Archive for 2005

WordPress Matt, Quietly launches Automattic

Om Malik | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 | 12:36 AM PT | 0 comments

Photo Matt, aka WordPress Matt has launched Automattic . Automattic is a bootstrapped startup from a handful of people passionate about ….. WP, Akismet, bbPress, and WordPress.com Continue »

Open Source, Now Bigger Than Ever

Om Malik | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 | 12:20 AM PT | 4 comments

Open source software is primetime. Continue »

On Mac, Skype Sucks CPU

Om Malik | Monday, December 19, 2005 | 3:55 PM PT | 25 comments

For past couple of weeks, I have observed that whenever I boot-up the latest version of Skype, my Powerbook 15 starts to get warmer, and fan kicks in more often. Making Skype calls slowed down the whole machine, and for the longest time I could not figure out why. Well, accidentally, using the activity monitor explained why. During a course of a chat with Andy Abramson, I saw that Skype was taking up nearly 27% of the total CPU. In idle state it takes about 4% of the total CPU, versus Gizmo Project that consumes less than half-a-percent of CPU power. Anyone care to explain the technical reasons for this, and if Windows people experience the same CPU-hogging? Continue »

440 million mobile users in China by end 2006

Om Malik | Monday, December 19, 2005 | 7:38 AM PT | 1 comment

TeleGeography Research: 440 million mobile users in China by end 2006. Continue »

YAHNS, TVnet 2X aka 200Mbps Ethernet-over-Coax

Om Malik | Monday, December 19, 2005 | 12:20 AM PT | 3 comments

YAHNS: Yet another home networking standard. Continue »

T-Mobile Testing 3G for 2006/2007 Launch

Om Malik | Monday, December 19, 2005 | 12:01 AM PT | 1 comment

T-Mobile, the 3G laggard in the US is currently testing 3G technologies in certain areas and plans to launch either a UMTS or a HSDPA network by end of 2006 or early 2007. T-Mobile’s senior vice president of Engineering Operations Neville Ray revealed 3G plans in a chat with BetaNews. Continue »

Om and Niall PodSessions, The Week of the APIs

Om Malik | Sunday, December 18, 2005 | 10:28 PM PT | 5 comments

We have just posted the latest edition of Om and Niall PodSessions and this week had a chat about the APIs, along with special guest, Kevin Burton of Tailrank. You can download the 26 minute podcast here. The complete show notes are on the website, but a quick rundown of topics covered - Alexa, Google HomePage API, FeedFlare, Yahoo’s JSON, and Google’s Jingle. Continue »

Santa Gave Me A Cab Ride

Om Malik | Sunday, December 18, 2005 | 9:21 PM PT | 3 comments

I have been missing the North Eastern Christmas. The snow, the cold chilly wind carrying the sounds of jingle bells, and misty lights as the snow flakes coming down, softly, slowly, ever so softly. Perhaps that’s why the big man obliged this weekend. San Francisco was unseasonably chilly, wet and windy. A great opportunity to hang out with friends indoors; partake a glass or four of nice Calvados. And simply, not blogging. I plowed through nearly 400 emails, just sat in my inbox, met with Niall to record our next podcast, and then on Sunday evening when the megrims got the better of me, went to see a movie with some friends. While heading on over to the movie theater, the best and perhaps the highlight of the weekend: A cab ride from Santa Claus. Enough for me to overlook the fact that The Family Stone, is actually a terrible movie! Continue »

Another $250 million for Vonage

Om Malik | Saturday, December 17, 2005 | 4:45 PM PT | 14 comments

By now Vonage was supposed to be on track for an IPO, that would have helped the company raise $400 to $600 million from public markets, and help fight a good fight with cable providers, phone companies and others with VoIP ambitions. Well, that (IPO) did not happen, so for now the company is going the route of raising convertible debt - a whopping $250 million - according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Continue »

The Truth About Universal Service Fund

Om Malik | Friday, December 16, 2005 | 11:14 PM PT | 5 comments

“We need to move to collection for the Universal Service Fund that is technology-neutral ….I think telephone numbers are a good, easy mechanism to begin to address those issues.” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (Republican) at a lunch hosted by Comptel in Washington DC. Continue »

Editorial Masthead

Carolyn Pritchard
Managing Editor
Celeste LeCompte
Special Projects Editor
Om Malik
Senior Writer
Stacey Higginbotham
Staff Writer
Wagner James Au
Contributing Editor
Liz Gannes
Staff Writer
Chris Albrecht
Staff Writer
Katie Fehrenbacher
Staff Writer
Josie Garthwaite
Staff Writer
Close
E-mail It