Bitcoin: Bitcoin under pressure | The Economist

Excerpt from a timely cyber-currency reality check

"The system is now straining at the seams. Its computational underpinnings have collectively reached 100 times the performance of the world’s top 500 supercomputers combined: more than 50,000 petaflops. Bitcoin’s success has revealed three weaknesses in particular. It is not as secure and anonymous as it seems; the “mining” system that both increases the Bitcoin supply and ensures the integrity of the currency has led to an unsustainable computational arms-race; and the distributed-ledger system is becoming unwieldy. Will Bitcoin’s self-correcting mechanisms, and the enlightened self-interest of its users, be able to address these weaknesses and keep Bitcoin on the rails?"

Bitcoin: Bitcoin under pressure | The Economist

Profile of Aaron Levie, Who Is Trying to Make the Startup Box Vital for Work | MIT Technology Review

Interesting that there isn't a single instance of "social" in this extensive and melodramatic Box profile -- perhaps the industry is reverting back to more meaningful words, including "communication" and "collaboration"

"In this way, Levie threatens more than just other cloud storage providers. He’s shoveling coal into a locomotive of cloud-based enterprise services that promises to mow down any software company if it can’t translate its desktop offering into a sleek mobile app that interacts with its users’ data anytime, anywhere, on any device.
“The cloud is going to drive a new way of working,” he says after the conference. “The ability to deliver medical research from a lab to a doctor in seconds, or from an educational publisher to a student—it’s about real-time, collaborative, synchronous information sharing. It’s going to change work. Not just the technology of work, but work itself.”"

Profile of Aaron Levie, Who Is Trying to Make the Startup Box Vital for Work | MIT Technology Review

Microsoft Enlists Pawn Stars To Mock Google’s Chromebooks | TechCrunch

More on Microsoft's latest classy ad campaign

"Microsoft's anti-Google Scroogled campaign is showing no signs of slowing down. Its latest target is Google's Chromebook. Microsoft has enlisted the stars of the successful reality TV series Pawn Stars to lampoon what it wants you to perceive as the Chromebook's limitations (“It's not a real laptop!”)."

Microsoft Enlists Pawn Stars To Mock Google’s Chromebooks | TechCrunch

Xbox One: Digital Home Base for the Living Room - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

Final paragraph of an Xbox One review; also see New Sony, Microsoft game consoles in changed world (Boston Globe)

"Though the Xbox One is still geared toward gamers, it will appeal to a broader audience with its variety of apps and ways of watching TV. Just be ready for a potentially frustrating experience when you try talking to the Xbox One."

Xbox One: Digital Home Base for the Living Room - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

Google’s Chromebooks Winning Over Some Businesses - Digits - WSJ

Excerpt from a Microsoft/Google competitive snapshot

"The anti-Chromebook effort spotlights how Microsoft is grappling with competition in areas where for years it held a virtual monopoly.
Some corporate-technology officials and analysts say Chromebooks are catching on for some road-warrior workers, retail-sales employees and other business users that can make do with limited computing features.
“Windows PCs aren’t going anywhere,” said Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder. “But for some use cases at some companies, Chromebooks fill a legitimate niche.”"

Google’s Chromebooks Winning Over Some Businesses - Digits - WSJ

Microsoft's One Windows Vision | Windows content from Windows IT Pro

More Windows RT speculation

"I'm not sure this is the correct way to read the changes. I think a more accurate view is that Windows Phone and Windows RT will in effect be merged and that no matter what the resulting name of that products is—how about "Windows"?—it will simply be a single platform that runs on mobile computing devices from phones to phablets to tablets to hybrid PCs, with just software-based changes necessitated by differences in the form factor or mission of the devices on which it runs.
I'm looking forward to this change. Both RT and Phone offer some things that would benefit the others. And combined, this makes a new "Windows" all the more interesting."

Microsoft's One Windows Vision | Windows content from Windows IT Pro

Microsoft might be beating Google at retail. No, really. [Washington Post]

At my local mall, what Microsoft has probably learned about what people want is that they want Apple products rather than Microsoft products

"Microsoft declined to break out sales revenue generated by the stores, but it's at least been significant enough to justify the company's commitment; it opened 51 new stores in 2012 and is looking for more. Even if people don't walk out with computers, executives explain that the stores are more about revivifying a brand that's become more identified over the years with corporate enterprise software than objects of consumer adoration. And it also helps to learn what the consumer wants.
"The biggest single thing we've learned from the stores is it's helping us to transition from thinking about our customers to thinking like our customers," Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said in 2011."

Microsoft might be beating Google at retail. No, really

Microsoft's device chief sees a future without three versions of Windows | The Verge

count((Windows Phone + Windows RT) + full Windows) = 2

"Microsoft currently ships Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Phone software on a variety of devices, but it’s heading towards a future where just a single version of Windows will exist. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference last week, Microsoft’s head of devices, Julie Larson-Green, hinted strongly that the software giant is finally working to merge its core operating systems. "We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three," says Larson-Green."

Microsoft's device chief sees a future without three versions of Windows | The Verge

Render Unto Caesar, but Who Backs the Bitcoin? - NYTimes.com

So it's like gold, but without all that messy digging...

"In truth, the best bitcoin can hope for is to be a second-rate version of gold, if that. And Warren Buffett once described gold this way: “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
That’s pretty much the way a Martian might think about bitcoin."

Render Unto Caesar, but Who Backs the Bitcoin? - NYTimes.com

Disruptions: If It Looks Like a Bubble and Floats Like a Bubble ... - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

"Such assurances aside, the numbers are sobering. Eight months ago, Snapchat was valued at $70 million. Today, it is valued at $4 billion, even though it has zero revenue. Six months ago, Pinterest was valued at $2.5 billion. Today, it is valued at $3.8 billion — and no revenue there, either. And last week news broke that Dropbox was said to be seeking a new round of funding that would value the company at $8 billion, up from $4 billion a year ago.
In Silicon Valley, pointing out this sort of thing is considered a bit impolite."

Disruptions: If It Looks Like a Bubble and Floats Like a Bubble ... - NYTimes.com

The Internet of Things: Look, It Must Work | Monday Note

Excerpt from a timely Jean-Louis Gassée "Internet of Things" reality check

"Does the concept need a Steve Jobs to coalesce the disparate components into a coherent, vibrant genre? Are important pieces still missing? Or, like Artificial Intelligence (rebranded as Machine Learning in an attempt to soothe the pain of repeated disappointments), are we looking at an ever-receding horizon?"

The Internet of Things: Look, It Must Work | Monday Note

Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto - NYTimes.com

Small cyber-world

"Two Israeli computer scientists say they may have uncovered a puzzling financial link between Ross William Ulbricht, the recently arrested operator of the Internet black market known as the Silk Road, and the secretive inventor of bitcoin, the anonymous online currency, used to make Silk Road purchases."

Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto - NYTimes.com

Which Should You Buy: Xbox One or PlayStation 4? Yes. | Game|Life | Wired.com

Excerpt from a refreshingly frank product review, despite its title

"If you’ve gotten to this point and you still aren’t sure whether you want a PS4 or an Xbox One, I think I know what advice to give you: Don’t buy either.
I’m not saying you should never buy either. I’m saying that if the cool new features of these boxes aren’t enough to sway you one way or the other, you might not be happy with either one at this point. I’ve been playing the exclusive launch games for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and neither library is very good right now. Sony’s big launch game Knack is cute and pretty, but can get repetitive and a little boring. Microsoft’s Ryse: Son of Rome is a rushed mess."

Which Should You Buy: Xbox One or PlayStation 4? Yes. | Game|Life | Wired.com

Xbox Is a Test for the One Microsoft ­Strategy - Businessweek

Substantive synergy or superfluous strategy tax tbd

"The Xbox One’s operating system includes Windows 8 and speeds switching between apps and games. Windows also means a broader range of apps for users, because it makes software development easier than on earlier Xbox systems. Windows 8’s snap feature lets users watch a football game while running a fantasy gridiron app alongside it. Users can pan and zoom during Skype calls, and cloud service SkyDrive allows them to view photos and videos they’ve uploaded from other devices. Say “Xbox, record,” and cloud service Azure will save the last 30 seconds of game play as a video clip that players can share with friends."

Xbox Is a Test for the One Microsoft ­Strategy - Businessweek

Spotify Raises $250 Million, Valued Above $4 Billion - John D. Stoll, Evelyn Rusli and Sven Grundberg - Media - AllThingsD

In related Bubble 2.0 news, see Pandora Media Posts Q3 Loss (AllThingsD)

"Swedish music-streaming company Spotify AB has secured nearly $250 million in new financing led by Silicon Valley firm Technology Crossover Ventures, valuing the company somewhere “north” of $4 billion dollars, according to multiple people familiar with the deal."

Spotify Raises $250 Million, Valued Above $4 Billion - John D. Stoll, Evelyn Rusli and Sven Grundberg - Media - AllThingsD

U.S. to Consider Cellphone Use on Planes - WSJ.com

Sign me up as a frequent flyer on the first airline that bans cell phone conversations, if this proposal is approved

"The Federal Communications Commission said it will soon propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes, setting up a debate that will pit the technically possible against the socially tolerable.
While cellphone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular-data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet."

U.S. to Consider Cellphone Use on Planes - WSJ.com

Meet Pencil: The Best iPad Stylus Yet, From the Makers of 'Paper' | Wired Design | Wired.com

For another pointed review, see Livescribe 3, Jot Script and Pencil: Three “Smart” Pens for the Tablet Era

(AllThingsD)

"Here’s Pencil’s appeal in a nutshell: It’s the rare iPad stylus you can actually use like a pencil. One side draws, the other erases. It’s sophisticated enough to make sure your palm will never mark up your canvas or send your app going haywire. In other words, it’s just as easy to operate as the instrument it’s named after. That’s no small feat."

Meet Pencil: The Best iPad Stylus Yet, From the Makers of 'Paper' | Wired Design | Wired.com

TVs get smarter, but not smartersmart enough - Business - The Boston Globe

Final paragraph of a Hiawatha Bray smart TV market snapshot

"Smart TVs still haven’t caught fire with the public, and the new Samsung reminded me why. It doesn’t matter how smart a TV is, if it makes the user feel stupid."

''TVs get smarter, but not smartersmart enough - Business - The Boston Globe:

DNI, Patriot Act Section 215: Documents show how government inflated metadata definition. (Slate)

Final paragraph of a metadata + surveillance reality check

"It’s incredible how much of the way we think about surveillance continues to be governed by telephone technology. Even President Obama sought to reassure the public about the nature of the leaked surveillance programs by telling reporters in June that “nobody is listening to your telephone calls.” When it came to old-fashioned telephone technology, there was a clear-cut distinction between metadata and content, there were data irrelevant to a communication’s meaning, and we were reasonably well aware of the kinds of metadata we generated when we made calls. But now, none of those assumptions necessarily holds true, and we’re beginning to understand the extent to which the medium—and the metadata—really are the message."

DNI, Patriot Act Section 215: Documents show how government inflated metadata definition.

Dell Venue 8 Pro review: A Windows 8.1 tablet for the rest of us - Computerworld

Summary of another net-positive Dell Windows tablet review

"With the new Dell Venue 8 Pro, we're finally seeing a full-blown Windows 8.1 tablet for the masses. And when I mean the masses, I don't mean people willing to pay $900 and up for a tablet, or $1,000 and up for a combo tablet-ultrabook device. I mean people who can afford $300 for a well-made 8-in. device with a very good screen, a surprisingly powerful processor, and Office as part of the package."

Dell Venue 8 Pro review: A Windows 8.1 tablet for the rest of us - Computerworld

Strava Creates New App for Google Glass | Singletracks Mountain Bike Blog

Somehow I suspect many lawyers are gainfully employed writing user license agreements for this type of app, but I look forward to it going mainstream

"Strava recently demo’d an app for Google Glass that promises to turn every ride–and possibly even your daily walk from the car into the office–into a competition. The app is said to include alerts to let riders know when they’re approaching a segment during a ride and it makes key stats like speed and distance visible at a glance. But perhaps more importantly (for the company’s lawyers anyway), Strava’s Google Glass app is designed to allow riders to remain more “situationally aware” during the ride."

Strava Creates New App for Google Glass | Singletracks Mountain Bike Blog

Here’s the scariest part about the Internet of Things [Washington Post]

What happens in your dishwasher should stay in your dishwasher (or at most on your home network)

"One difference between data-hungry businesses like Google and your future home network of Internet-enabled objects is that some of those devices may not need to talk to each other over the public Internet, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Lee Tien. If they're connected to the same Wi-Fi network, maybe those devices won't need to transmit data across the Web.
"Utilize but keep the data within the home boundary," Tien suggested. "Keep the interesting variations within the home boundary. How much detail do we need and how much data needs to leave the home, actually?""

Here’s the scariest part about the Internet of Things

The Great Snapchat Mirage [BuzzFeed]

Still tbd where Snapchat is on the PointCast ... Instagram continuum

"This is not to say that Snapchat isn’t popular. It certainly is, by many reasonable, anecdotal definitions! And the fact that Facebook, which presumably did some due diligence, thought the company was worth three Instagrams, should not be ignored (though it should also be understood as an attempt made by a company that desperately wants, and needs, to stay relevant, and that once tried to rip off Snapchat when the service was very young).
But Snapchat is a startup. It’s a startup that is courting buyers, or at least humoring them, and that may be in the process of raising an enormous amount of money. It is clearly in Snapchat’s interest to share its most impressive numbers, but it is in everyone else’s interest to demand to know more, and to take these numbers — these context-free numbers — with a wheelbarrow of salt."

The Great Snapchat Mirage

Salesforce.com and HP Buck Common Wisdom of Cloud Computing - NYTimes.com

More "Salesforce Superpod" details

"A cynic could say Salesforce, which counts HP among its largest clients, is doing HP a favor — with HP’s gear given key placement by a company that pioneered cloud computing. Indeed, Ms. Whitman said that her company had 27,000 sales executives using Salesforce and would be putting 100,000 of its affiliated resellers on the system.
Even with those kinds of numbers, however, Mr. Benioff is unlikely to be making this deal just as a favor. He does seem to agree that dedicating some hardware will win clients (who could probably get just as much security with software that partitioned their data within a regular public cloud, but who said sales were always rational?)"

Salesforce.com and HP Buck Common Wisdom of Cloud Computing - NYTimes.com

Quora Will Push Its Most Link-Baity Content to BuzzFeed - Liz Gannes - Media - AllThingsD

The question of Quora's ultimate business model remains unanswered

"In fact, BuzzFeed is the latest of seven content distribution partners for Quora. Others are Forbes, Slate and the BBC. Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a win-win, where Quora writers get more distribution, and media partners get good content.
It might seem a little self-defeating for a social site to concede that a media player has wider reach than it does. But Bodnick said the deal serves Quora’s goal of sharing and growing the world’s knowledge. “If you keep the quality high, the quality attracts readers,” he said. “It’s not GIFs, it’s not porn, it’s not link bait.”"

Quora Will Push Its Most Link-Baity Content to BuzzFeed - Liz Gannes - Media - AllThingsD

Salesforce Strikes Cloud Partnership With HP - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

A less (public) cloudy future for Salesforce.com's biggest customers?

"The two companies will jointly market what will be considered a premium offering for Salesforce’s biggest customers. Customers who choose the Superpod option will get a dedicated instance of Salesforce all their own, where most customers have their Salesforce installation running on shared infrastructure."

Salesforce Strikes Cloud Partnership With HP - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

A Conversation With Leander Kahney, Author of 'Jony Ive' - NYTimes.com

Perhaps Satzger should included as a co-author, if the book is primarily based on interviews with him

"Then I discovered that Jony has made everything in his past life private. He has sealed all of his school records, his high school records, his college records. He’s persuaded all of his ex-workers, his ex-colleagues not to talk. So his family would not talk. It was all shut off. I was freaking out because I had nothing.
But then I got a lucky break. I got one of one of his old design colleagues, Douglas Satzger, who worked with him for more than a dozen years. He was there before Steve Jobs came back and there all the way up to the iPad. And I went down to see him at his home in Silicon Valley."

A Conversation With Leander Kahney, Author of 'Jony Ive' - NYTimes.com

Dropbox Is Said to Seek $250 Million in Funding, Doubling Its Valuation - NYTimes.com

Not bad for an Amazon Web Services app...

"Online storage, once a backwater of the Silicon Valley technology scene, is suddenly a hot commodity.
Dropbox, a five-year-old San Francisco start-up that allows users to access stored documents via the web, is seeking $250 million in funding in a round that would value it at more than $8 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter."

Dropbox Is Said to Seek $250 Million in Funding, Doubling Its Valuation - NYTimes.com

IBM Faces a Crisis In the Cloud - Businessweek

Excerpt from an IBM cloud reality check

"In its most recent quarter, IBM’s hardware sales fell 17 percent, its services sales dropped 4 percent, and its total revenue fell 4 percent to $23.7 billion. Sales in what IBM defines as “growth markets” fell 9 percent. The company didn’t have the courage to break out sales in non-growth markets.
The acquisition of SoftLayer shows that IBM knows it needs to engage in some hand-to-hand industry combat if it wants to remain relevant. Having sold its disk drive business to Asia, IBM is now renting disk drives by the hour for pennies. If you want to be a technology company in 2013, that’s the sort of thing you must do."

IBM Faces a Crisis In the Cloud - Businessweek

Salesforce Wants to Be More Than a Sales Tool - Digits - WSJ

A big week ahead for Salesforce.com

"The company Monday kicks off a 120,000-attendee conference called Dreamforce, during which Salesforce plans to pitch itself as a “platform,” an industry term for providing a canvas on which companies can create their own software. The programs would typically run on Salesforce’s computers, freeing business owners from owning and maintaining their own computing infrastructure.
The platform “is the core of who we are,” Kendall Collins, Salesforce’s executive vice president of products, said in an interview. “Hopefully we have made it dead simple for people to build and deploy enterprise apps.”"

Salesforce Wants to Be More Than a Sales Tool - Digits - WSJ

Hadoop creator: 'Google is living a few years in the future and sending the rest of us messages' | ZDNet

Excerpt from a timely big data reality check

"Enterprise has a history of riding in Google's slipstream. It was in 2004 that Google revealed the technologies that inspired the creation of Hadoop, the platform that it is only today starting to be used by business for big data analytics.
Hadoop's co-creator Doug Cutting believes industry will continue to borrow from Google's toolbox, and sees a bright future in enterprise for the recently announced Google Spanner.
"Google is living a few years in the future and sending the rest of us messages," he said at the O'Reilly Strata Conference in London."

Hadoop creator: 'Google is living a few years in the future and sending the rest of us messages' | ZDNet

Apple lets fly with iWork collaboration features | Apple - CNET News

I'm old enough to remember when companies actually used to pay for collaboration software...

"On Thursday, though, Apple released a beta update for iWork for iCloud that includes the features. Among the new tools that let multiple people work together on a project: you can see a list of who is currently working on the project, and each person's individual cursor; and you can jump directly to any collaborator's cursor by clicking on his or her name.
The update also adds the ability to organize documents in folders, and lets you print documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly from the Tools menu."

Apple lets fly with iWork collaboration features | Apple - CNET News

Amazon Web Services Gets Personal and Pretty - NYTimes.com

Kindling new enterprise desktop competition? Since Citrix was a platinum sponsor of the AWS re:Invent event this week, I'm guessing either Amazon's new virtual desktop service is based on Citrix technology or Citrix had a very bad week; check this page for more Amazon WorkSpaces details

"All the major makers of personal computers and, yes, laptops, could also be affected if someone makes an Android-based desktop terminal that could be sold as a cheap way to equip call centers or offices.
“No hardware, no software, no long-term commitments,” said Andy Jassy, the head of A.W.S. “You can access this at half the price of a typical infrastructure desktop solution.”"

Amazon Web Services Gets Personal and Pretty - NYTimes.com

Siding With Google, Judge Says Book Search Does Not Infringe Copyright - NYTimes.com

And so begins a new chapter in Google's book-scanning operation; also see Court Upholds Legality of Google Books: Tremendous Victory for Fair Use and the Public Interest (EFF)

"“What seemed insanely ambitious and this huge effort that seemed very dangerous in 2004 now seems ordinary,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland who has followed the case closely. “Technology and media have moved on so much that it’s just not a big deal.”
The ruling examined whether Google’s use of copyrighted works counted as so-called fair use under copyright law, which Judge Chin determined it did. The decision opened the door for other companies to also scan books."

Siding With Google, Judge Says Book Search Does Not Infringe Copyright - NYTimes.com

The recorded world: Every step you take | The Economist

Final paragraph of an Economist privacy perspective piece

"Silicon Valley emphasises the liberating power of technology—and it is often right. But the freedom that a gadget gives one person can sometimes take away liberty from another. Liberal politicians have been lazy about defending the idea of personal space, especially online. The fight should start now. Otherwise, in the blink of an eye, privacy could be gone."

The recorded world: Every step you take | The Economist

Facebook Says Its New Data Center Will Run Entirely on Wind | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Leading by example

"But one of the biggest impacts of these sorts of projects is a boost in overall availability of renewable energy, says Greenpeace IT analyst Gary Cook. “When Facebook said back in spring that they were going to Iowa, the utility company in Iowa, MidAmerican Energy, announced that they were shelving plans to build a new nuclear facility and then filed plans to build a wind plant instead,” Cook told us earlier this week. “If you look at the regulatory filing, this was because they have new customers, namely Facebook, that want more renewable energy.”"

Facebook Says Its New Data Center Will Run Entirely on Wind | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

How the death of BitTorrent helped take the edge off broadband growth [The Washington Post]

Premature to proclaim “the death of BitTorrent” but still an interesting case study in fee-based service providers successfully competing with “free”

“So why the difference in growth between overall monthly data usage and peak-hour data usage? In part, it has to do with how we're getting our content. File-sharing through sites such as BitTorrent has plummeted in North America. It now accounts for less than 10 percent of total traffic during peak hours -- 10 years ago, it was 60 percent. So instead of downloading something whenever during the day to watch later, people have options like Netflix or Hulu, which they can just cue up after work. Streaming video tends to take up less bandwidth, since people only download as much as they watch rather than downloading the whole thing only to stop in the middle. And right now, "real-time entertainment" accounts for most of our evening Internet usage, with Netflix taking the lion's share.”

How the death of BitTorrent helped take the edge off broadband growth

Dropbox Makes a Move Into the Enterprise - Businessweek

How many of those Fortune 500 company IT groups are aware of and/or in control of the Dropbox deployments at their companies? That inconvenient truth is a selling point for the latest Dropbox for Business service.

"Today the company gathered journalists in its swank offices in San Francisco’s China Basin to offer an update on its progress: Dropbox has more than 200 million users and its customers save more than 1 billion files in Dropbox every day. “There are more files saved to Dropbox each day than Tweets on Twitter (TWTR),” said Drew Houston, Dropbox’s 30-year-old chief executive officer.
Dropbox also unveiled its next target beyond everyday Internet users: businesses. Houston says users are already bringing the service into their companies. More than four million businesses used Dropbox last year, including over 97 percent of Fortune 500 companies. “People love that they can work from anywhere. People love they can have their work stuff and personal stuff together for the first time,” Houston said."

Dropbox Makes a Move Into the Enterprise - Businessweek

Amazon's Greatest Weapon: Jeff Bezos's Paranoia - WSJ.com

Excerpt from another timely Amazon business profile; perhaps eBay should have joined IBM in renting buses for competitive banner ads at the AWS conference in Las Vegas this week

"This sets up a nice set of network effects for the company: Third-party items expand Amazon's selection, which attracts more consumers to its site, which in turn makes Amazon more attractive for other third-party sellers. At the same time, as Amazon claims more third-party sellers, more customers and more sales, it wins further leverage over shippers like UPS and FedEx, further driving down its infrastructure costs-which, once again, feeds greater sales. It wouldn't be crazy to guess that at some point, third-party sales will become Amazon's main business, with its own goods just a slice of a much larger company that is mostly about e-commerce infrastructure, not e-commerce itself."

Amazon's Greatest Weapon: Jeff Bezos's Paranoia - WSJ.com

Cisco Earnings: Revenue Heads Downward - WSJ.com

In other enterprise IT tectonic plate-shift news...

"A slowdown in Cisco Systems Inc.'s business is turning into a tailspin, hobbled by weak demand in China and other emerging markets.
The Silicon Valley network-equipment giant on Wednesday said revenue rose just 1.8% in its first fiscal quarter, compared with its projection of 3% to 5% growth. Cisco followed up by projecting a decline of 8% to 10% in the current period, an unusually grim forecast for a company seen as a bellwether for corporate technology spending."

Cisco Earnings: Revenue Heads Downward - WSJ.com

IBM to Announce More Powerful Watson via the Internet - NYTimes.com

I suspect the AWS team is quietly elated to see these moves by IBM, as they help to legitimize and accelerate the enterprise shift to commodity cloud computing and will also likely accelerate the decline of IBM's traditional enterprise computing business -- e.g., if you ran an enterprise IT group that just paid $bazillions for an on-premises Watson deployment, wouldn't you be looking for a refund right about now?

"While revenues of Amazon’s cloud business are still small enough that the company does not have to disclose them, Amazon officials say Jeff Bezos, the company’s chief executive, believes A.W.S. could eventually dwarf Amazon’s businesses in books and merchandise, enterprises with $51 billion in revenue. This year, Gartner calculated that A.W.S. had five times the computing power of 14 other cloud computing companies, including IBM, combined.
Since then, IBM has spent an estimated $2 billion to acquire a cloud company called SoftLayer and has reconfigured Watson as a cloud product. It also hired buses that drove around the A.W.S. conference in Las Vegas, sporting ads that said they showed its superiority in cloud computing."

IBM to Announce More Powerful Watson via the Internet - NYTimes.com

Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer - NYTimes.com

Perhaps poised to become the next PointCast

"What business makes no money, has yet to pass its third anniversary and just turned down an offer worth billions of dollars? Snapchat, a social media service run by a pair of 20-somethings who until last month worked out of a beachfront bungalow in Venice, Calif."

Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer - NYTimes.com

Announcing: First round of accepted Connect 2014 sessions - Social Business Insights Blog

A sign of the IBM Lotusphere Connect times: not a single instance of “collaboration” in the first wave of session descriptions (okay; there’s one instance of “Collaborating” in the title of a partner project management presentation)

“As promised, this year we’re shaking things up with the IBM Connect 2014 session agenda. Instead of announcing our lineup all at once, each Monday, for the next few weeks, we'll be posting a first peek of "accepted" sessions right here.  And for those of you who are counting – that’s even earlier than we promised.”

Announcing: First round of accepted Connect 2014 sessions - Social Business Insights Blog

Facebook locks users in a closet for using same passwords/emails on Adobe | Naked Security

Proactively protecting password recyclers

"If you've used the same email account/password combo on Facebook and Adobe, Facebook has probably already pushed your account into a closet and locked the door.
It won't let you out until you change that password, security journalist Brian Krebs reported on Monday.
[...]
Not only is Facebook being non-Big-Brotherish, it's being proactive in protecting customers, for which it deserves hearty kudos. If only all companies shepherded their customers' data in this manner."

Facebook locks users in a closet for using same passwords/emails on Adobe | Naked Security

Netflix's New Look Is a Glimpse at the Future of TV | Underwire | Wired.com

Transformational TV times

"What Jaffe was demonstrating – a new “TV experience” that starts rolling out Wednesday to PlayStation 3 (and eventually PS4), Roku 3, Xbox 360, certain web-enabled smart TVs and Blu-ray players – is the result of a year and a half of development by Netflix. It’s the biggest change to the company’s TV experience to date and, although Jaffe doesn’t say it, offers a glimpse of what Netflix would look like if it were its own network. Earlier this year, chief content officer Ted Sarandos told GQ that the company’s goal is “to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” Want to know what that might look like? See this latest update."

Netflix's New Look Is a Glimpse at the Future of TV | Underwire | Wired.com

Official Enterprise Blog: Attachments in Gmail, now with the power of Google Drive

Business just got more complex for *Box

"You're probably used to downloading email attachments, but each of those files takes time to download, eats up space on your device, and can get buried deep inside your "Downloads" folder. With today's update to Gmail, you can skip that whole process. Instead, you can view attachments and save files directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail, making it easy to access them later from whatever device you’re on—computer, phone or tablet. "

Official Enterprise Blog: Attachments in Gmail, now with the power of Google Drive

Twitter Launches a Curated Tweets Tool for Organizations - Mike Isaac - Social - AllThingsD

More Twitter Custom Trail Timeline details

“But Twitter hasn’t made the most of these opportunities. Filtering events through hashtags has been a mishmash of tweets — some highly engaging, most far less so. In effect, Twitter’s most powerful attraction has been completely lost on untold numbers of potential new users.

That may soon change. On Tuesday, Twitter announced a new “Custom Timelines” product for developers and third-party sites, effectively giving organizations the power to curate their own Twitter streams to surface the best material related to an event.”

Twitter Launches a Curated Tweets Tool for Organizations - Mike Isaac - Social - AllThingsD

Adobe Breach Inadvertently Tied to Other Accounts - NYTimes.com

A stark security sign of the times

"Even more disturbing, he said, was the number of people who used the same password for their bank accounts, email, Facebook and home garage door codes as a password on the Adobe website. Some even used their Social Security numbers as passwords.
In tens of thousands of instances people write a hint to themselves that says “same as my Facebook password” or “same as my bank password.”"

Adobe Breach Inadvertently Tied to Other Accounts - NYTimes.com

Twitter Introduces Tool to Make Collecting and Sharing Tweets Easier - NYTimes.com

It took ~70 years, but perhaps Vannevar Bush's associative trails concept is finally going mainstream

"Twitter introduced a tool Tuesday, called custom timelines, that allows its users to drag and drop tweets to form custom lists of Twitter messages on whatever topic interests them.
The idea — to make it easy for anyone to create a “best of Twitter” list — could be especially appealing to news organizations and other heavy users of Twitter who constantly scan the service looking for interesting nuggets and then share them with their own followers and fans."

Twitter Introduces Tool to Make Collecting and Sharing Tweets Easier - NYTimes.com

Amazon Web Services has no reason to worry about IBM | Cloud Computing - InfoWorld

Check the source article (and its CIO.com trigger, Why IBM Will Win the War With Amazon Web Services) for a timely debate

"In a recent article at CIO.com, Rob Enderle made a very clear and somewhat compelling case that IBM would ultimately dominate public cloud computing. I believe he's wrong. Yes, IBM will make an impact, but it won't end up being a dominant public cloud computing player. To me, the reasons are obvious."

Amazon Web Services has no reason to worry about IBM | Cloud Computing - InfoWorld

iPad Mini Retina now available at Apple Store | Apple - CNET News

I'm guessing the Apple stores are going to be a bit more crowded this weekend

"In a bit of a surprise move, the Apple Store began accepting orders for the iPad Mini Retina at midnight Monday after word of the tablet's impending launch leaked out in an internal notification intended for support technicians and resellers.
Wi-Fi-only versions sporting 16GB and 32GB of storage are expected to ship to buyers in one to three business days, while the 64GB and 128GB versions list shipping expectations of five to 10 business days. Versions with cellular connectivity are also expected to ship in five to 10 days."

iPad Mini Retina now available at Apple Store | Apple - CNET News

4 Reasons Why Help To Buy Is Working | LinkedIn

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is using LinkedIn to explain his policies, but most recruiters would probably ask about the gap in his experience profile between 1988 and 2003...

"Just four weeks in, the Help to Buy policy is delivering. This is the policy that makes it easier for people to get a mortgage and buy a house - cutting the deposits they have to put down. Here are the figures you need to know."

4 Reasons Why Help To Buy Is Working | LinkedIn

"Red State" App Life360 Helps Families Track Themselves - Liz Gannes - Mobile - AllThingsD

A multifaceted sign of the times

"Do you know where your kids are right now? Has your significant other left the office yet? Is anyone home? If you were a Life360 user, you’d never lack an answer to those questions.
Yes, constant location tracking is creepy, but with Life360 it’s your own family you’re stalking."

"Red State" App Life360 Helps Families Track Themselves - Liz Gannes - Mobile - AllThingsD

Amazon Preps Web Services Confab - WSJ.com

Meanwhile, while IBM attempts to buy its way into a sustainable AWS clone, on the e-retail side, Target Fills Its Cart With Some of Amazon's Tricks (WSJ)

"AWS is a big player in cloud computing. Its computers are the backbone behind video-streaming service Netflix Inc. and social network Pinterest Inc. AWS marketing chief Adam Selipsky likes to say that startups can use his service to open for business with just a credit card.
Amazon doesn't disclose the unit's finances, but Macquarie Capital analyst Ben Schachter has estimated revenue will approach $4 billion this year. The Seattle company has said AWS could one day become larger than its retail business, which now takes in $60 billion annually."

Amazon Preps Web Services Confab - WSJ.com

Google Glass Will Expand Its Features Into Music - NYTimes.com

Portable sensory deprivation chamber multichannel expansion

"When Glass boots up, it will display “listen to” among its standard voice commands — like “take a picture” and search for a term on Google — and let a wearer name a song or artist and then stream that music through Play, Google’s media and apps hub. Users can link their Play accounts to have access to playlists and song recommendations based on what they have listened to in the past.
Google is also introducing a set of earbud headphones designed for Glass, which will be available by the end of the month for $85. Sound Search, a feature introduced to Glass two months ago, acts like Shazam or SoundHound by identifying a song playing in the vicinity."

Google Glass Will Expand Its Features Into Music - NYTimes.com

New Consoles on the Way, but Gaming Isn’t the Same - NYTimes.com

Curious that Steam machines weren't addressed in the article; tablet, smartphone, and Facebook games aren't the only threats to game console business-as-usual

"Consoles have been the thumping heart of the video game industry for decades. But the new PlayStation 4 from Sony and the Xbox One from Microsoft will enter a landscape reshaped by tablets, smartphones and Facebook, all of which provide games at a lower price and in greater abundance."

New Consoles on the Way, but Gaming Isn’t the Same - NYTimes.com

What happened to the buzz around NoSQL? - SuccessfulWorkplace

Excerpt from a timely NoSQL reality check

"Here are some of the challenges that make NoSQL’s adoption slower than expected:

• Transactional applications are still well-suited to relational databases with all of its built-in functionality that keep transactions intact, even if the power goes off.
• NoSQL databases are silos of their own and a challenge to move data between. Until better standards arrive, and that may be the JSON, document-based NoSQL, there’s risk of data portability with NoSQL.
• If your data isn’t enormous, moving off a relational database isn’t a necessity. People tend to postpone big changes that aren’t a necessity."

What happened to the buzz around NoSQL? - SuccessfulWorkplace

Oracle's nemesis MariaDB releases sleekest seal yet to beta • The Register

No shortage of Oracle nemeses lately

"That "good group" reads like a who's who of tech, with companies such as Google replacing all internal production MySQL servers with MariaDB; Red Hat making it its new storage engine; Fedora making it the default implementation of MySQL in Fedora 19; the foxes over at Mozilla migrating to it; as well as many others.
Version 10 of the database comes with several merged features and functionality from MySQL 5.6, along with enhancements to replication, optimisation, and administration."

Oracle's nemesis MariaDB releases sleekest seal yet to beta • The Register

Start-Ups Are Mining Hyperlocal Information for Global Insights - NYTimes.com

When "big" just isn't enough

"Collecting data from all sorts of odd places and analyzing it much faster than was possible even a couple of years ago has become one of the hottest areas of the technology industry. The idea is simple: With all that processing power and a little creativity, researchers should be able to find novel patterns and relationships among different kinds of information.
For the last few years, insiders have been calling this sort of analysis Big Data. Now Big Data is evolving, becoming more “hyper” and including all sorts of sources. Start-ups like Premise and ClearStory Data, as well as larger companies like General Electric, are getting into the act."

Start-Ups Are Mining Hyperlocal Information for Global Insights - NYTimes.com

Microsoft Decisions: What and Who | Platformonomics

Excerpt from another insightful Microsoft reality check by Charles Fitzgerald

"Office’s mission must be to enable productivity everywhere. Holding back iOS and Android support to advantage Windows Phone and Surface has been a disaster for Office and hasn’t helped Windows. There are companies like Box that exist but shouldn’t exist because of this strategy tax. Office could also straighten out their server strategy by decoupling it from STB (SharePoint is a floor wax and a dessert topping, both in terms of use cases which is Office’s fault but also architecturally which is a strategy tax).
Server & Tools can further embrace the heterogeneity they must and a clean break would let them truly focus on being cloud first where the operating system is an afterthought. Azure is already emerging as the clear challenger to Amazon Web Services and strategic clarity would help them focus on this battle for the future."

Microsoft Decisions: What and Who | Platformonomics

A Founder of Twitter Goes Long - NYTimes.com

Perhaps the third time will (also) be a charm for Evan Williams, Blogger creator and Twitter co-founder

"“In the early days, I bought into the idea that the Internet would lead to a better world, that the truth was out there and that we didn’t need gatekeepers,” he said. The idea that he and many others embraced was that an unfiltered Internet would create a democratic information utopia. “Now,” he continued, “I think it’s more complicated than that.”
Medium is Mr. Williams’s version of a gatekeeper, albeit one that relies heavily on technology rather than human expertise or taste. While it has some editors soliciting and promoting some content, the bigger idea is to use algorithms to help identify blog posts that readers consider valuable and to bubble them to the surface."

A Founder of Twitter Goes Long - NYTimes.com

Obama’s Portable Zone of Secrecy (Some Assembly Required) - NYTimes.com

Finally worked out the kinks with the Cone of Silence

"Even when Mr. Obama travels to allied nations, aides quickly set up the security tent — which has opaque sides and noise-making devices inside — in a room near his hotel suite. When the president needs to read a classified document or have a sensitive conversation, he ducks into the tent to shield himself from secret video cameras and listening devices."

Obama’s Portable Zone of Secrecy (Some Assembly Required) - NYTimes.com

Internet security: Besieged | The Economist

Final paragraph of a timely Internet security reality check

"Besides beefing up their internal security, many of America’s big firms have been lobbying Congress to rein the NSA in. But there is reason to think that technological changes could run ahead of legal ones. In some leaked slides, the NSA describes a lot of its programmes as “fragile”, Dr Green notes, suggesting that it worries they can be thwarted without too much trouble. And techno-fixes offer something laws do not. There are dozens of signals-intelligence agencies in the world, some of which serve pretty unsavoury governments. Laws can affect only one agency at a time. Cyber-criminals will, naturally, ignore them entirely. But techno-fixes work against everyone."

Internet security: Besieged | The Economist

Motorola wants to tattoo a mic on your throat - The Times of India

Perhaps this will be a free option for Google Barge 1.0 visitors...

"Motorola's patent filing says: "The electronic skin tattoo is capable of receiving an initialization signal at the controller and from the MCD (mobile communication device) to initiate reception of an audio stream picked up from the throat region of the body for subsequent audio detection by the MCD under an improved signal-to-noise ratio than without employing the electronic skin tattoo."
The filing says that the tattoo can be applied on animals as well and can be embedded into a collar or band (both flexible and stiff) that is worn around the neck.
And that's not all. Motorola's throat tattoo will double up as a lie detector too!"

Motorola wants to tattoo a mic on your throat - The Times of India

Microsoft CEO Candidate Elop Said to Mull Windows Shift - Bloomberg

Interesting to recall that Stephen Elop was president of the Microsoft Business Division when it announced a version of Office Mobile for Nokia's Symbian platform in 2009, and then, as CEO of Nokia, discontinued Symbian in 2011; also see Insiders say Elop could sell off Xbox and cancel Bing if he became Microsoft CEO (Engadget)

"Stephen Elop, a candidate to replace Steve Ballmer as Microsoft Corp.’s chief executive officer, would consider breaking with decades of tradition by focusing the company’s strategy around making the popular Office software programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint available on a broad variety of smartphones and tablets, including those made by Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc., said three people with knowledge of his thinking."

Microsoft CEO Candidate Elop Said to Mull Windows Shift - Bloomberg

Google Barge Will be 'Unprecedented Artistic Structure' with 'Fish Fin' Sails - IBTimes UK

Strange days indeed

"In the documents seen by the Chronicle, By and Large calls the barge a "studio" and "temporary technology exhibit space."
The company adds: "We envisioned this space with community in mind, a surprising environment that is accessible to all and inspires conversation about how everything is connected - shorebirds, me, you, the sea, the fog and much more."
The barge will move around San Francisco bay, stopping in a number of locations for a month at a time, attracting up to 1,000 visitors a day according to the documents."

Google Barge Will be 'Unprecedented Artistic Structure' with 'Fish Fin' Sails - IBTimes UK

Send to Kindle

Interesting to see “Send to Kindle” starting to appear next to other “share” options in Web pages; I’m finding the Kindle client very useful for reading what would otherwise often be tl;dr info items

Check this page for an overview of the many Send to Kindle app/extension options

---

The Hidden Technology That Makes Twitter Huge - Businessweek

The Hidden Technology That Makes Twitter Huge - Businessweek

Excerpt from a Twitter metadata overview

"You know how the National Security Agency collects “metadata” about the phone calls Americans make? Well, that’s what these fields are, except instead of metadata about phone calls, this is metadata about tweets. In fact, those 140 characters are less than 10 percent of all the data you’ll find in a tweet object. Twitter’s metadata is publicly documented by the company, open for perusal by all and available to anyone who wants to sign up for an API key."

The Hidden Technology That Makes Twitter Huge - Businessweek

Asus Transformer Book T100 review - Bonnie Cha - Product Reviews - AllThingsD

Striking below the Surface

"The T100 starts at $349 for the 32 gigabyte version (a 64GB model is also available for $399), and includes the keyboard dock and a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013, which usually goes for $140. That’s a great value, especially when compared to the Microsoft Surface 2, which starts at $449, runs a stripped-down version of Windows 8.1 and doesn’t include a keyboard. Meanwhile, the 32GB iPad Air costs $599.
For these reasons, and despite its flaws, the T100 is worth a look."

Asus Transformer Book T100 review - Bonnie Cha - Product Reviews - AllThingsD

Presto: Interacting with petabytes of data at Facebook [Facebook Engineering]

Check here for Presto details and documentation; for another perspective, see Facebook open sources its SQL-on-Hadoop engine, and the web rejoices (Gigaom)

"In Fall 2012, a small team in the Facebook Data Infrastructure group set out to solve this problem for our warehouse users. We evaluated a few external projects, but they were either too nascent or did not meet our requirements for flexibility and scale. So we decided to build Presto, a new interactive query system that could operate fast at petabyte scale.
In this post, we will briefly describe the architecture of Presto, its current status, and future roadmap.
Architecture
Presto is a distributed SQL query engine optimized for ad-hoc analysis at interactive speed. It supports standard ANSI SQL, including complex queries, aggregations, joins, and window functions."

Presto: Interacting with petabytes of data at Facebook

Review: New Kindle is strong challenge to iPad Air - Businessweek

#3 tbd...

"On the heels of Apple's new, lighter iPad, Amazon has come out with a full-size tablet that weighs even less yet sports a sharper display and a lower price tag. Although Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 hasn't received as much attention as the iPad Air, it is emerging as the strongest challenger yet to Apple's device.
[...]
The new full-size Kindle is a great deal at $379. It might even make a nice gift for your tech-challenged friends and relatives, as they can call Mayday rather than you. The Kindle isn't as good as the iPad Air, but it's an excellent choice for its price."

Review: New Kindle is strong challenge to iPad Air - Businessweek

Microsoft finally takes on Google Docs with real-time editing in Office Web Apps | The Verge

Better late than never?...

"Microsoft’s range of Office Web Apps are finally getting real-time editing today. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are all being updated with the ability to support co-authoring that’s similar to Google Docs. While Office Web Apps has supported the editing and sharing of documents, it lacked the real-time element that’s essential for collaborative editing amongst groups of users. Microsoft promised the support back in June, and the improvements now place the company’s offerings in a position to compete with Google Docs fully."

Microsoft finally takes on Google Docs with real-time editing in Office Web Apps | The Verge

Here's Why You Shouldn't Invest in Twitter - WSJ.com

Final paragraph of a Farhad Manjoo Twitter perspective piece

"But that doesn't change the fact that Twitter is a risk, a big one. If you bet on Twitter, you ought only go into it with the understanding that you don't know what will become of the company. You're walking into this deal nearly blind, because you have to, because Twitter is so young, so small, and so different that it's hard to know what to make of it. Sometimes such investments turn out to be huge. Other times you reach for the Maalox. Good luck."

Here's Why You Shouldn't Invest in Twitter - WSJ.com

Blockbuster, Outdone by Netflix, Will Shut Its Stores and DVD Mail Service - NYTimes.com

A digital media milestone; also see Blockbuster's Death Scene Won't End the Video Rental Store (Bloomberg Businessweek); tbd when Amazon will offer Kindle Fire HDX retailing programs to the remaining video rental stores

"Blockbuster, which had more than 9,000 retail stores across America just nine years ago, is closing the few hundred video-rental stores that it still has, the company’s owner, Dish Network, said on Wednesday in a bittersweet but long-expected announcement."

Blockbuster, Outdone by Netflix, Will Shut Its Stores and DVD Mail Service - NYTimes.com

An Offer From Amazon to Its Most Bitter Rivals - NYTimes.com

Don't fear the e-reader reaper...

"The retailer on Wednesday announced a program where stores can sell its popular reading devices. The booksellers would get a small payment on each sale and a commission on all e-books that the reader buys in the next two years.
It was a great deal, booksellers said — for Amazon."

An Offer From Amazon to Its Most Bitter Rivals - NYTimes.com

Twitter Prices Its Initial Offering at $26 Per Share - NYTimes.com

Also see Twitter’s Market Valuation Suggests Wall St. Sees Huge Growth Potential (NYT), which notes "All this is impressive for a company that has racked up more than $300 million of losses in the last three years — and may not show real profits until 2015."

"On Wednesday, Twitter set the price of its initial public offering at $26 a share, valuing the company at $18.1 billion. Twitter shares are set to begin trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
With 70 million shares sold in the offering, Twitter raised $1.8 billion. The I.P.O.’s price, the subject of debate between the board and its underwriters until late on Wednesday afternoon, was above an already heightened price range, reflecting the strong demand for the company’s stock."

Twitter Prices Its Initial Offering at $26 Per Share - NYTimes.com

The e-book choice — rent, borrow, or buy? - Business - The Boston Globe

We'll know this is a sustainable market opportunity when Amazon enters the domain

"Serious e-book fans probably know about OverDrive, an attractive but limited service that lets you borrow electronic books from a local library free of charge. Now a pair of companies, Oyster and Scribd, have launched all-you-can-read services based on a Netflix-like subscription model.
And another new company with a dreadful name, eReatah, is positioning itself as the digital successor of the classic Book of the Month Club."

The e-book choice — rent, borrow, or buy? - Business - The Boston Globe

Bitcoin price reaches a record high for the first time since April (Washington Post)

Interesting cryptocurrency times

"The new record high appears to be driven in part by surging demand for the currency in China. The volume of yuan-to-bitcoin trading in recent weeks on the leading Chinese exchange, BTC China, has been near record highs. That's very different from Mt. Gox, where trading volume in recent weeks has been much lower than it was in April. This suggests that Chinese speculators may be playing a larger role in the current appreciation than they did during the previous bull market in April."

Bitcoin price reaches a record high for the first time since April

Lenovo pursued BlackBerry bid, but Ottawa rejected idea - The Globe and Mail

No deal, eh

"Sources said Lenovo was very interested and would likely have been willing to buy BlackBerry. But the Canadian firm could ill afford to spend months tied up with a security review that could potentially derail a transaction.
One of BlackBerry’s key concerns in looking for a buyer was speed and certainty. Any transaction with significant risk of falling through was a problem because BlackBerry might not have had time to execute a Plan B with the way its business has been declining."

Lenovo pursued BlackBerry bid, but Ottawa rejected idea - The Globe and Mail

Amazon's First Employee Shel Kaphan Disses Bezos Wife's Book Review - Jason Del Rey - Commerce - AllThingsD

I suspect author Brad Stone is very pleased to see this type of publicity; his Amazon book is now in the 100 bestselling books on Amazon

"“I was at Amazon for the first 5 years of its existence, so I also have firsthand experience of those times at the company, and I have been a fairly close observer since I left,” Kaphan wrote. “I spent considerably more time in the Amazon work environment during those years than MacKenzie Bezos did. By and large I found Mr. Stone’s treatment of that which I know firsthand to be accurate — at least as accurate as it is possible to be at this great a remove, and with no contemporaneous documentation of the early chaotic days or access to certain of the principals.”"

Amazon's First Employee Shel Kaphan Disses Bezos Wife's Book Review - Jason Del Rey - Commerce - AllThingsD

Review of Nexus 5 Smartphone - WSJ.com

Summary of a Walt Mossberg Nexus 5 review

"Google has made several improvements over the Nexus 4 phone with the new Nexus 5. Walt Mossberg reviewed the phone and the new Android KitKat OS. In general, he tells us it is a good phone, but not a blockbuster."

Review of Nexus 5 Smartphone - WSJ.com

AT&T Says iPad Activations Triple Those of Last Year's Launch Weekend - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD

Another iPad Air sales data point

"AT&T said Monday that it saw a strong increase in iPad business with the launch of the iPad Air, with activations more than triple those from last year’s launch weekend.
“[I]Pad activations on AT&T increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend, driven by consumer excitement around the new iPad Air and the popularity of AT&T Mobile Share, which lets customers add an iPad to their existing data plan for just $10 a month,” AT&T said in a statement."

AT&T Says iPad Activations Triple Those of Last Year's Launch Weekend - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD

IBM, Twitter Plan Talks on Patent Dispute - Digits - WSJ

Also see Twitter Raises Sights in Heady IPO Market (WSJ) and In “Hatching Twitter,” a Billion-Dollar Company That Almost Wasn’t (AllThingsD)

"Based upon a preliminary review of the patents, Twitter said in the filing that it believes it has “meritorious defenses to IBM’s allegations.”
Twitter said in filings it has nine U.S. patents as of Sept. 30 and 95 U.S. patent applications pending – relatively few for a technology company. By contrast, Facebook Inc. said it had 774 U.S. patents before its IPO last year.
Twitter employs an unusual intellectual-property strategy, under which employees retain the rights to their inventions, rather than assigning them to the company, as is the common practice. The policy says in part that Twitter can’t pursue offensive litigation without the inventor’s permission."

IBM, Twitter Plan Talks on Patent Dispute - Digits - WSJ

Book About Amazon Is Reviewed on Amazon, by Founder’s Wife - NYTimes.com

A deeply-nested book review; also see Responding to MacKenzie Bezos's One-Star Slapdown (Bloomberg Businessweek)

"In Ms. Bezos’s review, the only one-star review “The Everything Store” has received, she accused Mr. Stone of making factual errors and, noting that Mr. Bezos was “never interviewed for this book,” took issue with Mr. Stone’s use of the phrases “Bezos believed” and “Bezos felt.” Readers, she wrote, should “take note of how seldom these guesses about his feelings and motives are marked with a footnote indicating there is any other source to substantiate them.”
Sarah Gelman, a spokeswoman for Amazon, confirmed that the review was written by Ms. Bezos. In a statement late Monday, Craig Berman, Amazon’s vice president for global communications, said: “Over the course of the author’s reporting, Amazon facilitated meetings for him with more than half a dozen senior Amazon executives, during which he had every opportunity to inquire about or fact-check claims made by former employees. He chose not to.”"

Book About Amazon Is Reviewed on Amazon, by Founder’s Wife - NYTimes.com

Helpouts From Google Connects People With Experts Over Live Video - NYTimes.com

Mechanical Turk++?

"“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s useful information,” Udi Manber, the Google vice president for engineering in charge of Helpouts, said at a press conference Monday in San Francisco. “But if you do search for a long time, you realize most of the world’s useful information still resides in people’s heads.”
Google’s search engine often finds the right answer if someone knows the question to ask, added Mr. Manber, who previously oversaw engineering for search. The problem, he said, is “very often you don’t know what question to ask.”"

Helpouts From Google Connects People With Experts Over Live Video - NYTimes.com

A Takeover Bid for BlackBerry Collapses, and Its Chief Executive Vacates His Post - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from an overview of the latest chapter in the BlackBerry implosion; also see BlackBerry Has No Plans to Shutter Its Disaster of a Handset Business (AllThingsD)

"But creating a BlackBerry without phones, Mr. Dawson cautioned, will not be easy. Most of BlackBerry’s service business, he said, is closely linked to BlackBerry handsets.
While BlackBerry Messenger, an instant messaging service, was recently expanded to the top two operating systems, the overwhelming majority of its users still own BlackBerry phones."

A Takeover Bid for BlackBerry Collapses, and Its Chief Executive Vacates His Post - NYTimes.com

iPad Air Adoption 5X That Of iPad 4 After Opening Weekend, Says Fiksu | TechCrunch

Some early iPad Air usage tracking data

“Fiksu found that three days after the iPad Air went on sale, it was being used by 0.88 percent of those millions using the apps of its clients – which is much better than either the 0.15 percent who were on iPad 4 three days after its launch, or the 0.22 percent who were on iPad mini at the same time. The iPad Air has attracted more early adopters than both devices combined, in fact, which, if borne out by device sales numbers, will mean a big win for Apple going into this holiday.”

iPad Air Adoption 5X That Of iPad 4 After Opening Weekend, Says Fiksu | TechCrunch

‘Writing on the Wall,’ by Tom Standage - NYTimes.com

A review of Tom Standage's latest (very) long-view book, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

"For nearly 20 years, we’ve thought of “new media” as the brash young upstart and “old media” as the stalwart if increasingly embattled establishment. But what if new media aren’t as new as we assume — and old media not really old at all? So argues Tom Standage in “Writing on the Wall,” a provocative book that asks us to look at media less in terms of technology — digital or analog? — than in terms of the role they invite us to play. Are we passive receptors for whatever facts, opinions and ad messages come our way? Or are we participants, sharing what we like with others, amending or commenting in the process? The second is characteristic of the Internet in general and social media in particular. But there’s nothing revolutionary about this, Standage says. Instead, it’s the role of consumer, so typical of 20th-­century mass media, that’s unnatural — and to Standage, a historical blip."

‘Writing on the Wall,’ by Tom Standage - NYTimes.com

Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters - Businessweek

So perhaps we'll eventually have the CIA on Amazon Web Services and HealthCare.gov on Google Compute Engine...

"It justifies the administration’s tough-it-out strategy. The implicit message is that healthcare.gov must be salvageable—otherwise, why would these companies wade into a political morass? Republicans in Congress will be scrutinizing the White House’s attempts to reboot the website and issuing subpoenas in hopes of further embarrassing President Obama, who has already been tarnished by its failure. These Silicon Valley firms are lending their expertise to the project even though some, like Google, are furious about the National Security Agency’s aggressive, secret pursuit of their customers’ data, as the New York Times reports."

Why the Googlification of Obamacare Really Matters - Businessweek

IBM Attacks Amazon in New Ad Campaign - Digits - WSJ

I'm guessing Amazon may request to see the data supporting these assertions

"In an unusual move, IBM is launching a marketing campaign Monday that names Amazon as a rival and implicitly claims that IBM is the leader in the estimated $40 billion-a-year cloud-computing market. IBM rarely mentions competitors in any of its advertisements.
“Whose cloud powers 270,000 more websites than Amazon?” asks one print advertisement that will run in some major newspapers and business magazines. “If your answer is IBM, you’re among the well informed. The IBM cloud offerings also support 30% more of the most popular websites than anyone else in the world.”"

IBM Attacks Amazon in New Ad Campaign - Digits - WSJ

Google's Eric Schmidt Lambastes NSA Over Spying, Following New Snowden Revelations - WSJ.com

This strikes me as somewhat ironic...

""It's really outrageous that the National Security Agency was looking between the Google data centers, if that's true. The steps that the organization was willing to do without good judgment to pursue its mission and potentially violate people's privacy, it's not OK," Mr. Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Sunday. "The Snowden revelations have assisted us in understanding that it's perfectly possible that there are more revelations to come."
Mr. Schmidt said Google had registered complaints with the NSA, as well as President Barack Obama and members of Congress."

Google's Eric Schmidt Lambastes NSA Over Spying, Following New Snowden Revelations - WSJ.com

With ‘Alpha House,’ Amazon Makes Bid for Living Room Screens and Beyond - NYTimes.com

(Amazon) Prime time TV

"Lest you think Amazon is simply being generous, it is important to note that Prime members reportedly spend 150 percent more on the site after joining. You get the drift: Come for “Alpha House” and stick around to buy a big new flat-screen to watch it on.
It’s not cheap or easy to make content. Variety estimated that the company is spending $1 million to $2 million an episode on original programming and will not reap immediate profits, but Amazon is playing a longer game. It’s part of the so-called flywheel effect, a business theory that suggests that adding small features to a core business — in Amazon’s case, selling millions of products online — makes the wheel spin faster, helping you add customers and achieve efficiencies through increased scale."

With ‘Alpha House,’ Amazon Makes Bid for Living Room Screens and Beyond - NYTimes.com

Apple vs Google: Did Apple Learn Anything From Its War With Microsoft? | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

Excerpt from a forthcoming book about the Apple/Google rivalry

"Steve Jobs said he never saw the similarity between his fight with Android and his fight with Bill Gates and Microsoft in the 1980s. But just about everyone else inside and out of Apple did. It seemed unfathomable that Jobs would lose two battles the same way a generation apart. But with so many similarities between the two dogfights, it was hard not to think about it."

Apple vs Google: Did Apple Learn Anything From Its War With Microsoft? | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

Chicago Grid | What BlackBerry needs to do to survive

Excerpt from an Andy Ihnatko BlackBerry perspective piece

"BlackBerry will long serve as a cautionary tale. I myself was surprised when I looked at the historical charts of mobile OS market share, and was reminded that BlackBerry continued to grow and gain in the first few years of the iPhone’s release. This tracks with Apple and Google’s campaign to finish building out their respective operating systems and harden them for enterprise use.
We forget that it took years for these two things to develop. They began as colorful caterpillars that couldn’t even cut and paste text. Then they entered a larval stage in which they were good personal phones. They emerged from the chrysalis not so much as delicate butterflies, but as techno-organic BlackBerry death delivery systems."

Chicago Grid | What BlackBerry needs to do to survive

Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google | Ars Technica

The ghost of Nortel is activated by Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Ericsson, and Sony (collectively "Rockstar Bidco")

"Rockstar may want to keep the patent conflict as a kind of "proxy war" between Google and its competitors. But Google has plenty of patents, and this new attack seems assured to bring a counter-attack.
The smartphone market is more valuable than ever, and the $4.5 billion Rockstar purchase shows that Google's competitors will spare no expense to put a damper on Android, and they hope to make money while they do it. Patents have become the arena in which tech companies have chosen to do battle. Six years after the iPhone and five years after the launch of Android, the stakes keep getting raised."

Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google | Ars Technica

Google Introduces KitKat, Its Latest Version of Android - Businessweek

An example of Google's plan "'to bring the power of Google’s smarts' to its phones"

"There are a few neat tricks in the software. When users get a phone call from an unrecognized number, the phone will search the Web and identify the caller, if possible. The phone will also try to intuit what information its owner may need as part of a service called Google Now. When the owner is near Yellowstone Park, for example, the phone will search the Web to automatically present the times that the Old Faithful geyser is likely to erupt. When the user is near the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Tex., it will serve up the latest information about the location’s famous bat swarms."

Google Introduces KitKat, Its Latest Version of Android - Businessweek

Google Barge Conspiracy Theories: Zombies ... or Maybe a Single Dove - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

Check the full article for more speculation about the Google "barge armada"

"Those are the two most widely held theories and both make sense. But, since it is the Borg-like hive of Google we’re talking here, why not make up some nonsense conspiracy theories:
The next phase of Google’s core business: Amphibious Data Collection and Ad-Serving Vehicles.
Storage for those unsold, unshipped Nexus Q devices.
An MMA fighting arena for employee off-sites.
Windowless Google+ hangouts.
The place where Googlers can do their 20 percent time.
Headquarters for Google’s America’s Cup entry in a longstanding plan to take Larry Ellison and Team Oracle to the mat."

Google Barge Conspiracy Theories: Zombies ... or Maybe a Single Dove - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

Oracle, Google, Red Hat Engineers Ride to Rescue of Health Care Site - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Sign of the times

"Engineers from at least three major tech companies are said to be helping the federal government with its troubled health insurance website, HealthCare.gov.
According to a Bloomberg report, at least three employees on leave from Google, Oracle and Red Hat are stepping in to help get the site up and running nearly a month after its disastrous launch."

Oracle, Google, Red Hat Engineers Ride to Rescue of Health Care Site - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Social Network for Opinions Gets a Dose of New Money - NYTimes.com

NSA infiltration plan likely still tbd

"The financing round was led by Michael and Xochi Birch, the founders of Bebo, with additional contributions from Avadis Tevanian, a former top Apple technologist; Lars Rasmussen, a Facebook engineer who helped create Google Maps when he worked at the search giant; the venture firms Greylock and Lightspeed; and others.
Ms. Gansca describes Knotch as “Twitter for the 99 percent” since it doesn’t require people to develop online followings to have an audience. Knotch users can easily gravitate to like-minded people by sharing their opinions through the company’s mobile app and finding other people who have registered similar sentiments on the same topics."

Social Network for Opinions Gets a Dose of New Money - NYTimes.com

Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses - NYTimes.com

Deep digital democracy dilemmas

"So they are pushing back in various ways — from cosmetic tactics like publishing the numbers of government requests they receive to political ones including tense conversations with officials behind closed doors. And companies are building technical fortresses intended to make the private information in which they trade inaccessible to the government and other suspected spies.
Yet even as they take measures against government collection of personal information, their business models rely on collecting that same data, largely to sell personalized ads. So no matter the steps they take, as long as they remain ad companies, they will be gathering a trove of information that will prove tempting to law enforcement and spies."

Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses - NYTimes.com