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Rocking Zune or Rocking iPods: It all Depends on Consumers

Welcome to TechWise GadgetCrunch Beat: Enjoy Microsoft's Zune Marketplace Music Service

RockingZune

We can only hope to be around comes Christmas Shopping Season. The big retailers and music stores are sharpening their spurs to assault consumers with all kinds of deals. Apple's iTunes with all its iPods, songs and other devices is getting ready to pound on Microsoft's new tech creations scheduled to be released by the end of this year. Microsoft's new media player will include wireless technology. Now that will make it different from its predecessor and grande dame of the music delivery devices, iPods. The portable Zune media player will be available around the holiday season just like any major releases by giant companies. The wireless technology that it will be equipped with will allow users to share some of their favorite songs, playlists or pictures with other Zune users who are at a rather close distance. The users can listen to the songs three times over three days, or whichever comes first. With this song-sharing capability, Microsoft is telling peer-to-peer tech users that it is OK to engage in this behavior. The legitimization of the peer-to-peer sharing has come a long a way. The question to ask is whether music publishers will go for Microsoft's view. If Microsoft backs this new software with its war chest, then it will be a real competitor to the iPods. The zune marketplace will be a hot one.

So far, we know that Toshiba will build the new device. Zune Marketplace Service wants to take on the established iTunes. It will be a force to reckon with.

This Year's Hot Toys: Tickle Me ElMo Is Back

If you want to have a head start on making your toy list this year, read this review. Tickle Me Elmo is back better and more interesting.

Here's the list: This year's Hot Dozen in alphabetical order:
Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses by Mattel
Bratz Forever Diamondz by privately held MGA
Butterscotch My FurReal Friends Pony by Hasbro.
Digi Makeover by Radica, which is now owned by Mattel.
Fly Wheels XPV by Jakks Pacific Inc.
Kid Tough Digital Camera by Fisher-Price
Lego Mindstorms NXT by Lego
Magtastik by Mega Brands
Monopoly Here & Now by Hasbro
Speed Stacks StackPack by Jakks Pacific's Play Along
T.M.X. Elmo by Fisher-Price.
Wii by Nintendo.

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Find all the hidden Values in your Gift Cards Through Gift Card Jungle

Gift Card Jungle Out There: Plastic Jungle Lets Gift Card Recipients Trade, Sell or Buy Unused Cards

Just a few months before the Holiday season, a new website is created to help organize the jungle-like maze of gift cards that many consumers are going to receive. If you do not like your mom and po gift card, you can always trade it for-say- those of Starbucks, Java, Macy's and Abercrombie. PlasticJungle.com lets you use your unused cards to get some value out them. Created by a Fresno entrepreneur, Tina Henson, PlasticJungle.com is the new answer to consumers' generosity and overload. The cards you are going to receive this Holiday season will be able to get traded thanks to Plastic Jungle. Considering how much money is given or spent on gift cards ($18.5 billion according to the National Retail Federation), Henson has made a good choice of entering this booming business at the right time. The 2006 holiday season should see the donation of a lot of gift cards. PlasticJungle.com verifies the gift card balances to protect against fraud.

TechWise TechGadgetCrunch Learned That Yahoo Plans To Close for 1 Week During Holiday Season

According to various reports, Yahoo Inc. plans to close its U.S. offices during the last week of the year. The officials of the company are willing to take this measure to cut costs. 10,500 workers will be asked to use their vacation time if they want to receive a check. Most of them will welcome the time off. At this phase of the game for many of them, money should not be a problem. It will a great time to travel to some foreign countries to refress their batteries. Yahoo officials think it is a good idea to take the time off because many of its partners, competitors and advertisers are also off.

Spinach Investigation and Recalled Brands: Salinas as Salad Bowl in Trouble

Spinach Investigation Leads to Recalled Brands List and Reduced Use of the Crop

Spinach farmers have to worry about the bottomline this year. With the E. Coli outbreak, they will suffer major losses. Their fields are still green in the Salinas and Watsonville areas. They do not know what to do with so much volume. While the FDA is investigating the source of the contamination, these farmers are losing precious time before harvest. They are losing sleep over the loans they took to plant this crop this year. A lot of money is at stakes. Yet, when people start dying, nothing else is more important. For a while, spinach's popularity and use will suffer. Health officials are working hard to protect human lives. They do not want to deal with a major outbreak. Already, the signs of the outbreak are there. Fresh spinach appears to be the problem in many states. There have been reports of cases in Wisconsin, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming according to the officials a the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Countless people are sick. One person has already died.

E. Coli testing is in force right now. CDC will help state officials conduct some of the testing when asked. So far, the outbreak has been traced to Natural Selection Foods LLC which is a packager of organic and non-organic foods. The company is based in San Juan Bautista.

Here is a list of all the recalled brands (The company sells the packaged spinach under various names according to CDC). Bellisima, Cheney Brothers, Coastline, Compliments, Cross Valley, D'Arrigo Brothers, Dole, Earthbound Farm, Emeril, Farmers Market, Fresh and Easy, Fresh Point, Green Harvest, Hy Vee, Jansal Valley, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Natural Selection Foods, Nature's Basket, O Organic, Premium Fresh, President's Choice, Pride of San Juan, Pro-Mark, Rave Spinach, Ready Pac, River Ranch, Riverside Farms, Snoboy, Superior, Sysco, Tanimura & Antle, The Farmer's Market, Trader Joe's.

Other places in the large Central Valley of California are known as the raisin capital of the world or the fruit basket of the world. Salinas, Calif. is known as the Salad Bowl to the nation and the world. Many people are asking questions of why Salinas is in the news again due to E Coli breakouts. People are trying to put the blame on some culprits. Would they be cattle waste mismanagement, contamination of the soil? Or are birds responsible for the diffusion of the contamination? Produce grown in the Salinas areas was linked to E coli about 10 years ago. Where does E coli come from? It is found in the intestinal tract of cattle. It can be found in water when the cattle manure ends up being drained into water. It can contaminate this way too. So dairy businesses in the area are also going to be looked into. The irrigation system has to check its business too. Even though Salinas is no stranger to E coli, it is not under a curse. As it is, E coli is naturally occurring. Farmers have to be educated about how to avoid any contamination. In the meantime, we consumers need to be careful about the above brands. The food distribution agents also have to make sure that they are not the source of the contamination. In the end, many specialty businesses, large farms and people are going to be affected. That is what responsible blogging is all about.

We are just getting out of the Spinach ban. It seems that CBS is already reporting that some packaged lettuce may have been tainted by the irrigation waters. The local TV station gives the number of the affected packages.

On another area, a Fresno county dairy was cleared last Friday to resume selling its raw milk and cream products in California stores. Yes, Organic Pastures is back in business. It is reinstated to Grade A status by the Fresno County Department of Community Health's Environmental Health Division. So, for the fans of raw milk and products, the ban on Organic Pastures is over. The company is able to sell its ra, unpasteurized milk and cram products in stores and wherever there are customers. Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures, thanks its customers and fans.

Let us get more news on the tainted lettuce package numbers. "The recall covers green leaf lettuce purchased in grocery stores Oct. 3-6 in Arizona, California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. It was also sold to distributors in those states who may have sold it to restaurants or institutions.

The recalled lettuce was packaged as "Green Leaf 24 Count, waxed carton," and "Green Leaf 18 Count, cellophane sleeve, returnable carton." Packaging is stamped with lot code 6SL0024.

The FDA is aware of the voluntary recall but had no details."

Techcrunch is growing fast. Its main writer and owner, Michael Arrington is featured in all major magazines and online. He has been doing a great job profiling hot web sites, blogs, vlogs. In other words, Techcrunch beats Cnet and other news magazines.

Now what are you waiting for? A Peek Inside TechCrunch's 100k Subscriber Milestone

Great job for a guy who quits his job to blog full time!

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With the popularity of cell phones, there must be a service to help unlock them when they get locked. This is where unlocktotalk.com comes in handy. It is also on ebay.com. They unlock motorola, Palm, Sonny Erickson, LG, Samsung, Blackberry, Nokia etc.

This is what you can read on the company's web site. We are recommending this company to you. "

When your phone is unlocked you can use it with any GSM Sim card in the world, including AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Suncom, T-mobile To Go, Cingular Go Phone, Oxygen GSM, Locus GSM, Call Plus GSM, Other Prepaid Sim Card Services, & International GSM Sim Card Services! Your phone will be turned into a World Phone that can be used Globally! We are proud to support our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other Countries all over the World. We enable them to speak with their families and other troops stationed in their region without having to spend money on a new phone. We offer full remote technical support via live chat to anywhere in the World and Toll Free support in The United States. "

If you want to get refunded, they will want you to give them a positive feedback on eBay.com before they even think about refunding. If it is a small amount, forget about it. You will have to pay the fees too. No good feedback, no money back. That is what intodean@yahoo.com said.

HP is in trouble, big Trouble with SEC and others

Is HP in Trouble for Its Tactics? That is Pretexting to Get the Scoop in an Internal Investigation

HP lost Carly Fiona. The current HP leader who was a journalist watched and coordinated her departure. She also supervised the hiring of Fiona's replacement. Now she is right in the middle of a nasty investigation into media leaks by a board member. The current leader of HP did not appreciate the actions of the leaker. So HP hired private investigators to find out who leaked internal info to the media. These investigators sought the private telephone records of the company's board members in the leak investigation. So it was those guys who used the invasive and illegal practice of "Pretexting." They posed as someone else to get personal information about somebody. The company did find out who the leaker was, Goerge A. Keyworth II who announced that he will be gone by March 2007. He acknowledged he was the leaker the company spent money and capital on. Now the headache for HP continues as it had to disclose in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it sought private phone records of the company's board members.