Kinda scary -- read the full post.
If my Xbox 360 had a blog, it would complain that our original Xbox gets all the attention -- our kids don't care for many of the Xbox 360 games.
My Xbox 360 has a blog, and it's starting to get on my nerves.
While I was off on a vacation recently, the slick game console spent the week talking about me behind my back and posting snarky comments on the Web.
Read the full post...
Almost a year ago, I reviewed a few photo hosting sites. After that, but quite a while ago, I got an invitation to try out Picasa Web Albums, and I just now got around to clicking on the link to try it out. But I didn't get far...here is an excerpt from their Terms of Service
Source: Greg Reinacker's Weblog - Why I can't try Picasa Web Albums
Only a matter of time...
The widespread use of mobile telephones on passenger aircraft could become a reality next year, after Ryanair, the European low-cost carrier, announced plans to equip its fleet with an onboard mobile service.
“If you want a quiet flight, use another airline,” said Michael O’Leary, chief executive.
Source: FT.com / Companies / Transport - Ryanair to allow mobile phone calls
Could be handy
The XPower PowerSource Mobile 100 from Xantrex Technology, available for $129 from xantrex.com and Amazon.com, is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack with a twist. Along with two sockets for U.S.B. cords, it has a standard AC outlet, eliminating the need to buy special adapter plugs to connect it to a laptop, P.D.A., cellphone or any other battery-operated product that uses no more than 100 watts.
Source: A Backup Battery for All Your Stuff, and Available in Midflight - New York Times
I was wrong yesterday; we hadn't seen all the hype permutations yet...
“Clearly what Disney was for Pixar, Google could be for Apple,” said Tony Perkins, an entrepreneur and editor of AlwaysOn Network, a Web site for Silicon Valley insiders.
Source: Man From Google Joins Apple’s Board - New York Times
It'll be fascinating to see what Amazon.com does in this context.
Google won't say how many books are currently in its index. But with the ability to scan books at six of the world's biggest libraries, Google's library of public domain titles could surpass that of the Gutenberg Project, which contains about 16,000 titles. Meanwhile, Google rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are establishing the Open Content Alliance, an alternative index of public domain books. A number of major libraries have signed up to participate, including the Boston Public Library, Johns Hopkins University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom.
Source: Google makes thousands of classics available for downloading - The Boston Globe
imho Google should have recruited a former high-level Microsoft exec to its board, e.g., Bob Herbold, if it's serious about competing with Microsoft (and about having adult supervision).
The announcement signals closer professional ties between Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, and Mr. Schmidt, who oversaw Google’s rise to become the most-used Internet search engine. Before Novell, Mr. Schmidt was chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems.
Other Apple directors include Mr. Jobs; former Vice President Al Gore; Arthur Levinson, chief executive of Genentech; and Mickey Drexler, chief executive of the J. Crew Group.
Source: Google Chief Joins the Board of Apple - New York Times
I think perhaps people are reading a bit too much into this. Schmidt is joining Apple's board. Apple and Google are not merging...
A few days ago when Google announced what is a precursor to Google Office, many saw it as a big move against the long term nemesis, Microsoft. We read things differently, and don’t really believe that it is going to have much of an impact. However, today’s news of Google CEO Eric Schmidt joining the board of directors of Apple Computer portends potential headaches not just for Microsoft, but for anyone with digital media ambitions.
Okay, I think we have now seen every possible silly permutation for the week. Google's someday-maybe-good-enough advertising-supported sub-minimalistic enterprise messaging service to sell more Macs?... BTW does anybody actually know a Mac user who regularly uses the Keynote presentation software Apple introduced with much fanfare a couple years ago -- you know, the one that was going to spontaneously obsolete Microsoft PowerPoint on the Mac?...
Lots of speculation about what it means that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is joining Apple's board. Marshall at TechCrunch muses that Google's just-announced online office suite on Apple computers might pose a potent threat to Microsoft.
Source: Wait, Now It's Google + Apple
Maybe "soars" isn't quite the right image...
During the quarter, the company sold its Celerant consulting subsidiary, and booked a $12 million gain on the sale. On a continuing operations basis, which excludes results from businesses that have been, or are in the process of being sold, the company posted a loss of $2.5 million.
The company said revenue from its Linux Platform Products increased 30 percent to $12 million, and that revenue from Identity and Access Management improved 46 percent to $26 million. Open Enterprise Server and Netware product revenue declined 19 percent from last year.
Remind me again: what business is Google in?...
Working with Google on the Books Library project are Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of California, as well as the New York Public Library.
Volunteers working for a project known as Gutenberg have for some years copied out-of-copyright books as text files, which can then be used for printing, reading or piping into a programme for editing.
In contrast, Google is offering the books in a "print-ready" format, as have several other - albeit much smaller and less well-known - firms.
Source: BBC NEWS | Business | Google makes novels free to print
Timely Security Curve reality check; read the full post.
Did you ever see that South Park episode where everyone was so self-satisfied from driving hybrid cars that a gigantic cloud of Smug formed over South Park and threatened to cause the end of the world? People were going around saying things like "I prefer to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem" and holding themselves up on a pedestal because they're so great. Something about that scenario reminds me of Apple's recent marketing. Here's what I mean.
Source: Security Curve Weblog: Cloud of Smug Centered over Apple HQ
The headline at first made me wonder if YouTube had some type of security problem, until I remembered YouTube doesn't really have any security (or privacy), since YouTube has non-exclusive rights to do whatever it wants with all content posted to the site...
The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen.
But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.
Ah, so you want Windows Live Writer...
That's what I want. Not an online spreadsheet that simply replicates what Excel already does perfectly well on my laptop, but small spreadsheet elements that I can paste into a blog post in the form of a specific data set or graph. The fact that they're hosted elsewhere is what would make them simple enough to use, just as embedding YouTube video is so head-slapping easy today. That's not yet the case for the woefully under-featured Google spreadsheet (there's no graphing and you can't make it open to all), but don't be surprised if Microsoft under Ozzie does better with Office Live. The embedded functionality era has just begun. YouTube is just the start of something much bigger.
Source: The Long Tail: Google Apps and the power of embedded functionality
Another point of view on Google's GAYD (Google Apps for Your Domain):
Right now, it appears that the long-time monopoly in office applications may not be dismantled but rather replaced by a duopoly, and that the expected wave of innovation in web-based productivity applications may die long before it reaches shore.
... except, earlier in the post, Nicholas Carr also notes that GAYD is more about extending than replacing Office, so maybe the more things change, ...
Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The Google-Microsoft axis
Propogating a spoof Intermedia press release...
Intermedia.NET, the US leader in Microsoft Exchange hosting for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today praised the innovative new service, Google Apps for Your Domain. By offering 24x0 support, no wireless access and scanning of company email and documents, Google has bucked the trend of what companies expect from a business email provider.
Source: Google Watch : New Google Service Offers 24x0 Support for Business Users
A pragmatic perspective, imho; read the full post for more on privacy issues.
I think Google will only be successful with their program for schools and will have a moderate success only for small organizations.
Why? Businesses don't want to lose control oveir their information. Storing mails, documents, web pages on Google servers sounds tempting, but businesses want predictability and control. They'll also fear that Google's services aren't that reliable (Gmail has problems daily) and their image will suffer. "I couldn't answer you mail, dear client. Gmail was down for about an hour."
Source: Google Operating System: Why a Corporate Google Office Won't Be Successful
Interesting mashup mix...
Yahoo today will tie together a bunch of its properties — Flickr, Yahoo Maps, Upcoming, and Yahoo Local. These are natural and powerful combinations of existing projects and acquisitions, and of course the question is what took Yahoo so long.
Volker Weber takes credit where due:
Let me translate this to vowespeak: The Workplace products are dead. Some body parts are being folded into Websphere Portal. I said this more than two months ago, and was heavily attacked.
Burton Group's Karen Hobert published a report, IBM’s Evolving Workplace Collaboration Strategy: How Do You Get There from Here?, in which she detailed the key shifts in IBM's strategy over the last few years. While I think Workplace Collaboration Services is history as a stand-alone offering, I don't agree with the "dead" perspective; much of what was created for WCS simply shifted to WebSphere Portal 6. It was awkward for IBM to have Notes/Domino, WebSphere Portal, and WCS, given the expanding overlap among the three; it's much simpler to have two.
The rest of the story -- Skype is apparently at the center of the eBay/Google co-opetition shift.
A critical aspect of the deal announced yesterday is that Google will introduce a feature that allows users to talk to advertisers by way of Skype, instead of just clicking through to the advertisers’ Web sites. Users of this feature, called click-to-call, would also have the option of using Google’s own Google Talk system or standard telephones.
Source: EBay Gambles on Google Partnership for Success of Skype, the Internet Phone Service - New York Times
I'm glad to see this kind of scrunity -- read the article for details.
Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet service has spent millions of dollars over the years to protect its users from computer viruses, spyware, and other harmful programs. But an anti spyware coalition connected to Harvard University says that AOL's own software commits some of the very sins that have made spyware programs such a nuisance.
Source: Harvard group criticizes AOL for spyware sins - The Boston Globe
Hey, it looks like I'm going win a bunch of $.07 bets (you know who you are...).
And just like that, Windows Vista rebounds. Years of delays, broken promises, and reduced expectations have dogged the Windows product team, which has been portrayed as hapless, indecisive, and unable to ship. But the recent release of a surprisingly good pre-Release Candidate 1 (RC1) build of Windows Vista, combined with internal information about Microsoft's expected completion today of the actual RC1 build it will ship widely in early September, suggests that the doomsayers will suddenly have a lot less to talk about.
Source: Suddenly, Windows Vista No Longer in Free Fall (Windows IT Pro)
Is it really still cheating if both customers and suppliers expect the behavior?
Here's the ugly, sometimes dirty, often-overlooked truth in games: Everyone cheats. In many instances, cheating is built into the game. It's a multimillion-dollar industry, legally sanctioned. Well, at least most of it.
Timely snapshot from Microsoft's Don Dodge. He neglects to mention that you can't actually purchase Office Live yet,although you can sign up for the free beta.
Office Live is one of several scenarios for which Microsoft has placed a strategic bet on Windows SharePoint Services v3/Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
See the full post for a handy list of old and new contenders.
Om Malik writes "Web Office vs. Microsoft Office", the market is very crowded with at least 17 web office up-starts, citing a Red Herring article.
Microsoft Office is the "gold standard" for office productivity applications, and has been for more than 15 years. What are these new startups bringing to the table? Lightweight, web based applications that can be updated quickly, accessed from anywhere with a web browser, and in some cases, built in collaboration tools.
Microsoft is responding to the challenge with Microsoft Office Live, a suite of productivity applications for small business. And, Groove will be a major part of the next version of Office. Groove founder, Ray Ozzie is now Microsoft's Chief Software Architect. Expect to see collaboration and software services infused into everything Microsoft does.
Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing : Microsoft Office and Office Live take on the Web 2.0 competitors
Read between the lines...
The service is free, but Google will start to offer a premium service with larger storage, ad-free and with support at the end of the year.
[...]
The offer will most likely be more substantial in the future, with the addition of Writely, Google Spreadsheets and other applications. Google tried to be more attractive for corporate users by creating enterprise versions for Google Desktop and Google Toolbar, but without much success.
I expect
1. Google will price the optional services in a model that strongly incents organizations to use the ad-supported versions, since that's where Google makes the vast majority of its income.
2. Cobbling Writely, Google Spreadsheets, etc. will fail to displace traditional desktop productivity apps in approximately 99.9999% of organizations.
3. This is ultimately about Google's bet on what constitutes "good enough" enterprise messaging, and in that context it faces some focused competitors, e.g., Scalix and Zimbra, which offer attractive ROI/TCO/etc. for organizations that do their homework.
Source: Google Operating System: Google Launches Corporate Package
Linksys tries to address return rates that reportedly range up to 30%...
Linksys has rolled out its EasyLink Advisor, a tool for network and gateway management, on a single model to start with: The EasyLink Advisor could also be labled, “A tool by which purchasers of our equipment have their frustration lessened and thus are less likely to stuff our gear back into a box and fling it at the salesperson at Best Buy who sold it to them.”
Source: Wi-Fi Networking News: Linksys Tries To Make It Easier
Interesting background on EA -- which, FYI, has a market cap of ~$15B at the moment. Also see the Five That Fell companion article on five EA competitors that failed.
The game company known for ruthlessly guarding its market dominance through franchise purchase and protection -- though it began life with a noble mission to foster and reward 'art'
Timely snapshot of EMC's current strategy and competitive landscape.
The biggest obstacle we face is what we spent the whole decade of the '90s doing -- that EMC is the storage company," said CEO Joe Tucci. "We have to get customers to view us, as we're calling it now, as an information infrastructure company."
But EMC isn't just fighting perceptions. By seeking to be a more intimate (and better-paid) adviser to CIOs, EMC is picking a fight with powerful competitors.
Notably, IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have much bigger staffs of consultants and longer histories of serving as throats for CIOs to choke. IBM and HP are also leading storage vendors, plus they offer servers and other key parts of business systems. EMC relies on partnerships, including one with Dell Inc., to help customers get servers.
Microsoft Watch reality check:
No Word, Excel or PowerPoint competitors here. Google Apps for Your Domain is more like Windows Live Essentials than it's like Microsoft Office. Nonetheless, Google Apps for Your Domain is sure to be just as hyped as the mythical "GoogleOffice" that was supposed to materialize a year ago (and still, to this day, has not).
Read the full article for more details on goals and glitches.
“My view is that the value of Strong Angel is 70 percent in the social networks that will be created,” said the organizer, Eric Rasmussen, a Navy surgeon and veteran of relief efforts on several continents. “What we do is try to bring people with disparate backgrounds together and ensure that they are forced to enter into a conversation.”
[...]
Moreover, the achievement demonstrated that industry rivals like Microsoft and Google could cooperatively generate useful technologies. Small teams of programmers from the two companies sat before laptops at adjacent tables to make sure that the Microsoft software connection system would transfer information to Google Earth, Google’s visual mapping tool.
Source: This Is Only a Drill: In California, Testing Technology in a Disaster Response - New York Times
Maybe this will appeal to some educational institutions, but small- to medium-sized businesses?
Perhaps this will lead Microsoft to accelerate schedule plans for Office Live.
Google Apps for Your Domain is designed to allow organizations to provide email and other services to their employees, students or members without the hassle of having to manage the software or hardware the services run on. It follows Google's February release of a similar offering for organizations called Gmail for Your Domain, focused solely on Web email.
Google's move puts it in further competition with Microsoft, which caters to organizations of all sizes with sales of its Outlook and Exchange email, address book and calendar software -- programs that are installed on its customers' computers. Microsoft is also testing an Internet service targeted at small businesses called Office Live, which includes email, Web page hosting and group calendar services.
Source: WSJ.com - Google Bundles Package of Tools For Business, Education Markets
Buying business and partnerships (and probably at a severe premium), including co-opetition scenarios -- looks like Google is running Microsoft's circa 1994 business plan in some respects.
In the latest sign of shifting alliances on the Internet, eBay Inc. has signed a deal allowing Google Inc. to exclusively display text advertisements on eBay's auction Web sites outside the U.S.
Under the deal, which will be announced today, eBay and Google will begin testing the advertising arrangements in early 2007. The accord also calls for the companies to cooperate in developing "click to call" initiatives, which allow consumers to call merchants and advertisers directly using connections displayed in the ads.
[...]
Despite its increasing rivalry with Google, eBay has had little choice but to consider Google for expanded advertising services. Not only is Google's advertising technology considered top-notch, but Yahoo is an online-auctions competitor in China and other parts of Asia.
Source: WSJ.com - EBay, Google Reach Overseas Text-Ad Alliance
Sign of the times...
During the last Internet boom, hardly anybody thought about how much electricity a computer uses. But in the past few years, the energy cost of running large data centers has become one of the industry's hottest topics.
It's even affecting national security: The Baltimore Sun recently reported that the National Security Agency's headquarters can't add more computers, because the local electric company has no more power to spare.
Source: Energy costs bring retooled computers - The Boston Globe
Gmail is okay for newsletters etc. but I wouldn't want to use it for work email.
Gmail is headed for the office -- officially.
Starting today, Google will offer Google Apps for Your Domain, a free package of programs for businesses, universities, and other organizations.
Source: Google releases software suite for businesses - The Boston Globe
Yeah,
1. I want one...
2. Creative's lawyers are probably in the Microsoft parking lot...
See the article for more Zune details.
Microsoft's forthcoming Zune player is shooting to be the life of the party, allowing users to create mobile social networks and stream music to nearby friends or strangers, according to a government regulatory filing.
Source: Microsoft's Zune aims to be social butterfly | CNET News.com
More on Google's financial shape-shifting
At stake for Google is the chance to move more of its money from low-yielding U.S. government bonds to investment-grade municipal and corporate debt. That would help Google match the investment returns of rivals such as Microsoft Corp., which obtained a similar exemption in 1988.
Do you sense a few patterns converging here?...
Last night I was alerted to a new Beta Video Search and UI for Live Search. It's still definitely in beta, but it shows a lot of promises with loads of additional features.
[...]
Live Search is definitely showing a web centric view of the world and trying to turn their product into a serious research app. I hope the Scratchpad feature is added across all of the verticals (I expect this will happen) and then eventually tied into Onfolio (the recently purchased client-side RSS Reader).
Source: O'Reilly Radar > Live's New Video Search and UI (Beta)
Perhaps I'm an outlier in this context, but 1) that seems like a high price range to me, and 2) I'd prefer to download movies from Amazon.com or Netflix, suppliers with which I'm already doing similar business.
AOL said yesterday that it would offer movies from four major Hollywood studios for downloading on its Internet video service.
AOL, which is owned by Time Warner, said films from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and the Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group would be available for download on AOL Video for $9.99 to $19.99 a movie.
Source: AOL to Sell Downloads From 4 Studios - New York Times
But not entirely "mum" -- on the 2nd page of the article:
“Office productivity is a huge space, an enormous space, and there is a lot of competition and different players solving different problems,” says Google’s Mazzon. “The problem we are trying to solve are those issues around real-time collaboration, online collaboration, that traditionally desktop solutions have not solved well.”
Source: Google mum on corporate plans for word processing application - Network World
A Windows Live Writer update from JJ Allaire's blog:
I have been pleasantly surprised by the uptake we have gotten for the Windows Live Writer SDK. We have had thousands of downloads of the SDK and in just over a week there are already a dozen plugins available, covering everything from Flickr and SmugMug photos to ink-blogging.
See the post for more plug-in resources.
Source: Writer Plugins and Windows Live Gallery « Flying Upside Down
Timely analysis:
Sony's purchase of Grouper is about market research, not market share.
Later in the post:
That's where Grouper comes in. The success of YouTube (and Grouper) scares the studios because it shows the market no longer values the slick production values of major films. This, along with global marketing, is the major strength the studios have long thought they brought to the film business. If some kid can get hundreds of thousands of views of a video showing him lighting farts, how can Sony compete with that? They can't.
So Sony is trying to join the enemy. For very little cost, Grouper will help them see what works and what doesn't in this new medium.
Read the full post... and seriously consider reading The Long Tail, which includes insightful analysis of the future of movies as well as other types of digital media.
Source: PBS | I, Cringely . August 24, 2006 - The Frank Caliendo Effect
Am I the only one who thinks this sort of deal should be illegal? I hope this backfires on both Apple and Creative.
Creative Technology CEO Sim Wong Hoo may not have won his ambitious MP3 war against Apple, but he got a lovely parting gift [...]
Under its terms, Apple will pay Creative $100 million to license its so-called "Zen patent" on methods for navigating, organizing and accessing music, with Creative agreeing to return a portion of that payment if it should be successful in licensing this patent to others.
Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: To Wong Hoo, thanks for everything, Steve Jobs
It's a good day for book-lovers so far... This Google development is fascinating, especially for people who have read The Long Tail (which includes, among many other topics, analysis of traditional and digital book distribution models).
Today, we're launching the Library Catalog Search feature in Google Book Search, designed to help casual readers and bookworms everywhere find gems in the libraries around the world. Queries on Google Book Search will automatically include results from library catalogs when appropriate. Each result includes a "Find Libraries" link to help readers find libraries that hold the book -- ideally a library nearby, or if need be, a library far away. For example, after reading Martin Gardner's book Fads and Fallacies, I wanted to follow up on Immanuel Velikovsky's books about scientific explanations for biblical miracles. Clicking on the "Find Libraries" link for Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision, I found that a copy was available in the University of Sao Paulo library.
Source:
