Tech wrap: PayPal darling takes Yahoo reigns
Yahoo named PayPal President Scott Thompson CEO as the company plows ahead with a strategic review in which discussions have included the possibility of being sold, taken private or broken up. Thompson, a former Visa payments software platform designer, joins the company five months after the firing of previous CEO Carol Bartz.
Thompson has been credited with driving growth at eBay’s online payments division. After the Yahoo appointment, some questioned if he could replicate his success as CEO of Yahoo. ”The risk element is that his background was in payments. And this is not a payment company, it’s a marketing, technology company,” said Lawrence Haverty, a fund manager with GAMCO investors, which owns Yahoo shares.
Eastman Kodak is working on a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing that could be filed as soon as this month if it cannot sell its digital patents, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. The newspaper said Kodak is in talks with lenders to secure about $1 billion in debtor-in possession financing to sustain it through any bankruptcy proceedings.
Microsoft said it is suing Britain’s second-largest electronics retailer Comet for allegedly creating and selling more than 94,000 sets of ”counterfeit” recovery CDs of its Windows operating system to customers buying Windows-loaded PCs and laptops. A spokesman for Kesa, which owns Comet, told Reuters that Comet provided the disks as a service to its customers between March 2008 and December 2009, but stopped the practice when Microsoft objected. He said Comet sold the disks as many buyers of PCs and laptops did not create their own recovery CDs and faced problems when their computers failed.
Securities regulators charged an investment adviser with using LinkedIn and other social media networking websites to lure investors by offering more than $500 billion in fake securities. The SEC alleged that Anthony Fields, 54, of Lyons, Illinois, made the fraudulent offers to sell securities through two sole proprietorships. The agency said Fields provided false and misleading information about clients, assets under management and even the history of his firm’s business.
Twitter apologized for incorrectly verifying a false account for Wendi Deng, the wife of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. The fake account with the handle @Wendi_Deng popped up on Sunday soon after a real Twitter account was started by the media mogul on New Year’s eve. The Wendi account was initially verified by Twitter, featuring the well-known blue tick which shows Twitter has confirmed the account belongs to the named person. But by early Tuesday, Twitter was forced to remove its famous blue tick from the Wendi account after it said it confirmed the account did not belong to her. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher said it was a case of mistaken punctuation.
Tech wrap: Nokia starts work on Windows phone
Work has begun on the first Nokia smartphones based on Microsoft software following the partnership announced by the companies last month, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told Reuters.
RIM is battling wireless carriers over control of where key data related to mobile payments will reside in upcoming BlackBerry devices equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology, writes The Wall Street Journal’s Phred Dvorak and Stuart Weinberg.
A letter that had prompted Mark Hurd’s abrupt exit as chief of Hewlett-Packard Co was ordered unsealed by a Delaware judge, potentially revealing more details of his dramatic exit last year.
Rovio, the developer of the “Angry Birds” mobile game, plans a U.S. initial public offering in the next five years, a move that could give investors a chance to tap into the fastest growing segment of the video game industry.
AT&T started cracking down on mobile customers using an app to enable tethering on their jailbroken iPhones, asking them to stop or pay up, writes Engadget’s Donald Mendelson.
The 21st century needs a revitalized consumer advocacy movement driven by social media, writes Purpose.com’s Jeremy Heimans. He suggests scaling platforms like Carrotmob to make activism fun, supporting location-based initiatives such as Good Guide, helping consumers distinguish between authentic and inauthentic corporate realignments through crowdsourced campaigns like parodies of Chevron’s “We Agree” ad campaign and using online organizing techniques to instantly coordinate campaigns that encourage companies to do the right thing.
Ballmer skeptical of Apple share gains
Never one to let an opportunity pass to tweak a competitor, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer got off a few zingers at long-time rival Apple at the software giant’s analyst meeting on Thursday.
“Share versus Apple, you know, we think we may have ticked up a little tick, but when you get right down to it, it’s a rounding error,” he said. “Apple’s share change, plus or minus from ours, they took a little share a couple quarters, we took share back a couple quarters. But Apple’s share globally cost us nothing. Now, hopefully, we will take share back from Apple, but you know, Apple still only sells about 10 million PCs, so it is a limited opportunity.”
Shipments of Apple’s Mac PCs rose 4 percent in the June quarter, while the global PC market shrank 5 percent, according to Gartner.
Ballmer also touched on the advertising war that has blossomed between Microsoft and Apple, and said the Windows ads have proven to be “quite effective”:
“Starting about two years ago, I started to get the question, what’s up with the Apple ads? It was one of the few places where I had a lot of investors pushing me to spend money as opposed to constrain the spend of money. Well, those folks ultimately won.”
Microsoft, of course, also plans to open its own chain of branded branded stores, some right next door to Apple’s outlets.
In consumer markets, Microsoft has underperformed the competition for 9 years. Any credibility that Ballmer ever had has long since evaporated.
Contrary to the prior posters, however, i don’t see Google as the saving grace. While Google and MS are desperately trying to convince consumers to house all their data on remote servers (so that MS and Google can datamine it), Apple is content to offer integrated hardware, software, and services that allow the consumer to easily manage his/her own data. Much more secure, much easier to use.
No amount of Google’s “we’re not evil!” claims and Microsoft’s “look at all the cheap hardware that uses Windows!” claims will change the fact that both companies put customer data integrity and propriety last on their list of priorities.
Google and Microsoft – lunch of the frenemies at Sun Valley
Google is moving to steal Microsoft’s lunch with its plan to release a PC operating system that competes with Windows. But when Eric Schmidt and Bill Gates crossed paths in Sun Valley on Thursday, lunchtime was all pleasantries.
As Gates was walking out from one of the morning conference panels for lunch, reporters naturally surrounded him to ask for his thoughts about the new Chrome OS announced by Google this week.
Before Gates had a chance to answer though, Schmidt appeared from behind and joked “it would be better if you don’t make that comment,” provoking laughter all around.
The pair shook hands and walked off together in conversation towards the garden where lunch was being served. Since reporters weren’t allowed in, the rest of the conversation is anyone’s guess.
(Photo: Eric Schmidt and Bill Gates talk outside the Sun Valley Inn on July 9, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking)
ask yourself this have you ever ran across a web page created by google the would not render in your browser of choice? I know I haven’t but the same cannot be said for microsoft.
that is why google will win they know that forcing customers to pay to get to THEIR data is not a way to keep customers. they know the lock-in business model is dead.
microsoft just doesn’t get that concept and never will.
For Google, less is more versus Microsoft
– Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own – By Eric Auchard
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – Google has entered the very lair of Microsoft by launching its own computer operating software.
And its strategy cleverly goes with the grain of the changes that the web is making to the way consumers use software. Time for Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer to worry.
The web search and advertising leader is not offering a copycat product to Microsoft’s desktop workhorse. Indeed it is upending the notion of what an operating system is. Microsoft’s vision is of a self-contained system that manages every action that your computer undertakes. Google takes a minimalist view. It argues that operating software only needs to do what can’t be done externally on the web.
By stripping the components to a minimum, Google has designed the system to be fast. It is promising that users will be able to fire up their computers and get on the web in a few seconds.
Google’s products run on a variant of Linux operating software. The guts of Linux provide many of the classic functions of a hardware operating system, leaving Google free to focus on new features.
Google argues that web software such as Chrome, Firefox, Apple Inc’s Safari and Opera’s eponymously named browser, can carry out many of the functions of operating software. Meanwhile active computer users spend more and more of their time using programs that either run or rely on the Web. That means they spend less and less time using programs that reside locally on the user’s own machine — the way that applications that depend on Microsoft Windows typically do.
Hmmm… Interesting indeed. There is no doubt that much more software is being developed as web based systems and there is a huge opportunity for IT suppliers to create and sell software using a Software as a Service (SSaS). I have my doubts though that everything is going to go this way though. There are huge security issues that need to be overcome and some software is simply just not suitable for delivery over the web using current technologies and that is not going to change any time soon. Security is a tough one and i’m not sure how some of the security requirements of some companies can be solved in a cloud based environment and possibly they cannot be overcome but this doesn’t stop these companies hosting there own web based applications. In terms of functionality. Ajax based applications can still be pretty flakey and making them more reliable and robust is very costly. Flax / Flex / Silverlight offer some interesting opportunities for increasing the functionality of the web but I don’t think these technologies have really arrived yet but I think this is the area that may help make Google’s dream come true and I am a little shocked they haven’t got an entry in this area of the market.
Not rich enough to be a Mac person
Microsoft — ruffled by constant ridicule by Apple — launched its latest counter-punch last night with an explicit jab at its cool but expensive archrival in a prime-time ad featuring one thrifty young woman’s quest to find a 17-inch laptop for under four figures.
“Lauren”, a feisty, red-haired computer-shopper, is given $1,000 to score a laptop with a 17-inch screen, and told she can keep the change.
First stop: the Apple store. Cue disappointment. The cheapest Macbook laptop, with a 13-inch screen, is $999. Lauren consoles herself that she is “not cool enough to be a Mac person” anyway.
Next stop, Best Buy, where a plethora of Windows-powered machines are excitedly examined. She walks out with a suitable model for $699.99. “I’m a PC and I got just what I wanted,” she exclaims delightedly to the camera.
Microsoft’s reasoning is sound. They can’t acquire Apple’s fashion appeal, and pushing value over coolness will strike a chord in the recession.
But the need to respond to Apple — which still controls only a tiny fraction of the overall PC market — shows just how well the Mac has set the terms of the contest.
I’m now in the unenviable position of being able to add a further data point concerning Mac production engineering. This morning the wireless networking in my FIVE MONTH OLD iMac died.
Don’t skip Vista — please!
Thinking of going straight from your trusted old Windows XP to Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system, bypassing the poorly received Vista?
Not so fast, Microsoft warned its corporate customers in a blog today.
“We know some of our customers are considering waiting for Windows 7 instead of deploying Windows Vista today,” says Windows senior product director Gavriella Schuster in the blog. “We want these customers to understand the following considerations, so they are not surprised later on.”
Leapfrogging Vista could mean falling into a hole where applications are no longer supported on XP but not yet supported on Windows 7, she warns.
And it could be a while before Windows 7 is ready for corporate customers. The beta version of the operating system was made available for public download only last month, and Microsoft won’t commit to any firm roll-out date beyond its broad target of early 2010.
That means corporations, which typically take at least 12-18 months to switch to a new operating system, could be looking at a five-year gap between Vista and Windows 7, and even longer for older operating systems.
More FUD from the Evil Empire.
An abject admission of failure on their part, copping to the facts that neither XP, Vista, nor Seven will run applications developed by third parties.
I’ve used linux since WIn98 with much success. Were it not for locked-in hardware vendors making win-drivers, I’d never have any problems at all, but thankfully the Linux community attacks any device with great vigor that tries to lock out Linux. None have succeeded.
I play WoW and Diablo 2 in linux. I use Open Office. My computer goes six months without a reboot, and I’ve never had the two things that come all but packaged with Microsoft products:
Blue Screens & Viruses.
There is NO linux virus.
That fact alone should tell you something about the quality of Microsoft software.
PS, I used to work at MSFT and I’ve seen the code. Don’t hold your breath for Seven to save your day. It’s just more of the same, another upgrade to NT.
Google’s Chrome out of beta, but only Windows-friendly
Google has decided its Chrome Web browser is all grown up-or. Or at least it has outgrown its beta label.
Google launched its fifteenth release of Chrome on Thursday morning, marking the browser’s first step outside the test phase. After absorbing 101 days of user feedback, Google says the latest version is equipped with improved audio and video performance, bookmark features and privacy controls.
Google tests show Chrome runs 1.5 times faster than when the browser first launched in September, according to a Google spokesperson.
Chrome is Google’s head-on challenge to Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and, of course, Microsoft’s juggernaut Internet Explorer, which has over 70 percent of the browser market. Chrome has 10 million active users world wide, according to Google.
If you’re a Mac user, you’ll still have to wait to use Chrome (or snag one of your friends’ Windows-supported laptops in the meantime), which makes it curious that Google took Chrome out of its beta phase so soon. The Internet giant is working hard to release a Mac and Linux version of Chrome as soon as possible, according to the Google spokesperson.
It’s still unclear if Chrome has the heft to overcome its rivals, but the browser is off to a good start as it took 1 percent of the global browser market within a day of its launch, according to Web traffic analysis company StatCounter. Chrome is likely to get a boost in traffic once its Mac version is released.
Now that Chrome is out of its beta phase, do you think it will threaten Microsoft’s dominance in the browser market? And, most importantly, will you switch from your current browser to Chrome?
Chrome is a nice concept. I’m using it every day for work without problems. Much faster than FF.
Is PC the new black? Ask Microsoft
Look out nerdy-cool Apple guy, the empire is striking back. And it’s got Eva Longoria Parker, Tony Parker, Pharrell Williams and Deepak Chopra on its side.
Microsoft is launching (another) new commercial campaign Thursday night. It takes aim at Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” campaign that has portrayed personal computers running Windows as clunky and uncool.
The commercial starts with a real-life Windows engineer who looks eerily similar to John Hodgman (the comedian who plays the role of “PC” in Apple’s commercials), saying “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” After that is a montage of celebs and normal folk, saying “I’m a PC.” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, along with the aforementioned celebrities, makes an appearance in the ad.
The new commercial is easier to understand than the first series of ads from Microsoft that featured comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Microsoft said the Seinfeld ads were meant to be an “ice breaker” and get people taking about the company and Windows. (Although it could be argued that there was already a conversation about Windows, just not the one the company wanted.)
Microsoft Senior Vice President Mich Matthews , who heads up the company’s marketing efforts, said the goal of the $300 million advertising push is to “take back the PC brand” and its new commercial is meant as a “bear hug” to the PC stereotype being defined by its competitors.
The television commercials will also be joined by billboard, online and newspaper ads pushing the theme of “Windows vs. Walls” — the concept that Windows allows for a life without walls.
Update: here is the ad.
…interesting that this “i’m a pc” ad was created by a Mac running Adobe Creative Suite 3. PC looks cool and hip with their ads, just as long as they get a little help from a Mac. Irony?
