Google pulls an Apple with its own pre-CES event
In a move reminiscent of Apple circa January 2007, Google today announced it will be holding an invitation-only Android press event at Google Headquarters on January 5, just two days before the International Consumer Electronics Show opens its doors to the public.
Though the invitation only describes the event as an "Android press gathering," the widespread expectation is that this will be the official launch of the HTC/Google Nexus One, an as-of-yet unreleased Android device that has been distributed internally at Google and hotly discussed in the blogosphere.
If mobile-to-cloud sync is big in 2010, it's game over for Microsoft
Sync will define connected tech products released or updated in 2010 and the few years that follow. Tech companies that get sync right will set the agenda for the delivery of content and services. Right now, Amazon, Apple and Google are sync leaders. Microsoft is a player but competing in the wrong game.
In a March 2008 blog post, I asserted that "synchronization is the natural killer application for the connected world." I also warned that "should Google get synchronization right before Microsoft, it would be game over. Google would be able to extend the relevancy of the Web platform back to the desktop on its terms -- think invading army -- and across many devices or services." It's game over now, and Microsoft has lent Google a helping hand in self-destruction.
Firefox 3.6 RTM delivery in Q1 perceived as delay
Way back last August, the Mozilla organization's developers set their sights on November 2009 as a release timeframe for Firefox 3.6, the latest round of functionality improvements to the most popular cross-platform Web browser. That date had been unofficially bumped forward to December, but that was before the release of the earliest betas to the general public slipped past the original mid-October release window -- it ended up going live just before Halloween.
The delays in the development of Firefox happened then, not now. But with only three days left in the year, bloggers came to realize that general availability (GA) of 3.6 had slipped from its end-of-year targets set way back last summer. This despite obvious notices that a planning meeting on the subject of setting a date, was set for January 5.
Lessons learned by IT in 2009 #1: 'Net neutrality' is a myth
Betanews begins its transition to the new decade with an examination of the critical issues that taught us valuable lessons in the past year. If you're old enough to remember 1999, you may remember the sense of wonder, possibility, and dreams yet to be fulfilled that was drummed up by what used to be called the "media," during the much-celebrated rollover of the odometer. The first decade of the new millennium hit us squarely between the eyes, awakening us to the colder, more tangible reality that before we start cultivating new problems for our descendants to solve, we have to resolve all the old ones we've been sweeping under the rug.
Time Magazine thought the past decade sucked. We were all saddened to hear how disappointed the editors at Time were by the performance of the 2000s, especially when compared to brighter, livelier, more dramatic decades such as the 1940s, 1960s, and that harbinger of great times and cool tunes, the 1060s.
Will 2010 be another year of Apple iteration, not innovation?
Apple is ending 2009 with a seemingly big bang. The stock is soaring higher than ever, lifted by scathes of rumors about an impeding tablet announcement. But tablets are oh-so 2001, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off the Tablet PC. Apple tablet rumors show how much hype -- and not might -- is lifting Apple's share price. Hype has a way of turning on companies. Just ask Microsoft, which hype meter measured off the scale in 1995, but barely registers a decibel today.
Few companies reach Apple's success level in a day, a week, a year or even five years. Successful companies make strategic investments over time and many still fail to reach the stratosphere, or, for that matter, escape velocity. Apple made some wise strategic investments after the turn of the century, benefitted from good luck and rebuilt the brand image through its retail stores and smart marketing efforts.
Sprint mentions WebOS update, world waits
Though Palm has not yet officially confirmed it, Sprint has posted a support article that says today is the day when WebOS will be updated to version 1.3.5.
Sprint's description of the 1.3.5 update is brief, and lists only four "enhancements" to Palm's flagship operating system:
Broken Berry: RIM runs out of free passes
Like the other over-50% of smartphone-owning people in North America, I'm quite the fan of my BlackBerry. Even in an era when newer kids on the block -- namely Apple's iPhone and Google's Android -- garner more accolades and headlines for having slicker interfaces and cooler (and more) apps, the BlackBerry platform remains the safe, reliable choice that's good enough for most consumers and businesses. Despite analyst predictions that the BlackBerry will someday be reeled in by the upstarts, Research In Motion continues to grow and dominate the market it practically defined a decade ago.
We may want to revisit the "reliable" bit, though. After a week from hell marked by two highly publicized continent-wide outages, BlackBerry users are asking themselves whether this is the new normal, and why BlackBerry devices seem especially vulnerable to this kind of mass outage when competing platforms like iPhone and Android are not.
Are Apple stock price gains the reason for recent tablet rumors?
There is so much buzz about Apple's rumored tablet, Santa Claus landed back in Cupertino (the Mac maker's Calif. headquarters) instead of the North Pole. Not that he found anything more than a lump of rumors packaged like a real present. Poor Santa. He's not the only person being fooled. The Apple tablet buzz stinks of blog and news media manipulation and quite possibly stock manipulation -- not that the latter is new for the goings on around Apple. Sadly, bloggers and journalists are too willing to be manipulated by people leaking information.
The state of the news media, fueled in part by SEO -- search engine obsession, ah, optimization --- where the story or post first and flawed is better than second and straight-up, favors gossip and rumors to drive pageviews. Nothing has to be true, as long as the post makes the top of Google News. Unnamed sourced stories and ancient domain registrations are the new news. So it is with Apple's iSlab -- surely not its name but good enough for this bitchy commentary.
10 things Apple did wrong in 2009
The year 2009 will go on record as one of Apple's best years ever, as I explained in the "10 things Apple did right in 2009" list. This second, did-wrong list looks at the mistakes, and there were plenty. But one did-wrong is pervasive throughout nearly all of them. Apple failed to innovate the way it did during the last recession. Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his senior executives took many of the actions affecting 2009 during 2001 and early 2002. With that introduction, I present the list of 10 things Apple did wrong in 2009 -- in no order of importance. They're all important. Apple:
1. Made no CES commitment. Apple has given up Macworld, so why not make a big splash at Consumer Electronics Show, which is January 7-10 next year? During the summer, there were rumors (and they may not have been true) that Jobs had been asked to keynote in 2010. Apple is a Consumer Electronics Association member but not currently listed as a CES 2010 exhibitor.
10 things Apple did right in 2009
Apple's 2009 execution was nothing short of spectacular, given the sour economy and CEO Steve Jobs' medical leave. Apple executives handled both circumstances, which might have sunk another company, with finesse and subtle but direct aggressiveness. I had a difficult time narrowing the did-good list to just 10 items. I'll post a did-wrong list later today or just after midnight tomorrow. For now, I present the list of 10 things Apple did right in 2009 -- in no order of importance. They're all important. Apple:
1. Kept Mac prices high. While Windows PC competitors slashed computer prices -- and so their margins and profits -- Apple held above-$1,000 pricing firm for iMac, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro. The higher pricing surely didn't seem to hurt Mac sales, which were strong all year. Meanwhile, low-cost netbooks sapped Windows PC margins and profits. Apple did right by lowering prices at the high end, which simply opened up more sales over $1,000, where Apple has more than 90-percent revenue share for computers sold at U.S. retail, according to NPD.
FCC calls Verizon's logic for increased termination fees "troubling," says inquiry will continue
Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry into Verizon Wireless' early termination fee for "advanced devices," which was increased to $350 in November.
Verizon responded to the inquiry last Friday, with a letter that cited various ways that "advanced devices" --essentially anything that we'd call a "smartphone" today-- are more costly for the network to offer. According to the company, any time a customer cancels his contract, Verizon Wireless still collects less than it's losing.
At the end of the 2000's, the era of the iPod draws to a close
Like the Walkman was to the 80's, and the Discman was to the 90's, the dedicated, disconnected portable media player will no doubt be looked upon as a relic of the 00's.
Today, the ability to play media files is stock functionality in tech devices. All computers have media players, four out of the five video game consoles have them, and most smartphones have them. You can pick up a low-quality Portable Media Player for $20 at the local all-night drug store, or you could even fish them out of a 50¢ Skill Crane machine.
Google's 'Open' definition: Simply brilliant business, but is it evil?
Just about everyone who is anyone has asked "Is Google evil?" some time during 2009. I did, in an early November post. Google's growing dominance is reason enough to wonder. That dominance helped put me out of a job nearly eight months ago and many other journalists since. Google's free business model, supported by advertising, has hugely disrupted news and other information services. More disruption is coming to more business categories in the early 2010s.
Is this disruption evil? The answer may depend upon worldview. In a compelling blog entry posted late yesterday, Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president of Product Management, described the company's "meaning of open." But the meaning is broader than open standards or open source. What he lays out, whether intended or not, is a different business worldview -- and it's one that can't help but be disruptive.
Microsoft loses i4i appeal, faces Word injunction in three weeks
The US Circuit Court of Appeals in DC has today denied Microsoft's appeal to overturn a court injunction preventing it from selling copies of Microsoft Word (or Office with Word). Those copies contain a feature that a jury last May found infringed upon patents held by i4i, a former Microsoft partner that built Word add-ons for editing XML.
Now, Microsoft says it will be ready to sell revised versions of Word 2007 and Office 2007, beginning next January 11 -- the date the court injunction takes effect.
The once and future king: Test build of Opera crushes Chrome on Windows 7
Download Opera 10.5 "Pre-alpha" for Windows from Fileforum now.
How's this for a Christmas miracle: We've been saying that if Opera wants to get back in the game -- if it truly wants to earn a place among the Top 5 positions on Europe's forthcoming "Choice Screen" -- then it has to pick up the pace in the performance department. Apparently while we were writing that, the developers at Opera Software were a little ahead of us on that count.
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