Government Crackdown on Online Movies!

Just recently I have noticed some of the favorite web sites to view movies & videos online for free have been either blocked by the feds or have been seriously limited in their ability to provide such videos online. There are a few like TVShack, Watch-Movies.Net (WARNING THIS SITE IS FILLED WITH AUTOMATED POP-UPS AND SUSPICIOUS SCRIPTS AND DOES NOT ALLOW ONLINE VIEWING OF ANY VIDEOS, JUST LINKS TO OTHER SUSPICIOUS SITES), OVGuide and others. It seems that it has become much more difficult for Internet users to see these once great sources of free content. I'm sure the big bad movie industry's hired gun Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and others have had some if major influence in this stance of actions to protect copyright material from being viewed publicly free of charge even if it is in a poor video quality and many times pirated by some fanatic in a theater with a camcorder. I guess they are in the right to do such actions after all they must protect the owners rights to earn a living on thework produced and let's just say that the theater industry isn't exactly rolling in the money now a days with the advent of pirated online videos/ movies. Hulu seems to be taking it the proper way paying some sort of royalty fee to the industry and or owners of the content and still providing a free plus subscribed online experience. For those still willing to explore the Internet for free movies and or videos, there are still sites out there to connect to outside the realm of the industry and the Federal government of the US but take care it could come at an unexpected price. Stay legal and give the devil its dues by either seeing the movie when it's released in theaters or buying the Blue-ray/ DVD when available, you will end up in the end with a better quality video source and do the right thing.

Comcastic Offer and Customer Friendly!

I just recently received my new replacement of a free Motorola cable modem from Comcast (My current ISP) along with an added FREE bonus to keep, a Netgear Wireless N 150 router. I was told they are offering this to current customers that have a need for one if they have the older Patriot Media cable modem like devices that I had. It was easy enough to setup initially and then activate over the phone with a Comcast representative but I ran into serious issues when it came to my Vonage's VOIP services. Having a very good Internet signal with Comcast's new cable modem replacement, I thought the cause of the problem was Vonage andspent over 1.5 hours over the phone (cel phone prepaid) with a service support representative(s) telling me to connect and disconnect wires and power to all the units in order to get it working. It seems that some of the older Vonage devices are not quite compatible with the new cable ISP standards and mine could be one of them but Vonage refused to have it replaced without a cost factor to me, which I felt was unjust. In the end I got the Vonage's device to work but not with any of their help at all, on my own as always. It seems that Vonage is plagued with the "treat their customers like crap" syndrome that many other companies are adapting and suffering from at the moment where on the other hand, Comcast that I have been so critical about is taking a more customer friendly policy especially with these two free upgrades.

The new Netgear Wireless router has some especially useful built-in utilities to monitor Internet Use especially handy with Comcast's current data ceiling policy (which I hope they finally remove). This device was really easy to setup and it's built-in interface is a breeze even for the novice of users. It came new with all the documentation & installation CD which is not really required to get it up and running, just a good Internet signal and connection.

In conclusion, I hope that Comcast's present policies continues to be positive ones like this really nice offering that benefitted both parties. Happier and well treated customers are usually better, recommend the service and or company and stay longer with them as truly committed customers.

IPad Clones rival the Apple Hard to get & Expensive Unit.

While exploring the market of touch tablet PC's on the Internet I have found that there are many really good alternatives reasonably priced and with better features then the infamous Apple IPad which is impossible to get at the moment. So what does a consumer do with

money to burn and desire to buy Apple's Ipad but non available, they look overseas primarily to the chinese market. There are several suppliers andmodels NOW available at the fraction

of the cost of IPad like the so called EPad's, APads and others. Commonly referred to as MID

's they vary in style and size from 7 inch to bigger but I found that the 7 inch to be more hand

friendly & weigh less. Granted these clones do not have Apple's OS, support or maybe even battery life but they don't cost $500 starting and limited to AT&T's death grip of service nor its unchangeable memory storage size once a model is picked and yes you can have one TODAY if you want with Android (a fast growing mobile OS). Be warned there are some touch tablet MID's out there like the SMartQ that has installed a very difficult customized and cloned Android system and not the general Android OS without ability to add or customize properly its use despite its hardware perks and price. Main street tech media doesn't really want to cover these overseas items for reasons only one can imagine but you as a consumer can research them online through Youtube videos and others then buy online (I recommend Ebay for its buyer protection policies) so go out and explore Apple is not your only choose ot the best one.

Mac Backtrack on Iphone Issue!

It looks like Apple and Steve Jobs in particular had to swallow some humility pill partially regarding the IPhone's antenna issue after getting attacked finally by Consumer Reports bad recommendations and the heat from the press. Although main stream tech media reporting makes light of the issue, this is a big problem and issue at Apple's attitude towards it's customer based taking for granted their minions and zombie like following that is now corrupted by the not so willing to swallow the mind numbing Apple compliance pill. Now they are offering to give for free the bumper guards up until September of 2010 and refund or give purchase credit for those who bought one since the release of the IPhone 4's from Apple. Apple's problems are not over, there is still the issue of shortages of stock availability of both the Iphone 4 and the previously released IPad's loosing many more customers ready to buy but looking for other alternatives (Wii strategy?). Customers should always come first and NO company should take for granted their following or customers to just blindly continue no matter what abusive practices they wish to impose on them, learn from Microsoft's experience now falling drastically in it's own following it also took for granted. So Apple had it's Toyota moment as some tech journalists have said just recently on their online podcast's (the real future of tech journalism). Despite this fix by Apple and semi apology (really?) by Steve Jobs (the GOD of Apple World), I still predict that the overall sales will not reach expected due to these issues and other pointed out by users. Don't get me wrong they will sell plenty and cause the market to move but I don't believe they will get what was foretasted by both Apple and tech media. I still personally like Apple products despite it's faults but must think twice about committing to any new product of theirs until some of these issues are addressed.