Saturday, April 30, 2011

vowe dot net :: Does Lotus really know? And does it matter?

Another indication the Lotus brand is, at best, legacy; see the comment thread for a lively discussion (via Karen Hobert)

Lotus Connections just became IBM Connections. Sametime may be next. Portal has always been WebSphere. Lotus as a brand has been toned down even at Lotusphere. And business cards now read "IBM Collaboration Solutions".

It appears this "Lotus Knows" campaign was a huge waste of money. Carefully avoiding to show the product, it pushed a brand, that is now going invisible.

vowe dot net :: Does Lotus really know? And does it matter?

What was that about Post-PC? | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

See the article link below for more on the IBM/Microsoft market cap cross-over

For a sign of the times, this chart is striking.

After more than a decade and a half, IBM looks like it is about to pass Microsoft once again in stock market value, something that would put it second only to Apple in terms of tech valuations.

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What was that about Post-PC? | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Memories Scattered by Southern Storms Land on Facebook - NYTimes.com

Very thoughtful and creative

Created by Patty Bullion, 37, of Lester, Ala., a page on the social networking site has so far reunited dozens of storm survivors with their prized — and in some cases, only — possessions: a high school diploma that landed in a Lester front yard was traced to its owner in Tupelo, Miss., for example. A woman who lost her home in the tiny town of Phil Campbell, Ala., claimed her homemade quilt found in Athens, Ala., nearly 50 miles away: “Phil Campbell Class of 2000,” it read.

Memories Scattered by Southern Storms Land on Facebook - NYTimes.com

Friday, April 29, 2011

Summary of the Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS Service Disruption

A detailed overview of what went wrong for AWS

Now that we have fully restored functionality to all affected services, we would like to share more details with our customers about the events that occurred with the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (“EC2”) last week, our efforts to restore the services, and what we are doing to prevent this sort of issue from happening again. We are very aware that many of our customers were significantly impacted by this event, and as with any significant service issue, our intention is to share the details of what happened and how we will improve the service for our customers.

Summary of the Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS Service Disruption

New York City Sees Its Future as a Data Platform: Tech News and Analysis [GigaOM]

An open data snapshot

In a presentation at the Activate conference on Thursday, put on by The Guardian newspaper at the Paley Center for Media, Sterne said New York City is trying hard to turn the city’s government into a platform that enables both developers and individuals to take data about life in the metropolis and use it to create apps, services and other resources. “We need to help create an ecosystem that enables both transparency and also economic growth,” Sterne said.

[…]

New York City isn’t the only metro region to experiment with social media or open data. Governments in cities throughout North America have begun to open up much of their data, and some mayors, such as New Jersey’s Cory Booker, have become well-known for engaging with citizens through Twitter. And some are taking the idea of transparency even further than the Big Apple. Philadelphia’s City Controller has launched an iPhone app called Philly Watchdog designed to let residents snap photos of city staff who are engaged in fraud or abuse of city resources and send them to the Controller’s office.

New York City Sees Its Future as a Data Platform: Tech News and Analysis «

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Sony may be clueless in PSN hack - Cringely on technology

An excerpt from a Sony reality check; tangentially, also see Sony’s missteps through the years

Now let’s consider for a moment why this outage is continuing a week after the break-in. Speaking with a few experts and reading the official Sony FAQ gives some insight into what may really be going on. Sony says it is investigating, but should an investigation really take this long? Can’t the server logs and other network data be locked-down in a few minutes and examined at leisure? Sure. So when Sony says it is investigating what they probably mean is they are trying to fix the problem, seal the breach, and make sure that particular gambit cannot be accomplished again. This takes time — hours of programmer time and dozens or even hundreds of hours of QA time to make sure the fix scales properly and will work under a full network load.

Sony doesn’t say this, of course, but that puts us back to the fierce pride part. While they can admit a break-in they find it very difficult to say they are putting locks on the doors that never had them.

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Sony may be clueless in PSN hack - Cringely on technology

The Return of Clippy - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

Some creative product training resources from Microsoft

Here is a question I wish I could answer: Is this Microsoft tone genuinely corny-earnest, reflecting the kind of middle-school pep-rally sensibility that you can only imagine Apple hipsters sneering and snickering at (making you want to punch the hipsters) and Google engineers looking at in amazement? Or is it triple-backflip hipsterism itself, an Onionesque by-golly mockery of corniness? I suppose this is one of the enduring mysteries of life. If you'd like to judge for yourself just how hep this new feature is, check out the video below. And even I have to admit that plucky little Clippy in the scenes above and below is winsomely appealing.

 

The Return of Clippy - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

Official Google Blog: Google Workshops: a place for Googlers to get their hands dirty

Interesting times in the Googleplex

Wood, metal, welding and electronics shops are probably not what come to mind when you think about Google but in fact, we often have to build physical products to help us collect and organize information that’s found outside of the web. We do this at the Google Workshops, a hands-on facility equipped with everything from an oscilloscope to a miter saw and even a plasma cutter. Day and night—and even on weekends—the workshops are alive with Googlers working on personal projects—such as home furniture or model airplanes—as well as work-related ones like green business prototypes or components of our self-driving cars.

Official Google Blog: Google Workshops: a place for Googlers to get their hands dirty

Microsoft OneNote - OneNote Mobile 1.1 for iPhone adds new features, improves ease of use

Microsoft updates OneNote Mobile for iPhone; hopefully a full OneNote for iPad is also in the works

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Whether you are downloading OneNote for iPhone for the first time or you're updating your current app, here are some of the new features and improvements in version 1.1:

  • The ability to email your notes right from your iPhone
  • An easier way to delete notes that you no longer want
  • More intuitive icons and a Home button that makes it simpler to select or move between multiple notebooks
  • A simplified sign-in screen and more help with getting a Windows Live ID account
  • Faster notebook syncing and better overall app performance
  • A more comprehensive OneNote Mobile for iPhone Help page in an easy-to-scan FAQ format

Microsoft OneNote - OneNote Mobile 1.1 for iPhone adds new features, improves ease of use

RIM Plunges After Cutting Profit Forecast on BlackBerry Demand - Businessweek

More RIM perspectives

“The sales on their existing devices must have fallen off a cliff,” said Matt Thornton, an Avian Securities LLC analyst in Boston who has a “neutral” rating on the stock. “They are getting hit by a combination of a stale portfolio and heated competition on devices.”

RIM fell $6.17, or 11 percent, to $50.43 in late trading, after closing at $56.59 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It has lost 2.7 percent this year as of today’s close.

RIM Plunges After Cutting Profit Forecast on BlackBerry Demand - Businessweek

NPD: Apple Becomes No. 3 U.S. Phone Seller as Smartphone Sales Pass 50 Percent of the Consumer Market | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

See the article link for more details

Everyone knows that the iPhone is doing pretty well in the smartphone market, but it turns out Apple’s sales are now strong enough to make the company the third-largest seller of all types of phones in the U.S.

[…]

For the first time, smartphones overall accounted for more than half of all phones sold in the U.S., with consumers opting for a smartphone 54 percent of the time.

NPD: Apple Becomes No. 3 U.S. Phone Seller as Smartphone Sales Pass 50 Percent of the Consumer Market | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

RIM Co-CEO Balsillie Blames Lowered Outlook on Aging Product Line | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Check the article link below for some optimistic comments from RIM.  I hope Tungle got a cash-based deal…

If you were alarmed when Research in Motion cut its sales and profit forecasts for this quarter, wait until you hear its explanation for the move. There’s been a decrease in sell-through since RIM issued guidance a month ago and it’s being driven by the “natural aging” of its high-end smartphone portfolio.

“The core thing here is that there’s been a transition that’s happened since our last guidance,” RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said during a conference call with analysts Thursday. “Our higher-end products are aging…and that’s affecting margins…and sell-through, particularly in the United States and Latin America.”

RIM Co-CEO Balsillie Blames Lowered Outlook on Aging Product Line | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

U-lock pioneer uses social media to fight bike theft - The Boston Globe

An innovative approach (and timely PR move), but unclear if it’ll be useful

Priced at around $15 per kit, the labels will allow customers to register their bar codes using a free scanning application they can download to their smartphones. If their bikes are stolen, they report the theft to an online registry, www.bikerevolution.org, which in turn will broadcast an alert to other bike owners using Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.

The system effectively enlists members of the cycling community as watchdogs. Armed with their smartphones, other cyclists will be able to check whether a stickered bike matching one on an alert is indeed stolen.

U-lock pioneer uses social media to fight bike theft - The Boston Globe

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Apple tops Microsoft market cap, revenue, and profits • The Register

Too bad for Microsoft that Wall Street doesn’t “throw out the outliers;” Microsoft’s latest financial results would look pretty strong, if it weren’t for Apple…

After surpassing Microsoft's market capitalization and its quarterly revenues, Apple has now surpassed its quarterly profits. In the Apple quarter ending March 26, Steve Jobs and company stacked up profits of $5.99 billion, while Microsoft's most recent quarter managed (only) $5.23 billion.

Apple topped Microsoft's quarterly revenue total in October, and it did so again this time around. And then some. Jobsian revenues reached $24.67 billion, as Microsoft revenues maxed out at $16.43 billion. Apple's market cap first topped Microsoft's in June of last year.

Apple tops Microsoft market cap, revenue, and profits • The Register

RIM Buys Social Calendar Service Tungle | PCWorld Business Center

RIM tries to buy some time?…

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has swiped up social calendar company Tungle. Tungle provides a cloud-based calendar which syncs with your existing calendar, including Outlook (with or without Exchange), Google Calendar, Apple iCal, and Entourage for Mac and Lotus Notes. You can also sync Tungle to Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.

The service allows users to share calendars across companies and platforms; to propose meeting times; and to display available dates automatically, based off of all your calendars and without disclosing unwanted information. They can publish this on a searchable database at Tungle.me.

RIM Buys Social Calendar Service Tungle | PCWorld Business Center

Jobs Concedes Apple’s Mistakes in iPhone Location Data - NYTimes.com

Steve Jobs acknowledges they were holding it wrong (iPhone location-related data) but asserts it never intended to track people (apparently just their phones and nearby wireless networks)

Hoping to put to rest a growing controversy over privacy, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, took the unusual step of personally explaining that while Apple had made mistakes in how it handled location data on its mobile devices, it had not used the iPhone and iPad to keep tabs on the whereabouts of its customers.

“We haven’t been tracking anybody,” Mr. Jobs said in an interview on Wednesday. “Never have. Never will.”

Jobs Concedes Apple’s Mistakes in iPhone Location Data - NYTimes.com

The Joy of Tech on cloud computing

See the article link for the rest of the cartoon

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http://voices.allthingsd.com/files/2011/04/1534.jpg

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Writes a Letter to Shareholders | Tricia Duryee | eMoney | AllThingsD

Amazon’s Manifest Destiny strategy embraced by investors

The stock pushed higher despite yesterday’s mixed financial results, which included a huge plunge in profits.

Why so? Because it’s clear that investors are happy with the company’s top-line revenue increases and are salivating at Amazon’s growth story, which increasingly has to do with both physical and digital products.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Writes a Letter to Shareholders | Tricia Duryee | eMoney | AllThingsD

Honeycomb Tablet Has 4G and 3-D But Is No iPad | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

Looks like this slate probably won’t be successful enough to warrant an Apple lawsuit

I’ve been testing the G-Slate, and in my view, it performs pretty well overall—about as well as the first Honeycomb tablet, the Xoom. But it isn’t nearly as good a choice as the iPad 2.

Of its three big differentiators, the only clear winner is the 4G cellular capability, which is much speedier than cellular data on the iPad, or on any other Honeycomb tablet I know of. The 3-D feature, which requires the use of 1950s-style colored glasses, seems like a parlor trick to me. And the in-between size, while potentially attractive for one-handed use, is undercut by the fact that, somehow, despite being smaller, the G-Slate is actually a bit heavier than the iPad 2, and a third thicker.

Honeycomb Tablet Has 4G and 3-D But Is No iPad | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

PlayStation players can protect themselves after data breach - The Boston Globe

See the article link below for some suggestions, if you’re a Sony customer/victim

The company confused and outraged its users by shutting down the network without explanation, but it wasn’t until last Friday that Sony admitted the problem had been caused by a hacker attack. And Sony didn’t reveal the full scale of the disaster until Tuesday.

That gave the bad guys ample time to run up illicit credit card charges or rifle through victims’ e-mails in search of Social Security numbers or other sensitive data. A Birmingham, Ala., man yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony — what could be the first of many.

PlayStation players can protect themselves after data breach - The Boston Globe

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

SlideRocket Buzz: VMware Acquires SlideRocket Collaborative Presentation Provider

VMware adds to its information worker portfolio of products/services

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of SlideRocket, a leading SaaS-based business presentation provider. SlideRocket delivers innovative presentation solutions that uniquely leverage modern concepts of cloud computing, collaboration, social media and mobile computing platforms. More than 20,000 customers and 300,000 users leverage Slide Rocket to more effectively build, deliver and share presentations. SlideRocket is built specifically to take advantage of a modern web and cloud based end-user computing model that blurs the lines between presentations, websites and multi-media content, representing a fundamental shift from PC-era presentation solutions. Terms of the acquisition were not announced.

The acquisition of SlideRocket advances VMware’s vision for a modern end-user computing model leveraging cloud computing to securely deliver access to applications and data from any device, where and when a user needs it. Presentation software is second only to email as the most widely used business software. Delivering this critical business solution in a modern, cloud-oriented model will help VMware drive a new model for end user computing for the enterprise.

SlideRocket Buzz

Nokia transfers Symbian development and 3,000 employees to Accenture, will downsize workforce by further 4,000 -- Engadget

Outsourcing a “burning platform”

Nokia's already done quite a bit to cut ties with last year's big push for Symbian and Qt development, though this is perhaps the biggest step yet. The Finnish company has announced it's transferring responsibility for Symbian development to consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture, which sounds odd given the latter outfit's inexperience in delivering mobile OS updates, but the good news is that the 3,000 devs Nokia had working on Symbian will continue their jobs under the new employer.

Nokia transfers Symbian development and 3,000 employees to Accenture, will downsize workforce by further 4,000 -- Engadget

Yahoo Mulls Spinoff for Hadoop Software Unit - WSJ.com

Interesting times in “next-generation” database management

Yahoo Inc., which generates $6 billion in annual revenue by selling online ads, is considering a new strategy to exploit what analysts say could be another billion-dollar business: Hadoop.

Over the past six years, the Internet pioneer helped to develop Hadoop, data analysis software that it now uses to ferret and cull spam from Yahoo mail, determine which stories to place on its home page and pick relevant ads for viewers.

Yahoo Mulls Spinoff for Hadoop Software Unit - WSJ.com

Breach at Sony may include profiles - The Boston Globe

More bad news for Sony (and its PlayStation Network customers)

Sony Corp. said hackers may have gained access to personal information of the 75 million users of its PlayStation Network and Qriocity online service, including billing addresses.

Breach at Sony may include profiles - The Boston Globe

Android system gains market share - The Boston Globe

Impressive Android momentum

Google Inc.’s Android operating system powered half of all smartphones bought in the United States in the past six months, according to a survey by Nielsen Inc., a sign the software’s market share continues to grow.

Android’s share of new smartphone buys was double that for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, at 25 percent, the research firm said in a report yesterday, based on a survey in March about devices bought during the previous half year. Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry had 15 percent, Nielsen said.

Android system gains market share - The Boston Globe

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Sony Shuts Down PlayStation Network Indefinitely - Digits - WSJ

Amazon EC2 is mostly back on-line, but Sony is still in rebuild mode

Internet gamers were frustrated last week when Sony shut down its PlayStation Network. Now, they might have reason to be worried.

On Monday, the Japanese electronics giant said it is keeping its PlayStation Network videogame service offline indefinitely following a hacking attack it now says may have compromised user’s information.

Sony Shuts Down PlayStation Network Indefinitely - Digits - WSJ

Facebook Deals Takes Aim at Groupon and LivingSocial - NYTimes.com

Facebook jumps into social shopping

Facebook said late Monday that it would introduce Deals, an effort by the social networking giant to tap into the consumer frenzy over online discounts. With Deals, which had long been expected, Facebook is entering a crowded market led by overnight sensations like Groupon and LivingSocial.

[…]

While many other coupon sites allow users to log in with their Facebook name and share deals with friends, [Emily White, Facebook’s director for local] said Facebook Deals would become more tightly woven into the site.

“A lot of deal sites get that deals are social,” Ms. White said. “But I wouldn’t say they are really well integrated with Facebook.”

Facebook Deals Takes Aim at Groupon and LivingSocial - NYTimes.com

Location Data From Phones Is Valuable for Ads - NYTimes.com

No doubt it’s all somewhere in the end user license agreement…

You may not know it, but if you carry a smartphone in your pocket, you are probably doing unpaid work for Apple or Google — and helping them eventually aim more advertising directly at you.

As those two companies battle for dominance in mobile computing, they have increasingly been using their customers’ phones as sensors to collect data about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots.

Location Data From Phones Is Valuable for Ads - NYTimes.com

Motorola Xoom tablet sales could be even worse than feared | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

A discouraging start for the widely-reviewed Xoom

Discouraging news for Motorola Mobility. The company’s Xoom tablet–the first comparable competitor to Apple’s iPad–continues to struggle with weak demand. So much so that the “disappointing” sales that analysts warned of back in March may end up being worse than feared.

Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry estimates that Motorola Mobility has manufactured between 500,000 and 800,000 Xooms, but has sold only 5 to 15 percent of them.

Motorola Xoom tablet sales could be even worse than feared | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Sony Plans to Enter Crowded Tablet Market with Two Honeycomb Models Due This Fall | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Another Android clamshell device

Sony became the latest computer maker to toss its hat in the Android tablet ring, announcing plans for two models during a press conference in Japan.

The Japanese computer maker announced plans for two Honeycomb tablets–the 9.4-inch S1 and the S2, with its dual 5.5-inch screens. Sony said the tablets will be available globally starting this fall.

Sony Plans to Enter Crowded Tablet Market with Two Honeycomb Models Due This Fall | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Nook e-reader gets e-mail, apps store - The Boston Globe

I’m guessing a Kindle Android client is not on the approved list

The Nook Color runs Google Inc.’s Android software, which is used on phones and tablets, but the device does not run standard Android applications. Instead, Barnes & Noble is encouraging developers to submit specially written applications to its Nook Apps store.

Barnes & Noble is also adding the ability to play Flash content on the Nook Color’s Web browser.

Nook e-reader gets e-mail, apps store - The Boston Globe

Monday, April 25, 2011

Your iPhone Can Buy Your Groceries - Technology Review

tbd if/for how long Apple will retain your grocery list…

An iPhone app launching today provides a glimpse into the future of shopping. Created by Modiv Media, the app lets customers scan items while they shop, presents them with personalized offers as they go, and speeds up their checkout. One of the first companies to deploy the app is Stop & Shop, which operates more than 375 supermarkets in the eastern United States.

Stop & Shop's version of the app, called Scan It!, relies heavily on loyalty-card numbers for its smarts. Users install the app, load in their loyalty card by capturing it with the phone's camera, and then take the phone to the store.

Your iPhone Can Buy Your Groceries - Technology Review

Dell Latitude ST and Streak Pro tablets detailed; CEO predicts Android will squash iPad - SlashGear

Also see this page for rumors about a new Lenovo slate (via Ina Fried)

Asked whether he thought Android tablets would end up outpacing Apple’s iPad – something analysts don’t expect to take place for several years – Dell was confident the Google platform would eventually dominate the market. “Not tomorrow. Not the next day.” he said, “But again, if you look at 18 months ago, Android phones were like, “What is that? And now there are more Android phones than iPhones. I don’t see any reason why the same won’t occur with Android tablets.”

Dell Latitude ST and Streak Pro tablets detailed; CEO predicts Android will squash iPad - SlashGear

Google, Already Dominant in Mobile Search, Isn’t Resting - NYTimes.com

A bright spot for Google

Today, Google says mobile searches are growing as quickly as Web searches were at the same stage in the company’s early days, and they are up sixfold in the last two years. Google has a market share of 97 percent for mobile searches, according to StatCounter, which tracks Web use.

Now that it dominates the field, Google is throwing its burly computing power and heaps of data at new problems specific to mobile phones — like translating phone calls on the fly and recognizing photos of things like plants and items of clothing.

Google, Already Dominant in Mobile Search, Isn’t Resting - NYTimes.com

Nintendo Net Drops 66 Percent | Daisuke Wakabayashi | Voices | AllThingsD

Difficult times for Nintendo

Nintendo Co. said Monday full-year net profit was down for the second straight year, damped by sluggish sales of its DS handheld game device and Wii home console.

[…]

Nintendo also said it plans in 2012 to launch a home console to replace the Wii, which has sold 86 million units since its 2006 debut. The company said it plans to show a working model at June’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles.

Nintendo Net Drops 66 Percent | Daisuke Wakabayashi | Voices | AllThingsD

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Data-Driven Decisions Can Aid Companies' Productivity - NYTimes.com

Seeking big profits in big data

STILL, the software industry is making a big bet that the data-driven decision making described in Mr. Brynjolfsson’s research is the wave of the future. The drive to help companies find meaningful patterns in the data that engulfs them has created a fast-growing industry in what is known as “business intelligence” or “analytics” software and services. Major technology companies — I.B.M., Oracle, SAP and Microsoft — have collectively spent more than $25 billion buying up specialist companies in the field.

I.B.M. alone says it has spent $14 billion on 25 companies that focus on data analytics. That business now employs 8,000 consultants and 200 mathematicians. I.B.M. said last week that it expected its analytics business to grow to $16 billion by 2015.

Data-Driven Decisions Can Aid Companies' Productivity - NYTimes.com

Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students - The Boston Globe

Excerpt from a stark snapshot

But, it turned out, multitaskers are not good at switching tasks or ignoring irrelevant information. They also don’t write as well and use simpler sentences, said Nass, author of “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop’’ and who has examined the writing samples of Stanford freshmen. Such behaviors have very real consequences for the wiring of the young brain.

“The scarier part is that even when they stop multitasking, their brains still don’t work properly,’’ Nass said. “Basically, they just don’t pay attention well. Limiting multitasking in the classroom is not sufficient. People have to limit it when they’re alone, too.’’

Colleges worry about always-plugged-in students - The Boston Globe

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Google decides to build its own Groupon | San Francisco Business Times

tbd if Groupon should be worried about this

After failing in a reported attempt to buy Groupon for $6 billion, Google has decided it can out Groupon Groupon.

Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is in pre-beta mode on Google Offers, its take on the now-ubiquitous daily-deal business model.

Google Offers will start first in Portland, Ore., with San Francisco and New York City following shortly thereafter. Wannabe users in these markets can already sign up to receive Google Offers whenever those deals go live.

Google decides to build its own Groupon | San Francisco Business Times

BBC News - Playstation Network suspended over 'external intrusion'

A bad week for the cloud

In a blog post, maker Sony said it turned off the network on Wednesday after it detected an "external intrusion" and that it was doing all it could to resolve it the problem.

In recent weeks, Playstation has been targeted by hackers' group Anonymous.

The group appeared to deny being responsible for the attack, releasing a message stating "for once we didn't do it".

BBC News - Playstation Network suspended over 'external intrusion'

Apple IPhone Tracking Is Probably a ‘Mistake,’ Researchers Say - Businessweek

If there was a “mistake” in this context, it was probably that the Apple programmers apparently didn’t think to grab as much data as Google did

The iPhone and iPad’s ability to logs users’ whereabouts is probably a mistake that Apple Inc. will eliminate, said the researchers who discovered the feature.

"If this was a conspiracy, this file would have been hidden better and we wouldn’t have found it,’’ said Alasdair Allan, one of the computer programmers who discovered the tracking feature. “Our best guess is this was an engineering mistake.”

Apple IPhone Tracking Is Probably a ‘Mistake,’ Researchers Say - Businessweek

Overheard: Bypassing Microsoft, Again - WSJ.com

Strange days indeed

The historical significance of Apple passing Microsoft in market capitalization last spring wasn't lost on anyone. Now Microsoft is in danger of being passed by International Business Machines, an event arguably as rich in irony as last year's passing of the torch. IBM, of course, lost its pre-eminence in computing to Microsoft and others as personal computers revolutionized the business in the 1980s and '90s. The last time IBM's market value was bigger than Microsoft's was April 16, 1996, according to FactSet Research Systems. IBM's market cap then was $63.3 billion; Microsoft's was $61.9 billion.

When trading closed for the long weekend on Thursday, Microsoft's market value was $214.4 billion, $9.2 billion ahead of IBM's $205.2 billion. The gap was narrower earlier in the week. The last time they were this close was late 1996. And by enterprise value, which includes net debt, Big Blue already is bigger than Microsoft.

Overheard: Bypassing Microsoft, Again - WSJ.com

The Really Smart Phone - WSJ.com

Your future will be increasingly instrumented and analyzed, with pervasive, precise, and personalized promotions

After analyzing more than 16 million records of call date, time and position, the researchers determined that, taken together, people's movements appeared to follow a mathematical pattern. The scientists said that, with enough information about past movements, they could forecast someone's future whereabouts with 93.6% accuracy.

The pattern held true whether people stayed close to home or traveled widely, and wasn't affected by the phone user's age or gender.

"For us, people look like little particles that move in space and that occasionally communicate with each other," said Northeastern physicist Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, who led the experiment. "We have turned society into a laboratory where behavior can be objectively followed."

The Really Smart Phone - WSJ.com

Amazon Malfunction Raises Doubts About Cloud Computing - NYTimes.com

Check the story link below for more details and perspectives

Big companies, that have decided to put crucial operations on Amazon computers are apt to pay up for the equivalent of computing insurance, analysts say. Netflix, the movie rental site, has become a large customer of the Amazon cloud. Most of its Web technology — customer movie queues, search tools and the like — runs in Amazon data centers.

Netflix said it had sailed through the last couple of days unscathed. “That’s because Netflix has taken full advantage of Amazon Web Services’ redundant cloud architecture,” which insures against technical malfunctions in any one location, said Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman.

Amazon Malfunction Raises Doubts About Cloud Computing - NYTimes.com

Amazon Cloud Services and Sony Playstation both experiencing website outages | Arik Hesseldahl | NewEnterprise | AllThingsD

The Amazon EC2 nightmare continued into last night

Amazon continues to send intermittent status updates via its dashboard, but it’s difficult to get much of an idea as to when they expect to be fully back to normal, though minutes ago it said it is starting to see “meaningful progress” in getting things under control. These are the latest messages from its EC2 status feed:

6:18 AM PT We’re starting to see more meaningful progress in restoring volumes (many have been restored in the last few hours) and expect this progress to continue over the next few hours. We expect that we’ll reach a point where a minority of these stuck volumes will need to be restored with a more time consuming process, using backups made to S3 yesterday (these will have longer recovery times for the affected volumes). When we get to that point, we’ll let folks know. As volumes are restored, they become available to running instances, however they will not be able to be detached until we enable the API commands in the affected Availability Zone.

Amazon Cloud Services and Sony Playstation both experiencing website outages | Arik Hesseldahl | NewEnterprise | AllThingsD

Google uses location-based information on Android phones | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

It will be interesting to see the scope and length of data retention in this context

However, Google stressed such services are optional and that even for those users that opt in, the information is not tied to a Google account or other personally identifiable information. The information is uniquely identified per device, but that unique identifier is an anonymized token, as opposed to being tied to other information, according to Google.

Google uses location-based information on Android phones | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Friday, April 22, 2011

Amazon Media Room: Kindle for Android Now Tailored for Tablet Computers

Continuing my wishful-thinking adventure from yesterday’s Amazon-related speculation, I look forward to exploring the new Android Kindle client features on my Amazon/Samsung/Android Kindle++ in a few months…

Today, Amazon announced an update to Kindle for Android that brings new features and adds support for tablet computers running Android's Honeycomb, including the Motorola Xoom. The latest version of Kindle for Android includes an integrated immersive shopping experience tailored for tablets, a new layout for newspapers and magazines designed for the unique interface of Honeycomb, and dozens of other new enhancements that take advantage of the larger screens. Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for Android includes Amazon's Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a customer's books and bookmarks across their Kindle, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based phones and tablets. Customers can learn more about Kindle for Android at www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid and download the app from the Amazon Appstore for Android or Android Market.

Amazon Media Room: News Release

For Google Cloud, It’s About Apps and Big Data: Cloud Computing News « [GigaOM]

Some Google cloud updates

Dave Girouard, president of Google Enterprise, in a conversation earlier this week, outlined Google’s cloud strategy, its long-term plans, and how it’s different from other cloud providers. “Amazon is a great service and I don’t see it as threatening to us,” said Girouard, pointing out Google’s focus is going to be on productivity apps and on specific cloud-apps that require large computational resources.

[…]

Girouard shared some stats that give you a snapshot of Google Apps progress.

  • There are more than 30 million active users of Google Apps.
  • The Google Apps business is growing 100 percent annually.
  • Every 14 seconds, a business user signs up for Google Apps.
  • Google Apps have a 90-percent renewal rate.
  • Seventy percent of Dow Jones VentureWire’s “Top 50 Start-Ups to Watch” run on Google Apps.

For Google Cloud, It’s About Apps and Big Data: Cloud Computing News «

Business & Technology | Amazon server failures darken 'cloud' outlook | Seattle Times Newspaper

A huge set-back for cloud enthusiasts

The outage is evidence that companies can't wholly rely on cloud services to handle important functions, Vanessa Alvarez, an analyst at Forrester Research, told Bloomberg News.

"Customers need to start asking tough questions and not assume everything will be taken care of in the cloud, because it will not," Alvarez said. "They shouldn't be counting on a cloud service provider like Amazon to provide disaster recovery."

Amazon engineers struggled throughout the day to rectify the problem. [Gartner analyst Lydia] Leong said the problems are of a type that's not covered by Amazon's money-back guarantees.

Business & Technology | Amazon server failures darken 'cloud' outlook | Seattle Times Newspaper

Report: Apple is No. 1 Handset Maker - Digits - WSJ

Also see Despite Microsoft Partnership, Nokia Continues to Fade in Race With Rivals

Strategy Analytics said that the latest numbers indicate that Apple has now overtaken Nokia to become the world’s largest handset vendor in terms of revenue, in addition to already being the largest smartphone company. The Boston, Mass., company said it estimates Apple’s wholesale revenues for its iPhone division to be about $11.9 billion in the first quarter of 2011, compared with Nokia’s $9.4 billion.

“The PC vendor has successfully captured revenue leadership of the total handset market in less than four years,” Strategy Analytics said in a press release.

Report: Apple is No. 1 Handset Maker - Digits - WSJ

A Shopping List for Apple's Growing War Chest - NYTimes.com

Interesting times at One Infinite Loop

In its latest earnings report on Wednesday, Apple recorded cash and cash equivalents of $65.8 billion, adding to the prior quarter by about $6 billion. The sum easily trumps Apple’s peers. Google, which boasts the second-largest cash pile, reported $36.7 billion in cash last week, less than half of Apple’s war chest.

[…]

One possible target is Netflix, a movie rental service that streams content to users’ personal electronic devices. The service, which is also available on Apple’s iTV device, could compliment [sic] Apple’s iTunes service, which hosts thousands of movies and videos, according to James Cordwell, an Atlantic Equities analyst.

A Shopping List for Apple's Growing War Chest - NYTimes.com

Apple, Google Send Cellphone Location - WSJ.com

I predict very long weekends for the legal and PR departments at Apple and Google

Google and Apple are gathering location information as part of their race to build massive databases capable of pinpointing people's locations via their cellphones. These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services—expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc. 

In the case of Google, according to new research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, an HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour. It also transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier.

Google declined to comment on the findings.

Apple, Google Send Cellphone Location - WSJ.com

After Suit from Apple, Samsung Fires Back With Legal Actions of its Own | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Is Apple not engaged in reciprocal lawsuits with any of its major competitors at this point?

Well, that didn’t take long.

After vowing to respond aggressively to Apple’s legal assault, Samsung reportedly shot back Thursday with multiple suits of its own, alleging the Cupertino, Calif.-based company infringes on Samsung technology.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Samsung has filed suits against Apple in Japan, Korea and Germany. The moves follows a suit by Apple last week that accuses Samsung’s phones and tablets infringe on Apple patents and trademarks.

After Suit from Apple, Samsung Fires Back With Legal Actions of its Own | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

iPhone app speeds market checkout - The Boston Globe

Maybe the app will also use the location history captured by your iPhone to map the insides of your favorite grocery stores…

On Monday, Modiv Media Inc. of Quincy will launch a software app to allow customers with Apple Inc.’s iPhone to scan groceries and even check out at three local Stop & Shop stores. “You walk in, you open up the app, you scan anything you want,’’ said John Caron, Modiv Media’s senior vice president of marketing.

By aiming the phone’s camera at the bar code on a product package, a user can see the price and add it to an electronic shopping cart. Once shopping is done, the app relays the information to a checkout register, where the customer can pay with cash or a credit card. There’s no need for a store employee to manually scan the items, making checkout much faster.

iPhone app speeds market checkout - The Boston Globe

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Amazon gets 'black eye' from cloud outage - Computerworld

Definitely a bad day for Amazon Web Services

For a company that's known as the dominant player in the cloud market, Amazon's troubles on Thursday means a black eye for the company and for the cloud in general.

Trouble started early Thursday morning when popular websites like Quora, foursquare and Reddit were left staggering or totally knocked out because of server problems in the Amazon datacenter that handles the company's Web hosting services.

While service was restored by 4 p.m. ET to some sites such as Foursquare, Quora was still disabled and Reddit was still being affected.

Amazon gets 'black eye' from cloud outage - Computerworld

Neowin.net - Exclusive: Chrome notebooks confirmed to be released June/July

The sort of lease model described in the post excerpt below would formalize what’s already implicitly happening with several mobile device product categories, e.g., considering the 18 – 24 month replacement cycle for smartphones, and the reality that most people will probably never get around to replacing the batteries in their tablets/slates, Kindles, iPod touches, etc. (because they’ll buy new versions before the batteries expire). 

I’m still not sold on the market opportunity for Chrome OS notebooks, however.  I plan to continue using a traditional laptop (in part to use OneNote 2010) and am hopeful I’ll have an Amazon/Samsung/Android Kindle++ slate (ideally with Swype) in the not-too-distant future.

According to our source, Google plans to make the notebooks available for $10-$20 a month per user, and will provide hardware refreshes as they are released as part of the package, and will replace faulty hardware for the life of the subscription. On top of this, Google will make the devices available for a one time payment as a normal retailer would, but is likely to not distribute the devices directly. Instead, the company will distribute them in a fashion similar to the way Android is distributed.

Neowin.net - Exclusive: Chrome notebooks confirmed to be released June/July

Apple stuns Wall Street with 95% earnings surge • The Register

Another Apple quarter for the record books

Apple blew past the Wall Street moneymen's predictions for its financial performance in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2011, posting record Q2 revenue of $24.67bn along with record Q2 net profit of $5.99bn.

"We're firing on all cylinders," said CEO Steve Jobs in a prepared statement. "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year," he added.

[…]

Those numbers were goosed by sales of 18.65 million iPhones, up 113 per cent year-on-year and 3.76 million Macs – 2.9 million of them being MacBooks – up 28 per cent. The company also sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.

Apple's only declining segment was iPods, which, with 9.02 million sold, which was 17 per cent down from the year-ago quarter. Frankly, though, with the iPhone having become the go-to digital music device for millions of users, who really cares about that slippage?

Apple stuns Wall Street with 95% earnings surge • The Register

Amazon's tablet is coming, but what will it be? It's something of an open... - gdgt

Check the post link for more Amazon slate speculation; hmm, that would be the same Samsung after which Apple just sent a busload of its lawyers… (via Dave Winer)

Amazon's tablet is coming, but what will it be?
It's something of an open secret that Amazon is working on an Android tablet and I am 99% certain they are having Samsung build one for them. Does the world really need yet another tablet? If it were anyone else, I'd say no, but I think Amazon is uniquely positioned to layer in a set of products and services that would differentiate its tablet from the flood of Android tablets hitting the market this year.

[…]

When will it launch? I don't know, but I'd guess it won't be too long, probably no later than this summer (the Kindle 3 launched last August). Whenever it is, I'll be surprised if they don't come out with something substantially different than all the other Android tablets out there. They have all the pieces in place, now we wait to see what they do with them.

Amazon's tablet is coming, but what will it be? It's something of an open... - gdgt

EC2 selectively MIA?

Quora is down, and I’ve encountered another inaccessible cloud-based start-up site this morning, but the Amazon Web Services service health dashboard suggests most systems are up

image

IPads and iPhones Found to Track Locations - NYTimes.com

Think different

To some privacy advocates, the storing of the data was a clear breach. “The secretive collection of location data crosses the privacy line,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy policy organization based in Washington. “Apple should know better than to track iPhone users in this way.”

Others said the discovery of the hidden file was unlikely to have a major practical impact on privacy and security.

“It is more symbolic than anything else,” said Tim O’Reilly, a longtime technology pundit and founder of O’Reilly Media. “It is one more sign of how devices are collecting data about us and potentially sharing it with others. This is the future. We have to figure out how to deal with it.”

IPads and iPhones Found to Track Locations - NYTimes.com

In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers - NYTimes.com

Shameful

When these tactics revolve around food, and blur the line between advertising and entertainment, they are a source of intensifying concern for nutrition experts and children’s advocates — and are attracting scrutiny from regulators. The Federal Trade Commission has undertaken a study of food marketing to children, due out this summer, while the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity has said one reason so many children are overweight is the way junk food is marketed.

In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers - NYTimes.com

Kyocera’s Echo offers faint attempt at a tablet - The Boston Globe

Another grim Echo review

Given the huge success of Apple Inc.’s iPad, it’s no surprise that everybody with a circuit board and a soldering iron has started building their own tablet computers. They’ve served up a variety of alternative designs, but nobody’s gone wilder than the engineers at Japan’s Kyocera Corp., creators of a tablet computer that fits easily in a shirt pocket — because it folds in two.

[…]

In all, the Echo is a decent smartphone and a lousy tablet, bound together by a host of clever engineering gimmicks. As a lover of gimmicks, I found it delightful. But I couldn’t imagine buying one.

Kyocera’s Echo offers faint attempt at a tablet - The Boston Globe

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The BIG Evernote for Android Update « Evernote Blogcast

Check the post link below for an overview

Today’s Evernote for Android update is, in a word, HUGE. This is the first time that we have crammed this many great features into a single release of any Evernote product. We’ve added sharing, organizational features, improved text editing, security options, new views, a revamped widget, and tons more. Take a look at what’s new in version 3.

[…]

The BIG Evernote for Android Update « Evernote Blogcast

Should Larry Page break up Google? - Fortune Tech

Excerpt from analysis of an intriguing Google permutation

Most importantly, the changes overlook the hard truth that, if Google is to stay innovative in shaping the web, it needs to take much more dramatic steps than redrawing org charts or using bonuses as cudgels. Google can return a genuinely entrepreneurial culture and nurture innovative ideas, but it would mean radically restructuring the entire company.

It would mean splitting Google up.

[…]

Google is facing antitrust investigations from both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. A breakup could head off any antitrust suits, even though Google is clearly facing new competition for online ads. But Google should consider a breakup on its own merits -- to keep units focused on their visions, to keep small but promising projects from being swallowed by the broader corporate culture, and to give employees more independence as well as strong incentives to deliver.

Should Larry Page break up Google? - Fortune Tech

Apple sues Samsung: a complete lawsuit analysis | This is my next...

Check the post link below for detailed analysis (via All Things Digital)

The background section of Apple’s complaint has a couple interesting nuggets in it: Apple’s sold “over 60 million” iPod touches as of March 2011, which is the first time a specific number has ever been broken out for that device, and we’re also told that 108m iPhones and 19m iPads have been sold. What’s more, Apple spent more than $2 billion advertising the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad during its fiscal years 2007 to 2010.

It’s in this section that Apple also lays out what it considers to be its protectable intellectual property: seven utility patents, three design patents, trademarks on several iOS system app icons, and a host of trade dress registrations on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and the packaging that each comes in. (Yes, the packaging — companies spend millions designing gadget boxes, after all.)

Apple sues Samsung: a complete lawsuit analysis | This is my next...

A Social Web Browser | Katherine Boehret | The Digital Solution | AllThingsD

RockMelt tries another scenario for differentiation

RockMelt’s roots trace back to the Netscape browser founded in the early 1990s. One of RockMelt’s co-founders was at Netscape and it’s backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreeson’s venture-capital group. It was originally introduced as a private beta (read: downloadable by invitation only) in November and became available to the public last month. However, each account still includes six invitations, which users are prompted to send to friends as a means of word-of-mouth promotion.

Those who will really appreciate RockMelt on the PC and on the iPhone are the same people who think of Facebook or Twitter as their main means of digital communication. (Most sharing in this browser is done via social networks, not email.) If you fit that description, RockMelt will be a great tool for integrating social networking into your Web browsing. Just don’t expect too much Facebook friend interaction on the mobile app.

A Social Web Browser | Katherine Boehret | The Digital Solution | AllThingsD

Document giant might exit digital business - The Boston Globe

Looking a bit rusty

In a peace offering to dissident shareholders, Iron Mountain Corp. said it will consider giving up on its digital storage business, add two members to its board, and explore the possibility of converting the company to a real estate investment trust, or REIT.

The measures seemed to appease Elliott Management Corp., a New York investment firm that owns slightly less than 5 percent of Iron Mountain’s shares. Elliott has pressured the management of Iron Mountain, a document storage company based in Boston, to find a new strategy to increase returns to shareholders.

Document giant might exit digital business - The Boston Globe

Royal wedding to be streamed on YouTube - The Boston Globe

Sign of the times

Palace officials will offer live streaming of the April 29 royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton on the royal channel on YouTube.

The four-hour live Internet coverage will include the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the procession to Buckingham Palace, and the newlyweds’ appearance on the palace balcony for an expected first public kiss. William’s press office will also provide a live blog providing commentary and historical information as well as additional footage.

Royal wedding to be streamed on YouTube - The Boston Globe

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Death of Open Data? - Technology Review

A discouraging snapshot

Pollock says what's most concerning about cutting the Electronic Government Fund is that it represents a turn away from Obama's open-government policies. "The website is really great, but the crucial thing is the actual data," he says. Though data.gov is a symbol whose loss would be painful, the real question is whether the U.S. government will continue to make its data more accessible and useful, with or without it.

On a related note, also see “Google content winner shows where our taxes go” (source of the image below)

image

The Death of Open Data? - Technology Review

Court Hears Arguments in Microsoft’s Appeal of Patent Case - NYTimes.com

Interesting times in the Microsoft/i4i challenge review

Some justices suggested that the court’s precedents were at odds with Microsoft’s position. The federal government supported the Canadian software company, i4i Limited Partnership, that had won in the lower courts.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was recused from the case, apparently because he owns Microsoft stock, meaning that Microsoft would have to capture five of only eight available votes to win.

[…]

Near the end of the argument in the case, Microsoft Corporation v. i4i Limited Partnership, No. 10-290, Justice Breyer still sounded frustrated.

“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get a better tool, if possible, to separate the sheep from the goats,” he said. “And so what is that better tool?”

Court Hears Arguments in Microsoft’s Appeal of Patent Case - NYTimes.com

Consumers Overwhelmed by Increased Volume of Local Deals: Bing mobile deals aggregates Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr and other local deals all in one place [Microsoft News Center]

A new question for the Bing decision engine: is Groupon just another data source?…  Check the link below for more details, including “the numbers behind the deals craze”

With the public on the verge of a possible deals overload, Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft Corp., now provides a service that makes it easier to make local deal decisions, helping people to save time and money. Bing mobile deals — available at m.bing.com — aggregates many of the Web’s hottest local deals, including deals from Groupon, LivingSocial and Tippr, and gives people one-spot access to more than 200,000 local coupons in more than 14,000 cities in the U.S. People can search by daily deals, nearby deals, keywords or deals by category, such as restaurants, spa services, arts and entertainment, and even nightlife.

Consumers Overwhelmed by Increased Volume of Local Deals: Bing mobile deals aggregates Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr and other local deals all in one place.

Office 365 Virtually Pays for Itself - PCWorld Business Center

See the link below for more Office 365 review details

Starting at $6 per seat per month, Office 365 is almost a no-brainer for small and medium companies. Organizations with fewer than 50 users typically don't have a dedicated IT administrator, and lack both the skills and the budget to implement and maintain the infrastructure necessary to deliver what Office 365 does. For a paltry $72 per user per year, these companies get the benefit of Exchange e-mail, Lync instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and the Office Web Apps productivity suite.

Office 365 Virtually Pays for Itself - PCWorld Business Center

Twitter Looks to Widen Appeal - WSJ.com

More than 140 characters required to describe the changes underway at Twitter

While Twitter has more than 200 million registered accounts, it doesn't say how many are active users. Users discuss a variety of topics, but some people—especially adults—view the service as a vehicle for celebrities to broadcast their thoughts online.

Twitter wants to show how the service works to first-time users by highlighting tweets from people in their geographic regions, such as local politicians and musicians, when they first sign on, people familiar with the matter said.

Twitter Looks to Widen Appeal - WSJ.com

2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners Are Announced - NYTimes.com

A sign of the times

And for the first time, a prize was awarded to reporting that did not appear in print: ProPublica’s online series “The Wall Street Money Machine,” which won for national reporting.

2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners Are Announced - NYTimes.com

Wal-Mart Buys Social Media Site Kosmix - NYTimes.com

Big bets in social commerce

Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, said Monday that it had agreed to buy Kosmix, a social media start-up focused on e-commerce, for an undisclosed sum, as valuations for social media companies like Groupon soar.

“We are expanding our capabilities in today’s rapidly growing social commerce environment,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman at Wal-Mart, said in the statement. “Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers’ day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping.”

Wal-Mart Buys Social Media Site Kosmix - NYTimes.com

Apple Sues Samsung, Saying Galaxy Phones and Tablets Too Close To iPad and iPhone Design | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

Apparently Apple does not believe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

In the latest intellectual property suit to hit the smartphone industry, Apple is suing Samsung, alleging the Galaxy line of phones and tablets infringe on a number of the company’s patents and trademarks.

The suit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleges patent and trademark infringement, as well as unfair competition. Apple is seeking injunctions, actual damages and punitive damages, as well as a finding that the alleged infringement was willful.

Apple Sues Samsung, Saying Galaxy Phones and Tablets Too Close To iPad and iPhone Design | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

BlackBerry Playbook: How did Research in Motion lose its way? - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

Excerpt from a RIM reality check (via All Things Digital)

The incoherence, I think, is a sign of something deeper: Research in Motion doesn't know what kind of company it wants to be. It made its fortune selling gadgets to chief information officers—IT guys who wanted to give their employees access to office e-mail on the go, but only in a way that accorded with corporate security policies. When they talk about RIM's strengths, the company's leaders like to point to their "CIO friendliness." The trouble is, being friendly with CIOs doesn't matter as much as it used to. Nowadays people don't ask the tech guy which mobile gadgets pass muster. Instead, tech guys look to employees to decide which gadgets to support. RIM's strategy—to infiltrate companies as a first step to becoming a mass-market hit—has been eclipsed by the Apple approach, which is to infiltrate schools and homes, and then hope that regular people nag their IT guys to let them use iPads at work, too.

BlackBerry Playbook: How did Research in Motion lose its way? - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine#p2#p2#p2#p2

Monday, April 18, 2011

Flipboard: Threat and Opportunity | Monday Note

A timely Flipboard snapshot; see the link below for examples and more analysis (via Louis Gray)

So, what’s the fuss about?

The answer is a simple one: Flipboard is THE product any big media company or, better, any group of media companies should have invented. It’s an iPad application (soon to be supplemented by an iPhone version), it allows readers to aggregate any sources they want: social medias such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or any combination of RSS feeds. No need to remember the feed’s often-complicated URL, Flipboard searches it for you and puts the result in a neat eBook-like layout. A striking example: the Google Reader it connects you to suddenly morphs from its Icelandic look into a cozy and elegant set of pages that you actually flip.

Flipboard: Threat and Opportunity | Monday Note

Facebook advertising: Facebook prepares to cash in on users' data - latimes.com

A Facebook advertising business model reality check (via Slate)

For years, the privately held company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room put little effort into ad sales, focusing instead on making its service irresistible to users. It worked. Today more than 600 million people have Facebook accounts. The average user spends seven hours a month posting photos, chatting with friends, swapping news links and sending birthday greetings to classmates.
Now the Palo Alto company is looking to cash in on this mother lode of personal information by helping advertisers pinpoint exactly whom they want to reach. This is no idle boast. Facebook doesn't have to guess who its users are or what they like. Facebook knows, because members volunteer this information freely — and frequently — in their profiles, status updates, wall posts, messages and "likes."

Facebook advertising: Facebook prepares to cash in on users' data - latimes.com

Ellison's Oracle washes hands of OpenOffice • The Register

It’ll be interesting to see if the dwindling part of the open source community that still cares about OpenOffice.org (and/or ODF) will spin this shift as a victory

Oracle is turning OpenOffice into a purely community project, and no longer plans to offer a commercial version of the collaboration suite loved by many.

The database giant said on Friday that it believed OpenOffice would be best managed by an organization focused on serving the broad constituency on a non-commercial basis.

Ellison's Oracle washes hands of OpenOffice • The Register

Office 365 Hits Public Beta, Small Businesses Get the Next Generation Cloud Productivity Service [Microsoft PressPass]

A major milestone for Office 365; I look forward to moving from (often not) “good-enough” basic ISP email to Exchange Online, using OneNote shared notebooks in conjunction with hosted SharePoint, and exploring Access Services

Small businesses around the world can now enjoy the benefits Kroenke described. Microsoft today announced the public beta of Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes. Office 365 was recently introduced in limited beta, bringing together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. The public beta allows millions of people in more countries and more languages — a total of 38 markets and 17 languages in all — to try Office 365 for the first time

Office 365 Hits Public Beta, Small Businesses Get the Next Generation Cloud Productivity Service: Using Office 365, small businesses can be up and running with Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online in just 15 minutes.

cdixon.org – chris dixon's blog / Apple and the TV industry

Excerpt from some speculation about the possibility that Apple will introduce a new type of TV (i.e., the type you hang on your wall, not just the current Apple TV approach), a scenario I consider likely (via All Things Digital)

[…] let’s imagine Apple develops a TV that is as groundbreaking as the iPhone was. The biggest problem “smart TVs” have today is that they need clunky IR transmitters to control set top boxes because the cable operators won’t willingly interoperate. So a new Apple TV would have to drum up such incredible consumer demand that the operators would feel compelled to support it. This does indeed seem harder in the TV than in the mobile industry. At least in the US you had 4 nationwide mobile operators at the time of the iPhone launch. In TV, consumers normally have at most two real choices for traditional cable programming – cable and satellite – and two real choices for two-way internet – cable and DSL/FIOS.

cdixon.org – chris dixon's blog / Apple and the TV industry

What Will Google M&A Look Like Under New CEO Larry Page | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Check the article link below for analysis of some possible acquisition targets

Google made a record 48 acquisitions last year and hopes to make even more this year, continuing its aggressive M&A pace, despite soaring start-up valuations.

And with nearly $35 billion in cash in hand and an aggressive new CEO and Co-founder Larry Page, it certainly has the means and drive to do it.

What Will Google M&A Look Like Under New CEO Larry Page | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

See aliens invade the Greenway — if you have the app - The Boston Globe

Augmented surreality

Think John Carpenter’s “They Live.’’ Like the special sunglasses Roddy Piper wore in that film, only a certain “alien detection app’’ on smartphones will allow people to see invaders descending on the Greenway, the Boston Children’s Museum, and other spots.

The aliens will appear as cartoon-like graphics superimposed on the smartphone user’s live camera views.

image

 

See aliens invade the Greenway — if you have the app - The Boston Globe

Sunday, April 17, 2011

iPad Resellers Now Camp Overnight at Apple Stores - NYTimes.com

Think different

The people I saw waiting outside the SoHo store mostly refused to answer questions about what they were doing. But one man, who looked to be around 40 years old and declined to share his name, said he could make up to $400 a day by purchasing and reselling the iPad 2. As I reported last year, this is more money than many Chinese immigrants make in a week.

The SoHo store isn’t an anomaly either. Twitter users regularly share sightings of long lines of Chinese people waiting overnight at Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York.

iPad Resellers Now Camp Overnight at Apple Stores - NYTimes.com

Speculation on an Amazon iPad competitor – Marco.org

Check the full post for more analysis (via Dave Winer)

I’d bet on Amazon releasing a true tablet, competing more directly with the iPad than the Kindle currently does, in the possibly-near future. Andy Ihnatko nailed it last month:

I don’t know that they’re doing this. But I do know that Amazon has all of the required pieces in place and that they — not Google, not Motorola, not HP, RIM, Samsung, or any other tech company who’s shoved their CEO in front of a press audience in the past year with a shaky tablet prototype and an even shakier list of things he’s allowed to say about it — are clearly in the best position to challenge Apple and the iPad.

I don’t know why it has taken most of us this long to figure this out, but it makes a lot of sense.

Speculation on an Amazon iPad competitor – Marco.org

The Real Reason Mike McCue Needs $50 Million: Google Is Building A Flipboard Killer [TechCrunch]

A subtle for-sale sign?

Q: Flipboard is the No. 2 free iPad app right now. Can anyone else catch you?

McCue: I see a lot of competition down the pike. There’s talk that some people at Google are saying they are building a Flipboard killer, and I’ve heard those rumors. What I felt was a better approach was to build the best product no matter what the competition does. But this desire to kill us—a bunch of folks there have decided to build this product, I have no idea what it is—raises a little concern about the unknown. Anytime a company like that [might go after you], it certainly is the kind of thing I give a lot of thought to.

The Real Reason Mike McCue Needs $50 Million: Google Is Building A Flipboard Killer

Where does good come from? - The Boston Globe

Excerpt from an overview of the latest Edward O. Wilson reality check

The alternative theory holds that the origins of altruism and teamwork have nothing to do with kinship or the degree of relatedness between individuals. The key, Wilson said, is the group: Under certain circumstances, groups of cooperators can out-compete groups of non-cooperators, thereby ensuring that their genes — including the ones that predispose them to cooperation — are handed down to future generations. This so-called group selection, Wilson insists, is what forms the evolutionary basis for a variety of advanced social behaviors linked to altruism, teamwork, and tribalism — a position that other scientists have taken over the years, but which historically has been considered, in Wilson’s own word, “heresy.”

Where does good come from? - The Boston Globe

Saturday, April 16, 2011

USPS accidentally issues Vegas Statue of Liberty stamp - Boing Boing

Data integrity error of the week (see the article link below for images)

How fantastically hyperreal: Turns out the United States Postal Service's brand new Statue of Liberty stamp, seen below, accidentally features an illustration of the Lady Liberty replica at Las Vegas's New York-New York casino as opposed to the real statue in New York Harbor. A philatelist and fan of the NYC statue noticed the error and informed Linn's Stamp News. They investigated and published the above comparative photos, with the replica at top left

USPS accidentally issues Vegas Statue of Liberty stamp - Boing Boing

Google’s “just trust us” is no longer enough | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

A snapshot from Larry Page’s second week as CEO redux

Investors aren’t necessarily averse to a period of higher investment. What they hate is the thought that costs are getting out of control as the company fights on multiple fronts at once, with no end in sight and no idea of how the cost structure of the company will finally settle down.

The “just trust us” approach that Google has adopted with Wall Street in the past doesn’t work at a time like this. Its shares are likely to stay under a cloud until either the cost growth levels out or it can find a better way to explain what is going on.

Google’s “just trust us” is no longer enough | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Ahem! Are You Talking to Me? (Or Texting?) - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from an extensive reality check

I moderated a panel there called “I’m So Productive, I Never Get Anything Done,” which was ostensibly about how answering e-mail and looking after various avatars on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr left little time to do what we actually care about or get paid for. The biggest reaction in the session by far came when Anthony De Rosa, a product manager and programmer at Reuters and a big presence on Twitter and Tumblr, said that mobile connectedness has eroded fundamental human courtesies.

“When people are out and they’re among other people they need to just put everything down,” he said. “It’s fine when you’re at home or at work when you’re distracted by things, but we need to give that respect to each other back.”

Ahem! Are You Talking to Me? (Or Texting?) - NYTimes.com

Wired, Adobe Offer Newest iPad App For Free | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

It’ll be interesting to see if many people subsequently sign up for paid iPad subscriptions

Now Wired would like to remind you that it’s still publishing on the iPad, and the Conde Nast title is offering a pretty good incentive to give it another look: Its newest issue, which should go online today, will be free.

The one-time promotion comes via a sponsorship from Adobe. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, given that Adobe and Wired have been working hand in hand on tablet publishing for nearly two years now.

Wired, Adobe Offer Newest iPad App For Free | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

How a Facebook Question Went Viral | Liz Gannes | NetworkEffect | AllThingsD

Socially strange days indeed

Facebook recently redesigned its Questions feature to be more simple and viral. It seems to be working–maybe too well. A single question by a random Facebook user accumulated four million votes in the last two weeks after it spread far beyond her friend group.

What’s funny is how this seems to have come about. A Facebook user named Heather Marie Hollingsworth posted to her Facebook friends on April 2, “Cleaning out my friends list in the next few days…Do you wanna stay?” with the options “Yes, keep me,” “Don’t Care” and “No, not really.”

As of this morning, “Yes, keep me” is winning by a landslide, with 3.98 million votes out of a total of 4.11 million.

How a Facebook Question Went Viral | Liz Gannes | NetworkEffect | AllThingsD

Friday, April 15, 2011

Hacking Update: Please Do These Things if You Use Gmail - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

Some Gmail guidance from James Fallows; see the post link below for details

As mentioned yesterday morning, my wife's Gmail account was taken over by what has proven to be a very destructive hacker. The spam message the hacker sent out seemed droll; the consequences turn out to be less amusing. In my nearly 30 years of using electronic communication, this is the most troubling episode I've been involved with.
I'll give more blow-by-blow later on, when we've finished with the situation. For the moment, here are some prophylactic tips that I'd blame myself for not saying sooner, if applying them today protects people who might otherwise have similar problems tomorrow. For more details, I include references to the Official Gmail Blog:
Thumbnail image for GmailLogo.png

Hacking Update: Please Do These Things if You Use Gmail - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

BBC News - FBI closes in on zombie PC gang

Interesting times

It is the first time FBI investigators have used such a method.

The US Justice Department had to seek court permission from a judge to carry out the sting.

It enabled the authorities to issue its own commands, effectively ordering the malware to shut down. It also logged the IP addresses of compromised machines.

BBC News - FBI closes in on zombie PC gang

Computer History Museum | Exhibits | This Day in History: April 15

Happy birthday, Apple II

April 15, 1977

First West Coast Computer Faire Begins

The first West Coast Computer Faire begins, featuring the debut of the Apple II from Apple Computer. The new machine includes innovations such as built-in high-resolution color graphics. For about $1,300, buyers receive a machine and built-in keyboard, 16 kilobytes of memory, BASIC, and eight expansion slots.

Computer History Museum | Exhibits | This Day in History: April 15

Myspace Music Loses CTO Dmitry Shapiro | Liz Gannes | NetworkEffect | AllThingsD

When the music’s over, turn out the lights

Myspace Music CTO Dmitry Shapiro, who joined the company less than a year ago, has left to found a new start-up, he and Myspace confirmed late Thursday.

Shapiro, who had previously founded and led the legally challenged video site Veoh, said in a post on Facebook that his time at Myspace was “a rewarding, frustrating, eye-opening, and inspiring experience.”

Myspace Music Loses CTO Dmitry Shapiro | Liz Gannes | NetworkEffect | AllThingsD

Janrain: Facebook Has Eclipsed Google As Most Popular Sign-In Choice [TechCrunch]

An identity crisis for Google (and other Facebook competitors)

Janrain, a user management platform that enables third party sign-in with 18 different providers, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter; is releasing its Q1 2011 report today. Janrain’s report analyzes data from networks for social login and social sharing across the 350,000 websites worldwide that use Janrain sign-in product, Engage. For the first time in a year, Facebook has surpassed Google as the consumer preference for signing into Internet sites using Janrain.

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Janrain: Facebook Has Eclipsed Google As Most Popular Sign-In Choice

RIM's Stock Drops After So-So Reviews of BlackBerry PlayBook | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Maybe they should have called it “WorkBook,” because it appears likely the only users will be people who are assigned one of the devices by their employers

And while praising it as a solid device with a promising operating system, Joshua Topolsky concluded: “I can’t think of a single reason to recommend this tablet over the iPad 2, or for that matter…the Xoom. And that’s what it really boils down to here; what is the compelling feature that will make buyers choose the PlayBook over something else? I don’t have that answer, but that’s not what’s troubling me–what troubles me is that I don’t think RIM has the answer either…and they should by now.”

That sentiment–that PlayBook is halfbaked in its current form–was echoed by a number of other reviewers, and it played hell with RIM’s stock. The company’s share price slipped nearly four percent Thursday afternoon and will likely slip further tomorrow if the analyst reports I’m seeing today are any indication.

RIM's Stock Drops After So-So Reviews of BlackBerry PlayBook | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD