BuzzMachine

Adverblog says advertisers are starting to buy space on airport electrical outlets. If only airports had electrical outlets.

Treonauts has been doing its usual stellar job keeping me up to date on the new Treo 700p — the Palm, high-speed version of the phone I love. Andrew has more details today. I’m sure to upgrade (as soon as my old Treo 650 is a year old in June and I can qualify for an upgrade rebate) because I want the high-speed. Desperately.

What sold me on EVDO high-speed is the free use of another phone from Sprint. I didn’t use it hardly at all (my son is taking it over) but I used it enough to see the benefits, which for me are two:

First, I got to watch live TV on the phone and I am certain that the next time a big news story breaks, I’ll end up watching the news on my new Treo. Sure, I could get web, RSS, or email updates on my slower phone today. But we’re all trained to turn to TV for the big, breaking story and if I can do that from anywhere, I will. It lets news junkies snort news.

Second, Sprint wisely released this phone with the ability to use it as a high-speed modem for your laptop. Others have tried to cripple that. It’s a major selling point for this phone. I’ll then be able to cancel my Verizon EVDO card, which costs me $90 a month, and use Sprint’s unlimited data plan on my Treo, saving money and giving me one less gadget to carry around.

Can’t wait.

We’ve all heard it: that staccato buzz coming over a telephone speaker, even when it’s off, and we look to play a game of, Who Has the Blackberry? The other day at a big event, I heard it over the loudspeakers. I wondered whether this was engineered in; it would be smart if irritating advertising for the ‘berry. But I see it’s called the GSM mosquito and new standards are supposed to eliminate it.

I’m in London and thanks to advice from Ken Rutkowski, I just did something need with my telephony: I forwarded my U.S. mobile to my Skype account and, in turn, forward that to a UK mobile phone, so my family and colleagues can call my U.S. number locally and I will pay local rates here.

Trendspotter spots trendy Japanese man kissing his phone.

It wasn’t hard to piece together an explanation — the man was making a video call to his lover. His lover had asked for a screen kiss, or perhaps they’d synchronized one. It was my first glimpse of this behavior, and it happened in Tokyo, but I knew it wouldn’t be my last.

One of the oddest bits of branding I’ve seen in a long time is Windows Defender, which only makes Windows obviously vulnerable and in need of help.

Treonauts has the good news that the Treo 700P — the high-speed EV-DO Palm model — will be coming to Sprint next month. Away, devil, stop tempting me.

Chrysler made news yesterday announcing that they’ll put out iPod-ready cars. This story lists all kinds of developments in multimedia driving. All I want is a damned aux plug to hook up my iPod or Sirius or whatever I please. It’s still scandalous and stupid that car-stereo companies have ignored the revolution in consumer-controlled media.

: NOTE THE COMMENTS, Detroit, Tokyo, Munich, et al: People are making car-buying decisions based on whether you install that damned 39-cent plug.

Fire your consumer-research departments and read blog comments.

Connexion, Boeing’s in-flight wi-fi service, announces new pricing (still not a bargain, but what the hell?) and also this:

Connexion also announced that customers on all airlines equipped with its service will be able to watch several channels of live global television through their laptops beginning Jan. 23. That service, which will broadcast BBC World, EuroNews, Eurosportnews, CNBC and MSNBC, will be available to any passengers who buy blocks of Internet access. They will not have to pay extra for it.

OK, help me set up my satellite radio palace: How do I get the satellite radio signal in and move it all around the house? Are there any solutions — like broadcasting iTunes via wi-fi or other means of listening to internet radio anywhere — that will get Sirius into every room?

The setup I’m working with now just won’t cut it: I pull the satellite receiver out of the car and stick it in the home dock and it transmits to my office and the room next door, but only if I take the antenna and dangle it just so over a hat tree. When I want to listen in the shower, I have to drag along the dock and the antenna and find just the right angle there to transmit to the shower radio.

What I’d like is to set up the antenna in one spot with the dock and use other technology — computer with wi-fi, other newfangled gadget — to transmit that to any radio in the house. Any suggestions?

Engadget did a spectacular job covering the Consumer Electronics Show, even getting backstage. What strikes me, though, is that there was too much stuff and too much information about it. And as efficient as Engadget was at presented it, there was still an overdose. So I wonder whether CES is such a good place to launch products anymore. You get buried; as soon as you make news, you’re yesterday’s news.

Apple, however, is tomorrow’s news. That’s when MacWorld starts…..

I’ll be on CNN twice Sunday: on Reliable Sources at 10a and On the Story at 1p (a rerun from Saturday night). Subject: West Virginia.

I did my first blogcast with CNN, this time using Apple’s iChat and iSight (with my son’s invaluable assistance). When I used to do these with the late Connected show on MSNBC, we had to use Microsoft Messenger (of course). Apple’s solutions work far better: higher quality images and sound and easier to set up (except for those pesky router ports).