Unlocking the U.K. iPhone
So, here's what I don't get. According to "the Internet" the U.K. has a law that says that all phones must be unlocked after one year if the client calls and asks to have it unlocked (but the carrier reserves the right to charge an unlocking fee). How the heck do Apple and O2 plan on getting around that one?

Josh from Moscow

Comparison shopping
So I don't know anything about using the DMCA to keep people from comparison shopping (I'm not a copyright lawyer and have no wish to be), but I once had a conversation about comparison shopping with one of my mom's friends who manages a Walgreen's. Apparently he has known stores to kick people out for making lists of items and prices to compare with other stores. And, since the store is private property, it is well within the store owner's rights to do this, no matter how unfair it may seem. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Oh, and "squircle" is an awesome word!

Benton from Austin (Hook 'Em Horns!)

And Molly and Tom will now attend school in Ontario
Here at our school I often research the price for the texts online at places like Chapters.ca and Amazon. If it is lower than the university bookstore I tell the class, in passing, on the first day (ahh...tenure).

As far as video games on campus go, we have a masterýs degree in game design here. So, there is a lab full of 360s here and another full of really high-end Dell machines. Our library has a number of console titles including "Gears of War." I was talking to Ken the Librarian the other day and he told me that they are getting "Halo 3" once it comes out. We even have school sanctioned LAN parties on Friday nights in the labs, and in the past have shown a feed from the lab to the big screen in the student bar (in Canada there are bars on campus, as the drinking age is 18 or 19 depending on the province).

Just thought I would weigh in from rainy northern Ontario.

Dave (the psychologist)

Ad-blocking is just safe computing
I've been holding off writing in on the topic of ad-block plug-ins for browsers because I was sure someone would raise this point, but I haven't heard anyone mention it yet. The main reason I use the ad-block feature is not to block ads (I don't really mind ads), but to keep from potentially having a virus served to me through an image or whatever. The Internets are scary sometimes.

Thanks for the podcast. I listen to it every day at work.

Thanks,
Jason San Diego

Old people hate robots
Finally...in "the land of the future" there is a potential for some counterpoint action. :)

excerpt:
*****
"The residents liked ifbot for about a month before they lost interest," said Yasuko Sawada, director of the facility in Kyoto, western Japan, shaking her head as she contemplated the 495,000 yen ($4,300), 45-cm-tall (18-inch-tall) "communication robot." "Stuffed animals are more popular," she remarked dryly.
*****

Best,
Shalin

Google laying undersea cables?
Dear Molly and Tom at Buzz Out Loud,

I found this interesting story about Google looking to lay their own undersea cables at Commsday.com.

"However, Communications Day understands that Unity would see Google join with other carriers to build a new multi-terabit cable," wrote Grahame Lynch.

"Google would get access to a fibre pair at build cost handing it a tremendous cost advantage over rivals such as MSN and Yahoo, and also potentially enabling it to peer with Asia ISPs behind their international gateways - considerably improving the affordability of Internet services across Asia Pacific."

Wasn't it in one of your episodes you highlighted Google looking to license the 700Mhz spectrum or something like that? Is Google going to be the next AT&T?

Regards
The (New) Media Slut www.themediaslut.com

Squircle is so 3.0
Hi guys, from episode 564, can't you see, the new Zune is soooo Web 3.0? For example, "Squircle" ending with "le"--see it? Which, according to Molly's hypothesis, is the new "r"...so give Microsoft some credit, they are on to something here.

If Microsoft is still stuck in Web 2.0, the darn thing would be called Squirclr.

Have a great weekend.
Wan from Malaysia.