Topics by Techwriter10

Yesterday was the major league baseball trade deadline and lots of teams made [URL="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4369463"]big deals[/URL] and took huge gambles for short-term gain, while possibly risking the future in the form of younger, cheaper, but unproven talent. [URL="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/31/EDQR191T6C.DTL"]Microsoft and Yahoo![/URL] also made a trade of sorts when they signed an historic …

Word came out yesterday that [URL="http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/23/news/companies/ATT_earns.reut/"]AT&T didn't have a great quarter[/URL] (which ironically sent the stock price soaring because it wasn't as bad as expected). This loss seemed perplexing to me given that Apple reported its numbers earlier this week (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4560.html"]Lauren's Wrong: People Definitely Want Macs[/URL]), …

Apple released its [URL="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html"]third quarter numbers[/URL] yesterday and by any benchmark they were impressive. Consider these numbers as [URL="http://www.macworld.com/article/141829/2009/07/appleq309.html?lsrc=top_1"]reported by Macworld[/URL]: * $8.34 billion in sales and a net profit of $1.23 billion * 5.2 million iPhones * 10. 2 million iPods * 2.6 million Macs (of which1.75 million were …

[URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10291462-93.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1"]Today Yahoo! is releasing[/URL] a new version of its search tool with many changes. This is significant for a number of reasons: [LIST] [*]Yahoo! has been in the news lately mostly as Microsoft's take-over target. The make-over provides the company with a news opportunity that's actually about an upgrade to …

Last week Amazon [URL="http://mashable.com/2009/07/17/amazon-kindle-1984/"]did something despicable[/URL]. They violated the privacy of every Kindle user when without warning they remotely deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindle Readers. It seems that Amazon had determined these books had been purchased "illegally." (The irony of choosing these particular books …

[I]It's not always easy, And sometimes life can be deceiving, I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together ~Jack Johnson, Better Together[/I] News leaked out this morning on the [URL="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090716/yahoo-search-ad-deal-with-microsoft-down-to-the-short-strokes-but-caution-also-advised/"]All Things Digital Blog[/URL] (and subsequently widely carried by the New York Times, PC Mag Online, Wired and …

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, …

I've[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4290.html"] speculated in the past[/URL] that nothing could keep Google from moving Android from a phone to a computer. After all a phone is just a hand-held computer, so it should come as no surprise that [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html"]Google officially announced[/URL] yesterday that it was getting in the computer operating system business …

My colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols waxed nostalgically on Monday in his [URL="http://blogs.computerworld.com/so_long_compuserve_nice_to_have_known_you"]Computerworld Cyber Cynic[/URL] blog about CompuServe, the long-time service that shut down recently, and which Vaughan-Nichols says he's going to miss. As much as I like [URL="http://twitter.com/sjvn"]SJVN[/URL], I have to say good riddance to old technology. It long outlived …

[I]How come I can't let go? I'm between two worlds ~Tom Petty, Between Two Worlds[/I] As I watched vendors navigate the changing software world last week at [URL="http://www.e2conf.com/"]Enterprise 2.0 in Boston[/URL], it struck me that the old companies are trying desperately to hold onto to the markets they have dominated …

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 …

Speaking about consumer search [URL="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/18/ballmer-we-should-have-built-search-sooner/"]last week[/URL], Steve Ballmer said he now regrets that Microsoft quote "didn't start earlier" unquote. But it seems to me that Microsoft has been all in for a long time and they just haven't been very successful at consumer search. It wasn't so much they gave …

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 …

[URL="http://blogs.forrester.com/information_management/2009/05/microsoft-office-still-owns-the-desktop.html"]Sherri McLeish from Forrester[/URL] reports that 80 percent of enterprise customers still use Microsoft Office. While this is down significantly from the 95 percent reported in this [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_27/b3991412.htm"]2006 BusinessWeek article[/URL], it still makes me wonder why so many companies would continue to use Microsoft Office given the current economy and …

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 …

As usual Apple put on quite a show at the [URL="http://developer.apple.com/WWDC/"]WWDC 09 Keynote[/URL] on Monday, but what struck me was the undercurrent of derision for its exclusive carrier AT&T. Tucked in among the [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/iphone/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217800153"]big announcements[/URL] of faster, cheaper Mac Books, $29 Snow Leopard upgrades, the long rumored $99 iPhone and …

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 …

The iPhone faces a critical test this month with several factors coming together to threaten the dominance of the popular smart phone. First of all there's the Pre, a shiny new comer that threatens to overtake Apple's cool factor when it's released by Sprint this month (as I wrote about …

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 …

It's never a dull moment when it comes to Google, Microsoft and Apple (which is why I write about them so much), and this week Google and Microsoft made some big announcements. For Google, it was [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html"]Google Wave[/URL], an incredibly hyped new communications interface (more on that it in a …

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've never been a big fan of American Idol or reality TV in general, but the tit for tat going on between Microsoft and Apple ads reminds me a bit of a reality TV competition with bloggers acting as Simon and Paula and the gang. We watch. Sometimes we laugh. …

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 …

The App Store is a beautiful idea that is [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4149.html"]wildly successfu[/URL]l, but Apple has a big App Store problem. They are trying to control the content in the Apps and they really, really need to just get out of the way and let the market judge the quality of an …

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 Android is about to take the leap from the cell phone to the netbook, and much like the first Android-powered cell phone, the first iteration is a bit of head-shaker. Instead of a dazzling showcase, it's underpowered and small, and although it has some interesting qualities, cost is going …

On Friday, a 13 year old named Connor Mulcahey from Weston, Connecticut had the distinct honor of [URL="http://www.apple.com/itunes/billion-app-countdown/"]downloading the one billionth app[/URL] from the iPhone App Store. In order to honor this occasion, I decided to list my five favorite iPhone apps. Just a word before I do: I'm not …

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 …

Apple came out with its earnings report yesterday, and while all wasn't rosy for the Cupertino technology company, bottom line is they made money as earnings increased an impressive an impressive 8.7 percent in year over year earnings with net profits up 15 percent (as reported in [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/apr/22/apple-quarter-results"]the Guardian[/URL]). All …

I've been fascinated by the recent series of Microsoft ads that go after Apple. On one hand I commended Microsoft for having a unified message in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4186.html"]Microsoft Gives Apple the Full Court Press[/URL]. On the other, I think the message is off kilter as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4212.html"]Apple's Value is …

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 …

In his keynote last Wednesday at AIIM, Andrew Lippman from MIT's Media Lab pointed out that not that long ago we went to work then we went home and watched TV and the two worlds never collided, but toda social networking tools and mobile devices are blurring the lines between …

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 …

I was a bit surprised to open my [URL="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-ballmer-apple-is-too-expensive-for-this-economy-and-thats-why-msft-will/"]PaidContent.org newsletter[/URL] this morning and find that Steve Ballmer was taking direct aim at Apple in pointed comments at the McGraw Hill Summit yesterday. Ballmer went straight for the jugular calling Apple too expensive for today's economy, perhaps because Apple's computer sales …

For the better part of this decade Apple has created some amazing products from the Mac Book to the iPod to the iPhone. They've had an enormous technological and cultural impact, but even with all of these accomplishments, the meteoric rise of the App store is simply astonishing. They went …

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 …

When Google released Chrome last Fall, I wrote that it represented a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3092.html"]direct attack on Microsoft and Apple[/URL]. This week, my colleague [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=334716"]Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes in ComputerWorld[/URL] that Android could be coming to a Netbook near you by the end of this year. If this reports turns out to …

[I]And I know I'm not the only one To ever spend my life sitting playing future games ~Fleetwood Mac, Future Games.[/I] When Microsoft released [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/SURFACE/Default.aspx"]Microsoft Surface[/URL] in 2007, it was easy to dismiss it, a PC the size of a table that cost $10,000. While everyone else was designing smaller …

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 …