» Microsoft rechristens Silverlight 1.1 as ‘Silverlight 2.0′ | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Given the scope of the changes, it might have been reasonable to go directly to 3.0 :)

Microsoft has decided the next version of its Silverlight Flash-competitor is more worthy of a 2.0 moniker than a 1.1 one.

On November 29, Developer Division General Manager Scott Guthrie blogged that Microsoft has decided to rechristen its next Silverlight release as 2.0. Microsoft plans to make a beta build of the next version of Silverlight available under a “Go Live” license in the first quarter of 2008, Guthrie added. (A Go-Live license allows users/developers to begin deploying applications in production based on the beta.)

» Microsoft rechristens Silverlight 1.1 as ‘Silverlight 2.0′ | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

The Evolution of Facebooks Beacon - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

See the post for screen shots of the evolving user experience

Facebook keeps tweaking its new Beacon advertising program, which tracks users’ actions on sites other than Facebook. The program sparked a petition from MoveOn.org Civic Action that has won the support of 50,000 Facebook users. Facebook introduced a new version of the Beacon alert box on Thursday that still lacks an easy way to avoid participating.

The Evolution of Facebooks Beacon - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking - New York Times

Back to the "monetization" drawing board for Facebook -- see the full article for more details

Within the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them.

Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking - New York Times

Facebook Seeks Removal Of Documents From Web - WSJ.com

Not likely to make new friends with this kind of action, and, of course, the move will only make the documents more visible...

Early yesterday, Facebook's lawyers notified 02138, an independent magazine geared at Harvard alumni, of two separate emergency motions seeking the removal of the documents from its online edition.

[...]

This week, 02138 published an article detailing the legal dispute, along with several court documents, including Mr. Zuckerberg's college application and excerpts from his personal online journal.

Facebook contends the documents were sealed by the court. "We filed the motions to let the court know that its orders were being violated," said Brandee Barker, a Facebook spokeswoman. "One reason the court ordered certain documents' protection was to prevent exactly what has happened: misusing documents and taking documents out of context to sling mud."

Facebook Seeks Removal Of Documents From Web - WSJ.com

Japanese Sales of PlayStation 3 Outpace Nintendo's Wii in November - WSJ.com

Of course, if the situation in Japan is similar to the one in North America, it could simply be that the Wii is simply supply-constrained in Japan

Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 game console outsold Nintendo Co.'s Wii console in November in Japan for the first time, according to an industry survey.

In the four weeks through Nov. 25, Sony sold 183,217 PS3s in Japan, while Nintendo sold 159,193 Wii consoles, according to market researcher Enterbrain.

The data show that the PS3 has outsold Nintendo's offering for the last three weeks, indicating that recent moves by Sony may be paying off. The company introduced a new, cheaper entry model that it began selling in Japan on Nov. 11 and cut prices of existing models in October.

Japanese Sales of PlayStation 3 Outpace Nintendo's Wii in November - WSJ.com

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . When Networks Collide: AT&T Suddenly Doesn't Like Apple So Much | PBS

Very timely Cringely reality check; read the full post (including the depressing bottom line)

Here's a guy who is head of the largest telephone company in America and its largest mobile phone company. He has a five-year iPhone exclusive giving AT&T the number one selling U.S. smart phone and a huge generator of primo subscribers mainly poached from other carriers. Christmas is a month away and 1-2 million Americans have been planning to give -- or hoping to get -- an iPhone. So what does the guy do? He lets it slip that next year Apple will release a faster iPhone that will make the existing model obsolete. The only impact this can have on current iPhone sales is to stop them in their tracks, unless Apple offers a free 3G upgrade, which believe me they never intended to offer and may not.

So what's up? Was it a simple slip? Or is the guy so out of touch with reality that he doesn't realize that with a few words he has probably deferred -- maybe forever -- at least a million new customers worth to Wall Street at least $1 billion in market cap for his company?

I don't think Stephenson's statement was by accident and I don't think he is out of touch with reality. I think, instead, he was sending a $1 billion message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . When Networks Collide | PBS

Leopard is the New Vista, and It's Pissing Me Off - Columns by PC Magazine

I suspect the tone would be different in MacWorld, but it's still an interesting reality check

I'm not sure what ticks me off more about Leoptard (I can't take credit for that nickname—some Brit coined it): the fact that so many of the semi-important changes don't work, the fact that Apple turned a stable OS into a crash-happy glitz fest, or that the annoying, scruffy Live Free or Die Hard actor infecting my TV (and our Web site, by the way) is pretending that Leopard is better than Vista. It's not better than Vista. Leopard is Vista. And Tiger is better than both of them!

Leopard is the New Vista, and It's Pissing Me Off - Columns by PC Magazine

Amazon Kindle: Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine

A very positive Kindle review

If there's one company that wants the e-book business to succeed, it's Amazon. The mammoth online retailer may have moved well beyond its book-based beginnings, but its innovative Kindle e-book reader shows a lasting love of the printed word. The device features a sharp, readable electronic ink display and a cellular modem that gives readers free, direct access to the Kindle store for buying books and getting RSS feeds. The Kindle will set you back $400, and Amazon charges additional fees for books, magazines, and even for converting your own files to be displayed on the device. There are problems with the Kindle's design, too, but even so, this is the e-book's best hope of getting back in the game.

Amazon Kindle: Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine

Microsoft adds iPhone, iPod sync to Office 2008

The Microsoft Mac Office team is clearly still very customer-focused/driven

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will let users port PowerPoint presentations to iPhones and video-equipped iPods, Microsoft Corp. said yesterday as it unveiled the latest details of the suite scheduled to ship in January.

PowerPoint 2008, the presentation maker included in the bundle, can export creations as a series of pictures -- but not video -- to iPhoto '06 and later. Alternately, users can save the slides to the Mac's Pictures folder.

Microsoft adds iPhone, iPod sync to Office 2008

I, Analyst: Why Microsoft Loves Google's Android

Timely reality check from my Burton Group colleague Richard Monson-Haefel

To put it bluntly: Android as it is currently defined is a fork of the Java ME platform. Android is similar to the Java ME, but it's a non-conformant implementation. Android is not compliant with Java ME nor is it compliant with Java SE. In fact, it’s not really Java. Although it uses the Java programming language, the core APIs and the virtual machine are not consistent with the Java ME or SE platform - it’s a fork. This was first pointed out by Stefano Mazzocchi in his November 12th blog entry entitled "Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME". Stefano missed the fact that Android does not properly implement the CDC or CLDC Java ME APIs (a minimum requirement for Java ME conformance) - but kudos to him for being the first to report on the fork. The fork has since been picked up in the blogsphere by others here, here and elsewhere.

I, Analyst: Why Microsoft Loves Google's Android

Google Doesn’t Know Where You Are (But It Has a Good Guess) - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Interesting times...

Last month, I wrote a post called “One Reason We Need a Google Phone: Free GPS.” I was complaining that cellphone carriers, mainly Verizon, are disabling the GPS navigation systems built into phones so they can charge $10 a month for the service. I posited that a Google phone wouldn’t have such a nasty gotcha. (Actually, in Google’s very open model for its Android operating system, carriers and phone makers are free to put as many gotchas as they want into phones.)

Google today is adding a feature for some smartphones that don’t have built in GPS but can read the unique identifying number of the cell tower they are connected to. By using this information, Google can display a map of the general area they are in. (Google isn’t the first to try this sort of thing.)

Google Doesn’t Know Where You Are (But It Has a Good Guess) - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

MIT OpenCourseWare expands for high school students | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Cool...

MIT's OpenCourseWare, which has the motto "unlocking knowledge, empowering minds," has offered free access to MIT course syllabi, assigned readings, and lecture notes since its pilot program in 2002 and official opening in 2003.

"The new initiative, Highlights for High School, will be a customized portal into OCW designed to specially meet the needs of high school students and teachers who have interest in and hunger for these materials," said Hockfield.

MIT OpenCourseWare expands for high school students | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again) - New York Times

Timely reality check -- see the full article for details.

The bottom line: the iPod is still a more versatile, compact and beautiful machine. But the Zune has come a long way in very little time. Already, its potential audience is no longer limited to a sect of irrational Apple haters. It’s now a candidate for anyone who values its unique powers — excellent built-in FM radio, scratchproof case and wireless auto-synching — more than they value the richness and choice of the iPod universe.

BTW the brown Zune is no longer in the top 5 on Amazon's best-selling electronics list -- mostly, I assume, because the price is higher than it was last week (it was #1, pre-Kindle, when discounted 55%; now it's #24, discounted 13%)

Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again) - New York Times

Adobe Teams Up With Yahoo to Run Ads in PDF Files - WSJ.com

Hmm...

The text-based advertisements that you are used to seeing on Web sites are coming soon to an unusual place: PDF documents.

Adobe Systems Inc., a maker of online-publishing software, plans to announce today a program in which publishers can get paid to run ads from Yahoo Inc.'s ad service alongside PDFs.

Adobe Teams Up With Yahoo to Run Ads in PDF Files - WSJ.com

Amazon’s Kindle Makes Buying E-Books Easy, Reading Them Hard | Personal Technology | Walt Mossberg | AllThingsD

See the full post (no subscription required) for more

I’ve been testing the Kindle for about a week, and I love the shopping and downloading experience. But the Kindle device itself is just mediocre. While it has good readability, battery life and storage capacity, both its hardware design and its software user interface are marred by annoying flaws. It is bigger and clunkier to use than the Sony Reader, whose second version has just come out at $300.

Amazon’s Kindle Makes Buying E-Books Easy, Reading Them Hard | Personal Technology | Walt Mossberg | AllThingsD

Collaborative Thinking: [Free] Burton Group Telebriefing: Deciphering Social Media

Free Burton Group telebriefing with Mike Gotta, Anil Dash, and Chris Howard next week

Open to the public...

12/4/2007 at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT / 19:00 UTC/GMT / 20:00 CET

OR

12/5/2007 at 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT / 14:00 UTC/GMT / 15:00 CET

Deciphering Social Media

Social media is a critical issue for all organizations. While there are risks to address, social media offers organizations tremendous opportunities to deliver products and services that enhance customer, partner and employee relationships. Executive teams are also exploring how social media catalyzes innovation efforts and transforms work models. In this TeleBriefing, industry luminary Anil Dash, chief evangelist of Six Apart, and Chris Howard, VP and Service Director of Burton Group's Executive Advisory Program, join Principal Analyst Mike Gotta for a lively discussion on the challenges and benefits social media presents to the enterprise.

To register for this Burton Group telebriefing, click here.

Collaborative Thinking: Burton Group Telebriefing: Deciphering Social Media

IBM Lotus Notes 8 - Clear Your Desktops

Click the "Watch the desktop clearing videos" for some twilight zone "viral marketing" fodder...

IBM Lotus Notes 8 - Clear Your Desktops

States slam Google, Firefox as no match for Microsoft

Read the full (2-page) article for more details

In a brief submitted to federal court, state antitrust regulators dismissed companies such as Google and Mozilla, and technologies such as Ajax and software-as-a-service, as piddling players that pose no threat to Microsoft's monopoly in the operating system and browser markets.

Ten states and the District of Columbia made the unusual claim to try to show that the OS and browser spaces had changed much more slowly than expected in 2002, when state regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brokered a deal with Microsoft in a long-running antitrust case against the Redmond, Wash. company. The lack of change, they said, means that potential competitors need more time -- and judicial protection -- if they are to develop into real rivals to Microsoft.

States slam Google, Firefox as no match for Microsoft

» The happiest Vista customers: Mac users? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Fascinating re the 10% stat

In a post entitled, “Our Newest Vista OEM: Apple,” Allen cites a few stats that are interesting (though, so far at least, not independently verifiable — from what I can tell from the post). Allen said:

• Vista runs great on Macs
• Ten percent of all new Vista licenses are sold to Macintosh owners
• Mac owners are more satisfied with Vista than average

» The happiest Vista customers: Mac users? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Future of the Web coming fast and furious | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

The social Semantic Web...

Though much of the future of the Web is wide open, one thing that will happen is that we won't be inputting our personal information into separate social networks, he said. In other words, we'll have one profile that compiles all information related to us and our social networks. "Right now, so many people are complaining that they have told one Web site who their friends are, and another one who their friends are...In five years time, I hope people will be programming not at the document level, but at the application level," he [TBL] said. "You will have something which is an application which is consistent for looking at different aspects of people. It (will use) your role as their friend for putting together a very powerful, all-encompassing view of them (online)."

Future of the Web coming fast and furious | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Corbis offers bloggers free photos, with ads | CNET News.com

Sign of the times

Stock photography company Corbis is offering bloggers access to some of its images for their posts for free in exchange for showcasing advertising embedded into the photos.

Corbis and its digital rights partner, PicScout, will allow bloggers to access photos via a Web link from the site PicApp.com, now in a test phase, Corbis Chief Executive Gary Shenk told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Tuesday.

Corbis offers bloggers free photos, with ads | CNET News.com

Google’s Next Frontier: Renewable Energy - New York Times

Interesting times 

Google said it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars, part of that to hire engineers and energy experts to investigate alternative energies like solar, geothermal and wind power. The effort is aimed at reducing Google’s own mounting energy costs to run its vast data centers, while also fighting climate change and helping to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

“We see technologies we think can mature into very capable industries that can generate electricity cheaper than coal,” said Larry Page, a Google founder and president of products, “and we don’t see people talking about that as much as we would like.”

Google’s Next Frontier: Renewable Energy - New York Times

» Zoho Writer opens up read AND write offline functionality | The Universal Desktop | ZDNet.com

This is an important "RIA"/SaaS productivity app milestone, if it works robustly

Zoho announced today that it’s making read and write functionality in Zoho Writer available offline using Google Gears. Most of the tech commentary focuses on the office aspect of this, which is great because Zoho is really pushing the boundary of what online office applications mean. As Read/WriteWeb notes, this is a big leap forward from what other office RIAs are providing.

» Zoho Writer opens up read AND write offline functionality | The Universal Desktop | ZDNet.com

Microsoft May Put Data Center in Siberia - WSJ.com

The battle of the super-sized data centers continues... 

Microsoft Corp. is considering locating a new data center in Siberia as part of its effort to bulk up on infrastructure needed to better compete with rivals like Google Inc. Microsoft signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of the eastern Irkutsk region of Russia, in which "a data center was one of the topics of negotiation," said Evgeny Danilov, a Microsoft Russia spokesman. He said the company is "still far from final site selection." Data centers, or massive collections of servers, are an important part of Microsoft's plan to take market share.

Microsoft May Put Data Center in Siberia - WSJ.com

Yahoo Checkout Service Suffers Outages - WSJ.com

Not a happy "Cyber Monday" for some 

Yahoo Inc.'s popular e-commerce system buckled under the strain of Monday's surge in online shopping, and left some merchants disappointed and angry over lost orders.

The infrastructure behind Yahoo Merchants Solutions business was overwhelmed "by heavy holiday traffic" starting at 5:30 a.m. EST, a Yahoo spokeswoman said. As a consequence, some of the 40,000 Web sites that rely on the feature couldn't complete orders, and their customers were told to try back again.

Yahoo Checkout Service Suffers Outages - WSJ.com

Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data - WSJ.com

"GDrive" lives... 

The effort -- at one point known internally at Google as "My Stuff" -- could add to the challenges facing Microsoft's core Windows operating system and Office productivity software businesses by speeding a shift toward Web-based computing. It also has the potential to affect the economics and usage of home computers, lessening consumers' need to buy big hard drives to store and back up all of their files, for example.

One limitation of such an Internet-based storage service is that it isn't accessible when a person's computer or phone is offline, such as when one is in an airplane, though he could still copy required files to the laptop or other device before disconnecting from the Internet.

In the meantime, a handy table:

Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data - WSJ.com

Google News Visualizations

See the full post for a couple more examples

Besides the standard Google News page, there are other ways to explore the news automatically clustered and ranked by Google.
The image version of Google News shows pictures related to the most important news and lets you explore a gallery of images that illustrate a news. This is a great way to find the key elements from a news at a glance, without even reading the text.

Google News Visualizations

ConsortiumInfo.org - ODF vs. OOXML: War of the Words (an eBook in Process)

Interesting times...

For some time I've been considering writing a book about what has become a standards war of truly epic proportions. I refer, of course, to the ongoing, ever expanding, still escalating conflict between ODF and OOXML, a battle that is playing out across five continents and in both the halls of government and the marketplace alike. And, needless to say, at countless blogs and news sites all the Web over as well.

Arrayed on one side or the other, either in the forefront of battle or behind the scenes, are most of the major IT vendors of our time. And at the center of the conflict is Microsoft, the most successful software vendor of all times, faced with the first significant challenge ever to its one of its core businesses and profit centers – its flagship Office productivity suite.

I'm wrapping up a Burton Group document on ODF, Open XML, and related topics this week.  A preview of one of my conclusions: at current course and speed, ODF is probably going to turn out to be more like VIM, IDAPI, and OpenDoc (earlier everybody-but-Microsoft standards endeavors) than a strategic threat to Microsoft's Office franchise.

ConsortiumInfo.org - ODF vs. OOXML: War of the Words (an eBook in Process)

Dueling Guitars in Gameland: MTV and Activision Face Off - New York Times

Yow... 

But one of the most watched rivalries is between two games that are not first-person shooters or movie tie-ins. Instead, Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and MTV’s Rock Band put players in the role of rock musicians and allow them to play along with songs by bands like Metallica and the Who.

Both titles could be important to an industry that is trying to reach out to adults, women and anyone lacking interest in a fighting game. Like Nintendo’s Wii, the Guitar Hero games have found a receptive mainstream audience, and the earlier versions sold a total of six million copies. In its first week of release, Guitar Hero III had sales of $115 million. Rock Band was released last Tuesday.

Dueling Guitars in Gameland: MTV and Activision Face Off - New York Times

Technology Review: Searching Video Lectures

Cool... 

Researchers at MIT have released a video and audio search tool that solves one of the most challenging problems in the field: how to break up a lengthy academic lecture into manageable chunks, pinpoint the location of keywords, and direct the user to them. Announced last month, the MIT Lecture Browser website gives the general public detailed access to more than 200 lectures publicly available though the university's OpenCourseWare initiative. The search engine leverages decades' worth of speech-recognition research at MIT and other institutions to convert audio into text and make it searchable.

Technology Review: Searching Video Lectures

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - Fake Steve Jobs - Book Review - New York Times

Another FSJ review

Over the past two decades, a number of leaden, heavily footnoted books have been written about the real Steve Jobs, chronicling the rise, fall and resurrection of this mock-turtleneck-clad figure. These unfortunate authors got little, if any, cooperation from Jobs himself and produced such bland, fuddy-duddy books they might as well have spared themselves the trouble.

Unfettered by facts, Lyons inspires our prurient, page-turning fascination with a thoroughly unlikable narrator whose antics are at once unbelievable and vaguely plausible. The real Steve Jobs is a complicated, volatile narcissist, and so is his fictional doppelgänger. Fake Steve tells us he started Apple “in my garage, by myself, or actually with this other guy but he’s out of the picture now, so who cares.”

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - Fake Steve Jobs - Book Review - New York Times

A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions - WSJ.com

Article subtitle: "How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants"

Stimulus/response... 

"I'm not good at selling laptops," Mr. Negroponte has told colleagues. "I'm good at selling ideas."

"From my point of view, if the world were to have 30 million" laptops made by competitors "in the hands of children at the end of next year, that to me would be a great success," he said in a recent interview. "My goal is not selling laptops. OLPC is not in the laptop business. It's in the education business."

A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions - WSJ.com

Google and Other People's Content

Timely BusinessWeek reality check; see the full article for more details

All of which multiplies the number of arenas into which Google can sell advertising, which provides 99% of its revenue. The formula is familiar: Sell ads, in many cases around content Google doesn't own; turn over the bulk of that revenue to the owner of the content; repeat until the end of time.
Google's revenues almost tripled, to $11.8 billion, in the first nine months of '07, so it's hard to argue with its approach. But, really, how long can this go on? Not even the most ardent Google apologist claims its profits will balloon by the billion forever. Some perched in lofty places throughout the media biosphere advance a quietly radical notion: Google will start buying content companies. In fact, they say, Google will have no choice.

Google and Other People's Content

A New Chapter for the E-book?

Relatively positive BusinessWeek review for Amazon Kindle

Amazon deserves high marks for coming up with the first e-book reader to function completely independently of a computer and for radically simplifying the setup. When you purchase a Kindle with your Amazon account information already entered, a radio built into the device gets you up and running on Sprint Nextel's (S ) data network with no activation and no subscription required. You take the reader out of the box, go straight to Amazon's online Kindle store, make your book selection, and it downloads in seconds. (War and Peace took less than a minute.)

A New Chapter for the E-book?

Data breach in Britain creates potential for massive fraud - The Boston Globe

Oops... 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain apologized yesterday for the loss of sensitive personal information on 25 million Britons, including some bank account numbers, in what analysts described as potentially the most significant privacy breach of the digital era.

[...]

In sheer numbers, the breach was smaller than several incidents in the United States. But the information contained on the discs that were lost in Britain last month included bank account numbers, along with names, addresses, and national insurance numbers - the British equivalent of US Social Security numbers. It also included data on almost every child under 16 in Britain.

Data breach in Britain creates potential for massive fraud - The Boston Globe

Yes, Google is trying to take over the world. - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine

Timely reality check; read the full article

Now, with its recently announced plans to enter wireless communications, Google is making its deepest foray yet into a foreign territory where its allies are few. It faces the challenge of not just entering the wireless world but also converting its inhabitants. Provided that Google has the nerve and resources to try to remake wireless in its image, it'll either prove its greatest triumph or its Waterloo.

[...]

If that sounds abstract, we can make it more concrete. Over the coming years we can expect the Bell system to do everything in its power to destroy or subjugate Google. That's what history suggests; for since 1894 or so, the Bell system has swallowed or eliminated almost all of its would-be rivals. As one historian writes, in the early 1900s Bell would bankrupt competitors, and then "in truly medieval fashion, pile the instruments in the street and burn them, as a horrible example for the future."

On a related note, today in the WSJ, in an article titled "Web War III?"; an excerpt:

Google is worried about what you'll see on your tiny cell phone screen someday -- it might not be Google! The much awaited Android software package was the search giant's way of trying to establish in the mobile wireless world the enviable position it enjoys in the fixed Internet world.

Maybe instead of looking ahead to wireless, it should be looking over its shoulder and worrying more about what you'll see on your giant HDTV. Get ready for a free-for-all around the idea of convergence of, loosely, TV and the Internet. Players angling for advantage are too many to count, from Microsoft to Babelgum. But we wouldn't overlook the telephone companies, Verizon and AT&T, who just happen to be Google's nemeses in the wireless world war too.

Yes, Google is trying to take over the world. - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine

Amazon.com: Kindle maker Lab126 hides in Apple's backyard

Interesting times 

Jeff Bezos, sitting in an office in Seattle, is basking in the credit for Amazon.com's new Kindle e-reader. But who really deserves credit for it? Lab126, an Amazon subsidiary in the heart of Silicon Valley -- Cupertino, Calif., Apple's hometown. With former Apple and Palm employees running the quasi-startup, some have speculated that Lab126 might be coming up with an MP3 player or handheld computer. Instead? The Kindle, which many have dinged for a design that hardly matches the iPod or Treo.

Amazon.com: Kindle maker Lab126 hides in Apple's backyard

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Electronics. Updated hourly.

Mixed reviews or not, the Kindle is, as I type this, Amazon's #1 bestseller in electronics.

The brown Zune 30 GB (discounted 55%) is now #2...

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Electronics. Updated hourly.

TinyURL Outage Illustrates the Service's Risks

Oops...

The link shortening and redirection service TinyURL went down apparently for hours last night (it's still down, in fact), rendering countless links broken across the web. Complaints have been particularly loud on Twitter, where long links are automatically turned to TinyURLs and complaining is easy to do, but the service is widely used in emails and web pages as well. The site claims to service 1.6 billion hits each month.

[...]

The moral of the story, though, is that it isn't supposed to work this way. There ought not be one single point of failure that can so easily break such a big part of the web.

TinyURL Outage Illustrates the Service's Risks

Amazon Reading Device Doesn’t Need Computer - New York Times

The long tail of ebook distribution...

Amazon and the publishers declined to discuss the specifics of their financial arrangements. But several publishing executives said the industry practice was to sell an electronic version of a hardcover with a list price of $27 for about $20. While deals vary, the wholesale price of a $20 e-book is about $10, and most retailers have been selling them for about $16. The publishers said Amazon was paying about the same wholesale price as Sony and other e-book vendors.

By offering best sellers for $9.99, Amazon is leaving no profit margin, and it will have the expense of paying Sprint for the data transmission. Amazon says it hopes to make money on older titles that have better profit margins.

p.s. when did Amazon formally drop the ".com" in its name?...

Amazon Reading Device Doesn’t Need Computer - New York Times

Technology Review: E-Paper Comes Alive

Anticipating what I suspect will be a pervasive question, when people see the Kindle 

The new Amazon Kindle e-reader, unveiled yesterday, is the latest in a line of ever-improving black-and-white e-paper displays that don't use much power and are bright even in daylight; they more closely reproduce conventional paper and ink than do backlit displays. But bigger technology leaps are imminent. E-paper pioneer E Ink--the company whose technology underpins the Amazon gadget's display--is prototyping versions of the electronic ink that are bright enough to support filters for vivid color displays, and that have a fast-enough refresh rate to render video.

Technology Review: E-Paper Comes Alive

Amazon.com: Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store

The Kindle product page is up -- from the product overview therein: 

Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.

Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.

Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.

Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.

More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.

New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.

Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.

Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times.

More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post.

Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.

Holds over 200 titles.

Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.

Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.

No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.

Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.

Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

See the product page for more details and some intriguing videos.

A few quick impressions:

• $9.99 for NYT best-sellers and many new releases -- compelling
• No monthly wireless fee (I look forward to seeing details on how Amazon.com pulled that off...)
• Everything backed-up on-line
• Free Wikipedia access -- very cool
• Nice in-context features, such as dictionary look-ups
• Magazines and blogs/feeds can be downloaded,  but they're fee-based
• Another fee-based service ($.10): you can email Office files to your Kindle account; Amazon transforms and makes the content available (for reading only, I assume)

I suspect Kindle will be a very successful product, if the service is robust and reliable.  I also hope Amazon.com will be aggressive with school systems; a Kindle-like model would be much more effective than having kids lug around 30 pounds of books every day...

Amazon.com: Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store

Kindle Versus The iPhone - Forbes.com

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out 

Reinventing the book is a big challenge, but Amazon has been on a roll. Its shares are up 99% so far this year. Analysts say that’s in part thanks to Bezos’ success adding digital content, such as movies and music, to the mix alongside electronics and paper books. Kindle promises to build on that success.

The device has some real advantages over other electronic gizmos. To mimic the readability of a paper book, Kindle uses a system dubbed E Ink, developed by E Ink Corp., that is used in other electronic books, such as Sony’s Reader. Another edge: Newsweek reports the device will get 30 hours of reading out of a single charge. By contrast, the iPhone’s battery can sustain just six hours of Internet use.

Kindle Versus The iPhone - Forbes.com

Part of an Oil Book Relied on Wikipedia - New York Times

Interesting times... 

The publisher John Wiley & Sons confirmed last week that its book “Black Gold: The New Frontier in Oil for Investors” by George Orwel had lifted almost word for word about five paragraphs from a Wikipedia article on the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

[...]

The principal author of the Wikipedia article, reached via his user page there, wrote in an e-mail message that he considered the damages “insignificant,” and had “made no effort to contact the author or publisher.” He described himself as follows: “I’m male, in my 40s, have a Ph.D. in physics, and work as a professor at a university in California. I view my Wikipedia writings as a form of procrastination from real work, so I’d prefer to remain anonymous and not reveal the extent of my procrastination to colleagues.”

Part of an Oil Book Relied on Wikipedia - New York Times

Bezos has lofty ambitions for Kindle | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Read the article for more details (and the Newsweek article referenced below for an extensive overview)

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos believes the Kindle will be to reading what the iPod was to music, according to report published Sunday in the online edition of Newsweek magazine.

In what appears to be the Bezos' first interview about the company's upcoming electronic reader, Amazon's chief told the magazine that the Kindle can store up to 200 books and connect to the Web with the help of a system called Whispernet. Amazon, a company that has become synonymous with buying books online, will also offer Kindle owners a selection of more than 88,000 digital books at launch time, according to Newsweek.

Bezos has lofty ambitions for Kindle | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

US report says young people reading a lot less - The Boston Globe

Uh oh... 

We know what young people are doing more of: watching television, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cellphones, and instant-messaging their friends. But a new report released today by the National Endowment for the Arts makes clear what they're doing a lot less of: reading.

The report - a 99-page compendium of more than 40 studies by universities, foundations, business groups, and government agencies since 2004 - paints a dire picture of plummeting levels of reading among young people over the past two decades. Among the findings:

Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.

The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.

The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading.

See the full article for more details -- and buy a young person you know a few books for the holidays...

US report says young people reading a lot less - The Boston Globe

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Electronics. Updated hourly.

I am not making this up: the 30 GB brown Zune is the best-selling device in Amazon.com's electronics category at the moment.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's 55% off ($89.99), since Microsoft is discontinuing the brown version (so I wouldn't bet on Amazon's "In stock on December 19, 2007" assertion)...

The next Zunes in the list:

#16 black 30 GB at 30% off SRP ($139.99)

#37: black 80 GB (2nd generation) -- controversially sold out ($249.99)

The reviews on the 2nd generation Zunes are very strong, but of course the iPod Touch (on Amazon's list at the moment, the 16 GB Touch is #9 [$378.99], and the 8 GB is #11 [$283.99]) makes the latest Zunes seem previous-generation in comparison.  Then again, the 8 GB 2nd-gen Zune is listing for $189.99, so the Touch coolness comes at a significant price premium.

In any case, it looks like the 2nd-generation Zunes have already become the leading non-iPod portable music players, and I suspect the 3.0 versions will be even more successful...

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Electronics. Updated hourly.

Buyout Rumors Boost Yahoo Stock - Yahoo! News

I dunno -- at ~$36B before an acquisition premium, that'd be an amazing deal...

A blogger is making dormant rumors that Microsoft is looking to buy Yahoo active again after a Microsoft executive outlined plans this week for the company to improve its online search market share from about 10 percent to 30 percent.

Former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget, who writes for the popular liberal blog The Huffington Post, posited Friday that there is no way Microsoft could achieve this goal on its own, so an acquisition may be in the works. His comments come after Microsoft President of Platforms and Services Kevin Johnson outlined the company's online search goal at a UBS investor conference in Seattle on Thursday.

Buyout Rumors Boost Yahoo Stock - Yahoo! News

ConsortiumInfo.org - Open Formats Enter the Presidential Debate

Interesting times -- see the full post for more details.

Out of the campaign cacophony of the last week emerged a handful of words from Senator and Democratic party hopeful Barack Obama that could not fail to catch my attention. He used them during the presidential debate held in Las Vegas, and they also appear in the "Innovation Agenda" that Obama had released a few days before. He announced this agenda in a speech he delivered on November 14 at an aptly selected venue: the Google campus in Mountainview, California. One of the pledges he made in the course of that speech reads in part as follows:

To seize this moment, we have to use technology to open up our democracy. It's no coincidence that one of the most secretive Administrations in history has favored special interests and pursued policies that could not stand up to sunlight. As President, I'll change that. I'll put government data online in universally accessible formats.  [emphasis added]

A presidential candidate that is including "universally accessible formats" in his platform? How did that come about?

To earn my vote, however, the candidate will have to explicitly endorse either ODF or Open XML :)

ConsortiumInfo.org - Open Formats Enter the Presidential Debate

In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession - New York Times

Sign of the times

The compound — part boot camp, part rehab center — resembles programs around the world for troubled youths. Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery and drumming.

But these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace.

In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession - New York Times

ENT News Online | News: Former Lotus Exec Now Hatching Ideas for Microsoft

I suspect many former Loti will be resuming their commutes to their old work neighborhood, once Reed et al get their lab up & running 

Microsoft recently tapped Reed Sturtevant, a Lotus, Radnet and Idealab vet, to spearhead concept development in its spiffy new Cambridge, Mass. facility.

The high-rise building along the Charles River is about two blocks from Lotus Development's old headquarters building. Microsoft is beefing up its East Coast presence with its new Cambridge facility. It is also conveniently close to the MIT campus, which is no accident.

xconomy first reported on Sturtevant's new endeavor in late September.

ENT News Online | News: Former Lotus Exec Now Hatching Ideas for Microsoft

The latest generation of finance-tracking isn't software for your PC, it's online and it's free - The Boston Globe

Another social software-as-a-service scenario... 

Here's what's even newer and fresher than Quicken 2008 or the "Plus" now affixed to the latest version of Microsoft Money: Web-based programs that promise to track all of your money faster, easier, and more productively - and for free.

The new generation of online financial sites aims at folks who don't already have years of data invested in those desktop-based programs: Younger spenders who pass their days online and are trying to get a handle on where their money goes.

The big three sites are Geezeo.com, Wesabe.com, and Mint.com, though others are coming along.

The latest generation of finance-tracking isn't software for your PC, it's online and it's free - The Boston Globe

Clearwire an Option for Google in Wireless Quest [eWeek]

Hmmm...

A Google investment in Clearwire could fortify the search company's quest to reach more users through their mobile devices.

If Google can help Clearwire build out its wireless network, Google could sell consumers mobile applications and services rich with targeted, contextual and localized ads, analysts agreed.

Clearwire an Option for Google in Wireless Quest

BEA Tries to Prove Its Worth to Oracle - New York Times

The dance continues... 

Despite Mr. Ellison’s public statements, many analysts still think that Oracle will eventually buy BEA. With its hostile bid for PeopleSoft four years ago, Oracle declared it would not raise its price, but finally paid almost twice its initial bid.

“It’s all game theory,” said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. “You never want to show your cards.”

Acquiring BEA would firmly establish Oracle as the dominant player in middleware — the layer of programming code between a company’s database system and the business programs that use the same data.

BEA Tries to Prove Its Worth to Oracle - New York Times

Amazon to Debut E-Book Reader - WSJ.com

A strategic shift for Amazon.com 

Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce its highly anticipated electronic book device at a New York event Monday, according to two people familiar with the company's plans.

Amazon, which generates three-fifths of its revenue from the sale of books, music and movies, has been trying to broaden that business. It has already started selling digital music and movies through its online store. By developing and selling a device for reading books in digital form, Amazon hopes to stimulate the sale of books, the first product the online retailer sold.

Amazon to Debut E-Book Reader - WSJ.com

Technology Review: Preserving One Web

Convergence ahead...  See the article for more details 

Increasingly, people connect to the Internet through mobile phones, video-game consoles, or televisions. The problem is that a lot of Internet content isn't available for all of these devices, and many websites crash when loaded on a mobile device. Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and father of the Internet, worries that this is effectively cutting some people off from the information that is freely shared on the Internet. Speaking at the Mobile Internet World conference in Boston earlier this week, Berners-Lee said that the W3C is working on defining a set of standards that developers can use to build websites that work with mobile devices, as well as with desktop computers, so that the mobile Web doesn't break apart from the World Wide Web. This week, the W3C also launched a new tool that developers can use to test their websites for compatibility with mobile devices.

Technology Review: Preserving One Web

» OpenDocument Foundation folds. Will Microsoft benefit? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

This is a timely reality check in a few respects

The OpenDocument Foundation — a group whose name and charter would lead one to believe that it was backing the OpenDocument Format (ODF), but which ended up backing a different document format instead — has closed its doors.

Sam Hiser, a systems consultant who was Vice President & Director Business Affairs at the OpenDocument Foundation, confirmed that ODF is closing its doors in a blog post on November 13. Hiser and a number of the other OpenDocument Foundation backers earlier this year decided to throw their weight behind a Worldwide Web Consortium document standard, the Compound DOcument Format (CDF), and back away from ODF.

Read Mary Jo Foley's full article for more details.

See this post on the Burton Group Collaboration and Content Strategies blog for my $.02.

» OpenDocument Foundation folds. Will Microsoft benefit? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Dell Buoys a Rival by Offering Sun’s Operating System - New York Times

Strange days indeed...

Dell and Sun Microsystems, longtime rivals in computer servers, said Wednesday that Dell would sell Sun’s Solaris operating system, giving Sun a lift as it tries to expand its software business.

The collaboration comes as business customers are increasingly demanding a simpler approach to deploying and maintaining technology.

Dell Buoys a Rival by Offering Sun’s Operating System - New York Times

Sun's worried that Google Android could fracture Java | Underexposed - CNET News.com

Read the full article for some interesting comparisons between Microsoft c1996 and Google 2007.

"Anything that creates a more diverse or fractured platform is not in (developers') best interests," said Rich Green, executive vice president of Sun's software work, speaking to reporters at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. "The feedback from developers is, 'Help us fix this.'"

He said Sun wants to work with Google to nip any problems in the bud. "We're really interested in working with Google to make sure developers don't end up with a fractured environment. We're reaching out to Google and assuming they'll be reaching out to us to ensure these platforms and APIs will be compatible so deployment on a wide variety of platforms will be possible," Green said.

Sun's worried that Google Android could fracture Java | Underexposed - CNET News.com

Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast: Q&A

More on the Microsoft/Comcast offering for SMBs

PressPass: How significant is this partnership for Microsoft? 

O’Hara: This deal is important to Microsoft for in a number of ways.   Comcast is the second-largest broadband provider in the United States and is aggressively pushing itself as a provider of business services for SMBs. That they selected Microsoft as the basis for their offering is a strong endorsement of the strides we’ve made over the past several years in working with service providers.

It’s also a great real-world example of the software plus services vision coming to fruition.  While having Exchange Server and SharePoint Server on-premise works great for many businesses, it’s clearly not an ideal model for small businesses.  Working with valuable partners such as Comcast to extend Microsoft applications to a wider audience and meet the needs of small businesses is a win-win-win.  Both Microsoft and Comcast reach new customers, while small business owners get access to tools that can help improve their businesses.

Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast: Q&A: Michael O’Hara, general manager of Microsoft Communications Sector, discusses a new suite of services from Comcast that delivers powerful productivity applications to small and medium businesses.

I.B.M. to Push ‘Cloud Computing,’ Using Data From Afar - New York Times

Interesting times

I.B.M. is calling its initiative Blue Cloud. Most of the basic software needed for cloud computing is open source, meaning that the code is freely available and can be modified by users. The hardware used in the data centers is typically many thousands of industry-standard server computers, powered by processors made by Intel or Advanced Micro Devices, and produced by many hardware makers.

But I.B.M., analysts say, is trying to position itself as a leader in the corporate market for cloud computing, which many specialists regard as the next evolutionary step in information technology. The business strategy, they say, is to sell more I.B.M. hardware, software and services tailored for cloud computing. Starting in spring 2008, I.B.M. will offer versions of its server computers, including mainframes, that are adapted for cloud computing.

I.B.M. to Push ‘Cloud Computing,’ Using Data From Afar - New York Times

Comcast and Microsoft Launch Microsoft Communication Services From Comcast for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Free SaaS Exchange and Windows SharePoint Services for Comcast small business customers

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions, have launched a new Internet-based communications product for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), giving SMBs access to services that have traditionally only been available to larger companies with IT staffs. Comcast’s SMB customers will be the first in the country to receive Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast, which will provide them with corporate-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing. This product is Internet-based, so SMBs do not need additional server capacity, and is backed by 24x7 Business Class customer support from Comcast, which will serve as an SMB’s “help desk.”

Comcast is the only major U.S. Internet service provider to make this product available at no additional cost with its broadband services.

Comcast and Microsoft Launch Microsoft Communication Services From Comcast for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: New offering provides SMBs with hosted corporate-grade e-mail, scheduling and document-sharing services backed by 24x7 support.

WSJ.com - Oracle CEO Says Co Is Unlikely To Renew Bid For BEA Systems

Oracle playing hardball... 

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) Chief Executive Larry Ellison told analysts Wednesday that the business software maker is more likely to pursue other takeover targets instead of renewing its recent $6.7 billion bid for rival BEA Systems Inc. (BEAS).

Ellison's remarks echoed statements that Oracle issued late last month when it withdrew an $17-per-share offer after BEA's board demanded $21 per share, or about $8.2 billion.

"If we made another offer, the price would be lower" than Oracle's original bid, Ellison said during a late afternoon meeting with analysts.

WSJ.com - Oracle CEO Says Co Is Unlikely To Renew Bid For BEA SystemsWSJ.com

[IBM Lotus Symphony] Buzz

IBM Lotus shifts part of its marketing focus to homemade YouTube videos...

We hope you enjoyed the video. While it is all in good fun, let's not lose the sight of a really important point.... whether your IT budget is multi-millions of dollars or your own personal bank account, you have better things to be doing with your money. Many companies and individuals are paying large amounts of money for basic office productivity capabilities like word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

For many organizations, only a fraction of the employees or members actually use advanced features of Microsoft Office. For other users, IBM Lotus Symphony offers you a choice--one that supports ODF and Microsoft Office document formats, protects future access to documents and lets you stop feeding the machine. Because, surely, there is something better you can be doing with your IT budget?

I remember a classic Bill Gates quote, back in the early days of the productivity application suite competition, when Lotus was engaging in SmartSuite price competition with Office.  Gates commented "It's not a good idea to get into price competition with somebody who has more money than you do"...

Buzz

Stefano's Linotype ~ Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME

Hmmm....

Today Google released the Android code and I took a serious look at its internals... and found the solution for the licensing problem. It's called Dalvik and it's the new name of Sun's worst nightmares.

Dalvik is a virtual machine, just like Java's or .NET's.. but it's Google's own and they're making it open source without having to ask permission to anyone (well, for now, in the future expect a shit-load of IP-related lawsuits on this, especially since Sun and Microsoft signed a cross-IP licensing agreement on exactly such virtual machines technologies years ago... but don't forget IBM who has been writing emulation code for mainframes since the beginning of time).

But Android's programs are written in Java, using Java-oriented IDEs (it also comes with an Eclipse plugin)... it just doesn't compile the java code into java bytecode but (ops, Sun didn't see this one coming) into Dalvik bytecode.

Read the full post for more details.

Via Miguel de Icaza

 

Stefano's Linotype ~ Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME

Bento: Mac's New Database App Is iTunes for Control Freaks

More evidence that productivity application innovation is still alive

Not all of us are borderline-OCD sufferers, so here's an analogy to help you grasp the appeal of a pretty-looking desktop database application: What iTunes does for your digital music, Bento can do for contacts, spreadsheets and digital photos. It provides a colorful easy-to-use animated interface for storing and organizing personal data, and in doing so, it stands out among the dozens of ugly tables-and-text options.

[...]

Filemaker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, and Bento has a very Apple-flavored look and feel. It has much of the same search functionality as iTunes, and the themes of the database forms have the same style as the backgrounds in iLife applications like iWeb and iDVD. The visual flair of the templates make printouts look snappy as well.

Bento: Mac's New Database App Is iTunes for Control Freaks

Oracle to Add Enterprise 2.0 Features to Fusion [eWeek]

Aiming high...

"Oracle's Enterprise 2.0 vision is to bring capabilities users are familiar with—wikis, blogs, RSS, discussion forums, social networks—to enterprise applications using a standards-based programming model that allows you to mix and match services with information systems," said Kurian during Tuesday's address.

"The first step you need is Oracle Universal Content Manager Server to store and manage documents of different kinds – structured and unstructured—to be able to partition data on large devices and on specialized devices."

Oracle to Add Enterprise 2.0 Features to Fusion

Google Hits European Hurdle on DoubleClick Deal - New York Times

Perhaps the same European regulators to whom Google and others have complained about Microsoft concluded that Google already has an "inappropriately" large market share... 

The inquiry is one of the few major business challenges that Google, the dominant Internet search engine and a stock market favorite, has encountered in its nine years. The company makes most of its money from text advertisements that appear next to search results and on partner sites, while DoubleClick, a privately held company, places banner ads on Web sites and sells analyses of who sees them.

“We are obviously disappointed,” Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, said in a statement. Saying the company would work with the commission, he added, “We seek to avoid further delays that might put us at a disadvantage in competing fully against Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and others whose acquisitions in the highly competitive online advertising market have already been approved.”

Google Hits European Hurdle on DoubleClick Deal - New York Times

Apple Shares Soar on Chinese Interest in iPhone - New York Times

Impressive... 

Apple’s shares rose more than they had in over a year after China Mobile, the world’s biggest wireless operator, said it was in talks to sell the iPhone.

Apple, rebounding after three days of declines, advanced as much as 11 percent, the most since July 2006. An agreement would give Apple access to a market with 523 million subscribers, more than the combined population of the European Union.

Apple Shares Soar on Chinese Interest in iPhone - New York Times

The Mossberg Solution | Singing a New Zune

See the full review for more details (no WSJ subscription required)

We’ve been testing these new Zunes and find them to be notably better than last year’s entry. They are smaller, lighter and more attractive, and they include three big improvements. First is a new controller, called a Zune Pad, that combines buttons with a touch pad for scrolling. Second is a completely overhauled, simpler PC-software program and online store, the Zune Marketplace. Third is expanded usability of the built-in Wi-Fi, which allows you to synchronize your Zune and your PC without plugging in a cable and makes sharing songs between Zunes — its only function last year — slightly better.

The Mossberg Solution Singing a New Zune

Inside The GPhone: What To Expect From Google's Android Alliance -- InformationWeek

Google appears to be on a major counter-FUD PR campaign this week; this InformationWeek article is a detailed overview of some key Android features.

If you think the Google Phone is all talk, you're wrong: Here are eight technologies--GPS, multimedia, mobile Web browsing, gaming graphics, and more--which Open Handset Alliance members will bring to the upcoming mobile handset.

Considering the broader market context, however, I'm still not convinced Google's mobile platform will be a success -- primarily because of its disruptive threat potential to incumbents in the mobile domain

Inside The GPhone: What To Expect From Google's Android Alliance -- InformationWeek

Wiki Maker Looks for 'Traction' in Software Market

Excerpt from a review of Traction TeamPage 3.8

A key to any wiki is its navigability. Accordingly, TeamPage 3.8 now makes linking accessible to techies and the not-so-tech-savvy users, offering an improved GUI (graphical user interface) to let anyone with TeamPage permissions forward links to new content as well as links to existing content or external sites.

The new GUI also makes it simple to link to Traction sections to files that are attached to article pages or stored in Traction's Web share folders.

Users now have a place to look when they discover that a new page has taken over an old page's name, thanks to a new forward-linking feature set with accurate referencing and name aliases across projects.

I continue to be very impressed with Traction and its track record for meaningful hypertext innovation

Wiki Maker Looks for 'Traction' in Software Market

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Getting to Know You | PBS

Read the full post for some additional interesting projections...

Yes and no. Like Gmail, Google can sell a higher-end product probably minus the ads. People might find they actually LIKE the ads if Google does its job really well and isn't too intrusive. The ultimate result, of course, is near-total Google dominance of the mobile ad space and — this is REALLY big — transferring some significant portion of the market caps of all those mobile operators right onto Google's hips. Thanks to consumer parsimony and telephone number portability, Google over the course of a couple years would become the dominant U.S. mobile operator. And no matter what handset or protocol those customers use, the ads will be there and Google will be raking in the dough.

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Getting to Know You | PBS

A First Look at the Google Phone - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Check out these Google YouTube videos -- compelling demos.

For those curious about what the Android phones will look like, Google today has posted a couple of demos of their user interface and some applications. Remember these are demos, and no phones based on this software will be available for another eight months or so. But the demos are pretty slick, and they point to a class of phones that have the look and feel of the iPhone, with a touch-sensitive surface that allows users to scroll through Web pages by sliding a finger on the screen.

Also see an extensive CNet interview with Android creator Andy Rubin; excerpt:

Q: What do you think of the iPhone?
Rubin: I love it. I use it every day. That's my phone, and I think it's a great product. It's probably the best version 1.0 piece of consumer electronics that I've ever used.

Q: Do you think that the Android devices are going to be competing with the iPhone?
Rubin: No, I do not. I think it's a different business. Apple has a great business in building really, really high-quality consumer products, and the platform that we're building can go into a lot of different products.

A First Look at the Google Phone - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Adobe's Chizen to Leave As CEO at Critical Time - WSJ.com

This is a major milestone for Adobe.  Chizen leaves on a high note, in any case. 

Adobe Systems Inc. announced a change to its top leadership at a critical time, as the software maker begins to adapt to new ways that people are using the Web.

The company said Bruce Chizen will leave as chief executive at the end of this month, to be succeeded on Dec. 1 by Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's president and chief operating officer. Mr. Chizen will serve the rest of his term on Adobe's board, until the spring of 2008, and will act as an adviser to the company until Nov. 28, 2008.

Mr. Chizen said in an interview that he told Adobe's board last week that he wanted to step down after seven years as CEO.

Adobe's Chizen to Leave As CEO at Critical Time - WSJ.com

Why Big Blue May Still Lag - WSJ.com

Interesting reality check 

Yet while this shift in software away from best-of-breed may present merger-and-acquisition opportunities for IBM, it isn't good news for the company's services business, which accounts for more than half of sales. As companies move toward one-stop shopping, there tends to be less need for consultants to integrate software and new systems. Sure, revenue at IBM's services businesses rose a healthy 14% in the latest quarter. Expected revenue from new contracts and its backlog have lagged behind revenue growth for several quarters, so growth is likely to slow.

Why Big Blue May Still Lag - WSJ.com

Oracle jumps into virtualization - The Boston Globe

Bad news for VMWare 

Oracle Corp. made a move yesterday to take on VMware Inc. in the market for virtualization software, unveiling a product that it says is three times more efficient than competitors' offerings.

VMware shares fell more than 8 percent after executives at Oracle, the world's second-largest software maker, demonstrated the product before thousands of customers at a conference in San Francisco.

Customers can download "Oracle VM" for free starting tomorrow, the company said. Oracle will sell service contracts for the product ranging from $499 to $999 per year.

Oracle jumps into virtualization - The Boston Globe

The iPhony: Dan Lyons turned a spoof blog into an internet phenomenon and a book - The Boston Globe

Timely FSJ snapshot; see the article for more details

As a senior editor at Forbes magazine, Dan Lyons has made a career out of observing businesses, not running them. And as an old print hand, he was a little behind the curve when it came to new media.

But the outraged reactions to a piece he wrote in 2005, calling blogs the platform of choice for an "online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective," inspired him to experiment with blogging tools. And while he was at it, the Medford resident decided to adopt the reimagined personality of one of the tech world's most feared and admired CEO's.

Thus Fake Steve Jobs was born.

The iPhony: Dan Lyons turned a spoof blog into an internet phenomenon and a book - The Boston Globe

IBM to Acquire Cognos to Accelerate Information on Demand Business Initiative

The BI/performance management dance floor is emptying...

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Cognos® (NASDAQ: COGN) (TSX: CSN) today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos, a publicly-held company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion USD or $58 USD per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion USD. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

Bloomberg reports the price is a 9.5% premium over COGN's 2007/11/09 closing price.

From later in the acquisition press release:

Other strategic acquisitions in support of IBM's Information on Demand initiative include Princeton Softech (data archiving and compliance), FileNet (enterprise content management), Ascential Software (information integration), DataMirror (changed data capture), SRD (entity analytics), Trigo (product information management), DWL (customer information management) and Alphablox (analytics).

IBM to Acquire Cognos to Accelerate Information on Demand Business Initiative

ConsortiumInfo.org - Putting the OpenDocument Foundation to Bed (without its supper)

Interesting snapshot of a growing controversy about the utility of OpenDocument Format, which is not 1:1 with (or even closely aligned with, at this point) the OpenDocument Foundation.

So what is this CDF, and should it be considered to be an alternative to ODF? Here's what Chris Lilley had to say, reconstructed from my notes (in other words, this is not a direct quote):

So we were in a meeting when these articles about the Foundation and CDF started to appear, and we were really puzzled. CDF isn't anything like ODF at all – it's an "interoperability agreement," mainly focused on two other specifications - XHTML and SVG. You'd need to use another W3C specification, called Web Interactive Compound Document (WICD, pronounced "wicked"), for exporting, and even then you could only view, and not edit the output.

The one thing I'd really want your readers to know is that CDF (even together with WICD) was not created to be, and isn't suitable for use, as an office format.

I'm currently working on a Burton Group research document on ODF, Open XML, and related topics, and will share some perspectives in a few weeks.

ConsortiumInfo.org - Putting the OpenDocument Foundation to Bed (without its supper)

Cyber bullying bedevils Japan - Boston.com

Yikes

Schoolyard bullying has long bedeviled Japan and, as in other countries, has taken a high-tech twist in recent years.

Ten percent of high school students said they have been harassed through e-mails, websites or blogs, a recent survey by the Hyogo Prefectual Board of Education showed.

Cyber bullying is a global trend, but the anonymity it provides for perpetrators may have extra significance in Japan, where wariness of direct confrontation is a cultural norm, said Shaheen Shariff, principal investigator for the International Project on Cyber Bullying at McGill University in Canada.

Cyber bullying bedevils Japan - Boston.com

Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? - New York Times

More from the NYT Mozilla article; hardly an objective, outside observer, however; e.g., see this BusinessWeek article. 

To an outside observer like Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia who focuses on the Internet, the alliance still makes a lot of sense.

“We’re living in a cold war between open and closed systems, and Google is happy to lend support to entities that it sees as allies,” he said.

While acknowledging that he does not know the secret terms of their contract, he said, by way of analogy, “No one is surprised that Turkey would get aid from the U.S. during the cold war.”

Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? - New York Times

Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? - New York Times

Timely Mozilla reality check; see the article for more details 

According to Mozilla’s 2006 financial records, which were recently released, the foundation had $74 million in assets, the bulk invested in mutual funds and the like, and last year it collected $66 million in revenue. Eighty-five percent of that revenue came from a single source — Google, which has a royalty contract with Firefox.

Despite that ample revenue, the Mozilla Foundation gave away less than $100,000 in grants (according to the audited statement), or $285,000 (according to Mozilla itself), in 2006. In the same year, it paid the corporation’s chief executive, Mitchell Baker, more than $500,000 in salary and benefits. (She is also chairwoman of the foundation.)

Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? - New York Times

Google and mobile phones | What, no phone? | Economist.com

OHA reality check from The Economist 

In recent years there have been many grand alliances in the mobile-phone industry. These have often been formed in order to neutralise a market leader, but as often as not have failed to achieve anything. Google's new alliance includes some big names. But Samsung, the number three handset-maker, always joins everything; Motorola, the number two, is in trouble and could do with a helping hand from Google; the same is true of Sprint, an American wireless operator. The heavyweights—Nokia, Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, not to mention Apple and Microsoft—are conspicuous by their absence.

Unusually for The Economist, however, the article concludes with a factual error:

Google is prepared to spend huge sums to make Android a success, since it hopes to pipe ads onto Android phones. This is the latest example of its strategy to make more money in its main business—online advertising—by opening up other markets. Recently it unveiled OpenSocial, a set of software standards for social networks, which is also intended to create more outlets for online ads (and to keep Facebook, a leading social network, from becoming a serious competitor for them). Will this strategy work? Investors seem to think so. This week Google's shares hit a new high, making it America's most valuable firm.

The error part: Microsoft is still worth > $100B more than Google at the moment.

Google and mobile phones | What, no phone? | Economist.com

Think big, green: Microsoft's mall-sized data centers

Interesting snapshot 

Google is building large data centers in areas where electricity is inexpensive, such as next to the hydropower-rich Columbia River in The Dalles, Ore., or in rural areas. But Chicago is not without its intrinsic advantages, said Manos, a Windy City native.

Microsoft will in fact be taking advantage of a natural Chicagoland feature to help cut energy costs at that facility. It’s called airside economization -- otherwise known as opening a window. From fall to spring, Chicago, “the air outside isn’t necessarily warm,” said Manos, and cooler air will be used to help chill the data center. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.,. has been advocating the technology in particular, and says doing so can cut cooling costs by 60%.

Think big, green: Microsoft's mall-sized data centers

Colligo Contributor for SharePoint® Sets Sales Record

Impressive...

Colligo Networks, a leader in desktop collaboration solutions, reported an 86% increase in revenues and an 84% increase in gross profits in Q3 2007 over Q3 2006. The main driver continues to be the success of Colligo Contributor™ for SharePoint^® - sales of which have increased over 3000% year to date over 2006. Contributor is an easy-to-deploy .NET client application that extends the power of Microsoft Office SharePoint^® to the desktop.

Colligo Contributor for SharePoint® Sets Sales Record

FAQ - Oracle Wiki

Oracle launches a wiki -- via Mike Gotta, with whom I agree that Oracle is perhaps "... the most interesting dark horse in the race regarding Enterprise 2.0".   The Oracle wiki is hosted by Wetpaint, an impressive hosted wiki++ service provider.

Excerpt from the Oracle Wiki FAQ:

1. What is the Oracle Wiki?
Oracle is providing this wiki so that customers and partners (and anyone else interested in Oracle) can collaboratively create and share content that is helpful to the community at large--whether installation guides and tips, project documentation, technical notes, or anything else (appropriate) that captures your imagination.

2. What isn't the Oracle Wiki?
The Oracle Wiki is not a platform for political views/opinions or shameless self-promotion (get a blog for that). It's not a bulletin board or Q&A forum (see a discussion forum for that). And it's not a place to seek or obtain support (visit MetaLink for that). (See the Rules of Conduct for more details.)

FAQ - Oracle Wiki

Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter [BusinessWeek]

Another big Google influence

Google's brain trust was again trying to change the rules of the game. Behind the scenes, they owe a sizable debt to a man nearly unknown outside the geeky confines of cyberlaw. He is Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor who provided the intellectual framework that inspired Google's mobile phone strategy. One of the school's edgier profs, Wu attends the artfest Burning Man, and admits to having hacked his iPhone to make it work on the T-Mobile network.

Now, Wu's offbeat ideas are entering the mainstream. In February, he published a paper in the International Journal of Communication proposing a radical new vision of freedom for the U.S. wireless industry. He argued that the Federal Communications Commission should mandate that providers allow consumers to use any cell phone with any wireless operator, and install any programs they want on their phones as long as they were not illegal or harmful. "It would make a huge difference in the wireless industry," says Wu. "It will blow open the wireless market."

Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter

I Want My iTV [BusinessWeek]

Cover story snapshot of Internet TV dynamics

But what's holding up the transition from network TV to networked TV is that any company with a little piece of control in the way things work today is unwilling to jeopardize its power and revenues until it becomes clear how the new model will pay. Every time you hear about some product that sounds great but just has one strange limitation, follow the money to understand why. Hollywood worries digital downloads could lead consumers to stop buying $24 billion of DVDs annually, and broadcasters are nervous about the fate of the $185 billion-per-year TV advertising kitty. So studios and networks alike limit how long programs are available on Web sites or restrict the shows that play on various devices.

I Want My iTV

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read - Pierre Bayard - Books - Review - New York Times

I think I'll put this on my year-end holiday reading list; read the full review

Bayard’s critique of reading involves practical and theoretical as well as social considerations, and at times it seems like a tongue-in-cheek example of reader-response criticism, which emphasizes the reader’s role in creating meaning. He wants to show us how much we lie about the way we read, to ourselves as well as to others, and to assuage our guilt about the way we actually read and talk about books. “I know few areas of private life, with the exception of finance and sex, in which it’s as difficult to obtain accurate information,” he writes. There are many ways of relating to books that are not acknowledged in educated company, including skimming, skipping, forgetting and glancing at covers.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read - Pierre Bayard - Books - Review - New York Times