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How will technology influence the news in 2012?

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Dan Gillmor - Dec. 29 (Opinion) - Predicting the next year's news is a fool's errand, but looking at technological trends could give us a hint At the beginning of 2011, aging dictators ruled Egypt and Libya, and despotism was the nearly unquestioned reality in most of the Middle East. The eurozone was seeing trouble at its edges, but wasn't heading toward collapse. News International had successfully covered up most of its rampant bad acts, and Rupert Murdoch was on the verge of even greater control over British media and politics. Anyone who might have predicted how utterly and rapidly those realities would change might have been branded a lunatic. Which is one reason why the annual journalistic ritual of making predictions about the year ahead is a fool's errand. With that in mind, let me offer instead some observations about the technology and media trends we've seen in past months, and how they might play out in 2012. In many cases, the trajectory is deeply worrisome. But I remain an eternal optimist in the face of ...

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Do mobile, the cloud and social spell the end of the PC era?

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jean-Louis Gassée - Oct. 24 (Opinion) - These are the three interdependent forces that power the biggest wave of growth, change, and destruction I've seen since I have been allowed to take part in the high-tech industry. In the beginning (or mine, anyway), back in 1968 when I was, miraculously, offered a salary to be part of HP France there was the mainframe. IBM – "The Company" – reigned supreme, a dynasty that seemed unassailable. The IBMer wore a suit and tie when approaching the punch card feeder. Big Blue's competitors, the BUNCH, were also called the Seven Dwarves because their combined market share couldn't compare to IBM's dominance.

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Why Google had to have Motorola Mobility

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Dan Gillmor - Aug. 17 (Opinion) - The acquisition has provoked comment about defensive buying of patents, but Google surely has more ambition than that For several years now, Google has been following a vow made by former CEO Eric Schmidt: mobile first. New CEO Larry Page is taking that dictum to a new level by announcing a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn . The implications of this deal depend entirely on how Google plans to use Motorola. If, as some claim, the deal is more about obtaining Motorola's mobile patent portfolio than anything else, we can expect escalating patent warfare between technology giants and limited innovation beyond that. If, however, Google intends to operate the business it is acquiring, we may see some broad and sweeping changes in the technology industry. If the deal is chiefly about obtaining Motorola's mobile patent portfolio, then Google would likely spin off the hardware end of the company and keep the software and patents. The patents would be vital weapons in its competition with ...

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Microsoft Near Deal to Acquire Skype

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Anupreeta Das, Nick Wingfield - May. 10 (News) - Microsoft is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype for more than $7 billion, and a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday.

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Microsoft files complaint against Google

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Tony Romm, Mike Zapler - Mar. 31 (News) - Microsoft asked European regulators Thursday to go after Google on antitrust grounds, accusing the search giant of trying to “entrench its dominance” on the Web.

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Microsoft: virus-infected computers should be quarantined

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Josh Halliday - Oct. 07 (News Report) - Software giant wants people cut off from the internet and health certificates issued Virus-infected computers should be blocked from the internet and kept in quarantine until they are given a "health certificate", a top Microsoft security researcher suggested on Thursday. Under the proposed security regime, put forward by the technology giant's trustworthy computing team, an individual's internet connection would be "throttled" to prevent the virus spreading to other computers. But security experts today warned that cutting people off from the internet could be a drastic step too far – and that the question of who would issue and verify the "health certificate" was troubling. Millions of computers around the world running versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system are infected by viruses without their user's knowledge and used to generate billions of spam emails and attacks against websites, such as that used against a British law company earlier this month. The infected ...

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The Full-On Assault On Cable Is Underway

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - By MG Siegler - Aug. 30 (Opinion) - The Full-On Assault On Cable Is Underway

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Iranian Government Runs Public Warez Server

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

torrentfreak.com - By Ernesto - Aug. 24 (Investigative Report) - The Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology is directly connected to the Iranian Government. Aside from evaluating and advising policy makers on science and technology issues, the largest research outfit in the country also provides a warez server where Photoshop, MS Office and many other applications can be downloaded for free.

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The end of Wintel

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Aug. 03 (Special Report) - THEY were the Macbeths of information technology (IT): a wicked couple who seized power and abused it in bloody and avaricious ways. Or so critics of Microsoft and Intel used to say, citing the two firms’ supposed love of monopoly profits and dead rivals. But in recent years, the story has changed. Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, has retired to give away his billions. The “Wintel” couple (short for “Windows”, Microsoft’s flagship operating system, and “Intel”) are increasingly seen as yesterday’s tyrants. Rumours persist that a coup is brewing to oust Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s current boss.

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Microsoft's two-pronged strategy for Office 2010

Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Tim Weber - May. 12 (News Analysis) - Why Microsoft bets that free software will be big business

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Geek Power

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Steven Levy - Apr. 20 (Special Report) - When I embarked on my project, I thought of hackers as little more than an interesting subculture. But as I researched them, I found that their playfulness, as well as their blithe disregard for what others said was impossible, led to the breakthroughs that would define the computing experience for millions of people. Early MIT hackers realized it was possible to use computers for what we now call word processing. (Their initial program was called Expensive Typewriter, appropriate since the one machine it ran on cost $120,000.) They also invented the digital videogame. The rebel engineers of the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley were the first to take advantage of new low-cost chips to build personal computers. They may have begun as a fringe cohort, but hackers alchemized the hard math of Moore’s law into a relentless series of technological advances that changed the world and touched all of our lives. And most of them did it simply for the joy of pulling off an awesome trick. But behind the inventiveness was something even more marvelous — all real hackers shared a set of values that has turned out to be a credo for the information age. I attempted to codify this unspoken ethos into a series of principles called the hacker ethic. Some of the notions now seem forehead-smackingly obvious but at the time were far from accepted (”You can create art and beauty on a computer”). Others spoke to the meritocratic possibilities of a digital age (”Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position”). Another axiom identified computers as instruments of insurrection, granting power to any individual with a keyboard and sufficient brainpower (”Mistrust authority — promote decentralization”). But the precept I perceived as most central to hacker culture turned out to be the most controversial: “All information should be free.”

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Congress On China: Google Gets A Big Wet Kiss. Microsoft Is “Enabling Tyranny”

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:03:30 -0700

TechCrunch - By Michael Arrington - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - Many people in the tech community are becoming increasingly skeptical of Google’s motives in partially pulling out of the Chinese markets and starting to suggest a certain level of hypocrisy.

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin urges US to act over China web censorship

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Bobbie Johnson, Ian Katz - Mar. 23 (News Report) - • Obama administration urged to make issue high priority • Brin says Microsoft co-operation with Beijing 'disappointing'

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Google Makes Exchanging Microsoft Exchange For Google Apps A Bit Easier

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - Mar. 17 (News) - There’s no question that Google is setting its sights on taking some of Microsoft’s marketshare in the productivity suite space. Last year, Google announced a new plug-in that syncs Google’s enterprise versions of Apps, including Gmail, contacts, and

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The Worldwide Telescope Comes To Bing Maps

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - Mar. 17 (News) -

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France adds to Explorer warning. Don't use it!

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - By Jonathan Fildes - Jan. 18 (News) - France echoes calls by the German government for web users to find an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

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NSA helped with Windows 7 development

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Gregg Keizer - Nov. 25 (News Report) - The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday during testimony before Congress.

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Forecast for Microsoft: Partly Cloudy

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ashlee Vance - Oct. 18 (Special Report) - These days, however, Microsoft has legions of doubters. While it still commands a prominent and profitable position in computing, brand experts say consumers stumble when trying to define what the company stands for and whether it can create a grander technological future.

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A Troll Squats On WWWBING.com — Literally

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - By MG Siegler - Oct. 17 (Opinion) - A Troll Squats On WWWBING.com — Literally

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Goodbye, Encarta. A cautionary tale for newspapers?

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By John Yemma - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - Wikipedia killed Encarta. Encarta was the early digital encyclopedia. It began life as CD/ROM and increasingly went online. What it never did was truly embrace the power of the Internet. What does that say about how we get information? And about the future of newspapers?

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Former Microsoft exec grows global literacy effort

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

KING5.com - By Charlotte Starck - Feb. 06 (News Report) - This morning, 250 million children around the world didn't go to school. And that's something that must change says the one time director of Microsoft's Business Development for Greater China, John Wood. Room To Read brings philanthropists, business and even students attending a "Students Helping Students" breakfast event together to put a dent in illiteracy in seven different countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia.

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Microsoft cutting 1,400 jobs today; up to 5,000 in next 18 months as recession hits harder

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Benjamin J. Romano - Jan. 22 (News Report) - In a press release issued moments ago, Microsoft announced that it is cutting up to 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT in the next 18 months, starting with 1,400 today. It marks the first company-wide layoff in Microsoft's history and comes as the company reports fiscal second-quarter earnings that missed the low-end of its own guidance for sales and earnings per share. It's Windows business declined 8 percent as PC sales growth ground to a virtual halt in the quarter ended Dec. 31. "While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach," CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today."

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European standoff over search engine data

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

International Herald Tribune - By Kevin J. O'Brien - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Now, as the U.S. titans Google, Microsoft and Yahoo continue to retain personal data beyond the six-month time limit established this year by the European Commission, regulators say their patience is running thin.

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What Microsoft wants from Yahoo

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TechUser - By Usman Latif - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - Microsoft's now retracted acquisition bid for Yahoo has been endlessly analysed in the media and myriad explanations have been offered for Microsoft's interest in Yahoo. Analysts have generally assumed the obvious that Microsoft made the bid in order to acquire Yahoo. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, though, does not agree with this assumption. He has publicly claimed that Microsoft did not intend to acquire Yahoo. Some analysts have dismissed Jerry Yang's claim as self-serving, but this can not be so. As part of ongoing shareholder litigation, Jerry Yang may need to defend this claim in a court of law and could not have made the claim lightly. Besides, there is plenty of evidence that supports Jerry Yang's claim.

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The Many (Geeky) Faces of Bill Gates

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Betsy Schiffman - Jun. 28 (Special Report) - In reality, Gates is a smooth operator who, despite his uncombed hair, baby face and disheveled appearance, knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way. He successfully transitioned from cocky college dropout to brass-knuckle negotiator to seasoned captain of industry, eventually becoming the richest man in the world and a model philanthropist.

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