• irs.gov - tax filing deadline extended

Clark made a promise in December that hasn’t quite happened yet. But there is a good reason. You may have heard that AT&T agreed to offer Internet service for $10 a month once it had swallowed up BellSouth. It was supposed to happen in the 14 territories where AT&T took over BellSouth, and the deal was going to be good for 36 months. In addition, if you didn’t want to have a phone line but you wanted DSL, you could get what’s called “naked DSL” for $20 a month. It’s now been several months since the “merge” and neither of these has come about. So, Team Clark called AT&T to find out what happened. Turns out, AT&T was given until June to start offering the $10 deal and until December to offer the naked DSL deal.

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In other Internet news, Comcast - the nation’s largest cable company – has come under fire recently for shutting off the Internet service of customers who use “too much.” But the company won’t define what “too much” means. Comcast needs to explain itself to customers if it’s going to continue to treat them like dirt.

Do you remember when Clark talked about slacker.com a while ago? The company claimed it would give people legal free music in exchange for reviewing ads. But Slacker is slacking a bit. The program is working, but people can’t put music on the MP3 players as reported. That’s because the players haven’t come out yet. You’re going to have to be a little more patient on this one.

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In other music news, Apple has sold 100 million iPods. All the other companies are just trying to grab a tiny piece of market share. Yahoo, for instance, is coming out with “Yahoo Music to Go” on its Sansa Connect. You must buy a year’s subscription. And, if you use Master Card right now, you get two years for $144. That’s about $6 a month for unlimited music! The Sansa’s are really hard to find right now because they’re still being manufactured. The company claims you can use other MP3 players with Yahoo’s program, but Clark is skeptical. He would rather you wait until the Sansa’s are more available. Check our more at music.yahoo.com.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided 5-3 that monster mega banks are above the law. The high court basically said banks don’t have to answer to any consumer or banking authorities. And, consumers no longer have any defense against these huge banks, even if they break the law. This decision stems from an age-old edict that was established during the Great Depression. It’s clearly an antiquated law that has no bearing in today’s financial world. But it’s going to affect the way you bank. Therefore, it’s time to switch to a credit union or local community bank. You have more protection and are treated better in general if you bank with smaller organizations.

Technology is great when it works. But what about when it doesn’t. Three tech-crash incidents occurred in the past week alone, causing lots of high blood pressure among users. You probably heard about the Blackberry crash heard around the world that had folks on Wall Street in a tizzy. It was a huge deal in New York and D.C. and elsewhere around the world because people are basically addicted to these devices. Secondly, Vonage admitted this week that it may go under soon, which could affect millions who’ve switched to VOIP calling with this company. In technology, you have to be the smartest – not the first. Lastly, TurboTax – the largest electronic filing company in existence – crashed on tax day. Christa, Clark’s EP, could not file her taxes that night because of the crash. As a result, TurboTax users got two more days to file. Intuit, the company that makes TurboTax, went to the IRS and asked for a reprieve and it worked.