Greetings and Happy New Year everyone! It’s the first Tuesday Tech Talk of 2011 and after taking last week off, there is a lot to catch up on so let’s get right into things!
Firefox 4 Beta 8
Mozilla released its beta version 8 of Firefox 4 a few days before Christmas. I decided to give it a try and wow it is FAST! It is pretty much as responsive as Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari browsers. Quite impressed and I can’t wait to see how the official release will be when it is rolled out this year.
AT&T Launches WiFi initiative in Problem spots
AT&T will be launching WiFi spots in urban areas where it has had trouble with coverage. The spots are NYC and San Francisco. Among the areas to be covered are Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral which will make smartphone carrying Catholics like myself happy when visiting. Also later in 2011, they will launch WiFi at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.
RIM Playbook battery issues
Uh oh, it looks like Research In Motion may have stuck its foot in its mouth with all its iPad trash talking and playing up their Playbook tablet. Now comes word they are having a hard time matching the iPad’s battery life...can we say, “Marketing FAIL”? If you're going to trash talk your competition, it may help that your product can walk your talk! I still love you Canada though.
Paul Allen refiles patent suit against almost everybody
The world’s most insecure billionaire is at it again! After having his first suit tossed out by a judge, Paul Allen has refiled his patent suit against Apple, Google, eBay, Amazon, etc. Wonder how soon this one will get tossed? I will say it one more time, Paul your company ripped off the Apple GUI but you don’t see the 2 Steve’s suing you and Bill do you? You insecure jackass!
How to polish up your LinkedIn Profile
Read an interesting article on MacWorld about overused buzzwords in LinkedIn profiles and how to simplify your profile. Worth a read if you are maintaining a LinkedIn profile
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. We have the Consumer Electronics Show starting on Thursday so next week there will be a lot to talk about. See you next week!
Showing posts with label Paul Allen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Allen. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tuesday Tech Talk #74
Hello all and welcome to the last Tuesday Tech Talk of 2010. I will be taking a Christmas and New Years vacation from blogging next week. So lets take a look at the news over the past week in technology.
Paul Allen’s Lawsuit Against Everyone Thrown Out
You may recall that Microsoft co-founder tried to sue Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, eBay, and AOL among others over 4 patents for e-commerce. Well, the judge in the case has thrown it out calling it too vague. Allen has until 12/28 to re-file the suit but he really shouldn’t. He looks small and pitiful by doing so and it’s not like he is hurting for money at this point. Besides if he wants to go down that road Apple can easily argue that Windows was based on the Mac OS in the first place which it is. But you don’t see Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak going around suing Microsoft and the different varieties of Linux.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Time Person of the Year
Time Magazine has named Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its 2010 Person of the Year. He won after beating out Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, the 33 Chilean Minors, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Facebook has certainly been busy this year with many features added and the movie The Social Network certainly helped out as well even if Zuckerberg himself hates the film.
More troubles for Yahoo
Yahoo fresh off announcing it will layoff 650 employees, is now looking at cutting unproductive services and selling off one of its popular ones. As you have read here before, I have my doubts about Yahoo’s longterm viability just based on their recent history of a lack of innovation. I am pretty much divesting myself of any Yahoo dependence. For example, I use Facebook and Picasa as an alternative to Flickr but still maintain my Flickr account. That being said, there is a great article on how to backup your Flickr albums.
My guess is if the worst case scenario did happen to Yahoo, they would certainly sell off Flickr to either Google or Facebook, maybe even Apple. I’m thinking about posting a separate blog post regarding a Post-Yahoo survival guide and what services to start using now just in case.
AT&T Acquires Qualcomm’s Flo-TV Wireless Spectrum
AT&T looking to bolster its next technology of wireless broadband, announced it has purchased Qualcomm’s soon to be defunct Flo-TV’s broadband for $2 Billion. The new broadband will really help AT&T in high urban areas like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco where it has struggled with network issues.
DirecTV Bringing Personalized Ads to Customers in Late Summer of 2011
DirecTV is partnering with Starcom MediaVest to bring a more personalized advertising model to consumers. I don’t know about you but this screams privacy issues. I have a DVR so I never see the ads anyway. They hope to have it up and going by August or September 2011.
FCC approves Apartheid Net Neutrality Plan
Yes, I know I am using a strong word there, but the new ruling by the FCC only protects wired services from ISP’s blocking legal internet traffic, for wireless mobile users it does not apply so it is separate and unequal in how it treats wireless users. Will be interesting if it is challenged in court how it would rule if filed under such a case. Think of Florida 2000 recount as the case for it.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. See you all in the New Year and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Paul Allen’s Lawsuit Against Everyone Thrown Out
You may recall that Microsoft co-founder tried to sue Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, eBay, and AOL among others over 4 patents for e-commerce. Well, the judge in the case has thrown it out calling it too vague. Allen has until 12/28 to re-file the suit but he really shouldn’t. He looks small and pitiful by doing so and it’s not like he is hurting for money at this point. Besides if he wants to go down that road Apple can easily argue that Windows was based on the Mac OS in the first place which it is. But you don’t see Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak going around suing Microsoft and the different varieties of Linux.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Time Person of the Year
Time Magazine has named Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its 2010 Person of the Year. He won after beating out Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, the 33 Chilean Minors, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Facebook has certainly been busy this year with many features added and the movie The Social Network certainly helped out as well even if Zuckerberg himself hates the film.
More troubles for Yahoo
Yahoo fresh off announcing it will layoff 650 employees, is now looking at cutting unproductive services and selling off one of its popular ones. As you have read here before, I have my doubts about Yahoo’s longterm viability just based on their recent history of a lack of innovation. I am pretty much divesting myself of any Yahoo dependence. For example, I use Facebook and Picasa as an alternative to Flickr but still maintain my Flickr account. That being said, there is a great article on how to backup your Flickr albums.
My guess is if the worst case scenario did happen to Yahoo, they would certainly sell off Flickr to either Google or Facebook, maybe even Apple. I’m thinking about posting a separate blog post regarding a Post-Yahoo survival guide and what services to start using now just in case.
AT&T Acquires Qualcomm’s Flo-TV Wireless Spectrum
AT&T looking to bolster its next technology of wireless broadband, announced it has purchased Qualcomm’s soon to be defunct Flo-TV’s broadband for $2 Billion. The new broadband will really help AT&T in high urban areas like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco where it has struggled with network issues.
DirecTV Bringing Personalized Ads to Customers in Late Summer of 2011
DirecTV is partnering with Starcom MediaVest to bring a more personalized advertising model to consumers. I don’t know about you but this screams privacy issues. I have a DVR so I never see the ads anyway. They hope to have it up and going by August or September 2011.
FCC approves Apartheid Net Neutrality Plan
Yes, I know I am using a strong word there, but the new ruling by the FCC only protects wired services from ISP’s blocking legal internet traffic, for wireless mobile users it does not apply so it is separate and unequal in how it treats wireless users. Will be interesting if it is challenged in court how it would rule if filed under such a case. Think of Florida 2000 recount as the case for it.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. See you all in the New Year and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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