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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

FreeiPods.com Denies Email Abuse

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Gratis Internet, the company behind FreeiPods.com that’s being sued by the NY attorney general for what’s been described as the biggest internet privacy abuse ever, denies the charges.

In a statement published on Friday, Gratis says:

At all times, Gratis has maintained control and ownership of its user information and never, not once, profited from any sale of data…

Gratis at no time in its history ever sold its list to anyone or allowed a company to purchase consumer data, nor has it ever considered doing so, nor will it ever in the future. Email marketing represented a small fraction (less than 1.5%) of its 2004 and 2005 revenues, and the company earned less than $32,000 from users in the state of New York from its practice of sending promotional emails.

Establishing and maintaining a bond of trust between Gratis and consumers is a cornerstone of its business. Gratis believes that its impressive growth in recent years is a direct reflection of the fact
that, in all its dealings with consumers, the company has behaved in a trustworthy and responsible manner at all times and in all ways.

About the author

Leander Kahney

Leander Kahney is senior editor of Cult of Mac, editor of two books about technology culture, Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, and has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Observer in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

Email the author | Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

2 comments

    It would be so unfair to forcibly make Freepay go bankrupt only to recompensate some people from New York. The world is bigger than the state of New York, also the world of Freepay.

    Here in Germany we also have thousands of people who signed up and struggle to get others to subscribe to Freepay. I for instance have already about 200 people for the laptop. You can see it at http://www.laptop-kostenlos.tk/

    Until now only seven of the 200 accepted an offer but I am on a very good way to get the laptop. If these lawyers will destroy the company this was all in vain.

    Freepay should be forced to survive and go on like before, but without selling their costumers information. Maybe they sold our German data too? Who thinks of the people outside the state of New York?

    By the way: Please sign up at http://laptops.freepay.com/?r=27133450 and accept an offer! I still need some of the “Greens” who accepted the offer to get my free laptop.

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