Tidbits

I've been on vacation, so I am collecting some tidbits as I quickly go through all the blogs I read:

iTunes is apparently now taking PayPal as a form of payment for iTunes-purchased songs.  I am not a PayPal user, so this doesn't do much for me, but it certainly broadens the audience that can buy music on iTunes.  Also, apparently the first 500,000 that sign up for an iTunes Pay Pal account will receive 5 free songs.  Read via Gizmodo.

Trend Micro is giving away 6 months free of their Windows Mobile smartphone anti-virus software (the Symbian version will apparently be available in January).  Read via Gizmodo.

Spend a lot of time in the sun?  There's a detergent that you can wash your clothes with that actually binds a UV-absorbing compound to your clothes.  I spend a lot of time in the sun and have had to have some moles cut off, so I might check this out.  Read via Wired.

Lots of rumors this week as MacWorld approaches.  One is that Apple is going to start producing iPods with an embedded Sirius satellite radio receiver.  Sirius seems to be getting some good boosts in the arm and this would be a welcome complement to Howard Stern.  Now the question is whether or not you will be able to record Sirius content to your iPod.  Read via Engadget.

Vonage has cut a deal with Viseon to use the Viseon videophones to power a videoconferencing service.  Kind of a bummer that Vonage is making the service hardware specific, but I guess that would be the only realistic way that they could provide quality of service.  Read via Engadget.

No surprisingly in the world of cell company mega-mergers, there are reports that Sprint and Nextel are talking to each other about a merger.  Kind of weird when you consider that Nextel runs on a proprietary IDEN network, while Sprint operates on CDMA.  I would have thought that a Verizon and Sprint merger would be more likely as they both operate on CDMA, but who knows.  Read via Engadget.

Google Suggest will suggest search terms as you type based on site popularity.  Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion suggests that you might be able to stack your company or products against competitors provided that your company or products start with the same letters.  Could this be another advertising channel for Google.  Read more via Micro Persuasion.

RSS subscription tracking.  Finally!  Read more via Micro Persuasion.

Yahoo's desktop search client is going to be powered by X1.  Competition for Google's Desktop Search; I don't think that Google's search can read into PST files yet, and X1's definitely can.  Apparently the AOL desktop search is going to be powered by Copernic.  Note that both Copernic and X1 have both recently released major upgrades to their search tools.  Read more via thetabletpcweblog.

The Tunderbird RC 1 is available at Mozilla.  Apparently it includes a built-in RSS reader that seems to look a lot like NewsGator with Outlook, except Thunderbird is free and if the software is built in, then you don't have to pay for NewsGator either.  Check out Mozilla.

BMW Z4s are available again from American Express on Monday.  Please withhold all of your purchases so that I can buy one.  Thanks for your cooperation.  Visit the My Wishlist site any time but Monday.

Wine preservation.  Applicable if you drink Two Buck Chuck or $50 (or more) bottles of wine.  Find one via Luxist.

More marvelous commentary on the Pepsi Spice blog.  Check it out.

Clearing your ears -- not just for divers.  Here is a list of 5-6 good ways to clear your ears.  My tip: clear your ears before you need to.  Read via Gadling.

Let your customers design cool ads for you and save yourself the cost of it.  Check out this ad for the iPod Mini.  Even better, the ad is only on the internet and 34,000+ hits with no investment from Apple at all -- send this man an iPod!