A fond farewell to Computer Shopper in print
This is not, so thankfully, the story of the passing of a great publication. Computer Shopper is not going away; in fact, its latest owners at SX2 Media Labs have some plans to expand the brand, while keeping its classic look and feel. I'd actually go so far as to say that SX2 is finally doing with Computer Shopper what its previous two owners failed to comprehend how to do, and its first owner could only dream of.
But a chapter has closed in the history of this great publication, and it's a personal one for me, and I'll say more about that in a bit. This week, in a memo to his employees obtained by PaidContent.org, SX2 CEO David Sills announced that the April 2009 issue would be the last bound edition of the US version of Computer Shopper.
Sneak peek of 'green' solar radio with 30-hour battery life
Unannounced until now, the radio with the ultra long battery life will sold starting next year in the US and a number of other countries for about $100, said Rahul Sharma, the VP for North America for Freeplay Energy, an affiliate of the Freeplay Foundation philanthropic group, in an interview with Betanews.
Founded in 1999, Freeplay Energy sells electronics products in the areas of digital audio, lighting, mobile power, and medical devices. Through its humanitarian division, the company also distributes radios in third world countries via the Freeplay Foundation, UNICEF, and other not-for-profit groups.
Can't we just settle on 'netbook' already?
No matter how inaccurate or stigmatized the term, "netbook" has become the de facto name for those small PCs we see people toting around everywhere. Now could someone please tell that to the companies making them?
This week, mobile processor company VIA introduced a lifestyle site dedicated to the netbook phenomenon called How To Be Mobile, (or "H2BM" if you're filling out a personal ad.) Even here, however, the devices are interchangeably referred to as "Mini-notes, sub-notebooks, and ultraportable laptops," tiptoeing around "netbook."
Mufin music-recommendation engine heads for your desktop
Mufin on Friday announced the beta release of its new music player, billed as the first ever to sort tracks and recommend other tunes by analyzing the songs themselves.
Betanews took a look at MAGIX AG's Mufin, a spinoff from the legendary Fraunhofer Institute (home of the MP3 codec!), late last year. At that time, the company was showing off the song-sorting technology itself. Mufin's designed to examine tracks strictly by sound fingerprint -- not by artist, not by track title, solely by what the tune presents the ears.
Another Google service outage makes its cloud look more like Swiss cheese
A Google spokesperson confirmed to Betanews this afternoon that soon after the company's Gmail service outage Tuesday, but in an unrelated incident, customers of the company's AdSense network were notified of a service outage.
"On February 25 in the morning Pacific Time," the spokesperson said, "there was a 90-minute AdSense outage that affected a small number of AdSense customers. All affected publishers were notified, and the problem was quickly resolved."
iPhone gets CBS shows for free with TV.com app
CBS' TV.com and NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Hulu have been in the tech news foreground this week, revealing their struggle to meaningfully coexist on the PC screen. Meanwhile, the mobile device screen presents a different set of challenges, which TV.com today has officially addressed.
TV.com has launched an iPhone app that allows users to stream CBS' content over AT&T's mobile wireless signal. This is an accomplishment for several reasons. First, other streaming TV apps for the iPhone (Joost, BBC iPlayer) required a Wi-Fi connection to receive content. Secondly, it utilizes the iPhone's native QuickTime video player by streaming in H.264 and not a proprietary protocol like Joost.
Bartz: 'Look for Yahoo to kick ass again'
There was no all-lower-case text, an absence of apology, not a single metaphor, and a definitive lack of "peanut butter" in yesterday's appearances, both in public and online, from new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Upon assuming the post from Jerry Yang, Bartz said she would clean house, and analysts were told to expect fireworks. She absolutely delivered.
"Our brand [is] one of our biggest assets," Bartz wrote in her premiere on her new company's old blog yesterday. "Mention Yahoo practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we haven't been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo brand stands for. We're going to change that. Look for this company's brand to kick ass again."
Trapped motorist triggers nationwide LG handset recall
Today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of 30,000 LG 830 "Spyder" handsets for an inability to maintain a connection to 911.
The recall is based on a report to the commission of a motorist trapped in a disabled car who attempted to dial 911 for help. The phone was unable to keep a usable connection to the emergency service, dropped the call, and could not establish a GPS lock to locate the distressed individual.
Smoldering Bolds: New BlackBerry gets yanked from shelves again
Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold has been one of the most problematic smartphones of the year. The handset was delayed several times for purported 3G network testing, while rumors swirled that the real problem was that the device was overheating.
RIM's Erik Van Drunen told Betanews in July that he had no idea where such rumors were coming from, discounting it as a product of the blogosphere. At that point, RIM would not confirm when the device would actually be released in the US.
Analysis: WiMAX faces competition from HSPA, not LTE
Industry analysis firm In-Stat this week released a worldwide "state of the union" for 4G networks, finding that though WiMAX has a strong lead in deployments, it won't even be competing with LTE when that standard starts to be rolled out.
In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar says, "Most of the operators looking to deploy WiMAX come to it from the fixed network space. These operators are looking to use WiMAX as an enhanced DSL service. Enhanced DSL will combine both the fixed broadband service with some form of nomadic coverage."
Fun with algorithms at Microsoft TechFest
It's a shame Microsoft only lets wizened old journalists into TechFest and not, say, packs of second graders. Because if there's anything that could show kids that math really is a ridiculous amount of fun, it would be a room full of people paid to find new ways to go about it.
All the truly significant tech companies have understood that somewhere at the heart of the firm, you have to make room for the guys who will never hand over an entirely shelf-ready product. That's true of most items found at TechFest, but it's a little more true of those working in theory -- and if you doubt me, ask the video crew charged with getting good footage of new search algorithms.
Sir Howard Stringer will expand role at Sony
Chairman, CEO and now president: Howard Stringer's role at Sony is expanding in the wake of the firm's unprecedented recent losses. Ryoji Chubachi, who oversees the electronics division, will step down from the president's role, staying on as vice-chairman of the board. The changes will take effect April 1.
The electronics division was ground zero of the bomb that was Sony's most recent earnings report. This quarter's not looking any brighter. For the quarter ending in March, the company now expects to report a loss of $1.53 billion, compared to earnings of $3.77 billion during the same quarter last year. (One widely quoted analyst, Yuuki Sakurai, suggested that the UK-born Stringer was moved into the driver's seat precisely because the situation's tough -- and will require someone with "non-Japanese loyalties" to make tough restructuring and cut decisions. Let the gaijin do it!)
Google News to add ads
On the same day that the 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News announced that it was shutting down effective Friday for lack of revenue, Google News confirmed its plan to sell AdWords placement on its Google News searches.
The ads, which officially debuted Thursday, work as AdWords usually do, serving up pages related to the search terms (rather than news results from specific publications). Josh Cohen, a business product manager for Google, described the results as "similar to what you see on regular Google searches or Google Book Search."
Google blocks paid apps on unlocked G1 thanks to 'rip and return' loophole
Google has unceremoniously blocked a large portion of the applications in the Android Market from owners of unlocked G1s. Any copy protected application (all of the new for-pay apps) are now unusable, according to an Android Market forum post.
Google told IDG's MacWorld that it is no longer distributing copy-protected apps to reduce the unauthorized copying of those applications.
Dell's Q4: 'Flat' is not a bad place to be
When former CFO Don Carty left Dell Inc. to rejoin his retirement, after having pulled one more rabbit out of his hat and perhaps saved the company, it was last May, and the first signs of the economic crisis (the collapse of the housing market) were only just now upon us. It looked as though Dell would ride a gradual wave of slow redemption, if not overall prosperity, having emerged from an accounting crisis the likes of which would have crippled almost any other US company in the public mind.
But did Carty exit at the wrong time for Dell, not knowing what lay ahead? Late this afternoon, the world's #2 PC maker revealed the answer: It's weathering the storm pretty well, thank you very much, with Michael Dell actively manning the tiller, and former GE Plastics CEO Brian Gladden in the CFO's chair.
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