Topeka, Kansas mayor Bill Bunten has announced today that the city will temporarily be renamed Google, in an effort to get the search giant to bring their proposed 1000Mbit free Internet to the city, via the “Fiber for Communities” program.
“It’s just fun. We’re having a good time of it,” says Bunten. “There’s a lot of good things that are going on in our city.”
Cities were given a March 26th deadline to explain to Google why they are interested in the broadband, and Google will then choose a couple of cities for the pilot project, with no more than 500,000 in population total.
When asked if they would make the name permanent if Google invested in them, Bunten laughed.
“Oh, heavens no, Topeka? We are very proud of our city and Topeka is an Indian word which means ‘a good place to grow potatoes.’ We’re not going to change that.”
Result for: Free
Apple has announced that starting on December 26th they will be giving away a free song or popular application via iTunes, starting a “12 days of Christmas” promotion.
If you are a fan of free things and use iTunes, check back daily, says Apple.
12 days of Christmas promotion
Result for: Free
The Dutch-based retailer Nedgame has posted on its website that they refuse to stock the new PSP Go handheld, citing a few reasons as to why they will not.
According to the site, they will continue to support the PSP-3000 model in “abundance” but they will not stock the Go, ever.
The reasons the retailer posted for not stocking the Go are as follows (original text was in Dutch):
- The Go has a much higher MSRP, at 249 euro compared to 169 euro for the 3000 model.
- No UMD drive means games MUST be purchased through Sony, at a price determined by Sony.
- No chance of reselling the games or trading with friends.
- No chance of buying the games cheaper, used.
- No way to play imported games (US, EU, J)
- All games you “virtually” purchase become “virtually worthless” after the purchase.
Giving a final go at Sony, the company adds that the Go handheld creates a monopoly for Sony, while taking away freedom of choice from the consumer.
