not just for drivers, but for cyclists and boaters as well. The new 500 Series of Garmin Nuvi are waterproof and come with maps for driving, walking, cycling and boating. There is an elevation map option, a dedicated compass and marine cartography features that give information about tidal zones, port plans and charts specific information. It needs a fish finder too. My Dad has one of those on his boat and it's the only way you can really get me to fish. I've no patience for fishing. The new Nuvi will cost $499 and be available in September. BlackBerry users can now use Windows Live messenger in their mobile device. This is one messaging client that has been missing from BlackBerry up until now. The new client allows users to set customs stats, log, chat, display a profile picture and use over 60 emoticons. It's available in 18 languages. A New York Bill was just signed by Governor David Paterson this week. It's meant to curve violence in video games, but the way that it intends to go about it are ambiguous. The Bill will create a commission to study video games and their effect on children. It will also require parental controls on game consoles by 2010 and age warning displays on game packaging. But honestly as a New York resident, I would appreciate it if the Governor clean up the actual violence here first, and then work on the video game. We have some interesting opinions about technology and procrastination this week. I wanted to read a few. Steve says, "Technology provides an easy distraction. If you tend towards procrastination you will find a reason. Wikipedia and YoutTube just happen to be convenient reasons nothing more. As part of the study, they should have taken the technology away and seen if these people still found ways to procrastinate." I wager they wouldn't. Yon [presumed spelling] wrote in and said, "Technology enhances productivity, improves efficiency, and cuts cost. Since the Industrial Revolution, when humanity began to harness the inanimate power of steam, technological innovation has reduced cost and increased output. Technology enabled humanity to escape the Malthusian trap where the rate of population growth exceeds the rate of subsistence growth. Technological progress, in the long run stimulates aggregate demand and GDP growth. The professors in the Calgary study ought to review macroeconomic growth and the history of modern Europe models before they make such a bold claim." Well said Yon better than I could have. But John disagrees with you. He writes in and says that he is easily distracted by technology. He says, "Technology is a major cause for my procrastination. I know this because I had intended to write this email after watching your show but I ended up watching all of CNET's content for today before I got around for writing you today." Well that isn't necessarily bad is it. I mean, you learn from CNET TV -- it's educational. Those are all your headlines for today, but I will be back tomorrow with more. Thank you for watching. I'm Natali Del Conti with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded. ^M00:05:20 [ Music ]