Microsoft readying screen sharing tool for consumers | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

 More from the embarrassment-of-riches dept; see this page for more Tahiti details.

This is a step in the right direction for Microsoft, although a little confusing as the company already has three separate group collaboration apps with Net Meeting, Windows Meeting Space, and Groove Virtual Office (okay--we'll admit Groove isn't exactly a casual consumer-friendly app at $200). There's also some competition brewing in this space on the Web side of things, as we saw at the Under the Radar conference last week. Competitors like Yugma (previous coverage), offer nearly all these features (in some cases more), and have Mac support too.

Microsoft's high-level description:

Use Microsoft Codename "Tahiti" to put your heads together and collaborate--create, convey, and communicate…across physical boundaries, through firewalls, and down to the smallest details.

Source: Microsoft readying screen sharing tool for consumers | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

FT.com / Companies / IT - SAP shares fall after research chief quits

I guess he won't be getting an office at Google or Microsoft anytime soon... 

People who know SAP said the US-based ex-software entrepreneur was not willing to spend years in tandem with Mr Apotheker, an SAP veteran fifteen years his senior, before someday – maybe – taking sole control.

Mr Agassi said he would concentrate on public policy issues such as the environment. But SAP will retain him as “special consultant” to Mr Plattner – a move clearly designed to stop Mr Agassi working for competitors.

Source: FT.com / Companies / IT - SAP shares fall after research chief quits

Red Hat Sees Green - Forbes.com

 Sometimes things take more than a quarter to sink in...

Thank you sir, may I have another? Red Hat shareholders couldn’t be blamed for asking Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison for another hit after Ellison tried to wipe out the scrappy open-source software vendor in October by undercutting what Red Hat charges to support its software. Since then, Red Hat’s shares have soared more than 50%, to $23.10 late Thursday from $15.63.

Source: Red Hat Sees Green - Forbes.com

Video Games Conquer Another World: Retirees - New York Times

Interesting reality check 

It turns out that older users not only play video games more often than their younger counterparts but also spend more time playing per session. Pogo.com is a Web site that offers “casual” games, easy to play and generally less complicated than the war, sports and strategy games favored by hard-core gamers. According to Electronic Arts, the game publisher that runs the site, people 50 and older were 28 percent of the visitors in February but accounted for more than 40 percent of total time spent on the site. On average women spent 35 percent longer on the site each day than men.

Source: Video Games Conquer Another World: Retirees - New York Times

BBC NEWS | Business | Web ad spend overtakes newspapers

 Interesting milestone

Spending on UK internet advertising surged in 2006, overtaking newspaper ads for the first time, a report says.

Online advertising expenditure jumped 41.2% to £2.01bn during the year, the report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

In contrast, spending on national newspaper ads grew just 0.2% to £1.9bn, taking a 10.7% share of the market.

Source: BBC NEWS | Business | Web ad spend overtakes newspapers

BBC NEWS | Business | US 'no longer technology king'

Another trend for which we can thank team W (which is perhaps proud about the growing income gap in the US today -- suggesting that, in the US, it's apparently still possible to get what you pay for...) 

The US is now ranked seventh in the body's league table measuring the impact of technology on the development of nations.

A deterioration of the political and regulatory environment in the US prompted the fall, the report said.

Source: BBC NEWS | Business | US 'no longer technology king'

AP: TJX: At Least 45.7M Card Numbers Stolen

 I suspect it won't be long before we see companies killed by this sort of security breach.

More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period.

In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers.

Source: The Observer at LaGrandeObserver.com - AP: TJX: At Least 45.7M Card Numbers Stolen

Microsoft readies new ‘Tahiti’ collaboration service | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

A new potential addition to Microsoft's long list of collaboration-related offerings... 

Microsoft is expected to position Tahiti as both a consumer and a business service that will allow for collaboration on the fly.

From early reports, Tahiti sounds a lot like the Windows Meeting Space collaboration service that is integrated into Windows Vista. The difference: Tahiti doesn't require Vista; it is Web-based and will require only a browser on the client side, testing sources said.

Source: » Microsoft readies new ‘Tahiti’ collaboration service | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Microsoft May Shift Strategy to Keep Up - WSJ.com

More potential Google-initiated stimulus/response... 

Microsoft's negotiations to buy DoubleClick for as much as $2 billion underscore the software giant's growing impatience with its effort to grab more of the booming online advertising market.

The talks, reported by The Wall Street Journal this week, come as Microsoft continues a struggle to keep pace with the growth of Web-search leader Google, which has thrived on online advertising.

Microsoft, in creating big franchises in areas such as PC software and videogames, has long built most of its businesses from the ground up, rather than buying its way into markets. An acquisition of DoubleClick would signal that strategy isn't working in online advertising, arguably the largest business opportunity Microsoft has entered since it helped spark the PC software market.

Source: Microsoft May Shift Strategy to Keep Up - WSJ.com

Novell may face ban for Microsoft deal - The Boston Globe

This is one way to ensure more people realize it should have been called "GNU/Linux" the entire time... 

The move by the Free Software Foundation would apply to a group of programs known as the GNU operating system, which comprise the bulk of the code at the heart of the popular Linux software system.

Financial analysts say Novell would have a tough time keeping its version of Linux competitive if it lost access to future upgrades of GNU software.

Source: Novell may face ban for Microsoft deal - The Boston Globe

Yahoo users get unlimited e-mail storage - Yahoo! News

This just in from the front line of the battle of the super data center networks... 

Yahoo Mail is the most popular web-based e-mail service and had more than 250 million users as of January, according to industry-tracking comScore Media Metrix.

The elimination of the storage cap comes at a time when costs of computer storage are declining and in the face of a relentless trend for people to exchange video, music and other data-laden digital files online.

Source: Yahoo users get unlimited e-mail storage - Yahoo! News

One Picture, 1,000 Tags - New York Times

Tags R Us 

Now, after spending millions of dollars and years of effort on their virtual homes — which draw many more visitors than their physical ones — museums are rethinking their online collections. They are experimenting with one of the hottest Web 2.0 trends: tagging, the basis for popular sites like Flickr.com. In social tagging, users of a service provide the tags, or labels, that describe the content (of photos, Web links, art), thus creating a user-generated taxonomy, or folksonomy, as it’s called.

Source: One Picture, 1,000 Tags - New York Times

Upgraded Version of Xbox 360 to Be Introduced by Microsoft - New York Times

More Xbox perspectives 

John Rodman, group product manager for the Xbox platform and Xbox Live, pointed to a recent Microsoft survey that revealed that nearly 40 percent of the time that Xbox 360 users spent with their consoles was for activities other than gaming.

Yet when it comes to gaming, Xbox 360 users are serious, Mr. Rodman says. Six out of 10 Xbox 360 users use Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service.

“We don’t feel like the Wii customer and the Xbox customer are the same thing,” he said. “We think that as soon as the Wii customer turns 14 they want something else.”

It'll be interesting to see if Sony comes out with its own Windows Home Server offering (WHS will have strong synergy with Xbox 360) -- or if it instead tries to compete on that platform form factor as well with its own software.

Source: Upgraded Version of Xbox 360 to Be Introduced by Microsoft - New York Times

Microsoft's Upscale Xbox May Escalate Sony Battle - WSJ.com

Reality just keeps getting uglier for Sony... 

Microsoft got a jump on Sony by rolling out its Xbox 360 in late 2005, allowing it to sell a large volume of the consoles early. Then Sony late last year launched the PlayStation 3, promising newer, more advanced technology than the aging Microsoft machine.

With the Xbox 360 Elite, Microsoft has "narrowed the gap on features and functionality" with the PS3, says Colin Sebastian, a senior research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets.

[...]

The lowest-priced version of Sony's PS3 is $499, so Microsoft's $479.99 price undercuts that with similar technology.

Source: Microsoft's Upscale Xbox May Escalate Sony Battle - WSJ.com

Xbox will get more storage, HD video link - The Boston Globe

 See the article for pricing and other details. 

Microsoft Corp. will sell a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a souped-up high-definition video connection, in a bid to broaden the appeal of its popular console beyond video games.

Earlier versions of Xbox 360 came with 20 gigabytes of storage. But that filled up too quickly with movies, TV shows, and games from the Xbox Live Marketplace online store, said Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment group.

Source: Xbox will get more storage, HD video link - The Boston Globe

Cambridge firm developing 'electronic paper' - The Boston Globe

See the post for more details and a photo gallery -- pretty cool... 

Electronic paper, long hyped as the technology that would make newspapers and books obsolete, is finally making its way into consumer products, powered by E Ink Corp.

The decade-old Cambridge company has grown 200 to 300 percent each year, and over the past few months, its retro-looking black-and-white displays have appeared in high-profile products such as the Sony Reader tablet, a Motorola cellphone highlighted at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and a foldable, pocket-sized screen that won the Most Innovative Technology Award at the GSM Association's 2007 Global Mobile Awards last month.

Source: Cambridge firm developing 'electronic paper' - The Boston Globe

Novell-Microsoft deal targeted by software group - Yahoo! News

Somehow I suspect this won't be a big help to free/open source software, in the bigger picture. 

The Free Software Foundation will seek to undermine the Microsoft-Novell patent deal by incorporating language that will accomplish that goal into the new license agreement that will cover rights to much of the code in Linux, Brown said.

Brown declined to discuss details of the changes in advance of publication of a draft of the agreement on Wednesday, though he said the foundation was committed to preventing Microsoft from claiming rights to Linux.

"They found a way to effectively proprietize free software by offering patent promises to Novell," Brown said. "Whenever a new method comes along to effectively turn free software into proprietary software, we will adjust the license."

Source: Novell-Microsoft deal targeted by software group - Yahoo! News

On Paper, Time Puts an End to Life - washingtonpost.com

Two data points (Life and InfoWorld ceasing print publication) do not a trend make, but I think we could be seeing one here.   

Life is dead. Again.

Time Inc. pulled the plug on its venerable nameplate yesterday for the third time in 35 years, saying it no longer makes sense to print the publication as a magazine. Instead, the company said it will launch a "major portal" online to host its millions of award-winning photographs.

Source: On Paper, Time Puts an End to Life - washingtonpost.com

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Showdown in the trailer park

Check the post for more details and a very cool picture 

Sun, which has its Blackbox containerized data center out on tour, is suddenly facing some tough competition in the burgeoning trailer park computing market.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Showdown in the trailer park

Platformonomics - Uninspired by Wired

Charles Fitzgerald on Wired's recent software-or-service article; see the full post for more details 

The April issue has an article entitled "Desktop R.I.P." that enthuses breathlessly about "computing moving off your machine and into the cloud".  I talked to the reporter, Jason Tanz, for this article a couple months ago (real-time Wired isn't).  Tanz, whose byline suggests his most eminent qualification to do the story was writing a book about Hip-Hop in White America, ignored what I had to say (hardly the first such occasion).  After all, why let pesky details get in the way of an absolutist premise.  But it helps if the examples you muster for your case actually support your argument.

[...]

The reality is the desktop is moving into the cloud and the cloud is moving onto the desktop.  The winners will bring together the unique capabilities of both.  The losers will cling dogmatically to one or the other.

Source: Platformonomics - Uninspired by Wired

Companies Tolerate Ads to Get Free Software - WSJ.com

Timely snapshot 

The market for ad-supported software is still small, but it has drawn some big guns. Google and Microsoft Corp. each offer free and paid versions of their online-software services, respectively called Google Apps and Office Live, which businesses can use for tasks like making Web pages, using email and managing calendars. Google and Microsoft offer free versions of their services that show ads to users; Google's ads appear only in the email service, while Microsoft's ads appear alongside other online services. Users of both companies' paid versions don't see ads at all and get extra features like more storage and ramped-up support. Google says its Apps service has more than 100,000 organizations on its free and paid versions; Microsoft says more than 350,000 organizations are using Office Live.

Source: Companies Tolerate Ads to Get Free Software - WSJ.com

Microsoft Board of Directors Adds New Member and Declares Quarterly Dividend

 Even Microsoft's board is going service-centric...

Microsoft Corp. today announced that its board of directors has increased the size of the board from nine to 10 members and elected Reed Hastings, 46, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc., to the board. Hastings has also been appointed to the finance committee.

[...]

Prior to founding Netflix, Hastings founded Pure Software, which he built into one of the world’s 50 largest public software companies. After a successful public offering and a number of acquisitions, Pure was acquired by Rational Software in 1997. An active community leader, Hastings has also been deeply involved in promoting education initiatives, and has served as president of the California State Board of Education.

Source: Microsoft Board of Directors Adds New Member and Declares Quarterly Dividend: Reed Hastings of Netflix to Join Board; Dividend of $0.10 per share payable in June.

InfoWorld IT: InfoWorld Brand Moves Online

 I'm sorry to see this, as an avid InfoWorld reader for a couple decades, but I suspect it was inevitable. 

The news hit the internet this morning: as of next month, InfoWorld will no longer be distributed in a print edition. To take maximum advantage of the opportunities for our business going forward, and remove the distraction of maintaining and fretting over a costly, nearly obsolete distribution channel, we will discontinue printing and mailing a magazine. As of April, the InfoWorld brand exists online and in events.

Source: InfoWorld IT Exec-Connect

Google Operating System: Is JotSpot Google's Glue?

See the post for more details.  My bet: either JotSpot becomes the "glue" or it becomes Google's Collabra -- i.e., never seen again, post-acquisition... 

Many people wondered why Google bought JotSpot, a wiki company. After all, JotSpot let you create and share documents, spreadsheets, calendars, photos, videos and more. Google already has different services for most of these types of files, but they aren't integrated (or the integration is very limited).
Guillaume Belfiore suggests that JotSpot could integrate all the communication services created by Google into a single interface - let's call it GDrive. "In the end, many existing Google services would be accessible in one place. To me it is pretty obvious that, should GDrive become true one day, it will make an extensive use of the JotSpot technology," says Guillaume.

Source: Google Operating System: Is JotSpot Google's Glue?

Business & Technology | Can Google find the pot of gold? | Seattle Times Newspaper

Somehow I suspect Google won't have the last laugh in this context 

"We bought YouTube because of the traffic and because of the community," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told investors at a San Francisco conference earlier this month.

The site was losing gobs of money, but that didn't bother Google. Traffic was climbing, and still is. Since the deal, YouTube's audience has grown 40 percent. According to comScore Media Metrics, YouTube's 136 million monthly visitors made up 18 percent of the global Internet audience in January.

One definition of an Internet URL is "Ubiquity first Revenue Later," Schmidt joked at the Bear, Stearns conference.

But the joke could end up being on Google, which paid $1.7 billion for YouTube's URL on the bet that it could turn reruns into revenue.

Source: Business & Technology | Can Google find the pot of gold? | Seattle Times Newspaper

Start-up Zimbra takes Web e-mail offline | CNET News.com

Interesting use of Apache Derby (which originated with IBM Cloudscape) 

The download includes the Apache Derby database, which acts as a local e-mail store, said Satish Dharmaraj, the company's CEO. Future versions will not require users to do the manual download, he said.

The first release of Zimbra Desktop is an alpha version. The beta version, due this summer, will work with POP and IMAP e-mail servers and will include access to the company's calendaring server. When the company releases its 5.0 product, it will include the offline capabilities.

Source: Start-up Zimbra takes Web e-mail offline | CNET News.com

How to Improve It? Ask Those Who Use It - New York Times

Interesting checkpoint

It is a difficult idea for research and development departments to accept, but one of his studies found that 82 percent of new capabilities for scientific instruments like electron microscopes were developed by users.

Citizen product design is still unsung, but it has already become a force in software, especially gaming software. “Counter-Strike,” a player-created “mod” (for modification to the original game) of “Half-Life,” became as popular as the original game. Apache, the popular open-source Web server software, or the Firefox Internet browser, with its thousands of add-ons and plug-ins, also depend on users to develop innovations. Large companies like I.B.M. are increasingly turning to open-source techniques in their own software development.

Source: How to Improve It? Ask Those Who Use It - New York Times

Rethinking the Inbox - WSJ.com

Interesting to see WSJ analysis on alternatives for more effective email, but the article includes at least one error -- Notes 8 will suggest users put attachments into Quickr workspaces, not activities.

Notes also can be set up to include "activities," a way to organize emails, documents and appointments around a project. Notes shows a list of all activities in a separate pane, and users can drag an email straight from the inbox into the relevant project; everyone on the team will get an email notification of the change. If the user tries to send an email with a large attachment to several people, Notes will suggest putting the document into an activity instead, to reduce the strain on email resources.

Source: Rethinking the Inbox - WSJ.com

Wikipedia competitor seeks to cut out errors - The Boston Globe

Stimulus/response... 

This week, Sanger takes the wraps off a Wikipedia alternative, Citizendium. His goal is to capture Wikipedia's bustle but this time, avoid the vandalism and inconsistency that are its pitfalls.

Like Wikipedia, Citizendium will be nonprofit, devoid of ads and free to read and edit. Unlike Wikipedia, Citizendium's volunteer contributors will be expected to provide their real names. Experts in given fields will be asked to check articles for accuracy.

Source: Wikipedia competitor seeks to cut out errors - The Boston Globe

The future of books | Not bound by anything | Economist.com

The Economist on the future of books 

Google will not divulge exact numbers, but Daniel Clancy, the project's lead engineer, gives enough guidance for an educated guess: Google's contract with one university library, Berkeley's, stipulates that it must digitise 3,000 books a day. The minimum for the other 12 universities involved may be lower, but the rate for participating publishers is higher. So a conservative estimate has Google digitising at least 10m books a year. The total number of titles in existence is estimated to be about 65m.

Source: The future of books | Not bound by anything | Economist.com

Artificial Intelligence, With Help From the Humans - New York Times

Mechanical Turk checkpoint 

The problem has prompted a spooky, but elegant, business idea: why not use the Web to create marketplaces of willing human beings who will perform the tasks that computers cannot? Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, has created Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online service involving human workers, and he has also personally invested in a human-assisted search company called ChaCha. Mr. Bezos describes the phenomenon very prettily, calling it “artificial artificial intelligence.”

[...]

We probably have at least another 25 years before computers are more powerful than human brains, according to the most optimistic artificial intelligence experts. Until then, people will be able to sell their idle brains to the companies and people who need the special processing power that they alone possess through marketplaces like Mechanical Turk and ChaCha.

Source: Artificial Intelligence, With Help From the Humans - New York Times

Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic - New York Times

Timely reality check 

Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car.

These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea.

Read the full article for more details from recent research in this context.

Source: Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic - New York Times

Good Morning Silicon Valley: New Vonage on-hold music: "Nearer, My God, to Thee"

Hmm -- so maybe you should try my mobile# in a couple weeks, if you can't catch me at my primary (Vonage...) number.  But under no circumstances will you reach me at a wired (VoIP or other) Verizon number in the foreseeable future --  if Vonage is shut down, my primary office number will move to Skype.

My phones rarely ring these days anyway -- most people know IM or email is a more effective way to reach me.  Somehow I'm guessing Verizon doesn't fully grasp that trend yet.

I doubt Vonage will be destroyed, in any case; more likely it will acquired at a much-reduced price -- perhaps by Verizon... 

That loud thump you heard over your VoIP connection this morning was the sound of the other shoe dropping. Two weeks after a jury ordered Internet phone company Vonage to pay Verizon $58 million plus future royalties for infringing on some patents (see "How do you call 911 on this thing again?"), a federal judge issued a permanent injunction barring Vonage from using the infringing technology. And while the judge delayed imposing the order for two weeks to give Vonage time to seek a stay, the company's stock went into a slide steep enough to warrant suspension of trading for a while in midday.

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: New Vonage on-hold music: "Nearer, My God, to Thee"

Semantic web as social enjoyment « Jon Udell

Timely reality check from Jon Udell -- see the post for related perspectives on WinFS. 

Freebase is like Wikipedia in the sense that it’s an open data project. But where Wikipedia is a database of unstructured articles, Freebase is a database of categorized and related items. You can use it to add or edit items and, more ambitiously, to create or extend the categories themselves.

There’s been a lot of discussion about how this approach does or doesn’t match up with the W3C’s vision for the semantic web, and the suite of standards and technologies associated with it. I’ll leave that to the experts and simply reiterate one crucial point. The authors of the semantic web are going to be people, not machines. And people will only want to play the game if it’s easy, natural, and fun.

Source: Semantic web as social enjoyment « Jon Udell

Apple Cult Becoming a Religion - New York Times

I'm not so sure -- reading the more objective Apple TV reviews this week, understanding the competitive context iPhone will launch into,  and seeing Apple history repeat with many of the strategic errors Steve Jobs made ~25 years ago, I think it's likely Apple will falter in several ways over the next couple years.

APPLE will not release the iPhone until June, but Leander Kahney, the writer of “The Cult of Mac” blog, posited this week on Wired News that the new phone is already partly responsible for a major change in how the company is perceived (wired.com). After nearly three decades, Apple is finally being taken seriously not just by the true believers, but by just about everybody.

Source: Apple Cult Becoming a Religion - New York Times

Gates Gets Honorary Harvard Degree - WSJ.com

 Better late than never...

Bill Gates is finally getting his Harvard degree -- 32 years after he walked away from the university on the path to becoming the world's wealthiest person.

Mr. Gates, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp., philanthropist and college dropout, will receive an honorary degree June 7 when he delivers Harvard University's 356th commencement address.

Source: Gates Gets Honorary Harvard Degree - WSJ.com

Google building software, not cell phone: analyst | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com

So maybe Google doesn't aspire to compete in every imaginable product/service category after all... 

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note to clients that Google appears to be building software for Web search on cell phones and location-finding services to work with Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) iPhone and other cell phones.

"We believe Google is working with, not against, Apple in the mobile world," Munster said.

In recent months, various reports have described how Web search leader Google could be developing a "Gphone" -- a low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a color, wide-screen design. Newspaper and blog reports in recent months have Google shopping its phone design to potential cell phone manufacturing partners in Asia.

On a related note, check out chapter 5 of Infotopia sometime for some interesting analysis suggesting the signal-to-noise ratio in most blogs is likely to get worse over time, and how "information cocoons" can easily form that, e.g., lead reasonable people worldwide to assume a breakthrough Google phone is about to ship when the reality might be a bit duller but also sensible...

Source: Google building software, not cell phone: analyst | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com

News Corp. and NBC in Web Deal - New York Times

More from the stimulus/response category; also see the SiliconValley.com take, "It'll be just like YouTube, only with less You"  

In a long-anticipated challenge to YouTube and other online video sites, two big media companies yesterday announced a new venture to showcase their own programming across the Internet’s biggest Web sites, as well as a new jointly owned Web destination.

The News Corporation and NBC Universal will distribute their latest video fare, like episodes of “24” and “The Office” on AOL, Yahoo, MSN and MySpace, which together reach about 96 percent of the Internet’s audience in the United States.

Source: News Corp. and NBC in Web Deal - New York Times

Palm: Revenue up, earnings down | CNET News.com

Check the Hawkins link below -- apparently he's still enaged in a Palm role, so he's multitasking Palm, Numenta, and the research institute he bootstrapped (see this inactive site for more on the original mission of the latter). 

Colligan also declined to shed any light on the mysterious Jeff Hawkins project currently still in the research and development phase, or when an updated version of the Palm OS will be available.

Source: Palm: Revenue up, earnings down | CNET News.com

Oracle Says Rival Stole Its Software - New York Times

This doesn't look good for SAP -- read the full articles for more details

In its Safe Passage program, SAP offered continuing support for PeopleSoft products at 50 percent less than Oracle’s price for annual software maintenance, even though SAP did not have access to PeopleSoft intellectual property or engineers, the Oracle suit noted. Later, after Oracle purchased Siebel, a leader in sales automation software, SAP made the same offer to Siebel users.

SAP, the suit stated, “purported to add full support for an entirely different product line — Siebel — with a wave of its hand.”

“The economics, and the logic, simply did not add up.”

“Oracle has now solved this puzzle,” the suit added. “To stave off the mounting competitive threat from Oracle, SAP unlawfully accessed and copied Oracle’s Software and Support Materials.”

Source: Oracle Says Rival Stole Its Software - New York Times

Microsoft Statement on Online Video Distribution Agreement with Newscorp, NBC Universal

Small world... 

Microsoft will join forces with a newly formed Fox/Newscorp and NBC/Universal joint venture to distribute a vast library of online video content to MSN consumers.

Microsoft Corp. issued the following statement, attributable to Kevin Johnson, President, Platform and Services Division, after the announcement today that Microsoft would join forces with a newly formed Fox/Newscorp and NBC/Universal joint venture to distribute a vast library of online video content to MSN consumers:

“Today’s announcement is a great win for MSN’s more than 460 million consumers and for online video more broadly. When launched, this new venture will provide free access to an unprecedented library of high-quality video content.

Source: Microsoft Statement on Online Video Distribution Agreement with Newscorp, NBC Universal

Apple TV: First impressions | Crave : The gadget blog

Another take -- for those who prefer walled gardens 

The Apple TV is a bigger, stationery-networked iPod that you hook up to your TV, and its degree of desirability is directly proportional to how much iTunes is the center of your digital media universe. If you've got all your music in iTunes and you frequently purchase TV shows and movies from Apple's service, Apple TV is enticing indeed. It can automatically sync with one iTunes library but, instead of requiring the use of an iPod, it's done automatically via your home network. You can also stream music, video, and podcasts directly from up to five networked computers (Windows PCs and Macs). Streaming from guest computers--say, a friend's laptop that has the latest episode of 24 or Lost--is as easy as a couple of keystrokes.

Source: Apple TV: First impressions | Crave : The gadget blog

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . When is a TV not a TV? | PBS

More timely analysis from Cringely -- this week's essay is mostly about Neokast. 

Steve Jobs said that 2005 would be the "year of HD," but I think it is much more likely to be 2007 and the Apple TV will be the spoiler of many a Blu-ray or HD DVD sale because Apple TV is cheaper and easier, has no expensive consumable media, and HD movies will probably cost a little less to buy through iTunes than at Target.

The chance to grab market leadership happens when hardware standards are in transition, so in a sense Apple couldn't have introduced the Apple TV any earlier than now, when HD video players are finally reaching the market in real numbers.

But if you think Neokast will steal Apple's thunder, probably not. I can't imagine Neokast will remain independent for more than another six months. And if Apple has a lick of sense, they'll be the ones to buy it.

Source: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . When is a TV not a TV? | PBS

Oracle Sues Rival SAP, Alleging Corporate Theft - WSJ.com

So... maybe the Oracle server managing the content wasn't quite "unbreakable"?... 

In an escalation of their long-running software rivalry, Oracle Corp. filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against SAP AG, alleging spying and "corporate theft on a grand scale." (Read the lawsuit.)

The complaint filed in Federal District Court in the Northern District of California alleges that SAP employees used login information for Oracle customers to illegally access confidential material on Oracle's customer support Web site.

Source: Oracle Sues Rival SAP, Alleging Corporate Theft - WSJ.com

Recommended reading: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

 This is an outstanding and exceptionally timely book -- highly recommended.

Two types of people should read the book ASAP -- people who:

1. Are thinking about creating a start-up, or working for one

2. Want to understand the real inner workings of the information technology business -- hardware, software, VC, etc.

I've had the distinct privilege of working with many of the people interviewed for or mentioned in the book, and I now have a fuller appreciation for what they were able to accomplish -- in many cases against all odds.

The book is especially timely in these days of "Web 2.0," bubble v2, etc. -- as the hype-to-reality index goes off the scale once again, "Founders at Work" includes many insights about why it's only a matter of time until the next "correction" kicks in.

Check the author's site for more details and then come back and follow this Amazon link to purchase the book -- I'm still trying to earn enough via Amazon Associates to actually pay for a book :)...

p.s. thanks to JJ Allaire, who referenced the book on his blog (and should have a chapter in the book!).

Link to Amazon.com: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days: Books: Jessica Livingston

Apple TV Has Landed - New York Times

 More Apple perspectives.  Check out this harsh Fake Steve reality check on today's Walt Mossberg review (hint: the title is "Why we love Walt Mossberg").

In the end, these early attempts to bridge the gulf between computer and TV perfectly reinforce the conventional wisdom about Apple: Apple TV offers a gracious, delightful experience — but requires fidelity to Apple’s walled garden.

Its rivals, meanwhile, offer many more features, but they’re piled into bulkier boxes with much less concern for refinement, logic or simplicity.

My take-away from the Apple TV reviews so far today: a good day for the Microsoft Xbox 360 team...

Source: Apple TV Has Landed - New York Times

Good Morning Silicon Valley: 2.0, 3.0 ... at some point, we need a new Net

That's been done -- see, e.g., Curl (not exactly a stellar success, after several years and investment rounds)

Let others argue whether Web 2.0 is running out of steam or whether Web 3.0 will be characterized by online companies opening their data in a structured way, turning Web sites into Web services. Let them argue over whether there's any point at all to these Web-point-whatever labels. Researchers at Stanford and elsewhere are asking a bigger question: What if we just junked the Net and started over?

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: 2.0, 3.0 ... at some point, we need a new Net

How To Spy On Google - Forbes.com

Subtle... 

Is Google working on a phone? Seems likely, according to various reports.

But there's no need to rely on the rumor mill to find out what Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) is up to. Just head to the company's online job listings, where the company declares that it is "experimenting with a few wireless communications systems," adding that "we are building a small team of top-notch logic designers and analog designers aimed at nothing less than making the entire world's information accessible from anywhere for free."

Source: How To Spy On Google - Forbes.com

Microsoft says Alcatel infringed patents - Boston.com

Gee, maybe Microsoft should press for, say, $1.52B... 

Microsoft Corp. says French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent infringed on its patents for "unified communications" products, and the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday voted to begin an investigation.

Source: Microsoft says Alcatel infringed patents - Boston.com

Google Tests an Ad Idea: Pay Only for Results - New York Times

As Peter Drucker and others have noted: if someone is going to obsolete your product, it should be you. 

Google is experimenting with a new proposition for advertisers: if you don’t get results, you don’t pay.

The company said Tuesday that it would expand a test of a system that allows advertisers to pay only when an ad spurs a consumer to take an action, be it purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or signing up to receive a quote from a mortgage broker or car dealer.

I have a hunch one or more other companies may have some interesting patent protection in this context, however.

Source: Google Tests an Ad Idea: Pay Only for Results - New York Times

The Mossberg Solution -- From PC to TV -- via Apple

Walt Mossberg on Apple TV -- the link below is to the no-subscription-required version of his column 

Apple TV's most formidable competitor is the Xbox 360 game console from Microsoft, which, in addition to playing games, can also play back content from Windows computers on a TV. And Xbox 360 can do something Apple TV can't do, at least not yet, which is to directly purchase and download movies and TV shows from the Internet. But the comparable Xbox costs 50% more than Apple TV, is much larger and stores only half as much material.

We've been testing Apple TV for the past 10 days or so, and our verdict is that it's a beautifully designed, easy-to-use product that should be very attractive to people with widescreen TV sets and lots of music, videos, and photos stored on computers. It has some notable limitations, but we really liked it. It is classic Apple: simple and elegant.

Source: The Mossberg Solution -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.

Oracle Results Reflect Successful Acquisitions - WSJ.com

Relentless... 

Oracle Corp. has become the software industry's great consolidator and its latest results appear to show that its acquisition strategy is panning out.

The Redwood Shores, Calif., software maker posted a 35% jump in profit and a 27% jump in revenue for its third quarter ended Feb. 28, in a sign that it has so far successfully digested its string of acquisitions, which are meant to boost its momentum in a maturing software industry. Oracle Chief Financial Officer and President Safra Catz called the performance "outstanding...across all the product lines and all geographies."

Source: Oracle Results Reflect Successful Acquisitions - WSJ.com

Sales of Music, Long in Decline, Plunge Sharply - WSJ.com

Think different... 

In a dramatic acceleration of the seven-year sales decline that has battered the music industry, compact-disc sales for the first three months of this year plunged 20% from a year earlier, the latest sign of the seismic shift in the way consumers acquire music.

The sharp slide in sales of CDs, which still account for more than 85% of music sold, has far eclipsed the growth in sales of digital downloads, which were supposed to have been the industry's salvation.

 

Source: Sales of Music, Long in Decline, Plunge Sharply - WSJ.com

Burton Group Inflection Point: Assessing Google’s Enterprise Communication/Collaboration/Content Management Aspirations

Free stuff from Burton Group 

In this Burton Group Inflection Point podcast, Senior Analyst Guy Creese and Research Director Peter O’Kelly discuss Google’s expanding ambitions in enterprise communication, collaboration, and content management.  Google is now a viable software-as-a-service candidate for some organizational scenarios, and this podcast highlights some of the feature/function, pricing, and enterprise readiness aspects of Google’s new Google Apps Premier Edition offering.

Source: Burton Group Inflection Point: Assessing Google’s Enterprise Communication/Collaboration/Content Management Aspirations

For Bookstores, a Real Page-Turner - washingtonpost.com

 Very good questions; read the full article for details

Want to see the future of the book? Pay attention to what's on the screen.

That's what a clutch of booksellers are doing at Politics and Prose, the 23-year-old independent bookstore in Northwest Washington. They cluster around a long table downstairs on a recent afternoon, peering at a free-standing monitor hooked up to a laptop that's wielded by a man named Kent Freeman. They're getting an update on the Caravan Project -- a tiny, experimental venture that just might be a harbinger of their digital destiny.

"The trick for you," Freeman tells the booksellers, is to answer a simple question: "How does the physical bookstore provide digital content to the consumer?"

Source: For Bookstores, a Real Page-Turner - washingtonpost.com

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google expansion leads to impatience

Timely reality check 

Wall Street seems to be losing patience with how long Google 2.0 is taking to build – and how expensive the project is turning out to be.

Beset by copyright challenges as it pushes deeper into the media business, and facing big investments in a range of ambitious new products that have yet to show results, Google’s shares have run into the doldrums.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google expansion leads to impatience

Collaboration Loop - WebEx's timing is perfect, again

Interesting perspective -- read the full post for details.  Not a happy scenario for Cisco, if accurate. 

Seven years ago WebEx went public just before the IPO market collapsed beating its closest rival PlaceWare, which filed just weeks after WebEx. PlaceWare eventually withdrew it's IPO and was later acquired by Microsoft for $200 million in 2003. Now WebEx is being acquired by Cisco for $3.2 billion. In my opinion, this is happening just as profits in the web conferencing market are about to dry up.

Source: Collaboration Loop - WebEx's timing is perfect, again

Google adds decorative themes to site - Boston.com

Hmm... 

Google's new package of decorations, also known as "skins," are designed to make the home page feel even more homey, said Marissa Mayer, the company's vice president of search products and user experience.

"Google has become the doorway to the Internet for a lot of people, so we want to make (the site) feel more like an online living room," Mayer said. "We feel we are personalizing things in a very tasteful and useable way."

[...]

The designs also will contain hidden surprises known as "Easter eggs" that will open up with an opportune click at the right time of the day, Mayer said. She wouldn't reveal any of the surprises, but indicated they will delight high-tech geeks with a sense of humor.

Source: Google adds decorative themes to site - Boston.com

Microsoft Unveils Small-Business Phone System Software Designed for Ease of Use

 Interesting times in unified communications

Today at the second annual Microsoft Small Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a small-business Internet protocol (IP) phone system, code-named “Response Point,” designed for ease of use and manageability. The new system comes in an easy-to-install box, supports both voice over IP (VoIP) and traditional phone lines, and includes a voice-activated user interface.

[..]

In addition to “Response Point,” Microsoft delivers an extensible, software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007. Microsoft will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of “Response Point” is scheduled for early April.

Source: Microsoft Unveils Small-Business Phone System Software Designed for Ease of Use

Apple Opens Doors by Running Windows - WSJ.com

Of course, Microsoft probably makes more profit on corporate Macs these days than it does on Windows PCs, since many Macs in enterprises will have Mac Office, Windows XP, and Windows Office...

Apple is making small inroads in the professional market with its critically acclaimed line of Mac desktop and laptop computers, and even slight market-share gains can bring meaningful new business to the company. Last year, Apple accounted for 4.4% of all new PC shipments in the U.S. professional market, up from 3.6% in 2005 and 3.2% in 2004, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Apple's share of total new PC shipments in the U.S. jumped to 5.4% last year from 4.5% the prior year, Gartner says. Nearly all of the rest of the market is Windows.

Over the holiday quarter, Apple sold 1.6 million Macs, 28% more than in the same period a year earlier and nearly five times the growth in global PC shipments overall in the period. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs this year said the company's research showed more than half of all people buying Macs were new to Apple computers.

Source: Apple Opens Doors by Running Windows - WSJ.com

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

Timely reality check 

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded.

MySpace, the Web’s largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions.

Source: MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies - New York Times

Read this article (and perhaps the author's classic Go to: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Scientists and Iconoclasts who were the Hero Programmers of the Software Revolution) for insights on how Backus changed the world of software.  

John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.

Source: John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies - New York Times

Consumer electronics | Mind games | Economist.com

Timely reality check. 

HOW would you like to rearrange the famous sarsens of Stonehenge just by thinking about it? Or improve your virtual golf by focusing your attention on the ball for a few moments before taking your next putt on the green-on-the-screen? Those are the promises of, respectively, Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky, two young companies based in California, that plan to transport the measurement of brain waves from the medical sphere into the realm of computer games. If all goes well, their first products should be on the market next year. People will then be able to tell a computer what they want it to do just by thinking about it. Tedious fiddling about with mice and joysticks will become irritants of the past.

Source: Consumer electronics | Mind games | Economist.com

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Twitter twaddle

Probably not the sort of press Twitter was hoping for; see the article for more details

This is a post for the rest of you -- the ones who don't check Techmeme hourly or have a steady stream of A-listers' posts pouring into their RSS readers. While you were going about your normal lives this past week, the blogosphere has showcased a fascinating example of the compression of cycles. Just as technology has shortened development and product cycles, so too has it shortened the wired/tired arc for some products down to mere days.

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: Twitter twaddle

Google Buys Data Visualization Software - Forbes.com

Google's software product/team collection continues to expand... 

Stockholm-based non-profit Gapminder sold off its primary product to the search giant for an undisclosed amount. Trendalyzer, according to the company, “unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.” The Trendalyzer tream is moving to Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )'s Mountain View campus to “make it freely available to those who seek access to statistics.”

Source: Google Buys Data Visualization Software - Forbes.com

Microsoft concedes: OneCare antivirus software 'not stellar'

Apparently ample room for continuous improvement... 

"The recent detection numbers were not stellar," Jimmy Kuo, a member of the Microsoft security research and response team, said in a company blog "We missed capturing a VB100 [Virus Bulletin 100] in the last test because we missed one virus. As a result, we have adopted new methodologies to ... look more closely at families of viruses that have been found to be 'in the wild,' [those] found actively spreading among users."

Source: Microsoft concedes: OneCare antivirus software 'not stellar'

Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Useful snapshot 

If you're not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you've missed out. Twitter has not only tipped the tuna (begun to peak in popularity), but by some estimations, it has already jumped the shark (devolved into inanity).

Source: Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Is the Key to Creativity in Your Pillbox, or in Your PC? - New York Times

An interesting and timely debate 

“There’s a strong fantasy element in the idea of a pill that can make people smarter,” says Mitchell Kapor, a pioneer in information technology. (He helped create what was once the world’s most popular spreadsheet software, Lotus 1-2-3.) Ultimately, such pills might face digital rivals if current trends in computer science continue. Engineers are busy designing better search engines and “virtual worlds” online where we can test ideas and share experiences with others in ways perhaps not possible today. Mr. Kapor is an investor in Linden Labs, the creator of a virtual world called Second Life.

Source: Is the Key to Creativity in Your Pillbox, or in Your PC? - New York Times

Cisco to Buy WebEx for $2.9B

Hmmm... 

WebEx's "network-based technology is a natural extension of Cisco's vision for unified communications and collaboration. This vision is to give users inside and outside the workplace the ability to interact collaboratively over the open platform of the Internet," Cisco Chief Development Officer Charles Giancarlo told a conference call.

Cisco has announced a series of small acquisitions this year of niche technology companies. WebEx showed Cisco was open to bigger deals, and Giancarlo said there may be more.

"Webex looks like a large acquisition, but it's less than 2 percent of our revenue and market cap. So I think that we will start to see more of these," he told Reuters in a phone interview.

Source: Cisco to Buy WebEx for $2.9B

Collaborative Thinking: Cisco/WebEx: March Madness For Unified Communications

My Burton Group colleague Mike Gotta's take on Cisco/WebEx -- see the post for more details 

First, some history, many of the comments regarding WebEx and web conferencing are not the primary reason to do this deal. As I have told financial analysts for years while at Meta Group, the crown jewel of WebEx is the Media Tone Network. That distributed, P2P network architecture now belongs to Cisco who can either advance it, or use parts of it for its own application networking purposes. WebEx has data centers world-wide as well as research centers in China, etc.

Source: Collaborative Thinking: Cisco/WebEx: March Madness For Unified Communications

Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February - WSJ.com

 Interesting snapshot

According to preliminary retail figures for February from researcher NPD Group Inc., U.S. retailers sold 335,000 Wiis, 228,000 Xbox 360s and 127,000 Sony Corp. PlayStation 3s -- the three newest machines that are currently jockeying for their share of the games market. Those results mean Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 a year earlier than its rivals, is in first place among the latest generation of consoles with cumulative U.S. retail sales of 5.1 million consoles, followed by Nintendo with 1.9 million Wiis and Sony with 1.1 million PlayStation 3s, according to NPD estimates.

In an interview, David Hufford, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the company is pleased with its market position, pointing out that six out of the top ten best-selling games in February were titles for Xbox 360.

[...]

While Sony's PlayStation 3 -- at $500 to $600, the priciest of the newest consoles -- has lagged behind the sales of its competitors, the company's older game console, the PlayStation 2, continues to sell well because of its low price ($129 in most stores) and vast library of game software. The PlayStation 2 was the second best-selling console in February after the Wii, with 295,000 sold in U.S. stores.

Source: Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February - WSJ.com

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $7 TV Network | PBS

Always interesting Cringely -- read the article for a snapshot of Neokast 

Multicasting hasn't broadly succeeded before now primarily because it places a large burden on the routers, which are responsible for caching and retransmitting video. Multicasting is generally turned off in routers to save bandwidth and keep the network running as fast as possible. Cisco wanted to turn multicasting on for IPTV specifically so the routers would slow down and have to be replaced. With Cisco it always comes down to routers and how to get people to buy new ones. That's evident in Cisco's purchase this week of WebEx, where we can expect Cisco to strongly push video services on those two million WebEx customers, straining the system and forcing hardware upgrades. It's not about Microsoft; it's about the routers.

Source: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $7 TV Network | PBS

Technology Review: Could Al Qaeda Plunge England into an Internet Blackout?

 Single point of failure = bad...

According to an article by David Leppard, Scotland Yard has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda operatives were going to blow up Telehouse Europe, a large colocation facility in Britain that is the country's largest Internet hub. Suspects who were recently arrested had conducted reconnaissance against Telehouse and had planned to infiltrate the organization and blow it up from inside.

Source: Technology Review: Could Al Qaeda Plunge England into an Internet Blackout?

News @ Cisco: Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire WebEx

This move clarifies the "co-opetition" scenario between Cisco and Microsoft a bit... 

Cisco and WebEx today announced a definitive agreement for Cisco to acquire WebEx. WebEx is a market leader in on-demand collaboration applications, and its network-based solution for delivering business-to-business collaboration extends Cisco's vision for Unified Communications, particularly within the Small to Medium Business (SMB) segment.

Source: News @ Cisco: Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire WebEx

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Freetards at MIT destroying perfectly good iPods

Sometimes Fake Steve is irresistible... 

If you've ever wondered why nothing useful has ever come out of Nicholas Negroponte's MIT Media Lab, see this video. Twenty years of letting wannabes and posers play at being computer geeks, all subsidized by U.S. tax dollars. Now their big project is installing some crapware on iPods that breaks the DRM code -- or, as one freetard puts it, "reconfigures the power relationship between you and your technology." Wow. Maybe you didn't realize you had a power relationship with your iPod.

Source: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Freetards at MIT destroying perfectly good iPods

» SharePoint: The next big ‘operating system’ from Microsoft? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Indeed, I know of several ISVs that consider SharePoint a new platform. 

My favorite question during the Q&A session at the end of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Convergence conference keynote address on March 15 sounded deceptively simple. I'm paraphrasing, but the questioner asked Ballmer something like this: "With all the hoopla here at the conference around SharePoint Server, is it correct to think of SharePoint as almost like an OS (operating system)"?

Bingo.

Source: » SharePoint: The next big ‘operating system’ from Microsoft? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Business & Technology | Microsoft to acquire speech-recognition developer Tellme | Seattle Times Newspaper

Small world... 

For Microsoft, Tellme is not a complete outsider. In fact, it was started by people from companies least likely to be found in the same room — rivals Microsoft and Netscape.

"Microsoft was our arch-nemesis, but one of the first guys we hired was Hadi Partovi," said Tellme co-founder Angus Davis. At the time, Partovi was helping lead the Internet Explorer effort at Microsoft, while McCue and Davis were doing the same at Netscape. The three stayed on similar paths, so when Partovi acted as a technical assistant to Microsoft attorneys during the company's landmark antitrust case, so were McCue and Davis at Netscape.

[...]

To solidify the Microsoft and Netscape connection, Partovi, McCue and Davis brought their bosses on board to fund the company. For McCue and Davis, that was Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale. Partovi brought Brad Silverberg, a senior executive who was just leaving Microsoft to start Ignition Partners, a Bellevue-based venture firm.

Source: Business & Technology | Microsoft to acquire speech-recognition developer Tellme | Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft Agrees to Buy Maker of Voice-Recognition Software - New York Times

Some Microsoft/Tellme details; see Mike Gotta's blog for analysis

Microsoft said yesterday that it had agreed to buy Tellme Networks to add voice-recognition software that lets users obtain a phone listing, order a pizza and search the Internet.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal was said to be worth more than $800 million, making it Microsoft’s biggest acquisition since 2002.

Source: Microsoft Agrees to Buy Maker of Voice-Recognition Software - New York Times

Google Is Reviving Hopes for Ex-Furniture Makers - New York Times

 More from the battle of the super-data centers...

Last month, the Internet search giant Google announced that it would take advantage of the area’s underused electric power grid, cheap land and robust water supply to build a “server farm” — a building full of computers that will become part of the company’s worldwide network.

Google says it hopes laid-off furniture workers, most of whom never graduated from high school, will be among the 250 employees at two facilities on the 215-acre site, much of which was once a lumberyard.

 

Source: Google Is Reviving Hopes for Ex-Furniture Makers - New York Times

Burton Group Institute Workshop to Provide Enterprise IT Strategies for Microsoft SharePoint 2007

 Check the links for more details -- hope to see you on 4/25

Burton Group, Inc. is hosting a one-day workshop in Boston that will provide enterprise technologists in-depth, technical strategies for organizations considering Microsoft SharePoint 2007.

The vendor-independent workshop, led by Burton Group collaboration and content management experts Peter O'Kelly and Homan Farahmand, will delve into the strategic SharePoint implications -- both positive and negative -- for enterprises to consider

Source: Burton Group Institute Workshop to Provide Enterprise IT Strategies for Microsoft SharePoint 2007

Google Watch - YouTube - 18 Reasons why Google and YouTube are Guilty of Copyright Infringement

A timely reminder: I'm glad I didn't opt to go to law school... 

Below, Viacom's argument as presented in their official complaint, filed in New York federal district court. I've taken the liberty of editing the language a bit and consolidating a few points, since they would be repetitive for anyone who follows Google or YouTube news. But I've also included direct quotes. If something's not clear, let me know in the comments and I'll fix.

Source: Google Watch - YouTube - 18 Reasons why Google and YouTube are Guilty of Copyright Infringement

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Viacom seeks $1bn YouTube damages

There's another consideration, at least for me, in all of the "long tail" etc. discussions in this context: if I can catch highlights of shows such as Colbert Report over the Internet, I don't watch the commercial-overloaded TV versions -- i.e., there is a significant opportunity cost for the publishers in terms of advertising to which I'm no longer subjected.  This is serious business for Viacom et al.

Mr Dauman indicated on Tuesday that Viacom would continue to improve its own websites. It has also struck deals in recent months to supply its content to other internet groups such as Joost, a broadband television company started by the founders of Skype.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Viacom seeks $1bn YouTube damages

» Microsoft shows off its future business-app user interfaces | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

See the article for a link to a gallery of screen shots -- some impressive stuff 

For more than a year, Microsoft officials have been talking up the notion of "Office-centric" and "role-based" interfaces as the next big thing for its ERP and CRM wares. At the Convergence conference for its Dynamics customers and partners in San Diego this week, Microsoft showed off working examples and prototypes of what these kinds of interfaces might look like.

Source: » Microsoft shows off its future business-app user interfaces | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

SanDisk drops prices with new flash drive | CNET News.com

Amazing...  I want no moving parts in my next laptop... 

The flash memory maker's new flash drive sports 32GB of memory and is delivered in a package the same size and shape as a 2.5-inch diameter hard drive. Earlier this year, SanDisk released a 32GB drive in a 1.8-inch diameter package. Drives that size typically are used in MP3 players, while most notebooks come with 2.5-inch drives.

SanDisk is selling the 2.5-inch drive for $350 to large volume buyers. That's far more than a 32GB hard drive typically would cost. Still, it's less than SanDisk's previous 1.8-inch drive, which cost $600 more than a conventional 32GB drive, according to SanDisk.

Source: SanDisk drops prices with new flash drive | CNET News.com

Microsoft to Open Its Online Gaming Service to Windows Users - New York Times

An important milestone for Microsoft's Live strategy 

Microsoft announced yesterday that it was extending the online gaming service for its Xbox consoles to the millions of people who use Windows PCs to play games over the Internet, a move that could bolster the popularity — and profits — of video gaming.

[...]

While much of the $10 billion gaming industry has focused on next-generation game consoles like Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, most games are still played on personal computers, which are far more numerous than dedicated gaming machines.

Source: Microsoft to Open Its Online Gaming Service to Windows Users - New York Times

Microsoft to Hold Teleconference Today: Executives will share news and answer questions.

Hmm -- that's a bit unusual (the lack of content/context-setting); I suspect there will be a major Redmond headline today. 

Executives will share news and answer questions.

Source: Microsoft to Hold Teleconference Today: Executives will share news and answer questions.

They've Got Your Number (and a Lot More) - WSJ.com

Another reason to think twice about posting anything... 

Since the dawn of the Internet, it's been possible to plug a name into a search engine to see what turns up. And for years, background-checking services have sold expensive online services for looking up personal information such as criminal records, marriage records, addresses and phone numbers.

But now, directory companies and several start-ups are offering new people-search services that are more comprehensive and useful than the classic Google search at a fraction or none of the cost of a traditional background check.

 

Source: They've Got Your Number (and a Lot More) - WSJ.com

Copyright war flares with suit vs. YouTube - The Boston Globe

Uh huh... 

Responding to the suit, Google issued a statement defending YouTube. "We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal right of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree," it said, adding that, "We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube." Google's brief statement didn't address specific allegations in the Viacom suit.

Source: Copyright war flares with suit vs. YouTube - The Boston Globe

Viacom Sues Google Over YouTube Clips - WSJ.com

Inevitable... 

Viacom Inc. sued Google Inc. and its YouTube unit, claiming the popular video-sharing site engages in "massive intentional copyright infringement," in a move that could presage a broader war between Google and traditional media companies.

The suit is the first major legal challenge to YouTube, which aims to become a major distribution channel for movies and television shows on the Internet. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages, as well as an injunction preventing Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

Source: Viacom Sues Google Over YouTube Clips - WSJ.com

Dynamics Gets its Own 'Duet' - Yahoo! News

"Co-opetition"...

Microsoft is set to unveil a new product designed to more tightly integrate its back-end Dynamics business applications with its desktop Office suite. It's an approach the vendor has already taken with applications rival SAP under their codeveloped Duet software.

"Duet was a good learning example," said James Utzschneider, general manager of Dynamics marketing at Microsoft. "What we're offering is a superset of what you get with Duet."

Source: Dynamics Gets its Own 'Duet' - Yahoo! News

Sources say Microsoft near deal to buy Tellme | CNET News.com

I suspect this is one in a long list of companies currently in play between Google and Microsoft 

Tellme was seen as a potential target for an initial public offering last year, though a stock deal never took place, nor did the company actually file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a necessary precursor to going public. More recently, the company has been the subject of takeover rumors, including reports that it would be bought by Google or Microsoft.

The company, which is profitable, has raised more than $230 million through rounds of venture capital, the last of which came in October 2000.

Source: Sources say Microsoft near deal to buy Tellme | CNET News.com

Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops - WSJ.com

Not dead yet... 

The Linux operating system, having made inroads into corporations' backroom server computers, is showing hints of inching into a much broader market: employees' personal computers.

The much-hyped notion that Linux would be viable software to run desktop and notebook PCs seemed dead on arrival a few years ago. But the idea is showing some new vital signs.

But...

Almost no industry experts expect Linux to make much of a dent against Microsoft on the desktop and laptop any time soon. Windows is still in some 92% of the PCs sold each year, according to IDC. Microsoft could cement its grip on the PC further through a strategy of tying it more closely with its various types of server software, a move that adds new capabilities to Windows PCs.

Source: Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops - WSJ.com

Tech Companies Bleeding Red Ink Pursue IPO Gold - WSJ.com

A timely reality check 

A number of unprofitable tech companies have launched initial public offerings in U.S. capital markets since the beginning of 2006, and more than half the tech companies now in the IPO pipeline are in the red. The trend recalls the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when deeply unprofitable tech concerns -- often with no clear business models -- were snapped up by eager investors as soon as they hit the market.

Profits never materialized for many of those tech companies, an outcome that helped fuel the Nasdaq stock-market meltdown in 2000. In the aftermath, thousands of tech workers were laid off, and several Wall Street firms were accused of misleading investors by boosting the dot-coms, leading to a string of market reforms.

Source: Tech Companies Bleeding Red Ink Pursue IPO Gold - WSJ.com

Watching the web grow up | Economist.com

Timely TBL reality check from The Economist; includes some "semantic web" analysis 

Sir Tim ought to be thrilled. After all, his original vision was for the web to be a two-way medium, in which writing information was just as simple as reading it—but as the web took off in the late 1990s, publishing tools failed to keep up with web browsers in ease of use, and it is only with the rise of blogs and wikis that the balance has been redressed. Yet Sir Tim is less excited by all this than you might expect. He regards Web 2.0 as just a fancy name for some useful, if still rather basic, web-publishing tools, and was not at all surprised by the emergence of “user-generated content”—since that was what he had intended all along. “The web was designed so every user could be a contributor,” he says. “That sort of participation was the whole idea and was there from the start.”

Source: | Watching the web grow up | Economist.com

Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users - The Boston Globe

 Another "unlimited" services that's not...

Feddeman declined to say where Comcast draws the line on too much Internet usage, instead saying the amount of data that could trigger a warning call would be roughly the equivalent of 13 million e-mail messages or 256,000 photos a month. Although those files vary in size, a typical photo file size is 1 to 2 megabytes, meaning that excessive users are downloading hundreds of gigabytes per month.

Source: Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users - The Boston Globe

Come for the Xbox, stay for the books - The Boston Globe

Meanwhile, back at the library... 

Welcome to the teen section of your local library. In an effort to lure teens and build a base of lifelong patrons, libraries are leaving behind their humdrum ways and getting the party started, stocking up on everything from video-game collections to radio edits of Ludacris CDs. Branches in Santa Clara, Calif., and Sewickley, Pa., are hosting Dance Dance Revolution video game tournaments, and in Charlotte, N.C., there's a blue screen studio where teens can produce their own cartoons, claymation, and live action films. And, oh yeah, they still have books.

Source: Come for the Xbox, stay for the books - The Boston Globe

History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times

Another perspective on Google's scanning plans 

"There's an illusion being created that all the world's knowledge is on the Web, but we haven't begun to glimpse what is out there in local archives and libraries," said Edward L. Ayers, a historian and dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia. "Material that is not digitized risks being neglected as it would not have been in the past, virtually lost to the great majority of potential users."

Source: History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times

Open-source ID project awaits Microsoft's blessing | CNET News.com

 A key milestone...

"Microsoft gave us the first round, which was great. We just need a next round to have people be able to ship systems equivalent to CardSpace," said Anthony Nadalin, IBM's chief security architect. IBM and Novell are Higgins' main backers.

The Higgins project wrote a formal request to Microsoft in November. There have been discussions and some progress has been made, but Microsoft remains a hurdle, the Higgins developers said.

Source: Open-source ID project awaits Microsoft's blessing | CNET News.com

Curriculum of MIT to be online for free - The Boston Globe

Cool... 

MIT intends to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free.

Scholars -- and amateur scholars -- are coming in droves; this month, the site could receive 1.5 million visits.

[...]

"During the dot-com era, people thought about to how to make money on the Internet," Margulies said. "Today we think knowledge should be in the public domain."

Source: Curriculum of MIT to be online for free - The Boston Globe

Google’s Buses Help Its Workers Beat the Rush - New York Times

Smart -- see the post for details 

The perks of working at Google are the envy of Silicon Valley. Unlimited amounts of free chef-prepared food at all times of day. A climbing wall, a volleyball court and two lap pools. On-site car washes, oil changes and haircuts, not to mention free doctor checkups.

But the biggest perk may come with the morning commute.

Source: Google’s Buses Help Its Workers Beat the Rush - New York Times

Business & Technology | With McCaw, you can bank on raising money | Seattle Times Newspaper

More ClearWire details -- the article includes a summary of Craig McCaw's business history 

Founded in October 2003, the company already is valued at more than $4 billion, making it slightly bigger than Puget Energy but smaller than Expedia.

Source: Business & Technology | With McCaw, you can bank on raising money | Seattle Times Newspaper

Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching - New York Times

Danny Hillis takes a run at the "semantic Web" 

A new company founded by a longtime technologist is setting out to create a vast public database intended to be read by computers rather than people, paving the way for a more automated Internet in which machines will routinely share information.

The company, Metaweb Technologies, is led by Danny Hillis, whose background includes a stint at Walt Disney Imagineering and who has long championed the idea of intelligent machines.

Source: Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching - New York Times

Palm Responds to the iPhone - New York Times

See this page for a Designing Interactions interview with Paul Mercer 

Palm Inc., the maker of hand-held computers, has hired a top Silicon Valley software designer as it seeks to respond to the challenge posed by Apple’s new iPhone.

The designer, Paul Mercer, a former Apple computer engineer, began work three weeks ago at Palm on a line of new products, a company spokeswoman said, but she declined to comment further on the project

Source: Palm Responds to the iPhone - New York Times

Technology Review: Sociology at Microsoft

Timely snapshot 

TR: How is the Internet changing sociology?

MS [Marc Smith, the senior research sociologist at Microsoft Research]: It's not that you collect data from the world and run it through a computer; it's that most of the world runs through a computer. It's a revolutionary thing. It's a shift from an ephemeral society to archival society. Six or seven billion humans have come and gone over the course of history, and most of them didn't leave a trace. In the not too distant future, it's likely that one to two billion will leave 5 to 10 terabytes, and in those bytes will be the fine-grain details of their lives: the pictures they've taken, the words they've typed, and the people they've been with. This brings up a whole new set of issues. What will privacy look like? How will sovereignty be asserted on this stream of data?

The role of Microsoft Research is to get to the future first, cut our fingers on the rough edges, and figure out how to sand the future down so it's smooth and ready for the rest of us. It's naive to think that they're only going to be positive results.

Source: Technology Review: Sociology at Microsoft

Technology Review: Build Your Own Social Network

Read the full article for more Ning details 

Mainstream social-networking sites such as MySpace and LiveJournal have long given users the ability to create and join specialized groups. More than 5,000 people belong to the black-and-white photography group on MySpace, for example. But Ning's custom social networks come with communications tools such as live chat rooms that aren't available on LiveJournal and other platforms. And Ning's networks seem to occupy a previously unfilled niche in the social-computing ecosystem: they provide an outlet for expression and communication that's more social than a solo blog yet less cacophonous than the forums afforded by the giant social-networking sites.

Source: Technology Review: Build Your Own Social Network

The Web 2.0 Bubble

Interesting reality check from Atlantic Monthly 

Why the social-media revolution will go out with a whimper

[...]

In the Web hype-o-sphere, things matter hugely until, very suddenly, they don’t matter at all. Thanks to the unprecedented growth of MySpace and Facebook, “social media” matters hugely right now, but it is likely only another in a long string of putatively disruptive, massively hyped technologies that prove just one more step in the long march. Like “push,” “social media” is a functional advance pimped out as a revolution.

Source: The Web 2.0 Bubble