Zune opens at No. 2 in portable media players

It'll be a while before the real sales trends are clear 

Zune won 9 percent of the U.S. market, measured by unit sales, and 13 percent of the dollar volume for the week ended Nov. 18, the market research firm reported. The numbers reflect Zune's first few days on the market. Microsoft released the device Nov. 14.

The iPod represented 63 percent of unit sales and 72.5 percent of dollar volume.

There have been signs that Zune's market share may have slipped since those initial days. One widely cited indication: The player debuted in the top 10 among Amazon.com's best-selling MP3 players but has since fallen lower in the rankings. As of Wednesday morning, the top-selling black Zune was at No. 17 on the Amazon list.

Source: Zune opens at No. 2 in portable media players

Yahoo Rebuffs Google on Digital Books - New York Times

More Google/Yahoo adventures 

Yahoo has rebuffed Google’s attempt to learn more about its efforts to create digital copies of books, dealing Google another setback as it prepares to fight a copyright infringement suit.

In rejecting Google’s request, Yahoo adopted the same stance taken last month by the Internet retailer Amazon.com, and called Google’s request a brazen attempt to pry into its trade secrets.

Source: Yahoo Rebuffs Google on Digital Books - New York Times

Google yields to Yahoo on query service - The Boston Globe

 Back to the drawing board?

Google Inc. doesn't have all the answers -- a fact underscored by the Internet search leader's decision to abandon a four-year-old service that hired researchers to field questions on everything from school homework to sports trivia.

The retreat, disclosed in a notice posted on Google's website late Tuesday, represents a rare victory for rival Yahoo Inc.

[...]

"Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users," software engineers Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher wrote in the closure notice. "We'll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want."

Source: Google yields to Yahoo on query service - The Boston Globe

Novell no longer does the Hula

Novell reality check 

Showing how not all open source roads lead to gold, Novell Inc., of Provo, Utah, has stropped contributing to the Hula project, an open source project the company itself initiated.

In early 2005, and with much fanfare, the company donated the e-mail and calendar functions of its NetMail enterprise collaboration server software to the open source community, calling the project Hula.

Source: Novell no longer does the Hula

For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs a Big Debate - New York Times

The debate continues 

The detractors include two computer industry giants, Intel and Microsoft, pushing alternative approaches. Intel has developed a $400 laptop aimed at schools as well as an education program that focuses on teachers instead of students. And Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and a leading philanthropist for the third world, has questioned whether the concept is “just taking what we do in the rich world” and assuming that that is something good for the developing world, too.

Source: For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs a Big Debate - New York Times

Listening Post: DVD Jon Agrees: Zune Getting a Bad Rap

 Another Zune perspective

I'm not the only one who thinks the Zune isn't all that bad, and even that it might be good.  "DVD Jon" Johansen of DeCSS fame debunked a few of the myths surrounding the Zune that appeared in recent articles from the Chicago Sun-Times, SF Chronicle, and TechTree.

Source: Listening Post

The Mossberg Solution -- Battle of the Boxes: PlayStation 3 vs. Wii

 More bad news for Sony/good news for Nintendo

Yet, in our tests, we found the more modest Wii to be the more exciting, fun and satisfying of the two new game machines. We and our four volunteer testers were impressed by the rich, realistic graphics and intricate game play in some of the half-dozen PS3 games we tried. By contrast, we all agreed that the graphics on the Wii ranged from dated to cheesy.

But the Wii won our hearts for one reason: It uses a wireless controller that can detect your arm and hand motions and transfer them to the screen, so that you can physically control the action. This opens up huge possibilities. In sports games, you can actually swing a baseball bat or tennis racket or golf club. In adventure games, you can slash a sword through the air or throw a punch. You make pretty much the same motions, using your full arm and hand, that you'd make with the real objects.

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

Microsoft patent filing: Mobile phone + TV = PC

Interesting... 

Two Microsoft researchers, Kentaro Toyama and Sean Blagsvedt, are seeking a patent on technology that would essentially create a makeshift PC by connecting a mobile phone to a television. It would use the phone's processing power and wireless connection, in conjunction with the TV display, to access the Web and do other basic computing tasks. The application describes it as one alternative to traditional computers in developing nations.

Source: Microsoft patent filing: Mobile phone + TV = PC

Consumers Uninterested in Zune

More stark analysis from Paul Thurrott. 

FWIW one of my kids bought a Zune and has been very pleased with it. 

In the months leading up to the Zune's release, Microsoft handled its PR as if it were a badly-made movie. Rather than seed the technical press with pre-release Zune units, Microsoft's PR company decided to provide Zunes only to music bloggers and four mainstream news agencies in advance of its release. Others wishing to review the Zune didn't receive Zune devices until the day before its public release, making effective reviews virtually impossible. Since that time, Microsoft hasn't received a positive review yet: Everyone who's gotten their hands on one of these devices has declared it an abject failure, including, not coincidentally, yours truly: My review is now available on the SuperSite for Windows. It ain't pretty.

Source: Consumers Uninterested in Zune

Google Watch : Google's Inconvenient Truth

Glad to see this 

Also today, Google took out a full-page ad in USA Today to promote ideas for combating global warming. The ad is the product of a collaboration between Google and Global SchoolNet. Google invited teachers and students to use Google Docs and Spreadsheets to brainstorm ideas. One of the ideas -- put light sensors in all office and school buildings so all lights go off when the rooms are empty -- is displayed on the full-page ad (PDF).

Source: Google Watch : Google's Inconvenient Truth

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: The worst Billion dollar Internet acquisitions

A handy list from Microsoft's Don Dodge. 

James Nicholson compiled a list of the 10 worst Internet acquisitions. There were lots of bad acquisitions so it is hard to keep the list to just ten. But, here are my nominations for the worst Internet acquisitions of all time.  To get on my list the acquisition must be at least a Billion dollars, must have disappeared from view or lost the market share race, and must have been acquired at least 18 months ago. It takes a while to really know if an acquisition was a success or failure.

He also points to another useful reference:

Tom O'Keefe maintains a pretty comprehensive list of Internet Acquisitions on the ResearchConnect.com site. I used this list in compiling my worst billion dollar acquisitions of all time.

Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: The worst Billion dollar Internet acquisitions

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Microsoft Zune Review

Stark Zune reality check from Paul Thurrott. 

Overall, the Zune is absolutely decent. It's got a nice, large screen, a simple menu system, and intuitive controls. It gets good battery life, and does provide the most basic functionality that most people expect. It is, in other words, completely average. But since you can buy a lighter, nicer-looking, and more capable iPod for exactly the same amount of money, and can find other iPod models that meet different needs at different price points, you should almost certainly avoid the first generation Zune. It just comes with too many compromises.

The bottom line is that Microsoft should have waited until it had a more compelling product to sell. I can't imagine what they were thinking.

Source: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Microsoft Zune Review

YouTube Coming Soon to Cellphones - New York Times

I suspect the phones will be ones running Adobe Flash Lite. 

YouTube is coming to mobile phones — or, to be more precise, a small slice of YouTube is coming to some Verizon Wireless phones.

While its explosively popular Web site is free, YouTube’s phone-based version will require a $15-a-month subscription to a Verizon Wireless service called VCast. And instead of choosing what to watch from a vast library of clips, VCast users will be limited to an unspecified number of videos selected and approved by the companies.

Source: YouTube Coming Soon to Cellphones - New York Times

Microsoft says "Gears" sells 1 million copies | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com

 Not bad, at $59.99 each...

Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it had sold 1 million copies of its game "Gears of War" in two weeks, making it the fastest-selling title for its Xbox 360 video game console.

On a related note, charts from the recent BW cover story on Microsoft:

 

Source: Microsoft says "Gears" sells 1 million copies | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com

Italy investigating Google over bullying video | CNET News.com

See a trend here?... 

Google's policy bans the uploading of violent content, but with thousands of videos posted every day on the Internet the search engine relies largely on users to ensure that is adhered to, Whetstone said.

Source: Italy investigating Google over bullying video | CNET News.com

Barron's: Google shares set for fall | CNET News.com

Or, in Bubble 2.0, perhaps Google will do a 5:1 or 10:1 split and continue climbing. 

Barron's said Google is overvalued because it trades at 37 times next year's expected earnings and because its growth rate is slowing. It also noted that Google now has the 15th largest market capitalization among U.S.-traded shares, and its price-to-earnings ratio is two to three times higher that of similarly sized companies.

Source: Barron's: Google shares set for fall | CNET News.com

Telling Tales Out of School, on YouTube - New York Times

Sign of the times... 

Two students who attend the equivalent of Grade 9 at a school in Gatineau, Quebec, a city across the river from Ottawa, were sent home last week after officials learned that they had posted a videotape of a teacher losing his temper on YouTube. The episode was not spontaneous. A girl, who has not been identified, provoked the teacher while a boy secretly taped the encounter with a compact video camera.

Source: Telling Tales Out of School, on YouTube - New York Times

Online advertising | Trouble clicks | Economist.com

Click fraud article in this week's The Economist.

But as pay-per-click advertising has grown into a huge industry, concern has mounted over so-called “click fraud”—bogus clicks that do not come from genuinely interested customers. It takes two main forms. If you click repeatedly on the advertisements on your own website, or get other people or machines to do so on your behalf, you can generate a stream of bogus commissions. Click fraud can also be used by one company against another: clicking on a rival firm's advertisements can saddle it with a huge bill. Bogus clicks are thought to account for around 10% of all click traffic, though nobody knows for sure.

[...]

A few months ago Mr Gross pioneered an alternative to the pay-per-click model. In February Snap, a search engine backed by Mr Gross, launched “pay-per-action”, a new model in which advertisers pay only if a click on an ad is followed by an action such as a purchase or a download. Google is testing a similar model and Turn.com, another ad network, adopted the pay-per-action model a few weeks ago.

Source: Online advertising | Trouble clicks | Economist.com

Face value | The universal diarist | Economist.com

Six Apart snapshot in The Economist (no subscription required for access to this article) 

These days, however, the Trotts are most excited about their newest product, Vox, which was launched last month. For if a blogging service can have a personality, then Vox has Ms Trott's. Like Ms Trott, Vox is unpretentious and accessible. By contrast with rival services, users need not worry about having to understand technical matters, such as the HTML formatting language in which web pages are encoded, in order to incorporate whizzy features into their blogs. They can upload pictures, video clips and songs with just a few clicks on a simple, colour-coded page.

Source: Face value | The universal diarist | Economist.com

Web 2.0 and Tim O'Reilly as Marshal Tito | The Register

A provocative perspective, via Nicholas Carr, who notes "Thompson's critique of the reigning Web 2.0 ideology deserves a close reading and, one hopes, will spark some constructive debate." 

Ajax is touted as the answer for developers who want to offer users a richer client experience without having to go the trouble of writing a real application, but if the long term goal is to turn the network from a series of tubes connecting clients and servers into a distributed computing environment then we cannot rely on Javascript and XML since they do not offer the stability, scalability or effective resource discovery that we need.

There is a massive difference between rewriting Web pages on the fly with Javascript and reengineering the network to support message passing between distributed objects, a difference that too many Web 2.0 advocates seem willing to ignore. It may have been twenty years since Sun Microsystems trademarked the phrase ‘the network is the computer’ but we’re still a decade off delivering, and if we stick with Ajax there is a real danger that we will never get there.

Source: Web 2.0 and Tim O'Reilly as Marshal Tito | The Register

A Wii Workout: When Videogames Hurt - WSJ.com

Interesting times... 

The new console has been wildly successful, selling out at stores and winning high marks from critics and game buffs. But as players spend more time with the Wii, some are noticing that hours waving the game's controller around can add up to fairly intense exertion -- resulting in aches and pains common in more familiar forms of exercise. They're reporting aching backs, sore shoulders -- even something some have dubbed "Wii elbow."

Source: A Wii Workout: When Videogames Hurt - WSJ.com

The Soul Of A New Microsoft

 BusinessWeek cover story on J Allard, Zune, and other Microsoft dynamics.

No one leader will replace William H. Gates III, the iconic software geek who came to define an era and plans to leave the company in June, 2008. But a cadre of execs is positioned to step up. Steven Sinofsky, the longtime head of the Office unit and onetime Gates technical assistant, has been put in charge of speeding up the Windows product cycle. Ray Ozzie, a relative Microsoft newbie and computing industry icon, is working to Web-ify many of Microsoft's products.
The soul of the new Microsoft, though--its Geek 2.0--may just be Allard, the vice-president for design and development at its Entertainment & Devices unit. Allard looks and acts nothing like the prototypical Microsofty.

Source: The Soul Of A New Microsoft

More use podcasts, but very few do so every day

Another Pew reality check 

The Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday that 12 percent of Internet users have downloaded a podcast, an increase from 7 percent earlier in the year.

However, only about 1 percent said they download a podcast on a typical day -- unchanged from the survey earlier this year. The rest do so less frequently, perhaps only once.

Source: More use podcasts, but very few do so every day

WinInfo Short Takes: Thanksgiving 2006 Special Edition: Google Share Price Hits $500

 I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is insane

From the "capitalism can be stupid" files, we bring you the latest bit of Googlemania: This week, Google's shares actually crossed the $500 mark, increasing the company's market capitalization to $155 billion. That means that Google--which earns virtually all its money from online advertising--is worth four times as much money, at least on paper, as Yahoo!, its closest competitor. Google is now the 15th largest company in the world, and if I understand things correctly, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin can now be considered replacements for Colonel Sanders in "The Star Chamber." I just want to make sure this is perfectly clear: These guys sell thumbnail-sized text ad placements on Web sites. That's what they do.

Source: WinInfo Short Takes: Thanksgiving 2006 Special Edition

WinInfo Short Takes: Thanksgiving 2006 Special Edition: Microsoft/Novell Pact Already in Tatters

 Not very surprising

Why can't we just get along? Oh, right, one of us is a drooling, monopolistic superpower and the other is a New Age hippy convinced that we can all make money by giving away software. This week, it became clear that the Microsoft/Novell pact was made with a lot of false assumptions on both sides, apparently, with Microsoft claiming that Novell must pay it $40 million to cover Linux violations of Microsoft's intellectual property. Meanwhile, Novell says it never agreed that Linux violates Microsoft's intellectual property. But it gets worse: The Free Software Foundation (FSF), which owns the Linux license, says that Microsoft should pledge not to sue all Linux users over this problem; otherwise, Linux companies shouldn't work with Microsoft. The problem is that the Microsoft/Novell pact violates the GNU General Public License (GPL) under which Linux is licensed. "We have agreed to disagree," a Microsoft representative said. You know, wars start over disagreements such as this one.

Source: WinInfo Short Takes: Thanksgiving 2006 Special Edition

Microsoft says Office unfazed by Google threat - Yahoo! News

I tend to agree 

"The simple argument that 'this is good enough for 90 percent of what we do' has fallen on its face over and over and over again," Leblond told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "When it comes to mission critical things and key pieces of how people run their businesses, the threshold is higher."

Source: Microsoft says Office unfazed by Google threat - Yahoo! News

Apple shares close at all-time high | News.blog | CNET News.com

But still only a mkt cap of ~50% GOOG... 

Apple Computer shares reached an all-time high Tuesday, rising $2.13, or 2 percent, to close at $88.60.

Investors seemed to be responding to analyst predictions that 14 million iPods will be sold in the current fiscal quarter. They could also be anticipating the announcement of the oft-rumored Apple cell phone, nicknamed the "iPhone" and lately the subject of much speculation by bloggers, analysts, and more recently, gamblers.

Source: Apple shares close at all-time high | News.blog | CNET News.com

MercuryNews.com | 11/21/2006 | Google stock hits $500

Also about $14B ahead of IBM in mkt cap, at the moment 

Today's stock price left Google with a market value of about $154 billion just eight years after Page and Brin started the business in Brin's dormitory room.

The company is now Silicon Valley's second most valuable business, behind Cisco Systems, eclipsing the likes of Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker, and Hewlett-Packard, a high-tech pioneer that also started in a garage 67 years ago.

Source: MercuryNews.com | 11/21/2006 | Google stock hits $500

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog

More glove removal mode... 

But a very different, and much more aggressive, Eric Schmidt appears in the Economist's new "World in 2007" issue. Schmidt contributes an article titled "Don't bet against the Internet," in which he makes a striking prediction. Next year, he writes, "we’ll witness the increasing dominance of open internet standards." These standards "will sweep aside the proprietary protocols promoted by individual companies striving for technical monopoly. Today’s desktop software will be overtaken by internet-based services that enable users to choose the document formats, search tools and editing capability that best suit their needs."

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog

A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3 - New York Times

More bad news/reviews for Sony... 

And so it is a bit of a shock to realize that on the video game front Microsoft and Sony are moving in exactly the opposite directions one might expect given their roots. Microsoft, the prototypical PC company, has made the Xbox 360 into a powerful but intuitive, welcoming, people-friendly system. Sony’s PlayStation 3, on the other hand, often feels like a brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer. (Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3’s deficiencies.) The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they’ll use a computer.

Source: A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3 - New York Times

Web Dragons: Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology

This is a timely and ambitious book, addressing the past, present, and likely future of search engines. Recommended reading for anyone looking for a single-volume overview of an increasingly influential resource. See the authors' site for a description, table of contents, and the full first chapter.

Link to Amazon.com: Web Dragons: Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Multimedia and Information Systems): Books: Ian H. Witten,Marco Gori,Teresa Numerico

The Dark Side of Second Life (BW)

Can anyone really be surprised by this? 

Excellent reference in this context: Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games

The fuss? Many wanted to know what Second Life's creators planned to do about a new program, nicknamed CopyBot, that enables users to quickly copy characters, objects, and buildings, potentially eroding the value of people's virtual property. Others wanted to know about viruses with the alleged potential to steal members' identifying information. Still others were worried about the growing menace of mafias and gangs that are forcing members out of public areas. "These groups are very threatening and frustrating to deal with," wrote Eric Erskine in a Nov. 16 post on a Second Life community discussion group. "They took over the SoulMates dance club and ran every AV (avatar) off except mine…permanently ban mobs, gangstas, and mafias!"

It would seem the virtual world is facing a very real-world problem: crime. As more people have joined the global virtual community—it now boasts more than 1 million members—residents are grappling with how to secure property ownership and ensure public well-being. The difficulty of that task was underscored Nov. 19 when a worm attack called "grey goo" forced Second Life to close down for a short time. The worm installed spinning objects in the virtual world that slowed the servers as users tried to interact with them.

Source: The Dark Side of Second Life

Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows ReadyBoost

Jim Allchin on a cool Vista feature 

I should be clear that while flash drives do contain memory, Windows ReadyBoost isn’t really using that memory to increase the main system RAM in your computer.  Instead, ReadyBoost uses the flash drive to store information that is being used by the memory manager.  If you are running a lot of applications on a system that has limited memory, Windows ReadyBoost will use the flash drive to create a copy of virtual memory that is not quite as fast as RAM, but a whole lot faster than going to the hard disk.  What is very cool here is that there is nothing stored on this flash disk that isn’t also on the hard disk, so if you remove the flash drive, the memory manager sees the change and automatically goes to the hard disk.  While the performance gain from ReadyBoost is gone, you don’t lose any data and there is no interruption.  And because the Windows Readyboost cache on the flash drive is encrypted using AES-128, you don’t need to worry about exposing sensitive data if the flash drive is stolen or lost.  Also, the memory manager compresses the pages before writing them into the cache on the flash disk, which means you’ll get more mileage from each MB.

Source: Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows ReadyBoost

Novell disputes claim by Microsoft on patents

So it was simply an early holiday gift to Microsoft? 

"Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property," Hovsepian wrote in a letter to the open-source community, posted on Novell's Web site. He added, "When we entered the patent-cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents."

Source: Novell disputes claim by Microsoft on patents

Microsoft Statement on Novell Agreement: Microsoft and Novell provide additional perspective on IP issues in landmark November 2nd agreement.

More from the lawyer full-employment act zone... 

“We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place."

Source: Microsoft Statement on Novell Agreement: Microsoft and Novell provide additional perspective on IP issues in landmark November 2nd agreement.

Google Mapping an Offline Course - New York Times

Timely reality check -- read the full article 

Google’s name in the ad community frequently brings up visions of doomsday. At an ad design and production conference last month, ad executives mused about how advertising would be different in 2010. Paul Lavoie, chief creative officer of Taxi, an ad and design agency, predicted that Google would be the largest advertising agency by then. The audience laughed, but Mr. Lavoie, reached later, said he was serious.

“Let’s look at the facts: They have the best data to understand consumer habits, they can track your search, they know how much time you spend on certain sites,” Mr. Lavoie said. “They’re doing much more powerful work than some of the work being done by some of the more traditional agencies.”

Source: Google Mapping an Offline Course - New York Times

IBM Software - The Future of Enterprise Collaboration (Lotusphere session)

I'm speaking at Lotusphere in January.  I last spoke there ~11 years ago, when I was running Notes product management.  Hope to see you in Orlando...

The industry is poised for a communication/collaboration renaissance phase, despite some turbulent times during recent years, with both IBM and Microsoft  making sweeping changes to their ommunication/collaboration product lines, and with the (constructively) disruptive influence of blogs, wikis, and assorted types of "social software." This session includes an overview of the past, present, and likely future of enterprise collaboration, focusing on IBM's role in the broader market landscape.

Source: IBM Software - Conferences

Wired News: Second Life Will Save Copyright

More Second Life dynamics 

Businesses in Second Life are in an uproar over a rogue software program that duplicates "in world" items. They should be. But the havoc sewn by Copybot promises to transform the virtual word into a bold experiment in protecting creative work without the blunt instrument of copyright law.

Source: Wired News: Second Life Will Save Copyright

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Yahoo under pressure after leak

So maybe not an intentional (at least not top-down) leak...  The Wall Street Journal published the full memo. 

Terry Semel, chairman of Yahoo, is set to come under heightened pressure this week following the leak over the weekend of an internal memo that amounts to a stinging indictment of his leadership of the flagging internet company.

The memo, written by Brad Garlinghouse, a senior vice-president, paints a picture of a company that lacks a cohesive vision, has become beset by bureaucracy and has lost the edge to compete with faster-moving internet companies.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Yahoo under pressure after leak

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Worm' attacks Second Life world

Go figure 

Players treated the attack with a mixture of mirth and anger.

"Can this game get any more unpredictable and exciting?" asked one user, Loretta Lurra on the official Second Life blog.

As users interacted with the rings they replicated, resulting in a slowdown on the servers used by Second Life's creators Linden Lab, in California.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Worm' attacks Second Life world

'Second Life' hit by worm | News.blog | CNET News.com

 Sign of the times

A self-replicating worm Linden Labs dubbed "grey goo" overtook online game Second Life Sunday, forcing the game's owners to block all logins but their own for about half an hour.

[...]

The worm may well be the largest of its kind to hit an online world.

Source: 'Second Life' hit by worm | News.blog | CNET News.com

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: A first look at Vista, good and bad

Useful high-level snapshot. 

I've been using Vista for several weeks, and my XP PCs now seem fairly primitive in comparison.  I plan to upgrade several PCs to Vista (and Office 2007) before the end of the year. 

Like it or not, you'll probably be using Windows Vista before you know it.

Microsoft expects to sell 200 million copies of the new operating system within 24 months. By comparison, Windows 95 sold 67 million copies in its first two years.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: A first look at Vista, good and bad

The Kid With All the News About the TV News - New York Times

Sign of the times 

When people in the television news business want to find out what’s going on in their industry, they turn to a blog called TVNewser. But while the executives obsessively checking TVNewser are mostly high powered and highly paid, the person who creates it is not: he is Brian Stelter, a baby-faced 21-year-old at Towson University here, a few miles north of Baltimore.

Source: The Kid With All the News About the TV News - New York Times

Next Generation Gaming Now Complete: Nintendo Launches Wii

Nintendo appears to be poised to dominate the game console market for younger kids -- more bad news for Sony as it launches PS3. 

On Sunday, Nintendo shipped its next-generation Wii video game console in North America. As with the recent launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3), Nintendo sold out its entire stock of Wii consoles immediately. But unlike the PS3, Nintendo shipped a large number of its consoles, providing far more gamers with an opportunity to upgrade to a next-generation video game console.

Source: Next Generation Gaming Now Complete: Nintendo Launches Wii

176 Newspapers to Form a Partnership With Yahoo - New York Times

Interesting milestone

A consortium of seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers across the country is announcing a broad partnership with Yahoo to share content, advertising and technology, another sign that the wary newspaper business is increasingly willing to shake hands with the technology companies they once saw as a threat.

[...]

But the long-term goal of the alliance with Yahoo, according to one senior executive at a participating newspaper company, is to be able to have the content of these newspapers tagged and optimized for searching and indexing by Yahoo.

Source: 176 Newspapers to Form a Partnership With Yahoo - New York Times

The Evolution of Wikis Into Books

Interesting... 

Pearson Education is working with profs at Wharton and MIT's Sloan school on pulling together a management book using a wiki. They say they plan to ask more than a million business and academic types to contribute as authors and editors. It makes sense that as one of the first books to be done like this, they plan to focus on collecting best practices at corporations who are using community, social networks and other Web 2.0 tools. The book is entitled We Are Smarter Than Me and will come out next fall.

Source: The Evolution of Wikis Into Books

Accenture tops IBM as leading systems integrator - Network World

Tough week for IBM 

Accenture knocked IBM from the spot it has dominated since IDC began tracking the systems integration market in the late 1990s, the research firm says in a report it issued this month. In that report, IDC analysts say Accenture is cashing in on a market that is on the upswing.

Source: Accenture tops IBM as leading systems integrator - Network World

HP Poised to Unseat IBM (BW)

Major milestone 

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has taken a big step toward laying official claim to the title of world's biggest tech company. On Nov. 16 the Palo Alto (Calif.) company reported fourth-quarter earnings that, thanks to all its business units performing well, exceed the annual sales IBM (IBM) is expected to post in its fourth quarter, which ends Dec. 31. "This has been a defining year for HP," a buoyant Chief Executive Mark Hurd told reporters during a conference call. And no, he wasn't referring to the pretexting scandal that dominated headlines earlier this fall.

Source: HP Poised to Unseat IBM

Cellphone as Tracker: X Marks Your Doubts - New York Times

Timely reality check 

None of this entails anything exotic. The technology has been ready for a while, but not the customers. Prospective benefits have seemed paltry when placed against privacy concerns. Who will have access to our location information — present and past? Can carriers assure us that their systems are impervious to threats from stalkers and other malicious intruders or neglectful employees — or from government snoops without search warrants? Contemplating worst-case scenarios, our hands holding these very mobile devices have been frozen, hesitant to turn the location beacon on. Are we finally ready to flip the switch?

Source: Cellphone as Tracker: X Marks Your Doubts - New York Times

New Brain Trust Plans Microsoft's Future - washingtonpost.com

Timely snapshot; read the full article 

To help it compete, Microsoft has been raiding Internet rivals and hiring people such as Flake, one of 14 Microsoft employees honored with the corporate distinction of "technical fellow." Flake and his colleagues at the meeting last month have already demonstrated they get the Internet. They included Steve Berkowitz, a former chief executive of the Internet search company Ask.com who became Microsoft's senior vice president for online services, and Debra Chrapaty, a former president of the E-Trade Group Inc. who is now Microsoft's vice president for Windows Live operations.

"Our products on the Internet are not today where they should be," said Flake, a 39-year-old with a strong, stubby jaw and even stronger opinions. "Part of the reason it's not there is because we've been focusing on a lot of different things."

Still, Flake said, he voted with his feet on the future of Microsoft. Early last year, he uprooted his family from California, where he had run research and development for Yahoo Inc., for a job in Redmond overseeing the laboratory that is developing Microsoft's online products. "The company is redefining and reinventing itself," he said.

Source: New Brain Trust Plans Microsoft's Future - washingtonpost.com

Universal Music Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement - New York Times

 It's easy to imagine a long line of lawyers building...

The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit yesterday against MySpace, the popular social networking Web site, for allowing users to upload and download songs and music videos.

[...]

Earlier this year, Universal’s chief executive, Doug Morris, publicly identified the YouTube video-sharing site and MySpace as copyright infringers. Universal successfully negotiated to take a stake in YouTube shortly before it was sold to Google for $1.65 billion, according to executives briefed on the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity. But licensing talks with MySpace recently reached an impasse.

Source: Universal Music Sues MySpace for Copyright Infringement - New York Times

From artists to spies, more going wiki on Web - The Boston Globe

Timely reality check 

Buoyed by the growth of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the wiki model of shared writing and editing is spreading into surprising new realms, from accounting, real estate, and academic research to cake design and even intelligence gathering.

"Wikis are finally becoming mainstream," said Newton technology pioneer Dan Bricklin , who plans to release WikiCalc, a next-generation spreadsheet that lets multiple users simultaneously log and update numbers via the Internet, by the end of November.

Source: From artists to spies, more going wiki on Web - The Boston Globe

Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

Gloves are off 

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer today declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property.

In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell Inc. earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."

Source: Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

Google buys Israeli spreadsheet company iRows | News.blog | CNET News.com

Looks like Google is collecting cell engines 

Google is buying iRows, a provider of a browser-based spreadsheet service, iRows wrote on its company blog.

"Being at Google will allow us to continue doing what we love to do best but on a much larger scale. There is a lot of exciting work at Google waiting for us," the blog posting says, before detailing how to migrate iRows spreadsheets over to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Source: Google buys Israeli spreadsheet company iRows | News.blog | CNET News.com

Wii to allow users to surf the Internet - Boston.com

I'm still waiting for a wireless keyboard option and software upgrade that'll let me do the same with my Xbox 360... 

For video game addicts facing the conundrum of how to balance hours of nonstop game playing with the occasional need to know what's going on in the outside world, Nintendo may have found a solution.

Nintendo Co.'s new Wii video game console will include ways for people with a high-speed Internet connection to surf the Web, share photos, check the weather and browse news headlines, the company said Thursday.

The company also plans an online store, accessible through the console, where people can download games or buy other items.

Source: Wii to allow users to surf the Internet - Boston.com

Gates: Ushering in Zune, spiffing up Office | CNET News.com

One of our kids picked up a Zune yesterday.  Very impressive out-of-box experience.  Worked nicely with our Xbox 360 as well (media sharing from the Zune to the Xbox). 

Anybody want to buy a used Creative Zen?...

Apple Computer has built a pretty big lead with the iPod. Why is it a market that's important to go after? Why develop the Zune at all?
Gates: You're going to have entertainment capability built into the car, and we're working on that with the car manufacturers. You're going to have it in the new-generation set-top box. You're going to have it in your phone, you're going to have it in your PC, and you're going to have some dedicated devices--dedicated media devices.

We thought to really fulfill our vision of connected entertainment that we wanted to have a device that had the wireless connection. Obviously, the iPod doesn't let you do third-party software, doesn't have a wireless connection--so, the connected entertainment vision, we can build on Zune and do some new things.

Source: [print version] Gates: Ushering in Zune, spiffing up Office | CNET News.com

Blog Entrepreneur Leaves AOL - New York Times

Cascading update... 

Jason Calacanis, the outspoken blogger and entrepreneur who ran AOL’s Netscape division, resigned on Thursday in the wake of the firing of AOL’s chief executive, Jonathan Miller.

Mr. Calacanis sold his company, Weblogs Inc., a network of blogs, to AOL last year and continued to run it from offices in Santa Monica, Calif. This year he took over Netscape.com, transforming it from a Web portal into a site that lets users vote and comment on news articles.

Source: Blog Entrepreneur Leaves AOL - New York Times

Column from PC Magazine: Zune Swoon

This just in: Zune is doomed because the reviewer's kit cover sheet and license agreement offended John C. Dvorak.  It's not clear from this column if he actually got around to using the device, however. 

The Zune team is led by people who previously led the Xbox team, incidentally.

If anything is doomed to failure, it is the Microsoft Zune. I have no idea who is marketing this device within the company, but from what I can tell, this is going to become a major turkey in the product mix. As far as I can tell, Microsoft should simply turn over all its marketing to the Xbox 360 folks—at least some of the people in that group have marketing skills.

Source: Column from PC Magazine: Zune Swoon

IBM on Second Life: More than PR

Second Life is definitely a meme-of-the-week contender. 

It seems like a PR stunt to give IBM CEO Sam Palmisano an avatar and have him make a presentation on Second Life. All kinds of companies are rushing into the virtual world, including Dell. But IBM's push is far more than PR. If you consider what IBM is doing, such as building mathematical models of thousands of consultants, you can see that future steps in its $40 billion services division might start looking like Second Life.

Source: IBM on Second Life: More than PR

Pre-announcing of the "Fabulous 40" Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

"Fabulous 40" is a subtle reference to the "nifty fifty" templates that Lotus made available for Notes ~15 years ago.  Out-of-the-box utility is key for SharePoint, so this, along with the Office Business Applications, is a smart investment for Microsoft. 

The preview page for the new Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been launched, and it provides useful information about the types of SharePoint sites that you can effortlessly create with these templates. The forty templates will be released to the Web as free downloads in early 2007. All of these templates will have been developed with Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and incorporate many of the new features in WSS 3.0, including wikis, enhanced document management, and improved synchronization of calendars and tasks with Outlook 2007. Yes, they will indeed be fabulous!

Source: Pre-announcing of the "Fabulous 40" Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Microsoft Watch - Corporate - Red Hat Rejects Patent Agreement with Microsoft

Interesting times.  Considering the final sentence below, perhaps that simply means Red Hat doesn't have any IP claims against Microsoft, as Novell did... 

Microsoft is in an awkward position now that Red Hat has slammed the door shut on any possibility of entering into a patent protection deal similar to the one Redmond has with Novell.

While Microsoft has been telling anyone who will listen that it wants to enter into a similar patent indemnity arrangement with all the other Linux vendors, and is hopeful this will be achieveable with Red Hat, it appears that is not going to happen.

In fact, Mark Webbink, Red Hat's deputy general counsel, told me that "we do not believe there is a need for or basis for the type of relationship defined in the Microsoft-Novell announcement."

Source: Microsoft Watch - Corporate - Red Hat Rejects Patent Agreement with Microsoft

NBC Executive Is Expected to Bring Operational Strengths to AOL - New York Times

No longer Miller time at AOL 

In August, Mr. Miller carried out the new strategy based on attracting Internet advertising after working closely with Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner’s president and chief operating officer. Mr. Bewkes and Time Warner’s chairman, Richard D. Parsons, however, felt that Mr. Miller’s strategic strengths were not matched by his operational acumen.

“In Mr. Falco, the company has hired a great operator who can now take AOL to the next level,” Edward I. Adler, a Time Warner spokesman, said.

Source: NBC Executive Is Expected to Bring Operational Strengths to AOL - New York Times

Good Morning Silicon Valley: It depends on what the meaning of the word "million" is

Google reality check 

Turns out Google CEO Eric Schmidt wasn't lying when he told attendees of the Web 2.0 Summit that Google had not reserved $500 million of YouTube's $1.65 billion purchase price to resolve the copyright infringement claims that might be made against it. The company didn't set aside $500 million, it set aside $224 million.

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: It depends on what the meaning of the word "million" is

News from PC Magazine: Dell to Sell PCs on Second Life

Sign of the times 

Dell held a press conference in the virtual world Second Life on Tuesday, announcing that the company has opened an in-world island with a retail store where customers can actually order PCs to be delivered to their home.

Source: News from PC Magazine: Dell to Sell PCs on Second Life

Ed Brill: Ray’s archives go back further than mine

Cool -- Ray Ozzie added to Ed Brill's Notes history collection; see the post for more details.  One of the trivial pursuit dimensions of the 20+ year-old screen shots: the "Note" menu item, which was gone by the time Notes 1.0 was released in December, 1989. 

Link to Ed Brill: Ray’s archives go back further than mine 

vowe dot net :: One down, two to go

See Volker's unencrypted explanation of Lotus Expeditor here. 

Pre-conference [DNUG] day is over, today is the first day of the show. At first I did not plan to come, now I am very happy I did. The reason is, that I finally understand what Lotus Expeditor really is, and what happens to all the Workplace piece parts. And now that I did not hear it after it went through the IBM Department of Marketing Encryption, it all makes perfect sense.

Source: vowe dot net :: One down, two to go

vowe dot net :: Just forget about Notes 8 Classic

Interesting reality check from Volker -- apparently the German Notes User Group meeting was a big success this year. 

$.07 says the 2007 - 2008 deployment balance is more Notes Classic than Notes RCP (Eclipse), however. 

This is an opinion piece. And I am changing my mind. So, listen up. ;-)

The more I see of Notes 8, the more I am convinced you only want the full thing. Just stop thinking about Notes Classic. If you want to run this, just stay on Notes 6.5.

Source: vowe dot net :: Just forget about Notes 8 Classic

Zune MP3 players' opening salvo a dud - Yahoo! News

I'm starting to wonder if this will be an exclusively accentuate-the-negative press topic indefinitely... 

By mid-afternoon the store had sold one Zune player and one other person had inquired about them.

The scene was bleaker at a CompUSA store a block away, where the manager said an oversight by Microsoft sales people had resulted in the store not getting Zunes for display.

No apparent harm was done though, said the manager, because no shoppers came asking about Zunes.

Source: Zune MP3 players' opening salvo a dud - Yahoo! News

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google saves $200m for YouTube legal issues

Sign of the times 

Google announced the completion of the deal, agreed last month, and said it had issued 3.2m shares and options and warrants convertible into another 440,000 shares worth $1.65bn, less $15m already given in funds to YouTube.
It added that 12.5 per cent of the equity issued and issuable – equivalent to $204m - would be subject to escrow for one year “to secure certain indemnification obligations.”

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google saves $200m for YouTube legal issues

Borland Forming CodeGear to Focus Exclusively on Developer Productivity

Undo... 

“After much consideration, we made the decision to establish CodeGear as a separate subsidiary,” said Tod Nielsen, Borland president and chief executive officer. “We have always stated our intention to find the right buyer for this business – one who was committed to our developer community, who would continue innovation in our products and who would offer a sum that matched the value of the business. After a lengthy due diligence process with several serious bidders, we feel the CodeGear decision is in the best interests of our customers, shareholders and employees.”

Source: Borland Forming CodeGear to Focus Exclusively on Developer Productivity

Zune moving at slow tempo | CNET News.com

 A rather subtle launch in many places, apparently...

Though Microsoft's answer to Apple Computer's iPod juggernaut officially went on sale nationwide Tuesday, the Zune wasn't exactly flying off the shelves in downtown San Francisco.

At two retail outlets, the new media player wasn't even on the shelves. The Virgin Megastore near Union Square had them in stock, but the Zune display wasn't the right fit for the store's shelving. The players would be on sale "sometime this week" when new signage was scheduled to be delivered, said a store representative who declined to give his name.

Source: Zune moving at slow tempo | CNET News.com

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Wireless Internet's new target: Seattle homes

 Never underestimate Craig McCaw...

Clearwire is using a variant of WiMax, which some call Wi-Fi on steroids.

Today, it is largely unproved under market conditions but has started to receive more attention in the past year, as major corporations have made commitments to it. Wireless giant Sprint Nextel has pledged to build WiMax systems in some areas next year.

With their experience, McCaw and his team have grabbed a lot of attention and money, raising nearly $2 billion in capital from Motorola, Intel and others to finance the venture.

Currently, the network Clearwire is building is based on fixed services, meaning a user needs to sit in one location to receive a steady connection. The next evolution will be mobile and allow people to maintain a connection while in a moving car.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Wireless Internet's new target: Seattle homes

The Mossberg Solution -- Freeing Google From the Desktop

 Walt Mossberg finds a lot to like about Google's mobile apps.  (Link is to the no-subscription-required version of the article.)

 

If you use a computer every day, chances are good that you're spoiled by being able to retrieve helpful data within seconds, thanks to the Internet. Google's mobile applications give you that convenience on the go, in a way that doesn't leave you missing your computer.

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

Apple, Airlines Agree To Offer iPod Connection - WSJ.com

iMonopoly?

In the meantime, salespeople at two retailers I called today that have Zune on their web sites (CompUSA and Wal-Mart) hadn't heard of Zune when I called to ask if they had Zunes in stock at the local stores.  Not an encouraging leading indicator for Microsoft. 

Apple Computer Inc. struck deals with six airlines to integrate its iPod portable music and video players into in-flight entertainment systems.

Apple said Tuesday the airlines, which include Air France-KLM, Continental Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Emirates Airlines, and United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., will begin offering passengers seat connections that will power and charge iPods while allowing video content contained on the devices to be played on seat-back monitors. The connections will be available on planes by mid-2007, Apple said.

Source: Apple, Airlines Agree To Offer iPod Connection - WSJ.com

Nintendo's Wii Is A Revolution - Forbes.com

Not lining up to be a good week for Sony 

It's too early in the console war to tell if the Wii's upstart strategy will help Nintendo gain ground against Microsoft and Sony, both 800-pound gorillas of the gaming world. But if my early experience with the console--and the smiles on the faces of friends and colleagues--are any measure, Nintendo's got a huge hit on its hands.

Source: Nintendo's Wii Is A Revolution - Forbes.com

Zune Set to Launch Amid Tepid Reviews

Harsh reality check from Paul Thurrott 

If the early reviews are any indication, Apple has little to fear from the first-generation Zune, although Microsoft has pledged to follow it up with more designs in the year ahead. The initial device is heavier and thicker than the iPod, and has worse battery life, even when the Wi-Fi features are turned off. The device is also incompatible with virtually all available iPod accessories and appears to have no compelling reason for existing other than to satisfy the vanity and hubris of certain Microsoft executives.

Source: Zune Set to Launch Amid Tepid Reviews

Welcome to the Social: As Microsoft launches Zune this week, the goal is not to manufacture another digital music player [...]

 The initial market response to Zune is going to be fascinating...

Jubelirer said that Zune, which has an estimated retail price of US$249.99, is the entry point of a multi-year experience, and that Microsoft is investing heavily in innovation. Jubelirer notes that it is the software that will make the difference in the digital entertainment age – and through updates to the Zune software, consumers will be able to enjoy new scenarios as they become available. This is what Microsoft calls “future proofing.”

“Future proofing ensures that the devices we sell tomorrow are prepared for the scenarios of the future,” Jubelirer said. “A person should be able to buy a device tomorrow, and with wireless technology, improve on that device through software in the future. We’ve made the investments in the device that we needed to make – so people can be prepared for what’s ahead. Without that, if there were a new scenario in the future, you'd have to buy a new device to get it.”

Source: Welcome to the Social: As Microsoft launches Zune this week, the goal is not to manufacture another digital music player [...]

Coming Soon via Your TiVo: Internet Video on Television - New York Times

More details on new TiVo tricks 

A handful of producers have agreed to convert some of their programming to MPEG2 and make it available to download directly to TiVo recorders. TiVo has already offered some programs in conjunction with programmers including iVillage, Heavy.com and The New York Times. It will soon add more programming, from CBS and Forbes, and make the content more prominent on its menu screens.

The company will also introduce software that will allow users to watch a much wider range of videos that are available on the Web. This method, however, requires users to first download the videos onto their computers. If they purchase software from TiVo for $24.95, they will be able to connect their TiVo recorders to their computers over a wired or wireless home network and watch the videos on television.

Source: Coming Soon via Your TiVo: Internet Video on Television - New York Times

New TiVo Feature Lets Families Share Videos On TV Via the Web - WSJ.com

Now you can torment people over the Internet with slide shows and videos of your vacations...

The latest push is by TiVo Inc., the company that pioneered the digital video recorder, or DVR, a device that made it easy to record "The Sopranos" and other programs from cable and other traditional sources of television. The Alviso, Calif., company today plans to unveil several new features designed to enhance the array of content available to TiVo users to download from the Internet for playback on television sets. The new options include a home movie service, through which users can create an Internet "channel" that automatically broadcasts clips of kids' birthday parties and other movies over the Internet to family and friends with TiVo recorder boxes.

Source: New TiVo Feature Lets Families Share Videos On TV Via the Web - WSJ.com

Sony Finds Some Older Videogames Don't Work on PlayStation 3 - WSJ.com

So much for one of the features touted as key to differentiation relative to the Xbox 360. 

Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said some of the 8,000 older games weren't working properly on PS3, making the wrong sounds or images, and some couldn't be played at all. He declined to give a number for the games that weren't functioning, but he said the same problem is expected when the game console goes on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 17. About 16,000 different games have been sold for the PlayStation and PlayStation 3 in North America.

I'm sure this is comforting to people who waited a year in part because of game compatibility:

""We are sorry for the game fans that they cannot play all the games," Mr. Fukuoka said. "But unfortunately some of these problems could not be avoided.""

Source: Sony Finds Some Older Videogames Don't Work on PlayStation 3 - WSJ.com

Microsoft | You've heard this song before | Economist.com

The Economist on Zune dynamics -- read the full article (no subscription required) 

As Microsoft borrows from Apple, the opposite is also true. After failing to defeat Microsoft in operating systems, Apple learned a valuable lesson and has opened up its music technology just enough to make it a standard. It licensed the iPod's connector-plug so that other firms could make accessories for it, and it made the iPod and iTunes available on Windows, something that would once have been unthinkable. The great irony of the epic rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, says Mr Bajarin, is that the longer they fight, the more they resemble each other.

Source: Microsoft | You've heard this song before | Economist.com

Donald J. Rosenberg Joins Apple as General Counsel

Interesting times... 

Apple® today announced that Donald J. Rosenberg, senior vice president and general counsel of IBM, will join the company as its senior vice president and general counsel, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Source: Donald J. Rosenberg Joins Apple as General Counsel

Nick Bradbury: Web 3.0 Does Not Validate

Timely reality check from Nick Bradbury (FeedDemon creator) 

Apparently, Web 3.0 is the latest re-branding of the Semantic Web, a noble attempt to turn the Web of documents into a Web of data.  Don't get me wrong - the goals of the Semantic Web are good ones, and I believe many of those goals will be met in my lifetime.  But too much of the Semantic Web relies on data being valid - that is, valid XML, XHTML, RDF, etc. - and too many of us will never publish valid data.

Source: Nick Bradbury: Web 3.0 Does Not Validate

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: PS3 is nifty, but it's a bit too pricey

PS3 reality check 

After spending time with Sony's new PlayStation 3 game console last week, I understand why Microsoft's Xbox team has been strutting lately.

Don't get me wrong. The PS3 is an amazing machine. I'd love to have one sitting beneath my TV. But not for $500 or $600. That's just too expensive for a game console, even one that incorporates a bleeding-edge Blu-ray disc player.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: PS3 is nifty, but it's a bit too pricey

Microsoft Counting on a Twist to Make Zune Shine in Shadow of iPod - New York Times

I'm guessing one day sooner rather than later...  Read the full article for a Zune reality check on the eve of its launch. 

Would the Zune ever be able to connect to the Internet? Could someone walk into a Starbucks and use the connection there to download a song?

Mr. Lee answered without hesitation: “Probably, one day.”

Source: Microsoft Counting on a Twist to Make Zune Shine in Shadow of iPod - New York Times

Identity Thief Is Often Found in Family Photo - New York Times

Yikes 

Though most victims never learn who stole their identities, half of those who do say the thief was a family member, a friend, a neighbor or an in-home employee, according to surveys by the Federal Trade Commission and Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research firm. The surveys estimate that 9 million to 10 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

Source: Identity Thief Is Often Found in Family Photo - New York Times

Sun Makes Java a Free, Open-Source Platform - WSJ.com

Unclear if the open-source move has any licensing impact on other vendors that rely on Java. 

Sun still intends to sell commercial versions of the Java products included in its open-source scheme, which include its Java Platform Standard Edition and a version for cellphones and similar products called the Java Platform Micro Edition.

Christina Martino, vice president of the open-source and Linux organization at rival Hewlett-Packard Co., said Sun appeared to have finally listened to its developers and Linux partners. "I think if Sun is doing this, the H-P message is 'It's about time,'" she said.

Source: Sun Makes Java a Free, Open-Source Platform - WSJ.com

Sun makes Java code open source - The Boston Globe

Better late than never?... 

Computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said today that it had begun to make its Java technology an open-source software project available for free on the Internet.

[...]

Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said the company hopes to turn more developers into Java programmers, who may then create additional software to support Sun products.

Source: Sun makes Java code open source - The Boston Globe

Rob Pegoraro - Videophoning From an Unexpected Source - washingtonpost.com

Indeed, we have something of an embarrassment of riches in consumer-oriented video, with Skype, Windows Live, Yahoo! IM, and others... but I still don't know many people who routinely use video. 

We don't have jet packs, flying cars or food pills, but the videophone has finally come home -- no thanks to the phone company.

Instead, it comes from a little eBay subsidiary called Skype, an online service that provides Internet video communication, as well as Internet phone service and instant messenger style-chat.

Source: Rob Pegoraro - Videophoning From an Unexpected Source - washingtonpost.com

Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense - New York Times

No doubt "Enterprise 3.0" and many other 3.0 candidate memes will soon follow.

Their goal is to add a layer of meaning on top of the existing Web that would make it less of a catalog and more of a guide — and even provide the foundation for systems that can reason in a human fashion. That level of artificial intelligence, with machines doing the thinking instead of simply following commands, has eluded researchers for more than half a century.

Referred to as Web 3.0, the effort is in its infancy, and the very idea has given rise to skeptics who have called it an unobtainable vision. But the underlying technologies are rapidly gaining adherents, at big companies like I.B.M. and Google as well as small ones. Their projects often center on simple, practical uses, from producing vacation recommendations to predicting the next hit song.

Source: Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense - New York Times

Microsoft Exec Says Vista Is So Safe He Doesn't Need Anti-Virus Software - News by InformationWeek

See the article for more context... 

Windows co-president Jim Allchin has said that Windows Vista, which met its release to manufacturing milestone earlier this week, is so superior to Window XP on security that he feels safe letting his own son run a PC without anti-virus software.

A prominent security analyst countered that that attitude would be fine as long as everyone using Vista was a seven-year-old.

Source: Microsoft Exec Says Vista Is So Safe He Doesn't Need Anti-Virus Software - News by InformationWeek

PlayStation 3 on Rescue Mission - New York Times

Meanwhile, my Xbox 360 updated itself when I last turned it on, and now it can download videos etc.

Indeed, analysts say, Sony cannot afford for PlayStation 3 to be anything less than a smashing success. Sony’s chief executive, Howard Stringer, has proclaimed that Sony’s future depends on creating “champion products,” the pathbreaking hits that earn high profits and keep the company ahead of cheaper Chinese and South Korean rivals. Even in consoles, a category it has long dominated, Sony is already a year behind the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. It will compete head-to-head with Nintendo’s Wii, which will be introduced this month.

But analysts say PlayStation 3 is the only product currently visible in Sony’s development pipeline with real “champion” potential.

Source: PlayStation 3 on Rescue Mission - New York Times

MySQL wants to build 'database in the sky' | InfoWorld

 Hmm...  I'd like to see the logical data model for this...

MySQL AB wants to launch a global project to build a massive, distributed repository containing all of the world's data now stored in structured databases, the company's chief executive officer said Thursday.

[...]

The project seeks to apply the open-source model to data, so that developers worldwide could share and aggregate data, Mickos said. "Then the data would be the platform," Mickos said. He envisions, for example, being able to tap into all of the world's structured databases that have weather information.

Source: MySQL wants to build 'database in the sky' | InfoWorld

Office Live a smart move | InfoWorld

 Interesting perspective -- read the article for more Office Live details.  I haven't seen a single net-negative review of Office Live.

Office Live is the first real step I've seen Microsoft take on its own here. Redmond's not thinking about matching Google's Writely/Spreadsheet almost-useful bundle; it's doing what Microsoft does best: hunting for profit. First thing Microsoft does when it's looking for yet another percentage of the world economy is ask customers what they're willing to pay for.

Source: Office Live a smart move | InfoWorld

Backfence.com - Google to Make Data Semi-Portable

 I'm surprised there hasn't been more press/blogosphere activity on this topic.

Big problem, though: Google will continue to reserve the right to keep the data you've stored in its servers forever, and use that data as it sees fit.

When Google lets customers actually move their data to a new place -- that is, move it, not copy it -- that will be truly worth celebrating.

Source: Backfence.com - Google to Make Data Semi-Portable 

GigaOM » Google… the OS for Advertising

Timely reality check; read the full post 

Now, taking it from the top… if you were an executive at a traditional media company, would you consider Google a friend or a foe? As one media executive said to me the other day… “as long as they don’t develop their own content, we think we’re safe”. Hmmm, interesting. But it would behoove him and his colleagues to remember that Google’s core competency is to use technology in a manner that devalues and deflates⁴ traditional industries by extracting inefficiencies in existing processes.

Source: GigaOM » Google… the OS for Advertising

Good Morning Silicon Valley: "Hello, I'm a PC." "And I'm pursuing other interests."

Glad to see this; I am very tired of the ads... 

Looks like the PC outlasted the Mac in the end, after all. Justin Long, the actor who plays the part of the Mac in Apple's "Get a Mac" television campaign, won't be reprising his role in a forthcoming run of commercials. "Every ad you see Justin in is for that previous time period only," Long's representative told Radar. "There's no long-term deal with him."

Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley: "Hello, I'm a PC." "And I'm pursuing other interests."

Spears text messages divorce plan to hubby | CNET News.com

Antisocial networking... 

A video of Britney Spears' soon-to-be ex-husband apparently getting a text message informing him that the pop princess had filed for divorce became the most viewed item on YouTube on Thursday, with more than 1 million hits.

Source: Spears text messages divorce plan to hubby | CNET News.com

Microsoft Watch - Messaging & Collaboration - Exchange 2007 to RTM in December

 The Redmond product floodgates are wide open...

Exchange Server 2007 will be released to manufacturing in December and be available to customers within a number of days after that, Microsoft officials have confirmed.

The formal announcement of Exchange 2007's RTM date was made in David Lemson's keynote on November 7 at the Exchange Connections conference.

Source: Microsoft Watch - Messaging & Collaboration - Exchange 2007 to RTM in December

Google Operating System: Google Wants to Store All Your Data

All we need now is Google's version of HailStorm and the deja vu cycle will be complete.

CNet quotes Eric Schmidt who says Google's goal is not to beat Microsoft. Google wants to store all your data on their servers, by making it accessible everywhere and more useful.

Google's applications rely on the storage of data on servers in the "cloud," which was the premise of network computing, he said. (...) "Finally, now the architecture works."
"Fundamentally, it's better to keep your money in the bank than in your pocket," Schmidt said, adding that the metaphor could be applied to keeping your software on the server.

Source: Google Operating System: Google Wants to Store All Your Data

BBC NEWS | Technology | Blogosphere sees healthy growth

 Timely reality check

The web's love affair with blogging shows no signs of abating according to the latest report from blog tracking firm Technorati.

Every day 100,000 new blogs are created and 1.3 million posts are made, it found during its quarterly survey.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Blogosphere sees healthy growth

New Nvidia Chip Steps Closer to Supercomputing in the PC - New York Times

Amazing... 

A $90 million supercomputer made for nuclear weapons simulation cannot yet be rivaled by a single PC chip for a serious video gamer. But the gap is closing quickly.

Indeed, a new breed of consumer-oriented graphics chips have roughly the brute computing processing power of the world’s fastest computing system of just seven years ago. And the latest advance came Wednesday when the Nvidia Corporation introduced its next-generation processor, capable of more than three trillion mathematical operations per second.

Source: New Nvidia Chip Steps Closer to Supercomputing in the PC - New York Times

Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not - New York Times

Another net-negative Zune review 

Competition is good and all. But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication — in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features — just to indulge Microsoft’s “we want some o’ that” envy. Wireless sharing is the one big new idea — and if the public seems to respond, Apple could always add that to the iPod.

Then again, this is all standard Microsoft procedure. Version 1.0 of Microsoft Anything is stripped-down and derivative, but it’s followed by several years of slow but relentless refinement and marketing. Already, Microsoft says that new Zune features, models and accessories are in the pipeline.

Source: Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not - New York Times

Personal Technology -- Microsoft's Zune Challenges iPod

(Note: the link is to the version of the review that doesn't require a subscription) 

For a moment there, after reading the headline, I thought Walt Mossberg was actually going to say something net-positive about a Microsoft product.  Read the full review for his Zune analysis.

Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs. Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time. And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run.

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

Microsoft finishes new version of Windows - The Boston Globe

 Major Microsoft milestone week

Microsoft Corp. finished work yesterday on its long-delayed Windows Vista operating system, and said the software would be broadly available Jan. 30.

That means Microsoft will meet -- just barely -- its revised goal of putting Vista in consumers' hands in the first month of 2007.

Source: Microsoft finishes new version of Windows - The Boston Globe

Technology Review: Software Learns to Tag Photos

Hmmm 

U.S. researchers have released a new online program for automatically tagging images according to their content. In its first real-world test, the program processed thousands of publicly accessible images available on the photo-sharing site Flickr. At least one accurate tag was generated for 98 percent of all the pictures analysed.

Source: Technology Review: Software Learns to Tag Photos

Microsoft Strikes Deal for Music - New York Times

I imagine Apple will be facing new realities when it next renews its contracts with Universal and other publishers. 

Steve Gordon, an entertainment lawyer, said that Universal was saying, in effect: “Look, we know new technologies are here to stay. We know CDs are like typewriters, and are being replaced. ”

When the companies initially licensed Apple’s fledgling iTunes service, “they didn’t figure he’d make tens of billions of dollars from the iPod,” said Mr. Gordon, author of the book “The Future of the Music Business.”

“This time they’re saying, ‘Well, we want a piece.’ ”

Source: Microsoft Strikes Deal for Music - New York Times

Microsoft Watch - Web Services & Browser - The Most Important Microsoft Release of the Year

Agreed... 

But getting lost a bit in the noise and hype is one Microsoft product release that, in the long run, may end up being the most important, especially on the enterprise side. And that product is Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007.

Listed ostensibly as a component of Office, SharePoint is actually much more. You can make a very good argument that SharePoint is now the core platform on which almost all Microsoft-based web, SOA, BPM, ecommerce, content management, collaboration and of course portal initiatives will be built.

Source: Microsoft Watch - Web Services & Browser - The Most Important Microsoft Release of the Year

Intel unveils 'Web 2.0' software suite | CNET News.com

Intel offering a collaboration software suite --  interesting times.  Kim Polese, as CEO of SpikeSource, which Intel is contracting to assemble the suite, gains at least fifteen minutes of Bubble 2.0 fame...

Called SuiteTwo, the package will include software from Six Apart, Socialtext, NewsGator and SimpleFeed. These are small software companies that provide applications for blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and social networking.

[...]

The cost for the software, which can be installed with a single click, will cost between $175-$200 per user per year and will include regular updates.

The article also notes that Intel Capital has invested in both SpikeSource and Six Apart, and has an option to invest in the other companies participating in SuiteTwo.

Source: Intel unveils 'Web 2.0' software suite | CNET News.com

Microsoft payment in Novell deal disclosed

Another detail in the Microsoft/Novell relationship 

The alliance runs to January 2012. Microsoft also agreed not to enter any similar pact to promote Windows and Linux virtualization technologies with any other Linux vendor for three years.

Source: Microsoft payment in Novell deal disclosed

Linux Pact for $348 Million - New York Times

That will, among other things, make Novell a more attractive acquisition candidate.  See this Novell press release for more details. 

Microsoft will pay Novell $240 million upfront in subscription fees to use the Linux software and an additional $108 million in upfront payments for use of patents, Novell said in a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: Linux Pact for $348 Million - New York Times

Blogs Take Lead in Reporting Polling Problems, With Supporting Evidence on YouTube - New York Times

Sign of the times...

Blogs of all political stripes spent most of yesterday detailing reports of voting machine malfunctions and ballot shortages, effectively becoming an online national clearinghouse of the polling problems that still face the election system.

And in a new twist this year, many bloggers buttressed their accounts of electoral shenanigans with links to videos posted on the video Web site YouTube.

Source: Blogs Take Lead in Reporting Polling Problems, With Supporting Evidence on YouTube - New York Times

Google to Boost Scope Of Radio-Ad Sales Business - WSJ.com

 Relatively speaking, organizations involved in traditional advertising should be a lot more worried about Google than, for example, Microsoft should be.

Google Inc. is preparing to sharply increase the scope of its radio-ad sales business, beefing up sales staff and angling to sell a lot more advertising on stations owned by big radio companies.

In coming weeks, the Mountain View, Calif., Internet company will announce a test that will eventually lead to a service allowing anybody to use the Google Audio Ads service to purchase radio advertising, much as anybody can use the company's AdWords service to place text ads that pop up alongside Google searches.

Source: Google to Boost Scope Of Radio-Ad Sales Business - WSJ.com

Adobe to donate script code to Mozilla | CNET News.com

 More details on Adobe's Mozilla plans

The latest version of Adobe's script "engine," released in June this year with Flash Player 9, uses a just-in-time compiler to run programs ten times faster than previous versions, he said.

Lynch said the deal with Mozilla is the biggest Adobe has done with open source. The move furthers the company's plan to allow developers to mix and match programming technologies, including AJAX-style Web development and Flash for media and animation, he said.

Source: Adobe to donate script code to Mozilla | CNET News.com

Article - Adobe Gives Mozilla Some Computer Code From Flash Player

Hmmm

Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) is contributing some of the computer code behind its widely used Flash player to the Mozilla Foundation so that it can be improved upon and blended into an upcoming version of Mozilla's Firefox Web browser.

The donation, to be announced Tuesday at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, represents the largest contribution of code to Mozilla since the Mountain View-based foundation's 2003 inception. The code covers the scripting language in Adobe's Flash software, which millions of people use to view online media and other dynamic applications delivered over the Internet.

Source: Article - Adobe Gives Mozilla Some Computer Code From Flash Player

Vodafone, Microsoft in Handset Deal - WSJ.com

Sign of the times 

Vodafone, one of the world's largest cellphone operators, said that over the next five years, it plans to cut the number of mobile operating platforms from 20 to three, as it looks to reduce development costs and improve the way software works on phones. The two platforms Vodafone plans to use alongside Microsoft Windows Mobile are Symbian/Series 60 and open source Linux software.

Source: Vodafone, Microsoft in Handset Deal - WSJ.com

Verizon, YouTube Aim To Bring Web Videos To Cellphones, TV - WSJ.com

The real winner in this: Adobe, as I assume Verizon would use Flash Lite 

An agreement would allow Verizon's customers to view some of the most avidly watched entertainment on the Internet. That could advance the long-expected convergence of video and cellphones. It could also, at least temporarily, give Verizon a marketing edge over its rivals in the wireless and cable industries, furthering the company's efforts to expand into Internet and entertainment services.

Source: Verizon, YouTube Aim To Bring Web Videos To Cellphones, TV - WSJ.com