Bridget Carey: The Digital Dish

How much will technology influence your vote for president?

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promises to appoint the nation's first chief technology officer if elected.

Last week he made mobile history by sending a text message to 2.9 million people announcing that he picked as his running mate Sen. Joe Biden, who isn't beloved by the geek elite. Biden scored a 37.5 percent on the voter guide for CNET, a technology news site.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, has told the press he doesn't send e-mails and is still getting accustomed to using the Internet.

But the same doesn't go for his running mate, the BlackBerry-wielding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had bloggers buzzing early Friday about her tech-centric lifestyle. She's also three years younger than Obama.

Does the next president need to be wired to gain the vote of the American people? It's an issue that has been raised frequently in technology communities and exploited by campaigns to gain an advantage.

How much does it impact your decision on who to vote for?

Read my full story online here.

Facebook! The MUSICAL!

When you read news that they are making a movie about Facebook, one can only hope it'll be a musical...

By Michael White

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., the most popular social-networking Web site, will be turned into a movie written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of television show "The West Wing,'' for Sony Corp.

Scott Rudin, whose past work includes Oscar-winning film "No Country for Old Men,'' will produce the film, Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer said in an e-mailed message.

The movie will focus on the early days of Facebook, a network that allows users to exchange pictures and messages, Elzer said. Closely held Facebook attracted 132.1 million visitors in June, exceeding 117.6 million visitors at News Corp.'s MySpace, according to researcher ComScore Inc. in Reston, Virginia.

The film is in development, and no decision has been made about when it will be released, Elzer said.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was attending Harvard University. The closely held company is based in Palo Alto, California.

The news was reported earlier by the Hollywood Reporter.

Product Review: Medis 24-7 Power Pack is a green charger with an odd name

Let's say you invent a device that can recharge your handheld electronics. It's a fuel cell that has a little over 20 hours of juice in it, but after that it's useless and gets tossed.

Would you call it a 24-7 Power Pack? Yeah, I didn't think so. I guess the "24-7" part is because you could use it during any of the 24 hours in the day, or among any of the seven days in our week?

Well putting the name aside, it's a neat portable charger to consider getting for emergency moments. I've tested out other chargers that can be reused (like the Solio), but I guess this for the person who doesn't want to buy a second cellphone battery and/or bother with keeping it charged.

The product works great, but my biggest issue was the website. It isn't user friendly when it comes to helping you find the right adapter tip for your device.

Read my full review online here or check out the video below.

ForeclosuresDaily.com is the fastest-growing private company in Florida

BY DAVID GELLES
dgelles@MiamiHerald.com

Turns out some people are still getting rich off real estate. According to Inc. magazine, the fastest-growing private company in the state is ForeclosuresDaily.com.

The Largo-based website, which saw 2007 revenue balloon 3,800 percent to $14.4 million, ranked 35th on this year's Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Companies in the U.S. list.

"It's a shame that the fastest-growing company in Florida has to do with foreclosures," said Rafael Cruz, a business analyst with Florida Atlantic University's Small Business Development Center. "But there are opportunities there for some people."

Several South Florida companies also made the list. DesignerPlumbing Outlet.com, based in Palm Beach Gardens, reported a 2,200 percent jump in revenue, putting it 79th on the list. ReStockIt.com, a supplies wholesaler based in Hollywood, came in at 265th after revenues jumped 1,000 percent to $12.3 million.

Cruz said dot-coms were succeeding because they weren't limited by local markets. "They're selling to the whole country and the world," he said. "They're not bound by Florida."

For the rest of the story, click here.

Sprint sees 255 percent boost in text messages during Biden announcement

Sprint is reporting that it saw a 255 percent increase in text message traffic after Sen. Barack Obama sent out a text message to supporters to announce his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, at 3 a.m. Saturday.

According to wireless association CTIA, more than 48 billion text messages were sent each month in the United States as of December 2007. Sprint reports its customers sent and received more than 70 billion text messages during the first half of 2008.

So did you find out via a text -- even if it was a text from a friend or a news source? A couple people have told me they signed up to get a text from Obama and never got it.

In-flight Internet: American Airlines launches mobile broadband service

Today American Airlines launches its mobile broadband service, Gogo, provided by Aircell. So anyone traveling on American's Boeing 767-200 aircraft can access the Internet on nonstop flights between New York and Miami, as well as between New York and San Francisco, and New York and Los Angeles.

What's your take on it? Would you pay the $12.95 a flight to log on?

Here's more on the story from the Associated Press:

By ANICK JESDANUN
AP Internet Writer

American Airlines expanded the availability of in-flight Internet access Wednesday, launching airborne e-mail, Web and other online services on some of its longer, nonstop flights.

The move could create a new stream of revenue as the aviation industry faces high fuel prices and other challenges, but it also could create new headaches as passengers retrieve sensitive e-mails and Web sites in confined quarters.

American tested in-flight access on two flights on June 25. With Wednesday's launch, the airline is making service available for $12.95 per flight on its Boeing 767-200 aircraft connecting New York with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami. American said most flights on those routes use the 767-200.

"Today the days of being cut off from the rest of the world while in the air become history," said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell LLC, the company providing Internet services for American and other airlines.

Several other airlines have been testing or considering in-flight services.

The system will block Internet-based phone calls, giving passengers relief from chatty seatmates.

However, American and other U.S. airlines have said they will not filter sites based on their content, raising the prospect of passengers surfing pornography with kids nearby.

Airlines say they already have general policies to address unruly passengers, and those would apply as they do now to passengers who browse adult magazines.

Less clear is how executives reading corporate e-mail containing confidential information will fend off snooping eyes.

Product Review: ION TAPE 2 PC turns cassettes to mp3s

This week I got to play around with the ION TAPE 2 PC USB Cassette Archiver, which turns your tapes into mp3s.

I used to love making mix tapes, so I have a lot of cassettes that are collecting dust. I was very excited about testing out a product like this. But alas, there was one aspect that hit a sour note for me.

Watch the video below for my full review:

Online Olympic fever soars - Phelps Phans doing the most buzzing

Have Olympic fever? I certainly do, but I'm hooked on television coverage, not online videos. Nielson Online has been tracking hits to sites with Olympic coverage, and the traffic on every site has been growing each day this week -- especially with people watching live coverage while at work.

With more Olympic video online this year than ever before, are you logging on at work to watch?

NBC's site grew about 140 percent in traffic since the start of the games, and Yahoo!'s Olympics section grew 85 percent. Here are a few tables from Nielsen:

Table 1: Unique Audience (in 000’s) to NBC Olympics Video URL (U.S., Home and Work)

Name	August 8	August 9	August 10	August 11
NBC Olympics Video Site*	436	858	858	2,030

Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

*Does not represent actual streams or video viewing

Table 2: Unique Audience (in 000’s) to Olympics-related sites, ranked by UA on August 11, 2008 (U.S., Home and Work)

Name	August 8	August 9	August 10	August 11
Yahoo Olympics	1,477	3,324	2,839	5,253
NBC Olympics	2,664	4,008	3,264	4,560
AOL Olympics	395	1,010	1,205	1,192
Beijing2008.cn	429	780	581	607
New York Times Olympics	341	466	301	482
ESPN Olympics	273	343	579	368
Fox Sports on MSN Olympics	49	95	259	182
USA Today Olympics	280	184	231	163
CBS Sports Olympics	70	23	41	102
Sports Illustrated Olympics	45	112	173	78

Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

And they also tracked which stars are getting the most online attention. Of course, Michael Phelps is getting the most buzz.

Fifteen most buzzed-about athletes from basketball, gymnastics, beach volleyball and swimming competitions, based on messages posted between August 4 and August 10, 2008

Athlete	Sport	Country
1.Michael Phelps	Swimming	United States
2.Yao Ming	Basketball	China
3.Kobe Bryant	Basketball	United States
4.LeBron James	Basketball	United States
5.Dara Torres	Swimming	United States
6.Shawn Johnson	Gymnastics	United States
7.Laure Manaudou	Swimming	France
8.Kerri Walsh	Beach Volleyball	United States
9.Katie Hoff	Swimming	United States
10.Misty May-Treanor	Beach Volleyball	United States
11.Yi Jianlian	Basketball	China
12.Park Tae-Hwan	Swimming	South Korea
13.Grant Hackett	Swimming	Australia
14.Natalie Coughlin	Swimming	United States
15.Nastia Liukin	Gymnastics	United States

Source: Nielsen Online, BuzzMetrics

Table 2: Share of buzz volume between August 4 and August 10, 2008

Athletes	Share of Buzz Volume
Swimmers	46
Basketball players	38
Gymnasts	9
Beach Volleyball players	7

Source: Nielsen Online, BuzzMetrics

Product review: AT&T Remote Monitor

It's not exactly the type of product people buy when money is tight. But if you are a concerned parent with latchkey kids, it certainly is something you would consider.

The AT&T Remote Monitor allows you to put a camera in your home or business, and watch the video feed when you are away via a website or a web-enabled cellphone. The starter kit price begins at $299, and there's a monthly fee of $24.95. What makes it more than just a webcam is that it is a motion detector - so when you are away, it will notify you with SMS messages that something is moving in the house, and it will take a photo of what it saw. It also has a door sensor.

You can read more details along with a review here, or watch the video below. Is this something you would consider buying? Would you rather spend your money on a home security system? Or just set up some cheaper webcam on your own?

The SMS motion detection alerts, along with being able to view the streaming video on some AT&T phones, does seem unique. But is it worth the cost? Not for someone like me, but perhaps it would be for parents who want to make sure their kids come home from school on and stay out of trouble.

Facebook blocks virus that looked like a video message

Just saw this on the wires...

BY VILLE HEISKANEN
Bloomberg News

Facebook, the operator of the most popular social-networking site, has blocked a virus that infected thousands of users' accounts by presenting itself as a video message.

The messages advertised links to videos on Google or YouTube sites, Max Kelly, head of
security at Facebook, said in a blog post Thursday. Instead, those who clicked on the
phony links downloaded malicious software, he said, without elaborating.

The virus affected less than 0.002 percent of Facebook's users, Kelly said. Based on
its 120 million subscribers, that would amount to about 200,000 people. Facebook disabled access to the links and is working to shore up security, he said.

Users who inadvertently downloaded the virus were presented with an image of a court
jester sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes, U.K.-based security-software maker
Sophos said in a statement on its website.

Brandee Barker, a spokeswoman for Palo Alto, Calif.- based Facebook, didn't immediately
return a telephone call seeking comment.