Kindle Fire HD

This is a podcast review of the Amazon Kindle HD 7inch model which goes for $199 at Amazon.com. This is the base model HD edition with 16 GB memory and Wi-Fi.

The old Kindle’s screen broke, and this was what seemed like the next best thing to buy as a replacement.
This was a replacement for a Kindle that with a broken screen. The Kindle Fire HD promised a lot of extra functionality in addition to being able to use the old Kindle functionality.

Let me start by saying, that overall we are very pleased with the device, especially for the price. And for anybody looking for a device in the 7 inch tablet size then this would be a good choice for most people.

The screen resolution is quite good and it presents a great looking picture. The weight and size of the device seem just about right and the device feels good to the touch. It does seem a bit more delicate than the original Kindle, but that might just be the glass screen. Given that we broke the Kindle’s screen, both devices need to be protected if used on a regular basis.

We really like the integration with the Amazon media offerings. We got immediate access to our Kindle archive and could now access all the Amazon prime content too, and that is one of the really important upgrades in functionality from the old Kindle. Being able to watch video and surf the web with ease is really nice.

The audio and speakers are real plus as well. I’s a significant upgrade from what we had on the old Kindle and that makes it very a useful device for listening to either audio books or to listen to music.

The other great thing is the calendar and contacts functionality as well as the ability to sync with Gmail. The device also is email capable, which really upgrades the usefulness of the device from a basic e-reader.

In short, there’s a lot to like about the Kindle Fire HD.

On the negative side, it starts out with a bad first impression. The package does not include a power adaptor which meant we had to dig out the old Kindle’s adaptor to get the thing charged. It also means that our all black Kindle Fire is plugged into a white charger, which is ok, but not elegant.

The second initial impression issue is how to turn the device on. It’s not easy to figure out, but after a quick Google search I found a button on the right side (in landscape mode) that is pretty much invisible, but does turn it on. It’s also a bit hard to find quickly, which may be a bit of an annoyance going forward.

The other thing I don’t like is the lag in going from the horizontal to landscape views. The switch is too slow which is really noticeable and impacts usability somewhat.

While the UI is much better than my Android’s UI, it is not exactly intuitive. You have to be willing to touch the screen and experiment to find out where controls are. I think this is something you will get used too, but it would be nice if it were simpler.

The battery life is ok, but nothing like the original Kindle which was like the energizer bunny. It seemed to last forever. This battery is satisfactory and really ok if you are near a power source regularly.

The e-reader is good, but I don’t like it quite as much as the screen on my old Kindle. You have a choice of white, sepia or black backgrounds. I’m not yet sure if I will use the white or the sepia backgrounds, but will keep on testing to find which I like better.

Overall, I have to say I recommend getting a Kindle Fire HD if you are replacing a Kindle or if you need a good solid tablet at the $199 price point. However, if price is not an issue then step up and get an iPad.

Second on my list was The Bourne Legacy. This was another action packed film in the Bourne series. You really need to watch the first three movies before seeing this one. This movie and the last one overlap in timelines so you will miss a lot if you haven’t seen the last movie before seeing this one. I liked the action a lot, but didn’t really care for the idea that these special agents were special due to taking drugs to amp up their performance. It wasn’t a part of the books or a part of the original movies. I wish they had made up something better as the central plot line. But in any case, the movie delivers on the action front with lots of chase scenes and fights. The last chase scene seemed to remind me of Terminator 2 or 3 where the first gen terminator must battle a more advance Terminator model. They should have brought this out earlier as it would have given the movie more direct conflict earlier on. Bottom line is that if you liked the first three Bourne movies, you’ll like this one too.

The last movie on my list is The Hunger Games. I put this on the list mostly because the story line is pretty good and they did a nice job with showing what they could in the compressed timeline of a movie version of a book. It’s worth seeing, but a much better performance of the book is the audiobook book version of The Hunger Games. I loved the audiobook version and couldn’t wait to listen to the last two books in the series. If you have to choose between seeing the movie and listening to the audiobook, get the audiobook – it’s just better.

The last one I want to mention, is the trailer for Les Miserables. That looks really good, but we will have to wait for Christmas for that release.

That’s my short list. What were your favorite movies of the summer?

My goal was make the site something of a cross between what iTunes is for a podcast directory and what Google’s Reader is for a client. I don’t know if that will be good or bad yet, but that’s the design concept I’m going for.

The site’s listings are much better now, with fewer faded out podcasts cluttering up the works. The ability to follow your favorite podcasts and listen/view should also be much better now.

I still have a list of stuff to do that spans a few pages, but I am tackling them one at time so more change to come.

So give it a try and see if you like it. At some point I will figure out a way to get more systematic feedback. Until then, here’s a link to my contact info if you need something.

Depressing

Slow.

The fake blog scam used a fake blog to show how the fake blogger had lost weight using 2 magic products they saw on Oprah. They gave rave reviews to the products and had lots of fake comments too. They link you to a site to get supposedly free samples. If you signed up, you got put on a monthly subscription for $70 per month or something like that, without really knowing you signed up for anything.

Ads for these kinds of sites were all over the internet, including the big search engines like Google. Google took steps to stop these ads from showing on their site by banning everyone whoever ran an ad to such a site. They did it without appeal or warning. Just banned people for life. They banned me too because I had tested ads to see if they were hard to get approved. They weren’t hard to get approved. Google had no problems with them until much later when the FTC got involved. Despite Google’s harsh treatment of its customers, at least you won’t find those ads there any more.

Not so for Bing, Huffington Post, Fox News and other big name sites. They still run ads for these scammers. The ads look like these and point to Fake News sites promoting wrinkle cream or weight loss or whatever.

This first example is an ad from Bing, followed by ads from Huffington Post and Fox News.

The one below is from the Huffington Post.

This one is from Fox News:

These ads point to sites that look like these:

These sites claim to be advertisements at the top of the page. But it’s not clear what part is an ad. In fact the entire site is an ad with fake news stories, fake endorsements and fake comments. They even disclaim that they are all fake at the bottom of the page in some really fine print in faded colars at the bottom of the page saying something like:

* We are not affiliated in any way with Headline News, CNN or USA Today. Headline News, CNN, Newsweek, Shape and USA Today are all registered trademarks of their respective owners. ® All trademarks on this web site whether registered or not, are the property of their respective owners. The authors of this web site are not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the third-party trade mark or third-party registered trade mark owners, and make no representations about them, their owners, their products or services.

* THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

* The story depicted on this site and the person depicted in the story are not real. rather this story is based on the results that some people who have used these products have achieved. The results portrayed in the story and in the comments are illustrative and may not be the results that you achieve with these products. this page receives compensation for clicks on or purchase of products featured on this site.
The depictions on this page are fictitious and indicitive of potential results. Actual results may vary.

*DermaLift-SP Terms & Conditions:

By placing my order, I agree to the Terms of Offer, which explain that I must cancel within 30 days of today to avoid enrollment in monthly delivery program, which ships fresh supply and charges $69.95 upon the end of the trial period, and subsequently $69.95 monthly thereafter. You will be charged on same card provided today. If you wish to cancel, please call: xxxxxxxxxx If You have any questions about Our Risk Free Trial, please contact Our Customer Service Department toll-free at xxxxxxxx

These sites are scams in my opinion. They are no better than the fake blogs. The FTC should take them down and sites like Bing, Huffington Post and Fox News should be fined for letting these kinds of ads run.

BTW if you look at the ads above that run on Huffington Post and Fox News, there is one titled Veterans Administration. It is not any part of the real Department of Veterans Affairs, but it sure does a good job of sounding official. My guess is that that’s some sort of scam too.

If you want to understand some to the big issues like the so called PROTECT IP act and how the government has a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act that would upset people if we only knew what it was.

If you have 35 minutes watch this video interview with Senator Wyden.

Amazon had earlier offered to create 7,000 jobs in California by building multiple distribution centers in California. Amazon still wants to do that and asked for safe harbor if they go ahead, but the legislature didn’t accept that. They say that the opportunity to create jobs will have to wait until January.

It’s too bad that the only real sense of urgency in Sacramento is to collect more taxes and not to create more jobs. They are giving Amazon the tax break anyway, so creating 7,000 jobs would be costless to the state. But the people in Sacramento just don’t seem to care enough to deal with that now and prefer to wait four or five more months. I guess they think four or five months of 7,000 people being unemployed isn’t worth their time.

As I write this, it is unclear what Gov. Brown will do – will he sign it, veto it or just let it go into law without his signature.

Whether Amazon will reinstate its affiliate program in California is also still up in the air, but it would be nice to see the 25,000 affiliates back in business creating jobs and paying taxes. We can only wait and see.

The law could mean that Amazon has to collect $200 million in sales taxes for the state. But the status of the law is uncertain. Amazon refuses to collect the sales tax.

As a result of the new law, Amazon terminated business relationships with 25,000 small businesses based in California to protect itself from having to to collect the sales tax. This has cost the state lots of jobs and lost income taxes as well.

In addition, Amazon claims the law is unconstitutional and has started collecting signatures for a June referendum that would overturn the law.

According to the Mercury News, when Amazon submits signatures for its referendum by Sept. 27, the law requiring Amazon to pay taxes will be stayed until the June election. That would mean no revenues could be collected.

So on one side, Amazon spends lots of money in California to build distribution centers and creates 7,000 jobs and on the other side California will probably get nothing or at best only some part of $200 million.

The Democrats running the state are not that interested in Amazon’s offer and only seem interested in trying to collect more taxes. Their most recent maneuver is to try to bypass a vote by citizens on Amazon’s referendum by passing the law again but this time with a two thirds majority. Republicans don’t seem interested.

Unless the Democrats can make their end-run around the democratic process work, Amazon will have won the PR battle. When the citizens get to vote on the law, they will know for certain that this law and our representatives in Sacramento have killed at least 7,000 certain jobs.

Somehow, I decided to go to the event. It was over in Branner Hall across the street from my dorm complex, Wilbur. We met in a big room. It was kind of dark and had a fireplace. I did a quick search on Branner and found a picture of the room.

We all settled in with Jobs sitting down at the head of our circle. He was a young guy. Full of energy. I listened with great interest to what he had to say. The thing I remember was his vision of what computers would look like in our future and his excitement about the day his vision would come true.

His vision was not the Mac. What he talked about was a computer so small it fit in our hands. It would go with us every where. It would be our personal navigator. His enthusiasm was so clear and intense. Even though it sounded like science fiction given the computers we had at the time.

We had about an hour of Jobs’ time that evening, but his vision of a personal navigator always stuck with me.

I remember later breaking into the computer science building to get access to a computer with a modem, as I must have run out of hours at the computer lab. I wandered around a bit until I came upon a room with some computer monitors and modems. Sitting next to the terminal was another monitor. This one was way cooler. It was something called a Star computer. I had never seen anything like it. It had a completely different screen and you could move the arrow around on the screen with this thing attached by a cord. I didn’t know it was a mouse. I played with it for half an hour trying to see what I could do with it. It didn’t seem to be able to do much of interest. I couldn’t figure out how to connect it to the Dec System 20 which is what I needed.

Even though it was not much use, it seemed very cool and I remember wondering in passing if Jobs had seen this thing. It turns out that the Star was one of the inspirations for the Lisa and later Mac.

In the mid to late 80s, I would own a few Macs and use them all the time at work. They were great until they were not. In came the Thinkpad and I have been locked into Wintel ever since.

In the mid 90′s, Apple released the Newton. I thought then that Jobs’ vision might be coming a reality with a Jobs less Apple. Like other enthusiasts I bought a Newton. I used it for a while, but it wasn’t easy. It was kind of hard to use, it was too big and way too heavy. The Newton failed and the Pilot took its place.

But obviously, Jobs was not done. He gave us the iPod, the iPod touch and iPhone and now the iPad. He did it. He delivered on his vision from 1980. These cool devices have become our personal navigators in so many ways.

I never met Steve Jobs again since that evening in Branner Hall. It was a short, but memorable time.

Whatever Steve Jobs does next, I wish him well. It would be interesting to hear Steve give that Branner talk one more time. What would his vision be now?

BTW, if you haven’t seen Jobs giving the commencement speach at Stanford you should. It’s quite inspirational. You can see the video here – How to Live Before you Die.

So, I signed up. Pretty easy to do. Then, I was somewhat surprised that Spotify is a downloadable application that runs on your computer. I downloaded it, ran the install and fired it up.

Within seconds it was up and running, importing all my music from my iTunes folder. It got everything, except the files Apple DRMed into prison.

The application seems much lighter and faster than iTunes, which is a welcome change. It looks sexy, with a grey/black background and white font. (Makes it harder to read though.) You can see the screenshot below:

Next up, it asked if I wanted to sync my iPhone/iPod or Android device. I wasn’t about to test this on my iPod, so I tried the Android approach. I had to download the Android app to phone and install that. All I had to do was enter my name and password for it to start syncing. Worked great, until it didn’t.

It stopped and complained about memory problems. I looked and there was still plenty of memory available. Turn the app off and on, then an error message about my memory card. Turned in off and on again. Uninstalled and re-installed. Still got the error message. Finally turned the phone off and on and that got it working again.

Spotify tried to push 2500 songs to my Android, which choked as it ran our of memory.

I tried to un-select some play lists thinking that would take them off my Android, but that does not seem to work. Syncing seems to be limited to pushing songs from my PC to the Android phone, not taking them off the Android. Now my memory card is full and I’m not sure what to do.

I do wish the sync would work right. It should add and delete songs from my Android as I select them in the Spotify app. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but I don’t know.

I decided to forget the phone for now and check out the Spotify desktop app.

It’s fun to play with. You can listen to just about everything out there music wise, except the Beatles and few others. They insert some ads every now and then but that’s ok. You can get rid of the ads for $5 per month and for $10 you can have the same streaming experience on your mobile device.

Another nice feature is that the system integrates with Facebook so you can share play lists with Facebook friends.

Overall, I liked Spotify a lot, but it’s not quite an iTunes killer until the mobile syncing stuff works much better and without glitches.

iTunes is certainly vulnerable. On my machine, iTunes is bloated, slow and glitchy. It constantly asks to be updated with a cumbersome process. Spotify is slim, fast and aside from the syncing issues seems to work well. However, iTunes still seems to lead on the syncing front, which means I continue to be stuck using iTunes until Spotify works better with my mobile.

I tried reading the petition, but it’s a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo to me. The Attorney Generals title and summary are as follows:

REFERENDUM TO OVERTURN LAW REQUIRING INTERNET RETAILERS TO COLLECT SAME SALES OR USE TAXES AS OTHER RETAILERS. If signed by the required number of registered voters and filed with the Secretary of State, this petition will place on the statewide ballot a challenge to an existing state law. The law must be approved by voters at the next statewide election to remain in effect. the law expands the definition of retailers considered “engaged in business” in California to include certain Internet retailers selling to California consumers, so that out-of-state Internet retailers also collect existing sales or use taxes.

That’s easier to read than the petition, but I still don’t know what their talking about.

It will be interesting to watch Amazon fight it out with the Wal-Mart shill Main Street Alliance and labor unions.

While the focus has been on Amazon, more companies are terminating their relationships with 25,000 small businesses here in California. The law is intentionally vague and given that there are networks and sub-networks of affiliates it is very difficult for a company to see if their relationships with advertising networks or affiliates causes the nexus to kick in.

To avoid the risk, out of state retailers are choosing to do the simplest thing and that is to fire their California small business affiliates. That means less revenue for small businesses, more people getting fired and less income tax collected by the State. And, no extra sales tax to compensate. Way to go Sacramento.

Here is the most recent termination letter I have seen:

Dear Affiliate,

Thank you for your participation in the Total Gym Affiliate Program in the Google Affiliate Network. We greatly appreciate all of the hard-work and effort you have put forth to make our program a success. Unfortunately, due to recent state legislation in California, we are forced to remove all affiliates located in the state.

Today, June 29, 2011, your account was expired from our Google Affiliate Network program. Thus, we urge you to take down all banners, text links, etc. from your sites immediately.

Please note, if the location of your business changes, please feel free to reapply to our program.

If circumstances do change, we will notify you. We sincerely wish you the best in all of your future endeavors.

Regards,

The Total Gym Affiliate Team

The Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for States to force out-of-state retails to collect sales tax. California is trying to bypass this rule by claiming independent companies create a nexus for Amazon. It will likely end up in the courts, but not before lots of people lose their jobs.

The only thing that could turn this around is if Gov. Brown comes to his senses and vetoes the bill.

My condolences to all who have lost a job or a livelihood today.

Below is a copy of the letter being sent to Amazon’s California Affiliates:

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

To quote Amazon:

Amazon Cloud Drive is your hard drive in the cloud. Store your music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon’s secure servers. All you need is a web browser to upload, download, and access your files from any computer.

Now what seems really interesting is that Cloud Drive is connected to the Cloud Player, an Android app. There is no Cloud Player on iOS. There is no Windows Phone version. It’s all about Android. Last week they launched an app store for Android. Look out for video and other content next.

Amazon is clearly working hard to position itself as the go to company for content on Droids. And Google better watch out because Amazon has the secret sauce to make it all work great – our credit card numbers on file ready for one click purchases.

Let the Droid Content war begin.

So what is SoundCloud:

SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables anyone to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds across the internet, in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. From sample to symphony and soundbite to soliloquy, SoundCloud allows sound creators anywhere to instantly record audio on the site or via mobile applications and share them publicly or privately; to embed sound across websites, social networks and blogs and receive feedback from the community.

SoundCloud’s open platform also supports a wide range of applications built on the SoundCloud API, enabling everything from mobile voice recording, online mastering, digital distribution to Facebook artist profiles and iPad music making. SoundCloud offers free accounts to amateur creators, with more advanced users able to upgrade to premium accounts for advanced features like statistics, controlled distribution and custom branding.

And now they are going to support podcast RSS feeds:

We’ll soon be able to offer RSS feed capability for your tracks and will be rolling this out slowly with selected users. If you’d like to apply to be included in this program and possibly have the chance to become a featured podcaster, just fill in the form below. Whether you have a podcast you want to move to SoundCloud or have one in mind and have been waiting for the opportunity to get it out there, then sign up! The best and most interesting applications will get a special beta account too so you can really test drive SoundCloud.

So how do you get involved in this programs? Well follow the link below and fill out the form. We’ll take a look at the application and get in touch!
SIGN UP FOR BETA ACCOUNT!

Already released MP3s from Amazon:

If you get a chance to check it out let me know how you like it.

I’ve thought a little bit about what I want and I think the basic requirements are:

• Remove duplicate songs
• Fix misspelled song titles, artist names
• Find missing titles, genres, artist info and attach it to each song
• Find missing artwork and attach it to each song
• Do all the above really well and automatically

Looking around on the Google I’ve found a couple of candidates: Rinse and TuneUp.  Both cost $20-30, but I’m planning on buying both and having a little shootout to find the best one.

I figure I’ll use a spare hard drive to make a back up of my iTunes collection and run both software packages on the collection to see which is the best music organizer.

If you have suggestions for a music organizer please let me know.

Click here to get the free report(aff).

Of all the questions I get about podcasting, one question seems to be almost universal. That question is can you make money podcasting? That’s the question people want the know about.

At the last Blogworld conference, I learned that there are people making money. The key is having your own product and using your content to promote your product.

The reason I revisit this, is that I just read a great report by a guy named Gideon Shalwick. I’had never heard of Gideon before, but I saw his report referred to by a number of people I know. So, I signed up and got his report. It’s free, so why not.

What I found was really interesting. Gideon has taken the next step in the business model. Gideon shows how to turn your video podcast into a business.

He combines YouTube, a video blog, an email list and a product into a business model. He calls the process Rapid Video Blogging. And he shows you how to do it in his free report.

The report is 95 pages long and covers a lot of material.

The report shows you how to

• Select a niche to build your product
• Create high quality videos
• Connect YouTube, your blog and email
• And how to monetize the setup

And if you want more, he’s offering a coaching class to help you turn your podcast into a business.

I highly recommend getting the free report, even if you just want to be more successful in growing and engaging your audience. The report has lots of good ideas for every video podcaster, and I’m sure the same ideas apply to people doing audio too. Just bypass the hype and dig out what helps you.

Click here to get the free report(aff).

In the PSA, USA Network has one of its main characters talking about the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and it’s impact. (the full press release is below.)

This would be great given the impact the ADA has had leveling the playing ground except they use a guy who can see to play a blind person.

A sighted person is playing a blind person, and there are not any real blind actors on the show that I know of.

What does that say about their real respect for the ADA.

If they wanted to make this about people with disabilities why not extend the principles they claim and find a blind actor to play the part. After all, if the CIA can do it why not Hollywood.

When this was about actors coloring their faces to play people of different colors this unacceptable, but when sighted people are used to play blind people this ok?

Are blind people incapable of acting? What would the ADA say about that?

But somehow the “American Association of People with Disabilities” thinks this ok according to USA Network’s PR machine.

I’m sorry, but I call BS.

#######################

USA’S ‘COVERT AFFAIRS’ PARTNERS WITH

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

TO HONOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

As Part of Network’s Characters Unite Campaign, Series Star Christopher Gorham to be Featured in an Original PSA on Combating Discrimination

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – July 27, 2010 – As part of its Characters Unite campaign to combat prejudice and discrimination, USA Network and its new, hit series COVERT AFFAIRS are teaming up with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it was announced today by Alexandra Shapiro senior vice president, brand marketing and digital, USA Network. COVERT AFFAIRS premiered on July 13, 2010, and is the #1 cable scripted series premiere in the important A18-49 demographic and also showed growth in total viewers for its second episode.

Christopher Gorham, who portrays a blind CIA operative (Auggie) in COVERT AFFAIRS, will be featured in an original Public Service Announcement (PSA) that highlights the progress of the ADA, which barred discrimination in employment against qualified individuals with disabilities. The PSA will premiere in the July 27th episode of COVERT AFFAIRS, the day after the 20th anniversary of when the landmark bill was signed into law.

“Thanks to the ADA, millions of people with disabilities like Christopher Gorham’s character have been able to work in virtually every field and every type of business, even the CIA,” Shapiro said. “But we also know that barriers for people with disabilities remain and we are proud to partner with the AAPD in our Characters Unite campaign to raise awareness and encourage viewers to join the fight against persisting discrimination.”

In addition to the PSA, USA will provide information for visitors online at charactersunite.com, including facts and statistics on people with disabilities in the workplace and links to important resources such as the AAPD and The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free service that offers advice and information about workplace accommodations.

“As we celebrate 20 years of enforcement of ADA, we at AAPD are delighted to partner with the USA Network’s Characters Unite campaign and the ‘Covert Affairs’ team to promote authentic depictions of disabled characters on television,” said Andrew J. Imparato, president and CEO of AAPD. “This exciting new program will help change attitudes, and the PSA being launched this week will accelerate and amplify the show’s inclusive message.”

In COVERT AFFAIRS, USA’s newest original series, we meet Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative. While it appears that she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something or someone from her past that her CIA bosses are really after. The series also stars Christopher Gorham, Peter Gallagher, Kari Matchett, Anne Dudek and Sendhil Ramamurthy. From Universal Cable Productions, COVERT AFFAIRS is executive produced by Doug Liman and David Bartis through Dutch Oven and written and co-executive produced by Matt Corman and Chris Ord. James Parriott is the show’s executive producer and showrunner.

The PSA can be viewed via the following link: http://www.soapyfilm.com/reel.php?tx_user=ada&tx_pass=psa&sb_submit=Login

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country’s largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change – politically, economically and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). AAPD operates programs in five core areas: Political Participation, Leadership Development, Employment & Mentoring, Advocacy, Membership & Member Benefits. To learn more, visit the AAPD website: www.aapd.com

USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 98.5 million U.S. homes. A division of NBC Universal, USA is the cable television leader in original series and home to the best in blockbuster theatrical films, acquired television series and entertainment events. The award-winning USA website is located at www.usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome.

USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.

Considering what how they made this short film the video is excellent. At the end, they show you how they made the movie. That part is especially fun to watch.

Via. Podcasting News

And here’s the rebutal.