Two malls in the UK have installed monitoring devices that track people by monitoring their cellphones. By picking up the signals from their phones, the devices can track which stores people enter and how long they stay.

Although these statistics could prove useful for the mall and it’s retailers, it is an obvious privacy concern. It will be interesting to see if the technology spreads or is imported to the states.

That’s what Bill Rosenplatt, a DRM “specialist,” states in this Guardian article on Apple’s plans for DRM. Discouraged by Apple’s huge market share and clout, EMI pulled their catalog from iTunes and offered it DRM-free through Amazon. This move provided statistics to determine if offering DRM-free music would increase piracy of that music. Apparently, the answer is no.

“The statistics show that there’s no effect on piracy,” says Rosenplatt. The article goes on to state “that most download stores will remove DRM on permanent music downloads” and that Apple will soon be “selling iPods preinstalled with unlimited access to music, or with a bundle to a subscription offering,” all with DRM-free music.

This means greater control for the consumer. We will have the choice of what we can do with music and what devices we can use to listen to our music.

I officially started my internship with Cox Communications, the nation’s third largest cable company, this week. I’ll be spending the summer with Cox’s strategy and product development group. Needless to say, it will be an interesting summer as I’ll be involved in numerous exciting initiatives that Cox has brewing.

As expected, I’m restricted on what I can say. However, I can tell you that the MSOs and telcos are facing some interesting hurdles and have big future plans for the consumer. I’m looking forward to helping make these plans a reality.

Stephen Fleming, a former venture capitalist and current head of Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, is writing an excellent series on raising capital on his blog. Fleming, who’s also on the investment committee of Seraph Group, has plenty of VC experience and knows the do’s and don’ts of raising venture funding. If you’re raising capital or thinking about it, you need to read this series (you can download a PDF of his presentation here):

• 01 - Introduction
• 02 - 4 ways to fund a startup
• 03 - The venture equity cycle
• 04 - Picking the right investors
• 05 - Venture capital in the southeast
• 06 - Value drivers of a successful startup
• 07 - Other attractive elements of a startup
• 08 - Writing your business plan/presentation
• 09 - Seven deadly sins of business plans
• 10 - The VC meeting
• 11 - Developing your pitch

My first computer had a 25MB hard drive that I thought was enormous. 15 years later and I now own a 32GB USB flash drive. I bought the Patriot Xporter XT 32GB flash drive for $149 (after mail-in rebate of $25) from Newegg. With write speeds of 7MB/s and read speeds of 32MB/s, the thing is reasonably fast. More importantly, it’s tiny — about the same size as my Cruzer 2GB USB drive, but with much more storage space. I can now carry large files, movies, music and more with me. The thing can store as much as my laptop!

That’s right, Apple reported selling 3.7 million iPhones in 2007, but less than 2 million were activated. That leaves over 1.7 million iPhones which have probably been unlocked and are being used on networks other than AT&T.

Apple still makes a pretty penny on the sale of iPhones, but is missing out on an estimated $10 per customer per month payment from AT&T for these 1.7 million phones. That’s $200 million a year.

This news, along with some disappointment with product announcements at Macworld Expo have sent Apple’s stock tumbling 34% this year. Might soon be a good time to get some Apple stock on the cheap.

Mozilla Labs has released a new Firefox plugin, Personas, that allows you to add lightweight, custom themes. The collection of themes available right now isn’t great, but they have easy instructions on how to create your own. I created one with my nifty logo in the top right and a little lighter shading. I must say I’m enjoying the new look.

Update: Mozilla now has a decent sized collection of themes for you to choose from.

A new study by Harvard University reveals that more than 60% of Americans don’t trust the media’s coverage of political campaigns. Four out of five people believe coverage focuses too much on trivial issues and that media coverage has too much influence on American voting choices. Other key findings:

• 92% say it is important that the news media provide information on candidates’ specific policy plans, but 61% say the media does not provide enough coverage of policy plans.
• 89% say it is important to hear about candidates’ personal values and ethics, but 43% say there is not enough coverage of personal values and ethics.