The company Steve Jobs founded may be riding high on sales right now but there were a few big bites taken out of his Apple this week.

1. China ruled that the iPad may not be sold under the Apple trademark

in that massive Asian market.  But , heck, with all the counterfeit Apple products being made by unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers, who would have been able to tell the difference?

2. Apple lost a lawsuit with Samsung allowing it to sell its tablets in Australia.

3. Apple products could face German ban thanks to Motorola victory.

Show Notes:

• Free Shipping Day: Kendall Perez will explain why businesses organize to give shoppers advantage of no shipping fees for their holiday presents. ***Note to Canadians:  Your FreeshippingDay is Dec. 12 visit www.freeshippingday.ca for more information.
• Holiday Computer Shopping Tips: Dave Sawyer, Technical Director Microsoft brings a Santa bag of cool new laptops and tablets running Win7 from razor thin laptops called ultra-books to a two sided/two screen laptops with a virtual Qwerty keyboard from Acer and a 10″ tablet with touch and pen input.  Here is a great site called PC Scout that will help you to find the PC desktop or laptop that is tailored to your needs:
• Searching with Bing: Microsoft’s New Search Rivals Google’s Monopoly

Recycle your old computer at GlobalTech Ministries.

Big News

TWO solid hours of call-in questions for the Internet Advisors from 4-6 PM.  Don’t miss the chance to get your question answered.  Special guest Dave Sawyer from Microsoft will be staying to give us a hand.

Podcast: December 10, 2011 – Hour 1
Podcast: December 10, 2011 – Hour 2
Podcast: December 10, 2011 – Hour 3

If you are an AT&T customer this may not be breaking news. Consumer Reports has once again named AT&T as the very worst communication company for customer service. Consider the irony of the fact that AT&T is fighting the FCC ruling that it can’t gobble up T-Mobile which has been noted as one of the BEST customer service communication companies!

Gary Baker, Ed Rudel, Foster Braun

Show Notes:

This episode of the Internet Advisor features the launch of “Cutting Edge”, our newly remastered and updated theme music by composer Steve DeDoes of Ann Arbor, MI accompanied by his son Mattie on the saxophone. Click here to listen to the new musical score and read Steve’s commentary.  Steve and Mattie join us in studio to share their musical insights behind the new theme.

We’re also delighted to introduce Rick Broida, a Detroit area resident, who writes the Cheapskate Blog for CNET, the nation’s premier techno information source.  Rick will focus on What’s the Best Tablet to Buy?

Podcast Segments

Podcast: December 3, 2011 – Hour 1 Intro Segment
Podcast: December 3, 2001 – Hour 1 Steve and Mattie DeDoes
Podcast: December 3, 2001 – Hour 1 Rick Broida
Podcast: December 3, 2011 – Hour 2
Podcast: December 3, 2011 – Hour 3

Tweet

A company name Carrier IQ has installed a rootkit on millions of Android, Symbian, Blackberry and webOS phones.  The stealth software lies at the bottom of the phones system and copies information which is then capable of being sent back to another location.  Here’s the full story which is still unfolding. (Update: rootkit is on iPhone 4!)

The video is a bit long and technical but it is also REALLY scary to see the information that this Carrier IQ rootkit or hidden software is recording every keystroke that you make INCLUDING Https (secure) transmissions.  It is fascinating to watch the software actually recording the information; however it must be noted the researcher was not able to demonstrate how the software transmitted the data.  Still it is unsettling to think that their is software running in your Android or Blackberry phone that is capable of recording everything that you enter into the phone!

Here is the anti-dote for the Carrier IQ poison in your phone!

It’s not likely a surprise to anyone, but on-line activity in the retail category has increased year-after-year and this year was no exception, according to a Brand Keys survey. Cyber Monday got off to a turbo-charged start with an increase of traffic of nearly 25%, which translated to nearly $1.25 billion in sales.
According to the Brand Keys Holiday Survey, here’s how online retailers ranked, the top-15, when it came to customer visits:
1. Amazon
2. Wal-Mart
3. Apple
4. Target
5. Zappos
6. Best Buy
7. Kohls
8. Sears
9. JCPenney
10. Macy’s
11. Toys R Us
12. Kmart
13. Overstock
14. Bed, Bath, and Beyond
15. GameStop