the buzz log

Billionaire investor Sam Zell said he "made a mistake" buying the Tribune Co. and that the "future of the newspaper industry is at risk today." Sumner Redstone, a broadcast billionaire whose father sold papers in Boston, said that while he would never die, newspapers would. Warren Buffett, who aired his doubts about the newspaper industry back in 1992, confirmed lately that his holding company wouldn't invest in the foolscap biz "at any price."

As if the litter of dead or wounded newspapers weren't enough, the stinging dismissal from the billionaire boys' club is wounding indeed. The only thing missing is Donald Trump claiming his hair would outlast newspapers and be a source of renewable energy to boot.

Of course, they're not attacking the message so much as the anachronistic medium: Plenty of eyeballs still read the news, but there hasn't been a good way to figure out how to keep the news going without starving journalists. There have been no shortage of answers (or failed solutions). Now, a bigger, buffer Kindle DX from Amazon ($489 retail, summer release) has spurred hopeful speculation that this will be the really cool device to encourage people to read (and pay) for information.

That school of thought is sort of equivalent to the iPod-as-savior model...although the music industry's not doing that well. Blogs like ReadWriteWeb and Crunch Gear have shot down the Kindle-as-newspaper-platform model almost as fast as traditional media can float the idea. And indeed, the New York Times threw out the proposal of Amazon as "electronic life preserver to old-media companies," only to trample it the very next day. Of course, the NYT company almost closed down a major newspaper itself, which just encourages not-so-idle billionaire chatter.

The Kindle, still without color or video, might have to find a savior itself. Wired reports not one but two threats: Plastic Logic's lightweight, letter-sized touchscreen sheet due out in 2010 and, even worse, rumors of Apple building a tablet-sized iPhone. So far, infamous technophobes Redstone and Buffett haven't spoken on that topic yet. But they probably know—they read newspapers every day.

Filed under: Tech, Apple Computer, Business, Books, Media, Newspapers, iPhone

Picture this: You're 15 and bored. You snap a photo with your mobile in your birthday suit and send picture mail to your friends. Silly prank, right? Wrong. You've just become a trafficker of child pornography. And your friends who received the image? They are now in possession of porn.

That's what some students in a Pennsylvania high school discovered, as a group of teens who sent and received the pics are now under investigation for sending "inappropriate messages via cellphone."

The practice, known as "sexting," has become common among teens, and whether the photos are freely given or coerced, it's one more thing that kids these days are doing under parental radar.

In fact, "tech sex" is more common than ever. According to a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, "One in 5 teenagers say they've electronically sent or posted online nude or semi-nude images of themselves" and 39 percent of teenagers have sent sexual e-mail messages or instant messages.

Just as new ways to communicate break ground, they unfortunately bring with them a downside, and teens said they did not know how to respond to "textual abuse," in research reported by the New York Times.

The Advertising Council and the Family Violence Prevention Fund are aiming to change that, launching a mainly digital campaign for teens, including a website, to give some guidance to handle bad behavior. Teens can download or e-mail biting "callout cards" to the offending texter with such sarcastic messages as "Remind me to teach you a little thing called privacy" and "Congratulations! With that last text you achieved stalker status."

TV and print ads will follow, still aimed at a teen audience. For now, parents will have to resort to the old-fashioned way of finding out what their kids are up to: Tell their teens to turn off their phones and ask them.

Filed under: Tech

It's all fun and friendship until someone gets an infection.

In this case, the someone may be your Facebook friend. There's a nasty virus spreading faster than you can update your Facebook status.

Dubbed Koobface, the virus preys on the social network's messaging system to entice the unsuspecting to download a video from their "friend " with the tempting message, "You look just awesome in this new movie." All you have to do is update your Flash player and you're good to go with your cool, new vid. Sounds great, right? Wrong! The social call is actually a social disease, and before you know it, when you think you've got mail you've actually got a virus. The insidious worm will go grab all the private data on your computer, like credit card info. Is nothing sacred?

The uninvited friend already made its destructive appearance on rival networking site MySpace. But Facebook is serious fresh meat. With 120 million users, it's a nightmare that's been waiting to happen.

According to Facebook, the virus has hit only a very small percentage of users. But, like the growing popularity of social networking, it's on the rise.

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Filed under: Tech