The Apple App Store has approved the SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 application.  The application has DISH Network navigation along with improved widescreen support and faster response times.

SlingPlayer is stil only WiFi compatible, but no 3G support.  The application sells for $29.99 and works with cable set-top box, satellite set-top box, Telco, IPTV, basic cable, digital over-the-air broadcast, Tivo, Apple TV, home security cameras, and DVR.

The iPhone 3GS has the ability to play 30Mbps 1080p video. Although the little device can play some high quality video, there are still some issues. For example, Engadget’s testing revealed that the sound driver crashed when playing a 720p video when playing the Avatar trailer from the Apple website.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDASQ:WFMI) Chairman John Mackey has drummed up a little bit of controversey by writing a health-care reform piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Whole Foods has about 1.2 million followers on Twitter and has about 100,000 fans on Facebook.  Now there is a group dedicated to the boycotting of Whole Foods after the WSJ piece was written.  There are 23,000 users that joined the boycott group.

In the WSJ piece he was highly critical of Americans by saying that most of our health-care problems are self-inflicted and that the government should not subsidize healthcare for us.  Usually it is not good to diss the people in a country that has made you very wealthy without expecting some sort of a negative response.

Below is an excerpt from the WSJ piece that Mackey wrote.  

“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.”

“Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?”

“Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.”

The description of the Whole Foods boycott group is as follows:

John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on August 12, 2009 quoting Margaret Thatcher and suggesting that healthcare is a commodity that only the rich, like him, deserve.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Whole Foods has built its brand with the dollars of deceived progressives. Let them know your money will no longer go to support Whole Foods’ anti-union, anti-health insurance reform, right-wing activities.

______________________________

HOW TO CONTACT WHOLE FOODS

Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703-4644
512.477.4455
512.477.5566 voicemail
512.482.7000 fax

Discussion forums: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/forums
Your local store: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/all/index.php
Customer service: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/service.php

Remember! Products/companies owned by Whole Foods include the following:
Allegro Coffee, Amrion, Bread of Life, Bread & Circus, Food for Thought, Fresh & Wild, Fresh Fields, Harry’s Farmers Market, Merchant of Vino, Mrs. Gooch’s, Nature’s Heartland, Select Fish, Wellspring Grocery, Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats Markets

______________________________

To read more about why we are calling for a boycott and why a boycott will work, visit our blog:

http://wholeboycott.com

Tribune Company has been dealing with selling off their properties over the last couple of years.  Now the deal is finally done and 95% of the Chicago Cubs along with Wrigley Field in Chicago will be sold to the Ricketts Family for $845 million.  This deal is pending approval by the federal bankruptcy court and Major League Baseball.

The Tribune Company would have 5% remaining in the joint venture.  This includes 25% share in Comcast SportsNet.  The entity that owns the Cubs assets will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy so “that the franchise can emerge free and clear of Tribune Company’s financial obligations.”

Tribune bought Wrigley Field from the Wrigley family in 1981 for about $20 million.  Tribune WGN radio and TV stations will keep the long-term rights as part of the deal.

At one point, Mark Cuban was involved in the bidding war.  The Ricketts family won the bid.  Joe Ricketts founded TD Ameritrade which is now being run by his son Tom.  Tom is a huge Cubs fan and grew up watching games there.  He once lived in an apartment above a bar across the street from Wrigley field.  Tom met his wife at a Cubs game.

Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Yahoo! Inc. are joining several nonprofit groups and other library associations to oppose a class-action settlement that would give Google the rights to digitize millions of books.

The settlement is still waiting on court approval.  The Department of Justice has also opened an antitrust investigation to explore some of the agreement terms.

The coalition against the Google Book project is called the Open Book Alliance.  The Alliance is led by Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer working out of Silicon Valley.

Earlier this month, Microsoft revealed construction photos of their stores in both Arizona and California.  Now a job posting for the stores has been added and it sounds like Microsoft needs a pair of strong arms over there.

“Lifting/carrying 75 pounds (loading and unloading all those great products and carrying purchases out for our customers will be required!)” states the job posting.  Store managers are expected to be able to carry around 50 lbs. on a regular basis.

Based on the sounds of the job posting, it sounds like that people over there will not be expected to carry around just Zunes and netbooks.

Starting September 6, those that have a smartphone through AT&T will be required to have a smartphone data plan.  Fortunately Those who already have non-smartphone data plans will not be forced to upgrade their data plans.

The reason why AT&T is requiring this action is because they want to “ensure customers receive a predictable bill each month.”  After reading that, my b.s. meter went off.  I believe this is the company’s politically correct way of saying that they want to squeeze more money out of you.

Below is an e-mail that AT&T is circulating around internally:

Beginning September 6, 2009, customers who activate or upgrade to a Smartphone will need to sign up for an appropriate data plan. Existing Smartphone customers active prior to September 6, 2009 will be grandfathered and exempt from the new policy.

Why we are making this change?
We want our customers to have the best possible experience with their Smartphones. A predictable bill is a key factor in customer satisfaction, so effective September 6, 2009 Smartphone customers will need to subscribe to a data plan, as the vast majority of customers already do. Data plans let customers fully utilize their device, without the worry of bill shock.

How we will ensure an extraordinary customer experience?
The sales representative is the customer’s expert resource in helping select the right device for their needs. When a customer does not want a data plan, we will position other devices in our industry leading portfolio for the customer to choose from, as many devices do not require a data plan.

Action Required:
Sales Managers will review the Know the Facts, Job Aid, and FAQs (found under Related Links) with their sales teams and ensure all sales representatives fully understand the new policy and how to position the Smartphone data requirement to customers. A Sales Coaching Session will be available on September 5, 2009 (document to be distributed in advance).

Four individuals in China have been placed in prison for four years and was told to pay about $1.6 million in fines for selling illegal copies of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.  “It shows the government is really taking action,” stated Microsoft China VP Liu Fengming.

Hong Lei and Sun Xiansheng were among those that were charged.  These two ran a business called Tomato Garden which sold the illegal copies of XP.  Hong and Sun were both charged $146,000 each and the two others in the case were charged $14,600 each.

The Huqin District People’s Court in Suzhou also charged Tomato Garden about $1.3 million and confiscated about $439,000 of their revenue.