Microsoft: Vistagami Rising [BusinessWeek]

 I expect this form factor will be quite popular at some point, especially with eyewear products such as those from MicroOptical

Next month, at CES, Microsoft will be back with another round of the tiny computers. The latest tablets, code-named Vistagami because of their Windows Vista support, also will come in a wider range of looks, including some models with keyboards. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to mention some of the new devices in his CES keynote as part of a broader discussion of the new types of computers that will be enabled with Vista, including new all-in-one PCs and other esoteric designs.

Source: Microsoft: Vistagami Rising

Microsoft's Remodeled Office [BusinessWeek]

 Another on-balance-ambivalent review of Office 2007.  The $149 (for 3 PCs) part is an important reality check, but of course that edition doesn't include Outlook, and Exchange Server reportedly no longer includes an Outlook CAL.

You'll have to decide if ribbons and other improvements are worth the learning curve—and the money. The cheapest version of Office 2007 is the $149 Home & Student Edition. It can be installed on up to three PCs, and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, an application for taking notes. More extensive packages range from $239 to $679. If you are happy with your current version of Office, there's no compelling reason to rush out and buy Office 2007.

Source: Microsoft's Remodeled Office

For Saddam's Page in History, A Final Link On YouTube - washingtonpost.com

Sign of the times... 

The public will find exactly as much of the death of Hussein as it wants, and people will watch for as long as it holds any novelty or fascination. Taste is a collective worry, but in this new world of viral videos, you can construct your own war, personally tailored to your personal bloodlust. Saddam Hussein is dead, the video is out there. Enjoy.

Source: For Saddam's Page in History, A Final Link On YouTube - washingtonpost.com

Apple Panel on Options Backs Chief - New York Times

IANAL, but I think this cheer is premature. 

Investors were cheered by the news, which was contained in the annual report Apple filed with securities regulators; Apple’s stock rose 4.9 percent to close at $84.84. But the report failed to completely remove a cloud hanging over the company as a result of the backdating of options and improper record keeping, especially concerning two large option grants made to Mr. Jobs in 2000 and 2001.

Source: Apple Panel on Options Backs Chief - New York Times

Apple Admits Wrongdoing But Rallies Around Leader - washingtonpost.com

Why do I get the sense this episode is ultimately going to be bad news for Jobs, and now for Gore as well?  See the article for an event time line and other details. 

Apple's board, which includes former vice president Al Gore, gave Jobs its full support. "The board of directors is confident that the Company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team," said the statement by Gore and Jerome York, who heads Apple's audit and finance committee.

Source: Apple Admits Wrongdoing But Rallies Around Leader - washingtonpost.com

BBC NEWS | Technology | Wikipedia creator turns to search

Back to basics... 

The Search Wikia project will not rely on computer algorithms to determine how relevant webpages are to keywords.

Instead the results generated by the search engine will be decided and edited by humans.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Wikipedia creator turns to search

Ford Aims to Jazz Up Its Fleet With Microsoft Pact - WSJ.com

Fascinating to see automobile manufacturers competing in this context 

The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker will unveil next month a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft that will eventually be an option for its entire Ford brand lineup, according to people familiar with the matter. The new system, to be dubbed Sync, will allow for hands-free cellphone communication and other wireless information transfers inside the car, including the ability to receive email and download music, these people said.

Source: Ford Aims to Jazz Up Its Fleet With Microsoft Pact - WSJ.com

Computing | Work-life balance | Economist.com

Timely snapshot 

In the past, innovation was driven by the military or corporate markets. But now the consumer market, with its vast economies of scale and appetite for novelty, leads the way. Compared with the staid corporate-software industry, using these services is like “receiving technology from an advanced civilisation”, says Mr Sannier. He is now looking at other consumer technologies for ideas. He is already using Apple's iTunes, a popular online-music service, to store the university's podcasts.

Source: Computing | Work-life balance | Economist.com

Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: more fun with XML syndication

It seems now my old and new feeds are both working, but for some mysterious reason I had to unsubscribe and re-add the old feed (in FeedDemon, to be specific) before it started showing updates again.

Link to Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Tech.view | Hasta la Vista | Economist.com

Timely snapshot; read the full article for more details. 

FROM the end of January any Windows-based personal computer that you buy will come with a new version of Microsoft's operating system, called Vista. Make no mistake, this is more than just a slicker, prettier version of Microsoft’s current operating system for desktop computers, Windows XP. Vista is considerably quicker, easier and more pleasant to use, and far more stable and secure, than was its predecessor. One of its particular attractions is its more intuitive way of storing, organising and locating files. Included too are better parental controls, a built-in DVD maker, and lots of other improvements. In many ways, especially in its look and feel and ease of use, Vista out-Macs the Mac’s latest operating system—the Tiger version of OS X. However, that could change when Apple releases its Leopard version of OS X in spring.

Source: Tech.view | Hasta la Vista | Economist.com

Open-source leader leaving Novell for Google | CNET News.com

Lose some, win some... 

Jeremy Allison, a high-profile open-source programmer, has resigned from Novell because of objections over its patent deal with Microsoft and is moving to Google.

[...]

Meanwhile, Novell has rehired another open-source figure, Hubert Mantel, a co-founder of Suse Linux. He left the company in November 2005, but returned in December of this year. "I had more than one year of time to think about my future and came to the conclusion that the thing I'm most interested in still is Linux," he said in an interview with the online magazine Data Manager.

Source: Open-source leader leaving Novell for Google | CNET News.com

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google exec heaps praise on local office

 Interesting approach -- tbd if this will scale better than the everybody-in-Redmond Microsoft model.

[Google Engineering Vice President Douglas Merrill:] Google's unusual in a couple of ways. We open engineering offices where the talent is, rather than bringing talent to a location. ... [In Kirkland] we have north of 250 employees, and we're approaching 200 engineers. It's just an incredible growth rate in two years.

We don't have specialized engineering offices... Each of our engineering offices have a personality, a flavor. But fundamentally each office works on the entire panoply of Google products and services

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google exec heaps praise on local office

Waiting on Apple Cellphone Call - WSJ.com

 I think it'd take Apple at least two or three releases to get a phone right, and it will likely take years to catch up to the level of scope and stability that Windows Mobile and Symbian have achieved. 

Entering the cellphone business likely would give Apple a huge revenue boost, which would be good for current shareholders over the long term. For the moment, however, the stock is trading at lofty prices, so now might not be the right time to jump in, especially if Apple disappoints Wall Street by not unveiling the phone next month or stumbles in rolling it out.

Source: Heard on the Street - WSJ.com

Blogger's sloppy stumble out of beta | Webware : Cool web apps for everyone

Apparently I have a lot of company, wedged between Blogger versions... 

But things don't appear to have gone entirely smoothly. According to some Blogger readers, the software exited beta in the manner of an egg nog-filled guest leaving a Christmas party.

We received a tip this morning from a reader who claimed that her Blogger account had been more or less frozen: she could not post to her blog or read comments. "The Blogger Help Group is littered with increasingly desperate postings from people like myself," she added.

Source: Blogger's sloppy stumble out of beta | Webware : Cool web apps for everyone

PC World calls PS3 a top tech mistake of 2006 | PS3 News | GamePro.com

Ouch...  See the full list (full list link) for more, and this snapshot for the PS3-specific assessment. 

PC World's Dan Tynan has released a new article titled "The 21 biggest technology mistakes of 2006." The number eight entry? The PlayStation 3.

Zune: #17

(Thanks, Andrew)

Source: PC World calls PS3 a top tech mistake of 2006 | PS3 News | GamePro.com

Analyst: Zune finding some willing ears | CNET News.com

 Another Zune progress update

Also, while the Zune has a double-digit share among similarly priced models, it has a far smaller slice of the overall market, Bhavnani said. He noted that although the Zune is in a strong part of the market, the bulk of sales are for cheaper products such as Apple's $79 iPod Shuffle, which he said is "flying off the shelves."

Still, he said it is an impressive start for the company, which has acknowledged that trying to catch up with the iPod is likely to be an expensive, multi-year effort.

Source: Analyst: Zune finding some willing ears | CNET News.com

Argh! Blogger broke my blog

The new Blogger model has switched my site feed and I can't find a way to switch it back. In the meantime, try this feed. Any pointers from other Blogger "upgrade" victims would be appreciated...

Nintendo slapped with suit over Wii strap | News.blog | CNET News.com

Inevitable...

File this under "c'mon, you had to see this one coming." Just days after Nintendo announced that it would voluntarily exchange 3.2 million Wii remote straps due to reports of the parts breaking and even causing bodily harm comes news of a lawsuit against the company.

Source: Nintendo slapped with suit over Wii strap News.blog CNET News.com

At the Heart of the Wii, Micron-Size Machines - New York Times

Cool -- read the article for more details 

The controllers communicate with the Wii console, a $250 box no larger than a child’s lunchbox, with the wireless technology known as Bluetooth. It is the means commonly used to link cellphones with their wireless headsets. The Wii remote also uses infrared, the same technology that links television sets with their remote controllers, to track where the controller is pointed.

Source: At the Heart of the Wii, Micron-Size Machines - New York Times

Stars Find Privacy Breached In Aspen by Phone Book - WSJ.com

Privacy violations, the old-fashioned way... 

When the Yellow Book directory for Aspen, Colo. came out recently, residents of this ultra-chic ski town found it contained more than the usual list of local bars, hair salons and ski shops.

It also included the previously unpublished addresses of actor Jack Nicholson, former Walt Disney Co. boss Michael Eisner and the deceased ex-chairman of Enron Corp. Kenneth Lay, among other celebrities and executives accustomed to keeping their contact information unpublished. The incident was first reported in the Aspen Daily News.

Source: Stars Find Privacy Breached In Aspen by Phone Book - WSJ.com

Writer Zone -- FYI re Blogger update

Sorry about the extended down period yesterday; Blogger was updating my blog to its new format, and what was supposed to take a few minutes took a few hours. 

FYI if you use Blogger with Windows Live Writer, as I do, you'll want to download the latest update to the latter after you update the former. 

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service. 

Blogging has turned the web into a two-way communications medium. Our goal in creating Writer is to help make blogging more powerful, intuitive, and fun for everyone.

Source: Writer Zone

Technology Review: Literacy and Text Messaging

And multitasking as well... 

"In coming years literacy will mean knowing how to choose between print, image, video, sound, and all the potential combinations they could create to make a particular point with a specific audience," says Bronwyn Williams, associate professor of English at the University of Louisville. "What will not change is the necessity of an individual to be able to find a purpose, correctly analyze an audience, and communicate to that audience with information and in a tone that audience will find persuasive, engaging, and intelligent."

Source: Technology Review: Literacy and Text Messaging

Google Operating System: Google Pushing Blogger... Really Hard

Hmm...  See the post for details. 

It's no secret that Google uses AdWords to promote its products. If you search for "blogger" you'll have a surprise (for "blog" the situation is similar). Basically, there's a very slim chance someone will go to other site than blogger.com. Why?

Source: Google Operating System: Google Pushing Blogger... Really Hard

» Can Microsoft’s ‘Harmonica’ create P2P harmony across all devices? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

2007 is going to be a great year for DBMS fans 

In fact, there is a team inside the SQL Server database unit that is building an end-to-end, P2P data synchronization platform, code-named "Harmonica," that is designed to fulfill that task, according to sources close to the company.

Unlike some of Microsoft's other "anytime, anywhere" schemes, Harmonica doesn't seem to be complete vaporware. Microsoft's Windows Live Favorites synchronization capability is based on Harmonica, sources said.

Source: » Can Microsoft’s ‘Harmonica’ create P2P harmony across all devices? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

A Search for Ourselves - washingtonpost.com

Interesting times 

This year, in addition to the predictable current events, celebrities and trends summing up 2006, Google's list seems to support the idea behind Time magazine's Person of the Year award, which was given to "You."

The top search terms were words related to user-generated content, such as blogs, social networking sites and podcasts.

Source: A Search for Ourselves - washingtonpost.com

Google Steps More Boldly Into PayPal’s Territory - New York Times

Ah, so it's more like Google HailStorm... 

Unlike PayPal, a full-fledged payment system that can be used to transfer money between individuals and can draw funds directly from bank accounts, Checkout merely offers users an easy way to use their credit cards. Checkout users enter their credit card information, shipping and billing address into Google’s system. Then, they can pay with Checkout at participating stores without having to enter their personal information again and again.

Source: Google Steps More Boldly Into PayPal’s Territory - New York Times

Video, John Chambers - Cisco Buys Into Digital Signage - CRN

Quarter-million dollar web conferencing room equipment, digital signage -- an interesting view of the edge of the network.  Some clear synergy with Cisco's Scientific Atlanta acquisition. 

"We feel there is enormous potential for digital signage to be integrated into our existing enterprise streaming and live video broadcasting platform," said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of the Emerging Market Technologies Group at Cisco, San Jose, Calif. "This will allow Cisco to provide live video, video-on-demand, and other rich media content to desktops and digital signage displays using IP for applications such as targeted communications, advertising and training."

Source: Video, John Chambers - Cisco Buys Into Digital Signage - CRN

Offline Involuntarily - New York Times

This is one of several reasons why I signed up for a wide-area wireless card (from Cingular). 

The challenge for hotels is that more people are using the Internet for more things these days, not just to check e-mail messages, but to make phone calls, download TV shows and do videoconferencing, all of which require more bandwidth and more tech support when things do not work. Add to the mix the quirks of different operating systems, Web browsers and corporate security settings, not to mention travelers who are not necessarily tech-savvy themselves, and it is no surprise that hotels are struggling to provide reliable service.

Source: Offline Involuntarily - New York Times

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Web Boom 2.0 - Is it different this time?

Interesting analysis -- see the post for details 

In my opinion the main difference between the Dot Com Boom and the Web 2.0 Boom is who will get hurt when the bubble bursts. During the Dot Com Boom those companies took their IPOs to the NASDAQ where small individual investors were left holding the bag. Today these companies are not public. The VCs and acquiring companies will be hurt when the Web 2.0 bubble bursts.

Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Web Boom 2.0 - Is it different this time?

Skype founders to launch Web TV service | CNET News.com

 Multi-category disruptors...

A broadband television service developed by the founders of Internet calling program Skype is expected to be launched next year, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Some 6,000 individuals have already been testing the service, named the Venice Project, the newspaper said.

Source: Skype founders to launch Web TV service | CNET News.com

An Ominous Milestone: 100 Million Data Leaks - New York Times

Read the article for some debate dimensions, e.g., data loss is not 1:1 with identity theft 

“Rapid-fire announcements this week by U.C.L.A. (800,000 records) and Aetna (130,000) moved the total to the threshold, when Boeing revealed yesterday that a laptop recently stolen from an employee’s car contained names, Social Security numbers and other data on 382,000 current and former employees of the aerospace giant — bringing the total to a grim 100,152,801 records (as of this post).”

Source: An Ominous Milestone: 100 Million Data Leaks - New York Times

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Web Boom 2.0 is Okay: Wrong

Speaking of wrong, I was, in my earlier Time post; apparently Time no longer requires an id/pw for access to articles (so you can, for example, read the "paean" cover story referenced below). It did when I last checked, which is why I hadn't checked for a long time...

Josh Quittner is wrong in his Time magazine paean to all thing Web 2.0. Far from being different from the prior dot-com boom, this boom is achingly similar, with the main difference being that it is cheaper this time to get yourself in just as deep -- and this time there is no IPO market to bail you out.

Source: Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed: Web Boom 2.0 is Okay: Wrong

Google Operating System: Google Phone?

Interesting times 

Last month, Eric Schmidt said: "Your mobile phone should be free. It just makes sense that subsidies should increase"

Source: Google Operating System: Google Phone?

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'You' named Time's person of 2006

Kind of ironic, since Time requires a subscriber id/pw for access to its content these days.

"You" have been named as Time magazine's Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet.

Source: BBC NEWS Technology 'You' named Time's person of 2006

You Had Me At EHLO... : A demo of many new features for Outlook Web Access 2007

Impressive... 

This is a Flash demo showing off some of the great new features for Outlook Web Access 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/code/OWA/index.html

Source: You Had Me At EHLO... : A demo of many new features for Outlook Web Access 2007

Amazon Dispute Could Put IBM Software Customers In Legal Jeopardy - Patent Infringement, WebSphere

Pick your battles... 

That could be bad news for the thousands of IBM customers who depend on WebSphere and other IBM middleware to facilitate communication between key business applications.

And it would be horrible news for IBM itself if the court finds in favor of Amazon. In the third quarter, WebSphere and other middleware products generated $3.4 billion in revenue for IBM, accounting for 77% of its software sales for the period.

However, Amazon's lead attorney in the case says that the Web merchant is, for now at least, not likely interested in pursuing WebSphere users. "Amazon's goal is to be left alone to conduct its business and not be bothered by people like IBM," says Ruffin Cordell, an attorney at Washington, D.C.-based Fish & Richardson, which is handling the case for Amazon.

Source: Amazon Dispute Could Put IBM Software Customers In Legal Jeopardy - Patent Infringement, WebSphere

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Your new IT budget: $10

Another timely reality check 

Yesterday, Google put a suitable exclamation point to the end of 2006 when it announced that it was adding a domain registration option to its Apps for Your Domain service. Small businesses, schools, and other organizations will now be able to buy and set up a domain when they sign up for the Google service. And the other elements of that service will be immediately and automatically configured to run on that domain. The cost for the registration is a flat $10 a year. There's nothing at all interesting about that price - it's pretty much what you'd pay if you registered your domain yourself (and Microsoft will even give you a domain for free through its Office Live service). But I find that, by further simplifying the creation of what amounts to a virtual data center, the move brings into clearer view the future landscape of business IT.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Your new IT budget: $10

Amazon Strikes Back At IBM With Lawsuit - WSJ.com

Who needs reality TV when we have lawyers?... 

"While IBM tries to cloak its rhetoric in the legitimacy of patents laws, there is nothing legitimate in IBM's claims" and IBM's lawsuits "amount to a claim that IBM invented the Internet," Amazon's attorney wrote in a filing added to the two lawsuits on Thursday.

In response to Amazon's new claims, IBM spokesman Kendra Collins wrote in an email that "Amazon's assertions defy reality. This is nothing more than a transparent litigation ploy. Amazon … relies on caustic rhetoric to distract attention from its own infringement."

Source: Amazon Strikes Back At IBM With Lawsuit - WSJ.com

Jeff Raikes interview -- the whole thing from Guardian Unlimited: Technology

Read the full interview for more on Office 2007, web-centric Office scenarios, etc.  Via Scoble. 

Jack Schofield: Before we get going, did you write the Gates memo?

JR: Which memo are you referring to?

JS: The 1985 memo that Bill Gates sent to Apple, saying "you ought to license Mac OS to make it an industry standard." (http://www.scripting.com/specials/gatesLetter/text.html)

JR: I did. It's funny, there's a great irony in that memo, in that I was absolutely sincere in wanting the Macintosh to succeed, because that was the heart of our applications business at the time. And Apple somehow decided it was a devious plot and that I was the devil....

The irony is that I think if they'd taken the advice in the memo, we'd probably have ended up seeing the Mac be more successful and Windows perhaps not quite as successful, so I guess it all worked out OK in the end!

Source: Jeff Raikes interview -- the whole thing from Guardian Unlimited: Technology

Collaborative Thinking: Knowledge Management 2.0 - Editorial - CIO

Mike Gotta reality check on knowledge management -- read the full post 

Given the need for growth and innovation, CXO's are investigating ways to harness the intellectual capital within their organization and extended network of customer, partner and supplier relationships. But any reader take-away that what we need is a new round of technology silver-bullets would be unfortunate. I'm having a bad flashback to the KM hype of the nineties sometimes applied nowadays to blogs, wikis and so on. Below are some reactions to various aspects of the article.

Source: Collaborative Thinking: Knowledge Management 2.0 - Editorial - CIO

The Seattle Times: Brier Dudley's blog

 Looked kinda cute, until it blue-screened my PC; maybe I should have launched it in Firefox instead of IE...

Want some lip with your search results?

Try Ms. Dewey, the zingy talking search engine/viral marketing ploy dreamed up by Microsoft's Windows Live team.

Ms. Dewey is actually actress Janina Gavankar. Enter a search term, and she gives you some sass and results from Windows Live. It gets fun when you start entering terms like Google, Apple and Playstation.

Source: The Seattle Times: Brier Dudley's blog

Nintendo to Replace 3.2 Million Straps for Wii Game Consoles - WSJ.com

Oops... 

Nintendo said Friday it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game consoles after the Japanese game maker received a rash of reports that the device flew out of the hands of enthusiastic players.

The wand-like remote control is used to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, people started reporting cases of the control's strap breaking as they waved it about vigorously.

Source: Nintendo to Replace 3.2 Million Straps for Wii Game Consoles - WSJ.com

Technology Review: P2P: From Internet Scourge to Savior

Timely reality check 

Even BitTorrent, an advanced P2P network long seen by movie and record executives as an irksome successor to Napster and Kazaa, is going mainstream. The company announced early this month that it had raised $20 million in a second round of venture-capital funding and acquired competitor ?Torrent (pronounced "microtorrent"), maker of a compact version of the BitTorrent software meant to be suitable for set-top boxes and other non-PC devices. BitTorrent--which speeds up downloads by grabbing and reassembling file fragments from the most accessible peers on the network, rather than by transferring whole files from one peer to another--is still one of the best tools for locating and procuring Internet video. That's in part because it's free and in part because so many people use it and have built a worldwide archive of digital files.

Source: Technology Review: P2P: From Internet Scourge to Savior

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Changing the Game | PBS

More timely and interesting perspectives from Cringely; read the full post. 

What's driving this trend beyond the simple needs of VCs trying to find good places for all that money is Google. Will there ever be another Internet success to rival Google? Not in this decade there won't. So rather than even trying to repeat Google, VCs participate in the Google ecosystem, the best example of which is YouTube, which just made a few VCs a LOT of money when it was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion.

But the very success of YouTube strongly suggests that there won't be another YouTube, simply because one site downloading 58 percent of all Internet videos and that site, in turn, being acquired by the second-biggest video downloading site that also has more money than God, well the YouTube guys would have to commit mass suicide to blow their lead at this point and I don't see that.

Source: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Changing the Game | PBS

Gartner predicts Vista to be last major Windows - Yahoo! News

I boldly predict we'll be seeing fewer bold predictions from industry analysts in the future, once more people start assessing batting averages (information literacy is your friend...). 

In the meantime, see the article for Gartner's soothsaying about the average life span of bloggers and other prognostications...  

Research firm Gartner Inc. turned soothsayer on Wednesday by predicting that Windows Vista will be the last big release of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Windows operating system.

Source: Gartner predicts Vista to be last major Windows - Yahoo! News

Technology anniversaries | Bits of memory | Economist.com

 Interesting perspective, especially since, in many ways, the information technology industry is really just getting started...

What the sudden mania for anniversaries says about the computer industry

[...]

The desire to commemorate past achievements seems especially peculiar in the computer industry, given its obsessive focus on the future, its mania for constant improvement and the speed with which its products become obsolete. But the industry seems to be coming to terms with the fact that it is no longer as young and sprightly as it once was. Many of the pioneers who laid its foundations are now old men.

Source: Technology anniversaries | Bits of memory | Economist.com

Microsoft, HP plan joint investment, closer ties - Boston.com

I guess we'll be seeing fewer *IX ads from HP... 

"The most comprehensive partner that we have of over the 640,000 partners we have at Microsoft is Hewlett-Packard," Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, said during the conference.

The companies will also work together to establish a sales and technical training program to certify more than 3,000 new Microsoft-trained consultants at HP.

Source: Microsoft, HP plan joint investment, closer ties - Boston.com

Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks ... - New York Times

Another Vista reality check 

Online, there’s much talk of Vista’s place in the universe. Is it too little, too late? Does the Mac’s uptick in market share threaten the dominance of Windows? Does Web-based software make operating systems obsolete?

None of the above. Windows isn’t going anywhere, the landscape won’t be changing anytime soon, and the corporate world will still buy it 500 copies at a time.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what you (or tech reviewers) think of Windows Vista; sooner or later, it’s what most people will have on their PCs. In that light, it’s fortunate that Vista is better looking, better designed and better insulated against the annoyances of the Internet. At the very least, it’s well equipped to pull the world’s PCs along for the next five years — or whenever the next version of Windows drops down the chimney.

Source: Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks ... - New York Times

Microsoft, Symantec Get Ready for a Showdown - WSJ.com

Surprising stats -- I wonder if the analysis was primarily retail channel sales 

Since the first version of the product came out in the spring, OneCare has had limited success. According to market-research firm NPD, OneCare held 1.6% of the U.S. security-software market at retail through November compared with Symantec's 61.8%, Trend Micro Inc.'s 10.6% and McAfee Inc.'s 9.3%. When the security software is part of a suite, Microsoft has a 3.8% share.

But Microsoft has lofty goals. "We certainly aspire to be No. 1," says Brian Hall, general manager of product management. "We're in it for the long term."

Symantec is equally determined not to give ground. "We feel we are well poised to maintain our market leadership," says Tom Powledge, senior director of product management.

Source: Microsoft, Symantec Get Ready for a Showdown - WSJ.com

Personal Technology -- These Services Make Backing Up Your Files Safe and Inexpensive

Timely checkpoint (no pun intended) from Walt Mossberg; read the review (no subscription required) for details.

You could, of course, automatically back up your files to an external hard disk, attached to your PC or to your home network. But that can get expensive, and it doesn't store your backup remotely, so any disaster at your home or office could also wipe out your backup drive.

There's another method: backing up over the Internet to a remote server somewhere. This is automated and solves the location issue, but in too many cases it has been costly and complicated, usually with quotas on how much you can back up.

Source: Personal Technology -- These Services Make Backing Up Your Files Safe and Inexpensive

Piper Jaffray disputes report of weak iTunes sales - Yahoo! News

Think different... 

Digital music sales surged at Apple Computer Inc.'s (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) iTunes service over the first nine months of 2006, Piper Jaffray said on Wednesday, contradicting a report that sales collapsed in the first half.

Apple shares fell 3 percent on Tuesday after Forrester Research reported a 65 percent drop in monthly iTunes revenue in the first six months of the year, based on a survey of North American consumers.

See the article for details.  Hint: Piper Jaffray has sales data from Apple...

Source: Piper Jaffray disputes report of weak iTunes sales - Yahoo! News

Jeff Jonas: Effective Counter-Terrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining

If you're into data modeling and/or counter-terrorism analysis, check out this paper by Jeff Jonas (IBM) and Jim Harper 

Make no confusion about it; though data mining has many value uses from reducing corporate direct marketing costs, to classifying celestial objects and even medical research, it just so happens that it is not so helpful to discover underlying patterns of low- incident terrorism.

Source: Jeff Jonas: Effective Counter-Terrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Report says iTunes sales took big dive in first half of this year

It'll be interesting to see if this was a case of broken analysis 

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the report is "simply incorrect."

"iTunes won't save the music business, or Apple," analyst Josh Bernoff wrote in the Forrester report.

Forrester, which based its findings on analysis of 2,791 U.S. iTunes debit and credit purchases, said it is too soon to tell whether the decline is seasonal or if demand for digital music is falling.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Report says iTunes sales took big dive in first half of this year

Office Competitor Maker Rejects Google Offer

 Go figure...

Haansoft says it is not interested in giving up control of ThinkFree but is open to a cooperative agreement with Google, which recently launched very basic Web-based word processing and spreadsheet solutions. Google claims it has no designs on the office productivity market currently dominated by Microsoft, but it's been moving slowly in that direction for several months.

Source: Office Competitor Maker Rejects Google Offer

Skype’s Free Phone Call Plan Will Soon Have Annual Fee - New York Times

Skype continues to evolve 

The company has been developing and deploying technology that allows Skype to be used on other devices, including wireless phones and pocket computers.

But potentially more significant innovations are planned for next year, when Skype will introduce services with Yahoo and Google that will allow Web surfers to click a button and call a business they have found during a search.

Mr. Albert said the concept, known as “click to call,” was an important example of combining eBay’s expertise in online sales with Skype’s capacity to allow people to make inexpensive calls.

Source: Skype’s Free Phone Call Plan Will Soon Have Annual Fee - New York Times

WSJ.com IBM, Yahoo To Launch Free Corporate Data-Search Tool

Interesting search market dynamics

IBM Corp. (IBM) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) are teaming up to offer a free data-search tool for businesses, a quirky move challenging Google Inc. (GOOG) and other corporate-search specialists in a blossoming market.

IBM already sells a business-focused search product, OmniFind, that lets organizations comb through internal documents. This free new edition of OmniFind will be limited in the number of documents it can query, but it will combine the results with Web searches powered by Yahoo.

[Update: no WSJ subscription required for this version]

Source: Article - WSJ.com IBM, Yahoo To Launch Free Corporate Data-Search Tool

Technology Review: Q&A: Rick Rashid

Timely snapshot/interview 

Rick Rashid, who has directed Microsoft Research since the early 1990s, recently visited MIT and talked to Technology Review's editor in chief about the future of computing. Before joining Microsoft, Rashid was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He's most famous for his work on the Mach operating-system kernel, which influenced the development of the NeXTStep OS that powered NeXT's black computers, which in turn influenced the current MacOS X.

Source: Technology Review: Q&A: Rick Rashid

Burton Group Inflection Point: Significant Changes Ahead for 2007 Anti-Malware Market

Timely and free malware market projections from my Burton Group Security and Risk Management Strategies colleagues. 

Vendors are struggling to keep up with new and changing malware, while organizations face targeted attacks from worms, viruses, botnets, data-stealing spyware, and cyberextortionists. In this podcast, Diana Kelley and Dan Blum highlight attack trends as well as defenses to manage the risk of malware to organizations. This post also includes a PDF of Burton Group’s malware predictions for 2007.

Source: Burton Group Inflection Point: Significant Changes Ahead for 2007 Anti-Malware Market

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Zunestory

A balanced Zune perspective from Paul Thurrott; read the full post for some insights. 

While it remains to be seen whether Microsoft can pull off such an impressive feat, I'm intrigued that they're even trying. Historically, Microsoft hasn't performed very well in markets in which a single strong competitor controls a dominant position. But Caulton has reassured me that Microsoft is in this market for the long run and the company has given a financial commitment to making the Zune a success. Apple's products are superior today, there's no doubt about it, and the slew of iPods and iPod accessories I've bought over the years testifies to how a superior product can sway even a diehard Windows guy like myself. I'm not ready to recommend the current Zune device to anyone per se, but I'll be tracking the Zune's improvements over the coming year. This could prove to be an interesting battle sometime in the future.

Source: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Zunestory

Wired News: In Praise of the Zune

Dare to be different... 

Microsoft's Zune is a slick piece of hardware. It's a worthy competitor to the iPod that surpasses its rival in some surprising ways, like the interface, which is drop-dead fantastic.

The Zune is taking a good kicking in the press, but the criticism -- especially from the Mac web -- seems knee-jerk and defensive.

Source: Wired News: In Praise of the Zune

Cisco, Citrix expand click-to-call

 Interesting -- I wonder if they'll expand it to other "smart tag" content types.

Citrix has teamed up with Cisco to let users easily call phone numbers that appear in any application they're working on.

With Citrix Presentation Server, enterprises can run applications centrally and have employees simply work with an image of the application on each client device. Through integration with Cisco's CallManager VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) system, the companies have been offering a click-to-call feature for a limited number of applications. After rolling a mouse over any phone number that appears in an application, users see a pop-up menu and can click on the option "Call" to dial the number on a Cisco phone.

Source: Cisco, Citrix expand click-to-call

BBC NEWS | Technology | Community websites take wiki path

 Interesting times...

The founder of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia is launching a service offering free tools for people who want to build community websites.

Jimmy Wales has said his company Wikia.com will offer software, storage and network access and that website creators can keep advertising revenue.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Community websites take wiki path

The Jeff Pulver Blog: Blog-Tag: A Game for a Virtual Cocktail Party [I've been tagged]

 I suspect the person who tagged me will pester me until the end of time if I don't play, so here we go [five things about me relatively few people know]:

1.  I grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota 

2.  I got started in software during 1979 when I came to terms with the fact that I'd probably starve as an English major

3.  My first PC was a Kaypro and I suspect I'd still be more productive in CP/M Wordstar than Microsoft Word, if I could tolerate floppy drive speeds (I also had a Televideo terminal and "high speed" modem going back to 1980 or so)

4.  I am a recovering COBOL programmer -- got started in COBOL and network DBMS work out of college and can probably still type the word PERFORM faster than I can type my own first name

5.  I think logical data modeling is the path to enlightenment [wait; anybody who has talked with me for more than 3 minutes already knows that...]

Now it's my turn to annoy five other people:

Guy Creese

Mike Gotta

Karen Hobert

Elden Nelson

Craig Roth

Link to The Jeff Pulver Blog: Blog-Tag: A Game for a Virtual Cocktail Party [I've been tagged]

Customers Strongly Endorse New Microsoft-Novell Deal: Just-released survey shows more than 90 percent favor vendor cooperation on interoperability.

Interesting counter-FUD measure and pro-active marketing 

A survey of technology decision-makers shows very strong customer support for the recent agreement between Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. designed to improve interoperability between Windows Server^® and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Nearly all respondents agree with improving interoperability, having products that work well together, and having tools that make it easier to manage mixed Windows^® and Linux environments. The survey, jointly commissioned by Novell and Microsoft, was conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates Inc., a respected independent market research firm.

Source: Customers Strongly Endorse New Microsoft-Novell Deal: Just-released survey shows more than 90 percent favor vendor cooperation on interoperability.

Q&A: Microsoft Delivers Voice Technologies in Unified Communications Platform

 More OCS details -- read the full press release/interview for some customer scenarios

PressPass: Microsoft recently announced business availability of the 2007 Microsoft Office system client applications. How do the new Office Communications Server and Exchange Server technologies integrate with these applications?

Gupta: We have designed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 to richly interoperate with the Microsoft Office client experience, such as through making availability and presence information available throughout the Outlook e-mail interface. For example, as soon as a person types someone’s name into the To: line, the sender can see whether that individual is away from his desk or out of the office. Also, when people go into a Microsoft Office SharePoint team site, they can view the availability of other team members and decide whom to contact. Similarly, these products share a single conversation history folder that tracks not only the e-mails that someone has sent but also the instant messages and telephone calls in a seamless way.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the voice capabilities in Microsoft Office Communications Server allow users to launch instant messaging or phone conversations directly from within an Office Outlook e-mail. We have made sure that the most common telephony capabilities that people want, such as call forwarding and conferencing, are simply and intuitively integrated into a common Microsoft unified communications user interface.

Source: Q&A: Microsoft Delivers Voice Technologies in Unified Communications Platform

Microsoft trying to find its voice | CNET News.com

Relentless... 

With the next version, due by the end of the second quarter of next year, businesses will be able to also use the software to make calls over the Internet using their existing phone systems. And workers will be able to make phone calls from their PC using an earpiece or headset from one of Microsoft's partners.

The software will also tie into Microsoft's Office products, so workers will be able to click on a name in Outlook or Word, see if that person is available and then dial them for a call. In addition to the server software, Microsoft is also readying new desktop Office Communicator software that can handle telephony tasks along with corporate instant messaging.

Source: Microsoft trying to find its voice | CNET News.com

Socialtext Introducing Wiki Software That Lets You Work Offline - News by InformationWeek

Apparently nothing like Notes or Groove in terms of conflict detection and resolution, however. 

Socialtext Unplugged, developed in conjunction with U.K. software developer Osmosoft Ltd., aims to serve the occasionally disconnected. "It breaks a lot of people's assumptions about what a Web application can be," says Jeremy Ruston, the creator of TiddlyWiki and founder of Osmosoft. "It's a Web application that doesn't use a service."

Like the TiddlyWiki software on which it's based, Socialtext Unplugged relies on Javascript to make the Web pages into self-contained applications. "It merges the document paradigm with the Web paradigm of computing," Ruston explains.

Source: Socialtext Introducing Wiki Software That Lets You Work Offline - News by InformationWeek

vowe dot net :: On activities

Timely reality check from Volker 

I hope this makes it crystal clear that Activities is not a Notes/Domino application. It runs on WebSphere Application Server, it requires WebSphere Application Server, and it has the characteristics of a WebSphere application. Notes 8 (the Eclipse version) will be able to run it, much likes Notes 7 can run browser applications.

I advise you to visit the Research lab at Lotusphere. For the last few years almost everything there has been running on WebSphere.

Source: vowe dot net :: On activities

Palm Buys Back Its OS for $44 Million - Yahoo! News

PalmSource was acquired last year for ~$324M, and Palm made up ~50% of Palmsource's (renamed Access) revenue at that time; hmmm...

Palm is buying -- or rather, buying back -- what it used to own. This week, the Sunnyvale, California, firm announced that it purchased a perpetual license to the Palm Garnet operating system from Access Systems Americas. Garnet is used in all of Palm's current handhelds and smartphones, including its popular Treo line.

Palm will pay Access $44 million for the license, which lets Palm edit the source code in any way it likes and keep all rights to its edits and upgrades.

An error in the article: Garnet is not the only OS Palm uses at this time -- Windows Mobile is a popular option for many Treo customers.

Source: Palm Buys Back Its OS for $44 Million - Yahoo! News

FT.com / Companies / Financial services - VC rises to dotcom bubble levels

Uh oh... 

The volume of money invested globally in venture capital is set to top $32bn this year, more than has been seen for four years, putting investments closer to levels seen during the dotcom bubble, research by consultancy Ernst & Young has found.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Financial services - VC rises to dotcom bubble levels

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google 2.0: From search engine to media powerhouse

A timely Google snapshot 

Meanwhile, the offline moves of Google 2.0 are ringing alarm bells on Madison Avenue, where advertising deals are still sometimes conducted via fax machines.

"The fear with Google is it is so superefficient, so automated, who needs the agencies?" said Joe Mandese, editor in chief of MediaPost, an online publication that chronicles the media industry.

Microsoft, itself a convicted monopolist, has been warning that Google may soon have the power to fix the prices publishers receive. Without healthy competition, "Google will tell you exactly what you get to charge for ads," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the Mercury News.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google 2.0: From search engine to media powerhouse

Gore plans to initiate a grass-roots 'carbon freeze' movement - The Boston Globe

Taking the lead... 

Al Gore plans to start a grass-roots political movement next month to seek a "freeze" on carbon emissions that scientists say are to blame for global warming.

The former vice president's campaign is modeled after the nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s. Gore said he planned to enlist groups ranging from entrepreneurs and activists to political leaders to push for stronger policies to limit the growth of greenhouse gases.

Source: Gore plans to initiate a grass-roots 'carbon freeze' movement - The Boston Globe

Media Titans Again Discuss Site to Rival YouTube - WSJ.com

Stimulus/response... 

Four major media companies, including News Corp.'s Fox, Viacom Inc., CBS Corp. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, are in talks about creating a video Web site to compete with Google Inc.'s YouTube, according to people close to the situation.

The companies, owners of most of the major TV networks, envision a jointly owned site that would be the primary Web source for video content from their networks, allowing them to cash in on fast-growing Web video advertising. They also have discussed building a Web video player that could play video clips from across the Web. A deal to create a competitor remains far off, however.

Source: Media Titans Again Discuss Site to Rival YouTube - WSJ.com

Phone + cable + internet + cellphone = Fierce competition - The Boston Globe

Competition = good.  Contractual lock-in = bad. 

It's the battle of the bundles.

The line between cable and telephone companies has blurred as Comcast Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and RCN Corp. compete to control the pipe that delivers a dial tone, Internet, and television channels into homes. Now, the turf wars have extended into the wireless world.

Source: Phone + cable + internet + cellphone = Fierce competition - The Boston Globe

Desktops Are So Twentieth Century (BusinessWeek)

Interesting times 

The actual number of desktops sold in the year through October dropped 5%, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. Notebook shipments were up 35% during that period. "Desktops are in trouble," says Samir Bhavnani, research director at Current Analysis. "They are going to get marginalized to the very high end and the very low end of the market."

Source: Desktops Are So Twentieth Century

Exhibitionists and naturists, please form a single line in front of the nude X-ray.

Sign of the times 

Despite the privacy protections the Transportation Security Administration says it's built into the system -- a mechanism that blurs out naughty bits and another that prevents the printing, storing or transmission of the images it creates -- it's inevitable that some images will slip out. Once that happens, the jump to Flickr or YouTube is inevitable. "As this technology becomes commonplace, you're going to start seeing those images all over the Internet," Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU's technology and liberty program, told USA Today. "These images are going to have high commercial value."

Source: Exhibitionists and naturists, please form a single line in front of the nude X-ray.

Google Aims To Revitalize Advertising On Radio - washingtonpost.com

Traditional advertising companies should be more worried about Google than Microsoft is. 

By tapping into its customer base of millions of small online advertisers, Google is looking to transform old media by removing the middleman, such as a radio station's ad department, and make it easier for small companies to gain access to radio, magazines and newspapers through the same types of online auctions that Google has used to sell its popular search ads.

Source: Google Aims To Revitalize Advertising On Radio - washingtonpost.com

Looking for a Gambit to Win at Google’s Game - New York Times

Timely reality check 

So for now, Mr. Berkowitz has decreed that Microsoft will promote at least two Internet services. MSN, in Mr. Berkowitz’s conception, is a conventional portal with links to programming on various topics that competes with Yahoo and AOL. Windows Live, which uses the Live.com site, is meant to look much like Google, a spare-looking page that can be customized with modules from various services and news feeds.

Reflecting the many conflicting strategies, Microsoft’s Internet unit has been slowed by the same sort of organizational drag that caused the latest upgrade of Windows to fall years behind schedule. And of course, the competitive pace of the Internet is far faster than that of operating systems.

Source: Looking for a Gambit to Win at Google’s Game - New York Times

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . It Takes a Monopoly | PBS

Another provocative perspective (and assorted conspiracy theories) from Cringely. 

Windows Vista is finally here, a shadow of what it was once supposed to be, but here nonetheless, and now the pundits are holding forth on whether or not Microsoft's new operating system will succeed. What a waste of good punditry: of course Vista will succeed, and those who think it will fail simply do not know what they are talking about.

Source: I, Cringely . The Pulpit . It Takes a Monopoly | PBS

Jon Udell: A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft

More on Jon Udell's new mission... 

Over the years I've evangelized a bunch of things to the alpha-geek crowd: Internet groupware, blogging, syndication, tagging, web architecture, lightweight integration, microformats, structured search, screencasting, dynamic languages, geographic mapping, random-access audio, and more. There's a purpose behind all this, and Doug Engelbart saw it very clearly a long time ago. The augmentation of human capability in these sorts of ways isn't just some kind of geek chic. It's nothing less than a survival issue for our species. We face some really serious challenges. The only way we're going to be able to tackle them is to figure out how to work together in shared information spaces. I've chosen to align myself with Microsoft because I think it has the scale, the resources, and the business incentive to help me empower a lot of people to learn how to do that.

Source: Jon Udell: A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft

James Governor's MonkChips: Holy Crap Microsoft Just Got Awesome. 4k

 Fascinating -- I look forward to tracking Jon's evangelism work at Microsoft.

Jon Udell is one of the smartest guys in an industry full of smart people. I thought he enjoyed working for a media company, but then again, Microsoft is becoming a media company, and so Jon is joining. IBM has IBM TV but Microsoft has Channel 9 and a new star. 

[...]

Jon and JJ and Ray - are the soul of a new Microsoft.

Also see A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft

(Thanks for the pointer, Paul)

Source: James Governor's MonkChips: Holy Crap Microsoft Just Got Awesome. 4k

'The world needs only five computers' | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

Perhaps every prediction can come true, if you're willing to wait long enough... 

"The world needs only five computers," Papadopoulos said on his blog. He then listed seven--Google, eBay, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Yahoo, Salesforce.com, and what he called the Great Computer of China--but let's not split hairs. He was trying to make the point that "there will be, more or less, five hyperscale, pan-global broadband computing services giants."

Source: 'The world needs only five computers' | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Hey, watch out how you swing that Wii wand

The Optigrab of game controllers?... 

At least two Web sites have been created to collect photos that purportedly show damage — such as broken glass and TVs — from the strap coming off players as they swung around the controller, at times causing the remote to fly out of their hands.

"Some people are getting a lot more excited than we'd expected," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said. "We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment."

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Hey, watch out how you swing that Wii wand

Ecma International Approves Office Open XML as Worldwide Industry Standard

 Strange days indeed...

Today Ecma International approved Office Open XML Formats as an Ecma standard and voted to submit the new standards to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for consideration as an ISO standard through the fast-track process. For the past year, representatives from Apple Computer Inc., Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corp., NextPage Inc., Novell Inc., Statoil ASA, Toshiba, and the U.S. Library of Congress have worked together to help ensure that the Office Open XML Formats are highly useful and interoperable in a wide variety of scenarios. The Formats have garnered positive support from a range of parties in diverse industries. More information about support for the Formats can be found at http://www.openxmldeveloper.org.

Source: Ecma International Approves Office Open XML as Worldwide Industry Standard

Apple Shares Fall on iPhone Speculation - WSJ.com

Of course, they may lose money on each phone sold, but they'll make it up on volume... 

Apple fell $2.79, or 3.1%, to $87.04 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In a research note Thursday, CIBC said it now estimates a late first-quarter 2007 or early second-quarter launch for the "iPhone," based on its checks. Analyst Ittai Kidron wrote: "We have no exact details on the form factor or functionality of the handset, yet we believe Apple could be designing as many as three different models [real or decoy]."

Source: Apple Shares Fall on iPhone Speculation - WSJ.com

Technology Review: Adobe Joins the Social Computing Revolution

Timely reality check; see the post for more details 

I've spent the past few days testing Acrobat 8 and an associated Web service, Acrobat Connect. I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of new features Adobe has provided to help people work together on documents over the Internet--even if those documents aren't PDFs. When combined, Acrobat 8 and Acrobat Connect form a powerful (and potentially cheaper) alternative to established collaboration and presentation systems such as WebEx and Microsoft's Live Meeting and Office Groove 2007. They also show how Adobe is beginning to benefit from its 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, the company that founded the interactive-multimedia industry.

Source: Technology Review: Adobe Joins the Social Computing Revolution

The Apple phone flop | Perspectives | CNET News.com

A successfully provocative perspective on the rumored iPhone.  Read the article for details. 

Apple is slated to come out with a new phone. Reports say that it will have a slide-out keyboard, 4GB or 8GB of storage, and work on CDMA or GSM cellular networks. It will start at $249 before subscription rebates.

And it will largely fail.

Initially, of course, it won't look that way at all. As with any Apple product release, it will be ushered into the world on a wave of obligatory gushing. "It's the greatest advance in communication since cave painting," some will proclaim. "Like Star Trek, but without the clingy Qiana shirts."

I think there's another interesting dynamic in this context: if Apple directly takes on the major phone handset manufacturers, the leading vendors will probably be much more receptive to expanding their relationships with Microsoft -- i.e., doing more with Windows Mobile.  tbd if that will ultimately be a net loss for Apple, but they probably have to do the phone regardless, given the expanding overlap between phones and media players.  It's going to be a milestone product, one way or another...

Source: The Apple phone flop | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Vista Is Ready. Are You? - New York Times

Given desktop and laptop prices today, and the new Vista utilities for migrating apps and files, buying a new PC is going to be the sensible option for most people. 

The easiest way to get Vista is to buy a new PC after Jan. 30. If you want a new PC sooner, make sure the hardware is Vista-ready and see if the vendor is offering a coupon for a free or low-cost upgrade when Vista comes out. It is essential to compare the cost of buying a new system against purchasing Vista and upgrading your current PC. By the time you add up the cost of Vista plus any required hardware, it might be make more sense to get a new machine.

On a related note -- a WSJ article yesterday ("When iPods Die"; subscription required) suggesting most people consider media players and phones disposable after a year or two.  Excerpt:

As pricey as many models of the iPods are, some users seem to accept the idea that their iPods are more or less disposable, a phenomenon common in the cellphone market where users regularly upgrade to more stylish models. One gauge of that, Mr. Arter says, is the growing popularity of a buyback option iPodResQ.com offers for iPods with technical problems. Rather than pay to have the devices repaired, growing numbers of its customers opt to sell them for parts to iPodResQ, typically for between $35 and $95 -- money that can then be applied to the purchase of a new iPod.

Source: Vista Is Ready. Are You? - New York Times

Zunestory: Microsoft Talks Zune Expectations

Interesting -- read the full post for more analysis 

The key to Microsoft's decision to make the Zune, I was told, is that while Apple controls 75 to 80 percent of the overall market for MP3 players, Apple completely controls the only parts of the market that make money (i.e. large capacity MP3 players). For all of its work creating the underlying technologies for the PlaysForSure initiative, Microsoft watched as its numerous hardware partners, collectively, managed only to steal tiny amounts of share in the low-end flash memory player part of the business. This is not a sustainable business model, I was told.

Source: Zunestory: Microsoft Talks Zune Expectations

WSJ.com Microsoft's Zune Will Work With Consumer Vista At Launch

 Glad to see this

Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Zune digital music device will work with the consumer brand of its Vista operating system when that version goes on sale Jan. 30.

That was always the plan, since Zune is a consumer device, Jason Reindorp, director of marketing for Zune, told Dow Jones Newswires. He added that there would be an automatic software update to enable use of Vista.

The failure to work with Vista has been cited as one of the major criticisms of the device since its launch on Nov. 14.

Source: Article - WSJ.com Microsoft's Zune Will Work With Consumer Vista At Launch

Linux lab cuts staff, focuses on legal issues | CNET News.com

 Interesting development.

Open Source Development Labs, an industry-funded consortium, has cut a third of its staff, lost its chief executive and scaled back some technical work.

Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, which has a fun rant on the OSDL news.

Source: Linux lab cuts staff, focuses on legal issues | CNET News.com

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians

Fascinating analysis -- read the full post 

Now, if we limit the comparison to developed countries, where per-capita energy consumption is 7,702 kWh a year, the avatars appear considerably less energy hungry than the humans. But if we look at developing countries, where per-capita consumption is 1,015 kWh, we find that avatars burn through considerably more electricity than people do.

More narrowly still, the average citizen of Brazil consumes 1,884 kWh, which, given the fact that my avatar estimate was rough and conservative, means that your average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians

Techdirt: MySpace Pays Lip Service To Eliminating Internet Predators

Timely reality check 

The problem is, this really doesn't sound like much more than lip service -- after all, the mere presence of sex offenders on MySpace isn't the problem, and if they're kicked off, it seems like they could simply build another profile and start over. This isn't to mention that it's also possible (likely, even) that predators using MySpace might be clever enough to use a fake name, or other false information to evade detection -- making it sound like these searches will be about as good at filtering out the bad stuff as MySpace's music-filtering technology, which never seems to work.

Source: Techdirt: MySpace Pays Lip Service To Eliminating Internet Predators

Integrated Performance Management with PerformancePoint Server 2007

 Interview with Microsoft general manager Bill Baker about a subtly significant new Microsoft offering.

Today Microsoft moved one step closer to its official entry into the performance management space by announcing the release of the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its new performance management application.

Slated for general availability in mid-2007, PerformancePoint Server is a highly-integrated performance management application, driven by the SQL Server platform and familiar Microsoft Office front end, allowing corporations to monitor, analyze, plan and make critical business decisions based on reliable data from all aspects of the company. Partners, customers and end-users are encouraged to visit the Web site at http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=181 to download the application to begin building plans in a real-world environment and testing the overall power of the product for themselves.

Source: Integrated Performance Management with PerformancePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Takes Web Development Leap

Jim Rapoza finds a lot to like about Expression Web 

In its most basic form, Expression Web is the successor to Microsoft's FrontPage Web authoring application. However, eWEEK Labs' tests show that Expression Web is much more than that: While we always looked at FrontPage as a fairly basic Web editing tool that fell short when it came to serious Web development, Expression Web has taken a big leap in functionality and capability—to the point where it is a serious competitor to the leader in Web authoring, Adobe's Dreamweaver.

Source: Microsoft Takes Web Development Leap

Compete Blog » Blog Archive » Google loses a battle … but it may be the beginning of the end for the war

Interesting perspective on the Google/Yahoo competitive scene. 

We spend a lot of time on this site and in the blogosphere talking about Google’s successes and even more time talking about the Google-Yahoo rivalry. The Google Answers shutdown should probably be marked in the “L column,” but this may actually be the sign of a much bigger and more important industry wide trend. We may be hearing a lot less Yahoo vs. Google in the coming months/years. Yahoo and Google have been diverging in a number of recent moves. Maybe this means Larry and Sergey can have a cocktail with David and Jerry at the next Stanford reunion.

Meanwhile, some major org changes at Yahoo, reported in the NYT:

Yahoo said Tuesday that it was restructuring its operations and shuffling its management ranks amid growing criticism in and outside the company that it had become too bureaucratic to compete effectively against nimbler rivals.

Source: Compete Blog » Blog Archive » Google loses a battle … but it may be the beginning of the end for the war

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The five Google products

Another timely and insightful snapshot from Nicholas Carr; read the full post, e.g., for a projection of what he believes will be Google's five primary offerings. 

Simplicity is the new spaghetti. If the statements weren't clear enough, the company added an exclamation point last week when it announced it was killing off its Google Answers product.

Brin's and Schmidt's words amount to an unusually strong, and carefully coordinated, public critique of what until now had been presented as a cornerstone of Google's success. But they're probably a good sign for the young company. They show that, in this instance, anyway, Google isn't falling into the trap of believing the hype about itself - even when the hype originates from its own organization.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The five Google products

Microsoft's designs on Adobe's turf | CNET News.com

Another very competitive domain, as Microsoft tries to expand its scope from developer to designers while Adobe tries to expand from designers to developers... 

"That's the interesting race: can Adobe convince enough people to use Flex and/or learn (Adobe's Web development language) ActionScript faster than Microsoft can convince Visual Studio developers to build WPF and WPF/E applications?" Swenson said.

Source: Microsoft's designs on Adobe's turf | CNET News.com

Zune slips from 2nd to 5th in store sales

Good time to be a media player customer.... 

Zune captured 2.1 percent of the market in the week ended Nov. 25, Stephen Baker, an analyst at Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD, said Monday. Baker said Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod remained the leader, with 39.4 percent that week, based on units sold.

Zune's market share declined as SanDisk Corp. boosted sales with a 50 percent price cut on its media players, taking a 39.3 percent share and knocking Microsoft from the No. 2 spot it occupied in its first week in the market.

Source: Zune slips from 2nd to 5th in store sales

Microsoft Introduces Expression Studio, Enhances Family of Professional Design Tools

 Major milestone -- see the press release for more details and new Microsoft resources for designers

Expression Web shipping, Expression Media announced; latest technology previews deliver product and new platform advancements with first CTP of WPF/E.

Microsoft Corp. today announced significant product line enhancements along with pricing and availability of the Microsoft^® Expression^® Studio for creative professionals. The quality of user experience is emerging as a core requirement for differentiating products and services while optimizing customers’ brand loyalty. Expression Studio, a key component of Microsoft’s strategy for improving the user experience delivered by applications, provides designers with an end-to-end tools platform that boosts collaboration with developers in the delivery of next-generation user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista™ applications and beyond.

Source: Microsoft Introduces Expression Studio, Enhances Family of Professional Design Tools

Chris Pratley's OneNote Blog : OneNote 2007 downloadable trial available

Sign of the times: 60-day full product free trial from Microsoft 

As Dan mentioned on his blog, those of you waiting to try out the final code (everyone currently using beta for sure!) can now download a 60-day trial of OneNote 2007 here. There is a full trial of Office 2007 Professional as well which of course is worht giving a spin too - and it shows off OneNote at its best with the full Outlook integration, blogging support through Word2007, etc. This trial version will last until after retail boxes are available in stores, and of course you can always convert the trial to a full version on-line.

Source: Chris Pratley's OneNote Blog : OneNote 2007 downloadable trial available

Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Learning without Barriers

Timely snapshot

Last week I participated in the Learning without Barriers / Technology without Borders symposium at MIT to mark the completion of iCampus, a research collaboration between MIT and Microsoft Research.   The iCampus initiative seeks to enhance university education through information technologies, and in particular to create and demonstrate IT-based projects with the potential for revolutionary change throughout the university curriculum.

Source: Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Learning without Barriers

Wired News: Azureus' HD Vids Trump YouTube

BitTorrent's disruption zone expands... 

The file sharing company Azureus on Monday launched a new distribution platform for downloading high-quality video, which the company hopes will become the next YouTube -- but for high definition, DVD-quality video on the internet.

Available at Zudeo, users can upload, download and comment on videos in a manner similar to other video sharing sites like YouTube, Metacafe and Revver. But instead of the low-resolution video offered by competing services, the Azureus system promises internet video at better than DVD quality, thanks to BitTorrent's ability to distribute huge video files speedily.

Source: Wired News: Azureus' HD Vids Trump YouTube

EBay's Poison Pill - Forbes.com

Read the article for some interesting holiday shopping options 

Let’s say, however, you’re not a well-financed hit man, but merely a disgruntled housewife looking to knock off your husband and collect a hefty life insurance payout. Chances are such a person could easily obtain an array of less exotic, though perfectly deadly, toxins on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ), the online auction site with 212 million members worldwide.

Source: EBay's Poison Pill - Forbes.com

John Battelle's Searchblog: Google's Bosworth

Adam Bosworth update -- he's now focused (at least in part) on health care information; see this post for more details. 

Adam Bosworth made a lot of waves when he joined Google, given his background in highly ambitious OS and database projects at Microsoft and BEA. For a brief while, his every utterance on his personal blog caused fibrillations across the industry as we all speculated that Adam was going to run Google's answer to Microsoft Hailstorm/Vista/Windows.

Source: John Battelle's Searchblog: Google's Bosworth

Federated Media / Tech: Blog Slapped With Huge Lawsuit

Timely reality check -- as the cost of copyright enforcement continues to drop (along with the ease of "borrowing" content), we're going to see lots of this sort of headline. 

One of the dirty little secrets of blogging (well, it’s not really a secret) is that most blogs post photos without rights clearances. Now PerezHilton.com, a popular entertainment blog, has been slapped with a $7.5 million lawsuit from X17, Hollywood’s largest photo agency.

Source: Federated Media / Tech: Blog Slapped With Huge Lawsuit

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google education campaign targets next generation

Worked for Apple, at least for a while... 

Google, a company synonymous with searching the Internet, hopes to define far more of the world's computing experience, with a helping hand from schoolchildren.

For several months, it has been giving away to all takers an online word processor, spreadsheet and other programs that can perform tasks usually handled by desktop software. Offering a convenience that worries some privacy experts, the programs automatically store everything in Google's vast data centers so that the information can be retrieved on any Internet-connected computer.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Google education campaign targets next generation

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Why Vista might be the last of its kind

Timely recap 

If we assume Microsoft's costs per employee are about $200,000 a year, the estimated payroll costs alone for Vista hover around $10 billion. That has to be close to the costs of some of the biggest engineering projects ever undertaken, such as the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb during World War II. And while Microsoft toiled on Vista, its stock price stayed flat.

So many things went wrong with the building of Vista that it's hard to know where it all started. The original code name was Longhorn, kicked off in 2001 after Windows XP shipped.

Source: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Why Vista might be the last of its kind

Have Camera Phone? Yahoo and Reuters Want You to Work for Their News Service - New York Times

You can be a gargoyle in your spare time (ignore the analogy if you haven't read Snow Crash)

Hoping to turn the millions of people with digital cameras and camera phones into photojournalists, Yahoo and Reuters are introducing a new effort to showcase photographs and video of news events submitted by the public.

Starting tomorrow, the photos and videos submitted will be placed throughout Reuters.com and Yahoo News, the most popular news Web site in the United States, according to comScore MediaMetrix.

Source: Have Camera Phone? Yahoo and Reuters Want You to Work for Their News Service - New York Times

Microsoft Collaborates With Telecommunications Industry to Drive Transition to Telco 2.0 Era

 Some of the connected services mentioned in the press release:

• Microsoft Solution for Enhanced Voice over IP (VoIP) Services to provide integrated voice, e-mail, presence, instant messaging, collaboration and desktop services to SMBs.
• Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration

More from the release:

The ability of service providers to efficiently and cost-effectively develop and deploy new services is essential to the further development of the Telco 2.0 era. For service delivery, Microsoft offers Microsoft Connected Services Framework, a server-based software product through which operators can deliver, aggregate and manage converged communications services for subscribers, regardless of network or device. Today Microsoft announced that Telenor is the latest operator to implement Connected Services Framework. With Connected Services Framework, Telenor will offer new services to small and midsize businesses (SMBs), including an e-mail service based on Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration.

Key to Microsoft’s success in the communications industry is an ecosystem that unites service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators and network equipment providers with Microsoft to drive the development and commercialization of new services. To that end, Microsoft introduced the Connected Services Sandbox, a proof-of-concept and integration environment that will allow ISVs and developers to test their services along with offerings from Microsoft, service providers and system integrators to rapidly bring new services to market.

Source: Microsoft Collaborates With Telecommunications Industry to Drive Transition to Telco 2.0 Era

The Retooling of a Search Engine - New York Times

 Timely search market reality check, including a chart showing Google with 45.4% of the US search market as of October, 2006

On Monday, Ask.com is introducing AskCity, a service that integrates maps with information about local businesses, restaurants, concert and movie listings and reviews.

These so-called local searches already account for 10 percent of all Internet queries and are expected to grow faster than other searches. They are also seen as a way to tap into tens of billions in spending by small businesses, which have yet to switch much of their advertising dollars to the Internet.

[...]

Mr. Lanzone said there was another way that Ask could become an increasingly valuable property. The alliance with Google, which still serves up about 60 percent of all the ads on Ask, will end next year. Given that Google has paid huge sums to deliver ads on sites like MySpace and AOL, Ask should be in a good position to negotiate, Mr. Lanzone said.

Source: The Retooling of a Search Engine - New York Times

Minsky talks about life, love in the age of artificial intelligence - The Boston Globe

 Interview about Minsky's new book

Computer science professor Marvin Minsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is known for feats that range from inventing the ultrahigh-resolution confocal microscope to helping found the field of artificial intelligence, which aims to create computers that mimic the human mind.

After 20 years of publishing silence, he has just come out with a new book. Called "The Emotion Machine," it argues that, contrary to popular conception, emotions aren't distinct from rational thought; rather, they are simply another way of thinking, one that computers could perform. He spoke with Globe reporter Carey Goldberg.

Source: Minsky talks about life, love in the age of artificial intelligence - The Boston Globe

Technology Review: Moving Beyond YouTube

More fun with Adobe Flash... 

More people are turning to the Web to watch television shows and movies, thanks to sites like YouTube and Apple's iTunes store. But there's an emerging breed of website that's letting people go beyond passively viewing video. A number of startups, including Jumpcut, Grouper, and Motionbox, are providing free software tools that let anyone mix video clips online and, in some cases, make movies even if they don't have content of their own.

Source: Technology Review: Moving Beyond YouTube