iFrizz

According to the AP, the Wii will become the third video game console to get Netflix Watch Instantly streaming video. It will require a disc to run, similar to the PS3, and video will be limited to 480p.

PC World reports Google Docs will soon allow you to store and share any type of file. Not all files will be editable online, but it will provide a nice universal file storage/sharing system. Of course, this is not the long-awaited G Drive:

One thing it's not, according to Bangaru, is the G-drive, the often-rumored cloud storage service from Google that has yet to see the light of day. "On the consumer side, this isn't a virtual drive. There isn't a client that's going to help you sync terabytes to the cloud," he said.

Are these guys licensing spectrum from the gub'mint, sublicensing it from carriers, or just going rogue? Going rogue. Historically, this usually ends in an FCC-mandated shutdown -- and since both carriers and the CTIA will undoubtedly be throwing a fit that some company is stealing pricey spectrum for its own purposes, we're sure the pressure on the government to act will be quite high.

TUAW recently ran a survey on what their readers want in iPhone os 4.0. While most of the stuff is pie-in-the-sky type dreaming, some of the ideas would be actually useful.

7. We love that you introduced landscape mode across virtually all apps in iPhone OS 3.0, but 70% of us want the ability to selectively turn it off.

 

Give us a setting to switch off the automatic "turn to landscape mode" when the device is turning. Why? When we lay in bed on our side we can't read our mail. The app is always turning and that's really annoying. A system-wide 'ignore orientation' switch would be a good start; app-by-app options would be better.

Then again, a number of TUAW readers seem to have lost their minds:

6. Almost 80% of us want Flash, even if it's a bad idea.

No, not camera flash (we do, but that's for the next letter). We want Adobe's Flash Player, though Flash on the Mac is a giant performance and stability headache. Get your heads together with Adobe and make it happen (and fix the Mac version while you're about it, please).

The YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (say that five times fast). In 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (translated Yoshida Industries Limited). This company is now the worlds foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries. In fact, they not only make the zippers, they also make the machines that make the zippers; no word on if they make the machines that make the parts that make up the machines that make the zippers.

Cops are on the lookout for a woman who caused thousands of dollars in damage on Dec. 27 after being told she couldn't get her money back for a hamburger she disliked. Employees offered to replace the burger, but that apparently wasn't good enough for this picky beef connoisseur.

This revolutionary movement is spreading across the nation. Be prepared people, it's coming to your town soon.

Under an agreement announced today, Netflix's DVD-by-mail service won't send out Warner Bros.' latest DVD and Blu-ray discs during the first 28 days after they hit the market.

The deal is a first for Netflix. The company expects to reach similar agreements with other major movie studios later this year.

My initial reaction is that this spells the beginning of the end for Netflix. I mean, who wants to wait a month after release to rent a movie? I see where this might be good on the streaming side, but it can't be good for rentals, especially if other studios follow suit. On the other hand, you know people aren't going to go and rush out to buy a movie they're only interested in renting.

Or at least so says Thomas Benton at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Most undergraduates don't realize that there is a shrinking percentage of positions in the humanities that offer job security, benefits, and a livable salary (though it is generally much lower than salaries in other fields requiring as many years of training). They don't know that you probably will have to accept living almost anywhere, and that you must also go through a six-year probationary period at the end of which you may be fired for any number of reasons and find yourself exiled from the profession. They seem to think becoming a humanities professor is a reliable prospect — a more responsible and secure choice than, say, attempting to make it as a freelance writer, or an actor, or a professional athlete — and, as a result, they don't make any fallback plans until it is too late.

This, of course, has been true for years, but I've never really understood why anyone would want to get a Ph.D. in a field like history at any time (I say this as a graduate student of history). Low pay, gigantic classes full of uninterested students, pressures to publish, cut throat colleagues, money-saving administrators, and the impending death of the liberal arts all contribute to a job market that is less than ideal for anyone.