237 Archived Topics
Remove Filter  | It was revealed yesterday that [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/16/AR2009071600811.html"]Apple began blocking Palm Pre users [/URL]from syncing with iTunes. Apparently the latest upgrade, which I installed just this morning won't allow Pre users to sync with their phones. Seriously, Apple? Are you really going to be this petty? Do you really feel this threatened …  |
| | When Microsoft first announced their retail strategy back in February I wrote a post called [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4030.html"]Microsoft Retail Strategy Doomed to Fail[/URL] and I haven't changed my view. Today,[URL="http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3358"] it became clear[/URL] that in the face of all common sense they are continuing to push forward with this wrong-headed idea. Remember, … |
| | Over the last year, Microsoft ads have been simply bad on one end of the spectrum and horrible on the other. It's really time for the company to reconsider their ad agency choices and their overall strategy because right now they are throwing good money after bad. I had one … |
| | In the final days of a failing model, old media made one last futile attempt to save its fading way of life by trying to expand copyright law to exclude fair use and linking. Just this morning, my DaniWeb colleague, Sharon Fisher wrote a post called [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4479.html"]This Blog Post Could … |
| | On June 15th, less than two weeks ago, the [URL="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/15/apples_mac_sales_held_up_in_may_while_ipod_shipments_fell.html"]Apple Insider blog reported[/URL] that Apple sales continued slipping in May. Mac sales were down, perhaps not as much as expected but still down, and more surprising, the previously recession-proof iPod sales were falling. Could it be that the economy was … |
| | One of the big rules of online advertising as I understand it is that you count success to a great extent based on how many people click through to your site. It's really the basis of how people get paid by Google for [URL="https://adwords.google.com/select/AdSenseLoginToAdWords"]Google AdSense[/URL]. If you get click-throughs you … |
| | I've seen a lot of love for Microsoft's newly branded search engine, [URL="http://www.bing.com/"]Bing[/URL] lately and frankly I just don't get it. Bing landed a couple of weeks ago with a huge ad budget (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4372.html"]Microsoft Ad Wars Turn to Google[/URL]) and a big splash, but I've used …  |
| | Apple kicked off its annual [URL="http://developer.apple.com/WWDC/"]World Wide Developer's Conference[/URL] on Monday, and it proved something very important; it could generate plenty of excitement without [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs"]Steve Jobs[/URL] on stage. I know that I along with many others watch with anticipation as live bloggers on the scene gave us the blow by … |
| | Ah, Microsoft, that crazy company from Redmond, WA is at again. This time they want to rename the Netbook unilaterally to the...drum roll please..."low cost small notebook PC." As first reported in the [URL="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090602PD221.html"]Digitimes[/URL] last week, Microsoft decided on their own that the name was not appropriate and they were … |
| | Lots of talk about [URL="http://wave.google.com/"]Google Wave[/URL] last week, but after reading five articles that all described it in a similar fashion, I still didn't quite get what all the fuss was about. Finally, at the behest of one of my [URL="http://twitter.com/CharJTF"]online friends[/URL] I looked at the first 40 minutes of … |
| | I've been to a couple of conferences recently where I was surprised to see representatives of the U.S. military on panels discussing various uses of technology, but I was shocked to learn that the military was on the cutting edge of the technologies being discussed. To be honest, my perception … |
| | [URL="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136847"]Ad Age reports[/URL] that Microsoft is ready to spend $80M to try and turn people's attention away from Google, the dominant search market leader, and toward Bing, Microsoft's latest search engine offering. Much like Microsoft's attempts last summer to prop up Vista, trying to turn consumers to a new product …  |
| | I attended two seemingly unrelated events things this week: I saw the new [URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/"]Star Trek movie[/URL] and I attended the [URL="http://www.mitcio.com/index.php"]MIT CIO Conference[/URL] in Cambridge. At the conference, Tom Malone, who is the Director of the [URL="http://cci.mit.edu/"]MIT Center for Collective Intelligence[/URL] (think about how much they must have just on … |
| | According to multiple sources, the Palm Pre is set to launch on June 6th, which happens to be the 65th anniversary of [URL="http://www.army.mil/d-day/"]D-Day invasion[/URL]. I guess we can call this the Pre-Day invasion. Instead of storming the beaches of Normandy to take on Nazi Germany, Palm will be taking on … |
| | I was watching an ad the other day for Panasonic where it showed people watching YouTube on a big flat screen TV in the living room. Yet most people don't watch content from the web on TV, probably because it still takes a technical leap that's simply too difficult for … |
| | This coming Monday, May 11th, marks the start of the first annual [URL="http://news.opensuse.org/2009/05/07/get-ready-for-opensuse-community-week/"]openSUSE Community Week[/URL], an event conceived of by openSUSE community members to help mentor folks who want to get involved with the openSUSE open source Linux project, but don't know how to get started. The virtual conference will … |
| | [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10234622-93.html"]Ms. Mayer went to Washington[/URL] the other day to defend Google against recent attacks that it is responsible for the ongoing problems of newspapers. Marissa Mayer, who is the Vice President, Search Products and User Experience at Google testified before a Senate sub-committee on '[URL="http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=7f8df1a5-5504-4f4c-ba34-ba3dc3955c61"]The Future of Journalism[/URL].' Not surprisingly … |
| | Last week we heard about the first Android-powered Netbook (which I wrote about in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4290.html"]First Android Netbook Nothing to Write Home About[/URL]). Then on Friday, analyst [URL="http://gartenblog.net/"]Michael Gartenberg[/URL], who is VP of Strategy at Interpret, and who writes frequently about consumer technology sent the following Tweet: [I]Is Android's future in … |
| | Word emerged this week that Apple was in talks with Verizon and everyone assumed it was it about the iPhone, but buried at the end of a BusinessWeek article, [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090429_594307.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech"]AT&T's iPhone Dilemma[/URL], is an interesting nugget: [QUOTE]Apple has also shown Verizon a larger, more computer-like device dubbed by one person … |
| | The quarterly numbers are in the books for Google, Apple and Microsoft , and while Apple and Google made money, Microsoft failed to report a profit for the first time in 23 years as a public company. [B]Crazy Times, Crazy Results[/B] It seems unfathomable that Apple continued to do well … |
| | A California Senate candidate is using a Don Henley song in a campaign video on YouTube, and when Henley sued for copyright violation, the candidate fired back that it was his first amendment rights to use the song. It seems he failed to understand the nuances of the Digital Millennium … |
| | I opened up Google Reader this morning and found major rumors from our favorite corporate rivals Apple and Microsoft. For Apple it is the oft cited iTablet. For Microsoft, it's a supposed iPod Touch clone. I try not to give too much credence to rumors (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3626.html"]It's … |
| | It's with more than idle curiosity that I've watched the recent [URL="http://news.cnet.com/microsofts-lauren-ad-follow-up-disses-mac-power/?tag=rtcol;pop"]Microsoft ads[/URL] that attack Apple, subtly suggesting that it's too expensive and that it's all glitz with no real computing power. There is so much wrong with these assertions that it's hard to know where to begin. There is … |
| | [I]Video killed the radio star. Pictures came and broke your heart. ~Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star[/I] It turns out the old song was wrong. Video didn't kill the radio star and the internet didn't kill the newspaper industry. It was a failure to embrace new technology, to believe they … |
| | Microsoft has been active lately, showing some signs of spunk. I reported last week that Steve Ballmer was going straight after Apple at the McGraw Hill Summit (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4155.html"]Ballmer Wastes No Words Going After Apple[/URL]). This week we see the release of an [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2009/03/new-microsoft-ad-goes-after-high-price-of-apple.html"]ad campaign comparing Apple … |
| | Not as though it's ever going to happen, but suppose I were at a party one night and [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/it100/2005/executive/GOOG.htm"]Eric Schmidt[/URL], CEO of Google happened to be there. I would love to corner him and get him a glass of wine or scotch or whatever it is that CEOs at large … |
| | On Saturday afternoon during a weekend visit to New York City, we were walking back to the hotel when we spied a place called the [URL="http://www.spy34.com"]Spy Shops[/URL]. Think Q in James Bond and that's what you'll find here. A gadget lover's paradise, all designed for snooping. Naturally I had to … |
| | Lots of news from Apple this week. There is of course [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue-email.html?em"]the new Shuffle[/URL] which has the web abuzz with chatter because the controls are on the headphones and not the device (stupid design doomed to fail) and there is the standard [URL="http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/G-8Z2A_yWvk/another-patent-hints-at-mac-tablet.ars"]Mac Tablet[/URL] rumor (Yawn; call me when they … |
| | I recently had a conversation with [URL="http://www.coda.com/about/management-team?KeyPlayer_ID=13"]Jeremy Roche[/URL], who is CEO at [URL="http://www.coda.com/"]CODA[/URL], a high-end accounting software solutions vendor with more than 30 years in the business. Roche told me how his company began on the HP 3000, then moved to the DEC VAX, client/server and all the way to … |
| | Seems every time I write a piece suggesting open source as an option, I get a couple of comments warning readers about the scary complexities of open source licenses. So I decided to ask a guy who knows free and open source (FOSS) exactly what the deal was regarding FOSS … |
| | You have to give Microsoft credit. They keep trying, even if what they are trying is copying Apple. This time they have announced they are going to open retail stores. Sound familiar? It should because it's what Apple has done so successfully with its Apple Store strategy. The problem Microsoft … |
| | I've never made it a secret that I'm a big fan of Apple products. I love my Mac Book Pro and my iPhone, but I have to say that Apple has been pissing me off lately. The company has decided to throw its legal weight around to protect its market … |
| | When Facebook changed its [URL="http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever"]terms of service[/URL] on Monday, it caused an immediate uproar, and when people screamed loudly enough, Facebook backed down. What this shows me is that although Facebook is a free service, it exists and is successful because we make it so. The millions of people who … |
| | Since Palm introduced its [URL="http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/090109-CES-2009-Palm-Introduces-Smartphone-with-GPS/"]new smart phone[/URL] at CES last month, the buzz has been deafening and for that alone, Palm deserves a lot of credit. Let's face it, they were up until that moment, a company on life support, but with one smoothly-presented product announcement they were on the … |
| | I came up with an idea this week: What if Microsoft made Windows open source? Before you accuse of me of link baiting, I believe this idea has merit for several reasons. It will reduce the cost of development, put the power of the community behind supporting what's become an … |
| | Last week Apple and Microsoft released their fourth quarter MP3 player sales figures, which Apple chooses to call its first quarter for some odd reason, and the numbers were a startling contrast. On one hand you had Microsoft with a 54 percent drop off in sales from the fourth quarter … |
| | There are number of factors coming together that lead me to believe that open source's moment is right now, today, this year. Open source already runs so many things and just last week as Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, he asked Scott McNealy of … |
| | For the last 10 years Google has been on an upward trajectory making gobs of money and astounding us all with there seemingly endless fount of innovation. For a time, there seemed to be a new product announcement every week. Google has always been very savvy about exploiting the news … |
| | There has been a lot of chatter this week about the health of Steve Jobs. On one level, it's a perfectly understandable discussion. Jobs is a public figure and as such what happens to him--good or bad--interests us. But a friend of mine suggested that any discussion of Jobs' health … |
| | There was a big fuss earlier this week when The Sunday Times of London published an [URL="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece"]article[/URL] claiming that every Google search was the equivalent of boiling a pot of tea. My my, talk about a tempest in a tea pot. The Times attributed this bit of profundity to a … |
| | Let's face it, when you have Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show in the same week, it's an overwhelming amount of news to deal with, even (maybe especially) for a technology journalist like myself who gets paid to follow the latest and greatest and report back to you. I've been … |
| | I wrote a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3687.html"]post[/URL] the other day criticizing the RIAA for failing to understand 21st marketing techniques. The night I wrote the RIAA post, I listened to an interview on [URL="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591002"]Fresh Air [/URL]with author and Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, who recently published a book called [URL="http://remix.lessig.org/"]Remix[/URL], and he articulated … |
| | The time has come to drag the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) kicking and screaming into the 21st century because it clearly has a lot to learn about marketing on the internet. The RIAA had a [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/music/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212501507&subSection=Management"]good news/bad news announcement[/URL] on Friday. The good news was that it would … |
| | Joe "Zonker"Brockmeier is the Community Manager for openSUSE. He has been involved with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) since 1996 when he discovered FOSS while a college student and was hooked. For most of his career he has worked as a technology journalist covering Linux and open source topics. … |
| | Cnet [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10122751-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"]reported[/URL] the other day that Microsoft has placed an app, Seadragon, in the Apple AppStore, even before releasing it on the Windows Mobile platform because, get this, the iPhone is the only phone platform with the graphics chops to handle the application. There is such delicious irony in all … |
| | In a wide ranging [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/10/marissa-mayer-at-le-web-the-almost-complete-interview/"]interview[/URL] with Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington on Wednesday at [URL="http://www.lewebparis.com/"]Le Web[/URL] in Paris, Google's Marissa Mayer talked about all things Google, but what I found most interesting was when the conversation turned toward the future of search. Mayer said the key to the future of search … |
| | [I]Too much information running through my brain Too much information driving me insane ~Police, Too Much Information. [/I] Yesterday, Seth Godin wrote a post in his blog called, [URL="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/warning-the-int.html"]Warning: The Internet is almost full[/URL]. It's not of course, and he had is his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, but …  |
| | I like to follow news about Apple and its products as much as anyone. It's interesting and fun and watching the speculation is a kind of voyeurism, a way to get inside a company that keeps a tight lid on information, but much like baseball trade rumors, which I also … |
| | With much fanfare Sun announced its new JavaFX platform yesterday, but curiously [URL="http://channelsun.sun.com/video/javafx -- do more!/3856260001"]in a video introducing the platform[/URL], Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, made the browser the enemy of content owners, and set up JavaFX as the platform to give developers and content owners direct access to users. … |
| | Today is Black Friday and people are going a bit insane standing on sidewalks overnight waiting for the the big deal on their desired electronics. Everyone from WalMart to Target to Best Buy to the Apple Store is getting involved. And so are online retailers like Amazon. And to be … |
The End.