ReadWriteWeb

Last month Walmart gave consumers the number 1 reason why DRM isn't the answer when they announced that they would be shutting down their DRM server come October 9th. Since then, Walmart relaunched it's online music store on Tuesday. The new music store offers the latest hits at only $.79 per song, while standard songs are offered at $.94. With competitive pricing options Walmart could give iTunes stiff competition.

We'd like your help in predicting the following: Will iTunes change its pricing from $.99 a song or go to a subscription music site by the end of 2008?

When you don't have the cash to hand over to Starbucks for Wi-Fi, there are hundreds of other coffee stores that will offer the same for free. For example, Panera Bread cafes include free Wi-Fi and are increasingly becoming my spot for free Wi-Fi access. Unfortunately, there are times when we won't order a thing from places that provide free Wi-Fi or maybe we'll grab the cheapest thing on the menu. There's one coffe shop out there that's looking to guilt trip Wi-Fi freeloaders into buying something on the menu using Wi-Fi networks.

If you own a laptop and a smartphone coupled with an unlimited data plan, then you could be in for a nice treat today. Anyone that's bound to the internet can tell you that being stranded without internet access is not much fun. It could drive anyone crazy! When all else fails you can turn to the connection on your smartphone as long as you have an unlimited data plan. To feed your internet addiction from your smartphone to your computer, PdaNet is the program for you.

Living in Canada, I've been spared the joy of voting using Diebold's (now Premier Election Solutions') notorious machines. Given their track record, maybe it's time to consider another vendor - maybe someone with a huge installed base and a reputation for engaging, fun interfaces.

I'm thinking Nintendo. Wii-lections, anyone?

That's right folks! After months of speculation and rumors, iPhone owners can now use the Wi-Fi available at their local AT&T Hotspot at no additional charge. We thought it was ridiculous that this didn't come pre-packaged with the iPhone considering that most iPhone owners are using the web more than their minutes. If you haven't received this golden text message on your iPhone yet, we've got the scoop on how you can get access to free AT&T Wi-Fi on your iPhone.

We introduced you to 12seconds.tv in late July. 12seconds.tv provides a quick and fun way to send out a video message that's 12 seconds long. It's a great service for hosting mini video contests and we suggested our own tongue-twisting contest. Since then, 12seconds.tv has incorporated 12 second video challenges to further engage their users. They've also been integrated into other services. Today, you can add Qik and Flixwagon to their list of service integrations.

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the product side, Microsoft had two major Web announcements: 1) the release of Azure, a cloud computing OS; and 2) browser-based versions of four Office products. Google was also active this week, releasing the third beta of its new browser Chrome and announcing it will support OpenID. On the trends side, we wrote in-depth analysis pieces on LinkedIn and Hulu, advised you how to use the new Google web search RSS feeds, and more. And this week ReadWriteWeb had our own special announcement: a new product, Jobwire!