Bob Caswell

Most of us want to be more charitable, though somehow giving to a random charity often leaves us with too many unanswered questions: Where specifically does my money really go? How much of it actually makes it to the end destination?

Enter San Francisco based non-profit Kiva.org: a peer-to-peer microfinance gateway, which combines the Nobel Peace Prize concept of microcredit with the power of the Internet to facilitate micro-lending to small business owners in developing countries. Here’s how it works:

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AT&T won’t say how much the rebranding will cost but claims it will benefit from having one name on all its services. But is it worth it? The company will have to change signs in around 2,000 stores. And let’s not forget the cost of letterhead and employee uniforms. Though perhaps the most difficult cost to calculate: young consumers who like the hip feel of Cingular over the stuffy AT&T brand of yesteryear.

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So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past couple days, you’ve inevitably heard that Apple released its highly anticipated iPhone, fusing the ubiquitous iPod with the even more ubiquitous cellphone. Apple Computer even went as far as changing it’s name to Apple Inc. to illustrate just how serious this move is. The company has officially graduated from computer company to consumer electronics superstar.

But Cisco, the company that owns the iPhone trademark (incidentally, the latest rendition of the Cisco iPhone was hurriedly released three weeks ago: a VOIP phone that was and is talked about more for its name than anything), is now suing Apple.

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Purdue University is a Big Ten school with 40,000+ students and a fairly tech savvy campus. But due to bugs, compatibility issues, and lack of backwards compatibility, Purdue is holding off on Microsoft upgrades for now. Reproduced with permission, here’s the letter I received explaining why Purdue will not upgrade Windows, Office, or even Internet Explorer on thousands of computers:

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Samsung now has a way of delivering video and even live TV to on-the-go gadget-aholics: cellphones that get digital signals from local TV broadcasters. Cellphones with the new technology implemented will basically become portable television sets that will have the same reception as TVs with antennas.

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Less than a week after the blogosphere-proclaimed scandal of Google displaying “tips” right above search results, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) decides to run an article entitled “Google Steps Up Self Promotion.” Interestingly enough, there is no scandalous tone from big media; rather, the WSJ thinks its about time. Here are a few choice quotes:

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More rumors are surfacing around Amazon offering DRM-free MP3s to compete with Apple’s iTunes. Only this time the rumors include other MP3 download services and are coming from the mainstream press (does that make it more or less credible?). Looks like certain key executives have converted to the idea that digital downloads should be sold as unprotected MP3s.

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