Word on the street - Microsoft plans to get its Office software suite on the iPad: WWW.THEDAILY.COM

I would be especially delighted to have an iPad-optimized version of OneNote

According to sources, the tech giant is actively working on adapting its popular software suite for Apple’s tablet. With the iPad making up over 80 percent of the tablet market and millions of people worldwide using Office, that could mean big bucks for the tech giant based in Redmond, Wash.

In addition to an iPad-ready version, a new edition of Office is expected for OS X Lion sometime next year. The current version of the desktop package, Office 2011, officially supports iOS versions up to Snow Leopard. A Lion version, likely available via the Mac App Store, is widely expected. Windows, too, is due for an update, with Office 2012 currently in beta form.

Word on the street - WWW.THEDAILY.COM

Official Google Blog: The next stage in our redesign

That’s a lot of screen real estate to grab

We’re now ready for the next stage of our redesign—a new Google bar that will enable you to navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.

Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.

Official Google Blog: The next stage in our redesign

Netflix Viewing Seen Swelling U.S. Cable Bills Next Year: Tech - Businessweek

Stimulus-response

Time Warner Cable Inc. and U.S. pay- TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix Inc. and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most.

At least one major cable operator will institute so-called usage-based billing next year, predicts Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. He said Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. or Time Warner Cable may be first to charge Web-access customers for the amount of data they consume, not just transmission speed.

Netflix Viewing Seen Swelling U.S. Cable Bills Next Year: Tech - Businessweek

F.T.C. Settles Privacy Issue at Facebook - NYTimes.com

More IPO on-ramp work at Facebook

The order comes amid growing speculation about Facebook’s preparations for an initial public offering, which could be valued at more than $100 billion. The settlement with the F.T.C., analysts say, could potentially ease investors’ concerns about government regulation by holding the company to a clear set of privacy prescriptions.

“When you have an I.P.O. you don’t want investors to be skeptical or jittery,” said Ryan Calo, who leads privacy research at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. “In order for you to be as valuable as possible, you want to make sure the seas are calm. This calms the seas.”

F.T.C. Settles Privacy Issue at Facebook - NYTimes.com

Facebook May Be Forced to Go Public Amid Market Gloom - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a Facebook IPO scenario snapshot

There are lessons here for entrepreneurs.

From the get-go, companies may want to have stock option plans that prevent sales to third-party investors until an I.P.O. or other liquidation event. This will have the benefit of keeping the company below the 500-shareholder level and will also allow it to control any private market in its shares from springing up. Twitter, LivingSocial and Square have all reportedly required new investors to agree to terms like this.

Facebook May Be Forced to Go Public Amid Market Gloom - NYTimes.com

Salesforce Heroku Offers Standalone Cloud-Based PostgreSQL Database — DatabaseJournal.com

An impressive Postgres milestone

"Until now, Heroku's Postgres database service – originally launched in 2007 – has only been available to Heroku customers for use with Heroku platform apps," said Matthew Soldo, a product manager with Heroku. "With measured service uptime of four nines (99.99 percent), and designed data durability of eleven nines (99.999999999 percent), the service is trustworthy for mission-critical data. As of today, these production-quality Heroku Postgres databases are independently available for use from any cloud platform, provisioned instantly, metered by the second and without contract."

To date, Soldo said Heroku Postgres has written 19 billion customer transactions. It processes 400 million write-transactions every day.

Salesforce Heroku Offers Standalone Cloud-Based PostgreSQL Database — DatabaseJournal.com

Is Microsoft Running Out of Time for Tablets? - NYTimes.com

A stark Windows 8 tablet reality check

The window of opportunity for Microsoft to come out with a Windows tablet that successfully challenges the iPad is closing, according to a report from Forrester Research to be published Tuesday.

A recent survey by Forrester shows that consumer interest in a tablet computer running Windows has dimmed measurably since the beginning of the year. During the third quarter, 25 percent of consumers surveyed by Forrester said they would most prefer a tablet running Windows, down from 46 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Is Microsoft Running Out of Time for Tablets? - NYTimes.com

A Microsoft bid for Yahoo might put Andreessen in top role | Microsoft - CNET News

Small world…

Separately, AllThingsD reported that Andreessen was contemplating taking the executive chairman role at Yahoo as part of a bid that would include his Andreessen Horowitz venture firm. Andreessen Horowitz is bidding with the Silver Lake group, according to the report. The firm previously teamed with Silver Lake on its acquisition of Skype, and then on the sale of that company to Microsoft.

A Microsoft bid for Yahoo might put Andreessen in top role | Microsoft - CNET News

iPad Sales on Target for December Quarter - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

A timely iPad reality check

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster surveyed a few Apple stores on Black Friday and found that iPad sales per hour were 68 percent higher than they were a year ago. On average, the stores Munster visited sold about 14.8 iPads per hour, up from 8.8 iPads per hour last year, more than enough to support the analyst’s projection of 13.5 million iPads sold in the December quarter.

[…]

Seems those iPad concerns were a bit overblown.

iPad Sales on Target for December Quarter - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

Groupon Stock Falls by 9 Percent - Tricia Duryee - Commerce - AllThingsD

A bummer month for Groupon shareholders

Many retailers are enjoying a Thanksgiving shopping spree lift from investors, but not Groupon.

Its shares closed today down nine percent, settling at $15.24 after bouncing off a new low of $14.85. That’s less than half the $31.14 that some investors paid at the stock’s high point, just after it went public in early November. More recently, it has been trading in the low to mid-$20s.

Groupon Stock Falls by 9 Percent - Tricia Duryee - Commerce - AllThingsD

HP Wants to Optimize Your Information, Whatever That Means - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Part of HP’s new retroactive acquisition rationalization strategy

The way HP sees it, and to be fair it’s not the first company to make this kind of argument, the ratio of data that businesses are creating to what they actually use productively is pretty big. Only 15 percent of that information is neatly organized into the rows and columns of a traditional relational database, HP argues, leaving a lot more information — fully 85 percent — that would be useful if you could only capture it, determine its meaning, and analyze it: Video, audio, email, texts, social media, meeting notes. Add to that the explosion of other real world information gathered from sensors and other measuring devices, and it gets even more complex. It’s a concept that HP is calling “information optimization.”

HP Wants to Optimize Your Information, Whatever That Means - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Smart-Phone App Warns Pedestrians of Oncoming Cars - Technology Review

Sign of the times

Researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Bologna in Italy have developed an Android app that uses the camera on a smart phone to detect oncoming traffic.

The app relies on machine-learning and image-recognition algorithms to identify the fronts and backs of vehicles, and takes into account varying light conditions, phone tilt, and blur. When WalkSafe detects a car approaching at 30 miles per hour or faster, it vibrates the phone and makes a sound to alert the distracted user.

Smart-Phone App Warns Pedestrians of Oncoming Cars - Technology Review

A Facebook Smartphone – Why? | Monday Note

Excerpt from a Jean-Louis Gassée mobile market snapshot

Regardless, Google was right, the smartphone wars are on: This is the new PC, only bigger because it’s smaller, more ubiquitous, more connected, more personal.  Google doesn’t want anyone (but themselves) to control the smartphone market the way Microsoft dominated the PC; they don’t want anyone to stand between the viewer and the ads they serve up. With Android, they engineered a Trojan Horse: The ‘‘free and open” smartphone OS came with mandatory Google applications that guarantee the vital revenue-generating exposure to advertising. As Bill Gurley explains in his memorable “The Freight Train That Is Android” post, Google wants its smartphone OS to flatten everything in its path — and they’re succeeding: Android now has more 50% of the smartphone market. That dominant position was taken from Nokia, the former king; from Palm, now deceased; from RIM, sinking fast; and from Microsoft, struggling to get in third place with its truly modern but late to the game Windows Phone 7, this after losing the market because of its creaky Windows Mobile.

A Facebook Smartphone – Why? | Monday Note

Websites Let People Farm Out Chores - WSJ.com

Reducing transaction costs at the micro level

A new crop of websites and smartphone applications are allowing people to farm out chores to a growing army of temporary personal assistants. These micro-employees are taking the division of labor to once-unthinkable extremes.

[…]

Thousands of unemployed or underemployed workers have parlayed one-off job requests into part- or full-time work. The gigs are especially popular with stay-at-home moms, retirees and students. Workers choose their jobs and negotiate their own rates.

Websites Let People Farm Out Chores - WSJ.com

HEARD ON THE STREET: Google +1 Looks to Crash Facebook Gathering - WSJ.com

Google Buzz 2.0?…

But Google has a secret weapon when it comes to mapping social connections: Gmail. The search company's email service has hundreds of millions of users. And those who use the site regularly may have accumulated hundreds of contacts. When a user clicks +1, Google can show that not just to the user's friends in Google+ but also to certain contacts in Gmail, including those on a user's chat list. On Facebook, it's understood that "likes" are shared with friends. But Google users that click +1 may not be aware that Google is using it to target ads at some of their Gmail connections, which could prove a privacy concern.

HEARD ON THE STREET: Google +1 Looks to Crash Facebook Gathering - WSJ.com

Hottest major on campus? Computer science [Network World]

Interesting to contrast this article (via ACM TechNews) with China to Cancel College Majors That Don’t Pay

The nation's best undergraduate computer science programs are bracing for a record number of applications this fall, as more high school seniors are lured by plentiful jobs, six-figure starting salaries and a hipster image fostered by the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Early admissions are piling up at elite tech schools, including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvey Mudd College and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - all of whose undergraduate computer science and engineering programs are rated tops by U.S. News & World Report, the de facto college ranking in the United States.

Hottest major on campus? Computer science

HEARD ON THE STREET: Social Media's Selloff - WSJ.com

That didn’t take long

Groupon's IPO looks a particular disaster. Barely three weeks after selling just 6% of its shares outstanding to the public, Groupon's share price is in free-fall. At $16.96, where Groupon closed Wednesday, shares are already well below the initial public offer price of $20. Doubts about Groupon's business model had been well-publicized. Still, among technology IPOs dating back to 1995, Groupon offered the fourth smallest number of shares as a percentage of those outstanding, according to Dealogic. That was likely a key factor behind its strong debut.

HEARD ON THE STREET: Social Media's Selloff - WSJ.com

AT&T to Post $4 Billion Charge Against Possible Collapse of T-Mobile Deal - Bloomberg

“Oops”

AT&T Inc. (T), whose $39 billion bid forT-Mobile USA is challenged by the U.S. Justice Department, will record one-time costs of $4 billion this quarter to reflect the risks of a collapse of the deal.

AT&T and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom withdrew an application to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to focus on winning clearance from the Justice Department, the companies said in separate statements today. The pretax accounting costs reflect the potential breakup fees due to Deutsche Telekom, Dallas-based AT&T said.

AT&T to Post $4 Billion Charge Against Possible Collapse of T-Mobile Deal - Bloomberg

Microsoft Signs Nondisclosure Agreement With Yahoo - NYTimes.com

Into Yahoo’s final chapter as an autonomous entity

By signing the nondisclosure pact, Microsoft will get a closer look at Yahoo’s books. This time around, however, it is unlikely to pursue its own takeover attempt. Instead, it may aid others.

A growing number of parties have signed confidentiality pacts with Yahoo, an indication that there is dwindling resistance to certain requirements of the agreement, including one that prevents potential bidders from talking to each other.

Microsoft Signs Nondisclosure Agreement With Yahoo - NYTimes.com

Hands Off, Mom and Dad. This Tablet Is for Children. - NYTimes.com

From the brief description of this article, I thought perhaps it was the latest marketing angle for the RIM PlayBook…

Available in time for the holidays, it starts up in Kid Mode — a password-protected gated community of sites, apps, music and videos of your choosing. Unlike an iPad, this tablet runs Flash, so your bookmarks can include sites like PBS Kids. There’s a front-facing camera that can be used to Skype with a grandparent, and accelerometers that let you steer a race car in Need for Speed Shift — one the 15 apps that were preloaded on the unit I tested. The sound is so-so; stereo headphone jacks supplement the audio.

Hands Off, Mom and Dad. This Tablet Is for Children. - NYTimes.com

Exposing the Cost of Health Care - Technology Review

Data visibility is your friend

Castlight aims to do as its name suggests: cast light on the actual costs of medical care, so that people can make informed decisions. The company, founded in 2008 by entrepreneurs Giovanni Colella and Todd Park, now chief innovation officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers computer-based tools that let people comparison shop for health care in much the same way they would for airline tickets on Travelocity or for cars on Cars.com.

The company sells its tool to self-insured employers, who pay a fee per covered member per month, and in turn offer employees access so they can become more responsible users of their benefits. It has raised $81 million in venture funding to date. Current customers include Safeway and Life Technologies, a leading maker of genomics tools.

Exposing the Cost of Health Care - Technology Review

Nokia's Microsoft Phones May Not Get Traction, Analyst Says - NYTimes.com

A stark Nokia reality check

James Faucette, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, cut his forecast for Nokia Windows phone sales this quarter to 500,000 units from two million on Tuesday, explaining that Windows phones designed by Nokia had no clear advantage over other manufacturers’ devices that would allow them to compete.

“With no breakthrough innovation, we believe Nokia’s new phones are unlikely to get traction in a highly concentrated high end,” Mr. Faucette said in a research note. He added that Nokia’s Lumia phones were not competitively priced, and that the performance of phones with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software had been underwhelming.

Nokia's Microsoft Phones May Not Get Traction, Analyst Says - NYTimes.com

Google Shuts Down More Products: Gears, Wave and Knol - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

Expanding the Google product graveyard

Google today disclosed plans to shut down or offload seven more products in its third house-cleaning session this fall under new CEO Larry Page. Most of the new targets have already been de-emphasized, so they don’t come as a surprise: Friend Connect (early social platform), Gears (offline access), Wave (newfangeld collaboration), Knol (like Wikipedia), as well as Bookmarks List, Search Timeline and a project called Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal.

Google Shuts Down More Products: Gears, Wave and Knol - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

BBC News - Bionic contact lens 'to project emails before eyes'

Augmented reality, contact lens edition

A new generation of contact lenses that project images in front of the eyes is a step closer after successful animal trials, say scientists.

The technology could allow wearers to read floating texts and emails or augment their sight with computer-generated images, Terminator-syle.

BBC News - Bionic contact lens 'to project emails before eyes'

With iPad Boost, Apple Set to Become Top PC Vendor - NYTimes.com

A sign of the tablet times

What’s funny is that if you take Mr. Ballmer’s position and lump the iPad in with traditional computers, Apple looks stronger in the PC market than it has in decades. A new report from the British research firm Canalys predicts Apple will become the No. 1 PC maker in the world in the second half of next year, when iPad sales are included as part of the equation, bumping Hewlett Packard from the top spot.

With iPad Boost, Apple Set to Become Top PC Vendor - NYTimes.com

Google Just Snuck Most of Chrome OS Onto the iPad - The Next Web

Unsubtle platform wars

With the announcement of its new Search app, Google gave iPad users more than just a slick and well-made native search app that bests the experience on any Android tablet. It also managed to squeeze the core elements of Chrome OS into Apple’s ecosystem.

Note that I say core elements, because there are aspects of Chrome OS that are obviously not represented here, but it is definitely a huge step in the right direction.

[…]

Google Just Snuck Most of Chrome OS Onto the iPad - The Next Web

Chat with People in Mutual Circles (Google+)

More +ification of Google services

What's changed with Chat?

• Previously you could only chat with someone if you knew their email address. Now you just need to have each other in Circles.
• When you and your contacts have each other in Circles, you'll be able to chat with them across Google properties such as Gmail, Google Plus, iGoogle, Orkut, and the Google Talk Client.
• Instead of displaying all of your contacts in your Google Plus Chat list, we're displaying contacts from your most recent conversations who are online now. (You'll still be able to use the search box at the top of the Chat list to find contacts that aren't displayed.)

http://www.google.com/support/plus/bin/answer.py?answer=1709883

Despite Unproven Market, Facebook To Launch Custom Android OS Phone With HTC | TechCrunch

An interesting Android pattern, along with the Kindle Fire; also see Facebook Not Building a Phone*

By customizing Android, the Facebook phone might not be able to include some Google-developed apps like Gmail, Maps, or possibly even the Android Market. Instead, it could replace the Android Market with its recently launched HTML5 platform, and provide single sign-on where users could instantly access any these Facebook apps without having to reenter their credentials. This could in-turn help it fight off the Apple App Store, turn Android against Google, and make more money through in-app payments powered by Facebook Credits. It could also tap Bing for maps and let a web browser snagged through its acquisition of Parakey provide access to other services.

Despite Unproven Market, Facebook To Launch Custom Android OS Phone With HTC | TechCrunch

Samsung in Final Talks on Google TV - WSJ.com

Life begins at 2.0?

The move would allow Samsung—which has been preparing since early this year to launch TVs using the U.S. search giant's software—to beef up its TV offerings, especially what it calls "smart TVs."

Samsung is hoping that such efforts will help boost its profit and fend off price erosion in the TV market, where manufacturers have been hit by weak demand due to the global economic slowdown. Google TV will allow users to surf the Internet on their TVs, check e-mail and log onto social networks just like they do on computers and smartphones.

Samsung in Final Talks on Google TV - WSJ.com

Google Chromebooks Get A Holiday Price Cut - Digits - WSJ

Perhaps Best Buy will bundle them with Logitech Google TV boxes, as a holiday promotion

Notebook computers designed around Google’s Chrome operating system will be available starting at $299, marking a significant price cut for machines premised on the idea that users want a laptop experience built around the Internet.

Beginning this week, versions of the so-called Chromebook from Acer and Samsung will go on sale for the reduced price, Google said in online posting Monday. Chromebooks from the hardware makers had previously started at around $350.

Google Chromebooks Get A Holiday Price Cut - Digits - WSJ

Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees - NYTimes.com

Connected R Us

The new research used a slightly bigger cohort: 721 million Facebook users, more than one-tenth of the world’s population. The findings were posted on Facebook’s site Monday night.

The experiment took one month. The researchers used a set of algorithms developed at the University of Milan to calculate the average distance between any two people by computing a vast number of sample paths among Facebook users. They found that the average number of links from one arbitrarily selected person to another was 4.74. In the United States, where more than half of people over 13 are on Facebook, it was just 4.37.

Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees - NYTimes.com

Google Makes the iPad Even More Compelling With New Search App - Ina Fried - News - AllThingsD

Check the full post for more details on the updated Google iPad client

Google does have an Android search app that runs on phones and tablets. While it doesn’t support some of the flashiest new features, it does offer support for things like instant search and the “+1″ options that are also part of the new iPad app.

That app, which requires iOS 4.0 or later, is not the only search app designed to take advantage of the iPad’s vast real estate and touchscreen. Microsoft has taken a similar approach with its Bing app for the iPad.

And while Google clearly would like its tablets to take off, it can’t afford to lose ground in its core search business while Apple runs away with the market.

Google Makes the iPad Even More Compelling With New Search App - Ina Fried - News - AllThingsD

Double FacePalm: HP Blew Billions on webOS - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

“Oops”

Hewlett-Packard’s decision to acquire Palm and “double down” on its webOS operating system has so far proven a regrettable and costly mistake. How costly?

HP investors, grab your Mylanta …

HP spent $1.2 billion to buy Palm in 2010. Reporting fourth-quarter earnings Monday, the company said it had been forced to write off a record $3.3 billion, about half of which was “related to the wind down of its webOS device business.”

Double FacePalm: HP Blew Billions on webOS - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

Google TV Loses One Friend, Makes Another - Technology Review

Not dead yet

If the public dumping of Google TV by Logitech was somewhat harsh, Google promptly found a rebound, it seems, in LG. A few days after the Verge report, Bloomberg came out with news that Google and LG Electronics "may" unveil a TV at January's CES show. I suppose a lot of things "may" happen at CES, but Bloomberg seemed relatively confident on this one, based on reports from "two people with knowledge of the project." Official spokespeople from the two companies declined the comment. The Electronics Times, a newspaper in South Korea, where LG is based, had previously reported the two companies were "in discussions," but didn't know when the product might be unveiled.

A facelift, a breakup, and a new romance: all in all, an eventful week for Google TV.

Google TV Loses One Friend, Makes Another - Technology Review

Technology companies see ‘monster opportunity’ in federal shift to Apple, Google phones - The Washington Post

Device diversity is an asset for Citrix, Juniper, and others

Citrix Systems and Juniper Networks are among the technology vendors that could benefit from a U.S. government search for ways to secure Apple’s smartphones and tablet computers for the use of federal employees.

Apple’s devices, along with those using Google’s Android software, are drawing interest from U.S. agencies responding to a workforce that increasingly wants an alternative to the Research in Motion BlackBerrys that have long dominated the federal market.

Technology companies see ‘monster opportunity’ in federal shift to Apple, Google phones - The Washington Post

The 'Freaky Line' And Where Facebook Is Headed - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

It’s going to be a long week for Facebook’s PR department

What will hold him back — what has already caused Zuckerberg to backtrack on some features, to make changes on privacy settings — is the freaky line. He has to remain mindful of which new innovations in gathering information on his customers are going to freak out too many of them to be worth the trouble.

Over on Google+ (!!),  Scoble's post has some serious back-and-forth going in the comments. There's plenty of anxiety there, and cautionary tales. (Do look for the gentleman whose colleagues were alerted, through Spotify, that he was listening to a song with a funny name. It's now his nickname at work.)

The 'Freaky Line' And Where Facebook Is Headed - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

Google+'s secret weapon against Twitter and Facebook [The Next Web]

Excerpt from a snapshot of a creative application of Google+

Google+ still has a long way to go. Since the company doesn’t have to figure out a business model for the platform anytime soon, the team can innovate and listen to its users needs. Twitter is at a crossroads where every feature they introduce has to somehow set up the company for a future revenue stream. Facebook is also making many tweaks to learn more about you to make its ads smarter.

Google+ is clean, focuses on people and content, and has found a hole in the defense of other social networks that it can drive a truck right through. Musk is living proof that Google is building a service around people, which is the smart thing to do. The company is paying attention to usage patterns and success stories like Musk’s, and putting the pedal to the metal on bringing more and more useful features to its forty million plus users.

Google+'s secret weapon against Twitter and Facebook

Oracle Says H-P and Intel Secretly Propped Up Dead Chip - Digits - WSJ

Entertaining times at the competitive intersection of HP and Oracle

“As innocuous as H-P tries to make that sound, the market has never been told that Itanium lives on only because H-P is paying Intel to keep it going,” Oracle stated.

Oracle compared the effort to create a perception that “a dead microprocessor is still alive” to a 1989 movie. “The whole thing is a remake of Weekend at Bernie’ s,” the company wrote.

Oracle Says H-P and Intel Secretly Propped Up Dead Chip - Digits - WSJ

Google Enters Microsoft Office’s Turf with Mixed Results - NYTimes.com

Big bets on Google Apps combined with Google+

Microsoft says Google’s efforts are hardly noticeable. But Google executives say that more and bigger companies are signing up for the cloud service.

Possibly more important to Google is the way that Apps helps Google build social networks inside business. If successful, it would be a threat to Microsoft’s biggest division and would create another inroad in its struggle with Facebook to dominate users’ online lives.

Google Enters Microsoft Office’s Turf with Mixed Results - NYTimes.com

iPad Magazine Readers Want More: Survey - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Glad to see this; I prefer iPad to dead-tree format, for magazines

So says a survey commissioned by a publishers’ trade group: It finds that two-thirds of people who read magazines on tablets and e-readers think they’ll be spending more time with digital issues over the next year. Many of them — 46 percent — are consuming more magazines — both in print and digital form — than they did before they got their hands on an iPad.* And 63 percent of them want more digital stuff to read.

iPad Magazine Readers Want More: Survey - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Google TV Gets Google Music App - Search Engines - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Google is clearly going to keep pounding on its version of the “three screens and a cloud” vision, even if, at this point, only a tiny percentage of mainstream media consumers are “going Google” at a commitment level that facilitates fully leveraging the expanding synergy across Android/Google TV/Chromebook/etc. devices and Google+/YouTube/Google Music/Google Books/etc. services

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nov. 17 launched Google Music App for Google TV, a program that lets users play their Google Music collections in the background while they surf the Web or access other applications on their TV.

The application comes one day after Google launched Google Music, the company's streaming music service that lets users purchase and share some 13 million tracks from Universal Music, Sony Music and EMI Music.

Google TV Gets Google Music App - Search Engines - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Klout Scores Sort Out Social Media Stars - NYTimes.com

Strange days indeed

IN September, during a Fashion’s Night Out event in the upscale Miami neighborhood of Bal Harbour, guests decked out in Marc Jacobs and Herve Leger could not help but notice a separate velvet-roped V.I.P. area. There, a privileged few shared one denominator: each guest had accumulated a Klout score above 40.

Klout Scores Sort Out Social Media Stars - NYTimes.com

Qualcomm: From Chipmaker to Dog Catcher - Businessweek

Qualcomm goes to the dogs?

With Tagg, which went on sale in mid-August, pet owners can use a computer or mobile device to track their pets’ whereabouts at any time. The GPS chip sits inside a small plastic case that clips to the collar and includes a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 30 days. When power is low, Tagg sends an e-mail or text message warning the owner. The device uses the same technology as the Kindle to minimize data usage, and cellular service from Verizon Wireless is free for the first year and $60 annually after that. “Nobody was addressing the pet market directly with a purpose-built device,” says David L. Vigil, president of Snaptracs, the wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm that manufactures and sells Tagg. “We decided to go direct to consumer with it.”

Qualcomm: From Chipmaker to Dog Catcher - Businessweek

What Is Sony Now? - Businessweek

A stark Sony snapshot

What Is Sony Now? - Businessweek

Man Survives Steve Ballmer's Flying Chair To Build '21st Century Linux' | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Excerpt from a profile of VMware Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry has many authors, most notably Collison, known for building the TIBCO Rendezvous messaging system that sped data across Wall Street’s machines in the ’90s. But you might describe Cloud Foundry as a culmination of Lucovsky’s career: It takes the idea of a widely used software platform like Windows NT and applies it to the sort of sweeping infrastructure Google erected to run its massively popular web services. But then it goes further. After building the platform, Lucovksy and Collison convinced Maritz and company to open source it, letting others have it for no charge. In the words of Maritz, VMware seeks to provide “the 21st-century equivalent of Linux.”

Man Survives Steve Ballmer's Flying Chair To Build '21st Century Linux' | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Document Trove Exposes Surveillance Methods - WSJ.com

Sign of the times

The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people's computers and cellphones, and "massive intercept" gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

Intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad have long conducted their own surveillance. But in recent years, a retail market for surveillance tools has sprung up from "nearly zero" in 2001 to about $5 billion a year, said Jerry Lucas, president of TeleStrategies Inc., the show's operator.

Document Trove Exposes Surveillance Methods - WSJ.com

WinInfo Short Takes, November 18, 2011 [Windows 8 Delayed?]

An ominous potential scenario for Microsoft; check the link below for more details

Speaking of next year's Windows release, a prominent Microsoft watcher said this week that Windows 8 will ship significantly later than many (myself included) believe. I wouldn't mention such a thing if this was just some random analyst—I abhor most of those people—but this is Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft. He's a friend, a trusted source, and a knowledgeable insider and former Microsoftie. So his word carries a lot of weight with me. "I think Windows 8 is about a year away," he said. "I believe there will be an RTM somewhere in the last quarter of 2012. Traditionally, there's been a 90-day gap between RTM and general availability. To me, that means machine availability in 2013." I have a lot of thoughts running through my head about this one, so I'll try to be brief. First, that would be disastrous, and would give Apple—and Amazon now—another year in which to dominate the nascent tablet market.

WinInfo Short Takes, November 18, 2011

Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Taking to the Skies with Wolfram|Alpha

Kinda cool (and kinda scary); check the post link below for more details and examples

At one time or another, we’ve all looked at a jet flying high overhead and thought “I wonder where they’re headed?” Actually answering that question probably seemed impossible before—but if you’re a user in the United States, Wolfram|Alpha can now help you answer that question and many more interesting queries about commercial and other flights.

Try the simple query “flights overhead” and you’ll get information on aircraft that should be visible to you, assuming a clear sky and unobstructed view. If you’re on a location-aware mobile device, the results should be based on your precise latitude and longitude—otherwise, Wolfram|Alpha will use the best available location information from your browser. Also note that hovering over an individual plane in the sky map will produce a tooltip with the airline and flight number

Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Taking to the Skies with Wolfram|Alpha

#Occupy: The Tech at the Heart of the Movement - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

Excerpt from a timely snapshot (via @Kellblog)

All this to say: It wasn't just the protests that were novel for Americans, but the way that the protests could be experienced was also new. In addition to reading about them in the paper or on a blog or seeing them on TV, they saw tweets from people on the ground, photos posted to Facebook, and livestreamed video. All this happened in real-time, so new support could be rallied *during* events, not long after them. The support could arise from formalized general social networks, not solely through custom-built protest networks. Occupy intruded into the lives of the digitally connected in ways that were not possible before. Peering out from the cell phones of protesters everywhere, being on the receiving end of government power had never felt so possible, so real. It felt as if *you* were there as the line of riot cops approached, and somehow that felt different from the view from the television news camera. (Twitter, Facebook, and nearly every other social network did not even exist during 1999's WTO protests or the World Bank protests in DC the next year.)

#Occupy: The Tech at the Heart of the Movement - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

IBM reveals secrets of Watson’s Jeopardy triumph • The Register

Some interesting Watson details

The top human Jeopardy players are very, very good, with the all-time champion answering nearly two-thirds of the questions in a match with 85 to 95 per cent accuracy. In 2007, the best the IBM team could manage was around 30 per cent accuracy, so they decided to shift their approach from sifting through large amounts of structured databases to looking at more unstructured data via Hadoop.

The second big shift in strategy was the abandonment of software rules wherever possible. Brown explained, for example, that while it might seem logical to set up a rule that a data set for “month” should only include the standard twelve, January to December, this left Watson flummoxed over questions of holy months such as Ramadan. Rather than set strict rules, the team relied on a statistical analysis of evidence to weigh probabilities of a specific answer being correct.

IBM reveals secrets of Watson’s Jeopardy triumph • The Register

A Preliminary Analysis of Privacy On Google+ - Technology Review

Excerpt from a timely Google+ reality check

In fact, Mahmood and Desmedt say that the features on Google+ are merely a subset of those that are available on Facebook. However, they concede that Google+ has a better interface and that it allows finer control of content through features such as disabling the resharing of content and in allowing users to edit content by modifying or backtracking on their comments at any time. These are things that are not possible on Facebook.

Finally, they say that while Facebook uses an encrypted channel for login, Google+ uses it for the entire connection. That makes it harder to carry out a man-in-the-middle attack on Google+.

Overall, Mahmood and Desmedt don't appear to have identified any showstoppers in their analysis. Google may want to tweak a few things such as the sharing of metadata and the ability to make exceptions when sharing content.

A Preliminary Analysis of Privacy On Google+  - Technology Review

@MrsKutcher Files For Divorce; @AplusK Turns to Chime.in Before Twitter - Yahoo! News

An example of the importance of thoughtful data modeling: perhaps @MrsKutcher was not the wisest identifier choice

The world has watched the lives of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore unfold on Twitter every day since January 2009. The couple are among the microblogging service's most popular users; Kutcher's @AplusK account has more than 8.3 million followers, while Moore's account, @MrsKutcher, has more than 4.2 million.

Moore publicly announced Thursday that she's divorcing Kutcher, but made no mention on her account.

@MrsKutcher Files For Divorce; @AplusK Turns to Chime.in Before Twitter - Yahoo! News

Skype - The Big Blog - Bring Your Social Network To Life

Now you can do Skype/Facebook video and screen sharing

Back in July, Facebook video calling powered by Skype was launched. Today we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Facebook has reached yet another milestone with the launch of Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows allowing you to conduct a Facebook-to-Facebook call from within Skype. This new development in the Skype-Facebook partnership is the latest example of how Skype is removing communication barriers and making it easier to connect with friends, family and business colleagues. Our approach to social is about personal connections with people. We are on a mission to connect over one billion people and our continued partnership with Facebook brings us one step closer to this goal.

Skype - The Big Blog - Bring Your Social Network To Life

BlackBerry Friday: PlayBook at $300 Off - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

It’s a lot like the Kindle Fire, except for the dead-end nature of the software platform…

Soon you’ll be able to buy a BlackBerry PlayBook for the same price as Amazon’s new Kindle Fire: $199.

With the holidays nearly upon us — and a stockpile of unsold PlayBooks sitting in inventory — Research In Motion is giving its struggling tablet its steepest price cut yet.

BlackBerry Friday: PlayBook at $300 Off - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

Amazon.com Readying Smartphone for Next Year, Citigroup Says - Business - The Boston Globe

In addition to its primary function of looking up items in the Amazon catalog, perhaps it will also support phone calls…

Amazon.com Inc., seeking to build on its expansion into e-readers and tablets, is working on a smartphone that will go on sale in the fourth quarter of next year, according to Citigroup Inc.

The phone will be a midrange device that uses a processor from Texas Instruments Inc. and connectivity chips from Qualcomm Inc., said Mark Mahaney, a San Francisco-based analyst at Citigroup, citing research by Asian colleagues. The total list of components won’t exceed $100, he said.

Amazon.com Readying Smartphone for Next Year, Citigroup Says - Business - The Boston Globe

Retail link is key for Nook, Kindle Fire - Business - The Boston Globe

Although apparently the new Nook video is not all that B&N claims; see Nook’s Specs Are Exaggerated, Again (NYT)

The big surprise here is the remarkable quality of the Nook Tablet’s video screen. It’s smaller than the iPad’s, of course, but every bit as sharp. And it is far superior to the screen on the Fire. I launched Netflix on both tablets, and streamed an episode of “Mad Men,’’ the prettiest show on TV. It wasn’t even close; the Nook Tablet had sharper resolution and richer colors.

Still, you would probably be happy with either the Kindle Fire or the Nook Tablet, each an inexpensive, solid device that makes it easy to buy e-books, music, movies, and more. At these prices, Amazon and B&N may be losing money on these gadgets; but it costs a lot to open new retail stores, and that’s what they’re doing, one tablet at a time.

Retail link is key for Nook, Kindle Fire - Business - The Boston Globe

Five Interesting Things Sean Parker Said Yesterday - Technology Review

More Parker prognostications

1. He plans to remove the influence of money from politics.

"Politics for me is the most obvious area [to be disrupted by the Web]," said Parker. "Campaigns themselves, and all forms of special interest groups and PACs are driven by huge amounts of cash. If you're a PAC you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to mobilize single issue voters. Taking money out of politics with campaigns is possible through social media. Like with all of these other groups, they're spending a fortune basically for maintaining a mailing list, and that can be done basically for free using online tools. There's huge potential for disruption."

Five Interesting Things Sean Parker Said Yesterday - Technology Review

Sean Parker thinks Silicon Valley is in trouble | Digital Media - CNET News

Excerpt from a stark Bubble 2.0 reality check

Q: How does this all play out?
Parker: I think that when the large established players are done going public, you'll see a few companies that are not ready to go public try. And if the market gets frothy enough, a few of those companies, which are too dependent on bubble economics, will go public and you'll start to see those companies going terribly wrong and then you'll see a lot of losses. And when those losses start to accumulate, you're going to see the public markets for technology shut down again.

Q: But the public markets aren't the only option. Google bought 27 companies just in the last quarter.
Parker: Google bought 27 companies last quarter and a lot of them are talent acquisitions, in some cases paying $1 million an engineer. That can't last forever. There's way more startups getting founded now than there are companies than Google and Facebook want to buy.

Sean Parker thinks Silicon Valley is in trouble | Digital Media - CNET News

Microsoft drops Dryad; puts its big-data bets on Hadoop | ZDNet

Hadoop rules

Dryad was supposed to provide a way for running big-data jobs across clusters of Windows servers. It was designed to provide a platform for developers to build applications that can process large amounts of unstructured data. Just a month ago, Microsoft updated its near-final test build of Dryad.

But it now appears Microsoft is putting all its big-data eggs in the Hadoop framework basket. Microsoft officials said a month ago that Microsoft was working with HortonWorks  to develop both a Windows Azure and a Windows Server distribution of Hadoop. A Community Technology Preview  (CTP) of the Windows Azure version is due out before the end of this calendar year; the Windows Server test build of Hadoop is due some time in 2012.

Microsoft drops Dryad; puts its big-data bets on Hadoop | ZDNet

Don’t Be Too Disappointed By Google Music’s Lackluster Debut | TechCrunch

This just in from the faint-praise department

Essentially all I’m saying is that Google views everything as a “slow and steady wins the race” type situation. When it tries to sprint ahead, it finds itself without peers, and lacking inspiration and things to improve on, these ambitious projects expire. But Google Music is far from ambitious. It’s a simple, familiar service with a nice little bit of bait to draw in the crowds. Who doesn’t want to back up their music on a free service, in case they decide they don’t like Apple or Spotify any more? Judging Google products on day one is a bad move whether you praise or criticize. We all know how bad Google is at providing complete products. I don’t know why they even have these events. Your best move, if the backup thing isn’t up your alley, is to revisit the service in six months and compare how far it’s moved with how far the competition has moved.

And hey, it’s free. That’s something, right?

Don’t Be Too Disappointed By Google Music’s Lackluster Debut | TechCrunch

The Internet Isn’t Just Pipes; It’s a Belief System–Businessweek [GigaOM]

A time for big decisions

Draconian new anti-piracy laws being pushed through both the Senate and the House of Representatives are about more than just an academic debate over different legislative methods for fighting copyright infringement. They make it clear that media and content companies are fundamentally opposed to the way the Internet works. These bills are promoted by media and entertainment conglomerates as a way to fight what they see as massive content theft, but to combat that evil, the companies are effectively trying to get Congress to take over the Internet—and trample on important principles such as freedom of speech.

The Internet Isn’t Just Pipes; It’s a Belief System - Businessweek

Google vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds Are Created Equal | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Excerpt from an Amit Singh profile; he’s the 20-year Oracle alum now leading Google’s enterprise operations

With its new cloud services, Oracle is offering its various software tools over the web, including its database. But it hasn’t adopted a Google-like multi-tenant architecture. Ellison says that in keeping customers isolated from each other, Oracle provides better security — whereas Singh sees this as an inability to really cut costs.

There’s no settling these arguments. There are certainly advantages to Google’s model — we’ve seen them firsthand — but no doubt, there will be businesses who refuse that model for years to come. But Singh’s point is well taken. At Google, “the cloud” means something very different than it means at Oracle. Or Microsoft.

Google vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds Are Created Equal | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Google Music Isn't an iTunes Killer, And It's Not Supposed to Be - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

I predict Apple will introduce an iTunes client for Android soon; it probably just opted to wait until after Google dumped a bunch of resources into Google Music…  Perhaps the Android iTunes client will also be buggy and run hot, e.g., like the Windows PC iTunes client.

Instead, real people will make a simple non-decision: If they use an Android phone, they can’t use Apple’s store or locker. So now they can use Google’s. And while it will be theoretically possible for iPhone users to use Google’s store and locker, it will involve some kludgy sidesteps that won’t appeal to mainstream users.

And that’s about it. In the end, this isn’t about helping Google “catch up to iTunes” — it’s about filling the big, gaping, musical hole in Google’s mobile business. But as market report after market report has pointed out, the lack of a music store — and a decent music player, for that matter — hasn’t hurt Android sales.

Google Music Isn't an iTunes Killer, And It's Not Supposed to Be - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Introducing Evernote Clearly: One Click for Distraction-Free Online Reading « Evernote Blogcast

Another very useful tool from Evernote – available only for Google Chrome at this point

How it works

Click on Clearly whenever you visit a blog post or article. Clearly slides in, showing an alternate view of the page without navigation, ads, or links to other content. When you’re done reading, click on the return arrow and Clearly slides out of the way, so you can continue browsing the site.

Multi-page articles
If you launch Clearly on a multi-page article, it will automatically turn it into a single page. No more clicking from one page to the next.

Save it for later

You don’t always have time to read everything in the moment. That’s why we built a web clipper right into Clearly. Click on the Evernote icon in the side bar, and the page will be saved into your Evernote account. You can even set tags to go along with all of your Clearly clips.

(Click the link below for more details)

Introducing Evernote Clearly: One Click for Distraction-Free Online Reading « Evernote Blogcast

Perspectives - 42: The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

Interesting times

What makes this list of the fastest supercomputers in the world released yesterday particularly unusual can be found at position #42. 42 is an anomaly of the first order. In fact, #42 is an anomaly across enough dimensions that its worth digging much deeper.

[…]

Supercomputing is now available to anyone for $0.05/core hour. Go to http://aws.amazon.com/hpc-applications/ and give it a try. You no longer need to be a national lab or a government agency to be able run one of the biggest supercomputers in the world.

Perspectives - 42: The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

Microsoft | Sluggish stock price overshadows Ballmer's message at Microsoft meeting | Seattle Times Newspaper

Business as usual, in Redmond

Asked if Microsoft should be split up to increase shareholder value, Ballmer said that wouldn't make sense because there's a lot of technological and business synergy across the company and that Microsoft "doesn't invest in things which are idly independent."

In response to a question about whether we now live in a post-PC world, Ballmer said: "We are in the Windows era. We were, we are, and we always will be."

Microsoft | Sluggish stock price overshadows Ballmer's message at Microsoft meeting | Seattle Times Newspaper

You Don’t Have to Tweet to Twitter « abovethecrowd.com

Twitter insights from Bill Gurley

Twitter is an innovative and remarkable information service. While it is amazingly democratic and allows literally anyone to broadcast publicly as a “tweeter,” the core value in today’s Twitter is the amazing flow of curated and customized information that emanates from its crowd-sourced user feeds. Other Internet networks like to keep the user “inside.” Much like Google, Twitter points out to the world. It’s a “discovery engine” and an “information utility” rolled into one. With Twitter, you get news faster, you see updates from your favorite artists, you hear directly from key politicians, and gain insights from influencers in a wide variety of specializations. Just as Facebook is symmetric in terms of its poster-reader relationship, Twitter is highly asymmetric. The majority of the tweets on Twitter are posted by a small sub-set of the users. And the majority of the users get value from “reading” or “listening” to the tweets from these core influencers. Once again, for most users it’s more about what you hear, learn, and find than the fact that you can tweet.

You Don’t Have to Tweet to Twitter « abovethecrowd.com

Google Music Store Chases Apple’s ITunes 8 Years Too Late: Tech - Businessweek

tbd if Google can find some way to get beyond “me too but later…” in music

Google’s new challenge to Apple escalates the rivalry between the two companies, already locked in a fight for smartphone users and mobile-advertising customers. The Internet- search giant also faces budding competition from Amazon.com Inc., which has bolstered its music-download and storage service, and Spotify Ltd., whose partnership with Facebook Inc. has buoyed U.S. membership this year.

“They’re coming into this market rather late in the game, where there are large, established players,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in San Jose, California. “You can say it’s a saturated market.”

Google Music Store Chases Apple’s ITunes 8 Years Too Late: Tech - Businessweek

Nokia Planning a Windows 8 Tablet and a High-End Lumia [Mashable]

Hmm

On the tablet front, Amsellem said Nokia plans to have a tablet running Windows 8 by June 2012. This is interesting since Windows 8 itself doesn’t have a fixed release date yet – all we know is that it’s due to be released sometime in 2012.

Amsellem wouldn’t provide any additional details about the tablet, but it’s nice to know that whenever Microsoft comes up with a new version of its mobile or desktop OS, Nokia plans to be right there to back it up with a piece of hardware.

Nokia Planning a Windows 8 Tablet and a High-End Lumia

Facebook Timeline Bumps Online Narcissism Up a Notch - NYTimes.com

It’s looking likely Facebook may have to provide some user options in the new timeline view, as it has recently done with its new feed

Chris Cox, Facebook’s vice president for engineering, explained at the f8 conference that Timeline was inspired by Nicholas Felton, a designer who has spent the past several years of his life chronicling the esoteric intricacies of each day. Mr. Felton tracked everything from the number of miles he traveled each year (including walking, driving and flying) to the types of beverages he drank each day. As Mr. Felton told me in an interview last year, he didn’t track and share this information as a display of self love, he did it out of a mathematical curiosity. But most people don’t have that curiosity.

For Timeline to work, Facebook will need to tone “me” down a notch, and instead highlight my friends on the social network.

Facebook Timeline Bumps Online Narcissism Up a Notch - NYTimes.com

Businesses, Too, Have Eyes for iPads and iPhones - NYTimes.com

Work different

One factor working in Apple’s favor is so-called consumerization, a broader trend in which companies become more responsive to consumer technologies like social media. Mr. Schofield said he had just gotten used to Apple’s way of doing business. “They’re not an enterprise company and they’re up front about that,” he said.

For many years, the view that Apple did not care about serving businesses was reinforced by the outspoken Mr. Jobs, who died in October. On the rare occasions when he did meet with corporate customers, Apple executives often braced themselves for the awkward moments that occurred because of Mr. Jobs’s tendency to speak his mind, according to two persons who used to work in business sales at Apple and declined to be named to avoid inciting their former employer.

Businesses, Too, Have Eyes for iPads and iPhones - NYTimes.com

Review of Amazon Kindle Touch and the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

Excerpt from a comparison of the leading e-ink/non-Android e-reader devices

This week, I tested the new Kindle Touch in a head-to-head comparison with Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch. The Kindle Touch includes several features that Kindle fans have been waiting for, particularly better navigation. The Nook Simple Touch, which came out last summer, dropped in price to $99 and received a software update last week.

Navigating these touch screens is a breeze, and you’ll be happy reading with either the Kindle Touch or Nook Simple Touch. Both feature E-ink, nonreflective screens without backlights—great for long stretches of reading. These smaller devices are also lighter than a tablet.

Overall, I prefer the Nook for its better price and usability.

Review of Amazon Kindle Touch and the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

Walt Mossberg's Amazon Kindle Fire Review - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Bottom line of the review

At $199, and with Amazon’s content ecosystem behind it, the Fire is an attractive alternative for many people who might otherwise have bought an iPad or another Android device, especially if their principal interest is content consumption.

The Nook Tablet also is worth considering, though it lacks a music and video ecosystem.

Walt Mossberg's Amazon Kindle Fire Review - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Why Google should buy Barnes & Noble (GigaOM)

An intriguing permutation

Yes, Google should acquire Barnes & Noble. Wait, you ask, didn’t Google just buy Motorola, another hardware company? Of course, but the thing is, B&N isn’t a hardware company. What B&N is is a content retailer.

Like Amazon.

And content is something that Google, as much as it likes to think it is, doesn’t get. At all. The examples are numerous. The failure of Google TV.  Google’s no-show in the music space despite making noise with Google Music. And finally, there’s Google eBookstore, which, from what I can tell, is even more of a non-factor than Google Music.

http://gigaom.com/2011/11/15/why-google-should-buy-barnes-noble/

iTunes Match: A solution for a problem Apple helped create | Apple Talk - CNET News

Tempting…

iTunes Match addresses the hoarding problem by finding user tracks that correspond with what Apple has in its library, and giving users a licensed copy, digital safe-keeping of unmatched tracks, and a way to re-download either of those to any device. This, in itself, is one of the biggest adjustments in the way Apple is rethinking storage. No longer is it about saving those files to a hard drive for safe keeping. Instead, you're paying for a highly specialized storage service that keeps everything, even tracks that weren't in Apple's library, in the cloud.

iTunes Match: A solution for a problem Apple helped create | Apple Talk - CNET News

GOLDMAN: Demand For The iPad Is Fading [Business Insider]

Excerpt from a timely iPad reality check.  I expect we’ll see price cuts and a ~7” iPad in 2012.

Here is the key paragraph on demand, we've bolded the key phrase:

...the new Hon Hai forecast implies more limited upside to iPad units, which is disappointing for a December quarter. While improving holiday demand into late November could certainly push the momentum in the other direction, we believe it is prudent to assume the iPad is facing some near-term demand challenges. We believe there are several factors driving this pressure, but we also believe these issues are temporary and will likely be solved by three key factors in early 2012: (1) the continued adoption of iCloud, (2) the launch of Siri on the iPad, and (3) the addition of lower price points.

GOLDMAN: Demand For The iPad Is Fading

How Salman Rushdie Used Twitter to Defeat Facebook [Mashable]

Also see Rushdie Runs Afoul of Web’s Real-Name Police (NYT)

Facebook compounded the error by failing to respond to Rushdie’s requests — until the author took to Twitter to share his tale of frustration. He encouraged his followers to make light of the situation, thereby attracting the social network’s attention.

It worked. Facebook reinstated Rushdie’s profile in a matter of two hours, and in another hour the company had issued an official apology. Still, the incident throws light on an important and odd Facebook regulation: you can tell the service you are called whatever you like, but if it ever sees your ID, you’ll be forced to go with your given name.

How Salman Rushdie Used Twitter to Defeat Facebook

Android Security Threats Surge With Infected ‘Angry Birds’: Tech - Businessweek

This has not been a great PR month for Google so far.  On a brighter note, Google mentioned, at its Atmosphere event yesterday, that there are now 550,000 Android device activations per day.

Google Inc.’s Android operating system for mobile devices has had an almost sixfold increase in threats such as spyware and viruses since July, according to Juniper Networks Inc. That may increase the perception that Apple devices are safer than smartphones and tablets that run on Android, said Juniper.

“You’re not going to see nearly the number of infections on Apple as you see on Android,” said Dan Hoffman, who leads a team tracking mobile threats for Sunnyvale, California-based Juniper, the second-largest maker of networking equipment.

Android Security Threats Surge With Infected ‘Angry Birds’: Tech - Businessweek

Siri's Sister Company Launches a Discovery Engine [Mashable]

More of your tax dollars at work, if you live in the United States

Trapit was unveiled in June as a system for personalizing content based on keywords, URLs and reading habits. The company describes itself as a “Pandora for content.” By using its A.I. technology, Trapit can identify related content based on contextual data from more than 50,000 sources.

Like Siri, Trapit was born from the $200 million CALO Project (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes). CALO was the largest artificial intelligence project in U.S. history. It was funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Department of Defense’s research arm.

Siri's Sister Company Launches a Discovery Engine

“Superman” by Walter Isaacson (Comic) - Nitrozac and Snaggy - Voices - AllThingsD

Clever – see the full comic

“Superman” by Walter Isaacson (Comic) - Nitrozac and Snaggy - Voices - AllThingsD

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is too cool to change the world - Business - The Boston Globe

Another net-positive Kindle Fire review

Still, it’s a pretty good tablet overall, especially if you already spend lots of money at Amazon.com. The Fire is basically a portable storefront for Amazon’s millions of products. If you pay $79 a year to join the company’s Amazon Prime service, you can use the Fire to watch free movies and TV shows, and electronically “borrow” books instead of purchasing them outright. Throw in the price -- $300 less than the cheapest iPad 2 -- and the Kindle Fire is a good deal for Amazon loyalists. Since there are 10 million of those avid online shoppers, the Fire’s going to be a solid success, and probably the number-one non-iPad tablet. But I doubt it’s the market-shifting game changer so many people expected. It’s much too cool for that.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is too cool to change the world - Business - The Boston Globe

Legendary investor scoffs IBM stake, nibble by nibble • The Register

Strange days indeed

Super-investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway biz has revealed that he has spent most of this year buying up a 5.5 per cent share in IBM.

The "Oracle of Omaha" said Berkshire had bought $10.7bn of IBM's stock to take a stake that makes it, along with State Street Global Advisors, one of the largest investors in the company.

Buffett traditionally stays away from stakes in technology firms because he doesn't understand them, but said IBM was different.

Legendary investor scoffs IBM stake, nibble by nibble • The Register

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Wired Magazine

Excerpt from a Steven Levy profile + interview

Indeed, Bezos doesn’t consider the Fire a mere device, preferring to call it a “media service.” While he takes pride in the Fire, he really sees it as an advanced mobile portal to Amazon’s cloud universe. That’s how Amazon has always treated the Kindle: New models simply offer improved ways of buying and reading the content. Replacing the hardware is no more complicated or emotionally involved than changing a flashlight battery.

(That’s why, in a sense, some of the iPad comparisons and cavils you may read today in the hands-on reviews of Fire are somewhat irrelevant in light of this larger issue. Yes, the Fire lacks the industrial-design pyrotechnics that make fanboys foam at the mouth like the iPad does. But who cares? Like a lizard shedding its skin, next year there will be another Fire and in three years the original will look as antiquated as the bizarre-looking Kindle 1 appears today. When you pay $199 for Fire, you’re not buying a gadget—you’re filing citizen papers for the digital duchy of Amazonia.)

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Magazine

Amazon Kindle Fire, iPad’s First True Competitor [REVIEW] [Mashable]

I’ll wait for Fire >= 1.1 and, hopefully, a 10.x” version

Most of these gripes are minor, and to fully appreciate the Amazon Kindle Fire, you have to step back and look at all you’re getting for $199 (the base 16GB iPad is $499, the Nook Tablet $249). This is a highly polished device and collection of services. It bakes in books, music, movies, apps/games, magazines, multi-tasking, universal search, easy access to anything you have in Amazon’s cloud, and a sense that this device and Amazon know you. It is the closest tablet I’ve seen yet to an Apple iPad: a consistent, well-thought out marriage of hardware and services that offer an almost frictionless environment for app purchase and content consumption. This is why the iPad has been so successful and why I think the Kindle Fire, despite its imperfections, is a winner, too.

Amazon Kindle Fire, iPad’s First True Competitor [REVIEW]

Kindle Fire review | The Verge

Concluding paragraphs of another Kindle Fire review

Still, there's no question that the Fire is a really terrific tablet for its price. The amount of content you have access to — and the ease of getting to that content — is notable to say the least. The device is decently designed, and the software — while lacking some polish — is still excellent compared to pretty much anything in this range (and that includes the Nook Color). It's a well thought out tablet that can only get better as the company refines the software. It's not perfect, but it's a great start, and at $200, that may be all Amazon needs this holiday shopping season.
Want to see how the Kindle Fire stacks up against the Nook Tablet, iPad 2, and Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus? Check it out right here in our product comparison!

Kindle Fire review | The Verge

Aetna Hopes Games Will Make People Healthier - Technology Review

Interesting times

About 70 to 80 percent of health-care costs in the United States stem from chronic conditions that are largely preventable or manageable, such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. Those three conditions alone cost U.S. employers nearly $500 billion in lost productivity, according to the Milken Institute, a nonprofit economic think tank. But effective prevention strategies have proved elusive; simply educating people about the benefits of eating better and exercising has had little effect.

Aetna and other health-care companies, such as Humana, hope the features that have made games so addictive will motivate people to adopt healthier lives. A crop of startups are integrating social networking and behavioral economics with games toward that end. Although Aetna declined to provide estimates, even a modest change for the better could have a big impact on an insurer's bottom line if the results were sufficiently widespread.

Aetna Hopes Games Will Make People Healthier - Technology Review

Arista Networks Founders Aim to Alter How Computers Connect - NYTimes.com

A snapshot from the networking frontier

Both were among the first investors in Google, which made them billionaires, and, before that, they created and sold a company to the networking giant Cisco Systems for $220 million. Wealth and reputations as technology seers give their arguments about the risks of faster networks rare credibility.

More transactions also mean more system attacks. Even though he says there is no turning back on the online society, Mr. Cheriton worries most about security hazards. “I’ve made the claim that the Chinese military can take it down in 30 seconds, no one can prove me wrong,” he said. By building a new way to run networks in the cloud era, he says, “we have a path to having software that is more sophisticated, can be self-defending, and is able to detect more problems, quicker.”

Arista Networks Founders Aim to Alter How Computers Connect - NYTimes.com

At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future - NYTimes.com

Still placing some aim-high bets

These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. But none would speak for attribution because Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists.

[…]

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, is deeply involved in the lab, said several people with knowledge of it, and came up with the list of ideas along with Larry Page, Google’s other founder, who worked on Google X before becoming chief executive in April; Eric E. Schmidt, its chairman; and other top executives. “Where I spend my time is farther afield projects, which we hope will graduate to important key businesses in the future,” Mr. Brin said recently, though he did not mention Google X.

At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future - NYTimes.com

The Fire Aside, Amazon’s Lower-Priced Kindles Also Shine - NYTimes.com

A mixed review for the new Kindle family

Is your primary interest in an e-book reader, well, reading? Then Amazon’s refined, dirt-cheap Kindle and Kindle Touch are no-brainers.

The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force — it’s a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you’re used to an iPad or “real” Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts.

The Fire Aside, Amazon’s Lower-Priced Kindles Also Shine - NYTimes.com

The iPhone 5 Was Real, Says A Source Who Played With A Prototype [Business Insider]

Looks like it’s time to restart the iPhone 5 rumor/speculation engine; check the post link below for details

Remember how disappointed everyone was back in October when Apple announced an iPhone 4S and not an iPhone 5?

Everyone had been led to believe by scores of reports that there would be a revolutionary new iPhone with a bigger screen and a new slimmer look.

The iPhone 5 Was Real, Says A Source Who Played With A Prototype

Online Education: My Teacher Is an App - WSJ.com

Excerpt from a timely and extensive education + technology snapshot

In a radical rethinking of what it means to go to school, states and districts nationwide are launching online public schools that let students from kindergarten to 12th grade take some—or all—of their classes from their bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens. Other states and districts are bringing students into brick-and-mortar schools for instruction that is largely computer-based and self-directed.

Online Education: My Teacher Is an App - WSJ.com

Face Recognition Moves From Sci-Fi to Social Media - NYTimes.com

On a related note, see Face Unlock Tricked: Man Unlocks Galaxy Nexus Using Picture, Exposes Android Flaw

As SceneTap suggests, techniques like facial detection, which perceives human faces but does not identify specific individuals, and facial recognition, which does identify individuals, are poised to become the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. That is great news for companies that want to tailor services to customers, and not so great news for people who cherish their privacy. The spread of such technology — essentially, the democratization of surveillance — may herald the end of anonymity.

Face Recognition Moves From Sci-Fi to Social Media - NYTimes.com

Google Music's New Service Set to Launch, Without All the Music - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

I’m guessing this is not high on Larry Page’s strategic priority list, but that the Google+ team is being given a lot of latitude, as it attempts to claw its way to a sustainable second place position relative to Facebook

The search giant has sent out invitations to a “special event” in Los Angeles next Wednesday, (supposedly from Spinal Tap bassist [Doh! Lead guitarist, that is.]Nigel Tufnel, which is a calendar joke). Every indication is that it will be to launch Google Music — a service that’s supposed to include both a store and a limited sharing capability, tied to its Google+ social initiative.

Google Music's New Service Set to Launch, Without All the Music - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Facebook to kill RSS support for Notes | ZDNet

Facebook officially kills a syndication feature that, at least in my limited experience, didn’t work well anyway.  If this is representative of Facebook’s strategy, and if Google does a reasonable job of integrating Blogger and Google+, my blog will eventually migrate to Google+

Until the upcoming kill date, Facebook users have been able to automatically import content from their website or blog. This was achieved by going to the Notes app, clicking on the Notes Settings option, choosing Import a Blog, entering the appropriate URL, and clicking on Start Importing.

So, what’s the alternative? There really isn’t one, according to the following Facebook Help Center entry: “My blog isn’t importing to Facebook.” Here is the answer:

Importing a blog or RSS feed to your personal Facebook account is no longer available. If you want to share your blog posts on Facebook, you can:

• Use Facebook Notes to customize your blog posts in a rich format that’s compatible for readers on Facebook
• Link directly to your blog posts from your status

Facebook to kill RSS support for Notes | ZDNet

CEO Says Sony Developing New Kind of TV - WSJ.com

No baloney…

Mr. Stringer declined to discuss details of what Sony has on the drawing board, but said, "There's a tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set." He added that he has "no doubt" Apple's late leader Steve Jobs also was working on changing the traditional TV set.

"That's what we're all looking for," said Mr. Stringer. "We can't continue selling TV sets [the way we have been]. Every TV set we all make loses money."

Sony said last week that it expects a loss of more than $1 billion in the fiscal year through March, in part because of its struggling television business, which has been a thorn in its side for close to a decade. The business has bled red ink because of plunging prices and declining demand.

CEO Says Sony Developing New Kind of TV - WSJ.com

Logitech CEO: Google TV 'cost us dearly,' no Revue replacement coming | The Verge

Another entry in the tech product future-collectors’-item catalog

Yesterday, Logitech hosted an Analyst and Investor Day and during his remarks, CEO Guerrino De Luca pulled absolutely no punches in describing the "mistakes" the company made with its Logitech Revue Google TV set top box. Calling the company's Christmas 2010 launch "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature," De Luca told investors that the company had "brought closure to the Logitech Revue saga" by making plans to let inventory run out this quarter and that there are "no plans to introduce another box to replace Revue."

Logitech CEO: Google TV 'cost us dearly,' no Revue replacement coming | The Verge

Mark Zuckerberg Is Losing His War on Privacy - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

A less “frictionless” future for Facebook

These changes stand to cloud Zuckerberg's vision of a privacy-free future for a couple of reasons. First of all, Facebook is historically not a big fan of making users opt-in, regardless of negative feedback. […]

Then there's the matter of the FTC audits. We don't yet know how aggressive the scrutiny will be — Google's agreement required "audits conducted by independent third parties every two years to assess its privacy and data protection practices" — but more aggressive regulation present new barrier at a time when Facebook is trying to break down walls that stand to stifle its growth.

Mark Zuckerberg Is Losing His War on Privacy - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

Microsoft’s new documentary about startups is brutally honest about Microsoft - GeekWire

Microsoft making movies; check the link below for a trailer

I just finished a full-length sneak preview of the company’s new film. Yes, an honest-to-goodness Microsoft fim, called Ctrl+Alt+Compete. (We first told you about it in September.) It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the startup world, making its world premiere at the Napa Valley Film Festival on Friday.

It’s a very good movie. In content and pacing, it actually felt to me more like a high-quality television documentary, telling the stories of five startups over the course an hour.

But most of all, Ctrl+Alt+Compete deserves credit for pulling no punches in its portrayal of the technology industry — even when it comes to Microsoft.

Microsoft’s new documentary about startups is brutally honest about Microsoft - GeekWire

IBM - Lotusphere 2012 - Overview

I won’t be surprised if IBM Connect is the primary event name >= 2013, as IBM continues its eradication of the Lotus brand

Your social circle is about to get a lot bigger

Whether it's social business strategies or product features and capabilities, Lotusphere has what you know, love, and expect. Same tracks, similar labs, and another awe-inspiring Solutions Showcase.

New this year, IBM Connect 2012 is a two-day social business event covering a wide range of topics from what it means to be a social business to creating value and better business outcomes. IBM Connect runs in parallel to Lotusphere 2012.

IBM - Lotusphere 2012 - Overview

Apple Takes iTunes to Other Kinds of Payments - NYTimes.com

The next version will probably also tell you what you want to buy…  Check the full article for related developments such as the possibility that NFC may appear on SIM cards, potentially making all SIM phones NFC-capable

Previously, the app could be used to research products and order them, but the products had to be picked up from an employee in the store.

For now, use of iTunes as a traveling wallet is modest; you can use it to buy the cheaper accessories in an Apple store. The phone’s location tracker has to be on, too, so Apple can verify that you are in one of its stores.

Apple Takes iTunes to Other Kinds of Payments - NYTimes.com