Microsoft buy Nokia - 3 reasons wont & 3 reasons it might

here is 3 reasons Microsoft won't buy Nokia:

1- Microsoft gains nothing in the deal
The simplest reason Microsoft won't buy Nokia is this: Microsoft gets nothing out of the deal. Microsoft already has what it wants out of Nokia -- that the world's largest phone manufacturer settle on Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone operating system. Why spend billions for something you've already got?

2- Microsoft would be buying businesses it has no interest in
Nokia makes a lot more than just smartphones, notably inexpensive, low-end phones. That's a business Microsoft has absolutely no interest in, and would gain nothing from owning. Why buy something that would just be a drag on your business and offer no strategic value?

3- Combining corporate cultures could be nightmarish
Whenever one company buys another, there's inevitable conflict as the two firms try to merge corporate cultures and business practices. Microsoft is at a crossroads right now, facing multiple challenges, most notably in mobile, Internet search, and the cloud. The last thing it needs is that type of distraction.

Now here is 3 reasons Microsoft may take the plunge and buy Nokia:

1- Patents, patents, patents

As Microsoft knows better than any company, patents have become powerful assets. Microsoft has sued or threatened to sue makers of Android cell phones based on what it claims are patent infringements, and has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in returns. Adding Nokia's considerable number of patents on mobile phones would make Microsoft even more formidable.

2- Nokia could be bought relatively cheaply

Paulo Santos of the Seeking Alpha investing Web site claims that because of Nokia's market woes, Microsoft could buy Nokia relatively cheaply. He figures that even paying a 50% premium, Microsoft would pay $21 billion. Given that Nokia is sitting on what Santos says is $6.6 billion in cash, and that Microsoft would likely sell off Nokia's telecom equipment division, that's not an outrageous amount for what Microsoft would get. Consider that Google is buying the smaller Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, Microsoft could almost be considered as getting a good deal.

3- Microsoft needs to follow Apple's and Google's lead

With Google buying Motorola, Microsoft will be the only major maker of smartphone operating systems that doesn't also manufacture hardware. Apple, RIM, and now Google all make phone hardware as well as smartphone operating systems. As Apple has long shown, if you make the hardware and the software, you can design the best possible user experience. So in buying Nokia, Microsoft would be more likely to do the same.

Tech News of 2011

The Blackest mark
BlackBerry went down and with it went the hopes and dreams of the company. People across the world lost access to mails, BlackBerry Messenger and confidence in the company. The effect was brutal and the handling of the situation was terrible. This was just one in a long string of problems for the company. From lower phone sales, disappointing OS upgrades and the failure of the PlayBook Tablet, the dark black clouds became thicker over RIM.

Effect: BBX (the new OS) is coming but it may not be enough. Many predict that BlackBerry will eventually have to move to Android with BlackBerry push mail and Messenger intact.

Light my Fire
In a one horse race, it’s easy to lose sight of the winning line. But the iPad has been Tunnel Vision in its focus. So focused that it dominated the entire market. iPad-killer after iPad-killer came and went. Till the Amazon Kindle Fire. It’s priced beautifully; it has content and an ecosystem in place and it has Amazon’s magic touch behind it. It also had a large market share within days.

Effect: Amazon, Samsung, Asus and Apple: it’s a four-pronged race now with each throwing in a giant compelling reason to buy their product. 2012 may bring Apple down to about 50 per cent, which in itself is also amazing.

It’s big, it’s there, it’s not, yes it is... no it’s gone!
The best OS, the biggest hardware manufacturer, the buzz as big as Apple and a product that looked like a million bucks. The HP TouchPad came, made news and was killed – all in the blink of an eye. Some truly disastrous seat-of-the-pants decisions (a fire sale of the product and conflicting announcements) of the top HP brass led to the CEO getting the boot along with the TouchPad as well.

Effect: It could have been a five horse race but it’s not. HP could have taken Web OS to the top, but it won’t! HP, HP, HP – what have you done?

The World’s biggest and struggling
The world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer gets into bed with the world’s biggest software manufacturer.

At stake: literally the future of both companies. Nokia and Microsoft join hands to come out with the Lumia series. The devices are good, the marketing is top notch and the money being spent is astronomical. Now the future of both lies in your hands.

Effect: If the predictions are true, ‘Micro-kia’ will be number 3 in 2012. If this doesn’t work out, well, it’s Game Over for both.

Tabletting the impossible
A Tablet that will cost a student just Rs1,000. The $35 Akash Tablet is the most controversial Tablet in the world. A wonder of out-sourcing, ingenuity, hard-nosed pricing and hype, the first Akash works but is underwhelming. It’s a great idea let down by some poor choices on hardware.

Effect: We are the only nation in the world to dream it and do it. By the time the much-improved Akash 2 hits the market (March 2012?), we may be the only country supplying Tablets to every nation in the world.

The Big G
Google dominated world headlines for all things good and bad. Google+ was the only competition to Facebook but seems to be losing momentum. Google bought out Motorola and made all other Android partners nervous. The first big OS threat to Windows was the Chrome OS. But it has petered out to a has-been already.

Effect: Google+ still has a big chance as it is doing most things right. The problem is that there is no real reason to leave Facebook. Motorola-Google will be the most aggressive mobile phone player of 2012.
The Chrome OS: can you say dodo?

(Link)

Nexus S & HTC gets 4.0 Ice Cream update

Coming as a festive present for owners of the Samsung Google Nexus S is the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update. Engadget states that this upgrade is only going to be valid for those Nexus S devices running on networks that are GSM and UMTS compatible.
Those who can’t wait for Android 4.0 on a CDMA smartphone can now buy one as Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus with LTE support launched this week. The handset costs $299 with a two-year contract or $649 without. Various reviews have mostly mirrored my own experience with the unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus I’ve been using for a few weeks, although there are some slight differences.

 

“We’re rolling out Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices over the coming month, starting today. Enjoy the tasty update! Once you get the update, check out some tips and shortcuts for getting started at the Android 4.0 Help Center,” cited the official Google+ Android page.

The HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL and HTC Sensation XE are the smartphones that will be receiving the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Also to be updated are the HTC Rezound, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G in the U.S. Released just last month, the latest version of the Google mobile OS brings along a host of unique functionalities such as Face Unlock, the NFC powered Android Beam and the People app.

iSlate-iGuide Tablet Rumor Turmoil

techtree.com - Earlier this month, Financial Times reported that Apple had booked Yerba Buena Center for Arts, San Franscisco for a major product announcement on January 26, 2010. Fox News confirmed this with its Apple-based source that the company is holding big event but no details about product were obtained. However, Google China's ex-chief Kaifu Lee wrote on his blog that an informed friend told him that Apple Tablet looks like 10.1-inch iPhone screen with awesome UI. Honestly, just like many others, we had enough of Tablet rumors.

As per Lee's blog post on his blog, the Apple Tablet will be iPhone-esque touchscreen bearing tablet with amazing UI, 3D graphics, virtual keyboard, video conferencing, eBooks, Internet and other functions. All this will come at sub-$1,000 price and most likely be announced on January 26, 2010. It's being said that Lee's current investment venture - Innovation Works has Foxconn

Earlier, MacRumors stated that the Apple Tablet would most likely be called iSlate for the domain acquired by Apple. And now dug up an old Apple trademark which points at iGuide Media, LLC, Delaware-based company. The iGuide Media company's trademark ownership carries signature of Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter.

It appears like iGuide is likely to be some service related to Apple Tablet since the trademark filing reveals computer hardware and computer software for accessing, browsing, searching, recording, organizing, storing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, streaming, reproducing, playing, and reviewing audio, video, games, music, television, movies, photographs, and other multimedia content. (full story)

Analysis: Apple, AT&T and Google Voice

Apple on Friday posted its response to the Federal Communications Commission's Google Voice iPhone app inquiry on their Web site, and the company finally made it clear what they have against Google Voice-type apps: Apple doesn't want anyone messing with their stuff.

Their argument sounds oddly plaintive: Apple "spent a lot of time and effort" developing their phone interface, so they don't like that Google "replac[es] the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail."

A tiny violin plays for Apple. But the line is clear: Apple sees their platform as their house. Software developers are guests, and they can't rearrange the furniture. The iPhone is not a completely open platform - but only fools ever believed it was.

There's a lot of fun in Apple and AT&T's responses to the FCC's inquiries. For one thing, the FCC made the common error of thinking Google Voice is a VoIP program. It isn't; it's a complicated sort of universal messaging system mashed up with a voicemail server and some other stuff.

AT&T declares that "AT&T does not have direct knowledge of the particular features or functionalities of that application," and that "we look forward to learning more about Google Voice." Apple chimes in that "Apple does not know if there is a VoIP element in the way the Google Voice application routes calls and messages."

Ba-dum-ching! It's practically "Google Voice - what's that?"

Apple, meanwhile, also runs through a list of VoIP programs they do approve of (such as Skype) as part of their argument that Google Voice isn't VoIP, it's a denigration of Apple's hard work at building a phone interface. (full Coverage)

Be the first to use Google wave, register now

Desperately waiting to 'wave' through Google wave? Here is your chance to be the member of Google wave's exclusive bugs testing team. Yes! Thats true, Google has started its hunt for users from around the globe to use, test and enjoy the wave experience.

All you need to do is to register here and you can be one of the lucky 100,000 users to use Google Wave, registration process is simple and quick. You are only required to enter your email ID. There are a couple of questions as well which you can answer if you want to but it is strongly recommended that you answer those questions.

Don't forget to write a short message for the Google wave team, it only makes your application more strong. Google has not yet explained the selection procedure but if selected you will be able to test the tool before its public launch.

Widely considered to be the email killer, Google Wave is a personal communication and collaboration tool announced by Google in this year's Google IO conference. A combination of Email, instant messaging and social networking makes Google wave a fascinating tool to use. Google wave comes with a set of very strong APIs and it is open source which means the users can make extensions to Google wave.

In initial phase the tool will be made available to the selected 100,000 users on September 30 this year while the rest of the world will be able to 'wave' a month or two later. (with thanks)

How to Choose the Best Web Browser

Today's Web browsers are faster and more feature-rich than ever before. If you're not sure which one you should use, our look at the most popular options will help prep you for prime surfing.

The recent launch of Firefox 3.5 was just the latest in a crescendo of activity on the browser front over the past few months. We've seen Google tout speed with its bare-bones Chrome 2. We've seen Apple's Safari 4 bring on both the speed and all the interface eye candy we've come to expect. Opera has come in with not only a beta of its feature-packed version 10, but also an alpha of an app called Opera Unite that makes the browser a server as well as a consumer. Starting it all was that juggernaut Microsoft, coming out with Internet Explorer 8, which the company claimed was more compliant with open Web standards.

But it turns out that standards are a far murkier issue than they may first seem. Firefox's promoters will brand IE as a completely behind-the-times, non-standards-supporting browser, but the standards Firefox supports haven't yet been ratified by the organization that's been the official keeper of the standards, the W3C. Firefox's support for the <video> tag is a good example: Though the tag itself is adopted by the W3C, the Ogg Theora video codec Firefox supports with the tag is anything but.

Rendering speed is another issue to consider when choosing a browser. Though all browsers today are much faster than they were a few years ago, the clear winner—at least as far as JavaScript rendering—is Chrome. JavaScript rendering is important for modern sites, which are behaving increasingly like applications rather than static pages. Chrome performed best in my tests using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, finishing in just 1,503 ms. But Safari isn't far behind, at 1,707 ms, and Firefox is right in the mix, at 2,413 ms. The once-snappiest Opera trails at 7,974 ms, and IE8 is left in the dust with a 10,281-ms time.

In terms of features and customizability, Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari all outshine the stripped-down Chrome. But no browser can come close to Firefox in both its extensions and theming capabilities. Mozilla's "Fashion My Firefox" and "Personas" tools make it simple for novice users to customize the browser to their hearts' content. IE also has an add-on capability, but there's nowhere near the ecosystem for it as there is for Firefox. True, only IE offers WebSlices and Accelerators, which deliver up-to-date data to you with little fuss, right inside the browser, but few sites currently support WebSlices. (full Story)

What if Google Wasn't Free?

The launch of Google's Chrome OS spurred numerous questions among analysts and bloggers: what is it? How will it be used? Will it displace Android? Microsoft Windows?

The question that's now being asked is: what if it isn't free? And what if Google decides to charge consumers for Gmail, or its Apps package, or any number of additional services?

The questions have been raised by The New York Times and analyst Rob Enderle, among others. At this point, it's merely speculation, but possibly a topic that might be factored in as a "what-if" scenario in future budgets, too. The question remains: what would you pay to use Google?

Schmidt: Chrome OS News in Late 2009

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (Reuters) - Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said there may be announcements later this year about netbook PCs running its new Chrome operating system, as the Internet giant makes its deepest push into Microsoft Corp's business.

Schmidt also said on Thursday that while the worst of the economic downturn has passed, there aren't any strong signs of an immediate recovery.

"I think the new normal is now," Schmidt said at a one-hour briefing with reporters, along with Google co-founder Larry Page, at the Allen & Co media and technology conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Earlier this week, Google announced it was developing a PC operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, expected in the second half of 2010. The company said computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer are working with Google on Chrome devices.

"Everybody we've talked to under nondisclosure is excited about the plan. So hopefully later this year we'll see some announcements," Schmidt said on Thursday.

Schmidt and Page repeatedly steered the conversation away from the rivalry with Microsoft, describing the Chrome OS as a product that would be "additive" to the PC market.

"I don't want to talk about Microsoft," Schmidt said, noting later that Google did not have any particular goals for Chrome to take market share in the PC business.

"We actually don't look at market share at all," said Schmidt.  (story Link)

10 Questions for Google's New Chrome OS

Google’s not-so-surprising announcement that it would launch an operating system, the Google Chrome OS, in 2010 was full of heady promises, but painfully lacking in detail. Naturally, I have some questions for Google.

1. Why Do We Need This?
Consumers like variety, but stress levels tend to rise when there are too many technology options. I think this is mostly because each platform has its own metaphors. And while some may tell users that this operating system is better than that one, most users are too scared to switch because they don't know if they can learn to use a new OS. Google, however, is applying the same thinking it used when the search giant launched the Chrome Web browser: We can do it better. They did build a super-fast Web interface, but Chrome still lacks many of the basic features we've come to expect from a good browser. Will a Chrome OS have similar gaping holes?

2. Hardware Support?
Google's blog post on the new Chrome OS seems to gloss over hardware support. "[Users] don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware." In other words, the Chrome OS should work seamlessly with all of the peripherals you currently use. But why is that? The OS is being built on a Linux kernel, which means that while driver support is decent, it's not foolproof. Will Google work with OEMs to have a rich set of drivers available within the OS? Will you have to download all the drivers you need for your existing hardware? How will they ease the process of installation?

3. Linux? Really?
I know I've said this before, but why do people keep going back to Linux as the best alternative to Windows? There are excellent Linux distros out there, such as Ubuntu, but none of them are quite as easy to use as Windows or the Mac OS. More importantly, two years of Vista did not create a new user bonanza for the Linux platform. It didn't even do all that much for the Mac OS. Instead, Windows users suffered but stayed put. Now many feel like they're about to be rewarded for their patience with Windows 7. Look at it this way: When gas prices soared to record highs, people did drive less and they even traded in their Hummers for Hyundais. What they didn't do is rush to hybrid vehicles. I know there are more of them on the road than ever before, but they are far outnumbered by traditional gas-guzzlers. Face it, the tried and trusted (Windows) seems to stick around even when better alternatives are available.

4. What About Android?
Android is a decent little mobile operating system, and it may even do a good job of powering a new generation of netbooks—I'm still waiting to see the first one—but it hasn't exactly taken its primary market by storm. In fact, it's taken almost a year for the second Android-based phone to arrive. I don't know what caused the holdup. Perhaps it's the same problem that Linux has: consumers have found the mobile platforms they really prefer and aren't interviewing any others.

5. Which OEMs?
Most major PC manufacturers have offered Linux boxes at one time or another, but they don't push them. There are no ad campaigns out there, and they're typically not featured on, say, Dell's homepage. Google certainly has the clout to get into the offices of Acer, Dell, and HP, but how receptive are these companies to Google's platform overtures? Like the rest of us, they've suffered through a bad 2008 and a dismal 2009. Would they really want to risk precious marketing dollars on an untested platform? All are gearing up for Microsoft's Windows 7 push (which kicks off in earnest on October 22). It's the closest thing these manufacturers have to a sure thing. The Chrome OS has risk written all over it.

6. Can We Trust Open Source?
The open source community is brilliant at building out new OS features, but it also tends to fracture. Does anyone know how many different Linux distributions exist? Can Google depend on the open source community to put the interests of the lowest common denominator first?

7. Will the OS Be in Beta?
Okay, I'm asking this one somewhat facetiously. Google officially grew up this week when it pulled most of its major apps and services out of Beta. I'd say it's no coincidence that it did this right before the Google Chrome OS announcement. The ever-present "beta" tag on many of the company's products made it seem somewhat less than serious about software. The company can't afford that perception now.

8. Is Chrome Chrome?
One thing that isn't clear is whether the Chrome OS desktop is actually going to be a brand new interface, with new code, or if the whole thing is simply a rejiggering of the Chrome Web browser with a Linux kernel underneath. Google's blog post makes it sound more like the latter. That could be kind of cool; you get things like tear off tabs and an incredibly lean, speedy interface. On the other hand, how does it handle tasks and applications, navigation, file storage, networking? Does that all get passed off to the Linux platform?

9th and 10the will continue on full post Link

TiVo Wants to Be the Google of Television. How?

It's a familiar story. Upstart popularizes technology that threatens to disrupt an industry. Larger rivals enter picture and try to squeeze out little guy. TiVo (TIVO), whose set-top boxes made it routine for viewers to save TV shows on a hard drive so they could watch them later (and fast-forward through the ads), has followed this very trajectory. The cable companies began rolling out their own digital videorecorders a few years ago, and TiVo has been hemorrhaging subscribers ever since.

The TiVo story doesn't end there, however. By leveraging its still potent brand name and cache of more than 140 patents, the Alviso (Calif.) company is trying to remake itself as the Google (GOOG) of television—helping viewers navigate the increasing crush of entertainment choices and selling ads to boot. "Like Google," says CEO Thomas S. Rogers, "TiVo will bring that ease of use to TV sets." A laudable goal, but this is a crowded field.

Remaking a company is never easy, especially when the bottom is falling out of your primary business. This year, TiVo's revenues will shrink by 10%, to $225 million, according to Standard & Poor's (MHP) analyst Tuna N. Amobi, who expects TiVo to shed about 400,000 subscribers. That would leave it with 2.8 million, down from a high of 4.4 million in 2006. But Rogers has an ace in the hole. In 2006 a jury found that EchoStar (SATS), which then owned the Dish Network (DISH) satellite TV service, violated a TiVo patent; TiVo collected $104.6 million. The money let Rogers wipe out the company's debt and bought time to regroup. (On June 2, TiVo was awarded $103 million more after Dish still was found to be in violation of the patent. Dish won a temporary stay and is appealing.)

TiVo remains the standard in program guides. Where cable's technology can be hard to use, TiVo's interface makes finding shows easy. This expertise helps explain why Netflix (NFLX) and Blockbuster (BBI) have signed on to use TiVo technology for their online video services, which stream shows and movies to PCs and TVs. "When consumers want to use their TV to order a program, what better name is there than TiVo?" says Blockbuster digital czar Kevin Lewis. TiVo will get a piece of each transaction, and Netflix and Blockbuster will offer promotions to help sell the box. (full Story)

Facebook, Google Go Persian, Aiding Iran’s Activists

Some of the Web’s leading firms are rolling out new features, to accommodate worldwide interest in the protests in Iran — and to not-so-subtly help out the pro-democracy movement inside the country.

Iran’s activists have been relying on blogs, Tweets, text messages, Facebook groups, and uploaded YouTube videos to share information with one another, and with the outside world. Late Thursday night, both Facebook and Google’s translation service added Persian language support, which should make it even easier for the Iranian opposition and its growing global network of supporters to connect.

“We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran. Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information,” Google principal scientist Franz Och noted in a Thursday night blog post.

Almost immediately, supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi used the new feature to begin translating his official site into English.

In the past few days, Google’s YouTube video-sharing site recently changed its policy on violent footage, to allow videos from Iran’s protests to stay posted to the site. Twitter rescheduled maintenance, to accommodate Iranian activists. (full Story)

Microsoft Testing New Internet Search Service

Microsoft Corp is internally testing a new version of its online search service under the name of Kumo.com, a spokesman for the software company said on Monday.
The service is not yet available outside the company, but may eventually form part of Microsoft’s attempt to catch up with Internet search leaders Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.
The new search service was unveiled in an internal memo sent by the head of research at the company’s online services division on Monday, but it did not go into details about features on the new service. (chipbit)

Evernote Mobile Web site optimized for Google Android browser

I’ve been waiting patiently to see Evernote come to Android and S60 and while there are still no native clients yet for these platforms, they did just launch a new G1-optimized website for Evernote. You need to visit www.evernote.com/m with your G1 browser to access this new site. As you will see it does give you a much better experience than the standard mobile site.

Check out this Evernote blog post for more details on this optimized site, including this list of what’s new:

* Easier search and navigation with quicker access to commonly used features
* Touchscreen optimization makes browsing easier and faster
* Works in both portrait and landscape modes
* Dynamic user interface takes full advantage of the Android browser

Evernote Mobile Web can also be used by other devices and I plan to try it on my S60 devices as well to see how it works out. The good news is that Evernote does plan to release a native client for the Android OS and other mobile operating systems that probably include S60 and the Palm WebOS. (story Link)

Apple's New Safari 4 Beta

Like every new browser released of late, the Safari 4 beta, released Tuesday, claims faster HTML and JavaScript performance, powered by a new JavaScript engine called Nitro. Safari, however, claims to be the world's fastest browser. It's not, but in real-world service it's close enough not to matter.

Safari's main competitor is Google's Chrome browser, whose ultrafast JavaScript speed is one of its bragging points. A couple of the Safari beta's major interface changes too seem to take a page out of Chrome's playbook. As in Google's browser, tabs have moved to the very top of the window. And perhaps the biggest change in Safari's look—the Top Sites view of your most accessed web pages—resembles Chrome's handling of new tabs, which ultimately derives from Opera's. But Safari 4's implementation of many new features brings the added elegance and clever interface ideas we've come to expect from Apple.

One instance of these is the incorporation of Cover Flow in the browser's history list. Sure, it's little more than eye candy, but it's both stylish and useful at the same time. Another highlight of the new Safari include its Smart Address Field, which jumps on the smart-address-bar bandwagon pioneered by Firefox 3 and has been emulated by every browser release since—Internet Explorer 8, Chrome, and Opera. Add to this its revamped Smart Search Field, greater support for emerging Web standards, full-page zoom, and new tools for developers, and you can see that the Safari team has had their hands full.

Setup and the new look

I had a minor temporary issue when installing the browser on my Vista test machine, with a dialog box asking me to uninstall or repair the installation; clicking the latter got the browser up and running in short order. The download is bulkier than Chrome's, at 26MB versus just half a megabyte; then again, Safari offers more features. Mac users should note that the installer requires OS X 10.5.6—10.5.5 won't do. When you first run Safari 4, you'll see a new animated splash screen featuring the Apple logo, complete with inspirational music.

If you've upgraded from an earlier version, you'll next see the new Top Sites page consisting of a curved 3D grid of images of your most frequently visited websites. An Edit button lets you remove any of these thumbnails, and you can drag any of the minipages to a spot of your choice, and "pin" it so that it always appears in that spot. If a site in your Top Sites group has new content, a blue page dog-ear with a star will show up in its top right corner. In some ways I prefer Opera's handling of this: It only adds sites you specify to the speed dial thumbnails, but I can see Chrome and Safari's rationale that people are more likely to use the feature if it's automatically populated.

Unlike the bare-bones Chrome, Safari does bring a very handy sidebar, which you can show by clicking the book icon a the top left of the window. You can switch the sidebar's function between History, Bookmarks, Bonjour networking, and an RSS reader. Any of these sidebar choices take advantage of the scrolling Cover Flow view in the top half of the main center panel, while the bottom half offers a simple list of the links. You can adjust the relative height of these two panels with a grab bar in the center of their divider – for example, you could have either one take up the whole area. The mouse wheel scrolls back and forth through the Cover Flow images, or you can use a slider beneath the images.  (story Link)

Google Launches Toolbar 6 Beta for IE

Google has launched Toolbar 6 launch for Internet Explorer and has introduced the Quick Search Box (QSB) feature that provides search functionality outside of the browser.

QSB will provide search and website suggestions and relevant bookmarks - as users type - and allow them to launch applications directly from the search box. With use, QSB will customize itself to usage patterns, so over time users will have to type fewer characters to get to favorite sites and applications.

Google is also bringing elements from their search results page directly into the toolbar. They’re experimenting with displaying high-quality website suggestions and sponsored links as users type their query. Clicking on these will take users directly to the website.

They’ve also brought the new tab page to Internet Explorer users. Users can access their most viewed sites, recently closed tabs and bookmarked pages from this new tab page. This update is launching in 40 languages Check it out here. (story Link)

GTalk Users Get Phished

All doesn’t seem to be going well for Google. Along with the Gmail outage it has been reported that a phishing attack spread through chat sessions, including Google Chat, and directed victims to a Web site called "ViddyHo."
A link to a video is sent to users in IM sessions and the link directs them to a ViddyHo login page that in turn instructs them to enter their Google account information. This info is then used to break into the victim’s account and send the link to other users in the address book.
Google reportedly has blocked the addresses being used to send messages, and that several browsers - including Firefox, Safari and Chrome - were displaying a warning when users attempt to visit the ViddyHo Web site.
Viddyho.com has also been identified as a phishing site in Google’s search results.
Google is asking users who’ve entered information into ‘ViddyHo’, to change their security question and account password. Read more here.

Google Video Posting May Bring Execs Jail Time

Thanks to a three-minute cellphone video posted on Google Video in 2006, four of the company's executives may face jail time in Italy. The four defendants, including SVP David Drummond, former CFO George Reyes, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer, and a fourth yet to be identified, went on trial today in Milan over charges of privacy violation and defamation.

The video, which features four kids teasing a boy with Down syndrome, was removed shortly after being posted. And while the four execs on trial weren't directly involved with the handling of the video, they still face possible jail time.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time an individual has been criminally charged for violation of data protection laws that occurred by the company he or she works for," Trevor Hughes, executive director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, said in a statement reported by The New York Times. "This suggests that privacy is going to be more of a battleground."

Google issued a public statement decrying the trial:

As we have repeatedly made clear, our hearts go out to the victim and his family. We are pleased that as a result of our cooperation the bullies in the video have been identified and punished. We feel that bringing this case to court is totally wrong. (story Link)

Official Descriptions of Google G-Drive

Just as the flurry of coverage around Google's long-awaited GDrive announcement was beginning to die down for, well, a lack of any real news, the rumored cloud storage solution has once again reared its head, thanks to a little digging by one blogger.

Brian Ussery rooted around in the code on a Google page describing the company's various services. He eventually discovered the following abstract of the online storage app:

Online file backup and storage... GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents... GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device--be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.

It's not quite an official announcement--that's expected by many to occur next month. It is, however, one more step toward the service that various news outlets have already deemed the "death of the PC." And, at the very least, it's certainly enough to get the blogosphere buzzing about GDrive again.  (story Link)

The G-Drive vs the Future of the PC

Every so often, the mainstream media puts out a story that says the PC is on its last legs. The latest, a Fox News story that "Google's Rumored GDrive May 'Kill' the PC," suggests that the Google Drive would shift consumer interest away from Microsoft's OS in favor of cloud computing.

I've read stories about the death of the PC for the last 15 years, and as you know, PCs are still going strong. Even in a down economy, manufacturers will still sell at least 260 million of the things worldwide in 2009. But it's true that what constitutes a "computer" will change over time; the more interesting debate should be around what forms, what functions, and what processors will dominate the PC landscape in the future.

In the most extreme view of this new computing model, applications, data, and back- and front-end processing will exist in the cloud. In essence, it's the mainframe model of the past, with the cloud serving as the mainframe and the PC as a terminal or thin client of some type. There is a measure of truth to this idea, though it assumes that we'll get much faster broadband speeds. And even then, the front-end dumb terminals would more than likely resemble PCs—screens and user interfaces built into appliances, thin clients, and perhaps even netbooks with lightweight OSs. I think this view of the future is what the Fox News story was trying to evoke.

Even if we did get a GDrive that served as our computing back-end in the sky, many front-end devices, depending on what they are being used for, could still need serious CPU and graphics coprocessors to handle mainstream business and consumer applications. Hence the future of the PC seems more complex than this story would lead us to believe.

A more likely scenario is that the average home will have at least one very powerful PC that can handle the video and graphics-intensive applications consumers will demand in the future. Think of things like HD video, 3D images and games, and next-generation apps running simultaneously—and instantly accessible. This PC would also become the home media server. Since PCs of this nature really do become the center of a family's digital lifestyle, people will want as much processing power as they can afford so that they could benefit from what Cisco calls a more "visual networking" environment. A lot of people will also have smaller laptops (thin clients, perhaps) in other rooms of the house for accessing and manipulating their stuff, whether in the cloud or local. And we'll have computers built into our refrigerators and stoves that rely pretty much exclusively rely on the cloud for their data and back-end processing.

At the business level, computing will shift away from desktops, moving almost entirely to portable computers, including laptops, netbooks, and smartphones. There will be a place for thin clients, too, especially for use in call centers and for other types of data-processing functions, and we will continue to need workstation-class PCs in the enterprise for things like desktop publishing, graphics creation, and scientific and engineering applications. (full Story)

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