In this week’s FT techtalk, we discussed how the dotcom world is bubbling along again, the tech industry is rebounding and the video game sector is about to be lifted by a rocket-propelled grenade or two.

We also took a peek at a new Twitter device, looked at the newest phones and brought you the breaking news on the resolution to the Skype dispute. Read our multimedia transcript below and join us next time live for FT Techtalk. Continue reading "FT techtalk - the boys in the bubbles"

Top wired telecom provider AT&T is clearly doing something right with U-verse TV, its cable-like service delivering more than 100 high-definition television channels over internet pipes to what are now more than 1.8m living rooms.

On Thursday, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan and others came to San Francisco to show off what may be coming improvements to U-verse, among other things, from the research labs that claim 8 Nobel Prizes. Continue reading "AT&T says people still don’t want the Web on TV"

Google has had several years of tussles now with privacy regulators. Three years ago European data protection commissioners began question what the company was doing with all the personal data it was gleaning from users of its search engine. In the past year, the company has faced outrage - at least in some pockets like Italy, Japan and Switzerland - over Street View, which provides panoramic, eye-level views of every street of major cities around the world.

Earlier this year, a leading privacy group called on the US Federal Trade Commission to consider shutting down Google’s web services until the company could better safeguard personal data. There have been a number of instances where Google Docs, Google Desktop and Gmail have had glitches which made users personal documents visible to others. Continue reading "Google’s ‘dashboard’ privacy controls are a good start"

Backers of the Android mobile operating system today acknowledged they needed to do more to promote applications, as Apple extended its lead with the iPhone to more than 100,000 apps now available in its App Store.

That’s 15,000 more than the last update of 85,000…and the growth is more than the total number of Android apps - 12,000 - created in the past year.

At the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco today, Cole Brodman, T-Mobile chief technology officer, said discoverability of apps on Android represented a challenge for consumers. Continue reading "Android Market remains baffling bazaar"

The Second Life virtual world has suffered the reality of company firewalls in its attempts to break into the corporate world.

But not for much longer. Second Life Enterprise, announced on Wednesday, is a version of the virtual world for business, packaged as an appliance that can be plugged easily into a corporate network.

This behind-the-firewall product should give a second enterprise life to Second Life, satisfying the reservations of businesses who feel the consumer-driven open world does not have enough security, controls and content for their needs. Continue reading "Linden Lab’s work-Second Life balance"

Ribbit, the software-based Silicon Valley phone company, has launched Ribbit Mobile, a Google Voice-type service with some useful extras thrown in.

The start-up,  which was bought by BT of the UK last year, adds “social address book” features to its service and allows users to keep their own mobile number. Continue reading "Ribbit Mobile offers Google Voice alternative"

From this week’s Digital Business edition:

The arrival of a giant chocolate eclair on the front lawn at Google last month had an extra significance, other than as the latest example of outlandish artwork installed at the headquarters of the world’s biggest internet company.

It joined a huge cupcake and a well-rounded doughnut, both sitting under the watchful eye of a large green robot.

Continue reading View from the Valley

It’s not surprising that expectations for Google Wave got way ahead of reality. The all-purpose Web-based communication and collaboration tool is one of the most ambitious things the company has come up with this year.

So it’s also not surprising that some early users of the service, which opened for tests in September, have been critical. Robert Scoble, never one to bite his tongue, was outspoken in his own views.

When I met the Wave’s lead developers at Google in Mountain View recently they were open about the service’s shortcomings, and outlined the changes they are working on.

That is likely to start with an end to the anarchic free-for-all that lets any participant in a Wave change or delete anything another user has written. Continue reading "Google Wave: Changes coming"