VMware Acquires Enterprise Social Collaboration Provider Socialcast

VMware continues to extend its portfolio; see the link below for the full press release

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of Socialcast, a leading provider of social collaboration solutions for the enterprise. Socialcast enables modern business communication by uniting people, information and enterprise applications within collaborative communities. Delivered as a hosted service, private cloud implementation, or via an on-premise solution, Socialcast is used by some of the world's largest enterprises including Avaya, Humana, Nokia, Philips Electronics, SAS and VMware. Terms of the acquisition were not announced.

Socialcast joins the recent acquisitions of SlideRocket™ and Zimbra™, along with the introduction of VMware Horizon App Manager™, in helping advance VMware's vision for a modern end-user computing model. VMware's vision is to transform the traditional PC desktop by equipping today's mobile workforce with secure access to applications and data from any location and any device, while driving increased productivity through modern collaboration and communication models.

VMware Acquires Enterprise Social Collaboration Provider Socialcast

Intel Launches New Ultrabook PC Category [Windows IT Pro]

Game-changing potential, especially if they’re available with Windows 8 (or Windows 7 with fast start-up/shut-down, good battery life, and a free and simple Windows 8 upgrade path) later in 2011

The big complaint with netbooks, of course, is the performance. So rather than saddle Ultrabooks with netbook-class Atom processors, this new class of PC will instead utilize a new version of the second-generation Core i-Series processor, one that will enable incredibly thin and light machine designs. And thanks to the processor's low cost, Ultrabooks should cost under $1,000, with prices falling by a few hundred dollars throughout 2012. The first models are expected in the market in time for the holidays from multiple PC makers, Intel says.

Some have speculated that Microsoft President Steve Sinofsky, who will appear this week at an industry trade show, could show off a next-generation Tablet PC design running Windows 8. If so, it's possible that the hardware will be an Ultrabook design that provides both traditional PC and slate tablet functionality.

Intel Launches New Ultrabook PC Category

Jobs to Unveil Apple's 'Next Generation' Software - NYTimes.com

Apple’s cloud plans to become less vaporous next week, along with Mac OS and iOS news

Apple said the new software would include iCloud, which will be the company’s cloud computing offering. The company will also show a new release of its OS X operating system for desktop and laptop computers, called Lion, and iOS 5, the latest update to Apple’s mobile operating system, which supports the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The company’s decision to announce the keynote event in advance was unusual for Apple as the company usually goes to great pains to remain secretive about any coming announcements or new products.

Apple has recently completed a billion dollar data-center that it is expected to discuss at the developers conference.

Jobs to Unveil Apple's 'Next Generation' Software - NYTimes.com

BBC News - UK beefs up cyber warfare plans

More opportunities for cyber-warriors

'Cyber' soldiers will be put alongside conventional troops as the government puts cyber attacks on an equal footing with other conflicts.

The news comes as US defence firm Lockheed Martin admitted it came under a significant cyber attack last week.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it will recruit hundreds of cyber experts to shore up UK defences.

BBC News - UK beefs up cyber warfare plans

ASUS announces the Padfone (update: eyes-on!) -- Engadget

Android device evolution – check the article link below for videos and other details

If pads and phones are the fastest growing categories in consumer tech, surely a Padfone would be the ultimate combo? That's what ASUS thinks, and it's just introduced an Android smartphone device that comes with a tablet it can dock into. Display switching is done dynamically, so that reading emails or browsing the web on the phone portion expands itself seamlessly once it's connected into the pad. Also expanded will be battery life, with an extra cell included in the slate. The mockup ASUS is showing the world today includes a 4.3-inch smarpthone and a 10.1-inch tablet dock, but the company says it hasn't yet settled on the final dimensions of the eventual retail product.

ASUS announces the Padfone (update: eyes-on!) -- Engadget

Pentagon: Online Cyber Attacks Can Count as Acts of War - WSJ.com

A major military milestone

The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.

The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.

Pentagon: Online Cyber Attacks Can Count as Acts of War - WSJ.com

Deposed Egyptian President Fined for Internet Shutdown – AllThingsD

Interesting times

An Egyptian administrative court fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former officials the equivalent of $91 million on Saturday for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests in January, according to a Reuters report. It was the first court ruling to be made against Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11.

Deposed Egyptian President Fined for Internet Shutdown – AllThingsD

Here’s How You Might Be Able To Watch Live TV, For Free, On Your iPad – AllThingsD

Multifaceted innovation

But Bamboom has a Rube Goldberg-like approach that might hold up in to the inevitable legal challenge: The company will assign a tiny broadcast antenna to each customer, and will move the TV signal from the antenna to the cloud, where it can move it to any device with a browser. One customer, one stream.

That seems laborious and expensive, but it’s the same legal construction that Cablevision has used to provide a remote DVR service for its customers, and the Supreme Court has signed off on that idea. (Not coincidentally, that one customer/one use idea is the same one Amazon and Google are using to provide cloud-based music lockers without sign-off from the big labels.)

Here’s How You Might Be Able To Watch Live TV, For Free, On Your iPad – AllThingsD

Facebook hackers may be using your ‘friends’ against you - The Boston Globe

Also see Tips on Securing Your Facebook Account

For instance, “like’’ buttons can be “clickjacked,’’ security specialists say, so that when a user clicks on them an invisible code or software script is activated. Sometimes they are directed to websites peddling malware disguised as antivirus software. Once the stealth software is inadvertently downloaded, it can damage a computer, network, or program, sometimes by unleashing a virus.

Not so long ago, it was relatively easy to avoid Internet scams if you refrained from doing “dodgy things on the Net,’’ said Chester Wisniewski, a senior adviser with Sophos. Today’s security challenges are more formidable, he said, because “so many legitimate things are infected.’’

Facebook hackers may be using your ‘friends’ against you - The Boston Globe

Groupon Counts on Writers and Editors to Build Its Audience - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from an extensive Groupon profile

The big Internet companies owe their dominance to something singular that shut out potential competitors. Google had secret algorithms that gave superior search results. Facebook provided a way to broadcast regular updates to friends and acquaintances that grew ever more compelling as more people signed up, which naturally caused more people to sign up. Twitter introduced a new tool to let people promote themselves.

Groupon has nothing so special. It offers discounts on products and services, something that Internet start-up companies have tried to develop as a business model many times before, with minimal success. Groupon’s breakthrough sprang not just from the deals but from an ingredient that was both unlikely and ephemeral: words.

Groupon Counts on Writers and Editors to Build Its Audience - NYTimes.com

The Anthropocene: A man-made world | The Economist

Two timely reality check articles in the latest issue of The Economist

• Welcome to the Anthropocene: Humans have changed the way the world works.  Now they have to change the way they think about it, too
• A man-made world: Science is recognising humans as a geological force to be reckoned with

The Anthropocene: A man-made world | The Economist

SecurID Breach Suggested in Hacking Attempt at Lockheed - NYTimes.com

A potentially ominous development for RSA (and its SecurID customers)

Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest military contractor, has battled disruptions in its computer networks this week that might be tied to a hacking attack on a vendor that supplies coded security tokens to millions of users, security officials said on Friday.

The SecurID electronic tokens, which are used to gain access to computer networks by corporate employees and government officials from outside their offices, are supplied by the RSA Security division of the EMC Corporation.

SecurID Breach Suggested in Hacking Attempt at Lockheed - NYTimes.com

Giving to Charity by Managing Your E-Mail - NYTimes.com

Seems dubious to me, including the assertion about 3B Gmail accounts (unless Gmail added ~2.8B user accounts since January)

A new service, GiveBackMail, introduced this week, promises to give 25 percent of its profit to charity if users will route their e-mail activities through its Web site. “The more you use e-mail, the more money you direct toward your charity,” said Rambod Yadegar, who founded the service with his brother, Sam.

[…]

“They have such a significant user base,” he said, noting that Google has three billion Gmail accounts, while Yahoo and Microsoft have around 250 million e-mail accounts each. “We can have a significant impact in the nonprofit world by grasping only a very insignificant amount of their market share.”

Giving to Charity by Managing Your E-Mail - NYTimes.com

HTC Pays Microsoft $5 Per Android Phone, Says Citi [Business Insider]

Check the article link below for more details and an Android litigation timeline chart.  Perhaps Microsoft uses its Android-related revenues to subsidize, e.g., its Windows Phone relationship with Nokia…

Microsoft gets $5 for every HTC phone running Android, according to Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, who released a big report on Microsoft this morning.

Microsoft is getting that money thanks to a patent settlement with HTC over intellectual property infringement.

Microsoft is suing other Android phone makers, and it's looking for $7.50 to $12.50 per device, says Pritchard.

HTC Pays Microsoft $5 Per Android Phone, Says Citi

Verizon MiFi Shines | The AppsLab

Remind me to attend Google I/O next year, and to bring a spare suitcase… (via Louis Gray)

As with last year’s Google IO, Google sent us home with several cool gifts this year. All attendees received the Limited Edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a Verizon LTE MiFi, as well as the promise of a Samsung Chromebook when they are released in June.

Unlike last year, several goodies were given to the attendees of specific sessions, e.g. those who went to the session on the Android ADK received the hardware kit to get started, those who attended the Android gaming session got a Sony Experia Play, etc.

Verizon MiFi Shines | The AppsLab

Upstart MapR unveils 'next generation' Hadoop • The Register

Rapid evolution for Hadoop

According to MapR CEO and cofounder John Schroeder, the company has rebuilt Hadoop's storage system, job tracker, and name space, providing more rapid access to data and improving the platform's ability to scale. MapR's Hadoop is not entirely open source, Schroeder says. It is now in use by "quite a few" customers, including EMC, whose Greenplum HD Enterprise Edition of Hadoop is essentially MapR technology.

Based on Google's back-end infrastructure and named after a yellow stuffed elephant, Hadoop offers a distributed file system (HDFS) and a distributed number-crunching platform (Hadoop MapReduce) as well as various other tools. It's typically used for offline data processing, though a sister project, Hbase, offers a real-time distributed database.

Upstart MapR unveils 'next generation' Hadoop • The Register

Tim Berners-Lee calls for 'sophisticated' social network - IT News from V3.co.uk

Back to the future (via ACM TechNews)

World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee has called for a next-generation social network to allow academics and scientists to share knowledge more efficiently.
Berners-Lee said at the Profiting from the New Web conference in London on Monday that the internet lacks an all-encompassing social network that enables such experts to collaborate on projects.

Such a social network would allow scientists to share information more effectively to tackle the world's most pressing problems, according to Berners-Lee.

Tim Berners-Lee calls for 'sophisticated' social network - IT News from V3.co.uk

Microsoft Is Said to Plan Preview of Windows Tablet Software - Businessweek

The only major headline news I can imagine in this context would be if Microsoft somehow delivered “Windows 8” slates in 2011

Microsoft Corp. will preview its Windows operating system designed for tablet computers in demonstrations planned for next week, according to three people with knowledge of the company’s plans.

The company will showcase the software’s touch-screen interface running on hardware with an Nvidia Corp. Tegra chip, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans are confidential.

Microsoft Is Said to Plan Preview of Windows Tablet Software - Businessweek

Amazon Launches Competitor to Apple's Mac App Store [Mashable]

Apple lawsuit timing tbd

Amazon has unveiled the Mac Downloads Store, a direct competitor to Apple’s Mac App Store.

The new Mac Downloads Store is essentially a marketplace for buying and downloading Mac applications. Amazon has sold software downloads for years, but now it those software downloads have been organized into a one-stop shop.

Amazon Launches Competitor to Apple's Mac App Store

Facebook Is Developing Ways to Share Media - NYTimes.com

Multimedia musings at Facebook

The company is in discussions with several online music services, including the European company Spotify, to develop a tab or widget that would display a user’s most-played songs and provide an easy way for friends to hear them, two people involved in the discussions said.

[…]

Last year, Facebook negotiated with Apple about bringing social features into iTunes. But the talks broke down and Apple created its own social network within iTunes, called Ping. It has not become popular with users.

Facebook Is Developing Ways to Share Media - NYTimes.com

The new chain gang: Chinese prisoners forced to play for virtual goods | VentureBeat

Virtual good regulation and certification can’t be far behind

The Guardian is reporting that prisoners in labor camps in China were forced to play online games like World of Warcraft in 12 hour shifts in order to earn virtual credits, currencies and goods which could then be sold by the guards. Prisoners who did not meet their quotas were beaten.

The practice of “gold farming”, building up credits and other value in various online games which can then be sold, is widespread in China.

The new chain gang: Chinese prisoners forced to play for virtual goods | VentureBeat

Mac malware authors release a new, more dangerous version | ZDNet

Evidently the reality distortion field doesn’t extend to malware authors

Apple appears to be treating this outbreak as if it were a single incident that won’t be repeated. They seriously underestimate the bad guys, who are not idiots. Peter James, an Intego spokeperson, told me his company’s analysts were “impressed by the quality of the original version.” The quick response to Apple’s move suggests they are capable of churning out new releases at Internet speeds, adapting their software and their tactics as their target—Apple—tries to put up new roadblocks.

Mac malware authors release a new, more dangerous version | ZDNet

Amazon Repeats $0.99 Deal On Lady Gaga Album, Says Servers Won’t Melt This Time [TechCrunch]

More Gaga bits from Amazon

Well, the company wants to make amends by repeating the offer today.

Customers can once again get the album for 99 cents, and get 20 GB of free Amazon Cloud Drive storage to boot.

Says Craig Pape, director of Music for Amazon:

“Clearly customers are really excited for Lady Gaga’s new album – we saw extraordinary response to Monday’s promotion – far above what we expected – she definitely melted some servers. So we’re doing it again, and this time we’re ready.”

Amazon Repeats $0.99 Deal On Lady Gaga Album, Says Servers Won’t Melt This Time

Surprise! Cisco’s Blade Servers Are Number Three in the Market. – AllThingsD

Some good news for Cisco (and bad news for Dell, Oracle, and other competitors)

The surprise, however, is that Cisco Systems–yes, that networking giant that’s in the urgent process of rebuilding itself–has, after two years, gotten its UCS-based blade servers to the number three position in the market for blade devices, behind HP and IBM, with a 9.4 percent share of the market. It’s not a bad position to be in when you consider that more than 20 percent of all servers are blades, and that shipments of blades overall grew by more than 5 percent in the quarter, accounting for $1.8 billion in sales.

Surprise! Cisco’s Blade Servers Are Number Three in the Market. – AllThingsD

A New Tablet From Acer Challenges iPad on Price – AllThingsD

Check the full review for details about an Android slate that appears to be, among other things, likely to contribute to Xoom doom

I have been putting the Iconia Tab through its paces, and, in my view, it offers the best value of any Android tablet on the market. While it doesn’t beat either iPad overall, the Iconia Tab offers a decent alternative to Apple, especially for multimedia enthusiasts who want to display their content on a TV, PC or smartphone without additional gear.

A New Tablet From Acer Challenges iPad on Price – AllThingsD

Agreeing on Groupon - Joshua Gans - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Via Kellblog

But right now, there is one issue on which every economist I know of actually agrees (and in an unqualified way): that Groupon (a) should have accepted the purported $6 billion bid from Google when it had the chance; (b) that Google was insane to have offered it; and (c) that Groupon is pretty much doomed or, at least, will have fleeting glory. Put simply, the new coupon industry is following a path common to so many new markets, with a leader with initial success, a flurry of entrants (at last count some 400 competitors) and, finally, a big shakeout.

Agreeing on Groupon - Joshua Gans - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

What Microsoft's 'Mango' Says About Its Phone Strategy - NYTimes.com

Ultimately betting on a superior hypertext user experience (also see Microsoft phone updates leaves critics bemused)

But more important, the show-and-tell pointed to the strategy and tactics Microsoft will count on to catch the leaders in smartphone operating systems, Apple and Google. Microsoft is moving fast for a change, and betting on its computer science, deep pockets and partnerships.

What Microsoft's 'Mango' Says About Its Phone Strategy - NYTimes.com

BlueStacks puts Android apps on Windows | Deep Tech - CNET News

Strange days indeed

"The idea is very simple," said Chief Executive and founder Rosen Sharma, who previously was McAfee's chief technology officer. A company co-founder's 6-year-old daughter had been using apps on his phone, he said. "She went to a Netbook, and she wanted the same apps on it. The number of people who want something like that is very very large, both consumer and enterprise."

Consumers could be interested in having a Windows version of their LinkedIn app for social and work connections, their sports app for staying on top of the latest game results, or Pulse app for reading news, Sharma said. And businesses are interested in extending the reach of mobile apps they've created for their employees.

BlueStacks puts Android apps on Windows | Deep Tech - CNET News

All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club « abovethecrowd.com

Check the post link for detailed Bill Gurley analysis, including a LinkedIn IPO perspective

With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, it is common to see articles that reference both “valuation” and “revenue” and suggest that there is a correlation between the two. Calculating or qualifying potential valuation using the simplistic and crude tool of a revenue multiple (also known as the price/revenue or price/sales ratio) was quite trendy back during the Internet bubble of the late 1990s. Perhaps it is not peculiar that our good friend the price/revenue ratio is back in vogue. But investors and analysts beware; this is a remarkably dangerous technique, because all revenues are not created equal.

All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club « abovethecrowd.com

Thiel Awards 24 Under-20 Fellowships - BusinessWeek

Interesting times

Last fall, Princeton University sophomore Eden Full began to consider taking a break from school to turn her side project—a solar panel that rotates without using electricity—into a business.

In April, Full got all the motivation she needed when she was told she had won a $100,000 grant. The catch: She has to leave school for at least two years. "It's time for me to go out and try things in the real world and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes," says 19-year-old Full.

Thiel Awards 24 Under-20 Fellowships - BusinessWeek

Google to Unveil Mobile Payments Platform - WSJ.com

In case you’re eager to share more personal information with Google

Google Inc. is expected to disclose details about how consumers will be able to make store purchases, redeem coupons, and get loyalty points by waving smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter, said people familiar with the matter.

At an event Thursday in New York, the Web-search company is planning to show off the technology, called near field communication, which is embedded in newer smartphones powered by Google's Android software and that can help turn the devices into a kind of electronic wallet, these people said.

Google to Unveil Mobile Payments Platform - WSJ.com

Barnes & Noble Caught in a Wall Street Whirlwind - NYTimes.com

Check the link below for a financial history snapshot of B&N

Yet that alone doesn’t seem to be a compelling strategic reason for Liberty — primarily a cable company — to bid for Barnes & Noble. Perhaps Mr. Malone just thinks the company is a good investment opportunity, since it increasingly appears that Borders, its main competitor, will most likely be liquidated in bankruptcy.

In any case, the fate of Barnes & Noble appears to be no longer tied to a strategy or its business. Instead, it is caught in a deal whirlwind, at the mercies of Wall Street. Like other companies before it, Barnes & Noble is being pushed to complete a deal, any deal.

Barnes & Noble Caught in a Wall Street Whirlwind - NYTimes.com

Yandex's Surge on Debut Stirs More Talk of Tech Bubble - NYTimes.com

Also see Exclusive: Zynga About to File for IPO

Shares of Yandex, a Russian search engine barely known in the United States, surged by more than 55 percent on Tuesday, signifying the latest multibillion-dollar technology offering and stoking the debate about whether this market has the makings of a bubble.

Yandex's Surge on Debut Stirs More Talk of Tech Bubble - NYTimes.com

NOOK - Award Winning, Bestselling eReader - Barnes & Noble

Big news (in a little device) from Barnes & Noble.  I expect it won’t be long before Amazon raises the e-reader stakes further

Easiest to use 6” touchscreen

Most advanced E-Ink® display—crisp text, even in bright sun

Longest battery life—read up to 2 months on just 1 charge

Ultra-light and thin—under 8 ounces

Largest bookstore with more than 2 million titles—get them in seconds

Expert recommendations & fun social features

NOOK - Award Winning, Bestselling eReader - Barnes & Noble

Kobo and the curious incident of the underdog in the night time | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Excerpt from an e-book market snapshot

Amazon’s 60-plus per cent share of the US e-book market is well known, but so far, Apple has looked less threatening. Mr Serbinis echoes publishers in estimating that Apple’s iBookstore has only about 10 per cent of the market, roughly half the Nook’s share. Non-US markets are still more up for grabs.

Kobo, which sells through retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy and the ill-fated Borders, also claims a 10 per cent share of the US market, but Mr Serbinis states that it aims to be number one in a $90bn global book business that is going digital.

Kobo and the curious incident of the underdog in the night time | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Square Tries to Make Wallets Obsolete - NYTimes.com

Pay different

Using cellphones to ease offline purchases is a crowded corner of tech investment. Most companies are tackling one aspect of purchasing, like mobile payments or coupons. But Mr. Dorsey is thinking big. He wants Square to be involved in every step of the transaction process by replacing cash registers, loyalty cards and paper receipts. “We think it should be one system,” he said.

The start-up faces formidable competition. Square’s goal is to replace cash registers and point-of-sale terminals and the companies that make them, like Verifone. Square is also taking on the many start-ups that offer cellphone loyalty cards, like Foursquare, and competing with Google, Apple, PayPal and major credit card companies and banks to provide mobile payments.

Square Tries to Make Wallets Obsolete - NYTimes.com

Liberty Media Sees Bright Future for Nook's Android Platform - WSJ.com

More on the books & Nooks appeal

On Tuesday, Barnes & Noble is expected to present a new version of the Nook e-reader in the face of intensifying competition with Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet. On Monday, rival Kobo Inc., the Toronto-based e-book retailer, introduced a new $129.99 e-reader with a touch screen that's expected to begin shipping in early June.

Mr. Maffei, who singled out Apple's success at using its stores to promote its iPads, said Liberty estimates that Barnes & Noble has around 25% of digital book sales.

Taking aim at Amazon, Mr. Malone also said Amazon's strong lead in the nascent e-book market could be hampered by the publishing industry's interest in not allowing one retailer to become too powerful, a dynamic he said could benefit Barnes & Noble.

Liberty Media Sees Bright Future for Nook's Android Platform - WSJ.com

Delays Hit Amazon’s Lady Gaga Promotion – AllThingsD

“Web scale” but apparently not Gaga scale; also see Lady Gaga Sale Stalls Amazon Servers (NYT)

Amazon.com Inc.’s one-day, 99-cent promotion of Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated second studio album, “Born This Way,” resulted in downloading delays on the Internet retailer’s Web site due to high volume, the company said Monday.

Amazon thanked users for their patience on its website and on Twitter, saying consumers who ordered “Born This Way” on Monday would get the full album for the promotional price.

Delays Hit Amazon’s Lady Gaga Promotion – AllThingsD

Watch Steve Jobs Speaking At A Microsoft Conference In 1996 [Business Insider]

Interesting to watch this session from ~15 years ago and ponder how far Web app architecture and tools have evolved (or not…).  Also a blast from the past for the brief Bob Muglia intro.

Here's a fun video to watch from Channel 9, via Daring Fireball. Steve Jobs is presenting on Web Objects at the 1996 Microsoft Professional Developers conference at 7 PM at night.

Unlike the Jobs keynotes we've grown accustomed to seeing the last 10 years, he doesn't have the same swagger on stage. He actually seems humbled, like a guy working a struggling startup. Also, unlike what we're used to seeing now, he's not talking about a consumer focused product.

It's worth watching for a few minutes to remember how far he and Apple have come.

Watch Steve Jobs Speaking At A Microsoft Conference In 1996

The Invisible iPhone - Technology Review

However, you do need to wear a stylish head-camera…

Over time, using your smart-phone touch screen becomes second nature, to the point where you can even do some tasks without looking. Researchers in Germany are now working on a system that would let you perform such actions without even holding the phone—instead you'd tap your palm, and the movements would be interpreted by an "imaginary phone" system that would relay the request to your actual phone.

The Invisible iPhone - Technology Review

Business & Technology | Toyota to set up social networking service | Seattle Times Newspaper

Sign of the times

Toyota is setting up a social networking service with the help of a U.S. Internet company and Microsoft so drivers can interact with their cars in ways similar to Twitter and Facebook.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. and Salesforce.com, based in San Francisco, announced their alliance Monday to launch "Toyota Friend," a private social network for Toyota owners that works similar to tweets on Twitter.

Business & Technology | Toyota to set up social networking service | Seattle Times Newspaper

Android Leakage: can we crank back the panic a bit?

Excerpt from a Security Curve Android reality check

The 99.7 percent of phones are the ones that will not submit the authtoken in question over HTTPS. So, the point is: if you use your Android phone on a WiFi network, and that network isn’t protected, someone could steal the token and use it to get access… just like they could with quite a large number of other traditional web sites, by the way. I’m not downplaying the problem here – it’s an issue because it’s behaving a way that is contrary to expected behavior. But my point is that the reality is slightly less panic-worthy than you might believe from reading the press coverage.

Android Leakage: can we crank back the panic a bit?

Hewlett-Packard’s Haas, Iannotti Leave in Executive Shuffle - Businessweek

More changes ahead at HP

Hewlett-Packard Co. senior vice presidents Marius Haas, Tom Iannotti and Gary Budzinski are departing, people familiar with the matter said, adding to an exodus of managers from the computer maker.

The company is also looking for a new senior executive who may lead its software business, people familiar with the search said. Executive Vice President Bill Veghte currently is in charge of that division.

Hewlett-Packard’s Haas, Iannotti Leave in Executive Shuffle - Businessweek

Malware Is Posing Increasing Danger - WSJ.com

Excerpt from a stark malware reality check

One in every 14 downloads is a piece of malware, according to information released by Microsoft last week. To try to inhibit the growth, antivirus defenses have to attack the problem from other directions.

Despite improved browser security over the last few years, new forms of propagation have developed, including highly targeted attacks known as spear-phishing, which go after individuals or groups of individuals.

Social media, and in particular Facebook, has seen a new way of spreading harm.

Malware Is Posing Increasing Danger - WSJ.com

Female Magazine Readers Flock to Nook Color - NYTimes.com

Interesting tablet times (although the author should have realized the Nook Color is an Android-based tablet, albeit a functionally limited one)

The Nook Color has surprised publishers of women’s magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health by igniting strong sales that rival — and in some cases surpass — sales on the iPad.

The success was not so easily predictable for a device that has been on the market only since November and faces stiff competition from Apple, Amazon and the Android-based tablets.

Female Magazine Readers Flock to Nook Color - NYTimes.com

Review copies of upcoming books go digital - The Boston Globe

Check the article link for more details, e.g., on copy protection

The e-book revolution has opened a new frontier: In an old brick building overlooking a boatyard on the Merrimack River, a company is offering a new way to publicize books in the digital age.

Publishers who traditionally promoted new releases by sending out paper advance copies — called galleys — to reviewers, bloggers, booksellers, and libraries can now send them as digital e-book files, through the fast-growing NetGalley service.

Review copies of upcoming books go digital - The Boston Globe

Nuance Plays Hardball in Voice Recognition - BusinessWeek

Excerpt from a profile of not-so-nuanced (at least in terms of business modus operandi) Nuance

When rumors swirled on May 7 that Apple (AAPL) might acquire Nuance Communications (NUAN), shares of the software company rose 10 percent to $22, within pennies of an all-time high. The assumption was that Steve Jobs gets what Steve Jobs wants.

A safe bet—unless you know Nuance Chief Executive Officer Paul Ricci. In speech-recognition technology, which Nuance dominates, the soft-spoken Ricci is considered every bit as powerful as Jobs. Since leaving Xerox (XRX) to join the company in 2000, Ricci has bought 43 companies to build the largest independent maker of software that lets devices understand you as you dictate a memo to your laptop, say, or tell your smartphone to find the nearest sushi bar.

Nuance Plays Hardball in Voice Recognition - BusinessWeek

Public relations: Slime-slinging | The Economist

More on the information responsibility theme

Journalists may grumble privately about practices such as BM’s badmouthing of Google, but few would be as brave as Mr Soghoian in exposing them, thereby jeopardising their relationship with a powerful PR agency. The incident shows how the upheaval in the news business is working for, and against, the PR firms. Newspapers and other old media are losing influence—and thus becoming less worth lobbying. But job cuts and online obligations mean journalists are also more desperate for copy, making them a softer touch. Research by Jamil Jonna of the University of Oregon (originally for a book, “The Death and Life of American Journalism”, but since updated) found that as newsrooms have been slimmed and PR agencies have grown fatter, for each American journalist there are now, on average, six flacks hassling him to run crummy stories (see chart).

Public relations: Slime-slinging | The Economist

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Zero tolerance for print

Strange days indeed; see the post link below for more details

Politicians are usually sticks in the mud, technologywise, but that certainly wasn't the case down in Tallahassee this week. Florida legislators closed their eyes, clicked their heels, and took a giant leap forward into the Information Age, passing a budget measure that bans printed textbooks from schools starting in the 2015-16 school year. That's right: four years from now it will be against the law to give a kid a printed book in a Florida school. One lawmaker said the bill was intended to "meet the students where they are in their learning styles," which means nothing but sounds warm and fuzzy.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Zero tolerance for print

Yelp Aims to Deal With Problem of Fake Reviews - the Haggler - NYTimes.com

Another disconcerting information responsibility reality check

As a consumer review Web site, Yelp is so big and influential that it has given rise to a small, semi-underground group of entrepreneurs who, for a fee, will post a rave about your company. Others will post a negative review about your rivals.

Yes, this is very sneaky, and it’s a continuing problem for Yelp, which is locked in a “Spy vs. Spy”-style contest with fake reviewers. Let’s see how that contest is going by looking at, of all things, the field of dentistry.

Yelp Aims to Deal With Problem of Fake Reviews - the Haggler - NYTimes.com

The Gossip Machine, Churning Out Cash - NYTimes.com

A discouraging information responsibility snapshot

This is how it works in the new world of round-the-clock gossip, where even a B-list celebrity’s tangle with the law can be spun into easy money, feeding the public’s seemingly bottomless appetite for dirt about the famous.

A growing constellation of Web sites, magazines and television programs serve it up minute by minute, creating a river of cash for secrets of the stars, or near-stars. An analysis of advertising estimates from those outlets shows that the revenue stream now tops more than $3 billion annually, driving the gossip industry to ferret out salacious tidbits on a scale not seen since the California courts effectively shut down the scandal sheets of the 1950s.

The Gossip Machine, Churning Out Cash - NYTimes.com

Our data, ourselves - The Boston Globe

First paragraph of an information responsibility reality check (subtitled “What if privacy is keeping us from reaping the real benefits of the infosphere?”)

If you’re obsessive about your health, and you have $100 to spare, the Fitbit is a portable tracking device you can wear on your wrist that logs, in real time, how many calories you’ve burned, how far you’ve walked, how many steps you’ve taken, and how many hours you’ve slept. It generates colorful graphs that chart your lifestyle and lets you measure yourself against other users. Essentially, the Fitbit is a machine that turns your physical life into a precise, analyzable stream of data.

Our data, ourselves - The Boston Globe

Business & Technology | Barnes & Noble's Nook attracts Liberty Media | Seattle Times Newspaper

Plausible – and ironic

Barnes & Noble's Nook electronic reader now accounts for 28 percent of the market for those devices. And the Nook has the potential to go beyond books to deliver all types of digital products, including music, magazines, TV shows and movies. That makes it a competitor not just to Amazon.com's Kindle but also to Apple's iPad.

"This deal is all about the device," said Sherif Mityas, a partner in the retail practice of global management-consulting firm A.T. Kearney. "As Apple proved, you need to have the content and the device. Malone has the content, and Barnes & Noble has the device. You're not buying the stores; you're buying the Nook."

Business & Technology | Barnes & Noble's Nook attracts Liberty Media | Seattle Times Newspaper

IBM market cap > Microsoft market cap

Market cap levels as I type this (according to Google Finance):

• IBM: $207.52B
• Microsoft: $206.52B
• Oracle: $173.42B

NASDAQ:MSFT: 24.49 -0.23 (-0.91%) - Microsoft Corporation

Free webinar covering XML, NoSQL, Big Data, cloud, and other database market dynamics, along with how they’re likely to impact data modeling

Reminder: free webinar Tues next week, sponsored by Embarcadero; sign up at the URL below

Does Modeling Still Matter in an Era of XML, NoSQL, Big Data, and the Cloud?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

6:00am PDT / 9:00am EDT / 3:00pm CET
11:00am PDT / 2:00pm EDT
5:00pm PDT / May 25 10:00am Australian EST

Join noted industry analysts Joe Maguire and Peter O'Kelly as they explain how, even in the midst of these changing data management scenarios, data modeling is more relevant than ever before.  They’ll also introduce a new kind of framework for understanding how the various "next-generation" developments fit relative to established database models. And after reviewing mission-critical roles for conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling techniques and tools, Joe and Peter will share some projections about what's likely to happen next with NoSQL and other recent market developments.
What you'll learn:

• What NoSQL is, why it’s often misunderstood, and how it relates to traditional data management

• What's the big deal with big data? Understand how it differs from, for example, data warehousing

• How the cloud introduces new opportunities – and mandates -- for data modeling and data management

• How the growth in XML information management is more complementary than competitive with traditional data management

• How these new technologies can alter the fundamentals of data hygiene (e.g., data governance, information quality, data lifecycle management)

http://forms.embarcadero.com/forms/AMUSCA1105ERStudioOKelly

With the LinkedIn IPO, is Wall Street back to its bad old ways? | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Another LinkedIn IPO perspective

Google tried to set things right with an auction-style IPO to match supply and demand more closely. But Wall Street’s lock on the process is as strong as ever.

Based on the early action in the LinkedIn stock, the underwriters could easily have priced it at $70 or even $80 rather than $45, says Ryan Jacob, an internet fund manager in California (he says he didn’t buy the stock.)

To put it in perspective: $400m is four times the total amount that LinkedIn raised to get through its first eight years as a private company. That sort of money will certainly focus the mind for IPOs to come – and should bring greater use of the auction approach.

With the LinkedIn IPO, is Wall Street back to its bad old ways? | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Business & Technology | Barnes & Noble reports $1B bid from Liberty Media | Seattle Times Newspaper

Not dead yet; Borders Group, Inc., in contrast, has a current market cap of ~$16.5M

Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest traditional book seller, said Thursday that Liberty Media Corp. has offered to buy it a deal valued at about $1 billion.

The bid of $17 a share in cash from the conglomerate chaired by billionaire media mogul John Malone sent Barnes & Noble's stock surging more than 24 percent in extended trading after the company announced the potential deal.

Business & Technology | Barnes & Noble reports $1B bid from Liberty Media | Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft Announces New Back-to-School Offer for Students: Students who buy select Windows 7-based PCs will get a free Xbox 360 console with purchase. [Microsoft PressPass]

“Actual results may vary,” in terms of grade point average implications

Microsoft Corp. today announced a new offer for students who purchase a new Windows 7-based PC. Starting May 22, students buying a new Windows 7-based PC priced at $699 (U.S.) or more will also get a free Xbox 360 4GB console. Students will be able to choose from the wide range of stylish, powerful and innovative Windows 7-based PCs to find the one that’s right for them based on the features, color, size and price they want. The offer is available at participating retailers for current students in the U.S. while supplies last. Similar student-focused offers will be coming soon in Canada and France.

Microsoft Announces New Back-to-School Offer for Students: Students who buy select Windows 7-based PCs will get a free Xbox 360 console with purchase.

Apple Is Said to Secure Music Accords for ITunes Cloud Service - Businessweek

tbd if the same deal structure will be available to Amazon, Google, and others

Apple Inc. has reached agreements with three major record labels to let users of its new music service access their song collections from handheld devices via the Internet, people with knowledge of the deals said.

The new iTunes offering will let users store content on Apple’s servers and access it using the Web, rather than loading songs into a device’s memory, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. The plans could be previewed as early as Apple’s developers conference, set to begin June 6, the people said.

Apple Is Said to Secure Music Accords for ITunes Cloud Service - Businessweek

The Sensors Are Coming! - NYTimes.com

Soon you’ll be able to put your mood ring into a drawer, next to your watch

Mr. Vigna said the next smartphones would have altimeter sensors that would be able to detect your elevation. “These sensors will tell people what floor they are on in a building, or could be used to more precisely determine where you are in relation to your friends on a location-based service,” he said.

Other sensors built into your next-generation phone could include heart monitors to keep tabs on your health. There will also be sensors that can detect perspiration and could be used to monitor your excitement level and even mood. Additionally, phones will include more microphones, and temperature and humidity sensors to better determine their location and surroundings.

This sensor-filled world will also affect video games. Sensors that can detect mood and excitement will usher in an era of video games that will factor in emotion during gameplay.

The Sensors Are Coming! - NYTimes.com

LinkedIn's Surge Sets Stage for More Internet I.P.O.'s - NYTimes.com

Check the article link for more details

The initial public offering, the largest by a United States Internet company since Google’s offering in 2004, was a major test of investor demand for the new wave of fast-growing social Web companies. Valuations for start-ups like Groupon, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga have been surging in private secondary markets in recent months. Thursday’s market action was an indication that investors’ appetite for these businesses had not waned despite questions of whether sky-high valuations were justified.

Linkedin’s shares opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $83 — up from its I.P.O. price of $45 — and rose as high as $122.70 before paring their gains. The shares closed at $94.25, giving the company a market value of roughly $9 billion — more than four times the value of an early Internet king, AOL.

But this Internet boom is different in many ways from the last one.

[…]

p.s. in case you’re wondering what happened to VA Linux, from this CNet article:

VA Linux Ssytems changed its name in 2001 to VA Software, after jettisoning the hardware business entirely, and it focused on selling licenses for SourceForge Enterprise. And when that didn't work out, it became SourceForge, a collection of Web sites deriving revenue entirely from ad sales. And it has since changed its name again, to Geeknet.

LinkedIn's Surge Sets Stage for More Internet I.P.O.'s - NYTimes.com

Amazon Media Room:Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books

It would be interesting to see how Apple’s iBook store sales levels compare

Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.

"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com.

Amazon Media Room:News Release

LinkedIn Corp: NYSE:LNKD quotes & news - Google Finance

Not a bad first day…

LinkedIn Corp: NYSE:LNKD quotes & news - Google Finance

This Is Your Brain on Twitter - NYTimes.com

Check the article link below for more, including a response from Bill Keller

Could Twitter make me stupid? Absolutely. If I only followed funny cats that speak with poor grammar, I’d be on my way to a vapid state of mind in no time. But I don’t. I follow dozens of news outlets and writers; I follow chefs, neuroscientists and the president of the United States; and of course, I follow Mr. Keller.

As the astute Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Another concern of Mr. Keller’s is the prediction by many that the smartphones we carry in our pockets will soon evolve into wearable computers — essentially turning us into cyborgs.

This Is Your Brain on Twitter - NYTimes.com

Did the New York Public Library Just Build the Magazine App of the Future? - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

Praise for the NYPL Biblion app

Silicon Valley watcher Tom Foremski likes to say that "every company is a media company" in the Internet age. Well, it's not just companies that innovating. The New York Public Library put out an app today called Biblion that's one of the slickest media consumption experiences that I've seen for the iPad.

Combining essays, photos and documents from the library's archives, the whole experience feels more like an exhibit than a publication ... but maybe that's precisely where magazine apps should be aiming.

Did the New York Public Library Just Build the Magazine App of the Future? - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

LinkedIn Prices Shares at $4.3 Billion Valuation - NYTimes.com

A big day for LinkedIn

The professional social network LinkedIn priced its public offering at $45 a share late Wednesday, at the top of its expected price range.

At that price, LinkedIn will raise $352.8 million, valuing the company at $4.3 billion. It is set to offer 7.8 million shares, with shareholders selling about three million shares.

LinkedIn Prices Shares at $4.3 Billion Valuation - NYTimes.com

Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Player Music Locker Review by Walt Mossberg | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

Walt Mossberg reviews the new music services/clients from Amazon and Google

Google has a few nice features—it has a clever instant playlist creator, and, when uploading, it tries to prioritize your most played songs. But, overall, I preferred the Amazon player, mainly because it gives you much more control over exactly what you want to upload or download, down to the individual song. Google will upload only large collections, such as your iTunes library or main music folder. If you want to upload only certain songs, you have to create a folder containing only those songs. If you want to download only certain songs on your Android device, you must first make a playlist of those songs.

Also, the Amazon service found all my iTunes playlists, but the Google service omitted some. In addition, Amazon sells digital music and can deliver it right to your Cloud Player. Google doesn’t sell music. Neither service will upload or play back copy-protected music.

Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Player Music Locker Review by Walt Mossberg | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD

RIM: Could Be Worse, Could Be Raining | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Another RIM reality check

It says a lot about Research In Motion’s current situation that the company’s shares can rise on an analyst upgrade to market perform announced in a note entitled, “RIMM: Things Can’t Get Worse in the Foreseeable Future.”

But after a near 40 percent decline in share price since the beginning of the year, RIM and it’s investors are taking anything they can get–even a disdainful, back-handed upgrade from Bernstein & Co.’s Pierre Ferragu, a longtime RIM pessimist with a particularly bleak view of the company.

RIM: Could Be Worse, Could Be Raining | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Droid Charge is pricey, but its 4G flies - The Boston Globe

Excerpts from a Hiawatha Bray review of the latest Samsung 4G phone

But what about that $199 iPhone 4? Actually, the iPhone’s price jumps to $299 if you get it with 32 gigabytes of memory. The Droid Charge, which runs Google Inc.’s Android operating system, offers the same; but it adds some features the iPhone doesn’t match, like a superb display screen and, of course, the blazing speed of 4G downloads.

Despite its name, the iPhone 4 still relies on 3G technology for data downloads. You can expect 1.5 million to 4 million bits per second, depending on which version of 3G technology is operating in your area. Verizon’s 4G network is far faster, and no device I’ve tried makes better use of it than the Droid Charge. With the industry-standard speed testing software from Ookla.net, I saw speeds of nearly 17 megabits per second, which is actually a bit faster than my home Internet service.

Droid Charge is pricey, but its 4G flies - The Boston Globe

Intel, IBM, and HP back open source against VMware • The Register

Some challenging market dynamics for VMware (and Citrix)

Some of tech's biggest names are standing up to VMware, creating an industry group meant to accelerate the adoption of an open-source virtualization stack built atop the KVM hypervisor.

Known as the Open Virtualization Alliance , the group includes IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and KVM Linux distro leader Red Hat as well as Novell, BMC, and Eucalyptus Systems. It was announced on Tuesday at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, where Intel, HP, Red Hat, IBM, and Novell spoke about the effort.

Also see  Cisco, Microsoft, NetApp chum up against VMware

Intel, IBM, and HP back open source against VMware • The Register

SAP Goes After Oracle's Database with ASE CIO.com

That approach didn’t put a dent in the database universe when SAP was similarly promoting SAP DB (briefly a.k.a. MySQL MaxDB), and I don’t expect it will this time around either

Future versions of SAP ERP will be "certified out-of-the-box" with Sybase ASE releases, SAP said. In addition, Sybase ASE's life cycle will be "fully synchronized with SAP maintenance policies to simplify release and deployment planning for customers."

The combination of ASE and SAP's business software will mean customers can deal with a single company "focused on efficient business operations and on providing attractive licensing and maintenance terms and conditions," SAP said.

SAP Goes After Oracle's Database with ASE CIO.com

The private secondary markets lose two of their brightest stars | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Skype (acquired by Microsoft) and LinkedIn (IPO tomorrow) are leaving the list

Published on Tuesday, this is the latest list of the companies that are “most watched” by members of SecondMarket – a fair indication of the ones that are being most actively traded:

The private secondary markets lose two of their brightest stars | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Yes, tablets are hurting PC sales...kind of | Circuit Breaker - CNET News

An excerpt from more analysis of likely iPad ramifications for PC sales

The more accurate conclusion is that tablets are establishing themselves as a replacement for a second or third computer. Consider the tablet the replacement for that computer people would like to have but could do without.

"Consumers who might have bought a new PC and thought, 'My current PC is good enough,' will buy a tablet or another device. Whereas before it would have been an additional PC purchase," said Michael Gartenberg, analyst with Gartner.

Yes, tablets are hurting PC sales...kind of | Circuit Breaker - CNET News

Apple IPad’s ‘Buzz Saw’ Success Cuts Into PC Sales at HP, Dell - Businessweek

Difficult times in the PC business

The iPad is wreaking havoc on the personal-computer market.

Hewlett-Packard Co.’s consumer PC sales plunged 23 percent last quarter, and the company lopped $1 billion off its annual sales forecast. And while rival Dell Inc. beat analysts’ estimates because of corporate demand, its sales to consumers slumped 7.5 percent. More than 70 million tablets like the Apple Inc. iPad will be sold in 2011, a total that will balloon to 246 million in three years, Jefferies & Co. said yesterday.

Apple IPad’s ‘Buzz Saw’ Success Cuts Into PC Sales at HP, Dell - Businessweek

In Silicon Valley, Buying Companies for Their Engineers - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

That is what it has come to in bubbly Silicon Valley. Companies like Facebook, Google and Zynga are so hungry for the best talent that they are buying start-ups to get their founders and engineers — and then jettisoning their products.

Some technology blogs call it being “acqhired.” The companies doing the buying say it is a talent acquisition, and it typically comes with a price per head.

In Silicon Valley, Buying Companies for Their Engineers - NYTimes.com

Analyst: Early Android Tablet Entries Can’t Compete With iPad | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Check the full post for more analysis

The iPad’s dominance of the market for tablet computers may not prove as short-lived as some analysts have predicted. Though beset by a proliferation of new rivals, particularly those based on Google’s Android operating system, the company’s share of this fast-growing market isn’t eroding nearly as quickly as expected.

Analyst: Early Android Tablet Entries Can’t Compete With iPad | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

New York Public Library Launches iPad App - NYTimes.com

Apparently not inclined to defer to Google

The first edition showcases the library’s 1939-1940 New York World’s fair holdings, which are among the most consulted by researchers. Users will be able to turn over, zoom in and roam through hundreds of items. At the end of this week, the library is putting out an app that lets the public play “Find that Future,” from game designer Jane McGonigal, author of “Reality is Broken.” This summer, look for an app that lets the public reserve books. The new app is available at Apple’s iTunes store. A web version is to be available soon at nypl.org.

New York Public Library Launches iPad App - NYTimes.com

Announcing Xamarin - Miguel de Icaza

A new incarnation for the Mono team; see the post link below for more details (via ReadWriteWeb)

Today we start Xamarin, our new company focused on Mono-based products.

These are some of the things that we will be doing at Xamarin:

• Build a new commercial .NET offering for iOS
• Build a new commercial .NET offering for Android
• Continue to contribute, maintain and develop the open source Mono and Moonlight components.
• Explore the Moonlight opportunities in the mobile space and the Mac appstore.

Announcing Xamarin - Miguel de Icaza

Bing Gets Friendlier with Facebook - Technology Review

More on Bing + Facebook

Bing's new features can only access information if your Facebook privacy settings will allow it.

Research on neurobiology and social psychology helped guide Bing's new direction, says Weitz, who claims the approach will help make decision making easier. Traditional Web search triggers an unhelpful phenomenon known as "decision quicksand," says Weitz. The term describes how people come to think of decisions as more important than they really are because of the complexity of weighing all the evidence. "When you use traditional Web search, your brain thinks everything is really important because there are half a million results you are told are relevant and have to deal with," says Weitz. "What we're doing now is using social signals to simplify that so your brain isn't tricked."

Bing Gets Friendlier with Facebook - Technology Review

Hewlett-Packard rushes earnings report after warning | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

Lowering expectations in several respects…

Hewlett-Packard moved up its quarterly earnings release to before the US markets open Tuesday, two trading sessions earlier than planned, after a memo from its chief executive warned of tough conditions.

HP, the largest maker of PCs by revenue, gave no official reason from the timing shift from late on Wednesday. But the move followed quickly on news reports quoting a memo from CEO Leo Apotheker in which he warned that the ensuing three months would be “another tough quarter”.

Hewlett-Packard rushes earnings report after warning | FT Tech Hub | FTtechhub - Industry analysis – FT.com

U.S. Calls for Global Cybersecurity Strategy - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

The Obama administration on Monday proposed creating international computer security standards with penalties for countries and organizations that fell short.

While administration officials did not single out any countries in announcing the strategy, several officials said privately that the hope was that the initiative would prod China and Russia into allowing more Internet freedom, cracking down on intellectual property theft and enacting stricter laws to protect computer users’ privacy.

U.S. Calls for Global Cybersecurity Strategy - NYTimes.com

Bing Now Helps You Make Decisions With Your Facebook Friends: New social features infuse search with the “friend effect” to enable smarter decisions [Microsoft PressPass]

More examples of new Bing/Facebook capabilities

Microsoft data shows that nearly half of people surveyed say seeing their friends’ likes within search results could help them make better decisions, and who better than a group of trusted friends to guide everyday decision-making? The new features of Bing make this possible:

• Liked results, answers and sites. Cut right to the good stuff, by seeing what stories, content and sites friends have liked right in the search results. Planning a trip to Napa Valley, for example, can be overwhelming with hundreds of wineries to choose from — luckily, the likes of friends can narrow the choices on which vineyards are must-sees.
• Personalized results. Bing personalizes the search experience by surfacing content friends have liked from deep within search results to the top of the page. Because most people don’t go beyond page one of the results, they might be missing the best information.

But it’s not just friends who can help out. There’s also value in the larger brain trust of the Web. Bing now brings the collective IQ of people to decision-making online when friends may not have the right expertise or a person may not know exactly what they’re looking for:

• Popular sites. See collective like results related to trending topics, articles and Facebook fan pages to find the most popular content. When searching a recipe site, for example, see what articles on the site people have liked to help find the perfect recipe for dinner.
• Social messages. Searchers also can benefit from knowing what major brands and companies are sharing on Facebook. For example, when planning a vacation and searching for a rental car, Bing will show recent Facebook posts alerting people to a new deal at the top of the results.

Many decisions require a discussion with friends. By combining Facebook’s communication tools with Bing, search can become conversational — taking decision-making on Bing from a passive experience to an active dialogue. The vision of Bing is to combine the power of discovery with the empowerment of conversation:

• Expanded Facebook profile search. Sometimes people need a friend right away, and Bing now lets them hit the fast-forward button to the right Facebook friends. Now when people search for a specific person, Bing provides a more in-depth bio snapshot, such as location, education and employment details, to help them find the person they’re looking for more quickly.
• Friends who live here. Traveling to a new city and looking for recommendations on where to eat or stay? Easily find and consult friends who live or have lived near a destination.
• Flight Deals. Perhaps the best conversation is one that helps save money. Flight Deals will automatically send people airfare deals via Facebook for cities they have liked, enabling them to find out about the latest deals.
• Shared shopping lists. For shopping purchases, easily build, share and discuss shopping lists with friends, getting them to weigh in on purchases — before buying.

More detailed information about the new features is available on the Bing blog at

http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/05/16/news-announcement-may-17.aspx.

Bing Now Helps You Make Decisions With Your Facebook Friends: New social features infuse search with the “friend effect” to enable smarter decisions.

Bing Makes Search Social with Help from 500 Million Friends: New social features in Bing let users make decisions with help from their Facebook friends [Microsoft PressPass]

tbd if Google can match this; see the post link below for more details and a video overview

By marrying fact-based search results with the opinions of trusted friends, Bing aims to help people make better decisions, said Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Technology Center in Silicon Valley.

“We partnered with Facebook to basically allow Bing users to bring their friends to search with them,” he said. “That means they’ll be able to make decisions not just with facts but with the opinions of their friends. With almost any task on Bing, if your friends can help you out we’ll bring them right there with you.”

Bing Makes Search Social with Help from 500 Million Friends: New social features in Bing let users make decisions with help from their Facebook friends.

Google Chromebook: Business Model By Ideology | Forrester Blogs

Excerpt from a George Colony perspective post

There's only one problem. While networks get cheaper and faster every year, processors and storage devices improve at even faster rates. That's why the iPad 2 has the power of a 1990s-era supercomputer. This means that the dominant future architecture will leverage powerful local devices and services available in the Internet cloud. Forrester calls this App Internet, and we believe that it will push the Web (and Google's current advertising model) into the background.

Google Chromebook: Business Model By Ideology | Forrester Blogs

Facebook smeared Google? C'mon! - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine

Excerpt from a  timely PR reality check

Burson-Marsteller isn't as guilty of smearing Google as it is of committing a grand act of stupidity. What was it thinking when it offered a smart and principled privacy blogger like Soghoian assistance in writing and placing an op-ed sympathetic to its unnamed client? Didn't it know that Soghoian would rat them out? And how can you call a PR push a whisper campaign if it's being conducted via email, the simplest message in the world to amplify?

The coverage of the Burson-Marsteller fiasco has glossed over the fact that PR firms are deeply entrenched in the op-ed racket, working tirelessly for businessmen, politicians, celebrities, and other high-profile folks to write and place material.

Facebook smeared Google? C'mon! - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine

Free webinar: Does data modeling still matter, in an era of XML, NoSQL, Big Data, and the Cloud?

My colleague Joe Maguire and I will present a webinar sponsored by Embarcadero next week; see this page for registration details

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

6:00am PDT / 9:00am EDT / 3:00pm CET
11:00am PDT / 2:00pm EDT
5:00pm PDT / May 25 10:00am Australian EST

Join noted industry analysts Joe Maguire and Peter O'Kelly as they explain how, even in the midst of these changing data management scenarios, data modeling is more relevant than ever before.  They’ll also introduce a new kind of framework for understanding how the various "next-generation" developments fit relative to established database models. And after reviewing mission-critical roles for conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling techniques and tools, Joe and Peter will share some projections about what's likely to happen next with NoSQL and other recent market developments.
What you'll learn:

• What NoSQL is, why it’s often misunderstood, and how it relates to traditional data management

• What's the big deal with big data? Understand how it differs from, for example, data warehousing

• How the cloud introduces new opportunities – and mandates -- for data modeling and data management

• How the growth in XML information management is more complementary than competitive with traditional data management

• How these new technologies can alter the fundamentals of data hygiene (e.g., data governance, information quality, data lifecycle management)

http://forms.embarcadero.com/forms/AMUSCA1105ERStudioOKelly

Dangerous Blend | Monday Note

A stark journalism reality check

Last week, the Columbia School of Journalism released “The Story so Far“ (PDF here). For news zealots, this is tantamount to the Vatican publishing a sex manual. Still, this work is one of the best reports ever written on the state of modern journalism. Its authors, Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave and Lucas Graves, detail the effects of 15 years of making news available for free on the internet, and the consequences of unbundling news into morsels that lose their value in the social media whirlwind.  In this 143 pages paper, no complaints, no whining: just facts and insightful analysis of the current state of digital media. An absolute must-read.

Dangerous Blend | Monday Note

Google Chromebook: Will the revolution be subscribed? • Channel Register

The Chromebook subscription model may be more revolutionary and influential than its system software

Google will charge businesses $1,008 to use one of its browser-centric Chromebooks for three years, and the search giant is confident this will slice the total cost of today's business systems in half.

That's according to Rajen Sheth, the Google product manager in charge of the company's Chrome OS for Business program, unveiled with much fanfare on Wednesday at the annual Google I/O conference in downtown San Francisco. Under the program, Google is offering Chrome OS notebooks for a monthly subscription fee beginning at $28 per user. The subscription requires a three-year contract, and it includes not only continuous software updates but also a web-based management console, Google support, and hardware replacements.

Google Chromebook: Will the revolution be subscribed? • Channel Register

Google-code-as-a-service: Go on App Engine • The Register

It’ll be interesting to see if any other PaaS vendor adds Go support

This week, at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, Google announced that App Engine will soon offer an "experimental" runtime for its own Go programming language, a less-than-two-year-old creation that seeks to reinvent programming in the most practical of ways.

Go was first conceived in 2007 by three big Google names: Unix co-creator Ken Thompson; Rob Pike, who worked on Unix at Bell Labs with Thompson; and Robert Griesemer, who helped build the Java HotSpot compiler at Sun. The idea was to create a language suited to building the sort of distributed applications that Google builds. "We realized that the kind of software we build at Google is not always served well by the languages we had available," Rob Pike recently told us. "Robert Griesemer, Ken Thompson, and myself decided to make a language that would be very good for writing the kinds of programs we write at Google."

Google-code-as-a-service: Go on App Engine • The Register

Yahoo’s China Toehold Threatened by Deepening Rift With Alibaba - Businessweek

New China challenges for Yahoo

Yahoo! Inc.’s toehold in China is under threat by a widening rift with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the e-commerce provider it partly owns and that analysts say may account for three-fourths of its market value.

[…]

“It gives pause,” said Ryan Jacob, portfolio manager of the Jacob Internet Fund in Los Angeles. “Yahoo’s Asian assets are really the main reason that we have it as a large position in our fund.”

Other investors, including David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Inc., have bought Yahoo because of its stake in Alibaba. The holding helps it benefit from demand in China, the world’s No. 1 Internet market, with 457 million users.

Yahoo’s China Toehold Threatened by Deepening Rift With Alibaba - Businessweek

E-Book Giveaway Aims to Lift Sales - WSJ.com

New book publisher promotional strategies

Digital publisher RosettaBooks LLC is giving away digital editions of five titles that have been turned into movies in a bid to jump start interest in them at a time when record numbers of e-books are available.

The quintet, which includes "The Graduate" and "Midnight Cowboy," has been largely ignored by digital consumers, generating only marginal sales over the past decade. In April, cumulative sales of the books numbered an estimated 250 copies across all e-retailer websites. The other titles are "A Passage to India," "Shoeless Joe," which inspired "Field of Dreams," and "Red Alert," the basis of "Dr. Strangelove."

E-Book Giveaway Aims to Lift Sales - WSJ.com

Sony's Playstation Network Is Back. Sony's Reputation Will Take A Little Longer | Arik Hesseldahl | NewEnterprise | AllThingsD

This will be a pivotal week for the Sony Playstation business

There’s also the possibility of another attack. Having carried out an attack that caused so much damage, the people who did it may try again, or someone else may be inspired to take another crack at Sony. The fact is, having been laid low once, it will remain a tempting target for the kind of person who likes to earn a digital street cred by knocking big companies off the grid.

Then there’s the simple question about damage to Sony’s business. There’s anecdotal evidence that the outage has triggered a surge in trade-ins of PS3 consoles in favor of Microsoft XBox 360s. Time will tell if that trend continues, but then there’s also the damage to Sony’s Playstation brand itself.

Sony's Playstation Network Is Back. Sony's Reputation Will Take A Little Longer | Arik Hesseldahl | NewEnterprise | AllThingsD

When signals say more than speech - The Boston Globe

A different type of speech recognition

In any conversation, the dialogue is only half the story. Embedded in pregnant pauses, pacing, and fluctuations in a speaker’s tone of voice are signals that hint “I’m not really paying attention’’ or “I’m feeling down’’ or “I’m interested!’’

Now, Cogito Health, a company in Charlestown, is mining the unspoken parts of a conversation for insights that could improve people’s health. With technology that analyzes the tempo and syncopation of speech, the company is trying to identify indicators that someone may be at risk of depression or is unlikely to adhere to a plan for managing a chronic disease.

When signals say more than speech - The Boston Globe

Software Reviewing as it Should Be Done - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

Check the full post for more on hypertext personal information management tools

Over the decades I've often written about "interesting" programs, or "software for thinking," from Lotus Agenda (also here) or Lotus Magellan in the olden days to Zoot (about to come out in a new version) or InfoSelect, to Chandler or bCisive (also here) or ThinkingRock or PersonalBrain or NoteShare now. Among others.
One of my current favorites is (Mac-only) Tinderbox, whose creator, Mark Bernstein, was a guest blogger in this space recently.

Steve Zeoli, of Vermont, has an extensive posting about Tinderbox at Mac Appstorm that is a model of how to both assess and explain a complicated piece of software.

Software Reviewing as it Should Be Done - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic