This Weekend Update is particularly exciting because of all the things happening here at All Things Digital. There is, of course, the upcoming D7 Conference, which promises to be more tech-extravaganza fun than a tweet from @sockington (if only half as cute), but this past week has also seen the launch of our very own iPhone app, meaning that ATD has gone mobile–smart news for your smartphone (we’re still working out potential taglines).
Over the objections of television broadcasters, theater producers and Dolly Parton, the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday approved a plan to open up unused frequencies between television channels–known as “white spaces”–for a national broadband network. This 300MHz to 400MHz range of unused spectrum lies between channels 2 to 51 on analog television sets and is perfect for offering wireless broadband services because it’s able to carry signals long distances and easily penetrate trees and walls. And while critics argue that using them in this way might interfere with TV signals or, heaven forbid, the wireless microphones in Dolly Parton’s Broadway production of “9 to 5,” the FCC felt such concerns to be overblown and ruled the country would be better served if the spectrum were opened up for free public use.
Google co-founder Larry Page recently discounted the idea that a Google-Yahoo partnership would present any potential antitrust problems. We may soon find out if he’s right. This afternoon, just a few hours after announcing the not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper conclusion of its negotiations with Microsoft, Yahoo said it had inked a non-exclusive search-advertising deal with Google that could be worth about $800 million in annual revenues.
Our long national nightmare of unceasing Yahoo-Microsoft headlines is finally over. Shares of Yahoo slipped into the mud this afternoon amid reports it has concluded whatever tortured discussions it’s been having with Microsoft without reaching any sort of merger agreement. Redmond, it seems, is no longer willing to pay $33 per share to acquire Yahoo. It is, however, open to discussing an “alternative transaction.” Meanwhile, Yahoo and Google are moving closer to a deal.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, not Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, is the most influential IT personality of the past quarter-century.
This according to a survey of IT professionals conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association. Asked to list the most influential tech personalities of the last 25 years, 84% of respondents listed Gates, and 73% [...]
Perhaps it’s time for Google to change the navigation at the foot of its search-return pages from ‘Goooooooooogle >‘ to ‘Moooooooooola >.’
Shares of the company hit an all-time high of $560.70 today before dropping a bit to close at $559.98.
The reason for the spike? New comScore search-engine rankings that show Google dominating the market, with [...]
With its onboard hammocks, full-size sofas and California Kings, it’s a wonder Google’s “party plane” has room for scientific instrumentation befitting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but apparently it does. Google and NASA’s Ames Research Center signed a unique deal last month that allows the agency to “regularly collect Earth atmospheric and terrestrial observations in support of science research and analysis” on some of its flights.
Google is prepared to bid at least $4.6 billion for wireless licenses in the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming spectrum auction–but only if the FCC agrees to adopt the four license conditions the company has been lobbying for.
Google is beginning to act like the $159 billion industry heavyweight it really is. The company, which until about 18 months ago had paid politics little mind, is ramping up its presence in Washington. Today Google has 12 lobbyists on staff in its Beltway offices and it’s adding more, among them a former high-ranking Justice [...]
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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