Crave Podcast 85: CNET gets owned

By Ian Morris on 16 May 2008, 11:30am

Crave Podcast 85: CNET gets owned

Yes, that's right, we're about to get owned. By CBS! And we'd be negligent if we didn't spend some of episode 85 discussing the newly announced acquisition of CNET for $1.8bn by the all-seeing eye. It goes without saying that Ian, Rupert, Kate and Andrew are all looking forward to a CNET.co.uk/CSI crossover. We'll call it CSI: London -- Murder at Lavington Street.

In other news, Brits are advocating ASBOs for people using their mobile phones loudly on public transport. We also pointed out that Windows Vista is refusing to record some shows on US network NBC and an argument that the BBC is having over some Doctor Who monster knitting patterns. Yes that's right, knitted Doctor Who monsters.

In Crave, we took a look at some Pioneer CD DJ decks, Rupert told us all about Zattoo and how it's a totally unauthorised service that's almost certainly going to end up being shut down, and Andrew gave us the skinny on an exciting new BlackBerry.

Our special feature this week involved Rupert, Microsoft and a product the Redmond research posse has put together called Worldwide Telescope and surprisingly, Rupert doesn't hate it. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's an amazing piece of software. You can see Rupert's WWT video on ZDNet.co.uk.

To end the show, we discussed the WTF-worthy plans for Japanese cigarette vending machines to examine the customer's face, to try and work out if they're old enough to be puffing on the ol' cancer sticks. Natuarally, we had a very successful brainstorm about circumventing the protection, which ended up with us discussing how easy it is to hack a fingerprint scanner.

Go to the Crave Podcast home page to subscribe to our show in iTunes, or listen to episode 85 as an MP3, then discuss it in the Crave Podcast Lounge. –Ian Morris