{ Daily Archives }

July 6th, 2006

Does Microsoft have an iPod up its sleeve?

from USATODAY.com 

I saw this story and I can tell you. I wouldn’t be too woried if I was Apple. Though Microsoft has had success with its user interface on teh Xbox360, I can tell you from Personal expereince with the Motorla Q, that Microsoft has yet to figure out the handheld operating sysyems and user interfaces….

SEATTLE — Microsoft kept mum Thursday about widely circulating reports that it is developing a would-be iPod killer timed to hit store shelves for the holiday shopping season.

But that didn’t stop the digerati from speculating about the device — and handicapping its odds of succeeding.

“The likelihood of an effort underway at Microsoft (MSFT) to create such a device is pretty much 100%,” says Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff. “They are obsessed with Apple’s success on the iPod front and want to make sure they regain the initiative.”

The iconic iPod has carried Apple to the sweet spot of the digital home entertainment market. The basic iPod dominates the paid music download market, and the high-end iPod is gaining traction in paid video downloads.

Microsoft’s answer: a hand-held music and video player, equipped with Wi-Fi, that allows users to download paid music and video files without being connected to a PC, according to Reuters and The New York Times…

full story here

2006 07 06

Technology
Companies

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Google and Its Continuing Dark Fiber Mystery

 from eweek.com

I still think this is one of the most interesting insights into what Google may be up to….

The market is still guessing about Google’s continued purchases of “dark fiber” and what that will mean to the Internet. Yet another explanation was floated at a recent IT conference: IPv6, the next-generation Internet standard….

“You know who else has a big pot of slash 20? Google,” Lightman said. “Yahoo does too. It’s not that service providers aren’t doing it—it’s the savvy service providers, with the high multiples and visionary management, that are getting ready to go into it.

“This is why Google bought mobile dark fiber. It’s to go out and go: ‘All these bozos in America aren’t rolling out IPv6, so we’ll do it if they aren’t going to….

full story here

2006 07 06

Technology
Companies

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N.Y. Court Upholds Gay Marriage Ban

From the New York Times:

This is an important rulling, not related to technology directly, but still something important to note.

New York’s highest court today turned back a broad attempt by gay and lesbian couples across the state to win the right to marry and raise children under New York State’s marriage law, saying that denying marriage to same-sex couples does not violate the state constitution.

In a 4-2 decision, the Court of Appeals found that the state’s definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, enacted more than a century ago, could have a rational basis, and that it was up to the State Legislature, not the courts, to decide whether it should be changed.

2006 07 06

Legal
Politics

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