Got Roomfuls of Stuff? Now Sites Will Help Keep Track of It - New York Times

So these are simple list managers for personal assets?... 

At least three companies have emerged in recent months with the aim of helping people catalog and value their possessions and post them online.

The obvious question is, how many people would be bothered to catalog all their stuff, online or off? The answer, surprisingly enough, is millions. Whether there are enough of them to make a long-term business out of it, though, is anyone’s guess.

Source: Got Roomfuls of Stuff? Now Sites Will Help Keep Track of It - New York Times

Social Networking Leaves Confines of the Computer - New York Times

It's social networking day... 

The social networking phenomenon is leaving the confines of the personal computer. Powerful new mobile devices are allowing people to send round-the-clock updates about their vacations, their moods or their latest haircut.

New online services, with names like Twitter, Radar and Jaiku, hope people will use their ever-present gadget to share (or, inevitably, to overshare) the details of their lives in the same way they have become accustomed to doing on Web sites like MySpace.

Source: Social Networking Leaves Confines of the Computer - New York Times

Microsoft Wins Ruling In AT&T Patent Dispute - WSJ.com

Nice way for Microsoft to start the week... 

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled in favor of Microsoft Corp. in a case that restricts the reach of U.S. patents overseas.

In a 7-1 decision, the court said that Microsoft, under current federal law, doesn't owe AT&T Corp. patent royalties on software contained on foreign produced and sold computers.

Source: Microsoft Wins Ruling In AT&T Patent Dispute - WSJ.com

Visit MIX07

FYI perhaps sparse posts today and tomorrow; I'm at the Microsoft MIX event -- more to follow on Silverlight etc. 

Link to Visit MIX07

Networking aims beyond facebooks - The Boston Globe

 A different twist on social networking

In the online social-networking world, Lexington start-up Carmun.com stands out like a guy wearing a pocket protector at the prom.

Carmun fuses social networking and the card catalog to create a free online space where people can dish on the hottest sources for their latest 20-page term paper, in place of the latest Lindsay Lohan gossip.

Source: Networking aims beyond facebooks - The Boston Globe

Rolling Out The Instant Office

Timely BusinessWeek reality check -- access to the full article annoyingly requires a subscription, but it's an interesting snapshot of a domain in transition, 

Why maintain empty cubicles? Companies are gaining flexibility with on-demand office space

Working anywhere but work is causing a vast emptying out in corporate-land. About 60% of the office space that companies pay so dearly for is now a dead zone of darkened doorways and wasting cubes.

[...]

The age of on-demand projects is creating a need for on-demand offices. Just as executives in the '80s and '90s created flexible workforces by outsourcing jobs, today they are creating flexible workplaces by outsourcing offices. Quick shifts in global business currents mean that during one quarter your team might need to be in Minsk, the next in midtown Manhattan. Projects that were supposed to last a few months sometimes linger for years.

The article continues with an overview of how some companies are seeking to better optimize the use of office space. 

Source: Rolling Out The Instant Office

A Better Wi-Fi Music Player

Timely BusinessWeek review of the Sansa/Yahoo!/ZING offering. 

I'm still a fan of Yahoo! Music Unlimited, but my laptop is my primary music player at the moment, and I'm not thrilled with Yahoo!'s recent price increase... 

Trying to beat the iPod at its own game has been a thankless strategy for makers of rival music players, who have barely made a dent in Apple's overwhelming market share. SanDisk, a company better known for computer memory than music, has wisely devised something different: a wireless player that downloads music on demand.

Source: A Better Wi-Fi Music Player

SD Times - Rich Internet Pioneer Ready [Curl] to Ride Again

Caught this in the dead-tree version of SD Times last week. 

Curl's technology is on the short list of things likely to be impacted (in a negative way) by Adobe's decision to open-source Flex 3.0.  Curl was an intriguing architectural vision several years ago, embodying a view of how web apps could be recalc'd if started over with a blank slate, but it's deeply in the outlier zone now.

A good curl will always bounce back. As such, Curl Corp., a rich Internet application (RIA) pioneer, is looking to bounce back into the consciousness of the North American market with the relaunch of its platform at the Web 2.0 Expo in mid-April.

Being positioned as a platform for business-critical, client/server applications, Curl isn’t just about eliminating page refreshes anymore. The platform, according to vice president of product strategy Richard Treadway, is best suited for applications that must be Web-enabled, require highly complex user interfaces, need support for enterprise-class data sets, and be high-performance and highly secure.

Source: SD Times - Rich Internet Pioneer Ready to Ride Again

Business & Technology | "$100 laptop" project adds $75 and Windows | Seattle Times Newspaper

 Interesting times...

The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, revealed Thursday that the machine for now costs $175, and it will be able to run Windows in addition to its homegrown, open-source interface.

[...]

Even at $175, the computers upend the standard economics in the PC industry. A huge reason has been XO's use of the free, open-source Linux operating system, tweaked for this project with the help of one of its sponsors, Red Hat.

However, Negroponte disclosed that XO's developers have been working with Microsoft so a version of Windows can run on the machines as well. It could be the $3 software package that Microsoft announced last week for governments that subsidize student computers. It includes Windows XP Starter Edition and some of Microsoft's "productivity" software.

Source: Business & Technology | "$100 laptop" project adds $75 and Windows | Seattle Times Newspaper

Joost signs major advertisers for TV-over-Web plan | CNET News.com

 Impressive -- see the full article for a list of US and European advertisers already signed up

Joost, the Internet TV company founded by Europe's top Web entrepreneurs, has taken a big step towards commercial viability by signing up 31 advertisers worldwide ahead of the launch of its free service.

The company, aiming to become a new kind of global cable TV network on the Web, was started last year by Niklas Zennstrom and partner Janus Friis, founders of Web phone company Skype, now owned by eBay, and music-sharing site Kazaa.

Source: Joost signs major advertisers for TV-over-Web plan | CNET News.com

Strong Quarter at Microsoft, and an Upbeat ’08 Outlook, Bring Wall St. a Sigh of Relief - New York Times

MSFT Q2 details; see the full article for  more

In an interview, Christopher P. Liddell, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said the sales of Windows Vista were $300 million to $400 million higher than the company’s internal projections, and Office 2007 sales were about $200 million higher.

In the online services business, where Microsoft trails its main rivals, Google and Yahoo, Mr. Liddell pointed to a 23 percent increase in ad revenue as “encouraging progress.” The continuing losses, he added, are regarded as investments as Microsoft tries to build that business. “We’re in investment mode, and that’s going to be our strategy for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Liddell said.

And it is a big-spending financial arms race for the major companies. According to Ms. Friar of Goldman Sachs, Microsoft is expected to spend an estimated $4 billion in 2007 on online services business, excluding capital expenditures, like equipping data centers. Yahoo, Goldman estimates, plans to spend $4.7 billion, and Google, $8 billion.

Reality check: Google is expected to spend twice as much in this domain as Microsoft in 2007, and Yahoo!, often considered a has-been in the mainstream press, is also projected to invest more than Microsoft.  Let's see, if we add MSFT's $4B and Yahoo!'s $4.7B, ...

Source: Strong Quarter at Microsoft, and an Upbeat ’08 Outlook, Bring Wall St. a Sigh of Relief - New York Times

Sold on eBay, Shipped by Amazon.com - New York Times

Amazon.com's evolution continues... 

Since last fall, the program, Fulfillment by Amazon, has allowed independent sellers who list their goods on Amazon.com to use its network of more than 20 distribution centers around the world to fill orders. Now Amazon, which is based in Seattle, is opening the program to vendors who list their items elsewhere on the Web — on their own site, through Google, or even on Amazon’s e-commerce rival, eBay.

The program is part of a broader set of tools called Amazon Web Services, an effort by the e-commerce pioneer to rent out complicated parts of its infrastructure to smaller companies that might benefit from its hard-earned expertise, and who will pay for the privilege of lightening their workload.

Source: Sold on eBay, Shipped by Amazon.com - New York Times

PlayStation Creator Resigns As Chief of Sony Unit - WSJ.com

More Sony details 

While many game executives say Mr. Kutaragi's ambitious vision with PlayStation 3 still could pay off, the console is in an unexpectedly weak position compared with less expensive systems from Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. In March, U.S. retailers sold 259,000 Nintendo Wii consoles, 199,000 Microsoft Xbox 360s and 130,000 PlayStation 3s, according to NPD Group Inc.

Instead of being the hoped-for cornerstone of a recovery for Sony, videogame-related losses for Sony's year ended in March are expected to amount to $2 billion, or double original forecasts. That is expected to drag down the company's overall performance despite improvements in other businesses, such as televisions. Sony will report full-year earnings next month.

Source: PlayStation Creator Resigns As Chief of Sony Unit - WSJ.com

PlayStation guru to leave amid struggles - The Boston Globe

Hmmm.  I wonder if he'll show up at Google...

The chief architect of Sony Corp.'s flagship PlayStation game console will retire in June as the company struggles to retain dominance in the video game industry and revive its flagging reputation as an electronics and entertainment pioneer.

Ken Kutaragi, 56, an icon among gamers, will step down as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s chairman and group chief executive, Tokyo-based Sony said yesterday . He will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai, who is now president and chief operating officer of the division.

Source: PlayStation guru to leave amid struggles - The Boston Globe

Microsoft Reports Record Profits: Robust demand for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system drives 72% growth in earnings per share

 Juggernaut mode...

Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $14.40 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, a 32% increase over the same period of the prior year. This revenue drove record profits with operating income of $6.59 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter grew 72% to $0.50, and included $0.02 in tax benefits and $0.01 in legal charges.

Interesting contrast to Apple's Q2 2007 announcement (yesterday):

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 second quarter ended March 31, 2007. The Company posted revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.36 billion and net quarterly profit of $410 million, or $.47 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 35.1 percent, up from 29.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 43 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

If Apple keeps up this kind of growth, its quarterly revenue might even surpass Microsoft's quarterly operating income soon.

Source: Microsoft Reports Record Profits: Robust demand for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system drives 72% growth in earnings per share

Adobe to open-source Flash tool Flex | CNET News.com

This is a subtly significant move for Adobe, and it will create lots of new opportunities for Flex 

The company chose to create an open-source project for the Flex software to garner good ideas and contributions from developers outside Adobe, said Jeff Whatcott, vice president for product marketing at Adobe's enterprise and developer business unit.

The move is also meant to appeal to open-source developers who shun closed-source and proprietary products. Adobe already offers the Flex software development kit for free and provides the source code.

"For some people, (open source) is a philosophical requirement, a sign of integrity and trust in a vendor," Whatcott said. "This will close that gap and address any lingering doubts they have about our openness and commitment to community."

Source: Adobe to open-source Flash tool Flex | CNET News.com

Microsoft, SAP Share Extended Roadmap for Duet Software: Q&A: Building on the success of Duet 1.0, Microsoft and SAP announce plans to build Duet on the next generation of Microsoft Office and SAP Business Suite.

Interesting times in the Microsoft/SAP co-opetition zone 

PressPass: Tell us a little about the success of Duet to date.

Raikes: The first version of the solution has been in market just over one year and it’s had unprecedented adoption. Customer response has been incredibly positive. Together with SAP we have more than 250 customers with more than 400,000 user licenses. The partner community is as, if not more, enthusiastic and we are working hard together to train and accredit our partners with nearly 100 of them around the world already trained to help our customers.

We attribute this success to a few things. First, after meeting with dozens of customers it’s clear to us that they not only immediately see the value of Duet, they’re excited about the opportunities it creates for their people and businesses. Additionally, so many Fortune 500 global companies have bet their IT strategy on Microsoft and SAP, for us to come together and create a solution that bridges those investments is delivering on their needs in a way that individually we could not.

The partner ecosystem interest has also been incredible. Partners are most interested in the ability to extend and customize Duet, so this news, for them, is particularly exciting. With the new scenarios and increased support for SharePoint Sever in Duet 2.0 and a comprehensive set of developer tools for customization and to build new scenarios in Duet 3.0 we’re increasing the partner opportunity significantly.

PressPass: With this news, it seems that SharePoint plays an increasingly significant role in future versions of Duet. Why is that?

Raikes: We continue to see tremendous market momentum for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server with more than 85 million licenses. Microsoft Office has evolved so that the traditional client applications like Microsoft Excel and Outlook exist more and more on both the client and the server to enable new scenarios, and that server is Microsoft Office SharePoint. SAP and Microsoft together see the value in leveraging SharePoint for deeper collaboration capabilities and what we call “people-driven processes.” In Duet 2.0 you’ll see scenarios that will leverage SharePoint, and with Duet 3.0, SharePoint becomes a significant part of the platform for Duet.

Source: Microsoft, SAP Share Extended Roadmap for Duet Software: Q&A: Building on the success of Duet 1.0, Microsoft and SAP announce plans to build Duet on the next generation of Microsoft Office and SAP Business Suite.

This Internet TV Program Is Brought to You by ... - New York Times

Joost update/snapshot 

Joost, the Internet television service being developed by the founders of Skype, has lined up several blue-chip advertisers, including United Airlines, Microsoft, Sony Electronics and Unilever, as it prepares for its introduction.

Those brands are among 30 advertisers listed as “launch partners” for Joost, which plans to send free, advertiser-supported programming to computer screens using the Internet. According to several people with knowledge of the company’s plans, Joost will begin the broadcasts on Tuesday.

Source: This Internet TV Program Is Brought to You by ... - New York Times

Apple Zooms Past Rivals, With 88% Profit Growth - New York Times

 Very impressive results

Apple Inc. surpassed even the most optimistic forecasts for its usually tepid second quarter, delivering an 88 percent increase in profit on strong sales of Macintosh computers and iPod music players.

The company said on Wednesday that its profit rose to $770 million from $410 million in the comparable quarter last year. Apple sold 1.5 million Macs in the quarter, a record for the company.

Source: Apple Zooms Past Rivals, With 88% Profit Growth - New York Times

Cable Giant Comcast Tries to Channel Web TV - WSJ.com

The web TV dance floor is getting crowded... 

Comcast is hoping to play the same middleman role on the Internet that it does on traditional TV -- buying programming from entertainment companies and packaging it for consumers. Earlier this month, the Philadelphia-based giant announced plans to launch Fancast.com, an ad-supported free TV and entertainment site.

[...]

"Being the place people go to for [video] content is what we have always done and it makes sense to provide content online as well," says Brian Roberts, Comcast's chief executive.

 

Source: Cable Giant Comcast Tries to Channel Web TV - WSJ.com

No Charges for Apple Over Options - New York Times

More analysis/speculation 

Unless the government can move beyond evidence of passive and indirect involvement, some legal experts say, a case against Mr. Jobs might be difficult to win.

“Steve Jobs dodged a bullet,” said Mark C. Zauderer, a trial lawyer in New York specializing in white-collar cases. “This is another circumstance where the government is going after an easier target. It will generally shy away from situations where the evidence is ambiguous or subject to different interpretations.”

Source: No Charges for Apple Over Options - New York Times

Ex-Apple officer implicates Jobs - The Boston Globe

This will probably become a TV mini-series before we see resolution... 

The claims implicate Jobs in the company's stock options scandal and may increase the risk he will face further scrutiny by government lawyers looking into Apple's backdating, said Bill Shope, an analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. In December, Jobs was cleared by a special committee led by Apple board member and former US Vice President Al Gore, which said Jobs didn't "appreciate" the accounting implications.

"This is the first time any credible witness has claimed that Mr. Jobs was aware of the accounting implications of the backdating," Shope, based in New York, wrote in a report yesterday .

Source: Ex-Apple officer implicates Jobs - The Boston Globe

The Mossberg Solution -- Creating Your Own 'Wiki' Web Site

 WSJ review of Wetpaint (the link below is to the no-subscription-required version of the article)

Building a wiki, or collaborative Web site, is made easier using Wetpaint.com Inc., a free program.

This week, I tested a free program from Wetpaint.com Inc. that helps regular users create wikis, which encourage interaction because they're constantly changed by contributors. Wetpaint's wikis ease the process of adding Web links, digital images, digital videos and additional text to sites made with Wetpaint. Likewise, your site can easily be adjusted and enhanced by anyone who views it. Compared with blogs or normal Web sites, my Wetpaint wiki felt much more alive and exciting.

Source: The Mossberg Solution -- Creating Your Own 'Wiki' Web Site

Potentially habitable planet found - Yahoo! News

Now Google can expand the scope of its mission... 

For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

Source: Potentially habitable planet found - Yahoo! News

Technology Review: Yahoo music hits a new chord with online lyric library

Cool... 

Yahoo Inc. is expanding its online music section to include the lyrics of 400,000 songs, hoping to strike a chord with Web surfers looking for a more reliable alternative to Internet sites that publish the words without the permission of the copyright owners.

The Sunnyvale-based company is touting the free service to be unveiled Tuesday as the Web's largest legally licensed database of lyrics.

Source: Technology Review: Yahoo music hits a new chord with online lyric library

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Google buys PowerPoint editor

Missed this last week; see the post for screen shots and more details 

Filling in a hole in its Google Apps suite, Google has acquired Tonic Systems, which provides a set of tools for the online editing, viewing, and sharing of presentations created with Microsoft PowerPoint. Tonic Systems describes itself as "Java PowerPoint Specialists." Google says it will incorporate Tonic's technology into a new presentation service that will be added this summer to Apps.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Google buys PowerPoint editor

Burton Group Inflection Point: Can Cisco Take On Microsoft?

 Free podcast from my Burton Group colleague Mike Gotta

A series of moves over the past few months have positioned Cisco more strongly as a competitor to Microsoft along multiple fronts – including software-as-a-service (SaaS). Indeed, at a recent partner event, Cisco’s CEO boldly claimed that the company has a three year lead over Microsoft in area of unified communications. In this podcast, principal analyst Mike Gotta examines Cisco’s announced acquisition of WebEx, how Cisco might exploit WebEx’s assets and areas where the Cisco remains challenged to prove (to the market and to customers), that it can compete with Microsoft as a software vendor.

Source: Burton Group Inflection Point: Can Cisco Take-On Microsoft?

Why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't stop bashing Google. - April 30, 2007

Timely reality check -- see the article for more details 

Last month Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's notoriously bombastic CEO, set bloggers blabbing again when he went on an anti-Google tirade that was shrill even for him.

In a speech at Stanford's business school, he derided many of Google's forays beyond search and advertising as "cute" stunts produced by a "random collection of people doing their own thing." He also blurted out to the audience that Google (Charts, Fortune 500) was "insane" for trying to grow its headcount so fast. Google's employee base - nearly 11,000 at the end of 2006 - has grown by 250% over the past two years and has nearly quadrupled since Google went public in the spring of 2004. The company can't lease new buildings, much less parking lots, fast enough to accommodate everyone.

Source: Why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't stop bashing Google. - April 30, 2007

Q&A: A Week in the Fast Lane of Interactive Entertainment: Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, discusses how Xbox 360 is changing the way people interact with their television [...]

See the full post for more details 

PressPass:  Your keynote at NAB 2007 was titled “Interactive Entertainment Goes High Definition and Online…And How TV Will Never Be the Same Again.” How is Xbox 360 ushering in an era of change in the digital entertainment arena?

Peter Moore: Television has changed forever. Video game consoles are bringing social networking and HD entertainment delivered over the Internet to TV for the first time. In November we launched Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, which allows Xbox 360 owners to download hundreds of standard and high-definition, full-length TV shows and movies directly to their consoles. Partners like CBS, Warner Brothers, MTV and Paramount Pictures tell us that Xbox 360 became the #2 distributor of TV and movie content on the Internet overnight, only behind iTunes. But we’re #1 in high definition and #1 where it matters most – in the living room. On the social entertainment side, next month we’ll launch Games for Windows Live on the PC and Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360, expanding the largest social network on television.

Source: Q&A: A Week in the Fast Lane of Interactive Entertainment: Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, discusses how Xbox 360 is changing the way people interact with their television [...]

Ex-Officers of Apple Await Suit - New York Times

More speculation on what's next for Steve Jobs 

It is not clear whether the two prospective S.E.C. civil lawsuits will be the extent of the commission’s action against Apple or its executives over the backdating activities. Nor is it clear when an investigation by the United States attorney’s office in San Francisco will come to a conclusion. A spokesman for the office had no comment yesterday.

But Apple’s stock rose $2.54, to $93.51, yesterday after an article in The Mercury News on Sunday, citing unidentified sources, said evidence suggested that Mr. Jobs was unlikely to face civil or criminal charges.

Source: Ex-Officers of Apple Await Suit - New York Times

Apple Ex-Finance Chief Settles With SEC - WSJ.com

If a similar story unfolds at Pixar, Steve Jobs could be in the clear 

Apple Inc.'s former chief financial officer Fred Anderson has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission on his alleged participation in the backdating of stock options at the computer maker and the agency is expected to pursue a civil lawsuit against the company's ex-general counsel Nancy Heinen on similar charges, according to people familiar with the matter.

Source: Apple Ex-Finance Chief Settles With SEC - WSJ.com

Business & Technology | Sun exec pitches site devoted to education | Seattle Times Newspaper

At least part of what Scott McNealy has been up to 

Though it's not part of his official duties at Sun, McNealy is spending a lot of time as pitchman for a project called Curriki — a melding of "curriculum" and "wiki," which is a Web site allowing users to add and modify content and claim a piece of authorship.

In the case of Curriki, parents, teachers and students can post and download free lesson plans, sample tests, book chapters and other materials. McNealy said the site has strict copyright protections, requiring intellectual-property releases for all the original material it publishes.

Source: Business & Technology | Sun exec pitches site devoted to education | Seattle Times Newspaper

TurboTax Software Slows Just as the Big Deadline Nears - New York Times

Oops... 

When thousands of users of TurboTax software from Intuit found themselves mired in a computer slowdown as they tried to file returns at the deadline last week, the company faced a storm of anger over the inconvenience and potential penalties.

Source: TurboTax Software Slows Just as the Big Deadline Nears - New York Times

New Model for Sharing: Free Music With Ads - New York Times

Maybe they should call it "radio"... 

For years, music labels have been trying to prevent fans from downloading their songs on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Now, some of them would like to encourage people to listen to music that way — provided they view some advertising first.

Source: New Model for Sharing: Free Music With Ads - New York Times

RIM to Broaden Its Software Offering - WSJ.com

 Interesting times

"We never created BlackBerry to lock in the devices," said [RIM co-chief executive] Mr. Balsillie in a phone interview. "If we can't earn our merit on the device side, we will lose the device side."

RIM still dominates the market for U.S. wireless email devices, with 45% of all U.S. smartphone operating-system shipments in the fourth quarter, according to market researcher IDC. Windows Mobile now holds 38% of the market.

"RIM is looking at the reality out there," says Carrie MacGillivray, an analyst at IDC, who says the new application should help them reach more customers, including customers who want to upgrade older devices. "It shows that they can be flexible."

Source: RIM to Broaden Its Software Offering - WSJ.com

Microsoft to Offer Low-Cost Software In Emerging Markets - WSJ.com

This largely takes price out of the equation, when competing with open source in developing countries. 

Microsoft Corp. will start selling $3 software as part of a broader effort to expand personal computer usage in developing countries and deepen Microsoft's ties with governments around the world.

Called Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, the software will be sold to select governments for $3 and be available in the second half of the year. The software includes a stripped-down version of Windows called Windows XP Starter Edition, a consumer version of Office and software for accessing email.

Source: Microsoft to Offer Low-Cost Software In Emerging Markets - WSJ.com

Supplier: Microsoft to Brand, Sell Consumer Fuel-Cell Chargers - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Perhaps handy for Zune owners... 

Medis, a startup specializing in fuel cells, began delivery of its first products to Microsoft on Friday. Medis executives said Microsoft will brand the products as its own and sell them as portable recharging stations for consumer devices.

A Microsoft representative confirmed the purchase Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately for Medis, however, a source close to the company said the number sold to Microsoft was "small," and that Microsoft wouldn't be selling the fuel cells, but supplying them as free goodies for an undisclosed upcoming conference.

Source: Supplier: Microsoft to Brand, Sell Consumer Fuel-Cell Chargers - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Vonage Says That It May Face Bankruptcy - New York Times

In fewer words, I suspect: "for sale" 

The Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings, which a federal court found had infringed on three patents owned by Verizon Communications, said its legal woes could lead to bankruptcy, according to a regulatory filing.

Source: Vonage Says That It May Face Bankruptcy - New York Times

Microsoft Opens First Of Six Server Farms In Quincy, Wash. - WSJ.com

Yow... 

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) on Monday opened the doors of a massive data center in central Washington, turning what was once a bean farm into a "server farm."

The data center, based in Quincy, Wash., is about 474,000 square feet and is surrounded on three sides by fields of potatoes, beans and broccoli. An undisclosed number of servers inside are now online, handling Internet traffic to Microsoft's Hotmail email program, instant messaging and other tools.

The server farm is the first of six Microsoft has planned for Quincy; construction of No. 2 is under way, but beyond that, growth will be "tied to adoption of online services," said Michael Manos, a senior director of data center services at Microsoft.

Source: Microsoft Opens First of Six Server Farms in Quincy, Wash. - WSJ.com

Microsoft Outlines Its Vision for Creating, Managing and Experiencing Content at NAB2007

 More on Silverlight (previously code-named "WPF/E")

Microsoft provides the foundational technologies that help media companies create rich media content quickly and efficiently. This week at NAB2007, Microsoft is expanding its efforts with new solutions and alliances that further reduce the barriers to creating and distributing content across a variety of mediums.

Microsoft Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight integrates with existing Web technologies and assets to provide higher-quality experiences with lower costs for media delivery. Delivered to end users through a seamless, fast installation, Silverlight offers consistent experiences to both Macintosh and Windows^® users on a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer^®, Firefox and Safari. Early supporters of the new platform include Akamai Technologies Inc., Brightcove Inc., Eyeblaster Inc., Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball, NaviSite Inc., Netflix Inc., Skinkers, Sonic Solutions, Tarari Inc., Telestream Inc. and Winnov.

Source: Microsoft Outlines Its Vision for Creating, Managing and Experiencing Content at NAB2007

Microsoft Urges Review of Google-DoubleClick Deal - New York Times

Microsoft is not alone -- read the article for more details. 

Microsoft contends that the $3.1 billion deal, announced on Friday, would hurt competition in the fast-growing market for advertising on the Web and raises questions about how much personal information would be collected by Google, already a dominant player in online advertising.

Source: Microsoft Urges Review of Google-DoubleClick Deal - New York Times

Microsoft, Adobe Set A Collision Course on Web - WSJ.com

Major milestone in the Adobe/Microsoft competitive scene... 

The companies have been partners in the past, and Adobe is one of the largest makers of software for computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The companies have also tussled before, but they have generally stayed in their corners of the tech arena.

Today, though, each company plans to introduce software that falls squarely on the other's turf and sets the stage for a broader battle over how Internet services and software will be built in the future. Both want to be the key supplier of cutting-edge software that handles functions like video and animation on the Web.

Source: Microsoft, Adobe Set A Collision Course on Web - WSJ.com

Apple Says It Will Delay OS X Release for 4 Months - New York Times

 Hmmm

Pointing to the time needed to shake out the errors from the software code for the program, called Leopard, the company said in a statement, “Life often presents trade-offs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones.”

[...]

In its statement, Apple cited the need to divert its team of programmers to the challenge of introducing the iPhone, which it said was still on track for shipment in “late June.”

Source: Apple Says It Will Delay OS X Release for 4 Months - New York Times

Subpoenas vowed over 'lost' e-mails - The Boston Globe

I suspect few people will find this surprising 

The White House did not say how many e-mails were lost or whether any pertained to the firings. But an independent group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said yesterday that it had researched the matter and believes that the White House has lost more than 5 million e-mails sent between 2003 and 2005.

Source: Subpoenas vowed over 'lost' e-mails - The Boston Globe

Cycling champ turns to 'Net to battle doping charges - Network World

Sign of the times 

Disputed Tour de France champion Floyd Landis is pioneering the use of social network tools to rally a collective consciousness in his fight against allegations that he used a banned substance to help him win the world’s greatest cycling race.

In today’s guilty-until-proven-innocent world of doping charges against cyclists and other athletes – most recently swimmer Ian Thorpe – Landis has turned to the court of public opinion using a “wiki defense” and “crowdsourcing” to gain knowledge and build his case for a formal legal hearing.

Source: Cycling champ turns to 'Net to battle doping charges - Network World

Office 2007 add-on adds back classic menus

Don't go there -- train yourself in the new user interface; it's much more effective 

A Chinese developer is turning back the clock with an add-on to Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 that returns traditional menus to the suite's applications.

Addintools in Hai Nan, China, sells Classic Menu for Office 2007 as an add-on for users leery of Microsoft's new interface and its "Ribbon." The Ribbon, a major departure from earlier Office application interfaces, groups commands by tasks rather than by hierarchical menus. When the new look was unveiled more than a year ago, many users balked at the idea of walking away from long-learned habits.

Source: Office 2007 add-on adds back classic menus

Sony kills off 20GB PS3 | News.blog | CNET News.com

 The higher-end version was in some channels outselling the 20-gig model 9:1...

Sony is axing the lower-end model of the PlayStation 3, according to the gaming blog Joystiq. The blog quotes Sony saying the 20GB version will no longer be shipped to North American retailers.

[...]

Getting rid of the cheaper version also kills of any hope of getting your hands on a PS3 from a retailer for less than $600.

Source: Sony kills off 20GB PS3 | News.blog | CNET News.com

BBC NEWS | Technology | China seeks to 'limit game hours'

 Stimulus/response...

Under-18s who play for more than three consecutive hours a day will have limits imposed on the amount of points they can score, the agency reported.

Online game companies based in China have been given three months to install the so-called anti-addiction software.

It is part of an on-going attempt to limit how long people are online.

A recent report from the China National Children's Centre said that 13% of under-18s who used the web were addicted to online gaming.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | China seeks to 'limit game hours'

Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog : Office Live and SharePoint

Office Live snapshot; Office Live is built on SharePoint -- it's essentially a software-as-a-service SharePoint offering with, for now, some apps optimized for small businesses. 

A Microsoft Office Live solution can range from a simple template that a customer uploads as an .stp file using the built in Upload Wizard, to a light mashup that incorporates a third-party Web Service, to a composite application that exposes an existing client or hosted application to a Microsoft Office Live based WSS template using SOAP. You can also modify and redistribute one of the Business Applications that are included in a Microsoft Office Live Premium subscription – change field headings, add columns, incorporate some logic that you support, and make it more applicable for customers in a specific industry.

The Microsoft Office Live partner community is just ramping up, but there are already some very cool solutions out there like Solution Canvas in the UK who has developed a practice management system for small legal offices, and Qdabra in the US who offers Qdabra Project Tracker, an InfoPath based solution that streamlines creating estimates and statements of work for all types of consulting projects. The Microsoft Office Live team thinks there is great potential for the SharePoint Designer community to tap into the Microsoft Office Live customer base and add value to their subscriptions. They would love to see some you create solutions for Microsoft Office Live over the next 2 months and place them in the free Marketplace. If you are interested in this opportunity then check out the Microsoft Office Live Developer Portal to learn more about developing on Microsoft Office Live, and visit the Microsoft Office Live Partner page to learn more about the opportunity and the requirements for the marketplace. You can also sign up for a free 30 day trial of Microsoft Office Live Premium to try it for yourself. If you still have questions or want to provide feedback, then please send us an e-mail.

Source: Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog : Office Live and SharePoint

Pattern Finder: Salesforce.com's ContentExchange: Showing Enterprise Savvy that Google is Missing

Timely reality check from my Burton Group colleague Guy Creese; see the link below for more details 

Out of the box, this application has a much more of an enterprise attitude than the recently announced Google Apps, Premier Edition. ContentExchange supports workflow, versioning, tagging, and the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds about documents. In fact, this solution displays an early version of what I call "content analytics," in that it displays usage information about the content as a way for users and the enterprise to decide what's important. Google Apps has access to this information behind the scenes, but does nothing with it.

Source: Pattern Finder: Salesforce.com's ContentExchange: Showing Enterprise Savvy that Google is Missing

Business & Technology | Google's challenge: Prevent the exodus | Seattle Times Newspaper

Read the full article for more details, e.g., on Google's chief culture officer's perspective.

Less than three years after going public, Google is confronting one of the more confounding consequences of its phenomenal success: a potential brain drain if its earliest — and richest — employees quit after earning the right to cash in the last of the stock options that made them millionaires.

Hundreds of the 2,300 Googlers hired before the Internet juggernaut's initial public offering (IPO) in August 2004 are hitting their fourth anniversary.

When they do, they'll be free to cash in the final portions of their pre-IPO options, collectively worth an estimated $2.6 billion before taxes.

Source: Business & Technology | Google's challenge: Prevent the exodus | Seattle Times Newspaper

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Salesforce vs. Google

It's simpler, at this point, to try to enumerate the dwindling list of companies with which Google doesn't directly or indirectly compete... 

Up to now, Salesforce.com and Google have been defined, competitively, by their mutual disdain for the Horrible Monster of Redmond. ("I don’t think it makes sense for me to comment on the words and actions of Steve Ballmer," sniffs Chief Googler Eric Schmidt at the start of a new Wired interview.) But with Salesforce's announcement today of a broad push into content management, the two new-age enterprise IT companies are now on a collision course. They're not just bedfellows anymore. They're competitors.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Salesforce vs. Google

Official Google Blog: Tell us about your university email

The official source for Google's edu end user survey 

As I remember my college days, I spent a lot of time (though not all) worried about required courses and fixed deadlines – things that while necessary, still made me wish I'd had more of a choice about the university policies that affected me. Even the little things – like my email.
Now we're taking the first step to reach out to university students nationwide to find out what they like or don't like about their email. We're conducting a survey to see whether Google Apps Education Edition might offer students more of a choice about their online communication tools.

Source: Official Google Blog: Tell us about your university email

Google Operating System: Open-Source OCR Software, Sponsored by Google

Read the post for other alternatives.  Not a happy market phase for the ISVs trying to sell products in this segment. 

Google sponsors the development of an open-source OCR software at the IUPR research group. "OCRopus is a state-of-the-art document analysis and OCR system, featuring pluggable layout analysis, pluggable character recognition, statistical natural language modeling, and multi-lingual capabilities."
"The goal of the project is to advance the state of the art in optical character recognition and related technologies, and to deliver a high quality OCR system suitable for document conversions, electronic libraries, vision impaired users, historical document analysis, and general desktop use," explains Thomas Breuel, who leads the project.

Source: Google Operating System: Open-Source OCR Software, Sponsored by Google

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Since when does growing $4 Billion a year = Dead?

Microsoft's Don Dodge plays defense on the latest "Microsoft is dead" meme blip; see the post for extensive details. 

Paul Graham, founder of Y-Combinator, declares Microsoft is dead. Paul must be living in a cave somewhere, or drunk on the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid. Paul obviously wrote his headline to grab attention and attract links to his blog. TechMeme shows that he succeeded.

For the record, Microsoft is growing revenues at over $4 Billion a year and is on track for $50 Billion this year. Since when does growing $4 Billion a year equal DEAD? If that is dead I know a lot of companies that would like to be so dead.

Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Since when does growing $4 Billion a year = Dead?

» Google aims to usurp campus email systems | Digital Markets | ZDNet.com

Interesting tactics, but I suspect that many educational institution IT evaluators who do their homework will pick Zimbra instead of Google.  See the article for a student survey Google is using in this context.

What is missing from college campuses today? Google Apps Education Edition, of course! Not for long though, if the latest Google ambitions are fully realized.

Google is promoting Google Apps on campus directly to students themselves, not university administrators or IT managers, with the goal of building student demand for Google Apps, over university solutions.

Source: » Google aims to usurp campus email systems | Digital Markets | ZDNet.com

Collaboration Loop - Collanos Software Introduces Free Team Collaboration Suite

Free, peer-to-peer, and multi-platform (Eclipse-based) 

Collanos Software has introduced a peer-to-peer team collaboration suite. Collanos Workplace 1.0 allows internet users to form teams and collaborate together on a shared projects. It is free, runs serverless, and is platform independent - available for Mac, Windows, and Linux PCs. Its peer-to-peer infrastructure allows users to invite colleagues, friends, or partners to a team workspace where members can immediately share and organize their files, notes and links, lead discussions, and assign tasks. Collanos' peer-to-peer technology stores a copy of the shared workspace locally on each individual PC.

 

Source: Collaboration Loop - Collanos Software Introduces Free Team Collaboration Suite

AP: Viacom, Yahoo Reach Multiyear Ad Deal

 More YouTube-related opportunity costs for Google?

Viacom Inc. has picked Yahoo Inc. as its online advertising partner in a multiyear deal that could help Yahoo become a more formidable challenger to Google Inc. - Viacom's foe in a legal squabble over video copyrights.

Source: AP: Viacom, Yahoo Reach Multiyear Ad Deal

AP: Google Earth Focuses on Sudan Atrocities

 Interesting times

Google is using its popular online mapping service to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan.

In a project with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, inaugurated Tuesday, the Internet search company has updated its Google Earth service with high resolution satellite images of the region to document destroyed villages, displaced people and refugee camps.

Source: Google Earth Focuses on Sudan Atrocities

Salesforce.com buys Web content management firm | CNET News.com

Perhaps a name change will be required at some point... 

The company on Tuesday expects to detail new products and the acquisition of start-up Koral, which created a Web content management service tied to Salesforce.com. Terms of the purchase of Koral, a small company based in San Mateo, Calif., which first launched its product last fall, were not disclosed.

Later this year, Salesforce.com will release two products designed to help people manage so-called unstructured data such as Microsoft Office documents and multimedia files.

Source: Salesforce.com buys Web content management firm | CNET News.com

How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job - WSJ.com

Sign of the times... 

Corporate recruiters have long surfed the Web to vet potential hires, but now they are also surfing blogs to unearth job candidates, expanding their talent pool and gaining insights they say they can't get from résumés and interviews.

Ryan Loken, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recruitment manager, says he spends one to two hours a week searching through blogs for new talent or additional information about the candidates he has interviewed. "Blogs are a tool in the tool kit," he says. Since he joined the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant three years ago, Mr. Logen estimates that Web journals have helped him fill 125 corporate jobs. Most of the recruits were referred to him by bloggers and blog contributors, and some were the writers themselves.

Source: How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job - WSJ.com

Google does free 411 | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

 More of the world's information "universally accessible and useful" thanks to Google...

Google has a new telephone service in the U.S. called Voice Local Search. It's the equivalent of dialing 411, but free, really fast, and pulls multiple listings like you'd get from a search in Google local. Mobile phone users can get listings sent to their phone via SMS, including the telephone number and full address. You can also be connected to a business for free, a great feature that got dropped from my previous favorite free 411 service 1-800-Free-411.

Source: Google does free 411 | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Wave of Widgets Spreads on the Web - washingtonpost.com

Interesting snapshot

Now a young generation of online-ad creators are pushing a newer idea: putting a brand on a mini-site so fun or useful -- a video game or a spruced-up calculator or a live sports update -- that people download it, paste it on their personal blogs or social networking sites, use it again and again and share it with friends.

It's called a widget, an old word for a 21st-century product. And it's what they make at an expanding roster of companies that locally includes Freewebs of Silver Spring and Clearspring Technologies of Arlington -- start-ups founded in the past two years.

Source: Wave of Widgets Spreads on the Web - washingtonpost.com

As Google Challenges Viacom and Microsoft, Its CEO Feels Lucky -

Timely interview with Eric Schmidt -- a couple excerpts: 

Google gets its revenue essentially from one source - online ads. One could argue that it’s not diversified enough.

The criticism is valid. We do get the vast majority of our revenue from advertising - which is a business that a lot of other people would like to be in.

But there are some new revenue models on the horizon. The most interesting is probably Google Apps, where we’re already beginning to get some significant enterprise deals.

[..]

How many data centers have you guys built?

In the dozens. There are a few very large ones, some of which have been leaked to the press. But in a year or two, the very large ones will be the small ones. That’s where a lot of the capital spending in the company is going.

Google controls its own fiber-optic network. Why?

We can tune it. One of the neat things about the Internet bubble of the ’90s was that people built all of this fiber, and now it’s essentially free. People are always assuming that we have some master plan involving telecommunications, when in fact, if you view it as solving the supercomputer problem, we just want the thing to be faster.

The full text of the interview is supposed to be at this page, but it's MIA at the moment

Source: As Google Challenges Viacom and Microsoft, Its CEO Feels Lucky -

Exploring Office Live « Jon Udell

Glad to see Jon Udell hasn't been completely assimilated yet (i.e., is still being an objective reviewer, despite becoming a Microsoft evangelist) 

What about all the small-to-medium businesses who today manage data on the desktop, and who could benefit enormously from the ability to push some of that data management into the cloud while retaining the umbilical cord to the desktop? There’s an interesting do-it-yourself opportunity here which I’m pretty sure those folks are not seeing. And again, who can blame them? Although the screencast shows what’s possible, SharePoint is an ungainly contraption that I had to wrestle into submission in order to produce it.

Nevertheless, I’m fascinated by the possibilities here. Hundreds of millions of people manage data in desktop applications Excel and Access. They’re the base. Vastly fewer people manage data in web applications like QuickBase or Dabble DB. They’re the vanguard. If Office Live can become a bridge between the base and the vanguard, that would be a good thing for everyone.

See the full post for an Office Live screencast.  SharePoint (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, at the core of Office Live) may still be a bit ungainly in some areas, but I still think Office Live is a strategic bet for Microsoft.

Source: Exploring Office Live « Jon Udell

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Cisco and Microsoft on collision course

Timely Financial Times reality check 

Could the latest threat to Microsoft’s desktop software ambitions come not from Google, or some other online rival, but from Cisco Systems?

That is the question being pondered by some technology analysts in the wake of Cisco’s $3.2bn deal to acquire WebEx, a web-based conferencing and business collaboration company.

They may have started from different ends of the technology spectrum, but over the past few years, Cisco – the world’s biggest maker of data networking equipment, and Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company – have found themselves increasingly on a collision course in the burgeoning market for corporate telephone, teleconferencing and other “unified communications” services.

Source: FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Cisco and Microsoft on collision course

Business & Technology | Visible Technologies a software company to watch | Seattle Times Newspaper

Hmm... 

You've probably never heard of Visible Technologies.

But if you're participating in social networks, commenting on blogs or sharing your opinion on the Web, it's heard of you.

Visible is monitoring every place that people can submit comments online and copying the conversations into a massive database.

Discussions are mapped, influential people are identified and Visible's software then helps clients engage in the conversations or directly contact the influencers.

Source: Business & Technology | Visible Technologies a software company to watch | Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft Brings Instant Chat to TV Screen, Through Games - New York Times

Live convergence 

More than 200 million people use Windows Live Messenger to chat with friends, family members and colleagues. Separately, more than six million Xbox 360 owners are connected to the company’s Xbox Live online community, an enhancement that lets people with broadband Internet connections communicate with one another.

In the second week of May, those two worlds will begin to converge. Xbox Live members will be able to link their “gamertag,” the online identity they use within the Xbox community, to an existing Windows Live Messenger account. Players will then be able to chat with their instant-messaging contacts using a virtual on-screen keyboard or a U.S.B. keyboard plugged into the game machine.

Source: Microsoft Brings Instant Chat to TV Screen, Through Games - New York Times

Group Therapy

James Fallows checkpoint in The Atlantic Monthly 

Where computer technology falls short is in the zone between the individual and the universal. Here I’m referring to the efforts of the small groups or teams—numbering a few people to a few dozen—through which much of the world’s work actually gets done, including within large organizations. Major software firms have long recognized the importance of providing better systems for such “workgroup” or “collaborative” projects. Their offerings have tended to be very specific or very grandiose.

Source: Group Therapy

Vonage Wins Emergency Stay of Order Barring Addition of New Customers - WSJ.com

Meanwhile, as one of the 2.2M customers, at least one person who tried to call me this afternoon was told my line was out of service... 

A federal appeals court granted Vonage Holdings Corp. a temporary stay on a lower court ruling that it must stop marketing its service to new customers because of infringement of Internet calling patents held by Verizon Communications Inc.

Vonage, which has 2.2 million Internet phone subscribers, can continue operating as usual and selling to new customers while the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals considers its request for a review of the decision by the trial court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Source: Vonage Wins Emergency Stay of Order Barring Addition of New Customers - WSJ.com

Patent Ruling Impact - washingtonpost.com

So maybe my phone will continue to work next week after all... 

In its filing, Verizon said there were no legal grounds for giving Vonage a reprieve from the judge's order that it be permanently prohibited from using the technologies. But Verizon acknowledged that the judge may be reluctant to order a total ban if he believes it could do "irreparable injury" to Vonage. In that case, Verizon said, Vonage should be allowed to continue providing existing services to its 2.2 million customers but not add new ones. If a partial stay is ordered, Verizon asked that Vonage post a bond of at least $251 million to cover what Verizon says will be its lost revenue while the case is appealed.

Am I the only one who suspects Verizon is simply trying to suck the residual mkt cap out of Vonage in order to acquire its VoIP customer franchise at a steep discount?

Source: Patent Ruling Impact - washingtonpost.com

Struggling WebMethods Finds a Buyer in Germany - washingtonpost.com

More WEBM details 

At $9.15 per share, the deal would offer WebMethods stockholders a premium of 25.7 percent over Wednesday's closing price of $7.28.

But it is a long way from the heady days of 2000 when the company's shares traded above $308, making the 30-something couple who founded the business in the basement of their Burke townhouse worth more than $1 billion on paper. Back then, WebMethods bought another company for $1.3 billion.

Source: Struggling WebMethods Finds a Buyer in Germany - washingtonpost.com

Hackers Dissect Apple TV to Create the Cheapest Mac Ever

Sign of the times... 

Apple TV is dead, long live the Mac Nano. Sort of.

Just two weeks after Apple released its streaming media box to the public, hackers successfully installed OS X, Apple's desktop operating system, on the $300 device, making it the cheapest PC Cupertino has ever sold.

At $300 without monitor/keyboard, that's actually price competitive with low-end Vista desktop PCs...

Source: Hackers Dissect Apple TV to Create the Cheapest Mac Ever -

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Ozzie walks the line

Another take on the recent Ray Ozzie interview -- more useful insights from Nicholas Carr 

Here we see the very real dilemma that Microsoft finds itself in today. To maintain its growth and profits, it has to focus for the time being on promoting the new versions of Office and Windows, even though they are, by Ozzie's own implication, relics of the past - "artifacts of a time when we were not fully connected." If the company were to excitedly "talk about how to change the game," through offering software more as a set of services deployed centrally, it would trample on the Office and Vista sales pitches. Who wants to buy relics of the past?

I see mostly upside potential for Microsoft, in the software + services future.  Yes, there will be some opportunity cost issues, e.g., with some small- to medium-sized organizations opting for Exchange/SharePoint/etc. in software-as-a-service (SaaS) mode instead of tradional, on-premises software products, but that's going to happen with or without Microsoft's direct participation in the SaaS space, so it's wise of Microsoft to get there proactively -- and the revenue/profit potential may actually be greater than Microsoft's more traditional independent software vendor value proposition, for many market segments/scenarios.

I also think Microsoft's "relics of the past" have a lot of remaining mileage -- it'd be a different story, perhaps, if Microsoft weren't continuing to invest in substantive innovation such as the Fluent UX and deep XML Schema/web services/etc. support in Office, but, as long as Microsoft continues to innovate in meaningful ways, I don't see the end of the desktop as we know it "real soon now".

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Ozzie walks the line

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Space 'nerd' readies for lift-off

 Some people have weird hobbies...

Billionaire Charles Simonyi, who led development of Microsoft's Word, will lift off from Kazakhstan [tomorrow] at 1731 GMT.

The $20m ride will make him the 450th person to enter orbit and by his own admission "the first nerd in space".

Source: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Space 'nerd' readies for lift-off

Microsoft Expands Footprint in City of Bellevue: Company leases 1.3 million square feet of office space to better accommodate current and future employee base in Puget Sound region.

 Relentless...

In February 2006 Microsoft announced that it would accelerate campus development plans, expanding its Redmond, Wash., campus by one-third of its current size — including new development on the company’s main Redmond campus and leased space within the surrounding area — which would make it one of the world’s largest corporate campuses. The expansion announced today is in addition to the company’s previous plans, which are in progress and on schedule to be completed in 2009.

Almost half of Microsoft’s worldwide employees work in the Puget Sound area. The company employs more than 35,000 workers in the region and another 41,000 globally.

Source: Microsoft Expands Footprint in City of Bellevue: Company leases 1.3 million square feet of office space to better accommodate current and future employee base in Puget Sound region.

The Hyperconnected | TIME

Twitter in Time -- although not in an entirely positive light 

There's something delightfully self-deprecating about that name, Twitter--we're all just a bunch of happy birdies, tweeting away in our trees!--but it also makes me nervous. It's like the cocaine of blogging or e-mail but refined into crack. Internet addiction is an old story, but we're on the tipping point of a new kind of problem that might more broadly be called an addiction to data, in all its many and splendiferous forms.

Source: The Hyperconnected | TIME

Technology Review: Is Twitter Here to Stay?

Timely snapshot/reality check 

Twitter members use the company website or their own cell phones to compose missives up to 140 characters in length, almost always answering the trademark Twitter question, "What are you doing?" Once a member submits a message to the site or texts it to the short code 40404 (in the United States), it goes out to the phones and browsers of the people who've joined that member's social network--his or her "followers," in Twitter lingo. Every four minutes, the accumulated messages are also posted briefly to Twitter's public timeline, which anyone can read on the Web.

Source: Technology Review: Is Twitter Here to Stay?

Press Release: Software AG to Acquire webMethods, Inc.

In terms of market segment dynamics, I'd say that's likely the end of a significant chapter for BP* stuff.  I remember the day WEBM went public, and when its stock subsequently shot to a split/etc. adjusted ~$280/share (i.e., approx. 97% of its market cap ago) -- it was a major milestone in the bubble V1 "irrational exuberance" ramp-up. 

$546M is still an impressive number, but for a snapshot of the spirit of ~7 years ago, see this article from 2000/02 about the WEBM IPO.  Consider, for example, this quote: "With $4.5 million in revenues last year, webMethods lags far behind companies such as Open Market (OMKT)($83 million) and InterWorld (INTW) ($40.5 million)."  I guess WEBM should get some credit for surviving, let alone sustaining some investor value.

Software AG (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW), Europe's largest systems software and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) provider, and webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Software AG to acquire webMethods in a cash tender offer for $9.15 per share or approximately $546 million.

Source: Press Release: Software AG to Acquire webMethods, Inc. 

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Amazon patents cybernetic mind-meld

Read the full post for more details and projections 

As noted by Slashdot, Amazon.com was on March 27 granted a broad patent for computer systems that incorporate human beings into automated data processing - the type of cybernetic arrangement that underpins the company's Mechanical Turk service. With Mechanical Turk, a software programmer can write into a program a task that is difficult for a computer to do but easy for a person to carry out, such as identifying objects in photographs. At the point in the program when the "human input" is required, the task is posted to Amazon's Mechanical Turk website where people carry it out for a small payment. The human input is then funneled back to the computer running the program.

Source: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Amazon patents cybernetic mind-meld

Photos: April Fools' prank at Sun | CNET News.com

 Somehow I suspect the second photo in this article (see the full article for a link) will find its way to The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

Sun Microsystems pranksters installed a mock "EcoBox" executive suite, part of the company's OpenWork 3.0 April Fools' Day at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., campus.

Source: Photos: April Fools' prank at Sun | CNET News.com

AP: Apple Appalls Where Xbox Excels

 Another harsh review of Apple TV, again highlighting Xbox 360 advantages (as well as limitations; read the full article for details).

Apple Inc. has graced the public with another smooth, white, exquisitely designed gadget, this time aiming at making it easier to play iTunes movies and songs on the living-room TV set.

Too bad, then, that where looks really matter - in the quality of the video on the TV screen - the $299 Apple TV comes up very short. It's as if Apple had launched an iPod that sounded like a cassette player.

[...]

My advice: if you don't want the Xbox 360, wait for upgrades to both iTunes and Apple TV that take HD seriously.

Source: The Observer at LaGrandeObserver.com - Apple Appalls Where Xbox Excels

TiVo Plays a Trump Card: Web Smarts - New York Times

See the article for full details 

Clearly, TiVo had to do something to differentiate itself. Its master plan: to tap the Internet for material and features.

Here’s a look at some of the new features that have been automatically beamed into existing Series 2 and 3 TiVo boxes in the last year. Most require the TiVo to be connected to a broadband Internet connection, wirelessly or not.

Summary list:

• Broadcast home movies
• Cellphone programming
• TiVoCast -- record from Web
• Amazon movies
• Weather and traffic
• Movie listings
• Internet radio
• Podcasts
• Guru guide
• Music and photos

My Comcast DVR box suddenly seems pretty stale...  Check out Founders at Work for an interview with TiVo's founder sometime -- fascinating company history.

Source: TiVo Plays a Trump Card: Web Smarts - New York Times

Apple Doubles Intel Processors In New Mac Pro Computer - WSJ.com

~$4K for an eight-core Intel Mac -- sign of the times... 

According to the company's Web site, a new version of the Mac Pro has two of Intel's "quad-core" Xeon chips, doubling the number of microprocessors in the product line to eight. Other models will continue to offer two "dual-core" Xeons, each with two microprocessors.

Many mainstream computing jobs, like word processing, carry out chores sequentially and don't get much benefit so many calculating engines. But Apple has a large audience among artists, designers and other professionals, and some programs they use have been modified so that more processors can cut the time needed to certain jobs.

[..]

The performance comes at a price. Upgrading to the dual quad-core configuration adds $1,498 to the base price of a Mac Pro, which starts at $2,499. So the least expensive eight-core machine is $3,997, according to the Web site.

Source: Apple Doubles Intel Processors In New Mac Pro Computer - WSJ.com

Google Lets Users Add Features to Maps - WSJ.com

Yet another facet of competition in the software + services space -- it's increasingly obvious that Google (and Microsoft and Yahoo) are going to consolidate/commoditize several social software domains that are currently being pioneered by smaller players.

Google isn't alone in this area. Microsoft Corp.'s Live Search Maps service and IAC/InterActive Corp's Ask City service allow users to annotate maps and share them with friends. Yahoo Inc.'s travel service lets users plot their trips on maps and its Flickr photo service allows users to plot locations where photos were taken.

With My Maps, consumers can easily mark places on maps with virtual pushpins and link them to video clips on Google's YouTube and Video services and photos stored on the Web. Users can type notes and include links to other Web sites at each location, and draw lines or shapes to signal paths or areas. Google will include consumers' maps in its Maps search results, unless users elect to keep them private.

Source: Google Lets Users Add Features to Maps - WSJ.com

Google’s Chief Gets $1 in Pay; His Security Costs $532,755 - New York Times

Interesting reality check... 

The Internet search giant paid its top executive, Eric E. Schmidt, a salary of $1 and a holiday bonus of $1,723 in 2006, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. But Mr. Schmidt’s personal security cost shareholders $532,755, representing the bulk of his compensation. Mr. Schmidt also received $22,456 to offset taxes due on a perk: the use of a Google-chartered aircraft by family members and friends.

Source: Google’s Chief Gets $1 in Pay; His Security Costs $532,755 - New York Times

The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software - Knowledge@Wharton

Most extensive Ray Ozzie interview I've seen in quite a while; excerpt:

Knowledge@Wharton:  You've come under some criticism for not being more out in front, stating a clear and concrete vision of where Microsoft is going. Why haven't we heard more details from you about [Microsoft's strategic] roadmap?

Ozzie:  Very good question. There are always trade-offs. This is a style thing -- I tend to like to back up things that I talk about with concrete deliverables. Otherwise, you state things and if they are too far out, it just doesn't resonate well. It's perceived as trying to over-hype something that you aren't delivering.
I have been trying to work internally on some fairly interesting things and we will talk about them as they become more real. We're out there talking about what the most important things are to deliver for the company today, which are Office and Vista. Those are the primary things we are talking about right now.
Are we ready right now to talk about how to change the game in search or how Microsoft might weave services into our various offerings? No, we're not. But we will.

Source: The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software - Knowledge@Wharton

Redmond Channel Partner Online | Blog: Can Microsoft Save Us From Google World Domination?

Timely snapshot -- read the full article for more details

Just look at the press this week. No less of an opinion influencer than BusinessWeek -- perhaps this country's finest weekly news magazine, period (given that The Economist is British) -- devoted its cover story to the question of whether Google is too powerful. BW did an excellent job (and, no, we haven't applied for jobs there -- we just feel this way) of canvassing the general freak-out about Google that's currently taking place in boardrooms. It's a dread that's spanning the technology, publishing, advertising and entertainment industries -- among others.

My $.02: Google will save us from Google world domination, much as Netscape saved us from Netscape world domination, by over-reaching with a deeply conflicted business model. Google's mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google's business model, however, is almost entirely predicated on advertising revenues, and Google's business modus operandi, at least from what I've heard from several Google partners (and have personally experienced, in exchanges with Google in my industry analyst role), make Microsoft seem proactive and generous in comparison.

Also in the Netscape tradition, Google is indirectly making Microsoft much stronger than it would have otherwise likely been, e.g., accelerating Microsoft's build-out of a global network of super-data centers, along with Microsoft's "software + services" strategy.

I have a lot of respect for what Google has accomplished, but the growing divergence among its end user value proposition (search that works and some reasonable other tools/services), its customer goals (ubiquitous, context-sensitive advertising), and its broader mission (laudable but selectively at odds with, among other things, capitalism and copyright) suggest Google is going to face some very significant and strategic challenges over the next couple years.

Source: Redmond Channel Partner Online Blog: Can Microsoft Save Us From Google World Domination?

Microsoft's document format moves up a step | CNET News.com

Looks like alternatives may now need to compete on merits other than standardization... 

Office Open XML (OOXML) was approved as an Ecma International standard in December and submitted to the ISO for so-called fast-track approval. On Monday, Ecma said that it was told that the ISO has moved Open XML to the next step in the standardization process and expects to make a final vote on it by September 2. ISO standardization would carry more significance than Ecma, particularly to government customers.

Source: Microsoft's document format moves up a step | CNET News.com

One Safety Net Is Disappearing. What Will Follow? - New York Times

Welcome to the new macroeconomics for employer/employee relationships...  Perennially green sales reps => another good reason to buy stuff from the web rather than franchised stores, imho.

In strictly economic terms, however, paying people based on their age is a bit skewed. Sixty-year-olds are indeed more productive than 30-year-olds, studies have shown, but not 50 percent more productive. Experience isn’t quite as valuable as we might like to believe. In effect, most companies are underpaying their younger workers and overpaying their older ones.

This somewhat uncomfortable fact was a big part of the extraordinary layoff announcement from Circuit City Stores last week. On Wednesday, the company dismissed 3,400 people, or about 8 percent of its work force, not because they were doing a bad job and not because the company was eliminating their positions. Instead, executives said the workers were being paid too much and that the company would replace them with new employees who would earn less. It was the second such layoff at Circuit City in the last five years, and it offered an unusually clear window on the ruthlessness of corporate efficiency.

Source: One Safety Net Is Disappearing. What Will Follow? - New York Times

The Mossberg Solution -- Getting Families Synched Up

 Excerpt from no-subscription-required version of the column

This week I tested Cozi Central ( www.cozi.com), a free, downloadable calendaring program from Cozi Group Inc. that works on most Windows PCs, not just expensive new computers that hog kitchen-counter space. Cozi offers a built-in family messaging system, and shopping or to-do lists that the whole family can edit. Starting today, Cozi also automatically synchronizes with Microsoft Outlook calendars, allowing work events to be considered in the family calendar and vice versa. Plus, it can be used well beyond just the family Windows PC. It has a Web-based version, so family members can use it from a browser on any computer, anywhere -- even a Macintosh. And it will send schedules and shopping lists to your cellphone via text messages or through an audible text-to-speech program.

 

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

Subtle Windows Vista + Office 2007 feature

My PCs, like millions all over the planet, auto-rebooted last night after a Windows update. One nice change, on my primary PC, which is running Vista Ultimate: the Microsoft apps I had open last night were restored after the reboot, including the files I had open (e.g., three instances of PowerPoint 2007, each with a different file). IE7 also restarted with tabs restored to the web page contexts I had last night (although not, IIRC, in the same sequence).

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Why I was wrong about Steve Jobs'

 Timely reality check

If Jobs is the man to turn the music industry away from DRM then we will all owe him a massive debt of gratitude. And today, while there is still a lot of manipulation, politicking and arm-twisting to be done, we've taken a small step in the right direction.

[...]

I might now celebrate by buying a tune or two of unencumbered music from Apple's store when they are available next month, even though it will be more expensive than popping down to my local discount record store and picking up a CD to rip.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Why I was wrong about Steve Jobs'

Master of Search Seeks Mastery of the TV Dial - New York Times

Relentless... 

The Internet search giant is announcing Tuesday that it will begin selling television ads on the 125 national satellite programming channels distributed by EchoStar Communications’ DISH Network.

The agreement is Google’s latest foray into offline media, and it underscores the company’s ambition to bring its wildly successful online advertising technology and auction-based pricing to new markets to continue fueling the company’s rapid growth.

Source: Master of Search Seeks Mastery of the TV Dial - New York Times

Peer-to-Peer Downloaders Gorge on Songs - New York Times

See the article for more stats; also see an article about EMI perhaps planning to drop DRM today.

But the average peer-to-peer household still downloads far more songs. Peer-to-peer networks yielded five billion downloads in 2006, whereas 509 million songs were downloaded from iTunes-style services.

Source: Peer-to-Peer Downloaders Gorge on Songs - New York Times

How an IBM Lifer Built Software Unit Into a Rising Star - WSJ.com

 Interesting times at IBM

Increasingly, the public face of International Business Machines Corp. is that of Steve Mills.

Mr. Mills heads IBM's rich and acquisition-hungry software unit, which has buoyed results in recent quarters. He frequently represents the company at investor conferences and software-customer gatherings, and his rising profile reflects a new reality at the technology giant.

IBM still gets most of its reputation from its computers and most of its revenue from services, but most of its profit growth comes from software. After 44 software acquisitions since 2000 for about $9.5 billion, the company is trolling for more.

Source: How an IBM Lifer Built Software Unit Into a Rising Star - WSJ.com

Google Joins Race to Buy DoubleClick - WSJ.com

High stakes poker, with Google and Microsoft holding most of the chips... 

Google Inc. has emerged along with Microsoft Corp. as a contender to buy DoubleClick Inc., presenting competition that stands to increase the final sale price of the online-advertising company, people familiar with the situation said.

Microsoft has appeared less likely to win the bidding as the potential price for the company surpassed $2 billion, according to the people familiar with the situation. But it is possible that Microsoft will counter.

Source: Google Joins Race to Buy DoubleClick - WSJ.com

Welcome to Google TiSP

On a roll today -- details on this page explain how Google TiSP works "... through your local municipal sewage lines" 

Sign up for our free in-home wireless broadband service

Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?

Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.

Source: Welcome to Google TiSP

Welcome to Gmail (Gmail Paper)

Best April Fools joke I've seen so far today; also see this page for more details

New! Introducing Gmail Paper

Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

Source: Welcome to Gmail

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Write a Check - New York Times

Interesting times -- also see BusinessWeek's lead story for the week, "Is Google Too Powerful?"  

Watching your principal competitor widen its lead with organic growth, unaided by advertising, makes you receptive to trying something else — anything else. Microsoft has decided that the search business needs a sort of “frequent flier” rewards program to attract and hold on to users: Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search.

Source: If at First You Don’t Succeed, Write a Check - New York Times