Here’s the latest from The Consumerist.  AT&T says that NYC is a real target (all of a sudden) for fraud.  Money quote from Elizabeth, a very nice AT&T rep: “Sometimes popularity leads to people making poor decisions.” Ah, now I see.  Meanwhile, Twitter is bonkers on this.

Or is it “Bunged?” Is that a word? Whatever, the Binglers decided to put their name up in lights on their Bellevue, WA building. That’s likely to be the biggest Bing will ever get.

This gets better and better, eh?  If you’re in the Big Apple and want to buy an iPhone online- you get this message.  ”Please shop for another phone.”  So what they’re saying is, “Sorry you want the most innovative handheld device the planet has ever seen..but you can’t have one.  Go look for a Blackberry or that new Nexus One next month.”

Gotta find one of these.  Heading to eBay.  Update: Nada.

You’d think AT&T would try to buff their PR a bit in the aftermath of O.C, right? Uh… no. Here’s the best quote from the new story that came to life last night: “AT&T customer-service representatives are telling callers that the Apple iPhone is not being sold online in New York City, and that this is a purposeful strategy to deal with coverage overload.”

So when I saw this latest gaffe last night, I went to publish and sure enough, FSJ had just beat me to it.  Anyway.  Here’s a helpful link to the latest coverage on the Interweb, and there is a lot of it.  To be truthful, I’m a bit worried about FSJ on this- I think his head may explode.  

iSlate app developers being motivated - or so I'm told

No, no, no, no, it’s the usual misinformation campaign and reality distortion field at work. Firstly, the dog and pony show is on. Secondly, there has to be time for developers to port apps for the iSlate. Thirdly, it’s not meant for a January, February, April, or May release. I already told you – look to August. You know what Apple should do – every week run a new half hour infomercial on how fabulous the iSlate is and

meet my ex - the ecstatic iSlate field tester

how it will change your life. Play it on one channel exclusively and do not put episode on web until two or three weeks after initial broadcast date. Run about thirteen episodes, fourteen episodes. Then three weeks after last one is broadcast, take all the episodes off the web – have YouTube remove any rogue bootleg episodes posted by fanbois – and replace with a countdown clock to release date. Then the ususal roll out procedures on the day when it is perfection and released to eager lucky believers. The app store will go nuts in the days that follow. After the Christmas quarter, expect Apple to eclipse Google in value. Especially when that new Apple search engine is released at the same time as the iSlate.

From the get go, Jeff Bezos has always looked for a loophole not to pay sales taxes. The NYTimes investigates.

Courtesy of Hulu and WFAA-TV, Dallas
I don’t care what other critics think, I’m still charmed by this Peanuts special featuring the other Van Pelt sibling, Rerun.

This will be up on the web site until Jan 12 – there will be Chrome and other ads during the breaks.

Here’s the original Charlie Brown Special that started it all

Listen my chillin’ and ye’ shall hear
The folks at JibJab run down the ’09 year