1. A third party is joining the AT&T-Verizon ad battle: Apple. Which of the following is one of the things its ads claim the iPhone does?
a. Pretend you've read your client's e-mailsb. Remind you to buy flowers for your anniversaryc. Find a good sushi restaurant while chattingd. Find wireless providers with less expensive data plans
2. The anti-Google movement among newspapers is growing. Which of the following dailies has not announced it may block Google from indexing its content?
a. The Wall Street Journal
b. Dallas Morning News
c. Denver Post
d. New Orleans Times Picayune
3. "Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and ___ is centered on creative and talented people -- employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the ___ brand as we take the company into the next decade." Who's standing behind what brand for the next 10 years?
a. Carol Bartz, Yahoo
b. Evan Williams, Twitter
c. Tim Armstrong, AOL
d. Phil Schiller, Apple
4. Google recently took out an ad on its own Image search site. Why?
a. To compete with Bing image search
b. To promote its new Image Swirl product
c. To apologize for an offensive image
d. To apologize for sneaky Web marketing
5. Record company executive James Roppo was arrested this week for a tech-related offense. What did he do?
a. Indecent exposure on Facebook
b. Reckless Twittering
c. Stealing music on MySpace
d. Making spurious claims about AT&T's 3G map
6. RIM and Motorola have just been named in a patent infringement suit filed by Klausner Technologies. What's the suit about?
a. Audible e-mail
b. Multimodal messaging
c. Touch-free texting
d. Visual voice mail
7. Sneaky Web marketers are being spanked by Congress after they reportedly bilked billions from unsuspecting consumers. Which of the following is not one of the marketers targeted by lawmakers?
a. Affinion
b. NebuAd
c. Vertrue
d. Webloyalty
8. According to surveys by YouGov, brand loyalty for Apple handsets has dropped among men age 18-plus. Who just surpassed it as king of the Y chromosome set?
a. Motorola
b. BlackBerry
c. Samsung
d. Nokia
9. Yet another spammer is headed to the slammer. Which of the following Spam Kings just received a four-year stretch for mail fraud?
a. Sanford Wallace
b. Alan Ralsky
c. Jeremy Jaynes
d. Robert Alan Soloway
10. Take the amount in dollars a first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species" just fetched at a U.K. auction, and multiply by the Apple iPhone's share of global data traffic, according to AdMob. Add the first week's worth of unit sales for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2. Put that on an island near the equator and wait for it to evolve. What do you get?
a. 16,855
b. 168,550
c. 1,685,500
d. 16,855,000
Answer key
Question 1: A third party is joining the AT&T-Verizon ad battle: Apple. Which of the following is not one of the things its ads claim the iPhone does?
Correct Answer: Find wireless providers with less expensive data plans
Apple's ads ignore the whole "where's my 3G map?" question, don't employ third-tier acting talent, and don't even mention AT&T. Instead, they focus on the practical applications of talking on an iPhone while checking e-mail and/or surfing the Web. So when do you think the "A" in AT&T will stand for "Apple"?
Question 2: The anti-Google movement among newspapers is growing. Which of the following dailies has not announced it may block Google from indexing its content?
Correct Answer: New Orleans Times Picayune
Following News Corp.'s threats to stop users of the search giant from accessing Journal stories, the publisher of the Denver Post declared it will block Google bots when it begins charging for online access next year. The Morning News is also considering a pay wall and Google blockage. We hear they're also thinking about hiring "newsies" to run up and down the street wearing knickers and crying, "Extra, extra, read all about it."
Question 3: "Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and ___ is centered on creative and talented people -- employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the ___ brand as we take the company into the next decade." Who's standing behind what brand for the next 10 years?
Correct Answer: Tim Armstrong, AOL
Or, we should say, Aol. -- the new logo Armstrong was introducing in his "uniquely dynamic" yet utterly bland corporate way. No, the internal dot after the name is not a typo. Also new for 2010: logos featuring goldfish, cat toys, and satanic symbols. The good news? They've finally run out of free installation CDs.
Question 4: Google recently took out an ad on its own Image search site. Why?
Correct Answer: To apologize for an offensive image
An image of First Lady Michelle Obama Photoshopped to make her look like an ape was first removed by Google from its image cache due to its appearance on a malware delivery site. When it reappeared a few days later on a different site, Google kept the image and took out an ad, which reads in part: "We do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it." Ironically, you can delete the image from Google results by turning off its SafeSearch image filters. Unfortunately, you can't do the same to the racist who created it.
Question 5: Record company executive James Roppo was arrested this week for a tech-related offense. What did he do?
Correct Answer: Reckless Twittering
According to conflicting reports, Roppo either (a) failed to tweet when instructed to by police in order to disburse an unruly mob of adolescents gathered at a mall to meet pop sensation Justin Bieber, or (b) continued to tweet that Bieber was still signing autographs after the 15-year-old had already left the building, exacerbating the near-riot. Roppo was officially charged with "endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration." Remember the good old days, when musicians got arrested for abusing drugs and driving their cars into pools?
Question 6: RIM and Motorola have just been named in a patent infringement suit filed by Klausner Technologies. What's the suit about?
Correct Answer: Visual voice mail
RIM and Motorola join Apple, AT&T, Google, Cox, Verizon, and more than a dozen others that have been sued by Klausner. The suit was filed in the patent-troll haven otherwise known as the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where we understand if the judge doesn't rule for the patent holder they get all their legal fees refunded, plus a free toaster.
Question 7: Sneaky Web marketers are being spanked by Congress after they reportedly bilked billions from unsuspecting consumers. Which of the following is not one of the marketers targeted by lawmakers?
Correct Answer: NebuAd
Using popular sites such as Priceline, Classmates.com, Orbitz, and others, the marketers offered "cash back" deals on purchases that automatically subscribed consumers into "membership clubs" for $10 to $20 a month. The total haul for these three companies: some $1.4 billion, which they split 50/50 with the sites in question. Net ad firm NebuAd did not participate in the scheme, but closed down after Congressional hearings about other nefarious online activities. In this case, membership does not have its privileges.
Question 8: According to surveys by YouGov, brand loyalty for Apple handsets has dropped among men age 18-plus. Who just surpassed it as king of the Y chromosome set?
Correct Answer: Motorola
According to YouGov, which surveys 2,000 people a day for its BrandIndex, loyalty toward Apple dropped from a peak score of 48 points earlier this month to just 22, putting it behind Motorola but still ahead of BlackBerry. Apparently those Verizon pro-Droid and anti-AT&T ads are working. Then again, when consumer preferences shift that dramatically from week to week, can you really call it "loyalty"?
Question 9: Yet another spammer is headed to the slammer. Which of the following Spam Kings just received a four-year stretch for mail fraud?
Correct Answer: Alan Ralsky
Ralsky got nabbed for a pump-and-dump stock trading scheme. He plead guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, and violating the CAN-SPAM act last June, but was just sentenced this week. The self-designated "Godfather of Spam" will be a guest of the Federal government for 51 months; here's hoping his cellmate is a overly friendly ex-biker named Tiny.
Question 10: Take the amount in dollars a first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species" just fetched at a U.K. auction, and multiply by the Apple iPhone's share of global data traffic, according to AdMob. Add the first week's worth of unit sales for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2. Put that on an island near the equator and wait for it to evolve. What do you get?
Correct Answer: 1,685,500
Darwin's 1859 classic -- kept on a bathroom bookshelf for decades -- sold for $171,000 this week. Per the newly Google-fied AdMob, the iPhone commanded 50 percent of all global cellular data traffic last month. Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed sequel sold 1.6 million copies in its first week, assassinating the record set by the original console game. So 171K * 0.5 + 1.6M = 1,685,500. Come back next week for an ever-evolving quiz.
Dan Tynan is contributing editor at InfoWorld, author of the blog, and co-founder of , an award-winning geek humor site. (Note: Awards still pending.)