iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don't Buy) - Gizmodo

Not a positive leading indicator for Apple... 

It's about 3 months after the iPhone launch, and happy with the improvements, I was planning to change our "Wait" verdict to a full-on and rabid "Buy". That wasn't because of Apple, but because of the cool apps being offered by independent developers. All that came to an end yesterday after the new Apple firmware 1.1.1 neutered the handset. Sure, unlocked iPhones were broken. But more importantly, Apple wiped away the powerful programs that helped push the iPhone to greatness. With this, I'm going to have to move our recommendation from "Wait" to "Don't hold your breath." I'm done with this handset until third-party apps come back. Argh, I didn't want to have to write this, but this is what's on my mind.

iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don't Buy) - Gizmodo

Business & Technology | iPhones disabled: Call that an update? | Seattle Times Newspaper

At least the iPhone paperweight-ification is optional; owners of hacked iPhones can stay with an outdated release of the system software...

Some hackers had characterized Apple's warning as "a scare tactic." Despite Apple's history of playing cat-and-mouse games with hackers in the past, company officials insisted they were "not proactively" trying to make hacked iPhones useless.

It was unclear how many iPhone owners had unlocked their phones, but the programs — including several that can be downloaded for free — appeared to be particularly popular with European consumers. Apple isn't selling the iPhone in Europe until November, so the unlocking software allowed Europeans who bought iPhones in the United States to use the $399 devices.

Installing Apple's latest iPhone update is optional.

Business & Technology | iPhones disabled: Call that an update? | Seattle Times Newspaper

Novell credits Microsoft for soaring Linux sales | CNET News.com

 Strange days indeed

Novell says its Linux business has grown by 243 percent over the last three quarters, and it largely credits its deal with Microsoft.

Novell has reached $100 million in revenue from Linux over the nine-month period, thanks to the close working relationship it has had with Microsoft since the two companies signed their collaborative deal in November.

Novell credits Microsoft for soaring Linux sales | CNET News.com

Altered iPhones Freeze Up - New York Times

I think this episode contradicts the "No such thing as bad press" conventional wisdom... 

It was not unexpected that Apple would try to stop people from unlocking the phones, as this threatened to cause problems for AT&T, Apple’s exclusive United States partner for the iPhone.

“I don’t blame them for fighting the unlocks,” said Brian Lam, editor of Gizmodo, a blog devoted to gadgets. “They are trying to make money, as a business. I get that.”

Still, he said, that disabling someone’s phone, “instead of just relocking it and to wipe out the apps, it seems like Apple is going way too far; I’d call it uncharacteristically evil.”

Altered iPhones Freeze Up - New York Times

Texting, Facebook used to alert students - Yahoo! News

Timely reality check

When a masked freshman came to campus at St. John's University with what police said was a loaded rifle sticking out of a bag, the school alerted students via cell-phone text messages within 18 minutes.

And when a suicidal gunman was reported to be on the loose at the University of Wisconsin, the school sent out mass e-mails and took out an ad on Facebook to warn students.

Texting, Facebook used to alert students - Yahoo! News

Ed Brill: Information Week: IBM Sees 100,000 Lotus Symphony Downloads In First Week

Nice Excel cheap shot, Ed.  Re the 100,000: was it perhaps something more like (number of IBM employees) * .33? :)

As I speculated...

IBM said Wednesday that the beta version of its free Lotus Symphony productivity software has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since the company made it available on the Internet a week ago.
IBM said the number represents a record for software downloaded from its Web site. To boot, the part of the company's site that hosts the software has been visited more than 1 million times during the same period, according to IBM.

and that 100,000 wasn't calculated by multiplying 77.1 * 850....

Ed Brill

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

Adesso's metamorphosis continues...

Tubes Networks has announced a new version of Tubes, a P2P file sharing and synching application. There are lots of different file sharing utilities out there, but most of them don't synch files across your own devices, or synch files to other users. Tubes is a really simple and fast way to share files and keep changes synchronized.

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

 More on Apple's dilemma

Since the iPhone is a very sleek, capable handheld computer, people are going to want to run programs on it. They are going to want to hack and see what they can build. It’s a law of nature. And Apple might as well be fighting gravity.

Many other cell phones are locked down, of course. But few other phones capture the imagination of programmers the way the iPhone does.

[...]

Apple essentially has two choices. Either it exposes most of the iPhone’s capabilities to developers. Or it will have to gird for an ever escalating war in which it will have to send ever more electronic brick-bombs to its best customers who don’t follow its strict rules.

There's a third choice, of course; Apple can watch more flexible competitors run away with the market, as it has done in the past...

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Owners of unlocked iPhones hosed by software update | One More Thing - CNET News.com

Something to be said for consistency... 

Well, you can't say they didn't warn you.

Apple released an update for the iPhone on Thursday that brings the Wi-Fi Music Store to the device, as well as several security fixes and enhanced features. But, as expected, it also turns iPhones that were unlocked to run on cellular networks other than AT&T's into little more than emergency call boxes.

Owners of unlocked iPhones hosed by software update | One More Thing - CNET News.com

Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP

Pragmatic

Nash: While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista. As it turns out, our official policy as of 2002 is that versions of Windows are available through our retail and direct OEM partners for four years after they ship. Obviously this policy didn’t work with Windows XP given Windows Vista’s delivery date. As a practical matter, most of our previous operating system releases were available for about two years after the new version shipped, so maybe we were a little ambitious to think that we would need to make Windows XP available for only a year after the release of Windows Vista.

So we’re responding to feedback we have gotten from our OEM partners that some customers will benefit by extending availability of Windows XP to June 30, 2008 instead of the planned date of Jan. 30, 2008. Also, since some of the systems that ship in emerging markets don’t meet the requirements for Windows Vista, we will be extending availability of Windows XP Starter Edition to June 30, 2010. This will allow our OEM partners who sell PCs in emerging markets more opportunity to offer genuine Windows licenses. Windows XP Starter Edition is tailored to local markets, in local languages, and is compatible with a wide range of Windows-based applications and devices.

Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP: Responding to feedback from its customers, the company decides to give small businesses and customers in emerging markets more time and flexibility to test and prepare for the operating system upgrade.

Business Technology : Google's Real Monopoly: Not Just Online Ads

WSJ on Goggle's challenges in Washington this week (the DoubleClick acquisition review) 

First, the Internet is still relatively new, and people are just now starting to figure out what information they’re comfortable sharing about themselves. In many cases, it’s already too late – they’ve already shared it. In others, they aren’t aware that they’re sharing something – search data being a good example – because there really isn’t a similar real-world behavior to compare it to. People are just starting to become concerned.

Second, as more and more aspects of work and life move online, the companies who provide services in the real world start looking for a way to provide a similar service online. They often find that Google is already there. “It’s hard to figure out if they’re your best friend or your competition,” a CIO once told this blogger.

Add it all together and Google’s “do no evil” motto may not be enough to pacify people.

Business Technology : Google's Real Monopoly: Not Just Online Ads

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The mind-reading computer

 Timely reality check from Nicholas Carr

In an interview with Technology Review, the director of Intel Research, Andrew Chien, looks ahead to what happens when, in the not so distant future, we have "machines with tens or hundreds of [processor] cores perform[ing] trillions of operations every second." What particularly excites him about what he calls terascale computing is "the ability for devices to understand the world around them and [infer] what their human owners care about." He foresees pocket-sized "intelligent systems" that, using various sensors and tapping into powerful machine-learning algorithms, will continuously monitor our physical movements, analyze our speech, sense our moods, and anticipate our needs

See the full post and the Technology Review article for more details.

A theme that I'll regularly revisit in my blog, going forward: it many ways, as an industry, information technology is just getting started...

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The mind-reading computer

Google plans staff expansion, largely in Europe: report - Yahoo! News

 Based on Microsoft's recent experience in Europe, Google may want to make a large percentage of those new-hires lawyers and lobbyists...

Google Inc (GOOG.O) is planning to expand its staff by a third, with most of the new hirings in Europe, the Financial Times reported on its Website.

The Web search company plans to hire several thousand engineers in Europe to create a research and development team in the region as big as in the United States, the report said.

Google plans staff expansion, largely in Europe: report - Yahoo! News

» Coming Soon: Microsoft 2.0 the book | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Mary Jo Foley turns her "unblinking eye on Microsoft" (her phrase, not mine) to book mode. 

After years of insisting I had no interest in writing a book, I’ve finally taken the plunge.

I am writing a book about — you guessed it — Microsoft. It will be published in the Spring of 2008 by John Wiley & Sons. The title: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era.

See her post for more details.  I suspect the folks at Waggener Edstrom have already formulated a team of people to, er, monitor the project...

I've often toyed with the idea of submitting a book proposal, and I'm constantly amazed by people such as Barry Briggs, who find time to write books (see the "Writings" section of his blog home page) despite very intense work schedules. 

I pitched a SharePoint book idea to Addison Wesley in 2006, and Tom Rizzo was kind enough to be an advocate for the proposal, but I didn't invest enough time in the proposal process (perhaps instinctively anticipating the disruption on my overall life/work balance equation, if AW had opted to go ahead with the proposal...) and didn't pursue it.

My hypertext research over the last couple years has also altered my world view on books -- I strongly prefer hypertext (reading and writing) to long narrative mode these days, which makes my day job -- largely focused on producing research documents that are notorious for their "thud factor" (i.e., if you print them and drop them...) -- more challenging in some respects; fortunately, Burton Group is investing a lot of energy in determining how we can optimize the use of hypertext to complement our traditional document models. 

Maybe I'll revisit the book scenario in a few years, when I may be able to publish a book that's more hypertext than dead-tree-format.

In the meantime, Mary Jo: I look forward to reading your book; let me know if/when/how I can help with the project.

» Coming Soon: Microsoft 2.0 the book | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

» Five take aways on Microsoft’s new Live Search | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Handy summary from Mary Jo Foley 

I was briefed and embargoed about what’s new in the fall update. (The embargoes ended at midnight EST.) I’ve posted a few screen shots of some of the new Live Search enhancements users can expect to be rolled out as part of the fall release between now and mid-October.

» Five take aways on Microsoft’s new Live Search | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Pattern Finder: Is It Time for Consumers to Move to Free Office Suites?

My Burton Group colleague Guy Creese recaps a recent press interview; see the post for more details. 

Peter O'Kelly and I fielded a call yesterday from Donna Fuscaldo of Fox News Business. She posed the following question: "Should consumers use these new free software packages [e.g., IBM Lotus Symphony or OpenOffice.org] as an alternative to Microsoft Office or Google's browser-based software?"

It's an interesting question, and one that shows that even general business reporters are noticing what Peter calls "an embarrassment of riches" in the space. Given that some suites are free (versus hundreds of dollars), you sort of feel the urge--at least I did--to say "Yes." However, the answer really isn't that simple.

Another thread from the interview was Microsoft's "ultimate steal" offer -- ~$60 for Office 2007 Ultimate for students (at least half-time and with a .edu email address), so for a key part of the productivity application target market, Microsoft has already done what Guy suggests (dropping the price of the full suite).

I also noted, during the interview, that the embarrassment-of-riches theme extends to workspace-based tools such as wikis, document libraries, and discussion forums.  E.g., I'm using a free Wetpaint wiki to facilitate a project with my local public school system, and it has been very effective.

Pattern Finder: Is It Time for Consumers to Move to Free Office Suites?

Microsoft Releases Updated Live Search Engine: Includes significant advancements in core technology and consumer experience.

See the press release for a bulleted list of new features 

Microsoft Corp. is releasing an update to Live Search (http://www.live.com) centered on improvements to core search technology and deeper advancements in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Collectively, these improvements mark a quality milestone based on the company’s focus on delivering a better search experience for consumers and advertisers.

“With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. “We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time.”

Microsoft Releases Updated Live Search Engine: Includes significant advancements in core technology and consumer experience.

Microsoft's Halo 3 Busts Games Record - WSJ.com

Impressive

Microsoft Corp. said its hotly anticipated new videogame, Halo 3, generated an estimated $170 million in U.S. sales in its first day of release, a record for the games industry and a big boost for Microsoft's Xbox 360 business.

[...]

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, called Halo 3's sales numbers "overwhelmingly impressive," adding that the figure was "probably unprecedented," ahead of other games with huge first-day sales, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

He estimated that the game would help lift Xbox 360 sales for Microsoft to about 400,000 to 500,000 in the U.S. this month, up from 277,000 in August.

Microsoft's Halo 3 Busts Games Record - WSJ.com

New-Look Search Sites Aim to Close Google Gap - New York Times

Microsoft searches for differentiation... 

A search using the words “digital camera,” for instance, will deliver photos and links to reviews and shopping information for the most popular digital cameras. This “product guide,” which includes information culled from sites like Amazon.com and PriceGrabber.com, will be followed by traditional search results.

Over the next month, Microsoft will start using this approach for searches related to products, local businesses, health information and entertainment. The idea is to try to anticipate what users want, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the search and advertising platform group at Microsoft.

New-Look Search Sites Aim to Close Google Gap - New York Times

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: some changes ahead

I'm going to make some changes to my blogging routine.

My blog has been mostly a basic news filter for the last ~8 years. My first Blogger post was 1999/10/27, although the archive on this blog site only goes back to 2002/03 (I cycled through a couple other service providers before shifting to Blogger's blogspot).

I'm going to continue with the news filter routine, but I'm also going to start adding more original content here and at the Burton Group Collaboration and Content Strategies blog. I've got a lot of opinions about hypertext, content/data modeling, DBMS + XML, XQuery, and other topics, and I plan to block more time to share my perspectives -- and to hopefully foster constructive discussion.

I'll also be sharing more impressions about vendor briefings and industry events I'm involved with in industry analyst mode; stay tuned :)...

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: some changes ahead

Traction Software, Inc. | Blog480: 11-12 September 2007 | Traction User Group Meeting

I had the opportunity to present at this event a couple weeks ago. More info about the event can be found here, and my presentation -- on the implications of hypertext and compound/interactive models on collaboration and content management -- file (pdf version) is available here. 

Traction Software, Inc. | Blog480: 11-12 September 2007 | Traction User Group Meeting

Halo 3 Takes Toll on Workforce - washingtonpost.com

Quite the event... 

Call it the Halo holiday, or the Halo bug.

Some gamers are going to be a little sleepy this week at work or school, if they show up at all. With yesterday's release of Halo 3, the highly anticipated video game for the Xbox 360 console, many gamers are taking some personal time.

I also enjoyed this NYT snippet:

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, is the richest man on earth. R. J. Bollard, a freshman at the University of Washington, said he would have 73 cents left in his bank account as of midnight. And that’s one reason Mr. Gates is likely to be the richest man on earth for quite a while.

Both were at a Best Buy store in Bellevue, Wash., on Monday night as the third installment of Halo, Microsoft’s hit video game series, went on sale at 12:01 a.m. yesterday. Just before that moment, Mr. Gates was hand-shaking his way down the line of customers. Among them was Mr. Bollard, 18, who said the 73 cents was all he would have left after buying the game.

Halo 3 Takes Toll on Workforce - washingtonpost.com

Official Google Blog: A new caffeine-free way to stay alert

Another Google productivity enhancer... 

Since new videos are constantly appearing all over the web, it's difficult to keep tabs on all of them. But now Google Alerts will make it easy for you to add video to your other Alerts: News, Web, Blog and Groups.
Video Alerts enables you to specify any topics or queries of interest so we can deliver interesting and relevant videos on a daily, weekly, or as-it-happens basis (your choice) to you via email. To start receiving Video Alerts, you can visit the Google Alerts homepage directly or set up the alert during your normal video searches. Videos may come from Google Video, YouTube, or many other video sources on the web.

Official Google Blog: A new caffeine-free way to stay alert

Printing Parts of the Web | The Mossberg Solution | Katherine Boehret | AllThingsD

Interesting move for HP -- addressing part of the market opportunity previously addressed by tools such as Onfolio 

I tested the HP Smart Web Printing Software, a free program from Hewlett-Packard Co. that aims to help users compile a virtual clip book of content from Web sites while they’re browsing, within the same window. Using a tool in the browser, users highlight and copy images and text from a Web page and add them to the clip book. These clips can be edited, enhanced, saved as a PDF or printed out, without excess banner ads or sidebars.

Printing Parts of the Web | The Mossberg Solution | Katherine Boehret | AllThingsD

Microsoft Takes Aim at Google’s Ad Supremacy - New York Times

Timely snapshot 

MICROSOFT has used its might, clout and smarts to take on any number of products and services — the browser, the operating system, the portable music player, to name just three — with varying degrees of success.

Now, Microsoft is taking solid aim at a business that is arguably outside its core competence: advertising. And it is deliberately facing off against a specialist, Google.

The general in charge of part of Microsoft’s assault, Brian McAndrews, joined the company just last month and is still learning its way of doing things. But he does know the Internet ad business, having run aQuantive, the advertising company that Microsoft acquired for $6 billion last month.

Microsoft Takes Aim at Google’s Ad Supremacy - New York Times

Vonage Is Dealt a Setback With Second Big Legal Defeat - WSJ.com

I'm starting to seriously wonder if I'm going to need to find a new phone service provider... 

Vonage shares fell 34%, or 66 cents, to $1.30 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading -- an all-time low. Since its initial public offering, when the stock hit $17, the shares have steadily fallen over the past year and a half.

Vonage is working on a technology "workaround" to Sprint's patents, similar to how it is addressing the Verizon patents.

A pioneer in offering Internet-phone service, Vonage has suffered a flood of negative press and litigation, which have curtailed customer growth. But even before the problems, the company lost money as it spent heavily on subscriber growth.

Vonage Is Dealt a Setback With Second Big Legal Defeat - WSJ.com

Inside Microsoft's Plan To Bring In Outside Talent - WSJ.com

Timely Microsoft reality check 

Before Brian McAndrews agreed to take charge of a crucial piece of Microsoft Corp.'s online advertising business, he insisted on a key condition: that he be granted certain power over the engineering part of the operation.

The new job didn't have to include that authority, but Mr. McAndrews, new to the company, argued that to succeed in his mandate -- leading the charge against Google Inc. -- he needed it. And in Microsoft's engineering-driven culture, such a team could promise something else for Mr. McAndrews: longevity as a Microsoft executive.

That Microsoft granted his request illustrates a new approach Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is taking as he tries to expand the Redmond, Wash., company into new areas from online music to videogames to Internet advertising. Mr. Ballmer has found he must tap outsiders rather than rely so heavily on homegrown managers as in the past.

Inside Microsoft's Plan To Bring In Outside Talent - WSJ.com

A New Short Story Imagines Google as a Bad Big Brother - WSJ.com

More on "Scroogled" 

In science-fiction author Cory Doctorow's short story "Scroogled," a woman shrugs when she sees "Immigration--Powered by Google" on an airport sign, but that's just the beginning of the search giant's presence in a not-too-distant future.

Interview excerpt:

WSJ.com: Are there signs of that at Google? Are they doing something that concerns you?

Mr. Doctorow: Sure, absolutely, there have been lots of signs of that. I mean, one of the things that I think is in Google's DNA is a real tension about, on the one hand, being good to people, but on the other hand, acquiring as much information about them as they can, under the rubric that it allows them to be better to people.

And it does, a lot of the time. There are lots of ways in which Google knowing more about you makes Google better for you. But without much regard to what's happening in the world around us, in an era in which the national security apparatus has turned into a kind of lumbering, savage, giant toddler, it behooves us to not leave things within arm's reach that it might stick in its mouth. And that includes things like my search history. And I'd prefer that Google not be storing a lot of that stuff, especially today, especially after Patriot [Act] and so on. They're inviting abuse, I think, by doing that. The steps you don't save can't be subpoenaed. And by saving them, Google is inviting a subpoena.

So Google's always had this kind of "We will collect all your information, and it will belong to us, and you won't be able to take it away, but it's OK because we'll only do good things for you" attitude, and that's a bit of a problem.

A New Short Story Imagines Google as a Bad Big Brother - WSJ.com

Amazon.com begins offering digital music download service - The Boston Globe

Added to Amazon.com's Unbox service  

Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest Internet retailer, began a digital-music download service to compete with Apple Inc.'s iTunes, selling restriction-free tracks from more than 20,000 record labels.

The MP3 service offers 2.3 million songs from more than 180,000 artists, Amazon.com said yesterday. The songs, most priced from 89 to 99 cents, don't have software that limits how customers can store and play them.

[...]

"We already have 69 million active customers," Bill Carr, Amazon .com's vice president for digital music, said yesterday. "Most of those purchases are already in media products," he said. "We are adding MP3 downloads we think customers will love."

Amazon.com begins offering digital music download service - The Boston Globe

WebEx WebOffice: It's a Web Office Jim, But Not As We Know It

Timely reality check for Cisco/WebEx/WebOffice 

During the demo I discovered that WebEx's product has more in common with Salesforce.com, in that it's an on-demand service and doesn't offer standalone word processing, spreadsheet or presentations. So let's get this out of the way right now: WebEx WebOffice, despite the name, isn't an office suite package like Google Apps, Zoho, ThinkFree and others. Despite this, WebEx WebOffice seems to be a very good solution for small businesses - and even in parts of the enterprise (e.g. as a solution for individual teams or projects).

WebEx WebOffice: It's a Web Office Jim, But Not As We Know It

EMC acquires online backup provider Mozy - Network World

Hardware + software + services... 

Online backup services fit well into EMC’s data protection strategy. CEO Joe Tucci hinted at EMC’s intent to offer online backup services earlier this year in a quarterly earnings call. "In software-as-a-service, we have nothing yet, but stay tuned -- we will launch an offering here soon,” Tucci said. “When you think of the backup and recovery space, we'll have an alternative for customers. Rather than saying here's your hardware, software, and services, [we can say] we'll charge by the drip, and host all of that for you."

EMC acquires online backup provider Mozy - Network World

The Googlization of Everything

Interesting book project/site 

This blog, the result of a collaboration between myself and the Institute for the Future of the Book, is dedicated to exploring the process of writing a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions behind the cultural behemoth that is Google, Inc. The book will answer three key questions: What does the world look like through the lens of Google?; How is Google's ubiquity affecting the production and dissemination of knowledge?; and how has the corporation altered the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and states?

The Googlization of Everything

Microsoft's 'Halo 3' Game Meets Approval of Critics - WSJ.com

 Timely reality check for Sony

Over the weekend, reviews of "Halo 3" began to surface. So far, the game has garnered a score of 96 on Metacritic, a site that blends game reviews from multiple sources into a single score.

With that rating, "Halo 3" tops almost all videogames released this year with the exception of "Bioshock" -- another title for the Xbox 360, from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., that scored a 96 rating.

[...]

The high scores of "Halo 3" help give the Xbox 360 an advantage over the rival PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. That console, which has been on the market less than a year, has so far fallen short of high expectations, in part because of a high price tag and the lack of compelling game titles. The highest Metacritic score for an exclusive PS3 game to date is 86, given to "Resistance: Fall of Man," published by Sony.

Microsoft's 'Halo 3' Game Meets Approval of Critics - WSJ.com

Microsoft Is Said to Consider a Stake in Facebook - New York Times

Interesting times 

There may be personal reasons that Facebook would align itself with Microsoft, according to a person with knowledge of the companies’ executives. Mr. Zuckerberg has a personal friendship with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect and one of the people stepping in for Bill Gates, the co-founder who is giving up his day-to-day responsibilities at the company.

Also, Jim Breyer, a managing partner at the venture capital firm of Accel Partners and one of three Facebook board members, was an investor in Groove Networks, Mr. Ozzie’s company, which Microsoft purchased in 2005.

Microsoft Is Said to Consider a Stake in Facebook - New York Times

Stealing Office 2007 - Office Watch

Glancing at this article and the related Microsoft site, it looks like this is for anyone (in the countries listed below) with an .edu email address (i.e., perhaps not just college students), although you may be required to prove you're actively enrolled if challenged

Microsoft is offering Office 2007 Ultimate edition for a fraction of the regular price to college students from now until April 2008.

In the US, Office 2007 Ultimate edition is officially $679 but college students can get it for only $59.95.

The same deal is available in Canada and the UK from today while Spain, Italy and France have similar offers form 20 September 2007.

Office Watch readers may remember that Australian university students had a similar offer earlier this year.  This wider offer is very similar but lasts a lot longer than the Aussie opportunity.  The Australian offer had the option of buying a one year use of Office 2007 but this is not available in the US arrangement (the UK does).

Stealing Office 2007 - Office Watch

Apple, EMC Rise on Bullish Analyst Comments - WSJ.com

 Interesting times

EMC added 69 cents, or 3.6%, to $19.73 on the New York Stock Exchange after Bear Stearns and Citigroup lifted their ratings. Both brokers pointed to EMC's ownership stake in spinoff VMware, which has a lead in the burgeoning virtualization market and seen its shares surge since its IPO a month ago.

"From a larger perspective, we see EMC as more than just a storage play: we also see that EMC management has been adept at finding the 'next big thing' in IT spending," Bear Stearns' Andrew Neff said in a note, "and growing those nascent businesses, enabling overall EMC to continue to grow."

At the moment, in terms of mkt cap:

EMC: $41.59B

VMW: $32.26B

Apparently some investors don't think the latter is the same type of money as the former -- otherwise EMC, as majority owner of VMWare, should have seen a much bigger mkt cap pop over the last month.

Apple, EMC Rise on Bullish Analyst Comments - WSJ.com

Happy Birthday, Sputnik! (Thanks for the Internet)

Useful historical recap 

Quick, what's the most influential piece of hardware from the early days of computing? The IBM 360 mainframe? The DEC PDP-1 minicomputer? Maybe earlier computers such as Binac, ENIAC or Univac? Or, going way back to the 1800s, is it the Babbage Difference Engine?

More likely, it was a 183-pound aluminum sphere called Sputnik, Russian for "traveling companion." Fifty years ago, on Oct. 4, 1957, radio-transmitted beeps from the first man-made object to orbit the Earth stunned and frightened the U.S., and the country's reaction to the "October surprise" changed computing forever.

For more on ARPA and J.C.R. Licklider's role, see the excellent book "The Dream Machine"

Happy Birthday, Sputnik! (Thanks for the Internet)

Adobe's CEO: The Quiet Giant - Global Business - MSNBC.com

Timely snapshot, with Adobe's annual MAX event next week 

When you think of software-application giants, you think Microsoft. For Web giants, it's Google or Amazon. But aside from so-called creative professionals, not many folks think of Adobe. Nonetheless Adobe, founded in 1982, takes in almost $3 billion a year from applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and Creative Suite 3. Billions of documents are encoded in its PDF file format, and the most popular video format on the Web, including the one used by YouTube, is its Flash product. The latter came to Adobe in a $3.4 billion purchase of Macromedia two years ago. Now the company is beta-testing Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a program it hopes will hasten the adoption of Web applications. The strategy comes from CEO Bruce Chizen, 52, a native Brooklynite who began his career in a sales job at Mattel's game division, followed by stints at Microsoft and Apple's onetime software arm Claris before he joined Adobe in 1994. He spoke to NEWSWEEK by phone from his office in San Jose, Calif.

(Thanks, Mike)

Adobe's CEO: The Quiet Giant - Global Business - MSNBC.com

Microsoft Goes Behind the Scenes - WSJ.com

 It'd probably be more efficient to petition directly with assorted world governments, as its competitors do...

Microsoft Corp. executives and a public-relations firm retained by the software giant are waging a quiet campaign to convince Internet companies, advertisers and regulators to oppose Google Inc.'s planned $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising specialist DoubleClick Inc.

In recent months, public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller pitched media outlets and Internet companies on what it said were the dangers of the deal, which would bolster Google's already strong presence in online advertising. In the written pitches reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Burson cites the deal as part of a larger discussion of "fair and free competition" in Internet-search and privacy rights of consumers.

Microsoft Goes Behind the Scenes - WSJ.com