Tech Week in Review 10-16-09

Twitter Doing Video Tweets? Uh…No.

For some odd reason, Britain’s Telegraph suggested that Twitter would be adding the ability to upload and host video on the site. Never mind the fact that there are several services that integrate closely with Twitter to provide just such a service. Duplicating those features would only hurt Twitter. The rumor was later proven to be false. What Twitter should do is provide better support for these services by integrating thumbnails for all rich media, much like Brizzly and Tweetvisor do.

New Michael Jackson Single Debuts Online

Following in the footsteps of Biggie and Tupac, looks like MJ is releasing music after his death. The single is called ‘This Is It’ and will be featured in his upcoming documentary by the same name. Most people like the song, although it’s pretty different from most of his stuff. That’s probably because he stole it from Paul Anka. It’s all good, though. The Jackson estate gave Anka 50% of the publishing on the song to resolve the issue. Listen to the single over at Michael Jackson’s website.

Follow @DrewFromTV to Support Charity

Drew Carey issued a challenge that if he reaches 1 million followers by the end of this year, he will donate $1 million to Lance Armstrong’s charity organization Livestrong. This all started when Drew Olanoff, currently winning the battle against cancer himself, tweeted Drew Carey about bidding for the @Drew twitter name. The proceeds would go to charity, so Drew Carey immediately put in a bid for 25k. Shortly after, Drew upped the bid to 100k, then 1 million assuming his current account reached 1 million followers. While it was all in the name of raising awareness and donating to charity rather than gaining followers, Drew Carey ended up with some regrets:

I should have just donated the money in the first place without doing the million-follower challenge. Yes, I guess it does “raise awareness” somewhat, but who wasn’t aware of Livestrong and Lance Armstrong’s fight against cancer? I think they were doing a pretty good job of raising their own awareness without me.

But instead, I think I made it a bit too much about me by making it a contest that benefits me in exchange for my donation. So there it is. My regret. Maybe I didn’t make it too much about me. Maybe I just though up a fun way to raise money for a good cause. Whatever. I feel like I made it too much about me, so that’s that.

Pepsi and AMP Apologize for Sexist App

Pepsi recently launched an iPhone app for their energy drink AMP. While it’s pretty normal for their apps to be geared towards guys, this app seemed to take things a little too far. It groups women into 24 types and suggests lines to bag them up. Possibly entertaining on the surface, but just a little too much. Pepsi quickly apologized, including the #pepsifail tag in their tweet:

Are You Still Using FriendFeed?

I am, but I have to admit that the entire environment there has changed since the Facebook bought it. Many people have left completely, others are branching out and looking for the next FriendFeed. According to CenterNetworks, even many of the FriendFeed heavy-hitters in the tech field have eased up a little. It’s actually kinda sad to see this happen as FriendFeed is technically one of the most amazing and original services out there, it’s just grossly misunderstood. Most of it’s features will probably be swallowed up by Facebook, but that’s just not the same.

Google Voice Makes Invites Available

Just noticed that I have 3 invites available to send to some lucky folks who have been waiting to get into Google Voice. According to their blog these invites will be rolling out over time, so don’t trip out if you don’t see them yet. Bottom line, if you know someone who has voice, now is the time to ask them for an invite. Otherwise, you can still request an invite on the website.