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Chevy Tries a Write-Your-Own-Ad Approach, and the Potshots Fly — At first glance, the video looks like a typical 30-second car commercial: a shiny sport utility vehicle careers down a country road lined with sunflower fields, jaunty music playing in the background.
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Why Chevy Tahoe campaign was doomed before it launched
Discussion:
Between the Lines

Reasons to Love Open-Source DRM — I acknowledge that the title of this column is strange. Aside from the fact that most savvy music listeners (justifiably) hate DRM, the very idea of using open-source software to enforce digital rights management runs counter to everything commonly assumed …


How I Work: Bill Gates — Not much of a paper chase for Microsoft's chairman, who uses a range of digital tools to do business. — NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - It's pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft (Research) was starting and realize how work has been transformed.
Discussion:
Neowin.net, Valleywag, Digital Inspiration, Incremental Blogger, Daggle and Rex Hammock's Weblog


New Trends In Online Traffic — Visits to Sites for Blogging, Local Information and Social Networks Drive Web Growth — While growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information.
Discussion:
The Kelsey Group Blog, Investor Relations Blog, Screenwerk, THE PR MACHINE™ PROJECT and Bloggers Blog

Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible — LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems …

Microsoft Does Linux — I had to check the date on the article when I saw the announcement that Microsoft was going to provide some level of support for Linux. However, this is not an April Fool's Day joke; it's the real thing and has serious implications.
Discussion:
microsoft.com
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Mac's Moment? — Apple has its best chance in years to make a dent in the business market — Japan's Aozora Bank Ltd. is planning to do something once unheard of in the business world: switch nearly all of its 2,300 desktop personal computers to Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers.
Discussion:
Between the Lines, O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog, Mac Rumors, MacSlash and The Unofficial Apple Weblog


TabletKiosk eo UMPC evaluation underway! — The good folks at TabletKiosk have let me borrow one of their prototype eo UMPCs for a few days and I will be offering my observations about the device. Here's a couple of quick photos of the unit which will have to do until I have spent a little more time with the eo:
Discussion:
Kevin 2.0

The Spyware - Click-Fraud Connection — and Yahoo's Role Revisited — In August 2005, I posted half a dozen examples of what I call "syndication fraud" — Yahoo placing advertisers' ads into spyware programs, and charging advertisers for resulting clicks. But Yahoo's spyware problems extend beyond mere syndication fraud.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Search Engine Watch Blog, SearchViews, Search Engine Journal, SiliconBeat and Threadwatch.org

Google Related Links Launches For Publishers — The Google Related Links tool (which does not appear to be in BETA) is now available via Google Labs to publishers who are interested in adding it to their site. — Publishers can customize the look, feel, and size of the Google Related Links boxes …
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Fujitsu exhibits fold-out keyboard UMPC — Fujitsu has put on show a pair of conceptual PC designs, one intended to show how an "ultra-mobile" machine might operate, the other a home computer system which looks funky enough but probably won't give Apple's industrial designers any sleepless nights.

Raise an ALE to Google Maps API v2 — "Of course!" I said to myself as I saw the demo, "if web apps are becoming like desktop apps then of course we'll be building web equivalents of all the things that desktop apps needed." I was on a WebEx with Ross Dargahi, co-founder and VP of Engineering at Zimbra …
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Web Ads Appear On Racy Sites Despite Checks — Last month, Verizon Communications Inc. was surprised to find one of its Internet ads on a MySpace.com page with photos of scantily clad women. Walt Disney Co. was unaware that its ad was next to an article about male sexual performance on About.com.
Discussion:
This is going to be BIG!

Navman Unveils GPS/Camera Combo — In what is a first in the GPS category, Navman is introducing a new GPS that combines turn by turn navigation with a digital camera. — The new iCN750 will feature a 4-inch WQVGA (480-by-272 pixel) touch screen, a GPS unit preloaded with maps …

Microsoft Wins Biggest Phone-Software Order, Rivals BlackBerry — April 4 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. won its biggest-ever contract for mobile-phone software, an order from the U.S. Census Bureau that covers 500,000 handsets. — Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker …

I.B.M. to Work With Start-Up on Chip That Uses Less Power — SAN FRANCISCO, April 3 — I.B.M. plans to announce an alliance on Tuesday with a small Silicon Valley company that has designed a flexible microprocessor chip intended to perform tasks like video processing using less than a tenth the power of today's chips.


Borders to sell Sony digital reading device — The Sony Reader, a new text-reading device that lets you have the Bible or the entire works of Tolstoy on hand but carry around the physical equivalent of a paperback, will be sold at Borders bookstores. — The gadget, which debuted …