Google, Facebook battle for 'future of the Web'

Computerworld - Microsoft advanced its partnership with Facebook this week, a move that could represent the biggest threat to Google's search standing yet.

Microsoft and Facebook announced that they're teaming up to make Internet searching more social. Now when someone uses Microsoft's Bing search engine to look for a new car or a book, she can see which ones her Facebook friends liked. It will now be easier for searchers to get their friends' opinions before they make purchasing decisions.
Industry watchers said this was an interesting development for search in general, but it also holds big implications for Google in particular. What's notable is that Facebook turned to Microsoft for this deal and not to the search market leader, Google.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the press conference on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash., on Wednesday, said there was a specific reason he wanted to go with Bing.
"They really are the underdog here," Zuckerberg said. "They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things."
Google, not surprisingly, dismissed the notion that the deal may have any far-reaching implications and said it welcomes the challenge.
"We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice," said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman, in an e-mail to Computerworld. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space. It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."
But industry analysts said this Microsoft-Facebook partnership could spell trouble for Google, despite the fact that the search giant handled 72.15% of all U.S. searches last month.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo have thrown stones at Google, but nothing has yet chipped its hefty search lead. When the two companies combined their search engines in August, the dominant search company barely blinked. So, if Microsoft couldn't rattle Google when it teamed with Yahoo, which is No. 2 to Google in terms of search market share, why might Microsoft's new partnership with Facebook have Google executives looking nervously over their shoulders?
"Let's face it, Bing has been a big disappointment, but this could act as a differentiator," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research. "People prefer Google to Microsoft, but they prefer Facebook to Google. If the partnership makes Facebooking better, then it could pull users away from Google."
In other words, a major social network, like Facebook, could end up being Google's Achilles' heel.
Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner, said the partnership announcement was less about Facebook and Microsoft than it was about Facebook vs. Google.

There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web.

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes

"The real importance of [this week's] announcement is that it highlights the growing strategic conflict between Facebook and Google," Valdes said. "There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web. The competition is between the new and the old -- between Facebook as the early leader in the social Web, and Google as the dominant player in the content Web. Everyone else, such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter, will play a secondary role, and will start lining up on one side or the other."
And what could make this situation more interesting is that Google is reportedly working on launching its own social network. Rumored to be dubbed Google Me, it's considered to be Google's shot at creating a Facebook killer.
Google hasn't had a lot of luck in the social networking arena. Its Google Wave social networking service was shut down in August and reviews of Google Buzz were lackluster. But the company has learned from its failures and may be ready to try to pull some of those advertising dollars away from Facebook.
Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, said there's a big battle brewing between Google and Facebook, and Microsoft may have found a way to use that conflict to chip away at Google's massive market lead.
"[The Microsoft-Facebook partnership] moves some searches from Google to Bing," he added. "For major Facebook users, I believe 'social search' is attractive, and many are likely to switch to Bing for all searches... Not only does [Google] lose users, but they lose young users."
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is  by punem sexsena
email-punrmsexesena@gmail.com

Logitech Z515 Wireless Speakers: Because Your Laptop Speakers Suck

Logitech Z515 Wireless Speakers: Because Your Laptop Speakers Suck

by punem sexsena on 10/15/2010 11:55:00 AM
Posted in Mobile , Logitech , Speakers

Buy the Logitech 980-000426 Z515 Speaker

$103.69
$90.99
$94.99

It's true and we're all aware of it: laptop speakers, with few exceptions, are horrible. They can be fine in a pinch, if you're just going to play a quick game on a LAN or just want to hear the audio on a YouTube video, but generally speaking the speakers built into your notebook—and you know they only get worse the smaller your notebook is—are awful and utterly inadequate for any but the most basic use. If you're a music or movie fan, they just aren't going to cut it.
You could always replace them with a dedicated speaker set for when you're at home, but what if you're traveling? What if you're away and you just want to unwind to some music? There are a healthy number of situations where you might want a better pair of speakers than what's built into your notebook, and some manufacturers recognize this. Hoping to offer a better alternative, Logitech brings us the Z515 Wireless Speaker.
Historically, Logitech has made some solid if unexceptional speakers. I actually used to own a pair of Z4's that I was pretty proud of; they produced excellent bass and in general use seemed to have a solid dynamic range. Since then I've upgraded to a pair of Bose Companion II speakers on my desktop, doing away with the subwoofer and getting my bass just from two small but powerful speakers. This is the part where a lot of audiophiles would be ripping their hair out, but hear me out: the Companion II's produce excellent bass and dynamic range provided they're connected to a good sound card. This is after going through a lot of different speaker sets.

Gallery: Logitech Z515 Wireless Speakers

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Notebooks don't really have those luxuries, which is where the Z515 comes in. On paper, the Z515 is pretty awesome. What it brings to the table:

• Plug and play wireless connectivity through an included USB adapter, no drivers necessary.
• A built-in battery pack good for ten hours of wireless playback from a full charge.
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• A 3.5mm minijack for inputting audio from MP3 players.
• Bluetooth connectivity with iPad, iPhone, or any other bluetooth device.
• Two-inch drivers.
• A claimed fifty foot range.

The Z515 comes with a black zipper carrying pouch, and the wireless receiver can be stored under a hatch on the back; that hatch folds out and works as a stand for the speaker. Of course, if you have a bluetooth-enabled notebook that may not be an issue for you. Logitech clearly designed the Z515 to be as flexible as humanly possible, so how does that work out? by punem sexsena
email-punemsexesena@gmail.com

Windows Phone 7 will flop

Opinion After all, it's Microsoft

By punem sexsena

 Oct 16 2010, 01:40AM

THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM in the IT industry press expresses cautious optimism about the prospects for Microsoft's latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 (WP7).
But I believe it's going to fall flat on its face, and I'll outline here three major reasons why I think so. I also suspect that there are some other factors that are going to work against WP7 too, but these are the main problems that I see now.
First, WP7 is handicapped by the legacy of the Windows Mobile line of operating systems for mobile phones put out by Microsoft over the past ten years. Based upon the fairly awful Windows CE software platform initially developed for Pocket PC gadgets, Windows Mobile never stood out or attracted a base of satisfied customers on either feature phones or smartphones.
It is also telling that the Vole renamed WP7 in a desperate and probably vain attempt to distance it from the clear design, execution and marketing disaster that was Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile's market share has steadily declined over the years, to the point that it's in fifth place behind the competing Symbian, Blackberry, Android and Iphone operating systems. A year ago Windows Mobile had less than 20 per cent of the mobile phone market in the US and about 5 per cent worldwide, but it's likely a fair estimate that it now has less than 10 per cent of the US market and far less than 5 per cent globally.
A whole generation of mobile phone users have already rejected Windows Mobile and that's a history of bad memories that's bound to weigh heavily against WP7 in user attitudes. Having had a bad experience before with Windows Mobile, or known someone who did, punters are going to be skeptical of WP7 right from the outset.
Second, the smartphone specifications that Microsoft laid down for its devices aren't especially attractive in any way, but instead are depressingly ordinary and in some respects are lower-end than those of the decent competing smartphones.
Apple's Iphone 4, with its 3.5-inch 960x640, 326ppi 'retina' display, clearly has a sharper, more attractive screen than the WP7 phones' 800x480 displays that come in varying sizes ranging from 3.6-inch to 4.3-inch. Depending on the WP7 smartphone's screen size, the Iphone 4 has roughly 25 per cent to 50 per cent higher resolution. That means that an Iphone 4 screen looks just as clear and sharp at 12 inches distance as a WP7 handset's does at 15 to 18 inches. It also has a whopping 60 per cent more display area.
Even the Motorola Droid smartphone has a higher resolution display, at 854x480, than a WP7 handset, and other smartphones that run the Android OS, such as the Samsung Galaxy S, have equivalent 800x480 displays.
Similarly, the 1GHz Snapdragon chip specified for WP7 devices is no faster than the ARM Cortex A8 processor in the Galaxy S, and will surely be surpassed soon by the next generation of ARM CPUs that will come out in newer Android smartphones.
In most other respects, the WP7 device specifications are unremarkable, with a capacitive multi-touch screen, 3G and WiFi connectivity, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, GPS and a 5MP or 8MP camera, much like most Android smartphones. The INQUIRER has been told that some WP7 smartphones will have external microSD storage cards but that some will have only internal flash storage that can't be changed by the user. It is certainly a baffling move by the Vole and its partners and can only be a mark against the handsets.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, Microsoft seems to have released WP7 in an unfinished state. It has tried to excuse this by claiming that this latest version of its mobile OS is "a complete reboot" of its mobile strategy and explaining that features - including some formerly present in Windows Mobile - will only be rolled out when they reach high enough quality.
We think the Vole means by this that its developers haven't managed to code these features yet, so like many of Microsoft's initial products this is merely a partial first implementation and the company is perfectly glad to flog it to all those gullible enough to buy it, while it keeps working to produce the fully completed version of the product.
The features that WP7 lacks in its initial release reportedly include a file manager, copy and paste functions, full multitasking, Adobe Flash and Silverlight plug-ins in the web browser, and support for tethering, IPsec virtual private network (VPN) security, video calling and Bluetooth file transfers. These are simply startling omissions, arguably, which are likely to put off a lot of potential customers.
Without these features WP7 smartphones will compare poorly against the Iphone 4 and smartphones running Android that now or soon will support copy and paste, full multitasking, and at least some or all of the rest. Why will anyone want to buy a crippled smartphone?
One can only surmise that the Vole was so desperate to build a product to sell into the mobile market to replace its cratering Windows Mobile that it rushed out WP7 in a partially completed form just to get something, anything out the door.
It's hard to overstate how badly Microsoft seems to have botched WP7 and how much further damage this is likely to do to its reputation and future sales in the mobile marketplace.
From wasting years of development on its earlier and failed 'Photon' initiative through failing to envision a bold enough strategy, all the way to settling for uninspiring hardware specifications and falling short during its software implementation, Microsoft seems to have done everything wrong with WP7.
Well, maybe not everything. It did manage to spend reportedly $400 million on marketing and advertising, get a fair amount of press and make a splash. µ by punem sexsena
email-punemsexesena@gmail.com

AT&T offers wireless discounts to businesscustomers for iPad + 3G models

Computerworld - AT&T announced Friday that it will sell all three iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models directly to business customers at a discount for wireless service starting Oct. 28. The news comes one day after AT&T announced in-store sales of the popular tablet.

"This new offer further strengthens AT&T's commitment to provide businesses with the tools they need to accelerate mobility-led productivity," said Michael Antieri, president of advanced enterprise mobility solutions for AT&T's business solutions unit.
AT&T said it would offer "attractive post-paid mobile broadband price plans" but did not elaborate. The offer is only available to customers whose AT&T wireless bills are paid for by their employer.
Baron Funds in New York City, for example, has about 50 analysts using the devices mainly to read reports over the firm's Wi-Fi network.
Still, Gold agreed that AT&T will sell to companies that want discounts for 3G service and whose their workers want the iPad. Many of these workers travel for business and need access outside of Wi-Fi, he said.
Gold said AT&T has probably been selling the 3G version of iPad to businesses directly but recently formalized the process and announced it today to prepare for further competition from Verizon Wireless, which begins selling the Wi-Fi iPad bundled with its MiFi mobile hotspot device also on Oct. 28.
"AT&T is jockeying for position with this announcement against Verizon, since this is going to be a very hot, competitive market," Gold said. Verizon will sell the iPad bundled with MiFi in stores, but is likely to take that offer directly to businesses, too, he said.
AT&T's offer of a corporate discount will not be for the hardware, but for the wireless service, which is commonplace for carriers selling in volume to corporations. Gold said the discount could be more than 10%, although it depends on volume.by punem sexsena
email-punemsexesena@gmail.com