Monthly Archives: September 2008

Richard Waters Cisco’s latest acquisition: Tell it to the marines

September 19, 2008 5:48 pm by Richard Waters

jabber.jpgIf you had been asked to guess at a likely acquirer for Jabber, a private open source instant messaging company, the name Cisco might not have been at the top of your list. Today, though, comes news that the network equipment giant has indeed agreed to buy Jabber for an undisclosed amount.

Despite the cute name and sparky logo, there is nothing lightweight about Jabber. It was devised from the beginning as an enterprise-grade presence and instant messaging system. Customers include banks, telcos and the US marines. Read more

Posted in Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Seedcamp: the winners

September 19, 2008 1:15 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Seedcamp’s winners have just been announced. They are: Read more

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Posted in Europe |

Chris Nuttall Amazon has cloud content-delivery edge

September 18, 2008 11:55 pm by Chris Nuttall

Clouds - flickr, Kevin DooleyAmazon has been at the forefront of the development of cloud computing services and it moved out to the edge of that cumulus today with its announcement of a content delivery network (CDN).

In a blog note, Werner Vogels, Amazon chief technology officer, explained that offering online services through the cloud of the internet should not be as nebulous as it sounds. Read more

Posted in Digital media, Internet |

Tim Bradshaw The best of times, the worst of times

September 17, 2008 11:52 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Is this the best time there’s ever been to be a start-up? Or does the current banking crisis signal the death of American-style risk-taking for new businesses seeking funding? Each view was espoused by two serial tech entrepreneurs at Seedcamp, the tech start-up conference in London.

Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute.com and latterly Mydeco, a furniture site, was resolutely optimistic. Read more

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Posted in Europe, Tech |

Chris Nuttall Storage and the living-room TV network

September 17, 2008 12:00 am by Chris Nuttall

Seagate GoExternal hard drives can be great for PC backup and carrying your data around with you, but I can think of two non-PC uses straightaway for the pair of drives launched by Seagate on Monday.

They both reside under my TV, as do two other possible destinations for external storage that are less friendly to hard drive manufacturers. Read more

Posted in Digital media, Games, Hardware, Internet |

Lehman.com – still open for business?

September 16, 2008 3:24 pm by Rob Minto

lehman screenshotOne of the often-cited benefits of the web is the ability to update websites in realtime. Or, failing that, on a daily basis. Or now and then.

Or, in the case of www.lehman.com, not at all. Apparently, the bank is still open for business, and thriving as ever. The latest press release available on the site is the bank’s third quarter results. Read more

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Posted in Digital media |

Tim Bradshaw Big-name backers for Dopplr

September 15, 2008 10:36 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Dopplr, one of the darlings of the early adopter crowd, announced an all-star roster of angel backers today.

A social network primarily aimed at business travellers, Dopplr informs its users when serendipity delivers themselves and their frequent-flier contacts to the same city. Read more

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Posted in Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Qype’s online Yellow Pages get more green

September 15, 2008 9:30 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Yell investors, who have seen their shares fall from over 400p to less than 100p so far this year, may take some convincing that there is still value in the Yellow Pages market as it moves online. Read more

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Posted in Digital media |

Chris Nuttall Console wars abated in August

September 13, 2008 12:50 am by Chris Nuttall

NPD August 2008It’s always amusing to see the spin the console makers put on the key monthly sales figures in the US, released by the NPD research firm.

The bald facts of the August stats just released are that Nintendo sold 453,000 Wiis (down more than 100,000 from 555,000 in July), Microsoft regained second place  with 195,000 Xbox sales (down from 205,000) and Sony brought up the rear with 185,000 PS3s, down from 225,000. Read more

Posted in Games |

Richard Waters Jerry Yang’s next Date with Destiny approaching fast

September 12, 2008 7:11 pm by Richard Waters

jon-hamm.jpgYou really have to wonder about Jerry Yang’s sense of timing.

Yahoo! has spent months talking up its forthcoming Amp online advertising platform (or, to give it its proper name, AMP!) This is the system that is meant to give advertisers a simpler, more effective way of placing ads around the Web, on Yahoo’s sites and beyond. Yahoo needs some quick results to prove that it can survive on its own: a lot is riding on Amp. Read more

Posted in Internet |
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