April, 2009 — Tech News and Analysis

Archive for April 2009

We’re trying something new here on the site since it’s been requested at various times over the past several years. See that Daily E-Mail Newsletter bit in the sidebar? It just appeared today and it sends our content to you through e-mail. If you sign … Read More »

Clearing The Cache: Tasks & Time Edition

Like many of us, I spend a lot of time on the web and come across a staggering number of interesting things. In Clearing The Cache I pull out some of my favorites and share them with you here. Have some … Read More »

 
 

[appreview] title=Fist of Fury image=http://gigapple.wordpress.com/files/2009/04/appicon_fist_of_fury.png price=$2.99 url=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299388619&mt=8 rating=avoid [/appreview] Don’t let life get you down, put your punchin’ gloves on and show the world you’re a champion in this retro boxing game. In these economically egregious times, we all need a little release from the fiscal pressures dumped upon on our already strained shoulders. … Read More »

A Million T-Mobile Google Phones Sold

The folks at Google must to be pretty pleased with themselves — G-1, a moderately useful phone using their Android mobile operating system, has sold a million handsets since it launched last October. Of course Apple, by comparison, sold a million handsets around the planet … Read More »

YouTube and the music industry have a complicated relationship. Warner Music Group yanked its artists from the site and user uploads that contain tracks from the company’s albums are automatically muted. But rival Universal Music Group recently announced a planned new joint music … Read More »

Sweden Racing to an LTE Future

Sweden is fast becoming the epicenter of the LTE universe, with three of the country’s four major wireless carriers — Tele2, Telenor and TeliaSonera — racing to build 4G wireless networks. These carriers bought spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band in 2008 and are looking to … Read More »

With Microsoft’s Windows 7 beta on my netbook at various times since October of last year, it’s easy to overlook alternatives. After all, the general consensus in netbook-land is that Windows XP works great on computers where Vista is less than optimal. So when Read More »

Extra Credit: LEED Adds Regional Bonus Points for Green Buildings

Starting next week, the meaning of “green building,” at least in a technical sense, will change depending on where you live. On Monday, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will launch the third version of its LEED rating system for green buildings, … Read More »

Weeks after Australia announced its grand plan to build a $31 billion super broadband network, tiny Estonia says it will spend $374 million to build a broadband network with speeds of 100 Megabits per second. The fiber optic network will be 6,640 kilometers long … Read More »

Funnela: Good Small Business CRM for First-Timers

I was recently shocked to discover that a friend of mine who is quite a few years (and jobs) into a successful career in engineering sales not only doesn’t use any kind of customer relationship management (CRM) system or application, but actually had never heard … Read More »

Reports about a Microsoft presentation for advertisers bring word of some exciting new web series in the works, at least if you’re a fan of The Office, Kids in the Hall or Arrested Development. Microsoft revealed the following about the series, which do not … Read More »

As reported recently all over the blogosphere, the world’s first Mac-based botnet is active after infiltrating people’s systems in January by way of a trojan hidden inside pirated iWork’09 installers. If you … Read More »

More Must Reads

Over a year ago, we commiserated in your Microsoft OneNote frustrations. A key feature, the “Send to OneNote” function, simply didn’t work if you were running a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista. We heard from the OneNote team way back then and although … Read More »

The California Air Resources Board, that thorn in the sides of automakers and the Bush-era EPA, has just approved the country’s first mandate for low-carbon fuels. The new rule, which won a landslide 9-1 victory yesterday at the state agency, will require producers, refiners, importers and … Read More »

[UPDATE: Seems we need to start adding a graphic of a cheek with a tongue planted firmly in it for articles like this. Lighten up folks.] My opinion might be slightly skewed, thanks to jealous rage, but I can’t help but think that Apple’s big billion-app prize … Read More »

MoTR 170 is 32 minutes long and is a 29.4 MB file in MP3 format. CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly. HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia) TOPICS: Apple throws stones, calls netbooks “junky” Did he or didn’t … Read More »

North Korea to Indict Current TV Journalists; state news agency says after an investigation of the two American reporters, N. Korean officials will indict them on “hostile acts,” if convicted, the two women could face five years in prison. (CBS News) Analyst: TV Upfront Sales Could … Read More »

Today I’ll be hanging out in Houston at The Coffee Groundz from roughly 2 pm through 4 pm hoping to meet readers and see what cool technology startups the nation’s oil and gas capital might be home to. I hope folks in the area will … Read More »

The more than $4 billion allocated in the stimulus package for the smart grid will deliver a massive boost for information technology companies and utilities that want to add intelligence to the power grid. But the funds need to be spent in an effective way in … Read More »

Building on the success of their initial offering, ExpanDrive has released version 2.0 of their Mac client for accessing a wide array of online storage systems. ExpanDrive is built on MacFUSE, an open-source project that provides the base functionality and SDK for connecting to … Read More »

Earlier this week, Minneapolis-based software company NetEx released a cloud-specific version of its HyperIP solution. HyperIP represents technology originally designed for high-speed satellite communications other high-latency, high-packet-loss networks redesigned to work with IP. Now, the product can run with pretty much any application — including … Read More »

Jenn Lee published a thorough review of the Viliv S5 Premium UMPC this past week that has captured my attention. The review gives a complete overview of the S5 hardware and included software and addresses the usability in a number of different areas. You will … Read More »

Joost is looking to sell itself and become an online video platform for cable or satellite operators, with Time Warner Cable supposedly interested, according to an anonymously sourced article at CNET. When asked about it, a Joost rep provided us with a “we don’t … Read More »

Just a reminder that I will be hanging out at Coffee Groundz today from around 2 – 4 pm. Drop by and say hi if you are in the area, who knows what cool gear you’ll see. Here’s what you’ll almost certainly see in person: Viliv … Read More »

Helion Energy, a startup developing engines powered by nuclear fusion, is certain to pique the interest of sci-fi fans. But the more important question for Helion President Philip Wallace is whether the same can be said of venture capitalists. That’s because the Seattle-based company is … Read More »

The mobile Internet will be responsible for getting more of the world online, according to Internet co-founder Vint Cerf, who now works for Google, speaking at a conference in Madrid today. In an earlier post, Om made a similar point, saying that instead of … Read More »

Earlier this week Simon asked us to share what we carry with us when we go mobile. Unlike Aliza, my forays out of the office tend to be short, usually for things like client meetings or local presentations, so my needs are pretty sparse. … Read More »

For the most part, I remain very satisfied with the performance of most tasks I perform on my middle-aged 1.33 GHz 17-inch PowerBook G4, which I bought back in 2006. But not when it comes to dictation. Interestingly, the most dramatic performance boost I’ve realized transitioning … Read More »

It’s a tribute to how much I love what I do to find another week has flown by at breakneck speed. I can’t believe it’s time for another installment in the Mobile Tech Manor column, but there you go. I’ve been playing with some gadgets, … Read More »

The debate over whether to use licensed or unlicensed wireless spectrum for mobile services has largely been limited to phone companies and wireless geeks (like me, in a former life). Licensed spectrum includes airwaves owned and regulated, like a cell phone firm, while unlicensed spectrum, like … Read More »

Despite what much of the coal industry likes to say about “clean coal,” capturing and storing carbon emissions from coal power plants remains an experimental technology that’s unproven at commercial scale. Powerspan Corp., however, has just pocketed $50 million in new financing from a … Read More »

If 2008 was all about getting premium content online (thank you, Hulu!), 2009 is shaping up to be the year you pay for it, and Comcast-owned video portal Fancast is among those pushing for so-called authentication. Unlike rival premium content sites, Facast does not consider itself … Read More »

Despite the economic gloom, first quarter has been fairly positive for online video. A few companies have had to shut down, others have seen layoffs, but overall, the market appears to be embracing this new frontier in entertainment. Even the big networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), the …

University researchers from around the country today received nearly $5 million from the National Science Foundation to help them run their high-performance projects on the Google-IBMCloud Computing University Initiative infrastructure. Among the 14 universities receiving funds are leading research institutions like Carnegie Mellon University … Read More »

Netflix ended the first quarter of 2009 with a bang, meeting the high end of its guidance with 10.3 million total subscribers and $394.1 million in quarterly revenue, the company announced today. Netflix added more than 920,000 net subscribers during the quarter, compared with 764,000 … Read More »

One thing that’s missing from many online project management apps is the ability to plan your projects using a Gantt chart. Many project managers would argue that such apps aren’t really project management tools at all, preferring to stick with “real” PM software like Read More »

As I mentioned in my post about Apple’s second-quarter conference call, COO Tim Cook pretty stridently denied that the company had plans to produce any kind of netbook device. Instead, he pointed customers toward the … Read More »

Heroku will unveil tomorrow the commercial version of its Ruby-focused cloud platform, which — in a world full of management interfaces, configuration files and provisioning policies — virtually eliminates the need for a user to do any of the associated grunt work. It’s … Read More »

No one believed that the passing of California’s Proposition 8 would be the end of the gay marriage debate in this country, especially since there are 49 other states in this great union of ours. This spring, the states of Iowa and Vermont became two new … Read More »

Netbooks are hot and are in conversations every day. The smaller form factor and focus on online web work make them easier to produce with cheaper components. Lots of companies are currently working on Google Android netbooks and there have been whispers of how great a … Read More »

Lately, when Google.org has gotten involved with the workings of Capitol Hill, it has called for transparency and open standards, and promoted its PowerMeter tool. Today Dan Reicher, Google.org’s director of climate and energy initiatives, put another Google initiative — that of Read More »

These days, when I visit startups and even giant corporate campuses, green design and building features get star billing. I am increasingly hearing about reflective roofs, gray water systems and even non-VOC paints on my tours. All of which has made me realize that green … Read More »

I suppose this is one way to fight a global economic recession: make it easier to find and buy products. That’s exactly what Google announced today with an update to their online product search for both the iPhone and Android handsets. I just gave it … Read More »

Adobe will discontinue content syndication through its Adobe Media Player (AMP) in June, the company told us at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week. The move comes alongside Adobe’s freshly announced push for an industry-standard open media player framework called Strobe. AMP’s … Read More »

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