no they dih-uh...

iPad. for those heavy days when your internet is hemorrhaging.

iPad. for those long road trips when you can't stop to pee.

iPad. it's like a really big iPhone.

how cool is that!

Hope for Haiti: Overcome technical hurdles to donating

Are you trying to donate to Haiti relief efforts (especially at hopeforhaitinow.org) and finding website problems or unknown certificate? Or have you found the phone lines busy? Even iTunes appears to be overwhelmed if you try to buy the Hope for Haiti season pass (as of this writing, Hope for Haiti songs and album are #1 on the iTunes Charts).

While the response to the call for help is heartening, it is unfortunate that technical bottlenecks are hindering the flow of donations. Goodyguru has done some research to find out how you can donate and get info when the busiest sites are overwhelmed. Here are some thoughts.

• iTunes: Pre-order the album or songs (the downloads will become available in the next few days), but hold back on the TV season pass (which tries to download the promo and gets stuck). Note that Apple, the artists, and rights holders are donating ALL the proceeds to the charities below.
• HopeForHaitiNow (the main site of the George Clooney MTV telethon): donate at one of the recipient charity sites (Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, and Yele Haiti Foundation.
• Many other charities and funds are dedicating funds to Haiti, including Ben Stiller's Stiller Strong, Mercy Corps (also via Amazon).
• Other organizations are providing direct assistance, such as Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity.
• Get some real news from Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News, MTV, and stay connected with Google Crisis Response.

The sites above will also provide phone numbers and codes to text your donations.

It is my understanding that when you use a credit card the bank/credit card companies will charge the charities their usual fee (everyone else is donating their portion of the donation). I'm sure this will further endear you to our fine financial institutions who we so generously saved from collapse recently (hint hint bankers if you are listening). I don't know if the phone companies will donate their part of the text transactions; it would be a nice gesture if they did.

I will update or add to this post if I find out anything new. Now go and do what you can.