I received an email from Gizmo today. Gizmo5 is a wanna be replacement for Skype that, to be honest, doesn’t work nearly as reliably as Skype. I still receive email from them because I signed up to use their service many months ago when Vinny and I were having trouble with Skype during our podcasts. We ended up sticking with Skype, and I haven’t really given much more thought to Gizmo. To be honest, I didn’t like their service before I received this email. Every call I placed with their service had low quality, and it took several attempts to place the calls in the first place.

Click the image to view it full size.

According to their email, if I install Gizmo5 on my phone or my computer, I can vote 25 times for my favorite American Idol contestant with just one call through Gizmo. Is it me, or are they admitting to gaming the American Idol voting system? If you or I use our phones to call, we register just one vote. How does Gizmo get 25 votes in to the system with just one call? That sounds a little bit fishy to me.

More importantly, however, is the fact that they are actively recruiting international calls, which are prohibited by American Idol. They are actively endorsing cheating while promoting their product.

Do you live outside the United States? Now you can vote too. The show blocks international calls, but by using Gizmo5 your calls will go through and your votes will be counted!

Not only are they gaming the voting system on American Idol, but they are trying to engage international viewers to use Gizmo5 to place their votes and bypass the fact that such calls are prohibited by American Idol. I wonder how the producers of American Idol will view this? I think it’s pretty sad when the only way you can promote your product is to encourage people to use it in an unethical way.

While I find it very natural for any company to try and attach themselves to the American Idol popularity train, I also find it disgusting that they are trying to do so by breaking the rules and encouraging people to cheat while doing so.

It’s clear they are trying to appeal to the international market by giving international users a reason to try their service. It’s also clear where they stand on ethics as a company, and I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep while boycotting Gizmo.

[Crossposted at Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff]

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Did yo uhear? The WB network is coming back… Online.

Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros Television Group will relaunch the WB Network as an online video site offering original programming alongside reruns of shows such as “Friends” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to court a new generation of viewers.

…

The launch comes as media companies struggle to court a new generation of viewers, who spend as much time watching television as they do sending text messages on cellphones and watching online videos.

I think the idea might just actually work if, and only if, they offer programming that’s worth logging in for. They couldn’t keep too many programs on tv that people wanted to watch, which is why they aren’t around in that medium as of right now. There is a lot of good stuff on television, besides the constant late night commercials for ellipticals. Yes, I actually watch those sometimes.

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For some of us, this isn’t news at all. As an AT&T DSL subscriber, I have already been enjoying this little “benefit”.

AT&T and Starbucks on Friday announced the beginning of the rollout of AT&T Wi-Fi service at company-operated Starbucks stores, kicking off a nationwide effort that will continue through 2008.

At this year’s AT&T stockholders meeting in San Antonio, Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson announced that the companies have started deploying AT&T Wi-Fi at Starbucks locations in San Antonio.

As of May 1, qualifying AT&T high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi customers will have complimentary Wi-Fi access at more than 7,000 Starbucks locations nationwide. For millions of AT&T customers, that means more speed in more places — for free — is on the way. Analysts said this gives the telecom giant an advantage over competitors like T-Mobile.

Ever since I got the Nokia N810 I have been using the free AT&T Wi-Fi at the Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble stores we visit. This has to be one of the best things that has happened to me in a long time, even if it is being done by AT&T.

On a side note, I get the same bonus when I take the kids to McDonald’s too! Just think, I could sell my house, buy a class A motorhome and park in the McDonald’s parking lot for internet access. Ha! Okay, not.

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Since my last post about Vista I actually found out that three people I know admit they use it. I have heard from some that Vista is more comfortable for those who are used to working on an Apple computer. I have also heard from people that the file structure in Vista is very similar to a linux machine. Of course, I do not know these things for myself because after 15 minutes using Vista, I formatted the hard drive and installed XP on my computer when I got it.

Windows Vista customers can now receive the first service pack for the operating system via the Microsoft Automatic Update service, Microsoft said Wednesday.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will download automatically to PCs that have the automatic update feature of the OS turned on, the company said. Previously, Vista was available to customers via Windows Update, but people had to specifically download it.

Not all customers will receive SP1 immediately via Automatic Update, however. The company is distributing it in phases to “ensure a seamless download experience,” Microsoft said. A timeline for when all customers would receive Vista SP1 via Automatic Update was not immediately available.

So, this means the automatic updates aren’t yet quite so automatic right? If Microsoft was starting today as a small business opportunity, it would never make it. We wouldn’t want to overload the servers with all those Vista users out there. Seriously, how many people use Vista? Raise your hand if you’re sure.

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Six Apart had some interesting news today.

Is it a blog or an advertising network? On Monday, the line between the two got a little thinner at Six Apart, a blogging-software company that offers Movable Type and TypePad, announced a restructuring that includes three new legs: acquiring creative agency Apperceptive, launching its own advertising network and consulting services division, and opening an office in New York.

The company founders call the moves an evolution that marks a return to the roots of the company. Six Apart Services and Six Apart Media will leverage the power of the company’s blogging community to generate new revenue streams.

“Our customers have asked us for complete solutions as their blogging and social-media efforts grow,” said Chris Alden, CEO of Six Apart. “Our mission is to help everyone succeed in blogging.”

Funny. As a long time blogger (over 10 years at my main blog), I don’t see how adding an advertising network to your blogging tool is “returning to your roots”.

I have used WordPress, Drupal, and Movable Type. There’s a reason I am using WordPress, and it has everything to do with MovableType and the fact they have transplanted themselves so many times they don’t even know where their roots are anymore.

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I get at least four PayPal phishing spams every day. What about you?

The name PayPal is almost synonymous with phishing scams. According to anti-phishing service PhishTank statistics from last year, PayPal was the number-one target of scams — more than twice as often as PayPal’s parent, eBay, the second most popular target.

On Friday, PayPal announced it was taking an unusual step to combat phishing abuse: blocking old and insecure browsers from its site. It is “an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers, such as Internet Explorer 4,” the company said.

My question here is this… If I get an email that is phishing for my paypal information, and I click one of their links, what does it matter if PayPal is blocking old browsers? The phishers as I call them will still get my data, and I am pretty sure they have upgraded to the new browsers. So how does this help?

“By displaying the green glow and company name, these newer browsers make it much easier for users to determine whether or not they’re on the site they thought they were visiting,” said PayPal.

If these people are still using browsers as old as Internet Explorer 4, I doubt highly that they would know what they were looking for to make sure they have a legitimate connection to PayPal. I still don’t see how it helps when you are redirected to a phishing site. If you don’t know enough to upgrade your browser, it really isn’t going to make a difference.

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After all this time, you would think that Comcast would have done this long ago. Imagine the thought… Giving customers what they pay for. Ouch.

Comcast Corp., under federal investigation for interfering with the traffic of its Internet subscribers, said Tuesday it wants to develop a “Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” for file sharing.

The announcement expands on Comcast’s new policy toward file-sharing: It said last month that rather than singling out such traffic and blocking some of it, the company will move toward a system that treats all types the same.

Will this come to fruition? I doubt it. If so, it will contain language that makes it easier for them to get away doing the things the “Bill of Rights” is supposed to stop them from doing in the first place.

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So what do you think, will they release it on April 29th, or will we be left waiting again? I for one won’t be waiting, it will come when it gets here. If there’s anything I have learned about Microsoft, is that they will release it when they darn well feel like it.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will reportedly debut later this month. Tech news outlets are widely reporting that the much-anticipated update will be available on April 29. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

The final version of Windows XP SP3 was slated for delivery during the first half of 2008, but Microsoft seems intent on downplaying the attention it might get in favor of pushing Windows Vista, especially in light of the uproar about extending the life of XP.

I think it’s hilarious that tests have shown that XP running SP3 can run some tasks twice as fast as Vista. Vista. Ha! How did they get it to move twice as fast? Did they run it through some Orovo detox before they released it?

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DISH is still fighting this? No wonder my DISH bill just keeps getting higher and higher. Please, let it end.

TiVo Inc (TIVO.O) on Friday said a federal appeals court has denied EchoStar’s (DISH.O) request to have a panel of judges rehear arguments related to their long standing patent dispute.

TiVo, the maker of television recording technology, said the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to deny EchoStar’s request for a “rehearing en banc” brings their patent fight closer to a resolution.

In January, the court upheld a lower court’s damage award of $74 million plus interest, saying that EchoStar infringed a TiVo patent in building digital video recorders. With interest, the damages would be $94 million.

I wonder why the appeals court refused to rehear the case? What type of case you ask? Why, a Rimowa of course. Maybe because there is no point? Could it be that DISH actually infringed on the patent of TiVo? Say it isn’t so. (cough)

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Okay, what the hell is going on here?

Yahoo is going to test Google ads on their site? Think about this people… Yahoo is actually going to run Google ads in order to raise revenue. And Google is okay with this. Did hell freeze over? Did I wake up in an alternate universe?

Yahoo Inc. is surrendering some of its advertising space to Internet search leader Google Inc. in an unusual test announced Wednesday that could be just the first step in a last-ditch effort to escape its unsolicited suitor, Microsoft Corp.

Then, on top of it all, Yahoo is in talks with AOL to combine their internet presence. Say what?

Yahoo also is close to unveiling a complex plan that would combine its Web site with Time Warner Inc.’s fallen Internet star, AOL. Under that plan, Yahoo also would spend billions of dollars to buy back stock to put some money in shareholders’ pockets, according to a Wall Street Journal story Wednesday night that cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

And… Microsoft is planning a counterattack that involves bringing News Corp (and MySpace) into the equation by joining forces to buy Yahoo..

In a surprise twist, Microsoft has contacted Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. about joining forces to buy Yahoo, according to a New York Times report, also posted online late Wednesday, that cited people involved in the discussions.

I ask again, what the hell is going on? The next thing you’ll tell me is that people in desperate need of acne treatment are running the online world.

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