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

The Olympics are dominating the Buzz, but there's more to life than balance beams, diving boards, and Michael Phelps. This past week, a woman sued Apple, rumors surged that Rihanna may be going broke, and a disturbingly large new species of fish was discovered (which, in case you were wondering, is of no relation to Mr. Phelps).

Don't get mad ... get litigious
Many of us have dreamed about taking our cell phone manufacturer to court for all the dropped calls and outrageous fees. Only a few, like Jessica Alena Smith, follow through on the fantasy. The Alabama native has sued Apple, claiming the company's advertisements for the new iPhone ("twice as fast, half the price") are misleading. Lookups on "iphone 3g speed" and "iphone 3g lawsuit" scorched the Search box for triple digit gains. Meanwhile, several related articles on the lawsuit were buzzed up, including this one on the iPhone's recent software update. It is designed to make the gadget faster. Apparently, Ms. Smith was unimpressed.

Things are tough all over...
Singing sensation Rihanna may be going through some financial difficulties. The 20-year-old R&B star's Buzz soared after rumors broke that she's only worth around $20,000. Whether true or false, several articles reported that the singer has since fired her business manager. If it's any consolation to Rihanna, she's still incredibly popular in Buzz. Not only were articles on the financial rumors buzzed early and often, but her search profile is among Yahoo!'s top 250 overall terms.

The Hogzilla of the Sea!
With billions of people on the planet, you'd think humanity would have discovered just about all there is to discover by now. Nope. This past week, a massive new fish was found to be an entirely new species after genetic testing. Aptly called the "goliath grouper," the creature grows to around six feet in length and weighs around 1,000 pounds. You can read all about the formidable fish at LiveScience.

Also buzzing this week...
• Janet Jackson launched her own lingerie line, called "The Pleasure Principle." The intimate apparel inspired dozens of buzzes on this article from TrendHunter. Coincidently, the extremely popular article features plenty of pictures of scantily clad models.
•We weren't going to mention Michael Phelps, but this one is just too good to pass up. According to Us Weekly, Olympic legend Mark Spitz has an idea whether or not he would have been able to beat Mr. Phelps in a race. Quoteth Spitz: "It'd be a tie."

Filed under: Apple Computer, Recaps, Rihanna

Well, that didn't take long. The new iPhone 3G has been out just a few days and hackers have already figured out a way to unlock it.

If you have to ask what "unlock" means, you're probably still playing "snake" on your brick-sized Nokia with the rotary dialer. But we'll explain anyway. The iPhone, though admired by many, is sometimes loathed because it is tied to one particular network (in this case, AT&T).

Hackers want to unlock the phone so it can work with any carrier, while companies like Apple do their best to make this extremely difficult. It's an epic battle of nerd vs corporation. Care to guess who usually wins?

That's right, it's the hackers. At least that was the case this week. UberPhones explains that a group of Brazilians have come up with a (relatively) simple way to unlock the iPhone involving a SIM card. Yahoo! News goes into more detail on the process while macNN explains how this hack is hardware based (and not done via software). It's all very interesting, but keep in mind that there are risks.

Filed under: Apple Computer, Hacks