Monthly Archives: February 2009

techfile 28.2.09

February 28, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

Responding to the success of Amazon‘s Kindle and the continued to demise of its newspapers and magazines, Hearst is launching its own e-reader. Meanwhile, Amazon, which had come under fire for a feature in the Kindle 2 that would allow books to be read aloud in an electronic voice, backpedaled a bit, saying publishers would be allowed to decide if they want their books enabled with this feature.
A day after Facebook revised its Terms of Service and opened them up to user input, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg went on the Today Show to explain the logic behind the change. He also said that Facebook was gaining 5m users a week, with 1m a week joining in the US.
Apple replaced KPMG with Ernst & Young as its independent registered accounting firm.

techfile 27.2.09

February 27, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

As PC sales slump internationally, Dell reported a steep drop in sales and profit, despite meeting earnings expectations. Meanwhile, IBM, which recently exited the PC business, issued bullish guidance for the year.

After yet another privacy row, Facebook rebuffed the critics by essentially opening up its terms of service to user input. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that “Facebook does not own users’ content.”
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Tags: Carol Bartz, cloud computing, dell, Facebook, google, IBM, salesforce, twitter, Yahoo, zuckerberg
Posted in Techfile | Permalink

Google finds a good use for Brussels bureaucracy

February 27, 2009 2:59 am by Richard Waters

At last, a use for all that EU bureaucracy. With 23 official languages, the European Union employs an army of translators to produce massive multi-lingual stacks of laws, regulations and other documents each year.

Those heaps of offial translations have been a boon for Google, providing fodder for its own automated translation service to “learn” from, and they explain why Maltese speakers can now use the Google Translate service when they surf the Web while the many more numerous speakers of, say, Farsi can’t.

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Tags: google
Posted in Internet | Permalink

The ins and outs of Yahoo’s reshuffle

February 26, 2009 8:04 pm by Chris Nuttall

Carol Bartz’s first blog post announcing a new management structure for Yahoo was missing any actual details of the changes, but the company has now been briefing on what the new CEO has in mind.

Yahoo is combining its Tech and Product groups into a single organisation called, rather unimaginatively, Products. Ari Balogh, the chief technology officer who joined from Verisign only a year ago, is the coming man who has been put in charge.

Continue reading: “The ins and outs of Yahoo’s reshuffle”

Tags: Netapp, Yahoo
Posted in Digital media, Internet | Permalink

techfile 26.2.09

February 26, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

Ratcheting up the growing rivalry between Google and Microsoft, Google will join a European Union antitrust case against Microsoft that claims the company is stifling competition in the web browser market by including Internet Explorer in Windows.

Microsoft filed a suit of its own, alleging that in-car navigation system maker Tom Tom is violating eight of its patents, including three relating to Tom Tom’s use of open-source operating system Linux. This is believed to be the first time Microsoft has filed suit over Linux, which it has repeatedly said violates its patents.
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Tags: apple, browser, Carol Bartz, Gmail, google, internet explorer, linux, microsoft, phishing, Steve Jobs, tom tom, windows, Yahoo
Posted in Techfile | Permalink

Intel wants smarter stimulus tools

February 25, 2009 11:55 pm by Chris Nuttall

Intel, the world’s biggest chip maker, is warning that companies taking advantage of government stimulus packages to build future infrastructure and transportation projects are relying on tools of the past that waste energy and cost more.

Speaking at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president, urged the adoption of 3D simulation software to improve design and implementation.

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Tags: intel
Posted in Cleantech, Hardware | Permalink

techfile 25.2.09

February 25, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

With an increasing number of businesses and individuals depending on web services, the two-hour outage of Gmail, the e-mail service from Google, during the middle of the European workday, has raised concerns of over-reliance on so-called cloud-computing.

In the latest battle of the Browser Wars, Apple released Safari 4, which it claims is now the fastest browser in all the land. The release comes on the 54th birthday of chief executive Steve Jobs, who remains on medical leave from the company he founded. Apple holds its annual meeting later today at its Cupertino headquarters, with Mr Jobs and other directors up for reelection.

The philanthropic arm of Google, known as Google.org, has a new chief. Taking over from Larry Brilliant is Megan Smith, who happens to be married to All Things Digital technology reporter Kara Swisher, raising concerns of conflicts of interest.

After the fanfare surrounding its debut, the Kindle 2 shipped a day early from Amazon. The initial enthusiasm for the new e-reader seems sustained, with the new Kindle garnering more good reviews. One dissenter: Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, who didn’t take to Jeff Bezos’ pitch.

As if the New York Post didn’t fill the tabloid quota in the News Corp portfolio, Rupert Murdoch’s empire is adding to its roster the Daily Fill, a celebrity news website. Daily Fill is the first product from Slingshot Labs, News Corp’s wholly owned investment arm founded a year ago. During beta release in January it attracted 1.4m visitors in January, positioning it to compete with TMZ and Perez Hilton.

Tags: Amazon, apple, bezos, Gmail, google, Kindle, microsoft, Steve Jobs
Posted in Techfile | Permalink

InstantAction makes browser a console

February 24, 2009 11:59 pm by Chris Nuttall

Browser-based gaming has been confined largely to simple casual games to date, but a new service launching today promises to bring next-generation console quality to the experience.

InstantAction says it has developed technology that can convert any console game to play inside a web browser without any noticeable reduction in performance or quality.

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Posted in Games | Permalink

techfile 24.2.09

February 24, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

Yahoo has lost another key executive, but may be gaining some, if reports of a major reorganisation as early as this week prove correct. The shakeup could be an early signal from new chief executive Carol Bartz that she is moving swiftly to implement a more top-down management style. Neeraj Khemlani, the departing head of Yahoo’s News and Information Division, will join Hearst Corporation as a vice president and a special assistant on digital strategy.

Rambus, the memory-chip technology company, won an important victory in the highest US court. The Supreme Court’s judges declined to rule in favour of the Federal Trade Commission, which has been alleging Rambus schemed to get standards adopted for which it only later revealed its own patented technology – enabling it to extract substantial royalties from memory chip makers.

The only US maker of DRAM chips, Micron, will stop manufacturing in its hometown of Boise, Idaho and cut 2,000 jobs. Micron, faced with a crowded field for its low-margin chips, is said to be working towards a partnership with Taiwanese rivals.

Hitachi’s hard drive division has acquired Silicon Valley’s Fabrik for an undisclosed sum. Fabrik will form the core of the San Jose company’s new external storage business. Fabrik CEO Mike Cordano, an industry veteran formerly with Maxtor, is joining Hitachi’s executive team. When we first wrote about Fabrik in 2007, it had just secured $25m in fourth-round VC funding from 3i and ComVentures, so the sale could represent a good exit for Fabrik’s investors, who also included Intel Capital.

Tags: dram, fabrik, hearst, hitachi, micron, rambus, Yahoo
Posted in Hardware, Internet, Techfile | Permalink

Should Washington play venture capitalist?

February 23, 2009 11:03 pm by Richard Waters

The venture capital business needs Washington’s money like it needs a hole in the head (with apologies to Thomas Friedman).

Silicon Valley is just getting to the long-overdue end of one bubble. It really doesn’t need another one, courtesy of government bureaucrats. The contraction that is coming will be painful, but that’s no reason to put it off in the misguided name of stimulus (or the equally woolly “innovation”).

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Posted in Digital media, Games | Permalink

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Tech blog

Monthly Archives: February 2009

techfile 28.2.09

Google finds a good use for Brussels bureaucracy

The ins and outs of Yahoo’s reshuffle

techfile 26.2.09

Intel wants smarter stimulus tools

techfile 25.2.09

InstantAction makes browser a console

techfile 24.2.09

Should Washington play venture capitalist?

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