Google Respondes to Cloaking Accusations
PR move or real motive?

From eWeek "Google has taken the unusual step of removing some of its own Web pages from its Web index after reports that the pages used a search-optimization method frowned upon by the search engine.

Search-engine watchers this week widely noted the appearance of so-called "cloaking" on a set of user support pages on Google's AdWords advertising program. The pages were displaying different title information to Google's Web crawler than to regular visitors to the pages."

Read Full Story by Matt Hicks at [eWeek]

Amazon Patents Gender Data Mining ... huh?
News From cNet.com

Amazon patents gender-guessing data-mining
There are so many things wrong with this story that we hardly know where to start. Amazon has been granted a patent on certain data-mining techniques and their resulting business decisions. For example, if you buy a dress for a doll as a gift, Amazon will decide the recipient is a girl, then wrap the gift in pink or pastel paper, and that's a patent-protected activity. Hey, if the rest of the world has to stop stereotyping by gender because Amazon has a lock on the market, well, so much the better.

[Full Story - cNet]

Samsung Announces Two High Tech Phones
News/Photo from PhoneScoop.com



At CeBit Samsung took the wraps off two new high-end multimedia phones, one for music, another for imaging. Since these announcements were in Europe, both phones are GSM / GPRS 900/1800/1900.

• SGH-i300: A candybar style, music-oriented smartphone running Windows Mobile. Includes a 3 GB hard drive for storage, scroll wheel for navigation, 1.3 MP camera with flash and Bluetooth. Music player can handle mp3, WMA, plus AAC, AAC+ and OGG files.
• SGH-D600: A slider featuring a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and TV output for pictures and video. Also features Bluetooth, voice recognition, and mp3 / AAC music player.

Samsung also announced another Z series 3G phone, the Z700.

[PhoneScoop]

Mad About ChoicePoint? Call
their CEO
Someone fwd this to me, it was in their local paper.

ChoicePoint is one of the largest distributors of personal information in the world. The company sells its dossiers (it has one on virtually every man, woman and child in America) to insurance companies, businesses conducting background checks, and the federal government.

ChoicePoint also recently sold personal information - including Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, home addresses and phone numbers - of at least 145,000 people to a Nigerian identity thief. Whoops!

Because CEOs of large companies are sometimes hard to get in touch with, we thought that those victims whose identities were stolen would have an easier time voicing their concerns if they had ChoicePoint CEO Derek V. Smith's home phone number and address.

We admit, publishing someone's personal info without his or her permission is kind of rude. But selling such info is how Smith makes a living, so he can't be opposed to it, right? After all, Smith earns about $17 million annually in salary, bonuses, stock options and other compensation.

ChoicePoint's logic for selling the records is that the data is public record (aside from credit reports, for which an individual must grant permission for ChoicePoint to access). Well, the info we're about to give is public, too. It sort of takes on a different sheen, though, when it's lumped together for public consumption, huh, Derek?

So here it is, Smith's home number: 770-667-5775. (If you'd rather write him, his address is 15120 N. Valleyfield Road, Alpharetta, GA, 30004.)

If you do call or write him, be sure to wish him a belated happy birthday. Using Web searches, we found Smith was born in February 1955.

Incidentally, we also unearthed, in public records, the floor plan of Smith's and his wife Lisa's 9,223-square-foot home, which was last appraised at $1.4 million.

Just thought you'd like to know.

T-Mobile Sidekick 2 Review
Thanks to MobileBurn



Michael Oryl, the editor over at MobileBurn has posted a great review of T-Moblie's Sidekick II. This is one of the hottest devices out at the time because of the media hype with celeberties like Paris Hilton and that crowd all using it (for free of course).

I am a loyal user of the Sidekick II for now, but the service has really gone down the drain. The last week has been especially bad, Danger (the maker of the Sidekick and the data provided) has system wide problems for 3 days and provided almost no feedback or customer care to people who were depending on the device for their data needs. Feels great to pay $20 a month for something that works maybe 50%-70% as advertised. Just remeber that although the TV shows it as a great device, and it really is, that the service leaves much to be desired.

[News About the Sidekick II outages - cnet.com]

But anyways back to the main point at hand. Mobile Burn concludes that:

"If you can get past its size and weight, and the marginal camera, the T-Mobile Sidekick 2 is a fantastic device. It makes great use of its connectivity and keeps you constantly in the loop. The user interface is top notch, and the vast array of available applications is sure to keep you both entertained and working efficiently.

I'd really like to see a memory card slot and a MP3 player in addition to Bluetooth headset support in a device this large, but I guess we'll have to keep our fingers crossed until the next generation of Sidekicks comes out.

I give it a "Highly Recommended" rating."

I can't agree more ... Read Full Review at [MobileBurn Sidekick II Review]

AOL VOIP A Reality (soon)



AOL has been testing out VOIP service for a few months now. Seeing the decline of dial-up customers in the US, AOL has been trying to expand its business into more profitable markets. Rumor has it that the service is only weeks away from a full blown public launch. The explosion in VOIP popularity due to ever confusing phone plans from the giants and the launch of new and exciting services such as Vonage, Packet8 etc shows that AOL is probably headed in the right direction.

Want to know more? Head over to do some [Light Reading]

Want to be a race queen?
Sake Drenched Postcards Has A Great Article For You!



If you go to carshows, electonic shows, gamer conventions or almost anything with lots of males looking to the lastest and greatest you are sure to see bothbabes. These young, attractive females usually don skimpy outfits and smile politely as hoards of men snap pictures and ask mind numbling questions about the products the women are posing with. Asian car shows and the Japanese have taken this to a whole new level with the advent of "RaceQueens." These females have an even harder task, but can gain a huge following that may or may not lead to stardom.

The article is too long to repost here, but make sure to check it out. It has some RaceQueen Photos include also so it might be smart to wait unitl the boss is gone or until you are home to read the articles unless you want to explain what you are doing.

[Sake]

Sanyo Shows Off W21SA "Spacephone"



The “Spacephone” W21SA features a FM Radio tuner, a navi walk with an integrated compass, foldable and twistable 2.4 inch LCD display, acting as a viewfinder for the 2-megapixel camera. The W22SA model offers everything on the W21SA and an integrated MP3 player with stereo speakers. The handset also has something called ‘Feather Touch Key’, allowing the control of certain features when the phone is closed.

[PhoneMag]

Virus On Cell Phones Reported

The first mobile phone virus that spreads using the popular Mobile Messaging Service (MMS) is circulating among mobile phone users with Symbian Series 60 mobile phones, antivirus companies have warned. This is truly a sad day, especially since I am using a Nokia 7610 with the Symbian S60 OS on it for my primary phone these days.

[Yahoo News Story]

EV-DO? EV-DV, how about just making something that works?

Qualcomm announced that it is shelving its EV-DV technology because there is really almost no interest from the CDMA providers. EV-DV was suppose to be a new standard that could support speeds of 3Mbps on CDMA2000 networks. However, those networks are not really in place yet and even EV-DO is slow to gain acceptance and use.

Personally I wish that all these telecom companies would stop trying so hard to develop new technologies and just make a good network that works well. Increase coverage, less drop calls, better building penetration and data speeds would not be as important. Very few people need to have 3Mbps on the cell network, but give me a good solid 100-150Kbps connection and I will be a happy man.

Eat Kosher? Now You Can Have Kosher Mobiles.



Found this interesting article on [Mobile 9] today.

Israeli operator MIRS Communication has released a mobile phone that suits the traditional way of life of ultra orthodox Jews in Israel. Perhaps a surprising move for a community so strictly bound to their traditions, the intrusion of technologies such as mobile phones has been studied extensively by scholars. A suitable phone, in which many modern features will be absent, has been developed at last. Although a phone is a communication device by nature, MIRS will charge low fees for calls on the own network, and extraordinary high fees for any calls outside the network. This should discourage subscribers to venture outside the community.

The Motorola handsets have been modified to disable internet access, SMS text services and video and voice-mail applications. Growing concern that new-generation mobile phones could threaten the conservative, ultra-Orthodox values and way of life, particularly among the young, led to a rabbinical committee being formed to examine the issue.

A daring move by the haredi community, one that could have enormous consequences in the long run. Will new technology find a place next to age-old tradition?

Virgin Radio On Mobiles
Corny Sexual Comments Left Out



Virgin Radio is already a pretty popular service all over Europe and starting to catch on elsewhere in the world. Not too big in the US because its not really meant for this market, but something to think about. They have launced a new service for GPRS / 3G Mobiles. The Virgin Mobile Radio is a Java download (for J2ME enabled phones) and all you need to do is launch the app and tune in to some fresh beats.

For now the service is FREE, and free is always good! Virgin makes money by running ads just like traditional radio stations. Now this finally makes sense, why waste so much bandwidth trying to watch slow and coppy video when radio on cell phones makes a whole lotta sense. Remeber that although the service is free itself, you might still be billed by your mobile operator for data usage. It uses approximately 7.2 MB per hour, not bad if you have unlimited data, but could add up if you pay by the KB or MB.

[MobileBurn]