It'll be three months in the clink for the British bus driver who tried getting even with his former girlfriend by posting on the Internet a video of them having sex. Paul Clarke posted the video and then paid a friend to pass around business cards including the Website to Cara Whitehouse's neighbors, colleagues, and on her 21st birthday party this year. The site reportedly got three hundred hits before being shutdown and included the video clip, abusive comments, and other explicit images of Whitehouse.
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A North Seattle Sam's Club is blushing profusely after a father who bought a computer there for his son discovered child porn on the computer's hard drive. The computer's package may have been opened before the father bought the computer, or the computer had previously been a display model accessible by customers, the store told authorities. The man returned the computer and received a full refund, but while Sam's Club is trying to atone to the family – saying the incident was an isolated one – another twist emerged: the boy saw the child porn and may have seen some of his classmates in the images – even, reportedly, telling authorities he might know who the suspect is. Authorities plan to talk to the boy further about the incident because of that.
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Microsoft plans to get its audio and video software into cell phones before Apple beats them to it. "Quietly," it is said, Microsoft has been preparing to make its media software available to chip and handset makers to let you play on your cell phone the music you've saved on your computer in Windows Media format. "We've been hush-hush about it, so far," said Windows Digital Media director Erik Huggers. "But we understand this is a major market opportunity. The sales numbers (of mobile phones) are staggering. It's obvious that it's our goal to sign up all major handset makers." Some analysts have suggested cell phones might well put the dedicated portable music player out of business because bigger memory equals consumers storing music on the phone.
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Marks & Spencer is pondering whether to outsource their online retail operations to Amazon.com, in what M&S calls a bid to free up more management time to turn around the company's troubled high-street brick and mortar business. M&S is said to be talking "to a number of interested parties, thought to include Amazon," this in the middle of a corporate shakeup led by new chief executive Stuart Rose.
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RealNetworks is probably pondering the next step, now that their 49 cent-a-song promotion for every song on its new online pay-per-song music download service has ended with Real calling it a hit. Real said they sold three million songs during the three-week promotion, which many saw as a gutsy move because Real has acknowledged they expect third-quarter losses widening by a penny a share as a result of the promotion. Real is now launching a modified promotional plan offering only the top ten songs at the 49-cent bargain rate. Everything else? Sorry – the usual 99 cents a song.
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The Donald to Yahoo: You're Hired! The second season of Donald Trump's The Apprentice will include Yahoo producing, hosting, and selling advertising for the show's official Website as well as ingratiating content tied to the show into Yahoo's network. The official Website for The Apprentice went live September 9. "The fans of The Apprentice are very devoted to the program," said the show's producer, Mark Burnett, "and can now enjoy a deeper relationship with our program and its contents by going online to Yahoo."
