Google Launches Chrome OS Preview - InformationWeek

In recent years, consumers have had three major desktop-oriented operating systems to choose from: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On Tuesday, Google introduced a fourth option, Chrome OS.

'With Chrome OS, we have the development of a viable third choice for the desktop," said CEO Eric Schmidt, evidently unconvinced that Linux counts where consumers are concerned.

At a media event in San Francisco, Google announced a pilot program for Chrome OS, its highly anticipated browser-based operating system, launched the Chrome Web Store, its effort to change the way Web apps are discovered and purchased, and provided an update on the global adoption of its Chrome browser.

Chrome OS won't be ready for a stable release until mid-2011. That's when Google's Chrome OS hardware partners Acer and Samsung are expected to ship their Chrome OS netbooks.

But Google this week plans to begin shipping specially commissioned hardware to select testers through its Chrome OS pilot program.

Program participants will receive a Google-commissioned netbook, designated Cr-48, with Chrome OS installed. The company extended invitations to event attendees, to a random group of users through an invitation placed on the Chrome new tab page, and to some Facebook users who participated in a recent quiz. Would-be Chrome OS users may also apply online and are encouraged to submit a YouTube video to convey why they should be invited into the pilot program.

"Chrome OS is nothing but the Web," said Sundar Pichai, VP of product management.

Google is throwing out the things people hate most about computers -- slow startup times, the need to update and install software, and security worries -- and offering an operating system that loads its Chrome browser instead of a desktop file system.

Those using Chrome OS will have to rely on Web applications in place of familiar favorites like Microsoft Office. To ensure an adequate supply of Web apps, Google launched its Chrome Web Store, an online app store that aims to do for Web apps what Apple's iTunes has done for music and iOS apps: build a viable market by providing a mechanism for discovery and monetization.

The Chrome Web Store has some 500 apps at launch but Google expects that developers will add many more in the months ahead. Several companies sent representatives to discuss the Web apps they've created for Chrome, including Amazon, Electronic Arts, and the New York Times.

Amazon showcased an e-commerce Web app called Amazon Windowshop and Kindle for the Web, which will be available early next year. Electronic Arts demonstrated a game called Popit that will ship with future versions of Chrome. And the New York Times showed off a newspaper reading Web app that allows the user to control how news gets presented.

Pichai acknowledged that offline functionality was necessary and demonstrated a version of Google Docs that works offline (coming early next year). But he said that the Web is better when a network connection is available. That's why Google has partnered with Verizon to offer on-demand cellular connectivity with every Chrome notebook.

The Verizon plan provides for 100 MB of free data every month for two years. It doesn't require a contract and additional data can be purchased as needed, starting at $9.99 for unlimited data for one day.

Pichai also provided an update on the adoption of its Google Chrome browser. Chrome had 70 million users in May. Now it has 120 million users worldwide.

"The single most common piece of feedback we get from our users is that Chrome is fast," he said. "Speed has been our biggest focus since day one."

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FTC Proposes 'Do Not Track' Option For Internet - InformationWeek

The Federal Trade Commission has made a potentially far-reaching proposal that would give web users the option of shielding personal information from advertisers, retailers and other companies while browsing the Internet.

The FTC gave its blessing to the so-called "Do Not Track" approach in a proposed framework for consumer privacy released Wednesday. The proposal would apply to all commercial organizations that collect or use data that can be linked to a specific consumer, computer or other device.

The commission favored giving consumers a simple mechanism for disallowing data gathering. To do that, the FTC recommended adding a button to browsers that would activate technology to prevent people from being tracked or receiving targeted advertising. The proposal would be an alternative to current browser privacy settings, which a recent study by Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon found inadequate to shield people's viewing habits.

The need for such simplicity stems from the fact that the voluntary approach -- in which organizations set their own privacy policies and notify consumers of the rules in advance of collecting information -- has failed. "Specifically, the notice-and-choice model, as implemented, has led to long, incomprehensible privacy policies that consumers typically do not read, let alone understand," the FTC report said.

The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, agreed with the FTC and praised the report. "Today's FTC report identifies the most pressing privacy issues facing consumers today," the group said in a statement. "They correctly recognize that the current framework needs to be updated to reflect consumers' ongoing concerns about how their data is being collected and used."

The commission's proposed privacy framework would have companies build consumer privacy protection into every stage of development of products and services. In addition, organizations would offer a clearly defined no-tracking option at the time a consumer is making a decision that would set data gathering in motion. Finally, companies would increase transparency of their data practices through clearer, shorter and more standardized privacy notices and by providing access to consumer data they maintain. If a company planned to use data for something other than its originally stated purpose, then consumers would have to agree to the new use in advance.

Advertisers have been adamantly against government-imposed privacy regulations, preferring a self-regulatory approach instead. In an appearance this year before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Mike Zaneis, VP of public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, argued that the industry "has a long and successful history of protecting consumers' privacy rights through effective self-regulation."

"Given the free content and services that consumers enjoy because of advertising revenue, it is imperative that any new laws be carefully tailored," Zaneis said.

Shar VanBoskirk, analyst for Forrester Research, said the firm's studies have shown that consumers are generally willing to share information with marketers if there's a valuable payback for doing so. Consumers are more concerned about the lack of control they have over their data, and VanBoskirk said she doesn't have a lot of faith that legislation would effectively address those concerns.

"Consumers need education to understand how their data is used, when data sharing has a benefit for them, where their data goes, who knows what about them, and then how to elect out of data sharing if they choose," VanBoskirk said in an e-mail sent to InformationWeek.

The FTC does not have the authority to require companies to follow its framework, much of which would require an act of Congress. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection is scheduled to consider on Thursday the feasibility of a universal method for opting out of being tracked online, according to The New York Times.

SEE ALSO:

Web Browser Privacy Settings Flawed

The Massachusetts Data Privacy Law Debacle

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Amazon Ousts WikiLeaks - InformationWeek

Amazon.com has stopped hosting the WikiLeaks website, a day after the site was forced to move from its service provider in Sweden to escape a cyber-attack.

WikiLeaks, which sparked U.S. condemnation several days ago for releasing classified government documents to major newspapers worldwide, announced the move on Twitter Wednesday. The rogue site says it has moved to a service provider in Europe after being "ousted" from Amazon.com.

"Fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe," WikiLeaks says.

Amazon.com provides web services, site hosting and storage, along with being an online retailer. WikiLeaks moved to the site after a distributed denial of service attack on Tuesday threatened its operations. The source of the attack is unknown. Speculation has ranged from the U.S. government to foreign regimes embarrassed by WikiLeaks' disclosures to the New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and other major newspapers.

Amazon.com was apparently under pressure to drop WikiLeaks. Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, acknowledges that his staff contacted Amazon.com for an explanation of its decision to host WikiLeaks. Amazon.com notified the senator Wednesday that it had stopped hosting the site.

"I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on WikiLeaks' previous publication of classified material," Lieberman says in a statement. "The company's decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material."

The documents posted by WikiLeaks revealed serious concerns with the U.S. diplomatic community about the resolve and trustworthiness of several key allies, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the war on terror. The documents also disclosed unflattering descriptions of Western leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Obama administration has ordered government agencies to develop stricter criteria for getting access to classified data and has ordered an investigation to find the source of the leaked documents.

SEE ALSO:

'Hacktivist' Claims Credit for WikiLeaks Attack

WikiLeaks Missives Contain Many Tech Secrets

WikiLeaks Under Hack Attack

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Amazon Offers E-Book Gifting - InformationWeek

Amazon.com hopes to boost holiday sales this year by offering e-books as gifts. The online retailer Friday added the ability to send digital books as gifts through its Kindle store.

The process is simple: choose the book, click the "Give as a Gift" button, add the recipients' e-mail address and your shopping is complete. Amazon will send an e-mail notifying the person that his gift is waiting to be downloaded.

People can give e-books whether or not the recipient owns one of Amazon.com's popular Kindle e-readers. Gifted e-books can be read on any device with the Kindle application installed. Amazon.com has made the app available for the Apple iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone; Research in Motion's BlackBerry and smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. The app is also available for Macs and Windows PCs.

"We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress-free holiday shopping option for anyone -- not just Kindle owners," Russ Grandinetti, VP of Amazon Kindle, said in a statement.

Surprisingly, Amazon.com has not pushed gifted e-books before. However, with Kindle and e-book sales booming, the time couldn't be better. In late October, Amazon.com said the latest generation Kindle, released in June, was the fastest-selling Kindle to date. In addition, the retailer said that unit sales of digital books over the previous 30 days surpassed that of hardcover and paperback books combined for the top 1,000 bestselling books on the site. Among the top 10 books, the electronic editions have been outpacing the physical versions by more than 2 to 1, according to the retailer.

The Association of American Publishers reported that e-book sales grew 193% during the first eight months of the year. Amazon.com says e-book sales on the site have exceeded that rate. Amazon does not release sales numbers for the Kindle or e-books.

Besides trying to leverage booming sales, Amazon's push for selling e-books as gifts comes as rival Kobo, whose namesake e-reader is sold and marketed by bookseller Borders, plans to offer the same capability. A date hasn't been released, but Kobo says e-book giving will be available in time for the holiday shopping season.

SEE ALSO:

Amazon Kindle Sets Sales Record

Amazon To Let Kindle Users Lend E-Books

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Web 2.0: RIM CEO Says Apps Unnecessary For Web - InformationWeek

Moments before Web 2.0 Summit co-chair John Battelle invited Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie on stage, he asked attendees how many had BlackBerry mobile phones and somewhere between 10% to 20% of the audience members raised a hand. Then he asked how many used to have BlackBerry mobile phones and noted that the number of hands was comparable.

The perception is that RIM's grasp on its market is slipping as adoption of Apple's iPhone and Android phones surges. That may not jibe with reality: Earlier on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker presented a slide showing that RIM's smartphone market share had grown from 7% in Q1, 2006, to 15% in Q3, 2010.

But RIM is at a transitional moment and concerns about the future health of its platform deserve some consideration.

Asked about his view of Apple, Balsillie did not mince words: "We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," he said.

"We believe you can bring mobile to the Web," he said. "You don't need to go through some control point SDK. You don't need an app for the Web."

Balsillie made it clear that he's all for native apps on mobile devices. But he stressed that proprietary tools are not necessary to make content mobile.

"It's really not about a set of proprietary tools," he said. "We completely disagree with that point of view."

He predicted that proprietary mobile computing would be a passing phase like the DRM era for music.

Balsillie talked up the performance of his company's forthcoming PlayBook, noting how well it performs in a video that has been posted to YouTube. "It's like three to four times faster than an iPad," he said. Yet asked whether he had one to show, he demurred.

Balsillie also balked when asked to comment on a competitor that isn't Apple. During a few minutes of audience questioning, David Levin, CEO of United Business Media, which owns TechWeb, asked whether it is over for Nokia (Levin was previously CEO of Symbian).

Balsillie initially declined to comment. Prodded by Battelle, he allowed that big shifts, like the shift from feature phones to smart phones, can be tough.

Asked to define RIM, Balsillie flashed his company's enterprise credentials. While recognizing that IT has been consumerized, he said you still can't dismiss enterprise requirements. "We sell performance," he said. "We sell Web fidelity and Web tools. We sell CIO, professional-grade requirements."

RIM, he said, is about "innovative performance and constructive alignment."

And someday soon, RIM will sell the PlayBook. Just not today.

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Xi3 Launches Miniature Modular Computer - InformationWeek

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Taking a new approach to personal computing, Xi3 has unveiled its Xi3 Modular Computer, which resembles an aluminum cube, and targets home and office users.

The Xi3 Modular Computer's architecture divides the standard motherboard into three separate boards -- one that houses the processors and RAM and two additional I/O boards to handle all connectivity and input/output requirements, the Salt Lake City-based Xi3 said. All three of the boards can be removed, modified, and replaced.

The individual modules back each other up so that the computer has no single point of failure, the company said. Adding other modules for scalability is not a problem and a network-like environment can be easily created to increase the computer's processing capabilities as requirements change, according to Xi3. The modular design makes it easy for new external devices to be connected to the computer, Xi3 said.

The Xi3 Modular Computer measures less than 4 inches on each side and is powered by dual-core processors, but requires less than 20 watts to operate, the company said. The device's aluminum casing acts as a type of "heatsink," and the heat generated inside is lessened by its flow-through design and the way the processors have been placed, Xi3 said. Separate universal mount slides have been placed on three of the aluminum casing's external sides so that it is easy to mount it to almost anything, according to Xi3.

"We reject the concept that computers should have a useful life of only two to four years," said Jason A. Sullivan, president and CEO of Xi3, in a statement. "Instead we believe that computers should be upgradeable and updateable over and over and over again, and that's how we've designed the Xi3 Modular Computer, making it (potentially) the last computer you ever need to buy."

A companion product, the Z3RO (Zero) Module, connects to the Xi3 Modular Computer so that three additional workstations can be integrated.

The Xi3 Modular Computer will retail for under $1,000 and will be available in early 2011.

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NASA Finds Space Telescope Plagued By Astronomical Costs - InformationWeek

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Slideshow: NASA, Microsoft Reveal Mars In Pictures

Costs to build the James Webb Space Telescope -- NASA's successor to Hubble – are mushrooming out of control, prompting the agency to make personnel changes to get the project back on track.

An independent comprehensive review panel found that it will take between $6.2 billion to $6.8 billion, rather than the estimated $5 billion, to complete the telescope, costs that will require the agency to add another $500 million to its budget over the next two years. The panel released its report Wednesday.

The panel blamed lack of cost control, not on the technical team building the telescope, but on project management and budgeting projections.

"The technical performance on the Project has been commendable and often excellent," according to the report. "However, the budget baseline accepted at the Confirmation Review did not reflect the most probable cost with adequate reserves in each year of project execution. This resulted in a project that was simply not executable within the budgeted resources."

Two budgeting missteps in 2008 at the project's confirmation review led NASA to erroneously project the telescope's final cost, according to the report.

First, NASA failed to base the budget on an estimate of projected costs that reflected threats to the project that existed at the time. Secondly, the agency didn't recognize the budget's inadequacies at the time, and even reserves added to the budget failed to present a complete budget picture, the panel found.

Budget woes aren't the only ones plaguing the project; the delivery of the telescope is also late. Earliest projections were to launch the telescope in 2007; NASA later pushed that back to 2014. The panel's report said it now expects the telescope won't make it to space sooner than September 2015.

The report's findings have spurred NASA administrator Charles Bolden to take action to prevent any further problems with the project.

"No one is more concerned about the situation we find ourselves in than I am," he said in a statement.

Bolden is assigning a new senior manager at NASA headquarters to oversee the telescope's completion, he said. The appointee will have help from a staff of technical and cost personnel from the science mission directorate to report directly to a NASA associate administrator.

Bolden also has reorganized the Goddard Space Flight Center's project office to report directly to the center director and is making personnel changes there to directly address problems found in the report. Goddard is the NASA center in charge of the project.

Making these organizational moves will ensure more direct oversight from NASA administrators as the project moves ahead, leaving less room for error, Bolden said.

"I am disappointed we have not maintained the level of cost control we strive to achieve -- something the American taxpayer deserves in all of our projects," he said.

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Google Settles Buzz Lawsuit - InformationWeek

Google began sending messages to Gmail users in the U.S. on Tuesday to provide notification that it had reached a settlement in the Buzz class action lawsuit.

The launch of Google's Buzz social networking service in February prompted a privacy outcry and subsequent lawsuits, which were aggregated into a class action.

Google made a series of changes to its service to address complaints that Buzz exposed private and potentially sensitive Gmail contacts. These included making choices about followers and following more visible, moving to an auto-suggest model rather than automatic following, and the addition of Buzz to the Google Dashboard to make it easier to see one's Buzz settings.

The settlement does not include an admission of error or any compensation for Gmail users. Rather it acknowledges the changes Google made in its service to address complaints and commits $8.5 million, less legal fees, to be directed to "organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the Web," as Google puts it in its letter.

Those seeking compensation have to opt-out of the settlement before the December 6 deadline, file a separate lawsuit, and win in court.

As a result of a separate privacy snafu -- the company's inadvertent gathering of WiFi packet data through its Street View cars -- Google last week made a significant commitment to improve its approach to privacy by adding a new director of privacy to oversee product management, implementing additional process controls and auditing, and adding further privacy education for employees.

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Microsoft Looking Like An End-Stage Company - InformationWeek

I believe that Microsoft as we know it may not be around in another decade--maybe not even in five years. There's hardly a single tech industry trend line pointing in Redmond's favor right now, and some of those curves are about to get a lot steeper, real fast.

So it's hardly surprising recent Microsoft-related news has been pretty much on par with where things stand for the company these days—mostly all bad.

Explorer's market share has fallen below 60% for the first time in recent memory, the software maker has largely conceded the only way it can compete in smartphones is through the courts, and so it sued Motorola (and, by proxy, Android developer Google), and Microsoft's board deemed CEO Steve Ballmer's performance over the past fiscal year so mediocre that it slashed his bonus.

Most significantly, Microsoft waived the white flag on social media when it pulled the plug on Windows Live Journal, dumping the blogging platform's users onto the open source WordPress system. Think about it: Microsoft, still the world's largest software company by revenue, is so clueless on Web 2.0 it can't make a simple blogging platform people will actually use. There's probably thousands of middle-schoolers creating blogging software in their spare time between Social Studies and Gym class, but Microsoft can't compete in the space?

What's that say about its chances in mobile, or search, or tablets, or any of the other growth markets that are driven by younger professionals' demands for tools that are social, collaborative, instant, and always on?

Microsoft's defenders, and Microsoft itself, point to the company's lock on the PC operating system market (more than 90%) as proof it's still a dominant player that controls a bunker from which it can generate piles of cash and withstand reversals in other segments.

But that's just whistling past the graveyard, spouting a tune written from backward-looking data not particularly useful for gauging the impact that hugely disruptive new products like tablets and smartphones and even tablet-smartphone hybrids are about to have on Microsoft's place in IT. Market research group NPD recently found that 13% of iPad users bought the Apple OS-based device instead of a Windows PC. That's a hugely significant number for a product that didn't even exist a year ago. Just wait until it gets more features, and comes down in price. And do you know anyone under 30 who uses anything but a phone for the bulk their personal computing and communications needs these days?

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will hit stores in November, but most analysts believe the offering, though slick in many respects, is too little, too late to meaningful bolster the company's meager 5% share of the mobile OS market.

Where does all this leave Microsoft? Out in the cold within just the next few years unless big changes are made—and those changes need to start at the top. The best thing Ballmer can do to preserve his legacy and ensure he's not Microsoft's last CEO is to start assembling a new management team that can build a foundation for real change--and rid the company of its PC-centric focus.

Ballmer has said he wants to stick around until about 2018. But realistically he's only got a couple of years to make Microsoft a leader in the categories that matter going forward—cloud, social media, mobile, and tablets. If he fails, he'll be out the door, possibly within months if Windows Phone 7 turns out to be as big a bomb as the KIN phone. If that happens, Microsoft's status as a tech industry leader won't be too far behind him.

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'Harry Potter' Leads Kinect Games Roster - InformationWeek

Microsoft has unveiled a slew of games for Xbox Kinect that will debut when the hands-free control system launches next month.

The most high-profile title on the list is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 The Videogame." From Electronic Arts, the $49.99 game gives players the chance to assume the character of the famous British wizard.

"Playing as Harry, you are on the run from the opening sequence, fighting for survival on a desperate and dangerous quest to locate and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes," according to Microsoft. The game features 22 moves that are exclusive to the Kinect system, which allows users to control on-screen action through their physical motions.

Also launching on or around Kinect's Nov. 4 release date are Kinectimals (Frontier Studios), which lets players interact with on screen zoo animals, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Ubisoft), which provides exercise routines with the help of a virtual, on-screen trainer, and Kinect Sports (Rare), which lets users play simulated soccer, bowling, volleyball, and other games.

Kinect Joy Ride (Big Park) is billed as the world's first hands-free racing game, and Dance Central (MTV Games) allows players to groove to tunes by artists like Lady Gaga, No Doubt, M.I.A., and more.

Microsoft plans to introduce a $299 Kinect bundle that includes a new, slimmed down 4GB Xbox 360 console equipped with the Kinect sensor bar. The package also features Kinect Adventures, an exploration game designed to take full advantage of the Kinect technology. The company also is offering a $399 bundle that features a 250GB console with Kinect and the Kinect Adventures game.

Additionally, Microsoft will make the Kinect sensor bar available as an add-on for existing Xbox 360 consoles, at a price of $149, including Kinect Adventures.

The Kinect bar features a camera, audio sensors, and motion-sensing technology that tracks 48 points of movement on the human body. That means players can control on-screen action simply through physical gestures and verbal commands. The sensor bar is designed to plug directly into the Xbox 360 console.

All told, Microsoft list 16 games that would accompany Kinect's release.

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Microsoft Introduces Office 365 Cloud Apps - InformationWeek

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Slideshow: Microsoft Office 2010 In PicturesMicrosoft announced Tuesday Office 365 for Small Business, intended for organizations with 1 to 25 users, as part of its cloud-based Office 365 service offerings.

Office 365 provides Microsoft Office 2010 Online, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online,and Lync Online in a single cloud-based service. This marks the first time all these applications are being made available as a single offering, according to the company.

According to Kurt Del Bene, president, Microsoft Office Division in the webcast announcement, the small-business offering includes mobile email and calendar; a public-facing website, plus team intranet and extranet sites, based on Microsoft SharePoint. It also includes video conferencing and Microsoft Office Web Apps, which are, according to Microsoft, "online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote" that let users access, view, and edit documents directly from a web browser. The enterprise version includes additional features.

Tim Harmon, a principal analyst with Forrester Research, commented, "This is late to the game, but not too late, given that this leapfrogs beyond current offerings like GoogleApps and IBM's LotusLive. A combination of GoogleApps plus Box.net could offer somewhat comparable functions... this announcement may prompt Google to respond, possibly via an acquisition."

Users will access Office 365 via a web browser, on a subscription basis. Microsoft will be providing its cloud services through data centers, with a 99.99 SLA.

"I think that Office 365 will be more successful than Microsoft's BPOS by an order of magnitude," said Forrester's Harmon. "All our research shows that SMBs are becoming more mobile and more distributed, often with multiple, even virtual offices, and with more of their people on the road. For SMBs with these attributes, this is an important direction to consider."

Mobile workers and others may still want dual-deployment that includes local provisioning, for when there is no connectivity available, Harmon suggested.

Microsoft claims that Office 365 "works with the most popular browsers, smartphones and desktop applications people use today." According to Harmon, Microsoft said that Office 365 will work with the Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari browsers, and will be supported on smartphones including BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. The subscription cost does not include BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Microsoft plans to add Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to Office 365 sometime later next year. According to the company, Office 365 will replace the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office Live Small Business and Live@edu.

The small-business version of Office 365 will be available for $6/user/month. Office 365 will be available next year, according to the company. A limited beta is available now, free, from www.office365.com.

SEE ALSO: Office 365: Microsoft's Next Big Cloud Platform

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Ozzie Was No Wizard For Microsoft In Massachusetts - InformationWeek

Chief software architect took over five years ago, but R&D in Bay State never quite meshed with Redmond. By W. David Gardner ,  InformationWeek
October 19, 2010 04:01 PM After Bill Gates and Paul Allen created their first Microsoft software program in Cambridge, Mass., it’s been mostly downhill for the company’s R&D in the Bay State. The latest blow came Monday with the announcement that chief software architect Ray Ozzie would leave Microsoft.

Appointed five years ago to fill the software architecting void left by Gates’ move to chairman, Ozzie, a close friend of Gates’, was named to take Microsoft in new profitable directions and to reinvigorate the R&D facilities in Cambridge. The drive immediately took on a competitive flavor because Google was developing its own R&D operation in Kendall Square, near Microsoft’s offices in the shadow of MIT.

Almost immediately, problems surfaced for Microsoft in Cambridge. There was litigation with database provider InterSystems, which battled Microsoft over office space at One Memorial Drive.

The company’s Startup Labs operation, which had started promisingly, ran into early difficulties when its director, Reed Sturtevant, suddenly left in October 2009.Like Ozzie, Sturtevant had worked at Lotus Development Corp., which rode Ozzie’s Lotus Notes to fame and fortune. Microsoft said the Startup Labs would be combined with its Rich Media Lab, both to be run from Redmond’s MRS Creative Systems.

Lili Cheng was named to head the new operation and report to Ozzie. The bicoastal life led by Ozzie seemed to fly in the face of cohesive management, as Microsoft struggled to coordinate several operations in Massachusetts, and Ozzie reportedly couldn’t properly coordinate with rebellious units in Washington State.

At the same time, the pressure on Microsoft to develop facilities in Massachusetts was mounting. In a controversy over ODF standards precipitated by the Massachusetts state CIO, IBM and Sun Microsystems pointedly noted that Microsoft had relatively few employees and facilities in the Bay State, putting pressure on the software giant to beef up its Massachusetts operations. The controversy has faded, and so has pressure on Microsoft to create more jobs and facilities in Massachusetts.

SEE ALSO:

Ray Ozzie Explains Cloud Computing For The Enterprise

Microsoft Opens Research Center In Cambridge, Mass.

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Mozilla Proposes Open Web App System - InformationWeek

Just days before Google plans to launch its Chrome Web Store to distribute Web applications, Mozilla has decided that it wants to see more Web app stores.

The open-source software organization, which just announced a new CEO, said on Tuesday that it wants to create a way to simplify the discovery, acquisition, installation, and use of Web apps while simultaneously helping developers monetize said apps.

Mozilla is not the first organization to come to the realization that software distribution needs to be rebooted. There are currently dozens of stores hoping to replicate the success of the iTunes App Store, mainly for mobile apps.

In a post on the Mozilla blog, VP of products Jay Sullivan announced the availability of technical documentation for a proposed open Web App ecosystem, which is intended to work with any modern desktop or mobile Web browser.

Such browsers include Firefox 3.6 and later, Firefox for mobile, Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and WebKit mobile.

Web apps are applications that run in the user's Web browser; they may or may not require network access or local storage. The installation process is akin to making a Web bookmark, though the experience has been reimagined in a way that makes it feel more like installing a desktop application.

Mozilla isn't planning to open a Web app store of its own or to provide payment infrastructure. Rather, it wants to create the code necessary to support free and paid Web app installation by individuals and distribution by developers.

Mozilla motivation for doing this is because the vertically integrated experience pioneered by Apple in its iTunes ecosystem presents "problems such as an opaque approval processes, lack of choice for developers, platform lock-in, [and] high(er) development cost when going cross-platform," the company explains on its Web site.

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AT&T Talks Smack About Verizon's LTE Plans - InformationWeek

On Wednesday, Verizon Wireless announced the 38 markets in which it plans to launch LTE, its 4G network. Verizon's LTE network will get off the ground a full six months ahead of AT&T's, which has targeted a launch by the middle of 2011.

You know what Verizon Wireless isn't doing? Upgrading the speeds of its CDMA EVDO 3G network (according to AT&T). Verizon's CDMA EVDO Rev. A network tops out at 3.1Mbps, and that's where it will stay.

AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom said in an email to InformationWeek, "Verizon is moving straight to LTE and not increasing their 3G speeds, so their customers will have a jarring drop-off in performance when not in an LTE service area – speed, sure, but also simultaneous voice/data, etc."

AT&T believes that Verizon's approach will lead to customer service problems, and that its own slow-and-steady speed improvement approach is superior.

Bloom continued, "In contrast, because we are building LTE while at the same time continuing to increase 3G speeds, our customers can expect to have a much better experience when they’re not in a 4G area. [This] will be vitally important for the customer experience no matter the carrier."

Verizon Wireless' LTE network will reach download speeds between 5 and 12Mbps, and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps. While 12Mbps is surely faster than 3.1Mbps, I think AT&T is overstating the performance issue a bit. Sure, speeds will drop as Verizon customers move between LTE and EVDO, but Verizon's EVDO network is solid as hell, and fast enough for most professionals' business needs when not under LTE coverage.

AT&T also happened to beat Verizon to announcing actual LTE hardware. Where Verizon said hardware announcements are forthcoming, AT&T announced an HSPA+ and LTE-compatible laptop dongle that can access the fast network speeds.

When asked for comment about plans to upgrade its 3G network speeds, Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson dropped this knowledge, "We have a proud history of meeting and exceeding market demands on our wireless networks. We build our networks for success right from the start and aren't surprised when we succeed in the marketplace. And we constantly improve them. It's just not enough to address your network problems by promising to do better down the road."

"When choosing a wireless company, people want more than promises. Customers value our long-term track record for leading on network reliability, speed, coverage and capacity. By moving aggressively and becoming the first company on the globe to build a large-scale LTE network, we'll gain first-to-market advantages in the US, with a head-start of at least 18-24 months."

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Windows Phone 7: Backwards Incompatibility Could Limit Appeal - InformationWeek

With the introduction of Windows Phone 7 next week, Microsoft is looking to break from past efforts in the mobile space that have sputtered in the face of renewed competition from Apple and Google. So much so that Microsoft deliberately chose not to make its new phone OS backwards compatible with the older Windows Mobile operating system.
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Microsoft's Windows 7 Phone Revealed

The decision allows Microsoft to make a fresh start in the mobile arena, but it also could limit Windows Phone 7's appeal to enterprises, many of whom may be unwilling to scrap existing investments in Windows Mobile to move to the new platform.

And while the enterprise mobile market is largely dominated anyway by RIM, with its corporate-friendly Blackberry devices, Microsoft's move to a brand new mobile environment could lessen its traction with the corporate customers it does have.

Such concerns came to light recently at a roundtable of U.S. Army software developers who, through an internal competition, had been tasked with building mobile apps for use on the battlefield and in other aspects of army life.

One participant, Major Gregory Motes, who is chief of the Army's Information Dissemination Management Division, specifically opted not to have his team develop their apps for the Windows environment because of the backwards compatibility issue.

"The problem we have with Windows Mobile is, right around the time we were starting on this, [Microsoft] announced Windows Phone 7 that would be coming out the holidays of this year," Motes said at the roundtable, according to a transcript of the August event.

"And so as we are going through the process of what we wanted to choose to learn on, you know, choosing to learn on Windows Mobile 6.1 or Windows Mobile 6.5 didn't make much sense to us because 7 was coming out and because it was announced that 7 would not be backwards compatible," said Motes.

Motes, whose team won the competition with a physical fitness app for Army personnel, ultimately decided to develop the app for Apple's iPhone.

While admittedly anecdotal, it's not unlikely that decisions like that taken by Motes and his team are currently playing out in IT shops across corporate America. In Microsoft's favor is the fact that Windows Phone 7 leverages many existing Windows development tools with which developers are already familiar.

But the fact the platform is not backwards compatible with Windows Mobile means Windows Phone 7 will not enjoy the upgrade path advantage that helps Microsoft maintain traction with its Windows PC customers whenever it comes out with a new version of its desktop and server OS.

It may be for the latter reason that Gartner expects Windows Phone 7 to have only minimal impact on the mobile market. Gartner predicts the release of Windows Phone 7 will help bump Microsoft's share of the worldwide market from 4.7% in 2010 to 5.2% in 2011, but says the company's share will ultimately decline to just 3.9% by 2014.

Developers won't have to wait too much longer to decide whether to support Windows Phone 7. Microsoft will formally introduce the platform Monday at a launch event in New York City.

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Microsoft IE Falls Below 50% Market Share - InformationWeek

Slideshow: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta Revealed(click image for larger view and for full photo gallery)The global market share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer fell below 50% in September, a milestone in the web browser wars that started in the mid-1990s, a research firm says.

At the end of September, IE's share dropped to 49.87%, StatCounter reported Tuesday. Just two years ago, IE dominated the market with a 67% share.

"This is certainly a milestone in the Internet browser wars," Aodhan Cullen, chief executive of StatCounter, said in a statement.

The research firm found that the rising star in the browser market was Google's Chrome, which has tripled its share to 11.54% in September from 3.69% the same month a year ago. In June, Chrome overtook Apple Safari for the first time in the U.S. Mozilla Firefox holds the second largest market share with 31.5%.

Microsoft has been the powerhouse in the browser market since the company started bundling IE with Windows in order to compete with Navigator, a browser launched in 1994 by Netscape Communications Corp. By leveraging its Windows monopoly, Microsoft contributed to the eventual demise of Netscape.

Today, government regulators require Microsoft to create a level playing field for competing browsers in Windows. In Europe, European Commission competition authorities require Microsoft to provide a menu of browsers to give Windows users a choice.

The stiff requirements in Europe have contributed to IE's share falling to 40.26% in September from 46.44% a year ago, StatCounter said. In North America, IE still accounts for more than half of the market at 52.3%, followed by Firefox at 27.21% and Chrome at 9.87%.

StatCounter bases its report on data collected from more than 15 billion page views per month at the more than 3 million websites in the StatCounter network. The firm provides a Web site tracking and reporting service.

Net Applications, another Web metrics firm, has drawn other conclusions on the global browser market. The company this month reported that IE's share had fallen in September but still accounted for more than half the market at 59.65%.

Findings from research firms often differ due to differences in methodology.

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Apple Challenges $625.5M Jury Award In Patent Case - InformationWeek

Apple has asked a federal judge to toss out a $625.5 million award by a jury that found the Mac maker had violated three patents related to how documents are displayed on a Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The U.S. District Court jury in Tyler, Texas, found on Friday that Apple had infringed on the Mirror Worlds patents in developing Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow. The jury awarded the plaintiff $208.5 million on each patent.

Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow allow people to scroll through files in a way that's like flipping through a deck of cards. Cover Flow is for scrolling through album cover art when looking for music in the iTunes library in Apple devices, Time Machine makes backup copies of files and Spotlight is used to search for files. The latter two are in the Mac.

On Sunday, Apple filed an emergency motion asking U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis for a stay of the jury decision, saying that the damages awarded on each patent amounted to Mirror Worlds "triple dipping." In addition, Davis had said that he would reconsider the evidence regarding infringement of two of the patents and could reverse the jury's ruling, Apple argued. The judge's decision on the request is pending.

The patents reflect the work of Yale computer scientists Eric Freeman and David Gelernter, who in the mid-1990s recognized that the desktop metaphor has its limits and proposed to organize computer documents in a time-ordered stream.

Mirror Worlds, which sued Apple in March 2008, began operating in 1997 and shipped its first enterprise software product, Scopeware, in March 2001. In 2002, it released a desktop product called Scopeware Vision. The company closed its doors on May 15, 2004.

SEE ALSO:

Apple Faces Time Machine Patent Lawsuit

Apple Sued Over iPhone Liquid Sensors

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