Apple has faced a fair amount of scrutiny in recent weeks concerning the Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology tied to its online music store, iTunes. It now appears that the company is in for a legal battle over its DRM practices as well.

The beating Microsoft is taking in the blogosphere and elsewhere over a patent filing leads me to wonder whether this isn’t an instance where some solid, formal communication might be in order.

In a world of scenarios and a slow news week, chatter about a possible AOL/Yahoo merger has crested the waves and face-planted itself upon the sandy shores of consideration.

I’m sitting with Dan Balz, political journalist for the Washington Post. He wrote this story of the events this morning.

In a recent email newsletter from SEO Research Labs, Dan Thies announces, “As of January 1st, I am closing the doors on my SEO training programs.”

The phrase “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” seems to be an appropriate idiom to describe a developing kerfuffle surrounding Microsoft’s latest blogger outreach campaign ahead of the launch of Windows Vista at the end of January.

In May 2005, a CNN article quoted Dana Todd, president of SEMPO as saying: “Google has always beenworse than bad [at customer service.]”

In a new report from Parks Associates titled “Digital Living 2006 Forecasts” they predict consumer use of the Internet and mobile services will increase US spending in the digital living services close to $300 billion by 2010.

The angst of bloggers who admitted to receiving choice AMD laptops loaded with Windows Vista received an injection of drama as PR firm Edelman has now asked for the goodies to be returned or given away after being reviewed.

Steve Jobs, chief executive for Apple Computer received $7.5 million in stock options in 2001 without the approval of the company’s board of directors. Records that show a full board meeting had taken place, as is Apple’s policy turn out to have been falsified.

Sales and marketing personnel are best employed in sales and marketing rather than carrying out repetitive administrative tasks. This is particularly true of small and medium sized businesses with limited personnel resources and the need to focus on customer contact in order to maintain and expand the customer base.

The RIAA has filed suit against AllofMP3 seeking back royalties for music downloaded between June and October of this past year. The filing of the suit has sparked reaction from both AllofMP3 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

We worry so much about click-through rates, ad campaigns, and keyword pricing that it’s easy to miss out on the more creative side of what the Internet can offer.

Yahoo Research is preparing to establish a research lab in Bangalore; it is also going to begin a string of lectures in India called the “Big Thinker Series.” And while that rather silly name may not demand respect, the series should focus on serious and relevant issues within the fields of “science, technology, and the internet.”

Whenever you make use of ViewState, Session, Forms authentication, or other encrypted and/or secured values, ASP.NET uses a set of keys to do the encryption and decryption.

Darren Rowse responds to suggestions that traffic gained from being on Digg is fleeting and not long-term. He offers some excellent insights as to how Digg can benefit a blog’s traffic.

When Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, conventional reasoning suggested that the search giant had grand plans to monetize the video content with advertising. As we sit upon the precipice of 2007, Google has begun testing in-stream advertising methods geared at just such a practice.

Google qualifies as one of the top hot growth tech companies of 2006, according to Business Week; the search engine company placed fourth on a list of 50. Two of its biggest competitors – Microsoft and Yahoo – also made the cut, but they were numbers 42 and 49, respectively.

Fred Wilson predicts the death of the page view in 2007 as a key metric for web businesses.

Marshall Kirkpatrick – Now Microsoft Wants Its Laptop Back – Yesterday I wrote about Microsoft and Edelman handing out spiffy new laptops to bloggers after Scott Beale announced that he got one over at Laughing Squid.

I wasn’t going to share my thoughts on Microsoft sending out free laptops to some A-list bloggers.

Robert Scoble revealed in his blog that he had been invited by the John Edwards campaign to cover the Senator’s announcement regarding his intention to pursue the U.S. Presidency.

Clipblast.com has released their Top 10 most popular searches for Internet video for 2006. ClipBlast! is proud to present the moments that the public wanted to watch in 2006,” said Gary Baker, ClipBlast! founder and CEO. “But what we’re most proud of is that we’re able to locate and show, in real time, a relevant variety of video – of all kinds, from all types of sources, from all across the Web. That’s something that Google, YouTube and other video-content providers aren’t doing yet.”

It’s a good thing Matt Cutts didn’t promise Google wouldn’t be making any algorithmic changes just before the holiday season, as is Google’s habit. The online purveyors of indie alt-erotica, who are collectively bemoaning the lump of coal Google dropped in their stockings this holiday season, would have cause to climb all over him.