Facebook CEO Zuckerberg, Other Tech Execs to Form D.C. Advocacy Group - Mike Isaac - Social - AllThingsD

Glad to see this, especially considering the dismal Congressional track record in recent years

"Mr. Zuckerberg is going to Washington.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is involved in early efforts to form an issues advocacy organization in Washington D.C. in conjunction with other tech executives, according to people familiar with the matter."

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg, Other Tech Execs to Form D.C. Advocacy Group - Mike Isaac - Social - AllThingsD

CIA Presentation On Big Data - Business Insider

Presentation viewable at the link below (video here)

"After laying out what the CIA does — i.e. collect intelligence, conduct analysis, perform covert action — CIA CTO Ira "Gus" Hunt detailed just how the agency plans to acquire, store, and analyze digital data on a massive scale.
"You're already a walking sensor platform," Hunt said, referring to all of the information captured by smartphones. "You are aware of the fact that somebody can know where you are at all times because you carry a mobile device, even if that mobile device is turned off. You know this, I hope? Yes? Well, you should.""

CIA Presentation On Big Data - Business Insider

Apple - Environment - Renewable Energy

Leading by example

"Our investments are paying off. We’ve already achieved 100 percent renewable energy at all of our data centers, at our facilities in Austin, Elk Grove, Cork, and Munich, and at our Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. And for all of Apple’s corporate facilities worldwide, we’re at 75 percent, and we expect that number to grow as the amount of renewable energy available to us increases. We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple."

Apple - Environment - Renewable Energy

In India, Google's Eric Schmidt Explains Why He Went to North Korea - Businessweek

Insights from Internet ambassador Eric Schmidt

"After first making a joke about playing basketball—a reference to the strange visit by Dennis Rodman a few weeks after Schmidt’s trip—the Google executive explained he went to Pyongyang on a mission to spread the good news about the power of the Internet. North Korea “is the last really closed country in the world,” he said. “This is a country that has suffered from lack of information. The Internet was built for everyone, including North Koreans. The quickest way to get economic growth in North Korea is to open up the Internet. I did my best to tell them this.”"

In India, Google's Eric Schmidt Explains Why He Went to North Korea - Businessweek

Hey! You! Get off of Google’s cloud! | Jack Shafer [Reuters]

A Reuters round-up of rejected Reader repercussions (see the link below for links to the other perspectives)

"One thing I didn’t do was to write a column accusing Google of betraying my trust, as Om Malik, James Fallows, Ezra Klein, Alex Hern of the New Statesman, The Week, and others did. Nor did I vow not to use Google’s new product, an Evernote substitute called Google Keep, ‘lest the company yank the rug out from under me again. I never trusted Google in the first place. I never thought it would support its products forever. As Slate’s Google graveyard attests, the company has routinely created and abruptly killed off software services, often tossing out the minimum viable product and watching to see if it caught on before putting any further effort into developing it."

Hey! You! Get off of Google’s cloud! | Jack Shafer

Small Rivals Clip Oracle's Wings - WSJ.com

Interesting to consider Amazon (market cap ~$115B today) "small"

"Companies also are warming to the idea that they don't have to spend as much for technology. Even the largest companies are switching to cloud-based technology on a subscription basis requiring no upfront fees. They are experimenting with database technology that is based on Hadoop, free software developed by engineers at Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Dave Corchado, CIO at digital marketing agency iCrossing Inc., an Oracle customer, said its new spending is going to Oracle rivals such as Amazon.com Inc. It uses Amazon for computing power and the Hadoop free analytic software. Spending on databases from Oracle "remains intentionally unchanged," he said."

Small Rivals Clip Oracle's Wings - WSJ.com

Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

"It sounds preposterous, particularly to those familiar with the yes/no world of conventional computing. But academic researchers and scientists at companies like Microsoft, I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard have been working to develop quantum computers.
Now, Lockheed Martin — which bought an early version of such a computer from the Canadian company D-Wave Systems two years ago — is confident enough in the technology to upgrade it to commercial scale, becoming the first company to use quantum computing as part of its business."

Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology - NYTimes.com

YouTube Blog: YouTube Hits a Billion Monthly Users

Also see How does Gen C watch YouTube? On all screens, all the time (Google Agency Blog)

"In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are now running campaigns on YouTube. And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month."

YouTube Blog: YouTube Hits a Billion Monthly Users

Sorry Google; you can Keep it to yourself — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOM]

From Om Malik's take on Keep

"Google today launched Keep, an app that allows you to save things, clip stuff from the web, hoard notes and what not and put them all onto your Google Drive. Yup, you guessed it — it is an imitation to Evernote and many other such applications. It is a good thing that Google has decided to compete with the likes of Evernote — it validates their market.
It might actually be good, or even better than Evernote. But I still won’t use Keep. You know why? Google Reader."

Sorry Google; you can Keep it to yourself — Tech News and Analysis

Get started with Google Keep | How To - CNET

The early reviews (and ratings on the Google Play store Keep page) have probably resulted in a lot of head-scratching at Evernote headquarters; the initial release of Keep looks like a basic demo app on the new Google Drive realtime APIs

"The combination of various note types is nice; a checklist for shopping, photos to help you remember something, and voice notes for when you can't type a long note. But if I'm supposed to be adding reminders to the app (watch the video included in Casey's post), then why can't I set alarms for reminders? There's some work to be done still with Keep before it's going to replace other task management and note-taking apps."

Get started with Google Keep | How To - CNET

Intuit's TurboTax: File From the Bath but Not the Shower - Businessweek

Financially underwater, Intuit-style

"Intuit now has a SnapTax app that lets you file a return from a smartphone. It’s aimed at people who do not own a home and who basically have only a W-2 to deal with for income. Using the app, you take a photo of the W-2 and then answer a handful of questions about your marital status and the like. “We have reviews where people say they filed from their bathtubs,” says Scott Cook, Intuit’s founder and chairman of its executive committee."

Intuit's TurboTax: File From the Bath but Not the Shower - Businessweek

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Recovers Apollo 11 Remains - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Check the article link for more details and and a video

“Running Amazon is a pretty intense job, but Jeff Bezos does manage to take a little time off now and then.

For instance, right now, he’s on a ship outside Cape Canaveral, along with some giant engines that used to power the Apollo 11 aircraft. He financed the team that just dug them out from the bottom of the Atlantic.”

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Recovers Apollo 11 Remains - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Report: Blackstone asked Hurd about leading Dell after buyout | ZDNet

Perhaps Larry Ellison would be okay with this scenario, considering Oracle's latest quarterly results

"Rumors are running rampant about Dell's future this week, and the latest report fueling that fire is that Oracle president Mark Hurd has been approached to lead the PC company.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday -- based on information from one unnamed source said to be familiar with the matter -- that private equity investment firm Blackstone asked Hurd about his interest, but the firm has not made a definitive offer yet."

Report: Blackstone asked Hurd about leading Dell after buyout | ZDNet

Facebook’s Graph Search Makes Use of Friends and Likes - NYTimes.com

A pragmatic and positive Facebook Graph Search review

"Most Internet users have become accustomed to using Facebook to keep up with friends — or at least, Facebook “friends” — while using more specialized sites and apps to search for restaurants, books and people. But if you have built up a network of friends on Facebook, those connections can now help you find people, places and things in the real world, in ways that more specialized sites like Google, Yelp and Amazon cannot."

Facebook’s Graph Search Makes Use of Friends and Likes - NYTimes.com

Cheaper LED Bulbs Make It Easier to Switch Lights - NYTimes.com

Final paragraph of a David Pogue review

"LED bulbs last decades, save electricity, don’t shatter, don’t burn you, save hundreds of dollars, and now offer plummeting prices and blossoming features. What’s not to like? You’d have to be a pretty dim bulb not to realize that LED light is the future."

Cheaper LED Bulbs Make It Easier to Switch Lights - NYTimes.com

Official Blog: Google Keep—Save what’s on your mind

Google Keep quietly launches; see the link below for more details and a video; also see Google Keep: A new note-taking service that takes on Evernote (VentureBeat)

"To solve this problem we’ve created Google Keep. With Keep you can quickly jot ideas down when you think of them and even include checklists and photos to keep track of what’s important to you. Your notes are safely stored in Google Drive and synced to all your devices so you can always have them at hand.
If it’s more convenient to speak than to type that’s fine—Keep transcribes voice memos for you automatically. There’s super-fast search to find what you’re looking for and when you’re finished with a note you can archive or delete it."

Official Blog: Google Keep—Save what’s on your mind

Report: Amazon Is Building the CIA's New Cloud Computing System [Gizmodo]

Sign of the times

"The CIA has reportedly signed a massive cloud computing deal with Amazon, worth up to $600 million over the next 10 years.
FCW reports that its sources have told it Amazon will build a private cloud infrastructure for the CIA, to help it "keep up with emerging technologies like big data in a cost-effective manner not possible under the CIA's previous cloud efforts"."

Report: Amazon Is Building the CIA's New Cloud Computing System

Apple: Time To Come Out Swinging | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

From a timely Apple reality check

"How did a company that spent so many years successfully managing and polishing its image reach this point? And how does it change a growing perceptions of failure in the face of actual success? These questions matter because over time, perceptions have a way of infiltrating reality, making the negativity surrounding Apple a long-term threat to the company."

Apple: Time To Come Out Swinging | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Amazon launches “Send to Kindle” button for web publishers and WordPress blogs — paidContent

Check the full post for details including send-to-Kindle browser and desktop app extensions

"Amazon presents “Send to Kindle” as an alternative to read-it-later services like Pocket and Instapaper:
“The Send to Kindle Button lets you easily send that content to your Kindle to read later, at your convenience. Just send once and read everywhere on any of your Kindle devices or free Kindle reading apps for iPhone, iPad and Android phones or tablets. No more hunting around for that website or blog that caught your eye — just open your Kindle and all the content you sent is right there. The Send to Kindle Button is also great for those who want to collect content from the web to use in work projects, school assignments, or hobbies.”"

Amazon launches “Send to Kindle” button for web publishers and WordPress blogs — paidContent

Disconnect: why Andy Rubin and Android called it quits | The Verge

A time for big Android strategy decisions

"Even though three Android phones are now sold for every iPhone, Google has still yet to fully figure out how to leverage the open system to its advantage. While Android has been great for handset makers, especially Samsung, it’s failed to advance the Google ecosystem as much as hoped or make much money. "Ironically, in some cases Microsoft may be making more money off Android than Google, because of patent payments," said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. In other instances, Android has completely run away from Google. Amazon's Kindle Fire is built on Android, but you’d never know it — and the Amazon app store competes with Google’s."

Disconnect: why Andy Rubin and Android called it quits | The Verge

Why did Apple hire Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch? [Apple Insider]

Excerpt from an extensive Adobe (and Macromedia)/Apple historical recap

"Additionally, Lynch isn't the only Apple executive to have promoted Flash in a former life. Apple's current senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller was formerly Macromedia's VP of Product Marketing, back when the company bought Flash from its original developer FutureWave in 1996.
The next year, Schiller left Macromedia to join Steve Jobs at Apple. But back at Macromedia, a series of products were vying for the company's attention, ranging from print tools that directly completed with Adobe, to a fledgling new video editor named KeyGrip developed by Adobe's former Premier creator Randy Ubillos, to new web-centric tools like Flash and Dreamweaver. "

Why did Apple hire Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch?

Google Launches Drive Realtime API To Let Developers Build Apps With Real-Time Collaboration | TechCrunch

Kinda Groovy

"Google just announced the launch of its Google Drive Realtime API, a new tool for developers that will allow them to bring the same real-time collaboration features that power Google Drive to their own apps. The API, Google writes, “handles network communication, storage, presence, conflict resolution, and other collaborative details so you can focus on building great apps.” Google partnered with three-developer focused tools, the collaborative code editor Neutron Drive, the project scheduling tool Gantter and the diagraming tool draw.io to test and launch this API."

Google Launches Drive Realtime API To Let Developers Build Apps With Real-Time Collaboration | TechCrunch

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Headed to Apple - John Paczkowski and Peter Kafka - News - AllThingsD

Small world

"Under former CEO Steve Jobs, Apple moved away from Flash, and none of its iOS mobile devices — iPhones, iPads and iPod — support Flash at all. Lynch was the guy tasked with responding to Apple and Jobs, both in blog posts and interviews like this one he conducted with Kara Swisher in April 2010.
That’s when he described Apple’s moves as a “protectionist strategy,” that was “bad for consumers.” Apparently he’s changed his mind."

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Headed to Apple - John Paczkowski and Peter Kafka - News - AllThingsD

Samsung Confirms It Will Build A Smart Watch As Speculation About Apple’s iWatch Continues | TechCrunch

Samsung confirms ... it needs something interesting to talk about, after the ho-hum response to the Galaxy S4 launch?

"Samsung is indeed working on a smart watch, the company’s Executive Vice President of Mobile told Bloomberg in an interview today. “We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them,,” Hee told the publication in no uncertain terms, adding that between itself and Apple, the “issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully.”"

Samsung Confirms It Will Build A Smart Watch As Speculation About Apple’s iWatch Continues | TechCrunch

HOW TO : Switch to Feedly from Google Reader | SiliconANGLE

Excerpt from an overview of reasons to consider Feedly (my current favorite Google Reader alternative)

"Before the official announcement, we at SiliconANGLE decided to give you, our readers, 6 Alternatives to the Dying Google Reader.  One of the mentioned alternatives is Feedly and some of our readers, and even some SiliconANGLE staff including myself, has grown fond of Feedly.  And we’re not the only ones.  Over 500,000 Google Readers found refuge in Feedly in the past few days, and the number will just keep growing as more people migrate."

HOW TO : Switch to Feedly from Google Reader | SiliconANGLE

How Well Do Microsoft's Xbox, Skype, Office, and SkyDrive Work Together? - Businessweek

Check the full article for some current pros/cons

"Over the last 18 months, Steve Ballmer has been insisting that Microsoft (MSFT) is evolving from a software maker to a “device and services company”—a distinction that’s supposed to focus consumers on the company’s tablets and phones and the programs that are designed to seamlessly link them. As someone who covers Microsoft, I need to be familiar with the company’s products. [...]
After using all of them extensively, I can safely say that if Ballmer and Microsoft really want consumers to make this turn, the interconnections between all of these services still need a lot of fine-tuning."

How Well Do Microsoft's Xbox, Skype, Office, and SkyDrive Work Together? - Businessweek

Google expected to unify chat under the name Babble | Geek Pick | Geek.com

More Google service consolidation ahead

"Google’s got a huge communication problem right now. If you take a look at all of their services, you’ll find a series of communications platforms that don’t interact with each other very well, if at all. Google Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Drive collaboration, and the pseudo Google Talk for G+ all function just a little differently from one another. The only two to really function together are Google Talk for Gmail and G+, but ask anyone using the two systems and you’ll hear just how bad things are right now.
There’s not an easy fix for the situation, but a cross platform solution would enable Google to overtake platforms like iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger in one sweeping gesture. According to multiple sources reporting separately to Geek.com, this service is being called Babble, and it’s being built fresh from the ground up to solve these problems."

Google expected to unify chat under the name Babble | Geek Pick | Geek.com

Tensions Rise Between Facebook, Developers - WSJ.com

A perennial platform purveyor problem

"Doug Purdy, Facebook's director of developer products, declined to discuss the recent shutdowns of specific developers on the social network. "We enforce our policies for a variety of reasons, ranging from preventing spam and protecting the experience people have on Facebook, to the rare case when a developer is using our platform to replicate our core functionality without enabling people to share back to Facebook," he said.
Mr. Purdy added that most of the 10 million apps and websites hooked into Facebook seem satisfied. At Facebook's headquarters, desks on Mr. Purdy's floor have blue signs that proclaim that "developers are people too.""

Tensions Rise Between Facebook, Developers - WSJ.com

An Oracle Veteran's Comeback Plan - NYTimes.com

A chip off the old block (Charles Phillips, Infor CEO)

"“Oracle is big, but it’s focused on trying to put together a system of hardware, and it is confusing as a software company,” he said in an interview “On applications, they are easier to beat than SAP.” Oh, and he plans to beat SAP too, but there’s little doubt that he is aiming to make life hard for Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive and his old boss."

An Oracle Veteran's Comeback Plan - NYTimes.com

Lenovo: Windows 8 is so good, everyone wants Windows 7 • The Channel

Lenovo's enterprise Windows approach

"Lenovo has learned from the Windows Vista experience that the official Microsoft "downgrade" path can be painful. So the machines are "downgraded" to Windows 7 by default. Of course, that's exactly what customers want - and Lenovo is reaping the benefit of listening to those customers.
The computer maker even throws in a Start Menu for Windows 8, which is installable from the Lenovo software bundle. The company wouldn't be drawn on the exact ratio of Windows 7 to Windows 8 machines shipped."

Lenovo: Windows 8 is so good, everyone wants Windows 7 • The Channel

Three reasons Microsoft OneNote beats Evernote. Can Google's rumored Keep note-taking app improve on it? | Computerworld Blogs

From an Evernote/OneNote comparison:

"I'm a big fan of Evernote and Microsoft's OneNote and am looking forward to the rumored Google note-taking app named Keep as well. But if I had only one note-taking and data capture app to rely on, I'd stick with only OneNote. Here are three ways that OneNote beats Evernote, and ways in which Google might beat OneNote with its rumored Keep note-taking app."

Reviewing/responding to the three reasons (see the full post for more details):

1. Better structure for large projects: OneNote has a more elaborate information model, with notebook/section group/section/page/sub-page levels. Evernote lacks the equivalent of section groups, sections, and sub-pages, but it also has a notebook stack level of abstraction that OneNote lacks.
2. Integration with Outlook: OneNote (unsurprisingly, as part of Office) has better integration with Outlook (and other Office apps), but Evernote supports mail-in note creation (every Evernote user is assigned an Evernote mail-in address), and Evernote is also supported as a platform-level sharing option, e.g., on Android.
3. Integration with SkyDrive: OneNote currently has more robustly useful notebook/note sharing and collaboration services than Evernote, but Evernote has more powerful client apps on a variety of non-Microsoft platforms. The Android and iOS OneNote clients are limited, for example, and there is no Mac OS OneNote client. 

You can read more about my perspectives on this topic in my Que blog post series.

Three reasons Microsoft OneNote beats Evernote. Can Google's rumored Keep note-taking app improve on it? | Computerworld Blogs

Farewell, Dear Google Reader : The New Yorker

From another useful Google Reader reality check

"In announcing the closure of Reader, Google said that usage has been declining, and I can see why. Reader was made for absurdly ambitious readers. It’s designed for people like me—or, rather, for people like the person I used to be—that is, for people who really do intend to read everything. You might feel great when you reach Inbox Zero, but, believe me, it feels even better to reach Reader Zero: to scroll and scan until you’ve seen it all. Twitter, which has replaced Reader (and R.S.S.) for many people, works on a different principle. It’s not organized or completist. There are no illusions with Twitter. You can’t pretend, by “marking it read,” that you’ve read it all; you don’t think you’re going to cram “the world of ideas” into your Twitter stream. At the same time, you’re going to be surprised, provoked, informed. It’s a better model."

Farewell, Dear Google Reader : The New Yorker

Google Keep note-taking app spotted in Drive before disappearing | The Verge

Speculation about a possible Google Notebook++

"Everyone might be focused on the services Google is scrapping as part of its spring cleaning, but it looks like there's at least one new (or rather, renewed) service on the way. Android Police reports that a new note-taking app called Google Keep will let you take notes, which you can color-code and add pictures to, as well as use to build checklists. The idea is reminiscent of Google’s failed Notebook service and products like Evernote, although with a seemingly trimmed-down feature set. The news was first uncovered by Google+ user 1E100."

Google Keep note-taking app spotted in Drive before disappearing | The Verge

What Hinton’s Google Move Says About the Future of Machine Learning « Some Thoughts on a Mysterious Universe

Excerpt from a wide-ranging machine learning perspective

"First, some context. While Geoff is undoubtedly a giant in the field, he is only the latest in a string of departures to Google. Sebastian Thrun left Stanford to head Google’s autonomous car project in 2011. Andrew Ng has led several projects at Google, including the recent high-profile deep learning study in very large scale computer vision. And in late 2010, Matt Welsh made news when he left his tenured faculty position at Harvard to join Google. Except for Matt Welsh, this trend has particularly centered on large scale machine learning, and this question was recently put to Andrew Ng during the panel discussion at the BigVision workshop at NIPS. Andrew’s answer was that the effort involved in doing machine learning at a large scale required significant industrial engineering expertise, one that does not exist in academic settings including Stanford, and that a place like Google is simply much better equipped to carry out this function."

What Hinton’s Google Move Says About the Future of Machine Learning « Some Thoughts on a Mysterious Universe

Three Months to Scale NewsBlur - The NewsBlur Blog

Excerpt from a snapshot of a company radically accelerated by the imminent demise of Google Reader; also see More than 500,000 Google Reader users flock to Feedly in two days

"I had been preparing for a black swan event like this for the last four years since I began NewsBlur. With the deprecation of their social features a year ago I knew it was only a matter of time before Google stopped supporting Reader entirely. I did not expect it to come this soon.
As the Storify history of the Reader-o-calypse, NewsBlur suffered a number of hurdles with the onslaught of new subscribers."

Three Months to Scale NewsBlur - The NewsBlur Blog

Chromebook Pixel's Raison d'Être {Google Operating System]

Concluding paragraph of a Chrome OS reality check

"Chrome OS already has many features that live outside of the browser and it will add even more. Powerful Native Client apps that also work offline will allow Chrome OS to compete with full-fledged operating systems like Windows and Mac OS. Chromebook Pixel is Google's way of telling the world to take Chrome OS seriously. Chrome OS is no longer an experiment and a Chromebook is no longer useful just as a second device, it could become your main device."

Chromebook Pixel's Raison d'Être

Samsung Galaxy S IV Hands On: Everything New Is Old Again

Underwhelmed

"Samsung sold a ton of S IIIs, so to a certain extent it makes sense that they'd take an ain't broke, don't fix it approach. But to be brutally honest, in 2013 the design feels stale, dated, and boring. The S III's plastic back made it look and feel cheap; the effect is amplified on the S IV given how sleek and anodized the competition has gotten. There's just no innovation on this front, to the point that it's hard to take the S IV seriously next to a gorgeous piece of hardware like the HTC One."

Samsung Galaxy S IV Hands On: Everything New Is Old Again

Google Reader is useful, reliable service that suffered from shameful neglect - Chicago Sun-Times

Excerpt from an Andy Ihnatko Google Reader perspective

"The only answer that comes to mind is that Reader doesn’t include any opportunities for advertising, which is Google’s main business. Worse, Reader encourages users of the Web to view site content in this (usually) ad-free environment, instead of visiting the originating webpages. The only remaining upside of Google Reader for the company would have been as a mechanism for learning about a user’s reading habits, preferences, and community connections. But they’re canceling Reader, so it couldn’t have been terribly valuable, and Google+ already fulfills the function of Harvester Of Personalized Social Graph Data."

Google Reader is useful, reliable service that suffered from shameful neglect - Chicago Sun-Times

Google Reader shutting down July 1 – Marco.org

Accentuating the longer-term positive for XML syndication fans

"Now, we’ll be forced to fill the hole that Reader will leave behind, and there’s no immediately obvious alternative. We’re finally likely to see substantial innovation and competition in RSS desktop apps and sync platforms for the first time in almost a decade.
It may suck in the interim before great alternatives mature and become widely supported, but in the long run, trust me: this is excellent news."

Google Reader shutting down July 1 – Marco.org

Now is the Time to Panic: FeedBurner is Broken Today - The Digital Reader

More Google petition fodder

"The news that Google Reader is going to be shut down in 4 months is still circulating the blogosphere this evening, with many bloggers expressing dismay for how it will make their jobs more difficult.
But as bad as Google has hurt us, I’m pretty sure they’re not done inflicting pain.
Some time in the next few weeks I expect Google to announce the shutdown of FeedBurner, their RSS feed distribution service."

Now is the Time to Panic: FeedBurner is Broken Today - The Digital Reader

Save Google Reader - Google+

Here's a popular new Google+ Community; also see this page for a list of some save-Google-Reader petitions
Save Google Reader - Google+

Breaking Analysis: EMC VMware Lays out the Pivotal Initiative – EMC’s Silver Lining Playbook: EMC Owns 69% – VMware Transfers 500 Employees | SiliconANGLE

Recursive company-level virtualization from EMC (which owns ~80% of VMware)

"Joe Tucci is a competitor.  EMC is a company that keeps on reinventing themselves and making the right moves at the right time.  Now he is finding the silver lining in his portfolio and creating another VMware – it’s called Pivotal Initiative.
Today in New York City, top industry analysts from Wall Street to Silicon Valley are with EMC and VMware executives to hear the plans for EMC and VMware.   The news is that VMware will be forming a new startup called Pivotal Initiative.  According to SiliconANGLE sources,  EMC will own 69 percent and VMware will own 31 percent, and the venture will have 1,250 employees."

Breaking Analysis: EMC VMware Lays out the Pivotal Initiative – EMC’s Silver Lining Playbook: EMC Owns 69% – VMware Transfers 500 Employees | SiliconANGLE

Official Blog: A second spring of cleaning

Google prepares to terminate Google Reader, among other "spring cleaning" actions; I have a hunch this will prove to be an extremely unpopular decision

"We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months."

Official Blog: A second spring of cleaning

Andy Rubin Stepping Down as Android Head Was Sudden But Inevitable - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

A different dimension of Google collaboration

"“Andy is more like Steve Jobs in his leadership style — top down,” said Keval Desai, a former Google project management director on ads who is now a venture capitalist at InterWest Partners. “Sundar is more of a collaborative and low key leader, but very effective at achieving big results.”
Rubin had sparred with Amazon, Alibaba and other Android partners, and for some critics seemed to have a definition of “openness” that was consistent only in his own mind.
Said one former Google executive, “Everyone loves Andy, but his leadership style is not ‘Googley.’”"

Andy Rubin Stepping Down as Android Head Was Sudden But Inevitable - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

Google Puts Android and Chrome Under One Boss - NYTimes.com

Perhaps some toaster-fridges in Google's future?

"“So far, we have been in a world which has been pretty straightforward: Android phones and tablets and Chrome laptops,” Mr. Pichai said. “But lines do blur.”
“The way we think about it internally,” he said, “is as a user, you sign in to both these devices, you use search, Maps, Gmail” and other Google products. “All your Google services work seamlessly across devices.”
The company did not provide any details about how Chrome or Android might change under the new leadership."

Google Puts Android and Chrome Under One Boss - NYTimes.com

Obama Discusses Computer Security With Corporate Chiefs - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

"He said that the government is limited in what it can do to confront China and other sponsors of computer attacks. And he said the government needs the authority to require that critical infrastructure in the country is hardened against such attacks.
“There are ways that we can harden our critical infrastructure, our financial sector,” Mr. Obama said. “And the only thing that’s holding us back from doing that right now is we haven’t gotten the legislative authority out of Congress. They need to get this done.”"

Obama Discusses Computer Security With Corporate Chiefs - NYTimes.com

Box Is Testing Out New Apps That Could See It Go Head To Head With Google Docs | TechCrunch

Aiming high...

"It was less than two years ago that cloud storage startup Box announced a major integration with Google Docs, to let people use the online service from within Box itself. But now that the startup, backed by $284 million in venture funding, is ramping up plans for more services that take it beyond storage, CEO Aaron Levie says that his company is testing out new enterprise applications of its own that will put it into much closer competition with Google Docs, Microsoft’s Office 365 and more."

Box Is Testing Out New Apps That Could See It Go Head To Head With Google Docs | TechCrunch

Apple's iPad to fall behind Android as tablet war grows | Reuters

Not a lot of tablet market left for Windows RT or 8

"Now, IDC says Apple may begin losing some its lead on tablets as well, though it remains the top seller among manufacturers.
iPad shipments are expected to account for 46 percent of the tablet market in 2013, down from 51 percent last year, IDC said. Devices running Android are expected to grow their market share to 49 percent this year from 42 percent last year.
Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, which uses its own customization of Android, made major inroads with consumers last year. In November, Apple launched its own foray into smaller-sized tablets with the iPad mini."

Apple's iPad to fall behind Android as tablet war grows | Reuters

The Great Dumbing Down of Video Gaming Consoles - Businessweek

Sign of the CPU times

"But here we are with the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox due for imminent arrival, and there is no real custom silicon to be found. Both Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT), according to numerous industry reports and my sources, will use high-powered, but nevertheless off-the-shelf chips designed by AMD (AMD) in their upcoming consoles. This is a big win for AMD, which already counts Nintendo and its Wii as a customer, since it will have locked up the gaming market. It’s also a dramatic shift in what a gaming console “means” in 2013 vs. what it used to mean."

The Great Dumbing Down of Video Gaming Consoles - Businessweek

Google taps U of T professor to teach context to computers - The Globe and Mail

Extreme telecommuting for Google's latest "deep learning" expert; for more details, see Google Acquires University of Toronto Research Startup DNNresearch (Techvibes)

"Jeff Dean, a Google Fellow in the company’s systems infrastructure group, said Prof. Hinton’s work has applications for voice- and image-based searches, two small but growing segments of Google’s overall search traffic. As more and more users send search queries by snapping a picture from or speaking to their smartphones, Google has spent more research dollars trying to figure out ways to automatically derive contextual clues from images and sound. [...]  In a rarity for the search giant, which regularly lures academics to its Mountain View campus in California, Google is allowing Prof. Hinton to keep his day job. The computer scientist and two of his postdoctoral students will split their time between the university and Google headquarters in Mountain View. The company has also agreed to help fund the professor’s university research, but Prof. Hinton said the company will have no influence over the focus of his research."

Google taps U of T professor to teach context to computers - The Globe and Mail

Walt Mossberg: How Apple Gets All the Good Apps - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Perhaps, but, in my experience, some Google apps work better on Android than iOS; check the link below for more mobile app market dynamics

"Apple tightly controls its software and hardware, and is fiercely competitive in battling its rivals, especially in the mobile market. And yet, while the company never creates apps for anyone else’s mobile system or device, each of its major mobile-platform foes — Google, Amazon and Microsoft — make many of their apps available for Apple devices. That makes those devices the sort of Switzerlands of the mobile world."

Walt Mossberg: How Apple Gets All the Good Apps - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Google Takes on Amazon and Microsoft for Cloud Computing Services - NYTimes.com

A thriving cloud developer employment scene in Seattle

"Google plans a major recruiting effort to increase its Seattle-area engineering staff by as much as five times. There is already fierce competition among tech companies for talented engineers, and many of those with skills in cloud computing work at Google’s rivals in Seattle.
“We’re not the first in this rodeo, but we have the history of Google,” said Brian Goldfarb, Google’s leader of cloud platform marketing, who joined the company last year after a decade at Microsoft. “We have the best data centers on the planet. You can’t really give engineers a bigger, badder thing to work on.”"

Google Takes on Amazon and Microsoft for Cloud Computing Services - NYTimes.com

Google Admits Street View Project Violated Privacy - NYTimes.com

Bigger challenges ahead

"The agreement paves the way for a major privacy battle over Google Glass, the heavily promoted wearable computer in the form of glasses, Mr. Cleland said. “If you use Google Glass to record a couple whispering to each other in Starbucks, have you violated their privacy?” he asked. “Well, 38 states just said they have a problem with the unauthorized collection of people’s data.”"

Google Admits Street View Project Violated Privacy - NYTimes.com

Google Fiber review: Nobody knows what to do with the world’s fastest Internet service. - Slate Magazine

If you build it they will come (eventually...)

"And this gets to the fundamental problem with Google Fiber: It’s totally awesome, and totally unnecessary. During my time in Kansas City, I spoke to several local businesspeople, aspiring startup founders, and a few city boosters. They were all thrilled that Google had come to town, and the few who’d gotten access to the Google pipe said they really loved it. But I couldn’t find a single person who’d found a way to use Google Fiber to anywhere near its potential—or even a half or quarter of what it can do. It was even difficult to find people who could fully utilize Google Fiber in their imaginations. As hard as people tried, few could even think up ways to do something truly amazing with the world’s fastest Internet."

Google Fiber review: Nobody knows what to do with the world’s fastest Internet service. - Slate Magazine

Armed With Facebook 'Likes' Alone, Researchers Can Tell Your Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic

Like profiling...

"With remarkable accuracy, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Microsoft have been able to discern people's gender, sexuality, age, race, and political affiliation, based solely on their Facebook likes. With significantly less accuracy, they've also tried to predict certain personality traits -- e.g. intelligence, satisfaction with life, emotional stability, conscientiousness -- and though such traits were harden to predict, the researchers were able to come up with lists of "most predictive Likes" for each. It's possible to see how, with a much larger corpus, even certain subtleties of personality could be recognized deep within the idiosyncratic data of Facebook likes."

Armed With Facebook 'Likes' Alone, Researchers Can Tell Your Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation - Rebecca J. Rosen - The Atlantic

BlackBerry Shares Jump as Lenovo CEO Mentions Possible Deal - Bloomberg

One of a tiny number of BlackBerry deal permutations that might actually make sense

"BlackBerry shares jumped the most in more than a month after Lenovo Group Ltd. (992)’s chief executive officer was quoted in a French financial newspaper as saying his company may eventually consider buying the smartphone maker.
Lenovo’s Yang Yuanqing told Les Echos that a deal with Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry “could possibly make sense, but first I need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is.”"

BlackBerry Shares Jump as Lenovo CEO Mentions Possible Deal - Bloomberg

Google reveals Glass apps: New York Times, Evernote, Gmail, and Path | The Verge

Tangentially, see Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette (NYT)

"Each Glass integration must abide by four principles: "design for glass," "don't get in the way," "keep it timely," and "avoid the unexpected." Gmail has a presence on Glass too, allowing you to reply to important emails right from the headset. The Gmail "subscription" can be configured to only push you "Important" emails. You'll see the message subject line, a picture of the sender, and can dictate your response with Google's voice recognition system. "You can still have access to the technology that you love, but it doesn't take you out of the moment," Jordan said."

Google reveals Glass apps: New York Times, Evernote, Gmail, and Path | The Verge

Online Betting Site Intrade Is Shut After Audit Queries - NYTimes.com

Odds of it ever reopening tbd

"The online betting site Intrade announced late on Sunday that it had halted trading and frozen customer accounts after the company said it had discovered potential financial irregularities."

Online Betting Site Intrade Is Shut After Audit Queries - NYTimes.com

U.S. Demands China Crack Down on Cyberattacks - NYTimes.com

Delicate digital diplomacy; also see China says willing to discuss cyber security with the U.S. (Reuters)

"The White House, Mr. Donilon said, is seeking three things from Beijing: public recognition of the urgency of the problem; a commitment to crack down on hackers in China; and an agreement to take part in a dialogue to establish global standards.
“Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyberintrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale,” Mr. Donilon said in a wide-ranging address to the Asia Society in New York."

U.S. Demands China Crack Down on Cyberattacks - NYTimes.com

Big Data, Big Blunders - WSJ.com

Check the article link for some common failure patterns

"Experts who specialize in computer-driven analysis of large streams of information say too many companies throw themselves into big-data projects, only to fall into common traps and end up with nothing to show for their efforts. Some 44% of information-technology professionals surveyed by business-software firm Infochimps Inc., for example, said they had worked on big-data initiatives that got scrapped."

Big Data, Big Blunders - WSJ.com

LinkedIn to Buy Pulse Newsreader for More Than $50M - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

Making news connections

"LinkedIn will buy the maker of the newsreader app Pulse, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
The price of the acquisition is in the tens of millions, they said — between $50 million and $100 million."

LinkedIn to Buy Pulse Newsreader for More Than $50M - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

China Calls for Global Hacking Rules - NYTimes.com

Cyber-politics

"China has issued a new call for international “rules and cooperation” on Internet espionage issues, while insisting that accusations of Chinese government involvement in recent hacking attacks were part of an international smear campaign."

China Calls for Global Hacking Rules - NYTimes.com

Google: Don’t be ugly | The Economist

From a perspective piece about the pivotal role of design excellence

"THIS time last year investors were salivating over Apple’s stock. Now they are rushing to get their hands on Google’s. On March 5th the internet firm’s share price, which has risen by almost a fifth since the start of the year, leapt past $800 for the first time. Google’s market capitalisation, which hit $274 billion on March 6th, is now around two-thirds of Apple’s, up from around one-third six months ago."

Google: Don’t be ugly | The Economist

Brain scan: The podfather, part III | The Economist

Excerpt from a Tony Fadell (and Nest) profile

"Just as the iPod opened Apple’s eyes to new possibilities that eventually led to the iPhone and then the iPad, Mr Fadell is convinced that the thermostat can do the same for Nest Labs, and that it will be just the first of a series of smart, energy-saving devices. “This is not about creating random one-off products,” he says. “It’s about finding synergies between them and building a really long-term business.” He is coy about other areas the firm might tackle, but lighting is an obvious one."

Brain scan: The podfather, part III | The Economist

News Feed Is Facebook's New Jackpot - Rebecca Greenfield - The Atlantic Wire

Looks like Facebook will be competing more directly with both Google Reader (e.g., check the left-side feed list in the image below) and Twitter

“For the users trying today's rollout of the new News Feed, the bigger images all over the homepage are obvious, but it's the super-sized ads that are truly impossible to ignore. On a test this afternoon, the following sponsored post from Rosetta Stone popped up as the second item in my News Feed. It takes up massive real estate in the main feed, and when combined with the other right-rail ads, that's a full two-thirds of a computer screen of advertising, which accounted for 84 percent of Facebook's revenues last quarter:”

From With new design, Facebook takes a bite out of Twitter (CNet):

“And so the biggest change Facebook announced today, from the perspective of publishers and the people who want to read them on Facebook, is the "following" tab. According to executives at the event, the tab will show "every single post" from the people and publishers you subscribe to. If true, that will go a long way toward building trust in Facebook as a home for breaking news.”

News Feed Is Facebook's New Jackpot - Rebecca Greenfield - The Atlantic Wire

A Glimpse Into Google's Brain, Hidden In A Spreadsheet App [BuzzFeed]

Check the full post for some examples of Google and the joy of sets; while the source Google Labs project was terminated, I suspect the Google Knowledge Graph will eventually serve as a similar set source

""Someone at Google really likes beer," the post said, implying that the categories were created by Google employees. Turns out, the lists are pulled from Google's search database using an algorithm that creates sets, or categories, of common words and names. It's essentially Google-powered word association — not a window into the world of Google engineers, but into the internet's collective view of how things are related to one another.
It doesn't work just for beer, car brands, colors, states, and websites, as reported, but just about any category you can think of. The feature was an outgrowth of a discontinued Google Labs project called Google Sets, so it's no longer pulling real-time information."

A Glimpse Into Google's Brain, Hidden In A Spreadsheet App

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Crowns Data As The Globe's Next Natural Resource - Forbes

I suspect this scenario was done with open source tools on Amazon Web Services, rather than IBM offerings, but it is a compelling example (and Rometty continued with some IBM-powered examples)

"As an example, the IBM chief explained– always with a magnificent smile on her face, how the Obama campaign did 66,000 simulations every single night of the presidential campaign– and then used what the simulations discovered to make the next day’s decisions on where to put their resources of people and money."

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Crowns Data As The Globe's Next Natural Resource - Forbes

The Late Microsoft Windows 8 | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Excerpt from a stark Windows reality check

"First, Windows phone sales have been a disaster. Despite the introduction of Windows 8 phone and the Nokia Lumia, Windows phones actually LOST market share in the recent holiday quarter.
Second, support for Windows RT is rapidly drying up. Acer delayed their RT offering, HP an Toshiba opted out altogether, Samsung refused to produce an RT product for the U.S. and now Samsung is withdrawing its RT product from the European markets.
Third, despite a massive advertising campaign, there is absolutely no indication that Windows 8 tablets are capturing the imagination of consumers. In fact, all of the evidence points to the exact opposite conclusion."

The Late Microsoft Windows 8 | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Time Warner’s Spinoff Plan Returns to Basics - NYTimes.com

Financial model adaptation, yes; business model evolution tbd

"With the confirmation on Wednesday that it would spin off its Time Inc. magazine division, Time Warner, once a colossus that included dominant cable and Internet companies, a book publisher and music unit, completed an evolution over several years into a pure cable television and movie production company."

Time Warner’s Spinoff Plan Returns to Basics - NYTimes.com

Revolution in Resale of Digital Books and Music - NYTimes.com

A different conceptual model for digital goods

"Sales of digital material are considered licenses, which give consumers little or no ability to lend the item. The worry is that without such constraints digital goods could be infinitely reproduced while still in the possession of the original owner.
Both the Amazon and Apple systems aim to solve this problem. Amazon’s patent envisions a book or movie or song being kept in a customer’s personalized “data store.” When an item is no longer wanted, the user could sell or trade it to another user, an action that would automatically delete the item from the first user’s store."

Revolution in Resale of Digital Books and Music - NYTimes.com

Google’s Chromebook Pixel is a horrible deal today. In five years, we all might have one. - Slate Magazine

Excerpt

"It might take a few years, but the lure of desktop apps will eventually surrender to the obvious advantages of a cloud-connected machine. Online versions of desktop software will get better and wireless Internet connectivity will become ubiquitous. At that point, the Chromebook will run pretty much everything pretty much everywhere. When that happens, it’s the noncloud machines that will begin to look foolish."

Google’s Chromebook Pixel is a horrible deal today. In five years, we all might have one. - Slate Magazine

Apple May Never Regain Its Status As The World’s Most Valuable Company – ReadWrite

Summary of an Apple reality check

"Apple became the world’s largest public company - by market value - in 2012, when its $546 billion market capitalization edged it ahead of perennial leader Exxon Mobile. At the end of trading on Wednesday, Apple's market cap had fallen to $399 billion, just below Exxon's $403 billion. And there are plenty of reasons to believe that Apple may never again be the world's most valuable company. At least not for long:

1. Margin pressure on Apple’s massively profitable iPhone and iPad business.
2. The potential for wearable computers such as the much-hyped Google Glass to usurp the smartphone and tablet market.
3. Apple's inability to fully satisfy consumer demand.
4. Apple’s dearth of experience in the enterprise market.
5. Uncertainty over whether the much-hyped iWatch and Apple Television will contribute as much to Apple as many analysts believe."

Apple May Never Regain Its Status As The World’s Most Valuable Company – ReadWrite

Google tipped off EU authorities over Microsoft’s $732M browser boo-boo, report claims — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOm]

The plot thickens

"Well, we’re still fuzzy on how both Microsoft and the Commission stayed oblivious for so long, but we do now have a better idea of how the company got busted: according to anonymous sources quoted in a Financial Times piece (registration required) that went up a few hours ago, the tip-off came from Google and Opera.
Opera is certainly no surprise – the Norwegian browser vendor was after all the original complainant that led the Commission to wring promises of good behavior from Microsoft back in 2009. But Google’s involvement, if the report is correct, shows this to be just one stage in an increasingly bitter war."

Google tipped off EU authorities over Microsoft’s $732M browser boo-boo, report claims — Tech News and Analysis

EU hits Microsoft with $731M fine; regulator takes some blame | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

Strange days indeed

"In a highly unusual mea culpa, the European Union’s top antitrust regulator said Wednesday his department bore some of the responsibility for Microsoft’s failure to respect a settlement that landed the company a $731 million fine.
Joaquin Almunia, the competition commissioner, said the EU had been “naive” to put Microsoft in charge of monitoring its adherence to the deal it agreed to in 2009, when his predecessor let the company escape a fine in exchange for offering users of its Windows software a wider choice of Internet browsers."

EU hits Microsoft with $731M fine; regulator takes some blame | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

Microsoft Backs School Privacy Bill Taking Aim at Google - WSJ.com

Schroolgled? (school + Scroogled)

"The bill, introduced in January, appears to take aim at Google's growing business of providing basic software like email and word processing over the Internet, which, in turn, is a growing threat to Microsoft's cash-cow suite of Office tools.
The proposed legislation would prohibit companies that provide schools with "a cloud-computing" service—a digital service accessed via the Web—from using the information gleaned from schoolchildren for advertising or other commercial purposes.
Microsoft acknowledges it is behind the Massachusetts legislation and that the bill is aimed at business practices employed by Google."

Microsoft Backs School Privacy Bill Taking Aim at Google - WSJ.com

Unreported Side Effects of Drugs Are Found Using Internet Search Data, Study Finds - NYTimes.com

Big drug data

"Using data drawn from queries entered into Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines, scientists at Microsoft, Stanford and Columbia University have for the first time been able to detect evidence of unreported prescription drug side effects before they were found by the Food and Drug Administration’s warning system."

Unreported Side Effects of Drugs Are Found Using Internet Search Data, Study Finds - NYTimes.com

Icahn Is Said to Have a Growing Stake in Dell, and No Appetite for a Buyout - NYTimes.com

Another Dell deal downer

"The shareholder opposition to the $24.4 billion buyout of Dell is growing louder.
Carl C. Icahn, the longtime activist investor, is planning to unveil a major stake in the troubled computer maker, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. As with other investors, he is expected to express dissatisfaction with the price, the person said.
With Mr. Icahn joining the opposition, the Dell deal faces longer odds."

Icahn Is Said to Have a Growing Stake in Dell, and No Appetite for a Buyout - NYTimes.com

Data Compression Proxy - Google Chrome Mobile — Google Developers

Smooth as (Amazon) Silk?

"The latest Chrome Beta for Android includes an experimental feature to reduce cellular data usage and speed up mobile web browsing, using proxy servers hosted at Google to optimize website content.
In our internal testing, this feature has been shown to reduce data usage by 50% and speed up page load times on cellular networks! To enable it, visit chrome://flags in your browser and select “Enable Data Compression Proxy” – easy as that.
Features and implementation
The core optimizations, which allow us to reduce overall data usage and speed up the page load times, are performed by Google servers. When the Data Compression Proxy feature is enabled, Chrome mobile opens a dedicated SPDY connection between your phone and one of the optimization servers running in Google’s datacenters and relays all HTTP requests over this connection."

Data Compression Proxy - Google Chrome Mobile — Google Developers

Why Microsoft probably couldn’t care less that the EU just fined it $732 million – Quartz

Excerpt from another take on Microsoft's European activities

"But here’s why Microsoft need not care about the €561 million ($732 million) fine: According to its latest 10-Q statement, the company has $51 billion in overseas cash burning a hole in its pocket. That money represents profits earned overseas, much of it in Europe, that Microsoft refuses to bring home to the US because to do so would be give up 35% of it in corporate taxes.
Indeed, the not-so-secret history of Microsoft’s acquisition of Luxembourg-based Skype is that the $8.5 billion Microsoft paid for Skype was just a few (giant) bills off the company’s wad of overseas cash. In 2011, Microsoft had just $42 billion in overseas cash holdings, or $9 billion—an entire Skype’s worth—less than it does now."

Why Microsoft probably couldn’t care less that the EU just fined it $732 million – Quartz

E.U. Fines Microsoft $732 Million Over Browser - NYTimes.com

A multifaceted Microsoft sign of the times

"Although Microsoft has appealed many of its past punishments, it may be reluctant to do so this time, preferring to focus on its rivalry with Google. Microsoft is among the companies that have complained about Google’s business practices to Mr. Almunia.
The penalty Wednesday stemmed from an antitrust settlement in 2009 that called on Microsoft to give Windows users in Europe a choice of Web browsers, instead of pushing them to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Microsoft failed to offer users such a choice for more than a year — apparently without the failure’s being noticed by anyone at the company or the commission."

E.U. Fines Microsoft $732 Million Over Browser - NYTimes.com

Still-Unhappy Southeastern Seeks Dell Shareholder List - NYTimes.com

Dell deal still undone

"A number of other investors, including T. Rowe Price, have publicly said they oppose the sale to Michael S. Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake, deeming the group’s $13.65-a-share offer too low. Southeastern has suggested that a better alternative is for Dell to pay out a special $12-a-share dividend, paid for by bringing back overseas cash, selling off Dell Financial Services and raising $9 billion in new debt.
Southeastern cited Dell’s willingness now to bring home some of the company’s substantial cash hoard that is currently held overseas."

Still-Unhappy Southeastern Seeks Dell Shareholder List - NYTimes.com

Evernote: We're Adding Two-Factor Authentication - Security - InformationWeek

Glad to see this

"Evernote, after suffering a data breach that caused the company to reset passwords for all of its 50 million users, announced that it plans to adopt two-factor authentication as quickly as possible.
"We were already planning to roll out optional two-factor authentication to all of our users later this year," said Evernote spokeswoman Ronda Scott via email. "We are accelerating those plans now.""

Evernote: We're Adding Two-Factor Authentication - Security -

Roku 3 - Easier Streaming and Remote Headphones - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Big challenges competing with an Apple "hobby" product

"Roku, which comes from a private California company of the same name, is the second-most popular dedicated streaming player behind Apple’s Apple TV, which comes in a single model for $99. About five million Roku players have sold since the device launched in 2008. Apple TV, while a tiny part of the company’s business, has recently seen an acceleration of sales and Apple says about 10 million Apple TVs have been sold just since October 2010. It won’t provide a total sales figure since the product’s launch in 2007."

Roku 3 - Easier Streaming and Remote Headphones - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

News Corp. Has a Tablet for Schools - NYTimes.com

Hopefully the News Corp. content is optional

"On Wednesday at the SXSWedu conference in Austin, Tex., Mr. Klein, the former chancellor of New York City schools and the current chief executive of Amplify, News Corporation’s fledgling education division, will take the stage for a surprising announcement. Amplify will not sell just its curriculum on existing tablets, but will also offer the Amplify Tablet, its own 10-inch Android tablet for K-12 schoolchildren.
In addition to tablets and curriculum, Amplify will also provide schools with infrastructure to store students’ data."

News Corp. Has a Tablet for Schools - NYTimes.com

Return of the Borg: How Twitter Rebuilt Google's Secret Weapon | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

We are Borg (users); check the article link for a super-scale state-of-the-art snapshot

"Borg is a way of efficiently parceling work across Google’s vast fleet of computer servers, and according to Wilkes, the system is so effective, it has probably saved Google the cost of building an extra data center. Yes, an entire data center. That may seem like something from another world — and in a way, it is — but the new-age hardware and software that Google builds to run its enormous online empire usually trickles down to the rest of the web. And Borg is no exception.
At Twitter, a small team of engineers has built a similar system using a software platform originally developed by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley. Known as Mesos, this software platform is open source — meaning it’s freely available to anyone — and it’s gradually spreading to other operations as well."

Return of the Borg: How Twitter Rebuilt Google's Secret Weapon | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Official Blog: Introducing Art Talks on Google+

Hangout with artists

"An excellent guide often best brings an art gallery or museum’s collections to life. Starting this week, we’re hoping to bring this experience online with “Art Talks,” a series of Hangouts on Air on our Google Art Project Google+ page. Each month, curators, museum directors, historians and educators from some of the world’s most renowned cultural institutions will reveal the hidden stories behind particular works, examine the curation process and provide insights into particular masterpieces or artists."

Official Blog: Introducing Art Talks on Google+

Office and SharePoint 2013 Developer Tools Now Available | Office 2013 content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

A new approach for Office/SharePoint-centric app dev

"Apps for Office come in three categories: Task pane apps that appear in the task pane of an Office application, content apps that appear inside of the document’s content, and mail apps for Outlook 2013 and Outlook Web Access, which appear next to an open Outlook item, such as an email message, meeting request, meeting response, meeting cancellation, or appointment.
Apps for SharePoint extend the capabilities of a SharePoint web site. Users can discover and download apps from the SharePoint Store or from their employer’s private App Catalog and install them on their SharePoint sites."

Office and SharePoint 2013 Developer Tools Now Available | Office 2013 content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

Samsung's New Smartphone Will Track Eyes to Scroll Pages - NYTimes.com

Multi-taskers need not apply

"Samsung’s next big smartphone, to be introduced this month, will have a strong focus on software. A person who has tried the phone, called the Galaxy S IV, described one feature as particularly new and exciting: Eye scrolling.
The phone will track a user’s eyes to determine where to scroll, said a Samsung employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. For example, when users read articles and their eyes reach the bottom of the page, the software will automatically scroll down to reveal the next paragraphs of text."

Samsung's New Smartphone Will Track Eyes to Scroll Pages - NYTimes.com

Big Data Done Cheap - NYTimes.com

I remember when "Teradata" used to seem like an audacious name...

"A typical server has 8 gigabytes of memory for reaching data quickly, plus more stored in a 500GB hard drive. The Violin Memory data cards, produced in conjunction with Toshiba, offer 1.4 terabytes in “flash” memory, which can be accessed quickly. Cards for higher-end servers hold up to 11 terabytes.
[...]
The low-end Violin Memory card has a list price of $4,000, and is intended for use in a server costing even less than that. "

Big Data Done Cheap - NYTimes.com

There Was That Whole Internet Thing, Too | TechCrunch

Check the link below for an overview of an Apple debate between Tim Wu and John Gruber

"Talking about Apple v. Microsoft without mentioning the Internet and the browser is like talking about WWII without talking about the nuke. Framing the conversation just in terms of open v. closed operating systems, the quality of the hardware or software or who the CEO was, is silly.
Because without the Internet happening there’s no way Apple would have succeeded."

There Was That Whole Internet Thing, Too | TechCrunch

Google Not Impressed With Motorola Smartphone Pipeline - InformationWeek Mobility

Motorola Mobility marketing and morale management, Google-style

""The case with Motorola is that we've inherited a pipeline," said Pichette, reiterating language that Google has used in the past. "Motorola has a great set of products, but they're not really like 'wow' by Google standards. Dennis Woodside and his team have inherited 18 months of pipeline that we have to drain right now."
His comments are brutally frank. Not only do they throw Motorola's design team under the bus, they insult the choices made by the wireless network operator partners that have agreed to sell Motorola phones."

Google Not Impressed With Motorola Smartphone Pipeline - Mobility -

I.T. Managers Struggle to Contain Corporate Data in the Mobile Age - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a stark "shadow I.T." reality check

"Almost no service is invulnerable. In 2011, Chinese hackers obtained access to hundreds of United States government accounts on Google’s Gmail. Last July, Dropbox, one of the most widely used storage services, reported a loss of data from a large number of customers. Without special instructions, customer sales information in the online service of Salesforce.com can be moved to private accounts at Box. On Saturday, Evernote said user names, e-mail address and encrypted passwords had been stolen in an attack, requiring the passwords of more than 50 million accounts to be reset."

I.T. Managers Struggle to Contain Corporate Data in the Mobile Age - NYTimes.com

Chinese Hacking and Cyber Spying Group APT1 Exposed by Mandiant Likely Still Active Despite Report on Its Stealing Secrets from U.S. Companies | MIT Technology Review

Getting while the getting is good

"“They shut down some of the infrastructure, but not much,” says Jaime Blasco, director of labs at security company AlienVault, who had been tracking the same group for several years. Blasco says that many of the group’s command-and-control servers—computers that act as relays between an attacker and the software placed inside a victim company—are still in place, and apparently active. “The group will not change much, because it works—they have been using the same infrastructure for years,” he says."

Chinese Hacking and Cyber Spying Group APT1 Exposed by Mandiant Likely Still Active Despite Report on Its Stealing Secrets from U.S. Companies | MIT Technology Review

If You Can Ace 'Guitar Hero,' You Can Remove a Pancreas - Businessweek

Sign of the times; tangentially, see Facebook, Google tech gurus to design cancer research game (Reuters)

"“Play to Become a Surgeon.” It has the ring of late-night advertising (Make millions working from home! Lose weight and increase your IQ by eating only fudge!). However, it’s actually the title of a scientific paper published Wednesday in the online journal PLOS One. Researchers at La Sapienza University of Rome in Italy had medical residents play video games on the Nintendo Wii for an hour a day for four weeks and found that doing so actually made them more adept at performing laparoscopic surgery."

If You Can Ace 'Guitar Hero,' You Can Remove a Pancreas - Businessweek

VMware: "If Amazon Wins, We All Lose" – ReadWrite

This probably made some Amazon employees smile

"Now, VMware is up against a highly disruptive competitor, and by its own admission, it's not winning. VMware President and COO Carl Eschenbach said as much as he tried to rally VMware's partner troops: "I look at this audience, and I look at VMware and the brand reputation we have in the enterprise, and I find it really hard to believe that we cannot collectively beat a company that sells books."
And yet, it hasn't been beating Amazon. Not in cloud workloads, anyway, given Amazon may record as much as $3.8 billion in AWS revenue this year, according to Macquarie Capital. Yes, much of Amazon's volume thus far has come from test/development workloads, but that is almost certainly just a starting point. Remember when Linux was only used for edge-of-the-network, non-critical workloads? That didn't last long..."

VMware: "If Amazon Wins, We All Lose" – ReadWrite

Excel Blog - Data Explorer brings Big Data connectivity to Excel 2013

Impressive new capabilities for Excel (2013)

"On February 27, we announced an early look at a future addition to our self-service line-up with Microsoft Data Explorer Preview for Excel.  Data Explorer enhances the self-service BI experience in Excel by simplifying data discovery and access to a broad range of public and enterprise data sources, enabling richer insights from data that has traditionally been difficult for users to get to. If you haven't seen it, check out the video below to see how Data Explorer enhances the BI experience.
With Data Explorer, users can now quickly and easily import data from a variety of sources, including Web, Excel, Text, Database and Azure. Access to non-traditional sources such as Active Directory, Facebook and big data solutions like Hadoop are now within the reach of any user."

Excel Blog - Data Explorer brings Big Data connectivity to Excel 2013

As Evernote's Cult Grows, the Business Market Beckons - Businessweek

Excerpt from an extensive Evernote profile; in other Evernote news, see Evernote for iOS Update: New View, Better PDF Support, Evernote Business Improvements, and More (Evernote blog)

"“What you put in Facebook (FB) isn’t who you are,” says Libin. “It’s what you want some people to see. And what you put in LinkedIn (LNKD) is certainly not who you are; it’s what you want the professional world to see.” Libin suggests that the addiction to a particular strain of “viral” growth has led to a drastic overemphasis on digital design for extroversion. As a guy who describes himself as too introverted to win over his high school chess team, Libin says that’s an oversight. “What you put in Evernote is who you are,” he continues. “We used to say in the beginning that Evernote is not social. In fact, it’s antisocial; we don’t care about your friends.” "

As Evernote's Cult Grows, the Business Market Beckons - Businessweek

Firing Andrew Mason Won’t Save Groupon - Businessweek

From a Groupon reality check

"In firing Mason, Groupon has lost one of the most interesting things it had left. How many CEOs buy a pony for their guests, as Mason did when Michael Bloomberg (the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, publisher of Businessweek.com) visited Groupon’s Chicago headquarters? Who tweets about their firing with the cryptic, “Apparently, sharing oranges is necessary but insufficient”? Or defends his tenure by noting, “If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through.” We’ll miss that."

Firing Andrew Mason Won’t Save Groupon - Businessweek

What Is the Point of Google's Chromebook Pixel? - NYTimes.com

Pogue Pixel-pondering

"If you’re going to spend $1,300, why on earth would you buy a laptop that does nothing but surf the Web?
At $250, the Chromebook is an easy recommendation as a homework computer or TV couch accessory. But at $1,300 or $1,450, the same concept just doesn’t make much sense. The Chromebook Pixel is lovely, polished and just a little bit silly."

What Is the Point of Google's Chromebook Pixel? - NYTimes.com

Hub ad agency Arnold Worldwide is helping Al Gore take on with global warming skeptics - Boston.com

Crowdsourcing and "gamification" to improve climate-related information integrity and literacy -- from an ad agency that helped take on the tobacco industry

"Boston ad agency Arnold Worldwide said it is collaborating with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to launch Reality Drop, an initiative that is using online game mechanics as it seeks to build an advocacy community that can be mobilized to take on critics of global warming."

Hub ad agency Arnold Worldwide is helping Al Gore take on with global warming skeptics - Boston.com