Is Yahoo Working On A Cell Phone?
Earlier this week Michael Arrington at TechCrunch dropped a bombshell that has yet to be explained: Yahoo is supposedly working on a cell phone.
Factories Get Wireless Help
NIST researching ways to help manufacturers minimize radio interference so wireless devices work better in factories.
Why Is Wall Street Punishing Clearwire?
It would be unethical of me to offer stock tips in this space, so I'll just phrase this as a question: Why is Wall Street hammering Clearwire Corp.? After reaching a high of $33.30 on July 19, the share price for the WiMax network startup has declined 37%. And on Tuesday the stock dropped 7% "on no news whatsoever," as The Motley Fool put it.
Google News Becomes A Publisher
Instead of links, Google wants to carry articles from news agencies like The Associated Press to promote "the definitive original copy and give credit to the original journalist."
Six Questions About The Google Phone
We're all waiting for the big news next week: Will Google finally announce the Google Phone? Well, I am ready for the Google Phone. In fact, I know exactly what I want to do with it when I first get my hands on one, assuming there actually will be a Google Phone. Here is my list of questions.
iPhone Impresses Europeans. Almost.
Not all of them, obviously, but during my tip to London this week anyone within sight of my iPhone sidled up next to me quickly for a demonstration of how it worked. There were lots of oohs and aahs, quickly followed by bahs.
When Will Anyone Actually Watch Mobile TV?
With his post today, my colleague Eric Zeman raised a great question: Is anyone actually watching mobile TV? If by that he meant people watching video on their iPods, yes, I see many iPod users watching video. If, however, he meant people watching V CAST and other mobile TV services that stream over cellular networks...
Verizon Wireless Quietly Rolling Out More V CAST TV Markets
Verizon Wireless launched its MediaFLO-based V CAST mobile TV services back in early March to two dozen or so markets across the United States. Today, Verizon added Corpus Christi, Texas, to the list of markets, which has swelled over the past few months to 37.
Popover Hate
Engadget managing editor Ryan Block struck a nerve yesterday when he posted a scathing attack on keyword popovers, such as those supplied by "IntelliTXT / Vibrant Media and like ad services whose entire business depends on polluting your content, confusing your audience, and tricking them into clicking on ads that just won't go away."
Letting Crazy People Set Intellectual-Property Policy
Three stories in the news this week demonstrate that intellectual-property policy is set by crazy people. NBC is threatening to dump iTunes unless Apple violates the laws of nature. An organization of science fiction writers is sending willy-nilly takedown notices for property it doesn't control. And Viacom pirated a YouTube video, and then sent down a takedown notice against the video's real author.
And the Winner of the Waiting Game is.Microsoft!!
Hey, want to win a lawsuit even if you lose? Or better yet, want to get a verdict against you overturned even when it isn't? Just drag the original lawsuit out, oh, say about four years and when you lose in court file an appeal and let that drag on another four years.
It worked like a charm for Microsoft.
The Lighter Side of Outsourcing
Consumer confidence faltering in a sputtering economy, jobs continuing to move offshore at rapid pace… is this a time to laugh at outsourcing? Why not? As outsourcing vendors get increasingly sophisticated, and as corporate America gets increasingly greedy about the cost savings, here are a few glorious changes that we can look forward to.
Dear New IRS CIO: Admit Disastrous Failures And Outsource All IT
I haven't had a nice high-colonic IRS audit in a while, so what the heck: Of all the deep-seated horrors within the IT organization you now head, this is the killer: "60% of the IRS employees contacted by testers posing as help desk workers were talked into changing their computer passwords over the phone." A new CIO can't fix that -- but wholesale outsourcing
Microsoft Settles Web Patent Dispute With Eolas
Shareholders of the closely held company will receive a per-share dividend of between $60 and $72 as a result of the deal with Microsoft, although terms of the settlement are confidential.
The IRS Gets A New CIO
If there's a CIO hot seat, it's got to be at the Internal Revenue Service. Who would want that job, anyway?
Five Things Microsoft Should Fix In Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Having long taken the position that there are many things which need to be fixed in Vista, I'm happy to see Microsoft is at work on a beta of Service Pack 1 for Vista. On the other hand, an examination of Redmond's documentation reveals that there may some significant shortfalls when SP1 ships in early 2008.
Gear6 Aims To Speed Storage Access
For most applications, the storage industry is fairly adept at delivering requisite performance. All, that is, except for large data set processing. Think: Financial market modeling, or digital image rendering, or seismic analysis for the gas and oil industry. For these applications, thousands of servers churn away for days before the job is finished. And when there's a lot of data fetching, the speed of the storage system is critical, and in most cases, currently inadequate. Gear6 thinks it ca
Stonebraker Raises Vertica's DW Profile
I had a long briefing with database legend Michael Stonebraker today, and I feel compelled to share a few highlights of the conversation. Stonebraker is known as a visionary, and he has consistently turned those visions into long-term bets through commercial startups. Today's prediction? "Sooner or later, the entire data warehousing market is going to move to column-store solutions," Stonebraker asserts, column-store being the architectural basis of his latest venture, a startup called Vertica.
Another CIO Priority: Managing Uncertainty
Management philosophers have held forth for years on the chief role of the chief information officer. We've been told that they must be adept at managing complexity and managing the ever-accelerating pace of change and even managing their bosses' expectations. Let's hurl another esoteric priority into the mix: managing uncertainty.
Microsoft Spooning BlackBerry? I Think Not
The ripple effects in the mobile and wireless market continue to spread, in ever more Byzantine ways. Today Reuters reports that "Research in Motion Ltd shares rose more than 3 percent on Thursday on renewed market speculation that Microsoft Corp could be interested in buying the BlackBerry maker."
This according to one analyst would be "in response to Google's recent announcement that it is interested in ma
Jaxtr's New Twist on VoIP
Given the recent failure of SunRocket, and Vonage's lack of profits and patent problems, you might find it odd to see VCs pouring money into yet another VoIP company.
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