Microsoft’s Kin phone was announced in April. It launched in May. And it died in June.

Microsoft plans to pull the plug on Kin and integrate the Kin staff into the Windows Phone 7 team following sluggish sales, sources “close to Microsoft” tell Engadget and CNET.

Meanwhile, in Cupertino…

Apple Inc.’s newest iPhone was in hot demand as hundreds lined up outside stores in Tokyo, Berlin, New York and elsewhere to become among the first to own the device

I’ve been working on a new slate of improvements for myself and my business. I’ve introduced a new support system, so anyone who wants to open a request for support can do so without needing to remember my email address. Soon, people can email a specific address and they’ll automatically be tabulated into the support system and there they will be able to monitor their support requests whenever the want, 24/7.

I’ll be updating my portfolio of work, soon, too. Right now, all of the sites on there were done before I started working full time for myself. I have dozens of new projects that I love that I need to get online. Namely, Jake’s website, Springs of Cambridge and FAIR. I’ve got half a dozen more sites in the pipeline, three of which are days away from publication.

I’ve added an online store that, while a little rough around the edges, is a good first go. I’ll be adding more stuff into it, but customers can now come directly to my website and purchase a new website immediately. If they know what they want, who am I to stop them from buying what they want so long as it fits in the guidelines of the contracts for that product? Want a blog? Super, just go buy one — custom made, directly via PayPal or cash on delivery. It’s like buying a birthday cake at a family-run bakery.

I’ll be adding a “Learning” section someday, too. Currently, it’s a walled-off area for clients to learn about their new website.

Speaking of things for clients, I’m now blasting off great looking HTML emails to clients to let them know the progress of their site after I’ve spent at least an hour working on it. It tells them what I’ve done, what I need to do and where they can view their site while in development. To ask questions, they simply just need to reply to the email. No one else offers that level of updating and progress reporting.

And, my proudest new goal: be even faster. I’ve long been told that I’m blazing fast at getting to most things. Technical issues and errors are priority 1 and site updates, development, etc. all falls into line after that. Every client I’ve ever had that asked a question or for something to be done has responded at some point to say, “Wow. That was fast.” Now, I have a new goal of responding to every client’s email within 1 hour. Yes, that won’t always happen, but between my time at home and with my iPhone and iPad, it can work. And, I have a goal of getting new site changes and requests done in 24 hours or less. Not to mention getting new sites developed under time.

I’ve been at this for 6 months and have managed to be just as successful as I set out to be. Initially, I said, “Make at least as much money as you would if you still worked for the State of Indiana.” Today, I did the math, and I’ve discovered I’m $3,000 over my goal. I’m right where I wanted to be. Actually, I’m about a month ahead.

Here’s to the next 6 months and years. Thanks to all of my clients and friends who have referred me business.

Not one slide with even a hint of Google on it.

However, my beef with the bill passed yesterday is that it’s just some middle-of-the-road, watered down bill that doesn’t appear to do anything for anyone except those really poor people – 1 in 4 Americans – who will get dumped onto Medicare. Sucks to be one of the other 3. Would have been nice to see some real help for the middle class – you know, that group that built the damn nation that most of us live in.

Mitch Daniels was the only Republican over the last few months that seemed to offer up at least an alternative plan. It’s proven to work, works great, everyone loves the plans he speaks of – called HSAs. I had one and was a big proponent when I was working for the State. Plus, you get to use your money, real money, plus money from the State, to use on other things like glasses or dental work. This is required reading for everyone.

In Indiana’s HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premium for the plan. The intent is that participants will become more cost-conscious and careful about overpayment or overutilization.

Unused funds in the account—to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee and growing fast—are the worker’s permanent property. For the very small number of employees (about 6% last year) who use their entire account balance, the state shares further health costs up to an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,000, after which the employee is completely protected.

The HSA option has proven highly popular. This year, over 70% of our 30,000 Indiana state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America. Due to the rejection of these plans by government unions, the average use of HSAs in the public sector across the country is just 2%.

…

State employees enrolled in the consumer-driven plan will save more than $8 million in 2010 compared to their coworkers in the old-fashioned preferred provider organization (PPO) alternative. In the second straight year in which we’ve been forced to skip salary increases, workers switching to the HSA are adding thousands of dollars to their take-home pay. (Even if an employee had health issues and incurred the maximum out-of-pocket expenses, he would still be hundreds of dollars ahead.) HSA customers seem highly satisfied; only 3% have opted to switch back to the PPO.

The state is saving, too. In a time of severe budgetary stress, Indiana will save at least $20 million in 2010 because of our high HSA enrollment. Mercer calculates the state’s total costs are being reduced by 11% solely due to the HSA option.

Most important, we are seeing significant changes in behavior, and consequently lower total costs. In 2009, for example, state workers with the HSA visited emergency rooms and physicians 67% less frequently than co-workers with traditional health care. They were much more likely to use generic drugs than those enrolled in the conventional plan, resulting in an average lower cost per prescription of $18. They were admitted to hospitals less than half as frequently as their colleagues. Differences in health status between the groups account for part of this disparity, but consumer decision-making is, we’ve found, also a major factor.

Practical, sensible and founded in fact. That’s good policy.

Thankfully, our national media is here to help – albeit too late. With all the “how this will affect you” stories floating around, it makes you wonder why they didn’t publish these things months ago so we could, you know, be informed. Instead, all we got were “Death Panels”, Sarah Palin and “Republicans Don’t Like It”, despite the fact that none of these things were clear, concise or even made a damn bit of sense.

Now, it appears clear to me that as someone who is waiting on a healthcare provider to give me insurance, one thing seems certain and I’m not at all surprised: I have to spend more money, pay more taxes and I will no doubt get less care and I won’t get a damn cent to pay for it any of it.

Here’s how this works, for those of us “average” Americans, at Indiana’s average pay scale around $40-$60k:

• I’ll be required to buy insurance. The theory goes that if everyone has it, the risk is equally shared and premiums will go down.
• I’ll be taxed more for it because not only do I pay my personal taxes, I’m also a small business that will have to pay more, too.
• While the government is taking money out of my left pocket, I’ll be forced to take money out of my right pocket to pay for my healthcare, as mandated by the first point.
• Because I make my whopping $45k a year, I’ll be forced to let something go somewhere to pay for it all – probably cable, or fresh green beans. Likely both. And, because I make so damn much money, I won’t see any federal help in paying for it.
• Because Indiana won’t have enough money to cover its share of the federal mandated Medicaid/Medicare coverage, they’ll have to pick a little more out of my left pocket.
• The insurance I want won’t be as good – it can’t be. The coverage I want is a health savings account that costs all of $56 a month. I can pick as much or as little money as I choose to put back in tax-deferred savings, too, that I can use for dental and vision coverage, as I’ve done for years. Because every sick smoker and fat ass in the country will be flowing onto the insurance rolls, I’ll get dumped in with the “high-risk” people because I’m just a guy without a “real employer”.
• Because I’ll be in the high-risk pool, I’ll be forced to pay higher premiums with all the other people pay higher premiums, too, so we can all subsidize everyone else – despite the fact I make it a point never to touch fast food, I don’t drink cola anymore, I don’t eat much meat, I exercise three nights a week and I’m 22 – but, hey, I’m a high risk mo-fo that’ll cost about $150-$250 a month to insure, which I can’t afford. That’s like having another car.
• Since I can’t afford another small car payment a month, I’ll be forced to get the bare-bones “basic” coverage for catastrophes so I don’t get fined by the IRS, which has to hire some additional 6k people to police everone. But, because that won’t cover anything beyond 3 primary care visits a year that I’ll never use (who gets a checkup when everything’s hunky-dory?) and, I guess, cancer or a stroke, if I have another kidney stone or cut my finger, I guess I’m still S.O.L.
• Because I won’t get to have my HSA, I’ll have to pay for dental and vision expenses out of pocket, so that means I won’t be getting as many eye exams or tooth checkups anymore, either, probably because I have to pay a bunch of money each month to a plan that doesn’t cover damn near anything I want it to.

I hope to god I’m wrong, I really do. I really wish that everything everyone said about how if we all pay into the system, it’ll all get flushed around and make everything cheaper because we’ll have wonderful new levels of competition. But, I know better. You want to know why? Remember when they said that the credit card bill that took effect earlier this year would strengthen consumer protections against big banks? Yeah. How’s that working out?

Joshua Frank with the Center for Responsible Lending in Boston points out that bankers have already found ways to get around it. “The new law is not going to protect you from every trick and trap,” he warns.

For instance, the law does not cap interest rates or prevent card companies from closing accounts at will. They can still lower credit limits or raise minimum monthly payments with virtually no notice. And it does not limit issuers from imposing new fees or boosting current ones, such as cash advance and account transfer fees.

“For every fee that might disappear or get lowered there’s another fee lurking around the corner,” warns Adam Levin, chairman of Credit.com, a Web site that focuses on consumer credit.

Some banks now charge an inactivity fee, as high as $36 a year, if you don’t use the card. Some charge for a paper statement. Some have a minimum finance charge, meaning you could owe a couple of cents but be billed a couple of dollars.

Annual fees are being added to cards, and existing fees are going up. Foreign transaction fees are being increased and expanded. You could be charged as much as 4 percent for a purchase made in another country.

See, when businesses and people are used to making a certain amount of money per year and something changes that and causes a reduction in revenue, you have an income crisis and you fix it by finding more income. If you think health insurance companies are just going to roll over and let this slide by without a whimper, we’re all fooling ourselves.

Like I said, I hope I’m wrong and I’m sure in 30-40 years when we’ve adjusted we’ll be fine and we’ll be just as secure as we are today with Medicare and Social Security – not like those things are in any danger of insolvency.

Frankly, the real problem is that we know people (read: the government) has a shit ton of money and they blow it on shit no one cares about or wants. The things we do want and actually care about, we get shafted on. I do not believe my government acted in my best interest yesterday. They gave us another band-aid wrapped turd that’ll sit in the corner and smell for the next 50 years.

Say you make tampons and want to advertise on TV. Good luck, if you’re advertising in the U.S. Because of America’s fear of the female anatomy, hoo-ha’s and “it”, TV networks ban most euphanisms like “down there”, too.

For years, advertising for tampons and “sanitary products” have been shrouded in nebulous euphemism. So what happens when a US tampon-maker drops the coy messaging and goes straight for the jugular (so to speak)? Its ad gets banned by the major US television networks for mentioning the word “vagina”.

Even when the company substituted “down there” for vagina, two of the networks still wouldn’t run the ad, so the company was forced to drop the idea altogether. That provoked Amanda Hess, author of The Sexist blog, to observe: “Now, the commercial contains no direct references to female genitalia – you know, the place where the fucking tampon goes.”

This year was no different. I called up, went through SEVEN tiers of options to get to the person I wanted, with the last three tiers selecting similar options each time. Then, the guy tells me that Comcast gives everyone two promos a year, each lasting six months. Meaning, if you haven’t called for a promotion package lately, go do that. It can reduce your bill by a bunch.

Now, they’re telling me I need digital boxes and more shit I don’t want. In my “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” category comes this gem:

Comcast: “You’ll need a digital converter box.”
Me: “Ok, is that free?”
Comcast: “Yes.”
Me: “Ok, fine.”
Comcast: “Now, would you like to have us come out and install that for $19.99 or would you like to go pick it up yourself.?”
Me: “Oh, I have a brain, so I’ll just go pick it up and install it myself.”
Comcast: “Ok, that’ll be $10.”
Me: “Wait, what?”

You see, Comcast is actually going to charge me to $10 to drive up to 75th and Shadeland and pickup a box to install myself. That’s right, Comcast is charging me to drive across town to do their job. It’s like ordering a pizza on carryout, then being told you still have to pay the delivery charges because you came and got it.

And they wonder why Comcast is the most hated company in America.

When they raise taxes, that lowers demand for services as people have less money, businesses have less funds for payroll and supplies and they cut wages and staff and, voila, you have a deeper recession. Not to mention that states cut contracts with outside vendors, thereby deepening matters more.

Again, I’m going to re-iterate that this governing things isn’t necessarily hard. Mitch Daniels saved money by buying floor mats for heaven’s sake:

[Daniels ended] bottled water for employees of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (annual savings, $35,000). Ending notification of drivers that their licenses are expiring; letting them be responsible for noticing (saving $200,000). Buying rather than renting floor mats for BMV offices (saving $267,000 this year). Initiating the sale of 2,096 surplus state vehicles (so far, $1.95 million in revenue from 1,514 sales). Changing the state lottery’s newsletter from semimonthly and in color to a monthly and black-and-white (annual savings, $21,670).

Note, this was in 2005 after 1 year in office. I’d also mention that I’d go as far as to eliminate newsletters, period. Who reads newsletters!? Get a website!

And, the BMV now reminds people about expiration notices electronically, for practically nothing, via email for Hoosiers enrolled in MyBMV.

States have money to burn and money that can be saved and refunded to taxpayers. They just need to step up and deal with it. Don’t tell me the Feds don’t have a few newsletters that can be chucked.