In tough economic times like these, even the biggest businesses get the urge to restructure, reorg and reshuffle. Kara reported on several big breakups (of the tech variety), including the separation of AOL from Time Warner. Even ICQ got into the mix.
The European Union’s formal objection to Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun has evidently transformed the database giant’s intransigence into grudging agreeability. The EU has extended the deadline for approval of the $7.4 billion merger to Jan. 27 from Jan. 19 at Oracle’s request.
Apple has reportedly decided to postpone the launch of its rumored tablet/slate until the second half of 2010. That’s the latest rumor from the occasionally reliable Digitimes, which claims that the device’s original March 2010 debut target became untenable after some component changes. The report, should it prove true, will no doubt be a disappointment to overanxious tabletites awaiting the mysterious device’s arrival, but really, that’s immaterial to Apple.
Google’s Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS–joined by founder Sergey Brin–discuss how they plan to bring the OS to the market, then answer some questions from the audience.
Direct from Google headquarters, Vice President of Product Management Sundar Pichai explains that the company’s forthcoming Chrome OS could signal the end of desktop apps as we know them.
Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?” Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the company’s HQ this morning, and in the words of Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, it is intended to make computing a “delightful” experience.
Since 2008, AT&T’s network in and around San Francisco has experienced an increase in 3G data traffic of 2,000 percent. If you find this metric as astonishing as I do, consider this: The increase in Bay Area data traffic is actually below the national average–significantly below. According to AT&T CTO John Donovan, 3G data traffic on the company’s wireless network has risen nearly 5,000 percent nationally in the past 12 quarters.
Well, this is ironic: Microsoft has been found guilty of violating intellectual property rights in a nation where 82 percent of all software is pirated, a nation that is home to a counterfeiting syndicate that in 2007 was busted for manufacturing and distributing more than $2 billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software.
Before AdMob accepted Google’s $750 million takeover offer, it was approached by Apple. This according to “people familiar with the matter,” who tell Bloomberg that Cupertino was also interested in the mobile advertising company. Odd to learn that Apple was considering such a move. After all, advertising isn’t exactly one of its core businesses.
If you follow AllThingsD, and Weekend Update hopes you do, then one thing you’ve come to value is the special way the staff gets around the world to cover the important stuff and report it straight from the geek’s mouth. This week our bicoastal brigade brought the tech news as it happened, and in Boomtown’s case, from 30,000 feet.
This is amusing–if only because Google insisted for so long that it doesn’t have designs on Microsoft’s core PC software business. Discussing Google Docs and the company’s other productivity offerings with ZDNet Asia, Dave Girouard, president of Google’s enterprise division, volunteered that most businesses will have the opportunity to “get rid of [Microsoft] Office if they chose to” in a year.
Palm shares are trading higher today, bolstered by anticipation of the Nov. 15 launch of the Pixi, the company’s second webOS handset, and by some silly rumors about a potential takeover by Nokia. Does the company really need another software platform to add to Symbian, Maemo and Qt? C’mon.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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