HBO doesn’t want to help Netflix undermine its subscriptions or streaming service any more, so it’s firing this salvo. This should be interesting as shows like Boardwalk Empire drive plenty of interest from consumers.

Even Vladimir Putin isn’t immune to the power of social media. We’ve seen how social media has fueled revolutions across the Middle East in the Arab Spring, and now Russian citizens are getting into the act. An independent election observer in Russia witnessed blatant voter fraud. He captured video on his phone and then uploaded it for all to see.

Mr. Duda raced home and uploaded the clip to YouTube. Though just three minutes long, it quickly became an election-day sensation, helping fuel a major demonstration of as many as 5,000 people on Monday evening in central Moscow. They chanted “Russia without Putin!” and “Putin is a thief.” Several hundred were arrested, including two major opposition leaders.

Valentin Gorbunov, the head of the Moscow City Elections Commission, confirmed the substance of the video and announced that Russian investigators had opened a case into ballot tampering by the head at Polling Place No. 2501, where the episode occurred, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

It’s stunning to see how oppressive regimes are losing their grip on the public. The key to power is controlling information, and in the past, control of TV and newspapers was the primary tool. But it today’s bottom-up world, that control is impossible with social media and the Internet. But it’s impossible to have a modern economy without an open web, so hence the dilemma for thugs like Putin. It also presents some risks but also huge opportunities for foreign policy goals in the United States.

Check this out as the founders of Kout discuss their start-up an their online payment service.

Hat tip – Robert Scoble

This looks like a sound move, and new CEO Meg Whitman will probably earn some good will inside HP for this decision.

That said, paidContent is reporting that webOS is toast.

But the Guardian understands that HP is to shut down its webOS division, acquired for $1.2 billion in April 2010 when it bought Palm, and make the staff there redundant or shift them elsewhere inside the company. That could mean losses of up to 500 jobs as the business which created the short-lived HP TouchPad and smartphones is closed.

If true, this makes less sense. Cheap tablets have a future, and HP shouldn’t abandon these efforts just because they botched the initial TouchPad release.

This makes it much easier for national figures to quickly ramp up campaigns. Elizabeth Warren is a great example. She has a ton of progressive support after her role in creating the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau, so when she announced her Senate campaign, she was able to immediately harness her political celebrity. She raised a ton of money online in a short period of time, mostly from small donors all around the country. The web tools for this are now very common and easy to implement. In addition to raising a ton of money, she is also organizing an army of volunteers. As a result, her opponents in the Democratic primary have dropped out.

These tools are also important for less well-known candidates. People can create local buzz, and then use the same new media tools to leverage that buzz. Things now move much faster.

That said, old-school politics are still critical, and things like appearances and shaking hands generate news stories, that then get disseminated and then motivate people to go to the candidates web site. Also, people want to show their support in many ways, so signs and stickers are still important. So campaigns still need to pay attention to things like sticker printing, but the web is also helpful here as well, as all these things can be ordered online.

It will be interesting to see what innovations are in store for 2012.

The latest phase in the I.T. revolution is being driven by the convergence of social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga — with the proliferation of cheap wireless connectivity and Web-enabled smartphones and “the cloud” — those enormous server farms that hold and constantly update thousands of software applications, which are then downloaded (as if from a cloud) by users on their smartphones, making them into incredibly powerful devices that can perform myriad tasks.

The emergence of the cloud, explained Alan Cohen, a vice president of Nicira, a new networking company, “means than anyone can have the computing resources of Google and rent it by the hour.” This is speeding up everything — innovation, product cycles and competition.

The October issue of Fast Company has an article about the designer Scott Wilson, who thought of grafting the body of an iPod Nano onto colorful wristbands, turning them into watchlike devices that could wake you up and play your music. He had no money, though, to bring his concept to market, so he turned to Kickstarter, the Web-based funding platform for independent creative projects. He posted his idea on Nov. 16, 2010, reported Fast Company, and “within a month, 13,500 people from 50 countries had ponied up nearly $1 million.” Apple soon picked up the product for its stores. Said Alexis Ringwald, 28, who recently founded an education start-up, her second Silicon Valley venture: “I have many friends — they introduce themselves as ‘reformed’ Wall St. bankers and lawyers — who have abandoned conventional careers and are now launching start-ups.”

Some like Rich Kaarlgard have been describing this as the “cheap revolution” for years. Friedman is explaining the new developments in that area. We now have it all at our fingertips all the time. It’s a powerful and exciting development. Kickstarter is a great crowdsourcing example that thrives in this environment.

Friedman uses the column to contrast Wall Street and Silicon Valley. It’s a good read.

Even if you are not a MAC person, you have to marvel at what Apple produces. The computer company is constantly at the forefront of every major breakthrough in the industry and the iPod touch is just one example of how Steve Jobs and his firm have changed our lives. There are many others as well.

1. Apple iPod Touch. Instead of asking what the iPod touch can do, you should ask what can’t be done with this ingenious mobile device. It comes with up to 64 gigs of memory for all of your music and video, plus has a retina display that is crystal clear with 960 by 640 resolution. This device doubles as a phone and with FaceTime you can make video calls. You can buy an Apple iPod Touch on eBay and take HD video with the device even though it is the thinnest iPod Apple has ever made.

2. Apple iPhone. The latest version of the iPhone is the Apple iPhone 4 which has a number of the same features as the iPod touch. It can do video calling and comes with the same retina display. One of the big selling points of the iPhone 4 is that you can multitask and operate several different apps at the same time.

3. Apple iPad and Apple iPad 2. The iPad is another Apple device that comes with some of the great features of the iPod and iPhone. The iPad 2 now has a ten-hour battery life and is more mobile than ever. This machine also operates faster than ever before because Apple has powered it with the A5 chip. One really fun feature of the iPad is the dual cameras, one focused on you for chatting and the other focused out to record images or video of what you are seeing.

4. Mac Mini.  If you are looking for speed, then Mac Mini is for you. Apple describes this desktop as a little powerhouse. It uses either the Intel i5 or i7 processor and an AMD Radeon graphics processor for great gaming and running multiple programs at once.

5. Apple iView. It doesn’t seem fair to call the iView a computer monitor because it looks more like something you would see in an airport cockpit. The curved video display was designed to match the curvature of the eye for optimal viewing.

6. MacBook Air. If you are looking for a laptop for word processing, photo storage, video editing and surfing the Internet, the MacBook Air is a versatile work horse. You can choose an 11 or 13 inch version of the MacBook Air. It quickly launches any application and even features a backlit keyboard.

Who knows what advances are next from Apple which will further amaze us. What is your favorite Apple product?