CNET News Daily Podcast

CNET News Daily Podcast: Skype, eBay move forward

Erica Ogg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:51:00 PST

eBay will move forward with selling its stake in Skype, the company said Friday, now that a licensing dispute over the software that underlies Skype's service has been settled. eBay will get $1.9 billion in cash in the deal, which will close by the end of the year.

Also on the podcast: Smartphone sales rise, the Motorola Droid has its coming out party, more charges in the Galleon insider trading case, and Google aims to be less "creepy."

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

eBay's Skype sale gets go-ahead

Smartphone market unfazed by recession

Slow start for the Motorola Droid?

Google trying not to cross 'the creepy line'

Photos: Spring Design's Alex e-reader

CNET News Daily Podcast: Google tries to add human touch

Leslie Katz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:28:00 PST

Known for using brilliant engineers, complex algorithms, and speedy servers to organize online information in a simple and accessible way, Google is learning how to add the human touch to its repertoire as customers look for answers that can't be found on an FAQ. CNET News reporter Tom Krazit talks about what the search giant is doing to improve the customer experience and why that task is getting more difficult.

That, plus other headlines of the day, on Thursday's CNET News Daily Podcast.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Senate panel approves Democratic climate bill

Windows 7 sales outshine Vista

FAQ: Buying the right Windows 7 upgrade

Hands on with the new Dell Adamo XPS

Verizon offers prepaid wireless service for laptop users

Google tries its own take on customer service

Europe getting 'Internet freedom' law

Study: Internet use won't cause social isolation

Meet Ibn Sina, the Arabic-speaking robot

CNET News Daily Podcast: New York joins Intel pile-on, and more

Jennifer Guevin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:57:00 PST

Today's tech update includes a new antitrust lawsuit filed again Intel, a legal challenge to Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader, AT&T sues Verizon over commercials, and more.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

N.Y. antitrust suit accuses Intel of bribery

Spring Design seeks injunction barring Nook sales

AT&T vs. Verizon: There's a lawyer for that

Comcast earnings climb 22 percent

Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs

Microsoft makes over the MSN butterfly

Images: MSN through the years

Twitter translates into Spanish

Hacker breaks into jailbroken iPhones, asks for $7

T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage

CNET News Daily Podcast: Much ado about extended warranties

Josh Lowensohn — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:56:00 PST

Black Friday will be here in mere weeks, but the extended warranty business runs year round. What are some things to watch out for, and do you really need to buy a warranty for some of the smaller ticket items? We get CNET News reporter (and fellow CNET News Daily Podcast host) Erica Ogg in the studio to give us a breakdown on tech warranties, along with what gadgets you should and shouldn't buy one of these warranties for.

We also talk about Best Buy's upcoming video service, batteries made out of zinc, and a new wireless device that's been made just for Twitter.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Cisco, EMC, and VMWare make alliance official

Best Buy to launch branded movie download service

Dedicated tweeting gadget TwitterPeek launches

Hulu adds episode release schedule

Zinc air battery maker looks beyond lithium

Barnes & Noble hit with suit over Nook

Spammy scams surfacing on Twitter, Facebook

CNET News Daily Podcast: Web expected to drive holiday sales

Rafe Needleman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:46:00 PST

Forrester Research says that while retail sales will probably be flat this holiday season, online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8 percent jump over last year. Seventy-two percent of retailers questioned said they expect holiday sales to increase over last year. And the customer experience may be improved as well. Online retailers may also show a new focus on customer engagement and service.

Also on the podcast: The Wii is losing ground, Amazon has finished its acquisition of Zappos, phishing attacks are up, file sharers spend more, and the military is testing new force-feedback packbots.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Web to drive holiday retail sales

Nintendo president: 'The Wii has stalled'

Amazon laces up Zappos buy

Former AMD chief Ruiz leaving spin-off

Phishing, worms spike this year, say Microsoft and McAfee

Study: File sharers spend more money on music

Creative is latest to tackle e-book readers

Ex-MySpace CEO wants to gamble on social games

Mozilla releases first beta of Firefox 3.6

Military looks for better touch with PacBots

CNET News Daily Podcast: Why Verizon is key to the Droid's success

Erica Ogg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:15:00 PDT

Motorola has been desperate for a hit phone since the Razr. The Droid, powered by Android 2.0, and available beginning next week, could be the beginning of a comeback for the handset maker, says CNET's Maggie Reardon. She talks about the importance of the Droid's exclusive contract with Verizon, and why it could be the key to its success.

Also on today's podcast: Sony suffers another bad quarter, ICANN makes one of the biggest changes to the Internet in 40 years, Facebook gets a huge judgment against the infamous spam king, and some scary Halloween tech tales.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Can the Droid save Motorola?

Sony continues quarterly losing streak

Facebook awarded $711 million in spam lawsuit

ICANN approves non-Latin domain names

Will the Chevy Volt make money for GM?

Let's kill the OS upgrade disc

Spooky tech tales to make your computer crawl

CNET News Daily Podcast: Giving plug-ins a familiar car feel

Leslie Katz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:05:00 PDT

Automakers don't want people to feel like driving electric means radical changes. CNET News reporter Martin LaMonica talks about what they're doing to make the transition easier for consumers. That, plus Sprint continues to bleed customers, Nintendo unveils a supersized version of the DSi, and much more.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Sprint losses and customer defections continue

Motorola sees small third-quarter profit

Amazon lets shoppers pay with a phrase

DSi LL: Nintendo supersizes its gaming handheld

Kaspersky tool detects malware in Twitter links

Microsoft puts its 'signature' on PCs

Plug-in electric cars: New technology, familiar feel

Winking robot nav head knows where you're going

Send your questions for Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Mouse costs more than a laptop (almost $1,200)

CNET News Daily Podcast: Droid navigates its way to market

Jennifer Guevin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:19:00 PDT

Verizon and Motorola are aiming squarely at the iPhone with today's unveiling of the Droid, currently the only smartphone running the Android 2.0 operating system. At the same time, Google announced its new turn-by-turn navigation software for mobile phones. Does this mean the days of standalone navigation systems are numbered? Reporter Tom Krazit thinks so. He joins today's podcast to talk about today's mobile developments.

Also in this podcast: security threats are up at midsize companies, while their IT budgets remain frozen; Mozilla fixes critical security holes with Firefox 3.5.4; and on its ninth birthday, the PlayStation 2 is still going strong. Get those stories and more in today's daily news podcast.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Verizon, Motorola unveil the Droid

Google Maps Navigation takes a mobile turn

More security breaches hit midsize companies

Firefox 3.5.4 closes security holes

LA approves $7.2 million Google Apps deal

Virtual goods resellers on the rise

Driverless car also parks itself

Sony recalls Vaio AC adapters due to shock hazard

How the venerable PS2 made it to 9 years old

CNET News Daily Podcast: Cisco keeps buying expensive things

Josh Lowensohn — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:29:00 PDT

Cisco Systems has pledged to spend more than $6 billion on acquisitions this month, the latest of which comes in at a cool $183 million for Web-based security software company ScanSafe.

We also talk about the Apple tablet everyone keeps spreading rumors about, a computer Trojan that's masquerading as an e-mail from Facebook, and a new printing technology from Xerox that prints electronic circuitry on all sorts of things including fabric. Just think about what that's going to do to the T-shirt industry...

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Cisco to buy cloud security firm for $183 million

More evidence of Apple's nonexistent tablet surfaces

NASA's Ares I-X test flight delayed by weather

Fake Facebook e-mail contains Trojan

Google Voice now (kinda) works with your number

Xerox hopes to print computing smarts on fabric, plastic

Scientists 'unwarp' distorted fingerprints in seconds

Canon 7D photos can show traces of earlier shot

CNET News Daily Podcast: Students report Windows 7 upgrade problems

Rafe Needleman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:46:00 PDT

Of the many ways to buy Windows 7, the best deal Microsoft makes available goes to students, who can buy a downloadable upgrade version of Windows 7 for $29. However, a number of students have reported problems when trying to download and install the new version of Windows.

Microsoft says it is aware of several issues that people have encountered. Most common is the fact that folks can't easily go from the 32-bit version of Vista to the 64-bit version of Windows 7. "This appears to be a series of isolated issues that are often related to the user's Internet provider or installed third-party software," Microsoft said.

The company recommends students with products either get a refund or contact Digital River, the company managing the digital downloads, to try to get a physical disc with the operating system. In support forums, Microsoft technicians are also pointing users to a five-step workaround that is said to fix the problems.

Also on the podcast: The White House moves its Web site to Drupal; Microsoft opens up Outlook; Mozilla building a new social in-box; Facebook memorializes its deceased users; Amazon exits the wine business; and more.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Students find problems with Windows 7 upgrade

White House Web site makes open-source move

Microsoft to open up Outlook data format

Yahoo Mail outages plague some users

Mozilla tries to build the ultimate in-box: Raindrop

Carl Icahn resigns from Yahoo board of directors

AOL names its post-Time Warner board

Universal phone charger OK'd

Nokia pushes back N900 Net tablet

With 'memorialized' profiles, Facebook sees dead people

Amazon suspends wine sales effort