“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) told Reuters. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

The move came only 2 days after a widespread protest took place on the Internet. The protest included a host of major websites like Wikipedia and Reddit going dark to signal their displeasure with the bill.

The protest resulted in several Congressmen making statements that they were no longer supporting SOPA or its Senate counterpart, PIPA. The PIPA bill has also been pulled for the time being.

Facebook stated, “Einstein’s Bagels” is essentially the first example of a business offering an instant digital coupon for consumers to get something free, although there are probably some people who would contest that. One thing can be sure, Einstein’s Bagels knocked it out of the park with their promotion and intelligently parlayed that into an opportunity to get a great news piece published in a major technology publication. Being from Austin, it’s great to see our city being so well represented in the Social Media landscape by local business.

That said, this raises some interesting logistical questions about the use of digital and mobile coupons and how they can be tracked effectively. Many if not most of the web-based or mobile coupon applications require the coupons to be printed out (which is obviously inconvenient given the ease of carrying a mobile phone), or somehow requires the merchant to validate the coupon/offer at the point-of-sale. Even with the Einstein promotion, it was never made crystal clear how Einstein’s validated the users beyond the statement…they were working directly with Facebook to insure the campaign was successful.

The bottom line is that with a printed coupon or fan status validation, you won’t know who redeemed what, where, and when. You won’t know who your greatest champion is or who your best customers are, which takes away your ability to reward them. Companies like Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and now Facebook are leveraging GPS and other check in features allowing customers to track and publish how often they visit a business. While this might be a workable avenue to develop coupon applications, loyalty programs, and other mobile application development platforms, other questions will arise with apps like Foursquare and Gowalla since they are game-based and require customers to actually use and play those games.

The #1 thing that digital and mobile coupons require is real-time validation and tracking. Stay tuned as a number of products near completion…including one that will not only allow you to tap your users social graph, it will support coupon redemption tracking, track viral coupon distribution by your userbase, drive customer loyalty, and even deliver rewards to your customers. I am betting on the leading applications being web-based and then having mobile compatibility, so they have the ability to be truly viral without any specific platform limitations.

Google claims they have received over 1,100 community requests and almost 200,000 responses from individuals. Google’s plan to offer the service to only a limited number of test homes (currently thought to be somewhere between 50,000 and 500,000), likely means there will be only one happy entrant. Google is now beginning site visits to narrow down their choices and expect to announce the official test location by year’s end.

[ Read More Here ]

Adding to the simplicity of the service, iPodMeister will even rip your music collection to mp3 (digitizing***) and send it to you, as long as you are willing to see the CD “Cost-per-item” go up.

The list of products available including exchange rates currently includes:

* Phones require activation and registration at the time of purchase so you will be sent a check for the price of the iPhone plus applicable sales tax: 8GB iPhone 3G = $107, 16 GB iPhone 3G S = $217, 32 GB iPhone 3G S = $326.

**All external hard drives are from top brands like Western Digital, Seagate, Iomega, and Maxtor. Customers can choose the file format (Windows or Mac) but cannot choose the color.

For further details visit iPodMeister

Limitations of current networks and technologies make 100 mbps an aggresive goal for wide-spread access in the US. To gain this level of access currently, consumers require access to DOCSIS 3.0 cable internet or a fiber network like Verizon’s FiOS service. The fact that these technologies aren’t widely available, along with the fact that end-user speeds vary greatly depending on where they are implemented is what makes this a truly aggressive goal.

In a related statement, Genachowski also touted Google’s plans for a gigabit fiber network as the sort of innovation that needs to be focussed on. This is just another example of the FCC publicly releasing more information about their US broadband adoption goals as we near the official announcement of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, which is due to be presented next month.

Read the full story here.

The bullet impacted the mobile phone dead center, stopping the bullet and preventing the woman from receiving anything more than just bruises. Butler Twp. police Capt. Carl Bush was quoted as saying, “The BlackBerry saved her absolutely. It could have been pretty serious.”

While the man did have a permit to carry the concealed weapon, the permit forbids any such weapon from being carried onto premises that sell alcohol. He faces charge of possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises, a third-degree felony. The man faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and if convicted, would also face mandatory revocation of his concealed carry permit.

The girlfriend is alive and well with only bruising, unfortunately the same cannot be said for the BlackBerry which was pronounced dead at the scene.

[Via Dayton Daily News]

How You Can Make a Difference

For each instance of someone upgrading their Internet Explorer from version 6 to version 8 via www.browserforthebetter.com (a free upgrade), Microsoft will donate funds to provide 8 meals through Feeding America. And during September, Microsoft will double their donation to provide 16 meals.

How do you find out if you have Internet Explorer 6?

1. Open Internet Explorer (Yes, click the blue e)
2. In the top menu bar, click “help”
3. Then, click “About Internet Explorer
4. The resulting pop-up window will read “Version:6.x.xxxx.xxxxx”

What to do if you have Internet Explorer 6?

1. Go to the “Browse for the Better” Website by CLICKING HERE.
2. Click “Download Internet Explorer 8 for Free”
3. Feel good because you just provided 16 meals for the hungry

About Feeding America

Feeding America provides low-income families and individuals with the nourishment they need to survive. They are currently the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity and supply food to over 25 million Americans every year. This includes 9 million children and 3 million seniors. The charity fights hunger in all of its forms and consists of over 200 member food banks that support approximately 63,000 agencies. For more information about how you can help to fight hunger in your community and across the country, please visit www.feedingamerica.org.

John Kanzius of Erie Pennsylvania has seemingly discovered a way to cure cancer. Kanzius says he is not going to sell-out to pharmaceutical companies or venture capitalists who would certainly try to put a lid on it to secure the future financial profits for themselves.

Possible Solution to the Energy Crisis – Burning Salt Water

While this cure for Cancer is incredible all in itself, he may have stumbled across a possible solution to the energy crisis at the same time. “On our way to try to do desalinization, we came up with something that burns, and it looks in this case that salt water perhaps could be used as a fuel to replace the carbon footsteps that we’ve been using all these years, i.e., fossil fuels,” Kanzius said.