Comedy Central, not you too?! Viacom pulls episodes from GoogleTV

OK, that one really hurt.

I'd say about half of my TV watching is the Daily Show and the Colbert Report on Comedy Central (I've also been known to enjoy the occasional South Park).  Until this weekend, I could do so on my GoogleTV.

As of last night, Viacom unceremoniously pulled their content from GoogleTV.  That includes the aforementioned Comedy Central, MTV Networks/VH1 and, sadly for my kid, Nickelodeon.  Luckily, PBS Kids has a special site MORE

Shopping for tech

After two years of tight budgets, big companies have started spending money on information technology again. Who will be the winners in the new replacement cycle?

By John Curran, contributor

The forecast was alarming. When Cisco CEO John Chambers announced the networking giant's latest quarterly earnings on Nov. 10, he warned Wall Street that, due in part to cutbacks in spending by budget-strapped governments, sales for the next three months would probably MORE

Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch, BFF?

Not likely. One is a life-long Democrat. The other runs a right-wing media empire.

Murdoch. Credit: World Economic Forum

The Sunday Guardian, borrowing a phrase and most of its facts from a Woman's Wear Daily piece posted three days earlier, describes Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs as "a major fan" of Rupert Murdoch.

Come again?

Could someone who dated Joan Baez and put Al Gore on his board of directors really be a MORE

Fast times at iPhone High

The New York Times paints two very different pictures of a Silicon Valley high school

Source: The New York Times

Matt Richtel's 4,000-word story on the front page of Sunday's New York Times -- part of the paper's Your Brain on Computers series -- reads like an indictment of a generation driven to distraction by shiny gadgets, their minds permanently rewired by too much time spent texting, networking, surfing the Web MORE

Steve Jobs: The Playboy interview

The magazine has re-released the piece it published in early 1985, just before Jobs was fired

Source: Playboy

Relations between Steve Jobs and John Sculley were already deteriorating when Jobs, then 29, sat down for a long interview with Playboy. The story was published in the magazine's February issue. Three months later, Sculley relieved Apple's co-founder of his duties as head of the Mac division.

Jobs puts on a brave face, but MORE

How to get on Steve Jobs' naughty list

If T.J. Maxx had dreams of becoming an Apple reseller, it can forget them now

Source: Engadget

Few companies keep as tight reins on their retail partners -- and on the suggested retail prices of their products -- as Apple (AAPL).

Which is why Engadget's discovery Thursday that the discount chain T.J. Maxx (TJX) was selling $499 iPads for $399.99 -- or $350 plus tax if you sign up for a T.J. MORE

It's a little off topic, but here's a story about comment spam

A close look at Direct Commerce Academy, the tiny, secretive company that generates so much spam on Facebook-comment enabled websites like Fortune.com.

By Daniel Roberts, reporter

You may have noticed certain spam comments repeatedly showing up on Fortune.com – they're hard to miss, appearing mere seconds after the editors here publish an article. The comments are almost identical each time:

The puzzling pessimism of Tim Wu

How network neutrality's biggest advocate misreads history

Columbia's Tim Wu. Will the Cycle be unbroken?

If you want to understand why Tim Wu -- the Columbia Law professor who invented the term "net neutrality" -- is such a fanatic about open networks, consider the sorry state of cellular phones a mere four years ago. Back then, phone companies exercised total control over handsets, blocking customers from downloading any software to customize MORE

How Black Friday ads get leaked

Major retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot are battling the web sites that post their ads early, but they may have to shoulder some of that blame.

By Daniel Roberts, reporter

Next week brings more than one American tradition: Thanksgiving turkey followed by a rush of frenzied bargain-hunters at the malls on Black Friday.

Unfortunately for some retailers, the Internet has added a new layer to the tradition: their ads posted and MORE

Non-iPhone buyer's remorse

In a new survey, 34% of non-AT&T customers say they would have preferred an iPhone

Source: ChangeWave

In results that show what ChangeWave research director Paul Carton calls "the continuing threat the iPhone poses to the rest of the industry," one in three owners of non-AT&T (T) smartphones said in a new survey that they would bought Apple's (AAPL) phone if it had been available through their carrier.

Breaking down the competing MORE