Craig.Carlen[Online].com

I’m a big proponent of truth in advertising - especially when those ads are related to technology. Advertisers will invariably push the limits on what defines ‘truth‘. For example, when DirecTV ads come on it’s only in the smallest of print that appears on the screen for maybe 5 seconds do they mention that every additional receiver you install requires a $5.00 fee. They’re by no means lying about it, but to hide that fact in the legalese the FCC and FTC requires for promotional and sales ads is arguably holding back part of the truth.

But when it comes to cable and satellite providers, Comcast is by far the biggest abuser of the Truth in Advertising laws I’ve seen in a long time. Truth in Advertising is fairly straight forward - an ad must be truthful and non-deceptive, there must be evidence to substantiate the claims of the ad, and the advertisements cannot be unfair. Comcast stretches those guidelines to the nth degree - at least with their ads here in Michigan.

A Texas women is suing Blockbuster for allegedly telling all her friends on Facebook what her rental habits are. In the lawsuit that was filed last week, the woman alleges Blockbuster violated the federal Videotape Privacy Protection Act by sharing information about her movie rentals as well as video sales with Facebook and thus her network of friends without first obtaining her written consent. And I’m sure you’re dying to know how that happened. It seems Facebook has been utilizing a new advertising platform called Beacon. A platform most Facebook users are most likely very much unaware of.

Okay, I’m not a huge Microsoft fan. I get tired of the constant updates to my operating system and to be honest, it often feels like they get more wrong than they get right. When Microsoft acquired SeaDragon, it wasn’t big news.

Sellaband may be onto something. They might just have found a new and viable alternative to the antiquated music industry. In a nutshell their idea is to marry social financing with independent bands looking to make it big. And the idea may just work.

I’ve never been a big fan of Microsoft’s consumer connectivity products: Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Outlook. Maybe it’s because they are Microsoft products and I don’t want to be tied too closely to one software provider or maybe it’s because I don’t find them as usable as other similar products. In any event, I use Mozilla’s Firefox to browse, Mozilla’s Thunderbird for e-mail and contacts, and Google Calendar for well, a calendar.

Sometimes I wonder if the people at Apple get it. Do they really get it.

It seems Apple, in it’s ultimate wisdom has decided to register a federal challenge to a trademark request by New York City - you know, the place know as the Big Apple. It seems that Apple Inc. thinks that the new logo for the Big Apple’s new GreeNYC campaign is simply too similar to Apple’s logo.

According to Apple, the logos are similar enough to “seriously injure the reputation which [Apple] has established for its goods and services.” So Apple is basically saying that consumers are not smart enough to see the difference between a chromed apple with a bite out of it and a stylized apple with a leaf. Maybe a different look at the logos:

I’m still not seeing it. Even with the different GreeNYC logo, I’m still not seeing it. I’ll hand it to Apple - they certainly put a lot of trust in their customers to make a fight out of something like this to ensure that no Apple customer - current or future - will ever walk up to a GreeNYC promotion believing they’ll be able to purchase the latest and greatest Macbook Air Micro Touch Pro. And yes ladies and gentlemen, that was sarcasm.

Source: Wired