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Richard Nixon taught us that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Tylenol taught us that everything is forgiven if you're willing to fess up. So I have two questions for Network Solutions management: Why did you wait almost two full weeks before announcing that you suffered a data breach...
Apple is set to launch a tablet-like device in October, in time for the 2009 holiday season. If it's anything like what's expected, its native features plus those that could be annexed from Google would be enough to swamp Microsoft on a number of fronts. The most comprehensive report, from the Fi...
The USPTO may be backing off the controversial rules changes that the agency proposed in 2007. A joint motion filed on Friday (coming via the email list of Foley & Lardner partner Hal Wegner) requested a stay of the en banc proceedings in the appeal of the Tafas v. Doll suit. The reason comes down to one big factor: a new PTO director.
Google has engaged Microsoft in a long-term death-match on a series of fronts, as Dan Frommer and Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider noted this morning, in a piece on ten areas that Google and Microsoft are fighting it out. But I disagree with four areas where their handicapping doesn't do...
Earlier this month, I had a post on how Microsoft's Bing had an 80 percent uptick in percentage of people clicking on ads. Now there's some additional evidence that something is apparently going on in terms of search ad effectiveness, but what exactly that might be is up for question. What does beco...
Last week, I suggested that the Associated Press was run by idiots, not because I have anything in particular against them, but because management seems intent on doing things that will ultimately doom the organization. Its CEO has said that AP thinks it has the power to stop what, to me, at least, is the clear legal right to quote a headline and provide a link to an AP story. The problem as AP is that everyone seems focused on the wrong problem instead of looking at some potential answers to their real issues: how to make money on the web.
No, Verizon Wireless isn't about to start selling phones or chips, but it is going to start selling mobile apps, and that move will throw it into a whole new competitive set and further scramble a market that has been recently roiled by Google and is growing more competitive by the day. Verizon, ...
It was another bad quarter wrapping up a bad year for Microsoft, with quarterly revenue, operating income, and net income respectively down 17 percent, 30 percent, and 29 percent. The company's FY 2009 annual revenue was down 3 percent from the previous year -- the first time I can remember the company having a year-over-year income drop. Annual operating income and net income were also down, 9 percent and 18 percent respectively.
Sometimes you see a business move so stupid, so clearly self-damaging that you have to wonder whether someone inside the corporation is trying to torpedo it. And that's exactly what is happening at the Associated Press, as it gears up to wage war on every single web site and person that dares use any of its content. The only problems with what and how it is doing so are that it will quickly alienate everyone it needs to work with, find that it's in direct opposition to U.S. law and custom, and probably see just how easily activists on the web could tie it into knots.
I came across this via InformationWeek: Zug.com decided to pull a prank on Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and teach a lesson about wireless security at the same time. The lesson was that there is virtually no security for wireless handsets, largely because of the carriers themselves. Phone records are apparently so easily available that even Seidenberg's mobile number and somewhat more permanent address were available after a free three-minute search. So Zug's Jon Hargrave drove over to the home, set up across the street with a megaphone, and began blasting his concerns over privacy, including asking "Can you hear me now?" when Seidenberg failed to show.
Amazon released its Q2 results, and the numbers are very impressive. On a year-over-year basis, net sales increased by 14 percent -- not too shabby, given the general economic climate, and even more impressive when you realize that taking exchange rate shifts into account, it would have represented 20 percent growth. A number of headlines I've seen focus on the 27 percent, or $58 million, decrease in operating income, but I think that's a bit of a red herring because of some unusual financial considerations.
Shortly after my piece earlier today suggesting that SpinVox needed a spin doctor, it seems that the company decided to take the title seriously. Someone posted a comment pointing to a SpinVox blog post as proof that the BBC article was flawed. And the vendor's blog is going to be the accurate and f...
Often, one of the selling points of tech companies, especially Web-based businesses, is the cool factor of their technology. Not only can this help bring in the early adopters, but it gives investors the sense that scaling a business and leveraging money put in should be possible. But woe unto those...
Incredibly, SAP would still rather talk trash about software-as-a-service (SaaS) than bring its own innovative products to market. During an interview on SAP TV (approximately 57 seconds into the video), SAP's CTO, Vishal Sikka, tried to portray SaaS as the "cheap" and unreliable bastard child of...
I've reported before about a long-term problem that Apple iPhones have seemed to have with iPhones overheating, though the company hasn't publicly acknowledge the extent of the issue. According to some, the major cause is likely a battery issue. Well, a Seattle reporter is claiming that Apple has been preventing her and others from getting information to document reports of iPod batteries catching fire.
