Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent an email to customers today (reprinted below) summarizing some of the big news coming out of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. He talks about both the Azure cloud services platform (a comprehensive set of storage, computing, and networking infrastructure services) as well as Office in the browser.
The email reiterates Microsoft’s core messaging that the Internet is fine, but it needs a little desktop software to really make it hum: “the key to delivering value today and in the future lies in combining the best aspects of software running on PCs, servers, and devices with the best aspects of services running on the Web-an approach we call “software plus services.”"
Client software is needed, he argues, to take full advantage of the hardware on devices. Multicore processors and new programming languages will expand computing capabilities, he says, and “the interactive experiences that people expect on their PC, mobile phone, and media player depend on sophisticated software running on powerful processors”:
In other words, software does the heavy lifting, and the browser makes access and communication easy: “For the Web, it’s the ability to bring together people, information, and services so we can connect, communicate, share, and transact with anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
The full email is below. → Read More
Dear school administrators, What’s the best way to ensure that your computer network remains riddled with security vulnerabilities that leave you, your personnel and [someone think of the] schoolchildren in danger? Why, to demonize the student who discovered the vulnerability and alerted you to it, of course. Have him charged with a felony while you’re at it. A student in a Saratoga County (New York) school alerted his principal to a computer security vulnerability that could expose the names, social security numbers and addresses of school employees. While the student tried to do it anonymously, he was eventually tracked down. Then the school threw the book at him. The student is now being charged with three felonies for his unauthorized use of the computer network. The best is this quote from a state trooper: The kid committed an intentional criminal act. He deceitfully used someone else’s name and password so he would not get caught and was looking to profit from his criminal act. The only thing we can take away from this is, even if you discover a security vulnerability, it’s completely in your best interest to keep it to yourself, otherwise you’ll be branded a criminal terrorist when you were merely trying to do a good deed. Or, if you insist on doing the right then, use Wikileaks. → Read More
Six months after first announcing its open strategy, Yahoo has released a slew of development tools (as we told you it would) under the Y!OS 1.0 platform. It’s kind of like a Web OS, but Y!OS officially stands for Yahoo Open Strategy.
As part of its strategy to remain one of the most popular starting points on the Web, Yahoo is making it much easier for data, content, and applications to flow in and out of Yahoo. It is also adding a layer of social awareness to everything it does. Yahoo’s Jay Rossiter explains in a blog post some of the things that the Y!OS will let people do. These include: → Read More
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtvmusic.com:107879 Bob Dylan |MTV Music In what must be one of the signs of the apocalypse, MTV has posted hundreds – dare I say thousands – of music videos for your perusal. It’s all there – go ahead and dig through. I found Scarlett Johansson cavorting to the the sad-eyed crooning of Bob Dylan along with a video that essentially blew my mind in the 1988. Was the saint real? What was happening in the beginning? Do girls look like that? Best of all, all of the videos are embeddable and shareable, ensuring plenty of memories will be flooding your browser in the next few hours. I’m honestly amazed by the service. It’s so rare to see a media company get something so right with so little fanfare that I almost want to writhe around on a church floor in faux ecclesiastical ecstasy. → Read More
Kids, when your friend asks you to lower the volume of your computer while you’re playing World of Warcraft please do so as soon as possible. Because if you don’t you might end up getting stabbed. In the head. With a chef’s knife. That’s exactly what happened in Australia. The victim is doing about as well as one could after being attacked with a knife; only one of his fingers was “nearly” severed. As for the guy doin’ the stabbing, the Australian magistrate has refused him bail. He’ll be in custody till next month, meaning he may well miss the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. → Read More
Google is launching Google Apps Labs today, a new platform for experimental apps (Google Moderator is one of the first to be added).
These are third party applications that can be added by businesses and schools using Google Apps. In addition to Google Moderator, two other apps are available now: Google Code Reviews (peer review of software code) and Google Short Links (change URLs to something shorter and more descriptive).
What’s most interesting about the announcement is that Google will be opening up the platform to third party developers who want their apps to be available to the “million-plus businesses” using Google Apps today. Salesforce’s AppStore developers will certainly take notice. → Read More
A group of research scientists at the Carnegie Institution have devised a new method to grow diamonds. Keep in mind that there’s more to diamonds than the tragic trade surround them (explained in great detail in the book The Heartless Stone), as they’re used in things such as high-quality optics and quantum computers (when they’re not hoaxes). Now, growing diamonds isn’t exactly a new thing, as you’ve been able to compress carbon into diamond for a while now, but you had to have like a zillion pounds of pressure to get it to work. And then those artificial diamonds—artificial in that they didn’t come from the earth even though it’s the same scientific process—can only be “grown” a finite amount before the method no longer works. This new method, which adds layer upon layer of diamond using a technique called chemical vapor deposition. These diamonds grow much quicker and with less defects than those high-pressure ones, and they don’t need anywhere near the pressure to be created. Remember: diamonds are nothing more than shiny rocks. via GIZMODO → Read More
Finally! The day no one has been waiting for has come. It’s being reported the HTC Opal is currently being reviewed by the FCC. While some are speculating that this means it will be released in the US, don’t get your hopes up – HTC told us back in September that it’s only intended for emerging markets. As far as we know, the only reason the FCC’s taking a glance at it is for the sake of folks internationally roaming in the US. Just look at the stats of this device; it has emerging markets written all over it. With its plastic screen and EDGE-only connection, it’s a little underpowered for the big markets unless it’s brought in as an ultra economy phone – but with other companies setting that bar fairly high at a pretty low price, even that could be tough. → Read More
An update to our recent post on Facebook Connect: Facebook is pushing partners hard to be prepared for an official November 30 launch.
24 of 26 announced launch partners have yet to integrate Facebook Connect. We’ve spoken with a number of them. All say they are still planning to integrate the product eventually, but complain of bugs and other issues and wasted development efforts to date. Some, afraid of policy changes that will make Facebook Connect less interesting, also say they’re waiting to see the final product before launching.
A number of new features are being added. One, called FriendLink, allows a site using Facebook Connect to pass email addresses to Facebook and get friend recommendations back. This allows sites to make connections between users that they may not know about yet (but that Facebook already knows about). It’s a key feature that is attracting a number of partners, we’ve heard. → Read More
Duracell wants some of the tasty flash memory pie and have a complete product line coming soon with help from Dane-Elec. The Duracell product line will include Secure Digital, CompactFlash and microSD Flash Memory cards; USB Flash Drives; Flash memory Card Readers; and other Flash Memory bundles, such as an Instant Power Charger and micro SD card bundle, USB Flash Drive 3-packs or SD Card 3- packs. These flash memory products should hit select grocery stores and pharmacies within the coming weeks. Yay, more flash memory. Exciting. → Read More
Issuu just announced it has raised $5 million in a Series B investment from Sunstone Capital, which had already provided Series A funding to the amount of $1.25 million in early 2007. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup has also added a slew of new features to its existing product and launched a premium version for professional publishers.
When we first came across Issuu, which turns uploaded documents into interactive online publications for free, we said it was one of the first service of its kind that didn’t suck. In addition to the funding announcement, the company is also releasing a major product update. → Read More
I’ve just attended the keynote address given by Dr. Martin Cooper. Never heard of him? You know him indirectly, as he’s the inventor of something most everyone uses every day: the mobile phone. At the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, Cooper presented an interesting look at the current state of the wireless industry, identifying a handful of problems and how he thinks they could be fixed. → Read More
London-based Playfish – which we speculated at one point was doing very well out of its social games on Facebook – has raised a whopping $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. This confirms the growing view that VCs will start to put more money into their strongest performing portfolio companies than into riskier early stage startups. Kevin Comolli, from Accel Partners and Ben Holmes from Index Ventures, will both join its board of directors. The company will now expand with four international offices and onto other platforms outside of Facebook. TechCrunch has more detail here. Playfish now has over 10 million monthly active users on Facebook (around 1.5 million daily) and two billion monthly minutes of play time in under a year. CEO Kristian Segerstrale is a big proponent of casual games and told me last month: Social gaming is a very hyped area currently and there will be challenges ahead for sure, but I think the fundamentally new gaming behaviours we’re creating today will make a profound impact on the $50Bn games industry over time. And it’s that more than today’s numbers is what makes me excited about it all. CrunchBase Information Playfish Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Microsoft made a major announcement today – they will be offering “lightweight” versions of Office applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote – through the browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari will be supported. Users will be able to read and edit documents from the browser.
We had guessed earlier this year that Microsoft would choose the Silverlight platform to deliver Office online, but Microsoft will instead be copying the Google approach – the applications will be 100% HTML and Javascript.
This is a bold if belated move for Microsoft, which relies heavily on Office revenues and profits to support its money-burning online business.
Google, of course, has been offering online versions of Office documents since they acquired Writely in 2006. Their versions of the applications are not as feature rich as Microsoft Office, but they’re free, easy to use and allow for easy collaboration. Microsoft was forced to respond. → Read More
We tried to watch the Blu-ray version The Happening at the Deleon abode last night. That embarrassing admission aside, let me tell you what a complete pain in the neck it was to update the firmware on our player—which we needed to do to watch the movie—the Samsung P1400. It’s a good thing we don’t own any firearms here because I was fully prepared to go about back and give the player the Old Yeller treatment. We first had to physically move the player so that we could connect it to our router. Silly us, thinking that using the player’s built-in network upgrade would work! After selecting “upgrade,” we’re waiting for, I don’t know, 20-25 minutes; nothing happens. Clearly this network upgrade wasn’t in the cards. At this point, I decide to re-name the movie The What Isn’t Happening. → Read More
Just yesterday I was babbling about how impressed I was that they’d managed to squeeze WVGA (480×800) into a 3.1″ screen on the 8.1 megapixel Casio W63CA. Apparently, its got a (somewhat less sightly) twin. This morning, Hitachi announced the W63H which, as you could probably guess from the model number, is pretty dang similar. Well, as long as you ignore that the Hitachi handset is missing the 8.1 megapixel camera, instead touting a 5 megapixel shooter with face recognition. While the shots it takes might not be as mammoth, its got the same Samsung 3.1″ WVGA OLED screen, and the keypads are similar enough that it would take a few extra takes to spot the differences. From the outside, however, the differences seem obvious, with the Casio looking. to be a whole lot easier on the eyes. Either the Hitachi model is being placed in the market as more wallet-friendly, or they need to get better product photographers. Though we’ll never see this one outside of Japan, look for it on the shelves at Yodobashi in orange, white, or black. → Read More
Mitsubishi’s LaserVue HDTVs have been in the making for a while but the critically acclaimed high-def set is now available at select specialty retailers. You still might need a second mortgage – good luck getting approved – to foot the $6,999 MSRP, but the TV apparently produces a Pioneer Elite comparable picture at 1/3 the power consumption. Plus, you can tell your trendy poker buddies that you HDTV is powered by frickin laser beams. How sweet is that? → Read More
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