A total of 54 this week, yay for picking up extra work and adding another blog!

FunJug.com

• Lady Gaga Undresses LisaNova at the Salem Witch Trials
• Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version
• Duck Hunt Behind-the-Scenes
• Librarians Do Gaga
• Ikea Song
• David Mamet’s “Lost Masterpieces of Pornography”
• STAR WARS I-PAD BRIEFING

Mobile.BLORGE.com

• Skype finally adds support for 3G
• LG releasing one more WinMo 6.5 phone
• AT&T announces new data plan pricing for the iPad and cell phones
• E-mailing AT&T’s CEO could result in legal action
• AT&T apologizes for threat of legal action

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Casio unveils new Exilim EX-FH25

RememberingChristmas.com

• Jeff Dunham Achmed’s “Jingle Bombs”

SeanPAune.com

• Guillermo Del Toro Leaves The Hobbit Production
• 10 Years Of Survivor
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 73: Moronic Monday walks into traffic
• Second Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Trailer
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 74: Does your ISP lie? DUH!
• True Blood Season 3 Trailer
• AT&T Threatens Customer With Cease & Desist Action Over Complaint Letters
• Scattercast Episode 98: Attack Of The Dogs
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 75: Techmeme Friday and a nice cold beer
• Introducing SpookieBits.com

SpookieBits.com

• Watch Beware The Blob (1972) For Free

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Skype finally adds 3G support to iPhone app
• Over 28,000 users pledge to quit Facebook over privacy concerns
• Apple sells 2 million iPads in 60 days
• Clickjacking attack spreading through Facebook “Like” system
• Google phasing out Windows internally
• Publishers hoping for one e-book format
• Rumor: Hulu coming to the Xbox 360
• Microsoft fires back at rumors of Google dumping Windows
• Twitter getting more social with new “You Both Follow” feature
• HP didn’t buy Palm to make phones
• HP backpeddles from comment about no more Palm phones
• iPad 3G units in short supply ahead of new AT&T data plan changes
• Yelp jumps into the check-in badge game

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Kindle 3 Rumored For August Release
• Holiday Inn Hotels Testing Smartphone Room Keys
• When Do Extreme Gamers Work Or Sleep?
• Apple May Have Revealed Its Next iPod Release Date With Sales Promotion
• Microsoft Actively Trying To Kill Off IE6
• An Infographic: The Biggest Shift Since The Industrial Revolution
• Time Magazine Names 50 Worst Inventions, Obviously Insane
• iPad Compatible Clothing Will Make You A Laughing Stock
• AT&T Introduces Tiered Data Plans
• Why Will There Be A Charge For Skype On iPhone 3G?
• Anonymous Pre-Paid Cell Phones Could Be Going Away
• Review: Netflix 2.0 For Roku
• Internet Explorer Slows Its Decline, But Still Loses Ground
• Why 3D TV Will Succeed
• A Look Back at the Original iPhone Keynote
• Why 3D TV Will Fail

At last I am taking the wraps off of the last of my blog launches.

SpookieBits (yes, we know that is not the correct spelling of “spooky”, but someone owned the correct domain name, and we think this ended up looking cute) is all about, you guessed it, Halloween.  Here is the information from the info page:

SpookieBits.com is all about a love of a holiday that has come to represent so much more than just a night for kids to go out and collect candy.  Halloween has become a love of life in its own way, and those things that creep us out and give us a rush which reminds us we’re alive.

As a family that has worked in various forms of Halloween businesses since our earliest years (Sean started working at age 8 off-and-on in retail, and was responsible for some purchasing by age 11), it has been hard some times for us to maintain the Halloween spirit during that specific time of the year.  As a family, we long ago decided to embrace our love of Halloween all year long.  We decided that perhaps we weren’t the only people in a similar situation, so we decided to help others embrace the inner ghouls and ghosts in their hearts through out the year … without having to think they’re the only ones like this.

So, won’t you join us?  We are dedicated to bringing you stories of Halloween, free Halloween entertainment, recipes, crafting ideas and a lot more.

This site joins the ranks with RememberingChristmas.com and FunJug.com in my … I guess you could call it my blog network … which frightens me.  SpookieBits is being lightly updated so far, but it will pick up more speed towards fall.

As with out other sites, a big hat tip to Blog Design Studio for creating the theme for us.

After a two night delay, we’re back, and just in time for TechMeme Friday!

We get a little off the track at the beginning discussing beer, but we get back on track soon enough!  Enjoy!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

• A Farewell to Bing cashback – Search Blog
• Updated: iPad 3G Shortage Won’t Bar Getting Unlimited Data Plan, AT&T Says – Bits
• Zuckerberg’s Bizarre Facebook Insignia Revealed, And What It Means – The Snitch
• At This Monday’s Apple Keynote?  Help Us Liveblog – Gizmodo
• China Blocks Foursquare; Too Many People Checking Into Tian’anmen – techblog88
• Google’s iTunes Competitor Will Likely Be Called Google Music – TechCrunch
• John Gruber jumps the shark – Why does everything suck?
• AOL Isn’t Negotiating A Search Deal, It’s Negotiating A Sale To Microsoft (AOL, MSFT, YHOO, GOOG) = Silicon alley Insider
• Yahoo Wants HuffPo Badly – TechCrunch

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Scattercast is 98 … and five guests this week!

Okay, let me just say in advance … there are five guests this week.  Yep, five extra voices are heard from this week … they just happen to be those of dogs.  I cut the episode a bit short this week because they just won’t stop … they’re still alive, I promise.

I finally talk about SpookieBits.com.

Some TV and movie news, as always.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Apparently if you are unhappy with the new AT&T data plans, then you just need to keep those thoughts to yourself.  Complaints will not be tolerated.

In this day and age of hyper-connectivity, it is not unusual for customers to e-mail CEOs of companies directly with questions and complaints.  Very few of them respond, although Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been on a response binge as of late, with almost all of his notes turning into blog posts on various tech blogs.

A customer named Giorgio Galante e-mail AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson two weeks ago about bumping up his iPhone upgrade eligibility date, and if the carrier would be adding tethering in the near future.  After the new data plans were announced, Mr. Galante e-mailed Mr. Stephenson again to inform him of his intent to switch to Spring as he was unhappy with the new policies of the company.

He received the following voicemail which you can listen to over on his blog:

Giorgio Galante, this is Brent [unintelligible] calling from AT&T’s Exectuive Response Team.  Calling in response to the latest e-mail which you sent to Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, earlier today, Wednesday, June 2nd.

I want to first thank you for the feedback.  Going forward, need to warn you that if you continue to send e-mails to Randall Stephenson a cease & desist letter may be sent to you.  If you would like to speak with [cut off to remove phone number]

Yes, folks … if you e-mail the CEO of a company you spend $110 a month with (which is what Mr. Galante was paying for his iPhone and iPad) twice in two weeks, you get threatened with legal action.  Apparently commenters on some blogs that are discussing this are saying this appears to be standard policy.

I am absolutely dumbfounded by this.  How can any company, and especially one that is in the middle of receiving highly negative press over a new policy, think it’s a good idea in this day and age to threaten already displeased customers with legal action?  Have they not heard of the blogosphere?  Twitter?  I wouldn’t be too surprised to see this end up on some morning news shows.  If you want to make sure your reputation gets even more damaged, then you threaten to bring in lawyers for a customer expressing their displeasure with your company.

Has no one taught AT&T about how to route e-mail?  They could let all the e-mails in the world come in from this guy, send them a holding folder, and he would never be the wiser, and would feel better having vented his frustrations.  Instead you make them that much angrier and possibly spread their venom around by threatening legal action where absolutely none is needed.

Being so into technology, people seem to be constantly amazed that I don’t have an iPhone.  There is one very specific reason I don’t have one, and that would be AT&T is the only carrier with it.  I hate this company and have for years.  With each decision they make they remind me again why I avoid them like the plague, and I will continue to do so.

Good job, Mr. Stephenson.  Way to win friends and influence people.

Update 6/3/10: Mr. Galante received an apology from a Senior VP named Lori.  Good on AT&T for the apology, but considering the coverage this got, shouldn’t Mr. Stephenson done it himself?

True Blood season 3 begins on June 13th, and to get ready for it the channel has released a new extended trailer.

It looks like things are just as crazy as we’ve seen in the last two seasons, and possible even nuttier. We get werewolves this year added to the mix, and it looks like their society is just as built up as the vampires with their own bar and so on.

All of our returning characters get their moments in this preview, and it looks like a lot of new faces will be joining in with us.  I do know a lot of this year’s plot has to do with the King of Mississippi, but what his goals are, I have no idea.

Looks to be good, I’m ready for it to start up!

We could tell you the meaning of life in this episode and you wouldn’t care as we were recording as Steve Jobs was being interviewed live.

Well, no meaning of life, but we do discuss the Google dropping Windows hoopla, the (horrible) Wired iPad app and how the FCC is spending money to investigate something any one using SpeedTest.net could tell them.

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

• Report: Google ditches Windows over security concerns – The Inquisitr
• Google kicks Windows to the curb over security – what a load of crap – WinExtra
• Adobe iPad Publishing Tools Coming Soon – Fast Company
• The FCC Wants to Know if Your ISP is Honest – ReadWriteWeb

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The second trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has hit the Internet, and I have to say “yay!” for a much better cut set of clips.

I still stand by what I said after the first trailer came out that I am not thrilled by Michael Cera once again playing the awkward card.  I will say that since that footage was released, I’ve read volumes 1 & 2, and have 3 through 5 in my possession, and with a better frame of reference now, the film looks amazing.

It appears the movie is trying to stay as close to the books as possible, although considering they are condensing six volumes worth of books into one film, there are sure to be some significant cuts to the smaller scenes.  The characters, costumes and even showing sound effects as they appear in the books is all really impressive.

I will admit Mr. Cera at least somewhat resembles the Scott Pilgrim character, but I still have problems with his acting.  He does the same shtick in every film he is in, and he somehow thinks he’s a serious actor.  Whatever, stop taking yourself so seriously and embrace your roles.

Anyway, I’m much more interested in this film having now seen this trailer.  It hits theaters on August 13th.