Daily Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Visits to Amazon.com rose 6% on Oct. 24, the day Oprah Winfey endorsed the online retailer’s Kindle e-reading device on her television show. A 6% bump can translate into hundreds of thousands of visitors. Also, the word “kindle” saw a 479% bump in search traffic that day. (Iwantmedia 11/3, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132194 11/3)

Television news outlets are “going all-out” for their Election Night coverage. CNN will employ a “virtual-reality Capitol” to track control of Congress, as well as a “holograph projection device” for interviews. Execs fear that viewers will turn away “if you do just traditional stuff.” (Iwantmedia 11/3, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081102/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_election_night 11/2)

With its Kirikabu speaker, JVC is going green … literally. The new device not only features multidirectional audio with a woofer and left- and right-channel stereo, its design also includes small bowllike planters for potted greenery. Pocket-lint.co.uk (10/31)

Microsoft is expected to report today that it has substantially improved security on its Windows operating system, but that computer threats via viruses and fraud have become more frequent and more pernicious. In its latest “Security Intelligence Report,” the company will report that the amount of harmful software removed from computers using Windows increased 43% in the first half of this year. The New York Times (11/3)

Consumer-electronics retailer Circuit City announced today that it will close 155 underperforming stores, exit select markets completely and trim its work force by 17%. “We are making a number of difficult, but necessary, decisions to address the company’s financial situation as quickly as possible,” said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and CEO of Circuit City. Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.) (11/3) , Gizmodo (11/3)