ToneHall

CNN: Facebook Invites User Feedback in Quest for Transparency

You can teach social media front-runner Facebook new tricks.

Making a great comeback only 7 days after receiving huge screams of protest regarding policy changes, Facebook announced today it would give users additional control over future Facebook rules and practices.

Imagine what would occur if companies like B of A and Citicorp followed a version of this practice?

Guiding users are the newly-published Facebook Principles - 10 values Facebook hopes will provide more transparency.  In addition, there is a statement of rights and responsibilities regarding privacy, content ownership and other items of interest to users.  They'll be able to comment and vote on the wording of the documents. 

Good news for all Facebook users and informative for corporations who 'get it.'

NYT: HP Cuts 25,000 Jobs - 7.5 % to Get Pink

Monday was as good as any day to announce the elimination of a large number of jobs, so HP did.

Post-acquisition slashing is nothing new in Silicon Valley - this time they'll trim 25K people as they continue to resituate the company after the August acquisition of EDS.

Here's an excerpt:

MILLBRAE, Calif. — The computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard announced Monday that it would eliminate nearly 25,000 of its 320,000 jobs as part of its plan for digesting Electronic Data Systems, the computer services giant that H.P. acquired for $13.9 billion in August.

Mark V. Hurd, H.P.’s chief executive, discussed the layoffs, which amount to 7.5 percent of the company’s combined work force, at a meeting with securities analysts at a hotel here, near the San Francisco airport.

“I think most of you that follow us know I am a big believer that having the most efficient cost structure directly relates to your ability to scale and grow,” Mr. Hurd said at the meeting.

According to H.P., almost half of the job cuts will occur in the United States. The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., expects the restructuring to result in annual cost reductions of nearly $1.8 billion. H.P. said it would record a $1.7 billion charge in the fourth quarter tied to the layoffs.

The layoffs are the start of a three-year restructuring plan in which H.P. will try to unify its existing services business with that inherited from E.D.S. Up to half of the positions may be refilled over the course of that restructuring, H.P. said.

“I can assure you there are other synergies we are looking for in the acquisition,” Mr. Hurd said. “We think we know what is necessary to get this done and get it done right.”

Wall Street Journal: Google Attacks Microsoft, Mozilla's Firefox With Chrome Browser

Google is not only attacking Microsoft with its new browser - it will tackle Firefox head-on.

Interesting timing with this announcement - ahead of the Android phone planned for launch in October.

What they're doing and why isn't clear, but it's bound to worry Microsoft - as does everything Google does.

I'll definitely try it and write a review on Chrome.

Here's an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

Google Inc. plans to introduce its own Web browser, the latest twist in its battle with Microsoft Corp. over key Internet technologies.

In a posting on a company site Monday, Google indicated that a version of the software, called Chrome, would be available for download on Tuesday. It said the software is designed to make it faster to browse the Web and easier to run applications without downloading software to a computer. The product will be offered on an open-source basis, meaning others can modify the software code.

The Google browser takes direct aim at Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, which is by far the most widely used program for viewing Internet sites. The two companies already compete in Internet search engines, where Google holds a wide lead. Google has also developed Web-based alternatives to Microsoft's popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs.

While many people pay little attention to which browser they use, the choice makes a big difference to software companies. They can use the precious screen real estate to promote their own Web services. Moreover, they can tailor their browsers to ensure compatibility with their other products.

Google executives have expressed concern that existing browsers might fail to support the sort of new Web-based applications they want to develop as they seek to expand the company's influence beyond search. By building its own Web-browsing software, Google is ensuring that it will have a platform for its Internet services that needn't conform to other companies' standards.

Bloomberg: Apple Tops Google

Congrats to Apple, its shareholders and its customers - the company's market value surpassed giant Google for the first time. 

More to come, Mr. Jobs?  We know you've got more up your sleeve....the tone is upbeat.

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., the svelte computer maker turned mobile-phone innovator, surpassed Google Inc.'s market value for the first time yesterday as investors await proof the Internet company can turn new projects into money-makers.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows the maker of the best-selling iPod music player and iPhone passing Google, making it the No. 3 technology company in the Standard & Poor's 500 behind Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. Google stock has fallen more than twice as far as Apple this year amid doubts about the health of the market for Web advertising.

``There's no real urgency to go in and buy Google,'' said Ross Sandler, an RBC Capital Markets analyst in New York.

Consumers bought 1 million iPhones in the first three days after Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs released a faster, cheaper version last month. Apple posted 31 percent profit growth last quarter on sales of computers and music players.

Google shares declined 28 percent this year before today, compared with 9.5 percent for Apple, after telling investors the owner of the most popular search engine will face a challenging economic environment.

San Jose Mercury: Jobs' Apple iPhone Hot, But Lots of 3G Performance Complaints

It's been a tough launch for Apple - the 3G iPhone, along with its services and accoutrements hasn't been smooth.  Now customers are taking a mad tone about poor 3G performance.  Hopefully this will get fixed soon, but using customers to beta test has usually been Microsoft's province - not that of Apple.

Apple fan boys and girls are still ready to bash anyone not delirious with the products and services of the mother ship, but really folks - let's not be cultish about this.  When there's a mistake, a company just needs to own it and fix it.  It's not personal.

I hope Apple decides to change their launch procedure next time.

As for me, I'm planning on a BlackBerry Bold.  Tried and true technology (I hope!)

Here's what the San Jose Mercury has to say about it:

*  Another bullish Apple analyst has boosted his estimate for iPhone sales (see "Apple puts up impressive numbers in synchronized selling"), and today's news items help make it hard to argue. Based on some new research, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster now expects Apple to sell almost 4.5 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, up from his previous estimate of 4.1 million. A nice chunk of those purchases could end up coming from banking giant HSBC, which, according to one of its Australian spokesmen, is considering ditching its RIM BlackBerries and making the iPhone its standard staff mobile device. "A decision on a piece of hardware like that would potentially be deployed, conservatively, to 200,000 people," Brenton Hush told ZDNet.com.au. And it also won't hurt to have the iPhone available in almost 1,000 Best Buy stores. The big-box electronics chain will be the first independent retailer to carry the phone, currently available in the U.S. from 189 Apple stores and more than 2,000 AT&T outlets. The benefits for Best Buy are mostly indirect, but substantial. The chain may make $50 or less on the phone itself, but analysts expect each sale to include $50 to $100 of high-margin accessories.

 *  This rosy outlook for the iPhone could start to pale, however, if Apple and its carrier partners fail to quell a growing chorus of customers unhappy about the phone's 3G performance. Complaints about poor reception and difficulty getting and staying connected have been mounting in Apple and fan forums, and now there seems to be confirmation of a problem from some foreign carriers. Jessica Forrest, Vodafone Australia's spokeswoman, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the iPhone 3G issues were device-specific and nothing to do with the carriers' networks, saying, "We are aware of the issues on the iPhone 3G and we're working with Apple to provide a solution." An unnamed source from an Australian telco told the paper Apple's penchant for secrecy didn't help -- carriers got the phones only a day before they went on sale, leaving no time for testing. Adding to the concern is Nomura analyst Richard Windsor's theory that it may be a hardware problem for which there is no fix. "We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier," Windsor wrote. "This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users. Some people will not experience these problems as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows."

AP: New York Times - New Intel Technology Wakes Sleeping Computers to Receive Internet Phone Calls

The New York Times pulled this story from AP - Intel has new technology that will wake up sleeping computers to enable them to receive Internet phone calls.  Sleeping computers use about 1/6 the power of a fully on unit. 

Let's color the tone of this announcement green.  It's great news for Intel and probably excellent news for Jajah, and possibly for eBay, the company that owns Skype, the Internet phone service company.

Here's the story in the New York Times:

Intel Corp. is unveiling new technology that will let computers wake up from their power-saving sleep state when they receive a phone call over the Internet.

Current computers have to be fully on to receive a call, making them impractical and energy-wasters as replacements for the telephone.

The new component Intel is announcing Thursday will let computers automatically return to a normal, full-powered state when a call comes in. The computer can activate its microphone and loudspeaker to alert the user, then connect the call.

''This certainly helps the PC become a much better center of communications in the home,'' said Trevor Healy, chief executive of Jajah, which will be the first Internet telephone company to utilize the feature.

The first Intel motherboards with the Remote Wake capability will be shipping in the next month, said Joe Van De Water, director of consumer product marketing for Intel.

These components, which are at the heart of every computer, will most likely be used by smaller computer manufacturers. Bigger names like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. use their own motherboard solutions, but Intel is working to supply them with the technology as well.

The four initial Remote Wake motherboards will be for desktop computers and will need an Internet connection via Ethernet cable, as Wi-Fi doesn't work in sleep mode.

Van De Water said the computer will know to wake up only for calls from services to which the user has subscribed, so computer-waking prank calls should be impossible.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Jajah is setting itself up as a link between Web companies and the phone system. In April, it signed a deal to become the phone service provider for Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger. Jajah intends to offer the ability to wake up computers to other instant-messaging and Internet voice services, like Google Inc.'s Talk and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live Messenger, Healy said. It will be able to wake up subscriber computers both for calls dialed with a number and for those that are directed at a user name.

A fully on desktop PC usually consumes more than 60 watts of power, with many models ranging into the hundreds of watts. In the so-called S3 sleep state, they consume around 10 watts.

Ars Technica: RIM Grows to 11% US Market Share Q2 2008, Beats Nokia

The BlackBerry has been a staple on Wall Street for years now, and the average Joe who wants a smartphone is getting in on the action. The tone?  I want mine. 

Moto may still be the largest handset manufacturer in the U.S., but feature-rich models like the soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry Bold have combined the features consumers want with RIMs dependable email.

Here's the excerpt from Ars Technica:

"Research In Motion is enjoying success as consumer interest shifts away from basic cell phones to "feature phones." The BlackBerry maker's US market share rose to a record 11 percent in Q2 2008 in what is yet another sign that the smartphone is the next big thing to invade our pockets.

According to a report published by Strategy Analytics, mobile handset shipments to the US saw nearly 6 percent annual growth, bringing them to 41.9 million units shipped, up from 39.8 million in Q2 2007. RIM's BlackBerry devices, which have recently been diversified into smaller and more consumer-friendly form factors, accounted for one out of every 10 handsets sold.

Motorola, ranked third in global shipments, held on to its number one US spot, shipping 26 percent of all handsets sold in the country. The company has been struggling over the last couple years, however, as consumers demand phones that are more sophisticated and easier to use. Motorola's smartphone lineup hasn't done anything much to meet these demands, as the company has remained focused on its Windows-Mobile-based Q and its Q 9 successor.

The smartphone market in the US appears to have a different dynamic than the global market for these phones. In the States, RIM, a Canadian-based company that makes only smartphones, has now passed Nokia. Although Nokia remains the largest handset maker, with 46 percent of the global market, it only has nine percent in the US. New BlackBerry models such as the 9000, or "BlackBerry Bold," are expected to only increase the pace of RIM's gains."

CNET: Google sours on AOL

Too few companie do what Google just did in acknowledging an investment mistake.  Guess they're not thinking of a takeover of Time Warner anytime soon. 

A bitter pill, to be sure, but this is how real companies deal with the downside.

"Google acknowledged late Thursday that it may have made a bad bet on AOL.

The search giant said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its $1 billion investment for a 5 percent stake in Time Warner's Web unit "may be impaired" and that it may have to take a charge in the future:

Based on our review, we believe our investment in AOL may be impaired... We will continue to review this investment for impairment in the future. There can be no assurance that impairment charges will not be required in the future, and any such amounts may be material to our Consolidated Statements of Income."

Ars Technica: Jacqui Cheng - Only half of US Internet users search

Jacqui Cheng reveals only half of us are Google geeks....

"Believe it or not, some Internet users still don't use a search engine during the course of a typical day. That number is shrinking, however, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Almost half of all Internet users today use a search engine on an average day—a number that has increased from only a third of Internet users in 2002. The trend may seem predictable, but it also means that there's still plenty of room for Google and its competitors to grow. 

The demographics of your typical search engine user are like those of many Internet-based services. Those who search on a daily basis tend to either have a college degree or have completed some college, come from households with an income higher than $50,000 per year, and have broadband at home. The numbers are weighted slightly more toward men (53 percent versus 45 percent women) and toward the younger crowd, although the numbers for those over 50 are not tiny. After all, where would our parents and grandparents be without "The Google?""

Naked Capitalism: Paul Davis says we're not as free as we think

Paul Davis at Technology Investment dot info has this interesting piece over on on Naked Capitalism about the browser war being conducted to control your surfing the Internet.  We're nowhere near as free as we think we are.  He does a good job of explaining how Yahoo and Google are doing it.  Interesting reading, especially with the Olympics coming up.  Here's an excerpt:

"In this insidious arms race the browser (or browsing enabled OS) is the ultimate high ground. Search captures about 50% of internet users each day, but everyone uses a browser. Sneaking in the door as a general purpose tool or service, pretty soon they can begin dictating what you may or may not do or see. Why shouldn't Firefox (or Microsoft, or Apple) release a plug-in or widget this week which will dynamically update the medal counts and serve athlete profiles (and why not video) from some OTHER source which pays them money to do so. Then you won't even need to use a search engine...

I still remember the sense of outrage when Yahoo first began selling the top positions in search results to the highest bidder... it made it that much easier to jump ship when an alternative came along."