Ian Paul

Mon
03
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

Global Consortium Funds New Cable Between US and Japan

Last week, Google announced that it had signed a deal with several telecoms to fund an undersea high-bandwidth fiber optic cable between the United States and Japan. The global consortium calls itself "Unity," and includes: Bharti Airtel, Global ... Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel in addition to Google. (Source: google.com) The continent-connecting cable will span 10,000 km, will cost $300 million USD, and is expected to increase web traffic between the United States and Asia by 20 percent. NEC corporation and Tyco Telecommunications were chosen to build and install the cable, which ... (view more)

Tue
26
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Embattled Whistleblowers Shut Down

The Swiss bank Julius Baer ... (view more)

Fri
22
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Microsoft Reveals Its Source

Microsoft is going OpenSource, sort of. On Thursday, the Redmond-based company announced that it would make key components of its application programming interfaces available online; over 30, 000 pages of documentation will be available detailing ... Windows client and server protocols. Before the announcement, software developers had to pay for access to the information, but now the company is hoping this move will make it easier for third-party software makers to ensure their programs will work smoothly on Windows operating systems. (Source: news.com ) Microsoft's decision is motivated in part ... (view more)

Wed
20
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Toshiba Concedes Defeat in Format War

The second major format war is over, and this time Sony has actually appeared to come out on top! Yesterday, Toshiba announced it was throwing in the towel and officially discontinuing its HD DVD format, former rival to Sony's Blu-ray. (Source: ... yahoo.com ) The announcement opens the way for Blu-ray to become the industry standard for the next generation of home video. The format war created a lot of hesitancy among customers to invest in second generation players while the two-tiered system existed. There are approximately 30 million high definition television sets in homes across the United ... (view more)

Fri
15
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Harper Collins Moves Book Browsing Online

Last week, HarperCollins, publishers of popular authors Paulo Coelho, Ann Patchett, and Wally Lamb, announced that it will begin to offer some of its newer releases online for free. The company hopes to duplicate on its website what customers have ... done for decades in brick and mortar store. (Source: nytimes.com ) Visitors will be able to view the entire contents of some books for a limited time. The initial titles include: Paulo Coelho's The Witch of Portobello; I Dream in Blue: Life, Death, New York Giants by Roger Director; Mark Halperin's The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President: ... (view more)

Fri
15
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Microsoft Gets New Sidekick

Microsoft is investing heavily in Mobile phone technology. On Monday, the software giant announced that it had acquired Danger Inc., the company behind popular mobile technology like T-Mobile's Sidekick. "The addition of Danger serves as a perfect ... complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like," said Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach. (Source: microsoft.com ) In a statement, Microsoft said it sees in Danger a company that has "connected with a ... (view more)

Mon
11
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft, Looks to Google?

Yahoo is expected to reject Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid today, believing the offer seriously undervalues the company. But analysts believe Microsoft will not give up easily, and may increase the $31-per-share offer that it proposed ... earlier. Other strategies include a direct offer to shareholders, or an attempt to overthrow Yahoo's board of directors. In the increasing war for online advertising, Microsoft is looking to purchase Yahoo to gain a competitive advantage against dominant ad provider, Google. (Source: nytimes.com ) For its part Yahoo seems willing to stave off Microsoft's ... (view more)

Mon
11
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Big Changes Ahead for AOL

Last week, Time Warner's new CEO Jeff Bewkes confirmed the corporation would separate AOL's Internet dial-up division from the company's advertising and content business. This leads analysts to believe that Time Warner may sell one or both of its ... AOL divisions.(Source: cnn.com ) "We're working on separating AOL's access and audience businesses so we can run them independently. This should significantly increase AOL's strategic options," Bewkes said during a conference call with investors. AOL's subscription business has been faltering since the Web 2.0 explosion, and rival firms ... (view more)

Thu
07
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Will Yahoo Help Microsoft Slay the Google Monster?

Microsoft is hoping that its acquisition of Yahoo will help it gain ground on the advertising and search front, and adding Yahoo's 500 million users to its base. But assuming that Jerry Yang and Co. yield to the Redmond giant, will it be enough? The ... New York Times recently ran a picture depicting the Microsoft and Google as two large sharks consuming everything in their path: aQuantive, DoubleClick, and MultiMap. Then there are the smaller exclusivity agreements with prominent tech companies such as The Wall Street Journal and Facebook for Microsoft, and Google's deals with MySpace, Fox, and ... (view more)

Wed
06
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Advent of the 'Social Search'

Israeli-based Delver is looking to use social networking profiles as the basis for returning relevant Internet searches. The idea is simple enough; a user logs into the search engine and allows access to personal information on sites like ... del.icio.us, LinkedIn and Flickr. The system then creates a custom made search pattern based on profiles, tags from your friend's, blogs, and any other available information on social sites. Instead of the traditional text results page, Delver's search engine (called Semingo) displays your search in a web-like graphic, with information built on you and your ... (view more)

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