RIAA's Waterloo? Anonymous Looks to set streaming music free
Streaming music content is too restrictive, believes hacktivists Anonymous. Six members of the group have released Anontune, a web-based application that aims to aggregate streaming music online and place it in a central location. AnonTune currently accesses the catalogs of YouTube and SoundCloud, although the developers plan to add content from other services including Yahoo Music, Myspace Music, Bandcamp and others in the future.
True to the groups name, users will be able to listen to tracks anonymously, and Anonymous itself will not store the tracks. Instead it depends on the catalogs of the services it aggregates, thus leaving the sticky copyright issues to those sites. Recording Industry Association of America's Waterloo, indeed. The next one, if Napster wasn't enough a computing generation ago.
Nokia's short-term pain is the result of long-term problems
Point. It's always fun to point the blame at someone, and everyone loves to blame CEO Stephen Elop for Nokia's woes. As the Finnish phone manufacturer began to burn, Elop came aboard and made a deal with his former employer, Microsoft, to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Pundits thought he was insane, and have criticized him repeatedly for the move.
These criticisms grow louder as Nokia reports a $1.3 billion euro ($1.76 billion) loss in the first quarter of 2012. According to the financial statements, the company burned through 700 million euros in cash during the same quarter, and has a little under five billion euros in cash left. The company may face bankruptcy in two years.
Nokia does the Windows Phone death dance
Few high-tech companies have imploded like Nokia and at the strangest time. Typically, dominant companies get killed during transitions from where they rule to where they don't. Nokia is oddest exception, imploding during a major computing era shift that favors its core competency. Transition from the PC to the mobile device eras is underway -- to a market where Nokia was, until recently, share leader by huge margins. How low the mighty has fallen, and former Microsoft division president turned Nokia CEO Stephen Elop wields the missile codes that launched self-inflicted nuclear strikes.
Today's Nokia earnings report is a disaster. It's radioactive fallout from Elop's decision to turn over the Finnish company's crown jewels to Microsoft. Elop sold Nokia's soul to his former masters, which I described at the time as a "silent takeover" of the company. Nokia needed new leadership, not new technology -- Elop's fundamental platform and cloud services switch -- to combat escalating Android and iOS competition. Before his tenure, Nokia did the right things, just in the wrong ways. Since taking the chief executive's seat in Autumn 2010, Elop has done the wrong things in all the right ways to destroy a once proud mobile device innovator.
Three Windows 8 editions is just right
Common sense has returned to Windows product marketing. After rumors of nine Windows 8 editions sent me into near cardiac arrest last month, Microsoft instead has gone back to basics. The new operating system will come in just two editions for x86 processors -- Windows 8 and 8 Pro. If you're running Windows XP today, as most people still are, these two will be familiar to you, right down to the major differences between them, being similar to Home and Professional Editions. The third, Windows RT, is for devices running ARM processors, and, as Microsoft previously disclosed, will only be available on new hardware. You can install Windows 8 or Pro on your PC, but RT comes preloaded.
Hot damn! There's seriously fresh thinking going on over at the Windows & Windows Live division. Someone pinch me and pray tell I'm not dreaming. The only thing better than this would be lower pricing, which, admittedly, I'm not hopeful for. But one can dream within the dream!
Has programming lost its way? Part Two
Whether you are an engineer, a designer, a programmer or of any other trade that requires skill, the one lesson many have been taught early on is "keep it simple". Sadly this lesson is often lost in the name of progress, especially when it comes to programming.
Let me give you one example. I know this won't go over well with most programmers, but it needs to be said. Languages like C++ simply are not simple by design. Object-oriented programming, while possibly having some value for specific tasks, does not make programming simpler. I would venture to say that the so-called benefits of object-oriented programming has more to do with the feature set of the higher level objects that some languages provide, more so than it being accomplished using OOP.
Metro apps on Windows 7 is a bad, bad idea
As we move closer to the launch of Windows 8 -- and the sea change that the Metro user interface brings to the platform -- there's an ever increasing drumbeat of both skepticism, concern, and apprehension depending on who you talk to.
End users are skeptical of Metro because they do not see its value. The interface completely changes how we interact with Windows, and in some cases will confuse us. I point you to this video of tech pundit Chris Pirillo's father attempting to use Windows 8 for the first time without instruction as an example. Microsoft may have unintentionally added an extra layer of complexity in an effort to simplify the OS.
Google is evil
In the Biblical story, the serpent tempted Eve by offering something she desired -- to be like God. It's appropriate metaphor for every shyster that followed. Evildoers follow a consistent pattern of offering something tempting that masks something else. It's the art of misdirection that assures them power or profit -- often both. If there is a definition of evil, it's taking advantage of others for personal gain. The more people, the more evil. Greater the trickery, eviler still.
That sums up my assessment of Google's non-voting split revealed yesterday concurrently with first-quarter earnings. Stock-split seemingly gives investors twice as many shares as they have now. But half will be non-voting ones, diluting shareholders' say in Google's doings. Essentially, the company seeks to have it both ways -- be private while having the benefits of public investment. The most disruptive company of the 21st century is at it again. The implications are seemingly astounding.
Intel's Studybook can be a success
Intel is putting more effort into their Atom CPU series, especially for the next generation of tablet computers. Along those lines, yesterday's Intel Studybook tablet is exciting. I really like the idea of this tablet. As the name implies, Studybook is a 7-inch tablet running Windows 7 or Android 3.x designed for students.
There is one challenge, though, and that is the Atom CPU, especially if such tablets use Windows instead of another operating system. So, is the Atom microprocessor up to the task?
Do I really need anti-malware?
In the realm of security, there are a number of discussions that never seem to be completely resolved and crop up again from time to time. One of these is the age old question: “Is antivirus really necessary”?
To the average PC user, the idea that antivirus (or more accurately, anti-malware) isn’t necessary may seem as crazy and dangerous as suggesting we get rid of seatbelts in cars (let alone keep airbags, antilock brakes and other safety features). For years, PC users have been told to “protect your PC” by running antivirus and keeping it and the system constantly up-to-date. Microsoft made these steps the foundation for its guidance to customers in the wake of the Slammer and Blaster worms in 2003 and that advice took root, helping to better protect PC users since then.
Instagram is worth $1B to Facebook
Yesterday, Facebook announced that it acquired Instagram for $1 Billion. The company is less than two years old, has no revenue, and about a dozen employees. Remember, acquisitions are about what the acquirer can do with the company in the future, not some multiple of revenues or profits today. Why is Instagram worth $1 billion?
Facebook acquired Instagram for about $30 per user, or $1B. ($30/user X 33M users = $1 billion) Facebook is valued at about $100 per user or $80 billion ($100/user X 800M users = $80 billion). Other popular social apps are valued around $20 to $50 per user. The monetization models need to work out about the same to justify the valuations.
10 things you might not know about RMS Titanic
April 14 is the 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking. As the height of technological and engineering innovation of its day, the great ocean liner is more than fascinating for its sinking -- reminder that today's tech obsessions are nothing new.
In 1977, before the wreck had been discovered and when few people knew much about Titanic, I wrote a term paper on the ill-fated vessel in between college and high school. I participated in the federally-funded Upward Bound program for teenagers from low-income families wanting to go to college. I spent three summers at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The Titanic paper completed my three-year participation. Much about the disaster has changed since the wreck site was found, more than 2 miles beneath the Atlantic, in 1985, and my research. I confess. I am a Titanic buff.
BASIC: Making a case for an old favorite
Are you looking for a way to increase productivity when it comes to your software development? Are you willing to try something different? How would you like to speed up software development, decrease time spent on software maintenance and improve the reliability of your software?
Many a long-time C programmer will likely tell you that C (or C++, C#) is the only serious programming language worth using today in business or the enterprise. To even suggest otherwise would likely make one a laughing stock by one's peers. Yet think about this for just a moment: Of all the software projects you or your company have undertaken, how many of them have come in over budget? How many have actually failed completely? How many, though finished, were plagued with bugs that never seem to get resolved? How easy has it been to maintain such projects, years after they were developed?
5 ways my small business benefits from the cloud
We have talked a lot about cloud computing recently here on the pages of BetaNews. That's not surprising since it is one of the fastest growing segments of the tech industry today. Missing, however: A more personal story on how we're using the cloud in our day-to-day business.
I run a small freelance writing and media consulting business out of my home, Oz Media Inc. While being my own boss is fun, it also requires me to be owner, CEO, CFO, IT administrator, and employee. It's a company of one. Cloud computing has definitely paid off and made running my business a lot easier, and here's why.
Google isn't trying to save Android tablets but kill Kindle Fire
Rumors about Google's forthcoming tablet are increasing, which astounds me -- as they portray this as something new. Hey, Google already formally stated it would produce an Android tablet. The rumormongers have got the reasons wrong, too. Google isn't gunning for Apple but Amazon.
The retail giant is by far the biggest competitive threat standing before Android today. Amazon has customized Android, released its own hardware, ditched Google's browser for its own Silk, established a viable app store alternative to Google Play and created a curated user experience that rivals Apple's. In just one quarter, Amazon's Kindle Fire jumped ahead of all other Android tablets, putting it second to iPad. Every Kindle Fire sold is one more brick in the wall blocking the success of the broader Android ecosystem.
Where Groupon went wrong: daily deal myopia
Groupon was called the "world's fastest growing company," with 100 million subscribers in 45 different countries and a valuation as high as $25 billion. The service it offers consumers is relatively simple to grasp: get enough people to sign up for a sale or promotion at a restaurant, store, or service, and the promotion then becomes available to everyone who signed up.
Of course, accurately ascribing a value to Groupon --and indeed even properly managing its own accounting practices-- has proven to be very difficult. This week, Groupon could find itself under the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission yet again.
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