Odd week in tech: Apple iPad, Wi-Fi rejects and Twitter counters

March 5, 2010  |  Thursday at Three  |  0 Comments

Anticipated iPad hits stores April 3, 10 billion tweets and counting… maybe, The Olympics go high-tech, Wi-Fi Apps nixed from Apple

Well the wait is over for Apple fanatics! Apple just announced that the iPad will be in stores April 3 with the pre-order date set for March 12. Pricing will range from $499-$829. According to TechCrunch the iPad will be compatible with all of the 150,000 apps which are offered at the App Store.

It looks like everyone’s tweets have finally paid off because Twitter finally hit their 10th billion tweet this week…well, maybe. The actual amount of tweets is still up in the air because there is no way of telling exactly how many tweets have actually been tweeted. Gigatweet made this prediction based on new information that said Twitter has approximately 50 million tweets per day. Now, this is all just a prediction and nothing is factual but that’s still one big “maybe” accomplishment.

The rumor is spreading that pretty soon the Olympics will no longer be televised on TV but it will be an online extravaganza, and now there are hard facts to prove the transition. Akamai is a content delivery network who provided the public with live-streamed events of the Olympics and they are announcing the exact numbers of online viewers for the recent Vancouver games. North America ranked the highest, viewing approximately 2.4 million pages per second. Now that the numbers are in all that’s left to do is to wait and see if the transition actually happens.

Apple has made the executive decision to remove all Wi-Fi apps from the app store. The reason for doing so? Well, the exact reason is not so clear however, according to WiFi-Where, the apps have been nixed due to “using private frameworks to access wireless information.”

Courtesy of DreamTime.com



GlobalFoundries scores 150 new customers and adopts new name

January 14, 2010  |  Today's Headlines  |  1 Comments

We recently covered the growing list of acquisitions kicking off 2010. Adding itself to that list is our very own GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the company behind, what is now called, Fab 8 in Malta, NY. GlobalFoundries has completed integration with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in Singapore making the company the “first full-service semiconductor foundry with a truly global manufacturing and technology footprint across Asia, Europe and the United States.”

Insiders say there’s no local impact that we’ll immediately feel here in the Capital Region, but the acquisition does provide major future stability and a competitive edge.

Without this acquisition, GlobalFoundries found itself coming up as the third largest foundry in the world, but what was more concerning was to date only a few customers have signed on board, the largest of course being AMD. With this larger brand, GlobalFoundries now has 150 customers and reach in Asia, which quite frankly is probably the better place to be up and running right now.

With the addition of the Chartered facilities and completion of Fab 8 here in New York, GlobalFoundries says it will be able to process 1.6 million 300 millimeter wafers a year by 2014. With its new Singapore-based Fab, GlobalFoundries can  process 2.2 million 200 millimeter wafers a year.

Will 2010 be a year of acquisitions?

January 8, 2010  |  Tech Worth Talking About  |  1 Comments

It’s only the first week of 2010 and the technology acquisition space is H-O-T. What an exciting week.  With the second day of CES off and rolling plus a slew of exciting technology acquisitions announced this week, it’s why I love this business.

Amongst the most exciting are:

Cisco acquired network security start up Rohati Systems

BMC acquired Phurnace Software (the third acquisition in six months)

Oracle acquired Silver Creek Systems

Seesmic acquired social media syndication site Ping.fm

Dot Hill acquired Cloverleaf and rumored to take on 3PAR

And in more rumors, VMware could acquire Zimbra. (Random, I know.)

Mashable today debunked the myth that AOL was going to be an acquisition and Google sweetened their offer for local On2 Technologies acquisition pending vote in February.

This is an exciting time for technology companies, to rise out of a recession and demonstrate a strong M&A strategy right out of the gates.  If we look deeper into these deals, you’ll see what areas of technology are rising in importance.  For example, managing apps better in cloud and virtual environments made Phurnace look attractive to BMC.  BMC was itself already rumored to be a 2010 possible M&A target. Dot Hill’s acquisition of Cloverleaf and rumor to take 3PAR next points to the need for storage infrastructure in virtualized environments.

In the world of social media, nothing is getting more complicated for users than managing multiple social networks.  And as big brand names begin to embrace social media more and more, it will be particularly important to be as productive as possible. Seesmic, which makes access apps for Facebook and Twitter will now have a syndication tool on its side.

I think we’ll see more social media and IT management acquisitions happen in 2010 – it’s like that saying, “when you can’t build, buy.”

Google coming to Clifton Park?

January 7, 2010  |  Tech Worth Talking About  |  1 Comments

Amendments where announced today to the pending Google – On2 Technologies acquisition:

According to Dow Jones, “Thursday that it has amended it takeover agreement with On2 Technologies Inc. (ONT). Under the revised deal, On2 shareholders will receive 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A common stock for each share of On2 common stock, as previously announced, plus 15 cents a share in cash. Google said the revision was made to reflect the significant rise in Google’s stock price since the merger was announced in August. Google said that the revised price is its final offer. On2 closed Wednesday at 59 cents.”

After a failed shareholder vote in December, where stockholders of On2 felt they weren’t being paid enough for the video platform software Google so desperately needs, new discussions and more offers ensued. Google’s offer brings the original $106 million to $132 million.

The acquisition is important to Google’s online video distribution strategy and keeping things “Googlized” meaning low cost and wide open, as consumers increasingly view media over cell phones and remote boxes.

More to come on the finalizing of this deal in February.  For more details, visit On2.com, the homepage has an excellent amount of shareholder information convincing the shareholders to be open to a second look.

Stop bitching, stop buying and do your jobs…terrorists are watching.

January 4, 2010  |  Is That A Joke?!, Today's Headlines  |  0 Comments

Just days after the Christmas terrorist attempt near Detroit Airport, our family experienced such ignorance on behalf of the TSA that we thought it was worthy of our inaugural 2010 post.

Hours after the said attack, every talk show was discussing two things: did our government fail us and how can we add better technology to our airports to make flying safer?

As a technologist, I can tell you there’s always more technology can do, but it costs money, convenience and at the end of the day, nothing is fool proof.  Should the government have listened better, yes, but we’re used to that right?!

Sadly, I’d like to think that the hardest thing I’m dealing with today is writing 2010 versus 2009.  Instead, I’m still finding it hard to swallow our return flight home from Denver International to Albany Airport.

First let me say I appreciate the efforts to keep traveling with children relatively easy despite pressure to up the ante on restrictions each time our government decides to ignore a terrorist warning and us citizens have to stop an attack.

That being said, I think all parents would agree that we want safety first.  So when my husband went through the metal detector first, then my two-year-old daughter followed, and I took up the rear with our bags as they cleared the entry point of the computer monitor.

While putting my shoes back on, our one carry on suitcase was taken for further hand screening by a TSA representative.  They caught my facewash, damnit.  Then another TSA representative, still looking over my diaper bag in the computer monitor yells to me,  “Ma’am, do you have yogurt packed in here?”

Thinking to myself that I know I only have dry foods, I responded no.  The TSA representative proceeds to tell me she’s picking up something “dense” on the computer screen and it’s hard to decipher. I tell her there’s no yogurt and so she just approves the bag and sends it on its way back to me.

Something was haunting me…what was dense? We had no liquids, no medicines, a few Barbies, DVDs, M&Ms and animal crackers.

Then it hit me. Play-Doh. We had two containers of Play-Doh.

Now I’m no expert, but I watch enough Discovery Channel to know a bit about explosives.  And so I’m sure you can imagine my shock (and my husband’s) when we realized that just days after a terrorist attack, two huge substances involved in bombs and explosives were let through the pearly gates and sent on its merry way to a plane ride.  Clay is often used to hold down bomb wires and chemicals in Play Doh are often used as parts of explosive material. My husband the engineer was up in arms.

So I argue that it’s not your technology that’s the problem. And you can’t always blame the government.  I argue you need to do your job and help support what technology offers you in assistance.

If there’s a red flag, send it up the flagpole. Children or no children, these are the reasons terrorists keep catching the US with our pants down.

The lesson for today is simple. Do your job. Do it well. Stop blaming and bickering about what is the best thing to spend more taxpayer’s dollars on.  Instead, stick to what works and do a better job using it.

On a positive note, this hiccup reminds me of what a great year 2010 is going to be.  We have tons of great interviews coming up, tons of company news, new technology to discuss.

Stay tuned for more rants, more raves and more reviews…talking all things tech in New York.

Happy New Year.

Wow Google, way to be a late adopter; are you scared of Bing?

December 8, 2009  |  Blunders, Tech Worth Talking About, Today's Headlines  |  1 Comments

If you Google Obama right now, give your search results roughly 10 seconds, you’ll notice some new things in your search window.

On Monday at a media event in Mountain View, CA, Google geeks unveiled search in real-time. So for example, when you Google a topic, you’ll not only see what is on the web, but you will also be able to view what is being written about in real-time on sites like MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. [Note: Facebook's FriendFeed property and public profiles only]

This notion of real-time search isn’t anything new. Niche search sites like Collecta and Crowd Eve currently offer the same thing, minus the robust Google search results. Microsoft Bing also has a Twitter tool that does something similar.

This development of course is nothing less than Google’s attempt to grow its market share that Bing has been eating away at. Google currently owns 65 percent market share and is fighting hard to keep it after new deals like the Microsoft and Yahoo partnership that gave Microsoft control of almost 30 percent of search.

Google users can click on “Latest results” or hit “Latest” from the options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other content scrolling right on Google. Users can also filter results to see only “Updates” from microblogs like Twitter, FriendFeed and Jaiku. Latest results and the new search options are also accessible via the iPhone and Android phones.

The look and feel of Google search is still the same, very simple and very mathematically complex. Real-time search results appear in the middle of the search results page in a small box with a scroll bar where users can go back to any tweets or other results that streamed by too quickly to click on. There is also a pause button to hold the stream in place.

A fun spin on real-time search?

I think this was expected of Google months ago, but my guess is these partnerships took a bit of negotiation.  I will say this greatly improves my Internet stalking results.  No, just kidding. But there are implications for both the PR and HR industry.  Now you can easily check just one site to reputation check a potential hire. And in that very same way you can also reputation-manage a brand or executive. Find out what is being said in real-time. For example, imagine if you Googled “Tiger Woods” right now.

The new features will be rolling out in the next few days and will be available globally in English only.

Trouble for VMware?

December 7, 2009  |  Today's Headlines  |  0 Comments

A not so startling but informative fall 2009 server study came out today from TheInfoPro* showing a depressed hardware market caused by the recession and the impact of consolidation and rise in virtualization. Like I said, not surprising.

What was an interesting component was the how the study shows threat to virtualization giant VMware hegemony as customers plan parallel deployments of Microsoft and other types of virtualization alternatives.

Does this spell danger for VMware, no. According to TheInfoPro, while just over 75% of users report having VMware in use today, nearly two-thirds have tested a hypervisor other than VMware, with Microsoft and Citrix most often mentioned. Of those who have tested an alternative, 27% plan to use the alternative, while an additional 20% report they use it.

The report also cites that when VMware customers were asked if they would switch to an alternative, only 2% cited firm plans, while an additional 9% were considering it. The analysis reveals that VMware users aren’t switching away from VMware, but are probably embracing competing technologies in heterogeneous deployments. Yeah, like Microsoft.

VMware is still the leading vendor in use and in plan for server virtualization, and few users report firm plans to switch from VMware to Hyper-V. However, this parallel deployment of Hyper-V, Citrix and Red Hat virtualization capabilities could signal a challenge to VMware’s dominance; this implies that heterogeneous environments will be commonplace, where VMware is used for production, and Hyper-V may grow through deployments for development and testing.

TheInfoPro’s Managing Director Bob Gill said: “Much of the strength of the VMware story is predicated on a homogeneous population of VMware servers under control of VMware management utilities. The more heterogeneous the environment, the less VMware is positioned in the central infrastructural layer in the data center.”

TheInfoPro’s Wave 8 Server Study is based on detailed one-on-one interviews with server professionals at 300 large and midsize enterprises in North America and Europe that were completed in fall 2009. It provides detailed plans about usage patterns for 43 server technologies. Check out more on the server data available here.

*denotes TheInfoPro is a client.

Welcome back Kodak! Meet the Zi8

December 6, 2009  |  Advice for local companies, Tech Worth Talking About  |  0 Comments

A friend of mine was a die hard Flip person and then the other day I realized she had a new piece of pocket camcorder bling. I was more stunned to notice that it was by Kodak.

Check out the new KODAK Zi8:

Like the Flip Camera, the Zi8 is all you need for camcorder fun and sharing. The details are stellar, and from what I can tell, the quality kicks my HD Nikon’s butt.

• Capture HD quality 1080p video with 16:9 aspect ratio
• Records up to 10 hours of HD video with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB
• External microphone jack lets you record in stereo
• Takes amazing 5 MP 16:9 widescreen HD still pictures

This will definitely be making my Capital Region Tech Gift Guide this year.

Apple Tablet and Kindle – changing the face of Sports Illustrated

December 3, 2009  |  Tech Worth Talking About  |  1 Comments

It’s rumored that Apple is coming out with the Apple Tablet however nothing from the company officially confirms such an innovation.  This would most likely be a hybrid of the Amazon Kindle and Tablet PCs. The debate is strong about the future of magazines and newspapers. Devoted fans to hard copies of either say there’s no way that they can let go of their folded New York Times for subway rides and the like. But technology and the rise in printing costs suggests something has to give.

With the rise of mobile apps, I just assumed that the future would be mobile delivery. At some point, the advertising model would correlate to online strictly, supporting low subscription costs and every morning I could get a downloaded customized way of reading the news I want. Skeptics to my predictions are spot on though — do you really want to read an entire article on your iPhone? Even at full screen, it’s awkward.

If this is true, readers will turn to devices like Kindle or the Apple Tablet for reading. I see Kindle’s everywhere now.

Today, Time Inc. demonstrated a future look and feel for Sports Illustrated on the Apple Tablet. The functionality is cool, the graphics are amazing and the interactivity is like nothing you’d get over a browser. But by the time this happens, browsers might suggest otherwise. Either way, this is a novel concept to the future of magazines. Conde Nast announced a digital version of Wired coming soon too. Take a look, tell me what you think:

If I’m a tech geek, who do I follow on Twitter?

December 3, 2009  |  Advice for local companies  |  0 Comments

As you unravel Twitterville Capital Region and contemplate how to engage with this mass eco-system, consider starting with your passion for tech. Tech enthusiasts are all over Twitter and following them will in the very least educate you on the happenings of our industry.

Here’s my list:

Smart entrepreneurs and execs who tweet valuable things:

Jack Dorsey (@Jack) started Twitter, now CEO of Square

Padmasree Warrior (@padmasree) CTO of Cisco

Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) Founder of Digg

Jason Calacanis (@jasoncalacanis) Founder of Mahalo

Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) Google engineer

Thought leaders

Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) analyst

Michael Arrington (@techcrunch) TechCrunch

Om Malik (@om) GigaOm

Humor and intelligence

Sarah Lacy (@sarahcuda) Author, social media writer

Natalie Del Conte (@natalidelconte) Loaded on CNET and CBS Early Show

Taylor Buley (@taylorbuley) Forbes and comedy relief

Tom Merritt (@acedtect) Top Ten Lists on CNET

Veronica Belmont (@veronica) Revision 3

OH WAIT — insert shameless plug here @nmessier or @101to87