Thoughts: Please protect your family and visit regularly, and/or subscribe to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s site. You may be surprised at what is recalled. My family has had items recalled, and we only found out via the CPSC RSS feed.

» eMusic: Prices Went Up, But Artists Aren’t Seeing Any Of That Cash | Techdirt

Thoughts: Exactly why I no longer do business with eMusic. I have no respect for them anymore. Musicians should pull out.

» iPhone 4G Rumors Visualized [PHOTO] | Mashable

» The case against a 10″ AMOLED Apple tablet | Ars Technica

» Violent strike racks Apple’s touchscreen supplier | TUAW

» $450 million iPhone piracy figure not grounded in reality | Ars Technica

» DisplayPort 1.2 official with multi-streaming, USB | Electronista

» Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 2 brings Pitivi, panel changes | Ars Technica

» After Google hack, Microsoft asks users to abandon IE6, XP | Ars Technica

» Skype fixes bugs in upgraded iPhone application | iPhone Central

» The Subscription War: You’re Bleeding to Death | Gizmodo

» Warner Bros. Gets Netflix To Delay Movies; You Don’t Save Your Business By Pissing Off Your Customers | Techdirt

From the let-them-self-distruct dept…

» NY Times Apparently Planning To Commit Suicide Online With Paywall | Techdirt

Thoughts: I don’t give two ****s about the NY Times. Let them “commit suicide” by making an online paywall.

» Possible Verizon iPhone found in screen cap | Electronista

Thoughts: Seriously, haven’t you heard of Photoshop?!?!

Alright moving on…

» Charge indicator for battery case | benvelo.com

Thoughts: I’ve always done this, one way means charged the other empty. This my friends is awesome!

» SkottiRotta – Lens cap holder / keeper | benvelo.com

Thoughts: I HAVE to make one of these. I’m always forgetting what pocket on my camera case I put the lens cap in. I swear that spikey haired one looks like Maggie Simpson. ;)

» Battery holder with a charge indicator | benvelo.com

Thoughts: Wow this is a great idea… but I still prefer plastic battery cases.

Two entries related to Steve Jobs…

» The decade of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple – Nov. 5, 2009 | Fortune

Thoughts: “Steve Jobs: CEO of the decade.” Enough said.

» Steve Jobs on Magazine Covers | Kuo Design

Thoughts: Awesome!

» Conan Puts The Tonight Show for Sale on Craigslist | Mashable

Thoughts: I’ve always liked Conan, and NBC once again is ****ING up their lineup. Fox should really offer Conan his own show, and NBC will suffer even more rating hits. Fox should also buy the rights to Kings – another epic show NBC ****ed. NBC = Nothing But Crap!

» How to Add TextExpander Touch SDK to iPhone Apps | Fresh Blocks

Thoughts: More iPhone / touch developers need to incorporate TextExpander Touch’s SDK into their apps. If they have a typing feature, it should be in there!

» Office pulled from Microsoft Store, MSDN, TechNet | Ars Technica

Thoughts: Looks like M$ didn’t get the XML out of the Office line-up fast enough.

» Spider-Man 4 Scrapped; [...] Sony Plans Franchise Reboot for 2012 | /Film

Thoughts: Not another franchise “reboot”. Good grief.

» LG Display’s 19-inch E Ink display plays loose with the truth | Engadget

Thoughts: Engadget is right, once they add all of the necessary electronics, this wont be very flexible.

» FCC bans current 700MHz devices, clears path to 4G | Electronista

Thoughts: Giddy Up 4G LTE!

» Apple finally has dedicated acquisition staff | MacNN

Thoughts: Sounds like the smart thing for Apple to have… a dedicated mergers and acquisitions (M&A) team.

» NASA Awards Contract for a Methane-Powered Balloon to Explore Saturn’s Moon | Popular Science

Thoughts: And how long will it take to get to Titan? Interesting idea, and it’s great that we are exploring our solar system, but one has to wonder what benefit we get from sending a balloon to Saturn’s Moon.

» Nintendo’s “fad” dominates Sony, Microsoft in December

Thoughts: I have a PS3 for Blu-Ray (and LittleBigPlanet), I have my Xbox 360 for games, and I have my Wii for more family oriented casual gaming. As you can tell, the 360 and the Wii get more play time. I still say that the 360 and it’s controller is the only thing that M$ has done right. The Wii is fun, and I see the appeal!

» Disney’s Re-Negotiation with Starz Could Limit Netflix Ability to Offer Streaming Movies | /Film

Thoughts: One step forward, and two steps back? Hmm…

Soda (or Pop – however you say it) tastes better with real sugar, not this HFCS crap. I’ve been enjoying the Pepsi Throwback, and glad to see it’s back for another run. [FIRST LINK] I’m even more excited to hear that Dr. Pepper is also releasing a made with real sugar version called Heritage Dr. Pepper! [SECOND LINK]

» Review: Pepsi Throwback » December 2009 Rerelease | BevReview

» Review: Heritage Dr Pepper | BevReview

» HAPPY MEAL: McDonald’s Now Provides Free Wi-Fi | Mashable

Thoughts: Okay I can count on one had the number of times I’ve eaten INSIDE of a McDonalds since I was 10. I know it’s popular for the families with little munchkins running around with ketchup on their face… Anyway… being an AT&T DSL subscriber I already had access to the vast AT&T Wi-Fi network (as bundled with my service)… I only really used it at Barns & Noble, and even then it wasn’t that great. Now that AT&T is trying to offset those of us with iPhones by offering free Wi-Fi to us, and now to anyone… I have to give them credit… Even though it has free Wi-Fi I’m still not going to go into a McDonalds to eat. (Maybe if I was traveling. Nope scratch that I have my Verizon MiFi.)

Alright moving on…

Ars Technica posted that Microsoft isn’t going to offer “upgrade” pricing for it’s Office 2010 suite of “office” apps.

Microsoft is quoted as doing this to “simplify” the Office lineup. Now each Office SKU will have two separate prices: the first is the “Full Packaged Product” aka FPP, the second is the “Product Key Card” aka PKC.

The FPP will come with the install media and two licenses for the product, where as the PKC will only give you one license and no media – you need to download a trial or borrow someone’s media to install it.

Now, I didn’t read anything about the Microsoft pricing for Office 2010 when it was announced (I was on a RSS holiday)… but I’m NOT shocked to learn that M$ is going to offer an AD-SUPPORTED “Office 2010 Starter” version. Yes I said AD-SUPPORTED!

This super scaled down version of Word and Excel will replace the long-in-the-tooth M$ Works application that is often pre-installed on OEM machines.

How about this for you Winblows users… dump M$ Office and get OpenOffice. It’s FREE, as in beer; and not riddled with ADs like the Sunday paper.

The other day I brought up the topic of OpenOffice to my colleague, and he pooh-poohed the whole concept of OO. He kept saying, okay insert such and such, or set such and such. I was there with every move. I don’t understand why we still force the majority of our faculty to use M$ Office 2000, when OpenOffice.org is a free alternative that continues to be updated.

It’s time to take back the Monopoly Bank from M$ and get more people to use the free OpenOffice alternative.

Linkage:

Thoughts: It’s not “coming soon” anymore… It’s out! Go get it. It’s a “major” update. Yay! Faster syncing amongst others!

» Appeals Court: FCC Can’t Make Comcast Stop Throttling BitTorrent | Mashable

Thoughts: Okay. Time to re-think the life long instatement of judges. How many of these judges understand the technology and the true ramifications of their verdicts on the tech and the future of the tech?

» Overdrive(TM) 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot by Sierra Wireless | Sprint

Thoughts: Oy Vey! It’s like a MiFi on steroids! I’m not sure that I would get one if I didn’t already have a Verizon MiFi… I’m not to fond of Sprint.

» Apple looking into building Palo Alto prototype store? | MacNN

Thoughts: “The store is a commons for the applicant’s community to gather.” – And you wonder why Apple will no longer be part of MacWorld. They are a consumer electronics company, with stores that get a lot more foot traffic. If you can’t visit the Mother Ship, visit one of it’s Satellites.

» New app centralizes social networking, iPhone contacts | iPodNN

Thoughts: I have NOT tried this app yet. However it looks interesting! I’m all about making sure I have all possible ways to contact someone.

» Google launches free public DNS | Networking | MacUser

Thoughts: Okay so this isn’t exactly new… but I’m not exactly sure I would trust DNS to Google. They have their tentacles in all the web honey jars… now they are going to manage DNS resolution? Hmm…

» Drunk Drivers in Texas to Be Named on Twitter | Mashable

Thoughts: Okay, I hope they get sued when there is a false arrest for DUI. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? If their DUI tests prove that a person was wrongly arrested, is the DA going to post a tweet saying that John Doe was found innocent? Yeah I doubt it. Read next…

» Drunken Drivers Evade the Cops With Twitter | Mashable

Thoughts: LMAO. See what happens when a DA says that they are going to post DUI arrests on Twitter? People post about checkpoints. Now we have some really drunk idiots driving a different route when they shouldn’t be surfing the web/twitter or DRIVING!